Vampire the Masquerade Live From The Succubus Club

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB4 9Clan: TremereGeneration: 13thBlood Potency: 1Humanity: 7General Difficulty: 5 / 3Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 6, Mental 6, Disciplines 6Secondary Attributes: Health 6, Willpower 7Exceptional Dice Pools: Insight 10, Persuasion 10, Occult 9 (The Dark Mother)Disciplines: Auspex 1 (Heightened Senses), Blood Sorcery 4 (A Taste for Blood, Extinguish Vitae, Scorpion’s Touch, Blood Aegis*; Rituals: Wake with Evening’s Freshness, Communicate with Kindred Sire, Deflection of Wooden Doom, Ward against Cainites), Dominate 1 (Cloud Memory)*Players Guide, p. 98In StoriesTHE LURE: Lola’s connection to music makes her one way the band can get involved with the Lunar Bloom community. They find one of her compositions in a closed forum on the dark web and decide to collaborate with her, or they happen to hear her shy performance during an open mic night at one of their usual haunts. Once the band gets to know Lola, she’ll want to pull them deeper into her world. Getting involved with the Bahari can be a risk or an opportunity depending what happens next.TWIN FLAMES: Lola becomes fascinated with one of the band members in a way that resembles infatuation. They have the courage and personal force to perform that she still struggles with in undeath. She finds them inspired and wants to learn more about what’s in their mind. She, on the other hand, has personal magnetism, untrained talent, and knowledge of secret things that might attract in turn.In the beginning, a relationship with Lola is all peyote in the wilderness, artsy parties, Blood Bond sex rituals, and hit duets. A little further down the line, it’s Lola Embracing her lover’s mortal relative so they can sacrifice their “shared childe” to her goddess.VILLAIN OR VICTIM: The Bahari are eager to sacrifice for Lilith and know that the greatest sacrifice you can make is your own childe. Lola might go this far if she gets the opportunity, but she herself might also become the victim of her sire’s growing desperation. Will the band help her as she goes through a crisis of faith or leave her to her demise? FURTHER MATERIALYou’ll find a further selection of mortal-facing institutions and characters that can fit in a music-focused chronicle in other Vampire: The Masquerade books. Some examples:The Ashfinders are a cult of Duskborn redworkers who have found a way turn the ashes of dead Kindred into a drug. Read more about them in Cults of the Blood Gods. The Circulatory System, described in Vampire and Gehenna War, is an international human trafficking ring.Blue Velvet, Red Noº 5 are popular Chicago-based nightclubs that you can find in Chicago by Night. If you’re looking to introduce more Kindred musicians, check out Kathy Glens from Chicago by Night or Misery from Children of the Blood.

Chapter Three: Unlife on Tour 5 0

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB5 1Chapter Three: UNLIFE ON TOURAmortal musician facing the many troubles of touring life can draw from online guidance or books and interviews with other artists. Many have walked down this road, and more than a few have written down their experiences in entertaining accounts.The dead have no such resources. Because of the Masquerade, a vampire has to know other Kindred before they can get a clue about what’s ahead. This is why even a bitter rival can be an important source of information if you’re dead.This chapter delves into the minutiae of the music business, touring unlife, and other elements that come up when vampires move among mortal society. The facades this requires can be elaborate and the intricate lies so plausible that even the vampires themselves start to believe in them.Performer First, Vampire SecondThe goals and desires of the players’ characters in a chronicle about the perilous journey to fame are mortal even if they themselves aren’t — they are performers first, vampires second. Their undead nature can be a help in their endeavors, but it also sets them back, as they struggle to plan around it and keep it under control. This balance is at the forefront of the issues you’ll be dealing with in play, and a constant vehicle of horror, as the Beast tempts the performer to sacrifice parts of their mortal self — perhaps the part that gives their art soul or the one that feels alive when they perform — in return for a stab at even greater success.NOT A MUSICIAN? NO PROBLEM!While this chapter sets up a lot of the groundwork for the Sound and Fury chronicle (see Chapter Five and Six), the ideas presented here can be adapted to other types of performers seeking fame. Individual members of a mixed coterie may use the ideas presented below as they seek fame locally.The Music IndustryEngaging with the music industry will be a big part of a band-focused chronicle, so it’s a good idea to have a rough idea of how it functions. Here’s a reminder that there are plenty of horrors to play with in the mortal experience, even without the Beast entering into the equation.In some ways, not much has changed since the old nights of rock ’n’ roll radio — money exchanged in brown paper bags has turned into stocks, cryptocurrency, and convertibles. The industry still runs on the desperation of those who have nothing and want everything, and actually making it has everything to do with who you summer with and whether you’re smart or lucky enough to ride the

Chapter Three: Unlife on Tour 5 2You know when you have one of those nights like you think you’re going to feed and then it just doesn’t happen? There’s always something that gets in the way at the last minute. It sucks, okay?Suck. Haha! I didn’t do that on purpose. I’m just easily amused.We don’t do a lot of private gigs. There’s money, but Cyfrin says they diminish what we’re trying to do. Okay, he didn’t say that. He actually said he didn’t want us to be whoring for rich fucks, and okay, I guess that’s his right, but also we sleep in the van sometimes. Why that doesn’t diminish what we do, I don’t know.But this time we were at a party, and it wasn’t even a rich fuck we were playing for. An upper middle class fuck at best. A big house, catering, they were having a Halloween party, and I guess we fit the picture.First I tried to hunt when we were setting up. I figured the daughter had to be a lesbian, and I thought I had a chance, chat her up, listen to her talk about an internship at the office of some politician.Then there was the guy at catering, he kept asking what my real name was, and I told him to fuck off, and I was sure once he went out for a smoke I could taste him, but he never went alone, they always went in like two at a time. The fuckers.We played our first set, and Cyfrin was right—it was humiliating. Nobody gave a fuck. We were a joke to them. Because it was Halloween.I got mad okay, Cyfrin was right. These people suck. I’m not a monster! I don’t kill people!But yeah, I killed that guy who kept calling me Dumdum—it’s my name and it’s fine, but if you say it wrong with like a sneer, like you think you’re better somehow, well fuck you then.It became a whole thing. Asad helped me carry him outside. We made it like he’d been... Who cares? Every vampire learns to do this shit.Anyway, let’s like not diminish ourselves. That’s the lesson.—The Toreador Dumdum, keyboards in the band Pale Sunrise, rambles to an unconscious victim

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB5 3waves of the coming zeitgeist before everybody else. Talent and determination are good to have, too, but they’re only the beginning.In other ways, the landscape of the industry has radically changed. Globalization has made big corporate players more influential than small governments; the rise of streaming services has pushed radio to the side, and the internet has given every small artist a chance to break through on their own — or at least granted the illusion of a chance.The Power PlayersSTREAMING PLATFORMS: Tonight, streaming platforms provide for four-fifths of all music consumption, making music more accessible than ever before and giving artists a chance at greater exposure, if they pay the right people for it. The platforms may pretend to be ruled by democratic algorithms, but they hold untold influence over which artists get pushed into your ear canal when you press “next” on shuffle.RADIO: Despite having fallen from its glory days, local radio stations can still provide the lift an artist needs to make it out of anonymity. This is especially true for subcultural genres, such as metal, classical, or country, where radio hosts can be the critics who give an up-and-coming band the stamp of approval that gets the bookings flowing.RECORD LABELS: Streaming and digital technology may have democratized the production of music to some degree, but major labels remain massive stakeholders in the music industry. Where they once had a factual monopoly on music production, their focus has shifted to promotion, marketing, and distribution. Much of the industry sells a fantasy that artists can blow up unsigned, but in reality, most are nothing without the backing of a label — especially the industry plants who say they made it on an old guitar and the love and support of their fans.Labels are masters of playing the fame game, and they have connections that run decades deep with bribes, champagne lunches, and mutual favors. They can offer financial backing and distributor agreements, promote you, book your tours, get you into ads and movies and onto the red carpet, and even coordinate your music videos. Big labels employ talent scouts, produce albums, and do their own distribution. Minor labels leave distribution — getting the recorded songs into stores and onto streaming services and collecting royalties — to dedicated distribution services or collaborate with bigger labels for the service.MUSIC PUBLISHERS: Publishers are in the business of owning the compositions and lyrics of songs and earning money based on those copyrights. That means that one company, or artist, can own the master recordings of their greatest hits — the mechanical copyright — and another entity can own TYPES OF RECORD DEALSThe Traditional Deal: The label takes ownership of the artist’s recordings for the duration of the copyright. The artist receives an advance and royalties on each sale. 360 Deal: The label gets a piece of any money the artist might make for the duration of the contract, including publishing, touring, endorsements, movie appearances, perfume deals, and so on.Indie Deal: The label provides a lower advance in return for a more favorable percentage of the revenue of a project.Production Deal: Between a production entity and an artist. Does not include distribution.Joint Venture: The label and the artist share the profits of a project 50/50.Upstreaming Deal: A smaller label gets distribution through a bigger label on the condition that the bigger label takes over the deal with the artist if they reach a certain level of success.Licensing Deal: The artist keeps their copyright, but the label gets the right to promote and distribute the music to generate revenue.

Chapter Three: Unlife on Tour 5 4the song itself, including the rights to publish the sheet music and license it out for new recordings.Music publishers often have hit-making songwriters on their staff.FANS: Thanks to social media platforms, artists can connect almost directly with their fans to promote their music, and going viral can make or break a career. Fan communities can amplify an artist’s reach, spark grassroots movements, start trends, or even influence the decisions of record labels. An artist with a strong connection to their fan base can count on them for support but also risks their anger if they let them down.Making MoneyRECORDINGS: Selling recorded music only provides a small part of the revenue for most artists in these nights, as the income per streamed song is minuscule, and the distributor, publisher, and record label take a cut as well.SYNC LICENSING: The use of music in combination with a visual project can make significant money if you get picked up by a major company for an ad campaign or the right movie or video game. Sometimes the immediate payout isn’t much, but the money will come later if the exposure makes you famous.TEACHING: Many small-time musicians supplement their income by teaching. They might have a YouTube channel or give lessons to surly teenagers early in the evening. This is assuming they don’t just work a normal, non-music-related job to supplement their income.LIVE MUSIC: Playing gigs is the dominant income stream for a majority of artists, from the small-town, small-band high school parties and weddings to the world tours and stadiums of the ultra-famous. Concert tickets can be sold for high fees, depending on the venue and your fame. This means that if you want to make a living in a band, you need to tour, sometimes playing six gigs a week.MERCH: Selling t-shirts and other merchandise at concerts and online is an important part of the modern artist’s revenue stream. Sometimes it may feel like the music is just advertising for the actual business of selling stuff.

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB5 5GIG WORK: Often, moderately successful artists supplement their income by doing musical gig work. This may include writing songs for other artists, composing video game soundtracks, and doing jingles for ad agencies.FameGetting famous on purpose isn’t easy. You have to find the right people, the right place, and the right time. You have to work your ass off. But it’s all worth it in the end. You hope.There’s good parts: making music all the time. Playing nice instruments; so much better than the bargain-bin drum kits and keyboard you made do with for years. Looking down at the people dancing on the floor and feeling the big, swirling connection of adulation rising up to meet you.There’s the bad: freedom and privacy and spontaneity slipping away with each concert, album, and publicity tour. The growing paranoia of eyes watching you, knowing you will be killed for real if you slip up just once.Then there’s the good parts that make you feel bad, and the bad parts that make you feel a little too good. No matter how much you might tell yourself that you’re just doing it to survive or help the band, there’s no denying that you’re really, really enjoying drinking it all up.Selling Out or Making Good?One of the easiest ways to get famous is to strike a deal. You get the backing and funding of someone powerful and influential, and in return they get all of you. For some (like the Commercial Group, p. 78), this might be a dream come true. For others (like the Garage Band, p. 76), it’s their worst nightmare. Storytellers should judge Advantages or Flaws accordingly: the record executive might be a threeor four-dot Ally, or they might be an Enemy who’s bankrolling a rival band.The Fame GameThe Fame Game gives troupes a way to make “getting famous” a structured part of the chronicle. This section is optional; use it or don’t according to your taste. Rather than buying Fame (Vampire, p.186) individually, coteries playing a music chronicle have the option of spending Experience points to buy Fame for the whole band at once.With each dot of shared Fame, new Advantages, Flaws, and complications open. These Advantages (or a particular level thereof) cannot be taken until their Fame level is unlocked, after which they’re available at any point. Of course there’s a catch. If you don’t manage your image, your image manages you. When less than half of the coterie donates their Experience points to the Fame Game at the end of a story, the coterie chooses one of that level’s Flaws or complications to automatically come into play during the next story. The players choose the target of these randomly, although you might want to exclude someone who’s already been the target of this mechanic recently.In a way, it’s as close as a chronicle can get to mirroring the actual effort that goes into promoting and playing in a band. You’re doing this as a group: Whatever one person puts in is felt by everyone. On the flip side, isolating yourself and your experiences keeps the band playing small-time stuff longer and eats at the structure of the band.Donating and Tracking PointsThe number of experience points needed to unlock a new dot of Fame is six per dot. This means six points collectively donated to the Fame Game gets every member of the coterie one dot of Fame. Twelve more gets each member to two dots. As with any dot purchase, you cannot skip ahead and buy more than one dot per level.To track points, create a tracker on the Relationship Map. Mark how many experience points are needed to unlock each dot of Fame. As the chronicle continues, fill in the points you’re putting into the Fame Game and who donated them. You might use a different color for each coterie member’s points, to make donors clear.

