Clans, Bloodlines

I ultimately decided clans should be based around possession of a particular Disicpline, not unlike Requiem.  However, unlike Requiem, each Discipline (except the physicals, which are considered universal) gets a Clan, and only one Disicpline defines a clan.  Generally, I wanted to go with the basic seven, but they need to be paired with my modified disciplines, which requires a couple of changes.  Fortunately, I also found the Tzimisce and Lasombra as compelling stand-alone concepts, perhaps more so than the Brujah and Gangrel.  So I switched those out, oh, and I also decided to generally use what I consider a niftier name-set.  This also associates a weakness with each Discipline, and I decided that there would be a greater and lesser version of these.  The greater version affects the clan that inherits it, and the lesser affects those who learn it.  This might come down to more of a primary and secondary effect, which would cause the native clans to have both, and those who otherwise learn the discipline would only get the secondary.

The Clans:
These aren't necessarily "final" just current ideas.

Arikel - Majesty
    Primary weakness: Fascination - basically as the Toreador disadvantage, specifically Requiem version.
         If rolling Resolve, must gain successes equal to Majesty level.
    Secondary: Obsession - as the Assamite Vizier weakness (Possibly reverse these).

Nosferatu - Bêtiare
    Primary: Monstrosity - inverse of striking presence, -2 on appearance related social rolls, also the Nosferatu disadvantage from Requiem.
    Secondary: Beastliness Bêtiare level adds to Beast/Blood Potency rating for purposes of comparing it to Humanity.  The character also acts as if his Humanity is 10 minus Bêtiare (or his actual Humanity if it is lower) for purposes of gauging pools for interacting with mortals.

Malakh - Auspex
    Primary: Seen too much - Malakh have an inherent mental instability caused by their supernatural insight, and all begin with one incurable derangement.  Any result aside from Success is likely to set off the derangement some time that night.  Operates as the Malkovian weakness from Requiem, substituting Auspex for Dominate.
    Secondary: Forbidden knowledge.  Those with auspex are more likely to acquire derangements when suffering humanity loss. This operates as the Ventrue weakness from Requiem.

Veddartha - Dominate
    Primary: Inhumane  - On a degeneration check, they are -2 to the roll, just like the Julii.
    Secondary: Humanity and Empathy cost extra XP equal to dominate at each level.

Khaibit - Tenebrus
    Primary: ?? - possibly the reflection thing, unless that is used as a general vampire property
    Secondary: Fleeting Shadows: Other vampires are impeded by daytime and sunlight.  Khaibit, having brought forth their shadowy nature, are harmed by it.  The penalty normally taken by other vampires (which is actually the amount of damage they would take per round in either Requiem or Masquerade) is taken as bashing damage when exposed to sunlight.  Additionally, they experience Rotschreck from Sunlight as well as fire (other vampires in my version of the game do not Rotschreck at sunlight)


Tzimisce - Protean - bestial features
    Primary:   Possibly the standard Tzimisce disadvantage.
    Secondary: Bestial Features. Each frenzy evokes a beastial feature or behaviour from their regular repertoire for a number of nights equal to Protean.  Upon losing humanity, they must check for physical degeneration or else permanently gain a bestial feature.  These features can be temporarily removed through use of protean, but generally return after a scene.


Tismanu - Thaumaturgy
   Primary: Sigil.  Thaumaturgy creates a metaphysical bond between master and pupil equivalent to the Blood Bond, though it doesn't replace the blood bond.  For Tismanu, the Sire always counts as the teacher.  For others, the initial teacher counts, though he gains a level 1 bond to any subsequent teachers.
    Secondary: As the Assamite Sorceror Disadvantage. (possibly reverse these)


Bloodlines

Clan defines the character's primary Discipline and weaknesses.  Typically, a character may choose one Physical discipline as part of his personal repertoire as well as one other discipline, which may be another physical discipline, or one of the remaining six disciplines.  This is where bloodlines come in.  Bloodlines are established lineages that bear consistent disciplines.

