Character Creation

STEP ONE: BASE CHARACTER CREATION

Please open a ticket with the venue you wish to create a character in before you begin to build to discuss your character concept with the ST. Some venues have applications to take the place of this step.

Basics

• Chronicles of Darkness Second Edition core rules + 126 xp.
• Check out the Game Rules here to make sure you know how your sheet is going to work in play.
• Civil Society Status cannot be higher than 2 at start.
• We do not allow Professional Training on characters.
• All players may have 1 custom item per PC. (Rite, Fetish, Devotion, Tell, etc..)
  • No Custom Merits
• Attributes at 1 are at the ST's discretion. This is an XP rich environment, and it will be a rare case, that is essential to concept, for an attribute to be sanctioned at 1. In those instances, it will never be more than a single attribute.
• ST Hooks: A new feature rather than Aspirations. Tell the STs what scenarios you'd like to be involved in.

Backgrounds

• Bullet points are fine; please just give staff enough to work with on crafting stories.
• Please explain your Civil Society status as requested in each group's 'Joining' section. (Usually it's 'what I do, what I did to get here, and where I want to be'.)
• Look at Mystery Cults Information here.
• You may be a newcomer or a longtime resident.
• Want ties to NPCs? Talk to staff! This is encouraged.

Capped Concepts

• See The Full List Of Capped Concepts Here

STEP TWO: APPLY A TEMPLATE

MORTAL/+

MORTAL/+

Mortal/+ is not accepting applications at this time

• Use the Mortal Sheet

What’s Available?

We are using:

• Chronicles of Darkness Second Edition/God Machine Chronicles (core/update)
• Hurt Locker
• Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras, Dark Eras 2, and Dark Eras 2 Companion
  • With some ST oversight; only elements that make sense in modern-times will be permitted.
• Ephemeral Influence
  • Only Influence guidance. Merits, Gifts, Rites and other abilities are not included.
• Third Eye
  • Chapters 1 and 2. Chapter 3 is ST only.

Overall

• Players may choose to play a Mortal, Mortal+, or the microsplats: Atariya and Thaumaturge.
  • We are not allowing Dreamers, Infected, Psychic Vampires, Lost Boys or Plain.
• Microtemplates are limited to the merits with in their template. The one exception to this is supernatural merits granted through an MCI.
• Psychokinesis may only be taken once.

Sheet Review

• Players may bank as much xp at creation that they want, but may only spend a max of 15xp/month after chargen.
• Make sure you've marked any 'Unlocked' or 'Free' points with a / .
• Make sure you've got your Breaking Points, History, and Equipment filled out.
• Check Willpower, Defense, Speed, Health, and other derived traits.

WEREWOLF

WEREWOLF

Werewolf is not accepting applications at this time

• Werewolf: The Forsaken Second Edition core rules + 126 xp
• Use the Werewolf Sheet
• Use the Wolf-Blood Sheet
• Please note that Ghost Wolves get the same number of Renown to start with.

• Approval Procedures for Rites
• Approval Procedcures for Fetishes
• Approval Procedures for Tells

What’s Available?

We are using:

• Werewolf: the Forsaken 2nd Edition
• Werewolf: The Pack
• Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon -- Pure Gift Trees can be taken by characters.
  • The rest of the book is ST use/approved use only.
• Ephemeral Influence
  • Only Influence guidance. Merits, Gifts, Rites and other abilities are not included.

Overall

• Players may chooses to play a Werewolf or a Wolf-Blooded.
  • No other PCs may be part of the Werewolf splat.
• Harmony begins at 7 and Primal Urge 1.

Backgrounds

• Forbidden Concepts: Antagonist concepts such as the Pure and Bale Hounds are not permitted.
• Please include these questions and their answers in your background:
  • How old was you character when they went through the First Change?
  • What positive aspect of the First Change stood out to your character?
  • What negative aspect of the Change stood out the most?
• What do you do for your Tribe, or why don't you currently belong to one?
• Want ties to NPCs? Talk to staff! This is encouraged.

