Dominate is one of the most dreaded of Disciplines. It is a vampire’s ability to influence another person’s thoughts and actions through her own force of will. Dominate requires that the vampire capture her vic- tim’s gaze (see p. 152); as such, it may be used against only one subject at a time. Further, commands must be issued verbally, although simple orders may be made with signs — for example, a pointed finger and force- ful expression to indicate “Go!” However, the subject won’t comply if he can’t understand the vampire, no matter how powerful the Kindred’s will is.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, vampires to which Dominate comes naturally tend to be from willful, domineering Clans. The Giovanni, Lasombra, Tremere, and Ven- true all consider an iron will to be a boon, and are ea- ger to impose that iron will on any who would move against them.
Eye Contact
Many myths and stories exist about a vam- pire’s mystical ability to put people under her spell by looking deeply into her victim’s eyes. The persistence of such stories through the ages isn’t surprising, since a number of Kin- dred Disciplines powers (most notably Domi- nate) require eye contact in order to work. Other vampires, learning of this requirement, have attempted everything from wearing mir- rored sunglasses to gouging out their own eyes in order to prevent an elder from exerting his will upon them.
But Kindred are not so easily thwarted.
The need for eye contact stems from the ag- gressor Kindred’s need to see his victim’s soul, and the eyes are the traditionally known as the windows to the soul. While the vampire needs to capture his target’s attention, the target’s eyes need not be present for such a power to work (although the arts of the Tzimisce make this somewhat challenging at times) — they only need to find the soul of his victim laid bare.
A target trying to avoid eye contact can make a Willpower roll against a difficulty equal to Dominate user’s Manipulation + Intimida- tion (or other appropriate combination for other Disciplines or specific situations, at the Storyteller’s discretion). The difficulty may be reduced for mitigating factors: -1 in the case of the target obscuring his eyes slightly (such as closing her eyes or wearing dark sunglasses) up to a -3 for the eyes being completely un- seen (such as with a thick blindfold or having her eyes torn out). Ultimately, however, it is up to the Storyteller to decide whether eye contact is established in a particular case.
Rank 1 - Command
The vampire locks eyes with the subject and speaks a one-word command, which the subject must be obey instantly. The order must be clear and straightforward: run, agree, fall, yawn, jump, laugh, surrender, stop, scream, follow. If the command is at all confusing or ambiguous, the subject may respond slowly or perform the task poorly. The subject cannot be ordered to do something directly harmful to herself, so a command like “die” is ineffective.
The command may be included in a sentence, there- by concealing the power’s use from others. This ef- fort at subtlety still requires the Kindred to make eye contact at the proper moment and stress the key word slightly. An alert bystander — or even the victim — may notice the emphasis. Still, unless she’s conversant with supernatural powers, the individual is likely to attribute the utterance and the subsequent action to bizarre coincidence.
System:
The player rolls Manipulation + Intimida- tion (difficulty equals the target’s current Willpower points). More successes force the subject to act with greater vigor or for a longer duration (continue run- ning for a number of turns, go off on a laughing jag, scream uncontrollably).
Remember, too, that being commanded to against one’s Nature confounds the use of this power. Being told to “sleep!” in a dangerous situation or “attack!” in police custody may not have the desired effect, or indeed, any effect at all.
Rank 2 - Mesmerize
With this power, a vampire can verbally implant a false thought or hypnotic suggestion in the subject’s subconscious mind. Both Kindred and target must be free from distraction, since Mesmerize requires intense concentration and precise wording to be effective. The vampire may activate the imposed thought immediate- ly or establish a stimulus that will trigger it later. The victim must be able to understand the vampire, though the two need to maintain eye contact only as long as it takes to implant the idea.
Mesmerize allows for anything from simple, precise directives (handing over an item) to complex, highly involved ones (taking notes of someone’s habits and relaying that information at an appointed time). It is not useful for planting illusions or false memories (such as seeing a rabbit or believing yourself to be on fire). A subject can have only one suggestion implanted at any time.
System:
The player rolls Manipulation + Leader- ship (difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower points). The number of successes determines how well the suggestion takes hold in the victim’s subconscious. If the vampire scores one or two successes, the subject cannot be forced to do anything that seems strange to her (she might walk outside, but is unlikely to steal a car). At three or four successes, the command is effec- tive unless following it endangers the subject. At five successes or greater, the vampire can implant nearly any sort of command.
No matter how strong the Kindred’s will, his com- mand cannot force the subject to harm herself directly or defy her innate Nature. So, while a vampire who scored five successes could make a 98-pound weakling attack a 300-pound bouncer, he could not make the mortal shoot herself in the head.
