History TabletopGame / VampireTheRequiem

-->Everybody knows Sam. Sam is the friendly if quiet fellow who meanders around town, occasionally muttering to himself in low and often hushed tones. Sam is the unassuming homeless man who spends most of his time in one of the few New Orleans parks that aren’t regularly monopolized by the flow of mortal men in ugly pants (most notably Audobon Park, Louis Armstrong Park and the northern half of City Park). Sam is the crumpled old wino who keeps to himself. Everybody knows Sam--right?
Wrong.//

* ForScience - The stated motive behind many of the more horrible thing the Ordo Dracula do. For example, "Following the Dragon's Tail," which involves murdering a frequently randomly selected innocent, just to observe the effect of the murder on the victim's friends and family. An expanded version, called "Counting the Dragon's Scales," involves a number of vampires and coordinated mass slaughter, and is intended to allow the study of what happens when an entire city collectively craps itself in terror.

-->Everybody knows Sam. Sam is the friendly if quiet fellow who meanders around town, occasionally muttering to himself in low and often hushed tones. Sam is the unassuming
homeless man who spends most of his time in one of the few New Orleans parks that aren’t regularly monopolized by the flow of mortal men in ugly pants (most notably Audobon Park, Louis Armstrong Park and the northern half of City Park). Sam is the crumpled old wino who keeps to himself. Everybody knows Sam--right?\\
Wrong.

* CursedWithAwesome: At least frankly that's how most groups play it.

* DarkestAfrica: ''Requiem for Rome'' has a section detailing how a game set in sub-Saharan Africa might be like. it's described like this trope, but it may be [[JustifiedTrope justified.]]
* [[DarkIsNotEvil Dark Is Somewhat Less Evil]]: The Mekhet hate [[BurnItWithFire fire]] and sunlight even more than other vampires, and the Nosferatu are literally ''impossible to like''. They're also the clans with the least amount of mental effects the Beast has on them, so it's easier for them to be good...which isn't saying much

* DeafComposer - Any vampire cooks, by virtue of having normal food taste utterly rancid.

** An EsotericHappyEnding is possible and actually referenced a lot: AscendedDemon. Most unfortunately, this ending type involves reaching a point of power and age where you no longer [[BlueAndOrangeMorality think like a human]].

** Subverted with the [[HumanoidAbomination Empty Liars]]-they're called that because they have false memories of being a human and don't have blood, only eldritch secrets they've picked up. Personality-wise, they're indistinguishable from normal people, even to the point of having a Morality score.
* EnemyWithin -- All vampires suffer from The Beast, animalistic, id-like force with a hint of supernatural malice, that attempts to compel them into immediately satisfying their instinctive urges, such as craving for blood, fear of sunlight or anger at a slightest provocation, no matter the circumstances. Its motives can be summarised as "Hunt. Kill. Feed. Sleep. Repeat."

* EvilTastesGood - Feeding causes a vampire to get an adrenaline rush/orgasm.

* 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), and they're an option for both Gangrel ''and'' Nosferatu, meaning that they have relatively easy access to Protean, though it's no longer in-clan. They also 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.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Um, read this whole page...

* CardCarryingVillain: Belial's Brood is fully aware that they are evil by human standards, and they could not care less.

* ''[[TheBrute Gangrel]]'': All but unchanged from the Clan of ''Masquerade'', but unlike their previous incarnation, they have no ties at all to the [[WerewolfTheForsaken Werewolves]] (except for the [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels Bruja]]) and little to no [[InHarmonyWithNature harmony with nature]]. However, their bond with the Beast remains the same, if not stronger: while other clans tend towards more...''human'' evil, the Gangrel do boast some savage monsters, including one of the "iconic" (to borrow a term from [[DungeonsAndDragons D&D]]) characters, The Unholy. Sourcebook: ''"Savage and Macabre"''.

* ''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 UnfortunateImplication 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:

** Recently, a book updating blood magic to a more [[MageTheAwakening Mage]] paradigm, Blood Sorcery, came out. Reading the book, one gets the idea that [[BodyHorror you]] [[BoltOfDivineRetribution don't]] [[MookMaker fuck]] [[ScarilyCompetentTracker with]] [[GreenThumb blood]] [[InfinityPlusOneSword sorcerers]].

