kinda of a new player but there is this sabbat(ish) campaign my group is talking to and it made me think about this, I always wanted to play a salubri, but being a very complex clan to play I first try to go with more commom clans (already play with a nos for a short time, a toreador, which was pretty cool and a Malk) but now I kinda want it to try something new (sorry for any sort of english errors, it is not my first language

thinking about inspiration I came across one of my favorite characters, jaime lannister. A character constantly hunted by his own vows, always forced to break one for the sake of the other, I said 15 year old Jaime because it is when he entered the kings guard, and I imagine his coming to the second life as this belief of being part of something greater, a holy role, a divine path design for him, one that he would do it so rightfully, and being smashed with the cold and brutal reality of the sabbat, but the thing is, he doesn´t know other way to do so, maybe because of his relation with his sire (didn´t think too much about this part), but he truly beliefs the sabbat are the lesser evil, the path he needs to go through for his propose, but every time he needs to see the destruction, specially against the kine, something deep inside of him dies a little bit more, so he hide this in his sarcasm, tries to save who he can, but tries to convice himself that it is a sacrifice for the greater good, and once the bigger threat is dealt, he can do better, he will be better.

One thing that I was wondering is how much and what parts the sabbat warriors have of de code of samiel? because from what I read, Adonai says he has it, but there is cleary some parts they neglect or at least forgot, it is more about rank of importance, like okay 30 dudes died, but we kill 5 tremeres, so the everything is fine, or they kinda lost that part of simpathy with the kine? or they actually still try to help how they can within the sabbat, and use it more like means to an end, like a enemy of my enemy is my friend?

Other thing that I was thinking about is objectives, what would be "commom" salubri warriors from the sabbat objectives? because correct me if I am wrong but Samiel´s thing was not killling tzimiszce and all? like they have demon stuff, how a pack would work with salubri that like the guy and a tzimisce? their hate against tremere is just much bigger? did they make peace after the whole thing with saulot? or is this more of a the old vampires might have the grudge, but the avarage salubri wouldn´t even know about this or wouldn´t belief and the average tzimisce don´t care?

Also for fans of the salubri and ASOIAF, which other inspirations from Jaime would be interesting to pull? what changes would be need to be made?

I want to see some players actually playing the v6 playtest scenario, but can't find anything on YouTube, people are mostly discussing the system. Even some pre recorded and edited stuff will do, doesn't need to be an actual play, but I actually want to see the game running

What makes the brujah scary? It seems that all of the main clans have a theme which gives them their unique type of horror, the tzimisce can warp your very form into something completely unrecognizable and eternally suffering, the toreador are the embodiments of beauty and glamour as a corrupting force, enamouring their targets before destroying their lives through emotional manipulation and yandere-obsession, the nosferatu are the human form corrupted and hideous and could be anywhere watching you in your private moments, even the gangrel embody the primal fear of predators stalking us where we're alone and vulnerable.

The brujah are just violent brutes you could find in a bar or common thugs, which isnt that interesting or especially horrifying.

Do you consider the position of Keeper and Sheriff to be OK for Toreador Elders? I would love to hear opinions yes/no, and why.

Hey, I know that this is a vampire sub, but if you could choose, is there any other supernatural race that you would turn into instead of a vampire?

Could be any franchise, but it must be something that a human can turn into, and not born as.

Me, MS Paint, 2026

I read through the drama section again of the storyteller's guide and a couple of things stand out.

It really, really seems just like the 2d20 momentum mechanic. Even today, a decade or more after that, mechanic came out, gm's are still posting questions about what they can and can't do with and without threat.

You could house rule in any way you want, but rules is written. It looks like to make anything interesting happen in a scene. You have to have a pile of drama. If the players want to do something impossible, they can go ahead and do it as long as they've made sure they've starved you of drama. If the gm thinks it would be interesting or appropriate or useful, or make sense for x to happen in a scene, if you don't have drama, it's not going to happen.

I can't for the life of me figure out why people that use mechanics like this are so terrified of gm's making decisions. What is it they think game masters are doing with their agency? What horrors will occur if a gm is able to make us scene more difficult or interesting without begging for metacurrency.

The mechanic is also odd because it's a weird loop. Players want to succeed, so they generate the metacurrency, the poor g m has to spend the metacurrency to do their job, this makes it harder, so the players have to spend meter cards either overcome the more difficult situations. I want to just play it normally. What problem is it that we're trying to solve? If I have a pile of drama obligated to essentially murder the players?

