Aeons’ Languor (severe): Only Kindred who have succumbed to torpor (voluntarily or involuntarily) can have this derangement. Emerging from the deepest slumber, Kindred awaken with a varying degree of hesitance and fear of return trips to torpor. Those who have this derangement possess a completely defeatist attitude regarding their possible return to torpor. Not only do they accept the eventuality of their return, but they expect it to happen at any time. When presented with a situation that threatens such a state, the Kindred finds it difficult to resist or fight back. Similarly, he finds little cause to emerge from torpor when an outside stimulus begins to awaken him.
If a vampire is confronted with a situation that could result in entering or emerging from torpor, apply a -3 penalty on any rolls to resist or confront that stimulus. This translates into having difficulty feeding when he is starving, rolls to awaken from torpor, and even participating in a particularly lethal fight. In the event of possibly lethal combat, the vampire does not suffer this penalty until he has taken more points of lethal damage than he has Willpower dots. A similar -3 penalty is applied to rolls made for feeding when the vampire is hungry (when he has no more than four Vitae in his system). Finally, periodic Resolve + Composure rolls may need to be made as the vampire resists urges to prepare his associates, holdings and himself for his eventual return to torpor.

Animalistic Dependency (mild or severe): Your character feels isolated, vulnerable and alone when not in the presence of animals. Kindred and kine are untrustworthy, two-faced and wicked. Animals are honest and dependable.
While, in most cases, your character is able to make do with her discomfort provided she is not too far removed from wild creatures, when frightened, pressured, or imperiled, she seeks out or summons the reassuring presence of mundane animals just for her own peace of mind.
This derangement most often manifests in the minds of Kindred who practice the Discipline of Animalism, though no particular level of ability in that Discipline is necessary to open the door to this disorder. A Kindred with the power to summon animals may be more likely to recover from her discomfort, but the anxiety does not wait for the Kindred to gain that power before it deranges her.
Mild Effect: In any scene set in an environment where your character cannot expect to see or hear wild animals (even squirrels or birds), roll Resolve + Composure to avoid a bout of anxiety. If the roll fails, the character suffers a -1 penalty to all dice pools for the remainder of the scene. Not actually seeing a wild animal isn’t enough to trigger the mild effect of this derangement; if the character can see a patch of ground or sky where animals would be able to reach her, should she call for them, that’s usually enough to ward off anxiety. GM discretion should dictate what environments are problematic for the character.
Severe Effect: The mild effects apply, as above, but in addition your character feels trapped whenever she is uncertain if her calls to nearby animals will be heard. It’s not enough to simply see sky or ground, at this level of derangement – the character cannot function unless she knows that some form of animal life can hear her. If the player fails the Resolve + Composure roll to overcome the character’s anxiety, the character must spend one Vitae and activate the Call of the Wild power (Animalism •••), just to get a sense of how well she can be heard by nearby animals. If the dice pool to activate the power is penalized by the Storyteller due to the nature of the physical environment (sealed windows, secure foundations, etc.), that same penalty affects all the character’s dice pools for the scene if she fails to summon any animals (or if the summoned animals fail to reach her).

Anxiety (severe): As Inferiority Complex, but your character’s general anxiety plagues things so badly that she suffers a –2 penalty on all draws for the remainder of the scene, and Willpower points cannot be spent to bolster any draws in that period.

Aphasia (severe; extreme; follows Vocalization): There are some Kindred who are so shattered by an explosion of the unthinking Beast that they never really seem to return to their fully rational selves. Driven over the threshold of madness by degeneration or torment, they lose the capacity to understand and form speech, seeming more the mute animal than the thinking man. Rising from torpor, frenzy or torture into uncomprehending psychosis, they wander through a world of gibberish, unable to draw meaning from anything they hear.
This is a purely psychological derangement. The vampire can still hear everything that is being said and has all of the physical faculty necessary to form words, but just doesn’t understand what comes in and seems to have no control over what comes out. His speech is reduced to meaningless babble or clicks and smacks.
This is a horrifying derangement, especially for Kindred who tend to rely on their wit and charm for survival. Frustration and resulting frenzy always threaten a vampire who suffers from Aphasia, arising whenever he is forced to acknowledge that he can no longer comport himself normally in social situations.
Effect: The vampire is unable to communicate via speech. A Wits + Empathy roll must be made to get the basic emotional gist of conversational dialog, and cannot be undertaken at all if the speaker is not visible. He cannot speak intelligibly, and must resort to sign language, written text or telepathy to get his meaning across. The expenditure of a Willpower point allows the vampire to comprehend and form speech for one scene, but he descends back into his sorry state within minutes or hours, at the Storyteller’s discretion.

Avoidance (mild): When confronted with a situation or person associated with a previous, significant failure or trauma (a long-term rival, an ex-wife, the house in which one suffered a painful childhood), your character prefers not to face the situation and might do everything he can to avoid it. Draw Resolve + Composure for him to master his nervousness.
Effect: On a failed draw, your character does everything in his power to avoid the situation, short of harming himself or others. He might escape the scene or disguise himself as a bystander to sidle away. If he must confront (or can’t escape) the situation, any draws made suffer a –1 penalty.

Blood Fascination (mild): Your character is overwhelmed by an unnatural fixation with blood. Beyond the act of drinking Vitae, she finds herself drawn to the sight, smell and sensation of fresh blood in small quantities. She might choose to cut herself on occasion, just to watch the seeping wound, or she has a habit of ordering extremely rare steaks just to smell them. This fascination goes beyond the blood addiction that most ghouls suffer. While an addicted ghoul consumes blood at any opportunity, a fascinated one holds on to keepsakes such as vials of blood, soiled bandages or color photographs of crime scenes. Whenever your character encounters a quantity of blood, roll Resolve + Composure. If the roll fails, she’s compelled to take a “souvenir.” If she goes for a period equal to her Composure in days without encountering blood or images of blood, another Resolve + Composure roll is required. If it fails, she searches for more.

Bulimia (severe; follows Fixation): People with this neurosis try to drown their anxiety through activities that comfort them, especially food. Doing so leads to a binge-and-purge cycle. The bulimic stuffs himself to relieve stress, then self-disgust at his own gluttony drives him to vomit out what he’s eaten. The bulimic soon seeks to feed again, though, and the cycle repeats.
Vampires face a special temptation toward bulimia because feeding is the strongest physical pleasure left to them. A bulimic vampire relieves his fear and guilt by gorging himself on blood, perhaps feeding several times a night and burning the Vitae as fast as he can. The character can augment his traits for frenetic activity or wound himself as a form of punishment, then heal the wounds so that other Kindred won’t see his weakness and self-loathing. At severe levels, the vampire might even will himself to expunge Vitae by vomiting — no small feat and a noteworthy act of will, since vampires don’t store blood in their stomachs.
Effect: A bulimic vampire becomes hungry more easily than other Kindred and has a harder time resisting the urge to feed. Whenever the character feeds, the player must succeed at a Resolve + Composure draw or the vampire feeds until full, whether or not he really needs the extra Vitae. Additionally, the character must use that Vitae frequently. The player must spend at least one Vitae per scene for the character until the character rests for the day, even if circumstances wouldn’t otherwise warrant it. A player may, for example, devote Vitae to Strength for a turn in which no Strength draw is necessary, or spend a Vitae to heal a single point of bashing damage even though Vitae normally heals two points of bashing damage. A bulimic character also suffers an automatic -2 penalty to resist hunger frenzies. Forcibly preventing the character from drinking his fill might provoke a rage frenzy (no modifier to difficulty).

Cataplexy (severe): Your character has so much trouble resting that her body is beginning to fail her.
Whenever the aforementioned sleep roll fails, the character suffers from bouts of overwhelming feebleness throughout the following day. Any circumstance resulting in an intense emotional reaction such as laughter, anger or fear requires a Stamina + Composure roll. (The ghoul may use Vitae for a +2 bonus on this roll as usual.) Failure means that the character slumps to the ground, paralyzed with weakness for a full turn even though she remains fully conscious.

