A Riddle Wrapped In A Mystery Inside An Enigma: Kindred Personal Secrets
by: Mitch |
In Chicago By Night, White Wolf introduced a trait called City Secrets. Storyteller characters have a grade in this trait (A to F) indicating how much they know about what's really going on in Kindred society. This was a good idea and I expanded it for my Storyteller characters.
The game's title includes an allusion to a conspiracy, the Masquerade. Secrets are an integral part of the genre. So City Secrets isn't all a Storyteller should consider. Kindred seem more real to me if they have secrets of their own to hide.
For every Storyteller character I write up one or more Personal Secrets. Merits & Flaws are a good place to look to start inventing new Personal Secrets. This must be something the character doesn't want anyone else to know about.
Personal Secrets are a great tool to represent the paranoia and horror of the game. Some are mundane, some supernatural. They can be political, social or physical. Here is a list of some Personal Secrets I came up with.
The character...
has powers outside her clan.
poses as a lower-generation than she really is.
acts like a different clan than she really is.
was Embraced by an opposing sect.
deals with an opposing sect or enemy group (like Lupines).
studies an opposing sect or enemy group.
is Blood Bound.
has broken a Blood Bond.
actively conspires against a major character or an entire clan.
idolizes another Kindred.
wishes to sire progeny, or already has against the Prince's will.
plots to become Prince.
is hunted by someone powerful.
accidentally learned another character's personal secret.
knows about sect secrets she shouldn't.
runs a blood cult.
hates members of the opposite sex.
is in love with a mortal or another Kindred.
still tries to have sex, eat food or maintain a mortal existence.
feeds on other Kindred's retainers.
steals from other Kindred.
is a carrier of a disease.
has a derangement.
has committed Diablerie or wishes to try it.
has destroyed an elder.
is an infernalist.
voluntarily Frenzies whenever she can.
is losing control (Humanity is falling).
is becoming soft (Humanity is rising).
is contemplating suicide.
hates being undead or a vampire.
feels out of touch with the modern age.
is very unlucky.
is a failure, or thinks she is.
is terrified of her own Sire.
Personal Secrets are simple until you start using them and designing them to fit your characters. Don't just pick one from the list; invent one for each character.
Here's an example:
I had an angst-ridden Gangrel named Franco running with the more macho Gangrel in the city. Definitely a follower, I needed something secret to flesh him out. I decided the character hunts in wolf form, and wolves don't wound - they kill. So when Franco switches to wolf form, he hunts down prey, kills it, and drinks its blood. Occasionally that prey is a human and he feels guilty over it, but rationalizes it as his other side doing it, sort of like a split personality.
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