Vaesen PnP
Post by Leisler on Nov 28, 2018 13:45:12 GMT 1
Introduction
With the V5 corebook* not only changes to the setting were introduced but to the rules as well. Even though we are playing “rule light”, the V5 will just be the foundation. In the following list, a few points of the new/changed rules are highlighted. This is not about changes to the setting and the background, it only is about rules and mechanisms and how we can incorporate them into play without much fuss.
If you are completely new to the World of Darkness from White Wolf, that is no problem, either. We really go “rules-light” in our plays and the forum. To start out, it would be easiest to talk to us and get started. Someone with a completely fresh view on things could, for example, play a character who is just getting to know the world of darkness hidden beneath what they thought to be reality. Of course, you can always ask or simply read up (links and suggestions are, for a better overview, in another thread) or combine all of these things as it fits your style and time.
For the live-roleplay sessions, it usually comes down to playing together and lifting each other’s play. We are telling our stories together and to each other. Thus, the rules are less important than the stories, the atmosphere, the tension and, of course, the players. For the forum play, it can be useful (or just more fun) to know about more options, certain gimmicks and mechanisms.
This is only a brief overview to make it easier for everyone. I could not possibly squeeze everything in and I am new to the V5 as well - so I might be wrong, too!
Have a look in the corebook - most chapters are brief and easy to read.
*Vampire: The Masquerade 5th edition Core Book. (2018). Modiphius Entertainment
Why do we need rules at all?
All in all, the main rule of thumb is: We are telling stories together.
The rules are there so we have a common ground, a balance and a way to have a measure of what works and what doesn’t. They help us to stay straight and keep things fair. Everyone has their own playstyle and the rules can help to mediate.
They are tools to help with the play, nothing more and nothing less.
Changes that might effect the BBN style of play
Clans
(pp. 65-117 in the V5 corebook)
There were a lot of changes to the setting which also affected the clans: The Brujah are out of the Camarilla, parts of the Banu Haqim are in, the Tremere are a house divided now and so on and so forth. There will be a lot more to that.
It certainly is helpful to read at least the chapter for the clan you are playing, because it gives an oversight.
Rulewise, not much has changed. A few pointers:
Tremere Clan Bane: The old clan weakness is no more. They now are unable to cause blood bonds (in vampires). They still can have ghouls but it might take longer, depending on how severe the Clan Bane is (=how powerful the vampire is, see below for Blood Potency). (p.99 in the V5 corebook)
Malkavians now all have Dominate, Auspex and Obfuscate. Dementation is still there, but it has been incorporated into the disciplines as an amalgam (see below).
all disciplines have been revamped and are well worth the look. They offer a lot of cool options to color out the characters now and are well worth a quick look
Thinbloods: They are new and basically either a very weak kind of vampire or like a more independent kind of ghoul-with-gimmicks. They bring the new Thinblood Alchemy discipline to the table. Thinbloods can’t learn other disciplines and they pick up their single power with what kind of blood they drank last. (p. 109 in the V5 corebook)
Disciplines
(pp. 245-291 in the V5 corebook)
In Live Play, we use the “really-really” rule for some disciplines. Others can be incorporated more easily and we try to do so by carrying each other’s play. We try to go with the flow of the play and not break the immersion. If in doubt, we just go along with whatever promises to be cool play. The “rule of cool” trumps most other rules - players will play along and will even escalate on it if the play invites and inspires them to do so. So it always is a good idea to play in a way that is fun for other players and will lead to more play. That does not mean that the character has to be nice, of course
Conflicts are fun to play for us.
It works out well enough and if not, we talk to each other.
revamp of all disciplines - pick and choose what fits the character’s style!
They all have been reworked. The system now roughly works like this: You take dots in a discipline and then choose in which variant you want to spend them. Each “rank” of a discipline has at least 2 variants to offer.
For the Live Play it usually does not matter all that much. For the forum play, it can be interesting. In any case, it allows for more variations with the characters.
