1001 interesting character ideas

[Bluecho]

249) Malkavian enforcer with police training. Worked as a SWAT officer for years. Not all the homes and buildings they were sent to raid had just criminals, though. On more than one occasion, they tear gassed, terrorized, and gunned down innocent people. Like that time their squad entered the wrong house, and killed a couple in bed, who only opened fire because a bunch of armed men broke in. Or when they personally cracked the skull of some guy playing video games, who had gotten SWAT called on them falsely by another internet user. Or that time they thought a child had a gun (it was, of course, a toy).

All par for the course with the police, and their fellow officers tried to brush it off. The department shielded them from repercussions. But they could never be shielded from the guilt. For the sake of keeping sane, they forced the bad feelings down, putting them in a box. They couldn't afford to break down, not with a family. (Not that they got to see their spouse or children much; work kept them busy, or at least that's what they told them. They'd destroyed one more family in the line of duty to ever feel wholly comfortable at home).

It all came crashing down on the night their squad got a direct order from the mayor's office to storm a run down building. The squad was told it was anarchists strung out on PCP. The mayor's office lied. The building was crawling with, of course, Sabbat vampires. Everyone died...except them.

Apparently, the Malkavian Antitribu who looked like a little girl wanted to "play with her food". She tricked them into a solitary area, and proceeded to psychologically torment them. Using Dementation and Auspex to tease out details of their guilt, then exploit it. With tensions artificially heightened, they broke down completely. Perhaps on whim, or to torment them further, the Malkavian Embraced the cop.

Ever since then, they're haunted by hallucinations of the people they murdered. Ghosts of the past, never letting them forget. They can never go home again. Even if vampirism itself didn't make it a non-option, the visions wouldn't miss a chance to rear their ugly heads. It's only duty to the law - this time the law of the Camarilla - that keeps them from greeting the sun. They deserve to die again for what they did - their perpetual companions remind them constantly - but so do the vampires who abandoned their humanity, and make sport of mortals.

They haven't yet killed an innocent while feeding. They haven't added anyone to the roster of poor souls dogging them. It won't be long, in vampire terms.

[Alucard]

198) A Tremere who was Embraced for her ability as a Natural Linguist, as Hermetics highly value extensive knowledge of various languages. But when the Embrace took, she discovered she had yet another Merit to her name: Magic Resistance. On the upside, it protected her from Thaumaturgy and other magics. On the downside, it prevented her from ever developing skill in blood sorcery of any sort. Given that this is Clan Tremere, it was far more of a bane than a boon. Ensuring that she'd never be able to advance in the Pyramid.

.

Shouldn't a character like this have a third discipline that replaces thaumaturgy then? Perhaps Fortitude due to the Tremere's Salubri ancestors? Obeah would be a much more juicy story hook, but I don't see how the character could possibly prevent the third eye from being discovered and dooming her to being purged.

[Theodrim]

245) A Telyav Tremere who started life as a disgruntled urban botanist...

Actually a bit similar to a Telyav I played recently, so I'll throw in the character archetype too...

250) Felicity was, for any Tremere regardless of lineage or bloodline, an absolute dipshit (primary social, secondary physical, tertiary mental; primary talents, secondary skills, tertiary knowledges). As in, she made her money uploading nude yoga videos and doing livestreams on Patreon/Venmo and OnlyFans, and advertising herself as a life coach and life coach, and actually thinking she's not just uploading wank material. Otherwise, she was whole hog into the new age-y, hippie lifestyle; living off the grid, doing house and community garden shit, dumpster diving, community yoga classes, and the like.

She was also high Humanity (I started with eight), and that was front and center with any interaction she had, so she was "that guy" in terms of being a general buzzkill for other vampires. Having Blush of Health and Sanctity really helped any and all of the above, so she was extra insufferable just to be around if you had fangs. In fact, the entire reason behind her Sanctity was she was simply too stupid, young, naive, and insular to be any real threat to any right-thinking, upstanding vampire and therefore not worth notice.

Her thing was, she was part of an indie coven of Appalachian Telyavs, and sent to the city to keep tabs on some whacky supernatural shit going on and the local Tremere. She didn't use Thaumaturgy that much, and she had Celerity, so she could pass off easily as a Toreador and that was the reason for her Embrace. Nobody would ever suspect a hippie dumbass to be Stealth Tremere.

They would, however, suspect her to be a Malkavian. Because her primary path was Spirit Thaumaturgy, and her first two secondary paths were Neptune's Might and Green Path. She didn't use Thaumaturgy that much, and when she did she was always very careful about it, but her propensity for talking to herself, staring into toilets and fountains, and having conversations with house plants was duly noted. Which actually turned out to be really fucking handy because Elysium in the course of the chronicle was moved to this new urbanist green/blue space with multiple fountains.

