[Vampire: The Masquerade] The Guide to Clan Malkavian
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- Опубліковано 24 січ 2025
- Curseborne Kickstarter: www.kickstarte...
In which the Gentleman Gamer discusses the controversial Clan of the Moon - the Malkavians! How should you use them, or indeed, should you?
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one of my first characters was a Malkavian, a professor, historian, had a background as medium, would scour historic artefacts to get insights via auspex, and talk to the occasional ghost. But while he considered his knowledge his most valuable thing, his derangement was that he was unable to hold on to his memories for too long, so he had to write down everything, off course in a way that would not endanger the masquerade. There was a whole sub plot about him working with two other malkavians, the three together were kinda inspired by the fates from mythology, and when all three - all childer of the same sire - got together they'd have clearer insights, but they also made each others derangements get more volatile.
and no, I have not backed it :p come on, get that Dementation going. I double dog dare you :p
@@Munkee1980 yOu wIll bAcK CuRsEbOrNe!!!
See. Easy. Malkavian.
In seriousness, that's a fun concept! And if you need me to convince you of anything so that you do back, please let me know!
One of the only Malkavians I ever enjoyed running I ran as a ST in my first V5 game. The players didn't get to experience the character as much as I would have liked but his name was Dr. Richard (Richie) Matsuda, who was the mentor and dear friend of the antagonistic Tremere Primogen. His "derangement" manifested as dementia. This was a man who was brilliant for his day, vibrant, full of life, and a champion for the Primogen PRIOR to her becoming Kindred (at a time when Women in his field weren't as accepted), so he knew her as a kine first... he was targeted by his sire when he during a winter night tried to help a man he saw in distress... he was rewarded for this by being drained and embraced.
By the time the players meet him, he has degenerated into a state where his own body doesn't even know if he's kindred or not. He is sustained by a Ghoul of the Primogen, who gives him nightly transfusions. He is completely unresponsive... wheelchair bound; music therapy is a way to coax a little bit of something out. The question for the players was: "What is eternity to you if it is spent, trapped within yourself?" The horror of the moment in which they realized this, was this women they hated, who they saw as being the elitist, evil clown car, who ate puppies and tortured the homeless... couldn't let go of someone they loved so dearly.
Anyway, if I ever bothered to play Malkavians instead of my beloved Ventrue, I would probably try and do something akin to that... because I have family who are schizophrenic, and I just can't with the "Fish Malk" anymore.
That's a very strong concept!
My favorite Malkavian concept is my current one for an upcoming homebrew Chronicle
Reginald "Ricky" Wickers is an Anarch and the classic hippie from the Woodstock Era a musician and artist who as a human had Synesthesia primarily manifesting as him seeing abstract shapes and colors while listening to music. His sire took notice of this as well as him being quite the visionary even when not under the influence of drugs and saw kinship in him because he already saw things differently. So he was turned. His sire stepped in the sun the following morning for reasons I'm not privy to yet, but it wasn't depression. Leaving Ricky scared and alone during perhaps the most vulnerable hours of being a New Malkavian. His bane manifested as his synesthesia but instead of just mild occasional reactions it was like his senses were tied in a knot. Looking at curtains could have him taste fabric and feel cobwebs against his skin. It felt like his mind was constantly making unconscious associations and relaying that to his conscious brain to where if he didn't block out some of this sensory Assault would result in utter sensory overload. He spent a whole day trapped in a tiny hotel room. Learned he was a vampire because he reached out to see what the ash on the balcony was and summarily scorching his hand. Ricky was understandably panicking because he was a vampire now and he felt like his mind had been opened to way too much information all at once.
He met a fellow Malkavian that night as he left the hotel room planning to hit the road and try and figure out what he was and find a safe place to rest. After all he had killed a member of the cleaning staff and left their corpse in the bathtub because he was hungry and in pain.
This person claimed that she was a Sibling like him. A Malkavian and that she had heard him crying out for help. She became his adoptive sire more or less and they traveled back to San Diego where Ricky ingratiated himself with the Anarchs and proved himself nearly immediately useful because his Derangement when focused could give him a whole lot of coded information about people. And now Ricky has more control over his Derangement. While it can overload him at times he's spent enough time with it that he learned how to kind of tune it out so he can have normal conversations. Hell folks sometimes forget he's crazy. Though that doesn't mean he won't request you change shirts if it "Sounds like it's screaming at him"
Meant to be an information gatherer and very good at it though the difficulty can often be through parsing through all the noise and making the right connections. Meant to showcase the horror of constant stimulation and the struggle to live with constant sensory noise. A side effect of Ricky's Derangement is that he struggles to remember things sometimes because he's constantly dealing with extra sometimes unnecessary details forcing their way into his experience of the world. Sure, sometimes he can tell a hunter raid is coming because he is constantly sensing impending violence (smell of gunpowder, tasting iron, hearing military boots on pavement when speaking with someone,) but sometimes the extra information he's getting is at least for now seemingly useless
As for Curseborne i haven't backed it though that's because this is my first time coming across this channel. I very well might back curseborne but money is tight at the moment
What a fun concept!
