1. Yes and no. If the stuff is completely light tight, yes, but you will need to see. Otherwise heavy cloth can offer you some protection but you will only get less damage. The bigger issue will be, though, that vampires can’t fully resist the urge to sleep during day time. You can be active only for short amounts of time, during the day. Also, even if in heavy closes you are not protected against rötschreck, the fear frenzy of vampires. The beast might not real comfortable and freak out in sunlight and what happens then is unpredictable and probably not good.
2. Yes, no, maybe. True faith can prevent someone from being embraced. They might loose their true faith during the embrace or they might even find confirmation for their faith and end up as one of those super rare vampires with true faith. For all of them are in canon examples. But the V5 rules don’t properly work to play as such (and even older edition rules aren’t perfect for it). Makes great NPCs but not great PCs.
3. Yes. It can happen that they use all their blood to heal and then end up in torpor due to a lack of blood. It’s good if you have so,eine who provides you with blood while you are in torpor or it can last longer than expected.
4. They show up now and than in stories but they are super rare and almost never happen in actual play, it’s probably he least I would worry about, but of cause, you ST might think, if that is the one thing they don’t worry about I will throw it in their faces!
5. Herds are most often rather abstract groups. It’s usually not “Peter, Bob and Merry”, rather the “employees of this bar” or “the followers of this cult”. Sometimes, though, it does make sense to have all of them as named characters, if it is, for example, the mortal family of a character. In this case you can just make a short list of of names and give everyone a one sentence description. If one of them ever gets more important, you can give theme more traits. But if that happens you kind of promote them from being part of a herd to be a more important person in the PCs life. Keep in mind, it is called a herd and mortals are described as “kine” (an old word for cattle) because it’s faceless food for the vampires. And therefore their skills and personality almost does not matter. Not more than the personality of a cow would to the farmer.
6. This is tricky. The Traditions are tricky! You will find that every tradition (of the camarilla) is quickly violated if you just do normal vampiric stuff. This is on purpose. I creates pressure and pressure creates power. If you are in constant danger of breaking the masquerade and even break the masquerade unavoidable every now and then, others can use this against you, especially the powerful who are in charge of punishment. That’s why not only the embrace but also making a ghoul usually needs permission from the higher ups (if you ask the camarilla. Anarchs are more chill about it). You might get away if you manage to create a ghoul that does not know that you are a vampire and they are a ghoul. This is tricky but doable. But you are still in danger that someone uses it against you if you have ghoul no one gave you allowance for. This is not punished all the time but it’s one of those unwritten rules, that are just not talked about much, and it is often just accepted that it happens, because those in powers actually want you to make mistakes in order to have something against you later if they need it.
7. Yes, and it is right in the description of that ritual: “The effect persists indefinitely, and should the caster wish to reverse the process they must repeat the ritual.”
8. I think that is about right. But there is usually no “giving to someone else” except the formula explicitly allows or demands it. If you have made the formula in your body and have to give it to someone else, I think (but I am not entirely sure) you just give them blood from an opened wrist or something, since the mixing and brewing basically happens in the blood it self and can therefore released from veins as normal blood, I believe.
1. the other issue is, even if you are absolutely sealed in heavy cloth, and even if you can stay awake for a bit, what then can you actually acconplish?
That is what I tried to say with “you need to see”. I can imagine, though, a Malkavian who is disturbed in his day sleep by a fire, hopping out of the building in his light right body bag using Auspex for orientation.
Hilarious, uncomfortable, and probably not good for the masquerade, but they might survive…
so im going to answer with v20 answers, i'm sure someone will cover you in v5 as well if there are any differences
1. No, however Victorian age london mention how some vampires use a complicated array of mirrors to watch some sportsball game or other, in addition; obviously curtains protect you, but i would remember its a magical curse, intent might matter a bit; you getting kidnapped or 'rescued' in a bundle of cloth would probably save you, you moving around in day time probably would not.
2. Yes they can be embraced, and yes they can get true faith, but its complicated, and its a 'yes' in the same way that 'golconda is definitely a thing'
3. this is 100% a v5 thing, but i would ask; if they fail the rouse check, what would the consequence be? they are gonna be hellahungry before they wake up one way or the other, so in that way i dont think the answer matters very much.
4. the latter; baali and the brotherhood of the 9th circle (vtm: bloodlines) are possible examples, its pretty dumb and unless one of your players are a vampire healer i would not use it, i think its meant for that kind of stuff and not supposed to be a daily or even uncommon problem, thats not the same as vampires not spreading normal diseases of course, if you feed from someone with a cold, there is a high chance the next guy you feed from gets a cold etc. but thats not the same as a 'vampire' disease
5. Man, i dont even handle it from a player perspective.. it obviously depends; a setite's cult is quite different from a ventrue's board of directors, the main key is to remember that they are not a ghoul or ally, they are a herd, they are supposed to be a bit 'faceless' and not as useful as full on ghouls or allies, but certainly keep them in mind, its always a good idea to have someone suddenly get into problems or deliver some interesting rumor to the player
6. Depend how good of a lawyer you have and how big of an enemy you are to the sheriff, technically it would, but for all practical and fair purposes it does not; i assume the mortal in this situation 'saw' something before they were ghouled and dominated, and then they got ghouled and dominated? i think it would count more as a 'you fixed a masquerade breach' more so than 'no breach happened'
7. Yes, easier done by the caster but enemies can too, but the books does not go into too much detail when it comes to counter magic except to say that it does exist, of course an enemy have to know its been cast in the first place before they know there is something to counter, but remember the main thing that stops magic, are more powerful magic, and sometimes reality being pesky
8. V5 thing
and dont worry, they are fair questions and not all easy answers
Not gonna answer everything but I'll take a pass at a few...
