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[Mech#4]

Paradox has been having some short videos to introduce aspects of the Vampire: The Masquerade setting. They don't give any detail on gameplay elements but they're fun enough for a watch.
Their website also gives a list of associated disciplines and other details. I'll list them beneath the relevent clan.

Clan Introduction: Thinbloods.
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Spoiler:  Further Detail: Thinbloods (click to show/hide)

Overview:
Despite being permitted in the city, many thinbloods don’t survive very long. With little understanding of what they are or the rules of Kindred society, they face a struggle to simply exist in a city carved up by established political factions. Many are killed when they pose a threat to the Masquerade. A few find work as grunts and runners for the less scrupulous denizens of Seattle. It’s not unheard of for a thinblood to gain enough respect to earn a more prominent role in a faction, but they are rarely shown the same respect or legal standing a full-blood clan member enjoys. It’s a hard, short life for most thinbloods in Seattle, but it’s also a city of opportunity for the few that can navigate their way into the higher circles of vampire society.[/url]

Disciplines:

Chiropteran:
This Thinblood discipline calls on the vampire’s strong affinity to bats, allowing her to move through the air and summon swarms.

Chiropteran: Glide
(Blood Cost: 1) is Chiropteran’s first active power, and can be enhanced by investing in the • • slot. Glide greatly lowers the weight of the vampire’s skeleton and muscle mass to allow them to float on updrafts, reaching otherwise inaccessible areas. In the air, the vampire can swoop into NPC to knock them down, pounce on enemies far below, or use the height advantage to rain down Disciplines from afar.

Chiropteran: Swarm
(Blood Cost: 2), the second active power, allows the vampire to summon a small swarm of bats to attack a target NPC, temporarily disabling them and dealing low damage. The • • • • and • • • • • slots grow this power, until a true Maelstrom of leathery wings surrounds the vampire, harrying and damaging any enemy who dares come too close.

Mentalism:
This Thinblood discipline allows the vampire to manipulate objects through telekinesis - allowing them to even pull weapons from enemies’ hands.

Mentalism: Pull
(Blood Cost: 0/1, target dependent) is Mentalism’s first active. It allows the vampire to manipulate inanimate objects from afar - whether that’s an inconvenient obstacle, or the knife in the hands of the NPC bearing down on them. The • • slot upgrades Pull even further.

Mentalism: Levitate
(Blood Cost: 2), the second active power, suspends a living NPC in the air. Its strength can be enhanced with the • • • • and • • • • • slots, until the vampire can levitate everyone and everything in an area, and throw suspended enemies around like ragdolls.

Nebulation:
This Thinblood discipline allow the vampire to call on her affinity to mist, allowing her to summon and command it.

Nebulation: Mist Shroud
(Blood Cost: 2), Nebulation’s first active power, envelops the vampire with mist for a short time, muffling footsteps and making them slightly harder to notice. In addition, the vampire can partially transform into mist for one invocation to either perform a choking attack on an NPC, or travel through tight spaces. The • • slot enhances these powers even further.

Nebulation: Envelop
(Blood Cost: 3), the second active, creates a stationary, swirling cloud of mist that surrounds, blinds and forcefully enters the lungs of NPC that touch it. It and Mist Shroud both can be further improved with the • • • • and • • • • • slots.

Clan Introduction: Brujah.
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Spoiler:  Further Detail: Brujah (click to show/hide)

Overview:
Generally, Brujah gather at a “bash”, which can be loosely summed up as a sort of fight club for the undead. They use these events to assert their physical superiority to the rest of the clans and to celebrate the raw power of their bloodline. That’s not to say they don’t invite other clans to enter, but it’s rare that any but the Brujah dominate the bash. The champions of these fights are rumored to make good money hiring themselves out as muscle for anyone who can afford them. Supposedly, business is booming in Seattle these nights…

Disciplines:

Potence:
The signature Discipline of the Brujah imbues their undead bodies with the pinnacle of raw Kindred strength. Nobody underestimates the strength of a Brujah twice.

Potence: Fist of Caine
(Blood Cost: 2), Potence’s first active power, allows the Brujah to deliver a devastating punch that turns walls into rubble and throws enemies through the air, tearing of limbs and causing collateral damage. The • • slot enhances these devastating effects even further.

Potence: Earthshock
(Blood Cost: 2), the second active power, smashes the ground with titanic force. The impact causes a shockwave around the player, damaging and knocking down anyone who dared to stray too close. After further upgrades with the • • • • and • • • • • slots, the ground cracks under the Brujah’s onslaught, sending fissures outwards and damaging anyone caught in this cataclysm.