Great analysis of the Malks, btw.
What makes Cursoborne feel like the substitute for WoD & CoD is that it finally allows players & GMs to RP in a setting with all creatures of the night being playable.
I completely agree with you. I think what we've achieved with Curseborne is really quite impressive.
@@TheGentlemanGamer Curseborne? Please eat a dick, we told the truth.
My favorite malk character was based on the concept of a kind hearted Faggin who took care of the street orphans and had a pie shop in Victorian London. The orphans were his contacts little rascals that they were and the leader of their gang was his ghoul. Ah, good times....
That's a fun character idea.
A most needed video, I always find myself listening to your guides, specially with those "controversial" or hard to place in coteries clans... Like Lasombra, tzimisce, sethites and now malkavian. Thanks a lot both the backer of curseborn/WB and you 🎉
@@CEZA-123 Thank you for saying so! Have you backed Curseborne?
@@TheGentlemanGamerI'm thinking about it... I'd like to buy a physical copy, but I got 3 problems, 1) I live in Chile, so there is an extra payment 55$ for shipping 2) the language, not for myself, but for my friends 3) time, right now I'm narrating Dark ages 20th a., and playing pathfinder, going to kickboxing, playing soccer (soon to end) and in a relationship (hopefully not ending soon)
But this game and the way you presented it, is very appealing to me, I'd surely like to play it
Maybe I support it with the PDF 🤔
@@CEZA-123 If you can support for the PDF, I'd be immensely grateful. I'm so glad you're enthusiastic for it! Whatever the case, I hope you have some great games of Vampire and Pathfinder.
I run an ongoing Atlanta by Night game for a local game shop. The players recently met a Malkavian named Leo Dominguez, a tarot reading “street prophet” that haunts the downtown railways. It’s always funny to me when an NPC that was meant to come-and-go transforms into full blown crowd favorite. My players now seek out Leo for his strange visions and readings whenever possible :)
As for Curseborn, I am very interested. I plan on asking my groups if they would be willing to try something new!
Please tell me you use the Mage: The Ascension tarot deck for a little extra added WoD flair when you present his readings.
@@VallornDeathbladeHA I forgot that even existed. Great idea though! I’ve been using a traditional set.
@@Trizian1 I love using it when it comes to prophecies in my chronicles. A traditional set will still set the scene really well though (and doesn't cost $3,200 for a hardcopy)
I hope they said yes!
I've played 3 Malks in my time and I had a campaign setting that is in the beginning nights of Gehenna when the Sabbat freed themselves of the True Black Hand and waged war on humanity. All of kindred and kine society gets pushed back to cities that wall themselves off from the outside Sabbat controlled wastelands. The Ravnos Antediluvian rose and annihilated most of its bloodline.
I say all of that to setup how I was beginning to have Malkav manifest into the world. Camarilla and Sabbat NPC Malkavians would get drawn to the frontlines through the Madness Network and if any of them got within a few meters of each other they would get flung together and their bodies would begin to fuse with one another before disappearing into the High Umbra.
I was always intrigued by the idea that Malkav not only exists as 'thought', but would one day seek to reform all the 'loose fragments' runnin around out there in the world as his childer, to become whole again. He and that one Wordeater ancient just operating on an entirely different level from everything else around them.
That's a splendid way to play them.
My character believed he was in a simulation. This meant he occassionally had, among other things, a hard detachment like a True Brujah because he didnt see the vitality of a moment. But this gave him a kind of removed clarity. He was a character performing and he wasnt the conductor of the play, but it was a play.
He also didnt seem himself as the main character, but also not a Rosenstein either.
Oh very nice. Lovely concept! You'd play a good Network Sorcerer in Curseborne.
Malkavians have always been my favorite. yeah bloodlines was my intro but over time ive been....refining my malkavian into a concept and its mirror concept. the sabbat version a broken man who was a megalomaniac long before the embrace , and afterwards all that trauma around powerlessness becomes buried under the power that comes with being a vampire thats told that he SHOULD hold himself above mortals, who now leads a cult of mortals who think that becoming a shovelhead is going to give them the respect they deserve, when really they only serve to prove HIS power. he is a broken man who's humanity is buried under trauma and over a century of power indulgance.
The mirror to this is a camarilla concept. a Mortal with depression, who through therapy was able to continue on, given the tools needed to deal with their depression. they studied psychology so that they could help others the same way he was helped. eventually he would be embraced by a malkavian that saw his mental resiliance and saw a man who could withstand the curse and make it work for him. This is a man who has fought and continues to fight his demons, the beast is just another demon to fight, and he will. Depression saps his willpower, but when he sees the good that his advice does for mortal and kindred alike have done over the centuries, he feels the will to press on anyway. a small bit of light, so that one can appreciate just how dark everything else can get
I appreciate you finding so much good in there!
