Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context TabletopGame / VampireTheRequiem

Go To

1[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/VampireRequiem.jpeg]]
2[[caption-width-right:300:[[HemoErotic Blood, sex]] and violence. [[InterplayOfSexAndViolence Is there a difference]]?]]
3
4A tabletop roleplaying game in the TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness line and SpiritualSuccessor of ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade''. Players take the roles of vampires, people [[CursedWithAwesome Cursed]] with eternal (un)life, supernatural power, and -- oh, yeah -- [[BlessedWithSuck bloodlust and a fatal sunlight allergy.]]
5
6In Requiem nobody knows exactly how the vampirism curse started. Some believe that they were cursed by ThePowersThatBe for a specific purpose, others believe that vampires are a concealed part of the natural world and there are those who think it's not important at all. But one thing is for sure, vampires have stalked and preyed on humanity for a very long time.
7
8The mortals killed and [[FirstEpisodeResurrection brought back as vampires]] are in for a tough existence. The first thing to be noticed is the ever-present [[EnemyWithin Beast]], the name given to the urges that drive vampires away from their Humanity (one of them being an endless thirst for the blood of the living). Then there is the fact that fire and sunlight are the bane of their existance. They also have to socialize with other bloodsuckers that compose vampire society, which can be roughly described as vicious, and most likely deal with [[VampireHunter hunters]] and/or [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight other nasty creatures that go bump in the night]]. Every night since the first is a battle for survival (metaphorical, or not). In addition (maybe as a compensation) they get powers like {{immortality}}, {{super strength}} and [[{{Glamour}} supernatural charm]], just to name a few, aside from the possibility that one night they may become the almighty overlords of the afterdark.
9
10[[AC:The various {{Splat}}s of Vampire are as follows:]]
11
12'''The Clans:''' A Clan is basically a blood family which is determined by the Sire. Instead of the previous game's thirteen (and then some) clans, clans being the most distinctive (and easily litigated) feature of White Wolf's system, it was whittled down to [[FiveManBand five "archetype" Clans]], but each one of them has tons of [[PrestigeClass Bloodlines]] that adds a few more [[VampireVarietyPack variations]].
13
14* '''Daeva:''' Faster, stronger and sexier, the Serpents are the sex symbols of the vampire race. As expected they are [[TheBeautifulElite good-looking]] or at least very charming. That talent for moving among humanity is a double edged sword, though, as Daeva become [[StalkerWithACrush obsessed]] with their human victims the more they feed off them. Their Disciplines are: [[SuperSpeed Celerity]], ''[[{{Glamour}} Majesty]]'' and [[SuperStrength Vigor]].
15* '''Gangrel:''' Vampires capable of great ferocity and insight. The Savages may have [[UnstoppableRage hairpin triggers]], but their special bond with the Beast give them a sagacity matched by no other Clan, and, in fact, some of the wisest vampires out there are Gangrel. On the other hand, while other vampires tend towards more... human evil, the Gangrel do boast some atrocious monsters. Their Disciplines are: [[TheBeastmaster Animalism]], ''[[ShapeShifting Protean]]'' and [[MadeOfIron Resilience]].
16* '''Mekhet:''' The Shadows are naturally discreet, mysterious and somewhat strange. They are associated with darkness, but that darkness has many interpretations which allows them to exercise any role they want, anything from social butterflies to assassins. Due to their shadowy nature [[KillItWithFire the effects of the sun are much harsher on them]], and each Mekhet bears a unique supernatural bane. Their Disciplines are: ''[[PsychicPowers Auspex]]'', [[SuperSpeed Celerity]] and [[{{Invisibility}} Obfuscate]].
17* '''Nosferatu:''' By far, the most evidently monstrous of the Clans. [[TheDreaded The Haunts]] are outcasts in the Kindred society because they are cruelly disfigured by the Embrace. The curse manifests in them in a variety of ways, [[RedRightHand like physical ugliness, abstract odor or something much more uncomprehensible, but always disturbing]]. Fortunately, for them, they have talents that makes them too useful and too dangerous to be completely ostracized. Their Disciplines are: ''[[NightmareFace Nightmare]]'', [[{{Invisibility}} Obfuscate]] and [[SuperStrength Vigor]].
18* '''Ventrue:''' [[MonsterLord The aristocracy of the vampire society]]. Proud and domineering, the Lords are always at the top: They win. They always win. Even though some of them may not be part of the elite, they are very influential in any societal level they find themselves in. Taking the neo-feudal politic system of the Kindred very seriously makes them dangerous social climbers. [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity Because of this power hunger, they're prone to seeing those around them as tools, rather than individuals]]. Their Disciplines are: [[TheBeastmaster Animalism]], ''[[HypnoticEyes Dominate]]'' and [[MadeOfIron Resilience]]
19
20'''The Covenants:''' The political parties and/or religions of the Kindred.
21
22* '''The Carthian Movement:''' Composed mostly by Neonates, the Carthians seek the best form of government for vampires based on mortal social systems which can be anything from strict Representative Republicanism to clan-based tyranny. Ironically, while Invictus-ruled cities generally tend to have the Carthian dissidents be [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire the least amoral vampires in town]], the Carthian-ruled cities detailed in the setting so far have all set new world records for going downhill fast. Apparently they make a far better opposition than administration.
23* '''The Circle of the Crone:''' An anthology of faiths and pagan cults that worships a variety of feminine deities incorporated in one entity, [[MonsterProgenitor creatrix of vampires]], [[WickedWitch the Crone]] (a.k.a. [[MotherOfAThousandYoung the Mother of all Monsters]]) and promote the idea that vampires are perfectly natural (in the way that leeches are natural). They practice the [[BloodMagic blood sorcery of]] ''[[BloodMagic Crúac]]'' that, as a downside, distances them from humanity.
24* '''The Invictus:''' [[DecadentCourt The crème de la crème of Kindred society]]. Sheer force of meritocracy (Invictus screw-ups do not last long) generally makes them competent administrators, but since the faction has no code of ethics and their attitude towards political maneuvering is [[Creator/NiccoloMachiavelli Machiavellian]], Invictus-ruled territories are classic examples of ''At least [[NoDelaysForTheWicked the trains run on time]]."
25* '''Lancea Sanctum:''' Founded by [[HistoricalDomainCharacter the Roman Centurion Longinus]], the [[ReligiousVampire Sanctified]] believe that [[TheScourgeOfGod God cursed them as vampires to unleash His Wrath upon sinners]]. They can range anything from Catholic (most common) to Jewish and Muslim in pomp and circumstance. ''[[BloodMagic Theban Sorcery]]'', their kind of magic, is the invocation of dark miracles upon the world.
26** ''Blood and Smoke'' corrects their name to '''Lancea et Sanctum''', and makes their focus Christian-only.
27* '''Ordo Dracul:''' By studying what it means to be a vampire, using a [[MadScientist scientific method]] [[{{Magitek}} blended with]] [[HermeticMagic occultism]], they try to find a way to [[EvilutionaryBiologist transcend the curse limitations]], such as that little sunlight allergy. The result of such studies are the ''[[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic Coils of the Dragon]]'', powers that negate some of their weaknesses. They make heavy use of a student-mentor program.
28
29Plus two antagonistic Covenants:
30
31* '''Belial's Brood''': [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Infernalists]], self-titled the [[TheCorruption Forsworn]], that believe that they should lose all traces of humanity and give themselves over to [[EnemyWithin the Beast]].
32* '''VII''': They engage in terrorist acts against other vampires, and their minds can't be read beyond getting the image of the roman numeral 7. Beyond that, there is no set canonical explanation for who VII are; a variety of options are offered to choose from.
33
34For more details on Clans, Covenants and other creatures that composes the Requiem line go to [[Characters/VampireTheRequiem Character Sheet]]
35
36----
37!!This game features examples of:
38
39* AffablyEvil: The Spina, a Daeva bloodline whose unique curse makes them ''obsessed'' with politeness. Their unique Discipline, Courtoisie, encourages this -- you can ignore attack penalties by [[CallingYourAttacks announcing your intent,]] use your Social Traits for combat dice pools by [[CasualDangerDialogue having a conversation in mid-battle,]] and at the pinnacle, [[YouFightLikeACow tell another vampire off so hard they ]]''[[WordsCanBreakMyBones bleed.]]''
40%%** Some of the factions are definitely not good, but they seem cool enough to hang out with. The Reformers of the Lancea Sanctum, for example.
41* AgeWithoutYouth: The Oberloch bloodline have the unique weakness that their bodies continue to age after the Embrace, leaving their elders astonishingly decrepit.
42* AGodAmI: Every member of the Asnam bloodline. To wit, the Asnam are a [[TheBeautifulElite Daeva]] bloodline whose special abilities allow them to make a ghouled human appear prettier than he really is, transfer blood or willpower to or from one of her ghouls over large distances, sleep in the body of a ghoul and prepare a child in such a way that, when the Asnam would suffer Final Death, their soul is instead transferred into the body of the child. They are also true egomaniacs, which allows the [[GameMaster Storyteller]] to grossly underplay the difficulty of a task up to two times per scene.
43* AlmightyJanitor: A few, but one of the more straight examples of the trope is Sam, from the New Orleans setting book.
44-->Everybody knows Sam. Sam is the friendly if quiet fellow who meanders around town, occasionally muttering to himself in low and often hushed tones. Sam is the unassuming homeless man who spends most of his time in one of the few New Orleans parks that aren’t regularly monopolized by the flow of mortal men in ugly pants (most notably Audobon Park, Louis Armstrong Park and the northern half of City Park). Sam is the crumpled old wino who keeps to himself. Everybody knows Sam--right?\
45Wrong.
46** In truth, Sam is [[spoiler:probably, in terms of physical and mystical might, the single most powerful vampire in the entire state of Louisiana. He was an elder when the current elders of the city were barely more than fledglings themselves, and faked his own Final Death, falling into torpor, where he slept until the late 20th or early 21st century. And he appears to have slept at the center of a network of Ley Lines, which... ''changed'' him somehow.]]
47* AncientConspiracy: Every last one of the Covenants is some combination of this and the AncientTradition.
48** The Invictus is closest to the AncientConspiracy side of things, and are the ones most likely to be involved in [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal manipulating mortal matters.]]
49** The Lancea Sanctum are mostly an AncientTradition, only getting involved in humanity when they need to be [[ScareEmStraight scared straight]].
50** The Circle of the Crone are barely even an AncientTradition, much less a conspiracy, given how splintered they are as an organization. Nonetheless, they've managed to pass down the secrets of [[BloodMagic Crúac]] for millenia, so there's at least something to them.
51** The Ordo Dracul is a downplayed version because they don't even really care about vampire politics, much less the affairs of mortals, so long as they're allowed to study in peace.
52** The Carthians are a lesser version because they're not really all that ancient- they only date back to the Enlightenment, which makes them practically neonates compared to the other Covenants.
53* AnimalEyeSpy: An advanced Animalism power lets the vampire temporarily transfer their mind into an animal, taking control of it and gaining its senses as their own.
