AnonCastillo
2019-02-18, 12:19 AM
True Brujah are one of the cooler bloodlines from the older editions of Vampire: The Masquerade, and while many of their clan died in the events leading up to Gehenna, there are almost certainly still some around in the current era. As 5e has just come out and there aren't yet supplements detailing the alternate bloodlines, and I want to play one in a campaign my friend is starting, I threw together my own homebrew version of the clan. Please let me know how balanced and true to the original sources their bane, compulsion, and Temporis discipline and powers are, and if there's anything else I need to add to make the clan complete.
True Brujah
Disciplines: Temporis, Potence, Presence
Bane: The cold, calculating nature of a True Brujah leaves little room for the emotions that keep vampires in touch with their humanity. When making a Remorse roll, the difficulty increases by one third of their Bane Severity rounded up. The experience cost of buying humanity is increased by one per point of their Bane Severity.
Compulsion: Understanding
A True Brujah’s first priority it so understand the world around them. They are scholars of timeless knowledge and watchers of the ages.
Until they’ve learned something significant, whether it be something advantageous to them, a well kept secret, or the motivations of a rival, they receive a 3 dice penalty to all rolls not made to uncover hidden truth or learn something new. The compulsion ends when they make a significant discovery.
Temporis
True Brujah are descended from vampires who could control time itself. Whether Temporis is an offshoot of the Celerity power used by the majority of Brujah descendants or whether Celerity is a bastardized version of the True Brujah’s time distortion abilities is a matter of much debate, but True Brujah tend to believe the latter.
A vampire’s relationship with time is always different from that of normal humans. Their extended lifespans make human lifetimes seem brief by comparison, and more ancient vampires have seen the way time flows throughout the ages in a way mere mortals are unable to. But for an experienced practitioner of Temporis, even the wisdom of the ages possessed by the elders of other clans seems temporary and fleeting.
Temporis allows a vampire to manipulate the flow of time, from causing things to speed up or slow down to causing events to repeat themselves in an endless loop. The True Brujah’s knowledge of time ensures that Temporis users will never be caught unaware by the sun’s rise, and they are almost never late – or early. A Temporis user always arrives exactly when he or she intends to. However, time is a powerful force, and failure to remain in control can have disastrous consequences.
Characteristics
Type: Mental
Masquerade Threat: Low to high. Lower level powers such as the mental clock and time loops are not obviously supernatural (a person repeating the same action may seem lazy, obsessive, or spaced out), but the effects of higher level powers that cause people and objects to move through time at different rates are obviously supernatural
Blood Resonance: Phlegmatic. Long term planners, strategists, statisticians, investors, security guards, and elderly people who haven’t lost their memories.
Level 1
Mental Clock
Temporis users have an innate understanding of time. They never lose track of time, even if they are locked up away from both clocks and the night sky, and even, in extreme cases, if the flow of time is disrupted.
Cost: Free
Dice Pool: Resolve + Temporis
System: The player may ask to know the date and time as well as the amount of time remaining until the next sunrise or sunset at any time. No roll is required except under extreme circumstances. If the vampire is moved without their knowledge to a place where the sun rises and sets at a different time – for example, kidnapped and taken halfway around the world to a location they do not know – they must roll Resolve + Temporis to receive the date, time, and time remaining until sunrise/sunset of their new location. The difficulty increases by 1 per 3 hours of difference in the time zone and additional 1 for a significant shift in latitude in the same hemisphere – for example, from Canada to Mexico – or 2 if moved between the northern or southern hemisphere. Failure results in receiving the time at their last known location instead, and they cannot reroll until they have enough information to determine their new location. If the vampire is affected by or in the presence of a temporal anomaly, they may roll Resolve + Temporis to determine the nature of the anomaly and its effects, with the difficulty being determined by the source of the anomaly.
Duration: Passive
Temporal Calm
True mastery of Temporis requires the calm, focused mind of a True Brujah. They Brujah must be prepared to defend against their more reckless cousins’ speed and remain in control when their allies manipulate time around them, keeping their time flowing at a steady pace. A Temporis user can use their own control over the flow of time to resist its manipulation by rivals, Vampiric or otherwise.
