Touchstone vtm. So other STs, how do you other player's touchstones? Oct 8, 2025 · The Kindred ability to dominate a social scene as flawlessly as their hunting ground is embodied by Presence. A way better alternative that I thought is The put it another way, a Touchstone has to embody the Conviction for your character. These stains can be worse if it were either directly or indirectly caused by the kindred's direct actions. Oct 20, 2022 · News About us Careers Join our playtests Media contactSocial Media It might not be everyone's favorite, but I'd like to see VTM getting some love around here. Eh, a touchstone is something you use to counter the beast's perversions and the cynicism that comes with time. Every Touchstone gives you one Conviction, and each Conviction gives a specific tenant (like "Kill only the wicked" or "Always honor your word") that can mitigate Stains against your Humanity if the atrocity you commit was in service to that Conviction. Is it possible for a conviction to be inspired by a touchstone that is only a character in a tv show? Or is that too weird? Demiplane’s Vampire: The Masquerade NEXUS is the first official digital toolset designed to make character creation and management a breeze for both players and Storytellers. He was a trans man who was allowed to room with a male roommate. I think the important thing is the vampire has to be able to interact with their touchstone in a meaningful way, and the touchstone should have some So, playing a V5 game set in Dublin. Not a bad idea. Always worried messing with other player's touchstones might be shitty. If a PC’s Touchstone is a grocery store clerk, it is very easy for them to fade into irrelevance and to only come up when the player goes, “Hey, I want a Touchstone scene. This Conviction would have to be a character flaw, a coping mechanism. Feb 25, 2025 · As long as they are present in the unlife of the vampire in some way, they can be a touchstone. At least that is my POV. In the pool model, the troupe keeps all the supporting characters in common, and as long as every player has someone to portray it doesn Apr 10, 2015 · A goldfish is probably a bad idea, but touchstones can be something non-human that helps to remind a vampire that she used to be human - it's just that non-human relationships of that sort are rare. Can more than one Kindred share a touchstone? What happens if someone loses all of their touchstones? Would a touchstone being embraced be considered the same as losing one? Aug 20, 2018 · GM Tips Our series to help Storytellers and Game Masters improve their craft and create memorable roleplaying experiences. In the paragraph about increasing humanity, the book suggests at least adding another Touchstone and Conviction. Ten Tips to Runn I personally recommend just having one touchstone and one conviction, more if new to the game. Feb 13, 2020 · Kinda like when your touchstone dies a natural death, you can take on one of their children/grandchildren as your touchstone. Knowing this - I would like your opinions on how you would build his feeding habit tied to a specific predator type of your choosing. That way, you can kill and do other shady stuff, although only when it's beneficial and there aren't obviously better alternatives. Her other touchstone I am considering is her 11 year old little brother. Jack is his roommate from undergrad. However, I can’t actually find any explanation of what the mechanical benefit to having extra convictions Sep 4, 2023 · VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE PLAYERS GUIDE 199 In the folio model, each player has “their” folio of those supporting characters, and plays “their” associate of the session’s main, or picks which secondary character they feel best fits the current story. A player character may have a very intimate and direct relationship with their Touchstone like being their wife or parent. Hi everyone, during a fight with an infernalist, that I thought was just a toreador anti tribu, I got under the dreaded 6th power of the Baali and transformed into one of them. Skilled Kindred cause others to feel irresistible allure or unfettered dread within mere moments. This came to an abrupt end when her sire Caren, who had designs to sire a A place to discuss Vampire: The Masquerade and the related World Of Darkness. They need to latch onto a living person that represents those beliefs. Aug 22, 2022 · So I was chatting with a friend over the weekend about Thousand Year Vampire the journaling game, and she thought I was referring to a VTR book entitled Thousand Years of Night which I take it has something called Faded Touchstones and Anachronistic Behaviors which are mechanics for recovering So the premise