She also had a Spirit Mentor in the form of a river spirit, which is where everything tied together neatly. Part of the pact with the river spirit was to help keep the local environment clean, and the downside of it was she had an Arcane Curse to always smell like fresh water and flowers, and she couldn't cross running water. That was where the Humanity came into play, because the pact would be broken if she degenerated or treated spirits the way most other spirit thaumaturges do -- meaning, she couldn't compel spirits to do what she wanted, but had to take the long route fostering Contacts and Allies that are spirits. Not an easy task, but made possible by having at least one local spirit that could vouch for her and her good intent.

The character really came into her own when she discovered pattern spiders in her computer. I had her become instantly enamored by this new type of potential friend, and a few experience points and an online coding boot camp later, I raised her Technology and Computer ratings high enough to figure out how to lure them to her computer and communicate with them -- by coding text and flash games for them to play. At the point I had to stop playing the character (she eventually got found out by the Tremere and had to go on the run) I was close to being able to buy the first dot of Technomancy to complement her other paths.

[Bluecho]

Shouldn't a character like this have a third discipline that replaces thaumaturgy then? Perhaps Fortitude due to the Tremere's Salubri ancestors? Obeah would be a much more juicy story hook, but I don't see how the character could possibly prevent the third eye from being discovered and dooming her to being purged.

The entire point of the character is that her Merit is at cross-purposes with her Clan, both in the sense of her as a vampire and in the organizational sense.

If I wanted her to be a Tremere with Salubri traits, I would have outlined that character. You are free to do that character write-up and post it to this thread, if you want. That's just not what I did.

I would also argue that her being a member of Clan Tremere in good standing, but with no opportunity for advancement, is just as interesting as one that is hiding a secret that would get her killed if revealed. It's a different kind of character arc.

[Theodrim]

I would also argue that her being a member of Clan Tremere in good standing, but with no opportunity for advancement, is just as interesting as one that is hiding a secret that would get her killed if revealed. It's a different kind of character arc.

That in itself is a sticky proposal. Sure, formal advancement in the clan (as in, movement up the Pyramid from apprentice, to regent, lord, pontifex, and councilor) is predicated upon thaumaturgical expertise, but thaumaturgical expertise alone doesn't make the Tremere. Least of all when it comes to that thaumaturgical expertise takes decades and centuries to build, and Tremere who focus exclusively on that are heavily reliant on support networks for having neglected other aspects of personal development. Tremere do embrace from non-occultists and non-intellectuals on occasion, when they need individuals to perform specialized roles for the clan for which thaumaturgy has few, if any, efficient or easy solutions.

That invariably creates conflicts within the clan, and internal power struggles beyond the simple confines of vying for position within the Pyramid. A Regent may be the most thaumaturgically-skilled Tremere in a chantry, but would they be more powerful than a subordinate who commands the chantry's ghouls, acts as blood and reagent procurer, likely liaises with the other vampires in the city, does the external investigations and cleans up Masquerade-related oopsies, or handles mortal bureaucracy and finances for the chantry? Sure, most of that can be handled with a smattering of level 1-3 rituals, but is it the easiest or most elegant solution when compared to, say, sending a representative to blood bond or dominate a handful of mortals over the course of an evening or two?

The most obvious and glaring example of which would be to ask what happens when a Regent is an ancilla or elder (as almost all are), and finds themselves in the position of relying on a neonate apprentice to handle the chantry's electronic transactions, whether that's as simple as paying the bills or as complex and risky as buying rare and almost certainly illegal reagents on the dark web.

[Ventrue Busboy]

251) Hogarth Smith was born into old-money wealth, ensuring he would never have to work a day in his life. Spoiled and congenitally irresponsible, he was busy not attending the exclusive ivy league college his parents had paid for when he received word of the car crash that had claimed both their lives. Returning to the city of his birth, he dismissed the entire household staff and settled into the vast family manor for a protracted isolation. The young dilettente was exploring the surprisingly deep stone halls beneath the old mansion when he discovered a most curious thing: on a slab in a bare chamber, a dissicated corpse with the face of a demon frozen in mid-snarl. A wooden stake was driven deep into its breast. Following he knew not what impulse, Hogarth removed the stake and was immediately set upon by the frenzied Nosferatu. When the creature came to its senses, it decided to make use of the dying mortal and gave him the Embrace. After interrogating Hogarth about the state of the world, the creature vanished. For the newly-made Nosferatu, the existence of the undead and his entry into their ranks was the first of several revelations. From old journals found in the catacombs, he learned that back in the 1800s his namesake, one of the city's founding fathers, had been a prolific vampire hunter. Exploring the city by night, Hogarth discovered there were others like him---and that the elders among his newly adopted "clan" had less than fond memories of the elder Hogarth Smith. Not yet recognized by the Prince as he is without sponsor, Hogarth is aware he must begin making some moves quickly, or he will face Destruction, according to the draconian laws of these so-called Kindred. Fortunately, he still has his family's wealth and a vast haven in the form of his ancestral home. Not to mention his ancestor's effects, including a brutal two-handed blade perfect for severing undead heads. The question is whether to try and ingratiate himself with the city's self-styled Court, or seek refuge among the young kindred called Anarchs....

