Coterie Format

The coteries in this chapter conform to the rules in Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition except where noted, laid out in the following fashion.

Coterie Name

This is where you’ll find the coterie’s name, history, and basic description. Some coteries have an “official” name, recognized in Camarilla ceremonies, and used by members themselves, but in Chicago, many are looser associations known by nicknames, of which the listed name is the most common. Secondary nicknames are noted immediately below the common name. Following those (if any), a logline provides a pithy summary of the coterie’s nature.

This section also describes the coterie’s sect affiliation. Certain Chicago coteries neither belong to the Camarilla, nor truly stand apart from it, with the Anarchs or nother faction. These are often referred to as “subjects” when the speaker is feeling especially traditional, or as a veiled insult. “Associates” is a modern term, referred among junior ancillae and the odd politically inclined neonate. These social niceties, or lack thereof, are lost on Anarchs.

Members and Agendas

This section discusses the coterie’s common goals, and how each member contributes to them — or how members oppose each other despite having other common auses. Much of this topic is taken up by the coterie’s relationship map, which uses the same style found in V5.

Customs

Each coterie’s description concludes with any traditions or other habits it might possess.

Type

The coterie may be one of the types described in V5, or it may have a purpose that isn’t covered in that book. In any case, the coterie’s mission and habits are explored here.

Backgrounds

A coterie’s Backgrounds depend on its type and the Kindred who support it, though not always in ways one might expect. For example, powerful vampires may have relatively weak coterie Backgrounds due to a lack of shared trust, or if their alliance is a new one.

The Backgrounds listed here are starting points, for use if players’ Kindred join the coterie or otherwise connect to it in circumstances where this information would be useful to the Storyteller. The Storyteller can always adjust these traits or go by the narrative description of each coterie to determine what it provides for its Kindred. Therefore, this section describes Backgrounds in story terms as well as game traits.

Domain

In addition to Backgrounds common to both coteries and characters, many possess a Domain. In Chicago this represents part of the city or outlying area claimed by Prince Jackson’s regime. Domain is further divided into Chasse, Lien, and Portillon aspects, representing the Domain’s size, the ease with which Kindred draw upon its benefits, and its security, respectively.

As well as game-trait listings, Domain aspects come with a description of what they represent in the city and to the coterie’s Kindred.

One vital distinction is the degree to which a territory is recognized. In Chicago, the tightening of Camarilla membership has left coteries which are no longer fully integrated with the sect with virtually official holdings, nonetheless. Depriving trusted citizens left on the wrong side of politics, through no fault of their own, of their long-held territory would have been too bitter a pill for certain powerful Kindred and their “outsider” coteries. Beyond Domains with unofficial Camarilla recognition, Anarchs respect competently managed turf — and so does everyone else, really. Elders may claim renegade territory is theirs for the taking, but if unrecognized claimants are powerful enough, wise Kindred leave their turf alone.

Expanded Rules for Coteries

The coteries in this chapter introduce two new coterie types and clarify or slightly expand the rules. This section builds upon that work with new coterie types and other game systems.

Miscellaneous Systems

Use the systems in this section to further detail and adjust the rules found in the Vampire: The Masquerade core rulebook.

Coterie Versus Personal Backgrounds

As noted on p. 196 of V5, coterie Backgrounds are possessed by the coterie as a whole, not the individual vampires in it. This may raise questions on what happens when one of the Kindred uses personal and coterie Backgrounds together. As V5 says, personal and coterie Backgrounds don’t stack. However, when a character possesses both, they’ll normally get an additional attempt at a task related to the Background, or access to another passive opportunity. For example, if a vampire has both coterie and personal Fame, they have two chances to lean on it to get preferential treatment at a nightclub — but other clubgoers have twice as many opportunities to recognize them. These extra chances don’t happen when both Backgrounds cover different Domains. A vampire in Baby Chorus who’s also a well-known physicist will only stand an enhanced chance of recognition if the band plays at the University of Chicago.

Coterie Backgrounds can be used by individual vampires without the permission of the rest of the coterie, though these Backgrounds are generally less effective. Reduce the Background’s effective rating by one dot. In the case of SPCs who are given dot ratings, the reduction doesn’t make them less personally effective, but limits how effectively they’ll work for the vampire. In most cases, coterie Backgrounds are assumed to be used with the implied assent of the coterie, so this penalty isn’t necessary, but using Backgrounds normally also means that by default, any other member of the coterie can find out about the action. Using Backgrounds with the penalty allows the Kindred to keep their actions a secret from the rest of the coterie.

Coterie Boons and Debts

In most cases Status, Influence, and other Backgrounds are sufficient to represent a coterie’s social resources, but there may be time when you’d prefer to track debts and boons owed to specific individuals and coteries. In this case, an adaptation of the guidelines for prestation on pp. 314-315 of V5 is called for.

In these cases, you may allow well-connected coteries (or individuals) to purchase Boons as a Background, or take them as a Flaw, with the following costs.

Boon or Debt	Type
•	Minor
••	Major
••••	Life

Each boon or debt is tracked separately. Minor, major, and life boons function according to the descriptions in V5. When a coterie possesses a boon or debt, any member of the coterie may call upon the boon, or discharge the debt. Individual boons and debts are, by default, acquired in play. Optionally, you may allow the acquisition of boons and debts as individual Backgrounds, but in each case the costs increase by one dot, since boons are more onerous for individuals to hold, and more valuable when one vampire reaps their benefits. Note that trivial boons, as simple, easily discharged promises, are not tracked using this system.

