V5 Vampire Companion

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Today will see the publication of the V5 Vampire Companion. It will be home to rules for V5 Ravnos, Tzimisce, Salubri, ghouls and will also be home to unimaginable levels of malign malignity and malevolence.

I'm just starting a thread on the book early.

[CTPhipps]

We've got good news for those who have been lacking their Tzimisce and Ravnos fixes. Both those Clans and a full write-up for the Salubri are going to be in the V5 companion.

This is going to be a discussion of how you want them done and what pitfalls you hope they avoid.

Carried over from the Modiphius thread.

http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/m...udios-is/page9

[Zennis]

Yes, but there's no reason for the Ravnos to be nomadic. That's not a thing for the Path of Paradox, their flaw, or any part of Clan culture other than the Romani.

GANGREL are nomadic and that's weird by itself.

Basically, any revision to the Ravnos should begin with, "Do not include anything the Gangrel already do."

We don't need Alt-Gangrel anymore than we need Alt-Ventrue or Tremere.

I'm probably alone but I think of the Ravnos Issue "solved" by Ravnos Revised. The same way Assamite Revised solved the Assamite Issue. Attempts to make the Ravnos an ethnically diverse group of travelers and criminals seems a step back to me.

WHEN you say tremere, do you mean we don't need them at all? because I kind of like the clan of usurpers.

[CTPhipps]

I think you misquoted me.

[Garygeneric]

I'm somewhat dissatisfied with the Tzimisce Discipline changes.

I know I've harped on this before but my opinion is that Auspex is an important facet to the Tzimisce condition, especially when you consider that Tzimisce are the most territorial of clans.. Auspex would allow them to survey their entire domain and their subjects without ever having to leave the safety of their fortified manses. It's the internet of Disciplines. And for a clan founded by supposedly one the greatest seers, it's hard to imagine them without it.

Replacing Auspex with Dominate not only undercuts the mystical Seer archetype, but completely retcons their history and renown as masters of blood bonds. Why would they have spent so much time developing their expertise of the blood when they can simply plod around Dominating everyone like some unimaginative Ventrue?

Just changes the flavor of the clan to something more bland.

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Assuming you have a membership, it is available here;

https://www.worldofdarkness.com/account

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

I like the art and the presentation of the Ravnos and Tzimisce. I am a little ambivalent on the presentation of the Salubri.

[CTPhipps]

YOU MUSN'T OPEN THE PDF!

*The spirit of Saulot is released*

NOOOOOO!



Okay, well now it's okay to open the PDF.

[IllithidActivity]

So what's everyone's take? At a quick glance, here's what I think:

I like the Ravnos, I expected the whole "trickster" angle to play up and while I think it somewhat steps on the Malkavian's toes as jester it might also dissuade Fishmalks and push Malks back into Oracle territory. The Bane seems super annoying, but the disciplines are fun to use both on their own and via Chimerstry. Since Chimerstry requires high Presence I think the two will complement each other well. Oddly, Fata Morgana doesn't require Chimerstry as a prereq so you could feasibly not take Chimerstry at all and just use Fata Morgana at higher levels.

Salubri I'm not crazy about, mostly because of the lore of them being super special no matter what. It feels like you could never play one without having some Grand Design in play, which I would like the option not to have. The healing-type Discipline powers are interesting but mechanically kind of clunky, very clearly limited because otherwise they'd be broken, and end up using up a lot of your Discipline options so you can't build very freely. I'm glad I was never expecting these, or I'd probably be disappointed.

Tzimisce I'm so-so about. I like them as being avaricious dragons, but I feel like they've lost some of the "old country nobility" style that they used to have. I think the Bane of being surrounded by something thematically important to them is very interesting, it's more versatile than just grave dirt and gives an option for character customization like a Ventrue's feeding preference. I think a lot of people will be disappointed by how underpowered Vicissitude is but I'm happy because it was obviously OVERpowered in previous editions. Giving it a finite resource in the form of physical ability dots and also making it healable (albeit difficult, but possible) really stops Vicissitude from being the ridiculousness that it was previously. As per the Tzimisce homebrew discussions had here I do agree that Dominate feels bad on a Tzimisce since so much of their legacy has been about commanding fear and respect due to what they can do, and not by breaking someone's will supernaturally. If Tzimisce had been Animalism, Auspex, and Protean with all the Viscissitude powers being Protean/Auspex amalgams I think it would have been ideal.

I do really love the One with the Land power for both Tzimisce and Gangrel.

I think the Clan Coterie Merits are extremely flavorful and fun, even if some are clearly better than others. I'm a sucker for reliable once-per-session abilities.

Having rules for playing a mortal or ghoul is definitely good just to cover bases, even though I think they probably shouldn't BE played. But it'll definitely be helpful to flesh out custom SPCs at least, and for anyone who insists that they do want to play a mortal.