54* {{Animorphism}}: The signature discipline of Clan Gangrel, Protean, lets the vampire transform into an animal like a wolf or bat. They start with a single alternate form and can learn more by spending XP.
55* ApocalypseMaiden: This is either the Crone, or a potential daughter of hers. No one's entirely sure.
56* ApparentlyPowerlessPuppetmaster: The Phanariot and the Louchet are ghouls who have developed an immunity to the [[CharmPerson Viniculum]], either through a collective pact with an otherworldly entity (Phanariot) or as part of a deal with true Kindred to remove some of the BlessedWithSuck qualities of existence (the Louchet). Since it's assumed that ghouls are more or less the collective [[KickTheDog kicked dogs]] of the vampiric world, everyone who doesn't know of their existence beforehand assumes they're just loyal gofers. Naturally, this is an impression they do everything in their power to cultivate, right up until they ask WhosLaughingNow and cut off their "master's" head.
57* AppealToAuthority: A Prince never needs to explain him or herself to anyone, and can punish anyone who questions them. However, as a matter of practicality, Princes will usually at least explain their actions to the Primogen, since Princes that seem to act too recklessly and can't defend themselves can often find themselves without their jobs... [[KlingonPromotion or their heads.]]
58* AppealToNovelty: The Carthian Movement was initially just a collection of rabble-rousing neonates that were angry about the stodginess and perpetual stasis of vampire society. But then a few elders thought it might be a nice idea to try out some of these strange new ideas like "democracy" and "personal liberty," and soon the Movement rose to prominence alongside all the other covenants.
59* AppealToTradition:
60** The Invictus inherently trust things that are old because they are proven, rather than new things that are potentially unreliable and volatile. This includes their political beliefs, of course, but it also extends to their personal belongings and tastes (part of the reason they tend to retain fashion styles from their time alive, even if they're several hundred years out of date).
61** Downplayed in 2e; the Invictus are still pretty traditional, but they are also more adaptable when it comes to technology than they were in 1e.
62* ArcSymbol: Owls are very present in vampiric folklore, such as stories about clan origins. They represent the [[OminousOwl Strix]].
63* ArtificialInsolence: Vampires are prone to Frenzy when they're provoked, [[WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere hungry in the presence of blood]], or threatened by fire or sunlight. If they fail a dice roll to resist it, their [[EnemyWithin Beast]] takes over and forces them to fight, feed, or flee.
64* ArtReflectsPersonality: Vampires are {{Damaged Soul}}s with CreativeSterility, so their art might be ''technically'' impressive, but it almost never makes any emotional impact on the viewer unless the vampire manages an exceptional success on a Humanity roll while making it.
65* AscendedDemon: The mythical state of Golconda is believed to free a pure-hearted vampire from their Beast -- according to some, at least.
66* AssholeVictim: The [[HellHound Black Hounds]] only pursue vampires who have JumpedOffTheSlipperySlope or are getting close to it, and in the case of genuinely repentant ones, leave them with only a nasty burn and a warning.
67* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking:
68** Any vampire that lives long enough to become Prince is probably not someone you want to mess with... unless they're a PuppetKing, in which case they are probably ''controlled'' by someone you don't want to mess with.
69** This also goes for most Primogen, and anyone who manages to get into the leadership of their respective Covenants.
70** As a general rule, the more titles an Invictus noble has, the less you'll want to be on their bad side.
71** Averted (mostly) with the Ordo Dracul. Rank in the Ordo is generally earned through study of the Coils of the Dragon, which often requires so much time that they don't really have time to kick ass. That said, ''do not'' mess with one of the Sworn of the Axe, who are this trope up to eleven.
72* BadassBookworm: Besides the inherent badassery that comes from knowing certain Coils (such as learning not to frenzy and how to minimize damage from fire and sunlight), the Ordo has an entire group of these known as the Sworn of the Axe. They were founded by Mara, the most violent of the Brides of Dracula, and they will gladly kill you if you threaten the Ordo.
73%%* TheBaroness: The female Ventrue.
74%%* TheBeautifulElite: Deconstructed by the Daeva.
75* BeingGoodSucks: Not all the time; it's more that EvilFeelsGood. However, the opposite of the Gangrel Red Surrender--which may or may not even be real, but which is rumored to exist--results in getting penalties where the Surrender gives benefits and vice versa, for a single night once per week... and one other ironic twist:
76-->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.
77* BittersweetEnding: Ending a story like this is par for the course.
78* BlessedWithSuck: It is ''not'' fun to be a vampire. Those who disagree tend to become ash in the wind one way or another. To the point that, in 2e, many of a vampire's ''own inherent powers'' can cause them to lose points of Humanity -- use some of that SuperStrength or SuperSpeed? That's a Humanity 9 "sin". Survive an attack thanks to your combination of SuperToughness and HealingFactor? That's a Humanity ''7'' sin. Even your immortality causes you to slip towards monstrosity; only vampires with a Humanity of ''1'' are immune to the need to make checks for surviving centuries.
79** 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 [[ExperiencePoint cheaper to buy]]. [[FantasticFragility The downside?]] The vampire and likely most if not all of their progeny now get an ''extra'' WeaksauceWeakness, 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}}.
80*** Of particular note are the Kallisti, a Daeva bloodline outlined in the Invictus sourcebook. On paper, they are the ultimate social manipulators, with [[HypnoticEyes Dominate]], [[{{Glamour}} 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 [[SuperSpeed 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.
81* BlobMonster:
82** A vampire using the Yama’s Benefice power of the Sakti Pata Discipline can turn themselves into one of these by possessing their own blood and then animating it seperately of their corpse-shell. This can even help them escape death, allowing their blood to ooze out of their destroyed body before it is completely destroyed and try to find a new corpse to inhabit.
83** The extinct Pijavica clan, introduced in ''Blood and Smoke''. When the Pijavica Embraced, the victim died, and if the corpse was left to rot long enough the new Pijavica would burst out as a sentient mass of blood. Given enough time, they'd [[BishonenLine eventually develop into a mostly human form]].
84* BloodBath:
85** One bloodline of vampires, the Galloi, bathe in blood to make themselves more beautiful.
86** Macellarius and Noctuku feeding habits are this trope. Noctuku, at least, can absorb blood through their skin. Macellarius are just so disgusting and gluttonous they tend to slop their food all over themselves.
87* BloodMagic: Both the Acolytes and the Sanctified are users of this, though Theban Sorcery depends on other reagents, and Crúac is pure Blood Magic.
88** Eventually, a book updating blood magic to a more [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening Mage]] paradigm, Blood Sorcery, came out. Reading the book, one gets the idea that [[BodyHorror you]] [[BoltOfDivineRetribution don't]] [[MookMaker fuck]] [[ScarilyCompetentTracker with]] [[GreenThumb blood]] [[InfinityPlusOneSword sorcerers]].
89* BloodyMurder: Vampires can do a ''lot'' of stuff with their blood, but the Sakti Pata Discipline is the closest to this trope.
90* BombThrowingAnarchists: Subverted with Belial's Brood: The Forsworn ''are'' anarchists, and they ''do'' throw bombs, but their sourcebook shows that they actually don't view chaos as an end in and of itself-it's actually part of their Pursuit, the philosophic journey towards the platonic ideal of "the Beast".
91%%** Some more radical chapters of the Carthians can approach this trope.
92* ButNotTooForeign: A plot point introduced in ''Night Horrors: Immortal Sinners.'' The half-Japanese character Emily Eupraxus Washington was inducted into the ancient Roman Eupraxus bloodline, who are treated as the figureheads of the [[AristocratsAreEvil Invictus]] Covenant. The plot is that the elder Invictus are largely racist feudal Europeans, but they dare not act against their crown jewel. The younger Invictus, on the other hand, love Emily because her combined lineage and bloodline show that the Invictus is capable of adapting to the modern world.
93%%* TheCaligula -- Plenty of princes fulfill this role.
94* CameBackWrong:
95** The Nosferatu. Some are TheGrotesque, but most simply have something about them -- eyes that are an unnatural color, an odor, the way they move, or even an aura about them -- that is ''just not right''.
96** The expanded rules on draugr give us larvae: Kindred who, whether by curse or accident, are brought into the Requiem at Humanity 0.
97** 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 [[AnatomyOfTheSoul ka]] 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 ka 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.
98* CanisLatinicus: "Lancea Sanctum." Changed to the actually correct "Lancea et Sanctum" in 2e.
99* CannibalClan: The Oberloch bloodline seem to be based on the CannibalClan types you see in horror movies like the ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre'', but are actually derived from the [[DeepSouth redneck]] thing. A truer cannibal clan would be the Noctuku, who feed on other vampires exclusively, or the Macellarius, who do that occasionally, but really emphasize the family unit.
100* CannibalismSuperpower:
101** The Macellarius, a Ventrue Bloodline, possess the unique power of Gustus. This allows them to, among other things, consume, digest and gain [[LifeEnergy Vitae]] from human flesh, store extra Vitae as body fat and to spew highly acidic bile. Sounds more repulsive than convenient, right? Except that at its highest rank, Gustus allows you to absorb the powers and copy the abilities of others by consuming their flesh, and it works on mortals and fiends alike. {{Munchkin}}s ahoy!
102** Diablerie is this by way of MonstrousCannibalism - the act of draining another vampire dry during torpor and ''[[SoulEating devouring their soul]]''. While it comes with drawbacks, and practitioners are considered BeyondRedemption in polite Kindred society, the benefits include an immediate upgrade to the diablerist's blood potency, [[MegaManning and the ability to gain one dot in any skill or discipline that the fallen vampire knew more about than his killer (which can allow diablerists to learn disciplines from outside their clan)]].
103* CardCarryingVillain: Belial's Brood is fully aware that they are evil by human standards, and they could not care less.
104%%* TheCasanova: The male Daeva.
105* CastFromSanity: The game has a few of the most powerful Theban Sorcery spells cost Willpower Points; once cast, the stat ''itself'' goes down. Characters can [[CastFromExperiencePoints spend XP to buy it back up to the previous level]], but until then they're essentially less able to expend mental and emotional energy. Interestingly, creating a new vampire requires the exact same expenditure on part of the vampire's sire. The setting details some sires who mass embrace too many, too quickly, and become emotional wrecks unable to hold themselves together.
106* ChestBurster: The extinct Pijavica rose into undeath by ''bursting out of their own corpses in a BlobMonster form''. They were still unalive, obviously, but still, that could not have been a pleasant sensation for them.
107* ChineseVampire: This would be the Jiang Shi variant of vampire. They even make use of the genderswap power legends speak of, but is often forgotten in modern portrayals. In 2e, the Jiang Shi in the research triangle of North Carolina are in the process of becoming a true Kindred clan.
108* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Zig-zagged, depending on splatbook. For example; in ''World of Darkness: Chicago,'' it's played straight with Richard Tabor.
109* CityOfAdventure: New Orleans is cited to possess the best aesthetic for any Vampire campaign that doesn't have the capacity to purely homebrew a Vampire city. Los Angeles is also a noted city for a Vampire campaign, given its connections to Kindred history.
