Heartbreak, Trauma, and Inconvenient Gambling Debts
Chapter 13 is up!
While the Makom had been tastefully decorated, despite not being up to its owner’s snuff, Fabien found himself grinning wide at the sight of the humbly furnished card hall.
As charmingly cluttered as the storefront was, the upstairs was a stark contrast, with nothing more than a dozen or so card tables scattered around the open space, while a makeshift bar took up the majority of the back wall.
Still, the lack of finishing touches didn’t seem to bother the patrons, as the room was fairly well packed; a hazy cloud of cigarette smoke lingered over the crowd, and the lights were just low enough to invoke a comfortably warm aura.
Fabien rubbed his chilled hands together, taking in the numerous games as he made his way towards Gideon’s office. Not for the first time today, he found himself missing the clink of coin in his pocket.
Here's my attempt at giving Gideon some other vampire powers to play with, aside from just being scary good at reading your mind.
He focuses heavily on manipulating emotions and thoughts, but I like the idea of a gambling man having a sleight of hand trick tucked away for a rainy day.
Long read of mechanical rules ahead.
Auspex
(1) SENSE THE UNSEEN
The senses of the vampire become attuned to dimensions beyond the mundane, allowing them to sense presences otherwise hidden from the naked eye. This can be anything from another vampire using Obfuscate to someone using Auspex to spy upon the character to a ghost in the middle of the room. Dormant Blood Sorcery spells and rituals might also be found with this power, at the Storyteller’s discretion.
■ Cost: Free
■ Dice Pools: Wits + Auspex or Resolve + Auspex
■ System: Whenever there’s something supernatural hiding in plain sight, the Storyteller makes a hidden roll of Wits + Auspex against a Difficulty they choose. Against an entity actively trying to stay hidden, the Storyteller can call for a blind roll (“Lisa, roll seven dice for me”) as a contest against the target’s relevant pool. (For example, detecting a vampire using Obfuscate would be a roll of Wits + Auspex vs Wits + Obfuscate) If the vampire actively searches for a hidden supernatural entity, they roll Resolve + Auspex similarly.
■ Duration: Passive
(2) PREMONITION
The vampire experiences flashes of insight. These may take the form of raised hackles, sudden inspiration or even vivid visions. While never too precise, these visions can nudge the vampire out of harm’s way or reveal a truth previously overlooked.
■ Cost: Free or one Rouse Check
■ Dice Pools: Resolve + Auspex
■ System: Whenever the Storyteller deems it appropriate, this power gives the character a sudden hint that aids them in some way: letting them find a clue they’ve missed or saving them from danger. Whether it gives the character a sudden vision of themselves walking into a trap, an inviting red glow over the second right turn during a chase, or the brief flash of a skeleton beneath the floorboards in the Prince’s office, this power always gives the Storyteller license to subtly speed up play or move the story onto a desired track. The suggested limit is one premonition per scene, even if more than one character has Premonition.
■ The user can also actively provoke a premonition by focusing on a subject, making a Rouse Check and rolling Resolve + Auspex. The number of successes rolled determines the level of insight on the subject, if any.
■ Duration: Passive
(3) SHARE THE SENSES
By reaching out with their mind, the vampire can tap into the senses of another mortal or vampire, seeing, hearing, and feeling what they do. The user still retains their own perceptions and is still aware of their own surroundings, though the effect requires some getting used to. The user decides whether to tap into only one, some, or all of the target’s senses. When used on a stranger this power requires line of sight to initiate. However, it can be used over longer distances on someone who still has some of the user’s Blood in their body.
■ Cost: One Rouse Check
■ Dice Pools: Resolve + Auspex
■ System: Roll Resolve + Auspex at Difficulty 3. This Difficulty can go up depending on distraction, distance, and other factors, such as the amount of the user’s Blood that remains in the target. The target usually remains unaware of the intrusion, but Sense the Unseen can allow the passenger to be noticed. To get rid of an unwanted rider, the victim must beat the intruder at a Wits + Resolve vs Wits + Resolve roll. An Auspex user thrown out this way cannot make another Sharing attempt until the next night.