** Then you've got the Hollow Mekhet. Rather than being Embraced on the cusp of death, they were Embraced several days after. However, this has given them time for their [[AnatomyOfTheSoul ba]] to depart, which means they cast no shadow, don't reflect in mirrors or resolve on any film medium, can't be heard over a phone or tape recorder... oh, and their ba is still pinned to this mortal coil, ''can'' do all these things, and will make the Mekhet's nights living hell if it's not placated with the right rituals.

* {{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.

** The Dead Wolves bloodline from Shadows of Mexico are [[WerewolfTheForsaken wolf-blooded]] who just so happen to have been Embraced before the First Change. Sort of. So I guess BigScrewedUpFamily as well? Their bloodline discipline references the mechanics for the various moons and their related skills in Werewolf as well.

* DarkestAfrica: Requiem for Rome has a section detailing how a game set in sub-Saharan Africa might be like. it's described like this trope, but it may be [[JustifiedTrope justified.]]

** Members of the "Romanist" belief (the theory that the first vampires arose spontaneously from certain members of the Julio-Claudian Caeasers) sometimes wonder if Nero might have been the first Daeva... they invariably go back to speculating that the Daeva's founder was either his mother, Agrippina, or his aunt-in-law, Messalina. The reason is that general consensus is, simply; Nero was far too much of a ''jerk'' to have become the founder of the Succubus clan. Such a petty, preening poseur is nowhere near charismatic or attractive enough to be the founder of the Succubus clan, who, for all their glitz, only an idiot mistakes for vapid fools.

** Well, either that or they'll hit their Final Death beforehand, and [[CursedWithAwesome There are indeed ways of getting around the Beast, they're hard as hell to learn outside the Ordo Dracul...but they DO exist. And you can get the upper hand on your Beast]] of course, you're [[BlessedWithSuck still stuck in an incestuous society and rejected by the living world entirely.]]

* ForeignFanservice - ''Requiem for Rome'' portray the Daeva as sexy Middle Easterners.

** The Crassus estate actually has an insane asylum for all their family members who were unable to use thier money and power to fix themselves up from all the rapes. Their estate has a wing with a coterie of Invictus in it, as well... This family is doomed.

* HumanoidAbomination: Empty Liars, who appear to be perfectly normal to all senses, and even think they're mortals...except to Aura Sight, which shows them to completely ''lack'' an aura (protip-''everything sapient, even monsters who were never human'', has an aura), have and induce false memories of their entire "life story", and when exposed to BloodMagic, quickly drop all pretense and [[MysteriousWatcher observe]]. More importantly for blood sorcerers, they're walking lexicons of all the spells they've seen-drinking their blood is like digesting an entire BookOfEldritchLore at once.

** Not to be confused with ''Ghûls'', who are Arabian wizards who [[CursedWithAwesome are immortal. superhuman an canibalistic]].

* StateSec: The Sworn of the Ordo Dracul are like this. They have their own bracnhes with their own spheres of influence that overlap and override with non-Sworn members. In the event that the Prince is an unSworn Dragon, the Sworn can use him as a puppet and the Prince will pretty much let them.

* GlowingEyesOfDoom: The Strix's GlamourFailure when they're doing the DemonicPossession gig. They're [[OwlBeDamned owls]], owl eyes flash in light...etc. Unfortunately, they're DangerouslyGenreSavvy enough to know this, and more social members of the race can make non-possessed people do that to.

** ''Ventrue'' has a running narrative about a [[MysteriousWaif dead girl]] who's trying to protect herself from the [[OwlBeDamned strix]] by performing alot of really creepy ritual killings around places full of negative feelings. She claims the rituals are from the only ones that can fight the strix, the equally mysterious "Perfecti." [[FridgeBrilliance That's basically Belial's Brood.]]

