Flaws are disadvantages that pose challenges to a character’s nightly existence and provide a player a few extra experience points (XP) to spend elsewhere on her sheet.

These qualities allow you to customize your character by specifying particular advantages or disadvantages that give added depth and personality. Both merits and flaws are optional. If you don’t see any that suit your character, you can create your character and play without adding any to your sheet.

Each flaw has a specific XP number associated with it. This number indicates the points you will receive for taking a flaw (effectively refunded XP)

You may get a maximum of 7 XP back to your character for taking flaws, but these should give that character a notable disadvantage in the game. Flaws are designed to be interesting, significant, and to exemplify your character’s troubled past or personal prohibitions. You should try to roleplay your character’s flaws as much as possible, helping the Storyteller create a rich and detailed chronicle. Perfect people are no fun to roleplay, and characters with authentic-feeling traumas, biases, and failings bring life and vibrancy to the game.

By mechanics, there are two types of Flaw: General Flaws (see below) and Derangement Flaws (opens in new window). 

Derangements are representations of mental illnesses, All derangements are 2 point flaws. Real mental conditions are not funny. They are debilitating and difficult, and some are even frightening. They should be played with seriousness, not as amusing quirks or silly, cartoonist behaviour.

General Flaws
The following flaws may be purchased by all vampires, regardless of their clan or bloodline, unless otherwise stated in the flaw.

(2 point flaw) Though accused of heresy in your past, you were allowed to survive. You might have been in possession of forbidden tomes, such as the Book of Nod, the Cainite Heresy’s Euagetaematikon, or the Gospel of Laodice (and your copy was seized and burned by Josian Archons); you might have shown kindness to a Caitiff; shared information about Golconda; or done something similarly prohibited. Because of this error in judgment, your name is on the Camarilla’s list of dangerous individuals, and you are closely watched by agents of the Justicars. You are treated as though you are one social class lower than your actual generation, and lose the abiding status possessed by your actual generation in favor of the one below. In this manner, an elder is treated as an ancilla, and an ancilla is treated like a neonate. If this flaw is possessed by a neonate, she is treated as though she were a Caitiff and gains the Greater Status Ban applied to Caitiff.

(2 point flaw) You suffer from an addiction to a substance, which must be present in the blood you drink. This can be alcohol, nicotine, hard drugs, or simply adrenaline. Mechanically, a character’s addiction is broken down into one of three categories: amphetamines, hallucinogens, or sedatives. When you take this flaw, you must choose one of these three categories to represent your character’s addiction. You may take this flaw up to three times, each time choosing a different kind of drug, and suffering all of the penalties. For more information on drugs and toxins, see Chapter Six: Core Systems, Drugs and Poison, page 286. At the start of the game, or anytime the character feeds, you receive your addiction’s penalty, as follows, for one hour:

• Amphetamine: You receive a -1 penalty to all Mental challenges and all challenges requiring coordination or mental dexterity.
• Hallucinogen: You are agitated and cannot regain Willpower for the next hour.
• Sedatives: You suffer a -5 penalty to challenges based on the Investigation or Awareness skills.

(1 point flaw) You are unable to remember anything about your past, yourself, or your family, whether mortal or vampiric. You have no knowledge of your past paramours, enemies, or allies. Your origins and the circumstances behind your Amnesia are for the Storyteller to determine, and she is encouraged to make your backstory as interesting as possible, so that it might haunt your present and affect your character’s story.

(2 point flaw) Where others might see a world of newly opening opportunities, you see a world full of dangers. Noisy, dirty machines and coal choke the night air, and gaslights are just a disaster waiting to happen. The world is changing too fast for you. You’d be afraid that it might leave you behind, but in truth you think it already has.

Mortals are becoming dangerously powerful with all their new, shiny toys and mechanical ingenuity. Your unlife may become a genuine hell if this is the way things are headed. The difficulties of any challenges you undertake are increased by +2 if they involve machinery or technology invented in the last 50 years. Furthermore you cannot purchase any modern Science skill. Note: Players with this flaw should also roleplay ancient or archaic perspectives on other skills where appropriate.

(2 point flaw) You have difficulty moving quickly or keeping up with those around you. You might be short, possess a club foot, have a hunchback, or walk with a limp. You take two steps per movement action instead of the standard three.

(2 point flaw) Your sight is defective, and even with corrective glasses or contacts, you cannot see with complete acuity. You suffer a -2 penalty to all of your Physical ranged attacks, including attacks with guns and thrown weapons.

