Vampire: the Masquerade Houserules
Core Adjustments
XP
Player characters will earn 2 XP at the end of every
session, and 2 XP at the completion of a story. To
compensate, starting XP for both player and non-player
characters based on age will be doubled.
Stains
Characters do not gain Stains from Blood Bonding a
mortal or Embracing a mortal unless it violates a
Chronicle Tenet or Conviction.
Violating a Conviction almost always merits at least
one Stain.
Touchstones
Player characters must have at least one living human
Touchstone.
Player characters can have up to one Touchstone that
is a nonhuman entity, such as an animal or location.
Supernatural creatures, excluding ghouls, can never be
a Touchstone. A Touchstone becoming a supernatural
creature, excluding ghouls, is considered destruction.
Blood Bonding a Touchstone is considered damaging
them.
Clan Adjustments
Gangrel
The Gangrel Clan Bane and Compulsion are instead as
follows:
Bane: Pack Instincts
The Blood of the Gangrel drives you to respond
instinctively to the emotions of other predators.
Whenever another vampire in the scene fails a frenzy
test, the Gangrel must also make a frenzy test of the
same type (fear, fury, or hunger) at a difficulty equal to 1
+ their Bane Severity. This Bane is not triggered by
frenzy tests that were themselves triggered by this
Bane.
Compulsion: Power Struggle
The vampire is overcome by a need for a defined
structure within their pack, and seek to establish it. The
Gangrel must succeed on a contested roll against
someone they see as of roughly equal social standing,
which ends this Compulsion.
All actions taken not in pursuit of this goal suffer a
two-dice penalty until the scene ends.
Hecata
A Hecata character can choose up to one of the Clan’s
Bloodline Discipline variants regardless of their actual
Bloodline, as the families of the Clan of Death have
mixed several times over its long history.
The Hecata Clan Bane is unchanged. The Hecata
Clan Compulsion is instead as follows:
Compulsion: Morbid Anxiety
The vampire is overwhelmed by the myriad ways death
encroaches upon them. The Hecata must get another
character in the scene to directly acknowledge a specific
plausible and fatal threat to their existence, which ends
this Compulsion.
All actions taken not in pursuit of this goal suffer a
three-dice penalty until the scene ends.
Malkavian
The Malkavian Clan Bane and Compulsion are instead
as follows:
Bane: Psychotic Break
The Blood of the Malkavian imparts and depends upon
a warped perspective of reality, and challenging this can
lead to a deluge of despair and self-doubt. Whenever the
Malkavian fails to end a Clan Compulsion before the
end of the scene, they suffer superficial Willpower
damage equal to their Bane Severity.
Compulsion: Affirmation
The vampire is filled with a need for their delusion to be
validated by another. The Malkavian must get another
character in the scene to openly affirm the Malkavian’s
delusion as factual (e.g. that the Moon landing actually
was faked), which ends this Compulsion.
All actions taken not in pursuit of this goal suffer a
three-dice penalty until the scene ends.
Ravnos
The Ravnos Clan Bane, Doomed, now deals aggravated
Health damage equal to their Bane Severity without
rolling any d10s. This Bane applies even if the vampire
is staked, torpored, or otherwise incapacitated.
Duskborn (Thin-blood) Sandman
Duskborn characters receive the following benefits: The Sandman Predator Type no longer grants one dot
of Resources. Instead, it grants one dot of Haven, one
Predator Type dot of Haven (Library, Postern, or Security System), and
Duskborn choose and benefit from a Predator Type at the Creepy Haven Flaw.
character creation. If a Predator Type allows the choice
of a dot of Blood Sorcery, a duskborn may instead
choose a dot of Alchemy.
Discipline Affinity
All duskborn characters receive the Discipline Affinity
merit at character creation without a corresponding
flaw. Their Affinity must be the same Discipline they
receive from their Predator Type, unless that Discipline
is Alchemy.
Thin-blood Alchemist
All duskborn characters receive the Thin-blood
Alchemist merit at character creation without a
corresponding flaw.
Taste for Power
The duskborn ability to gain Discipline dots based on
the Resonance they feed on is no longer innate, but is
now a thin-blood merit called Taste for Power. It is
otherwise unchanged (V5 pg. 113).
Predator Type
Adjustments
Blood Leech
The Blood Leech Predator Type receives the following
modifications for duskborn characters:
Blood Potency
Duskborn do not increase their Blood Potency by one.
Thin-blood Merit
Blood Leech duskborn may choose one of either the
Catening Blood or Vampiric Resilience merits without a
corresponding flaw.
Discipline
Duskborn may choose to gain one dot of Alchemy
instead of Celerity or Protean.
Advantages
Duskborn gain two dots of Haven and one dot of Haven
(Cell).
Flaws
Duskborn do not gain the Dark Secret or Shunned
Flaw.