Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire The Requiem.pdf - RoseRed

dominate
Subjects of Conditioning are oblivious to the process being infl icted upon them unless
they also possess the power. The Storyteller may allow a victim or someone close to him a
Wits + Occult draw to recognize that something is wrong. If the draw fails, the process may
continue unaffected. If the draw succeeds, an effort may be made to interrupt the process.
If the Conditioning vampire is particularly careful about how suggestions and messages are
conveyed, the Wits + Occult draw might suffer a -1 penalty. Interrupting the process could
mean fl eeing the vampire or restraining the subject from meeting the vampire before all the
required successes are accumulated.
It is possible, albeit extremely diffi cult, to break a subject’s Conditioning after the required
successes are gathered. If the victim is completely isolated from her master for a number of
weeks equal to twice the master’s current Conditioning-granted bonus, the bonus drops
by one. For example, a subject has been Conditioned for a long time, and her master has
achieved a bonus of +4 to Dominate her. If she is kept completely isolated from her master
for eight weeks, the bonus drops to +3. Six more weeks, and it drops to +2, and so forth.
The subject’s own personality and creativity slowly reawakens during this period, though she
still experiences periods of listlessness, depression and desperation. For at least the fi rst few
weeks, the subject most likely makes every attempt to return to her master. Until the subject
is completely free, it is horrifyingly easy for the vampire to reassert his dominance, as he likely
has at least some bonus to Dominate the individual for a long while. The Storyteller may
adjust these times to refl ect the regularity of chapters.
If the subject of Conditioning is also the thrall of the vampire, all successes on a Conditioning
draw are doubled. So, if a vampire seeks to Condition his own ghoul, and he gets
three successes to her two in one draw to program the subject, he actually accumulates six
successes in that Conditioning session.
If this power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (see p. 228), a +2
bonus applies.
Turning minor extras into zombie-like minions is one thing, but many players will become
extremely disheartened if this power is used on their characters, fi nding this blank state a tedious
chore to roleplay. Therefore, with the consent of their Storyteller, the Dominate user may choose
not to turn players’ characters and important Narrator characters into zombie-like automatons;
rather, they become “Manchurian candidates,” who think and act normally in every way - unless
they are directly carrying out an order issued by their master. At those times, they do not become
emotionless automatons, but instead gain some measure of the master’s personality, quirks or
mannerisms. For each bonus point the master has accumulated on Dominate attempts, the victim
picks up one of her master’s notable quirks or habits, which is then actively roleplayed whenever
the master issue a direct order to the victim. Prominent behavioral habits to mirror include accents,
vocabulary, favorite expressions, distinctive laughs, common gestures, body posture, nervous habits
(biting one’s nails), etc. Long-term servants or those carrying out lengthy commands may even
unconsciously start to dress or act like the character. Indeed, heavily Conditioned targets appear
almost like eerie refl ections of their master when carrying out applicable commands, especially to
anyone familiar with the controlling Kindred. If a master does not have many distinctive habits,
the Storyteller may instead allow a victim to heighten the portrayal of one or two existing ones
by degrees for each bonus point. Thus, if the only really notable quirk a Kindred has is biting his
nails, at a +1 bonus the target might only absently chew on them during applicable scenes, but if
the master Conditions his target up to a +4 bonus, the target might bite her nails savagely right
down to the quick, even if the master does not take that behavior so far himself.
It is important to note that the victim is not any more aware of these habits than she would
be of any other Conditioning effects, and will typically dismiss them as momentary fancies
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