Vampire: The Requiem: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

 

== Since ''Vampire: The Requiem'' unlives on and doesn't breathe tropes, it's not unfitting that each clan and covenant is a trope unto themselves, though some supplements add a few more...[[Our Vampires Are Different|variations]]. Here's a quick cheat sheet in case you feel like diving in. Includes the names of the clan [[Splat|splatbooks]]; covenant splats are just called the same as the covenant. ==

 

* ''[[Evil Genius|Mekhet]]'': A clan of [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|psychic vampire ninja]]. They have a huge fan base because they [[Spiritual Successor|vaguely resemble]] several ''Masquerade'' clans that weren't carried over <ref>such as the [[Psycho for Hire|Assamites]], the [[Religion of Evil|Followers]] of [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|Set]], the [[Dark Is Edgy|Lassombra]], the [[Evil Sorcerer|Tremere]], the...</ref> and are a [[Master of None|blank slate]] deliberately. Sourcebook: ''"Shadows in the Dark"''.

* ''[[The Dragon|Nosferatu]]'': The original Nosferatu from ''Masquerade'' were [[The Grotesque|physically repulsive]]. The recreation of the clan can be visually "normal" (in the loose sense of the word), but very [[Uncanny Valley|disturbing]] in one way or another. At least one non-player character of middling importance in New Orleans is in fact beautiful...[[So Beautiful It's a Curse|perhaps too much so]]... Sourcebook: ''"The Beast That Haunts The Blood"''.

* ''Julii'': They're [[Expy|expies]] of the Ventrue (or is it the other way around?). Created by the Strix, servants of the god Mars, in return for sweet, bloody glory. The clan was wiped out when the Julii started to humanize as a whole. There's a few ideas about how both the Ventrue and Gangrel may have descended from them, among other theories.

* ''The Wicked Dead'': Vampires who aren't Kindred, brought-up in the book of the same name. Their Blood Potency is 0, so each time they meet a "true" vampire, they cower in fear. Notable examples:

** And there's a Daeva bloodline, the Carnival, which also functions as a Covenant for its members, though it's still a bit too small to truly be considered as such.

 

 

Aside from the Clan and Covenant sourcebooks (even ghouls get one, called, simply, ''"Ghouls"'' -- much like how the Covenant sourcebooks are named after the Covenants), [[Vampire: The Requiem]] has a fair amount of sourcebooks. The ''"Bloodlines"'' trilogy (''The Chosen'', ''The Hidden'', ''The Legendary'') covers yet more varieties of bloodline. The ''"Ancients"'' duology (''Ancient Mysteries'', ''Ancient Bloodlines'') covers the past of vampire society and the vampire "race", as well as what happens to a vampire as it ages. The ''Night Horrors'' books specifically written for the Vampire line cover strange new forms of vampire (''Wicked Dead'') and particularly infamous and/or ancient vampires (''Immortal Sinners''). ''City of the Damned: New Orleans'' covers the World of Darkness's version of The Big Easy, particularly how it looks through the eyes of the vampires who claim it for their own. It shouldn't be confused with ''"Damnation City"'', which is about designing cities in the World of Darkness and how vampires can rule them. ''"The Blood"'' is the Player's Guide to [[Vampire: The Requiem]]. ''"Nomads"'' looks at Kindred who take up a nomadic lifestyle, while ''"Coteries"'' looks at how and why groups of vampires get together. The ''"Requiem Chronicler's Guide"'' is a toolbox for building various types of chronicle, and ''"The Danse Macabre"'' takes the toolbox to the next level, ranging from personal to global, and providing an array of new rules. Finally, ''"Mythologies"'' covers stories told amongst the undead about their possible origins, unique abilities and creatures that go bump in the night, while ''"Requiem for Rome"'' and ''"Fall of the Camarilla"'' are a duology describing the last major vampire organisation and how it all fell apart during the collapse of the Roman Empire.

 

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=== This game features examples of: ===

{{quote| It feels ''awful''. Humanity is no pleasant thing. Denying the Beast feels sick, wrong, tainted. The vampire concentrates overmuch on all the wrong things she’s done and recognizes herself for the monster that she is.}}

* [[Bittersweet Ending]] - Ending a story like this is par for the course.

