🩸 Long Darken the Final Nights: How to play the world's greatest (vampire) roleplaying game with more blood and less bookkeeping

In 1991, there were two great nativities of note: one was White Wolf's initial release of Vampire: The Masquerade by Mark Rein-Hagen, a game of bloodlust and underworld politics that would go on to sell millions of copies and be counted among the most popular tabletop RPGs of all time… the other was mine.

I recently bought the 5th edition rulebook and dove back into the astonishingly detailed World of Darkness. I’m a D&D veteran of three editions, whose social calendar frequently fills close to overflowing with these types of games. The rich mythology of Vampire offers some of the best and most compelling resources for cooperative storytellers, and I'm frequently drawn back to that system with a hunger.

For over a year and a half now I’ve been playing a weekly game of Urban Shadows with friends from high school, and to give our terrific master of ceremonies a regular break, I offered to run a tie-in game of VtM once a month. I anticipated a problem though: Urban Shadows is a phenomenal game born of the trendy ‘one-pager’ or ‘few-pager’ philosophy recently renovating tabletops… and VtM, for all its strengths, comes packaged in a 350 page tome, character creation bogged down by a seemingly infinite number of splats.

I resolved to get out the proverbial scissors and see if I couldn’t just… trim it down a bit. How hard could it be right? Well, after hours of work and several sessions of play, I’m writing this extremely nerdy blog post about my mod for the world’s greatest vampire roleplaying game—in case, maybe, someone else will find value in it.

Vampire: The Masque (Thomas's Version)

Vampire: The Masque (Thomas’s Version)—which when I'm not baiting Swifties might better annotated as (Thomas's Cut)—is a modification of the 5th Edition rules to Vampire: The Masquerade. This mod is made with love. Vampire: the Masquerade is obviously an amazing tabletop roleplaying game, and none of what I propose should be taken as a rejection of the original material. If you want to play either the 20th anniversary edition or 5th edition as written, don’t hesitate; but if you’re new to the game and overwhelmed by optionality, or if you’ve played before and have been frustrated by the rules-heavy complexity, I encourage you to read on. The Masque (Thomas's Version) is essentially a series of cuts to the game, sometimes ruthless and often no-doubt imperfect, optimizing for more potential, more danger, and fewer and easier-to-remember rules. My philosophy is that if you can reasonably use a single rule to do 5 different things, 5 different rules will slow down the game. Over-specification is therefore discarded in favor of ambiguities that can be explored within the game. In this post, I'll use the abbreviation VtX to disambiguate the mod from VtM, VtR, V5, and V20... which each refer to variations of the source material.

Guiding Principles

While anyone with tabletop RPG experience should be able to grok this post, it's written with a specific target audience in mind: experienced Storytellers familiar with Masquerade who want to streamline the game for their players. If you're unfamiliar with White Wolf games, I'd recommend reading a primer on the Storytelling System before jumping in.

While writing this mod, I have used a heuristic based on a 3-5 person group, such that each character can be uniquely best at something, while no one group can excel at everything. This ensures that in a skilled storyteller’s hands, every player will have opportunities to shine, and there will still be situations that test the boundaries of a group’s proficiencies, such that the enlistment of NPCs or other workarounds may be called for.

This mod is written such that you should be able to print out character sheets and start playing without consulting the core rulebook, but I do encourage you to support the publisher and writers if you dig it. There's a lot of great stuff in V5 Core that could expand your game of VtX, like Lorebooks and specific Discipline powers (which I have not reprinted here, but can be found on the White Wolf wiki).

The next sections will walk you through the essential mechanics, followed by the steps to creating a VtX character, and how each step will come up during gameplay.

Glossary of Important Concepts

Before diving in, there's just a few important terms to know about the World of Darkness where Vampire: The Masque takes place.

Kindred. Vampires.

Vampires. Kindred.

Kine. Mortals (derogatory).

Coterie. Your player group of Kindred.