If a vampire tries to Mesmerize a subject before the target fulfills a previously implanted directive, com- pare the successes rolled to those gained during the im- planting of the first suggestion. Whichever roll had the greater number of successes is the command that now governs in the target’s behavior; the other suggestion is wiped clean. If the successes rolled are equal, the newer command supplants the old one.
Rank 3 - The Forgetful Mind
After capturing the subject’s gaze, the vampire delves into the subject’s memories, stealing or re-creating them at his whim. The Forgetful Mind does not allow for telepathic contact; the Kindred operates much like a hypnotist, asking directed questions and drawing out answers from the subject. The degree of memory altera- tion depends on what the vampire desires. He may al- ter the subject’s mind only slightly (quite effective for eliminating memories of the victim meeting or even being fed upon by the vampire) or utterly undo the vic- tim’s memories of her past.
The degree of detail used has a direct bearing on how strongly the new memories take hold, since the vic- tim’s subconscious mind resists the alteration. A sim- plistic or incomplete false memory (“You went to the movies last night”) crumbles much more quickly than does one with more attention to detail (“You thought about texting your girlfriend while you were in line at the new movie theater, but you knew you’d have to turn your phone off once you got inside. You liked the movie well enough, but the plot seemed weak. You were tired after it ended, so you went home, watched a little late-night television, and went to bed.”).
Even in its simplest applications, The Forgetful Mind requires tremendous skill and finesse. It’s a relatively simple matter to rifle through a victim’s psyche and rip out the memories of the previous night without know- ing what the subject did that evening. Doing so leaves a gap in the victim’s mind, however — a hole that can give rise to further problems down the road. The Kin- dred may describe new memories, but these recollec- tions seldom have the same degree of realism that the subject’s original thoughts held.
As such, this power isn’t always completely effective. The victim may remember being bitten, but believe it to be an animal attack. Greater memories may return in pieces as dreams, or through sensory triggers like a familiar odor or spoken phrase. Even so, months or years may pass before the subject regains enough of her lost memories to make sense of the fragments. A vampire can also sense when a subject’s memories were altered through use of this power, and even restore them, as a hypnotist draws forth suppressed thoughts.
System:
The player states what sorts of alteration he wants to perform, then rolls Wits + Subterfuge (dif- ficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower points). Any success pacifies the victim for the amount of time it takes the vampire to perform the verbal alteration, provided the vampire does not act aggressively toward her. The table below indicates the degree of modifica- tion possible to the subject’s memory. If the successes rolled don’t allow for the extent of change the charac- ter desired, the Storyteller reduces the resulting impact on the victim’s mind.
| Successes | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 success | May remove a single memory; lasts one day. |
| 2 successes | May remove, but not alter, memory permanently. |
| 3 successes | May make slight changes to memory. |
| 4 successes | May alter or remove entire scene from subject’s memory. |
| 5 successes | May reconstruct entire periods of subject’s life. |
To restore removed memories or sense false ones in a subject, the character’s Dominate rating must be equal to or higher than that of the vampire who made the alteration. In that situation, the player must make a Wits + Empathy roll (difficulty equal to the origi- nal vampire’s permanent Willpower rating) and score more successes than his predecessor did. However, the Kindred cannot use The Forgetful Mind to restore his own memories if they were stolen in such a way.
Rank 4 - Conditioning
Through sustained manipulation, the vampire can make a subject more pliant to the Kindred’s will. Over time, the victim becomes increasingly susceptible to the vampire’s influence while simultaneously growing more resistant to the corrupting efforts of other Kin- dred. Gaining complete control over a subject’s mind is no small task, taking weeks or even months to ac- complish.
Kindred often fill their retainers’ heads with subtle whispers and veiled urges, thereby ensuring these mor- tals’ loyalty. Yet vampires must pay a high price for the minds they ensnare. Servants Dominated in this way lose much of their passion and individuality. They follow the vampire’s orders quite literally, seldom tak- ing initiative or showing any imagination. In the end, such retainers become like automatons or the walking dead.
System:
The player rolls Charisma + Leadership (dif- ficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower points) once per scene. Conditioning is an extended action, for which the Storyteller secretly determines the number of successes required. It typically requires between five and 10 times the subject’s Self-Control/Instinct rat- ing. Targets with more empathic Natures may require a lower number of successes, while those with willful Natures require a higher total. Only through roleplay- ing may a character discern whether his subject is con- ditioned successfully.
A target may become more tractable even before becoming fully conditioned. Once the vampire accu- mulates half the required number of successes, the Sto- ryteller may apply a lower difficulty to the vampire’s subsequent uses of Dominate. After being conditioned, the target falls so far under the vampire’s influence that the Kindred need not make eye contact or even be present to retain absolute control. The subject does ex- actly as she is told (including taking actions that would injure herself), as long as her master can communicate with her verbally. No command roll is necessary un- less the subject is totally isolated from the vampire’s presence (in a different room, over the phone). Even if a command roll fails, the target will still likely carry out part of the orders given, simply because her master wishes it.
