Vampire: The Masquerade – Milan Uprising Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Glossary
• Approaches
• Encounters
• Game Phases
• Group Encounters
• Haven
• Influence
• Location Actions
• Location Bonuses
• Location Control
• Masquerade
• Movement
• Suspicion
• Ability Check
• Group Check
• Rouse Check
• Special Results
• Allies & Ghouls
• Cubes & Tokens
• Map Icons
• NPCs
• Coterie Objectives
• Currencies
• Reputation
• Action Points
• Boons
• Disciplines
• Hunger
• Nightly Compulsions
• Organization Requests
• Personal Objectives
• Stats
• Mystical Milan
• Prospero's Legacy
• The Unending Dream

Glossary

Anarch Movement: A vampire sect that opposes the tyranny of elders and has placed itself outside the secret society of the Camarilla.

Beast: The urges that threaten to turn a vampire into a mindless, ravening monster.

Baron: The Anarch Movement's equivalent of a Prince.

Camarilla: A sect of vampires devoted primarily to maintaining the Traditions, particularly that of the Masquerade.

Clan: A group of vampires who share common characteristics passed on through the Blood.

Coterie: A small group of Kindred, united by the need for support and sometimes common interests.

Diablerie: The consumption of another Kindred's Blood, to the point of the victim's final death.

Disciplines: Powers obtained from the Embrace, specific to a certain Clan.

Domain: The area of a particular vampire's influence.

Elder: A vampire who has experienced at least two or more centuries of unlife.

Embrace: The act of transforming a mortal into a vampire. The Embrace requires the vampire to drain her victim and then replace that victim's blood with a bit of her own.

Final Death: When a vampire ceases to exist, crossing the line from undeath into true death.

Generation: The number of "steps" between a vampire and the mythical Caine.

Ghoul: A minion created by giving a bit of vampiric vitae to a mortal without draining them of blood first.

Hand of St. Ambrose: The most active vampire hunters agency in Milan.

Haven: A vampire's "home" or base; where they find sanctuary from the sun.

Hunger: The urge to feed. For vampires, the Hunger replaces all other drives with its own powerful call.

Kindred: The Camarilla term for vampires as a whole, or a single vampire.

Kine / Mortal: Human being without supernatural powers.

Masquerade: The habit (or Tradition) of hiding the existence of vampires from humanity.

Neonate: A young Kindred, recently Embraced.

Prince: A vampire who has claimed a given expanse of domain as their own, generally a city, and supports that claim against all others.

Retainer: A human who serves a vampiric master.

Sheriff: A vampire selected by the Prince and Primogen Council who enforces the Traditions within the Prince's Domain, as well as the edicts of the Prince.

Second Inquisition: A collective name among vampires for the recent coordinated efforts of intelligence agencies to combat the Kindred as if they were a terrorist threat.

Sire: A vampire's begetter; the Kindred who created them.

Vitae: The Blood of a vampire.

Approaches

When an Encounter is chosen, various Approaches to solve it are displayed.

Some Approaches, indicated with the group icon, will trigger a Group Check.

Encounters

The Investigate action reveals up to 3 Encounters of the Location.

Each Encounter has a type and a title.

All types are listed below:

• Main: Related to the Chronicle.
• Personal: Related to the characters' background.
• Uprising: Necessary to take control of a Location.
• Resources: Give Resources and, sometimes, Reputation as reward.
• Ally/Ghoul: Necessary to gain new Allies or Ghouls.
• Hunt: Useful to reduce the Hunger.
• Masquerade: Necessary to prevent a Masquerade reduction.
• Enemy Faction: Necessary to remove enemy Influence cubes.

Game Phases

The phases of the game are:

• Hour: The round, where each character performs a turn.
• Night Phase: Consists of 3 Hours.
• City Phase: At the end of the 1st and 2nd Hours, the Camarilla performs its actions.
• Sunrise Phase: Characters return to the haven and spend their XP.
• Day Phase: The Hand of St. Ambrose performs its actions.
• Sunset Phase: Players can place Allies and Ghouls on the map.

Group Encounters

Some Encounters, indicated with the group icon, can be very difficult if confronted alone.

In Group Encounters, a participation confirmation is asked to all other characters with enough AP to join the active character.

Characters without enough AP can spend a Willpower to add the missing AP.

Haven

During the start of the Sunrise Phase, the active character must be placed in one of the haven rooms.

Then, the player must choose one of the available actions, which are also displayed on the physical map.

Rooms can be upgraded (or purchased) by spending Resources.

When an enemy Faction controls the haven Location and has at least an Influence cube, your haven is considered compromised.

Characters inside the haven Location cannot leave it until all cubes are removed.

Influence

Cubes represent the Faction influence.

