Notes

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Traditions

1. The Masquerade: Thou shall not reveal thy true nature to those not of the Blood. Doing such shall
renounce thy claims of Blood.
2. The Domain: Thy domain is thine own concern. All others owe thee respect while in it. None may
challenge thy word while in thy domain.
3. The Progeny: Thou shall only Sire another with the permission of thine elder. If thou createst
another without thine Elder’s leave, both thou and thy Progeny shall be slain.
4. The Accounting: Those thou create are thine own children. Until thy Progeny shall be Re-leased,
thou shall command them in all things. Their sins are thine to endure.
5. Hospitality: Honor one another’s domain. When thou comest to a foreign city, thou shall present
thyself to the one who ruleth there. Without the word of acceptance, thou art nothing.
6. Destruction: Thou art forbidden to destroy another of thy kind. The right of destruction belongeth
only to thine Elder. Only the Eldest among thee shall call the Blood Hunt.

Clans’ rundown

1. Brujah: embraces from the ranks of counterculture and revolution. Archetypes: cancer in the
system (works to bring the system down); voice of the people (former activists, fomenting
political unrest); blood worshipper (believing their blood is stronger than of other clans); trolling
punk (following the zeitgeist, sense of righteousness); monster in disguise (striving to live like
mortals). Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence. Bane: subtract dice equal to Bane Severity
from any roll to resist fury frenzy.

2. Gangrel: embraces from ranks of survivors and fighters. Archetypes: uncaged jailbird (jaded
attitude towards authority); adventure (spending life on the road); folk favorite (storytelling around
the fire); director of the board (power through social presence); unrepentant beast (behaving like
an animal). Disciplines: Animalism, Fortitude, Protean. Bane: suspicious partnership. In frenzy, gain
one or more animal features – that last for one more night afterwards. Reduces one attribute by
1. Features manifested equals the Bane Severity.

3. Malkavian: embraces from walks of life, mortals with something visible only to a Malkavian, a
“second sight”. Archetypes: influencing presence (addicted to presenting themselves in different
ways); medium (benefiting from the great insight, revealing fictitious or existing spirits); bad analyst
(ability to travel the labyrinth of the mind); fanatic (having one purpose that consumes their
existence); pure blood addict (feeling that certain blood calms their symptoms). Discipline: Auspex,
Dominate, Obfuscate. Bane: at least one type of mental derangement. When the Malkavian
suffers a bestial failure or a compulsion, they suffer a penalty equal to the character ’s Bane
Severity to one category of dice pools.

4. Nosferatu: the embrace is a journey through abjection. Weeks of pain, leper-like sores. To bland
in, some call on the Blood to wear the borrowed faces of their victims or disappear from sight.
Archetypes: information hubs (mastering the arts of secure archiving, guarantee privacy); domain
gumshoe (stalking the streets, breaking into homes, havens or vaults); more animal than man
 (identifies closely to the creatures scurrying beneath, former vet, pest controller, antisocial, literal
hives for bugs); hunter of monsters (capacity for brutality, criminal or survivalist, little conscience
over beating an enemy); rat (corporate espionage, trying to stay alive). Disciplines: Animalism:
delivering messages, granting the ability to suddenly swarm an opponent with a horde of bugs,
rats, or birds; Obfuscate: anables them to blend with others, also masquerades their unconcealed
monstrosity; Potence: neutralizes foes, hit and run, incapacitating a vessel, feeding and fleeing.
Bane: Repulsive Flaw (-2), can never increase their rating in the Looks Merit. Any attempt to
disguise themselves as non-deformed incur in penalty equal to the character ’s Bane Severity.

5. Toreador: embraces pioneers among the arts and every kind of avant-garde, freshest thinkers,
accomplished artists. Fixated on beauty and innocence. Archetype: L’artiste (artists revered
intensely by their clan); stage manager (puppeteer that pulls the strings, connected to the social
atmosphere); gadabout (art of manipulation, attraction, and empathy, handling customers, mingle
into cliques and categories); patron of the arts (collector of raw talent, funding and guiding their
pupils); thespian spy (performance, inserts themselves in multiple domains to entertain, observe
and compile information). Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence. Bane: desire to beauty and
suffer in its absence. In less beautiful surroundings, Bane Severity in dice from the dice pools.