110* ClassicalMovieVampire: One of the three elder vampires claiming to be Dracula is a fellow nicknamed "Hollywood Drac." He's described as looking like a cross between Creator/BelaLugosi and Creator/ChristopherLee, and is pictured wearing the traditional white-tie evening clothes, black cape, and pendant.
111* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The Invictus from Florence has a formal dress code that includes the use of of differently colored sashes for each clan, the Daeva use red and gold, the Gangrel use red and brown, the Mekhet use indigo and silver, the Nosferatu use black and green and the Ventrue use purple and gold.
112* ComboPlatterPowers: Though vampires can learn all of the "common" Disciplines, at least potentially, they are by nature inclined towards mastery of a few, based on their Clan and, potentially, their Bloodline. The precise combination of Disciplines can be rather surprising. For example, the Daeva (whose niche is VampiresAreSexGods) have access to not only the [[CharmPerson Majesty Discipline]], but also the [[SuperSpeed Celerity]] and [[SuperStrength Vigour]] Disciplines as well.
113* {{Cosplay}}: People who play in the LARP version of the game, Mind's Eye Theater, often dress-up as their characters or major [=NPCs=]. The actual rulebook for the LARP even uses pictures of some players cosplaying as New Orleans mainstays [[RetiredBadass Pearl Chastain]] and [[HollywoodVoodoo Baron Cimetiere]], who himself is cosplaying Baron Samedi.
114%%* CrapsackWorld: ''Especially'' for humans. [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil Some humans take issue with this state of affairs]] and have developed potent tools towards that end-such as a device that essentially makes a vampire's unique metabolism self-destruct in rather graphic fashion.
115* CripplingOverspecialization: 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 (shapeshifting) and Nightmare (inflicting fear), though they're 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. They also effectively have the clan weaknesses of both the Gangrel and the Nosferatu 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. Notes for the Bloodline flat-out state that they're exceptional in combat, nearly useless for just about anything else, and actually provides some tips for approaching the Crippling Overspecialization trope in-story.
116* CrossOver: It doesn't involve metaplot since it doesn't exist in this iteration of the [=CoD=], but it's still worth pointing out:
117** The Dead Wolves bloodline from Shadows of Mexico are [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken wolf-blooded]] who just so happen to have been Embraced before the First Change. Sort of. So BigScrewedUpFamily as well. Their bloodline discipline references the mechanics for the various moons and their related skills in Werewolf as well.
118** The Bohagande bloodline are tricky gamblers whose founders consist of a cowboy Gangrel with a crow instead of bat form, and what is basically a Shoshone [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening Acanthus mage.]] They even make use of Mage's sympathetic magic system with their bloodline discipline, so bonus points for that!
119** The clanbooks make references to vampires fighting against [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil people in black fatigues carrying the symbol of Sagittarius (the Cheiron Group's field division) and hunters bearing marks of a shield and spear (Aegis Kai Doru). They also make references to The Witch's Hammer (another name for the Malleus Maleficarum).]]
120** The clanbooks seem to enjoy crossover hints, and they don't just limit themselves to Hunter. The Daeva book, as part of a legend about Daeva creation, includes a part that talks about how [[TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated Innanna took a piece of the sun and put it in his heart to bring back her husband Tammuz, who afterwards didn't remember who he was.]] The Nosferatu book also includes a tale about a vampire doctor that had captured a [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost Changeling]] and was experimenting on him.
121** The Nests valued by the Ordo Dracul are all but explained as being the same as Werewolf loci and Mage sanctums.
122* CrystalDragonJesus: The ''Lancea Sanctum'', a group of vampires that follow the teachings of Longinus, the legionnaire that they believe stabbed [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} the actual Jesus from the Bible]] with his spear, as some kind of dark vampire messiah.
123%%** Horrifically, Belial gets similar treatment.
124%%* CursedWithAwesome: Frankly, despite the developers' intent, that's how most groups play it.
125* CursedWithAwesome: Ghouls tend to see themselves as this: They are cursed to be necrophages for eternity in return for their dark sorcery as mortals... [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld at the age they were cursed]]... with FunctionalMagic intact... CharmPerson... and the complete lack of anything resembling [[EnemyWithin the Beast]]. It's at that point that the silver lining gets so thick you can't see the cloud.
126* DarkerAndEdgier: Unlike in Masquerade, it isn't actually possible to embrace your new power without giving into the Beast, at least partially -- which means it's impossible to remain a moral individual and have something resembling power in vampiric society. And that's the ''least'' bad thing that will happen to you. Yeah, BlessedWithSuck ''doesn't begin to describe Kindred''.
127* DarkestAfrica: ''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 [[JustifiedTrope justified]], since this ''is'' Africa during the time of the Roman Empire.
128* DarkIsNotEvil:
129** Or rather, less evil. The Mekhet hate [[FireKeepsItDead fire]] and sunlight even more than other vampires, and the Nosferatu are literally ''impossible to like''. They're also the clans whose Beasts affect their minds in the least obvious ways, so it appears easier for them to be good... which isn't saying much.
130** The Gangrel are a close second. They're just not very cerebral, although they don't have to indulge their dark sides or go crazy. But they can. Oh, how they can...
131** A more appropriate version of DarkIsNotEvil can be found with the Khaibit. Their bloodline power is Obtenebration, granting power over shadows and increased ability to operate in the dark... and they specialize as demon-hunters and bodyguards.
132* TheDarkSide -- Quite a few:
133** The Gangrel get the Red Surrender, which allows them to yield more power from going into Frenzy. Problem is, it also makes it harder to succeed at non-bestial skills... oh, and [[EvilFeelsGood it's addictive]].
134** Belial's Brood get Investments, demonstrations of their symbiotic relationship with the Beast and their understanding of vampiric nature. If things like tearing off your hands to serve as puppets or climbing up walls with your fingers weren't obviously creepy enough, they get easier to buy the lower your KarmaMeter goes.
135* DayOfTheJackboot: While the Carthians are generally presented as having philosophies rooted in modern democratic and republican ideals, they also count fascists and communists among their number. And sometimes, those Carthians manage to take control of a city...
136%%* DecadentCourt: Pick an Elysium, ''any'' Elysium.
137* DeaderThanDead: Since vampires are the walking dead to begin with, and pretty hard to kill, they can only be truly destroyed usually by fire or sunlight.
138* DeafComposer: Any vampire cooks, by virtue of having normal food taste utterly rancid. For that matter, virtually any vampire artist of any sort lacks any emotional insight or expression, regardless of how many dots the player puts into Expression and Manipulation, because vampires are, not to put too fine a point on it, dead inside.
139* DeathBeforeDishonor: The bushido-themed Sotoha bloodline are bound to a strict MyMasterRightOrWrong code of honour. However, a Sotoha can commit public {{Seppuku}} in protest against their lord (being vampires, this [[DownplayedTrope only leaves them comatose]]) to be freed from their oath if they survive, or commit SuicideBySunlight to free ''all'' their lord's other vassals.
140* DemocracyIsBad: The Invictus don't believe in democracy, as it's easy to subvert with their psychic Disciplines. The Invictus Emperor story is actually a SpaceWhaleAesop about this.
141%%* DemonicPossession: Dominate 5: any human so possessed this way tends to go insane or even catatonic.
142%%** Pick a Strix. Any Strix. Chances are he's done this at least once, probably more.
143* DependingOnTheArtist: As different artists are commissioned to work on the same characters, this trope is in full effect.
144%%* {{Deprogram}}ming: What it takes to break some Dominate powers.
145* DevelopersForesight:
146** 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 [[RecycledINSPACE in outer space,]] with parentheticals asking just [[WhatTheHellPlayer what kind of chronicle you're playing for this to come up.]]
147** ''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) ''[[VideoGameCrueltyPotential exercise in cruelty]]''.
148* {{Dhampyr}}: Covered in "Wicked Dead", they are the result of dark rituals and an unnatural obsession for a vampire to procreate. So long as the parents are one mortal and one vampire, [[HomosexualReproduction normal gender requirements are void]]. [[MisterSeahorse The female partner can even impregnate the male partner]] -- [[BodyHorror naturally, this is very likely to result in death for a mortal man]]. Dhampyrs themselves are pretty much BlessedWithSuck; they can deactivate Disciplines without even realising it and vampires that drink their blood have to regurgitate it before they can use their powers, but at the same time a vampire that drinks a same-clan dhampyr's blood goes nuts, often becoming obsessed with the dhampyr to boot.
149* DistractedByTheSexy: The "Sexualized" merit lets characters use this to their advantage, at the cost of dealing with the fallout from the occasional StupidSexyFlanders moments they inflict on people around them.
150* DoubleEdgedBuff: Frenzy gives vampires several bonuses (or in 2e, a scaling buff to everything) but [[ArtificialInsolence hands over their free will]] to their Beast.
151* DownerEnding: This is the ''default ending'' for most chronicles (personal horror game, remember?). The authors make it a point to remind the readers every now and then. The [[AscendedDemon best case scenarios]] tend to involve the characters involved not thinking like a human anymore.
152* DysfunctionJunction: Enforced by the Predator's Taint rule. Basically, vampires are meant to be solitary hunters, and thus the [[EnemyWithin Beast]] tries to go into either a rage or a fear frenzy upon running across another vampire for the first time (the type of frenzy depending on whether the triggering vampire is of lower or higher Blood Potency, respectively). A roll is made to avoid this, but if it fails, [[HilarityEnsues well...]] It can be also be bypassed entirely if ''both'' possess the second level of Obfuscate.
153%%* EmptyShell: What excessive uses of Dominate can do to a person.
154* EmptyShell: Subverted with the [[HumanoidAbomination Empty Liars]]--they're called that because they have false memories of being a human and don't have blood, only eldritch secrets they've picked up. But personality-wise, they're indistinguishable from normal people, even to the point of having a Morality score.
155* EnemyWithin:
156** All vampires suffer from The Beast, an animalistic, id-like force with a hint of supernatural malice, that attempts to compel them into immediately satisfying their instinctive urges, such as craving for blood, fear of sunlight or anger at the slightest provocation, no matter the circumstances. Its motives can be summarised as "Hunt. Kill. Feed. Sleep. Repeat."
157** There's also "The Other," from the ''Storyteller's Guide'', which can optionally replace the Beast, and is a bit like the ToxicFriendInfluence within.
158* EnemyWithout: The Hollow Mekhet lose their reflection and [[AnatomyOfTheSoul part of their soul]] during their Embrace. Those bits become autonomous spirit-like entities that can only subsist on carrion and stagnant water, and generally don't like their hosts.
159* EnlightenmentSuperpowers: The Ordo Dracul study the vampiric condition with the goal of transcending it. Members learn the Coils of the Dragon in this manner, transforming their bodies and souls through willpower alone to remove elements of their vampiric weaknesses.
