Derangements
“Everyone should be loved to the point of madness. Anything else is but a reflection of the moon in a pond; ephemeral, short-lived, and without substance.” — Mina Allaire, Malkavian antitribu
Derangements are representations of mental illnesses. Real mental conditions are not funny. They are debilitating and difficult, and some are even frightening. They should be played with scary seriousness, not as amusing quirks or silly, cartoonish behavior.
A character who possesses the skill Science: Psychology may spend 10 minutes talking to a person suffering from a derangement and make a static challenge using her Mental attribute + Science: Psychology skill with a difficulty of 10. If she is successful, she may lower the target’s current Derangement traits by one. No character can be targeted with more than one successful application of Science: Psychology per game. Your character cannot use this skill on herself to remove her own Derangement traits. Malkavians may never be reduced below 1 Derangement trait.
All derangements are 2 point flaws. The following system allows you to build a custom derangement that fits the exact psychosis of your character.
Contents
Creating a Derangement Customized to Your Character
Each derangement has a trigger: a situation, object, or condition that sets off that derangement. Storytellers should not allow players to take triggers that are extremely rare, and Storytellers should not allow derangements that do not meaningfully impact a character.
You may choose the same derangement multiple times, as long as you choose different triggers for each.
Severe Derangements
If you voluntarily take a very commonly occurring derangement trigger, or if you choose to extend or increase the penalties of your derangement, the Storyteller can choose to give you 1 extra XP (making your derangement a 3 point flaw). If you are not playing the extreme liability, your Storyteller can remove this benefit at any time.
Derangement Concepts
Most derangement concepts can be represented with more than one mechanic. For example, pyromania could make you entranced by fire, or it could compel you to start fires. Both are valid derangement options.
Think of the system for creating a derangement this way. If a character’s derangement trigger is water, the specific outcome and reaction will be different according to that character’s derangement type:
Incapacitated - When you see a significant source of water (a pond, stream, or erupting fire hydrant), you enter a fugue-like trance state.
Compulsion - When you are insulted, you want to drown things, preferably the offender. You will settle for sinking her prized belongings into a watery grave.
Phobia - When you see water, you become terrified and begin to desperately try to get away from the source.
Destruction - When under pressure, you try to drown people or other living things, using water to fulfill your dark desires.
Obsession - You will do anything to possess objects that resemble or glorify water. It is inviolably sacred to you.
Belief - You believe that the ocean contains evil spirits who must be pacified with blood sacrifices on the turn of the full moon.
Derangement Traits
While playing, when you encounter a situation that triggers your derangement, you have three options.
1. You can respond to that trigger with an obvious but mild derangement response, clearly roleplaying the day-to-day dysfunction caused by your derangement. If you roleplay in this way, you neither gain nor lose Derangement traits.
2. You can resist the compulsion to respond to the trigger and show no obvious sign of your derangement. If you do this, you must mark a Derangement trait on your character sheet.
3. Lastly, you can respond to the trigger with a severe response, roleplaying the frightening and unstable depths of your character’s derangement. A severe response lasts for five minutes. Responding in such a way will eliminate all current Derangement traits on your sheet, resetting the character to 0 Derangement traits.
If a character reaches 3 Derangement traits (usually by resisting her derangement for too long), she is on the edge of a psychotic break. When her derangement is next triggered, you must roleplay a severe response. This response eliminates all your character’s Derangement traits, and her level resets to 0 Derangement traits.
If you have more than one derangement, any triggering of a derangement gives you Derangement traits, which are counted in total. When you reach 3 Derangement traits, regardless of which Derangement is next triggered, that trigger provokes a severe response and subsequently erases all Derangement traits accrued.
Malkavians always have 1 Derangement trait. Resetting a Malkavian’s Derangement traits places her at 1, rather than 0.
Example: August, the Malkavian elder, has the derangement trigger of Evading Justice, linked to the Derangement: Destruction. He has been trying to maintain his cool while listening to a particularly infuriating speech, as the new Prince of the South Bay lifts a blood hunt on a criminal that August knows is guilty. Due to this continued provocation, the Malkavian elder has reached 3 Derangement traits.
After the speech, the Prince’s childe approaches August and asks him what he thinks about the pardon. She mentions that earlier in the night, she spent a great deal of Influence to ensure that a mortal murderer in her employ wouldn’t be arrested by the police. That’s it. August has had enough, and he experiences a psychotic break. “Justice must be appeased. Someone… must be punished,” he growls, stalking off with a malicious glimmer in his eye. August goes out into the parking lot of the gathering and identifies the Prince’s car and driver. After only a few moments as the focus of August’s wrath, the Prince’s loyal retainer is a bloody, gibbering madman. To further appease his inner demons, August drags the driver in front of the Prince’s childe and Dominates her to kill the man. She falls upon her father’s favorite servant and butchers the man in front of the shocked populace. As her Humanity erodes, horrifying her sire and his entire court, August vanishes into Obfuscate, snarling, “Thus shall the punishment fit the crime.”
Derangement Descriptions
Derangement: Incapacitated
When you encounter your derangement’s trigger, you enter a state that makes coherent action impossible. You might fall into a fugue state, regress into the mindset of a child, or be paralyzed with unbelievable bliss.
Examples:
• When you see someone singing, you fall into a trance and listen to her with ecstatic joy.