(3 point flaw) You radiate a conspicuous evil, one that catches mortal attention and leaves a lingering feeling of unease. Devout mortals, and mortal hunters with True Faith, automatically realize you are a vampire. You may be descended from a mortal lineage that historically interacted (interbred) with demons, you may be suffering under a demonic curse, or you may actually be an infernalist. Any time you use a discipline’s 4th-dot power or above, your aura shows the signs of infernal corruption. You cannot enter sacred sites, such as churches, mosques, synagogues, or other places of worship. Powers of faith, including the True Faith of mortal hunters and the powers of the Salubri, always deal an additional point of damage on a successful attack.

(2 point flaw) Mirrors betray your monstrous nature. Anyone, mortal or vampire, who sees your reflection in a mirror discovers your Beast leering back at them. Your Beast appears on cameras that rely on mirrors, but not on modern digital equipment. Any time you see your reflection, you gain an automatic Beast trait. Beast traits gained from this flaw do not count towards Morality loss, but do count towards a character’s likelihood to frenzy. Like all Beast traits, these traits remain until you rest for a full day. For more information on Beast traits and Morality sins, see Chapter Seven: Dramatic Systems, Gaining Beast Traits, page 300.

(2 point flaw) Your Beast loves to fight and won’t back down from a challenge. When it sees an opportunity to break free, it lunges to the fore with dangerous abandon, tearing at your spirit with ardent claws. Every time you gain one or more Beast traits, you take a point of aggravated damage. This damage cannot be reduced or negated.

(5 point flaw) You are afflicted with an insidious vampiric disease that rots your blood, turning your veins and flesh a mildewed black. As your putrid vitae moves through your veins, this disease spreads, corrupting your flesh in patchy rivulets of sodden mould. Every time you spend a point of Blood, you take a point of normal damage. This damage cannot be reduced or negated. Blood spent to heal does not trigger this effect. This disease is not contagious, but appearing in public while you are suffering the visible effects of Blood Rot is considered a breach of the Masquerade.

(2 point flaw) Some vampires are inextricably tied to their domains of origin, and they must rest in the proximity of at least two handfuls of native soil: earth from a place important in their mortal days. This earth may be the soil from your birthplace or earth from the graveyard where you underwent your Embrace. Each night spent without this physical connection to that land inflicts a cumulative -1 penalty to all of your attack test pools (to a maximum of -5). These penalties remain until you rest for a full day amid your earth once more.

(2 point flaw) Your fangs are blunted, rather than being sharp like those of other vampires. As a result, your bite does not do aggravated damage. Your bite also does not invoke the Kiss, and you must feed through more vicious means.

(2 point flaw) You cannot cross running water unless you are at least 50 feet above it. For the purpose of this flaw, “running water” must be at least the size of a stream three feet across or some larger body of water. When you cross running water, you lose 1 Willpower. That Willpower cannot be regained until you rest for a full day,

(1 point flaw) It’s hard for you to pay attention to detail, and when you get into combat, you tend to act first and think afterwards, even when it means you end up going in circles or forgetting simple things. You make plenty of mistakes in your everyday existence, such as leaving things behind or letting simple tasks slip your mind. Your attacks do not count against another player’s ability to declare a fair escape, unless you are currently grappling your target. A character you attack prior to her initiative in a round may still declare a fair escape in that round. Also, if someone declares her intention to fair escape, you cannot prevent her from fair escaping by declaring that you intend to use a Physical action against her later in that round. For more information on fair escape, see Chapter Six: Core Systems, page 277.

(4 point flaw)
You are very childlike in appearance. This may be because you are small of stature, or it may be because you were Embraced during a period of history when an early teenager was considered of marriageable age. It is against vampiric custom to Embrace children, and many consider such vampires to be both a significant breach of the Masquerade and a disgusting practice. Further, it is difficult for you to disguise the fact that you aren’t maturing, and it is difficult for a child to spend time in public during the late hours vampires must keep. Characters with this flaw have a starting Physical attribute maximum of 5, rather than 10. This number can be increased with bonus attribute traits.

(3 point flaw) You cannot simply draw nourishment from the blood of mortals; you must also consume your victim’s heart, liver, and other blood-rich tissue. This requirement necessitates the deaths of all of your victims. A character with this flaw starts each evening with a Beast trait and gains an additional Beast trait each time she feeds. You do not get a degeneration challenge to reduce Beast traits gained through this merit. Characters with this flaw may eat flesh as though they had the merit Personal Masquerade. Characters with Conspicuous Consumption do not receive the other benefits of Personal Masquerade and cannot use it to eat normal food (only the flesh consumed while feeding).