Compulsive-Aggressive Disorder (severe; follows Suspicion): When every night is a struggle for survival, some nomads find it only practical to treat everything and everyone as a threat — to shoot first and ask questions later, if at all. A vampire with this derangement, a variation of Paranoia, is constantly aggressive, reacting to every social overture as a potential precursor to an attack.
Effect: The character uses Intimidation in every social encounter rather than other Social Skills like Expression or Persuasion, and suffers a –2 penalty to rolls for resisting anger frenzies.

Degenerative Fixation (mild): Your ghoul character becomes acutely aware of his unchanging state with the passage of time and begins to obsess over his appearance. He wonders constantly how he would look if allowed to age naturally, and he often searches himself for signs that the Vitae is beginning to fail him. Every time the character encounters an image such as a mirror or photograph of himself, roll Resolve + Composure. Failure indicates that the character is convinced that the signs of encroaching age are visible and must beg his regnant for more Vitae at the first opportunity.

Delusional Mania (mild or severe): This derangement sometimes strikes Kindred who have experienced (and survived) traumatizing events while using the Discipline of Resilience, even if that Discipline isn’t why the character survived. If your character suffers from this disorder, he imagines himself to be much tougher than he actually is. When your character first suffers lethal or aggravated damage in a scene, reflexively roll Stamina + Composure. This dice pool is penalized by the nature of the damage dealt: –3 for bashing, –2 for lethal, –1 to aggravated. (The amount of damage suffered does not affect the dice pool.) If the roll succeeds, the character keeps his head about him.
Mild Effect: If the roll fails, the character is unable to appreciate just how serious his injury is. Instead, he convinces himself that he’s better off pushing through any pain and presenting a strong front. For the rest of the scene, the character cannot Dodge unless you spend a Willpower point.
Severe Effect: If the roll fails, the character is unable to appreciate the seriousness of his injury and feels practically invulnerable to harm. The character cannot Dodge or voluntarily stop the action causing harm (e.g., he continues fighting or holds on to a speeding car) unless you spend a Willpower point.

Delusional Obsession (severe; follows Irrationality): This derangement can emerge because of centuries of torpid dreams, or simply a strong desire for the world to be the way a character wants. Delusional obsession consists of a fanatical belief in something that just isn’t true. Lots of people hold beliefs that other people find absurd, of course, but a delusional obsessive structures his life or unlife on them. Classic examples include the survivalist holed up in a cabin with canned beans and a shotgun, the street-corner preacher ranting that “The end is near,” and the dotty old lady with a hundred cats. Nearly any hobby, belief or interest can seem dangerously crazed when it takes over a character’s existence. Delusional obsession might be dismissed as fanaticism, but it is even more extreme.
Effect: A Willpower point must be spent to resist whenever an opportunity arises to act in accordance with the character’s obsession, or whenever he must act in direct opposition to his obsession. For instance, a gardening fanatic might have to expend Willpower to stay out of a florist’s shop. A Kindred who believes that every instance of a crescent or lunar reference indicates Lupine activity might need to expend a Willpower point to step into an Islamic cultural center or to stay in the same room as someone named Moon.

Denial (severe): Your character not only represses the memories that trouble her but has constructed a potentially elaborate scenario to replace them and grows hostile if someone tries to persuade her otherwise. Whenever someone tries to educate the character as to the truth of what happens, the character’s player rolls Resolve + Composure. If the roll succeeds, the character’s delusion remains intact, and the character becomes irate and refuses to discuss the matter. If the roll fails, her internal commitment to the safety of the delusion weakens a bit, and she is at least willing to listen.

Dependent-Personality Disorder (severe; follows Irrationality): This emotional derangement most often afflicts ghouls or blood-bound Kindred. The character becomes utterly dependent on his regnant or domitor. He resists making even the most trivial decision for himself. This disorder might arise from fear of abandonment (especially strong in the case of ghouls who know that sudden aging or death awaits them if they lose their supply of Vitae). It might also grow from an exaggerated fear of displeasing a harsh or demanding master.
Effect: If a character has this derangement, the player does not include Resolve in contested test pools when the domitor attempts to Dominate him (although Blood Potency still applies). Indeed, the character often follows up on any statement that might be construed as a request for the character to do something.

Depression (mild): If your character fails to achieve a goal (not just fails a draw, but fails to accomplish some personal, desired end such as getting a job or saving a friend’s life), he might go into a bout of depression for the remainder of the scene. A failure that occurs in any activity might also bring on a bout of depression. Regardless of the circumstances, make a reflexive Resolve + Composure draw.
Effect: If the draw fails, your character loses one Willpower point and cannot spend any Willpower points for the remainder of the scene.

Diogenes Syndrome (severe; follows Inferiority Complex): In Kindred, this derangement often follows a traumatic loss of Humanity. The vampire begins to see herself as something less than human, and either makes a conscious decision to stop grooming herself normally or simply forgets to bother, satisfying the subconscious urge to chastise the self. She stops changing her clothes, makes no attempt to bathe or comb her hair and doesn’t bother cleaning spilled blood from her face after feeding. She makes no attempt to clean up her haven, and will readily sleep in filth. She ignores vermin that infest her clothes or hair, and although she may be shamed by the disgust of onlookers, she rarely acknowledges the real reason for their reaction.
Worse, vampires suffering from this derangement often fail to heal wounds in their waking hours, bearing them as if unawares and waiting for them to heal in the day’s sleep.
Effect: The character suffers a –3 dice penalty on all Social Ability rolls (except Intimidation and Disciplines) because of her filthy, disheveled state. A Willpower point must be expended if the character attempts to clean herself in any way or pay attention to her injuries. Even crippling pain will fail to compel her to heal herself unless she makes this expenditure. She will, however, expend Vitae to heal her wounds while she sleeps.

Divination Obsession (severe): This is really a sub-type of the Obsessive Compulsion derangement (see The World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 98). The character feels the urge at least once a night to perform some sort of divination. He could read tea leaves, or examine a newspaper horoscope page, or read the Tarot, or get a divination from a 70s mass-market paperback capitalizing on Mayan prophecies. He might perform the Sortes Virgilianae, which is where you take a significant book – a copy of Virgil, or the Bible, or Shakespeare, or Milton, or the Bhagavad Gita, or the Qu’ran, or anything else – and open it on a random page, point at a random sentence and take that as a divination. He could shave the head of his ghoul and perform a phrenological analysis of the imperfections in her scalp. He might even find a cat and disembowel it, reading his future from the spatters its guts make on the floor. Players are encouraged to find interesting ways to read the future.
In game terms, it might be helpful for the Storyteller to have some divinations prepared; perhaps having a collection of clipped newspaper horoscopes for this very purpose. Divination methods and sample divinations appear throughout this book.
Essentially, if given the opportunity to act on the divination (to do what it says) in any way, the character will. For example, if the divination says that a fair-haired stranger will bring good luck, the character may put his total trust and confidence in the first blond he meets, even if she turns out to be working for the enemy, and refuse to believe that she is bad news. If the player considers following the divination to be stupid, or dangerous, the player must roll Resolve + Composure with a -2 penalty to avoid doing what the divination says. If the roll fails, the character has no choice but to act on the divination, and will follow the literal word of the divination as closely as possible.

Erythema (mild): This derangement emerges because of a vampire’s subconscious wish to deny the truth of her undead state. Without willing it, she spends Vitae to bring warmth and color to her skin whenever in the company of others, draining herself in an effort to maintain the façade of life. Even conscious attempts to prevent the expenditure fail; there is a part of the vampire that is simply broken, forcing her to present the illusion whether she likes it or not.
Vampires suffering from Erythema are often subjected to the derision of their contemporaries, either because they seem to be desperate to pretend that they are still alive or because they are unable to control their own expenditures of Vitae. They also suffer an increased need to feed, since they spend so much blood fueling their pitiful masquerade.
Effect: The vampire automatically spends a point of Vitae to counterfeit life (see p. 51) whenever she
is in the company of others. Attempts to prevent this expenditure requires a successful Resolve + Composure roll. This roll carries a –2 dice penalty if the encounter with others is unexpected, and an additional –1 if there are more than three people present at the encounter (in addition to the vampire).

