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Vampire: the Masquerade

This is a PbtA hack for Vampire: the Masquerade. Read Apocalypse
World by D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker or Monsterhearts by
Avery Alder for the fundamentals of *World games, particularly the
philosophy of how to run them. Short version: be a fan of the PCs,
fuck with them relentlessly to keep the story hopping, don’t sweat
the piddly shit, treat NPCs like stolen cars (you can have fun with
them but you can’t keep ‘em), who really gives all that much of a shit
about combat turn order, and when PCs miss a roll, either fuck them
with harm or a Condition or give someone an Edge for seeing them
screw up, or do something to kick the story into a higher gear. There
are more details in Storyteller’s section, below.
This isn’t a stand-alone product. You need a Vampire: the Masquerade

corebook, preferably 20th Anniversary Edition, to use this, because it
doesn’t reproduce things like the Aura color chart or hierarchies of
sin for Humanity/Paths, nor does it actually give you a setting
rundown.
Credits
Writing and design by Holden Lee Shearer
Powered by the Apocalypse World engine, by D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker.
Contents
Basics .........................................................................................................................................5
Rolling Dice...........................................................................................................................5
Experience .............................................................................................................................5
Advances ...............................................................................................................................5
Botches ..................................................................................................................................6
Attributes ..............................................................................................................................7
Pull .........................................................................................................................................7
Modifiers ............................................................................................................................. 10
Standard Moves .................................................................................................................. 11
Special Systems....................................................................................................................... 15
Humanity/Path .................................................................................................................. 15
The Beast ............................................................................................................................. 17
Blood.................................................................................................................................... 20
Generation........................................................................................................................... 22
Diablerie .............................................................................................................................. 22
Edges ................................................................................................................................... 22
Conditions ........................................................................................................................... 23
Inflicting Harm ................................................................................................................... 24
Ghouls ................................................................................................................................. 26
Background Moves ................................................................................................................ 27
Merits and Flaws .................................................................................................................... 28
Character Creation ................................................................................................................. 31
Storyteller Rules ..................................................................................................................... 32
NPC Rules ........................................................................................................................... 32
Hard Moves ........................................................................................................................ 34
Clans ........................................................................................................................................ 36
Bloodlines............................................................................................................................ 40
Major Disciplines.................................................................................................................... 45
Blood Sorcery Disciplines ...................................................................................................... 65
Necromancy Paths.............................................................................................................. 65
Necromancy Rituals ........................................................................................................... 74
Thaumaturgy Paths................................................................................................................ 78
Thaumaturgy Rituals ......................................................................................................... 84
Assamite Sorcery ................................................................................................................ 88
Koldunic Sorcery ................................................................................................................ 90
Bloodline Disciplines.......................................................................................................... 93
Index ...................................................................................................................................... 101
I'M SO EXCITED ABOUT THE PROSPECTS
OF MEETING WITH A
STRANGER IN AN ALLEY
I'M SO EXCITED
I'M SO EXCITED, 'CAUSE SOON I'LL HIT THE STREETS
I AM THE CROWN PRINCE OF PAVEMENT
I'M SO EXCITED
UNDER THE SHELTERING SKIN
STRETCHED OUT SO PALE AND THIN
THERE IS AN OCEAN OF BRIGHT RED LIQUID LOVE
AND THAT, MY FRIEND, IS MY FAVORITE COLOR
—OINGO BOINGO, PEDESTRIAN WOLVES

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Basics
Rolling Dice
You only ever roll dice when someone says something to trigger a move. Then you pick
up 2d6, roll them, add them together, add an Attribute modifier, and that’s your result.
If it’s 6 or under, it’s a miss. 7-9 is a success, but with some kind of complication. 10+,
you get what you’re after.
Players roll dice. The Storyteller never rolls dice.
Experience
At the end of each session of play, get 2 experience.
When you botch a move (see below) get 1 experience.
Certain moves can give you experience.
Finally, at the beginning of each session, each player takes the sheet of the player on
their left and puts a little mark on an Attribute of their choice, as long as it isn’t the
character’s highest Attribute. Mark an Attribute that you’d like to see that character
demonstrate during the coming session. The first time during the session that you make
a move with your marked Attribute, get 1 experience and then erase the mark. Erase the
mark at the end of the session if it isn’t already erased.
When you accumulate 6 experience, you can take an advance at the end of the session,
and then erase all experience.
Advances
When you take an advance, you can choose one of the following to enhance your
character:
¤ Add +1 to an Attribute. You can only take this advance twice.
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¤ Get a new Background, but only if the story supports it. You can take this
advance more than once.
¤ Gain pull with a fact
¤ n you’ve made some inroads into infiltrating, befriending, blackmailing, or
otherwise getting some influence over in the story. Your pull with a new faction
starts at +0.
¤ Add +1 to your pull with a faction you’ve got pull with, but only if the story
supports it. You can take this advance more than once.
¤ Get a new move from one of your Clan Disciplines. You can take this advance as
many times as you want.
¤ Get a new move from a Discipline your Clan doesn’t specialize in, but only with
guidance from a teacher who knows that Discipline. If what they’re teaching you
isn’t one of their Clan Disciplines, you can’t learn any moves from them that
require you to have already learned a certain number of moves in that Discipline.
You can take this advance as many times as you want.
¤ Stabilize turmoil of the spirit to regain lost Humanity/Path. See the section on
Humanity/Path loss for more on this.
¤ Begin or complete seeking lost grace or seeking greater enlightenment. See the section
on raising Humanity/Path for more on this.
Botches
When you miss on a move, you can tell the Storyteller you want to convert the miss into
a botch, and get 1 experience. How exactly a botch manifests is entirely up to the
Storyteller, but something bad is going to happen.
Be aware that the Storyteller can make a miss hurt as bad as they want to even if you
don’t ask for a botch; they’re under no obligation not to open up with both barrels any
time they think it would push the story somewhere interesting. All converting to a
botch does take away the Storyteller’s option of letting you off light.
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Attributes
You have three Attributes, which you combine with the results of 2d6 to find the
outcome of rolls.
When you make your vampire, pick one Attribute to be rated at +1, one to be rated at
+0, and one to be rated at -1. Attributes cannot ever be higher than +3.
The Attributes are:
Physical: Strong, fast, tough, fit. Governs the following moves: Fuck them up, do
something athletic, run for it.
Social: Smooth, sophisticated, insightful, sexy. Governs the following moves:

Manipulate someone, stand your ground, show your teeth.
Mental: Clever, cunning, sharp, quick-witted. Governs the following moves:

Navigate a system, do something shady, read their eyes.
Pull
Pull is a kind of “extra Attribute” you can have, representing political, hierarchical,
monetary, or personal sway over an organization, group, or network of people. Pull
represents your ability to get things done in your city. Pull cannot be rated higher than
+3 or lower than -3.
Pull is mostly there for “standard” Camarilla-style political games, where an important
element of play is accumulating influence over mortal assets and institutions within a
city, and where amassing pull with a group some other vampire thinks of as “their
territory” is a great way to make enemies.
This hack comes with a ready-to-run list of example groups you might develop pull
with in a typical city, but be aware this list is not exhaustive. You can clip out groups that
don’t make sense or aren’t interesting in the place you’ve set your game. You can add
new groups that seem compelling or relevant to your setting, too, like “the ports” or
“Chinatown” or “British expats” or “the studios” or “regulated gambling” or “the
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Muslim community.” You can also break factions apart into independent groups if
schisms or turf wars or competition within a niche are interesting, like splitting
organized crime into two or three specific rival gangs or groups, or splitting “regulated
gambling” into specific hotel-casinos on the Vegas strip.
You can also, of course, dispense with pull completely if it’s just not relevant to the kind
of game you’re running. A nomadic Sabbat pack selling its services as crusaders-on-the-
go to the highest-bidding bishop isn’t going to be a game that has a lot of use for this
mechanic, for example.
Ready-to-run/example groups include:
Academia: Higher education, universities, libraries, museums. Academia gives access

to cutting-edge research, well-indexed information, and maybe the opportunity to fool
around with a cursed sarcophagus after hours.
Bohemians: Artists, poets, writers, the coffeehouse crowd: a vast pool of potential talent
quietly skirting the edge of starvation by the grace of ramen noodles and rent-share
lofts. Some potential diamonds, if you’re willing to sift for them.
Business: Finance, heavy industry, corporate structures, banks: the big thick vein that
most of a city’s wealth runs through. This is a good faction to consider splitting up into
sub-groups.
City Hall: Zoning permits, city politics, and a chance to get proposals and policies to
shake out the way you want them to.
The Church: Opiate of the masses, the church is an institution unto itself, as well as a
mighty voice to guide the opinions and outlooks of many of the city’s social strata. And,
of course, priests know where all the bodies are buried.
The Courts: Lawyers, judges, and collections of the two. Pull with the law can be
invaluable when you need to get someone into or out of trouble in a hurry.
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High Society: The great and the good throw the best parties, or at least the most well-
dressed ones. When people say “networking,” these are the people they’re thinking of,
and they can open just about any door for you. If you’re the right sort.
Law Enforcement: The fuzz. If you can’t think of something useful to do with cops in
your back pocket, well, rest assured, someone else will.
Little People: Secretaries, janitors, clerks, caterers: the service industry, the invisible
small folks that keep the world running. They usually can’t do much more than look,
listen, or open a door, but sometimes that’s all you need. Often overlooked, often in
need of a helping hand.
Media: Newspapers, blogs, Youtube influencers, the six o’clock news. Still the most
dangerous people in the world to the Kindred.
Medicine: Hospitals, morgues, family practices. Dangerous places to go looking for

favors, but far too useful to overlook.
Occult Underground: Most cities have a subculture of weirdos if you dig diligently
enough. And somewhere in that bric-a-brac clutter of nonsense, sometimes there are a
few people who know what they’re on about, or lucked (?) into an item or book with
real power. Even if it’s all hokum, it may be hokum that can act as a useful
smokescreen.
Organized Crime: Could be gangs. Could be the mob. Could be the Russians. This is
where the drugs, the guns, the muscle, and the fast money live—assuming you can’t
pry the cops loose from whoever’s already got them locked up tight, anyhow.
The Street: At the bottom rung of the city you’ll find people hanging on by their
fingernails—way more of them than anyone likes to acknowledge. In a world where the
dead presidents don’t show their faces too much, you end up with a favor economy,
and if you can’t always quite assume loyalty, well, fear usually works for a while. This
is a good place to disappear when things get hot.
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Unions: Between the haves and the have-nots, you’ll find the folks trying that whole
strength in numbers thing. Unions can do a lot: gum up the gears of the city, sometimes;
exercise serious sway on their membership, at least. And there’s always someone at the
top who’d like to see them goaded into sabotaging themselves, of course. Beware of
Brujah already dug in like ticks.
Modifiers
You can never put a bigger modifier than +3 or -3 on a roll.
When a move says to carry 1 forward, that’s PbtA slang for “add a +1 bonus to your next
move.” When it says to carry 1 forward ongoing it means to add a +1 bonus until
whatever’s adding the bonus stops doing that.
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Standard Moves
Every character can do all the basic moves.
You must use a move whenever the conversation around the table dictates it. What that
means is that when the Sabbat is smashing down the door and you say “fuck this, I bail
out the window and make a run for it,” you are now using the run for it move because
that’s what you’ve made the story say.
You can’t use a move if the events in the narrative don’t support it. If you’re dragged
before the Prince in chains, you can’t just announce “I run for it.” The Storyteller’s
proper response there is to go “How, exactly? Seems like you need to deal with those
chains and the two ghouls dragging you before you can think about making a break for
it.”
Physical Moves
These moves add your physical modifier to their roll.
Fuck them up
When you try to hurt or kill someone, roll with physical. On a 10+, you inflict harm as
established, and pick one: the harm is great (add 1 harm); you gain an Edge on your
enemy; you inflict a Condition on your enemy. On a 7-9, you harm them but the
Storyteller chooses one: they gain an Edge on you; they deal you harm in return; the
Beast stirs.
Do something athletic
When you perform some feat of strength, agility, or toughness with serious
consequences for failure, roll with physical. On a 10+, you succeed at the action and
choose one: clear a Condition; carry +1 forward on your next move. On a 7-9, you
succeed, but choose one: You take 1 harm; your success is incomplete or flawed in some
way; the Beast stirs.
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Run for it
When you try to escape from danger, roll with physical. On a 10+, you get away and
end up in a safe place. On a 7-9, you get away, but choose one: you cause a big scene;
the scariest person present gets an Edge on you; you lose something along the way; the
Beast stirs.
Social Moves
These moves add your social modifier to their roll.
Manipulate someone
When you manipulate or seduce someone, roll with social. If you succeed, NPCs will do
what you ask if you give them a bribe, a threat, or a motive; PCs get a point of
experience for doing what you want. On a 10+, you also choose one: you gain an Edge
on them; you give them a Condition. On a 7-9, you overplay your hand just a bit and
they get an Edge on you.
Stand your ground
When you stand your ground in the face of intimidation, hardship, pain, pressure, fear,
or overwhelming despair, roll with social. On a 10+, you stand your ground and choose
one: remove a Condition; carry +1 forward to your next move in the scene. On a 7-9,
you remain resolute, but the Beast stirs.
Show your teeth
When you attempt to shut someone down, get them to back off their current course of
action, or intimidate them, roll with social. On a 10+, PCs have to stand their ground and
NPCs freeze up. Additionally, choose one: give them a Condition; they lose an Edge on
you; you gain an Edge on them; you quell the Beast. On a 7-9, choose one: they have to
stand their ground (PCs) or freeze up (NPCs); give them a Condition.
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Mental Moves
These moves add your mental modifier to their roll.
Navigate a system
Whether searching (or hacking) a computer database to find (or alter) information,
working out which palms to grease to set up a meeting with the Giovanni, or reading
market trends to pull off a financial coup, whenever you navigate a system you roll with
mental. On a 10+, you achieve your goal, and choose two: you achieve your goal in a
timely fashion; you get everything you’re after; you carry +1 forward; you quell the
Beast. On a 7-9, you achieve your goal, and choose one from the 10+ list.
Do something shady
Whether stealing a priceless painting, sneaking into a guarded facility, or slipping your
blood into the police chief’s drink, when you do something shady, you roll with mental.
On a 10+, you succeed and choose two: your activity goes completely unnoticed,
leaving behind no incriminating traces; you carry +1 forward; you quell the Beast. On a
7-9, you succeed and choose one: your activity goes completely unnoticed, leaving
behind no incriminating traces; the Beast doesn’t stir.
Read their eyes
Whether by extended observation or leading conversation, whenever you try to figure

out what makes someone tick, roll with mental. On a 10+, gain an Edge. On a 7-9, you
gain an Edge on them, but they also get an Edge on you.
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Special Moves
Every vampire can do all the special moves as well, but they’re a little more particular
or situational than the standard moves.
Call in a favor
When you call in favors with a faction, roll with your pull with that faction. On a 10+
you get the favor and choose two. On a 7-9, you get the favor and choose one: There are
no complications; they don’t demand something in return; your pull isn’t reduced by 1.
Make preparations
When you spend time training, practicing, studying, or preparing to do something,

define what you’re preparing for and gain Prep. You gain 1 Prep for every 2 nights
spent preparing. When that training and preparation pays off, you can spend 1 Prep to
get +1 to any roll. You can only spend 1 Prep per roll.
Awaken during the day
When you need to awaken during the day in response to some disturbance, or remain
awake after the sun rises, roll with Humanity/Path. On a 10+, you can stay awake for
an hour or two. On a 7-9, you can stay awake for ten or fifteen minutes. On a miss, you
fall into deathly slumber or fail to awaken until you’re disturbed again.
Drink blood
When you drink someone’s blood, roll with Humanity/Path. You get 1 blood and
they’re drained until they get a few days of rest and recovery, or something along the
lines of a transfusion. On a 10+, choose 3. On a 7-9, choose 2. On a miss, choose 1:
¤ You gain 1 extra blood.

¤ When the Kiss wears off, they don’t realize what you did to them.
¤ You quell the Beast.
¤ They definitely don’t die. You can’t pick this if they’re drained.
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Special Systems
If you’re playing, you’ll need to track the following resources on your record sheet. The
Storyteller also needs to track Edges, Conditions, and harm for NPCs.
Humanity/Path
Every vampire must stave off the Beast by clinging to something: either your dwindling
Humanity, or an inhuman code of rigid ethics in the form of a Path of Enlightenment.
Your Humanity/Path score is rated from 1-10. If it falls to 0, you are forever lost to the
Beast.
If you are an adherent of Humanity, you begin with Humanity 7. If you follow a Path,
you begin with your Path at 5.
Humanity/Path Modifier
You will sometimes be asked to roll with your Humanity/Path modifier. Like all
modifiers, this can be anywhere from -3 to +3. It’s based on your Humanity/Path score,
as follows:
10: +3
9: +2
8: +1
7: +1
6: +0
5: +0
4: -1
3: -1
2: -2
1: -3
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Losing Humanity/Path
When you violate your current Humanity/Path rating’s hierarchy of sins, you lose a
point of Humanity/Path and fall into turmoil of the spirit. You remain in a state of
spiritual turmoil until your next advance. When you reach your next advance, you must
make a choice: either spend it on something else as normal, or spend the advance to
stabilize your Humanity/Path, restoring the last point that you lost. If you opt to spend
your advance on anything else, the Humanity/Path simply remains lost. Likewise, if
you lose more than one point of Humanity/Path before reaching your next advance,
only the last point of lost Humanity/Path can be salvaged.
Raising Humanity/Path
To raise Humanity/Path, you must spend an entire period between advances behaving
as though you have at least one higher point of Humanity/Path than you actually
possess. At that point, you can spend your advance to enter a state of seeking lost
grace/seeking greater enlightenment. You remain in this seeking state until your next
advance. If you manage to behave in accordance with a higher standard of
Humanity/Path than your current value, you may spend that next advance to add a dot
of Humanity/Path to your total.
Wassail
If your Humanity/Path falls to 0, you are in the jaws of the Beast. Your Beast is
considered to be permanently awake (see below) so long as you remain at Humanity 0.
You must use your next advance to restore your lost Humanity/Path, or you lose your
mind and descend into a feral, endless frenzy as the Beast claims your soul for its own.
If you commit a Humanity/Path violation capable of dropping you from 1 to 0 again
while in the jaws of the Beast, you forfeit the ability to spend an advance to stabilize, and
enter the final frenzy by the end of the current scene.
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The Beast
The Beast is always lurking within, waiting to be roused to wakefulness and to take
over your vampire. Certain events may cause the beast to stir, including but definitely
not limited to partial successes on a number of standard moves. When the beast stirs,
make a mark on your record sheet to indicate it. If the beast stirs three times in a single
night, then the Beast is awake and you must immediately resist either frenzy or rötschreck,
depending on the circumstances which provoked its awakening. Any further goads to
the Beast will necessitate additional frenzy or rötschreck rolls, but won’t add further
marks.
In addition to the goads present in the basic moves, the Storyteller may declare that the
Beast stirs as a result of any other criteria that make sense, such as:
¤ Rolling a miss on a move (especially stand your ground).

