Character and Traits

 

Concepts

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Basher Champion

 

Part of you thinks that you’re revitalizing the ancient Greek traditions of personal excellence through athleticism. The other part of you thinks you just like to hear the roar of the crowd and feel the crack of someone’s jaw under your hand in an underground fighting arena. It takes your mind off how Eurotrash bankers have wrecked your homeland with their greed. You spend as much time as your unlife permits training, honing your combat skills, and preparing for your next fight somewhere in the slums of Athens.

 

You’ve fought bruisers from nearly every Clan and more of your fellow Brujah than you can count, and on some nights, you’re actually arrogant enough to wonder if you could take on a Lupine with your bare hands. 

 

Branded

 

You sold out and paid the price. Life in the favelas of São Paulo was too much for you, so you took money from that Ventrue bicha in exchange for information on the havens of some other Brujah who had pissed her off. The Brujah ended up dead, and you ended up in front of a gauntlet where the others judged you guilty of betraying the Clan’s principles. They beat you for about an hour with iron pipes and then branded you with a red-hot poker they first treated with some weird magical goop. Now, you’re banished, homeless, and you have a scar in the shape of a dollar sign on your left hand that won’t heal no matter what you do.

 

Debate Moderator

 

You were the captain of the school debate team, and you so loved the activity that you got a Classics degree with a specialty in Rhetoric at Cambridge. Funny the things that will attract an elder’s attention. The Idealist Brujah of London had found their debates bogged down with irrelevant points and critical fallacies, so they decided they needed a moderator who knew what she was doing, one who could shake up their stodgy debates with new topics and incisive critiques. It is highly unusual for a Brujah of your comparative youth to have the privilege of critiquing the debate styles of centuries-old polemicists. Also highly dangerous, as you learned the first time one of those elders took your comments too personally and had to be restrained from attacking you. You think it should be a rule that frenzying during a debate means automatically losing the argument. 

 

Elysium Gadfly

 

Everyone expects the Brujah to frenzy in Elysium. Few Kindred expect the Brujah to cause frenzies in Elysium. Even fewer suspect that you subtly do so at every opportunity. There is no greater example of Kindred stodginess than the Elysium, which is why you delight in saying just the right thing to piss someone off. Just the right snide remark about the Toreador’s new dress. Just the right comment on how the Ventrue’s portfolio isn’t doing so hot. Just the right gibberish to the Malkavian about how annoying it must be to have spiders infesting your clothes. Then step back out of the way quickly and watch the fun as those stodgy boring vampires flip out in the place they want to least. 

 

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Engine of Destruction

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They call you Iconoclast. That’s stupid. Oh, you want to destroy icons all right. You just don’t want to stop there. Smash the Camarilla. Consume the elders. Annihilate the Antediluvians and their pawns. Burn it, burn it all. In time, even the Sabbat that birthed you will burn at your hand. Why? Because you had a life, and they took it... on a whim. The circumstances of your Embrace — which snatched you from your family and friends and turned you into a bloodcrazed animal — has proven conclusively the randomness of existence, an existence you are now committed to destroying. To you, the existence of the Sabbat proves that nihilism is the only rational philosophy, and only when there is nothing left to destroy will you smash the final icon: yourself. 

 

Master of Metal

 

Rave is dead! Metal rules! You never understood how the Brujah became associated with raver culture. As far as you’re concerned, the only music for any self-respecting Brujah is metal. Death metal, black metal, Goth metal, classical metal, even. But your favorite is speed metal. Your Celerity lets your fingers fly across the strings faster than any mortal eye can follow. Your Presence has the crowd eating out of your hand. Your Potence comes in handy when your more violent songs trigger riots among your fans. You guess you’re an Iconoclast, because you love tearing down the conventions of music almost as much as you love driving your audience to violent distraction. But your skill and love of the genre means that you also try to build something new in place of what you’ve torn down, even if it’s something that the Ventrue and Toreador would never recognize as music. 

