Mortal Characters
A Mortal is a living human — a character who is not a vampire, ghoul, or any other supernatural creature. Mortals use the standard Attribute, Skill, Advantage, and trait systems, but they carry none of the vampire-specific mechanics. That absence is an intentional game state, not missing data: a Mortal simply has no Blood Potency, Hunger, Rouse Checks, Disciplines, Clan, Predator Type, Generation, or Sire. Those fields do not apply and are never filled with placeholder values.
The point of a Mortal is the person behind the later transformation. Many chronicles begin there, or keep a Mortal alongside vampires as witness, ally, victim, or target.
Character type
Before anything else, set the character's type to Mortal. A Mortal is:
- Species: Human
- Undead: No
- Ghoul: No
- Vampire: No
Character type is a mechanical state, not a description. Rules written for Vampires, Ghouls, or Mortals apply only to the type they name. A Mortal never receives vampire mechanics just because vampires exist in the same scene.
1. Concept
Start with who the person is, not what they'll become. Establish:
Name · Concept · Ambition · Desire · Chronicle · Age · Occupation · Background/history
A nightclub owner, a police detective, a college student, a paramedic, a journalist, an occult researcher, an attorney, a street-level criminal — the concept names the person. Occupation and background are descriptive unless a specific rule, Background, or Merit gives them mechanical weight.
2. Attributes
Assign the nine Attributes with the standard allocation. Every Attribute starts at 1 before you spend:
| Category | Dots |
|---|---|
| Primary | 5 |
| Secondary | 4 |
| Tertiary | 3 |
You choose which category is Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. You are not required to optimize them around your occupation.
| Physical | Social | Mental |
|---|---|---|
| Strength | Charisma | Intelligence |
| Dexterity | Manipulation | Wits |
| Stamina | Composure | Resolve |
3. Skills
Assign the twenty-seven Skills with the standard allocation:
| Category | Dots |
|---|---|
| Primary | 4 |
| Secondary | 3 |
| Tertiary | 2 |
| Physical | Social | Mental |
|---|---|---|
| Athletics, Brawl, Craft, Drive, Firearms, Larceny, Melee, Stealth, Survival | Animal Ken, Etiquette, Insight, Intimidation, Leadership, Performance, Persuasion, Streetwise, Subterfuge | Academics, Awareness, Finance, Investigation, Medicine, Occult, Politics, Science, Technology |
A Mortal may hold zero dots in a Skill.
4. Skill Specialty
A Mortal receives one Skill Specialty at character creation, and it must belong to a Skill the character possesses.
Examples: Firearms: Pistols · Investigation: Forensics · Technology: Cybersecurity · Medicine: Emergency Medicine · Persuasion: Negotiation · Occult: Vampire Lore
A Specialty grants no extra Skill dots — it modifies relevant tests per the normal Specialty rules.
5. Advantages and Flaws
Spend 7 dots of Advantages and take 2 dots of Flaws.
Advantages are Backgrounds and Merits appropriate to a Mortal — for example Contacts, Resources, Allies, Influence, Status, Fame, or Retainers. Do not automatically grant Haven, Herd, blood-related Backgrounds, Generation, clan-specific advantages, vampire-only Merits, or supernatural abilities unless a specific rule permits a Mortal to hold them.
Flaws should be real disadvantages — obligations, vulnerabilities, enemies, complications — that have an actual effect on play, not points spent to buy extra Advantages.
6. Derived traits
| Trait | Formula |
|---|---|
| Health | Stamina + 3 |
| Willpower | Composure + Resolve |
| Humanity | 7 (starting) |
Current Willpower begins at its maximum and changes through play. Humanity begins at 7 — a Mortal does not open with Humanity shaped by a vampiric degeneration process, though it can change over the chronicle.
7. No blood system
A Mortal cannot make Rouse Checks, spend Blood, use Blood Surge, awaken Disciplines, use vampire Blood Powers, or benefit from Blood Potency modifiers. None of these exist for a Mortal unless a later game event changes the character's supernatural state.
8. Supernatural transformation
A Mortal can later become a Ghoul or a Vampire. When that happens, the character's state changes to the new type, and the new type's rules apply. A Mortal who becomes a Vampire is a Vampire, with all vampire traits — they are not a Mortal running vampire abilities on top. Likewise, a Ghoul uses the Ghoul rules, not vampire creation traits.
9. State priority
When resolving any character, determine the current character type first. Use that type's rules. A character who was once a Mortal but is now a Vampire is resolved as a Vampire; a character who is currently a Mortal receives no vampire mechanics just because the world around them is full of vampires.
Creation checklist
- Character type is Mortal; human and living.
- Attributes use the 5/4/3 allocation.
- Skills use the 4/3/2 allocation.
- One Skill Specialty is assigned.
- Advantages are valid for a Mortal.
- Flaws are valid for a Mortal.
- Health = Stamina + 3; Willpower = Composure + Resolve.
- Humanity begins at 7 unless the scenario says otherwise.
- Blood Potency, Hunger, Disciplines, Clan, Generation, Predator Type, and Sire are all absent or not applicable.
Build the Mortal from the Mortal ruleset outright — never by making a vampire and stripping its traits away.