Beats are awarded under the following circumstances. This page does not account for variant rules, which may have additional rules for granting beats.
Mortal/Chronicles of Darkness
Where an Exception is listed, this splat has unique rules for this Beat. Disregard the entry in Mortal Beat conditions and use the Exception.
Geist: the Sin-Eaters 2nd edition provides an update to these basic rules which is applicable to all splats.
| Mortal | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Whenever you fulfil an Aspiration, take a beat. | CofD p76 | ||
| When resolving a Condition, take a beat. | CofD p76 | ||
| Some Conditions provide beats for additional actions. | CofD p76 | ||
| Choose to convert Failure roll to Dramatic Failure in exchange for a beat. | CofD p76 | ||
| Whenever you roll a dramatic failure on a chance die, take a beat. | GTS 2e p76 | ||
| Whenever you take damage in rightmost 3 health boxes, take a beat. | Exception: Vampires, Werewolves: Damage must be Lethal or Aggravated. | CofD p76 | |
| At the end of game session, take a beat. | CofD p76 | ||
| Whenever you risk a breaking point, take a beat. | Exception: Changelings: Take the Beat on taking Clarity damage instead. | CofD p76 | |
| When using the Professional Training (••••) Merit, take a Beat whenever you purchase a dot in an Asset Skill. | CofD p46 | ||
| If the Storyteller chooses to lower the impression level during social maneuvering, take a Beat. | CofD p82 | ||
| If you are the subject of successful social maneuvering and choose to do as requested, take a Beat. | CofD p82 | ||
| When achieving an Exceptional Success on a Breaking Point roll, take a Beat. | CofD p75 | ||
| Once per chapter, take a Beat when an active Persistent Condition has impacted your life. | CofD p76 | ||
| Supernatural Merit Beats | |||
| With the Telekinesis Merit, if you opt to fail the related Resolve + Composure roll, take a Beat. | CofD p59 | ||
| With the Cursed Merit, if you take lethal damage in your last three Health boxes, take a Beat. This is in addition for the normal Mortal/Common Beat for taking damage in your last three boxes. | CofD p57 | ||
Vampire: the Requiem
| Vampire: the Requiem | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| When achieving Exceptional Success on a feeding roll, take a Beat when the effect causes vessel to impact a subsequent scene. | VTR 2e p96 | ||
| When entering Frenzy, take a Beat. If you opt to turn a Frenzy Failure roll into a Dramatic Failure, this generates two Beats. | VTR 2e p104 | ||
| When gaining a Bane due to Humanity loss, take a Beat. | VTR 2e p108 | ||
| When using the Dynasty Membership (•••) Merit, gain a Beat when an underling successfully completes a task you gave them. | VTR 2e p112 | ||
| When using the Honey Trap (•) Merit, if use of this Merit creates or upgrades a blood bond, take a Beat. | VTR 2e 112 | ||
Werewolf: the Forsaken
Werewolf-specific Beats are mostly handled through Werewolf-specific Conditions.
| Werewolf: the Forsaken | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| When taking advice from someone with the Creative Tactician (•••) Merit, take a Beat if you follow their advice. | WTF 2e p106 | ||
Mage: the Awakening
Mages gain Arcane Beats in addition to regular Beats. These can only be spent to raise Arcana, Gnosis or Wisdom or to gain Praxis and Legacy Attainments.
| Mage: the Awakening | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Any time you fulfill or make major headway into an Obsession, take an Arcane Beat. | MTA 2e p83 | ||
| Any time you resolve a Condition resulting from spellcasting, Paradox, or a magical effect, take an Arcane Beat instead of a normal one. | MTA 2e p83 | ||
| When failing a spellcasting roll, you may make it a dramatic failure and take an Arcane Beat. | MTA 2e p83 | ||
| When your character risks an Act of Hubris against Wisdom, take an Arcane Beat. | MTA 2e p83 | ||
| When your character spends a scene being tutored in a Legacy by a mentor or tutoring her own students, take an Arcane Beat. | MTA 2e p83 | ||
| When your character has a meaningful and new encounter with the supernatural, at Storyteller discretion, you may take an Arcane Beat. | MTA 2e p83 | ||
| When your character gains an exceptional success on a roll against Wisdom, take an Arcane Beat. | MTA 2e p88 | ||
| When your character allows a Paradox Condition to lapse, take an Arcane Beat. | MTA 2e p116 | ||
| When your character joins a Legacy and has the first Legacy Attainment has a Praxis, gain one Experience and one Arcane Beat. | MTA 2e p197 | ||
| When your character succeeds in surviving a challenge while traversing the Anima Mundi and correctly deciphering its meaning, take an Arcane Beat. | MTA 2e p249 | ||
| When a Proximi is impeded by their Family Curse, they take an Arcane Beat. | MTA 2e p307 | ||
| When a Proximi tries to escape their Family Curse and is forced back, they take an Arcane Beat. | MTA 2e p307 | ||
Promethean: the Created
Prometheans gain Vitriol Beats in addition to regular Beats. These can only be spent on Azoth, Pilgrimage, calcifying Alembics and creating Athanors.
