Edition Comparison
Humanity and Paths of Enlightenment
Both editions keep a moral rating. V5 marks Stains against Humanity. V20 can replace Humanity's hierarchy with a Path. The V20 sheet still stores Humanity.
The short answer.
V5 Humanity is worn down by Stains. A Stain sits until Remorse, and a failed Remorse roll drops Humanity by one. V20 also uses a Humanity rating from 0 to 10, but a Path of Enlightenment can replace that moral hierarchy entirely. The V20 chronicle stores Humanity and the three Virtues. It does not store a Path.
What each rating is for
The number looks similar. The thing that moves it does not, and a Path is not a coat of paint on V5 Humanity.
- The rating
- Both editions use Humanity. V20 stores it as an integer from 0 to 10. At 0, the V20 sheet requires the Storyteller to adjudicate. V5 Humanity is the rating Stains press against. Neither rating is Hunger, and neither is a Blood Pool.
- What marks the slide
- V5 marks a Stain for cruelty, a broken Conviction, or a betrayed Touchstone. The Stain waits. V20 judges the act against the Humanity hierarchy. A Path, at the table, swaps that hierarchy for the Path's own. The engine has nowhere to write the swap.
- The test
- V5 rolls Remorse. Success or failure, the Stains fade. Failure also drops Humanity by one. V20's table calls for a Virtue roll against the hierarchy that was violated. Failure drops the rating by one. The V20 engine does not make that roll.
- The Virtues beside it
- The V20 sheet stores Conscience, Self-Control, and Courage. Buying a Virtue dot does not automatically move Humanity or Willpower. A Path that would replace Conscience or Self-Control with another Virtue is not a stored option. The three names stay.
Hierarchy against Stains
A Path replaces V20's moral hierarchy. It is not a second Humanity score, and it is not the V5 Stain track. The V20 chronicle never grew a field for it.
| Piece | V5 | V20 |
|---|---|---|
| The rating | Humanity, pressed by Stains. | Humanity from 0 to 10. Zero waits for the Storyteller. |
| What marks it | A Stain for cruelty, a broken Conviction, or a betrayed Touchstone. | A violation of the Humanity hierarchy, or of the Path that replaced it at the table. |
| The test | Remorse. Failure drops Humanity by one. Stains clear either way. | A Virtue roll at the table. Failure drops the rating by one. The engine does not roll it. |
| A second code | Stains are not another morality. They sit on this Humanity until Remorse. | A Path of Enlightenment replaces the hierarchy. It does not sit beside Humanity as a second score. |
| What this chronicle stores | Humanity and Stains. | Humanity, Conscience, Self-Control, and Courage. The panel shows zero Stains because there are none to show. |
Run it in this order.
- Read the sheet's edition before you mark a moral consequence.
- On a V5 sheet, mark a Stain when the act calls for one. Leave Humanity where it is until Remorse.
- Roll Remorse when the night calls for it. Failure drops Humanity by one. Clear the Stains on either result.
- On a V20 sheet, judge the act against the Humanity hierarchy. If the table is truly using a Path, judge it against that Path instead, and say so out loud.
- On a failed V20 Virtue roll, lower Humanity by one. Do not invent a Path field, and do not mark a Stain on the V20 panel.
A Path replaces the ladder
In V20, Humanity is the default moral hierarchy. A Path of Enlightenment is not a nickname for a low Humanity, and it is not a track of Stains. While the Path is in force, its ethics are the hierarchy the character answers to. The old Humanity sins are not also in effect beside it. When the table is done with the Path, the character is back on Humanity. The sheet this chronicle stores never left Humanity, because it has no Path to switch to.
Stains wait. A V20 loss does not
A V5 Stain is not an immediate dot of Humanity. It remains until Remorse. Both a successful and a failed Remorse clear the Stains. Only the failure lowers Humanity, by one. A V20 degeneration, at the table, is the Virtue roll itself. There is no Stain sitting on the V20 sheet in the meantime. The panel passes zero Stains on purpose. It is the V5 control reused with nothing to display.