¤ Being exposed to uncontrolled fire.
¤ Being exposed to sunlight.
¤ Seeing or smelling blood while you have no blood remaining in your pool.
¤ Realizing that a loved one is in pain or danger.
¤ Being awakened by danger during the day.
Just as the Beast can stir to wakefulness, it can also be quelled back into slumber. When
you quell the Beast, erase one mark indicating that it has stirred toward wakefulness. The
basic moves provide a number of ways to quell the beast, and when you go to sleep for
the day, remove all marks of the Beast from your sheet.
Frenzy
The Beast attempts to enter frenzy when goaded by hunger or anger. When you enter
frenzy, gain the Condition frenzied and ignore all other Conditions. You will lash out
violently at anyone and anything nearby without regard for friend or foe, although the
first and foremost target of your frenzy will generally be whoever or whatever touched
the frenzy off. After that, you prefer hostile targets over passive or fleeing ones, and
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those nearby over those far away. The Condition doesn’t end until there’s nobody else
present for you to tear to pieces.
When frenzy looms, how you handle it depends on your Humanity/Path of choice. If
you follow Humanity or one of the Paths in the “Paths of Self-Control” sidebar, you
seek to resist the frenzy. If you follow any other Path, you cannot resist your frenzy and
instead seek to ride the wave.
When you resist your frenzy, roll with your Humanity/Path modifier. On a 10+, you
don’t succumb to frenzy, and you quell the Beast. On a 7-9, you don’t succumb to
frenzy. On a miss, you enter frenzy.
When you seek to ride the wave, roll with your Path modifier. On a 10+, you enter
frenzy, but you also gain the Condition riding the wave, and you can end the frenzy after
drinking your fill of blood or killing something. If you choose not to end your frenzy
prematurely, you quell the Beast when the frenzy ends. On a 7-9, you ride the wave as
above, but can’t end your frenzy prematurely. On a miss, you fail to ride the wave and
enter an uncontrolled frenzy. When riding the wave you are still restricted to actions of
bloodthirsty destruction, but can decide who to attack in which order, and can even
spend a few moments, once per frenzy, smashing furniture and otherwise venting your
rage upon the scenery to give your allies a few precious moments to escape (they take
+1 forward or gain Advantage to run for it during this brief window).
Rötschreck
The Beast attempts to enter rötschreck when goaded by fear. When you enter rötschreck,
gain the Condition rötschreck and ignore all other Conditions. You will attempt to
escape from whatever provoked rötschreck at all costs, and the Condition doesn’t end
until you can no longer detect any sign of whatever triggered the condition.
When rötschreck looms, you must roll with your Humanity/Path modifier. On a 10+,
you don’t succumb to rötschreck, and you quell the beast. On a 7-9, you don’t succumb
to rötschreck. On a miss, you enter rötschreck.
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Paths of Self-Control
The following Paths of Enlightenment allow you to resist frenzy. For all others,
you must ride the wave when the Beast rises: The Path of Blood, the Path of the
Bones, the Path of Death and the Soul, the Path of Honorable Accord, the Path of
Harmony, the Path of Paradox, the Path of Typhon, the Path of Entelechy, the
Path of Ecstasy, the Path of the Warrior, the Path of the Scorched Heart.
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Blood
Vampires run on blood. You get blood by drinking it from people, and can hold up to 5
blood (more if you’re of lower Generation). You begin the game with as much blood as
you can hold.
You can “over-feed” to hold up to 1 point of blood above your maximum, but doing so
causes the Beast to stir for each point you over-feed, and any excess blood vanishes at
the end of the scene.
You lose 1 blood when you wake up every night. If you have no blood to spend in order
to wake up, you wake up anyway, but suffer 1 harm and the beast stirs.
What if I Drink…
An animal’s blood: You only gain 1 blood, or 2 if it’s a big animal like a cow or
deer. The animal dies. You can’t raise your blood above 4 by doing this. After a
hundred years or so, you stop being able to get blood from animals at all.
A blood bag or other ‘dead’ source: You get 1 blood, but this can’t take you
above 3 blood.
A vampire’s blood: Don’t use the drink blood move. If they consent, you get as
much blood as they’re willing to give. If you’re taking it by force, then use the
fuck them up move and trade out harm for stealing blood when you attack with
your fangs.
A werewolf’s blood: If they’re into it or knocked out or something, use the drink
blood move but you stir the beast for each blood you drink. If they’re not into it,
uh, good fuckin luck with that, honestly.
Some other weird fucking thing: If it’s undead-ish but not a vampire you
probably can’t get blood and probably get a Condition like sickened for a while. If
it’s a faerie or something you can probably drink its blood but it likely comes
with some oddball Condition.
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Blood Buff
At any time, you can spend 1 blood to add +1 to a physical move.
Blood Bond
After someone drinks your blood once, you get an Edge on them.
After someone drinks your blood twice, they gain the Condition warm regard toward
you, which lasts for at least a year, or until you form a blood bond to someone else.
After someone drinks your blood three times, a blood bond forms and they gain the
Condition in love with you. This will persist until years have gone by without drinking
your blood. If you’re of low Generation, the Condition might take years or even
centuries to fade.
A character can only have one blood bond at a time. Once the blood bond forms,
drinking the blood of other vampires doesn’t grant Edges or cause warm regard any
more.
Vaulderie
For Sabbat games, the Vaulderie prevents the formation of blood bonds, and all
vampires who participate in a Vaulderie with one another gain the warm regard
Condition toward as though they were two steps toward a blood bond.
Blush of Life
If you want to fake the fine details of life for a scene—flushing your skin with living
warmth, breathing, presenting a heartbeat, all that—roll with your Humanity modifier.
On a 10+, you invoke the blush of life. On a 7-9, you can invoke the blush of life but you
have to spend 1 blood to do it. On a miss, you can’t remember what it was like to be
alive well enough to fake it, and can’t use this move again during the scene.
Vampires on a Path can’t use the blush of life.
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Generation
Your character is 13th Generation. You can only increase your Generation through
diablerie. Lower Generation brings with it certain advantages:
12th Generation: You can “over-feed” to hold up to 2 extra blood.
10th Generation: You can hold 6 blood.
8th Generation: You can hold 7 blood.
7th Generation: You can hold 8 blood. Get an extra +1 to an Attribute of your choice.
Diablerie
When you commit diablerie on a vampire of at least equal Generation to your own, you
get a free advance. If the vampire you diablerized was of lower Generation, your
Generation drops by 1. This doesn’t reset your experience or count as an advance for the
purpose of retaining or restoring Humanity/Path. It does automatically cost you a point
of Humanity if your rating is above Humanity 1, and may cost a point of certain Paths.
You also gain the Condition soul-stained for a year and a day, which can be detected
through Auspex.
Edges
Edges represent insights into what makes another character tick, which can be
leveraged against them. In order to spend an Edge, you have to declare that you’re
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doing so and say how, exactly, you’re exploiting your insight. Edge can be spent to
(choose one):
¤ Add +1 to your roll.

¤ Subtract -1 from someone’s roll against you. (An NPC can do this against a
player, as well.)
¤ Force an NPC to falter, freeze up, or hesitate.
¤ Force an NPC to act at Disadvantage.
¤ Add 1 extra harm to whatever harm you’re dealing someone. (NPCs can do this
to players, as well.)
¤ An NPC can spend an Edge to gain Advantage.
Conditions
Characters can gain Conditions over the course of play. Conditions describe something
currently significant about the character, such as happy, enraged, frightened, poisoned,
exhausted, drunk, distracted, blinded, or blinded by greed.
Conditions describe a thing that must be true in the story; nothing can happen if it
contradicts a Condition. For example, a character with broken legs cannot run, and one
who is terrified cannot display extravagant courage until they’ve gotten rid of terrified.
Characters lose a condition when it makes sense in the story for them to do so, or when
a move allows them to. Characters can tag a Condition on themselves or on someone
else when they make a move, allowing them to add 1 to their move, but they must
describe how they exploit the Condition to their advantage. NPCs can tag a Condition
on themselves or someone else to gain Advantage.
If the Storyteller thinks a Condition ought to make something difficult for you but not
stop you from doing it altogether, she can tag it against you to give you -1 on your
move.
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Staked!
Getting your heart pierced by a stake or an arrow or a busted-off broom handle

is a Condition: staked. Being staked paralyzes you completely until someone pulls
the stake out. It sucks. It sucks so bad, in fact, that if you want to do it to someone
when you fuck them up, you need to roll a 12+ rather than a 10+, since “give them
a Condition” isn’t usually supposed to be an “I win” maneuver.
Inflicting Harm
When you hurt someone, you inflict harm as established by the narrative. In narrative
terms, 1 harm represents transitory but meaningful injury, such as being kicked in the
head, slammed through a table, or running full speed through a thorny hedge. 2 harm
represents serious injury, like being shot with a pistol, stabbed with a knife, or bitten by
a vampire’s fangs when the vampire is looking to do serious damage. Most attacks with
weapons inflict 2 harm. 3 harm represents likely fatal injury: being hit by a truck at high
speed, taking a close-range shotgun blast, getting tossed off the top of a parking garage,
that sort of thing.
Vampires suffer 1 less harm than they otherwise would from guns, since they’re not
really in danger of bleeding out or doing anything important with most of the organs
getting perforated.
Suffering Harm
Mortals can suffer 3-4 harm before they go down for the count, depending on how
tough they are. Vampires are a lot sturdier, since they don’t need most of their internal
organs, and can withstand 6 harm before getting taken out; certain Disciplines can
potentially widen this window. When you suffer your sixth point of harm, you die the
Final Death. You can choose not to die by:
¤ Entering uncontrolled frenzy and erasing all non-aggravated harm. You can’t
make this choice if you’re already in frenzy.
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¤ Losing all blood, erasing all non-aggravated harm, and entering torpor.
¤ Giving the fate of your character into the hands of the Storyteller, with carte
blanche to inflict some sort of interesting tragedy or suffering on them, and then
erasing all non-aggravated harm. This is guaranteed not to kill your character, or
to make them no fun to play, but these are the only guarantees. You can only
make this decision if one of the two above it is also potentially possible.
Recovering From Harm
You can spend 1 blood to erase 1 harm whenever you have at least a moment to stop
and concentrate on pulling yourself together. While sleeping during the day, you can
spend 2 blood to erase all harm; alternately, while sleeping during the day, you can
spend 2 blood to erase 1 aggravated harm.
Banes (Aggravated Harm)
When you’re harmed by fire or sunlight, the harm is aggravated. If you die because you
can’t take any more harm, and all of your harm is aggravated, you suffer Final Death
and cannot choose not to die.
Harm from fire: Getting scorched or singed inflicts 1 aggravated harm. Being seriously
burned, like by having someone jam a torch in your face or having your clothing catch
on fire, inflicts 2 aggravated harm. Immolation such as being engulfed in flames or
hurled into a bonfire inflicts 3 aggravated harm.
Harm from sunlight: Weak exposure to sunlight through some combination of heavy
clothes, heavy curtains, and heavy cloud cover, or only having a small part of your
body (say, a hand) exposed to direct sunlight inflicts 1 aggravated harm. Brief, partial
exposure to direct sunlight (dashing past a window with sunlight streaming through it)
or brief but full-body exposure to weak sunlight (running unprotected from an RV to a
house’s front door through sunlight filtered by heavy cloud cover) inflicts 2 aggravated
harm. Full-body exposure to direct sunlight inflicts 3 aggravated harm.
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Harm from fire and sunlight reoccur after a few moments if you don’t do something
about them.
Torpor
When you enter torpor, roll with your Humanity/Path modifier. On a 10+, you’ll
recover within a couple of nights, or as early as the next scene if you’re fed blood. On a
7-9, you remain in torpor for weeks or months, but can be fed blood and roused early
once the next session starts. On a miss, you’re stuck in torpor for years or decades, but
can be fed blood and roused early once the next session starts. However, it takes at least
3 blood to jump-start you.
Ghouls
When you spend 1 blood and feed it to a mortal, they gain the Condition ghoul for a
month. Ghouls are tough, strong, and don’t age so long as they keep the Condition,
which they can tag in appropriate circumstances.
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Background Moves
When you create your character, select one Background for them.
Alternate Identity
You have an alternate identity that you can slip into when needed, complete with faked
credentials, history, and so forth, which will stand up to reasonable scrutiny. This might
be a false mortal identity, or you could be convincingly posing as a member of a
different Clan or Sect.
Contacts
You permanently have the Condition I know a guy, which cannot be removed save
through major story events. This can be tapped when you exercise your pull on “low-
prestige” groups such as academia, law enforcement, the little people, medicine, the
occult underground, organized crime, the street, and unions.
Domain
You have control over a useful feeding ground or chunk of real estate, and this control
is recognized by other local vampires.
Fame
You permanently have the Condition famous, which cannot be removed save through
major story events. This can be tapped when you exercise your pull on culture-focused
groups such as bohemians, the church, high society, and the media.
Herd
You have established a group of mortal vessels to alleviate some of your feeding needs.
Once each story, you may declare that you’re drawing upon your herd during a scene
of downtime to gain 3 blood for free.
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Influence
You permanently have the Condition friends in high places, which cannot be removed
save through major story events. This can be tapped when you exercise your pull on
upper-crust groups such as business, city hall, the courts, and high society.
Resources
You permanently have the Condition wealthy, which cannot be removed save through
major story events.
Status
You occupy some formal position of prestige and influence within your clan or sect.
What is it?
Merits and Flaws

Merits and flaws are optional features to customize your character. If you wish, you can
take one merit, but if you do so, you must also take a flaw.
Merits
Bruiser: When you intimidate someone through sheer size and strength, you can roll
with physical to show your teeth.
Iron Will: You can roll with mental to stand your ground.
Smooth Talker: When you apply charm, schmaltz, and fast-talk rather than knowledge,
you can roll with social to navigate a system.
True Faith: Your faith in a higher power has survived even your fall into damnation.
You can roll with your Humanity modifier to show your teeth to other vampires when
using your faith as a weapon.
Eat Food: You can hold down mortal food for at least an entire scene before you need to
start making rolls to stand your ground once per scene to avoid bringing it all back up.
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Quiescent Beast: Your Beast has to stir four times in a single night before awakening.
You can’t take this Merit if your Clan Weakness is in any way related to the Beast or
frenzy.
Lifelike: If you have a Humanity rating, you don’t need to spend blood to invoke the
blush of life on a 7-9 result. If you have a Path rating, you can attempt the blush of life,
but always roll at -3.
Generation: Make a roll with the modifier indicated below. On a 10+, you start at 10 th
generation. On a 7-9, you start at 11th generation. On a miss, you start at 12th generation.
Roll at +3 if you are: a Harbinger of Skulls or Salubri
Roll at +2 if you are: an Old Clan Tzimisce, Nagaraja, or Salubri Antitribu
Roll at +1 if you are: a Tremere, Assamite (any bloodline), Baali, Wu Zao, or True
Brujah
Roll at +0 if you are: a Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Ventrue, Setite,

