Introduction to the Mechanics of Vampire the Masquerade V5

This document is intended to be a quick summary of the biggest mechanics involved in Vampire: The Masquerade. The mechanics are intended to mesh with and enhance the lore and flavour of the Vampire's existence. Notably, other systems in the same world (currently Hunter: The Reckoning and Werewolf: The Apocalypse) use a customized version of this system to enhance their own lore and flavour. The World of Darkness is not balanced and that's by intent - there are many entities in the world that even a neonate Kindred can overwhelm easily and others that are far more powerful.

The books can be difficult to learn to play from. Hopefully, this document will be helpful - it'll give you the idea of the terminology so you can find more details in the books or in Paradox's official wiki : https://vtm.paradoxwikis.com/VTM_Wiki

Introduction to the Mechanics of Vampire the Masquerade V5

Traits, Skills and Attributes

• Traits define characters 
• Traits are split into Attributes (inherent characteristics) and Skills (learned talents)
• They are rated 1-5  - For Attributes, 1 is awful, 2 is normal, 5 is world class. For Skills, any dot in a skill indicates you have some training or knack for the skill, with a score of 3 or higher indicating you could do it for a living, 5 being utterly world class
• Most actions use a Skill pool (Attribute + Skill or Attribute + Discipline).
• The Storyteller may use Attribute + Attribute (and these Attributes may be the same or different depending on the circumstance) where appropriate (eg. Strength + Strength to lift the heavy thing).
• A character who lacks a Skill simply rolls the pool’s Attribute.
• A character may have a speciality on a Skill that indicates they are particularly good at the skill when dealing with that thing - that will add a bonus to skill use in that case

Hunger and Rouse Checks

• Hunger is a tracker that goes from 0-5
• Vampires can only reach Hunger 0 by draining and killing their victim, otherwise, they are always at least a little Hungry
• Vampires can drink 1 point of Hunger from a mortal with little problem, 2 points of Hunger with the mortal noticing they feel woozy. More than 2 might kill the mortal. Sating your Hunger to 0 always kills the mortal.
• They risk completely losing control at Hunger 5 - this is called Frenzy
• Hunger is raised when the vampire needs to perform a Rouse check. A Rouse check is a simple d10 roll, with 6 or above being a Success, 5 or below being a failure. If the roll is a failure, Hunger goes up by 1
• Rouse checks are called for whenever the vampire rouses the blood - when they wake up in the evening, when they rouse the blood to boost their attributes, and when they use some of their disciplines
• The bite of a vampire can seem euphoric to the victim, due to the fangs producing an intoxicating effect.
• A vampire who feeds on another vampire slakes 1 point of Hunger for each point of increased Hunger they inflict on the donor. Feeding from a vampire of at least two levels of Blood Potency higher than the drinker slakes 2 points of Hunger for each point of Hunger gained by the donor. Conversely, feeding from a vampire of at least two levels of Blood Potency less than the drinker slakes only 1 point of Hunger for each 2 points of Hunger inflicted on the donor.
• Feeding directly from another vampire also risks a Blood Bond.

Making a Roll

For a normal role, you do the following:

• Form a dice pool based on the Traits the Storyteller asks for (generally but not always an Attribute and a Skill). This will be the number of d10 that are rolled. You can discuss the Traits used with the Storyteller, but the Storyteller always has the final say
• If you have a specialty, are being assisted, or have other situational advantages or disadvantages, you may be able to add or subtract dice from your pool
• Replace (not add) a number of dice with Hunger dice equal to your Hunger. These dice should be visually distinct from the normal dice. Hunger dice never add to the number of dice in the pool, but you may end up with all the dice in your pool being Hunger dice
• Roll the dice pool, now with the hunger dice included
• Every result 6-10 is a Success. 1s and 10s are special and should be noted
• For every PAIR of 10s, this is a critical and adds two more successes - only in pairs - 1 * 10 is not special, 3 * 10s only adds two more successes, but 4 * 10s add four successes
• If you meet or exceed the number of successes compared to the Difficulty the Storyteller sets, you succeed in your task. The Storyteller may or may not tell you the Difficulty before you roll
• When you succeed and have a critical in your result, this may make things even better for you
• The difference between the Difficulty and the number of Successes is called the Margin. This may influence degree of success
• Messy Criticals - Whenever you score a critical and at least one ‘10’ (‘0’) comes from a Hunger dice, the character’s vampiric nature (also known as “The Beast”) makes itself known. You get the normal two extra successes, but perform the action as a vampire would: killing someone you were trying to subdue, flashing fangs at someone you were trying to intimidate, Feeding from someone you met when canvassing, etc.
• Bestial Failures - If the overall result of a roll is a Failure and any of the Hunger dice include a 1, this is a Bestial Failure. Bestial Failures ONLY occur when the attempt is a Failure, 1s, even on the Hunger dice, are otherwise just not Successes. In a Bestial Failure, the Storyteller will provide the consequence, but it will often include a Compulsion - something the character MUST accomplish and anything not dedicated towards that will happen at a two dice penalty.

