Disclaimer: Please, talk to your GM before putting this or any other optional mechanic offered on this blog, onto your sheet. GM’s have a long history of being approached by exuberant players with some damn thing or other offered on the internet, and we, as a whole, have a right and a duty to be suspicious about such things. Many times these things are weirdly structured, or bend game balance over the coffee table and have their nasty way with it. You will find that your GM is more likely to respond well to suggestion and negotiation rather than pleading and crocodile tears. As always YMMV.
While the World of Darkness system models a lot of things and does it fairly well in my opinion, one of the few things that it does not do so well is helping to create the mindset of the professional criminal, who isn't completely insane as a result of their job.
Not every person who plays a criminal type of character want to make a number of derangement rolls prior to play, so with that in mind, here’s a Merit that models a professional ethic applied to criminal enterprise.
Ethics of the Professional (Merit: 1-4 dots)
For each dot of EoP that the character possesses, he may ignore derangement rolls for any crime on the morality chart from 7 on down AS LONG AS, the crime in question was pre-planned ahead of time. Violence in self defense is also permissible. The character is assumed to have grown up in a place or culture where crime was an everyday part of life and while this might cause him to have a lower humanity as a result, it does not result in creeping madness. Unless of course, that character performs a crime of passion or commits a crime on the spur of the moment.(Which might endanger compatriots.)
The downside of this merit is that those sorts of crimes cause derangement rolls and always with a -1 dice penalty. (And if your humanity is low already, this can be dire.) The 4th dot of this merit actually causes Premeditated Murder to change places on the morality chart with Impassioned Crime (Which ALWAYS calls for a derangement roll.)
Naturally, the more heinous crimes on the chart will still cause all sorts of trouble for someone with the EoP Merit. Most “Professional” killers would vastly prefer to simply kill someone quickly and cleanly and have done rather than torture someone to death. In fact, people who are willing to do those sorts of horrific things are usually avoided by professionals. One never knows when a nut like that will turn on you.
This actually models fairly well for the con artist who steals but wouldn’t ever kill someone if he could help it. up to and including Button men, spooks, and snipers who will take a life, but only as part of a plan.
Morality Sin
10 Selfish thoughts. (Roll five dice.)
9 Minor selfish act (withholding charity). (Roll five dice.)
8 Injury to another (accidental or otherwise). (Roll four dice.)
7 Petty theft (shoplifting). (Roll four dice.)
6 Grand theft (burglary). (Roll three dice.)
5 Intentional, mass property damage (arson). (Roll three dice.)
4 Impassioned crime (manslaughter). (Roll three dice.)
3 Planned crime (murder). (Roll two dice.)
2 Casual/callous crime (serial murder). (Roll two dice.)
1 Utter perversion, heinous act (mass murder). (Roll two dice.)
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