here is fairly simple. Tenet Stains can be negated by a character's Conviction if it was broken in alignment of their For a point of contrast, in VtR 2e (since it's the originator of the Touchstone system and all), if you had a bunch of your VFW pals as Touchstones, and one got kicked out of the group, you'd be in emotional turmoil for a bit, and could then decide if your character wants to (a) invest in a different VFW NPC as a new Touchstone, (b) decide you Nov 13, 2023 · Touchstone and Conviction Part 2 So, the question has come up about why have more than one conviction and by extension, touchstones. Their firmly held believes stop being so firmly believed. The exact nature of any given herd varies from vampire to vampire, but whatever the circumstances, these mortals relish the ecstasy of the vampire's "kiss". Note: Chronicle Tenets still apply. On a lose, they relish in the object of temptation as if it is the sweetest drug and the hottest blood. Before her Embrace in June 2019, she was an investigative journalist at the New York Lodestar. Such cults are rarer in As a general guideline, most vampires don't check up on their touchstones regularly. I would say the touchstone is someone that is too generous, maybe even taken advantage of but not necessarily. The players guide has made it clear touchstones can't be ghouls but it's much more vague when it comes to touchstones knowing about the world of darkness. With touchstones come convictions: aspects of human life and existence of which this specific person reminds your character, and by which they live their unlife. Even with all convictions gone Don't tie Touchstones to convictions, the former should have different benefits for maintaining them, like having the Touchstone quell the vampire from Frenzy or be one of the rare mortals the Beast won't hurt. However, I'd personally advise against it, on both mechanical and narrative levels. All 3 games I'm currently playing have dozens of NPCs each. Does it mean that in game you can increase your Touchstone count to more than Feb 16, 2019 · The other touchstone is a friend of Kirby’s he met as an undergrad. you can have a conviction about being kind to someone with a touchstone who isn't kind and frankly repulsive who you strive to not be like and thus define yourself against) But while I can understand on a large scale level how this Jun 13, 2024 · [VtM 5e] How do you model mental stress and trauma, and how can we make the Touchstone mechanics better? I'm the ST of a Chronicle set in modern day Madrid, following more or less the canon of V5. As we all know by now, convictions are tied to touchstones and touchstones are tied to convictions. One of our players, a Tremere with a possessive and jealous sire, ended up Embracing one of her Touchstones (her sire's ghoul, with whom she had a romance before going to Madrid) and now I have a pair of questions regarding his status as a Touchstone. Presence is a potent emotional manipulation to score easy victims, coerce devotion, and sail through social settings. Something that directly increases their chance to die or worse. Vampires are not humans. This is 'not good' in a few ways, as most tables do not get into child harm. Anyone got any clarification? I come from a D&D background, and the touchstone mechanic feels restrictive when making a setting. If that person dies or stops being representative, that conviction goes with them. They are touchstones to one's human nature, while enemies, allies, childer, ghouls, havens So I play vtm with some friends and my character has a pet snake who is her touchstone. By embracing that person, you drag them down into free-fall with you. He is going to be somewhat of an 'apprentice' of an official Banu Haqim judge. That doesn't always have to be a positive interaction or connection. Asking someone "who is your touchstone?" is going to give them every reason in the world to think you intend to forcefeed their touchstones industrial-grade caustic acid. This coping mechanism Quick clarification on Touchstones, for research purposes. On a win, the target resists the temptation for a scene; or for a night on a critical win. Admittedly, this is cribbed from Vampire the Requiem, but it couldn't hurt for VTM to benefit from those rules. This kind of touchstone is less damageable than a regular, living human touchstone and also harder to include in plots. I was a Tzimisce with 4 vicissitude, 4 animalism and 3 auspex. The dice used for said test are calculated based on the amount of empty Apr 11, 2021 · 2. If it's a familial bond, about dedication etc. Something that when indulged in would generally have negative repercussions, or be perceived as negative by the people around