Flaws

Physical Flaws

Your character has difficulty moving quickly or keeping up with those around them. They might be short, possess a club foot, have a hunchback, or walk with a limp.
They can move only two metres during combat instead of the standard three.
Your character’s sight is defective, they cannot see with acuity. You suffer a -2 penalty to all of your character’s Physical ranged attacks, and all Perception tests where sight is a key factor.
The one point version of this flaw is correctable with suitable lenses, which won’t be invented for another two and a half centuries.
Your character cannot see. Because of this they will automatically fail skill tests where sight is the primary factor.
They suffer a -5 penalty on all tests which have sight as a factor, but where they are may rely on other senses to compensate.
Some of these penalties may be alleviated through supernatural means such as Auspex.
Your character’s fangs are blunted, rather than being sharp like those of other vampires. As a result, their bite also does not invoke the Kiss, and they must feed through more vicious means. This makes it more difficult not to kill prey, and will affect feeding in both downtime and uptime.
In downtime, it will raise the difficulty of your character’s feeding roll by 1 if they are seeking not to kill their prey, and in uptime they will need to be careful not to significantly injure those they feed from.
Your character has trouble waking during the day, even in dangerous situations. Their Road is considered two lower for the purposes of staying awake during the day, and in determining the penalties they suffer during daylight hours.
Disease is a true terror in the Dark Ages, a blight from god that runs rampant from household to household. Perhaps your character was already diseased when they were Embraced, or perhaps a strange strain of a disease has managed to infect even your vampire’s necrotic body. Regardless, your character’s blood now carries a lethal and highly contagious disease.
This disease will not kill your character, but mortals whom they feed upon always contract this disease, and it is usually deadly. When your character feeds from a Stamina-focused mortal, the mortal recovers within five days. Other mortals always die. When your character feeds, they must make an additional medicine test to feed safely, or else they are knowingly murdering mortals by spreading this disease. If they do not feed safely they risk loss of Road, as though they have committed murder. If your character must feed during the game, they must spend twice as long to feed or they have not fed safely, immediately suffering this same penalty, and may take Stains.
Additionally, the disease your character possesses causes visible physical flaws on those nights in which they are unable to procure such fresh, untainted vitae safely. For example if they have smallpox, your character face will possess pock-like scars, while consumption will cause them to appear lacklustre and lethargic. In such a state, the character is at -1 for all Social Tests, and social contact can be difficult. No Kindred suffering from such an affliction should ever expect to be invited to an Elysium, and even the downtrodden try to avoid such a character.
Your character’s hearing is defective, they cannot hear with complete acuity. This can be dangerous under some circumstances, as they cannot rely on sound to warn of danger. They suffer a -2 penalty to Perception and Investigation test pools based on hearing.
By fate or misfortune you have lost one of your limbs. You will either not be able to perform the action if there is no conceivable way to achieve it without the limb, or suffer a -2 penalty to any action which should involve the limb. A missing leg will also apply a -2 penalty to the steps you can take in combat.
The vitae in your character’s veins is sluggish, and their control over their blood is imperfect at best. Although they are capable of forcing this blood to coalesce into flesh and heal their wounds, your character does so with great difficulty.
Each wound takes 2 turns to heal; vampires with Blood Efficiency higher than 1 may choose to use 2 levels of Blood Efficiency per wound to reduce this to the normal speed. This affects the Reflexive Healing action.
Something terrible happened to your character in their past. Perhaps they were struck by a potent Baali curse, or were injured, handicapped, denied social interaction, or suffered a psychologically damaging childhood.
Your character does not receive a Specialism in their highest attribute at character creation.
Some people are soft-hearted, others have a general squeamishness about blood. It’s possible that your character may even be bulimic. They have trouble keeping blood down after they feed.
Lose one success from any feeding check due to such squeamishness.

