Discipline Tzu Wei
Tzu Wei 1: Fate of the One: At this most basic level, the only one reached by most mortal practitioners of tzu wei, the Kuei-jin may cast a horoscope for a single person, and advise him accordingly. If the individual follows these words of wisdom, joss will favor him.
System: The player rolls Intelligence + Rituals (difficulty 6) to cast the horoscope. If he succeeds, he learns what omens are lucky for, and days and times are auspicious for the undertakings of, one person. If he correctly advises the person on what to do, that person is assumed to have the Background Horoscope at level one for that day and time (if the character already has Horoscope, he may use it twice in the story instead of once. If the Kuei-jin advises the character poorly (as a way of "cursing" him) or the character chooses to ignore (or for some reason is unable to follow) his advice, the character will have bad luck for that time period. (The character is not allowed to roll his Horoscope dice at all; or he has a + 1 difficulty on one important task.)
Tzu Wei 3: Fate of the Wu: As his understanding of joss and the alignment of the stars progresses, the Kuei-jin is able to cast a horoscope for a
small group, such as a wu or everyone who works for a small business. For example, if a Kuei-jin casts a horoscope to find out if his wu will triumph over another wu in a coming conflict, the benefits apply when striving to overcome the other wu but not for other activities.
System: This power is just like Fate of the One, but applies to groups of no more than a dozen people or shen. Every member of the group receives the benefits (or penalties), but only if they are acting to further the purposes or goals about which the horoscope was cast.
Tzu Wei 5: Fate of the Court: Fate of the Court By the time he reaches this level of understanding, the Kueijin is able to cast horoscopes for entire courts, regions, nations, or peoples.
System: This power is similar to Fate of the Wu, but has a broader scope The advice it provides is similarly broader - it does not provide information about nightly matters, but about subjects of more general interest to the group. (For example, would aggressive action be advisable?)
Discipline Auspex:
Auspex 2: Aura Perception: Using this power, the vampire can perceive the psychic "auras" that radiate from mortals and supernatural beings alike. These halos comprise a shifting series of colors that take practice to discern with clarity. Even the simplest individual has many shifting hues within his aura; strong emotions predominate, while momentary impressions or deep secrets flash through in streaks and swirls. The colors change in sympathy with the subject's emotional state, blending into new tones in a constantly dancing pattern. The stronger the emotions involved, the more intense the hues become. A skilled vampire can learn much from her subject by reading the nuances of color and brilliance in the aura's flow.
Aside from perceiving emotional states, vampires use Aura Perception to detect supernatural beings. The colors in Kindred auras, while intense, are quite pale; mage halos often flare and crackle with arcane power; the race of shapeshifters has strikingly bright, almost
frantic, auras; ghosts have weak auras that flicker fitfully like a dying flame; and faerie creatures' radiance is shot through with capricious rainbow hues.
System: After the character stares at the subject for at least a few seconds, the player rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty 8); each success indicates how much of the subject's aura the character sees and understands (see the table below). A failure indicates that the play of colors and patterns yields no prevailing impression. A botch indicates a false or erroneous interpretation. The Storyteller may wish to make this roll, thus keeping the player in the dark as to the veracity of the character's interpretation.
A character may choose to perform a very cursory aura scan of a large area like a nightclub's dance floor or the audience in a gallery. In this case, the player decides which characteristic of auras she's looking for, and that's the only information she's able to glean if the roll is successful. (At the Storyteller's discretion, on this general scan roll, more successes on the roll may more quickly yield what the character seeks.) For
example, the player may specify, "Who's the most nervous person in attendance?" or "Are there any vampirically pale auras among the CEO's entourage?" Thereafter, the player may narrow down her scrutiny of a single individual, with an additional roll as normal.
The character may focus in on a particular subject's aura only once per scene with any degree of clarity. Any subsequent attempts that result in failure should be considered botches. It is very easy for the character to imagine seeing what she wants to see when judging someone's intentions. After 24 hours, the character may try again at no penalty. It is possible, though difficult, to sense the aura of a being who is otherwise invisible to normal sight.