Chapter Three: Unlife on Tour 5 6If a character loses a dot of Fame during a story, it affects only their Background. Unless they spend further points getting their Fame back to its previous level, they’ll continue to gain dots with the coterie at a personal penalty.FAME (NO DOTS)You don’t know anyone important in the scene yet, nor have they heard of you. You’re anonymous, and you need to find a way to make a splash. Remember — you won’t be nobody for long. Make the most of it.FAME •People have heard your name, maybe seen a poster or two. You’re opening for a solid act, and you’ve got a great single. That one website mentions you, a grainy video in “Fifteen Songs We’re Listening To Right Now.” You’ve got some sway with devoted concertgoers in a few venues. You’re recognized in local bars and clubs, even if you’re not playing — any Stealth tests in music venues may suffer +1 to the Difficulty.▪ Herd (•+)▪ Influence (•)▪ Retainer (•+)Unless a character has a Retainer at the start of a chronicle, assume it may take at least two dots of Fame to find anyone devoted enough to count as a Retainer.▪ Ally (• to •••)The more Fame the coterie has, the more Allies consider them a valuable friend. With every two dots of Fame the coterie gains, the Storyteller may give an Ally an extra dot of Reliability. FLAWS AND COMPLICATIONS▪ Resonance Sensitivity (•+)▪ Enemy (•+)A spiteful rumor or crushing truth about a band no one’s heard of doesn’t do much. But the more Fame the coterie gains, the more weight Enemies’ actions hold. For every two dots of Fame, a recurring Enemy may gain one dot of Effectiveness.▪ Dark SecretMusic fans have a habit of talking to each other; especially online, beyond the reach of your Disciplines. It’s very easy for people to start comparing notes and come to some terrible conclusions.FAME ••You’re the ones with openers, now. The band has actual fans, people who wear your merch, buy your tickets, and cover your songs online. Better yet, there’s a bit of cash in your pocket — not a lot, but enough to give you a slight edge in finding Resources. You can use your Fame on Social tests with people in the local music scene, as well as listeners of your particular genre. You’re officially making that splash. All Larceny or Stealth tests are Difficulty plus one in music venues.▪ Influencer (p. 25)▪ Contacts (•+)▪ Influence (••)FLAWS AND COMPLICATIONS▪ Compromised Haven (••) (Perils of the Road, p. 61)If the Haven merit is in play, Storytellers may subtract one dot per level of Fame for Havens to reflect increasing difficulty for secrecy and security.▪ Mortal Pretender (•+) (p. 26)FAME •••Any given person in the music industry knows of you and has an opinion. Packed venues filled with cheering fans, nice equipment, free hotel rooms, money, money, money… You can use your name to get into pretty much any “music” space, be it a club, a bar, a jam session, or even a fellow musician’s house. Whether you get to stay is another story. If you attempt Stealth or Larceny in a music venue or any other space with fifteen or more mortals (and their phones), the test may suffer +2 to the Difficulty — unless you’re successfully Disguised.▪ Enduring Fame (p. 25)▪ Influence (•••+)▪ Resources (•••)

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB5 7FLAWS AND COMPLICATIONS▪ Stalkers (•)Some nosy fans cross the line from devotees to alltoo-devoted with frightening ease. They pore through records, social media, and videos of performance sets to tease out “clues” about their fixation and feed an ever-growing parasocial obsession. They’re so eager to get close to you that they’d do just about anything. Is this a perfect blood bag throwing itself at your feet? Or a dangerous liability you have to deal with before it’s too late? Storytellers can wait on player action to discover if Stalkers become Retainers or Enemies.FAME ••••Your music has reached listeners all over the world. You are recognized most places you go. When you go to a bar or a restaurant, gaggles of fans gather outside to shout your name. Someone sent an anonymous envelope filled with hair (theirs, you think) to your green room. You have major sway over anyone in the music business: With any venue, record label, or musician, your Social tests are Difficulty minus three. Against your fans, the Difficulty of Social tests is minus four. Anything you want to do quietly needs to be done in Disguise or by someone less noticeable, unless you want to risk a Difficulty plus four.▪ Ally (•••+) ▪ Resources (••••+) FLAWS AND COMPLICATIONS▪ Despised (••)People really hate you, now. Some professionally — the band that didn’t get your slot, or the agent you left behind, or the roadie you axed. Some just because they hate whatever’s popular or new, or feel like you’re not authentic enough. Some hate you because you’re vampires, damn it, or because they see the Masquerade fraying in your wake.FAME •••••People across the planet know your name. Everyone’s heard your music. You can buy anything, and meet anyone. You are never alone, and you are always watched.Live it up. It’s time to die.Fame and the Second InquisitionA coterie reaching for fame is constantly pushing the boundaries of the Masquerade, and getting found out should be a present and real threat. However, don’t let it overshadow the main stories of the chronicle. Losing your Mask early in the chronicle might be something a character can overcome, an opportunity to reinvent themselves. But if that mortal identity is the sum of everything the character has worked for, their artistic brand, and the owner of all their assets, losing it means starting over from scratch. So as a consequence, take it as seriously as character death.The baseline truth of chronicles focusing on mortals has to be that most of the time, vampires can exist among mortals without anything going terribly wrong that can’t be quietly buried. Use the threat of discovery to create tension, and let each increased threat level provide an opportunity to recover — at a cost.

Chapter Three: Unlife on Tour 5 8The Second Inquisition begins with a single cop doing a double take, performing a welfare check, or noticing that your driver’s license is too old. A Masquerade breach starts with what’s assumed to be special effects or a few teens seeing something that they shouldn’t have in a dimly lit room. Vampires aren’t real, after all.Nights on the RoadTouring is a complicated endeavor even for mortal artists. For the undead, it easily becomes a nightmare.The Touring CycleA tour can begin as much as a year before the band leaves town. Tour promoters and agents start by signing artists to perform and building a tour strategy that prioritizes major cities and festivals. Then the tour is booked in collaboration with local promoters. Meanwhile, the band typically produces an album — the one they’ll be performing — scrambling to write and record everything in time or at least practice their existing material. Promotion and ticket sales come next. Then the practical preparations: plane tickets, car rental, coffin and equipment shipping. Then, finally, the crew can follow and the concerts can begin. A lot of individuals are involved in this process, meaning that things can go horribly wrong on many different occasions.For a smaller band, going on tour may be more of an ad hoc affair. The promoter calls up venues and tries to get them to pay at least beer money. Equipment gets packed into the van, and the band prepares to spend the next few months on the road.The Crew You Roll WithWhom do you travel with? Is your tour crew just the band with a few groupie ghouls in the back of the van, or is it a full tour bus with several motor homes and trailers full of roadies, label representatives, backup singers, a tech crew, and a documentary EVERYONE INVOLVEDThese are some of the people who might be involved in a medium to large tour from the planning phase until the stage show:▪ The artists▪ A tour manager, who helps put together the tour crew and organizes the administration of the tour▪ A tour publicist, who works to promote the tour by securing interviews and reviews▪ The producer, who produces the album the artists have to finish before they go on tour▪ A booking agent, responsible for selling shows to venues▪ An advance person, who travels ahead to each tour location to quality-check accommodations and facilities▪ A tour promoter who funds the tour and all the preparations▪ Local promoters, who work for venues to buy gigs from agents and/or tour promoters▪ A road manager, who goes on the road with the crew to deal with logistics and keep everything running smoothly for the band▪ A production manager, who leads the tech crew▪ Lighting technicians▪ Sound technicians▪ Tour bus driver▪ Assistants, roadies, and runners▪ Stage managers, working for the local venues▪ Music journalists, reviewers, and photographers▪ Security personnel▪ Fans

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB5 9filmmaker? Touring looks different depending on the composition of the crew.AlliesTraveling is dangerous business for vampires, and you’re probably setting yourselves up for an early (but possibly rock ’n’ roll) final death if you don’t have some informed Retainers and ghouls among the crew who can protect you and represent your interests in the sunlit hours.Enemies WithinA larger tour crew will also include risk in the form of mortals who aren’t aware of the secret they’re part of protecting or who have been forced to participate one way or another. Touring with anyone outside your inner circle of trust is a Masquerade risk, but the music industry is a powerful beast all on its own, and you can’t always keep control who comes along. You’ll have to come up with good excuses for why you sleep all day or pay your crew enough that they lose interest in asking.Crew SizeThe bigger the crew, the bigger the risk. But the more famous you become, the more people automatically begin to trail behind you.JUST THE BAND: 3–6 PEOPLEUPSIDES: You can talk freely in the van, and there’s no one to watch over your shoulder. You’re free to make impulsive decisions and can more easily travel without drawing attention to yourselves.DRAWBACKS: Unless you’re a Duskborn band, you’ve got no one to protect you and your interests in the daytime. You become totally reliant on local contacts and your ability to think on your feet.SMALL CREW: 7–10 PEOPLEUPSIDES: You travel fast and light. Your crew is small enough that you can easily keep track of everyone and what is being talked about between the crew members.DRAWBACKS: Your mortal crew members are too few to feed on except in the direst emergencies.MEDIUM CREW: 11–15 PEOPLEUPSIDES: You’re few enough that you can easily find accommodation with a bit of planning. You can quickly get to know everyone on the crew well. You rarely have to do much heavy lifting by yourselves.DRAWBACKS: Your crew is too large to be controlled entirely, and you’ll have to be extra careful to protect the Masquerade. You can only rarely get away with feeding on crew members.LARGE CREW: 15+UPSIDES: Your mortal crew is large enough that you can occasionally use them as a back-up feeding option, as long as you are careful not to lose control or feed from the same vessel.DRAWBACKS: Paying and feeding this many crew members is expensive. You have a hard time keeping gossip from spreading. If your crew should turn against you, you’ll be in real trouble.- This Life -We live in nests of broken glassWhose thousand cuts we cannot feelWe try to drown the harpy soundsBut we can’t hide from claws and beaksThis life bleedsThis life seethesThis life screamsThis life dreams

Chapter Three: Unlife on Tour 6 0Feeding on the GoYou can build a mortal crew that also functions as a moving Herd (assuming you invest in the Advantage), but unless your coterie is part of a 300-person symphonic orchestra, primarily feeding on the tour crew will get messy, bad, and dangerous, as people start wasting away and the roadies get so anemic they lose their ability to do their jobs. Such a tour can still be an excellent experience, but one more akin to Dracula’s voyage on the cargo ship Demeter than the first world tour of a best-selling band. So, if you hope to tour with the same crew more than once, plan to feed on the road.LIVE PERFORMANCES: There’s almost always someone happy to go backstage with the band after a killer concert. In the drunken chaos of it all, it’ll be hours before anyone notices if something goes wrong with the feeding.ALONG THE HIGHWAY: Picking up hitchhikers isn’t as easy as it once was, but you can still do it with a bit of charm, depending on how shady your van appears to be.IN THE CITY: The problem with feeding in new cities is you don’t know whose territory you encroach upon, at least if you disobey the Tradition of hospitality and don’t introduce yourself to the local NEW IN TOWN?Almost all Kindred keep the Masquerade, in one way or another. The pressure of the Second Inquisition causes domains to obscure themselves to various degrees, much to the consternation of the few Kindred who travel from town to town. In some domains, you could even avoid other Kindred all together, but that rarely ends well once the owner becomes aware.Follow the White Rabbit: Once upon a time, the urban centers had architecture with integrated hints for new arrivals to decipher the court’s location. The modern equivalent takes the form of graffiti on public buildings or billboards, using subtext-filled phrases and recognizable iconography. This steers visitors towards a point of contact, typically a defunct phone booth, an intercom in a back alley or a confessional.The Classified Ads: While print media is almost completely dead, older Kindred often ready the newspapers on a nightly basis, and either opinion pieces or classified ads with subtle hints can provide points of contact with other Kindred.Letter of Intent: Like with larger predators, you often don’t want to surprise other Kindred with a visit to their domain. If you have a name, an address or just a location for a dead-drop, stating your intent through a letter is the safest way to approach, especially in Camarilla domains. This letter might take the form of a hollowed-out book or a Morse code recording with coordinates for a meet-up.Courier: Vampires are dangerous, and any courier sent to an address filled with predators needs to be trustworthy, capable and expendable. Often, you are lucky if you have only one of those covered. A courier can be entrusted with a letter, a submerged direction, to serve as a go-between, if they return at all.Making Camp: While actual camping in the wild is dangerous, staying in a hotel on the outskirts of a domain while locating other Kindred is often the safest way to approach when unannounced. Like regular camping, there is the matter of supplies, meaning dining on transients or sex workers rouse less suspicion.Fly-Fishing: Using bait to lure in the hunters is a time-honored tradition, and in this case, the bait is either a ghoul or a mortal, dressed up to the nines and either laced with narcotics or manipulated into an intense Resonance. Letting them go into the nightlife under close surveillance, eventually, a local vampire cannot resist.A Vampire Party: Kindred are drawn to parties like flies to sugar. Arriving to start an impromptu rave or escalating a club to a feverish pitch is a surefire way to draw out the local Kindred and gain the attention of their ruler.Biting into the Rack: The most direct method is also the riskiest. Track down the best hunting grounds, go out and feed then hope that the location is either the local Rack, or the holder of the domain in question doesn’t mind a bit of poaching.

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB6 1Kindred. But it’s quick and easy if you’re willing to risk the consequences.IN CROWDS: Festivals and conferences are made for quick, anonymous meetings between strangers. They don’t even have to know who you are.ON THE APPS: Scam artists pretend to be famous people all the time to get people to chat with them. It’ll work for you too, and no one will even believe your victims later when they try to explain what they think you did.Perils of the RoadWhat risks is your band willing to take to make it to the concert on time, cover as much territory as possible, and make your supporters happy? And how do you deal with the dangers that inevitably arise along the way?DAYTIME Travel: If you trust your Retainers to move you while you are unconscious, you can make quick progress, traveling in the daytime and playing every night. If you don’t, you’ll move much slower, driving for a few hours every night before you have to hunt. On nights when you’ve got gigs, you hardly move at all.RACING THE DAWN: Sometimes the gig starts at one in the morning, and after it’s done, you still need to feed and have fun. What’s your backup plan for making a quick getaway? With a sunproof vehicle and a number of safe houses along the journey, you can afford to take more risks, but when you lose yourself in the music, the bass keeps going, and the drugs kick in, the rising sun can easily take you by surprise.TEN TASKS FOR COURIERSLove Letters: The coterie is tasked with ensuring a pair of envelopes are delivered to certain Kindred at their next destination. The perfumed letters give away the intent, but their delivery causes a lot of offense with the recipient’s incensed partner.Violins: Five antique violins are meant to be handed over to a Toreador at the next destination. Fragile and easily out of tune, the recipient is going to be furious with the coterie if they’re harmed.Crystalline Make-Up Jar: This luxury beauty product comes with a gold-inlaid monogram and a bejeweled exterior. It is meant to be delivered to a high-ranking Kindred, but there is something about the jar’s smell that compels the Beast.Babysitting: A young-looking fledgling is meant to be transported to their sire at the next destination. Trouble follows in the form of their Duskborn boyfriend.The Husk: This is a dried-up husk of a bear. While macabre, the husk is a relic required to be delivered to a Kindred at the next destination. One of the coterie is haunted in their daysleep by this bear, marking them in the eyes of the Koldun.Unmarked Cargo: Unwilling to share what is inside, the sender pays a large sum of money not to ask questions.Sword: Dated to be around seven-hundred years old, this antique sword is to be handed to the local sheriff. When the coterie arrives, the sheriff has recently suffered Final Death under unknown circumstances, and the sword belonged to the sheriff.Skull: A black metal band calls in a favor with the coterie to smuggle their iconic skull prop across the border while the band keeps a fake skull on their tour-bus. Someone has tipped off the law about the prop being the real skull of their former lead singer. When a local Hecata shows up to claim this skull, what does the coterie do?Drugs: The Ashfinders hide their product in the tour-bus, and the coterie needs to d eal with the fallout when the Sheriff of their next destination finds it with them.Book: A dog-eared and ragged romantasy novel, meant to be given to a high-ranking Toreador. When delivering the book, it becomes clear that this is a part of a longstanding stalker situation, and the receiver is taking offence.