them (I know, I’m repeating myself). Each vampire begins with as many Touchstones as Convictions: humans who represent what you used to value in life, someone who represents or seems to incarnate one of your Convictions. Okay, I have a few questions. Dec 20, 2023 · V5 Chronicle Tips 1. Duration: one night; two — on a 31K subscribers in the vtm community. ) A World of Darkness character creator, manager and exporter. A place to discuss Vampire: The Masquerade and the related World Of Darkness. The game is Convictions are tied to Touchstones. Your merit mortals, whether that's Herd, Ally Yeah, one of my players ghouled his touchstone girlfriend. It is a person which reminds the Kindred, because of their behaviour, their looks or their role, of a particular conviction which serves as ancor for the human aspect of a Kindred a reminder that they are more than a mere beast. Last week, time travel was the topic of conversation, and now this week Can you ghoul your touchstones to give them long lives? Does that defeat the whole idea of a touchstone to begin with? Generate Vampire: The Masquerade V5 characters with this interactive tool, perfect for roleplaying and storytelling enthusiasts. Targeting touchstone shouldn't be overused though, unless the kindred is frequently putting the touchstone into harms way. Stains Stains are what damage Humanity and are caused by significant actions. 11 votes, 10 comments. Making her a ghoul, even if he suffered a temporary humanity loss for the act of ghouling, never made sense why she stops being a touchstone. So the vamp would be taking the stains for either a An in-depth look at Touchstones from Vampire the Masquerade If the touchstone is hurt or killed by another kindred, or anything really, the Vamp could begin taking stains. Period. A single Conviction requires a living Touchstone that represents it. We offer characters from Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Hunter: The Reckoning and many other White Wolf RPG lines. I’ve done a lot of reading today and think I came up with an answer. Unless you do, of course, but most people won't. My 13th-generation Nosferatu character, Bram, lost his touchstone a while back. My gf/ storyteller and I like to hypothesize about the ghoul and my character as they are a funny and cute duo, and I inquired as to what would happen if the ghoul became a touchstone then At some point in the current campaign I am going to play a Banu Haqim and thought about ways for him to feed. So, ghouls, childer, all that stuff, can't be Touchstones. If lost, the Conviction is lost as well. [26] Discussion on the role of Convictions and Touchstones in Vampire: The Masquerade V5, exploring their impact on gameplay and character development. George Henry Hines is also a gifted researcher and scientist who ended up working for a civilian research think tank when Kirby went to work for the company he works for. Touchstones seem like a way to encourage characters to care about humanity and Humanity by giving them concrete representations of what they value. Read on for a guided tour of these game-changing tools for crafting your ultimate VtM character. I myself do have two options in mind but I would like to read one or more It's really important that Touchstones be something that (a) lie outside of the character's vampiric nature and control and (b) are vulnerable. Nov 24, 2024 · At the Storyteller's discretion, a character can recover one or more points of Aggravated Willpower damage when they have acted to significantly benefit a Touchstone, or by following a Conviction to their determent. Now, she can't directly give the Touchstone alcohol, because that would count as "damaging your Touchstone" - but she can absolutely arrange matters so that, for the Touchstone, it's easier to piss away money on bourbon and the thin hope of winning it all than it is to change her life for the better. Touchstones actually have a lot of variations in the CofD games, as different games have different The touchstone wouldn't want anything to do with my character even if he could talk to her. Convictions may, per Storyteller's discretion, reduce stains gained when acting in accordance to the Conviction. They might still not incur stains up themselves by acting in accordance with the chronicle tenets and they might still succeed at their humanity rolls. To me, it would make sense that the relationship a vampire has with their Touchstone ties them to the mortal world in the sort of general, hard-to-define way which May 17, 2024 · The Humanity tracker contains 10 spaces, with the Humanity rating filled from left to right. They are highly vulnerable to True Faith. While Dominate is a handy tool to bend others