 

Occupy Elysium

 

The whole thing is just so... feudal, isn’t it? OnePercenters rule over the kine, and elder vampires rule over the Kindred, and all for no good reason except different forms of inherited wealth. You were a community organizer in life, back before politicians made that into a dirty word, and you saw no reason not to continue that profession among the community of the undead. You quickly learned that the social conventions of your new society made it difficult to organize protests against the ruling class. However, as you learned about the Masquerade, the Traditions, and the Convention of Thorns, you found an alternative means of protest. Acting through proxies, you have encouraged mortal protesters to engage in sit-ins at Elysium sites to protest financial corruption among the wealthy elites. The mortals don’t know that the people they’re protesting aren’t just rich bastards but are actually vampires, and those vampires can’t respond without breaching the Masquerade. Admittedly, your own actions flirt with breaching the Masquerade as well, but so far, no one has figured out that you’re the reason angry young students and homeless people keep staging loud protest events every time the Prince visits Elysium. 

 

Red Question Hacker

 

Once you wore a suit you hated every day to work. The pay was good, and the vitae of your Ventrue employer was even better, but you still hated that suit she made you wear. She needed an IT guy for her dot-com startup company and thought you’d make a serviceable blood slave, but she was insistent that you wear a suit when you came to work. It rankled, but you put up with it because you loved her. Then in 1999, something happened that caused her to abruptly skip town, leaving you behind like yesterday’s garbage. The dot-com bubble burst and you ended up homeless, heartbroken, and aching for vitae. Some Brujah hackers found you, cleaned you up, and explained the peculiar twists of the Jyhad that made your former regnant abandon you because she thought that the Y2K bug would cause the Antediluvians to rise. In time, you proved your worth to them — both as a hacker and as someone with a serious grudge against Ventrue idiots — and the same West Coast Anarchs who first asked you “Why do you obey?” Embraced you. Your answer was to take that damned suit and burn it in a trash can. You’ve been setting both the computer world and Kindred society on fire ever since. 

 

 

Situationist Graffiti Artist

 

 

In life, you were another failed artist hawking your wares along the Champs-Élysées. In death, you found your true inspiration: The recognition of the meaningless absurdity of the life that ended with your Embrace. That realization inspired a new passion, one that found its expression through the intersection of art, politics, and madness: Situationism. Your preferred medium is graffiti, and you like to think of yourself as the Banksy of the Damned. Most people walk by your work without noticing one more splash of color on the wall. Those who do notice are transfixed... and then transformed. 

 

Underground Kult DJ

 

Rave is dead? Over your dead body! You didn’t sleep a single night during the late 80s and early 90s. You were an acid house-ghoul strung out on gifted blood and cheap speed. Your masters had you chained to the turntables at Docklands in Stockholm until the pigs shut down the scene and Ibiza-mega-club stars stole the beat. The creatures of the night were gone and you were all alone. The years caught up fast as you spun desolate techno behind the bars of the original Tresor and in the fleshpits of club Ostgut. AIDS, heroin, and depression all tagged you for death within a year or three. Then Berghein happened. The first night you played the Panorama Bar you cried as you saw them back on the dance-floor. Their undying grace. Their rage and glory. The old ones. The undying. The Kindred. That night you died, and rave was reborn. Tonight you play five gigs a week, one commercial club and four members-only raves with different names to keep the cops guessing. You hold the night in the palm of your hand, and the same creatures that abandoned you to wither away now fight over the rights to hunt the warehouses and night-forests of your illicit dance empire. 