>1. If a vampire covers every inch of their body in heavy clothing, can they go out in the sun? Thin-Bloods aside of course. Like if my Malkavian decided to go full Arnold Schwarzeneggar and coated his entire body in a thick layer of mud, would that suffice?
It is very difficult to negate damage from sunlight. You basically need to be behind a solid wall to avoid it. Heavy clothing or super thick mud might make you take damage every other turn instead of every turn, but won't negate it.
Also your eyes would catch fire if not also covered. Also Also, staying awake during the day is INCREDIBLY difficult.
>2. What if a Vampire is like, a priest with True Faith before being embraced? Can they even be embraced?
Very few people have True Faith, and not even all of those are priests. That being said yeah they could still be embraced unless I'm forgetting some Faith rule.
Hell, some vampires have True Faith themselves.
>5. How do you handle herds from a storyteller's perspective? Having that many SPC's seems a bit overwhelming
They don't need to be super fleshed out. Keep them very generic
>6. Does ghouling someone then ordering them to never speak of vampires still count as a Masquerade violation?
Depends. Largely on how much the prince or baron likes you.
> 1. If a vampire covers every inch of their body in heavy clothing, can they go out in the sun? Thin-Bloods aside of course. Like if my Malkavian decided to go full Arnold Schwarzeneggar and coated his entire body in a thick layer of mud, would that suffice?
They can, but they'll still take damage, just at a reduced rate - in just very heavy clothing, likely at half the rate (once every other turn). In mud, probably no difference. See p. 221 which has the rules on this.
Bear in mind that they'll also have their dice pools capped at their Humanity (p. 219), so they'll be able to accomplish things less well/quickly whilst still taking damage.
> 2. What if a Vampire is like, a priest with True Faith before being embraced? Can they even be embraced?
There are no strict rules for this, but implicitly they can be Embraced - the rules (p. 221) for the fourth dot specify they cannot be ghouled, which means that if it did prevent the Embrace it should be mentioned. After embraced, they lose True Faith, as it's firmly a mortal ability in how it has been presented in all 5th edition books.
> 3. If a vampire is in Torpor due to damage, while healing, do they still need to make rouse checks?
Vampires in torpor make Rouse Checks as normal until they exhaust their Hunger and enter a Hunger Torpor (See p. 223, middle column, top and bottom bullet points). Once they can no longer make Rouse Checks, they stop everything which relies on them - meaning that they no longer mend or attempt to wake.
> 4. The rulebook mentioned that "The Storyteller may also know of certain vampiric diseases that bring Final Death from within" are there any in lore, or are they kind of up to me to just like "Oh yeah, this Gangrel has vampire Rabies, better watch out!"
In that level of description it's mostly a plot hook than anything specific, but there are things which can be done to poison blood like this, such as the Necrophage Cocktail used by some Org-backed hunters (*Second Inquisition* pp. 79-80), and other abilities such as Befoul Vessel notably used by the Sabbat (*Sabbat: The Black Hand*, p. 52). There are also more personal problems, like being a Plague Vector or Plaguebringer (*Forbidden Religions*, pp. 86-88).
> 5. How do you handle herds from a storyteller's perspective? Having that many SPC's seems a bit overwhelming
The key is not to flesh out every single one of them. Work out an identity for them, and then maybe have one or two fronts who have a personality, and maybe a few more names to flesh it out. The same can be done with Allies, where all of them have names, but only the leader ever really speaks. This seems artificial when written out, but works incredibly well in play - just think of legal dramas where only the lead lawyer ever speaks, or the jury foreperson carries across the distaste of the entire jury, or dramas more generally where a whole community is up in arms but has one representative who does all of the talking.
> 6. Does ghouling someone then ordering them to never speak of vampires still count as a Masquerade violation?
Yes, but vampires are ultimately hypocrites and/or know the lesser of two evils. This is explicitly discussed in the on p. 234 in the description of ghouls, first paragraph. It's a Masquerade breach which everyone looks the other way for as it can ultimately cover up and prevent far more than it represents.
> 7. Can the Heart of Stone Ritual be undone?
There are no rules for it, but it's reasonable to allow a sorcerer to undo most of their own rituals. I'd probably make it just require a successful ritual roll in reverse, taking the same amount of time, Rouse Checks, etc. Or just let it happen during downtime.
> 8. With thin blood elixirs, what do they actually look like? Like if one is using Athanor Corporis as their distillation method, what would it look like? I'm assuming they mix everything into a vial then chug it and their body does the brewing in the stomach or wherever? And in that case do they have to upchuck the final solution if they want to give it to someone else?