Cost: Free
Dice Pool: Temporis
System: Any time the user is targeted by a Temporis power from another user or when they are a target of a Temporis or Celerity ability or any other time altering ability, they may add their dots in Temporis to their dice pool to resist. They may add half their dots in Temporis rounded up to opposed rolls against any nearby Temporis or Celerity power or any other time altering ability they can perceive directly that does not target them (for example, when attacking a Celerity user who uses Fleetness to defend, or to help an ally resist Slow Time). They may add half their dots rounded down to the difficulty rating of any such nearby power that requires a roll but does not allow an opposed roll.
Duration: Passive
Level 2
Burst of Time
Amalgam: Potence 1
This powerful technique infuses a burst of time into the vampire, allowing them to move in the blink of an eye, but only for a moment. This technique requires the vampire’s physical form to be strong enough to handle the sudden rush of time as they accelerate themselves.
Cost: One Rouse Check
System: The user may make an additional action this turn. Or, the user may make minor actions worth up to double their dots in Temporis for free this turn instead. Add your dots in Temporis to your dice pool for rolls made to attack, dodge, or move this turn (either with your normal action or your additional action). A botch results in losing your next action instead.
Duration: One turn
Recurrence
Time loops cause the affected target to repeat their actions over and over, unaware that time is continuing to pass normally around them. For example, if the target is walking or driving, they will continue moving, unaware of how far they have walked or driven, until the duration ends, unaware of how far they have travelled until the duration ends or something obviously dangerous interferes with their ability to continue repeating their actions. A security guard watching a set of monitors or patrolling a building may continue to do so while ignoring obvious activity around them until they are directly threatened or interacted with. The target must be performing a simple action that they are able to repeat or continue doing – watching tv, knitting, eating, and exercising are good examples.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Temporis vs Resolve or Wits + Awareness
System: Roll Manipulation + Temporis vs the target’s Resolve. On a success (or botch), the target repeats or continues performing the action until the duration ends or until they sense a direct threat to their safety or someone directly attempts to interfere with their actions. Upon sensing a direct threat to their safety, they may make a Wits + Awareness roll. The difficulty is equal to the number of successes the Temporis user rolled on their initial use of the power. On a success, the duration immediately ends and they may react as normal. On a failure, they continue to repeat the action until they are harmed or perceive a new threat. Upon being harmed, touched, or physically interfered with, they may make a Resolve + Awareness roll against the same difficulty. Each point of damage taken grants an automatic success on this roll. Any attempt to physically restrain them results in an opposed Strength roll first, and any successes past a tie by the person trying to stop them count as successes to the roll to end Recurrence.
Duration: Until the target breaks free due to an interruption, or according to the following chart:
Successes Duration
Botch User repeats previous turn’s actions for 1 turn
Failure No effect
Tie 1 turn
1 1 minute
2 10 minutes
3 1 hour
4 6 hours
5 1 day
6+ 1 week per success beyond 5
Level 3
Slow Time
Skilled manipulators of the time stream are able to slow the flow of time. The victim of this ability is affected differently by time, perceiving everything around them as having sped up while others perceive them as having slowed down. This will cause their voice to come out at a lower pitch while they hear surrounding noises at a higher pitch. Anything the target is immediately in contact with is slowed, including weapons, but bullets and thrown weapons cease to be slowed when the victim releases them or the bullet leaves the barrel. Small and simple vehicles such as a bicycle or skateboard have their movement speed slows, while larger and more complicated vehicles such as cars and trains are too large to be affected by this power and will travel at normal speed, though if the victim is driving, this may cause the vehicle to move more quickly than they can react to.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pools: Manipulation + Temporis vs Stamina + Athletics
System: The target moves at a slower speed for the duration of the effect, resulting in increased difficulty equal to the user’s dots in Temporis to all physical rolls, social rolls, and awareness rolls. This difficulty also applies to damage from brawl and melee attacks but not ranged attacks. Opponents who attack the target gain dice equal to the user’s dots in Temporis on attack rolls, but not damage rolls (weapons and projectiles slow as soon as they come in contact with the target). On opposed rolls, add your Temporis dice to the opposing roll; you add these dice even if you are not the opponent on the opposed roll and even if you are no longer in view of the affected. A Celerity user may add their dots in Celerity to their dice pool in the initial resistance roll.
