Chicago: the White City

House Rules

The following is a condensation of the House Rules being used for Chicago: The White City, a Vampire: The Requiem live action game.

Player Conduct Code

No unwanted touching and no stunts.  Handshakes, hands on shoulders/arms, hugs, and similar common touches are allowed unless a player specifically requests not to be touched in such a matter.  Otherwise, any form of touching or activity that could bring legal-liability issues upon either the organizers of this game or the owners of the play site is prohibited.  Furthermore, no activity or stunt that could bring damage to the play site will be tolerated.

No Weapons

No use of illegal drugs or acts of public intoxication.

Be polite and courteous to each other when discussing things out-of-character.

Don't play angry. More specifically, do not play at any time while in an emotional state that may make you do something you will regret later.  Either leave the in-game area to cool down, talk to a member of the chronicle staff privately, or leave for the night and address your grievances later.

Obey the law. Please do not commit any crimes while playing, as crime is generally bad.

Don’t cheat. 

There are no winners or losers in this game.  The only losers at game are the losers.  Don’t be a loser. 

Disciplinary Rules

At this time, CWC does not have a formal disciplinary rule-set, under the hope that one will not be needed on even an infrequent basis.  Disciplinary action will be left, on a case by case basis, to the discretion of the Storyteller, who will consider any disciplinary issue in terms of the egregiousness of the offense on hand and any previous record displayed by the offender.

Hierarchy of Play Rules

Any “final call” by the Storyteller:  any clarification, expansion, or reversal of the rules can be made by the Storytellers, at any point during game play- this extending from face-to-face interaction at the game site to soft scenes run via e-mail.  These rulings override any previous rulings on a topic but only extend to the particular situation being addressed by a Storyteller.  For a final call to become a permanent rule, it must be codified as a house rule.

House rules:  Any and all rules, listed in this document, that deviate from rules listed in the V:tR Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebooks or any other Vampire resource should the Mind’s Eye Theatre book not have information on the subject at hand (this would include any rituals, disciplines, or merits not reprinted for MET).  House rules, in so much as they contradict rules in MET books, override rules in MET books.  Otherwise, House rules are simply expansions or clarifications of rules already presented.  House rules are added by the Storytellers, after proposed House rules are reviewed and advised on by the player base.

Mind’s Eye Theatre rulebook rules:  Assuming no house rules have been written on an issue (and no ST “final call” is required for a given situation), the play rules of a scene are assumed to by defined first and foremost by the rules outlined in White Wolf’s Mind’s Eye Theatre books for The World of Darkness and Vampire: The Requiem.  Players are expected to be familiar with the rules listed in these books, but copies of the books will be on hand at the check-in desk for reference.

Tabletop books for World of Darkness and Vampire: The Requiem: In areas where established house rules and MET rulebooks do not speak to an issue, the World of Darkness and Vampire: The Requiem rulebooks will be the primary references- as interpreted by the storytelling staff- for such discussions.  If neither rulebook speaks to an issue, any sourcebooks for World of Darkness or Vampire: The Requiem will take precedence.

Other White Wolf material:  Novels, magazines, interviews, and other sources will only be considered when no prior house rule, MET rule, or TT rule covers a situation.  Should any issues reach this point for clarification, the ST staff will codify the interpretation into a house rule.

Character Creation Rules

Starting Experience: All characters start with 35 experience points to spend.  An addition 15 points may be awarded to a character during character creation based on the character background.  

Background:  At least a verbal background must be approved by a staff member prior to a character entering game.  The background (verbal or written) also serves as the factor in determining whether a character will receive a bonus 15 experience points prior to entering game. A Storyteller may decide to award the 15 experience for a character background submitted up to two months after the character begins play. Backgrounds will be judged on the following merits:

Their connection(s) to the city of Chicago and its history

Their prospective ability to interact with other PCs in a social fashion

Their general appropriateness to genre, mood, and atmosphere as understood by the storytelling staff

Based on the staff member’s familiarity with the player, their belief that the player will be able to portray the character proposed

To be clear — the length and/or literary style of a background are immaterial to judging its quality, and whether it qualifies for the extra experience. In fact, players are encouraged to keep their initial backgrounds to less than five pages. If players want to write more about their characters, they are encouraged to submit it as downtime writing (which is also awarded with experience) or as a story submission for the website.