Chapter Three: Unlife on Tour 6 2Crossing Into New DomainsDo you somehow call ahead to announce your arrival when you cross into another vampire’s domain or simply sneak in and hope you aren’t noticed? If the Prince doesn’t like the visit, they might say you only get two nights in town before you have to get out, demand a fee to let you play, take the life of a member of your crew to teach you a lesson, or insist on having a member of their court accompany you for the duration of your stay.The consequences of infringing upon strange domains can range from troublesome to dire, but a chronicle built around touring only works insofar as the band remains able to travel — so whatever happens, it shouldn’t make it impossible to move from place to place.Other MonstersYou run into all types when you travel, especially on a low budget. Depending on the type of chronicle, the Storyteller might make monstrous encounters more or less rare, but the risks can include everything from werewolves and mages to weird, lonely serial killers. Traveling in groups lowers the risk, but you won’t always be together, and the aesthetics that make you stand out as cool and unique in the big city mark you as a victim in the small countryside towns along the road.CouriersTraveling is dangerous for the undead and electronic communications may be compromised by a Second Inquisition agency. This means that getting a message from one domain to the next is not always as easy as it is for mortals. Because of this, there’s a niche for nomadic Kindred to make themselves useful.For a powerful Prince or a Nosferatu seeking access to new information, a courier presents a chance to convey messages to their peers somewhat reliably, without the risk of electronic interception. Some Kindred, often Gangrel or Ravnos, even make a career out of delivering messages for the powerful, becoming too useful to terminate even after they’ve learned too many secrets for their own good.As visitors to a domain, couriers are often much more welcome than random interlopers, making the task attractive to those seeking to travel.EIGHT WEIRD REFERRALSLetter of Introduction: The letter from an ancilla gives the coterie a direct way to the domain’s court and they are treated as kings. But as midnight approaches, the court becomes more and more eager to know which of the coterie is the new scapegoat.The Blind Date: The referral makes easy work of earning the trust of the destination, but it does require taking the Prince’s childe out for a date.Getting Blitzed: When the coterie arrives at court, they suddenly coerced to partake in debauchery that seems excessive even to Kindred.Party Favor: Using the referral needs to sweeten the pot, so the coterie is recommended to bring a hapless mortal as a party favor for the Baron.Shooting the Messenger: While the passcode was correct, when telling the Prince who told them where to go, a frenzied Gangrel lunges from the crowd towards the coterie.Smoker’s Club: While the Prince is welcoming, they do not trust the Kindred. Sitting down with a cigar, slowly enduring the approaching ember is a true test of character.The Hotel: The referral leads the coterie to a specific hotel, where a trapped room keeps them contained and starved until the paranoid locals can verify their story.The Midnight Circus: While it is not a location of the court, every Kindred attends the eponymous Midnight Circus, and the tickets are sold out everywhere else.

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB6 3TRAVELING KINDREDMost Kindred are sedentary, watching over their domains and herds. A few clans, coteries, and individuals with certain feeding preferences are known as wanderers and travelers, though there are plenty of exceptions to prove these are stereotypes rather than rules. A player’s character may be the exception or the rule, while Storytellers might consider emphasizing the stereotypes to keep the world in line with players’ expectations. Any of these options may have a predisposition to travel, which helps when seeking fame.Caitiff and Duskborn: Clanless and thin-bloods have been chased out of many domains since they were discovered by Kindred society, leading many to choose childer amenable to a transient lifestyle.Gangrel and Ravnos: These clans have also historically wandered both as individuals and in terms of sires choosing childer from among individuals and groups that travel.Salubri: The Salubri have been in hiding for centuries, and travel is part and parcel of their lot, similar to Caitiff and the Duskborn.Ventrue and Tzimisce: These clans rarely travel, but when their preferred food source or property is migratory, they have no choice but to follow.Roadside Killers (see p. 26): These Kindred are well-positioned to travel, though feeding on transient populations does not require one to be transient by any means.Pursuer and Extortionist: These Predator Types may travel regularly when their prey does.Alleycats, Baggers, Blood Leeches, Sandmen, and Sirens: These make viable Predator Types for traveling as they may have fewer connections to their prey. After a misstep, they may be eager to leave town till the heat dies down.Some blood leeches hunt other Kindred (rather than extorting a red tax from their lessers or cashing in boons for vitae). Many of these flee Blood Hunts if they’re caught red-handed (or red-mouthed, as the case may be), setting up in a new Domain under a new name. Of course, arriving in a city with no clue where the local Kindred gather presents its own problems.Coterie Types: Carnival (Chicago by Night, p. 260), Fugitives (Players Guide, p. 160), and Nomads (Players Guide, p. 165) coterie types are the most well-known for travel. Envoys (Players Guide, p. 161) and Flagellants (Players Guide, p. 160) may also move around, though not always to the same extent.

Chapter Three: Unlife on Tour 6 4ReferencesEvery ruler worries when someone unknown arrives at their door. Kindred are known liars and every new vampire is a potential source of trouble. This is why referrals are so important. A letter of reference from someone known to the local ruler goes a long way in establishing trust, or what passes for trust among the dead.A reference is not easy to get, however. Powerful Kindred know the value of their word of support and like to ask for services in return.Distance Is MoneyIntercontinental travel doesn’t come cheap, especially not if you need the safety and security of anonymous travel in sun- and bulletproof containers. To safely travel the world as a vampire, taking full advantage of the amenities provided only to the very rich, you’ll need to invest in Resources up to at least four dots. You can get far with Fame, Influence, and Disciplines as well, but if you don’t pay your dues, sooner or later someone somewhere in the infrastructure you take advantage of will start asking questions, and they’ll probably be asking them from the top floor of a skyscraper thousands of kilometers away, where they’ll be hard to influence.Air TravelBUDGET: Long-distance air travel can be done on a budget if you have the support of mortal contacts on both ends, who can arrange for the safe delivery of the container with your body. Arrange to travel as a corpse — even regular planes often carry them discreetly in the hold. For shorter distances, where travel will just take a few hours, everything included, you can board the plane like everybody else as long as you’re willing to risk problems caused by delayed flights and Second Inquisition surveillance of airports.COMFORTABLE: If you have the money to travel in business class, use priority lanes and wait in exclusive lounges, your time fraternizing with the common rabble can be reduced to a minimum. This is useful especially if you’re famous enough to attract attention wherever you go.LUXURIOUS: For passengers of private planes, air travel is very different. You get to circumvent the public areas of the airport entirely both on arrival and on takeoff, and the only interaction your crew ever needs to have with border control is when one of you hands them your stack of passports for a quick perusal. You won’t even have to deal with security checks unless the owner of the plane decides to pat you down or you’re very obviously transporting DIFFICULT VENUESMaking money on tour has its own difficulties. An aspiring band may run across a multitude of issues, some related to money and others not.Backstage Terrors: The venue promised a proper backstage, but it turns out it’s just their beer storage. You can apply makeup while sitting on a crate.Beer Sales: A disreputable venue keeps asking the band to postpone the start of the gig in 15 minute increments because they want to sell more beer before the music starts.Big Online: The venue demands to know how many followers the band has on different social media platforms to get a sense of how popular they are before accepting a booking.Do It for the Exposure: The venue is willing to let the band play, but they’re not going to pay for it.Percentage of the Sales: The venue wants a portion of the band’s merch sales.Mic in the Teeth: During the performance at an intimate club gig, someone in the crowd pushes the microphone stand. The mic hits the singer in the teeth, causing them to bleed from the mouth.Renegotiating the Fee: The venue’s manager wants to renegotiate the fee after the gig is over. They argue that the crowd was too small, the drinks sales too low, and they can’t afford to pay the band what was promised.

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB6 5high-risk goods, like explosives or certain animals. If the crew is trustworthy, you can fly through the day sleeping in a dark compartment.By SeaBUDGET: You can cross the Atlantic or the Pacific disguised as freight on a cargo ship. The journey takes at least a week plus time spent at ports along the way, and the crew is only 20–30 people. If they all start feeling sick during the journey, the ship might enter quarantine and be stopped outside the port of arrival, so you’ll need a better plan than feeding on them. A ship transporting livestock might do the trick. These are old and run-down repurposed cargo ships, and a single one can carry more than 4,600 cattle or twice as many sheep, which provides plenty of antibiotics-laced slaughterhouse blood for a coterie of punk vampires, even if you start to go insane sinking your teeth into the thick wool after a few nights.COMFORTABLE: Travel by leisurely cruise is time consuming but not totally impractical. Book a budget cabin below the waterline to ensure you’ll never be bothered by surprise sunlight for the duration of the journey. Of course, it’s also a deathtrap with no real avenues of escape except the sea should you find yourself beset by enemies.LUXURIOUS: For smaller distances and bigger budgets, a private superyacht can be a comfortable way to get around — such vessels can also cross oceans, but changing weather conditions means that the risk of delay makes sailing more of a leisure activity than a reliable way to reach a destination at a certain time. 

Chapter Four: Create Your Rockstar Vampire 6 6

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB6 7Chapter Four: CREATE YOUR ROCK STAR VAMPIREWanna be a star?The path to becoming a vampire rock star is not easy. The gifts of Caine may help here or there, but the Blood doesn’t grant Kindred musical skills or a deep connection with the audience. When it comes to making it as a working musician, the vampire needs to put in hours of practice — the same as any mortal.This chapter details the process of creating your own vampire band. It builds on the character creation process in Vampire: The Masquerade (p. 135) by adding archetypes and templates for both individual characters and different types of bands. By choosing between them, or even mixing and matching elements from different ones, you can make sure that you have a character well-suited for unlife on tour.And who knows, perhaps tonight is the night a talent scout sees your gig and catapults you to fame!Get the Band TogetherYou can use the archetypes below as foundations on which to build your character. They can be combined to create different types of bands. We recommend choosing your archetype before you go through character creation, unless you already have an old character ready to go, as this helps you craft characters who are musicians first, vampires second.The IconWhen you walk on stage, you become who you were always meant to be. You’ve got that rare thing others have to buy in Blood — star quality. When you capture a crowd, you’ve really got them. They look at you and think you are the music. Like a psychedelic divine spirit, you can make them feel, cry, shriek, float, and fall.You could be the lead vocalist or guitarist, the face of the band, maybe even its namesake. But no matter what else you do, you’re the one who talks on stage. The others might have opinions about that, but what are they gonna do? The crowd wants you.Down the road, you might struggle with a lack of inspiration, become cocksure that your talent is innate and prioritize the parties over practice, or worry that your bandmates are turning on you. The one who starts at the front doesn’t always stay there.

Chapter Four: Create Your Rockstar Vampire 6 8We thought long if we should play here. I wondered what was this ersatz Succubus Club in Brussels? The real thing is in Chicago! They say that the club is no one place. It moves, held in one city, then another. But that’s bullshit, and who are these people running the club here anyway? They don’t have any connection to the Chicago club.They want us to think they do, but they don’t. They’re poseurs.Authenticity is very important to me. When we interact with our fans, when we perform, when we speak, the essence of what we are is out in full force.The Masquerade? I’m not talking about being a vampire or whatever. What does that mean? No, I’ talking about the voice we have as artists. That’s what matters, not the fact that I’m dead.So, we should not have come here, right? This place is fake.But I ask you: Among the Kindred, what’s more authentic than the fake?Nothing! We fake our lives among the mortals. We try to fool each other with our games of status and power. Our existence is dedicated to the lying surface.For a fake people like us, the lie is our truth.Also they paid us triple our usual fee.—The Hecata Cyfrin Pariah, vocalist in the band Pale Sunrise, to a newly made vampire acquaintance at the Succubus Club in Brussels

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB6 9But right now, the stars are calling you. They can tell you’re one of them.Clan: The Ventrue, Brujah, and Toreador especially adore the spotlight.Predator Type: You’ll have little trouble as aConsensualist, Osiris, Scene Queen, or Siren.Traits: Prioritize Social Attributes and Skills, especially Charisma, Leadership, and Performance. Putting some dots into Presence might also come in handy if you’re feeling low when it’s time to go on stage. No one has to know if your charm doesn’t always come naturally.Ambitions: There’s one major Ambition for the Icon — stardom. You should define what that means in specific terms. When will you know that you’ve made it? You’ll need the rest of the band to get there, so you’re in this together. At least until the offers to go solo start coming in.Touchstones: Your Touchstones remind you of something pure or hopeful that was once at the center of your being: another musician, an ex you’re still on good terms with, or your old music teacher who still comes out to hear you play.Convictions:▪ The concert space is sacred and nothing may disturb it.▪ Bringing joy into the world is always justified.▪ You’ve earned the right to a second chance.Desires: What you want in the moment often centers around what you think stardom should entail or what you think the next step is to getting there. It might be playing in a specific venue, a collaboration with a poet you admire, or getting the number of a stunner you spotted on the street and have now decided you’re going to marry. You can be quite romantic.The VisionaryPretentious as fuck, you’re probably heavily involved with songwriting. You could be an entirely selftaught genius, but more than likely, you were taught music theory at Juilliard, the Royal Academy, or Peabody. You’ve mastered several instruments. You know that you’re the real leader of the band, and you can get bossy trying to keep its machinery running smoothly. You might be the manager, producer, the sound mixer, the second vocalist, the keyboardist, none of those, or all of them at once.Your problem is that sometimes you get depressed, questioning your own originality. You also get deep into ideas that, to the outside world, can look like complete nonsense but have the potential to turn into gold. Sometimes, it’s impossible for your bandmates to tell which it is until you emerge from your trailer with the outlines of a new album.You have a substance abuse problem of some sort besides blood. That kind of comes with the business you’re in, but you’ve self-medicated since long before you were Embraced.Clan: Your obsessive focus and dominant personality suits Toreador, Malkavian, and Tzimisce.Predator Type: Probably preferring to get hunting over with as quickly and easily as possible, you might be an Alleycat or a Roadside Killer. The trouble is forcing your victims to ingest your drug of choice beforehand.