Duration: According to the following chart:
Successes Duration
Botch User slowed for 1 turn
Failure No effect
Tie 1 turn
1 3 turns
2 1 minute
3 5 minutes
4 30 minutes
5 3 hours
6+ 8 hours per success beyond 5
Suspend Object
Powerful time manipulators can suspend an object in time, allowing the world to pass around it as it hangs motionless. The object will remain suspended in time until it is interacted with. Minor interaction such as a gust of wind or splash of water will not affect it, but being touched by a human, heavy object, or sustained heavy winds or water spray will force the object back into the time stream.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pool: Resolve + Temporis
System: The user may freeze any object they can perceive. For a fast moving object, the storyteller may require a Wits + Awareness roll to focus on the object. The object is suspended in place (relative to the surface the user is standing on). The user makes a Resolve + Temporis roll to determine the duration; large objects such as a vehicle or collapsing building may require an extra success or more at the storyteller’s discretion.
Duration: According to the following chart:
Successes Duration
Botch Object moves at double speed for 1 turn
Failure No effect
1 1 minute
2 5 minutes
3 1 hour
4 6 hours
5 1 day
6+ 1 week per success beyond 5
Level 4
Pause
Gifted temporal manipulators gain the ability to momentarily slip out of the time stream, effectively pausing time around them long enough to assess their situation, escape an incoming projectile, or slip through a room while its inhabitants are frozen still. However, the more the vampire interacts with the world, the harder it is to resist the flow of time.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pools: Composure + Temporis, Wits vs Wits
System: Time immediately freezes around the user, allowing them to assess their situation and move freely. If used in response to an attack, make an opposed Wits roll against the attacker – failure means the ability activates too late and the attack is rolled as normal, success means the ability activates just before the attack can land (but the attacker must still use their action to attack), while a tie results in time pausing just as the attack lands, reducing its damage by half rounded down.
Duration: According to the following chart so long as the user remains still or walks through the air. Running, moving through water or tall grass, or interacting with light objects such as paper causes the duration to be used up twice as quickly. Moving a solid but mobile object such as opening a door or riding a bicycle uses up the duration three times as quickly. Direct contact with another person or vampire or moving a large or stationary object immediately ends the duration.
Successes Duration
Botch User slowed for 1 turn (see Slow Time)
Failure No effect
1 2 turns
2 4 turns
3 1 minute
4 2 minutes
5 5 minutes
6+ 15 minutes per success beyond 5
Level 5
Haste
Sometimes known as Clotho’s Gift, Haste allows a vampire to move significantly faster for a short period of time. While under the effect of Haste, a vampire’s time moves at a different speed from the rest of the world, allowing the user to accomplish amazing things in the blink of an eye.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pools: Dexterity + Temporis
System: For the duration, the user chooses each turn to either act as if under the effect of Burst of Time, Traversal, or Unerring Aim. The user must choose only one of those options at the start of each turn. Duration: One turn per success on Dexterity + Temporis. A botched roll results in the user being affected by Slow Time for one turn.
Rapid Aging
Also known as the Kiss of Lachesis, this ability rapidly increases the passage of time from the subatomic level to the cellular level for one person or object, causing them to age or decay rapidly, without otherwise affecting the passage of time for the person or object overall. Some vampires can even use this ability to reverse the aging process, restoring youth to the elderly or reversing decay and damage to an inanimate object.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pools: Manipulation + Temporis vs Stamina
System: The user must touch the target to use Rapid Aging, at which point they roll Manipulation + Temporis vs the target’s Stamina (the target may choose not to roll Stamina if they wish to cooperate with the process). Inanimate objects receive no resistance roll but the storyteller may impose a difficulty penalty for objects significantly larger than a human. The target is then aged according to the chart below. If the user has more than 5 dots in Temporis, they may instead reverse the aging process, but targets receive an automatic success to their roll to resist or a +1 difficulty for inanimate objects and those who choose not to resist. A botch reverses the effect, giving youth to targets the user is attempting to age or aging targets the user is attempting to restore youth to.