There can be a max of 3 cubes of a single Faction inside a Location.

Anarch Influence cubes are crucial to take and keep control of Locations.

Location Actions

When you move inside a Location, all the available actions are displayed on your Controller device.

Actions have a cost in AP. The Investigate action also ends your turn after its resolution.

Location Bonuses

Completing an Uprising Encounter allows you to flip the Location Bonus, represented by a small tile inserted into the board.

As long as a Location is under your control, a special action will be available inside it.

All Location Bonuses and their special actions are listed below:

• Haven: The starting point of each Night. No special action.
• Herd: Reduce your Hunger by 2, but can't be reduced to 0. Available once per Night.
• Income: Gain 2 Resources. Available once per Night.
• Media Office: Pay 1 Resources to reduce Suspicion by 1 or 10 Resources to increase Masquerade by 1. Available once per Night.
• Possible Haven: Pay 5 Resources to move your Haven in this Location.
• Secret Bar: Buy Blood for 2 Resources or sell Blood for 4 Resources. Available once per Night.
• Underground: Move to any other Location.

Location Control

A Location can be controlled in 2 different ways:

• Uprising Encounter: After solving all 3 steps of the Uprising Encounter of the Location.
• Control Action: When the Uprising Encounter of a Location has been already solved, this is the only way to regain control of it.

To take control of a Location, a Group Check is always triggered, where active players roll dice based on the indicated Attribute.

The number of automatic successes is equal to the number of Anarch Influence cubes in the Location.

Masquerade

The Masquerade is the habit of hiding the existence of vampires from humanity.

When the Suspicion reaches 4, a Masquerade Encounter appears on the map.

If you fail to solve this Encounter by the end of the current Night, the Masquerade decreases by 1.

When the Masquerade becomes zero, it's game over and you can reload the game from the beginning of the current Night.

The lower the Masquerade, the greater the number of enemy Influence cubes placed on the map.

Movement

Characters can be moved to adjacent districts, called Locations, using 1 AP.

If you want to move to a distant Location, you must move one Location at a time.

Suspicion

When you draw too much attention from mortals, the Suspicion increases.

When it reaches 4, a Masquerade Encounter appears on the map.

If you fail to solve this Encounter by the end of the current Night, the Masquerade decreases by 1.

The greater the Suspicion, the greater the number of enemy Influence cubes placed on the map.

Ability Check

During an Ability Check, the Attribute determines the amount of dice to roll - e.g. with 3 dots in Social you roll 3 dice.

The Skill determines the number of automatic successes.

Total successes must be higher than or equal to the Difficulty to succeed.

Before rolling the dice, you can add 1 automatic success by spending 1 Resource.

You can also use the indicated Discipline to add automatic successes equal to half the Discipline dots, rounded up.

Group Check

Some Approaches, indicated with the group icon, will trigger a Group Check.

During a Group Check, active players roll dice based on the indicated Attribute.

Automatic successes follow special rules - e.g. Anarch Influence cubes are counted to control a Location.

Rouse Check

Disciplines trigger a Rouse Check: you roll a die and if you fail, Hunger increases by 1.

Even if you fail, automatic successes are added, equal to half the Discipline dots rounded up.

Special Results

When an Ability Check is failed, a special symbol on a red die leads to a Bestial Failure: the character's Hunger increases by 1.

When an Ability Check is successful, a pair involving a red die leads to a Messy Critical: the Suspicion increases by 1.

When the difficulty of a dice roll is exceeded by at least 2 successes, a Critical Success happens: rewards are usually better - e.g. you can gain more Resources or add/remove more Influence cubes.

Allies & Ghouls

During the Sunset Phase, you can place any number of available Allies/Ghouls on the map, but only one per Location.

Allies are free to use, but have a cooldown.

Ghouls have a cost in Hunger, but no cooldown.

Each Ally/Ghoul gives a unique bonus in his Location and adjacent ones.

The status of your Allies and Ghouls can be seen in the Coterie section.

Cubes & Tokens

• Influence cubes: Influence of a Faction inside a Location.
• Control tokens / miniatures: Faction that controls a Location.
• NPC tokens: Non-player character. You can find special actions inside its Location.
• Masquerade token: Used to track the position of a Masquerade Encounter.
• Investigation tokens: Can be used to track multi-step Encounters.

Map Icons

To facilitate the city navigation, each Location has an icon at its center, representing one or more Attributes, the most common in the Encounters of that Location.

NPCs

Non-player characters (NPCs) can act during the City Phase and you can interact with them through special actions.

Each NPC has behaviors and dialogues that are both useful for story purposes and to facilitate the control of the city.

