Storyteller's Option: Chrysalis Mechanics
A version of the optional rule also appears on p. 56 of the Coteries sourcebook. The rule appears here, with some minor alterations, for the sake of convenience.
What if the Storyteller would like to impose this kind of danger on Ordo Dracul characters in her chronicle? As stated, the player simply needs to spend the necessary number of experience points, but if you would like to add the chance of failure to the process, here is a suggested system. Be sure players know beforehand if you wish to employ this system. While the character doesn’t know the rules that affect her in the game world, it’s not fair to spring this chance of failure on a player without warning.
Using this system, paying experience points to increase one’s knowledge of The Coils of the Dragon costs the new dots x 6, not the new dots x 7 as listed in Vampire: The Requiem. When the player wishes to purchase a new Coil of the Dragon, she rolls her character’s Resolve + Occult with the following results (though the Storyteller may choose to make the roll herself, in order to better hide certain bonuses and penalties):
Dramatic Failure: The character’s undead nature attempts to reject any changes she has already made, much like a transplant patient rejecting a new body part. The player must spend one experience point per tier the character already possesses or two dots of Willpower, or these tiers disappear.
Alternately, the character’s Beast escapes her control and infects her mind and soul. This can have any number of different effects. The Beast might taint the character’s Disciplines, forcing her to turn any suggestion into a command (Dominate), making her a permanently seductive predator (Majesty) or crushing anything she touches (Vigor). She might lose control of previously learned Coils of the Dragon, as well. The exact effect depends on which tier the character was attempting to master, as some tiers are better suited to this than others. For example, a character attempting to master Blood of Beasts might lose the ability to feed from animals at all, but only if her Blood Potency is so low that she could otherwise subsist on animal Vitae. A character with a higher Blood Potency, who cannot feed on animal blood, would be unaffected by this limitation, so the Storyteller would do better to inflict the experience point or Willpower dot penalty on the character. On the other hand, any character would be affected by a reversal of the Perspicacious Blood tier — the vampire receives only two Vitae for every three he takes from his subject.
The exact effect depends on which tier the character was attempting to master, as some tiers are better suited to this than others. For example, a character attempting to master Blood of Beasts might lose the ability to feed from animals at all, but only if her Blood Potency is so low that she could otherwise subsist on animal Vitae. A character with a higher Blood Potency, who cannot feed on animal blood, would be unaffected by this limitation, so the Storyteller would do better to inflict the experience point or Willpower dot penalty on the character. On the other hand, any character would be affected by a reversal of the Perspicacious Blood tier — the vampire receives only two Vitae for every three he takes from his subject. Experience points spent to learn this tier are lost.
Failure: The character simply fails to learn the new tier. Experience points spent to learn this tier are lost.
Success: The character learns the new tier without anomaly.
Exceptional Success: The character gains an intuitive understanding of this particular Coil and need not make this roll again when advancing on it. For instance, if the character learns Conquer the Red Fear and the player rolls an exceptional successes, she need not make this roll if the character later attempts to learn Surmounting the Daysleep and/or Sun’s Forgotten Kiss (even if the character attempts to learn them at different times).
+2 | The character is taught by a Mentor (as per the Merit) with at least two more tiers mastered than she has.
+1 | The character is part of a coterie of other Kindred studying The Coils of the Dragon, and at least one of those other characters is trying to increase her own mastery of The Coils of the Dragon at the same time.
+1 | The player has roleplayed the character introspectively or with otherwise noteworthy devotion to the ideal of changing her vampiric form.
— | The character hasn’t been exceptionally diligent in pursuit of the chrysalis, but hasn’t been exceptionally distracted, either.
–1 | The character indulged her Vice at any time in a story in which she earned experience points that would be devoted to learning the new tier. This penalty is cumulative.
–3 | The character has repeatedly acted outside the interests of the chrysalis or has consistently eschewed introspection and mystic devotion. (An example might be a character who earned a lot of experience points overcoming challenges but didn’t bother conducting any Meditation or mystic study.)
–1 to –3 | The character has been given deliberately bad advice about the chrysalis. This penalty can range anywhere from a single die to a –5 modifier, depending on exactly what her saboteur has told her.
This roll occurs in downtime, as per normal experience point expenditures. It is also an abstraction. The character doesn’t suddenly receive a burst of insight that allows him to use The Coils of the Dragon. Rather, the downtime roll represents the character’s study, exploration and any epiphanies during the downtime. See p. 230 of Vampire: The Requiem for more information on spending experience points.
This problem is exacerbated among coteries, particularly practical ones, because each individual Dragon is surrounded by others who can accomplish the same things. Elders warn their students against this kind of recklessness, sometimes applying punishments of sunlight, fire or forced frenzy or starvation, just to remind the Kindred of the power that the Dragons truly wield.
