The 13 Clans

The Blue Bloods value power and leadership more than anything else in their existence.  Tradition and lineage are also important; their Embraces are carefully chosen from actual royalty and the most "successful" members of humanity, the most driven and accomplished.

• Clan Disciplines: Dominate, Fortitude, Presence
• Bane: refined palate (must spend willpower to feed from the wrong source)
• Compulsion: Arrogance (-2 to all challenges until someone obeys an order)
• Advantage: Old Boys' Club There is an ancient family tradition of sanctuary.  Ventrue are well-connected and powerful enough that problems are usually handled privately long before they cause public embarrassment.
• Cookie: 2 extra dots of Resources

Anything can be art, and most Divas are or surround themselves with artists of some sort, always trying to create or find something they perceive to be beautiful. Potential embraces are mortals who stand out from the background and shine brightly enough to deserve notice.  The definition of "beauty" is wide, inclusive, and open to personal taste.

• Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Presence
• Bane: oppression (surroundings that are not beautiful cause a bane penalty)
• Compulsion: Obsession (-2 to all challenges not related to the new shiny)
• Advantage: Pulse of the Canaille Toreador always know what is going on in the rack.  Mechanically consider Toreador to have two extra dots of contacts in any attempt to be cool downtown.
• Cookie: 2 extra dots of Haven

The Warlocks have a unique origin story.  During the 8th century, Tremere, a mortal mage, unwittingly discovered immortality - the vampiric sort.  Clan Tremere was structured in a rigid hierarchy known as the Pyramid of Power.  In modern nights, the Second Inquisition destroyed the prime chantry, leaving the clan in confusion.

• Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Blood Sorcery, Dominate
• Bane: no blood bonds (This power of the blood was concentrated in the prime chantry.  Now that it is destroyed, that power is lost.)
• Compulsion: Perfectionism (-2 to all challenges until they score a critical win)
• Advantage: Occult Library The clan has splintered into competing houses, chief among them the traditional House Tremere, the pagan House Carna, and the mysterious House Goratrix.  However, any Tremere in good standing can access the old chantry libraries that still exist.
• Cookie: 2 extra dots of Mask 

Rebellion. Revolution. Revolt. Regardless of their background, most Brujah have some cause that they fight for.  Members of this clan rarely Embrace the meek.  When the Rebels see a violation of their ideals, they make it known - loudly, and when necessary, violently.  However, many know change also calls for charm and inspiration.  This clan loves philosophy and has been at the heart of most of history's revolutions.

• Clan Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Presence
• Bane: short fuse (bane penalty on all attempts to resist Fury Frenzy)
• Compulsion: Rebellion (-2 on all challenges until they have "rebelled" successfully)
• Advantage: Call to Arms You can call on the rabble to help you out in a pinch.  Whether they agree with your nonsense or not, your brothers and sisters love a good fight.  And they hope they can also count on you.
• Cookie: 2 extra dots of either Politics or University Influence 

Unbound by city limits and unchained from creature comforts,  these Ferals go where they wish, because they are ready for whatever they may find.  This clan Embraces survivors of all sorts.

• Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Fortitude, Protean
• Bane: bestial frenzy (during any frenzy, gain beast features until the next night)
• Compulsion: Feral Impulses (-2 on challenges involving Manipulation or Intelligence until the end of the scene.)
• Advantage: Wild Domain This clan roams the areas between urban domains.  Because of this, Gangrel ignore the Traditions of Progeny and Accounting and do not have to present themselves to the Prince of every domain they wander through.
• Cookie: 2 extra dots of Contacts 

Throughout time, mortals have whispered stories of wise diviners, Oracles who are possessed with the ability to see beyond the mundane.  Such mortals have drawn the attention of this clan from its beginning.  However, insight comes at a cost.  All Malks have a sense of reality that is twisted in some way.

• Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Obfuscate
• Bane: an inescapable Derangement
• Compulsion: Delusions (-2 on challenges using Insight, Awareness, and Investigate.  -2 to resist Terror Frenzy)
• Advantage: Insanity Immunity Ignore Status and little courtesies.  You might be mad as a hatter or seeing the great beyond.  Who knows?
• Cookie: 2 dots of Loresheet selected by your Storytellers.  Because you know things.

No other Kindred can understand the pain of the Sewer Rats long Embrace, of their body swelling, twisting, breaking, and reforming.  No other Kindred knows the shock of the first look in the mirror and seeing a nightmare.  Other Nos have experienced all of this, which often brings them together as close-knit family.

• Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
• Bane: All Nosferatu appear hideous and vile, though not always supernaturally so. -2 on social challenges when appearance is visible and bane penalty to attempts at disguise.
• Compulsion: Cryptophilia (-2 on all actions not meant to gather secrets.)
• Advantage: The Warrens There are warrens controlled by the Nos in every sewer system.  Fair escape, enough said.
• 2 extra dots in either Stealth or Subterfuge.

This clan is built on obtaining power and wielding it ruthlessly.  For centuries, the Shadows were among the rulers of the Sabbat.  With its downfall, most have switched sides and now vie for positions of power within the Camarilla.  However, that switch came at a cost. Many Princes required that in order to join, a Lasombra had to prove their loyalty by putting an older member of the Sabbat to the torch.  As a result, modern Lasombra are just as elegant and predatory, but even more ruthless than the founders of the Sabbat who drank the blood of their Elders.

