#vtr

[thecupsmith]

[crownedinmarigolds]

He's there... 🎶

@lgbtmi commissioned me to draw their character Addison applying makeup at the theater while the visage of her sire looks on... very Phantom of Opera. :3

[contac]

[relleytrots]

On Humanity, Tenets and Convictions

The V5 corebook does an appalling job of explaining how these mechanics fit together and what they represent; I don't think even the Players' Guide really hits it in the terms that are needed. I don't want to jack the excellent post by @vixensdungeon but nevertheless, the urge to explain things on Tumblr dot Com, the App and Website, is very strong in me this morning.

Humanity itself is objective. Each notch on the scale has defined, concrete mechanical impact on what the character can and cannot do, and these are consistent no matter what the character thinks or believes or feels, and these are universally applicable, no matter who your character and my character and her character might be. At one end of the scale your character is Literally Unplayable; at the other, they are more human than most humans, certainly than most RPG protagonists, and might as well be unplayable considering the role of the TTRPG as societally unacceptable behaviour simulator (cf. Power Kill, as usual).

Tenets are subjective but shared. They are the ethical rules on which our story operates: the things that we have agreed should provoke a moral crisis in our vampire protagonists. For Humanity loss to occur, you need these cues and triggers, these "thou shalt not" rules, and for that central fact of the game - that unlife isn't life and living it makes you less of a person - to come up in play, they need to be rules your character is going to break.

Without Tenets you have no idea what makes Humanity vulnerable and precious and worth saving; there are not many universal, objective, "doing this always gives you a Stain" rules in V5. You have to do the work here. The game needs you to decide what's horrific in order for its personal and political horror to exist at all. You cannot skip this. You cannot rely on a universal morality that isn't there and isn't shared to dictate Humanity loss. The game needs you to think about these things.

Convictions are subjective, and entirely personal. They are the "but thou must!" imperatives which allow your character (and only your character) to justify breaking the Tenets and retain a grip on their Humanity. They create the opportunity for your character to resolve their moral and ethical qualms in their own favour every so often; to stop the process of play being a nihilistic rush down the Humanity scale. VtM works if you all speedrun down to Humanity 4 and act like the usual "chaotic evil until proven otherwise" TTRPG protagonists but it aspires to make you think and feel things about that and the rules are set up to demand you meet that aspiration.

If you want a vampire game where the state of being a vampire isn't a moral issue, can I recommend Vampire: the Requiem Second Edition? A game with an objective, universal definition of Humanity and the threats to it as "experiences that remind you you are not a human being any more," and the more fundamental that reality check is, the less likely it is a character will retain Humanity when confronted with it? It's extremely tidy and doesn't demand that you establish and interrogate any of your own principles. It's not moral "degeneration," it's experiential "detachment," and that hits very differently.

Also, none of this is to do with Lines and Veils. Tenets are rules you want your characters to break. They are the substance of your morality play. They will come up in play and they will do so often. Lines and Veils are rules about what you as a player do not want to have to experience at the gaming table and they are not supposed to come up/be directly narrated. One of these things is part of a core gameplay function and one is a safety tool. Know the difference.

[kentuckycaverats]

we talk a lot about sires ofc but i wanna hear about your vtm/vtr ocs' childer (by blood or adoptive). why'd they choose to embrace them or take them in? what did/do they see in them? gimme the juice

[tadpole-apocalypse]

Approaching our 7 year anniversary playing our (mostly) weekly vampire the requiem campaign. Reposting some of my favorite illustrations over the years 🤲

[scorpio-system]

Guerilla de [Las Marianas] ███████ Guzman-Perez

Soraya María^

[dice-wizard]

I love VtM/VtR fans so much. You're one watch of a really excellent martial arts film away from being an Exalted fan.

[awakenedsalamander]

Here’s some Chronicles of Darkness thoughts for you.

So, Vampire: The Requiem (particularly in its first edition) gets a lot of flak for being kind of a watered down Vampire: The Masquerade. Whereas the other Chronicles of Darkness games really do reimagine their concepts— I mean, compare both Changeling games some time— Requiem struggles more to differentiate itself from its older sibling.

However, its second edition makes a really cool change, in my opinion.

So one of the defending aspects of Masquerade is, well, the Masquerade. Not just the notion that the supernatural hides from the mortal and mundane— that’s standard urban fantasy/horror. No, in Masquerade, that hiding is given focus as a delicate, brutal conspiracy. Part of the identity of that game is how perilous the position of the Kindred is, and how they are just beneath mortal scrutiny they are. It’s why it’s the name of the game.

Requiem… plays it a little differently, at least in 2E. They still have the Masquerade, they even still call it that, but it works in a really interesting way. See, one of the themes of Requiem is just how inhuman vampires are— and that’s a theme in Masquerade, too, but in VTM the focus is on monstrousness by way of immortality.

To lose your Humanity stat in Masquerade, you normally have to behave with deliberately cruelty, or at least reckless negligence, toward the wellbeing of others. Your Hunger makes you a monster, because it drives you to evil. It’s good stuff, I’ve written about it before!

But in Requiem, one of the ways you can lose Humanity is through— and this is a quote— “Surviving something that would hospitalize a human.” The reason being, well, humans can’t do that, not normally. But a vampire? Well, it can be hit by a truck, beaten and stabbed, hell, even shot in the head, and can walk it all off, with a bit of luck. Requiem takes the stance that, cool as that might be, it isn’t *human* in any sense. A lot of the ways you can lose Humanity in Requiem really do revolve around being inhuman in the most literal sense, in addition to being inhumane.

So what does that have to do with the Masquerade?