160* EvenEvilHasStandards:
161** Members of the "Romanist" belief (the theory that the first vampires arose spontaneously from certain members of the Julio-Claudian Caesars) sometimes wonder if Nero might have been the first Daeva... they invariably go back to speculating that the Daeva's founder was either his mother, Agrippina, or his aunt-in-law, Messalina. The reason is that general consensus is, simply: Nero was far too much of a ''jerk'' to have become the founder of the Succubus clan. Such a petty, preening poseur is nowhere near charismatic or attractive enough to be the founder of the Succubus clan, who, for all their glitz, only an idiot mistakes for vapid fools.
162** The Melissidae are a Ventrue bloodline descended from a woman who tried to encourage humans to forsake their humanity and instead become a literal hive, forsaking individual thought for the good of the hive -- a philosophy that would have been "hideously wrong" even without having an unnatural, undead thing at the center of the hive, as the book notes. They are such psychotic, abusive, soulless monsters that the other vampires actually organised en masse to wipe them out.
163** Draugr (vampires who have hit the rock bottom of the KarmaMeter and become utterly inhuman) aren't appreciated by vampires at the best of times. The kicker is, they tend to be driven solely by their Vice, and come in two levels of intelligence, one that can vaguely pass for human(ish), the other utterly primal. Whenever a bestial draugr driven by Lust comes into being, the local vampires invariably band together to destroy it. As ''Wicked Dead'' notes, it's not often that vampires get to feel like heroes -- but destroying draugr of this stripe is one of those times.
164%%* EvilEvolves: Or at least, it does if you're the Ordo Dracul. Of course, they [[KnightTemplar rarely see what they do]] [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans as evil...]]
165* EvilFeelsGood: Humanity is lost by not showing remorse for misdeeds. And the Red Surrender, a Gangrel-only mindset that gives the beast a little more free rein, feels ''really'' good.
166* EvilMinions: The Staff merit grants a variaty of non combatant characters (maids, gardeners, etc.) However they may not be evil per se.
167* EvilTastesGood: Feeding causes a vampire to have something somewhere between an adrenaline rush/orgasm.
168* EvilTwin: 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...
169* EvilutionaryBiologist:
170** The ''modus operandi'' of the Ordo Dracul, thanks to the Coils of the Dragon. Subverted in that most of the changes are done to oneself, intentionally... although there's always a need for more [[HumanResources test subjects.]]
171** Also, the origin of the Azerkatil bloodline, which was created through experimentation with bloodline "genetics" and rampant diablerie. This alone would be a good reason to fear the Azerkatil, even if they weren't a bloodline [[VampireHunter specifically created to hunt other vampires.]]
172* EvilVersusEvil:
173** In a game where you are a VillainByDefault in a society based on TheSocialDarwinist trope and the game's system tries to make it really hard to play TheAtoner, you get this.
174** ''Ventrue'' has a running narrative about a [[MysteriousWaif dead girl]] who's trying to protect herself from the [[OminousOwl Strix]] by performing a lot 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."
175* EvilVirtues: Part of what makes Belial's Brood such an effective organization is TrueCompanions. This is in contrast to ''every other Kindred in existence''.
176* FanDisservice: The cover of ''The Wicked Dead'' has a LesbianVampire blood orgy. [[NightmareFuel It's not sexy. In the slightest.]]
177* FanService: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since [[WordOfGod it's explained]] that the art for the books is often commissioned before the written material is finished, so the pictures will sometimes not match the text! The end result is that we get illustrations of sexy vampire girls (and guys!) for no appreciable reason.
178* FantasticDrug:
179** Vampire blood. Just don't mention this to most of them. They're kind of sensitive about it.
180** Solace, from the ''Mythologies'' sourcebook. Basically, it makes a vampire feel like they're alive again.
181** [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost Bloodroot]] is about as fantastic as you can get -- it's a vampire-specific narcotic from another dimension.
182** One of the [[ShrugOfGod potential]] effects of Changeling blood when drunk by a vampire is that the blood may taste like a random, regular food... [[MundaneUtility to someone who hasn't tasted food in hundreds of years.]] This is really only mentioned in one [=NPC's=] write-up, but his plan is to [[CutLexLuthorACheck harvest and sell Changeling blood from willing donors to vampires for shitloads of money.]]
183* FantasticFragility: 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 being egomaniacs (Asnam) to the not having fangs or [[KissOfTheVampire the kiss]] (Norvegi).
184* FantasticRacism:
185** The clanbooks bring up the idea that the Daeva and Ventrue are the top of vampire society, while the Mekhet are looked down upon. The Gangrel are equated with dogs, and Nosferatu? Worms.
186%%** The Lancea et Sanctum faction called the Crimson Cavalry is the Christian Identity Movement with vampire clans taken into consideration. Wow.
187** 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.
188* FantasyCounterpartCulture: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] to emphasize that Kindred were once mortal, and that they love their old lives a lot, thank you very much.
189** The Indian covenants.
190** The Crimson Cavalry are the Christian Identity Movement from the US, UK, and South Africa.
191** The Lancea Sanctum has variant creeds associated with Judaism, Islam, and other branches of Christianity.
192** The Amanotsukai is Shinto with vampires.
193** The Carthian Movement is rooted heavily in Enlightenment philosophy and post-Enlightenment politics, and has much the same problems with vampire society that Enlightenment philosophers had with European monarchies.
194* FateWorseThanDeath:
195** Ultimately every vampire will surrender to their beast and become either a mindless beast or a careful predator. For some that is a FateWorseThanDeath but for some (just read the Belial's Brood description above) it's a ''blessing''.
196** 2e softens this a bit. Vampires can hold on to their humanity via interaction with Touchstones, which are people, places or things that remind them of what being human was like.
197** Well, either that or they'll hit their Final Death beforehand. [[CursedWithAwesome There are indeed ways of getting around the Beast, they're hard as hell to learn outside the Ordo Dracul... but they DO exist. And you can get the upper hand on your Beast]]... of course, you're [[BlessedWithSuck still stuck in an incestuous society and rejected by the living world entirely.]]
198%%* TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne: How vampires sense each other's Blood Potency.
199* FoodChainOfEvil:
200** Once they hit Blood Potency 6, vampires can only survive off of the blood of other vampires.
201** Some ghouls go rogue, hunting vampires like prey rather than submit to slavery beneath them. The ''Mythologies'' splatbook features a ghoul strain called the Phanariot which is dedicated to doing this.
202** Vampires can feed on other supernatural races, of course. In second edition, the Unnatural Affinity merit allows [=BP6+=] vampires to use one or more kinds of supernatural as an acceptable substitute for vampires when it comes to feeding.
203** The Ragged-Man (''Night Horrors: The Wicked Dead'') is a parasite that gestates inside of vampires.
204* ForeignFanservice: ''Requiem for Rome'' portrays the Daeva as sexy Middle Easterners.
205* ForScience: The stated motive behind many of the more horrible things the Ordo Dracul 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, as a lesson in the unpredictability of the consequences of one's actions. 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. They also entertain ideas about Embracing people completely unprepared for vampirism (suicides, the disabled) for the reason of seeing whether or not the Beast's survival urge can overcome their mentality.
206* ForTheEvulz:
207** One of the most deranged things introduced in the game is a ghoul family called the Crassus. Unlike most ghoul families, these guys are pretty awesome. They're a 6,000 member family with tons of cash, connections, fame, and Kindred disciplines. They're called the Caesars, and sometimes the royalty of America. They have their hand in everything from insurance to Mob wars. But there's a catch: see, this family was created when a Ventrue dude named Lysander agreed to paying a Roman gambler's debt, but in return everyone in his family is now a toy for Invictus members. Only a few individuals in the family know this. And by "toy," we mean the Invictus can beat and rape the hell out of them whenever they want to vent out some of their frustration (or the lulz), only to return the poor Crassus member to their normal life as if nothing has happened. [[RefugeInAudacity The Crassus are noted for being incredibly resistant to the thought of anything supernatural, even their own powers, so they always always rationalize this regular degradation as some "evil uncle paying a visit."]] The fluff actually encourages this behavior: the Crassus are consistently portrayed as [[RichBitch vain and snot-nosed rich kids]] that [[BreakTheHaughty "need to be taken down a peg or three"!]] But wait, it gets better! All Crassus ghouls can have their choice of either the Ventrue or Daeva weakness. Clearly, being part of a rich family sucks in this world.
208** Then we have the Strix, who being TheUnfettered now, primarily prosecute vampires for this reason. A Strix in the opening of the Strix chapter of ''Wicked Dead'' speaks of his decaying possessions, and how he/she doesn't know who he really is anymore, or why he does all these terrible things. "... and I wouldn't have it any other way."
209* FullyEmbracedFiend: Belial's Brood is composed of vampires who have collectively decided "screw humanity" and become the best monsters they can be.
210%%* GameFace
211%%* {{Glamour}}: The Majesty discipline.
212* GlowingEyesOfDoom: The Strix's GlamourFailure when they're doing the DemonicPossession gig. They're [[OminousOwl owls]], owl eyes flash in light... etc. Unfortunately, they're clever enough to know this, and more social members of the race can make non-possessed people do that, too.
213%%* GothicPunk: Less so than the Old World of Darkness; it's more Gothic Horror, although traces remain.
214%%** Such as the outfits. Dear gods, the outfits...
215* GrandTheftMe: Members of the En bloodline have a semi-sentient Beast that encourages them to commit diablerie, and indeed grants additional benefits at higher Blood Potency. As a result, however, an En that reaches Humanity 0 doesn't become a draugr -- instead, they're possessed by their Beast and become a victim of this trope.
216* GratuitousFrench: Licencieux's power titles are all in French.
217* HalfHumanHybrid:
218** Averted with the Ghouls, who are never anything but alive or fundamentally human. That doesn't stop the [[ShoutOut Cainite Heresy]] from [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil Hunter]] calling them Half-Vampires, though.
219** Played straight in ''Wicked Dead'', with the introduction of the Dhampyr. Thing is, each and every Dhampyr is a walking curse incarnate, designed to utterly shatter a vampire's unlife... and thanks to the nature of their powers, the Dhampyr are often utterly oblivious to the effects they have on the vampires around them. Most aren't even aware vampires exist.
220* HealingFactor: Vampires can regenerate damage on the fly by spending Vitae (consumed blood) to do so. The rules for this are slightly changed between first and second editions.
221* HeavensDevils: The Lancea Sanctum believe themselves this. They're a group of vampires who believe that though they are damned and possessed by the demon-like Beast which drives them to evil acts, they are meant by God to scare and punish humanity through their depredations so they remain virtuous. This is, to say the least, hotly contested since it functionally pushes them to seek ways to harm humanity actively, albeit with more focus on the wrongdoing. Their mythology even tells of visitations by disapproving Angels when vampires fail to live "up" to their role.
222%%* TheHedonist: Potentially every Daeva.
223%%** And ''definitely'' every Strix.
224%%* HermeticMagic: Crúac and Theban Sorcery
225%%** Only for Crúac's "default" mode. Crúac actually has rules for shaping it to fit any culture's view of magic.