 

Merits and Flaws

 

Fury’s Focus (3pt. Merit. Prerequisite: Path of Entelechy)

Brujah who have devoted themselves to mastering their frenzies through the Path of Entelechy sometimes find tangible benefits resulting from their efforts. A Brujah with this Merit may briefly delay the full onset of frenzy. System: The player spends a Willpower point at the onset of frenzy and then rolls the Brujah’s Entelechy rating. The difficulty is one higher than the original roll to resist frenzy. The Brujah still frenzies, but the player controls her character’s actions for one turn per success. Furthermore, when the period of partial control ends and the Brujah loses control, the difficulty of any degeneration rolls triggered by sins committed during the frenzy are reduced by the number of successes rolled, to a minimum difficulty of 4. 

 

Dynamic Personality (5pt. Merit)
Your natural charisma draws mortals to you like groupies to a rock star. Consequently, it is easier for you to acquire certain Backgrounds related to mortals. System: In addition to any Backgrounds acquired at character creation or through roleplay, you can purchase new Backgrounds with experience points at the end of each story. The available Backgrounds are Allies, Contacts, Herd, Retainers, and each new dot costs the current rating in experience points. Obvious Predator (2pt. Flaw) Your innate Brujah rage always percolates below the surface no matter how hard you try to project an image of calm. Mortals find you intrinsically menacing, and instinctively fear you for the violence you promise to unleash. System: The difficulty of all Social rolls made against mortals other than Intimidation rolls increases by 2. 

 

Discipline Powers

 

Relentless Pursuit (Potence ••••• •)
This power is an improvement on Leaps and Bounds (p. 49). Relentless Pursuit can be used along with Leaps and Bounds. System: There is no cost to use this power, which is always active. The Brujah doubles the number of automatic successes granted by Potence when applying them to jump rolls. A Dexterity + Athletics roll is required to make sure the character lands safely. 

 

Combination Disciplines

 

Burning Wrath (Celerity •••, Potence •••)
Among the purest expressions of Brujah fury, this power lets the vampire focus her anger through her vitae and then through her fists. System: This power costs 1 blood point and lasts for a scene. Any Brawl attacks augmented with this power inflict aggravated damage. This power costs 18 experience points to learn. 

 

Command the Wary Beast (Animalism ••, Presence •••)
The Brujah bolsters his influence over animals with his natural charisma to make animals flee in terror or, in the case of animals under his control, remain calm in the face of frightening circumstances. System: The player spends 1 Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Animal Ken (difficulty 7). Hostile unled animals must flee. Animals under the control of an enemy will not necessarily flee, but the difficulty of all control rolls increases by 3. Conversely, animals that are friendly to the Brujah or his allies will become more compliant, with the difficulty of all control rolls reduced by 2. This power costs 15 experience points to learn. 

 

Esprit de Corps (Potence ••••, Presence ••••)
The power of the Brujah to raise a mob or even an army is not to be ignored. Those inspired by the vampire’s use of this power fight fearlessly and ferociously. System: The player rolls Charisma + Leadership (difficulty 7). Any opposing force that attempts to intimidate (whether supernaturally or no) those affected by Esprit de Corps find that the difficulty of such attempts increases by 2. The number of successes determines the maximum size of the crowd to be affected. 
Successes Results
1 One person
2 Two people
3 Six people
4 20 people
5 All allies in the immediate vicinity (whether a battle group or everyone in a large room)
In addition, for every two successes rolled, each affected person acquires the equivalent of one additional dot of Potence for the duration of the scene, up to a maximum of three dots. This benefit applies regardless of whether the affected person is a mortal, ghoul, or vampire — since mortals cannot spend blood points, they can only use the “passive” effects of Potence (see V20, p. 192). This power costs 24 experience points to learn. 

 

Iron Heart (Potence •••, Presence •••)
Common among Individualists who quest for selfcontrol, Iron Heart fortifies the Brujah against supernatural powers that affect her emotions, her self-control, or her reason (including Dominate, Dementation, and Presence), while also allowing her to inspire others to resist such manipulations themselves. System: This power has two effects. First, a Brujah who has acquired this power permanently increases the difficulty of all attempts to manipulate her through supernatural means (whether Disciplines or other magic) by 2, to a maximum of 9. Against unrolled supernatural effects (such as Majesty), the Brujah instead reduces the difficulty of any relevant resistance rolls by 2. This aspect of the power is always active. Second, if the player spends a Willpower point while the character actively persuades another to resist such effects, the difficulty of any such supernatural manipulation increases by 1 (or the difficulty of the character’s resistance roll against unrolled effects is reduced by 1). This power costs 18 experience points to learn.

