Book: Book Of The Dead, p. 54 Prerequisite: Vampire
Effect: The character can draw sustenance from ghosts even outside of the Underworld. While she doesn’t retain the ability simply to walk up to a ghost and feed from it, she can claim Vitae from ghosts under certain circumstances.
This Merit requires that the character has learned to feed from ghosts in the Underworld as described above.
When the character learns to feed in the Underworld, the player may at any point after that (provided the character is still in the Underworld) expend the experience points necessary to purchase this Merit (12 points).
Thereafter, the character can touch a ghost’s anchor and steal Essence from the ghost, one point per turn, just as if the vampire was feeding on blood. Onlookers see the vampire’s eyes glow a faint blue color, and the anchor shudders slightly under her touch.
Ghosts can sense when their anchors are being violated thus, and are free to defend them as they see fit. This makes ghost-eating a risky form of feeding. Also, this Merit doesn’t help a vampire find a ghost’s anchor (though nothing stops her from touching everything in a given haunted area trying to find it). But since ghosts regain Essence by remaining near their anchors, a vampire with this Merit that discovers an anchor or brings one to her Haven has a potentially unlimited supply of Vitae, and no mortals have to die.
Drawback: Of course, everything comes with a price. A vampire that feeds exclusively on Essence gradually loses the ability to feed on anything else. If the Kindred consumes Essence for a number of months equal to her Humanity, and feeds on blood less than once a week on average, she loses the ability to take nourishment from blood. She can only gain Vitae from Essences. Vampires to whom this happens usually either amass a collection of anchors, or flee to the Underworld for good.
Good Breeding (• to •••)
Book: Ventrue - Lords Over The Damned, p. 106
Prerequisite: Cannot have dots in Bad Breeding. Only certain bloodlines and clans in the city qualify as
“well bred” for the purposes of this Merit, but who is esteemed varies from city to city. The Storyteller has final say on what clans or bloodlines make a character eligible for this Merit in the local city.
Effect: Your character is part of a bloodline or family line regarded as admirable, classy, refined, dutiful or otherwise noble according to Ventrue tastes (and the customs they promote throughout Kindred society). This counterpart to the Bad Breeding Merit carries with it a distinct connotation of poise and excellence to those Lords who concern themselves with ancestry and parentage, but that connotation is subjective – Kindred expect a certain decorum from a well-bred vampire.
This Merit represents your character’s ability to use traditional preconceptions of his social standing to his own advantage. As a creature of fashion and taste, your character might be able to pass off an exposed lie as a polite gesture, present his opinion as something more valuable than it is, or explain away his secrecy as discretion. It isn’t considered rude for your character to miss appointments or excuse himself from difficult situations.
In game terms, this Merit grants a bonus to Social dice pools when, at the Storyteller’s discretion, the reputation of your character, his sire, his clan, or his bloodline influences the Kindred or ghoul he is trying to affect. You may choose to invoke a bonus up to the number of dots your character has in this Merit, depending on how aggressively your character takes advantage of other’s preconceptions. Remember, though, that this is a Social Merit – a white-collar reputation doesn’t actually grant your character any special knowledge of politics or finance.
The bonus from this Merit is useful only when dealing with characters who care about lineage, reputation, and breeding among the Damned. Even then, it is limited by the overriding importance of Status. While your character (through your clever play) may be able to use Good Breeding to distract from his lack of useful Covenant Status, Kindred of great rank are likely to care more about their authority than your character’s breeding. A character with more dots of Status than you have in this Merit is not subject to your Good Breeding bonus. (For example, the Priscus doesn’t find your character’s parentage impressive if you can’t back it up with actual authority.)
Drawback: When you choose to make use of the Good Breeding bonus in a given scene, your character is taking advantage of preconceptions. Those same preconceptions can work against him. Later, the Storyteller may penalize a dice pool by imposing a modifier equal to the bonus you invoked earlier, depending on how other characters in the scene regard yours. The bonus to Socialize you gained from your reputation as a
prestigious social accessory might penalize a Subterfuge roll later on, when you try to claim you weren’t at that party.
Haunted Channel (• to •••••)
Book: Nosferatu - The Beast That Haunts The Blood, p. 109
Effect: When a ghost endeavors to communicate with the Nosferatu or manifest near the character, the ghost gains a number of dice equal to the dots purchased in this Merit. The Nosferatu gains no control over the ghost, but the ghost finds it has a much easier time communicating with the Nosferatu than with others, whether manifesting or communicating without Numina, or attempting to use Numina such as Clairvoyance, Ghost Sign or Ghost Speech. The ghost gains nothing to rolls made in attempt to harm the Nosferatu (though insulting or threatening communications still gain the bonus).
Haunted Hand (• to •••••)
Book: Nosferatu - The Beast That Haunts The Blood, p. 109
Effect: Whenever the Nosferatu makes a roll against a ghost (be it a roll to communicate with it, abjure it, exorcise it, or use a blessed item against it), the Nosferatu gains a number of dice equal to the dots purchased in this Merit. This bonus doesn’t apply when attempting to affect a ghost’s anchor.