Sheet Review

• Account for Gift Tree "unlocks" which are 3XP for affinity and 5XP for non-affinity.
• Check your Renown. You may enter play with a 3 in a single Renown, and the rest at 2 or below.
  • Please indicate the deed that earned your character their most recent dot of Renown in each of the aspects: Cunning, Glory, Honor, Purity, Wisdom.
  • Check your Primal Urge. You may enter with Primal Urge 3 or lower, and raise it at a rate of 1 per month after.
• Check Willpower, Defense, Harmony, Speed, Health, and other derived traits. Now check them again. Did you check them again? Are you sure you did? Better check again.
• Review any Fetishes. If you are including a Fetish, please use these submission guidelines.
• All Custom Fetishes must be Staff-approved.
• You may have a custom Blood and Bone.

Wiki

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO INCLUDE:
  • Auspice and Tribe
  • Primal Urge
  • Renown
  • Pack Info (If any)
  • Categories set for Auspice, Tribe, and Lodge, so the page populates in all the right places
  • Add your character's hooks to relevant locations on the Werewolf Sphere Hooks page

VAMPIRE

VAMPIRE

Vampire is not accepting applications at this time

• Vampire: The Requiem Second Edition core rules + 126 xp
• Use the Vampire Sheet if making a Vampire.
• Use the Ghoul Sheet if making a Ghoul.

• Custom Materials for player use.
• NPCs Mentor List for player use.

What’s Available?

• Unavailable to Players:
  • Guide To The Night
  • Half-Damned
  • Thousand Years of Night - excepting Deadman's Reprieve
  • Dark Eras, Companion, 2

We are using:

• Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition (aka Blood & Smoke: The Strix Chronicle)
  • and also the FAQs.
• Secrets of the Covenants
  • No Styles or Themes in Blood Sorcery are in use. One can still take Miracles and Rites without the theme dots.
  • No Coil of Zirnitra.
  • Covenant Merits are for in Covenant only, despite prerequisites.
  • No Great Prophecy.
• Devotion to Power
  • For PC's: Common Devotions only, and excluding the Eternal Power Devotion. The rest is available for ST/approved use only.

• Banned Merits in Core:
  • Undead Menses
  • True Friend - Not banned, but please note the ST can not kill your True Friend as part of a plot. This doesn't mean they can't die from other circumstances. True Friend is also immune on The Prince, The Seneschal, The Sheriff, and any Touchstones.
  • Clan Status - We are choosing not to focus on Clan politics. City and Covenant should offer more than enough. This extends to any merits that rely on Clan Status, such as Dynasty Membership.

• All Merits and Devotions from Companion Books are at ST’s discretion.

Overall

• Players may play a Vampire or a Ghoul.
  • We are allowing PC Ghouls. Applying to play a Ghoul (especially with a PC Regnant) requires a vetting conversation with the Vampire ST team.
  • We are not allowing Dhampirs, Revenants (not even Revenants made Kindred), or Posthumous Embraces.
  • No other PCs may be thralled, ghouled or embraced.
• All clans must play to their Clan Banes. (No, that creepy feeling Nosferatu give off isn’t sexy.)
• PCs begin with Humanity 7 and Blood Potency 1. You may lower your Humanity to 5, but you do not gain XP from this.
• Blood Potency may be raised with XP to 3 at start.
• PCs may not begin with Clan Disciplines other than their own at start.
• PCs may begin with City or Covenant Status no higher than 2.
  • For the sake of status such as Harpy (1), Herald (1), Whip (2), Priscus(3), Primogen(4), etc.. rather than Clan Status, these will be represented in City status.
• No Custom Devotions To Start - These may be purchased once you're sanctioned.
• Vampires may choose 1 dot of Haven (not including the required Safe Place), Feeding Grounds, or Herd for free.