(2 point flaw) Your incredible Curiosity often overrides your common sense. You can’t help it! There are so many wonderful things in the world, so many secrets to uncover, and so many mysteries to understand. If you fail to explore something new or unknown, your maximum Willpower is reduced by 1 for the remainder of the evening. This penalty is cumulative; if you refuse more than one intriguing opportunity, your Willpower maximum continues to decline.

(1 point flaw) You suffer from a minor supernatural curse due to your karmic debt to the universe or an enemy with a twisted sense
of humour. This curse is specific and detailed; it should relate to some archetypal flaw in your character, such as hubris. Like all flaws, remember that a Storyteller should not allow a curse that does not meaningfully impact your character. A curse must be attached to a skill in which you possess at least 1 dot. When the curse is triggered, you receive a -1 penalty to test pools with that skill. You may purchase this flaw up to three times. Some examples:

• A Nosferatu who was a governess in life carries a dying boy’s curse, stating that children younger than 10 can always see through her Obfuscate. While the player will portray this specific effect in her story, she has also associated this curse with her Stealth skill. Further, when in the presence of children younger than 10, her Stealth-based pools are reduced by one.
• A Kiasyd has been cursed by tricksy faeries. Milk curdles in his presence, and insects die when they come within three paces of his location. Whenever the Storyteller indicates that that the faeries are actively plaguing him, the Kiasyd’s player must roleplay those effects. He has associated this curse with his Awareness skill, and therefore his Awareness-based pools are reduced by 1 when this occurs.
• An archaeologist Lasombra believes that she was cursed for opening an ancient Egyptian tomb. The curse states that the Lasombra will “suffer a twisted tongue when she most needs clarity.” The Lasombra’s player has associated this curse with her Linguistics skill. Whenever she is attempting to translate one language into another, she roleplays her uncertainty and grammatical mistakes. Further, all pools based on her Linguistics skill are reduced by 1 when she is under pressure.

(2 point flaw) Some attitudes die hard, especially in an era such as this when perspectives are stratified and reinforced by hundreds of years of common knowledge. You see individuals based solely on their economic position, social status and racial or ethnic background. To you, a valet or a foreigner is a kind of person distinctly different from an Englishman. The difficulty of all Challenges related to Empathy, Leadership, Streetwise and Investigation rises by 2 if it involves persons (Kindred included) of a social or economic group other than your own, simply because you are more likely to see your own prejudices at work rather than the evidence before your eyes. Your behaviour, if properly roleplayed, might very well make many social activities more difficult among these groups as well, since your dislike and disdain for them is so hard to hide.

(5 point flaw) Something has altered the course of your unlife, consigning you either psychologically or supernaturally to a tragic end. Perhaps you have grown bored with eternity and subconsciously seek ways to end your existence, or perhaps something you’ve done in the past has caused fate to become your enemy. However it came to pass, your end is near, and you will not escape it easily. If you ever fall into torpor or are staked, you instead meet your Final Death.

(1 point flaw) You have a secret from your past, which would cause great embarrassment if uncovered by your enemies. If your secret is publicly revealed, you must buy off this flaw, as per the rules for removing flaws on page 236. Like all flaws, remember that a Storyteller should not allow a Dark Secret that does not impact the character’s possible survival if it is revealed or that copies a difficulty inherent to the character type. A character cannot have more than one Dark Secret.

Some examples of Dark Secrets include:

• You have a lover in another sect or who is an infernalist
• You have committed a crime that is punishable by sect’s laws
• You have betrayed your clan or lineage

(2 point flaw) Your sight never truly recovered from your death, and since your Embrace, it has refused to accurately portray the world around you. Everyone you see (mortal, vampire, or other) appear withered and dead. Buildings seem decrepit, and your surroundings hold no beauty and no vibrancy. All of your Investigation pools are at a -2 penalty, and you cannot use the Auspex power of Aura Perception to determine a creature’s type. Lastly, you cannot visually tell the difference between a living person and a vampire, even one on a path.

(2 point flaw) You have trouble waking during the day, even in dangerous situations. Your Morality is considered two lower for the purposes of staying awake during the day and in determining the penalties you suffer during daylight hours.

