Dominate

Some Kindred are capable of overwhelming the minds of others with their own force of will, influencing actions and even thoughts. Use of Dominate requires a character to capture a victim's gaze. The Discipline can therefore be used on only one subject at a time, and is useless if eye contact is not possible.

Dominate does not grant the ability to make oneself understood or to communicate mentally. Commands must be issued verbally, though certain simple commands (such as "Go over there!" indicated with a pointed finger and a forceful expression) may be conveyed by signs at the Storyteller's discretion. No matter how powerful a vampire is, she cannot force her victim to obey if she cannot make herself understood -- if, for example, the victim doesn't speak the same language, she cannot hear or the orders simply make no sense.

Note that victims of Dominate might realize what's been done to them. That is, they do not automatically sense that they are being controlled, but they might subsequently wonder why they suddenly acted as they did. Wise Kindred, especially those familiar with Dominate, are likely to figure it out in the moment, and few vampires take kindly to being manipulated in such a fashion. Most Kindred who develop Dominate are forceful, controlling personalities, and they can make a reputation for themselves if they use this Discipline wantonly.

Dominate is also more effective against those whom the user has subjected to a full Blood Bond. A regnant may use Dominate powers (with the exception of Conditioning) on a thrall without the need for eye contact; the thrall merely has to hear the regnant's voice.

Eye Contact: In most cases, uses of dominate require eye contact between the victim and the kindred. Those under a full blood bond, or thoroughly Conditioned using that power are the only exceptions to this rule. Dominate is made more difficult if the subject is not standing still or otherwise immobilized. If the target moves about, the roll to initiate the relevant power suffers a -1 penalty in addition to all others listed.

Generation: For some reason It is utterly impossible to use dominate on a vampire who is of lower generation than yourself. When attempting to dominate Kindred of Higher generation than yourself you gain +2 dice.

Blood Ties: Close blood relations strengthen the use of many vampiric abilities. This counts for dominate as well, keeping in mind the hard Generation rule however.

The Blood Bond: Those whom the vampire has under the sway of the blood bond are more susceptible to his Dominate. The kindred gains a +1 to +3 dice bonus on all Dominate abilities used against those whom are blood bound to him.

Majesty: Powers of Majesty can work in tandem with dominate, aiding it in subtle or overt ways. If the target is under the effects of the vampires Awe, Entrancement or Sovereignty they gain a +1 bonus dice on their Dominate rolls.

Resisting: The first two levels of this power completely bypass supernatural resistance, however supernaturals can bring more of their psyche to bear versus dominate than mortals and resist with Resolve + Composure resistance roll instead of just Resolve roll; a kindred must also always roll when attempting to dominate a supernatural. Against the third and fourth dot however, the innate resistances of supernaturals apply, it is much more difficult to change the memories of an 8th generation vampire than of a 13th.

• Command

Once he has established eye contact, the vampire issues a single, one-word command that must be obeyed instantly. The order must be clear and straightforward -- freeze, jump, run, stop, fall, cough, blink and so forth. If the command is ambiguous or confusing, the subject might respond slowly or perform the task poorly. Further, commands are always interpreted (within reason) in the subject's best interests. For example, if the victim stands on the edge of a roof and the character commands "Jump!" the victim might jump up and down, rather than leap off the roof. Of course, the victim would probably not leap off the roof even if the character could find a way to order it.

Subjects of Command cannot be made to directly harm themselves, so an obviously suicidal order such as "Die!" is ineffective. "Sleep" and the like causes the subject to follow the order only if she does not believe herself to be in any mortal danger. A character seduced by a Kindred might sleep if so instructed, but one in the middle of a combat or interrogation certainly does not. In such situations, the character merely falls senseless, but only for a turn.

The vampire may include the command word in a sentence, in order to conceal her use of the power from others. The command itself must be stressed, and the character must make eye contact precisely when that word is spoken. Observers may notice the unusual emphasis, but only the most alert -- and those familiar with the Discipline -- are likely to realize what has occurred.

Cost: —

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Intimidation + Dominate vs Resolve (Or Resolve + Composure if the victim is Supernatural)

Action: Instant; resistance is reflexive

Dramatic Failure: The subject does not obey, is immune to the character's Dominate for the rest of the chapter, and he intrinsically knows the kindred tried to violate her.

Failure: The character loses or ties the contested roll and the subject does not obey.

Success: The victim obeys the command literally and with appreciable self-preservation.

Exceptional Success: The victim not only obeys but rationalizes what she does as her own decision until and unless someone questions her about it in depth.

Assuming the commanded action is one that can carried out for some time, such as "wait" or "sleep," the subject obeys for a number of turns equal to the successes obtained on the Command roll.