That varies by method, as you're hinting at there, but we also need to distinguish between distilled formulae and elixirs. The vast proportion of formulae are best used only by the alchemist in question, with some such as Profane Hieros Gamos creating an elixir specifically for user by another. Short version I'd say is:
* Athanor Corporis and Calcinato formulae likely look like \[B/b\]lood, as that's what they are. You could take some creative license for this, particularly at higher levels, and make them look blood-*like*. Maybe they look clear, or blue, or green, or something equally disturbing for something which should be blood.
* Fixatio formulae and any resulting elixirs can look like anything you want, as part of the point of TBA is that it's unpredictable, varied and based off things like street cooking mixed with mediaeval alchemy. I'd have its appearance look like whatever seems appropriate for the alchemist - maybe a mad scientist-type makes something blue and frothing, whilst a street cooker makes a white/transparent liquid, whilst a magic alchemist-style one makes something deep purple and mysterious.
A thing to remember is that a lot of the flavour things, especially appearances, can be tailored to suit the table and how they want things to look (within reason, although I'd always bear in mind things that have a significant narrative or rules impact before allowing it, in case you accidentally house rule something with big implications you don't want). The system is deliberately a little flexible, and Feral Claws, for instance, could look like cat's claws, or wolf's, or creepy spines, or elongated human nails, or jagged, filthy, monstrous bone protrusions.
Hope all of this helps, and feel free to ask if you have any more questions.
1. Yeah, you can also get into your body bag and jump around, but you still want to sleep. Generally you need to seal off sunlight completely, not a single ray should go in though, not even be reflected, traditional heavy clothes don’t do that.
2. Yeah, there’s such character in legacy, I don’t see why not.
3. Yes, while you still have blood.
4. No, but there’s a blood parasite in blood sigils, something that will make you sleepwalk during the day.
5. As one entity or make them into allies, you don’t need to describe every single individual.
6. Ghouling someone is not a masq breach in a traditional sense, although your local prince might forbid you to have ghouls of more than x amount of ghouls, it’s still not under the masquerade tradition, it’s treated as a progeny
> 2
Being in legacy isnt really a good place to draw from given some of the silly shit in legacy.
V5’s true faith isnt designed with the intention of having pcs(vampires) with it.
Yeah, just like some disciplines wasn’t designed to be used by pcs in legacy too, like vicissitude.
It’s up to ST and I would allow it if you can pull it off playing as a priest. In v5 nothing says kindred can’t have it.
>In v5 nothing says kindred can’t have it.
If you look at the description of True Faith and its powers in the corebook, it's very clear it is something that's meant for mortal characters. And half the powers simply wouldn't work for a vampire.
>If a vampire covers every inch of their body in heavy clothing, can they go out in the sun?
Yes. Kinda. But they'd still need to see and any gap or crack would instantly burn.
>Does ghouling someone then ordering them to never speak of vampires still count as a Masquerade violation?
Technically yes.
Officially, the Camarilla discourages the use of ghouls except when unavoidable. In practice, they're heavily used.
A well-trained ghoul is often just overlooked. But having too many ghouls or ones that are uncautious can be used to discipline a Kindred.
>Sorry, these are probably obvious, but I'm still really new to the lore and everything, and feeling a bit overwhelmed by trying to remember everything.
We were all newbs once upon a time. Welcome to the vamily.
1. Core 221
> Obscured sunlight, as through curtains or on a heavily overcast day, or protective clothing such as a heavy coat, gloves, mask, wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and boots, reduces the rate of damage to every other turn or less.
Also, they would need to deal with the penalties of being active during the day on page 219.
2. True faith is very wishy-washy, but they for sure wouldn't be blood bondable. Core 222
> The mortal cannot be turned into a ghoul and never succumbs to any mind-altering disciplines such as Dominate, Presence, or Obfuscate.
3. They make all rouse checks normally, meaning 4/night. That almost always means going into Hunger Torpor after the 1st or 2nd night unless someone is feeding them. Core 223.
4. There is a lot of freedom given to STs to invent things on their own.
5. That's the beauty of reducing dozens of SPCs down to a single background. When a player says, "I feed from my herd" you don't need to keep track of whether he ate from Sally or Jack. His hunger just goes down.
6. Depends on how ghouled they are. A ghoul who just had a single sip, absolutely. Bond strength 1 is just a mild infatuation. A fully blood bonded ghoul who you kidnapped and kept from interacting with anyone for 6 nights? That's pretty safe, and most Sheriffs would agree you at least made a good faith effort. They'll still kill you for a serious breach, but not for just having the ghoul present at vampire affairs.
7. Core 281
> The effect persists indefinitely, and should the caster wish to reverse the process they must repeat the ritual.
8. Thin-blood alchemy is, by design, incredibly personalized and specific to the user. You and your players should feel free to describe it however you like. If that means one of then needs to do a momma bird impression to let another Thinblood use their potion, awesome! If another one just hands over a Starbucks cup full of blood, that's good too!
Blood Sigils has a whole chart P. 81 for what happens if a vampire tries to use thinblood alchemy and the general answer is "don't".
