By uttering the phrase “Forget!” the user can make the Dominated victim forget the current moment as well as the last few minutes, enough to mask a superficial feeding or a chance meeting. No new memories are formed and if pressed the victim realizes they have a few minutes missing.
Cost: Free
Dice Pools: Charisma + Dominate vs Wits + Resolve
System: No roll is required against an unprepared mortal victim. Clouding the memory of a resisting victim or another vampire requires a Charisma + Dominate vs Wits + Resolve roll.
Duration: Indefinitely
With eye contact, the vampire can issue the victim a single-action command, no longer than a short sentence, to be obeyed to the letter. It must be possible to complete the command in a single turn. The Storyteller decides whether to interpret ambiguous commands in an unexpected or unfavorable way; alternatively, the command simply confuses the victim and fails.
Cost: Free
Dice Pools: Charisma + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve
System: No roll is required against an unprepared mortal victim. Commanding a resisting victim, a victim the vampire has previously Dominated in the same scene, or another vampire requires a contest of Charisma + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve. Commands that go against the victim’s nature also require such a contest.
Duration: No more than a single scene
The vampire can issue complex commands to a victim, as long as they have the subject’s gaze and relative quiet in which to issue instructions. The instructions must be carried out immediately to the victim’s best ability, and must not contain any conditional actions (“...if you see Henry, give him the document”), as this would require the victim to exercise cognition.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pools: Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve
System: No roll is required against an unprepared mortal victim. Commanding a resisting victim or another vampire requires a contest of Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve. Commands that go against the victim’s nature also require such a contest.
Duration: Until the command is carried out or the scene ends, whichever comes first.
Amalgam: Obfuscate 2
This subtle power requires nothing more than casual conversation, as the vampire’s insidious influence hides between the lines and inflections employed. The victim finds themselves increasingly agitated as their inner demons bubble to the surface, eventually drowning out all rhyme and reason.
Cost: One Rouse Check per scene
Dice Pools: Manipulation + Dominate vs Composure + Intelligence
System: After engaging in conversation with a victim, the user can activate this power. For the duration of the scene, the user may attack a single individual each turn in a Manipulation + Dominate vs Composure + Intelligence conflict, causing Superficial damage to Willpower. A mortal who becomes Impaired by this power experiences a nervous breakdown or psychotic break, the shape and nature of which depends on their personality (and perhaps their blood Resonance). A vampire that becomes Impaired by this power must immediately succumb to a Compulsion, as chosen by the power’s user.
If the user wants to affect multiple victims, they need to make a separate Rouse Check for each one.
Duration: One scene
The vampire can rewrite whole swathes of the victim’s memories, as long as they can keep the victim’s gaze and full, uninterrupted attention. The vampire verbally describes the victim’s new memories, which the victim then accepts as their own. This power does not allow the user to investigate the victim’s true memories; it more resembles blindly painting over the old canvas.
Cost: One Rouse Check
Dice Pools: Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve
System: The user rolls a contest of Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve. Each point of margin allows the user to add or remove an additional memory. The victim recalls the edits vaguely, foggy ideations that can fall apart under close questioning. A critical win creates a flawless imprint, as real as any true memory.
Duration: Indefinitely
When using Mesmerize, the vampire can now implant a post-hypnotic suggestion, allowing the command to remain dormant until a specific stimulus occurs. This trigger can be anything from a specific date, to a person (“When you meet Roland, tell him these words”), to hearing a specific phrase. The Submerged Directive never expires; people can conceivably walk around with an order buried in their mind for years. The user can only embed one suggestion per victim.
Cost: No additional cost
System: As Mesmerize, though the Storyteller might want to make any rolls in secret. There’s no way of knowing if the sub- merged suggestion works until the conditions are met.
Duration: Passive
The vampire’s victims now believe that anything they do under the influence of Dominate was a result of their own free will, and defend their actions, however absurd. Long-term exposure to this power can lead to severe mental trauma in the victim.
Cost: No additional cost
System: If pressed on their belief, the victim can make a Wits + Awareness test (Difficulty 5). A win makes them question their own statement, and possibly their sanity.
Duration: Indefinitely
The vampire can now command entire gatherings of mortals, and in some cases even groups of vampires. The vampire can use this power both to issue instructions and to manipulate memories.
Cost: One Rouse Check in ad- dition to the cost of the power amplified
System: The vampire can amplify any of their other powers to affect a group of people, mortal or vampire, at once. All of the victims need to see the eyes of the user. The user makes any needed roll against the strongest opponent in the group.
Duration: As per power amplified
No longer hampered by the self-preservation instincts of their victims, the vampire can now issue commands that directly lead to the harm or death of the victim. Mortals can be made to blow their brains out, jump from rooftops, or swallow poison. Vampires can, with a bit of effort, be made to walk into fire or sunlight.
Cost: No additional Hunger cost, but the Humanity cost is potentially severe
System: Terminal commands now must be resisted (see individual powers regarding rolls involved), rather than failing automatically.
Duration: Passive