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Leaps and Bounds (Celerity ••, Potence ••)
Through this intersection of strength, speed, and will, the Brujah can leap amazing distances, whether to evade foes or flee a burning building. System: The Brujah multiplies all vertical and horizontal jumping distances by the lesser of her Celerity or Potence (see the rules for jumping in V20, p. 260). The player does not need to roll anything to make the jump but, at the Storyteller’s discretion, may need to roll Dexterity + Athletics (difficulty 4) to land safely depending on the environment. This power costs 12 points to learn. 

 

Pulse of Undeath (Auspex •, Potence •)
Canny Brujah with this power can go into fights forewarned about their opponents’ capabilities. The Brujah can intuitively sense which, if any, physical Disciplines another vampire possesses. System: The player rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty 6). Each success informs the Brujah of one physical Discipline (Celerity, Potence, or Fortitude) possessed by the target observed, as well as that Discipline’s approximate level. This power costs 6 experience points to learn. 

 

Reluctant Performance Artist (Dominate •••, Presence •••)
Popular among the Situationists, this power not only lets the Brujah transform a mortal into an unwilling performer, it transforms other mortals into a captive audience. Other, less artistic Brujah who learn this power find it useful as a distraction to cover for their clandestine activities. System: The player adds one Willpower point to the cost of using Mesmerize on a mortal who the Brujah then commands to perform some action in a public place. For Situationists, this action is typically something absurd or otherwise bizarre, consistent with modern performance art. Theoretically, however, the Brujah could command the mortal to do anything, such as start an argument with someone else or commit an act of public vandalism. Other mortals who observe the performer and whose current Willpower ratings do not exceed the successes rolled by the Brujah are powerless to do anything except watch attentively. If the performer does something dangerous or illegal, treat each audience member’s Willpower as if it were 1 higher. If the performer attacks anyone in the audience, treat each audience member’s Willpower as if it were 3 higher. If the performance is completed without interruption, affected audience members will move on and either forget about the performer’s actions or rationalize the events as being part of an artistic performance (no matter how odd the scene). Whether a particular mortal thinks the performance is any good will probably depend on her appreciation for performance art. This power costs 18 experience points to learn. 

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Scourge of Alecto (Celerity ••, Presence ••••)
An obscure power often found among older Idealists, Scourge of Alecto allows the Brujah to chain his own Beast and then, through an act of supreme will, unleash it within the body of someone else nearby. Doing so does not alter the Brujah’s own propensity for frenzy, but it can inflict both damage and frenzies upon his enemies. System: The player must spend a point of Willpower while the character spends a full turn concentrating on a single target (which may be mortal, vampire, or any other type of supernatural character). Then the player rolls the Brujah’s permanent Willpower (difficulty equals target’s current Willpower). Each success inflicts one level of bashing damage as the Brujah’s manifested fury attacks the target from the inside. Additionally, if the target is someone normally susceptible to frenzy, she must immediately roll to resist it at a +2 difficulty. This power costs 18 experience points to learn. 