Amalgams
Sometimes, certain prerequisites are required. Example: “Dementation”, which is a rank 2 Dominate power, but the character would also need to have 2 dots in Obfuscate. Because of this, it would be mostly Malkavians who pick this.
Thinblood Alchemy
(pp. 284-291 in the V5 corebook)
The discipline is new and it works differently than the others. It can emulate the powers of the other disciplines and also have a few extras. It is not always ready for use and the use of powers through it has to be prepared in advance.
Blood Sorcery
(pp. 273-284 in the V5 corebook)
This is at the moment the Discipline for the Banu Haqim Sorcerers and the Tremere both. They just threw it together and added some rituals. It is unclear what will happen with the paths, with other rituals and what will happen with things like the Koldun sorcery, the Setite shenanigans and so forth. For the time being, we just go with what V20 offered.
If in doubt, go with what promises more play for everyone involved - or simply talk to the players.
Bloodbonds
(p. 235 in the V5 corebook)
If you play with these a lot, read the chapter. It really helps to understand how they work. In short:
The blood has to be drunk directly from the vein.
A regnant can have as many thralls as they have dots in blood potency (see below).
A thrall can be only bound to one regnant, no more. They are immune to other bonding attempts as long as the blood bond holds.
A blood bond can be broken, but it is difficult.
Ghouls
(p.235 in the V5 corebook)
Ghouls don’t age.
They gain one (sometimes more) dots in the highest discipline of their master/mistress and a level one power the master/mistress also possesses.
The blood does not have to come from the vein. This makes unbound ghouls possible: They drink the blood but they do not form a blood bond.
The Blood Bond limit (see above) does not count for ghouls. A vampire can have as much of them as they want.
for IGAB-specifics ask Henrik
Ghouls who use disciplines and thus would have to make rouse checks (which would possibly lead to spending blood in a vampire) take aggravated damage instead. In short: using vampire powers hurts the living ghoul.
Diablerie
(p. 236 in the V5 corebook)
Diablerie or "Amaranth" is the act of drinking another vampire dry and not only drinking his blood but also his soul and devour his very being and power. It is "vampire cannibalism", so to speak. It still is reviled and dangerous - maybe even more so than before, since lowering one’s generation is dangerous. Having a low generation is not necessarily pleasant (see below).
The target of a diablerie has to be incapacitated physically (as before)
Then the diablerist has to drink the victim dry.
After that, it comes to a clash of wills or souls. Blood Potency plays into it as well. If the victim wins only a single roll in this, the victim might simply die and the diablerist has gained nothing.
If the diablerist managed to do all that, they lose humanity, might gain blood potency, might lower their generation and get the black veins in their aura. The devil is in the detail - the whole thing is risky.
No disciplines are transferred, not even short term.
Hunger!
(pp. 207-210 in the V5 corebook)
The hunger is always there. This is a new, underlying mechanic in the V5. There is no Bloodpool any more, there is only the Hunger. With time, with using powers (not all of them!) and with resisting the vampiric nature the hunger might grow until it is too much.
So.. no Blood Pool. The hunger is always, always, always there. It might go up very fast. The hunger is the main thing that separates a vampire from a mortal and might change their motives and behavior drastically.
There is not as much emphasis on some kind of “inner beast” any longer. It just is that hunger that can take over and make a vampire do bestial things and succumb to their baser natures.
Frenzy and Compulsions
(pp. 210-213 (compulsions) and 219-221 (frenzy types) in the V5 corebook)
If the hunger is too overwhelming for whatever reason, the vampire might be forced into compulsive, irrational behaviour. This replaces and improves upon the old Frenzy/Rötschreck mechanics. There are now the fury, terror or hunger frenzies (different names, but basically the same as before). The vampires might try to feed on whatever and whoever is around, they might try to flee in a kind of animal panic. They are down to their base instincts.
Sometimes, a compulsion might set in. This can happen any time when a vampire is triggered or when he uses a power. In PnP, a compulsion would happen when a player rolls a bestial failure on a rouse check. That means: the hunger got the better of the vampire and while the vampire is not in an outright frenzy, they are forced to act on their compulsion. That can happen in social settings just as likely as in combat settings or anything else.