* FantasyCounterpartCulture - [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] to emphasize that Kindred were once mortal, and that they love their old lives alot, thank you very much.

** Fomorsae: {{Emotion eater}}s who feed on self-loathing and body issues. Getting fed on by them causes a person to look more and more beautiful... at the cost of their life force, leading as many times as not to a beautifully preserved corpse. Ironically, the Vitae so gained is stored in fatty deposits, meaning that the Fomorsae are, to the last vamp, horrendously obese and ugly themselves. They're also [[NotSoHarmless the exception that proves the rule]] of Blood Potency 0, since they ''do'' have one or higher points in it...and they know [[CharmPerson Dominate]].

** [[TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil Some humans take issue with this state of affairs]] and have developed potent tools towards that end-such as a device that essentially makes a vampire's unique metabolism self-destruct in rather graphic fashion. NotSoHarmless indeed.

** Well, either that or they'll hit their Final Death beforehand, and [[CursedWithAwesome There are indeed ways of getting around the Beast, they're hard as hell to learn outside the Ordo Dracul...but they DO exist. And you can get the upper hand on your Beast]] of course, you're [[BlessedWithSuck Still stuck in an incestuous society and rejected by the living world entirely.]]

* StrawFeminist: The Daughters of The Goddess one of the many Circle of The Crone factions.

** Strix: [[OwlBeDamned Owl-like specters]] with the ability to [[DemonicPossession possess]] corpses, the living, and vampires-though they prefer the last, seeing as how the others quickly degenerate into uselessness. They claim to be metaphysical embodiments of [[EnemyWithin the Beast]], although they are [[RedOniBlueOni pragmatic and amoral rather than instinctual and savage]]. [[CompleteMonster They have personalities to match]], being utterly self-centered [[TheHedonist libertines]] who use, abuse, and defile both their stolen bodies and those around them [[ForTheEvulz mainly to see what it's like]]. They initially appeared in ''Requiem for Rome'' to avenge the broken promise of the Julii to be the best monsters they could be, but in ''Wicked Dead'', they've made their return. [[TheUnfettered Now unburdened by purpose]], the Strix now do whatever they please, with their former mission now a favorite game of theirs-[[TheCorrupter "See How Inhuman We Can Make The Kindred]] [[AnarchyIsChaos While Disrupting Their Society."]]

* FateWorseThanDeath - Ultimately every vampire will surrender to their beast and become either a mindless beast or a [[CompleteMonster careful predator]]. For some that is a FateWorseThanDeath but for some (just read the Belial's Brood description above) it's a ''blessing''.

*** A Strix in the opening of the strix chapter speaks of his decaying possessions, and how he/she doesn't know who he really is anymore, or why he does all these terrible things. [[CompleteMonster "...and I wouldn't have it any other way."]]

And then there are the PDF supplements. ''"Ready-Made [=PCs=]"'' is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, a set of ready-to-play characters, ''"Invite Only"'' covers how to build Kindred social interactions and gatherings, and ''"New Wave Requiem"'' is a historical supplement for the 1980s. The ''"Vampire Translation Guide"'' is a quick and dirty guide to converting between ''Requiem'' and ''Masquerade''.

* MightyWhitey: An extremely egregious example is given in ''Circle of the Crone''. The Japanese faction, the Amanotsukai, were once led by a Dutch girl during the early days of Japan's collapsed isolation. She was made leader after the Japanese sun goddess Amaterasu protected her from burning to death by the sun. I'm sure there must be a reason why the author felt it worth mentioning she was a Dutch girl, but I just can't find it.

* ''Ordo Dracul'': OurVampiresAreDifferent with more than a hint of EvilutionaryBiologist. Vampires may be vampires, but frankly you're not just trying if you intend to stay like that. We can use the [[MadScientist scientific method]] [[{{Magitek}} blended with]] [[HermeticMagic occultism]] to get rid of all the annoyances...such as that little sunlight allergy. They make heavy use of a student-mentor program. Have a second sourcebook, ''Rites of the Dragon'', supposed to be Dracula's account of his Requiem and the founding of the Ordo.

* ''[[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 an 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"''.