Fetishism (mild): Your character formulates an irrational, pleasurable association with an object or
situation, usually as the direct result of his regnant’s proclivities. To fully enjoy himself, so to speak, he
needs to duplicate the situation or be in the presence of the object. This can lead to some truly bizarre
behavior, often triggering a cycle of gratification and guilt that’s extremely difficult to break. If your character experiences something that reminds him of the event or object he’s chosen, roll Resolve
+ Composure. If the roll fails, your character focuses on re-creating the situation or coming in contact with the object in question. For example, a ghoul who fetishizes his regnant’s habit of having him lick
her leather boots might experience a compulsion to press his face to the boots of a woman he sees walking by on the street if he finds her attractive.

Fixation (mild): If your character fails or succeeds at an important action such as leaping between buildings or making a getaway in a sports car, he might fixate on his loss or victory. Draw Resolve + Composure after such an event for him to avoid this unhealthy obsession.
Effect: If your Resolve + Composure draw fails, draw a single card. The result is the number of scenes in which your character is focused on the offending or inspiring event or task, to the possible exclusion of more important goals. He fixates on what he believes caused him to lose or win his goal, whether it’s an opponent, a broken shoelace or the model of car driven. In the case of a defeat, he cannot help but simmer in anger, cursing a circumstance or trying to devise a method of circumventing it in the future. In the case of a victory, he becomes a fanatic, spending much of his time researching, observing or acclaiming an activity or factor that allowed him to succeed.
The Storyteller rules on how this derangement affects your character’s test pools and behavior. It might cause him a –1 on any task not related to his fixation, or he might refuse to engage in an activity if it doesn’t somehow tie into his obsession. Since this derangement is potentially active for many scenes, rather than one, its effects should be mild but persistent.

Fugue (severe; extreme): Victims suffering from fugue experience “blackouts” and loss of memory. When subjected to a particular variety of stress, your character performs a specific, rigid set of behaviors to remove the stressful symptoms. This syndrome differs from multiple personalities in that an individual in the grip of a fugue has no separate personality. Instead, he is on a form of “autopilot” similar to sleepwalking. Decide on the kind of circumstance or exposure that triggers this state, be it the death of a defenseless person by his hand, a confrontation with a specific sort of creature or confinement in asmall, dark room.
Effect: Make a Resolve + Composure draw when your character is subjected to his trigger. If the draw fails, roleplay your character’s trance-like state by performing a sequence of behaviors that he performs almost robotically. He might repetitively untie and tie his shoes, walk to the corner of the room and refuse to come out, or curl into the fetal position. If the Storyteller is not satisfied by your character’s reaction, he give you a mechanical behavior to perform for the duration of the bout. The spell lasts for the remainder of the scene. At the end of the fugue, your character “regains consciousness” with no memory of his actions. If outsiders (including friends and enemies) interfere with or try to prevent your character’s mechanical activities, he may attack them for as long as it takes to get them to go away so he can carry on with his actions.

Grandiose Delusion (mild): Your character fixates on her favorite territory, occupation or subject, feeling an inflated sense of knowledge and influence in relation to it. She will believe that she knows best in all cases related to the matter of choice, and will begin to guard the object of fixation jealously, working to ensure that nobody else can “interfere.” Whenever your character encounters an individual who is attempting to exert influence in the matter (and isn’t already in her service), roll Resolve + Composure to keep her from responding aggressively.
On a failed roll, your character must immediately answer the perceived threat with an attempt to exclude the interloper. The attempt can take any form that seems appropriate to her — bribery, intimidation, coercion — whatever she thinks will work. For the remainder of the scene, this attempt must be the character’s first priority, even if there are more pressing matters at hand.

Hemophilic Compulsion (severe): Your character’s no longer satisfied with the keepsakes of just any blood. She must draw it fresh from a victim herself. Whether it comes from injuring an opponent in combat, cutting a masochistic lover or a more heinous assault, the character must find a way to satisfy this urge with alarming frequency. Every time a number of days equal to your character’s Composure passes, you must roll Resolve + Composure. A failure indicates that the character must go out immediately with intent to wound a victim and save a quantity of his blood.

Hypnagogic Hallucination (mild): The character suffers hallucinations while in the state between waking and sleeping. Just before going to sleep, the character might see one or several dark shapes standing around, a shadowy hag, dark insects on the walls or some other “presence.” The hallucinations are often accompanied by sleep paralysis, discomfiting sounds (such as wind rushing in one’s ears or a high pitched mechanical whine) or the feeling that something is squatting on the character’s chest and thus inhibiting his ability to breathe properly.
The hallucinations seem to occur following days (or nights, if a vampire) that were particularly stressful. The Storyteller may request a Resolve + Composure roll before going to sleep. Failing the roll results in the pre-sleep hallucinations.
Effect: Experiencing the hallucinations leaves any character, even one of the Kindred, feeling oddly fatigued the following day or night. The character can suffer a –1 penalty to all Mental rolls during that day, or can instead spend a Willpower point to ignore that penalty.

Hysteria (severe): This condition operates as a phobia, but on a failed Resolve + Composure draw your character cannot be in the same room with the object of her fear. She must run away from it immediately, and cannot tolerate being within sensory range (sight, sound, smell) of it. If the trigger comes within sensory range, she must run away at full Running Speed as soon as she can take an action. She cannot target it for an attack under any circumstance. If it touches her, make another Resolve + Composure draw for her to not freak out and run as far away as she can, thinking of nothing else until she’s left the subject far behind. (Even if this draw succeeds, your character must still leave the room or area.) If your character is unable to escape, she faints and loses consciousness for the remainder of the scene. If your character is unaware of the object’s proximity until it touches her, your Resolve + Composure draw suffers a –3 penalty. If it touches her where she can’t see it but she can feel it — a spider dropping on her neck or in her hair — the penalty is –5.

Identity Erasure (severe): Your character becomes irrationally afraid of the mystical mechanism that keeps him young, worrying that the slightest reminder of his actual age could tip the balance and cause it to fail. As a result, he works to eliminate any evidence of his true identity, including documents, photographs, friends and relatives. Whenever your character encounters evidence of his mortal life (including a person who knew him), you must roll Resolve + Composure. A success on this roll means that your character can suppress the urge to destroy the evidence. Failure means he must attempt to erase it immediately.

Inferiority Complex (mild): Whenever your character is subjected to a stressful situation in which the result of a single choice or draw can determine success or failure, she might be overcome with such self-doubt that she threatens the outcome. She might need to tell a convincing lie to get out of a dangerous situation, or cut a wire to disable a bomb. Draw your character’s Resolve + Composure for her to remain composed.
Effect: If your draw fails, the weight of the momentous choice is too much for your character and she is flustered, doubting her ability to choose correctly or to perform adequately. Once in this state, any draws made for the remainder of the scene — including the momentous act itself — suffer a –1 penalty. In addition, a Willpower point cannot be spent on the singular draw that inspires her bout of inferiority.

Insomnia (mild): Your character has trouble getting the required amount of sleep, and not just occasionally. It happens more often than not and leaves her feeling tired, irritable and unable to concentrate. Any time the character is engaged in a stressful situation (Storyteller discretion), roll Resolve + Composure. Failure means that your character is unable to sleep properly and suffers a –2 penalty on all rolls the following day. Each day thereafter is considered “stressful” and requires a similar roll until the character succeeds and gets a full night’s or day’s rest.