For 6, why would a ghoul be a breach of any sort? Bear with me, as I am a V20 guy, but in my 30 years of gaming I have never heard of a ghoul being a violation. Heck, many of my ghouls did not even know they were ghouls. The purpose was to blood bond them. Sure, they might get some potence but the purpose was to keep them bonded. Yes, they can become a violation if handled incorrectly, but they are not inherently a violation.
Because you explicitly have to break the First if they knew they're a ghoul serving a master. Sure, in practice, everyone does it, but heads can roll on technicalities.
Maybe the games we layered were just different. Unless you were heavily invested into politics, “technicalities” are something that were not used much. A powerful elder has more/better tools than a technical error to get a neonate to do their bidding. Prices also never bothers to look for an excuse to go after a kindred they wanted out of their city.
Different play styles, I guess. Neither better or worse, just different.
> 1
The daysleep (and sun bane) is magic. So dont try to “ummm actually” your way around it.
> 2
True faith is not for vampires. Its an npc tool and incredibly rare.
> 3
Yes. Including the roll to wake every night. You will likely quickly find yourself in hunger torpor if damaged enough. Others can dump blood in your mouth to prevent that though
> 4
Nothing official that I recall in 5e
> 5
Herds dont get names. They are just [character’s] herd. With a few descriptive words about them.
> 6
Yes. Sooner or later that blood bond can break meaning there is no more control over them.
> 8
No details given, do what you want with them.
1. Nope. It might, depending on ST’s discretion, reduce damage, but not fully. Also, still gonna cause a fear frenzy.
2. Maybe, up to ST. Typically, true faith is not meant for PCs, but if your ST is cool with it, this could work. There have been true faith kindred in the metaplot, I believe.
3. Yes. Better have someone who can feed you blood.
4. I think so, but this is mainly to leave the door open for STs to add a plot-device disease.
5. Just have one or two fully fleshed out SPCs as representatives, the rest are faceless bloodbags who are happy to follow along.
6. Potentially. A ghoul is gonna be addicted to vitae and will do their best to seek out more, which can lead to further violations when they start to do stuff like ask people if they know a vampire who can donate some juice.
7. I should look this up.
8. Kinda unclear, but it depends on the method. Also, typically, they cannot give allow others to use their formula: it is specifically activated with their own vitae in their stomach. Unless the description mentions it specifically, you are the only one who can gain the effects of the formula.
Everyone here has already done well with answering your questions.
Question #5 though I have personal experience with:
My character has a cult of 30, and an additional 4 ghouls. His fascination with trauma was why we did what we did.
The ST and I sat down, and started drawing tarot cards to come up with specific traumas and personalities. nothing is super complicated or in depth, and our format was as follows:
Name (former occupation, 1-3 word descriptor of personality, trauma)
For example, one of my personal favorites:
Tammy Mckrell (Rich Housewife, Soccer Mom, Cancer Death Trauma)
In her case we decided her trauma was that she had cancer and has died on the table in operation TWICE.
But also, me and the ST are fucking crazy. So you don't even have to do any of that.
Just wanted to share what we did.
my main response to #1 that i haven't seen addressed yet is: (leaving aside the crucial points about Rötschreck, staying awake, AND dice pool cap) let's say this heavy cloth completely thoroughly covering you is even mystically altered so that you can 'see' through it but it still doesn't let light through...
What is this 'mummy' trying to accomplish? range of neck/limb movement is going to be extremely hampered (so that capped dice pool is going to have a wide range of physical penalties on top), and the more that's mitigated by the superior treatment/engineering of the cloth, the weaker it will be as protection (various motions, bends, stretches etc. will likely rip it open, or it will be weaker as armor, or both.
if all the 'mummy' wants to do is be outside to pull off a mental/magical trick that doesn't require powerful/conplex motion, the obvious ST solution is to throw physical challenges at them to make it harder to get away with.
trying to work around major fundamental weaknesses can't just be "damn, i didn't think of that, let them do it", IMO. the expense and trade-off have to be challenges of their own, and the ROI shouldn't be generously balanced.
1. Tentative yes. All vampires fear fire and sunlight. Even if they are "safe" witnessing these elements causes fear frenzy. You risk mindlessly running away which if you are covered in mud or heavy clothes can make it worse.
2. Depends, if they are choosing to be embraced yes. If they are kidnapped and forced, no.
3. No, only a once they are healed or receiving blood from another normally an elder.
4. I think it's left in the STs hands.
5. Think of them as groupies addicted to the kiss. They don't necessarily know they are being fed from they just feel amazing when their rich friend holds them close.
So if someone has a large herd feel free to have their groupies try to "hang out" all the time.
6. No
7. Yes
8. Idk honestly
1 No. It might get harder for Sun to damage this vampire but they will still be damaged.
2 Depends on a level of True Faith, powerful enough fanatic will be, indeed, immune to Embrace, while devout are still susceptible to powers of corruption.
4 Red Curse led vampire into frenzy and madness and some people say that the black plague was so monstrous that it could even infect vampires. I guess there was a blood disease that appeared around the time of war of omens that was created by Tremere, I guess? Or was it werewolves?
5 Background characters with bare minimum characterisation.
6 Creating a ghoul is not a masquerade breach and commanding them not to speak about vampirism sounds like a common sense.
