Creating Your Coterie

1: Choose Your Coterie Type¶

Your Coterie Type is the archetype that best describes what your group actually is and what you do together. Champions protect the neighborhood. Fixers clean up Masquerade breaches. Fang Gangs commit crimes (and have fun doing it). Nomads drift from city to city. There are 21 predefined types in Coterie Types, plus the Uncategorizable option for groups that don't fit any of those molds.

Pick one that excites the table! Don't overthink it; you're choosing a starting identity, not an unlife sentence. Your Coterie will evolve through play, and nothing stops a group of Fixers from slowly becoming Fugitives once they learn too much about the wrong people and inevitably piss them off. The Type is just a label for where you begin. Your stats will drift, your loyalties will shift, and local leadership will probably change unexpectedly one night. What your Coterie becomes is a question only the story can answer.

If nothing fits, the Uncategorizable type lets you distribute your own Coterie Stats and choose your own Haven Features. Talk to your Storyteller about what social niche your Coterie occupies and what your nights usually consist of. Then comes the rest!

2: Record Your Coterie Stats¶

Your Coterie Type comes with five starting stats: Clout, Cohesion, Charm, Claim, and Currency. Write them down on your Coterie sheet. These stats always sum to +2 at the start (before play changes them), and they'll go up and down as your story unfolds.

These aren't just arbitrary numbers, they're how the world sees your Coterie and what your Coterie can collectively accomplish. Cohesion directly modifies your Coterie Move rolls; high Cohesion makes group actions easier, low Cohesion makes them harder. Clout and Currency are spendable resources you can gamble or burn when the situation demands it. Charm and Claim shape how mortals, Kindred, and rival Coteries treat you. I gave them all C-names because I am an awful author and absolutely adore alliteration.

For the full breakdown of what each stat means and what each score looks like in practice, see Coterie Stats and the Reference Tables. Those tables are useful during creation to contextualize what +2 Charm actually feels like versus −1. Okay, next up, you'll need to...

3: Establish Your Haven¶

Your Haven is where you sleep during the day. It's also where you keep all your stuff, where you argue about the chore wheel, where you store blood (if you have any spare), and where you feel something approximating safety. Every Coterie needs one. What it looks like is up to you and your chosen environment.

Havens range from a single room in a condemned building to a penthouse suite with blackout curtains and a doorman who doesn't ask questions besides "Name?" and "Blood type?". Your Coterie Type and your Claim stat give you a rough sense of scale: a Coterie at +0 Claim has a modest, defensible space (a house, a warehouse floor, an unremarkable apartment/condo). A Coterie at +2 Claim controls a significant chunk of real estate. A Coterie at −2 Claim is squatting somewhere contested and might be sharing it with raccoons. The raccoons are on the lease, actually.

Take a few minutes as a group to describe your Haven. Think about the basics first:

• What neighborhood is it in?
• What does the building look like from the outside?
• How do you get in without being noticed?

From there, get into the details:

• Where does each member sleep? Anyone doubling up?
• Is there a common area? If so, what's in it? If not, why not?
• What's the vibe? Y'all got pin-up posters? Glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling? Beaded curtains?

If you're setting your game in a real city, you can absolutely pull up Google Maps, pick a spot, and ignore whatever's actually there. That restaurant on the corner of Boylston Street and Park Plaza? That's yours now. Have fun with it.

These details matter because in a game like this, the Haven isn't just a funky stat block! It's a place where critical scenes happen, where the Storyteller sets ambushes (ssshh pretend you don't expect them), and where your Coterie retreats when shit goes sideways. The more specific and lived-in it feels, the more you'll care when something threatens it. Hopefully.

The Tidy the Haven Coterie Move directly interacts with your Haven's condition. When your Coterie maintains the Haven together, the outcome determines whether the space is running smoothly, barely holding together, or actively falling apart. Haven Features (the next step) give the Storyteller specific hooks to pull on during that Move and throughout play.

4: Choose Your Haven Features¶

Haven Features are the defining characteristics of your shared space. Your Coterie Type tells you how many Positives and Negatives to pick (usually 3 and 2, but it varies by Type). Pick from the lists provided for your Type, or, with your Storyteller's blessing, invent your own.

Positives are advantages your Haven provides. A "weapons stash" means you have firearms, blades, or nastier things readily available when things get violent. A "police scanner" means you can monitor local law enforcement activity. A "managed herd" means you've cultivated a group of mortals who provide regular, reliable feeding. If a Positive is on your sheet, it's a fictional truth your Coterie can leverage. When a plan would benefit from a Feature you have, the Storyteller should acknowledge it; you don't need to roll to use your own security system or pull a common gun from your own armory.

Negatives are complications the Storyteller will use against you. A "nosy neighbors" problem means the Storyteller will have neighbors notice something eventually. A "pending audit" means the financial paperwork is a ticking time bomb, possibly using a Clock your Storyteller intentionally isn't showing you. Negatives are invitations for the Storyteller to make your lives harder in specific, predictable, hopefully enjoyable ways. They might trigger Clocks, create Debts, or simply show up at the worst possible moment. That's the point! You chose them because they make the story more interesting.

Haven Features don't carry numeric bonuses. They tell you and the Storyteller what's true about your space, and the fiction takes it from there. If you have a "rooftop infinity pool," you're not living in the slums. If your Haven is "haunted as fuck," your Coterie's Hecata is going to be pestering any passing ghosts for information on a regular basis. The Storyteller may grant situational Forward or Advantage when your Features are directly relevant, but that's their call, not a rule printed on the Feature.

Features can and likely will change during play. If the Coterie spends Currency to install a security system, they gain that Positive. If their "reliable fence" gets arrested, that Positive is gone until they find a replacement. This isn't a formal mechanic with strict rules; it follows the fiction. What's true about your Haven changes as your story does. You can always fire your "attractive secretary" if you find out their politics don't align with yours. Consult your local labor laws first, though.

