The Players Guide to the Sabbat is the first sourcebook to fully describe the Sabbat. From the nadir of despair comes the beginning of greatness. Although the Sabbat is a major sect of vampires, they had previously been lightly detailed and were implicitly restricted to the ranks of Storyteller characters. Many prominent Sabbat-related elements of the setting, such as the antitribu and the Paths of Enlightenment, were introduced for the first time in this book. Additionally, the Lasombra and Tzimisce were described for the first time in this book; previously, nothing was known of those clans other than their names, as mentioned briefly in the first edition of the Vampire: The Masquerade Rulebook.
Summary[]
From the White Wolf catalog:
- By Any Means Necessary
- The Sabbat: a sect of diabolists and murderers whose sole purpose seems to be wanton destruction. These Night Fiends reject the ancient laws of the undead and revel in the fear and hatred they inspire, considering them tributes to their strength and courage.
- The Prince of Freedom is Death
- But there is a method to their madness. They are the true saviors of the undead, something only they can or will see. The Sabbat has gathered power for centuries, allying with the darkest powers of the supernatural, growing and expanding with only one purpose — the utter destruction of the Antediluvians.
- The Players Guide to the Sabbat includes:
- The history and secrets of theSabbat, including it's myths and traditions
- Rules on creating Sabbat characters for use by players or Storytellers
- New clans, bloodlines, Disciplines, Abilities, rituals and much, much more
Contents[]
Introduction[]
An introduction to who and what the Sabbat are, how to use this book, and the view of the Sabbat from the outside, from other vampires to non-vampires.
Chapter One: Inside the Sabbat[]
This chapter focused on the Sabbat perspective of those outside the sect, guarding secretes, and their Lexicon. There is a quick overview of the Clans of the Sabbat. The structure of the Sabbat describes its internal makeup which includes information about the Black Hand and the Inquisitors. Learn the History of the Sabbat and what it is like today. See how the Sabbat fair around the world.
This chapter also explores the Sabbat Ideology, Holy Crusades, Sabbat Tactics and how they conduct scouting missions. There is a small section on the uses of Mortals as well as who are Allied to the Sabbat. And finally a section on Sabbat Weaknesses.
Chapter Two: Running with the Sabbat[]
This chapter introduces the Sabbat Pack, unlife in the Sabbat, how Sabbat recruits are made, how defectors from other sects are trained, Vinculum, information on Sabbat Rituals such as the Auctoritas Ritae and the Ignobilis Ritae, and some notes about Sabbat justice.
Chapter Three: Character Creation[]
This chapter explores how to create a character that is a member of the Sabbat. This is very similar to how one creates a character that is a member of the Camarilla. This section gives the reader the run down of the clans that inhabit the Sabbat. These include the Antitribu Clans (or Anti-Clans) as well as for the Lasombra and Tzimisce clans.
Chapter Four: The Paths of Enlightenment[]
This is the introduction to the Paths of Enlightenment. These Paths help members of the Sabbat to keep the Beast from completely ruling. Each follow rigid codes of conduct and study the philosophy of their chosen Path.
The Paths introduced here are: The Path of Caine, The Path of Cathari, The Path of Death and the Soul, The Path of Evil Revelations, The Path of Harmony, The Path of Honorable Accord, and the Path of Power and the Inner Voice.
Chapter Five: Sabbat Traits[]
This chapter introduces new secondary traits for the Sabbat. New Disciplines such as Dementation Obtenebration, and Vicissitude, a new Thaumaturgy Path (Gift of Morpheus) and new Thaumaturgical Rituals. There are some Sabbat only Backgrounds and new Merits and Flaws. Explanations of the Sabbat Virtues. Finally there is information about Vinculum, Torpor, Frenzy, and Tips on Playing Sabbat Characters.