Backgrounds

• NO VAMPIRES CAN BE FROM NEW YORK UNLESS THEY WERE EMBRACED WITHIN THE LAST 5 YEARS. NO GHOULING, NO BEING EMBRACED HERE AND COMING BACK IN YOUR HISTORY.
• Forbidden Concepts: Antagonist concepts such as vengeful neonates or VII.
• No accounts of diablerie in your history.
• Players must play one of the five Clans: Daeva, Gangrel, Mekhet, Ventrue, or Nosferatu.
• PCs must be in one of the five Covenants: The Carthian Movement, The Lancea et Sanctum, The Ordo Dracul, The Invictus, The Circle of the Crone, or be Unaligned.
• PCs must be Neonate (1-50 years of unlife) or Ancilla (50-149 years of unlife). They can not be Elders (150+ years of unlife).
• Please include these questions and their answers in your background:
  • When you were born.
  • When your embrace/ghouling occurred.
  • Where is your sire/regnant and what is your relationship?
• What do you do for your Covenant or why don’t you currently belong to one?
• Want ties to NPCs? Talk to staff! This is encouraged.
• Prince Natasha will not allow freeloaders in her city. If you have no skills or expertise to offer you'd better be sworn to someone who does or you need not apply.

Ghouls

• Must have Active PC or NPC Regnant.
• Gain two dots of disciplines to start from your Regnant's Clan Disciplines.
• If taking an NPC Regnant, gain one dot of Mentor to signify your Regnant relationship. You may build this to 5 with XP. Please look at the list of Mentors to choose which Skills/Disciplines you're taking and mark those on your sheet.
• If taking a PC Regnant, gain one dot of Safe Place.
  • Players may choose to purchase higher disciplines with XP, but they can not go over their Regnant's current levels.
  • May not start with a history of previous Regnant's to gain access to other Disciplines.
• Ghouls may not take any City status to start, and are capped at one dot of Covenant status.
• Ghouls cannot have any mortal+ merits. Nor may they take any merits with the Prerequisite: Human Only. Vampires cannot feed from their Ghouls, and must use Herd for such benefits. The Producer Merit is thus unavailable to Ghouls.
• Ghouls may not learn Devotions, Blood Sorcery, Theban Sorcery, Carthian Laws, Invictus Oaths, or Ordo Coils or Scales.

Retainers

• Vampire PC's may have Retainers and may choose to have Ghoul Retainers or Mortal Thrall Retainers.
• Ghoul PC's may have Retainers but these are always the basic Mortal Retainers that any Mortal could acquire.
• PLEASE STAT OUT YOUR RETAINERS WITH THE INFORMATION BELOW ON THE RETAINERS TAB.
• Ghoul servants use a slightly altered version of the Retainer Merit from p. 123. By definition, ghoul servants are inherently more competent than their mortal counterparts. Use the Retainer rules to create a ghoul servant, but add a dot of the regnant’s Disciplines for a one- or two-dot Retainer, a second dot for a three- or four-dot Retainer, and a third dot for a five-dot Retainer. Retainers cannot have more dots in any discipline than their Regnant.

• We will also be using the Geist 2e version of Retainer:
  
  • Effect: Your character has a friend, employee, cultist, sycophant, or other thoroughly loyal person at her disposal. The dot rating reflects the retainer’s relative competency. One-dot retainers are barely functional, children, or otherwise not very effective. Three-dot retainers are typically professionals, with some impressive but not overwhelming abilities at their disposal. Five-dot retainers are true experts, the best in their class. If a retainer must roll for an action, double the Retainer Merit dots and use them as a dice pool for any action core to his primary focus or concept. For example, an auto mechanic would get that on Crafts or perhaps Drive rolls. For other rolls, use the Merit rating by itself as a dice pool. Additionally, a Retainer can have access to twice the Merit dots in her own Merits. These are limited to Merits that don’t create additional Storyteller Characters — your Retainer can’t have a Retainer, who then has another Retainer, for example. But he could have Resources, Status, or a fighting Style Merit.

TEMPLATE

SKILLS
1.
2. 
3. 

DISCIPLINES
(They can only have from your current pool. A dot of the regnant’s Disciplines for a one- or two-dot Retainer, a second dot for a three- or four-dot Retainer, and a third dot for a five-dot Retainer) 

MERITS
(A Retainer can have access to twice the Merit dots in her own Merits.)

