Roleplaying Hints
Advantages: Image
Another element White Wolf often glossed over is how one’s Advantages can affect a character’s image. Absorbing the following suggestions can and should cause a character’s description (the “DD”) to alter accordingly.
Core Advantages
Vampire
For Cainites, Virtues do not have any automatically evident bearing on the character’s image. You don’t know if someone’s a coward or brave until something scary happens, after all. But Humanity (or Path of Enlightenment) does have an effect on the character’s appearance. For Humanity, it depends simply on the Trait’s score. The higher the score, the more human the character appears. The lower the score, the more bestially ugly the character becomes -- indeed, this can actively lower a character’s Appearance rating! Paths of Enlightenment work similarly. Paths with more neutral beliefs or beliefs similar to Humanity’s ethos work as Humanity. However, a Path that embraces tenets of a more immoral or vile nature work as “anti-Humanity” -- the higher the score, the more bestial the character appears.
The Virtues of the Kuei-jin function very similarly. However, it is more based on the interaction, and difference between, the character’s Soul Virtues that defines how human or bestial he appears. Chi Virtues, on the other hand, can affect how life-like the characters seems and acts (or doesn’t). Any Chi Virtue in excess of 5 will cause the character to appear extremely energetic or sluggish even if neither is the case. One could also say such an extreme score can indicate if the character appears “very alive” or “very dead”.
Werewolf
A character with high Rage will definitely put off most other people: this is the Curse of the Lycanthrope. He will seem edgier and jumpy, more irritable and snappy. He will feel and even look more like a wild, predatory carnivore than a “service society” omnivore.
Characters with high Gnosis will radiate a sense of spiritual or mystical depth. This will seem mysterious and shadowy to those cut off from Gnosis. Such characters will often “stare off” as if seeing something more.
Mage
The higher a mage’s Arete, the more likely he is to give off “weird” vibes. The mage may not be so much “weird” as he is “highly advanced or enlightened”, but it will often make him stand out nonetheless. As a mage’s Arete develops, so too will his personal Resonance grow.
Obviously, Resonance can have a very strong effect on the character’s personal image. Quintessence and Paradox have a subtle “weirdness” factor, too. Characters with high scores in either Trait will give off a sense of raw power or the danger of catastrophe, respectively. In either case, many will probably avoid the mage.
Wraith
Passions and Fetters have no bearing on a wraith’s appearance, except that having very low Passion scores can make the wraith seem the same way one does when he has very little Pathos. The wraith will seem dejected and disinterested, even tired and exhausted. A character with a high permanent Angst score will often have a definite “dark aura”, even if he behaves as brightly as possible. However, some Shadows intent on making a good Doppelganger out of the Psyche will develop a Thorn to mask this.
Changeling
The book also did an adequate job explaining the effects of Glamour and Banality on the appearance of a faerie. Nothing need be noted here.
For hsien, however, the changeling will encompass evident traits into their bearing and image depending on which Chi Virtue is higher: Yin or Yang. If the scores are balanced, the hsien will have elements of both in his appearance and demeanor.