• When you feed, you fall into a state of blind ecstasy, reveling in the nuances of the blood’s taste.
• When someone yells at you, you regress to the memory of your childhood abuses, shivering and huddling in terror.
While affected by the Incapacitated derangement, you cannot take actions and cannot move. The effects of the Incapacitated derangement end if the trigger disappears (or leaves), after five minutes pass, if you take damage, or if another character aggressively targets you with a supernatural power.
Derangement: Compulsion
When you encounter your derangement’s trigger, you must perform some predefined action associated with your derangement. You find it difficult to take any other action until your Compulsion has been fulfilled.
Examples:
• When someone asks you a difficult question, you ramble, compulsively answering with complex mathematical descriptions.
• When you see small, unattended valuables, you compulsively put them in your pockets.
• When you see a group of similarly shaped objects, such as seeds, socks, or bricks, you are compelled to stop and count them.
When your derangement is triggered, you suffer a -3 penalty to all attack test pools until you fulfill your Compulsion or until five minutes pass. This penalty persists even if the opportunity to fulfill your Compulsion passes. For example, when a compulsive liar tells the whole truth, she might spend the next five minutes distractedly imagining what she should have said. Defense test pools are not penalized by the Compulsion derangement.
Derangement: Phobia
When you encounter your derangement’s trigger, you become terrified and must leave the area. Although it is normal to be frightened of things that can hurt you, such as fire, sharks, etc., a Phobia is an irrational, overwhelming condition.
Examples:
• You fear fire the size of a torch or larger.
• You fear vampires over 300 years old.
• You fear open spaces and cannot bear to be outside a closed-in area.
When your derangement is triggered, you must leave the area and retreat to somewhere safe. To willingly stay within three steps of your derangement’s trigger, you must spend 1 Willpower per turn. If forced to stay within three steps of your derangement’s trigger, you will attack whoever or whatever is preventing you from leaving the area; you must try to escape by any means necessary.
Derangement: Destruction
When you encounter your derangement’s trigger, you feel the urge to cause destruction or harm.
Examples:
• You believe yourself to be superior to all other vampires. When someone challenges your authority, you respond with violence.
• You gain sexual pleasure from demeaning others or from being demeaned.
• When a ritual fails, you believe it means that there are traitors within the sect. You respond to a failed rite by harming those involved, in order to punish them for their lack of faith.
When the Destruction derangement is triggered, you must cause harm — either mental or physical. The target of your aggression doesn’t have to be the same as whatever triggered it, but that is the most satisfying course of action.
Derangement: Obsession
When you encounter your derangement’s trigger, you must possess or control it.
Examples:
• You are the ultimate art collector, and when you see a piece of exceptional art, it must be yours.
• That Neonate Toreador is interesting and clever. She should be working for you.
• Those people are keeping secrets, and you won’t rest until you find out what they’re hiding.
When your derangement is triggered, you must attempt to acquire that which you are obsessed with. Any time you find yourself within five steps of your derangement’s trigger, you feel the urge to acquire it by any means available. You immediately gain one Derangement trait, unless you take specific steps towards possessing or controlling it.
Derangement: Belief
You perceive the world differently than most people and respond poorly when your beliefs are challenged. Many individuals have strong beliefs, but characters with the Belief derangement take their beliefs to the point of delusion and do not trust people who challenge their thoughts.
Examples:
• You are the most qualified person to lead in any situation. Anyone who says differently is a mindless fool.
• The glassy eyes of stuffed animals are gateways to hell, and the only thing that keeps you safe from the devil’s gaze is the aluminum foil hidden under your hat.
• You are the reincarnated soul of Julius Caesar.
Anyone who challenges your belief, attempts to convince you that you are wrong, or who mocks your belief is considered either an enemy or dangerously stupid. Anytime you’re forced to work alongside such a person, you suffer a -2 penalty to all attack test pools throughout the duration of the partnership. (You spend a great deal of energy looking over your shoulder.) This penalty applies whenever you cooperate with such a person. Your animosity toward triggering individuals need not be permanent — they can attempt to alter your character’s opinion by offering a physical and verbal apology, so long as it is genuine. This method only works once per night; if the offender repeats the transgression, the character will not believe a second apology, no matter how sincere it seems.
Sample Derangements
• Ritual Freak (Compulsion): Anytime you meet up with two or more of your packmates, you feel the urge to perform a ritual (normally the Vaulderie).
• Ritual Freak (Destruction): Anytime a ritual fails, you feel the urge to drive anyone who might be responsible insane.
• Megalomania (Belief): You’re the most competent person in the world, and anyone who disagrees shouldn’t be trusted.
• Megalomania (Destruction): Anytime someone challenges your authority, you get violent. If you can’t attack the person who insulted you, you break inanimate objects instead.
• Glossal (Phobia): You are frightened of speaking clearly, fearing that enemy spies are watching you at all times. You will only speak in riddle, rhyme, and vague innuendo. If forced to state information clearly, you become convinced “they” are about to attack, and you will flee.
• Multiple Personalities (Belief): When you hear a bell ring, your personality shifts. You become the fantasy hero of your character’s favorite novel series, Lord Malic. Anyone who says differently is a spy from a neighboring kingdom, trying to trick you into an act of war.
