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

chapter one: creating society of a the discipline damned 373
We recommend that any new weakness include some aspect that you can objectively represent
through a draw or some other game mechanic. Good players roleplay their characters’
weaknesses, but a well-designed weakness does not depend entirely on the player’s willingness
to roleplay or the Storyteller’s fi at for when it affects the character. Arguing slows down
your story and usually isn’t much fun. Make sure that player and Storyteller agree when the
weakness affects the character, how it affects the character and what the character can do to
resist or compensate for its effects.
Creating a Discipline
New Disciplines, like bloodlines, don’t appear from nowhere for no reason. Just as with
bloodlines, give thought to both the origin of the Discipline and what role you want it to
play in your chronicle. Sure, every exotic Discipline is a mystery, an opportunity and a threat
to all the Kindred who don’t have it and who don’t know what it can do. What sort of an
opportunity or threat do you want the Discipline to present?
When you invent a new Discipline, however, try to think of different ways to apply its powers
and what implications it holds for other Kindred and your chronicle. What at fi rst seems like
just a cool trick might actually prompt many Kindred to change their nightly unlife.
PROPRIETARY KNOWLEDGE
Unique Disciplines are impossible for anyone to learn unless they belong to the
bloodlines that created them.
In some cases, similar Disciplines arise among different bloodlines. Even the
“common” Disciplines might manifest a similarity among certain bloodlines. A snakethemed
lineage might speak with a forked tongue whenever it uses its powers of
Dominate, for example, while members of a bloodline renowned for divinatory abilities
might lapse into an oracular, trance-like state when they put their Auspex powers to
use. Players should feel free to make a certain aspect of the “common” Disciplines a
signature of their own bloodlines, if they so wish.
NOT-REALLY-NEW DISCIPLINES
Some “new” Disciplines are not really new or unique to a bloodline. A Discipline
might have existed for millennia but remained little known because no surviving
lineage carried it. When a bloodline that favors the Discipline grows in number,
however, other Kindred have a better chance of seeing the Discipline. By the same
token, not every new Discipline needs a bloodline to practice it. If you think that a
particular Discipline would improve your game and your stories, bring whispers of it
into your chronicle. You don’t have to invent a bloodline if you don’t want to — let
the tales of the Discipline carry the mystery. You can invent the bloodline later as
rumors of the Discipline circulate, or you can use them as very effective red herrings.
Don’t overdo it, though. Too much abuse of rumor without enough to substantiate
it can make players feel misled, and it smacks of smoke and mirrors rather than
good plot design.
ORIGIN STORIES
New Disciplines appear along with new bloodlines, so the stories of their origins usually bear
some connection. A curse or contamination from some other supernatural race can provide
the stimulus for a new Discipline as well as a bloodline. The effort to invent a Discipline might