- New Secondary Abilities
- Talents
- Dreaming
- Fortune Telling
- Panhandling
- Skills
- Blind Fighting
- Body Alteration
- Fire Eating
- Fire Walking
- Snake Charming
- Tightrope Walking
- Torture
- Knowledges
- Black Hand Knowledge
- Sabbat Lore
- Sewer Lore
- Talents
- New Merits and Flaws
- Psychological
- Lunacy (2 pt. Flaw)
- Aptitudes
- Natural Leader (1 pt. Merit)
- Supernatural
- Enchanting Voice (2 pt. Merit)
- Lunar Influence (1 pt. Merit)
- Magic Sensitivity (1 pt. Merit)
- Silence (1 pt. Merit)
- Mystic Ability (2 pt. Merit)
- Sanctity (2 pt. Merit)
- Oracular Ability (3 pt. Merit)
- Precognition (4 pt. Merit)
- Innate Magical Ability (5 pt. Merit)
- Nine Lives (6 pt. Merit)
- Cast No Reflection (2 pt. Flaw)
- Eerie Presence (2 pt. Flaw)
- Kindred Tries
- Family Member (1 pt. Merit) and Vampire Family Member (1-3 pt. Merit)
- Pack Distinction (2 pt. Merit)
- Special Rapport (2 pt. Merit)
- Pack Punishment (1 pt. Flaw)
- Pack Rival (1 pt. Flaw)
- Special Responsibility (1 pt. Flaw)
- Pack Disgrace (2 pt. Flaw)
- Pack Enemy 2 pt. Flaw)
- Probationary Sect Member (4 pt. Flaw)
- Mortal Society
- Accepted Ally (1 pt. Merit)
- Approved Friendship (2 pt. Merit)
- Secret Friendship (1 pt. Flaw)
- Physical
- Catlike Balance (1 pt. Merit)
- Early Riser (1 pt. Merit)
- Lazy (1 pt. Flaw)
- Vulnerability to Silver (2 pt. Flaw)
- Infertile Vitae (3 pt. Flaw)
- Slow Healing (3 pt. Flaw)
- Addiction (3 pt. Flaw)
- Disease Carrier (4 pt. Flaw)
- Psychological
- Sabbat Virtues
- Callousness
- Instincts
- Morale
- New Backgrounds
- Alternate Identity
- Black Hand Membership
- Pack Recognition
- Background Changes for Sabbat
- Allies
- Contacts
- Fame
- Herd
- Influence
- Mentor
- Retainers
- Sabbat Status
- Background Changes for Sabbat
- Shade - Shadow Creatures, Stats
Chapter Six: Sabbat Templates[]
See Character Templates below (Gallery).
Appendix One: Unusual Weapons for Vampire[]
Unusual weapons that are not in the original Vampire book but tend to be used by members of the Sabbat: Chainsaw, Machete, Straight Razor, and Flamethrower.
Appendix Two: Sabbat Relics and Magical Devices[]
- Aaron's Feeding Razor
- Black Gloves
- Brass Heart Shield
- Concoction of Vitality
- Femur of Toomler
- Giants' Blood
- Hand of Conrad
- Ivory Bow
- Jorum of Kinsmanship
- Martinelli's Ring of Clear Thought
- Phylactery of Recorded Memory
- Pumping Heart of Nizchetus
- Talbot's Chainsaw
- Tongue of Jarthis the Slaver
- Vestment of Vileness
Index[]
Character Sheet[]
Background Information[]
- Groups
- Eyes of the Sun - A Native American Shamanistic Society that numbers only 20 members. They are Allies of the Sabbat and are all skilled to some degree with the Magical arts.
- Penumbra of the Gray Squirrels - A Native American Shamanistic Society that numbers only 20 members. They are not only Allies of the Gangrel Antitribu but also of Lupines as well. They share some special connection with the land that bestows on them mysterious and unexplained abilities to all its members.
- Path Finders - A Native American Shamanistic Society that numbers less than 10 members. They are a group that seeks supernatural enlightenment and has formed alliances with many supernatural powers. They provide no support for the Sabbat Gangrel other than information and the Sabbat Gangrel provide the Path Finders with protection.
- Word From the White Wolf Game Studio discusses the new White Wolf Logo created by the Art Department. It also notes that Mage is coming along fine and that work on The Masquerade has begun. The Masquerade has been playtested with as many as 100 players at once and it should be coming out early next summer.
- The book is dedicated to Jennifer Connelly.
Memorable Quotes[]
All great truths begin as blasphemies.
-George Bernard Shaw, "Annajanska"
Right now. I am an Antichrist. I am an anarchist. Don't know what I want but I know how to get it. I want to destroy. Pacify. 'Cause I wanna be Anarchy.
- Sex Pistols, "Anarchy in the U.K."
Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight? I always ask that of all my prey.
- The Joker, Batman
A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.
- James Russell Lowell, Shakespeare Once More
Your guilt consists of this: I want to eat you up!
