Humanity Proposal (Outdated)

For this rule, we presume that both players and storyteller are acting “in good faith”. That is, players aren't deliberately trying to game the system or gain advantages, players don't sabotage one another and the storyteller isn't trying to 'screw over' the players. As such, when we describe conflict or disagreement, we presume that all parties involved are acting in one another's, and in the games best interests, simply disagreeing over what is in this best interest.

Every vampire has a feral, predatory nature that drives it to satisfy its lust for blood, to protect itself from harm, to protect its ego as well as those things and people that it considers 'his'. Called 'the Beast' by some Kindred of the Camarilla, it represents an urge to steal, torture and murder for these causes. A frenzy is what happens when the Beast temporarily takes over completely, but even when a vampire is not frenzying it will be exposed to the Beasts' desires. Vampires are thus always at risk of becoming mindless animals, enslaved by their most base desires.

Path ratings measures how close a vampire is to the complete and permanent takeover by the Beast. Vampires with high path rating are better able to resist the Beasts' suggestions of mindless destruction or petty selfishness in favour of some other moral code (the path).

Path ratings may change for the worse when a vampire steals, kills or tortures because they 'give in' and become closer to the selfish, violent nature of the Beast. When they lose path rating by the process described below, they accept these urgings and live with them. If not, they recognise that this behaviour is 'wrong' and try to be a different, better person by some standard of 'better' that does not involve giving in to the Beasts' desires. Humanity may also be (re)gained if a vampire is reforming according to its own moral code (path).

Each path has a 'Hierarchy of Sins', which is used as a guideline for determining the appropriateness of given actions for a characters' level of the path. Intent and outcome both play a role in judging the impact of an action on humanity, including negligence.

Like bloodpool and willpower, path-ratings (such as humanity) have two values, the ceiling value and the current value. The current value and ceiling at character creation are determined using the regular rules from the Vampire book and start as the same value (i.e. current humanity is equal to the ceiling)

The ceiling value of the path-rating can be raised by spending experience points, up to a maximum of 10, following the regular rules for humanity and experience.

The current values of path-ratings can rise or fall based on the actions of the character in relation to the path they are on, but may never go above the ceiling. For a path-rating to rise, a pattern of more ethical behaviour (by the views of the chosen path) needs to be established over time - a single act of kindness is not enough. For a path-rating to fall, a single evil act can be enough, and a pattern of less ethical behaviour (by the views of the chosen path) can also make a case.

By default the issue of rising on a path is raised at the start or end of the session and the issue of lowering on a path is discussed at the end of the scene in which an action took place.

The outcome of the discussion can be one of four - either there is consensus that the path-rating of the character should be modified (in which case it is), there is consensus that the path-rating of the character should not be modified (in which case it isn't), there is consensus that the matter is unclear and a roll should be made to determine the modification of the path rating, or no consensus could be reached.

If no consensus is reached, the status quo is maintained - however, a previous discussion which did not reach consensus should suggest the pattern going in a certain direction which may be an argument in a later discussion.

The basic path used is Humanity. There are other ways of dealing with the 'Beast', all of which are strongly discouraged by the Camarilla hierarchy. The exact method by which a character can change to a different path will be detailed at another time.

Alternative paths use their own 'Hierarchy of Sins' as a guideline for determining the appropriateness of given actions and are otherwise treated along the rules above. The ceiling value for a character's path rating is maintained even if the character changes to a different path (and as such, any XP invested can be kept). The details of how the current value is handled will be decided at another time.

“The Trait of Humanity is (..) a moral code that allows Kindred to retain their mortal sensibilities in the face of their transformation into parasitic monsters. In essence, it is what keeps a vampire from becoming a mindless animal, enslaved by her thirst for vitae” - Humanity in the book

This description, from the Vampire book, sketches Humanity as a method of judging how far a vampire has traversed from a human being into a bloodthirsty beast. To determine how to handle humanity, we must understand the nature of humanity at a deeper level.

For this document, we presume that both players and storyteller are acting “in good faith”. That is, players aren't deliberately trying to game the system or gain advantages, players don't sabotage one another and the storyteller isn't trying to 'screw over' the players. As such, when we describe conflict or disagreement, we presume that all parties involved are acting in one anothers and in the games best interests, simply disagreeing over what is in this best interest.