Giovanni, Daughter of Cacophony, Gargoyle, Kiasyd, Samedi, or Tlacique
Roll at -1 if you are: a Brujah, Lasombra, Tzimisce, Ravnos, Caitiff, or City Gangrel
Flaws
Typhoid Mary: You are an asymptotic carrier for some serious sickness. Add the
following to the list of choices when you drink blood: They don’t gain the Condition: sick.
Thin Blood: You are of the 14th or 15th generation (pick one). This works the same as
being 13th generation, but you cannot (choose two): sire childer; create ghouls; create a
blood bond; over-feed. If you’re 15th generation, “sire childer” has to be one of your
picks.
Brutal Fangs: You can’t lick wounds made by your fangs closed. When you drink blood,
you have to spend two of your picks to choose “they definitely don’t die.”
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Vulnerability to Silver: Touching silver harms you as if you were touching flames.
Harm inflicted by silver is aggravated harm.
Folkloric Vulnerability: You have the Condition susceptible to [insert vampiric bane here].
If this is a compulsion such as counting grains of rice or not crossing running water, you
must stand your ground to deny the compulsion. If it is an aversion, such as repulsion by
garlic or church bells, you must stand your ground or retreat in the face of your bane.
Dark Fate: There’s no good ending waiting down the line for you. When you die, you
can’t choose to enter Frenzy or give your fate into the hands of the Storyteller to save
yourself. You have to either enter torpor or die.
Spooky: Some odd supernatural phenomenon trails in your wake, like a cold wind, the
smell of a fresh-turned grave, a slow infestation of flies, or a frost that kills plants you
touch. You have the Condition spooky, but can’t tag it in your own favor. You can’t take
this Flaw if you already have some manner of weird, hideous, or unearthly Condition
as a Clan Weakness.
Lingering Wounds: When you spend blood to erase harm, you gain the Condition
lingering wounds as livid traces of your injuries remain manifest on your body. They
don’t impair you, but they’re certainly alarming to anyone who sees you walking
around with a half-clotted hole through your chest. You must spend 1 blood while
sleeping through the day to get rid of your lingering wounds.
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Character Creation
To make a vampire, go through the following steps:
¤ Write down a concept for your character (“musician forever looking for that
breakout gig,” “psychiatrist with late hours,” “biker,” “silent partner in a
club,” etc).
¤ Come up with a name for your character.
¤ Write down a short, punchy description of your character, incorporating the
three most striking features they have. Use two sentences, tops.
¤ Pick one Attribute to be rated at +1, one at +0, and one at -1.
¤ Select a Clan. Note your Clan Disciplines and Weakness.
¤ Select which faction from your Clan list to get +1 pull with, if you’re using
pull. Your Storyteller might have alterations to the Clan lists in mind.
¤ Decide if you’re following Humanity or a Path. If it’s Humanity, start with 7.
If it’s a Path, decide which one and start with 5.
¤ Select one Background. Alternately, select no Backgrounds, and get the
Generation Merit without having to take a Flaw.
¤ If you want to, select one merit and one flaw. This step is optional.
¤ Note your Generation.
¤ Select three moves from among your Clan Disciplines.
¤ Select one of the other players. They get to start with an Edge on your
character.
¤ Now you’re ready to play.
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Storyteller Rules
Here are the rules that only the Storyteller needs to worry about: NPCs, and hard
moves. If you’re playing, you can skip these sections, you don’t need to know about
them.
NPC Rules
Two primary design objectives here. 1: You can run NPCs largely by just saying what they do,
and that’s what happens, up to and including conflict with PCs. 2: You can take any NPC out of
any book from any edition and just drop them into this framework, crudely eyeball a Move or
two, and you’re ready to go, with 0 prep time.
The Storyteller doesn’t ever touch the dice. NPCs do what the Storyteller says they do.
If they’re important NPCs, they can track Edges and they can have Conditions, but
that’s about it. They don’t keep track of blood or any other resources other than harm.
Sometimes NPCs have special moves. Generally these are going to amount to giving the
NPC Advantage, or letting the NPC do something special like mind control people or
run super fast or set things on fire or transform into a bat, but you can get fancy with an
NPC move if you want. If it would be annoying for the NPC to do the move a lot, then
it gives them exhausted after they use it and they can’t use it again while they’re
exhausted.
When an NPC takes all the harm it can withstand, it usually dies (or enters torpor if it’s
a vampire).
NPCs have three special rules: Scale, Advantage, and Disadvantage.
Scale
NPCs come in three varieties: Civilian, Dangerous, and Supernatural.
Civilian NPCs are secretaries, club kids, bartenders, and other run of the mill folks.
They might have one interesting move, if any. They usually die after taking 3 harm.
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Usually they can only harm a vampire by spending an Edge, exploiting a Condition, or
as part of a move.
Dangerous NPCs are potential threats: cops, hitmen, bikers, ghouls, weak ghosts, other
neonate vampires, that sort of thing. They’re likely to have a unique move or two.
Dangerous NPCs die after taking 4 to 6 harm. Dangerous NPCs can inflict 1-2 harm to
PCs without needing to do anything special, and could get higher than that with a
move or Advantage.
Supernatural NPCs are potent supernatural beings: ancillae and elders, werewolves,
major poltergeists, strange spirits, that sort of thing. Supernatural NPCs definitely have
at least a couple of special moves, quite possibly more. They die after taking 5 to 10
harm. Overwhelming NPCs can inflict 2-3 harm to PCs without needing to do anything
special, and can easily get higher than that with special moves or Advantage.
Advantage
When an NPC gains Advantage, it indicates that something has given them a significant
edge in the fiction of the story. This means one of two things: either the Storyteller
should heavily lean toward having them succeed at whatever they’re trying to do, or, if
they’re fighting PCs, temporarily bump them up from Civilian to Dangerous or
Dangerous to Supernatural, at least for a move or so.
Disadvantage
This is the opposite of Advantage. It means an NPC is up shit’s creek. Either the
Storyteller should lean heavily toward having them fail at whatever they’re trying to do,
or else bump them down a scale level in terms of effectiveness for a move or so.
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Hard Moves
Hard moves are moves the Storyteller plays. You still don’t ever touch the dice, these
are all conceptual, and are mostly there to let you know you’re doing things right.
Here are the rules governing playing a hard move:
¤ The move you play has to make sense in the story. Since you control most of the
story that’s usually not hard.
¤ The move has to make the story more fun, more interesting, or more tense. It
can’t make the story more boring, less fun, or less tense. Resolving tension is the
goal of the PCs, not the Storyteller.
¤ The move shouldn’t outright negate victory if the PCs earned victory. Use
victory as a springboard for fresh complications, yes. Undo their win, no.
¤ Don’t announce that you’re playing a hard move, just do it. The more invisible
hard moves are to players, the more they’ll just assume their Storyteller is some
kind of genius.
Here are the rules for when to play a hard move:
¤ When someone misses on a move.

¤ When everyone’s looking around the table like “what happens next?”
Here are some hard moves. You can surely come up with more on your own:
o Reveal a secret that someone would really rather not have revealed.
o Introduce new danger.
o Hint at future danger.
o Make them pay a price or force them to make a tough decision.
o Split up the party.
o Put the party back together.
o Drive them to a new location.
o Have an NPC show up.
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o Dangle an opportunity in front of them: to get an Edge, resolve a

Condition, or get something they want.
o Pose an uncomfortable question.
o Complicate their plans.
o Turn their move back on them after they fuck it up.
o Threaten their domain.
o Threaten their blood supply.
o Threaten their prestige.
o Threaten their allies.
o Threaten their haven.
o Threaten the Masquerade.
o Inflict harm, as established. (This is mostly here to say: you can inflict
harm when it makes sense in the story. You don’t need a special rule for
it.)
o Grant an NPC an Edge. (This is mostly here to say: you can grant your
NPCs Insight when it makes sense. You don’t need a special rule for it.)
o Grant someone a Condition. (This is mostly here to say: you can stick
Conditions on people when it makes sense. You don’t need a special rule
for it.)
o Have the Beast stir. (This is mostly here to say: you can have the Beast stir
if it makes sense. You don’t need a special rule for it.)
After playing a hard move, look at the players and ask: What do you do?
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Clans
Brujah
Clan Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
Clan Weakness: The Beast only has to stir twice in a night before it’s awake.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Academia,
bohemians, organized crime, the street, unions
Gangrel
Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Fortitude, Protean
Clan Weakness: Each time you frenzy, you develop a bestial trait, physical or mental,
drawn from either vampire mythology or predatory/scavenging animals that dwell in
the region. This trait forces you to carry -1 forward ongoing for one of the basic moves,
and persists until you voluntarily accept a miss while using that move without ever
touching the dice.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Bohemians, little
people, the street, unions
Malkavian
Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Dementation, Obfuscate
Clan Weakness: You are afflicted by a permanent Condition most would describe as
some form of madness. It’s important to note that this is a mystic derangement of the
blood, not necessarily an actual mental illness; as such, while its symptoms might mimic
or replicate the behavior of a real-world mental illness, they also might not. Your
derangement could manifest in the form of incurable post-traumatic stress disorder
revolving around the night of your Embrace, but it also might appear as a broad
approximation of some classical or pop-culture form of “insanity,” such as multiple
personalities or phantasmagoric hallucinations. It could even be some very particular
aberration such as being haunted by a ghost that is only real to you.
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bohemians, church, little people, medicine, occult underground
Nosferatu
Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
Clan Weakness: Your appearance is twisted and hideous. You permanently have the
Condition monstrous visage. You cannot roll a 10+ result to manipulate someone if they can
see or know of your true appearance, no matter what the dice say.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Little people,
medicine, occult underground, the street
Toreador
Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence
Clan Weakness: When exposed to unexpected beauty, you must stand your ground or
become enraptured until something stirs you from your reverie. The beast doesn’t stir
on a 7-9 result, though.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Bohemians,
business, church, high society, media
Tremere
Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Thaumaturgy
Clan Weakness: The first time you drink another vampire’s blood, skip straight to
developing warm regard. Additionally, carry -1 forward ongoing to stand your ground
against senior Tremere in the Clan’s internal hierarchy.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Academia, business,
city hall, the courts, medicine, occult underground
Ventrue
Clan Disciplines: Dominate, Fortitude, Presence
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Clan Weakness: You can only sate yourself with blood from a certain type of human
vessel. Any other source of human blood cannot raise you above 1 blood, and animal
blood cannot sustain you at all. You may drink vampire blood freely.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Business, city hall,
the courts, high society, law enforcement, media
Lasombra
Clan Disciplines: Dominate, Potence, Obtenebration
Clan Weakness: You have no reflection and cannot be photographed. When you suffer
harm from sunlight, take 1 additional harm.
church, high society, media, organized crime, the street
Tzimisce
Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Vicissitude
Clan Weakness: If you sleep without being surrounded by at least two handfuls of the
soil of your grave or of some place important to you in life, suffer -1 ongoing to all
moves until you do so.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Academia, high
society, medicine, occult underground
Assamite
Clan Disciplines: Celerity, Obfuscate, Quietus Cruscitus
Clan Weakness: You always have the Condition soul-stained, whether you are a
diablerist or not. Additionally, the sight or smell of vampire blood causes the Beast to
stir.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Academia, church,
the courts, law enforcement, little people, organized crime, the street
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Followers of Set
Clan Disciplines: Obfuscate, Presence, Serpentis
Clan Weakness: When you suffer harm from sunlight, you suffer twice as much harm
as normal.
bohemians, high society, law enforcement, little people, occult underground, the street
Giovanni
Clan Disciplines: Dominate, Potence, Necromancy
Clan Weakness: Your bite conveys incapacitating agony rather than pleasure. When
you drink blood, you cannot choose the “When the Kiss wears off, they don’t realize
what you did to them” option.
church, the courts, high society, occult underground, organized crime
Ravnos
Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Chimerstry, Fortitude
Clan Weakness: You must choose one of your personality traits and take it as a
permanent Condition. You can attempt to stand your ground to suppress this Condition
for a scene, once per session.
people, media, the street
Caitiff
Clan Disciplines: Any three
Clan Weakness: You don’t get any pull when the game starts, and you can’t start with
the Status Background either. Also, you must take a Flaw with no corresponding Merit.
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Bloodlines
Assamite Vizier
Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Presence, Quietus Hematus
Clan Weakness: You permanently have the Condition Obsessed with X where X is an
area of academic or artistic interest.
bohemians, business, the courts, high society, media, unions
Assamite Sorcerer
Clan Disciplines: Assamite Sorcery, Auspex, Celerity
Clan Weakness: You permanently have the Condition Uncanny.
high society, medicine, occult underground
City Gangrel
Clan Disciplines: Celerity, Obfuscate, Protean
Clan Weakness: Each time you frenzy, you develop a bestial trait, physical or mental,
drawn from either vampire mythology or predatory/scavenging animals that dwell in
the region. This trait forces you to carry -1 forward ongoing for one of the basic moves,
and persists until you voluntarily accept a miss while using that move without ever
touching the dice.
people, the street, unions
Old Clan Tzimisce
Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Auspex, Dominate
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Clan Weakness: If you sleep without being surrounded by at least two handfuls of the
soil of your grave or of some place important to you in life, suffer -1 ongoing to all
moves until you do so.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Academia, city hall,
church, high society, occult underground
Baali
Clan Disciplines: Daimoinon, Obfuscate, Presence
Clan Weakness: You cannot look upon icons of faith. If presented against you, you
must stand your ground or retreat. Touching such an icon burns you like fire.
bohemians, business, church, high society, little people, occult underground, the street
Daughters of Cacophony
Clan Disciplines: Fortitude, Melpominee, Presence
Clan Weakness: You hear a distant singing at the edge of your consciousness at all
times; you are always Distracted by unheard song. Take -1 forward ongoing to read their
eyes.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Bohemians, church,
high society, media
Gargoyles
Clan Disciplines: Fortitude, Potence, Visceratika
Clan Weakness: You cannot pass for human. Additionally, you are weak-willed and
take -1 forward ongoing to stand your ground.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Church, little
people, occult underground
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Harbingers of Skulls
Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Fortitude, Necromancy
Clan Weakness: You look like a shriveled, nigh-mummified cadaver. You permanently
have the Condition death’s mask. You cannot roll a 10+ result to manipulate someone if
they can see or know of your true appearance, no matter what the dice say.
Additionally, you cannot use the blush of life.
occult underground
Kiasyd
Clan Disciplines: Dominate, Mytherceria, Obtenebration
Clan Weakness: You have the Condition fey appearance. Additionally, when you take
harm from cold iron, it is aggravated harm.
occult underground
Nagaraja
Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Necromancy
Clan Weakness: In addition to drinking blood, you must consume human flesh. If you
go a night without consuming flesh, suffer -1 ongoing to all moves until you do so. A
single human cadaver has enough flesh on it to sustain you for 10 nights.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Academia, law
enforcement, little people, medicine, occult underground
Salubri
Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Presence, Valeren
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Clan Weakness: You have a third eye upon your forehead, though you may close it
while not using Valeren. If you drink blood from a vessel that has not given their consent,
take -1 ongoing for the rest of the night.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Bohemians, church,
little people, medicine
Salubri Antitribu
Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Fortitude, Valeren
while not using Valeren. If you drink blood from a vessel you have never bested in battle,
take -1 ongoing for the rest of the night.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Church, law
enforcement, occult underground, organized crime, the street
Wu Zao
Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Obfuscate, Valeren
while not using Valeren. You have a particular area of research that is your focal
obsession. You must stand your ground to pass up an opportunity to pursue knowledge
about this subject.
bohemians, church, little people, medicine, occult underground
Samedi
Clan Disciplines: Fortitude, Obfuscate, Thanatosis
Clan Weakness: You look like a rotting corpse. You permanently have the Condition
corpse-faced. You cannot roll a 10+ result to manipulate someone if they can see or know of
your true appearance, no matter what the dice say.
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little people, occult underground, the street
Tlacique
Clan Disciplines: Obfuscate, Presence, Protean
as normal.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Little people, occult
underground, the street
True Brujah
Clan Disciplines: Potence, Presence, Temporis
Clan Weakness: You have the Condition dispassionate. Raising your Humanity or Path
requires two “empty” advances spent seeking lost grace or seeking greater enlightenment,
rather than one.
Starting pull: You get +1 to one of the following groups (pick one): Academia, business,
city hall, the courts, high society, unions
Warrior Setites
Clan Disciplines: Potence, Presence, Serpentis
as normal.
bohemians, high society, law enforcement, little people, occult underground, the street
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Major Disciplines
Disciplines are supernatural tricks gained through mastery of power of the blood. They
are broken down into specific moves. If a move has a number after its name, then you
must have already gotten at least that number of other moves from within the
Discipline before you can take it.
What follows are the Disciplines commonly practiced by the 13 major Clans, with the
exception of the “blood sorcery” Disciplines such as Thaumaturgy and Necromancy;
those are in their own section.
Animalism
The art of commanding animals and influencing the Beast, Animalism is commonly
practiced by the Gangrel, Nosferatu, Tzimisce, and Ravnos. Among the lesser
bloodlines, it is also the bailiwick of the so-called “Old Clan” Tzimisce, as well as the
“Country” Gangrel antitribu, Nosferatu antitribu, and Ravnos antitribu. Animalism
encompasses the following moves:
Feral Whispers: You can speak to and understand the speech of animals. Animals no
longer grow agitated in your presence.
Beckoning (1): You can call out in the voice of a type of animal—unleashing the rusty
croak of a raven, the howl of a wolf, the chittering of a rat—and to summon animals of
that sort. Roll with social. On a 10+, as many animals as are able flock to you from a
mile or more around. On a 7-9, a few animals show up. On a miss, your call goes
unanswered.
Whispers to the Wild (1): Add +2 to manipulate someone or show your teeth when
speaking to an animal.
Quell the Beast (1): You can focus your will upon a mortal or vampire, diminishing
their inner fire with the intensity of your own. Mortals freeze up. Vampires can’t be
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intimidated, but they do get the chance to stand their ground to snap out of a frenzy
prematurely. Using this Discipline causes the Beast to stir.
Subsume the Spirit (2): You can lock eyes with an animal and send your spirit in to
possess its body. Roll with mental. On a 10+, you possess the animal for as long as you
like or until you catch sight of the sun, and are clear-headed and may use mental
Disciplines such as Auspex, Presence, Dementation, and various forms of blood sorcery
through the animal. On a 7-9, you possess the animal, but if you suffer any significant
shock or distraction, you must stand your ground or lose control and snap back to your
body. Additionally, on a 7-9 you must choose one: you can use mental Disciplines while
riding the animal; when you return to your body you don’t gain the Condition muddled
by animal instincts until sunrise.
Unleash the Beast (3): You can hurl your Beast into someone else, sending them into a
wild frenzy. Spend 1 blood to give your the Beast stirs marks to someone else; if you
need to generate more marks to trip the Beast into wakefulness, you may do so by
spending more blood at a rate of 1 per mark. You carry -1 forward ongoing while your
Beast is elsewhere driving someone else’s frenzy; your Beast returns when the frenzy
ends, still awake, but you don’t have to resist frenzy unless something else goads in
later in the night.
Animal Succulence (3): You can raise yourself up to 5 blood by drinking animal blood,
or up to 3 blood if you’re Ventrue or too old to normally gain sustenance from animal
blood.
Conquer the Beast (4): Add +2 to rolls to resist frenzy or ride the wave.
Auspex
The trick of heightened senses and spiritual sensitivity, Auspex is commonly practiced
by the Malkavians, Toreador, Tremere, Tzimisce, and Assamite viziers. Among the
lesser bloodlines, the Harbingers of Skulls, Nagaraja and all known Salubri lineages
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practice it, alongside the Old Clan Tzimisce and the Malkavian antitribu and Toreador
antitribu. Auspex encompasses the following moves:
Heightened Senses: By concentrating, you can sharpen your senses to a preternatural