Example: Jane is driving a tricky, slick patch of road at high speed to get away from the scene of her crime. The pool is Dexterity (Attribute) at 3 + Drive (Skill) at 2, for a total of 5 dice. She doesn't have any relevant specialities or situations, so her dice pool remains at 5. Her vampiric Hunger is at 2, so she will take 2 red hunger dice and 3 black normal dice (colours don't matter as long as the dice can easily be distinguished) and roll those. The Storyteller sets the difficulty at 3.

Let's consider some outcomes:

Black dice: 1, 6, 7, Red dice: 10, 2 - This counts as three successes (the 6, 7, 10). There is only one 10, so there is no critical. This will be compared to the difficulty (3), and meets it, Jane succeeds.

Black dice: 4, 10, 10, Red dice: 9, 5 - There is one success (the 9), plus two 10s. This is a total of 5 successes (1 for the 9, 2 for the two 10s, 2 for the critical). This succeeds, critically. Jane succeeds with skill and aplomb, making great time despite the slick roads.

Black dice: 4, 6, 10, Red dice: 10, 5 - There is one success (the 6), plus two 10s (one on the blood dice). This is a total of 5 successes (1 for the 6, 2 for the two 10s, 2 for the critical). This succeeds, but one of those criticals came on the blood dice. This makes it a Messy Critical and Jane's Beast takes over, making her heedless of the cost, slamming her car off a parked car to gain additional speed and get out of the area even faster.

Black dice: 4, 3, 1, Red dice: 2, 6 - there is one success (the 6) and no others. This is a total of 1 success, which is lower than the difficulty. There are no ones on the blood dice, so this is just a regular failure - Jane skids off the road and slams into the curb.

Black dice: 4, 3, 1, Red dice: 1, 6 - there is one success (the 6) and no others. This is a total of 1 success, which is lower than the difficulty. There is a 1 on the blood dice, so this is just a Bestial Failure - Jane skids off the road and slams into the curb and her Beast snarls, whispering to her about her inadequacies. Jane gains a Compulsion (chosen by the Storyteller, related to the situation, her character and/or her Clan's bane) to show off and impress the others in the car, and until she succeeds, any roll that isn't directly dedicated to that will suffer a two dice penalty.

Contested Rolls

Sometimes, a roll may be contested by another, whether this is a debate, a gun fight, or an attempt to use a discipline. In that case, both the active character and defending character roll, with the two results compared. A tie goes to the active character.

Rerolling with Willpower

• Characters can spend 1 point of Willpower to reroll up to 3 regular dice on any one Skill or Attribute roll (including rolls involving Disciplines).
• Characters may not spend Willpower to reroll Hunger dice, a tracker roll (eg. Willpower or Humanity), or a check.
• A spent point of Willpower counts as having sustained 1 level of Superficial Willpower damage. Mark it.

Failures, Succeeding at a Cost, Helping Other Players, and Reattempting Failures

• If your roll includes 1+ successes, but fails overall, the Storyteller may offer to let you win at a cost.
• You achieve your goal, but something bad happens (eg. you take damage, attract unfriendly/powerful notice, lose something you value).
• Any player can suggest the cost.
• It should scale with the number of missing successes.
• If the cost is too high, you can choose to fail instead.
• If a character fails an action, sometimes they can try again.
• To justify an attempt, circumstances must merit it (eg. they gain a better set of lockpicks, their skill has improved since last time).
• If your roll includes no successes at all, your character has totally failed. The Storyteller defines what that means according to the circumstances.
• If 2+ characters can work together on a task, roll the largest pool among the participants, adding 1 extra die for each assisting character with at least 1 dot in the involved Skill.

Health

A character's health is derived from their Stamina + 3. In general, damage to health is received during physical conflicts with a contest being made. The margin of the winner's roll against the losers is added to the loser's health tracker as damage. If the winner is using a weapon with a modifier, that is added to the total damage with the margin. There are two different types of damage that can fill a character's health tracker, Superficial damage and Aggravated damage.

