Has any PC hit Humanity 0 in play?

[James_Nostack]

What were the circumstances?

Of the ways to permanently lose a character, Final Death through damage or diablerie seem much more likely than zeroing out your Humanity score, but the latter is clearly something players are supposed to be mindful of. I'm wondering how often it actually happens in games.

[tsusasi]

I have no idea how frequently it happens in other games. As an ST, I don't pull punches. If a player character's Humanity drops, it's on the player to roleplay attempts to recover it. You can play an unregererate mass murdering asshole but I'm not giving you free Humanity to do it. Two Dragon players learned that firsthand.
And it completely depends on the ST and the chronicle themes as to whether or not I'm going to bother with maintaining a decent Humanity rating. I've played two characters that dropped to 0 Humanity. One was on an online setting where a setting antagonist was a Mekhet oneiromancer eating others' Humanity through their daysleep dreams Freddy Krueger style. That character became an NPC draugr put down in a blood hunt. Another character diablerized or killed European vampires he caught exploiting or murdering Native Americans. It culminated in him diablerizing or burning into Final Death the prince and one of the city's Carthian power players after he found out they were responsible for exterminating the final remnants of his tribe about 300 odd years later feuding each other. He became a recurring NPC urban legend rumored to take revenge on behalf of the victims of kindred massive exploitation or murder.

[Tabanese]

Arguably my very first character within three seconds of 'playing' him.

I was an edgy thirteen year old play VtM. Venture had a rarefied palate as their bane. Basically, you'd choose a victim profile and be limited to eating them and only them. I choose to consume unborn babies directly from the source, because, why not?

The ST torn up my character sheet upon hearing this.

Haven't eaten unborn baby since.

[Nyrufa]

I doubt it's something that happens very often, unless your player is actively trying to reach that point. The lower your humanity is, the more severe the acts needed to reduce it further. So if you're not actively trying to be a total edge lord, you should reach a stabilizing point after a while.

Besides, learning Cruac actually reduces your maximum Humanity cap (10 - X) in order to advance further in mastery. A level 5 master of Cruac should have a maximum Humanity cap of 5.

[nofather]

I've only seen them go as low as two before they settled or worked on improving.

[Tessie]

Two out of three players in our current game have temporarily reach Humanity 1, but only because it's an extremely diablerie heavy game. We've all settled at 3 at the moment, neither having failed a detachment roll in an improbable amount of time. We joke that 3 is high Humanity, 2 is middle, and 1 is low, and with the current high streak we're obviously upstanding pillars of the community.
Next game we've agreed to not play diablerists, and funnily enough both me and the other guy who reached Humanity 1 with our characters are planning to play Lancea so we're unlikely to dip below 5 except temporarily. I'm actually going to increase Humanity to 8 with starting XP and try to avoid falling to 6 for as long as possible to stave off the Clan Bane as a Hollow Mekhet.

Generally speaking I think the only two reasons that would make player characters become draugr would be playing a serial diablerist and being a little too careless, or actively trying to play a complete monster (either because you want to be edgy or because you want to play out the tragic and horrible descent of a vampire who can't keep it together).

[Shawarbaaz]

In a New Orleans set game I'm running right now the Daeva has become a diablerie addict much to the horror of the other PCs and I suspect that the finale will involve the Daeva PC becoming a Draugr and the other 4 players having to put her down like a mad dog.

[James_Nostack]

It seems really weird to me that diablerie is a breaking point whereas the embrace automatically costs a Humanity point. You'd think that killing someone and devouring their soul to gain their mystic mojo would be a much more "whoaaa maybe I'm not so human as I thought" moment.

[Shawarbaaz]

It seems really weird to me that diablerie is a breaking point whereas the embrace automatically costs a Humanity point. You'd think that killing someone and devouring their soul to gain their mystic mojo would be a much more "whoaaa maybe I'm not so human as I thought" moment.

Is Diablerie a breaking point? I always thought it was an instant Humanity loss and I treated it as such.

[Tessie]

Is Diablerie a breaking point? I always thought it was an instant Humanity loss and I treated it as such.

It's a breaking point (presumably at zero dice) that, according to the FAQ, can't be protected against by taking a Bane.

[nofather]

It seems really weird to me that diablerie is a breaking point whereas the embrace automatically costs a Humanity point. You'd think that killing someone and devouring their soul to gain their mystic mojo would be a much more "whoaaa maybe I'm not so human as I thought" moment.

I think one of the writers described it as the Humanity wasn't so much lost via Breaking Point as it was given to the new vampire to make them a vampire. Without that, you get something more like a revenant.

[Tessie]

I think one of the writers described it as the Humanity wasn't so much lost via Breaking Point as it was given to the new vampire to make them a vampire. Without that, you get something more like a revenant.

Of course, with accidental posthumous Embraces you get a complete Embrace at possibly no cost (other than a little spilt Vitae and a purely psychologically motivated breaking point should you discover that you accidentally Embraced someone).

[Shawarbaaz]

It's a breaking point (presumably at zero dice) that, according to the FAQ, can't be protected against by taking a Bane.

I was 100% sure diablerie can't be protected by a bane, like the sole exception, what?

[Tessie]

Reread my post.

[Draconis]

Yep, by book it's a breaking point like any other, but Rose clarified in errata that it can't be baned away.

That said, you still do have a chance to succeed on the roll, unlike with the Embrace.