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

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mind’s chapter eye three: theatre: special requiem rules and systems
The Traditions
According to numerous Kindred legends, three laws have governed the Damned since their
fi rst nights: that they should hide from mortals, that they should not sire any childer, and
that they should not slay each other to consume the souls of the fallen. The Kindred break
all three laws, but they fi nd that the metaphysical limitations governing them are not easily
fl outed. Meanwhile, players learn that each Tradition has a tangible effect within the game.
THE TRADITION OF MASQUERADE
The Tradition of Masquerade, sometimes known as the Tradition of Secrecy, commands the
Kindred not to reveal their presence to mortals. Clearly, Kindred walk among mortals every
night, but the Masquerade defends itself in a subtle way. Indeed, the Kindred discovered the
full implications of this Tradition in recent nights. What they once took to be a self-defeating
curse upon them now stands revealed as a blessing granted millennia in advance. Of course,
any blessing on the Damned carries its own price.
The Kindred appear as blurry images in mirrors, photographs, video monitors and other media
that capture or transmit visual images. This mystic distortion protects the identity of individual
Kindred. As security cameras become more common, the odds increase that a camera will capture
the image of a vampire feeding, committing some other crime, surviving a gunshot that would
slay a mortal, or using a Discipline to perform some impossible feat. Anyone who looks at a
photograph or camera image might tell that something strange, criminal or impossible has taken
place, but they cannot identify the Kindred in question. Without a person to attach to the deed,
the distorted image becomes just one more insoluble mystery in a mysterious world.
In some ways, this blurring endangers the Masquerade. Kindred need to stay away from large
mirrors, lest mortals notice the one distorted refl ection. Canny witch-hunters have identifi ed vampires
by glancing back and forth from the people around them to a small mirror hidden in hand.
A security guard watching a monitor might be puzzled by why one person looks like a blur when
everyone else shows up crisp and clear. Characters walking around with a portable video camera,
trying to spot hidden or otherwise masked characters will fail: even if the recording eventually shows
a blurred shape, the onlooker’s mind will still be fooled – even if a minor delay is built-in.
A Kindred can turn off this blurring effect for a scene by expending a Willpower point. With
regard to lasting media, such as video tapes, photographs and digital fi lm footage, spending a
Willpower point allows a vampire’s image to remain intact on that media for a number of days
equal to 11 minus the Kindred’s Blood Potency. A player may choose to spend a Willpower
dot on behalf of the character when she is photographed (or fi lmed) to make that particular
image permanent. As such, with an effort of will, a Kindred can have a photographic identifi
cation or “prove” to a vampire-hunter that of course she’s not a vampire — she shows up
in photographs just like anyone else! Although new and inventive means of visual recording
may appear, the magic blurring effect will continue to exist on them as well.
The strange occlusion that occurs to vampire images does not apply to voice recordings.
Kindred voices are recorded normally, without the expenditure of Willpower.
THE TRADITION OF PROGENY
The Tradition of Progeny commands the Kindred not to curse any other mortals with
undeath. Here, surely, the Kindred have most egregiously disobeyed whatever unholy force
has spawned them.