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THE MASQUERADE

INTRODUCTORY

KIT

Table of Contents

Introduction — What is Vampire: The Masquerade ? 2

Setting — Vampire History and Hierarchy 4

Character Creation — Making Your Own Vampire 7

Clans — The Children of Caine 8

Traits and Disciplines — Vampiric Powers 16

Blood and Health — The Vampire’s Strength 19

Rules — Playing the Game 20

Combat — Physical Confrontation 22

Story Ideas — Suggested Starting Points 24

Sample Adventure 25

Because of the mature themes involved, reader discretion is advised.

Based on the Vampire: The Masquerade game created by Steve Brown, Andrew Greenberg,

Chris McDonough, Mark Rein•Hagen, Lisa Stevens, Joshua Gabriel Timbrook

and Stewart Wieck

Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com,

alt.games.whitewolf and rec.games.frp.storyteller.

except for the purposes of reviews. White Wolf and Vampire the Masquerade are registered trademarks of White Wolf, Inc. All

rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by White Wolf, Inc. The mention of or reference to

any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned.

VAMPIRE INTRODUCTORY KIT

VAMPIRE:

Welcome to Vampire: The Masquerade

Vampire: The Masquerade is a roleplaying game. It is a beautifully illustrated, hardcover book

that details the passions and powers of mythic vampires. It gives you rules for creating your own

vampire character, and describes the dark and compelling world in which your vampire exists.

What happens next is up to you.

This booklet is a simplified version of Vampire: The Masquerade. It gives you the highlights of

the Vampire setting and rules, the information you need to play a game.

Try it out. If you like it, the rulebook is available in most book, hobby and comic stores. When

you’re ready, we’ll be there —

waiting for you to invite us in.

S TORYTELLING

The rules pamphlet you hold provides an introductory

look at Vampire: The Masquerade , a storytelling game from

White Wolf Publishing. With the rules in this kit, you and

your friends are able to take the roles of night-stalking vam-

pires and tell stories about the characters’ triumphs, failures,

dark deeds and glimmerings of goodness.

In a lot of ways, storytelling resembles games such as How

to Host a Murder . Players take the role of a character — in this

case, a vampire — and engage in a form of improvisational

theatre, saying what the vampire would say and describing

what the vampire would do.

In a storytelling game, players take their characters through

adventures, called (appropriately enough) stories. Stories are

told through a combination of the wishes of the players and

the directives of the Storyteller (see below).

P LAYERS AND S TORYTELLERS

Most people who play Vampire are players. They create

vampire characters — imaginary protagonists similar to those

found in novels, films and comics. In each group, however,

one person must take the role of the Storyteller. The Story-

teller acts as a combination director, moderator, narrator and

referee. The Storyteller creates the drama through which the

players direct their characters. The Storyteller also creates and

takes the roles of supporting cast — both allies with whom the

characters interact, and antagonists against whom the charac-

ters fight. The Storyteller invents the salient details of the

story setting — the bars, nightclubs, businesses and other

institutions the characters frequent. The players decide how

their characters react to the situations in the game, but it is the

Storyteller (with the help of the rules) who decides if the

characters actually succeed in their endeavors and, if so, how

well. Ultimately, the Storyteller is the final authority on the

events that take place in the game.

Example: Rob, Brian, Cynthia and Alison have gathered

to play Vampire . Rob, Brian and Cynthia are players: Rob is

playing Baron d’Havilland, a Ventrue aristocrat; Brian is

playing Palpa, a Nosferatu sewer-dweller; and Cynthia is

playing Maxine, a Brujah street punk. Alison is the Story-

teller, and has decreed that the characters have been brought

before the vampire prince of the city to face judgment. The

players may now decide what to do: Rob, speaking as Baron

d’Havilland, may try to smooth-talk his way out of the prince’s

ire; Cynthia, as Maxine, may angrily denounce the prince as

a “fascist”; and Brian, as Palpa, may simply decide to use

magical invisibility to flee the situation. Ultimately, though,

it is Alison, the Storyteller, who determines the prince’s

reaction to the characters’ words or acts; it is Alison, speaking

as the prince, who roleplays the prince’s reaction; and it is

Alison who determines whether the characters’ actions, if

any, succeed or fail.

W HAT I S A V AMPIRE ?