** An interesting case study of this are Bloodlines. Bloodlines can be born from a vampire getting incredibly old and powerful in blood manipulation, allowing them to create a special Discipline or make an Out of Clan into an In Clan Discipline, making it [[Experience Point|cheaper to buy]]. [[Fantastic Fragility|The downside?]] The vampire and likely most if not all of their progeny now get an ''extra'' [[Weaksauce Weakness]], even if they don't ''want'' the spiffy new powers! It's no surprise that a good number of bloodlines were created as a result of said founder surviving a particularly nasty [[Curse]].

*** Of particular note are the Kallisti, a Daeva bloodline outlined in the Invictus sourcebook. On paper, they are the ultimate social manipulators, with [[Hypnotic Eyes|Dominate]], [[Mary Sueperpower|Majesty]], and a bloodline Discipline called Perfidy, which is basically emotional control geared towards causing as much chaos as possible. Plus, they have access to [[Super Speed|Celerity]] if things get dicey. The catch? Their bloodline weakness is that their blood doesn't cause Vinculum. This doesn't sound too bad until you realize that since vampires (once they reach an appropriate age) can only feed from other vampires, any elder would give his left arm for a blood slave that he can drink freely from without any emotional ties. The Invictus practically keeps them as pets, letting them play tiddly winks with local politics as long as their elders can tap their veins whenever they please. If you're a Kallisti, and word gets out about the weakness of your bloodline, expect a long stay chained up in an elder's basement as he farms you for blood.

** Then you've got the Hollow Mekhet. Rather than being Embraced on the cusp of death, they were Embraced several days after. However, this has given them time for their [[Anatomy of the Soul|ba]] to depart, which means they cast no shadow, don't reflect in mirrors or resolve on any film medium, can't be heard over a phone or tape recorder... oh, and their ba is still pinned to this mortal coil, ''can'' do all these things, and will make the Mekhet's nights living hell if it's not placated with the right rituals.

* [[Canis Latinicus]] - "Lancea Sanctum."

* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: Belial's Brood is fully aware that they are evil by human standards, and they could not care less.

* [[The Casanova]] - The male Daeva.

* [[Crapsack World]] - ''Especially'' for humans.

** "Especially?" No, thank you, I'm perfectly fine with being a blood doll as opposed to having to deal with a society entirely composed of [[Manipulative Bastard|Manipulative Bastards]] and an [[Enemy Within]], thank you very much.

* [[Crippling Overspecialization]] - The Moroi bloodline are a group of uber-predators kept as assassins by the Ordo Dracul. They boast strength and toughness beyond even undead norm, they have both Obfuscate (vampiric stealth) and Animalism (animal control), and they're an option for both Gangrel ''and'' Nosferatu, meaning that they have relatively easy access to Protean, though it's no longer in-clan. They also have murderous urges even more powerful than other vampires that take up most of their concentration, and while they're not precisely deformed, they have yellowish skin and their air of menace allows even oblivious humans to understand there's ''something'' wrong with them. So yeah, good if you want to fight, sneak, or assassinate, bad if you want to, say, carry on a normal conversation, or do more than basic math.

* [[Crossover]] - It doesn't involve metaplot since it doesn't exist in this iteration of the WoD, but it's still worth pointing out!

** The Dead Wolves bloodline from Shadows of Mexico are [[Werewolf: The Forsaken|wolf-blooded]] who just so happen to have been Embraced before the First Change. Sort of. So I guess [[Big Screwed-Up Family]] as well? Their bloodline discipline references the mechanics for the various moons and their related skills in Werewolf as well.

** The Nests valued by the Ordo Dracul are all but explained as being the same as Werewolf loci and Mage sanctums.

* [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]]: The ''Lancea Sanctum'', a group of vampires that follow the teachings of Longinus, the legionnaire that they believe stabbed [[Jesus|the actual Jesus from the Bible]] with his spear, as some kind of dark vampire messiah.

** Horrifically, Belial gets similar treatment. Dracula, too.

*** Not entirely true with Dracula. He's not [[The Messiah]] to the Ordo Dracul, he's just a really smart guy they all want to emulate. It's a bit more like modern physicists idolizing Einstein or Maxwell, or rock musicians looking up to the Beatles.