Choose Features that create friction and opportunity. A Haven with nothing but Positives and manageable Negatives sounds safe, and safe is boring, especially for folks with centuries to survive. The best Haven Features are the ones that give your Coterie something to protect, something to worry about, and something that will inevitably go wrong at 3 AM on a Tuesday.

5: Establish Shared History¶

Your characters didn't just meet five minutes ago (unless they did, which is a valid if chaotic choice). Before the first session begins, spend some time as a group establishing how your Coterie came together, what holds it together, and what threatens to pull it apart. This is the most important part of Coterie creation, and it's worth taking your time with it.

Go around the table. Each player should answer a minimum of two of the following questions about their character's relationship to the Coterie. After the mandatory picks, grab a couple more that interest you. The Storyteller can prompt, clarify, and push for specifics. Collaborate with each other on answers that overlap (and they will). The goal is to create a web of connections that gives everyone something to work with when the lights go down. Also, be sure to notate your answers! The Storyteller might be too busy!

Questions for the Table:¶

About the group:

• How did this Coterie form? Were you thrown together by circumstance, brought together by a shared Sire, assigned by local leadership, or did you seek each other out?
• What's the oldest relationship in the Coterie? Who's known each other the longest, and what does that history look like (AKA how messy is it)?
• What's one thing the whole Coterie agrees on? (A rule, a value, a shared enemy, a policy about feeding in the Haven, the chore chart distribution patterns, etc.)
• What's one thing the Coterie will never agree on?
• Has the Coterie lost a member before? If so, how? (Final Death, departure, betrayal, voluntary Torpor.) How did that shape the group?

About your character:

• Why do you stay? What does this Coterie give you that you can't get alone?
• Who in the Coterie do you trust most/least, and why?
• What's one thing you've done for the Coterie that nobody thanked you for (yet)?
• What's one secret you're keeping from the group? (You don't have to say this one out loud!)

About the world:

• Who in the local Kindred power structure knows about your Coterie, and what do they think of you?
• Which mortal institutions or individuals are aware of your Haven's location, and why?
• What's the biggest mess your Coterie has had to clean up so far?
• Is there a rival Coterie, faction, or individual who considers you a problem?

These don't all need answers right now. Some are better left as seeds that grow during play. But every player should leave Session Zero with at least one strong connection to another PC, one reason to stay in the Coterie, and one source of tension that could become a problem later. There are seldom few fantasy taverns to facilitate first meetings these nights, so lean into the idea that your Coterie has some history, even if that history is complicated.

6: Determine Your Coterie Debt¶

Every Coterie begins play owing somebody for some reason. Not individually (though you probably owe people too). Collectively. The whole group owes a Debt to an NPC, faction, or organization that helped you get where you are, overlooked something you did, or simply hasn't collected on a favor yet.

Work with your Storyteller to establish your starting Coterie Debt by answering three questions:

1. Who do you owe? This should be someone (or some group) with enough power to make the Debt meaningful. A powerful Elder, a rival Coterie, a mortal crime boss, a faction leader, a supernatural entity, or anyone else who could credibly demand repayment. The Storyteller may have someone in mind already based on your Coterie Type and the setting.
2. Why do you owe them? What did they do for you, or what did you do to them that they chose not to punish? Did they help you establish your Haven? Cover a Masquerade breach? Protect you from a threat you couldn't handle alone? Did you botch a job for them and they let it slide? The reason shapes the tone of the Debt. A favor owed to a generous mentor feels different from a grudging amnesty from a furious Sheriff.
3. What might they ask for? You don't need to know the exact demand yet, but having a sense of what's coming gives the table something to dread. "She'll probably want us to deal with that Anarch problem in Southie" is enough to create tension without locking the Storyteller into a specific plot.

This Debt is a story hook, not a punishment. It gives the Storyteller a ready-made lever to pull in early sessions and gives your Coterie a shared problem to solve. Embrace it. The best Coterie Debts are the ones where paying up sounds almost as bad as refusing.

For the full rules on how Coterie Debts work (the soft cap, creating new ones, cashing in, and refusing), see the Debt section. If you just came from there, hi!

7: Name Your Coterie (Optional)¶

Give yourselves a name if you want one. Some Coteries have formal names they use in Kindred society. Others have nicknames that other vampires gave them (flattering or otherwise). Some just go by the address. It's entirely optional, but it helps the table talk about the group as an entity rather than a list of characters.

If you're stuck, consider: what would other Kindred call you behind your backs? That's probably closer to the truth than whatever (un)dignified title you'd choose for yourselves.

Coterie Moves & Stats in Play¶

Now that your Coterie exists on paper (or, y'know, digitally), here's what it can do. Your Coterie has five stats (Clout, Cohesion, Charm, Claim, Currency) and six Moves (Sate Your Hunger, Tidy the Haven, Execute the Plan, Enforce Your Claim, Save Face, Talk It Out). The stats fluctuate through play as your Coterie's circumstances change. The Moves can each be used once per session, which means choosing when to deploy them is a strategic decision.

Cohesion is the stat that comes up the most frequently because it modifies every Coterie Move roll. If your Cohesion is high, the group functions well; if it's negative, everything your Coterie tries to do together becomes much harder. Protecting Cohesion (or rebuilding it when it drops via the Talk It Out Move) is one of the central challenges of long-term play, and it is strongly recommended that you try to play your relationships with other player characters as such.

For the full definitions and reference tables for Coterie Stats, see Coterie Stats and the Reference Tables. For the six Coterie Moves and their complete outcome tiers, see Coterie Moves (you probably could have guessed that).