Character and Traits
 

Concepts
 

Anonymous Celebrity
There is power in celebrity. You can have a hand in shaping your world without the formal recognition of a Prince or Primogen. But by remaining anonymous, you can also avoid the target that inevitably marks leaders. Your art is ephemeral, even Masquerade-breaking if it falls into the wrong hands. Your mobile app has been passed to many of the tech-savvy Kindred in the city, an augmented reality app keyed to GPS coordinates. When the app is used at a flagged location, a ghostly 3D tableau may be viewed through the smartphone’s screen. Some are events of historical significance to the city’s Kindred, while others are critiques or parodies of various personalities within the local vampire scene. 

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Bull Dancer
Performance art has always been your love. Dancing is the way you learned the language of your own body, the subtle words of movement and fluid grace. The gifts of your Clan have revealed an entirely new vocabulary, and you can speak more eloquently than ever without ever saying a word. You can seduce an entire room into obeying your every whim, or slip effortlessly through fighters who misjudge your lithe, wiry body. 

 

Chronicler of the Fallen
You’ve been fascinated with cultures and civilizations since before your Embrace. You know in your heart that it’s your raison d’etre to catalog and record the anthropological histories of the world’s peoples as they rise and fall through the centuries. Noddist lore fascinates you, but no more than the isolate cultures of the Melungeons or the Pre-Colombian Amazonian empires. You want to know about everyone’s family histories, mortal and immortal, and you’ll go to extreme lengths to discover them.

 

Cutting Edge
Sometimes you disgust yourself. You look in the mirror and see the mortal you were before the children of Caine lifted you up, made you one of them. But you’re working on that a cut or a graft at a time. Sometimes it feels like a constant struggle as your body rejects or heals over your changes. The Tzimisce have the right idea, but they need vision. If you can only learn their power, you’ll finally shed the last vestiges of the mortal you were, and become the work of art you know lies inside. 

 

Guardian
They think you’re dead. They’re right, but that doesn’t mean you won’t watch over them. Your little sister took it hardest. She’s making your mom’s life even harder than it should be, with you gone. But it’s not right for them to be drawn into the world you exist in now. Now that you know what goes bump in the night, you can’t leave them to fend for themselves. The neighborhood looks out for your family. That’s nice. So you do what you can to look out for them, too. You’ll fight for this territory, to keep monsters like you from preying on your people. But it’s tempting, isn’t it? They’re right there, and it would only be a little blood…

 

Old Guard
The world was your oyster, once. There was a time when the jet-set elite came from all over to attend one of your debauched parties. They spent hundreds of thousands on art you discovered, fought to sign bands you found. Your galleries and music venues were legendary once. Of course, you never created art. Your artists and musicians — your projects — they were your creations. You were kingmaker and trend hunter. But the internet changed what that means. The old world is crumbling, and people are forgetting how much they owe you. You’re on the edge of irrelevance, and you’re desperate to turn back the clock. 

 

Party Monster
You’re the brightest light at the biggest parties. You know everyone, and everyone is quite sure they know you. You’re so witty, so beautiful, so amazing and fabulous and about a hundred other adjectives that people use when they describe the person they met last night. If only they could remember your name. You rely on your Presence to get you the attention you never got in life, but it fades as soon as you’re gone and then so do you. So they don’t remember you the next time they see you, and it hurts, so what happens next isn’t your fault, not really. 

 

Political Vandal
The world is a constant struggle between progress and stasis. The elders invest in stasis, and the Prince and his lackeys are obvious tools. Your graffiti and paste-ups are inscrutable to the kine, but wickedly inspirational to the Anarchs who see them before the Sheriff has them painted over. Nobody knows who you are, and your sire (the Toreador Primogen) wants to keep it that way. 

 

Propagandist
You were a film student when they took you. It wasn’t planned. You were just one more shovelhead piece of fodder, but somehow you survived. The Sabbat keep to their own version of the Masquerade, of course, but you found a way to get the story you see every night. You document the oppression of the Antediluvians. You help show the righteousness of the Sword of Caine through your videos. They’re popular among the Sabbat, of course, but their real purpose is as recruiting tool and weapon. You sneak them to Anarchs or set them up to play across public screens in Camarilla cities before an assault. You sow fear and discord and maybe, just maybe, open some eyes.

