VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE
Introductory Kit - Section 4

Table of Contents

Section 1 - Introduction - What is Vampire: The Masquerade?

Section 2 - Setting -Vampire History and Hierarchy

Section 3 - Character Creation - Making Your Own Vampire

Section 4 - Rules - Playing the Game and Story Ideas

Blood and Health
Rules
Combat
Story Ideas

Because of the mature themes involved, reader discretion is advised.

Based on the Vampire: The Masquerade game created by Steve Brown, Andrew Greenberg, Chris McDonough, Mark Rein-Hagen, Lisa Stevens, Joshua Gabriel Timbrook and Stewart Wieck

Check out White Wolf Online at http://www.white-wolf.com, alt.games.whitewolf and rec.games.frp.storyteller.

(c) 1997 White Wolf, Inc. All rights reserved. White Wolf and Vampire the Masquerade are registered trademarks of White Wolf, Inc. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by White Wolf, Inc. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned.

Blood and Health

Besides the four Traits already mentioned, vampires are measured via two other criteria: Blood Levels and Health Levels.

Blood

Vampires can use ingested blood to perform various supernatural feats.
Characters have 10 Blood Levels, representing the different stages of satiation. Vampires spend Blood Levels to power Disciplines, boost Physical Traits, and heal wounds. They regain Blood Levels by feeding on mortals.
Each night, when a vampire awakens, she expends a Blood Level. She may expend additional Blood Levels to perform supernatural feats.
A vampire may spend blood to heal wounds. Each Health Level healed costs one Blood Level. Healing takes one full turn of concentration to perform.
Each use of a Basic Discipline costs one Blood Level.
Each use of an Advanced Discipline costs two Blood Levels, unless stipulated otherwise.
A vampire may spend blood to imbue herself with superhuman strength and vitality. To add a single point to the Physical Trait costs one Blood Level. Extra points may be added, but each additional point costs one one cumulative Blood Level (the second Physical dot costs two BloodLevels, the third dot three, etc.). Thus, a vampire seeking to increase her Physical Trait by +3 would have to spend six Blood Levels (1 + 2 + 3).
A vampire with no more Blood Levels in her body enters torpor (see below).
Vampires regain blood by feeding on humans. Each turn, a vampire may suck one Blood Level from a human. Humans have 10 Blood Levels in their bodies. When a human is reduced to five or fewer Blood Levels, he is in need of hospitalization. If all blood is drained from him, he dies. More merciful vampires try to restrict themselves to one or two Blood Levels from a given victim.
Hunger: When a vampire has five or fewer Blood Levels, she is hungry. If she sees or smells blood, she must make a frenzy check to avoid immediately seeking to feed. A vampire at two or fewer Blood Levels is ravenous; merely being in the proximity of a blood source (i.e., a human) is cause for a frenzy check, and actually seeing or smelling blood increases the difficulty of the check by one.
Other Creatures: Vampires may feed from animals, but this is unsatisfying. Animal blood is not nearly so nourishing as human blood. Assume that a cow (or similar-sized crea-ture) has five Blood Levels, a dog two, and a cat one.
Vampires may drink from other vampires, and even drain them outright. This is called diablerie, and it is the greatest crime a vampire can commit — at least among Camarilla vampires. It is rumored that if a vampire drinks the blood of an elder vampire, she gains all his power. And, of course, the Methuselahs are known for being able to feed only on other vampires.

Health

Vampires have seven Health Levels, representing various stages of wounding. These are: Light, Light, Medium, Medium, Serious, Serious, and Critical. As wounds are accumulated, check off the wound boxes on the character sheet. Blood Levels may be spent to heal wounds. When all Health Levels are gone, the character goes into torpor (see below).

Pain

Though undead, vampires do feel pain. When a vampire reaches the Medium Health Level, she suffers -1 die to all actions. When she falls to the Serious Health Level, she suffers -2 dice to all actions. A minimum of one die is always rolled, no matter how wounded a vampire is. Vampires in frenzy (or Brujah in the throes of Blood Rage) may ignore pain penalties.