How to incorporate this into our play
Go with what is cool for the roleplay. As a good rule-of-thumb for the forum play and plan to use in the live play as well: Throw in at least one compulsion (or even frenzy) into every bigger thread or LARP evening as long as the situation is not completely quiet and nice.
Vampires are not controlled and always rational beings. They might want to be, down to eradicating their emotions, but it does not work completely. That is a part of the tragic of being a vampire in this setting and destroying their own plots and plans through these compulsions can be very interesting. This is why being a vampire never really mounts up to anything and why it is a downward spiral.
Use it. It spices things up ^^
Compulsion examples
There are a few compulsions that can happen to any vampire and a few that are clan specific.
random compulsions that can always happen
Hunger: the vampire wants to FEED
Dominance: the vampire has to establish their dominance
Harm: the vampire just wants to tear someone or something important apart
Paranoia
...
Clan Compulsions
Brujah (Rebellion), Gangrel (Feral Impulses), Malkavian (Delusions), Nosferatu (Cryptophilia), Toerador (Obsession), Tremere (Perfectionism), Ventrue (Arrogance) - and more to come
Blood Potency and Generation
(pp. 216-227 in the V5 corebook)
The old system with the generations has been balanced out with Blood Potency. The two of them now go together. A low generation usually leads to a high blood potency, but if a vampire was in torpor for a long time, they might have a lower blood potency.
A high generation vampire who has experienced intense things might have “earned” a high Blood Potency and thus can be just as powerful as someone with a low generation.
Thinbloods always have a Blood Potency of 0. They are weak.
Ghouls and mortals don’t have a Blood Potency.
There is a minimum Blood Potency for vampires. The lower the Generation, the higher is that minimum. Meaning: low generation characters can not ever have a really low Blood Potency, even when they have been in torpor for very long.
The higher the Blood Potency, the more a vampire can do with their blood. It influences certain disciplines, healing, blood bonds, blood surges (= raising attributes for a short time), the diablerie and more. Thumb Rule: More Blood Potency = more Power and more risk (see below)
The higher the Blood Potency, the stronger is the Clan Bane.
The higher the Blood Potency, the less a vampire is satiated by “lesser” blood. Bagged and animal blood can’t satiate vampires with a higher Blood Potency. Certain disciplines and merits might help to balance this, but in general, a vampire needs more powerful and pure blood as they grow in power.
The higher the Blood Potency, the easier it is to fall prey to the compulsive behaviour
You are what you eat
(pp. 227-235 in the V5 corebook)
Blood now has certain “flavors”, which might influence what can be done with the blood (especially for Thinblood Alchemy). The flavors come from the natural disposition of a mortal and maybe temporary circumstances.
Too much! What do we need for BBN?
This should not be something to think too much about, but once in a while it might come into play. It should not be “farmed” for powergaming purposes, but it makes for character concepts with Blood connoisseurs and “grooming” the food. It could also be interesting for the whole scene around blood dolls and blood traders.
As a rule of thumb, a human might have a natural disposition. If they act on that, their temper or disposition, their “flavor” might even be stronger and lead to a small boost in certain disciplines or related skills.
Predator types and hunting styles
(pp. 177-181 in the V5 corebook)
IN V5, hunting styles have been introduced. They do not mean that a vampire can only hunt in a certain way. They just simplify the night-to-night normal way of hunting for a vampire and they give certain bonuses because that really is what a vampire has become used to and is good at because of this.
How to use the hunting styles in BBN
It helps to flesh out the vampire character to think about how they usually hunt or feed. For most, it is just fluff and background. If someone puts their character in a PnP character sheet, the hunting style gives a bonus to skills, a discipline and a merit, as well as some kind of flaw.
For the rest, it is background and helps to bring the character to (un)life: Do they simply club someone over the head in a dark alley? Do they keep humans as lifestock somewhere? Do they exist on bagged blood? Do they break into homes at night and prey on sleeping mortals? And so on and so forth. Have a look for some inspiration
A hunting style can change over time and if the hunting style in the book do not fit, just come up with something along the same lines and use that.
