Template:Lore Rules

Lore Rules

I. Core Lore & Mechanical Foundations

1. The Canon

As established in Core Rule 1, The Final Nights uses Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition (V20) and Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition (W20) as our mechanical and narrative foundation.

• 1.0 The Cutoff: The timeline is firmly anchored to the events up to and including Beckett’s Jyhad Diary (setting the server in 2016, pre-V5). The active setting rules are detailed in The Big Lore Rework for V20 and Big Lore Rework 2: Garou.
• 1.1 Player Adherence: All players are strictly required to align their character histories, concepts, and in-game actions with this specific canon ecosystem.

2. Legacy and Revised Content

Material from older Revised sourcebooks (such as Clanbooks or Tribebooks) may be utilized only if it has not been explicitly overridden or retconned by V20/W20 lore.

• Note: To prevent retcon issues, it is highly recommended to consult the Lore Team via a Discord Q&A channel before implementing specific parts of legacy lore into your character’s background to get a green light.

3. Rules as Written vs. Optional Rules

To maintain stability and consistency, Optional Rules from the sourcebooks are generally not used. They often override the core system or are completely unfeasible in a multiplayer server setting. The server operates strictly on Rules as Written (RAW).

4. Rarity and Forbidden Character Concepts

If a clan, tribe, discipline, gift, or merit is explicitly noted in the books as being exceptionally rare to the point of being extinct, or is generally not supported for player characters, it cannot be played on the server.

• 4.1: Anything deemed exceedingly rare or thought to be entirely eradicated (for example a Salubri Warrior who has been Kindred for longer than ~20 years) requires explicit, case-by-case permission from the Lore Team.
• Unsure? If you are uncertain whether a concept crosses into restricted territory, please open a ticket or ask in the designated lore Q&A channel. We don't bite!

II. Character & Roleplay Expectations

1. Grounded Character Concepts

As per Core Rule 1, players must create characters that could reasonably exist in the World of Darkness. Concepts must remain grounded within the expectations of their age, generation/rank, sect, and clan/tribe.

• 1.1 Logical Alignment: A Brujah embraced in the 1970s–1980s being a loud-mouthed activist and punk rocker is entirely logical.
• 1.2 Anachronistic Breaks: A four-century-old Ventrue Elder behaving like a modern punk-y activist makes no narrative sense and breaks setting immersion.

2. In-Character (IC) Knowledge

Characters must only act on lore knowledge that is plausibly available to them. OOC knowledge of deep WoD lore does not translate to IC competence or awareness.

• 2.1 Ancient, occult, or cross-splat lore is incredibly rare and must be thoroughly justified through explicit IC experience, age, or education. For cases like these, Lore Team may pull you into a ticket to check.

3. Secrecy

Members of especially rare, hunted, or reviled clans/bloodlines (e.g., Baali, Salubri) are held to a much higher standard of secrecy compared to other supernaturals. Because your kind is perpetually hunted by the rest of Kindred society, your characters must try their absolute best to conceal their true identities. Carelessly revealing these clan secrets or acting reckless with such information is considered poor roleplay form and may result in a staff ticket.

4. Controversial and Taboo Relationships

In-game relationships that fundamentally break the setting's taboos, such as Garou x Kindred or Salubri x Tremere, are placed under much higher scrutiny by the Lore Team. While not outright forbidden, these pairings require immediate, appropriate IC consequences to follow. If players fail to roleplay the intense friction and danger of these relationships organically, Lore Team may step in and open a PC-Ticket with the involved parties to resolve the issue.

III. Whitelists, Legacy & Moderation

1. Whitelist Tiers & Application Requirements

Certain restricted clans, bloodlines, and splats require an approved whitelist application via the #comms-center Discord channel.

• Single-Splat Whitelist: Grants access to one specific restricted clan or splat. Requires a minimum of 50 hours of active server playtime.
• Ancillae / Adren Whitelist: A comprehensive unlock covering all advanced Kindred or Fera content respectively. Requires a minimum of 100 hours of active server playtime.

2. Legacy and Grandfathered Whitelists

With the launch of the Lore Rework, players are strictly forbidden from simply grandfathering over highly sensitive, ancient, or powerful whitelist characters from previous server iterations without vetting.

• 2.1: Any legacy, grandfathered, or high-age character application must successfully pass the newly implemented Lore Team questionnaires. Out-of-character veteran status or outdated whitelist approvals cannot be used to bypass these current writing and knowledge checks.

3. Disciplinary Actions

Whitelists are a privilege and will be stripped for serious or repeated breaches of lore and roleplay standards.

• First Offense: Players will be contacted via a ticket with a formal warning detailing the breach and how to correct their roleplay.
• Second Offense: A final warning will be issued.
• Third Offense: Any further violations will result in the immediate removal of the whitelist.
• Reapplication: Depending on the severity of the infractions, players whose whitelists are removed may reapply after a cooling-off period of 1 to 3 months.

IV. IC Law & Sect Mechanics

1. Masquerade and Litany

The First Tradition and The Litany are the foundational bedrock laws for the supernatural beings of San Francisco.

• IC Fallout: Any public, blatant display of your supernatural nature will result in severe IC consequences, including Blood Hunts, execution, pack punishment, or being tracked down by mortal hunters.
• OOC Intervention: Publicly exposing supernatural elements maliciously, or doing so excessively without a proper IC reason, will trigger an OOC moderation review.
• Legitimate Exceptions: Valid reasons for high-exposure roleplay include acting as a brainwashed member of the Sabbat Warpack, playing an abandoned, illegal embrace who is completely unaware of the Traditions, or playing a newly changed Garou Cub who has lost control during their First Change. Be fully aware that for Kindred, the first two instances will still likely result in the Final Death of your character once discovered.

2. The Role of the Sabbat

Following the Lore Rework, the Sabbat is split into two distinct mechanical and narrative functions. Players must strictly respect the boundary between these two playstyles:

• The Sabbat Manor (Sabbat Citizens): A persistent political and social hub focused on internal sect hierarchy, vampire philosophy, Ritae, and secret infiltration of the other sects. This is intended for deep, internal roleplay, not open aggression.
• The Warpack (Antagonists): A bloodthirsty combat role built to strike the Camarilla from the shadows. They are restricted to a playstyle of hidden terrorism, sabotage, kidnappings, and guerrilla warfare, rather than mindless, unprompted deathmatching.

3. The Canon Prince

The Prince of San Francisco exists as an IC liaison between the players and staff, serving as the definitive ruler of Kindred society in the city. He is a NPC used by staff in order to arbitrate, manage, and decide on high-level IC issues that require someone of a higher station to solve. More information about his background and decrees can be found on his specific wiki page.

4. Tickets, Teaching, and Escalation

• PC-Tickets & Canon Arbitration: For queries regarding character specific lore rulings, please refer directly to the Canon Arbitration section of the server rules.
• Discipline & Gift Learning: For the requirements regarding how supernatural powers are trained or transferred, please refer directly to the Discipline Teaching section of the server rules.
• Automatic Escalation: In certain, particularly egregious cases (e.g., a member of the Garou Nation defecting to the Black Spiral Dancers, or a member of a hunted clan like the Baali being discovered by the Camarilla), players may initiate immediate physical confrontation without any prior build-up in order to force a resolution. Other escalation rules, like those surrounding round removal, still apply. This is an avenue for lore accuracy, not an excuse to frag out.