Torpor and Final Death

When a vampire has lost all her Health and/or Blood Levels, she enters a state called torpor. She is still “alive,” but is effectively catatonic, incapable of movement or action. To recover from torpor, a vampire must be fed at least one Blood Level.
If a vampire falls into torpor and takes one more injury from an aggravated wound (fire, sunlight, claws, etc.), she dies again — this time permanently. This is called the Final Death, and no vampire may come back from it. A vampire may also be sent to Final Death if, after entering torpor, the vampire is dismembered (decapitated, limbs chopped off, body hacked into pieces, etc.). Dismemberment takes five turns to accomplish.
A character who has been sent to Final Death is out of the game forever; the player must create a new character.

Rules

Most of the action in Vampire is determined by the players and Storyteller, but we provide a few rules to help arbitrate complex situations. This system uses six-sided dice, which you can find in most hobby stores, Monopoly sets, Wal-Marts, etc. When a player decides to have his character undertake an action for which the outcome is in doubt (shooting a gun at a distant foe, trying to fast-talk the prince, etc.), the Storyteller looks at the character’s Traits and decides which Trait (Physical, Mental, Social, Psychic) is most relevant. He gathers a number of dice equal to his character’s Trait, and the Storyteller assigns a difficulty number (a number between 2 and 6) to the feat. The player then rolls the dice. If at least one (or sometimes more) of the numbers on the dice equals or exceeds the difficulty number, the action succeeds. If not, the action fails.

Automatic Tasks Versus Dice Rolls

Most tasks are automatic. If Cynthia says, “My character Maxine walks into the deserted alley,” Cynthia does not need to make a roll to do this. It happens automatically. Likewise, for the purposes of drama, routine tasks such as driving to a nightclub or climbing a ladder can be assumed to succeed, even though in real life there is always a chance of having a wreck or falling off the ladder. Rolls need be made only for those events that are particularly dramatic and that have a good chance of failing.
Sometimes a routine event can become a dramatic, tension-filled scene if performed in haste or under duress. For example, if the character driving to the nightclub is barreling down the road at 100 m.p.h., against the flow of traffic, while being chased by the Sabbat and the city police, Physical dice rolls to avoid wrecking the car might well be called for!

Difficulties

Difficulties range between 2 and 6. A difficulty of 2 represents the easiest feats; a difficulty of 6, the most challenging. When in doubt, the default difficulty is 4. Difficulties can never be higher than 6 — if a difficulty is calculated to be greater than 6, reduce it to 6.
2 Easy (walking atop a two-foot-wide wall)
3 Routine (seducing someone already “in the mood”)
4 Normal (stalking a reasonably alert victim)
5 Challenging (shooting a target at long range)
6 Really tough (escaping from handcuffs)

Number of Successes

Each die whose number equals or exceeds the difficulty number is called a “success.” Most of the time, a single success allows the vampire to succeed in her attempted task — barely. Getting more successes indicates a higher level of performance. For example, let’s say a Toreador (Social 4) gives a performance in a nightclub. Four dice are rolled; while a single success indicates an acceptable performance (she doesn’t get booed off the stage), three or four successes are needed to give a brilliant or virtuoso performance.
Successes
1
2
3
4		 Quality
It'll do
Good
Great
Masterful

Example of Play

Cynthia’s character, Maxine the Brujah, has been sought out by Devil Jack, the prince’s Gangrel enforcer. (Devil Jack is played by the Storyteller.) Devil Jack begins questioning Maxine concerning her whereabouts on last Wednesday night (the night an anarch gang set fire to the prince’s refinery). Cynthia, speaking as Maxine, indignantly denies any knowledge of the deed (“I was at a dance club on the other side of town!”), and the Storyteller tells Cynthia to make a Social roll to convince Devil Jack. Maxine has a Social score of 2, and the Storyteller tells Cynthia that the difficulty is 4 (Devil Jack is loyal to the prince and knows that Maxine occasionally hangs out with anarchs, but he likes Maxine and is inclined to trust her). Cynthia rolls two dice and scores 1 and 5: one success. Devil Jack reluctantly accepts Maxine’s alibi (perhaps he is unwilling to question the story too deeply), but sternly warns Maxine that the prince’s eyes are everywhere, and that she’d better toe the line for awhile.
If, in the Storyteller’s opinion, Devil Jack had particularly damning evidence against Maxine, or disliked her, the Storyteller might have raised the difficulty of Maxine’s roll to 5 or even 6, or might have decreed that Maxine needed two successes to convince Devil Jack of her innocence.