Major Bloodlines here are equivalent to Clans of Masquerade, and Minor Bloodlines equivalent to Bloodlines in Masquerade.  Each of these bears the cultural associations normally found in the Masquerade version, but are in certain ways acknowledged to be of the same overarching clan.  It is also known that certain minor bloodlines came from certain major bloodlines, while others arose independently.

There may also be minor Lineages, which are essentially player or storyteller created bloodlines that have continuity.  These may exist within a Major or Minor Bloodline, in which case they have the same properties as that bloodline and are simply a role-playing tool, or they may exist outside known Bloodlines, but have their own continuity of Disciplines.  These lineages will likely be looked down upon relative to members of established bloodlines.

Last of all are Caitiff, who still belong to a clan, and may or may not have been spawned by a particular lineage or Bloodline, but for some reason don't carry the traditional disciplines of that lineage.  Though they may still claim a clan, and possibly their parent bloodline may speak for them politically, they are generally considered mongrels.  It should be noted that there are several lineages in different clans that are lineages in the sense of sire/childe relationships, and that don't carry disciplines from generation to generation, but nonetheless maintain a cultural/political continuity.  The Panders could be regarded as one such lineage.


To-Do about Bloodlines

Since there are no specialty disciplines, Clans and Bloodlines that bear such from Masquerade will instead have standard disciplines with some additional Devotions set to replace and/or emulate all or part of those specialty disciplines.  These will generally be somewhat proprietary to those bloodlines.  Where possible, these will be drawn from existing Devotions and Discipline powers (preferably from requiem, though hybridized where necessary).  Additionally, I may implement bloodline weaknesses and advantages, as an added incentive.  In this case, I may cut down the Clan/Discipline weaknesses and use the other Weaknesses for particular Bloodlines.

OK, found the entry on this topic I had already written.  Here it is below.  Consider both segments.  They vary somewhat in details.  I'll more likely go with the naming system below, but I went into more details about some things above and a little more technical below.  I'll reconcile those at some point.



Bloodlines

Clans are defined on the basis of intuitive mastery of a particular discipline and the natural side effects of this.  The Seven Disciplines are divided into roughly three categories, psychic, which involve affecting the minds of others by extending one's own mental presence in some way, physical, involving manipulating the kindred's body in some way, and psychokinetic, which involves extending the kindred's psychokinetic power over his own body to the surrounding environment.  Also, a mix of these methods.  Upon transformation, a Kindred intuitively grasps the opening abilities of his own clan's Discipline, one of the physical Disciplines, and one other Discipline (which could be another physical Discipline).

So apart from Clan Discipline, a player chooses (i.e. the character's proclivities determine) what other disciplines he has.  So each Clan has 24 (3 x 8) (168 total) variations, all of which will appear at some time or another.  In this context, a bloodline can simply refer to a lineage, though sometimes it refers to a lineage in which the bloodline founder's choices overbear those of his descendants, in which case they simply all have the same set of disciplines and flaws.  Physiologically and Supernaturally, this doesn't distinguish members of the bloodline from other members of the Clan who happen to have the same combination of Disciplines, however, historically and socially, a bloodline may have the advantage of solidarity and a similar mindset, and offspring of the lineage that cease exhibiting those characteristics, whether from distance or from the individuals own strength, tend not to be treated as members of that bloodline, though they are still members of the same clan.


Clan in this sense is treated much as Clans in Requiem are treated, essentially as the broadest form of relationship.
However, Bloodlines are more like Clans from Masquerade, and several of the Masquerade Clans are here represented as bloodlines.
Bloodlines are a matter of both lineage and culture, and generally only one of that lineage who also participates in the culture of that Bloodline will be considered a member.  In rare instances, an individual of the same clan that has the same Discipline set and also forms a close alliance with members of the bloodline might be inducted into it.  Typically members of other clans with the same discipline set will not be, nor will individuals with significantly difference discipline sets.

