Started: 08/28/2000 Updated: 05/05/2002
Vampire: The Masquerade is a role-playing game where the players get to play vampires. There isn't much that I can add to what has already been written, so here are some excerpts from Vamprie: The Masquerade Role-Playing Game.
Would you like some refreshment?
The Disclaimer from Page 18 of Vamprie: The Masquerade Role-Playing Game
| Vampire: The Masquerade is a game. It's a game that requires imagination, effort, creativity and, above all, maturity. Part of maturity is realizing that Vampire is only a game and that the situations depicted in these pages are strictly imaginary. If you beat somebody at Monoploy�, you don't go out an foreclose on their house. If you sink someone's Battleship�, you don't go down to the Navy Yard and start throwing Molotovs at the boats. The same principle applies to any roleplaying or storytelling game. In other words, you are not a vampire. When a game session ends, put away the books, pack away the dice, enjoy the rest of your life, and let other people enjoy theirs. For the 99.9999+% of you who are sufficiently well-adjusted not to need such a ridiculous disclaimer, have fun. |
The Hunt
When all is said and done, the most fundamental difference between humans and vampires lies in their methods of sustenance, Vampires may not subsist on mortal food; instead, they must maintain their eternal lives through the consumption of blood --fresh human blood.
Vampires acquire their sustenance in many fashions. Some cultivate "herds" of willing mortals, who cherish the ecstasy of the vampire's Kiss. Some creep into houses by night, feeding from sleeping humans. Some stalk the mortals' playgrounds --the nightclubs, bars, and theaters-- enticing mortals into illicit liaisons and disguising their predation as acts of passion. And yet others take their nourishment in the most ancient fashion --stalking, attacking, and incapacitating (or even killing) mortals who wander too far into lonely nocturnal alleys and empty lots.
| The Six Traditions: | Sorta like the 10 (or in this case, 6) Commandments for Vampires. | |
|---|---|---|
| The First Tradition | The Masquerade | Thou shalt not reveal thy true nature to those not of the Blood. Doing so shall renounce thy claims of Blood. |
| The Second Tradition | The Domain | Thy domain is thy concern. All others owe thee respect while in it. None may challenge thy word in thy domain. |
| The Third Tradition | The Progeny | Thou shalt sire another only with permission ot thine elder. If thou createst another without thine elder's leave, both thou and thy progeny shalt be slain. |
| The Fourth Tradition | The Accounting | Those thou create are thine own childer. Until thy progeny shall be released, thou shalt command them in all things. Their sins are thine to endure. |
| The Fifth Tradition: | Hospitality | Honor one another's domain. When thou comest to a foreign city, thou shalt present theyself to the one who ruleth there. Without the word of acceptance, thou art nothing. |
| The Sixth Tradition | Destruction | Thou art forbidden to destroy another of thy kind. The right of destruction belongeth only to thine elder. Only the eldest among thee shall call the blood hunt. |
| The Sects | |
|---|---|
| The Camrilla | Upholds the Traditions and the Masquerade |
| The Sabbat | Wants to overthrow the Traditions and the Masqurade. |
| The Inconnu: | Vampire Sect that has split from the Camrilla or the Sabbat, to form their own group. |
| The Clans of the Camrilla | |
|---|---|
| Brujah | The Vampire Rebels |
| Gangrel | Feral, animalistic, shape-changing vampires. Not to be confused with werewolves and other werecreatures. |
| Malkavian | The Vampire Loonys. Insane, but have incredible insight. |
| Nosferatu | A deformed, sewer-dwelling group of vampires. |
| Toreador | The aristocratic Vampires. The ones you think of when you watch Dracula movies. |
| Tremere | The Vampire Sorcerers |
| Venture | The leaders of the Camarilla. |
Not in the Vamprie: The Masquerade Role-Playing Game Book, but found on someone's site:
Draculean: The Draculas. (My personal fave! ^_^)
Vampires.
Bloodsucking corpses returned from the grave to feast on the blood of the living. Monsters damned to Hell who avoid their punishment through life unlawfully stolen. Erotic predators who take their sustenance from innocent, struggling --or prehaps, willing?-- men and women.
Since time's begining, humanity has spoken of the vampire --the undead, the demonic spirit embodied in human flesh, the corpse risen from its grave possessed of a burning hunger for warm blood. From Hungary to Hong Kong, from New Delhi to New York, people throughout the world have experinced chills of delicious terror contemplating the deeds of the night-stalking vampire. The vampire has haunted novels, movies, TV series, video games, clothing, and even breakfast cereal.
But these stories are mere myths, right?
Wrong.
Vampires have walked among us from prehistoric times. They walk among us still. They have fought a great and secret war since the earliest nights of human history. And this eternal struggle's final outcome may determine humanity's future --or its ultimate damnation.
Vampire's True and False.
The Embrace
Vampires are created through a process called the Embrace. Some vampire clans Embrace more casually than other, but the Embrace is almost never given lightly. After all, any new vampire is a potential competitor for food and power. A potential childe is often stalked for weeks or even years by a watchful sire, who greedily evaluates whether the mortal would indeed make a good addition to the society of the Kindred.
The Embrace is simular to normal vampiric feeding --the vampire drains her chosen prey of blood. However, upon complete exsanguination, the vampire returns a bit of her own immortal blood to the drained mortal. Only a tiny bit --a drop or two-- is necessary to turn a mortal into an undead. This process can even be performed on a dead human, provided the body is still warm.