 

Publicist
You grew up with the internet, so the strange new patterns of socialization that utterly baffle most Kindred are second nature to you. When you were alive, you specialized in helping the public forget celebrity meltdowns (or making sure they remembered, depending on whom you were working for). Your sire originally turned you into a ghoul to bring her up to speed on the modern world, but you convinced her to Embrace you, and now you help her to find slip-ups and advantages she can use in her political chess games against other elders in the city. As long as your star keeps rising along with hers, everything is fine. But you’ve been keeping your own files on her just in case. Other Kindred have begun to look to you to help massage and spin situations to their advantage, Sooner or later, you know you’re going to have to strike out on your own. It’s just a matter of looking for the right opening.

 

Merits and Flaws
 

Indelible (1 or 2pt. Merit)
Whereas other vampires’ bodies return to the state they were in at the Embrace each evening, any body modifications you get after the Embrace remain as they are until you actively spend a Willpower point to return your body to its tabula rasa state. This Merit applies to changes as simple as dyeing or cutting your hair to modifications as complicated as tattoos, piercings, or even small implants. If the Merit only allows for cosmetic alterations, it is worth 1 point. If it allows for more utilitarian alterations, such as RFID implants that activate certain electronic devices, then it is worth 2 points. 

 

Impressive Restraint (2pt. Merit)
When you haven’t fed, it can be torturous to be near mortals. The pounding thrum of blood through their veins does not leave you nearly as tempted as it might other Kindred. When opportunity presents itself, the difficulty of all Self-Control rolls to resist hunger are made against a -2 difficulty. Characters on Paths of Enlightenment that require Instinct cannot take this Merit.

 

Master of the Masquerade (2pt. Merit)
There are many small tics, nervous habits, and autonomous bodily functions (like breathing) that Kindred simply forget to do. They can be unnervingly still or forget to breathe, particularly when they think they’re alone. You never let down your guard. The act of breathing remains an unconscious habit to you, and you never lapse into that eerie statue-like stillness, even when transfixed or concentrating. Consequently, the difficulties of all Social rolls are lowered by one when interacting with mortals. This Merit does not allow you to eat food or benefit from the blush of health (V20, p. 480) — those Merits are still required to be a true master of the Masquerade. 

 

Slowed Degeneration (5pt. Merit)
Your Humanity is strong and can more easily withstand the Beast’s assaults. You gain two additional dice on any Conscience roll. This degree of moral resilience allows a well-behaved vampire to lose Humanity at a much slower rate than would otherwise be possible. Only vampires following Humanity may take this Merit, and the Merit is lost forever in the event that the vampire takes up another Path of Enlightenment. 

 

Tortured Artist (1pt. Flaw)
Nothing is ever good enough for your work. No matter how much praise is lavished upon you, you can only see the flaws and mistakes. This leads to long periods of ennui, which makes your artistic work irregular at best. Further, you throw yourself into business arrangements and social situations with intensity, which often leads to heartbreak, which leads to the pain and passion that fuels your next work. You are at +1 difficulty on Social rolls in which you are being praised, complimented, or treated with respect.

 

Private Life (3pt. Flaw)
You have a completely separate life that no other Kindred know about. It may be your mortal family that you have turned into ghouls, or a YouTube channel that you use to talk in metaphor about your frustrations with Kindred society. If discovered, this could risk other vampires accusing you of breaching the Masquerade (if Camarilla), consorting with humanity instead of being a superior vampire (if Sabbat), or just overall paranoia and suspicion on why you’re keeping such deep secrets. 

 

Elder Discipline Powers
 

Star Magnetism (Presence ••••• •)
This power allows the Kindred’s Presence to carry over onto photographs or video, whether digital, video tape, or even film. It even carries over to paintings or drawings, if the portrait is an accurate representation. The vampire may consciously turn this power off, but it will otherwise snap into effect whenever a camera turns toward the Kindred. 
System: The representation resembles Awe, and the effects are permanent. Anyone who sees an image may spend a Willpower point to resist the effect until the next time he sees it again.

