What Is A Toll?

Mechanically, a Toll is a set of penalties or conditions which will be imposed on a character, based on how severe the Toll currently is. These will be tied together by a common theme. For example, a character who is religious might have the Toll ‘Devoted’. At low levels, this manifests as a desire to mention their religious beliefs whenever the situation allows, while at higher levels the Toll may require them to sacrifice the victims of their feeding on an altar to their divine power. 

Not all Tolls are based around aspects of the mind; some are far more supernatural in nature. A consequence of being a powerful supernatural being in a time when mortal belief is a force of its own.

Ambitions

The first Toll that any character gains is their ambition, therefore Neonates will only have an ambition while Ancilla and all older kindred will have a single ambition and the remainder will be tolls. An ambition is the thing that drives every character to continue to exist as the decades pass. While an ambition can be a positive drive, there is always the danger that focusing on one’s ambitions can be a distraction from other matters, or even become an obsession.

Defining Tolls and Ambitions

Each player will define the specific Tolls and the Ambition for their character in conjunction with the ST team. It should be based on the character's history, and so at character generation it will be incumbent on players to develop their Tolls based on their background.

As the game progresses, especially with time-skips, it will be necessary for players to add additional Tolls to their characters as they age. With established characters these are likely to be derived more from significant events which have occurred over the course of the game. Players will have some right to veto which Tolls are being added to their characters. 

Degrees of Severity

The weight of each Toll that a kindred carries will vary over time. The longer that a kindred remains active, the more likely they are to come into contact with events which may cause a Toll to increase in severity. Each Toll will have five degrees of severity:

• Dormant (Level 0): A Dormant Toll has been eased into background noise and has no impact on the character.

• Mild (Level 1): A Mild Toll is just beginning to subtly affect a character’s behaviour. This introduces a roleplay condition that should be incorporated when appropriate.

• Progressing (Level 2): A Progressing Toll has a distinct impact on a character’s ability in one particular area, introducing a -2 penalty on checks with a specific skill.

• Severe (Level 3): A Severe Toll strongly impacts a whole facet of the character’s existence, providing a penalty or complication to an aspect of downtime.

• Overwhelming (Level 4): An Overwhelming Toll is a true threat to the character. It can introduce new conditions for Frenzy or Rötschreck, a Dark Fate, or even a chance of Final Death.

Where a Toll is not Dormant, if the effect is mechanical then the ST team will take this into account with any checks - but may need a reminder from players if they apply - and for more narrative effects it will be up to the player to RP appropriately in session.

A specific example of the different levels has been provided below; this Toll will not be used in-game with the same mechanics.

Devoted

Your character’s devotion to the divine calls for proclamation and sacrifice

Mild: Give voice to this devotion when the opportunity presents itself in roleplay.

Progressing: Your character’s views on the divine skews their understanding of the world's mysteries. -2 to any Occult skill checks.

Severe: When your character feeds, they must sacrifice the one they feed from to the divine. They may not use non-lethal feeding methods.

Overwhelming: Worshipping other divinities is heresy! Check for Frenzy if your character hears someone refer to worshipping a different deity or divine being.

Reducing and Increasing Toll Severity

Tolls are reduced by spending time in Torpor. The factors impacting the test for reducing severity are:

• Duration of the Torpor: The longer the Torpor the better the impact

• Quality of the Torpor: Voluntary Torpor will be much better than involuntary or being frozen in Torpor (see Torpor rules)

• Session and downtime events: Going into Torpor in downtime means that there will be no test to see if a kindred's Tolls increase, so any impacts from the session and downtime events will be taken into account in the roll to reduce instead.

Contrastingly, the longer a kindred avoids going into Torpor, the more their tolls begin to rise and command them. At the end of each downtime, the ST team will make a test to see whether each kindred's Tolls have increased at all. There are a number of factors which will impact this check including:

• Session and Downtime events: Events which result in a character confronting a Toll will cause that make it more likely that the severity of that Toll increases. This can result in a slippery slope if not addressed.

• Frenzy or Rötschreck: If a character gives themselves over to their Beast, either willingly or unwillingly, it invites the more instinctual parts of a kindred to take control, including their Tolls.

• Resisting Frenzy or Rötschreck: Just as giving in to the beast will invite Tolls to increase, controlling oneself at the moment of Frenzy or Rötschreck reaffirms control over one's more instinctual aspects, and they are less likely to see the severity of their Tolls increase.

• Age: Younger kindred are less susceptible and so are less likely to see an increase in their Tolls. 

The Toll Test will be a black bag test using the Willpower of the kindred, with any modifiers as noted above. The older the kindred is, the faster their Tolls are likely to increase between periods of Torpor, but equally they will find that if they are able to complete their Torpor then they will gain more benefit from it in reducing their Tolls.

For more detail on how Tolls are reduced for Ghouls, see the list of Ghoul Rule Adjustments.

Resolution of Tolls

It is possible that through RP, a character may resolve a particular Toll, or it may become irrelevant. If this is the case then that Toll will be removed and replaced with a new one using the same guidance as in 'Defining the Tolls'. The starting Toll begins either Dormant if the previous Toll was Dormant, otherwise it begins at a Mild level of severity no matter the final level of severity of the previous Toll.

Example Tolls

We are happy to discuss ideas for new Tolls; the list provided below is far from exhaustive.

• Addled: Your memories are jumbled and confused.

• Abyss-Touched: Your shadow writhes and twists, often acting differently from what your body is doing.

• Apathetic: Mustering any motivation or enthusiasm to tackle the world’s never-ending problems is hard.

• Bane: There is a particular substance or symbol to which you have an unpleasant and painful reaction.

• Callous: You find it difficult to feel anything even for fellow Kindred, let alone anyone else.

• Compelled: There is a specific set of actions that you must take when you feel stressed or uncomfortable. They may not be appropriate or even logical, but they help calm your unease.

• Decrepitude: You feel the ages weighing down on your body, stealing your energy and the grace of your long-ago youth..

• Demoralised: Ever-present memories of a past failure (real or imagined) haunt you in future endeavours.

• Depersonalised: You feel as if you are not yourself, that you are a passenger in someone else's body.

• Disassociated: Your experience of the here and now is plagued by the surreal.

• Fascinated: You are preoccupied by the actions of a person or group of people.

• Germaphobe: You don't see why the modern world has to be quite so.. disgusting. 

• Haunted: Ghosts, perhaps familiar or perhaps not, haunt your waking hours.

• Hidebound: You are unwilling to change your approach to things you have always done a certain way.

• Insatiable: Your immortality seems to come with a slightly steeper price tag than that asked of others.

• Jaded: You certainly understand good and evil as philosophical concepts, but morality is no longer something you feel with any passion.

• Memory Loss: Your memories have uncomfortable gaps and you don't always remember what you are told.

• Otherworldly: Strange phenomena mark your existence.

• Pitying: You find yourself sympathetic towards humans - it isn't their fault they are lesser.

• Lunacy: You are affected by the phases of the moon in strange and discomforting ways.

• Overconfident: You have an exaggerated and unshakable opinion of your own worth and capabilities.