* ''[[BigBad Ventrue]]'': They are [[AristocratsAreEvil the aristocracy]] of the vampire society. They are always at the top and their motto is, essentially, "[[MagnificentBastard We Always Win]]", although that is normally followed by some [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech semantic wrangling]] [[DidYouActuallyBelieve about how they won in the long run]]. Unlike their ''Masquerade'' incarnation they are not {{picky eater}}s, but the responsibility of ruling over the Damned has put a [[ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil great toll on their ever weakening minds]] [[hottip:* :which, curiously, makes them resemble the [[TheMadHatter Malkavians]], albeit in a [[TheCaligula Caligula]] way, to the point where they have a bloodline of madmen called Malkovians]]. Sourcebook: ''"Lords of the Damned"''.

* ''[[EvilGenius Mekhet]]'': A clan of [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot psychic vampire ninja]]. They have a huge fan base because they [[SpiritualSuccessor vaguely resemble]] several ''Masquerade'' clans that weren't carried over [[hottip:* :such as the [[PsychoForHire Assamites]], the [[ReligionOfEvil Followers]] of [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent Set]], the [[DarkIsEdgy Lassombra]], the [[EvilSorcerer Tremere]], the...]] and are a [[MasterOfNone blank slate]] deliberately. Sourcebook: ''"Shadows in the Dark"''.

* 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.
** There's text in the corebook that suggests this is intentional on the part of the Invictus:
--->Members of the Invictus occasionally refer to the Lancea Sanctum as the Second Estate, itself a perversion of the historical first and second estates.

* DarkerAndEdiger: Unlike in Masquerade, it isn't actually possible to embrace your new power without giving into the Beast, at least partially-which means it's impossible to remain a moral individual and have something resembling power in vampiric society. And that's the ''least'' bad thing that will happen to you. Yeah, BlessedWithSuck ''doesn't begin to describe Kindred''.

* EvenEvilHasStandards - Members of the "Romanist" belief (the theory that the first vampires arose spontaneously from certain members of the Julio-Claudian Caeasers) sometimes wonder if Nero might have been the first Daeva... they invariably go back to speculating that the Daeva's founder was either his mother, Agrippina, or his aunt-in-law, Messalina. The reason is that general consensus is, simply; Nero was far too much of a ''jerk'' to have become the founder of the Succubus clan. Such a petty, preening poseur is nowhere near charismatic or attractive enough to be the founder of the Succubus clan, who, for all their glitz, only an idiot mistakes for vapid fools.

* VillanousGlutton: The Macellarius and Nelapsi bloodlines are both like this, though different takes. They even share the in-universe nickname of "Gluttons". Macellarius are a Ventrue bloodline who grow repulsively fat and are addicted to eating just about everything they can; their unique Discipline, Gustus, lets them actually digest and take power from eating human flesh. Their manners are notoriously disgusting; a Macellarius feast is a Roman orgy of bloated vampires gorging themselves on exotic blood, raw meat, human flesh and human foodstuffs, the diners gobbling noisly, belching rotten gouts of gas, and vomiting bloody slurry when their vampire natures reject the indigestibles they have glutted themselves upon. Nelapsi, meanwhile, are a Daeva bloodline with almost insatiable appetites; they physically ''need'' far more blood than almost any other sort of vampire, and so they are always hunting, always hungry.

* CannibalClan - The Oberloch bloodline seem to be based on the CannibalClan types you see in horror movies like the ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre'', 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.

* FridgeBrilliance - The dead girl plot in ''Ventrue'' actually reference Belial's Brood mechanics and fluff to fight the strix. [[EvilVersusEvil You know what that means!]]
* FridgeHorror - All over the place, which is saying a lot when the game is ''already'' about horror.
** 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 that they refused...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.
** The Ghouls. It's hidden right on the surface, but when you make a Ghoul, you ruin a persons life as thoroughly as any addiction. The horror is explored in the Ghoul splatbook, with a Ghoul so desperate that he drinks the menstrual blood of another, recently fed, ghoul. But otherwise the horror you wreck on this person is just implied.
*** Even more so: It's implied the reason the Duoloi, the ghouls who serve Belial's Brood, are so loyal is because of [[BenevolentBoss how well they're treated]] compared to mainstream ones. Yes, you read that right-the ''{{Card Carrying Villain}}s'' treat their ghouls better then ''every other vampire in existence''.

