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Rules
This page identifies the base rule set used, and changes and additions specific to this campaign.
Base
We use the Vampire: the Masquerade Revised core book.
Content from other source books may only be used after discussion with the group.
Dice Mechanics
After significant evaluation, we have switched to a different dice mechanic.
Dice coming up with a natural 1 do not count as -1 success. All difficulties are increased by +1 from the normal difficulty mentioned in the book.
Hunting
Due to the strange nature of the hunting rules in the source book, we have adopted the following change to hunting:
The normal method for taking a Hunting roll, and its modifiers and difficulties apply. Each success on the hunting roll is one victim, with each roll representing an hour of Hunting. It is up to the character to determine how many bloodpoints to take from each victim. The default is 2 vitae per victim, any more will result in injury to the victim.
Time Skipping
Skipping time means moving the IC time forward without spending much OOC time on the matter.
While skipping time, normal vitae consumption rules apply. It is not possible to Hunt during a time skip, but a time skip can be interrupted when deemed necessary.
Blood Bond
The book is ambiguous on the matter of fading blood bonds. The following house rules are in force:
- Blood Bond 1: Fades away naturally in about 1 month
- Blood Bond 2: Fades away naturally in about (8 - Willpower) months, with a minimum of 3 months
- Blood Bond 3: Does not fade away naturally. The Blood bond can be broken after (12 - Willpower) months, with a minimum of 6. Breaking a bloodbond requires physical and emotional distance from the domitor.
Items and Substances
MDMA/XTC
The vampire feels that all is right and good with the world, as well as emotional closeness to others, and common everyday things may seem to be abnormally beautiful or interesting. Difficulties of frenzy rolls are decreased by one, due to the calming effect of the drug. He gains two extra dice in Empathy. He gains the Toreador clan weakness, Toreador vampires raise difficulty by 2. These effects last for two hours.
Disciplines
Acquiring Disciplines
Since the book is vague on the acquisition of disciplines, the following house rules are in force:
Conditions on the acquisition of disciplines are described by:
- Until further discussion, PCs can have no more than rating ●●●●● in any single discipline.
- A discipline can be learned as soon as both the experience requirements and the training requirements are met. The experience requirements are those set out in the book.
Training requirements:
- For the physical disciplines (Celerity, Fortitude, Potence): A trainer is only required if the discipline is out-of-clan and this is the first dot. Any rating beyond ●○○○○ can be increased without a trainer.
- The other disciplines (Animalism, Auspex, Dominate, Obfuscate, Presence, Thaumaturgy): A trainer is required for every increase in rating, regardless of current rating or clan aptitude.
- The disciplines associated with the Sabbat and independent clans are not accesible for now.
Trainers:
- A trainer is a source of knowledge. It can be a character, an occult book of knowledge, an instruction manual of physical excercise, etc.
- A character can act as a trainer for someone if their rating in the discipline matches or exceeds the rating that the pupil wants to train.
- The information gained from a trainer usually includes theory on the discipline, and often involves some test or quest to be fulfilled.
Celerity
Due to overpowered nature of the source book's version of Celerity, we use the V20 version of Celerity. Thus the Celerity discipline is defined as follows:
Celerity: Each point of Celerity adds one die to every Dexterity-related dice roll. In addition, the player can spend one blood point to take an extra action up to the number of dots he has in Celerity at the beginning of the relevant turn; this expenditure can go beyond her normal Generation maximum. Any dots used for extra actions, however, are no longer available for Dexterity-related rolls during that turn. These additional actions must be physical (e.g., the vampire cannot use a mental Discipline like Dominate multiple times in one turn), and extra actions occur at the end of the turn (the vampire’s regular action still takes place per her initiative roll).
Meditate
We have introduced a new discipline to emulate the supernatural effects of meditation and eastern mysticism.
See Meditate.
Thaumaturgy, Path of Conjuring
We have created guidelines for what can and can't be done with the Thaumaturgical Path of Conjuring.
See Path of Conjuring.
True Faith
We have introduced a new discipline to emulate the supernatural effects of true faith mysticism.
See True Faith.