If this power is turned upon a mortal no roll nececerry if the vampires Dominate is equal to the mortal Resolve. If the vampires dominate is higher the roll is automatically considered an exceptional success.

•• Mesmerize

The source of many legends of the vampire's hypnotic gaze, Mesmerize allows the Kindred to implant a false thought or suggestion into the subject's subconscious mind. The power requires not only eye contact but intense concentration and precise wording, so both the character and the subject must be free from distraction. The Kindred may activate the imposed thought or command immediately --"Walk over here and open the door" -- or he may establish a stimulus that activates the suggestion at a later date -- "When you see a man in a blue suit with a red rose in his lapel, you will spill your drink on him."

The victim must be able to understand the vampire. The Kindred must maintain eye contact and intense concentration only as long as it takes to implant the suggestion or idea. Mezmerize requires a fairly calm, quiet environment to function, when implanting a mezmerize command or condition the victim almost seems like they are trapped in a hypnotic gaze. Mesmerize can deliver truly complex and long-term commands, such as following someone, taking notes on her activities and reporting back on the first of the next month. A subject can have only one suggestion implanted at any given time.

Cost: —

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Persuasion + Dominate vs Resolve (Or Resolve + Composure if the victim is Supernatural)

Action: Instant; resistance is reflexive

Dramatic Failure: The subject does not obey, is immune to the character's Dominate for the rest of the chapter, and he intrinsically knows the kindred tried to violate her.

Failure: The subject does not obey.

Success: The victim obeys to the best of his ability.

Exceptional Success: The victim not only obeys, but rationalizes what she does as her own decision until and unless someone questions her about it in depth.

If this power is turned upon a mortal no roll nececerry if the vampires Dominate is equal to the mortal Resolve. If the vampires dominate is higher the roll is automatically considered an exceptional success.

This power lasts for as long as it takes the subject to carry out the required task, or until the character is destroyed or enters torpor. Impossible actions such as, "Count every grain of sand on this beach," automatically fail to take root in the subject's mind.

No matter how strong the dominator's will is or how many successes he obtains, he cannot make a subject harm himself directly. Any command to commit suicide is therefore ignored, although commands that are likely to lead to harm -- such as, "Walk into that crack house and shoot the man in the red shirt" -- are enforceable, subject to the Resolve rolls discussed above. If a vampire attempts to Mesmerize a subject who is already under the influence of a previously implanted directive, compare the successes rolled in the attempt against the successes gained during the implantation of the first suggestion. If the character obtains more successes than the previous Kindred, the new command may supplant the old one. If he does not, the original command remains active and the new one fails to take root. In case of a tie, the original command takes precedent over the new one.

If during the course of carrying out the implanted suggestion, the victim realizes he puts himself in danger or acts completely contrary to his normal moral code, a Resolve + Composure roll may be made to shake off the compulsion. This is a contested roll. Successes rolled must exceed the number of successes obtained for the dominating character when the individual was first mesmerized.

Cost: —

Dice Pool: Resolve

Action: Instant

Dramatic Failure: Not only must the subject continue to carry out the command, no more Resolve rolls may be made to shake the dominator's control, no matter what the subject is forced to do.

Failure: The victim must continue to carry out the command as ordered.

Success: The victim escapes the suggestion.

Exceptional Success: The victim defies the suggestion, and the dominator incurs a -1 penalty to future attempts to Dominate him until the next night.

••• The Forgetful Mind

A vampire with this power can literally delve into a subject's mind, stealing or reshaping memories at whim. The power, as with all uses of Dominate, requires eye contact. The Forgetful Mind does not allow for telepathic contact. Instead, the vampire acts much like a hypnotist, asking direct questions to draw answers from the subject, and then describing in detail any new memories she wishes to impose on the victim. Simple alterations, such as blurring brief and recent memories, are easy enough (and very effective for eliminating evidence of feeding or other Masquerade breaches). More comprehensive alterations, up to and including a complete reconstruction of the victim's past and even identity, are possible albeit substantially more difficult.

The victim's subconscious struggles to resist false memories implanted from without, so the degree to which the vampire details new memories has direct bearing on how fully the subject assimilates them. An incomplete or simplistic false memory shatters much more swiftly and easily than does one with more attention to detail. For instance, "You drove home after work and had a very bad evening" is not likely to hold up. Far more effective would be an account such as, "You left work late, due to a last-minute change ordered by the client. You still managed to get stuck in rush hour for an extra 25 minutes, and you were seriously frustrated by the time you pulled off the freeway. There weren't even any good songs on the radio. Three blocks from home, a cop pulled you over for coasting through a stop sign. At least he only gave you a warning, but it was still just one more hassle. The frozen dinner you microwaved was awful, the TV movie starred some has-been you didn't like, and the news was depressing. You finally turned off the TV in disgust and went to bed."

