Lore Merits

Lore merits are a unique feature of play at Shadows over Amsterdam, meant to help you flesh out what your character does and doesn't know about the supernatural. Often we forget that our characters aren't meant to know as much about the World of Darkness as we, the players, do. Our characters don't have access to the supplements, or the mechanics that govern the gameworld. It does get hard though; determining just what a character can and can't know. In come the Lore Merits.

How do they work? Simple; Each acquisition of the merit denotes a single area of supernatural knowledge, and is specific to your supernatural template. For instance, a Vampire may have as much as 5 dots in the Lore Merit: Werewolves. But even at such a high level, he'll still know only a fraction of what the average werewolf knows without similar merits relating to his own race. This is because the Lore Merit is meant to be a supplement to the basic knowledge that each member of a supernatural species has. A Vampire without any lore merits still knows the basics about the clans, disciplines, the need to hide from the sun, the beast, and so on. Such knowledge represents the baseline degree of information that individuals achieve in the first months or years of their existence as supernatural creatures. The Lore Merits then come to represent specific areas of knowledge that is otherwise largely obscured from them, steeped in mythology, factual errors, or just plain unknown to them.

Each Lore Merit can be bought up to 5 dots, with more dots meaning greater knowledge, specifically greater factual knowledge;

1 Dot- Minor knowledge largely based on myths. No established facts. Plain guesswork or instinct. for example; A Vampire with one dot in the Lore Merit: Bloodlines knows not only that they exist (which most vampires without this merit at the very least suspect is the case), but he can point out legends about some of the most famous ones, at least the ones which are famous in his geographical area. He doesn't know about more than 1 or 2 though, and he certainly doesn't know any facts about these bloodlines, just stories.

2 Dots - Minor knowledge largely based on myths. Inconsistent facts. Educated guesses. Some personal experience. for example; The Vampire from the previous example achieves his 2nd dot in the bloodlines merit, he'll now know about 1 or 2 more bloodlines by legend or myth, and will be able to point out to some minor facts about them, these facts are intermixed with opinions and beliefs that are just plain wrong however, or at the very least inaccurate. He might know a bit about what they can do aswell, though he wouldn't be able to describe in detail every single powerlevel of their unique disciplines. (Even at 5 dots, that'd be impossible unless he had a lore merit in a specific bloodline)

3 Dots - Considerable knowledge largely based on research/encounters. Inconsistant facts. Educated guesses. Personal experience. for example; Our Vampire now knows for certain he has met bloodline members, and has likely seen some of their powers in action. He can point out a considerable number of facts about 1 or 2 bloodlines, while knowing about at least half a dozen bloodlines, if not more.

4 Dots - Authority on the subject. Consistent facts. Considerable personal experience. for example; At this point there is no question that our Vampire is an authority in the given field. His knowledge is practically unsurpassed, but unless he's a complete idiot, he's certain that there's far more to be learned. At this level, he knows a wide array of facts about quite a few bloodlines, has considerable personal dealings with the bloodline members that he is familiar with, and is even familiar with myths surrounding some bloodlines that have painstakingly attempted to hide themselves over the centuries.

5 Dots - Unsurpassed knowledge. Large collection of facts. Extensive personal experience. for example; At this point the Vampire knows about all there is to know about bloodlines in general, and if he wants to expand his knowledge, he'll have to take the lore merit in specific bloodlines, which will get him access to far more knowledge on such a bloodline than this general lore merit will provide. At this level he'll be familiar with a great number of bloodlines, but not all of them. In fact; if he's intelligent and wise enough, he'll realize that even with his unsurpassed knowledge, there's likely to be more bloodlines out there than that he's familiar with.

But why have these merits in the first place? Why not simply take a specialty in academics or occult? Well, for one thing, specialties in either of these skills don't neccesarily relate to supernatural knowledge. They represent research and knowledge potential. But don't really provide an accurate estimate of what a character knows.

So, you're probably thinking that you're going to have to spend loads and loads of XP on these merits if you want your character to be anything more than an ignoramus, right? First consider the fact that even without these merits, a supernatural individual knows quite a bit about his supernatural emplate. A Vampire without any lore merits will likely know about the covenants and more or less what they stand for (though this depends on your own roleplay interactions for the freshly embraced; the knowledge isn't supernaturally passed on by the blood afterall), he'll know about the clans, about the physical requirements that he now has, and so on. He's likely to have heard all sorts of rumors, some based in reality (though the character likely doesn't know it). Still think you're going to need to spend way too much XP on the lore merit? Think again: It's free.

Yes, you heard me; free. Now hold on; that doesn't mean you can stock up on them and have your character know everything. They're only free up to a certain point. Each character gets a number of free Lore Merit dots based on their age at the start of play. Any dots beyond that have to be justified either through XP expenditure (standard merit cost), or through roleplay interaction. If you think your character hears and learns things relating to a specific Lore Merit, point it out to us, the ST's; explain why your character deserves a new dot in a specific Lore Merit, and if possible provide logs or point to forum posts. We'll ultimately decide how many dots your character advances in a specific Lore Merit based on the RP you have engaged in, however; it is your responsiblity to make us aware of any RP that allows you to gain dots.

Special Rules; Mortals can not spend XP to acquire Lore Merits, and can only acquire them through RP interaction; Please note that supernatural creatures are unlikely to tolerate mortals with such a degree of knowledge unless they are somehow under supernatural control. (Like Blood-Bonded mortals and Ghouls)

Free Lore Dots;

Kindred:

Having been Kindred for;

Up to 10 years: 1 free Lore dot.

10 to 50 years: 3 free Lore dots.

50 to 150 years: 5 free Lore dots.

150+ years: 7 free Lore dots.

Mortals:

No free Lore dots.

This list doesn't neccesarily represent the extent of Lore Merits; feel free to suggest your own. Also note that at present they do not include specific lore about supernaturals other than those covered in Vampire the Requiem or the mortal World of Darkness game. We'll add those once we get the other gamelines up and running.

As a rule of thumb, remember that the more specific a merit, the more specific the knowledge itself becomes. The General History Lore merit represents relatively vague, global knowledge, for instance regarding the Camarilla. For specific local knowledge, one would choose either city or country knowledge. (Large, sparsely populated countries tend to result in less specific knowledge than small tightly packed countries)

Also please note; No matter how many dots in Lore Merits your character has; he does not know everything. I can not stress this enough. The world of darkness is one of mystery and the unknown, and even a character with 5 dots in every Lore Merit out there will still know only a fraction about the world around him. This merit system is meant to help you flesh out what your character does and doesn't know, not to provide you with an excuse to play characters that are omniscient.

• Kindred History (General)
• Kindred History (Continent)
• Kindred History (Country)
• Kindred History (City)
• Kindred Mythology
• Kindred Theology
• Bloodlines (General)
• Bloodlines (Specific)
• Disciplines

• Ventrue Lore
• Daeva Lore
• Mekhet Lore
• Nosferatu Lore
• Gangrel Lore

• Invictus (History)
• Invictus (General)

• Lancea Sanctum (History)
• Lancea Sanctum (General)

• Carthian Movement (History)
• Carthian Movement (General)

• Circle of the Crone (History)
• Circle of the Crone (General)

• Ordo Dracul (History)
• Ordo Dracul (General)

• Belial's Brood
• VII

• Werewolves
• Mages
• Changelings (rare)
• Prometheans (rare)
• Ghosts
• Spirits

• Witch-hunters
• Psychics
• Thaumaturges
• Ghouls

• Relics