House Rules

General Rules:
The staff of Wasting the Dawn reserves the right to alter any of the game rules below at any time if we feel it is in the best interests of fairness, balance, narrative of the game, or for any other reason. The ST staff may make rules calls which disregard these rules at any time for any reason.

Obey the 7 Rules Thou Shalt Never Break.
1: No touching without consent, no stunts.
2: No weapons.
3: If you choose to come to game drunk or high, you may be asked to leave.
4: It’s only a game.
5: Be mindful of others.
6: Do what works for you.
7: Have fun.

Anyone over the age of 18 can play. ST staff of Wasting the Dawn reserves the right to
ask any player to leave at any time. By signing into game you acknowledge that you are a responsible adult who is responsible for your own safety, and that you agree to both these house rules, OwbN wide rules, and our code of conduct.

Scenes involving rape or forced pregnancy will not be supported by Wasting the Dawn STs. We do not believe that our players or STs should be forced to be exposed to this type of story. Players with Wasting the Dawn characters may at their discretion and with their consent participate in these types of plots outside of Wasting the Dawn, but they cannot expect the STs to participate in the plot when they return to the Wasting the Dawn game. That said, vile crimes will occur in the World of Darkness, they simply don’t need to be described. We want to create a safe space for our players, and every player has the right to opt out of scenes or descriptions involving content that they find objectionable or triggering of a trauma.

Excessive arguing with the ST staff is not tolerated. You may politely point out when you
believe the rules as written are not consistent with the rules call made on scene. However, when the ST says their decision is final, there will be no further discussion at that point. (It should go without saying that) Threats, foul language, and yelling are not tolerated on an Out of Character level.

Our Disciplinary Policy:
Violations of the rules as written or inappropriate behavior (as determined by the ST staff) will result in a single warning being issued. Continuing violations or inappropriate behavior will result in punishment to be decided by the ST staff. Punishment includes and is not limited to: temporary or permanent ban from game, PC administratively rendered unplayable, and potential OWBN Disciplinary Action. STs can choose to bypass a warning and assign a punishment instead.

Source Books:

We use White Wolf’s Mind's Eye Theater "Law's of the Night" Revised for our general
rules and "Dark Epics" for influence, items and supplemental rules. Materials from OWBN packets will be used when binding but may be used when optional at ST discretion. Various other White Wolf books may be used.

Sign In:

You must sign in before you can enter play in-character. If there is a written sign in sheet and we can’t read your writing on, you won’t get attendance points for the game. You need to officially sign out if you wish to leave active game-play but still remain at game site. Do this by notifying a storyteller and having *them* sign you out on the sign in sheet. STs may determine you cannot sign out based on IC events.

All item cards must be signed by WtD staff in order to be valid for play, and stamped if possible. All sheets must also be signed and stamped if available. If your home game doesn’t use a stamp, a signature with the game name is acceptable. Item cards that are checked into WTD may be confiscated, transferred to another player or destroyed at the discretion of an ST.

You will receive XP for attending game so long as you arrive before the end of game,
sign in, and do some roleplay. If it’s 11:45 and you show up, you’ll still get XP.

Scenes may be run with your characters in downtime. If those scenes are set in the territories claimed by Wasting the Dawn, they are considered “hard proxy” and anyone taking part in those scenes are considered under the jurisdiction of Wasting the Dawn. The STs may waive the need for visitors to send a sheet.

Staying In Character:

If you are physically present at game and are in the process of speaking with or
interacting with people who are IC, you are considered to be IC. To be OOC, you must
have the appropriate hand signal up indicating that you are OOC, and must be speaking
of OOC things, or speaking to an ST to “not be here”. If you wish to be OOC for more
than a few minutes, please meet your friends elsewhere and don’t interrupt gameplay.

Private meetings: Private meetings should not be held within view of other players. If you are standing, sitting or grouped in the view of players you are there unless you have a “Private Room” or “Not here” card, displayed prominently. Large official meetings must
be notified to an ST, or have an ST present to be valid if chops are or might be thrown.

In Contention:

1. A PC is in contention when they are being sought by one or more PCs, or NPC’s (in or outside of WtD). If a PC survives for more than 3 game sessions of active RP (meaning they are AT game, in WtD, and IC the entire night) then they are considered to have slipped past the guard of their enemies and can then be shelved. If you never come to game, but piss off a group of people through DT and IC correspondence, they may be allowed to track you in downtime depending on the circumstances.
2. If you survive 3 games, and on the last RP session piss off a NEW set of people, you are now back in contention, and cannot shelve for another 3 games. This is subject to ST discretion
3. It is the responsibility of the aggressors to make their intentions known to the WtD ST staff, otherwise we will presume the PC got away with it, and they can shelve at any time.
4. If your PC becomes a significant issue in downtime scenes that it affects other areas or email lists to the point that you gain the attention of a Coord level NPC, your PC will not be shelved until that Coord NPC’s actions are resolved.
5. A player actively avoiding the consequences of their IC actions by not showing to game (as the PC in contention) in WtD, but showing in other games will be subject to any resolution the ST staff sees fit. This includes having your PC portrayed by an ST at WtD

Character Creation:

