Humanity is directly related to Morality, the mortal trait which describes a person's relationship to good and evil. For a Vampire the issue is not so much one of mere good and evil, but how closely they can retain a link to the morality that once defined their mortal life, their former humanity. The less a Vampire can remember of the moral restraints associated with her mortal existence, the more likely she will succumb to her Beast. As with Morality, Humanity is rated on a scale of one to ten, with one being the most bestial and ten be the most saintly (a state that is probably not attainable by a vampire, short of some versions of Golconda).
Relating to Mortals
The more human a vampire feels, the more human he can act. Every second, mortals send and receive tiny cues that they pay attention to each other, that they care and respond — that they’re alive. They look at each other’s faces, mimic each other’s flickers of expression, shift their weight when another person does so, nod slightly as another person talks. The Man does all that, the Beast doesn’t. A Kindred with low Humanity can put great effort into acting like a living person. He can force himself to breathe and remind himself to blink now and then… but he can’t fake that subtle, unconscious dance of nonverbal interaction. Mortals soon pick up on this. They cannot consciously spot the problem, but their instincts tell them that something is very wrong and they should get away. They sense the predator behind the human mask.
- As the Man weakens, the Kindred tend to look paler and more corpselike.
- When a Kindred interacts with people other than vampires, a player may use no more dice in Empathy, Persuasion or Socialize pools than his character has Humanity dots.
- This limitation does not apply to Discipline powers.
- If a situation imposes penalties on a dice pool, assess the penalties after the Humanity limit is applied.
- Bonuses cannot raise a player’s dice pool over his character’s Humanity limit. Note: Willpower can be spent, but any dice over the Humanity limit are not rolled.
| Humanity
| Empathy, Persuasion or Socialize Cap
| Threshold Sin
| Degeneration Pool
| Base Torpor
| Counterfeiting Life
|
| 10
| 10
| Selfish thoughts Roll 5 dice (e.g., hurting someone’s feelings)
| 5 dice
| One day
| Pass for mortal almost without effort.
|
| 9
| 9
| Minor selfish acts Roll 5 dice (e.g., cheating on taxes)
| 5 dice
| Two days
| Pass for mortal almost without effort.
|
| 8
| 8
| Injury to another, accidental or otherwise (e.g., physical conflict)
| 4 dice
| Three days
| Pass for mortal almost without effort.
|
| 7
| 7
| Petty theft (e.g., shoplifting)
| 4 dice
| One week
| Easily pass for mortal
|
| 6
| 6
| Grand theft (e.g., burglary)
| 3 dice
| Two weeks
| Easily pass for mortal
|
| 5
| 5
| Intentional mass-property damage (e.g., arson)
| 3 dice
| One month
| Starts to show the eerie unpleasantness that puts mortals on their guard.
|
| 4
| 4
| Impassioned crime (e.g., manslaughter)
| 3 dice
| One year
| Distinctly corpselike appearance, though makeup can compensate.
|
| 3
| 3
| Planned crime (e.g., murder)
| 2 dice
| One decade
| No amount of dissembling can help such a character pass for human for long.
|
| 2
| 2
| Casual/callous crime (e.g., torture, serial murder)
| 2 dice
| Five decades
| No amount of dissembling can help such a character pass for human for long.
|
| 1
| 1
| Utter perversion, heinous acts (e.g., combined rape, torture and murder; mass murder)
| 2 dice
| One millenium
| Mortals instantly recognize the Kindred as a monster whom they should flee.
|