(Still Considering whether or not bloodlines have specific advantages/disadvantages)

Nergal - Animalism
Nosferatu - Animalism, Obtenebration, Potence
Brujah - Animalism, Protean, Potence   (Lost Boys style Brujah)

Malakh - Auspex
Malkav Auspex Dominate Obtenebration
Ashur (Cappadocian) - Auspex, Fortitude, Thaumaturgy
Tismanu (Salubri) - Auspex, Majesty, Fortitude

Veddartha - Dominate
Annanaku - Dominate Animalism Fortitude (i.e. Requiem style Ventrue)
Tzimisce - Dominate Animalism Auspex (Old Clan Tzimisce)

Daeva - Majesty
Arikel - Majesty, Auspex, Celerity
Ilyes - Majesty, Celerity, Potence (replacement for True Brujah)
Ventrue - Majesty, Dominate, Fortitude

Khaibit - Obtenebration
Mekhet - Tenebrus, Auspex, Celerity
Lasombra - Tenebrus, Dominate, Potence
Sutekh - Tenebrus, Majesty, Protean

Ennoia - Protean
Andeleon (Tzimisce) - Protean, Auspex Animalism ("New" Clan Tzimisce
Gangrel - Protean, Animalism, Fortitude
Barjot (City Gangrel) - Protean, Obtenebration, Celerity

Vedma - Thaumaturgy
Tremere - Thaumaturgy, Auspex, Dominate
Koldun - Thaumaturgy, Auspex, Animalism

I started modifying Vampire some time before Requiem appeared, but with the advent of Requiem, the process shifted gears.

The first thing that consumed my attention in this project was how to compose clans/bloodlines, including weaknesses, strengths and foundations.  I didn't like the four discipline + extra weakness composition of Requiem Bloodlines nor the five relatively flavorless Clans, and generally the Masquerade set of Clans was set as my standards for the clans to include, though the general standard for basic vampire metaphysics as well as the general Requiem rule set was also to be standard.  One big problem with Masque clans though is that they have highly variable weaknesses.  Also, in some versions of MET, clans have special bonuses they get, which were generally drawn from Background and Character creation sections of the TT clans as essentials that members of the clan should have.


I started writing about some of my early essays into alternate configurations but I wasn't "feeling it".  So I'll just jump right into my current line of development, which I refer to as "Alien Vampire".  In this particular conception, vampires are more biologically reconstructed humans with some psychic powers, rather than really being "magical".  This doesn't affect a whole lot of my decisions about the game system, mostly just my take on Thaumaturgy and Protean. Aside from this, I'm generally geared towards using Masquerade world features and Requiem rules. Without further ado, here are some of the basics of it.

I decided to go back to first edition Masquerade in a sense, and reduce Disciplines to the ten basics.  Originally these were Animalism, Auspex, Celerity, Dominate, Fortitude, Obfuscate, Presence, Potence, Protean and Thaumaturgy.  In Requiem, they became Animalism, Auspex, Celerity, Dominate, Majesty, Nightmare, Obfuscate, Protean, Resilience and Vigor, with magical things allocated to covenant specific sorceries.  While I'm ok with ditching all the Requiem Bloodline Disciplines as Disciplines (rather than as Devotions and such, where necessary), I want to make allowance for some of the special Disciplines of major clans in Masquerade.  Here's how:

Animalism deals with the Beast and Nightmare deals with fear, generally spawned from the beast, so I folded these together into Bêtiare, which is characterized as dealing with the beast.  Fundamental powers are kept as part of the Discipline, while others are kept as common Devotions.

All transformy powers are combined under the rubric of Protean, which is somewhat more flexible and expandable than the Requiem version of it.  Serpentis is easily a snake oriented use of Protean, and most of vicissitude is reflected in this version with the exception of the two powers used to affect others, which could be simulated by Devotions.

The three physicals will be some combination of old and new, but hold the same places.

Auspex stays more or less the same, as it always does.  Necromancy is divided into various Devotions, several of which stem from Auspex.