Storytelling and roleplaying games may feature many

kinds of protagonists. In TSR’s Dungeons & Dragons, players

assume the roles of heroes in a fantasy world. In Hero Games’

Champions , players take on the roles of superheroes. In Vam-

pire , appropriately enough, players assume the personas of

vampires — the immortal bloodsuckers of the horror genre —

and guide these characters through a world virtually identical

to our own.

The vampires who walk the Earth in modern nights are

both similar to and different from what we might expect. It is

perhaps best to begin our discussion of the undead as if they

were a separate species of being — sentient, with superficial

similarities to the humans they once were, but displaying a

myriad of physiological and psychological differences.

In many ways, vampires resemble the familiar monsters of

myth and cinema. (There is enough truth in the old tales that

perhaps they were created by deluded or confused mortals.)

However — as many an intrepid vampire hunter has learned

to his sorrow — not all of the old wives’ tales about vampires

are true.

• Vampires are living dead, and must sustain them-

selves with the blood of the living. True. A vampire is

clinically dead —˚ its heart does not beat, it does not breathe,

its skin is cold, it does not age — and yet it thinks, and walks,

and plans, and speaks…and hunts and kills. For, to sustain its

artificial immortality, the vampire must periodically consume

blood, preferably human blood. Some penitent vampires eke

VAMPIRE INTRODUCTORY KIT

out an existence from animal blood, and some ancient vam-

pires must hunt and kill others of their kind to nourish

themselves, but most vampires indeed sustain themselves

from the blood of their former species.

• Anyone who dies from a vampire’s bite rises to

become a vampire. False. If this were true, the world would be

overrun by vampires. Vampires feed on human blood, true,

and sometimes kill their prey — but most humans who die

from a vampire’s attack simply perish. To return as undead, the

victim must be drained of blood and subsequently be fed a bit

of the attacking vampire’s blood. This process, called the

Embrace, causes the mystical transformation from human to

undead.

• Vampires are monsters —˚ demonic spirits embodied

in corpses. False…and true. Vampires are not demons per se ,

but a combination of tragic factors draws them inexorably

toward wicked deeds. In the beginning, the newly created

vampire thinks and acts much as she did while living. She does

not immediately turn into an evil, sadistic monster. However,

the vampire soon discovers her overpowering hunger for

blood, and realizes that her existence depends on feeding on

her species. In many ways, the vampire’s mindset changes —

she adopts a set of attitudes less suited to a communal omni-

vore and more befitting a solitary predator.

At first reluctant to feed, the vampire is finally forced to

do so by circumstance or need — and feeding becomes easier

and easier as the years pass. Realizing that she herself is

untrustworthy, she ceases to trust others. Realizing that she is

different, she walls herself away from the mortal world. Real-

izing that her existence depends on secrecy and control, she

becomes a manipulative user of the first order. And things

only degenerate as the years turn to decades and then centu-

ries, and the vampire kills over and over, and sees the people

she loved age and die. Human life, so short and cheap in

comparison to hers, becomes of less and less value, until the

mortal “herd” around her means no more to her than a swarm

of annoying insects. Vampire elders are among the most jaded,

unfeeling, paranoid — in short, monstrous — beings the world

has ever known. Maybe they are not demons exactly —˚ but at

that point, who can tell the difference?

• Vampires are burned by sunlight. True. Vampires

must avoid the sun or die, though a few can bear sunlight’s

touch for a very short period of time. Vampires are nocturnal

creatures, and most find it extremely difficult to remain awake

during the day, even within sheltered areas.

•˚ Vampires are repulsed by garlic and running water.

False. These are myths and nothing more.

• Vampires are repulsed by crosses and other holy

symbols. This is generally false. However, if the wielder of the

symbol has great faith in the power it represents, a vampire

may suffer ill effects from the brandishing of the symbol.

• Vampires die from a stake through the heart. False.

However, a wooden stake — or arrow, crossbow bolt, etc. —

through the heart will paralyze the monster until it is removed.

