Vampires like to act as if they are individualists who care only for themselves. After all, if you appear to care for nothing, what would your enemies be able to attack? However, many vampires desire meaning and companionship just as mortals do. Connections with other vampires and mortals keep them rooted in humanity and give them something to care about in an otherwise difficult and tragic existence. Unlife has to be more than chasing the next sip of blood, lest the vampire find themselves falling to their Beast.
Ultimately, vampires are social creatures who want to survive and thrive. Whether due to base concerns like seeking safety in numbers, a Camarilla coterie wanting to curry favor with their local Courte, or an Anarch group chasing a high ideal like overthrowing the same Camarilla Court, vampires frequently band together in small, like-minded groups. Within the Camarilla, these groups are most often called coteries. Members of the Anarch Movement refer to these groups as gangs. Even in the vicious Sabbat, vampires seek strength in numbers, gathering together in packs. (For the remainder of this section any references to coteries refer also to gangs.)
While social companionship and mutual assistance provide security, coteries and gangs tend to have a theme underpinning their association. What do they do? What are their motivations? How do they make their way through the night? Having a good theme or purpose not only allows you to make roleplaying hooks within the coterie, but it provides other players and the Storyteller an easy way to understand your group’s objectives and get them involved in stories. There are as many concepts for coteries and gangs as there are vampires to make them, but here are some examples of coterie concepts:
● Blood Cult: A crew that entices mortals to worship them and turns them into pawns. ● Champions: A group who identify as advocates and warriors for a cause. ● Cleaners: A van-full of investigators and forensic specialists who cover up Masquerade breaches.
● Commandos: An elite unit of soldiers who carry out missions for their sect.
● Lorehounds: Knowledge-chasers who will go wherever they must to learn the truth. ● Nomads: A gang of travelers burning up the interstate from domain to domain, either on the run or sowing chaos in their wake. Not infrequently both.
● Socialites: A gaggle of courtiers striving to become prominent in fashion and politics. ● Sommeliers: A coterie specializing in capturing mortals with the perfect Blood for their clients.
Members of Coteries and Gangs work together as a team, at least in theory, often sharing resources and surviving in close proximity to each other in a specific domain of their city. The following set of rules allows players to create a Coterie or Gang which gives the contributing characters certain benefits. A character may only benefit from one coterie at a time.
Territory
The core aspect of all coteries is the territory they exist in, a physical area of the city that members hunt and hide their havens within. In cities with a Camarilla authority, a coterie’s territory is granted by the Prince. In cities with an Anarch authority, territory is usually referred to as turf and is claimed by a gang.
Territory is described by three Background traits called Comfort, Connections, and Deterrents. A coterie has a free pool of dots equal to two times the number of characters within it. These dots are used only to purchase Territory traits. As characters come and go, this free pool of dots may change. Additional Territory traits may be purchased for 3 XP, just like any other Background.
If a character leaves a coterie for any reason, other members lose access to any Territory traits the departing character purchased with XP. The departing character can freely recover these at the rate of one dot per month. Once regained, she can add them to a new coterie. The free dots a departing character provided are lost until a new coterie member joins.
Coterie members must agree on all purchases and losses collectively, with a simple majority solving any disputes.
Comfort
Comfort describes how healthy a Territory is. This includes the health and well-being of the mortals and how easy it is to feed upon them. The number of dots of a Territory’s Comfort also abstractly dictates the relative size of the Territory. Every coterie begins with one free dot of Comfort. Coterie members hunting during a game within a Territory with one dot of Comfort, making Hunting challenges at difficulty 6. For each dot of Comfort beyond the first reduce the difficulty of Hunting challenges by one. A Territory is limited to purchasing five dots of Comfort.
Dots in Comfort need not always translate to huge sprawling Territories. The primary purpose of Comfort is the ease of feeding within that Territory. Consult the following table as a general guideline for the normal geographic size of a healthy Territory. Exceptions to this table exist. A coterie could choose a large abandoned part of the city mostly devoid of human population with a Comfort of one. Conversely, a coterie could choose a massive urban high rise with connected commercial shops that sits in a relatively small footprint with a Comfort value of five.
