Beast Traits
While the existence of most vampires consists of a rollercoaster ride of psychological
drawbacks and recoveries, some Kindred live in a consistently primitive, regressed
world. These Kindred have succumbed to the bestial side ofvampiric nature and often
cannot control what they do. Beast Traits are a measure of how much a Kindred has
given in to her dark side, the Beast. Beast Traits affect several things:
How often the Kindred goes into frenzy
Each Beast Trait has a description of a type of event that will send that character
into a state of frenzy. Unless the character resists by spending a Willpower Trait, the
character will automatically frenzy if that situation comes up. (See the section on
“Frenzy” for more details on the effect this has on a character.)
Waking up early
In games that begin at sunset, a player with Beast Traits may not join play for 15
minutes for each Beast Trait her character has. A character with three Beast Traits will
have to start play at least 45 minutes after sunset.
Upon receiving the fifth Beast Trait, the vampire goes into a state of permanent
frenzy. The player has no control over the character and must surrender it to the
Storyteller and start anew.
Beast Traits are categorized as either Rage, Control or Terror Beast Traits, in
order to define the type of frenzy that each Trait causes. There are also two levels
of Beast Traits: Subhuman and Monstrous. Subhuman Traits cause frenzies based on
fairly uncommon events. Having a Subhuman Trait will tend to make you frenzy
occasionally, unless of course an enemy discovers and exploits it.
Monstrous Traits are far deadlier. Most vampires with Monstrous Traits tend to spiral
out of control very quickly, either being destroyed or staked and stored away as a result.
No prince likes a loose cannon, particularly not an irrational one, in his domain.
Receiving Beast Traits
Kindred acquire Beast Traits when performing an act of violence or cruelty. It is up to a
Narrator or the Storyteller to decide what warrants penalizing the player with a Beast Trait.
Generally a Narrator will have the player perform a Simple Test. If the player wins,
she will not gain a Beast Trait. If she draws, she will gain a Subhuman Beast Trait. If
the player loses the Simple Test, she will gain a Monstrous Beast Trait.
It also bears mentioning that a Kindred who performs a heinous action while under
the effects of a frenzy is by no means exempt from gaining additional Beast Traits as
a result of her actions - thus the downward spiral begins.
Rage
Subhuman Beast Traits
Vigilante -Frenzy whenever you encounter the death of a person (be it Kindred or
kine). You are tormented by all the killing that vampires do, so much so that a death will
send you into an uncontrollable rage. You will seek out and try to destroy the murderer.
If you do not know the murderer, you will blame the nearest person and go after him.
Frustrated - Frenzy whenever beaten in a Mental Challenge. You will kill the
next person who messes with your mind. If you lost a Static Challenge against a lock
or alarm system, that object is history. That person over there looking at you funny is
obviously trying to take control of your mind. Get him.
Item - Frenzy when encountering a particular item, like a stake. The stake
wielder is asking for it. You may end up with some other item besides a stake, which
the Storyteller must choose. Were you attacked by a psychotic with a pair of scissors
when you were young? Or were you once shot 137 times with an Uzi?
Monstrous Beast Traits
Furious - Frenzy whenever someone crosses you in some way. Someone is not
following your orders. Perhaps he has been telling the Harpies all about your little plan
and now the word has spread all over town. Or maybe your rival has Blood Bonded your
favorite ghoul to herself. That makes you really angry.
Violent - Frenzy whenever witnessing an act of violence. This is what happens
to vigilantes who go overboard. If you see two Kindred fighting, you might beat up the
one who is attacking (because he’s just too violent). Beat up the other one (after all,
he let himself be attacked). Attack the spectators (just because you’re in the mood).
Often this frenzy will continue until someone helps you stop, as you are only causing
more violence (although it’s really their fault!).
Bullied - Frenzy whenever beaten in a Social Challenge. Whoever won the
Social Challenge deserves to get beaten up. The worst problem with this frenzy is that
you cannot be talked down from a frenzy. (A Kindred will have to beat you in a Social
Challenge to talk you down.)
Control
Subhuman Beast Traits
Blood - Frenzy whenever encountering a quantity of spilled blood. The smell
of about a pint of blood when it is out in the open drives you wild. Start by lapping up
the blood in front ofeveryone. Once the taste gets into your body, you need more blood
until you are full. Even then, you may not stop.
Hunger - Frenzy whenever you are down to only a single Blood Trait. The
Hunger starts to drive you, and you need the blood. Drink your first victim dry, then
leave the dry husk as you pursue more blood. Feeding is all that matters. Covering up
your killing is not part of being a “real” vampire.
Lust - Frenzy whenever encountering a willing victim to feed from. Feeding is
like sex. When you find someone to feed from who is just as enthusiastic as you are,
the drinking is more than just taking blood. You tend to get carried away and drink
too much. Then you need to find more and more blood to help atone for your sins.
