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Beast: The Primordial

2021-06-24T10:26:26Z

2A00:23C5:120A:C100:8D1F:6FA4:AFB5:8728: /* Hero-Bashing */

{{Game Infobox
|name = Beast: The Primordial
|picture = [[File:Beast_the_Primordial.png|200px]]
|type = [[RPG]]
|publisher = [[White Wolf]] / Onyx Path
|system = [[Storytelling System]]
|authors = Matthew McFarland, Dave Brooksaw, Jim Fisher, Emily Griggs, Andrew Heston, David A. Hill Jr, Dana Hughes, Renee Ritchie, Travis Stout, Peter Woodworth, and Sam Young
|year = 2016
}}
{{Fail}}
{{WoD-stub}}

'''Beast: The Primordal''' is one of the newer games to come out for the New [[World of Darkness]], and probably the one most scorned on [[/tg/]]. You are a Beast, a living embodiment of humanity's deepest and darkest fears, driven by an inescapable need to sate your Hunger, a manifestation of fear. You may be driven by the urge to Ruin or Dominate, but you cannot help but Feed. Of course, where a Beast lurks, Heroes inevitably arise, driven to slay the Thing lurking in the Dark...

Sounds awesome, right? A chance to both completely blow off the supernatural wangst that bedevils almost all of the other WoD lines (except [[Geist: The Sin-Eaters]] and maybe [[Demon: The Descent]]) and revel in being the bad guy you truly are: what could possibly wreck that idea?

Then the preview edition came out, and the problems began to show themselves.

For a start, you don't get ''any'' shapeshifting powers at all. That's right, you have a "Beast's soul", but not a Beast's '''body''' - even your Atavisms are ''completely invisible'' to normalfags, even when you're squeezing through a too-tight space, ripping them apart with claws or breathing fire (unless you decided to drop your Lair (the fancy domain thing that is tied to you) on top of their asses. Though, if that happens, subtlety has gone right out the window). This fact alone got /tg/ mocking the game as appealing to Otherkin: one of the mercifully rare, but not non-existent, branches of nutjob that heavily overlaps with the [[furry]] fandom, except that even ''other furries'' think they're out of their minds. It would have been bad enough, but coming in the wake of [[Demon: The Descent]], which gave excellent modular rules for building a demonic form, fans were expecting a similar level of cool shapeshifting powers in a game that was advertised as "be the beast that haunts humanity's soul".

Next, though the intended flavor of the game was "screw the Heroes, they're really nothing but nutjobs who think they're the Good Guys and insist you're the Bad Guys", the writing of it came off as so sneering and condescending that not only did hordes of people start defending the Heroes (no thanks to that screwy "if you Critical Fail on your Rampage check, you spawn a Hero" rule), but /tg/ began writing Beasts off as otherkin fodder. The "special people with the souls of mythical creatures, picked on and bullied by the normies who just don't understand" (with the latter part going so far as to equate them with persecuted minority groups): that's what /tg/ saw and derided, in a repeat of [[Changeling: The Dreaming]], mixed with an alarming amount of juvenile revenge fantasies. It didn't help that the author openly mocked the people who argued in favor of making Heroes less unsympathetic.

But, in a surprising show of self-awareness, Onyx Path actually took the time to respond to the criticisms and began an immediate rewrite of the book to address them, rewriting large portions of the book to be relatively more neutral in tone, though in many cases these rewrites either failed to address the original issues or were exactly the same as the original. And in at least a few cases, "optional interpretations" trying to shoehorn in the original depiction of Beasts were added in an attempt to circumvent the rewrite.

In some cases, the rewrite actually made the issues with Beast '''worse''' by attempting to give the Beasts the moral high ground. "They're merely teaching people important lessons through fear, honestly!" is a common refrain through the book, because apparently the only way for someone to become wise is to be constantly scared shitless by nightmare monsters. That that's almost the exact same justification the [[Night Lords]] used, it didn't give them the moral high ground either. And Jigsaw, of the iconic Saw franchise - which looks like one of the foremost Beast's inspirations - may be liked by many a maniac admirers but hardly anyone sane argues him not a villain.

The methods of dealing with Hunger suggested by the book ranged from the ludicrously petty to the outright murderous, and the addition of the "Family Dinner" mechanic in which a Beast could sate its hunger just by watching another supernatural being hunt or feed made the double-edged sword that Hunger could have been completely irrelevant.

Combined with openly dismissing all non-asshole Heroes as too boring to be of interest (despite sympathetic villains being a good thing), compelling all other supernaturals (except Demons for some reason) to be friendly towards Beasts despite several in-character reasons for them to oppose each other, and generally trivializing any harm a Beast might cause to others in fulfilling its Hunger, /tg/ has quickly come to the conclusion that it is by far the worst of the Chronicles of Darkness books.

Later on, it was discovered that author Matt McFarland was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl and was quietly let go from Onyx Path. Following further accusations of sexual harassment in 2019 involving the abuse of his position as a senior writer, Onyx Path stripped McFarland of his remaining assignments with them and publically condemned his actions.

When you look at all the above stuff about Beasts being entitled to indulging their Hungers, the people are trying to stop them are evil bigots and that they're actually doing their victims a favor in the light of said accusation...well, it starts sounding an awful lot like the sort of thing a [[FATAL|registered sex offender]] would say in an attempt to justify his actions. If BtP makes any success, it will not be because of him, but in spite of him.

==Family==
To condense down what each family group of beast "souls" are, there are seven different families of monsters (which again are each an abstract conceptual basis to come up with your own style of monsters, although in practice some of them tend to fit specific stereotypical monsters far more than others). Each Horror is the nightmare manifested, a primal fear given shape, and the Beast is always the first inflicted upon by this nightmare, and are no longer troubled by it.
These families are then mixed with seven hungers to help build your own monster.

===Anakim===
[[Giant]]s, [[ogre]]s, and the powerful primordials of an earthy disposition. The fear that makes up your soul is the fear of powerlessness. Something that you will likely never allow to happen to you again. These are not your BFG friends, because even the nicest ones feed on the fear of powerlessness and dominate their opponents. As for their powers, expect strength, presence and for a fight in their lairs to become a titanic struggle. Like [[Anime|Attack on Titan]] where you're the Titan and your enemy forgot their jet pack and cables.

===Eshmaki===
Lurkers, dwellers in the dark places, and sometimes capable of breathing fire or shredding opponents. Eshmaki are the beasts of the fear of darkness and the things that go bump in the night. Because they have conquered their fear, they never feel alone, though they might be. Did I mention you can be a [[dragon]] with this? Maybe one day you can use your incarnate powers to rule the world as force of change... Or just make a really, really good thief and/or killer. After all, what's to stop a dragon except a [[knight]]? And knights are just more tinned food.

===Inguma===
Nightmares of the Other. The youngest Family, "only" dating back to the dawn of civilization and the xenophobia it fostered. This is where you find stuff like [[Doppelganger]]s, the Pod People, The Thing (from the John Carpenter film), [[Lacrymole]]s and various other monsters that can be called almost but not quite human. Ironically, they're the most humanlike of the Families despite their schtick of being the perpeutal outsiders.

===Makara===
For those wanting to say they are the Kraken, Leviathan, or any other sea monster. The Makara are the beasts of the fear of the depths. At its simplest this translates to a fear of drowning, but can easily be extrapolated further into overwhelming knowledge or circumstance. They tend to have the more lethal kinds of lairs. Drop one into reality and watch the world face a natural disaster level threat.

===Namtaru===
Those that believe in beauty being skin deep might have been referring to these things. Probably before being horribly fossilised. Namtaru are the fear of revulsion, and have Gorgons, insectoid terrors, and various other fuck-ugly things in their background. They can inflict a single condition once per scene, but they also are potentially some of the easiest people to hide evidence. After all, a statue can't expose you if you're simply a talented stone carver.

===Talassii===
Nightmares of Confinement. They embody fears of being kidnapped, imprisoned, and otherwise held against one's will. After an especially unwise brood attempted to re-enact the Rape of the Sabine Women on a band of Heroes, the entire Family got saddled with an Anathema which causes them to be followed with an air of menace that makes people think any Captor they encounter is "out to get them". Naturally, they try to avoid brutalizing or raping their "prisoners" now, which probably causes some problems with the fact that, lore-wise, they're actually cursed to be compulsive rapists, though. Don't really end up mapping easily to a popular monster archetype like the others, so they mostly end up being giant spiders, living prisons, or unseen jailors. Could probably work for folks wanting to be Jigsaw or Leatherface-style slashers...but wouldn't it be easier to just play as a Slasher in that case?

===Ugallu===
Monsters of the air that represent everything from harpies to dragons (again), to great birds like the majestic [[Phoenix]] or Roc. They are the fear of exposure (literally or metaphorically), and too few people ever look up. Flight is something that falls among the realms of ease for these creatures. What's terrifying is their birthright ability to breach through facades. That means no glamour or special obfuscation can escape these eyes. It only inflicts a condition, but sometimes that's all it takes.

==Hunger==
Your Beast's Hunger is what defines the kind of dark monstrous things you need to do to keep your Horror happy and full. There is always the feeding on flesh and blood but sometimes a beast can satisfy their craving in other ways. Feeding your Beast is what gives you power, and how full your beast is is the satiety stat. High satiety gives you a lot of power to fuel your awesome abilities like unleashing your dragon breath or using your titanic strength to kick a vampire through a skyscraper, and also passively enhances your Nightmares. However, high satiety has risks attached. Your Horror could become gluttonous or picky, refusing to feed on anything other than rare and high quality heists or stimulations. A Collector might not be satisfied until you have Fort Knox gold, for example. At maximum Satiety, the Horror goes into a food coma, leaving the mortal body kind of helpless in the mortal world (and since it takes some pretty heinous shit to reach that point, the now-mortal Beast will have a lot of enemies waiting to take advantage of his weakness).

By contrast, not feeding your beast enough means your Horror rampages through the dreamscape more often. At its minimum, you take lethal damage every day you don't feed and your Horror starts attacking the same dreams more than once. This leads to Heroes showing up and cause extreme problems, especially since you're probably not equipped to deal with the murderous glory hounds after the kill of their lives- but on the other hand it makes your Atavisms stronger, among other stuff. Walking the middle road between keeping your beast from rampaging and not having it become a glutton is manageable, but also has risks of its own. You gain none of the benefits for being at either extreme, and Heroes will find it easy to saddle you with Anathemas.

In practice, it's best to rapidly ping-pong between high and low satiety without hitting either the minimum or maximum so you gain the benefits of either extreme without needing to suffer the drawbacks for long.

There are seven Hungers. When combined with the seven families this creates 49 types of Beasts, so even Beasts of the same Family can be widely different (but in practice, several Hungers and Families overlap with each other or aren't well-defined enough to be distinguishable). These Hungers are:

===Collectors===
The Hunger [[Warcraft|for the Hoard]]. Simply put, the Collectors like to obtain all sorts of stuff. Not because of what it's worth to them, but for what it's worth to others. Anakim Collectors prefer trophies that show off their own strength such as things taken from Heroes or mementos from worthy enemies, Eshmaki Collectors like to terrify the owner before taking things, Makara Collectors prefer ancient relics for their worth and to learn more about the world, Namtaru Collectors collect what seem to be items of great beauty, but look too close and the horror sets in like the stench, insects everywhere or the ground being filthy; other Natamu like to vandalize valuable things. Ugallu Collectors are magpies, or at least close to them: they look down at the world looking for something they like, mainly hidden objects, and if they find something that catches their fancy they swoop down, grab it and fly up to their out-of-reach lairs.

===Enablers===
Hunger for Transgression. The tempters to the Nemeses' punishers, they push people to break their own moral codes, then gain Satiety when the transgressor feels guilty or ashamed about giving into their vices. They can't take the easy way out of using mind control though, the victim has to make the choice to transgress of their own will.

===Nemeses===
The Hunger for Punishment. The boogeymen of the Beasts, delivering retribution upon transgressors big and small. Anakim Nemeses solve violence with more violence, going after violent criminals and serving the dish best served cold. Eshmaki Nemeses work by reminding the perpetrator of a crime long forgotten of what they did, stalk them and drive the criminal to paranoia by (reasonably) making them think that there's a monster out to get them. Makara Nemeses protect certain places. Those who break these codes (transgressing somewhere where they shouldn't or killing animals somewhere) will face the wrath of such a Beast, but because of the nature of their Hunger these Beasts will require support from broodmates to help them feed regularly. Namtaru Nemeses tend to be scorned, and repay those who pick on those like them. Bullies, abusive spouses and other cruelty coming from hate will face one of them sooner or later. The Ugallu Nemeses punish secret crimes and other transgressions that are difficult to prove: hypocrisy, deceiving romantic partners, falsely professing belief in a religion and so on. These Beasts too like to torment their prey days or weeks before striking, making the retribution all the better.

===Predators===
The Hunger for Prey. Not as straightforward as you'd think: while some Beasts do kill their prey it's more about besting the prey than to outright eat it. Anakim Predators prefer to chase their prey down, uncaring about who sees them. Eshmaki like to hurt their prey in subtle ways: either physically or psychologically: for them it's about stalking rather than hurting. Makara Predators prefer to use traps, tricks and bait to lure others to their doom, when the prey falls for it the Beast considers it a job well done. Namtaru Predators tend to do bizarre (and often violent) things with their prey: drink blood from various cuts on their body, lap the sweat from their foreheads or leave a nasty, but not lasting, mark. Ugallu Predators prefer to plan, plot and scheme, picking their prey carefully. But when that's done the Beast strikes swiftly, brutally and efficiently.

===Ravagers===
The Hunger for Ruin. The most destructive of the Hungers, these Beasts live to destroy, pure and simple. They only go for non-living targets though, because those who target people Hunger for Prey, not Ruin. Anakim Ravagers like to smash first and think later, forcing them to live lives on the road lest they be found out quickly. Eshmaki Ravagers like to break things in the most guarded of places, ruining only their target and nothing else to prove their skill and scare people. Makara Ravagers make the damage they do look like forces of nature, reminding people they are not safe from the fury of nature. Namtaru Ravagers prefer to pollute instead of destroying. Their horror sets in the moment people think themselves to be safe only for them to realize the depth of the damage. These Beasts don't just burn the fields, they also salt the earth. Ugallu Ravagers strike suddenly and precisely, destroying what they need to feed and move on. They are like the drone strikes of the Beasts, terrifying people of the open sky.

===Tyrants===
The Hunger for Power. Tyrants want to assert their power over others, making people feel small and helpless. Anakim Tyrants like to see people be defeated, Eshmaki Tyrants relish the hunt and give their prey a sporting chance, Makara Tyrants prefer to make people feel like the malevolent forces they face are being guided by some kind of intelligence, Namtaru Tyrants scare people by being impossibly monstrous looking and Ugallu Tyrants make people feel they're being watched all the time, driving them to paranoia.

===Whispers===
Hunger for Secrets. These Beasts like nothing more than to expose or uncover the secrets that others want to keep hidden. Depending on Satiety, this can mean anything from catching a coworker who got out of work by feigning illness to exposing a vast conspiracy.

==Powers==

===Atavisms===
The powers granted by your Horror and the most conventional of powers. All Atavisms are linked to a particular Family: the core five have five each and the two new ones each have three. Any Beast can learn any Atavism, as long as it matches with their Horror's identity. Atavisms become more powerful when used in a locations that resonates with the Beast's Lair, allowing the use of a more powerful version of the Atavism by spending a point of Willpower instead of Satiety (but this can be done only once a turn). Aside from this optional effect all Atavisms have a more potent variant that is used if the Beast has low Satiety. A starting character starts with two Atavisms, one of which has to be from a Beast's own Family. It can learn all the others too: all non-Family Atavisms are simply one XP more expensive.

===Nightmares===
Nightmares invoke the fears commonly found in nightmares: "nobody likes you", "something's chasing you", "you're covered in bugs", and so on. (A notable exception is "Behold, My True Form!", in which you can scare people to death with your presence alone).

They require either eye contact or physical contact, followed by the Beast speaking a few words. Lasting for one Scene, Nightmares provide powerful negative modifiers on targets that give the Beast an edge when dealing with them. Nightmares come in three forms: the regular one, an additional effect gained if the Beast has 7 or more Satiety, and one that is activated by spending Satiety (if your Satiety drops to 6 or lower because of this you still get the high Satiety effect). Because all Nightmare rolls involve rolling a Beast's current Satiety, this means that at high Satiety you're easily looking at dice pools of 10+.

===Lairs===
Your home sweet home in the Primordial Dream, this is where your Horror "lives" when it's not out giving people nightmares. Lair is also the name of your power stat: it's your supernatural tolerance trait, once you have more than five dots in Lair you can increase your traits beyond the normal maximum, etc. Lairs are composed of '''chambers''' (the dream-mirrors of places where somebody got scared so bad it left an impression on the Primordial Dream; you can open a gateway from a chamber to the place the chamber is based on to enter and and exit the Lair) and '''burrows''' (connections between chambers). The first and most important part of your Lair is the '''Heart'''. Your heart can't be used to warp to the real world as it's based on you and not a physical location, but that's a good thing on account of if somebody destroys your heart you get instakilled. From there you add chambers, connect them with burrows, and choose your '''Lair Traits''', the shit that makes your lair deadly to anyone who isn't you. Lair traits are environmental Tilts divided into minor (a raging blizzard, poor lighting, a sticky floor) and major (anyone who stays for too long becomes a pillar of salt, bottomless pits) categories; at least one of your lair traits has to be minor. If one of the tilts is already present in the real world, you can bring up to (Lair) other traits along for the ride for free. (Every WoD splat has its super-murder cheese combo, and this is the one for Beast: turn off the lights or run into a maze, then activate all your major traits and sit in the dark while your enemies die horribly in your magical pocket universe that kills in minutes and leaves no evidence.)

All the chambers in an area are called the '''Hive''', which is where your Horror goes when it ''is'' out scarring people for life and whatnot. Generally, the nature of the Hive is influenced by its Apex- the meanest, scariest thing in the area, which need not be a Beast or even a supernatural. Their sway over the fears of humanity creates an additional trait in every chamber connected to the Hive, but unlike other Traits you ''don't'' get free immunity to it. Depending on the trait, this can be either mildly annoying or a good reason to move your brood somewhere else.

You can cut your Lair and its Chambers off from the Hive if you like, but that means your Horror is going to keep fucking up the same people again and again, which will either attract or create a Hero to bust your ass.

===Kinship===
Beasts consider themselves to be part of an extended family originating from the being they call "The Dark Mother", and claim that all other supernatural beings are basically their distant cousins who just don't know where they ''really'' come from. The only exception is the [[Demon: The Descent|Unchained]]; not only do Beasts not claim kinship with the scions of the God-Machine, they actively hate them.

Naturally, some supernatural beings like the [[Werewolf: The Forsaken|Uratha]] and the [[Mummy: The Curse|Arisen]] who already have their own origin stories don't buy it, but even then they're not normally the type to pass up free allies. As for when they come to blows...well, Beasts know that family members can still end up in fights with one another and see nothing wrong with making such fights lethal.

In crunch terms, this means that Beasts can detect other supernatural beings, disguise themselves as other supernaturals, gain Satiety by watching said supernatural beings "feed" (the aforementioned Family Dinner mechanic that torpedoes the whole issue of managing Hungers), empower other supernaturals to make their powers work better, create new Nightmares based on their kin's abilities, and even open Primordial Pathways from their Lairs to other spiritual dimensions (e.g. the Shadow and the Hedge).

It should be noted that the True Fae, Centimani, Slashers, and other fucked-up sorts are also recognized as Kin by Beasts. That...is probably not a good sign.

===Others===
Birthrights, Obcasus Rites etc.

==Allies==

===Cults===

===Horrorspawn===
A Horrorspawn is a minion created from the Beast's Horror. Sometimes literally. Some Beasts even liken it to a child. That child, however, is a monster that requires a corpse to possess in order to vacate the Lair, mutating it till it becomes a copy of Junior. Depending on how the player stats their nightmare baby, the critter can acquire special traits to better fulfill whatever job it was made for. This can even include Atavisms and Nightmares known by their master, as well as assistance when feeding. However, there are downsides to spawning a sin against nature. For one, the more time spent with it means the more uncomfortable your friends, even fellow Beasts become when socializing with you. The spawn also needs to feed, making it more likely a Hero will awaken to investigate. And if you leave it alone for too long, it'll take on a life of its own (and several Chambers as well).

==Heroes==
The designated antagonists of Beast: The Primordial. We say "designated" because despite the game's best efforts to make them look as terrible as possible, they are actually not that evil as CoD antagonists go. Far less so than the writers intended them to be, if their statements complaining about how people weren't supposed to sympathize with them are any indication. Gaston from Disney's version of ''Beauty and the Beast'' is considered the archetypal Hero... which is <s>a really surface level reading of the film if authors considered Gaston a Hero.</s> fitting considering that Heroes think themselves the heroic main characters, but are just egotistical bastards, which is ''exactly'' what Gaston was in ''Beauty and the Beast,'' a self-righteous prick who thought himself infallible. Then again Gaston is a deliberate subversion of hero archeotypes, not the norm.

The basic premise is that while Beasts "dream deep", Heroes "dream wide" and skim the surface of the Primordial Dream, where they can detect the disturbances caused by Beast activity. Back in ancient times, they supposedly helped Beasts teach the lessons they embodied, but because of modern cultural narratives they're only concerned with killing Beasts now.

Given that the average Beast is a shameless monster that literally feeds on terror, you might assume that this technically makes them the good guys. But since Beasts can do no wrong as far as the writers are concerned, Heroes are instead murderous sociopaths who would gladly send a thousand people to their deaths as long as they can claim the glory of killing a Beast. The very idea of Heroes not being assholes is brought up only in a sidebar, where non-asshole Heroes are dismissed as being too dull to be worth discussing.

One of the example heroes provided is basically a nerdy, selfish neckbeard with delusions of grandeur, complete with trenchcoat, trilby, and unironically referring to people as "milady". Let that set the tone for how Beast views Heroes.

Anyway, Heroes can instinctively track Beasts (an ability that the book has no crunch for, instead suggesting that the Storyteller just say it happens when the plot calls for it) and impose Anathemas in combat, which are weaknesses that the Hero "discovers" that either constrain a Beast's behavior or make them easier to hurt in some way. Stuff like the single scale Smaug was missing on his belly, or taking bonus damage from the Hero's "Chosen Blade". As a Hero kills Beasts, they get more powers like built-in armor against attacks from a Beast or placing an Anathema by denouncing a Beast as evil to the Beast's face (and since the only way to interrupt it is to physically attack the Hero, it creates ''interesting'' challenges for Beasts if there are witnesses present).

===Hero-Bashing===
Amazingly, the Heroes were portrayed as being even worse than they are in the old Kickstarter version despite their being explicitly created as the result of Beasts fucking with their dreams and being completly correct that beasts should be hunted down. They're described as having the personality of "a high school bully crossed with a rabid dog", and an entire section of their chapter is dedicated to a slang lexicon that sounds like it was invented by stereotypical frat boys. Several other chapters discussing them can similarly be boiled down to "Heroes are all evil lunatics because we say they are, never mind the fact that their only crime was being victimized by a Beast".

Between this, the outing of one the game designers as a sexual predator and the Heroes' final depiction, the implications should speak for themselves.

== The Insatiable ==

Since Heroes were a bit of an impotent wet fart as antagonists go (and even setting aside the problems with how they're written, mechanically they're just not much of a challenge to the average beast), the ''Conquering Heroes'' sourcebook (ironically) introduced a second set of villains for the gameline. Descended not from the Dark Mother but her mate, the Primogenitor (and later retconned to be the result of proto-Horrors which never bothered to form a Lair and embody human fears before claiming a human's body), the Insatiable's transformation has rendered them utterly inhuman, imbued with fears from an even-more-primordial time when the planet was hostile to all life, and claiming to be the Beasts' truest kinsfolk. The Beasts dispute the claim, violently, partly because they feel no kinship to them like the other monsters, partly because they're a bunch of sick fucks and no one wants to be related to ''that'', partly because they kill whenever they feed and never get full and partly because the Insatiable, rather than having Lairs of their own, typically try to invade the Beasts', draining their powers and trying to possess their bodies.

Did it work?

Well, on the one hand, they're definitely a cut above Heroes in terms of being a Beast character's natural enemies. On top of their power-stealing, and thus being natural predators-for-the-predators, they can force humans to do their bidding by driving them insane, a process called a "Schism," and turn into their giant monster shapes whenever they want rather than while in lairs. And they're divided by element-themed Moments rather than Families.

On the other hand, their examples a "scary" unattractive gamer girl/Internet troll named "Null Snyper" who pushes her victims to suicide, a lava golem called "the Authority" (no relation to the WWE), and The Blind Man, who must be read about to be believed:

<blockquote>''"The Blind Man's blotted clothing is as result of a thick trail of what resemble fish eggs progressively leaking from his navel, urethra, and anus. Particularly around his navel area, a coagulated mass of pink and black eggs comes forth when the Blind Man strains his abdominal muscles. Horrifyingly, the Blind Man has from time to time passed these eggs off as salmon roe or sturgeon caviar, as they bear a sour, fishy odor. Those who consume his “produce” have their fertility dramatically increased, and gradually produce their own eggs in a similar fashion to the Blind Man, the only difference being that mortal-produced eggs possess a coat of thin white fur. This invariably drives the afflicted unfortunates insane, as they cannot stop the egg production, resulting in self-destructive harm. The Blind Man believes that by participating in the birthing, they increase the speed at which the Primogenitor will be reborn."'' --Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes</blockquote>

Yes, it's basically saying that he pisses, shits, and cums fish eggs, and tricks people into eating them so they also piss, shit, and cum fish eggs. Truly a creation even [[/d/]] would be hard-pressed to appreciate.

And that's just their fluff. Their crunch is an absolute clusterfuck since they use Satiety faster than they could possibly gain it- the only way they could use their own powers is by either Storyteller fiat or the presence of a virtually endless number of lesser Beasts they kill offscreen. It's obvious that an editor was never involved either, since their rules reference non-existent Tilts and are written so vaguely it's hard to tell what their powers actually ''do''.

=== Insatiable Moments ===
As previously stated, the Insatiable are divided among "Moments" rather than Families. A Moment represents different aspects and terrors drawn from moments in time outside written history. From the ice age to the vacuum of space. The book says they aren't limited to primordial eras, though. Giving an example of an Insatiable of Molten Earth projecting the feelings of violence and hatred for fellow human beings, while a Freezing Hell may cause people in the area to become obsessed with hoarding food and possessions in preparation for the apocalypse.

===Clashing Faults===
Earth elementals, cave shelters that collapse without warning, mountains crumbling before earthquakes. Essentially stone cold assholes that brutalize then devour their victims. They like everything being in caves, valleys, or underground, especially if it makes it easier to suffocate people.

===Freezing Hell===
ICE! ICE! MORE ICE! They're not just about the creatures under and over the ice, but the starvation and exposure animals go through in desperate search of food and warmth in an otherwise barren land of ice. Every FH is literally ice cold, from their touch to their blood temperature. They're the most likely to actually store their victims in ice boxes and freezers.

===Molten Earth===
Your classic magma boys. They love fire, heat, and how billions of years ago the world was made of molten rock, waterfalls of molten lead, and molten hot pockets. As expected, they're hot tempered, violent, and very good at cooking in the kitchen. They're pyromaniacal sadists with a fetish for burns, kindling, and charred husks.

===Primordial Seas===
Believing their founder to have been a giant jellyfish, these guys like to think they're Makara but better. Much like a college teen, they suffer disproportionate amounts of anxiety, hate resting, and become paranoid as fuck. And, much like the classical college student, they will strike first at the nearest source of food to show dominance over the rest of their kind. They apparently feel the effects of hunger more keenly than their "siblings," and get violent when feeding.

===Void===
The black sheep of black sheep, the Void are black holes, unknown distances, and the terror of infinity. They like Cthulhu, sci-fi, inter-dimensional conspiracies, and the idea of sucking people's brains out with bendy straws.

==Inheritances==
Inheritances are the "endgame" for a Beast, the result of how they reconcile their mortal lives with their Horror's Legend, the metaphysical framework that provides context to their existence.

===Merger===
This Inheritance happens when a Beast's lair is destroyed, either intentionally by the Beast or by someone else's actions. The Horror merges with the Beast, destroying any trace of self-awareness or humanity and devolving the Beast into a monster that exists only to feed.

===Retreat===
Normally if a Beast dies, the Horror dies with it. But when a Beast dies while its Horror is slumbering, the Horror survives and continues to exist as an ephemeral being that continues to fuck with human dreams. Infamous because of its poor wording: if the right conditions are met (having your power stat at 10 and making your Horror get the Slumbering condition, then dying and getting enough successes) the Unfettered Horror becomes a rank 10 Ephemeral entity, one of the most powerful beings in all of Chronicles of Darkness.

===Divergence===
A more obscure form of Inheritance, where the Beast deliberately starves himself nearly to death while keeping the Horror cooped up in its Lair until the Horror tries to eat him out of desperation and fury. The Beast responds in kind, and after enough time eating each other the Beast and Horror both become half dream and half flesh. They remain connected to one another to some degree, but the Beast no longer has to appease the Horror's Hunger for it. However, both halves are also somewhat less powerful for it- the Beast can't use most Atavisms, the Horror can't use most Nightmares, and both of them draw from the same pool of Satiety. More importantly, the Horror gets to manifest outside of the Primordial Dream at will, and the Beast can't control what it does. And it'll probably be pissed at the Beast for trying to starve it.

===Erasure===
Some Beasts really want to be human again, but since the Horror eats your soul when you become a Beast they need to get creative. To do this, they need both a new soul and some way to kill their Horror (most likely involving another supernatural or even a Hero). If they're successful, they become more or less human but can still use Nightmares and Birthrights. The catch? They can only regain Satiety by eating the flesh of other Beasts and can never become another type of supernatural due to pissing off the Dark Mother.

===Inversion===
Some Beasts look at themselves and realize that they hate what they've become, but don't just commit suicide or seek Divergence or Erasure. Instead, they go a step further and seek revenge against the Dark Mother directly: they travel to the Bright Dream (better known as the Temenos to mages), study their effects on the world around them until they can craft an Anathema weapon against their Horror, and use said Anathema to bring it to a state of near-death. When this happens, they lose the ability to gain or use Satiety in any way but retain most of their powers and gain the ability to place Anathemas on other Beasts. From there they quickly go on to begin hunting other Beasts in the hope of hurting the Dark Mother as much as possible before they die.

===Incarnate===
The most complex Inheritance and the one that the game pushes as the "best" one. After reaching a certain amount of Lair, an aspiring Beast must do one of the following things:
*Subvert a Hero's narrative by thoroughly destroying the Hero before he/she can even retaliate
*Become the Apex of the local Hive and visit their hunger on other Beasts
*Spawn a Legend by feeding their Horror in a spectacularly grandiose manner.

By changing their Legend into a Myth, an Incarnate gains the following powers:
*They can transform into their Horror in the physical world, gaining a bunch of stuff like extra limbs, natural armor, and so on when they do so.
*They become immune to Anathemas and can in fact de-power Heroes just by touching them.
*They can enter the Primordial Dream at will.
*They can never become Ravenous or Slumbering, though they still retain the ability to use Satiety and can gain the benefits/drawbacks of high and low Satiety.
*Their Life and Legend is replaced by a Myth. However, if they lose control of their Myth, they lose all their Incarnate powers and anybody can place Anathemas on them. Good fucking luck with that when you remember all the shit they can pull.

== Attempts to fix ==

Strangely enough, players have tried tying the splat with the "Inferno" blue book, since the splat shares a lot of terminology with said-book. This begs the weird comparison where Demon: the Descent v. Beasts is like the Demons vs Devils Blood War in D&D. Does it fix the splat? Depends on who you ask.

Another, less malefic option is that you play as a guardian protector Beast who stays his darker nature by being around those less villainous kin. This is done by abusing the shit out of the "Family Dinner" mechanic, which essentially allows a Beast to never go hungry so long as they watch kin feed, eg. Changelings harvesting glamour, mages doing oblations, Prometheans fucking power outlets, etc. And, to be honest, it's not a half-bad metaphor, that we are all of us more vulnerable to our darker impulses when we try going at life alone. But, when surrounded by friends who care about you, who will stick by you through thick and thin, you can become something truly indomitable.

= In short =

Arguably the ''real'' NWoD/CoD equivalent of [[Changeling: The Dreaming]]<ref>In that it's a tonal mess, got some serious issues about "yeah but what do they ''do''?", and seemingly not liked by anybody but the author(s).</ref>, but written by a pervert who probably got beat up in school a lot. Also, this game should really be called "Abuser: The Gaslighting".

==See Also==
*[http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/kurieg/beast-the-primordial/ FATAL and Friends' scathing review, which sums up everything wrong with Beast]
*[http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/kurieg/beast-night-horrors-conquering-heroes/ The review for Conquering Heroes, which brought us The Blind Man up there]
*[https://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/kurieg/beast-the-primordial-players-guide/ And the one for the Player's Guide]
{{WoD-Games}}

Beast: The Primordial

2021-06-24T10:20:02Z

2A00:23C5:120A:C100:8D1F:6FA4:AFB5:8728: /* Heroes */

{{Game Infobox
|name = Beast: The Primordial
|picture = [[File:Beast_the_Primordial.png|200px]]
|type = [[RPG]]
|publisher = [[White Wolf]] / Onyx Path
|system = [[Storytelling System]]
|authors = Matthew McFarland, Dave Brooksaw, Jim Fisher, Emily Griggs, Andrew Heston, David A. Hill Jr, Dana Hughes, Renee Ritchie, Travis Stout, Peter Woodworth, and Sam Young
|year = 2016
}}
{{Fail}}
{{WoD-stub}}

'''Beast: The Primordal''' is one of the newer games to come out for the New [[World of Darkness]], and probably the one most scorned on [[/tg/]]. You are a Beast, a living embodiment of humanity's deepest and darkest fears, driven by an inescapable need to sate your Hunger, a manifestation of fear. You may be driven by the urge to Ruin or Dominate, but you cannot help but Feed. Of course, where a Beast lurks, Heroes inevitably arise, driven to slay the Thing lurking in the Dark...

Sounds awesome, right? A chance to both completely blow off the supernatural wangst that bedevils almost all of the other WoD lines (except [[Geist: The Sin-Eaters]] and maybe [[Demon: The Descent]]) and revel in being the bad guy you truly are: what could possibly wreck that idea?

Then the preview edition came out, and the problems began to show themselves.

For a start, you don't get ''any'' shapeshifting powers at all. That's right, you have a "Beast's soul", but not a Beast's '''body''' - even your Atavisms are ''completely invisible'' to normalfags, even when you're squeezing through a too-tight space, ripping them apart with claws or breathing fire (unless you decided to drop your Lair (the fancy domain thing that is tied to you) on top of their asses. Though, if that happens, subtlety has gone right out the window). This fact alone got /tg/ mocking the game as appealing to Otherkin: one of the mercifully rare, but not non-existent, branches of nutjob that heavily overlaps with the [[furry]] fandom, except that even ''other furries'' think they're out of their minds. It would have been bad enough, but coming in the wake of [[Demon: The Descent]], which gave excellent modular rules for building a demonic form, fans were expecting a similar level of cool shapeshifting powers in a game that was advertised as "be the beast that haunts humanity's soul".

Next, though the intended flavor of the game was "screw the Heroes, they're really nothing but nutjobs who think they're the Good Guys and insist you're the Bad Guys", the writing of it came off as so sneering and condescending that not only did hordes of people start defending the Heroes (no thanks to that screwy "if you Critical Fail on your Rampage check, you spawn a Hero" rule), but /tg/ began writing Beasts off as otherkin fodder. The "special people with the souls of mythical creatures, picked on and bullied by the normies who just don't understand" (with the latter part going so far as to equate them with persecuted minority groups): that's what /tg/ saw and derided, in a repeat of [[Changeling: The Dreaming]], mixed with an alarming amount of juvenile revenge fantasies. It didn't help that the author openly mocked the people who argued in favor of making Heroes less unsympathetic.

But, in a surprising show of self-awareness, Onyx Path actually took the time to respond to the criticisms and began an immediate rewrite of the book to address them, rewriting large portions of the book to be relatively more neutral in tone, though in many cases these rewrites either failed to address the original issues or were exactly the same as the original. And in at least a few cases, "optional interpretations" trying to shoehorn in the original depiction of Beasts were added in an attempt to circumvent the rewrite.

In some cases, the rewrite actually made the issues with Beast '''worse''' by attempting to give the Beasts the moral high ground. "They're merely teaching people important lessons through fear, honestly!" is a common refrain through the book, because apparently the only way for someone to become wise is to be constantly scared shitless by nightmare monsters. That that's almost the exact same justification the [[Night Lords]] used, it didn't give them the moral high ground either. And Jigsaw, of the iconic Saw franchise - which looks like one of the foremost Beast's inspirations - may be liked by many a maniac admirers but hardly anyone sane argues him not a villain.

The methods of dealing with Hunger suggested by the book ranged from the ludicrously petty to the outright murderous, and the addition of the "Family Dinner" mechanic in which a Beast could sate its hunger just by watching another supernatural being hunt or feed made the double-edged sword that Hunger could have been completely irrelevant.

Combined with openly dismissing all non-asshole Heroes as too boring to be of interest (despite sympathetic villains being a good thing), compelling all other supernaturals (except Demons for some reason) to be friendly towards Beasts despite several in-character reasons for them to oppose each other, and generally trivializing any harm a Beast might cause to others in fulfilling its Hunger, /tg/ has quickly come to the conclusion that it is by far the worst of the Chronicles of Darkness books.

Later on, it was discovered that author Matt McFarland was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl and was quietly let go from Onyx Path. Following further accusations of sexual harassment in 2019 involving the abuse of his position as a senior writer, Onyx Path stripped McFarland of his remaining assignments with them and publically condemned his actions.

When you look at all the above stuff about Beasts being entitled to indulging their Hungers, the people are trying to stop them are evil bigots and that they're actually doing their victims a favor in the light of said accusation...well, it starts sounding an awful lot like the sort of thing a [[FATAL|registered sex offender]] would say in an attempt to justify his actions. If BtP makes any success, it will not be because of him, but in spite of him.

==Family==
To condense down what each family group of beast "souls" are, there are seven different families of monsters (which again are each an abstract conceptual basis to come up with your own style of monsters, although in practice some of them tend to fit specific stereotypical monsters far more than others). Each Horror is the nightmare manifested, a primal fear given shape, and the Beast is always the first inflicted upon by this nightmare, and are no longer troubled by it.
These families are then mixed with seven hungers to help build your own monster.

===Anakim===
[[Giant]]s, [[ogre]]s, and the powerful primordials of an earthy disposition. The fear that makes up your soul is the fear of powerlessness. Something that you will likely never allow to happen to you again. These are not your BFG friends, because even the nicest ones feed on the fear of powerlessness and dominate their opponents. As for their powers, expect strength, presence and for a fight in their lairs to become a titanic struggle. Like [[Anime|Attack on Titan]] where you're the Titan and your enemy forgot their jet pack and cables.

===Eshmaki===
Lurkers, dwellers in the dark places, and sometimes capable of breathing fire or shredding opponents. Eshmaki are the beasts of the fear of darkness and the things that go bump in the night. Because they have conquered their fear, they never feel alone, though they might be. Did I mention you can be a [[dragon]] with this? Maybe one day you can use your incarnate powers to rule the world as force of change... Or just make a really, really good thief and/or killer. After all, what's to stop a dragon except a [[knight]]? And knights are just more tinned food.