| Promethean: the Created | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| When gaining Exceptional Success on a Resist Torment roll, take a Vitriol Beat. | PTC 2e p105 | ||
| When completing a minor milestone, take a Vitriol Beat. | PTC 2e p105 | ||
| When completing a major milestone, take a Vitriol Experience. | PCT 2e p105 | ||
| When completing a superlative milestone, take a Vitriol Experience and raise Pilgrimage by 1. | PCT 2e p105 | ||
| When rolling a Success or Exceptional Success on Sublimation By Pyre, take a Beat. | PCT 2e p152 | ||
| When rolling a Success or Exceptional Success on Walking The Path Of Memory, may opt to take a Vitriol Beat. | PCT 2e p160 | ||
| When suffering Torment/breaking points, always take a Vitriol Beat (in addition to normal breaking point Beat rules). | PCT 2e p178 | ||
| When committing Lacuna, you may steal unspent Vitriol Beats and Experience at a rate of 1 Beat per success in the roll. | PCT 2e p188 | ||
| Refinement Beats | |||
| Aurum: Once per chapter, when putting yourself in danger to protect a mortal collaborator, take a Beat. | PTC 2e p44 | ||
| Cuprum: Once per chapter, when reacting to danger with logic and planning, take a Beat. | PTC 2e p47 | ||
| Ferrum: Once per chapter, when impressing allies with physical prowess, take a Beat. | PCT 2e p50 | ||
| Plumbum: Once per chapter, when overthinking causes you to miss opportunity, take a Beat. | PCT 2e p53 | ||
| Stannum: Once per chapter, when anger or cruelty causes a setback for you or your allies, take a Beat. | PCT 2e p56 | ||
| Aes: Once per chapter, when putting the needs of a throngmate first and incurring harm, take a Beat. | PCT 2e p59 | ||
| Argentum: Once per chapter, when expanding your knowledge of the supernatural, take a Beat. | PCT 2e p62 | ||
| Cobalus: Once per chapter, when enabling someone else's Vice/Torment/etc, take a Beat. | PCT 2e p65 | ||
| Mercurius: Once per chapter, when thirst for knowledge harms an ally, take a Beat. | PCT 2e p68 | ||
| Phosphorum: Once per chapter, voluntarily fail a Stealth roll or add a die to Disquiet to take a Beat. | PCT 2e p71 | ||
Changeling: the Lost
| Changeling: the Lost | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| When you surrender in a fight, take a Beat. | CTL 2e p94 | ||
| When involuntarily unleashing Bedlam, take a Beat. | CTL 2e p95 | ||
| Whenever a Fetch uses the Parallel Lives (•••) Merit to inconvenience a Changeling, that Changeling takes a Beat. | CTL 2e p119 | ||
| When a Tilt caused by excessive Goblin Debt inconveniences the character, take a Beat | CTL 2e p162 | ||
| When negatively impacted by a Paradigm Shift imposed by the Hedge, take a Beat. | CTL 2e p204 | ||
| When allowing your words to be Sealed by another Changeling, take a Beat. | CTL 2e p210 | ||
| When you complete a Sealing without attempting to get out of it, take a Beat. | CTL 2e p210 | ||
| When experiencing a setback while attempting to fulfil an Oath, take a Beat. | CTL 2e p213 | ||
| When taking damage from an enemy you've sworn an Oath of Enmity against, take a Beat. | CTL 2e p214 | ||
| Token Beats | |||
| When an item intended to be transformed into a token is stolen before the Changeling can retrieve it, take a Beat. | CTL 2e p224 | ||
| Attempting to go unnoticed while wielding any Hedgespun item automatically fails, granting a Beat. | CTL 2e p225 | ||
| When failing a Dexterity roll due to previous use of Ace In The Hole (•), take a Beat. | CTL 2e p226 | ||
| When failing a Stealth roll due to previous use of Golden Hairnettle (•), take a Beat. | CTL 2e p226 | ||
| When character's actions are discovered by a malicious third party due to use of the Book Of Things Strange And Wondrous (••), take a Beat. | CTL 2e p226 | ||
| When attempting to take off the Red Shoes (•••) without sufficient Willpower, take a Beat | CTL 2e p227 | ||
