I’ve posted in the past about these two topics. I’ve since revised the rules. You can check out the new rules behind the cut.
Also, I’ve revised the character sheet (adding a space for Loyalties and Desires). Ask me and I’ll send it to you.
Your character has a number of Desires on his sheet. Each Desire is like a trait: it has a name and a rank. You begin the game with three Desires at rank 1. You may only ever have three Desires.
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.
At the end of each Season, go through your Desires. If you have not accomplished a particular Desire, it increases by one rank. If you have accomplished that Desire, you may erase that Desire and replace it with another.
Valjav: Dangerous Desire
If a Desire ever increases to rank 4, it becomes an Obsession (the ven call this valjav). Look at the character sheet. Do you see the black dots after the three white dots? Those are Obsession ranks. Obsession ranks do not add to any risks, even if the risk moves you closer to accomplishing your Desire.
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 three ranks. A Desire at rank 4 has one Obsession rank. A Desire at rank 5 has two Obsession ranks. Whenever your character takes a risk that does not directly fulfill her Desire, and you have two Obsession ranks, you lose two dice from that risk.
You have two options for getting rid of an Obsession. The first is to accomplish it. The second is throwing it away. You have to ignore it. Sabotage it. Give it up. You have to take actions that remove the Obsession from your life, utterly and completely. To make the Obsession impossible to accomplish. In terms of the game, this means that you take no risks that move you toward accomplishing your Desire. If you do, the Obsession disappears from your sheet.
Gaining a New Desire
You can gain new Desires by replacing existing ones. You may only replace a Desire after you’ve checked to see if your Desires have increased for the Season. Then, you may replace an existing Desire only if it is rank 1.
Loyalty & Treachery
For the ven, few virtues are as sacred as loyalty. Because they are creatures driven by desire and temptation, loyalty is valued highest in the courts… even treasured in some circles.
Like traits and Desires, your character has a number of Loyalties on his sheet, and like traits and Desires, each Loyalty has a name and a rank. You have five points to spend on Loyalties, but unlike Desires, the names you can give a Loyalty are a bit more strict.
You may only be loyal to people, not ideals or Houses or any other abstract thing. You cannot be loyal to your sword or your own word or “justice.” Just people. You may be loyal to people outside or inside your House, to nobles or commoners, but you must have five points of Loyalties on your sheet before your character can come into play. No Loyalty can begin higher than rank 3.
Using Loyalty
Whenever your character takes an action that supports another character you are Loyal to, you may choose to gain a number of dice equal to that Loyalty. This is called invoking a Loyalty.
Whenever you invoke a Loyalty, put a check next to it. At the end of each Season, any Loyalties with checks next to them go up by one rank. You may choose to lower any Loyalties that did not increase at the end of the Season by one rank. If you ever change a Loyalty rank to zero, you may remove it from your sheet.
Treachery
As Lessons teaches us, “A stranger cannot betray you; only a friend can do that.” There may come a time when your character has to betray a beloved friend. If you ever take an action against a character who has Loyalty toward you, you gain a number of dice equal to the Loyalty. For example, if another character has a rank 3 Loyalty towards your character, if you actively betray that character, you gain three dice for that risk.
If anyone betrays you in such a way, you may remove that Loyalty from your sheet.