Create A Vampire

Process

To create a character, you'll want to log into the game. You do not need to float your concept by staff first, although you are welcome to do so if you like! If you'd rather not wait, you can just create a character bit, navigate to the character generator (by typing 'CG' after creating an account), and voila! You're ready to go. Follow the on-screen instructions, which walk you through the process. Your progress is automatically saved at each step. At the end, the game will automatically generate a character generation +request.

It'll tell you a +job number, like 643. You'll be able to open that job by typing "+job 643" (replace this with the number it gives you). Staff will process the job to approve your character. When doing so, they might add comments and ask questions or make requests for revisions of your application. To respond by adding comments to that job, use the "+job/add <#>=<comments>" command.

You can also see where you are on the character generation approval waitlist by typing "+waitlist".

What We Do And Don't Allow

Clan Choices

Camarilla Choices: Brujah, Banu Haqim (Assamite), Caitiff, Carpathians, Gangrel, Nosferatu, Malkavian, Toreador, Tremere, and Ventrue

Anarch Choices: Brujah, Banu Haqim, Caitiff, Gangrel, Nosferatu, Malkavian, Toreador, and Ventrue

Sabbat Choices: Banu Haqim, Brujah, Gangrel, Nosferatu, Malkavian, Toreador, Salubri*, Serpent of the Light, Lasombra, Pander, Ventrue, Harbinger of Skulls, and Tzimisce

(*) Furies only, bruh.

Concept Limitations

No Minors. Characters must be 18 or older.

No Barely Legal Tomfoolery. Sex worker characters must be 21 or older. In a perfect world where there aren't weirdos out there we'd let you play the 16 year old hooker with a heart of gold, but this is not a perfect world.

No True Loners. While Loner concepts are compelling, this is a social game and loners will not have fun here. Please make sure to provide some source of motivation for the character to connect with other characters so that you have something to do between staff-run scenes, otherwise you will find yourself frustrated.

No Baked-In Titles. Your character can become the leader of the most important cabal, the primogen, the Prince, a key politician, and so on. Your character can be created with strong potential to become these things. But when it comes to uncommon titles of prestige, be they mundane or supernatural, we do not approve these characters as already being the Head Of Whatever.

Nothing Lower Than 8th Generation. You cannot apply a character with 6 or more background dots in Generation.

Nobody Older Than 600. Your vampire may have been undead for up to 600 years. The exception to this is the Harbingers of Skulls, they can be hella old, but please first contact staff.

No more than 400 years active. Your vampire may have been active for up to 400 years. Years in excess of this require you to have taken time in torpor. Harbingers are not an exception.

Stats

You will need to log into the game and follow the on-screen instructions in order to actually assign stats to your character sheet. The character generator walks you through this process and contains explanations, but since you're already here on the wiki, here are some resources:

• You will be asked to pick a Nature and Demeanor.
• You'll then need to set your Attributes, which are defined on pages 96 through 99 of V20 Core.
• Then you'll need to set your Abilities.
  • Abilities are defined on pages 100 through 110 of V20 Core.
  • If you are looking for Secondary Abilities, please check out our Secondary Abilities house rule.
• You will have 5 points to spend on Backgrounds.
• You will have 3 points to spend on Disciplines, with the available selection determined by their clan. You may buy out of Clan disciplines with Freebies and XP.
  • Discplines are described starting on on page 127 of V20 Core.
• You may optionally select a Path Of Enlightenment and have 7 points to spend on Virtues.
• You will then select Merits And Flaws.
• And then you'll spend 15 Freebies.
  • Freebies are described on page 86 of V20 Core.
• You'll then pick your Specialties.
• And finally you can spend 50 starting XP.
  • You can find the XP chart on page 124 of V20 Core.

Out Of Clan Disciplines

You can indeed use your 50 starting XP towards out of clan disciplines, however, to do so, you must buy the first dot of an out of clan discipline with Freebie points. Starting with 4+ disciplines would represent portraying a character who simply sought out a mentor in the past and learned a discipline from it.

