Threats and NPCs
The Storyteller does not need a full character sheet for every opponent. Build a threat from what it wants, what it can do, and what will make it retreat.
Quick NPC profile
Record:
- Concept and agenda
- Threat rating: 1–5
- Three pools: a primary pool, a secondary pool, and a resistance pool
- Health: 3 + threat rating, or a named value for major antagonists
- Willpower: threat rating + 2
- Armor or special defenses
- One signature move
- One vulnerability or leverage point
- One relationship to the player characters
A standard mortal has pools of 3–5 dice. A trained specialist has a primary pool of 6–8. A major supernatural antagonist may have a primary pool of 8–10 and one or more Discipline-style powers, but give it a cost or limit so it remains a character rather than a bag of numbers.
Threat rating
Threat rating sets the difficulty of resisting the NPC's signature move, the number of consequences it can absorb before retreating, and the scale of its resources. Do not use it as a flat penalty on every roll. Let the fiction determine the pool.
Antagonist turns
On an NPC's turn, choose one action that reveals its agenda. An antagonist should change the situation: separate people, create a Masquerade risk, call in a debt, use a power, flee with evidence, or force a difficult choice. Minions can act as a group using one pool instead of taking individual turns.
Supernatural opponents
Give rival vampires Hunger, Willpower, Health, Humanity, Blood Potency, and only the Disciplines that matter in the scene. Give werewolves, hunters, and other threats a distinctive source of danger rather than copying the vampire resource list. Every major antagonist should have a vulnerability the players can discover and exploit.
Defeat and retreat
Defeat does not always mean death. An NPC may surrender, flee, bargain, expose a secret, or leave behind a worse problem. Ask what the characters gain and what the antagonist gets away with.