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Maturation

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• see Maturation Alt Version

This system governs gaining Freebies for use during downtime. There are two basic units of time used during Maturation: the Century and the Half-Century. For ease of use, all periods of downtime will be rounded down to the nearest 50-year increment.

Rate of Earnings

The rate at which Freebies are earned is determined by how Active your character is. There are five levels of Activity.

• Active - This is the default level of activity. - 5 freebies every Half-Century.
• Practicing - Practicing represents a focused, intensive effort to get better at a specific type of traits. You can be engaged in Social, Mental or Physical Practice. Points gained from Practice can only be spent on the type of trait matching the type of Practice they were involved in. - 7 freebies every Half-Century
• Endangered - Being Endangered means involved in dangerous social conflict, fighting, exploring ruins, etc. - 8 freebies every Half-Century.
• Secluded - Seclusion represents an active effort to avoid trouble and lay low. - 3 freebies every Half-Century.
• In Torpor - There are actually TWO types of Torpor.
  • Useless Torpor - This is the type of Torpor for any character who is not at least 500 years old, with Perception 4 and Willpower 7. No freebies are gained at all.
  • Elder Torpor - Points from Elder Torpor must be spent on Mental traits. - 2 freebies every Half-Century.

Background Decay

Mortals die, wars happen, plagues pass through, stuff gets lost. Backgrounds decay over time if not actively maintained. Every Century, a vampire has to either spend 1 Freebie on each of his Backgrounds or lose 1 dot in it. He can also attempt to raise a background instead of just maintaining it. It does not cost 1 Freebie to maintain and then a second to raise, it's either-or.

• Endangered characters are more prone to Background Decay due to the dangerous circumstances they are in. They have to roll their Willpower Rating (diff 7) for each Background every Half-Century. If they botch the roll, they lose a dot. If they fail, they cannot raise that Background that Half-Century. If they succeed, they can attempt to raise the Background, but at +1 difficulty.
• Secluded characters are Immune to Background Decay.
• Characters in Torpor are unable to maintain their backgrounds, in their case Decay is Assured. Even for Elders.

Making an Extra Effort

It's possible to gain extra Freebies during Downtime. Every Century, a Willpower roll is made. The difficulty is normally 7, but increases to 9 for Inactive (Secluded or Practicing) characters and lowers to 6 for Endangered characters. This roll represents the character taking extra efforts to improve themselves and their traits. It's harder to do that if you're hiding in a monastery or buried in books.

• Endangered characters are always taking risks. If they fail or botch the Willpower roll, they lose 1d10 worth of Freebies.
• Secluded and (Elder) Torpid characters cannot botch this roll.
• Practicing and Active characters lose 1d10 worth of Freebies if they botch, but suffer no penalty for mere failure.
• Non-Elders in Torpor cannot even make this roll, since they are not getting any Freebies anyway.

Each success on the roll generates 1 extra Freebie for that Century.

Buying New Backgrounds

Buying a new Background is just like buying any other trait: it functions the same way during Downtime that it does during Character Creation, with one exception. During downtime only 1 point can be spent on a new Background. After it is purchased, it can be raised, but doing so follows the rules below. New Backgrounds can be purchased at any point during downtime, unless the character is in Torpor or Seclusion.

Raising Backgrounds

Every Half-Century a character can attempt to raise one of his Backgrounds. Making the attempt costs 1 Freebie. After spending the Freebie, roll the current rating of the Background at the difficulty listed for that Background. It takes 1 success to raise the rating by 1. For two additional successes, the rating can be increased by another dot at no additional cost. Should the player wish, he can ask to use any additional successes to improve a Background related to the one being raised instead. This also applies if the Background is currently capped (Mentor 5, for example).

• Characters are Inactive if they are in Torpor, Seclusion or Practicing. They cannot raise Backgrounds.
• Active characters can raise Backgrounds without penalty.
• Character in Danger have a hard time raising Backgrounds, as described above. Even if their WP roll to preserve that Background against Danger Decay succeeds, attempts to raise Backgrounds while in Danger are still at +1 difficulty.
• Allies - difficulty 7 to raise.
• Contacts - difficulty 6 to raise.
• Domain - difficulty 7 to raise.
• Herd - difficulty 6 to raise.
• Influence - difficulty 8 to raise.
• Library - difficulty 8 to raise.
• Mentor - difficulty 7 to raise.
• Prescience - difficulty 9 to raise.
• Resources - difficulty 8 to raise.
• Retainers - difficulty 6 to raise.
• Status - difficulty 8 to raise.

Buying or Raising Anything Else

Backgrounds are the only traits of a character that depend on interaction with the outside world. All other traits, including Disciplines, function exactly as they do during Character Creation. Once all the Centuries have been worked through and the total number of Freebies not used on Backgrounds is determined, Freebies can be spent however the player wants on any other traits.

Note: In-Clan Disciplines only cost 5 Freebies per dot.

Steps In Summary

Now we'll walk through an Example Century. All Centuries work basically the same, anyway.

Step 1: Determine how the two Half-Centuries are spent.

Step 2: Roll Willpower for Extra Effort and total the Freebies available for each Half-Century.

Step 3: Determine which Backgrounds you're going to use Freebies on to prevent Decay.

Step 4: Figure out what happens during the first Half-Century. Buy or Attempt to raise Backgrounds, if desired.

Step 5: Figure out what happens during the second Half-Century. Buy or Attempt to raise Backgrounds, if desired.

Step 6: Total everything up!

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