When tracking damage to their health tracker, Superficial damage is tracked with an "/" on one of the boxes per point taken, with Aggravated tracked using an "X" in each box per point taken. If a character manages to fill their entire tracker, either with one type or a mix of the two, they are now Impaired. Impairment causes a penalty of -2 from Physical pools. Following this impairment, any point of damage they take will convert any Superficial into Aggravated on a one-for-one basis. When a character's tracker is filled entirely with Aggravated damage they are out of the combat, if they are mortal they are either dead or comatose and if they are Kindred they fall into Torpor.

Superficial damage

Superficial damage is bruising and small cuts, but nothing that is life-threatening. Kicking, punching, and any non-lethal weapon do Superficial damage to humans. Standard weapons do Superficial damage to vampires, this includes slashing, stabbing, and piercing weapons. In general, against vampires, this type of damage is halved before adding it to the tracker and this includes when converting Superficial to Aggravated.

Aggravated damage

Aggravated damage is broken bones, serious wounds, and other life-threatening injuries. Sharp and piercing weapons do Aggravated damage to humans. Generally, only fire, sunlight and the claws or teeth of other supernatural creatures do Aggravated damage to Kindred.

Healing damage

Mortals may remove a number of Superficial damage equal to their Stamina rating at the beginning of a session. With Aggravated damage mortals can have their damage converted from Aggravated to Superficial with an Intelligence + Medicine test. The maximum amount able to be converted is equal to half of the character's Medicine rating rounded up with the healing happening over the course of the night. A mortal being hospitalized removes the need for rolls but takes the amount of Aggravated damage received as the total number of weeks required to heal fully.

When healing Superficial damage Kindred can remove a number of Superficial damage levels from their Health tracker by making one Rouse Check per turn, with the number removed dependent on their Blood Potency. With Aggravated damage, Kindred may mend one level of Aggravated damage by making three Rouse Checks at the beginning of a session in addition to the wake-up Rouse Check. This will only heal one point of damage and will remove any Crippling Injury or similar impairments, this can only be done once per night.

Willpower

Willpower is a tracker, with both a maximum rating and a temporary amount of points to be used. It represents the character's confidence and determination to accomplish a task and is built from Composure + Resolve. It is not possible to purchase additional points of Willpower alone, instead, it is only increased by increasing either one of those stats.

Players may spend their character's Willpower in a variety of ways and when doing so, must mark the tracker with one Superficial damage. Should the character hit Willpower 0, they are left Impaired and receives a -2 dice penalty for Social and Mental tests. Superficial damage is tracked with an "/" on one of the boxes per point taken, with Aggravated tracked using an "X" in each box per point taken.

They may use Willpower to reroll up to three dice (the dice cannot be Hunger dice) in any pool, except when the rules specifically exclude Willpower such as tracker rolls (Remorse tests, Frenzy tests), or One-Roll Conflict), etc.

• Willpower may be spent to take control of their character for one turn during a frenzy or when under the influence of certain Disciplines.
• To perform minor movements, such as movement of a finger while staked.
• To ignore Health damage penalties, including Impairment, for one turn.

Recovering Superficial Willpower damage

Characters may recover their Superficial Willpower damage at the beginning of a session equal to either their Composure or Resolve (whichever is highest between the two). Unless, the session ends on a cliffhanger where the dwindling supply of Willpower provides a strong dramatic tension.

At the Storyteller's discretion, once per session, a character who acts to fulfill their desire may immediately recover 1 point of damage.

At the Storyteller's discretion, a character who plays out a messy critical, bestial failure, frenzy, or Compulsion in a dramatic way can recover one or more Superficial Willpower damage.

Recovering Aggravated Willpower damage

At the Storyteller's discretion, a character can recover one or more points of Aggravated Willpower damage when they have acted significantly beneficially towards a Touchstone or Conviction.

Characters can heal 1 point of Aggravated damage at the end of a session when the character has worked towards their Ambition

Convictions and Touchstones, Stains and Humanity

Humanity: How far your character has degenerated into monstrosity. Humanity typically starts at 7. A character with 0 Humanity has completely succumbed to the Beast and can no longer be used as a PC.