Once the blood is returned, the mortal "awakens" and begins drinking of his own accord. But, though animate, the mortal is still dead; his heart does not beat, nor does he breathe. Over the next week or two, the mortal's body undergos a series of subtle transformations; he learns to use the blood in his body, and he is taught the special powers of his clan. He is now a vampire.
| The chapters of Vamprie: The Masquerade Role-Playing Game. | |
|---|---|
| Chapter 1: | A World of Darkness describes the Kindred and the world in which they hunt. |
| Chapter 2: | Clans and Sects describes the 13 great "clans" of Kindred and the organization to which they hold allegiance. |
| Chapter 3: | Character gives step-by-step instructions for creating vampire characters. |
| Chapter 4: | Disciplines delineates the magical powers of the undead. |
| Chapter 5: | Rules provides the basic means of resolving the characters' various actions. |
| Chapter 6: | Systems describes a plethora of ways to simulated everything from gentle seduction to brutal combat. |
| Chapter 7: | A History of the Kindred recounts the ancient history and bloody feuds among the Children of Caine. |
| Chapter 8: | Storytelling tells Storytellers how to build entertaining stories in which to involve the characters. |
| Chapter 9: | Antagonists gives notes on the Kindred's (few) friends and (many) enemies. |
| Appendix | provides addenda and rules for advanced players. |
List of Vampire Generations
| From Draculean, by Landon C. Darkwood | |
|---|---|
| Draculean | |
| Founder | Ivanella Boristova, 4th Generataion Caitiff. |
| Ivanella's Progeny | Elizabetha. Elivabetha met and married a king, a knight of the Order of the Dragon, named Vlad Tepes. Elizabetha Embraced Vlad, now known as Dracula. |
| Nickname | None, the Dragons. |
| Appearence | Draculean vampires can have any appearence or heritage, but most of the Elders are of Eastern European decent. |
| Haven: | Most elder Draculeans cater to old, abandoned castles and other such keeps as havens. Likewise, some younger Draculeans have adopted the practice to emulate the ways of their founder, Dracula. |
| Background | Disordanized Draculeans: Any background. Organized Draculeans: Very scholarly, those who have taken up the study of vampiric folklore as a profession. Elders come from European royal families. Love is also a common motivation for the Embrace. It may be interesting to note that Draculeans will usually seek to ease the transformation into undeath, sot that most of the mortal's orginal personality and mannerisms are retained. |
| Clan Disciplines | Celerity, Protean, Telens |
| Weaknesses | All Draculeans are very possessive. This can involve things or people. |
| Telens, a discipline of the Draculean bloodline. From Telens, by Jeremy Burkett | |
|---|---|
| Description | Thes discipline represents the special movement abilities that are thought to accomany the change into a vampire. |
| Power Levels (count the *) | Power Name |
| * | Soft Step: (With Quietess) Silent movement. |
| ** | Great Leap |
| *** | Scale the Mountain |
| **** | Angel's Decent |
| ***** | Flight |
| ****** | Grand Motion |
| ******* | Portal Passage |
| ******** | Flicker |
| ********* | Whispering Walk |
| ********** | True Being |
Excerpts from Dhampir, by Mark Kinney, a suppliment for Vampire: The Masquerade
Children of the Night
So close to the Beast, yet still so Human
Though they know it not.
But the Calling arises
In their dreams
In their senses
In their lives
Every waking moment calls them to duty.
The Calling is strong
And the goal is Eternal:
The Final Death of the Beast
That Begat them.
Poem at the begining of Dhampir, by Mark Kinney, a suppliment for Vampire: The Masquerade
Dhampir are the mortal children of a vampire male and a mortal female. A vampire, using various means, can become human temporarily, making this possible.
Dhampir are mortal, but possess several special abilities: Develop physical disciplines like ghouls can, and their father's clan diciplines, but no others. Dhampirs can drink blood to a blood pool equal to their father's.
Dhampir are not effected by sunlight and fire. They do not suffer Rotschrek.
Dhampir can detect Kindred.
Common Clans for Dhampir:
There are almost no Assamite dhampir, and any Tremere found to have fathered one is immediately put to the flame, and the child is hunted down before it presents a threat. No Nosferatu or Samedi dhampire are known to exist.
Dhampir blood is considered normal blood, and dhampir become normal Kindred if Embraced. Dhampir cannot gain "generation" through diablerie, nor can generation be gained from them. Dhampir gain no addtional powers except longevity by being ghouled.
Vampire: The Masquerade Fanfics
Note: For some reason, the link isn't working, and I can't make it work. Just copy and paste this URL to your browser, and you'll get there: http://www.geocities.com/draka_dracula/VampFics.html
Vampire: The Masquerade Links:
White Wolf Game Studio: Publishes the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG. Also publishes Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game. No longer works.
Vampire: The Masquerade Video Game: Offical site of the Vampire: The Masquerade video game, by ActiVision.
Vampire.Won.net: News, Boards, Chats, and more.
Vampire: The Masquerade: A look into the world of Darkness.
Vampire: The Masqurade: A site in France (but written in English), with rules, history, etc.
Vampire: The Masquerade Quick Start: Introductory Kit. Everything you need to get started in playing Vampire: The Masqurade RPG. Also, no longer works, but I have it save in text form, if you want it.
Vampire: The Masquerade Character Sheet: Here's a character sheet I made for the game.
Disclaimer:
Vampire: The Masquerade is owned by Steve Brown, Andrew Greenberg, Chris McDonough, Mark Rein�Hagen, Lisa Stevens, Joshua Gabriel Timbrook and Stewart Wieck.
Please sign/veiw my DreamBook!