6. Tremere: true power is knowing the ways of the world and having access to the right blood, and
owning the rarest of ancient artifacts. Archetypes: pyramid loyalist (adhreing to customs of
responsibility between sire and childe, upholding the ranks); eternal scholar (reseracher, pursuit of
knowledge, preoccupied in understanding their own nature); pagan nonconformist (they speak of
change and pursuit their dreams of forbidden magick); ambitious outsider (thaumaturgy, white
witch, rebel); chief of security (identify threats, manipulate minds, former life of enforcer).
Disciplines: Auspex, Blood sorcery, dominate. Bane: tremere vitae can no longer blood bond other
kindred. The corrupted vitae must be drunk an additional number of times equal to the vampire ’s
Bane Severity.

7. Ventrue: strong tradition and lineage, embrace overachievers, politically or financially powerful
kine, or those with a talent that sets them apart. Archetypes: cold-blooded corporate director
(removed from dirtying their hands, rarely hesitates over ethics if it means getting ahead of the
competition); member of the order (knows how the world turns, seeking control to the
organization); conservative politician (maintenance of the status quo, lurks in the wings of the
party, manipulating the media); godfather (wields their power through organized crime,
manipulating gangs, knows how to get things done); high priest (seeks to repeat history, fulfill the
goals of their ancestors, and spread the knowledge of their glory). Disciplines: Dominate, Fortitude,
Presence. Bane: rarefied palates. When drinking blood from any mortal outside their preference, a
profound exertion of will is required or the blood taken surges back up as a scarlet vomit. Resolve
+ Awareness test (4) to sense if a mortal possess the blood they require. To feed from anything
other than your preferred victim, must spend Willpower equal to the Bane Severity.

Vampires

1. Vampires are immortal;

2. Vampires are the living dead;
3. Vampires drink the blood of the living;
4. Vampires leave the marks of their fangs in their victim ’s body;
 5. Those who die from a vampire’s bite rise to become a vampire;
6. Sunlight burns vampires;
7. Garlic or running water repels vampire;
8. Vampires flee from crosses;
9. A stake through the heart kills vampires;
10. Vampires have the strength of 10 men; they command wolves and bats; they can hypnotize the
living;
11. Vampires are monsters – demonic spirits embodied in corpses.

Hunger

In Vampire: The Masquerade, all vampires have a unique trait, Hunger, measured in levels ranging from 0
to 5. A vampire with a Hunger of 0 is sated and satisfied, whereas a vampire with a Hunger of 5 is
ravenous and can barely think of anything except their next drink.

• Hunger Dice
For each level of Hunger affecting a vampire character, they gain one Hunger die. Hunger dice
are ten-sided, just like regular dice, but should be a different color than regular dice, so players can easily
spot them in a pool. (We suggest red.) When a player builds a dice pool for a vampire character, they
exchange regular dice from that pool for Hunger dice on a one-for-one basis.
Hunger dice function as regular dice in tests and contests, scoring successes on a 6 or higher.
Hunger dice can not be re-rolled by using Willpower, however, as the Hunger makes a mockery of the
rational mind’s attempt to tame it. In addition, rolling a 0 (10) or 1 on a Hunger die carries additional
consequences: messy criticals and bestial failures.
Rolls:
Failure, bestial failure (1)
Failure (2-5)
Success (6-9)
Success, messy critical (10)

• Messy Critical
A critical win in which one or more 10s appears on a Hunger die is a messy critical. The
character succeeds as in a regular critical – but like an animal would, not a being capable of foresight or
self-control. The Beast scored the critical, perhaps, not you.

• Bestial Failure
A failed roll (not enough successes to reach the Difficulty or to beat an opposing contestant ’s
number of successes) in which one or more Hunger dice come up a 1 is a bestial failure. Either the
character failed because their Beast manifested inopportunely or excessively, or the character ’s failure
angered their Beast into manifesting inopportunely or excessively. The character must act out a
Compulsion, as the Blood starts to subtly dictate their actions.