- Ivan Krylov, Fables, Wolf and Lamb
He goes seeking liberty, which is so dear, as he knows who for it renounces life.
- Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.
- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac
He bore the curse of the seed of Cain, whereby God punished the grievous guilt of Abel's murderer. Nor even had Vain cause to boast of the deed of blood. God banished him far from the fields of men; of his blood was begotten an evil brood.
- Beowulf
I am the people - the mob - the crowd - the mass. Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
- Carl Sandburg, "I am the People, the Mob"
Go put your creed in your deed, Nor speak with double tongue.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Ode Inscribed to W.H. Channing"
He must be a demon flown first class from Hell, advance agent for the Anti-Christ, if he is not him in person.
- Philip Jose Farmer, Nobody's Perfect
Roses have thorns and shining waters mud, and cancer lurks deep in the sweetest bud
Clouds and eclipses stain the moon and sun, and history reeks of wrongs we have done
After today, consider me gone
To search for perfection is all very well, but to look for heaven is to live here in hell
After today, consider me gone.
- Sting, "Consider Me Gone"
Did you think the lion was sleeping because he didn't roar?
- Johann Friedrick von Schiller, The Conspiracy of Fiesco
Make a promise for a new life
Make a victim out of your life.
- Joy Division, "Leaders of Men"
He who is skilled in the attack flashes forth from the topmost heights of heaven, making it impossible for the enemy to guard against him. This being so, the places he shall attack are those that the enemy cannot defend... He who is skilled in defense hides in the most secret resources of the earth, making it impossible for the enemy to estimate his whereabouts. This being so, the places that shall hold are those that the enemy cannot attack.
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
What if I told you there was no place you could run to to hide from your fears? Where good is bad and bad is good and all the tears you cry no one can hear?
- 24 - 7 Spys, "Heaven and Hell"
Blood will follow blood
Dying times are here.
- Metallica, "Damage, Inc."
What fools these mortals be.
- Seneca, Epistles, 1,3
We have no eternal allies and we have no perpetual enemies. Out interests are the eternal and the perpetual, and these interests it is our duty to follow.
- Henry John Temple, Speech in the House of Commons
You saw his weaknesses, and he will never forgive you.
- Johann Friedrich von Schiller, Welhelm Tell
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother.
- William Shakespeare, King Henry V
Raise my eyes, she stands
Holding out healing hands...
Are you happy now?
I walk the thin line for you.
Do just what you say to,
With fear as my friend.
- Queensryche, "The Thin Line"
Ya eatin' death cause ya like gittin' dirt from the graveyard, chips and casket cover clips-dead women hips ya do the hump with-bones. Nuttin but love bones. Lifestyles of da liver-en-dead.
- Public Enemy, "Flavor FLAV Cold Lampin"
What more felicity can fall a creature,
Than to enjoy delight with liberty.
- Edmund Spenser, The Fate of the Butterfly
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
- Claude McKay, "If We Must Die"
Submit to the present evil, lest a greater one befall you.
- Phaedrus, Fables Book One
So what - it's your problem
To learn to live with;
Destroy us or make us saints.
We don't care; it's not our fault
That we were born too late.
- Ministry, "So What"
I saw the Devil, King Countraryman ..., He said to me "Boy, I want your soul,"
I said, "Yeah, I want to go to Hell."
-The Cult, King Contraryman
Every tradition grows ever more venerable - the more remote is its origin, the more confused the origin is. The reverence due to it increases from generation to generation. The tradition finally becomes holy and inspires awe.
- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human
This is music to march to.
- Killing Joke, "Wardance"
O! for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!
- Shakespeare, King Henry V
Whatever is not forbidden is permitted.
- Johann Friedrich von Schiller, Wallensteins Lager
Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to endless night.
- William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence"
I'm a young man at odds with the Bible, but I don't pretend faith never works.
- Tin Machine, "Bus Stop"
But would north be true? Why should I? Why should I cry for you?
Dark angels follow me over a godless sea,
Mountains of endless falling, for all my days remaining,
What would be true? Sometimes I see your face, the stars seem to lose their place
Why must I think of you? Why must I? Why should I? Why should I cry for you?
Why would you want me to? And what would it mean to say, that "I loved you in my fashion?"
What would be true? Why should I? Why should I cry for you?
- Sting, "Why Should I Cry For You"
The great decisions of human life have as a rule more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness. The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. Each of us carries his own life-form - an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other.
- Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul
Morale is a state of mind. It is steadfastness and courage and hope. It is confidence and zeal and loyalty. It is elan, espirit de corps and determination.
- George Marshall, Military Review
Life's a tough Proposition, and the first hundred years are the hardest.
- William Mizner
Of such deep learning little had he need,
Ne yet of Latin, ne of Greek that breed
Doubts 'mongst Divines, and difference of texts,
From whence arise diversity of sects,
And hateful heresies.
- Edmund Spenser, "Prosopopoia"
Force is not a remedy.
- John Bright, speech at Birmingham
Characters[]
- Nora Clemones, Noddist - Bishop of Quebec
- Vincent Day, Sabbat Paladin and Patriot
- Ezekiel Donner, Sabbat Hierophant and Harmonist.
- Djuhah - Seraph of the Black Hand.
- Melinda Galbraith - Regent of the Sabbat.
- Leila Monroe, Sabbat Priscus and Unifier
- Joseph Pander - Leader and Founder of the "Pander" bloodline of Caitiff. Priscus.
- Vladamir Rasputin, Cathari/Albigensian - Sabbat Poet and Dominion of the Black Hand
- Murray Sutton, Necronomist - Sabbat Monsignor
- Vlad Tepes, Count Dracula - Mentioned as a member of the Tzimisce.
- Vestgeir - A Ravnos who picked up the pieces after the failed Anarch Revolt; Some Sabbat members believe him to be Caine. He disappeared sometime between the 1500s - 1600s.
- Baba Yaga, the Iron Hag. The Sabbat, at this the time of publication, did not know she existed.
- Johnny "Big Dog" Yeats, traitor and Corrupter.
- Giangaleazzo - Archbishop of Milan
- Louhi
- Aaron - Malkavian, created the Feeding Razor
- Toomler - Tzimisce
- Conrad - Brujah, had his hand severed
- Nizchetus - Toreador, died
- Talbot - Gangrel antitribu
- Jarthis Giovanni
Terminology[]
Alli Allahis (Persian Magi), Anarch Revolt, Ball, Black Forest, Bone Gnawers, Book of Nod, Camarilla, Carnival, Cats, Children of Osiris, Conventicles, Convergence, Diabolist, Faerie, Finland, Gaki, Haiti, House Tytalus, Inconnu, Lupine, Madrid, Mage, Mexico, Milan, Necromancy, Oradea League, Order of Hermes, Osiris, Path of Caine, Path of Cathari, Path of Death and the Soul, Path of Evil Revelations, Path of Harmony, Path of Honorable Accord, Path of Power and the Inner Voice, Quebec, Relics, Rosicrucians (Mages), Sabbat Inquisition, Sabbat Lexicon: Abbot, Albigensian (or Cathar), Antitribu, Archbishop, Auctoritas Ritae, Bishop, Black Hand, Blood Feast, Brave, Brothers and Sisters, Canoonicus (or Patriot), Cardinal, Chief, City Gangrel, Code of Milan, Communal Haven, Consistory, Convention of Thorns, Corrupter (or Heretic), Coven, Country Gangrel, Creation Rites, Daughters and Sons (of Caine), Dementation, Dog, Elysian Fields, Esbat, Festivo dello Estinto, Fire Dance, Founded Pack, The Great Jyhad, Hand, Harmonist, Headhunter, Hulul, Ignobilis Ritae, Infidel, Indian, Inner Circle, Juice, Juice Bags, Jyhad, Kindred, Lasombra, Loyalist, Monomacy, Necronomist, Noddist, Nomadic Pack, Nomads or Nomadic Sabbat, Nosferatu Kingdom, Obtenebration, Outlander Gangrel, Pack, Pale Rider, Paladin, Palla Grande, Pander, Path of Enlightenment, Priest, Prior, Priscus, Prize, Recruit, Regent, Rules of Monomacy, Sabbat, Scout, Seraph, Siege, Slave, Sword of Caine, Templar, Tongue, True Sabbat, Tzimisce, Unifier, V, Vaulderie, Vicissitude, Vinculum, Voivode, War Party, Wild Hunt; Scandinavia, Serpents of Light, Society of Leopold, Spain, Synod, Thaumaturgy: Gift of Morpheus; Valkyries, Vestry, Werewolf,
Gallery[]
Character Templates[]
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