Vampire: Custom Coil of the Core

The Coil of the Core is a custom coil designed to assist Storytellers and players who would like a justification for playing a kindred a little less sociopathic and a little closer to human but who don't want to change the general nature of vampires in their game.  This may not be appropriate for every game but few things are.  If you would like to institute this in a game that doesn't feature Ordo Dracul, you could make it that this coil isn't known among the Ordo Dracul but was developed among the Carthians or even the Crone.

Tier One: Reaching For Sincerity
The kindred has managed to manipulate the remnants of their soul to allow themselves to feel true, albeit weaker, emotions.  While this doesn't meant that the kindred feels things as keenly as the average mortal, far from it, they are still capable of sincere bouts of emotion that aren't tied to associative memory.  Where most kindred couldn't sincerely coo at a cute mobile phone cover unless they had emotive memories of adoring such covers as a mortal, this kindred needs no such history to make such a connection. One of the beneficial side effects of this is that the kindred regains some measure of their original creativity and may create original and moving artwork / musical pieces.  One of the neutral side effects is that the bands of colour in a kindred's aura are stronger and more reminiscent of a ghoul.  While the difference is still visible and can be pointed out to an Auspex user, some users of Auspex or other aura reading powers who lack experience might become confused and assume the individual is not a kindred.

Tier Two: Awaken The Soul's Heart
The kindred learns how to adapt themselves to provide space for a limited number of attachments equal to their Resolve.  These attachments might be to anything a human being might grow attached to and this could be a particular item, animal or person.  The attachment isn't automatic and must grow over time as it would for a mortal.  It also doesn't need to be positive.  The kindred might hate the subject, be fascinated by them, or feel a possessive lust toward them, but it does need to be a lasting emotion that binds them together.  The binding emotion can also change.  A hated nemesis could become a good friend, and vice versa, much as it could for a human.

However, the kindred can't consider the subject of their attachment with indifference unless several years go by without any real interaction AND the kindred burns a willpower dot to represent the effort of will needed to force themselves to move on.  Torpor won't wipe the attachment so a beloved childe will be remembered as a beloved childe when the kindred awakens from even centuries of torpor.  Even if the kindred doesn't meet their childe, they will at least know their name, face, and affection which will likely haunt the kindred until they meet again.  The kindred will gain a +2 to all rolls to remember memories involving that subject.  Naturally this can lead to pain if the subject dies as the kindred has several years of grief to look forward to before being able to burn that willpower dot.

Tier Three: Loud and Vocal Conscience
While humans may raise and lower Morality through their choices and actions, for kindred it requires active striving.  With this tier of the coil, the kindred can almost recapture that ease through rekindling the human conscience and a greater flexibility of thought.  If the kindred performs a series of action, or one great action, that would have resulted in the gain of a free dot of Morality were they human, they may then purchase an additional dot of Morality at 2 x New Dot rather than 3 x New Dot.  This only counts in situations where the kindred has performed a particularly good deed.

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Let me know if you choose to use this coil in your game and if it works out for you.

Oh, and if you'd like to read the series of articles from which this one came, you can find them here.