Malk character: An artist that feels so deeply about his "meals" that has to make a work of art inspired by his victims every time he feeds: if the roll for the creation is successful all good, if it fails the PC will hurt himself, if it's a critical fail he will hurt someone else...
That's an interesting take. They'd play well with the Toreador.
Great video! Also, I didn't know Curseborne was on Kickstarter- thank goodness, consider me pledged!
Thank you very much!
An idea i had for a Malkavian (because im not creative enough for another type) was one with a form of OCD that is made worse by the curse of cain. Basically, they are forced to repeat the same motion over and over PERFECTLY. It would be like watching a videotape playing and rewinding. Even their thoughts would rewind and as they're trapped in a loop, that would be disturbing for anyone else to watch. Unless they check the time or is told be someone, they wont be aware of what has just happend
That's an interesting take!
When I was DMing Warsaw by Night for my players I had made a Malkavian primogen named Klio. As one of oldest in city she was a true menace, using Dementation to twist those who messed up. When a Ventrue player's ill thought student party in Malkavian controlled club turned sour (3 dead from drinking over the counter drinks like "Hangman's Orgasm") she showed up with her jester. PC had no idea who she was and told them both if they want to punish him, they can do it. He got 5 of derrangements for months. When later he tried to play ball with her, she crucified him and made him belive he's a new messiah and only he can prepare world for it's rebirth.
In another campain she sipped from and twisted all mortals' minds who accompanied a Lasombra player during urbex in unfinished building. He then botched a Persuation roll and she Dominated him into drinking her blood.
Oh that's beautiful. Thank you for sharing!
I've never actually played a TTRPG, but I love reading about them.
Malkavians are a bit of a tricky point in that on one hand people can effectively be making light entertainment out of what can be a horrific real life experience. However, I have heard that some people with mental illnesses like to play as fishmalk characters; sometimes being able to laugh at the difficulties in life helps.
I have backed Curseborne. Obviously I haven't got any examples of malkavians I've played, but I have an idea for two derangements which I thing might be interesting:
Hysterical Blindness; if the character sees anything too disturbing or frightening they have to roll self control and if they fail they go blind for some period of time.
Emotional mimic; every so often, storyteller's discretion, the character rolls to perception + empathy to see whatever the person they are looking at (or piece of art if appropriate) is feeling; they then start feeling that emotion (the roll is not to see if they will take on the emotion, its to see what emotion they get, a botch would get them completely misinterpreting the emotion and feeling that instead).
Those are intriguing derangements!
This one is very much inspired by an NPC a buddy of mine once ran, and I'd love to try and play a version of him myself now that I'm across the country from that group.
During a campaign, we finally had a chance to meet the Prince of my buddy's version of South Bend, Indiana: John. No, he never gave a last name, and according to the ST, he didn't have a last name (in his words: "It's like Prince or Sting"). John was a conniving and clever Prince, who was old; older than the sects, older than most of the people around him who asserted power around him, and as he liked to say, "Old Enough to have a clue." John was a long-time follower of The Path of Power and the Inner Voice and a megalomaniac (his derangement, in fact) and loved to sit and have intellectual debates in his free time. At the time, I was playing a Brujah very much styled on the "Philosopher King" archetype and we had such fun intellectual challenges against each other, less as "Prince vs subject" but almost as peers. Sadly, had to exit that campaign due to internal squabbles (one of the players was a bit of a jackass and personal issues caused me and a few others to distance ourselves from the playgroup) but John has always been my idea of a "well-played Malk." His derangement wasn't some cheap comedy skit: it was a serious and well articulated quirk that shaped the character.
That sounds like a lot of fun, and I'm sorry it ended poorly!
I've got two Malkavians: one that I played and one that I want to play. I'll post the one I played and if you want the second you can ask me in the replies.
The one that I played was a Dominate Malkavian Masquerade breach cleaner for the Camarilla in New York in V20. His role was to remove any evidence he could and his specialty was dealing with people. But he went to extreme lengths to not kill anyone as he thought it would merely draw attention (and tank his Humanity, but he would never use that justification with his superiors). He instead used The Forgetful Mind, Mesmerize and Command to erase memories and get unconnected mortals to dispose of physical evidence for him, and he used Obfuscate when to help hide his movements.
However he also refused to rely on his Disciplines and tried whenever he could to just use 'theatre and parlour tricks' and normal talking, as again he didn't want more attention drawn. Buy 'theatre and parlour tricks' I mean applying makeup and changing cloths to pretend to be different people using trickery and sleight of hand to set up situtations to his advantage. What creeped some people out about him was that he ALWAYS pretended to be different people even when with his coterie, changing his apperance and mannerisms (he had the Chameleon Demeanor). Most people wouldn't look further than that for his 'Derangement' which was part of the point, he didn't want people to know anymore about him that he deemed it necessary. In fact he really didn't see himself as having one as everything he did had a logical and sound reasoning and he knew that other Kindred and even Malkavians would see his lack of Derangement as dangerous. He needed everyone to not know who he was (Nature was Enigma). He especially was concerned and scared of outside interference on his psyche and that not only was his a pawn in the Jyhad but everything he did was actually exactly what someone else wanted...which this being Vampire the first part was try and the second part was mostly true. Also, being a specialist in Dominate he knew how easily someone could mess with his memory and riddle him with sleeper orders that he would know nothing about.
