Mystery of the Diplomat

[TheDiabadass]

I'm trying to come up with some of my own unique Mysteries and Coils. Tell me what you guys think of this one. I have no scales developed for this one though. Mystery of the Diplomat

Ordo Dracul members are not necessarily interested in helping others or even acknowledging the existence of vampires not immediately in front of them. For the followers of the Mystery of the Diplomat, the idea of ignoring the other vampire clans becomes dangerous. Understanding the way the vampiric form functions ultimately helps a member of the order better understand their own condition. This leads to some members developing a coil that seeks to transcend the clan banes. Coils of the Diplomat (Partially designed by PenDragon)

• This coil does not function like other coils. Instead of having a steady progression, each dot gives you one of these following benefits. The only rule for the progression of these benefits is that the final dot gained is the power that helps the vampire overcome their own clan bane.
• Daeva - Flight of Fancy: Daeva are not the only vampires afraid of being bound by blood. No Dragon wants to be in chains. With this power the Dragon does not cling to her affections, passing whimsically from one to the next. Whenever she becomes blood bound to another Vampire, she may shatter an existing bond to another. This functions even in stage three blood binding, allowing the Dragon to drift from one regent to the next without lasting commitment. This also affects any pseudo-blood bonds developed by the Daeva clan bane.
• Gangrel - Personal Agency: Every vampire fears losing control to the Beast. Even those who find power within the Beast are worried about killing a touchstone, breaching masquerade, or pissing off the wrong vampire. With this power the Dragon is able to respond to the Beast before it even gains control. Whenever he would enter an involuntary Frenzy the Vampire may delay that Frenzy for [Humanity] turns, while he attempts to resolve the conflict himself. During this time he must still act on the subject of his Frenzy, and cannot turn his back on that goal, but may do so with complete cognitive agency and self control. This means he can set traps or even converse with others. Should he fail to achieve his goal by the time this period ends, he enters Frenzy as normal.
• Mekhet - Original Sin: Just because lesser neonates fear the loss of humanity, doesn’t mean a Dragon has to. The loss of humanity is just a sign that the vampire was not strong enough to resist it. The Dragon understands that Banes are a source of strength, and acts preemptively to evade excise unwanted weakness. She gains two additional Banes, above and beyond his three Bane limit, for which she may immediately apply situations, even ones she has never suffered a breaking point for committing (ex. she could select a Bane of Bells for the crime of premeditated murder, even though she's never killed someone). This may stack with A Calloused Heart in the Mystery of the Master, leading to a maximum of 10 acquired banes.
• Nosferatu - Warm Welcome: Keeping the herd docile is important not only for feeding, but also for keeping a fresh supply of experimental subjects. The Dragon knows how his afflicted cousins frighten the flock, and learns how to mask his own growing monstrosity. He negates all social penalties from Humanity the first time he meets a mortal, giving him time make a strong first impression before his underlying nature is uncovered. This lasts until either the Dragon gets a dramatic failure on a social roll or until hours equal to humanity expire, whichever happens first.
• Ventrue - Dearly Beloved: Touchstones are the collars that keep the kindred as pets to their human past. Freedom comes not from detachment, so much as knowing when to move on. The Dragon knows he cannot cling to the mortal world forever, and steels himself against the loss and loneliness that lie ahead. Subtract his Humanity from any dice penalties he suffers from the Languid Condition, so long as those penalties are completely negated it never costs more than a single Vitae to wake from the Daysleep. Should he acquire a new Touchstone during this time, the Languid condition is immediately resolved.

Scales of the Diplomat

The Transgressive Property:

Prerequisite: This scale must be bought separately for each clan. If you are trying to inflict the Gangrel clan bane, you have to have Personal Agency.
The Dragon has learned how to prevent succumbing to the weakness of this clan, even if it is a somewhat roundabout way. Now the Dragon has found a way to turn the curse right back at their target. The Dragon needs a vial of Kindred Vitae (1 vitae) of the clan associated with the bane. If the Dragon is from this clan they can simply gain the vitae needed by a syringe. For the blood of another clan, the vampire can drink 1 point of vitae and then spit it into the vial. As long as this is done within seconds from drinking the vampire does not have to worry about blood bond. If it takes any longer than 5 seconds, the vitae is mixed with their own vitae too well to be used for this ability. After the vial of vitae is procured, it must be mixed with salt, mercury, and aqua regia (nitro-hydrochloric acid), as well as an additional ingredient depending on the intended bane(Daeva: porcelain, Gangrel: animal fur, Mekhet: ash, Nosferatu: bile or feces, Ventrue: fake gemstone). The concoction becomes stable after 30 minutes of heating and mixing.
The concoction can be applied to a weapon a total of 5 times (maybe five bullets, or coating a sword 5 times in a fight as an instant action). If the concoction enters another member of the kindred, they gain the associated clan’s bane for (10-humanity) nights. Normally this means that the attack would have dealt lethal damage after armor is calculated if the vampire was human. If the vampire has several wounds (taking wound penalties or at least 1 point of aggravated) a single point of bashing damage can cause the clan bane to take hold. If this concoction enters a mortal’s veins, they become sick and gain the sick (moderate) tilt (GMC: Page 212). The next time they take any damage they lose a turn and vomit, losing the tilt. For kindred already part of the clan that is associated with the bane, this concoction does nothing.