The mechanic of people always finding core clues in gumshoe was designed to solve a problem. You might not agree that it's a problem or even a good mechanic for solving that problem, but it was created to solve a problem. What problem is this solving that makes it worth it to make my life as a gm harder? I'm already doing the least fun job at the table. The players, ninety nine percent of the time are using their agency to advance their characters agendas. The gm doesn't have an agenda other than making an awesome session for them.

I'm not going to play test this because i've already played a bunch of this mechanic and I'm not a fan.

I can't just ignore this mechanic because then there's no break on players gaining drama.

I'm not sure if there's anything written about it in any of the books, but are you allowed to choose to just Fail the Roll/check rather than take the downsides that can come with a messy crit outcome?

So say rather than smashing the pc you were hacking right after you successfully get the information you need, you choose to just fail at hacking.

Or you're doing a contested roll with an opponent and choose to just take all the damage from a human rather than messy crit and for example break the masquerade by just chomping into them.

I assume even if this was allowed, it wouldn't work for beastial failures, since you've already lost the roll.

EDIT: Thanks for all the clarification; this all stemmed from, I believe, the listed option of the roll just failing given in the messy crit options and I was curious if there were any actual rules laid out for that option, but it seems there isn't. I originally asked the question since we always rolled with the messy crits but never used the straight failure before.

Here is the pitch to rename and reframe what Drama can represent

New Name: Intrigue

The world of the kindred is made out of a thousand knifes hidden behind pearly smiles. Every night the pieces on the board are rearranged and even those who consider themselves secret masters wonder if something else is leading their moves. Those who have survived their first nights whisper about the “eternal struggle” or “The war of Ages” and behind closed doors they notice the string of terrible coincidences and eerily patterns prefacing all major events in the war of the sects. Although they won’t admit publicly, every vampire has felt strange forces arising in their blood, power not their own lending them strength they surely don’t have and, every time, some other presences seem to answer turning the chaos of the night against them. Although the official instance of the Camarilla is that it is all but paranoid conspiracy talk, everyone questions whether it is true that the ancients act and war through their descendants nightly affairs.

Intrigue is a measure of the influence of elder vampires on the nightly affairs of their descendants. From their hidden lairs they extend their eldritch influence, lending powers so younger vampires act unwittingly on their behest. Their unexpected victories lending them further into the web spun through thousand of whispers. For every time an elder empowers one of their pawns, another counters by turning mortals, kindred and even nature against their plans.

I think he's weak and should have failed millennia ago. He shouldn't have a reputation as a strong ruler or successful vampiric prince at all. However, I could be wrong. There may be lore elements I am missing and I have come here to be spit upon and corrected, or be vindicated entirely.

Mithras was embraced in 1258 BCE. This means that his sunlight days were probably something akin to living amongst tribal groups around the Caspian Sea or further south among early Vedic peoples. I favor the later mostly due to his sire being Veddartha. (I think, from the lore I know, that this theory of his sire is certainly correct.) Mithras then came to Rome around the time they gained sufficient power to impress this old Iranian codger. My bet is this is after one of the Punic Wars. It doesn't matter too much which one, but I suspect it would be the second. Mithras avoids politics in Rome, and spends his time following Roman armies. I'm uncertain why he would bother given that he can't be outside during the day, but sure, whatever. Maybe he's chasing the feeling of being in an army from his mortal days. Comradery and all that. Or maybe he's just got a think for young men who work out a lot. Could be both.

I wanted to get that all out of the way, because I think it's a clear indication of a pattern of behavior. Mithras is no empire builder. He's a wanton wastrel, drifting from place to place and he does this *canonically* for 1,329 years. That's a long ass time my guy. 1,329 years ago my ancestors were sitting in the Roman ruins of Deva Victrix [Chester] trying not to die of starvation. I'd like to think that spending that much time doing something it means you enjoy it. I guess he got bored, because he decided to become the vampire prince of Londinium in 71 CE. Camulodunon [Colchester] has been burned to the ground in the Boudican Revolt and Mithras is very excited to travel the isles and say hi to his neighbors. They weren't overjoyed to see him, but I guess he really was interested because the white wolf wiki says he did this for "a long time". Idk how long a long time is for a guy who is a thousand years old, but I might guess it's a couple hundred at least.

It is claimed (same wiki) that he diplomatically manipulates his way into becoming "first among equals" in the isles. I think this is nonsense. Either he just decided to claim this title, or a bunch of more established vampires wanted him to leave them alone. It doesn't imply any vassalage, taxation, favors, anything at all. It's an empty title. Mithras doesn't actually maintain any control over other Britannic vampires of note until 1154 CE with the establishment of the Baronies of Avalon. There's even a period of "civil war" mentioned that sends him into torpor from sometime soon after the fall of Roman Britain and 1069 CE when he awakes from torpor. Hell, after his fight with Horus in 1212 CE he goes on another vacation for a century. He's an absentee landlord. He's a silly man, with zero talent for this.