Before we continue, let me introduce three terms, ethics, morals and the super-ethos. Each term relates to “right” and “wrong” conduct. We will examine these three and how they interact with Humanity.

Morality in this context is the individualistic view of right and wrong, ethics is the external judgement or the “rules” or right and wrong, and the super-ethos is a theoretical ethical system which is perfect in every way - the ethics of God, as it were.

Based on these three, we can formulate different systems of humanity, which suggest different idea's for how to handle experience and cases such as frenzy and domination. We also include paths in our design.

A morality based humanity system uses humanity to determine how well the characters actions match the characters beliefs about right and wrong. A humanity 9 character might, on occasion, eat a cookie despite being on a diet, while a humanity 1 character may rape a child despite knowing it is wrong. If the pedophile believes raping children is normal and acceptable, they might have humanity 9 regardless.

Each vampire in this model has their own custom made path, usually based upon a path listed in the book. Each level of the path indicates roughly how far beyond their moral code of right and wrong a vampire with a certain humanity would go, and provides both the player and the storyteller with a generic idea of scale. As a point of elegance, this means the rules for “humanity” are universally applied and no different system is necessary for different paths.

In this system, humanity should be adjudicated by the player of the character - they, after all, are in the best position to judge what is and what is not acting in accordance with the characters morality. The task of the storyteller in this would be to act as a neutral observer, providing guidance where required, based on the characters chosen, personalised path. Thus, the story teller may ask the player “Do you feel this lies within the moral ideals of your character?”.

In many cases, it may be better to wait until after a scene has concluded, perhaps even to the next session, to ask a players judgement. That way, the “heat of the moment” will have passed and it will help the player adjudicate the matter from a neutral point of view. In case of doubt, the stortyeller can even suggest rolling a check. However, ultimate responsibility remains with the player, even if the storyteller disagrees and even if the dice come up differently.

In a morality based system, intent is key to the morality of an action. Though negligence plays a role, in principle the characters intentions are central, even if the consequences are bad. If a character is controlled by an outside force, for example while dominated, the characters humanity would not be affected - someone else controlled the characters actions and the character is not to blame. In fact, the controller would need to look at their morality to see if the actions are justified.

As a special case, however, if the character is controlled by an inner force, for example while frenzied (or if they volunteered to be dominated to do something), the character's humanity would be affected, since the motivator is internal and part of them.

In this system, humanity should probably be left mostly independent of the rest of the rules, as the value is determined by the player and by certain dice checks only. As such, an XP cost for raising humanity is not advised. This also means a storyteller does not have the ability to reward or punish with points of humanity.

An ethics based humanity system uses humanity to determine how well the characters actions match with an external system of rules within a society. A humanity 9 character might litter if there is no trashcan in sight, while a humanity 1 character might blatantly murder people who get in his way. Even if the character believes in the justice of his actions, society would not approve of the blatant murder, so the act would be unethical and therefore worthy of humanity 1.

Paths in this model represent the moral codes of various social groups and always belong to a culture, religion or other social group. The levels of the path indicate how far beyond the moral code of society a vampire with a certain humanity would go, and provides a prescription of expected behaviour for the player and storyteller.

In this system, humanity should be adjusted in collaboration between the players and the storyteller, who together form the social group. Thus, players and storyteller may discuss if a certain actions were morally acceptable for a certain level of humanity, with the storyteller guiding the discussion and seeking consensus between the group. If agreement cannot be reached, a check can be made.

In an ethics based system, intent and outcome both play a role in the ethics of an action, including negligence. The discussion can consider all these factors together. If a character is controlled or under influence, this should be taken into account in the discussion. Whether the control factor is internal or external does not matter.

Humanity can be structured with a ceiling value so as to allow it to be connected to the rest of the rules. XP and system basics determine the ceiling and values can fluctuate below that ceiling based on consensus within the group. This works because players have an active say in their characters humanity. Since we presume players are acting in good faith, if a convincing argument can be made that a player violated their humanity level, they will yield the point, and XP is not lost since it can later be regained at no XP cost.

