Template:Camarilla Hooks

In order to make sure all characters have an easy hook into the plot of the game and the themes we want to run, Camarilla character applications should pick one of the following backstory aspects. If you do not like any of these aspects, you can collaborate with staff to write your own hook into the story, but we will need you to have a direct "in" to be approved. Custom perks will not be available for custom hooks, but existing perks can be applied. For instance, you make up a story that ties you to an NPC mentioned below, you could reasonably take them as an ally as if you took a standard hook.

Destruction Worker

You're here to uphold the Praxis -- regardless of your thoughts on who is at the helm, the system of the Camarilla's better than any alternative.

On paper, you're an employee of one of the Camarilla's various corporate fronts. Usually that's SLC Consulting Engineers, an architectural and engineering firm and construction company. Whether you're a courier, a hitman, or some other sort of merc, the Camarilla knows to call on you to get the shit done and pays you for it, and then tells SFPD you're an overpaid bricklayer, freighter, or -- get this -- "day laborer", heh.

Your nightly role as a mercenary will sometimes put you in the Sheriff's pile of straws to draw for Deputy, and when those nights come it's time to pay your undead levee to the feudal system. Other nights the Primogen will reach out to you with this corporate cover. The criminal connections the Camarilla commands are mostly from Chinese and Japanese organized crime, thanks to having wrestled them from the Wan Kuei years ago. Many of your nights, you work with 14K and the Wah Ching as a result. Occasionally you'll run into trouble from 14K's rivals, Sun Yee On, and if you're particularly unlucky you'll run into their Sabbat associates. But hey, at least you can charge a premium for those jobs.

When taking Destruction Worker, you can pick one of the following perks:

• Ally (Katy Cox): A lot of people think Katy Cox, Toreador Whip, as little more than Charles Pang's bangtern, but this pretty Prada blonde is a ride or die bitch with plenty of tricks in her little clutch purse. She preens over the title of Keeper of Elysium, coordinating events and renting out galleries, convention centers, and eccentric attractions, meaning if you need to get in somewhere, time to call Cox. You can take Cox as an ally under the premise of being in Pang's good graces and/or working alongside her successfully in the past. As Pang's childe, she'll do exactly what he tells her to, with glitter and gusto (technically Allies must be mortal only, this is an exception). You'll be able to call on her as IC backup in your adventures.
• Influence (Criminal or Industrial): Get 1 additional dot of Influence, applied after character generation. Our Influence system has specialties in it: if you pick Industrial Influence, you'll get the Construction specialty tagged to SLC Consulting Engineers. Engineering sounds boring until you get to meet the fire marshall and the demolitionist on retainer thanks to Pang's connections -- or hell, the inspector who winks with both eyes. If you pick Criminal Influence, pick between Human Trafficking, Drug Trafficking, or Arms Trafficking. This Influence will be assigned to the 14K Triad, Wah Ching, or Inagawa-Kai (the Yakuza), your pick.
• Ability Boost (Larceny, Intimidation or Streetwise): Allocate 2 additional dots into either Larceny, Intimidation or Streetwise, applied after character generation.

An Exquisite Corpse

You're here to make sure that occult power stays in the hands of those fit to wield it -- the Camarilla's.

You are a member of The Shuttered Room, the Camarilla's tenuous alliance between the occult interests of its clans. Perhaps the only thing the Banu Haqim, Tremere and Samedi agree on is that the Tower should have a monopoly on blood magic, and to that end their nights are spent on two fronts. Wrangling the narco-cults of the Sabbat has started to prove more promising thanks to the insights of Cadavre Exquis and the more 'compatible', Afro-Caribbean nature of his magic. Cracking into Baron Lopez's international export and imports company has presented more of an issue. Whoever his patron is remains a mystery, but the baron's mysterious benefactor has made what should have been a cursory takeover of some rabble's special toys into a chess game all its own.

When taking Exquisite Corpse, you can pick one of the following perks:

• Ally (Cadavre Exquis): You have made an Ally of the charming and erudite Samedi necromancer, Cadavre Exquis, and take him as an ally under the premise of working alongside him successfully in the past (technically Allies must be mortal only, this is an exception). You'll be able to call on him as IC backup in your adventures. He is purchasable as a Mentor for Samedi characters. He can and will teach (Voodoo) Necromancy to outsiders, but only under the auspices of the Blood Contract (below).
• Ally (Luna Demian): You have made an Ally of Regent Luna Demian, and take her as an ally (technically Allies must be mortal only, this is an exception). You'll be able to call on her as IC backup in your adventures. She is purchasable as a Mentor for Tremere characters. She can and will teach Thaumaturgy to outsiders, but only under the auspices of the Blood Contract (below).
• Ally (Ehsan Khadem): You have made an Ally of Sorcerer Ehsan Khadem, and take him as an ally (technically Allies must be mortal only, this is an exception). You'll be able to call on him as IC backup in your adventures. He is purchasable as a Mentor for Sorcerer characters. He can and will teach Dur An Ki (Assamite Sorcery) to outsiders, but only under the auspices of the Blood Contract (below).

The Blood Contract

Thaumaturgy or Assamite Sorcery can be learned by vampires who normally would not be taught this (non-Tremere, non-Sorcerer, non-Samedi) if you sign their Blood Contract. This contract costs 5 merit points (thus 15 XP if purchased post CG) and binds you into an eternal alliance with the respective clan. In exchange, Luna Demian, Cadavre Exquis, or Ehsan Khadem, as appropriate, will count as your Mentor. If you break the contract, however, you die. Full stop. What are the terms? Your undead ass is a wholly-owned subsidiary of your benefactor. If they say jump, you say how high. If you teach blood magic to somebody else who hasn't signed on the line, you break the contract.

Social/Politics Hook

You're here to make sure the gerontocracy has a chance in upholding the Masquerade in the wake of modern technology.

The aging ancillae and the clueless elders of the Camarilla have grown less and less fit to handle the pulse of the modern day, and yet the gerontocracy that governs you would hardly allow you to call your superiors out on their incompetence. And so while you bide your time and wait to age into status and station, you make sure that the future you'll inherit is one without a modern Inquisition.

Your contemporaries are neonates and ancillae, and the each of you contribute in your own ways. Perhaps it's through computer aptitude, anticipating data breaches on SchreckNET or normalizing deepfakes and CGI to add insurance to the fateful nights that a Nosferatu ends up going viral. Perhaps it's through the arts, curating and cultivating a stable of journalists, critics and opinionati in order to shape the narrative or distract it into some much shinier scandal. Maybe you're no social finagler, but a scholar and pathologist, pulling strings to make sure that things add up to a different number in the medical examiner's office. Whatever the expression of your craft, your discretion has earned you plenty a boon and put you on the Praxis's short list of problem solvers.

When taking ___, you can pick one of the following perks:

• Ally (Zora Pavlova): Take the Sheriff, Zora Pavlova, as your ally under the premise of working alongside her successfully in the past (technically Allies must be mortal only, this is an exception). You'll be able to call on her as IC backup in your adventures.
• Influence (Free Pick): Get 1 additional dot of Influence, applied after character generation. Recommended options are Police and Media.
• Ability Boost (Technology, Computers, or Investigation): Allocate 2 additional dots into either Technology, Computers, or Investigation, applied after character generation.