degree, allowing you to do things such as track like a bloodhound, listen to
conversations many rooms away, read a letter from across a room, and so forth.
Aura Perception: You can glimpse the spiritual aura of an individual’s soul, scanning it
for meaning. Roll with mental. On a 10+, you read the subject’s aura and get an Edge.
On a 7-9, you read the subject’s aura. On a miss, you can’t read their aura for the rest of
the scene. See page 136 of V20 for the aura chart. If looking up a chart is too much of a
pain in the ass, you can tell what their current emotions are; if they’re a vampire; if
they’re something else that’s weird; and if they’ve committed diablerie in the last year.
Premonitions: If the beast has stirred at all tonight, even if you’ve since quelled it,
nobody can get the drop on you; sudden omens warn you at the last moment.
The Spirit’s Touch (1): You touch an object and read the psychic impressions left on it.
Roll with mental. On a 10+, ask 3. On a 7-9, ask 2:
¤ What did the last person who used this look like?
¤ What was this object last used to do?
¤ How old is this object?
¤ How was did the last person who used this object feel as they used it?
¤ How long was this object in the possession of the last person who used it?
Telepathy (2): You can project your thoughts into the mind of anyone you can see or
anyone who is blood bound to you. They’re aware the thoughts are not their own, but
don’t recognize them as coming from you unless you want them to or they have an
Edge on you.
Invade the Mind (2): You can read the thoughts of anyone you can see or anyone who
is blood bound to you. You can’t normally read another vampire’s thoughts, but can
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forcibly snatch a few moments of surface thoughts by making eye contact and stirring
your Beast.
Psychic Projection (3): You can spend 1 blood to project your spirit out of your body
and drift ephemerally through the world. Your spirit-projection can use other Auspex
moves, but cannot interact with the physical world; at best, you can spend another 1
blood to appear as a ghostly presence to communicate with others.
Celerity
The art of superhuman speed and grace, Celerity is commonly practiced by the Brujah,
Toreador, and warrior Assamites. It is also the manifests in the “City” Gangrel antitribu,
Brujah antitribu, Toreador antitribu, and Assamite antitribu bloodlines. Celerity
Speed: You can move with preternatural swiftness—able to cross a room in the blink of
an eye, or to run down a horse on a long stretch.
Uncanny Quickness: When you make a move which would benefit from great speed,
such as run for it or fuck them up with a close-quarters weapon, add +1.
Precision: When you perform a move requiring physical precision such as shooting a
gun or picking a lock and you miss, you may spend 1 blood to roll again.
Silent Lightning (1): You can move with even greater preternatural swiftness—able to
cross a lobby in the blink of an eye, or run down a car on a long stretch. You must
already have speed.
Swift as a Scream (2): You can move with yet further preternatural swiftness—able to
cross a grand ballroom in the blink of an eye, or run down a race car on a long stretch.
You must already have silent lightning.
Celerity Mastery (3): You can spend 1 blood when you perform some feat of
supernatural speed with Celerity to double its benefits. Swift as a Scream would give
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you a few moments of jet fighter speed; Uncanny Quickness would add +2; Precision
would let you re-roll again if the first re-roll didn’t pan out.
Chimerstry
The art of drawing illusions forth from the dreams of the blood, Chimerstry is the
exclusive province of Clan Ravnos and its offshoot bloodlines. Chimerstry encompasses
the following moves:
Ignis Fatuus: You can create a modest, static illusion encompassing a single sense—an
image, a sound, a smell, even a texture or taste. The illusion lasts as long as you stick
around, or until you choose to end it.
Fata Morgana (1): You can spend 1 blood to make the static illusion created by Ignis
Fatuus encompass as many senses as you desire.
Apparition (1): You can imbue movement onto the illusions created by Ignis Fatuus.
Shared Nightmare (2): You can spend 1 blood to create a large illusion, or several
independent illusions (such as filling a ballroom with illusory dancers) with Ignis
Fatuus.
Permanency (3): You can spend 1 blood to make an Ignis Fatuus illusion permanent: it
endures until you choose to end it, even after you’ve left the area.
Horrid Reality (3): You can spend 1 blood to make a single illusion ‘real’ to a specific
individual: it is so convincing that it is able to stop them from walking through it, or
even to inflict harm. Others remain capable of treating the illusion as fake, and so can
drag their friend out of an illusory cage, or pat his ‘broken’ leg without causing pain.
Without such proof, however, the victim must treat the illusion as real. Someone slain
by illusory harm is merely rendered unconscious or enters torpor; your illusion cannot
truly kill.
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Dementation
This terrifying Discipline finds wisdom by staring at the world through a cracked
kaleidoscope, and inflicts terrible madness on others. It is found only among the
Malkavians and their antitribu brethren. Dementation encompasses the following
moves:
Passion: While speaking to someone, you can inflame or dampen the emotions they’re
feeling. Roll with mental. On a 10+, their current emotion is either smothered to
nothingness or inflamed to manic heights. On a 7-9, the same thing happens but choose
one: the inflammation or dampening is modest; the beast stirs. On a miss, you can’t use
Passion again during this scene.
Eyes of Chaos: When you read their eyes, on a 10+ the Storyteller will also tell you
something about their secret inner nature—especially if something about them is
cracked, festering, unhealthy, or deeply suppressed.
The Haunting (1): While speaking to someone, you can seed their mind with terrible
hallucinations which will manifest when they’re alone or under stress. You can’t control
what the hallucinations are, but you can decide which senses they affect. Spend 1 blood
and roll with mental. On a 10+, you can decide how long they persist, up to a full
month. On a 7-9, they last no more than a few days.
Voice of Madness (3): You can unchain the howling madness that lurks within all
souls. Voice of Madness causes its target to immediately roll to resist frenzy or rötschreck
(player’s choice, or Storyteller’s in case of NPCs). Spend 1 blood and roll with mental.
On a 10+, you can affect as many targets within your immediate presence as you want.
On a 7-9, you can only affect one target. Upon using this Discipline, you must also resist
frenzy or rötschreck—on a 7+, you decide which; on a miss, the Storyteller decides.
Total Insanity (4): You can smash someone’s psyche like a mirror with the force of your
will. When you roll 10+ to show your teeth, you can also spend 1+ blood to give someone
the Condition mad. This Condition persists for three nights per blood spent.
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Dominate
The art of smothering lesser wills and suborning them, Dominate is commonly
practiced by the Tremere, Ventrue, Lasombra, and Giovanni. Among the lesser
bloodlines, it also manifests among the Old Clan Tzimisce, Kiasyd, and Nagaraja, as
well as the Ventrue antitribu and Lasombra antitribu. All Dominate moves require eye
contact. Dominate doesn’t work on vampires of lower Generation. Dominate
Command: You can speak a single word, and roll with mental. On a 10+, your victim
obeys immediately. On a 7-9, they obey hesitantly.
Mesmerize (1): You can implant a false thought or hypnotic suggestion in the subject’s
mind. Roll with mental. On a 10+, the suggestion can be as elaborate as you like. On a 7-
9, it must be relatively straightforward, of limited duration, and to be carried out soon.
The Forgetful Mind (1): You can remove or rewrite memories by telling someone what
to remember or what to forget. Roll with mental. On a 10+, you can replace a real
memories with a false memory. On a 7-9, you can only make them forget a memory
outright.
Conditioning (3): You can spend an Edge on someone to carry +1 forward ongoing to
Dominate them.
Possession (4): You can lock eyes with a mortal or ghoul and send your spirit in to
possess their body, but only if they have a Condition of mental fatigue such as drained,
exhausted, and so on. Roll with mental. On a 10+, you possess them for as long as you
like, and are clear-headed and may use mental Disciplines such as Auspex, Presence,
Dementation, and various forms of blood sorcery through them. On a 7-9, you possess
them, but if you suffer any significant shock or distraction, you must stand your ground
or lose control and snap back to your body. Additionally, on a 7-9 you must choose one:
you can use mental Disciplines while riding the person; you don’t suffer the same harm
as that taken by the person you’re possessing.
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Fortitude
Fortitude is superhuman toughness and durability, as well as resistance to the great

banes of the undead. It is native to the Gangrel, Ventue, and Ravnos. Most resilient
among the lesser bloodlines are the Daughters of Cacophony, Gargoyles, Harbingers of
Skulls, Salubri antitribu, and Samedi, as well as the “Country” Gangrel antitribu,
Ventrue antitribu, and Ravnos antitribu. Fortitude encompasses the following moves:
Unholy Mantle: When you take aggravated harm, convert the first aggravated harm
taken into normal rather than aggravated harm. For example, if burned by sunlight
inflicting 3 aggravated harm, you take 1 harm and 2 aggravated harm instead.
Corpse Body: When you suffer harm, the harm is reduced by 1. This doesn’t apply to
aggravated harm.
Undying: You can take 1 additional harm before you die.
Blasphemous Mantle (1): When you take aggravated harm, convert up to 2 aggravated
harm to normal harm. You must already have Unholy Mantle.
Mountain Hide (1): When you suffer aggravated harm, the aggravated harm is reduced
by 1, to a minimum of 1 aggravated harm taken.
Unkillable (2): You can take 1 additional harm before you die.
Unbreakable (2): When you take harm, you can spend 1 blood to reduce the harm taken
by 2.
Obfuscate
The art of vanishing from perception and being someone else, Obfuscate is commonly
practiced by the Malkavian, Nosferatu, warrior and sorcerer Assamites, and Followers
of Set. Among the lesser bloodlines, it can also be found among the Baali, Wu Zao,
Samedi, and Tlacique, as well as the City Gangrel antitribu, Malkavian antitribu,
Nosferatu antitribu, Assamite antitribu, and Serpents of the Light. Obfuscate
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Cloak of Shadows: When you stand still and quiet in darkness or shadows, you cannot
be seen. Moving, making noise, or falling under direct light breaks this concealment.
The Silence of Death: You can spend 1 blood to mute all sounds in your immediate
surroundings for the rest of the scene. You can still hear things from outside of your
zone of silence, dimly, but nothing around you can make any sort of noise at all. This
nimbus of silence moves with you, but you can spend 1 additional blood to pin your
silence to a room. This silence will last for as long as you wish, although if it persists
after the sun next rises, you carry -1 forward ongoing while you maintain it.
Concealment: When you do something shady and attempt to conceal a small item on your
person, you can’t roll less than 7 no matter what the dice say.
Mask of a Thousand Faces (1): You can cast a veil of shadows over yourself to appear
as someone you are not. Roll with social. On a 10+ you can appear to be anyone you
want and the disguise is perfect. On a 7-9 you can only seem to be someone of similar
height, build, and general body shape, and the disguise isn’t good enough to
impersonate a specific real individual. This disguise lasts until you next sleep.
Unseen Presence (2): When nobody’s actively aware of your presence, you can erase
yourself from notice. So long as you don’t bump into anyone, speak, or make loud
noises, nobody can see you. Active awareness means taking note of you specifically, so
you can often use this move in a crowd, for example, where although plenty of people
can see you, it’s unlikely anyone’s taken note of you in particular.
Vanish From the Mind’s Eye (3): When you use an Obfuscate move to become unseen,
you can spend 1 blood to do so even if people are looking right at you. If you vanish in
front of a mortal, they experience a shock of fear or confusion and then forget that you
were present in the first place.
Cloak the Gathering (3): When you use an Obfuscate move to become unseen or
concealed, you may hide nearby allies as well by spending 1 blood for every 2 allies
brought with you into concealment. If they do something to draw attention to
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themselves, or wander more than a room or two away from you, they fall out of the
protection of your cloak.
Soul Mask (4): You can conceal your very soul in a cloak of obscurity. Those using
Auspex or similar magic to take your measure see as you would wish to be seen, were
you aware of their scrutiny (so the Prince might see you displaying emotions to match
your outward attitude, but without any marks of diablerie in your aura, while a
vampire-hunting mystic would detect you as an ordinary human being). This doesn’t
make you aware of mystic scrutiny, it just allows you to instinctively present the lie most
beneficial in the moment.
Obtenebration
The art of command over shadows and the power of the Abyss, Obtenebration is
associated with Clan Lasombra, their antitribu counterparts, and their likely bastard
offshoot bloodline, the Kiasyd. Obtenebration encompasses the following moves:
Shadow Play: You can bend, warp, beckon, and manipulate shadows, so long as there
are already shadows present to work with. This is particularly useful for concealment
and intimidation. Spend 1 blood. For the rest of the scene, carry 1 forward ongoing to
show your teeth and do something shady if shadow-manipulation could possibly help.
Shroud of Night (1): Spend 1 blood to summon a cloud of writhing darkness that
extinguishes flame, muffles sound, is completely opaque, and smothers those within it
with a clammy darkness. Anyone inside the cloud takes -1 forward ongoing or suffers
Disadvantage. The cloud lasts as long as you concentrate on it.
Arms of the Abyss (1): Spend 1 blood to summon forth powerful tendrils of solidified
darkness from nearby shadows, which you may direct to attack as weapons which
inflict 2 harm. You can roll to fuck them up with mental when attacking with Arms of the
Abyss.
Black Metamorphosis (3): Spend 2 blood to become a terrible hybrid of flesh and
shadow for the rest of the scene. Writhing Arms of the Abyss emerge from your body,
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and you can roll with mental or physical when you fuck them up with these tentacles.
You also carry +1 forward ongoing to fuck them up with the tentacles and to show your
teeth while Black Metamorphosis is active.
Shadowstep (3): You can step into one shadow and emerge from another. Roll with
mental. On a 10+, you can emerge from any shadow within 50 feet or so. On a 7-9, you
can only emerge from another shadow that you can see. On a miss, carry -1 forward as
the Abyss attempts to draw you into its depths.
Tenebrous Form (4): Spend 2 blood to become a living, amorphous shadow for the rest
of the scene. You can’t physically act upon anything in this form, but can’t be harmed
either, save by fire and sunlight. You can adopt whatever shape you like, slide across
walls and ceilings, even ‘drip’ upwards in defiance of gravity. If unexpected fire or
sunlight causes the beast to stir while using this move, it stirs twice.
Potence
The manifestation of sheer, inhuman power, Potence expresses itself in the blood of the
Brujah, Nosferatu, Lasombra, and Giovanni. It is also appears in lesser bloodlines: the
Gargoyles and True Brujah, as well as the Brujah antitribu, Nosferatu antitribu, and
Lasombra antitribu. Potence encompasses the following moves:
Unstoppable Force: Carry +1 forward ongoing when you do something athletic that is an
expression of raw strength, or fuck them up with your bare hands or a melee weapon.
Strength of the Damned: When you perform a move that relies on raw physical
strength and you miss, you may spend 1 blood to roll again.
Stronger than Death (1): When you inflict harm with your bare hands or a melee
weapon, the harm is 1 greater than normal.
Inescapable (1): If you spend 1 blood, you can leap far enough to make it all the way
across a street in a single bound—say, from rooftop to rooftop; or from the ground to a
second-story balcony straight up.
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Impossible Might (2): When you do something athletic and it’s a feat of strength, you can
spend 1 blood to enable feats of strength that should be simply impossible for a human
being, like flipping a car, kicking a reinforced fire door clean off its hinges, or punching
through a brick wall. If you’re using Impossible Might to enhance a lesser feat of
strength, then you can’t roll less than 7 when you do something athletic, no matter what
the dice say.
Potence Mastery (3): You can spend 1 blood when you perform some feat of
supernatural strength with Potence to double its benefits. Impossible Might would let
you throw a car; Unstoppable Force would carry +2 forward for one move; Stronger
than Death would add +2 harm.
Presence
Presence focuses predatory intensity into a supernatural allure. It is native to the Brujah,
Toreador, Ventrue, Assamite viziers, and Followers of Set. Among the lesser bloodlines,
it is also seen among the Baali, Daughters of Cacophony, Salubri, Tlacique, and True
Brujah, as well as the Brujah antitribu, Toreador antitribu, Ventrue antitribu, and
Serpents of the Light. Presence encompasses the following moves:
Awe: Spend 1 blood to carry +1 forward ongoing for the rest of the scene to manipulate
someone.
Impact: Spend 1 blood to give off a powerful, distinct impression to all those you
encounter. Give yourself a Condition for the rest of the scene of your own choosing,
such as imposing, dangerous, or trustworthy.
Attraction: Roll with social. On a 10+, you become the center of attention—nobody can
help but hang on your every word, track your every movement. On a 7-9, you draw the
undivided attention of those you directly approach or interact with, but will not seize
the attention of an entire ballroom simply for walking through the door. On a miss, you
can’t use this move again for the rest of the night.
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Dread Gaze (1): When you quite literally show your teeth by baring your fangs and
menacing someone, you can spend 1 blood before rolling to turn a miss into a 7-9, a 7-9
into a 10+, and a 10+ ensures that the target carries -1 forward ongoing for the rest of
the scene, or suffers Disadvantage if an NPC.
Entrancement (2): You can smash the will of another with the force of your presence,
turning them into your fawning servant. Spend 1 blood and roll with social. If you
succeed, they gain the Condition [your] obedient servant. On a 10+, this Condition
persists for somewhere between a week and a month, depending on the strength of
their will. On a 7-9, it will fade much sooner—possibly at the end of the night, possibly
after a few days; again, it depends on the strength of the target’s will. On a miss, you
can’t use this move against the same target again during the current story.
Summon (2): You can summon anyone you’ve ever met, from anywhere in the world.
They will seek to come to you, instinctively picking the right paths to do so (even in the
case of such sophisticated ‘pathfinding’ as buying plane tickets), although they don’t
know your precise location in advance of their arrival. Spend 1 blood and roll with
social. On a 10+, the compulsion persists until they reach you, if the target is mortal, or
for two nights, if the target is a vampire. On a 7-9, the compulsion vanishes at sunrise.
Majesty (4): Your presence becomes a hammer, terrible as the sun, cold as the moon,
and the mere act of invoking your displeasure becomes terrible to contemplate. Spend 2
blood. For the rest of the scene, anyone who wishes to oppose you, or even to be
discourteous to you, must first stand their ground or act with Disadvantage.
Protean
The art of calling the Beast into the flesh to transform it, Protean is the province of Clan
Gangrel and its derivative bloodlines, as well as the odd Tlacique. Protean encompasses
the following moves:
Eyes of the Beast: At will, you can gain the Condition glowing eyes and can see perfectly
in the dark.
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Feral Claws: You can grow terrible claws at will, either by spending 1 blood or allowing
the Beast to stir. These act as weapons inflicting 2 harm. If you want, you can have these
natural weapons manifest in some other way, such as foot-claws, beds of teeth
springing from your palms, or even stabbing tusks erupting from your mouth. Most
vampires manifest this move as claws, though.
Earth Meld: You can spend 1 blood to sink into the earth, sleeping there until the sun
next sets.
Shape of the Beast (2): You can spend 1 blood to assume the form of a wolf or a bat.
This gives you the Condition wolf or bat and enables you to do anything a wolf or bat
ought to be able to do, such as track by scent, fly, or echolocate.
Mist Form (3): Spend 1 blood to disperse into a living mist. You can’t physically act
upon anything in this form, but can’t be harmed either, save by fire and sunlight. Even
then, when you suffer harm from those sources, the harm is reduced by 1. You can
remain in this form for as long as you wish.
Soul of the Beast (3): If you have Shape of the Beast, you can also use it to assume an
animal form iconic to yourself—a large rat, perhaps, or a jackal, vulture, panther,
something else. The animal must be a predator or scavenger of some sort.
Prey’s Skin (4): If you have Shape of the Beast, you can also transform into the likeness
of the last creature or person you fed upon, whoever or whatever that might be. Doing
so costs 1 extra blood.
Power of the Beast (4): During frenzy, your Feral Claws deal aggravated harm.
Quietus Cruscitus
Its name means the settling of debts through the science of murder through blood. This variant
of the Quietus Discipline is practiced by Assamite warriors and their antitribu
counterparts. It encompasses the following moves:
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Blood Essence: You can extract the heart of a freshly-slain mortal or torpid vampire,
drip a single drop of your blood upon it, and transform it into a leathery, imperishable
trophy of your victory. Anyone peering into the chambers of this ageless heart can see
the victim’s soul fluttering within. A Kindred who pierces the heart with their fangs
may drink the entrapped soul, committing diablerie if it belonged to a vampire. Fire
and sunlight will both destroy the heart, setting the trapped soul free.
Scorpion’s Touch: You can spend 1 blood to coat a weapon with your blood, converting
it in the process to a numbing poison. If the weapon inflicts harm, then the one harmed
carries -1 forward ongoing for the rest of the scene, or suffers Disadvantage.
Scorpion’s Blood: You can envenom your blood as it leaves your body, if you so
choose. Anyone drinking it directly from your veins carries -1 forward ongoing for the
rest of the scene, or suffers Disadvantage.
Dagon’s Call (1): You can spend 1 blood to transform a portion of your blood that has
entered someone else’s body within the current scene into a transcendent poison. They
suffer 2 harm and are wracked with agony for the rest of the scene.
Baal’s Caress (2): If you so choose, when using Scorpion’s Touch or Scorpion’s Blood
you can opt to transform your blood into a caustic, flesh-burning acid rather than a
debilitating poison. Anyone drinking your blood suffers 2 harm, while anyone harmed
by a blooded weapon suffers 1 additional harm.
Taste of Death (3): If you know Baal’s Caress then you can spend 1 blood and fuck them
up by spitting or vomiting your acidic blood at a target within about 30 feet. This attack
inflicts 3 harm.
Quicken the Mortal’s Blood (4): You approach mastery of processing the blood you
imbibe. After drinking blood from a mortal, you can roll with mental. On a 10+, get 1
extra blood. On a 7-9, get 1 extra blood, but the Beast stirs.
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Quietus Hematus
Its name means the settling of debts by an offering of blood. This variant of the Quietus
Discipline is practiced by Assamite viziers. It encompasses the following moves:
Blood Tempering: You coat an object in a thin layer of your blood, rendering it immune
to the ravages of time and resistant to damage: attempts to break it by doing something
athletic suffer -1 or Disadvantage. The object becomes susceptible to destruction by fire
or sunlight, however. Small objects cost 1 blood; large objects, like an entire door or
piece of furniture, cost 2 blood.
Blood Awakening: When you drink blood, add the following to your list of options: You
relive one of their memories, of the Storyteller’s choosing.
Truth of Blood (1): So long as you are touching a subject’s blood, you know whether or
not they believe the words they speak. The blood you touch smolders away as red
smoke when you use this move, and so a supply of preserved blood will eventually be
consumed as this move is used.
Cleansed in Blood (1): Spend 1 blood and mark someone’s forehead. They must then
spend several hours in silent meditation as the power of your blood burns away all
competing supernatural influences over their mind and spirit (such as from Dominate,
Presence, Dementation, etc). You can’t use this move on yourself.
Ripples of the Heart (1): When you drink someone’s blood, you can imprint an emotion
upon their blood. Anyone who drinks the subject’s blood gains a specific emotional
Condition that you choose when using this move. Roll with social. On a 10+, this
emotional impression lasts for a week. On a 7-9, it lasts for only one or two nights. The
more of the subject’s blood someone drinks, the stronger the emotional Condition they
gain; thus, 1 blood might make them fearful while 3 blood could fill them with abject
terror. You can use this move on yourself.
Blood Sweat (2): When you show your fangs by rebuking someone for their misdeeds or
weakness, you can force them to break out into a blood sweat. They gain the Condition
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blood sweat and mortals suffer 2 harm on a 10+ or 1 harm on a 7-9, while Kindred lose 2
or 1 blood. (NPC vampires don’t track exact blood ratings, but will be alarmed as their
precious blood begins to vanish, and the Storyteller will be aware their reserves of
power are depleted and will treat them accordingly.)
Blood Memory (3): When you drink someone to death, if you have Blood Awakening,
then you can ask the Storyteller for one of their specific memories.
Serpentis
This art of monstrous transformation is held to be the gift of Set to his children, and as
such is found only among the Followers of Set and their offshoot bloodlines. Serpentis
Eyes of the Serpent: You can bring the power of the serpent into your gaze, paralyzing
anyone who meets your stare for so long as eye contact is maintained. Your eyes
become in some way visibly inhuman while using this move.
Taste the Air: By allowing your tongue to flicker in and out of your mouth, you can
scent the air in the manner of a serpent, allowing you to operate without difficulty even
in complete darkness.
Tongue of the Asp (1): You can lengthen your tongue into a forked razor as long as
your arm, extending it at will. Used as a weapon, it inflicts 2 harm, and can be used to
drink blood.
Typhonic Maw (1): You can spend 1 blood to warp your mouth in almost any sort of
horrific fashion you desire for the rest of the scene: lengthening your teeth into
murderous daggers, distending your jaw down to your chest, expanding your throat
until you can swallow anything you can get your mouth around—all of these
blasphemies are possible. Your mouth becomes a weapon capable of inflicting 2 harm,
and if you drink blood you can take 1 extra blood in addition to whatever else you pick,
as long as you don’t choose to ensure they don’t die.
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Skin of the Adder (2): Spend 1 blood to transform your flesh into some manner of
mottled, scaly, slimy, or otherwise monstrous hide for the rest of the scene. Your body
becomes both tough as well as flexible and malleable. When you suffer harm, the harm
is reduced by 1. You can squeeze through any space you can fit your head into. You can
slither out of most sorts of bindings.
Echidna’s Venom (3): Your bite becomes poisonous. When you bite someone, you can
spend 1 blood to inflict 2 harm (or 1 additional harm if you’re attacking with your
fangs).
The Form of the Cobra (3): Spend 1 blood to assume the form of an enormous, man-
sized cobra. You gain the giant cobra Condition, and your bite is so poisonous it kills
mortals instantly. This transformation lasts until dawn, or until you will it to end.
Typhonic Avatar (4): Spend 1 blood to assume the god-form: a human-serpent hybrid
with a long, powerful tail instead of legs. You gain the monstrous form Condition. Carry
+1 forward ongoing whenever you roll with physical. This transformation lasts for one
scene. Each time you kill something while wearing this form, it quells the Beast.
Mother of Monsters (4): You can bud tiny, monstrous creatures from your body. They
rip free of your flesh and slavishly do your bidding. Suffer 1 harm to birth a monster.
You cannot erase this harm while the monster lives, though you can return the monster
to your flesh whenever you wish.
The Heart of Darkness (5): You can draw your own heart forth from your chest. While
your heart is outside of your body, you carry +1 forward ongoing to resist or ride the
wave of frenzy. Hide your heart well! It can be destroyed by fire or sunlight, or staked
by anyone who finds it, paralyzing you.
Vicissitude
The hideous power to craft flesh and bone like clay, Vicissitude is innate only to Clan
Tzimisce. Reverting a Vicissitude transformation is only possible if the victim is of
lower Generation and spends 2 blood while sleeping, per alteration removed;
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otherwise, the only remedy is further use of this terrible Discipline. Vicissitude
Malleable Visage: You can transform your own appearance, literally sculpting in
alterations to your features: different cheeks, hair length, a different voice thanks to a
restructured larynx, or transformations of eye, hair, or skin color. This costs only the
time taken to painstakingly mold the changes by hand.
Fleshcraft (1): You can now sculpt the flesh of others by spending 1 blood and
reweaving skin, meat, and muscle. This can produce much more extreme modifications
than Malleable Visage. If you use this when you fuck them up with your bare hands, add
1 harm or a debilitating Condition. If your subject is cooperative or restrained (or you’re
working on yourself), roll with mental. On a 10+, you create exactly the alterations you
desire, and can give them a Condition if you wish. On a 7-9, well, you can still give
them a Condition, but things don’t turn out… quite the way you envisioned them. On a
miss… oh. Oh dear.
Bonecraft (1): You can now sculpt bone by spending 1 blood and bending, flexing,
shaping, and coaxing osseous matter into a new shape or configuration. This can be
used to create natural weaponry capable of inflicting 2 harm, such as body spikes,
knuckle spurs, or bone claws. If you use this when you fuck them up with your bare
hands, add 1 harm or a debilitating Condition. If your subject is cooperative or
restrained (or you’re working on yourself), roll with mental. On a 10+, you create
exactly the alterations you desire, and can give them a Condition if you wish. On a 7-9,
well, you can still give them a Condition, but things don’t turn out… quite the way you
envisioned them. On a miss… hm. Where’s the mop?
Horrid Form (3): Spend 2 blood to assume an enormous, monstrous form in which your
teeth erupt like daggers, your hands sprout massive claws, and your ribs and spine
become deadly spikes protruding through your flesh. For the rest of the scene, take +1
forward ongoing to all moves that roll with physical, you can roll with physical to show
your teeth, and when you suffer harm, the harm is reduced by 1.
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Bloodform (4): Spend 1 blood to dissolve yourself into living blood for the rest of the
scene. You can’t physically act upon anything in this form, but can’t be harmed either,
save by fire and sunlight. You can flow as you like, including oozing up walls or even
across ceilings.
The Body Impolitic (4): You can spend 1 blood to independently animate a part of your
body that you then detach from yourself. A severed arm can crawl, grab, and even kill,
for example. A roving body part will obey your will to the best of its ability, but
possesses only the capabilities and senses inherent to its anatomy. This is less of a
barrier than it might seem, given Fleshcraft’s potential to add eyes or ears to just about
anything, or even a functional mouth and tongue for speaking.
Chiropteran Marauder (4): Your horrid form now also manifests wings and is capable
of flight.
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Blood Sorcery Disciplines