Touchstones
(p. 173 in the V5 corebook)
“Touchstones” are a new mechanic tied to the humanity of a character. Paths other than humanity have not been introduced yet, but they would probably work in a similar way - the Touchstones for them would maybe differ according to the tenets of the path.
For the humanity way, a touchstone would be something that connects the vampire to their former life, their humanity and the life that goes on as times flows by. They connect the vampire to the world of the living. For this, people are the touchstones. They have to be mortals. For the vampire, they define the best there is in humanity.
Losing a touchstone might lead to losing humanity and becoming more inhuman and disconnected from life. That might even happen when a touchstone dies naturally, through age. That would be the reason why old vampires have difficulties to connect with the world of the living.
Having a lot of touchstones helps to stay more human. It also is risky as losing them or seeing them damaged in some way might throw the vampire in a downward spiral all the faster. There is a limit to how many a vampire can have (the more core values or principles a character has, the more touchstone they can have).
What to put into the BBN play
It helps to flesh out a character to bring touchstones into play. It also shows how the timeless existence of a vampire can grow detached and why especially old vampires are so desperate for any kind of connection to life.
So it is a good way to think about the character’s touchstones and how they keep on going through the years, decades and centuries - and how many people they might already have lost.
last comments
V5 has a lot of tools to get a better feel for what it might mean to play a vampire in the world of darkness. The touchstones, the blood flavors, the compulsions and the hunting styles are all things that help to get a feel for an undead, cursed being in a living but still very dark world.
The hunger instead of the blood pool makes playing less predictable than before - as it should be. More power is always a double-edged sword. The oldest, most powerful vampires are also the most fragile, detached ones.
In live or forum play, that “feel” for the character might help. The new V5 offers a lot of tools to bring a character to life. Enjoy experimenting with it
With the V5 corebook* not only changes to the setting were introduced but to the rules as well. Even though we are playing “rule light”, the V5 will just be the foundation. In the following list, a few points of the new/changed rules are highlighted. This is not about changes to the setting and the background, it only is about rules and mechanisms and how we can incorporate them into play without much fuss.
If you are completely new to the World of Darkness from White Wolf, that is no problem, either. We really go “rules-light” in our plays and the forum. To start out, it would be easiest to talk to us and get started. Someone with a completely fresh view on things could, for example, play a character who is just getting to know the world of darkness hidden beneath what they thought to be reality. Of course, you can always ask or simply read up (links and suggestions are, for a better overview, in another thread) or combine all of these things as it fits your style and time.
For the live-roleplay sessions, it usually comes down to playing together and lifting each other’s play. We are telling our stories together and to each other. Thus, the rules are less important than the stories, the atmosphere, the tension and, of course, the players. For the forum play, it can be useful (or just more fun) to know about more options, certain gimmicks and mechanisms.
This is only a brief overview to make it easier for everyone. I could not possibly squeeze everything in and I am new to the V5 as well - so I might be wrong, too!
Have a look in the corebook - most chapters are brief and easy to read.
*Vampire: The Masquerade 5th edition Core Book. (2018). Modiphius Entertainment
Why do we need rules at all?
All in all, the main rule of thumb is: We are telling stories together.
The rules are there so we have a common ground, a balance and a way to have a measure of what works and what doesn’t. They help us to stay straight and keep things fair. Everyone has their own playstyle and the rules can help to mediate.
They are tools to help with the play, nothing more and nothing less.
Changes that might effect the BBN style of play
Clans
(pp. 65-117 in the V5 corebook)
There were a lot of changes to the setting which also affected the clans: The Brujah are out of the Camarilla, parts of the Banu Haqim are in, the Tremere are a house divided now and so on and so forth. There will be a lot more to that.
It certainly is helpful to read at least the chapter for the clan you are playing, because it gives an oversight.