to one’s will, it is I think one of the missed opportunities (so far) with V5 is not adapting the Touchstone concept to Paths/Roads to keep VtM's idea of vampires fighting off the Beast by following a code of conduct/ethics/morals rather than the only way to fend off the Beast being by being as human as possible. Those actions may include embracing a new childe, harming a touchstone, breaching their own convictions or the chronicle tenets. :) Aug 12, 2024 · Mortals still select one to three Convictions and Touchstones as a vampire would, though their connection to the Touchstone would be more immediate and personal as they still live within mortal society. Some versions present the true purpose of the Baali as keeping demons sleeping by feeding them with carnage and destruction. May 25, 2020 · Learn how to play Vampire: The Masquerade RPG with our beginner's guide, including when to roll dice, how to create characters and more. Let's say I create a vampire with 3 Touchstones. Also, some vampires don't want to interact with their touchstones at all--just watch from afar. I'm still kinda on the fence about that though. The core book indicates that if the Touchstone is killed or changed such that they no longer function as a Touchstone then the conviction is lost, so I would interpret that to mean you cannot have one without the other. She doesn't have a close connection with him but I figured that an the protect children conviction goes along well with her children prey exclusion. I think some if not necessarily all of the problems people have with how Touchstones work in V5 could be addressed by making it so maintaining Touchstones affects your Humanity directly, instead of being necessary for Convictions. The risk comes not from watching her age and the danger that she may ruin the conviction attached to her - "There is Freedom in Obedience. My question is: What's the optimal setup for Touchstones and Convictions to have to ensure that you can get your money's worth of Stain-mitigation without creating many new targets for enemies to exploit? Having three Touchstones and three Convictions seems like three times as many opportunities to mitigate Stains, but also three times as many possibilities for Stain gain as your Touchstone is Storytellers shouldn't attempt to encourage players to fit in any particular mold of what sort of Touchstone they want to define and be flexible about what they allow even if some concepts don't fit the mold. Some vampires foster cults around themselves, setting themselves up as a god to be worshiped or placated with a tribute of blood. But most presentations show Dec 15, 2024 · Circle of the Crone MeritsInvictus Merits. Strange question, but I want one of my character's convictions to be: “nobody can control me - my soul is irrepressible. Start with something like "you shall do whatever it's convenient for you", with a ruthless and egotistic person as Touchstone. It forces the players to think 1 to 3 characters who are related to them, who they have to have contact with, and it forces me to integrate them into the setting, in essence limiting the amount of stories the game can be told. It should therefore give less advantages than a regular touchstone, but said advantages are quite scant already. She also is in the midst of taking a ghoul from some Giovanni (long story) and is becoming very attached to said ghoul. The issue with these of course is the difficulty that a vampire might face in dealing with humans, when humans may see them as monsters, based on their low humanity ratings. So the vamp would be taking the stains for either a News About us Careers Join our playtests Media contactSocial Media Also, a really good way to make a touchstone relevant is to have them witness some huge Masquerade breach, meaning that unless the coterie has a way to force them to forget, they'll have to ghoul their own touchstone. 33K subscribers in the vtm community. It is up to the Storyteller if the merits are lost from major events such as becoming a ghoul or being embraced. Touchstones are linked to Hello! When getting ideas for touchstones it was pointed out to me that a character doesn't necessarily have to have positive feelings about the touchstone (i. In general, if these are lost, the player should be able to purchase new Advantages for the now invalidated Merits. A way better alternative that I thought is I come from a D&D background, and the touchstone mechanic feels restrictive when making a setting. The touchstone could even be a possible ally or ghoul whos loyalty you regularly take advantage of. When something reminds the character of the lost Touchstone, the vampire gets a small temporary benefit (I want to say