■ Duration: One scene
(4) HEART LAID BARE (VtM: Tattered Facade p. 91)
While not true mind reading, this Power lets a vampire peer into the subconscious of a victim to gain a sense of what they desire – or fear – the most. Armed with this knowledge the user gains a powerful leverage on the victim, though the moment they let on that they are aware of an elder’s deepest fears, their nights might be numbered.
■ Cost: One Rouse Check
■ Dice Pools: Intelligence + Auspex vs. Composure + Subterfuge
■ System: The user decides on whether they are looking for fears or desires and then engages the target in conversation for a few minutes before making the Power test. The test is made against Difficulty 0 on unsuspecting mortals, but mortals aware of vampiric abilities – as well as all supernatural creatures – can resist with Composure + Subterfuge. The margin on success determines how much information is gained:
1-2: The user gets a general notion of the victim’s fears or desires, such as: “wealth”, “sex”, “bugs”, or “loneliness”
3-5: The sense becomes more specific: “making it on the stock market”, “a threesome”, “hornets”, or “losing my partner”
6+: The user receives a clear picture of the element sought, complete with context or history: “getting away with that NDX Insider deal”, “a threesome with Billy and Jeanette”, “hornets, ever since I whacked that nest on a dare in third grade”, or “Warren finding out I lied about Billy and Jeanette”.
Add one success to the results if the object of desire or fear is present, and add another success if the conversation touches upon the topic.) Though the victim can catch on to the intent unless the user wins a Composure + Subterfuge vs Wits + Insight test)
■ Duration: -
(5) TELEPATHY
At the highest levels of Auspex the vampire can now literally read minds, as well as project their own thoughts into the minds of others. While reading a mortal mind is relatively straightforward, undead minds requires a higher effort to penetrate.
■ Cost: One Rouse Check (plus one Willpower vs non-consenting vampires)
■ Dice Pools: Resolve + Auspex vs Wits + Subterfuge
■ System: The user is not required to roll any dice to project their thoughts to another, vampire or mortal, though they do require line of sight. To read the mind of a mortal within line of sight, roll Resolve + Auspex vs Wits + Subterfuge while looking into their eyes. (Unless the mortal consents, in which case no roll is required.) A win means that the user can discern surface thoughts as a stream of images, with higher margin allowing the user to probe for more distant or buried memories. A critical win gives a coherent picture of the subject’s current thoughts and intentions. To read the mind of a non-consenting vampire, spend one Willpower point before rolling.
■ Duration: Roughly one minute per Rouse Check. Increased to a full scene on consenting subjects.
Dominate
(1) COMPEL
With eye contact, the vampire can issue the victim a single-action command, no longer than a short sentence, to be obeyed to the letter. It must be possible to complete the command in a single turn. The Storyteller decides whether to interpret ambiguous commands in an unexpected or unfavorable way; alternatively, the command simply confuses the victim and fails.
■ Cost: Free
■ Dice Pools: Charisma + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve
■ System: No roll is required against an unprepared mortal victim. Commanding a resisting victim, a victim the vampire has previously Dominated in the same scene, or another vampire requires a contest of Charisma + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve. Commands that go against the victim’s nature also require such a contest.
■ Duration: No more than a single scene
(2) MESMERIZE
The vampire can issue complex commands to a victim, as long as they have the subject’s gaze and relative quiet in which to issue instructions. The instructions must be carried out immediately to the victim’s best ability, and must not contain any conditional actions (“...if you see Henry, give him the document”), as this would require the victim to exercise cognition.
■ Cost: One Rouse Check
■ Dice Pools: Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve
■ System: No roll is required against an unprepared mortal victim. Commanding a resisting victim or another vampire requires a contest of Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve. Commands that go against the victim’s nature also require such a contest.
■ Duration: Until the command is carried out or the scene ends, whichever comes first.
