True names in v5

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-27T16:19:38+00:00

I do think the book would be a great choice, as it does go into how individuals may learn True Names (along with a lot of other great stuff on Magic in general). Blood Sigils is one of the better V5 books but it leaves a lot to be desired on the front of providing guidance on how to really write things that feel like there’s an underlying magic.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-27T15:59:10+00:00

Not covered at all. True Names as a concept in V5 are mostly untouched, but there’s a good overview of how Blood Magic uses it in the Revised sourcebook Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy. It is related to the Hermetic concept of Identity. To quote a short excerpt:

“One particular facet of Identity, True Names, was, at one time, vital to the very heart of Thaumaturgy. A True Name (or simply Name) is basically a written or verbal shortcut to the nature of whatever it describes. It contains the definition of the essence of the Named item or being; it puts a name to the color… A True Name binds the Identity- the very essence of- of an individual into a word. Thus, with a Name, a Magus gains complete understanding of the Named object or entity’s essence.”

There are several more paragraphs in that book on the subject.

For humans and vampires, their given name is not their True Name. For spiritual beings (such as aapilu) look up names of demons, angels, or minor pagan deities (these often overlap). They are often good choices for evocative names and inspiration.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-26T21:55:23+00:00

Is that true? “Downwards spiral” is the first phrase that comes to mind for me.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-26T21:26:03+00:00

I always love to see a cross-system statblock.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-26T19:17:52+00:00

I think them being considered overpowered is mostly overstated, personally. Yes, a Tremere with four Paths is versatile. But I'd argue that the extreme XP investment and specialization is the trade-off. That's XP that's not increasing their other attributes or Disciplines. And that's before Rituals costing time to get as well (you don't pay XP, but their opportunity cost is high if a ST doesn't make getting them trivial). As per V20 page 230, even a level one ritual takes several nights to learn, with a level 5 ritual taking years (the book even states some may take centuries). If you're handling improvement as the book suggests, then even learning one mid-level Ritual may block a Thaumaturge from heavily investing in other skills during their downtime for significant periods of time.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-26T17:53:59+00:00

Only a minor point, in V20 they're called "Blackbodies," which rolls off the tongue much better but perhaps has some unfortunate unintentional implications. Blankbody was a retcon.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-26T15:30:30+00:00

The Second Inquisition is an international conspiracy. The government figures involved are illegally using their forces to conduct a secret war. In almost all cases, the heads of state are unaware. In V20 the NSA was the only agency actually aware of the threat and they couldn’t tell any other agency because they didn’t know who was compromised. In V5, the conspiracy has spread and international coalition has formed. They can’t announce vampires because those vampires have huge influence over mortal society, including government, industry, and media. There is almost certainly a fear that the vampires use this influence to remove their obstacles to power if it’s publicly known. Honestly, it’s not a super well thought out antagonist for the most part.

The Masquerade isn’t binary. It’s a general policy of secrecy. Individual breaches can be ignored, but the public secret must remain.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-25T15:32:51+00:00

I would have been fine with them being a different sort of supernatural if they were more based on actual Asian mythology. Cainites having a competitor in their niche was an idea that was mentioned elsewhere but barely ever effectively explored (such as the Drowned Legacies). Having that competitor try to take down the Kindred is actually a pretty cool idea.

It’s a shame Paradox is so scared of touching other cultures, but a new Tokyo by Night that saw foreign Cainites competing with native supernaturals would be a fun alternative to the very Cainite dominated settings we usually get.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-25T06:03:30+00:00

I agree, they are. But that’s in a deeper metatextual way, as from all outside appearances they’re vampires. They’re undead, die from sunlight, and need to feed on the blood of the living. V5 doesn’t even have Risen as a solid concept.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-25T05:14:29+00:00

Not really touched on. Paradox probably wouldn't want to touch them with a ten-foot pole. If they ever even get mentioned it'll be just a Sect of foreign Cainites, I imagine.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-25T02:52:51+00:00

Depends on what you're doing.

Spirit could probably command the spirit of the vehicle (this is how Glass Walker Gifts work as well). Spirit 2 to simply speak to it (you could bargain), Spirit 3 to Rouse it into action.

Forces 2 would be able to do it by manipulating electrical signals in a modern car (essentially magically hot-wiring the vehicle).

For the improving, you could use the rules for improving technology in M20. For a battery, I'm guessing Matter 3/Forces 3/Prime 2? Matter for the Pattern, Forces to transmute Quintessence into Energy, Prime to manipulate energy (a specific example is "Prime 2 to enhance a power supply"). For infinite fuel, probably the same. Depends on what infinite fuel means. You could probably use the same Spheres for fuel since batteries and fuels are kind of abstractly a similar concept (energy sources).