The storyteller does not have the option to directly award or take away humanity, but he can put the matter forward before the group, as can players. At this point, the person putting forward the change in humanity would make their case and the group would attempt to reach a consensus.

A super-ethos based humanity is very similar to an ethics based humanity system, but with an overwriting Super-Ethos that defines certain acts as being inherently unethical. For example, it may say “murder is always bad”. As such, even if a character is behaving ethically in murdering (i.e. society feels his murder is justified), it would still risk lowering humanity because the super-ethos says that murder is always bad.

Paths still represent moral codes of various groups, but are now superceded in certain cases by the super-ethos. For example, a culture may determine that killing the enemy in the field of battle is honourable, and as such, a skilled soldier might have humanity 9 within the ethics based system. But because the super-ethos says “murder is always bad”, his actual humanity might only be 6.

In super-ethos based humanity, the key factor is outcome rather than intent. If murder is always bad, it doesn't matter if the intent is to save 1000 innocents by killing 1 guilty, because murder is always wrong. If a character is controlled or not does not factor into the matter. If you dominate someone and that person subsequently murders someone, both dominator and dominated are guilty of the murder and thus in the wrong.

In this system, humanity should be adjudicated by the storyteller, with players giving their views, but ultimately being bound by the storyteller (the inverse situation of morality based humanity). If the storyteller is unsure, he may call for a check.

The storyteller should provide a very clear and unambigous guideline for the super-ethos, so players know what they have to do. However, it is obviously impossible to write a perfect super-ethos, and it is not reasonable to expect the storyteller to make one, so there is some room for error.

In this case, it is probably better not to have an XP cost for humanity, since players have no way of knowing if their actions will violate the super-ethos, and intentions are not relevant but outcome (which is not generally under player control). Having no influence on the final decision made means that XP costs are unreasonable.

One central theme in the World of Darkness is that vampires are not just powerful, seductive creatures of the night. They are cursed. One can disagree as to whether they were cursed by the God of Abraham, tainted by the universal forces of destruction or burdened with excessive negative karma, but being a vampire is generally speaking Not A Good Thing.

The curse manifests itself physically as sensitivity to sunlight and an inability to eat food. More importantly, though, it changes the vampires' psyche or, if you will, their soul. They necessarily lead a parasitic existence and must follow a moral code to stop themselves from gradually sliding towards a bestial state of being. Once a vampire has been transformed into a Wight, there is no way back. In the face of eternity, victory is merely another night of existence with whatever shreds of sanity, dignity and compassion that remain to them.

Morality or, if you will, 'humanity' in this context isn't just how well a vampire measures up to some externally imposed ideal. Nor does it measure if the vampire thinks they are living righteously or in accordance with whatever ideals they might have had in life. Rather than measuring how far a vampire has ascended towards heaven, its path rating measures how closely a vampire is dancing to the cliff. Falling off the cliff means that the Beast will take over. Permanently.

The Beast has certain predictable cravings. It has a feral, predatory nature that wishes to satisfy its lust for blood, to protect itself from harm, to protect its ego as well as those things and people that it considers 'his'. The Beast is willing to steal, torture and murder for these causes. A frenzy is what happens when the Beast temporarily takes over completely, but even when a vampire is not frenzying it will be exposed to the Beasts' desires.

The Beast lurks in every vampire, however Saintly. Vampires may even debate whether the Beast is a separate person that lives inside of them (as many in the Camarilla would like to think) or if the Embrace damns the persons' soul forever and the vampire IS the Beast, simply pretending to be something that it is not. Regardless, it is the people with high Humanity (or a high path rating) that are better able to resist the Beasts' suggestions of mindless destruction or petty selfishness in favour of some other moral code.

The fact that certain 'blue and orange morality' paths help to keep the Beast at bay just as the path of Humanity does, suggests that keeping the Beast from taking over is not a matter of divine approval (i.e. super-ethos based humanity). God isn't preventing the vampire from falling to the Beast, but rather, the vampires' own willpower/sense of ego/remaining shreds of decency are preventing that degeneration.