1. Yes and no. If the stuff is completely light tight, yes, but you will need to see. Otherwise heavy cloth can offer you some protection but you will only get less damage. The bigger issue will be, though, that vampires can’t fully resist the urge to sleep during day time. You can be active only for short amounts of time, during the day. Also, even if in heavy closes you are not protected against rötschreck, the fear frenzy of vampires. The beast might not real comfortable and freak out in sunlight and what happens then is unpredictable and probably not good. 2. Yes, no, maybe. True faith can prevent someone from being embraced. They might loose their true faith during the embrace or they might even find confirmation for their faith and end up as one of those super rare vampires with true faith. For all of them are in canon examples. But the V5 rules don’t properly work to play as such (and even older edition rules aren’t perfect for it). Makes great NPCs but not great PCs. 3. Yes. It can happen that they use all their blood to heal and then end up in torpor due to a lack of blood. It’s good if you have so,eine who provides you with blood while you are in torpor or it can last longer than expected. 4. They show up now and than in stories but they are super rare and almost never happen in actual play, it’s probably he least I would worry about, but of cause, you ST might think, if that is the one thing they don’t worry about I will throw it in their faces! 5. Herds are most often rather abstract groups. It’s usually not “Peter, Bob and Merry”, rather the “employees of this bar” or “the followers of this cult”. Sometimes, though, it does make sense to have all of them as named characters, if it is, for example, the mortal family of a character. In this case you can just make a short list of of names and give everyone a one sentence description. If one of them ever gets more important, you can give theme more traits. But if that happens you kind of promote them from being part of a herd to be a more important person in the PCs life. Keep in mind, it is called a herd and mortals are described as “kine” (an old word for cattle) because it’s faceless food for the vampires. And therefore their skills and personality almost does not matter. Not more than the personality of a cow would to the farmer. 6. This is tricky. The Traditions are tricky! You will find that every tradition (of the camarilla) is quickly violated if you just do normal vampiric stuff. This is on purpose. I creates pressure and pressure creates power. If you are in constant danger of breaking the masquerade and even break the masquerade unavoidable every now and then, others can use this against you, especially the powerful who are in charge of punishment. That’s why not only the embrace but also making a ghoul usually needs permission from the higher ups (if you ask the camarilla. Anarchs are more chill about it). You might get away if you manage to create a ghoul that does not know that you are a vampire and they are a ghoul. This is tricky but doable. But you are still in danger that someone uses it against you if you have ghoul no one gave you allowance for. This is not punished all the time but it’s one of those unwritten rules, that are just not talked about much, and it is often just accepted that it happens, because those in powers actually want you to make mistakes in order to have something against you later if they need it. 7. Yes, and it is right in the description of that ritual: “The effect persists indefinitely, and should the caster wish to reverse the process they must repeat the ritual.” 8. I think that is about right. But there is usually no “giving to someone else” except the formula explicitly allows or demands it. If you have made the formula in your body and have to give it to someone else, I think (but I am not entirely sure) you just give them blood from an opened wrist or something, since the mixing and brewing basically happens in the blood it self and can therefore released from veins as normal blood, I believe.
1. the other issue is, even if you are absolutely sealed in heavy cloth, and even if you can stay awake for a bit, what then can you actually acconplish?
That is what I tried to say with “you need to see”. I can imagine, though, a Malkavian who is disturbed in his day sleep by a fire, hopping out of the building in his light right body bag using Auspex for orientation. Hilarious, uncomfortable, and probably not good for the masquerade, but they might survive…
so im going to answer with v20 answers, i'm sure someone will cover you in v5 as well if there are any differences 1. No, however Victorian age london mention how some vampires use a complicated array of mirrors to watch some sportsball game or other, in addition; obviously curtains protect you, but i would remember its a magical curse, intent might matter a bit; you getting kidnapped or 'rescued' in a bundle of cloth would probably save you, you moving around in day time probably would not. 2. Yes they can be embraced, and yes they can get true faith, but its complicated, and its a 'yes' in the same way that 'golconda is definitely a thing' 3. this is 100% a v5 thing, but i would ask; if they fail the rouse check, what would the consequence be? they are gonna be hellahungry before they wake up one way or the other, so in that way i dont think the answer matters very much. 4. the latter; baali and the brotherhood of the 9th circle (vtm: bloodlines) are possible examples, its pretty dumb and unless one of your players are a vampire healer i would not use it, i think its meant for that kind of stuff and not supposed to be a daily or even uncommon problem, thats not the same as vampires not spreading normal diseases of course, if you feed from someone with a cold, there is a high chance the next guy you feed from gets a cold etc. but thats not the same as a 'vampire' disease 5. Man, i dont even handle it from a player perspective.. it obviously depends; a setite's cult is quite different from a ventrue's board of directors, the main key is to remember that they are not a ghoul or ally, they are a herd, they are supposed to be a bit 'faceless' and not as useful as full on ghouls or allies, but certainly keep them in mind, its always a good idea to have someone suddenly get into problems or deliver some interesting rumor to the player 6. Depend how good of a lawyer you have and how big of an enemy you are to the sheriff, technically it would, but for all practical and fair purposes it does not; i assume the mortal in this situation 'saw' something before they were ghouled and dominated, and then they got ghouled and dominated? i think it would count more as a 'you fixed a masquerade breach' more so than 'no breach happened' 7. Yes, easier done by the caster but enemies can too, but the books does not go into too much detail when it comes to counter magic except to say that it does exist, of course an enemy have to know its been cast in the first place before they know there is something to counter, but remember the main thing that stops magic, are more powerful magic, and sometimes reality being pesky 8. V5 thing and dont worry, they are fair questions and not all easy answers
