From the forthcoming Houses of the Blooded, I give you…
Desires
Your character has a number of Desires on her sheet. Each Desire is like a trait: it has a name and a rank. You give each of your Desires a name and you have five points to allocate to them. You cannot begin the game with a Desire greater than rank 3.
Name your Desires carefully: these are the primary motivating forces that drive your character. Desires can be simple “I want to kiss Lord Salens” or complicated “I want to become the head of my House.” You decide what your Desire is, but the GM has final veto power over any Desires.
Using Your Desire
Whenever you take a risk that moves you closer to your Desire, you may add a number of dice equal to your Desire’s rank. That is, if you take a risk that will bring you closer to kissing Lord Salens, and your Desire is rank 2, you add two dice to that risk. This is called invoking your Desire. Invoking a Desire is not mandatory; it is a choice. You may only invoke a Desire once per Season.
Whenever you invoke a Desire, put a check next to it in the box provided on the character sheet. At the end of each Season, any Desires with checks next to them go up by one rank. Any Desires without checks next to them do not advance, but if a Desire does increase by one rank, you must decrease another Desire by one rank. Here’s how it works.
Start with your highest Desire. If it has a check, it goes up by one rank. You must then decrease your lowest Desire by one rank. Go to your next highest Desire and go through the same process. If a Desire ever goes to rank 0, you lose that Desire.
Valjav: Dangerous Desire
If a Desire ever increases to rank 6, it becomes an Obsession (the ven call this valjav). Look at the character sheet. Do you see the black dots after the five white dots? Those are Obsession ranks. They still add to any risks that drive you closer to your Desire, but they have another effect as well.
Whenever you take a risk that isn’t directly related to your Obsession, you lose a number of dice equal to your Obsession ranks. To explain, each Desire has only five ranks. A Desire at rank 7 has two Obsession ranks. If your character has a rank 7 Desire, that Desire also has two Obsession ranks. Whenever your character takes a risk that does not directly fulfill her Desire, you lose two dice from that risk.
The only way to get rid of Obsession is by throwing it away. You have to ignore it. If a Desire with Obsession ranks is not checked at the end of a Season, it drops down one rank.
Gaining a New Desire
Players may choose to gain a new Desire or change an existing one at any time.
If you want to change an existing Desire, simply change the name and drop the rank by one. Obviously, if a Desire is already rank 1, you cannot change that Desire. You must also give the GM a good reason why your Desire has changed; although the ven are fickle creatures, easily distracted by beauty and a challenge.
If you want to create a new Desire, you can do so at the end of a Season. A new Desire must be spawned from some event that happened during the story; it should not be arbitrary. Every new Desire begins at rank 1, although if a character already has ten points of Desires, he cannot have any new ones; he must change an existing Desire.
Desires
Your character has a number of Desires on her sheet. Each Desire is like a trait: it has a name and a rank. You give each of your Desires a name and you have five points to allocate to them. You cannot begin the game with a Desire greater than rank 3.
Name your Desires carefully: these are the primary motivating forces that drive your character. Desires can be simple “I want to kiss Lord Salens” or complicated “I want to become the head of my House.” You decide what your Desire is, but the GM has final veto power over any Desires.
Using Your Desire
Whenever you take a risk that moves you closer to your Desire, you may add a number of dice equal to your Desire’s rank. That is, if you take a risk that will bring you closer to kissing Lord Salens, and your Desire is rank 2, you add two dice to that risk. This is called invoking your Desire. Invoking a Desire is not mandatory; it is a choice. You may only invoke a Desire once per Season.
Whenever you invoke a Desire, put a check next to it in the box provided on the character sheet. At the end of each Season, any Desires with checks next to them go up by one rank. Any Desires without checks next to them do not advance, but if a Desire does increase by one rank, you must decrease another Desire by one rank. Here’s how it works.
Start with your highest Desire. If it has a check, it goes up by one rank. You must then decrease your lowest Desire by one rank. Go to your next highest Desire and go through the same process. If a Desire ever goes to rank 0, you lose that Desire.
Valjav: Dangerous Desire
If a Desire ever increases to rank 6, it becomes an Obsession (the ven call this valjav). Look at the character sheet. Do you see the black dots after the five white dots? Those are Obsession ranks. They still add to any risks that drive you closer to your Desire, but they have another effect as well.
Whenever you take a risk that isn’t directly related to your Obsession, you lose a number of dice equal to your Obsession ranks. To explain, each Desire has only five ranks. A Desire at rank 7 has two Obsession ranks. If your character has a rank 7 Desire, that Desire also has two Obsession ranks. Whenever your character takes a risk that does not directly fulfill her Desire, you lose two dice from that risk.
The only way to get rid of Obsession is by throwing it away. You have to ignore it. If a Desire with Obsession ranks is not checked at the end of a Season, it drops down one rank.
Gaining a New Desire
Players may choose to gain a new Desire or change an existing one at any time.
If you want to change an existing Desire, simply change the name and drop the rank by one. Obviously, if a Desire is already rank 1, you cannot change that Desire. You must also give the GM a good reason why your Desire has changed; although the ven are fickle creatures, easily distracted by beauty and a challenge.
If you want to create a new Desire, you can do so at the end of a Season. A new Desire must be spawned from some event that happened during the story; it should not be arbitrary. Every new Desire begins at rank 1, although if a character already has ten points of Desires, he cannot have any new ones; he must change an existing Desire.