Method acting? There are quite a few methods. Mine involves a lot of talent, a glass and some cracked ice.
 - John Barrymore

Dots on the Sheet: No 5's at character creation. You are limited to fours in any Attribute, Ability, Secondary Ability, Background, Discipline, Camarilla Status, Clan Prestige, Lore, pet monkey etc. There are of course, some exceptions to this. Rather than list them here, please ask your friendly storyteller if you have questions about that, otherwise, most specific exceptions are listed below.

Character Age: You may play characters as newly embraced as you like, and in fact, are encouraged to bring in ghouls and seek embrace for them in game. Individuals wishing to play a character more than 100 years old must have a full concept submitted, including backstory, at least 1 week in advance, and must have this concept and history approved by staff.

Generation: The lowest starting generation allowed for PCs is 9th.

Attributes: Up to four points at character creation*. Specialties must be defined at character creation.

Abilities: Up to four points at character creation. There are a few house rules about some specific abilities in the House Rules section.

*Excepting Nosferatu who choose to put their 7 (from the 7/5/3) in the Social category, who will have by default ONE trait at five.

Secondary Abilities: You must have at least one dot of the primary ability that the secondary is linked to in order to purchase a secondary. For example, Clan Lores and Kindred Lore are secondary to Occult, and Camarilla Lore is secondary to Politics, Hacking is secondary to Computers and Weaponsmithing is secondary to Crafts. If you are unsure what your desired secondary skill is linked to, ask your friendly ST. Secondaries are purchased at half of normal ability cost and serve to lower difficulties, which is very useful for non-combat checks.

Lores:  Lores are pretty important in this game. What your character knows about being a vampire and being in the Camarilla are defined by your lore levels in Kindred and Camarilla Lore respectively, as well as knowledge about clans, other sects and other items of interest in the World of Darkness. Lores are purchased on the cheap as secondary skills. (Primary Dot = 2 Dots, 1 Freebie = 1 dot and 1 times current rating to increase with XP) For the rules on how Lores are used see House Rules. For an exhaustive list of available lores, check out the Appendices Section. As an important note, you are automatically granted one *Phantom Dot* of lore in your own clan's lore, in Kindred lore and in your sect lore (Cam., Anarch, etc.) indicating you know basically who and what you are, but these phantom dots cannot be used to make any tests. You must be willing to have your character suffer possibly extreme prejudice if you do not buy at least one dot of Camarilla Lore, which covers having at least heard of the Traditions.

Disciplines: Up to level three may be purchased at character creation. After character creation you need to inform the Bookkeeping ST before beginning to learn any out-of-clan disciplines. We reserve the right to deny requests of this type. In general, if you don't have a teacher, there's no reason to ask. Please see the House Rules section for information on learning times for Out of Clan Disciplines. If you are planning on playing a Caitiff, you can choose your disciplines based on the Clan Specific guidelines here.

Virtues: An exception to the ‘no fives’ rule. Put yer dots where ya want ‘em.

Willpower: Up to seven points at character creation.

Humanity: Between 4 and 7 at character creation.

Humanity/Paths: All characters will begin play on the path of Humanity. Paths must be learned in game from a PC or NPC. Some clans are more prone to having paths other than Humanity (like Giovanni). This may be allowed by ST discretion.

This section includes both the dots on your sheet and the story behind your character.

Character Histories: All players are required within the first month of playing their characters to fill out a short, one page background sheet. That sheet is located here: Background Sheet, or at the Bookkeeping Table at game. This is a short, easy reference sheet for your storytellers, who often have to keep 100+ player backgrounds in mind at all times. If you don't take a few minutes to fill out this form, you cannot spend XP on your character. A regular written background in story or timeline* form that expands on your character's history is still something players are encouraged to do in addition to the required Background Sheet, and can gain XP for turning in. All events in character histories are considered written in water until they are approved by an ST. Storytellers reserve the right to deny wonky events in your character’s history such as living with a Werewolf pack for three months, being best friends with Etrius or being abducted by aliens. 

