Malkavian

Clan

The madness of the Lunatics conceals and reveals truths.

Discipline:

(Auspex, Dominate, Obfuscate)

Bane:

Afflicted by their lineage, all Malkavians are cursed with at least one type of mental derangement. Depending on their history and the state of their mind at death, they may experience delusions, visions of terrible clarity, or something entirely different. When the Malkavian suffers bestial Failure or a Compulsion, their curse comes to the fore. Suffer a penalty equal to your character's Bane Severity to one category of dice pools (Physical, Social, oriental) for the entire scene. This is in addition to any penalties incurred by Compulsions. You and the Storyteller decide the type of penalty and the exact nature of the character’s affliction during character creation.

Compulsion:

Malkavian: Delusion

Their extrasensory gifts running wild, the vampire experiences what might be truths or portents, but what others call figments of imagination, dredged up by Hunger.

While still functional, the vampire’s mind and perceptions are skewed. They receive a two-dice penalty to rolls involving Dexterity, Manipulation, Composure, and Wits as well as on rolls to resist terror frenzy, for one scene.

Members

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Abilities

Disciplines

Auspex

Extrasensory perception, awareness, and premonitions

Storytellers may wish to make Auspex rolls for characters in order to more convincingly provide wrong or incomplete answers after failed rolls.

Type: Mental
Masquerade threat: Low. Auspex never by itself manifests in a way visible to the naked eye or causes effects that can’t be rationalized, if only as dumb luck.
Blood Resonance: Phlegmatic. Artists (especially photographers) and visionaries, certain schizophrenics, users of psychoactive substances, detectives.

Dominate

Mind control practiced through one's piercing gaze

Characteristics:

Most Dominate powers require
eye contact with the victim. Once they establish contact, Dominate holds the gaze of the victim until the user conveys their command or commands, barring interference. Catching the eyes of someone actively attempting to avoid the vampire’s gaze requires a contest of the user’s Resolve + Intimidation vs the target’s Wits + Awareness. It is of course impossible to catch the eyes of someone squeezing their eyes shut or wearing a blindfold, but that person should be easy prey to other tactics.

Using Dominate in combat or in other frantic situations is limited to people attacking or otherwise interacting with the user directly, as everyone else’s attention is firmly focused on their own peril.

Unless the user has supernatural means such as Telepathy (Auspex 5) at their disposal, they must command the victim verbally. The victim must be able to hear the user and understand their language.

Without Terminal Decree (Dominate 5), commands resulting in obvious death or serious injury fail automatically. Subjects roll to resist commands resulting in other social or physical harm (such as undressing in public), commands that have a character go against their Convictions, and those that would have negative effects towards their Touchstones or their relationship with them.See individual powers for details. Vampires cannot use Dominate to extract information, as the victim becomes a mindless puppet while under its influence. For example, the Compel command “Speak” results in blabbering word salad, while someone Mesmerized to “tell what you know about the assassin” responds “what you know about the assassin.” Dominate can- not make subjects do something they could not do on command, such as “Sleep.” Ultimately, the Storyteller determines what the Discipline can accomplish, but they should take care that Dominate remains one Discipline of many, rather than the catch-all solution to every problem.

Dominate cuts to the core of vampiric mastery and predation. Thus, vampires must resist attempts to Dominate them. A vampire of lower (stronger) generation can resist Dominate attempts from higher generation vampires by spending a Willpower point, negating the effect completely.

On a total failure on the roll of any Dominate power, that vampire can no longer Dominate that target for the rest of the story.

Dominate threatens Humanity, especially if the vampire has any Principles involving personal freedom or forbidding violations of human integrity. Using it may incur Stains (p. 239).

■ Type: Mental

■ Masquerade Threat: Low. Barring someone Dominating an entire auditorium to jump off the cliffs of Dover, it remains one of the more subtle vampiric powers.

■ Blood Resonance: Phlegmatic. The blood of the submissive or the dominant, masters and slaves, captains of industry, power trippers, cult leaders and followers.

Obfuscate - Discipline

The ability to remain obscure and unseen, even in crowds

Characteristics

Obfuscate powers work through ambient, low-level mesmerism. Observers see the vampire but their minds choose to ignore it. Witnesses unconsciously move out of the way if the user blocks their path and rationalize their behavior if pressed. Obfuscate affects all five senses unless otherwise noted.

The Discipline does have limits: the illusion fails if the observer cannot ignore the user or if the user backs the observer into a corner. A vampire blocking a doorway cannot maintain Obfuscate against someone walking through it. Likewise, violent action jeopardizes the façade, as does actions like raised voices, failed pickpocket attempts, and weapons raised to strike. Whispering without breaking Obfuscate is still possible.

Generally, the Discipline offers no protection against machine surveillance. A human staking out the vampire has a hard time pointing the lens in the right direction, but automatic cameras and other types of detectors can catch them.

A vampire with Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1) can detect Obfuscated characters by rolling Wits or Resolve + Auspex vs Wits + Obfuscate. Anyone can detect an Obfuscated vampire who draws attention to themselves; such observers detect such accidental revelations with a contest of Wits + Awareness (or Resolve + Awareness for an active searcher) vs Wits + Stealth. This also applies to surprise attacks from Obfuscate
– a victim always has a chance to sense the danger a moment before the strike.

■ Type: Mental

■ Masquerade Threat: Low. Avoiding detection is the whole point of this Discipline.

■ Blood Resonance: Melancholic.

The ignored and unseen, the homeless, forgotten, and depressed; spies, pickpockets, excellent servants, roadies and stagehands, and all the background people.