The following Disciplines encompass the complex arts of sorcery evoked from study of
the blood. Blood sorcery is broken down into paths of particular study, which work in
much the same fashion as other Disciplines, as well as rituals, which are singular rites of
distinct purpose. Learning a path move requires spending an advance, as with any
other Discipline. Spending an advance to learn a ritual grants two ritual moves.
However, when a ritual has a number after its name, it requires mastery of that number
of path moves from its parent Art, not other rituals.
All blood sorcerers must choose a primary path when they begin learning a sorcerous
Discipline. They cannot begin taking moves from a second path until they have taken at
least three moves in their primary Path.
The first time you take a path move from a blood sorcery Discipline, you also get a free
Ritual.
Necromancy Paths
Necromancy is the sorcerous art of commanding the power of death and the spirits of
the dead. The Giovanni are its most renowned practitioners, but far from the art’s only
devotees, and a long way from its oldest: the secrets of necromancy are also inherent to
the blood of the Harbingers of Skulls and the Nagaraja.
Fetters
Ghosts are bound to the living world by people, places, or objects of great
importance to them, known as Fetters. If you have a ghost’s Fetter when enacting
Necromancy upon that spirit, you have great power over them: you can either
take +1 forward to your Necromancy move, waive 1 blood in cost, they resist
you with Disadvantage, or the move lasts a bit longer than usual, whichever
seems most appropriate.
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The Sepulchre Path
The path of summoning and compelling the spirits of the dead is also usually the
primary path of Giovanni necromancers; indeed, the development of this Path was
once, many centuries ago, the great and crowning achievement of the Venetian family.
In the modern nights, nearly all necromancers eventually study the Sepulchre path as at
least a secondary path, if not making it the core of their understanding of Necromancy.
Witness of Death: Roll with mental. On a 10+, you can see the translucent spirits of the
dead as they move about in the world, and hear their words and laments. On a 7-9, you
can see and hear the dead, but choose one: your eyes glow with unearthly blue flames
visible only to the dead, who become aware you are spying on them; you can only see
and hear the dead, and the living world becomes a muffled pall of indistinguishable
shadows. This move lasts for a scene.
Summon Soul (1): You can spend 1 blood to summon a ghost to your location so long
as you meet at least two of the following conditions:
o You know their name.

o You’ve seen their face since they died.
o You have something they interacted with in life, or a bit of their corpse.
Compel Soul (2): You can break a ghost’s will and force it to do your bidding. Spend 1
blood and roll with mental. On a 10+, choose one: the ghost performs a task of any level
of complexity you desire, which can place it in severe risk of destruction or even make it
betray loved ones; the ghost becomes your servant and will carry out simple tasks you
give it for a month. On a 7-9, choose one: the ghost will carry out a task of significant
complexity so long as it doesn’t place the ghost in great danger or force it to betray that
which it cherishes; the ghost will carry out five simple tasks so long as you issue them
within the next fortnight, and lingers about in your vicinity until you issue the last of
these demands or the fortnight ends.
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Haunting (2): Spend 1 blood to bind a ghost within your sight to either the current
location or an object within the location. The ghost cannot stray from this location (or
from the presence of the object) without being destroyed. This binding lasts for a week;
or, if you spend 5 blood rather than 1 blood, for a year and a day.
Torment (4): You can fuck ghosts up without leaving the lands of the living, inflicting
harm as though the ghost were corporeal; you don’t become equally tangible to ghosts
in return. Most ghosts tend to “die” after 3-4 harm, like mortals, though some are much
tougher. A “slain” ghost vanishes into a howling pit of darkness and usually can’t be
found again for a month—if they ever return again at all.
The Ash Path
This is the most dangerous of all known paths of Necromancy, for it is the art of
piercing the Shroud and traveling into the Underworld. Much power and knowledge
may be found in the land of the dead, but the necromancer also makes herself
vulnerable to the wrath of the dead when she passes among them. Save for a few bold
or foolhardy Nagaraja, no sane necromancer studies the Ash Path as a primary path.
The Giovanni are generally thought to have innovated the Ash Path, but an older
version of it may exist in the libraries of the Nagaraja.
Shroudsight: With a moment’s concentration, you can see through the veil of the
Shroud into the Shadowlands of the Underworld: a place of ghostly buildings,
omnipresent decay, and the lingering shades of the dead.
Lifeless Tongues (1): When you speak, you may will your words to echo clearly across
the Shroud, and may hear any words spoken by the dead in response.
Dead Hand (1): Spend 1 blood to become physically present in both the land of the
living and the Underworld at the same time. You can climb about on ghostly
architecture (“levitating” to living eyes), interact with ghosts, even fight them as with
the Sepulchre Path move Torment… although in this case, they can fight back just as
easily.
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Ex Nihilo (3): After drawing a doorway on a surface in chalk or blood, you may spend 1
blood to step through and enter the Underworld, where you appear as a particularly
solid ‘ghost.’ Leaving again requires only a few moments of concentration, but may
become impossible if you venture too far from the shadowed reflection of the living
world.
Shroud Mastery (4): Spend 1 blood and declare whether you are strengthening or
weakening the Shroud around you. If you strengthen it, ghosts attempting to use their
occult powers to cross into the living world or act upon people and things in the living
world do so with Disadvantage. If you weaken it, they get Advantage instead.
The Bone Path
Another Giovanni creation, the Bone path deals in corpses and the restoration of vitality
and souls to such vessels. Those who bypass the Sepulchre Path as their primary path of
study often choose the Bone Path instead.
Awakened Gristle: Spend 1 blood to animate a small body part to serve you whenever
you stand within the same building or general vicinity as the gruesome homunculus.
Most necromancers prefer scuttling hands, but rolling eyeballs and hopping heads are
equally possible.
Tremens: By concentrating for a moment, you can cause a corpse within your line of
sight to twitch, flop, gasp, sit up, raise an arm, or perform some other crude motor
function.
Apprentice’s Broom (1): You can spend 1 blood to reanimate a cadaver to act as your
servant. The servant is slow, placid, and incapable of initiative or value judgments. As
such, it can complete simple tasks like “load those boxes into the truck” or “dust this
room” or “transcribe this manuscript,” but not “translate this manuscript” or “research
the Prince’s family history.” Zombie servants rot away over time.
Shambling Hordes (2): Spend 1 blood and roll with mental. On a 10+, you can animate
up to half a dozen corpses. On a 7-9, you can animate up to 2 corpses. These corpses can
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be given only two sorts of commands: “attack those people” and “guard this area from
anyone except (myself and those accompanying me / people carrying this symbol /
etc).” They can perform no non-violent labor. Zombies raised with this move remain
animate indefinitely, and can wait centuries to carry out their commands, even as their
flesh rots away to bare bone or mummifies into cracked paper.
Soul Stealing (3): You can rip a living mortal’s soul out of his body, leaving his flesh
comatose while his spirit wanders as a wraith. Spend 1 blood and roll with mental. On a
10+, the mortal’s flesh and soul remain separate until sunrise. On a 7-9, they only
remain separate for a few hours.
Daemonic Possession (4): You can invite a bodiless spirit (usually a wraith, but maybe
a vampire projecting his spirit with Auspex) to inhabit a freshly-dead body. The spirit
must consent to the invitation; they cannot be compelled. This is rarely an obstacle, as
most wraiths lust for access to the living world and will perform significant favors to
gain access to this service. A body piloted in this fashion remains an animated corpse,
and will rot away to nothing over the course of a week.
The Cenotaph Path
This strange, old path deals in discovering and forging links between the worlds of the
living and the dead. Rumor has it this path was created by a strange, minor bloodline
somewhere in Africa, whose members bartered its secrets away to forestall some
obscure doom. Since nobody now remembers their names, it’s doubtful they succeeded.
The Cenotaph Path is within the knowledge of all modern necromantic lineages, but
none tend to recommend it as a primary path.
A Touch of Death: By touching a person or object and concentrating for a few

moments, you may tell whether or not they’ve been acted upon by a ghost within the
last few days, and may even catch a brief glimpse of the ghost’s face if the interaction
was intrusive or happened within the last day.
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Reveal the Catene (1): If you touch an object that acts as a ghost’s anchor to the living
world, you know it for a Fetter immediately.
Tread Upon the Grave (1): You know when you stand within a haunt—a place where
the Shroud is thin and the dead frequently reach across the barrier between worlds.
Death Knell (2): When a freshly dead soul resists the call of the Great Beyond and lands
upon the dim shores of the Underworld as a ghost, its arrival pricks your awareness.
You can sense such ghostly arrivals within about a half a mile, though this move
doesn’t tell you their exact location.
Ephemeral Binding (3): Spend 1 blood by rubbing it onto an object or feeding it to a

