Character Sheets Made Easy

So, you have decided to play a Kindred character, now how to make the character sheet itself? The Following five steps will hopefully walk you through the process of creating a Kindred Character Sheet. As a player of Vampire: The Masquerade, you must create a character - an alter ego through which you interact with the game world and take your part in the story. Like a character in a novel or movie, this character becomes a protagonist in the stories you tell. You create a richly detailed character, then assume the role of that character every time you play. As you roleplay nightly, you watch your character grow and develop. Ultimately, the character you create becomes as real and as timeless as a great hero (or villain) in a literary work.

Below, you will find all the information needed to help you create a vampire character, beginning with a general concept and translating that concept into the Traits and statistics that are used in nightly roleplay. Though the process is relatively simple, and you CAN undertake it on your own, it is best to enlist Anjeanique's supervision, so that she can answer questions and guide you through the creation process.

Much of a character's life comes from the way you describe and roleplay him. Certain aspects of a character - his physical prowess, his looks and his vampire powers, for example - are described in numerical terms. These features are called Traits. Traits quantify your character's particular strengths and weaknesses, which guide the character in his interactions with other players' characters.

Traits are commonly described in numerical terms with ratings between 1 and 5. These numbers represent the quantity and quality of the character's prowess with a given Trait. One dot is considered a poor rating, while five dots indicate superiority. Properly played kindred characters do not necessarily need high power levels. In fact, played correctly, you will spend far more time being manipulative and sneaky than you will fighting and throwing your powers around.

For example, your character might have high Mental Traits, making him invaluable when brains and cunning are required. However, he might have low Physical Traits, forcing him to rely on a friend's character when violence or brute force is called for. Before you start, ask yourself if you want to be a dumb jock type, intellectual type, or a cross between the two. This will help you get started. Also try to have a general idea of what you want your characters personality to be like before you start.

The following chart helps to understand dot levels

Note: Try to make the character as unlike yourself as possible. This helps to keep the "Out of Character" conflicts down. Also remember, its just a game, characters die, and if your character is less like yourself, then you may not become so emotional about the loss on a personal level.

Before you begin you will need a blank character sheet to fill out in pencil as you go along. (pencil is a good idea, for you are certain to change your mind several times along the way) To print a character sheet click here for a pdf file from White-Wolf Publishing.

STEP ONE: CHARACTER CONCEPT

The first step is to create your character's concept. Concept is the basic information of your character. Name, Player, Nature, Demeanor, Clan, Generation, Sire and Concept. The following will explain a little bit about those.

Name refers to the name of your character.

Player is YOUR name.

Clan refers to the clan you choose your character to be from.
To see a list of Clans, click here.

Sire is the vampire that Embraced (made immortal) your character.

Nature is the "true" personality of your character - who he/she REALLY is deep down inside and tries not to make readily apparent to everyone else to see.

Demeanor is the personality your character presents to the world. More often than not, Nature and Demeanor are different, especially given the deviousness of the vampire mind. Whether it’s a cold, heartless moneygrubber, or a caring supportive person. Just because your character appears to be these things, that doesn’t mean it really is. Think of a demeanor as a cover of a book. What’s on the cover doesn’t necessarily reflect who you really are.


Concept is a brief description(one or two word "sketch") of who your character was before the Embrace. Are you a rock star? A penniless hooker? Maybe your character is a rich manipulative manager of some star singer, or a chain of restaurants.
To see a list of sample concepts click here.

Generation is how many steps removed from Caine your character is. If your Sire is an 8^th generation Vampire.. then you will be a 9^th . Everyone begins character creation as 13th generation and spends Background dots in Generation to lower your character's Generation. This will be covered later in the Backgrounds section.

Once you have completed this section to your satisfaction, it is time to move on to the more technical details of Character Creation.

If you look at the very bottom of the Character Sheet you will see the following numbers:

Attributes: 7/5/3 Abilities: 13/9/5 Disciplines: 3 Backgrounds: 5 Virtues: 7 Freebie Points: 15 (7/5/2/1)

These numbers represent your limits of dots in each Trait

STEP TWO: SELECT ATTRIBUTES

Players must now assign numbers to determine the Attributes of their character. Attributes are the natural abilities and raw "stuff" a character is made of. How strong is a character? How attractive? How quick? How smart? The first step is to prioritize by selecting which group of Attributes to be your character's strong suit (primary), your average suit (secondary), and finally, your character's weak suit (tertiary). Is your character tough but antisocial, or gorgeous but a complete airhead?

All Vampire characters start with one dot in each Attribute, reflecting the basic capabilities of the mortals from which they're drawn. (The exception is the Nosferatu, who have zero dots in their Appearance Attribute.)
A player may distribute 7 additional dots to his character's primary group, 5 additional dots to the secondary group and 3 additional dots to the tertiary group.

For example, a tough, athletic character will likely allocate 7 dots to his Physical category, while a clever, wise character will place 7 dots in her Mental category.

To see a list of Attributes to choose from click here.

STEP THREE: SELECT ABILITIES

Abilities are also divided into three catagories: Talents, Skills and Knowledges.

Talents are intuitive Abilities that are inherent or learned "in the field."

Skills are Abilitities learned through rigorous training or determination. They may be learned with careful practice, but can also be studied or learned through training.

Knowledges are just that - "book learning" and the like. Knowledges are typically mental pursuits or studies learned through schooling or books.

Like Attributes, Ability groups are also prioritized during character creation. Players should select primary, secondary and tertiary groups for their Abilities. The primary group receives 13 dots, the secondary group gets 9 and the tertiary group receives 5.