Sheet Review

• Make sure you've not taken any Clan Disciplines outside of your own at start.
• Make sure you've marked any 'Unlocked' or 'Free' points (such as your free Vampire Attribute or Free Rites gained from purchasing Cruac) with a / .
• Please add your title to the note of your City/Covenant Status.
• Check Willpower, Defense, Humanity, Speed, Health, and other derived traits.
• Review any equipment.

Wiki

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO INCLUDE:
  • Titles (If any)
  • Status Listed
  • Clan and Covenant (or Unaligned)
  • Coterie Info (If any)
  • Categories set for Clan, Covenant, and Bloodline, so the page populates in all the right place

CHANGELING

CHANGELING

Changeling is not accepting applications at this time

• Changeling: the Lost Second Edition core rules + 126 xp
• Changelings use this [Sheet]
• Fae Touched use this [Sheet]

What’s Available?

We are using:

• Changeling: the Lost Second Edition
• Oak, Ash & Thorn, CtL: The Lost 2E Companion
  • Trifles are available.
  • No Entitlements
  • No Non-Traditional Mantles
  • No Baubles
  • No Empty Hearts
• Dark Eras 1, Dark Eras Companion, Dark Eras 2
  • Kiths out of DE2 are available. All other DE content is subject to ST approval.
  • No DE Contracts.
• Kith & Kin is available.
  • All material is still being looked over and is subject to ST approval.
  • All Contracts are still being considered.
  • The following Kiths are unavailable for Player Characters.
    • Concubus
    • Ghostheart
    • Uttervoice
    • Witchtooth
    • Riddleseeker
    • Liminal
    • Wisewitch
    • Swarmflight
    • Plaguesmith
    • Apoptosome
    • Belquerel
    • Blightbent
    • Venombite
    • Whisperwhisp.
  • Draconics are allowed, but do not gain the additional flight ability.

• Altered Merits in Core:
  • True Friend - Not banned, but please note the ST can not kill your True Friend as part of a plot. This doesn't mean they can't die from other circumstances. True Friend is also immune to The Monarchy and any Touchstones.

Overall

• PCs can not start in a Motley.
• PCs may start with one Token, Trifle, or Hedgespun Item from the book, and may not start with any custom Tokens or Trifles. All other Tokens/Trifles need to be acquired in-game and need to be approved by ST's guidelines.

For Changelings

• Wyrd may be raised with XP to 5 at start.
• Changelings can not take Iron as an Element.
• PCs may only make use of The Pupil's Devotion as many times as their Wyrd score. An Oath and a Teacher must be listed for each instance of a Contract Discount or a Seeming Benefit. Fae-Touched can use this once.
• PCs may begin with Mantle no higher than 3. After which it can be raised at a rate of 1 per month.
  • The first dot of Mantle is free.
• Changelings can start with 1 dot in one Court Goodwill.
• We encourage everyone to use the local Gentry. If you wish to use a foreign Gentry, you must create a Gentry and have it approved before creating a character.
• You may use any Needle or Thread from the book, or any of our Custom Needles or Threads
• Hob Goblins can not be taken as a Retainer or True Friends, only as allies or contacts.

For Fae-Touched

• If a Fae-Touched begins play in a Court, start with 1 dot of free Court Goodwill, to a max of 2 in a single type. If they are countless and will join a Court Later, they will still get this first free dot.
• Fae-Touched can use the following Changeling Merits:
  • Arcadian Metabolism, Diviner, Fae-Mount, and Hedge Sense.
• Fae-Touched can use the following Mortal/+ Merits:
  • Supernatural Resistance.

!NEW! The Promise trait for Avowed is getting expanded and renamed to 'Vow'. It works in the same way as Promise, but it no longer needs to be tied to another person. An Avowed could have made a promise to herself to fulfill a personal goal or dream. This Vow still needs to be the driving core reason for her desire to return to the Thorns and needs all the depth of a promise to a Changeling, or a generational obligation. Any Fae-Touched merits that put the Promise into question can simply be reread with the Vow in mind. If you have questions, please open a ticket.