Intermetamorphosis (severe; follows Irrationality): Kindred Intermetamorphosis arises almost exclusively after long periods spent in torpor. The vampire suffering this derangement confuses the identities of mortals and Kindred he has known over the ages, often swapping those that he knew in life (or before his bout of torpor) with those who greet him in the modern world. For example, a vampire arising from a 400-year torpor might mistake his neonate grandchilde for his long-destroyed sire, or a living woman for his centuries-passed mortal wife. Most who observe this derangement in action believe it is caused by the vampire’s overpowering nostalgia for nights (and days) long gone, working in conjunction with the befuddlement prevalent in those arising from decades or centuries of torpor.
These Kindred may or may not be aware that the people they are dealing with cannot possibly be who they seem, but they cannot deny the identification. They feel as if the target of their derangement is actually someone else, even if it doesn’t make any sense. Some construct elaborate systems of belief to explain the phenomenon, ascribing it to reincarnation, telepathic body-swapping, miraculous “second chances” or more bizarre occult phenomena. They will not accept evidence to the contrary, and may even attempt to “save” a contemporary who denies “the truth.”
The mistaken identity will influence and supersede a vampire’s opinion of the modern subject. If the vampire believes that a neonate female is really his former lover, he will not accept acts of aggression at face value, always attempting to explain it in terms of his “real” relationship to her. If he can’t dismiss her actions out of hand, he will assume that she is acting against her will or is somehow unaware of his identity.
Effect: The character suffering from Intermetamorphosis will instantly draw associations between modern individuals and those from long past based on the flimsiest of similarities. Hair color, certain mannerisms, tone of voice or even gender could be enough to set off the Kindred’s derangement. Once a mortal or vampire is associated with a figure from the sufferer’s past, nothing (short of the actual interference of the figure in question) will convince him otherwise. He may spend Willpower to shake off the delusion for one scene, but must operate under its influence at all other times.

Irrational Defiance (severe; follows Irrationality): Your character feels trapped by his superiors and may lash out when he feels persecuted, accused or smothered. This disorder causes your character to feel personally threatened (see Irrationality in the World of Darkness Rulebook) by seemingly harmless instructions and orders given by people with authority over him, especially when the deeper reasons behind such instructions aren’t revealed. Roll Resolve + Composure to keep his cool.
Severe Effect: If the roll fails, your character undermines his own attempts to carry out the action instructed or ordered, no matter how innocuous or even beneficial it really is. For the rest of the scene, your character suffers a –5 penalty on dice pools for actions that contribute to the fulfillment of the order or instruction. How this manifests through your character’s behavior depends on the nature of his derangement. In the style of Irrationality, your character may fume and overreact, complaining loudly the whole time. On the other hand, your character may passive-aggressively acquiesce, and then seethe and procrastinate, before finally delivering only half-hearted work.

Irrationality (mild): Whenever your character is threatened with violence or suffers extreme tension by being persecuted, challenged or accused, she might react without logic or reason. Draw her Resolve + Composure to keep her cool.
The persecution, challenge or accusation needs to bear some realistic threat to your character’s wellbeing, whether related to finances, emotional security or social standing. A hobo threatening to sue is no real threat, but a rich executive who says he’s going to ruin your character qualifies as a threat. Likewise, a society-page gossipmonger who threatens to expose your character’s faults is a threat if your character relies on that crowd for social acceptance, but not if he is a bicycle messenger who’s never been inside a penthouse.
Effect: On a failed draw, your character’s only way to comfortably deal with confrontation is to act crazy or over the top, in wild hopes that she will scare away her oppressor or at least mitigate her own fears. This behavior persists for the remainder of the scene. Ironically, she takes dangerous risks that might harm her worse than the actual threat posed. If a bouncer demands to know what your character is doing in an off-limits part of a club, she might overreact and get in his face. Make a Wits + Composure draw for her to be able to take any action that removes her from the scene or that directly diffuses the situation (such as accepting a hand offered in a conciliatory handshake). The truly ironic part about this behavior is that during such a bout, your character cannot initiate violence, only respond to it if it occurs. She can threaten or cajole challengers, but can’t take the first swing. (That, in fact, is what her crazed behavior tries to avoid.)

Magical Ideation (mild): The character finds patterns all around him, the signs of some greater plan or
intelligence guiding his steps. Whether through song lyrics, advertisements in magazines, lines in films, the state of the weather, the character is sure that these environmental flashes are messages of some sort meant for him. At least once a scene, the player must roll Resolve + Composure. If that roll fails, the character has to perform some action that reflects his obsession with patterns. Perhaps the character starts to explain to his companions the coincidental arrangement of stations on the London Underground, or stops to take an omen from the movement of birds in the sky. Maybe music is playing in the background, and the character pauses and listens to the secret message hidden in the song (like Frances did with a song by Nico on p. 17). Perhaps the character whispers a nursery rhyme, or has to stop and examine the arrangement of cutlery on a dinner table, reading them as if the arrangement of knives and forks and spoons has some higher significance, and some sort of message within it.

Manic-Depression (severe; follows Depression): Severe mood swings characterize this derangement. It occurs in two forms, one psychological and one a defect in brain chemistry. The psychological form is a modified form of hysteria. The victim can swing from an enthusiastic, confident, even ecstatic state to lethargy and despair. The mood swings can happen any time, but any success can push the manic-depressive into exaltation, and any failure can plunge the person into depression.
The second form of manic-depression is an organic disorder. It follows a regular cycle that can range from hours to weeks. The manic phase begins with an excess of energy and confidence, then proceeds to a sort of ecstatic frenzy as the person’s mind races faster and faster. Eventually the person calms down and then slides into a depression as lethargic as the manic phase was energetic. This form of manic-depression can mimic the effects of schizophrenia, and lead to a near-suicidal state.
Effect: Whichever form of the ailment your character has, whenever he fails a task, the Storyteller may secretly draw his Resolve. A failure means the character lapses into depression for the rest of the scene. The character also goes into depression whenever the player makes a failure on a chance draw, or the character has less than two Vitae.
While depressed, the character loses half his Willpower points (rounding fractions down), to a minimum of 1. A depressed vampire cannot expend Vitae to gain bonuses for Physical tasks, either.
Each scene thereafter, the Storyteller draws once. On a draw of 8, 9 or 10, the character throws off the depression and becomes upbeat, energetic and obsessively active for as many scenes as he was depressed. He regains the Willpower points he lost before, and all draws to resist frenzy suffer a -1 penalty.

Masochism (severe): Your character is no longer satisfied with the presence of the object or duplication of the situation. He must now be hurt by it in order to enjoy himself. The effects of fetishism apply, but the character must also suffer an amount of bashing damage at least equal to his Stamina during the compulsive activity in order to be satisfied. Without the interference of an outside agent, he won’t stop until the damage is inflicted in full.

Megalomania (severe): The effects of Narcissism apply, except that the penalties intensify by one. Your character is also highly competitive. He cannot allow himself to fail a contest (even a contested draw). If he does, he obsesses about it and works to arrange a rematch when it’s most beneficial for him. If, for example, he fails to pick a lock while an ally succeeds, he doesn’t let it go. He constantly insists that he did the job and that his successor took the glory, and demands that similar efforts be tried again, even under inappropriate circumstances such as at an office or restaurant.
If your character ever loses a contest to someone he feels is socially inferior, he loses one point of Willpower due to shame and self-loathing (which is at the heart of his megalomania; he secretly fears that he’s a fraud).

Melancholia (severe): Severe depression. In addition to the above effects of a failed Resolve + Composure draw, all test pools suffer a –2 penalty for the remainder of the scene.

Memory Obsession (mild or severe): This derangement sometimes affects practitioners of the mind-altering powers of the Ventrue clan. If she suffers from this disorder, your character no longer trusts that her memories are genuine. She suspects that hostile Kindred are rewriting her recollections with Dominate or that her every impulse is actually a missive coded into her psyche by some shadowy Lord. Whenever your character fails a Mental action to recall some detail or scan her own memory, she becomes suspicious and paranoid.
Mild Effect: For the rest of the scene, your character suffers a –2 penalty on all Mental rolls as she struggles to overcome her own self-doubt and wastes time double-checking her instincts and rational thought. “Wait,” the paranoid doctor might say, “I’m trying to think if that’s really how the pulmonary arteries work.”
Severe Effect: At this level of derangement, your character is quite certain that her memory has been altered, either maliciously or as a side-effect of her own usage of Ventrue blood. She suffers a –2 penalty on all actions for the rest of the scene, at least, as she is rattled by doubt and anxiety. This penalty persists into the next scene, as well, until she has gone over her memory sufficiently enough to convince herself that she is not the victim of someone’s Ventrue blood. The process of double-checking her memory requires an extended Intelligence + Composure action, with each roll taking one minute, versus a target number of 10 successes.