1. We currently allow Camarilla, Giovanni, Kuei Jin, Independent or Anarch PC’s in game at this time. STs can make exceptions. Camarilla characters are recommended and will receive more build points.
2. Sect Status and equivalents can be bought at character creation, but are limited according to the pre-exisiting genre packets and bylaws.
3. Access to the OWbN Cam list requires that your PC tell the List mod the domain they were acknowledged in as well as who acknowledged them, so deciding where your character was acknowledged early is best. Certain cities require working with Coords to receive approval to have been acknowledged in them, as do some merits or flaws.
4. You may start as low as 11th generation without a written background. Anything lower (10-8) requires a background and approval by the WtD staff. The more detailed the background, the higher the chance we will approve a lower gen. Even if you have a PC sire, we will still require a background.
5. You may not play magic-using clans or the same clan back to back, nor may you be in that clan as a ghoul. Please vary your characters. It will enrich your game experience.
6. You cannot have more than one active PC of the same sect. Regardless of sect, you may only sign in with one character per game night.
7. We run character creation right out of the Laws of the Night:
8. Please be aware that some clans are EXCEPTIONALLY structured and difficult to play and thus are not recommended for players new to OWBN. Some clans require Coord or Council approval before they can be played.
9. New characters may have up to 60 rollover XP from a previous PC per OWBN bylaws.
10. New characters may receive bonus XP for playing under-represented clans or having a background, per ST discretion.
11. Your PC will start with 1 dot in the following Lores: Your Sect, Your Clan, Your Creature type. This does not count against the starting build for your PC if you have no bonus XP. If you have bonus XP, 3 must be taken from the top to pay for these 3 abilities.
12. A starting character may not buy any ability or discipline at higher than 3 (excluding Attribute Traits) without Storyteller permission

Downtime:

1. The two Downtime Cycles begin after game and end the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month respectively. This may change at the discretion of the staff.
2. Downtimes mailed after Wednesday at 10:00 pm PST the week of game may not be counted toward that game.
3. Downtime actions or questions posted to the Facebook group will not count as Facebook is not an official means of contact for the board. Please do not contact the Facebook page and expect that to get to our board.
4. During downtime you may have as many actions as seems reasonable for a two week period of nights. We aren’t really regulating the total amount of activity you may pursue; just use common sense. We will tell you if your PC does too much at once.
a. You may teach any 2 things per downtime (disciplines, Lores, etc).
b. You may only purchase a maximum of 2 of any category of XP purchases per downtime cycle.For example, you can buy 2 disciplines, and 2 backgrounds in 1 DT, but not 3 disciplines, or 3 attributes, etc.
c. Influences count as backgrounds for this purpose. So you may purchase 2 dots of Occult influence in one downtime, or one dot of contacts and one dot of Occult influence, but not two dots of influence and one dot of contacts in the same downtime.
d. Influence growth may be limited by ST discretion.
5. A Teacher is required for your PC to learn all non-clan disciplines, unusual abilities (anything you couldn’t learn at the gym, night, school, Khan Academy, etc.), all Lores, and anything else the Staff deems necessary.

Earning XP:
1. No XP will be placed upon inactive or shelved characters.
2. Your PC will only earn Org Service XP if you request it each DT session.
3. You cannot earn more than 6 Org Service XP per month, awarded at the end of that month.
4. XP Awards:
o Attendance: 4 per game
o RP: 1 additional per game possible
o Travel XP may be awarded if you travel to a game more than 4 hours by car from the SF Bay Area
o Journal or heavy downtime activity: 1 per downtime cycle
o Game Service: If you do something like assist with sign in, set up for Kublacon reliably, etc., you can earn 1 additional for doing so, or perhaps even a retest card.
o KUBLACON or other special event XP: Automatic 8
o Coord: 6 XP a month
o Sub-Coord: 6 XP a month
o PCs of players who are STs of another game, based in WtD: 6 XP a month
5. No Character may earn more than 8 XP per month per OWBN bylaws

Travelling:
1. If you are visiting WtD - Character sheets must be sent to us no later than 7pm Thursday night before the game you wish to attend. If we don't receive your sheet you must have a current (unaltered: no pen/pencil additions) sheet signed off by your storyboard on your person when you visit game.
2. Without a sheet in advance, custom powers may be redlined.
3. Overpowered sheet elements or items in general may be removed to preserve game balance in WtD
4. If you are going TO another Chronicle, please request you sheet to be sent no later than Wednesday at 7:00 pm the week you wish to visit the other game.

Transferring Home Chronicles for your PC:
1. In order to transfer any PC’s housed in our chronicle you must notify both our board and the board you wish to transfer the PC(s) to in writing via email. BOTH boards must agree to the transfer.
2. Either board has a right to refuse the transfer for any reason.
3. NO transfer of a PC will be approved if the PC is in contention.

Active/Inactive/Shelved/Retired PC Status:

1. Active: An Active PC is one that does not fit the definition of Shelved, Inactive or Retired.
2. Shelved: Your PC is considered to be shelved if you report to us you intend to shelve. Once it is “on the shelf”. Your character is effectively paused. You cannot communicate IC, either in scenes or online, in any way.
3. Inactive: Your PC will be designated as Inactive if you do not attend game for 3 months and is not in contention. Inactive PCs will be treated in a similar manner to Shelved PCs.
4. LIST PC: You may arrange, with the staff, to run your PC over the lists should things such as LIFE get in the way of coming to game. We must have written notice of why you need to run a list pc, and your approximation of when you can return to game. Your PC is subject to any and all downtime attacks, haven hunting, etc as any other active PC is. The same goes for ‘Con PCs’. Once you attend a game outside of WtD, you must attend a WtD game in order to maintain active status.
5. Retired: Sometimes playing a PC loses its fun. You may retire your PC at any time, for any reason, and in any state of play. The PC will become an NPC of WTD. At that point, make a new PC, and enjoy! The ST board has the right to run your PC in order to finish any plotline you have created. You may not argue with the ST staff on how your Retired PC is played.
6. Multiple Characters: You may only play one character per genre actively at one time in WtD (A Giovanni, Independent/Anarch, Kuei Jin or Camarilla character). If one of your PCs is in contention, you MUST play that PC until the contention is resolved or 3 months pass.