Camarilla. The dominant social order among vampires, and keepers of the Six Traditions.

Chronicle. A game comprising multiple sessions with the same characters. Another word for Campaign.

The Embrace. The act of transforming a mortal into a vampire.

The Masquerade. The first and most important of the Six Traditions: the existential belief that vampires must not reveal the existence of vampires to mortals, lest Kine unite against Kindred.

Sire. Vampire who turned you.

Storyteller. The game master, who acts out the NPCs, adjudicates on rules, and conducts the process of cooperative storytelling. Dungeon Master or Master of Ceremonies also works.

Rolling

In VtX, as in VtM, success or failure is determined by the rolling of a dice pool of ten-sided dice, or d10s. The number of dice in a dice pool is determined by your relevant stats for the move you are making, and each die has a 50% chance of being a success, as 6s or above are counted as such. Difficulty is set by the Storyteller as the number of successes required to get the desired outcome—or it’s set by a contested roll.

Rousing the Blood

One of the most important (and best) mechanics in V5 is the Rouse check. Players rouse the blood to wake up when the sun sets, force blood to flow through their veins to simulate the Blush of Life (required to do things like have sex or keep human food down, even temporarily), and to use Disciplines.

Typically a Rouse check is a single die roll, with a 50% chance of success or failure. On a failure, mark Hunger. You still get the outcome you were looking for, but the hungrier you are, the more vulnerable you are to frenzy. At 5 Hunger, you cannot Rouse the Blood until you slake your thirst, and anything that would cause you to Rouse against your will forces you to roll Willpower against frenzy.

In VtX, Disciplines call for special Rouse checks (see Discipline Gameplay) using a dicepool greater than one. If it's confusing to think of these as Rouse checks, you can call them Discipline checks instead.

Hunger

For each mark of Hunger, replace one normal die in all your dice pools with a red Hunger die. On a success, if any red die shows a 0, the success is a messy critical. The Beast takes over. People are going to get hurt. On a failure, if any red die shows a 1, the failure is a bestial failure You may need to roll against frenzy or otherwise face terrible ramifications.

Each point of Hunger corresponds to roughly 1 liter of human blood. Clearing 3 or more Hunger from a single human runs a high risk of killing them.

Additionally, in VtX, you may always mark Hunger to add 1 Hunger die to a dice pool before rolling, including Rouse checks (which might force you to mark an additional point of Hunger).

Without further ado, let's create your bloodsucker! If you want to follow along with a character sheet, you can find a PDF here.

Art by Tiahnan Trent

Attributes

Attributes represent your natural abilities, divided into Physical, Social, and Mental categories. There are six main attributes: a power and control stat in each column.

Start with one dot in each attribute, and allocate 4-3-2 dots in your primary, secondary, and tertiary columns. Do not go above 4 dots in any one attribute to start.

Note that two dots is considered average for a (mortal) human. 

Attribute Gameplay

Skill checks use an Attribute + Skill dice pool. There are obvious pairing, such as Strength + Melee to attack someone with a cudgel… and there are non-traditional pairings that can be called for at the Storyteller’s discretion: Guile + Melee to feint in combat, perhaps, or Intelligence + Melee to teach someone a combat technique.

Attribute Changes from V5

In classic WoD games, including every edition of VtM, each of the three categories has a power, finesse, and resistance stat, for 9 total. In VtX, there are just 6. Stamina rolls into Strength. Composure rolls into Manipulation and is renamed Guile. Resolve is rolled into Wits. In general, if you’re consulting the original rules and Stamina, Composure, or Resolve is called for, use Strength, Guile, or Wits respectively. The VtX rules for contested checks may take precedence though.

Skills

Skills represent your training or experience in a particular activity. Specialties are further concentrations within that activity—a single die may be added to the total dice pool whenever one or more of your specialities applies.

Start with zero dots allocate 8-5-2 dots in your primary, secondary, and tertiary columns to start. Do not go above 3 dots in any one skill at this time.