Backgrounds
Acquiring Backgrounds
Due to a lack of background acquisition rules in the source material, we have discussed and introduced the following rules.
It is strongly advised to discuss the acquisition or improvement of a background with the group (and thus also the storyteller). Acquisition or improvement usually requires in-game roleplay next to the expenditure of experience. The experience costs to acquire new backgrounds or raise existing backgrounds have been set at the following amounts:
| Trait | Cost |
|---|---|
| New Background | 3 |
| Background | current rating × 2 |
Bonus experience earmarked for use in buying backgrounds can be handed out at the storyteller's discretion.
Resources
Despite the historical use of the Deutsche Mark in 1991 Berlin, we will use the Euro currency. To allow for simpler estimations of the worth of money, we have corrected the amounts mentioned in the Resources background. This correction takes into account the publication date of the source book (1998), corrects for changes in purchasing power over the years (including inflation) and converts the amounts from USD to EUR.
Furthermore, we have also extrapolated these ratings into the 6+ range. The resource rating and descriptions below sketch a style of life. The noted allowances for all ratings are “spending” money that is available for things beyond the indicated style of life.
See also the more extensive Sketch of Ratings and their associated style of life, and a little bit of Perspective of Money.
● Small savings: a small apartment and maybe a motorcycle. If liquidated, you would have about €1,200 in cash. Allowance of €600 a month.
●● Middle class: an apartment or condominium. If liquidated, you would have at least €9,300 in cash. Allowance of €1,400 a month.
●●● Large savings: a homeowner or someone with some equity. If liquidated, you would have at least €58,000 in cash. Allowance of €3,500 a month.
●●●● Well-off: a member of the upper class. You own a very large house, or perhaps a dilapidated mansion. If liquidated, you would have at least €580,000 in cash. Allowance of €10,500 a month.
●●●●● Affluent: a multimillionaire. Your haven is limited by little save your imagination. If liquidated, you would have at least €5,800,000 in cash. Allowance of €35,000 a month.
●●●●● ● Independent: you are insulated from personal financial stress. You run or could have a controlling interest in a big company. You have multiple residences, can fly private, have personal assistants, and are starting to have 'people' that others have to talk to to get to you. If liquidated, you would have between €30 million and €100 million. Allowance of €125,000 a month.
●●●●● ●● Prosperous: your ability to buy things becomes an art. The world is full of 'yes men'. You definitely have 'people' and staff. If liquidated, you would have between €100 million and €1 billion. Allowance of €500,000 a month.
●●●●● ●●● Billionaire: you can buy access, influence, and even time. Governors look up to you. Fortune 500 CEOs look up to you. If liquidated, you would have between €1 billion and €10 billion. Allowance of €2,500,000 a month.
●●●●● ●●●● Ridiculously Affluent: If liquidated, you would have between €10 billion and €100 billion. Allowance of €15,000,000 a month.
●●●●● ●●●●● Tiny Country: If liquidated, you would have over €100 billion. Allowance of €120,000,000 a month.
Influence
You have pull in the mortal community, whether through wealth, prestige, political office, blackmail or supernatural manipulation. Kindred with high Influence can sway, and in rare cases even control, the political and social processes of human society. Influence represents the sum of your political power in your community, particularly among the police and bureaucracy.
The influence background is bought for a specific city, and the influence of this background does not extend beyond this city.
● Moderately influential; 2 influence point per month
●● Well-connected; 3 influence points per month
●●● Position of influence; 4 influence points per month
●●●● Broad personal power; 5 influence points per month
●●●●● Vastly influential; 6 influence points per month
By exerting influence you can sway the bureaucracies and policies. Each month you can exert a certain amount of influence, limited by your Influence Background. Influence points do not carry over to the next month, and are lost if not used.
Herd
The interaction and abstraction levels of the Herd background with the hunting system. We have replaced it with a more habit-based system. The Herd background is replaced with the following:
You have built a group of mortals from whom you can feed without fear. A herd may take many forms, from circles of kinky clubgoers to actual cults built around you as a god-figure. In addition to providing nourishment, your herd might come in handy for minor tasks, although they are typically not very controllable, closely connected to you or even highly skilled (for more effective pawns, purchase Allies or Retainers). Your Herd rating grants you access to (Herd × 2) blood points per month.