Monstrous Beast Traits
Blood Smell-Frenzy whenever encountering a crowd of people animals or Kindred.
This is similar to the Subhuman Beast Trait: Blood, but far more crippling. The smell of
Blood permeates the city. You can smell the delicious blood inside of every human you pass.
A cruel trick: Kidnap a Kindred with Blood Smell and drop him in a nightclub.
Desire - Frenzy whenever encountering whatever you most want. You want to
be prince? He’s standing right over there. Take him out and the position is yours.
Infatuated with the beautiful Toreador? Her “guardian” is approaching you now. This
is a particularly nasty Trait to have.
Diablerie -Frenzy when encountering incapacitated Kindred. This is not a
very common situation, unlike most Monstrous Beast Traits. However, whenever you
find a helpless Kindred, you have trouble resisting the easy way to lower your
generation. Drink his blood, then his soul. Stock up on Willpower, or the Sheriff will
be after you in no time.
Courage
Subhuman Beast Traits
Phobia - Frenzy when affected by a phobia. Perhaps you suffered from some
phobia in your mortal life that grew into a terrible fear in your immortal life. Flee until
you find some protection from whatever ails you. The Storyteller may wish to choose
from the following phobias or assign you a new one:
Sunlight - Frenzy whenever exposed to sunlight, a sun lamp or UV radiation.
Sunlight kills vampires, and so this is one of the few useful Beast Traits. However, sun
lamps and black lights (which normally cause only a mild tingling to the skin) send you
into a flight of terror. Avoid tanning salons and scope out your nightclubs carefully.
Fire - Frenzy whenever exposed to flame. This is another potentially useful
Trait, as fire is a great danger to vampires. Most vampires, however, will not freak out
when they see a campfire, or when someone lights a cigarette. You will.
Monstrous Beast Traits
Pain - Frenzy whenever you take damage. Pain sends you running away
screaming from whatever hurt you. The pain is so intense that you will forget to heal
the wound with blood until you are calmed down. However, you will calm down five
to 10 minutes after you get away from whatever hurt you.
Shame - Frenzy whenever beaten in a Physical Challenge. You are so unsure of
yourself that any loss in a Physical Challenge will break your will. You will try to get
away from the person who won the Physical Challenge. See what the Harpies say after
you have a mental breakdown when failing to knock down a door.
Religion - Frenzy when confronted by a religious symbol. You’ve probably
confronted someone with True Faith at some point. He messed with you so well that
even a cross (or another appropriate religious artifact) will send you racing away. You
can actually stand being around the object, but must enter a frenzy if you touch one
or have it presented before you.
House made Beast Traits
Scenario – Frenzy whenever subjected to a selected scene or event. Events in
your past have traumatically scarred you so much, that the slightest similarity or remembrance
will send you into a rage. A crowd of people laughing at you, a gun to your head, a man standing
over a beaten woman, etc. Whatever the scenario, you will attempt to stop it from playing out
again, by any means necessary.
The Paths of Enlightenment
Vampires who possess humanity are constantly waging a battle between self-control
and bestiality. Most do not want to frenzy, become violent and potentially murderous.
The Sabbat, however, enjoy goading the Beast within and are often encouraged to
frenzy. Consequently, without humanity, it would seem that they would all become
crazed monsters and killing machines. However, each member of the Sabbat follows
a Path of Enlightenment, chosen at character creation time. This Path prorides a code
of ethics that both prevents the vampire from constantly frenzying and establishes a
sense of morality within a creature whose innate sense of right and wrong has long
since perished. Path Traits assume the position of Beast Traits for Sabbat vampires by
determining what kind of situation or circumstance will cause them to frenzy.
The Path of Caine
Most followers of this Path, primarily Assamite antitribu, are fairly reserved in
character and knowledgeable in demeanor. They study philosophy, ancient languages
and other subjects that will guide them along the path of wisdom; practice diablerie in
order to grow closer to Caine; seek knowledge of Caine, and will pursue it at almost any
cost, including their own unlives. They often desire hours alone to spend in meditation
and actively fight against frenzy. They are generally respectful of their elders and aloof
toward humans, believing that vampires were created by God and therefore should act
according to their natures: predators don’t usually get chummy with their food.
Path Traits
Diabolist - Frenzy whenever you are prevented from committing diablerie. The
victim must be present. If others are getting in your way, remove them; they are
preventing you from becoming closer to Caine.
Abelite - Frenzy whenever two or more of your packmates have succumbed to
the Beast. You believe frenzy is for the weak and uncontrolled, not for you. Frenzy is
the crime that caused Caine to murder Abel. Pack morale dropping so low makes you
furious and forces you into unwilling frenzy.