After the subject is fully conditioned, other Kindred find her more difficult to Dominate. Such conditioning raises others’ difficulties by two (to a maximum of 10).
It is possible, though difficult, to shake Condition- ing. The subject must be separated entirely from the vampire to whom she was in thrall. This period of separation varies depending on the individual, but the Storyteller may set it at six months, less a number of weeks equal to the subject’s permanent Willpower rating (so a person with 5 Willpower must stay away from the vampire for just under five months). The subject regains her personality slowly during this time, though she may still lapse into brief spells of listless- ness, despair, or even anger. If the vampire encounters the target before that time passes, a single successful Charisma + Leadership roll (difficulty of the target’s current Willpower points) on the part of the vampire completely reasserts the dominance.
If the subject makes it through the time period with- out intervention by her master, the target regains her former individuality. Even so, the vampire may rees- tablish conditioning more easily than the first time, since the subject is now predisposed to falling under the Kindred’s mental control. New attempts require half the total number of successes than the last bout of conditioning did (which means the subject reaches the threshold for reduced difficulties sooner, as well).
Rank 5 - Possesion
At this level of Dominate, the force of the Kindred’s psyche is such that it can utterly supplant the mind of a mortal subject. Speaking isn’t required, but the vam- pire must capture the victim’s gaze. During the psychic struggle, the contestants’ eyes are locked on one an- other.
Once the Kindred overwhelms the subject’s mind, the vampire moves his consciousness into the victim’s body and controls it as easily as he uses his own. The mortal falls into a mental fugue while under possession. She is aware of events only in a distorted, dreamlike fashion. In turn, the vampire’s mind focuses entirely on controlling his mortal subject. His own body lies in a torpid state, defenseless against any actions made toward it.
Vampires cannot possess one another in this fashion, as even the weakest Kindred’s mind is strong enough to resist such straightforward mental dominance. Only through a blood bond can one vampire control another to this degree. Supernatural creatures also cannot be possessed in this way, although ghouls that have drunk from the vampire using Possession can.
System:
The vampire must completely strip away the target’s Willpower prior to possessing her. The player spends a Willpower point, then rolls Charisma + In- timidation, while the subject rolls his Willpower in a resisted action (difficulty 7 for each). For each success the vampire obtains over the victim’s total, the target loses a point of temporary Willpower. Only if the at- tacker botches can the subject escape her fate, since this makes the target immune to any further Dominate attempts by that vampire for the rest of the story.
Once the target loses all her temporary Willpower, her mind is open. The vampire rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty 7) to determine how fully he assumes control of the mortal shell. Similar to the Ani- malism power Subsume the Spirit, multiple successes allow the character to utilize some mental Disciplines, noted on the chart below. (Vampires possessing ghouls can use the physical Disciplines the ghoul possesses, but not the mental ones.)
| Successes | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 success | Cannot use Disciplines |
| 2 successes | Can use Auspex and other sensory powers |
| 3 successes | Can also use Presence and other powers of emotional manipulation |
| 4 successes | Can also use Dementation, Dominate, and other powers of mental manipulation |
| 5 successes | Can also use Chimerstry, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, and other mystical powers |
The character may travel as far from his body as he is physically able while possessing the mortal. The vam- pire may also venture out during the day in the mortal form. However, the vampire’s own body must be awake to do so, requiring a successful roll to remain awake (see p. 262). If the vampire leaves the mortal shell (by choice, if his body falls asleep, through supernatural ex- pulsion, after sustaining significant injury, etc.), his con- sciousness returns to his physical form in an instant. Once freed from possession, the mortal regains men- tal control of herself. This can happen in an instant, or the victim may lie comatose for days while her psyche copes with the violation.
The vampire experiences everything the mortal body feels during possession, from pleasure to pain. In fact, any damage the victim’s body sustains is also applied to the character’s body (though the Kindred may soak as normal). If the mortal dies before the vampire’s soul can flee from the body, the character’s body falls into torpor. Presumably this is in sympathetic response to the massive trauma of death, though some Kindred be- lieve that the vampire’s soul is cast adrift during this time and must find its way back to the body.
The Kindred can remain in the mortal’s body even if his own torpid form is destroyed, though such a pathetic creature is not likely to exist for long. At each sunrise, the vampire must roll Courage (difficulty 8) or be ex- pelled from the body. If forced from the mortal body, the vampire tumbles into the astral plane, his soul perma- nently lost in the spirit world. A vampire trapped in a mortal body may not be “re-Embraced.” If the Embrace occurs to such a creature, he simply meets Final Death.