If you give boons dot ratings, this opens the door to negotiating the types of boons owed based on the total dot ratings. For example, it may be possible to discharge a life boon through two major boons instead, since both are worth four dots. Generally speaking, consolidating lesser boons into a smaller number of greater boons requires no conflict — who wouldn’t want to get a life boon instead of four minor boons? — but breaking a boon down into multiple lesser boons requires the debt holder to convince the boon holder this would be worthwhile. This is generally handled through a simple social conflict using the rules in V5. In both cases, a third party, such as a duly empowered Harpy or Anarch rumormonger, should be informed of the change. New Coterie Types This chapter has already presented two new coterie types: The Vanguard and Rectorate. This section provides additional options for your coteries, using the rules in V5.

New Coterie Types

This chapter has already presented two new coterie types: The Vanguard and Rectorate. This section provides additional options for your coteries, using the rules in V5.

CARNIVAL

Carnival coteries move from place to place, bringing the party with them. Where Nomads celebrate rootlessness, Carnivals strive to make an impression on mortals, Kindred, or both, depending on the coterie’s style. Some Carnivals appeal to elders by providing deliberately anachronistic entertainments, recalling Dust Bowl circuses or further back, medieval troubadours. Others organize raves with cutting-edge music spun by six-figure-a-night DJs. Not all Carnivals are devoted purely to entertainment and the chance to feed, however. Their spectacles might include politics and theater or Cainite rites, hidden in plain sight.

Domain: None

Contacts: (•••) (fans in every town)

Fame: (•••) (a wandering spectacle)

Retainers: (•) (daylight help)

Possible Extras: Allies, Herd (fans who follow), Resources

CORPORATE

Corporate coteries exist to further the economic and territorial goals of their members. They use modern business methods, supplemented by the strongarm tactics and psychic manipulation members can bring to bear as Kindred. Corporate groups are either wracked with infighting or tightly organized in pursuit of their goals, with little room in between, as their selfish goals make or break members’ social bonds. In modern nights, Camarilla traditionalists consider Corporate coteries gauche but useful, since they have the collective skills and resources to harness contemporary capitalism. Stereotype holds that Ventrue lead many of these coteries, but while it is true the clan has long functioned inside bourgeois institutions, the edifice of global capital is too large for any one clan to dominate.

Domain: Chasse (•) and Lien (••)

Influence: (••) (business community)

Resources: (•••) (the portfolio)

Possible Extras: Contacts, Herd (interns)

FLAGELLANT

Flagellant coteries have a mocking name, given to them by Kindred who may or may not care about the plight of the kine, but don’t go around being so publicly remorseful, or so desperate to make amends. Flagellant coteries try to redeem their members for the harm they visit upon mortals. The coterie sponsors charitable works, and individuals behave as good Samaritans and occasionally, as vigilantes, hunting down mortals who prey on their own. Most vampires have few objections to this sort of thing, but that changes when Flagellants go after other Kindred. The most extreme of these coteries may act as judge, jury, and executioner over vampires they believe mistreat the kine. Some coteries even abuse the Blood itself, treating the sick by feeding them vitae. Thus, the Camarilla keeps a close watch on these “kindly coteries.”

Domain: Chasse (•) and Lien (••)

Allies: (•••) (mortals they’ve helped)

Influence: (•) (local charity)

Adversary: (••) (Flagellants almost always annoy a local Cainite)

Possible Extras: Contacts, Loresheet (Golconda or some other reputed path to salvation), Retainer (nursed back to health with vitae)

FUGITIVE

These vampires are on the run. The Second Inquisition is after them. The Camarilla proclaimed a Blood Hunt upon them. Anarchs want to treat them to a stakeand- boot party. The pursuer may even be a single, potent vampire. Fugitive coteries keep low profiles, cultivate resources they can take with them or liquidate, and develop contingency plans for when their pursuers catch up with them. It’s rare for every member of the coterie to be hunted. Instead, one or two Kindred on the run convince others to go with them due to bonds of love or camaraderie. In any case, Fugitive coteries survive or perish based on the bonds of loyalty members hold for one another.

Domain: None

Contacts: (•••) (help on the run)

Mask: (••) (Cobbler; fake IDs available for members)

Resources: (••) (cash and a lightproof vehicle)

Retainer: (•) (daylight driver)

Special: Fugitive coteries always have one or more Flaws related to whoever or whatever is pursuing them, such as Adversary, Enemy, or a Flaw such as Known Blankbody

Possible Extras: Allies, Despised, Shunned, Loresheet (when being hunted because they know too much)

SOMNOPHILE

Many coteries are rumored to be Somnophiles, but the term is primarily used as a slur — as slang, it actually comes from the old days of the Sabbat, where loyalty to old, torpid elders was likened to a sexual fetish. True Somnophile coteries represent the oldest vampires, who may well sleep, but are just as likely to dwell in ancient labyrinths (as was the fad shortly after the fall of Rome), masquerade as younger vampires, or otherwise place multiple degrees of secrecy between themselves and modern Kindred. A Somnophile coterie’s patron is often powerful enough to send messages through Disciplines, as omens or dreams, or have penetrated mortal institutions so completely they can relay messages through proxies that can never be traced back to their point of origin. Each coterie has its own reasons for obeying these hidden masters, from Bahari religious convictions to ambitious Kindred convinced their association will bring them power, as major players in the Jyhad.

Domain: Chasse (•), Portillon (••)

Loresheet: (••) (their master teaches them secrets)

Mawla: (•••) (the somnolent or distant elder) Possible Extras: Allies, Retainers, Status (guardians of an esteemed vampire)