living person. You can transform this person or object into a Fetter for a ghost that you
have an Edge on for the next week or so. Spending 5 blood instead of 1 makes them a
Fetter for a year and a day instead.
The Corpse in the Monster
One of the oldest paths of classical Necromancy, this is the art of conjuring deathly
features into the vampiric frame. While the Giovanni widely consider it an ancient
obsolescence, it remains a treasure of the Harbingers of Skulls, and is given some
respect by elder Nagaraja. The Corpse in the Monster is almost never taken as a primary
Path by the Giovanni, but is often treated as such by Harbingers of Skulls and their
Sabbat students.
Masque of Death: Spend 1 blood to bestow the appearance of a long-dead corpse on

yourself or another vampire that you have just touched. Useful for hiding in crypts and
mausoleums, or for leveling a minor curse, Masque of Death draws flesh and skin tight
across bones: take -1 forward ongoing to all physical moves, but take +1 forward
ongoing to show your teeth. This transformation lasts until the next sunset or until you
dismiss it.
Cold of the Grave: When you wish it, you can become as cold and unfeeling as a
corpse. You grow pale, cold to the touch, and when you speak, frost plumes out from
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your lips. While using this move, ignore any Conditions based around physical or
emotional pain, take +1 forward ongoing to stand your ground, and take -1 forward
ongoing to manipulate someone.
Curse of Life (1): By touching another vampire, you can bedevil them with unpleasant
sensation (and only the unpleasant sensations) of life, such as sweating, itching, hunger,
thirst, and fatigue. They gain the Condition lively discomfort until the sun rises. They also
cannot use blood buff while lively discomfort persists.
Gift of the Corpse (3): Spend 1 blood to become an animated cadaver rather than a
vampire for one minute. During this time you may ignore all vampiric banes—you are
immune to the thrashings of the Beast and the power of True Faith, fire does normal
rather than aggravated harm, being staked doesn’t immobilize you, and sunlight inflicts
2 less harm than normal, and the harm is not aggravated.
Gift of Life (4): You can suppress most aspects of your vampiric curse until the clock
next strikes midnight: fire inflicts merely normal harm, while the sun inflicts 2 less harm
than normal. You can eat, drink, make love, and walk about in the day. You carry +1
forward ongoing to resist frenzy and rötschreck. This move comes at a steep cost: You
must spend 6 blood to use it, and once it ends, the beast awakens fully, and remains
awake for the next six nights.
The Grave’s Decay
One of the oldest paths of classical Necromancy, this is the art of decay and entropy.
While the Giovanni dismiss it as a relic of long-ago and obsolete study, it has seen a
modern resurgence as a specialty of the Harbingers of Skulls, and is favored by certain
Nagaraja. The Grave’s Decay is nigh-unheard of as a primary Path by the Giovanni, but
is sometimes used as such by the Harbingers of Skulls and their Sabbat students.
Ashes to Ashes: You can drip you blood onto a dead body to render it into a pile of
featureless ashes over the span of a few minutes.
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Rigor Mortis (1): Spend 1 blood, focus your necromantic will upon someone, and roll
with mental. On a 10+, their muscles lock up and they’re frozen in place for a minute.
On a 7-9, they’re frozen in place for a few moments.
Wither (2): Touch someone and spend 1 blood. A body part of your choosing becomes
withered, atrophied, ancient, and almost useless. Give them the Condition withered
(body part). Kindred can heal this by spending 2 blood while sleeping during the day.
Mortals can’t ever get rid of this Condition.
Corrupt the Flesh (3): Spend 1 blood to inflict a wasting disease on someone you can
see, living or undead. They gain the Condition lethargic illness; in mortals, this disease is
highly contagious, while Kindred can spread it by feeding. It lasts for about a week.
Dust to Dust (4): The power of Ashes to Ashes may now be expanded to vampiric flesh.
Spend 1 blood. For the rest of the scene, you can fuck them up by flinging droplets of
your cursed vitae at another vampire. This attack inflicts 1 aggravated harm.
The Vitreous Path
This horrifying art harnesses the power of the Underworld and Oblivion itself. It is the
creation and closely-guarded secret of the Nagaraja bloodline. Some Nagaraja study this
fearsome art as their primary Path, but many prefer to cut their fangs on the Sepulchre
Path first.
Eyes of the Dead: With a moment’s concentration, you can see as the dead do: in all
things, you behold the potential decay and incipient death. You can tell where an object
is weak, and if the living are sick, ailing, or afflicted by curses or baleful magic.
Aura of Decay (1): Spend 1 blood to surround yourself in a terrible, invisible mantle of
entropy. This doesn’t affect your clothes and other personal belongings, but anything
inanimate within a few feet of your body suffers the accelerated ravages of time: rust,
decay, corrosion, and rot quickly set in, as a year passes with each second within your
entropic mantle. This mantle lasts for a scene.
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Soul Feast (2): You can feed on the energies of death. Once per night, while standing in
a place of death such as a morgue, graveyard, or murder scene, you can absorb the
latent energies of the grave. You get 1 blood, or 2 blood if it’s an active haunt. If you
have some way to physically interact with ghosts, you can drink blood from them,
converting their ephemeral plasm into sustenance. However, the beast stirs twice if you
awaken having supped on only the energies of death the previous night.
Curse of the Maelstrom (3): Spend 1 blood and breathe out an invisible cloud of
entropic energy. If you taint an area with this move, mad and wicked ghosts flock to the
tainted site to wreak havoc. If you taint an individual, they suffer 1 aggravated harm as
their veins blacken with viscous sludge, and suffer the Condition obviously, visibly cursed
until sunrise.
Night Cry (4): You unleash a piercing scream that echoes on both sides of the Shroud,
either banishing entropy or condensing it. Spend 1 blood and target a small group of
allies or enemies. If you target allies, they carry +1 forward on their next move. If you
target enemies, they all suffer 1 aggravated harm.
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Necromancy Rituals
While Necromancy paths may be intuited once a student has taken her first steps upon
them, necromantic rituals must always be learned through study with either a text or a
mentor.
Preserve Corpse (1): Mixing together several unholy ingredients, you can make an elixir
that will preserve a corpse’s freshness indefinitely.
Eldritch Beacon (1): Burn a green candle and roll its melted wax into a ball. Whoever
carries the ball that same night shines as a beacon to the dead; ghosts gain Advantage to
use their powers upon him.
Insight (2): Stare into a corpse’s eyes for five minutes to glimpse the very last thing it
ever saw.
Call of the Hungry Dead (2): If you burn a bit of someone’s hair, they can hear the
voices of the dead for the rest of the night.
Minestra di Morte (2): Stew a bit of a corpse in vampire blood and herbs. Eat the stew
to learn if the corpse’s spirit became a ghost.
Eyes of the Grave (3): Perform a two-hour ritual over grave dirt. The target, whom you
must have an Edge on, suffers visions of their death periodically over the next week.
Knowing Stone (3): Write a name on a sacred stone in blood. Lose an Edge on that
name’s owner. When you dance around the stone, eventually the spirits will tell you
where that person’s spirit is. The stone loses its power on All Saints Day.
Two Centimes (3): Lay a mortal down on a slab and place a penny over each eye. For
the rest of the night their soul may venture into the Underworld to observe, but not
interact—they are a “ghost among ghosts.”
Death’s Head (3): You can decorate a mask with the blood, bones, flesh, or ash of a slain
foe. When you wear the mask, you appear to be a wraith (translucent in the living
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world, just another dead guy in the Underworld). The mask crumbles to ash after being
removed.
Blood Dance (3): Creating a sigil in sand and salt over two hours, you can invite a ghost
to appear in the sigil to speak with a living relative.
Din of the Damned (4): By warding a room with crematorium ash, you ensure that for
the rest of the night, anyone trying to eavesdrop on the room instead only hears the
wailing and laments of the dead.
Puppet (4): Over the course of an hour, smear grave dirt across someone’s eyes, lips,
and forehead. Any ghost that attempts to possess them that night finds the process
effortless.
Ritual of the Smoking Mirror (4): Gaze into an obsidian mirror. It reflects the world as
though through the Vitreous Path move Eyes of the Dead.
Tempesta Scudo (5): Performing a quick dance, you bite your lip and spit blood in a
tiny circle around you. All ghosts acting within the circle do so at Disadvantage.
Nightmare Drums (5): You coat an object in blood and burn it before a set of ritual
drums. The drums thunder ceaselessly in the realm of the dead until ghosts agree to
turn the dreams of the object’s owner into nightmares for a month.
Divine Sign (5): You can spend an Edge on a person or ghost to learn what action they
are about to take.
Cadaver’s Touch (5): Melt a wax doll in the likeness of a living person. As the doll
melts, so too does the target’s features until they resemble a walking corpse. They keep
the condition looks like a corpse until the wax is allowed to harden again.
Baleful Doll (6): You craft a doll, paint it in your blood, and dress it in the victim-to-
be’s clothes. You can hurt the doll to cause the victim to be wracked with pain, or destroy
the doll, inflicting 3 harm on the victim.
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Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter (6): If you have a ghost’s name and fingerbone, you can
use the fingerbone, suspended on a string, to dowse for the location of the ghost’s
fetters.
Bastone Diabolico (6): You remove a living person’s femur, coat it in lead, inscribe it
with runes, and then use it to beat the donor to death. Afterwards, this club acts as a
weapon inflicting 3 harm when you fuck up ghosts and zombies.
Chill of Oblivion (6): You can melt a block of ice on your chest or someone else’s over
the course of 12 hours. For the next week, harm from fire is not aggravated, and the
ritual subject has the Condition radiating palpable cold.
Peek Past the Shroud (7): An hour-long ritual enchants a bit of toxic mold, suspending
its poisonous properties. Whoever eats the mold gains the Ash Path move Shroudsight
for several hours, but benefitting from this ritual more than once within a month
restores the mold’s toxic properties, killing mortals and sending vampires into torpor.
The Hand of Glory (7): Spend a month ritually preserving the hand of a murderer and
making the fingers into fat-coated candles. When you light the fingers upon a building’s
doorstep, one mortal within falls asleep for each lit finger. They stay asleep for a scene.
You can reuse the Hand indefinitely.
Ritual of the Xipe Totec (7): You can flay someone alive and wear their skin to
impersonate them. The skin is ruined after one use.
Dead Man’s Hand (8): You can wrap a rag soaked in the blood, sweat, or tears of the
victim-to-be around a freshly severed hand (living or dead, both work fine). As the
hand decomposes, so does the victim, suffering 1 harm every day as they rot away into
death or torpor. Only removing the hand from the rag will end this curse.
Esilio (8): Holding a ghost in your arms, you speak five words in the forgotten
language from before Babel—the words Adam spoke to Caine as he went into exile. A
hideous vortex opens in your chest and the ghost is shredded into nothingness. If you
ascribe to Humanity, you lose a point.
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Grasp the Ghostly (8): Over the course of a three hour ritual, you bring an object out of
the Underworld in exchange for a similarly-sized object from the land of the living. This
spectral object will evaporate after about a year in the living world.
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Thaumaturgy Paths
Thaumaturgy is the great and codified art of blood sorcery: the most versatile of all
Disciplines ever known to the Damned, and one of the most fearsome. The Tremere are
the undisputed masters of Thaumaturgy, and guard its secrets jealously.
The Path of Blood
The first and most foundational of all Thaumaturgic studies, the Path of Blood concerns
itself with gleaning knowledge from the blood, and then exercising power over it. It is
traditionally assigned as the primary path for neophyte blood magicians, though some
sires may emphasize other paths for their own reasons, and some students may reject it
in favor of some specialized field of study.
A Taste for Blood: Touch someone’s blood and roll with mental. On a 10+, ask 2. On a
7-9, ask 1:
o How healthy is their blood?