Successes Age Change
1 Up to one year
2 Up to five years
3 Up to 10 years
4 Up to 50 years
5 Up to 100 years
6+ Up to 100 years plus 100 per success beyond 5
True Brujah
Disciplines: Temporis, Potence, Presence
Bane: The cold, calculating nature of a True Brujah leaves little room for the emotions that keep vampires in touch with their humanity. When making a Remorse roll, the difficulty increases by one third of their Bane Severity rounded up. The experience cost of buying humanity is increased by one per point of their Bane Severity.
Compulsion: Understanding
A True Brujah’s first priority it so understand the world around them. They are scholars of timeless knowledge and watchers of the ages.
Until they’ve learned something significant, whether it be something advantageous to them, a well kept secret, or the motivations of a rival, they receive a 3 dice penalty to all rolls not made to uncover hidden truth or learn something new. The compulsion ends when they make a significant discovery.
Temporis
True Brujah are descended from vampires who could control time itself. Whether Temporis is an offshoot of the Celerity power used by the majority of Brujah descendants or whether Celerity is a bastardized version of the True Brujah’s time distortion abilities is a matter of much debate, but True Brujah tend to believe the latter.
A vampire’s relationship with time is always different from that of normal humans. Their extended lifespans make human lifetimes seem brief by comparison, and more ancient vampires have seen the way time flows throughout the ages in a way mere mortals are unable to. But for an experienced practitioner of Temporis, even the wisdom of the ages possessed by the elders of other clans seems temporary and fleeting.
Temporis allows a vampire to manipulate the flow of time, from causing things to speed up or slow down to causing events to repeat themselves in an endless loop. The True Brujah’s knowledge of time ensures that Temporis users will never be caught unaware by the sun’s rise, and they are almost never late – or early. A Temporis user always arrives exactly when he or she intends to. However, time is a powerful force, and failure to remain in control can have disastrous consequences.
Characteristics
Type: Mental
Masquerade Threat: Low to high. Lower level powers such as the mental clock and time loops are not obviously supernatural (a person repeating the same action may seem lazy, obsessive, or spaced out), but the effects of higher level powers that cause people and objects to move through time at different rates are obviously supernatural
Blood Resonance: Phlegmatic. Long term planners, strategists, statisticians, investors, security guards, and elderly people who haven’t lost their memories.
Level 1
Mental Clock
Temporis users have an innate understanding of time. They never lose track of time, even if they are locked up away from both clocks and the night sky, and even, in extreme cases, if the flow of time is disrupted.
Cost: Free
Dice Pool: Resolve + Temporis
System: The player may ask to know the date and time as well as the amount of time remaining until the next sunrise or sunset at any time. No roll is required except under extreme circumstances. If the vampire is moved without their knowledge to a place where the sun rises and sets at a different time – for example, kidnapped and taken halfway around the world to a location they do not know – they must roll Resolve + Temporis to receive the date, time, and time remaining until sunrise/sunset of their new location. The difficulty increases by 1 per 3 hours of difference in the time zone and additional 1 for a significant shift in latitude in the same hemisphere – for example, from Canada to Mexico – or 2 if moved between the northern or southern hemisphere. Failure results in receiving the time at their last known location instead, and they cannot reroll until they have enough information to determine their new location. If the vampire is affected by or in the presence of a temporal anomaly, they may roll Resolve + Temporis to determine the nature of the anomaly and its effects, with the difficulty being determined by the source of the anomaly.
Duration: Passive
Temporal Calm
True mastery of Temporis requires the calm, focused mind of a True Brujah. They Brujah must be prepared to defend against their more reckless cousins’ speed and remain in control when their allies manipulate time around them, keeping their time flowing at a steady pace. A Temporis user can use their own control over the flow of time to resist its manipulation by rivals, Vampiric or otherwise.