Chapter Four: Create Your Rockstar Vampire 7 0Traits: Intelligence fits as your main Attribute, but Resolve and Manipulation are useful, too. Don’t forget to put dots into Skills representing your education, and make sure to take the Addiction Flaw.Ambitions: You want to create true art. In specific terms, that could mean releasing an album free of concessions made to demanding record company executives. It could also go deeper. Maybe your art is driven by a need to prove yourself to a sire who never believed in you.Touchstones: Someone you don’t want the rest of the band to know you care for: a roadie, a critic, your Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, or a member of another band.Convictions:▪ Breaking people helps them grow.▪ Genius must always be preserved.▪ Pain is temporary while great art is forever.Desires: Great short-term goals for this character are to get the other bandmates to do as they’re supposed to. But once in a while, you may also just want to make it through a few nights without giving in to your addiction.The RebelYou bring a punk edge to whatever you do, embodying raw energy and defiance. Your music skills are unrefined, but your stage presence is out of this world. When you aren’t challenging the heavens themselves in a solo, you spend your time on stage scouting out afterparty victims and hookups with smoldering glances. An irredeemable serial heartbreaker, you probably married someone in Vegas and forgot about it.In your mind, you’re already halfway to the stardom you envision in your future. It’s pure rock ’n’ roll, sex, drugs, and blood all the way, and every night’s another celebration. Running through all that is a longing to be truly immortal in the way that matters: to be remembered forever. If you don’t have a bigger cause yet, you easily get swept up in one. You take unnecessary risks for glory even when it’s got nothing to do with your music. The band wouldn’t be the same without you — you never give up hope, and you’re not going to give up on them either.Clan: Brujah or Ravnos would fit you well.Predator Type: An obvious Siren, but you could also be an Osiris or a Scene Queen.Traits: Mix Physical and Social Traits. You need Stamina as well as Performance to play the way you do. And someone so passionate easily gets into fights, so Brawl, Intimidation, or Persuasion should get some dots as well.Ambitions: This should be something simple yet delicious. Seeing your face on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine? If you gain a cause, you can exchange it for something more principled, as long as it still aligns with the overall direction of the chronicle.Touchstones: Consider having a Touchstone who connects you to a cause. Perhaps one of the roadies or another band member’s mortal younger sibling is convinced you can help them make the world a better place. Another good Touchstone represents friendship, loyalty, or family compromised by your vampiric nature. A childhood friend trying to break through as a drummer?Convictions:▪ Rebellion is good no matter the consequences.▪ Never abandon or turn on a friend or ally.▪ It’s okay to hurt those in power.Desires: You want to change the world, no biggie, and to feel alive even if you have to delude yourself. In the short-term, that might mean helping a bandmate deal with a problem they’re too much of a coward to admit they have, teaching a rude talent scout a lesson, or convincing a groupie they’d rather hook up with you than the Icon.The RockThere’s a beat in your mind, a deep and steady bass pulse, which keeps you centered. When you feed or play, it roars up like a muscle car. When you’re at rest, it’s more like the ghost of a pulse, but it never fully goes away. Others describe you as the silent type, but you’re just focused on what’s in front of you. You’ll speak up when there’s something worth saying.

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB7 1The rest of the band relies on you to keep them steady. You might be the drummer, literally keeping rhythm, or on bass, but you don’t mind getting your hands dirty with practical work either. When there’s a problem to be dealt with, whether it’s a clogged tour bus toilet or the corpse of the groupie who clogged it, you’re usually on it before the others stop arguing. That’s not to say you’ll take any shit. If the others piss you off sufficiently, you have no problem setting them right.You always get your practice in, no matter what else is going down.Clan: Banu Haqim, Gangrel, or Nosferatu would make good clans for you.Predator Type: Enjoying the hunt, you’d make a good Alleycat, Roadside Killer (see p. 26), or Pursuer (Players Guide, p. 108).Traits: You’re all about keeping your cool. Composure is your main Attribute, followed by Resolve. Physical Traits also helps a lot when you just want to do your own thing. Fortitude is particularly useful.Ambitions: You want to land a contract with a record label or get on a certain radio station.Touchstones: Good Touchstones could reflect your need for stability and respect for hard work. Options could include a hard-working roadie, an honest music industry contact, or a bartender at a venue you often play.Convictions:▪ You must always finish what you start.▪ The group comes before the individual.▪ Protecting people justifies everything.Desires: You’re here to create music, and most of your desires revolve around that. Examples could include recording a track, playing a flawless set, and finding and destroying a piece of evidence left behind by the lead singer after feeding.The PhantomOnce upon a time, in a past that no longer feels real, you had happiness. You had love. You had the seeds of a future. And you fucked it all up. You did something unforgivable that destroyed what you’d built and hurt your loved ones beyond what can ever be forgiven. It was right for you to die. But then, of course, death didn’t take. Unabsolved, you’re forced to wander Earth as a monster.Broody and depressed, you create music because it’s the only thing still worth doing. When you’re in the trance of it, you feel alive again. Sometimes, when you sing about what you lost, you can almost touch it. You’re probably a songwriter and vocalist with skills on the keyboard or piano. You spend a lot of time practicing, and you’re willing to suffer for the sake of your music. You don’t care much for fans or fame, but nothing feels as good as being on stage, giving a concert in the blinding lights, the melody

Chapter Four: Create Your Rockstar Vampire 7 2creeping up your spine and igniting your nerves. Nothing gives you such a rush, except maybe blood, which is filled with guilt and shame. At least the music is pure and untouched by the Beast.Clan: Your sense of right and wrong fits with Banu Haqim. The comfort you find in music might designate you a Toreador. You could be a Hecata or Malkavian, forever searching for signs from the other side.Predator Type: You could be an Alleycat with a vigilante streak, a Bagger, Blood Leech, or Farmer.Traits: A combination of Physical and Metal Traits fits you well as a fighter who was once a lover. Stealth, Performance, and Investigation or Occult are appropriate main Skills.Ambitions: While you blame yourself most of all, revenge is an appropriate Ambition for this character, as long as it still works within the overall framework of the chronicle. The one who hurt you is probably also a major enemy of the band.Touchstones: It’s good to have at least one Touchstone you see regularly even on tour. Perhaps they’re a groupie who makes you hopeful for your future with their genuine support. You can also have one you see less often but speak to on the phone when you can sneak away — a relative of your lost love or a childhood friend whose voice reminds you of your loss.Convictions:▪ Everything is allowed in order to protect innocence.▪ Destroying that which is evil is always right.▪ The music must be true no matter the cost.Desires: Every night you want to replace the pain you’re in with a better feeling. Your desires revolve around playing perfect gigs, tripping, getting into clubs where you’ll feel something, or just resisting urges that you are ashamed of.PLAYING DUSKBORN IN A MIXED COTERIEIncorporating a Duskborn character into a coterie of lower Generation Kindred can be done if some of the potential issues are addressed in advance:▪ If the players’ characters are playing neonates or ancillae that are a decade old, the Duskborn character has probably existed long enough to take a Predator Type, though the free dot of a Discipline is useless to them unless they have the Discipline Affinity merit.▪ Certain thin-blood merits, such as Day Drinker, can be quite disruptive, as one player can hog huge swaths of spotlight time. On the other hand, Dead Flesh and Twilight Presence can make it excessively difficult to interact with mortals.▪ The Anarchs, Camarilla, and other Kindred factions tend to distrust the Duskborn. How might vampiric authorities treat a Duskborn in a mixed coterie?These issues can usually be sorted with a quick discussion of how the Duskborn’s player and Storyteller see how the Duskborn’s unique abilities and restrictions might come into play.The FirebrandYou burn with a need to make things right, or at least better, in a broken world. Whether your cause is political, social, or even religious, your music cannot be separated from it. You write lyrics meant to wake people up to the truth, hand out zines between sets, and use your growing influence to rally people to your side. The rest of the band might be part of the same movement, but you’ve been fighting for your cause the longest. You might not play in the band — after all,

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB7 3while they’re performing is a great time to work the floor and pick out people to take backstage.You’ve got connections all over, which can come in handy when the band needs a safe place to park the van or clues about new venues to target. Problems can arise if other band members don’t agree with your cause. It should be something they’re at least theoretically supportive of, even if they don’t do much to further it.Despite your strongly held beliefs, you’re still a vampire, and your fundamental predatory nature may cause your most cherished cause to suffer eventually. Whether you believe you can fight your Hunger or not is up to you.Clan: Banu Haqim and Brujah are suitable.Predator Type: You’ll have an easy time finding vessels as a Scene Queen, but perhaps your beliefs make you a Bagger or a Blood Leech.Traits: Charisma or Manipulation are important if you want to be a convincing agitator. You’ve probably also picked up some dots in Larceny, Performance, Persuasion or Subterfuge, and Streetwise.Ambitions: You want to see your cause triumph, whatever that means in specific terms. Perhaps you want to grow the numbers of a grassroots movement to a certain size, bring down a corrupt system, or chase another band out of town for good. Your ambitions should align with the overall goals of the band — fame will also provide you with the platform you need to break through with your message. It could start a movement that changes everything.Touchstones: You should have at least one person ready to go on tour with you who embodies the best of your ideals and reminds you why you joined your cause. Someone who will be directly negatively affected if you fail is also good. Sharing a Touchstone with another band member can help keep you close.Convictions:▪ Don’t let circumstances compromise your beliefs.▪ Oppression must be resisted.▪ Speak truth to power, no matter the risk.Desires: Your short-term goals often advance your cause. For instance, stirring up a protest, calling out the hypocrisy of the band’s corporate sponsors, or exposing a corrupt local politician.The NewbieYou’re exhilarated to be here. You were singled out for your talent and Embraced to fill in for a former band member. Everything is new to you. The horizon expands all the way to Hollywood Boulevard, and you’re certain you can make it if you stick with the band. After all, you’ve practically sold your souls to the devil for a shot at success.Down the line, you might get frustrated by the shattering of some of the glittery illusions the band, or their manager, has impressed upon you. Right now, you’re just eager to prove yourself. You throw yourself into every rehearsal, gig, and favor. Sometimes that lands you in hot water, but it’s all part of the experience, right?You still have a mortal family you are in touch with or a partner you haven’t figured out how to deal with yet. Your Humanity is still high, and your bleeding heart will get you into trouble sooner rather than later. You play an instrument or sing, but regardless of your role, you do a lot of heavy lifting. You’re happy to help.Clan: A young vampire of any clan fits well.Predator Type: Still new to hunting and feeding, you gravitate toward simple and instinctive methods. Alleycat, Cleaver, or Siren comes naturally.Traits: As you’re always ready to jump into action, Wits is high for you. Performance is also an important Skill to reflect your talent. Pretty much any combination of Traits can work for this character, but your focus on action and learning is key.Ambitions: You want to make it. What that means specifically is up to you. Perhaps it’s a mansion in Hollywood Hills or enough money to pay off your mortal mother’s medical debt and give her a new life.Touchstones: You’re still so young. Your Touchstones can be found among your family members, but you should also have one that you see often, even when on tour. Perhaps a friend or partner travels with you sometimes.Convictions:▪ All for one, and one for all.▪ Never snitch.▪ Glory is worth any risk.

Chapter Four: Create Your Rockstar Vampire 7 4Desires: You want to be the best bandmate you can be. Your Desires are usually about proving yourself to a bandmate in some way.The RoadieWhen the band struts on stage, you’re busy at the mixing desk or taking a break, having a smoke outside before you have to start packing the gear back into the van. You drive the car, carry equipment and take care of technical problems. A small band might have only one roadie, or none at all. A major tour may employ dozens.Working with the band might be just a job for you, or perhaps you’re a true believer, dedicated to making them a success. Or maybe you love the lifestyle, being on tour, meeting new people, so close to the rock ’n’ roll dream.Whatever the reason you’re there, there’s always work to do. The band may have the luxury of taking in the adulation of the crowd but you must make sure that the show goes on.Clan: Gangrel, Brujah or Nosferatu can work well.Predator Type: All that allow for feeding on the road and at gigs, such as Blood Leech, Consensualist, and Roadside Killer (see p. 26).Traits: Technology is probably the single most useful Skill for the Roadie, from fixing the van to taking care of sound equipment. Athletics is good for all that heavy lifting. Drive, Streetwise, Brawl and even Stealth and Intimidation may come in handy. Potence and Auspex are the two most practical Disciplines.Ambitions: It’s good to have an Ambition which motivates the character to stick with the band. Seeking to ride their success for hunting opportunities and a bit of money works well.Touchstones: Other roadies, old lovers and security professionals all make for potential Touchstones who may move from place to place.Convictions:▪ I must get what’s mine.▪ The band must play no matter what.▪ Professional obligations trump all other concerns.Desires: Other characters dream but you make things happen. The Roadie implements, and an element of professional pride works well with the character. Their job is quite literally to make sure that the tour keeps running without a hitch. It’s good to have personal motivations as well, something that’s enabled by being a Roadie.The DealerStrictly speaking, you’re not a member of the band at all. You might travel with the band to get them drugs (or victims, since you’re all vampires), but you might also be a general fixer type, the band’s manager, or responsible for booking gigs. You might oversee what’s happening on tour or just hang on, exploiting opportunities where you can.You might see the band as your ticket to success, using their talent to get yourself close to fame and fortune. Or you might be a true believer, convinced of their talent and ability to such a degree that you’re working for free to make them into a success, whether - Die and Die Again -I turn my backBefore you findThe masks I makeTo hide behindI die and die againBefore your sun has setI die and die againI hope that you forgetThe blood might singA call to youBut time will bringA faded truthI die and die againBefore your sun has setI die and die againI hope that you forgetMe

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB7 5Desires: The Dealer is a character who makes things happen. As such, you’re often tied to practical goals such as getting the band to the next town, arranging for fans to visit backstage, or escaping the venue before the owner realizes the bartender is lying unconscious because your guitarist couldn’t control themselves.Choose A Band TypeWhen you’ve figured out who is in the band, decide what kind of band you are. Below you’ll find some ideas. If you haven’t already, you should also discuss what type of instruments your characters are playing or what other jobs they fill. Who drives the van? Is one of the characters a sound technician, roadie, or even the band’s dealer?Note that the Band Type as presented here is a tool to help you figure out what kind of a band you want to play. It’s separate from Coterie Type, which has more game mechanical implications.that requires convincing a club owner to book them or a coked-up mortal to act as a vessel for the night.You may have some role to play during performances, such as dancer, mixer, or playing a minor instrument.Clan: Toreador, Brujah, Malkavian, Ministry, or even Nosferatu can make for a good fit.Predator Type: Any that hunt at nightclubs, gigs, and alleys, such as Scene Queen, and Siren.Traits: There’s one Skill above all that defines the Dealer and that is Streetwise. Persuasion is another good one, and all Social Attributes come in handy as well. Presence and Auspex are extremely useful.Ambitions: The best Ambitions for the Dealer align with the band. Getting rich is selfish, but it glues the Dealer to the other characters, which is good.Touchstones: Loyal fans, clients, and contacts all make for good Touchstones because they may travel along with the band.Convictions:▪ The show must go on.▪ I must come out on top in every deal.▪ Serving genius justifies every sacrifice.