Every waking (and dreaming) moment in his life was him constantly looking for connections and evidence that he had been influenced by something, even him pretending to be different people was an added layer of self-surveilance so he could pinpoint divergent mannerisms. This practice, of cause, lended itself very well to survive unlife in the Camarilla and to help him fix Masquerade breaches if not earning him that many friends. He knew if someone, somehow figured out that was what he was doing, if they could see his plan, they would just chalk it up to to a Malkavian being paraniod. But he wasn't paraniod, they really were out to get him (he had the Paranoia Derangement, and when you are right about most of the conspiracies you think it's that one time it's false that will destroy you).
What excellent concepts! Thank you for sharing them.
ok, first of all, thank you for your honesty in your explanation, Mr. Dawkins. That honesty is important in sending the message you wanted to send. Knowing that you were drawn to Malkavians because of your own experiences
that perspective, on the vampire outcasts being the magnet for the social outcasts, is something I have also noticed. But in my mind, it was more likely, that the writers wanted to create a space for people who were on the outskirts, because of their "way of being", to put it nicely. I am talking about people on the spectrum, and people with ADHD. Because I, as a diagnosed person, can see that RPGs were that safe space for people who needed a bit more time to form their thoughts, or to play out fantasies, where they could achieve power. The "mental illness" element, feels more like the usual 90s edge. Good intentions with miserable execution are the bread and butter of WhiteWolf after all :)
and I also went thru those different motions with Malkavians at my table. What's more, I still don't trust people with portraying them right, because they still refuse to give them grace they deserve. But maybe, one day, the community will reach that point
Personally, I see Malkavians are those who are just very well attuned to the "sound" of the world around them. They listen, when people around them not. They see, what others prefer to glance past. They feel more, they smell more, and they taste more. This is why they have Auspex, the Discipline of senses. They have Obfuscate, because they know their senses will bring ridicule to them. And they have Dominate, so they can turn their observations into a weapon.
And also, to once again go back to one of your points. I think we need to see more Malkavians, but GOOD, Malkavians. Not these "DID", these Jokers, these quirky clones of Bloodlines characters. We need to see Malkavians, who know that what they've been cursed with, won't make them suddenly fit in, but gives them a chance, to least, use their already existing gifts, to their full potential.
I completely agree with you, 100%.
@TheGentlemanGamer yay ^-^
I have a Malkavian character concept in mind, funny enough also a priest with their religion based on the Triat which in WoD is the Wyld, the Weaver, and the Wyrm due to him being a former kinfolk to one of the were tribes gave him this knowledge about the Triat and how important it is. Now his mental problem is his three spilt personality's which each one of them favours one of the three more then the other two but understands why each on them has their own place and wants to bring them back into order of what they once were, so their main goal is to normalize and spring a new religion for both kindred and humanity to follow in hopes to preventing a potential Apocalypse. now as for the three personality's in respective to the Triat they are as follows Dawn, Day and Dusk. Dawn believes in new creation of life, works of art and something new to love and care for, while Day believes of giving things a purpose, structure and control of how things go forward and if that means something else has to go away so be it and then we have dusk who both Dawn and Day just believe its just their beast but there is a third who enjoys destruction to others either by ending their lives or ending the current way they live their lives which in turn will provide opportunity to make a new way for them to live or to help those who lost them either way to dusk that is all that matters the monster that is needed to complete the circle and in a way they represent the Triat itself of what it should be. So both Dawn and Day will have blank moments and will question of what they were doing in them which Dusk might of ended another person life or done something to that effect which would add the mystery to my Malkavian and his sense of reality and how much control does he really have and who is the original personality. which I hope when I play this character I hope I can both express their difference's and what moral lines is each of the personality willing to uphold and which will they drop in trying to bring forth this new religion to the people while trying to stay in the lines of the Masquerade.
and my apologise no, I have not backed it so bring the madness am curious of what wonderland I shall walk on haha.
Nice crossover ideas! Very fun!
My 2nd character was a Malkavian and I really enjoyed playing him, yes it was a little cringe but he was fun. He was German that was turned during WWII and sympathized with the party in power. He was a surgeon in the worst way working under or as a pseudonym of [insert german holocaust monster Dr here], but was forced into torpor. He woke up in America in the mid '00s and had to face challenges of modern society. His dementation was schizophrenia where he would hear voices of victims screaming at him as well as colleagues from the past. He actually tried to bring one of his colleagues to the Prince as a solution to one of the problems the city was facing, i dont remeber what it was anymore. (Also the prince was black so there was a lot of tension between the 2 and that was great fun to try and figure out how not to get my character killed just having a conversation with this powerful ventrue)
I do feel 1 problem with the way you described the changes to the clan is the same problem I noticed when you were talking about Tzimisce and their Bane...they feel too close to each other. Touching other causes unwanted manipulation of the victims being. 2 sides same coin, in my opinion they are too close.