Body and Item Cards:
Item Cards:
1. Unless noted on the card and signed by the ST staff, all items will use stats from the Dark Epics item rules.
2. All item cards used must be presented when in use. Players or storytellers in a scene have a right to ask to see the card.
3. All item cards must be signed and Stamped (if available)by an WtD storyteller before they can be used.
4. Item cards that are found on a table, the street, etc become the property of the finder, as if they had found the actual object lying about. The item card is only considered found if the player/PC dropped it, or if it was taken off a torpored or ashed victim. Players removing cards from a jacket, purse, car, someone’s house etc will likely be subject to GNC and a game strike at the discretion of the ST staff.
5. It is good form to ask an ST before simply keeping unattended item cards.
6. Item cards are not required for minor items, such as $20 cash, a Swiss Army Knife, or basically anything you can buy at a 7-11.
7. As stated previously, item cards checked into WTD can be confiscated, transferred to another PC or destroyed by an ST. Just because you wrote an item card or created it, you may not claim it’s your personal property to prevent an ST from taking it.

Body Cards:
1. If a character leaves their "real" body (i.e. possession suit, psychic projection, etc.) then a card stating where the body is must be given to the Storytellers before entering play.
2. Players "real" bodies must at all times be within the boundaries of the WtD chronicle.
3. If a Body Card is not turned in to an ST it will be assumed that character is in their real body.
4. When using Possession or Subsume the Spirit a card for the Ghoul/Animal used must be on the player at all times.
5. Any Staked or Torpored bodies must be represented by Body Cards signed off by WtD Storytellers.
6. Bodies brought into WtD from out of town must also be cleared by the WtD Staff.
7. To prevent possible problems, an ST must be present in any scene where a character is staked or otherwise made into a Body Card.
8. If there is not an ST signature on a Body Card for a scene, it is redlined.

LOST BODY CARDS, IC PROPS, ETC.:
1. Your character sheet is not an item card; it merely represents what your PC has within their own person, and as such, if you lose your “soul” (IE: drop your character sheet), it cannot be used against you. If you find someone else’s sheet, you are required to turn it in to our board or the player it belongs to. If it is found in your possession, and has not been turned in right away, disciplinary actions may ensue.
2. IC Props: If you find someone’s prop lying about, you can bring it to the ST board, and we will write an item card for it, so your PC has it. Then we will inform the owner that the item is no longer in their possession but WILL be giving the physical prop back to them. They cannot use that prop unless they either make /find/buy a new one IC, or they get their toy back IC. Props cannot, in any way, take the appearance of anything that could be mistaken for a weapon.

Backgrounds, Influences, Havens, and Mentors:
Havens:
Your overall security is a combination of your resource level and the level of the background Haven. If you have not submitted where your haven is located, you are considered to be living in the Van under the Freeway. Haven defenses can either be specific or generic, depending on how much of a write up you send in. The level of resources expended for each haven determines how safe you are. We encourage being creative. (We do have the right to refuse a Haven that we feel is meant only to kill other PC’s.) You are considered to be at your own haven by dawn each evening unless you submit to our board a notice telling us where your PC is staying. The notice must be submitted, either in writing at the end of the game, or in writing online. Maintaining a Haven in another Chronicle is not allowed at this time. If you want to have someone stay in your haven, they must submit to our board and their board (if applicable) that they are doing so. They are subject to the mercies of your haven’s securities, and are considered to be at our mercy if they are staying at a location controlled by our Board.
Haven Hunting IS allowed:

If you wish to Haven Hunt, you must send a detailed description of what you are doing, what resources you are using, and run the chops during game or via e-mail. Your success will vary depending on the various factors involved. Retired PC’s who are in our control can still be found and hunted. Hunting PC’s who are shelved will not work. You may choose to hunt NPCs at your own risk. Haven Hunting in other domains is subject to the House Rules and the ST board of the domain in question; we have zero control over that situation.

Influence caps at your total number of traits plus the number of human or ghoul retainers you have. Since each retainer can have a rating from 1-5 (q.v) you do not add their rating to your influence cap. Retainers do not need to be dedicated solely to managing influence, they can be available for other tasks.

Mentor:
Mentor points are built through RP. Mentors are Elders or those with Elder level Knowledge or power. You can have a mentor in our game, or any other game, as long as that chronicle is willing to run them. We have the right to veto anything the mentor teaches/gives you if we feel it is not realistic for your PC to have convinced said elder to do. There is no timetable for building mentors, it is all IC. You may request that the mentor level go “up a notch” if you have been RPing favorably with the NPC. You can lose mentor points by acting like a rube. The powers and limitations of mentors are at the whim of the ST staff. Mentors will not act as bodyguards for PCs under any circumstances. They are characters with their own agendas that may not align conveniently with their protégés.

Retainers:
You may have up to 5 total retainers. Each one may be up to 5 points. Stats for these will be done on a case by case basis. If you wish your retainers to have influence of their own/ increase your total influence cap, here’s the formula. Each retainer (that is not an animal, wraith, or anything other than a person) increases your PCs influence cap by 1 point as per 105 of Laws of the Night. Retainers may not use backgrounds themselves.

Abilities: Standard, Performance/Crafts, Languages:
Ability types:
Standard abilities found in Grapevine, WITHOUT being added as a custom addition, can be purchased at the normal rate, as described in the Downtime Actions section. You may specialize in almost anything with valid IC reasons, and must assign them to an appropriate ability. IE: Your PC is a doctor. You would take Medicine with specializations possible in fields such as Surgery, Neurology, or Obstetrics. Specializations: Specializations may be in a specific level of a discipline, but not the entire discipline. So you may have Animal Ken spec: Quell the Beast, but not Animal Ken spec: Animalism. You must have Level 3 in the ability before you can attach a specialization to it. All abilities will be held to what is common sense for a PC to be able to learn in a certain time frame

Languages:
You may pick one native language at creation. You do not need the language ability for
it. Any additional language needs a teacher and you must spend the points for it if
needed.
Rules for Languages as contained in Kindred of the East, which are as follows:
1 level - 1 additional
2 levels - 2 additional
3 levels - 4 additional
4 levels - 8 additional
5 levels - 16 additional
Someone with Linguistics level 5 would know a total of 17 languages. Someone with the “Natural Linguist” Merit, doubles the number of languages spent.