| Comfort Geographical Equivalent |
| ● One city block or small gated community |
| ●● Two to four blocks, which can include a medium-sized park and one small site such as a mall or hospital |
| ●●● Eight blocks, which can include a major thoroughfare and a medium site such as an airport, casino, or small community college |
| ●●●● An entire neighborhood or district (usually up to one kilometer depending on urban density); this includes a number of major streets and thoroughfares and a major site such as a university or amusement park |
| ●●●●● Three connected neighborhoods or the equivalent that house multiple large sites such as major parks, campuses, and commercial centers |
Connections
Connections are a group of traits that represent how well a coterie has integrated with the mortal population of their Territory. When purchasing Connections for your coterie, you must choose a Sphere of Influence. You may purchase up to three dots of Connections, once each, for every Sphere of Influence. For each dot of Connections, all coterie members get +1 to any mundane pools
(excluding Hunting challenges) to interact with the mortals in that Sphere of Influence as long as they are within coterie Territory. This bonus also applies if a character is employing personal Backgrounds to accomplish tasks within coterie Territory.
Example: The Silver Ghosts coterie has ●● Connections (Transportation). Any member of the coterie has a +2 bonus when interacting with mortals that are part of the Transportation Sphere of Influence. This bonus could be used to convince a cab driver to tail someone or smuggle something out of the coterie territory.
Deterrents
Deterrents are a group of traits that represent how secure the mortal population of their Territory is from outside influence. Each dot of Deterrents must be focused on one of the Spheres of Influence. You may purchase up to 3 dots of Deterrents for every Sphere of Influence. For each dot of Deterrents all non-coterie characters get -1 to any mundane pools (excluding Hunting) to interact with the mortals in that Sphere of Influence within the Territory. This penalty also applies if a character is employing Backgrounds versus the environment (See page XX). Deterrents never add to a coterie member’s pools, instead acting as an increased difficulty when other characters are operating inside a Territory. Any coterie member can allow any other character to ignore their Deterrent traits at any time by notifying their Storyteller.
Example: The Silver Ghosts coterie has ●● Deterrents (Transportation). Any character not part of the Silver Ghosts coterie has a +2 difficulty when interacting with mortals that are part of the Transportation Sphere of Influence within the Silver Ghosts Territory. Alexi Barragan, a fugitive from the city’s authority, is trying to get out of the city. He tries to convince the Port Authority to allow him to stow away aboard a commercial ship. Normally the Storyteller would make this a difficulty 6 test since Alexi has no I.D. and no cash. Since Alexi is not part of the Silver Ghosts, his difficulty is now 8.
Coterie Backgrounds
Any member of a coterie may designate her Mortal Connections as shared. Any Mortal Connections she has shared are available to use by any other member of the coterie. A coterie member can only share Allies, Contacts, Haven, Herd, and Resources. To share Mortal Connections, she removes them from her sheet and records them on the coterie sheet. When sharing Mortal Connections, you must share any attached Advantages and Disadvantages. Alternatively, any character may purchase the aforementioned list of Mortal Connections specifically for the coterie or to add to any already shared Mortal Connections.
If a character leaves a coterie for any reason, other members of the coterie lose access to shared Mortal Connections and they return to the character sheet of the departing character, including any she bought after joining the coterie. Mortal Connections purchased directly for the coterie by the leaving character are removed from the shared Mortal Connections and are similarly recorded on the character sheet of the departing character.
A coterie may only purchase or share a maximum of three dots of Herd and three dots of Resources, and they may only benefit or be penalized by an individual Advantage or Disadvantage attached to Herd or Resources once.
Example: Tiffany has decided to share her Resources with the Street Sweepers coterie. On her character sheet she erases her ●● Resources. On the Street Sweepers coterie sheet she records ●● Resources (Shared from Tiffany). Stephen decides that he wants to increase the coterie’s Resources and spends 3 XP to buy a 3rd dot. The coterie now has ●●● Resources (Two shared from Tiffany, one purchased by Stephen). If Tiffany were to leave the coterie, the coterie’s Resources would reduce to only one dot on the coterie sheet and Tiffany would again record ●● Resources on her own character sheet.
When characters declare their Mortal Connections as shared, they are added together up to a maximum of three dots.
Example: The Street Sweepers coterie has only one dot of resources after Tiffany leaves. Luckily Maxamillian joins the coterie and has one dot of Resources on his sheet. He decides to share this with the coterie. The coterie now has ●● Resources, not two instances of ● Resources.
Coterie Merits and Flaws
Just like an individual character, a coterie may take dots of Disadvantages and get equal dots of Advantages (up to five free dots). The Storyteller is the final arbiter of what Disadvantages and Advantages can be purchased and or shared with a coterie.