 

The Path of Entelechy 
Nickname: Philosophers
Virtues: Self-Control and Conviction
Bearing: Stoicism. 
The Philosophers bring a pragmatism to undeath that allows them to maintain equanimity in the face of the childish taunts and cruel barbs of their less enlightened Kindred. The bearing modifier adds on all rolls to resist frenzy when provoked by insults or other deliberately provocative actions by others. It does not affect frenzy rolls triggered by other forms of rage-inducing stimuli. Basic Beliefs: The Path of Entelechy is ancient but was lost for centuries, and only recently recovered for use by modern Brujah. An application of Stoic philosophy to the Brujah condition, the Path of Entelechy focuses on protecting one’s Humanity, on searching for truth and purpose, and above all, on mastering the Beast and the fury it provokes within the Brujah. The term entelechy comes from Aristotle and, among modern Brujah Philosophers, means “self-actualization.” The pursuit of entelechy demands that the Brujah actively develop her mind, her body, and her supernatural abilities. While the Path is consonant with Humanity, it is more proactive in resisting the Beast.

 

THE BENEFITS OF BASHING
As discussed on p. 44, Brujah who fight in organized bashes report that it is slightly easier to resist frenzy afterward. The downside is that you and your opponent have to beat the crap out of each other to gain the benefits. System: To gain the desired benefits, the Brujah must engage in a hand-to-hand brawl with another combatant in front of a cheering audience during an organized bash. The benefits arise from the psychological effects of fighting in front of a crowd.

 

The player notes how many levels of bashing damage were inflicted on both the Brujah and her opponent. The lesser number of wounds is the amount by which the difficulty of the Brujah’s frenzy rolls is reduced (to a minimum of 3). The greater number of wounds is how many consecutive scenes in which the Brujah benefits from the reduction. Thus, to gain any benefit, the Brujah must both suffer and inflict at least one level of bashing damage. A fight in which the Brujah casually defeats an inferior combatant confers no benefits, nor does one in which the Brujah is humiliated by a beat down from a superior fighter who takes no significant damage himself.

 

The combatants are limited to brawling attacks that inflict only bashing damage. If both combatants are Brujah, both gain the benefits of bashing. An intellectual approach to unlife, the Path focuses on three fundamental concepts believed to have been essential characteristics sought in potential Brujah progeny in the nights of Carthage: enkrateia, reie, and sophrosyne.

 

Enkrateia refers to inner strength. It is not enough for the Philosopher to passively accept the frustrations that come her way, as the Path of Humanity requires. Instead, she must hone her reason into a sword and her will into a shield against the forces that would cause her to degenerate. In practical terms, this means that Philosophers usually have high Willpower and Self-Control ratings or else aggressively pursue those traits. 

 

Reie refers to moral courage. The Philosopher must not shirk her responsibility to pursue either enlightenment or moral character out of fear of frenzy or other degradations. Instead, she must confront difficult situations with reason and self-discipline, eschewing the impetuosity that defines the modern Brujah. As a practical matter, this means that the Brujah will (or at least should) proactively avoid situations that are likely to provoke frenzy or risk degeneration. At the same time, the Path also encourages Philosophers to show courage in the face of adversity, but only to advance a cause the Brujah considers moral or just. 

 

Sophrosyne means control of the self and represents the idealized goal of all Philosophers: mastery over the Brujah rage. It also means that the Brujah has committed to an eternity of mental, spiritual, and physical development. Philosophers develop sophrosyne by working to improve Physical and Mental Attributes and Abilities, rather than focusing on Disciplines or Social traits. 

 

The Ethics of the Path

 

• The Beast is weakness. Be strong and command it to be silent.
• Master one’s own true potential. Learn all that can be learned about one’s self.
• Do not show cowardice when deeply held moral principles are at stake.
• Mortals must not be taken for granted. Feed to live, no more.

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PATH OF ENTELECHY HIERARCHY OF SINS - Rating Moral Guideline Rationale 

 

10 Ill-defined or idle thinking Only rigidity of thought can allow for mastery over the Beast. 
9 Refusing to intervene when another vampire is at risk for degeneration In helping others to control their impulses, you learn more on how to control your own.
8 Acting on impulse Acting without careful thought leads to a loss of control.
7 Theft, robbery, or vandalism Acting against others is the path away from Humanity.
6 Refusing to stand up for a moral principle out of fear or cowardice. It is only through the defense of morality that you can understand it.
5 Causing deliberate harm to a mortal, including violent nonconsensual feeding If you harm a mortal’s body, you also harm your own spirituality.
4 Aiding a follower of another Path that does not respect humanity Aiding those who reject humanity (and Humanity) is as bad as rejecting it yourself.
3 Succumbing to frenzy when wise conduct could have avoided it Do not give the Beast a chance to flourish.
2 Allowing any violent crime against an innocent to go unpunished If you allow others to come to harm without punishment, it is as if you committed the harm yourself.
1 The murder of innocents Taking a life is the worst loss of control one can commit. 