 

Combination Disciplines
 

Bliss (Dominate ••, Presence •••)
Many Toreador claim their Clan escaped the curses that afflict their brethren, and that they alone were blessed. Those who learn the secret of Bliss are the loudest making this claim. Any Toreador who regards a scene or work of great beauty is prone to myopic obsession. This trance is the antithesis of the ugly fury of the Beast. Those familiar with the power of Bliss can recall beauty almost as intimately as if it were before them and use this as a reservoir of inner strength. The recollection of past happiness serves as a bulwark when threatened with the irrational desires, frenzies, and fears of the Beast. Further, the Kindred may project this sense of pleasure upon another, calming them from the throes of rage or frenzy. 
System: To use this power, a Toreador needs to deliberately enter a trance while watching, listening to, or looking at some work of art or embodiment of beauty. The duration of this trance is determined by the duration of the art: The Toreador sits enthralled until the song ends, the dance is finished, or the piece of art is covered. (Few choose to use this power with paintings for that reason.)

 

Within one scene after the trance ends, the player makes an Intelligence + Empathy roll. If the roll is successful, the vampire may temporarily increase her Self-Control, Conscience, or Courage by a single dot, up to a maximum of five dots. This increase lasts for the remainder of the night. The difficulty of the roll is equal to double the Trait’s current rating, so a vampire with Self-Control 4 has to roll an 8 to gain another temporary point of Self-Control. Only one Virtue can be increased at a time. Furthermore, the source of the trance has to be appropriate for the Virtue. Looking at David’s “Oath of the Horatii” or listening to the first movement of Holst’s “The Planets” could bolster one’s Courage, but not Self-Control. Bliss is not lost on those who follow Paths other than Humanity, though the source of inspiration must take the Cainite’s altered worldview into account.  When a Kindred uses Bliss to steel the resolve of another, the Toreador must roll Wits + Expression to activate the power. Additionally, difficulties for using Bliss on someone other than oneself increase by one. For example, if the target’s Conscience is currently 3, the Toreador’s target difficulty is 7. 

 

Botching any Bliss roll results in the loss of a Willpower point. The target must cooperate with the Toreador, entering a kind of guided meditative state of their own, often focusing on a work of art created for the purpose by the Kindred activating Bliss. If successful, the target gains the benefit instead of the Toreador. This power costs 15 experience points to learn.

 

Devil’s Mark (Presence •, Vicissitude ••)
Among the Sabbat, a growing number of Toreador antitribu who have learned the secrets of Vicissitude have discovered a way to infuse their own Presence into tattoos and body modifications placed upon others, Cainite and mortal alike. This is a relatively recent invention, developed by a nomadic pair of Toreador antitribu at the tail end of the twentieth century.

In the nights leading up to a war party, packs get inked and pierced, covered in symbolic body modifications invoking Awe, Dread Gaze, or even Majesty. Raucous parties tend to coalesce around the ritual, as each member gets marked, and the pack gets more and more hyped and psyched up for the raid. The artist must invest her own blood into the process, whether that’s by bathing her tools in it or mixing it into her inks, so it’s considered good form for the pack to provide sources of blood for the artist during the revel, since she is investing so much for their cause. The modifications themselves are often elaborate and are themselves sources of pride for the packs and artists alike. Each piece of art is designed to unite the pack while complementing the individual, and packs will travel to find well-known artists just so they can sport an Elektra tattoo, or a set of silver crown piercings by Mikhail.
System: To place the Devil’s Mark, the artist must make an extended Dexterity + Expression roll every hour (difficulty 7), requiring a number of successes equal to twice the level of the Presence power being imbued. For example, marking a subject with Awe would require two successes, while Dread Gaze would require four successes and Majesty would need a total of 10 successes. The process of creating the Devil’s Mark costs one blood point, plus one point for every invocation she wants to imbue into the body modification. If the subject is a vampire, the modification heals as normal when the “charges” are expended. If the subject is a mortal, the tattoo or piercing remains, but loses its vampire puissance.

 

Alternately, a vampire subject can choose to spend a point of permanent Willpower to make the modification relatively permanent, giving him access to the specific Presence effect as if he had learned the Discipline power itself. However, another application of Vicissitude or severing of the body part will remove the body modification and the power from the vampire. 