Clan/Bloodline:  All of the standard 5 clans are open to any player.  There is no comprehensive list of bloodlines banned from the chronicle, but any character looking to start out in a bloodline or have access to a mentor who will guide their character into a bloodline must talk with a Storyteller about such.  Decisions about bloodlines will be considered with regard to the following:

The necessity of the bloodline to support the character concept (i.e. why can’t this concept be done with one of the five common clans?)

The appropriateness of the bloodline in terms of the fictional history of the city, the history of the game, and the current character makeup of the city.

The chance of a bloodline’s special discipline having a negative impact on other players’ experiences.

Covenant:  At this time, all of the five major covenants (the Lancea Sanctum, the Invictus, the Carthians, the Ordo Dracul, and the Circle of the Crone) are open to all characters, or the player may choose to be unaligned.  Any membership to a unique sub-section of a covenant (ex: the Livian Heresy or The Sworn of the Locust) must be discussed with the Storytellers.

Also, please talk with a staff member when choosing a covenant.  The staff can inform you of the public history of a covenant and their differences from what appears in the books, and let you know what to expect in playing a member of a given covenant.

Age and Blood Potency:  Characters seeking to be more than 150 years old should discuss this with a member of the C:WC staff.

Characters may start with Blood Potency 1, 2 or 3 per the character creation rules in the book; characters may start at higher levels through the expenditure of experience points with special permission from the Storytellers.

The chronicle does not award free levels of Blood Potency for a character reaching a 50 year age mark. Blood Potency can only be raised via experience point expenditure or diablerie.

The effects of age on Blood Potency are still taken into account in character backgrounds. Characters who have been Kindred for 50 years or more should begin with Blood Potency 2, for 100 years or more should begin at Blood Potency 3 and so on. These points are not given free gratis; they must be paid for with the starting abilities of the character. Characters this old may start with lower Blood Potency provided they have spent time in torpor.

Humanity: Players, at character creation, may opt to drop their humanity to 6 or 5 so as to make their character a bit more deranged.  A character will not receive extra experience for dropping their humanity, but the player will only have to make a single degeneration test at the lowest level if they choose this option, as opposed to one test with every drop, as if the Humanity were lost in play.

Starting Disciplines: Any character starting with non-physical out-of-clan Disciplines must have an explanation in their background describing where and why it was taught.

Status: Depending on circumstances, a Storyteller may award bonus city, covenant, or clan status to a character prior to entering play depending on background and the in-game situation.  A member of the C:WC staff will decide (during character sheet audit) if such an issue should be considered.

Flaws:  Flaws listed in the back of the World of Darkness book are, generally, being ignored.  If a player chooses to give their character a flaw, no bonus experience will be awarded to start with, nor will any be awarded later solely on the having of a flaw.  If a flaw helps to produce quality role-playing that gets people to nominate a player for the roleplaying award, however, this is fair game.

Game Rules

Initial Vitae  per Night:  At the start of the game, take one draw from the "Blood Deck," which contains playing cards numberes 2-9. You get that much Vitae, plus your Herd, Haven Location and any miscellaneous stuff (like getting +2 if you're willing and able to hunt off of animals, blood banks, etc. Or -2 if you're limiting your hunting to one particular type of mortal)

More Blood: Spending extra time hunting can help you start out a bit more well-fed. Doing this costs one of your personal downtime actions, and has to be included in your regular list of downtime actions. There’s four very broad methods to hunting: Seduction, Mugging, Sandmanning and Zookeeping. Each method has a few options how to go about it, and each one likewise has options for keeping hidden, should you want to avoid other Kindred or people finding out what you’re up to. When you’re putting in your downtime actions, make sure to say which method you’re using, since the STs are going to make the tests behind the scenes for you, using whichever test pool is best for your character. For each success you get on the test, you get to start the game with one additional Vitae.

Seduction
You lure your prey in through seduction, tending toward meat-market bars, nightclubs and 24-hour Laundromats.
Tests:               Manipulation + Persuasion

Presence + Persuasion

Manipulation + Socialize

Manipulation + Empathy + Majesty (if you have Majesty 3 or higher)

Intelligence + Expression + Dominate (if you have Dominate 2 or higher)

Hiding:             Wits + Subterfuge

                        Wits + Persuasion + Dominate (if you have Dominate 3 or higher)

Mugging

Quite simply, you jump on someone and force the blood out through whatever violent means are necessary. You tend to hunt best in lonely and violent places.