Chapter Four: Create Your Rockstar Vampire 7 6Garage BandDoesn’t every band share the same dream? You want to be rock stars. Your sound is raw, and you’re still figuring out how to work together, but you’re fired up and full of ideas. Everywhere you go, you’re listening for tunes to put together, and you’ve got half-written songs and scraps of lyrics written on everything from napkins to walls. You believe you’ve got something fresh, something the world’s been thirsting for, though it doesn’t know it yet.You have no fans… yet. Maybe you’re even missing a drummer or guitarist. You may be literally practicing in a garage, or you’re in an old bunker from the world wars, an abandoned building, or a school. But you’ve played once or twice at a local dive bar, and the host of a minor indie radio show is considering letting you feature. Success is out there. You just gotta hold on, fight for it, and keep your shared condition under wraps.Roles: Are you a coterie who found the music after your Embrace, or were you all turned together the night of your first performance? And if so, whose fault was it, really? Who started the band? And who’s to thank for you having a space to practice?Strengths: You’ve got guts and enough raw ignorance that it resembles courage. This can take you far in conflicts where not standing down is half the battle. You’re also used to hauling your own equipment everywhere you need to go — no one does anything for you unless they get something in return.Challenges: You’re only just starting out, and you’re lacking pretty much everything it takes to make it in the music industry. It’s not just a sound. It’s money, connections, know-how, an online presence, a catalog of finished songs, a fan base… and the acceptance of your sire or sires. You’ll struggle to break through, and once you do, your Kindred connections may have a thing or two to say about it.Fame: There are a thousand bands just like you. To make it, you’ll have to stand out from the crowd. How? Do you trust in your own skills to create hit songs that break all barriers on their own? Or will you do everything it takes, including using your vampiric gifts, to threaten and persuade your way to the top? At what point will you kill for it?Subculture GodsThe engine of your van makes a strange noise, and you don’t have the money to pay for a hotel room for the day, but something in the music you make, your stage presence, strikes a chord with a very specific audience. Among a niche group such as a musical subculture, a fandom, or a hobby you’re basically household names. For anyone else, you’re nobodies.LASOMBRA AND MINISTRYThe spotlight of fame doesn’t treat all clans equally. You’d think it would be the Nosferatu who have the most difficulties, but at least they can put on a mask and still go on stage. If it works for Slipknot, why not your Nosferatu character?The real difficulties are with the Lasombra and the Ministry. The Lasombra clan Bane (Players Guide, p. 29) means that the reflection and any recordings of the vampire are distorted in a manner which is very recognizable to any hunter who knows their business. This means that the moment the Lasombra steps on stage and the first fan snaps a photo and posts it online, odds of Second Inquisition attention go up dramatically.In addition, Lasombra have problems with modern technology, including microphones. The demand for acoustic musicians who can’t be photographed is limited.The clan Bane for Ministry Kindred means that they can’t stand bright lights (Players Guide, p. 36). It might not bring a Second Inquisition agency calling but it’s still difficult to step on stage when you’d be literally in the spotlight.If you want to play Lasombra or Ministry, consider support roles such as The Dealer (see p. 74). The clan Bane variants presented in the Players Guide (p. 56) provide options if it’s imperative that your Lasombra guitarist be allowed to rise to stardom.

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB7 7This means that when you’re on stage and your most intense fans are in the front row, you can feel like immortal rock gods, delirious mortals screaming your name. But the illusion fades as you go backstage and are reminded of the fact that it’s really hard to make it big from such a marginal position.Roles: The intense fan base of the Subculture Gods has constructed a mythology around each band member, factual or not. It can be interesting to consider how well these roles connect with the band’s actual functioning. For example, the fans may be convinced that a quiet, reticent keyboardist is a creative genius, while, in reality, they’re usually high on drugged-up blood.Strengths: It’s useful to be able to project the illusion of being as big a star as the most dedicated fans imagine you are, while at the same time being able to drive the van yourself because you don’t have money to hire a roadie. Subculture Gods have to be able to do a bit of everything so they can navigate the many challenges of a tour without much external support.Challenges: The fan base is small but dedicated, and they absolutely know each band member’s name. Everyone in the band interacts with the fans to some degree, unless they really work hard to avoid it. Rumors spread very quickly in the fan community. They’re loyal, but if something bad happens, it won’t stay secret. Occasionally, there are rifts among the fan base, requiring very careful negotiation.Fame: For Subculture Gods, fame and success are difficult prospects. Breaking out of their niche and becoming more popular may require giving up the things that their original audience liked in the first place. Is it still possible to sell out in this day and age, or should their fans just be happy that they’re making more money and playing bigger venues?The Sound of ProtestYou’re a band with a clear political message. The goal is to spread it to as many people as you can. Whether you play punk rock, hip hop, reggae, or something else, you’re a part of a subculture that shares your ideals, and you play your hearts out trying to support the fight every time you go on stage or meet to practice. You might individually desire fame for its own sake as well,

Chapter Four: Create Your Rockstar Vampire 7 8but the struggle that you’re part of is never far from your minds.It’s difficult to hold onto mortal idealism when you’re a vampire, but there’s a story to be told with a politically uncompromising band who are Embraced, their presence now poison to their chosen community.Roles: Each band member is involved with the cause in their own way. Who participates in rallies, and who plans them? Who is in contact with the local community, and who has a spy on the other side? Who is the most passionate, and whom do the rest of you sometimes have your doubts about?Strengths: Your passion fires up your music so it burns brightly in the night, and it’s infectious. You might have a talent for inspiring people to action and changing an already restless crowd into a wild, even violent one. You’ve seen your fair share of fights, where you had to defend yourself, or you’re used to a more guerilla style of activism, which has taught you to operate under the radar of the authorities.Challenges: When you play for an audience that agrees with your message, they want to love you. Less so when they’re on the fence or not listening for the lyrics. You might struggle to reach new audiences. You also risk facing opposition from groups that disagree with your message. Gigs could get shut down, venues might ban you, and oppositional groups might try to start fights at your concerts. Finding a balance between your music career and your activism can also turn out to be a challenge, and sometimes you’ll have to choose which to prioritize. Being the voice of truth is difficult when you’re a vampire. You have to consider whether your mere presence poisons the very community you speak for.Fame: The more famous you become, the bigger the target that gets painted on your back. You want your message to reach the masses, for it to grow and become powerful, but that also puts you at risk. That is, if you stick to it. If fame makes you sell out, you’ll have another set of problems to deal with. Will success come at the cost of the very ideals you’re fighting for?Commercial GroupWhat do the Beatles, Backstreet Boys, and Blackpink have in common? They’re the blueprint for what record labels hope to achieve when they take on a project like your group. You were either picked up by a label very early or brought together by it. Talent managers and producers check in with you regularly to tell you

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB7 9where to go and how to behave. Since your success is at least 50% reliant on the believability of your fine-tuned stage personas, you’re given little leeway to act out.You might be the vanity project of a Toreador label manager, but it’s also entirely possible that none of your industry contacts are Kindred and you were a band before you were Embraced. The label has high hopes for you, but you’re not famous yet. Still, you might already be touring, as the label tries to soft launch you abroad before you’re introduced at home.Roles: A manufactured ensemble like the one you’re in has clear boxes for every artist. Who’s supposed to be the cool one? Who’s the edgy one? Who has been designated as the heartbreaker? Who’s meant to be innocent? Who’s sporty? Or what other categories have your group members been designated? How do they influence what you wear and how you behave? And how well do they fit with who you really are?Strengths: You’re constantly primed to perform perfectly as the people the label wants you to become. These industry personas, the need to hide your true natures, and what you do in the late-night hours have made lying and manipulation almost instinctive. Sometimes you’re not even aware that you are doing it. Invest in Traits and Advantages that help you keep the web of lies from tearing.Challenges: Pretending to be someone you’re not is hard. Especially when what you really are is a tortured, blood-thirsty corpse. If the label’s in on it, at least you can count on them to provide you with alibis for why you can’t give interviews during the day. If they’re not, you need to get some leverage on your manager.Fame: You’re destined for fame — every aspect of how you present to your potential fans is about making them fascinated with you. It’s going to be very hard work, but if you make it, you have the potential to go all the way to the top of the charts. On the other hand, if you fail to break through in both your home country and abroad, the music industry will have no use for you. The label might drop you or even split you up.Touring Techno ClubYour artsy music collective tours from city to city, organizing parties. You provide transformative, dark electronic experiences with bespoke aesthetics. These parties are so exclusive that you have to know someone who knows someone to hear about. Your visuals change from time to time. One event, you’ll be projecting a groaning forest onto the cement walls, another it’s all PVC, UV, and PCP. You keep pushing limits, keeping it new and interesting.You’re underground, a tad deeper than you’d prefer. First off, you’d like to be able to turn away more people than you let in. Further down the line, the dream is happenings at events like Burning Man and Boom. You want people queuing for Berghain because your club was full.Roles: Two to three DJs, a synth player, a light fanatic, someone who does the aesthetics, and someone in charge of marketing can fit in this group. So can traveling go-go dancers, someone who plays electronic harp, a doorman, and whoever is in charge of dealing with bookings, the cops, local coteries, and the drug cartels who come knocking when there’s a new rave in town. You might also want to discuss who is de facto in charge or if you make all decisions together.Specialties: No one can curate a mood like your crew. But someone in your group needs to have high Streetwise, because you’ll be dealing with a whole host of underworld people, supernatural or not. Contacts are another thing to prioritize — you can only throw illegal pirate raves in empty buildings so many times on pure luck and audacity.Challenges: The club business is rife with problems. When it’s not the neighbors trying to get you shut down or some girl overdosing in the bathroom, it’s a guest DJ refusing to go on, guns on the dance floor, or someone revealing your location to all their normy friends on Bluesky.Fame: You want to be famous, but not at the cost of being exclusive, which is a tricky balance. To maintain your underground allure, you need to make sure word doesn’t spread too fast, but you also don’t want to risk near-empty dance floors. Making friends with the already famous can help you out a lot.

Chapter Four: Create Your Rockstar Vampire 8 0OTHER BAND TYPESIf you’ve got a specific band type in mind that hasn’t been mentioned, go ahead. Only imagination determines the limits of what kind of ensemble you can reach the stars with. A few more for inspiration:COVER BANDAt least one of the band members has an uncanny resemblance to a known rock star. They may even be them, Embraced at their prime. They book gigs with relative ease but struggle to release anything original. Will they create an identity of their own or stick to what’s safe?A CAPELLA CHOIRThis vocal group could be a barbershop quartet or a gospel group, for instance, with their roots deep in a local neighborhood or church community. They’re generally trusted where they go, so have easy access to vessels.SOLO ARTISTThe whole show is built around a solo artist, but that doesn’t mean that they travel alone with a guitar case. Many solo artists have supporting musicians, a tour crew and all the other fixtures you’d find with a band on tour. Indeed, often the difference between a solo artist and a band is more a question of presentation that the reality of what you find in the tour bus.INSTRUMENTAL ENSEMBLEThey play classical instruments that they may mix with rock or electronic influences. They specialize in chamber music, medieval hymns, gothic symphonic rock, or metal played entirely on string instruments. At least one of them may play an instrument that is no longer in popular use, like a lute or harpsichord.JAZZ BANDJazz is more about how you play than what you play. This band can vibe for hours, and they may have been doing so since Prohibition. No longer surprised by much, they know that you can, for a fact, transport machine guns in instrument cases.FURTHER AFIELDTo work, the Sound and Fury chronicle presented in this book requires characters who go on tour. With more work, you can adapt the chronicle so it works beyond the world of music. The coterie can be a theater group, a dance company or even an improve troupe. Maybe they’re travel influencers touring different cities for content and to meet fans?Set ExpectationsGet to know your characters a little better by defining how and when they were Embraced and how long they’ve known one another. Where and how do their unlives overlap with their identities as musicians?To create a cohesive, interesting experience it can also be a good idea for each player to talk about what they envision when they think about the life of an aspiring rock star. Is it sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll, or hard practice? Is it juggling touring with relationships? Or something entirely different? What kind of iconic band moments is everyone looking forward to exploring or even fucking up? What the players say will provide plenty of ideas for further play and also serve to set some expectations for the chronicle.Since this is about a journey from unknown underground musician to stardom, however far the coterie ends up making it on that road, it’s good to ask each player: “How will your character know they’ve made it? What moment exemplifies stardom to them?” For instance, that might be playing at a specific venue, hearing your song as a radio hit, or something more lofty. This goal may be the same as each character’s Ambition, but it doesn’t have to be.Create Your CoterieYou can choose an existing Coterie Type if one meshes well with your band identity. Otherwise, build your own using your chosen band type as the basis. As always, you get one dot per character to invest in shared Advantages, and each Flaw taken gives one additional dot to invest in Advantages.Remember the NecessitiesAs you finish mapping out your characters and their Traits and Advantages, remember to be practical about what your band needs to have to function as intended. To help remember everything, talk about what would happen on a typical night at the start of the story. Where do you wake up? Do you meet up to practice? Do you have any help getting your gear from A to B? And who handles your stuff and protects your body in the daytime? If your band is only just starting out, maybe they don’t have much of anything to help them

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB8 1out yet. If they’ve been at it for a while, perhaps they’ve got a tour bus and a crew of roadies. Make a list, and make sure to invest in the necessities as you build your characters and coterie. It’s fine to start playing with a few necessities still missing — that just means you’ll be starting out the story by trying to acquire them.Define Your Reality: Chronicle TenetsThe Chronicle Tenets that your troupe chooses define the moral codes of their characters’ reality, whether or not they individually agree with them. It’s generally a good idea for your chosen Tenets to include “Don’t kill (unless you have no choice)” and “Don’t commit torture.” After all, the characters were raised as mortals with mortal morality, and it should hurt when they turn from that. Beyond these basics, you can tweak your Tenets to support the themes of your chronicle.Consider including one or more Tenets that support the themes of the chronicle:REBEL WITH A CAUSE—PUNK ROCK CODE▪ Stand up against oppressors.▪ Don’t sell out.Rebelling is a way to maintain Humanity.ALL FOR LOVE?—THE BALLAD VIEW▪ Stay loyal, no matter what.▪ You can’t get in the way of true love.Maintaining romance in your heart is a way to fight the endless enticements of the Beast.Remember, Chronicle Tenets exist to jeopardize Humanity when broken. They can be meaningful whether they are kept or not. As the players’ characters do what they must, they break Tenets and accrue Stains. Here are some example themes and Chronicle Tenets that support them when broken:THE COST OF FAME—CODE OF INTEGRITY▪ Protect your own.▪ Stay true to your ideals.Tenets built around maintaining integrity and never selling out come into conflict when the characters have to decide whether they’ll sell out.BREAKING FREE—SMALL TOWN MORALITY▪ Never go against authority.▪ Be good to your neighbor.▪ Never let others see you weak.These Tenets make a tragedy out of rebellion. Even as the characters fulfill their dreams, they lose their Humanity.Some themes of course, work either way:ADDICTION OR ART—THE ARTIST’S ETHICS▪ Never voluntarily cause harm to others.▪ Don’t let anyone control your freedom of expression.▪ Never miss your chance to go on stage.Remember that the characters aren’t necessarily realistic about what kind of worldview they exist within. A glam rock band might think they can turn their reality into an epic ballad only to time and time again be forced into conflicts that force them to deal with a darker truth — that love isn’t really a priority for them any longer.Turn Up the MusicWhen your band goes on stage, it’s cool if the Storyteller can press play on some actual music. As a troupe, find a few real-life bands you can agree on to represent your sound. This works best if you choose something a bit obscure, at least to you, so there are fewer pre-existing associations to the songs. TABLE 1: COTERIE TYPES AND TRAVELTraveling coteries that may not have any Domain of their own can reassign dots from Chasse, Lien, or Portillon to alternate shared Backgrounds.Original Substitute OptionsChasse (Hunting and Size) Haven (and Haven Merits), Herd, or RetainersLien (Integration) Contacts, Influence, or RetainersPortillon (Security) Allies, Mask, Mawla or Retainers

