The Lurkers' Domain

Feel free to copy all of that sheet and change it to include all of the details you can for your character.

If you've never played before, don't panic! I'm here to help.
If you have played before, have at it and let me know if you think the form should have more details!

If you desire to keep your sheet a secret, email or PM it to me, and I'll keep track of it for you.

If you have no secrets, post it here and feel free to edit it online by coming back to your post and making changes. You will be the only user able to do so (besides me, muahaha!)

D

Ahh, the character sheet. At times the most critical, and others, the least used facet of a role-playing game.
The character sheet is a tool, if nothing else, for helping You know the character you are playing. You might have an image in your mind's eye of this person, but the character sheet serves to keep it ready at your fingertips to explain them.

It also keeps you honest. The last thing you want to do when playing a game is claim your character can do something he can't do. Moreover, different clans have different abilities by their nature, and you need to make sure you don't forget what they can do.

So, without further ado, here's a crib sheet to understanding your character sheet.
_______

NAME: ~ This should be your character's name. Pick a cool name, one that you can imagine fits your character and will not drive you nuts everytime you hear/read it.

PLAYER: ~ This should be your handle/username here at Lurkers'.

CHRONICLE: ~ This is the name of the Story you are participating in.

CLAN: ~ Quite possibly the most important thing to know. The clan acts not only as archetype, but often as a stereotype. You will be viewed by your peers in the game by as a member of this clan. In the WoD, just as in the real world, you can't fight your blood.

GENERATION: ~ In the WoD, after Cain slew Abel, and he was Awakened by Lilith, he became Caine, the first Vampire. He then sired a few vampires, who became the Second Generation. They created the main thriteen clans that all other vampires are descendant from, aka the Third Generation. Fast forward to modern times. The typical vamp these days is a 13th Generation vampire. This makes you a very weak-blooded vampire. You can choose to keep this baseline generation, or you can boost this level through a Discipline below. (I'll explain in a bit.) Doing so means you are closer in the lineage to Caine and therefore your blood is more potent.

HAVEN: ~ In essence, this is where you live, sleep during the day, and keep your retainers, etc. It should be a secured location, lest someone try to harm you or destroy your property.

NATURE: ~ I'll admit, these three can be vague. These really are stereotypes for how you act. The first, your Nature, is your true nature towards life and the people you meet.

DEMEANOR: ~ Your demeanor is essentially how you present yourself, the mask you let people see you through. In an honest character, these will probably be the same or complementary types. The nature of a conniver, however, may have the demeanor of a pleasant, happy go-lucky type to curry favor.

CONCEPT: ~ This presents your lot in life. You might play a criminal or a drifter, a politician, a punk, etc. There are a few suggested terms in the book, but really, these do not have to be types ONLY found there. Just boil down your essence to a label. The rest of the sheet lets you flesh out the character.

SIRE: ~ This is the name of the Vampire who created you. In your history, you can provides details about your embrace, but you don't have to. Also, it is fair to say you don't know who your sire was -- some clans, like the Gangrel, may disappear after the Embrace, leaving your character alone to discover their undead new life.

AGE: ~ This is your character's actual age, which can be simply how many years ago you were Embraced.

APPARENT AGE: ~ This is the age you seem to be by your appearance, which directly relates to how old you were when you were Embraced, since you would have stopped aging then.

-+- ATTRIBUTES -+-
~ These attributes quantify your strengths and weaknesses. They work on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being the default level for any of these nine Attributes. On a normal sheet, the values for your traits are represented as dots to fill in. This makes it nice to see their levels, but in a text environment like this, it can be rough. So instead, we'll just write down the number for each.

For Attributes, you are allowed to distribute 15 points amongst these to determine what your character excels at. However, you are required to determine which groups of three you feel are the most important; Physical, Social, or Mental. For your primary group, add 7 points. For the second most important, only 5 points. For the least important group, just 3 points.

For all of the traits listed on this sheet, you have 15 Freebie points that you can add to ANY trait, but some traits cost more Freebies per point than others. Attributes Points cost 5 Freebies each.

Below is my example. Remember each one started with 1 point, and none may exceed 5 total.