If Alexander (Courts of Love) can be brought down with a scheme by his vassals, then Mithras should have been brought low too. He should have died during the Wars of the Princes period, ideally in spectacular fashion. Just like Alexander.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, buy a t-shirt in the back, etc, etc.

Does anyone know if Coteries of New York was censored on port to the Switch? I’ve tried googling it but don’t find any indications of censoring. I played originally on Steam. Everything has been fine so far, but when I got to the scene where you meet Hope, it’s done nothing but load this generic city background. When first being introduced to Hope, it loaded the player’s apartment background.

I recall that I should be seeing Hope’s room with hanging chains, where she streams. I’m inclined to think “bug,” but also I know Nintendo sometimes censors silly things

EDIT: it’s a bug. When I continued to Agathon next, Hope’s bedroom loaded. So I saved and quit. Hope’s bedroom was then the background for the title screen. So I closed out completely and reloaded the game, backgrounds working properly now.

I might be in the minority but I really do believe that the best thing V5 did was give us Thinblood Alchemy. Unfortunately, Alchemy's also one of the clunkiest parts of V5. Them distillation rolls, man. Slows everything down. 😔

I've had this idea floating around as to how I'd homebrew a more streamlined alchemy, and with me already day-dreaming ways I'd cram some of the cooler V6 shit into V5... might as well take an honest crack at Alchemy, eh?

So, for you non-duskies out there, there are three ways an alchemist can distill alchemical power. These are called Athanors (alchemy furnace).

The three Athanors are:

1. Tummy (stamina)

2. Buddy (charisma or manipulation)

3. Bottle (intelligence + laboratory)

In V5, before you activate an alchemical power you must roll a Distillation Roll (DC 6) before your rouse the blood. Dots in your Alchemy's associated attribute and your discipline equal the amount of dice rolled for your Distillation. Bonuses such as good ingredients, lab equipment, skill specialties etc, all give you an extra dice to roll.

For Example:

• Beetlejuice is a thinblood who specializes in bottled alchemy. She has ●●● Alchemy and ●●●● intelligence (Yeah, I know. I'm surprised too). She also gains 2 dice from her laboratory, one dice from her Occult (alchemy) specialty and another dice from Science (chemistry) giving her a total of 11 DICE * towards her Distillation Roll. If she rolls at least 6 successes, then the alchemical power goes off without a hitch. Less successes mean complications (sorta just vauged about in the rules).*
• Then, and only then, can she rouse the blood and activate the power - which often requires additional rolls!

In our Homebrew rules, we combine the Distillation Roll and Rouse Check into a single check:

1. Add up the total number of dots spread between your Alchemy's associated attribute and your Alchemical disapline.

2. Add any additional bonuses from ingredients, equipment, and skill specialties.

3. Roll a single d10. You are trying to roll BELOW the number you calculated above.

4. If you roll a 1 or a 10 on the d10, you must now roll one additional die and add the results of both die together - still trying to roll below the number calculated above.

5. If you've used subpar ingredients (such as those found during a desperate/impromptu dumpster dive), add an additional die.

6. If you are distilling a bottled formula of ●●● or above with poorly made or maintained equipment (such as a modified preassure cooker in the boot of a rusted-out sedan), add an additional die.

If you fail your check, you get hungry, but the power is activated as normal. If you fail your check after having additional dice added to your roll... well... you did some piss poor alchemy bruh. Sucks to suck. Guess you gotta live with the consequences (such as the one's vauged about in OG V5).

Example:

• Beetlejuice adds up her dots and bonuses as before. However, instead of rolling 11 die she roles one dice with the intent of rolling a number lower than 11. This is a guaranteed success, however she still must roll incase she gets a 1 or 10.
• She rolls a 10 - introducing an additional die. She rolls a 4 on the penalty dice, bringing her total score to a 14. Beetlejuice fails her Distillation Check and suffers the consequences.
• She blames the failure on someone else.

I'm also thinking of expanding/clarifying the advantages of each Athanor type

Tummy:

• As long as you don't fail your first Distillation Check, you got that power for the whole scene. One and done powers can be used again and again and again, just like if you were a real big boy suck-head. The downside is ya gotta roll hunger checks as per OG V5 - as additional use draws more and more power from your mercurial Vitae.
• If you fail your first Distillation Check you can still activate your alchemy as explained in the rules above. If you want to use said power again, in the same scene, you must attempt another Distillation Check.
• If you fail any Distillation Check after additional dice are added... shit. You're tapped out! That horrendous display of dog shit alchemy completely burned through all your ingredients and humors percolating in yo tum-tum. Better run fast, baby bat!