(4 point flaw) With such horrible living conditions for the poor and disenfranchised, it is no small wonder that a myriad of diseases - such as smallpox and consumption - runs rampant in the streets of the Victorian era. Perhaps you were diseased when you were Embraced, or perhaps a strange strain of a disease has managed to infect even your necrotic body. Regardless, your blood now carries a lethal and highly contagious disease. This disease will never kill you, but mortals whom you feed upon always contract this disease, and it is usually deadly. When you feed from a Stamina-focused mortal, she recovers within five days. Other mortals always die. When you spend a downtime action to feed, you must spend an additional downtime action to feed safely, or else you are knowingly murdering mortals by spreading your disease. If you do not feed safely, you gain Beast traits at the beginning of the next game, as though you committed murder. If you must feed during game, you must spend twice as long to feed, or you have not fed safely, and you immediately suffer this same penalty. For more information on Beast traits and morality sins, see Chapter Seven: Dramatic Systems, Gaining Beast Traits, page 300.

Additionally, the disease you possess causes visible physical flaws on those nights in which you are unable to procure such fresh, untainted vitae safely. If you have smallpox, your face will possess pock-like scars, while consumption will cause you to appear lacklustre and lethargic. In such a state, you are at -1 for all Social Challenges, and social contact can be difficult. No Kindred suffering from such an affliction should ever expect to be invited to an Elysium, and even the downtrodden try to avoid such a character.

(2 point flaw) Life has become far more exciting since your Embrace... but sadly, you haven’t. You’re prone to talk about bland things, and you don’t handle furore or emotional stimulation very well. When others get passionate, you boggle, harrumph, and withdraw. This makes it difficult for you to express your deepest feelings and inner motivations. You don’t receive the retest usually given by a character’s archetype.

(1 point flaw) You radiate an otherworldly air that causes nervousness and unease in the people around you. The exact nature of this Eerie Presence is specific to each vampire and can take many different forms. You should speak with your Storyteller to determine the exact strangeness conferred upon your character by this flaw, but all types of eerie Eerie Presence are disconcerting and potentially a breach of the Masquerade. You may take this flaw up to three times for different aspects of your strange nature, but each must be distinctive and unconnected from the rest. You cannot take Eerie Presence twice and claim your eyes are purple and glowing. You can take Eerie Presence twice and say your eyes glow and you constantly emit a stench of decay. Gangrel who take Eerie Presence must select a choice that is independent of the one they made for their Clan's inherent weakness.

Some possible examples include:

• Glowing or unusually coloured eyes
• Cold breeze following the character
• Unearthly scent of roses or of grave earth
• Permanent fangs that cannot retract
• Forked tongue or scaled skin
• Cast no reflection (as per the Lasombra clan weakness)
• Plants wither as you approach and die at your touch

(5 point flaw) Your flesh does not fully regenerate once it is damaged. While you are able to heal yourself to the point of full functionality, your skin still retains cuts, tears, bullet holes, etc. Every time you are hit by a Physical attack that does 2
or more points of damage, you also suffer an immediate -1 penalty to your Physical attribute (to a maximum penalty of -5). This penalty is not removed if you heal the damage; it remains until the character rests for a full day.

(1 point flaw) You either committed diablerie during a blood hunt as a result of a Trophy or committed diablerie before the formation of the Camarilla. You have a writ of approval signed by a Prince or a Justicar. Although you cannot be openly punished for this past indiscretion, you have undoubtedly made enemies, and there are many elders who would delight in your ultimate downfall.

(4 point flaw) Your body is less hardy than most and cannot endure as much injury. Your bones may be more brittle, and your physical stature may be slight or delicate. If you take more than 2 points of damage from a single blow, one of your
limbs (chosen by your attacker) is broken. This limb is useless until that damage is healed. If one or both of your character’s legs becomes broken, you can only move one step per action, by limping or crawling. If either of your character’s arms becomes broken, you suffer a -5 penalty to Brawl and Melee attack test pools, unless the character has the Ambidextrous merit, in which case, you only suffer a -3 penalty. A character with a broken arm cannot use twohanded weapons. A character with two broken arms cannot make Physical attacks unless she is capable of biting without grappling or she has more than two other useable limbs (such as tentacles summoned by Black Metamorphosis or limbs created with Vicissitude).

(2 point flaw) You suffer from visions of apocalyptic disaster and premonitions of wide-scale destruction. The universe is wrong somehow, and karmic balance will return to make everyone suffer. You have waking nightmares and visions of a hellish future that never occurred. Some say this is a by-product of a difficult Embrace; others say it is a premonition of Gehenna or a vision of a Gehenna that never occurred. You must use all of your will to tell the difference between the real world and the one that haunts you. Every time your Willpower decreases, you lose a little more of your grasp on reality and sink into these nightmarish visions. If you run out of Willpower, you fall into torpor. This flaw is often found in Cappadocians, Malkavians, Nosferatu, and Ravnos.

