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Conviction points can be gambled to achieve increased success when using edges. Your character literally invests his wherewithal for the hunt into an edge. The effort can reap fantastic rewards as his hunter power becomes amazingly potent and his desire to continue on against the unknown is bolstered. However, investing Conviction can also exhaust your character if his effort fails, leaving him drained and vulnerable. The results are even more devastating on a botched roll.

Once per scene, you can invest any or all of your character’s current Conviction points into a single roll related to an edge. These points cannot be divided up into separate rolls; they can be applied to only one. Each point risked adds one die to your edge dice pool. The resultant pool increases your character’s chance for success in the action.

Example - Your Avenger might use Cleave against a disembodied spirit, and you can invest Conviction points to add extra dice to a single attack roll. The Conviction dice are simply added to his normal Dexterity + Melee pool for the attack. Any successes gained are in turn applied to damage.

The Storyteller has final say about what kinds of rolls apply to edges and what kinds do not. As a rule of thumb, any roll made to perform a mundane action — something a normal person could do — is not eligible for Conviction bonus dice. Conviction cannot help your character swim for shore, but it can help her escape the notice of a monster through the Hide edge, for example. Note that investing Conviction does not award an automatic success as spending Willpower does. There are no automatic successes where bizarre powers and fighting creatures of the night are concerned. Rather, risking Conviction improves your character’s chances of success through the simple odds of rolling more dice. A very good roll can be far more rewarding than any automatic success gained through Willpower would be. A very bad roll can be disastrous. Ultimately, your hunter is on his own, whether his action has the desired result or not.

Success or failure in a bolstered edge roll determines whether your character gains or loses Conviction. If the boosted dice pool results in a success, no matter how marginal or resounding, your character retains any of the Conviction you invested, and he gains an extra point. Record his new Conviction score on your sheet. Your character’s commitment to the hunt is tested and he proves worthy. His confidence to continue fighting is affirmed and he has more energy to do so.

If Conviction points are invested in a resisted roll against an enemy, your character must win the contest to regain his Conviction and to win an extra point. Generally speaking, use of an edge must have a result or impact to gain Conviction points from the effort. Achieving successes in an edge roll, but accomplishing nothing with the effort — such as investing Conviction in a Witness roll, but perceiving nothing supernatural in a locale garners no Conviction points. The effort is considered a failure. (Storytellers, the need to accomplish something with an invested roll keeps players from abusing Conviction constantly, trying to increase it gratuitously.) Depending on the drama or gravity of a situation in which a Conviction gamble succeeds, the Storyteller has the option of awarding more than one Conviction point. If your Innocent character dares use Hide to enter a vampire lord’s lair and spy on the ancient creature, the Storyteller may award you two or three bonus points for a successful Conviction investment. If your Redeemer desperately needs proof of a monster’s buried humanity — before encroaching Zealots destroy the creature — the Storyteller may award you two or three points when Conviction is risked in a successful Insinuate roll. Or your Visionary character might have tentatively convinced his fellow hunters that he knows the key to defeating a zombie master, and it means running unarmed through a gauntlet of shamblers.

Awarding extra Conviction points is not based on the number of successes achieved on an invested edge roll.

The roll may be marginal (one success) or remarkable (four or more successes). No more than three points will ever be awarded for any successful Conviction investment.

Indeed, a character should put aside his own life for the cause, another person or being, or should change the course of his very existence to win three points.

Botching an edge roll in which Conviction has been invested is disastrous. Superficially, the effect seems innocuous enough; no critical errors, blunders or mishaps occur when a Conviction-invested roll botches (unless the Storyteller wants them to). The hunter internalizes the catastrophe, instead. Your character loses all of his current Conviction. The fuel for his resilience and powers is lost temporarily, as described above for risking and losing all Conviction. The instantaneous loss of all Conviction is devastating. It’s a step backward along your character’s path as a hunter. In roleplaying terms, his goal in the war may suddenly seem hollow, obscure or futile. His efforts and accomplishments thus far seem for naught — after all, don’t the creatures just keep coming? Just as you give meaning to the scores on your sheet during character creation, complete loss of Conviction should have meaning, too. Your character doesn’t just pick himself up, brush himself off and keep fighting; he suffers a setback that must be overcome if he is to continue or survive.