For each skill among Craft, Performance, and Studies to which you allocate dots, take a free specialty. Then, choose one more specialty, in any skill.

Skill Gameplay

Your skills are practices that you have learned over time. Think about how you learned them in your human life.

A quick note on Medicine: healing skills are often weird in TTRPGs, especially when magic or supernatural healing factors are in play. The absence is warranted for a number of reasons: 1) conventional ‘medicine’ tends to be strongly de-emphasized in a game where everyone is playing a vampire, and 2) medicine as a mental skill is both inherently academic and inherently scientific. Under academic, hospital, or laboratory conditions, Medicine should be considered a specialization under Studies. For CPR and emergency care, use Survival or First-Aid as specialties of Craft.

Skill Changes from V5

Continuing in the same vein, Skills have been consolidated from nine in each column to six. Each skill lost makes a viable specialization within its new parent skill. Within Physical: Brawl is subsumed into Melee, Survival into Craft, Larceny into Stealth. Within Social: Animal Ken is subsumed into Insight. Intimidation is subsumed into Persuasion. Etiquette and Leadership are combined and renamed Tradition. Within Mental: Academics, Medicine, and Science are combined and renamed Studies, Finance and Politics are combined and renamed Strategy.

Disciplines

Disciplines represent your supernatural powers, the dark gifts manifested in your blood since your Embrace. Somewhere between a natural talent and an edge that you hone with time, each Discipline corresponds to a specific domain over which you hold sway. There are 12 Disciplines in VtX.

Choose a primary and two secondary disciplines. If starting with a typical 14th generation coterie, put three dots in your primary discipline and one dot in your secondary.

Based on your selection of primary discipline, the Storyteller will give you a number of options for the clan of your Sire. Clans are imperfect designations in VtX, it is well-understood that there is something unpredictable about how disciplines manifest in a neonate. Still, clans are important to the Camarilla—in VtX, the clan of your sire is initially more of an opportunity for storytelling. Whether the character will embrace their clan or join the caitiff is up to the player...

Discipline Gameplay

Name the intended effect and which Discipline you are using to achieve it. For example, you might want to shrug off a grievous injury with Fortitude, enthrall a weak mind with Dominate, or boil the blood of an enemy with Blood Sorcery.

Activating a Discipline always requires a special Rouse check, or Discipline check, using a dice pool equal to Discipline + Blood Potency. The Storyteller sets the difficulty, using the canonical Discipline powers as reference points (see book, or wiki).

If you fail the Discipline check, mark Hunger as you would with a Rouse check. If the difficulty set by the Storyteller is less than or equal to your rank in the Discipline, secure the intended effect anyway. If the difficulty is greater than your rank (meaning that you are grasping beyond your reach), the Storyteller decides if the effect fails entirely, or if it succeeds partially and/or catastrophically.

Note that with these rules, it's totally acceptable for different Disciplines to occasionally be used to produce the same or similar effects. Be creative! You could speak a dark prophecy with Auspex, Azoth, or Valeren for example... but the flavor for each would be different. With Auspex, perhaps you literally see into the future; with Azoth, dark rites are required to invite a vision of what's to come; and with Valeren, you meditate upon the tapestry of creation and follow the threads to their conclusion.

Since Valeren is not a core Discipline in V5, I've included example Valeren powers with suggested base difficulties below.

Valeren

The antipodal mirror of Animalism, Valeren is an expansive Discipline that seeks to understand the Beast as part of a much broader picture, a thread in the tapestry of all life and unlife. In legend, the Antediluvion Saulot developed this Discipline on his quest for Golconda, a much-mythologized Kindred enlightenment. In doing so, he learned to commune with and manipulate plants, winds, and other natural forces, as well as heal the sick and ease suffering. As nice as that might sound, Saulot's fate is a dark mystery—it's possible that Golconda is itself more terrifying than anyone dared to imagine...

