Secrets in the Night

I do not know everything, but I understand many things.
-Goethe, "Faust"

New Background: Secrets

We all have secrets. Even a city like Prague has things buried throughout its history that many would love to uncover, while others rack their brains trying to hide them from the notice of their peers.

To represent that and much more, we have created a new trait for the city chronicle: the Secrets background.

There are five basic levels of Secrets, graded from A to F, much like the Anglo-Saxon school marking system. Every character who acquires this background has a Secrets rating, which represents the information that character knows. A character knows everything covered by that rating, plus everything known by those with lower ratings. For example, an A in Secrets means knowing everything known by those rated from B to F.

Plus and minus gradations indicate how familiar a character is with the area of knowledge in question. Thus, a B+ indicates absolute familiarity with the conflicts of the Primogen and the personalities involved, while a B- means only a slight grasp of the subject.

Acquiring Secrets

Characters may buy dots in Secrets like any other background. However, they may only spend basic free points to acquire it, so it cannot be raised using points granted by the Age background. Players also cannot increase their Secrets rating, or gain it in the first place, simply by spending experience points. They must uncover the information appropriate to the level of knowledge they want. The moderators of the plots section will tell each character what they know according to the degree of background they have acquired.

The A-F rating corresponds to the usual five-level scale, detailed below:

A OOOOO
B OOOO
C OOO
D OO
F O

Plus and minus gradations are a matter of plain common sense.

Knowledge: Local Culture

Needless to say, not all vampires in Prague were raised and Embraced in the city, but many have spent years in Czech lands and know them as if they were home.

The Knowledge of "Local Culture" allows your character to be familiar with the geography, politics, and mortal inhabitants of an area. This Knowledge does not cover vampire matters, which fall under Camarilla Culture, Sabbat Culture, and the Secrets background. It does include clubs, hideouts, hospitals, gang territories, and special events.

o Student: You have read the local tourist guide.
oo Graduate: You have lived in Prague for a couple of years.
ooo Postgraduate: You have lived here for more than a decade.
oooo Doctorate: You have been here all your life... or unlife.
ooooo Scholar: You are not about to nickname yourself "The Observer", are you?

Possessed by: Local police, tourist guides, urban planners, reporters.

Specialties: history, geography, politics, transportation, customs, celebrations.