Although the coded-in character generator will let you pick up any discipline in the Freebies section in order to make sheet building a smoother process, staff will review your choice in out of clan disciplines and may reject that discipline or request alterations to keep the out of clan discipline. This will occur if you take a proprietary discipline. A proprietary discipline is a discipline only found in one clan, such as Protean or Obtenebration. When taking a proprietary discipline, the manner in which your character got their hands on that discipline needs to make sense and will be discussed with the storyteller.

Camarilla characters with Vicissitude and Obtenebration and Sabbat characters with Thaumaturgy are classic examples of out-of-clan discipline purchases that will be dismissed out of hand.

Please note that "Additional Discipline" is not required in order to purchase out of clan disciplines. That merit is for reducing the XP cost of out of clan disciplines (and freeing you from the need of a mentor when increasing the stat in question).

Caitiff And Disciplines

Caitiff in character generation are faced with a selection of the following disciplines to choose from: Animalism, Auspex, Celerity, Dominate, Fortitude, Obfuscate, Potence, and Presence. You get to pick 3 disciplines out of that list to be "in clan" for you. You are not obligated to buy points in all three at the time of character generation. Just like a Malkavian can dump all his starting points in Dementation and leave Auspex and Obfuscate for later, a Caitiff player can pick a trio of disciplines and then only put starting dots in one discipline.

A Caitiff who wishes to learn any further disciplines will be treated as if it is "out of clan" in the sense that they must drink the blood of a mentor who has it in-clan for the first dot and they must seek a mentor for each stat increase. The XP cost is still 6 for these additional disciplines, but they are not disciplines that the Caitiff can manifest without a mentor.

A Caitiff who wishes to start with 4 or more disciplines may do so just as any other vampire character: purchase the first dot with freebies to unlock these subsequent disciplines in character generation. These extra disciplines will be considered out of clan. Just as is the case with other vampire characters, starting with 4+ disciplines would represent portraying a character who simply sought out a mentor in the past and learned a discipline from it.

Backstory

You'll be prompted to write a backstory for your character. You can do it in bullet points, you can do it in prose, it can be short or long, but it does need to cover the major story beats. In the character generator, use +note/write backstory=<text> to provide your backstory. You can format with %R (carriage return) and %T (tab). If you are writing a lengthy backstory, feel free to part it out (+note write backstory 2=<stuff>, +note/write backstory 3=<stuff>).

In this backstory, you'll be expected to cover the points detailed below.

Please consider that you will be required to pick a Hook. They're backstory aspects that assert your character has a specific purpose and they confer a perk. Each sect has one of 3 hooks to choose from. If none of them quite fit, we can discuss some wiggle room, but we want all of our characters to have a direct tie into the story world and so you will have to pick something. Here are the TL'DRs of all three, which are explained in full on their respective sect pages:

• Anarch Hooks:
  • Special Order: The desire for occult knowledge burns within you as bright as your need to be your own master; you are entrenched in the Anarch's local smuggling and export ring with its occult connections.
  • Hired Gun: You're here to rip and tear until it's fucking done. You're a Mercenary whose fixers are exclusively among the Anarchs.
  • New Rich: You're going to bankroll the Revolution. Whether investor, artiste, or society elite, your savoir faire brings brain to the Movement's brawn.
• Camarilla Hooks:
  • Destruction Worker: You're an enforcer for the Camarilla, operating under the cover of its many corporate fronts, working alongside hijacked Wan Kuei connections.
  • An Exquisite Corpse: The secrets of Blood Magic belong to the Camarilla alone. You're here to secure that monopoly, be it for the Tower or your own power.
  • Clean Up Crew: You use your youth to protect the Masquerade against the curveball the Internet and tech has thrown.
• Sabbat Hooks:
  • Order Of Saint Blaise: You make sure the Sabbat can keep up with the Tower by keeping a hold on the mortals' strings.
  • Sin Runner: You're an enforcer for the Sabbat, operating alongside the Sinaloa cartel.
  • Narc-O-cultism: You're an Occultist primed to take advantage of the Sabbat's galvanized collective drive towards mastering the Arts.