●

• Sense Vitality Ascertain the health of a living thing, detect diseases of the blood
• Third Eye In meditation, learn what you can from the natural order of your environ

●●

• Anaesthesis Relieve the pain of a living being, or ease them into slumber
• Blight & Bloom Cause living plants to wither or thrive in your presence

●●●

• Dark Forest Command wind, vines, and tree branches to obstruct, trip, or restrain
• Quell the Beast As the Animalism power, pull Kindred out of frenzy
• Viaticum End the life of a willing target without pain

●●●●

• Blood of the Earth Slake Hunger by draining utterly an area of previously healthy flora—such as a grove of trees or a region within a park—killing any plants that grew there
• Imbue Vitality Heal the living with a touch
• Stormlord Control the weather, clearing or darkening the sky and wringing rain from clouds

●●●●●

• Bestow Vision Open the third eye of a mortal or vampire, causing powerful hallucinations
• Fortress of Golconda Exert a long-term conditioning over a domain surrounding your home, perfectly control plant-life and weather, and diffuse the Beast within through your dominion

Discipline Changes from V5

This is probably the biggest departure from V5, and from VtM in general. I will try to summarize the major points succinctly.

• In all editions of VtM, Disciplines have specific powers at each dot ranking. Sometimes these powers are innate (not rolled) and sometimes they have specific dice pools. In VtX, these listed powers are still usable, with a suggested Difficulty equal to their dot ranking, but they should be considered examples of what you can do with that Discipline rather than the absolute definitions. Notably, you can also "reach" for a 4 dot power even with only 3 dots in that Discipline.
• In VtX, there are no innate powers (such as automatically adding armor with Fortitude or automatically adding to your Strength with Potence). You must always Rouse the blood to use a Discipline, but critically: an effect may last longer than a single action. For example, you could say, "I want to give myself a Strength buff for the scene, using Potence."
• In V5, Thin-Blood Alchemy and Blood Sorcery are separate Disciplines. In VtX, these are combined into Azoth. Note that while anyone can learn Azoth, Thin-Blood alchemy is still a "Thin-Blood exclusive" — kindred with any dots of Blood Potency can't counterfeit disciplines with Azoth, as their blood is no longer weak/mercurial enough for the task.
• In V5, Valeren is not a core Discipline. I've restored it because I think it's fun, particularly positioned as a sort of dark "Vampire Zen" Discipline that is relatively uncommon in Kindred society. Those who practice Valeren can view the Beast from the opposite perspective of those who practice Animalism—and may pursue a state of enlightenment where the Beast no longer controls them.
• In V5, Valeren is a level-2 power under Fortitude, which lets you heal other vampires with your blood. Since Valeren in VtX only allows you to heal living beings, healing other vampires should still be considered a Fortitude-exclusive, at a Difficulty 2 or greater (depending on the injury).

Predation

We're into the nitty gritty now. Your method of Predation is how you have taken to feeding consistently since the Embrace. This can be a good place to start if you're looking for character inspiration! Note that the following list of 8 Predation strategies is not exhaustive. You can find more on the wiki.

Alleycat
⁠An assault-feeder, you stalk, overpower, feed, and escape from your prey.
⁠Specialty: Persuasion (Intimidation)
⁠Feeding Pool: Strength + Brawl
⁠Suggested Background: Take 1 dot of criminal Contacts

Bagger
You drink procured cold blood instead of feeding from a live victim.
⁠Specialty: Streetwise (Black Market)
⁠Feeding Pool: Intelligence + Streetwise
⁠Suggested Background: Take 1 dot of monetary Resources

Consensualist
You never feed against a victim's will. This runs the obvious risk of breaking the Masquerade.
⁠Specialty: Craft (First-Aid)
⁠Feeding Pool: Charisma + Persuasion
⁠Suggested Background: Take a 1 dot mortal Ally

Gamekeeper
⁠You only feed from animals in a wilderness environment. If your Blood Potency reaches 4, you can no longer use this method.
⁠Specialty: Firearms (Long guns)
⁠Feeding Pool: Wits + Craft (Hunting)
⁠Suggested Background: Take a 1 dot cabin you call a Haven

