Backgrounds describe advantages of relationship, circumstance, and opportunity: material possessions, social networks, and the like. Backgrounds are exter- nal, not internal, Traits, and you should always ratio- nalize how you came to possess them, as well as what they represent. Who are your contacts? Why do your allies support you? Where did you meet your retainers? What investments do you possess that yield your four dots in Resources? If you’ve put enough detail into your character concept, selecting appropriate Backgrounds should be easy.
Although it’s uncommon to make rolls involving Background Traits, your Storyteller might have you do so to see if you can obtain information, goods, or favors. For example, you might have to roll Wits + Re- sources to keep your stock portfolio healthy, or Ma- nipulation + Contacts to wheedle that extra favor from your smuggler “associate.”
Certain Backgrounds may be “pooled” among char- acters in a coterie. See “Pooling Backgrounds” on p. 118 for more information.
Pooling Backgrounds
Some Backgrounds lend themselves to joint owner- ship. Specifically, the members of a coterie may choose to pool their individual stores of Allies, Contacts, Do- main, Herd, Influence, Resources, and Retainers.
The Anchor
You and the other players choose one Background as the anchor that holds the shared assets together. For example, this Background might be Domain, with the physical place the characters claim as their haven and for hunting, which also acts as a meeting ground for the mortals they deal with, a repository for their wealth, and so on. Any of the poolable Backgrounds can serve in this role, however: Herd might be this coterie’s key to sustenance and stability.
No Background pool can have more dots assigned to it than the Anchor Background does at any time. If the Background is damaged by events during play or between sessions, other assets drift away from the char- acters’ control, and it takes effort to win them back. Any character contributing to the pool may pull his stake out at any time. The dislocations guarantee some damage: The character gets back one dot less than he put in.
Example: The members of the Bloody Sunday coterie build their Background pool around Domain. The physical territory of a ruined church and its economically depressed environs give them the opportunity to interact with down- and-out members of their squalid neighborhood and a ragged group of mortals who fear the creepy squatters in the old church. They put a total of four dots into the Domain pool. Members of the coterie also spend three points on pooled Resources and three points on pooled Influence.
Then things go awry. A Sabbat incursion leads to the arrival of a trouble-shooting Archon, and in the city’s para- noia, another coterie mistakes Bloody Sunday for a Sabbat pack and sets the church on fire. The Domain rating drops from 4 to 2. Nobody comes to a burned-down church to score, so the coterie’s drug-related Resources also drops to 2. With the church slated for demolition (after a particu- larly harrowing encounter, the coterie barely avoided the fire marshal discovering that they made their haven there), the coterie’s pooled Influence also falls from 3 to 2 as they fight the zoning and demolition permits through proxies. Sustained effort by Bloody Sunday can repair the dam- age. Many options are available, from having the church declared a local historical site and thus exempt from demoli- tion “pending repairs” — to taking a tricky political path and trying to achieve satisfaction from the mistaken coterie (or overzealous Archon…).
As the Anchor Background rating rises again, so do the ratings of those anchored to it, as a result of sto- rytelling directed toward the goals of improving lost Backgrounds.
Under normal circumstances, a coterie can’t change its Anchor Background, nor can it acquire a new An- chor Background. While it may choose to abandon a certain Background asset over the course of a chronicle (and thus free itself of the limitations of the pooled Backgrounds in question), the fact that Backgrounds change value only as a result of the story’s events means that the coterie must acquire new Backgrounds in that manner, rather than through freebie or experi- ence points.
In the end, most vampires end up following personal goals over the course of their unlives. Pooled Back- grounds are a great way for young Kindred to gain an initial advantage as neonates in the World of Dark- ness, but they quickly become outdated or even liabili- ties as the Kindred formerly attached to them pursue their own, private agendas.
Using Pooled Backgrounds
Pooled Backgrounds are shared resources; essentially the coterie’s communal property. Anyone who contrib- utes to the pool (no matter how much he contributes) has equal access to it. Even if the character donates to only one of the pool’s associated Backgrounds, he still has equal access to it. Not everyone can use the pool simultaneously, though. A Herd pool of seven dots can grant access only to the same, finite number of vessels. Just how those points are split up depends on the circumstances and agreements between the characters.
Allies
Allies are mortals who support and help you — fami- ly, friends, or even a mortal organization that owes you some loyalty. Although allies aid you willingly, with- out coaxing or coercion, they are not always available to offer assistance; they have their own concerns and can do only so much for the sake of your relationship. However, they might have some useful Background Traits of their own, and could provide you with indi- rect access to their contacts, influence, or resources. Allies are typically persons of influence and power in your home city.