Secret identities (purchased via the alternate identity background which is discussed in more detail below), and/or mortal identities (mortal status backgrounds) should be defined at character creation as well. If you plan to have items, havens and money under an assumed name, this needs to be stated up front.

* There is an ECC timeline wiki you can use to connect your character with other PCs in game. Instructions for getting on the wiki are here: ECC Timeline Wiki.

Background purchases

Allies, Contacts & Mentors - Up to four points at character creation.  They must be defined on the Background Sheet. They don't need character sheets; cards will do unless otherwise specified. The STs reserve the right to flesh these characters out to provide dimension to the world. If you want to write character sheets for these you can, but it's not necessary. Established NPCs that are 'walked' into game usually already have sheets on file. In some cases the Storytellers will reserve the right to keep the detailed statistics of powerful NPCs a secret. 

• A player may take the Contacts background more than once for their character.  Each separate Contact has a rating of 1-5.  One character may have a total of 13 dots among their Contacts, (5 only among thier Allies and 5 among their Mentors). 
• Contacts are purchased at Secondary Ability cost (2 cp for the first dot, current rating X 1 for each addtional dot). Allies and Mentors are purchased at regular Background cost (3 for first dot, then current rating X 2 for each additional dot). Each separate Contact/Ally/Mentor counts as a separate Background for purchase purposes.
• For PC Kindred, both Kindred and mortals may be taken as Contacts/Allies.  All Kindred are at least a two-point Contact/Ally and must reside outside the Emerald Domain.  Other player characters in the Emerald Domain need not be bought as contacts/allies, unless they permanently relocate outside the Emerald Domain. PC Kindred who are retired by thier players, as opposed to ending by final death, do so by leaving the Emerald Domain and taking up residence elsewhere, determined by the player and the STs, and recorded on the Background Sheet of any PC who has them as a contact/ally.
• For PC Ghouls, both mortals and other ghouls may be taken as contacts/allies. Other Ghouls are a minimum two-point contact/ally. PC Ghouls may not have Kindred of other cities as Contacts/Allies (this would be inappropriate in Kindred society). Other player character ghouls in the Emerald Domain do not need to be purchased unless they retire. Retired PC ghouls may either be purchased as a retainer by thier domitor at the time of retirement, or be relocated to another domitor in another domain. This must be decided at the time of retirement, and thier city of residence must be recorded on the Background Sheet of those who purchase them as contact/ally.
• All characters are encouraged to buy the Contacts/Allies background to represent those they may know from domains they are leaving, and domains important to their character history. Other characters are also encouraged to expect those who have left a domain where they have resided for any significant time to have at least one Contact/Ally there, and suspect foul play if this is not the case.  Likewise, if you're developing a new character, and you decide against purchasing these expected Contacts/Allies, you may want to include in your background why nobody wants to talk to your character where she used to live.

You may choose one or more spheres of Influence for your contact/ally/mentor. That contact may be considered to have the same number of total Influence dots as the cost of the Contact/Ally/Mentor.  The main advantage is that these dots do not necessarily have to be available in the total influence pool of this city.

Keep in mind, Contacts are not your character’s friends, and will commonly demand immediate payment for their help.  Also, they may ultimately work against you if it's in their best interests. Allies will expect to be able to call on you in their times of need for help. And Mentors will do what they think is best for you, even if you don't agree. Finally, be aware that Contacts may be lost due to actions by yourself or others.

Alternate Identity:  The Alternate Identity Background is the one background that appears in the Guide to the Sabbat book that we allow in the Camarilla Vampire game. Like Contacts, a character may have more than one Alternate Identity. If you want to wield your character's Influence through one of their Alternate Identities you may, see the Influence page for more info on that. Alternate Identities can be used for infiltrating other Kindred Clans and Sects, having a regular mortal identity that you have created for 'the system' AKA Tax records, Birth Certificates, Passports and IDs. To obtain simple documents like a fake ID it is not necessary to have the Alternate Identity Background. Your character can still buy or forge these documents separately, but if you want to create a separate persona for your character that will stand up to more than a moment's scrutiny, you'll need to purchase the background. 