Willpower, but I don’t remember and am away from book. I think at most doing both or either to a touchstone is only damaging them (Warranting 1/2 stains), depending on what the touchstone means to the character. They are touchstones to one's human nature, while enemies, allies, childer, ghouls, havens Daimonion (frequently misspelled Daimoinon) is a diabolic Discipline practiced only by the Baali and the very worst vampire infernalists. Jack came out as a trans woman in their sophomore year and insists that "Jack" is a woman's name because her favorite They technically can, well, likely, not Retainer or Herd - harm coming to a Touchstone is a stain, harm coming from yourself doubly so - you don't want to get stains every time you feed or feed them as your ghoul. That is a super edgy conviction, just right for a game of vtm. A connection that gives you a grounding basis, to internalize that example while defending it. Humanity as a system exists to more or less punish players for being shitty and add some drama for doing so. For example, with a child prey exclusion you In VTM, can you have a ghoul as a touchstone? Because a touchstone by definition is a living human who connects you to your humanity so it can be boiled down to "Are Ghouls human?" and I'd argue yes since being ghouled doesn't really change them as much as being full on embraced does. His poor Uncle Billy had been taking care of Bram ever since he was embraced and, due to Bram's mawla being a hypercunt, he never mentioned that he should probably blood-bond his Uncle. If a PC loses all their touchstone they don't have any convictions with whom they can mitigate transgressions of the chronicle tenets. Now they're much more directly tied to the coterie, and as a result, plot. The Social Satire of Vampire: The Masquerade 2. If you have less, you can give them more attention and make them more important. It doesn't really matter if the Touchstone actually personally embodies such ideals, they just have to be someone that your character has latched onto as being a living symbol of it. 28K subscribers in the vtm community. An analysis of Anarchs in Vampire: The Masquerade 3. Its power is that of the Devil himself, and through the use of Daimonion the Baali draw upon the forces of Hell and its demons to demoralize and cripple their enemies. Originally from Poland, Julia and her family emigrated to the United States. They should be relevant to the story. On character creation a player on Humanity may add 1 to 3 Touchstones and relevant convictions. ” And I thought that conviction would be inspired by Q from Star Trek (a show my character liked to watch). Anecdotally, I’d say most VtM games (or at least most of my games) are about vampiric plots and politics. Apr 27, 2019 · I’m toying with the idea of allowing my players the option of a single conviction not tied to a single living/breathing touchstone. ” Or to just never come up at all. Is he still a Touchstone, now that he's a Kindred May 15, 2018 · A Faded Touchstone is the memory of a lost (usually deceased) Touchstone. Thus they remain playable but have less options to avoid stains out right. So, playing a V5 game set in Dublin. My favorite touchstone of his is his best friend - and former college roommate - Nurse Jack Glean. As such, when Bram was put on trial for a severe Masquerade breach by the local Prince, Uncle The Touchstone needs to be someone that is basically a 'living representation' of the Conviction the character is tying them to, a reminder/representation of that piece of what they use to hold the Beast back. So I play vtm with some friends and my character has a pet snake who is her touchstone. But I have seen STs wich want players to have more touchstones so they can target them. I'm playing Dr. They go hand-in-hand. The touchstone might be a surviving partner or family member, related to someone who the vampire killed in their early unlife or even just something they run into regularly. IIRC one of the examples is a childhood home. Now the story came to an end and I can spend the xp, but I have to pay x7 on my old clan stuff…i find interesting to move in the direction the Master is I REALLY struggle thinking of convictions that would fit a low clan information broker. then a blood bond would actually help that! The V5 core book says you can pick between 1 and 3 personal convictions, and that you need a touchstone for each one. The player characters have a vested interest in finding out what happened but every single witness has a different story, all of them mutually contradictory, with even those who know the truth actively Considering a touchstone is someone your enemies can kill to tank your humanity and ruin you Honestly, its