How to play Vampire: The Masquerade

How to play

Clans and character creation: You play a vampire from one of the corebook's seven clans: Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere or Ventrue. You can also be a clanless Caitiff or a weak thin-blood. Each clan has three clan Disciplines (the Brujah, for example, have Celerity, Potence and Presence), a Bane, such as the Nosferatu being too hideous to pass for human, and a Compulsion the Beast can push on you. You rate nine Attributes and your Skills in dots, then choose a Predator Type, which sets how your vampire hunts.

Dice pools and successes: Roll a pool of ten-sided dice, usually an Attribute plus a Skill. Each die showing 6 or more is a success, and you need as many successes as the Difficulty the Storyteller sets. Each pair of 10s is a critical and counts as four successes. You can spend a point of Willpower to reroll up to three of your ordinary dice.

Hunger: Your Hunger runs from 0 to 5, and each point replaces one die in every pool with a red Hunger die. If a winning roll's critical includes a 10 on a Hunger die, it's a messy critical: you succeed, but the Beast decides how. If you fail and any Hunger die shows a 1, it's a bestial failure. Using most Discipline powers, rising each night and other uses of the Blood call for a Rouse Check: roll one die, and on 5 or less your Hunger goes up by 1. Feeding lowers Hunger, but only killing your victim takes it below 1.

Health and Willpower: Your Health track equals Stamina + 3 and your Willpower track equals Composure + Resolve. Both take Superficial or Aggravated damage. Vampires halve most Superficial damage, but fire and sunlight deal Aggravated damage.

Humanity: Humanity, rated from 0 to 10, measures how much of the person you still are. When you break your character's Convictions or the chronicle's Tenets, you mark Stains. At the end of a session with Stains, you roll Remorse; if you fail, you lose a point of Humanity. Low Humanity makes it harder to pass as human and easier to lose yourself to the Beast.

The Masquerade: Vampires hide from humanity, and the Camarilla enforces that secret through its Princes and Sheriffs. Feed quietly, use Disciplines where no one can see, and clean up after yourself, because a breach draws both mortal hunters and the anger of other Kindred.

Strategy

Humanity is the story: V5 is about losing yourself to the Beast and fighting to hold on. Write Convictions your character really believes in and Touchstones, the mortals those Convictions are tied to, then let the Storyteller test them. A Stain should feel like a moral reckoning, not bookkeeping. Manage Hunger before it manages you: Every point of Hunger turns a die in every roll into a Hunger die, so high Hunger makes messy criticals and bestial failures far more likely. Each Rouse Check fails on a 5 or less, so casual power use pushes Hunger up quickly. Feed before a big night, use your Predator Type to hunt safely, and save Disciplines for moments that matter. Use Willpower wisely: A Willpower reroll only touches your ordinary dice, never Hunger dice, so it's best for turning a near miss into a success or fishing for a second 10. Willpower is also what holds the Beast back, so don't spend it all early in the night. Solve problems without violence: Combat is dangerous, draws attention and risks the Masquerade. A coterie that talks, bribes, blackmails and investigates usually does better than one that fights, and many of the best Disciplines work quietly, from Dominate and Presence to Obfuscate and Auspex. Play the politics: The Camarilla, the Anarchs, the Prince and the local elders all want something. Allies and favours are a resource, and so are enemies' secrets. Coteries with different clans cover more ground, since each clan brings different Disciplines and a different place in Kindred society. Know your clan's flaws: Your Bane and Compulsion are part of your character. When a messy critical or bestial failure lets the Beast push you into a Compulsion, lean into the drama rather than fighting the rules.

Tips

- High Hunger means more Hunger dice in every roll; feed before a night you expect trouble. - A Rouse Check raises Hunger on a 5 or less, so don't use powers casually. - Two 10s make a critical worth four successes; if either is a Hunger die, it's messy. - Willpower rerolls up to three ordinary dice, never Hunger dice. - Fire and sunlight deal Aggravated damage; avoid both. - Write Convictions and Touchstones you care about, so Stains carry real weight. - Agree the chronicle's Tenets and content limits before the first session. - The Masquerade protects the whole coterie; one careless feeding endangers everyone.

Players and time

A Storyteller and a small group of players, in sessions of a few hours. Ongoing chronicles are the intended format, letting political ties and character arcs develop over many sessions. One-shots work well with ready-made characters, such as Renegade's free stories Auld Sanguine and Midnight Kiss, each written for four to six new vampires.

The World of Darkness

V5 is set in the World of Darkness, which it shares with Renegade's fifth-edition Hunter: The Reckoning and Werewolf: The Apocalypse, built on the same dice system. The V5 Players Guide gathers the other clans, including the Banu Haqim, Hecata, Lasombra, Ministry, Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce, and the Camarilla and Anarch sourcebooks expand the two main sects.

Session Zero importance

V5 deals with dark themes: predation, addiction, abuse of power and loss of self. A Session Zero where the group agrees the chronicle's Tenets, its tone and content limits, and safety tools such as the X-card matters more here than in most games. Settle those lines before play begins.

Common beginner mistake

Treating Vampire as a combat game and using Disciplines for everything. Fights risk the Masquerade, every Rouse Check can raise Hunger, and high Hunger makes every roll more dangerous. Talk, scheme and feed carefully, and save your powers for when they matter.