** Ghuls tend to see themselves as this: They are cursed to be necrophages for eternity in return for their dark sorcery as mortals...[[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|at the age they were cursed]]...with [[Functional Magic]] intact...CharmPerson...and the complete lack of anything resembling [[Enemy Within|the Beast]]. It's at that point that the silver lining gets so thick you can't see the cloud.

* [[Darkest Africa]]: Requiem for Rome has a section detailing how a game set in sub-Saharan Africa might be like. it's described like this trope, but it may be [[Justified Trope|justified.]]

* [[Demonic Possession]] - Dominate 5: any human so possessed this way tends to go insane or even catatonic.

** Pick a Strix. Any Strix. Chances are he's done this at least once, probably more.

* [[Deprogram|Deprogramming]]: What it takes to break some Dominate powers.

* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: The core book informs the curious just what would probably happen if one of the Kindred found themselves at the bottom of a deep-sea trench or [[Recycled in Space|in outer space,]] with [[Parabombing|parentheticals]] asking just [[What the Hell, Player?|what kind of chronicle you're playing for this to come up.]]

** [[Hilarious in Hindsight|Six years later, the Infinite Macabre supplement was released.]]

** ''Ghouls'' has detailed mechanics for conception and gestation... in the context of breeding humans as blood slaves. The author even directly states that having a player character use these rules is an (his words) ''[[Video Game Cruelty Potential|exercise in cruelty]]''.

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: The nickname given for the Invictus is "The First Estate". However, [[wikipedia:Estates of the realm|that refers to the Church]]. Aristocrats are the Second Estate.

** There's text in the corebook that suggests this is intentional on the part of the Invictus:

* [[Evil Tastes Good]] - Feeding causes a vampire to get an adrenaline rush/orgasm.

* [[Evil Twin]] - The Hollow Mekhet are haunted by their Ka (the reflection/shadow from Egyptian mythology). It doesn't want to kill them (because that would kill it too); it wants to make them suffer...

** ''Ventrue'' has a running narrative about a [[Mysterious Waif|dead girl]] who's trying to protect herself from the [[Owl Be Damned|strix]] by performing alot of really creepy ritual killings around places full of negative feelings. She claims the rituals are from the only ones that can fight the strix, the equally mysterious "Perfecti." [[Fridge Brilliance|That's basically Belial's Brood.]]

* [[Evil Virtues]]: Part of what makes Belial's Brood such an effective organization is [[True Companions]]. This is in contrast to ''every other Kindred in existence''.

* [[Fantastic Drug]]: Vampire blood. Just don't mention this to most of them. They're kind of sensitive about it.

** Solace, from the ''Mythologies'' sourcebook. Basically, it makes a vampire feel like they're alive again.

* [[Fantastic Fragility]]: The allure of Bloodlines is they give their members a fourth discipline (sometimes unique) at in-clan cost, making it ''much'' easier to gain terrifying new powers. The downside? A whole ''new'' weakness to bog you down, ranging from nuisances like not being able to embrace men (Qedeshah) to the crippling like not having fangs or [[Kiss of the Vampire|the kiss]] (Norvegi).

** The Qedeshah weakness is a bit more than a nuisance. They also can't produce the effects of [[Kiss of the Vampire|the kiss]] and their bite is, in fact, ''more'' painful than it reasonably should be. Any who do attempt to embrace someone of the male persuasion end up with a black, slimy pile of goo where their prospective childe once stood.

** The Lancea Sanctum faction called the Crimson Cavalry is the Christian Identity Movement with vampire clans taken into consideration. Wow.

** The Deucalion bloodline of the Ventrue is all about this. They believe the Ventrue are truly superior to other clans, and their response to this ranges from "help the other clans get over their weaknesses" to "lord over them like the wastes of blood they are." Their bloodline-exclusive Discipline relies on inflicting exaggerated versions of the clan weaknesses on other vampires... but the book mentions that no one in the line has unlocked the fifth level, centered around the Ventrue tendency towards madness, because that would require admitting the Ventrue are flawed.

** Savage: The Gangrel may be considered both Savages (indeed, their nickname) and Eldritches, because of the greater influence The Beast have on them.

** Eldritch: The Nosferatu due their appearance, but a little Crafty by nature.

* [[Final Death]]

* [[Five Races]] - The five vampire clans. Complicated by the fact that there was a sixth clan, the Julii, in ancient Rome, who replaced the Ventrue, and that the Mekhet have an alternative clan weakness in the form of the Hollow, introduced in their clanbook.