(2 point flaw) There is no ecstasy or pleasure in the Kiss when you feed; mortals suffer horrific agony from your bite. You must Grapple your prey to ensure that they cannot escape. You cannot close the wounds you cause after drinking others’ blood. Feeding from mortals counts as a level one Morality sin. For more information on Beast traits and Morality sins, see Chapter Seven: Dramatic Systems, Gaining Beast Traits, page 300.

Physical Flaws, especially those that might persist from a character's mortal life, deserve some increased attention in this era. It would be common to find Disfigured or Lame mortals in the Victorian age, and not all vampires Embrace uncommon blokes. Addiction affects eminent and invisible Victorians alike, from slums to gentleman's clubs, and won't be diagnosed as a problem until the maturation of psychology in the 1900s. General medicine is poor, and the consequence of inadequate care persist even in an undead body.

Many troupes will be tempted to model the peculiarities of Victorian social structure. This isn't necessary. You aren't playing vampiric time travellers, you're playing contemporaries. Merits and Flaws both mark characters as exceptional, and if all the characters are operating under the same social rules, where's the exception?

Both General Flaws and Derangement Flaws count towards the same cap of the 7 XP you receive refunded through purchasing them.

Inappropriate Flaws
Players cannot purchase flaws that do not impact their characters. Such flaws include:

• Flaws that duplicate a clan’s innate weakness, such as purchasing the Bound to the Earth flaw on a Tzimisce character.
• Flaws that are inappropriate to the character’s creature type, such as purchasing the Beast in the Mirror flaw on a character who is a ghoul.
• Flaws that are negated by a power or merit the character possesses, such as purchasing both the Deep Sleeper flaw and the Blind the Sun technique.
• Flaws that are made irrelevant by circumstances of plot or setting. You cannot have a flaw that requires you to fear all Ravnos, if there are no Ravnos allowed in your Storyteller’s setting.
• Merits and flaws that are diametrically opposed in story or in mechanics. A character cannot purchase Acute Sense: Hearing and also possess the Hard of Hearing flaw.

Unless otherwise stated in the mechanics of a merit or flaw you cannot purchase a specific merit or flaw more than once. A character cannot have Rugged multiple times, gaining a plethora of additional health levels nor take the flaw Deep Sleeper twice and claim to be “Sleepier.”

If you gain a power or ability that negates the detriments of a flaw your character possesses or makes that flaw insignificant, you must immediately buy off the flaw. Players who are forced to buy off a flaw in this manner may go into debt if they do not already possess enough earned XP to buy off the flaw; if you go into debt for this reason, the next XP earned by this character must be entirely allocated to repaying that flaw, until the experience debt is resolved.

(5 point flaw) This replaces the Thin Blooded Flaw, the term not existing yet in the Victorian era. Your character is a 13th or 14th generation vampire (your choice). You are a harbinger of the era to come, a very frightening prospect for those elder vampires familiar with the most common prophecies of the Final Nights. You’re also very weak compared to even the newly embraced vampires of the 11th or 12th Generation. You have 10 Blood Traits, but you can only use eight of them, the other two being inert like mortal blood.

All costs for Blood points are doubled, and may require you to spend multiple turns when powering Disciplines and healing. 

The blood of such unfortunate vampires is exceptionally weak, and such a creature cannot learn vampiric disciplines as extensively as true Neonates.  These individuals are always Caitiff, as their vitae is unable to support the traditional hallmarks of a clan. Some barely appear undead, and others are plagued by eerily realistic dreams of ancient nights. You cannot create blood bonds, nor Embrace childer, nor create or sustain ghouls.

For all other purposes (such as purchasing Disciplines and maximum number of Traits) you are considered a 10th-generation Kindred. Beneficially, sunlight inflicts only normal damage to you, and all your tests to resist frenzy are made as though you have 1 Beast trait less than you currently possess. Only characters with 1 dot in the Generation background (Neonate) can purchase this flaw. If your character ever diablerises and gains 12th generation, you must exchange this flaw for the Lesser Generation flaw, and repay the difference in XP. These thin-of-blood vampires have three in-clan disciplines (as per Caitiff), but begin play with only 2 free dots of disciplines: 1 dot in two of those in-clan disciplines. Further, you can never raise any discipline (in- or out-of-clan) higher than the 4th dot.

(2 point flaw) Your hearing is defective, and even with corrective equipment, you cannot hear with complete acuity. This can be dangerous under some circumstances, as you cannot rely on your hearing to warn you of danger. You suffer a -2 penalty to Awareness and Investigation test pools based on hearing.