• Each character begins with one to three Convictions: human values they attempt to uphold even after death.
• Each character begins with as many Touchstones as Convictions: a living human being who represents what you used to value in life, or someone who represents one of your Convictions. If lost, the Conviction is lost as well.
• The troupe should assemble a set of chronicle Tenets, based on anything from genre emulation to personal taste.
• Tenets impose moral sanction and degeneration on the characters when violated - this is mechanically implemented as Humanity loss
• Chronicle Tenets apply to all player characters in a chronicle, even if the character doesn’t hold this belief personally. The chronicle Tenets comprise a kind of ethical ground floor, so that when and if the characters do become nihilistic serial killers, it carries a cost.
• Humanity loss changes the look and mentality of your vampire, becoming literally less and less human and able to pass as one

When you violate a moral code, Conviction or where otherwise specified, you may gain a Stain. These are tracked from the right to the left on the Humanity tracker, with a “/”. Mechanically, this means that high Humanity characters are more vulnerable to losing that Humanity and that the lower Humanity characters are likely to retain the remnants of that humanity. Any extra Stains left over once your tracker is full trigger Impairment (2-dice penalty to all pools) and cause Aggravated Willpower damage. An Impaired character is incapable of further intentional Tenet violations, and lasts until the end of the session, or by voluntarily losing 1 point of Humanity.

Once your Humanity tracker has any Stains, the player must make a Remorse test at the end of the session. Roll a number of dice equal to the unmarked, unfilled spaces. Even if the tracker is full, roll one die.

For 1+ successes, the character has enough guilt, shame or regret to retain their current Humanity. Remove all Stains. If there are 0 successes, the Beast has won. Lose 1 point of Humanity and remove all Stains.

Ambitions and Desire

Ambition: A long-term goal, dream, aspiration

Desire: An immediate short-term craving

Each session, a character can select a Desire or keep their unfulfilled Desire from the previous session. Once per session, when the character definitively acts to further or accomplish their Desire, they may immediately recover one point of Superficial Willpower damage.

Blood Potency

• As the years pass, Blood Potency increases. Generally a vampire gains 1 level of Blood Potency every 100 active years.
• A vampire in torpor loses Blood Potency at around 1 level every 50 years.
• Blood Potency can’t move beyond the upper and lower boundaries for their generation.
• Thin-bloods can’t increase their Blood Potency via age etc. unless they diablerize their way to 13th Generation or better.
• Vampiric Blood grants a number of abilities to vampires: Gifts of the Blood.
• A number of curses are also bestowed: Prices of the Blood.
• Mechanically, you can also raise your Blood Potency with experience

Blood Bonds

• Anyone who drinks the Blood of a vampire becomes progressively more attached to the donor.
• After 3+ drinks, the Blood Bond reduces them to a servile lackey (thrall) while in their donor’s (regnant’s) presence.
• Kindred usually deny that they have been bound, believing their feelings to be true.
• Terrified of angering their regnant, thralls experience infatuation and obsessive loyalty.
• A mutual Blood Bond is sometimes called a Blood Wedding, but is obsessive and abusive, not love. They are frowned upon in Camarilla society.
• A regnant can have as many vampire thralls as they have levels of Blood Potency. If they go over the limit and Bond another thrall, the oldest Bond fades within a week.
• A thrall can only have one regnant, and is immune to other Bonding attempts.
• To attempt something against their regnant’s wishes, a thrall must succeed in a contest (defiance roll) of Resolve + Intelligence vs. Bond Strength (the number of times the thrall has consumed the regnant’s Blood, max 6).
• Bond Strength decreases by 1 for each month of separation. Breaking the bond requires the Bond Strength to be reduced to 0 by avoiding their regnant for an extended time, and must make a successful defiance roll once per session to do so.

Ghoul

• A mortal who drinks a vampire’s Blood.
• A Kindred can Blood Bond as many ghouls as they like.
• A Rouse Check’s worth of their master’s Blood bestows the following benefits for around 1 month:
• The mortal gains the first level in their master’s highest-rated discipline, plus a level 1 power possessed by the vampire.
• The aging process halts.
• Wounds (except caused by fire) heal twice as fast.

Blood Resonance and Humours

A victim’s temperament and state of mind are present in the flavour of blood while drinking it - this is its Resonance.

Resonance comes in three temperaments:

• Fleeting: In-the-moment. Most well-adjusted humans experience all four Resonances in fleeting bursts all day.
• Intense: A human with a very strong tendency towards one Resonance (eg. due to mental illness, past trauma, age).
• Acute: A Resonance so intense that it creates a self-sustaining reaction in the blood. Also called a Dyscrasia. That is a “must-drink” NPC.

The different Resonances are described as the Four Humors from ancient medicine - Choleric, Melancholic, Phlegmatic, and Sanguine.

The more intense a Resonance the more power it gives when drunk. Each Discipline is energised by a different Resonance. Until the next drink of blood, the drinker gains an additional die for associated Discipline dice pools.