PHYSICAL (3 points)
Strength_________________ 3
Dexterity________________ 1
Stamina__________________ 2

SOCIAL (5 points)
Charisma_________________ 3
Manipulation_____________ 3
Appearance_______________ 2

MENTAL (7 points)
Perception_______________ 4
Intelligence_____________ 3
Wits_____________________ 3

-+- ABILITIES -+-
~ The abilities are very similar to the above, except you do not start out with any points in them. Again, you must decide which group deserves the most attention. But for these you have 13 points to place in your primary group, 9 points for your secondary group, and 5 for your tertiary group. If you need more, Abilities Points cost 2 Freebies each.

Below are my examples. Note, a 0 means you've no skill at all in that category. A 2 implies you've studied it. A 4 implies your are a master, very dedicated to this and little else. A 5 practically implies it's ALL you are good at. So, think about where you might want some talent, but unless you expect to really need a talent, don't go overboard. If you do, you should really describe this in detail in your character's history -- it obviously plays a big part in their life.

TALENTS
Alertness________________ 1
Athletics________________ 0
Brawl____________________ 0
Dodge____________________ 0
Empathy__________________ 0
Expression_______________ 0
Intimidation_____________ 0
Leadership_______________ 3
Streetwise_______________ 1
Subterfuge_______________ 0

SKILLS
Animal Ken_______________ 0
Crafts___________________ 0
Drive____________________ 2
Etiquette________________ 3
Firearms_________________ 1
Melee____________________ 1
Performance______________ 0
Security_________________ 0
Stealth__________________ 1
Survival_________________ 1

KNOWLEDGES
Academics________________ 1
Computer_________________ 2
Finance__________________ 2
Investigation____________ 1
Law______________________ 2
Linguistics______________ 1
Medicine_________________ 0
Occult___________________ 2
Politics_________________ 2
Science__________________ 0

-+- ADVANTAGES -+-
~ This will no doubt be the trickiest part of your sheet if you do not have access to a RuleBook. The backgrounds and disciplines are listed there, in the Player's Guide, and in the different Clanbooks. There are too many to list, but I can point you in the right direction and offer some suggestions.

This is the primary place I prefer to use Freebie points, especially in Backgrounds, because one Point costs only one Freebie. Virtues are 2 Freebies each, and Disciplines are a whopping 7 freebies each.

BACKGROUNDS
~ One background that is often chosen is "Generation" because it allows you to boost your place in the food chain. For Backgrounds you are only allowed to add 5 points. Each point added to Generation allows you to move up one generation. At best, therefore, you could only get as high as Eighth Generation. But there are many other backgrounds worth pursuing, like Resources, which determines how much money you'll have.

Here's my examples. Note that I am showing where I added points that I bought with Freebies.

Generation_9th___________ 4
Allies_2_________________ 1+1
Contacts_2_______________ 0+2
Herd_7___________________ 0+2
Influence_Well-connected_ 0+2
Resources_Millionaire____ 0+5
Retainers_2______________ 0+2

DISCIPLINES
~ The biggest rip-off in points is here -- but for the strongest reason. Your Disciplines really explain what your character has the power to do. Each clan has three innate Disciplines. Ventrue for example has Dominate (the ability to bend another's will to yours), Fortitude (your strength to resist certain types of damage), and Presence (the subtle attraction of others to you). You are only allowed to start with three points for your disciplines -- just one point for each you have to take. To boost these levels, it costs 7 Freebie points to add just one more point. This helps to keep your character from becoming God-like too fast.

Dominate_________________ 1
Fortitude________________ 1
Presence_________________ 1
_________________________ 0
_________________________ 0
_________________________ 0
_________________________ 0

VIRTUES
~ To your virtues, you have 7 points to distribute, onto which you actually start with one point in. You could use 2 Freebies per Virtue Point to bring these up... but why. Save 'em for a Discipline or Background.

Conscience/Conviction____ 3
Self-Control/Instinct____ 4
Courage__________________ 3

MERITS/FLAWS
~Ah, Merits and Flaws. These were added when the Player's Guide was released. It provides a way to give more traits to a character. Like Backgrounds, there are too many to list, and many are only found in the ClanBooks. Merits are bought with Freebie points, but different Merits cost different amounts. Taking on a Flaw actually gives you Freebie Points. In this way you could balance out different Merits and Flaws, making a more more complex and intriguing character.

Quite possibly the most common is Eat Food, which costs one Freebie Point. I usually take it, just because it helps the Masquerade. This Merit does not give you any nourishment; it merely prevents you from shying away from food, or vomiting it up if you tried to eat. Another very common one is Inoffensive To Animals, also only 1 Freebie. Normally animals, especially dogs, will shy away from Vampires. If you claim you have Guard Dogs protecting you, you'd better take this Merit.

