Characters who survive the dangers of the night improve their chances of surviving the next one. We represent this Darwinian process of learning and improvement with experience points.
The Storyteller awards each player 1 experience point per session played, plus 1 point at the end of each story. In shorter chronicles and others where more rapid improvement adds to the drama, the Storyteller may choose to award 2 points per character at the end of each session. Players spend their points to improve their characters’ Traits or acquire specialties (p. 159) according to the Trait Cost chart in the Characters chapter on p. 151.
Unless specified otherwise, the Coterie will receive experience based on accomplishments within the world of Darkness. The first goal is to reach Neonate Status.
Increasing Humanity:
Vampires can only increase Humanity by selflessly involving themselves in human life and human concerns. Increasing Humanity should be a major personal story arc, involving (at least) the gaining of a new Touchstone and the deliberate turning away from Kindred society and power.
Some extraordinarily humane in-game actions (endow- ing and non-murderously protecting a museum or hospital, for example) might allow a player to buy Humanity with experience points at a cost of 10 x the new Humanity rating. This purchase remains at the Storyteller’s discretion, and some Storytellers might not allow experience points to purchase Humanity at all.
Some of the arts and practices of Golconda may also allow the increase of Humanity, but those remain for the Storyteller to determine and reveal.
Resonance and Experience:
In order to justify spending experience on Disciplines, your character must feed on blood with the matching type of Resonance. The amount of blood and vessels consumed varies, but by and large it scales with the Discipline rating sought. The Storyteller is well within their right to have you seek out stronger and stronger Resonances, even Dyscrasias, to achieve higher Discipline ratings. Learning a new out-of-clan Discipline also requires you to taste the Blood of one who possesses it