[Vampire: the Masquiem] Clans and Discipline Spreads, Revised.

[horus42]

So, in my own meddling little mind, I love the fluff behind all of the Masquerade Clans, but like the Requiem rules so much more. Utilizing the Vampire Translation Guide, and a few other nWoD books, I've created a spread of disciplines for each Clan that I feel is much more differentiated. Each Clan has one Physical Discipline, one Auxiliary Discipline, and one Unique Discipline. (Though two Clans gain a secondary Physical Discipline as their Auxiliary Discipline.) In addition, each Auxiliary Discipline (Auspex, Obfuscate, and Animalism) is paired up at least once with each Physical Discipline.

Some of these are very different from their original Discipline spreads, and some are virtually unchanged. I assume that each Clan uses the Weakness and Bonus Attributes from the Translation Guide, except when otherwise noted.

Without further ado, I present my idea:
Assamite: Celerity, Obfuscate, Quietus

Brujah: Vigor, Obfuscate, Temporis

Followers of Set: Vigor, Animalism, Serpentis

Gangrel: Resilience, Animalism, Protean (Use Requiem Weakness)

Giovanni: Vigor, Auspex, Necromancy

Lasombra: Resilience, Obfuscate, Obtenebration

Malkavian: Celerity, Auspex, Dementation

Nosferatu: Vigor, Obfuscate, Nightmare (Use Requiem Weakness)

Ravnos: Resilience, Animalism, Chimestry

Toreador: Celerity, Auspex, Majesty

Tremere: Resilience, Auspex, Thaumaturgy (Use the Weakness from V20, and have Intelligence or Resolve as Bonus Attributes.)

Tzimisce: Celerity, Animalism, Vicissitude (Use a new Weakness: In keeping with their codes of hospitality, they lose the 10-again advantage when they enter a house uninvited. This effect lasts until they leave, or they get permission to be there.)

Ventrue: Resilience, Vigor, Dominate

Any thoughts? Comments? Critiques? Questions?

[The Glyphstone]

Why did you remove PotenceMajesty from the Brujah for Praestantia? That kind of makes them the ultimate physical combatant clan with triple physical Disciplines, while pidgeonholeing them worse than they already were.

[horus42]

Well, that mostly stemmed from the desire for each Clan to have a unique Discipline. I thought that Majesty better fit the Toreador. Though I could give Majesty to the Brujah, and look through the Bloodline books for a Discipline to give to the Toreador...

At the moment, I'm currently thinking either Courtoisie, or Serendipity, from the Spina and Zelani Bloodlines. (Found in the Invictus and Carthian books)

[josienoms]

I see that you've borrowed the Disciplines I'm using for the Julii in our Requiem for Rome game for the Ventrue. :smalltongue:

I don't have a problem with it, of course. I'm glad that you liked the idea!

I'd also suggest doing something different with the Brujah, though I'm not quite sure what. Maybe go the True Brujah route and give them Temporis, and let the Toreador keep Majesty?

[The Glyphstone]

Temporis and Celerity can't be used together, though, so that would effectively reduce the Brujah to only getting 2 disciplines.

[horus42]

Temporis is something I considered, but the issue of Celerity popped up, and I thought against it.

Though I could switch out Celerity for another of the Auxiliary Disciplines. Maybe give them Obfuscate? It would sort of reinforce the idea that the Brujah are warrior-scholars, making them better able to gather information and secrets, and I'd leave them with the -2 to rolls to resist frenzy, so they remain the passionate idealists that we know and love.

[josienoms]

And giving the Brujah Obfuscate would help in the symmetry you seem to want to have. As written, you've only given 3 Clans Obfuscate, and both Auspex and Animalism are possessed by 4 Clans. This way, all three of those Disciplines would be possessed by 4 Clans, with the Ventrue being the only exception, and having 2 Physical Disciplines.

Thematically though, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think that might make them step on the toes of the Nosferatu a bit too much, unless you're going with Requiem thematics, rather than Masquerade. If that's your plan, then I think Brujah with Obfuscate is a kind of neat idea. It makes them kind of a contradiction, with subtle Disciplines but a very overt Weakness, but I like it.

[horus42]

Those are some pretty good points. I think I'm going to go with Vigor, Obfuscate, and Temporis for the Brujah. I plan on the Nosferatu being closer to their Requiem themes, of being monsters, rather than being the "we know all the secrets" Clan, so no stepping on toes here!

And you've pretty much read my mind about the symmetry. The fact that only three Clans had Obfuscate bothered me a lot. But now that's fixed!

And the Ventrue are an acceptable casualty of there being an odd number of Clans. :smalltongue:

[josienoms]

I'd say it looks good to me, Horus! If you want to run a game of Masquiem using this Discipline spread, I'd be happy to join in!

[horus42]

Oh jeez. I might. I almost did, actually. But I felt like I couldn't deliver on the requests of the person who started the thread, so I backed out.

[watupwithdat]

I feel the Followers of Set aren't Followers of Set without Majesty/Presence. They are tempters/corrupters by definition, and Presence helped immensely with that in VtM.

I have a gut feeling that you may be shooting yourself in the foot by following a specific scheme for every clan, as some clans will just not feel the same (it was Setites for me — why Animalism over Obfuscate anyway? If it's because of the snakes, then I'd counter with that they shouldn't even have Serpentis in the first place as Set's not a snake god ^^). And the (True) Brujah thing with Temporis just seems strange (but I kinda dislike True Brujahs, so I might be biased).

[horus42]

I dunno. I might just drop it. I first thought it would make everything feel neater, more precise, and clean. But it seems like more effort than it's worth. If I do ever end up running a Masquiem game on here, I'll probably just use the Discipline spreads as written.