* ''[[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 an 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"''.

* ''The Invictus'': DeadlyDecadentCourt. If we're dead, they reason, we might as well rule the world while we're at it. Or at least the city. Sheer force of meritocracy (Invictus screw-ups do ''not'' last long) generally makes them competent administrators, but since the faction code of ethics can be summed up as "Ain't got one" and their attitude towards political maneuvering is "Machiavelli might have been good at this if he'd ever been Embraced", Invictus-ruled territories are classic examples of ''At least {{the trains run on time}}."
* ''Lancea Sanctum'': CorruptChurch. Vampires are vampires because God needs monsters to tempt people and punish them if they succumb. The name [[CanisLatinicus doesn't make sense]] in Latin, hence the RetCon that it was originally "Lancea et Sanctum". They can range anything from Catholic (most common) to Jewish and Muslim in pomp and circumstance. Strangely, there's a faction out there that have merged with the Circle of the Crone in venerating a mother goddess of Jesus figure. The result? [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Knight templars with vampire, cleric, AND witch abilities.]] Get a second PDF sourcebook with ''The Testament of Longinus'', their holy book.

* ''The Circle of the Crone'': WickedWitch. A pagan Goddess-worshipping [[IncrediblyLamePun 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]].

* ''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 Mercy Seat - Expy of various Gnostic groups, they believe there are three worlds, and the World of Darkness is the worst one, filled with hate and anger. Belial is the evil ruler of the [=WoD=], referred to as the demiurge. He cannot be worshipped so much as appeased, and they all hate him. They truly believe they deserve to go to Heaven (the next world), but Heaven has limited seats. The solution? Damn others to Hell so only they can move on!

* ''VII'': 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.

* BloodBath - One bloodline of vampires, the Galloi, bathe in blood to make themselves more beautiful.

* TheCaligula -- Plenty of princes fulfill this role.

** Then you've got the Hollow Mekhet. Rather than being Embraced on the cusp of death, they were Embraced several days after. However, this has given them time for their [[AnatomyOfTheSoul ba]] to depart, which means they cast no shadow, don't reflect in mirrors or resolve on any film medium, can't be heard over a phone or tape recorder... oh, and their ba is still pinned to this mortal coil, ''can'' do all these things, and will make the Mekhet's nights living hell if it's not placated with the right rituals.

** Belial's Brood get Investments, demonstrations of their symbiotic relationship with the Beast and their understanding of vampiric nature. If things like tearing off your hands to serve as puppets or climbing up walls with your fingers weren't obviously creepy enough, they get easier to buy the lower your KarmaMeter goes.

* DownerEnding: This is the ''default ending'' for most chronicles (personal horror game, remember?). The authors make it a point to remind the readers every now and then.
** An EsotericHappyEnding is possible and actually referenced a lot: AscendedDemon. Most unfortunately, this ending type involves reaching a point of power and age where you no longer [[BlueAndOrangeMorality think like a human]].

* DysfunctionJunction - Enforced by the Predator's Taint rule. Basically, vampires are meant to be solitary hunters, and thus the [[EnemyWithin Beast]] tries to go into either a rage or a fear frenzy upon running across another vampire for the first time (the type of frenzy depending on whether the triggering vampire is of lower or higher Blood Potency, respectively). A roll is made to avoid this, but if it fails, [[HilarityEnsues well...]] It can be also be bypassed entirely if ''both'' possess the second level of Obfuscate.

* MrFanservice: [[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.

* FanService - [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since [[WordOfGod it's explained]] that the art for the books is often commissioned before the written material is finished, so the pictures will sometimes not match the text! The end result is that we get illustrations of sexy vampire girls (and guys!) for no appreciable reason.