Osiris
You are a celebrity or cult figure among mortals, and you feed from your fans or worshippers.
⁠Specialty: Performance (any)
⁠Feeding Pool: Charisma + Occult
⁠Suggested Background: Take 2 dots of Fame and a 1 dot Herd

Rat King
⁠You only feed from animals in an urban environment. If your Blood Potency reaches 3, you can no longer use this method.
⁠Specialty: Stealth (Blend)
⁠Feeding Pool: Wits + Insight (Animal Ken)
⁠Suggested Background: Take 1 dot of Infamy

Sandman
⁠You feed from people who are asleep.
⁠Specialty: Stealth (Break-ins)
⁠Feeding Pool: Wits + Stealth
⁠Suggested Background: Take a 1 dot Mawla who showed you how it's done

Traditionalist
You kowtow in Kindred court when you're hungry.
⁠Specialty: Strategy (Underworld Politics)
⁠Feeding Pool: Guile + Tradition
⁠Suggested Background: Take a 2 dot Mawla and 1 dot of Status in your Clan

Predation Gameplay

Whenever you spend a night feeding—doing nothing else!—roll your feeding pool and erase Hunger equal to the number of successes. Obviously you may prefer to find convenient victims during an adventure, and there's nothing to stop you from grabing a quick drink in the middle of a heist... but the stakes are higher and you'll be more at risk of unintended consequences. You do not roll your Feeding Pool under improvised circumstances such as these; only when you are spending the whole night predating.

Predation Changes from V5

Predator Types, as they are called in V5, are a great addition to the game and, as previously mentioned, may actually be a great place to direct your players first as they start thinking about their characters.

• V5 calls these "Predator Types"—not methods of Predation or Predation strategies as VtX does.
• V5 Predator Types convey adjustments to Humanity and Disciplines, and include Flaws and Merits, which do not exist in VtX.

When adapting a Predator Type for VtX, just choose the Skill Specialty and Feeding Pool that makes the most sense to you.

Backgrounds

Your backgrounds are narrative advantages for your character, usually translating to a friendly NPC, or social perk. You can have 1-3 dots in a single background, and multiple dots indicate the advantage is stronger or more secure. Choose 3 dots of Backgrounds, informed by your Predation strategy if that's helpful.

Ally (Allies) O O O

You have a mortal in your life that supports and aids you, ranging from a humble sidekick to a mage.

Contact(s) O O O

You have a friendly informant or dealer in a specific industry or community, ranging from mortal to vampire.

Fame/Infamy O O O

You’re known for something—good or bad—ranging from a local subculture to national recognition.

Influence O O O

You hold sway over a particular body or group in the human world, ranging in esteem from respected to deferential.

Haven(s) O O O

You have a particularly reliable place to park your coffin, ranging from small and secure to a large estate.

Herd(s) O O O

You’ve cultivated a group of mortal “vessels” from whom you can feed without concern, ranging from a few to dozens.

Loresheet O O O

(For experienced players) Select a Loresheet advantage and integrate that lore into your character’s lineage or history.

Mask(s) O O O

You have developed an alias for interfacing with the human world, ranging from superficial to scanning and system-positive.

Mawla(s) O O O

You’ve been taken under the wing of a Kindred mentor, ranging from a slightly senior neonate to an elder.

Resources O O O

You’ve got capital, either accumulated in your unlife or salvaged from your past, ranging from solvency to riches.

Retainer(s) O O O

You have a loyal servant or assistant, likely a ghoul or thrall, ranging from absolutely obedient to independent and competent.

Status O O O

You hold good standing in a community of Kindred, ranging from being seen as an up-and-comer to holding influence over a sect or clan.

Background Gameplay

These are primarily narrative perks, so it's up to you and the Storyteller on how they'll affect mechanical gameplay. Status might give you bonus dice on social rolls, Resources enable you to buy hard-to-get technology or rare artifacts, and your Herd may be used to recover Hunger safely and without spending a whole night feeding.

