These Free Basic Rules only have a fraction of the content found in the Core Rulebook and Storyteller's Toolkit. Upgrade for tons more exciting lore, rules, and player options!

“Miss Savona, I assume.” Talley bowed deeply to the Ventrue prodigy as she and her entourage entered the monument where their meeting was to take place.

“Call me ‘Miss,’ ‘Madame,’ ‘Lady’ or whatever you choose, Hound. Your actions carry more weight than your skill in etiquette.” Fiorenza Savona dismissed two of her bodyguards with a gesture, a flick of imaginary dust from her sleeve. “You and your clanmates have done well. We witnessed the burning of four Sabbat Cardinals last month, thanks to your… sacrifice. We are ready to approach the Magisters with serious talks regarding your joining the fold.”

Talley smiled, though his smiles were always false, and caught Savona’s eyes. “You will dismiss your security immediately.” The words cleaved through the Ventrue’s mind like a broadsword, wielded without subtlety.

She grimaced and hissed at the Lasombra. “You think to manipulate me so directly? I am not some thin-blood or ghoul to be commanded, Keeper!” Each member of her entourage went for their holstered weapons.

“Wait, wait…” Talley was grinning now. “I just wanted to ensure you were not some weak envoy. I prefer diplomacy with strong characters, and clearly, you are that. I meant no offense.” Savona’s guards froze, awaiting her response. She ordered them to put their weapons away.

Talley bowed again, mentally noting that to get to this Ventrue, he would need to focus on crushing the wills of her servants instead.

Nicknames: Snake Charming, Mesmerism, Mentis Imperium

Dominate grants the vampire the ability to control the actions of others, manipulate their memories, and force living creatures into acts they would not perform of their own volition. At its most basic, Dominate enables a vampire to make a victim forget the feed they just endured or enjoyed. At its most dangerous, it allows Kindred to enslave entire crowds of kine. This is the Beast at its most cruel and controlling.

Dominate acts as a bludgeon to enforce the Masquerade, create submissive servants, and reinforce the self-assuredness of the vampire. When using this Discipline, Kindred feel omnipotent, although the wisest of them know that this too may be shackles of a kind, slipped upon them by the Blood.

Characteristics

Most Dominate powers require eye contact with the victim. Once they establish contact, Dominate holds the gaze of the victim until the user conveys their command or commands, barring interference. Catching the eyes of someone actively attempting to avoid the vampire’s gaze requires a contest of the user’s Resolve + Intimidation vs the target’s Wits + Awareness. It is of course impossible to catch the eyes of someone squeezing their eyes shut or wearing a blindfold, but that person should be easy prey to other tactics.

Using Dominate in combat or in other frantic situations is limited to people attacking or otherwise interacting with the user directly, as everyone else’s attention is firmly focused on their own peril.

Unless the user has supernatural means such as Telepathy (Auspex 5) at their disposal, they must command the victim verbally. The victim must be able to hear the user and understand their language.

Without Terminal Decree (Dominate 5), commands resulting in obvious death or serious injury fail automatically. Subjects roll to resist commands resulting in other social or physical harm, such as undressing in public. (See individual powers for details.) Vampires cannot use Dominate to extract information, as the victim becomes a mindless puppet while under its influence. For example, the Compel command “Speak” results in blabbering word salad, while someone Mesmerized to “tell what you know about the assassin” responds “what you know about the assassin.” Dominate cannot make subjects do something they could not do on command, such as “Sleep.” Ultimately, the Storyteller determines what the Discipline can accomplish, but they should take care that Dominate remains one Discipline of many, rather than the catch-all solution to every problem.

Dominate cuts to the core of vampiric mastery and predation. Thus, vampires must resist attempts to Dominate them. A vampire of lower (stronger) generation can resist Dominate attempts from higher generation vampires by spending a Willpower point, negating the effect completely.

On a total failure on the roll of any Dominate power, that vampire can no longer Dominate that target for the rest of the story.

Dominate threatens Humanity, especially if the vampire has any Principles involving personal freedom or forbidding violations of human integrity. Using it may incur Stains (see The Humanity Track).

• Type: Mental
• Masquerade Threat: Low. Barring someone Dominating an entire auditorium to jump off the cliffs of Dover, it remains one of the more subtle vampiric powers.
• Blood Resonance: Phlegmatic. The blood of the submissive or the dominant, masters and slaves, captains of industry, power trippers, cult leaders and followers.

Level 1

Cloud Memory

By uttering the phrase “Forget!” the user can make the Dominated victim forget the current moment as well as the last few minutes, enough to mask a superficial feeding or a chance meeting. No new memories are formed and if pressed the victim realizes they have a few minutes missing.

• Cost: Free
• Dice Pools: Charisma + Dominate vs Wits + Resolve
• System: No roll is required against an unprepared mortal victim. Clouding the memory of a resisting victim or another vampire requires a Charisma + Dominate vs Wits + Resolve roll.
• Duration: Indefinitely