Neither is it simply a matter of upholding a characters' beliefs or the disposition of the society towards that person. A regular human with very low humanity who is transformed into a vampire will become bestial pretty much instantly. The Beast can simply use the preoccuring selfish, predatory nature to take over after the first bite. Or, looking at it another way: the soul of the new vampire was completely damned already and the Embrace simply allowed it to show its true, monstrous nature.

In this system, a high path rating (i.e. high humanity) represents a superb ability to resist the Beasts' desires. A low path rating (or low humanity) represents a character that gives in to more and more of the Beasts' whims as the character takes the path of least resistance.

Humanity checks are made during moments when the characters' resolve is tested. When a vampire litters, steals, kills or tortures another person they 'give in' and become closer to the selfish, violent nature of the Beast. If they fail, they accept these urgings and live with them. If not, they recognise that this behaviour is 'wrong' and try to be a different, better person by some standard of 'better' that does not involve giving in to the Beasts' desires.

Every vampire has a feral, predatory nature that drives it to satisfy its lust for blood, to protect itself from harm, to protect its ego as well as those things and people that it considers 'his'. Called 'the Beast' by some Kindred of the Camarilla, it represents an urge to steal, torture and murder for these causes. A frenzy is what happens when the Beast temporarily takes over completely, but even when a vampire is not frenzying it will be exposed to the Beasts' desires. Vampires are thus always at risk of becoming mindless animals, enslaved by their most base desires.

Humanity measures how close a vampire is to the complete and permanent takeover by the Beast. Vampires with high Humanity (or a high path rating) are better able to resist the Beasts' suggestions of mindless destruction or petty selfishness in favour of some other moral code.

Humanity may change for the worse when a vampire litters, steals, kills or tortures because they 'give in' and become closer to the selfish, violent nature of the Beast. When they lose Humanity by the process described below, they accept these urgings and live with them. If not, they recognise that this behaviour is 'wrong' and try to be a different, better person by some standard of 'better' that does not involve giving in to the Beasts' desires. Humanity may also be (re)gained if a vampire is reforming its own moral code.

The 'Hierarchy of Sins' is used as a guideline for determining the appropriateness of given actions for a characters' level of Humanity. Intent and outcome both play a role in judging the impact of an action on humanity, including negligence.

Humanity and path ratings are structured with a ceiling value that represents the highest possible level of humanity that a character can attain without spending additional experience points. Values can fluctuate below that ceiling and experience points are not lost when humanity is reduced, since it can later be regained at no additional cost.

There are other ways of dealing with the 'Beast', all of which are strongly discouraged by the Camarilla hierarchy. Other paths may be gained through an arduous process that involves the stripping of humanistic values in favour of some alternative moral code.

Alternative paths use their own 'Hierarchy of Sins' is used as a guideline for determining the appropriateness of given actions and are similarly structured with a ceiling value that represents the highest possible path level that a character can attain without spending additional experience points. The current path level may fluctuate during the campaign using the same processes that apply to Humanity.

Any player (including the DM) can suggest that the Humanity or Path level of a given character should be lowered when certain actions appear to reflect a lower level of humanity. This is only done after the scene during which those actions have occurred has been concluded. The storyteller guides the discussion and seeking consensus between the group.

If agreement cannot be reached, a check can be made that involves rolling the number of Humanity or Path Rating dice. The difficulty is 9 - reprehensible acts are hard to justify - though the Storyteller may modify this. Willpower may not be spent for an automatic success on this roll - all the ego in the world won't protect a character from guilt.

Although it is easy for a character to lose a Path level due to infractions, they can also (re)gain a path level. This involves a process of atonement that must be roleplayed over a period of time, and the character should at least intend to behave in accordance with the standards associated with the level of Humanity that they would gain. One good deed does not wash out a heinous sin and a degeneration of the vampires' moral character, after all.

Any player (including the DM) can suggest that the Humanity or Path level of a given character should be raised. This may be done at the start of the session or at its conclusion, when experience points are awarded. The storyteller guides the discussion and seeking consensus between the group. If no consensus can be reached, the raising of the level of Humanity is postponed.