Celerity

CELERITY

Bolting | Temporis | Slipping | Velocitas

The ability to strike fast, dodge blows, and escape pursuers allows Kindred to become extremely effective predators. Celerity enables vampires to move faster than any natural creature, though it does more than grant a supernatural speed, with vampires employing it actually appearing to think almost as fast as they act. While some vampires use to slice and stab at enemies without fear of riposte, others simply use it to get from A to B faster than any other person on foot.

CHARACTERISTICS

• Type: Physical

• Masquerade Threat: Medium-High.
  Most Celerity powers are clearly inhuman, the only saving grace being that they’re very hard to catch on film or photograph.

• Blood Resonance: Choleric.
  Fear and utter terror, runners, athletes, amphetamine and alkaloid users, habitual players of first-person shooters and other twitch games.

Vampire does not ask players to move figures on a grid. We don’t provide precise meters-per-second equivalents for the speeds attained by Celerity, and even if we did, not every combat turn lasts the same number of seconds. The Storyteller decides how many floors of a staircase a vampire with Celerity climbs in a turn based on the results of the contest with its foes or based on dramatic necessity, not by using dots and multipliers.

But some players want to ground their game, at least slightly, in the specific. Usain Bolt, the fastest human being ever timed, runs nearly 45 km/hour. If you assume a dot in Dexterity equals 9 km/hour running flat-out, you have a thumbnail answer to the eternal question “Can my vampire catch that speeding car?” (“No.”) Of course in your game, a dot in Dexterity can mean whatever you need it to mean – but it mostly means an edge over those with one less dot in Dexterity.

LEVEL 1

CAT'S GRACE

Celerity •

The vampire gains a balance and grace equal to and surpassing world-class trapeze artists. They can walk and even run across ledges and wires effortlessly and can keep their balance on the slimmest of supports.

Cost: Free

System: The user automatically passes any Dexterity- or Athletics-based roll needed to keep their balance. Note that this power does not allow them to balance on support that cannot take their weight.

Duration: Passive

_{Core Book, pg. 252}

FLUENT SWIFTNESS

Celerity •

The vampire is able to call upon their supernatural speed effortlessly, and rarely tempt their Hunger when doing so.

Cost: Free

System: Whenever the vampire uses a Blood Surge to augment a Dexterity or Celerity test, they may reroll the Rouse Check.

_{Gehenna War, pg. 46}

RAPID REFLEXES

Celerity •

While their bodies still can’t defy the laws of nature, vampires with this power perceive events instantly and can react to them with superhuman alacrity. They can observe incoming projectiles to the extent that they can attempt to dodge arrows and even bullets without available cover.

Cost: Free

System: With this power, vampires suffer no penalty to their defense pools for lack of cover against Firearms attacks. They can also take a minor action (see p. 298) worth up to two dice per turn, such as readying or reloading a weapon, for free.

Duration: Passive

_{Core Book, pg. 253}

LEVEL 2

FLEETNESS

Celerity ••

Their mastery of Celerity now allows the vampire to move and react with dizzying speed.

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Add the Celerity rating to user's dice pool for non-combat Dexterity tests. Once per turn the user may also do this when defending with Dexterity + Athletics.

Duration: One scene

_{Core Book, pg. 253}

RUSH JOB

Celerity ••

The vampire can perform time-consuming tasks with blinding speed, their fingers and hands blurring as they write, repair, or build things in record time. While the concentration required prohibits them from employing this speed on the offense, it does allow them to achieve non-violent ends faster when under duress or outright attack.

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: When active, this power lets the vampire complete Skill-related tasks that would otherwise take whole turns in the span of a few seconds, and can treat a full action as a minor action (Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 298). The power cannot be used to speed up attacks, defenses, or to perform any other actively resisted task but it does allow the vampire to, for example, jimmy a lock and fire a gun (the latter with a two-dice penalty, as per the minor action rules.)

Duration: One scene

_{Players Guide, pg. 71}

LEVEL 3

BLINK

Celerity •••

The vampire swiftly closes in on a foe, engaging or escaping in the blink of an eye. To an unprepared observer the user almost appears to teleport, a rush of wind the only sign of their passing.

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Dexterity + Athletics, or as needed

System: The vampire moves in a straight line toward a target, covering any distance under 50 meters while still having enough time to perform an action, such as an attack, during the turn. If the terrain is in any way hazardous, the character needs to make a Dexterity + Athletics roll to avoid stumbling and coming to a halt on the way. The Storyteller may call for other contests as desired, especially if the vampire races a distant foe to an object or an action. Vampires engaging a foe with this power act as if already engaged when the turn begins.

Duration: One turn

Example...

Seo-Hee has Blink, facing an FBI agent 40 meters across hazardous terrain with his Glock 17 out. She wants to get inside the shooter’s arc before he can fire. She rolls Dexterity + Athletics vs. the G-man’s Dexterity + Firearms. On a win, she can make a Brawl or Melee attack before the Fed can fire. If the agent wins, he can get a shot off at the vampire first, and then she can make a Brawl or Melee attack.

_{Core Book, pg. 253}

STASIS

Celerity •••

Amalgam: Presence ••

Some particularly stoic Brujah are known to combine Presence and Celerity in such a way as to mimic control of time itself. You suspend your target’s perception of time so that time is effectively frozen for the target.

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Presence vs Composure + Resolve

System: Make a Manipulation + Presence vs Composure + Resolve roll. If you win, your target is frozen in time, measured as a number of combat turns equal to the margin of successes. They can’t act nor be affected by Powers.

