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

If a situation imposes penalties on a test pool, assess the penalties after the Humanity limit is applied.
Continuing the previous example, if the character suffers a -2 penalty on his Wits + Empathy
pool, the player draws with a test pool of three. Bonuses cannot raise a player’s test pool over his
character’s Humanity limit, so add them before comparing a pool to a character’s Humanity.
The subtle repulsion that mortals feel toward low-Humanity Kindred does not infl uence a
character’s actual Presence score. Kindred look different than they did when their Humanity
was higher, but that change can be subtle. Mortals might perceive a low-Presence Kindred as
bestial, while a high-Presence Kindred could have a deadly, frightening taint. The warmth
that once attracted the eye chills to a reptilian fascination. Mortals who try to recount the
look of a low-Humanity Kindred might describe an image quite different from the vampire’s
actual appearance, as unconscious fear shades their memory. Even someone captivated by a
good-looking, low-Humanity Kindred might use phrases like “deadly beauty.”
SUMMARY: THE DESCENT
Humanity tends to drop. All Kindred must face this stark, unavoidable truth. Their existence as
predators forces them to commit abhorrent acts, if not deliberately, then when the Beast overpowers
them. A Kindred might begin his unlife vowing that he’ll never succumb to the Beast. Well,
he’ll never succumb to the Beast and not feel bad about it afterward. Well, he’ll never succumb to
the Beast in a really terrible way… and so on. As the years and decades pass, Kindred fi nd it hard
to muster the same revulsion to a crime they have committed many times before. Humanity wears
away from sheer weariness. High moral codes bend, then break, and are forgotten in time.
Kindred tend to live down to their Humanity. As the trait drops, less and less seems objectionable.
What once caused horrifi ed repentance seems expedient — maybe even thrilling.
That way, however, leads to destruction.
So how can a Kindred survive the Requiem? How can he preserve some shred of human
conscience when the Beast never tires? What limit can he set to his own monstrosity?
The characters must answer that question for themselves. That’s what The Requiem is
all about.
HUMANITY 10-8
Kindred with Humanity scores this high can seem “more human than human.” Neonates
might recoil from their own monstrosity and take up ethical codes stricter than any they
followed in life. They usually try to feed only from animals or seek other alternatives to victimizing
mortals, and feed as little as possible in any case. They don’t have to act preachy or
passively accept everything that unlife and their fellow Kindred throw at them, but they must
work hard to avoid harming anyone else and to atone for any sin they commit. Interaction
with mortals often matters a great deal to such Kindred, as interacting with the living helps
them remember what life was like. They can also pass for mortal almost without effort.
Few mortals can maintain such high ethical standards, and even fewer Kindred succeed
for long. A vampire eventually loses control and kills someone, and then kills again. Kindred
harden themselves to this awful truth or destroy themselves to prevent further harm to others.
Few Kindred fi nd reason to both continue their existence and remain this moral.
Older, more jaded (or realistic) Kindred often fi nd highly humane vampires insufferably
naïve. They take dour satisfaction in the thought that the whelps will learn better, just as
they did. Some elders are not above foisting “lessons” in callousness, selfi shness or deceit on
a neonate who thinks he can be a “good vampire.”
HUMANITY 7-6
At this Humanity, Kindred have ethical standards like those of most mortals. They feel
that killing, theft and cruelty are wrong, but they don’t go all weepy if they shade the truth a
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mind’s chapter eye three: theatre: special requiem rules and systems