Step 6: Virtues

## The Basic Virtues

All
vampires are ruled by certain passions, however they are able to keep control
of themselves through their Virtues.

**Each of the three virtues start at 1, you have a**
further 7 points to spend on them, however they may not exceed 5 points total
in each.

**Conscience** determines how callous
or cold hearted a vampire is. The lower the score the less caring they could be.
**Self Control** determines how much they
are able to reign in their natural aggression. The lower the score the easier
it is for them to become angry or suddenly jump on some one to feed.
**Courage** determines how brave a vampire can be. The lower
the score the more cowardly or non-confrontational the vampire is.

Conscience
also determines how evil an act you can commit before you lose humanity.

Self
Control also determines how easily you frenzy and can resist frenzying.

Courage
also determines how easily you rotschreck and can resist rotschreck.

## Humanity

Once
human, many vampires cling on to some aspect of who or what they were. The
lower the score the more bestial and inhuman they are.
Humanity can be lost by doing unspeakably evil acts, such as killing or
constantly glutting on blood and even tormenting your foes.

A
low humanity is not always a good thing, as it may mean that the inner Beast
takes over your character and they become hunted for being a threat to the
Masquerade and the Traditions.
As such no player may start with a humanity lower than 6, which means they may
need to spend freebie points to initially raise it to that level. Freebie
points are covered later on.

Your
humanity rating starts off being equal to your base Conscience+Self Control.

Humanity
can go all the way up to 10, however anything above 8 will cause issues of
guilt when feeding for most vampires.

Any
character that drops to 4 or lower Humanity may be retired and become NPCs as
they are considered so cold or bestial that they can no longer really function
in either Kindred or mortal society. However this will be done as a special
plot arc and the character will not be retired immediately. This gives
characters a chance to redeem themselves through some great act or sacrifice or
to complete their degeneration into a self destructive monster.

Humanity
however is not the only option available to vampires, other ways or ‘paths’
exist for those who are able to discover them through play. You may also
purchase a ‘path’ at character creation for 5xp. This option is not available
for your first character.

## Willpower

Whilst
many vampires are self destructive in nature, destroying that which they can’t
possess, many are able to stave off falling to the Beast by sheer power of
will.

Willpower
determines a character’s resolve and dedication to the tasks they have set
themselves as well as preventing them being subject to the supernatural
abilities of others.

Your
willpower starts off equal to your base courage rating.

Willpower
can go all the way up to 10 however the Ref Team will veto people taking
willpower 10 in an effort to power game or min/max. If it does not suit your
character concept then do not take it that high.

It
is not advised that you start with lower than 5 willpower, as Kindred are meant
to be above such things as suicide (which is what is possible from Willpower 5
or lower). It also takes a very strong will to even survive the embrace.

We
recommend 6-8 as your starting amount, which means you may need to spend
freebies on it.

Step 7: Freebie Points