Contests

Sometimes, a character will be in conflict with another person or vampire, not simply a situation. Such events are known as contests. To resolve a contest, the player rolls against a difficulty number as normal, but the opponent also gets to roll his own Trait against the same difficulty number. The contestant who scores the most successes wins. Ties reroll.
Almost all contests are considered difficulty 4. First, the attacker rolls. Then the defender rolls in an attempt to take away the attacker’s successes.
Example #1: Baron d’Havilland (Social 4) and Lady Ravenwood (also Social 4) are striving to seduce the same beautiful model. Because the model likes d’Havilland and Lady Ravenwood about equally, both vampires must roll versus difficulty 4. D’Havilland rolls four dice and scores 1, 3, 4, and 6 — two successes. Ravenwood also rolls four dice and scores 2, 5, 6, and 6 — three successes. The model slinks away with the smirking Lady Ravenwood, and d’Havilland must seek blood and companionship elsewhere this night.
Example #2: Baron d’Havilland (Social 4) is attempting to order a recalcitrant mortal (Psychic 2) out of his way. D’Havilland rolls four dice and scores 1, 3, 5, and 5 — two successes. The mortal rolls two dice and scores 3 and 6 — one success. D’Havilland wins — the mortal grudgingly lets the vampire pass.
Example #3: Maxine the Brujah (Physical 4) is arm-wrestling a Nosferatu (also Physical 4). Both vampires have Basic Potence, so they are considered of approximately equal strength. The Storyteller decides that the first vam-pire to score three cumulative consecutive successes wins. On Turn #1, Maxine rolls two successes, and her opponent rolls one. Maxine has one success in the contest; she levers the Nosferatu’s arm down ever so slightly. On Turn #2, the Nosferatu scores two successes, and Maxine scores none. The Nosferatu not only canceled out Maxine’s “stored” success, but got one of his own; he powers his arm back to the neutral position, then bends Maxine’s arm over a little. This battle will seesaw back and forth until one or the other wins.

Drama

The nocturnal world of a vampire is a cauldron of danger, mystery and terror. The following section presents some common quandaries faced by vampires, as well as rules to resolve them.

Time

Time, in Vampire, is fluid. It is measured in terms of turns, scenes and stories.
Turn: A turn usually lasts about three seconds. It is used when adjudicating dramatic situations involving split-second decisions and actions, such as combat. In one turn, each character can take one action, unless he has the Discipline of Celerity.
Scene: A scene is a sequence of events in roughly the same time and place. So, a brutal back-alley brawl and a soiree at the prince’s mansion both constitute a scene, even though the party lasts longer than the fight.
Story: A story is an entire sequence of events in which the characters take part. It has a plot, a climax and a resolution.
Example: In the movie Star Wars, each swing of Obi-wan’s/ Darth Vader’s lightsabers took a turn; the scene in the Death Star garbage disposal took, appropriately enough, a scene; and the entire movie was a story.

Initiative

Sometimes it’s important to know who acts first. A vampire who gets the jump on her opponent is said to have the initiative.
To determine initiative, compare Traits in this order:
Ties: Roll one die; the highest roll wins. Keep rolling until the tie is resolved.
Example: Devil Jack the Gangrel attacks a monstrous Gangrel vampire of the Sabbat. Both have activated Hunter’s Instinct. Neither has Celerity, so the Storyteller compares Devil Jack’s and the Sabbat vampire’s Physical Traits. Both have Physical Traits of 4. Comparing Mental Traits, the Storyteller sees that Devil Jack has a Mental Trait of 3, while the Sabbat vampire has a Mental Trait of 1. Devil Jack attacks first. If the Sabbat vampire had had a Mental Trait of 3, the Storyteller and Devil Jack’s player would have simply rolled a die, with the highest roll acting first.
All extra actions gained via Celerity come after every-one has taken their first actions. Initiative of extra actions is determined normally.

Combat

Vampires are masters of manipulation and subtlety, preferring to win battles through indirect means. Every now and then, though, a vampire is forced into combat — to take down resistant prey, to defend herself from a blood-hungry anarch, or simply to eliminate a centuries-old rival once and for all.
Combat is conducted in three-second turns. It uses the task system already established; initiative is determined normally, and most combat actions are considered Physical tasks. There are two basic types of combat: hand-to-hand and ranged.