o When did they last drink blood?
o What is their Generation?
o How much blood do they have remaining?
o Have they committed diablerie in the last year? (10+ only)
Blood Rage (1): You can touch someone and spend 1 blood to force them to spend their
own blood in a manner that you desire (healing, blood buffing, activating a Discipline,
etc); additionally, their Beast stirs.
Blood of Potency (2): Spend 1 blood and roll with mental. On a 7-9, your Generation
lowers by 1 for the next several hours. On a 10+, your Generation lowers and choose
one: it remains lowered until sunrise; it lowers by 2.
Theft of Vitae (3): You can roll with mental to fuck them up. This counts as attacking
with your fangs, but it can be done from up to 50 feet away; their blood erupts out of
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their body and streams into your open mouth. If they’re not resisting, you can also drink
blood this way.
Cauldron of Blood (4): You can fuck them up by boiling their blood inside of their body
with a touch. This costs 1 blood and inflicts 3 aggravated harm.
The Lure of Flames
This fearsome path lets its practitioners call up a sorcerous inferno—some claim from
the depths of Hell itself. A very few Tremere study it as a primary path for its sheer
combat potential, but for the most part, the Clan prefers ghouls and sorcerous minions
when it finds itself in need of muscle.
Candle of Flame: Spend 1 blood to create flames. At this point, the best you can do is to
conjure a dancing candleflame on your fingertip.
Palm of Flame (1): You can conjure a palm’s worth of flame rather than a candle’s—
enough to deal 1 aggravated harm.
Cast the Flame (1): When you create flames, you can roll with mental to conjure flames
somewhere other than into your hand. On a 10+, the flames appear exactly where you
want within 30 feet. On a 7-9, the flames appear more or less where you want within 30
feet.
Roaring Flame (3): You can summon a hot, bright, fierce flame, like a campfire, capable
of inflicting 2 aggravated harm.
Inferno (4): You can summon a roaring inferno capable of inflicting 3 aggravated harm.
Movement of the Mind
A simple but powerful path of study, Movement of the Mind grants the vampire
something resembling telekinesis: the ability to move objects (and eventually even
herself) within the world through the focused power of the Blood.
A Stirring in the World: Spend 1 blood. For the next few moments, you can act upon
anything you can see, so long as it weighs no more than a pound.
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Gathering Invisible Power (1): You can lift up to the weight of a small child or large
dog.
Invisible Arms of the Journeyman (1): You can manipulate things for several minutes
after using A Stirring in the World.
The Sorcerer’s Bootstraps (2): You can lift yourself with the power of the Blood.
The Weight of a Man (2): You can lift up to the weight of a piece of heavy furniture,
and can hurl people around as a form of attack. You must already have Gathering
Invisible Power.
Atlas Roars (3): You can lift up to the weight of a car. You must already have The
Weight of a Man.
Invisible Arms of the Master (3): You can manipulate things for the rest of the scene.
You must already have Invisible Arms of the Journeyman.
Elemental Mastery
This path grants limited control over and communion with inanimate objects. It has no
power over living things, such as trees.
Elemental Strength: Spend 1 blood to carry 1 forward to your next Physical roll.
Wooden Tongues (1): You can speak with inanimate objects, though they tend to be
fairly limited conversationalists.
Animate the Unmoving (2): Spend 1 blood to animate an object for as long as it remains
within your line of sight.
Elemental Form (3): Spend 1 blood to become an inanimate object of roughly similar
mass to your own (such as a motorcycle or desk) for the rest of the night or until you
dismiss this power.
Summon Elemental (4): Spend 2 blood to conjure up a spirit of the classical elements: a
sylph, undine, gnome, or salamander. The exact powers of the elemental are up to the
Storyteller, but will generally include influence over or creation of its element. You may
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demand one favor of the elemental, which must be completed before sunrise, when the
elemental vanishes.
The Green Path
The Green Path deals in the manipulation of living plants. Though it has fallen out of
favor in the modern nights of urban chantries, it remains a powerful path of blood
magic in the right circumstances.
Herbal Wisdom: You can speak with plants.
Speed the Season’s Passing (1): Touch a plant and spend 1 blood to cause it to grow 10
years in a matter of moments, or to wither and decay.
Dance of Vines (2): You can spend 1 blood to animate vines, creepers, and roots to
grasp and ensnare others as weapons which inflict 1 harm. You can roll to fuck them up
with mental when attacking with Dance of Vines.
Verdant Haven (2): Spend 1 blood to cause nearby plants to grow and weave around
you, encasing you in a sarcophagus of wood and leaves so densely-woven that it can
block out sunlight, until the sun next sets. The Verdant Haven is durable enough to
resist all but the most determined attempts to breach it.
Awaken the Forest Giants (3): Spend 1 blood to animate a tree for several minutes. The
Forest Giant is capable of uprooting itself to slowly ‘walk’ and may smash and thrash
with its enormously powerful limbs for 3 harm.
Path of Conjuring
This ancient art conjures things forth from the raw power of the Blood. An art of
significant utility, its power is much based in the expertise of its practitioner: the Path of
Conjuring can’t create anything the blood magician isn’t familiar with the properties of.
Objects created by the Path of Conjuring are always “generic” renditions of themselves:
a generic knife, or gun, or portrait of the Prince; specific existing objects can’t be
perfectly replicated with this Path.
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Summon the Simple Form: Spend 1 blood and roll with mental. On a 10+, you conjure
the exact thing you want. On a 7-9, you conjure the thing you want, but it’s flawed in
some way. You can only conjure a simple object with no moving parts, made of a single
substance, and it only lasts for a few minutes before it disappears again.
Permanency (1): You may spend 1 extra blood to make the objects you conjure are real
and permanent.
Magic of the Smith (1): You can spend 1 extra blood to conjure complex objects made of
multiple substances, with moving parts, such as guns and cell phones.
Reverse Conjuration (2): You can spend 1 blood to banish anything you conjured back
into nonexistence, or 2 blood to banish someone else’s conjuration.
Power Over Life (3): Spend 2 additional blood to create a simulacra of a living being.
This creature lacks free will and will obey your commands. Its blood lacks in vital
essence and cannot nourish you. If enchanted with Permanency, it still unravels back
into unreality after a week or so.
The Path of Technomancy
Among the newest of Thaumaturgy innovations, this Path was devised in the closing
years of the 20th century and represents a point of contentious division between
traditionalist elders and neonates eager to use the Path to carve out their own niche in
the clan’s power structure.
Analyze: Touch a technological device and spend 1 blood to gain perfect understanding
of how to operate it for the rest of the scene.
Burnout (1): Spend 1 blood to crash any sort of complex electronic device within your
line of sight. The device will need to be repaired before it functions again.
Encrypt/Decrypt (2): You can touch an information-storage medium and spend 1 blood
to either decrypt all encrypted data on it, or to encrypt all data to state-of-the-art
standards.
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Remote Access (3): Spend 1 blood to interface with any electronic device you can see as
though you were using it manually, for the rest of the scene.
Telecommute (4): So long as you have some sort of network-enabled device to hand,
you can spend 1 blood to use the Path of Technomancy on any other device connected
to the same network, so long as you have some sort of ‘hook’ to locate it (have seen it
and know it’s on the network; have a device’s cell phone number or IP address; are
already directly connected to the device over a chat program or call; etc).
The Path of the Father’s Vengeance
This rare path allows its users to level powerful curses over other vampires. Primarily
practiced by the priests of the Sabbat, it is extremely rare but not entirely unknown
among Clan Tremere. All uses of this path require the practitioner to actually speak a
curse, and for the victim to hear it.
Zillah’s Litany: Spend 1 blood to reveal any blood bonds or Vinculi ties another
vampire possesses.
The Crone’s Pride (1): Spend 1 blood to twist and wither another vampire’s features,
giving them the Condition hideous for one week.
Feast of Ashes (2): Spend 1 blood to render another vampire incapable of drawing
nourishment from vitae for one week. During this time they can eat only ashes; doing
so staves off the need to spend blood to rise the following night.
Uriel’s Disfavor (3): Spend 1 blood to make another vampire allergic to light: all light is
uncomfortable, and any bright, direct light (such as a flashlight or bare overhead bulb)
inflicts 1 harm per minute of exposure. This curse lasts for a week.
Valediction (4): Spend 1 blood to strip away the fruits of diablerie, returning another
vampire to their original Generation for one week.
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Weather Control
This ancient path draws on the power of the blood to bend the natural world to the
thaumaturge’s will. It is rarely ever taught as a primary path, owing to the sheer power
of the forces unleashed.
To use this path, spend 1 blood and roll with mental. On a 10+, you conjure the weather
you desire for as long as you wish (up until the following sunset). On a 7-9, you conjure
the weather you desire, but the Storyteller chooses one: the effects are stronger than you
desire; the effects are weaker than you desire; the weather lasts longer or shorter than
the duration you wanted.
Stirring the World: You can conjure fog, a light breeze, or a slight temperature shift.
Rain (1): You can summon rain.
Snow (1): You can summon snow.
High Winds (2): You can summon high winds.
Significant Temperature Change (3): You can raise or lower the temperature by up to
20 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius.
Storm (4): You can summon a violent thunderstorm.
Lightning Strike (5): Spend 1 blood and roll with mental to fuck them up. This attack
inflicts 3 harm, and they must be under a stormy sky.
Thaumaturgy Rituals
While Thaumaturgy paths may be intuited once a student has taken her first steps upon
them, thaumaturgic rituals must always be learned through study with either a text or a
mentor.
Blood Rush (1): Pierce yourself with the fang of a predatory beast, inflicting 1 harm, to
feel a simulated rush as though you were drinking blood. This quells the Beast once per
night.
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Domino of Life (1): Keep an enchanted vial of blood on your person. While you do so,
you may convincingly fake one sign of life (breathing, body temperature, ability to eat,
etc).
Communicate with Kindred Sire (1): Meditate upon an object owned by your sire for
30 minutes to communicate with them telepathically for 10 minutes.
Bind the Accusing Tongue (2): Wind a black silk cord around a lock of the target’s hair
and a photograph or effigy of them. The next time they attempt to speak ill of you, they
are unable to do so for one scene.
Defense of the Sacred Haven (2): Spend 1 blood and spend an hour painting a small
room with bloody glyphs. Sunlight cannot enter the room so long as you remain within.
Devil’s Touch (2): Place an unlucky penny in a mortal’s pocket. They gain the
Condition loathsome until the sun rises.
Purity of Flesh (2): Meditate for an hour in a circle of 13 sharp stones to purge all
impurities from your body: poisons, diseases, bullets, tattoo ink, etc.
Deflection of Wooden Doom (3): Surround yourself with a circle of wood for an hour,
then keep a splinter under your tongue. You cannot be staked until the sun next sets.
Illuminate the Trail of Prey (3): Burn a white satin ribbon while envisioning your prey
or speaking their name. Afterwards, you see the path they have taken blazing as a trail
of light, until they pass through water or reach their destination.
Incantation of the Shepherd (3): Turn widdershins while holding up a glass vessel
before each eye, and learn where all members of your herd are currently located.
Wake with Evening’s Freshness (3): Scatter the ashes of burned feathers around your
resting place before sleeping, and awaken at the first hint of danger.
Blood Walk (3): Perform a three hour ritual over a blood sample to learn its owner’s
lineage and any blood bonds with which they’re involved.
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Engaging the Vessel of Transference (4): Spend 3 hours enchanting a vessel and filling
it with 1 blood (it doesn’t have to be yours), then seal it. Afterwards, whoever holds it
with their bare hand exchanges their own blood for the blood within the vessel.
Burning Blade (4): Cut your hand with an edged weapon, suffering 1 harm and
spending 1 blood. Its next attack inflicts aggravated harm.
Principal Focus of Vitae Infusion (4): Perform a 1-hour ritual to imbue a small object
with 1 blood. Speak a word of command to dissolve the object into blood for your
consumption.
Recure of the Homeland (5): Mix 2 blood with soil from your homeland to create a
healing paste capable of erasing 1 aggravated harm. You can only use this ritual once
per night.
Ward Versus Ghouls (5): Spend 1 blood and 10 minutes painting a glyph on any object.
If a ghoul touches this object, she suffers 2 harm.
Clinging of the Insect (5): Keep a live spider under your tongue. For the rest of the
scene, you may climb upon and cling to walls and ceilings.
Mirror of Second Sight (5): Bathe a mirror in 3 blood. Forever after, the mirror will
reflect the true nature of whatever is shown in it (such as the beastly form of a Lupine,
or the enchanted visage of a faerie).
Ward Versus Lupines (6): Spend 1 blood and 10 minutes painting a glyph on any
object. If a Lupine touches this object, she suffers 2 harm.
Incorporeal Passage (6): Perform a two hour ritual and carry a shard of broken mirror.
For one scene you are incorporeal and may pass through walls and objects like a ghost.
Pavis of Foul Presence (6): Perform a three hour ritual and wind a blue silk cord
around your neck. The next time someone targets you with a Presence move during the
same night, its effects rebound back upon them.
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Ward Versus Kindred (7): Spend 1 blood and 10 minutes painting a glyph on any
object. If a vampire touches this object, she suffers 2 harm.
Bone of Lies (7): Drench a 200 year old human bone in 5 blood. Afterwards, whoever
holds the bone is compelled to tell the truth. The bone darkens each time it ‘absorbs’ an
attempt to lie, becoming pitch black and losing all power after negating 5 lies.
Heart of Stone (7): Burn a candle over your heart for seven hours. Your heart turns to
stone, becoming impervious to staking, but you also gain the Condition heartless, losing
all empathy. This ritual lasts until you speak a magic command to end it.
Ward Versus Ghosts (8): Spend 1 blood and 10 minutes painting a glyph on any object.
If a ghost touches this object, she suffers 2 harm.
Ward Versus Spirits (8): Spend 1 blood and 10 minutes painting a glyph on any object.
If a spirit touches this object, she suffers 2 harm.
Ward Versus Demons (8): Spend 1 blood and 10 minutes painting a glyph on any
object. If a demon touches this object, she suffers 2 harm.
Blood Contract (8): Spend 2 blood and three nights drawing up a contract in blood; its
signatories must sign it in their own blood. Whosoever breaks this contract will be
punished by horrible supernatural curses devised by the Storyteller, up to and
including excruciation by demons called up from Hell by the power of the blood.
Enchant Talisman (8): Perform a ritual requiring six hours per night over 28 nights to
create a blood wizard’s tool such as a magic staff or amulet. While you wield your
talisman, attempts to direct blood magic against you carry -1 forward or suffer
Disadvantage, and your own blood sorcery carries +1 forward.
Escape to a True Friend (8): Build a ritual circle, laboring for six hours on six
consecutive nights, spending 1 blood per night. Afterwards, you may step into the circle
and speak the name of someone you trust implicitly, and will be whisked to their side.
You can take one other person with you.
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Assamite Sorcery
From a functionalist perspective, Assamite sorcery is much like the Thaumaturgy

practiced by Clan Tremere. In practice, the two are worlds apart. Where the Tremere
have spent centuries refining their magic down to a codified, repeatable science, the
sorcery of the Children of Haqim is a fluid, personal art that might never be evoked the
same way twice.
Assamite sorcery effectively reproduced the following Thaumaturgy Paths: The Path of
Blood, the Lure of Flames, Movement of the Mind, and the Path of Conjuring. The Lure
of Flames and Movement of the Mind are often taught as primary paths.
Awakening of the Steel
This is the path of communion with an edged weapon, until sword and sorcerer become
as one.
Confer with the Blade: Spend 1 blood to enter a dream-trance in which you learn the
history and characteristics of a blade you hold in your hand.
Grasp of the Mountain (1): You can never be disarmed or otherwise unwillingly
divested of a blade in your hand.
Pierce Steel’s Skin (1): Spend 1 blood when you strike with an edged weapon to ignore
all effects that would reduce the harm inflicted.
Razor’s Shield (2): Spend 1 blood. For the next several seconds, your body and blade
move as one with preternatural speed, perfectly striking any projectiles targeted at you
from the air.
Strike at the True Flesh (3): Once per scene, you can spend 1 blood when you miss an
attack with a bladed weapon to turn the miss into a 7-9.
Assamite Sorcery Rituals
You don’t buy rituals like other blood sorcerers. Instead, you can produce the effects of
the following ritual (names in parentheses are the Assamite equivalents): Defense of the
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Sacred Haven (Curtain of Will); Wake with Evening’s Freshness (Black Sunrise);
Communicate with Kindred Sire (Speak with Sire); Deflection of Wooden Doom (Turn
the Impaling Shaft); Ward versus Ghouls; Principal Focus of Vitae Infusion (Draught of
the Pebble); Incorporeal Passage (Passage of the Ghul); Bone of Lies (Stain of Guilt).
To use any of these rituals, describe your ritual efforts until the Storyteller is satisfied, then
spend 2 blood and roll with mental. On a 10+, the ritual succeeds, and choose two: the
benefit sticks around for an unusually long time; there are no unforeseen complications
or side-effects; you get 1 blood back. On a 7-9, the effects are the same but you only get
to choose one.
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Koldunic Sorcery
This ancient form of primitive blood sorcery is a jealously guarded secret of Clan
Tzimisce. It draws upon the Fiends’ ancient connection to the bloody soil of their
ancestral homelands, and the dark spirits sleeping within the earth.
Koldunic sorcery features only paths; there are no rituals.
The Way of Earth
Perhaps the oldest of all Koldunic paths, this art awakens the spirits who have fed so
well on a hundred generations of blood spilled upon the thirsty earth to serve the
Koldun’s will.
Grasping Soil: Spend 1 blood to cause the earth to rise up and clutch at someone’s legs
and feet, giving them the Condition immobilized until they break free.
Endurance of Stone (1): Spend 1 blood to summon the essence of earth into yourself.
Ignore the next 1 harm you suffer during the scene.
Hungry Earth (1): When you draw someone into the earth’s embrace with Grasping
Soil, the pressure of grinding stone abrades their flesh and cracks their bones, inflicting
2 harm.
Root of Vitality (3): Spend 3 blood to draw someone (including yourself) into the
womb of the earth, where they are bathed in fresh air and the earth’s vitality. An hour
later they emerge, all harm erased.
Kupala’s Fury (4): Spend 5 blood and strike the earth with your fist to cause an
earthquake to ravage an area around you about the size of a city block.
The Way of Wind
This blood sorcery harnesses the tidal power of the breath of life and the last gasp of the
dying.
Breath of Whispers: Spend 1 blood. For the rest of the scene, the wind will carry your
whispers to whoever you like within a mile, and also carry back their replies.
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Biting Gale (1): You can exhale a freezing wind ahead of you for so long as you
concentrate. Whosoever is caught in this gale without cover suffers 1 harm every few
moments they remain in the open.
Breeze of Lethargy (2): Spend 1 blood to weigh down the air in your vicinity with a
great lassitude. Everyone moving through the leaden air gains the Condition lethargic so
long as they remain within it.
Ride the Tempest (3): Spend 1 blood to become swept up as part of a raging gale that
carries you away at 250 miles per hour to wherever you wish to go. You can ride the
wind for about an hour before you must land.
Tempest (4): Spend 3 blood. Over the next three hours, a powerful but short-lived
hurricane builds in the sky above your location.
The Way of Water
This path grants power over the source of all life, and the rivers that carry away the
dead.
Pool of Lies: You can cast three-dimensional illusions upon the surface of water,
complete with motion and sound. They unravel into mist and fog after a few minutes.
Watery Haven (1): Spend 1 blood to merge with a body of water to safely slumber away
the day. You become as one with the water, but may still be glimpsed at odd angles.
Fog Over Sea (1): Spend 1 blood to walk on water for an hour.
Minions of the Deep (3): Drip 1 blood into a body of water to summon a water
elemental to attend to your needs for the rest of the night.
Doom Tide (4): Spill 3 blood into the water to create a powerful whirlpool that lasts for
the rest of the scene.
The Way of Fire
This path dredges up the molten blood of the Earth and binds it to the Koldun’s will.
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Fiery Courage: Carry +1 forward ongoing to resist rötschreck provoked by fire. The
beast never stirs in response to your own summoned fire or lava from this Path.
Combust (1): Spend 1 blood to cause a target to combust into flames, inflicting 2
aggravated harm.
Wall of Magma (2): Spend 1 blood to create a circle or line of magma, which erupts to
form both a trench and a wall of flames about ten feet high.
Heat Wave (3): Spend 1 blood to blast a jet of superheated steam from your mouth or
hand, inflicting 3 harm and evaporating any liquids struck.
Volcanic Blast (4): Spend 4 blood to conjure a volcanic geyser anywhere within your
line of sight, which continues pumping out hot magma for the rest of the scene.
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Bloodline Disciplines
What follows are the Disciplines unique to those oddities of the blood derided by the 13
major Clans as mere “bloodlines.” But for all that the Kindred of the major lineages of
Caine dismiss the works of their stranger siblings as mere passing aberrations, these
strange arts give the rarer vampires of the modern nights a significant edge in the
never-ending cut and thrust of the Jyhad.
Daimoinon
The art of dredging up sin and commanding otherworldly forces, Daimoinon is the
dread signature power of the Baali. It encompasses the following moves:
Sense the Sin: When you read their eyes, you can spend 1 blood to turn a miss into a 7-9,
or a 7-9 into a 10+.
Fear the Void Below (1): You can spend an Edge on someone when you show your teeth
and keep the Edge rather than losing it.
Unholy Conflagration (1): Spend 1 blood to conjure black flames, hideous tentacles,
black lightning, or some other deadly power of the abyss to strike at your foes. You can
roll with social to fuck them up and this attack inflicts 3 aggravated harm.
Psychomachia (2): You can spend an Edge on someone to torment them for the rest of
the scene with images and hallucinations summoned up from the most repressed
depths of their own psyche.
Condemnation (3): Spend 1 blood and roll with social to level a curse against someone.
You must specify a set of circumstances in which the curse dogs their steps and
confounds them; in those circumstances, they carry -1 forward ongoing or suffer
Disadvantage. On a 10+, they are cursed for a fortnight and you choose one: the curse
can be very broadly encompassing; the curse lasts for an entire month instead of a
fortnight. On a 7-9, they are cursed for a fortnight.
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Unleash the Beast (3): You can hurl your Beast into someone else, sending them into a
wild frenzy. Spend 1 blood to give your the Beast stirs marks to someone else; if you
need to generate more marks to trip the Beast into wakefulness, you may do so by
spending more blood at a rate of 1 per mark. You carry -1 forward ongoing while your
Beast is elsewhere driving someone else’s frenzy; your Beast returns when the frenzy
ends, still awake, but you don’t have to resist frenzy unless something else goads in
later in the night.
Infernal Wings (4): You permanently grow scaled or leathery wings, and are capable of
flight.
The Demonic Form (4): Your body becomes twisted and demonic, sporting claws
capable of inflicting 2 harm.
Hellborn Immunity (5): You become totally immune to flame, but your skin gleams like
burnished bronze.
Melpominee
A fearsome art of song and madness, Melpominee is the signature Discipline of the
Daughters of Cacophony. It encompasses the following moves:
The Missing Voice: You can “throw” your voice to any point within your line of sight.
Phantom Speaker (1): Spend 1 blood to project the sound of your voice to any single
individual you’ve ever met, wherever they might be, for the next few minutes.
Madrigal (2): Spend 1 blood as you sing; those who hear you gain an emotional
Condition appropriate to the song for the rest of the scene.
Siren’s Beckoning (3): You can pitch a song to fracture the psyche of a single member
of your audience. Spend 2 blood: they gain the Condition maddened for the rest of the
night.
Virtuosa (4): You can now aim Phantom Speaker and Siren’s Beckoning at up to half a
dozen people at once.
HLS ⧟ p a g e ⧟ 94
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Shattering Crescendo (4): Your song can rend skin and shatter bones. Spend 1 blood as
you sing to inflict 2 harm on those listening.
Mytherceria
A bizarre art which commingles the power of the blood with the trickery of the fae,
Mytherceria lives exclusively within the tainted vitae of the Kiasyd bloodline. It
Fae Sight: You see the children of the Dreaming for what they truly are, as though you
were one of them.
Folderol (1): Your eyes bleed, your ears ring, or you experience some other odd reaction
when someone intentionally lies to you.
Aura Absorption (1): You touch an object and consume the psychic impressions left on
it. Roll with social. On a 10+, ask 3. On a 7-9, ask 2:
o What did the last person who used this look like?
o What was this object last used to do?
o How old is this object?
o How was did the last person who used this object feel as they used it?
o How long was this object in the possession of the last person who used it?
After using this move, no other psychic readings can be performed on the object: it has
been wiped clean of such impressions.
The Riddle Phantastique (1): You can roll with mental to show your teeth, shutting
someone down by posing them a mind-bending riddle.
Changeling Ward (3): Spend 1 blood and draw a ward upon a surface or object. Those
who touch or remain close to the warded object, or who stare at the warding glyphs,
suffer the Condition confused for so long as they continue to do so.
Steal the Mind (4): You can spend 1 blood when you do something shady to steal a
person’s memories.
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Temporis
The art of manipulating the timeless stasis of immortality, Temporis is the exclusive
province of the so-called True Brujah. It encompasses the following moves:
Recurring Contemplation: Spend 1 blood to catch someone who is not currently in a