Lore Rules:
OWBN Packets: OWBN Packets act as the standard for lore knowledge IF they include lores in specific. Any other information a lore contains is up to the STs

Gaining Lore after Character Creation:
• Lores from level 1-3 require a teacher. STs may allow lores at this level to be learned from libraries, but mainly you’ll need a teacher.
• For levels 4 and 5, you need as many teachers with that level of lore to learn it. For example, to increase kindred lore 3 to 4, you need 4 teachers with kindred lore 4. You may use Occult Library at level 4 or 5 respectively as a teacher. You may use an appropriate influence action (Occult, University, etc) to count as a teacher. You must have at least one PC teacher among the others.

General Rules Clarifications:
1. Trait Cap: Characters may bid double the generation maximum for their original generation. (28 for an 8th gen PC). Potency of Blood cannot improve this.
2. Generally speaking, abilities, backgrounds, merits and some specific things that only appear in 1 Clan’s genre material, will only be available to the Clan. So for example, only Nosferatu may have the merit False Reflection.
3. The damage cap from PC to PC is 6. Against NPCs it is 7. NPCs are not bound by a damage cap.
4. 2-gun Mojo: A combination of the Ambidextrous Merit and the ability specialty to wield two weapons does NOT grant an extra action per turn. Instead, you just get an extra trait when fighting this way, the same as any other specialty.

Discipline Clarifications:
1. In order to teach a combo power a PC must have at least one of the disciplines of the power in clan.
2. No power that gives ties against another power works on disciplines above its level, or the highest level in the case of combination disciplines. For example, Iron Heart is not effective against powers above level 3 and Path of Mars level 1 is not effective against powers above level 1. Characters with Puissance do not get ties against characters with Potence or Celerity 6.
3. Auspex vs Obfuscate: Page 108 of Laws of the Night says that ‘you cannot use Willpower to see through Obfuscate.’ Page 137 says the opposite. Page 161 says ‘hidden individuals cannot use Willpower to defend against Auspex challenges to Obfuscate.’ Here’s how it works in Wasting the Dawn: Willpower may be used by the defender as a retest in any mental or social challenge. So if someone initiates a mental challenge to use their Auspex to break through someone else’s Obfuscate, the defender (the one using Obfuscate) can retest with Willpower. If someone initiates a mental challenge using Obfuscate level 4 to disappear, anyone in the vicinity who is trying to keep track of them is the defender in the challenge, and can retest with Willpower as normal. In other words, the defender may always use Willpower to retest a mental or social challenge.
4. For touch powers, a physical challenge is needed for most things beyond a willing handshake.
5. Powers cannot cross “Levels of Reality” unless they specifically say they can. Meaning that if you are in the ‘physical world’ you cannot entrance someone in the Umbra, even if you can somehow see them. If you are in the Shadowlands you cannot use telepathy to read the mind of someone in the Skinlands even if you can see them. You can use torment (for example) to initiate physical challenges into the Shadowlands, since the power specifically says it can do this.
6. Sympathetic Links: A sympathetic link is any item belonging to a person (a physical object like a precious religious talisman from your Sire, or a body part like hair, blood, skin, etc.) that can be used to empower a supernatural ability like Scry or Path of Curses. All sympathetic links are good for 1 use only, after which they lose their ‘metaphysical significance.’
7. Benefits from form powers do not stack. A character cannot activate two form powers at once. If a character activates a form power while one is already activated, they must choose which remains active.

Animalism:

1. Feral Whispers: You can only communicate with animals. Two kindred cannot speak to each other using Feral Whispers unless one or the other of them are in the form of an animal or using Subsume the Spirit.
2. Quell the Beast: This lasts for the remainder of the scene, not the entire night. Permanent Willpower points may still be spent while Quelled.
3. Subsume the Spirit: See Body Card rules! You may expend 3 mental traits to have access to Obfuscate while using Subsume the Spirit.
4. Animalism 5: victims of this power are thrust into frenzy as if they’d just failed a virtue test. They may not burn will to avoid the frenzy trigger for 10 minutes. However, the victim does treat the frenzy as their own with respect to spending will to control actions for a round.

Auspex:
1. Aura Perception: Reading someone’s Aura is a static challenge. It allows you to read another’s aura, but that alone is not directly a lie detector. Your PC needs to be experienced enough with the target’s aura in order to see the differences between a normal aura and a “lying” one. Abilities such as empathy, investigation, and psychology will aid in determining if someone’s aura indicates they are actually lying.
2. Spirits Touch: Is run per the book. You may also gain a temporary derangement if the ST feels it's warranted.
3. Telepathy: People don't remember every little thing they ever see. Sometimes a deep probe simply cannot get you the information you want. Sometimes you need to give a verbal command to get the information to bubble up. You can't deep probe for "things you don't want me to know" without actually asking the person to make them think of it. You CAN, however, probe for "What did you do last Tuesday?" or "Did you kill Mr. X?" without anyone knowing you're in their head, as long as it is the subject of conversation. When in doubt, involve an ST.
4. Psychic Projection: You may not spend blood while in Astral Form. You may attempt to track someone’s body using their silver cord; an ST will determine the difficulty. You can also attack their silver cord, but doing so instantly notifies them of the attack as well as the location. You may only use powers in Astral which do not require blood. You must manifest to use any power which requires being seen. Manifesting requires 1 willpower per round.

Chimerstry

1. All rules applying to Auspex vs. Obfuscate apply to Auspex v. Chimerstry tests.
2. There are no passive uses of Chimerstry. If you wish an illusion to affect multiple people, you must challenge each of them.
3. Horrid Reality: The Chimerstry user does not necessarily know details about the victim. These details could render the illusion ineffective. For example, if a victim has had a heart removed via Serpentis and the illusion is to stake them, the illusion will fail. If a victim of the staking illusion burns Aegis after losing the challenge, the illusion of staking them will fail as it will not be believable. If the Chimerstry user is crafty, they can get around this at the discretion of the ST. Characters incapacitated by Chimerstry may make an Auspex challenge to disbelieve the illusion if Heightened Senses was active at the time the victim fell under the effect of the illusion and IF they have a reason to disbelieve the illusion.

