[VtR] Where does the vampire get money?

[Aron Times]

Let's talk about where vampires get their money from. Due to their sunlight allergy, maintaining a mortal job is very difficult. On the other hand, being free from mortal necessities like food and air allow them to do things that mortals are simply unable to do. This opens up unconventional jobs that could allow a vampire to earn a living.

My two active vampires are a Ventrue and a Malkovian. The former has Resources 3, while the latter has Resources 2.

Aron, my Ventrue, is the real power behind a successful law firm. He ran the practice in his mortal life, and maintains control of it in undeath through his protegee, the man who actually runs the place. Aron paid for this man's education, and the latter inherited "ownership" of the law firm when Aron "retired." Aron also has connections to several local businesses who pay him a monthly "advisory fee" for his services. Basically, he uses Dominate to get a small cut from these mortal businesses.

Aron does care about the people he is leeching off of, and he does what he can to protect his mortal providers from the cruel World of Darkness. He uses his money to change the world for the better, to atone for his mortal "crimes." He was a corporate lawyer for Big Tobacco, and he had a change of heart when he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. His sire and great-grandfather saved him with the Embrace, and he treats his Requiem as a second chance to make a positive impact on society.

Victor, my Malkovian, is an information broker. He is actually the only vampire player character in this game, so most of his interactions have been with mortals and other supernaturals. Using a combination of Auspex, Dominate, Obfuscate, and modern technology, he gathers information for friendly supernaturals. His line of work is lucrative, but not consistent, thus, he only has Resources 2.

So, where does your vampire get his money?

[The Glyphstone]

If [VtR] stands for, as I assume it does, Vampire: The Requiem, isn't Malkovian a Ventrue bloodline, making both characters Ventrue?


From personal experience, my Vampire LARP character happens to be a movie critic, doing write-in reviews for assorted magazines and newspapers to claim his Resources 1.

[TripperdeCleric]

If this is Req then im not sure how to assist you in this.


My money making came from my Ravnos back in VTM

They were just too good to not get money. I tricked people into getting things by convincing them into trading/giving me things for special objects.

[Aron Times]

Bloodlines are usually referred to by name rather than by parent clan. Malkovians, due to their permanent derangement, usually try to pass as normal Ventrue. Victor, on the other hand, is openly Malkovian, and identifies as such.

Anyway, using Chimerstry that way is bound to draw unwanted attention if the Ravnos stays in one place for too long. Did your character have to keep moving so as not to piss off the local Kindred?

[Jerthanis]

Well, basically, when a person works 40 years at their chosen profession and they spend their money wisely, they can live another 15-20 years after that on what they saved up.

The way I see Vampires making money is that 2000 years ago, a Vampire worked very hard at some nighttime occupation until he could buy stake in merchant caravans. He then reinvested that money over and over through the years until 2000 years later, he has billions of dollars and a company that makes millions annually. In fact, dozens and dozens of Vampires did this through the years.

Now, newly embraced vampires can become inheritors of this wealth in exchange for favors and alliances... and some channel their political and economic capital into their own investments and businesses and grow the Vampire pie that way.

Vampires own banks, they don't work at them. At least that's how I see them.

[Semidi]

My characters:

I have a Daeva that owns a popular local arts magazine. He's a supporter of the arts (think Andy Warhol). Also, in a pinch, he makes friends with terminally ill old people and gets written into wills.

My Ventrue just dominates the crap out of people when he needs money.

I have an oWoD Giovanni that... well... He's Giovanni. He owns the damn banks.

[Set]

Eat people. Take their wallets. Charge up their credit cards before they are declared dead. That's the Brujah way. :)

Dominate people into signing over their life-savings and / or taking out huge loans to donate to your apocalyptic End Times Ministry. Prescence and / or Blood Bonds can also be used to do this. Or you could skip the cult angle and go with being the ultimate gigolo, conning cougars out of their ex-husbands' money with a combination of charm, presence and inhuman stamina.

A longer term version of the above can be used to form a permanant cult, disguised as some 'friendly society' (like the Elks or Masons), with only the highest-initiated members of the fraternity knowing that their dues go into the kitty of a blood-sucking fiend. The upside is that it's steady constant revenue, unlike the above schemes, the downside is tons of maintenance, and you might find yourself regularly using vampire abilities to benefit members of your little group (dominating rivals so that they win promotions, arranging misfortunes for people who are bidding against them on properties, etc.), as every bit of increased fortune for members of the group only adds to the amount they tithe / donate / contribute in return. Instead of making one's own cult / secret society, you can latch on to a pre-existing one. Nobody outside of your private group needs to know that *this* branch of the Oddfellows is run by a vampire who uses the highest-ranking members of the group as ghouls, herd, political resources, etc.

A vampire can easily get away with combining presence, dominate and / or the effects of kindred blood to convince yuppies coming to his 'retreat' that they are enjoying all sorts of herbal therapies and marketing seminars and crap (with the mind-affecting disciplines giving them a fuzzy spiritual high and the blood helping them feel stronger and healthier, as well as making them more likely to come back and / or refer their buds to come spend time at your 'spa'). My favorite VtM Ventrue worked this angle, and had some respectable ghoul servants (it's not like *he* got his hands dirty) for fights, and a herd/resources/influence rolled into one, with his special yuppy retreat.

The right kind of vampiric disciplines might allow one to be the ultimate stuntman and special effects artist, wrapping up the secrets of how you survive those 'impossible' stunts or appear to be such radically different people (or creatures!) in 'trade secrets.' (I don't know enough about VtR to know if there was anyway to physically alter one's form, so this last might not be doable in Requiem.)