The artist applying the Devil’s Mark must know the level of Presence being imbued, and may only grant access to powers up to Level Five. The body modification itself is the focal point of the Presence evocation, so must be visible to the target of any use of the Presence powers imbued. Also, the target can’t use anything that would dull or neutralize the pain of the procedure. This power costs 9 experience points to learn.

 

Doubletalk (Auspex ••, Celerity •, Obfuscate •)
The Toreador are talented diplomats and politicians, but the Kindred who uses this power may literally hide an entirely different message within their speech. When a Toreador uses Doubletalk, she conveys an entirely different message between and underneath another sentence spoken normally. To most listeners, it looks and sounds like normal conversational placeholders and body language. But for those who know what to look and listen for, it is possible to hold a secret conversation in plain sight, behind an innocuous interaction. 
System: When a character speaks in Doubletalk, the player rolls Intelligence + Expression (difficulty 6). If the roll succeeds, the character may seamlessly insert a phrase into her conversation. A failure means the character can’t be understood. A botch means the character accidentally spoke her phrase aloud. The listener then rolls Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty 6). If the roll succeeds, the character may understand the intended message. At the Storyteller’s discretion, this difficulty may be modified for circumstances — it’s more difficult over the phone or in a noisy area, and impossible in text messages. A failure means the character heard nothing, while a botch indicates that he completely misinterpreted what the character said. This power costs 12 experience points to learn.

 

Haunting Seduction (Dementation ••, Presence •)
The Toreador are seductive, impressive creatures. When they’re around, they can be the only thing that matters in the world. But when they leave, their Presence fades, and that’s just not acceptable to some of the Degenerates. Dementation may merely unlock the door to the mind’s inner hallways and free what’s inside, but enterprising Toreador have discovered how to ensure that they are the whisper that haunts their target’s thoughts. In many ways, the Haunting Seduction is similar to the Dementation power The Haunting (V20, p. 148). Its effects occur mainly when the victim is alone, and mostly at night. However, the effects take on the tone of an almost maddening, seductive obsession. The subject may feel the light brush of a hand that he knows belongs to the vampire, or hear the vampire’s sibilant whisper just behind him. The Storyteller should let her imagination run wild when describing these sensory impressions; the victim may well feel as if he is going mad. 
System: After the vampire speaks to the victim, the player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty of her victim’s Perception + Self-Control or Instinct). The number of successes determines the length of the sensory “visitations.” The precise effects are up to the Storyteller, though it is highly likely that the visions will affect the difficulties of any social interactions between the vampire and her target the next time they meet. 

Successes       Result
     1                         One night
     2                        Two nights
     3                        One week
     4                        One month
     5                        Three months
     6+                      One year
 

This power costs 9 experience points to learn.

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Scalpel Tongue (Presence •, Celerity •)
Catty repartee is both an art and a vice among the Kindred of Clan Toreador. Those who cannot compete effectively in the arena of cruel wit are unlikely to earn the respect of their Clan members. Toreador higher up the ladder, then, must have the ability to scathe others with words if they are to maintain their positions. Scalpel Tongue mixes the same quick thinking that guides the body as it moves at accelerated speeds with the Toreador’s prodigious social aptitudes, allowing the Kindred to immediately generate a barbed quip so stinging (due to the emotion-enhancing effects of Presence) that it shames the target into silence. Of course, the Toreador themselves are so constantly surrounded by the vicious wit of their own Clan that they inevitably develop a thicker skin. They may play up the melodrama of insult and offense, but even the sharpest barbs come to wash over them like water off a duck’s back. This power has a subtle downside: if another Toreador detects that she had to use a Discipline to come up with such a stinging retort (such as the user of Scalpel Tongue botching her roll), it could have a negative impact on how others in the Clan perceive her. Why would she need to use powers if she didn’t have an inferior wit? In such a case, the user will have a +1 difficulty on Social rolls against other Toreadors for the rest of the night, including future uses of Scalpel Tongue. 
System: Roll Wits + Empathy against a difficulty of 7. If the user of this power does not know his target well, the difficulty is increased by one, due to not knowing what buttons to push to achieve the greatest verbal impact. The barbed comment stings the target into silence for one turn per success, or double that if the target is not a member of Clan Toreador. Spending one Willpower negates this effect. This power costs 6 experience points to learn.