Truly effective use of The Forgetful Mind, then, requires substantial finesse and patience, as well as the ability to carefully and thoroughly think things through ahead of time. It's fairly simple to sift through a victim's memories and strip out recent events without even knowing precisely what happened, but doing so leaves a gap in the memory that can lead to further problems. Most people aren't comfortable realizing they've lost a few hours or a night's worth of memories, and they're likely to try to find out what happened. Even new memories that the character imposes rarely have the same strength as the originals, and they can be broken or at least contradicted through investigation. For instance, a victim might not recall that she was attacked by a vampire, but she might remember being bitten, chalking it up to an animal attack or a spider. More vivid memories can return as snippets in dreams or be triggered by an unusual olfactory stimulus or spoken phrase.

A vampire may also use The Forgetful Mind to sense whether someone has had her memories altered in this fashion, and he can sometimes use his own power to draw forth and restore the original thoughts. No Kindred may use The Forgetful Mind to restore his own lost or altered memories, however.

Cost: —

Dice Pool: Wits + Persuasion + Dominate - Resolve + Supernatural Tolerance

Action: Extended (1-100+ successes, based on the detail and complexity of memory; each roll represents five minutes of mental manipulation)

Dramatic Failure: The attempt fails The subject is immune to the character's Dominate for the rest of the chapter, and he intrinsically knows the kindred tried to violate her. All accumulated successes are lost and the subject continues to remember what happened.

Failure: The attempt fails and the total successes are reduced by 1.

Success: The character makes headway toward altering a block of memories.

Exceptional Success: The character makes considerable headway toward altering a block of memories.

Even a single success pacifies the victim for the length of time it takes to complete the process. Both vampire and subject must be safe and relatively composed when this power is used; it cannot be used to calm someone already in combat, for example. To restore stolen or false memories, or to sense when memories have been altered, a character must possess Dominate at a level equal to or greater than that of the vampire who first tampered with the subject's mind. If such is the case, the player then makes a contested roll in each stage of the extended action, to be compared against the initial user's attempt, and must score more successes than the predecessor did.

Modifiers:

The character's description of the new memories is lacking in detail -1 to -3

•••• Conditioning

Through constant veiled whispers, subtle hints and frequent sustained manipulation, a vampire can slowly render a particular victim substantially more suggestible. Conditioning is normally used only on favored or valuable servants and, over sufficient time, makes the character's efforts to Dominate a subject far easier while making it harder for any other Kindred to do so. While they are undeniably loyal, servants subject to Conditioning find their ability to think for themselves somewhat diminished, their own personalities overshadowed by the will imposed on them. Mortals, thralls, other vampires and other supernatural creatures are all subject to Conditioning, if it can be performed on them over the required period of time.

Cost: 2 Vitae per roll

Dice Pool: Wits + Subterfuge + Dominate - Resolve + Supernatural Tolerance

Action: Extended (6-15 successes; each roll represents one scene of mental manipulation and only one roll may be made a night); resistance is reflexive

Dramatic Failure: All of the user's successes to date are negated and The subject is immune to the character's Dominate for the rest of the chapter, and he intrinsically knows the kindred tried to violate her.

Failure: If not enough successes have been achieved to go above the targets willpower, then all progress is lost. Otherwise then no progress is made.

Success: Progress is made to bend the subject to his will.

Exceptional Success: Substantial progress in his efforts to suborn the subject's will.

Conditioning does not have any mechanical effect until five more successes are accumulated in excess of the victim's Willpower dots. (If the subject has Willpower 6, Conditioning begins to take effect once 11 successes are achieved.) Once this benchmark has been reached, all future attempts by the character to use any Dominate or Majesty ability (including further uses of Conditioning) on the victim receive a +1 bonus, and all attempts by others to use a supernatural ability to command or control the subject (including Dominate) suffer a -1 penalty. For every additional five successes that are accumulated, the bonus and penalty each increase by one, to a maximum of +5 and -5.

The Storyteller, not the player, should keep track of the number of successes accumulated. Once the character's bonus reaches +3, he no longer needs to make eye contact with the Conditioning subject to use any Dominate abilities, though giving orders through artificial or impersonal means (such as by phone) imposes a -5 penalty to that particular attempt. Once the character's bonus reaches +5 he intrinsically knows when another kindred attempts to Dominate his thrall.

Subjects of Conditioning are oblivious to the process being inflicted upon them unless they also possess the power. The Storyteller may allow a victim or someone close to him a Wits + Occult roll to recognize that something is wrong. If the roll fails, the process may continue unaffected. If the roll succeeds, an effort may be made to interrupt the process. If the Conditioning vampire is particularly careful about how suggestions and messages are conveyed, the Wits + Occult roll might suffer a -1 penalty. Interrupting the process could mean fleeing the vampire or restraining the subject from meeting the vampire before all the required successes are accumulated.