Multiple Personality (severe; extreme): The trauma that spawns this derangement fractures your character’s personality into one or more additional personas, allowing her to deny her trauma or any actions the trauma causes by placing the blame on “someone else.” Each personality is created to respond to certain emotional stimuli, and it is extremely rare for a personality to spontaneously appear outside of those circumstances. An abused person might develop a tough-as-nails survivor personality, create a “protector,” or even become a murderer to deny the abuse she suffers. In most cases, none of these personalities is aware of the others, and they come and go through your character’s mind in response to specific situations or conditions. They may not be aware of anything that happens while the others are active, or may be aware of those events but somehow rationalize them as their own, depending on the nature of the syndrome.
You must work with the Storyteller to detail each personality, what causes it to surface and what it believes it is capable of, as well as what triggers if any might cause it to submerge once again. As a rule, each personality believes it is the dominant or “true” one. If somehow made aware of the others, each personality resists being put back under in favor of another personality. Indeed, some personalities that become aware of the original psyche seek to replace it, feeling that it must have been too weak to deserve life if it needed to create them in the first place, and they are better suited or more deserving
to run the character’s life.
Effect: A character with multiple personalities can manifest different Skills or perhaps increased or diminished Social Attributes for each identity (the number of dots allocated to your character’s Social Attributes are rearranged by anywhere from one to three). Note that all Skills and other traits must still be purchased normally if you actually want another personality to display real proficiency in these areas. Otherwise the personality simply believes it is talented, but doesn’t actually know what it’s doing (though it always finds a way to rationalize its lack of ability). It’s also possible for a character to manifest lower than normal traits, particularly for personalities that are victimized or helpless. For example, a character with Firearms 4 who’s separate personality is a younger, abused version of himself might “forget” all of his Firearms dots while that persona is dominant. Such dots are simply lost for the duration of the bout and cannot be reallocated to other traits.

Narcissism (mild): Whenever your character succeeds at a goal (not simply succeeds in a draw, but achieves a desired end such as knocking a challenging opponent unconscious or hacking into a well-protected computer), it might go to his head and pump up his overweening ego. Draw Resolve + Composure to avoid a bout of vanity.
Effect: On a failed draw, your character does not work and play well with others — even if the victory that brings on a bout of narcissism was partly won with their aid. For the remainder of the scene, when called upon to aid in a task your character does so only half-heartedly, unless it’s a task focused on him or his own needs or wants. He suffers a –3 penalty when participating in teamwork efforts (see p. 180). And he’s such a self-obsessed bore that Social draws all suffer a –1 penalty.

Obsessive Compulsion (severe): The trauma, guilt or inner conflict that causes this derangement forces your character to focus nearly all of his attention and energy on a single repetitive behavior or action. Obsession relates to an individual’s desire to control his environment — keeping clean, keeping an area quiet and peaceful, or keeping undesirable individuals out. A compulsion is an action or set of actions that an individual is driven to perform to soothe his anxieties — placing objects in an exact order, constantly checking to make sure a weapon is loaded, praying every few hours to give thanks for surviving that long.
Effect: Determine a set of specific actions or behaviors that your character follows to the exclusion of all else (even if doing so interferes with his current agenda or endangers his life or others’). The effects of obsessive compulsion can be negated for the course of one scene by making a successful Resolve + Composure draw at a –2 penalty. If your character is forcibly prevented from adhering to his derangement, he may lose control among enemies or allies and attack either (or both) indiscriminately.

Paranoia (severe): Your character believes that her misery and insecurity stem from external persecution and hostility. (That would be an accurate assumption in the World of Darkness, if people actually knew of monsters’ existence.) Paranoids obsess over their persecution complexes, often creating vast and intricate conspiracy theories to explain who torments them and why. Anyone or anything perceived to be “one of them” might be subjected to violence.
Effect: A character who suffers from paranoia automatically suffers a –2 penalty on Social draws. The character is distrustful and wary of everyone, even close friends and family. The slightest hint of suspicious behavior is enough to provoke a Resolve + Composure draw to retain control (made at a –2 penalty). A failed draw indicates that your character flees or attacks an offender.

Phobia (mild): Your character is scared of a particular type of person, place or thing such as lawyers, heights or spiders. When that trigger is encountered, a reflexive Resolve + Composure draw must be made successfully or your character suffers a bout of fear.
Effect: Your character moves away from the object of her phobia. If she must be near it, she can tolerate being no closer than her Running Speed. If it approaches her, she must move away at least her Acting Speed in distance in her next action. She cannot easily target the trigger with close combat or ranged attacks. Such attacks suffer a –5 penalty as your character shakes just looking at it. If space or circumstances don’t allow her to maintain her distance, she freezes like a deer in headlights until she finds an opening by which to escape. (Her Defense still applies if attacked and she can choose to dodge and can take cover from Firearms attacks, but she can take no other actions while “frozen.”)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (severe): At some point during the character’s mortal life or undead Requiem, he experienced a horrible trauma, and he’s never quite gotten over it. Often, such trauma is born of war-time violence or brutal assault, but the Embrace itself might qualify. A loud scream or a firecracker exploding nearby, or perhaps even the taste of blood not intentionally ingested, can cause your character to shut down physically and mentally. Roll Resolve + Composure when something triggers this derangement, or your character succumbs to a powerful panic attack, wherein he cannot move except to hide. He suffers a -2 penalty on all rolls for the remainder of the scene as well and Willpower points cannot be spent to bolster any rolls during that period.

Power Fetish Obsession (mild only): Although Kindred value their supernatural powers, their Disciplines and Vitae expenditures remind them of their undead state. Some Kindred project their powers onto an object, so they don’t have to take responsibility for them. Other Kindred develop the “power fetish” delusion as a stronger form of good-luck superstition. Whatever the reason, the character believes she cannot use her supernatural powers without the help of a special object. In folklore, for instance, the Swiss vampire called the Alp became powerless without its hat. A character with this derangement might believe that she cannot use her undead powers without the dress she wore when she was Embraced, her lucky bracelet or some other article.
Effect: Any attempt to use Disciplines or expend Vitae without that object reduces any test pools for an activity by three.

Preferential Obsession (mild or severe): Your character erroneously believes that blood of a certain quality is essential to his wellbeing. He might think that only the blood of virgins (or of successful executives, or of Latinos, or of children, or whatever else) is sufficient for his delicate system. Or perhaps he believes unsuitable blood will soak up his mystic energy and rob him of his vampiric powers. Folkloric wisdom among ancient Ventrue has led some to think they must sup from a series of athletic, intelligent and sexy vessels in a precise sequence, lest the delicate cocktail of Vitae within their undead bodies be thrown out of balance and their Aenead powers be diluted. (“No! It is the second Monday! I must have someone strong of leg or back! Keep her until the Sabbath, when I can drink of the wise.”)
Your character’s feeding restrictions must be defined when this derangement is taken, and cannot be changed unless the derangement is “cured” and then reacquired.
Mild Effect: Your character simply won’t satiate himself with improper Vitae. He will not take more than two Vitae from a vessel who does not meet his particular feeding restriction, even if hungry or starving, unless driven to frenzy.
Severe Effect: Your character’s delusions overpower even his Beast. He cannot satisfy himself from an improper vessel, even if hungry or starving, even in the throes of frenzy. If faced with the dilemma of consuming improper Vitae or suffering frenzy and torpor, your character drinks only if driven to frenzy, and even then he expends one Vitae per minute just to flush the unwelcome blood from his system. (Vitae spent in this way can be used to enhance Physical dice pools, simulate the blush of life, or simply be vomited up, but it cannot be used to activate Disciplines.)

Repression (mild): Your character has blocked out the memory of the event that caused this derangement. She might not remember pulling the trigger and killing that man. She might remember walking into the old house, but have no recollection of the horrors she saw there. In any event, only through intense therapy or memory-altering supernatural powers will she regain those memories. The character is aware that something happened, and is potentially open to discovering what, but cannot call up the memories herself. In addition, if she finds herself in a similar situation, the player must roll Resolve + Composure or else the character blocks out the memory of that scene as well.