(3) SUBMERGED DIRECTIVE
When using Mesmerize, the vampire can now implant a posthypnotic suggestion, allowing the command to remain dormant until a specific stimulus occurs. This trigger can be anything from a specific date, to a person (“When you meet Roland, tell him these words”), to hearing a specific phrase. The Submerged Directive never expires; people can conceivably walk around with an order buried in their mind for years. The user can only embed one suggestion per victim.
■ Cost: No additional cost
■ System: As Mesmerize, though the Storyteller might want to make any rolls in secret. There’s no way of knowing if the submerged suggestion works until the conditions are met.
■ Duration: Passive
Obfuscate
(1) ENSCONCE (VtM: Gehenna War p. 46)
The vampire is able to supernaturally conceal small objects in their hands or on their person. The power doesn’t make visible objects invisible. Rather, it makes a searcher ignore them when they’d otherwise notice.
■ Cost: None
■ System: The Kindred can hide a number of small, hand-held objects in their hands on on their person equal to their Obfuscate rating. Mortals ignore dangerous or out-of-place objects that the user is enshrouding or miss them in a search. Kindred with Sense the Unseen or others with supernatural senses can attempt to notice them as usual. Objects in plain view cannot be hidden by this power, nor can animate creatures.
■ Duration: One scene
(2) DOUBLETALK (VtM: Blood-Stained Love p. 152)
Amalgam: Auspex 1
Whereas more Kindred use the powers of Obfuscate to hide objects or their own actions, some Kindred use it to mask their speech. The user can say one thing and secretly convey another to a specific person with bystanders being none the wiser.
This is the power to use when flirting with the Prince’s boyfriend right in front of her face.
■ Cost: One Rouse Check
■ System: The Kindred adds a secret message (up to one sentence to their words that only a single intended listener can hear. Anyone else present only picks up the message if they can beat the user’s Composure + Obfuscate with their Wits + Auspex.
■ Duration: One utterance.
(3) MENTAL MAZE (VtM: Cults of the Blood Gods p. 85)
Amalgam Dominate 1
Serpents maintain that Obfuscate is less about illusion and more about perception. Mental maze is the ability to remove all sense of direction and location from a victim, allowing the vampire to make their target a prisoner in their current environment, such as a home, a nightclub, or worse – a vampire’s cellar. The victim finds their location folding back on itself, subtly altering their perception of previously visited rooms, convincing them that an actual exit will only lead deeper into the maze, and eventually breaking them down into a state of panic and fragility.
■ Cost: One or three Rouse Checks
■ Dice Pools: Charisma + Obfuscate vs. Wits + Resolve
■ System: The vampire personally speaks the words “you cannot escape” to their victim and rolls Charisma + Obfuscate versus the target’s Wits + Resolve, with lower Generation vampires being able to negate the roll with a Willpower point as per Dominate’s characteristics (see Vampire: The Masquerade p. 255). On a win, the victim struggles to find their way out of the building they’re in. An additional two Rouse Checks allows this power to be used in a single room or a densely packed outdoor environment (such as a construction site or forest).
Mortals cannot attempt to escape but supernatural creatures can make a Resolve + Awareness test each scene using the vampire’s initial successes as the Difficulty, suffering a point of Superficial Willpower damage for every missing success if they fail. This roll cannot benefit from Teamwork, as any guidance given does not match what the victim sees. This power ends if the environment becomes dangerous (e.g. the building catches fire), unless the vampire has Terminal Decree (see Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 257.
■ Duration: One night
I gave him Mental Maze because I've made him a trapdoor predator type. Welcome to The Last Hand: Home Furnishing Emporium. Don't get too lost in all the clutter, or else you'll have a hard time finding your way back out. :)
The only thing I'm not sure about is Doubletalk, because with his Telepathy, it seems a little redundant. If I don't go with Doubletalk, it'll probably be Cache (also from VtM: Gehenna Wars p. 46) , which gives the Ensconce effects to items the vampire touches, but they don't have to be on their person anymore.
You can search for a lot of the VtM sourcebooks on anyflip
Utterly ridiculous to have to go through 5 different source books to find mechanic rules for disciplines. A blessing upon the people who upload to Anyflip, however. (I will never ever pay $50 a pop per book)
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