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Alratan's V5 House Rules
Alratan's V5 House Rules
H OUSE RULES
AHOMEBREWSOURCEBOOKFOR
credits
design & development -
Alratan on the World of Darkness 5th Edition Discord | Email: alratan (at) gmail (dot) com
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cover page - Brown Castle Under Stars - Pexels
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Necrotic Plague 6
INTRODUCTION 2
Ceremonies 6
ADVANTAGES 2
MERITS 2 Presence 6
Substance Use 2 Awe 6
Mythic 2 Lingering Kiss 6
BACKGROUNDS 2 Protean 6
Allies 2 Horrid Form 6
Contacts 2 Shapechange & Metamorphosis 6
Haven 3 Unfettered Heart 6
Influence 3 Vicissitude & Fleshcrafting 6
Low Clan & Shifts 3
OBLIVION CEREMONIES - Putrid Sustenance 8
COTERIE MERITS 3
OBFUSCATE - Touch of Shadow 8
CLAN BANES 4
PROTEAN - Draught of Metamorphosis 8
Ravnos Bane: Doomed 4
Salubri Bane: Third Eye 4 PREDATOR TYPES 8
Tremere Bane: Bonds 5 Custom Predator Types 8
Back-Alley Doctor 9
DISCIPLINES TWEAKS 5
Bounty Hunter 9
Draught Powers 5
Rapacious Doctor 9
Elder SPCs 5
Scavenger 9
Time 5
Slayer 10
Auspex 5
Heightened Senses 5 THE BLOOD 10
Sense the Unseen 5 Diablerie 10
Unburdening the Bestial Soul 5
Dominate 5 EXPANDED HUNTING RULES 12
Cloud Memory 5 Hunting Rolls 12
Salubri-Themed Amalgams 5 Difficulty 12
Fortitude 5 Win at a Cost 13
Prowess From Pain 5 Take Half 13
Valeren 5 Disciplines 13
Obfuscate - Fata Morgana 5 ALTERNATE CHASSE RULES 14
Oblivion 5
OTHER DOCUMENTS 15
Arms of Ahriman 5
ALRATAN’S V5 HOUSE RULES
•• Gifted mortal or a
Introduction Backgrounds dangerous group of
Average mortals (a
his document includes a street gang, a celebrity
bunch of house rules I use
Allies entourage, a
There is no longer a distinction blue-collar union local)
in my games, as well as
between Efficiency and Reliability, ••• Deadly mortal, a
links to my other
Gifted mortal with
homebrew rules. I hope that they are with all dots in Allies contributing to
magic or other
useful for ideas for your own games, Efficiency and the Background
supernatural powers, or
whether you use all of them or just a capped at four dots. Allies will now
◾
a group of Gifted
single one come to their aid based on how mortals (a private
convenient aiding you is, how much security squad, a lawyer
2
ADVANTAGES & BACKGROUNDS
than the Flaw rating, with materials and other aids for
information about you and some designing and producing objects. Low Clan & Shifts
resources at their disposal for those Each dot of this Merit adds one Shifts in the Blood (Cults of the
who mean you harm. An Informant to the dice pool for rolls relating Blood Gods, p. 202) is now a
typically only knows about your to one Craft specialty, or to a three-dot merit.
mortal dealings and persona, and Firearms specialty related to Trade Among Equals, the
rarely has access to any knowledge of crafting (e.g. Gunsmithing). four-dot merit of the Low Clan
the supernatural, and will make their Small havens limit this Merit to a Loresheet (Vampire: The Masquerade,
capabilities available to your rivals. maximum of one dot. p. 401), is now a three-dot merit. The
existing three-dot merit, Uncanny
Influence Kinship, is now a four-dot merit
Haven which grants 5 dots to distribute
The Flaw variants of Influence now
In addition to the existing Flaws & between Mawla, Status & Fame
have the below rules, rather than
Merits for Havens, here are more: (Kindred), but also Adversary 1 in the
applying penalties to every mortal in
form of High Clan Kindred who wish
◾
the city - or even the world. In both
■ Flaw: (•) Shared. Your Haven is to sow discord among the Low
cases, a group could include all police
not under your exclusive control
and law- enforcement professionals,
and, whilst it is safe, mortals
regularly use the space. You could
street criminals, everyone in a Coterie Merits
particular area of the city, etc.
