General Rules
Unless a power operates with special rules, each use of a power can result in one of three outcomes.
- Failure – the power has simply not worked – the player can either accept this, or convert it to a success at a cost. Occurs 10% of the time.
- Success – the power has worked normally. Occurs 60% of the time.
- Exceptional Success – the power has worked exceptionally well. Occurs 30% of the time.
On a failure, the player will have the option to convert a the outcome to a success, but the character’s beast will stir as a result. It is therefore hypothetically possible that a single power use can cause a character’s beast to stir twice, if the player is unlucky enough to find the beast stirring on a failure outcome.
Each power a character has may be used once a session (unless it has been purchased multiple times – see below). A use that results in failure still counts as a use.
Timed Powers
A number of powers produce time limited effects. Players using these powers should place their phones in such a way that the timers for these powers can be seen by most players in the immediate vicinity, where relevant.
The use of any other discipline power will immediately end a timed discipline power, with the exception of powers that give bonuses to combat, which can be combined.
Using Powers in Combat
Disciplines may not be used in combat, except where they are expressly noted as giving a bonus to combat.
Note that all the powers that give a bonus to combat are timed powers – In the event of Time Freeze being called, it is acceptable to activate these powers during the time freeze. (And any effects that were active at the beginning of the Time Freeze will be taken into account, although the clock on the power will not be paused during the Time Freeze – the broad design goal is that each use of these powers is good for one instance of combat.)
Purchasing Disciplines
Each Discipline has three levels which must be purchased sequentially. By default, each Discipline power may only be used once per uptime session, but a given rank of a discipline may be purchased multiple times (for the normal XP cost) – this will allow the character to use that discipline multiple times per uptime session.
Covenants and Disciplines
Characters who are members of the Circle of the Crone, Lancea Sanctum and Ordo Dracul all have access to “bonus disciplines” – special forms of vampiric magic available only to those who have studied what each Covenant teaches. These are purchased as “Out of Clan” disciplines for members of these Covenants.
In order to balance this out, members of the Carthian Movement and Invictus will be allowed either to pick one bonus power use for every 5 discipline points they have, for free, to reflect the greater focus on “normal” disciplines that these Covenants have, or they may take an extra downtime action each month.
If a players opts for extra discipline uses, then they must pick when discipline power they have gained a bonus use of when they purchase their 5th, 10th and 15th discipline. (Purchasing the same discipline more than once with XP still counts toward this tally.) The number of extra downtime actions is capped at 1, but is available immediately upon character creation.
Changing Covenants
Bonuses power uses acquired as a result of Covenant membership do not vanish if a character changes covenant, but if a character joins either the Invictus or Carthians during play, they must wait until they have accrued 5 new discipline points as a covenant member before acquiring their first bonus power use. For example: a character who has six discipline points when they join the Invictus must wait until they purchase their 11th discipline points before gaining the bonus power.
Using Disciplines in Play
Crucible requires a smartphone with internet access, and a login to the Crucible uptime system to play. Without these, you will not be able to access the web based system that manages your character’s powers.
Once you are logged in, you will see a list of the powers your character can invoke, with a count of the remaining number of times they can invoke each power this game session.
When you tap to invoke a power, you will see a screen that gives you the results of your character’s power use, which you will probably then need to show to a ref or another player. In a few special cases, your phone will display a countdown screen. In this instance, please keep your phone somewhere that other players can see the screen so far as practical.
Whenever your character invokes a power, they are using the supernatural properties of their vampiric nature to achieve an effect that would be impossible for a human. Every time they do so, there is a chance that the effort will cause your character’s Beast to stir and impose it’s more primal nature on them, leaving you with a roleplaying effect that will last for the remainder of the game session, unless something happens to alter it. You can find more detail on this in the Humanity and The Beast section.
Exact details of each power, and the various possible outcomes, are listed in the Disciplines by Clan and Covenant section.