Talents describe what you intuitively know, what you can do without coaching or instruction. The only way to improve your Talents is through direct experience—with the exception of a very few cases (such as studying a text on Jeet Kune Do to learn a dot or so of brawl.) These things cant be learned from a book or mail order courses. If you try an action involving a talent your character doesn't possess, there is no penalty to your basic Attribute dice pool, these Abilities are so intuitive that virtually every one has some degree of capacity in each one.
ALERTNESS
This is your basic knack for noticing things that go on around you, even when you are not actively looking for them. Alertness describes the attention you pay to the outside world, whether otherwise occupied or not. This Talent is typically paired with Perception and is best when used when sensing physical stimuli (opposed to Moods or clues).
* Novice: Your are no mindless drone.
** Practiced: Habitual eavesdropper.
*** Competent: You keep a sharp eye on your surroundings.
**** Expert: Whether from paranoia or good sense, you are rarely caught off guard.
***** Master: Your senses are on par with a wild animal.
Possessed by: Hunters, Security Personnel, Journalist, Burglars.
Specialties: Noises, Eaves dropping, Ambushes, Hidden Weapons, Crowds, Forests, Animals.
ATHLETICS
This Talent represents your basic athletic ability, as well as any training you might have had in sports or other rigorous activities. Athletics concerns all forms of running, swimming jumping throwing sports and the like, however it does not cover basic motor function such as lifting weights, nor does it govern athletic feats covered by another ability (Such as Melee).
* Novice: You had an active childhood.
** Practiced: High school athlete
*** Competent: Professional Athlete
**** Expert: Top Notch in your sport.
***** Master: Olympic Athlete
Possessed by: Athletes, Enthusiast, Park Rangers, Jocks, Kids.
Specialties: Swimming, Rock climbing, Acrobatics, Dancing, Endurance Running, Specific Sports.
BRAWL
The Brawl Talent represents how well you fight in tooth and nail situations. This talent represents skill in unarmed combat, whether from formal martial arts training or simply from plenty of experience - Either type can make you a dangerous adversary. Effective brawlers are coordinated, resistant to pain, quick, strong and mean, The willingness to do whatever it takes to hurt your opponents win plenty of fights.
* Novice: You were picked on as a kid.
** Practiced: You have seen the occasional bar-room tussle.
*** Competent: You fought regularly and routinely, and generally walked away in better shape then your opponents.
**** Expert: You could be a serious contender on a boxing circuit.
***** Master: You can kill three men in four seconds.
Possessed by: Military, Police, Roughnecks, Thugs.
Specialties: Boxing, Wrestling, Dirty Fighting, Kicks, Karate, Judo, Muay Thai, Throws, Submission Holds.
DODGE:
The first rule of Self Preservation, this Talent covers your ability to avoid blows, Missile fire or even oncoming cars. Dodge entails taking cover, ducking punches or any other methods of getting out of the way.
* Novice: You can reflexively duck and cover your head.
** Practiced: You have weathered a self-defense class.
*** Competent: You can evade thrown rocks maybe even a knife.
**** Expert: It would take a skilled brawler to land a punch
***** Master: You can virtually sidestep bullets on open ground.
Possessed by: Police, Criminals, Brawlers, Boxers, People in bad neighborhoods.
Specialties: Cover, Sidestep, Footwork, Leap.
EMPATHY
You understand the emotions of others and can sympathize with, feign sympathy for, or play on such emotions you see fit. You are an easy hand at discerning motive, and might be able to pick up on when someone is lying to you. However, you may be so in tune with others feelings that your own emotions may be effected.
* Novice: You lend the occasional shoulder to cry on.
** Practiced: You can sometimes literally feel someone else's suffering.
*** Competent: You have keen insight into other peoples motivations.
**** Expert: It is almost impossible to lie to you.
***** Master: The human soul conceals no mysteries from you.
Possessed by: Social Workers, Parents, Actors, Psychologists, Detective, Seducers, Mediums, Best Friends
Specialties: Emotions, Personalities, Motives, Gaining trust.