Celerity:

1. Alacrity: Alacrity grants you one action which does not require a chop, such as drawing a weapon, taking 3 steps, or pointing. It cannot be used to completely cancel an aggressive action toward the user.
2. Fleetness: 5 can be used while shooting a gun, in addition to dodging gun fire.
3. When Celerity is active, the user may bid a dexterity related physical trait in defense to dodge, and gain the benefit of Celerity powers.

Dementation:
1. Total insanity: Run per Laws of the Night, PG: 146, with this modification:
2. This power lasts an hour, not the remainder of the evening. If you have more active derangements than your temporary willpower traits, you lapse into a non-functional, psychotic state wherein you can only take defensive actions. Other effects may occur at ST discretion.

Dominate:
1. Any uses of dominate level 2 and up require a storyteller. It's generally a good idea to get a story-teller for any complex Dominate work so we can verify its legitimacy and that it is properly worded.
2. Forgetful Mind cannot "scan for memory alterations" but users can make a static challenge against the Dominator’s traits to tell if a specific memory is false. When using Forgetful Mind, the subject is in a hypnotized state and recounts memories verbally. If used with Telepathy, the subject will not recount memories vocally.
3. You may expend 3 mental traits to have access to Obfuscate while using Possession.

Fortitude:
1. Endurance: Allows you to ignore ALL wound penalties
2. Resilience/Resistance: If you have Aegis, you win ties in the challenges to test down.
3. Aegis: Even if you have exhausted your temporary Willpower Traits, you can still power Aegis. Likewise, if challenges have reduced your available temporary Physical Traits below three, you can still expend permanent Physical Traits to power Aegis normally. Quell the Beast does not stop the ability to expend permanent willpower to activate Aegis. You must declare the use of Aegis before the “placement” throws in order to avoid being staked.

Obfuscate :
1. Celerity breaks obfuscate at levels over 1 (Alacrity). Celerity is a physical interaction with your environment. Add the highest level of Obfuscate you possess to your traits in tests using or defending your Obfuscate. Conversely, Auspex level is added to the traits of defenders or those attempting to break your use of Obfuscate. Obfuscate levels are added to your traits even if the opposition does not have Auspex.
2. Mask of 1,000 Faces: This power does not alter clothing, nor can it hide wounds. If you have recently had your head set on fire, you'll be an ambiguous person with a burnt face.

Obtenebration:
1. Unless otherwise specified in the individual power description, all uses of Obtenebration require actual shadows of at least somewhat commensurate size in order to generate the desired effect. (Each Arm of the Abyss requires at least a roughly child-sized area of shadow to spring from, just to get the ball rolling.) Shadows must be genuine cast shadows, not just areas of “less light” — an area must be well and truly dark in order to be a candidate for use/manipulation with this Discipline. Thus players should bear in mind that in order to summon a truly impressive number of tentacles or other effects from this Discipline, they may have to first extinguish some existing light sources and/or supernaturally shift and stretch local shadows to their liking beforehand. Obtenebration resonates within the Shadowlands as a manifestation of the thing all wraiths fear the most. They will avoid it at all costs. Spectres, on the other hand, love Obtenebration. Obten may be visible in other planes at ST discretion.
2. Shroud of Night: This power blocks line of sight. Targets within can only be identified if they make a noise as loud as a gunshot or if they attack you within melee distance. Heightened Senses and Eyes of the Beast will not allow the identification of targets.
3. Arms of the Abyss: You may only summon a number of Arms equal to the number of levels of Obtenebration you possess.
4. Black Metamorphosis/Tenebrous Form: If you have levels of Abyss Lore, you may alter the outward appearance of your Black Met. This will have no affect on the mechanics of the power, but will allow customization for aesthetics benefit.

Potence:
1. There is no hitting for distance in Wasting the Dawn.
2. Potence may not be used to jump like a superhero.
3. A character with potence is strong enough to lift 200 lbs per level of Potence.
4. A character with potence may break sturdy items of a crafts rating BELOW their potence rating. Ex: Someone with Puissance could break down a crafts 4 iron door, but not crafts 5.
5. Prowess: All Physical traits can be returned by using Prowess. Prowess is usable once per night as normal.
6. Might is only the last retest in the challenge for the player who bids it. Opponents are not restricted on retests thrown.
7. Vigor: You don’t have to declare the bomb.
8. Puissance: You break most normal weapons. A melee or thrown weapon must have a crafts 5 rating to insure you do not break it.

Protean:
1. Feral Claws: Feral claws adds the physical trait: sharp to the character’s traits. This means that the trait adds to the total in any physical challenge, not just challenges where the claws are being used.
2. Shape of the Beast: Any beast form has to be thematically appropriate to Vampire the Masquerade. For visiting PCs, forms will be changed to Wolf and Bat if the ST decides that a character’s form powers are not thematically appropriate. We will otherwise use the rules in the Gangrel Clan book for this discipline.
3. Mist Form: Read Laws of the Night to see to what kind of attacks a kindred using this discipline is vulnerable.