Rulewise, not much has changed. A few pointers:
Tremere Clan Bane: The old clan weakness is no more. They now are unable to cause blood bonds (in vampires). They still can have ghouls but it might take longer, depending on how severe the Clan Bane is (=how powerful the vampire is, see below for Blood Potency). (p.99 in the V5 corebook)
Malkavians now all have Dominate, Auspex and Obfuscate. Dementation is still there, but it has been incorporated into the disciplines as an amalgam (see below).
all disciplines have been revamped and are well worth the look. They offer a lot of cool options to color out the characters now and are well worth a quick look
Thinbloods: They are new and basically either a very weak kind of vampire or like a more independent kind of ghoul-with-gimmicks. They bring the new Thinblood Alchemy discipline to the table. Thinbloods can’t learn other disciplines and they pick up their single power with what kind of blood they drank last. (p. 109 in the V5 corebook)
Disciplines
(pp. 245-291 in the V5 corebook)
In Live Play, we use the “really-really” rule for some disciplines. Others can be incorporated more easily and we try to do so by carrying each other’s play. We try to go with the flow of the play and not break the immersion. If in doubt, we just go along with whatever promises to be cool play. The “rule of cool” trumps most other rules - players will play along and will even escalate on it if the play invites and inspires them to do so. So it always is a good idea to play in a way that is fun for other players and will lead to more play. That does not mean that the character has to be nice, of course
Conflicts are fun to play for us.It works out well enough and if not, we talk to each other.
revamp of all disciplines - pick and choose what fits the character’s style!
They all have been reworked. The system now roughly works like this: You take dots in a discipline and then choose in which variant you want to spend them. Each “rank” of a discipline has at least 2 variants to offer.
For the Live Play it usually does not matter all that much. For the forum play, it can be interesting. In any case, it allows for more variations with the characters.
Amalgams
Sometimes, certain prerequisites are required. Example: “Dementation”, which is a rank 2 Dominate power, but the character would also need to have 2 dots in Obfuscate. Because of this, it would be mostly Malkavians who pick this.
Thinblood Alchemy
(pp. 284-291 in the V5 corebook)
The discipline is new and it works differently than the others. It can emulate the powers of the other disciplines and also have a few extras. It is not always ready for use and the use of powers through it has to be prepared in advance.
Blood Sorcery
(pp. 273-284 in the V5 corebook)
This is at the moment the Discipline for the Banu Haqim Sorcerers and the Tremere both. They just threw it together and added some rituals. It is unclear what will happen with the paths, with other rituals and what will happen with things like the Koldun sorcery, the Setite shenanigans and so forth. For the time being, we just go with what V20 offered.
If in doubt, go with what promises more play for everyone involved - or simply talk to the players.
Bloodbonds
(p. 235 in the V5 corebook)
If you play with these a lot, read the chapter. It really helps to understand how they work. In short:
The blood has to be drunk directly from the vein.
A regnant can have as many thralls as they have dots in blood potency (see below).
A thrall can be only bound to one regnant, no more. They are immune to other bonding attempts as long as the blood bond holds.
A blood bond can be broken, but it is difficult.
Ghouls
(p.235 in the V5 corebook)
Ghouls don’t age.
They gain one (sometimes more) dots in the highest discipline of their master/mistress and a level one power the master/mistress also possesses.
The blood does not have to come from the vein. This makes unbound ghouls possible: They drink the blood but they do not form a blood bond.
The Blood Bond limit (see above) does not count for ghouls. A vampire can have as much of them as they want.
for IGAB-specifics ask Henrik
Ghouls who use disciplines and thus would have to make rouse checks (which would possibly lead to spending blood in a vampire) take aggravated damage instead. In short: using vampire powers hurts the living ghoul.
Diablerie
(p. 236 in the V5 corebook)
Diablerie or "Amaranth" is the act of drinking another vampire dry and not only drinking his blood but also his soul and devour his very being and power. It is "vampire cannibalism", so to speak. It still is reviled and dangerous - maybe even more so than before, since lowering one’s generation is dangerous. Having a low generation is not necessarily pleasant (see below).
The target of a diablerie has to be incapacitated physically (as before)
Then the diablerist has to drink the victim dry.