Cost: Free
Dice Pool: Temporis
System: Any time the user is targeted by a Temporis power from another user or when they are a target of a Temporis or Celerity ability or any other time altering ability, they may add their dots in Temporis to their dice pool to resist. They may add half their dots in Temporis rounded up to opposed rolls against any nearby Temporis or Celerity power or any other time altering ability they can perceive directly that does not target them (for example, when attacking a Celerity user who uses Fleetness to defend, or to help an ally resist Slow Time). They may add half their dots rounded down to the difficulty rating of any such nearby power that requires a roll but does not allow an opposed roll.
Duration: Passive
Level 2
Burst of Time
Amalgam: Potence 1
This powerful technique infuses a burst of time into the vampire, allowing them to move in the blink of an eye, but only for a moment. This technique requires the vampire’s physical form to be strong enough to handle the sudden rush of time as they accelerate themselves.
Cost: One Rouse Check
System: The user may make an additional action this turn. Or, the user may make minor actions worth up to double their dots in Temporis for free this turn instead. Add your dots in Temporis to your dice pool for rolls made to attack, dodge, or move this turn (either with your normal action or your additional action). A botch results in losing your next action instead.
Duration: One turn
Recurrence
Time loops cause the affected target to repeat their actions over and over, unaware that time is continuing to pass normally around them. For example, if the target is walking or driving, they will continue moving, unaware of how far they have walked or driven, until the duration ends, unaware of how far they have travelled until the duration ends or something obviously dangerous interferes with their ability to continue repeating their actions. A security guard watching a set of monitors or patrolling a building may continue to do so while ignoring obvious activity around them until they are directly threatened or interacted with. The target must be performing a simple action that they are able to repeat or continue doing – watching tv, knitting, eating, and exercising are good examples.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Temporis vs Resolve or Wits + Awareness
System: Roll Manipulation + Temporis vs the target’s Resolve. On a success (or botch), the target repeats or continues performing the action until the duration ends or until they sense a direct threat to their safety or someone directly attempts to interfere with their actions. Upon sensing a direct threat to their safety, they may make a Wits + Awareness roll. The difficulty is equal to the number of successes the Temporis user rolled on their initial use of the power. On a success, the duration immediately ends and they may react as normal. On a failure, they continue to repeat the action until they are harmed or perceive a new threat. Upon being harmed, touched, or physically interfered with, they may make a Resolve + Awareness roll against the same difficulty. Each point of damage taken grants an automatic success on this roll. Any attempt to physically restrain them results in an opposed Strength roll first, and any successes past a tie by the person trying to stop them count as successes to the roll to end Recurrence.
Duration: Until the target breaks free due to an interruption, or according to the following chart:
Successes Duration
Botch User repeats previous turn’s actions for 1 turn
Failure No effect
Tie 1 turn
1 1 minute
2 10 minutes
3 1 hour
4 6 hours
5 1 day
6+ 1 week per success beyond 5
Level 3
Slow Time
Skilled manipulators of the time stream are able to slow the flow of time. The victim of this ability is affected differently by time, perceiving everything around them as having sped up while others perceive them as having slowed down. This will cause their voice to come out at a lower pitch while they hear surrounding noises at a higher pitch. Anything the target is immediately in contact with is slowed, including weapons, but bullets and thrown weapons cease to be slowed when the victim releases them or the bullet leaves the barrel. Small and simple vehicles such as a bicycle or skateboard have their movement speed slows, while larger and more complicated vehicles such as cars and trains are too large to be affected by this power and will travel at normal speed, though if the victim is driving, this may cause the vehicle to move more quickly than they can react to.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pools: Manipulation + Temporis vs Stamina + Athletics
System: The target moves at a slower speed for the duration of the effect, resulting in increased difficulty equal to the user’s dots in Temporis to all physical rolls, social rolls, and awareness rolls. This difficulty also applies to damage from brawl and melee attacks but not ranged attacks. Opponents who attack the target gain dice equal to the user’s dots in Temporis on attack rolls, but not damage rolls (weapons and projectiles slow as soon as they come in contact with the target). On opposed rolls, add your Temporis dice to the opposing roll; you add these dice even if you are not the opponent on the opposed roll and even if you are no longer in view of the affected. A Celerity user may add their dots in Celerity to their dice pool in the initial resistance roll.