Well, here’s the thing about monsters: People are scared of them.

We love them too, sure. They’re enthralling, they’re fascinating, they’re impressive. That’s how the vampire lures you in. But when it wants you to go away? That’s what fear is for.

The Masquerade in Requiem is not a network of elders conspiring to silence mortal media institutions. It doesn’t need to be. All it has to be is the hesitance to knock on the apartment door of that sketchy neighbor during daylight hours, the impulse to rush home rather than linger when walking by that alley, the refusal to speak about what could be seen out of the bus window last night, if you looked closely enough.

To quote the book:

This is not about vampires needing to quake and hide, but about the fear humans have of what is hidden from them — just past the truth of Santa Claus and all the horrible adult revelations — the fear that if they shake even the most mundane structure, crawling things will fall out.

(V:TR 2E, p. 60, emphasis mine.)

And well, as much as I love the labyrinthine plots and schemes of VTM, something about VTR’s notion of what hiding from mortals really is sticks with me.

I’ve never really felt like some shadowy vampire puppet master is pulling strings to keep me from finding out about him, you know?But that there might be something horrible down there in the dark, that sends me racing up the stairs, even though I should know better… That I’ve felt.

[romeofantome]

Made up a guy for a future Vampire The Requiem campaign, i have evolved from making up ocs inwant to fuck, to ocs i want to drown in a bathtub

[thewoods-have-eyes]

My guy literally has one hobby and that is posing in front of lightning

Anywhow heres the finished piece of the wip i posted a few days ago

[48glowsquids]

Still insane about them.

[crownedinmarigolds]

This is the masterpost for all of 2025's VTM/WOD Community collab pieces! I will add on as the year progresses! (Gonna stick to rainbow once again because I love rainbows.) Toreador Valentine's Day! Kindred Hooters for April Fool's! Tremere Hot Girl Summer!

The artists listed below the cut, each wonderful and gorgeous and appreciated beyond measure!

Toreador Valentine's Day: Uriel - @salems-lots Penelope "Pep" Valentino - @confusedwithglitter Solaire - @problemsynth Kitty Reed - @aj8ee Quincy - @wurmholz Morgan Gray - @veepadeep Professor Lav - drawn by @salubri-outcast, found here @professor-faepire Ms Celosia - @wizzsp Lorin and Thana - @squiretinnion Miss Kitty - @naughty-elf-fun Felicia - @renaissancebadboy Baby - salem-lots Celestino Salazar - my boy! Willow - @lgbtmi Carmichael Lee - drawn by myself, belongs to @thesixthplaneteer Isaac - @bigswordenergy Avery Yoon - @casuallycryptidcider Dalia De Mondellis - @cynical-tuba M.F. - @demonbones Aliyah - @ltadoriyuujl Deekz, Roy, Lucian, and Freddie - squiretinnion Nicky - @dykeferatu Angel - @totally-a-tzimisce Reina Kerrigan - @ventruevitae Malachi - @faithstark11 Sophie and Melinda - @scribesofcalamity

Kindred Hooters: Freddie Matthews - @popecreature Squire - @demonbones Amra - @squiretinnion Sid - @horrorlocks Lux - @ipsey Iggy and Jaden - @garygoldenbignaturals Łukasz Wiśniewski - @casuallycryptidcider Camila - @wurmholz Asclepius, Dawson and Fred - @salubri-outcast Enoch - @rtby Gretchen Grim - @mortifying-macaroni Marion Welles - @minnarr Renner - @naughty-elf-fun Alois - @worldofblueness Lyre - my girl! Clive - art by myself, @thesixthplaneteer Capability - @cynical-tuba Vilhjalmr - @tzimizce (Hee hee a HOOTER indeed!) Godwynn - art by myself, thesixthplaneteer Tosk - @reckless-drivers-pack Soledad - @aztarion Jesse Steele - art by myself, @deathandthesoul Breaghan - @anarchswild Taeho - @dykeferatu Khaleel - @holly-bearie Malachi and Thorne - @anarchswild Angus - @sneedy Rasmus - @salems-lots Twilight - @knight-tinnion Blair - salems-lots Melinda and Sophie - @scribesofcalamity Nettie - squiretinnion Aurik - @vladimirsangel Rosale - @angelmachinery Zippy - salubri-outcast Irene and Madi - @vampemoqueen Isaac and Sasha - @bigswordenergy Willis by @deadbirds-and-daydreams Eva by @kavalyera Florence du Bois by @casuallycryptidcider Iggy by @garygoldenbignaturals Zev by @stygianbluetentacles Layfi by @meatfagart Hikari and Evelyn by @yetmisbes Emmeline and Kai by @medeaft Lazarus by @endymion-in-stasis Sebastian - art by myself, belongs to @thesixthplaneteer Sasha by stygianbluetentacles Atticus and Lyubov by myself Gretchen Grim by @mortifying-macaroni Deacon and Brielle by @squiretinnion Chloe by @vandalblood Samantha by @hamingo Billy by @holly-bearie Beau by @clompe Rose and Anthony by @arsonkuma Wilma and Mildred by @cynical-tuba Hassan and Ender by @salems-lots Vermillion and Sammy by @wurmholz Fred the Gargoyle by @salubri-outcast

[teallinum]

Vampire council I drew for our amazing DM's birthday

Julio (Nosferatu), Marco (the Prince, Gangrel), Roberto Sangiri (Ventrue)

[my carrd] [support me on patreon][my discord server]

[cyberturbine]

VTR Ventrue OC, Knyazev Nestor Nikolaevich

[lgbtmi]

↖ sleepy but full of vampire thoughts