Dementation

● Passion

Source: V20 Core

The vampire stirs zir victim’s emotions, either heightening them to a fevered pitch or blunting them until the target is completely desensitized. The Cainite may not choose which emotion is affected; ze may only amplify or dull emotions already present in the target. In this way, a vampire can inflame mild irritation into quivering rage or atrophy true love into casual interest.

System: The character talks to zir victim, and the vampire’s player rolls Charisma + Empathy (Difficulty equals the victim’s Humanity or Path rating). The number of successes determines the duration of the altered state of feeling. Effects of this power might include 1 or 2 point additions or subtractions to Difficulties of frenzy rolls, Virtue rolls, rolls to resist Presence powers, etc.

●● The Haunting

Source: V20 Core

The vampire manipulates the sensory centers of zir victim’s brain, flooding the victim’s senses with visions, sounds, scents, or feelings that aren’t really there. The images, regardless of the sense to which they appeal, are only fleeting “glimpses,” barely perceptible to the victim. The vampire using Dementation cannot control what the victim perceives, but may choose which sense is affected.

The “haunting” effects occur mainly when the victim is alone, and mostly at night. They may take the form of the subject’s repressed fears, guilty memories, or anything else that the Storyteller finds dramatically appropriate. The effects are never pleasant or unobtrusive, however. The Storyteller should let their imagination run wild when describing these sensory impressions; the victim may well feel as if xe is going mad, or as if the world is.

System: After the vampire speaks to the victim, the player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (Difficulty equals their victim’s Perception + Self-Control/Instinct). The number of successes determines the length of the sensory “visitations.” The precise effects are up to the Storyteller, though particularly eerie or harrowing apparitions can certainly reduce dice pools for a turn or 2 after the manifestation.

●●● Eyes of Chaos

Source: V20 Core

This peculiar power allows the vampire to take advantage of the fleeting clarity hidden in insanity. Ze may scrutinize the “patterns” of a person’s soul, the convolutions of a vampire’s inner nature, or even random events in nature itself. The Kindred with this power can discern the most well-hidden psychoses, or gain insight into a person’s true self. Malkavians with this power often have (or claim to have) knowledge of the moves and countermoves of the great Jyhad, or the patterns of fate.

System: This power allows a vampire to determine a person’s true Nature, among other things. The vampire concentrates for a turn, then zir player rolls Perception + Occult. The Difficulty depends on the intricacy of the pattern. Discerning the Nature of a stranger would be Difficulty 9, a casual acquaintance would be an 8, and an established ally a 6. The vampire could also read the message locked in a coded missive (Difficulty 7), or even see the doings of an invisible hand in such events as the pattern of falling leaves (Difficulty 6). Almost anything might contain some hidden insight, no matter how trivial or meaningless. The patterns are present in most things, but are often so intricate they can keep a vampire spellbound for hours while ze tries to understand their message.

This is a potent power, subject to adjudication. For Storytellers, this power is an effective way to introduce plot threads for a chronicle, reveal an overlooked clue, foreshadow important events, or communicate critical information a player seeks. Important to its use, though, is delivering the information properly. Secrets revealed via Eyes of Chaos are never simple facts; they’re tantalizing symbols adrift in a sea of madness. Describe the results of this power in terms of allegory: “The man before you appears as a crude marionette, with garish features painted in bright stage makeup, and strings vanishing up into the night sky.” Avoid stating plainly, “You learn that this ghoul is the minion of a powerful Methuselah.”

●●●● Voice of Madness

Source: V20 Core

By merely addressing zir victims aloud, the Kindred can drive targets into fits of blind rage or fear, forcing them to abandon reason and higher thought. Victims are plagued by hallucinations of their subconscious demons, and try to flee or destroy their hidden shames. Tragedy almost always follows in the wake of this power’s use, though offending Malkavians often claim that they were merely encouraging people to act “according to their natures.” Unfortunately for the vampire concerned, ze runs a very real risk of falling prey to zir own voice’s power.

System: The player spends a blood point and makes a Manipulation + Empathy roll (Difficulty 7). 1 target is affected per success, although all potential victims must be listening to the vampire’s voice.

Affected victims fly immediately into frenzy or a blind fear like Rötschreck. Kindred or other creatures capable of frenzy, such as Lupines, may make a frenzy check or Rötschreck test (Storyteller’s choice as to how they are affected) at +2 Difficulty to resist the power. Mortals are automatically affected and don’t remember their actions while berserk. The frenzy or fear lasts for a scene, though vampires and Lupines may test as usual to snap out of it.

