Vampire: The Requiem

Vampire: the Requiem
RPG published by White Wolf/Onyx Path
Rule System	Storytelling System
Authors	Justin Achilli et al
First Publication	2004

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Vampire: The Requiem is the flagship title of White Wolf's New World of Darkness line, and, as its name suggests, the counterpart to the Old World of Darkness's Vampire: The Masquerade. The changes are as follows (naturally, both oWoD and nWoD fans believe their way to be the true way):

• Five clans replace the thirteen, each embodying broad vampire archetypes. Whereas Masquerade's clans had well-researched histories and tracked their lineages to the first vampire, the five clans' true histories are shrouded in myth, legend, and falsehood. Each clan also hosts numerous bloodlines, which are mechanically similar to Masquerade bloodlines.
• Seven covenants replace the Camarilla and Sabbat (five of which are intended for player characters) and are significantly more important to a vampire's nightly existence than clan. Some covenants have goals and outlooks that put them at odds with others (most notably the Invictus, representing the status quo, clash with the Carthian Movement, representing progress).
• Embracing a new vampire costs a dot of Willpower. Gone are the nights of the Sabbat's "mass Embrace" tactics.
• Blood Potency replaces Generation. Kindred can increase their Blood Potency easier than they could Generation, but as a vampire's blood strengthens, they lose the ability to draw Vitae from lesser creatures. Eventually, their blood overpowers them and they must enter torpor, during which time their blood thins and they tend to lose their memories (the Fog of Ages). Because of this, nobody knows vampiric history for sure, even though some Kindred keep Requiem diaries of what they remembered (which can easily be in code or deliberately falsified, which is bad when the source vampire forgets the code or the truth).
• A new group of antagonists called the Strix are added. They aren't exactly vampires, but instead are shadowy, demonic owl-like beings that despise all forms of life and Humanity (to the point where they consider a Humanity 0 vampire too human) and claim to be a physical manifestation of the Beast. While they don't normally possess physical forms, they can possess corpses and unfortunate vampires to use as meat-puppets.

There are all sorts of splats and expansions, including one for playing in the Roman Empire, one for various other historical settings (WW1 to Ancient Egypt), one for playing as a ghoul, and one for the Eighties (I am deadly serious).

Now into its second edition (originally released under the title of "Blood & Smoke"), which gave vampires a fairly big boost. For example, they no longer only downgrade bullets to bashing; they downgrade all lethal damage to bashing unless they're full of bashing damage.

The Clans

Nobody knows exactly how the clans came into being or if they even have a common ancestor at all, but each one reflects one aspect of vampirism in some way or another. Additionally, each clan possess a staggering number of bloodlines, each with their own unique abilities and weaknesses added onto the original clan's own. Most of the V:tM clans which didn't make the jump to V:tR have been reclassified as bloodlines if they haven't been removed (e.g. the Malkavian clan is now the Malkovian bloodline).

• Daeva - The Succubi
  • Notable Bloodlines: Toreador, Erzsébet
  • Favored Disciplines: Celerity, Majesty, Vigor
  • Favored Attributes: Dexterity and Manipulation

The Daeva are beautiful, but the adage "beauty is only skin deep" is very much in effect for them. For all their lustful attitudes, superficial charm, and espoused love of beauty, they're emotionally dead even by the standards of other vampires. This emotional deadening in turn leads many of their number to grow jaded and hedonistic, seeking ever-greater ways of indulging their vices in a desperate attempt to feel again. At the same time, they are more than willing to exploit their beauty and charm to manipulate both Kindred and kine alike.

• Gangrel - The Savages
  • Notable Bloodlines: Bruja, Dead Wolves
  • Favored Disciplines: Animalism, Protean, Resilience
  • Favored Attributes: Composure and Stamina

The Gangrel are still the same nature-vampires they were in VtM, but in spite of their close connection to the Beast (or perhaps because of it) they have established themselves as scholars and philosophers of the Kindred's unique condition. That doesn't mean they won't tear you limb from limb if you piss one off, though. While they've lost their vulnerability to Frenzying, they do have trouble thinking rationally at times as their minds become more bestial.

• Mekhet - The Shadows
  • Notable Bloodlines: Morbus, Sangiovanni
  • Favored Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate
  • Favored Attributes: Intelligence and Wits

The Mekhet are particularly attuned to shadows and darkness, and translate this attunement into a degree of finesse regardless of what they set their minds to. They're particularly adept at scholarly pursuits and infiltration but in many cases can branch out to do a little bit of everything. However, their connection to darkness also exacerbates the typical vampiric weaknesses to fire and sunlight, and with no natural talent for controlling animals or people they have to make extra effort to keep their interference in mortal affairs as shadowy as themselves.

• Nosferatu - The Haunts
  • Notable Bloodlines: Baddacelli, Usiri
  • Favored Disciplines: Nightmare, Obfuscate, Vigor
  • Favored Attributes: Composure and Strength

Like in VtM, the Nosferatu are monstrous (usually this means they're ugly, but in some Nosferatu it may take more subtle forms like an unnerving voice or a repulsive odor that never seems to go away), but compensate for it with a knack for stealth and an alarming amount of strength when provoked. They're also good record-keepers and many Nosferatu are capable of communicating with ghosts and can even bend them to their will.

• Ventrue - The Lords
  • Notable Bloodlines: Malkovians, Gorgons
  • Favored Disciplines: Animalism, Dominate, Resilience
  • Favored Attributes: Presence and Resolve

Still the same stuck-up egotistical assholes that they were in VtM, and also the clan whose members are most likely to be either in positions of power or actively scheming to attain those positions of power. Their mind-control powers are just as good at helping them fulfill their ambitions as they were in VtM, but it also tends to make them particularly vulnerable to acquiring derangements. After all, power corrupts, even among the undead.