Chapter Five: Sound and Fury 8 2

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB8 3You’ve put together a band. You have an album’s worth of songs, and you’re ready to go on tour. The only trouble is, you’re a vampire, so it’s night gigs only.Sound and Fury is a chronicle about ambition and the desire to make it in a business that’s cutthroat even without the Kindred, all for the sake of becoming a star. This chapter contains raw materials such as characters and locations, and Chapter Six features the stories the chronicle is made of. They’re presented in a modular format similar to that used in The Crimson Gutter so that it’s as easy as possible to adapt, change, and adjust the material for your troupe.Getting ReadyThere are a few steps you should take with the troupe before you start to play.1. CHRONICLE CONCEPT: Discuss the concept of the chronicle with your players. By default, Sound and Fury is set in Europe, on a preset tour itinerary. It assumes that the characters are fully invested in becoming stars. The chronicle works best if everyone is on board with this basic setup. Fame, glory, and blood!2. CHARACTER CREATION: Have the players in your troupe use the templates and archetypes provided in Chapter Four to create characters for themselves and agree on the style and concept of their band. Listen as they discuss their future plans because it may give you ideas for how to fit the chronicle to your players. It helps a lot if the characters are determined to go on stage even in the face of danger. Note that the characters should have Traits that make sense for aspiring Kindred performers. Resources above 2 or Fame above 1 change the nature of the chronicle significantly and are not recommended.3. CONSIDERATE PLAY: Go through the themes of the chronicle with the players, using the tools provided in Vampire, p. 421, Appendix III: Advice for Considerate Play.Once everyone has a character, the band has a name, and the players are on board, you’re ready to rock!REQUIREMENTSSound and Fury works best with the following options. It’s a good idea to explore them with the players so everyone understands their purpose.The Show Must Go On: It’s very helpful if this is one of the Chronicle Tenets. If not, it could be a Conviction for one or more characters. It’s great if the characters feel compelled to perform even in dangerous circumstances.Ollie: The band needs something for the show to work. This could be a bass player, a backup singer or something else. They’re hired a musician named Ollie for this purpose, just to play live with them. It’s helpful if the players figure out what they’ve needed Ollie for.Transportation: The characters should have a van or a bus for transportation. It can also be their haven.Chapter Five: SOUND AND FURY

Chapter Five: Sound and Fury 8 4I said we shouldn’t do the gig. It was a small town somewhere in Bavaria. One of those places where there are two gigs a year because, ordinarily, nobody bothers.That was the argument for stopping there. We needed a place to sleep the day anyway. We could practice new songs and the audience would be grateful that we were there at all.The venue was a barn, literally. Asad was talking about the ghosts of the animals, how they never left the place, but I’m not sure if he was being serious or just fucking around. Sometimes he’s worse than Cyfrin with all this spooky crap.Ten people in the audience, give or take. Half were wasted when we started, the other half on their phones.I guess Cyfrin felt that here in the ass end of nowhere, we were beyond consequences. Or maybe he wanted to provoke the crowd, force them to care.He called a guy to the stage, just some local boy. I don’t know what young men do in towns like that. He tried to act confident, but I could see he was cowed by us.Cyfrin drank from him. From his neck. Right in front of the whole crowd. One of the girls was filming on her phone, and you can’t quite see that Cyfrin is biting for real because of the angle. And we’re the kind of a band where that could fit our aesthetics.For the rest of the set, I told myself it was going to be okay.It wasn’t.- The Toreador Liane “The Smile” Wind, drummer in the band Pale Sunrise, rambles to a ghoul

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB8 5StructureThe basic tension between fame and the Masquerade is key to the chronicle. Is it possible to be a star if you genuinely don’t age?The chronicle is composed of six stories.BERLIN: The characters play in Berlin and get ready to go on tour. Berlin is an Anarch city where local Kindred exist close to humanity. Everything is ready except that the band has persistent problems finding one last member to go on stage with them.FESTIVAL: The band is booked to play at a festival that turns out to be an extremist far right gathering. How do the characters deal with the danger to themselves, their reputations and Humanity.VIENNA: As undead, the characters have to eventually choose between trying to hold onto their mortal Masks and faking their deaths and retreating into the shadows. In Vienna, they have a chance see some of the monstrosity that takes place in the dark, beyond the understanding of the mortal herd.COPENHAGEN: Supposedly ruled by the Camarilla, Copenhagen is effectively an Anarch city where the band has to navigate the politics of both the mortal and undead undergrounds.BRUSSELS: The city where Camarilla powerbrokers send their childer to learn politics, in Brussels the action heats up once again as the locals seek to make sport of the visitors.PARIS: The grand finale of the chronicle takes place in the City of Light as the characters have to make their final choices. Do they align with Kindred power or try to make their own way?Because of the modular nature of the chronicle, it’s easy for you to create more stops along the way. Perhaps in your chronicle, the characters also play in Amsterdam and Hamburg, or venture even further afield.CHANGING THE VENUEIt’s possible to adapt the chronicle to a different region, such as North America, or even to a single city, such as Chicago. It’ll require changing many of the events though, or adapting them to a new context, because of the way they reference Kindred history and local mortal culture. If you want to stick to one domain, it’s best to choose a big metropolitan area that has a large selection of venues, from modest basement bars to massive stadiums. This way, the characters feel like they’ve achieved something when they finally get to play for an audience of thousands in the final concert of the chronicle.When adapting the game to a new region, you should start with Anarch domains and move towards Camarilla domains. This represents the chronicle’s tension between mortal and vampiric concerns, as the Anarchs keep close to common humanity while the Camarilla tends to wall itself off with privilege. If the chronicle is set in a single domain, it works best if its controlled by the Camarilla, with an Anarch underclass who have their own bars and meeting spots.Chicago is a great final stop for a North American tour, and you can even have the characters play one final gig at the original Succubus Club. For more about Chicago, see Chicago By Night. If you switch the events to North American, here are a few suggestions.Vienna: The story requires a Second Inquisition strike to have been committed in the city, spun off as a terrorist attack in the mortal media. One possible location is Las Vegas, where Second Inquisition agencies carried out significant purges.Copenhagen: The story features a large alternative or underground district or commune. In the U.S., this could be located outside a bigger city. It could even be a temporary camp, smaller in scale but used as a base by local Anarchs.Paris: A major Camarilla domain works best. Chicago is an obvious choice but New York could work too.

Chapter Five: Sound and Fury 8 6You should consider coming up with smaller scenes to play while the characters are moving from one domain to the next. For inspiration, see Appendix I.You can end the chronicle when you’re finished with the events in Paris or use it as a stepping stone to set up a new status quo. Now that the characters have proven themselves, what’s next? It may make sense to conceptualize the chronicle like a TV show with Sound and Fury being Season 1 and whatever comes next being Season 2.The Second InquisitionFor the Storyteller, one of the challenges of running Sound and Fury is to keep the danger of exposure and breaking the Masquerade ever present without making things so difficult that it’s impossible for the players’ characters to proceed on their tour.Because of this, one possibility is to assume that local Second Inquisition agencies have not fully grasped that vampires are able to maintain a convincing pretense of being human even in the harsh light of publicity. The idea that a goth rocker is a vampire is too preposterous to be taken seriously on an institutional level.Second Inquisition agencies assume that vampires try to hide, not that they publish their tour itineraries on social media. This doesn’t stop individual hunters from acting on their own, and if the players’ characters make enough mistakes, their enemies are going to catch on. Conveniently, this means that the danger is going to be fully realized closer to the epic ending of the chronicle, where such showdowns have their natural place.If you need help figuring out what’s a reasonable Second Inquisition response, you can use the following tracker. Increase the score by one for each instance where the players’ characters feed irresponsibly, kill someone, tell a mortal about vampires, Embrace a childe, or use Disciplines in public.1–4: A Second Inquisition agency may task local law enforcement with checking things out, without telling them of the true nature of the blankbody threat.5–8: A Second Inquisition agency dispatches an experienced agent who knows that vampires exist but believes them to be monsters who hide in sewers, not stars posing for publicity photos.9+: A Second Inquisition agency sends out a full team of 4 to 12 agents equipped for combat. They have realized that sometimes, a person who looks like a vampire in a music video might actually be a vampire for real.The best time for the Second Inquisition to strike is just as the concert is reaching its crescendo, of course.THISNESS VERSUS ESCAPISMThisness is a literary technique used to add local color by grounding the fantastic in reality—Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho are prime examples. It’s powerful and very easy to use. Simply add real world places, brand names, songs, characters, events ripped from the news and conversations that refer to contemporary trends. This makes the most fantastic seem plausible and immerse the players in the narrative.In this book, generic or imaginary names are used. Replace them with real-world equivalents and use online maps of the cities and towns the characters visit to quickly ground your story. Think of the World of Darkness as a dark reflection of our world, a cynical satire brimming with menace and danger. This darkness is often a direct result of the presence of the hidden monsters among us.Thisness is also useful to quickly change the location a story takes place in. Berlin could be switched to Stockholm by exchanging “Kompromat” with “Slaktkyrkan” in the Globen area. If, on the flip side, any similarity to the real world makes your table feel uncomfortable, replace any real-world countries, people, and events with fictitious ones. This will turn the World of Darkness into a pure fantasy game, but remember to keep the cynical darkness and make the setting relatable.It’s your game, and only you can decide what works best. The default setting uses a mix of Thisness and Escapism, but this can be very easily adjusted.

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB8 7The Concert as ConflictThe art of performance sees the artist lay their soul on the line, investing much of their ego into the display, and demanding the audience come with them on their journey. It doesn’t end with the show either, as all around the venue, conversations are had, deals are made, and there is, of course, the potential for an after-party — although what form that takes really depends on how well the show’s gone.Group Social Conflict SystemsSocial Conflict always has a goal — anyone can provide simple entertainment, and while abject humiliation is often a common theme, it’s not the only destination. Before the gig, the group must decide if they want to fight for a more important outcome; the selection below provides a good range of options.As most performances are a collective effort, having every player roll simply slows down proceedings. The band nominates one character to front each conflict, with all tests made by them. This character can only be changed if the pool changes and a new conflict begins. While characters can normally offer assist dice, as it’s assumed everyone is already contributing, assist dice aren’t available.As with any conflict, the other side fights back — even if they’re not consciously fighting, their reactions, energy, and interactivity buoy or deflate the band’s sense of success. As this is a group effort, any Willpower damage against the band is apportioned equally among every performer. In these dramatic situations, it’s recommended that Superficial Willpower damage is not halved.Antisocial ConflictThis one’s personal, neither aimed at the audience nor the establishment, but at an individual in the crowd. Whether through direct taunts, subtle jibes, or offending their sense of good taste, the gig becomes one big slap in the face for one unlucky victim.Example Pools:

Chapter Five: Sound and Fury 8 8▪ Composure + Subterfuge for deniable vilification.▪ Manipulation + Insight to get under their skin.▪ Charisma + Intimidation for direct threats.Opposing Pool/Willpower: Direct Character traits can be used here, with Composure + Etiquette a good resistance pool.PERFORMANCE/ARTIn this book, we usually refer to the concert as the medium of expression, but it’s just one art form among many. These suggestions would apply to a piano or poetry recital, a dance performance, stand-up comedy, or a circus show. All performing art forms offer the opportunity to affect someone at an emotional level, not just a raucous concert.Battle of the BandsTwo (or more) performers go to head-to-head and attempt to win a competition, sway the hearts and minds of the audience, or simply make their rivals look bad. These battles might seem like low stakes to the audience, but the performers are acutely aware of what they’ve put on the line to be there.These battles can be paired with other Social Conflict options such as Incitement to Violence or Flavor of the Month, with each group trying to bring about their ultimate goal. The battle’s winners — as well as annihilating the Willpower and sense of self-worth of their competition — decide the outcome on the audience.Example Pools:▪ Stamina + Performance for the sustained application of technical brilliance.▪ Resolve + Etiquette to play up to the audience and judges.▪ Manipulation + Insight to subtly rile up the competition and put them off their game.Opposing Pool/Willpower: starter band: 5 / 6, up-andcoming act: 7 / 5, famous group: 8 / 10, virtuosos 11 / 8Flavor of the MonthDeny it as they might, blood’s the most important thing to any vampire, and even when they’re in the throes of their art, the promise of sweet reward gnaws at their thoughts and intrudes upon their performance.The result of this Social Conflict allows the group to sway the Resonance of the audience, making it more suitable to their palette. If successful, the Coterie can choose a single Resonance that will be present should they hunt from the Audience. With a Critical success, the Resonance becomes intense.Example Pools:▪ Manipulation + Intimidation (Melancholic), Leadership (Choleric), Insight (Phlegmatic), or Subterfuge (Sanguine).Opposing Pool/Willpower: Bystanders: 4 / 5, Haters: 9 / 8, Fans: 5 / 3Hostile CrowdThe band are playing, but the audience isn’t happy. Whether they’re uninvited outsiders, part of the wrong scene, or have been set up to fail by a vindictive manager, the crowd are in no mood for what they’re being sold. While the days of heckling with rotting fruit are long gone, drinks, broken glass, and even bits of the stage serve to damage the band’s equipment — and ego.Defending against this type of Social Conflict is difficult, but a real boost when successful — Storytellers might consider restoring lost Willpower (some or all) if they win.Example Pools:▪ Charisma + Persuasion to appeal to their good natures.▪ Manipulation + Performance to change your style to something more suitable.▪ Composure + Etiquette to maintain your cool.▪ Stamina + Athletics to stoically endure the abuse.Opposing Pool/Willpower: Hecklers: 7 / 4, Wrong Scene: 6 / 8, Angry Mob: 9 / 5Incitement to ViolenceIf the audience is the tinder, then the band is the spark that sets them aflame. Emotions run high when bands unleash their most devastating tracks, and of course, there’s always the interplay between