What if the Storyteller would like to impose this kind of danger on Ordo Dracul characters in her chronicle? As stated, the player simply needs to spend the necessary number of experience points, but if you would like to add the chance of failure to the process, here is a suggested system. Be sure players know beforehand if you wish to employ this system. While the character doesn’t know the rules that affect her in the game world, it’s not fair to spring this chance of failure on a player without warning.
Using this system, paying experience points to increase one’s knowledge of The Coils of the Dragon costs the new dots x 6, not the new dots x 7 as listed in Vampire: The Requiem. When the player wishes to purchase a new Coil of the Dragon, she rolls her character’s Resolve + Occult with the following results (though the Storyteller may choose to make the roll herself, in order to better hide certain bonuses and penalties):
Dramatic Failure: The character’s undead nature attempts to reject any changes she has already made, much like a transplant patient rejecting a new body part. The player must spend one experience point per tier the character already possesses or two dots of Willpower, or these tiers disappear.
Alternately, the character’s Beast escapes her control and infects her mind and soul. This can have any number of different effects. The Beast might taint the character’s Disciplines, forcing her to turn any suggestion into a command (Dominate), making her a permanently seductive predator (Majesty) or crushing anything she touches (Vigor). She might lose control of previously learned Coils of the Dragon, as well. The exact effect depends on which tier the character was attempting to master, as some tiers are better suited to this than others. For example, a character attempting to master Blood of Beasts might lose the ability to feed from animals at all, but only if her Blood Potency is so low that she could otherwise subsist on animal Vitae. A character with a higher Blood Potency, who cannot feed on animal blood, would be unaffected by this limitation, so the Storyteller would do better to inflict the experience point or Willpower dot penalty on the character. On the other hand, any character would be affected by a reversal of the Perspicacious Blood tier — the vampire receives only two Vitae for every three he takes from his subject.
The exact effect depends on which tier the character was attempting to master, as some tiers are better suited to this than others. For example, a character attempting to master Blood of Beasts might lose the ability to feed from animals at all, but only if her Blood Potency is so low that she could otherwise subsist on animal Vitae. A character with a higher Blood Potency, who cannot feed on animal blood, would be unaffected by this limitation, so the Storyteller would do better to inflict the experience point or Willpower dot penalty on the character. On the other hand, any character would be affected by a reversal of the Perspicacious Blood tier — the vampire receives only two Vitae for every three he takes from his subject. Experience points spent to learn this tier are lost.
Failure: The character simply fails to learn the new tier. Experience points spent to learn this tier are lost.
Success: The character learns the new tier without anomaly.
Exceptional Success: The character gains an intuitive understanding of this particular Coil and need not make this roll again when advancing on it. For instance, if the character learns Conquer the Red Fear and the player rolls an exceptional successes, she need not make this roll if the character later attempts to learn Surmounting the Daysleep and/or Sun’s Forgotten Kiss (even if the character attempts to learn them at different times).
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier | Situation+2 | The character is taught by a Mentor (as per the Merit) with at least two more tiers mastered than she has.
+1 | The character is part of a coterie of other Kindred studying The Coils of the Dragon, and at least one of those other characters is trying to increase her own mastery of The Coils of the Dragon at the same time.
+1 | The player has roleplayed the character introspectively or with otherwise noteworthy devotion to the ideal of changing her vampiric form.
— | The character hasn’t been exceptionally diligent in pursuit of the chrysalis, but hasn’t been exceptionally distracted, either.
–1 | The character indulged her Vice at any time in a story in which she earned experience points that would be devoted to learning the new tier. This penalty is cumulative.
–3 | The character has repeatedly acted outside the interests of the chrysalis or has consistently eschewed introspection and mystic devotion. (An example might be a character who earned a lot of experience points overcoming challenges but didn’t bother conducting any Meditation or mystic study.)
–1 to –3 | The character has been given deliberately bad advice about the chrysalis. This penalty can range anywhere from a single die to a –5 modifier, depending on exactly what her saboteur has told her.
This roll occurs in downtime, as per normal experience point expenditures. It is also an abstraction. The character doesn’t suddenly receive a burst of insight that allows him to use The Coils of the Dragon. Rather, the downtime roll represents the character’s study, exploration and any epiphanies during the downtime. See p. 230 of Vampire: The Requiem for more information on spending experience points.
This problem is exacerbated among coteries, particularly practical ones, because each individual Dragon is surrounded by others who can accomplish the same things. Elders warn their students against this kind of recklessness, sometimes applying punishments of sunlight, fire or forced frenzy or starvation, just to remind the Kindred of the power that the Dragons truly wield.