The basic rules of Vampire: The Masquerade.
Vampire: The Masquerade runs on a single gesture, repeated all night: you gather a handful of ten-sided dice, you roll them, and you count the successes. Charming a mortal, forcing a door or dominating a gaze are all settled exactly the same way.
Here are those rules gathered in one place, in the order they actually come up at the table. The dice pool and successes, the nine attributes, criticals, Hunger dice, damage and Humanity.
The rule that governs everything.
Every action with an uncertain outcome is settled the same way: you build a pool by adding an attribute to a skill, you roll that many ten-sided dice, and every die showing six or higher counts as a success. The Storyteller sets a difficulty, meaning a number of successes to reach, and you compare. Two or three successes usually do it.
Two wrinkles complete the picture. A pair of tens is worth two more successes than the dice themselves, which turns a decent roll into a critical success. And when two characters clash, each rolls their pool and the higher count of successes wins. Nothing else to remember: a pool, a threshold, dice at six or above.
The nine attributes.
It covers close combat and anything that breaks. Combined with Potence, it lets a vampire lift a car.
Ranged attacks, stealth and driving all depend on it. It is also the attribute that gets you away before the police arrive.
It soaks damage and keeps you going until dawn. A tough vampire survives what a mortal could not even consider.
It carries sincere charm, the kind that carries a whole room. Toreador and Ventrue make it their main tool.
Lying, turning an accusation around, getting a yes without ever asking. The most useful attribute in a court, and the most dangerous.
It resists frenzy, provocation and Presence disciplines. Without it, the Beast decides for you.
Investigation, technology, occult and finance all run through it. An urban chronicle asks for it far more than you would think.
It gives initiative and the ability to recover mid scene. The attribute of those who improvise.
It lets you hold to a goal despite Hunger and exhaustion. It also feeds Willpower, spent to reroll dice.
The rolls and their successes.
An attribute plus a skill, rarely more than eight dice. Hunger dice replace part of that pool, they are never added to it.
Every die at six or higher counts as a success, the others do not count. No addition, no arithmetic: you count dice.
The Storyteller announces a number of successes, usually between one and five. Two is standard, five is a feat.
Two tens form a critical worth four successes instead of two. That is what makes large pools unpredictable.
Both sides roll and the most successes wins. On a tie nothing moves, which is often worse.
Spending a Willpower point rerolls up to three dice, never Hunger dice. It is the only thing that saves an evening starting to slide.
The Hunger dice.
This is the mechanic that sets the game apart from every other. Your Hunger runs from zero to five, and you swap that many dice in your pool for Hunger dice, in a different colour. They count exactly like the others, but their extremes change everything: a ten on a Hunger die within a critical success gives a messy critical, a one on a Hunger die within a failure gives a bestial failure.
Either way, the Beast takes over: you succeed, but by tearing a throat open in front of a witness, or you fail in a way that puts you in danger. Hunger climbs through Rouse checks, that single die you roll to activate a discipline, which costs you a point of Hunger on anything below six. It only comes down by feeding, which is never a casual act.
Damage, and Humanity.
Your health equals Stamina plus three, your Willpower equals Composure plus Resolve: two short tracks, quickly eaten into. Ordinary physical damage is superficial and is halved for a vampire, which makes bullets almost disappointing. Fire, sunlight and the fangs of other vampires deal aggravated damage, which is not reduced and heals slowly.
Once the health track is full, every new point of superficial damage turns aggravated, and a track saturated with aggravated damage means Final Death. Running alongside is Humanity, rated from zero to ten. Every act against your convictions leaves a stain, and at the end of the session a Remorse roll decides whether you lose a point. That track, not the health one, is what really tells the story of your character's fall.
The rules people get wrong.
Every discipline used calls for a Rouse check: one die, six or better. Below that, Hunger rises by one, immediately.
A critical containing a Hunger ten turns messy: you succeed, but the Beast decides how. You get the result and lose the scene.
A failure containing a Hunger one becomes a bestial failure, with an extra consequence. Those two rules are what give the game its tension.
Superficial damage is halved before it is written down, rounding down. Forgetting that makes vampires far more fragile than intended.
Willpower never rerolls a Hunger die, that is precisely the rule. You cannot buy back what the Beast has already decided.
Stains are noted during the session, then Remorse is rolled at the end. Without that roll, Humanity never drops and the game loses its subject.
Applying the rules online.
Counting a pool, pulling the Hunger dice out of it, watching for tens and ones, halving superficial damage and tracking everyone's stains ends up taking more of the Storyteller's attention than the scene itself.
Tomeus gathers the sheets, the dice roller, the backdrop and the music in a single window. You create the game, send the link, and your players arrive with their character in front of them, nothing to install and nothing written on a scrap of paper that goes missing.
Go further with Vampire: The Masquerade.
How to Start Playing Vampire: The Masquerade
Clans, disciplines, Hunger and Humanity: the complete guide to start playing Vampire The Masquerade, build a first character and run your first night.
The Lore of Vampire: The Masquerade
The World of Darkness, the thirteen clans, the Camarilla and the Anarchs, the Traditions, Gehenna and the Jyhad: the lore of Vampire The Masquerade explained, and how to use it at your table.
The Clans of Vampire: The Masquerade
The thirteen clans of Vampire The Masquerade explained: their three disciplines, their bane, their compulsion, the Caitiff and the thin-bloods, and how to pick yours.
The Sects of Vampire: The Masquerade
The Camarilla, the Anarchs and the Sabbat explained: the Traditions, the prince, the barons, the Ashirra, the Inconnu and the Second Inquisition, and how to pick your side.
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Frequently asked questions.
How many dice do you need to play?
About ten ten-sided dice per player, five of them in a different colour set aside for Hunger. That is all: no other kind of die enters the system. Online, a shared roller that tells the two colours apart saves a great deal of recounting around the table.
Where can you find the rules to get started?
Quickstart rules and starter kits let you run a complete first story, with ready-made characters and a trimmed system. The core book becomes useful afterwards, when your group wants to build its own vampires and explore the clans and disciplines.
Do you need to raise Hunger in every scene?
No, it climbs on its own. Every failed Rouse check adds a point, and a night without feeding adds another. The Storyteller does not have to force it: calling for it out loud at the right moment is enough, right when a player reaches for a discipline to get out of trouble.