Presence:
1. Awe cannot be used as a retest for Summon unless you have line of sight. You must be within Line of Sight of your target to use Awe. Awe cannot cancel Awe.
2. Summoning: You CAN summon to a Boot party in WtD. Once you see the summoner, if you know IC they are hostile, you can try and run. If you are being summoned, it is considered cheating to indicate in any way that you are going somewhere against your will. However, asking someone to walk with you to finish a conversation is legit if you were summoned mid-topic. You may not Summon someone while Obfuscated. If you Summon someone then activate Obfuscate, the Summon ends. You will not leave active combat if summoned. The summoning will take effect once you are able to leave relatively safely. You may expend a willpower to postpone responding to a summon for 10 minutes.
3. Majesty: The person breaking majesty is considered the defender. There is no obvious boundary for Majesty. Majesty’s power over you depends on whether you are focused on the Majestic person or not. If you are in the immediate vicinity, and able to see and hear the target, you are affected. If you are in a corner of a room and not paying attention to the hullabaloo in the center, you are not affected. If you look at a target through a sniper scope, you have brought yourself within the influence of the target’s Majesty and are affected by it. However if you aim at a target a long distance away that you can’t even see, and fire a catapult (or howitzer if you have the item card) at it, you are not affected by that Majesty.

Quietus:
1. Only Quietus in Laws of the Night is used by PCs in Wasting the Dawn.
2. Silence of Death: This discipline does not prevent Blood Magic users from using Blood Magic. The sphere of silence created by this power dampens all noise within it. You cannot use it to have a conversation with someone unheard.
3. Scorpions Touch and Baal’s Caress: Coated weapons are limited to their bonus traits. Per the Laws of the Night, Pg 171, you can coat nothing smaller than a dagger. You cannot coat bullets. Example: A +2 trait weapon can hold two levels of Scorpion's touch OR 1 Scorpion's Touch and 1 Baal's Caress. Each coat requires a blood point. Remember that a weapon with a kindred ward CANNOT be coated with Quietus blood unless the kindred coating it is immune to the ward. Otherwise the blood just burns off.
4. Scorpion's Touch: Traits lost to Scorpion's touch are cumulative but can be refreshed with willpower or Prowess. Blood traits cannot be lost permanently due to Scorpion's Touch, but physical traits gained with blood can be removed.

Thaumaturgy:
1. All Thaumaturgy powers require the expenditure of blood unless otherwise noted in the power description.
2. The rule of three will be used in most cases where traits must be spent to fuel the power. Path of Transmutation is a notable exception. Others may occur and the ST has the final say.
3. Thaumaturgy: Path of Transmutation: Gaol requires a mental v. Physical challenge against a sentient target. Mental traits that fuel the power are spent only on a successful challenge.
4. We reserve the right to alter any paths and rituals we feel are unbalanced, even if we don't list them all here.
5. You may cast up to your Occult level in personal rituals at the start of game. These rituals may not be offensive in nature. There is no test for these rituals.
6. Basic rituals take 10 minutes, Intermediate take 20 minutes, and advanced take 30 min.
7. Thaumaturgy actions occur on initiative as normal.
8. Blood beads/stones created by Principle Focus: In combat, these must be individually activated manually at a rate of 1 per round. You must activate them in your mouth, swallowing them ahead of time will not work. See the feeding rules for further information.
9. Methods of mystically storing blood: See the feeding rules for more information.
10. Stone of the True Form: May only be used if you have the ritual on your sheet.
11. Thaumaturgy: Focused Mind - Focused Mind 1 does not provide three additional mental traits for Thaumaturgy. It only applies to logic, investigation, memory or reasoning.
12. Perfect Clarity – This discipline is does not give the user ties in Majesty challenges.
13. Spirit Manipulation: Entrap Ephemera (Fetishes): We reserve the right to veto any fetish we feel is over-powered at any time. All fetishes must be activated with willpower and chops per The Guide to the Camarilla. All fetishes must have a drawback. If a fetish is signed in without one, one will be added per ST discretion. PCs can only carry as many Fetishes as they have dots in Occult. Any item can only have one spirit bound into it.
14. Pavis of the Foul Presence: Only functions on Presence levels 1 through 4. The power simply makes Presence ineffective against the user, it does not reflect the power.
15. Engager the Vessel of Transference: The Vessel can hold 2 blood traits at most.
16. Eyes of the Past: Will only function on the immediate area. If cast in a room/elevator/van/whatever, you will not be able to see out the doors or windows of the room in the past. If done outside a building, you won’t be able to see in the building. If done in a field, you will only be able to see the area around you approximately the size of a large room. In other words, you have to be in the place where you want to look, in order to look back in time there; you can’t examine the past in a location that you are not in. You must be willing to risk entering a place to look into the past there.

Necromancy:
1. Soul Steal: An ST must be present for all uses of this power. The victim of Soul Steal may spend 1 permanent willpower to return to their body at the end of the round. Quell the Beast cannot prevent this expenditure.
2. The victim of a Soul Seal does not become a true wraith, they cannot be affected by further necromancy, but they can be affected by wraiths per ST discretion.
3. If someone using any form of possession is affected by Soul Steal, the current, dominant soul of the possessor, not the possessed, is removed
4. Ash Path; Ex Nihilo: The door must be drawn on a wall or other vertical surface. It cannot be drawn on clothing or life forms. The drawing of the door is a part of the activation of the power; this power cannot be activated without drawing it. The door cannot be drawn ahead of time. Only the user of the power may step through the door.

Combination Powers

Alpha Glint – This is a social challenge on the part of the Alpha Glint user against anyone who is their aggressor. Use of Alpha Glint is reflexive and does not take up the users other actions (everyman, celerity, etc). This power can only be attempted once per aggressive character per scene.

Banned Powers
The following disciplines are not usable in Wasting the Dawn:
1. Inspire Greatness and Greater Inspire Greatness
2. Dur An Ki: Ex Infernis
3. Thaumaturgy: Binding the Abyss
4. Custom powers that prevent other powers from being used with the exception of Water in the Rock.
5. Luciferian Charm – the infernal investment

Wasting the Dawn characters may have these powers on their sheets to use in other games. They may not use them in the Wasting the Dawn game

Out of genre:
Merits, abilities, flaws or powers associated with creature types that are NOT kindred
will not be allowed for Kindred. If it’s not from a Kindred book, you can’t have it on a
Kindred sheet. In particular that means no merits from non-Kindred books. If you are a
Kindred, you are Kindred, not Kuei-Jin, Fae, Demon, or Garou. If you are a Kuei-jin, you
are a Kuei-jin, not a Kindred, Fae, Demon, or Garou. You are a banality engine to the Fae and a wyrm fountain to Garou. Even if you have humanity 5, they still dislike you, but they might do the courtesy of just avoiding you instead of killing you. You cannot
activate any item or power that requires Quiescence, Rage, Pathos, Glamour, etc. Retainers, supernatural allies or spirits may allow some cross genre powers at ST discretion, but can be dangerous to use.

