Humanity 10
Humans with this score are rare, and the vampires who have achieved it even more so. At this level, mortals and Kindred alike lead a saintly, veritably ascetic life, tightly controlled by ethics and principles supporting this fragile condition. The merest selfish deed or thought is enough to topple this state of grace.
Humanity 10 vampires can appear human in other regards:
- Blush of Life is not necessary, because you appear as a pale mortal in good health.
- You heal Superficial damage as a mortal, in addition to vampiric mending.
- You can taste, eat, and digest food as if human.
- You can stay awake during the day as if human, though you do not lose your normal need for sleep.
- The rate of sunlight damage you take is halved.
Humanity 9
Kindred with Humanity scores this high act more humane than most humans. They seem natural among them; they can think and act the way mortals do, in the same unconscious way an expert method actor would. Killing feels horrible, almost as gut-wrenchingly so as the Hunger in full cry. Many fledgling vampires sometimes adhere to codes more rigorous than they ever held in life, as a reaction against becoming a predator. Older Kindred scoff at this practice, out of callous disdain or to muffle their own regrets.
Humanity 9 vampires can appear human in other regards:
- Blush of Life is not necessary because you appear ill, but not dead.
- You heal Superficial damage as a mortal, in addition to vampiric mending.
- You can taste, eat, and digest rare or raw meat, and many liquids.
- You can rise from day-sleep up to an hour before sunset if you wish and likewise stay awake an hour after dawn.
Humanity 8
You still feel pain for the hurts you and your kind inflict. Your human guise remains passable; the memories remain fresh, or new instincts for community spring up like green shoots from your long-dead soul.
Humanity 8 vampires can appear human in other regards:
- You can roll two dice for the Rouse Check to use Blush of Life and take the highest result.
- Blush of Life allows you to have sexual intercourse and perhaps even enjoy it.
- Blush of Life allows you to digest and taste wine.
- You can rise from day-sleep up to an hour before sunset if you wish.
Humanity 7
Most human beings have Humanity scores of 7 or so; vampires at this level of Humanity can usually manage to pass for mortals. Vampires with Humanity 7 typically subscribe to normal social mores – sure, sin is wrong, but dodging taxes and speed limits are not sins. The vampire feels some connection to other beings, even human beings, though more than a little selfishness shines through – just like everyone else in the world, mortal or not.
Rules for Humanity 7 vampires are much the same as those for other Kindred:
- You must make a Rouse Check to use Blush of Life.
- You cannot have sexual intercourse per se, but you can fake it by winning a Dexterity + Charisma test if you wish (Difficulty equals your partner’s Composure or Wits).
- Unless using Blush of Life, food and drink makes you vomit; make a Composure + Stamina test (Difficulty 3) to be able to get outside or to a bathroom first.
Humanity 6
Hey, people die; stuff breaks. You have little difficulty with the fact that you need blood to survive and that you do what needs to be done to get it. You might not go out of your way to wreck things or kill people, but you don’t cry bloody tears over it either. Not automatically horrid, Kindred at this stage of Humanity don’t win any prizes for congeniality either.
Rules for this level of Humanity work a lot as the previous rating, as the human mask becomes more difficult to wear:
- You must make a Rouse Check to use Blush of Life.
- You cannot have sexual intercourse per se, but you can fake it by winning a Dexterity + Charisma test if you wish, made at a one-die penalty to your pool (Difficulty equals your partner’s Composure or Wits).
- Even when using Blush of Life, you need make a Composure + Stamina test (Difficulty 3) to be able to keep food and drink down for an hour.
Humanity 5
At this point, you’ve been around the block. Most neonates and some ancillae fall into this range. You’ve internalized pain and anguish, and you begin to accept it as part of existence. You don’t particularly care about mortals one way or the other, except for pets and Touchstones and the like. After all, you’re never going to be mortal again, so why bother? You’re selfish, you lie like its second nature, and you may manifest some minor physical eeriness or malformation, such as an unnatural hue to the eyes.
- You must make a Rouse Check to use Blush of Life.
- You suffer a one-die penalty on rolls to interact with humans. This penalty applies to most Social dice pools (including tests for interacting with Touchstones), especially Insight and Persuade, but not to terrifying Intimidation, inhuman Subterfuge (Seduction), or to any test to hunt or kill a human. This penalty also applies to creating art or other humanities; for example, Kindred prose markedly worsens and becomes more florid as they degenerate.