No I haven't backed yet, money is tight ATM but I am interested in the setting.
I appreciate your support nonetheless!
@TheGentlemanGamer I appreciate your insight into the clans and I am interested in your suggested fix for the clan of problematics; the Ravnos. Most my exposure to them was from V20 pre-week of nightmares, and I really hated their clan weakness as written, but I also don't like the new bane/compulsion for V5 either forced transience and recklessness isn't any better than the other stereotypes used in the past.
I find steeping them so much in ethnicity causes too much of a problem (the Banu works because they spread so much across the world and adopt people of any ethnicity that they can be the exception to the rule). Any ancient clan should have spread and multiplied to all peoples or been destroyed. Look at the Tzimisce they have no problem embrasing anyone they are just stuck in the past. And you fixed the Clan of Death's incestuous issues by wisely combining them. So I thought what if the Ravnos wasn't a clan of scoundrels and thieves or Roma but of tricksters that spread all around the world? The Lokis, the Coyotes, the Hermes, Anansi, the Monkey Kings or the Huehuecoyotl of the vampire society, the fairytale fae like creatures that use their chimerstry for "fun" and "entertainment" (yes they would still have this clan discipline). They could still be hated as a low clan and harried when their tricks get out of hand but would still have their place and uses for out of the box thinking to problems but would actually be able to be a regular presence in cities...or would this conflict too much with the Malcavians and their prophetic abilities or the Setite serpentine solutionists?
I'm actually re-installing it... I can't believe this...
Fool!
I have backed Curseborne, even got the physical copy!
Malkavians have never been high on my radar and I admit that I have a rather dim view of them as a clan.
I don’t look down on people who play them, but because of how the clan has worked and the kinds of people it apparently attracts, I do not like them too much. But I would say V5’s take on them is a good refinement!
Huzzah for you!
Douglas Netchurch, Elimelech, Vasantasena and Alexander from Beckett's Jyhad Diary are my favorites. The cycle you went through with the Malks is similar to my own with the Ravnos (my first WoD character and yes in retrospect if was fucking awful).
Ah, we must all fall before we can walk.
I plan to back on Wednesday, since (for some reason) Kickstarter wouldn't work the last time I tried. I agree with you about the love-hate relationship with Malkavians. I've played my fair share of what my group called "Happy Spoon" Malkavians (silly for the sake of being silly), especially in the NPO Camarilla back in the day. However, I've toned it down quite a bit, and I don't encourage my players to play such characters (often under the threat of death--of their characters, of course.) My favorite concept I had was an NPC in my current game. He was a therapist with Multiple Personality Disorder. He was a Jekyll-N-Hyde character, in which the Hyde would was a serial killer who targeted people who abused children. The Jekyll was abused as a child and became a therapist to see why people became abusers in order to understand why his father was abusive (I think most therapists go into the field in order to fix themselves through their patients.) The Hyde character didn't manifest itself until after the Embrace, as a representation of the pent-up anger, rage and need for revenge that the Jekyll never received in his childhood. The setting was prior to Camarilla Malkavians got Dementation, but I did give it to the Hyde who used it to mentally torture the abuser prior to killing them. Neither personality knew of the others' existence, which helped. It definitely helped my players not take Malkavians for granted.
I hope you got in there!
The Malkavians have always been my favorite clan, one I truly see myself as a part of because I've dealt with my own mental illness for many years. I empathize with their struggles and I've always aimed to portrait my characters in a way that respects the people who suffer the real life version of their fictional madness, and that also conveys how damn scary it actually is to be insane.
Sorry I can't back Curseborne right now because I'm unemployed 😅
I hope I can either buy it in the future or support another project of yours, because you make really great content ❤
I struggle to identify with any one clan, myself.
As a storyteller, I appreciate this video. As a storyteller, I only ever allowed players I had played with before who I knew I could trust to do justice to the clan play Malkavians. I hear you with your desire to distance them from mental illness, and definitely agree you have valid points. But as you said, some of us see ourselves in them with this mental illness aspect. I have in past games used Malkavians to great effect in a therapeutic way for players to face their own issues in play.
But yeah, it is a HARD clan to play well. I trust them only to the most skilled players. Anytime a new player in a game I am not storytelling for is making a Malkavian as their first character, I cringe and find myself holding my breath.
My favorite portrayal of a Malkavian is honestly Leysha and her daughter. Honestly just something about her pulled at my heart strings, I don't know why. Maybe it's my own experience as a trans woman who wishes I could be a mother, maybe it's my time in mental institutions with doctors who didn't actually have my interests at heart, who knows. I just really liked them.