Mental Flaws

Your character suffers from an addiction to a substance, which must be present in the blood you drink. This can be anything common from the era, as listed below. Mechanically, a character’s addiction is broken down into one of several categories:
- Stimulants - Hemp
- Depressants - Alcohol, Opium
- Hallucinogens - Ergot Fungi, Wormwood, various others
When you take this flaw, you must choose one of these categories to represent your character’s addiction. You may take this flaw up to thrice, each time choosing a different kind of drug, and suffering all of the penalties.
At the start of the game, or anytime the character feeds, they receive the addiction’s penalty as shown below, for one hour:
- Stimulants - Your character has a -1 penalty to all Mental tests and all tests requiring coordination or mental dexterity.
- Depressants - Your character is agitated and will take a -1 penalty to willpower and resolve based defences for the next hour.
- Hallucinogens - Your character takes a -3 penalty to any Investigation or Perception test for the next hour. They may also have social consequences for the strange visions they experience.
When the character succumbs to Frenzy or Rötschreck, the character has no memory of their actions while the Beast was in control.
Your character feels the weight of the passing ages more than others.
Penalties from all Tolls which are at Progressing, Severe or Overwhelming, are one worse.
Your character is illiterate and has not been taught letters. They are unable to read or write in any language they may speak.
Your character rages at the world in general, not because of injustice or because they have a score to settle.
The truth is that they’re just always angry. They must get two successes to resist Frenzy, this does not apply for Rötschreck.
Brujah may not take this flaw.
Your Character’s domitor is very fond of Dominate. Your character often finds themselves having performed actions they have no memory of undertaking or performing instructions they have no memory of receiving.
Prior to each Session you will receive a collection of envelopes with certain conditions written on them. Should a condition be triggered, you will open the envelope and your character must perform the instructions as written on the card.
This is a Dominate effect and a result of long term conditioning by your Domitor, so you do not get a resistance roll.
Eternity has been harder for your character than others; though they would say they have lived more in the time they’ve had, others would say life has been difficult for them.
Your character has an additional Toll above the normal number they would have for their age. This can represent a variety of conditions and is for you and the storyteller to work out.

Social Flaws

Though accused of heresy in their past, your character was allowed to survive. They might have been a catspaw of Baali cultists, accused and cleared of worship of dark entities, or caught practising blasphemous rites. Your character was spared by the powers that be, despite this fatal error in judgement.
Now they are watched closely by the leaders of the Fief, and start the game with one less status. Additionally if they start behaving in a way that makes those in power think your character may have resumed their previous ways, punishment will fall heavily and swiftly.
Neonates with this flaw will be treated as if they are unreleased, and if their sire is not present, another Elder of the court will be made responsible for them.
Your character has a secret from their past, which would cause great embarrassment if uncovered by their enemies. If the secret is publicly revealed, you must buy off this flaw.
Like all flaws, remember that a Storyteller should not allow a Dark Secret that does not impact the character’s possible survival if it is revealed or that copies a difficulty inherent to the character type.
A character cannot have more than one Dark Secret.
Examples of Dark Secrets include:
- Isabella, a Lasombra, has betrayed her clan by teaching the secrets of Abyssal Mysticism to those outside the clan. If this were discovered, she would be under serious censure and risk death from her fellows.
- Celio has Diablerised several of his fellows over the years of his existence. If this were to come out his survival would be questionable, as he is barely tolerated by his court as it stands.
- Markus sold out the last Prince of Verona to Hardstadt, who sought to bring territory under the command of the Fiefs of the Black Cross from the Sea of Shadows. If this were to come out, those loyal to the old order would take vengeance, a situation Markus is desperately trying to avoid.
Your character owes a powerful NPC Elder a significant boon. For two points, they owe that Elder a Major Boon and for four points they owe them a Blood Boon.
Either way it is clear that sooner or later that Debt is going to come due and it isn’t going to be an easy task that will be called for.
Life has become far more exciting since your character’s Embrace... but sadly, they haven’t. They are prone to talk about bland things, and they don’t handle furore or emotional stimulation very well.
When others get passionate, your character boggles, harrumphs, and withdraws. This makes it difficult for them to express your deepest feelings and inner motivations.
Through some gross misstep or calculated betrayal in the past, your character has earned the enmity of a faction. Their influence standing with that faction may not rise above Disliked while this flaw is in play, and will start at Despised.
For a local faction, this flaw is 1 point. For regional it is 2, and for a global faction it is 3.
Your character’s name, face, and history are known to hunter organisations, werewolves, or an opposing group. If your character attracts attention, the hunters will come for them.
If they do not take active steps to throw the hunters off their trail, they will arrive to destroy your character either in session or in downtime.
Your character has an unreasoning dislike of a certain thing. This may be a clan, a bloodline, a type of creature, or a specific type of person.
They will persecute these individuals to the extent of their ability, even jeopardising alliances and their own reputation to see them besmirched. If forced to work with such a person, your character suffers a -2 penalty to all of their non-defensive test pools.
Note: this Flaw does not supercede the social contract for the game
Your character starts the game fully blood bound to a Non-Player Character. This may be secret or it may be publicly known and for very good reason, either way this Regnant treats your character poorly and will take every advantage of them.
Exactly how so will be left for you and the Storyteller team to agree during character creation.
Your character has been publicly mistaken for someone else of drastically different social status. This is easily remedied in most instances but it does get a little tiresome.
However, members of the court have trouble telling you and this other individual apart, and the actions of one will negatively impact the status of the other.
Your sire does not care for your character. The reason for this is up to you (or at least your best guess on why they don’t care for your character).
Whatever the reason, your Sire has not chosen to deliver upon you Final Death, only to rescind as much protection or assistance from them as they are able. If your Sire is in the same court as you, they may attempt to undercut or subvert you at every turn.
The sight of innocence arouses a terrible bloodlust in your character’s Beast.
It cannot stand the fact that such people exist, and you must seek to tarnish, corrupt, or destroy anything pure. If you cannot, then you risk frenzy.