226%%** Csalad and Gilded Cage, ritual Disciplines involving ley lines.
227* Myth/HinduMythology: The Indian Kindred claim the myths came from mortals' experiences with vampires.
228* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Well, there's Longinus and Dracula. Additionally, the Mekhet claim the one who [[AWizardDidIt created their clan]] was none other than the mad witch-pharaoh... Akhenaten?!
229* HorrorHunger:
230** Vampires and blood, among whom the Noctuku Bloodline take it to new levels. They're not only blood drinking monsters, but ''addicted to cannibalism''. That's right, they need to eat the flesh of the living (animals, humans, and vampires) or suffer crippling hunger pains and worsening social and mental abilities. Worse, they still can't digest, so it all ''comes right back up.''
231** According to the "Mythologies" sourcebook for ''Requiem'', ''any'' powerful vampire has a reason to be tempted to eat human livers. If they can keep it down overday, then they'll "dilute" their blood, allowing them to drink less powerful blood (so a Blood Potency 7+ liver-eater no longer needs to feed on other vampires) for a time. Of course, it only lasts about a fortnight to a month, and then they need to eat another liver...
232* HotBlooded: The Tianpian Xiao, who share the weakness that they must periodically use their bloodline discipline to release excess emotion into the people around them. If they fail to do so, the emotional buildup eventually renders them useless.
233* HumanoidAbomination: Empty Liars, who appear to be perfectly normal to all senses, and even think they're mortals... except to Aura Sight, which shows them to completely ''lack'' an aura (protip-''everything'' sapient, even '''monsters who were never human''', has an aura), have and induce false memories of their entire "life story", and when exposed to BloodMagic, quickly drop all pretense and [[MysteriousWatcher observe]]. More importantly for blood sorcerers, they're walking lexicons of all the spells they've seen-drinking their blood is like digesting an entire TomeOfEldritchLore at once.
234%%* HypnoticEyes: Dominate.
235* IHateYouVampireDad: Considering the Embrace doesn't need to be consensual, it's not surprising that a number of vampires are less than fond of their sires. Add on to this the fact that many vampires become jaded, inhuman and ''extremely'' manipulative, and you have a decent chance of having a permanent, mystical tie to someone you ''really'' wish would take a long walk at sunrise.
236* ILoveTheDead: One way the Sangiovanni bloodline weakness can manifest, though it's considered impolite to bring up such topics when the bloodline meets formally.
237* ImAHumanitarian:
238** The Noctuku, a bloodline of the Nosferatu whose members have a taste for the flesh of other vampires. They regulary have to consume another vampire's flesh (even though they can't keep it down and don't gain any nourishment from it) or risk going into a [[UnstoppableRage hunger frenzy]]. What makes the Noctuku really fit that trope is that they actually don't need vampire flesh; pork and lamb will do just fine, but no, they just ''prefer'' other vampires.
239** There's also the Macellarius, a Ventrue bloodline of {{Villainous Glutton}}s whose extra weakness is they bloat to obesity shortly after joining the bloodline and keep going year after year. While they gorge themselves on just about everything, they also eat their victims alive instead of just drinking their blood, as their unique powers allow them to convert raw flesh into extra nutrition. Considering that Vampires cannot digest anything other than vitae, and must eventually vomit up anything else they eat as a bloody slurry, the ends to Macellarius dinner parties tend to be [[BloodSplatteredInnocents messy]], to say the very least.
240* ImmuneToBullets: Technically; because vampires are dead, and thusly have lower capacities to feel pain, don't bleed the way humans do, and don't need organs the way humans do, they convert gunshots from lethal damage to bashing damage, meaning shooting at a vampire is about as effective as punching one in the face. They literally need to be ripped to shreds by gunfire before they will start noticing it.
241%%* IncongruouslyDressedZombie: Game Masters are encouraged to use this trope for Larvae.
242* InTheBlood:
243** This is actually the premise of the Shadows of Mexico setting. It even points out that ''racism'', of all things, is somehow rooted into the land and is considered a valid mental derangement along with obsessive compulsive disorder.
244** A potential Prince for Mexico is Malintzinita, a daughter of Cortez and La Malinche. She's torn between her native roots and Spanish culture. She created a bloodline that emphasizes this.
245** The Ventrue clan in Mexico is viewed as perpetrators of the Spanish conquest. Their nicknames are [[MeaningfulName tiranos (tyrants) and invasors (invaders).]]
246** 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.
247** 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.
248** A good many bloodlines are, quite frankly, {{Curse}}d with [[BlessedWithSuck Suck]] ''and'' the core book makes it clear that if a vampire has a sire or grandsire in said bloodline, they may "reflexively" join despite not wanting to. Some kindred will often go to great lengths trying to avoid this by running away or joining a (they think/hope) less sucky bloodline. 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.
249%%** The Xoxocti versus Daeva plot mentioned above.
250* JabbaTableManners: See the Macellarius bloodline in the ImAHumanitarian entry above. This is part of the reason other vampires think of them as being repulsive -- both in the sense of "that's scary" and in the sense of "that's just damn gross".
251* JokeCharacter: The Players, a bloodline with so many drawbacks and weaknesses that they ''scare'' other vampires - [[GenreSavvy nothing can be that weak without some dark surprises, can it]]? (They're largely a [[AffectionateParody winking poke]] at ''Vampire'' fanboys.)
252* KarmaMeter: The Humanity rating, which displays how close your character is to the Beast.
253* KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: Usually happens when Mind Control powers just wont cut it, and blood bonds aren't a safe enough option.
254%%* KillItWithFire: Vampires' greatest weakness next to sunlight and GenreSavvy mortals.
255%%** And if you take the Coil of Banes' legendary 4th tier, AvertedTrope.
256* KnightTemplar: A fair amount of Lancea Sanctum vampires are like this. The rest usually try to be heroic (or, at least, anti-heroic) vampires who punish evil humans, but some still fall into evil.
257* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Viciously averted.
258** Disciplines that focus on the physical - Celerity, Vigor, and Resilience - offer their respective physical stats (Defense, Strength, Stamina) a major boost that helps lategame, and are often necessary pre-requisites for Devotions which offer powerful defensive utilities, such as Juggernaut's Gait - which requires you have 5 Resilience Dots and at least 3 Vigor Dots before you attain it.
259** The most powerful of the physical Disciplines is one that's the signature Discipline for the Gangrel - Protean. Protean has a bit of "wizardry" to it, but is mostly an ability that augments the physical attributes of a Kindred for a period of time.
260** While Dominate is a mental Discipline that is quite useful and potent early on, opposition towards the mid and late stages of a campaign are liable to having basic Merits that help resist against Dominate (such as Iron-Willed, or Indomitable), or deploy specific Kindred-based Merits (such as Oath of the True Knight) or various tricks which can either silence Dominate or make them resistant to Dominate. The same is also true of Majesty, Nightmare, and other mental Disciplines, to a lesser extent.
261** Blood Sorceries (Crúac, Theban Sorcery), unlike Disciplines, cannot be lowered in the XP/dot price based on any clan or covenant builds. Aside from free Rituals, you also have to spend a lot more XP/dot to reap any benefits from high-end Blood Sorcery Rituals, and those often come with a steep price that makes them more trouble than their worth. Most early Rituals are usually fairly gimmicky, while late Rituals tend to require reagents that make them hard to cast outright, or have deleterious effects alongside being powerful.
262** Coils of the Dragon vary by which Mystery you're pursuing; most have good lategame bonuses, but should only be pursued if you're also boosting corresponding skills, attributes, and other goods that make them a major investment not too far off from Crúac or Theban Sorcery.
263* LivingDollCollector: Although not technically living, the Sangiovanni like to create animated puppets out of corpses. With high enough levels of Malvolio, their bloodline discipline, these zombies can remain indefinitely without decomposing, and they can even gain a semblance of intelligence, to serve their undead masters better.
264%%* MadScientist: White Wolf, of course, [[ForegoneConclusion put Dracula in this game!]] It's worth noting that they've emphasized the whole Dracula = MadScientist thing from the Stoker novel, though, as opposed to his other incarnations...
265* MalevolentMaskedMen: Many Nosferatu like to wear masks, either to conceal their disfigurement or just to creep people out. "Unyielding Mask" is a purchaseable Nosferatu Merit, a mask permanently affixed to the wearer's face that protects him from mental control by other vampires and grants him a bonus to the social skill of his choice. How a vampire with a mask permanently stuck to his face is physically able to feed is left unaddressed.
266%%* ManipulativeBastard: The Daeva. So much that this habit will eventually suck away their emotions.
267* MaskingTheDeformity: Nosferatu can gain the Merit "Unyielding Mask", a MaskOfPower that bonds permanently with their face. Some use it to hide their facial deformities; others to look ''more'' intimidating.
268* {{Masquerade}}: The Tradition of Secrecy requires all vampires to hide their existence from the mortal world, disguise themselves as human in front of mortals, and dispose of anyone who learns too much. The Invictus are especially dedicated to enforcing the Masquerade and have a vast network of agents to suppress any evidence of vampires.
269* MegaManning: Diablerie can result in this, as the transgressor gains a single point in any skill or Discipline that his victim knows more about than he does, which can include Disciplines that aren't natural to the diablerist's clan. Repeat-diablerists [[AllYourPowersCombined can acquire the Disciplines of several different clans]] if they so please.
270* MesopotamianMonstrosity: The Edimmu of Sumerian myth, originally a type of VengefulGhost or demon, is a powerful [[ManySpiritsInsideOfOne sevenfold spirit]] that can [[FoodChainOfEvil devour a vampire's soul]] and possess its body. Blood witches created the first to assassinate a Babylonian GodEmperor vampire, then [[GoneHorriblyRight learned to their horror]] that each of the Edimmu's victims spawns seven more skeins of seven spirits. Millennia later, the legend ''terrifies'' vampires.
271* {{Metaplot}}: Not nearly as much as the last game, but increasing references to the Strix (and the possibility that they have had a prominent effect on shaping the Kindred) as well as hints of their imminent return (culminating in them being given stats and details in ''Wicked Dead'') might just about qualify.
272* MightyWhitey: An extremely egregious example is given in ''Circle of the Crone''. The Japanese faction, the Amanotsukai, were once led by a Dutch girl during the early days of Japan's collapsed isolation. She was made leader after the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu protected her from burning to death by the sun.
273* MindHive: Edimmu, collections of seven [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken spirits]] in the corpses of now-dead vampires meant to serve as an anti-Kindred SuperSoldier by their Babylonian creators. They reproduce by tricking [[YourSoulIsMine diablerists]] into devouring them, at which point the spirits [[TheVirus eat the vamp from the inside out]] and burst into seven larval Edimmu which seek more vampires to [[DemonicPossession Claim]]. No word on what happens if they befriend a [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil hunter]], apart from OhCrap all around.
274* MindRape:
275** High level Dominate qualifies. While altering memories or even possessing someone might be done for the greater good, using Dominate to condition someone is ''always'' a [[KarmaMeter sin against high-to-mid level Humanity]], no matter how well intentioned you might be in doing it.
