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

chapter one: sample society derangements
of the damned 275
Effect: Any attempt to use Disciplines or expend Vitae without that object reduces any test
pools for an activity by three.
Sanguinary Animism (mild only): Only Kindred can suffer from this special derangement.
This delusion grows out of a vampire’s fundamental awareness of guilt about feeding
on mortals. Kindred with this delusion believe that they take part of victims’ minds or souls
along with their blood. For hours after feeding, the Kindred hears a victim’s voice in his head,
berating him, begging for mercy or making demands. The vampire even experiences ersatz
memories from his victim’s life, all concocted by the vampire’s unconscious mind, but seeming
very real. Weak-willed or especially guilt-stricken Kindred might even carry out actions on
behalf of their victims. Whenever a sanguinary animist feeds on a mortal, the player makes
an Intelligence + Composure draw. If the draw succeeds, the imaginary voice and memories
of the victim torment the character for the rest of the night but the character can function
adequately. If the draw fails, the images in the character’s mind are so strong that the other
personality can infl uence the vampire’s actions. The angry victim-personality usually means
to harm the character, but the vampire might silence the victim’s voice by doing something
he imagines the victim would like. If the player cannot roleplay the possessing victim’s personality,
control of the character can pass to the Storytelling staff for short times. Control
automatically reverts to the vampire just before dawn.
For all the anguish that sanguinary animism causes, it illustrates how derangements work
(badly) to relieve guilt and stress. As long as the victim’s voice continues, she isn’t really dead
— or so it seems — while the vampire supplies her own punishment.
Effect: Sanguinary animism becomes particularly severe when a vampire kills his vessel.
In this case, the Intelligence + Composure draw suffers a -3 penalty. A failure on a chance
draw means that the ersatz personality of the victim becomes a permanent fi xture in the
vampire’s mind. Under stress, the victim’s voice becomes more insistent. The Kindred might
distractedly respond aloud to the voices in his head. Further shocks could drive the vampire
into multiple-personality disorder, with the Kindred taking on the fantasized personalities of
victims. Diablerie is an especially bad idea for sufferers of this derangement!
Schizophrenia (severe; extreme; follows Vocalization): Schizophrenia is the most severe
of all derangements. This mental illness includes hallucinations, delusions, radical mood
swings, manic or obsessive babbling on certain themes, and outbursts of violence. The victim
constantly hears strange hums, roars or voices in his head. People on TV or passing by seem
to look at and threaten him. Delusions of grandeur are common: The schizophrenic thinks
he’s Jesus, Napoleon (no, really, it happens) or the president.
Unlike most lesser derangements, schizophrenia has a proven organic cause, an imbalance
of brain chemistry that drugs can treat in mortals. Stress also plays a role in sending a latent
schizophrenic over the edge, though, and mortals need both drugs and psychotherapy to
recover from the disease (if they can at all).
Schizophrenia presents a formidable roleplaying challenge. The player must decide on a
general set of delusions, hallucinations and behaviors that relate to the trauma that causes the
derangement. The Storyteller, meanwhile, should prepare to include hallucinatory details in
her scenes and any descriptions given to the player, and possibly even enlist the other players
to help as well. The character doesn’t know what’s real, so the player shouldn’t either. The
player can probably guess that when the TV weatherman looks at the character and says,
“Your sire wants to kill you. You have to kill him fi rst,” that isn’t real. When he waits at a bus
stop and another character pulls a dagger from under a coat, however…
Effect: A character with this derangement is unpredictable and dangerous. His player automatically
suffers a -2 penalty on all Social draws, and he might be aggressive or violent toward