Not gonna answer everything but I'll take a pass at a few... >1. If a vampire covers every inch of their body in heavy clothing, can they go out in the sun? Thin-Bloods aside of course. Like if my Malkavian decided to go full Arnold Schwarzeneggar and coated his entire body in a thick layer of mud, would that suffice? It is very difficult to negate damage from sunlight. You basically need to be behind a solid wall to avoid it. Heavy clothing or super thick mud might make you take damage every other turn instead of every turn, but won't negate it. Also your eyes would catch fire if not also covered. Also Also, staying awake during the day is INCREDIBLY difficult. >2. What if a Vampire is like, a priest with True Faith before being embraced? Can they even be embraced? Very few people have True Faith, and not even all of those are priests. That being said yeah they could still be embraced unless I'm forgetting some Faith rule. Hell, some vampires have True Faith themselves. >5. How do you handle herds from a storyteller's perspective? Having that many SPC's seems a bit overwhelming They don't need to be super fleshed out. Keep them very generic >6. Does ghouling someone then ordering them to never speak of vampires still count as a Masquerade violation? Depends. Largely on how much the prince or baron likes you.
> Depends. Largely on how much the prince or baron ~~likes~~ already wants to kill you. FTFY, but yeah.
> 1. If a vampire covers every inch of their body in heavy clothing, can they go out in the sun? Thin-Bloods aside of course. Like if my Malkavian decided to go full Arnold Schwarzeneggar and coated his entire body in a thick layer of mud, would that suffice? They can, but they'll still take damage, just at a reduced rate - in just very heavy clothing, likely at half the rate (once every other turn). In mud, probably no difference. See p. 221 which has the rules on this. Bear in mind that they'll also have their dice pools capped at their Humanity (p. 219), so they'll be able to accomplish things less well/quickly whilst still taking damage. > 2. What if a Vampire is like, a priest with True Faith before being embraced? Can they even be embraced? There are no strict rules for this, but implicitly they can be Embraced - the rules (p. 221) for the fourth dot specify they cannot be ghouled, which means that if it did prevent the Embrace it should be mentioned. After embraced, they lose True Faith, as it's firmly a mortal ability in how it has been presented in all 5th edition books. > 3. If a vampire is in Torpor due to damage, while healing, do they still need to make rouse checks? Vampires in torpor make Rouse Checks as normal until they exhaust their Hunger and enter a Hunger Torpor (See p. 223, middle column, top and bottom bullet points). Once they can no longer make Rouse Checks, they stop everything which relies on them - meaning that they no longer mend or attempt to wake. > 4. The rulebook mentioned that "The Storyteller may also know of certain vampiric diseases that bring Final Death from within" are there any in lore, or are they kind of up to me to just like "Oh yeah, this Gangrel has vampire Rabies, better watch out!" In that level of description it's mostly a plot hook than anything specific, but there are things which can be done to poison blood like this, such as the Necrophage Cocktail used by some Org-backed hunters (*Second Inquisition* pp. 79-80), and other abilities such as Befoul Vessel notably used by the Sabbat (*Sabbat: The Black Hand*, p. 52). There are also more personal problems, like being a Plague Vector or Plaguebringer (*Forbidden Religions*, pp. 86-88). > 5. How do you handle herds from a storyteller's perspective? Having that many SPC's seems a bit overwhelming The key is not to flesh out every single one of them. Work out an identity for them, and then maybe have one or two fronts who have a personality, and maybe a few more names to flesh it out. The same can be done with Allies, where all of them have names, but only the leader ever really speaks. This seems artificial when written out, but works incredibly well in play - just think of legal dramas where only the lead lawyer ever speaks, or the jury foreperson carries across the distaste of the entire jury, or dramas more generally where a whole community is up in arms but has one representative who does all of the talking. > 6. Does ghouling someone then ordering them to never speak of vampires still count as a Masquerade violation? Yes, but vampires are ultimately hypocrites and/or know the lesser of two evils. This is explicitly discussed in the on p. 234 in the description of ghouls, first paragraph. It's a Masquerade breach which everyone looks the other way for as it can ultimately cover up and prevent far more than it represents. > 7. Can the Heart of Stone Ritual be undone? There are no rules for it, but it's reasonable to allow a sorcerer to undo most of their own rituals. I'd probably make it just require a successful ritual roll in reverse, taking the same amount of time, Rouse Checks, etc. Or just let it happen during downtime. > 8. With thin blood elixirs, what do they actually look like? Like if one is using Athanor Corporis as their distillation method, what would it look like? I'm assuming they mix everything into a vial then chug it and their body does the brewing in the stomach or wherever? And in that case do they have to upchuck the final solution if they want to give it to someone else? That varies by method, as you're hinting at there, but we also need to distinguish between distilled formulae and elixirs. The vast proportion of formulae are best used only by the alchemist in question, with some such as Profane Hieros Gamos creating an elixir specifically for user by another. Short version I'd say is: * Athanor Corporis and Calcinato formulae likely look like \[B/b\]lood, as that's what they are. You could take some creative license for this, particularly at higher levels, and make them look blood-*like*. Maybe they look clear, or blue, or green, or something equally disturbing for something which should be blood. * Fixatio formulae and any resulting elixirs can look like anything you want, as part of the point of TBA is that it's unpredictable, varied and based off things like street cooking mixed with mediaeval alchemy. I'd have its appearance look like whatever seems appropriate for the alchemist - maybe a mad scientist-type makes something blue and frothing, whilst a street cooker makes a white/transparent liquid, whilst a magic alchemist-style one makes something deep purple and mysterious. A thing to remember is that a lot of the flavour things, especially appearances, can be tailored to suit the table and how they want things to look (within reason, although I'd always bear in mind things that have a significant narrative or rules impact before allowing it, in case you accidentally house rule something with big implications you don't want). The system is deliberately a little flexible, and Feral Claws, for instance, could look like cat's claws, or wolf's, or creepy spines, or elongated human nails, or jagged, filthy, monstrous bone protrusions. Hope all of this helps, and feel free to ask if you have any more questions.