Coterie Objectives

There are 4 types of coterie objectives:

• Next Events: Encounters that automatically start at the indicated time.
• Main Story: Crucial to advance on the Chronicle and receive plenty of XP or Reputation.
• Uprising: Next steps of the Uprising Encounters.
• Allies & Ghouls: Allies/Ghouls stories.

Currencies

There are 3 different currencies in the game:

• Resources: Represent money, valuable goods and contacts. They are the main currency. They are mainly gained by solving Resources Encounters and by using the Income Location Bonus action.
• Camarilla Advantage (Max 1): Represents intel about the Camarilla. It can be used during interactions with them. It's mainly gained by taking control of Camarilla Locations.
• St. Ambrose Advantage (Max 1): Same as above, but about the Hand of St. Ambrose.

Reputation

Reputation can be gained by completing certain objectives and Resources Encounters.

It's critical to unlock the Uprising Encounters of Locations controlled by the Organizations.

Each level of Reputation also changes the behaviour of the relative NPCs:

• Anarch Leaders: The higher it is, the more likely they are to move around and add Anarch Influence cubes.
• Camarilla Leaders: If it's positive, they can help you remove enemy Influence cubes. If it's negative, they place Camarilla Influence cubes.

Action Points

During your character's turn, you have 3 Action Points (AP) to perform actions.

Spending 1 Willpower grants an additional AP.

Boons

By solving Organization Requests, you will gain Boons.

Boons indicate the Organizations' support towards each of you. Its amount must be kept secret.

The amount of Boons you have individually, will change the outcome of the Chronicle.

Boons are displayed in the Personal section.

Disciplines

The amount of dots on a Discipline determines the following effects:

• 1 dot: +1 Automatic Success, if activated during an Ability Check.
• 2 dots: Discipline Power gained.
• 3 dots: +2 Automatic Successes, if activated during an Ability Check.
• 4 dots: Discipline Power AP cost reduced by 1.
• 5 dots: +3 Automatic Successes, if activated during an Ability Check.

Discipline Powers are actions with unique effects, different for each character.

The activation of a Discipline triggers a Rouse Check.

Hunger

When a character takes damage or use Disciplines, their Hunger can increase.

The Hunger represents the drive to feed on blood.

During Ability Checks, the Hunger determines the number of dice that can't be rerolled using Willpower.

When your Hunger is 5, you'll not be able to use Disciplines or actions with a Hunger cost.

At the end of an Encounter, if Hunger exceeded 5, the Suspicion increases by 2, the character is moved to the haven Location and the Hunger is reduced to zero.

Nightly Compulsions

Nightly Compulsions are secret personal objectives received at the start of each Night.

If completed, you gain 2 Willpower and 2 XP.

Organization Requests

Organization Requests are secret personal objectives received after interacting with an Organization.

If completed, you gain 1 Boon, that represent your personal relevance through the Milan Kindred society.

Personal Objectives

There are 3 types of personal objectives:

• Nightly Compulsions: Received at the start of each Night. Reward: 2 Willpower, 2 XP.
• Organization Requests: Received after interacting with an Organization or a Leader. Reward: 1 Boon.
• Personal Story: They show you where to find your Personal Encounters. Reward: Willpower, XP.

Stats

• Attributes: Rolled dice during Ability and Group Checks.
• Skills: Automatic successes during Ability Checks.
• Disciplines: Vampire powers. See relative chapter.
• Willpower: Used to grant an additional AP during a character's turn and to reroll one black die during an Ability Check. The maximum value is equal to half the sum of the Attributes, rounded down.
• Hunger: Determines the number of red dice you roll during Ability Checks. See relative chapter.
• XP: Can be spent to increase the Attribute, Skill and Discipline values during the Sunrise Phase.
• Boons: Organizations' support towards a character. See relative chapter.

Mystical Milan

• Each character has an Amulet special action, which will help you to find a codex part.
• The Military Helicopter NPC places cubes and, if you enter its Location, it always triggers a St. Ambrose Encounter, avoidable with a St. Ambrose Advantage.
• The Hand of St. Ambrose is very aggressive: at the end of each Night, the Masquerade is reduced by 1.

Prospero's Legacy

• New Faction: Sabbat.
• The Sabbat acts during the City Phase.
• Every 3 cubes on the map, a random Location with a cube is controlled by the Sabbat.
• At the end of each Night, for every 2 Sabbat control miniature, the Suspicion increases by 1.
• If the Sabbat needs to place the 7th control miniature, it's game over.

The Unending Dream

• New Faction: Cult of Nephilim.
• The Cult of Nephilim acts during the City Phase.
• This Faction has no control tokens.
• The Cult Fanatic NPCs place cubes until they are defeated.
• If the Cult of Nephilim needs to place the 11th cube, it's game over.