Humanity Rules! (Vampires Suck!)

Other paths might exist, but notice how some of the most powerful vampires on alternative paths were in the Sabbat and are now ash?  Yeah, it turns out being an inhuman monster makes you easy prey for the Inquisition.  So old Hardestadt was right about at least one thing.  Any PC who tries to go on a path despite this warning will automatically fail the mandatory frenzy check and lose the character.  In other words, no.

The chronicle will decide on tenets that every character in the chronicle should abide by.  These will be decided by the player base at the session 0 and will (probably) never change.  Convictions are decided upon by the player at the time of character creation.  They are deeply held beliefs that stave off the Beast.  Mechanically, a character receives one less Stain (minimum zero) if they receive Stain pursuing an active conviction. Touchstones are living humans (or organizations by house rule) that connect a vampire to their convictions.  If the Touchstone is lost, so is the conviction.

Vampires (only) have scores for Humanity and Stain.  Humans and ghouls don't need them.  Humanity is on a scale from one to ten.  Zero means the Beast has completely taken over (generate a new character).  Ten is saintly and humane.  The default is seven for a starting character (altered by other parts of the character creation process).  Stain is also on a scale of zero to ten.  Track Stain on the same track as Humanity, Humanity left right and Stain right to left.  A character gains stain by violating the chronicle tenets, their own convictions, or by taking other actions that endanger their humanity (some are described on book page 138).  When a character's Stain begins overtaking their Humanity boxes, they lose one Willpower for each box filled.  Additionally, they gain the Impaired condition for the rest of the Session. The character may lose the Impaired condition and all Stain by PERMANENTLY sacrificing a Humanity.  If the character instead chooses to feel remorse, they make a remorse test at the  end of the Session: unfilled Humanity boxes vs Stain.  Succeed or Fail, the Stain goes away.  Fail, and so does one Humanity.

Vampires (only) also have a Hunger score from 0 to 5. Hunger can only be slaked (decreased) by drinking blood. It can only be reduced to 0 by killing a living creature, which causes Stain.  The more potent a vampire's blood, the more hunger they have.  Hunger is increased by failing a test to Rouse the Blood.  These tests are made upon waking, to mend damage, to surge physical, and to fuel many powers of the blood (see the chart on page 125 for important info).  At Hunger 3 or more, a vampire suffers from Bestial Failures.  ANY failed test causes a Compulsion.  Compulsions are described on page 118, and are: Hunger, Dominance, Harm, Paranoia, and the Clan Compulsion (yes, you can fail multiple times and collect them all).  The specific compulsion is chosen by an ST. At Hunger 4 or higher, additionally the vampire must check for Messy Criticals: a critical success causes the Beast to shine forth and endanger the Masquerade.  At Hunger 5, in addition, the vampire can no longer  voluntarily make a Rouse Check and any increase to Hunger causes automatic Hunger Frenzy.  Hunger carries over from night to night and vampires generally try to keep it at 1 by feeding.

While in any type of Frenzy, the Beast takes over and the player must coordinate their actions with a storyteller.  The full rules on Frenzy are on pages 127-128.  The three types are Fury, Hunger, and Terror.  Actions taken while under the effects of Frenzy DO cause Stain.  Welcome to Vampire.

All XP expenditures to increase humanity MUST be approved by a Storyteller and justified by roleplaying.  The character must use downtime and game time to try to become a better person (in the individual way that makes the most sense for the character) BEFORE spending the XP to improve the humanity score.  It is much easier for a vampire to give in to the Beast than to become more human.