(1 point flaw) A vengeful ghost torments you from beyond the grave. Though it usually limits itself to phantasmal moaning, eerie manifestations, and the occasional detrimental effect, this ghost is committed to causing you harm. It does its best to make your eternity miserable and to hasten the day when you will join it in death. You can see and hear this ghost whether or not you have the Medium merit or possess any of the paths of Necromancy.

(4 point flaw) Your name, face, and history are known to hunter organizations, werewolves, or an opposing sect. If you attract attention, the hunters will come for you. You must spend 2 downtime actions each month to avoid the individuals who are actively seeking your Final Death. If you fail to do this, you enter the game with your Healthy wound track filled with aggravated damage.

(3 point flaw) You come from an infamous brood. Any officer of your sect can expend any status trait (abiding, innate, or fleeting) in order to give you the Warned status trait.

(2 point flaw) You have no patience for standing around and waiting. You want to do things now — forget the slowpokes trying to hold you back. You vastly prefer acting on impulse without caring about the consequences. Every time you are forced to wait or be patient instead of acting immediately, you must spend 1 Willpower to wait without acting for five minutes. If you do not spend this Willpower, you react with extreme anger, lashing out at the source of your delay.

(3 point flaw) Your Embrace was a difficult one, and perhaps fate did not intend you to be a member of the clan that chose you. You
have no skill with one of the native disciplines of your clan. You do not start with a free dot of this discipline, and you must pay out-of-clan XP costs to purchase this discipline, although you do not require a teacher. You must purchase this flaw at character creation. This flaw cannot be removed.

(1 point flaw) You have an unreasoning dislike of a certain thing. This may be a clan, a bloodline, a type of creature, or a specific type of person. You will persecute these individuals to the extent of your ability, even jeopardizing alliances and your own reputation to see them besmirched. If forced to work with such a person, you suffer a -2 penalty to all of your non-defensive test pools.

(1 point flaw) As a mortal, you lived in the area where the chronicle is set (or you possess a high Fame background), and those who love you believe that you are dead. If you use your real name, if your photograph gets out, or if you are spotted by people who knew you, uncomfortable questions will be asked. If it happens too often, mortal hunters will quickly realize your undead nature.

(1 or 2 point flaw) You were recently sired by a 10th or 11th-generation vampire. Few of your kind exist. You are considered to be part of an unofficial social step forming at the bottom of vampire society. You still bear the distinctions and predilections of your clan, but are largely overlooked by elders, ancillae and many 10th-Generation neonates. You have to shout twice as loud to be heard and work twice as hard to be noticed. Neither entitles you to respect or responsibility, yet. It's a strange era for you: Most of your generation has not yet arrived. When they do, perhaps things will be different.

The 'higher' the Generation of a vampire is, the further away from the first vampire (Caine) they are. Their blood is less potent, less thick. This Flaw removes the character one (or two, if you take it as a 2 point flaw) step(s) in Generation away from Caine. Your blood effectively displays a weakening of vampiric power.

A character with this flaw must have either 1 or 2 dots in the Generation background; elders of any Generation cannot possess this flaw. The 1st and 2nd dots of the Generation background (Neonate or Ancilla) cover a wider variety of generations than the three elder dots. For example a Neonate, with 1 dot of Generation, could be anywhere from 15 to 11 steps removed from the mythical first vampire. An Ancilla, with 2 dots of the Generation background could be either 10 or 9 steps removed. Buying the Lesser Generation Flaw removes you 1 or 2 steps further from Caine. If you wish to be yet further removed, consider the 'Harbinger of Gehenna' Flaw.

If an Ancilla takes this flaw, she is 10th generation. If a Neonate takes this flaw, you may choose to be 11th or 12th generation. If you choose 12th generation for your character, then this is a 2 point flaw, rather than 1. If you wish your character to be a truly thin-blooded vampire of 13th or 14th generation, you must purchase the Harbinger of Gehenna flaw rather than the Lesser Generation flaw. You cannot purchase both 'Lesser Generation' and 'Harbinger of Gehenna.' If a character with Lesser Generation diablerises and gains a generation that places her at the default point of your Generation background, you must remove this flaw and repay its XP cost. This change occurs when a Neonate character diablerises and brings her generation from 11th to 10th or when an Ancilla character diablerizes from 10th to 9th generation.

(3 point flaw) You are a gentle, soft creature, not known for your tenacity. You may have come from a decadent society, or from noble stock who never had to perform any significant physical labor. Because of this, you have 1 less health level in both your Injured and Incapacitated wound tracks. Your Healthy levels are not affected by this flaw.

(2 point flaw) You are susceptible to blood magic, as well as to spells of mages or the hedge-magic of mortals. You cannot spend Willpower to retest Thaumaturgy, Necromancy, or other forms of magic.

(4 point flaw) You have difficulty drawing nourishment from human or animal blood. Vampire blood still affords full nourishment, which causes you to be in danger of the blood bond, and may lead you to the forbidden hunger of Amaranth. You always come into play with half your Blood pool; no amount of downtime actions can cause you to come into play at full Blood. Characters with this flaw cannot benefit from the Herd background. You may feed to full if you feed from other vampires. This flaw primarily occurs in Master or Luminary Elders.

(1 point flaw) You experience horrendous nightmares when you rest during the day, and those images haunt you during the waking hours. You rarely get a full day’s sleep, and it is difficult for you to overcome your agitated Beast. When you sin against your Morality, your mind fixates on those events, playing them (and other emotionally painful incidents of your past) over and over while you sleep during the day. You lose Beast traits at a rate of 1 per day of rest, rather than losing all Beast traits with a single day’s sleep.

(1 point flaw) You are obsessed with the dead. Your haven is distastefully decorated with severed and mutilated body parts. You talk to the dead, whether you can hear them talk back or not, dance with them, make art out of them, and enjoy their company. This might make it difficult to have guests over for a chat. Should mortals discover your haven, it will certainly cause a Masquerade breach and receive all manner of attention from the media. You must spend at least 10 minutes in the company of true corpses each night. If you do not, you suffer a -1 penalty to all test pools until you have fulfilled this requirement. This penalty is not cumulative.

(2 point flaw) You have a bad reputation among other vampires. This may be from something you have done in the past or it may be derived from your sire, lineage, or other connections. You do not receive passive bonuses from fleeting status traits.

(2 point flaw) Mortals instinctively sense that there’s something wrong with you. Your Beast is strong, and something about you makes other people realize that you’re dangerous. Mortals react poorly to you, as you exude a blatant air of menace. Further, the Beast overcomes your better nature and makes it difficult for you to remember your true priorities. You suffer a -2 penalty on all interactions with mortals who are unaware of the supernatural world. Further, you cannot purchase the Contacts, Allies, or Influence backgrounds.

(3 point flaw) You may have lost an eye before the Embrace, or it may have been removed by some permanent effect, such as Vicissitude. For whatever reason, you cannot regenerate it under any circumstances. You suffer a -5 penalty to all of your Physical ranged attacks, including attacks with guns and thrown weapons.

(2 point flaw) You have an exaggerated and unshakable opinion of your own worth and capabilities. You trust your own abilities over anything another person could offer, even in situations where you risk defeat. Because you aren’t actually invulnerable and omnipotent, such overconfidence can be dangerous, and when you do fail, you quickly find someone or something else to blame. You cannot benefit from the assist attacker or assist defender mass combat tactics, unless the person assisting you is following an order that you have just issued.

(3 point flaw) You suffered injuries during or immediately before the Embrace, which your sire did not repair. This wound cannot be healed, but it does not bleed, and you may be able to hide it under bandages or clothing. You have two fewer Healthy wound levels.

(3 point flaw) Your stability is directly tied to the weather. You calm as skies clear and grow progressively more bloodthirsty as a storm mounts. If you don’t sleep on or under naturally occurring water (in a boat on a lake, river, or ocean; or beneath the waters of a stream), you cannot spend Willpower the next night.

(1 point flaw) Animals flock to your presence, whether you want them to or not. These animals are of a distinctive species, and those who know to watch for such creatures can easily tell when you are in the area. Their presence makes it fairly easy to track your movements, locate your whereabouts, and potentially discover where you make your haven. You have no capacity to control these creatures unless you use Animalism on them, and even if you do so, more will come to take the place of the ones you send away. When you choose this flaw, you must choose the species of animal. These animals will not harm you unless directed by someone else who has Animalism, and the animals can see through your supernatural powers of concealment, making it impossible for you to hide from them.

(1 point flaw) Something in your psychology or religious beliefs prohibits you from hunting a certain type of mortal prey. You might refuse to feed on drug dealers, policemen, innocents, or Buddhists. You gain no nourishment from such individuals. If you witness other vampires feeding on your excluded prey, you must attempt to stop this defilement, violently if necessary. If you fail, you gain a Beast trait.

(3 point flaw) In legend, vampires can be driven away by holy symbols and cannot enter blessed or sacred ground. Your blood is tied to the origins of those myths. It might be that you suffer residual religious guilt or that your Beast hates and fears religious devotion. For whatever reason, when a mortal formally presents a symbol of her faith (whatever that may be), you cannot directly harm the mortal, nor affect her with powers, nor come within five steps of her.

If you come into contact with a holy symbol, you take a point of normal damage each turn you are in contact with it. Also, you cannot enter a site which is designated by your Storyteller as holy ground. If you are forced to do so (or carried onto such territory), you suffer 3 points of aggravated damage each turn you remain there. This damage cannot be reduced or negated.

(2 point flaw) You earnestly believe Camarilla propaganda, and no evidence can convince you otherwise. There are no End Times, the Antediluvians are nothing to worry about, Golconda is infernalism, there was no city of Enoch, and the biblical Caine is a myth. You’ve heard some of the rumours, but you know that the Camarilla is eminently correct. Whatever happens, you do all you can to ensure that others toe the party line. You cannot possess the Lore skill above 2, nor may you purchase the Loremaster merit.

(4 point flaw) You’ve never been good at concentrating, and your will is somewhat shaky on your best days. If you must concentrate to continue using a power or ability, your use of that power ends after a single turn and must be reactivated if you wish to continue using it. In addition, your permanent Willpower is reduced by 1.

(2 point flaw) You rage at the world, not because of injustice or because you have a score to settle. The truth is that you’re just always angry. You are considered to have 1 additional Beast trait when determining if you must test for frenzy and determining that test test’s difficulty.

(3 point flaw) The vitae in your veins is sluggish, and your control over your blood is imperfect at best. Although you are capable of forcing this blood to coalesce into your flesh and heal your wounds, you do so with great difficulty. You must spend an additional point of Blood anytime you wish to heal a point of damage. This penalty applies when you use Blood points to heal yourself, but does not penalize your use of healing powers on other characters through the use of powers such as Blood Rage from the Path of Blood.

(3 point flaw) You don’t think fast, and your movements have never been especially sure. You have a slow reaction time. It isn’t your fault that you’re slow on your feet, but it does hold you back a bit — especially in combat. Your initiative is reduced by 5.

(3 point flaw) Something terrible happened to you in your past. Perhaps you were struck by a potent Baali curse, or perhaps you were injured, handicapped, denied social interaction, or suffered a psychologically damaging childhood. Choose one attribute at character creation. You do not receive a focus in this attribute. You must purchase this flaw at character creation.

(2 point flaw) You were Embraced by a prestigious member of the Sabbat, and the Camarilla is aware of your origin. Although your sire tried to force you into that sect, you rejected the Sabbat and escaped to swear allegiance to the Camarilla. Unfortunately, your reputation will forever be marred by your foul origin. Your maximum fleeting status is 1 less than usual while you have this flaw. This penalty adds to that imposed by any status ban.

(1 point flaw) The sight of innocence arouses a terrible bloodlust in your Beast. It cannot stand the fact that such people exist, and seeks to tarnish, corrupt, or destroy anything pure.

(1 point flaw) Whenever weird stuff occurs, it happens to you. You have terrible luck, and misfortune follows at your heels, tearing you down whenever it has an opportunity. Whenever the Storyteller needs to randomly determine a negative result, such as determining which character is hit by a falling rock, or where the beat cop is patrolling at any given time, no test is made; you always suffer the consequence of bad luck.

(3 point flaw) You may be an exceptional social manipulator or a keen investigator, but you were never particularly good at weapons finesse. As the Camarilla has many other avenues through which to gain power, you’ve never even bothered to learn such trivial things. As a result, you cannot perform combat manoeuvres. Further, you cannot gain the benefit of a combat manoeuvre from the assist attacker tactic while you have this flaw.

(2 point flaw) You may be descended from the mortal cousins of lupines (or other were-creatures), you may have some astrological connection to the moon, or you may suffer from some primitive superstition. Whatever the case, you have a notable vulnerability to silver. When you are successfully struck by a weapon with the Silver quality, you take aggravated damage rather than normal damage.

(3 point flaw) Your mind is weak, easily disturbed, or confused. You tend to be a follower and rarely speak up for yourself. Because of this weakness, you are highly susceptible to the disciplines of Dominate and Dementation. (Note: Dementation doesn't exist as of yet in the world, but when it does, it will apply.) You cannot spend Willpower to retest when resisting these disciplines.

(3 point flaw) Some people are soft-hearted, others have a general squeamishness about blood. It’s possible that you may even be bulimic. You have trouble keeping blood down after you feed. Calculate your Blood pool as though your character has 1 less dot in Generation. Neonates with this flaw reduce their maximum Blood pool by 2. 'Harbingers of Gehenna' 13th and 14th-Generation neonates, who can normally only use 8 of their maximum blood pool of 10, can now only use 6.