After that, it comes to a clash of wills or souls. Blood Potency plays into it as well. If the victim wins only a single roll in this, the victim might simply die and the diablerist has gained nothing.
If the diablerist managed to do all that, they lose humanity, might gain blood potency, might lower their generation and get the black veins in their aura. The devil is in the detail - the whole thing is risky.
No disciplines are transferred, not even short term.
Hunger!
(pp. 207-210 in the V5 corebook)
The hunger is always there. This is a new, underlying mechanic in the V5. There is no Bloodpool any more, there is only the Hunger. With time, with using powers (not all of them!) and with resisting the vampiric nature the hunger might grow until it is too much.
So.. no Blood Pool. The hunger is always, always, always there. It might go up very fast. The hunger is the main thing that separates a vampire from a mortal and might change their motives and behavior drastically.
There is not as much emphasis on some kind of “inner beast” any longer. It just is that hunger that can take over and make a vampire do bestial things and succumb to their baser natures.
Frenzy and Compulsions
(pp. 210-213 (compulsions) and 219-221 (frenzy types) in the V5 corebook)
If the hunger is too overwhelming for whatever reason, the vampire might be forced into compulsive, irrational behaviour. This replaces and improves upon the old Frenzy/Rötschreck mechanics. There are now the fury, terror or hunger frenzies (different names, but basically the same as before). The vampires might try to feed on whatever and whoever is around, they might try to flee in a kind of animal panic. They are down to their base instincts.
Sometimes, a compulsion might set in. This can happen any time when a vampire is triggered or when he uses a power. In PnP, a compulsion would happen when a player rolls a bestial failure on a rouse check. That means: the hunger got the better of the vampire and while the vampire is not in an outright frenzy, they are forced to act on their compulsion. That can happen in social settings just as likely as in combat settings or anything else.
How to incorporate this into our play
Go with what is cool for the roleplay. As a good rule-of-thumb for the forum play and plan to use in the live play as well: Throw in at least one compulsion (or even frenzy) into every bigger thread or LARP evening as long as the situation is not completely quiet and nice.
Vampires are not controlled and always rational beings. They might want to be, down to eradicating their emotions, but it does not work completely. That is a part of the tragic of being a vampire in this setting and destroying their own plots and plans through these compulsions can be very interesting. This is why being a vampire never really mounts up to anything and why it is a downward spiral.
Use it. It spices things up ^^
Compulsion examples
There are a few compulsions that can happen to any vampire and a few that are clan specific.
random compulsions that can always happen
Hunger: the vampire wants to FEED
Dominance: the vampire has to establish their dominance
Harm: the vampire just wants to tear someone or something important apart
Paranoia
...
Clan Compulsions
Brujah (Rebellion), Gangrel (Feral Impulses), Malkavian (Delusions), Nosferatu (Cryptophilia), Toerador (Obsession), Tremere (Perfectionism), Ventrue (Arrogance) - and more to come
Blood Potency and Generation
(pp. 216-227 in the V5 corebook)
The old system with the generations has been balanced out with Blood Potency. The two of them now go together. A low generation usually leads to a high blood potency, but if a vampire was in torpor for a long time, they might have a lower blood potency.
A high generation vampire who has experienced intense things might have “earned” a high Blood Potency and thus can be just as powerful as someone with a low generation.
Thinbloods always have a Blood Potency of 0. They are weak.
Ghouls and mortals don’t have a Blood Potency.
There is a minimum Blood Potency for vampires. The lower the Generation, the higher is that minimum. Meaning: low generation characters can not ever have a really low Blood Potency, even when they have been in torpor for very long.
The higher the Blood Potency, the more a vampire can do with their blood. It influences certain disciplines, healing, blood bonds, blood surges (= raising attributes for a short time), the diablerie and more. Thumb Rule: More Blood Potency = more Power and more risk (see below)
The higher the Blood Potency, the stronger is the Clan Bane.
The higher the Blood Potency, the less a vampire is satiated by “lesser” blood. Bagged and animal blood can’t satiate vampires with a higher Blood Potency. Certain disciplines and merits might help to balance this, but in general, a vampire needs more powerful and pure blood as they grow in power.
