Mentor

Overview

• Found In: M20 page 318, V20 page 115
• Available To: Mages, Vampires, and Hedge Witches/Psychics.
• In Character Generation: Purchased as standard Background.
• After Character Generation: Purchased as standard Background.
• Purchasable When Becoming: No
• Limitations: A rating of 5 is the maximum.

Dots of Mentor represent a vampire, mage, or hedge witch/psychic who looks out for you and offers guidance. This background is available to all supernatural characters (Mages, Vampires, Hedge Witches, Psychics, but not normal humans). Characters must have mentors that fit the same splat to which they are applying. So, a Mage may not have a Vampire mentor. A Ghoul may not have a Mage mentor.

Vampire Mentors

• One dot: Mentor either a Neonate, an Ancilla of little influence (no political office), or a pack Ductus or Priest.
• Two dots: Mentor is respected: an elder, or a veteran of acclaim -- but not a sect leader.
• Three dots: Mentor is a leader: Primogen or Bishop, for example.
• Four dots: Mentor has a great deal of power over their city (Prince, Archbishop, Baron).
• Five dots: Mentor is extraordinarily powerful, such as a Justicar or Inquisitor (something with a jurisdiction beyond a city).

Mage And Mortal+ Mentors

• One dot: Mentor is unreliable (they won't risk anything for you, even small things).
• Two dots: Mentor generally helpful (and they will take small risks for you) but eccentric (they will not spell advice out for you).
• Three dots: Mentor is a good and noteworthy teacher (they will directly instruct and advise you).
• Four dots: Mentor is not only helpful, but respected (they have status, so their favors for you pull political weight).
• Five dots: Mentor is helpful, respected, and powerful (they have status among their supernatural circle, and pull in the mortal world as well).

In Character Generation

Mentor is a standard Background bought with Background dots, Freebies, and Starting XP.

Characters with a Mentor score need to set a note on themselves called "mentor". The note should contain the following about the mentor:

• The mentor's name
• The mentor's personality (and any other RP notes so staff has something to work with to portray them)
• An overview of the mentor's role in supernatural society and what they're about.

Additional information is preferable but not required.

After Character Generation

Mentor can be purchased after Character Generation.

Mentors And Learning Powers

Vampire characters may use dots of Mentor to learn rituals (if that mentor reasonably would have that blood magick: Luke Lasombra ain't teachin' you Akhu). What your Mentor knows and/or is willing to teach you is determined at the time that you +request to learn a ritual through the mentor. This is determined by rolling dice equal to your Mentor rating against a difficulty of [4 + Ritual Level]. You need one success to unlock it through your mentor.

Let's say Nelly Necromancer wants to learn Two Centimes from his two-dot mentor. This is a level 2 ritual, so the difficulty is 6. He rolls 2 dice with a difficulty of 6, and tadah! He succeeds. He can learn Two Centimes.

Please note, Abyss Mysticism rituals are exceptions to this rule because the Abyss Mysticism ritual selection is very, very small (about a tenth of the size as the Thaumaturgy ritual selection), meaning that if we were to use that mechanic, then the act of learning most if not all of these rituals (which represent forbidden knowledge and unspeakable revelations) becomes trivialized into a few dice rolls that could have been compelling stories.