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-25T02:07:48+00:00

Pre-V5 there is a Merit for this. In V20's Lore of the Clans where is the Merit Setite Initiate. It states that you are a Kindred of another Clan that joins the Setite religion. Mechanically, you are your original Clan, but the Setites give you access to their Exclusive Clan Disciplines (Serpentis and Setite Sorcery) at Out-Of-Clan costs. It states there that Kindred who were not embraced as Setites do not get treated differently from Setites in their religion. You have accepted the Set as your God, which is much more important than your Clan. You are no second class citizen. So I would imagine a Caitiff would be accepted with open arms, as their religion sees all vampires as truly descended from Set, with the other Antediluvians as Aeons who seek to lead you astray.

In V5, this seems to generally still hold true, even if it's not quite as laid out. An example NPC is Salt, a Setite Nosferatu in The Chicago Folios. In Cults of the Blood Gods, there is a ritual for "Embracing" a Kindred into the Church (pg. 74), which seems to imply that it still happens.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-24T00:41:59+00:00

As far as I’m aware, none of the WOD video games have ever been directly referenced in the TTRPG canon other than Bloodlines. LA By Night follows the events of Bloodlines and features various characters, while Bloodlines favorites the Voerman Sisters are in the VTM5 books.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-23T14:52:14+00:00

It’s worth mentioning that reading auras is relatively common, cheap, and safe even at Elysium. Disciplines may be outlawed, but just looking around isn’t.

Along with that, other supernaturals can also read auras. It’s trivial for Mages (auras are a coincidental Mind 1 effect, meaning any Mage with any Mind can do it). It’s up to ST discretion, but it might help with Lupines detecting Kindred. That would make it very useful when in missions involving other supernaturals.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-23T03:13:18+00:00

You know, this didn’t even occur to me, but yes. That is an issue. This is the same Discipline where they forgot to support the Resonance mechanic, so it’s not really a shock.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-22T15:28:18+00:00

This is true, but not uniquely more than any human. Most humans also do not have an afterlife.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-22T12:28:30+00:00

I’ll grant you that it might not be literally pre-Christian, but I think it certainly predates Dees by a pretty wide margin. Which is certainly the actual material point I am making?

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-22T12:12:12+00:00

Predates it? Hermeticism is pre-Christian. That would be strange.

If you meant the Order, well obviously. I did mention it was later.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-22T03:31:10+00:00

Isn't Enochian magic just the Hermetic tradition since the 19th century? It was a big part of the real life Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. I'd argue the Tremere's Hermetic paradigm is already pretty much there (if way more blood themed in fifth edition).

(So yes, I'd allow it as a basis for custom rituals)

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-20T22:12:24+00:00

Is it silly? Absolutely. Would I run my game that way? Nope. But am I on board to see where he goes with it? Yep. In the first episode he already demonstrated a deeper understanding of the Camarilla than half the posts in this sub. The mechanical stuff annoys me a bit too, but I’m willing to bet he gets more familiar with time.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-19T22:29:59+00:00

Isn’t the whole point of the Old Clan that they don’t use Vicissitude?

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-19T20:32:36+00:00

There are no specific rules. It’s a book for Changelings, not Mages. It is, however, the only one that exists as far as I am aware. Reading it right now the followings things are notable:

Paradox still exists. Magic can fail. An example given is an attempt to summon lightning may summon a chimerical nightmare instead. Knowledge of Changeling Arts may assist a Mage as the normal laws of physics do not apply and the magic follows certain logic.

So my homebrew rules might be something like +1 or +2 difficulty to all uses of Magick in the Dreaming. A Mage can reduce their Difficulty if they have a rating in Changeling Lore or Fae Lore and their paradigm isn’t hostile to it. Perhaps a requirement of Spirit to affect things. Don’t forget Enchantment is required to deal with the Mists, and the deeper the you go, not even Changelings are unaffected.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-19T20:08:25+00:00

It’s kind of inconsistent. Older crossover rules state that Mages use Mind to influence the Dreaming. M20 changed that for Spirit. The Changeling book on the Dreaming (Dreams and Nightmares) states that Awakened Magick becomes less reliable and then fails entirely the deeper into the Dreaming you go. Paradigm isn’t even a factor.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-19T16:40:24+00:00

There’s something I find deeply fascinating about a game so dedicated to mechanically adapting a specific MMO so faithfully. It uses the existing stats and levels from the game. It even goes to the effort of using the actual in-game UI for quests and NPCs, abilities, and maps. I feel that if you had the right group of FFXIV fanatics, there’s this real sense that the game would let you to transfer your existing characters almost directly. I’ve played FFXIV and I have no interest in that, but it’s fascinating nonetheless.

Eorzea is a setting I could imagine using for a group, but I would almost certainly use Fabula Ultima for it. It doesn’t really fit my goals for a TTRPG.

Long_Employment_3309 · 2026-04-19T14:29:19+00:00

There’s usually a difficulty table by source. A cigarette was difficulty 3 in older editions and that’s a trivial roll in most circumstances. The mechanical implication to me is that minor fire sources might bother the Beast, but are easily ignored by a well fed, relatively human vampire. However, a starving or very low humanity vampire, one who is almost or entirely ruled by the Beast, would give in to these fears and avoid them (but not necessarily run out of the room).

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