Auspex 3: The Spirit's Touch: When someone handles an object for any length of time, he leaves a psychic impression on the item. A vampire with this level of Auspex can "read" these sensations, learning who handled the object, when he last held it, and what was done with it recently. (For these purposes, a corpse counts as an "object" and can be read accordingly.) These visions are seldom clear and detailed, registering more like a kind of "psychic snapshot." Still, the Kindred can learn much even from such a glimpse. Although most visions concern the last person to handle the item, a long-time owner leaves a stronger impression than someone who held the object briefly.
Gleaning information from the spiritual residue requires the vampire to hold the object and enter a shallow trance. She is only marginally aware of her surroundings while using The Spirit's Touch, but a loud noise or jarring physical sensation breaks the trance instantly.
System: The player rolls Perception + Empathy. The difficulty is determined by the age of the impressions and the mental and spiritual strength of the person or event that left them. Sensing information from a pistol used for a murder hours ago may require a 4, while learning who owned a bloodstained puppet fashioned a century ago might be a 9. The greater the individual's emotional connection to the object, the stronger the impression he leaves on it — and the more information the Kindred can glean from it. Events involving strong emotions (a giftgiving, a torture, a long family history) likewise leave stronger impressions than short or casual contact do.
Auspex 4: Telepathy: The vampire projects a portion of her consciousness into a nearby mortal's mind, creating a mental link through which she can communicate wordlessly or even read the target's deepest thoughts. The Kindred "hears" in her own mind the thoughts plucked from a
subject as if they were spoken to her.
This is one of the most potent vampiric abilities, since, given time, a Kindred can learn virtually anything from a subject without him ever knowing. The Tremere and Tzimisce in particular find this power especially useful in gleaning secrets from others, or for directing their mortal followers with silent precision.
System: The player rolls Intelligence + Subterfuge (difficulty of the subject's current Willpower points). Projecting thoughts into the target's mind requires one success. The subject recognizes that the thoughts come from somewhere other than his own consciousness, though he cannot discern their actual origin without a successful Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty equal to the vampire's Manipulation + Subterfuge).
To read minds, one success must be rolled for each item of information plucked or each layer of thought pierced. Deep secrets or buried memories are harder to obtain than surface emotions or unspoken comments, requiring five or more successes to access.
Reading thoughts with Telepathy does not commonly work upon the undead mind. A character may expend a Willpower point to make the effort, making the roll normally afterward. Likewise, it is equally difficult to read the thoughts of other supernatural creatures. However, the character may project her thoughts without expending a Willpower point. These thoughts, however, are still obviously intrusions into the target's mind, but the character may attempt to disguise her mental "voice" with a roll of Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty equals the target's Perception + Awareness) so the target doesn't recognize her as the "speaker."
Auspex 5: Psychic Projection: The Kindred with this awesome ability projects her senses out of her physical shell, stepping from her body
as an entity of pure thought. The vampire's astral form is immune to physical damage or fatigue, and can "fly" with blinding speed anywhere across the earth — or even underground — so long as she remains below the moon's orbit.
The Kindred's material form lies in a torpid state while her astral self is active, and the vampire isn't aware of anything that befalls her body until she returns to it. An ephemeral silver cord connects the Kindred's psyche to her body. If this cord is severed, her consciousness becomes stranded in the astral plane (the realm of ghosts, spirits, and shades). Attempting to return to the vampire's physical shell is a long and terrifying ordeal, especially since there is no guarantee that she will accomplish the journey successfully. This significant danger keeps many Kindred from leaving their bodies for long, but those who dare can learn much.
System: Journeying in astral form requires the player to expend a point of Willpower and make a Perception + Awareness roll. Difficulty varies depending on the distance and complexity of the intended trip; 5 is within sight, 7 is nearby or to a familiar location, and 9 reflects a trip far from familiar territory (a first journey from North America to the Far East; trying to shortcut through the earth). The greater the number of successes rolled, the more focused the character's astral presence is, and the easier it is for her to reach her desired destination. Failure means the character is unable to separate her consciousness from her body, while a botch can have nasty consequences — flinging her astral form to a random destination on Earth or in the spirit realm, arriving in a place where the sun is active (necessitating a frenzy roll, although the sunlight doesn't do any damage), or hurtling toward the desired destination so forcefully that the silver cord snaps.
