DT: Attacking or Defending

Attacking

The first thing to determine when making an attack is the target. There are a variety of options, each with their own risks and rewards.

  • A specific attack against an asset that your character is aware of.

    This is a targeted attack which should only damage a single asset (unless there is a mishap), and the action can either be done publicly or stealthily.

    Attacks can be made directly by a character, through their mortal servants, or by using allies or - in rare cases - asking a faction to do so.

    The attack also requires a basic plan for how it will be undertaken - the more detailed the better - and the ST Team will then apply it as appropriate based on the character’s stats or those of their followers or the faction in question.

    The attack is not guaranteed to succeed; a test will be made against the asset being attacked to see whether it is damaged, destroyed, seized or emerges unscathed.

  • To make a general attack on an area which may include multiple assets or resources.

    This could be a village, a town, a geographical area, an outpost, a section of a city, a keep or even a whole city. The general aim of this attack is to damage everything in the area and so will likely have a significant amount of collateral damage if successful.

    This action can still be done either publicly or stealthily, although the chances of being able to maintain anonymity or prevent news of the attack travelling will be a lot more challenging without specific means of doing so.

    Attacks of this type normally require significant assets, allies or factions in order to levy the required forces (military, magical or other) in order to do something like this.

    It is possible for vampires to undertake this action themselves on smaller targets (eg. attempting to destroy an entire village personally) or for powerful vampires, or for a group of vampires to combine their powers or forces to attack a more significant target.

    Such actions are risky, and if they fail could cost those attacking a great deal. If your character is engaging in warfare or military actions then it would normally fall under this heading.

    The attack is not guaranteed to succeed, tests will be made against the area or domain, and the assets and resources within it may be damaged, destroyed, disabled, seized and/or emerge unscathed.

  • A more direct PVP action, to attack the backgrounds of another character.

    Normally this requires some knowledge of the nature of the character’s backgrounds; this could be gained from other characters, rumours, assets which provide information, or performing a successful investigation action targeted at a character or an area. Successful investigation actions may provide a range of information on another character and so may support multiple actions to attack another’s backgrounds and assets.

    Within the details of this action, the specific background to be targeted should be noted, along with the name of the character you believe it to be owned by. Then set out details of what forces your character is using to attempt to attack the background, and a basic plan on how this will be done.

    This action can be done either publicly or stealthily, but even if done stealthily the owner of the background will likely be aware that their background has been attacked - especially if the action is successful. .

  • To make a targeted attack against either an NPC or a PC.

    It is normally only against a single person, but could be used to attack multiple people if they are in the same place at the same time.

    As this may be a PVP action, it needs to have a clear and specific plan from the character(s) in question who are undertaking it, so that the ST team has a clear way to adjudicate the potential success or failure of the attack.

    The ST team will apply all relevant and active contingencies prior and during an attack as appropriate, and will play each of the characters involved to the best of our ability, attempting to make the best use of their various abilities and resources - but equally taking into account any deficiencies.

Within any attack plan we will need specific callouts on the following:

  • The specific plan and each character’s involvement and intended activities within it

  • Any intelligence or knowledge that the characters have which you think might be of use, regardless of whether they are using this within the plan or not. The ST team does not necessarily know what your characters do and do not know, and even if something is not part of the plan it may become relevant later.

  • If your character wishes to attempt to stake, Diablerise, capture or bring final death to their target. 

  • If your character intends capture, then there should be a clear description of what they intend to do with their captives afterwards

  • If your character is involved with an attack alongside multiple characters and intends on undertaking some form of treachery during the attack, then it needs to be specifically called out in the player’s downtime action for this attack.

Defending

With a defensive action, the character spends time protecting a domain. The character will need to specify what they are defending. This could range from something smaller like an item, location, haven, individual asset, or it could be something much larger, like a whole village or perhaps even a city. The larger or more complex the harder it will be to defend.

This action assumes that specific measures have been put in place by the character to maintain the defence over the DT period, so while the character themselves may not be the one defending it they may have assigned allies, assets or thralls to do so.

A description of the nature of the defence should be provided in the DT action by the player.