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB8 9the crowd and their idols, with the audience hanging on every word and becoming increasingly agitated as the night progresses.These events position the band as firebrands, whipping the audience into a frenzy worthy of the Brujah. If successful, the crowd moves from one riotous performance to another — but now in a more literal sense. While the Characters can attempt to nominate the target, mobs are rarely picky so expect plenty of collateral damage. Messy Criticals and total failures see the angry crowd storm the stage as they see through the facade.Example Pools:▪ Charisma + Leadership to lead the riot from the frontline.▪ Manipulation + Leadership to wind them up and let them go.▪ Manipulation + Politics to fixate the crowd on a contentious issue.▪ Manipulation + Finance to target the ultrawealthy (or poor).Opposing Pool/Willpower: Bystanders: 4 / 7, Haters: 9 / 8, Fans: 5 / 3War of AttritionThe average audience contains a huge variety of fans, both casual and hardcore. With such range, it’s inevitable that some of the crowd owe their allegiance to another — and those allegiances can be swayed or quashed entirely.This variation of Social Conflict aims to directly hurt the Advantages and Backgrounds of another; chipping away at their Fame and reputation, drawing their Herd to your banner, and convincing Allies and Contacts to work with you instead. Even Resources can be affected should your reach be sufficient to influence a boycott. Results here require planning and should be agreed with the Storyteller in advance.Example Pools:▪ Intelligence + Performance to attack another’s Fame without hurting your own.▪ Dexterity + Politics to erode Influence with your music.▪ Charisma + Leadership to attract new fans and diminish another’s Herd.▪ Resolve + Performance to win over new Allies and Contacts.▪ Charisma + Finance to encourage a boycott of another’s product and affect their Resources.Opposing Pool/Willpower: Allies: rating ×2 / 4, Contacts: 3 / 4, Fame: rating ×2 / 6, Resources: 2 / rating ×2. Other Backgrounds are defined by the Storyteller.ACCESS ALL AREASNo venue is totally open, and while they might offer the illusion of freedom, they are, in fact, incredibly locked down. From the need for entry tickets, to staff-only areas, to backstage itself, there’s always someone standing in your way and keeping you in your place.Of course, these restrictions act like a beacon to the characters, ensuring they absolutely must go where they’re not wanted. Conversely, the characters might want to ensure their privacy is maintained by buffing their security against potential attacks.Example Pools:▪ Charisma + Persuasion to bluff past guards.▪ Manipulation + Finance to bribe security.▪ Composure + Intimidation to convince the roadies you belong.▪ Composure + Leadership to make staff more resistant to others attempting similar tricks.Opposing Pool/Willpower: security 5 / 3, bar staff 3/ 2, roadie 7 / 4 (buffing adds one to their Willpower, while a Messy Critical reduces it by one).The Immersive WayFor groups that prefer a more immersive and less rules-driven playstyle, there are many fun and exciting options.Karaoke or air-guitar: Play a live recording of the band you chose to represent the coteries’ group, giving the table three to seven minutes to act out the song with air- guitars and imaginary percussion. If they do well, describe the positive reaction before putting on the next song. Give them a thumbs up, down, or sideways to clearly indicate the change

Chapter Five: Sound and Fury 9 0in the audiences disposition. For tables that really want to rock, you may put on a karaoke version of the track and have singers actually perform the song while the rest of the band are acting it out!Music as gaming interlude: If you have the required hard- and software, you can use any of the many music games out there, allowing the band to test their mettle with instrument-like controllers and mics that measure the pitch and pacing of their performance. These titles often give a clear review of the performance. It may be a good idea to set the difficulty according to the band’s scores in the relevant Attributes and Skills.Live on stage: If your group consists of actual musicians, there can be no more immersive style to play out a gig than the group performing a couple of songs at the table (or more likely beside it) with acoustic instruments or at low volume. Who knows, one day you may see some of the songs written for your chronicle performed from a real stage.BerlinYou learn to uphold the Masquerade in this town. Make a mistake and the Second Inquisition gets you. Too many Anarchs made too many mistakes, and now we’re fucked. But there’s a silver lining to this mess. The Camarilla hasn’t managed to re-establish control. You have to spend your nights in fear, but your dreams are your own.—Rudi, a Gangrel visiting BerlinThe history of the 20th century is palpable everywhere in Berlin, but few Kindred come to the city for that. Mortal artists move to Berlin because it’s a big city and an important cultural hub yet not quite as ridiculously expensive as New York or London. Young people come to the city to be themselves, to explore sexual and gender identities away from more conservative environments.Vampires come to Berlin for much the same reason. Because so many local Kindred were destroyed in recent upheavals, and because there’s nobody powerful running the domain at the moment, a surprisingly large number of Kindred have come from elsewhere. Each has their own goals to pursue, and they believe they can get ahead here.HistoryNot long ago, Berlin was one of the great pillars of the Camarilla. The ancient Ventrue Gustav Breidenstein ruled for centuries, consolidating all the towns around the city into one powerful domain. The Prince, the city, and the Camarilla all appeared inviolable.Nothing lasts, not even among the ageless Kindred. First Breidenstein was destroyed, and then in 2017, the whole domain was lost in a chaotic Anarch revolt. The brutality of the old Prince had left such festering grievances that when they came out, the city’s Kindred exploded into violence.The triumph of the Anarchs was followed by a Second Inquisition crackdown, leading to the destruction of the most visible and careless Kindred. Few among the city’s vampires actually know the specifics of the intelligence agencies coming after them. A haven gets raided during the day, and that’s the last anyone hears about a vampire.CultureBerlin Kindred keep a low profile. Those who were already the best at keeping close to mortals survived and taught others. Now the city’s vampires maintain Masks. Many have legal identities, papers, even jobs and families, despite the difficulty involved. They speak in code and avoid talk of the sweet taste of blood.Because Berlin Kindred have been forced to maintain such close proximity to the mortal sphere, many have held onto interests from their breathing days. They run nightclubs and own companies. A few might have public-facing jobs, like that of a journalist, an artist, or a musician.Who cares if nobody sees you during the day in a city famed for its nightlife?Local ColorTHE WEIGHT OF HISTORY: The scene has nothing to do with the Cold War or the Second World War or the Berlin Wall. The players’ characters are going about their nightly business, doing what they do, and you don’t have to make a big thing about the milieu they’re in.

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB9 1But it’s still present. To get to the drug deal, the characters go over where the wall used to be. The concert is held at a field which used to hold Nazi rallies. A visiting concert promoter wants to see Checkpoint Charlie before making a deal.IT’S NO BIG THING: Engaged to play at a party, the characters discover that it’s at a fetish club. The party has spilled to the street, with a man in full leather puppy gear crouching next to a ring of people smoking before going back inside. It’s normal to the people at the club, so surely it’s normal to the characters, too? After all, who wants to look like a yokel?LocationsFRIEDRICHSHAIN: A nightlife district, Friedrichshain is tightly packed with bars, nightclubs, and other venues so that you can spend your whole night just going down the street from one place to the next. There are few better feeding grounds for a vampire in Berlin, but the district has also seen enough Masquerade violations that many local Kindred consider it somewhat dangerous.KOMPROMAT: A bar with a discreet Anarch clientele with a small stage for local bands, mostly punk, hardcore, and metal. The bar is filthy and cramped, maintaining the Masquerade assiduously despite its rowdy Kindred clientele. It’s a good place for a band to gain experience performing live although the audience is volatile. One night they’re the friendliest folks imaginable, the next you get a beer bottle to the face. Your band can have their first gigs here, but to succeed, you have to get booked to a bigger venue.ViennaFor a long time, Vienna was synonymous with the Tremere. It was the center of their power, the location of the chantry from which the clan ruled its own. Perhaps the Tremere grew overconfident, or someone betrayed them. Whatever the case, their chantry was assaulted by the Second Inquisition in one of the strikes that brought back the Burning Times. The Tremere clan fractured, their strongest domain turned into a graveyard.So, time to do a little grave-robbing. There are secrets to be found in the rubble.—Beckett, a Gangrel Seeker of KnowledgeThe Vienna of the modern nights is a city of high risk and high reward. The Second Inquisition agencies that crushed the city’s Tremere chantry seek to monitor potential blankbody threats crawling in the rubble, but the Kindred are a devious lot. The heavy repression has taught them to keep a low profile and move as ghosts amidst high-technology surveillance.Sometimes described as an open-air museum to the past glories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Vienna used to be a city where the Tremere presence guaranteed safety for the well-connected and powerful. If you were on good terms with the Warlocks and accepted their rules, your haven was secure. This means that the city had more than its share of ancilla and elders with rare artifacts and ancient manuscripts, to say nothing of what was found in the storehouses and libraries of the chantry itself.According to persistent rumor, the hunters failed to uncover many, maybe even most of these ancient treasures. They attract a motley assortment of truthseekers, some looking for wisdom and others for power to wield in the battles of the Gehenna War.- Chase me -You walkbeneath skies of blueYou sailthrough oceans of sunI crawlunder skies of redI prowlin the light of the moonDon’t chase me through the night,Don’t face myreflection.Displace your thoughts of me,Don’t change yourdirection.

Chapter Five: Sound and Fury 9 2HistoryThe common misconception about Vienna is that it was completely controlled by the Tremere. Technically, this was not true as there were powerful Ventrue and members of other clans in the city as well. Still, the Tremere chantry represented reportedly the greatest concentration of sorcerous power among the Kindred in the world. It was even said that the Tremere Antediluvian himself rested somewhere in the depths of the chantry, his strange emanations guiding the clan’s ruling Council of Seven in their sleep.For centuries, Vienna was no place for Anarchs or fledglings. It was a domain of raw power best suited for those who could meet the Tremere on their own level, at least to some degree.The strike that destroyed the chantry changed everything. The Council of Seven was destroyed or missing. Whatever elders survived fled the city; their broods hunted and turned to ash by agents of Second Inquisition agencies.Nominally, Vienna is an Anarch domain but there are a number of Autarkis present as well.CultureKindred in Vienna fall into two categories. There are the Young Anarchs just trying to survive night to night, hiding from Second Inquisition agencies by mingling among the kine as closely as possible. Their existence is one of restriction and freedom. The terror of the Second Inquisition is palpable, but for the first time, many of them are able to make their own decisions.The second category is the fortune hunters, knowledge seekers, Gehenna warriors, and the deranged who all believe they can find their salvation among the ruins left by the Tremere.Local ColorDESPERATE GHOULS: A pair of twitchy ghouls attend the gig. They don’t look like the usual crowd. Too old, too much like librarians or research assistants. They wait nervously for the gig to be over before approaching. They want Blood. They’ve suffered through withdrawal once already, experiencing the rapid aging involved. They’re terrified of death and say they worked at the Tremere chantry and know all its secrets. A successful Composure + Insight test at a Difficulty of 2 shows they’re telling the truth about having worked for the Tremere but are lying about the secrets. They’re just desperate.THE SECOND INQUISITION: A young Anarch tries to sell the characters a phone number that supposedly belongs to a Second Inquisition agent. The Anarch says that if the characters send an address to the number via text message, the hunters destroy whatever they find there. It might just be a fake, or the Anarch might be a desperate government informant trying to save his own skin.LocationsTHE TREMERE CHANTRY: The Second Inquisition strike on the chantry happened in 2008, but the building is still a fenced-off ruin. Originally a rather impressive edifice, the story told in mortal media is that it was destroyed in a major terrorist atrocity. The chantry is the best known vampire landmark in the city. Rumors say that magnificent treasures can still be found somewhere underground, but locals also warn that anybody venturing into the ruins is going to be intercepted by agents from a Second Inquisition agency.ATELIER 19: A bar, nightclub, and performance space located in an incongruously palatial, old riverfront building. Depending on the night, the club draws very different crowds. One night it can be an upscale arts audience, then a younger crowd who’ve come to see an underground band.CopenhagenThere’s a polite balance to how power is shared in the domain. The Camarilla pretends they control the city, and we allow them their delusions. In return, they know to keep out of Anarch business.—Rudi, a local Gangrel Anarch

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB9 3There’s an irony to be found in the fact that one of the most well-developed Anarch societies in Europe is found in a city that’s technically under Camarilla rule. Most of the city is under the control of various Anarch gangs. Each guards their own territory, making the city into a patchwork of small domains that’s hard to navigate without a local guide.The Camarilla Prince, the Nosferatu Belinde Buch, controls only a small part of the city but maintains a pretense that the Anarchs are allowed their freedom because of her magnanimity. In reality, she has little impact on the nightly affairs of the city outside her main territory on inner Vesterbro and Frederiksberg.HistorySometimes the worst enemy of a Camarilla Prince is tedium. The Cleopatran (see Cults of the Blood Gods, p. 115) Belinda Buch is old and has ruled her domain since the 17th century, running it as a prosperous Camarilla city for a long, long time. In recent decades, she has grown tired of her office, and her control has slipped due to sheer neglect.The Third Anarch Revolt hit Copenhagen with more diplomacy than many other domains. Local Anarch leaders were able to conduct an internal coup, freeing themselves of traitors and spies while taking over the control of various domains by being able to project force on the streets. Yet they never stormed Belinda’s seat of power, figuring that the best way to avoid trouble from other, nearby Camarilla domains was simply to let the Prince be.CultureOn the face of it, Copenhagen is a great place to be an Anarch. There’s nobody to rule over you beyond the members of your gang, and the existence of the Prince keeps the Camarilla at bay. When you look closer, the nightly reality is more constrained.The peace of the city is maintained by peer pressure inside the gangs. Breaking the Masquerade or siring childer without permission is going to get you destroyed the same as in any Camarilla domain, only this time the people who do it are your closest allies. And if you need permission to sire that childe, you need to bring it to them.Local ColorNEGOTIATION: The characters have come to play a gig at a venue that’s in the territory of one of the local Anarch gangs. The gang hosts a meeting to discuss whether this should be permitted, with the characters expected to speak in their defense. A successful Charisma + Persuasion test at a Difficulty of 3 carries the night.IT’S NOT A BLOOD HUNT: A local Anarch was caught breaking the Masquerade by telling his mortal girlfriend the reason he could only see her at night. His sire’s gang has decided that both need to be destroyed and call every Anarch to participate in the hunt. They stress this is somehow not a Blood Hunt because they don’t believe in Camarilla justice.LocationsLOPPEN: The anarchist commune Freetown Christiania is host to several concert venues and a vibrant nightlife. “The Flee” is a mid-size venue housed on the first floor of an old army hall. It’s managed by a local egalitarian collective and welcomes struggling artists and alternative arts. It gets packed on show nights, and when the energy of the crowd fills the low, wide space, it can be both exhilarating and a little claustrophobic.There’s an art gallery on the floor above.MAGNOLIA: A small old art cinema from the ‘30s, located in the inner-city center, Magnolia shows foreign movies to a small but appreciative audience. On occasion, it also hosts poetry readings, experimental plays, and intimate concerts. Fallen into partial disrepair, the theater is kept running thanks in part to generous donations from undead patrons. Belinda Buch’s Camarilla courtiers meet here covertly. But key players among the Anarchs know all about it. It’s been going on for half a century.

