History TabletopGame / VampireTheRequiem

* ''The Circle of the Crone'': WickedWitch. A pagan Goddess-worshipping [[AWorldwidePunomenon coven-ant]] that espouses vampires are vampires because they're perfectly natural (in the way that leeches are natural) and that's cool. And suffering and persecution makes us stronger. That's just as well, as they've been persecuted a lot (especially by the Lancea Sanctum) throughout history. On the other hand, they're a bunch of monsters who revel in their monstrosity and just learning their [[BloodyMurder blood sorcery]] [[TheDarkSide distances you from humanity]], so they did sort of deserve it. This covenant has the most factions, with everything from [[StrawFeminist man-hating lesbian feminista Wiccans]] to [[HollywoodVoodoo Lousiana voudunists]].

* TheVamp: The female Daeva, literally. [[AWorldwidePunomenon And everyone else]].

** The Duchange bloodline's [[MeaningfulName La Touche Illusoire]] power lets a Kindred launch a psychic pattern of touches, prods, and caresses on some victim. On an exceptional success, you can [[BeyondTheImpossible LITERALLY]] rape someone with your mind! Higher levels allow you to hit someone with intense pain (or... [[ElectricInstantGratification the exact opposite]]) and completely recolor their emotional perceptions, to the point of having someone ''adore'' you as you advance on them with a chainsaw.

** This is also present in their in-universe fiction: 'A Hunger Like Fire' has Persephone in a club playing [[HomestarRunner a techno song with the refrain "The system... is down! The system... is down!"]]

* CannibalClan - The Oberloch bloodline seem to be based on the CannibalClan types you see in horror movies like the TexasChainsawMassacre, but are actually derived from the [[DeepSouth redneck]] thing. A truer cannibal clan would be the Noctoku, who feed on other vampires exclusively, or the Macellarius, who do that occasionally, but really emphasize the family unit.

''Vampire: The Requiem'' began in 2004. Instead of the [[VampireTheMasquerade previous game's]] thirteen (and then some) clans, clans being the most distinctive feature of White Wolf's system, it was whittled down to five "archetype" clans, though they have tons of bloodlines that were created from those five. ''Masquerade'''s two sects, the Sabbat and the Camarilla, were replaced with five "covenants", effectively setting up an X/Y axis with far more options numerically than Masquerade. Then there's the fact that each covenant has tons of factions (see below).

** The Players bloodline has art of a girl cosplaying as AnitaBlake.

* CripplingOverspecialization - The Moroi bloodline are a group of uber-predators kept as assassins by the Ordo Dracul. They boast strength and toughness beyond even undead norm, they have both Obfuscate (vampiric stealth) and Animalism (animal control). They have murderous urges even more powerful than other vampires that take up most of their concentration, and while they're not precisely deformed, they have yellowish skin and their air of menace allows even oblivious humans to understand there's ''something'' wrong with them. So yeah, good if you want to fight, sneak, or assassinate, bad if you want to, say, carry on a normal conversation, or do more than basic math.

** A relatively mild example: independent Moroi (see CripplingOverspecialization). Most are kept on a short leash by the Ordo Dracul; most of the rest were killed. However, this means logically that there are those of the bloodline that didn't want to be leashed killers enough to refuse...and were powerful enough to avoid destruction. This is actually discussed--bringing in or bringing down such creatures is sometimes tasked to disposable coteries that are more trouble than they're worth--but the ''implications'' aren't really delved into in-text.

* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Generally, the Kindred who focus on developing the physical Disciplines get outclassed really badly by Kindred who develop the psychic ones, [[ViciousCycle which they then use to recruit Kindred who focused on the physical Disciplines.]] Really, would you prefer to spend 3 dots on Resilience, or 3 dots on Dominate so you can control three guys each equal to Retainer 3?
* Course, if you have powerful disciplines, none of that matters if the enemy has enough stamina and willpower to shake off damage and Dominate long enough to rip your head off.