| When losing the Silver Thread (••••), or suffering harm due to someone's attempt to steal it, take a Beat. | CTL 2e p228 | ||
| If the character's resources are emptied by a user of Crown of Thorns (•••••), take a Beat. | CTL 2e p228 | ||
| When a Command given via Crown of Thorns (•••••) causes a character to harm someone they care about, break a promise, or renege on a deal, that character may take a Beat. | CTL 2e p228 | ||
| When falling unconscious due to self-damage caused by using Crown of Thorns (•••••), take a Beat. | CTL 2e p228 | ||
| When removing the Crown of Thorns (•••••), take a Beat if the character suffered considerable loss or harm from its' use. | CTL 2e p228 | ||
Geist: The Sin-Eaters
Geists gain Synery Beats and Krewe Beats in addition to regular Beats. Synergy Experience can only be spent on raising Synergy and Krewe Beats can only be spent on improving the Krewe.
By default, beats in Geist are automatically pooled.
| Geist: The Sin-Eaters | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| If you have the Kindly Burden and the Reconciler Merit, take a Beat if you use Social Maneuvering to right a wrong or broker peace. | GTS 2e p88 | ||
| If you roll an exceptional success on removing another Sin-Eater's Curse, take a Beat. | GTS 2e p106 | ||
| If you roll an exceptional success on a Ceremony, take a Krewe Beat. | GTS 2e p125 | ||
| At the end of every chapter, the Krewe takes a Krewe Beat for every Doctrine it has actively lived by or advanced. | GTS 2e p175 | ||
| Resolving a Regalia Condition grants a Krewe Beat. | GTS 2e p177 | ||
| Succeeding in a Break the Cycle action grants a Krewe Beat. | GTS 2e p209 | ||
| Resolving a ylem trance "Condition" grants a Krewe Beat. | GTS 2e p210 | ||
| When the Actor, Curse, Dirge, Marionette, Servant and Tomb Conditions resolve, the Geist who created the Condition also gains a Beat. | GTS 2e p306-309 | ||
Demon: the Descent
Demons gain Cover Beats in addition to regular Beats. These can only be spent on improving Cover.
| Demon: the Descent | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| When you roll a dramatic failure on a roll to avoid Cover being comprised, take a Beat. | DTD p115 | ||
| At the end of a chapter, if the Storyteller believes you have stayed within Cover and you succeed on the subsequent roll, take a Cover Beat. | DTD p116 | ||
| At the end of a story, if the character has never had to roll for compromise, take a Cover Experience. | DTD p116 | ||
| When you attempt to insert an Embed into your Cipher which is not one of your Keys, take a Beat. | DTD p157 | ||
| When you attempt to insert an Embed into your Ciper which is one of your Keys but not your next key, take three Beats. | DTD p116 | ||
| When you retroactively explain how you have avoided a complication in a heist scenario, take a Beat. | DTD p244 | ||
| If you declare that Infrastructure has run dry of Aether, both you and any players who didn't get to absorb Aether take a Beat. | FoH p79 | ||
| When your Agency runs into a problem based on the Agency's main problem, all characters present take a Beat. | FoH p85 | ||
| When you put yourself in substantial danger while under the effects of the Anarchism Embed, take a Beat. | FoH p94 | ||
| When you choose to apply any of the conditions related to demon parenthood, take a Beat. | HtH p19-20 | ||
| If the Storyteller is running a game in any of the four "scales", they may award Beats for specific genre-related actions. | DSG p89-93 | ||
Beast: the Primordial
Most Beast-specific Beats are gained via Beast and Hero-specific Conditions..
| Beast: the Primordial | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Once per story, player may lose a dot of Satiety to take a Beat. | BTP p111 | ||