===Inguma===
Nightmares of the Other. The youngest Family, "only" dating back to the dawn of civilization and the xenophobia it fostered. This is where you find stuff like [[Doppelganger]]s, the Pod People, The Thing (from the John Carpenter film), [[Lacrymole]]s and various other monsters that can be called almost but not quite human. Ironically, they're the most humanlike of the Families despite their schtick of being the perpeutal outsiders.

===Makara===
For those wanting to say they are the Kraken, Leviathan, or any other sea monster. The Makara are the beasts of the fear of the depths. At its simplest this translates to a fear of drowning, but can easily be extrapolated further into overwhelming knowledge or circumstance. They tend to have the more lethal kinds of lairs. Drop one into reality and watch the world face a natural disaster level threat.

===Namtaru===
Those that believe in beauty being skin deep might have been referring to these things. Probably before being horribly fossilised. Namtaru are the fear of revulsion, and have Gorgons, insectoid terrors, and various other fuck-ugly things in their background. They can inflict a single condition once per scene, but they also are potentially some of the easiest people to hide evidence. After all, a statue can't expose you if you're simply a talented stone carver.

===Talassii===
Nightmares of Confinement. They embody fears of being kidnapped, imprisoned, and otherwise held against one's will. After an especially unwise brood attempted to re-enact the Rape of the Sabine Women on a band of Heroes, the entire Family got saddled with an Anathema which causes them to be followed with an air of menace that makes people think any Captor they encounter is "out to get them". Naturally, they try to avoid brutalizing or raping their "prisoners" now, which probably causes some problems with the fact that, lore-wise, they're actually cursed to be compulsive rapists, though. Don't really end up mapping easily to a popular monster archetype like the others, so they mostly end up being giant spiders, living prisons, or unseen jailors. Could probably work for folks wanting to be Jigsaw or Leatherface-style slashers...but wouldn't it be easier to just play as a Slasher in that case?

===Ugallu===
Monsters of the air that represent everything from harpies to dragons (again), to great birds like the majestic [[Phoenix]] or Roc. They are the fear of exposure (literally or metaphorically), and too few people ever look up. Flight is something that falls among the realms of ease for these creatures. What's terrifying is their birthright ability to breach through facades. That means no glamour or special obfuscation can escape these eyes. It only inflicts a condition, but sometimes that's all it takes.

==Hunger==
Your Beast's Hunger is what defines the kind of dark monstrous things you need to do to keep your Horror happy and full. There is always the feeding on flesh and blood but sometimes a beast can satisfy their craving in other ways. Feeding your Beast is what gives you power, and how full your beast is is the satiety stat. High satiety gives you a lot of power to fuel your awesome abilities like unleashing your dragon breath or using your titanic strength to kick a vampire through a skyscraper, and also passively enhances your Nightmares. However, high satiety has risks attached. Your Horror could become gluttonous or picky, refusing to feed on anything other than rare and high quality heists or stimulations. A Collector might not be satisfied until you have Fort Knox gold, for example. At maximum Satiety, the Horror goes into a food coma, leaving the mortal body kind of helpless in the mortal world (and since it takes some pretty heinous shit to reach that point, the now-mortal Beast will have a lot of enemies waiting to take advantage of his weakness).

By contrast, not feeding your beast enough means your Horror rampages through the dreamscape more often. At its minimum, you take lethal damage every day you don't feed and your Horror starts attacking the same dreams more than once. This leads to Heroes showing up and cause extreme problems, especially since you're probably not equipped to deal with the murderous glory hounds after the kill of their lives- but on the other hand it makes your Atavisms stronger, among other stuff. Walking the middle road between keeping your beast from rampaging and not having it become a glutton is manageable, but also has risks of its own. You gain none of the benefits for being at either extreme, and Heroes will find it easy to saddle you with Anathemas.

In practice, it's best to rapidly ping-pong between high and low satiety without hitting either the minimum or maximum so you gain the benefits of either extreme without needing to suffer the drawbacks for long.

There are seven Hungers. When combined with the seven families this creates 49 types of Beasts, so even Beasts of the same Family can be widely different (but in practice, several Hungers and Families overlap with each other or aren't well-defined enough to be distinguishable). These Hungers are:

===Collectors===
The Hunger [[Warcraft|for the Hoard]]. Simply put, the Collectors like to obtain all sorts of stuff. Not because of what it's worth to them, but for what it's worth to others. Anakim Collectors prefer trophies that show off their own strength such as things taken from Heroes or mementos from worthy enemies, Eshmaki Collectors like to terrify the owner before taking things, Makara Collectors prefer ancient relics for their worth and to learn more about the world, Namtaru Collectors collect what seem to be items of great beauty, but look too close and the horror sets in like the stench, insects everywhere or the ground being filthy; other Natamu like to vandalize valuable things. Ugallu Collectors are magpies, or at least close to them: they look down at the world looking for something they like, mainly hidden objects, and if they find something that catches their fancy they swoop down, grab it and fly up to their out-of-reach lairs.

===Enablers===
Hunger for Transgression. The tempters to the Nemeses' punishers, they push people to break their own moral codes, then gain Satiety when the transgressor feels guilty or ashamed about giving into their vices. They can't take the easy way out of using mind control though, the victim has to make the choice to transgress of their own will.

===Nemeses===
The Hunger for Punishment. The boogeymen of the Beasts, delivering retribution upon transgressors big and small. Anakim Nemeses solve violence with more violence, going after violent criminals and serving the dish best served cold. Eshmaki Nemeses work by reminding the perpetrator of a crime long forgotten of what they did, stalk them and drive the criminal to paranoia by (reasonably) making them think that there's a monster out to get them. Makara Nemeses protect certain places. Those who break these codes (transgressing somewhere where they shouldn't or killing animals somewhere) will face the wrath of such a Beast, but because of the nature of their Hunger these Beasts will require support from broodmates to help them feed regularly. Namtaru Nemeses tend to be scorned, and repay those who pick on those like them. Bullies, abusive spouses and other cruelty coming from hate will face one of them sooner or later. The Ugallu Nemeses punish secret crimes and other transgressions that are difficult to prove: hypocrisy, deceiving romantic partners, falsely professing belief in a religion and so on. These Beasts too like to torment their prey days or weeks before striking, making the retribution all the better.

===Predators===
The Hunger for Prey. Not as straightforward as you'd think: while some Beasts do kill their prey it's more about besting the prey than to outright eat it. Anakim Predators prefer to chase their prey down, uncaring about who sees them. Eshmaki like to hurt their prey in subtle ways: either physically or psychologically: for them it's about stalking rather than hurting. Makara Predators prefer to use traps, tricks and bait to lure others to their doom, when the prey falls for it the Beast considers it a job well done. Namtaru Predators tend to do bizarre (and often violent) things with their prey: drink blood from various cuts on their body, lap the sweat from their foreheads or leave a nasty, but not lasting, mark. Ugallu Predators prefer to plan, plot and scheme, picking their prey carefully. But when that's done the Beast strikes swiftly, brutally and efficiently.

===Ravagers===
The Hunger for Ruin. The most destructive of the Hungers, these Beasts live to destroy, pure and simple. They only go for non-living targets though, because those who target people Hunger for Prey, not Ruin. Anakim Ravagers like to smash first and think later, forcing them to live lives on the road lest they be found out quickly. Eshmaki Ravagers like to break things in the most guarded of places, ruining only their target and nothing else to prove their skill and scare people. Makara Ravagers make the damage they do look like forces of nature, reminding people they are not safe from the fury of nature. Namtaru Ravagers prefer to pollute instead of destroying. Their horror sets in the moment people think themselves to be safe only for them to realize the depth of the damage. These Beasts don't just burn the fields, they also salt the earth. Ugallu Ravagers strike suddenly and precisely, destroying what they need to feed and move on. They are like the drone strikes of the Beasts, terrifying people of the open sky.

===Tyrants===
The Hunger for Power. Tyrants want to assert their power over others, making people feel small and helpless. Anakim Tyrants like to see people be defeated, Eshmaki Tyrants relish the hunt and give their prey a sporting chance, Makara Tyrants prefer to make people feel like the malevolent forces they face are being guided by some kind of intelligence, Namtaru Tyrants scare people by being impossibly monstrous looking and Ugallu Tyrants make people feel they're being watched all the time, driving them to paranoia.

===Whispers===
Hunger for Secrets. These Beasts like nothing more than to expose or uncover the secrets that others want to keep hidden. Depending on Satiety, this can mean anything from catching a coworker who got out of work by feigning illness to exposing a vast conspiracy.

==Powers==

===Atavisms===
The powers granted by your Horror and the most conventional of powers. All Atavisms are linked to a particular Family: the core five have five each and the two new ones each have three. Any Beast can learn any Atavism, as long as it matches with their Horror's identity. Atavisms become more powerful when used in a locations that resonates with the Beast's Lair, allowing the use of a more powerful version of the Atavism by spending a point of Willpower instead of Satiety (but this can be done only once a turn). Aside from this optional effect all Atavisms have a more potent variant that is used if the Beast has low Satiety. A starting character starts with two Atavisms, one of which has to be from a Beast's own Family. It can learn all the others too: all non-Family Atavisms are simply one XP more expensive.

===Nightmares===
Nightmares invoke the fears commonly found in nightmares: "nobody likes you", "something's chasing you", "you're covered in bugs", and so on. (A notable exception is "Behold, My True Form!", in which you can scare people to death with your presence alone).

They require either eye contact or physical contact, followed by the Beast speaking a few words. Lasting for one Scene, Nightmares provide powerful negative modifiers on targets that give the Beast an edge when dealing with them. Nightmares come in three forms: the regular one, an additional effect gained if the Beast has 7 or more Satiety, and one that is activated by spending Satiety (if your Satiety drops to 6 or lower because of this you still get the high Satiety effect). Because all Nightmare rolls involve rolling a Beast's current Satiety, this means that at high Satiety you're easily looking at dice pools of 10+.

===Lairs===
Your home sweet home in the Primordial Dream, this is where your Horror "lives" when it's not out giving people nightmares. Lair is also the name of your power stat: it's your supernatural tolerance trait, once you have more than five dots in Lair you can increase your traits beyond the normal maximum, etc. Lairs are composed of '''chambers''' (the dream-mirrors of places where somebody got scared so bad it left an impression on the Primordial Dream; you can open a gateway from a chamber to the place the chamber is based on to enter and and exit the Lair) and '''burrows''' (connections between chambers). The first and most important part of your Lair is the '''Heart'''. Your heart can't be used to warp to the real world as it's based on you and not a physical location, but that's a good thing on account of if somebody destroys your heart you get instakilled. From there you add chambers, connect them with burrows, and choose your '''Lair Traits''', the shit that makes your lair deadly to anyone who isn't you. Lair traits are environmental Tilts divided into minor (a raging blizzard, poor lighting, a sticky floor) and major (anyone who stays for too long becomes a pillar of salt, bottomless pits) categories; at least one of your lair traits has to be minor. If one of the tilts is already present in the real world, you can bring up to (Lair) other traits along for the ride for free. (Every WoD splat has its super-murder cheese combo, and this is the one for Beast: turn off the lights or run into a maze, then activate all your major traits and sit in the dark while your enemies die horribly in your magical pocket universe that kills in minutes and leaves no evidence.)

All the chambers in an area are called the '''Hive''', which is where your Horror goes when it ''is'' out scarring people for life and whatnot. Generally, the nature of the Hive is influenced by its Apex- the meanest, scariest thing in the area, which need not be a Beast or even a supernatural. Their sway over the fears of humanity creates an additional trait in every chamber connected to the Hive, but unlike other Traits you ''don't'' get free immunity to it. Depending on the trait, this can be either mildly annoying or a good reason to move your brood somewhere else.

You can cut your Lair and its Chambers off from the Hive if you like, but that means your Horror is going to keep fucking up the same people again and again, which will either attract or create a Hero to bust your ass.

===Kinship===
Beasts consider themselves to be part of an extended family originating from the being they call "The Dark Mother", and claim that all other supernatural beings are basically their distant cousins who just don't know where they ''really'' come from. The only exception is the [[Demon: The Descent|Unchained]]; not only do Beasts not claim kinship with the scions of the God-Machine, they actively hate them.

Naturally, some supernatural beings like the [[Werewolf: The Forsaken|Uratha]] and the [[Mummy: The Curse|Arisen]] who already have their own origin stories don't buy it, but even then they're not normally the type to pass up free allies. As for when they come to blows...well, Beasts know that family members can still end up in fights with one another and see nothing wrong with making such fights lethal.

In crunch terms, this means that Beasts can detect other supernatural beings, disguise themselves as other supernaturals, gain Satiety by watching said supernatural beings "feed" (the aforementioned Family Dinner mechanic that torpedoes the whole issue of managing Hungers), empower other supernaturals to make their powers work better, create new Nightmares based on their kin's abilities, and even open Primordial Pathways from their Lairs to other spiritual dimensions (e.g. the Shadow and the Hedge).

It should be noted that the True Fae, Centimani, Slashers, and other fucked-up sorts are also recognized as Kin by Beasts. That...is probably not a good sign.

===Others===
Birthrights, Obcasus Rites etc.

==Allies==

===Cults===

===Horrorspawn===
A Horrorspawn is a minion created from the Beast's Horror. Sometimes literally. Some Beasts even liken it to a child. That child, however, is a monster that requires a corpse to possess in order to vacate the Lair, mutating it till it becomes a copy of Junior. Depending on how the player stats their nightmare baby, the critter can acquire special traits to better fulfill whatever job it was made for. This can even include Atavisms and Nightmares known by their master, as well as assistance when feeding. However, there are downsides to spawning a sin against nature. For one, the more time spent with it means the more uncomfortable your friends, even fellow Beasts become when socializing with you. The spawn also needs to feed, making it more likely a Hero will awaken to investigate. And if you leave it alone for too long, it'll take on a life of its own (and several Chambers as well).

==Heroes==
The designated antagonists of Beast: The Primordial. We say "designated" because despite the game's best efforts to make them look as terrible as possible, they are actually not that evil as CoD antagonists go. Far less so than the writers intended them to be, if their statements complaining about how people weren't supposed to sympathize with them are any indication. Gaston from Disney's version of ''Beauty and the Beast'' is considered the archetypal Hero... which is <s>a really surface level reading of the film if authors considered Gaston a Hero.</s> fitting considering that Heroes think themselves the heroic main characters, but are just egotistical bastards, which is ''exactly'' what Gaston was in ''Beauty and the Beast,'' a self-righteous prick who thought himself infallible. Then again Gaston is a deliberate subversion of hero archeotypes, not the norm.

The basic premise is that while Beasts "dream deep", Heroes "dream wide" and skim the surface of the Primordial Dream, where they can detect the disturbances caused by Beast activity. Back in ancient times, they supposedly helped Beasts teach the lessons they embodied, but because of modern cultural narratives they're only concerned with killing Beasts now.

Given that the average Beast is a shameless monster that literally feeds on terror, you might assume that this technically makes them the good guys. But since Beasts can do no wrong as far as the writers are concerned, Heroes are instead murderous sociopaths who would gladly send a thousand people to their deaths as long as they can claim the glory of killing a Beast. The very idea of Heroes not being assholes is brought up only in a sidebar, where non-asshole Heroes are dismissed as being too dull to be worth discussing.

One of the example heroes provided is basically a nerdy, selfish neckbeard with delusions of grandeur, complete with trenchcoat, trilby, and unironically referring to people as "milady". Let that set the tone for how Beast views Heroes.

Anyway, Heroes can instinctively track Beasts (an ability that the book has no crunch for, instead suggesting that the Storyteller just say it happens when the plot calls for it) and impose Anathemas in combat, which are weaknesses that the Hero "discovers" that either constrain a Beast's behavior or make them easier to hurt in some way. Stuff like the single scale Smaug was missing on his belly, or taking bonus damage from the Hero's "Chosen Blade". As a Hero kills Beasts, they get more powers like built-in armor against attacks from a Beast or placing an Anathema by denouncing a Beast as evil to the Beast's face (and since the only way to interrupt it is to physically attack the Hero, it creates ''interesting'' challenges for Beasts if there are witnesses present).

===Hero-Bashing===
Amazingly, the Heroes were portrayed as being even worse than they are in the old Kickstarter version despite their being explicitly created as the result of Beasts fucking with their dreams and being completly correct that beasts should be hunted down. They're described as having the personality of "a high school bully crossed with a rabid dog", and an entire section of their chapter is dedicated to a slang lexicon that sounds like it was invented by stereotypical frat boys. Several other chapters discussing them can similarly be boiled down to "Heroes are all evil lunatics because we say they are, never mind the fact that their only crime was being victimized by a Beast".

Between this and the Heroes' final depiction, the implications should speak for themselves.

== The Insatiable ==

Since Heroes were a bit of an impotent wet fart as antagonists go (and even setting aside the problems with how they're written, mechanically they're just not much of a challenge to the average beast), the ''Conquering Heroes'' sourcebook (ironically) introduced a second set of villains for the gameline. Descended not from the Dark Mother but her mate, the Primogenitor (and later retconned to be the result of proto-Horrors which never bothered to form a Lair and embody human fears before claiming a human's body), the Insatiable's transformation has rendered them utterly inhuman, imbued with fears from an even-more-primordial time when the planet was hostile to all life, and claiming to be the Beasts' truest kinsfolk. The Beasts dispute the claim, violently, partly because they feel no kinship to them like the other monsters, partly because they're a bunch of sick fucks and no one wants to be related to ''that'', partly because they kill whenever they feed and never get full and partly because the Insatiable, rather than having Lairs of their own, typically try to invade the Beasts', draining their powers and trying to possess their bodies.

Did it work?

Well, on the one hand, they're definitely a cut above Heroes in terms of being a Beast character's natural enemies. On top of their power-stealing, and thus being natural predators-for-the-predators, they can force humans to do their bidding by driving them insane, a process called a "Schism," and turn into their giant monster shapes whenever they want rather than while in lairs. And they're divided by element-themed Moments rather than Families.

On the other hand, their examples a "scary" unattractive gamer girl/Internet troll named "Null Snyper" who pushes her victims to suicide, a lava golem called "the Authority" (no relation to the WWE), and The Blind Man, who must be read about to be believed:

<blockquote>''"The Blind Man's blotted clothing is as result of a thick trail of what resemble fish eggs progressively leaking from his navel, urethra, and anus. Particularly around his navel area, a coagulated mass of pink and black eggs comes forth when the Blind Man strains his abdominal muscles. Horrifyingly, the Blind Man has from time to time passed these eggs off as salmon roe or sturgeon caviar, as they bear a sour, fishy odor. Those who consume his “produce” have their fertility dramatically increased, and gradually produce their own eggs in a similar fashion to the Blind Man, the only difference being that mortal-produced eggs possess a coat of thin white fur. This invariably drives the afflicted unfortunates insane, as they cannot stop the egg production, resulting in self-destructive harm. The Blind Man believes that by participating in the birthing, they increase the speed at which the Primogenitor will be reborn."'' --Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes</blockquote>

Yes, it's basically saying that he pisses, shits, and cums fish eggs, and tricks people into eating them so they also piss, shit, and cum fish eggs. Truly a creation even [[/d/]] would be hard-pressed to appreciate.

And that's just their fluff. Their crunch is an absolute clusterfuck since they use Satiety faster than they could possibly gain it- the only way they could use their own powers is by either Storyteller fiat or the presence of a virtually endless number of lesser Beasts they kill offscreen. It's obvious that an editor was never involved either, since their rules reference non-existent Tilts and are written so vaguely it's hard to tell what their powers actually ''do''.

=== Insatiable Moments ===
As previously stated, the Insatiable are divided among "Moments" rather than Families. A Moment represents different aspects and terrors drawn from moments in time outside written history. From the ice age to the vacuum of space. The book says they aren't limited to primordial eras, though. Giving an example of an Insatiable of Molten Earth projecting the feelings of violence and hatred for fellow human beings, while a Freezing Hell may cause people in the area to become obsessed with hoarding food and possessions in preparation for the apocalypse.

===Clashing Faults===
Earth elementals, cave shelters that collapse without warning, mountains crumbling before earthquakes. Essentially stone cold assholes that brutalize then devour their victims. They like everything being in caves, valleys, or underground, especially if it makes it easier to suffocate people.

===Freezing Hell===
ICE! ICE! MORE ICE! They're not just about the creatures under and over the ice, but the starvation and exposure animals go through in desperate search of food and warmth in an otherwise barren land of ice. Every FH is literally ice cold, from their touch to their blood temperature. They're the most likely to actually store their victims in ice boxes and freezers.

===Molten Earth===
Your classic magma boys. They love fire, heat, and how billions of years ago the world was made of molten rock, waterfalls of molten lead, and molten hot pockets. As expected, they're hot tempered, violent, and very good at cooking in the kitchen. They're pyromaniacal sadists with a fetish for burns, kindling, and charred husks.

===Primordial Seas===
Believing their founder to have been a giant jellyfish, these guys like to think they're Makara but better. Much like a college teen, they suffer disproportionate amounts of anxiety, hate resting, and become paranoid as fuck. And, much like the classical college student, they will strike first at the nearest source of food to show dominance over the rest of their kind. They apparently feel the effects of hunger more keenly than their "siblings," and get violent when feeding.

===Void===
The black sheep of black sheep, the Void are black holes, unknown distances, and the terror of infinity. They like Cthulhu, sci-fi, inter-dimensional conspiracies, and the idea of sucking people's brains out with bendy straws.

==Inheritances==
Inheritances are the "endgame" for a Beast, the result of how they reconcile their mortal lives with their Horror's Legend, the metaphysical framework that provides context to their existence.

===Merger===
This Inheritance happens when a Beast's lair is destroyed, either intentionally by the Beast or by someone else's actions. The Horror merges with the Beast, destroying any trace of self-awareness or humanity and devolving the Beast into a monster that exists only to feed.

===Retreat===
Normally if a Beast dies, the Horror dies with it. But when a Beast dies while its Horror is slumbering, the Horror survives and continues to exist as an ephemeral being that continues to fuck with human dreams. Infamous because of its poor wording: if the right conditions are met (having your power stat at 10 and making your Horror get the Slumbering condition, then dying and getting enough successes) the Unfettered Horror becomes a rank 10 Ephemeral entity, one of the most powerful beings in all of Chronicles of Darkness.

===Divergence===
A more obscure form of Inheritance, where the Beast deliberately starves himself nearly to death while keeping the Horror cooped up in its Lair until the Horror tries to eat him out of desperation and fury. The Beast responds in kind, and after enough time eating each other the Beast and Horror both become half dream and half flesh. They remain connected to one another to some degree, but the Beast no longer has to appease the Horror's Hunger for it. However, both halves are also somewhat less powerful for it- the Beast can't use most Atavisms, the Horror can't use most Nightmares, and both of them draw from the same pool of Satiety. More importantly, the Horror gets to manifest outside of the Primordial Dream at will, and the Beast can't control what it does. And it'll probably be pissed at the Beast for trying to starve it.

===Erasure===
Some Beasts really want to be human again, but since the Horror eats your soul when you become a Beast they need to get creative. To do this, they need both a new soul and some way to kill their Horror (most likely involving another supernatural or even a Hero). If they're successful, they become more or less human but can still use Nightmares and Birthrights. The catch? They can only regain Satiety by eating the flesh of other Beasts and can never become another type of supernatural due to pissing off the Dark Mother.

===Inversion===
Some Beasts look at themselves and realize that they hate what they've become, but don't just commit suicide or seek Divergence or Erasure. Instead, they go a step further and seek revenge against the Dark Mother directly: they travel to the Bright Dream (better known as the Temenos to mages), study their effects on the world around them until they can craft an Anathema weapon against their Horror, and use said Anathema to bring it to a state of near-death. When this happens, they lose the ability to gain or use Satiety in any way but retain most of their powers and gain the ability to place Anathemas on other Beasts. From there they quickly go on to begin hunting other Beasts in the hope of hurting the Dark Mother as much as possible before they die.

===Incarnate===
The most complex Inheritance and the one that the game pushes as the "best" one. After reaching a certain amount of Lair, an aspiring Beast must do one of the following things:
*Subvert a Hero's narrative by thoroughly destroying the Hero before he/she can even retaliate
*Become the Apex of the local Hive and visit their hunger on other Beasts
*Spawn a Legend by feeding their Horror in a spectacularly grandiose manner.

By changing their Legend into a Myth, an Incarnate gains the following powers:
*They can transform into their Horror in the physical world, gaining a bunch of stuff like extra limbs, natural armor, and so on when they do so.
*They become immune to Anathemas and can in fact de-power Heroes just by touching them.
*They can enter the Primordial Dream at will.
*They can never become Ravenous or Slumbering, though they still retain the ability to use Satiety and can gain the benefits/drawbacks of high and low Satiety.
*Their Life and Legend is replaced by a Myth. However, if they lose control of their Myth, they lose all their Incarnate powers and anybody can place Anathemas on them. Good fucking luck with that when you remember all the shit they can pull.

== Attempts to fix ==

Strangely enough, players have tried tying the splat with the "Inferno" blue book, since the splat shares a lot of terminology with said-book. This begs the weird comparison where Demon: the Descent v. Beasts is like the Demons vs Devils Blood War in D&D. Does it fix the splat? Depends on who you ask.

Another, less malefic option is that you play as a guardian protector Beast who stays his darker nature by being around those less villainous kin. This is done by abusing the shit out of the "Family Dinner" mechanic, which essentially allows a Beast to never go hungry so long as they watch kin feed, eg. Changelings harvesting glamour, mages doing oblations, Prometheans fucking power outlets, etc. And, to be honest, it's not a half-bad metaphor, that we are all of us more vulnerable to our darker impulses when we try going at life alone. But, when surrounded by friends who care about you, who will stick by you through thick and thin, you can become something truly indomitable.

= In short =

Arguably the ''real'' NWoD/CoD equivalent of [[Changeling: The Dreaming]]<ref>In that it's a tonal mess, got some serious issues about "yeah but what do they ''do''?", and seemingly not liked by anybody but the author(s).</ref>, but written by a pervert who probably got beat up in school a lot. Also, this game should really be called "Abuser: The Gaslighting".

==See Also==
*[http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/kurieg/beast-the-primordial/ FATAL and Friends' scathing review, which sums up everything wrong with Beast]
*[http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/kurieg/beast-night-horrors-conquering-heroes/ The review for Conquering Heroes, which brought us The Blind Man up there]
*[https://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/kurieg/beast-the-primordial-players-guide/ And the one for the Player's Guide]
{{WoD-Games}}

Beast: The Primordial

2021-06-24T10:19:24Z

2A00:23C5:120A:C100:8D1F:6FA4:AFB5:8728: /* Heroes */

{{Game Infobox
|name = Beast: The Primordial
|picture = [[File:Beast_the_Primordial.png|200px]]
|type = [[RPG]]
|publisher = [[White Wolf]] / Onyx Path
|system = [[Storytelling System]]
|authors = Matthew McFarland, Dave Brooksaw, Jim Fisher, Emily Griggs, Andrew Heston, David A. Hill Jr, Dana Hughes, Renee Ritchie, Travis Stout, Peter Woodworth, and Sam Young
|year = 2016
}}
{{Fail}}
{{WoD-stub}}

'''Beast: The Primordal''' is one of the newer games to come out for the New [[World of Darkness]], and probably the one most scorned on [[/tg/]]. You are a Beast, a living embodiment of humanity's deepest and darkest fears, driven by an inescapable need to sate your Hunger, a manifestation of fear. You may be driven by the urge to Ruin or Dominate, but you cannot help but Feed. Of course, where a Beast lurks, Heroes inevitably arise, driven to slay the Thing lurking in the Dark...

Sounds awesome, right? A chance to both completely blow off the supernatural wangst that bedevils almost all of the other WoD lines (except [[Geist: The Sin-Eaters]] and maybe [[Demon: The Descent]]) and revel in being the bad guy you truly are: what could possibly wreck that idea?

Then the preview edition came out, and the problems began to show themselves.

For a start, you don't get ''any'' shapeshifting powers at all. That's right, you have a "Beast's soul", but not a Beast's '''body''' - even your Atavisms are ''completely invisible'' to normalfags, even when you're squeezing through a too-tight space, ripping them apart with claws or breathing fire (unless you decided to drop your Lair (the fancy domain thing that is tied to you) on top of their asses. Though, if that happens, subtlety has gone right out the window). This fact alone got /tg/ mocking the game as appealing to Otherkin: one of the mercifully rare, but not non-existent, branches of nutjob that heavily overlaps with the [[furry]] fandom, except that even ''other furries'' think they're out of their minds. It would have been bad enough, but coming in the wake of [[Demon: The Descent]], which gave excellent modular rules for building a demonic form, fans were expecting a similar level of cool shapeshifting powers in a game that was advertised as "be the beast that haunts humanity's soul".

Next, though the intended flavor of the game was "screw the Heroes, they're really nothing but nutjobs who think they're the Good Guys and insist you're the Bad Guys", the writing of it came off as so sneering and condescending that not only did hordes of people start defending the Heroes (no thanks to that screwy "if you Critical Fail on your Rampage check, you spawn a Hero" rule), but /tg/ began writing Beasts off as otherkin fodder. The "special people with the souls of mythical creatures, picked on and bullied by the normies who just don't understand" (with the latter part going so far as to equate them with persecuted minority groups): that's what /tg/ saw and derided, in a repeat of [[Changeling: The Dreaming]], mixed with an alarming amount of juvenile revenge fantasies. It didn't help that the author openly mocked the people who argued in favor of making Heroes less unsympathetic.

But, in a surprising show of self-awareness, Onyx Path actually took the time to respond to the criticisms and began an immediate rewrite of the book to address them, rewriting large portions of the book to be relatively more neutral in tone, though in many cases these rewrites either failed to address the original issues or were exactly the same as the original. And in at least a few cases, "optional interpretations" trying to shoehorn in the original depiction of Beasts were added in an attempt to circumvent the rewrite.

In some cases, the rewrite actually made the issues with Beast '''worse''' by attempting to give the Beasts the moral high ground. "They're merely teaching people important lessons through fear, honestly!" is a common refrain through the book, because apparently the only way for someone to become wise is to be constantly scared shitless by nightmare monsters. That that's almost the exact same justification the [[Night Lords]] used, it didn't give them the moral high ground either. And Jigsaw, of the iconic Saw franchise - which looks like one of the foremost Beast's inspirations - may be liked by many a maniac admirers but hardly anyone sane argues him not a villain.

The methods of dealing with Hunger suggested by the book ranged from the ludicrously petty to the outright murderous, and the addition of the "Family Dinner" mechanic in which a Beast could sate its hunger just by watching another supernatural being hunt or feed made the double-edged sword that Hunger could have been completely irrelevant.

Combined with openly dismissing all non-asshole Heroes as too boring to be of interest (despite sympathetic villains being a good thing), compelling all other supernaturals (except Demons for some reason) to be friendly towards Beasts despite several in-character reasons for them to oppose each other, and generally trivializing any harm a Beast might cause to others in fulfilling its Hunger, /tg/ has quickly come to the conclusion that it is by far the worst of the Chronicles of Darkness books.

Later on, it was discovered that author Matt McFarland was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl and was quietly let go from Onyx Path. Following further accusations of sexual harassment in 2019 involving the abuse of his position as a senior writer, Onyx Path stripped McFarland of his remaining assignments with them and publically condemned his actions.

When you look at all the above stuff about Beasts being entitled to indulging their Hungers, the people are trying to stop them are evil bigots and that they're actually doing their victims a favor in the light of said accusation...well, it starts sounding an awful lot like the sort of thing a [[FATAL|registered sex offender]] would say in an attempt to justify his actions. If BtP makes any success, it will not be because of him, but in spite of him.

==Family==
To condense down what each family group of beast "souls" are, there are seven different families of monsters (which again are each an abstract conceptual basis to come up with your own style of monsters, although in practice some of them tend to fit specific stereotypical monsters far more than others). Each Horror is the nightmare manifested, a primal fear given shape, and the Beast is always the first inflicted upon by this nightmare, and are no longer troubled by it.
These families are then mixed with seven hungers to help build your own monster.

===Anakim===
[[Giant]]s, [[ogre]]s, and the powerful primordials of an earthy disposition. The fear that makes up your soul is the fear of powerlessness. Something that you will likely never allow to happen to you again. These are not your BFG friends, because even the nicest ones feed on the fear of powerlessness and dominate their opponents. As for their powers, expect strength, presence and for a fight in their lairs to become a titanic struggle. Like [[Anime|Attack on Titan]] where you're the Titan and your enemy forgot their jet pack and cables.

===Eshmaki===
Lurkers, dwellers in the dark places, and sometimes capable of breathing fire or shredding opponents. Eshmaki are the beasts of the fear of darkness and the things that go bump in the night. Because they have conquered their fear, they never feel alone, though they might be. Did I mention you can be a [[dragon]] with this? Maybe one day you can use your incarnate powers to rule the world as force of change... Or just make a really, really good thief and/or killer. After all, what's to stop a dragon except a [[knight]]? And knights are just more tinned food.

===Inguma===
Nightmares of the Other. The youngest Family, "only" dating back to the dawn of civilization and the xenophobia it fostered. This is where you find stuff like [[Doppelganger]]s, the Pod People, The Thing (from the John Carpenter film), [[Lacrymole]]s and various other monsters that can be called almost but not quite human. Ironically, they're the most humanlike of the Families despite their schtick of being the perpeutal outsiders.

===Makara===
For those wanting to say they are the Kraken, Leviathan, or any other sea monster. The Makara are the beasts of the fear of the depths. At its simplest this translates to a fear of drowning, but can easily be extrapolated further into overwhelming knowledge or circumstance. They tend to have the more lethal kinds of lairs. Drop one into reality and watch the world face a natural disaster level threat.

===Namtaru===
Those that believe in beauty being skin deep might have been referring to these things. Probably before being horribly fossilised. Namtaru are the fear of revulsion, and have Gorgons, insectoid terrors, and various other fuck-ugly things in their background. They can inflict a single condition once per scene, but they also are potentially some of the easiest people to hide evidence. After all, a statue can't expose you if you're simply a talented stone carver.

===Talassii===
Nightmares of Confinement. They embody fears of being kidnapped, imprisoned, and otherwise held against one's will. After an especially unwise brood attempted to re-enact the Rape of the Sabine Women on a band of Heroes, the entire Family got saddled with an Anathema which causes them to be followed with an air of menace that makes people think any Captor they encounter is "out to get them". Naturally, they try to avoid brutalizing or raping their "prisoners" now, which probably causes some problems with the fact that, lore-wise, they're actually cursed to be compulsive rapists, though. Don't really end up mapping easily to a popular monster archetype like the others, so they mostly end up being giant spiders, living prisons, or unseen jailors. Could probably work for folks wanting to be Jigsaw or Leatherface-style slashers...but wouldn't it be easier to just play as a Slasher in that case?

===Ugallu===
Monsters of the air that represent everything from harpies to dragons (again), to great birds like the majestic [[Phoenix]] or Roc. They are the fear of exposure (literally or metaphorically), and too few people ever look up. Flight is something that falls among the realms of ease for these creatures. What's terrifying is their birthright ability to breach through facades. That means no glamour or special obfuscation can escape these eyes. It only inflicts a condition, but sometimes that's all it takes.

==Hunger==
Your Beast's Hunger is what defines the kind of dark monstrous things you need to do to keep your Horror happy and full. There is always the feeding on flesh and blood but sometimes a beast can satisfy their craving in other ways. Feeding your Beast is what gives you power, and how full your beast is is the satiety stat. High satiety gives you a lot of power to fuel your awesome abilities like unleashing your dragon breath or using your titanic strength to kick a vampire through a skyscraper, and also passively enhances your Nightmares. However, high satiety has risks attached. Your Horror could become gluttonous or picky, refusing to feed on anything other than rare and high quality heists or stimulations. A Collector might not be satisfied until you have Fort Knox gold, for example. At maximum Satiety, the Horror goes into a food coma, leaving the mortal body kind of helpless in the mortal world (and since it takes some pretty heinous shit to reach that point, the now-mortal Beast will have a lot of enemies waiting to take advantage of his weakness).

By contrast, not feeding your beast enough means your Horror rampages through the dreamscape more often. At its minimum, you take lethal damage every day you don't feed and your Horror starts attacking the same dreams more than once. This leads to Heroes showing up and cause extreme problems, especially since you're probably not equipped to deal with the murderous glory hounds after the kill of their lives- but on the other hand it makes your Atavisms stronger, among other stuff. Walking the middle road between keeping your beast from rampaging and not having it become a glutton is manageable, but also has risks of its own. You gain none of the benefits for being at either extreme, and Heroes will find it easy to saddle you with Anathemas.

In practice, it's best to rapidly ping-pong between high and low satiety without hitting either the minimum or maximum so you gain the benefits of either extreme without needing to suffer the drawbacks for long.

There are seven Hungers. When combined with the seven families this creates 49 types of Beasts, so even Beasts of the same Family can be widely different (but in practice, several Hungers and Families overlap with each other or aren't well-defined enough to be distinguishable). These Hungers are:

===Collectors===
The Hunger [[Warcraft|for the Hoard]]. Simply put, the Collectors like to obtain all sorts of stuff. Not because of what it's worth to them, but for what it's worth to others. Anakim Collectors prefer trophies that show off their own strength such as things taken from Heroes or mementos from worthy enemies, Eshmaki Collectors like to terrify the owner before taking things, Makara Collectors prefer ancient relics for their worth and to learn more about the world, Namtaru Collectors collect what seem to be items of great beauty, but look too close and the horror sets in like the stench, insects everywhere or the ground being filthy; other Natamu like to vandalize valuable things. Ugallu Collectors are magpies, or at least close to them: they look down at the world looking for something they like, mainly hidden objects, and if they find something that catches their fancy they swoop down, grab it and fly up to their out-of-reach lairs.

===Enablers===
Hunger for Transgression. The tempters to the Nemeses' punishers, they push people to break their own moral codes, then gain Satiety when the transgressor feels guilty or ashamed about giving into their vices. They can't take the easy way out of using mind control though, the victim has to make the choice to transgress of their own will.

===Nemeses===
The Hunger for Punishment. The boogeymen of the Beasts, delivering retribution upon transgressors big and small. Anakim Nemeses solve violence with more violence, going after violent criminals and serving the dish best served cold. Eshmaki Nemeses work by reminding the perpetrator of a crime long forgotten of what they did, stalk them and drive the criminal to paranoia by (reasonably) making them think that there's a monster out to get them. Makara Nemeses protect certain places. Those who break these codes (transgressing somewhere where they shouldn't or killing animals somewhere) will face the wrath of such a Beast, but because of the nature of their Hunger these Beasts will require support from broodmates to help them feed regularly. Namtaru Nemeses tend to be scorned, and repay those who pick on those like them. Bullies, abusive spouses and other cruelty coming from hate will face one of them sooner or later. The Ugallu Nemeses punish secret crimes and other transgressions that are difficult to prove: hypocrisy, deceiving romantic partners, falsely professing belief in a religion and so on. These Beasts too like to torment their prey days or weeks before striking, making the retribution all the better.