Sanguinary Animism (mild only): Only Kindred can suffer from this special derangement. This delusion grows out of a vampire’s fundamental awareness of guilt about feeding on mortals. Kindred with this delusion believe that they take part of victims’ minds or souls along with their blood. For hours after feeding, the Kindred hears a victim’s voice in his head, berating him, begging for mercy or making demands. The vampire even experiences ersatz memories from his victim’s life, all concocted by the vampire’s unconscious mind, but seeming very real. Weak-willed or especially guilt-stricken Kindred might even carry out actions on behalf of their victims. Whenever a sanguinary animist feeds on a mortal, the player makes an Intelligence + Composure draw. If the draw succeeds, the imaginary voice and memories of the victim torment the character for the rest of the night but the character can function adequately. If the draw fails, the images in the character’s mind are so strong that the other personality can influence the vampire’s actions. The angry victim-personality usually means to harm the character, but the vampire might silence the victim’s voice by doing something he imagines the victim would like. If the player cannot roleplay the possessing victim’s personality, control of the character can pass to the Storytelling staff for short times. Control automatically reverts to the vampire just before dawn.
For all the anguish that sanguinary animism causes, it illustrates how derangements work (badly) to relieve guilt and stress. As long as the victim’s voice continues, she isn’t really dead — or so it seems — while the vampire supplies her own punishment.
Effect: Sanguinary animism becomes particularly severe when a vampire kills his vessel. In this case, the Intelligence + Composure draw suffers a -3 penalty. A failure on a chance draw means that the ersatz personality of the victim becomes a permanent fixture in the vampire’s mind. Under stress, the victim’s voice becomes more insistent. The Kindred might distractedly respond aloud to the voices in his head. Further shocks could drive the vampire into multiple-personality disorder, with the Kindred taking on the fantasized personalities of victims. Diablerie is an especially bad idea for sufferers of this derangement!

Schizophrenia (severe; extreme): Conflicting sets of feelings and impulses that cannot be resolved can cause your character to develop schizophrenia, which manifests as a withdrawal from reality, violent changes in behavior and hallucinations. This derangement is the classic sort, causing victims to talk to walls, imagine themselves to be the King of Siam, or to receive murderous instructions from their pets.
Roleplaying this derangement requires careful thought. The Storyteller must determine a general set of behaviors relevant to the trauma that causes the condition. Hallucinations, bizarre behavior and disembodied voices stem from a terrible inner conflict that the individual cannot resolve. Establish a firm idea of what that conflict is and then rationalize what kind of behavior it causes.
Effect: A character with this derangement is unpredictable and dangerous. He automatically suffers a –2 penalty on all Social draws and may be aggressive or violent toward people who confront him with trauma such as accusations, disturbing truths or heated arguments. Make a Resolve + Composure draw for your character to avoid escaping or attacking the source of trauma.

Supernatural Fascination (mild): Your character, usually following a supernatural event, has become convinced that the supernatural influences every facet of life. “The supernatural” here is defined by the character in question. He might become devoted to a particular religion, and see the hand of whatever God he chooses in every aspect of life. He might believe that aliens or secret government masters control everything. In any event, he believes that the world has a secret set of rules and codes that, if he abides by them, he will go to Heaven/have good luck/be safe from harm/etc. At least once a scene, and more often if significant events occur during a scene, the player must roll Resolve + Composure. If that roll fails, the character must perform some action appropriate to his beliefs. He might utter a brief prayer, mumble into his wallet (which he’s sure contains a communication device), line his hat with tinfoil to prevent the aliens from reading his mind and so on. Because this derangement is so pervasive, it shouldn’t cause major disruptions to the character’s life, but its effects are almost constant.

Suspicion (mild): Anytime your character suffers intentional misfortune at the hands of another, he might become extremely suspicious of everyone’s motives toward him. He might crash as a result of being cut off in traffic or receive little help from assistants in a teamwork effort (see p. 180). Draw Resolve + Composure for your character to resist the suspicion compulsion.
“Misfortune” is characterized as failing an important task due to the intentional intervention of another person — even if it’s a friend or ally. Those people whom your character already mistrusts for good reason can still trigger his suspicious nature if they successfully foil his task — everyone then becomes a suspect, plotting to do him wrong. Combat does not necessarily trigger this derangement. A Resolve + Composure draw is made only if combat is the means by which someone intentionally prevents your character from achieving a goal. (Note: A draw for a task might fail and your character chooses to blame someone else, but that doesn’t necessarily trigger this derangement’s effect. Only if someone directly causes him to fail is a draw made to avoid triggering his suspicious nature.)
Effect: Your character’s trust is undermined for the remainder of the scene, regardless of whether or not the person or persons who did him wrong meant any harm. He questions everyone’s sincerity and doubts that anyone tries to help him, even if someone saves his life. He suffers a –1 penalty on all Social draws. Note that, although your character is suspicious, he can still be taken in by con men and hucksters. He gets no special bonus to resist their attempts to sway him even though he suspects them of being as bad as everyone else.

TONGUE OF THE BEAST (Brood Only): The Tongue of the Beast is a type of primal Beast-to-Beast communion that manifests in a vampire’s mind as a derangement. As a mode of communication, the Tongue does not, of course, have a specific vocabulary or grammar all its own. In fact, the Tongue is the very essence of that which opposes rational thought in a linguistic sense, and as such, always comes out as gibberish when vocalized. A vampire with this derangement cannot, therefore, use the Tongue as a means of two-tiered communication, whereby he speaks to another Forsworn in an existing language but is actually transmitting an entirely different message. If a vampire uses a language with structure and syntax, with elements familiar to not only the Man but to other minds not of the Brood, then the vampire cannot use the Tongue simultaneously; his mind simply can’t process doing both at once. If he speaks nonsensically, however — even if his speech uses pieces of existing languages or vocabularies — then the Tongue will convey his true meaning when he is speaking to another Forsworn, so long as could make sense of it.
The upside to the Tongue’s lack of structure is that its meaning and intent can be derived through writing as well as speech, so long as the text conforms to the same restrictions as vocalization. If a Forsworn vampire writes a note to a covey-mate in clear, articulated English, then the message implicit in the text is all that will be conveyed. If, however, he pens the same note using a series of meaningless pictograms, then another Forsworn (who also knows the Tongue) can derive the vampire’s general intent simply by scanning said pictograms. It’s important to note that the Tongue is a primal mode of communication, and thus is ill-suited to longwinded or detail-heavy expressions. If one wishes to convey truly involved or complex ideas, one should probably just speak or write normally.
The Tongue of the Beast is unique among derangements in that this derangement “cures” itself if the vampire ever leaves the Brood entirely (by joining another covenant or actively raising his Humanity rating). After one has abandoned the Pursuit in this fashion, the Tongue slowly recedes from one’s mind and soul, removing all trace of the Tongue’s passing as it goes. Before long, the vampire has little conscious conception that he could even communicate in such a fashion, let alone grasp the how of it.


Vocalization (mild): Whenever your character is stymied by a quandary and must make an important decision about a course of action, or is under extreme stress, she might talk to herself without realizing it. Draw Resolve + Composure to avoid this discomforting habit.
Examples of important decisions include:
Trying to figure out which fork in the road to take so that the guerrillas don’t get to the village first. The wrong choice means arriving precious minutes late and finding innocents killed or kidnapped.
When your character has one bullet but two foes, both of whom prepare to strike lethal blows against two separate friends. Which should be shot?
When the attorney slides a piece of paper with his final offer across the table. Your character has minutes to say “yes” or “no.”
Effect: On a failed draw, your character vocalizes her internal monologue but only realizes she’s doing so if it’s pointed out by others, at which point she can stop for one turn per dot of Wits that she has. After that period, she forgets herself and starts doing it all over again. This behavior persists for the remainder of the scene. Your character vocalizes even if opponents or rivals can hear. It’s hard to keep her thoughts and feelings secret when she speaks them aloud. For example, a rival might demand that she reveal the location of a hidden heirloom. She smirks and thinks to herself (and unwittingly speaks aloud), “You’ll never find it in my hidden wall safe.”