Anywho, backed Curseborne solely because I'm grateful to you. Your videos are why I became so passionate about Vampire. I've been storytelling for 20 years and I can largely thank you for helping me really get established on this path.
Thank you for the fine words!
Never stop using your Presence and Dominance ❤
OBEY
My Sabbath Malkavian has been infected by Vicissitude, now he has 2 point on it. A lot of fun for my Storyteller...
That's right. Vicissitude is an infection.
I have a player who made a Malkavian with Body integrity dysphoria, which I thought was an interesting approach.
Very much so!
Malkavians are always done perfectly when they lean into what the clan actually is...Oracles...They're Cassandras...Every Malk should however subtly be an Oracle (You can have way different methods of being an Oracle - One can use Tarot the other Auspice) and then because of this sight they suffer a derangement which I personally prefer to keep fictional - the compulsion of the Malkavians eludes to future-sight/delusion - Auspex is the common discipline associated with the clan...they shouldn't be useless...or a Joker-type Malk...why? Cause night 1 they'd be dead.
I completely agree.
well your other Malkavian antitribu character Harold Zettler(from Gentleman's guide to Werewolves) has a front row seat to the wyrm, now Malkav knows of the wyrm intimately and vice versa through the blood. hmmm.....
Zettler is very intimate with the Wyrm.
The supernatural detective is one of my favorite tropes. Malkavians fit in there easily, like you said.
I like some of the mystery the Voerman sisters present. They've taken over so much of LA despite weirdly working against themselves, and going by the LA book, would have bad to depose a powerful kindred to take that domain.
It's a concept that first appeared in Milwaukee by Night.
I made a character once that, hear me out, was a chocoholic. I know that sounds terribly immature, and that's the initial reaction I was going for. Superficially, she played it off as sort of a joke, "Hi, I'm Cheryl, I have a bit of a sweet tooth... maybe a bit of a chocoholic, haha." But the way it really worked out was more a combination of substance abuse and an eating disorder. She'd be functional for a period, and then disappear for a while on a nightmarish binge, eating chocolate, vomiting up blood, replenishing blood from a victim and repeating until she ran out of blood or chocolate.
Ultimately, I was asked by another player if I could do something different, as the character was hitting on horror that hit a little too close to home.
Looking back, it was a premise that I think deserved a content warning of sorts with the other players, and maybe that's a good idea generally for any Malkavian, especially if you're going to go hard into personal horror.
(And yes I backed Curseborne on Kickstarter. I'm excited to get my copy when it's done!)
@@WilliamRoyNelson What a bizarre but interesting character! Thank you for sharing!
I backed Curseborne for a physical edition (gonna eat that UK shipping cost). Always interesting to hear nuanced takes on Malkavians.
Thank you!
Came here from the clan rating video because I heard you talk about your Malkavian video and went "oh shit, I missed this one." Talking about the Malkavian with a split personality makes me think of the song GeminEye by the Megas, it's a song about a hard-boiled noir-style private detective hired by someone to protect them from an assassin, except it turns out that the detective and client are split personalities of the same person slowly growing mad with paranoia from said assassin. I think that might actually make a cool Malkavian if you play it seriously rather than making it a joke.
I haven't backed Curseborne although I certainly think it's interesting, but that's because I'm disabled and rather low on funds right now. I do plan on eventually picking it up, though!
I hope you enjoy it when you do! All the best to you.
well the Tremere used to be part of the top dog for several hundred years since the founding of the Camarilla, they were quite useful as sorcerers and advisers to the Ventrue. however lately they got smacked hard by the 2nd inquisition and are not what they used to be went from top dog to on the edge.
I remember back in 1e and part of 2e where it was said the Tremere are forbidden from every holding praxis.
My favorite Malkavian character was a t.v. horror host. He has a Ghoul named Renfield and he was the ultimate method actor, never stepping out of character. Renfield had Mask (back when that was a thing) and could pose as the character during the day which took care of any Masquerade breaches. He was a blast to play.
Of course his ghoul is named Renfield.
Not backed curseborn yet. Going to binge the videos this weekend to make up my mind if its right for me and my table.
Currently playing a Malkavian in my first VtM game set in Victorian London. She was a con-artist in life. She's DID-coded (disocial idenity disorder that people usually wrongly call multipule personality - cliche I know but my first character. Got to get it out of my system). Her other idenitities was her fake idenitities as a con-artist and have opinions about the past she made up for them/decisions she made that ruin their lives. (Example the minor noble she pretended to be to marry and kill a rich man, hates her for killing her true love.)
I have been giving them roles simillar to a real DID system. The maid often takes over in situations where she has to be subservant (talking to the prince) or stealthy. The honey-trap comes out to feed. I have played out a fusion (which happens in DID) of the original honey-trap and her crossdressing disguise resulting in an idenity who preys on any gender. This idenity is now romancing the Toreador PC's transman-coded sire.