• Compulsion
Compulsions occur on a bestial failure as the Hunger subtly urges a vampire into actions dictated
by their Blood, sometimes even instilling traits hailing from their clan ’s founder. When a character must
take a Compulsion, the Storyteller chooses one or randomly determines one by rolling on the table below.

Hunger
The vampire will do anything to slake their Hunger, whether that means violence, subterfuge, or out-right
begging. They perform any action not immediately conducive to feeding at a two-dice penalty to their
pools. This Compulsion ends when the vampire slakes at least 1 Hunger level.

Dominance
This Compulsion drives the vampire not only to excel but to revel in it, taunting the weak and challenging
the strong. The vampire makes their next interaction into a competition, using all means at their disposal to
end up victorious and to rub the nose of the loser in their defeat. This Compulsion ends when the vampire
has “won” and gloated over it.

Harm
Things turn ugly: the Hunger compels the vampire to hurt and destroy – not to feed or to win, but for the
sole sake of causing harm, reveling in the pain of others. This Compulsion often, but not always, means
physical harm. It can also involve subtler types of damage such as social or emotional. The vampire
performs all actions not immediately resulting in someone or something getting harmed at a two-dice
penalty to their pool. This Compulsion ends when the vampire incapacitates, destroys, or drives away a
target. If the vampire turns on an object, it must hold serious value to someone the vampire ordinarily
values, such as themselves.

Paranoia
With this Compulsion, that need flares in to fullblown paranoia as the Hunger reminds the Blood of its
vulnerability. The vampire tries to disengage from any perceived threat, suspecting anyone and anything.
Any action not taken toward that immediate end incurs a two-dice penalty. The Compulsion ends when
the vampire has spent roughly an hour in a safe spot: e.g., a rooftop with good visibility, their haven, or
buried deep underground.

Clan Compulsions

• Brujah: Rebellion
The vampire takes a stand against whatever or whomever they see as the status quo in the situation.
Ends once they’ve managed to either make someone change their minds.

• Gangrel: Feral Impulses

Returning to animalistic state, regresses to a point where speech is hard, clothes are uncomfortable, and
arguments are best settle with teeth. They can only speack in one-word sentenced during this time.

• Malkavian: Delusion
Their extrasensory gifts running wild, the vampire experiences what might be truths or portents, but
what others call figments of imagination. The vampire ’s mind and perceptions are skewed. They receive
two-dice penalty to rolls involving Dex, Manipulation, Composure and Wits. As well as on rolls to resist
terror frenzy.

• Nosferatu: Cryptophilia
They become consumed with a hunger for secrets, to know that which few or no one knows, almost as
strong as that for blood. They also refuse to share secrets with others, except in strict trade for greater
ones. All actions not spent working toward learning a secret, no matter how big or small, receive a two-
dice penalty. The Compulsion ends when the vampire learns a secret big enough to be considered useful.

• Toreador: Obsession
Enraptured by beauty, the vampire becomes temporarily obsessed with a singular gorgeous thing, able to
think of nothing else. Pick one feature, such as a person, a song, an artwork, blood spatter, or even a
sunrise. Enraptured, the vampire can hardly take their attention from it, and if spoken to, they only talk
about that subject. Any other actions receive a two-dice penalty. This Compulsion lasts until they can no
longer perceive the beloved object, or the scene ends.

• Tremere: Perfectionism
Nothing but the best satisfies the vampire. Anything less than exceptional performance instills a profound
sense of failure, and they often repeat tasks obsessively to get them “just right. ” Until the vampire scores
a critical win on a Skill roll or the scene ends, the vampire labors under a two-dice penalty to all dice
pools. Reduce the penalty to one die for a repeated action, and remove it entirely on a second repeat.

• Ventrue: Arrogance
The need to rule rears its head in the vampire. They stop at nothing to assume command of a situation.
Someone must obey an order from the vampire. Any action not directly associated with leadership
receives a two-dice penalty. This Compulsion lasts until an order has been obeyed, though the order
must not be supernaturally enforced, such as through Dominate.

Rousing the Blood

When a vampire surges Blood into their Attributes, takes on the Blush of Life, or mends their damaged
body, the rules call for a rouse check. Activating most Discipline powers also comes with the price of at
least one Rouse Check.
The player rolls a single die. On a success, the vampire’s Hunger remains unchanged. On a failure, the
vampire gains 1 more point of Hunger, and thus gains one more Hunger die.