Self-controlled - Frenzy whenever anyone accuses you of having frenzied: you
possess far too much self-control and have never in your unlife stooped so low.
Separatist - Frenzy whenever you witness a vampire revealing himself to a
mortal. Vampires are not meant to live alongside juicebags. You are the superior
species and should hold yourselves aloof.
Scholar - Frenzy whenever someone directly prevents you from acquiring
knowledge of Caine. In other words, if a Nosferatu dangles a page of The Book of Nod
in front of your face and refuses to let you see it, frenzy.
The Path of Cathari
Followers of this Path believe in the religious dualism of two creators: one good, who
made the spiritual world, and the other the evil creator of the material world. As vampires,
they are part ofthe material, or evil, world. They accept their inherent evil, seeking wealth
and pleasure, avoiding Final Death, Embracing others without restraint and preying on
mortals without qualms, because they also believe in reincarnation (specifically, that slain
mortals will return, as will slain vampires). They avoid Final Death because they believe
they will retumas mortals, without their powers and pleasures, and they court temptation,
succumbing to the Beast whenever they feel like it.
Path Traits
Pack Fiend - Follow another vampire into frenzy whenever possible. What
could be more fun? You should probably attack his or her target, but the next closest
person will do if the other is entirely out of reach or already decimated.
Creator - Frenzy whenever anyone in your pack hesitates to create new
vampires. A victim of some sort must be present.
Final Death - Frenzy whenever directly threatened with Final Death.
Materialist -Frenzy whenever someone damages your possessions. Catharists believe
in living comfortably and making their eternal life as enjoyable as possible. Destruction of
your property is a blatant insult to your person and your code of ethics. Defend your stuff!
Hedonist - Frenzy whenever you are restrained from seeking pleasure. This can
include feeding, acquiring new property or engaging in activities you find enjoyable. You
ought to enjoy your immortal gifts, and no one can prevent you from doing so.
The Path of Death and the Soul
This Path claims followers who neither fear Final Death nor seek it out. It is the oldest
Path still practiced by the Sabbat today, having been founded as a Tzimisce death cult
which transformed into a legitimate school of thought during the Age of Enlightenment.
To this day, followers of the Path seek to study death in all its forms. They are
fascinated by the occult and wish to discover all they can about its uses and theory.
Path Traits
Excavator- Frenzy whenever anyone prevents you from occult discovery. Either
they must be withholding information they have told you they possess or they have
destroyed some puzzle-piece you desired.
Debater - Frenzy whenever anyone blows you off during a philosophical
discussion. You are attempting to discern the keys to the universe, and all they can do
is snidely say, “Uh-hunh, whatever.”
Discoverer - Frenzy whenever you are prevented from killing for the sake of
knowledge. You do not fear death; you wish to communicate with it. Allow no one to
interfere with your experiments.
Passion - Frenzy whenever three or more of your packmates begin talking in
raised tones at once, battle-cries and the like excepted. You abhor the ruling of
emotion over logic and refuse to tolerate it in those close to you. You must force them
all to regain their composure, even if they are in little pieces by the time you do it!
Persona - Frenzy whenever you are accused of emotional behavior or cowardice
with regard to death. You do not fear Final Death. You will prove it right now.
The Path of Harmony
The Path of Harmony is the gentlest of the Paths currently practiced by the Sabbat.
Its principles involve finding a balance between one’s vampiric nature and remaining
humanity. All life is precious, and though vampires must prey upon humans to live,
they are not to be wasted or treated as valueless. This is a Path which calls for its
followers to have strong morals, humane ideals and emotional stability. In some ways
it is akin to the Path of Golconda. Harmonists oppose the needless taking of life,
though they have no qualms about the taking of blood. They are often highly attuned
to nature and seem the least evil members of the Sabbat.
Path Traits
Protector -Frenzy whenever your pack needlessly kills a mortal. All life is to be
respected, and if you kill all the mortal food, you also destroy yourselves.
Naturalist - Frenzy whenever your pack needlessly destroys the environment.
Dumping cans of gasoline or motor oil into a body of water, burning a forest or nature
preserve or blowing up a building full of mortals are a few such events that set you off.
Drinker - Frenzy whenever your feeding is interrupted. It is the natural order
of things for you to engage in this behavior. Someone or something is disrupting your
contact with your harmonious inner nature. Get ‘em!
Dedication - Frenzy whenever anyone for whom you have a Vinculum rating is
destroyed. You abhor waste and will risk your own life for those to whom you are Bonded.
Failure-Frenzy whenever you fail to achieve a goal. This goal can be as small as feeding
before 10P.M. or as large as capturing a renegade sect member. Anytime you fail at something
important to you, you are disrupting the natural order of things. You hate that!
Path of Honorable Accord
Followers of the Path of Honorable Accord believe in honor as a path to inner discipline.