Custom Content:
The staff reserves the right to restrict or disallow any player created stuff/any custom
content. That includes player created combo powers, fetishes, thaumaturgical paths, or
anything else not directly in a Mind’s Eye Theater book or OWbN packet. With regards
to what the staff will or will not allow, custom content that gives bonus traits, retests,
increases damage, mimics something that already exists somewhere else, or gives
increased offensive capability to a PC, it is not likely to be approved.

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Wasting the Dawn Feeding and Territory Rules

Vitae is a commodity among kindred, and its scarcity is a source of personal horror. Kindred short on vitae risk giving control over to their Beasts through Frenzy. This mechanic is meant to insure that blood tracking and management is an integral part of the game, and that the politics around who controls the sources of vitae are hotly contested.

All feeding in non-combat scenes will use these mechanics. Seek an ST to consume vitae during game. During combat scenes, ST’s have the discretion to allow feeding and consequences - such as draining too much.

The Basics

Assigning Feeding Territories:

• Prince assigns Territories to Owners for Camarilla
• Primogen Council may overrule the Prince per normal status rules.
• Prince is not necessarily Owner of all Territories in city
• Anarch Territories have no Owners
• Kuei Jin don’t necessarily use blood, but blood resources are still used when KJ feed. Therefore, they use this mechanic and gain 1 Chi per Blood drawn. KJ choose if they’re feeding on blood or other energies as per their requirements.

The Territory:

• Each Territory has a trait rating. Owner may draw or allow people to draw that much blood per game night from a Territory without test or penalty.
• Continuing to consume more blood beyond the trait rating is risky (see Draining)

Starting Blood:

• Kindred start with 3 blood each, adjusted for merits/flaws/morality
• At Check-in, each kindred can feed from one territory.
• If the kindred is an Owner or has permission from an Owner, there is no chop. Take as many as you want up to the trait limit.
• If the kindred is not an Owner or doesn’t have permission from the owner, see Poaching
• Continuing to consume more blood beyond the trait rating is risky (see Draining)
• No virtue chop is needed to feed during check-in.
• Visitors may opt to feed in a Territory or start with 5 blood.
• Visitors from ACE or Shadows Crossing may opt to feed in a territory or start with 7 blood

Feeding In a Territory During Game:

• Choose a Territory and find a narrator. Current Territory Trait level is always known to the feeding Kindred.
• If Territory Owner approves, there’s no test.
o Draw as much blood as you want up to the Current Territory trait level.
o Drawing more blood than the Territory level allows follows the rules below (See Draining)
• If Territory Owner does not approve, it’s Poaching (see Poaching)
• Before feeding from a territory again, 15 minutes must have passed.

Poaching:

• If you’re not the Owner or don’t have permission, make challenges to draw up to 3 blood from a territory.
• The first challenge is The Defense Test against Defense Rating (see Defense Rating)
o Defense Challenge is a physical, mental or social challenge against the Defense Rating.
o Challenger retests normal: 1 retest per category (ability, merit, discipline etc.).
o If someone is Patrolling, the Territory may retest or cancel any retest once per challenge. (see Defense Rating)
o If the Poacher loses, the Owner of the Territory identifies the Poacher. ONLY the Alternate ID background will protect the Poacher’s identity.
• If the Defense Challenge is successful, the Poacher can draw up to 3 blood.
o If the Current Trait level of the Territory is exceeded, the rest is considered Draining.
• If the Defense Challenge is failed,
o The Poacher gets no blood from the attempt
o The Territory owner identifies the poacher
o make a simple test.
o On a loss,
 a gaffe happens per ST discretion and the character will be given a chance to detect and/or fix the gaffe.
 No identity is revealed to in the case of a Non-Camarilla Territory.

Defense Rating:

• Defense rating starts at 3 and can be improved in two ways.
o Permanently by spending 3 times the current defense level (over 1 DT per current level) in influences or backgrounds. The cap is 15.
o Temporarily by spending 1 Territory Appropriate influence in the downtime before game. The cap is 5. Temporary traits last only for one game.
• The Territory Owner can patrol
o Only at game and present: the Territory Owner can spend Seneschal or Security
o The owner can designate one or more people to patrol who can spend Seneschal or Security.
o Retainers can patrol, adding 1 retest per dot of Owner’s Retainers background.
o This gives a number of ability retests in Defense Challenges for the Territory.
o Max of 5 retests can be given per Territory per game.
• The Territory owner can designate kindred to help in any of these tests with the normal caps.
• If a Territory gains a new owner, the Permanent Defense level will be reduced by half, all fractions rounded up, to a minumum of 3.
• Non-Camarilla Territories:
o Defense rating is 12 by default
o These territories can be patrolled by anyone.

Draining:

• Feeding in a depleted Territory is called “draining”.
• Feeding without permission from the Owner is Poaching. Run those rules first.
• Each Drain attempt may remove up to 3 blood traits.
• During check in, no additional time out of game is needed for one drain action.
• Make a simple test. If the test is lost, the Trait level of the Territory decreases by 1 until after the following game.
• On a loss, make another simple test. On a loss, a gaffe happens per ST discretion and the character will be given a chance to detect and/or fix the gaffe.