276** The Duchange bloodline's [[MeaningfulName La Touche Illusoire]] power lets a Kindred launch a psychic pattern of touches, prods, and caresses on some victim. On an exceptional success, you can LITERALLY rape someone with your mind! Higher levels allow you to hit someone with intense pain (or... [[ElectricInstantGratification the exact opposite]]) and completely recolor their emotional perceptions, to the point of having someone ''adore'' you as you advance on them with a chainsaw.
277* MissingReflection: Zig-zagged. Vampires typically leave blurry images in mirrors, photos, and films though they can usually make the image look normal by focusing their will. The Hollow Mekhet can't be recorded and don't show up in mirrors at all, because their [[EnemyWithout reflections are off somewhere making trouble]].
278* MonstrousCannibalism:
279** Vampires can devour each other to increase their strength, an act called diablerie.
280** The Noctuku Bloodline has an irresistible craving for the flesh and blood of other vampires.
281** The En Bloodline considers it their ''divine right'' to eat other vampires.
282%%* MonsterLord: Bloodlines and elders with high Blood Potency, obligating them to act monstrously to other monsters.
283%%** The Ventrue would have you believe that each and every one of then is one too.
284%%** Kindred with Animalism and a whole lot of ghouled dogs, which are referred to as Hellhounds.
285* MrFanservice: Solomon Birch is Chicago's resident [[SexyPriest LS leader]] with a DarkAndTroubledPast who insists on not [[ShirtlessScene wearing shirts.]] He has a lot of [[GoodScarsEvilScars scars]] due to self-flagellation and is portrayed as TheWoobie.
286* MultipleChoicePast: Both individually and as a "species":
287** Going into torpor is a traumatic experience at the best of times, and even when it's done voluntarily a vampire tends to experience terrible nightmares during the course of the long sleep. It's not uncommon for a vampire to develop total amnesia when he awakens, and while this is the worst case scenario, even if your memories do survive mostly intact, they're often distorted and confused. It's easy for a vampire to become convinced they lived a life very different to the one they actually led.
288** 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.
289%%* MyBelovedSmother: The Qedeshah Bloodline, who incorporate the scariest aspects of motherhood.
290* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: If a powerful and amoral blood sorcerer dies, there's a chance his Beast will anchor itself to his ash remains, which if undisturbed, will form a bizzare, [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghost-like]] entity called an Ash That Devours. If it eats enough vampires, it will transform itself back into the original blood sorcerer, and he's likely to be ''pissed''.
291* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: The TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness in general is fond of the notion that when something big happens, even people who don't believe in the supernatural ''feel'' it. From the Chicago sourcebook, when discussing the prospect of an elder moving to a new city:
292-->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''.
293* MythologyGag:
294** In ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', Mekhet was the name of a mysterious being who may or may not be a secret Antediluvian with epic conspiracy theories. The clan of the same name keeps the mystery alive, to the point that it may be their [[GangOfHats new hat.]]
295** 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 [[VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines Sebastian LaCroix]], really.
296** A derangement from the same clanbook called "Preferential Obsession" causes the Ventrue believe that only blood from individuals of a certain category will sate them. Basically, the derangement's a self-inflicted mental version of their former clan weakness in ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade''.
297** In TabletopGame/KindredOfTheEast, Malaysia was a [[WretchedHive 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.
298** The Lancea et Sanctum section of Secrets of the Covenants turns the often overlooked easter egg of the missing verses from the Testament of Longinus book into a conspiracy with some very interesting implications for the setting as a whole .
299* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The California Xiao's founder, once awoken from torpor and told of the Apostates who had left the cult, launched a crusade to either drag the Apostates back into his fold or eradicate them. The end result? The California Xiao were wiped off of the eastern seaboard, most of the Apostates survived, and the rate of defectors from the cult ''increased'' due to members being driven out by their leader's fanaticism.
300* UsefulNotes/NeoPaganism: Many newly-founded cults of the Circle of the Crone tend to take their cues from neo-pagan ideas, assuming they're not directly drawing from an older pagan religion.
301* ObfuscatingStupidity: Here's a hint-if a Prince seems too stupid to actually control a domain, but he or she has done so anyway for a long time, it's probably because he or she isn't. Mexican Prince Malintzinita, for example, seems to be a dumb, apathetic party girl... who is actually a ProperlyParanoid IronLady who uses said parties primarily to eavesdrop on her endless roster of would-be assassins.
302* OminousOwl: The basic form of the Strix is an owl made of shadow and ash.
303* OurGhoulsAreCreepier: There are two very different creatures to bear the designation "ghoul": ghouls and ghûls. The former are the drinkers of vampire blood or vitae, while the latter are effectively vampires by a different name. It's insinuated that ghouls are named after ghûls, but for what reason is yet to be shared.
304** As per ''Ghouls'', ghouls are living beings who drink vitae, thereby gaining some of the powers of a vampire and some of the weaknesses. For instance, one perk is that the aging process stops, but only as long as a ghoul drinks vitae regularly. Would their supply stop, they revert to their true age, which is deadly for a ghoul past their natural lifespan. Another example exclusive to animal ghouls is that they grow beyond their species usual size, which also reverts without vitae. Most ghouls exist as carefully selected and devoted servants of the vampires that nourish them, whether those vampires are good masters or not, but there are also self-made ghouls who hunt vampires for their vitae like vampires do humans for blood. Plants are not immune to vitae addiction and ghouls created from them are called mandragora. They are rare, and so are born ghouls. The chances for conception and birth when one of the parents is a ghoul are slim and only marginally better odds are achieved when both parents are ghouls. Nonetheless, some ghoul families exist, mostly in the branch of Ordo Dracul. Born ghouls that don't partake in vitae age, but slower than humans do and they possess stronger bodies and the like, but they're also inherently more servile to vampires than made ghouls.
305** As per ''Night Horrors: The Wicked Dead', ghûls are a living equivalent to vampires that hail from the Middle East. They are cursed beings that come into existence in some cases when a human commits an act of evil without a hint of remorse. Though powerful, ghouls suffer ever-lasting insomnia and need to consume human flesh, be that fresh or rotting, to sustain themselves.
306* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Explicitly called out upon in the corebook. The Kindred share a number of traits with pop-culture "gothick" vampires and with mythological ones, but they're different enough that anyone relying on pop-culture is most likely to end up dead if they try hunting one. They can't stand sunlight (though the ones with a stronger grasp on their Humanity can handle it better than the more monstrous ones, in 2e), they hate fire (though, again, 2e Kindred with Resilience can actually downgrade this, too), but garlic, running water and religious symbols all mean diddly squat to them. For the most part. They have a vast variety of supernatural powers, and though they can technically learn all of them given time, they normally start with only a small selection -- SuperStrength, SuperSpeed and CharmPerson, for example. They have [[KissOfTheVampire euphoric bites]] and can transform humans into love-addled, mind-controlled slaves called "ghouls" by feeding people their blood. Also, the older they are, the more stringent their dietary restrictions.
307* ParentalIncest: The Ghoul splatbook has a vampire that keeps her Ghoul in check by a combination of sex and denial of blood. Y'know, typical vampire stuff. But by the end we find out that the Ghoul is her own father, who took this state upon himself so that he could forever watch over his daughter.
308%%* PartialTransformation
309* PeopleFarms:
310** ''Shadows of the UK'' presents 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.
311** Any vampire can keep a "Herd" of mortals that they regularly feed off of. Such vampires are typically not as abusive as this trope usually implies, but as cited above, they ''can'' be if they want to.
312* PickyPeopleEater:
313** Vampires can only feed by drinking the blood of living humans; young (or voluntarily weak, or magically tweaked) vampires can drink animal blood, but human blood is much tastier and there comes a point where animal blood isn't good enough. Also, it ''has'' to come from a living human. Corpse blood and medically stored blood is incredibly unsustaining for vampires.
314** The ''Mythologies'' splat introduces a Discipline that allows a vampire to feed on "human breath". A vampire who only fills up on stolen breath is noted as still feeling hungry, as it's not as physically satisfying as blood.
315** The same splat also introduces Liver-Eating, where vampires can learn to physically digest human livers to "thin their vitae" and allow them a wider option of food.
316** It's a fairly common weakness for Bloodlines that only the blood of certain ''kinds'' of humans will satisfy them.
317*** Morbus vampires can only feed on diseased blood.
318*** Anvari vampires need to drink blood laced with opiates.
319*** The Brothers of Ypres need to spike their blood with poison, disease or radiation, though chemical pollutants taste nicest to them.
320** Vampires who get too potent can only feed on vampire blood or, in 2e, on the blood of any specific supernatural breed that they have spent Merit points "adjusting" to -- so one vampire can only feed on [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken Uratha or wolf-bloods]], another can only feed on [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening Mages]], etc.
321** Vampires who overindulge in ectophagia can mutate so that they ''only'' get nourishment by [[YourSoulIsMine eating ghosts]], which usually forces them to migrate to the Underworld.
322* {{Plaguemaster}}:
323** The Morbus Bloodline, whose unique Discipline lets them create and manipulate diseases. Subverted in that they HAVE to spread illnesses because they can only feed from the diseased. Many Morbus try to avoid spreading illness unintentionally, however, by feeding only off of people with one specific illness. Otherwise, they present major threats to the {{Masquerade}} and someone may come along to [[ShootTheDog shoot the plague dog.]]
324** The Anvari and Brothers of Ypres Bloodlines sit somewhere between here and PoisonousPerson; both Bloodlines have Disciplines that allow them to taint peoples' blood (with opiates and a poison similar to mustard gas, respectively), and both have the same trait as the Morbus that they can only feed on blood that has been polluted. The Brothers are more diverse in their tastes, though; they tend to prefer chemical poisoning victims, but disease and radiation and other contaminants are all valid flavors for them.
325* PowerBornOfMadness:
326** The [[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade Malkavians of the WoD]] became a ''Ventrue'' bloodline called the ''Malkovians'' in the new [=CoD=]. The basic concept is mostly the same, though they don't have Dementation anymore, but a form of Domination that, if it backfires, causes the vampire to be consumed by madness again for a time.
327** In the 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.
328%%* PoweredByAForsakenChild: The Mercy Seat's practices are a TropeCodifier.
329* PowerCreepPowerSeep: Vampires got a ''lot'' of buffing with the ''Blood & Smoke'' release. Downgrading all forms of Lethal damage to Bashing (it used to only apply to shooting attacks, meaning melee was better for killing vampires), making it easier for vampires to survive sunlight (higher Humanity and lower Blood Potency diminish its threat), altering the effects of higher Blood Potency to be more positive, allowing vampires in Mist Form to drink blood without having to change back...
330%%* PowerPerversionPotential: ... Have you been paying attention to a word on this page?
331%%** 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 [[ILoveTheDead way]], why do you ask?
332* PreCharacterCustomizationGameplay: Character generation starts with a human and adds the vampire template, so the game suggests an optional "Prelude" chapter to play out how the character came to be Embraced.