Use of Potence powers in front of unsuspecting mortals is a Masquerade Violation.

Celerity:
Some Kindred strike faster, dodge quicker, and escape more nimbly than any mortal creature could hope to. They use Celerity, the Discipline of pushing their bodies’ speed beyond all limits.

Celerity: Unseen Storm
(Blood Cost: 2), the first active, allows the vampire to dash in a direction of their choice at such a speed as to momentarily disappear from view, allowing them to land attacks, dodge around enemies, or get away before the dust has time to settle. Characters struck along the way of the dash get knocked down. The • • slot further enhances the Unseen Storm.

Celerity: Accelerate
(Blood Cost: 5), the second active, opens up speeds so fast that everything else in the world appears to slow down to a virtual standstill. Assailants seem frozen in their attacks, cars crawl forward, bullets zip by lazily, and the vampire can get up to the kinds of stunts that, with a popular 80’s synth track in the background, would make an awesome movie scene. The • • • • and • • • • • slots allow the vampire to further improve their acceleration.

If any innocent mortal can spot a use of Celerity, it’s a Masquerade Violation.

[JimboM12]

the brujah image and ability selection is on point, but the thinbloods sound much more like generic caitiff then thinbloods even though the two are sometimes used interchangeably. i thought the point of thinbloods were that the vampiric blood in them is so weak they're basically enhanced humans and caitiff are human looking (as in not nosferatu) vampires who don't know their clan and can't manifest unique clan abilities. i figured thinbloods abilities would be simple and weak but thinbloods would have the ability to endure sunlight and eat food.

still hyping tho

[nenjin]

Game needs and all that. While it would be cool, imagine the effort it would take to make a full day/night division in the game, where player of clan X can only experience the nightside while player of clan  Y can experience both. I at least understand that limitation.

But yeah, they're building up thinbloods like they're their own clan, with their own evolving power set. Like thinbloods get many of the generic vampire abilities, where the actual clans get the more specific and specialized ones. That's definitely not how WoD rolls with Thinbloods. Most thinbloods can't even manifest disciplines.

It's all very confused from a WoD player perspective, and maybe more than a little gamey. Maybe they want this arc that doesn't really exist in the table top, where you go from Thinblood peasant to a prince or something of a clan.

Anyways, those oddities aside, my hype remains.

[Teneb]

From what I heard, you always start as a Thinblood and then can get adopted into a clan later, hence the whole focus on Thinbloods.

[nenjin]

I suppose making a thing of Diablerie as part of the story, or your clan just giving you some of their blood, could be a way to smooth over that detail.

[Mech#4]

I believe a change to Thinbloods in the later editions was that they're not so much weak, barely vampires anymore that they were in VtMB1. Rather they now have their own form of blood magic, disciplines and strengths. I guess this was done to make them more appealing to play as since before they weren't really good for anything other than playing as a human with perhaps slightly higher strength and faster healing.

I suppose you could think of Thinbloods more now as being like Dhampirs or half-vampires like Bloodrayne.

[Sartain]

I believe a change to Thinbloods in the later editions was that they're not so much weak, barely vampires anymore that they were in VtMB1. Rather they now have their own form of blood magic, disciplines and strengths. I guess this was done to make them more appealing to play as since before they weren't really good for anything other than playing as a human with perhaps slightly higher strength and faster healing.

I suppose you could think of Thinbloods more now as being like Dhampirs or half-vampires like Bloodrayne.

As I understand it, that's pretty much it. Thinbloods are lesser vampires but they are still vampires all the same, they're just less powerful and (possibly) more human than the true vampiric bloodlines.

[Retropunch]

From all that I've read (and I've read pretty much all that's out there, as VBtM is my favourite game of all time), they're not making Thinbloods a 'clan' or anything, it's just a default starting position for everyone. Yeah, they've made them slightly stronger than cannon and given them unique abilities (which all vampires get, you just don't get clan ones till you choose) but they've not made them into something separate or a unique clan or anything.

The big issue from a gameplay perspective is that the clans are very different and they're not something that players will innately understand. Everyone knows what a Wizard is when they play an RPG, but fewer would know what a Toreador is. Even if you spelt it all out, most players wouldn't get what it meant other than abilities -  you might think that the Brujah abilities are cool at the character creation screen, but hate their whole 'biker-y' image and dialogue. Making everyone a thin blood first lets them experience the world and make an informed choice.

The reason I imagine they had to give thin bloods abilities is that otherwise some players would find it boring for the first 1-2 hours whilst they weren't using any powers - if they were just 'sort of normal humans but a bit stronger' players would just get confused by what they were doing. The thinblood powers also the 'cool' powers like flight and stuff which they probably don't want to wall off completely. More than that, quite a lot of the clans are focused around 'social' powers, and as such players will need a combat one to play around with too.