Slaking Hunger
Drinking blood reduces a vampire’s Hunger level by a fixed amount. Only draining a human of blood,
thereby killing them, can reduce Hunger to 0. Younger vampires can reduce Hunger to 1 without killing a
human victim. As a vampire’s Blood Potency increases, so does their resting Hunger level. It takes time to
drink blood and care to do it properly. The bite of a vampire can seem downright euphoric to the victim;
vampire fangs produce a supernatural intoxicating effect while opening up a blood vessel.

• Feeding from Animals

Animal blood never harbors Dyscrasias, and even Gangrel find drinking exclusively animal blood more
bland than ecstatic. For vampires above Blood Potency of 2, no amount of animal blood can slake even a
single point of Hunger.

• Feeding from Bagged Blood

Most medical supplies are fractionated. Alterations make bagged blood unpleasant to drink and almost
useless to Kindred. Without the Iron Gullet Merit, vampires gain no sustenance from processed blood.
Unprocessed bagged blood cannot slake any Hunger for drinkers with Blood Potency above 2. It has no
Resonance or other empowering effects to the drinker.

• Feeding from Other Vampires

It slakes 1 point of Hunger for each point of increased Hunger they inflict on the donor. Feeding from a
vampire at least 2 levels of Blood Potency higher than the drinker slakes 2 points of Hunger for each
point gained bby the donor. Feeding from a vampire at least 2 Blood Potency levels lower only slakes 1
point of Hunger for each 2 points it inflicts.
• Bite Attacks
Fangs can be used as weapons in a brawl-based attack. The player must declare their intention, and
remove 2 dice from their pool. Vampire fangs do 2 points of damage with a win a brawl roll. Fangs deal
Aggravated Health damage to mortals and vampires. On a successful bite attack, the vampire can feed
from the target.

Generations

• Caine and the Second Generation: Myths

• Third Generation: Antediluvians
• Fourth and Fifth generations: Methuselahs
• Sixth through Ninth Generations: Elders
• 10th and 11th generations: Ancillae
• 12th and 13th generations: Neonates
• 14th through 16th generations: Thin-bloods

Blood Potency

• Blood Potency 1
You are a true vampire, though only barely so according to some elders. Still, your vampiric Blood can
accomplish some spectacular things when roused.
■ Add one Attribute die to your dice pool when performing a Blood Surge.
■ When Mending Damage, you can remove 1 point of Superficial damage per Rouse Check.
■ Roll two dice and pick the highest when rolling a Rouse Check for level 1 discipline powers. (Or re-roll
the Rouse Check)
■ You have a Bane Severity of 1.

• Blood Potency 2
A cut above lesser licks, your Blood sustains your vampiric existence better than theirs. However, blood
not fresh from a human vessel starts to lose its power, as it has long since lost its savor.
■ When Mending Damage, you can remove two points of Superficial damage per Rouse Check.
■ Add one die to your dice pools when using or resisting discipline powers.
■ You must drink twice as much animal or bagged blood to slake 1 Hunger level.

• Blood Potency 3
For more conservative elder vampires, your Blood has thickened enough to render you no mere lick, but a
true Cainite, worthy of consideration and notice. However, even as your Blood bestows great gifts, it
nourishes your clan weakness.
■ Add two Attribute dice to your dice pool when performing a Blood Surge.
■ Roll two dice and pick the highest when rolling a Rouse Check for discipline powers of level 2 and
below.
■ Animal and bagged blood no longer slake any of your Hunger.
■ You have a Bane Severity of 2.
Gifts of the Blood

• Blush of Life
Blush of Life generally allows a vampire to consume food and drink without vomiting for up to an hour.
Without it, vampires must make an immediate Composure + Stamina test (Difficulty 3) to be able to get
outside or to a bathroom in time. Bringing on the Blush of Life requires a Rouse Check.