333* ProfessorGuineaPig: The Coils of the Dragon are induced by a vampire experimenting on themselves until they form a Chrysalis, which causes their bodies to "evolve." This goes double for Vlad Tepes and his Brides, since they're the ones who developed the Coils in the first place, not knowing if they would work.
334%%** The Blut Alchemie of the Geheim also counts.
335%%* PsychicPowers: [[AuraVision Aura Perception]], The Spirit's Touch (aka postcognition), {{Telepathy}}, and [[SpiritWorld Twilight]] Projection from the Auspex Discipline.
336%%* PsychicSurgery: One variant of the VII faction can do this... for good ''and'' ill.
337* RageAgainstTheHeavens:
338** The Rakshasa bloodline's ultimate goal is to destroy the gods BecauseDestinySaysSo!
339** The - possibly apocryphal, possibly defunct - Tenth Choir covenant, seeing vampirism as a curse from God, decided to seek revenge on Him.
340%%* RedBaron: The Unholy. The Red Sultan, as well.
341* RedRightHand:
342** All of vampire Clan Nosferatu, albeit less so than in ''Vampire: The Masquerade''. Their Red Right Hand can manifest as either blatant inhuman traits, an unsightly deformity, or simply having something feel strangely ''[[UncannyValley wrong]]'' about them.
343** Those who partake in [[CannibalismSuperpower diablerie]] develop no ''physical'' tells, but when seen through [[AuraVision Auspex]], their auras display TaintedVeins that last for several years after the deed.
344* ReducedResourceCost: The En Bloodline can learn to create new vampires by spending temporary Willpower points in place of permanent Willpower dots, courtesy of [[PowersViaPossession the demonic spirits that infect their souls]].
345* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Both averted and played straight numerous times. Many vampires have the power to change the world--but most don't, despite canonically having the means and desire. Vampires are beings locked in stasis, and they in fact don't do well with change. Longinus {{lampshades}} it in the Testament of Longinus's ''[[ApocalypseHow Book of Eschaton]]'' by highlighting the Kindred's tendency for self-sabotage:
346---> "I have learned that the Damned must not make our own salvation. Because we can only destroy what plans we make; because we are Damned.”
347* ReflectiveTeleportation: [[MirrorMonster Red Jack]] [[DealWithTheDevil offers]] exclusive access to the non-standard, mirror-themed [[MagicByAnyOtherName Discipline]] of Ars Speculorum. Its capstone power lets the vampire step into one mirror and exit out another one in a matter of seconds -- unless they roll a CriticalFailure, in which case exiting isn't guaranteed.
348* ReligionOfEvil:
349** The Circle of the Crone has extremely strong shadings of this. How much so? Learning the Circle's associated Discipline ''permanently lowers the max [[KarmaMeter Humanity]] of a vampire''!
350** The Lancea et Sanctum tweaks the Abrahamic faiths to suit the vampire reality, preaching that vampires are "God's chosen monsters" with a duty of scaring humans back into the arms of the church. In 2e, it's the opposite of the Circle of the Crone, in that a vampire needs a high Humanity score to use its associated Discipline.
351** Played straightest with the optional cult of Mithraism, which exhorts the faithful to gain power by performing acts of evil and requires them to murder, slaughter, torment and destroy mortals as part of being initiated.
352* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: An alternate creation mythology for vampires is that they are descended from the son (Lilu) or daughter (Lilit/Lilitu) of Eve and the Serpent of Eden. The suggestions for tweaking the game in manners implying that this could be true are: adding asps and pythons to the "default forms" (wolf and bat) for Shape of the Beast (or even replacing wolf and bat); making it easier to ghoul snakes; rendering vampires immune to snake venom (by core rules, it's one of the few natural toxins that do affect them); and letting vampires paralyze with their gaze as an innate, non-Discipline power.
353* RidiculouslyAliveUndead: The "Blush of Life" ability temporarily removes the UncannyValley effect associated with walking corpses and lets the vampire pass for human, including a pulse, body heat, eating without vomiting, and sexual functions.
354* RolePlayingEndgame: The game proposes a few options for the legendary state of Golconda, where vampires become {{Ascended Demon}}s and free themselves from their physical and spiritual weaknesses. CrapsackWorld that this is, it also suggests {{subvert|edTrope}}ing this by asking AndThenWhat and letting the vampire struggle to maintain this state.
355* RulesLawyer: Some Carthians try to find reforms for the Requiem that don't disrupt the Invictus-derived model of praxis, lest they get boots on their necks.
356* ScareEmStraight: This is essentially what the Lancea Sanctum's declared Divine Purpose for Vampires is. Vampires are Damned to not feel God's grace, but still remain in the shadows of His Creation to make sure those still blessed with His love (read: mortals) don't start to revel in sin and wander too long in the dark places of the world. If they do, well, Vampires [[KnightTemplar have an]] [[MindRape arsenal]] [[SuperpoweredEvilSide of]] [[CruelAndUnusualDeath ways]] to make mortals high-tail it back to Church.
357* SceneryDissonance: A Type 1 version is deliberately invoked in the sourcebook ''Chronicler's Guide''. It suggested that whenever the characters [[AChatWithSatan had a confrontation with The Devil]], the scene should always be a nice, comfortable surrounding, like a children's playground or a perfumed and clean restroom.
358%%* ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers
359* SecretRoom: Characters can add hidden chambers to their HomeBase by purchasing the "Tomb" Merit. They can only be found with careful investigation and can be sealed against intruders for extra security, but, once breached, their Security bonus is permanently nullified.
360%%* SenseFreak: The Strix in modern times. Also, the Duchange, whose bloodline weakness specifically invokes this.
361* SevenDeadlySins: Mentioned in the ''Requiem Chronicler's Guide'', one way to interpret each of the clans is that they are symbolic of one of the seven deadly sins. Daeva represent Lust, Gangrel represent Wrath, Mekhet represent Envy, Nosferatu represent Sloth, Ventrue represent Pride, Julii represent Gluttony, and [[PunnyName Seven]] represent Greed.
362* SheIsTheKing: The ruler of a domain is most commonly called a Prince, regardless of gender. Occasionally you'll see King or Queen, but it's generally considered bad luck to assume either of these titles.
363* ShirtlessScene: Common in the splatbook art, particularly for Solomon Birch and Duce Carter.
364* ShootTheDog: A common ending for ''draugr'', plague dogs and diablerists, along with anyone else who becomes too great of a threat to the Masquerade.
365* ShoutOut:
366** Newer books contain references to popular websites and memes like ImageBoards, Platform/LiveJournal, WebOriginal/LOLCats, and Website/YouTube. The dhampir chapter of ''Wicked Dead'' was a goldmine in particular.
367** Don't forget [[http://bogleech.com/scrapbook/scrapbugman.html the NPC based on the guy who runs]] [[http://bogleech.com/ Bogleech.com]]
368** The art for the Moroi bloodline from the Ordo Dracul sourcebook is clearly meant to be [[Film/BladeII Jared Nomak]]. It's said that the artist was no longer contracted by White Wolf after a few of his pieces were a little too obviously characters from other media.
369** The Players bloodline has art of a girl cosplaying as Literature/AnitaBlake.
370** This is also present in their in-universe fiction: 'A Hunger Like Fire' has Persephone in a club playing [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner a techno song with the refrain "The system... is down! The system... is down!"]]
371** Obscure one: one of the stories in "Strix Chronicles" collection is centered on the vampire girl Mathilda [=McGillicuddy=]. This is the name of a background character in ''TheSecretWorld'', used by an author who worked on both.
372** The ''Danse Macabre'' book has various "Masquerades" listed for characters wishing to strength the illusion that they're mortal. One of them is Youth. Among the possible concepts listed is [[Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff "Righteous Dude", and feeding targets include "the sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads."]]
373%%* ShroudedInMyth: The Unholy, most famously.
374* SignatureMove: Each of the five Clans have one exclusive Discipline that they are very good at. This also applies to some Bloodlines, specially if the fourth Discipline gained is a unique one.
375* SlidingScaleOfVampireFriendliness:
376** 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.
377** Ironically, the Ordo Dracul, the covenant with the most tools to minimize the curse that makes the above so slanted to unfriendly, are also one of the likeliest covenants to turn a member into an [[BlueAndOrangeMorality amoral creature]] that cares nothing for humans or morality.
378%%* {{Sourcebook}}
379* SpaceWhaleAesop: The point of the Invictus Emperor story, as well as why the Invictus doesn't like democracy, seems to be the aesop that Kindred magic makes it easy to subvert democracy and support Social Darwinism, so why even bother?
380%%* SpecialSnowflakeSyndrome: There are entire ''books'' filled with bloodlines.
381* SpiritualSuccessor: The game tries to capture the vital essence of "Vampire: The Masquerade" while still being its own, independent entity. In fact, a common complaint against ''Requiem'' is that it's ''too much'' like ''Masquerade'', existing in a bizarre overlap between TheyChangedItNowItSucks and ItsTheSameNowItSucks. ''Requiem'' 2E does a better job of establishing itself as its own entity.
382* {{Splat}}: Splats are often considered a defining feature of White Wolf games, though being an [=NWoD=] game, this one is a bit more complex about it than its predecessors.
383* StagesOfMonsterGrief: Varies, but the Circle of the Crone and Lancea Sanctum are particularly devoted to ''promoting'' their dark sides, while the Ordo Dracul wants to transcend it (whatever that may involve). Belial's Brood just want to have fun and paint the town O positive.
384* StateSec: The Sworn of the Ordo Dracul are like this. They have their own branches with their own spheres of influence that overlap and override with non-Sworn members. In the event that the Prince is an unSworn Dragon, the Sworn can use him as a puppet and the Prince will pretty much let them.
385* StatusQuoIsGod: The Lancea Sanctum and the Circle of the Crone accuse each other of being the ReligionOfEvil, the Carthians think the Invictus is TheEmpire, the Invictus thinks that the Carthians are DirtyCommunists, and the Ordo Dracul thinks that everyone else is TooDumbToLive. However, it's not like those factions are ever at war or anything. They just do politics...
386* StepfordSmiler:
387** The Melissidea bloodline. They often have beehive hairdos. With actual bees. Their Animalism stops working so well on mammals, works better on bugs, and they take advantage of the fact that their insides are unused to act as colonies for insects. Oh, and they can make a Vitae based honey that turns those who eat it into part of their HiveMind. They were supposedly wiped out because of the danger they posed to Kindred society.
388** Specific example: Frances Black, the focus character of ''Shadows in the Dark: Mekhet''. Outwardly, she seems like a cheerful, friendly, and kind person. Inwardly? Literally a quarter of the book focuses on her wandering around in a haze after her Embrace sent her hurdling over the DespairEventHorizon, even to the point where she has a brief psychotic break and develops a delusion about being a normal, happy woman. She knows it too-her ArcWords are "death makes you [[EmptyShell shallow]]."
389%%**Any vampire, but especially the Daeva.