They can be of almost any sort, de- pending on what your Storyteller will allow. You may have friends in the precinct morgue, at a prominent blog, among the high society of local celebrities, or at a construction site. Your Allies might be a clan of no- mads who move their mobile home camp around the area, or they might be a family of generations of police officers. You may even count the mayor himself among your friends, depending on how many dots you spend on this Trait. Your Allies are generally trustworthy (though they probably don’t know that you’re a vam- pire, or even that vampires exist). However, nothing comes for free. If you wind up drawing favors from your friend in the Cosa Nostra, he’ll probably ask you to do him a favor in kind in the future. This often leads to the beginning of a story.
Allies may be pooled among a coterie of characters.
Alternate Identity
You maintain an alternate identity, complete with papers, birth certificates, or any other documentation you desire. Only a few may know your real name or identity. Your alternate persona may be highly in- volved in organized crime, a member of the opposite Sect, a con artist who uses alternate identities for her game, or you may simply gather information about the enemy. Indeed, some vampires may know you as one individual entirely.
Black Hand Membership
This Background is for Sabbat characters only.
You are a member of the feared Black Hand, the body of soldiers and assassins that serves the Sabbat fervently. Having this Background indicates that you are a full-fledged member of the organization, and you have all the responsibilities and benefits that accom- pany membership.
You may call upon members of the Black Hand to aid you, should you ever need it. Of course, this abil- ity is a two-way street, and other Hand members may call upon you to aid them. Thus, you may find yourself assigned to perform assassinations, lend martial aid, or even further the political ends of the Hand as a diplo- mat or spy. You may also be required to attend crusades that take you away from your pack. All members of the Black Hand must heed the call of another Hand mem- ber, especially the superiors of the faction.
Being a member of the Black Hand is a prestigious matter, and other members of the Sabbat respect the organization. When dealing with other Sabbat, should you choose to reveal your affiliation with the Hand, you may add your rating in this Background to any Social dice pools, even after Status or other Abilities have been taken into account. Most Hand members, however, choose not to reveal their allegiance. The Black Hand is also remarkably adept at hunting down Sabbat who claim membership in the Sect but do not truly belong — liars, beware.
Contacts
You know people all over the city. When you start making phone calls around your network, the amount of information you can dig up is impressive. Rather than friends you can rely on to help you, like Allies, Contacts are largely people whom you can bribe, ma- nipulate, or coerce into offering information. You also have a few major Contacts — associates who can give you accurate information in their fields of expertise. You should describe each major contact in some detail before the game begins.
In addition to your major contacts, you also have a number of minor contacts spread throughout the city. Your major contact might be in the district attorney’s office, while your minor contacts might include beat cops, DMV clerks, club bouncers, or members of an online social network. You don’t need to detail these various “passing acquaintances” before play. Instead, to successfully get in touch with a minor contact, you should roll your Contacts rating (difficulty 7). You can reach one minor contact for each success. Of course, you still have to convince them to give you the infor- mation you need, assuming they can get it. Contacts may be pooled within the characters’ co- terie.
Domain
Domain is physical territory (usually within the chronicle’s central city) to which your character con- trols access for the purpose of feeding. Some Kindred refer to their domain as hunting grounds, and most jealously guard their domains, even invoking the Tra- dition of the same name to protect their claims. As part of this Background, the character’s claim to the domain is recognized by the Prince or some other Kin- dred authority in the city where it is located. The Kindred who claims the domain can’t keep the living inhabitants from going about their business, nor does she exercise any direct influence over them, but she can keep watch herself and mind their com- ings and goings. She can also have Allies or Retainers specifically look for unfamiliar vampires and alert her when they find some.
Domain refers specifically to the geography (in most cases a neighborhood or street) and properties on it, as opposed to the people who may dwell there (which is the emphasis of Herd). Domain plays an important part in Kindred society — vampires who lack signifi- cant Domain seldom earn respect — but it isn’t an au- tomatic entitlement to status among the Damned. You may designate one or more dots in Domain to increase the security of your character’s territory rather than its size. Each dot so assigned to security provides a +1 difficulty penalty to efforts to intrude into the do- main by anyone your character hasn’t specifically al-lowed in, and a -1 difficulty bonus to efforts by your character to identify and track intruders in the domain. A Domain of one dot’s size and two dots’ security, for instance, is small but quite resistant to intrusion, as op- posed to a Domain rating of three dots’ size with no extraordinary security.