I hope you liked them!
I'm kinda surprised that you don't like the protagonist from Bloodlines, and if I had to explain it it's because the Bloodlines protagonist aligns very well with how I conceive of the Malkavians.
Basically: the Malkavians are not the clan of mental illness, because derangements are not mortal mental illnesses. Instead, they are a symptom of the fact that Malkavians are the clan of mad oracles: Malkavians have supernatural intuitive insight into some aspect of the world that is hidden to most people, and that means that their understanding of reality is a few degrees off from everyone else's. The same way a mortal who just knows, without being able to prove it, that vampires exist would come off as nuts to other mortals, Malkavians just know *something* about the world that they have no ability to prove, and knowing that one thing without proof or context makes them behave in strange ways that other people perceive as crazy.
Hence, the Bloodlines protagonist, who very clearly does not have a mortal mental illness. Instead they have extra insight (specifically, insight into the plot of this video game) that makes them come off like a real weirdo to everyone else.
Nevertheless, I'm not a fan!
This is my favorite clan. In my obsesive period I literally made hundreds of characters. But most of them are rather lighthearthed. Rarely I go into really dark places or full joke. I always tried to weave their derangements with some special powers or traits. Malkavian obsessed with cars? He is savant mechanic who can even make machines do things the shoudn't be able to do. Malkavian who see things that don't exist? He can sometimes wish things into existence (it may be good or bad for him and people around him).
Outside of that I just make character that I want to make. So I have viking malks and pirate malks and magic malks, malks from asian cultures, malks that pretend to be members of other clans, Malkavian Princes, Sheriffs, Scourges, Harpies and so on... deeply religious malks and religion-hating malks, malk assassins and knights, circus malks, librarians, hackers, gamblers, criminals, musicians and so much more xD
So it's hard for me to choose "most interesting one" but I will give few random examples:
Wolfgang Claus - he has Santa-energy, long beard, big belly, helps those who are nice and punishes the naughty.
Andrew & Chuck Dodger - two very diffrent personalities who communicate through shared journal.
Corvina Ramazzini - ex-Giovanni ghoul, she can see how "forces of land of the dead" invade land of the living and feels compeled to do something about it.
Tommy "Speed Demon" Williams - driver with literall "need for speed", does illegal races.
Alex Harper - she is obsessed with "butterfly effect" and sometimes can perfectly predict little change that leads to way greater one down the road.
Smokefish - descendant from line of native-american shamans, he can comune with spirits of the land.
"Stranger in the Mirror" - nobody outside clam Malkavian can ever recognise him (he just slips from their memories), he can travel through "mirror-world".
Jenna Cogwheel - steam-punk themed inventor who worked for a group of state-sanctioned secret spy/assassin network.
Linda Gutierrez - rebel for any cause. She fights with tyranny, not noticing that what replaces those tyrants is not really better.
I could write about more, but this post is already stupid long xD
I appreciate the post no matter the length! And thank you for creating such interesting characters! Did you find the opportunity to back Curseborne? Less than a week to go!
Backed Curseborne at Hungery level+ the amazing dice (they contrast well and I can see them better then most)
But I've been wanting to play a blind kindred, I'm nearly there the way it is. Though I havnt sorted out the right clan. After a few months now I'm seriously debating a Blind Seer Malk. Although the clan Weakness/Bane has got me really thanking on what to choose.
Thoughts are appreciated.
Oh any clan could work, but the blind seer is an archetypal kind of character.
So. one of the players in the chronicle I'm currently running had the twist that his Malkavian ironically became saner, more tolerable, and less deranged after his embrace...but this was more of a lateral move because before his embrace, he was an Objectivist libertarian tech bro with massive short-sightedness and an inability to composite actual ideas. The "derangements" he acquired and his natural gift with Auspex changed these tendencies and made him far saner than he ever was as a mortal. Heck, he probably went UP in humanity from his embrace rather than down because Auspex and the Malkavian Madness network made him feel empathy for the first time in his existence.
Shame he communicates that primarily through means, methods, and procedures that baffle, terrify, disgust, or generally confuse the rest of the coterie. Having pretty much zero experience at even feigning empathy convincingly, little knowledge of how other people think or feel, and not really being able to explain HOW he knows things from his masterful use of Auspex, he's often about ten steps ahead of the rest of the group, and acts accordingly. Given his shortcomings at communication, and his own tendency to gather information by abusing the hell out of his powers and acquiring it in ways no normal person *ever* would, the other characters typically view him as, well, insane--even if he's the wealthiest and most well-connected member of the group and the financial brains behind the operation specifically as a *result* of this. The way his player once explained this to me was, "imagine how insane someone would sound if they told you, in 2018, that you could essentially run a pump and dump scheme using GameStop Stock because some guy eating a bat would cause a mass pandemic. You'd think he was snorting ALL the drugs. And yet..."
So that's how we've sort of played it: he does things that *seem* insane but are note-perfect sense in hindsight.
