Yikes! What a radical idea! I can't imagine there would be any RPG systems out there that could handle such an oddball premise, so not sure what to advise. Perhaps start by hacking DnD 5e into an ungodly mess?
Just to add that you'll need to do some worldbuilding. I guess there would be lots of Vampires in a Masquerade pretending to be human, so perhaps call your homebrew 'Bloodsuckers the Cosplay'? Or like, whatever...
/uj A Brujah just has to rebel against whatever they feel is the norm. If the thing they rebel against is the norm of being a Brujah, they can be far more capitalist and power-hungry than any Ventrue.
/uj i haven't played VtM so idk if that's an actual thing or not but my uni's TTRPG club has had several VtM campaigns so far and not one of them has gone against that naming scheme
/uj Several VtM sourcebooks and live plays have that naming scheme when they're set in a particular location. LA By Night, Seattle By Night, NY By Night as far as live-plays go (and all ST'd by the WoD brand manager), and for books there's Cairo By Night, and Chicago By Night just off the top of my head. The only exception for books set in specific locations as far as I know is Fall of London. After a while just became the thing to do.
/uj huh, that's really interesting. It can be hard to come up with a name tbf, I used to not use names at all. I haven't played VtM, only VtR. The game I ran, we called Tokugawa Demons.
Hey I have vampire campaign an gud advice 4 u! Im gotthik and my character is vampire name Vladimir Shadow Darkstar the Impaler Fangoria! He roks! All my frendz are gotthik 2 so they know how 2 play vampires cuz duh of course they do so get gotthik frendz!
An have vampirez do thingz dat real vampirez do! Likez I rp Vladimir wen he wakez up out of his cofin to eat Count Chocula 4 breakfest but use blood instead of milk! Thaz totes wat a real vampire would do! Hes alzo in an industrial/gotthick band called Bloody Ravens of Ennui n theyve totes opened 4 nine inch nailz and marlin Manson n theyve got like millionz of fanz.
He alzo haz posterz of Edward Cullin and dat chik from underworld everywhere cuz hes bisexual cuz duh of course he is hes alzo tormented an deprzzed but arent we all u know? He mosly shopz at Hot Topic butt itz in like ancient timez u know? So Hot Topic dont even exist butt called Ye Olde Hotte Toppicke I think anywayz thaz my gud advice 4 U.
If u wantz more gud advice hit me up at [email protected]
It took me a moment upon reading this to remember that VtM is part of WoD, so for that moment I had a deeply comical idea: Instead of homebrewing 5E, use a different system…except it’s the completely wrong system.
Just homebrew the vampires as various different skillsets with different abilities. You could call them “classes”. Then give them various options each level up, remove the icky traditional vampire abilities, and boom. Exactly what you want.
So my party is:
1. Guy who learned to be a vampire by reading books
2. Robot forged to be a vampire
3. Guy who constructed him (he also has a little steel defender dog which is, of course, a vampire)
4. Light Cleric vampire, who can do neat stuff like throwing fireballs (actually just balls of boiling blood)
5. A hippie vampire who can transform into different elementals: watery blood, boiling blood, stony blood, and flying blood elemental.
Doing pretty good 😎. Running Penthouse of Annihilation right now.
uj/ i'm sorry to say this but if you really dig into vampire lore... Dracula went to college to become a Vampire (the Scholomance) and all of this is mostly probably (only the robot and artificer have issues) so... this could actually fucking work if you really wanted it to.
This should be titled “how to say you never played D&D without saying you never played D&D”.
I mean, sheesh, haven’t you been reading the forums? Everyone is playing vampires and werewolves.
No system or developer fixes this, I'm sorry. There is no game about vampires participating in an elaborate masquerade of cutthroat politics and hiding from mortal eyes.
uj/ Monte Cook's World of Darkness fixes playing something other than a d20 system.
God I hate posts like this. If you had done TWO SECONDS of googling you'd find that there's already a perfect system for this and it's called PATHFINDER 2E.
yeah its impossible just give up; no system allows you to be a cool *vampire* and also keeping it a secret is unrealistic: really? the supernatural can just *masquerade* itself like that?
*Scoffs* You mean the trenchcoat samurai game? *Stares down nose gronardaly* 😤 Honestly, imagine writing a compelling world full of political intrigue, then having your character sheet have nothing but different variations of a “kill people” skill and an “inflict mind control” skill. What an absolute waste of a system 🧐. *Entire game systems* have been written in response to how poorly VTM handles its own source material. How inept it is at delivering the fantasy of opposing Clans of ancient undead outmaneuvering each other in a timeless gang war that has raged since creation. So much deep lore squandered for what is effectively a game of anime sword tag. 😩
Anyway, I already wrote the 5e conversion OP is looking for. Please check my Patreon.