Each level of Domain reduces the difficulty of hunt- ing checks by one for your character and those whom the character allows in. It also adds to your starting (not maximum) blood pool. If you use the domain security option, each dot of domain security raises the difficulty of hunting checks by one for uninvited vampires. See p. 259 for more information on hunting. Domain (both size and security) can be used with pooled Background points.
As noted previously, characters in a coterie can share their domain resources for better results. Six to eight dots secure all of a small town or a distinct city region as a domain. Ten to 15 dots secure an important but not geographically huge city sector, such as “the docks,” or “Highland Park.” A large city itself might be a hundred-plus Domain points, as with Atlanta, Dallas, Geneva, or Baghdad. A city such as New York, London, Paris, Rome, Sao Paolo, or Shanghai would require many hundreds of Domain points.
Fame
You enjoy widespread recognition in mortal society, perhaps as an entertainer, writer, or athlete. People may enjoy just being seen with you. This gives you all manner of privileges when moving in mortal society, but can also attract an unwanted amount of attention now that you’re no longer alive. The greatest weapon fame has to offer is the ability to sway public opin- ion — as modern media constantly proves. Fame isn’t always tied to entertainment: A heinous criminal in a high-profile trial probably has a certain amount of fame, as do a lawmaker and a scientist who has made a popularized discovery.
This Background is obviously a mixed blessing. You can certainly enjoy the privileges of your prestige — getting the best seats, being invited to events you’d otherwise miss, getting appointments with the elite — but you’re sometimes recognized when you’d rather not be. However, your enemies can’t just make you dis- appear without causing an undue stir, and you find it much easier to hunt in populated areas as people flock to you (reduce the difficulties of hunting rolls by one for each dot in Fame). Additionally, your Storyteller might permit you to reduce difficulties of certain Social rolls against particularly star-struck or impressionable people.
Players may opt to pool Background points for a shared Armory. See pp. 118-119 of V20 for more information on pooled Backgrounds.
Generation
This Background represents your Generation: the purity of your blood, and your proximity to the First Vampire. A high Generation rating may represent a powerful sire or a decidedly dangerous taste for di- ablerie. If you don’t take any dots in this Trait, you begin play as a Thirteenth Generation vampire. See p. 270 for further information.
Herd
You have built a group of mortals from whom you can feed without fear. A herd may take many forms, from circles of kinky clubgoers to actual cults built around you as a god-figure. In addition to providing nourish- ment, your herd might come in handy for minor tasks, though they are typically not very controllable, closely connected to you, or particularly skilled (for more ef- fective pawns, purchase Allies or Retainers). Your Herd rating adds dice to your rolls for hunting; see p. 259 for further details.
Players may purchase pooled Herd with Background points.
Influence
You have pull in the mortal community, whether through wealth, prestige, political office, blackmail, or supernatural manipulation. Kindred with high Influ- ence can sway, and in rare cases even control, the political and social processes of human society. Influence represents the sum of your opinion- or policy-swaying power in your community, particularly among the po- lice and bureaucracy. In some cases, cultivating Influ- ence is a path to generating Resources (see below).
Some rolls may require you to use Influence in place of an Ability, particularly when attempting to sway mi- nor bureaucrats. It’s easier to institute sweeping chang- es on a local level than a worldwide scale (e.g., having an “abandoned” building demolished is relatively easy, while starting a war is a bit more difficult). Influence can be used with pooled Background points.
Mentor
This Trait represents a Kindred or group of Kindred who looks out for you, offering guidance or aid once in a while. A mentor may be powerful, but his power need not be direct. Depending on the number of dots in this Background, your mentor might be nothing more than a vampire with a remarkable information network, or might be a centuries-old creature with tremendous in- fluence and supernatural power. He may offer advice, speak to the Prince or Archbishop on your behalf, steer other elders clear of you, or warn you when you’re walking into situations you don’t understand. Most often your mentor is your sire, but it could well be any Cainite with an interest in your wellbeing. A high Mentor rating could even represent a group of like-minded vampires, such as the elders of the city’s Tremere chantry or a Black Hand cell.
Bear in mind that this Trait isn’t a “Get out of Jail Free” card. Your mentor won’t necessarily arrive like the cavalry whenever you’re endangered (and if she does, you’re likely to lose a dot or more in this Back- ground after rousing her ire). What’s more, she might occasionally expect something in return for her patron- age, which can lead to a number of interesting stories. A mentor typically remains aloof, giving you useful in- formation or advice out of camaraderie, but will aban- don you without a thought if you prove an unworthy or troublesome protégé.