Haven (• to •••••; Special)
Book: Vampire: The Requiem Core, p. 100
Effect: A haven is a place where a vampire sleeps, protected from the sun during the deadly daylight hours.
Legends tell of vampires in dark, twisted citadels on high mountain peaks, complete with labyrinthine catacombs, but the reality is far less grandiose. In truth, a haven can be as simple as a sewer or an abandoned warehouse or a crate in a forgotten storage closet, as long as it is undisturbed between dawn and dusk.
All havens are not created equal. A warehouse might have plenty of space and proximity to a significant amount of prey, but it might not be secure against unwanted visitors. An abandoned subway car in a long-forgotten tunnel has space and adequate security, but it might be so far out of the way that finding prey is difficult. Great time and effort is spent finding suitable havens, and their value is represented by three factors
— location, size and security. Players who choose this Merit must also choose how to allocate these three factors when spending points. For instance, two points may be spent on Haven Location, with a third spent on Haven Security.
A good Haven Location makes it easier for a vampire to feed, situated near a meeting place for large numbers of humans. A haven with many dots in this category might be close to several nightclubs or bars that do considerable nighttime business, while one with few dots might simply be close to a bus or train station that brings travelers on a regular basis. Each dot of Haven Location grants a +1 die bonus on hunting checks for the character who controls it and any whom she allows in. Havens without any dots in Location are sufficiently secluded so as to not provide any bonus.
Haven Size is important to characters who need a place to safely store their possessions and valuables. A haven with no dots in Haven Size is just large enough for its owner and perhaps a single companion, with minimal if any storage capacity— the aforementioned crate in the forgotten storage closet, or a cramped apartment. By spending points to increase a haven’s size, a player allows for accoutrements and personal effects. Larger havens can be anything from mansions to mountain hideaways to vast subterranean catacombs.
Note, however, that havens of considerable size are not necessarily easy to maintain.
• A small apartment or underground chamber; 1-2 rooms
•• A large apartment or small family home; 3-4 rooms
••• A warehouse, church or large home; 5-8 rooms, or large enclosure
•••• A abandoned mansion or network of subway tunnels; equivalent of 9-15 rooms or chambers
••••• A sprawling estate or vast network of tunnels; countless rooms or chambers
Of course, Haven Location and Haven Size do not prevent rival vampires from attempting to find and steal choice havens, nor do they prevent intrusion by mortals (police, criminal organizations, social workers).
Players of characters who wish to ensure privacy and safety may choose to spend points on Haven Security, thus making it difficult for others to gain entrance. Havens with no dots in Haven Security can be found by
those intent enough to look, and offer little protection once they have been breached. Each dot of Haven Security subtracts one die from efforts to intrude into the haven by anyone a character doesn’t specifically allow in. This increased difficulty may be because the entrance is so difficult to locate (behind a bookcase, under a carpet) or simply difficult to penetrate (behind a vault door). Also, each dot of Haven Security offers a +1 bonus on Initiative for those inside against anyone attempting to gain entrance (good sight lines, video surveillance).
Characters whose players spend no points at all on Haven might have their own small, humble havens, or perhaps they share the haven of a sire or Prince. In any event, they simply do not gain the mechanical benefits of those who have spent Merit points improving the quality of their homes.
Each aspect of the Haven Merit has a limit of 5. In other words, Haven Location, Haven Size and Haven Security may not rise above 5 (to a maximum of 15 points spent on this Merit).
Special: It’s possible for the Haven Merit to be shared among characters in a close-knit group. They might simply be devoted to one another and willing to pool what they have, or perhaps their mutual reliance on an individual or trust could bring them together to share what they have in common.
To share this Merit, two or more characters simply have to be willing to pool their dots for greater capability. A shared rating in the Haven Merit cannot rise higher than five dots in any of the three aspects of the trait. That is, characters cannot pool more than five points to be devoted to, say, Haven Size. If they wish to devote extra points to the Merit, they must allocate those dots to a different aspect of the Merit, such as Location or Security.
Shared Haven dots can be lost. Coterie members or associates might be abused or mistreated, ending relationships. Group members might perform actions that cast themselves (and the group) in a bad light.
Money might be spent or lost. If any group member does something to diminish the haven, its dots decrease for all group members. That’s the weakness of sharing dots in this Merit. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The Storyteller dictates when character actions or events in a story compromise shared Haven dots.
Characters can also leave a shared haven. A rift might form between close Kindred. A character might meet Final Death. Or one could be kicked out of the haven by the others. When a character leaves a shared-Haven relationship, the dots he contributed are removed from the pool. If the individual still survives, he doesn’t get all his dots back for his own purposes. He gets one less than he originally contributed. So, if a character breaks a relationship with his coterie, his two Haven dots are lost by the group, but he gets only one dot back for his own purposes. The lost dot represents the cost or bad image that comes from the breakup. If all members agree to part ways, they all lose one dot from what they originally contributed.
The Storyteller decides what reduced dots mean in the story when a character leaves a shared haven.