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Soul Painting (Auspex ••••, Presence ••)
The ancient Toreador art of “painting souls” flourished briefly in the early 1300s, but with the loss (and presumed Final Death) of Katherine of Montpellier, the technique was thought to be gone forever. In recent nights, Katherine has returned. Roused from an ages-long torpor, she has agreed to teach a few worthy students the knack of painting a portrait of a being’s inner nature. A few enterprising Toreador have attempted to adapt her principles to other expressive media, including music, song, and even acting. Art has long been held to be a doorway into the soul. Usually it’s the soul of the artist. In this case, the painting can expose the nature of the person portrayed. The message conveyed is powerful, subtle, and — when successful —  undeniable. Falsehood cannot be portrayed through Soul Painting, for even the artist does not initially know whatthe image will reveal.

 

To create this type of portrait, the artist needs to study the subject for a full, uninterrupted hour. This can be done in a sitting, of course, but (due to the sensitive nature of the portrait) it’s more often done from recalled observation. Looking not only at the minute details of appearance and carriage, but also at the subject’s aura, the painter forms a conscious insight. This alone is not sufficient, however: the painter must give himself over to a kind of creative fugue, setting aside his preconceptions completely, in order to make a soul portrait. The portrait must be painted in a single setting, and interrupting a soul painter while she works is as difficult as rousing a Toreador from a more mundane fit of artistic absorption. It generally takes 10-12 hours to create the picture, though more complex efforts may take longer — Katherine’s portrait of the Archbishop Monçada reputedly took over one  thousand hours — but if successfully completed, it reveals a great deal indeed.
System: The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty 6). If the roll yields even a single success, the painting (or other work) captures the subject’s Nature in the work itself. For each additional success, the player may opt to illustrate any one of the following: a rough gauge of Humanity (or Path, which usually won’t create a traditionally flattering work), Willpower, Self-Control, Conscience, Conviction, Instinct, or Courage. Anyone with the Soul Painting power can immediately recognize every insight portrayed in a portrait. Those who lack the power may (at the Storyteller’s discretion) be required to make Perception + Awareness, Empathy, or Crafts rolls to “decode” the portrait. The difficulty for such attempts should be low, however; the whole point of the power is the exposure of these hidden, abstract concepts. Note that Soul Painting does not necessarily make the artist a skilled artist — it is quite possible to have a crudely executed portrait that nonetheless communicates the subject’s personality. Such a ham-handed painter is unlikely to have learned this power from the mistress herself, though. This power costs 18 experience points to learn.

 

Under the Skin (Auspex •••, Presence •••)
The Kindred of Clan Toreador are natural critics. With insight and zeal they analyze and deconstruct art, culture, and politics. Some studied Toreador possess the ability to do the same with their peers, reading them like texts and making obvious their failings of personality. The Cainite using this power analyzes the personality of another, finds its weaknesses, and then uses the force of his presence to make light of those weaknesses and hammer on them like a battering ram. The results can be quite dramatic. While this power is similar to Scalpel Tongue, it’s much more devastating. That one stings; this one draws blood (and possibly a lot of it).
System: The Toreador must interact socially with his target for a number of consecutive turns (2-5 turns is a good rule of thumb, at the Storyteller’s discretion) before this power can be activated. After that warm-up, roll Wits + Alertness against a difficulty of 6 as the character begins his systematic  analysis of the target’s psyche and self-esteem. The results of this assault are listed below.

Successes     Result
1-2                     Target is rendered utterly speechless with embarrassment and                                   rage, and broods for the remainder of the scene. (One die                                             penalty to all  Social rolls)
3-4                    Target storms out in a rage. (Two dice penalty to all Social rolls)
5                        Target becomes violent, either toward the Toreador using this                                   power (jumping over the table to attack, for example) or toward                               herself in a fit of self-loathing. (+1 difficulty to rolls to resist                                 frenzy)
6+                      Target enters frenzy. (+3 difficulty to resist frenzy)

The target may spend a Willpower point to lessen the effect by one category (e.g., from 6+ to 5 or from 3-4 to 1-2). This power costs 18 experience to learn.