* [[Foreign Fanservice]] - ''Requiem for Rome'' portray the Daeva as sexy Middle Easterners.

* [[For Science!]] - The stated motive behind many of the more horrible thing the Ordo Dracula do. For example, "Following the Dragon's Tail," which involves murdering a frequently randomly selected innocent, just to observe the effect of the murder on the victim's friends and family. An expanded version, called "Counting the Dragon's Scales," involves a number of vampires and coordinated mass slaughter, and is intended to allow the study of what happens when an entire city collectively craps itself in terror.

** Such as the outfits. Dear gods, the outfits...

* [[Gratuitous French]]: Licencieux's power titles are all in French.

** Played straight in ''Wicked Dead'', with the introduction of the Dampyr. Thing is, each and every Dampyr is a walking curse incarnate, designed to utterly shatter a vampire's unlife... and thanks to the nature of their powers, the Dampyr are often utterly oblivious to the effects they have on the vampires around them. Most aren't even aware vampires exist.

* [[The Hedonist]]: Potentially every Daeva.

** The Lancea Sanctum branches in Mexico are generally more accepting of those who worship the pagan gods of the region. This is because those gods are potentially their precursors.

** In the Invictus, your vampiric ancestry (grand-sires and above) determines how easily you can be accepted. This applies to all Invictus domains, not just in Mexico.

*** The Melissidae bloodline are known to not do anything if their childer run away. They just assume that the blood will take care of itself. So far, it always has.

* [[Jabba Table Manners]]: See the Macellarius bloodline in the [[I'm a Humanitarian]] entry above.

* [[Joke Character]]: The Players, a bloodline with so many drawbacks and weaknesses that they ''scare'' other vampires - nothing can be that weak without some dark surprises, can it? (They're largely a [[Affectionate Parody|winking poke]] at ''Vampire'' fanboys.)

* [[Karma Meter]]: The Humanity rating, which displays how close your character is to the Beast.

** And if you take the Coil of Banes' legendary 4th tier, [[Averted Trope]].

* [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]]: Generally, the Kindred who focus on developing the physical Disciplines get outclassed really badly by Kindred who develop the psychic ones, [[Vicious Cycle|which they then use to recruit Kindred who focused on the physical Disciplines.]] Really, would you prefer to spend 3 dots on Resilience, or 3 dots on Dominate so you can control three guys each equal to Retainer 3? (Eventually one can reach a level in the physical where you become a juggernaut even against psychic powers...but it takes a while.)

** And because there are no vampires from ancient times with wholly reliable memories, the clans each have multiple legends about where they came from and who created them. This also sets the stage for the storyteller to bring story elements completely from left field if they so choose, as there isn't any one canon origin story.

* [[My Beloved Smother]]: The Qedeshah Bloodline, who incorporate the scariest aspects of motherhood.

{{quote| Elders rarely move to Chicago, because elders rarely move, because Kindred who move rarely survive to become elders. Thus, when one shows up, people notice. It’s not just the Harpies, not just the courtiers, not just the hooked-up Invictus Ventrue political hacks. Any Kindred who talks to any other Kindred is likely to hear rumors, no matter how half-baked or illogical. No matter how faded the truth may be from cycling through Chinese Whispers, every Kindred with even the faintest fear of his own kind will hear: ''something big is coming''.}}

** The first example Ventrue in their clanbook is an upstart, arrogant entitled brat with the surname LaCroix and unorthodox methods that ruffle his superiors. An expy [[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines|Sebastian LaCroix]], really.

** In [[Kindred of the East]], Malaysia was a [[Wretched Hive|lawless, dangerous place]] ruled by the Golden Court of the Penangallan Queens. In this game, they're [[Expy|exactly the same]], even down to the title. The only difference is they now work for the largely European Invictus. Another reference to the Kuei-jin is the elevation of larvae. Awfully similar to what that game did for chih-mei.

* [[Our Ghouls Are Creepier]]: They're the blood-addicted human slaves of vampires.