The vampire using Voice of Madness must also test for frenzy or Rötschreck upon invoking this power, though zir Difficulty to resist is 1 lower than normal. If the initial roll to invoke this power is a failure, however, the roll to resist the frenzy is 1 higher than normal. If the roll to invoke this power is a botch, the frenzy or Rötschreck response is automatic.

●●●●● Total Insanity

Source: V20 Core

The vampire coaxes the madness from the deepest recesses of zir target’s mind, focusing it into an overwhelming wave of insanity. This power has driven countless victims, vampire and mortal alike, to unfortunate ends.

System: The Kindred must gain zir target’s undivided attention for at least 1 full turn to enact this power. The player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (Difficulty of zir victim’s current Willpower points). If the roll is successful, the victim is afflicted with 5 Derangements of the Storyteller’s choice. The number of successes determines the duration.

On a botch... well, the Storyteller can decide what a vampire inflicts upon zirself by attempting to incite the primal hells lurking within the darkest recesses of a victim’s mind.

The victim (or the target of a botch) can spend a number of Willpower points equal to the successes rolled to end the duration prematurely. The Storyteller decides when such Willpower points can be spent (such as after a therapy session or after a friend has managed to prove a particular delusion to be false).

Dementation 6+

●●●●● ● Babble

Source: V20 Lore of the Clans (Malkavians)

This power allows a Kindred to speak with multiple targets using telepathy. All of their minds are linked, but they must communicate with each other by speaking out loud. Furthermore, each person linked speaks as if the person they are talking to is standing right next to them. For example, if Alexandria and Mister E. are connected with Babble, Alexandria can murmur quietly and be heard since he’s in a movie theater, while Mister E. has to shout because she’s on the dance floor of the local dance club.

System: The vampire may link a number of targets equal to their permanent Willpower. Malkavians may push the number of people connected to Babble to their Willpower + Empathy, if all the subjects possess at least 1 Derangement and don’t resist the Discipline. Kindred with the Malkavian Time specialty may choose to use their Awareness instead.

●●●●● ● The Call

Source: V3/Revised Clanbook Malkavian

Although many clan gatherings happen spontaneously, the Call arising from a general subconscious need shared by a city’s Malkavian population, it is possible to send the Call deliberately. Both Auspex and Dementation offer the ability to send the Call, although it’s a much easier art to perform when expressed through Dementation.

System: To send the Call, a Malkavian (and only a Malkavian) rolls Perception + Empathy, Difficulty 6. As always, other clan members will hear (and attend if they so choose) only if they make their Malkavian Time rolls.

The Call as broadcasted is not a verbal thing; it merely conveys an impression of a place and a time. There is no sense of purpose, nor even the name of the gathering point; still, neither is really necessary. The Call is so instinctive that if an American Malkavian who didn’t speak a word of French were visiting Paris, and heard the Call, ze’d be able to follow zir impressions and visions to the gathering place as readily as any native Lunatic.

●●●●● ● Lingering Malaise

Source: V20 Core

While lesser Dementation powers allow a vampire to inflict temporary (though often long-lasting) madness upon a victim, elders of the clan have developed the ability to infect the minds of their victims with permanent maladies. Lingering Malaise causes permanent psychological shifts within the victim, making xem, as one Gangrel elder remarked, “an honorary Lunatic.”

System: The character speaks to zir victim for at least a minute, describing the Derangement that Lingering Malaise will inflict. The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy (Difficulty equal to the victim’s current Willpower points); the victim resists with a Willpower roll (using their permanent Willpower at Difficulty 8). If the user of Lingering Malaise scores more successes, the victim gains a permanent Derangement chosen by the individual who inflicts it. Lingering Malaise may only be used to inflict 1 Derangement per night on any given victim, though multiple attempts may be made until the Derangement takes hold.

●●●●● ● Shattered Mirror

Source: V20 Core

Although Dementation’s low-level effects are primarily to initiate or promote insanity rather than to create it spontaneously, some of its more potent manifestations are not as subtle. The wielder of this fearsome power can transfer zir own deranged mindset into the psyche of a hapless victim, spreading zir own brand of insanity like a virus.

System: The vampire must establish eye contact with zir intended victim to apply this power. The player then rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (Difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower points) resisted by the target’s Wits + Self-Control/Instinct (Difficulty equal to the Dementation user’s current Willpower points). If the aggressor wins, the target gains all of zir Derangements and Mental Flaws for a period of time determined by the number of net successes the aggressor scored:

●●●●● ●● Childmind

Source: V3/Revised Clanbook Malkavian

This dread ability allows the Malkavian to give another person the equivalent of a psychic lobotomy. By focusing the power of Dementation, the Lunatic can strip away much of a target’s power of reasoning, reducing zir victim to a childlike state.

