Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire The Requiem.pdf - RoseRed

little protection once they have been breached. Each dot of Haven Security subtracts one point
from efforts to intrude into the haven by anyone a character doesn’t specifi cally allow in. This
increased diffi culty may be because the entrance is so diffi cult to locate (behind a bookcase,
under a carpet) or simply diffi cult to penetrate (behind a vault door). Also, each dot of Haven
Security offers a +1 bonus on Initiative for those inside against anyone attempting to gain
entrance (good sight lines, video surveillance). Lastly, each dot of Haven Security generally
gives the characters inside one turn of warning before any kind of attack on the haven, allowing
them a chance to prepare themselves or fl ee. This benefi t may be reduced or negated by
particularly powerful or clever infi ltration efforts, however, at the Storyteller’s discretion.
Characters whose players spend no points at all on Haven might have their own small,
humble havens, or perhaps they share the haven of a sire or Prince. In any event, they simply
do not gain the mechanical benefi ts of those who have spent Merit points improving the
quality of their homes.
Each aspect of the Haven Merit has a limit of 5. In other words, Haven Location, Haven Size
and Haven Security may not rise above 5 (to a maximum of 15 points spent on this Merit).
Special: It’s possible for the Haven Merit to be shared among characters in a close-knit
group. They might simply be devoted to one another and willing to pool what they have, or
perhaps their mutual reliance on an individual or trust could bring them together to share
what they have in common.
To share this Merit, two or more characters simply have to be willing to pool their dots
for greater capability. A shared Haven Merit cannot rise higher than fi ve dots in any of the
three aspects of the trait. That is, characters cannot pool more than fi ve points to be devoted
to, say, Haven Size. If they wish to devote extra points to the Merit, they must allocate those
dots to a different aspect of the Merit, such as Location or Security.
Shared Haven dots can be lost. Coterie members or associates might be abused or mistreated,
ending relationships. Group members might perform actions that cast themselves (and the
group) in a bad light. Money might be spent or lost. If any group member does something to
diminish the haven, its dots decrease for all group members. That’s the weakness of sharing
dots in this Merit. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The Storyteller dictates
when character actions or events in a story compromise shared Haven dots.
Characters can also leave a shared haven. A rift might form between close Kindred. A character
might meet Final Death. Or one could be kicked out of the haven by the others. When
a character leaves a shared-Haven relationship, the dots he contributed are removed from the
pool. If the individual still survives, he doesn’t get all his dots back for his own purposes. He
gets one less than he originally contributed. So, if a character breaks a relationship with his
coterie, his two Haven dots are lost by the group, but he gets only one dot back for his own
purposes. The lost dot represents the cost or bad image that comes from the breakup. If all
members agree to part ways, they all lose one dot from what they originally contributed.
The Storyteller decides what reduced dots mean in the story when a character leaves a shared
haven. Perhaps no one else picks up the character’s attention to Haven Security, leaving that
to drop. The haven might not be tended as fastidiously, causing a drop in the Haven Location
value. Maybe a portion of the haven falls into disuse or even collapses, causing an effective
drop in Haven Size. Whatever the case, a plausible explanation must be determined.
A character need not devote all of her Haven dots to the shared Haven Merit, of course. A
Kindred might maintain a separate haven of her own outside the communal one represented
by the shared trait. Any leftover dots that a character has (or is unwilling to share) signify
what she has to draw upon as an individual, separate from her partners. For example, three
characters share a haven and expend a group total of fi ve dots. One character chooses to use
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chapter two: character