Dominate and Majesty get a little restructuring.

Obfuscate and Chimerstry are mostly subsumed by Devotions, though some of Obfuscate is merged with Obtenebration.  Obfuscates original characterization had a lot to do with shadows, and it seems redundant to have two "shadow" Disciplines.  These are now called Tenebrus.

Thaumaturgy becomes a basic psychokinetic discipline that is the basis for all ritual practices.  This is a big honkin' thing of its own.

Also generally, Elder powers, where still relevant, are reconfigured as Devotions.

Next time, discussion of clans, bloodlines and political units.

General thoughts on Vampire

I've been interested in rpg's for quite a while, and one of those is Vampire.  I nostalgically look back at first edition Vampire from time to time, always reminded that I just liked the flavor of it better than all its successors.  Obviously, its systems were lacking something, as it was the first essay into the World of Darkness.  There are a few things I think I liked about it better than later editions.  I like that it focused on personal horror, rather than politics, and that it had a sort of pure and almost innocent mystery to it.  To be sure, I also liked a lot of developments in later editions, particularly revised, and in some of the dark ages stuff.

However, I like things to be systematic.  One thing that has occasionally aggravated me about various incarnations of Masquerade is its lack of systematic expression, a feature relatively endemic to OWOD.  One thing I like in my systems is that things follow a causal or developmental chain, that big things develop from small things, that similar things stem from the same root, and that there not be too much redundancy.  Oh how it irritated me to see five or ten powers with the same conceptual basis and all completely different origins and effects.  I was thus delighted to see the use of Combo Disciplines in Revised, and their expansion into a full on system of Devotions in Requiem.  In fact, I liked a whole LOT of systematization that occurred in Requiem and NWOD generally, but there were a few things I didn't, and there were a lot of things lost.

In particular, the grandeur and mystery was lost, along with the general capacity of elders to be elders, and the reduction of clans to 5.  While I thought some of the previous clans were overblown bloodlines, they were still significant in various ways, and more so once the "meta-plot" had been explored.  I guess the biggest thing that irritated me about the new system was how bloodlines were handled.

In Masquerade, bloodlines were essentially smaller clans.  Though there were no mechanics for creating bloodlines or transforming clans into bloodlines, it was pretty evident that various bloodlines extended from various clans and had generally switched weaknesses and one or two disciplines.  Further, though there were quite a few bloodlines in Masquerade, each one related in some way to the larger story.  In Requiem, Bloodlines have stuff added on, which I didn't like, and there are an arbitrarily large number of them, making each of them a relatively meaningless niche feature.  Also, a large majority of canon produced bloodlines have new disciplines.  Generally, most of those disciplines seemed like they could have been devotions or something.  At any rate, the handling of Bloodlines represented the primary vector of non-systematic expansion of the new system, which I find aesthetically displeasing.

Some things I did like about Requiem were the covenants, which provided more political dynamics and some of the general differences in how vampires generally, blood ties, blood bonds, etc. worked.

Comparing Masquerade and Requiem, I generally liken the former to being modernistic, with its central themes, monolithic hierarchies and epic scale.  Requiem I consider to be postmodern, with its buffet style of character development.

So that covers my general take on what's been done.  Next post, I talk about what I want to change and the thought processes I went through in arriving there.

What's going on here, what's this all about?

Hello to anyone who may read this.  I've had this blog for a while and not done anything with it.  It seems most people have some *thing* to blog about, and up until now, I didn't really know what to do.  However, among my many personal projects, I have spent a certain amount of time doodling with the systems and setting for Vampire (the Masquerade and Requiem), and since that is someone else's IP, I won't ever be able to do anything with it, so I figured I'd share some of my thoughts on the subject with the internet, and perhaps someone may find it of interest to include in their own chronicles, or not, whatever, but I'm putting it up here.  At some point, I may also talk a bit about some of my other projects, but I'll get there if I get there. Right now, I've got stuff to go do, but I'll probably post an introductory/overview post later tonight.