===Predators===
The Hunger for Prey. Not as straightforward as you'd think: while some Beasts do kill their prey it's more about besting the prey than to outright eat it. Anakim Predators prefer to chase their prey down, uncaring about who sees them. Eshmaki like to hurt their prey in subtle ways: either physically or psychologically: for them it's about stalking rather than hurting. Makara Predators prefer to use traps, tricks and bait to lure others to their doom, when the prey falls for it the Beast considers it a job well done. Namtaru Predators tend to do bizarre (and often violent) things with their prey: drink blood from various cuts on their body, lap the sweat from their foreheads or leave a nasty, but not lasting, mark. Ugallu Predators prefer to plan, plot and scheme, picking their prey carefully. But when that's done the Beast strikes swiftly, brutally and efficiently.

===Ravagers===
The Hunger for Ruin. The most destructive of the Hungers, these Beasts live to destroy, pure and simple. They only go for non-living targets though, because those who target people Hunger for Prey, not Ruin. Anakim Ravagers like to smash first and think later, forcing them to live lives on the road lest they be found out quickly. Eshmaki Ravagers like to break things in the most guarded of places, ruining only their target and nothing else to prove their skill and scare people. Makara Ravagers make the damage they do look like forces of nature, reminding people they are not safe from the fury of nature. Namtaru Ravagers prefer to pollute instead of destroying. Their horror sets in the moment people think themselves to be safe only for them to realize the depth of the damage. These Beasts don't just burn the fields, they also salt the earth. Ugallu Ravagers strike suddenly and precisely, destroying what they need to feed and move on. They are like the drone strikes of the Beasts, terrifying people of the open sky.

===Tyrants===
The Hunger for Power. Tyrants want to assert their power over others, making people feel small and helpless. Anakim Tyrants like to see people be defeated, Eshmaki Tyrants relish the hunt and give their prey a sporting chance, Makara Tyrants prefer to make people feel like the malevolent forces they face are being guided by some kind of intelligence, Namtaru Tyrants scare people by being impossibly monstrous looking and Ugallu Tyrants make people feel they're being watched all the time, driving them to paranoia.

===Whispers===
Hunger for Secrets. These Beasts like nothing more than to expose or uncover the secrets that others want to keep hidden. Depending on Satiety, this can mean anything from catching a coworker who got out of work by feigning illness to exposing a vast conspiracy.

==Powers==

===Atavisms===
The powers granted by your Horror and the most conventional of powers. All Atavisms are linked to a particular Family: the core five have five each and the two new ones each have three. Any Beast can learn any Atavism, as long as it matches with their Horror's identity. Atavisms become more powerful when used in a locations that resonates with the Beast's Lair, allowing the use of a more powerful version of the Atavism by spending a point of Willpower instead of Satiety (but this can be done only once a turn). Aside from this optional effect all Atavisms have a more potent variant that is used if the Beast has low Satiety. A starting character starts with two Atavisms, one of which has to be from a Beast's own Family. It can learn all the others too: all non-Family Atavisms are simply one XP more expensive.

===Nightmares===
Nightmares invoke the fears commonly found in nightmares: "nobody likes you", "something's chasing you", "you're covered in bugs", and so on. (A notable exception is "Behold, My True Form!", in which you can scare people to death with your presence alone).

They require either eye contact or physical contact, followed by the Beast speaking a few words. Lasting for one Scene, Nightmares provide powerful negative modifiers on targets that give the Beast an edge when dealing with them. Nightmares come in three forms: the regular one, an additional effect gained if the Beast has 7 or more Satiety, and one that is activated by spending Satiety (if your Satiety drops to 6 or lower because of this you still get the high Satiety effect). Because all Nightmare rolls involve rolling a Beast's current Satiety, this means that at high Satiety you're easily looking at dice pools of 10+.

===Lairs===
Your home sweet home in the Primordial Dream, this is where your Horror "lives" when it's not out giving people nightmares. Lair is also the name of your power stat: it's your supernatural tolerance trait, once you have more than five dots in Lair you can increase your traits beyond the normal maximum, etc. Lairs are composed of '''chambers''' (the dream-mirrors of places where somebody got scared so bad it left an impression on the Primordial Dream; you can open a gateway from a chamber to the place the chamber is based on to enter and and exit the Lair) and '''burrows''' (connections between chambers). The first and most important part of your Lair is the '''Heart'''. Your heart can't be used to warp to the real world as it's based on you and not a physical location, but that's a good thing on account of if somebody destroys your heart you get instakilled. From there you add chambers, connect them with burrows, and choose your '''Lair Traits''', the shit that makes your lair deadly to anyone who isn't you. Lair traits are environmental Tilts divided into minor (a raging blizzard, poor lighting, a sticky floor) and major (anyone who stays for too long becomes a pillar of salt, bottomless pits) categories; at least one of your lair traits has to be minor. If one of the tilts is already present in the real world, you can bring up to (Lair) other traits along for the ride for free. (Every WoD splat has its super-murder cheese combo, and this is the one for Beast: turn off the lights or run into a maze, then activate all your major traits and sit in the dark while your enemies die horribly in your magical pocket universe that kills in minutes and leaves no evidence.)

All the chambers in an area are called the '''Hive''', which is where your Horror goes when it ''is'' out scarring people for life and whatnot. Generally, the nature of the Hive is influenced by its Apex- the meanest, scariest thing in the area, which need not be a Beast or even a supernatural. Their sway over the fears of humanity creates an additional trait in every chamber connected to the Hive, but unlike other Traits you ''don't'' get free immunity to it. Depending on the trait, this can be either mildly annoying or a good reason to move your brood somewhere else.

You can cut your Lair and its Chambers off from the Hive if you like, but that means your Horror is going to keep fucking up the same people again and again, which will either attract or create a Hero to bust your ass.

===Kinship===
Beasts consider themselves to be part of an extended family originating from the being they call "The Dark Mother", and claim that all other supernatural beings are basically their distant cousins who just don't know where they ''really'' come from. The only exception is the [[Demon: The Descent|Unchained]]; not only do Beasts not claim kinship with the scions of the God-Machine, they actively hate them.

Naturally, some supernatural beings like the [[Werewolf: The Forsaken|Uratha]] and the [[Mummy: The Curse|Arisen]] who already have their own origin stories don't buy it, but even then they're not normally the type to pass up free allies. As for when they come to blows...well, Beasts know that family members can still end up in fights with one another and see nothing wrong with making such fights lethal.

In crunch terms, this means that Beasts can detect other supernatural beings, disguise themselves as other supernaturals, gain Satiety by watching said supernatural beings "feed" (the aforementioned Family Dinner mechanic that torpedoes the whole issue of managing Hungers), empower other supernaturals to make their powers work better, create new Nightmares based on their kin's abilities, and even open Primordial Pathways from their Lairs to other spiritual dimensions (e.g. the Shadow and the Hedge).

It should be noted that the True Fae, Centimani, Slashers, and other fucked-up sorts are also recognized as Kin by Beasts. That...is probably not a good sign.

===Others===
Birthrights, Obcasus Rites etc.

==Allies==

===Cults===

===Horrorspawn===
A Horrorspawn is a minion created from the Beast's Horror. Sometimes literally. Some Beasts even liken it to a child. That child, however, is a monster that requires a corpse to possess in order to vacate the Lair, mutating it till it becomes a copy of Junior. Depending on how the player stats their nightmare baby, the critter can acquire special traits to better fulfill whatever job it was made for. This can even include Atavisms and Nightmares known by their master, as well as assistance when feeding. However, there are downsides to spawning a sin against nature. For one, the more time spent with it means the more uncomfortable your friends, even fellow Beasts become when socializing with you. The spawn also needs to feed, making it more likely a Hero will awaken to investigate. And if you leave it alone for too long, it'll take on a life of its own (and several Chambers as well).

==Heroes==
The designated antagonists of Beast: The Primordial. We say "designated" because despite the game's best efforts to make them look as terrible as possible, they are actually not that evil as CoD antagonists go. Far less so than the writers intended them to be, if their statements complaining about how people weren't supposed to sympathize with them are any indication. Gaston from Disney's version of ''Beauty and the Beast'' is considered the archetypal Hero... which is <s>a really surface level reading of the film if authors considered Gaston a Hero.</s> fitting considering that Heroes think themselves the heroic main characters, but are just egotistical bastards, which is ''exactly'' what Gaston was in ''Beauty and the Beast,'' a self-righteous prick who thought himself infallible. Then again Gaston is deliberate subversion of hero archeotypes, not the norm.

The basic premise is that while Beasts "dream deep", Heroes "dream wide" and skim the surface of the Primordial Dream, where they can detect the disturbances caused by Beast activity. Back in ancient times, they supposedly helped Beasts teach the lessons they embodied, but because of modern cultural narratives they're only concerned with killing Beasts now.

Given that the average Beast is a shameless monster that literally feeds on terror, you might assume that this technically makes them the good guys. But since Beasts can do no wrong as far as the writers are concerned, Heroes are instead murderous sociopaths who would gladly send a thousand people to their deaths as long as they can claim the glory of killing a Beast. The very idea of Heroes not being assholes is brought up only in a sidebar, where non-asshole Heroes are dismissed as being too dull to be worth discussing.

One of the example heroes provided is basically a nerdy, selfish neckbeard with delusions of grandeur, complete with trenchcoat, trilby, and unironically referring to people as "milady". Let that set the tone for how Beast views Heroes.

Anyway, Heroes can instinctively track Beasts (an ability that the book has no crunch for, instead suggesting that the Storyteller just say it happens when the plot calls for it) and impose Anathemas in combat, which are weaknesses that the Hero "discovers" that either constrain a Beast's behavior or make them easier to hurt in some way. Stuff like the single scale Smaug was missing on his belly, or taking bonus damage from the Hero's "Chosen Blade". As a Hero kills Beasts, they get more powers like built-in armor against attacks from a Beast or placing an Anathema by denouncing a Beast as evil to the Beast's face (and since the only way to interrupt it is to physically attack the Hero, it creates ''interesting'' challenges for Beasts if there are witnesses present).

===Hero-Bashing===
Amazingly, the Heroes were portrayed as being even worse than they are in the old Kickstarter version despite their being explicitly created as the result of Beasts fucking with their dreams and being completly correct that beasts should be hunted down. They're described as having the personality of "a high school bully crossed with a rabid dog", and an entire section of their chapter is dedicated to a slang lexicon that sounds like it was invented by stereotypical frat boys. Several other chapters discussing them can similarly be boiled down to "Heroes are all evil lunatics because we say they are, never mind the fact that their only crime was being victimized by a Beast".

Between this and the Heroes' final depiction, the implications should speak for themselves.

== The Insatiable ==

Since Heroes were a bit of an impotent wet fart as antagonists go (and even setting aside the problems with how they're written, mechanically they're just not much of a challenge to the average beast), the ''Conquering Heroes'' sourcebook (ironically) introduced a second set of villains for the gameline. Descended not from the Dark Mother but her mate, the Primogenitor (and later retconned to be the result of proto-Horrors which never bothered to form a Lair and embody human fears before claiming a human's body), the Insatiable's transformation has rendered them utterly inhuman, imbued with fears from an even-more-primordial time when the planet was hostile to all life, and claiming to be the Beasts' truest kinsfolk. The Beasts dispute the claim, violently, partly because they feel no kinship to them like the other monsters, partly because they're a bunch of sick fucks and no one wants to be related to ''that'', partly because they kill whenever they feed and never get full and partly because the Insatiable, rather than having Lairs of their own, typically try to invade the Beasts', draining their powers and trying to possess their bodies.

Did it work?

Well, on the one hand, they're definitely a cut above Heroes in terms of being a Beast character's natural enemies. On top of their power-stealing, and thus being natural predators-for-the-predators, they can force humans to do their bidding by driving them insane, a process called a "Schism," and turn into their giant monster shapes whenever they want rather than while in lairs. And they're divided by element-themed Moments rather than Families.

On the other hand, their examples a "scary" unattractive gamer girl/Internet troll named "Null Snyper" who pushes her victims to suicide, a lava golem called "the Authority" (no relation to the WWE), and The Blind Man, who must be read about to be believed:

<blockquote>''"The Blind Man's blotted clothing is as result of a thick trail of what resemble fish eggs progressively leaking from his navel, urethra, and anus. Particularly around his navel area, a coagulated mass of pink and black eggs comes forth when the Blind Man strains his abdominal muscles. Horrifyingly, the Blind Man has from time to time passed these eggs off as salmon roe or sturgeon caviar, as they bear a sour, fishy odor. Those who consume his “produce” have their fertility dramatically increased, and gradually produce their own eggs in a similar fashion to the Blind Man, the only difference being that mortal-produced eggs possess a coat of thin white fur. This invariably drives the afflicted unfortunates insane, as they cannot stop the egg production, resulting in self-destructive harm. The Blind Man believes that by participating in the birthing, they increase the speed at which the Primogenitor will be reborn."'' --Night Horrors: Conquering Heroes</blockquote>

Yes, it's basically saying that he pisses, shits, and cums fish eggs, and tricks people into eating them so they also piss, shit, and cum fish eggs. Truly a creation even [[/d/]] would be hard-pressed to appreciate.

And that's just their fluff. Their crunch is an absolute clusterfuck since they use Satiety faster than they could possibly gain it- the only way they could use their own powers is by either Storyteller fiat or the presence of a virtually endless number of lesser Beasts they kill offscreen. It's obvious that an editor was never involved either, since their rules reference non-existent Tilts and are written so vaguely it's hard to tell what their powers actually ''do''.

=== Insatiable Moments ===
As previously stated, the Insatiable are divided among "Moments" rather than Families. A Moment represents different aspects and terrors drawn from moments in time outside written history. From the ice age to the vacuum of space. The book says they aren't limited to primordial eras, though. Giving an example of an Insatiable of Molten Earth projecting the feelings of violence and hatred for fellow human beings, while a Freezing Hell may cause people in the area to become obsessed with hoarding food and possessions in preparation for the apocalypse.

===Clashing Faults===
Earth elementals, cave shelters that collapse without warning, mountains crumbling before earthquakes. Essentially stone cold assholes that brutalize then devour their victims. They like everything being in caves, valleys, or underground, especially if it makes it easier to suffocate people.

===Freezing Hell===
ICE! ICE! MORE ICE! They're not just about the creatures under and over the ice, but the starvation and exposure animals go through in desperate search of food and warmth in an otherwise barren land of ice. Every FH is literally ice cold, from their touch to their blood temperature. They're the most likely to actually store their victims in ice boxes and freezers.

===Molten Earth===
Your classic magma boys. They love fire, heat, and how billions of years ago the world was made of molten rock, waterfalls of molten lead, and molten hot pockets. As expected, they're hot tempered, violent, and very good at cooking in the kitchen. They're pyromaniacal sadists with a fetish for burns, kindling, and charred husks.

===Primordial Seas===
Believing their founder to have been a giant jellyfish, these guys like to think they're Makara but better. Much like a college teen, they suffer disproportionate amounts of anxiety, hate resting, and become paranoid as fuck. And, much like the classical college student, they will strike first at the nearest source of food to show dominance over the rest of their kind. They apparently feel the effects of hunger more keenly than their "siblings," and get violent when feeding.

===Void===
The black sheep of black sheep, the Void are black holes, unknown distances, and the terror of infinity. They like Cthulhu, sci-fi, inter-dimensional conspiracies, and the idea of sucking people's brains out with bendy straws.

==Inheritances==
Inheritances are the "endgame" for a Beast, the result of how they reconcile their mortal lives with their Horror's Legend, the metaphysical framework that provides context to their existence.

===Merger===
This Inheritance happens when a Beast's lair is destroyed, either intentionally by the Beast or by someone else's actions. The Horror merges with the Beast, destroying any trace of self-awareness or humanity and devolving the Beast into a monster that exists only to feed.

===Retreat===
Normally if a Beast dies, the Horror dies with it. But when a Beast dies while its Horror is slumbering, the Horror survives and continues to exist as an ephemeral being that continues to fuck with human dreams. Infamous because of its poor wording: if the right conditions are met (having your power stat at 10 and making your Horror get the Slumbering condition, then dying and getting enough successes) the Unfettered Horror becomes a rank 10 Ephemeral entity, one of the most powerful beings in all of Chronicles of Darkness.

===Divergence===
A more obscure form of Inheritance, where the Beast deliberately starves himself nearly to death while keeping the Horror cooped up in its Lair until the Horror tries to eat him out of desperation and fury. The Beast responds in kind, and after enough time eating each other the Beast and Horror both become half dream and half flesh. They remain connected to one another to some degree, but the Beast no longer has to appease the Horror's Hunger for it. However, both halves are also somewhat less powerful for it- the Beast can't use most Atavisms, the Horror can't use most Nightmares, and both of them draw from the same pool of Satiety. More importantly, the Horror gets to manifest outside of the Primordial Dream at will, and the Beast can't control what it does. And it'll probably be pissed at the Beast for trying to starve it.

===Erasure===
Some Beasts really want to be human again, but since the Horror eats your soul when you become a Beast they need to get creative. To do this, they need both a new soul and some way to kill their Horror (most likely involving another supernatural or even a Hero). If they're successful, they become more or less human but can still use Nightmares and Birthrights. The catch? They can only regain Satiety by eating the flesh of other Beasts and can never become another type of supernatural due to pissing off the Dark Mother.

===Inversion===
Some Beasts look at themselves and realize that they hate what they've become, but don't just commit suicide or seek Divergence or Erasure. Instead, they go a step further and seek revenge against the Dark Mother directly: they travel to the Bright Dream (better known as the Temenos to mages), study their effects on the world around them until they can craft an Anathema weapon against their Horror, and use said Anathema to bring it to a state of near-death. When this happens, they lose the ability to gain or use Satiety in any way but retain most of their powers and gain the ability to place Anathemas on other Beasts. From there they quickly go on to begin hunting other Beasts in the hope of hurting the Dark Mother as much as possible before they die.

===Incarnate===
The most complex Inheritance and the one that the game pushes as the "best" one. After reaching a certain amount of Lair, an aspiring Beast must do one of the following things:
*Subvert a Hero's narrative by thoroughly destroying the Hero before he/she can even retaliate
*Become the Apex of the local Hive and visit their hunger on other Beasts
*Spawn a Legend by feeding their Horror in a spectacularly grandiose manner.

By changing their Legend into a Myth, an Incarnate gains the following powers:
*They can transform into their Horror in the physical world, gaining a bunch of stuff like extra limbs, natural armor, and so on when they do so.
*They become immune to Anathemas and can in fact de-power Heroes just by touching them.
*They can enter the Primordial Dream at will.
*They can never become Ravenous or Slumbering, though they still retain the ability to use Satiety and can gain the benefits/drawbacks of high and low Satiety.
*Their Life and Legend is replaced by a Myth. However, if they lose control of their Myth, they lose all their Incarnate powers and anybody can place Anathemas on them. Good fucking luck with that when you remember all the shit they can pull.

== Attempts to fix ==

Strangely enough, players have tried tying the splat with the "Inferno" blue book, since the splat shares a lot of terminology with said-book. This begs the weird comparison where Demon: the Descent v. Beasts is like the Demons vs Devils Blood War in D&D. Does it fix the splat? Depends on who you ask.

Another, less malefic option is that you play as a guardian protector Beast who stays his darker nature by being around those less villainous kin. This is done by abusing the shit out of the "Family Dinner" mechanic, which essentially allows a Beast to never go hungry so long as they watch kin feed, eg. Changelings harvesting glamour, mages doing oblations, Prometheans fucking power outlets, etc. And, to be honest, it's not a half-bad metaphor, that we are all of us more vulnerable to our darker impulses when we try going at life alone. But, when surrounded by friends who care about you, who will stick by you through thick and thin, you can become something truly indomitable.

= In short =

Arguably the ''real'' NWoD/CoD equivalent of [[Changeling: The Dreaming]]<ref>In that it's a tonal mess, got some serious issues about "yeah but what do they ''do''?", and seemingly not liked by anybody but the author(s).</ref>, but written by a pervert who probably got beat up in school a lot. Also, this game should really be called "Abuser: The Gaslighting".

==See Also==
*[http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/kurieg/beast-the-primordial/ FATAL and Friends' scathing review, which sums up everything wrong with Beast]
*[http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/kurieg/beast-night-horrors-conquering-heroes/ The review for Conquering Heroes, which brought us The Blind Man up there]
*[https://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/kurieg/beast-the-primordial-players-guide/ And the one for the Player's Guide]
{{WoD-Games}}

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition

2021-06-24T09:59:12Z

2A00:23C5:120A:C100:8D1F:6FA4:AFB5:8728: /* Anarchs */

{{skub}}

{{Game Infobox
|name = Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
|picture = [[File:VTM V5 Logo.jpg|250px]]
|type = [[Role-playing game]]
|system = [[Storyteller System]]
|publisher = [[White Wolf]]
|authors = Kenneth Hite, [[Mark Rein·Hagen]], Matthew Dawkins, Juhanna Peterson, Martin Ericsson, Karim Muammar
|year = 2018
|books = Vampire: The Masquerade Core Rulebook
}}
The premier [[Vampire: The Masquerade|vampire RPG]] rises once more from its resting place once more. Although subject to many [[skub]]tastic debates, this new edition has found popularity with newcomers to the series. This edition is usually abbreviated as VTM V5, or just V5, to differentiate it from D&D 5E.

The rules are lighter now, gas tank vampires are no more, and as always the clock has edged closer to midnight (AKA Gehenna).

==Modern Fluff==
The quick and dirty summary is that the Camarilla has weakened, some clans switched around in the sects, and the Sabbat are fighting Camarilla elders in the Middle East in the Gehenna War. Also, the inquisition is back and now has connections with the alphabet soup agencies because the NSA got into Schrecknet, revealing kindred society to a degree. This led to such events as the Tremere Vienna Chantry getting blown up and the Camarilla forgoing the use of modern technology for sensitive communication. The Second Inquisition believes kindred suffer from "the blank body virus", named for the absence of body heat seen when a vampire walks in front of a thermal camera.

All the above has led to kindred cities being run by much younger kindred than usual. The stranglehold elders had has loosened as they are summoned to the Middle East by a psych-spiritual call known as the Beckoning. There are a lot more thin bloods too, and most full-blooded vampires still don't like them.

==Rules==
V5 uses a dice pool system made up of D10s. The number of dots you have in skills, stats, and other modifiers are added together. The total is the number of D10s rolled for a test. If you get enough high results you succeed.

The unique part of the new rules is the hunger dice system. This replaces the blood points system (AKA gas tank/mana pool vampires). When waking up each night or using some disciplines you must make a rouse check by rolling a D10. A roll of 6 or higher is a success, and hunger does not increase. If the result is less than 6, hunger increases by one. Hunger ranges from 0-5, but the only way to get to 0 is to feed on a person until they die, otherwise, the minimum is 1. Hunger dice replace a number of dice in each test equal to your current hunger. Depending on the successes and failures in a roll and how much of each come from hunger dice, a beastial failure or messy critical could occur. This could result in giving in to a compulsion or behaving inhumanly, such as biting and starting to feed on someone that you meant to just attack.

In addition, feeding has been codified into a more streamlined system, where a vampire will pick a predator type at chargen. They can obviously feed however they like, and in theory the player can likely go without one, however each one give a plethora of advantages (free merits and a boost in dots to certain disciplines and skills) and disadvantages (several of them come with prey exclusions or the like) that its generally a good idea to take one you're well suited to. Each one is roughly balanced, with the stronger benefits coming with stronger downsides. For example the blood leech type, which requires that the vampire feeds on other kindred exclusively leads to having higher blood potency and an immunity to blood bonds, but comes with the price of being unable to feed on mortals and being viewed with suspicion at absolute best. Meanwhile the Bagger type means you sneak around and feed exclusively on blood bags, which gives you the ability to nourish yourself better on dead blood, but there's probably a reason you stick to sneaking into the hospital.

Some of the attributes have been swapped out (notably appearance, the most useless attribute in wod), the abilities list is trimmed slightly, and morality has been changed, aping the touchstones system from VTR and allowing players to decide the commandments that actually matter to the character instead of choosing between generic humanity or begging the storyteller to allowing them to use a Path of Edgelightenment.

Disciplines work a bit differently now. A standout difference is amalgam powers. They require dots in two disciplines to be accessed. In the wake of this, some disciplines have been reduced to a couple amalgram powers that require dsiciplines the clan has as standard (making serpentis a variant of protean with some presence requirements, Chimestry is now a presence and obfuscate amalgram etc). [[skub|This has provoked a lot of passionate debate]]. In addition, there are now normally multiple powers for each level of a discipline that you must choose from (or pick a power from a lower level, and 6+ powers have been scrapped (some wrapped into the upper levels of the discipline, others just purged). As a result the disciplines are all limited to 5 dots, preventing someone from getting every power from a discipline.

Finally, the game has added in loresheets, specific backgrounds that provide a mix of benefits, and represent anything from connections to an influential kindred or organisation to specific bloodline heritage. Uniquely of the backgrounds, they're not a linear progression of buffs (and buying the 2nd level of a loresheet doesn't give you the benefits of the first) and many of them are clan specific, however all their abilities are powerful or give you temporary access to other merits worth more than the dots on the sheet, albeit are often limited to certain situations.

==Books==
* Core Book: It has the rules, GMing guidance, some statblocks for NPCs, items, coterie creation, etc. Clans: Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue, Caitiff, and Thinbloods.
* Anarch Sourcebook: Anarch lore and rules for playing The Ministry (formerly the Followers of Set).
* Camarilla Sourcebook: Camarilla lore and rules for playing the Banu Haqim (formerly the Assamites).
* Fall of London: Chronicle set in 2012 about the eradication of kindred in London by the Second Inquisition.
* Chicago by Night: Sourcebook for running games in Chicago. Contains the rules for playing Lasombra.
* The Chicago Folios: Even more stuff about Chicago.
* V5 Companion: A free PDF with rules for Ravnos, Salubri, and Tzimisce. Also includes a section regarding how vampires of each clan feel about coteries along with a clan coterie merit available to be purchased at character creation. Section 3 has rules for playing mortals and ghouls. The final section contains errata and rules updates to be included in future printings (but not the upcoming July 2021 Renegade Games reprint, for some reason).
* Cults of the Blood Gods: All about vampire religion. Includes a bunch of existing cults as well as rules for making your own as a GM. Includes rules for the Hecata, the new necromancy clan that was formed by a merger of Giovanni, Cappodician, Nagaraja, and a few others in 2018. They are the last remaining independent clan.
==Clans==
In the wake of V5's release and the reshuffling of the sects, a number of clans have undergone some revisions, some minor (the tzimisce, barring disciipline spread), others major (the ravnos or salubri). Bloodlines, while theoreteically still there, are mostly scrapped, and the ones that still appear (such as the specific members of the Hecata) are often consigned to loresheets (many old bloodlines have been ported to fan made loresheets by the community).

===[[Banu Haqim]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Haqim
*'''Disciplines -''' Blood Sorcery (get fucked Tremere), Celerity, Obfuscate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Vitae Addiction (once you taste a drop, you just can't stop).
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Judgement (if someone goes against their personal ideals they're compelled to punish them).
Following the shitstorm that is the beckoning dragging the elders and the sabbat to the Middle East, the Assimites (really named Banu Haqim, with Assimites being a name that westerners called them) petitioned to join the Camarilla, which the Camarilla needed after the Brujah and Gangrel fucked off in the midst of feeling unappreciated and ignored, so it works out for both of them. In addition, Ur-Shulgi stopping the Tremere curse of vitae allergy is still canon, and they got the last laugh by wiping out the tremere's ability to blood bond (which, in fairness, the Tremere were overdue getting truly slapped down for their bullshit). Otherwise they're still the prime "executioner/assassin" clan, and most are likely to be some kind of law enforcement or even former military in life. Their old signature discipline of Quietus got nixed into blood sorcery, reactions are mixed to positive.

===[[Brujah]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Troile
*'''Disciplines -''' Celerity, Potence, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Prone to frenzy.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Rebellion (gotta fight whatever the status quo is, even if its a system that works or even benefits them).
Still the same mix of idealist philosophers preaching about politics and entitled kids who wanna fight "the man" for imposing rules without understanding why the rules are there or even an idea of what to replace those rules with. Finally gave up the goose and just joined the Anarchs wholesale, though some still reside in the Camarilla. Still generally a slave to their emotions and will likely never be happy in any system they are a part of, but hey, at least now they can play paintball with 9mm handguns and know they have freedom, while they fight and kill each other every night in gang warfare.

===[[Caitiff]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' None
*'''Disciplines -''' Varies (pick 3 at gargen)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' No in clan disciplines (though all disciplines cost 6X xp costs) and being considered lesser by most other kindred.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' None.
Not a clan, more the absense of a clan. Through quirk of blood sometimes a newly embraced vampire just doesn't show any traits inherant to their parent clan. Generally considered a mark of shame, they usually get the short end of the stick and are afforded little actual respect. Some try to argue they're purer than other kindred as "Caine had no clan", but this usually ends in the offending kindred getting their teeth kicked in. As a result, many of them join the anarchs, which while a shitshow at times they're often at least less likely to get completely disregarded. As is to be expected, no 2 caitiff are alike. Luckily for STs, with the end of clan unique disciplines and the birth of amalgrams, there are no more "Thaumaturgy, Visissitude and Chimestry" discipline spread caitiff being made, albeit people making vampires emulating another clan to get the unique amalgrams without the clan weakness is still a thing, its just more costly to do so (as it takes 2 discipline slots instead of 1). STs should still feel free to tell those powergamers to fuck off.

===[[Gangrel]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Ennoia
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Fortitude, Protean
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' After frenzying, they begin to generally appear more bestial (sounding or looking more animalistic), these often fade in time, but can make them a walking masquerade breech in time
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Acting like an animal (short tempter, compulsion to snap and fight people and generally being fucked in social situations at times).
The fluff from V20 still holds true, and they have still fucked off the Camarilla in preference to independance, albeit with any clan, exceptions exist. Still your group of nomadic and slightly aloof drifters, probably more so after they left. Funnily, since V5 changed protean, they're no longer the go to "fighters" now, as feral claws no longer do aggravated damage. The various bloodlines that spawned from the Gangrel are still around somewhere, just with bloodlines no longer really a thing, they don't get much of a look in.

===[[Giovanni|Hacata]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Cappadocius/Augustus Giovanni/Hecate (their Antediluvians gets diablerised a lot)
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex (or dominate), Fortitude, Oblivion
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant (kind of a sect of their own, its dumb, see below)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Their Kiss hurts like a motherfucker, looks bad and heals slowly (can trade out for looking like 2 flavours of corpse, or needing to eat flesh as well as drink blood).
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being morbid and spookily fortelling someones death (telling that someone is sick or their recklessness will catch up with them someday).
After the death/disappearance of Angustus Giovanni, and a 500 year agreement with the camarilla coming to a close, the Giovanni reunited with the Cappadocians remnants (the clan they stole their clan status from), the Lamia (the Cappadocian's assistants) the Samedi (vampires that look like rotting corpses, and implied to be either a Giovanni experiment or a Cappadocian offshoot) and the Nagaraja (a clan of double fucked vampires who eat peoples flesh as well as blood, and happen to have skill in necromancy) to form a weird blend of sect and clan called the Hecata. Necromancy, while rolled into the discipline Oblivion, is still effectively there, albeit they can also access some lasombra powers in the mix. The subsequent ritual and agreement unified their flaw into the giovanni's painful bite, though some still have their old flaws in some manner. People have mixed opinions on both of these changes, and it is often considered to be the most sloppy change that V5 implemented. But hey, at least now you can have a necromantic vampire without having to run them as an incestuous cousin fucker or walking corpse.

===[[Lasombra]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Lasombra
*'''Disciplines -''' Dominate, Oblivion (obtenebration by any other name), Potence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla (yes, I know)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Their reflections and video images are all distorted and fucked up (but wont hide their identity), also technology reacts weirdly with them
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being unable to accept they failed at something, if they do they gotta reattempt it to get it right.
The shitshow in the east has caused many Lasombra to get out of the Sabbat and join up with the Camarilla, often delivering their elders as a peace offering. Undoubtably still trying some kind of power play (given the long spanning rivalry with the Ventrue) though the Camarilla is still happy to have them aboard in the wake of their show of good faith (stop laughing). Their old power of obtenebration has been rolled into one of the new disciplines V5 spawned, albeit with the most defining powers (arms of the abyss, hopping from shadow to shadow etc) made into amalgrams. Their bane has also been changed, and now instead of just not casting reflections/images on cameras (a weakness that too many used to their advantage to break into places), now technology is just screwly around them: microphones don't pick up their voice properly and images of them are distorted but still recognisable as them, not to mention security system seem to pick up their weirdness better. As a result, Lasombra often have a ghoul or two doing their phone calls. It does however mean historical Lasombra had no clan flaw prior to modern day.

===[[Malkavian]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Malkav
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Dominate (dementation is here), Obfuscate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' They all nuts in some form. Some can still function, while others are too far gone and institutionalized.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Going completely delusional (akin to a break from reality)
Malkavians are still the same crowd of absolute nutjobs, ranging the gamut of mental illness, still running the whole spectrum of typical embraces. Still having annoying players trying to create lolrandom chaotic stupid makavians because "LOL SO CRAZY!!1!". The only real change besides the addition of their compulsion (which isnt really anything special) is the dissolution of dementation as its own discipline, with their more unique powers being rolled into amalgrams for both Auspex (for extrasensory powers) and Dominate (for straight mindfuck abilities). Meanwhile lore wise they changed very little, and haven't done much new of significance or suffered any major setback.

===[[Nosferatu]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Absimiliard
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Looking fuck ugly, potentally (but not always anymore) being constituted as an automatic masquerade breech when they're seen "au natural".
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Compulsion to aqquire secrets.
Nosferatu have changed a little, with their old clan bane going from the old days of Orlock clones and automatic masquerade breeches upon sight, to being disfigured but not to the point of impossibility in many cases (some are still unlucky enough that they can't be seen) though this is more a gameplay thing than a story thing. Hiding their obviously fucked up appearance is now harder for them in addition, getting worse the more powerful their blood is. As for Lore, the sewer rats big information network (ShreckNET) got hacked by the NSA and helped give a large swathe of information regarding vampires to the second inquisition. With no other option, the Nos sadly pulled the plug and started dismantling it, some using their extensive technical prowess to try and purge any kindred presence on the net. They've since taken a huge hit to their credibility as a result, and the information sharing network to keep an eye out for the Nictuku is pretty screwed, though they're still considered very valuable thanks to their expertise and tenancy to aqquire secrets.

===[[Ravnos]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Zapathasura
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Obfuscate (Chimestry is here), Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Staying in one place for too long leads to them slowly burning like they got hit by the sun, no matter how light tight their haven.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being a daredevil and taking the riskiest solution to a problem.
Week of nightmares still happened, and as a result the Ravnos are still basically fucked. The death of Zapathasura has changed the survivours to basically be chased by the sun, and if they stay in one place for more than a couple nights, they start to wake up with aggravated damage. Some live in mobile havens, some setup a bunch of buildings in the same city, and some use their new enforced nomadic lifestyle to stay ahead of kindred threats. Their power of Chimestry has been rolled into obfuscate, using presence as an amalgram, and is generally weaker. As with all the changes, this has been a source of [[Skub]], especially when the chimestry amalgrams are available to the Ministry (due to the required spread being in clan for both). Generally however, the changes to bane and the implementation of their compulsion has at least been met favourably, and goes a long way to stamping out the racism argument that has followed the Ravnos since their inception.

===[[Salubri]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Saulot
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Dominate (Obeah), Fortitude
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Salubri blood is more addictive to kindred, in addition they have a third eye that weeps vitae when they use a discipline power, making subtle discipline use damn near impossible
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Helping people and easing suffering
The only good guy vampire clan, and they've gone through a number of changes mechanically, if not fluff wise(they are still very similar to what they were, and even after the Anarchs established themselves as their own real sect they still stay in hiding) which many people aren't happy with. For one, their bane is now a reverse Banu Haqim flaw, instead of the old consentual feeding flaw they used to have. In addition, their old ability set of healing people or pulling a soul out to mend it has now been locked to vampires only (the creatures that have pushed them around and shat on them for centuries) and split into amalgrams across their entire discipline spread. Some like that this makes them less "too good for this sinful earth" while others feel it ruins the point of one of the only inherantly "good" vampire clans getting wiped out and goes against their "no good deed goes unpunished" schtick. As always, YMMV.

===[[Followers of Set|The Ministry]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Set
*'''Disciplines -''' Obfuscate, Presence, Protean (hello Serpentis)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Extreme light sensitivity, atificial light make it hard for them to do things, and sunlight does more damage depending on how powerful their blood is.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Tempting people to indulge in sin and break their own tenets
Formerly known as the Followers of set, or the Setites, the clan rebranded as the Ministry (except African and Egyptian kindred), both to shed some of the old reputation and as a transition of their beliefs from trying to awaken Set to believing Set resides within them (given they are of Set's blood and one of the Gehenna scenarios back along had Set already be dead, it may be a reflection of this). Still all about the vice and temptation, they, like the Banu Haqim decided that with everyone invading the middle east and causing the area to become a rampant shitstorm of kindred on kindred violence, they needed protection of a major sect. Despite petitioning to join the camarilla, they were refused and so went with the backup choice of the Anarchs. Serpentis, often regarded as just "protean wearing a wig" has now just been rolled into Protean with their meserise ability now an amalgram between it and presence. Often operating as spiritual enlightenment gurus in coteries, they are normally seen as the "I know a guy" clan (dealing in vice to differ them from the Ventrue). Still seem to be an odd mix of clan and sect, if some Samedi stragglers joining up with their structure is anything to go by.

===[[Thin Blood]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' None
*'''Disciplines -''' Thin-Blood Alchemy
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Varies (pick at creation)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' None
Much like Caitiff, a thin blood is not really a clan, its more the result of being embraced by a vampire who's too many generations removed from Caine. Like the caitiff, the thin bloods are generally shunned and the eternal whipping boys of kindred society. The Camarilla can and will murder them on sight (or, in kinder places, brand them with a hot iron like cattle), while the Anarchs treatment of them ranges the entire spectrum (like with all things Anarchs) of pity, bullying or even just straight killing them. They don't really have disciplines or the ability to learn them properly, though can still pull off some minor discipline effects if they taste another vampire's blood (a dangerous prospect for obvious reasons). Instead they're giving a discipline called thin blooded alchemy, which allows them to make concotions to counterfeit other clan powers with a few generic abilities like minor telekinesis, levitation or creating a cloud of fog thrown in to not be completely barren of unique, fun shit. They do, however, feel the curse less acutely than full blood kindred in most cases, often not having clan curses, able to eat, drink and fuck to their hearts content and some are even able to walk around in the day without any problems, though alongside that some still have a beast despite having weak blood, heal like a mortal or the inability to grow fangs as the curse doesnt manifest properly. A very common path for thin blooded kindred is either to attempt to become human again (trying the classics of kill the sire and the like) or try to get ahold of a full vampire and commit diablerie, gaining a substantial boost in power at the expense of losing their thin blood merits and taking the clan of their victim in the process.

===[[Toreador]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Arikel
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Celerity, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Suffering in "ugly" surroundings (as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this can take many forms)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Can become mesmerised by something truly beautiful (whether that is a person, a song or even the rising sun)
Still the same mix of artists and poseurs who don't actually know how to make art but sit around criticising other people, the Toreador have changed little from their mean girls routine in earlier editions, embracing those who are beautiful or the hot new thing and dropping them like a drained corpse the next chance they get. The clan is still sticking by the Camarilla, still giving the Nosferatu shit for being ugly and still getting probably more hate than is entirely fair and still crimminally underestimated.