EXPRESSION
This is your ability to get your point across clearly, whether through conversation, poetry or even email. Characters with high Expression can phrase their opinions or beliefs in a manner that cannot be ignored (even if their opinions are misinformed or worthless). They might also be talented actors, skilled at conveying moods or feigning emotion with every gesture. Additionally, this Talent represents your ability for poetry, creative writing or other literary art forms.
* Novice: Your talent has matured past crude poetry on notebook paper.
** Practiced: You could lead a college debate team.
*** Competent: You could be a successful writer.
**** Expert: Your work is Pulitzer material.
***** Master: A visionary such as yourself comes along only once in every generation.
INTIMIDATION
Intimidation takes many forms, from outright threats and physical violence to mere force of personality. You know the right method for each occasion, and can be very….persuasive.
* Novice: Crude teenage bully
** Practiced: Mugger
*** Competent: Drill sergeant
**** Expert: Your air of authority cows casual passersby.
***** Master: You can frighten off vicious animals.
LEADERSHIP
You are an example to others and can inspire them to do what you want. Leadership has less to do with manipulating people's desires than it does with presenting yourself as the sort of person they want to follow. This Talent is usually paired with Charisma rather than Manipulation.
* Novice: Captain of your Little League team
** Practiced: Student body president
*** Competent: An effective CEO
**** Expert: Presidential material
***** Master: You could be the lord and master of a nation.
STREETWISE
The streets can provide a lot of information or money to those who know the language. Streetwise allows you to blend in unobtrusively with the local scene, pick up gossip, understand slang or even dabble in criminal doings.
* Novice: You know who sells drugs.
** Practiced: You're accorded respect on the street.
*** Competent: You could head your own gang.
**** Expert: You have little to fear in even the worst neighborhoods.
***** Master: If you haven't heard it, it hasn't been said.
SUBTERFUGE
You know how to conceal your own motives and project what you like. Furthermore, you can root out other people's motives, then use those motives against them. This Talent defines your talent for intrigue, secrets and double dealing; mastery of Subterfuge can make you the ultimate seducer, or a brilliant spy.
* Novice: You tell the occasional little white lie.
** Practiced: Vampire
*** Competent: Criminal lawyer
**** Expert: Deep-cover agent
***** Master: You're the very last person anyone would suspect.
Skills are Abilities learned through training, apprenticeships or other instructions. If you try to preform an action involving a skill in which you have no rating, your difficulty is increased by one. An unskilled worker just isn't as effective as someone who might have a lower attribute but an understanding of what the procedure entails.
ANIMALKEN
You can understand animals behavior patterns. this skill allows you to predict how an animal might react in a given situation, train a domesticated creature, or even try calm or enrage animals.
* Novice: You can get a domesticated horse to let you pet it.
** Practiced: You can house break a puppy
*** Competent:You can train a seeing eye dog.
**** Expert: Circus Trainer
***** Master: You can tame wild beasts without benefit of super natural powers.
Possessed by: Animal Trainers, farmers, Zookeepers, Park Rangers, Pet Owners, Domitors.
Specialties: Dogs, Attack Training, Big Cats, Horses Farm Animals, Falconry.
FIREARMS
Executing a mortal with a sword starts investigations. Clawing someone to ribbons shakes the edges of the masquerade. So Cainites adapt, and many have devoted their energies to learning how to kill with a gun. This skill represents familiarity with a range of firearms, from holdout pistols to heavy machine guns. Of course this skill doesn't include heavy artillery, such as mortars or tank guns. However, someone skilled in firearms can clean, repair recognize and accurately fire most forms of small arms.
* Novice: You had a BB gun when you were a kid.
** Practiced: You while away the occasional hour at the gun club.
*** Competent: You survived a firefight or two.
**** Expert: You could pick off people for a living.
***** Master: You have been practicing since the debut of the Winchester.
Possessed by: Sabbat, Policeman, Military Personnel, Survivalists, Hunters.