Fame - Up to four points at character creation. Explain in the Background sheet. Fame can be a double-edged sword however.

Haven - We don't use the Haven background.  To define your Haven, get a stamped card that details your haven.  You'll probably need to expend Resources, maybe pull Influences, or make tests to set up your security system. Read more about that by clicking the House Rules link below.

Influence - None at Character Creation. Your character cannot have influence in a city they don't live in, thus you cannot obtain influences for your character in Seattle before they arrive here. However, a character's Contacts, Allies and Mentors may have influences in the cities they live in.

Occult Library - See the House Rules section linked below.

Resources - Up to four points at character creation. These must be defined and explained on the Character Background sheet. Resources can be used to pull a certain amount of cash each week (per the available monthly allotment in the main book). You must get a stamped card from the bookkeeping table each month for your character's allowance. 

Retainers - Up to four ranks in any of these is allowed at character creation. Register these NPCs with the Bookkeeping Table. Ghouls/ retainers do not gain XP. You may have exactly as many NPC ghouls or other retainers as you have dots in this background. If you ghoul any more people than you have dots, your blood cannot sustain the bonds, and they return to their normal state within three nights, with full memory of what has been done to them, and a tendency to call the police/church/local TV station. This could be bad m'kay? All retainers must have character sheets. (see other character creation sections below, or House rules for Wraith Retainers)

Status - Camarilla Status may be purchased at character creation phase up to four. Status may be easily gained or lost in character afterward, so be cautious. See the Status page for more information. Have a history of who granted you this status where and why and include it in the additional info part of the background sheet. HINT: A little status can be very, very useful in this game.

Status: Clan Prestige - This is generally run on a city to city basis, 5 being the most prestigious clan member in the city, 0 being a total nobody. So, make sure you have a good story for why the clan here should like you or even have heard of you, and put it in the additional info section of your background sheet. Generally speaking, no PC may begin play with above Clan Prestige 4, as a rating of 5 is generally 'elected' by the members of the clan in the city.

Merits & Flaws - Must be listed and explained on the Background Sheet, and be played out. Approval will be decided on a case-by-case basis, as well as possible denial of approval. Merits can be removed from an approved character at a later date if deemed necessary. Flaws may be bought off at 2x XP and an in game story (lots of RP). 'Discipline killer' merits, such as Iron Will or Blasé will not be approved. Similarly, merits that bypass the need to buy other dots, or provide excessive power (such as Ghouled Reptile Buddy) will also not be approved. Flaws are limited to a total of 7pts. We limit/cap certain merits/flaws based on how many other players already have them. New Arrival is silly. Unless you're new to EC as a whole, don't bother.  There are plenty of other abusable combinations that we’ll turn down. The key here is to take merits or flaws that will add character, not circumvent rules.

If you can't show us a description of the merit or flaw you'd like in a book, we won't consider it, cuz hey, how can we run what we don't know the rules for? Showing us the book just means we'll consider it, it does not mean we'll approve it. It's our job to make sure that the game remains balanced, please respect that our decisions about these characteristics are meant with that in mind. We're trying to keep it fun and balanced for everyone.

Weapons, Equipment, Havens, Businesses and Stuff are covered in the House Rules Section.

NOTE: During character creation, if you explain your freebie usage in detail It'll speed up your approval. Little notes in the margins of your character sheet are grand.

Now that you've made a character, check out the rest of the rules that you'll need to know in the House Rules Section.

OR, for information on PC and NPC Ghoul creation, check out the Those Who Serve section.

Go to the next Rules section: Character Creation: Those Who Serve