===[[Tremere]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Tremere
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Blood Sorcery (Thaumaturgy by any other name is suprisingly less bullshit), Dominate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Inability to blood bond (fuck yo pyramid)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being perfectionists and needing to get something not just done but done "perfectly"
Oh boy, the Tremere. Where do we begin on the almighty slapping down they recieved? Well, it all began when the second inquisition raided the main Chantry in Vienna, wiping it out with a drone missile and shattering the leadership of the clan (jury is out on if Tremere, currently inhabiting Gotrix's body, manipulated events to see this done or if the SI got lucky). Either as a result of that or the Banu Haqim Methuselah Ur-Shulgi deciding to get a little payback for the curse they levelled at his clan, the Tremere's blood bonds to the pyramid were broken, and the clan as a whold were left without the ability to blood bond kindred (ghouls can be bonded, albeit they need to drink more of the blood over a longer period). Between the destruction of their centralised leadership, the beckoning taking many of the elders out of the picture, the Banu Haqim joining the Camarilla (destroying their monopoly on blood sorcery) and becoming persona non grata in many places when the blood bonds broke, the Tremere are now fighting heavily to find any scrap of old occultish lore and have broken into several houses, all opposed. The houses are the loyalists under Karl Schrekt, Carna (quasi paganism with a feminist leaning), Gotrix (implied to be run by Tremere himself inhabiting Gotrix's body) and Ipsissimus (who joined the Anarchs). Good news, this means that there are now Tremere among the anarchs, bad (or better news, depending on if you were a fan of Thaumaturgy being a hundred disciplines in one), blood sorcery paths are all but gone, with most of the lore on different paths scattered to the winds, and the ones who know it not being inclined to share now that their clan structure has been subject to a beatdown conga.

===[[Tzimisce]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Tzimisce
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Dominate, Protean (vicissitude hides here now, along with dominate)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs (most still in the sabbat)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Must dwell among something that resonates with them (a particular building, among a certain group of people or even in soil from somewhere they have strong ties to ala Dracula)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Covetousness (taking things for their "hoard", whether thats an item or sculpting their fingers to match someone elses/stealing someones fingers because they're pretty)
Having undergone something of a reestablishment since V20, pains have been taken to reemphasise the more posessive and "lord of the land" elements of the Tzimisce over the Moreau esque body horror elements. Outside of that however, the Tzimisce are the same as they've always been, and the only real change is their numbers among the Anarchs have increased, though most still reside among the sabbat. Vicissitude is no longer its own discipline, and has been rolled into Protean like many other unique disciplines, amalgramed with dominate to "force the flesh to obey their whim". This has the unfortunate effect of changing the fundamental powerset of the Tzimisce and giving them social disciplines despite the often held line of ruling solely through terror, and [[Skub|does spark some debate]].

===[[Ventrue]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Ventru
*'''Disciplines -''' Dominate, Fortitude, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Can only feed on a certain type of people (alcoholics, 20 year old virgins etc), if not their chosen charge they must spend willpower or vomit it up.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Taking charge (take charge and force someone to obey your will without using disciplines like Dominate to do so)
Very much the same as they've always been. Same bunch of pricks richer than you and better dressed than you but with the added caveat that they do still run the Camarilla and do their job well, because someone's gotta keep an entire society of predators wearing human faces and backstabbing each other in line. Not to say they're completely dismissive of other kindred and clans, they just know that every gear has its place in the political machine, and will make alliances as necessary to keep things running and to step up in the world. Have a lot of soft power among kine, especially where the business world is concerned, and often embrace among the sucessful (businessmen and politicians are often seen as the best investments). Their bane is still the same but has been expanded, Ventrue are now slightly able to tell if someone is to their taste.

==Sects==

Still the same sects (ish) but with differences with ann the radical changes in V5.

===[[Camarilla]]===
The Camarilla, long the bastion of kindred society and considering all vampires under their rules, got fucked from several angles at the beginning of V5. The Gangrel had already left after Justicar Xavier wasnt taken seriously about the Antedeluvians. Then the beckoning starts to take their Elders and Princes away, leading to a lot of the old powerbase departing for parts unknown and creating a power vacuum. In addition, when ShreckNET got compromised and the Second inquisition rose up, the camarilla promptly panicked, blamed the Anarchs and banned all electronic communication. Never mind that a lot of Elders used law enforcement or even honest to caine hunters as an attack dog to sic on their rivals, contributing to a lot of the information that the SI had to work with.

Following this, the Camarilla decided to place stricter rules and membership becomes more exclusive, formally banning caitiff vampires in the sect and cracking down harder and harder on the anarchs before Theo Bell, Archon, anarch sympathizer and brujah representative, declared enough was enough and blew Hardestadt, inner circle member and the defacto leader of the camarilla, to pieces with a shotgun at the Conclave of Prague, taking the Brujah and moving most of the clan to the Anarchs.

Despite their powerbase shrinking and the Camarilla becoming more of an exclusive club, several clans petitioned to join in the wake of all the chaos that followed the Gehenna war. The Banu Haqim were granted the ability to join as a clan, and about half the Lasombra defected from the Sabbat and were allowed in on a case by case basis, often trading favours in exchange for entrance. This began in Chicago and will likely continue to be adopted in other areas, assuming the Lasombra don't fuck the place over. The Ministry, formerly known as the Followers of Set, were rejected from joining, so decided to join the sect more likely to appreciate [[futurama RPG|blackjack and hookers]].

Between this and the death of the end of the party line that the Antedeluvians are simply myths, the Camarilla of the present is a very different beast, and are arguably regressing to the tactics of the Elders that spawned the first anarch revolt, locking their doors and allowing the Anarchs to bear the brunt of the SI purges while they try to avoid detection and wait out the storm.

===[[Anarchs]]===
Following the Camarilla closing its doors to all but exceptional kindred and the response from Theo Bell, the Anarchs have split off into their own sect proper. The average Anarch city is a mess of gang violence without anyone holding enough power to make Anarchs behave and usually either follows the trend of "the barons are just as bad as the princes" or Sabbat wearing anarchy symbols as the kindred form into gangs and fight nightly for territory, usually both.

Not to say that going Anarch has no benefits. Sure life is tougher and fighting is rampant but night to night you have a little more freedom. The barons generally are slightly better than the Princes of old, and likely wont demand your fealty or gifts of blood so long as you stay out of their way, plus with a slightly more democratic leaning being a complete bastard is discouraged. However, with no obligation to be fair and even less in the way of oversight if you're not popular, you're at the mercy of other vampires and can expect little in the way of actual support or recourse.

Unteathered from the Camarilla, they've come into their own, for better of worse. Thin bloods and Caitiff have, being generally persceuted by the Camarilla, flocked to the Anarchs in the face of the Camarilla becoming even more hostile to them. The Gangrel, originally simply independant, have joined up with the Anarchs too, as did the Ministry and Brujah clans. Heck, even a load of younger Tzimisce have latched onto the sect. They also made some territory gains of their own (retaking California and usurping London and a few other cities).

V5 seems to be intent on building the Anarchs into the proper rivals to the Camarilla in the face of moving the Sabbat out of the limelight and in fairness, a lot of people are okay with it. Many considered the Sabbat to be comically evil and with the depth of a puddle(then again the Anarchs arnt exactly chomsky with fangs). It helps that the unique clans most people wanted to play are no longer consigned to a sect that considers skinning people for the lulz to be a sacred practice. However, there are obviously people who believe that the sect is boring and its horseshit that the entireity of vampiric society rapidly changed over the course of a decade when it had stayed mostly stable for so long.

===[[The Sabbat]]===
In the wake of the Beckoning bringing elders all to one place, the Sabbat abandoned their cities and prepared to kick the shit out of the elders, seeing it as a massive buffet. Details on what the Gehenna war looks like are sketchy, but from snippets here and there, its not going well, and attrition rates among the Sabbat are high. Not that majority of them care, but in the wake of this, about half the Lasombra promptly left to join the Camarilla, presumably now fightened of actually doing the thing that their entire sect was born to do.

Presumably there are pockets of Sabbat here and there, the ones who didn't answer the call to war, but the books have completely shifted attention from them. Presumably because being a vampiric shitbag, using disciplines in the open and creating a trail of bodies can and will lead the SI to you, and no matter how badass you are, getting your haven burned down in the middle of the day will probably kill you, or at least ruin your day.

Luckily, running Sabbat isn't too difficult. With the touchstones and tenets system you can spoof most paths, Sabbat ritae have been homebrewed and it isnt too hard to create a plot where they are hanging around (or even run a gehenna war game). You could even do a pre beckoning game if you wish.

==Disciplines==
Your good old "clan powers" that have been in the game since the beginning, but with a change. In the old days of pre v5, there were far more disciplines, and all bar 4 clans had a unique discipline. Many of them also only had one power per level until you got to level 6 and above One of the biggest (or at least one of the most debated) changes was the devs scrapping unique disciplines and levels 6 and above in favour of turning a lot of signature discipline abilities into amalgrams (combo powers that need 2 disciplines at varying levels to use), shuffling some of the more interesting and thematic upper level powers into lower slots amd providing players with multiple powers to pick from at every level of the power (even in the physical disciplines, which until now were purely one power each that just got better with more dots). While this article is at the risk of overusing skub as a descriptor, there really is no other word for the ensuring reaction to the amalgram change, more so than probably any other changes.

On the one hand, amalgrams were meant as a way to reduce or eliminate the classic problem of people begging to play a specific clan purely for the clan unique discipline and in many cases, does help with that. There has been a shift in the internal logic of the discipline powers from making them a very rigid thing to more of an umbrella for a certain family of varied abilities (obfuscate as perception and sensory fuckery vs "this family of powers helps me hide") with some of the more unique disciplines explained as different ways of using the same toolkit or mutations of the powers by mixing their abilities with others (chimestry is obfuscate + presence to manipulate someones perceptions and then convince them its not fake, while vicissitude is protean + dominate to "command the flesh to obey the kindred's whims").

It also trimmed out a lot of powers that only existed to fill out a discipline spread (a few of dementations powers got axed this way), damn near scrapped others that arguably only existed to make an independent clan special (Serpentis) and prevented others from feeling like 5 different abilities that didn't act as a progression of the same family of powers (Serpentis again, or arguably Quietus). This, twinned with every level having several powers means that even with the exact same discipline sets and dots, no 2 characters will likely have the same abilities.

However with the limit of "only 5 dots in any power" and the fact that several more unique discipline abilities can take up a large chunk of the discipline its been rolled into, can leave some players feeling rather limited, and if you wanted say, good amount of vicissitude but also wanted to purchase Earth Meld, you're gonna either lose out on a vicissitude power somewhere along the way or blow your level 5 slot on it. Plus the issue of several amalgram requirements being held by several clans at once (both the ministry and ravnos can use chimestry while Valeran is usable by the tremere) and some people citing that now there is no reason to pick certain clans over others or that the loss of the discipline as a unique discipline takes away from the identity of the clan.

===Animalism===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Tzimisce
As should be expected, Animalism is your bag of abilities that pertains to messing around with animals. As most animals can tell there's something off about kindred this can be very useful for not setting off alarm bells and helping a vampire go incognito. Has the usual mix of talking to animals, commanding them or even possessing them, as well as some powers that pertain to the beast.
===Auspex===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Malkavians, Salubri, Toreador, Tremere.
Your typical "ESP" toolkit. Takes the form of better senses, seeing unseen stuff (vampire disciplines that are normally hidden), moves onto auras and goes into psychometry, full telepathy and the like. Strangely, while most disciplines had several powers shuffled into lower levels, many of auspex' most signature abilities (aura reading and spirits touch) went up a level.
===Blood Sorcery===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Tremere.
Thaumaturgy mixed with Quietus. Even with amalgrams and the birth of multiple powers per discipline level, the days of the Thaumaturgy path whore tremere are over. Rituals still exist for a number of abilities, however the discipline as a whole is more focused on manipulating vitae for a variety of effects and less on being straight magic jury rigged to run on vitae.
===Celerity===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Brujah, Toreador.
Your vampiric super speed and dexterity based powers. No longer stupid broken after v5 realised finally that giving people a discipline that allowed you to attack extra times a turn is busted in combat. Focuses on a mix of extremely refined dexterity (deadshot accuracy or perfect balance) and maneuvering powers (your flash style super speed, up to and including running up surfaces or on water).
===Dominate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Lasombra, Malkavians, Salubri, Tremere, Tzimisce, Ventrue.
Still the same old "stare into their eyes and command them" mind control power. One of the most common disciplines now, and an amalgrim for a fair few disciplines. Fuck about with memories, give people commands they must follow or even implant a directive deep into their minds and build an army of sleeper agents. Makes people obedient but dumb robots, unlike presence which turns people into slavishly loyal devotees.
===Fortitude===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Hecata, Salubri, Ventrue.
Probably once one of the most underwhelming "basic" powers, fortitude has been revamped into an actual discipline tree instead of an expensive and medicore power that was often dismissed until you accidentally pissed off a gangrel. Ties into the vampires nature as an unchanging monster. Obviously deals with soaking damage, but also has abilities that adds resilience for mind control, prevents the user from being knocked down or even make weapons shatter against you. Also where the healing powers of the salubri went (amalgrimated with Auspex).
===Obfuscate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Ravnos, The Ministry.
Obfuscate, despite being expanded to include other trickery, is suprisingly still very focused on its regular powerset. Majority of powers have to do with things like hiding and decieving people into thinking you're either not there or you're someone else at higher levels, perfect for the Nosferatu, and also include things like obfuscating items or turning the interior of a place into a maze by warping the layout in their perceptions. V5 ended up slotting the chimestry abilities into this discipline, using presence as an amalgram.
===Oblivion===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Void (the lack of resonance)
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Lasombra.
The powers of Obtenebration plus Necromancy rolled into one discipline. In one of the more controversial changes to the lore junkies, the old obtenebration powers now deal almost entirely with the realm of the dead as opposed to the psuedo-alive shadow realm of previous editions. Like blood sorcery, Oblivion contained a plethora of rituals, mostly surrounding the more necromantic side of the disicipline. Really feels like 2 disciplines slapped into one set, with one side dealing with shadow manipulation and one dealing with affeceting the dead or channeling entropy itself. Uniquely of all disciplines, it can cause stains the more you use it as the unnatural power taints the user.

===Potence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Lasombra, Nosferatu.
Like Celerity and Fortitude, Potence now has powers at each level, creating a mix of powers that pertain to combat prowess and some that are more traversal or utility based (the power to jump higher and further or climb walls by punching handholds). This is also now one of the more important combat disciplines again, with the 5 dot power (fist of caine) the only way to do unarmed aggravated damage with the nerf to protean's "Feral Claws".
===Presence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Ravnos, The Ministry, Toreador, Ventrue.
The velvet glove to Dominate's iron fist, presence allows the vampire to turn people into their slavish devotees and uber fans. Unlike Dominate, it doesn't strip the free will from the target, allowing for the thrall to use their own initative when doing your bidding. It also tends to affect crowds vs dominate's single target focus (but is more about pulling on emotions than it is crushing down someones free will). This does come with the double edged sword that overuse on subjects can turn them into obsessive stalkers who can and will murder each other for your attention.
===Protean===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal Blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Ministry, Tzimisce.
Vampire transformation powers of various different stripes. Transform your eyes to see in the dark, fuse with the earth to escape the sun, become an animal or turn into a cloud of mist to sneak into places that arent completely air tight. Notably, feral claws, a power that has been a staple of combat vampires forever, has had the aggravated damage dealing to kindred element stripped out, making it less of an auto include. This is also where Serpentis and Visissitude ended up going.
===Thin Blood Alchemy===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Varies (depending on the recipe).
*'''Held by: ''' Thin Bloods
Cooking by the book. Thin bloods can't learn disciplines due to the curse being too weak to allow for these changes, however what they do have is thin blood alchemy, more akin to a list of rituals and potion brewing to allow for the user to produce and counterfeit a number of effects. Most of it is recipes to mimic other discipline powers, however some basic abilities (change someones body, minor displays of telekinesis or flying) are thrown in too. As its not a native power of "the vitae" it doesnt progress like a regular discipline, and requires the thin blood to research, experiment or get the recipe from another source (and can become plot points for long spanning chronicles on and of themselves), albeit it does require set up beforehand (you generally cant just say "I brewed the levitation potion" just because you need to escape to another building from the roof). There are 3 ways to run the power, mixing the ingredients yourself in a cauldron, drinks mixer or whatever else the user wants to use, drinking all the ingredients yourself to mix them in your own body or force feeding someone the ingredients and feeding on them. Not usable by vampires, making it the closest thing to a "clan unique discipline" in V5.

==The Second Inquisition==
==Ghouls and Revenants==
==Who Has the Rights to V5?==
==See Also==
==External Links==
* [https://www.worldofdarkness.com/news/category/vtm/ VTM News Page]
* [http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness World of Darkness wiki]

[[Category:White Wolf]]
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:World of Darkness]]
{{WoD-Games}}

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition

2021-06-24T09:55:49Z

2A00:23C5:120A:C100:8D1F:6FA4:AFB5:8728: /* Anarchs */

{{skub}}

{{Game Infobox
|name = Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
|picture = [[File:VTM V5 Logo.jpg|250px]]
|type = [[Role-playing game]]
|system = [[Storyteller System]]
|publisher = [[White Wolf]]
|authors = Kenneth Hite, [[Mark Rein·Hagen]], Matthew Dawkins, Juhanna Peterson, Martin Ericsson, Karim Muammar
|year = 2018
|books = Vampire: The Masquerade Core Rulebook
}}
The premier [[Vampire: The Masquerade|vampire RPG]] rises once more from its resting place once more. Although subject to many [[skub]]tastic debates, this new edition has found popularity with newcomers to the series. This edition is usually abbreviated as VTM V5, or just V5, to differentiate it from D&D 5E.

The rules are lighter now, gas tank vampires are no more, and as always the clock has edged closer to midnight (AKA Gehenna).

==Modern Fluff==
The quick and dirty summary is that the Camarilla has weakened, some clans switched around in the sects, and the Sabbat are fighting Camarilla elders in the Middle East in the Gehenna War. Also, the inquisition is back and now has connections with the alphabet soup agencies because the NSA got into Schrecknet, revealing kindred society to a degree. This led to such events as the Tremere Vienna Chantry getting blown up and the Camarilla forgoing the use of modern technology for sensitive communication. The Second Inquisition believes kindred suffer from "the blank body virus", named for the absence of body heat seen when a vampire walks in front of a thermal camera.

All the above has led to kindred cities being run by much younger kindred than usual. The stranglehold elders had has loosened as they are summoned to the Middle East by a psych-spiritual call known as the Beckoning. There are a lot more thin bloods too, and most full-blooded vampires still don't like them.

==Rules==
V5 uses a dice pool system made up of D10s. The number of dots you have in skills, stats, and other modifiers are added together. The total is the number of D10s rolled for a test. If you get enough high results you succeed.

The unique part of the new rules is the hunger dice system. This replaces the blood points system (AKA gas tank/mana pool vampires). When waking up each night or using some disciplines you must make a rouse check by rolling a D10. A roll of 6 or higher is a success, and hunger does not increase. If the result is less than 6, hunger increases by one. Hunger ranges from 0-5, but the only way to get to 0 is to feed on a person until they die, otherwise, the minimum is 1. Hunger dice replace a number of dice in each test equal to your current hunger. Depending on the successes and failures in a roll and how much of each come from hunger dice, a beastial failure or messy critical could occur. This could result in giving in to a compulsion or behaving inhumanly, such as biting and starting to feed on someone that you meant to just attack.

In addition, feeding has been codified into a more streamlined system, where a vampire will pick a predator type at chargen. They can obviously feed however they like, and in theory the player can likely go without one, however each one give a plethora of advantages (free merits and a boost in dots to certain disciplines and skills) and disadvantages (several of them come with prey exclusions or the like) that its generally a good idea to take one you're well suited to. Each one is roughly balanced, with the stronger benefits coming with stronger downsides. For example the blood leech type, which requires that the vampire feeds on other kindred exclusively leads to having higher blood potency and an immunity to blood bonds, but comes with the price of being unable to feed on mortals and being viewed with suspicion at absolute best. Meanwhile the Bagger type means you sneak around and feed exclusively on blood bags, which gives you the ability to nourish yourself better on dead blood, but there's probably a reason you stick to sneaking into the hospital.

Some of the attributes have been swapped out (notably appearance, the most useless attribute in wod), the abilities list is trimmed slightly, and morality has been changed, aping the touchstones system from VTR and allowing players to decide the commandments that actually matter to the character instead of choosing between generic humanity or begging the storyteller to allowing them to use a Path of Edgelightenment.

Disciplines work a bit differently now. A standout difference is amalgam powers. They require dots in two disciplines to be accessed. In the wake of this, some disciplines have been reduced to a couple amalgram powers that require dsiciplines the clan has as standard (making serpentis a variant of protean with some presence requirements, Chimestry is now a presence and obfuscate amalgram etc). [[skub|This has provoked a lot of passionate debate]]. In addition, there are now normally multiple powers for each level of a discipline that you must choose from (or pick a power from a lower level, and 6+ powers have been scrapped (some wrapped into the upper levels of the discipline, others just purged). As a result the disciplines are all limited to 5 dots, preventing someone from getting every power from a discipline.

Finally, the game has added in loresheets, specific backgrounds that provide a mix of benefits, and represent anything from connections to an influential kindred or organisation to specific bloodline heritage. Uniquely of the backgrounds, they're not a linear progression of buffs (and buying the 2nd level of a loresheet doesn't give you the benefits of the first) and many of them are clan specific, however all their abilities are powerful or give you temporary access to other merits worth more than the dots on the sheet, albeit are often limited to certain situations.

==Books==
* Core Book: It has the rules, GMing guidance, some statblocks for NPCs, items, coterie creation, etc. Clans: Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue, Caitiff, and Thinbloods.
* Anarch Sourcebook: Anarch lore and rules for playing The Ministry (formerly the Followers of Set).
* Camarilla Sourcebook: Camarilla lore and rules for playing the Banu Haqim (formerly the Assamites).
* Fall of London: Chronicle set in 2012 about the eradication of kindred in London by the Second Inquisition.
* Chicago by Night: Sourcebook for running games in Chicago. Contains the rules for playing Lasombra.
* The Chicago Folios: Even more stuff about Chicago.
* V5 Companion: A free PDF with rules for Ravnos, Salubri, and Tzimisce. Also includes a section regarding how vampires of each clan feel about coteries along with a clan coterie merit available to be purchased at character creation. Section 3 has rules for playing mortals and ghouls. The final section contains errata and rules updates to be included in future printings (but not the upcoming July 2021 Renegade Games reprint, for some reason).
* Cults of the Blood Gods: All about vampire religion. Includes a bunch of existing cults as well as rules for making your own as a GM. Includes rules for the Hecata, the new necromancy clan that was formed by a merger of Giovanni, Cappodician, Nagaraja, and a few others in 2018. They are the last remaining independent clan.
==Clans==
In the wake of V5's release and the reshuffling of the sects, a number of clans have undergone some revisions, some minor (the tzimisce, barring disciipline spread), others major (the ravnos or salubri). Bloodlines, while theoreteically still there, are mostly scrapped, and the ones that still appear (such as the specific members of the Hecata) are often consigned to loresheets (many old bloodlines have been ported to fan made loresheets by the community).

===[[Banu Haqim]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Haqim
*'''Disciplines -''' Blood Sorcery (get fucked Tremere), Celerity, Obfuscate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Vitae Addiction (once you taste a drop, you just can't stop).
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Judgement (if someone goes against their personal ideals they're compelled to punish them).
Following the shitstorm that is the beckoning dragging the elders and the sabbat to the Middle East, the Assimites (really named Banu Haqim, with Assimites being a name that westerners called them) petitioned to join the Camarilla, which the Camarilla needed after the Brujah and Gangrel fucked off in the midst of feeling unappreciated and ignored, so it works out for both of them. In addition, Ur-Shulgi stopping the Tremere curse of vitae allergy is still canon, and they got the last laugh by wiping out the tremere's ability to blood bond (which, in fairness, the Tremere were overdue getting truly slapped down for their bullshit). Otherwise they're still the prime "executioner/assassin" clan, and most are likely to be some kind of law enforcement or even former military in life. Their old signature discipline of Quietus got nixed into blood sorcery, reactions are mixed to positive.

===[[Brujah]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Troile
*'''Disciplines -''' Celerity, Potence, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Prone to frenzy.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Rebellion (gotta fight whatever the status quo is, even if its a system that works or even benefits them).
Still the same mix of idealist philosophers preaching about politics and entitled kids who wanna fight "the man" for imposing rules without understanding why the rules are there or even an idea of what to replace those rules with. Finally gave up the goose and just joined the Anarchs wholesale, though some still reside in the Camarilla. Still generally a slave to their emotions and will likely never be happy in any system they are a part of, but hey, at least now they can play paintball with 9mm handguns and know they have freedom, while they fight and kill each other every night in gang warfare.

===[[Caitiff]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' None
*'''Disciplines -''' Varies (pick 3 at gargen)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' No in clan disciplines (though all disciplines cost 6X xp costs) and being considered lesser by most other kindred.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' None.
Not a clan, more the absense of a clan. Through quirk of blood sometimes a newly embraced vampire just doesn't show any traits inherant to their parent clan. Generally considered a mark of shame, they usually get the short end of the stick and are afforded little actual respect. Some try to argue they're purer than other kindred as "Caine had no clan", but this usually ends in the offending kindred getting their teeth kicked in. As a result, many of them join the anarchs, which while a shitshow at times they're often at least less likely to get completely disregarded. As is to be expected, no 2 caitiff are alike. Luckily for STs, with the end of clan unique disciplines and the birth of amalgrams, there are no more "Thaumaturgy, Visissitude and Chimestry" discipline spread caitiff being made, albeit people making vampires emulating another clan to get the unique amalgrams without the clan weakness is still a thing, its just more costly to do so (as it takes 2 discipline slots instead of 1). STs should still feel free to tell those powergamers to fuck off.

===[[Gangrel]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Ennoia
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Fortitude, Protean
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' After frenzying, they begin to generally appear more bestial (sounding or looking more animalistic), these often fade in time, but can make them a walking masquerade breech in time
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Acting like an animal (short tempter, compulsion to snap and fight people and generally being fucked in social situations at times).
The fluff from V20 still holds true, and they have still fucked off the Camarilla in preference to independance, albeit with any clan, exceptions exist. Still your group of nomadic and slightly aloof drifters, probably more so after they left. Funnily, since V5 changed protean, they're no longer the go to "fighters" now, as feral claws no longer do aggravated damage. The various bloodlines that spawned from the Gangrel are still around somewhere, just with bloodlines no longer really a thing, they don't get much of a look in.

===[[Giovanni|Hacata]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Cappadocius/Augustus Giovanni/Hecate (their Antediluvians gets diablerised a lot)
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex (or dominate), Fortitude, Oblivion
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant (kind of a sect of their own, its dumb, see below)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Their Kiss hurts like a motherfucker, looks bad and heals slowly (can trade out for looking like 2 flavours of corpse, or needing to eat flesh as well as drink blood).
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being morbid and spookily fortelling someones death (telling that someone is sick or their recklessness will catch up with them someday).
After the death/disappearance of Angustus Giovanni, and a 500 year agreement with the camarilla coming to a close, the Giovanni reunited with the Cappadocians remnants (the clan they stole their clan status from), the Lamia (the Cappadocian's assistants) the Samedi (vampires that look like rotting corpses, and implied to be either a Giovanni experiment or a Cappadocian offshoot) and the Nagaraja (a clan of double fucked vampires who eat peoples flesh as well as blood, and happen to have skill in necromancy) to form a weird blend of sect and clan called the Hecata. Necromancy, while rolled into the discipline Oblivion, is still effectively there, albeit they can also access some lasombra powers in the mix. The subsequent ritual and agreement unified their flaw into the giovanni's painful bite, though some still have their old flaws in some manner. People have mixed opinions on both of these changes, and it is often considered to be the most sloppy change that V5 implemented. But hey, at least now you can have a necromantic vampire without having to run them as an incestuous cousin fucker or walking corpse.

===[[Lasombra]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Lasombra
*'''Disciplines -''' Dominate, Oblivion (obtenebration by any other name), Potence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla (yes, I know)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Their reflections and video images are all distorted and fucked up (but wont hide their identity), also technology reacts weirdly with them
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being unable to accept they failed at something, if they do they gotta reattempt it to get it right.
The shitshow in the east has caused many Lasombra to get out of the Sabbat and join up with the Camarilla, often delivering their elders as a peace offering. Undoubtably still trying some kind of power play (given the long spanning rivalry with the Ventrue) though the Camarilla is still happy to have them aboard in the wake of their show of good faith (stop laughing). Their old power of obtenebration has been rolled into one of the new disciplines V5 spawned, albeit with the most defining powers (arms of the abyss, hopping from shadow to shadow etc) made into amalgrams. Their bane has also been changed, and now instead of just not casting reflections/images on cameras (a weakness that too many used to their advantage to break into places), now technology is just screwly around them: microphones don't pick up their voice properly and images of them are distorted but still recognisable as them, not to mention security system seem to pick up their weirdness better. As a result, Lasombra often have a ghoul or two doing their phone calls. It does however mean historical Lasombra had no clan flaw prior to modern day.

===[[Malkavian]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Malkav
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Dominate (dementation is here), Obfuscate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' They all nuts in some form. Some can still function, while others are too far gone and institutionalized.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Going completely delusional (akin to a break from reality)
Malkavians are still the same crowd of absolute nutjobs, ranging the gamut of mental illness, still running the whole spectrum of typical embraces. Still having annoying players trying to create lolrandom chaotic stupid makavians because "LOL SO CRAZY!!1!". The only real change besides the addition of their compulsion (which isnt really anything special) is the dissolution of dementation as its own discipline, with their more unique powers being rolled into amalgrams for both Auspex (for extrasensory powers) and Dominate (for straight mindfuck abilities). Meanwhile lore wise they changed very little, and haven't done much new of significance or suffered any major setback.

===[[Nosferatu]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Absimiliard
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Looking fuck ugly, potentally (but not always anymore) being constituted as an automatic masquerade breech when they're seen "au natural".
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Compulsion to aqquire secrets.
Nosferatu have changed a little, with their old clan bane going from the old days of Orlock clones and automatic masquerade breeches upon sight, to being disfigured but not to the point of impossibility in many cases (some are still unlucky enough that they can't be seen) though this is more a gameplay thing than a story thing. Hiding their obviously fucked up appearance is now harder for them in addition, getting worse the more powerful their blood is. As for Lore, the sewer rats big information network (ShreckNET) got hacked by the NSA and helped give a large swathe of information regarding vampires to the second inquisition. With no other option, the Nos sadly pulled the plug and started dismantling it, some using their extensive technical prowess to try and purge any kindred presence on the net. They've since taken a huge hit to their credibility as a result, and the information sharing network to keep an eye out for the Nictuku is pretty screwed, though they're still considered very valuable thanks to their expertise and tenancy to aqquire secrets.

===[[Ravnos]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Zapathasura
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Obfuscate (Chimestry is here), Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Staying in one place for too long leads to them slowly burning like they got hit by the sun, no matter how light tight their haven.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being a daredevil and taking the riskiest solution to a problem.
Week of nightmares still happened, and as a result the Ravnos are still basically fucked. The death of Zapathasura has changed the survivours to basically be chased by the sun, and if they stay in one place for more than a couple nights, they start to wake up with aggravated damage. Some live in mobile havens, some setup a bunch of buildings in the same city, and some use their new enforced nomadic lifestyle to stay ahead of kindred threats. Their power of Chimestry has been rolled into obfuscate, using presence as an amalgram, and is generally weaker. As with all the changes, this has been a source of [[Skub]], especially when the chimestry amalgrams are available to the Ministry (due to the required spread being in clan for both). Generally however, the changes to bane and the implementation of their compulsion has at least been met favourably, and goes a long way to stamping out the racism argument that has followed the Ravnos since their inception.

===[[Salubri]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Saulot
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Dominate (Obeah), Fortitude
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Salubri blood is more addictive to kindred, in addition they have a third eye that weeps vitae when they use a discipline power, making subtle discipline use damn near impossible
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Helping people and easing suffering
The only good guy vampire clan, and they've gone through a number of changes mechanically, if not fluff wise(they are still very similar to what they were, and even after the Anarchs established themselves as their own real sect they still stay in hiding) which many people aren't happy with. For one, their bane is now a reverse Banu Haqim flaw, instead of the old consentual feeding flaw they used to have. In addition, their old ability set of healing people or pulling a soul out to mend it has now been locked to vampires only (the creatures that have pushed them around and shat on them for centuries) and split into amalgrams across their entire discipline spread. Some like that this makes them less "too good for this sinful earth" while others feel it ruins the point of one of the only inherantly "good" vampire clans getting wiped out and goes against their "no good deed goes unpunished" schtick. As always, YMMV.

===[[Followers of Set|The Ministry]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Set
*'''Disciplines -''' Obfuscate, Presence, Protean (hello Serpentis)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Extreme light sensitivity, atificial light make it hard for them to do things, and sunlight does more damage depending on how powerful their blood is.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Tempting people to indulge in sin and break their own tenets
Formerly known as the Followers of set, or the Setites, the clan rebranded as the Ministry (except African and Egyptian kindred), both to shed some of the old reputation and as a transition of their beliefs from trying to awaken Set to believing Set resides within them (given they are of Set's blood and one of the Gehenna scenarios back along had Set already be dead, it may be a reflection of this). Still all about the vice and temptation, they, like the Banu Haqim decided that with everyone invading the middle east and causing the area to become a rampant shitstorm of kindred on kindred violence, they needed protection of a major sect. Despite petitioning to join the camarilla, they were refused and so went with the backup choice of the Anarchs. Serpentis, often regarded as just "protean wearing a wig" has now just been rolled into Protean with their meserise ability now an amalgram between it and presence. Often operating as spiritual enlightenment gurus in coteries, they are normally seen as the "I know a guy" clan (dealing in vice to differ them from the Ventrue). Still seem to be an odd mix of clan and sect, if some Samedi stragglers joining up with their structure is anything to go by.

===[[Thin Blood]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' None
*'''Disciplines -''' Thin-Blood Alchemy
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Varies (pick at creation)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' None
Much like Caitiff, a thin blood is not really a clan, its more the result of being embraced by a vampire who's too many generations removed from Caine. Like the caitiff, the thin bloods are generally shunned and the eternal whipping boys of kindred society. The Camarilla can and will murder them on sight (or, in kinder places, brand them with a hot iron like cattle), while the Anarchs treatment of them ranges the entire spectrum (like with all things Anarchs) of pity, bullying or even just straight killing them. They don't really have disciplines or the ability to learn them properly, though can still pull off some minor discipline effects if they taste another vampire's blood (a dangerous prospect for obvious reasons). Instead they're giving a discipline called thin blooded alchemy, which allows them to make concotions to counterfeit other clan powers with a few generic abilities like minor telekinesis, levitation or creating a cloud of fog thrown in to not be completely barren of unique, fun shit. They do, however, feel the curse less acutely than full blood kindred in most cases, often not having clan curses, able to eat, drink and fuck to their hearts content and some are even able to walk around in the day without any problems, though alongside that some still have a beast despite having weak blood, heal like a mortal or the inability to grow fangs as the curse doesnt manifest properly. A very common path for thin blooded kindred is either to attempt to become human again (trying the classics of kill the sire and the like) or try to get ahold of a full vampire and commit diablerie, gaining a substantial boost in power at the expense of losing their thin blood merits and taking the clan of their victim in the process.

===[[Toreador]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Arikel
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Celerity, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Suffering in "ugly" surroundings (as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this can take many forms)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Can become mesmerised by something truly beautiful (whether that is a person, a song or even the rising sun)
Still the same mix of artists and poseurs who don't actually know how to make art but sit around criticising other people, the Toreador have changed little from their mean girls routine in earlier editions, embracing those who are beautiful or the hot new thing and dropping them like a drained corpse the next chance they get. The clan is still sticking by the Camarilla, still giving the Nosferatu shit for being ugly and still getting probably more hate than is entirely fair and still crimminally underestimated.

===[[Tremere]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Tremere
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Blood Sorcery (Thaumaturgy by any other name is suprisingly less bullshit), Dominate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Inability to blood bond (fuck yo pyramid)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being perfectionists and needing to get something not just done but done "perfectly"
Oh boy, the Tremere. Where do we begin on the almighty slapping down they recieved? Well, it all began when the second inquisition raided the main Chantry in Vienna, wiping it out with a drone missile and shattering the leadership of the clan (jury is out on if Tremere, currently inhabiting Gotrix's body, manipulated events to see this done or if the SI got lucky). Either as a result of that or the Banu Haqim Methuselah Ur-Shulgi deciding to get a little payback for the curse they levelled at his clan, the Tremere's blood bonds to the pyramid were broken, and the clan as a whold were left without the ability to blood bond kindred (ghouls can be bonded, albeit they need to drink more of the blood over a longer period). Between the destruction of their centralised leadership, the beckoning taking many of the elders out of the picture, the Banu Haqim joining the Camarilla (destroying their monopoly on blood sorcery) and becoming persona non grata in many places when the blood bonds broke, the Tremere are now fighting heavily to find any scrap of old occultish lore and have broken into several houses, all opposed. The houses are the loyalists under Karl Schrekt, Carna (quasi paganism with a feminist leaning), Gotrix (implied to be run by Tremere himself inhabiting Gotrix's body) and Ipsissimus (who joined the Anarchs). Good news, this means that there are now Tremere among the anarchs, bad (or better news, depending on if you were a fan of Thaumaturgy being a hundred disciplines in one), blood sorcery paths are all but gone, with most of the lore on different paths scattered to the winds, and the ones who know it not being inclined to share now that their clan structure has been subject to a beatdown conga.

===[[Tzimisce]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Tzimisce
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Dominate, Protean (vicissitude hides here now, along with dominate)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs (most still in the sabbat)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Must dwell among something that resonates with them (a particular building, among a certain group of people or even in soil from somewhere they have strong ties to ala Dracula)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Covetousness (taking things for their "hoard", whether thats an item or sculpting their fingers to match someone elses/stealing someones fingers because they're pretty)
Having undergone something of a reestablishment since V20, pains have been taken to reemphasise the more posessive and "lord of the land" elements of the Tzimisce over the Moreau esque body horror elements. Outside of that however, the Tzimisce are the same as they've always been, and the only real change is their numbers among the Anarchs have increased, though most still reside among the sabbat. Vicissitude is no longer its own discipline, and has been rolled into Protean like many other unique disciplines, amalgramed with dominate to "force the flesh to obey their whim". This has the unfortunate effect of changing the fundamental powerset of the Tzimisce and giving them social disciplines despite the often held line of ruling solely through terror, and [[Skub|does spark some debate]].

===[[Ventrue]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Ventru
*'''Disciplines -''' Dominate, Fortitude, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Can only feed on a certain type of people (alcoholics, 20 year old virgins etc), if not their chosen charge they must spend willpower or vomit it up.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Taking charge (take charge and force someone to obey your will without using disciplines like Dominate to do so)
Very much the same as they've always been. Same bunch of pricks richer than you and better dressed than you but with the added caveat that they do still run the Camarilla and do their job well, because someone's gotta keep an entire society of predators wearing human faces and backstabbing each other in line. Not to say they're completely dismissive of other kindred and clans, they just know that every gear has its place in the political machine, and will make alliances as necessary to keep things running and to step up in the world. Have a lot of soft power among kine, especially where the business world is concerned, and often embrace among the sucessful (businessmen and politicians are often seen as the best investments). Their bane is still the same but has been expanded, Ventrue are now slightly able to tell if someone is to their taste.