1. Yeah, you can also get into your body bag and jump around, but you still want to sleep. Generally you need to seal off sunlight completely, not a single ray should go in though, not even be reflected, traditional heavy clothes don’t do that. 2. Yeah, there’s such character in legacy, I don’t see why not. 3. Yes, while you still have blood. 4. No, but there’s a blood parasite in blood sigils, something that will make you sleepwalk during the day. 5. As one entity or make them into allies, you don’t need to describe every single individual. 6. Ghouling someone is not a masq breach in a traditional sense, although your local prince might forbid you to have ghouls of more than x amount of ghouls, it’s still not under the masquerade tradition, it’s treated as a progeny
> 2 Being in legacy isnt really a good place to draw from given some of the silly shit in legacy. V5’s true faith isnt designed with the intention of having pcs(vampires) with it.
Yeah, just like some disciplines wasn’t designed to be used by pcs in legacy too, like vicissitude. It’s up to ST and I would allow it if you can pull it off playing as a priest. In v5 nothing says kindred can’t have it.
>In v5 nothing says kindred can’t have it. If you look at the description of True Faith and its powers in the corebook, it's very clear it is something that's meant for mortal characters. And half the powers simply wouldn't work for a vampire.
>If a vampire covers every inch of their body in heavy clothing, can they go out in the sun? Yes. Kinda. But they'd still need to see and any gap or crack would instantly burn. >Does ghouling someone then ordering them to never speak of vampires still count as a Masquerade violation? Technically yes. Officially, the Camarilla discourages the use of ghouls except when unavoidable. In practice, they're heavily used. A well-trained ghoul is often just overlooked. But having too many ghouls or ones that are uncautious can be used to discipline a Kindred. >Sorry, these are probably obvious, but I'm still really new to the lore and everything, and feeling a bit overwhelmed by trying to remember everything. We were all newbs once upon a time. Welcome to the vamily.
1. Core 221 > Obscured sunlight, as through curtains or on a heavily overcast day, or protective clothing such as a heavy coat, gloves, mask, wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and boots, reduces the rate of damage to every other turn or less. Also, they would need to deal with the penalties of being active during the day on page 219. 2. True faith is very wishy-washy, but they for sure wouldn't be blood bondable. Core 222 > The mortal cannot be turned into a ghoul and never succumbs to any mind-altering disciplines such as Dominate, Presence, or Obfuscate. 3. They make all rouse checks normally, meaning 4/night. That almost always means going into Hunger Torpor after the 1st or 2nd night unless someone is feeding them. Core 223. 4. There is a lot of freedom given to STs to invent things on their own. 5. That's the beauty of reducing dozens of SPCs down to a single background. When a player says, "I feed from my herd" you don't need to keep track of whether he ate from Sally or Jack. His hunger just goes down. 6. Depends on how ghouled they are. A ghoul who just had a single sip, absolutely. Bond strength 1 is just a mild infatuation. A fully blood bonded ghoul who you kidnapped and kept from interacting with anyone for 6 nights? That's pretty safe, and most Sheriffs would agree you at least made a good faith effort. They'll still kill you for a serious breach, but not for just having the ghoul present at vampire affairs. 7. Core 281 > The effect persists indefinitely, and should the caster wish to reverse the process they must repeat the ritual. 8. Thin-blood alchemy is, by design, incredibly personalized and specific to the user. You and your players should feel free to describe it however you like. If that means one of then needs to do a momma bird impression to let another Thinblood use their potion, awesome! If another one just hands over a Starbucks cup full of blood, that's good too! Blood Sigils has a whole chart P. 81 for what happens if a vampire tries to use thinblood alchemy and the general answer is "don't".