• Blood Surge
Any vampire can call upon their Blood to temporarily augment their Attributes, whether Physical, Social, or
Mental. When the character wills a Blood Surge, the player can add a number of dice to a dice pool
incorporating an Attribute. The number of dice depends of the character ’s Blood Potency; characters can
only use Blood Surge once per roll. A Blood Surge requires a Rouse Check. Characters cannot use a
Blood Surge for Willpower or Humanity rolls, for rolls that apply to more than one scene, in One-Roll
Combat, or whenever else the Storyteller disallows them.

• Vampiric Mending
Mending superficial health damage: vampires can make one Rouse Check per turn to mend superficial
health damage.
Mending aggravated health damage: must wait until the next nightfall and make three rouse checks, in
addition to the regular rouse check made when rising. A vampire can only mend one point of aggravated
damage per night.

Prices of Blood

• Awakening
Every night a vampire rises from day-sleep they must make a Rouse Check. If failing this Rouse Check
would raise the vampire’s Hunger above 5, a failure sends the vampire into torpor instead of forcing a test
for hunger frenzy. Awakening during the day requires a Humanity roll at a Difficulty depending on the level
of crisis.
Once awakened from day-sleep, a vampire can only act for a single scene. At the end of that period, to
remain awake longer, they must make a Humanity roll at Difficulty 3; a win permits an additional scene. A
critical win lets them stay awake for as long as needed. If a Kindred acts during daylight hours, the
maximum dice pool they can roll equals their Humanity rating.

• Frenzy
Frenzy waits for every vampire: a constant threat to their fragile peace. A vampire in frenzy loses all
capacity for rational thought,driven solely by rage, starvation, or panic.
To resist frenzy, the vampire rolls Willpower against a Difficulty set by the Storyteller based on the level of
provocation. Vampires add dice equal to one-third of their Humanity (rounded down) to their Willpower
pool when resisting frenzy. A vampire resists frenzy on a normal win but must spend a turn to suppress
the impulse. On a critical win, they resist the frenzy without losing a turn.

Riding the wave: intentionally succumbing to the frenzy without making a test. If not Riding the Wave, a
vampire in frenzy becomes the property of the Storyteller for the duration.
 Effects of frenzy: vampires remain immune to health-based penalties short of mutilation. They can only
use physical Disciplines (such as Celerity, Fortitude, and Potence), but they resist mental disciplines (e.g.,
Dominate, Presence) with three extra dice added to their resistance pools. The player can spend a
Willpower point to assume control of their character for a single turn while in frenzy, but may not use
Willpower to re-roll dice.

Types of frenzy: Fury- provocation, a vampire stops at nothing to tear the cause of the provocation to
pieces. After destroying the subject of their ire, the vampire can make a Willpower test at difficulty 3,
success ends the frenzy. Hunger – temptation, the vampire seeks fresh human blood from the closest
source. The hunger frenzy ends when the vampire reaches hunger 1 or below. Terror – danger, the
vampire flees from the source of danger without regard to anyone or anything. Ends when the vampire
can no longer perceive any danger.

Dangers to the Blood

• Sunlight – aggravated damage at the rate of their bane severity in points per turn.
• Fire – aggravated damage based on the amount of their blood exposed.
• Extreme Cold – roll Stamina + Resolve to keep moving. On a failure, they stop moving and can
only exercise mental disciplines. An hour after that, their flesh freezes solid and they enter torpor.
• Decapitation – destroys them instantly. Behading a vampire in close combat requires a called shot
with -2 penalty.
• Stakes – being stakes through the heart with a wooden stake paralyzes the vampire. By
spending a point of Willpower, the vampire can perform minute movements. The vampire can still
use mental Disciplines

Torpor – while in torpor, a vampire lies completely dead to their surroundings, reduces to the appearance
of a shriveled corpse. They remain in torpor for a length of time dictated by their humanity. If staked, the
vampire remains in torpor until someone or something removes the stake. Vampires awaken from torpor
at Hunger 5. Once their period of torpor expires, vampires who are not staked can make a Resolve +
Awareness test (dif 2) every time a potential victim enters their vicinity.
■ If a vampire attempts to rise for the night with a Hunger level of 5 and fails their Rouse Check, they enter
torpor.
■ If a vampire takes enough Aggravated damage to fill their Health tracker completely, they automatically
enter torpor. They then unconsciously attempt to mend damage, trying to heal one Health point per night.
If they fully restore themselves (heal all Health damage, and mend or recover from all impediments or
critical hits), they can rise again. If failed Rouse Checks to mend damage drive them above Hunger 5,
they enter torpor as above.
■ A vampire who entered torpor voluntarily still increases their Hunger every night, until they enter torpor as
above. The same rules then apply.

