Vampire: The Masquerade Guide – Choosing The Villains For Your Game

The World of Darkness is teeming with many threats, and these are some of the best ones a Vampire: The Masquerade GM can throw at players.

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The World of Darkness is a dangerous place and the players of Vampires: The Masquerade will find no shortage of individuals who want to stake them in the heart and leave them to meet the sun.

When a Storyteller is crafting their chronicle, they need to consider the kinds of threats that the players will face. This is especially important in a game like Vampire: The Masquerade, as it’s easy for players to start backstabbing each other at the first opportunity. An external threat can keep this from happening, as the players will need allies if they want to stay unalive. There are lots of foes waiting in the shadows and the Storyteller should decide early on which ones they wish to use in their game.

The Camarilla

The Camarilla is the most dominant faction in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade, but they have lost much of their influence in recent nights. The main goal of the Camarilla is to keep the existence of vampires a secret through the use of laws, but this is also a means of the eldest Kindred exerting control over both mortal and undead society.

Benefits – The Camarilla is an evil establishment that is willing to hurt anyone in order to fulfill its goals. As such, it’s incredibly easy to frame the Camarilla’s attempts at upholding the law as a means of staying in control. The Camarilla has no qualms about killing mortals in order to maintain the Masquerade, butchering thin-bloods in the name of an ancient prophecy, and willfully hiding the threat of the Antediluvians from the vampires under their dominion.

Drawbacks – It can be hard to argue against the existence of the Camarilla when the Masquerade is so important for maintaining the continued existence of vampires. The conflict between the Anarchs and the Camarilla is essentially chaos vs. order, and the need for the Masquerade is even stronger in the age of smartphones and the Second Inquisition. It’s easy to argue against the methods of many individual members of the sect, but the story can quickly shift to an argument about the greater good. The Anarchs cannot offer the same safety to Kindred as a whole as the Camarilla do, so players might find themselves rooting for the Ivory Tower.

The Anarchs

On the flip side of the coin, you have the Anarch Movement, which has stolen the Sabbat’s position as the second-biggest faction among the Kindred. The Anarchs hate the Camarilla system of elder rulership and actively fight for the freedom to spend their unlives how they wish. With the Sabbat out of the picture, they are taking control of territories around the world and creating fiefdoms that are free from tyranny, or at least they are on the surface.

Benefits – Despite what L.A. By Night might tell you, not all Anarchs are well-meaning inclusionists who want to create a big happy vampire family. There are many Anarchs who use the lax upper management as an invitation to commit some horrible deeds and live out their base fantasies, many of which can become threats to the Masquerade. As such, many Anarch-run cities are chaotic and dangerous, which offers numerous opportunities for creating interesting scenarios and villains.

Drawbacks – The lore tries hard to portray the Anarchs as the more sympathetic faction and many new players will be drawn to them. Using Anarchs that are too loose with the rules will bring about the old Sabbat question of “How is the Masquerade still around with loonies like this in the world?”

The Second Inquisition

The mortal intelligence agencies have caught on to the existence of vampires, even though they aren’t aware of the full scope of what they’re dealing with. This has led to the rise of the Second Inquisition, which aims to purge all vampires in the world. So far, they’ve been doing an excellent job, and Kindred all around the globe are running for cover.

Benefits – The Second Inquisition is one of the biggest threats to Kindred and they have proven that no one is safe from their wrath. The Inquisition’s resources and technology mean that the players have to fight enemies on a par with a military, which can lead to all kinds of interesting espionage-style stories.

Drawbacks – The Second Inquisition doesn’t leave the players much room for screw-ups, assuming that the Storyteller is running them as genuine threats. An anti-vampire military outfit should easily be able to track and dispose of vampires with the surveillance equipment available to them. The Second Inquisition managed to purge London of vampires and wipe out most of the high-ranking members of clan Tremere, so how long can the coterie realistically resist them for?

Mortal Enemies Unaware Of The Existence Of Vampires (Gangsters, Law Enforcement)

Vampires can only go out at night, which means that they tend to associate with the criminal underworld. As such, many players will find themselves dealing with gangsters, either as a means of making money or acquiring information and gear. These dealings can easily go awry and the coterie could find themselves trapped in their own episode of The Sopranos.

There are also mortal organizations that are unaware of the existence of vampires that the coterie could need to deal with, such as local law enforcement or businesses. The players will usually have the advantage in these situations, especially as most mortals cannot resist the mental disciplines (like Dominate), but there is always the risk of breaking the Masquerade.

Benefits – They make great foes for new players, as it gives them plenty of opportunities to learn the rules & how their powers work in relative safety.

Drawbacks – Players will soon grow weary of facing enemies over which they have an overwhelming advantage.

Werewolves

Vampires generally live in cities, as they can mix with their own kind and have access to plenty of mortals to feed on. The real reason vampires live in cities is because of the lupines that stalk the countryside. The wilderness is home to werewolf packs that despise the undead. All vampires are terrified of encountering a werewolf and it’s believed that only a handful of Kindred has ever survived a battle with a lupine.

Benefits – Werewolves are some of the most terrifying foes that the players can face. Their natural enmity towards the undead means that they have a built-in reason to hunt down the coterie and they cannot easily be shaken. They are kind of like big hairy Terminators.

Drawbacks – Werewolves are so deadly to Kindred that the players likely won’t last long if it comes down to a fight. All it takes is one screw up and the players could be on the receiving end of some Potence 5 claws.

The Other Supernatural Races (Mages, Changelings)

Vampires aren’t the only secret society in the World of Darkness, as other supernatural creatures stalk the night. In the original version of the World of Darkness franchise, there were several games that focused on different supernatural factions. There was Mage: The Ascension (human wizards), Wraith: The Oblivion (ghosts & the afterlife), Changeling: The Dreaming (faeries & shapeshifters), Mummy: The Resurrection (mummies), and Demon: The Fallen (demons). The books for these games are still out there and they are packed with lore that could be adapted to the current version of Vampire: The Masquerade, so long as the Storyteller is willing to put in some work to bring everything up to speed.

Benefits – Magical enemies offer all kinds of opportunities for storytelling that normally wouldn’t occur in Vampire: The Masquerade. The Storyteller has the chance to throw all kinds of enemies, locations, and story twists at the players that wouldn’t usually appear in a contemporary setting.

Drawbacks – The current iteration of the World of Darkness only has sourcebooks for Vampire: The Masquerade material (though a new edition Werewolf: The Apocalypse is in development). There are only a few references to the non-vampire supernatural creatures in the current Vampire: The Masquerade lore. As such, the Storyteller will have a lot of work on their hands when it comes to fleshing out the other supernatural enemies mechanically, as the only current guidelines come from brief stat blocks in the core Vampire: The Masquerade rulebook, all of which are extensions of the rules used for vampires themselves.

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