History TableTopGame / VampireTheMasquerade

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Vampires' supernatural powers, as a rule, grow and develop with age, and positions of authority are usually occupied by old vampires. It also bears mentioning that Princes (and other vampire overlords) who can't kick ass tend not to remain in authority for long.
* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: Vampires don't really elect their leaders, and any ambitious vampire needs to be proficient in several disciplines and have combat experience to stay undead. Asskicking is the only thing equal to authority in the more combative clans such as the Brujah and Gangrel, and in the Sabbat.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: Varies on an individual basis, however the two "kingly" Clans, Ventrue and Lasombra, do pride themselves on this, with the Ventrue being ''noblesse oblige'' types, while the Lasombra are extreme meritocrats who are all about AsskickingEqualsAuthority.

** In the ''Gehenna'' scenario "Fair Is Foul," the sixteen-year-old homeless girl [[MacGuffinSuperPerson Lyta]] is soon revealed to be a {{Dhampyr}}, having been born with limited vampire powers; ever since she was unofficially adopted by Myth/{{Lilith}}, she's also been experiencing nightmarish prophetic episodes. Furthermore, she's being safeguarded by seven homeless beggars, all of whom turn out to be incredibly powerful vampires working for Lilith, including a master shapeshifter, the [[TheArchmage greatest blood mage in history]], [[MadGod Malkav]]'s reality-warping sister, and the original [[TimeMaster Brujah Antediluvian]].

** In general, much of ''Masquerade'' was put together before the greater World of Darkness came to be, leading to things like the aforementioned vampire mages, as ''Tabletop/MageTheAscension'' was not yet a thing, and even later on, it appears to have been designed with the idea in mind of being a standalone comprehensive take on most of popular mythology. Therefore, if you can think of a particular mythological creature, there's a good chance there is a breed or cult of vampire somewhere claiming to be that creature in addition to being a vampire.

* ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines2'' (TBA, tentatively 2022)

* VampiricDraining: Unlike Cainites, the Kuei-jin can obtain nourishment this way.

* PoisonousFriend: Ghouls can often become this.

** And then there's the Tzimisce Antediluvian, who figured the ghouls were hogging all the fun and became the bedrock of one of the biggest cities in the world. Poor [[BigAppleSauce New]] [[UpToEleven York]].

* ShadowArchetype: The ''antitribu'' aligned with the Sabbat generally embody the worst characteristics of their parent clan and take it UpToEleven. Sabbat Brujah, nicknamed Brutes, are super-violent frenzying shock troops who torture their victims [[ItAmusedMe because they can]]. Sabbat Toreador, nicknamed Perverts, can only see beauty in ugliness and pain, and do horrible, horrible things to humans. Ventrue ''antitribu'' are a variation; they are dubbed "True Ventrue" and tend to be KnightTemplar types, complete with codes of honor, which nonetheless require shedding copious amounts of preferably main-clan-Ventrue blood.

The game presents the players with a finicky moral puzzle: committing too many evil acts feeds the EnemyWithin (the animalistic urge that vampires call the Beast), endangering your Karma Meter and threatening to transform you into an unthinking monster, but the nature of vampirism and vampire society makes being a saintly do-gooder not only difficult but dangerous, and in that precarious balancing act -- "Monsters we are, lest monsters we become" -- lies much of the challenge of the game.

** To give some further examples, the Lhiannan are vampire dryads, the Ahrimanes vampire valkyries, the Daughters of Cacophony vampire sirens, the True Brujah vampire time travellers, and the Nephilim, Angellis Ater and arguably Salubri are vampire angels.

* TheDescendantsOfCain: Here, Cain's curse was actually [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampirism]], so the modern (Western) vampires are all descended from him by transmission of said curse. For this reason, one name that's used for them is "Cainites".

** There are some Baali who loathe infernalists too, not least their own kin -- they keep various cosmic horrors asleep by performing atrocities, and the last damn thing they need is some idiot trying to wake said horrors up.

* AliensInCardiff: One of the main strongholds of the Sabbat is ''Montreal''. White Wolf even released supplement books involving said city.

* DividedWeFall: Deliberately taken advantage of by elder vampires in order to keep the powerful in power and the younger vampires in their place. While this applies to all kindred to an extent, "every vampire for himself" is primarily a Camarilla philosophy. The packs of the Sabbat and gangs of the Anarchs represent an attempt to defy this, as facing down vampire elders with numerical superiority in direct combat has shown some level of success. Just don't allow them to start TalkingTheMonsterToDeath on you, or they'll show their TheSocialExpert cred pull a DivideAndConquer on you.

** To give some further examples, the Lhiannan are vampire dryads, the Ahrimanes vampire valkyries, the True Brujah vampire time travellers, and the Nephilim, Angellis Ater and arguably Salubri are vampire angels.

** In general, much of ''Masquerade'' was put together before the greater World of Darkness came to be, leading to things like the aforementioned vampire mages, as ''Tabletop/MageTheAscension'' was not yet a thing, and even later on, it appears to have been designed with the idea in being of being a standalone comprehensive take on most of popular mythology. Therefore, if you can think of a particular mythological creature, there's a good chance there is a breed of vampire somewhere claiming to be that creature in addition to being a vampire.

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: And Cain was [[MonsterProgenitor the first vampire]] (spelled Caine when referring to him as a vampire). Many other people from history and mythology were/are vampires too, from Helen of Troy to Houdini. Rasputin was given multiple separate backstories as a vampire, as well as described as a mage, werecreature, and wraith. Generally, the company tried to discourage this kind of thing later on, but at least a little bit of it seems to be inevitable.

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: The Tremere are wizard vampires, and the Giovanni are [[TheMafia Mafia]] {{Necromancer}} vampires.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Downplayed in that vampires have embraced people from all over the world and have also infiltrated most countries. However, each clan has one or two countries/cultures they're obviously heavily inspired by and tend to use as their traditional homeland if possible:

** Baali: Canaanite civilization, as the name implies.

* FantasyCounterpartCulture: Downplayed in that vampires have embraced people from all over the world and have also infiltrated most countries. However, each clan has one or two countries they're obviously heavily inspired by and tend to use as their traditional homeland:

** Tzimisce: The Balkans and Eastern Europe generally.

** Banu Haqim: Persia, parts of the Arabian Peninsula.
** Setite/Ministry: Egypt, both AncientEgypt and the modern one, again parts of the Arabian Peninsula.

** Ravnos: India.

** Brujah: Carthage and Ancient Greece
** Toreador: France, especially the medieval France of ChivalricRomance
** Ventrue: Ancient Rome, Germany (particularly the Holy Roman Empire)
** Tremere: Austria, parts of the Carpathians
** Gangrel: Scandinavia, generally ancient and medieval peoples viewed as "barbarian", such as the Celts and Mongols
** Nosferatu: Russia
** Lasombra: Iberia and by extension Latin America
** Tzimisce: The Balkans, Carpathians, and Eastern Europe generally
** Giovanni: Italy, particularly Venice
** Ravnos: India
** Banu Haqim: Persia, parts of the Arabian Peninsula
** Setite/Ministry: Egypt, both AncientEgypt and the modern one, again parts of the Arabian Peninsula

* FunnySchizophrenia: A holdover from the very first edition, when Clan Malkavian was all about playing pranks on people and talking to faeries. Later editions' attempts to focus on the tragedy and seriousness of mental illness were often overshadowed by players playing "wacky" vampires. In LARP parlance these "wacky" Malks are often referred to as Bunny Eared Malks, Fluffy Malks, or Fish Malks.