Vampire: The Masquerade Second Edition

Vampire: The Masquerade Second Edition is the first major revision of the Vampire: The Masquerade game system. VtM Second Edition reuses and revises a large amount of text from the first edition of the Vampire: The Masquerade Rulebook, although much of the text is heavily edited and reorganized. The major changes from First to Second Edition are not in content but in form: VtM Second Edition was the core rulebook for any White Wolf book to be printed in hardcover and on glossy paper stock, and with that change came a greater emphasis on style and presentation, making the book more immediately accessible both for reference and for casual use.

Summary
From the back cover:
 * A Storytelling Game of Personal Horror
 * Second Edition


 * "No one holds command over me. No man. No god. No Prince. What is a claim of age for ones who are immortal? What is a claim of power for ones who defy death? Call your damnable hunt. We shall see who I drag screaming to hell with me.
 * &mdash;Günter Dörn, Das Ungeheuer Darin

Preface: The Damned
The beginning of the book is a letter written by V.T. to W.H explaining the nature of vampires from their strengths to their weaknesses. Though not specifically said it is implied that the author of the letter is Vlad Tepes (Count Dracula) speaking to William Harker.

Chapter One: Introduction
This is the introduction to the Storytelling system. It talks about what is Storytelling, role playing, the Storyteller and aids. It touches on different kinds of role playing by a brief paragraph about Live Action (LARP). The chapter concludes with a brief overview of becoming a Vampire, the Hunger of a Vampire, and the Beast.

Chapter Two: Setting
This chapter explains what the World of Darkness really is. It talks about the Gothic-Punk world, its look and its feel. The Chapters gives brief overviews of the Social Distinctions of the Vampire community, theTraditions and how they apply to the society, the three major political sects, the clans, and the antagonists.

End of this chapter is a overview of the Generations from Caine to the 13th Generation and a Lexicon.

Chapter Three: Storytelling
The Chapter on Storytelling is an overview of how to create a story using the storyteller system. It talks about the art of Storytelling as well as advanced storytelling techniques.

Chapter Four: Rules
The Chapter covers the basic rules to playing the game. It is broken up into subsections that deal with Actions, Dice Rolling, and Game Terms. There is an example character sheet in this section.

Chapter Five: Character
The chapter deals with the generation of a character and steps to take when creating one.

Chapter Six: Chronicle
This chapter gives us an overview of what a Chronicle can be or should be. It gives you the basics for creating and running one by having the Setting, Characters, Antagonists, Plot, and Motif. It gives the potential storyteller some example concepts for a Chronicle.

Chapter Seven: Traits
Chapter Seven is the explanation of the Traits used to create characters and the story.

Clans
Brujah - Rabble  - "All creatures of sentience deserve to be free - it is our born right.  When we overthrow this decadent system that attempts to rule us, we can overthrow the system that rules the mortals as well.  We shall be the saviors of the Earth" (p.127)

Gangrel - Outlanders - "The city is not our home.  It is simply the only place where we are allowed to exist for long.  Our people have become ill and deranged because we have lived in this purgatory so long and have grown dependent on the tainted blood of the mortals." (p. 129)

Malkavian - Kooks - "Madness you say! Do you fear me?  Are you afraid of what I might do, of what I might say?  What a fascinating reaction.  Don't you find it somewhat encumbering?" (p. 131)

Nosferatu - Sewer Rats "I don't look for trouble, but if it comes, I hide from it.  Damn right, pretty boy.  You may call me chicken, but I've known a lot of Kindred over the years who got smart just a few seconds too late.  It's not like we can't die, it's just that it don't come natural any more." (p. 133)

Toreador - Degenerates "I remember my first love, a beautiful woman with a silver laugh.  For nine years we were constant companions, but in the end I had to let her go.  She begged me to take her but I could not.  You may call me cruel, but in the end I realized she was not a true artist, but an imitator..  She was unworthy.  I don't think I have ever recovered." (p. 135)

Tremere - Warlocks  "We must survive Gehenna and establish the tenets of the new world order once the horror is overcome.  If we are to succeed, we must control the other clans.  No more time can be wasted.  If they cannot be convinced to aid us, they must be forced." (p. 137)

Ventrue - Blue Bloods  "The best way to get even with one's enemies is to outlive them.  Because we are reasonable and above such petty concerns as vengeance, we are the leaders among our kind.  Our colleagues do little to support the Camarilla, so we must bear the burden alone." (p. 139)

Caitiff - This is shown in a picture but does not give any descriptions of them.

Archtypes
Archetypes were used to determine the character's Nature and Demeanour. They were useful in determining how a character regained Willpower during the course of a chronicle.

Architect, Bon Vivant, Bravo, Caregiver, Child, Conformist, Conniver, Curmudgeon, Deviant, Director, Fanatic, Gallant, Jester, Judge, Loner, Martyr, Rebel, Survivor, Traditionalist, Visionary

Attributes
Mental: Perception, Intelligence, Wits

Physical: Strength, Dexterity, Stamina

Social: Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance

Abilities
Talents: Acting, Alertness, Athletics, Brawl, Dodge, Empathy, Intimidation, Leadership, Streetwise, Subterfuge

-Other Talents: Expression, Guile, Intrigue, Painting, Sculpture, Search

Skills: Animal Ken, Drive, Etiquette, Firearms, Melee, Music, Repair, Security, Stealth, Survival

-Other Skills: Boating, Cooking, Painting, Piloting

Knowledge: Bureaucracy, Computer, Finance, Investigation, Law, Linguistics, Medicine, Occult, Politics, Science

Disciplines
Animalism, Auspex, Celerity, Dominate, Fortitude, Obfuscate, Potence, Presence, Protean, Thaumaturgy

Backgrounds
Allies, Contacts, Fame, Generation, Herd, Influence, Mentor, Resources, Retainers, Status

Virtues
Conscience, Self Control, Courage

Memorable Quotes
"Now, reader, I have told my dream to thee;  See if you canst interpret it to me  Or to thyself, or neighbor.  But take heed  Of misinterpreting; for that, instead  Of doing good, will but thyself abuse  By misinterpreting evil issues."