Waking Nightmare (severe): Your character physically awakens and brings his nightmares with him. Upon encountering a specific trigger (agreed upon by player and Storyteller when the character acquires this derangement), the character finds himself facing the creatures or situation from his nightmares. The player must roll Resolve + Composure, with failure indicating that the character is lost in his nightmare vision. He passes out, unconscious, for the remainder of the scene. A dramatic failure is much the same, except that the character doesn’t simply lose consciousness. He begins attacking anything and anyone around him, believing he is fighting off the creatures or enemies from his dreams. During this state, he is fully capable of using whatever abilities and Disciplines he possesses, but he is also susceptible to frenzy or Rötschreck, depending on the events of his dream.

Withdrawal (severe; extreme; follows Irrationality): Some Kindred, overwhelmed by the demands of vampire society and unable to keep up with the complexities of Status, intrigue and predatory warfare, sometimes suffer an overwhelming urge to withdraw completely from the world around them. Severe trauma can lead to the dissolution of rational bounds on this urge, resulting in an absolute abandonment of social interaction and obligation regardless of the detrimental effect on the vampire’s own existence.
Vampires suffering from Withdrawal avoid leaving their havens and interacting with others as much as possible. They do not attend any Elysium events, and they allow all friendships and alliances to wither, never bothering to initiate communication. The Requiem of a vampire in Withdrawal is one of solitary nights spent in silent retreat. Some turn to scholarly pursuits, losing themselves in dusty tomes and occult research, but most just take on idle hobbies, accomplishing little of value and waiting until hunger demands that they strike out in search of blood.
Withdrawal is not a derangement for characters in play. It should be restricted to Storyteller characters only, because Withdrawal isolates the vampire and threatens to destroy all of the work he’s done to establish himself in Kindred society. A player may wish to add Withdrawal to his character’s history, as a cured derangement (or one that awaits him if he drops again to a formerly low Humanity rating) to explain a long absence from Kindred society, but should be aware of its implications if he does so.
Effect: The character must succeed on a Resolve + Composure roll to leave his haven each night. He suffers a –3 dice penalty on all Social Ability rolls (except for resistance on contested ones) because of his extreme unwillingness to speak to others, and his obvious attempts to get away from public dealings as quickly as possible.

Zealotry (severe): Your character has decided that his spiritual or supernatural beliefs are so important than everyone should share them. He proselytizes to everyone he meets, given only a few minutes of conversation. He might ask people if they have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior, or he might simply warn people engaging in “sinful” behavior that they are bound for Hell. He might snap pictures of agents of the government conspiracy and warn other people to “stay away from them.” He might occasionally curse while looking at sky, as though expecting the aliens to arrive any moment. The game system for this derangement works similar to Supernatural Fascination, but the effects are more extreme, as described.

Real Derangements
by: Belladonna A Legacy Article from Sanguinus Curae

Playing derangements can be a tricky business, and there is little guide to be found for acting insane (at least none that can be trusted - who said that?). A well-played derangement can add spice and realism to your portrayals, so here are more than twenty real derangements with their clinical definitions and behavioral symptoms.

Acute Stress Disorder: The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:
· the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others
· the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror
Either while experiencing or after experiencing the distressing event, the individual has three (or more) of the following dissociative symptoms:
· a subjective sense of numbing, detachment, or absence of emotional responsiveness
· a reduction in awareness of his or her surroundings (e.g., "being in a daze")
· derealization
· depersonalization
· dissociative amnesia (i.e., inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma)
The traumatic event is persistently reexperienced in at least one of the following ways: recurrent images, thoughts, dreams, illusions, flashback episodes, or a sense of reliving the experience; or distress on exposure to reminders of the traumatic event.
Marked avoidance of stimuli that arouse recollections of the trauma (e.g., thoughts, feelings, conversations, activities, places, people).
Marked symptoms of anxiety or increased arousal (e.g., difficulty sleeping, irritability, poor concentration, hypervigilance, exaggeratedstartle response, motor restlessness).
The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning or impairs the individual's ability to pursue some necessary task, such as obtaining necessary assistance or mobilizing personal resources by telling family members about the traumatic experience.

Adjustment Disorder: The development of emotional or behavioral symptoms in response to an identifiable stressor(s) occurring within 3 months of the onset of the stressor(s).
These symptoms or behaviors are clinically significant as evidenced by either of the following:
· marked distress that is in excess of what would be expected from exposure to the stressor
· significant impairment in social, occupational or educational functioning

Agoraphobia: Anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult (or embarrassing) or in which help may not be available in the event of having an unexpected or situationally predisposed Panic Attack or panic-like symptoms. Agoraphobic fears typically involve characteristic clusters of situations that include being outside the home alone; being in a crowd or standing in a line; being on a bridge; and traveling in a bus, train, or automobile.
The situations are avoided (e.g., travel is restricted) or else are endured with marked distress or with anxiety about having a Panic Attack or panic-like symptoms, or require the presence of a companion.

Bereavement: A reaction to the death of a loved one. As part of their reaction to the loss, some grieving individuals present with symptoms characteristic of a Major Depressive Episode (e.g., feelings of sadness and associated symptoms such as insomnia, poor appetite, and weight loss). The bereaved individual typically regards the depressed mood as "normal," although the person may seek professional help for relief of associated symptoms such as insomnia or anorexia. The duration and expression of "normal" bereavement vary considerably among different cultural groups. The diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder is generally not given unless the symptoms are still present 2 months after the loss. However, the presence of certain symptoms that are not characteristic of a "normal" grief reaction may be helpful in differentiating bereavement from a Major Depressive Episode. These include 1) guilt about things other than actions taken or not taken by the survivor at the time of the death; 2) thoughts of death other than the survivor feeling that he or she would be better off dead or should have died with the deceased person; 3) morbid preoccupation with worthlessness; 4) marked psychomotor retardation; 5) prolonged and marked functional impairment; and 6) hallucinatory experiences other than thinking that he or she hears the voice of, or transiently sees the image of, the deceased person.

Brief Psychotic Disorder:
Presence of one (or more) of the following symptoms:
· delusions
· hallucinations
· disorganized speech (e.g., frequent derailment or incoherence)
· grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior
Duration of an episode of the disturbance is at least 1 day but less than 1 month, with eventual full return to premorbid level of functioning.

Delusional Disorder: This disorder is characterized by the presence of non-bizarre delusions which have persisted for at least one month. Non-bizarre delusions typically are beliefs of something occurring in a person's life which is not out of the realm of possibility. For example, the person may believe their significant other is cheating on them, that someone close to them is about to die, a friend is really a government agent, etc. All of these situations could be true or possible, but the person suffering from this disorder knows them not to be (e.g., through fact-checking, third-person confirmation, etc.).
People who have this disorder generally don't experience a marked impairment in their daily functioning in a social, occupational or other important setting. Outward behavior is not noticeably bizarre or objectively characterized as out-of-the-ordinary.

Depersonalization Disorder: Persistent or recurrent experiences of feeling detached from, and as if one is an outside observer of, one's mental processes or body (e.g., feeling like one is in a dream).
During the depersonalization experience, reality testing remains intact.
The depersonalization causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Dissociative Amnesia: The predominant disturbance is one or more episodes of inability to recall important personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature, that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.

Dissociative Fugue: The predominant disturbance is sudden, unexpected travel away from home or one's customary place of work, with inability to recall one's past. Confusion about personal identity or assumption of a new identity (partial or complete).

Dissociative Identity Disorder: (Formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder) The presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states (each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and self).
At least two of these identities or personality states recurrently take control of the person's behavior.
Inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness.

Exhibitionism: Recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving the exposure of one's genitals to an unsuspecting stranger.

Fetishism: Recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving the use of nonliving objects (e.g., female undergarments).
The fetish objects are not limited to articles of female clothing used in cross-dressing (as in Transvestic Fetishism) or devices designed for the purpose of tactile genital stimulation (e.g., a vibrator).

Frotteurism: Over a period of at least 6 months, recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving touching and rubbing against a nonconsenting person.

