Page 126 - Chronicles of Darkness

light sources are dimmed and sounds distorted as though
underwater. Twilight isn’t an actual place, though, more a
description of how ephemera interacts — or fails to interact Supernatural Tolerance
— with material reality.
When in Twilight, only items, creatures, and phenomena Just as ephemeral beings possess Rank, many
that are also in Twilight and comprised of the same kind of supernatural creatures in the Chronicles of
ephemera can touch an ephemeral being. Attacks simply pass Darkness have “power level” traits of their own,
ranging from 1 to 10 dots. They all have slightly
through the Twilit being, and solid concrete and steel are no different rules, described in the appropriate
more hindrance than fog. rulebooks, but all share one quality; they are
The exception is ghost structures. Destroyed objects — added to Resistance Attributes when contesting
everything from a pen to a building — appear as after-images the dice pools of many supernatural powers.
in Twilight, formed of the same ephemera as ghosts. These The various supernatural traits, including Rank,
spiritual structures and items fade away on a timescale that are interchangeable for this purpose. When a
depends on how strongly they’re remembered. Famous struc- Numen in this chapter calls for “Supernatural
tures, or even obscure ones that are loved and thought about Tolerance” to be added to resistance, that’s
frequently after they’re destroyed, can last decades, solid and what it means.
substantial only to ghosts. Example: A vampire attempting to quell an angry,
If no ghostly structures get in the way, ephemeral beings in Manifested Angel attempts to use a hypnotic
Twilight can move at a walking pace in any direction. Gravity gaze. The power’s description in Vampire:
has no sway, though Twilit beings can only truly “fly” if it’s The Requiem calls for the activation dice pool
appropriate for their form — most hug the material terrain. to be contested by “Resolve + Blood Potency,”
A ghost could walk up the side of a tower block, for example, Blood Potency being the vampiric Supernatural
but couldn’t then float through midair to the next tower. Tolerance trait. The vampire’s dice pool is penal-
Some occultists and supernatural creatures practice Astral ized by the Spirit’s Resistance + Rank instead.
Projection, which allows a character to leave her body behind Example: A ghost attempts to use the Awe
and explore the world in an invisible form. These projected Numen (p. 136) on the first of two interlopers in
selves are technically in Twilight, but lack even ephemeral the now-abandoned house it owned in life. The
bodies so aren’t solid even to one another. Numen is contested by Presence + Composure +
Supernatural Tolerance, but the intruder is a mortal
Ephemeral Traits and doesn’t have a Supernatural Tolerance trait,
so just rolls the two Attributes. When the ghost at-
Ephemeral beings aren’t alive the way humans are alive. tempts to use the power on the second intruder the
They aren’t biological creatures, and don’t have the divides next turn, though, it discovers that she is actually a
between body, soul, and mind mortals and once-mortal su- mage; she adds Gnosis (the mage Tolerance trait)
pernatural beings possess. In game terms, ephemeral beings to her contesting dice pool.
are represented by simplified game traits.

Rank

All ephemeral beings have dots in an Advantage called
Rank, which notes how self-aware and powerful the entity

Rank

Rank* Trait Limits ** Attribute Dots Maximum Essence Numina
• 5 dots 5-8 10 1-3
•• 7 dots 9-14 15 3-5
••• 9 dots 15-25 20 5-7
•••• 12 dots 26-35 25 7-9
••••• 15 dots 36-45 50 9-11

* Each Rank levies a -1 modifier on attempts to forcibly bind that entity and acts as a Supernatural Tolerance trait.
** These represent permanent dots, not temporarily-boosted ones.

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Game Systems