Specialties: Fast Draw, Gun-smithing, Pistols, Sniping, Revolvers, Shotguns.
SECURITY
This skill entails familiarity with the tools and techniques for picking locks, deactivating car or house alarms, hot-wiring automobiles or even safe-cracking, as well as countless forms of breaking and entering. Security is useful not only for the thief but as for setting up security systems, or deducing where the thief broke in.
* Novice: You can pick a simple lock.
** Practiced: You can hot-wire a car.
*** Competent: You can bypass or disable house alarms.
**** Expert: You can crack a safe.
***** Master: You can get a bomb out or into a Pentagon.
Possessed by: Thieves, Security Consultants, Policeman
Specialties: Safe-cracking, hot-wiring, Electrical alarms. Deadbolts.
CRAFTS
This skill covers your ability to make of fix things with you hands. Craft allows you to work in fields such as carpentry, leather-work, weaving or mechanical expertise such as car repair. You can even create lasting works of art with this skill, depending on the number of successes you achieve. You must always choose a specialization in crafts, even though you retain some skill in multiple fields.
* Novice: High school work shop.
** Practiced: You are starting to develop you own style.
*** Competent: You could make a living out of your work.
**** Expert: Your work might be featured in college-level textbooks for your field.
***** Master: Your artistry is virtually without peer.
Possessed by: Mechanics, Carpenters, Plumbers, Artisans, Designers, Inventors.
Specialties: Pottery, Sewing, Home Repairs, Appraisal.
ETIQUETTE
You Understand the nuances of proper behavior, in both mortal society and Kindred culture. Your specialty is this culture with which you are most familiar. This skill is used during haggling, seduction, dancing, dinner etiquette and all forms of diplomacy.
* Novice: You know when to keep your mouth shut.
** Practiced: You have been to a black tie event.
*** Competent: You know your way around obscure silverware.
**** Expert: Her Majesty would consider you charming.
***** Master: If the right people came to dinner, you could end wars or start them.
Possessed by: Diplomats, Travelers, High Society, Executives.
Specialties: Formal Dinners, Business, Street Culture, Kindred Society.
MELEE
As the Kindred maxim runs, Guns mean nothing to a lifeless heart, A blade is often worth far more, as is a skill to use it properly. Melee covers your ability to use hand to hand weapons of all forms, from swords to clubs to esoteric martial arts paraphernalia such as sai or nun-chucks. And of course, there is always the utility of the modern stake…
* Novice: You know the right way to hold a knife.
** Practiced: You may have had the occasional street fight.
*** Competent: you could make a college fencing team.
**** Expert: You could keep order in the princes court.
***** Master: You enemies would rather face a SWAT team rather then your blade.
Possessed by: Assassins, Gang Members, Martial Artists, Police, Medieval Buffs.
Specialty: Axes, Swords, Improvised Clubs, Stakes, Disarms, Axes.
PERFORMANCE
The performance skill governs your ability to preform artistic endeavors such as singing, dancing, acting or playing a musical instrument. You are almost certainly specialized in one field, although true virtuosos may be talented in many forms of performance. This skill represents not only technical know how, but the ability to work an audience and enrapture them with your show.
* Novice: you can sing in a church choir.
** Practiced: You could get a leading part in a college production.
*** Competent: You are in demand at the local clubs.
**** Expert: You have talent to be a national sensation.
***** Master: You are a virtuoso without peer.
Possessed by: Musicians, College Students, Actors, Mimes.
Specialties: Dancing, Singing, Rock and Rolls, Acting.
DRIVE
You can drive a car and maybe other vehicles as well. This skill does not automatically entail familiarity with complicated vehicles such as tanks or 18 wheelers, and difficulties may vary depending on your experience with individual automobiles. After all, Helming a station wagon doesn't prepare you for controlling a lotus at 100 Miles per hour.