share an apartment with a
flatmate, share your house with Lasombra’s At Any
■ Flaw: (••) Despised. One group
your mortal relatives, be a Cost (Clan Coterie
or region of the city lives only to
landlord with regular interrupt- Merit) can only be
thwart you and your faction.
ions from tenants, lack perfect applied to a dice
Subtract two dice from dice
security between your office roll which is eligible for Hunger dice,
pools involving that group or
Haven and the other workers of and therefore may not be applied to
region, or when attempting to
the building or run a flop house. Tracker or Remorse rolls.
convince a neutral actor related
While you do not lose the Additionally, only the negative or
to this faction to support you.
bonuses your Haven rating Beast-related effects of a messy
This does not apply to your
provides you, nor are you at risk
Allies, Contacts or other critical occur; the roll does not
of a mortal casually walking in
explicitly loyal supporters within become a critical for any positive
during the day to open the
that group. The Storyteller purposes, such as greater effectiveness
curtains, you cannot use the
should take any opportunity to of a Discipline power.
space with perfect freedom and
involve your haters in the story.
must be aware of possible
■ Flaw: (•) Disliked. Subtract one •• Dogged Survivor (Salubri Clan
interruptions whilst engaged in
die from Social test dice pools Coterie Merit): Salubri have long
sensitive business. In addition,
involving a particular group or been hunted and persecuted,
any Social dice pools to
region in the city, or when both by other Kindred for
command, intimidate or
attempting to convince a neutral rumours about their theft of
negotiate with Kindred guests
actor related to this faction to souls and by the kine for their
are made at a two-dice penalty.
support you. This does not apply
clearly inhuman third eye.
to your Allies, Contacts or other
• Workshop. Your haven has Once per session, any
explicitly loyal supporters within
tools, workbenches, free areas, member of the Salubri's coterie
that group.
3
ALRATAN’S V5 HOUSE RULES
may gain a two-dice bonus to any Discipline power known by every time a Salubri Embraces. This
dice pool towards avoiding or another coterie member by third eye is not always recognizably
escaping someone hunting them. drinking a mixture made of the human in origin, and rumors persist
vitae of the Thin-Blooded of vertical, serpentine pupils, or even
•• Scapegoat (Caitiff Clan vampire and the other coterie worm-like eyespots. While this third
Coterie Merit): Along with member whose power they wish eye can be physically covered, such as
lacking a Clan, Caitiff often lack to use. The power uses the with a headscarf or hood, it is always
someone to educate them in the Discipline rating of the Kindred present, and no supernatural power
proper etiquette of Kindred whose power they wish to use. can obscure it, nor can it be moved
society. Whilst this is more felt This requires only a small around the body.
in Camarilla domains, even amount of fresh vitae, less than While the third eye was said to
Anarchs sometimes look askance that required by a Rouse Check. give Salubri the ability to see what
at the Clanless. Thin-Blood Alchemy may not be others did not, in reality the opposite
Once per session, any borrowed with this merit ◾ was true. Due to the distinctive vitae
member of the coterie can gain a in their veins, any dice rolls to
two-dice bonus to any Social roll
with other Kindred in order to
Clan Banes identify or track the Salubri, or to
magically affect them using their
avoid repercussions for their n this section I have suggested vitae gains a number of bonus dice
behaviour, as long as they blame slightly altered Banes for the equal to the Salubri's Bane Severity.
the Caitiff’s inexperience, Ravnos and Tremere to make In addition, the Salubri loses a
outsider status or lack of training them impact play more number of dice equal to their Bane
from their sire. significantly and a different Bane for Severity when attempting to resist
the Salubri which does not discourage magical detection targeted against
••• Corruptive Thinning (Thin- exciting or risky play from players. them, such as Scry the Soul. This
Blooded Vampire Clan Coterie makes them easy targets of Blood
Merit): The Time of Thin Blood Sorcerers and alchemists, as well as
is upon all Kindred, prompting
Ravnos Bane: Doomed easy to identify for hunters.
many elders and even neonates A Ravnos now always takes some Combined with the third eye on
to scorn the and persecute the measure of damage when they their forehead, the Salubri are
thin-blooded. This scorn and slumber in the same place, suffering encouraged to stay hidden because
arrogance blinds many to the un-halved Superficial Health damage exposing themselves and their vitae
truth of the Duskborn's alch- equal to Bane Severity when means they can be targeted.