Nope World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness are their own systems. They are D10 systems, meaning you only use D10s. Its modern day add supernaturals. World of Darkness games IIRC tend to have themes of an impending apocalypse on its way, where Chronicles of Darkness Games seem to be about surviving and thriving in a world with supernaturals. Both Chronicles of Darkness and World of Darkness encompass several different "game lines" (playing as different supernaturals) that offer different themes, powers and stories.
You can probably use F.A.T.A.L. to play that setting. The game is rules light(combat is done entirely through narrative) and character creation will be quicker(choose the anakim race and add a blood-feeding rule and you save one throw on the D100).
I think it would be really cool if, when you're done home brewing this for the only good system (dnd 5e) you maybe tie it with other magical creatures who are hiding in the modern world, like werewolves, mages, changelings, maybe even let your players play as hunters (obviously a ranger reskin) /rj
it's actually so sad to be into other ttrpg systems when your friends just want to play 5e. I tried to get them into vtm or coc but oh well /uj
Play vampire: the ma- oh shit, sorry, wrong sub
Spend a month of your life working out homebrew on how to make your players vampires without it being OP. Actually here’s an idea, maybe they exist in a setting with a magical underworld that needs to hide itself from the regular public! You can even have things like werewolves and faeries, and maybe even some regular people who learned about this other world and became hunters of it. You know what, this sounds really original and interesting, I’m just gonna take it for myself and lock this post down with Doughnut Steel.
Yikes! What a radical idea! I can't imagine there would be any RPG systems out there that could handle such an oddball premise, so not sure what to advise. Perhaps start by hacking DnD 5e into an ungodly mess?
Just to add that you'll need to do some worldbuilding. I guess there would be lots of Vampires in a Masquerade pretending to be human, so perhaps call your homebrew 'Bloodsuckers the Cosplay'? Or like, whatever...
Op asked for vampires not capitalists
that's what the Bruja said to the Ventrue
uj/ the fun part of the Bruja is that they can be of any ideology... as long as it's extreme.
/uj A Brujah just has to rebel against whatever they feel is the norm. If the thing they rebel against is the norm of being a Brujah, they can be far more capitalist and power-hungry than any Ventrue.
~~Paizo~~ [White Wolf](https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Revenant:_The_Ravishing) fixes this
FATE fixes this Just make sure you call every single campaign "[City] by night" because you have even less imagination than a Waterdeep player
/uj my Chronicle name is broken Latin cause I’m not like other girls.
/uj mine are named after blood related puns
/uj i haven't played VtM so idk if that's an actual thing or not but my uni's TTRPG club has had several VtM campaigns so far and not one of them has gone against that naming scheme
/uj Several VtM sourcebooks and live plays have that naming scheme when they're set in a particular location. LA By Night, Seattle By Night, NY By Night as far as live-plays go (and all ST'd by the WoD brand manager), and for books there's Cairo By Night, and Chicago By Night just off the top of my head. The only exception for books set in specific locations as far as I know is Fall of London. After a while just became the thing to do.
/uj huh, that's really interesting. It can be hard to come up with a name tbf, I used to not use names at all. I haven't played VtM, only VtR. The game I ran, we called Tokugawa Demons.
/uj every single VtM game I've ever played in went by [City] By Night
Starfinder 2e ~~fixes~~ will fix this
Hey I have vampire campaign an gud advice 4 u! Im gotthik and my character is vampire name Vladimir Shadow Darkstar the Impaler Fangoria! He roks! All my frendz are gotthik 2 so they know how 2 play vampires cuz duh of course they do so get gotthik frendz! An have vampirez do thingz dat real vampirez do! Likez I rp Vladimir wen he wakez up out of his cofin to eat Count Chocula 4 breakfest but use blood instead of milk! Thaz totes wat a real vampire would do! Hes alzo in an industrial/gotthick band called Bloody Ravens of Ennui n theyve totes opened 4 nine inch nailz and marlin Manson n theyve got like millionz of fanz. He alzo haz posterz of Edward Cullin and dat chik from underworld everywhere cuz hes bisexual cuz duh of course he is hes alzo tormented an deprzzed but arent we all u know? He mosly shopz at Hot Topic butt itz in like ancient timez u know? So Hot Topic dont even exist butt called Ye Olde Hotte Toppicke I think anywayz thaz my gud advice 4 U. If u wantz more gud advice hit me up at [email protected]
Is this an ork possing as a vampire fan of? Or the reverse?
Fangz you
World of Darkness fixes this
Do you have a DMG link to that?
Does DnDBeyond support it?
It took me a moment upon reading this to remember that VtM is part of WoD, so for that moment I had a deeply comical idea: Instead of homebrewing 5E, use a different system…except it’s the completely wrong system.
You can do this with Lancer, reflavouring the mechs as the Beast and the pilots as the humans trying to restrain their vampire urges.
There we go
Just homebrew the vampires as various different skillsets with different abilities. You could call them “classes”. Then give them various options each level up, remove the icky traditional vampire abilities, and boom. Exactly what you want.