The higher the Blood Potency, the easier it is to fall prey to the compulsive behaviour
You are what you eat
(pp. 227-235 in the V5 corebook)
Blood now has certain “flavors”, which might influence what can be done with the blood (especially for Thinblood Alchemy). The flavors come from the natural disposition of a mortal and maybe temporary circumstances.
| choleric | angry, biolent, bullying, passionate, envious | celerity, potence |
| melancholy | sad, scared, intellectual, depressed, grounded | fortitude, obfuscate |
| phlegmatic | lazy, apathetic, calm, controlling, sentimental | auspex, dominate |
| sanguine | horny, happy, addicted, active, flighty, enthusiastic | blood sorcery, presence |
| animal blood | (bestial, intuitive, wild) | animalism, protean |
| bagged blood | - | - (it really sucks ^^) |
Too much! What do we need for BBN?
This should not be something to think too much about, but once in a while it might come into play. It should not be “farmed” for powergaming purposes, but it makes for character concepts with Blood connoisseurs and “grooming” the food. It could also be interesting for the whole scene around blood dolls and blood traders.
As a rule of thumb, a human might have a natural disposition. If they act on that, their temper or disposition, their “flavor” might even be stronger and lead to a small boost in certain disciplines or related skills.
Predator types and hunting styles
(pp. 177-181 in the V5 corebook)
IN V5, hunting styles have been introduced. They do not mean that a vampire can only hunt in a certain way. They just simplify the night-to-night normal way of hunting for a vampire and they give certain bonuses because that really is what a vampire has become used to and is good at because of this.
How to use the hunting styles in BBN
It helps to flesh out the vampire character to think about how they usually hunt or feed. For most, it is just fluff and background. If someone puts their character in a PnP character sheet, the hunting style gives a bonus to skills, a discipline and a merit, as well as some kind of flaw.
For the rest, it is background and helps to bring the character to (un)life: Do they simply club someone over the head in a dark alley? Do they keep humans as lifestock somewhere? Do they exist on bagged blood? Do they break into homes at night and prey on sleeping mortals? And so on and so forth. Have a look for some inspiration
A hunting style can change over time and if the hunting style in the book do not fit, just come up with something along the same lines and use that.
Touchstones
(p. 173 in the V5 corebook)
“Touchstones” are a new mechanic tied to the humanity of a character. Paths other than humanity have not been introduced yet, but they would probably work in a similar way - the Touchstones for them would maybe differ according to the tenets of the path.
For the humanity way, a touchstone would be something that connects the vampire to their former life, their humanity and the life that goes on as times flows by. They connect the vampire to the world of the living. For this, people are the touchstones. They have to be mortals. For the vampire, they define the best there is in humanity.
Losing a touchstone might lead to losing humanity and becoming more inhuman and disconnected from life. That might even happen when a touchstone dies naturally, through age. That would be the reason why old vampires have difficulties to connect with the world of the living.
Having a lot of touchstones helps to stay more human. It also is risky as losing them or seeing them damaged in some way might throw the vampire in a downward spiral all the faster. There is a limit to how many a vampire can have (the more core values or principles a character has, the more touchstone they can have).
What to put into the BBN play
It helps to flesh out a character to bring touchstones into play. It also shows how the timeless existence of a vampire can grow detached and why especially old vampires are so desperate for any kind of connection to life.
So it is a good way to think about the character’s touchstones and how they keep on going through the years, decades and centuries - and how many people they might already have lost.
last comments
V5 has a lot of tools to get a better feel for what it might mean to play a vampire in the world of darkness. The touchstones, the blood flavors, the compulsions and the hunting styles are all things that help to get a feel for an undead, cursed being in a living but still very dark world.
The hunger instead of the blood pool makes playing less predictable than before - as it should be. More power is always a double-edged sword. The oldest, most powerful vampires are also the most fragile, detached ones.
In live or forum play, that “feel” for the character might help. The new V5 offers a lot of tools to bring a character to life. Enjoy experimenting with it