That said, these backgrounds are not immutable. A Haven could be burned down after a brush with the Second Inquisition and your Mawla could turn against you if they find out you've been bumping elbows with the Sabbat. Treat the characters like real people, the physical or digital possessions as vulnerable as such things are.

Background Changes from V5

In V5, Backgrounds are just one type of "Advantage" along with Merits and Flaws. Merits and Flaws are cut altogether from VtX. Like Feats in Dungeons & Dragons, they threaten to overwhelm with optionality, while lacking the specificity and situational tactics of the same. Take the V5 Merit "Beautiful" for example: it just adds a die to your social dice pools—not very interesting, in my opinion.

In V5 (and past editions) Backgrounds can also be ranked from 1 to 5 dots. Since Backgrounds are not typically rolled or added to dice pools (though a Storyteller could certainly adjudicate such a case) VtX cuts these down to 3 dot rankings. I personally don't immediately know how to disambiguate between a 3 dot Haven and a 4 dot Haven... and 3 dot rankings have the advantage of "T-Shirt Sizing": Small, Medium, and Large. These are instantly comprehensible. A small apartment is different from a medium warehouse loft is different from a large mansion.

If you're adapting Loresheets from V5, take dots 2 and 3 with the second dot in VtX, and dots 4 and 5 with the third dot in VtX.

Humanity

We're ready to add the finishing touches now. Choose one to three core Convictions, moral beliefs you still cleave to, and name a Touchstone for each one—a human, object, or institution to whom you character symbolically links that conviction. When one of your touchstones is destroyed, erase the corresponding Conviction as well.

Set your Humanity track to 6 + your number of starting Convictions. Fill in that number of squares.

Your maximum Willpower equals the higher of your Social attributes + the higher of your Mental attributes. Fill in that number of dots.

Your starting Blood Potency is 1.

After establishing the relationships between your Background NPCs and Touchstones, decide what your relationship is with the other members of your coterie (the other players).

Choose a long-term Ambition and short-term Desire.

Humanity Gameplay

Any time you violate your Convictions or otherwise perform an inhuman deed (murder, manipulation, etc.) — mark a Stain in one of your empty Humanity boxes.

When time passes, roll Remorse with a dice pool equal to your empty Humanity boxes (neither filled in nor marked with Stains), Difficulty 1. On a success, erase one stain. On a failure, erase all stains and permanently erase one point of Humanity. You always roll at least 1 die for Remorse.

If a Touchstone is killed or destroyed, immediately mark a Stain and roll your empty Humanity boxes. On a failure, lose 1 point of Humanity.

At Humanity 0, the Beast controls you utterly. Retire your character.

You may spend a point of Willpower to

• re-roll up to three regular dice (not Hunger dice) in any dice pool where the use of Willpower is not explicitly forbidden (Remorse being one such case).
• Take control of your character for one turn during frenzy or when under the influence of supernatural coercion (such as Dominate or Presence)
• To perform a minute movement in torpor, or take one last turn after being staked
• To ignore damage penalties for one turn

If you meaningfully achieve or further your Desire, immediately regain 1 point of Willpower.

When time passes, regain 1 point of Willpower.

Ambitions and Desires

Your Ambition should be a daunting, long-term goal, yet one that is unambiguously achievable either in the terms of the game mechanics (“achieve Humanity 10”) or in the world of the chronicle (“install a Camarilla Prince in Ship Rock”). If an Ambition is achieved, increase your Blood Potency and select a new Ambition with the Storyteller’s approval.

Your Desire should be a short-term obsession, either an urge of the Beast (“I want to eat Joan’s new boyfriend”) or an aspiration of the conscience, (“I want to get Cortessa to like me”). Once per session if you achieve your desire or dramatically advance it, recover one spent point of Willpower. At the start of each session, choose a new Desire or keep an unfulfilled Desire from the previous session.