252) A doom metal frontman with a devoted following, Brandon LaRue had it all: fame, fortune, and beautiful groupies throwing themselves at his feet. His true passion however, was the occult. Having absorbed the Satanic Bible at a young age, he quickly moved on from LaVeyan Satanism in search of real supernatural power. While filling his song lyrics with cryptic hermetic and gnostic references, he burned his wealth into acquiring expensive tomes and following their rituals. Nothing seemed to work, but Brandon slowly acquired a following of hardcore devotees, drawn in through his music, who would join him for weekly black masses and attempted summonings or ritualistic magickal workings. On one such night, a new face--a beautiful, pale woman--joined Brandon's cult of groupies and hangers-on for a post-orgy ritual attempting to commune with the spirit Yaldabaoth. When, as ever, nothing happened, Brandon fell into his usual sulk and angrily dismissed everyone from his penthouse apartment. The woman however, remained and, sitting beside Brandon, asked him if he was truly devoted in his quest for knowledge---and what was the worth of that knowledge to him? Surprisingly, the singer found himself entranced by the stranger, and answered her questions honestly---how he had never fit in anywhere, how he longed to bend the world to his will and sought power in hidden mysteries to do it. The woman smiled and suggested that if Brandon was serious, the only way to climb that summit might be to go below. If he truly sought power, she could show him a path, but he would have to start at the bottom. It might be many years before he could ascend to the heights of power he sought, if ever. With conviction surprising even himself, Brandon swore that for even a taste of real magic, he would pay any price, endure any service---he would do anything. The woman said she believed him, and suddenly Brandon was dying on the floor of his apartment as his life drained out of him. When he awoke, he discovered that he had changed: he was now one of the kindred, the world's true masters, and of a very special clan within that species: the Clan Tremere. Taken to the local Chantry, he endured the sneers of the so-called Regent, who chided his sire for her choice in childe. A musician, really? But her choice would be honored, and Brandon was brought into the Pyramid as an Apprentice of the lowest level. Although he is but a fledgeling of the Tremere, he still has his devoted following and wealth, and a voracious appetite to follow the cursus of Blood Sorcery. His ambition matched by unnerving conviction and dark charisma, he enters the Society of the Damned determined to let nothing slow his mission.

[Ventrue Busboy]

253) Raymundo Elias Gonzalez (Ray) was an artist of a peculiar sort: his medium was comics, and he spent years self-publishing his opus on the internet slowly building a cult following. His comic, called The Underbarian, is a psychedellic fantasy epic following the titular hero through a melange of worlds and states of consciousness. Through the blend of prose and pictures Ray would pour his emotions onto the page, sending the Underbarian through dreamscapes of transcendent beauty or eldritch nightmare; transforming people from his life into a supporting cast of tyrants and tricksters, gods and monsters. By turns the Underbarian's picaresque wanderings would reel from the stuff of pulp adventure to meditative illustrated poems, following the hero on an endless quest for enlightenment. The comic was Ray's passion and release from a moribund life in which he was hampered by disability, living alone with high functioning autism and no regular employment. His sister, a tireless social worker, was his anchor and sole support. Aside from the Underbarian, Ray produced surreal dreamscapes on canvas in ink and oil, and it was at a gallery showing his work that he met the woman who would bring him into the night. Entranced by the kindred's otherworldly charisma, Ray found himself opening up to her and speaking about his art, the dreams that brought inspiration, and his belief in many lives and many worlds. After many nights spent together, the woman had one question: how did he know? Know what? What would happen next, the woman insisted. Ray's comics were more than fantasies; in esoteric ways and through artful symbology, they contained premonitions. Ray had a gift, one which his sire meant to serve the machinations of her Malkavian Brood and her own ambitions. Ray was embraced into the Clan of Seers, better known as the Lunatics, and immediately he found the lines between the world of flesh and the world he brought to life with his pen blurring. Events in his nightly existence would translate, quite unbidden, into events in his stories, which came to him in torrents of spontaneous inspiration; likewise a twist in the Underbarian's journies or a potent image would find clear resonance in the real world. A perilous sea journey in the comic would prefigure a dangerous trip through the City Barrens. An encounter with a knight errant would prefigure confrontation with a rapacious kindred. As his reality shifts and blurs, Ray finds himself the pawn of his devious sire, his predictions fueling her machinations, while his own life seems completely out of his control.