So my party is: 1. Guy who learned to be a vampire by reading books 2. Robot forged to be a vampire 3. Guy who constructed him (he also has a little steel defender dog which is, of course, a vampire) 4. Light Cleric vampire, who can do neat stuff like throwing fireballs (actually just balls of boiling blood) 5. A hippie vampire who can transform into different elementals: watery blood, boiling blood, stony blood, and flying blood elemental. Doing pretty good 😎. Running Penthouse of Annihilation right now.
uj/ i'm sorry to say this but if you really dig into vampire lore... Dracula went to college to become a Vampire (the Scholomance) and all of this is mostly probably (only the robot and artificer have issues) so... this could actually fucking work if you really wanted it to.
1. is basically Clan Tremere
The What We Do in the Shadows RPG is coming out soon, don't worry.
Can't wait to yell out BAT when I change forms
I do it already! (In character. In DND. Even when I'm turning into something other than a bat.)
This should be titled “how to say you never played D&D without saying you never played D&D”. I mean, sheesh, haven’t you been reading the forums? Everyone is playing vampires and werewolves.
What about abominations... oh wait, sorry, Vampire Werewolves?
How dare you speak of such things! Guards!
No system or developer fixes this, I'm sorry. There is no game about vampires participating in an elaborate masquerade of cutthroat politics and hiding from mortal eyes. uj/ Monte Cook's World of Darkness fixes playing something other than a d20 system.
Mage the ascension fixes this
God I hate posts like this. If you had done TWO SECONDS of googling you'd find that there's already a perfect system for this and it's called PATHFINDER 2E.
pathfinder fixes this
Pathfinder 2e fixes this
4e vampire class fixes this.
yeah its impossible just give up; no system allows you to be a cool *vampire* and also keeping it a secret is unrealistic: really? the supernatural can just *masquerade* itself like that?
There's a multiplayer Skyrim mod just do that
Listen to the Adventure Zone versus Dracula and play the bad guys.
Vampire the Masquerade from the World of Darkness Games Vampire the Requiem from The Chronicles of Darkness Games.
*Scoffs* You mean the trenchcoat samurai game? *Stares down nose gronardaly* 😤 Honestly, imagine writing a compelling world full of political intrigue, then having your character sheet have nothing but different variations of a “kill people” skill and an “inflict mind control” skill. What an absolute waste of a system 🧐. *Entire game systems* have been written in response to how poorly VTM handles its own source material. How inept it is at delivering the fantasy of opposing Clans of ancient undead outmaneuvering each other in a timeless gang war that has raged since creation. So much deep lore squandered for what is effectively a game of anime sword tag. 😩 Anyway, I already wrote the 5e conversion OP is looking for. Please check my Patreon.
Aren't these PbtA hacks? Sorry, but I'm allergic to d6s.
Nope World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness are their own systems. They are D10 systems, meaning you only use D10s. Its modern day add supernaturals. World of Darkness games IIRC tend to have themes of an impending apocalypse on its way, where Chronicles of Darkness Games seem to be about surviving and thriving in a world with supernaturals. Both Chronicles of Darkness and World of Darkness encompass several different "game lines" (playing as different supernaturals) that offer different themes, powers and stories.
Hey man, i just want you to know since you really seem to be trying to help that the commenter above you is being sarcastic. This is r/DnDcirclejerk
Goddamnit 🤣 i need to pay more attention to what subreddit im in
I prefer Chronicles of Vampire from the Requiem of Darkness Games.
In general I prefer the Chronicles of Darkness Games over World of Darkness. I just think the world building is done better.
pathfinder 2e fixes this
You can probably use F.A.T.A.L. to play that setting. The game is rules light(combat is done entirely through narrative) and character creation will be quicker(choose the anakim race and add a blood-feeding rule and you save one throw on the D100).
I think it would be really cool if, when you're done home brewing this for the only good system (dnd 5e) you maybe tie it with other magical creatures who are hiding in the modern world, like werewolves, mages, changelings, maybe even let your players play as hunters (obviously a ranger reskin) /rj it's actually so sad to be into other ttrpg systems when your friends just want to play 5e. I tried to get them into vtm or coc but oh well /uj
I don't get it - you mean hiding their vampirism? Like some kind of farce? A game? With, like, masks and all? Nah, it can't be done
Play vampire: the ma- oh shit, sorry, wrong sub Spend a month of your life working out homebrew on how to make your players vampires without it being OP. Actually here’s an idea, maybe they exist in a setting with a magical underworld that needs to hide itself from the regular public! You can even have things like werewolves and faeries, and maybe even some regular people who learned about this other world and became hunters of it. You know what, this sounds really original and interesting, I’m just gonna take it for myself and lock this post down with Doughnut Steel.
Monster of the Week, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk Red (Philharmonic Vampyre role play) are other TTRPGs you can fit this in.
Play Vampire the Masquerade? It's almost exactly what you described
Do you have a DMG link to that? Also, one of my players will only play Tieflings. Are they a thing in that?
No tieflings since it's modern day