- Even with Blush of Life, you cannot have sexual intercourse per se, but you can fake it by winning a Dexterity + Charisma test if you wish, made at a two-die penalty to your pool (Difficulty equals your partner’s Composure or Wits).
- Even when using Blush of Life, you need make a Composure + Stamina test (Difficulty 3) to be able to keep food and drink down for an hour.
Humanity 4
Hey, some people gotta die. You have finally begun, even accepted, your inevitable slide into moral sloth and self-indulgence. Killing is more than fine; ask the elders, they’ve been around long enough to see whole genocides ignored. Destruction, theft, injury – these are all tools, not taboos. Physical changes become quite evident as “ashen pallor” shades more firmly into “corpse-like.”
- You must make a Rouse Check to use Blush of Life.
- You suffer a two-dice penalty on rolls to interact with humans. This penalty applies to most Social dice pools (including tests for interacting with Touchstones), especially Insight and Persuade, but not to terrifying Intimidation, inhuman Subterfuge (Seduction), or to any test to hunt or kill a human. This penalty also applies to creating art or other humanities; for example, Kindred prose markedly worsens and becomes more florid as they degenerate.
- Even with Blush of Life, you cannot have sexual intercourse per se, but you can fake it by winning a Dexterity + Charisma test if you wish, made at a two-die penalty to your pool (Difficulty equals your partner’s Composure or Wits).
- You can no longer keep food and drink down, even with Livstecken.
Humanity 3
At this level, cynical and jaded describes you on a good day. You callously step over anyone and anything, stopping only to indulge a new hobby for cruelty. You take the safe route, the pragmatic route: kill witnesses and don’t risk trusting anyone you haven’t got your talons into somehow. You genuinely look monstrous, even under the most flattering light.
- You must make a Rouse Check to use Blush of Life.
- You suffer a four-dice penalty on rolls to interact with humans. This penalty applies to most Social dice pools (including tests for interacting with Touchstones), especially Insight and Persuade, but not to terrifying Intimidation, inhuman Subterfuge (Seduction), or to any test to hunt or kill a human. This penalty also applies to creating art or other humanities; for example, Kindred prose markedly worsens and becomes more florid as they degenerate.
- You can no longer perform or even fake sexual intercourse, even with Livstecken.
- You can no longer keep food and drink down, even with Livstecken.
Humanity 2
Nobody counts but you. Idiots try your patience; worms attempt to take your belongings or attention; mortal meat sacks get in your way and delay your feeding. Only servants and feeding stock exist, and everyone needs to decide which one they are before you decide for them. You do have your hobbies, of course – immortals need hobbies. Twisted pleasures, decadent whims, atrocities, perversions, callous murder, mutilation – so much to do, so few hours of the night in which to do it. By now, every human and most Kindred recoil from your presence.
- You must make a Rouse Check to use Blush of Life.
- You suffer a six-dice penalty on rolls to interact with humans, as above. (The penalty becomes four-dice with Blush of Life.) This penalty applies to most Social dice pools (including tests for interacting with Touchstones), especially Insight and Persuade, but not to terrifying Intimidation, inhuman Subterfuge (Seduction), or to any test to hunt or kill a human. This penalty also applies to creating art or other humanities; for example, Kindred prose markedly worsens and becomes more florid as they degenerate.
- You can no longer perform or even fake sexual intercourse, even with Livstecken.
- You can no longer keep food and drink down, even with Livstecken.
Humanity 1
Only nominally sentient, you teeter on the edge of oblivion. Little matters at all to you, even your own desires outside sustenance and rest. You might do anything at all, or nothing. Only a few tattered shreds of ego stand between you and complete devolution. You need no speech, no art, nothing but gibbers and splatters of dried gore.
- You must make a Rouse Check to use Blush of Life.
- You suffer an eight-dice penalty on rolls to interact with humans, as above. (The penalty becomes five-dice with Blush of Life, but who cares? Not you.) This penalty applies to most Social dice pools (including tests for interacting with Touchstones), especially Insight and Persuade, but not to terrifying Intimidation, inhuman Subterfuge (Seduction), or to any test to hunt or kill a human. This penalty also applies to creating art or other humanities; for example, Kindred prose markedly worsens and becomes more florid as they degenerate.
- You can no longer perform or even fake sexual intercourse, even with Livstecken.
- You can no longer keep food and drink down, even with Livstecken.
Humanity 0
You have become the Beast. Your last urges express themselves in a final Rötschreck called the wassail (see Losing the Last Drop, p. 241). A puppet of the Blood, you are en Draug, under Storyteller control forever.