emical power and the para- triggered. This is upgraded to
doxical power which lies within Aggravated Health damage for each
roll of a 1 or 10 on a number of dice Tremere Bane: Bonds
their vitae, despite it being bereft
equal to Bane Severity. All of this In addition to their existing Bane
of all potency. The true strength
damage occurs during daysleep, and properties, any who do become may
of a Thin-Blooded vampire's
cannot be mitigated or avoided. resist commands placed on them
Blood is its versatility, and that is
more easily, as if they possessed the
felt keenly when mixed with the
Salubri Bane: Third Eye Bond Resistance merit at level three
Blood of the thick- blooded.
Once per story, any other The third eye that Saulot opened if they did not already ◾
member of the Thin-Blooded while on one of his many journeys
vampire's coterie may use a passes down through the bloodline
4
DISCIPLINES
5
ALRATAN’S V5 HOUSE RULES
of targets, and can can make slightly Storytellers and players are now a Level 3 power. Both last for the
larger movements as long as they have encouraged to roleplay all the effects rest of the night unless ended early.
no meaningful impact on combat. of addiction and bonding which
unfettered heart
They cannot activate other Discipline result from this power. Blood
powers whilst the Arms are active. Bonding or addicting another The abilities of Heart of Darkness
The arms can defend themselves character, may result in Stains, as (Cults of the Blood Gods, pp. 85 - 86)
and their user with a dice pool of could abusing an addicted character. has now been entirely merged in
Wits + Oblivion. This is handled as if Unfettered Heart (Vampire: The
defending normally, dealing no Protean Masquerade, p. 271). A character with
damage with these rolls and applying ALRATAN’S COMMENT: I would Unfettered Heart may move their
a cumulative one-die penalty to each recommend using the One Thousand Eyes heart around their body, or move it
defense. The user can choose whether power, written by Sharkey. outside as described in The Heart of
to prioritise themselves or the arms Darkness.
earth meld
when making these defensive rolls.
◾ Repeated Changes
vicissitude & fleshcrafting
As long as the user is awake, i.e. not
ALRATAN’S COMMENT: This makes
during daysleep, they may move
Arms of Ahriman less of a glass cannon All changes can be redistributed to
through the earth at their normal
in group combat and removes the needless changes of other types with a use of
walking speed.
charge-up time which makes conflict less the power, rather than requiring
interesting for a user. horrid form healing. Healing rules are only
This power no longer has any required if Fleshcrafting is not
necrotic plague
prerequisites, nor is it an amalgam. available.
This power no longer has a default
The user may increase their Physical ALRATAN’S COMMENT: These are
cost of Two Stains, as this is an old
Attributes to a maximum of 4 + actually the intended rules according to
rule which was missed during errata.
Blood Surge by using this power. Justin Achilli.
ceremonies
If you wish to have more Abyss
shapechange & metamorphosis ◾ Skill-focused Changes
The statistics described under More Changes such as suckers for climbing,
Mysticism in your game, I highly
Versatile Animal Stats on the v5 or hooves for running, or changing
recommend using the Ceremonies
Homebrew Wiki should be used for appearance to impersonate someone,
written by Sharkey.
animals. The user takes on the should be represented by providing
Presence Physical traits of the form they one extra die pool to most rolls
transform into, although they may involving a specified Skill, but two
awe choose to simply keep their existing dice rolls involving a specific Skill
For clarity, anyone with a reasonable Skill values if already superior. In Specialty.
suspicion that they are under the addition, the changed form gains an As these dice bonuses are a result
influence of Awe may roll to resist its additional dot in a Physical Attribute of physical body modification rather
effects. equal to their Blood Potency’s than the mystical power of the Blood,
Discipline Power Bonus, which they this dice-bonus does not benefit from
lingering kiss
may distribute as they wish. One Discipline Power Bonus from Blood
Vampires under the effect of a Blood
Thousand Eyes also gains this ability. Potency, nor the dice-bonus from
Bond or with the Unbondable Merit
In addition, Shapechange is now a Resonance, but is cumulative with
can use this power.
Level 2 power and Metamorphosis is normal Skill Specialties.