Duration: Varies (see system)

_{Homebrew Content, pg. XX}

TRAVERSAL

Celerity •••

With blurring speed the vampire can run or climb along any surface, including vertical and even liquid mediums. While Traversal does not grant insect-like supernatural traction, running up or along walls present little problem. Walking on water remains impossible, but the vampire can run on water for a limited distance given a run-up.

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Dexterity + Athletics

System: Make a Dexterity + Athletics roll with a Difficulty of 3 (inclined surface with traction) to 6 (slick vertical surface, open water), depending on the surface and angle. Each point of margin gets the vampire further up or out; a margin of 0 gets to a close target, a margin of 1 to one farther than that, and so forth. The Storyteller should inform the player beforehand if a target is too distant to even attempt Traversal; as a rule of thumb, anything over water farther than 60 meters (or more than 30 stories up a building) probably exceeds this power’s range.

Duration: One turn

_{Core Book, pg. 253}

WEAVING

Celerity •••

Prerequisite: Rapid Reflexes

A vampire with this power moves fast enough to perceive projectiles such as throwing knives or bullets as slow, and can sidestep them at leisure.

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The user does not suffer diminishing dice pools when defending against multiple ranged attacks using Dexterity + Athletics. They can also add their Celerity rating to all such attempts while this power is active.

Duration: One scene

_{Players Guide, pg. 71}

WHIRLWIND

Celerity •••

The lightning-fast Kindred is capable of attacking multiple targets, seemingly simultaneously. Splitting attention among multiple targets becomes easier as you sharpen your focus, time seeming to slow as your mind and body move at unfathomable speeds.

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: This power allows a Vampire to add their Celerity rating, rounded down, to their attack pool before splitting the pool to attack multiple opponents. The dice pool can never exceed the original attack pool.

Duration: One round

_{Homebrew, pg. XX}

LEVEL 4

BLURRED MOMENTUM

Celerity ••••

The vampire’s movement becomes a jittering blur, making it extremely difficult to land attacks on them even when they are not aware of the opponent or actively defending.

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Attacks that achieve fewer successes than the user’s Celerity rating always miss, no matter the result of a defense or dodge test (if any). This also works against surprise attacks or other attacks that disallow defense tests, such as Lightning Strike. Activating this power requires one Rouse Check and extending it requires an additional Check for each turn it is kept active.

Duration: Until the user lets it lapse

_{Players Guide, pg. 72}

DRAUGHT OF ELEGANCE

Celerity ••••

The Blood of the vampire becomes saturated with the power of Celerity, conveying a part of that power to anyone who drinks of it. While this is also a first step towards a Blood Bond, already bound thralls or servants have little use for such worries, and even non-bound allies might decide to brave a sip for the sake of temporary power.

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Drinking a Rouse Checks worth of Blood directly from the user gifts the drinker with temporary Celerity equal to half the Celerity dots (rounded down) of the donor. The drinker gains the same non-Amalgam powers as the donor’s, up to that level.

Duration: One night; for vampires, until the next feeding or the vampire reaches Hunger 5

_{Core Book, pg. 254}

UNERRING AIM

Celerity ••••

Amalgam: Auspex •••

The world around them slowing to a crawl, the vampire can aim and throw or fire any weapon at a target as if the target were stationary.

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Use before making a ranged attack. The target makes no roll to dodge or defend; make the attack at Difficulty 1. An opponent possessing Celerity 5 can nullify this power by making their own Rouse Check, defending at the same speed.

Duration: A single attack

_{Core Book, pg. 254}

UNSEEN STRIKE

Celerity ••••

Amalgam: Obfuscate ••••

Prerequisite: Blink

This lethal power not only allows the vampire to vanish from plain sight but to instantly move to an enemy and deliver a fatal strike. A vampire skilled in this art can quickly turn the tables as they disappear in front of pursuers, escaping not only with their lives but with that of their prey as well.

Cost: Two Rouse Checks

Dice Pool: Dexterity + Celerity vs Wits + Awareness

System: This power combines effects of Blink with elements of the Obfuscate power of Vanish. To onlookers the vampire appears to disappear and the target is caught unawares, becoming subject to surprise attack. Unless the victim can react by beating the user’s Dexterity + Celerity with their Wits + Awareness in a contest, they are unable to defend against the attack and it is made against a set Difficulty of 1. (See Surprise Attacks in Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 300). If the attacker fails this test they still perform a regular attack, as per Blink power (Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 253), and Unseen Strike is also subject to the same movement restrictions as Blink.

Duration: One turn

_{Players Guide, pg. 73}

LEVEL 5

LIGHTNING STRIKE

Celerity •••••

Faster than the eye can follow, the vampire can strike with fist or melee weapon at such speed that the opponent is unable to defend or take evasive action.

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Use before making a Brawl or Melee attack. The opponent makes no roll to dodge or defend; make the attack at Difficulty 1. An opponent possessing Celerity 5 can nullify this power by making their own Rouse Check, defending at the same speed.

Duration: A single attack

_{Core Book, pg. 254}

SPLIT SECOND

Celerity •••••

The speed at which the vampire moves catches up with their supercharged perception, allowing them to react to events around them at a moment’s notice. Ambushers find their prey already standing behind them, and favors asked are completed before the words leave the supplicants mouth.

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The player can supersede the Storyteller’s narration of events, within reason. They can choose to have their character move through a door before it closes, circumvent an ambush after it has been triggered, roll out of the way of an explosion, and so forth. The action taken must be reasonable and should not take more than a few seconds in real time. The Storyteller decides what Skills, if any, need to be checked to successfully accomplish an action begun using this power.

Duration: Roughly one action, as determined by the Storyteller.

_{Core Book, pg. 254}