* Novice: You know how to work an automatic transmission
** Practiced: You can drive a stick shift.
*** Competent: Professional truck driver.
**** Expert: Nascar Driver, daredevil or Pilot.
***** Master: You can make a Yugo do tricks out of a James Bond movie.
Possessed by: Cabbies, Taxi Drivers, Race Car Drivers, Most residents of the western world.
STEALTH
This skill is the ability to avoid being detected, whether you are in hiding or moving at the time. Stealth is often tasted against someones else's Perception. This ability is for obvious reasons, highly useful in stalking prey.
* Novice: You can hide in a darkened room.
** Practiced: You can shadow someone from streetlight to streetlight.
***Competent: You have little difficulty finding prey from evening to evening.
**** Expert: You can move quietly over dry leaves.
*****Master: Nosferatu Elder
Possessed by: Burglars, Assassins, Kindred, Spies, Reporters, Commandos.
Specialties: Hiding, Silent Movement, Shadowing, Crowds.
SURVIVAL
Although vampires have little to fear from starvation and exposure, the wilderness can still be dangerous to a Cainite. This Skill allows you to find shelter, navigate your way to civilization, track prey and possibly even avoid werewolves (although this last is exceedingly difficult).
* Novice: You can survive a five-mile hike.
** Practiced: You "roughed it" on a regular basis.
*** Competent: You know poisonous mushrooms from edible ones.
**** Expert: You could live for months in the wilderness of your choice.
***** Master: You could get dropped naked into the Andes and do all right for yourself.
Knowledges involve the application of the mind, not the body; consequently, Knowledge Abilities are most often paired with mental traits. It is possible to roll charisma+ Academics or Stamina + Medicine but its pretty rare). The following descriptions speak of knowledge levels in collegiate terms, although formal schooling is just one way to improve knowledge.
If you don't have any dots in knowledge, you cannot even attempt to roll involving it unless the storyteller gives it explicit permission. If you don't know Spanish, you cant try holding a conversation in Espagnol on your wits alone.
ACADEMICS
This catch-all knowledge covers the character's erudition in the "humanities": Literatures, art, philosophy and other "liberal" sciences. A character with dots in academics is generally well rounded in these fields and at high levels may be considered an expert in one or more areas of study. Not only can this knowledge impress at salons and other Elysium functions but it can also offer valuable clues to certain past and future movements in Jihad.
* Student: You are aware that 1066 is something more than a Beverly hills area code.
** College: You can quote from the classics, identify major cultural movements, and expound on the difference between Ming and Moghul.
*** Masters: You could get a paper published in a school journal.
**** Doctorate: Professor emeritus.
***** Scholar: Scholars world wide acknowledge you as the foremost expert in your time.
Possessed by: Professors, Literati, Trivia Buffs, Elders.
Specialties: Post-structuralism, Impressionist Painting.
COMPUTER
This knowledge represents the ability to operate and program computers, as well as the savvy to keep up with the latest technology.
* Student: Point and click.
** College: You can process data with relative ease
*** Masters: You can design software.
**** Doctorate: You make a very comfortable living as a consultant.
***** Scholar: You are on the bleeding edge.
Possessed by: Hackers, Office Workers, Programmers, Students.
Specialties: Computer Language, Internet, Code Breaking, Viruses, Data Retrieval.
INVESTIGATION
You have learned to notice details others might overlook, and might make an admirable detective. This knowledge represents not only for a good eye for detail, but also the ability to do research and follow leads.
* Student: You have read your share of Agatha Christie.
** College: Police officer
*** Masters: Private Detective
**** Doctorate: Federal Agent
***** Scholar: Sherlock Holmes.
LAW
With all thee lawyers and law makers out there, this knowledge can prove very useful. Law can be useful for filing suit, avoiding lawsuits or getting out of jail. What's more, even the Kindred keep their own laws and more than one vampire has saved his own skin by deftly explaining a loophole in one of the traditions.
* Student You have watched your share of courtroom dramas.