Perhaps no one else picks up the character’s attention to Haven Security, leaving that to drop. The haven might not be tended as fastidiously, causing a drop in the Haven Location value. Maybe a portion of the haven falls into disuse or even collapses, causing an effective drop in Haven Size. Whatever the case, a plausible explanation must be determined.
A character need not devote all of her Haven dots to the shared Haven Merit, of course. A Kindred might maintain a separate haven of her own outside the communal one represented by the shared trait. Any leftover dots that a character has (or is unwilling to share) signify what she has to draw upon as an individual, separate from her partners. For example, three characters share a haven and expend a group total of five dots. One character chooses to use two other dots on a private haven for herself. Those remaining two dots represent a haven entirely separate from what she and her partners have established together.
To record a shared Haven Merit on your character sheet, put an asterisk next to the name of the Haven Merit and fill in the total dots that your character has access to thanks to his partnership. In order to record his original contribution, write it in parentheses along with the Merit’s name. It is not important to note which aspect of the Haven Merit on which those points are spent, as this allows greater flexibility should a character ever decide to withdraw from the community arrangement. The result looks like this:
MERITS
Heaven* (2) ••••
Heaven •••
Retainer ••
In this example, the character shares a Haven Merit dedicated to the coterie’s communal shelter. He contributes two dots to the relationship, and the group has a total of four dots that are made available to each member. The character also has his own private Haven Merit rated •••, which he maintains by himself. And, the character has Retainer rated •• that is also his own Merit.
Haven (Occultation) (• to •••••)
Book: Mekhet - Shadown In The Dark, p. 119 Prerequisite: Haven Size ••• or less
Effect: Some Vampires become so linked to the places they inhabit that they somehow imbue these places with something of their own being. The Shadows are particularly good at this: consider the boarded-up house that everyone walks past, but no-one ever looks at, or the basement room that everyone forgets, or the attic that Frances used to inhabit, with the trapdoor that no one ever looked at.
This is an extension of the Haven Merit (Vampire: The Requiem, p. 100) which works alongside Haven Size, Location and Security. The larger a haven, the more difficult it is to hide: a character with Haven Size of more than three dots cannot take advantage of this Merit.
A haven belonging to a vampire with this Merit simply becomes very difficult to find: characters who have never been to the haven who try to find a way to access it suffer a dice pool penalty equal to the character’s dots in the Merit; characters who don’t know it is there at all don’t normally notice it, but if it comes to rolling Wits + Composure to notice it, they suffer the same penalty.
Herd (• to •••••)
Book: Vampire: The Requiem Core, p. 102
Some vampires tire of the hunt and seek to develop a small group of mortals upon whom they can feed without fear. Such a herd may take many forms, from a brothel of prostitutes to a blood cult worshipping a vampiric god. These mortals provide nourishment without the difficulties of the hunt. Typically, herds are not very controllable or closely connected to the vampires who use them, nor do they possess great skill in any one area. (For effective agents, the Allies or Retainers Merit is more suitable.) Each dot of Herd adds one die to feeding rolls (p. 164).
House Membership (• or •••)
Book: The Invictus, p. 187 Prerequisite: Vampire or ghoul
Effect: This Merit measures your character’s involvement in a cyclical House. This Merit reflects his commitment to, and influence with, the other members of the House and is a prerequisite for all other Dynastic Merits. Each level of this Merit represents a different relationship to the character’s House.
Trusted (•): Your character, whether Kindred or ghoul, is trusted by the members of the dynasty, possibly being groomed for eventual participation. For all purposes of House law, your character is a participant in the House. Your character can purchase some other Dynastic Merits and enjoy minor benefits of membership, but he does not have access to the House’s full assets and is not yet honored or protected by a successor. This levelof the Merit confers a +1 bonus to Social dice pools involving members of the same House, similar to Status.
Successor (•••): As above, except your character is a full (though perhaps not equal) participant in the dynasty. This level of the Merit confers a +3 bonus to Social dice pools involving members of the same House, similar to Status.
Inherited Resistance (•• or ••••)
Book: Ventrue - Lords Over The Damned, p. 106 Prerequisite: Dominate • or Animalism •, Ventrue only
Effect: Your character is the childe of a Ventrue sire with unusually potent blood or a phenomenally strong will. Some degree of her power has been passed on to you through the Blood – not genetically or through training, but through a kind of mystical reverberation. You are simply predisposed to have a greater resistance to certain powers of the Blood.
In game terms, your character enjoys an increased resistance to the powers of Dominate and/or Animalism when those powers are used against him by other vampires.
With two dots in this Merit, you gain a +2 bonus to resist or contest any power of Dominate or Animalism used against your character by another Ventrue vampire, if your character has dots in the same Discipline as that power.
With four dots in this Merit, you gain the +2 bonus regardless of the clan of the opposing vampire.
Thus, with two dots in this Merit and one dot in Dominate, you gain a +2 bonus to resist or contest all powers of Dominate used against your character by other Ventrue, but your character gains no special benefit against powers of Animalism or any Discipline used by non-Ventrue. With four dots in this Merit and one dot each in Dominate and Animalism, you gain a +2 bonus to resist or contest all powers of Dominate and Animalism, no matter what clan your opponent calls family.