Resources
Resources are valuable goods whose disposition your character controls. These assets may be actual cash, but as this Background increases, they’re more likely to be investments, property, or earning capital of some sort — land, industrial assets, stocks and bonds, com- mercial inventories, criminal infrastructure, contra- band, even taxes or tithes. Remember that vampires don’t need to arrange for any food except blood and their actual needs (as opposed to wants) for shelter are very easily accommodated. Resources for vampires go mostly to pay for luxuries and the associated expenses of developing and maintaining Status, Influence, and other Backgrounds. A character with no dots in Re- sources may have enough clothing and supplies to get by, or she may be destitute and squatting in a refrigera- tor box under an overpass.
You receive a basic allowance each month based on your rating, so be certain to detail exactly where this money comes from, be it a job, trust fund or dividends. (Storytellers, decide for your locality and any relevant time period what an appropriate amount of cash this monthly allowance is.) After all, a Kindred’s fortune may well run out over the course of the chronicle, de- pending on how well he maintains it. You can also sell your less liquid resources if you need the cash, but this can take weeks or even months, depending on what exactly you’re trying to sell. Art buyers don’t just pop out of the woodwork, after all.
Players may purchase Resources for their characters with pooled Background points.
Retainers
Not precisely Allies or Contacts, your retainers are ser- vants, assistants, or other people who are your loyal and steadfast companions. Many vampires’ servants are ghouls (p. 496) — their supernatural powers and blood bond-en- forced loyalty make them the servants of choice. Retainers may also be people whom you’ve repeatedly Dominated until they have no free will left, or followers so enthralled with your Presence that their loyalty borders on blind fa- naticism. Some vampires, particularly those with the Ani- malism Discipline, use animal ghouls as retainers.
You must maintain some control over your retainers, whether through a salary, the gift of your vitae, or the use of Disciplines. Retainers are never “blindly loyal no matter what” — if you treat them poorly without exer- cising strict control, they might well turn on you.
Retainers may be useful, but they should never be flawless. A physically powerful ghoul might be rebel- lious, inconveniently dull-witted, or lacking in practi- cal skills. A loyal manservant might be physically weak or possess no real personal initiative or creativity. This Background isn’t an excuse to craft an unstoppable bodyguard or pet assassin — it’s a method to bring more fully-developed characters into the chronicle, as well as to reflect the followers for which the Kindred are notorious. Generally, retainers are more like Renfield than Anita Blake. (If the player and Storyteller agree, a player may create a more competent single Retainer by combining more points in this Background, putting more eggs in one basket, as the saying goes.)
Players can spend pooled Background points on Re- tainers.
Rituals
This Background is for Sabbat characters only.
You know the ritae and rituals of the Sabbat, and you can enact many of them. This Background is vital to be- ing a Pack Priest — without this Background, ritae will not function. This Background is actually a supernatural investment, drawing on the magic of the eldest Tzimisce sorcerers. Sabbat vampires who are not their pack‘s priests should have an outstanding reason for acquiring this Background, as Pack Priests are loath to share their secrets with more secular members of the Sect. Some example rituals include the Vaulderie (p. 288), as well as those presented in the Appendix (p. 507).
Status
You have something of a reputation and standing (earned or unearned) within the local community of Kindred. Status among Camarilla society is as often derived from your sire’s status and the respect due your particular bloodline as it is by personal achievement. Among the Sabbat, status is more likely to stem from the reputation of your pack or the zeal of your outlook. Elders are known for having little respect for their ju- niors; this Background can mitigate that somewhat.
High status within the Camarilla does not transfer to Sabbat society (and will most likely make you a notori- ous target for your Sect’s rivals), and vice versa. Simi- larly, Autarkis generally have zero Status, unless they have somehow garnered so much power and attention that they are considered forces to be reckoned with. You may have occasion to roll your Status in conjunc- tion with a Social Trait; this reflects the positive effects of your prestige.
Note that Caitiff characters may not purchase Status during character creation. Caitiff are the lowest of the low, and any respect they achieve must be earned dur- ing the course of the chronicle.
Anarch Information Exchange
Anarchs have learned to coordinate their efforts, owing largely to the technological advantages of computers and social networking with which they are proficient. This has led to an unparalleled advance in the exchange of information within the Anarch Movement. (By contrast, Kindred information about mortal society typically comes from Contacts — see p. 112 of V20.)