•˚ Vampires have the strength of 10 humans; they can

command wolves and bats; they can hypnotize the living and

heal even the most grievous wounds. True and false. The

power of a vampire increases with age. Young, newly created

vampires are often little more powerful than humans. But as

a vampire grows in age and understanding, she learns to use

her blood to evoke secret magical powers, which vampires call

Disciplines. Powerful elders are often the rivals of a fictional

Lestat or Dracula — and the true ancients, the Methuselahs

and Antediluvians who have stalked the nights for thousands

of years, often possess literally godlike powers.

T HE H UNT

When all is said and done, the most fundamental differ-

ence between humans and vampires lies in their methods of

sustenance. Vampires may not subsist on mortal food; instead,

they must sustain their eternal lives through the consumption

of blood — fresh human blood.

Vampires acquire their sustenance in many fashions.

Some cultivate “herds” of willing mortals, who cherish the

ecstasy of the vampire’s kiss. Some creep into houses by night,

feeding from sleeping humans. Some stalk the mortals’ play-

grounds — the nightclubs, bars and theatres — enticing

mortals into illicit liaisons and disguising their predation as

acts of passion. And yet others take their nourishment in the

most ancient fashion — stalking, attacking and incapacitat-

ing (or even killing) mortals who wander too far down lonely

nocturnal alleys and empty lots.

T HE N OCTURNAL W ORLD OF THE V AMPIRE

Vampires also value power, for its own sake and the

security it brings — and vampires find it ridiculously easy to

acquire mundane goods, riches and influence. A mesmerizing

glance and a few words provide a cunning vampire with access

to all the wealth, power and servants he could desire. Some

powerful vampires are capable of implanting posthypnotic

suggestions or commands in mortals’ minds, then causing the

mortals to forget the vampire’s presence. In this way, vampires

can easily acquire legions of unwitting slaves. More than a few

“public servants” and corporate barons secretly answer to

vampire masters.

Though there are exceptions, vampires tend to remain

close to the cities. The city provides countless opportunities

for predation, liaisons and politicking — and the wilderness

often proves dangerous for vampires. The wilds are the home

of the Lupines, the werewolves, who are vampires’ ancestral

enemies and desire nothing more than to destroy vampires

outright.

VAMPIRE INTRODUCTORY KIT

T HE E MBRACE

Vampires are created through a process called the Em-

brace. The Embrace is similar to normal vampiric feeding —

the vampire drains her chosen prey of blood. However, upon

complete exsanguination, the vampire returns a bit of her own

immortal blood to the drained mortal. Only a tiny bit — a drop

or two — is necessary to turn the mortal into an undead. This

process can even be performed on a dead human, provided the

body is still warm.

Once the blood is returned, the mortal “awakens” and

begins drinking of his own accord. But, though animate, the

mortal is still dead; his heart does not beat, nor does he

breathe. Over the next week or two, the mortal’s body under-

goes a series of subtle transformations; he learns to use the

Blood in his body, and he is taught the special powers of his

clan. He is now a vampire.

Some vampire clans Embrace more casually than others,

but the Embrace is almost never given lightly. After all, any

new vampire is a potential competitor for food and power. A

potential childe is often stalked for weeks or even years by a

watchful sire, who greedily evaluates whether the mortal

would indeed make a good addition to the clan and the line.

H ISTORY

Vampires — or Kindred, as they call themselves —˚ exist

for centuries and often seem unchanging to mortal eyes. Even

Kindred society, however, has undergone evolution, upheaval

and strife. Let us look at history as the Kindred view it, that we

might better understand their actions tonight.

C AINE AND THE F IRST N IGHTS

According to Kindred myth, the first of their kind was

Caine, the first murderer. For his crime, Caine was cursed by

God and thereby transformed into a vampire. Exiled from his

people, Caine was forced to stalk the fringes of civilization,

fearful of the sun and ravenous for blood.

In his loneliness, Caine came upon a mighty witch named

Lilith, who had been Adam’s first wife. Lilith taught Caine

how to use his blood for mighty magic (indeed, a few heretics

claim that Lilith, not Caine, was the First Vampire). Lilith

taught Caine many things, including how to use his blood to

evoke mystic powers — and how to create others of his kind.

T HE S ECOND G ENERATION AND THE F IRST C ITY

At first Caine refused to beget, believing it wrong to curse

the world with others of his kind. But eventually he grew

lonely and brought three others into the vampiric fold. These

three in turn begat 13 more, and these voracious monsters

went among the early peoples of the world, carelessly feeding

and using mortals as puppets in their sibling feuds. Caine,

outraged by this behavior, forbade the creation of any more

progeny. Gathering his childer and grandchilder to him,

Caine built a great city — the First City in the world —˚ and

here vampires and mortals coexisted in peace.