Supplemental Rules

Gaffes

• A feeding Vampire failing a defense challenge or other circumstances results in a gaffe.
• Gaffes require the feeding vampire to go into a scene with a narrator, who will determine what happens.
• Results may be: feeding was witnessed by a mortal, the character fed too much from a mortal, the prey was supernatural, etc.

Feeding Benefits/Detriments:

• Some backgrounds, disciplines, merits, etc. have specific effects on the feeding mechanic.
• Some benefits may allow kindred to feed in game without going to territories.
o Find a narrator.
o Narrator discretion as to whether or not you sit out of game at all. Most feeding doesn’t require you to sit out of game.
• Most effects at the start of game is limited to a single blood trait. Ex: +1 blood at start of game.

Those Kindred not casting rituals:

• Kindred who forgo the casting of rituals may gain 2 extra blood traits.
• This applies even if the kindred in question doesn’t have access to rituals.

Herd:
• May spend herd on one-for-one basis at start of game. This is an exception to the limit.
• You may spend 1 trait of herd during game every 5 min for 1 blood trait. It doesn’t impact any Territory.
• Costs one herd per blood drawn

Health Influence:
• +1 blood at start of game costs 1 health influence trait
• You may spend 1 trait of Health Influence during game every 5 min for 1 blood trait. It doesn’t impact any Territory
• Two Allies Traits can substitute for 1 health influence trait for purposes of feeding
• Costs one Health Influence trait per blood drawn

Toreador Clan Advantage:

• +1 blood at start of game costs 1 crafts/expression/performance ability.
• You may spend 1 trait of crafts/expression/performance ability during game every 5 min for 1 blood trait (Max 5 per game). It doesn’t impact any Territory
• Costs 1 crafts/expression/performance ability.

Animalism Advantage:

• +1 blood at start of game costs 1 social trait
• You may spend 1 social trait for the beckoning ability during game every 5 min for 1 blood trait (Max 5 per game). It doesn’t impact any Territory
• Costs 1 social trait.

Retainers:

• It is assumed that the blood you feed your retainers balances out the blood you may draw from them.
• You may draw blood from each retainer per night every 5 minutes for one blood trait. It doesn’t impact any territory.
o That retainer loses access to disciplines until after the next game.
• A character choosing to continue to feed off of retainers risks killing them. An ST will adjudicate.
• These rules do not apply to PC retainers.

Nosferatu Warren Kennels:
• +1 blood at start of game if you have access to the Warren Kennels as dictated by the Warren Master.
• Warren Kennels have a trait limit. 1 blood can be drawn from them per 10 minutes.
• Costs one herd per blood drawn

Ventrue Clan Flaw:

• Ventrue are down 1 blood at the start of game due to clan disadvantage.
• Ventrue are not impacted when feeding while using the mechanics of this system
• Ventrue gaffes CAN result in a conflict with their feeding restriction.

Willingness to Kill

• At check in a vampire can declare that they’re willing to kill their prey.
• This nets 3 blood traits.
• The ST will impose a morality test (if appropriate) or a gaffe test.

Feeding Merits, Flaws and Morality effects:
• For each point of flaws, the starting 3 blood traits reduce by 1. Cannot reduce this value below 0
o Ex: Deep Sleeper, Prey Exclusion, Grip of the Damned, Selective prey
• For each point of feeding merits, the starting 3 blood traits increase by 1.
o Ex: Light Sleeper, Efficient Digestion, Common Sense
• ST has final call on what defines a feeding flaw or merit.
• A vampire on a path or with Humanity 1: starting blood traits reduced by 1. Cannot Cannot reduce this value below 0.

Blood traits on Item cards
• Each character may check in at MOST 5 blood on item cards each game.
• ST must be present when feeding from item cards.
• The first blood consumed from an item card in a non-combat scene takes no time out of play
• Consuming More blood beyond the first takes 5 minutes each.
o Exception: Principle focus beads may be consumed all at once in non-combat scenes
o Exception: Electing to guzzle the blood all at once splatters the kindred with blood. Cleanup takes 10 min per blood trait consumed.

Increasing Territory Traits
• To Permanently Increase Territory Trait level:
o Spend 10 times the current trait level in background actions (influences, contacts, retainers, etc.)
o Time needed: Max of 1 increase per downtime cycle
• If Territory Permanent Trait level is bought up greater than 10, the Territory splits into two Territories, each with 5. The Associated influence will be chosen by the ST. The investing players are free to request a certain type but it will not always be granted.
• Anyone can spend backgrounds to increase the current trait level in an area, not just the Owner.
• To Temporarily Increase Territory Trait level:
o Spend 3 times the current trait level in Territory Specific background actions (influences, contacts, retainers, etc.) to temporarily increase the trait level by 1 for the next game.

Attacking Territories - Reducing Territory Traits
• Territory traits can be reduced by Draining. (See Draining)
• To Temporarily Reduce Territory Trait level:
o Spend 2 times the current trait level in Background actions (influences, contacts, retainers, etc.) to temporarily reduce the trait level by 1 for the next game.

The Wilds
• The Wilds has no Territory Owner
• Anyone may feed in the wilds once per night per Poaching rules, max 3 blood.
• The Wilds has a permanent Defense Rating of 15.
• Gaffes in the Wilds are more likely to involve other supernatural types

The Barrens
• Anywhere not colored on the feeding map is considered Barrens.
• Feeding in the Barrens requires a scene and almost always triggers a gaffe.
• Areas which are currently Barrens may be converted into Territories with significant influence/background and downtime work.
o Each situation will be handled separately with the STs, who will give requirements and who will resolve actions.

Territory Associated Influence

• The Territory Associated Influence is considered +1 level for the Territory Owner
o If the Territory Owner has the Associated Influence, they may use it at +1 level (even in excess of normal Gen Max)
o If the Territory Owner does not have the Associated Influence, they may use it at level 1
o This bonus may not be used in conjunction with fame.
• Some exceptional territories have two Associated Influences