Best thing to do is save a couple Freebies, and let me review your history. If I find a Merit that would be logical, I'll suggest it. You don't HAVE to take it, but it helps keep your sheet "honest".

Eat Food_________________
_________________________
_________________________

HUMANITY/PATH
~ Is a measurement of how "human" you are, or, from another point of view, how Monstrous you are, as you lose Humanity.
The Path is something few vampires outside of members of the Sabbat take. Very much another stereotype, but one you have to cling to in gameplay.
When it comes to Humanity, I start everyone at 10. Various situations may cause you to lose Humanity, specific actions you take. Consider this your moral barometer. If you do things that are illegal, immoral, etc., you might lose Humanity points. But doing things for the benefit of others can boost this back up. So far as I can tell, the only real advantage to keeping an eye on your Humanity is preventing certain actions that would go against your Nature and cause you to spend Willpower to avoid doing them. Note, if you do lose all of your Humanity points, your character is a completely irredeemable monster than you no longer will have control over.
(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)

-+-- WILLPOWER --+-
~ This is a measurement of your character's self-control. The value in the circles is your Willpower Level and is the maximum you will have, which I always start at 10. Mark this same amount below in your boxes, which is where you spend it from.
You are allowed certain cases to expend a point of Willpower in order to influence a situation. For example, once per dice roll, you can spend 1 WP to gain one automatic success. When you spend a blood point, remove it from the boxes, not the circles.
If you spend all of your Willpower, you will be too mentally exhausted to do anything, rendering you powerless. I do allow you to regain one point of Willpower every night when you wake.
It IS possible to lose Willpower Level, but these are generally rare and dependant on situations. For example, if you actually do use all of your spendable points up, it WILL COST you one Level Point to drop it into your spendable boxes when you wake the next night.
(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)(X)
[X][X][X][X][X][X][X][X][X][X]

-+- BLOOD POOL -+-
~ This is the level of how much blood your character has in their body. 13th Gen. Vamps have 10 Blood Points, the squares in your blood pool. When you start the game, these are all filled in. Lower Gen. vamps have extra capacity in their pool.
- Various activities cause you to expend Blood Points as this is essentially what is animating your vampire.
- Each night when you wake, One Blood Point is used - Mandatory.
- It costs One BP to heal one Health Level.
- It costs One BP to use a Basic Discipline.
- It costs Two BP to use an Advanced Discipline (unless otherwise noted).
- It costs One BP to influence a Physical Trait.
- If you reach Five or fewer BP in your Pool, you are Hungry and will Frenzy at the sight of blood.
- If you reach Two or fewer BP, you become Ravenous, and will Frenzy in the proximity of a Human.
- If you reach Zero BP, you enter Torpor, which is a state of unconsciousness.

REPLENISHMENT SCALE
- You must drink blood in order to gain back Blood Points.
- Each turn, a vampire can suck One Blood Point from a source.
- If you drain a source of its capacity it will die.
- Each vampire may have different amounts in their blood pool, so this will have to be watched.
- A Human has 10 BP. When a Human is reduced to 5 or fewer they will require a transfusion.
- A Cow (or similar size beast, like a Horse) has Five BP.
- A Dog has Two BP.
- A Cat (or small dog) has One BP.

[X][X][X][X][X][X][X][X][X][X]
[X][X][X][X][_][_][_][_][_][_]

-+- HEALTH -+-
~ This is where you will note your vampire's current state of health.
Bruised []
Hurt -1 []
Injured -1 []
Wounded -2 []
Mauled -2 []
Crippled -5 []
Incapacitated []

-+- EXPERIENCE -+-
~ This is where you will note the history of Experience Points granted to you by the StoryTeller. Each Exp. Point is considered to be a Freebie Point that you can spend on the Next Day of play. Just as I will tell you when the sun has risen and set, so you know when you are asleep, and have spent a blood point to wake, I will also allow you to spend your XP Freebies at the start of a new day.
[ ]
[ ]

-+=+- HISTORY/BACKGROUND -+=+-

~ This is the best part. Tells us about your character. As little or as much as you want. If you don't consider yourself a great author, that's fine. But at least give a few details. What do you do? Are you new to town? If you want to tell about how you became a vampire and when, please do so.