System: The Malkavian must make eye contact with zir victim in order to use this ability. Once eye contact is established, the player rolls Intelligence + Empathy, Difficulty of the victim’s Self-Control/Instinct.

The player can choose to reduce the victim’s Mental Attributes by up to 7 points, as long as the victim is left with at least 1 dot in each. The Storyteller is under no obligation to reveal the victim’s actual Attributes, however; the player must guess which Attributes to reduce and by how much. The victim also gains the Derangement of Regression for as long as the childlike state lasts.

For example, Hoxha, played by Ben, uses Childmind on Lauren-Bess. Hoxha (and by proxy, Ben) knows that she has a reputation for being intelligent and cunning, so Ben announces that he intends to drop her Intelligence by 3, her Wits by 3 and her Perception by 1. Lauren-Bess normally has Intelligence 5, Perception 3 and Wits 3; she’s rather more intelligent and a little less cunning than Hoxha guessed. Her Intelligence falls to 2, as does her Perception. Her Wits becomes a 1, as the power cannot reduce any Attributes to 0. Lauren-Bess still retains some of her acuity and is as intelligent as the average person, but her decision-making faculties are severely impaired, and she will still regress to childlike behavior under the proper stimuli. At least she’s still somewhat functional some of the time...

The number of successes determines the duration of the Childmind’s effects.

●●●●● ●● Restructure

Source: V20 Core

The elder with this fearsome power has the ability to twist zir victims’ psyches at their most basic levels, warping their very beings. The subject of Restructure retains their memories, but their outlook on life changes completely, as if xe has undergone a sudden epiphany or religious conversion. This effect goes much deeper than the implantation of a Derangement; it actually performs a complete rewrite of the victim’s personality.

System: As the description says, this power allows the vampire to change zir target’s Nature to one more suitable to zir ends. To accomplish this, the character must make eye contact with zir intended victim. The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (Difficulty equals the victim’s Wits + Subterfuge). If they roll a number of successes equal to or greater than the target’s Self-Control/Instinct, the target’s Nature changes to whatever the player using Restructure desires. This effect is permanent and can be undone only by another application of Restructure (though subtle differences from the character’s original Nature may still remain, as it is impossible for such a fundamental change to occur flawlessly). A botch on this roll changes the character’s own Nature to that of zir intended victim.

●●●●● ●● Sleep of Reason

Source: V3/Revised Clanbook Malkavian

This macabre power gained its name from a Goya print that has achieved remarkable popularity among the clan. The Malkavian with this ability can reach into zir victim’s mind, pull forth whatever hobgoblins ze finds there, and set them buzzing to the attack.

System: The player rolls Wits + Intimidation, Difficulty 6. The Malkavian must spend 1 blood point for each hobgoblin ze creates, up to a maximum number determined by the successes on the roll. Thus, if Fitzgerald were to get 5 successes on the Wits + Intimidation roll, he could create up to 5 hobgoblins for 1 blood point each.

The hobgoblins can appear as almost anything, but they’re usually caricatures of whatever insecurities or bad memories the target might possess. Since they are born of the victim’s frailties, the victim’s mental resilience determines just how powerful the hobgoblins are.

Each beastie’s statistics are as follows:

• Strength: [10 - victim’s Willpower]
• Dexterity: [13 - victim’s Willpower]
• Stamina: [12 - victim’s Willpower]
• Health levels: [13 - victim’s Self-Control/Instinct + Courage]

The hobgoblins have no Mental or Social Attributes of their own, and as creations of the victim’s own psyche, are immune to any mental powers the victim uses against them. A victim cannot use Obfuscate to hide from xyr own persecutors, nor can xe Dominate them into leaving xem alone. Other vampires can affect the victim’s hobgoblins with these Disciplines, but the Difficulty to do so is the same as if they were using those powers against the victim xemself. In any event, the hobgoblins will ignore all other beings save their target unless compelled otherwise, and cannot damage anyone other than their victim.

A hobgoblin can attack with a bite, punch, claw rake or whatever attack is reasonable for its form. All of these attacks inflict [Strength + 1] Lethal damage; however, this damage is purely psychic in nature, and will disappear at the end of the scene. The malicious little beasties can fly as quickly as their victim can run, and can find xem wherever xe runs. If not destroyed by the end of the scene, the hobgoblins melt back into the ether from which they sprang.