Salvage and dive/recovery work is greatly enhanced by a lack of need for air, or lack of susceptibility to nitrogen narcosis. Wander through the 150 ships sunk in the English channel, or off the shores of Japan, until you find some interesting sellables.

[TripperdeCleric]

Bloodlines are usually referred to by name rather than by parent clan. Malkovians, due to their permanent derangement, usually try to pass as normal Ventrue. Victor, on the other hand, is openly Malkovian, and identifies as such.

Anyway, using Chimerstry that way is bound to draw unwanted attention if the Ravnos stays in one place for too long. Did your character have to keep moving so as not to piss off the local Kindred?

I actually had to deal with altering my face with chimestry quite often and moving around from place to place...sometimes taking image as other people to get wars started to be the winning person...but its all about tricks and games until you get staked...

Also had the ST let me throw chimed stakes at level 5 of chimestry to get it going....it was my save all defense once you start maxing socials to win.

[comicshorse]

Quite a few of my characters went in for crime. It's mainly a nocturnal life-style, money is good and powers give you a great leg-up on the competition. Not to mention the advantages of not dying when you're shot.
One tip have a great lawyer or powerful friends ready, you really don't want to be in a cell when the sun comes up

[TripperdeCleric]

Quite a few of my characters went in for crime. It's mainly a nocturnal life-style, money is good and powers give you a great leg-up on the competition. Not to mention the advantages of not dying when you're shot.
One tip have a great lawyer or powerful friends ready, you really don't want to be in a cell when the sun comes up

very good point...crime is an issue that we deal well in.

[Totally Guy]

My Nosferatu was a reclusive artist. He was funded by a mysterious buyer who loved his work.

It turned out (in the next campaign) that the buyer was my very wealthy Changeling character's fetch.

[Jerthanis]

One tip have a great lawyer or powerful friends ready, you really don't want to be in a cell when the sun comes up

This alone makes me think crime is an insanely dangerous profession if you aren't simply organizing thugs to do your bidding through Dominate/Presence or Viniculum.

It means every break in, mugging, or whatever that you participate in carries massive potential for Masquerade violations.

[Aron Times]

Wow, we have a lot of low Humanity vampires in here!

I was looking for suggestions on long-term Kindred income that doesn't ding our Humanity meter. Any takers?

[pingcode20]

Charity for sufferers of Xeroderma Pigmentosum?

[Quincunx]

In the Dark Ages game, I began as a silversmith with plenty of abilities to reinforce that skill, and was always using my down-time to make items and acquire raw silver. Werewolf blitzkrieg + only player who had silver arrowheads on hand without a week's delay to procure them = wealth and privilege! (I couldn't do anything with the status, but I accrued it.) Minor magical items + covert magician = wealth and privilege! (He sold them to me. I sold them to his targets, all unknowing. Ohhh, look who has a magic-tainted aura now. . .must be the source!) Showy jewelry + Toreador status war = wealth and privilege! (Nor was I conscious of embedding a bit of Dementation into the pattern of the circlet, but her subsequent concerts threw the audience into passions.) All of this could be done without ever bothering mortals except for the purchase of silver, and it's amazing how quiet they can be when someone is so naive as to pay full price for clipped coinage.

The Toreador mentioned lived a hand-to-fang existence, no sooner earning money from an appearance before spending it on her own appearance. The Cappadocian skimmed the offerings for the dead, and his lackeys hounded and blackmailed the murderers. Some of the Lasombra permitted the Cappadocian to do this, and confined their greed to the richer offerings to the church--selling appointments and re-drawing parishes. Another Malkavian was a brigand and a Gangrel a traveling guard, sometimes with the roles reversed, escorting or robbing other supernaturals. One of the few literate in the local language (I never learned which clan) ghouled a scholar who pretended to work as a clerk by day while the vampire wrote the actual contracts by night. Those were just the ones I knew who didn't live off of accumulated wealth.

[SilverSheriff]

My Malkavian (V:TM) works early-morning shifts at the MONSTER-MART... of course he is rich anyway, being the Eighth generation Monster he is.

[Kesnit]

I have a Nos who is a black-marketeer whose long-term goal is to become a mob boss, and another Nos who is a member of a bloodline that operates a "vampire travel agency." (Vampires contact members of the bloodline when they need to travel. The members make the arrangements, including the box to travel in, blood packs to eat while crated, and people to actually ship and receive the vampire.)

I know of a Daeva who runs a goth dance club.

[Daeric]

Once had a Malk whose derangment was he believed all his dreams to be true visions of either the past or future, generally they were just wierd dreams.

He also had a flaw where he bit someone they would experience his dreams for awhile, so of course he set up shop as a psychologist (wierd opening hours I know) kept him in a modest income but also freaked him the hell out when people kept describing his dreams exactly back to him.

[TricksyAndFalse]

My VtM Toreador used Presence to make friends with the wealthy, and then sponged off them in exchange for the Kiss/ghouling.

[Totally Guy]

(Vampires contact members of the bloodline when they need to travel. The members make the arrangements, including the box to travel in, blood packs to eat while crated, and people to actually ship and receive the vampire.)

That's pretty cool. I'm imagining the scene where Count Orlack travelled in a similar way in the silent Nosferatu movie.

[comicshorse]

Posted by Jerthanis

This alone makes me think crime is an insanely dangerous profession if you aren't simply organizing thugs to do your bidding through Dominate/Presence or Viniculum.

Quite, which is why you should always be at the organizing end of things. Both my vampires had at least two layers of people between him and actually handling the goods.However even then things can go wrong and a wise kindred always plans for the worst