Humanity Changes from V5

These rules have only minor tweaks.

• A successful Remorse roll also removes all Stains in V5. I like ratcheting up the tension by only erasing 1.
• Maximum Willpower is determined by Resolve + Composure in V5. Both these attributes have been subsumed.
• Stains can also be accumulated in V5 by violating "Chronicle Tenets," a concept which has been cut.
• Damage to or destruction of Touchstones adds stains in V5 but does not trigger an immediate degen roll.
• V5 has a concept of "Impairment" when all your empty Humanity boxes are marked with Stains. VtX has no such concept.
• Regaining Willpower between sessions is more permissive.
• In V5, achieving an Ambition does not let you increase your Blood Potency.
• The V5 concepts of superficial and aggravated damage to Willpower are discarded.

Health & Damage

Set your Health to Strength + 5 by blotting out (filling in) unused boxes on the right.

A slash marks superficial damage and an X marks aggravated damage.

In Combat, make contested rolls where one party either dodges, parries, or returns an attack. Subtract the number of successes on both rolls and deal superficial damage to the losing party equal to the remaining sucesses.

Players can Rouse the Blood once per night to heal Superficial damage equal to their Strength score, or one point of Aggravated damge.

When your Health boxes are filled with superficial damage, you take a -1 penalty on all dice pools. Further damage converts to Aggravated.

Sunlight and other vampire banes (sort these out with your group) deal Aggravated damage directly.

When your Health boxes are filled with Aggravated damage, you will either be destroyed (meeting the Final Death) or enter torpor, depending on the circumstances.

Character Creation Summary

We made it! I've summarized the steps below. As a reminder, my players found it helpful to start at Step 5. Oh, and here's a link to the character sheet!

1. Decide on your character Concept and Name.

2. Choose your primary, secondary, and tertiary Attributes; starting with 1 dot each, allocate an additional 4-3-2 dots between the power and control stat in each column.

3. Allocate 8-5-2 dots to your corresponding primary, secondary, and tertiary Skills. Choose one skill specialty plus another each for Craft, Performance, and Studies if you took those.

4. Choose your primary Discipline and two others, putting 3 dots in the former and 1 in each of the latter.

5. Choose your Predation strategy.

6. Allocate 3 dots to one or more Backgrounds.

7. Choose 1-3 Convictions and corresponding Touchstones and set your starting Humanity to 6 + your number of Convictions.

8. Set your starting Willpower maximum to the sum of your highest Social attribute and your highest Mental attribute.

9. Complete the relationship map between your Background NPCs, Touchstones, and coterie. Choose an Ambition and Desire.

10. Work with the Storyteller to name your Sire and their Clan or bloodline. If the Storyteller has one in mind, they may name your Chronicle.

For higher-powered campaigns, smaller groups, or one-shots, the Storyteller may opt to start you at a lower generation and higher Blood Potency—or just grant starting experience points to spend.

After that, you're ready to roll!

I've included one more section in this post, but it should be considered ancillary. It's a collection of thoughts about the lore and metaplot of Vampire. If it resonates with you, great! But it's in no way necessary to enjoy the mod.

Art by Tiahnan Trent

Lore

Yes to the Second Inquisition, no to the Gehenna War.

Vampire: The Masquerade and the other WoD games are famous for their unique “metaplot.” Since these are storytelling RPGs, individual groups should be encouraged to adapt and invent on their own terms what makes sense for their campaigns. But in the spirit of the rich lore these games are known for, here’s my contribution:

In V20, there is an overarching mood of paranoia, an oppressive background-sense of doom. It is suggested that The Final Nights are upon us, and Gehenna—the vampire apocalypse—will soon follow. While the Camarilla all-too-confidently dismiss these antiquated notions, the Sabbat prepare themselves to be the metaphorical Sword of Caine upon His return.