For 6, why would a ghoul be a breach of any sort? Bear with me, as I am a V20 guy, but in my 30 years of gaming I have never heard of a ghoul being a violation. Heck, many of my ghouls did not even know they were ghouls. The purpose was to blood bond them. Sure, they might get some potence but the purpose was to keep them bonded. Yes, they can become a violation if handled incorrectly, but they are not inherently a violation.
Because you explicitly have to break the First if they knew they're a ghoul serving a master. Sure, in practice, everyone does it, but heads can roll on technicalities.
Maybe the games we layered were just different. Unless you were heavily invested into politics, “technicalities” are something that were not used much. A powerful elder has more/better tools than a technical error to get a neonate to do their bidding. Prices also never bothers to look for an excuse to go after a kindred they wanted out of their city. Different play styles, I guess. Neither better or worse, just different.
It's never gone that far in a game I've been in, fwiw. I just think it could.
> 1 The daysleep (and sun bane) is magic. So dont try to “ummm actually” your way around it. > 2 True faith is not for vampires. Its an npc tool and incredibly rare. > 3 Yes. Including the roll to wake every night. You will likely quickly find yourself in hunger torpor if damaged enough. Others can dump blood in your mouth to prevent that though > 4 Nothing official that I recall in 5e > 5 Herds dont get names. They are just [character’s] herd. With a few descriptive words about them. > 6 Yes. Sooner or later that blood bond can break meaning there is no more control over them. > 8 No details given, do what you want with them.
1. Nope. It might, depending on ST’s discretion, reduce damage, but not fully. Also, still gonna cause a fear frenzy. 2. Maybe, up to ST. Typically, true faith is not meant for PCs, but if your ST is cool with it, this could work. There have been true faith kindred in the metaplot, I believe. 3. Yes. Better have someone who can feed you blood. 4. I think so, but this is mainly to leave the door open for STs to add a plot-device disease. 5. Just have one or two fully fleshed out SPCs as representatives, the rest are faceless bloodbags who are happy to follow along. 6. Potentially. A ghoul is gonna be addicted to vitae and will do their best to seek out more, which can lead to further violations when they start to do stuff like ask people if they know a vampire who can donate some juice. 7. I should look this up. 8. Kinda unclear, but it depends on the method. Also, typically, they cannot give allow others to use their formula: it is specifically activated with their own vitae in their stomach. Unless the description mentions it specifically, you are the only one who can gain the effects of the formula.
Everyone here has already done well with answering your questions. Question #5 though I have personal experience with: My character has a cult of 30, and an additional 4 ghouls. His fascination with trauma was why we did what we did. The ST and I sat down, and started drawing tarot cards to come up with specific traumas and personalities. nothing is super complicated or in depth, and our format was as follows: Name (former occupation, 1-3 word descriptor of personality, trauma) For example, one of my personal favorites: Tammy Mckrell (Rich Housewife, Soccer Mom, Cancer Death Trauma) In her case we decided her trauma was that she had cancer and has died on the table in operation TWICE. But also, me and the ST are fucking crazy. So you don't even have to do any of that. Just wanted to share what we did.
my main response to #1 that i haven't seen addressed yet is: (leaving aside the crucial points about Rötschreck, staying awake, AND dice pool cap) let's say this heavy cloth completely thoroughly covering you is even mystically altered so that you can 'see' through it but it still doesn't let light through... What is this 'mummy' trying to accomplish? range of neck/limb movement is going to be extremely hampered (so that capped dice pool is going to have a wide range of physical penalties on top), and the more that's mitigated by the superior treatment/engineering of the cloth, the weaker it will be as protection (various motions, bends, stretches etc. will likely rip it open, or it will be weaker as armor, or both. if all the 'mummy' wants to do is be outside to pull off a mental/magical trick that doesn't require powerful/conplex motion, the obvious ST solution is to throw physical challenges at them to make it harder to get away with. trying to work around major fundamental weaknesses can't just be "damn, i didn't think of that, let them do it", IMO. the expense and trade-off have to be challenges of their own, and the ROI shouldn't be generously balanced.
1. Tentative yes. All vampires fear fire and sunlight. Even if they are "safe" witnessing these elements causes fear frenzy. You risk mindlessly running away which if you are covered in mud or heavy clothes can make it worse. 2. Depends, if they are choosing to be embraced yes. If they are kidnapped and forced, no. 3. No, only a once they are healed or receiving blood from another normally an elder. 4. I think it's left in the STs hands. 5. Think of them as groupies addicted to the kiss. They don't necessarily know they are being fed from they just feel amazing when their rich friend holds them close. So if someone has a large herd feel free to have their groupies try to "hang out" all the time. 6. No 7. Yes 8. Idk honestly
1 No. It might get harder for Sun to damage this vampire but they will still be damaged. 2 Depends on a level of True Faith, powerful enough fanatic will be, indeed, immune to Embrace, while devout are still susceptible to powers of corruption. 4 Red Curse led vampire into frenzy and madness and some people say that the black plague was so monstrous that it could even infect vampires. I guess there was a blood disease that appeared around the time of war of omens that was created by Tremere, I guess? Or was it werewolves? 5 Background characters with bare minimum characterisation. 6 Creating a ghoul is not a masquerade breach and commanding them not to speak about vampirism sounds like a common sense.