Converting Characters from Tabletop Play

Moving a character from tabletop play to live-action can be a little tricky, but it’s generally worth the
effort. Watching your favorite character blossom into full flower as you take on the role physically is both
rewarding and exhilarating.
The new systems in Laws of the Night are designed to mesh more smoothly with Vampire: The
Masquerade, so tracking the various Disciplines and Attributes is straightforward.
Converting Virtues and Morality
The Virtue Trait system for Mind’s Eye Theatre runs very close to the tabletop system now, unlike the
old Beast Trait system. Virtue Traits convert directly across, with one dot turning into one Trait.
Morality scales are compressed, though, for ease of testing. One Trait of Morality (Humanity or Path)
equals two dots of tabletop Morality. Round fractions up, in favor of the character being converted.
Converting Tabletop Clans
The clans in the tabletop game do have clan weaknesses, but not clan advantages. Assign the clan
advantages normally to the character while converting as a bonus of the system.
Converting Tabletop Attributes
Attributes in the tabletop game are rated in dots, from one to five. To simulate this rating in live-action
play, simply drop the first dot from each one, and then assign an appropriate adjective for each additional
dot.
If your character happens to have a score of one or zero in a Trait, you should take a Negative Trait of
the appropriate type.
Example: John Slime, the Nosferatu, has a Stamina of 5 dots but an Appearance of 0. When
converted, he gets 4 Stamina-related or miscellaneous Physical Traits but must take a Negative Social
Trait. Kurt decides to take the Physical Traits of Vigorous, Enduring, Tough and Resilient, and he assigns
the Negative Social Trait Obnoxious (in addition to John Slime’s existing Repugnant x 3 Traits).
Converting Tabletop Abilities
The Abilities in tabletop play are more extensive, and they tend to have higher levels, than in live-
action.
Instead of trying to take levels for every dot in Abilities, look at the highest Abilities on the character
sheet. Assign one level to each Ability with three dots, and an additional level to any Ability with four or
five dots. If you come up with less than five Abilities, simply take the next highest one and take one level
in it.
Converting Tabletop Disciplines and Backgrounds
Disciplines and Backgrounds in Laws of the Night correspond exactly to the levels in Vampire: The
Masquerade. Take one level in each of the appropriate Traits for each dot in the tabletop game.
The sole exception is the Influence Background. This Background runs from one to five dots in the
tabletop game, but it is subdivided into several categories for live-action play. In Mind’s Eye Theatre
conversions, simply split up any dots of Influence into any desired levels of Influence that total the same
amount. If your character has three dots of Influence, you get to spread around three Traits of Influence in
live-action play, among whatever categories desired (or all in one).
Converting Blood Traits and Willpower
Blood Traits are used exactly the same in both live-action and tabletop play. They convert normally.
Willpower, on the other hand, varies with generation in Laws of the Night, but is a static one to 10
dots in Vampire: The Masquerade. To deal with this difference, pro-rate the character’s Willpower based
on her total in tabletop. That is, a 13th-generation character with six dots of Willpower is at 60 percent of
maximum Willpower for a tabletop game; the equivalent in live-action would be two Traits.
Example: John Slime is a 10th-generation Nosferatu. He has seven dots of Willpower in tabletop play
— 70 percent of maximum. In live-action, he would have between two and five Willpower Traits. 70
percent of the way between the two is four, so John Slime has four Willpower Traits.
Converting Tabletop Merits and Flaws
The Merits and Flaws from Vampire: The Masquerade have direct correspondences to this material, so
conversion isn’t a problem. However, make sure that you understand the full text of the live-action
version. Often, the change to live-action impacts the game mechanical effects of a given Merit or Flaw.