Tests:               Strength + Brawl

                        Strength + Weaponry (use Dexterity if you have Fighting Finesse)

                        Presence + Intimidation

                        Intelligence + Stealth + Obfuscate (if you have Obfuscate 3 or higher)

Hiding:             Wits + Streetwise

                        Wits + Subterfuge + Obfuscate (if you have Obfuscate 4 or higher)

Sandmanning

Handy when you’re in residential neighborhoods or places with large homeless populations; sip blood from sleeping people, either after breaking into homes or sneaking up on people sleeping outside.

Tests:              Dexterity + Larceny

                        Dexterity + Stealth

                        Intelligence + Stealth + Obfuscate (if you have Obfuscate 3 or higher)

Hiding:             Wits + Streetwise

                        Wits + Subterfuge + Obfuscate (if you have Obfuscate 4 or higher)

Zookeeping

Young Kindred trying not to be noticed often try to hunt especially on animals, sticking to wilder areas like the larger parks and forest preserves in the region. Note: Only Kindred able to drink the blood of animals may use this option.

Tests:               Manipulation + Animal Ken

                        Wits + Survival

                        Presence + Animal Ken + Animalism (if you have Animalism 2 or higher)

Hiding:             Dexterity + Survival

                        Manipulation + Animal Ken + Animalism (if you have Animalism 4+)

Other miscellaneous things can help, too...feel free to get creative with your downtime actions. Like sending your Retainers out to lure people back to your haven or some such. In that case, they make a test, same as you would, but at -4 because they have to bring someone in.

Targeting certain neighborhoods gives you a bonus to certain hunting methods. Be careful, though, because if you don't have the recognized right to hunt there, you may be inviting trouble from those that do.

Initial Willpower Pool per Night:  Everyone will start the night with their full Willpower. This is because Storytellers can't be everywhere, checking to see that everyone is roleplaying their Virtues and Vices appropriately, so we give players the benefit of the doubt

As is the custom of our time, red tickets are blood, blue are Willpower.

Combat in Elysium:  Characters need to spend a Willpower point in order to attack another Kindred on Elyisum, and a Willpower DOT if they intend to do serious injury, torpor or kill them. Kindred in frenzy do not need to spend any type of Willpower to attack others (though they typically can't choose who they attack anyhow). This is similar, though considerably less restrictive, to the “Fourth Tradition” optional rule presented in Vampire: the Requiem.

Teaching and Learning Disciplines:  The only characters who can teach a clan-specific bloodline are the members of that clan (so, Daeva = Majesty, Gangrel = Protean, Mekhet = Auspex, Nosferatu = Nightmare, Ventrue = Dominate). Characters that belong to bloodlines may only teach their original clan specialty discipline and any “general” discipline they have in-clan.

Teaching your clan's signature discipline could cost you Clan Status. The teaching of a signature discipline is considered a level 3 on the list of sins against Clan Status. It's not entirely abhorrent, but not something that the most respected members of a clan should do; on the other hand, it's pretty easy to hide if you're careful and don't get out of hand with it. Teaching any non-signature discipline (such as Animalism, Obfuscate or uhh…Animalism) is still OK, though.

The process of teaching an out-of-clan discipline takes up downtime actions for both the teacher and the student. Each must use one action per game session for a number of sessions equal to the level of the discipline being taught.

No teacher is required for a character to learn Devotions. However, the character learning the Devotion still must spend downtime actions to acquire it. As with out-of-clan disciplines, the learning process requires one downtime action per game session, uninterrupted, for a number of sessions equal to the total dots of all the Devotion’s prerequisite disciplines. Characters can’t begin the learning process until they have all the prerequisites.

Earning Experience: All experience points awarded to players apply to their active PC. Players can earn the following experience awards:

3 points: Attendance award for showing up and being in-character for at least two hours.

2 points: Award for good roleplaying, Storytellers tend to grant RP awards to one-fifth of the players at every game session.

2 points: Downtime award. Players can earn this award once per month for writing character journals, expanding on their backgrounds or for exceptional participation in online roleplaying scenes.

2 points: Players earn this award for bringing a new player to the game, as long as the new player creates a new PC and plays for at least two hours.

Status Rules

Status, with the few exceptions mentioned above, is handled as presented in Vampire: the Requiem. A primer on Status can be found here.

Downtime Actions

Likewise, downtime actions are not changed much from the original writing. A primer can be found here, and it includes whatever minor changes have been made.