T HE A NTEDILUVIANS AND THE C LANS

It could not last. Caine’s childer squabbled for their sire’s

affections, and once again the mortals were used as pawns in

the feud. Finally the city was thrown down —˚ some say a

natural disaster was the cause; others, that a spurned childe’s

vengeful sorcery precipitated the cataclysm. Caine vanished

into the wastes, never to be heard from again. The three

vampires of the Second Generation likewise disappeared into

the mists of legend. But Caine’s 13 grandchilder, free from

restraint, began breeding new vampires with abandon. The 13

vampires became known as Antediluvians, and their childer,

created in their images, inherited the Antediluvians’ magical

gifts and curses. Thus were the clans formed.˚

T HE D ARK A GES

The clans spread across the world, sowing discord and

misery. Though each successive generation of vampires proved

weaker than the last, they made up for it with greater numbers.

In the ziggurats of Babylon, in the palaces of Crete, in the

tribunals of Rome, vampires ruled as shadowy tyrants, forever

using mortals as food and unwitting soldiers. Vampire warred

with vampire, clan with clan, and thus — from the ancient

rivalries of the First City — was born the great Jyhad, which

is still fought today.

The Kindred reached their worst excesses during the

early Middle Ages. During this period, many vampires ruled

openly, smothering peasant and lord alike beneath their

nocturnal grip. The vampiric population reached unhealthy

numbers, and it seemed that the Earth would belong to the

Kindred forever.

T HE A NARCH R EVOLT

Again, it could not last. The Children of Caine, in their

hubris, began to flaunt their power flagrantly. Terrified peas-

ants whispered of the monsters in their midst — and the

Church began to listen. The reports of a few horrified priests

spawned a frenzied Inquisition, and vengeful mortals rose up

in a tide of fire and blood. Though individually much more

powerful than mortals, even the mightiest vampires could not

stand against the humans’ sheer numbers; vampire after vam-

pire was dragged from its lair and hurled into fire or sunlight.

In the throes of the Inquisition, a current of revolt gripped

the Children of Caine. Younger vampires, who were being

deployed as sacrificial lambs by terrified elders, began to rise up

against their sires and masters. In Eastern Europe, a group of

vampires learned how to sever the mystic bonds through

which sires controlled their childer. Soon all of Europe seethed

beneath a nocturnal revolt, as rebellious childer threw off the

yoke of their masters. Between the Inquisition and the revolt

of the vampire “anarchs,” it seemed as though the Kindred

would not survive.

And so, in the 15th century, a council was called. Seven

of the 13 clans united in an organization called the Camarilla.

With its advantage of numbers, the Camarilla suppressed the

anarchs and agreed to exist behind a great Masquerade. Never

VAMPIRE INTRODUCTORY KIT

THE SIX TRADITIONS

Camarilla vampires swear to uphold the legend-

ary Six Traditions of Caine, the laws which Caine

supposedly passed to his progeny. Like any other laws,

the Traditions are commonly ignored, bent or

violated outright.

But, though hidden, vampires were still quite real. The

wars of the Jyhad raged on, though the nights of open battle

were replaced by sudden ambushes and maneuvering of hu-

man pawns. Weaving their webs throughout the

ever-expanding cities, the Kindred eschewed their previous

games for more methodical but no less deadly ones.

T HE M ODERN N IGHTS AND G EHENNA

And the wars continued down the centuries, and con-

tinue still. The Jyhad rages as it always has — though skyscrapers

take the place of castles, machine-guns and missiles replace

swords and torches, and stock portfolios substitute for vaults of

gold, the game remains the same. Kindred battles Kindred,

clan battles clan, Camarilla battles Sabbat, as they have for

eons. Vampiric feuds begun during the nights of Charlemagne

play themselves out on the streets of New York City; an insult

whispered in the court of the Sun King may find itself

answered by a corporate takeover in Sao Paolo. The ever-

swelling cities provide countless opportunities for feeding,

powermongering — and war.