● Three vessels: 6 blood points per month – a small boost on top of your normal Hunting.
●● Seven vessels: 14 blood points per month – half of your normal sustenance is available without Hunting.
●●● 15 vessels: 30 blood points per month – You effectively don't need to hunt for normal sustenance.
●●●● 30 vessels: 60 blood points per month – You only need to hunt in exceptional cases (such as visiting another city).
●●●●● 60 vessels: 120 blood points per month – You're bathing in blood.
Merits & Flaws
Anachronism
The original mechanic mentioned in this flaw's source does not work with our new dice mechanic. Because of this we have rewritten the flaw.
(2 point flaw)
You have been a vampire for some time, and are unable (or unwilling) to keep up with the changing times. your attempts.
Whenever you have to deal with technology from a later period than your own breathing days, you take a +2 to the difficulty. If the difficulty is above 10, you cannot use the technology at all. Example: Osric, a fifth-century Goth by birth, has this Flaw and is attempting to deal with a computer. Osric now has an increased difficulty when determining the outcome of his attempt to make the infernal machine cooperate.
Note that characters with this Flaw will generally have been vampires for longer than the 50 years suggested in Vampire, so Storytellers should decide whether or not to allow this Flaw in their chronicles.
Rituals
Some Thaumaturgical Rituals have different versions in different books. We need to keep track which versions of the Rituals we use. Text from books without OCR has been typed by hand, so may contain typos. The text here is just for convencience, the book remains the authoritative source.
Rite of Introduction
From Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy (2000)
The Tremere use this ritual as the formal method of presentation for arrivals in a new city. However, it is an old ritual and not as widely used as it once was. Many young members of the clan are not even aware of its existence. Still, some traditional regents inist on its use and tolerate no excuses for a breach of courtesy. It is also possible to use this ritual to request aid. The caster boils a handful of ground tamarisk root in a pot of rainwater and recites a short incantation into the vapors that form over the water, then adds a drop of galangal oil. He then speaks a brief message, which is telepathically communicated first to the regent and then to the other clan members in the city according to their place in the hierarchy. The ritual allows the regent to reply telepathically, though she is bound to do so only by tradition.
System: The caster may make a 30-second “introduction speech” in whichhe presents himself to the other members of the city. The ritual also enables telepathic communication with the regent for five minutes.
Illuminate Trail of Prey
From Guide to the Sabbat (1999)
This ritual causes the path of the subject's passing to glow in a manner tha only the thaumaturge can see. The footprints or tire tracks (or whatever) shine distinctly, but only to the eyes of the caster. Even airplane trajectories and animal tracks shine with unhealthy light. The ritual is nullified if the target wades through or immerses himself in water, or if he reaches the destination of his journey. The thaumaturge must burn a length of white satin ribbon that has been in her possession for at least 24 hours for this ritual to take effect.
System: The thaumaturge must have a mental picture of or know the name of her prey. The individual's wake glows witha brightness dependent on how long it has been since he passed tha way - old tracks burn less brightly, while fresh tracksblaze.
Personality Archetypes: Nature and Demeanor
Balancer
The Balancer looks for compromise whenever she is caught between conflicting interests. These can be her own interests, those of her clan, her coterie, her Prince, or any other person or organisation that the Balancer cares to remain in good standing with. To the Balancer the best result is that which all parties find acceptable.
- Regain a point of Willpower whenever a conflict of interest you are directly involved in is resolved in a way that leaves all relevant parties content, though not necessarily exuberant, with the outcome. Parties whose opinion does not matter to the Balancer are not considered relevant.
Insecure
An Insecure person believes that they are inferior to others, a failure and generally a worthless person. Whatever accomplishment they make is not due to their own input, but due to others or simple luck, whatever failures they endure are entirely of their own making. Insecure people often need constant confirmation from others.
- Regain a point of Willpower whenever your belief in your own inferiority is confirmed by others.