Supernatural Flaws

Your Character’s is shunned by light in the oddest of ways. Either your character has no reflection at all (acting identically to the Lasombra flaw) or something is off about your character’s reflection, where it does match the body's movements or is twisted, perpetually in shadow or faded.
This makes it easy to identify you and also makes it difficult to hide your true nature. Lasombra may not take this flaw.
Your character is barely clinging to their Road. Their conviction is shot and beliefs are waning. As they do the Beast creeps in, making it harder to resist its call. The risk of Wassaildom is great, as your character can hear much more clearly both the howling and the seductive whispers of the Beast.
Your character only has two Tenets to their interpretation of their Road, and all of their sins have one additional point of stain. This makes it impossible to raise Road Rating above seven.
Your character radiates a conspicuous evil, one that catches mortal attention and leaves a lingering feeling of unease. Devout mortals, and mortal hunters with True Faith, automatically realise your character is a vampire.
They may be descended from a mortal lineage that historically interacted (interbred) with demons, they may be suffering under a demonic curse, or they may actually be an infernalist.
Any time your character uses a Discipline they have at 4 or 5, their aura shows the signs of infernal corruption. They cannot enter sacred sites such as churches, mosques, synagogues, or other places of worship.
Powers of faith, including the True Faith of mortal hunters and the powers of the Salubri, always deal an additional point of damage on a successful attack.
Your character is afflicted with an insidious vampiric disease that rots their blood, turning their veins and flesh a mildewed black. As putrid vitae moves through their veins this disease spreads, corrupting your character’s flesh in patchy rivulets of sodden mould.
Every time they drop down a step on the hunger track, your character takes a point of normal damage. This damage cannot be reduced or negated. Blood spent to heal does not trigger this effect.
This disease is not contagious but is very obvious and will likely have repercussions if your character is spotted suffering the effects by mortals.
Your character is inextricably bound to their domain. You must define a geographically fixed Asset of reasonable size as their home domain, to which the soil keyword will be added.
If this Asset is destroyed or they otherwise lose access for an extended period, your character halves all of their skills and traits until they can regain it or obtain a replacement.
If they wish to make extended journeys in greater safety, they may purchase this keyword for Assets they own in other areas that prevent the flaw from triggering in those areas.
Tzimisce may not take this flaw.
Your character cannot simply draw nourishment from the blood of mortals; they must also consume the victim’s heart, liver, and other blood-rich tissue. This requirement necessitates the deaths of all of their victims, which will make it very difficult to remain on certain Roads.
Characters with this flaw may eat raw flesh as though they had the merit Personal Masquerade. Characters with Conspicuous Consumption do not receive the other benefits of Personal Masquerade and cannot use it to eat normal food, only the flesh consumed while feeding.
Your character suffers from a minor supernatural curse, due perhaps to their karmic debt to the universe, or maybe an enemy with a twisted sense of humour. This curse is specific and detailed; it should relate to some archetypal flaw in your character, such as hubris.
Like all flaws, remember that a Storyteller should not allow a curse that does not meaningfully impact your character. A curse must be attached to a skill in which they possess at least 1 point.
When the curse is triggered, they receive a -1 penalty to test pools with that skill. You may purchase this flaw up to three times. Some examples:
- Caterina, a Brujah, inherited a curse from her Sire. He had imprisoned a demon who had cursed all his bloodline to be hounded by misfortune until it was freed. She is a linguist and a scholar, so when this curse manifests it becomes difficult for her to speak or communicate, impacting her Linguistics ability.
- Duran, a Ventrue of ill and malicious reputation, was cursed by a Witch he murdered on campaign. She cursed him to never find love. When dealing with people he has an attraction to, he takes a penalty to his Empathy.
Something has altered the course of your character’s unlife, consigning them either psychologically or supernaturally to a tragic end. Perhaps they have grown bored with eternity and subconsciously seek ways to end their existence, or maybe something they’ve done in the past has caused fate to become their enemy.
However it came to pass, your character’s end is near and they will not escape it easily. If your character ever falls into Involuntary Torpor or is staked, they instead meet their Final Death.
Your character’s sight never truly recovered from their death, and since their Embrace it has refused to accurately portray the world around them.
Everyone they see (mortal, vampire, or other) appears withered and dead. Buildings seem decrepit, and your character’s surroundings hold no beauty and no vibrancy. All of their Investigation pools are at a -1 penalty, and they cannot use the Auspex power of Aura Perception to determine a creature’s type. Lastly, they cannot visually tell the difference between a living person and a vampire.
Toreador may not take this flaw.
