Beginner quickstart
A fast, practical overview. Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition is a modern gothic horror tabletop roleplaying game where you play as a Kindred—a vampire struggling to maintain their humanity while navigating the complex politics of the Camarilla. Set in a dark reflection of our world, VTM5e combines personal horror with political intrigue, as players balance their Beast against their fading Humanity.
You describe actions, the table uses the system’s core resolution mechanic when the outcome is uncertain, and the GM applies outcomes to keep the story moving.
VTM V5 uses d10 dice pools: roll Attribute + Skill, count successes on 6+, and watch for criticals on 10s. Hunger dice add personal-horror volatility (messy criticals and bestial failures).
You roll a critical that includes Hunger dice. You succeed, but it’s messy: you win in a way that reveals the Beast and creates a story complication.
If you keep pushing Disciplines without managing Hunger, your future rolls get more volatile. ‘How do we feed safely?’ becomes a core scene type.
The seven Camarilla clans are: Brujah (rebels and revolutionaries), Gangrel (survivors and shapeshifters), Malkavian (prophets touched by madness), Nosferatu (spies who are hideously deformed), Toreador (artists and socialites), Tremere (blood sorcerers and scholars), and Ventrue (leaders and blue bloods). Each clan has three in-clan Disciplines and a unique Bane.
Predator Types define how your vampire hunts and feeds. Each type grants specific skill bonuses—for example, Alleycat grants a bonus to Brawl, while Siren grants bonuses to Performance and Persuasion. Predator Types also affect your starting Disciplines and provide roleplay hooks for your character's hunting style. There are 10 Predator Types to choose from.
Hunger replaces traditional health in V5. You track Hunger dice (0-5) that replace regular dice in your pool. When Hunger dice show 10s, you get messy criticals (successful but violent). When they show 1s, you get bestial failures (failures that reveal your Beast). Hunger increases when you use Disciplines or go too long without feeding.
Disciplines are vampiric powers that cost Rouse Checks (risk of Hunger) to use. Each Discipline has 5 levels. In-clan Disciplines (your clan's natural powers) cost less XP to learn than out-of-clan Disciplines. You start with one dot in each of your clan's three Disciplines, plus additional dots from your Predator Type.
Humanity measures how much of your human morality you've retained. It starts at 7 and decreases when you commit immoral acts or fail to resist your Beast. Low Humanity makes you more vulnerable to frenzy and losing control. You can regain Humanity through acts of compassion and maintaining connections to your mortal life.