●●●●● ●●● Deny

Source: V3/Revised Clanbook Malkavian

This highly disturbing power offers a very compelling argument that the Malkavians see more of reality than anyone else does. The Malkavian using Deny is able to focus away from a certain object so completely that the object ceases to exist in the Malkavian’s perception. However, the power of Dementation is so strong that for all intents and purposes, the Malkavian is right. The Malkavian may step through a locked door that ze “doesn’t see” as if it were an archway; a sword that ze refuses to acknowledge will fail to cut zir, passing right through zir body. Those few elders of other clans who’ve seen this power in action cannot find a suitable explanation for how exactly it works. Perhaps the astral plane is somehow involved, or perhaps elder Lunatics simply function in more than three dimensions — who can say? There’s certainly no explanation forthcoming from the Malkavians...

This power cannot be used to “deny” the existence of living creatures, undead, or spirits; it works only on inanimate objects. Some fragments of old stories hint that the Eater and perhaps even Malkav might have the ability to use a similar power against living creatures, but such a power is beyond the scope of most elders in existence today.

System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Willpower, Difficulty 8. If successful, for the duration of the scene, the Malkavian cannot recognize or interact with the given object in any way. It’s as if the object just didn’t exist for the Lunatic. Of course, this does have some drawbacks; if a Malkavian has successfully “tuned out” an opponent’s weapon, ze won’t be able to understand why zir friends are reacting as if their foe were armed. (They’re probably hallucinating, come to think of it.)

The aura of “noninterference” doesn’t extend further than anything the Malkavian is holding; the Malkavian can swing a fire axe through a “denied” door to strike the opponent on the other side, but if ze were to fire through the “open archway,” the bullets would hit the door as usual (possibly to the Lunatic’s consternation). The Malkavian cannot help other vampires or living beings to tune out the ignored object, even if touching them; the power only benefits the Malkavian and zir personal effects.

●●●●● ●●● Personal Scourge

Source: V20 Core

Similar to the Auspex power of Psychic Assault, this fearsome ability allows the elder to turn the very strength of zir victim’s mind against xem, inflicting physical harm with the power of zir own will. Victims of this self-powered attack spontaneously erupt in lacerations and bruises, spraying blood in every direction and howling in agony. Those who have observed such an attack with Auspex note that the victim’s aura swirls with violent psychosis and erupts outward in writhing appendages — a sight that can make even the most jaded Tzimisce quail.

System: The vampire must touch or establish eye contact with zir target. The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy (Difficulty equal to the target’s Stamina + Self-Control/Instinct) and spends 2 Willpower points. For a number of turns equal to the number of successes rolled, the victim rolls xyr own permanent Willpower as Lethal damage against xemself. This damage can be soaked with xyr own Humanity or Path of Enlightenment (Difficulty 6); Fortitude does not add to this soak dice pool, nor does body armor. Xe may take no actions during this time other than thrashing and gibbering; this includes spending blood to heal.

●●●●● ●●●● Lunatic Eruption

Source: V20 Core

This fearsome ability is only known to have been applied a few times in recorded Kindred history, most spectacularly during the final nights of the last battle of Carthage. It is effectively a psychic nuclear bomb, used to incite every intelligent being within several miles (kilometers) into an orgy of bloodlust and rage. It is suspected that the Malkavians have used the threat of this power as a bargaining chip in several key negotiations.

System: The player spends 4 Willpower points and rolls Stamina + Intimidation (Difficulty 8). The area of effect is determined by the number of successes scored:

Within this area, all sentient creatures fall prey to their baser instincts. Mortals spontaneously riot, looting and burning between bouts of mass violence. Kindred enter hunger-induced frenzies, draining dry as many vessels as they can sink their fangs into. An entire city can quite literally be driven temporarily insane by this power. Lunatic Eruption’s effects persist until the next sunrise, and anyone entering its area of effect (centered on the site at which it was used, not on the character who applied it) falls under its spell. However, momentum may carry the violence spawned by this power much farther — and keep it going much longer — than the power itself can force.

Victims of Lunatic Eruption may resist with Self-Control/Instinct rolls (Difficulty equal to the Dementation user’s permanent Willpower rating); each success provides 1 hour of lucidity, which most wise individuals use to leave the power’s area of effect (leaving the “blast radius” removes the power’s influence). The source of Lunatic Eruption may be pinpointed if a character is using Heightened Senses or an equivalent power at the time it is used; this is automatic and requires no roll. However, this grants no knowledge of what actually happened — the observer simply “feels” a massive psychic shockwave explode from the character using the power.