 

History

 

Despite its ancient origins, the Path of Entelechy is a new phenomenon, driven largely by Brujah elders who despair over the degradation of their once-proud Clan. Those founders look upon the fact that Brujah are called “Rabble” with shame. Accordingly, they recruit younger Brujah who want something more than violence, anarchy, and death out of unlife. 

According to some tales, the principles that underlie the Path of Entelechy were espoused by the Brujah of Carthage who supposedly had much greater control over their frenzies before the fall of that city. Others dismiss such claims as wishful thinking, noting that there is no historical support for the idea that ancient Brujah were any more resistant to frenzy than the modern Clan was. While the Methuselahs who drive the expansion of this Path are certainly old enough to remember Carthage, they are also old enough to have had centuries contemplating the Kindred (and particularly the Brujah) condition. 

 

Current Practices

 

The numbers of Entelechy Philosophers is presently small, though they have ambitions to grow quickly. Most currently reside in Europe, though the Philosophers who have advanced the farthest along the Path have begun “missionary work” in America and especially in the decadent gang-laden enclaves of the Free States. Currently, most organized instruction is offered in Greece and Crete, though the Chicago elder Critias has taken students in North America. Most of the teachers will accept no more than four students at a time, so the growth of the Path has been slow. 

 

Most Philosophers are Anarchs or autarkis. A few are among the Camarilla, but they are discrete in their beliefs in light of that sect’s general hostility towards Paths as opposed to Humanitas. It is possible that some Brujah among the Sabbat seek enlightenment along this Path — stranger things have happened — but such Sabbat Philosophers would be fantastically rare, as most of the Sect would consider the Path’s pro-Humanity precepts anathema.

 

Description of Followers

 

The most important sponsor of the Path of Entelechy is Menele, a Brujah Methuselah who psychically communes with his followers even while his torpid body lies beneath the city of Chicago. The childe of Troile wants to leave a legacy greater than 2,500 years of petty conflict with his old rival, the Toreador Helena. He has reached out to fellow travelers in Greece and Turkey, and guides potential candidates to philosophy teachers in preparation for his own imminent rising. He hopes that when that night comes, he will be met with a Clan of leaders and thinkers rather than thugs.

 

Following the Path

The defining characteristic of the Path is its view of much of the vampiric condition as weaknesses they must purge. The Beast is not a part of one’s nature to be parleyed with; it is an external force to be fought at all costs. Lust, frenzy, hunger, and passion must all be resisted and beaten into spiritual submission. The Path leaders constantly challenge adherents to improve themselves in the quest for personal excellence. Common Abilities: Followers are expected to perfect themselves at Athletics, Alertness, and Expression, as well as in Academics and Science. In addition, the Path’s emphasis on broad-based learning generally demands a high degree of multicultural literacy, so it is common for Philosophers to have several versions of the Language Merit. Greek and Latin are most common, but the most respected leaders of the Path are polyglots and are fluent in numerous languages. 

 

Preferred Disciplines

Most Philosophers are drawn  to Disciplines that will facilitate control over the Beast. Animalism is surprisingly common for that reason, but the few Philosophers who have initiated themselves into blood magic aggressively pursue study of the Path of the Focused Mind. Many prize Auspex as a sign of strong mental aptitude and Potence is valued above the other physical Disciplines, due to the perception that it demonstrates physical excellence.