Increasingly, vampires speak of Gehenna — the long-

prophesied night of apocalypse when the most ancient

vampires, the mythical Antediluvians, will rise from their

hidden lairs to devour all the younger vampires. This Gehenna,

so the Kindred say, will presage the end of the world, as

vampires and mortals alike are consumed in an inexorable tide

of blood. Some vampires strive to prevent Gehenna, some

fatalistically await it, and still others consider it a myth. Those

who believe in Gehenna, however, say that the end time

comes very soon — perhaps in a matter of years.

T HE C AMARILLA

The Camarilla is a great sect of vampires that formed in

the late medieval period. A vampire “United Nations” of

sorts, it was formed to protect vampires from the purges of the

Inquisition, to uphold the Traditions of Caine, and to enforce

the great Masquerade. Many Camarilla vampires, remember-

ing the nights of fire when vampires were uprooted and

destroyed, uphold the Masquerade fanatically. Camarilla vam-

pires reject the idea of vampires as monstrous predators,

instead preferring to live clandestinely among mortals and

feed cautiously.

The Camarilla is the most populous sect, and (in theory)

the most powerful. But it comprises seven clans of vampires,

each with its own culture and agenda, and this

T HE

FF IRST

IRST T

TT RADITION

RADITION :

ASQUERADE

Thou shall not reveal thy nature to those not of the Blood.

Doing so shall renounce thy claims of Blood.

T HE

HHE M

M M ASQUERADE

ASQUERADE

HHE S

SS ECOND

ECOND T

TT RADITION

RADITION :

T HE

H HE D

D D OMAIN

OMAIN

Thy domain is thine own concern. All others owe thee

respect while in it. None may challenge thy word while in

thy domain.

H HE

OMAIN

T HE

TT HIRD

HIRD T

TT RADITION

RADITION :

T HE

HHE P

PP ROGENY

ROGENY

Thou shall sire another only with the permission of thine

elder. If thou createst another without thine elder’s leave,

both thee and thy progeny shall be slain.

T HE

HHE

ROGENY

HHE F

F F OURTH

OURTH T

T T RADITION

RADITION :

T HE

HHE A

AA CCOUNTING

CCOUNTING

Those thou create are thine own childer. Until thy

progeny shall be released, thou shall command them in all

things. Their sins are thine to endure.

T HE

HHE

CCOUNTING

HHE F

FF IFTH

RADITION :

H OSPITALITY

IFTH T

TT RADITION

RADITION

OSPITALITY

Honor one another’s domain. When thou comest to a

foreign city, thou shall present thyself to the one who

ruleth there. Without the word of acceptance, thou art

nothing.

OSPITALITY

T HE

SS IXTH

IXTH T

TT RADITION

RADITION :

DD ESTRUCTION

ESTRUCTION

Thou art forbidden to destroy another of thy kind. The

right of destruction belongeth only to thine elder. Only the

eldest among thee shall call the blood hunt.

ESTRUCTION

renders it

prone to discord. Ruled as it is by a fractious sort of

parliamentarianism, the Camarilla is slow to act and often

indecisive in the face of threats; when it brings its combined

might to bear, however, the Camarilla is virtually unstop-

pable.

Beginning characters are assumed to be Camarilla vam-

pires, and to belong to one of the seven clans. The clans are:

• Brujah: A clan of violent, antiauthoritarian vampires

espousing freedom from societal restrictions.

more shall vampires rule openly, the lords of the Camarilla

decreed. We shall hide among the mortals, and conceal our

natures from our prey, and in a few decades the mortals will

know vampires only as myths.

Thus, the Masquerade was born, and the Inquisition

gradually forgot its original target. Those anarchs who would

not join the Camarilla were driven into the wastes, from

which they would later emerge as the dread Sabbat cult. With

the discovery of the New World and the dawn of science,

humanity gradually forgot about the Kindred, relegating them

to the status of childhood legends.

VAMPIRE INTRODUCTORY KIT

THE SIX TRADITIONS

F F

T T

HHE F

HHE

IRST

RADITION

M M

T HE

H HE

HHE

ECOND

RADITION

D D

HHE T

HHE

HIRD

RADITION

F F

T T

H HE

OURTH

RADITION

A A

HHE

IFTH

S S

T T

HHE S

HHE

IXTH

RADITION

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