==Sects==

Still the same sects (ish) but with differences with ann the radical changes in V5.

===[[Camarilla]]===
The Camarilla, long the bastion of kindred society and considering all vampires under their rules, got fucked from several angles at the beginning of V5. The Gangrel had already left after Justicar Xavier wasnt taken seriously about the Antedeluvians. Then the beckoning starts to take their Elders and Princes away, leading to a lot of the old powerbase departing for parts unknown and creating a power vacuum. In addition, when ShreckNET got compromised and the Second inquisition rose up, the camarilla promptly panicked, blamed the Anarchs and banned all electronic communication. Never mind that a lot of Elders used law enforcement or even honest to caine hunters as an attack dog to sic on their rivals, contributing to a lot of the information that the SI had to work with.

Following this, the Camarilla decided to place stricter rules and membership becomes more exclusive, formally banning caitiff vampires in the sect and cracking down harder and harder on the anarchs before Theo Bell, Archon, anarch sympathizer and brujah representative, declared enough was enough and blew Hardestadt, inner circle member and the defacto leader of the camarilla, to pieces with a shotgun at the Conclave of Prague, taking the Brujah and moving most of the clan to the Anarchs.

Despite their powerbase shrinking and the Camarilla becoming more of an exclusive club, several clans petitioned to join in the wake of all the chaos that followed the Gehenna war. The Banu Haqim were granted the ability to join as a clan, and about half the Lasombra defected from the Sabbat and were allowed in on a case by case basis, often trading favours in exchange for entrance. This began in Chicago and will likely continue to be adopted in other areas, assuming the Lasombra don't fuck the place over. The Ministry, formerly known as the Followers of Set, were rejected from joining, so decided to join the sect more likely to appreciate [[futurama RPG|blackjack and hookers]].

Between this and the death of the end of the party line that the Antedeluvians are simply myths, the Camarilla of the present is a very different beast, and are arguably regressing to the tactics of the Elders that spawned the first anarch revolt, locking their doors and allowing the Anarchs to bear the brunt of the SI purges while they try to avoid detection and wait out the storm.

===[[Anarchs]]===
Following the Camarilla closing its doors to all but exceptional kindred and the response from Theo Bell, the Anarchs have split off into their own sect proper. The average Anarch city is a mess of gang violence without anyone holding enough power to make Anarchs behave and usually either follows the trend of "the barons are just as bad as the princes" or Sabbat wearing anarchy symbols as the kindred form into gangs and fight nightly for territory, usually both.

Not to say that going Anarch has no benefits. Sure life is tougher and fighting is rampant but night to night you have a little more freedom. The barons generally are slightly better than the Princes of old, and likely wont demand your fealty or gifts of blood so long as you stay out of their way, plus with a slightly more democratic leaning being a complete bastard is discouraged. However, with no obligation to be fair and even less in the way of oversight if you're not popular, you're at the mercy of other vampires and can expect little in the way of actual support or recourse.

Unteathered from the Camarilla, they've come into their own, for better of worse. Thin bloods and Caitiff have, being generally persceuted by the Camarilla, flocked to the Anarchs in the face of the Camarilla becoming even more hostile to them. The Gangrel, originally simply independant, have joined up with the Anarchs too, as did the Ministry and Brujah clans. Heck, even a load of younger Tzimisce have latched onto the sect. They also made some territory gains of their own (retaking California and usurping London and a few other cities).

V5 seems to be intent on building the Anarchs into the proper rivals to the Camarilla in the face of moving the Sabbat out of the limelight and in fairness, a lot of people are okay with it. Many considered the Sabbat to be comically evil and with the depth of a puddle(then again the Anarchs arnt exactly chomsky with fangs). It helps that the unique clans most people wanted to play are no longer consigned to a sect that considers skinning people for the lulz to be a sacred practice. However, there are obviously people who believe that its horseshit that the entireity of vampiric society rapidly changed over the course of a decade when it had stayed mostly stable for so long.

===[[The Sabbat]]===
In the wake of the Beckoning bringing elders all to one place, the Sabbat abandoned their cities and prepared to kick the shit out of the elders, seeing it as a massive buffet. Details on what the Gehenna war looks like are sketchy, but from snippets here and there, its not going well, and attrition rates among the Sabbat are high. Not that majority of them care, but in the wake of this, about half the Lasombra promptly left to join the Camarilla, presumably now fightened of actually doing the thing that their entire sect was born to do.

Presumably there are pockets of Sabbat here and there, the ones who didn't answer the call to war, but the books have completely shifted attention from them. Presumably because being a vampiric shitbag, using disciplines in the open and creating a trail of bodies can and will lead the SI to you, and no matter how badass you are, getting your haven burned down in the middle of the day will probably kill you, or at least ruin your day.

Luckily, running Sabbat isn't too difficult. With the touchstones and tenets system you can spoof most paths, Sabbat ritae have been homebrewed and it isnt too hard to create a plot where they are hanging around (or even run a gehenna war game). You could even do a pre beckoning game if you wish.

==Disciplines==
Your good old "clan powers" that have been in the game since the beginning, but with a change. In the old days of pre v5, there were far more disciplines, and all bar 4 clans had a unique discipline. Many of them also only had one power per level until you got to level 6 and above One of the biggest (or at least one of the most debated) changes was the devs scrapping unique disciplines and levels 6 and above in favour of turning a lot of signature discipline abilities into amalgrams (combo powers that need 2 disciplines at varying levels to use), shuffling some of the more interesting and thematic upper level powers into lower slots amd providing players with multiple powers to pick from at every level of the power (even in the physical disciplines, which until now were purely one power each that just got better with more dots). While this article is at the risk of overusing skub as a descriptor, there really is no other word for the ensuring reaction to the amalgram change, more so than probably any other changes.

On the one hand, amalgrams were meant as a way to reduce or eliminate the classic problem of people begging to play a specific clan purely for the clan unique discipline and in many cases, does help with that. There has been a shift in the internal logic of the discipline powers from making them a very rigid thing to more of an umbrella for a certain family of varied abilities (obfuscate as perception and sensory fuckery vs "this family of powers helps me hide") with some of the more unique disciplines explained as different ways of using the same toolkit or mutations of the powers by mixing their abilities with others (chimestry is obfuscate + presence to manipulate someones perceptions and then convince them its not fake, while vicissitude is protean + dominate to "command the flesh to obey the kindred's whims").

It also trimmed out a lot of powers that only existed to fill out a discipline spread (a few of dementations powers got axed this way), damn near scrapped others that arguably only existed to make an independent clan special (Serpentis) and prevented others from feeling like 5 different abilities that didn't act as a progression of the same family of powers (Serpentis again, or arguably Quietus). This, twinned with every level having several powers means that even with the exact same discipline sets and dots, no 2 characters will likely have the same abilities.

However with the limit of "only 5 dots in any power" and the fact that several more unique discipline abilities can take up a large chunk of the discipline its been rolled into, can leave some players feeling rather limited, and if you wanted say, good amount of vicissitude but also wanted to purchase Earth Meld, you're gonna either lose out on a vicissitude power somewhere along the way or blow your level 5 slot on it. Plus the issue of several amalgram requirements being held by several clans at once (both the ministry and ravnos can use chimestry while Valeran is usable by the tremere) and some people citing that now there is no reason to pick certain clans over others or that the loss of the discipline as a unique discipline takes away from the identity of the clan.

===Animalism===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Tzimisce
As should be expected, Animalism is your bag of abilities that pertains to messing around with animals. As most animals can tell there's something off about kindred this can be very useful for not setting off alarm bells and helping a vampire go incognito. Has the usual mix of talking to animals, commanding them or even possessing them, as well as some powers that pertain to the beast.
===Auspex===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Malkavians, Salubri, Toreador, Tremere.
Your typical "ESP" toolkit. Takes the form of better senses, seeing unseen stuff (vampire disciplines that are normally hidden), moves onto auras and goes into psychometry, full telepathy and the like. Strangely, while most disciplines had several powers shuffled into lower levels, many of auspex' most signature abilities (aura reading and spirits touch) went up a level.
===Blood Sorcery===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Tremere.
Thaumaturgy mixed with Quietus. Even with amalgrams and the birth of multiple powers per discipline level, the days of the Thaumaturgy path whore tremere are over. Rituals still exist for a number of abilities, however the discipline as a whole is more focused on manipulating vitae for a variety of effects and less on being straight magic jury rigged to run on vitae.
===Celerity===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Brujah, Toreador.
Your vampiric super speed and dexterity based powers. No longer stupid broken after v5 realised finally that giving people a discipline that allowed you to attack extra times a turn is busted in combat. Focuses on a mix of extremely refined dexterity (deadshot accuracy or perfect balance) and maneuvering powers (your flash style super speed, up to and including running up surfaces or on water).
===Dominate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Lasombra, Malkavians, Salubri, Tremere, Tzimisce, Ventrue.
Still the same old "stare into their eyes and command them" mind control power. One of the most common disciplines now, and an amalgrim for a fair few disciplines. Fuck about with memories, give people commands they must follow or even implant a directive deep into their minds and build an army of sleeper agents. Makes people obedient but dumb robots, unlike presence which turns people into slavishly loyal devotees.
===Fortitude===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Hecata, Salubri, Ventrue.
Probably once one of the most underwhelming "basic" powers, fortitude has been revamped into an actual discipline tree instead of an expensive and medicore power that was often dismissed until you accidentally pissed off a gangrel. Ties into the vampires nature as an unchanging monster. Obviously deals with soaking damage, but also has abilities that adds resilience for mind control, prevents the user from being knocked down or even make weapons shatter against you. Also where the healing powers of the salubri went (amalgrimated with Auspex).
===Obfuscate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Ravnos, The Ministry.
Obfuscate, despite being expanded to include other trickery, is suprisingly still very focused on its regular powerset. Majority of powers have to do with things like hiding and decieving people into thinking you're either not there or you're someone else at higher levels, perfect for the Nosferatu, and also include things like obfuscating items or turning the interior of a place into a maze by warping the layout in their perceptions. V5 ended up slotting the chimestry abilities into this discipline, using presence as an amalgram.
===Oblivion===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Void (the lack of resonance)
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Lasombra.
The powers of Obtenebration plus Necromancy rolled into one discipline. In one of the more controversial changes to the lore junkies, the old obtenebration powers now deal almost entirely with the realm of the dead as opposed to the psuedo-alive shadow realm of previous editions. Like blood sorcery, Oblivion contained a plethora of rituals, mostly surrounding the more necromantic side of the disicipline. Really feels like 2 disciplines slapped into one set, with one side dealing with shadow manipulation and one dealing with affeceting the dead or channeling entropy itself. Uniquely of all disciplines, it can cause stains the more you use it as the unnatural power taints the user.

===Potence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Lasombra, Nosferatu.
Like Celerity and Fortitude, Potence now has powers at each level, creating a mix of powers that pertain to combat prowess and some that are more traversal or utility based (the power to jump higher and further or climb walls by punching handholds). This is also now one of the more important combat disciplines again, with the 5 dot power (fist of caine) the only way to do unarmed aggravated damage with the nerf to protean's "Feral Claws".
===Presence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Ravnos, The Ministry, Toreador, Ventrue.
The velvet glove to Dominate's iron fist, presence allows the vampire to turn people into their slavish devotees and uber fans. Unlike Dominate, it doesn't strip the free will from the target, allowing for the thrall to use their own initative when doing your bidding. It also tends to affect crowds vs dominate's single target focus (but is more about pulling on emotions than it is crushing down someones free will). This does come with the double edged sword that overuse on subjects can turn them into obsessive stalkers who can and will murder each other for your attention.
===Protean===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal Blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Ministry, Tzimisce.
Vampire transformation powers of various different stripes. Transform your eyes to see in the dark, fuse with the earth to escape the sun, become an animal or turn into a cloud of mist to sneak into places that arent completely air tight. Notably, feral claws, a power that has been a staple of combat vampires forever, has had the aggravated damage dealing to kindred element stripped out, making it less of an auto include. This is also where Serpentis and Visissitude ended up going.
===Thin Blood Alchemy===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Varies (depending on the recipe).
*'''Held by: ''' Thin Bloods
Cooking by the book. Thin bloods can't learn disciplines due to the curse being too weak to allow for these changes, however what they do have is thin blood alchemy, more akin to a list of rituals and potion brewing to allow for the user to produce and counterfeit a number of effects. Most of it is recipes to mimic other discipline powers, however some basic abilities (change someones body, minor displays of telekinesis or flying) are thrown in too. As its not a native power of "the vitae" it doesnt progress like a regular discipline, and requires the thin blood to research, experiment or get the recipe from another source (and can become plot points for long spanning chronicles on and of themselves), albeit it does require set up beforehand (you generally cant just say "I brewed the levitation potion" just because you need to escape to another building from the roof). There are 3 ways to run the power, mixing the ingredients yourself in a cauldron, drinks mixer or whatever else the user wants to use, drinking all the ingredients yourself to mix them in your own body or force feeding someone the ingredients and feeding on them. Not usable by vampires, making it the closest thing to a "clan unique discipline" in V5.

==The Second Inquisition==
==Ghouls and Revenants==
==Who Has the Rights to V5?==
==See Also==
==External Links==
* [https://www.worldofdarkness.com/news/category/vtm/ VTM News Page]
* [http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness World of Darkness wiki]

[[Category:White Wolf]]
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:World of Darkness]]
{{WoD-Games}}

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition

2021-06-24T09:52:46Z

2A00:23C5:120A:C100:8D1F:6FA4:AFB5:8728: /* Anarchs */

{{skub}}

{{Game Infobox
|name = Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
|picture = [[File:VTM V5 Logo.jpg|250px]]
|type = [[Role-playing game]]
|system = [[Storyteller System]]
|publisher = [[White Wolf]]
|authors = Kenneth Hite, [[Mark Rein·Hagen]], Matthew Dawkins, Juhanna Peterson, Martin Ericsson, Karim Muammar
|year = 2018
|books = Vampire: The Masquerade Core Rulebook
}}
The premier [[Vampire: The Masquerade|vampire RPG]] rises once more from its resting place once more. Although subject to many [[skub]]tastic debates, this new edition has found popularity with newcomers to the series. This edition is usually abbreviated as VTM V5, or just V5, to differentiate it from D&D 5E.

The rules are lighter now, gas tank vampires are no more, and as always the clock has edged closer to midnight (AKA Gehenna).

==Modern Fluff==
The quick and dirty summary is that the Camarilla has weakened, some clans switched around in the sects, and the Sabbat are fighting Camarilla elders in the Middle East in the Gehenna War. Also, the inquisition is back and now has connections with the alphabet soup agencies because the NSA got into Schrecknet, revealing kindred society to a degree. This led to such events as the Tremere Vienna Chantry getting blown up and the Camarilla forgoing the use of modern technology for sensitive communication. The Second Inquisition believes kindred suffer from "the blank body virus", named for the absence of body heat seen when a vampire walks in front of a thermal camera.

All the above has led to kindred cities being run by much younger kindred than usual. The stranglehold elders had has loosened as they are summoned to the Middle East by a psych-spiritual call known as the Beckoning. There are a lot more thin bloods too, and most full-blooded vampires still don't like them.

==Rules==
V5 uses a dice pool system made up of D10s. The number of dots you have in skills, stats, and other modifiers are added together. The total is the number of D10s rolled for a test. If you get enough high results you succeed.

The unique part of the new rules is the hunger dice system. This replaces the blood points system (AKA gas tank/mana pool vampires). When waking up each night or using some disciplines you must make a rouse check by rolling a D10. A roll of 6 or higher is a success, and hunger does not increase. If the result is less than 6, hunger increases by one. Hunger ranges from 0-5, but the only way to get to 0 is to feed on a person until they die, otherwise, the minimum is 1. Hunger dice replace a number of dice in each test equal to your current hunger. Depending on the successes and failures in a roll and how much of each come from hunger dice, a beastial failure or messy critical could occur. This could result in giving in to a compulsion or behaving inhumanly, such as biting and starting to feed on someone that you meant to just attack.

In addition, feeding has been codified into a more streamlined system, where a vampire will pick a predator type at chargen. They can obviously feed however they like, and in theory the player can likely go without one, however each one give a plethora of advantages (free merits and a boost in dots to certain disciplines and skills) and disadvantages (several of them come with prey exclusions or the like) that its generally a good idea to take one you're well suited to. Each one is roughly balanced, with the stronger benefits coming with stronger downsides. For example the blood leech type, which requires that the vampire feeds on other kindred exclusively leads to having higher blood potency and an immunity to blood bonds, but comes with the price of being unable to feed on mortals and being viewed with suspicion at absolute best. Meanwhile the Bagger type means you sneak around and feed exclusively on blood bags, which gives you the ability to nourish yourself better on dead blood, but there's probably a reason you stick to sneaking into the hospital.

Some of the attributes have been swapped out (notably appearance, the most useless attribute in wod), the abilities list is trimmed slightly, and morality has been changed, aping the touchstones system from VTR and allowing players to decide the commandments that actually matter to the character instead of choosing between generic humanity or begging the storyteller to allowing them to use a Path of Edgelightenment.

Disciplines work a bit differently now. A standout difference is amalgam powers. They require dots in two disciplines to be accessed. In the wake of this, some disciplines have been reduced to a couple amalgram powers that require dsiciplines the clan has as standard (making serpentis a variant of protean with some presence requirements, Chimestry is now a presence and obfuscate amalgram etc). [[skub|This has provoked a lot of passionate debate]]. In addition, there are now normally multiple powers for each level of a discipline that you must choose from (or pick a power from a lower level, and 6+ powers have been scrapped (some wrapped into the upper levels of the discipline, others just purged). As a result the disciplines are all limited to 5 dots, preventing someone from getting every power from a discipline.

Finally, the game has added in loresheets, specific backgrounds that provide a mix of benefits, and represent anything from connections to an influential kindred or organisation to specific bloodline heritage. Uniquely of the backgrounds, they're not a linear progression of buffs (and buying the 2nd level of a loresheet doesn't give you the benefits of the first) and many of them are clan specific, however all their abilities are powerful or give you temporary access to other merits worth more than the dots on the sheet, albeit are often limited to certain situations.

==Books==
* Core Book: It has the rules, GMing guidance, some statblocks for NPCs, items, coterie creation, etc. Clans: Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue, Caitiff, and Thinbloods.
* Anarch Sourcebook: Anarch lore and rules for playing The Ministry (formerly the Followers of Set).
* Camarilla Sourcebook: Camarilla lore and rules for playing the Banu Haqim (formerly the Assamites).
* Fall of London: Chronicle set in 2012 about the eradication of kindred in London by the Second Inquisition.
* Chicago by Night: Sourcebook for running games in Chicago. Contains the rules for playing Lasombra.
* The Chicago Folios: Even more stuff about Chicago.
* V5 Companion: A free PDF with rules for Ravnos, Salubri, and Tzimisce. Also includes a section regarding how vampires of each clan feel about coteries along with a clan coterie merit available to be purchased at character creation. Section 3 has rules for playing mortals and ghouls. The final section contains errata and rules updates to be included in future printings (but not the upcoming July 2021 Renegade Games reprint, for some reason).
* Cults of the Blood Gods: All about vampire religion. Includes a bunch of existing cults as well as rules for making your own as a GM. Includes rules for the Hecata, the new necromancy clan that was formed by a merger of Giovanni, Cappodician, Nagaraja, and a few others in 2018. They are the last remaining independent clan.
==Clans==
In the wake of V5's release and the reshuffling of the sects, a number of clans have undergone some revisions, some minor (the tzimisce, barring disciipline spread), others major (the ravnos or salubri). Bloodlines, while theoreteically still there, are mostly scrapped, and the ones that still appear (such as the specific members of the Hecata) are often consigned to loresheets (many old bloodlines have been ported to fan made loresheets by the community).

===[[Banu Haqim]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Haqim
*'''Disciplines -''' Blood Sorcery (get fucked Tremere), Celerity, Obfuscate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Vitae Addiction (once you taste a drop, you just can't stop).
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Judgement (if someone goes against their personal ideals they're compelled to punish them).
Following the shitstorm that is the beckoning dragging the elders and the sabbat to the Middle East, the Assimites (really named Banu Haqim, with Assimites being a name that westerners called them) petitioned to join the Camarilla, which the Camarilla needed after the Brujah and Gangrel fucked off in the midst of feeling unappreciated and ignored, so it works out for both of them. In addition, Ur-Shulgi stopping the Tremere curse of vitae allergy is still canon, and they got the last laugh by wiping out the tremere's ability to blood bond (which, in fairness, the Tremere were overdue getting truly slapped down for their bullshit). Otherwise they're still the prime "executioner/assassin" clan, and most are likely to be some kind of law enforcement or even former military in life. Their old signature discipline of Quietus got nixed into blood sorcery, reactions are mixed to positive.

===[[Brujah]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Troile
*'''Disciplines -''' Celerity, Potence, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Prone to frenzy.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Rebellion (gotta fight whatever the status quo is, even if its a system that works or even benefits them).
Still the same mix of idealist philosophers preaching about politics and entitled kids who wanna fight "the man" for imposing rules without understanding why the rules are there or even an idea of what to replace those rules with. Finally gave up the goose and just joined the Anarchs wholesale, though some still reside in the Camarilla. Still generally a slave to their emotions and will likely never be happy in any system they are a part of, but hey, at least now they can play paintball with 9mm handguns and know they have freedom, while they fight and kill each other every night in gang warfare.

===[[Caitiff]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' None
*'''Disciplines -''' Varies (pick 3 at gargen)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' No in clan disciplines (though all disciplines cost 6X xp costs) and being considered lesser by most other kindred.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' None.
Not a clan, more the absense of a clan. Through quirk of blood sometimes a newly embraced vampire just doesn't show any traits inherant to their parent clan. Generally considered a mark of shame, they usually get the short end of the stick and are afforded little actual respect. Some try to argue they're purer than other kindred as "Caine had no clan", but this usually ends in the offending kindred getting their teeth kicked in. As a result, many of them join the anarchs, which while a shitshow at times they're often at least less likely to get completely disregarded. As is to be expected, no 2 caitiff are alike. Luckily for STs, with the end of clan unique disciplines and the birth of amalgrams, there are no more "Thaumaturgy, Visissitude and Chimestry" discipline spread caitiff being made, albeit people making vampires emulating another clan to get the unique amalgrams without the clan weakness is still a thing, its just more costly to do so (as it takes 2 discipline slots instead of 1). STs should still feel free to tell those powergamers to fuck off.

===[[Gangrel]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Ennoia
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Fortitude, Protean
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' After frenzying, they begin to generally appear more bestial (sounding or looking more animalistic), these often fade in time, but can make them a walking masquerade breech in time
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Acting like an animal (short tempter, compulsion to snap and fight people and generally being fucked in social situations at times).
The fluff from V20 still holds true, and they have still fucked off the Camarilla in preference to independance, albeit with any clan, exceptions exist. Still your group of nomadic and slightly aloof drifters, probably more so after they left. Funnily, since V5 changed protean, they're no longer the go to "fighters" now, as feral claws no longer do aggravated damage. The various bloodlines that spawned from the Gangrel are still around somewhere, just with bloodlines no longer really a thing, they don't get much of a look in.

===[[Giovanni|Hacata]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Cappadocius/Augustus Giovanni/Hecate (their Antediluvians gets diablerised a lot)
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex (or dominate), Fortitude, Oblivion
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant (kind of a sect of their own, its dumb, see below)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Their Kiss hurts like a motherfucker, looks bad and heals slowly (can trade out for looking like 2 flavours of corpse, or needing to eat flesh as well as drink blood).
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being morbid and spookily fortelling someones death (telling that someone is sick or their recklessness will catch up with them someday).
After the death/disappearance of Angustus Giovanni, and a 500 year agreement with the camarilla coming to a close, the Giovanni reunited with the Cappadocians remnants (the clan they stole their clan status from), the Lamia (the Cappadocian's assistants) the Samedi (vampires that look like rotting corpses, and implied to be either a Giovanni experiment or a Cappadocian offshoot) and the Nagaraja (a clan of double fucked vampires who eat peoples flesh as well as blood, and happen to have skill in necromancy) to form a weird blend of sect and clan called the Hecata. Necromancy, while rolled into the discipline Oblivion, is still effectively there, albeit they can also access some lasombra powers in the mix. The subsequent ritual and agreement unified their flaw into the giovanni's painful bite, though some still have their old flaws in some manner. People have mixed opinions on both of these changes, and it is often considered to be the most sloppy change that V5 implemented. But hey, at least now you can have a necromantic vampire without having to run them as an incestuous cousin fucker or walking corpse.

===[[Lasombra]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Lasombra
*'''Disciplines -''' Dominate, Oblivion (obtenebration by any other name), Potence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla (yes, I know)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Their reflections and video images are all distorted and fucked up (but wont hide their identity), also technology reacts weirdly with them
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being unable to accept they failed at something, if they do they gotta reattempt it to get it right.
The shitshow in the east has caused many Lasombra to get out of the Sabbat and join up with the Camarilla, often delivering their elders as a peace offering. Undoubtably still trying some kind of power play (given the long spanning rivalry with the Ventrue) though the Camarilla is still happy to have them aboard in the wake of their show of good faith (stop laughing). Their old power of obtenebration has been rolled into one of the new disciplines V5 spawned, albeit with the most defining powers (arms of the abyss, hopping from shadow to shadow etc) made into amalgrams. Their bane has also been changed, and now instead of just not casting reflections/images on cameras (a weakness that too many used to their advantage to break into places), now technology is just screwly around them: microphones don't pick up their voice properly and images of them are distorted but still recognisable as them, not to mention security system seem to pick up their weirdness better. As a result, Lasombra often have a ghoul or two doing their phone calls. It does however mean historical Lasombra had no clan flaw prior to modern day.

===[[Malkavian]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Malkav
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Dominate (dementation is here), Obfuscate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' They all nuts in some form. Some can still function, while others are too far gone and institutionalized.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Going completely delusional (akin to a break from reality)
Malkavians are still the same crowd of absolute nutjobs, ranging the gamut of mental illness, still running the whole spectrum of typical embraces. Still having annoying players trying to create lolrandom chaotic stupid makavians because "LOL SO CRAZY!!1!". The only real change besides the addition of their compulsion (which isnt really anything special) is the dissolution of dementation as its own discipline, with their more unique powers being rolled into amalgrams for both Auspex (for extrasensory powers) and Dominate (for straight mindfuck abilities). Meanwhile lore wise they changed very little, and haven't done much new of significance or suffered any major setback.

===[[Nosferatu]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Absimiliard
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Looking fuck ugly, potentally (but not always anymore) being constituted as an automatic masquerade breech when they're seen "au natural".
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Compulsion to aqquire secrets.
Nosferatu have changed a little, with their old clan bane going from the old days of Orlock clones and automatic masquerade breeches upon sight, to being disfigured but not to the point of impossibility in many cases (some are still unlucky enough that they can't be seen) though this is more a gameplay thing than a story thing. Hiding their obviously fucked up appearance is now harder for them in addition, getting worse the more powerful their blood is. As for Lore, the sewer rats big information network (ShreckNET) got hacked by the NSA and helped give a large swathe of information regarding vampires to the second inquisition. With no other option, the Nos sadly pulled the plug and started dismantling it, some using their extensive technical prowess to try and purge any kindred presence on the net. They've since taken a huge hit to their credibility as a result, and the information sharing network to keep an eye out for the Nictuku is pretty screwed, though they're still considered very valuable thanks to their expertise and tenancy to aqquire secrets.

===[[Ravnos]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Zapathasura
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Obfuscate (Chimestry is here), Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Staying in one place for too long leads to them slowly burning like they got hit by the sun, no matter how light tight their haven.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being a daredevil and taking the riskiest solution to a problem.
Week of nightmares still happened, and as a result the Ravnos are still basically fucked. The death of Zapathasura has changed the survivours to basically be chased by the sun, and if they stay in one place for more than a couple nights, they start to wake up with aggravated damage. Some live in mobile havens, some setup a bunch of buildings in the same city, and some use their new enforced nomadic lifestyle to stay ahead of kindred threats. Their power of Chimestry has been rolled into obfuscate, using presence as an amalgram, and is generally weaker. As with all the changes, this has been a source of [[Skub]], especially when the chimestry amalgrams are available to the Ministry (due to the required spread being in clan for both). Generally however, the changes to bane and the implementation of their compulsion has at least been met favourably, and goes a long way to stamping out the racism argument that has followed the Ravnos since their inception.

===[[Salubri]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Saulot
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Dominate (Obeah), Fortitude
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Salubri blood is more addictive to kindred, in addition they have a third eye that weeps vitae when they use a discipline power, making subtle discipline use damn near impossible
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Helping people and easing suffering
The only good guy vampire clan, and they've gone through a number of changes mechanically, if not fluff wise(they are still very similar to what they were, and even after the Anarchs established themselves as their own real sect they still stay in hiding) which many people aren't happy with. For one, their bane is now a reverse Banu Haqim flaw, instead of the old consentual feeding flaw they used to have. In addition, their old ability set of healing people or pulling a soul out to mend it has now been locked to vampires only (the creatures that have pushed them around and shat on them for centuries) and split into amalgrams across their entire discipline spread. Some like that this makes them less "too good for this sinful earth" while others feel it ruins the point of one of the only inherantly "good" vampire clans getting wiped out and goes against their "no good deed goes unpunished" schtick. As always, YMMV.

===[[Followers of Set|The Ministry]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Set
*'''Disciplines -''' Obfuscate, Presence, Protean (hello Serpentis)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Extreme light sensitivity, atificial light make it hard for them to do things, and sunlight does more damage depending on how powerful their blood is.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Tempting people to indulge in sin and break their own tenets
Formerly known as the Followers of set, or the Setites, the clan rebranded as the Ministry (except African and Egyptian kindred), both to shed some of the old reputation and as a transition of their beliefs from trying to awaken Set to believing Set resides within them (given they are of Set's blood and one of the Gehenna scenarios back along had Set already be dead, it may be a reflection of this). Still all about the vice and temptation, they, like the Banu Haqim decided that with everyone invading the middle east and causing the area to become a rampant shitstorm of kindred on kindred violence, they needed protection of a major sect. Despite petitioning to join the camarilla, they were refused and so went with the backup choice of the Anarchs. Serpentis, often regarded as just "protean wearing a wig" has now just been rolled into Protean with their meserise ability now an amalgram between it and presence. Often operating as spiritual enlightenment gurus in coteries, they are normally seen as the "I know a guy" clan (dealing in vice to differ them from the Ventrue). Still seem to be an odd mix of clan and sect, if some Samedi stragglers joining up with their structure is anything to go by.

===[[Thin Blood]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' None
*'''Disciplines -''' Thin-Blood Alchemy
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Varies (pick at creation)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' None
Much like Caitiff, a thin blood is not really a clan, its more the result of being embraced by a vampire who's too many generations removed from Caine. Like the caitiff, the thin bloods are generally shunned and the eternal whipping boys of kindred society. The Camarilla can and will murder them on sight (or, in kinder places, brand them with a hot iron like cattle), while the Anarchs treatment of them ranges the entire spectrum (like with all things Anarchs) of pity, bullying or even just straight killing them. They don't really have disciplines or the ability to learn them properly, though can still pull off some minor discipline effects if they taste another vampire's blood (a dangerous prospect for obvious reasons). Instead they're giving a discipline called thin blooded alchemy, which allows them to make concotions to counterfeit other clan powers with a few generic abilities like minor telekinesis, levitation or creating a cloud of fog thrown in to not be completely barren of unique, fun shit. They do, however, feel the curse less acutely than full blood kindred in most cases, often not having clan curses, able to eat, drink and fuck to their hearts content and some are even able to walk around in the day without any problems, though alongside that some still have a beast despite having weak blood, heal like a mortal or the inability to grow fangs as the curse doesnt manifest properly. A very common path for thin blooded kindred is either to attempt to become human again (trying the classics of kill the sire and the like) or try to get ahold of a full vampire and commit diablerie, gaining a substantial boost in power at the expense of losing their thin blood merits and taking the clan of their victim in the process.

===[[Toreador]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Arikel
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Celerity, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Suffering in "ugly" surroundings (as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this can take many forms)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Can become mesmerised by something truly beautiful (whether that is a person, a song or even the rising sun)
Still the same mix of artists and poseurs who don't actually know how to make art but sit around criticising other people, the Toreador have changed little from their mean girls routine in earlier editions, embracing those who are beautiful or the hot new thing and dropping them like a drained corpse the next chance they get. The clan is still sticking by the Camarilla, still giving the Nosferatu shit for being ugly and still getting probably more hate than is entirely fair and still crimminally underestimated.

===[[Tremere]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Tremere
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Blood Sorcery (Thaumaturgy by any other name is suprisingly less bullshit), Dominate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Inability to blood bond (fuck yo pyramid)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being perfectionists and needing to get something not just done but done "perfectly"
Oh boy, the Tremere. Where do we begin on the almighty slapping down they recieved? Well, it all began when the second inquisition raided the main Chantry in Vienna, wiping it out with a drone missile and shattering the leadership of the clan (jury is out on if Tremere, currently inhabiting Gotrix's body, manipulated events to see this done or if the SI got lucky). Either as a result of that or the Banu Haqim Methuselah Ur-Shulgi deciding to get a little payback for the curse they levelled at his clan, the Tremere's blood bonds to the pyramid were broken, and the clan as a whold were left without the ability to blood bond kindred (ghouls can be bonded, albeit they need to drink more of the blood over a longer period). Between the destruction of their centralised leadership, the beckoning taking many of the elders out of the picture, the Banu Haqim joining the Camarilla (destroying their monopoly on blood sorcery) and becoming persona non grata in many places when the blood bonds broke, the Tremere are now fighting heavily to find any scrap of old occultish lore and have broken into several houses, all opposed. The houses are the loyalists under Karl Schrekt, Carna (quasi paganism with a feminist leaning), Gotrix (implied to be run by Tremere himself inhabiting Gotrix's body) and Ipsissimus (who joined the Anarchs). Good news, this means that there are now Tremere among the anarchs, bad (or better news, depending on if you were a fan of Thaumaturgy being a hundred disciplines in one), blood sorcery paths are all but gone, with most of the lore on different paths scattered to the winds, and the ones who know it not being inclined to share now that their clan structure has been subject to a beatdown conga.

===[[Tzimisce]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Tzimisce
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Dominate, Protean (vicissitude hides here now, along with dominate)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs (most still in the sabbat)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Must dwell among something that resonates with them (a particular building, among a certain group of people or even in soil from somewhere they have strong ties to ala Dracula)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Covetousness (taking things for their "hoard", whether thats an item or sculpting their fingers to match someone elses/stealing someones fingers because they're pretty)
Having undergone something of a reestablishment since V20, pains have been taken to reemphasise the more posessive and "lord of the land" elements of the Tzimisce over the Moreau esque body horror elements. Outside of that however, the Tzimisce are the same as they've always been, and the only real change is their numbers among the Anarchs have increased, though most still reside among the sabbat. Vicissitude is no longer its own discipline, and has been rolled into Protean like many other unique disciplines, amalgramed with dominate to "force the flesh to obey their whim". This has the unfortunate effect of changing the fundamental powerset of the Tzimisce and giving them social disciplines despite the often held line of ruling solely through terror, and [[Skub|does spark some debate]].

===[[Ventrue]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Ventru
*'''Disciplines -''' Dominate, Fortitude, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Can only feed on a certain type of people (alcoholics, 20 year old virgins etc), if not their chosen charge they must spend willpower or vomit it up.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Taking charge (take charge and force someone to obey your will without using disciplines like Dominate to do so)
Very much the same as they've always been. Same bunch of pricks richer than you and better dressed than you but with the added caveat that they do still run the Camarilla and do their job well, because someone's gotta keep an entire society of predators wearing human faces and backstabbing each other in line. Not to say they're completely dismissive of other kindred and clans, they just know that every gear has its place in the political machine, and will make alliances as necessary to keep things running and to step up in the world. Have a lot of soft power among kine, especially where the business world is concerned, and often embrace among the sucessful (businessmen and politicians are often seen as the best investments). Their bane is still the same but has been expanded, Ventrue are now slightly able to tell if someone is to their taste.

==Sects==

Still the same sects (ish) but with differences with ann the radical changes in V5.

===[[Camarilla]]===
The Camarilla, long the bastion of kindred society and considering all vampires under their rules, got fucked from several angles at the beginning of V5. The Gangrel had already left after Justicar Xavier wasnt taken seriously about the Antedeluvians. Then the beckoning starts to take their Elders and Princes away, leading to a lot of the old powerbase departing for parts unknown and creating a power vacuum. In addition, when ShreckNET got compromised and the Second inquisition rose up, the camarilla promptly panicked, blamed the Anarchs and banned all electronic communication. Never mind that a lot of Elders used law enforcement or even honest to caine hunters as an attack dog to sic on their rivals, contributing to a lot of the information that the SI had to work with.

Following this, the Camarilla decided to place stricter rules and membership becomes more exclusive, formally banning caitiff vampires in the sect and cracking down harder and harder on the anarchs before Theo Bell, Archon, anarch sympathizer and brujah representative, declared enough was enough and blew Hardestadt, inner circle member and the defacto leader of the camarilla, to pieces with a shotgun at the Conclave of Prague, taking the Brujah and moving most of the clan to the Anarchs.

Despite their powerbase shrinking and the Camarilla becoming more of an exclusive club, several clans petitioned to join in the wake of all the chaos that followed the Gehenna war. The Banu Haqim were granted the ability to join as a clan, and about half the Lasombra defected from the Sabbat and were allowed in on a case by case basis, often trading favours in exchange for entrance. This began in Chicago and will likely continue to be adopted in other areas, assuming the Lasombra don't fuck the place over. The Ministry, formerly known as the Followers of Set, were rejected from joining, so decided to join the sect more likely to appreciate [[futurama RPG|blackjack and hookers]].

Between this and the death of the end of the party line that the Antedeluvians are simply myths, the Camarilla of the present is a very different beast, and are arguably regressing to the tactics of the Elders that spawned the first anarch revolt, locking their doors and allowing the Anarchs to bear the brunt of the SI purges while they try to avoid detection and wait out the storm.

===[[Anarchs]]===
Following the Camarilla closing its doors to all but exceptional kindred and the response from Theo Bell, the Anarchs have split off into their own sect proper. The average Anarch city is a mess of gang violence without anyone holding enough power to make Anarchs behave and usually either follows the trend of "the barons are just as bad as the princes" or Sabbat wearing anarchy symbols as the kindred form into gangs and fight nightly for territory, usually both.

Not to say that going Anarch has no benefits. Sure life is tougher and fighting is rampant but night to night you have a little more freedom. The barons generally are slightly better than the Princes of old, and likely wont demand your fealty or gifts of blood so long as you stay out of their way, plus with a slightly more democratic leaning being a complete bastard is discouraged. However, with no obligation to be fair and even less in the way of oversight if you're not popular, you're at the mercy of other vampires and can expect little in the way of actual support or recourse.

Unteathered from the Camarilla, they've come into their own, for better of worse. Thin bloods and Caitiff have, being generally persceuted by the Camarilla, flocked to the Anarchs in the face of the Camarilla becoming even more hostile to them. The Gangrel, originally simply independant, have joined up with the Anarchs too, as did the Ministry and Brujah clans. Heck, even a load of younger Tzimisce have latched onto the sect. They also made some territory gains of their own (retaking California and usurping London and a few other cities).