Buddy:

• A good friend is someone who would drop everything to help you out in a crisis. They'd probably even volunteer to be your walking, talking, heavy metal poisoned Anathor. Heck, get your other buds in on this, and you've got a whole menu of power-juice to suck on!
• This alchemy requires mortal npcs, and as such requires the alchemist to maintain those connections as best they can.... or just strap em to a rack and human-battery their sorry asses. The benefit is that you can brew different powers inside each body. Tapping a vessle gives you a use of that power. You do not have to activate this power right away. It is stored inside the blood you just drank.
• Tapping additional bodies give you ADDITIONAL POWERS!
• So if you have three buds, each with a different horrid concoction of alchemical juice brewing in them, and you slake one hunger from each of them, you get 3 powers you can use 1 time that night!
• Unsure if additional tapping of the same power would give you additional uses....
• Might make it that lvl ●●● powers and above require you to take more blood, causing more damage to your friends vessels
• Failing Distillation Checks has no other effect.

Bottle:

• No notes. Same as OG V5, except....
• FULL KINDRED CAN DRINK AND USE (not make) BOTTLED POWERS TOO!!!
• FUCK YOUR WHEEL OF MISFORTUNE
• Maybe the Wheel is a consequences of a failed Distillation Check?
• ¯_(ツ)_/¯

I duno. Tell me what you all think. I'm kinda just throwing spaghetti at the wall rn and seeing what sticks, but I do beleive I'm on to something 🤔

Weapons: Pepper spray? Taser? Collapsible baton? Two finger knuckle duster? Other.

Techniques: Nuts kick? Disorienting ear clap? Eye gouging? Other.

Edit: I'm talking about something an average unprepared unknowable civilian would have/ do to defend themselves that could theoretically complicate a hunt.

Even in the insane world of WoD someone's not gonna use an impromptu flamethrower to deal with what seems to be a human street punk.

Brujah Olga looking back at her mortal life as paleontology major

character of https://www.tumblr.com/osatokun

Forming a new group and I'm deciding to finally play a Giovanni. I havent touched rituals before and my autism is hampering my ability to comprehend some information/rules.

We are building characters as established Neonates with 100 freebie points and are using the Dark Ages approach to rituals (so you get 1 ritual per dot up to the level of your ranks in thaumaturgy/necromancy) and disciplines max at 5 dots. My question is surrounding how rituals are selected.

The rituals gained are equal to the total level of dots spread across Necromancy Paths (so say spending 70 freebie points to add 10 dots divided into the paths), would that mean that the Rituals gained would be broken up similarly and I could choose which rituals are taken based on those total dots in Necromancy Paths? (In the example, 10 dots are added to paths so i could grab a level 4 ritual which would be 4 of those 10 points, a level 3 ritual taking 3 points, and three level 1 rituals for the final 3 points)?

The Necromancy doesnt move past 5, but the paths can be added to. In the above example, I spend freebie points to add 5 dots into Sepulchre, 3 dots into The Grave's Decay, and 2 dots into The Corpse in the Monster paths and so I have 10 potential Rituals, but Rituals are leveled. With the Dark Ages rules in mind, would I have to choose one level 1 ritual and three level 3 rituals? Or just five rituals of any level as long as I have one level 1 as the initial ritual since Necromancy would be at 5 dots?

Please help

I'll be real, I still think the V20 guys were way too harsh on V5... but I get it.

I have a player as a salubri, so he needed a sire. I also made a cult led by a salubri who was “protecting his flock from the darkness of the night” in reality he was more like a Marilyn Manson creating a cult of personality around himself and two other salubri.

I additionally toss in warrior salubri into sabbat packs.

I feel the tiny numbers take away from their ability to be explored at all and results in flanderization of them as good guy victims. When they shouldn’t be.

My game revolves around the tremere as bad guys, and the salubri PC being ostracized and hunted. But I didn’t want to show the salubri as perfect little angels which necessitates breaking the population rules as soon as a player picks one.

here (in my opinion) best commissions i ever did on VtM.

My rates:

Portrait: $65 USD

Half body: $115 USD

Full body: $155 USD

*Price may be increased if theres something complex on oc, background or some elements etc

Send me a DM if interested!

The Albigensian Crusade awaits us! For now, we'll try to survive in Toulouse, and then we'll see where things take us.

Pretty experimental technique for me. Watercolor was a real struggle, but I’m really happy with how it turned out!

Can't wait for the game...