Mortal Origins

Origin: Where did your character come from and what was early life like? Family, friends, education and, if any, pivotal moments or people in their life.

Example: Jimmy grew up poor, but in a family full of love. He aspired to be the first in his family to go to college and pulled it off, graduating from MIT, his proudest moment.

Attributes At 1 Need To Be A Part Of Your Character: If you take Appearance 1, be prepared to look awful. If you take Intelligence 1, be prepared for a life that's like a box of chock-lits. You will be expected to commit to attributes at 1, and staff can, at their discretion, reject the build if it doesn't make sense.

Skills At 3 Need A Nod: Some nod to how your character honed these professional skill levels should be in the background. Long standing professions, hobbies, and innate character traits are examples of valid ways to address these bits, and you can always batch multiple stats into one reason.

Example: Jimmy has Science, Technology and Academics 3 and writes into his background: "Jimmy then found work as a software engineer and found a career among tech bros at places like Facespace and Tweeter."

Skills At 4 and 5 Need Some Thought: Skills with a rating of 4 or 5 single out your character as being the cream of the crop to the point where that skill becomes a dominant part of their lifestyle/identity. Please put some distinct attention into what propels your character to be so prodigious and/or invest so much of themselves into the skills you have at 4 and 5.

Example: Jimmy has a 4 in Crafts on his sheet, and writes into his background: "Despite his white-collar lifestyle, Jimmy never forgot his roots. Inspired by the legacy of mechanics and roughnecks that forged him, fixing cars became an eventual passion where he flourished. His well-paid career gave him the funding and time to excel at this hobby, and he became an avid attendant of car shows and a staple of the local custom car scene."

Watch Your Merits And Flaws: Merits and flaws each have the potential to bring impact to your character's regular life. Please look at your merits and flaws. Generally speaking, most of them are worth mentioning in your background. However, if they are 3 (or -3) or further, then this merit/flaw is extremely likely to be significant enough to have an impact on your character worth mentioning in the background. Staff will be looking for how your merits/flaws came to be, followed by what sort of impact they have on your character today.

Example: Jimmy has purchased the Lame flaw, and writes into his background: "But life was not all successes for Jimmy! His passion for cars got him in trouble. He tried his hand at street-racing, and that phase ended horribly with a car accident that nearly ended him. His recovery was miraculous and yet still left him with an acquired disability. While he's still leading a mostly normal life, he's psychologically not yet at peace with what happened."

Becoming

Why You? What happened that your Sire created you?

Example: Jimmy was noticed by Tracy, a street-racing Brujah. When Jimmy got in his horrible wreck, she had heard about it and wrote him off. But she took notice when she found him back on the car scene, and asked him about his recovery. She was impressed by his tenacity, knew of his academic career, and decided she could use a childe with as much brains as brawn.

How Did It Happen? Give us an overview of how your character was sired.

Example: Jimmy was seduced by Tracy later, and spent time as her unwitting blood doll, in a relationship he didn't realize was a ruse. She captured him in an abuse of his trust, and embraced him.

From Fledgling To Vampire

Your character's formative years of unlife are important enough to us to ask about 'em. Please put some thought toward your character's formative years undead.

Among The Anarchs

Time Spent As A Fledgling: Unless your character is a Gangrel (Gangrels can tend towards the 'Good Luck Have Fun' siring approach), they will need to have spent at least 5 years undead without fuckups before they're really trusted to be 'on their own'. Please write some sentence(s) about that time period.

