This forum seems really bare, so I thought I'd post the sample breaking points chart for Humanity in Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition, a.k.a. Blood and Smoke.
Here's how the chart works. If your Humanity is greater than or equal to where the breaking point is listed, you make a Detachment check. Roll the number of dice in the parenthesis, and if you even score one success, you don't lose Humanity. These are several ways to gain bonuses and penalties to Detachment checks, most of which are beyond the scope of this post.
Humanity 10 (Five Dice)
- One night without human contact.
- Lying in defense of the Masquerade.
- Spending more than one Vitae in a night.
This is pretty much impossible to meet for most Kindred. You have to be around mortals everyday, and you cannot lie about being a vampire. You also can't use most of your disciplines.
Humanity 9 (Five Dice)
- Watching humans eat a meal.
- Committing a superhuman feat of physical prowess.
- Feeding from the unwilling or unknowing.
- Urging another’s behavior with a Discipline.
- Spending an hour in the sun.
In case you're wondering, yes, that last one involves spending an hour in the sun. Kindred with high Humanity and low Blood Potency (basically Vampire: The Masquerade Generation in reverse) can stay out in the sun. At Humanity 7/Blood Potency 1, you can stay out in the sun indefinitely if you have your whole body covered with only yours eyes uncovered so you can see (probably safer to wear shades).
Humanity 8 (Four Dice)
- Creating a ghoul.
- Rejected by a human.
- Riding the wave of frenzy.
- Depriving another of consent with a Discipline.
- Spending most of a day in the sun.
Riding the Wave means intentionally going into Frenzy to take advantage of its numerous status buffs.
Humanity 7 (Four Dice)
- One week active without human contact.
- Surviving something that would hospitalize a human.
- Injuring someone over blood.
Okay, now it's more manageable. The last part means hurting someone because of blood, but feeding without using violence is borderline okay (you're dealing lethal damage to them, but they're not feeling the pain, quite the opposite, in fact).
Humanity 6 (Three Dice)
- Falling into torpor.
- Feeding from a child.
- Reading your own obituary.
- Experiencing a car crash or other immense physical trauma.
These may sound really ridiculous and easy to fail, but note that Kindred at this Humanity level tend to have at least one attached Touchstone, which gives them, among other things, a bonus to Detachment rolls. See below for more information.
Humanity 5 (Three Dice)
- Two weeks active without human contact.
- Reaching Blood Potency 3.
- Death of a mortal family member.
- Joining a covenant to the point of gaining Status for it.
Blood Potency is Generation in reverse. Blood Potency 1 roughly correlates to 13th/12th Generation. Blood Potency 3 is roughly 11th/10th Generation. The Bloodlines protagonist (8th Generation), would be roughly equivalent to Blood Potency 5 in Requiem. Unlike Generation, vampires in Requiem start at Blood Potency 1 when they are Embraced regardless of their sire's Blood Potency. Every 50 years of activity, Blood Potency goes up by 1. A vampire reaches Blood Potency 3 by simply staying undead for 100 years.
Blood Potency 3 is a breaking point because a vampire at this level can no longer feed on animals, and must now feed on humans if he doesn't want to starve. Basically, a vampire can get away with feeding exclusively on animals for his first century of unlife. After that, he has to have people for dinner.
Humanity 4 (Two Dice)
- Learning a dot of Crúac.
- Impassioned violence.
- Spending a year or more in torpor.
- Surviving a century.
- Accidentally killing.
Crúac is roughly analogous to Thaumaturgy in Masquerade. It is primarily practiced by the Circle of the Crone.
Humanity 3 (Two Dice)
- One month active without human contact.
- Reaching Blood Potency 6.
- Death of a mortal spouse or child.
- Impassioned killing.
Blood Potency 6 is roughly equivalent to 7th Generation. This is particularly problematic in Requiem because at this point, the vampire can only feed on other vampires and other supernaturals, with all the risks that entails. Most vampires will go into voluntary torpor to reduce their Blood Potency rather than risk getting Blood Bound to a younger vampire. Every 25 years of Torpor reduces your Blood Potency by 1.
Humanity 2 (One Die)
- One year active without human contact.
- Premeditated killing.
- Seeing a culture that didn’t exist when you were alive.
- Surviving 500 years.
- Creating a revenant.
The revenant is one of two kinds of failed Embraces, the other being the larvae. Revenants are Blood Potency 0 vampirs who wake up each night with no vitae in their system no matter how much they had when they entered daysleep. This means that they always wake up in Hunger Frenzy. A full vampire can "Embrace" a revenant by expending a point of Humanity (see below).
Larvae, on the other hand, are like normal vampires except that they start at Humanity 0 instead of Humanity 7 after being Embraced. They are almost always killed by their sires. Sometimes, they gain the upper hand and kill their sires, and a team has to be dispatched to take out the larvae rampaging through the streets. Larvae are distinct from Draugr, who are normal vampires who allowed themselves to spiral down into Humanity 0.
Humanity 1 (Zero Dice)
- One decade active without human contact.
- Heinous, spree, or mass murder.
- Killing your Touchstone.
Zero dice means rolling a chance die. A chance die, in Masquerade terms, is a dice pool of 1 at difficulty 10. Rolling a 1 on a chance die results in a Dramatic Failure (or botch in Masquerade).
A Touchstone is someone or something that means something to a vampire, and reminds him of his Humanity. In game terms, Touchstones provide bonuses to Detachment rolls. They can also talk a vampire out of Frenzy much easier than other characters. Several Conditions (status effects) can be mitigated or even removed by spending some quality time with your Touchstone.
Other Breaking PointsDiablerie is not included in the chart in the book, but was confirmed to be a Humanity 1 breaking point by the developers. It is no longer an automatic Humanity loss. However, creating a new vampire now results in an automatic Humanity loss (in Requiem 1e, it cost 1 permanent Willpower dot to Embrace).
Bonus TriviaAll splats in the nWoD have Karma Meters:
- Mortals/Hunters - Morality (1e)/Integrity (2e)
- Vampires - Humanity
- Mages - Wisdom
- Werewolf - Harmony
- Prometheans - Humanity
- Changelings - Clarity
- Sin-Eaters - Synergy
- Mummies - Memory
- Demons - Cover
- Beasts - Satiety
Yes, vampires and prometheans both use Humanity. The main difference is that vampires are humans who became inhuman abominations, while prometheans are inhuman abominations that want to become human. Thus, a vampire's Humanity measures how well he adheres to his mortal sensibilities, while a promethean's Humanity measures how realistic he behaves.
Unlike in Masquerade, where vampires had multiple Paths of Enlightenment, instead all game lines have their own single Path of Humanity equivalent. Integrity is not the same as Humanity, which is not the same as Wisdom. There are some similarities between Karma Meters, but for the most part, they are quite different from each other.
Well, that's it for now. I'll post more useless trivia tomorrow.