** It gets worse. The Vitae drives ghouls to love their masters, ''no matter what.'' Only extraordinary hatred or long-term deprivation of blood has a shot at breaking this bond, which means a lot of vampires feel perfectly okay with abusing their ghouls in ways that would get them put on trial in an international tribunal, were they doing such things to a prisoner of war rather than their blood-addicted servants. Also, since the blood allows for regeneration, don't expect pity for any injuries you may suffer from the depravities of your vampire master, or anything that might happen to you while performing the duties your master expects of you. Obviously, many ghouls are [[There Are No Therapists|not right in the head.]]

* [[Our Vampires Are Different]]: All vampires share the same common weaknesses, but each clan has a unique new weakness and each Bloodline (a sub-group of a clan) has an extra one. Some are more traditional for others; the Zelani, an offshoot of the Daeva, can't enter homes uninvited (mainly due to the horrible crimes inflicted on their progenitor by her sire during a home invasion).

** ''Wicked Dead'' offers up a number of non-Kindred vampires ranging from the Mnemovores, who feed on memories, to the Jiang Shi, the fabled "[[Chinese Vampire|hopping corpses]]".

* [[People Farm]]: ''Shadows of the UK'' present a vampire conspiracy involving hunting down recent immigrants to the UK and harvesting their blood repeatedly in stalls for use as easy food and fantasy-style healing potions.

* [[Plaguemaster]]: The Morbus Bloodline. Subverted in that they HAVE to spread illnesses because they can only feed from the diseased.

** Actually the madness is induced in the instigator, not the victim--the bloodline's weakness is that any time their mind control fails, or works too well, they themselves have a relapse of the crazy.

** And with a recent Ventrue splatbook, Malkavia is now a disease that affects vampires causing madness and allowing access to Dementation. It's fitting because the whole Ventrue clan is now crazier than dropping acid in Disneyland.

* [[Power Perversion Potential]]: ...have you been paying attention to a word on this page?

** For added [[Squick]], how's about those Sangiovanni, what with the built-in OCD that makes them freak out when they're not around corpses? Yes, some of them do like corpses that [[I Love the Dead|way]], why do you ask?

* [[Psychic Powers]]: [[Aura Vision|Aura Perception]], The Spirit's Touch (aka postcognition), [[Telepathy]] <s>Astral</s> [[Spirit World|Twilight]] Projection from Auspex Discipline.

* [[Psychic Surgery]]: One variant of the VII faction can do this... for good ''and'' ill.

** The Players bloodline has art of a girl cosplaying as [[Anita Blake]].

** This is also present in their in-universe fiction: 'A Hunger Like Fire' has Persephone in a club playing [[Homestar Runner|a techno song with the refrain "The system... is down! The system... is down!"]]

* [[Shrouded in Myth]]: The Unholy, most famously.

* [[Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness]]: It's just ''barely'' on the middle-ish area. A really determined Kindred could potentially go their entire Requiem without killing...but just about every "biological" and social factor is against them. Feeding requirements only get tougher with age, the Beast means every emotional stimulus can potentially lead to murder, the Danse causes most neonates to get callous, ''fast''. And all their powers make it so ''very'' easy to get corrupted.

* [[Super-Powered Evil Side]]: Each Vampire's mind and soul are also home to a Beast, which consists of nothing but mindless impulses of rage, hunger, and just enough self-preservation to hide from the sun. Falling into a [[Unstoppable Rage|frenzy]] means that this Beast takes control, granting extra strength and some resistance to mental control, but at the cost of being controlled by hunger/anger/fear for the duration. A Vampire can attempt to "Ride the Wave" of the Frenzy, allowing him a small measure of control, but it's by no means a sure thing.

** There's also the Red Surrender which Gangrel can perform, which allows them access to the talents of the Beast for extended periods of time, at a cost of some control over their actions and addiction to the [[Evil Feels Good|way it feels]].

** One of the books presents an optional alternate version called The Other, which is much more intelligent and is actually a voice in the vampire's head trying to take control. When he goes into Frenzy, the vampire is much more calm and collected now because the Other is in control, although a lot of the mechanical results come out much the same.

* [[Total Party Kill]]: This can happen very easily early on if several members of a coterie blow their Predator's Taint roll when first being introduced to their covenant members.

* [[Vampires Are Sex Gods]]: Well, they are. The Players bloodline also uses the phrase "dark gods of lust."

* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]: Um, read this whole page...

* [[The Virus]]: Vampires, mostly.

** There's a fun scenario where a Burakhumin causes a zombie apocalypse with his skill in Getsumei.