Among The Camarilla

The Accounting: Until childer are released, their actions are the responsibility of their sire. This means your sire plays an active part in your character's (un)life for the first several years. This time period is typically between 10 and 50 years. Some clans like Gangrel and Brujah are less stringent, but they still have their new childer on a leash since consequences of your actions fall on them. Please write some sentence(s) about the decade (or decades) in which your sire was basically babysitting you and teaching you how to be a Good Vampire.

In The Sabbat

False Sabbat: Until your Creation Rites, you're nothing. You're a footstool. You're shit, and you have the same protection under the law as the family dog. You don't necessarily need to explicitly write about some time period where you were False Sabbat, but you do need to be aware that one earns their way into the Sabbat.

Creation Rites: Your Creation Rites are a rite of passage. This can be anything, from a grueling ordeal that nearly killed you, to production of a masterwork of art that thrills your sire. Shovelheading is a mass embrace technique that can be the basis for your Creation Rites, but it's not The One And Only. Please explain, even briefly, what your Creation rites were.

Packs And The Vaulderie: Your character in the Sabbat spends time in a pack. That pack then has bonds forged among them through the Vaulderie. You do not have to be part of a group app to create a Sabbat character and can leave your latest pack as a thing of the past. However, Pack life is inevitable, and some reference to being in at least one will be expected in your backstory.

Timeline

Stop and take a moment to think about your character's past in terms of where they've been and major accomplishments, if the Backstory questionnaire hasn't already gotten that info out of you. We have players submit their character's timelines ("I lived in Paris from 1783 to 1800…") so that players whose characters were in the same places at the same time are introduced OOCly to one another.

You do not need an exhaustive timeline, and just picking a random handful of cities will do (so will saying you are SF born and raised). You do need to make sure these places are mentioned in your backstory (e.g. if your timeline starts in LA and ends in New Orleans, be sure to include something like, "Jimbo moved to New Orleans" in the backstory so it adds up) but you are not obligated to go into exhaustive detail just because there's some city in your timeline.

On-screen instructions will prompt you to build your timeline when you move on from the Backstory room.

Papertrail

You'll be asked to fill out the following information, which will be used by storytellers if someone snoops into you. You can be succinct, it just needs to be filled out. This is your opportunity to set what turns up in the background check ahead of time, if it ever happens.

• Date of Birth: When was your character born?
• Name: What is your character's current, full legal name they go by?
• Birthplace: Are there hospital/church records on your birthplace?
• Marriage: Are there marriage and/or divorce records? When/where/to whom?
• Family: Siblings. Kids. Parents. Any still alive? Who?
• Criminal: Tell us about your criminal record if you have one.
• Death: Does your original mortal identity have an obituary/burial/death record?
• Misc: Do you have any other stuff you want to talk about? Draft cards. Border crossings. Passports. News articles.

Note: For vampires, your Paper trail information should correspond with whatever mortal alias you are using. If you happen to be young enough to get away with using your original mortal identity, so much the better. If you deliberately want to play a vampire who did not cover their ass regarding their mortal papertrail, that's also fine. But if you're several decades undead and you want your own bank account and your own home, well, you need to write about whatever mundane identity you project into the modern world.

Notes

Through the character generator, you will be prompted to fill out some freeform information.

The information in the Notes can be copy-pasted from your Backstory where relevant (and vice-versa), but individualized notes for these aspects are needed so a storyteller (or future you) doesn't have to wade through a backstory to find something.

You may be asked about the following:

• Your Merits And Flaws: While some merits and flaws are self-explanatory like "Touch Of Frost", others are more free-form, like Enemy. We will prompt you to explain these merits/flaws through the +notes code.
• Backgrounds: Some Backgrounds require that you write notes to pair with them. Please refer to the pages about these individual backgrounds by checking out the Backgrounds index.

Starting Equipment

Your Starting Equipment is based on your Resources score, which you can read more in depth about on our Resources page.

Submitting Your Character

All of the steps describe above are facilitated by the in-game character generator. When you are done with the character generator you will be presented with the option to confirm your application and submit it to staff. This then notifies staff of your application for them to process it and add you to the game.