Hand-to-Hand

Hand-to-hand combat is conducted with fists, natural weaponry (claws or fangs), or weapons. Initiative is determined normally. Attacks are resolved in order of initiative. Each turn, a combatant may choose to strike, grab or dodge.
Strike: The attacker rolls Physical (difficulty 4). The combatant being attacked automatically defends (also Physical, difficulty 4). If the attacker scores a number of successes equal to or exceeding the defender’s roll, he has successfully struck the defender.
Grab: The attacker rolls Physical (difficulty 4). The combatant being attacked automatically defends (also Physi-cal, difficulty 4). If the attacker’s Physical Trait equals or exceeds the defender’s Physical Trait, or the attacker has a higher level of Potence Discipline than the defender, the defender is grabbed. Each turn thereafter, the attacker may automatically inflict damage, and the defender is trapped until he successfully strikes and inflicts damage on the attacker, in this or a subsequent turn. Furthermore, if the grabbing attacker is a vampire, he may choose to forego his automatic damage and instead bite his prey. A bite inflicts only one Health Level of damage, but thereafter the vampire may begin draining Blood Levels from the victim’s body at the rate of one per turn.
Dodge: Actively dodging takes an action — the dodging party may not do anything else, even attack, this turn. However, the dodging combatant gains +2 to her Physical roll to avoid all attackers’ blows. If the dodging defender beats the attacker’s successes, she gains the initiative next turn!
Damage: If the attacker hits, he inflicts a number of Health Levels of damage equal to his Physical Trait, or (if using Protean claws or a weapon) equal to his Physical Trait +1.
Soak: Because vampires are clinically dead, they may attempt to absorb some of the damage with their corpselike bodies. An injured vampire may make a Physical roll (difficulty 5); if she succeeds, she only takes half normal damage, rounded up (minimum of one Health Level). Fire, sunlight, vampire fangs, and the claws grown through the Protean Discipline are considered aggravated damage; the vampire may not soak these types of damage unless she has the Fortitude Discipline.

Ranged Combat

To conduct ranged combat, the vampire must have a thrown object or a gun. Each turn, the vampire may throw an object or fire one accurate shot, provided she has objects to throw or bullets to fire. Celerity allows increased rates of fire.
Strikes: Strikes take place at long, medium or point-blank range. Strikes made at long range are difficulty 5; at medium range, difficulty 4; and at point-blank range, difficulty 3. (However, at point-blank range, the defender has the option to enter hand-to-hand combat with the attacker!)
Dodge: A defender may dodge normally, as above, though this does not automatically give the defender the initiative in the next turn if successful. A defender may also execute a running dodge. A running dodge takes an entire action, and the defender does not gain any bonuses to her Physical Trait; however, she automatically closes the gap between herself and the attacker by one range level (i.e., if she was at long range, she is now at medium range).
Straight Run: A defender may decide to simply charge at the attacker. This takes an entire action, and the defender may not defend against the attacker’s shot; however, at the end of the turn, the defender is automatically in hand-to-hand range and may attack next turn.
Damage: Damage from thrown objects and gunshots is conducted a little differently from hand-to-hand damage. A thrown object inflicts a number of Health Levels equal to the attacker’s successes on the strike roll +1. A bullet inflicts a number of Health Levels equal to the attacker’s successes on the strike roll +3.
Soak: Bullets and thrown objects can be soaked nor-mally.

Fire and Sunlight

Sunlight and fire are the vampire’s worst foes. Direct sunlight automatically inflicts one Health Level of wounds every turn. Indirect sunlight (the vampire is heavily cloaked or shaded) inflicts one Health Level of damage every two turns. This damage may not be soaked unless the vampire has Fortitude.
Small/weak fires inflict damage as indirect sunlight, or one automatic Health Level for a sudden burn (a torch, etc.). Large and/or intensely hot fires (a burning building, a propane torch) inflict damage as direct sunlight, or two automatic Health Levels for a sudden burn. Again, this damage is soakable only with Fortitude.

Frenzy

At heart, all vampires bear an inner Beast. This Beast manifests in the terrifying state known as frenzy.
Whenever a vampire sees or smells blood while hungry, is confronted with sunlight or fire, or is enraged or humiliated, she must check to see if she frenzies. To do this, the player rolls the vampire’s Psychic Trait (difficulty 4). If the player fails, the vampire flies into a frenzy; she must immediately attack the food source or emotional provocation (if sent into frenzy by sunlight or fire, the vampire must flee the feared substance). Vampires in frenzy may ignore the effects of pain (they are too fearful or enraged to register pain). The frenzy lasts for a scene, or until the source of the frenzy is eradicated (the vampire feeds, the opponent is killed, etc.).