6
DISCIPLINES
For instance, climbing suckers body, or at least signs of plastic Health level to Kindred in exchange
would provide a one-die bonus to all surgery. Obvious and exposed for Attribute dots, but this is capped
Athletics dice pools and a two-dice changes, such as hooves, may be at three additional Health levels from
bonus to all Athletics (Climbing) noticed almost immediately, whilst three separate changes. This may
pools, running hooves would provide subtle signs may be noticed by a keen cause unfortunate issues when
a one-die bonus to Athletics pools or prepared observer on a roll such as stacked with Fortitude, so discretion
and a two-dice bonus to Athletics Resolve + Awareness or Medicine is advised.
(Running), whilst crafting your versus Resolve + Protean. Alternatively, you can use one of
features to impersonate your ALRATAN’S COMMENT: This allows the other armour rules within my v5:
neighbour Mary would provide a Vicissitude to be incredibly flexible (with Dark Ages document.
one-die bonus to Subterfuge and a
two-dice bonus to Subterfuge
bonuses to 9 Skills plus/multiplied by
potentially infinite Specialties), whilst
◾ Fleshcrafting
Fleshcrafting no longer exists as a
(Impersonate Mary). preventing terrible powergaming abuses
separate power, with Vicissitude now
A character may make multiple and the ability to mimic many other
able to force changes on another
changes which outwardly manifest in powers, particularly focused powers such
being using the original Fleshcrafting
the same way, such as a sucker which as Cat's Grace or Imposter's Guise +
rules.
helps with both Athletics (Climbing) Ghost in the Machine. It is a bit gamey in
ALRATAN’S COMMENT: Even with
and Larceny (Pickpocket), as long as that one could plausibly replicate
the above changes, Fleshcrafting others is
they sacrifice an Attribute dot for someone's features exactly and that feels
still more thematic/narratively flavourful
each mechanical benefit. like it should be worth more than just a
than it is actively powerful, as rarely will
Vicissitude can grant bonuses to two-dice bonus, but it is more balanced.
one want to min-max a Retainer to a fine
Skills (and related specialties in) The same is true for other things like
degree and in such a way that it has
Craft, Larceny, Stealth, Survival, perfectly chameleonic skin, stupendously
significant benefits in a conflict, so I
Intimidation, Performance, powerful limbs for jumping, and so on.
would recommend merging Vicissitude
Subterfuge and Awareness. Whilst this structure is not perfect, it
and Fleshcrafting. Not only does two
Vicissitude may only apply to the gives some much needed guidance to
powers seem extreme for the relative
non-combat applications of these players as to how high they should reach,
value of adding Fleshcrafting to
Skills, providing no bonus to and to Storytellers to help adjudicate on
Vicissitude, but it also occupies a lot of
activities such as Archery, Dodging or the fly.
the Protean tree with Vicissitude-only
Throwing, even if granting a different
Athletics & specialty bonus. ◾ Other Changes powers, which seems bloated. If
necessary, this could make the merged
A character may only benefit With the agreement of the
Storyteller, more profound changes Vicissitude a Level 3 power rather than
from bonus to a single skill at once,
can be made with Vicissitude/ Level 2, but even that might not be
such that a character who gives
Fleshcrafting, such as fleshcrafting an necessary given that the number of
themselves suckers for climbing and
changes to a single subject is capped by
hooves for running would gain a
two-dice bonus for all Athletics
exact body-double, but this should
normally be limited to narratively Protean level ◾
(Climbing) and Athletics (Running) impactful results rather than changes
rolls and a one-die bonus to all other which provide a specific benefit to
Athletics rolls outside of combat. dice rolls.
If examined too closely, these At the Storyteller’s discretion,
changes almost always result in a Vicissitude, Fleshcrafting and Horrid
Masquerade-breaching effect on the Form may now grant an additional
7
ALRATAN’S V5 HOUSE RULES
8
THE BLOOD
9
ALRATAN’S V5 HOUSE RULES
10
THE BLOOD
■ Diablerist loses 1 Humanity. If a greater cost is desired, then Generation as 14th, regardless of
■ Diablerist then roll Humanity + both diablerist and victim lose 1 die actual Generation) and the diablerist
Blood Potency versus Victim’s on the Control roll. This means that wins the Control roll, their
Resolve + Blood Potency. For the diablerist will likely gain less XP, Generation is lowered by an amount
each success, Diablerist gains 5 but is not significantly more likely to equal to the margin of success on the
XP, regardless if they win or fail. lose Humanity. Control roll.