As for Errata, let's see. Everyone gets a boost to Blood Surge, which is nice since I think it's often underappreciated. Bane Severity is also stronger now, which makes some things that could normally be largely ignored suddenly more critical to pay attention to. Lingering Kiss is back to I think the first version of its errata? I wasn't sure where that ended up. While disappointing, I agree that granting 2 dice to any category of pools was too strong for what it should have been, so limiting it to Social only and reducing the duration is fine. Better than the original.

[Vamps Like Us]

It seems Salubri are now Sabbat Ventrue.

I'll read it later but seems like losing the normal Dominate functions will be painful.

Ravnos using Obfuscate seems obvious but also a loss for certain play styles.

Tzimice losing Protean seems the least detrimental. I'm most looking forward to seeing how Vicissitude works in volume 5.

[AkatsukiLeader13]

Read the three 'Clan' write-ups so far and my thoughts on them...

Ravnos: For the most I like it but I am ambivalent on their Bane. Though I admit I do like that they take the time to explain it and that Ravnos could actually stay in a city rather always moving. However the Clan Compulsion does make up for it as it feels both in-line with the old Clan Flaw and their state in a post-Week of Nightmares world.

Salubri: Of the three, these are the most disappointing for me. It feels like the same old, same old without anything new or interesting being added. The one new thing, their new Bane, feels like something that will rarely ever come up as it's now that their Blood is especially tasty and Kindred could become overwhelmed in drinking from them.

Tzimisce: Pretty much everything I was hoping for with them. They have continued the trend from Anarchs Unbound in making the Clan more than just the Sabbat which had long been one of my biggest complaints about the Tzimisce. But then given the state of the Sabbat in V5 that's unsurprising. I like their new Bane, a refinement on their original where instead of sleeping in their 'native' soil (which is still possible for individual Tzimisce), they must rest in places that have significance to them on some level. This could be a physical location, among a certain kind of people or an organization or even more esoteric things.

It's just a question as to how they handle Vicissitude, which is the next chapter.

There's also write-ups on the Szlachta and Vozhd of the Tzimisce but nothing particularly noteworthy about those pages.

Oh and on a sidenote, I find the character art in this chapter as one of my personal complaints about the initial V5 books was the often terrible character art, especially in the Rulebook and it's Clan write-ups. Also, one artist clearly likes Peaky Blinders.

[adambeyoncelowe]

Yeah, it's so-so. I like the clans. The Tzimisce seem a bit too focused now, but it's a neat twist. The Salubri are still the same but their new flaw is strange, to say the least. The Ravnos flaw is interesting.

The errata was short. I was expecting more. The ghouls are good, though that first picture of a szlachta is a bit B-movie. The vozhd makes up for it, though!

[CTPhipps]

Merged these two threads.

[AkatsukiLeader13]

Yeah, I too must chime in on the whole replacing Auspex with Dominate, especially with Vicissitude being a combo-Discipline with Dominate instead of a branch of Protean. I have ask, what was the thought process behind that? I could see an argument for Vicissitude being Protean/Auspex with the whole Metamorphosist angle of the Clan and the mystical aspect of Auspex. At most, I could see is using their mind to dominate their flesh or that of others.

[Garygeneric]

Yeah, I too must chime in on the whole replacing Auspex with Dominate, especially with Vicissitude being a combo-Discipline with Dominate instead of a branch of Protean. I have ask, what was the thought process behind that? I could see an argument for Vicissitude being Protean/Auspex with the whole Metamorphosist angle of the Clan and the mystical aspect of Auspex. At most, I could see is using their mind to dominate their flesh or that of others.

Tzimisce spent millennia cultivating a legacy of fear and a mastery of blood bonds. They have no need for Dominate. In fact, Dominate feels counter-intuitive.

Otherworldly insight, preternatural senses and psychic projections, however, feel very much in keeping with the “know it all” feel of the clan, especially for the more notoriously territorial ones. Auspex will always be in-clan for Tzimisce at my tables...

[Pleiades]

Merged these two threads.

the other thread got nuked

[JRRParker]

Overall very impressed with this, especially given the price.

Love the new clan banes and compulsions, love the clan based coterie merits, ghoul and mortal merits and flaws, and the errata. Two things stood out that I found puzzling:

As with others, I'm a bit of two minds on Tzimisce and Dominate. This decision seemed more about differentiating them from the other clans in this companion, and heavily reinforcing their thematic focus than on maintaining what they have been in the past lore of the game. I love the discipline powers and think Viccissitude is handeled extremely well, but I may swap Auspex for Dominate both as a clan spec and the discipline prerequisite.

The other point I found odd was that mortals and ghouls were given the same attribute spread as vampires, which was not the case in prior editions nor really in keeping with the mortals present within the backgrounds of the core rulebook. Given that this makes for a somewhat more level field of play for mixed stories, I'm not sure I like that for extended play, even though it's what I did for my group's embrace session.

What do you all think of the mortals and ghouls section?

[Dwight]

the other thread got nuked

Click the link in the second post of this thread.

Well I like most of it, but I can already hear the complaints about the ravnos bane from some corners of the internet