Characters with this Background may use this network to contact other Anarchs in order to learn information about specific vampires, local secrets, domain politics, or general rumors about the movements of other sects. The advantage of the Exchange is that it allows Anarchs to tap into information sources from a global reach. Each dot of this Background allows you to ask a single question once per game session. The Storyteller determines what amount and quality of information the Exchange can offer at a given time.
In some cases, the Kindred who make up the Information Exchange may not possess a given bit of information, or may not know it immediately. For example, the Exchange might know about the Prince of a domain, a number of rumors about her past, and even how to contact her, but it’s unlikely to have a detailed schematic of her haven. Extremely rare tidbits of lore or information might be known by a member of the Exchange, but could be considered to be too valuable to simply share. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and brotherhood and reputation can take you only so far. Under such circumstances, Anarchs may attempt a Manipulation + Subterfuge roll to mediate a deal for desired information. Alternatively, the Storyteller may allow you to spend two of your per-session usages of this Background for such rare or sensitive information. Types of information that can be found via the Anarch Information Exchange include:
Anarch Status
You have a reputation within the local community of Anarchs. Status among the Anarchs reflects memorable deeds and general popularity. Despite the intention of the Status Perfectus and other early Anarch manifestos, a hierarchy of who’s calling the shots has emerged in many Anarch domains, representing a maturing of the sect’s ideals (or a betrayal of them, depending on which Anarchs you’re speaking to).
You may have occasion to roll your Status in conjunction with a Social Trait; this reflects the positive effects of your prestige.
Armory
Your character has managed to amass a functional armory along with the ability to maintain all of the weapons within it. Each level of the Armory Background yields access to more potent weapons (along with proper ammunition) and the resources to properly maintain and clean them.
The scope of this Background varies a bit by region, as weapons-control laws differ. What an American can buy in a department store, for example, might be the sole domain of the military in Eastern Europe and available only via the black market in Brazil; players who wish to invest dots in Armory should consult with their Storytellers to determine how it will work in the chronicle’s locality. The Storyteller may require you to invest a few points in another Background (such as certain types of Influence or legal or military Allies) to prevent the Armory’s confiscation by the authorities. An Armory can vanish in a fraction of the time it took to amass it, especially if it ends up on the news or video-sharing sites with footage of a VAMPIRE BLOOD GANG MASSACRE down by the warehouses.
For more details on specific weapons, including game mechanics, see V20, pp. 280-281.
Communal Haven
Elders are often too selfish to consider the benefits of “cohabitation”; centuries of betrayal naturally generate a certain suspicious nature as it pertains to other vampires. Anarch packs that have learned the value of mutual cooperation and enlightened self-interest, however, sometimes establish Communal Havens for mutual security and comfort.
A Communal Haven is a secure location controlled and owned by the coterie. This is a place an Anarch who invests Background dots in it can lie low, train, and plan her next move. A Communal Haven could be as simple as an unfurnished apartment, as flashy as a mafioso’s penthouse, or as complex as a military base.
Of course, social conventions for the shared space might be complex or simple, depending on the personalities of the Kindred involved. Vampires sharing a Communal Haven can easily come into conflict unless some custom exists. Is it cool for Licks sharing the Communal Haven to offer it as crash space for others? Is it okay to bring blood dolls there? If something goes wrong, who’s in charge of disposing of the bodies or cleaning up the mess? Who takes care of keeping the location secret in the event that someone opens her goddamn mouth?
Note that this Background is different from the Domain and Resources Backgrounds. Typically, Domain is “turf,” while this is an actual Haven (which may well stand on contested domain…).
Players who elect to purchase this Background must divide their points among three different categories, described below.The purchase of this Background may be pooled as per the Background pooling systems on pages 118-119 of V20.
Luxury
Luxury is a measure of the quality of appointments inside the haven. The level of Luxury ranges from spare to opulent, corresponding closely to a Resources Background of equal value (see pp. 115-116 of V20).
Size
Size represents the amount of living space in the Communal. While the following breakdown gives suggested sizes and room counts, players are encouraged to be creative if they so wish — imagine an open warehouse layout of no true “rooms,” or a network of “under repair” blacked-out skywalks that have access points to various locations downtown.
Security
Security represents how tough it is to breach the haven. Each dot of Security either adds one to the difficulty of any roll made to penetrate the haven or adds one to the number of successes required to gain access. (Players and Storytellers should agree on this function before the story begins.)