** Dutch traders were among the few foreigners who had contact with Japan... and could have brought vampires with them?

** The 1st example Ventrue in their clanbook is an upstart, arrogant entitled brat with the surname [=LaCroix=] and unorthodox methods that ruffle his superiors. An expy [[VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines Sebastian LaCroix]], really.

-->Mess with their heads. Get it so the victims love their keepers, will do anything for them (even better if they can work one of the couple against the other--[[LampshadeHanging so sweet, that betrayal]]).
--->'''Night Horrors: Immortal Sinners, pg. 74'''
** Coming full circle, Charlene cheats on Charles. [[DestructiveRomance He doesn't know, but she wants him to.]]

** Actually the madness is induced in the instigator, not the victim - the bloodline's weakness is that any time their mind control fails, or works too well, they themselves have a relapse of the crazy.

* PowerPerversionPotential: Have you been paying attention?

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Both averted and played straight numerous times. Many vampires have the power to change the world -- but most don't, despite canonically having the means and desire.

* ''VII'': [[TheUnsolvedMystery Yeah...]] They engage in terrorist acts against other vampires, and their minds can't be read beyond getting the image of the roman numeral 7. Beyond that, there is no canonical explanation for who VII are. Well; there are several, but they all contradict each other. They could be [[ManchurianAgent normal vampires infected with a mind-control meme]], the members of the Seventh Clan (the now-Dead Julii being the Sixth), or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking a bunch of Vampires annoyed that a party in Camarillan Rome was cancelled]]. Various suggestions for what they could be have been seeded through the books; the VII book gives 3 contradictory possibilities.

* AGodAmI - Every member of the Asnam bloodline. To wit, the Asnam are a [[TheBeautifulPeople Daeva]] bloodline whose special abilities allow them to make a ghouled human appear prettier than he really is, transfer blood or willpower to or from one of her ghouls over large distances, sleep in the body of a ghoul and prepare a child in such such a way that, when the Asnam suffers FinalDeath their soul is transferred into the body of the child. They are also true egomanics, which allows the [[GameMaster Storyteller]] to grossly underplay the difficulty of a task up to two times per scene.

* TheBeautifulPeople - Deconstructed by the Daeva

* EstrogenBrigadeBait - [[ScaryBlackMan Solomon Birch]] is Chicago's resident [[SexyPriest LS leader]] with a DarkAndTroubledPast who insists on not [[ShirtlessScene wearing shirts.]] He has a lot of [[GoodScarsEvilScars scars]] due to self-flagellation and is portrayed as TheWoobie.

''Vampire: The Requiem'' began in 2004 after over a decade of [[KudzuPlot convoluted]], WordOfGod metaplot made the previous incarnation, ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'', nearly unplayable to first timers without reading over a dozen supplements, few of which [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes stayed in print for very long]] and thus made the process of acclimation that much harder. To make the line both more marketable and less dependent on the waning {{Goth}} {{subculture}}, the entire line was put to a halt and restarted as ''Vampire: The Requiem''.

Instead of the previous game's thirteen (and then some) clans, clans being the most distinctive feature of White Wolf's system, it was whittled down to five "archetype" clans, though they have tons of bloodlines that were created from those five. ''Masquerade'''s two sects, the Sabbat and the Camarilla, were replaced with five "covenants", effectively setting up an X/Y axis with far more options numerically than Masquerade. Then there's the fact that each covenant has tons of factions (see below).

* ''Belial's Brood'': [[TheCorruption Infernalists]], self-titled the Forsworn, that believe that they should lose all traces of humanity and give themselves over to the Beast/the Biblical Satan, the monster that lives in them. Tend to have rather short life expectancies; to quote Shadows of the UK, "Members of Belial's Brood often labour under the delusion that they can go toe-to-toe with an enraged [[WerewolfTheForsaken Uratha]]." The ''smart'' ones, on the other hand, usually tend to be just as subtle, if not more so, then VII. Their splatbook elaborates and contains many interesting [[HornyDevils squicky demon]] powers with the {{unfortunate implication}} that they're the covenant closest to what vampires are truly supposed to be, and adds a [[NietzscheWannabe philosophical side]]. Their splatbook also retcons the whole infernalist thing to just two factions, and gives us these groupings:

** The Pandaemonium - You know the description of Belial's Brood as infernalists? These are them. They think he's the Antichrist.