Hunting

Each night a vampire must expend a Blood Level merely to rise from sleep. Vampires thus become hungry quickly, and much of a vampire’s existence revolves around the search for sweet-blooded human prey.
System: A vampire’s hunt depends on the general area. She must make a Mental roll; the difficulty varies, depend-ing on the area.
The Rack (bars, nightclubs, theatres, etc.) 2
Downtown Quarter (business district, bohemian/“alternative” areas) 3
Uptown (upscale and wealthy areas) 4
Slum Area 4
Suburbs 4
Rural 5
Wilderness 6
Success on the Hunt roll erely means the vampire has found a likely target (a solitary stroller, pair of young lovers, unwatched child, etc.). The vampire must still subdue the prey.

Pursuit and Chases

Sometimes, characters will want to chase other charac-ters. Chases are resolved as is initiative, based on the following chart:
Advanced Celerity (activated)
Basic Celerity (activated)
Advanced Potence
Basic Potence
Physical
Mental
Tie: Die roll, per initiative
Example: Maxine the Brujah is chasing a Sabbat vam-pire. She has Basic Celerity — but so does her quarry. She has Basic Potence — but so does the Sabbat. Moving down the chart, the Storyteller sees that Maxine’s Physical Trait is 4. The Sabbat vampire’s is 3. Maxine catches the Sabbat vampire.

Social Interaction

Vampires are creatures of passion and power; it is inevitable that they will become embroiled in social intrigues. Vampires may resolve social challenges in several ways; a few are listed below.
Intimidation: The vampire may try to intimidate her target through physical threats (use the Physical Trait), social condescension (use the Social Trait) or verbal bullying (use the Mental Trait). The victim may resist with her Psychic Trait. The highest roll wins.
Leadership: The vampire may issue commands, but must make a Social roll to convince a hesitant target. If the target is inclined to disobey, he may make a Mental roll to resist. The highest roll wins.
Seduction: The vampire rolls Social; the party being seduced uses Psychic to resist. The highest roll wins.

Stealth

The vampire stalking prey rolls Physical (difficulty 4); the prey, guard, etc., rolls Mental (difficulty 4). If the vampire wins, he successfully remains undetected; if the prey wins, she detects the vampire; if the vampire and prey tie, the prey "thinks she hears something" or "sees some-thing out of the corner of her eye" (future rolls to detect the vampire are difficulty 3).

Story Ideas

The Embrace: The characters are newly created vampires, and may even begin the game as mortals. In this story, the characters and Storyteller play out the (sometimes ecstatic, often horrific) Embrace, and establish the relationship between the characters and their sires (the vampires who transform them into undead). Were the characters tranformed knowingly or against their wills? Do they get along with their sires or hate them for what they have done? How do the characters react to their newfound state (the need to drink blood, the pain and fear inspired by sunlight, etc.)? How do they deal with the fact that they are forever severed from their mortal lives?
Power Struggle: The characters are new in town and must wrest their nightly livelihood from established undead. In this story, the characters and Storyteller play out the gritty realities of establishing one's niche in a hostile town. Must the characters fight for hunting grounds? Make deals with established vapires who are also seeking to raise their status? Use mortals to undermine their rivals power bases from within?
Love Story: A characters falls in love with a mrotal or another vampire. If the object of affection is mortal, is love requited - and if so, does the character inform his love that he is a vampire? (Doing so, remember, is a violation of the Masquerade and punishabled by both parties' deaths.) If the beloved is another vampire, does she return the love - or merely use the character as a convenient pawn? And what if a hideous Nosferatu falls in love with a beautiful Toreador or Ventrue?
Fight for Survival: Something wicked comes this way. Perhaps the Sabbat stages a raid on the city; perhaps a rogue, bloodthirsty Methuselah appears and begins wreaking havoc like the pagan god he effectively is. In any event, the characters must outwit or outfight this threat to their domains.



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Copyright © 1996 - 1997
Created by Wolf Pack Inc, Friday, August 29, 1997
Most recent revision Thursday, September 25, 1997