Duration: According to the following chart:
Successes Duration
Botch User slowed for 1 turn
Failure No effect
Tie 1 turn
1 3 turns
2 1 minute
3 5 minutes
4 30 minutes
5 3 hours
6+ 8 hours per success beyond 5
Suspend Object
Powerful time manipulators can suspend an object in time, allowing the world to pass around it as it hangs motionless. The object will remain suspended in time until it is interacted with. Minor interaction such as a gust of wind or splash of water will not affect it, but being touched by a human, heavy object, or sustained heavy winds or water spray will force the object back into the time stream.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pool: Resolve + Temporis
System: The user may freeze any object they can perceive. For a fast moving object, the storyteller may require a Wits + Awareness roll to focus on the object. The object is suspended in place (relative to the surface the user is standing on). The user makes a Resolve + Temporis roll to determine the duration; large objects such as a vehicle or collapsing building may require an extra success or more at the storyteller’s discretion.
Duration: According to the following chart:
Successes Duration
Botch Object moves at double speed for 1 turn
Failure No effect
1 1 minute
2 5 minutes
3 1 hour
4 6 hours
5 1 day
6+ 1 week per success beyond 5
Level 4
Pause
Gifted temporal manipulators gain the ability to momentarily slip out of the time stream, effectively pausing time around them long enough to assess their situation, escape an incoming projectile, or slip through a room while its inhabitants are frozen still. However, the more the vampire interacts with the world, the harder it is to resist the flow of time.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pools: Composure + Temporis, Wits vs Wits
System: Time immediately freezes around the user, allowing them to assess their situation and move freely. If used in response to an attack, make an opposed Wits roll against the attacker – failure means the ability activates too late and the attack is rolled as normal, success means the ability activates just before the attack can land (but the attacker must still use their action to attack), while a tie results in time pausing just as the attack lands, reducing its damage by half rounded down.
Duration: According to the following chart so long as the user remains still or walks through the air. Running, moving through water or tall grass, or interacting with light objects such as paper causes the duration to be used up twice as quickly. Moving a solid but mobile object such as opening a door or riding a bicycle uses up the duration three times as quickly. Direct contact with another person or vampire or moving a large or stationary object immediately ends the duration.
Successes Duration
Botch User slowed for 1 turn (see Slow Time)
Failure No effect
1 2 turns
2 4 turns
3 1 minute
4 2 minutes
5 5 minutes
6+ 15 minutes per success beyond 5
Level 5
Haste
Sometimes known as Clotho’s Gift, Haste allows a vampire to move significantly faster for a short period of time. While under the effect of Haste, a vampire’s time moves at a different speed from the rest of the world, allowing the user to accomplish amazing things in the blink of an eye.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pools: Dexterity + Temporis
System: For the duration, the user chooses each turn to either act as if under the effect of Burst of Time, Traversal, or Unerring Aim. The user must choose only one of those options at the start of each turn. Duration: One turn per success on Dexterity + Temporis. A botched roll results in the user being affected by Slow Time for one turn.
Rapid Aging
Also known as the Kiss of Lachesis, this ability rapidly increases the passage of time from the subatomic level to the cellular level for one person or object, causing them to age or decay rapidly, without otherwise affecting the passage of time for the person or object overall. Some vampires can even use this ability to reverse the aging process, restoring youth to the elderly or reversing decay and damage to an inanimate object.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pools: Manipulation + Temporis vs Stamina
System: The user must touch the target to use Rapid Aging, at which point they roll Manipulation + Temporis vs the target’s Stamina (the target may choose not to roll Stamina if they wish to cooperate with the process). Inanimate objects receive no resistance roll but the storyteller may impose a difficulty penalty for objects significantly larger than a human. The target is then aged according to the chart below. If the user has more than 5 dots in Temporis, they may instead reverse the aging process, but targets receive an automatic success to their roll to resist or a +1 difficulty for inanimate objects and those who choose not to resist. A botch reverses the effect, giving youth to targets the user is attempting to age or aging targets the user is attempting to restore youth to.
Successes Age Change
1 Up to one year
2 Up to five years
3 Up to 10 years
4 Up to 50 years
5 Up to 100 years
6+ Up to 100 years plus 100 per success beyond 5