V5 seems to be intent on building the Anarchs into the proper rivals to the Camarilla in the face of moving the Sabbat out of the limelight and in fairness, a lot of people are okay with it. Many considered the Sabbat to be comically evil and with the depth of a puddle(then again the anarch arnt exactly chomsky with fangs). It helps that the unique clans most people wanted to play are no longer consigned to a sect that considers skinning people for the lulz to be a sacred practice. However, there are obviously people who believe that its horseshit that the entireity of vampiric society rapidly changed over the course of a decade when it had stayed mostly stable for so long.

===[[The Sabbat]]===
In the wake of the Beckoning bringing elders all to one place, the Sabbat abandoned their cities and prepared to kick the shit out of the elders, seeing it as a massive buffet. Details on what the Gehenna war looks like are sketchy, but from snippets here and there, its not going well, and attrition rates among the Sabbat are high. Not that majority of them care, but in the wake of this, about half the Lasombra promptly left to join the Camarilla, presumably now fightened of actually doing the thing that their entire sect was born to do.

Presumably there are pockets of Sabbat here and there, the ones who didn't answer the call to war, but the books have completely shifted attention from them. Presumably because being a vampiric shitbag, using disciplines in the open and creating a trail of bodies can and will lead the SI to you, and no matter how badass you are, getting your haven burned down in the middle of the day will probably kill you, or at least ruin your day.

Luckily, running Sabbat isn't too difficult. With the touchstones and tenets system you can spoof most paths, Sabbat ritae have been homebrewed and it isnt too hard to create a plot where they are hanging around (or even run a gehenna war game). You could even do a pre beckoning game if you wish.

==Disciplines==
Your good old "clan powers" that have been in the game since the beginning, but with a change. In the old days of pre v5, there were far more disciplines, and all bar 4 clans had a unique discipline. Many of them also only had one power per level until you got to level 6 and above One of the biggest (or at least one of the most debated) changes was the devs scrapping unique disciplines and levels 6 and above in favour of turning a lot of signature discipline abilities into amalgrams (combo powers that need 2 disciplines at varying levels to use), shuffling some of the more interesting and thematic upper level powers into lower slots amd providing players with multiple powers to pick from at every level of the power (even in the physical disciplines, which until now were purely one power each that just got better with more dots). While this article is at the risk of overusing skub as a descriptor, there really is no other word for the ensuring reaction to the amalgram change, more so than probably any other changes.

On the one hand, amalgrams were meant as a way to reduce or eliminate the classic problem of people begging to play a specific clan purely for the clan unique discipline and in many cases, does help with that. There has been a shift in the internal logic of the discipline powers from making them a very rigid thing to more of an umbrella for a certain family of varied abilities (obfuscate as perception and sensory fuckery vs "this family of powers helps me hide") with some of the more unique disciplines explained as different ways of using the same toolkit or mutations of the powers by mixing their abilities with others (chimestry is obfuscate + presence to manipulate someones perceptions and then convince them its not fake, while vicissitude is protean + dominate to "command the flesh to obey the kindred's whims").

It also trimmed out a lot of powers that only existed to fill out a discipline spread (a few of dementations powers got axed this way), damn near scrapped others that arguably only existed to make an independent clan special (Serpentis) and prevented others from feeling like 5 different abilities that didn't act as a progression of the same family of powers (Serpentis again, or arguably Quietus). This, twinned with every level having several powers means that even with the exact same discipline sets and dots, no 2 characters will likely have the same abilities.

However with the limit of "only 5 dots in any power" and the fact that several more unique discipline abilities can take up a large chunk of the discipline its been rolled into, can leave some players feeling rather limited, and if you wanted say, good amount of vicissitude but also wanted to purchase Earth Meld, you're gonna either lose out on a vicissitude power somewhere along the way or blow your level 5 slot on it. Plus the issue of several amalgram requirements being held by several clans at once (both the ministry and ravnos can use chimestry while Valeran is usable by the tremere) and some people citing that now there is no reason to pick certain clans over others or that the loss of the discipline as a unique discipline takes away from the identity of the clan.

===Animalism===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Tzimisce
As should be expected, Animalism is your bag of abilities that pertains to messing around with animals. As most animals can tell there's something off about kindred this can be very useful for not setting off alarm bells and helping a vampire go incognito. Has the usual mix of talking to animals, commanding them or even possessing them, as well as some powers that pertain to the beast.
===Auspex===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Malkavians, Salubri, Toreador, Tremere.
Your typical "ESP" toolkit. Takes the form of better senses, seeing unseen stuff (vampire disciplines that are normally hidden), moves onto auras and goes into psychometry, full telepathy and the like. Strangely, while most disciplines had several powers shuffled into lower levels, many of auspex' most signature abilities (aura reading and spirits touch) went up a level.
===Blood Sorcery===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Tremere.
Thaumaturgy mixed with Quietus. Even with amalgrams and the birth of multiple powers per discipline level, the days of the Thaumaturgy path whore tremere are over. Rituals still exist for a number of abilities, however the discipline as a whole is more focused on manipulating vitae for a variety of effects and less on being straight magic jury rigged to run on vitae.
===Celerity===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Brujah, Toreador.
Your vampiric super speed and dexterity based powers. No longer stupid broken after v5 realised finally that giving people a discipline that allowed you to attack extra times a turn is busted in combat. Focuses on a mix of extremely refined dexterity (deadshot accuracy or perfect balance) and maneuvering powers (your flash style super speed, up to and including running up surfaces or on water).
===Dominate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Lasombra, Malkavians, Salubri, Tremere, Tzimisce, Ventrue.
Still the same old "stare into their eyes and command them" mind control power. One of the most common disciplines now, and an amalgrim for a fair few disciplines. Fuck about with memories, give people commands they must follow or even implant a directive deep into their minds and build an army of sleeper agents. Makes people obedient but dumb robots, unlike presence which turns people into slavishly loyal devotees.
===Fortitude===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Hecata, Salubri, Ventrue.
Probably once one of the most underwhelming "basic" powers, fortitude has been revamped into an actual discipline tree instead of an expensive and medicore power that was often dismissed until you accidentally pissed off a gangrel. Ties into the vampires nature as an unchanging monster. Obviously deals with soaking damage, but also has abilities that adds resilience for mind control, prevents the user from being knocked down or even make weapons shatter against you. Also where the healing powers of the salubri went (amalgrimated with Auspex).
===Obfuscate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Ravnos, The Ministry.
Obfuscate, despite being expanded to include other trickery, is suprisingly still very focused on its regular powerset. Majority of powers have to do with things like hiding and decieving people into thinking you're either not there or you're someone else at higher levels, perfect for the Nosferatu, and also include things like obfuscating items or turning the interior of a place into a maze by warping the layout in their perceptions. V5 ended up slotting the chimestry abilities into this discipline, using presence as an amalgram.
===Oblivion===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Void (the lack of resonance)
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Lasombra.
The powers of Obtenebration plus Necromancy rolled into one discipline. In one of the more controversial changes to the lore junkies, the old obtenebration powers now deal almost entirely with the realm of the dead as opposed to the psuedo-alive shadow realm of previous editions. Like blood sorcery, Oblivion contained a plethora of rituals, mostly surrounding the more necromantic side of the disicipline. Really feels like 2 disciplines slapped into one set, with one side dealing with shadow manipulation and one dealing with affeceting the dead or channeling entropy itself. Uniquely of all disciplines, it can cause stains the more you use it as the unnatural power taints the user.

===Potence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Lasombra, Nosferatu.
Like Celerity and Fortitude, Potence now has powers at each level, creating a mix of powers that pertain to combat prowess and some that are more traversal or utility based (the power to jump higher and further or climb walls by punching handholds). This is also now one of the more important combat disciplines again, with the 5 dot power (fist of caine) the only way to do unarmed aggravated damage with the nerf to protean's "Feral Claws".
===Presence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Ravnos, The Ministry, Toreador, Ventrue.
The velvet glove to Dominate's iron fist, presence allows the vampire to turn people into their slavish devotees and uber fans. Unlike Dominate, it doesn't strip the free will from the target, allowing for the thrall to use their own initative when doing your bidding. It also tends to affect crowds vs dominate's single target focus (but is more about pulling on emotions than it is crushing down someones free will). This does come with the double edged sword that overuse on subjects can turn them into obsessive stalkers who can and will murder each other for your attention.
===Protean===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal Blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Ministry, Tzimisce.
Vampire transformation powers of various different stripes. Transform your eyes to see in the dark, fuse with the earth to escape the sun, become an animal or turn into a cloud of mist to sneak into places that arent completely air tight. Notably, feral claws, a power that has been a staple of combat vampires forever, has had the aggravated damage dealing to kindred element stripped out, making it less of an auto include. This is also where Serpentis and Visissitude ended up going.
===Thin Blood Alchemy===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Varies (depending on the recipe).
*'''Held by: ''' Thin Bloods
Cooking by the book. Thin bloods can't learn disciplines due to the curse being too weak to allow for these changes, however what they do have is thin blood alchemy, more akin to a list of rituals and potion brewing to allow for the user to produce and counterfeit a number of effects. Most of it is recipes to mimic other discipline powers, however some basic abilities (change someones body, minor displays of telekinesis or flying) are thrown in too. As its not a native power of "the vitae" it doesnt progress like a regular discipline, and requires the thin blood to research, experiment or get the recipe from another source (and can become plot points for long spanning chronicles on and of themselves), albeit it does require set up beforehand (you generally cant just say "I brewed the levitation potion" just because you need to escape to another building from the roof). There are 3 ways to run the power, mixing the ingredients yourself in a cauldron, drinks mixer or whatever else the user wants to use, drinking all the ingredients yourself to mix them in your own body or force feeding someone the ingredients and feeding on them. Not usable by vampires, making it the closest thing to a "clan unique discipline" in V5.

==The Second Inquisition==
==Ghouls and Revenants==
==Who Has the Rights to V5?==
==See Also==
==External Links==
* [https://www.worldofdarkness.com/news/category/vtm/ VTM News Page]
* [http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness World of Darkness wiki]

[[Category:White Wolf]]
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:World of Darkness]]
{{WoD-Games}}

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition

2021-06-24T09:47:20Z

2A00:23C5:120A:C100:8D1F:6FA4:AFB5:8728: /* Toreador */

{{skub}}

{{Game Infobox
|name = Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
|picture = [[File:VTM V5 Logo.jpg|250px]]
|type = [[Role-playing game]]
|system = [[Storyteller System]]
|publisher = [[White Wolf]]
|authors = Kenneth Hite, [[Mark Rein·Hagen]], Matthew Dawkins, Juhanna Peterson, Martin Ericsson, Karim Muammar
|year = 2018
|books = Vampire: The Masquerade Core Rulebook
}}
The premier [[Vampire: The Masquerade|vampire RPG]] rises once more from its resting place once more. Although subject to many [[skub]]tastic debates, this new edition has found popularity with newcomers to the series. This edition is usually abbreviated as VTM V5, or just V5, to differentiate it from D&D 5E.

The rules are lighter now, gas tank vampires are no more, and as always the clock has edged closer to midnight (AKA Gehenna).

==Modern Fluff==
The quick and dirty summary is that the Camarilla has weakened, some clans switched around in the sects, and the Sabbat are fighting Camarilla elders in the Middle East in the Gehenna War. Also, the inquisition is back and now has connections with the alphabet soup agencies because the NSA got into Schrecknet, revealing kindred society to a degree. This led to such events as the Tremere Vienna Chantry getting blown up and the Camarilla forgoing the use of modern technology for sensitive communication. The Second Inquisition believes kindred suffer from "the blank body virus", named for the absence of body heat seen when a vampire walks in front of a thermal camera.

All the above has led to kindred cities being run by much younger kindred than usual. The stranglehold elders had has loosened as they are summoned to the Middle East by a psych-spiritual call known as the Beckoning. There are a lot more thin bloods too, and most full-blooded vampires still don't like them.

==Rules==
V5 uses a dice pool system made up of D10s. The number of dots you have in skills, stats, and other modifiers are added together. The total is the number of D10s rolled for a test. If you get enough high results you succeed.

The unique part of the new rules is the hunger dice system. This replaces the blood points system (AKA gas tank/mana pool vampires). When waking up each night or using some disciplines you must make a rouse check by rolling a D10. A roll of 6 or higher is a success, and hunger does not increase. If the result is less than 6, hunger increases by one. Hunger ranges from 0-5, but the only way to get to 0 is to feed on a person until they die, otherwise, the minimum is 1. Hunger dice replace a number of dice in each test equal to your current hunger. Depending on the successes and failures in a roll and how much of each come from hunger dice, a beastial failure or messy critical could occur. This could result in giving in to a compulsion or behaving inhumanly, such as biting and starting to feed on someone that you meant to just attack.

In addition, feeding has been codified into a more streamlined system, where a vampire will pick a predator type at chargen. They can obviously feed however they like, and in theory the player can likely go without one, however each one give a plethora of advantages (free merits and a boost in dots to certain disciplines and skills) and disadvantages (several of them come with prey exclusions or the like) that its generally a good idea to take one you're well suited to. Each one is roughly balanced, with the stronger benefits coming with stronger downsides. For example the blood leech type, which requires that the vampire feeds on other kindred exclusively leads to having higher blood potency and an immunity to blood bonds, but comes with the price of being unable to feed on mortals and being viewed with suspicion at absolute best. Meanwhile the Bagger type means you sneak around and feed exclusively on blood bags, which gives you the ability to nourish yourself better on dead blood, but there's probably a reason you stick to sneaking into the hospital.

Some of the attributes have been swapped out (notably appearance, the most useless attribute in wod), the abilities list is trimmed slightly, and morality has been changed, aping the touchstones system from VTR and allowing players to decide the commandments that actually matter to the character instead of choosing between generic humanity or begging the storyteller to allowing them to use a Path of Edgelightenment.

Disciplines work a bit differently now. A standout difference is amalgam powers. They require dots in two disciplines to be accessed. In the wake of this, some disciplines have been reduced to a couple amalgram powers that require dsiciplines the clan has as standard (making serpentis a variant of protean with some presence requirements, Chimestry is now a presence and obfuscate amalgram etc). [[skub|This has provoked a lot of passionate debate]]. In addition, there are now normally multiple powers for each level of a discipline that you must choose from (or pick a power from a lower level, and 6+ powers have been scrapped (some wrapped into the upper levels of the discipline, others just purged). As a result the disciplines are all limited to 5 dots, preventing someone from getting every power from a discipline.

Finally, the game has added in loresheets, specific backgrounds that provide a mix of benefits, and represent anything from connections to an influential kindred or organisation to specific bloodline heritage. Uniquely of the backgrounds, they're not a linear progression of buffs (and buying the 2nd level of a loresheet doesn't give you the benefits of the first) and many of them are clan specific, however all their abilities are powerful or give you temporary access to other merits worth more than the dots on the sheet, albeit are often limited to certain situations.

==Books==
* Core Book: It has the rules, GMing guidance, some statblocks for NPCs, items, coterie creation, etc. Clans: Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue, Caitiff, and Thinbloods.
* Anarch Sourcebook: Anarch lore and rules for playing The Ministry (formerly the Followers of Set).
* Camarilla Sourcebook: Camarilla lore and rules for playing the Banu Haqim (formerly the Assamites).
* Fall of London: Chronicle set in 2012 about the eradication of kindred in London by the Second Inquisition.
* Chicago by Night: Sourcebook for running games in Chicago. Contains the rules for playing Lasombra.
* The Chicago Folios: Even more stuff about Chicago.
* V5 Companion: A free PDF with rules for Ravnos, Salubri, and Tzimisce. Also includes a section regarding how vampires of each clan feel about coteries along with a clan coterie merit available to be purchased at character creation. Section 3 has rules for playing mortals and ghouls. The final section contains errata and rules updates to be included in future printings (but not the upcoming July 2021 Renegade Games reprint, for some reason).
* Cults of the Blood Gods: All about vampire religion. Includes a bunch of existing cults as well as rules for making your own as a GM. Includes rules for the Hecata, the new necromancy clan that was formed by a merger of Giovanni, Cappodician, Nagaraja, and a few others in 2018. They are the last remaining independent clan.
==Clans==
In the wake of V5's release and the reshuffling of the sects, a number of clans have undergone some revisions, some minor (the tzimisce, barring disciipline spread), others major (the ravnos or salubri). Bloodlines, while theoreteically still there, are mostly scrapped, and the ones that still appear (such as the specific members of the Hecata) are often consigned to loresheets (many old bloodlines have been ported to fan made loresheets by the community).

===[[Banu Haqim]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Haqim
*'''Disciplines -''' Blood Sorcery (get fucked Tremere), Celerity, Obfuscate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Vitae Addiction (once you taste a drop, you just can't stop).
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Judgement (if someone goes against their personal ideals they're compelled to punish them).
Following the shitstorm that is the beckoning dragging the elders and the sabbat to the Middle East, the Assimites (really named Banu Haqim, with Assimites being a name that westerners called them) petitioned to join the Camarilla, which the Camarilla needed after the Brujah and Gangrel fucked off in the midst of feeling unappreciated and ignored, so it works out for both of them. In addition, Ur-Shulgi stopping the Tremere curse of vitae allergy is still canon, and they got the last laugh by wiping out the tremere's ability to blood bond (which, in fairness, the Tremere were overdue getting truly slapped down for their bullshit). Otherwise they're still the prime "executioner/assassin" clan, and most are likely to be some kind of law enforcement or even former military in life. Their old signature discipline of Quietus got nixed into blood sorcery, reactions are mixed to positive.

===[[Brujah]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Troile
*'''Disciplines -''' Celerity, Potence, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Prone to frenzy.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Rebellion (gotta fight whatever the status quo is, even if its a system that works or even benefits them).
Still the same mix of idealist philosophers preaching about politics and entitled kids who wanna fight "the man" for imposing rules without understanding why the rules are there or even an idea of what to replace those rules with. Finally gave up the goose and just joined the Anarchs wholesale, though some still reside in the Camarilla. Still generally a slave to their emotions and will likely never be happy in any system they are a part of, but hey, at least now they can play paintball with 9mm handguns and know they have freedom, while they fight and kill each other every night in gang warfare.

===[[Caitiff]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' None
*'''Disciplines -''' Varies (pick 3 at gargen)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' No in clan disciplines (though all disciplines cost 6X xp costs) and being considered lesser by most other kindred.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' None.
Not a clan, more the absense of a clan. Through quirk of blood sometimes a newly embraced vampire just doesn't show any traits inherant to their parent clan. Generally considered a mark of shame, they usually get the short end of the stick and are afforded little actual respect. Some try to argue they're purer than other kindred as "Caine had no clan", but this usually ends in the offending kindred getting their teeth kicked in. As a result, many of them join the anarchs, which while a shitshow at times they're often at least less likely to get completely disregarded. As is to be expected, no 2 caitiff are alike. Luckily for STs, with the end of clan unique disciplines and the birth of amalgrams, there are no more "Thaumaturgy, Visissitude and Chimestry" discipline spread caitiff being made, albeit people making vampires emulating another clan to get the unique amalgrams without the clan weakness is still a thing, its just more costly to do so (as it takes 2 discipline slots instead of 1). STs should still feel free to tell those powergamers to fuck off.

===[[Gangrel]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Ennoia
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Fortitude, Protean
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' After frenzying, they begin to generally appear more bestial (sounding or looking more animalistic), these often fade in time, but can make them a walking masquerade breech in time
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Acting like an animal (short tempter, compulsion to snap and fight people and generally being fucked in social situations at times).
The fluff from V20 still holds true, and they have still fucked off the Camarilla in preference to independance, albeit with any clan, exceptions exist. Still your group of nomadic and slightly aloof drifters, probably more so after they left. Funnily, since V5 changed protean, they're no longer the go to "fighters" now, as feral claws no longer do aggravated damage. The various bloodlines that spawned from the Gangrel are still around somewhere, just with bloodlines no longer really a thing, they don't get much of a look in.

===[[Giovanni|Hacata]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Cappadocius/Augustus Giovanni/Hecate (their Antediluvians gets diablerised a lot)
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex (or dominate), Fortitude, Oblivion
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant (kind of a sect of their own, its dumb, see below)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Their Kiss hurts like a motherfucker, looks bad and heals slowly (can trade out for looking like 2 flavours of corpse, or needing to eat flesh as well as drink blood).
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being morbid and spookily fortelling someones death (telling that someone is sick or their recklessness will catch up with them someday).
After the death/disappearance of Angustus Giovanni, and a 500 year agreement with the camarilla coming to a close, the Giovanni reunited with the Cappadocians remnants (the clan they stole their clan status from), the Lamia (the Cappadocian's assistants) the Samedi (vampires that look like rotting corpses, and implied to be either a Giovanni experiment or a Cappadocian offshoot) and the Nagaraja (a clan of double fucked vampires who eat peoples flesh as well as blood, and happen to have skill in necromancy) to form a weird blend of sect and clan called the Hecata. Necromancy, while rolled into the discipline Oblivion, is still effectively there, albeit they can also access some lasombra powers in the mix. The subsequent ritual and agreement unified their flaw into the giovanni's painful bite, though some still have their old flaws in some manner. People have mixed opinions on both of these changes, and it is often considered to be the most sloppy change that V5 implemented. But hey, at least now you can have a necromantic vampire without having to run them as an incestuous cousin fucker or walking corpse.

===[[Lasombra]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Lasombra
*'''Disciplines -''' Dominate, Oblivion (obtenebration by any other name), Potence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla (yes, I know)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Their reflections and video images are all distorted and fucked up (but wont hide their identity), also technology reacts weirdly with them
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being unable to accept they failed at something, if they do they gotta reattempt it to get it right.
The shitshow in the east has caused many Lasombra to get out of the Sabbat and join up with the Camarilla, often delivering their elders as a peace offering. Undoubtably still trying some kind of power play (given the long spanning rivalry with the Ventrue) though the Camarilla is still happy to have them aboard in the wake of their show of good faith (stop laughing). Their old power of obtenebration has been rolled into one of the new disciplines V5 spawned, albeit with the most defining powers (arms of the abyss, hopping from shadow to shadow etc) made into amalgrams. Their bane has also been changed, and now instead of just not casting reflections/images on cameras (a weakness that too many used to their advantage to break into places), now technology is just screwly around them: microphones don't pick up their voice properly and images of them are distorted but still recognisable as them, not to mention security system seem to pick up their weirdness better. As a result, Lasombra often have a ghoul or two doing their phone calls. It does however mean historical Lasombra had no clan flaw prior to modern day.

===[[Malkavian]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Malkav
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Dominate (dementation is here), Obfuscate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' They all nuts in some form. Some can still function, while others are too far gone and institutionalized.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Going completely delusional (akin to a break from reality)
Malkavians are still the same crowd of absolute nutjobs, ranging the gamut of mental illness, still running the whole spectrum of typical embraces. Still having annoying players trying to create lolrandom chaotic stupid makavians because "LOL SO CRAZY!!1!". The only real change besides the addition of their compulsion (which isnt really anything special) is the dissolution of dementation as its own discipline, with their more unique powers being rolled into amalgrams for both Auspex (for extrasensory powers) and Dominate (for straight mindfuck abilities). Meanwhile lore wise they changed very little, and haven't done much new of significance or suffered any major setback.

===[[Nosferatu]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Absimiliard
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Looking fuck ugly, potentally (but not always anymore) being constituted as an automatic masquerade breech when they're seen "au natural".
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Compulsion to aqquire secrets.
Nosferatu have changed a little, with their old clan bane going from the old days of Orlock clones and automatic masquerade breeches upon sight, to being disfigured but not to the point of impossibility in many cases (some are still unlucky enough that they can't be seen) though this is more a gameplay thing than a story thing. Hiding their obviously fucked up appearance is now harder for them in addition, getting worse the more powerful their blood is. As for Lore, the sewer rats big information network (ShreckNET) got hacked by the NSA and helped give a large swathe of information regarding vampires to the second inquisition. With no other option, the Nos sadly pulled the plug and started dismantling it, some using their extensive technical prowess to try and purge any kindred presence on the net. They've since taken a huge hit to their credibility as a result, and the information sharing network to keep an eye out for the Nictuku is pretty screwed, though they're still considered very valuable thanks to their expertise and tenancy to aqquire secrets.

===[[Ravnos]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Zapathasura
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Obfuscate (Chimestry is here), Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Staying in one place for too long leads to them slowly burning like they got hit by the sun, no matter how light tight their haven.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being a daredevil and taking the riskiest solution to a problem.
Week of nightmares still happened, and as a result the Ravnos are still basically fucked. The death of Zapathasura has changed the survivours to basically be chased by the sun, and if they stay in one place for more than a couple nights, they start to wake up with aggravated damage. Some live in mobile havens, some setup a bunch of buildings in the same city, and some use their new enforced nomadic lifestyle to stay ahead of kindred threats. Their power of Chimestry has been rolled into obfuscate, using presence as an amalgram, and is generally weaker. As with all the changes, this has been a source of [[Skub]], especially when the chimestry amalgrams are available to the Ministry (due to the required spread being in clan for both). Generally however, the changes to bane and the implementation of their compulsion has at least been met favourably, and goes a long way to stamping out the racism argument that has followed the Ravnos since their inception.

===[[Salubri]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Saulot
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Dominate (Obeah), Fortitude
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Salubri blood is more addictive to kindred, in addition they have a third eye that weeps vitae when they use a discipline power, making subtle discipline use damn near impossible
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Helping people and easing suffering
The only good guy vampire clan, and they've gone through a number of changes mechanically, if not fluff wise(they are still very similar to what they were, and even after the Anarchs established themselves as their own real sect they still stay in hiding) which many people aren't happy with. For one, their bane is now a reverse Banu Haqim flaw, instead of the old consentual feeding flaw they used to have. In addition, their old ability set of healing people or pulling a soul out to mend it has now been locked to vampires only (the creatures that have pushed them around and shat on them for centuries) and split into amalgrams across their entire discipline spread. Some like that this makes them less "too good for this sinful earth" while others feel it ruins the point of one of the only inherantly "good" vampire clans getting wiped out and goes against their "no good deed goes unpunished" schtick. As always, YMMV.

===[[Followers of Set|The Ministry]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Set
*'''Disciplines -''' Obfuscate, Presence, Protean (hello Serpentis)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Extreme light sensitivity, atificial light make it hard for them to do things, and sunlight does more damage depending on how powerful their blood is.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Tempting people to indulge in sin and break their own tenets
Formerly known as the Followers of set, or the Setites, the clan rebranded as the Ministry (except African and Egyptian kindred), both to shed some of the old reputation and as a transition of their beliefs from trying to awaken Set to believing Set resides within them (given they are of Set's blood and one of the Gehenna scenarios back along had Set already be dead, it may be a reflection of this). Still all about the vice and temptation, they, like the Banu Haqim decided that with everyone invading the middle east and causing the area to become a rampant shitstorm of kindred on kindred violence, they needed protection of a major sect. Despite petitioning to join the camarilla, they were refused and so went with the backup choice of the Anarchs. Serpentis, often regarded as just "protean wearing a wig" has now just been rolled into Protean with their meserise ability now an amalgram between it and presence. Often operating as spiritual enlightenment gurus in coteries, they are normally seen as the "I know a guy" clan (dealing in vice to differ them from the Ventrue). Still seem to be an odd mix of clan and sect, if some Samedi stragglers joining up with their structure is anything to go by.

===[[Thin Blood]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' None
*'''Disciplines -''' Thin-Blood Alchemy
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Varies (pick at creation)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' None
Much like Caitiff, a thin blood is not really a clan, its more the result of being embraced by a vampire who's too many generations removed from Caine. Like the caitiff, the thin bloods are generally shunned and the eternal whipping boys of kindred society. The Camarilla can and will murder them on sight (or, in kinder places, brand them with a hot iron like cattle), while the Anarchs treatment of them ranges the entire spectrum (like with all things Anarchs) of pity, bullying or even just straight killing them. They don't really have disciplines or the ability to learn them properly, though can still pull off some minor discipline effects if they taste another vampire's blood (a dangerous prospect for obvious reasons). Instead they're giving a discipline called thin blooded alchemy, which allows them to make concotions to counterfeit other clan powers with a few generic abilities like minor telekinesis, levitation or creating a cloud of fog thrown in to not be completely barren of unique, fun shit. They do, however, feel the curse less acutely than full blood kindred in most cases, often not having clan curses, able to eat, drink and fuck to their hearts content and some are even able to walk around in the day without any problems, though alongside that some still have a beast despite having weak blood, heal like a mortal or the inability to grow fangs as the curse doesnt manifest properly. A very common path for thin blooded kindred is either to attempt to become human again (trying the classics of kill the sire and the like) or try to get ahold of a full vampire and commit diablerie, gaining a substantial boost in power at the expense of losing their thin blood merits and taking the clan of their victim in the process.

===[[Toreador]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Arikel
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Celerity, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Suffering in "ugly" surroundings (as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this can take many forms)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Can become mesmerised by something truly beautiful (whether that is a person, a song or even the rising sun)
Still the same mix of artists and poseurs who don't actually know how to make art but sit around criticising other people, the Toreador have changed little from their mean girls routine in earlier editions, embracing those who are beautiful or the hot new thing and dropping them like a drained corpse the next chance they get. The clan is still sticking by the Camarilla, still giving the Nosferatu shit for being ugly and still getting probably more hate than is entirely fair and still crimminally underestimated.

===[[Tremere]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Tremere
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Blood Sorcery (Thaumaturgy by any other name is suprisingly less bullshit), Dominate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Inability to blood bond (fuck yo pyramid)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being perfectionists and needing to get something not just done but done "perfectly"
Oh boy, the Tremere. Where do we begin on the almighty slapping down they recieved? Well, it all began when the second inquisition raided the main Chantry in Vienna, wiping it out with a drone missile and shattering the leadership of the clan (jury is out on if Tremere, currently inhabiting Gotrix's body, manipulated events to see this done or if the SI got lucky). Either as a result of that or the Banu Haqim Methuselah Ur-Shulgi deciding to get a little payback for the curse they levelled at his clan, the Tremere's blood bonds to the pyramid were broken, and the clan as a whold were left without the ability to blood bond kindred (ghouls can be bonded, albeit they need to drink more of the blood over a longer period). Between the destruction of their centralised leadership, the beckoning taking many of the elders out of the picture, the Banu Haqim joining the Camarilla (destroying their monopoly on blood sorcery) and becoming persona non grata in many places when the blood bonds broke, the Tremere are now fighting heavily to find any scrap of old occultish lore and have broken into several houses, all opposed. The houses are the loyalists under Karl Schrekt, Carna (quasi paganism with a feminist leaning), Gotrix (implied to be run by Tremere himself inhabiting Gotrix's body) and Ipsissimus (who joined the Anarchs). Good news, this means that there are now Tremere among the anarchs, bad (or better news, depending on if you were a fan of Thaumaturgy being a hundred disciplines in one), blood sorcery paths are all but gone, with most of the lore on different paths scattered to the winds, and the ones who know it not being inclined to share now that their clan structure has been subject to a beatdown conga.

===[[Tzimisce]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Tzimisce
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Dominate, Protean (vicissitude hides here now, along with dominate)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs (most still in the sabbat)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Must dwell among something that resonates with them (a particular building, among a certain group of people or even in soil from somewhere they have strong ties to ala Dracula)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Covetousness (taking things for their "hoard", whether thats an item or sculpting their fingers to match someone elses/stealing someones fingers because they're pretty)
Having undergone something of a reestablishment since V20, pains have been taken to reemphasise the more posessive and "lord of the land" elements of the Tzimisce over the Moreau esque body horror elements. Outside of that however, the Tzimisce are the same as they've always been, and the only real change is their numbers among the Anarchs have increased, though most still reside among the sabbat. Vicissitude is no longer its own discipline, and has been rolled into Protean like many other unique disciplines, amalgramed with dominate to "force the flesh to obey their whim". This has the unfortunate effect of changing the fundamental powerset of the Tzimisce and giving them social disciplines despite the often held line of ruling solely through terror, and [[Skub|does spark some debate]].

===[[Ventrue]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Ventru
*'''Disciplines -''' Dominate, Fortitude, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Can only feed on a certain type of people (alcoholics, 20 year old virgins etc), if not their chosen charge they must spend willpower or vomit it up.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Taking charge (take charge and force someone to obey your will without using disciplines like Dominate to do so)
Very much the same as they've always been. Same bunch of pricks richer than you and better dressed than you but with the added caveat that they do still run the Camarilla and do their job well, because someone's gotta keep an entire society of predators wearing human faces and backstabbing each other in line. Not to say they're completely dismissive of other kindred and clans, they just know that every gear has its place in the political machine, and will make alliances as necessary to keep things running and to step up in the world. Have a lot of soft power among kine, especially where the business world is concerned, and often embrace among the sucessful (businessmen and politicians are often seen as the best investments). Their bane is still the same but has been expanded, Ventrue are now slightly able to tell if someone is to their taste.

==Sects==

Still the same sects (ish) but with differences with ann the radical changes in V5.

===[[Camarilla]]===
The Camarilla, long the bastion of kindred society and considering all vampires under their rules, got fucked from several angles at the beginning of V5. The Gangrel had already left after Justicar Xavier wasnt taken seriously about the Antedeluvians. Then the beckoning starts to take their Elders and Princes away, leading to a lot of the old powerbase departing for parts unknown and creating a power vacuum. In addition, when ShreckNET got compromised and the Second inquisition rose up, the camarilla promptly panicked, blamed the Anarchs and banned all electronic communication. Never mind that a lot of Elders used law enforcement or even honest to caine hunters as an attack dog to sic on their rivals, contributing to a lot of the information that the SI had to work with.

Following this, the Camarilla decided to place stricter rules and membership becomes more exclusive, formally banning caitiff vampires in the sect and cracking down harder and harder on the anarchs before Theo Bell, Archon, anarch sympathizer and brujah representative, declared enough was enough and blew Hardestadt, inner circle member and the defacto leader of the camarilla, to pieces with a shotgun at the Conclave of Prague, taking the Brujah and moving most of the clan to the Anarchs.

Despite their powerbase shrinking and the Camarilla becoming more of an exclusive club, several clans petitioned to join in the wake of all the chaos that followed the Gehenna war. The Banu Haqim were granted the ability to join as a clan, and about half the Lasombra defected from the Sabbat and were allowed in on a case by case basis, often trading favours in exchange for entrance. This began in Chicago and will likely continue to be adopted in other areas, assuming the Lasombra don't fuck the place over. The Ministry, formerly known as the Followers of Set, were rejected from joining, so decided to join the sect more likely to appreciate [[futurama RPG|blackjack and hookers]].

Between this and the death of the end of the party line that the Antedeluvians are simply myths, the Camarilla of the present is a very different beast, and are arguably regressing to the tactics of the Elders that spawned the first anarch revolt, locking their doors and allowing the Anarchs to bear the brunt of the SI purges while they try to avoid detection and wait out the storm.

===[[Anarchs]]===
Following the Camarilla closing its doors to all but exceptional kindred and the response from Theo Bell, the Anarchs have split off into their own sect proper. The average Anarch city is a mess of gang violence without anyone holding enough power to make Anarchs behave and usually either follows the trend of "the barons are just as bad as the princes" or Sabbat wearing anarchy symbols as the kindred form into gangs and fight nightly for territory, usually both.

Not to say that going Anarch has no benefits. Sure life is tougher and fighting is rampant but night to night you have a little more freedom. The barons generally are slightly better than the Princes of old, and likely wont demand your fealty or gifts of blood so long as you stay out of their way, plus with a slightly more democratic leaning being a complete bastard is discouraged. However, with no obligation to be fair and even less in the way of oversight if you're not popular, you're at the mercy of other vampires and can expect little in the way of actual support or recourse.

Unteathered from the Camarilla, they've come into their own, for better of worse. Thin bloods and Caitiff have, being generally persceuted by the Camarilla, flocked to the Anarchs in the face of the Camarilla becoming even more hostile to them. The Gangrel, originally simply independant, have joined up with the Anarchs too, as did the Ministry and Brujah clans. Heck, even a load of younger Tzimisce have latched onto the sect. They also made some territory gains of their own (retaking California and usurping London and a few other cities).

V5 seems to be intent on building the Anarchs into the proper rivals to the Camarilla in the face of moving the Sabbat out of the limelight and in fairness, a lot of people are okay with it. Many considered the Sabbat to be comically evil and with the depth of a puddle. It helps that the unique clans most people wanted to play are no longer consigned to a sect that considers skinning people for the lulz to be a sacred practice. However, there are obviously people who believe that its horseshit that the entireity of vampiric society rapidly changed over the course of a decade when it had stayed mostly stable for so long.

===[[The Sabbat]]===
In the wake of the Beckoning bringing elders all to one place, the Sabbat abandoned their cities and prepared to kick the shit out of the elders, seeing it as a massive buffet. Details on what the Gehenna war looks like are sketchy, but from snippets here and there, its not going well, and attrition rates among the Sabbat are high. Not that majority of them care, but in the wake of this, about half the Lasombra promptly left to join the Camarilla, presumably now fightened of actually doing the thing that their entire sect was born to do.

Presumably there are pockets of Sabbat here and there, the ones who didn't answer the call to war, but the books have completely shifted attention from them. Presumably because being a vampiric shitbag, using disciplines in the open and creating a trail of bodies can and will lead the SI to you, and no matter how badass you are, getting your haven burned down in the middle of the day will probably kill you, or at least ruin your day.

Luckily, running Sabbat isn't too difficult. With the touchstones and tenets system you can spoof most paths, Sabbat ritae have been homebrewed and it isnt too hard to create a plot where they are hanging around (or even run a gehenna war game). You could even do a pre beckoning game if you wish.

==Disciplines==
Your good old "clan powers" that have been in the game since the beginning, but with a change. In the old days of pre v5, there were far more disciplines, and all bar 4 clans had a unique discipline. Many of them also only had one power per level until you got to level 6 and above One of the biggest (or at least one of the most debated) changes was the devs scrapping unique disciplines and levels 6 and above in favour of turning a lot of signature discipline abilities into amalgrams (combo powers that need 2 disciplines at varying levels to use), shuffling some of the more interesting and thematic upper level powers into lower slots amd providing players with multiple powers to pick from at every level of the power (even in the physical disciplines, which until now were purely one power each that just got better with more dots). While this article is at the risk of overusing skub as a descriptor, there really is no other word for the ensuring reaction to the amalgram change, more so than probably any other changes.

On the one hand, amalgrams were meant as a way to reduce or eliminate the classic problem of people begging to play a specific clan purely for the clan unique discipline and in many cases, does help with that. There has been a shift in the internal logic of the discipline powers from making them a very rigid thing to more of an umbrella for a certain family of varied abilities (obfuscate as perception and sensory fuckery vs "this family of powers helps me hide") with some of the more unique disciplines explained as different ways of using the same toolkit or mutations of the powers by mixing their abilities with others (chimestry is obfuscate + presence to manipulate someones perceptions and then convince them its not fake, while vicissitude is protean + dominate to "command the flesh to obey the kindred's whims").

It also trimmed out a lot of powers that only existed to fill out a discipline spread (a few of dementations powers got axed this way), damn near scrapped others that arguably only existed to make an independent clan special (Serpentis) and prevented others from feeling like 5 different abilities that didn't act as a progression of the same family of powers (Serpentis again, or arguably Quietus). This, twinned with every level having several powers means that even with the exact same discipline sets and dots, no 2 characters will likely have the same abilities.