Your character’s flesh does not fully regenerate once it is damaged. While they are able to heal themselves to the point of full functionality, your character’s skin still retains cuts, tears, bullet holes, etc.
Every time they are hit by a Physical attack that does 2 or more points of damage, your character also suffers an immediate -1 penalty to your Physical attribute (to a maximum penalty of -5 and a minimum attribute of 1).
This penalty is not removed if they heal the damage; it remains until the character rests for a full day.
There is no ecstasy or pleasure in the Kiss when your character feeds; mortals suffer horrific agony from their bite. Your character must grapple their prey to ensure that they cannot escape. They also cannot close the wounds they cause after drinking others’ blood.
Feeding is more difficult, and feeding from a mortal counts as a stain if your character is on a Road which cares about such things.
Your character’s Embrace was a difficult one, and perhaps fate did not intend them to be a member of the clan that chose them. Your character has no skill with one of the native Disciplines of their clan.
You will require a teacher to learn this discipline and you must learn it at Out-of-Clan difficulty. You must purchase this flaw at character creation. There may be some narrative consequences from taking this flaw.
This flaw cannot be removed.
Your character’s vitae, while potent enough to produce both Ghouls and the Blood Bond, is not potent enough to create a childe. Anyone they try to Embrace perishes.
The greatest tragedy of this is many with this flaw do not know this is the case until they first try, and some continue to do so, convinced that their prospective progeny just wasn’t strong enough, leaving a trail of the dead in their wake.
This flaw cannot be removed by any methods openly spoken of in vampire society and is thus almost ubiquitous considered permanent; however, a few vampires whisper often conflicting tales of diablerie resolving this affliction.
Your character was recently sired by a 10th or 11th-generation vampire. Your character is considered to be part of an unofficial social step forming at the bottom of vampire society.
They still bear the distinctions and predilections of your clan, but are largely overlooked by elders, ancillae and even many 10th-Generation neonates. Your character has to shout twice as loud to be heard and work twice as hard to be noticed.
Neither entitles them to respect or responsibility, yet. It's a difficult era for your character; most of their generation has not yet arrived. When they do, perhaps things will be different.
Your character is of higher generation than the default for their age. If a Neonate takes this flaw, they are 12th generation. Ancilla who take this flaw are 11th generation. Elders cannot take this flaw.
In addition, your character’s generation is feared as a Harbinger of the end times, as—by the elder reckoning—it marks Caine’s blood growing thin, with each generation being weaker than the last. It is likely the elders have always feared the youngest, but in this age that ire falls on your character. Therefore there might be narrative consequences.
If a character with Lesser Generation diablerises and gains a generation that places them at the default point of their Generation background, their player must remove this flaw and repay its XP cost. This change occurs when a Neonate character diablerises and brings her generation from 11th to 10th, or when an Ancilla character diablerises from 10th to 9th generation.
Your character looks monstrous, twisted, disturbing and obviously inhuman. Unless disguised by some mystical means, they fail all tests that rely primarily on appearance except for those related to causing fear or disgust.
Nosferatu may not take this flaw.
Animals flock to your character’s presence, whether they want them to or not. These animals are of a distinctive species, and those who know to watch for such creatures can easily tell when your character is in the area. Their presence makes it fairly easy to track your character’s movements, locate their whereabouts, and potentially discover where they make their haven.
Your character has no capacity to control these creatures unless they use a power like Animalism on them - and even if your character does so, more will come to take the place of the ones sent away. When you choose this flaw, you must choose the species of animal.
These animals will not normally harm your character, though will attack in self-defence or if someone with Animalism directs them to do so. The animals can see through your character’s supernatural powers of concealment, making it impossible for your character to hide from them.
Something in your character;s psychology or religious beliefs prohibits them from hunting a certain type of mortal prey. They might refuse to feed on drug dealers, policemen, innocents, or Buddhists.
They gain no nourishment from such individuals. If your character witnesses other vampires feeding on the excluded prey, they must attempt to stop this defilement, violently if necessary. If they fail, they gain a stain.
Ventrue may not take this flaw.
Whenever weird stuff occurs, it happens to your character. They have terrible luck, and misfortune follows at their heels, tearing them down whenever it has an opportunity.
Whenever the Storyteller needs to randomly determine a negative result, such as determining which character is hit by a falling rock, or where the beat cop is patrolling at any given time, no test is made; your character always suffers the consequence of bad luck.