Welcome to the first design blog for Requiem. We’re going to be outlining the changes we made for this chronicle, explaining why and giving some insight into the behind the scenes. To start off, we’re going to be showcasing the XP and Merits for the new chronicle and revealing why these decisions have been made.
XP
For this chronicle we’ve decided to lower the XP level, to help keep in-theme and allow characters to become established in their niche. Picking up secondary skills and characteristics will mostly be a matter of flavour, as opposed to trying to combine high-level effects from different trees.
In addition, we’ll be adopting a ‘rising floor’, giving XP regardless of attendance. Depending on whether you play a Neonate, Ancilla or Elder some of that XP is given to you upfront, resulting in less XP a month. By the end of the three-year arc, all characters will be on equal footing.
Neonates will receive 30xp at character creation, and gain 4xp a month. They begin at BP 1
Ancilla get 100xp at character creation and gain 2xp a month, beginning at BP3.
Elder characters receive 170xp at character creation, and none afterwards. Elders begin at BP 5.
This allows Neonates to grow and diversify as the chronicle progresses, while Ancilla have a slower growth and Elders have already hit their peak. There will also be restrictions based on character type, but these will be discussed in a later post.
Merits
We have shaken up which merits are available this chronicle for a variety of reasons, from XP ceilings to thematic clashes.
A few merits have been removed as they require Blood Potency higher than is reasonable in a low-xp environment- removing these merits helps to keep lists small and concise. Distant Sympathy, for example, was removed as it simply wasn’t going to come up in play.
Others have been removed as they don’t work well in LARP settings with the larger player-base, or could potentially shift the tone of the chronicle. Cacophony Listener was removed for these reasons, as it doesn’t tonally match smaller cities like Canterbury.
Other merits were removed as part of the Wellbeing drive, for mechanical fairness, and to reduce workload on the ST team.
No Longer in Play
Noble Heritage
Regnant
True Worm
Unyielding Mask
Vice over Virtue
Tomb
Carthian Pull
Cacophony Listener
Distant Sympathy
Inherited Ghoul
Remnant of Clarity
Requiem Diary
Taste of the Strange
Undead Menses
Carthian Lawyer
Torpor Connection
Speaker for the Eclipsed
Tap of the Torpid mind
Virtue’s Twin
This then leaves us with the following approved merits- note that this only covers VTR specific merits and not ‘mortal’ merits such as Resources or Eidetic Memory. Keep an eye out for possible additions later on. Note that a few Nosferatu merits have been cleared for general purchase. These relate to ghosts and, as we have several necromantic bloodlines approved, we thought these would make for fun inclusions.
Approved for Play
Bad Breeding
Close Listener
Doll Face
Dream Visions
Ghost Eater
Good Breeding
Herd
Inherited Resistance
Inhuman Resistance
Lordly Palette
Occultation
Of Rose and Thorn
Pack Blooded
Savage Kenning
Social Chameleon
Swarm Mind
Tenacious Consciousness
Vitae Connoisseur
Voyeur
Zeal
Carthian clique merits
Night Doctor Surgery
House Membership
Will of the Dynasty
Fontal Ritual
Crucible Ritual
Geomantic Nexus
Mind of the Inscrutable Hydra
Mind of the Unblinking Serpent
Mind of the Devouring Worm
Haunted Channel
Haunted Hand
Unliving Anchor
Altar
That’s all for now, but we’ll be putting out more posts in the following weeks. Thank you for reading, and stay safe!