However with the limit of "only 5 dots in any power" and the fact that several more unique discipline abilities can take up a large chunk of the discipline its been rolled into, can leave some players feeling rather limited, and if you wanted say, good amount of vicissitude but also wanted to purchase Earth Meld, you're gonna either lose out on a vicissitude power somewhere along the way or blow your level 5 slot on it. Plus the issue of several amalgram requirements being held by several clans at once (both the ministry and ravnos can use chimestry while Valeran is usable by the tremere) and some people citing that now there is no reason to pick certain clans over others or that the loss of the discipline as a unique discipline takes away from the identity of the clan.

===Animalism===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Tzimisce
As should be expected, Animalism is your bag of abilities that pertains to messing around with animals. As most animals can tell there's something off about kindred this can be very useful for not setting off alarm bells and helping a vampire go incognito. Has the usual mix of talking to animals, commanding them or even possessing them, as well as some powers that pertain to the beast.
===Auspex===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Malkavians, Salubri, Toreador, Tremere.
Your typical "ESP" toolkit. Takes the form of better senses, seeing unseen stuff (vampire disciplines that are normally hidden), moves onto auras and goes into psychometry, full telepathy and the like. Strangely, while most disciplines had several powers shuffled into lower levels, many of auspex' most signature abilities (aura reading and spirits touch) went up a level.
===Blood Sorcery===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Tremere.
Thaumaturgy mixed with Quietus. Even with amalgrams and the birth of multiple powers per discipline level, the days of the Thaumaturgy path whore tremere are over. Rituals still exist for a number of abilities, however the discipline as a whole is more focused on manipulating vitae for a variety of effects and less on being straight magic jury rigged to run on vitae.
===Celerity===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Brujah, Toreador.
Your vampiric super speed and dexterity based powers. No longer stupid broken after v5 realised finally that giving people a discipline that allowed you to attack extra times a turn is busted in combat. Focuses on a mix of extremely refined dexterity (deadshot accuracy or perfect balance) and maneuvering powers (your flash style super speed, up to and including running up surfaces or on water).
===Dominate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Lasombra, Malkavians, Salubri, Tremere, Tzimisce, Ventrue.
Still the same old "stare into their eyes and command them" mind control power. One of the most common disciplines now, and an amalgrim for a fair few disciplines. Fuck about with memories, give people commands they must follow or even implant a directive deep into their minds and build an army of sleeper agents. Makes people obedient but dumb robots, unlike presence which turns people into slavishly loyal devotees.
===Fortitude===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Hecata, Salubri, Ventrue.
Probably once one of the most underwhelming "basic" powers, fortitude has been revamped into an actual discipline tree instead of an expensive and medicore power that was often dismissed until you accidentally pissed off a gangrel. Ties into the vampires nature as an unchanging monster. Obviously deals with soaking damage, but also has abilities that adds resilience for mind control, prevents the user from being knocked down or even make weapons shatter against you. Also where the healing powers of the salubri went (amalgrimated with Auspex).
===Obfuscate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Ravnos, The Ministry.
Obfuscate, despite being expanded to include other trickery, is suprisingly still very focused on its regular powerset. Majority of powers have to do with things like hiding and decieving people into thinking you're either not there or you're someone else at higher levels, perfect for the Nosferatu, and also include things like obfuscating items or turning the interior of a place into a maze by warping the layout in their perceptions. V5 ended up slotting the chimestry abilities into this discipline, using presence as an amalgram.
===Oblivion===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Void (the lack of resonance)
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Lasombra.
The powers of Obtenebration plus Necromancy rolled into one discipline. In one of the more controversial changes to the lore junkies, the old obtenebration powers now deal almost entirely with the realm of the dead as opposed to the psuedo-alive shadow realm of previous editions. Like blood sorcery, Oblivion contained a plethora of rituals, mostly surrounding the more necromantic side of the disicipline. Really feels like 2 disciplines slapped into one set, with one side dealing with shadow manipulation and one dealing with affeceting the dead or channeling entropy itself. Uniquely of all disciplines, it can cause stains the more you use it as the unnatural power taints the user.

===Potence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Lasombra, Nosferatu.
Like Celerity and Fortitude, Potence now has powers at each level, creating a mix of powers that pertain to combat prowess and some that are more traversal or utility based (the power to jump higher and further or climb walls by punching handholds). This is also now one of the more important combat disciplines again, with the 5 dot power (fist of caine) the only way to do unarmed aggravated damage with the nerf to protean's "Feral Claws".
===Presence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Ravnos, The Ministry, Toreador, Ventrue.
The velvet glove to Dominate's iron fist, presence allows the vampire to turn people into their slavish devotees and uber fans. Unlike Dominate, it doesn't strip the free will from the target, allowing for the thrall to use their own initative when doing your bidding. It also tends to affect crowds vs dominate's single target focus (but is more about pulling on emotions than it is crushing down someones free will). This does come with the double edged sword that overuse on subjects can turn them into obsessive stalkers who can and will murder each other for your attention.
===Protean===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal Blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Ministry, Tzimisce.
Vampire transformation powers of various different stripes. Transform your eyes to see in the dark, fuse with the earth to escape the sun, become an animal or turn into a cloud of mist to sneak into places that arent completely air tight. Notably, feral claws, a power that has been a staple of combat vampires forever, has had the aggravated damage dealing to kindred element stripped out, making it less of an auto include. This is also where Serpentis and Visissitude ended up going.
===Thin Blood Alchemy===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Varies (depending on the recipe).
*'''Held by: ''' Thin Bloods
Cooking by the book. Thin bloods can't learn disciplines due to the curse being too weak to allow for these changes, however what they do have is thin blood alchemy, more akin to a list of rituals and potion brewing to allow for the user to produce and counterfeit a number of effects. Most of it is recipes to mimic other discipline powers, however some basic abilities (change someones body, minor displays of telekinesis or flying) are thrown in too. As its not a native power of "the vitae" it doesnt progress like a regular discipline, and requires the thin blood to research, experiment or get the recipe from another source (and can become plot points for long spanning chronicles on and of themselves), albeit it does require set up beforehand (you generally cant just say "I brewed the levitation potion" just because you need to escape to another building from the roof). There are 3 ways to run the power, mixing the ingredients yourself in a cauldron, drinks mixer or whatever else the user wants to use, drinking all the ingredients yourself to mix them in your own body or force feeding someone the ingredients and feeding on them. Not usable by vampires, making it the closest thing to a "clan unique discipline" in V5.

==The Second Inquisition==
==Ghouls and Revenants==
==Who Has the Rights to V5?==
==See Also==
==External Links==
* [https://www.worldofdarkness.com/news/category/vtm/ VTM News Page]
* [http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness World of Darkness wiki]

[[Category:White Wolf]]
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:World of Darkness]]
{{WoD-Games}}

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition

2021-06-24T09:38:58Z

2A00:23C5:120A:C100:8D1F:6FA4:AFB5:8728: /* Lasombra */

{{skub}}

{{Game Infobox
|name = Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
|picture = [[File:VTM V5 Logo.jpg|250px]]
|type = [[Role-playing game]]
|system = [[Storyteller System]]
|publisher = [[White Wolf]]
|authors = Kenneth Hite, [[Mark Rein·Hagen]], Matthew Dawkins, Juhanna Peterson, Martin Ericsson, Karim Muammar
|year = 2018
|books = Vampire: The Masquerade Core Rulebook
}}
The premier [[Vampire: The Masquerade|vampire RPG]] rises once more from its resting place once more. Although subject to many [[skub]]tastic debates, this new edition has found popularity with newcomers to the series. This edition is usually abbreviated as VTM V5, or just V5, to differentiate it from D&D 5E.

The rules are lighter now, gas tank vampires are no more, and as always the clock has edged closer to midnight (AKA Gehenna).

==Modern Fluff==
The quick and dirty summary is that the Camarilla has weakened, some clans switched around in the sects, and the Sabbat are fighting Camarilla elders in the Middle East in the Gehenna War. Also, the inquisition is back and now has connections with the alphabet soup agencies because the NSA got into Schrecknet, revealing kindred society to a degree. This led to such events as the Tremere Vienna Chantry getting blown up and the Camarilla forgoing the use of modern technology for sensitive communication. The Second Inquisition believes kindred suffer from "the blank body virus", named for the absence of body heat seen when a vampire walks in front of a thermal camera.

All the above has led to kindred cities being run by much younger kindred than usual. The stranglehold elders had has loosened as they are summoned to the Middle East by a psych-spiritual call known as the Beckoning. There are a lot more thin bloods too, and most full-blooded vampires still don't like them.

==Rules==
V5 uses a dice pool system made up of D10s. The number of dots you have in skills, stats, and other modifiers are added together. The total is the number of D10s rolled for a test. If you get enough high results you succeed.

The unique part of the new rules is the hunger dice system. This replaces the blood points system (AKA gas tank/mana pool vampires). When waking up each night or using some disciplines you must make a rouse check by rolling a D10. A roll of 6 or higher is a success, and hunger does not increase. If the result is less than 6, hunger increases by one. Hunger ranges from 0-5, but the only way to get to 0 is to feed on a person until they die, otherwise, the minimum is 1. Hunger dice replace a number of dice in each test equal to your current hunger. Depending on the successes and failures in a roll and how much of each come from hunger dice, a beastial failure or messy critical could occur. This could result in giving in to a compulsion or behaving inhumanly, such as biting and starting to feed on someone that you meant to just attack.

In addition, feeding has been codified into a more streamlined system, where a vampire will pick a predator type at chargen. They can obviously feed however they like, and in theory the player can likely go without one, however each one give a plethora of advantages (free merits and a boost in dots to certain disciplines and skills) and disadvantages (several of them come with prey exclusions or the like) that its generally a good idea to take one you're well suited to. Each one is roughly balanced, with the stronger benefits coming with stronger downsides. For example the blood leech type, which requires that the vampire feeds on other kindred exclusively leads to having higher blood potency and an immunity to blood bonds, but comes with the price of being unable to feed on mortals and being viewed with suspicion at absolute best. Meanwhile the Bagger type means you sneak around and feed exclusively on blood bags, which gives you the ability to nourish yourself better on dead blood, but there's probably a reason you stick to sneaking into the hospital.

Some of the attributes have been swapped out (notably appearance, the most useless attribute in wod), the abilities list is trimmed slightly, and morality has been changed, aping the touchstones system from VTR and allowing players to decide the commandments that actually matter to the character instead of choosing between generic humanity or begging the storyteller to allowing them to use a Path of Edgelightenment.

Disciplines work a bit differently now. A standout difference is amalgam powers. They require dots in two disciplines to be accessed. In the wake of this, some disciplines have been reduced to a couple amalgram powers that require dsiciplines the clan has as standard (making serpentis a variant of protean with some presence requirements, Chimestry is now a presence and obfuscate amalgram etc). [[skub|This has provoked a lot of passionate debate]]. In addition, there are now normally multiple powers for each level of a discipline that you must choose from (or pick a power from a lower level, and 6+ powers have been scrapped (some wrapped into the upper levels of the discipline, others just purged). As a result the disciplines are all limited to 5 dots, preventing someone from getting every power from a discipline.

Finally, the game has added in loresheets, specific backgrounds that provide a mix of benefits, and represent anything from connections to an influential kindred or organisation to specific bloodline heritage. Uniquely of the backgrounds, they're not a linear progression of buffs (and buying the 2nd level of a loresheet doesn't give you the benefits of the first) and many of them are clan specific, however all their abilities are powerful or give you temporary access to other merits worth more than the dots on the sheet, albeit are often limited to certain situations.

==Books==
* Core Book: It has the rules, GMing guidance, some statblocks for NPCs, items, coterie creation, etc. Clans: Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue, Caitiff, and Thinbloods.
* Anarch Sourcebook: Anarch lore and rules for playing The Ministry (formerly the Followers of Set).
* Camarilla Sourcebook: Camarilla lore and rules for playing the Banu Haqim (formerly the Assamites).
* Fall of London: Chronicle set in 2012 about the eradication of kindred in London by the Second Inquisition.
* Chicago by Night: Sourcebook for running games in Chicago. Contains the rules for playing Lasombra.
* The Chicago Folios: Even more stuff about Chicago.
* V5 Companion: A free PDF with rules for Ravnos, Salubri, and Tzimisce. Also includes a section regarding how vampires of each clan feel about coteries along with a clan coterie merit available to be purchased at character creation. Section 3 has rules for playing mortals and ghouls. The final section contains errata and rules updates to be included in future printings (but not the upcoming July 2021 Renegade Games reprint, for some reason).
* Cults of the Blood Gods: All about vampire religion. Includes a bunch of existing cults as well as rules for making your own as a GM. Includes rules for the Hecata, the new necromancy clan that was formed by a merger of Giovanni, Cappodician, Nagaraja, and a few others in 2018. They are the last remaining independent clan.
==Clans==
In the wake of V5's release and the reshuffling of the sects, a number of clans have undergone some revisions, some minor (the tzimisce, barring disciipline spread), others major (the ravnos or salubri). Bloodlines, while theoreteically still there, are mostly scrapped, and the ones that still appear (such as the specific members of the Hecata) are often consigned to loresheets (many old bloodlines have been ported to fan made loresheets by the community).

===[[Banu Haqim]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Haqim
*'''Disciplines -''' Blood Sorcery (get fucked Tremere), Celerity, Obfuscate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Vitae Addiction (once you taste a drop, you just can't stop).
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Judgement (if someone goes against their personal ideals they're compelled to punish them).
Following the shitstorm that is the beckoning dragging the elders and the sabbat to the Middle East, the Assimites (really named Banu Haqim, with Assimites being a name that westerners called them) petitioned to join the Camarilla, which the Camarilla needed after the Brujah and Gangrel fucked off in the midst of feeling unappreciated and ignored, so it works out for both of them. In addition, Ur-Shulgi stopping the Tremere curse of vitae allergy is still canon, and they got the last laugh by wiping out the tremere's ability to blood bond (which, in fairness, the Tremere were overdue getting truly slapped down for their bullshit). Otherwise they're still the prime "executioner/assassin" clan, and most are likely to be some kind of law enforcement or even former military in life. Their old signature discipline of Quietus got nixed into blood sorcery, reactions are mixed to positive.

===[[Brujah]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Troile
*'''Disciplines -''' Celerity, Potence, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Prone to frenzy.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Rebellion (gotta fight whatever the status quo is, even if its a system that works or even benefits them).
Still the same mix of idealist philosophers preaching about politics and entitled kids who wanna fight "the man" for imposing rules without understanding why the rules are there or even an idea of what to replace those rules with. Finally gave up the goose and just joined the Anarchs wholesale, though some still reside in the Camarilla. Still generally a slave to their emotions and will likely never be happy in any system they are a part of, but hey, at least now they can play paintball with 9mm handguns and know they have freedom, while they fight and kill each other every night in gang warfare.

===[[Caitiff]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' None
*'''Disciplines -''' Varies (pick 3 at gargen)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' No in clan disciplines (though all disciplines cost 6X xp costs) and being considered lesser by most other kindred.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' None.
Not a clan, more the absense of a clan. Through quirk of blood sometimes a newly embraced vampire just doesn't show any traits inherant to their parent clan. Generally considered a mark of shame, they usually get the short end of the stick and are afforded little actual respect. Some try to argue they're purer than other kindred as "Caine had no clan", but this usually ends in the offending kindred getting their teeth kicked in. As a result, many of them join the anarchs, which while a shitshow at times they're often at least less likely to get completely disregarded. As is to be expected, no 2 caitiff are alike. Luckily for STs, with the end of clan unique disciplines and the birth of amalgrams, there are no more "Thaumaturgy, Visissitude and Chimestry" discipline spread caitiff being made, albeit people making vampires emulating another clan to get the unique amalgrams without the clan weakness is still a thing, its just more costly to do so (as it takes 2 discipline slots instead of 1). STs should still feel free to tell those powergamers to fuck off.

===[[Gangrel]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Ennoia
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Fortitude, Protean
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' After frenzying, they begin to generally appear more bestial (sounding or looking more animalistic), these often fade in time, but can make them a walking masquerade breech in time
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Acting like an animal (short tempter, compulsion to snap and fight people and generally being fucked in social situations at times).
The fluff from V20 still holds true, and they have still fucked off the Camarilla in preference to independance, albeit with any clan, exceptions exist. Still your group of nomadic and slightly aloof drifters, probably more so after they left. Funnily, since V5 changed protean, they're no longer the go to "fighters" now, as feral claws no longer do aggravated damage. The various bloodlines that spawned from the Gangrel are still around somewhere, just with bloodlines no longer really a thing, they don't get much of a look in.

===[[Giovanni|Hacata]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Cappadocius/Augustus Giovanni/Hecate (their Antediluvians gets diablerised a lot)
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex (or dominate), Fortitude, Oblivion
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant (kind of a sect of their own, its dumb, see below)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Their Kiss hurts like a motherfucker, looks bad and heals slowly (can trade out for looking like 2 flavours of corpse, or needing to eat flesh as well as drink blood).
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being morbid and spookily fortelling someones death (telling that someone is sick or their recklessness will catch up with them someday).
After the death/disappearance of Angustus Giovanni, and a 500 year agreement with the camarilla coming to a close, the Giovanni reunited with the Cappadocians remnants (the clan they stole their clan status from), the Lamia (the Cappadocian's assistants) the Samedi (vampires that look like rotting corpses, and implied to be either a Giovanni experiment or a Cappadocian offshoot) and the Nagaraja (a clan of double fucked vampires who eat peoples flesh as well as blood, and happen to have skill in necromancy) to form a weird blend of sect and clan called the Hecata. Necromancy, while rolled into the discipline Oblivion, is still effectively there, albeit they can also access some lasombra powers in the mix. The subsequent ritual and agreement unified their flaw into the giovanni's painful bite, though some still have their old flaws in some manner. People have mixed opinions on both of these changes, and it is often considered to be the most sloppy change that V5 implemented. But hey, at least now you can have a necromantic vampire without having to run them as an incestuous cousin fucker or walking corpse.

===[[Lasombra]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Lasombra
*'''Disciplines -''' Dominate, Oblivion (obtenebration by any other name), Potence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla (yes, I know)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Their reflections and video images are all distorted and fucked up (but wont hide their identity), also technology reacts weirdly with them
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being unable to accept they failed at something, if they do they gotta reattempt it to get it right.
The shitshow in the east has caused many Lasombra to get out of the Sabbat and join up with the Camarilla, often delivering their elders as a peace offering. Undoubtably still trying some kind of power play (given the long spanning rivalry with the Ventrue) though the Camarilla is still happy to have them aboard in the wake of their show of good faith (stop laughing). Their old power of obtenebration has been rolled into one of the new disciplines V5 spawned, albeit with the most defining powers (arms of the abyss, hopping from shadow to shadow etc) made into amalgrams. Their bane has also been changed, and now instead of just not casting reflections/images on cameras (a weakness that too many used to their advantage to break into places), now technology is just screwly around them: microphones don't pick up their voice properly and images of them are distorted but still recognisable as them, not to mention security system seem to pick up their weirdness better. As a result, Lasombra often have a ghoul or two doing their phone calls. It does however mean historical Lasombra had no clan flaw prior to modern day.

===[[Malkavian]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Malkav
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Dominate (dementation is here), Obfuscate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' They all nuts in some form. Some can still function, while others are too far gone and institutionalized.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Going completely delusional (akin to a break from reality)
Malkavians are still the same crowd of absolute nutjobs, ranging the gamut of mental illness, still running the whole spectrum of typical embraces. Still having annoying players trying to create lolrandom chaotic stupid makavians because "LOL SO CRAZY!!1!". The only real change besides the addition of their compulsion (which isnt really anything special) is the dissolution of dementation as its own discipline, with their more unique powers being rolled into amalgrams for both Auspex (for extrasensory powers) and Dominate (for straight mindfuck abilities). Meanwhile lore wise they changed very little, and haven't done much new of significance or suffered any major setback.

===[[Nosferatu]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Absimiliard
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Looking fuck ugly, potentally (but not always anymore) being constituted as an automatic masquerade breech when they're seen "au natural".
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Compulsion to aqquire secrets.
Nosferatu have changed a little, with their old clan bane going from the old days of Orlock clones and automatic masquerade breeches upon sight, to being disfigured but not to the point of impossibility in many cases (some are still unlucky enough that they can't be seen) though this is more a gameplay thing than a story thing. Hiding their obviously fucked up appearance is now harder for them in addition, getting worse the more powerful their blood is. As for Lore, the sewer rats big information network (ShreckNET) got hacked by the NSA and helped give a large swathe of information regarding vampires to the second inquisition. With no other option, the Nos sadly pulled the plug and started dismantling it, some using their extensive technical prowess to try and purge any kindred presence on the net. They've since taken a huge hit to their credibility as a result, and the information sharing network to keep an eye out for the Nictuku is pretty screwed, though they're still considered very valuable thanks to their expertise and tenancy to aqquire secrets.

===[[Ravnos]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Zapathasura
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Obfuscate (Chimestry is here), Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Staying in one place for too long leads to them slowly burning like they got hit by the sun, no matter how light tight their haven.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being a daredevil and taking the riskiest solution to a problem.
Week of nightmares still happened, and as a result the Ravnos are still basically fucked. The death of Zapathasura has changed the survivours to basically be chased by the sun, and if they stay in one place for more than a couple nights, they start to wake up with aggravated damage. Some live in mobile havens, some setup a bunch of buildings in the same city, and some use their new enforced nomadic lifestyle to stay ahead of kindred threats. Their power of Chimestry has been rolled into obfuscate, using presence as an amalgram, and is generally weaker. As with all the changes, this has been a source of [[Skub]], especially when the chimestry amalgrams are available to the Ministry (due to the required spread being in clan for both). Generally however, the changes to bane and the implementation of their compulsion has at least been met favourably, and goes a long way to stamping out the racism argument that has followed the Ravnos since their inception.

===[[Salubri]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Saulot
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Dominate (Obeah), Fortitude
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Salubri blood is more addictive to kindred, in addition they have a third eye that weeps vitae when they use a discipline power, making subtle discipline use damn near impossible
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Helping people and easing suffering
The only good guy vampire clan, and they've gone through a number of changes mechanically, if not fluff wise(they are still very similar to what they were, and even after the Anarchs established themselves as their own real sect they still stay in hiding) which many people aren't happy with. For one, their bane is now a reverse Banu Haqim flaw, instead of the old consentual feeding flaw they used to have. In addition, their old ability set of healing people or pulling a soul out to mend it has now been locked to vampires only (the creatures that have pushed them around and shat on them for centuries) and split into amalgrams across their entire discipline spread. Some like that this makes them less "too good for this sinful earth" while others feel it ruins the point of one of the only inherantly "good" vampire clans getting wiped out and goes against their "no good deed goes unpunished" schtick. As always, YMMV.

===[[Followers of Set|The Ministry]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Set
*'''Disciplines -''' Obfuscate, Presence, Protean (hello Serpentis)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Extreme light sensitivity, atificial light make it hard for them to do things, and sunlight does more damage depending on how powerful their blood is.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Tempting people to indulge in sin and break their own tenets
Formerly known as the Followers of set, or the Setites, the clan rebranded as the Ministry (except African and Egyptian kindred), both to shed some of the old reputation and as a transition of their beliefs from trying to awaken Set to believing Set resides within them (given they are of Set's blood and one of the Gehenna scenarios back along had Set already be dead, it may be a reflection of this). Still all about the vice and temptation, they, like the Banu Haqim decided that with everyone invading the middle east and causing the area to become a rampant shitstorm of kindred on kindred violence, they needed protection of a major sect. Despite petitioning to join the camarilla, they were refused and so went with the backup choice of the Anarchs. Serpentis, often regarded as just "protean wearing a wig" has now just been rolled into Protean with their meserise ability now an amalgram between it and presence. Often operating as spiritual enlightenment gurus in coteries, they are normally seen as the "I know a guy" clan (dealing in vice to differ them from the Ventrue). Still seem to be an odd mix of clan and sect, if some Samedi stragglers joining up with their structure is anything to go by.

===[[Thin Blood]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' None
*'''Disciplines -''' Thin-Blood Alchemy
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Varies (pick at creation)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' None
Much like Caitiff, a thin blood is not really a clan, its more the result of being embraced by a vampire who's too many generations removed from Caine. Like the caitiff, the thin bloods are generally shunned and the eternal whipping boys of kindred society. The Camarilla can and will murder them on sight (or, in kinder places, brand them with a hot iron like cattle), while the Anarchs treatment of them ranges the entire spectrum (like with all things Anarchs) of pity, bullying or even just straight killing them. They don't really have disciplines or the ability to learn them properly, though can still pull off some minor discipline effects if they taste another vampire's blood (a dangerous prospect for obvious reasons). Instead they're giving a discipline called thin blooded alchemy, which allows them to make concotions to counterfeit other clan powers with a few generic abilities like minor telekinesis, levitation or creating a cloud of fog thrown in to not be completely barren of unique, fun shit. They do, however, feel the curse less acutely than full blood kindred in most cases, often not having clan curses, able to eat, drink and fuck to their hearts content and some are even able to walk around in the day without any problems, though alongside that some still have a beast despite having weak blood, heal like a mortal or the inability to grow fangs as the curse doesnt manifest properly. A very common path for thin blooded kindred is either to attempt to become human again (trying the classics of kill the sire and the like) or try to get ahold of a full vampire and commit diablerie, gaining a substantial boost in power at the expense of losing their thin blood merits and taking the clan of their victim in the process.

===[[Toreador]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Arikel
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Celerity, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Suffering in "ugly" surroundings (as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this can take many forms)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Can become mesmerised by something truly beautiful (whether that is a person, a song or even the rising sun)
Still the same mix of artists and poseurs who don't actually know how to make art but sit around criticising other people, the Toreador have changed little from their mean girls routine in earlier editions, embracing those who are beautiful or the hot new thing and dropping them like a drained corpse the next chance they get. The clan is still sticking by the Camarilla, still giving the Nosferatu shit for being ugly and still getting probably more hate than is entirely fair.

===[[Tremere]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Tremere
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Blood Sorcery (Thaumaturgy by any other name is suprisingly less bullshit), Dominate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Inability to blood bond (fuck yo pyramid)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being perfectionists and needing to get something not just done but done "perfectly"
Oh boy, the Tremere. Where do we begin on the almighty slapping down they recieved? Well, it all began when the second inquisition raided the main Chantry in Vienna, wiping it out with a drone missile and shattering the leadership of the clan (jury is out on if Tremere, currently inhabiting Gotrix's body, manipulated events to see this done or if the SI got lucky). Either as a result of that or the Banu Haqim Methuselah Ur-Shulgi deciding to get a little payback for the curse they levelled at his clan, the Tremere's blood bonds to the pyramid were broken, and the clan as a whold were left without the ability to blood bond kindred (ghouls can be bonded, albeit they need to drink more of the blood over a longer period). Between the destruction of their centralised leadership, the beckoning taking many of the elders out of the picture, the Banu Haqim joining the Camarilla (destroying their monopoly on blood sorcery) and becoming persona non grata in many places when the blood bonds broke, the Tremere are now fighting heavily to find any scrap of old occultish lore and have broken into several houses, all opposed. The houses are the loyalists under Karl Schrekt, Carna (quasi paganism with a feminist leaning), Gotrix (implied to be run by Tremere himself inhabiting Gotrix's body) and Ipsissimus (who joined the Anarchs). Good news, this means that there are now Tremere among the anarchs, bad (or better news, depending on if you were a fan of Thaumaturgy being a hundred disciplines in one), blood sorcery paths are all but gone, with most of the lore on different paths scattered to the winds, and the ones who know it not being inclined to share now that their clan structure has been subject to a beatdown conga.

===[[Tzimisce]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Tzimisce
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Dominate, Protean (vicissitude hides here now, along with dominate)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs (most still in the sabbat)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Must dwell among something that resonates with them (a particular building, among a certain group of people or even in soil from somewhere they have strong ties to ala Dracula)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Covetousness (taking things for their "hoard", whether thats an item or sculpting their fingers to match someone elses/stealing someones fingers because they're pretty)
Having undergone something of a reestablishment since V20, pains have been taken to reemphasise the more posessive and "lord of the land" elements of the Tzimisce over the Moreau esque body horror elements. Outside of that however, the Tzimisce are the same as they've always been, and the only real change is their numbers among the Anarchs have increased, though most still reside among the sabbat. Vicissitude is no longer its own discipline, and has been rolled into Protean like many other unique disciplines, amalgramed with dominate to "force the flesh to obey their whim". This has the unfortunate effect of changing the fundamental powerset of the Tzimisce and giving them social disciplines despite the often held line of ruling solely through terror, and [[Skub|does spark some debate]].

===[[Ventrue]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Ventru
*'''Disciplines -''' Dominate, Fortitude, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Can only feed on a certain type of people (alcoholics, 20 year old virgins etc), if not their chosen charge they must spend willpower or vomit it up.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Taking charge (take charge and force someone to obey your will without using disciplines like Dominate to do so)
Very much the same as they've always been. Same bunch of pricks richer than you and better dressed than you but with the added caveat that they do still run the Camarilla and do their job well, because someone's gotta keep an entire society of predators wearing human faces and backstabbing each other in line. Not to say they're completely dismissive of other kindred and clans, they just know that every gear has its place in the political machine, and will make alliances as necessary to keep things running and to step up in the world. Have a lot of soft power among kine, especially where the business world is concerned, and often embrace among the sucessful (businessmen and politicians are often seen as the best investments). Their bane is still the same but has been expanded, Ventrue are now slightly able to tell if someone is to their taste.

==Sects==

Still the same sects (ish) but with differences with ann the radical changes in V5.

===[[Camarilla]]===
The Camarilla, long the bastion of kindred society and considering all vampires under their rules, got fucked from several angles at the beginning of V5. The Gangrel had already left after Justicar Xavier wasnt taken seriously about the Antedeluvians. Then the beckoning starts to take their Elders and Princes away, leading to a lot of the old powerbase departing for parts unknown and creating a power vacuum. In addition, when ShreckNET got compromised and the Second inquisition rose up, the camarilla promptly panicked, blamed the Anarchs and banned all electronic communication. Never mind that a lot of Elders used law enforcement or even honest to caine hunters as an attack dog to sic on their rivals, contributing to a lot of the information that the SI had to work with.

Following this, the Camarilla decided to place stricter rules and membership becomes more exclusive, formally banning caitiff vampires in the sect and cracking down harder and harder on the anarchs before Theo Bell, Archon, anarch sympathizer and brujah representative, declared enough was enough and blew Hardestadt, inner circle member and the defacto leader of the camarilla, to pieces with a shotgun at the Conclave of Prague, taking the Brujah and moving most of the clan to the Anarchs.

Despite their powerbase shrinking and the Camarilla becoming more of an exclusive club, several clans petitioned to join in the wake of all the chaos that followed the Gehenna war. The Banu Haqim were granted the ability to join as a clan, and about half the Lasombra defected from the Sabbat and were allowed in on a case by case basis, often trading favours in exchange for entrance. This began in Chicago and will likely continue to be adopted in other areas, assuming the Lasombra don't fuck the place over. The Ministry, formerly known as the Followers of Set, were rejected from joining, so decided to join the sect more likely to appreciate [[futurama RPG|blackjack and hookers]].

Between this and the death of the end of the party line that the Antedeluvians are simply myths, the Camarilla of the present is a very different beast, and are arguably regressing to the tactics of the Elders that spawned the first anarch revolt, locking their doors and allowing the Anarchs to bear the brunt of the SI purges while they try to avoid detection and wait out the storm.

===[[Anarchs]]===
Following the Camarilla closing its doors to all but exceptional kindred and the response from Theo Bell, the Anarchs have split off into their own sect proper. The average Anarch city is a mess of gang violence without anyone holding enough power to make Anarchs behave and usually either follows the trend of "the barons are just as bad as the princes" or Sabbat wearing anarchy symbols as the kindred form into gangs and fight nightly for territory, usually both.

Not to say that going Anarch has no benefits. Sure life is tougher and fighting is rampant but night to night you have a little more freedom. The barons generally are slightly better than the Princes of old, and likely wont demand your fealty or gifts of blood so long as you stay out of their way, plus with a slightly more democratic leaning being a complete bastard is discouraged. However, with no obligation to be fair and even less in the way of oversight if you're not popular, you're at the mercy of other vampires and can expect little in the way of actual support or recourse.

Unteathered from the Camarilla, they've come into their own, for better of worse. Thin bloods and Caitiff have, being generally persceuted by the Camarilla, flocked to the Anarchs in the face of the Camarilla becoming even more hostile to them. The Gangrel, originally simply independant, have joined up with the Anarchs too, as did the Ministry and Brujah clans. Heck, even a load of younger Tzimisce have latched onto the sect. They also made some territory gains of their own (retaking California and usurping London and a few other cities).

V5 seems to be intent on building the Anarchs into the proper rivals to the Camarilla in the face of moving the Sabbat out of the limelight and in fairness, a lot of people are okay with it. Many considered the Sabbat to be comically evil and with the depth of a puddle. It helps that the unique clans most people wanted to play are no longer consigned to a sect that considers skinning people for the lulz to be a sacred practice. However, there are obviously people who believe that its horseshit that the entireity of vampiric society rapidly changed over the course of a decade when it had stayed mostly stable for so long.

===[[The Sabbat]]===
In the wake of the Beckoning bringing elders all to one place, the Sabbat abandoned their cities and prepared to kick the shit out of the elders, seeing it as a massive buffet. Details on what the Gehenna war looks like are sketchy, but from snippets here and there, its not going well, and attrition rates among the Sabbat are high. Not that majority of them care, but in the wake of this, about half the Lasombra promptly left to join the Camarilla, presumably now fightened of actually doing the thing that their entire sect was born to do.

Presumably there are pockets of Sabbat here and there, the ones who didn't answer the call to war, but the books have completely shifted attention from them. Presumably because being a vampiric shitbag, using disciplines in the open and creating a trail of bodies can and will lead the SI to you, and no matter how badass you are, getting your haven burned down in the middle of the day will probably kill you, or at least ruin your day.

Luckily, running Sabbat isn't too difficult. With the touchstones and tenets system you can spoof most paths, Sabbat ritae have been homebrewed and it isnt too hard to create a plot where they are hanging around (or even run a gehenna war game). You could even do a pre beckoning game if you wish.

==Disciplines==
Your good old "clan powers" that have been in the game since the beginning, but with a change. In the old days of pre v5, there were far more disciplines, and all bar 4 clans had a unique discipline. Many of them also only had one power per level until you got to level 6 and above One of the biggest (or at least one of the most debated) changes was the devs scrapping unique disciplines and levels 6 and above in favour of turning a lot of signature discipline abilities into amalgrams (combo powers that need 2 disciplines at varying levels to use), shuffling some of the more interesting and thematic upper level powers into lower slots amd providing players with multiple powers to pick from at every level of the power (even in the physical disciplines, which until now were purely one power each that just got better with more dots). While this article is at the risk of overusing skub as a descriptor, there really is no other word for the ensuring reaction to the amalgram change, more so than probably any other changes.

On the one hand, amalgrams were meant as a way to reduce or eliminate the classic problem of people begging to play a specific clan purely for the clan unique discipline and in many cases, does help with that. There has been a shift in the internal logic of the discipline powers from making them a very rigid thing to more of an umbrella for a certain family of varied abilities (obfuscate as perception and sensory fuckery vs "this family of powers helps me hide") with some of the more unique disciplines explained as different ways of using the same toolkit or mutations of the powers by mixing their abilities with others (chimestry is obfuscate + presence to manipulate someones perceptions and then convince them its not fake, while vicissitude is protean + dominate to "command the flesh to obey the kindred's whims").

It also trimmed out a lot of powers that only existed to fill out a discipline spread (a few of dementations powers got axed this way), damn near scrapped others that arguably only existed to make an independent clan special (Serpentis) and prevented others from feeling like 5 different abilities that didn't act as a progression of the same family of powers (Serpentis again, or arguably Quietus). This, twinned with every level having several powers means that even with the exact same discipline sets and dots, no 2 characters will likely have the same abilities.

However with the limit of "only 5 dots in any power" and the fact that several more unique discipline abilities can take up a large chunk of the discipline its been rolled into, can leave some players feeling rather limited, and if you wanted say, good amount of vicissitude but also wanted to purchase Earth Meld, you're gonna either lose out on a vicissitude power somewhere along the way or blow your level 5 slot on it. Plus the issue of several amalgram requirements being held by several clans at once (both the ministry and ravnos can use chimestry while Valeran is usable by the tremere) and some people citing that now there is no reason to pick certain clans over others or that the loss of the discipline as a unique discipline takes away from the identity of the clan.

===Animalism===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Tzimisce
As should be expected, Animalism is your bag of abilities that pertains to messing around with animals. As most animals can tell there's something off about kindred this can be very useful for not setting off alarm bells and helping a vampire go incognito. Has the usual mix of talking to animals, commanding them or even possessing them, as well as some powers that pertain to the beast.
===Auspex===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Malkavians, Salubri, Toreador, Tremere.
Your typical "ESP" toolkit. Takes the form of better senses, seeing unseen stuff (vampire disciplines that are normally hidden), moves onto auras and goes into psychometry, full telepathy and the like. Strangely, while most disciplines had several powers shuffled into lower levels, many of auspex' most signature abilities (aura reading and spirits touch) went up a level.
===Blood Sorcery===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Tremere.
Thaumaturgy mixed with Quietus. Even with amalgrams and the birth of multiple powers per discipline level, the days of the Thaumaturgy path whore tremere are over. Rituals still exist for a number of abilities, however the discipline as a whole is more focused on manipulating vitae for a variety of effects and less on being straight magic jury rigged to run on vitae.
===Celerity===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Brujah, Toreador.
Your vampiric super speed and dexterity based powers. No longer stupid broken after v5 realised finally that giving people a discipline that allowed you to attack extra times a turn is busted in combat. Focuses on a mix of extremely refined dexterity (deadshot accuracy or perfect balance) and maneuvering powers (your flash style super speed, up to and including running up surfaces or on water).
===Dominate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Lasombra, Malkavians, Salubri, Tremere, Tzimisce, Ventrue.
Still the same old "stare into their eyes and command them" mind control power. One of the most common disciplines now, and an amalgrim for a fair few disciplines. Fuck about with memories, give people commands they must follow or even implant a directive deep into their minds and build an army of sleeper agents. Makes people obedient but dumb robots, unlike presence which turns people into slavishly loyal devotees.
===Fortitude===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Hecata, Salubri, Ventrue.
Probably once one of the most underwhelming "basic" powers, fortitude has been revamped into an actual discipline tree instead of an expensive and medicore power that was often dismissed until you accidentally pissed off a gangrel. Ties into the vampires nature as an unchanging monster. Obviously deals with soaking damage, but also has abilities that adds resilience for mind control, prevents the user from being knocked down or even make weapons shatter against you. Also where the healing powers of the salubri went (amalgrimated with Auspex).
===Obfuscate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Ravnos, The Ministry.
Obfuscate, despite being expanded to include other trickery, is suprisingly still very focused on its regular powerset. Majority of powers have to do with things like hiding and decieving people into thinking you're either not there or you're someone else at higher levels, perfect for the Nosferatu, and also include things like obfuscating items or turning the interior of a place into a maze by warping the layout in their perceptions. V5 ended up slotting the chimestry abilities into this discipline, using presence as an amalgram.
===Oblivion===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Void (the lack of resonance)
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Lasombra.
The powers of Obtenebration plus Necromancy rolled into one discipline. In one of the more controversial changes to the lore junkies, the old obtenebration powers now deal almost entirely with the realm of the dead as opposed to the psuedo-alive shadow realm of previous editions. Like blood sorcery, Oblivion contained a plethora of rituals, mostly surrounding the more necromantic side of the disicipline. Really feels like 2 disciplines slapped into one set, with one side dealing with shadow manipulation and one dealing with affeceting the dead or channeling entropy itself. Uniquely of all disciplines, it can cause stains the more you use it as the unnatural power taints the user.