• Side Notes:
  • The Persistent Dependent condition (Blood and Smoke: Page 302), gained while affected by the Daeva clan bane, is removed when the Daeva clan bane is removed.
  • If the victim is at humanity 6 or lower when affected by the Mekhet clan bane, they gain a temporary bane attached to no sins, but that doesn’t affect their detachment rolls.
  • If any touchstones are pushed off by gaining the Ventrue clan bane, after the bane is removed, the touchstone can be reattached by socializing with them for one door, or if the touchstone is an object/place, viewing the object/place reattaches it as a touchstone.

[Griautis]

This feels to me like an attempt to push quite a lot of unrelated effects into a single Mystery... Since really, these effects have nothing in common with each other..

[PenDragon]

Alright, I'll break my critique into two parts:

Concept: The concept is really interesting, studying the other clans, seeing what makes them weak and making damn well certain it doesn't happen to you is a splendidly Ordo approach. I can see the Scales, exploiting those very same weaknesses for the Dragon's gain.

Crunch: Mechanically, this seems a bit lackluster. For the most part it is providing a series of highly circumstantial bonuses and caps off by negating their defining flaw. All passive, nothing for the player to do but spend experience then occasionally get a little bonus. Compare that to ruling all those around you through the sheer power of your blood, or discarding utterly the need to sleep and striding triumphantly beneath the sun, it seems to fall short. I'd recommend much more profound benefits, ones that give the player something to do and clearly put the Dragon well ahead of those...lesser kindred. Something like:

• Daeva - Flight of Fancy: The Dragon does not cling to his affections, passing whimsically from one to the next. Whenever he becomes blood bound to another Vampire, he may shatter an existing bond to another. This functions even in stage three blood binding, allowing the Dragon to drift from one regent to the next without lasting commitment
• Gangrel - Personal Agency: The Dragon knows the Beasts wants, and does not wait for it to take the reigns in a crisis. Whenever he would enter an involuntary Frenzy the Vampire may delay that Frenzy for [Humanity] actions, while he attempts to resolve the conflict himself. During this time he must still act on the subject of his Frenzy, and cannot turn his back on that goal, but may do so with complete cognitive agency and self control. Should he fail to achieve his goal by the time this period ends, he enters Frenzy as normal.
• Mekhet - Original Sin: The Dragon understands that Banes are a source of strength, and acts preemptively to evade excise unwanted weakness. He gains two additional Banes, above and beyond his three Bane limit, for which he may immediately apply situations, even ones he has never suffered a breaking point for committing (ex. he could select a Bane of Bells for the crime of murder, even though he's never killed someone).
• Nosferatu - Warm Welcome: The Dragon knows how his afflicted cousins frighten the flock, and learns how to mask his own growing monstrosity. He negates all social penalties from Humanity the first time he meets a mortal, giving him time make a strong first impression before his underlying nature is uncovered.
• Ventrue - Dearly Beloved: The Dragon knows he cannot cling to the mortal world forever, and steels himself against the loss and loneliness that lie ahead. Subtract his Humanity from any dice penalties he suffers from the Languid Condition, so long as those penalties are completely negated it never costs more than a single Vitae to wake from the Daysleep. Should he acquire a new Touchstone during this time, the Languid condition is immediately resolved.

[Metamurpho]

• This coil does not function like other coils. Instead of having a steady progression, each dot gives you one of these following benefits. The only rule for the progression of these benefits is that the final dot gained is the power that helps the vampire overcome their own clan bane.

I very much like this bit as a carrot to keep players motivated to finish the Coil.

[TheDiabadass]

Oh, I really like those effects PenDragon. The Mekhet one feels very close to another coil I am developing, so I may change that one for my game, but the other 4 are beautiful and perfect. Or I might just keep it. Why not have 10 humanity attached banes?

[Baaldam]

Makes me think of the Deucalion bloodline and their purity proclivities in the Carthian book.

[TheDiabadass]

That was definitely part of the inspiration. I also wanted to have a coil for each sub section of the curses great and small section.

[TheDiabadass]

Alright, I have updated things a little, including adding a scale (that is really 5 scales) as well as changing a little bit of the Warm Welcome mechanics as well as adding a little extra fluff.