The Virtues are not a hidden Path
Conscience, Self-Control, and Courage are the only Virtue names on a V20 character. Humanity at creation begins from Conscience plus Self-Control, and later purchases do not drag Humanity or Willpower along with a Virtue. A Path that wanted Conviction or Instinct instead of those two has no key to live in. Record the Humanity rating the Storyteller settled. Leave the Virtue names as they are.
Mark the rating the sheet has
Start the chronicle in the edition you mean. V5 will keep Humanity and Stains. V20 will keep Humanity and the three Virtues. A Path stays a table decision until the sheet grows a place for it.
Common mistakes
- Marking V5 Stains on a V20 character, or calling a V20 Path a Stain track.
- Dropping V5 Humanity at the moment of the act, before Remorse, because V20's table roll feels immediate.
- Keeping Humanity's hierarchy in force after a Path has replaced it, as though both ladders applied.
- Renaming Conscience or Self-Control on the sheet and expecting the chronicle to store a Path.
The same act, two records
Lena does something her chronicle will not excuse. The number can land in the same place. The path to it does not.
Lena, after the alley
V5 Lena: Humanity 6, two Stains, and the night reaches Remorse. V20 Lena: Humanity 6, Conscience 3, Self-Control 3, Courage 3. The table calls the Virtue roll for the hierarchy she broke, and that roll fails. She has no Path field.
On the V5 sheet a failed Remorse drops Humanity from 6 to 5, and the Stains clear. A successful Remorse would have left Humanity at 6 and cleared the Stains anyway. On the V20 sheet the failed Virtue roll drops Humanity from 6 to 5. The Virtues stay 3, 3, and 3. Nothing named a Path is stored, and no Stain is marked. If the table had been using a Path, that Path's hierarchy would have been the test, and this sheet would still show Humanity afterward.
Humanity is the field that exists
The V20 character record holds one moral rating and three Virtues. The V5 record holds Humanity and Stains. A Path of Enlightenment is a table decision until someone builds a field for it. This chronicle has not.
- V20 Humanity is an integer from 0 to 10. Zero is legal and requires Storyteller adjudication. There is no command that turns Humanity 0 into a Path.
- Virtue advances do not automatically change Humanity or Willpower. Conscience, Self-Control, and Courage are the only names accepted.
- The V20 vitals panel draws the Humanity track with Stains fixed at zero. It is not tracking a secret Stain you forgot to mark.
- V5 Remorse clears Stains on a success or a failure. Only the failure lowers Humanity by one. That roll is not available on the V20 sheet.
Frequently asked
Does the V20 app track Paths of Enlightenment?
- No. It stores Humanity from 0 to 10 and the Virtues Conscience, Self-Control, and Courage. A Path that replaces the moral hierarchy is a table ruling. After that ruling, change the Humanity rating if the Storyteller changed it. There is no Path name to select.
Are Stains the V5 version of a Path?
- No. Stains are marks against Humanity. They wait for Remorse, and they clear whether Remorse succeeds or fails. A Path replaces V20's hierarchy with a different one. It is not a pile of marks on the same ladder, and it is not available on the V5 sheet either.
Does a failed V20 Virtue roll wait until the next night?
- Not in the way a Stain does. At the table, the Virtue roll is the test, and failure lowers the rating by one. The engine does not roll it and does not defer it. The Storyteller changes the stored Humanity when the loss is real. There is no Stain sitting in between.
Will raising Conscience raise Humanity?
- Not by itself. Creation can begin Humanity at Conscience plus Self-Control, but a later Virtue purchase does not drag Humanity or Willpower with it. Spend for the Humanity dot if that is the dot you mean to buy.
What happens at Humanity 0?
- On the V20 sheet, Humanity 0 is allowed and the loss of the last dot requires Storyteller adjudication. The engine does not swap in a Path to catch the fall. On a V5 sheet, that kind of collapse is still a Humanity question, settled through Stains and Remorse, not through a Path of Enlightenment.
Related rules
Mark the rating the sheet has
Start the chronicle in the edition you mean. V5 will keep Humanity and Stains. V20 will keep Humanity and the three Virtues. A Path stays a table decision until the sheet grows a place for it.