• Julii - The Founders (extinct)
  • Notable Bloodlines: Ventrue (allegedly, but not really)
  • Favored Disciplines: Animalism, Dominate, Resilience
  • Favored Attributes: Presence or Resolve

The Julii ruled the Camarilla. They invented the modern Masquerade, a derivation of the Mekhet concept, but merely hid the fact of their existence as creatures of the night, rather than completely disappearing from mortal view. They claim descent from Julius Senex, childe of Remus, who had become a vampire when he could not take Rome from his brother. This clan died with the Camarilla during the Roman Empire. They all disappeared over time and were completely extinct by AD 418. Their tenuous grip on their humanity (the curse of Remus) probably contributed to their decline. The specific similarities between the Julii and Ventrue and lack of Ventrue influence in the Camarilla lead many to believe that the Ventrue are descended from the Julii.

Covenants

With no Camarilla to give the Kindred a unifying organization to rally around anymore, Kindred instead identify with different covenants, organizations that are in effect a cross between political party, nation-state, and religion. While the covenants' goals and ideologies are often greatly divergent if not mutually irreconcilable, their unwillingness to threaten the Masquerade keeps their conflicts bloodless and infrequent more often than not. On the other hand, internal strife within covenants is not unheard of either and can in some cases be more intense than conflicts between different covenants.

• Invictus - The closest thing to the Camarilla of VtM, they consider themselves the rightful leaders of vampiric society while everyone else considers them to be a bunch of insufferable pricks. While they give lip service to the idea that they're a meritocracy, in practice the elders of the covenant hold all the power and have a vested interest in making sure that if the younger members try to advance in position that it'll be on their terms. They may be oppressive and tyrannical, but even their rivals begrudgingly admit that they do a good job of keeping the Masquerade going.

• Circle of the Crone - A quasi-pagan Covenant that pledges its loyalty to a goddess-like figure they refer to as the Crone. While the specifics of their beliefs vary widely between its different sects (as do the other deities and spirits they venerate), they all agree that vampirism is a natural state of existence and that any vampire who wishes to seek enlightenment can do so if they are willing to suffer for it. That said, their practice of Crúac - a form of ritual blood magic that occasionally requires sacrificial victims to work - has raised more than a few eyebrows in vampire society for its tendency to rouse the Beast.

• Lancea et Sanctum - Christianity for vampires. According to their traditions, they descend from Longinius, the Roman centurion who pierced Christ's side with a spear as he was dying on the cross; when His blood dripped upon him, Longinius was cursed with vampirism for his faithlesness and cruelty. Being religiously inclined doesn't mean that the Sanctified are pacifists or averse to their nature as vampires; on the contrary, they see their damnation as a necessary part of their role as a way of putting the fear of God into mortals and are notoriously zealous in their drive to convert unbelievers within vampiric society. This is made much easier for them by virtue of their practice of Theban Sorcery, which is best described as a blend of magic and miracles. The Lancea came to prominence within the Camarilla during the Roman Empire.

• Carthians - The wide-eyed idealists of the vampire world, the Carthians see no reason why the status quo should remain unchallenged and are intent on challenging its concentration of power within the hands of a small number of elders. Needless to say, ideas like "democratic rule" and "acceptance of change" has made them bitter rivals of the Invictus, who see them as little more than rabble-rousers.

• Ordo Dracul - If you hadn't guessed by the name, Dracula himself founded this Covenant. Compared to the more religious or political bent of the others, its focus is more on the relatively scientific aspects of vampirism- more specifically, its search for a way to transcend the natural limitations of vampirism. Towards this end, it has developed a set of esoteric teachings called the Coils of the Dragon; while they have yet to fully transcend their vampiric state, the Coils are indisputably effective at mitigating many of the typical vampire weaknesses (e.g. a greater ability to resist Frenzy, reducing the damaging effects of sunlight during dawn and dusk, etc.) They're absolutely obsessed with furthering their studies of the vampiric condition, and don't particularly care about who they hurt in the process of doing so.

• Belial's Brood - The Infernalists of VtM without the organization, Belial's Brood is little more than a pack of devil-worshipping madmen that have voluntarily given themselves up to the Beast. Although they are divided into numerous factions with their own competing ideologies, they are all crudely united in their disregard for everyone besides themselves and their single-minded thirst for destruction.

• VII - Next to nothing is known about them; even their name is a presumed one based only on the image of the Roman numeral they leave behind after their attacks on other Kindred. All that's confirmed about them is that they seek to destroy all other Kindred, which they can sense through the presence of what they call a "Mark of the Betrayer." Bizarrely, their members never run the risk of Frenzy when meeting other Kindred and even when forced to speak the truth through supernatural compulsion, its members can't explain what VII really is; even mind-reading attempts reveal nothing but an image of the Roman numeral "VII."

• Camarilla - The Camarilla was the ruling covenant of Roman Kindred during the time of the Republic and Empire until it fell to ruin during the Visigoths' sacking of Rome in AD 410. It was divided into four wings: the Senex (the government), the Legio Mortuum (the police), the Wing of Prophets (the priests), and the Wing of Strangers (everyone else), with an offshoot of the Prophets barely recognized as the Chapel and the Spear (the Lancea et Sanctum). They maintained three Traditions: Dominion (the Camarilla rules the world and divides it into domains as they see fit), Destruction (only the Camarilla's Senex can sentence Kindred to Final Death), and Amaranth (no Kindred may commit diablerie).

See Also

• Vampire the Requiem Homebrew Bloodlines