** College: You're either studying or just passed the bar exam.
*** Masters: Ambulance chaser
**** Doctorate Major public figures have your number, just in case.
***** Scholar: You could find the loopholes in the devils contract.
Possessed by: Lawyers, Police, Judges, Detectives, Legislators.
Specialties: Criminal, Suits, contracts, Police procedure.
LINGUISTICS
You begin play with the native tongue of your choice for free, but if you want to speak any other languages, whether modern or ancient, Linguistics is a must. This ability allows you to understand additional languages, but at high levels also offers a more general understanding of linguistic structure. Linguistics may help to recognize accents or solve word puzzles.
* Student: One extra language
** College: Two extra languages
*** Master: Four extra languages
**** Doctorate: Eight extra languages
***** Scholar: Sixteen extra languages
MEDICINE
You have an understanding of how the human body and to a lesser extent how the vampire body works. This ability entails Knowledge of medicine, ailments first aid procedures and diagnostics or treatment of diseases. Medicine is of great use to those kindred with an interest in repairing, damaging or networking the human body.
* Student: You have taken a CPR course.
** College: Premed or paramedic
*** Masters: General practitioner
**** Doctorate: You can perform transplants.
***** Scholar: You are respected by the worlds medical community as a modern Aesculapius.
Possessed By: Med Student, Doctors, lifeguards, Tzimisce.
Specialties: organ transplant, emergency care, poison treatments, pathology.
OCCULT
You are knowledgeable in occult areas such as mysticism, curses, magic, folk-law and particularly vampire lore. Unlike most other knowledges, Occult does not imply a command of hard, factual information: much of what you know may well be rumor, myth, speculation or heresy. However the secrets to be learned in this field are worth centuries of sifting legend from fact. High levels of occult imply a deep understanding of vampire lore, as well as good grounding in other aspects of the occult, at least you can discern what is partly false.
* Student: You've paged through the New Age section of a Waldenbooks.
** College: There seems to be some unsettling truth to some of the rumors you've heard.
*** Masters: You've heard a lot and actually seen a little for yourself.
**** Doctorate: You can recognize blatantly false sources and make educated guesses about the rest.
***** Scholar: You know most of the basic truths about the hidden world.
Possessed by: Occultists, the Superstitious, New Agers, Tremere.
Specialties: Kindred Lore, Rituals, Infernalism, Witches.
POLITICS
You are familiar with the politics of the moment, including the people in charge and how they got their. This knowledge can aid you in dealings with or influencing mortal politicians, or even some insight into the Kindred power structure.
* Student: Activist
** College: Political Science major.
*** Masters: Campaign manager or talk radio host
**** Doctorate: Senator
***** Scholar You could choose the next President of the United States.
Possessed by: Activist, Politicians, Lawyers, Vampire of all sorts.
Specialties. City, state, federal, bribery, dogma, Radical, Camarilla.
FINANCE
You know the ins and outs of commerce, from evaluating an item's relative worth to keeping up to date with currency exchange rates.This knowledge can be invaluable when brokering items, running numbers or playing the stock market. Sufficiently high levels of finance allows you to raise your standards of living to a very comfortable level.
* Student: You have taken a few business classes.
** College: You have some practical experience and can keep your books fairly neat.
*** Masters: You would make a fine stock broker.
**** Doctorate: Corporations follow your financial lead.
***** Scholar: You could turn a 20 dollar bill into a fortune.
Possessed by: Executives, Upper class, Stock Brokers, smugglers, Finance, Drug Dealers.
Specialties: Stock Market, Laundering, Foreign Currency, Accounting.
SCIENCE
You have at least a basic understanding of most of the physical sciences such as chemistry, biology, physics and geology. This knowledge can be put to all forms of practical use.
* Student: You know most of the high school basics.
** College: Your familiar with the major theories.
*** Masters: You can teach high school science.
**** Doctorate: You are fully capable of advancing the knowledge of your field.
***** Scholar: Your noble prize is waiting for you
Possessed by: Scientists, students, teachers, engineers, Pilots.
Specialties: Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy
