List of Archetypes
Activist, Architect, Autocrat, Autist, Avant-Garde, Benefactor, Bon Vivant, Bravo, Capitalist, Caregiver, Cavalier, Celebrant, Child, Competitor, Confidant, Conformist, Conniver, Contrary, Critic, Creep Show, Crusader, Curmudgeon, Deviant, Director, Enigma, Eye of the Storm, Fanatic, Gallant, Hacker, Honest-Abe, Idealist, Innovator, Jester, Jobsworth, Judge, Loner, Machine, Manipulator, Martyr, Masochist, Mediator, Monster, Optimist, Pedagogue, Penient, Perfectionist, Plotter, Poltroon, Praise-Seeker, Prophet, Rebel, Rogue, Sadist, Scientist, Sensualist, Sociopath, Soldier, Survivor, Sycophant, Traditionalist, Thrill-Seeker, Visionary.
Archetype Details
Activist
The world is broken. Help fix it. Speak truth to power, dig up secrets, call people out on their shit, and reveal your plans for a better world to anyone who will listen. While apathetic cowards sit back and tune out, you step up and do whatever needs doing. Sure, folks might consider you a pain in the ass, but at least you’re making a difference!
Regain Willpower when you successfully confront abuse, right wrongs, or reveal an actual conspiracy and, by doing so, bring it down.
Architect
Your sense of purpose goes beyond your own needs; you try to create something of lasting value for those who will come after you. People need many things, and you gain satisfaction by providing whatever you can. You are the type of person who makes an effort to build something of value; to found a town, create a company or in some way leave a lasting legacy. Many American pioneers were Architects by Nature.
Regain Willpower whenever you create or establish something of importance or value.
Autocrat
You must have complete control of the situation, complete control over those around you and as much control over fate as you possibly can. Control is the only thing you understand; it is what you worship. Authority is what you desire, and it is what you gain when you have control. The more authority you have, the more control you gain. One hand feeds the other. Others may consider you domineering, but they just aren't up for the job. You are the only one who can do it.
Regain Willpower whenever you achieve complete control over a situation involving other individuals.
Autist
You hide your secrets from others. Even more importantly, you hide your true self. Anyone who understands you can hurt you, so no one must ever see the real you, or even come close. Give away as little of yourself as possible, adopt a false personality if you like, but just make sure no one discovers the truth about you. Knowledge is power, and those who know you can do anything they like to you.
Regain Willpower whenever another character confesses he is unable to understand you, or whenever someone makes a false assumption about you that gives you an advantage.
Avant-Garde
You must always be in the forefront, always the first with a piece of news, a dance or fashion trend, or a discovery in the arts. Nothing pains you more than hearing news secondhand, or someone else telling you about a hot new band. New discoveries are your life, and you devote a great deal of time and effort to keeping up with things. After all, if you're not in the forefront, you're nowhere.
Regain Willpower whenever you are first with a piece of news or some other significant discovery.
Benefactor
It’s a cruel world, but you make things easier. Generous sometimes to a fault, you supply whatever you can provide: money, advice, protection, maybe just a shoulder when someone really needs to cry. You can’t just turn blind eyes to suffering and need. It’s your moral duty to do whatever you can do to make things right. When things get tough, you call upon your inner White Knight and charge in, bringing gifts, guidance, and occasional force when nothing else will do.
Regain Willpower when you provide help that someone else desperately needs. The key here is that desperate part.
Bon Vivant
Life is pointless, shallow and meaningless---so have as good a time as possible. Rome may burn, but you shall drink wine and sing songs. A hedonist, sensualist, sybarite and party animal, the words austere, self-denial and self-discipline have no place in your life. You much prefer the concept of instant gratification. Still, you don't mind a little hard work as long as a good time awaits you upon completion. most Bon Vivants have low Self-Control, for they so dearly love excess.
Regain Willpower whenever you have a truly good time and can fully express your exultation (or perhaps even more points if you enjoy an especially fun night).
Bravo
You are known as a bully, a ruffian and a tough, and delight in tormenting the weak. Things must always go your way, and you do not tolerate those who cross you. Power and might are all you respect; indeed, you heed only those who can prove their power to you. You see nothing wrong with forcing your will upon others. There is nothing you like better than to persecute, antagonize, heckle and intimidate those for whom you have contempt---and of them there are many. The emotions of kindness and pity are not completely foreign to you, but you hide from your own sense of weakness through cruelty to others. While most Bravos despise the weak, a few become their protectors.
Regain Willpower whenever you intimidate or physically force another person to do what you wish.
Capitalist
You are the ultimate mercenary, realizing that there is always a market to be developed — anything can be a commodity. You have a keen understanding of how to manipulate both kine and Cainites into thinking that they need specific goods or services. Appearance and influence are everything when it comes to the big sale, though you’ll use anything to your advantage. Salesmen, soldiers of fortune, and bootlickers all adhere to the Capitalist Archetype.
Regain Willpower whenever you make a successful “sale” of any commodity. Commodities need not be physical items; they may be bits of information, favors, or other intangibles.
Caregiver
You always try to help those around you, struggling to make a difference in the needs and sorrows of the unfortunate. People around you depend on your stability and strength to keep them steady and centered. You are the one people turn to when they have a problem.
Regain Willpower whenever you successfully protect or nurture someone else. It can be as small as a smile of support or a shoulder to lean on at an appropriate moment. You must help the other person in some way, though he need not acknowledge it openly.
Cavalier
You are as bold, intrepid, valiant and fearless as you need to be to complete your duty. You are the hero who tries to live up to glorious ideals and codes of justice. By protecting that which is good, you seek to preserve the society that made you what you are. If your Nature is Cavalier, and your Humanity ever falls below four, you have to choose a new Nature. You probably hate Deviants, though you may not always recognize them.
Regain Willpower when you manage to accomplish a significant task that positively affects the group to which you belong.
Celebrant
The Celebrant takes joy in her cause. Whether the character’s passion is battle, religion, foiling her rivals, or reading fine literature, it gives the Celebrant the strength to withstand adversity. Given the chance, the Celebrant will indulge in her passion as deeply as possible. Unlike the Fanatic, the Celebrant pursues her cause not out of duty, but out of enthusiasm. Crusaders, hippies, political activists, and art enthusiasts are Celebrant Archetypes. Celebrant Kindred may cleave to mortal ideologies that are incongruous with their new Damned conditions, or they may be the advocates of new trends and causes that move through undead society.
Regain Willpower whenever you pursue your cause or convert another character to the same passion. Conversely, lose a point of temporary Willpower whenever you are denied your passion or it is badly lost to you.
Child
You are still immature in personality and temperament: a kid who never grew up. Though you can (hopefully) care for yourself, you prefer the security of being watched over by others. Often you seek out someone to look out for you---a caretaker of sorts. Some see you as a spoiled brat, while others see you as an innocent cherub unaffected by the evils of the world. This is a very common archetype for Kindred who were created when they were young and subsequently matured mentally, but not emotionally.
Regain Willpower whenever someone does something to help you with no apparent gain for himself.
Competitor
You are driven by the need to win at all costs. The thrill of victory is the only thrill you recognize; it is the thing that drives you. You see life as a contest and society as a dichotomy of winners and losers. You believe all the macho business proverbs: "if you're not the lead dog, the view never changes," "there are no prizes for second place", "eat or be eaten." You try to turn every situation into a contest of some kind, and it is the only way you can relate to anything. You are capable of cooperating with others, but only by turning the group interactions into another contest: you must be the leader, or the most productive, or the most indispensable, or the best liked. ANYTHING, as long as it means you win in some way or another.
Regain Willpower whenever you win a contest of any sort, formal or informal. For truly impressive victories, the Storyteller may award more points.
Confidant
You understand people, and, more importantly, you like them. You are a facilitator who listens and advises. People confess to you and in return you give them advice, most of which is good (though sometimes your advice is more for your own benefit than for that of the recipient). You are very interested in other people, and who and what they are.
You regain Willpower whenever someone confides in you on a personal and intimate level. Personalities fascinate you, as do the sickness and beauty of human nature.
Conformist
You are a follower. Taking charge is just not your style. It is easier for you to adapt, attune, adjust, comply and reconcile yourself to whatever new situation you find yourself in. You flit to the brightest star, the person whom you feel to be the best, throwing your lot in with him. It is both difficult and distasteful for you to go against the flow or rebel. You hate inconsistence and instability, and know that by supporting a strong leader, you help prevent chaos from occurring. All stable groups need some kind of Conformist.
Regain Willpower whenever your group (the brood) accomplishes something because of your support and aid.
Conniver
What's the sense of working hard when you can get something for nothing? Why drudge when, just by talking, you can get what you want? You always try to find the easy way out, the fast track to success and wealth. Some people might call what you do swindling or even outright theft, but you know that you only do what everyone else does; you just do it better. Additionally, it's a game, and you get great pleasure out of outwitting someone. Connivers play many roles, so you may be a thief, a swindler, a street waif, an entrepreneur, a con man, or just a finagler.
Regain Willpower whenever you are able to get your way by tricking another person into doing as you wish.
Contrary
Inversion is an essential part of real life. For every rule, there must be exceptions. You live to turn things inside out, undercutting assumptions by showing their weak foundations. You’re the Devil’s Advocate, pointing out flaws by embodying the opposite of what folks expect.
Regain Willpower whenever your inversion of expectations leads folks to realize how false those expectations had been.
Critic
Nothing in the world should be accepted without thorough scrutiny and examination. Nothing is ever perfect, and the blemishes must be pointed out in order for the good to be truly known. Your standards are high for everything, and you insist on their being met. You encourage the same ideals in others, because laxity and low standards reduce the quality of life for everyone. Others will thank you later, once they discover the purity of your perspective. You seek out and expose the imperfections in every person or thing you encounter. You are never satisfied with anything that is less than perfect, unless it is within yourself (after all, you're not a perfectionist).
Regain Willpower whenever you are able to discover a significant imperfection that has escaped the attention of others.
Creep Show
You strive to shock and disgust those around you with gratuitous acts and ostentatiously “evil” mannerisms. You realize, of course, that it’s all show and merely a way to intimidate and control others. Outsiders, on the other hand, think you are the Devil incarnate, and you revel in this image. Shock-rockers, rebellious teenagers, circus freaks, and the attention-starved exemplify the Creep Show Archetype.
Regain Willpower whenever someone recoils from you in horror or otherwise reacts in fear.
Crusader
People need a hero, and you’re there to fill that role. Driven by a higher purpose – religious conviction, moral ethics, a philosophical ideal – you strive for a better world. The sword you wield might be more symbolic than literal: a scientist or teacher can be a Crusader too. The struggle, though, is what defines you. A better future must be built upon the foundations of our flawed world, and your duty compels you to demolish the obstacles so that reconstruction can begin.
Regain Willpower when you accomplish some great deed in the name of your higher goal. As a player, you need to define what that higher goal is, and then follow it even when it hurts you. A true Crusader’s beliefs are not governed by convenience.
Curmudgeon
You are an irascible, churlish person at heart, taking everything seriously and finding little humor in life (though you may have a wickedly barbed wit). Cynicism is your middle name; it is the tool with which you judge everything in life. You have a very well-defined understanding of how things really work, especially when they involve the circus of human endeavor. Long ago the foolish actions of others ceased to surprise you.
Regain Willpower whenever someone does something stupid, just like you predicted. You must predict it either out loud to the other characters or in private to the Storyteller.
Deviant
There are always people who don't fit in, and you are such a miscreant. Your beliefs, motivations and sense of propriety are the complete antithesis of the status quo. You are not so much an aimless rebel as an independent thinker who does not belong in the society in which you were raised. You don't give a damn about other people's morality, but you do adhere to your own strange code of conduct. Deviants are typically irreverent, and some have truly bizarre tastes and desires.
Regain Willpower whenever you are able to thumb your nose at society and its precepts without retaliation. (most often whatever supernatural society that you belong to rather than the mundane).
Director
You despise chaos and disorder, and tend to take control and organize things in order to suppress anarchy. You like to be in charge, live to organize and habitually strive to make things work smoothly. You trust your own judgment implicitly and tend to think of things in black-and-white terms: "This won't work," "You're either for me or against me," "There are two ways to do this---my way and the wrong way."
Regain Willpower when you are allowed to lead a group and accomplish a significant task.
Enigma
Your actions are bizarre, puzzling, and inexplicable to everyone except yourself. Your strangeness may be a residual effect from your Embrace, or the most effective way for you to carry out your work. To the rest of the world, however, your erratic actions suggest that you’re eccentric if not completely crazy. Conspiracy theorists, deep-cover agents, and Jyhad fanatics all live up to the Enigma Archetype
Regain Willpower whenever someone is completely perplexed or baffled by one of your actions that later turns out to be a fruitful endeavor.
Eye of the Storm
Despite your calm appearance, chaos and havoc seems to follow you. From burning cities to emotional upheaval, death and destruction circle you like albatrosses. For you, unlife is a never-ending trial with uncertainty around every corner. Gang leaders, political figures, and other influential individuals exemplify the Eye of the Storm Archetype.
Regain Willpower whenever a ruckus, riot, or less violent but equally chaotic phenomenon occurs around you.
Fanatic
You are consumed by a cause; it is the primary force in your life, for good or ill. Every ounce of blood and passion you possess is directed towards it; in fact, you feel very guilty about spending time on anything else. You will let nothing stand in your way---nothing that you cannot overcome, in any case. You and those around you may suffer, but your cause is everything---the end justifies the means. Before the game begins, make sure you describe your cause, and define how it may affect your behavior.
You regain Willpower whenever you accomplish an act which furthers your cause.
Gallant
You are as flamboyant as you are amoral; some see you as a rogue, a Don Juan, a rake, a paramour, or just a lounge lizard---but you see yourself as all of the above. A consummate actor who loves to make as big show of things as possible, nothing attracts your interest more than an appreciative audience. You love people and you love to impress them even more. Though you may indeed be a superior lover, you enjoy the chase almost as much as you enjoy the act. Gallants vary widely in temperament and ambition, holding in common little more than their love of attention.
Regain Willpower whenever you manage to dazzle or impress another person. The Storyteller is always the judge, even when characters are involved.
Hacker
Every system is a locked vault, and you’ve got the keys. If you don’t have ones that work, you’ll make new ones – that’s half the fun of life, after all! Puzzles excite you; limits just piss you off. Especially given the sheer amount of abuse that’s built into any system, the world needs folks like you to tear down impediments and set reality free.
Regain Willpower when you detect a flaw in some important structure, system, or device, or else when you puzzle out a way to improve something that was supposedly designed well to begin with.
Honest-Abe
You have a moderate temperament, and refrain at all cost from telling lies and stealing from others. You were brought up to live honestly and openly, and to be good to others; you have lived your life (and unlife) by these simple truths ever since. You are not a dogmatist and do not insist that others live as you do, nor have you constructed a complicated set of rules for yourself. You are flexible in your behavior, but always carefully evaluate your actions against your beliefs.
Regain Willpower if your honesty harms you or your friends in some way, but later turns out to help you. In other words, your honesty turns out to have been the proper way to do things, even from a pragmatic point of view.
Idealist
Cowards accept what is. You know how much better things will be once the flaws in the system have been purged. Guided by a great ideal – spiritual devotion, political philosophy, scientific theory, compassionate humanity – you refuse to remain shackled by defeatism. Your Ideal is correct. You know this to be true. Now is the time to bring it about. Once you do, everyone else will see just how wrong they’ve been… and how right you are.
Regain Willpower when your beliefs are tested to the breaking point yet do not fail.
Innovator
There’s always a better way. You spend your life looking for methods and inventions that improve on what has gone before. Sure, past achievements are wonderful enough… but if you just add this, shift that, approach the issue from this other
angle instead, then you’ll make a good thing that much better or fix an obvious flaw in a promising design.
Regain Willpower when your inspiration leads to a helpful new breakthrough.
Jester
You are the fool, idiot, quipster, clown or comic, forever making fun of both yourself and others. You constantly seek the humor in any situation, and strive always to battle the tides of depression inside yourself. You hate sorrow and pain, and constantly try to take others' minds off the dark side of life. Sometimes you'll do nearly anything to forget pain exists. Your particular brand of humor might not always impress your friends, but it makes you feel better. Some Jesters manage to escape pain and are truly happy, but most never find release.
Regain Willpower when you raise the spirits of those around you through the device of humor, especially when you are able to escape your own pain in the process.
Jobsworth
You are dedicated to the unbroken routine of your existence, and refuse to do anything that compromises your routine and established practices. No matter how urgent or deserving an individual case may be, the preservation of established practices and routines is more important. Individual decisions and considerations are fallible, whereas routines and established procedures are the distilled wisdom of years or decades of decision-making. Routines are what separates order from chaos. Make an exception once, and it sets a dangerous precedent; make an exception twice, and the door to anarchy is opened.
Regain Willpower each time you are able to preserve your routine, and each time you avoid reevaluating anything or making a decision about a situation based on its individual merits.
Judge
As a facilitator, moderator, arbitrator, conciliator, and peacemaker, you always seek to make things better. You pride yourself on your rationality, your judgment and your ability to deduce a reasonable explanation when given the facts. You struggle to promote truth, but you understand how difficult it is to ascertain. You respect justice, for that is the way in which truth can reign. In your view, people are resources, albeit ones that are most difficult to manage and employ. You hate dissension and arguments, and shy away from dogmatism. Sometimes Judges make good leaders, though a lack of vision can sometimes cause them to maintain the status quo instead of searching for a better way.
Regain Willpower when you are able to successfully separate the truth from a web of lies or can convince disputing individuals to agree with your judgment.
Loner
You are the type of person who is always alone, even in the midst of a crowd. You are the wanderer, hunter and lone wolf. Though others might think of you as lonely, forsaken, isolated or remote, in truth you prefer your own company to that of others. There are many different reasons why this might be so: you don't understand people, you understand people too well, people dislike you, people like you too much, or you are simply lost in your own thoughts. Your reasons are your own.
Regain Willpower when you manage to accomplish some significant task on your own, without the aid of others, yet which still aids the group significantly.
Machine
Flesh is weak. You are not. Whether or not you’re an actual cyborg, you have the relentless drive of a Terminator on PCP. Flaws do not concern you. Limits are for the mewling meatbags known as human beings. Compassion is for weaklings. Fatigue is for lesser entities. If and when you fall short of perfection, you understand that such failure is just a challenge to do better next time.
Regain Willpower when you transcend the limits of mere flesh, bone, and steel, accomplishing something that no one else has managed to do.
Manipulator
You have always been fascinated by others. Why do people behave as they do? What thoughts and emotions affect their actions? The cognitive process that influences the choices people make intrigue you. Sometimes just asking people questions about their actions can yield important information, but often people do not truly understand their own motivations and concerns. In these cases, it is far easier to set up situations, experiments, if you will, to see how people behave. You attempt to manipulate these situations for your personal advantage, in order to discover more information about your chosen subjects. Some might call these experiments cruel, but to you it is mere scientific necessity.
Regain Willpower whenever you mange to set up an incident or situation that allows you to gain new insight into your subject's psyche.
Martyr
All possess the martyr instinct, but few act upon it. Even fewer live the life of a Martyr, but you are such a one. Your desire for self-sacrifice stems either from a low self-esteem, a feeling of a lack of control, or a profoundly developed sense of love. You are able to endure long-lasting and severe suffering because of your beliefs and ideals. At worst, a Martyr expects sympathy and attention because of his or her suffering, and may even feign or exaggerate pain or deprivation. At best, a Martyr will choose to suffer injury or even the Final Death rather than renounce his religion, beliefs, principles, cause or friends.
Regain Willpower when you sacrifice yourself in a real and immediate way for your beliefs or another individual.
Masochist
You like to push the boundaries and try to see how much you can take... how much pain you can tolerate before you collapse. You gain a certain satisfaction from suffering humiliation, depravation and even mutilation, especially when you are the cause of your pain and have some control over it. You know that your need is somewhat perverse, but you know you aren't crazy. This is just the way you are.
Regain Willpower whenever you suffer in a new way.
Mediator
The world is full of people who want things; sometimes people want the exact same things. Some people have what other people want and would be willing to talk about working out a deal, but just don't know how to start. These people often have immense trouble finding and communicating with each other. That is where you come in. You are dedicated to mediating between people, fulfilling needs; smoothing over disputes, and generally helping people talk to one another. You are the diplomat, the middle child, the perpetual person in the middle.
Regain Willpower whenever you are able to act as a go-between between two individuals or groups, and regain another point if you bring things to a satisfactory conclusion. The Storyteller may award more points for particularly outstanding mediation.
Monster
Heaven lacks glory without the threat of Hell. It’s your noble chore, then, to be the Agent of Infamy. An obvious choice for Nephandic mages (though not, by a long shot, exclusive to their kind), this Archetype embodies unapologetic villainy. As Voltaire (the singer, not the philosopher) put it, “It’s so easy when you’re evil”… easy, fun, and satisfying!
Regain Willpower by performing spectacular acts of heartlessness and ruin.
Optimist
"Everything always turns out for the best." That is the motto of your life, and you know if you can just stay cheerful and stop worrying, your problems will never be with you forever. Some call you a fool, but even they have to admit you're happier than they are. Certainly you'll encounter difficulties from time to time, but there's no sense in worrying yourself to death in advance. Don't worry, be happy, and have a nice day.
Regain Willpower whenever things turn out for the best, just like you said they would. You must predict such an outcome, either out loud to the other characters or to yourself (tell the Storyteller).
Pedagogue
You've been a few places, seen a few things, and picked up a thing or two along the way, and you like to tell everyone about what you've learned. Teaching is your avocation, if not necessarily your profession. In your time you've seen inexperience and ignorance lead to all kinds of misery and misfortune, and it pains you too much to stand by and watch this occur. You are dedicated to passing on what you have learned for the benefit of others, not only skills and knowledge, but also the less tangible assets of wisdom and experience. If given the chance you can lecture others for hours.
Regain Willpower point whenever you see (or discover) that someone has benefited by something you taught or showed him.
Penitent
You are unworthy. You are sinful. You are base, vile and lacking in virtue. You have no right to exist and are utterly beyond redemption. Either because of a low self-image or because of a spectacular trauma in your past, you feel compelled to spend your life making up for what you are, what you lack or what you have done. You owe it to Creation at large to offer repentance for the crime of your existence. You struggle nightly to make amends for your weakness, and your nightly dream is to be able, at last, to overcome it. But you know you are weak and beyond hope.
Regain Willpower whenever you are able to do a good deed for someone to whom (in reality or in your imagination) you have been an inconvenience, annoyance, or danger. For particularly outstanding acts of penitence or recompense, the Storyteller may award more points.
Perfectionist
You can't stand imperfection, not in others and certainly not in yourself. Neither can you tolerate those who do not do everything they can to do their best, to make everything neat and proper and right in their lives. Though you may be strict with others, it is with yourself that you are most critical. Everything must always be in its place, and you must always do the best and be the best.
Regain Willpower whenever you accomplish something flawlessly, without a single mistake, falter, wound, hesitation, confusion, hindrance or obstruction.
Plotter
Everything you do is planned. Very little springs from you spontaneously. Your plans are often long and involved, sometimes extending beyond the lives of the mortals involved in them. Details must be exact, for you believe any deviation could bring ruin. You try to plan everything in your life; each thing you do must accomplish something in the greater scheme Deviation from routine, however, is bothersome, not traumatic. You are organized, not deranged. You tend to be neat and precise in everything you do.
Regain Willpower when one of your plots comes to fruition in the exact manner you planned.
Poltroon
Meeting trouble (or anything else) head-on is the tactic of fools and optimists. The sensible way to deal with trouble is to deny it a target. While some people might accuse you of sticking your head in the sand, they do have to admit that it has remained on your shoulders for quite some time, and looks like it will continue to do so indefinitely. You never confront what you can evade, and never face anything unless there is no other option. Courage is not high on your list of virtues, but then the line between courage and folly is virtually nonexistent to your eyes.
Regain Willpower whenever you are able to avoid a problem or situation without dealing with it.
Praise-Seeker
Your self-worth is based entirely on the opinions of others. You crave approval and praise, and will go to extreme lengths to get such, even risking yourself and things you love. Unlike the Sycophant, you do not think of protection, and have no thought of using others' good opinions to your own advantage, you simply crave praise and approval for their own sake, so you can feel good about yourself.
Regain Willpower whenever another character offers unprompted praise, admiration or appreciation. If the appreciation is truly great, and/or the other character is powerful or particularly admired, the Storyteller may award extra points.
Prophet
Speaking capital-T Truth, you bring a sacred message to a wounded world. That message might not necessarily be religious, though it’s at least got religious undertones. Regardless of its nature, it’s capital-I Important in ways that simple opinions
could never be. Traditionally, a prophet becomes the chosen representative of Truth, throwing light into shadowed corners and forcing folks to look at their own hypocrisies. It’s not an easy cross to bear, but Truth will not be denied for long.
Regain Willpower when you speak Truth to power and inspire a successful change.
Rebel
You are a malcontent, iconoclast and free-thinking recalcitrant. You are so independent-minded and free-willed that you are unwilling to join any particular cause or movement. You are just yourself and only desire the freedom to be yourself. You do not make a good follower and aren't usually a very good leader either (unless your followers are willing to go wherever you lead). You tend to be insubordinate to authority to the point of stupidity.
Regain Willpower whenever your rebellion against the status quo turns out to be for the best.
Rogue
Only one thing matters to the Rogue: herself. To each his own, and if others cannot protect their claims, they have no right to them. The Rogue is not necessarily a thug or bully, however. She simply refuses to succumb to the whims of others. Rogues almost universally possess a sense of self-sufficiency. They have their own best interests in mind at all times. Prostitutes, capitalists, and criminals all embody the Rogue Archetype. Kindred Rogues include diablerists, Autarkis, and a Primogen who puts his Clan’s opportunities before the supremacy of the Kindred as a whole.
Regain Willpower when your self-centered disposition leads you to profit, materially or otherwise. At the Storyteller’s discretion, accumulating gain without exposing your own weaknesses may let you regain two points of Willpower. As well, you may regain a point of Willpower when your efforts benefit the group to which you belong when that benefit comes at the expense of another group.
Sadist
You exist to inflict pain and suffering upon others. Killing is too easy; torture is the best way to truly harm a person, and you seek the slowest, most painful means to push others to the ultimate limits. Pain — others’ pain — gives you immense pleasure. Drill sergeants, jilted ex-lovers, and some of the terminally deranged may all embody the Sadist Archetype at one time or another; sadism is rare enough to appear only in aberrant cases, rather than reliably in any type or class of person.
Regain Willpower whenever you inflict pain upon someone for no reason other than your own pleasure.
Scientist
To a Scientist, existence is a puzzle which she can help to reassemble. A Scientist logically and methodically examines her every situation and maneuver, looking for logical outcomes and patterns. This is not to say that the Scientist is always looking for a scientific or rational explanation, but rather she examines her surroundings rigorously and with a critical eye. The system a Scientist attempts to impose on the world may be completely ludicrous, but it is a system, and she sticks by it.
Regain Willpower any time a logical, systematic approach to a problem helps you solve it, or information gathered logically is of use in another, similar situation.
Sensualist
Sensation is a drug to you. The jittery rush of adrenaline, the caress of this week’s lover on your skin, the raspy pull of a brush through messy hair, even the dull burn of a broken heart – you chase those dragons with bright abandon. The obvious choice for an Ecstatic mage, this compulsion finds new expressions in the Art of magick. The first thing you learn in each Sphere, after all, is perception. For someone like you, that’s all the reason in the world you need in order to learn each Sphere and savor its sensations.
Regain Willpower when you get a chance to revel in some potent sensual experience… especially if you get to share with someone else. (Novelty, though, is key; when you do the same thing over and over just to get a rush, that rush fades to boredom in no time.)
Sociopath
All inferior beings both living and undead should be exterminated in order to bring about a harmonious existence. You likely feel no remorse when you kill (depending upon your Humanity or Path). On the contrary, you are doing a glorious deed for society. Some vampires are critical of your violent nature, but you sometimes manage to sway them with arguments like, “Darwin would agree that I’m only helping nature along!” and, “Only the strongest shall survive!”
Regain Willpower whenever you are the greatest contributor to a body count after everything has settled down. This count includes times when you are the only killer, and it needs not result from a massive combat — like killing every member of a movie audience or gunning down defenseless patrons in a bank robbery.
Soldier
The Soldier is not a blindly loyal follower. While she exists for orders, she does not adhere to them unquestioningly. More independent than a Conformist but too tied into the idea of command to be a Loner, the Soldier applies her own techniques to others’ goals. While she may seek command herself someday, her ambitions lie within the established hierarchy and structure. The Soldier has no compunctions about using whatever means necessary to do what needs to be done, so long as the orders to do so came from the right place.
Regain Willpower when you achieve your orders’ objectives. The more difficult the orders are to fulfill, the better it feels to accomplish them. At Storyteller discretion, pulling off a spectacular success or fulfilling a lengthy mission may well be worth additional Willpower points.
Survivor
Nothing stops you. Hardened by previous ordeals, you’ve developed a sense of self-preservation that keeps you going when lesser souls surrender to the odds. You’ve got little patience or sympathy for people who won’t do whatever it takes to endure hardship. “Shut up and step up or get the fuck out of my way” is your motto. Other folks might not make it through, but their weakness won’t lead to your death.
Regain Willpower whenever you survive a difficult situation through stubborn cunning and a refusal to give in.
Sycophant
In the grand scheme of things, you are small and weak and unfit for survival. Your best hope is to find someone who is more powerful than you are and persuade him to take care of you. In return you will serve, admire and follow him. You will do anything he says, unless it puts you in great risk. In any type of uncertain situation, you will attach yourself to the strongest-seeming person, siding with him, performing various barely necessary services and generally trying to ingratiate yourself. Thereby you hope to earn some kind of protection. There is no limit to the depths to which you will lower yourself in order to be accepted, and you have no pride.
Regain Willpower whenever a stronger character to whom you have attached yourself acts in your defense, be it siding with you in an argument or protecting you from physical harm.
Traditionalist
You are an orthodox, conservative and extremely traditional individual. What was good enough for you when you were young is good enough for you now. You almost never change. In general you are opposed to change for the sake of change---what point is there in that? You may be seen by some as a miser, a reactionary or simply an old fogy. You strive to always preserve the status quo.
Regain Willpower whenever you are able to protect the status quo and prevent change.
Thrill-Seeker
You live for that moment of danger when the adrenalin kicks in and you feel truly alive. Skydiving, bungee jumping and leaping across roofs on a dare are all just par for the course. As a junkie is addicted to his particular brand of poison, you are addicted to danger. Unlike most, you go out of your way to place yourself in dangerous situations that test the limits of your abilities. You train and work for these situations, and then you seek them out. This is what sets you apart from the teeming masses of paranoid dullards who shuffle around, hiding from their own shadows.
Regain Willpower whenever you accomplish a particularly daring feat or overcome a nearly impossible situation in which you deliberately placed yourself.
Trickster
The world is your plaything. People are your toys. A Lord or Lady of Misrule, you work an eternal scam against the dull background of everyday existence. Unlike the Contrary, you’re less interested in political subversion than in personal gratification. It’s not that you don’t care about your companions – you do. Still, when life is one big joke, it’s better to be the setup than the punchline.
Regain Willpower when your clever plans result in a big gain for you and your companions or a big loss for your enemies.
Visionary
There are very few who are brave or strong or imaginative enough to look beyond the suffocating embrace of society and mundane thought and see something more. Society treats such people with both respect and contempt---for it is the Visionary who perverts as well as guides society into the future. You may be a spiritualist, shaman, New Ager, mystic, philosopher or inventor, but whatever you are, you are always conventional imagination and create new possibilities. Though you might have your head in the clouds and are often of an impractical bent, you are filled with new ideas and perceptions.
Regain Willpower whenever you are able to convince others to believe in your dreams and follow the course of action outlined by your vision of the future.