Page 93 - World of Darkness

of others and he becomes inured to greater acts of selfish- then assigning the severe one the next time your charac-
ness or violence. ters incurs another problem.
Example: Joan has a Morality of 7. Referring to the If a character descends so far that her Morality drops
chart, she does not risk degeneration unless she commits a to zero, she can no longer be played in any meaningful
deliberate act of petty theft or worse. She loses her job during way. She becomes a true monster, inflicting pain and suf-
play. Her savings run out and she is about to be thrown out fering on everyone around her without the slightest hint
of her apartment. One evening she walks downtown and of remorse and no hope of redemption. At that point con-
notices that someone has left their wallet in their open car. trol of the character passes to the Storyteller.
Desperate, she reaches through the car window and steals the
wallet. This crime (petty theft) is equal to the threshold of Virtues and Degeneration
her current Morality, so a degeneration roll must be made to It’s important to note that Virtues (explored later in
determine if Joan loses a Morality point. Petty theft allows this chapter) are not extensions of a character’s Morality.
for a roll of four dice. Rather, they are ideals that inform his actions and provide a
If Joan had committed an impassioned crime such as framework by which he interacts with society. Thus, it’s pos-
manslaughter to get some money (a sin more severe than sible for a character to commit ostensibly immoral acts in
what Joan’s 7 Morality can tolerate), her player would have the pursuit of his Virtue. This doesn’t excuse the immorality
rolled three dice to see if Joan suffered degeneration. of a particular act, but the character may be able to rational-
ize the deed as a necessary one in pursuit of a higher pur-
As a character’s Morality slips ever lower, she becomes
more deranged and perhaps more of a monster, capable of pose, and thus avoid compromising his ethics.
virtually any depraved act. When a Morality point is lost If your character commits an immoral act in pursuit
because of a sin perpetrated, roll your character’s new Mo- of his defining Virtue, the Storyteller may allow you to
rality trait as a dice pool. If the roll succeeds, she finds some add a +1 modifier to your degeneration roll. Higher modi-
kind of balance or existence at her new state of spiritual and fiers are possible if the Storyteller feels that your charac-
ethical standing. If the roll fails, she manifests a derange- ter is compelled to sin in order to uphold his Virtue, but
ment. Derangements are mental and emotional ailments or should never rise higher than +3.
conditions, in this case brought on by your character’s stress, Example: Raphael is at home one night and hears a fight
grief or even remorselessness over acts performed. Derange- break out in his front yard. He lives in a dangerous part of
ments are detailed at length later in this chapter. town, so he gets his pistol and opens the front door to see what’s
If your character develops such a condition, you and going on. He sees a car at the curb, its engine running, and a
the Storyteller can decide which is appropriate based on the man and woman screaming at one another by his mailbox. As
circumstances. An avoidance condition might set in when- Raphael takes all this in, the man pulls a gun from his waist-
ever your character enters a situation that reminds her of band and shoots the woman in cold blood. Reacting in shock
the sin she committed. If she decided to harm a child and and outrage, Raphael shoots the man, killing him instantly.
paid the emotional price, being around children thereafter Raphael’s Morality is 6. His defining Virtue is Justice.
might cause her to escape. Note that the conditions detailed The act of manslaughter demands a degeneration roll, but
later each have a mild and severe form. Your character prob- the act was mandated by Raphael’s Virtue, so the Storyteller
ably starts with a mild ailment in any new derangement, decides the roll is made with a +1 modifier.
unless something horribly traumatic occurs and you feel that
she should descend directly into a severe problem. Regaining Morality
On your character sheet, write the derangement
gained on the line associated with the Morality trait to It’s possible to reverse your character’s slide into dam-
which she has fallen. If your character manifests a fixa- nation and insanity through concerted effort and contri-
tion when she drops from 6 to 5 Morality, write “Fixa- tion. The road is long and difficult, though.
tion” on the line associated with 5 Morality. A character’s Morality trait can be increased prima-
Example: Let’s say that the degeneration roll made for rily by spending experience points, but Morality can be
Joan’s theft fails. The four dice turn up no successes. That increased by only one point at any given time. See p. 35
means her Morality drops from 7 to 6. A check must now be for the experience points required to achieve each Moral-
made to see if she suffers mental or emotional damage for her ity rating. Storytellers are encouraged to require that char-
sin. Her player rolls her new Morality of 6 as a dice pool, with acters demonstrate the desire to redeem themselves with
a 1, 3, 3, 5, 6 and 7 as the result. No successes. That means concrete acts of contrition before a Morality increase is
Joan does indeed manifest a derangement. The player and warranted. A good rule of thumb is to encourage charac-
Storyteller decide that Joan exhibits depression, and that’s ter actions that aspire to the highest level of Morality that
entered on the line next to 6 Morality on her character sheet. the player wants his character to attain. A moral exist-
ence is much more about the journey than the destina-
Repeated degeneration and Morality rolls that fail tion, after all. Typically, the best time to allow experience
cause your character to incur more and more or worse and points to be spent on increasing Morality is at the end of
worse conditions. If you want to minimize the diversity of a story, but exceptions can always be made for significant
ailments that she manifests, focus on increasingly intense character actions between chapters or even scenes.
ones, acquiring the mild form of any condition first and
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Chapter 4- ADVANTAGES