Vampire: the Masquerade - Humanity & The Beast
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- čas přidán 6. 07. 2020
- Few threats to a vampire are as insidious, as subtle as the passing of time and the degradation of their humanity. The Beast, the ever-present dark side of their mind, will urge them on, pick at their guard until that one, weak moment where they will succumb to it, often with disastrous results.
In Vampire: the Masquerade, the struggle is both against other vampires and their machinations, but just as much against the slow and inevitable loss of control and humanity. Why should you care if you accidentally kill a mortal if they already die by the thousands every night? And besides, give it a few years and they would have been dead anyway.
This mentality, this slow slide into a callous indifference, is what invites the Beast into the heart of a Kindred, and if they cannot find some way to hold on to their senses, eventually they will become wights, mindless creatures who only care for feeding and surviving.
In this video, we will explore the concept of Humanity, its origin, and look at some of the ways older vampires retain their senses.
Lore sources:
V20 Core Rulebook
Sins of the Blood
Chaining the Beast
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Music from:
World of Darkness Preludes
"Moonlight Hall" by Kevin MacLeod
Link: filmmusic.io/song/4077-moonli...
"Sovereign" by Kevin MacLeod
Link: filmmusic.io/song/4397-sovereign
"The Crown" by Alexander Nakarada
Link: filmmusic.io/song/4907-the-crown
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
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You could lower your humanity and stay sane but that requires very high willpower like say the example of Vlad Tepes who has 3 humanity and 8 willpower can do this however this is really stressful on the psyche and usually fails unless the kindred chooses a path to keep themselves occupied. Regardless of willpower at Humanity 0 you have no volition of your own. You are a senseless monster. If an impulse hits you, you WILL follow through on it.
All the High Willpower can do is control WHAT those impulses are. Low Willpower: you are a humanoid animal. High Willpower: You are a human monster.
Excellent addition to this video! Consider it pinned!
To quote Smiling Jack from Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines, “the beast, it’s always there, it’s like a wild animal wearing your skin he’ll do anything to survive and it’s you who has to pay the consequences.”
Excellent quote from an excellent character!
I always loved VTM’s focus on trying to fight or at least make peace with ones inner demons. The roads and paths are interesting, but something about vampires trying to uphold a strong moral code is very appealing. It is really appealing to see some try to trick everyone, themselves more so then anyone else, that they are still human. It adds both a unique element of tragedy and vulnerability.
I agree wholeheartedyl!
And you've succinctly described why playing a Path of Enlightenment should be difficult and challenging. It's not just some "get out of jail free" card for inhumane acts, you have to put yourself into a very different mindset and the ethics and sins of a Path are fantastic fodder for roleplay.
Noadi's Art Original Creations I always liked them more not so much for what they let you do but what they prevent you from doing, and how they change your interactions with other characters. Like a follower of Lilith refusing to prevent harm from coming to a comrade out of a desire to help them is kind of interesting.
I'm glad you liked that! My old ST used to put me through the ringer if I wanted to play a Path follower. Had to read up, study the Hierarchy of Sin, etc. And while I don't want to police how people play the game, I always saw the Paths as being "challenges" to Roleplaying. "Can you play a character who refuses to prevent violence happening, despite whom it happens to?" for example.
I play two characters on Paths and the difference between them is so so different and largely because of their Paths.
My Brujah Anti is on Honorable Accord, allowing a comrade to come to harm when she could act is unthinkable to her, she holds herself to an incredibly high personal standard, she also has issues with authority and that can conflict with her duty, and also she's a Brujah so her personal grudges and passions can conflict too. She diablerized a Malkavian elder in order to keep her word and that's had consequences.
My Tzimisce is on Path of Cathari and that is a really fun Path with it's stress on indulging yourself in all ways and tempting others into depravity, but it also stresses that you shouldn't really care about others. They are constantly walking a very fine line with their Path and how they feel about another Cainite in their pack. Eventually that is going to be a big problem.
Humanity along with the Masquerade definitely separates Vampire from RPGs that came before. They provide much of the drama in the game. I tend to play high Humanity characters, but the Beast always whispers: "wouldn't it be easier down here?"
Absolutely! It's one of the core concept and what makes me enjoy it so much!
I dunno. The only time I played a kindred she was months into being a fledgling but her attachment to humanity was fueled by an utter loathing of evil vampires.
Shitbags like Lord Henry from Dorian Grey could tempt, she could have been corrupted in a war with the Sabbat in protecting mortals, the vampires were too evil, to callous to tempt her with anything. It made for a game both soul crushing and utterly tedious.
The beast isn't even useful enough to be a tool of self defense. It can't be directed, it can't be toggled, it does nothing but ignore wound penalties.
You guys play it WAY too dark. There's nothing to tempt, and a rational person looks at Kindred society with utter and total loathing, a desire in the back of their mind to genocide the whole deal so no one else will ever be taken into night.
I made a human, and in turning her kindred, her sire only made her a Hunter, in spirit at least.
@charlottewolery558 that's why my first character is a superman expy (ie what if someone with an unbreakable moral bedrock was embraced) and my next planned character is a thin blood hunter plant.
The Beast is the coolest part of Vampire in my opinion. The struggle of keeping or forsaking your Humanity makes for some truly interesting scenarios. Do you have a favourite path? I like the Road of the Slain the most.
Path of honorable accord for simply being functional in society
Path of heaven because of its entire crusader aesthetic
Path of Metamorphosis :)
And I agree, Roads/Paths are awesome, although for an ST they're a bit of a headache to keep track of.
@@unatco1148 Great choices, gotta love honorable Kindred!
@@ThePrimogen One of the best paths for sure, definitely the most alien of all. Very true, keeping track of all the different sins for each road can be a bit troublesome.
@@ThePrimogen what’s your take on menele his humanity is at 10 plus willpower
An excellent video, with good insight and description of the nature and Path of humanity in VtM, along with the Varied paths of Humanity.
Many thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
still wishing v5 had proper paths options, maybe when the Sabbat finally return. I mean convictions are good enough for "pseudo" paths for now, but they are more about subverting the "Holy Saint" ideals then following a different paradigm,
Agreed. If there's something that needs to be expanded, it's this system, if you ask me. Well, that, and merits/advantages and flaws.
Always look forward to Primogen’s lore videos 😊
Thank you!
Have you done a video on Golconda? That would be cool to do if haven't yet. I'd like to see how you dissect that one.
It's definitely in the works... ;)
Nice London tower music from vtm: redemption, favorite level from that game for me
Thanks! I quite enjoyed that music myself as well!
Nice work as always
Thank you! Cheers!
Listening to Rob zombies superbeast didn't help.
What a wonderful channel this is
Whoaa... These videos are awesome.
Humanity is overrated
Agreed
The Beast is pretty much akin to Johnny Depp's "The Monster" that he invented when he abused Amber Heard which is why the concept is rather disturbing to say for the least since it's really just a repackaged "The Devil made me do it" excuse.
What's with the BLM cringe? Why do people need to associate shit politics into completely unrelated content? I came here for VTM, not BLM.
Glad someone else said it
I just found this channel, and instantly unsubscribed upon seeing the logo. Gotta love people that support corrupt Marxist organizations.
It *really* did not age well, especially after it being made much more public the organization was nothing more than a scam. Just as well so many clueless idiots got conned out of their money.
Context?