A tabletop roleplaying game in the NewWorldOfDarkness line. Players take the roles of vampires, people [[CursedWithAwesome Cursed]] with eternal (un)life, supernatural power, and -- oh, yeah -- [[BlessedWithSuck bloodlust and a fatal sunlight allergy.]]

* FantasyAxisOfEvil - The Vampires as a whole belong to the Fallen among the other "races" of ''TheWorldOfDarkness'', but this trope can also apply to the five Clans. You should note, however, that they may might not fall squarely under each category...

* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: The WorldOfDarkness in general is fond of the notion that when something big happens, even people who don't believe in the supernatural ''feel'' it. From the Chicago sourcebook, when discussing the prospect of an elder moving to a new city:

* {{Cosplay}} - People who play in the LARP version of the game, Mind's Eye Theater, often dress-up as their characters or major NPCs. The actual rulebook for the LARP even uses pictures of some players cosplaying as New Orleans mainstays [[RetiredBadass Pearl Chastain]] and [[MagicalNegro Baron Cimetiere]], who himself is cosplaying Baron Samedi.

Instead of the previous game's thirteen (and then some) clans, clans being the most distinctive (and [[YourMileageMayVary easily litigated]]) feature of White Wolf's system, it was whittled down to five "archetype" clans, though they have tons of bloodlines that were created from those five. ''Masquerade'''s two sects, the Sabbat and the Camarilla, were replaced with five "covenants", effectively setting up an X/Y axis with far more options numerically than Masquerade. Then there's the fact that each covenant has tons of factions (see below).

* DidNotDoTheResearch: The nickname given for the Invictus is "The First Estate". However, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estates_of_the_realm that refers to the Church]]. Aristocrats are the Second Estate.

** The ''Danse Macabre'' book has various "Masquerades" listed for characters wishing to strength the illusion that they're mortal. One of them is Youth. Among the possible concepts listed is [[FerrisBuellersDayOff "Righteous Dude", and feeding targets include "the sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, dickheads."]]

Now with [[Characters/{{Ptitlem0r66i4g96a7}} Character Sheet]], fans are highly encouraged to edit.

* ''[[DarkChick Daeva]]'': The {{Spiritual Successor}}s of the [[AristocratsAreEvil Toreador]] clan from ''Masquerade'' (indeed, they have a bloodline ''called'' the Toreador) mixed to some extent with the passionate Brujah (coming to Requiem as a Gangrel bloodline), the second most evil clan (right behind the Ventrue), and nicknamed Succubi (aka HornyDevils) by the other Clans...which pretty much [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin summarizes their whole concept]]. In their Clan Book it is stated that they're "[[SuperStrength stronger]], [[SuperSpeed faster]] and [[EvilIsSexy sexier]] than you". Even before the embrace they are already attractive humans after it they become and InhumanlyBeautifulRace, partly because of their discipline, Majesty, that allows them to bedazzle people with their presence. The clan book does make a point of the fact that anyone who knows enough about the Daeva (including the Daeva themselves) tends to find something off about them because their beauty is artificial and they are incapable of love. One of the illustrators noted that the Daeva are essentially sex objects rather than people. Sourcebook: ''"Kiss of the Succubus"''.

* ''[[DarkChick Daeva]]'': The {{Spiritual Successor}}s of the [[AristocratsAreEvil Toreador]] clan from ''Masquerade'' (indeed, they have a bloodline ''called'' the Toreador) mixed to some extent with the passionate Brujah (coming to Requiem as a Gangrel bloodline), the second most evil clan (right behind the Ventrue), and nicknamed Succubi (aka HornyDevils) by the other Clans...which pretty much [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin summarizes their whole concept]]. Sourcebook: ''"Kiss of the Succubus"''.

** For added {{Squick}}, how's about those Sangiovanni, what with the built-in OCD that makes them freak out when they're not around corpses? Yes, some of them do like corpses [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean that]] [[ILoveTheDead way]], why do you ask?