Note that, unlike Attributes, characters do not begin the game with automatic dots in any Ability. And no Ability may be purchased above 3 dots during this stage of character creation - even among the undead, experts in a field don't grow on trees. You may raise Abilities higher with freebie points, but that comes later.

You do not have to place dots in every single ability on the sheet, feel free to pick and choose only the ones you feel are needed for your character

For more information onTalents, Skills, and Knowledges (definitions list)

STEP FOUR: ADVANTAGES

This is your Disciplines, Backgrounds, and Virtues area. These we will go over one at a time to avoid confusion.

Disciplines are the easiest to do. When vampires are Embraced, their sires teach them certain blood-based mystical powers, known as Disciplines. Each character begins with three dots in Disciplines, 1 dot in each Discipline.

For a list of the 3 Disciplines used by each clan, click here.

Backgrounds are a bit more complex, as there are several listings and things to choose from. You are allotted 5 dots to place in this area. You may choose anything from the Backgrounds list, but they should fit the character concept - a destitute Gangrel street preacher isn't likely to have Resources.
But remember at this time you may only place 5 dots under this heading.

Virtues are your levels of conscience, self-control, and courage.

Conscience is your characters ability to distinguish between right and wrong. This is a trait that shows the moral backbone for your character.

Self-control determines how readily you resist the temptations of the Beast and fight off Hunger.

Courage measures the character's ability to withstand the proximity of dangers such as fire, sunlight and other things that vampires dread.

Every character starts out with 1 dot in each Virtue, and you may then distribute 7 additional dots among the Virtues as you see fit. These Virtues play instrumental roles in determining a character's starting Humanity and Willpower levels, so be careful how you spend the points.

To see the descriptions of Virtues, click here.

Alternate Virtues: Conviction and Instinct

Vampire: The Masquerade is fundamentally about coming to grips with one's monstrous nature and, hopefully, overcoming it. As such, we strongly encourage beginning players to select the Virtues of Conscience and Self-Control for their characters. However, certain Kindred, particularly the vampires of the Sabbat, adhere to different ethical outlooks. For these vampires, the Virtues of Conviction and Instinct may replace the Virtues of Conscience and Self-Control, respectively. (All vampires have the Courage Virtue.)

If you decide that your character is sufficiently inhuman to warrant these Virtues, you may circle the appropriate Virtues on the character sheet.

Be warned that in taking these Virtues, you have effectively designated your character as a monster.

For a list of alternate virtues, click here.

STEP FIVE: FINISHING TOUCHES

At this stage you will record your character's Merits & Flaws, Humanity, Willpower, and Blood Pool.

Merits and Flaws are optional Traits that can provide player characters with added depth and personality when used properly.

Merits are special abilities or advantages(many times hidden) that are rare or unique in the general Kindred popluation. Merits cost you freebie points which are listed beside each merit. For example: A 2-point merit will cost you 2 freebie points.

For a list of Merits with their point values, click here.

Flaws are liabilities or disadvantages that pose challenges to a character's nightly existence. Like a defect, or a not so nice trait. Flaws are a big part in setting your character apart and making them a bit more realistic, adding that little bit of spice so to speak. Unlike Merits, Flaws do not cost you anything, instead they give you back points as you take them. No character may have more than 7 points worth of Flaws (which would give a character a total of 22 freebie points to spend in other areas). Example of this, a 3-point flaw will ADD 3 points back into your freebie point pool. Choose wisely , because once you submit your sheet, you can not change or add flaws and merits.

For a list of Flaws with their point values, click here.

Humanity is the amount of human nature you contain after your embrace, obviously a newly embraced character might have a lot of humanity, not yet having fully experienced the endless nights, and the beast within. A character's starting Humanity score equals the sum of her Conscience + Self-Control Traits, yielding a score between 5 and 10. Players are also encouraged to increase their Humanity scores with freebie points, as too low a score indicates that the Beast lies in close proximity.

Humanity Chart

To see further details of each Humanity level, click here.

Willpower equals your character's Courage rating, and thus ranges from 1 to 5. Players are encouraged to raise their starting Willpower scores with freebie points, as the Trait is critical to dealing with a Kindred's dangerous emotional situations. Willpower is also used to resist frenzy, undertake especially daunting tasks and power certain Disciplines effects.

To see more information on Willpower, click here.

Blood Pool

The crowning touch to character creation is determing the vampire's starting blood pool.

Max Trait Rating: This indicates the highest permanent Trait rating (excluding Humanity/Path scores and Willpower ratings) a vampire of the given generation can have. This is especially important with regard to Disciplines and Attributes.

Blood Pool Max: The maximum number of blood points a vampire may keep in her system. Remember that elder vampires concentrate their blood - while the volume of blood in their bodies is no greater than any other vampire's, each pint of blood is worth more than one point.

Blood Points/Turn: This indicates how many blood points a vampire can spend in a single turn.

Health

The Health Trait measures a character's physical condition, from perfect health to death. As characters are wounded or otherwise impaired, they lose health levels, then regain them as they heal.
At this point, disregard the Health section, you will be taught how to manage your Health Trait later.

Freebie Points are used to “buy” additional dots in Traits. You are allotted 15 freebie points to start with and you may gain up to 7 additional freebie points by taking flaws.
For example; a 2-point flaw will ADD 2 points to your freebies.

Keep in mind though that you may NOT go over 7 points worth of flaws.

The following is a cost chart, showing you how many freebie points it costs to purchase 1 dot in different Traits.

Freebie Chart

---

Copyright White Wolf Publishing, Inc.