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

changing chapter one: city status society • of status the damned points
287
Points of City Status can be spent to award another character a permanent dot of City Status,
or to remove one. No Prince or Harpy can grant more than one dot to a single character within
the same calendar month, but the offi cial can remove more than one dot at one time (at a cost
of one point per dot in either case). No Prince or Harpy can affect her own City Status with
these points. They can affect each other’s traits, however. Granting each other more than one
dot over the course of a year is a sin against the city, see “Status Sins and Deeds,” p. 289.
A character’s last dot of City Status cannot be removed due to the expenditure of a Prince
or Harpy’s Status points. Only the Prince and the Master of Elysium have the ability to strip
that last dot and they do so without any expenditure of Status points (see below).
• The Prince: The Prince’s Status points are equal to his personal City Status (after taking
into account any bonuses provided by the position of his clan and covenant, see below). In
addition to spending Status points to grant or remove dots of City Status (as described above),
the Prince has special power over the fi rst dot of City Status that another vampire has. Granting
that initial dot represents the Prince’s sanction of a Kindred to hunt in the city. The Prince
can grant that fi rst dot to any character who otherwise has no City Status, and at no cost to
the newly Acknowledged vampire (in experience) or to himself (in Status points).
The Prince can similarly strip a character who has (or has been reduced to) City Status 1 of
her last dot. He does so by casting the character out of the city or by clearly implying he no
longer cares for her fate (this is distinct from an actual blood hunt; see below). In the very rare
cases when he feels an entire group has betrayed the city (or his rule), a Prince may declare an
entire clan or covenant unwelcome in his domain. All members of the group who have City
Status 1 immediately lose that dot at no cost to the Prince’s Status points, but those with
higher City Status must be stripped of it dot by dot as usual. Eminent and rival clans and the
ascendant and contender covenants are immune to such sweeping declarations (see below).
• Too many or too Few Princes: There can usually be only a single Prince in a city, but
there are instances when two or more rival Princes claim domain over a city and they refuse
to recognize one another’s claims. In this care, calculate the total City Status dots of all active
characters who support each contender. The contender with the highest total gets Status
points and their related abilities. Other contenders cannot grant Status and their supporters
are liable to face loss of personal Status by the winner’s decree — one reason why Kindred
contenders for the throne usually keep their ambitions closely guarded.
In cities with no single point of authority, the highest City Status of any of the individual
Kindred involved in the ruling council (or similar body) equals the points that are at the
disposal of the council to spend. Allocating them usually requires a prior arrangement among
council members and the Storyteller. Say, a majority vote is needed, or anyone may access the
points whenever they want to, without consultation.
• The Prince’s Harpy: The Prince can appoint a Harpy at his discretion, empowering a
Kindred to grant his esteem (or to remove it). The Prince’s Harpy retains her own personal
City Status dots, and gains Status points equal to the Prince’s own City Status (even if that
means she has more points than dots). The eminence or ascendancy of the Prince’s clan or
covenant affects his Harpy’s Status points, while her own affi liations affect only her City Status
dots. Although the Harpy’s pool of points starts at the same number as the Prince’s, it is
distinct — the Harpy and Prince do not share points. The Prince’s Harpy can spend them to
bequeath or remove City Status dots from others, and can also act as an arbiter of prestation
(see p. 295). She cannot serve as Prince, Priscus or a Primogen.
• The Prisci: The eldest (or most respected) members of each clan stand as the domain’s
Prisci. No Kindred without appropriate Clan Status can serve as a Priscus, and if there is a
dispute over who a clan’s Priscus is, the contender with the highest combined amount of