===Potence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Lasombra, Nosferatu.
Like Celerity and Fortitude, Potence now has powers at each level, creating a mix of powers that pertain to combat prowess and some that are more traversal or utility based (the power to jump higher and further or climb walls by punching handholds). This is also now one of the more important combat disciplines again, with the 5 dot power (fist of caine) the only way to do unarmed aggravated damage with the nerf to protean's "Feral Claws".
===Presence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Ravnos, The Ministry, Toreador, Ventrue.
The velvet glove to Dominate's iron fist, presence allows the vampire to turn people into their slavish devotees and uber fans. Unlike Dominate, it doesn't strip the free will from the target, allowing for the thrall to use their own initative when doing your bidding. It also tends to affect crowds vs dominate's single target focus (but is more about pulling on emotions than it is crushing down someones free will). This does come with the double edged sword that overuse on subjects can turn them into obsessive stalkers who can and will murder each other for your attention.
===Protean===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal Blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Ministry, Tzimisce.
Vampire transformation powers of various different stripes. Transform your eyes to see in the dark, fuse with the earth to escape the sun, become an animal or turn into a cloud of mist to sneak into places that arent completely air tight. Notably, feral claws, a power that has been a staple of combat vampires forever, has had the aggravated damage dealing to kindred element stripped out, making it less of an auto include. This is also where Serpentis and Visissitude ended up going.
===Thin Blood Alchemy===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Varies (depending on the recipe).
*'''Held by: ''' Thin Bloods
Cooking by the book. Thin bloods can't learn disciplines due to the curse being too weak to allow for these changes, however what they do have is thin blood alchemy, more akin to a list of rituals and potion brewing to allow for the user to produce and counterfeit a number of effects. Most of it is recipes to mimic other discipline powers, however some basic abilities (change someones body, minor displays of telekinesis or flying) are thrown in too. As its not a native power of "the vitae" it doesnt progress like a regular discipline, and requires the thin blood to research, experiment or get the recipe from another source (and can become plot points for long spanning chronicles on and of themselves), albeit it does require set up beforehand (you generally cant just say "I brewed the levitation potion" just because you need to escape to another building from the roof). There are 3 ways to run the power, mixing the ingredients yourself in a cauldron, drinks mixer or whatever else the user wants to use, drinking all the ingredients yourself to mix them in your own body or force feeding someone the ingredients and feeding on them. Not usable by vampires, making it the closest thing to a "clan unique discipline" in V5.

==The Second Inquisition==
==Ghouls and Revenants==
==Who Has the Rights to V5?==
==See Also==
==External Links==
* [https://www.worldofdarkness.com/news/category/vtm/ VTM News Page]
* [http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness World of Darkness wiki]

[[Category:White Wolf]]
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:World of Darkness]]
{{WoD-Games}}

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition

2021-06-24T09:20:22Z

2A00:23C5:120A:C100:8D1F:6FA4:AFB5:8728: /* Oblivion */

{{skub}}

{{Game Infobox
|name = Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
|picture = [[File:VTM V5 Logo.jpg|250px]]
|type = [[Role-playing game]]
|system = [[Storyteller System]]
|publisher = [[White Wolf]]
|authors = Kenneth Hite, [[Mark Rein·Hagen]], Matthew Dawkins, Juhanna Peterson, Martin Ericsson, Karim Muammar
|year = 2018
|books = Vampire: The Masquerade Core Rulebook
}}
The premier [[Vampire: The Masquerade|vampire RPG]] rises once more from its resting place once more. Although subject to many [[skub]]tastic debates, this new edition has found popularity with newcomers to the series. This edition is usually abbreviated as VTM V5, or just V5, to differentiate it from D&D 5E.

The rules are lighter now, gas tank vampires are no more, and as always the clock has edged closer to midnight (AKA Gehenna).

==Modern Fluff==
The quick and dirty summary is that the Camarilla has weakened, some clans switched around in the sects, and the Sabbat are fighting Camarilla elders in the Middle East in the Gehenna War. Also, the inquisition is back and now has connections with the alphabet soup agencies because the NSA got into Schrecknet, revealing kindred society to a degree. This led to such events as the Tremere Vienna Chantry getting blown up and the Camarilla forgoing the use of modern technology for sensitive communication. The Second Inquisition believes kindred suffer from "the blank body virus", named for the absence of body heat seen when a vampire walks in front of a thermal camera.

All the above has led to kindred cities being run by much younger kindred than usual. The stranglehold elders had has loosened as they are summoned to the Middle East by a psych-spiritual call known as the Beckoning. There are a lot more thin bloods too, and most full-blooded vampires still don't like them.

==Rules==
V5 uses a dice pool system made up of D10s. The number of dots you have in skills, stats, and other modifiers are added together. The total is the number of D10s rolled for a test. If you get enough high results you succeed.

The unique part of the new rules is the hunger dice system. This replaces the blood points system (AKA gas tank/mana pool vampires). When waking up each night or using some disciplines you must make a rouse check by rolling a D10. A roll of 6 or higher is a success, and hunger does not increase. If the result is less than 6, hunger increases by one. Hunger ranges from 0-5, but the only way to get to 0 is to feed on a person until they die, otherwise, the minimum is 1. Hunger dice replace a number of dice in each test equal to your current hunger. Depending on the successes and failures in a roll and how much of each come from hunger dice, a beastial failure or messy critical could occur. This could result in giving in to a compulsion or behaving inhumanly, such as biting and starting to feed on someone that you meant to just attack.

In addition, feeding has been codified into a more streamlined system, where a vampire will pick a predator type at chargen. They can obviously feed however they like, and in theory the player can likely go without one, however each one give a plethora of advantages (free merits and a boost in dots to certain disciplines and skills) and disadvantages (several of them come with prey exclusions or the like) that its generally a good idea to take one you're well suited to. Each one is roughly balanced, with the stronger benefits coming with stronger downsides. For example the blood leech type, which requires that the vampire feeds on other kindred exclusively leads to having higher blood potency and an immunity to blood bonds, but comes with the price of being unable to feed on mortals and being viewed with suspicion at absolute best. Meanwhile the Bagger type means you sneak around and feed exclusively on blood bags, which gives you the ability to nourish yourself better on dead blood, but there's probably a reason you stick to sneaking into the hospital.

Some of the attributes have been swapped out (notably appearance, the most useless attribute in wod), the abilities list is trimmed slightly, and morality has been changed, aping the touchstones system from VTR and allowing players to decide the commandments that actually matter to the character instead of choosing between generic humanity or begging the storyteller to allowing them to use a Path of Edgelightenment.

Disciplines work a bit differently now. A standout difference is amalgam powers. They require dots in two disciplines to be accessed. In the wake of this, some disciplines have been reduced to a couple amalgram powers that require dsiciplines the clan has as standard (making serpentis a variant of protean with some presence requirements, Chimestry is now a presence and obfuscate amalgram etc). [[skub|This has provoked a lot of passionate debate]]. In addition, there are now normally multiple powers for each level of a discipline that you must choose from (or pick a power from a lower level, and 6+ powers have been scrapped (some wrapped into the upper levels of the discipline, others just purged). As a result the disciplines are all limited to 5 dots, preventing someone from getting every power from a discipline.

Finally, the game has added in loresheets, specific backgrounds that provide a mix of benefits, and represent anything from connections to an influential kindred or organisation to specific bloodline heritage. Uniquely of the backgrounds, they're not a linear progression of buffs (and buying the 2nd level of a loresheet doesn't give you the benefits of the first) and many of them are clan specific, however all their abilities are powerful or give you temporary access to other merits worth more than the dots on the sheet, albeit are often limited to certain situations.

==Books==
* Core Book: It has the rules, GMing guidance, some statblocks for NPCs, items, coterie creation, etc. Clans: Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue, Caitiff, and Thinbloods.
* Anarch Sourcebook: Anarch lore and rules for playing The Ministry (formerly the Followers of Set).
* Camarilla Sourcebook: Camarilla lore and rules for playing the Banu Haqim (formerly the Assamites).
* Fall of London: Chronicle set in 2012 about the eradication of kindred in London by the Second Inquisition.
* Chicago by Night: Sourcebook for running games in Chicago. Contains the rules for playing Lasombra.
* The Chicago Folios: Even more stuff about Chicago.
* V5 Companion: A free PDF with rules for Ravnos, Salubri, and Tzimisce. Also includes a section regarding how vampires of each clan feel about coteries along with a clan coterie merit available to be purchased at character creation. Section 3 has rules for playing mortals and ghouls. The final section contains errata and rules updates to be included in future printings (but not the upcoming July 2021 Renegade Games reprint, for some reason).
* Cults of the Blood Gods: All about vampire religion. Includes a bunch of existing cults as well as rules for making your own as a GM. Includes rules for the Hecata, the new necromancy clan that was formed by a merger of Giovanni, Cappodician, Nagaraja, and a few others in 2018. They are the last remaining independent clan.
==Clans==
In the wake of V5's release and the reshuffling of the sects, a number of clans have undergone some revisions, some minor (the tzimisce, barring disciipline spread), others major (the ravnos or salubri). Bloodlines, while theoreteically still there, are mostly scrapped, and the ones that still appear (such as the specific members of the Hecata) are often consigned to loresheets (many old bloodlines have been ported to fan made loresheets by the community).

===[[Banu Haqim]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Haqim
*'''Disciplines -''' Blood Sorcery (get fucked Tremere), Celerity, Obfuscate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Vitae Addiction (once you taste a drop, you just can't stop).
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Judgement (if someone goes against their personal ideals they're compelled to punish them).
Following the shitstorm that is the beckoning dragging the elders and the sabbat to the Middle East, the Assimites (really named Banu Haqim, with Assimites being a name that westerners called them) petitioned to join the Camarilla, which the Camarilla needed after the Brujah and Gangrel fucked off in the midst of feeling unappreciated and ignored, so it works out for both of them. In addition, Ur-Shulgi stopping the Tremere curse of vitae allergy is still canon, and they got the last laugh by wiping out the tremere's ability to blood bond (which, in fairness, the Tremere were overdue getting truly slapped down for their bullshit). Otherwise they're still the prime "executioner/assassin" clan, and most are likely to be some kind of law enforcement or even former military in life. Their old signature discipline of Quietus got nixed into blood sorcery, reactions are mixed to positive.

===[[Brujah]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Troile
*'''Disciplines -''' Celerity, Potence, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Prone to frenzy.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Rebellion (gotta fight whatever the status quo is, even if its a system that works or even benefits them).
Still the same mix of idealist philosophers preaching about politics and entitled kids who wanna fight "the man" for imposing rules without understanding why the rules are there or even an idea of what to replace those rules with. Finally gave up the goose and just joined the Anarchs wholesale, though some still reside in the Camarilla. Still generally a slave to their emotions and will likely never be happy in any system they are a part of, but hey, at least now they can play paintball with 9mm handguns and know they have freedom, while they fight and kill each other every night in gang warfare.

===[[Caitiff]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' None
*'''Disciplines -''' Varies (pick 3 at gargen)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' No in clan disciplines (though all disciplines cost 6X xp costs) and being considered lesser by most other kindred.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' None.
Not a clan, more the absense of a clan. Through quirk of blood sometimes a newly embraced vampire just doesn't show any traits inherant to their parent clan. Generally considered a mark of shame, they usually get the short end of the stick and are afforded little actual respect. Some try to argue they're purer than other kindred as "Caine had no clan", but this usually ends in the offending kindred getting their teeth kicked in. As a result, many of them join the anarchs, which while a shitshow at times they're often at least less likely to get completely disregarded. As is to be expected, no 2 caitiff are alike. Luckily for STs, with the end of clan unique disciplines and the birth of amalgrams, there are no more "Thaumaturgy, Visissitude and Chimestry" discipline spread caitiff being made, albeit people making vampires emulating another clan to get the unique amalgrams without the clan weakness is still a thing, its just more costly to do so (as it takes 2 discipline slots instead of 1). STs should still feel free to tell those powergamers to fuck off.

===[[Gangrel]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Ennoia
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Fortitude, Protean
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' After frenzying, they begin to generally appear more bestial (sounding or looking more animalistic), these often fade in time, but can make them a walking masquerade breech in time
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Acting like an animal (short tempter, compulsion to snap and fight people and generally being fucked in social situations at times).
The fluff from V20 still holds true, and they have still fucked off the Camarilla in preference to independance, albeit with any clan, exceptions exist. Still your group of nomadic and slightly aloof drifters, probably more so after they left. Funnily, since V5 changed protean, they're no longer the go to "fighters" now, as feral claws no longer do aggravated damage. The various bloodlines that spawned from the Gangrel are still around somewhere, just with bloodlines no longer really a thing, they don't get much of a look in.

===[[Giovanni|Hacata]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Cappadocius/Augustus Giovanni/Hecate (their Antediluvians gets diablerised a lot)
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex (or dominate), Fortitude, Oblivion
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant (kind of a sect of their own, its dumb, see below)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Their Kiss hurts like a motherfucker, looks bad and heals slowly (can trade out for looking like 2 flavours of corpse, or needing to eat flesh as well as drink blood).
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being morbid and spookily fortelling someones death (telling that someone is sick or their recklessness will catch up with them someday).
After the death/disappearance of Angustus Giovanni, and a 500 year agreement with the camarilla coming to a close, the Giovanni reunited with the Cappadocians remnants (the clan they stole their clan status from), the Lamia (the Cappadocian's assistants) the Samedi (vampires that look like rotting corpses, and implied to be either a Giovanni experiment or a Cappadocian offshoot) and the Nagaraja (a clan of double fucked vampires who eat peoples flesh as well as blood, and happen to have skill in necromancy) to form a weird blend of sect and clan called the Hecata. Necromancy, while rolled into the discipline Oblivion, is still effectively there, albeit they can also access some lasombra powers in the mix. The subsequent ritual and agreement unified their flaw into the giovanni's painful bite, though some still have their old flaws in some manner. People have mixed opinions on both of these changes, and it is often considered to be the most sloppy change that V5 implemented. But hey, at least now you can have a necromantic vampire without having to run them as an incestuous cousin fucker or walking corpse.

===[[Lasombra]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Lasombra
*'''Disciplines -''' Dominate, Oblivion (obtenebration by any other name), Potence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla (yes, I know)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Their reflections and video images are all distorted and fucked up (but wont hide their identity), also technology reacts weirdly with them
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being unable to accept they failed at something, if they do they gotta reattempt it to get it right.
The shitshow in the east has caused many Lasombra to get out of the Sabbat and join up with the Camarilla, often delivering their elders as a peace offering. Undoubtably still trying some kind of power play (given the long spanning rivalry with the Ventrue) though the Camarilla is still happy to have them aboard in the wake of their show of good faith (stop laughing). Their old power of obtenebration has been rolled into one of the new disciplines V5 spawned, albeit with the most defining powers (arms of the abyss, hopping from shadow to shadow etc) made into amalgrams. Their bane has also been changed, and now instead of just not casting reflections/images on cameras (a weakness that too many used to their advantage to break into places), now technology is just screwly around them: microphones don't pick up their voice properly and images of them are distorted but still recognisable as them, not to mention security system seem to pick up their weirdness better. As a result, Lasombra often have a ghoul or two doing their phone calls.

===[[Malkavian]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Malkav
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Dominate (dementation is here), Obfuscate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' They all nuts in some form. Some can still function, while others are too far gone and institutionalized.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Going completely delusional (akin to a break from reality)
Malkavians are still the same crowd of absolute nutjobs, ranging the gamut of mental illness, still running the whole spectrum of typical embraces. Still having annoying players trying to create lolrandom chaotic stupid makavians because "LOL SO CRAZY!!1!". The only real change besides the addition of their compulsion (which isnt really anything special) is the dissolution of dementation as its own discipline, with their more unique powers being rolled into amalgrams for both Auspex (for extrasensory powers) and Dominate (for straight mindfuck abilities). Meanwhile lore wise they changed very little, and haven't done much new of significance or suffered any major setback.

===[[Nosferatu]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Absimiliard
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Looking fuck ugly, potentally (but not always anymore) being constituted as an automatic masquerade breech when they're seen "au natural".
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Compulsion to aqquire secrets.
Nosferatu have changed a little, with their old clan bane going from the old days of Orlock clones and automatic masquerade breeches upon sight, to being disfigured but not to the point of impossibility in many cases (some are still unlucky enough that they can't be seen) though this is more a gameplay thing than a story thing. Hiding their obviously fucked up appearance is now harder for them in addition, getting worse the more powerful their blood is. As for Lore, the sewer rats big information network (ShreckNET) got hacked by the NSA and helped give a large swathe of information regarding vampires to the second inquisition. With no other option, the Nos sadly pulled the plug and started dismantling it, some using their extensive technical prowess to try and purge any kindred presence on the net. They've since taken a huge hit to their credibility as a result, and the information sharing network to keep an eye out for the Nictuku is pretty screwed, though they're still considered very valuable thanks to their expertise and tenancy to aqquire secrets.

===[[Ravnos]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Zapathasura
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Obfuscate (Chimestry is here), Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Staying in one place for too long leads to them slowly burning like they got hit by the sun, no matter how light tight their haven.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being a daredevil and taking the riskiest solution to a problem.
Week of nightmares still happened, and as a result the Ravnos are still basically fucked. The death of Zapathasura has changed the survivours to basically be chased by the sun, and if they stay in one place for more than a couple nights, they start to wake up with aggravated damage. Some live in mobile havens, some setup a bunch of buildings in the same city, and some use their new enforced nomadic lifestyle to stay ahead of kindred threats. Their power of Chimestry has been rolled into obfuscate, using presence as an amalgram, and is generally weaker. As with all the changes, this has been a source of [[Skub]], especially when the chimestry amalgrams are available to the Ministry (due to the required spread being in clan for both). Generally however, the changes to bane and the implementation of their compulsion has at least been met favourably, and goes a long way to stamping out the racism argument that has followed the Ravnos since their inception.

===[[Salubri]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Saulot
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Dominate (Obeah), Fortitude
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Independant
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Salubri blood is more addictive to kindred, in addition they have a third eye that weeps vitae when they use a discipline power, making subtle discipline use damn near impossible
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Helping people and easing suffering
The only good guy vampire clan, and they've gone through a number of changes mechanically, if not fluff wise(they are still very similar to what they were, and even after the Anarchs established themselves as their own real sect they still stay in hiding) which many people aren't happy with. For one, their bane is now a reverse Banu Haqim flaw, instead of the old consentual feeding flaw they used to have. In addition, their old ability set of healing people or pulling a soul out to mend it has now been locked to vampires only (the creatures that have pushed them around and shat on them for centuries) and split into amalgrams across their entire discipline spread. Some like that this makes them less "too good for this sinful earth" while others feel it ruins the point of one of the only inherantly "good" vampire clans getting wiped out and goes against their "no good deed goes unpunished" schtick. As always, YMMV.

===[[Followers of Set|The Ministry]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Set
*'''Disciplines -''' Obfuscate, Presence, Protean (hello Serpentis)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Extreme light sensitivity, atificial light make it hard for them to do things, and sunlight does more damage depending on how powerful their blood is.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Tempting people to indulge in sin and break their own tenets
Formerly known as the Followers of set, or the Setites, the clan rebranded as the Ministry (except African and Egyptian kindred), both to shed some of the old reputation and as a transition of their beliefs from trying to awaken Set to believing Set resides within them (given they are of Set's blood and one of the Gehenna scenarios back along had Set already be dead, it may be a reflection of this). Still all about the vice and temptation, they, like the Banu Haqim decided that with everyone invading the middle east and causing the area to become a rampant shitstorm of kindred on kindred violence, they needed protection of a major sect. Despite petitioning to join the camarilla, they were refused and so went with the backup choice of the Anarchs. Serpentis, often regarded as just "protean wearing a wig" has now just been rolled into Protean with their meserise ability now an amalgram between it and presence. Often operating as spiritual enlightenment gurus in coteries, they are normally seen as the "I know a guy" clan (dealing in vice to differ them from the Ventrue). Still seem to be an odd mix of clan and sect, if some Samedi stragglers joining up with their structure is anything to go by.

===[[Thin Blood]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' None
*'''Disciplines -''' Thin-Blood Alchemy
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Varies (pick at creation)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' None
Much like Caitiff, a thin blood is not really a clan, its more the result of being embraced by a vampire who's too many generations removed from Caine. Like the caitiff, the thin bloods are generally shunned and the eternal whipping boys of kindred society. The Camarilla can and will murder them on sight (or, in kinder places, brand them with a hot iron like cattle), while the Anarchs treatment of them ranges the entire spectrum (like with all things Anarchs) of pity, bullying or even just straight killing them. They don't really have disciplines or the ability to learn them properly, though can still pull off some minor discipline effects if they taste another vampire's blood (a dangerous prospect for obvious reasons). Instead they're giving a discipline called thin blooded alchemy, which allows them to make concotions to counterfeit other clan powers with a few generic abilities like minor telekinesis, levitation or creating a cloud of fog thrown in to not be completely barren of unique, fun shit. They do, however, feel the curse less acutely than full blood kindred in most cases, often not having clan curses, able to eat, drink and fuck to their hearts content and some are even able to walk around in the day without any problems, though alongside that some still have a beast despite having weak blood, heal like a mortal or the inability to grow fangs as the curse doesnt manifest properly. A very common path for thin blooded kindred is either to attempt to become human again (trying the classics of kill the sire and the like) or try to get ahold of a full vampire and commit diablerie, gaining a substantial boost in power at the expense of losing their thin blood merits and taking the clan of their victim in the process.

===[[Toreador]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Arikel
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Celerity, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Suffering in "ugly" surroundings (as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this can take many forms)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Can become mesmerised by something truly beautiful (whether that is a person, a song or even the rising sun)
Still the same mix of artists and poseurs who don't actually know how to make art but sit around criticising other people, the Toreador have changed little from their mean girls routine in earlier editions, embracing those who are beautiful or the hot new thing and dropping them like a drained corpse the next chance they get. The clan is still sticking by the Camarilla, still giving the Nosferatu shit for being ugly and still getting probably more hate than is entirely fair.

===[[Tremere]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Tremere
*'''Disciplines -''' Auspex, Blood Sorcery (Thaumaturgy by any other name is suprisingly less bullshit), Dominate
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Inability to blood bond (fuck yo pyramid)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Being perfectionists and needing to get something not just done but done "perfectly"
Oh boy, the Tremere. Where do we begin on the almighty slapping down they recieved? Well, it all began when the second inquisition raided the main Chantry in Vienna, wiping it out with a drone missile and shattering the leadership of the clan (jury is out on if Tremere, currently inhabiting Gotrix's body, manipulated events to see this done or if the SI got lucky). Either as a result of that or the Banu Haqim Methuselah Ur-Shulgi deciding to get a little payback for the curse they levelled at his clan, the Tremere's blood bonds to the pyramid were broken, and the clan as a whold were left without the ability to blood bond kindred (ghouls can be bonded, albeit they need to drink more of the blood over a longer period). Between the destruction of their centralised leadership, the beckoning taking many of the elders out of the picture, the Banu Haqim joining the Camarilla (destroying their monopoly on blood sorcery) and becoming persona non grata in many places when the blood bonds broke, the Tremere are now fighting heavily to find any scrap of old occultish lore and have broken into several houses, all opposed. The houses are the loyalists under Karl Schrekt, Carna (quasi paganism with a feminist leaning), Gotrix (implied to be run by Tremere himself inhabiting Gotrix's body) and Ipsissimus (who joined the Anarchs). Good news, this means that there are now Tremere among the anarchs, bad (or better news, depending on if you were a fan of Thaumaturgy being a hundred disciplines in one), blood sorcery paths are all but gone, with most of the lore on different paths scattered to the winds, and the ones who know it not being inclined to share now that their clan structure has been subject to a beatdown conga.

===[[Tzimisce]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Tzimisce
*'''Disciplines -''' Animalism, Dominate, Protean (vicissitude hides here now, along with dominate)
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Anarchs (most still in the sabbat)
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Must dwell among something that resonates with them (a particular building, among a certain group of people or even in soil from somewhere they have strong ties to ala Dracula)
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Covetousness (taking things for their "hoard", whether thats an item or sculpting their fingers to match someone elses/stealing someones fingers because they're pretty)
Having undergone something of a reestablishment since V20, pains have been taken to reemphasise the more posessive and "lord of the land" elements of the Tzimisce over the Moreau esque body horror elements. Outside of that however, the Tzimisce are the same as they've always been, and the only real change is their numbers among the Anarchs have increased, though most still reside among the sabbat. Vicissitude is no longer its own discipline, and has been rolled into Protean like many other unique disciplines, amalgramed with dominate to "force the flesh to obey their whim". This has the unfortunate effect of changing the fundamental powerset of the Tzimisce and giving them social disciplines despite the often held line of ruling solely through terror, and [[Skub|does spark some debate]].

===[[Ventrue]]===
*'''Antediluvian -''' Ventru
*'''Disciplines -''' Dominate, Fortitude, Presence
*'''Primary Sect membership -''' Camarilla
*'''Clan Weakness -''' Can only feed on a certain type of people (alcoholics, 20 year old virgins etc), if not their chosen charge they must spend willpower or vomit it up.
*'''Clan Compulsions -''' Taking charge (take charge and force someone to obey your will without using disciplines like Dominate to do so)
Very much the same as they've always been. Same bunch of pricks richer than you and better dressed than you but with the added caveat that they do still run the Camarilla and do their job well, because someone's gotta keep an entire society of predators wearing human faces and backstabbing each other in line. Not to say they're completely dismissive of other kindred and clans, they just know that every gear has its place in the political machine, and will make alliances as necessary to keep things running and to step up in the world. Have a lot of soft power among kine, especially where the business world is concerned, and often embrace among the sucessful (businessmen and politicians are often seen as the best investments). Their bane is still the same but has been expanded, Ventrue are now slightly able to tell if someone is to their taste.

==Sects==

Still the same sects (ish) but with differences with ann the radical changes in V5.

===[[Camarilla]]===
The Camarilla, long the bastion of kindred society and considering all vampires under their rules, got fucked from several angles at the beginning of V5. The Gangrel had already left after Justicar Xavier wasnt taken seriously about the Antedeluvians. Then the beckoning starts to take their Elders and Princes away, leading to a lot of the old powerbase departing for parts unknown and creating a power vacuum. In addition, when ShreckNET got compromised and the Second inquisition rose up, the camarilla promptly panicked, blamed the Anarchs and banned all electronic communication. Never mind that a lot of Elders used law enforcement or even honest to caine hunters as an attack dog to sic on their rivals, contributing to a lot of the information that the SI had to work with.

Following this, the Camarilla decided to place stricter rules and membership becomes more exclusive, formally banning caitiff vampires in the sect and cracking down harder and harder on the anarchs before Theo Bell, Archon, anarch sympathizer and brujah representative, declared enough was enough and blew Hardestadt, inner circle member and the defacto leader of the camarilla, to pieces with a shotgun at the Conclave of Prague, taking the Brujah and moving most of the clan to the Anarchs.

Despite their powerbase shrinking and the Camarilla becoming more of an exclusive club, several clans petitioned to join in the wake of all the chaos that followed the Gehenna war. The Banu Haqim were granted the ability to join as a clan, and about half the Lasombra defected from the Sabbat and were allowed in on a case by case basis, often trading favours in exchange for entrance. This began in Chicago and will likely continue to be adopted in other areas, assuming the Lasombra don't fuck the place over. The Ministry, formerly known as the Followers of Set, were rejected from joining, so decided to join the sect more likely to appreciate [[futurama RPG|blackjack and hookers]].

Between this and the death of the end of the party line that the Antedeluvians are simply myths, the Camarilla of the present is a very different beast, and are arguably regressing to the tactics of the Elders that spawned the first anarch revolt, locking their doors and allowing the Anarchs to bear the brunt of the SI purges while they try to avoid detection and wait out the storm.

===[[Anarchs]]===
Following the Camarilla closing its doors to all but exceptional kindred and the response from Theo Bell, the Anarchs have split off into their own sect proper. The average Anarch city is a mess of gang violence without anyone holding enough power to make Anarchs behave and usually either follows the trend of "the barons are just as bad as the princes" or Sabbat wearing anarchy symbols as the kindred form into gangs and fight nightly for territory, usually both.

Not to say that going Anarch has no benefits. Sure life is tougher and fighting is rampant but night to night you have a little more freedom. The barons generally are slightly better than the Princes of old, and likely wont demand your fealty or gifts of blood so long as you stay out of their way, plus with a slightly more democratic leaning being a complete bastard is discouraged. However, with no obligation to be fair and even less in the way of oversight if you're not popular, you're at the mercy of other vampires and can expect little in the way of actual support or recourse.

Unteathered from the Camarilla, they've come into their own, for better of worse. Thin bloods and Caitiff have, being generally persceuted by the Camarilla, flocked to the Anarchs in the face of the Camarilla becoming even more hostile to them. The Gangrel, originally simply independant, have joined up with the Anarchs too, as did the Ministry and Brujah clans. Heck, even a load of younger Tzimisce have latched onto the sect. They also made some territory gains of their own (retaking California and usurping London and a few other cities).

V5 seems to be intent on building the Anarchs into the proper rivals to the Camarilla in the face of moving the Sabbat out of the limelight and in fairness, a lot of people are okay with it. Many considered the Sabbat to be comically evil and with the depth of a puddle. It helps that the unique clans most people wanted to play are no longer consigned to a sect that considers skinning people for the lulz to be a sacred practice. However, there are obviously people who believe that its horseshit that the entireity of vampiric society rapidly changed over the course of a decade when it had stayed mostly stable for so long.

===[[The Sabbat]]===
In the wake of the Beckoning bringing elders all to one place, the Sabbat abandoned their cities and prepared to kick the shit out of the elders, seeing it as a massive buffet. Details on what the Gehenna war looks like are sketchy, but from snippets here and there, its not going well, and attrition rates among the Sabbat are high. Not that majority of them care, but in the wake of this, about half the Lasombra promptly left to join the Camarilla, presumably now fightened of actually doing the thing that their entire sect was born to do.

Presumably there are pockets of Sabbat here and there, the ones who didn't answer the call to war, but the books have completely shifted attention from them. Presumably because being a vampiric shitbag, using disciplines in the open and creating a trail of bodies can and will lead the SI to you, and no matter how badass you are, getting your haven burned down in the middle of the day will probably kill you, or at least ruin your day.

Luckily, running Sabbat isn't too difficult. With the touchstones and tenets system you can spoof most paths, Sabbat ritae have been homebrewed and it isnt too hard to create a plot where they are hanging around (or even run a gehenna war game). You could even do a pre beckoning game if you wish.

==Disciplines==
Your good old "clan powers" that have been in the game since the beginning, but with a change. In the old days of pre v5, there were far more disciplines, and all bar 4 clans had a unique discipline. Many of them also only had one power per level until you got to level 6 and above One of the biggest (or at least one of the most debated) changes was the devs scrapping unique disciplines and levels 6 and above in favour of turning a lot of signature discipline abilities into amalgrams (combo powers that need 2 disciplines at varying levels to use), shuffling some of the more interesting and thematic upper level powers into lower slots amd providing players with multiple powers to pick from at every level of the power (even in the physical disciplines, which until now were purely one power each that just got better with more dots). While this article is at the risk of overusing skub as a descriptor, there really is no other word for the ensuring reaction to the amalgram change, more so than probably any other changes.

On the one hand, amalgrams were meant as a way to reduce or eliminate the classic problem of people begging to play a specific clan purely for the clan unique discipline and in many cases, does help with that. There has been a shift in the internal logic of the discipline powers from making them a very rigid thing to more of an umbrella for a certain family of varied abilities (obfuscate as perception and sensory fuckery vs "this family of powers helps me hide") with some of the more unique disciplines explained as different ways of using the same toolkit or mutations of the powers by mixing their abilities with others (chimestry is obfuscate + presence to manipulate someones perceptions and then convince them its not fake, while vicissitude is protean + dominate to "command the flesh to obey the kindred's whims").

It also trimmed out a lot of powers that only existed to fill out a discipline spread (a few of dementations powers got axed this way), damn near scrapped others that arguably only existed to make an independent clan special (Serpentis) and prevented others from feeling like 5 different abilities that didn't act as a progression of the same family of powers (Serpentis again, or arguably Quietus). This, twinned with every level having several powers means that even with the exact same discipline sets and dots, no 2 characters will likely have the same abilities.

However with the limit of "only 5 dots in any power" and the fact that several more unique discipline abilities can take up a large chunk of the discipline its been rolled into, can leave some players feeling rather limited, and if you wanted say, good amount of vicissitude but also wanted to purchase Earth Meld, you're gonna either lose out on a vicissitude power somewhere along the way or blow your level 5 slot on it. Plus the issue of several amalgram requirements being held by several clans at once (both the ministry and ravnos can use chimestry while Valeran is usable by the tremere) and some people citing that now there is no reason to pick certain clans over others or that the loss of the discipline as a unique discipline takes away from the identity of the clan.

===Animalism===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Tzimisce
As should be expected, Animalism is your bag of abilities that pertains to messing around with animals. As most animals can tell there's something off about kindred this can be very useful for not setting off alarm bells and helping a vampire go incognito. Has the usual mix of talking to animals, commanding them or even possessing them, as well as some powers that pertain to the beast.
===Auspex===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Malkavians, Salubri, Toreador, Tremere.
Your typical "ESP" toolkit. Takes the form of better senses, seeing unseen stuff (vampire disciplines that are normally hidden), moves onto auras and goes into psychometry, full telepathy and the like. Strangely, while most disciplines had several powers shuffled into lower levels, many of auspex' most signature abilities (aura reading and spirits touch) went up a level.
===Blood Sorcery===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Tremere.
Thaumaturgy mixed with Quietus. Even with amalgrams and the birth of multiple powers per discipline level, the days of the Thaumaturgy path whore tremere are over. Rituals still exist for a number of abilities, however the discipline as a whole is more focused on manipulating vitae for a variety of effects and less on being straight magic jury rigged to run on vitae.
===Celerity===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Brujah, Toreador.
Your vampiric super speed and dexterity based powers. No longer stupid broken after v5 realised finally that giving people a discipline that allowed you to attack extra times a turn is busted in combat. Focuses on a mix of extremely refined dexterity (deadshot accuracy or perfect balance) and maneuvering powers (your flash style super speed, up to and including running up surfaces or on water).
===Dominate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Lasombra, Malkavians, Salubri, Tremere, Tzimisce, Ventrue.
Still the same old "stare into their eyes and command them" mind control power. One of the most common disciplines now, and an amalgrim for a fair few disciplines. Fuck about with memories, give people commands they must follow or even implant a directive deep into their minds and build an army of sleeper agents. Makes people obedient but dumb robots, unlike presence which turns people into slavishly loyal devotees.
===Fortitude===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Hecata, Salubri, Ventrue.
Probably once one of the most underwhelming "basic" powers, fortitude has been revamped into an actual discipline tree instead of an expensive and medicore power that was often dismissed until you accidentally pissed off a gangrel. Ties into the vampires nature as an unchanging monster. Obviously deals with soaking damage, but also has abilities that adds resilience for mind control, prevents the user from being knocked down or even make weapons shatter against you. Also where the healing powers of the salubri went (amalgrimated with Auspex).
===Obfuscate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Ravnos, The Ministry.
Obfuscate, despite being expanded to include other trickery, is suprisingly still very focused on its regular powerset. Majority of powers have to do with things like hiding and decieving people into thinking you're either not there or you're someone else at higher levels, perfect for the Nosferatu, and also include things like obfuscating items or turning the interior of a place into a maze by warping the layout in their perceptions. V5 ended up slotting the chimestry abilities into this discipline, using presence as an amalgram.
===Oblivion===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Void (the lack of resonance)
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Lasombra.
The powers of Obtenebration plus Necromancy rolled into one discipline. In one of the more controversial changes to the lore junkies, the old obtenebration powers now deal almost entirely with the realm of the dead as opposed to the psuedo-alive shadow realm of previous editions. Like blood sorcery, Oblivion contained a plethora of rituals, mostly surrounding the more necromantic side of the disicipline. Really feels like 2 disciplines slapped into one set, with one side dealing with shadow manipulation and one dealing with affeceting the dead or channeling entropy itself. Uniquely of all disciplines, it can cause stains the more you use it as the unnatural power taints the user.

===Potence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Lasombra, Nosferatu.
Like Celerity and Fortitude, Potence now has powers at each level, creating a mix of powers that pertain to combat prowess and some that are more traversal or utility based (the power to jump higher and further or climb walls by punching handholds). This is also now one of the more important combat disciplines again, with the 5 dot power (fist of caine) the only way to do unarmed aggravated damage with the nerf to protean's "Feral Claws".
===Presence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Ravnos, The Ministry, Toreador, Ventrue.
The velvet glove to Dominate's iron fist, presence allows the vampire to turn people into their slavish devotees and uber fans. Unlike Dominate, it doesn't strip the free will from the target, allowing for the thrall to use their own initative when doing your bidding. It also tends to affect crowds vs dominate's single target focus (but is more about pulling on emotions than it is crushing down someones free will). This does come with the double edged sword that overuse on subjects can turn them into obsessive stalkers who can and will murder each other for your attention.
===Protean===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal Blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Ministry, Tzimisce.
Vampire transformation powers of various different stripes. Transform your eyes to see in the dark, fuse with the earth to escape the sun, become an animal or turn into a cloud of mist to sneak into places that arent completely air tight. Notably, feral claws, a power that has been a staple of combat vampires forever, has had the aggravated damage dealing to kindred element stripped out, making it less of an auto include. This is also where Serpentis and Visissitude ended up going.
===Thin Blood Alchemy===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Varies (depending on the recipe).
*'''Held by: ''' Thin Bloods
Cooking by the book. Thin bloods can't learn disciplines due to the curse being too weak to allow for these changes, however what they do have is thin blood alchemy, more akin to a list of rituals and potion brewing to allow for the user to produce and counterfeit a number of effects. Most of it is recipes to mimic other discipline powers, however some basic abilities (change someones body, minor displays of telekinesis or flying) are thrown in too. As its not a native power of "the vitae" it doesnt progress like a regular discipline, and requires the thin blood to research, experiment or get the recipe from another source (and can become plot points for long spanning chronicles on and of themselves), albeit it does require set up beforehand (you generally cant just say "I brewed the levitation potion" just because you need to escape to another building from the roof). There are 3 ways to run the power, mixing the ingredients yourself in a cauldron, drinks mixer or whatever else the user wants to use, drinking all the ingredients yourself to mix them in your own body or force feeding someone the ingredients and feeding on them. Not usable by vampires, making it the closest thing to a "clan unique discipline" in V5.

==The Second Inquisition==
==Ghouls and Revenants==
==Who Has the Rights to V5?==
==See Also==
==External Links==
* [https://www.worldofdarkness.com/news/category/vtm/ VTM News Page]
* [http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness World of Darkness wiki]

[[Category:White Wolf]]
[[Category:Roleplaying]]
[[Category:World of Darkness]]
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