- John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress

Therefore with the same necessity with which the stone falls to earth; the hungry wolf buries its fangs in the flesh of its prey, without the possibility of the knowledge that it itself is the destroyed as well as the destroyer.

- Arthur Schopenhauer

Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies. Nobody that matters, that is.

- Edna St.Vincent Millay, Childhood is the Kingdom where Nobody Dies.

The dynamic principle of fantsy is play.

- C.G. Jung

I forget how to move  When my mouth is this dry  And my eyes are bursting hearts  In a bloodstained sky  Oh it was sweet and wild.

- The Cure, Homesick

I was early to finish, I was late to start I must be an adult - I'm a minor at heart.

- Minor Threat, Minor Threat

Stood by the gate at the foor of the garden watching them pass like clouds in the sky try to cry out in the heat of the moment possessed by a fury that burns from inside.

- Joy Division, The Eternal

I tell myself I will not go even as I drive there.

- Big Black, Bad Houses

And the Lord said unto him, "Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

- Genesis 4:15

But first, on earth as Vampire sent,  Thy corpse shall from its tomb be rent;  Then ghastly haunt thy native place,  And suck the blood of all thy race.

- Lord Byron

Let's have a war - we need the space. Let's have a war - clean up the place.

- Fear, Let's Have a War

He don't give a hoot of warning  Wrapped in a black cat cloak. He don't go in the light of morning. He's split, the time the cock'rel crows.

- The Rolling Stones, Midnight Rambler

People try to put us down just because we get around. Things they do look awful cold I hope I die before I get old. Talkin' 'bout my Generation.

- The Who, My Generation

El Presidente smokes cigars anyone he does not like he shoots or puts behind bars.

- Circle Jerks, Coup D'Etat

Now this is the Law of the Jungle - as old and as true as the sky; and the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.

- Rudyard Kipling, The Law of the Jungle

Hurled headlong flaming from th' etheral sky with hideous ruin and combustion down to bottomless perdition, there to dwell in adamantine chains and penal fire.

- John Milton, Paradise Lost

See, over there red don't go - some places, red's all they know.

- Ice-T, Midnight

Got a black uniform and a silver badge we're playing cops for real, we're playing cops for pay.

- Dead Kennedys, Police Truck

In the blood is light, in the light is life for the love of life, for the love of life.

- Swans, Love of Life

Sundown you'd better take care when I find you've been creeping 'round my back stair

- Gordon Lightfoot, Sundown

What's the meaning of words when they cease to function - when there's nothing to say?

- Killing Joke, Requiem

The hero has dies as a modern man; but as eternal man - universal man - he has been reborn.

- Joseph Campbell

The Stage but echoes back the public voice,  The drama's laws the drama's patrons give  For we that live to please, must please to live.

- Samuel Clemens

I stood. Among then, but not of them; in a shroud of thoughts which were not their thoughts.

- Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

The secret thoughts of man run over all things, holy, profance, clean, obscene, grave and light without shame or blame.

- Thomas Hobbes

Living in the limelight; the universal dream, for those who wish to seem, those who wish to be, must put aside the alienation, get on with the fascination, the real relation, the underlying there.

- Rush, Limelight

Life has confided so many stories to me, I shall have to retell them to people who cannot read the book of life itself.

- Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life

Mythology is a rendition of forms, through which the formless form of forms can be known.

- Joseph Campbell

Time is the moving image of reality.

- Plato

And the game never ends when your whole world depends  On the turn of a friendly card.

- The Alan Parsons Project, Turn of a Friendly Card

All the world's a stage And all men and women merely players They ahve their exits and entrances And one man in his time plays many parts.

- William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Each person is many persons: a multitude made into one person, a corporate body; incorporated, a corporation... the unity of a person is as real, or sureal, as the unity of the corporation.

- N.O. Brown

His ardour smoulders * Phosphorus flies  He radiates with urgency to hypnotize  Stike the furnace * Feed his need  This thirst for fire is all he sees

- Siouxsie and the Banshees,Burn Up

Between two worlds life hovers like a star,  'Twixt night and morn, upon the horizon's verge. How little do we know that which we are! How less what we may be!

- Lord Byron, Don Juan

What is the worst of woes that wait on age? What Stamps the Wrinkle deeper on the brow? To view each loved one blotted from life's page,  And be alone on earth as I am now.

- Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Looked in the mirror and saw what was wrong got to get back to where I belong - where I belong.

-Joy Division, Something Must Break

Her lips were red, her looks were free her locks were as yellow as gold, her skin was white as leprosy. The NIghtmare Life-in-Death was she, who thicks man's blood with cold.

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge,  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

It is precisely the soul that is the traveler; it is of the soul and of the soul alone that we can say with supreme truth that "being" neccessarily means "being on the way."

- Gabriel Marcel

So fair; so sweet; withat so sensitive all vain desires; all lawless wishes quelled be thou to love and praise alike impelled whatever boon is granted or withheld.

- William Wordsworth

He who fights with monsters might take care, lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzche, Beyond Good and Evil

The good want power, but to weep barren tears. The powerful goodness want: worse need for them. The wize want love; and those who love want wisdom.

- P.S. Shelly, Prometheus Unbound

We are Siamese, if you please. We are Siamese, if you don't please.

- The Cats, Lady and the Tramp

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.

- C.G. Jung

Characters
Malcolm - Gangrel, Example Character