Embrace, ghouling and blood bonds

Lifecycles are the turning points that change what a character is: a mortal Embraced or made a ghoul, a blood bond forming or fading, a ghoul's need for vitae. In a chronicle each one is recorded on the character with its date, the other character involved and who may know about it.

Open a character's page in Characters and press Lifecycles. The storyteller sees it on every character. A player sees it on their own character. Other members see it only if the owner revealed it.

The storyteller makes a change directly. A player sends a request instead and you see "Request sent. Nothing changes until a Storyteller approves it." The rules follow the chronicle's edition, so a Dark Ages chronicle uses Road and Dark Ages generations even for a V20 sheet inside it. In a Custom chronicle the panels follow the character's own edition where they can. A blood bond there counts strength up to 6. The panels are written for V5, V20 and Dark Ages rules. They don't follow V6 rules.

Embrace

Only the storyteller can Embrace a character. It's offered for a living Mortal, Ghoul or Revenant.

1. Choose the Sire. The list shows Kindred from the chronicle in a matching edition.
2. The clan comes from the sire and Generation is the sire's plus one. Set Sect, Humanity and in V5 Blood Potency.
3. In V20 pick Humanity or Path. In Dark Ages pick the Road.
4. Give the new vampire exactly three Discipline dots. A V5 Embrace that makes a Thin-Blood grants no clan Discipline dots.
5. Set the year and how the date reads, add private notes and pick Who can see this event: Storyteller only, Chronicle members or Public. Choose which facts players may see and whether it goes on the chronicle's timeline.
6. Press Review permanent Embrace, check it and press Complete Embrace.

If a player's character is already a vampire and the sheet has no record of how, the player can send an Embrace history request with the sire and the year.

Ghouling

Ghouling is for a living Mortal. Choose the Domitor, the year and any notes and decide whether players learn who the domitor is. The storyteller presses Review permanent Ghouling and then Complete Ghouling. A player presses Review Ghouling request and then Send request.

Blood bonds

Both the storyteller and the character's owner can record a bond step. The steps are a first drink (First taste in V5), Second drink, Complete Blood Bond and Reinforce Bond plus Refuse vitae, Discover existing bond, Record defiance and weakening the bond.

The scale is the edition's own. V5 counts bond strength up to 6. V20 and Dark Ages count the three stages. Weakening a bond (Spend a month apart in V5, Weaken bond in V20 and Dark Ages) asks why: time apart without vitae, supernatural intervention or a storyteller ruling. A V5 Tremere can't bond another Kindred. A character with the Unbondable merit can't take a new bond.

Ghoul dependency

For a ghoul (not a revenant) you can record a feeding, a missed upkeep, the start of withdrawal, a lapsed dependency and a vitae addiction. The panel shows the current state: Sustained, Overdue, Withdrawal or Lapsed.

Approving a request

The storyteller finds player requests on the XP page under Lifecycle Requests. Press Review and read the request. Pick Approve or Deny, add a Storyteller note if you want to and press Approve request or Deny request.

A request never changes the sheet before it's approved. If the sheet changed in the meantime, approving doesn't overwrite it. The request is marked outdated and the player can send it again from the current sheet.

The other panels

Lifecycles holds more than these four. Which panels you see depends on the character and the edition. A player sees a panel on someone else's character only when there's a record they're allowed to read.

• Humanity and Stains and Touchstones and Convictions follow V5 rules.
• Path of Enlightenment follows V20 and Road follows Dark Ages.
• Torpor, Amaranth (diablerie and Generation) and True Faith record those turns in a vampire's life.
• Wight shows when a character's morality has reached zero.
• Character timeline lists the personal events linked to the character and Quick entry adds one without touching any rules.
• Approval requests shows a player their own pending and recent requests.
• Corrections is for the storyteller and undoes a lifecycle change made by mistake.

Recording changes made on the sheet

Players still change Humanity, Virtues, Generation and similar values on their own sheets. In Settings on the Features tab a storyteller can turn on Record sheet changes in Lifecycles. Each such change is then written to that character's Lifecycles history and shows under Sheet changes, so you can see what moved and when. It never blocks a save and never asks for approval. Turning it off stops new records and keeps the old ones.