highly agitated state in a “memory loop” through several repetitive seconds of memory
(such as watching TV or waiting for a friend to show up) for the next several minutes,
oblivious to the world around them.
Hourglass of the Mind (1): You gain perfect awareness of the passage of time, and can
detect tampering with its flow.
Leaden Moment (1): Spend 1 blood to slow time around a person or object for a few
‘seconds.’
Patience of the Norns (2): Spend 1 additional blood when you use Leaden Moment to
slow time for a group of objects or people.
Frozen Moment (3): Spend 1 additional blood when using Leaden Moment to freeze a
person in time for up to a minute, or to freeze an object in time until it is next disturbed.
Clotho’s Gift (4): Spend 2 blood to step outside of time for about a minute. You can
interact with inanimate objects as much as you like while outside of time, but touching
another being returns you to the flow of time immediately.
Thanatosis
This grotesque Discipline deals in rot and the affectations of death. It is the unique tool
of the mysterious Samedi bloodline. Thanatosis encompasses the following moves:
Hag’s Wrinkles: You can stretch, warp, fold, and otherwise manipulate your skin to
make hidden ‘smuggling pouches’ or to grotesquely alter your appearance.
Putrefaction: Touch someone and spend 1 blood to inflict hideous rot upon them. They
suffer 1 harm and gain the Condition rotting. Vampires may heal this Condition as
though it were aggravated damage, but is permanent for mortals.
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Ashes to Ashes (1): Spend 1 blood to collapse into a coherent but immobile pile of
ashes. You are immune to fire and sunlight while you remain in this form.
Withering (2): Touch someone and spend 1 blood. They gain the Condition withered
limb upon a body part of your choice, rendering that limb useless. Vampires may heal
this Condition as though it were aggravated damage, but its effects are permanent upon
mortals.
Necrosis (3): You can spend 1 additional blood when you use Putrefaction to cause the
condition to get worse and worse over time, inflicting 1 additional harm at each sunset.
Creeping Infection (4): You can delay the onset of Putrefaction, Withering, and
Necrosis for up to six months, if you like—the move won’t “go off” until you picture
the victim in your mind and laugh.
Valeren (Healer)
Valeren is a trio of interconnected Disciplines shared by the bloodlines that once made
up Clan Salubri. If a move is shared between multiple ‘paths’ of Valeren, then it need
not be re-purchased when moving between branches of the Discipline.
Healer Valeren is the branch practiced by those persecuted beings known in the modern
nights simply as Salubri; certain members of the Clan, having lost touch with their Clan
history, call the art “Obeah” in the modern nights. Healer Valeren encompasses the
following moves:
Sense Vitality: With a moment’s concentration, you can perfectly diagnose the state of
someone’s health and any problems with it.
Gift of Sleep: Touch someone and spend 1 blood to send them into a deep, painless
sleep for 8 hours. Vampires are immune to this move.
Healer’s Touch (1): Touch someone and spend blood to health their wounds, as though
you were spending the blood to heal yourself.
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Shepherd’s Watch (2): Spend 1 blood to encompass yourself and those under your care
in a barrier of light stretching about 10 feet around you. This lasts for a few minutes,
and no one can cross the edge of the barrier, though they can still attack across it. Such
attacks inflict 1 less harm than normal, however.
Unburdening the Bestial Soul (3): You can lock eyes with someone and draw out their
soul to heal it. While you hold their soul, they carry -1 forward ongoing or suffer
Disadvantage. You can spend 3 blood to remove a mental Condition or restore a lost
point of Humanity or Path, so long as they’re still in turmoil of the spirit. When you
release the mended soul, it flies back to its owner. A captive soul will eventually fight to
escape, inflicting 1 aggravated damage during each day that you sleep with it inside
you. You can only hold one soul at a time.
Valeren (Warrior)
Warrior Valeren is the branch practiced by the Salubri antitribu, used as an engine of
vengeance against those who destroyed their Clan. Warrior Valeren encompasses the
following moves:
Sense Vitality: With a moment’s concentration, you can perfectly diagnose the state of
someone’s health and any problems with it.
Gift of Sleep: Touch someone and spend 1 blood to send them into a deep, painless
sleep for 8 hours. Vampires are immune to this move.
Burning Touch (1): Touch someone and spend 1 blood to give them the Condition
burning agony so long as you maintain contact.
Armor of Caine’s Fury (2): Spend 1 blood to fortify yourself with the power of the
blood. Reduce all harm suffered by 1 for the rest of the scene.
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Vengeance of Samiel (3): When you attack someone who has harmed you during the
current scene and you miss, you can spend 1 blood to change the miss into a 7-9.
Valeren (Watcher)
Watcher Valeren is the branch practiced by the strange Salubri scholars known as the
Wu Zao. It encompasses the following moves:
Sense Cycle: You instinctively know when you are in the presence of a person, place, or
thing of great significance to your future.
Peaceful Touch: Touch someone and spend 1 blood to give them the Condition calm for
the rest of the scene.
Pariah’s Caress (1): Touch someone and spend 1 blood to give them the Condition seems
suspicious for the next several nights.
Peacemaker (2): Spend 1 blood to fill the space around you with an aura that
temporarily gives everyone caught in its nimbus the Condition level-headed. This lasts
for the rest of the scene.
Soul’s Breath (3): You can sustain yourself on the vital essence of someone’s breath in
place of their blood, so long as you’re in physical contact and within a few inches of one
of their orifices (usually but not always the mouth or nostrils). When you drink
someone’s breath, roll with your Humanity/Path modifier. You get 1 blood and they
suffer 1 harm. On a 10+, choose 3. On a 7-9, choose 2. On a miss, choose 1:

¤ They don’t notice the theft of vital essence.
¤ You quell the Beast.
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¤ You learn something of the flavor of their spirit, and get an Edge on them.
You can’t raise your blood above 3 with this form of feeding, however.
Visceratika
This Discipline expresses the Gargoyles’ affinity for the stone and earth their grotesque
forms so powerfully resemble. Visceratika encompasses the following moves:
Flight: You permanently grow enormous wings capable of flight.
Skin of the Chameleon: Spend 1 blood. For the rest of the scene, so long as you
maintain a walking pace or slower, your flesh blends into your surroundings.
Scry the Hearthstone (1): Spend 1 blood to bond to a structure. For the rest of the night,
you maintain an awareness of where everyone is within that structure.
Bond with the Mountain (1): Spend 1 blood to merge yourself into an earthen, stone, or
concrete surface. You are immune to fire and sunlight while so merged.
Armor of Terra (2): Your skin permanently becomes gray and hard as stone, reducing
all harm suffered by 1.
Flow Within the Mountain (3): You can spend 1 blood after using Bond with the
Mountain to move through earth and stone as though it were water for the rest of the
scene.
HLS ⧟ p a g e ⧟ 100
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Index
Advances.............................................................................................................................................................. 5
Advantage .................................................................................................................................. 33
Animalism.................................................................................................................................. 45
Ash Path .................................................................................................................................... 67
Assamite .................................................................................................................................... 38
Assamite Sorcerer ............................................................................................................... 40
Assamite Sorcery Rituals ..................................................................................................... 88
Assamite Sorcery .................................................................................................................................... 88
Assamite Vizier .................................................................................................................. 40
Awakening of the Steel ....................................................................................................... 88
Attributes ............................................................................................................................................................. 7
Auspex....................................................................................................................................... 46
Awakening of the Steel................................................................................................................. 88
Baali ........................................................................................................................................ 41
Background Moves............................................................................................................................................ 27
Banes (Aggravated Harm) ............................................................................................................ 25
Beast ................................................................................................................................................................... 17
Blood .................................................................................................................................................................. 20
Blood Bond ........................................................................................................................ 21
Blood Buff ......................................................................................................................... 21
Blush of Life ...................................................................................................................... 21
Generation ............................................................................................................................................... 22
Ghouls ..................................................................................................................................................... 26
What if I Drink… ......................................................................................................................... 20
Blood Bond ................................................................................................................................. 21
Blood Buff .................................................................................................................................. 21
Blood Sorcery Disciplines ................................................................................................................................. 65
Bloodline Disciplines ......................................................................................................................................... 93
Bloodlines........................................................................................................................................................... 40
Blush of Life................................................................................................................................ 21
Bone Path ................................................................................................................................... 68
Botches ................................................................................................................................................................. 6
Brujah ........................................................................................................................................ 36
True Brujah........................................................................................................................ 44
Caitiff ........................................................................................................................................ 39
Celerity ...................................................................................................................................... 48
Cenotaph Path ............................................................................................................................ 69
Character Creation ............................................................................................................................................ 31
HLS ⧟ p a g e ⧟ 101
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Chimerstry ................................................................................................................................. 49
City Gangrel ............................................................................................................................... 40
Clans ................................................................................................................................................................... 36
Bloodlines ................................................................................................................................................ 40
Conditions .......................................................................................................................................................... 23
Corpse in the Monster .................................................................................................................. 70
Daimoinon ................................................................................................................................. 93
Daughters of Cacophony .............................................................................................................. 41
Dementation ............................................................................................................................... 50
Diablerie ............................................................................................................................................................. 22
Disadvantage .............................................................................................................................. 33
Disciplines .......................................................................................................................................................... 45
Dominate ................................................................................................................................... 51
Edges .................................................................................................................................................................. 22
Elemental Mastery ....................................................................................................................... 80
Experience ............................................................................................................................................................ 5
Advances ................................................................................................................................................... 5
Botches....................................................................................................................................................... 6
Fetters ................................................................................................................................................... 65
Flaws .................................................................................................................................................................. 29
Followers of Set ........................................................................................................................... 39
Tlacique ............................................................................................................................ 44
Warrior Setites ................................................................................................................... 44
Fortitude .................................................................................................................................... 52
Frenzy........................................................................................................................................ 17
Gangrel ...................................................................................................................................... 36
City Gangrel ...................................................................................................................... 40
Gargoyles ................................................................................................................................... 41
Generation.......................................................................................................................................................... 22
Ghouls ................................................................................................................................................................ 26
Giovanni .................................................................................................................................... 39
Grave’s Decay ............................................................................................................................. 71
Green Path.................................................................................................................................. 81
Harbingers of Skulls .................................................................................................................... 42
Hard Moves ....................................................................................................................................................... 34
Harm .................................................................................................................................................................. 24
Inflicting Harm ....................................................................................................................................... 24
Banes (Aggravated Harm) ............................................................................................................ 25
Conditions ............................................................................................................................................... 23
Modifiers ................................................................................................................................................. 10
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Recovering From Harm ................................................................................................................ 25

Suffering Harm ........................................................................................................................... 24
Torpor........................................................................................................................................ 26
Staked! ........................................................................................................................................ 24
Humanity/Path ................................................................................................................................................. 15
Losing Humanity/Path ....................................................................................................... 16
Humanity/Path Modifier .................................................................................................... 15
Raising Humanity/Path ...................................................................................................... 16
Inflicting Harm .................................................................................................................................................. 24
Kiasyd........................................................................................................................................ 42
Koldunic Sorcery ............................................................................................................................................... 90
Lasombra ................................................................................................................................... 38
Losing Humanity/Path ................................................................................................................ 16
Lure of Flames ............................................................................................................................ 79
Major Disciplines ............................................................................................................................................... 45
Malkavian .................................................................................................................................. 36
Melpominee................................................................................................................................ 94
Mental Moves ............................................................................................................................. 13
Merits ................................................................................................................................................................. 28
Merits and Flaws ............................................................................................................................................... 28
Modifiers ............................................................................................................................................................ 10
Movement of the Mind................................................................................................................. 79
Moves ................................................................................................................................................................. 34
Hard Moves............................................................................................................................................. 34
Mental Moves .................................................................................................................... 13
Physical Moves .................................................................................................................. 11
Social Moves ...................................................................................................................... 12
Special Moves .................................................................................................................... 14
Standard Moves ...................................................................................................................................... 11
Mytherceria ................................................................................................................................ 95
Nagaraja..................................................................................................................................... 42
Necromancy Paths............................................................................................................................................. 65
Necromancy Rituals .......................................................................................................................................... 74
Nosferatu ................................................................................................................................... 37
NPC Rules .......................................................................................................................................................... 32
Obfuscate ................................................................................................................................... 52
Obtenebration ............................................................................................................................. 54
Old Clan Tzimisce ....................................................................................................................... 40
Path of Blood .............................................................................................................................. 78
Path of Conjuring ........................................................................................................................ 81
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Path of Technomancy................................................................................................................... 82
Path of the Father’s Vengeance ...................................................................................................... 83
Paths of Self-Control.............................................................................................................................. 19
Physical Moves ........................................................................................................................... 11
Potence ...................................................................................................................................... 55
Presence ..................................................................................................................................... 56
Protean ...................................................................................................................................... 57
Pull ....................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Quietus Cruscitus ........................................................................................................................ 58
Quietus Hematus ........................................................................................................................ 60
Raising Humanity/Path ............................................................................................................... 16
Ravnos ....................................................................................................................................... 39
Recovering From Harm ................................................................................................................ 25
Rolling Dice.......................................................................................................................................................... 5
Botches....................................................................................................................................................... 6
Rötschreck .................................................................................................................................. 18
Salubri ....................................................................................................................................... 42
Salubri Antitribu ......................................................................................................................... 43
Samedi ....................................................................................................................................... 43
Scale ........................................................................................................................................ 32
Sepulchre Path ............................................................................................................................ 66
Serpentis .................................................................................................................................... 61
Social Moves ............................................................................................................................... 12
Special Moves ............................................................................................................................. 14
Special Systems .................................................................................................................................................. 15
Staked! .................................................................................................................................................. 24
Standard Moves ................................................................................................................................................. 11
Storyteller Rules................................................................................................................................................. 32
Suffering Harm ........................................................................................................................... 24
Temporis .................................................................................................................................... 96
Thanatosis .................................................................................................................................. 96
Thaumaturgy Paths ........................................................................................................................................... 78
Thaumaturgy Rituals ........................................................................................................................................ 84
Tlacique ..................................................................................................................................... 44
Toreador .................................................................................................................................... 37
Torpor........................................................................................................................................ 26
Tremere...................................................................................................................................... 37
True Brujah................................................................................................................................. 44
Tzimisce ..................................................................................................................................... 38
HLS ⧟ p a g e ⧟ 104
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Old Clan Tzimisce .............................................................................................................. 40

Koldunic Sorcery .................................................................................................................................... 90
Valeren (Healer) .......................................................................................................................... 97
Valeren (Warrior) ........................................................................................................................ 98
Valeren (Watcher)........................................................................................................................ 99
Vaulderie .............................................................................................................................................. 21
Ventrue ...................................................................................................................................... 37
Vicissitude .................................................................................................................................. 62
Visceratika ................................................................................................................................ 100
Vitreous Path .............................................................................................................................. 72
Warrior Setites ............................................................................................................................ 44
Wassail ...................................................................................................................................... 16
Way of Earth ............................................................................................................................... 90
Way of Fire ................................................................................................................................. 91
Way of Water .............................................................................................................................. 91
Way of Wind .............................................................................................................................. 90
Weather Control .......................................................................................................................... 84
What if I Drink… ................................................................................................................................... 20
Wu Zao ...................................................................................................................................... 43
HLS ⧟ p a g e ⧟ 105

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Vampire: the Masquerade

This isn’t a stand-alone product. You need a Vampire: the Masquerade

I'M SO EXCITED, 'CAUSE SOON I'LL HIT THE STREETS

I AM THE CROWN PRINCE OF PAVEMENT

UNDER THE SHELTERING SKIN

STRETCHED OUT SO PALE AND THIN

THERE IS AN OCEAN OF BRIGHT RED LIQUID LOVE

AND THAT, MY FRIEND, IS MY FAVORITE COLOR

—OINGO BOINGO, PEDESTRIAN WOLVES

Players roll dice. The Storyteller never rolls dice.

At the end of each session of play, get 2 experience.

When you botch a move (see below) get 1 experience.

Certain moves can give you experience.

¤ Add +1 to an Attribute. You can only take this advance twice.

The Attributes are:

Social: Smooth, sophisticated, insightful, sexy. Governs the following moves:

Mental: Clever, cunning, sharp, quick-witted. Governs the following moves:

Ready-to-run/example groups include:

Academia: Higher education, universities, libraries, museums. Academia gives access

Medicine: Hospitals, morgues, family practices. Dangerous places to go looking for

You can never put a bigger modifier than +3 or -3 on a roll.

Every character can do all the basic moves.

These moves add your physical modifier to their roll.

These moves add your social modifier to their roll.

Stand your ground

Show your teeth

These moves add your mental modifier to their roll.

Read their eyes

Whether by extended observation or leading conversation, whenever you try to figure

When you spend time training, practicing, studying, or preparing to do something,

Awaken during the day

¤ You gain 1 extra blood.

¤ Rolling a miss on a move (especially stand your ground).

At any time, you can spend 1 blood to add +1 to a physical move.

Vampires on a Path can’t use the blush of life.

12th Generation: You can “over-feed” to hold up to 2 extra blood.

11th Generation: You can “over-feed” to hold up to 3 extra blood.

10th Generation: You can hold 6 blood.

9th Generation: You can “over-feed” to hold up to 4 extra blood.

8th Generation: You can hold 7 blood.

¤ Add +1 to your roll.

Getting your heart pierced by a stake or an arrow or a busted-off broom handle

Recovering From Harm

Banes (Aggravated Harm)

Merits and Flaws

Roll at +3 if you are: a Harbinger of Skulls or Salubri

Roll at +2 if you are: an Old Clan Tzimisce, Nagaraja, or Salubri Antitribu

Roll at +0 if you are: a Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Ventrue, Setite,

NPCs have three special rules: Scale, Advantage, and Disadvantage.

NPCs come in three varieties: Civilian, Dangerous, and Supernatural.

Here are the rules governing playing a hard move:

Here are the rules for when to play a hard move:

¤ When someone misses on a move.

o Dangle an opportunity in front of them: to get an Edge, resolve a

Clan Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence

Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Fortitude, Protean

Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Dementation, Obfuscate

Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence

Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence

Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Thaumaturgy

Clan Disciplines: Dominate, Fortitude, Presence

Clan Disciplines: Dominate, Potence, Obtenebration