I don't think it's a bad idea at all - it breaks off from strict cannon, but it does so to make it much more accessible.

[Cruxador]

Well, it's not exactly a break from canon since they've apparently already changed the canon to match, with the fifth edition book. Clan aspects not transmitting past the thirteenth generation isn't that much of a conceptual leap from things that already existed. Thinblood alchemy, I would imagine, is also something you'll keep when you diablerize your way into a clan. After all, you can apparently go five dots deep into it and it sounds very parallel to existing blood powers. I haven't read the new 5e book, so I don't know the mechanics of that (I haven't paid any attention to Masquerade since the revised edition was newest) but that's sort of how World of Darkness tends to go.

[Mech#4]

Another little video and information has been released, this time about Clan Tremere.

Clan Introduction: Tremere
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Spoiler:  Further Detail: Tremere (click to show/hide)

Overview:
In nights long before Seattle, the Tremere were something else. Back then, as occultists seeking immortality, they found a way to live forever - but not on their own terms. The heavy price they paid bound their magic to blood, with it becoming both the focus of their powers and the cost for using them. The mostly forgotten origin of their curse still colors their interactions with other Kindred, who mistrust them instinctually. History repeats itself for the Tremere, with war, suspicion and grudges marking both their origin and their modern nights.

From YouTube video:
Tremere were not allowed in significant numbers throughout Seattle's history, though that has changed recently. After the fall of the Pyramid, Tremere have sought allies wherever they can find them, offering services and secrets that were once only kept to themselves. At least a few Tremere have managed to settle in the Pacific Northwest. However, not all Kindred in Seattle warmly welcome the warlocks into their city, citing historical precedent and general distrust of their ways. Still, the blood magic of the Tremere cannot be denied as a force to be respected. Whether or not the Tremere are here to stay is another matter entirely…

Disciplies:

Thaumaturgy:
Few secrets are guarded more jealously by the Tremere than their signature Discipline: Blood sorcery. Followers of the Path of Blood gain almost unparalleled destructive power.

Thaumaturgy: Skewer:
(Blood Cost: 3), the first active Thaumaturgy power, launches a small portion of the vampire’s Vitae at the feet of their enemies, where it erupts in a patch of razor-sharp spikes. Once they dissolve, a stream of blood flows back to the caster. The • • slot upgrades Skewer.

Thaumaturgy: Purge:
(Blood Cost: 3), the second active power, allows the vampire to make their victims vomit up blood, damaging them heavily. A stream of blood flows back to the caster. The • • • • and • • • • • slots enhance Purge, until it reaches its ultimate potential.

Thaumaturgy: Blood Boil:
(Blood Cost: 2 x 3). A master of Thaumaturgy may cast Purge for a second time on an affected NPC, causing the blood in their veins to sear. The wretch explodes within moments; bystanders in a large area are damaged. Blood from each victim streams back to the caster.

Use of Thaumaturgy in front of witnesses is a Masquerade Violation.


Auspex:
Nothing stays hidden to those who master the Discipline of Auspex. By expanding their own senses beyond the boundaries of their bodies, these Kindred inch ever closer to their personal idea of perfection.

Auspex: Aura Sense:
(Blood Cost: 2), Auspex’ first active, allows the vampire to spot NPCs even through walls, read crowds at a glance, and mark individuals to keep them in their sights over long distances. It also allows the user to spot the weaknesses in the marked NPC’s attack and defense. The • • and • • • • • slots enhance Aura Sense.

Auspex: Psychic Projection:
(Blood Cost: 2), the second active, detaches the vampire’s mind from their body. Untethered, they can explore the area in astral form, remaining free to use Aura Sight to mark any character they spot. Beyond that, the vampire’s mastery of their own senses has grown to such an extent that they can telepathically overwhelm the senses of others for a short while. The • • • • slot enhances Psychic Projection.

Use of Auspex is not a Masquerade Violation.

Thaumaturgy doesn't seem too different from how it was in the first game, with Purge and Blood Boil. Though this time it seems like Blood Boil is caused by casting Purge twice on the same target at max 5 point level. There's no Blood Strike (a dart struck the target and returned giving a small amount of blood back), instead there's Skewer which is much the same damage wise but all the Thaumaturgy abilities seem to return some blood upon usage.
I was going to say there's no Blood Shield though, while it's not listed, considering how short the list of Disciplines is for Brujah (4 compared to the Thinblood 6 and Tremere 5) these may not be complete lists of disciplines.