** The Deucalion bloodline of the Ventrue is all about this. They believe the Ventrue are truly superior to other clans, and their response to this ranges from "help the other clans get over their weaknesses" to "lord over them like the wastes of blood they are." Their bloodline-exclusive Discipline relies on inflicting exaggerated versions of the clan weaknesses on other vampires... but the book mentions that no one in the line has unlocked the fifth level, centered around the Ventrue tendency towards madness, because that would require admitting the Ventrue are flawed.

** Crafty: The Ventrue and their machinations/lust for power, but they do show a dash of Fallen.

** The Lancea Sanctum has variant creeds associated with Judaism, Islam, and other branches of Christianity.

* FiveRaces - The five vampire clans. Complicated by the fact that there was a sixth clan, the Julii, in ancient Rome, who replaced the Ventrue, and that the Mekhet have an alternative clan weakness in the form of the Hollow, introduced in their clanbook.

* ForeignFanservice - ''Requiem for Rome'' portray the Daeva as sexy Middle Easterners.

** They also entertain ideas about Embracing people completely unprepared for vampirism (suicides, the disabled) for the reason of seeing whether or not the Beast's survival urge can overcome their mentality.

* {{Glamour}}: The Majesty discipline.

* TheHedonist: Potentially every Daeva.

* MindRape: High level Dominate qualifies. While altering memories or even possessing someone might be done for the greater good, using Dominate to condition someone is ''always'' a [[KarmaMeter sin against high-to-mid level Humanity]], no matter how well intentioned you might be in doing it.
** 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 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.

** The trope is taken '''''UpToEleven''''' with [[MeaningfulName the Honeymoon Hijackers]] Charles and Charlene Greengrass. They were kidnapped and turned into vampires on their respective wedding nights by cruel sires, with their spouses killed. Charles and Charlene meet one another ten years after their abductions, instantly recognize the predicament of the other, and fall in love. They [[YourSoulIsMine diablerize]] their sires, escape vampire society, get into a scary codependent relationship, [[LoveMakesYouEvil then perform netorare scenarios and serial killings on any recently married couple they can find.]][[hottip:*:Diablerie causes vampires to sometimes pickup traits of the soul they ate. It's implied that's why the couple do what they do, despite their actions mirroring their own tragic histories.]]

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: All vampires share the same common weaknesses, but each clan has a unique new weakness and each Bloodline (a sub-group of a clan) has an extra one. Some are more traditional for others; the Zelani, an offshoot of the Daeva, can't enter homes uninvited (mainly due to the horrible crimes inflicted on their progenitor by her sire during a home invasion).

** ''Chronicler's Guide'', a book written to give suggestions and ideas to {{Game Master}}s to create games, is the embodiment of this trope: There is a section that deals with making the vampires clanless, with suggestions of how to create new vampiric features and weaknesses. Another section suggests making the Beast into the calculative, manipulative Other and discusses the possible implications for the chronicle. Last but not least, there's a section dedicated to revamp the whole system to make vampires the utter debased monsters they are.

* PsychicPowers: [[AuraVision Aura Perception]], The Spirit's Touch (aka postcognition), {{Telepathy}} [[strike:Astral]] [[SpiritWorld Twilight]] Projection from Auspex Discipline.

* ShoutOut: Newer books contain references to popular websites and memes like ImageBoards, LiveJournal, {{Lolcats}}, and YouTube. The dhampir chapter of ''Wicked Dead'' was a goldmine in particular.

** The art for the Moroi bloodline from the Ordo Dracul sourcebook is clearly meant to be [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Blade Jared Nomak]].

** Ironically, the Ordo Dracul, the covenant with the most tools to minimize the curse that makes the above so slanted to unfriendly, are also one of the likeliest covenants to turn a member into an [[BlueAndOrangeMorality amoral creature]] that cares nothing for humans or morality.

* VillainByDefault: Belial's Brood. They were added to the setting only to serve as {{Obviously Evil}} [[{{Mooks}} straighforward antagonists]] with little characterisation or information about how their society works. Averted with their splat, which makes them a full-fledged Covenant.