In game terms, this Malkavian's derangement is Schizophrenia. His reality is filled with unbidden, symbolic revelations and it seems as if no matter what transpires, it was predicted in some way through his spontaneous art. Ray is compelled to keep creating, although the story has completely spiraled out of his control, and he knows he must overcome the disassociation that separates him from his fellow beings kindred and kine alike if he is to hold on to his Humanity. His concerned sister (now wondering what this "new job" is that occupies Ray's days) remains his best link to reality, but Ray knows that breaking the Masquerade would place her in mortal danger.

[MyWifeIsScary]

254 There's a rather naive and amiable Malkavian living in a Camarilla city. by all investigation, he's a young 13th gen with an unknown sire and no significant contacts. That alone should make this kindred dead, and a witchhunt for the sire should have transpired, but this has not happened. This Malkavian, quite worryingly, claims to be Malkav, and though this claim is rediculous, nobody seems to be challenging him for it. No records can be found of his mortal existence. He seems to unsettle a few people, but there's no evidence he's capable of much.

[Muad'Dib]

254 There's a rather naive and amiable Malkavian living in a Camarilla city. by all investigation, he's a young 13th gen with an unknown sire and no significant contacts. That alone should make this kindred dead, and a witchhunt for the sire should have transpired, but this has not happened. This Malkavian, quite worryingly, claims to be Malkav, and though this claim is rediculous, nobody seems to be challenging him for it. No records can be found of his mortal existence. He seems to unsettle a few people, but there's no evidence he's capable of much.

What do the other Malkavians make of it?

[MyWifeIsScary]

They have their own individual opinions, but don't like to talk about it.

[Ventrue Busboy]

255) Winston Thuresby is a most unusual Brujah. Punctiliously dressed in expensive but tasteful clothing, slender and softspoken he is more at home in elegant clubs or an Elysium than the streets. No one has ever seen him frenzy. His method of hunting utilizes his good looks and sensitive mannerisms: frequenting university campuses or quiet cafes, he targets lonely young women, stalking and studying them before introducing himself seemingly by accident. Charming them is easy enough ("please, call me Wynne"), but Thuresby isn't interested in a quick dine-and-dash following a one night stand. Drawing the target into deep conversation, often over many nights, he slowly reveals what he is---an undead vampire, tormented by urges he can barely control and cloven from humanity by many years of immortality. The young women inevitably fall into his hands---declaring that no matter the danger, he too deserves love. The pitiless predator plays into their romantic fantasies, acting each time as if they have awoken something in him he thought lost. Once the kine is fully enamored of this duplicitous chameleon, they soon end up in his large herd. Although breaking the Masquerade carries a risk, Thuresby isn't above sharing his new Blood Dolls around with thirsty kindred to increase his prestation and influence. Hopelessly addicted to the pleasure of the kiss, they become his chattel, inevitably coming to tragic ends. The small Masquerade Breach having taken care of itself, the remorseless Thuresby moves on. Slowly losing his Humanity by drips and drabs, he nevertheless occupies an place of preeminence in the Domain, propounding the Traditions and his loyalty to the Camarilla in the salons while passing off his harem of victims to Licks on the down-low. Among Kindred he usually goes by the nomme-de-guerre of Mr. Thursday, a henchman of the elders and a caterer for kindreds' dark desires.

The origins behind this sinister figure are as simple as they are pathetic. Born in the interwar period, Winston was a sickly boy unfit for military service. As a man he worked a dead-end job as a patent clerk and paid for his stymied ambition with disdain from his wife. The loveless marriage came to a sudden end the night Thuresby murdered his wife with an axe. The Brujah antitribu who would become his sire chanced across Thuresby at the edge of town while he was making a panicked attempt to hide the hacked remains. Amused with what he saw, the vampire gave the fumbling murderer a second chance of sorts, to see if he could make more of himself dead than he ever did while alive. As Mr. Thursday, Winston is determined to make good on that chance. His smoldering sadism parcel to his ambitions, he schemes to cement for himself a lasting place in the city. And if he wields the numerous boons owed to him smartly and manages to discredit certain rivals, he fancies a title as Herald or even Seneschal might be his for the taking.

Note: The thread didn't specify, but this guy is definitely meant as an STC and hopefully a satisfying antagonist for the Player Characters to take down.