Chapter Five: Sound and Fury 9 4BrusselsThey don’t call it the City of Wastrels for nothing. Camarilla powerbrokers dump their childer here in the hopes that they’ll learn how to use their influence over mortal institutions like the EU. It’s a domain full of the most arrogant, overprivileged fledglings and neonates in the entire sect. The single best hunting ground I’ve ever seen if you like taking down these fuckwits. I’ve tried to moderate myself because I don’t want to spook them. Don’t know how long that can last. The temptation is just too great.—Agata Starek, a Brujah hunting in BrusselsBrussels is not the most beautiful city in Belgium, but it’s where power is located. Home to the EU and NATO, Brussels has a large transient population of international bureaucrats, politicians, military advisors, diplomats, and other professionals walking the corridors of influence. It also has relatively cheap rents and plenty of people going out on an expense account, meaning that there are opportunities for music venues and artists. Over half of the population was born outside Belgium, meaning that nobody is going to be confused at the sight of a foreign visitor.For the Kindred, Brussels is a Camarilla domain with a surprisingly young population even before the Beckoning. Older vampires preferred older cities, sending their progeny to Brussels in the hopes of gaining influence in the mortal affairs of Europe. In practice, these childer mostly spend their nights partying with their sires’ money, leaving the business of power to overworked and underappreciated ghouls recruited among the people working at institutions such as the European Parliament.HistoryAlthough Brussels is an old town, for centuries the real centers of power in the area were in cities such as Antwerp and Bruges. In the 19th century, Brussels became the capital of the new nation of Belgium and its population went from 80,000 to 625,000. In the decades after World War 2, the city gained further prominence when it effectively became the capital of the European Union.From the perspective of Camarilla Kindred, these are all recent developments. Antwerp still has a higher concentration of ancilla and even elder havens than Brussels despite being a much smaller city, simply because it’s familiar to the tradition-minded.The Prince of Brussels is a Nosferatu called Nikolaus Vermuelen. His power has been eroded to practically nothing by all the privileged neonates cavorting around his city. He has a court of a few loyalists from the old days, but despite his age, he can’t control the young scions of the mighty and the powerful. Vermuelen is not well connected politically in the Camarilla, and being a Nosferatu works against him. Because of this, he has had to watch from the sidelines as the childer of Justicars and Princes run amok.CultureReal power in the Camarilla of Brussels is held by the childer of various Camarilla power players. There’s a population of approximately 30 of them living in the city at any given time, although they move a lot among the various European Camarilla Courts. Their internal pecking order is based on whose sire holds the most prominent position.Very few of these childer have any particular merits. They’re lovers Embraced in a fit of passion, those who reminded a nostalgic ancilla of someone they knew in the 19th century, vampires created on impulse by those powerful enough to be able to do so without repercussions.Local ColorSLUMMING: A young Camarilla princeling and his entourage are slumming, hunting at the venue the players’ characters are playing a gig at. Unfortunately, the Camarilla wastrels are intent on causing trouble, seeing the whole thing as a joke. Do the characters escalate into a confrontation or seek to divert the attentions of the neonates elsewhere?I NEED AN OUT: A young fledgling seemingly Embraced just a few weeks ago seeks the characters out after a gig. It turns out she was Embraced illegally by one of the local Kindred and promised an eternity of riches. Now that her sire has sobered up,

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB9 5he’s trying to destroy her so as to avoid punishment from his own sire. She asks if the characters can take her with them.LocationsLE BOTANIQUE: Originally the main orangery of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium, Le Botanique is a striking cultural center and music venue with three different concert spaces and room for art exhibitions and film screenings as well.LA MAISON DES RATS: A shared haven and ersatz Elysium located in an abandoned building in the center of Brussels, run by young, disaffected Nosferatu who detest the wastrels who have taken over their city. Amazingly, in Brussels, being loyal to the Camarilla Prince counts as a subversive act.SUCCUBUS CLUB: One of the wastrels in Brussels is a descendant of Helena, or so he says. Mats Devos runs a Succubus Club of impeccable pedigree, almost a facsimile of the one in Chicago.ParisAll of the Camarilla pride themselves on Paris. The last and eternal bastion. Should all our other cities burn, we expect this one to shelter us, as it has since the high medieval period. But we shouldn’t forget that when the Romans founded Lutetia, there were already people living here. Human remains indicate settlements as early as 8000 BC. In other words, Paris is a methuselah herself. The lake beneath Palais Garnier and the catacombs are just scratching the surface of the secrets this city hides. The unprepared can get into a world of trouble.—Carmelita Neillson, Toreador historianThe City of Lights is beautiful at night — from the way the street lamps on Pont Neuf flicker and reflect in the waters of the Seine far below, to the shimmery beacon of the Eiffel Tower guiding you through winding streets after a Kiss you regret. The wet, hard cobblestone, the stumbling tourists smelling like too much perfume, the Arc de Triomphe lit up by traffic, the green of the parks, locked but calling you in. A good place to die, a better place to be undead.HistoryParis has officially been ruled by the Toreador Prince Francois Villon since the 1500s, and his Belle Courremains in power. However, beneath the surface, a gnawing unease is spreading. It’s an open secret that the Prince has abandoned his throne and his courtiers rule without his leadership. Some whisper that the fire at Notre Dame was a sign that shouldn’t be ignored, and this is another. There’s talk in the arrondissements about who ought to step up and fill the void. In the suburbs, thin-blood and Caitiff fledglings are freer than before to wreak havoc. Still, the Prince might return at any moment — if you’re hoping to get away with something, you best get to it quickly.CultureThe members of Villon’s Court are in absolute power almost anywhere the coterie cares to go, but Paris receives lesser vampires differently depending on which part of the city they’re in. The Traditions are most tightly guarded in the center, in the first to eighth arrondissements, where the Kindred have their claws deep in the mortal population. There’s an order to how things are done here, plenty of luxuries available to those who play by the rules, and very little patience with those who overstep. Farther out, things are a little different. Anarchs tend to gather in the North Eastern part of Paris, where any trouble they get into doesn’t stick out too much from local incidents. The Red Light District in Pigalle, Gare du Nord, and the huge empty parks in the nineteenth arrondissement especially are good places to hunt… or be hunted without knowing it.Local ColorDISCREET INQUIRIES: Minding their own business in the Parisian nightlife, the band notices they’re being followed. Eventually, they’re sought out by a cautious, watchful individual — a representative for one of the local Kindred factions, trying to evaluate whether the band is just passing through or here to perform any services for other political players.

Chapter Five: Sound and Fury 9 6STOLEN SPOTLIGHT: The band has a hell of a time getting ready to go on since nothing is ready for them when it’s supposed to be. The venue workers have all gone on strike. When they’re finally playing, and the mood is picking up, several representatives from the workers’ union hijack the show, throwing the concert into chaos.LocationsPÈRE-LACHAISE: It’s quiet and peaceful at the necropolis among the thousands of decaying mausoleums. The daytime visitors have left flowers on the few fresh graves and stranger tokens on older sites of pilgrimage. The tree by the “Lizard King” Jim’s grave is sticky with chewing gum since there’s a fence around the grave. Someone still managed to find a way to leave a bottle of Chivas Regal by the headstone. Rumor has it, a powerful Tremere witch comes here every fortnight to pay her respects — or conduct some darker ritual.THE CATACOMBS: Only 1.5 km of the Paris Catacombs are open to the public, but another 278.5 km stretch in deserted darkness beneath the city streets. Before the French filled them with the remains of six million corpses, these labyrinthian tunnels were Roman limestone quarries. Stumble upon on one of the city’s many secret entrances, and who knows if you’ll find yourself at a goth squat party, a clandestine gathering of Sabbatwannabees, or the resting place of some longslumbering elder horror.BATACLAN: Legendary venue where the bookers have always aimed to stay ahead of their time. This large, old vaudeville theater embraced rock in 1969 with a show by Soft Machine, soon followed by iconic acts like Velvet Underground and Iron Maiden. Since then, its stage has welcomed hip-hop, techno, folk, and other genres as well, but the Bataclan continues to favor bands with an anti-establishment attitude. The venue has seen a number of violent incidents over the years — needless to say, the Anarchs of Paris try to keep tabs on what unfolds here.Pale SunriseThe role of Pale Sunrise changes depending on how far along you are in the chronicle.A rival vampire band on tour along much of the same route taken by the players’ characters, Pale Sunrise can be anything from allies to rivals depending on the needs of your chronicle. Like many vampires, they can be multiple things at once, both dangerous and helpful, annoying and interesting.Most of all, the purpose of Pale Sunrise is to provide a mirror to the choices made by the players’ characters. Because of this, it makes sense to have them deal with the same issues that the players’ band is dealing with but from their own angle. This way, the players’ characters see how different choices could have played out or see a warning of what happens when you make a mistake.BeginningEarly on, Pale Sunrise shows up in the same cities and perhaps even the same venues where the players’ characters play. The challenges at this stage are minor, often showcasing the nightly problems of touring on a limited budget. This stage consists of the first one or two strops on the tour.LOSING THE TOUR MANAGER: Pale Sunrise is scrambling because they lost their tour manager and are having trouble booking gigs. While this is an opportunity for schadenfreude on the part of the players’ characters, the incident contains a warning. The powers of the Blood don’t help when you need to call a venue at noon to confirm a booking.PLAYING A COOL VENUE: There’s a specific venue the players’ band has been talking about. Once they play a gig there, they’ll know they have a chance at becoming something more. Other bands that played this underground venue have become big. Only, Pale Sunrise got there first.THE VAN BREAKS DOWN: By chance, the players’ characters are driving to the same town as Pale Sunrise. The van of the rival band breaks down. Do the characters help or leave their rivals to fend for themselves? Sunrise is only a few hours away.

LIVE FROM THE SUCCUBUS CLUB9 7BAD PRECEDENT: The local sheriff visits the players’ characters while they’re setting up at a new venue. The local Camarilla wants them gone, the sooner the better. It turns out Pale Sunrise was here just three nights ago and played with blood on stage. The crowd took it for theatrics, but the local Kindred were not amused. Now they’re prejudiced against all undead bands.MiddleIn the middle of the chronicle, Pale Sunrise mirrors the progression the players’ characters have made as a band. It’s up to the Storyteller whether they’re always just ahead or lagging behind as a cautionary tale. These scenes work best up until Copenhagen in the chronicle.GOING VIRAL: Pale Sunrise has a new song that suddenly goes viral. While this is great for the band, they also get visited by a local Camarilla sheriff who wants to talk about potential Masquerade breaches. The attitude of the sheriff may vary wildly: They may be stressed and worried, in awe of the band’s success, or openly hostile.FAN ANIMOSITY: Regardless of the actual relationship between the bands, the emerging fan bases of the players’ band and Pale Sunrise somehow decide that they’re rivals. Animosity between fans escalates into a lot of online name calling.ALL THE BEST PARTIES: Members of Pale Sunrise brag that they got invited to a cool Anarch party where they’ll be able to make connections with Toreador deeply involved with the music business. Do the players’ characters want to crash the party?LOCAL FANS: The local Kindred are big fans of Pale Sunrise, but they’re also confused. The players’ characters realize that they’re being mistaken for their rivals. Do they take advantage or does pride prevent such deception? This works best if the players’ band really is similar to Pale Sunrise.EndWhat happens to Pale Sunrise in the end should be thematically connected to the choices made by the players’ band. The big question in the Sound and Fury chronicle is whether the characters choose mortal or Kindred power. Do they try to become stars, or will they drop out once the dangers to the Masquerade and to themselves become overwhelming? The obvious thing to do with Pale Sunrise is to have them make the other choice. If the players’ characters choose fame and mortal adulation, Pale Sunrise fake their own deaths, becoming a music legend as they take their places among the society of the dead.The Storyteller can make a choice here in how to portray that other choice. The fate of Pale Sunrise can be a cautionary tale as the dangers the players’ characters avoided are realized. Alternatively, the Storyteller can go for a bittersweet ending, having Pale Sunrise succeed with the option the players avoided.These scenes become relevant when the coterie reaches Brussels.SUCCUBUS CLUB IN PARISThe longtime Prince of Paris Francois Villon is the childe of the Methuselah Helena who’s lineage has often seen the various Succubus Clubs around the world as its own domain. Yet in Paris, the city’s Camarilla establishment frowns at the Club and the Kindred who run it are what passes for Anarchs in this tower of Camarilla power.The Paris Succubus Club is light on its feet and highly mortal-facing, appearing as one among the city’s many nightlife organizers. Many of the Succubus Club events are held in obscure or illegal venues, known only to those in the loop whether they’re mortal or Kindred. Sometimes the Club brings in interesting artists and bands, and the venues for these can be among the city’s most high-profile.Bataclan is a particular favorite, and it’s hard for the city’s establishment to find fault in this despite the high profile the Club’s concert’s sometimes have. After all, no mortal is going to raise an eyebrow at seeing a band play at a famous concert venue.

Chapter Five: Sound and Fury 9 8THE SECOND INQUISITION: Just as Pale Sunrise is truly breaking into a massive success, Second Inquisition hunters take them out. It’s framed as a terrorist attack where the popular band becomes an unfortunate casualty, but Kindred observers understand what really happened.BIG TOUR: Pale Sunrise becomes known for their gimmick of only playing after sundown because their dark image demands it. Their detractors say it’s just a trick to get a better slot at music festivals.BREAKUP: Pale Sunrise disbands. Its members have shown that they can manipulate mortals with the best of them and acquire high status among Kindred because of their ability to navigate a dangerous modern world.BOYTOY: The story of Pale Sunrise ends in embarrassment as a powerful Toreador elder snatches their frontman to be her boytoy for the season.Cyfrin PariahThe arrogant frontmanAnarchs (Pale Sunrise)Something clicked for Cyfrin when he was Embraced into the Hecata. He’d been an aspiring musician with another name and a hard time getting anything to stick. He had a string of failed bands behind him, but now, looking at his pale undead face in the mirror, he realized he had what he needed.The singer and frontman for Pale Sunrise, a gothic rock/post-punk band making the most of its vampiric mystique. The band plays with sex, seduction, and the allure of the dark — all qualities that Cyfrin does his best to embody. He has a knack for becoming the romantic figure the fans want him to be.Cyfrin believes that he has finally figured out how to attain the grand destiny he always knew was in store for him. He believes in his own creative genius. It’s just a matter of making the world see him as he sees himself.10th Generation Hecata NeonateGeneral Difficulty: 4 / 3Blood Potency: 1Humanity: 6Standard Dice Pools: Physical 5, Social 7, Mental 5, Disciplines 5Secondary Attributes: Health 7, Willpower 5Exceptional Dice Pools: Performance 8, Persuasion 8, Streetwise 8Disciplines: Auspex 3 (Heightened Senses, Premonition, Scry the Soul), Fortitude 1 (Resilience), Oblivion 1 (Shadow Cloak), Ceremonies: The Gift of False LifeAppearance: A white man in his late 20s, Cyfrin plays the part of the vampire rock star to the hilt. He’s pale but gorgeous, as if he’d just risen from the grave to pose for a photo shoot. He had the good fortune to be Embraced at the peak of his physical condition and he takes full advantage, often going shirtless. Dark makeup and gothic jewelry complete the picture.IN PLAY: The quintessential rival, Cyfrin is arrogant and annoying. He seems to succeed at everything the players’ characters find difficult. He has the potential for a romantic liaison too, depending on whether a player’s character is willing to overlook his absurd theatricality and overconfidence because of his beautiful exterior.LOCATIONS: Cyfrin can be found playing gigs with Pale Sunrise, at exclusive parties both mortal and undead, seducing his next masochistic blood doll, or in a hotel bathroom trying out new looks.ON TOUR: The worst and the best of what happens on tour happens to Cyfrin. His many deficiencies constantly land him into trouble, but he also has a knack for improbable escapes. The Archon who comes to terminate him falls in lust with him, and the mortal hunter decides to ignore him because nobody this corny can really be undead.Liane “The Smile” WindThe ambitious musicianAnarchs (Pale Sunrise)An adopted child in a white, middle-class German family, Liane was made to take piano lessons by her parents, something they later regretted. Music consumed her whole life and soon she was ignoring everything else, focusing on learning new instruments, writing songs, and going to gigs she was too young to attend.Too energetic for classical music, too fond of playing live to make it as a composer, Liane was flailing in life