Final Death
A vampire who dies once again may not be brought back to unlife and is said to have suffered the Final
Death. Mechanically, when a vampire’s entire Health tracker is filled with Aggravated damage, the
vampire enters torpor. Any additional Aggravated damage from fire or sunlight sustained in this state
causes Final Death, as does decapitation or total destruction of their body.
Resonance
Blood type is expressed as Resonance. Resonance flavors the blood, turning drinking into dining. Thus,
as the various humors predominate in the human system, people turn Choleric, Melancholy, Phlegmatic,
and Sanguine. Resonance comes in three temperaments: fleeting, intense, and acute. Fleeting
temperament occurs in the moment, thanks to momentary stimuli. Because Resonance gives blood more
than flavor and savor – intense Resonance gives it power. And a Dyscrasia, well, that gives the best hit
of all. Resonances don’t just give flavor to the victim ’s blood and personality, but also blend with
vampiric Blood to energize Disciplines.
Resonance Disciplines
Choleric Celerity, Potence
Melancholy Fortitude, Obfuscate
Phlegmatic Auspex, Dominate
Sanguine Blood Sorcery,
Presence
Animal Blood Animalism, Protean

Drinking blood with intense temperament gives the drinker one additional die for dice pools involving a
discipline that corresponds to that Resonance. This bonus lasts until the vampire ’s next drink of blood
dilutes it, or until the vampire’s system empties of blood when their Hunger reaches 5.
Characters can change a victim’s Resonance through roleplaying or through the various social systems
of the game. If the character successfully scares, seduces, or drugs their victim, the Storyteller should
shift the victim’s Resonance to match.

Dyscrasias

• Choleric
Bully, cycle of violence, envy, principled, vengeful, vicious, driving.
• Melancholic
In mourning, lost love, lost relative, massive failure, nostalgic, recalling.
• Phlegmatic
Chill, comfortably numb, eating your emotions, given up, lone wolf, procrastinate, reflection
• Sanguine
Contagious enthusiasm, smell game, high on life, manic high, true love, stirring.

Disciplines

• Animalism
Characteristics: Type – mental; Masquerade threat – low to medium; Blood Resonance – animal blood,
preferably feral.
Level 1
– Bond Famulus: When blood bonding an animal, the vampire can make it famulus, forming a mental
link. The animal can follow simple verbal instructions. It attacks in defense of itself and its master. Dice
Pools: CHARISMA + ANIMAL KEN. Cost: The animal must be fed the user’s Blood on three separate
nights, each of which requires a Rouse Check by the user.
– Sense the Beast: the vampire can sense the beast present in mortals, vampires and other
supernaturals. Cost: Free. Dice Pools: RESOLVE + ANIMALISM. A win allows the user to sense the level
of hostility in a target and determine whether they harbor a supernatural beast, marking them as a
vampire or a werewolf.

Level 2
– Feral Whispers: the vampire can commune with the beasts of the wild and the city. Allows two-
way communication with animals. Dice Pools: MANIPULATION + ANIMALISM, CHARISMA + ANIMALISM.
Cost: One Rouse Check per type of animal chosen. Free when used on famulus.

Level 3
– Animal Succulence: the vampire can slake additional hunger by feeding on animals. The vampire
counts their Blood Potency as two levels lower in regards to penalties to slaking hunger from animal
blood. Cost: Free.
– Quell the beast: by locking eyes with a target, the vampire cows their inner beast into temporary
slumber. Cost: One Rouse Check. Dice Pools: CHARISMA + ANIMALISM vs STAMINA + RESOLVE. A
win against a mortal incapacitates them for that scene. A win againsta a vampire prevents the target
from performing Blood Surges. A critical win against a vampire target also ends their frenzy.
– Unliving Hive (Obfuscate 2): allows the user to extend their animal influence to swarms of insects.
Cost: no additional cost.

Level 4
-