That right there is a very interesting Malkavian concept. Kudos!
Top tier clan consult again. I have a Malkavian player who plays his psychosis as he can sense the nexus crawler that took out the kindred next to him in the cobweb. Every vision is accompanied with a crushing panic attack. He tries to stay composed, be the very model of a masquerade Malkavian, but the crawler is always creeping.
That's an interesting idea...
Good video, dude. Are you on Bluesky?
Nope, and I just mothballed my Twitter account. You can find me on the Onyx Path Discord or via my website, matthewdawkins.com
I don't have any money. I would however like to request a video. One of an depth dive into the second inquisition and primarily focused on the entity.
I'm sorry to hear about your financial situation! When that changes and you pick up a hard copy of The World Below, let me know and I'll make a Second Inquisition video.
About time someone respected the clan worth a damn.
@@braveherogreenleaf6256 Speaking of respect, have you backed Curseborne yet?
@@TheGentlemanGamerWe are Malkav, not You.
Why is every Ventrue stupid?
Wait, wait, no, it's a ventrue,. just don't talk to it.
My bad.
Not backed curseborn (yet...?) - best malk for me is the stockbroker or corporate problem solver. They come in with an uncanny knack for making the smart decisions, but who knows where they get that insight. Also, in corp-land, all types are welcomed by HR. And no matter what time of night... there's a stock exchange open
Also. 5 dots in dementia? Bring it! 😅
@@drawswithcrayons481 yOu wIll bAcK CuRsEbOrNe!!!
Consider yourself demented.
In seriousness, thank you for replying. If you need me to convince you of anything so that you do back, please let me know!
I would love to get a physical copy of curseborne, but the shipping cost are just making it impossible to do. I know you have your reasons for why they are so high, but it's still more than many people can or want to afford. For that price, I can get a whole separate book or board game. I have bough the pdf though. :)
Oh yeah, shipping is no joke right now.
I love Jeanette/Therese. My problem is every Malk is dual personality. Jeanette, Parliament of Knives, Swansong all did that. There are more mental illnesses. Combine paranoia with memory lapses.
The only single personality one was Dev/Null, and he was just annoying.
Yep, I completely agree.
The crazy thing is they have potential but they're handled so weird a lot of the time I kind of cringe when someone comes to me with a malk concept I blame Deadpool
Deadpool is to blame for Malkavian players, Wolverine for Gangrel.
Damn I didn't know that the inspiration for clan Malkavian were from mental patients that had mercury poisoning or rabies, interesting now it makes a lot more sense to me why they were added in as clan. But for me personally I have always been indifferent to clan Malkavians due me not really seeing how they fit into the folklore of vampires. Pretty much all the og Camarilla clans had some inspiration from vampire archetypes from myth or media except for the Malkavians, like when first learned about the clan "I was like cool but what does insanity have to do with vampirisms". The clan just never felt vampiric to me and even now I know the inspiration for the clan, all thanks to the Gentleman, I still find the archetype pretty weak, at least when it comes to vampires.
Also the fishmalks that act like Joker, Harley Quinn, or Deadpool really didn't help with my indifferences to the clan either. That being said I don't hate the clan and I do think clan Malkavians has a lot of potential for some really interesting characters, if the player is mature enough role player to pull it off and is respectful about portraying mental health. But overall the Malkavians just isn't for me.
Weren't Malkavians supposed to be Renfield (if he was embraced by Dracula) and Maharet & Mekare from Vampire Chronicles?
No, my opinion has shifted from liking to disliking them. I'll probably shift back again at some point.
Not my understanding, no.
Yes I backed Curseborne and world below wahhhh please dont give me more derangements, got a lot on my plate already hahahaha
You know have.... VEGETARIANISM
I don't know if this counts, but I will say it anyway, I am currently playing a false Malkavian, yes you read correctly, I am playing a false Malkavian, let me explain, in the dark ages, A Malkavian of the name of Alexander, was abandoned by his sire, his sire saw something that made him abandoned his child, Alexander with no choose went a took his 2 brothers and his nephew, make them into ghouls and start his merchant travels all over Europe, after 150 years, Alexander received a letter from one of his contacts, that he needs to go to Sioris, because her Lady a very powerful Malkavian seer, ask him with a mission, save our clan, Alexander as a good knight that he was, went, and speak with the Tremere, he went to a town, and was used by a Ventrue, Rudolph was his name, he found by chance a very powerful Vampire by the name of Dracon, and was bestow with magical abilities, he got into torpor, because a fight with a Bruha woman, for 6 months he was out, he tried to help the Tremere with their Tsimitze problem, by creating a trap, it worked too well, blood was offer for him 3 times, the last one he became a Tremere.
This is very important, I was playing an abandoned Malkavian aka a CAITIFF this whole time, and Alexander didn't know it. He is connected to Malkav and Tremere, he is a new bloodline the Magi bloodline, masters of swords and magic.
Interesting concept! I like it!