In order for the sect to operate at maximum potential, members must behave with honor and
bravery. Devotees are fair to those they believe act justly and courageously and are harsh with
the weak and cowardly. Personal honor requires followers of the Path to act generously,
uphold the Sabbat, defend it and their comrades with their lives, and observe the rites and
rituals faithfully. They place the goals and well-being of the sect above their own.
Path Traits
Ritualist - Frenzy whenever anyone refuses to participate in the Vaulderie or
any other Sabbat ritual. They are obviously untrustworthy and disloyal to the sect.
They are the unquestionable target of your wrath.
Deception-Frenzy whenever you discover a fellow Sabbat lying to you (or whenever
you discover that one has done so in the past). You expect lies from the infidels, but one
of your own? You must teach them to be honorable if it’s the last thing you do!
Promise - Frenzy whenever anyone breaks a promise to you, regardless of sect
or species. You value honor above all else and violation of it makes you want to destroy.
Obedience - Frenzy whenever someone disobeys your leader or, if you are the
leader, disobeys you. The Sabbat must act in accordance with itself in order to
successfully win the Jyhad. Disorder is not to be tolerated.
Insult - Frenzy whenever you hear anyone, including sect members, slight,
insult or blatantly show disrespect for the Sabbat. In order to be strong, you must all
stand together. Those who tolerate insults or slights of any kind are cowards unwilling
to defend their honor. Your first target is the person responsible for the insult; your
second target is the person who allowed it to be said!
The Path of Power and the Inner Voice
The original followers of this Path, devotees of Lord Marcus of the Lasombra, are among the
strongest leaders the sect has ever seen. Current followers of thii path are passionately devoted
to the success of the sect - and of themselves. They reflect the sect’s need for power as well as
its desire to create a world free of the Antediluvian threat. Followers of this Path are driven by
instinct and take their own advice over anyone else‘s. They treat their underlings fairly and have
a healthy sense of competition for positions of authority. Most believe they are the best leaders
the sect has ever seen, even if they are not yet in a position of power. Devoted to ambition and
strength, these vampires cannot bear humiliation and will not accept defeat. They will not back
down in a fight if they believe they are right or physically stronger. Rarely do they offer anyone
help without obtaining something in exchange, nor do they easily accept in positions of power
those whom they believe to be weaker or less capable than themselves. However, if devotees
of this Path find a leader whom they can respect, their loyalty will be unfailing.
Path Traits
Underling -Frenzy whenever someone fails at a task you set them. To fail is to
be weak, and only those who are strong will survive. You must punish those who are
weak to teach them to be strong.
Humiliation - Frenzy whenever you lose face in front of a crowd. This can be
either publicly or within your pack. The loss of a Status Trait will invoke this frenzy.
Follower - Frenzy whenever you are forced to follow someone you believe to be
weak or unworthy. If you are a pack leader and a bishop you believe to be incompetent
gives you a direct, obligatory task, the next person who even suggests a plan deserves
to suffer. You can’t take it out on your superior, but behind closed doors, look out!
Interruption - Frenzy whenever anyone interrupts your private contemplation.
You are trying to listen to your Inner Voice, and they are disrupting you. This is one of
the primary foundations of your ethical beliefs. Teach them not to interrupt you again!
Respect - Frenzy whenever you see a leader mistreating a successful underling.
Those who complete their missions should be rewarded well. This Trait will also invoke
frenzy if you see an underling disobey a leader whom you believe to be brave and worthy
of her power. They must learn from the power of their superiors, not disrespect it.
Rules for Using Path Traits
The Sabbat are known to frenzy more than other vampires and have therefore
learned more about how to ride the wave. Whenever a situation occurs where a Path
Trait is invoked, the player must win or tie a Simple Test to see if she can resist tearing
apart the individual or group in question. If the player loses, a second test may be
performed to determine whether or not the character has enough control over her
frenzy to focus on destroying property instead of people. If the second test is won, the
player may attack an object of her choice instead of a person, group, etc. If the initial
test is lost and the second test is also lost, the character must frenzy on the offending
target. All tests involved with Path Traits are optional (Sabbat vampires can frenzy if
they want to). Sabbat vampires may use two Willpower Traits to resist frenzy.
Acquisition of Path Traits
Vampires may only acquire Path Traits which belong to the particular Path they follow.
Each Sabbat vampire Embraced more than a year before the start of game play possesses at
least one Path Trait, acquired when she failed to follow her Path. For example, if a Tzimisce
following the Path of Honorable Accord runs from a fair fight, he should receive a Path
Trait as punishment. Narrators and Storytellers dispense Path Traits at their discretion. A
character with five Path Traits can no longer control himself. His obsession with his Path
drives him completely mad, and he can no longer distinguish between frenzy and normal
conduct. The player must hand over the character to the Narrator or Storyteller.