• Clan Disciplines: Dominate, Oblivion, Potence
• Bane: no reflection (any reflective surface or recording device betrays the character as clearly supernatural)
• Compulsion: Ruthlessness (-2 to all challenges until they succeed at the failed action that triggered the compulsion.)
• Advantage: Shadow Status The arrogance and ruthlessness of the clan is so powerful it has a mechanical benefit.  Shadows are always treated as having one more Status trait than they actually do.  Since it isn't real, this Status cannot be addressed or removed.
• Cookie: 2 extra dots of either Underworld or Society Influence

 Above all things, the Dragons care about dominion.  Some value owning an area, others value control of certain types of people. Whether a neighborhood, a gang, or a corporation is the hoard, they are relentless in pursuit of their ambition and very difficult to remove once they have claimed their prize.  To be Tzimisce is to possess because it is right to do so.  Once mighty leaders of the Sabbat, few Tzimisce have joined the Camarilla openly.  Tzimisce are obsessive about their domains, and where once they controlled the Sabbat, now  the Anarch Movement has proved a fertile playground for what were once known as the fiends.

• Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Dominate, Protean
• Bane: sleep within the hoard (if they do not they take a bane penalty to willpower the next night)
• Compulsion: Covetousness (-2 to all challenges not taken towards obtaining what is coveted.)
• Advantage: Fiendish Obsession Tzim get one phantom dot of every background related to their hoard (notably Mask, Contacts, and Influence).  The hoard must be well-defined, relatively narrow, and Storyteller approved.
• Cookie: 2 extra dots of one influence related to the obsession.

The Banu Haqim, or Children of Haqim, are balanced between Judges, Warriors, and Scholars. The one constant among them all is a strong sense of justice.  They have a well deserved reputation as assassins and executioners, but the rumors about bloodlust and demon worship are probably baseless slander.

• Clan Disciplines: Blood Sorcery, Celerity, Obfuscate
• Bane: Bloodlust (when slaking blood from a Kindred, must test for Hunger Frenzy)
• Compulsion: Judgment (Impaired until they "pass judgment" by denouncing or slaking from the offender)
• Advantage: Big Brothers & Sisters Banu Haqim are all specialists as one of the three types. They can call on the other two for aid... and owe.
• Cookie: 2 extra dots of Mask

The Hecata are a union of all the surviving bloodlines that focus on the study and mastery of death itself. Whether a vampire is Giovanni, Cappadocian, Lamia, Samedi, Nagaraja, or an even stranger designation, all are Scions of Death.  Ironically, they are all truly one  lineage.  Millenia of infighting obscured that. but now there has been a Reunion.

• Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Fortitude, Oblivion
• Bane: Kiss of Death (their bite causes only pain and terror, not pleasure)
• Compulsion: Morbidity (-2 on all challenges not related to killing or undeath)
• Advantage: Friends on the Other Side Hecata have a familial connection to the Shadowlands, and can have connections that are wraiths.
• Cookie: 2 extra dots of Allies (and per the Advantage, they don't have to be alive)

Their mission is true freedom, bringing spiritual liberation to all descendants of Caine - using temptation and subversion.  Criminals, heretics, and the irreligious are the most common targets of the fraudsters, con artists, politicians, and self-help gurus of this clan.  The Serpents of the Ministry are usually sincere believers in the Cult of Set.  Detractors say it is really a very naughty  religion, not a true clan.

• Clan Disciplines: Obfuscate, Presence, Protean
• Bane: Light Sensitivity (penalty to challenges in bright light and double sunlight damage)
• Compulsion: Transgression (-2 to all challenges not related to tempting - until someone gets Stain)
• Advantage: Cult Attunement They know all about cults and who is in them.  All of them.
• Cookie: 2 extra dots of Contacts 

Ravnos prefer subtlety over physicality, masters of deception and manipulation. This mentality is well known to other clans, and many of the Ravens keep their true identity hidden. When discovered, they move on to places unfamiliar with their ways. They often view themselves as trickster gods, with a duty to "instruct" others.  This attitude and their need to keep moving earns them precious few allies, but they take these hardships in stride.

• Clan Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Presence
• Bane: The Longest Road (must change Havens once per month or they suffer aggravated damage)
• Compulsion: Tempting Fate (-2 to any attempt at a safe solution to any problem)
• Advantage: Lucky (one retest to any challenge per game session.  This is the ONLY retest anyone gets.  Ravens need it.)
• Cookie: 2 extra dots of ANY skill

If Vampire society is about the long game, Salubri are probably the losers.  Vicious, dangerous slanders against the Cyclops go unchecked because there are simply not enough Salubri left to refute them.  All Salubri are marked by a third eye in the middle of their forehead.  It can be concealed, but never truly hidden.  Once revered scholars and sages, now they are fugitives.

• Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Fortitude
• Bane: Hunted AND Third Eye (any non-Salubri who tastes their blood must test vs Hunger frenzy.  Also that third eye makes them easier to hunt).
• Compulsion: Affective Empathy (-2 to any challenge not devoted to solving someone else's problem.)
• Advantage: Pass for Human In addition to the third eye, modern Cyclops have at-will Blush of Health and Natural Breather
• Cookie: 1 extra dot of Humanity

The traditional clans would like to pretend that all Caitiff are created through pitiable accidents.  The truth is that sometimes the blood doesn't run true.  Even more alarming, sometimes Caitiff Embrace, creating... more Caitiff.  Vampires of a generation greater than 13 are ALWAYS Caitiff.  Blood that thin means they are barely vampires at all.  In the Sabbat, there was a vampire named Josef Pander who wanted to make the Caitiff a real clan.  Too bad the Sabbat collapsed.

• Clan Disciplines: Choose any 3.  Thin-bloods see special rules in the book.
• Bane: Caitiff have no clan-specific weakness.  They also have no family, which is often a problem.
• Compulsion: Caitiff have no clan-specific compulsion.
• Advantage: Caitiff have no clan-specific advantage.
• Cookie:  No cookie for you.  Even the rules are out to get you.