- We don’t have character approvals in the usual sense of the word. What we have is people bringing what they want to play and getting a pass from the host. I love the idea of giving people an opportunity to play in a pressure-light environment. We don’t really count points, and if your character has a history of XP earned, please attach it!
- Characters must follow the rules of the Café and the game itself. You can’t make an Abomination Mage Risen. Nobody’s playing Sam Haight.
- We are using 20th Anniversary Edition almost exclusively. If there are things you want that don’t appear in 20th, we can talk about it.
House Rules for Character Creation
- Secondary Abilities cost half as much to buy and raise.
- You can buy Merits for 5XP/point after character creation if there’s a justification for the Merit that makes sense.
- You can buy off Flaws in play at 5 XP/Flaw point.
- You can buy or raise Backgrounds after character creation for 5XP per dot.
- Additional Specialties for abilities are available for 4XP each.
Making Your Character
- Character Creation: Changeling
- Character Creation: Kinain
- Character Creation: Kinfolk
- Character Creation: Mage
- Character Creation: Shifter
- Character Creation: Sorcerer/Psychic
- Character Creation: Vampire
- Character Creation: Other
- Character Creation: Multisplats
Character types we want to see
I would love to see Mages at all levels, including the newbies who wandered in by accident by going through the wrong door at the Chantry. This means that not all sheets will be starting level, though I do ask that you not overload us with too many archmages at the start. (Remember that your newbie could meet a mentor here!)
Other types of characters including support characters like consors and companions, familiars, spirits, other WoD splats, and so forth will be on a case-by-case basis. All of the ones who have been okayed for play will be on an approval list for your perusal.
Right now I’d like to limit people to 12 characters apiece (as of 2/13/25); we may increase that later, but for now, I think it best to focus on the ones you really want to play most. This does not include plot NPCs.
Character Types Allowed at the Anywhere Café
- Mages are always welcome, even really ridiculously powerful ones. This is an opportunity for you to dust off your old characters who are too powerful to play elsewhere, and drop them in for some chat and coffee and food.
- Non-Fallen spirits, chimera, and other ephemeral entities are also welcome. Anyone attempting to bind those spirits without consent, see the rules for the AC.
- Changelings are largely welcome, so long as they are not Fallen and are Mage-friendly.
- Shifters are very much on a case-by-case basis, as many of the Garou, in particular, would like nothing more than to wipe Mages from Gaia’s face. A few exceptions exist; we’ll see about them. Bastet are almost always welcome. Garou are primarily for the subsettings that support them, with a few noteworthy exceptions.
- Vampires are welcome with a few exceptions (notably the Nagaraja and the Baali, as well as anything from the Tal’Mahe’Ra book), so long as they understand the penalties for disobeying the rules, and are not inclined to destroy the place. Think ‘Tzimisce Koldun seeking polite conversation’ or ‘Toreador artiste seeking new artists to appreciate.’ Vampires live long lives, and they can develop very broad interests.
- Wraiths are welcome so long as they follow the rules.
- Sorcerers and psychics are welcome so long as they are not members of any group that are Enemies of Ascension. Note that True Faith is really, really hard to codify in rules, and thus, I’d really prefer not to deal with it.
Character Types Not Allowed
- Most Antagonist spheres are not allowed; exceptions include Sabbat (in our Tampa sub-setting) and potentially others in Changeling in the Las Vegas sub-setting.
- Demon, as there is no 20th Anniversary rules for them.
- Hunters… how the hell would they even get here?
- Mummy, as there is no 20th Anniversary rules for them.
- Almost everything in the Year of the Lotus (or ‘of the East’) books, because there’s no 20th Anniversary rules for most of it, and because Chance doesn’t know the systems at all.
updated 2/13/2025