Psychic Projection sounds interesting. Being able to scout out areas and mess with NPCs, distracting them so you can get the jump on them or sneak past sound neat. Though that'll be determined more by map layout and the rest of the game.

[Kagus]

Considering this is all happening up in Washington, what do y'all think the likelihood of there being a Twilight easter egg somewhere would be?

[Egan_BW]

Easter egg? More like an entire sparkly-vampire murdering sidequest.

[Mech#4]

The forth clan has been announced, this being Clan Toreador.

Clan Introduction: Toreador
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Spoiler:  Further Detail: Toreador (click to show/hide)

From its music, gardens and parks, and iconic architecture, it would almost appear as though Seattle was shaped by artists. And with good reason - two of Seattle's former Princes were Toreador, and they remain one of the most numerous Kindred in the city. Influencing the political, social, and cultural elite, the Toreador have been well entrenched within Seattle's power structure since its days as a pioneer settlement. One look at the modern landscape of Downtown could paint a different picture - as if the massive cranes reshaping the city represent hands plucking the petals off of the rose. Another music venue gets demolished, a block of cookie-cutter townhouses replaces a mid-century modern home, an eccentric district becomes a family-friendly shadow of itself. You will still find the Toreador on the arms of the influential and on the dance floor of exclusive clubs, but there is a sense that this clan is partying like it's their last.

Obsessed with beauty in all forms, there are those Toreador who would claim that their Clan only chooses the most accomplished artists of each generation - whether they wielded the brush, the pen, their voice, body or mind. It'd only be half a lie. There are true visionaries among the Clan of the Rose, but it also contains its share of one-hit wonders and posers embraced in a moment of fleeting passion. All of them are cursed to spend eternity between the short-lived bliss of true beauty... And the ever-increasing spans of ennui in between. Ever seeking the next surprise, the next experience, the next chance to feel, some Toreador descend into depravity. Others fight grimly to retain the shreds of their humanity, whether by immersing or withdrawing themselves from the mortal world. Among it all, new ideas and trends constantly wash through the Clan, and other Kindred often look to the Toreador to guide them. The Divas know this, and the shrewd among them manage to turn it to their advantage.

A BEAUTIFUL WAY TO DIE

Only fools would mistake the Toreador for shallow hedonists. In truth, the Clan of the Rose is one of the most formidable forces among the Kindred: they’re the clan that creates. Players who choose to join them gain access to two of their rarefied Disciplines on top of the individual powers from their Thinblooded past.

Disciplines:

Presence
Toreador relish in their ability to turn a crowd into an audience, distraction into rapt attention, and aggression into adoration, by just entering the room. Their signature Discipline of Presence is at the root of this supernatural charm.

Presence: Awe:
(Blood Cost: 2), the first active Presence power, allows the vampire to strike a pose that freezes all before them into adoring wonder. For a short while after, these new admirers will be oblivious to anything but what they just saw. The • • and • • • • • slots upgrade Awe.

Presence: Entrance:
(Blood Cost: 2), the second active power, forms a group of admirers around the vampire. For an extended period, these hangers-on will follow wherever the object of their adulation may go, distracting nearby enemies along the way. The • • • • and • • • • • slots upgrade Entrance.

Using Presence powers is not a Masquerade Violation.

Celerity:
Some Kindred are faster, dodge more elegantly, and can move with unimaginable grace. They use Celerity, the Discipline of pushing their bodies’ speed beyond mortal imagination.

Celerity: Unseen Storm:
(Blood Cost: 2), the first active, allows the vampire to dash in any direction at such a speed as to confound their audience. They can land attacks, dodge around enemies, or get away in a lazy dust cloud. Characters struck along the way of the dash get knocked down. The • • slot further enhances the Unseen Storm.

Celerity: Accelerate:
(Blood Cost: 5), the second active, opens up speeds so fast that everything else in the world appears to slow down to a virtual standstill. The crowds seem frozen in their steps, as the vampire dances between cars and bullet streaks. A more gauche clan might wish for a popular 80’s synth track in the background. The • • • • and • • • • • slots allow the vampire to further improve their acceleration.

Showing off Celerity to innocent mortals is a Masquerade Violation.

The Toreador share Celerity with the Brujah. It also mentions that characters will keep the disciplines from being a Thinblood after they choose a clan. I think this was already mentioned but I'll mention it again just in case.

[Hanzoku]

Heh, I appreciate that when you go back and forth between the Brujah and Toreador views on Celerity it shows some of the differences in viewpoint between the two clans.

[JimboM12]

looking legit, toreadors look like clubbers which is totally in character.

im waiting to see malkavians and ventrues. im always a ventrue player, i like the challenge of avoiding easy blood sources.