He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.
 - Aristotle

The trait of Humanity is integral to the underlying theme of V:tM. It is a moral code that allows Kindred to retain their mortal sensibilities in the face of their transformation into parasitic monsters. In essence, is is what keeps a vampire from becoming a mindless animal, enslaved by her thirst for vitae.

Humanity, unlike most other Traits, is rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Also, just because a kindred follows the Path of Humanity doesn't mean she is a friendly, congenial saint. Vampires are predators by nature, and Humanity only gifts them with the ability to pretend they're not. It is an inward charade that protects a vampire from herself. Much as the Masquerade protects vampires from the mortals outside.

Unfortunately, the very nature of existence as a vampire is anathema to one's humanity. As the centuries wear on, the Beast takes hold, and Kindred become less and less concerned with the well-being of mortal "kine" (after all, they'll die eventually, anyway) As such, character are likely to lose humanity over the course of the game.

Mortals also typically follow the Path of Humanity, though this is largely out of ignorance: They don't know they can be anything else. As such, this mechanical system for morality rarely comes into play for them. Certainly, some mortals -- rapists, murderers and the like -- have low humanity scores, but they have no Beast roiling within them, as do the Kindred. It is possible for a vampire with a high Humanity score to be more 'human' than some mortals are!

Virtues and gaining and losing Humanity

The heart of any Vampire chronicle is Humanity and its steady relentless depletion. The current "Hierarchy of Sins" is based on the virtues of Conscience and Self-Control per the book.

Sins of Malice (Conscience)

Sins of Malice are a surrender to the predatory urges of the vampire. These sins involve using, exploiting or hurting other people without regard to their feelings, rights or freedoms. Conscience is affronted by hurting, wounding, robbing or killing other beings

Sins of Brutality (Self Control)

Sins of Brutality are a surrender to the Beast: irrationality, the urge to destroy, the vampiric rage. Self-Control is undermined by acting out of anger or frustration, by violent, destructive, or self-destructive behavior.

Losing Humanity

 Degeneration checks are made using your Conscience, Difficulty 8. On a failure, the character loses a point of Humanity. On a botch, (Failing another test after failing the initial Humanity check) a derangement is gained. 

Humanity (or the rating in any Path) cannot exceed the sum of the two Virtues that define it (Conscience and Self-Control for Humanity). Courage can be substituted for one of these Virtues if that rating is higher. Example: a character with Conscience 2, Self-Control 3 and Courage 5 would have a starting Humanity of 5 but raise it as high as 8.

Merits and Flaws that affect the Appearance of Humanity

Some Merits and Flaws can effect the percieved humanity rating of your character up or down. The below Merits and Flaws may cause mortals to regard your character as more or less inhuman:

The secondary skill Masquerade represents a Kindred's ability to appear human (or a Ghoul's to appear Vampiric). Masquerade reflects how skilled the charcter is at appearing to be mortal: feighning respiration, creating a heartbeat, producing pink skin (by bringing blood to the surface), sneezing, masking vampiric tendencies, et al.

Vampires with a low Humanity rating (or on a path), appear to be pale and inhuman. According to the main book (Vampire the Masquerade Revised) page 138-139 under Blood Pool: Spending Blood: (last paraghraph of page 138) It talks about appearing human, breathing, sex, etc.

It states if you have Humanity 8 you can accomplish any of these things, but below 8 characters have to spend blood equal to the difference between their current Humanity rating and Humanity 8.

Only Vampires on Humanity can spend blood for this.

Additionally the main book page 286 under Alternate Virtues and Paths of Enlightenment: Paths Are Utterly inhuman states:

"...a Path follower is treated as though he has a Humanity score of 3 when using the rules for interacting with mortals. If the Path follower's Path rating is less than 3, use that score instead."

So how does the Secondary Skill; Masquerade work? As any other Secondary Skill: 1 dot reduces your difficulty by 1, 3 dots reduces your dif by 2 and 5 dots reduces your dif by 3, but in
this case a difficulty is a blood point spent to appear human for a scene.

Example: Your character has Humanity 4 and Masquerade 4. This means 8 - (humanity rating [4] + diff reduction [2] ) = character must spend 2 blood to appear human instead of the normal 4 because thier Masquerade skill had reduced their difficulty.

If your character is on a path other than Humanity, the difficulty reduction simply adds to the character's humane appearance.

Example: Your character has a Path rating of 5 and a Masquerade Secondary Skill rating of 5. The character appears as if they have already spent three blood points and their character looks like as if they have Humanity 6.

Ghouls may use this ability in reverse, to appear 'dead' slow their breathing, become pale and pallid, etc. Manipulation + Subterfuge vs the opposing Perception + Subterfuge. 

Torpor Rules

Torpor is no fun unless you plan for it, but hey, stuff happens. There may come a time when your character finds herself staring down the barrel of a lot of pain, and in fact, enough pain to put them into Torpor.

There are three ways to fall into torpor.

1. Blood loss - relatively easy one to recover from. If you fall into torpor from lack of blood, someone just has to feed your character blood. Granted, if this is Kindred Vitae, it Blood Bonds you one step to them, but hey, you're still playable.

2. Staking - If you suffer a total of 3 damage from the staking attack (after soak using stamina and Fortitude), you are paralyzed, but still aware, a quasi-state of torpor. Removing the stake brings you out, but you still must deal with the damage.

3. Damage - This is the one that sucks. If your character falls into torpor from taking damage, she could be out for years, depending on your humanity. To make things a little easier on players, since we're playing up Humanity so much, and since this is a LARP, we've modified the torpor table to make it one step less painful to fall into torpor. Take a look:

For complete rules on awakening from torpor rolls, see the main V:tM book, pg. 216

* This is not meant to be an easy way out for those that are entranced, blood-bonded, crazy etc. If a player wants to play a character with Humanity 4 who has entered involuntary torpor via damage, they must alert the ST's that they still wish to play the character when they come out of torpor and they may allow you to play the character after the year is up. You will be given a card with the date the character can return to game, signed and stamped by the HST. It is the player's responsibility to bring this up, within one month of the appropriate date.

Torpored characters must have a reasonable story worked out with the STs as to the care and maintenance of their torpid character's body. If through PC action the body of the torpid character is destroyed, or is otherwise unable to resume freedom of movement, the character may not return. This includes but is not limited to, being encased in cement, allies unable to obtain the body for safe keeping within a month of being torpored or if the player said they are retiring the character within that first month of being torpored.

Matters of influence, ghouls, herd, and resources that require maintenance by an active character may be gone and will be worked out with players on a one on one basis.

Go to the next Rules section: Combat