The best way to create any character is to come up with a solid idea of the personality, motivations and concept of the character you would like to play. Will your character be a sly riverboat gambler from the Victorian era? Or perhaps a foul tempered viking warrior? Or maybe a tortured musician from Renaissance Italy? Your character's Concept is determined by what he is (eg, warrior, gambler, musician). Your character's Nature defines his personality.

Once you have settled on a Concept and Nature, then you can begin working on the specifics. This section deals with all the details you need to be aware of when creating a new character. Remember that if you need help, please contact the Storytellers for assistance.

New characters must be submitted to and approved by the Storytellers two Tuesdays before being brought into play. This means the character must be turned into the Storytellers two Tuesdays before the game. If a new character submission is not made on time, then new players will be allowed to play pregenerated characters or humans.

In addition to the attributes and stats, character submissions require a short paragraph describing the character and how the character will fit into the chronicle.

The following are generally not approved without special consideration from the Storytellers: merits and flaws; generation lower than 8th; vampires other than those of the seven Camarilla clans and Caitiff, along with their antitribu counterparts; non-vampire characters other than ghouls or normal humans.

Each character will possess certain non-supernatural talents or skills, called Abilities. These abilities allow your character to take certain actions. They will also enhance your character's use of various supernatural powers or increase his resistance to their effects. There are 31 abilities in AIT. Descriptions of each ability can be found here.

Influences

Influences describe what kind of contacts your character has in the mortal world. The number of these influences determine how much sway you have in that particular field. You are able to derive money, equipment, information and favors from these contacts. Influences fall into broad categories such as Church, Legal, Police, Street and Transportation. A complete list of Influences can be found here.

Willpower

Willpower represents your characters determination, psychological resilience and force of will. Willpower may be used in many different ways in the game, from temporarily doubling your skill in a certain area to ignoring the effects of some powers completely. Please see the rules for full details of the uses of Willpower.

To create a Vampire character, first read the section on vampires. You might then want to read through the different vampiric clans to determine one that sounds interesting to roleplay. Once you have that information ready, you can start playing with the numbers.

Vampires start with the following:

• 13th generation
• 7/5/3 attributes (Physical, Social, Mental)
• 3 disciplines (basic and in-clan)
• 3 influences
• 5 abilities
• 2 willpower
• 10 freebie points

You must decide to which Clan this vampire will belong. Certain Clans are restricted and require prior Storyteller approval. The restricted Clans are Gargoyle, Giovanni, Lasombra, Setite and Tzimisce. Once you have decided on a Clan, you may choose three basic Disciplines from among the in-clan disciplines.

You must decide which of the three attributes is primary (7 attributes), secondary (5 attributes) and tertiary (3 attributes).

You may use the freebie points to purchase additional attributes, abilities, influences, willpower, generation and disciplines. The costs for these additional items are listed below. For each level of generation that you buy, you must also buy three additional attributes, making the lowest possible starting generation for new players 11th generation.

It is also possible to buy certain out-of-clan disciplines at the time of character creation. See the section on starting with Out-of-Clan Disciplines.

Ghouls start with the following:

• 7/5/3 attributes (Physical, Social, Mental)
• Strength (Potence 1A)
• 3 influences
• 5 abilities
• 2 willpower
• 10 freebie points

You must decide which of the three attributes is primary (7 attributes), secondary (5 attributes) and tertiary (3 attributes).

You may use the freebie points to purchase additional attributes, abilities, influences, willpower and disciplines. The costs for these additional items are the same as for vampires, listed above. The "in-clan" disciplines for ghouls are Celerity, Fortitude and Potence.

As with Vampires, it is also possible to buy certain out-of-clan disciplines at the time of character creation. See the section on starting with Out-of-Clan Disciplines.

Humans start with the following:

• 7/5/3 attributes (Physical, Social, Mental)
• no disciplines
• 3 influences
• 5 abilities
• 2 willpower
• 10 freebie points

You must decide which of the three attributes is primary (7 attributes), secondary (5 attributes) and tertiary (3 attributes).

You may use the freebie points to purchase additional attributes, abilities, influences and willpower. Humans cannot buy disciplines. Costs for these additional items are the same as listed for vampires above.

Derangements are the psychological and sometimes physical scars that a character has acquired from becoming a vampire or from simply living in the horrifying and desolate environment that is the World of Darkness. Players are not limited to a specific list of derangements, but can instead choose as a derangement any kind of neurosis, abnormality or aberration that they can describe. Here is a list of typical Derangements.

Now that you have created your character and are ready to go, you might be interested in reading some new player advice as written by one of our Storytellers, Mark Zohn.