The player may spend a point of Willpower to activate this power, and an additional point of Willpower to gain the success necessary to perform the jaunt. This is an exception to the normal rule where a player may not spend more than a single point of Willpower per turn.
Each scene in Psychic Projection requires another point of Willpower and a new roll. Failure indicates that the vampire has lost her way and must retrace the path of her silver cord. A botch at this stage means the cord snaps, stranding the character's psychic form in the mysterious astral plane.
An astral form may travel at great speeds (the Storyteller can use roughly 1000 miles per hour or 1500 kilometers per hour as a general guide) and carries no clothing or material objects of any kind. Some artifacts are said to exist in the spirit world, and the character can try to use one of these tools if she finds one. The character cannot bring such relics to the physical world when she returns to her body, however.
Interaction with the physical world is impossible while using Psychic Projection. At best, the character may spend a Willpower point to manifest as a ghostlike shape. This apparition lasts one turn before fading away; while she can't affect anything physically during this time, the character can speak. Despite lacking physical substance, an astral character can use Auspex normally. At the Storyteller's discretion, such a character may employ some or all Animalism, Dementation, Dominate, Necromancy, Obtenebration, Presence, Thaumaturgy, and similar non-corporeal powers she has, though this typically requires a minimum of three successes on the initial Psychic Projection roll.
If two astral shapes encounter one another, they interact as if they were solid. They may talk, touch, and even fight as if both were in the material world. Since they have no physical bodies, astral characters seeking to interact "physically" substitute Mental and Social Traits for Physical ones (Wits replaces Dexterity, Manipulation supplants Strength, and Intelligence replaces Stamina). Due to the lack of a material form, the only real way to damage another psychic entity is to cut its silver cord. When fighting this way, consider Willpower points to be health levels; when a combatant loses all of her Willpower, the cord is severed.
Although an astrally projected character remains in the reflection of the mortal world, she may venture further into the spirit realms, especially if she becomes lost. Other beings with particular sensitivity to psychic activity, such as ghosts, werewolves, and even some magi, travel the astral plane as well, and can interact with a vampire's psychic presence normally (although the astrally projected character is not considered a
"ghost" for powers such as Necromancy). The observing character notices the astrally projecting vampire with a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty 8), requiring more successes than the Psychic Projection activation roll. Even those who do notice you won't be able to identify you; you are merely an immaterial shade hovering in the general area. Storytellers are encouraged to make trips into the spirit world as bizarre, mysterious, and dreamlike as possible. The world beyond is a vivid and fantastic place, where the true nature of things is stronger and often strikingly different from their earthly appearances.
Flaws (7 points Total):
Permanent Third Eye (2 or 4 points; Salubri and Tremere only): While others descended from the blood of Saulot are able to conceal their third eye, yours remains permanently open on your forehead. For 2 points, it is mechanically treated as any normal third eye, though narratively may draw strange looks and unwanted attention. For 4 points, the eye is permanently open and may only be closed for a scene on a successful Willpower roll.
Cast No Reflection (1 point): Like a monster out of a ghost story, your visage does not appear in a mirror, standing water, a sword's blade, or any other reflective surface. Casual observers need only make a Perception + Alertness roll at default difficulty to notice this oddity, which can lead to any number of interesting complications when dealing with mortals.
Repulsed by Garlic (1 point): True to folktales, the scent of garlic is a ward against you. You cannot abide by the odor, requiring a Willpower test when it is present. Failure results in you fleeing the scene, which can make dinner parties quite awkward. The difficulty of this Willpower roll may be increased, depending on the intensity of the scent.
Touch of Frost (1 point): A nimbus of cold surrounds you. At the slightest touch, plants wither and die. If you stand near still water for too long, it begins to freeze. This makes you very easy to find, increasing the difficulty of rolls to stay hidden or concealed by one.
Merits (2 Points Total)
Medium (2 points): Ghosts, spirits, and shades speak to you. You may have had this talent in your mortal life, or it may be a new ability granted by your Embrace. By spending a moment in meditation, you may ask the spirits who visit you for their aid. They are ready and willing to
help you in whatever way they can (most often by providing information), but they always ask a favor in return. The severity of this favor should be in line with the task given to the spirits.
Background:
Past Lives 5: Which Life is this Again