In V5, there is an in my opinion misguided attempt to “advance” this plotline with the inception of the “Gehenna War”—a crusade led by the Sabbat to preemptively destroy the Antediluvians (2nd generation vampires). Psychically, these ancient vampires have summoned their childer to protect them (the “Beckoning”), causing an exodus of elder vampires from the United States as they are obliged to intercept the Sabbat in the Middle East. (Also, a "Second Inquisition" is being led against vampires by government intelligence agencies.)

I think this is a misstep for a number of reasons: 1) it loses something in tone and mystery when the dominant anxieties of the Final Nights are, at least to some degree, realized, 2) it gives too much credence to the Sabbat as a proactive, organized force (the Sabbat are reactionaries, similar in psychology to the evangelical movement and far right militias of the United States today), and 3) while I can guess the writers intended it to “make way” for younger vampires (aka, player characters) to take center stage in their home cities, it does seem to imply that “the important stuff” is happening elsewhere. 

If you want to play a chronicle following a group of upstart young kindred embarking upon a modern crusade to protect (or join in the destruction of) their progenitors, then far be it from me to stop you. But if you’re after a more classic experience of urban fantasy and political intrigue, here’s what I would suggest:

1. No Gehenna War. No Beckoning. The Elders remain sequestered in their bastions, paranoid and out of touch. They are the billionaire oligarchs and octogenarian plutocrats, made all the more like forces of nature by their immortality; their whims like winds to be dodged between and under until such a time as they may be dethroned.

2. As for the Sabbat, they grow in power, but embark on no crusade. They have begun to reorganize in a way not seen since the Camarilla drove them out of most major cities in the late 90s… but this contributes to higher tensions at home, not abroad. Their leaders and soothsayers are unperturbed when their predictions prove false: that the Antediluvians would rise and Caine would return in 2004. Gehenna is always at hand—the Final Nights may grow endlessly longer.

3. The Second Inquisition is real, but it is a tenuously affiliated set of NGOs rather than a collaboration between official government bodies. For most kine, the truth (that vampires are real) remains beyond consensus. If you enjoy incorporating Mage: The Ascension lore, the Inquisition’s FIRSTLIGHT is likely a Technocracy operation. They have already destroyed several Camarilla conclaves, and yours could be next!

All this adds up to a world where the Camarilla are even more traditionalist and paranoid than ever, convinced that their 6 Rules for Unlife are all that’s standing between civilization and either extermination at the hands of the Second Inquisition or descent into chaos architected by the Sabbat.

Allegorically speaking, you wouldn't be out of line in seeing the Camarilla as neoliberal conservatives, and the Sabbat as radical extremists. You, the players, are compelled to exist in that dominant hegemoy, but may learn to survive and thrive on your own terms. Hey, who says a game about vampires, wizards, and werewolves can’t hit close to home?

Last Recommendations

1. Clan and bloodline might be paramount to the Camarilla, but the primacy of this should be questioned in VtX (just as the limitations of clan disciplines are relaxed). The Embrace manifests differently in every Kindred. Bloodline can be a useful litmus test for guessing at a vampire’s powers, but it is ultimately an imperfect taxonomy. The extent to which a player character actually identifies with their sire’s clan is a matter of choice (and/or coercion).

2. Rather than being a single regimented alternative organization to the Camarilla, the “Anarch movement” should be diverse, representing unique factions across major cities. To the Camarilla, any kindred who refuse the Traditions (but stop short of joining the Sabbat) are likely considered to be Anarch.

3. Have fun! Do whatever makes sense for your group. These rules are just a starting point. Take what's useful, and leave the rest.

Conclusion

If you made it this far, I assume you’re interested in trying out Vampire: The Masque with your friends. Heck yes! Let me know if you end up trying the mod, or if you have any questions! I’d love to hear about your experience. I’m @thomasmost.bsky.social on Bluesky, or you can email me at thomascmost@gmail.com.

Also big thank you to Tiahnan Trent for the art for this post. She's also on Bluesky! @tiahnan.bsky.social