Those are reach the +3 or above stages of conditioning begin to exhibit certain signs, changes to their personality. These changes are very much so dependent on their regnant, everything from their domitors personality, to his clan, to how he threats his thralls. Beaten dogs will have all the spark and luster lost from them acting like caged animals only answerable to their masters strength. Others might become unimaginative zombies, hardly able to do anything but the basics necessities of living and follow their masters direct orders to the letter. Some may find interests and designs they hold fading, their personalities becoming submissive to their masters will. And stranger still there are those who will find themselves beginning to exhibit behavioral patterns of their regnant as the stronger personality overwhelms their own. No two thralls experience Conditioning exactly alike, but those who go through it always come out changed.

••••• Possession

By this point, the Kindred need not rely on spoken commands and limited understanding. With the mere locking of the victim's gaze, the vampire can utterly supplant the subject's own psyche with her own, possessing the subject like a malevolent spirit. Once the Kindred has crushed the victim's will, she literally takes over the body, inhabiting it and controlling it as easily as she does her own. The mortal enters something of a fugue state while possessed, and he is aware of events only in a dreamlike, distorted fashion. The Kindred suffers the opposite effect. Her mind now resides within the victim, and her own body falls into a torpor-like state, becoming indistinguishable from a true corpse.

Kindred cannot possess other Kindred in this fashion, regardless of force of will or differences in Generation, nor can the kindred posses other supernaturals. The one exception to this is Ghouls or Kindred who have been completely blood bound to the kindred attempting Possession. Their wills have been suitably broken and warped so that a kindred by attempt this.

Cost: 1 Vitae (Plus more, see below)

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Intimidation + Dominate - Resolve

Action: Contested and Extended (see below); resistance is reflexive

Dramatic Failure: The attempt is over, the subject is immune to the character's Dominate for the rest of the chapter, and he intrinsically knows the kindred tried to violate her. All previously accumulated successes are lost.

Failure: In any turn in which the vampire loses or ties a contested roll, the victim may attempt to escape. If the vampire succeeds in restarting the process during the same scene, the contest picks up from where it left off.

Success: The character wins a contested roll and accumulates successes in her attempt to exert ultimate control over her subject.

Exceptional Success: The character wins a contested roll with five or more successes in her attempt to exert ultimate control over her subject.

The vampire locks eyes with the victim and begins the process of utterly stripping away the subject's Willpower. The vampire must obtain a number of successes in excess of the victim's Willpower. The victim is held, trapped in this psychic struggle, as long as the vampire's player continues to win each contested roll. Each roll occupies a turn's time. If the kindred wishes, she can spend a willpower point when activating possession to be able to use any mental disciplines she has that do not require the expenditure of blood in their use. If the kindred is possessing a blood bound thrall she has access to all the puppets physical capabilities, but not mental capabilities.

Once the character has exceeded the victim's Willpower in number of successes, she may take control of his body. The character may take any actions she chooses, travel as far from her own body as she wishes, and is unharmed by daylight while possessing the subject (If the subject is mortal), but she must still force herself to stay awake during the day. The vampire may choose to end the possession and return to her body at any time, regardless of distance. This occurs automatically if the vampire fails to remain awake. Any injuries inflicted on the subject also affect the vampire's body. If the subject dies while the vampire is still present, the Kindred falls into torpor immediately. (Some believe the soul attempts to find its way back to its own body during this time.)

The vampire may choose to break the possession and return to her body at any time, over any distance, but until and unless she does so, her true physical form is utterly helpless. If the Kindred's physical form is destroyed, she remains trapped in the mortal body until she finally fails to remain awake, at which point her psyche is lost to oblivion and is unrecoverable. Any attempt to "re-Embrace" a vampire's spirit trapped in a host body results only in Final Death. When finally freed of vampiric possession, some mortals recover immediately, while others lie comatose or suffer trauma-induced psychoses for days or even weeks before recovering. Because a vampire experiences everything her physical body does -- tasting food, soaking up the sun -- many become addicted to the sensations and spend more time possessing mortals than inhabiting their own bodies. It is possible, though uncommon, for a vampire to neglect her physical body long enough for it to starve into torpor while she's "out." If a vampire's dormant body slips or is forced into torpor, the vampire's spirit automatically returns to its body.

Normally the kindred may only use Auspex when possessing another being. However with the expenditure of another vitae and a willpower point when possessing they may use Dominate and Majesty as well, with the expenditure of 2 vitae and 2 willpower they may additional use Dementation or Chimestry, and finally with 2 additional vitae and 3 Willpower points they may also use Thaumaturgy or Necromancy.