If the Victim wins, the Diablerist If the victim’s Generation is at
loses Humanity equal to the failure & control
least 5 steps removed from the
margin. To emphasise the value of diablerising diablerist, then the diablerist’s
■ If Victim was of lower the powerful, for every point of Blood Generation is instead lowered by an
Generation, Diablerist lowers Potency higher the victim is, the amount equal to their number of
Generation by 1. Diablerist’s aura diablerist will gain a minimum successes on the Control roll.
changes appropriately. amount of XP from the diablerie as if In both cases, the Diablerist has
For convenience, I will call the first
they had a number of successes on the their Generation lowered by a
set of rolls the Consumption rolls,
Control roll equal to the difference. If minimum of one, and cannot have
and the second roll the Control roll.
this happens, as much of this XP as their Generation reduced below that
experience possible must be spent on Blood of the victim. This reduction in
The core rules for gaining experience Potency before being spent on Generation occurs prior to spending
points from diablerie are balanced Disciplines. XP, which may raise their minimum
around the standard experience gain Any loss of Humanity occurs Blood Potency, and therefore their
detailed in Vampire: The Masquerade based on the actual margin of failure, actual Blood Potency, even without
(p. 130): 1 XP per session, and an if any, and by no means prevents a
would-be diablerist from being
spending XP ◾
additional 1 XP after every story,
which is assumed to be around 3 possessed by their target.
sessions long on average, leading to an For instance, if the victim has 3
average XP gain of roughly 1.33.. XP higher Blood Potency than the
per session, meaning that diablerie diablerist, then even if the diablerist
grants as much XP as 4-5 sessions. only rolled one success on the
As a result, if the standard XP Control roll, they would gain
has been raised, the XP gain from experience as if they had rolled three.
diablerie should raise by a If the victim rolled four successes on
proportionate amount. e.g. if the Control roll, then the diablerist
standard XP gain in the game is 2 XP would still lose 3 Humanity as
per session, then diablerie should normal.
award 10 XP per success.
generation & diablerie
11
ALRATAN’S V5 HOUSE RULES
12
EXPANDED HUNTING RULES
13
ALRATAN’S V5 HOUSE RULES
increasing to five dots for a hunting Masquerade like any other hunting
Alternate difficulty of 2.
Once you have a starting trait
ground, or based on the original
chasse rules from page 196. For
Chasse Rules rating, you may modify the rating instance, if the coterie wished to have
required by applying merits or flaws a domain in a wealthy neighbour-
very Domain is centred to your coterie’s Haven within the hood, but have a low hunting
around a particular area, domain, to your rolls within the difficulty, they could simply represent
which comes with an domain in a similar manner as the this by having a large domain, or by
associated trait rating, Haven merit Location or penalties to having lax security and clubs, or
hunting difficulty and additional your domain as if the inverse of Lien near-permanent festivals going on.
bonuses and penalties related to the or Portillon. When considering a domain’s Chasse,
locale and size. This area, including its For instance, the sample chasse of bear in mind that the hunting
size and internal locations is called a The Rack in the table below requires difficulty applies to all hunting rolls -
Chasse. Examples are listed in the two dots and grants a hunting whether for animals, blood bags,
table below. difficulty of 2, but causes any and all corpses or living humans. As a result,
If constructing a custom Chasse Havens within it (such as any shared there may be limits to how much a
for your coterie, start by reviewing haven of the coterie) to have the particular locale may suit a particular
the hunting ground table on page 308 Creepy Flaw, as well as adding two coterie and its preferred hunting
to see the kinds of locales available dice to any opponent’s attempt to methods.
and what their normal hunting enter the domain. Players and Storytellers are
difficulty is. The base trait rating Any Chasse may also be affected encouraged to work together to have
required for a locale is determined by by permanent or temporary modifiers the right blend of mechanics and
its hunting difficulty, starting at one from page 308 of Vampire: The flavour which suits everyone ◾
dot for a hunting difficulty of 6 and
hunting
locale description difficulty additional rules
●● the rack 2 -2 to Portillon, Haven Flaw: (●) Creepy
●●● downtown 4
●● suburban sprawl 5
●● wealthy neighbourhood 6 Two-dice bonus for Finance rolls
14
OTHER DOCUMENTS
15
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