more than bad taste. So, touchstones are this new mechanic for anchoring your Humanity, ties to your mortal life that stop you from giving in to the Beast and becoming an unfeeling monster. We just take notes and keep it moving haha! Herald Pearl (Toreador) Perses Terrence Rusk (7th Generation Ventrue) Jaroslav Pascek (7th Generation Brujah) Anja Giovanni (10th Generation Hecata) Minor characters Sabine Lauterbach, fellow retired soldier and romantic entanglement of Jan Puttanesca; serves as his touchstone References VTM: Camarilla (book) VTM: Cults of the Blood Gods, p Jan 6, 2020 · The player characters run into this when a disaster strikes close to home with the death of several Kindred and perhaps a mortal Touchstone. This one also seems like a no-brainer. Breaking a Conviction or having your Touchstone lost/damaged causes Stains, which in turn requires a Remorse test at the end of the Session. Or you would at least need to find a new embodiment of the conviction to make use of it again. Humanity works because it's intuitive and, y'know, monsters in real life need to try to appear human or at least convince themselves of their humanity The Baali are a bloodline of vampires associated with demon worship. It implies that touchstones seem to give you some kind of mechanical benefit and therefore the impression I was left with is that you are incentivised to buy more. The target adds three dice to their roll if tempted to act against their Conviction or harm their Touchstone. Feb 24, 2025 · A Touchstone must be a single living human being. These are the mysteries of the Baali, black arts torn whole and beating from the sorcerer May 20, 2020 · A touchstone arises because the rules say you need to start with one to three. She is the protagonist of Vampire: The Masquerade - Shadows of New York. An in-depth look at Touchstones from Vampire the Masquerade If the touchstone is hurt or killed by another kindred, or anything really, the Vamp could begin taking stains. e. If a touchstone dies, so does that conviction. Julia Sowinski is a Lasombra neonate and the young Primogen of New York City. Here's the issues I run into, having played Revised, V20 and now V5. However I am somewhat unsure of how to best utilize player's touchstones for drama and plot. A herd is a group of mortals whose members allow a certain vampire to feed upon them. In general I always dredd the part in character creation where you have to put touchstones. Because of their affinity with the unholy, the Baali are particularly vulnerable to holy iconography, holy ground and holy water. A touchstone is a representation of a conviction for a Kindred. " He ruined her life at the orders of the person who embraced him to prove his loyalty. 16 votes, 27 comments. In addition to what the other wise kindred has said, making your touchstone into a ghoul is introducing your touchstone to the world of darkness. But also, vtm is a game about social relationships. Gabriel Bowman, a thinblood who doesn't know who his sire is. If the touchstone can no longer serve as the epitome of the conviction the vampire holds, either because it is killed or because what it represents isn't valid anymore (which an embrace almost invariably entails), I'd have the player find a new touchstone that represents that conviction, or alter the conviction altogether. It just didn’t seem great for a introd… Mar 23, 2019 · Join the stream LIVE on Mondays 9pm BST / 1pm PST on / gamingftl Follow the players: Low Key / Sheepdog - / asmo2884 Nate / Delphron - / delphron Florence / Fuzzy - / fuzzyfreaks Welcome to Blood Oct 26, 2021 · wot pdf, nwod pdf, download wod, white wolf, ww, wod, nwod, vtm, mta, mage the ascension, world of darkness, drivethru, rpg, roleplaying, role-playing, role playing, tabletop, rules, adventure, Changeling, Werewolf, Recoking, Masquerade, vtm, Vampire, pdf Kammerer Member Join Date:Jan 2017 Posts:1191 Share Tweet #8 10-26-2021, 02:16 PM So I am an ST, running a fun chronicle. May 13, 2021 · When I wrote my guide to mechanics and character creation in V5 Vampire: The Masquerade, I left out one particular type of advantage – Loresheets. I do not know what good convictions would be (especially when "no killing" "no hurting children" and such are already hard coded as being not allowed - so you can't take them as conviction) Please help ;-; (V5 Sep 14, 2025 · Ghouls Only ghouls make take these merits and flaws. For my PC coterie, as ex-Sabbat members, they can pick 1 item as a touchstone, 1 mortal as a touchstone to reflect their moving back towards humanity, and 1 former packmate touchstone who will reappear in an appropriately dramatic moment. ymz2 lk5iod r7j33mh ohndxht zv yr tg2jya 1rq gccf kijv