score three cumulative consecutive successes wins. On Turn #1, Maxine rolls two successes, and her opponent rolls one. Maxine has one success in the contest; she levers the Nosferatu's arm down ever so slightly. On Turn #2, the Nosferatu scores two successes, and Maxine scores none. The Nosferatu not only canceled out Maxine's "stored" success, but got one of his own; he powers his arm back to the neutral position, then bends Maxine's arm over a little. This battle will seesaw back and forth until one or the other wins.

Drama
The nocturnal world of a vampire is a cauldron of danger, mystery and terror. The following section presents some common quandaries faced by vampires, as well as rules to resolve them.

Time
____Time, in Vampire, is fluid. It is measured in terms of turns, scenes and stories.
____Turn: A turn usually lasts about three seconds. It is used when adjudicating dramatic situations involving split-second decisions and actions, such as combat. In one turn, each character can take one action, unless he has the Discipline of Celerity.
____Scene: A scene is a sequence of events in roughly the same time and place. So, a brutal back-alley brawl and a soiree at the prince's mansion both constitute a scene, even though the party lasts longer than the fight.
____Story: A story is an entire sequence of events in which the characters take part. It has a plot, a climax and a resolution.
____Example: In the movie Star Wars, each swing of Obi-wan's/Darth Vader's lightsabers took a turn; the scene in the Death Star garbage disposal took, appropriately enough, a scene; and the entire movie was a story.

Initiative
____Sometimes it's important to know who acts first. A vampire who gets the jump on her opponent is said to have the initiative.
____To determine initiative, compare Traits in this order:

____Hunter's Instinct (activated)
____Advanced Celerity (activated)
____Basic Celerity (activated)
____Highest Physical
____Highest Mental
____Ties: Roll one die; the highest roll wins. Keep rolling until the tie is resolved.

____Example: Devil Jack the Gangrel attacks a monstrous Gangrel vampire of the Sabbat. Both have activated Hunter's Instinct. Neither has Celerity, so the Storyteller compares Devil Jack's and the Sabbat vampire's Physical Traits. Both have Physical Traits of 4. Comparing Mental Traits, the Storyteller sees that Devil Jack has a Mental Trait of 3, while the Sabbat vampire has a Mental Trait of 1. Devil Jack attacks first. If the Sabbat vampire had had a Mental Trait of 3, the Storyteller and Devil Jack's player would have simply rolled a die, with the highest roll acting first.
____All extra actions gained via Celerity come after everyone has taken their first actions. Initiative of extra actions is determined normally.

Combat
____Vampires are masters of manipulation and subtlety, preferring to win battles through indirect means. Every now and then, though, a vampire is forced into combat - to take down resistant prey, to defend herself from a blood-hungry anarch, or simply to eliminate a centuries-old rival once and for all.
____Combat is conducted in three-second turns. It uses the task system already established; initiative is determined normally, and most combat actions are considered Physical tasks. There are two basic types of combat: hand-to-hand and ranged.
Hand-to-Hand
____Hand-to-hand combat is conducted with fists, natural weaponry (claws or fangs), or weapons. Initiative is determined normally. Attacks are resolved in order of initiative. Each turn, a combatant may choose to strike, grab or dodge.
____-Strike: The attacker rolls Physical (difficulty 4). The combatant being attacked automatically defends (also Physical, difficulty 4). If the attacker scores a number of successes equal to or exceeding the defender's roll, he has successfully struck the defender.
____-Grab: The attacker rolls Physical (difficulty 4). The combatant being attacked automatically defends (also Physical, difficulty 4). If the attacker's Physical Trait equals or exceeds the defender's Physical Trait, or the attacker has a higher level of Potence Discipline than the defender, the defender is grabbed. Each turn thereafter, the attacker may automatically inflict damage, and the defender is trapped until he successfully strikes and inflicts damage on the attacker, in this or a subsequent turn. Furthermore, if the grabbing attacker is a vampire, he may choose to forego his automatic damage and instead bite his prey. A bite inflicts only one Health Level of damage, but thereafter the vampire may begin draining Blood Levels from the victim's body at the rate of one per turn.
____-Dodge: Actively dodging takes an action - the dodging party may not do anything else, even attack, this turn. However, the dodging combatant gains +2 to her Physical roll