Backgrounds

• Forbidden Concepts: Antagonist concepts such as Loyalists and Privateer.
• Please do not submit a PC that spends the majority of their time in the Hedge alone. I will not chase you/have PCs chase you to include you in the game.
• No one may be so fresh out of the Hedge they are a danger to themselves or society. New enough to have struggles with resources (such as a place to live or a job) are fine.
  • Mortal/+ Characters can transition and be fresh out of the Hedge.
  • No other half or full splats can transition into the Changeling Sphere.
• PCs must be in one of the 4 Courts (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter,) or Courtless.
• PCs will be 18+ (They will have been taken at 18+, and will look 18+.)
• PCs can be taken from any time of history, but they can not be illiterate to modern technology. They can have at least some misunderstanding of certain things. Please see the neophyte/cub rule on the New Player's Guide.
• PCs who do not join the Freehold of Neon and Chrome are unable to gain Court Goodwill. Those that leave the Freehold will lose Court Goodwill and the points will be returned via SoM.

• Please include these questions and their answers in your background:
  • When you were born.
  • Why the character was taken and how.
  • The Gentry and your role in Acardia.
  • Information about your Fetch if you had one.
• Information about your Touchstone.
• What do you do for your Court or why don’t you currently belong to one?
• Where you acquired your Token or Hedgespun items from.
• Want ties to NPCs? Talk to staff! This is encouraged.

Sheet Review

• Make sure you've marked any 'Unlocked' or 'Free' points with a / .
• Please add your title to the note of your Mantle/Status.
• Check Willpower, Defense, Clarity, Integrity, Speed, Health, and other derived traits.
• Review any equipment.
• Contracts should have the full text from the book in the note of the Contract (from Name to last . )
• Contracts should be listed as Contract Name (Regalia) (e.g. Mask Of Superiority (Crown) ).
• Please do not cut down any text or write your own version in the notes.
• Please copy/paste the full text of any Seeming Benefits you've purchased.

A sheet example:

Wiki

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO INCLUDE:
  • Titles (If any)
  • Mantle/Court-Goodwill Listed
  • Seeming, Kith and Court(or Courtless)
  • Motley Info (If any)
  • Description of Mask, Mien, and Mantle
  • Categories set for Seeming, Kith and Court, so the page populates in all the right place

STEP THREE: SHEET REVIEW

• Make sure you used the symbols specified in the help tab of your sheet
• Check the math on the sheet. Check it again.
  • 2.0 has flat costs.
• Check Willpower, Defense, Harmony, Speed, Health, and other derived traits.
• Equipment must follow our posted guidelines and the rules in the 2.0 rulebooks.
  • Review mundane equipment.
  • All custom mundane items must be reviewed. Use the custom item guide for prelim review.
• Please add the full write up from the PDFs in the notes section of your character sheet boxes for merits, gifts, disciplines, haunts, rites, ceremonies, coils, etc..
  • To find the note's section, right click the box in question and go to 'Insert Notes'.
  • The FULL write up, from the title to the very end, including the name, prerequisites, and costs. We will decide what we don't need.

STEP FOUR: FINISHING STEPS

• Please make a wiki, they are mandatory for final approval! Use the Character Page Generator to create your page.
• Must have:
  • Name (whatever name or names other characters will call them).
  • Please make sure you didn't copy the template from the NPC page.
  • Easily noticed Public Effects.
  • 3 RP Hooks. They don't have to be much, but they should be SOMETHING for other players to say 'ahha, we can RP together because you sometimes hang out at Bob's Bar/you're from New York and I was once there'
  • All of the additional information required from your Sphere.
• While not required, consider adding scenarios to your wiki. These can be things such as places your character is often found, or mannerisms that might draw attention and open up to a scene. These help to encourage others interactions, and often make starting scenes more natural and easier.
• Make your tracker page using the Tracker template.
• If you've gotten this far, please open your ticket with a Christopher Walken gif or video (This is Not a Joke). Thank you.