390* SteppingOutToReact: Vampires are prone to [[ArtificialInsolence Frenzy]] when they're angry, scared, or hungry. The Sotoha have developed a unique [[MagicByAnyOtherName Discipline power]], "The Fitting Moment", that gives them just enough time to get to a discreet location before they go berserk, specifically to avoid the embarrassment of losing their cool in public.
391%%* StrawFeminist: The Daughters of The Goddess, one of the many Circle of The Crone factions.
392* StrawNihilist: Forsworn who bother explaining themselves tend to come off like this, what with the obsession with "the lies of society" and such. As far as vampires go, [[StrawmanHasAPoint they're probably right]].
393* StrawmanPolitical:
394** The various Covenants aren't particularly given to fair characterizations of each other, but it gets especially bad when the Carthians and the Invictus are talking about each other.
395** Interestingly, Carthian beliefs range the entire modern political spectrum, covering everything from anarchism to communism to libertarianism to fascism, and everything in-between or beyond. However, because the Movement emphasizes personal rights and freedoms, which are primarily post-Enlightenment values, they are all considered to the left of the Invictus, which still operates on a feudal model of government.
396* SuperpoweredEvilSide:
397** 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 [[UnstoppableRage 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. In ''Blood and Smoke'', it provides a dice bonus in Blood Potency to ''everything'', so long as the actions are in line with what awoke the Beast. And there's ways to make it even ''deadlier.''
398** 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 [[EvilFeelsGood way it feels]].
399** The Invictus Covenant book introduced the Sotoha, a bloodline of [[EverythingsBetterWithSamurai not-quite samurai]] (they prefer the term "Outsider") who gain all the benefits, but few of the flaws, of going into frenzy. Control over direction, the ability to reason... but things still gotta die, and they can become a little... focused... on that. Don't forget they're Ventrue, so there's extra crazy! Which is unfortunate, because some of them [[BlessedWithSuck remain in this state for years]]...
400** 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.
401* SuperToughness:
402** Since vampires are more or less undead consciousnesses shackled to their blood and driving around a shell of meat & bone, vampires don't take damage quite the same way humans do. In 1e, this means shooting attacks only do Bashing damage, rather than Lethal. In 2e, realizing that this didn't make more sense, vampires instead downgrade all forms of damage one step towards Bashing, unless it comes from "Baneful" sources (supernatural attacks, fire or sunlight, curse-induced vulnerabilities).
403** The Resilience Discipline further augments a vampire's ability to tank damage. In 2e, it even protects a vampire from ''fire'' and any Bane damage with the exception of sunlight.
404** Masters of the Sakti Pata Discipline can actually escape their bodies if they are destroyed by reverting to the form of a mass of animate blood. This mass can then sink into a fresh corpse and assimilate it, allowing the vampire to resurrect itself again. Needless to say, this makes killing a vampire with this Discipline very, very challenging.
405* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: The Julii Clan of the Camarilla and the Ventrue Clan of the modern era are so similar to each other -- the only difference being Julii vampires are more likely to lose their Humanity and Ventrue vampires are more likely to be driven insane by their sins -- that this trope is actually observed InUniverse, with most believing that the Ventrue are "heirs" to the Julii. Most likely a Bloodline that supplanted their progenitors.
406* TerminalTransformation: One [[BloodMagic Crúac]] rite transforms the vampire's blood to poison as protection from other blood-drinkers. Ghouls can also learn it, but, not [[RequiredSecondaryPowers being undead]], they react as most humans do to [[CruelAndUnusualDeath having their veins filled with poison]].
407* TestOfPain: In the Bushido-inspired Sotoha bloodline, a vassal can free themself from their [[MyMasterRightOrWrong oath of fealty]] by committing ritual {{Seppuku}} in denunciation of their Lord. If they can go through with it and survive the resultant torpor, their oath is honorably discharged.
408* ThirdPartyDealbreaker: In the Bushido-inspired Sotoha bloodline, a vassal can commit ritual SuicideBySunlight in denunciation of their Lord to free ''all'' the Lord's other vassals from their [[MyMasterRightOrWrong oaths of fealty]].
409* TotalPartyKill: 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. [[ObviousRulePatch This was patched in later editions]], making Predator's Taint an optional roll that can be made at the storyteller's discretion.
410* TranquilFury:
411** Each clan seems to have a different variation of Frenzy, but a number of comments in the Mekhet clanbook hint that theirs veers towards "broken Terminator."
412** Then there are the Sotoha, whose bloodline-exclusive Discipline allows them to master their own Frenzies without "losing face." It's possible for one of them to spend ''decades'' in Frenzy while looking to all the world like a perfectly poised vampire.
413* UncannyValley:
414** A vampire whose Humanity falls too low falls into this, via combination of subtle physical degeneration (bloodless skin, mostly) and a distinctive lack of subconscious tics like movement, blinking, ''breathing'', etc, that makes it increasingly clear to a human observer that this is a walking corpse.
415** Whilst Nosferatu are more known for being [[LooksLikeOrlok conventionally deformed]], it is mentioned in the corebook that some instead manifest their curse by way of this, including by being so inhumanly perfect looking that their beauty becomes unnatural and alarming. In fact, there's an entire Nosferatu bloodline, the Galloi, whose curse is that they can either look like this due to being inhumanly beautiful androgynous hermaphrodites, or they can skip their {{Blood Bath}}ing rituals and wind up looking like monstrous corpses (the phrase "skeletons swathed in decaying gravewrappings" is used).
416* UndeadChild: It's entirely possible to Embrace children, although modern Kindred are reluctant to do so. One reason for that is the Children's Crusade, introduced in ''Blood and Smoke''. The Crusade was active between the 12th and 18th centuries, a covenant of child-Kindred granted sole right to Embrace children. As it turned out, the Crusade became twisted in ways the adult Kindred could not fully understand - which included making deals with the Strix. [[EvenEvilHasStandards The Crusade was hunted down and wiped out...]] but as so often happens, some slipped through the cracks, and still slumber today.
417* UndergroundCity:
418** If enough Nosferatu live in a city and have enough pull to influence water and subway design, they can create one from unused and self-dug areas.
419** ''Damnation City'', a sourcebook about creating cities and their cultures for ''Requiem'', offers the rule of thumb that "a city extends as far below the surface as it does above," and advises Storytellers not to neglect all the subeterranean infrastructure required to keep the city running smoothly.
420* UnEqualRites: Every vampire breed secretly despises the others, with their stereotypes highlighting other clans' flaws while downplaying their own.
421* TheUnfettered: The Strix seem to have stuck around after the Julii died, and not having a purpose anymore, now do [[TheHedonist whatever they please]]. [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Being what they are]], this is ''not'' a good thing.
422%%** The ultimate philosophic goal of the Forsworn is to become this.
423%%* UnstoppableRage: Vampires when they frenzy
424%%* TheVamp: The female Daeva, literally. [[IncrediblyLamePun And everyone else]].
425* VampireVarietyPack:
426** All Kindred 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 than 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).
427** ''Wicked Dead'' offers up a number of non-Kindred vampires ranging from the Mnemovores, who feed on memories, to the Jiang Shi, the fabled "[[ChineseVampire hopping corpses]]" of China, to the various breeds of Aswang and the Penanggalan (a female "vampire" who exists as a normal woman in the day, but whose head and entrails fly away at night to suck blood, favoring pregnant women and [[EatsBabies small children]] for its victims).
428** And the Ordo Dracul are working on making themselves ''more'' different, getting rid of or lessening those certain weaknesses in particular.
429** ''Chronicler's Guide'', a book written to give suggestions and ideas to {{Game Master}}s to create games, is the embodiment of this trope: There is a section that deals with making the vampires clanless, with suggestions of how to create new vampiric features and weaknesses. Another section suggests making the Beast into the calculative, manipulative Other and discusses the possible implications for the chronicle. Last but not least, there's a section dedicated to revamp the whole system to make vampires the utter debased monsters they are.
430** ''Night Horrors: The Wicked Dead'' introduces Larvae, Kindred who were only partially Embraced (Embracing vampire spent a Willpower Point instead of a Willpower Dot), resulting in a feral, mindless creature that is more a blood-drinking zombie than a vampire. They can become true vampires in turn, however.
431** In 2e, Kindred can be Embraced post-humously (if they had Vitae in their bodies when they died as humans) or even spontaneously if a vampire simply drinks a human dry (or if a ghoul dies). The former become normal Kindred, the latter become creatures called Revenants, which are weaker, more feral vampires who cannot Blood Bond, Embrace or Ghoul unless they manage to become true Kindred.
432%%* VampiresAreSexGods: Well, they are. The Players bloodline also uses the phrase "dark gods of lust."
433* VagueStatValues: In 1st Edition, vampires can sense whether another vampire's Blood Potency score is higher or lower than theirs based on whether their instinct is to flee or attack. That urge was dropped from 2nd Edition, but vampires can still recognize each other on sight.
434%%* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: '''''Oh, boy'''''. Listing specific examples would probably break the page.
435* VillainByDefault: Belial's Brood. They were added to the setting only to serve as ObviouslyEvil [[{{Mooks}} straighforward antagonists]] with little characterization or information about how their society works. Averted with their splat, which makes them a full-fledged Covenant.
436* VillainousGlutton: The Macellarius and Nelapsi bloodlines are both like this, though different takes. They even share the in-universe nickname of "Gluttons". Macellarius are a Ventrue bloodline who grow repulsively fat and are addicted to eating just about everything they can; their unique Discipline, Gustus, lets them actually digest and take power from eating human flesh. Their manners are notoriously disgusting; a Macellarius feast is a Roman orgy of bloated vampires gorging themselves on exotic blood, raw meat, human flesh and human foodstuffs, the diners gobbling noisly, belching rotten gouts of gas, and vomiting bloody slurry when their vampire natures reject the indigestibles they have glutted themselves upon. Nelapsi, meanwhile, are a Daeva bloodline with almost insatiable appetites; they physically ''need'' far more blood than almost any other sort of vampire[[note]]ordinary vampires spend just 1 point of vitae upon rising each night; Nelapsi spend vitae equal to their ''Blood Potency'' each night[[/note]], and so they are always hunting, always hungry.
437%%* TheVirus: Vampires, mostly.
438%%** There's a fun scenario where a Burakhumin causes a zombie apocalypse with his skill in Getsumei.
439* WeaponsGradeVocabulary: A feature of the Spina [[PrestigeClass bloodline]], a line of courtly and refined duelists and knights. One power of their bloodline Discipline, Courtoise, allows them to insult their target so badly they take damage.
440* WolfMan: Gangrel, kinda. Only one bloodline in ''Shadows of Mexico'' can actually go half wolf/half man.
441%%* WorldHalfEmpty: The oppressive helplessness of the setting is what appeals to many.
442* YouAreWorthHell: Some people join their Kindred lovers in undeath, fully understanding the horrible existence to come, under the impression that their love is indeed [[TitleDrop worth hell.]] In the case of the Lancea et Sanctum, their main creed actually does believe that hell awaits! But they Embrace out of love anyway.

Top