Making a V20 character, step by step

A 20th Anniversary vampire takes twelve steps: Era, Character Type, Identity, Archetypes, Clan, Attributes, Skills, Disciplines, Backgrounds, Merits & Flaws, Virtues and Summary. This page goes through each one. For how the steps, the side panel and the bar at the bottom work in general, see How the character creator works.

Dark Ages uses the same steps with its own clans, Abilities and Roads. See Making a Dark Ages character.

Freebie points

There's no separate freebie step. You get one pool of freebie points and you spend it inside the steps whenever you go past what a step gives you for free. A vampire starts with 15. A ghoul, revenant or mortal starts with 21. Flaws add up to 7 more.

Your table may set its own pool and prices. Going over never stops you on the step where it happens. Only the Summary holds you. It tells you how many points you're over so you can take a dot back or add a Flaw.

Everything here is for the normal Standard creation mode. In Free mode the limits aren't enforced.

1. Era

Pick 20th Anniversary.

2. Character Type

Pick Kindred for a vampire. A ghoul or revenant walks every step. A mortal skips Clan and Disciplines. See Vampire, ghoul, revenant or mortal.

3. Identity

Name and Concept are required. Then the age fields, Chronicle, Sect and Sire (Domitor for a ghoul, Patron for a revenant). A ghoul also picks a Ghoul type. A Vassal serves one domitor and an Independent has none.

Name and Concept each have a Roll button. Roll identity at the top fills in a name, a concept, a sect, the ages and a sire at once. It also rolls a vampire's generation and a ghoul's Ghoul type. Undo puts back what the last roll replaced. To write a sect of your own choose Custom... in the Sect list, type it and press Enter. Esc puts back what was there. In a chronicle only the storyteller has Custom.

The sect matters later. An Anarch opens Anarch-only Merits and Flaws, Backgrounds and sorcery. A Sabbat vampire starts on a Path in the Virtues step. A ghoul also picks an Allegiance: Camarilla or Anarch or Sabbat. A Sabbat ghoul starts with 5 Virtue dots instead of 7.

Generation runs from 13th to 4th in two bands, Standard (13th to 8th) and Elder (7th to 4th). What this generation sets shows the Generation background dots it costs, the blood pool and the trait ceiling. In the Standard band the Generation background comes out of your 5 Background dots. An Elder build places Attributes, Abilities and Disciplines freely up to the generation's limit and its Generation dots are free.

To go on: a name and a concept.

4. Archetypes

Choose a Nature (the self underneath, which refills Willpower) and a Demeanor (the face they wear in company). They can be the same. There are roll buttons for each and for both. The Custom row lets you write your own. Type it and press Enter to keep it or Esc to drop it.

To go on: both chosen.

5. Clan

Pick a clan. The list has the 13 clans and Caitiff. A ghoul sees Domitor's clan and a revenant sees Revenant family.

The search box above the list finds a clan by name. Beside it you can view the list as List, Gallery or Disciplines. Gallery shows each clan's picture and Disciplines puts the in-clan Disciplines on every row. A revenant family has no picture so there's no gallery for families. The side panel reads the chosen clan's Disciplines and its Bane.

The bloodlines sit in their own section under the clans. It has its own search box and each bloodline is filed under the clan it came from.

Create your own clan is at the end of the list. For a revenant it reads Create your own family. In a chronicle only the storyteller has it.

Changing the clan later clears the Disciplines you already bought.

To go on: a clan.

6. Attributes

Order Physical, Social and Mental as primary, secondary and tertiary. A vampire places 7, 5 and 3 dots. A ghoul, revenant or mortal places 6, 4 and 3. Every Attribute starts at 1. Swap two categories or press a category's number to change the order.

Each dot past the allowance costs 5 freebie points. An Attribute at 4 or more gets one free specialty.

To go on: every category placed.

7. Skills

The strip says Skills and the screen shows Talents, Skills and Knowledges. A vampire places 13, 9 and 5 dots by priority. A ghoul, revenant or mortal places 11, 7 and 4.

The allocation buys 3 dots at most in any one ability. A fourth and a fifth always cost freebie points, 2 a dot. An ability at 4 gets a free specialty. Add a homebrew ability adds one of your own.

To go on: each category given a priority and its dots placed.

8. Disciplines

A vampire gets 3 free dots in clan Disciplines. Each dot grants the power on its rung, so there are no powers to choose. Every dot past the free ones costs freebie points. So does every out-of-clan dot.

A ghoul gets two free dots: Potence and one Discipline of the domitor's clan. In the Master's Footsteps trades the Potence dot for a second clan dot. An Independent ghoul has no domitor so the two free dots can go anywhere. A revenant places two free dots among the family's three Disciplines. A Caitiff's free dots go anywhere.

Thaumaturgy and Necromancy ask you to choose a primary path first.

To go on: the free dots placed.

9. Backgrounds

Five dots of what the character already has: people, money, standing, a place to sleep. Going past five is allowed and costs 1 freebie point a dot. The Generation background counts in these five unless you're an Elder. Custom at the end of the list adds a Background of your own. See Custom backgrounds, loresheets and lifepaths.

To go on: all five dots placed.

10. Merits & Flaws

Merits cost freebie points from the shared pool. Flaws add up to 7 back. The list only shows what your character type can take. Clan, generation and sect rules apply too. Ghouls, revenants and mortals are advised to keep Merits plus Flaws at 7 points or fewer.

This step doesn't hold you for points. It only asks for anything a Merit or Flaw needs you to specify.

11. Virtues

Seven dots across Conscience, Self-Control and Courage (five for a revenant or a Sabbat ghoul). Each starts at 1 on Humanity. Humanity is Conscience + Self-Control and Willpower is Courage. Extra dots cost freebie points.

A vampire can Choose Path to follow a Path of Enlightenment instead of Humanity. A Path renames the Virtues it replaces and starts them at 0. A ghoul or revenant can opt into Use Storyteller-approved Path.

The side panel shows your Health levels, blood pool and starting blood. If you leave with freebie points unspent the creator asks first.

To go on: every Virtue at 1 or more and the pool placed.

12. Summary

Check everything, then press Save. Save stays locked while you've spent more freebie points than you have. The Experience section has Add XP, Spend XP and the Experience Log for XP your storyteller gave you.

For Visibility, PDF export, Start Over and what Save does, see How the character creator works.

Ghouls, revenants and mortals

A ghoul or a revenant walks all twelve steps. They have no generation and get two free Discipline dots. A mortal has no Clan or Disciplines step so they walk ten.