DT: Contingencies
Not all vampires have what it takes to survive outside their sire's haven—but your character does. Through some combination of careful thought and raw cunning, they know at least one way to avoid the threats that they cannot defeat through strength alone. A Contingency represents a simple plan or reaction that your character is assumed to have in place in downtime, without having to mention it.
A Contingency is a single precaution or instinct your character has developed, not a nuanced plan; therefore, while it can be something that would take considerable preparation, it must be expressed in a single short sentence fitting one of the categories below rather than containing, for example, multiple If-Then-Else criteria.
To aid in keeping Contingencies clear and simple, the ST team will consider the spirit of the Contingency as well as the strict wording, so a character might gain the benefit of a Contingency in situations that are similar to that stated. However, the STs are the final arbiter of whether a character receives the benefit of a Contingency in a given situation.
Contingency Categories
Always: something your character does with as little thought as picking up your keys when you leave the house. For example, “I always carry a concealed weapon when attending a meeting."
Never: something your character avoids without thinking about it. For example, "I never enter an area that has no animal noise."
Conditional: an automatic reaction that will occur between the trigger condition and the next step. For example, "If my carriage is stopped while I am travelling, I will Obfuscate."
Example in Play
Gustav the Cautious has the three Contingencies listed above. His arch rival Corinna discovers in session that he plans to visit a neighbouring domain to negotiate with the Prince this downtime, and submits an action to ambush him using mercenaries. When processing Corinna's action, the STs will increase the difficulty of the test for a successful ambush to reflect the mercenaries needing to not have disrupted the local wildlife enough for Gustav to notice; if Gustav avoids the ambush, Corinna’s downtime return won’t mention why.
Gustav arrives safely in the neighbouring domain but happens to fail his Diplomacy check to open negotiations. Although Contingencies do not cause successful checks to become failures, they may be used to flavour the outcome. In this instance, the ST decides the neighbouring Prince has noticed Gustav’s concealed weapon and taken great offence to the fact that Gustav has not trusted in his hospitality.
Gaining and Using Contingencies
Every character gets one Contingency. Those who are more intelligent are better at planning, those who think faster can act before their weakness can be exploited, and those who are aware of their surroundings do not walk blindly into danger. Therefore, a character gains an additional Contingency if they have at least three dots in their Mental attribute, and another contingency if they have at least five dots in their Mental attribute.
Any vampire or ghoul who survives to become an Elder/Envoy or older has seen much and does not trust any of it; as such, they gain a Contingency in addition to any they have based on their Mental attribute.
The increase of the Mental attribute or the surviving of a specific number of centuries is the culmination of a longer process of realisation, and part of this development is an increased understanding of how to avoid simple risks. Therefore, a character gains their new Contingency at the start of the downtime in which they become entitled.
Once a Contingency is set up, it is assumed to be ‘always on’. If there is a downtime action in which you do not want your character to use an established Contingency, such as they are working with other Kindred that they do not wish to expose their plans to, please make this very clear in your downtime submission for that action. The ST team suggests that you put this statement at the beginning of that action’s description, to make it clear before we begin processing the outcome.
It is possible to change your character’s Contingencies, to swap out one reaction for another, however it takes time and effort to do so. Plans take preparation and resources, and reactions need practice to become instinctive. To represent this, Contingencies can only be changed through downtime actions, and the new Contingency will not apply during that downtime.
Final Notes
The ST team wants you to have a long and enjoyable game so, as with any aspect, we are happy to offer some support in setting up Contingencies. However we owe every other player the same opportunity, so can only answer specific questions or provide broad suggestions to guide your thinking, and not write a Contingency for you.