Gender Identity Disorder: A strong and persistent cross-gender identification (not merely a desire for any perceived cultural advantages of being the other sex).
The disturbance is manifested by symptoms such as:
· a stated desire to be the other sex
· frequent passing as the other sex
· desire to live or be treated as the other sex
· or the conviction that he or she has the typical feelings and reactions of the other sex
· persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex · preoccupation with getting rid of primary and secondary sex characteristics (e.g., request for hormones, surgery, or other procedures to physically alter sexual characteristics to simulate the other sex) or belief that he or she was born the wrong sex.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is much more than the normal anxiety people experience day to day. It's chronic and exaggerated worry and tension, even though nothing seems to provoke it. Having this disorder means always anticipating disaster, often worrying excessively about health, money, family, or work. Sometimes, though, the source of the worry is hard to pinpoint. Simply the thought of getting through the day provokes anxiety.
People with GAD can't seem to shake their concerns, even though they usually realize that their anxiety is more intense than the situation warrants. People with GAD also seem unable to relax. They often have trouble falling or staying asleep. Their worries are accompanied by physical symptoms, especially trembling, twitching, muscle tension, headaches, irritability, sweating, or hot flashes. They may feel lightheaded or out of breath. They may feel nauseated or have to go to the bathroom frequently. Or they might feel as though they have a lump in the throat.
Many individuals with GAD startle more easily than other people. They tend to feel tired, have trouble concentrating, and sometimes suffer depression, too.
Usually the impairment associated with GAD is mild and people with the disorder don't feel too restricted in social settings or on the job. Unlike many other anxiety disorders, people with GAD don't characteristically avoid certain situations as a result of their disorder. However, if severe, GAD can be very debilitating, making it difficult to carry out even the most ordinary daily activities.
GAD comes on gradually and most often hits people in childhood or adolescence, but can begin in adulthood, too. It's more common in women than in men and often occurs in relatives of affected persons. It's diagnosed when someone spends at least 6 months worried excessively about a number of everyday problems.

Intermittent Explosive Disorder: Several discrete episodes of failure to resist aggressive impulses that result in serious assaultive acts or destruction of property. The degree of aggressiveness expressed during the episodes is grossly out of proportion to any precipitating stimuli.

Kleptomania: Recurrent failure to resist impulses to steal objects that are not needed for personal use or for their monetary value.
Increasing sense of tension immediately before committing the theft.
Pleasure, gratification, or relief at the time of committing the theft.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:
Either obsessions or compulsions:
Obsessions as defined by (1), (2), (3), and (4):
1. recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress
2. the thoughts, impulses, or images are not simply excessive worries about real-life problems
3. the person attempts to ignore or suppress such thoughts, impulses, or images, or to neutralize them with some other thought or action
4. the person recognizes that the obsessional thoughts, impulses, or images are a product of his or her own mind (not imposed from without as in thought insertion)
Compulsions as defined by (1) and (2):
1. repetitive behaviors (e.g., hand washing, ordering, checking) or mental acts (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words silently) that the person feels driven to perform in response to an obsession, or according to rules that must be applied rigidly
2. the behaviors or mental acts are aimed at preventing or reducing distress or preventing some dreaded event or situation; however, these behaviors or mental acts either are not connected in a realistic way with what they are designed to neutralize or prevent or are clearly excessive

Panic Disorder: People with panic disorder have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. They can't predict when an attack will occur, and many develop intense anxiety between episodes, worrying when and where the next one will strike. In between times there is a persistent, lingering worry that another attack could come any minute.
When a panic attack strikes, most likely your heart pounds and you may feel sweaty, weak, faint, or dizzy. Your hands may tingle or feel numb, and you might feel flushed or chilled. You may have chest pain or smothering sensations, a sense of unreality, or fear of impending doom or loss of control. You may genuinely believe you're having a heart attack or stroke, losing your mind, or on the verge of death. Attacks can occur any time, even during nondream sleep. While most attacks average a couple of minutes, occasionally they can go on for up to 10 minutes. In rare cases, they may last an hour or more. Panic disorder strikes between 3 and 6 million Americans, and is twice as common in women as in men. It can appear at any age--in children or in the elderly--but most often it begins in young adults. Not everyone who experiences panic attacks will develop panic disorder-- for example, many people have one attack but never have another. For those who do have panic disorder, though, it's important to seek treatment. Untreated, the disorder can become very disabling.
Panic disorder is often accompanied by other conditions such as depression or alcoholism, and may spawn phobias, which can develop in places or situations where panic attacks have occurred. For example, if a panic attack strikes while you're riding an elevator, you may develop a fear of elevators and perhaps start avoiding them.
Some people's lives become greatly restricted -- they avoid normal, everyday activities such as grocery shopping, driving, or in some cases even leaving the house. Or, they may be able to confront a feared situation only if accompanied by a spouse or other trusted person. Basically, they avoid any situation they fear would make them feel helpless if a panic attack occurs. When people's lives become so restricted by the disorder, as happens in about one-third of all people with panic disorder, the condition is called agoraphobia. A tendency toward panic disorder and agoraphobia runs in families. Nevertheless, early treatment of panic disorder can often stop the progression to agoraphobia.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating condition that follows a terrifying event. Often, people with PTSD have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their ordeal and feel emotionally numb, especially with people they were once close to. PTSD, once referred to as shell shock or battle fatigue, was first brought to public attention by war veterans, but it can result from any number of traumatic incidents. These include kidnapping, serious accidents such as car or train wrecks, natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes, violent attacks such as a mugging, rape, or torture, or being held captive. The event that triggers it may be something that threatened the person's life or the life of someone close to him or her. Or it could be something witnessed, such as mass destruction after a plane crash.
Whatever the source of the problem, some people with PTSD repeatedly relive the trauma in the form of nightmares and disturbing recollections during the day. They may also experience sleep problems, depression, feeling detached or numb, or being easily startled. They may lose interest in things they used to enjoy and have trouble feeling affectionate. They may feel irritable, more aggressive than before, or even violent. Seeing things that remind them of the incident may be very distressing, which could lead them to avoid certain places or situations that bring back those memories. Anniversaries of the event are often very difficult.
PTSD can occur at any age, including childhood. The disorder can be accompanied by depression, substance abuse, or anxiety. Symptoms may be mild or severe--people may become easily irritated or have violent outbursts. In severe cases they may have trouble working or socializing. In general, the symptoms seem to be worse if the event that triggered them was initiated by a person--such as a rape, as opposed to a flood.
Ordinary events can serve as reminders of the trauma and trigger flashbacks or intrusive images. A flashback may make the person lose touch with reality and reenact the event for a period of seconds or hours or, very rarely, days. A person having a flashback, which can come in the form of images, sounds, smells, or feelings, usually believes that the traumatic event is happening all over again.
Not every traumatized person gets full-blown PTSD, or experiences PTSD at all. PTSD is diagnosed only if the symptoms last more than a month. In those who do have PTSD, symptoms usually begin within 3 months of the trauma, and the course of the illness varies. Some people recover within 6 months, others have symptoms that last much longer. In some cases, the condition may be chronic.
Occasionally, the illness doesn't show up until years after the traumatic event.

Social Phobia: Social phobia is an intense fear of becoming humiliated in social situations, specifically of embarrassing yourself in front of other people. It often runs in families and may be accompanied by depression or alcoholism. Social phobia often begins around early adolescence or even younger.
If you suffer from social phobia, you tend to think that other people are very competent in public and that you are not. Small mistakes you make may seem to you much more exaggerated than they really are. Blushing itself may seem painfully embarrassing, and you feel as though all eyes are focused on you. You may be afraid of being with people other than those closest to you. Or your fear may be more specific, such as feeling anxious about giving a speech, talking to a boss or other authority figure, or dating. The most common social phobia is a fear of public speaking. Sometimes social phobia involves a general fear of social situations such as parties. More rarely it may involve a fear of using a public restroom, eating out, talking on the phone, or writing in the presence of other people, such as when signing a check.
Although this disorder is often thought of as shyness, the two are not the same. Shy people can be very uneasy around others, but they don't experience the extreme anxiety in anticipating a social situation, and they don't necessarily avoid circumstances that make them feel self-conscious. In contrast, people with social phobia aren't necessarily shy at all. They can be completely at ease with people most of the time, but particular situations, such as walking down an aisle in public or making a speech, can give them intense anxiety. Social phobia disrupts normal life, interfering with career or social relationships. For example, a worker can turn down a job promotion because he can't give public presentations. The dread of a social event can begin weeks in advance, and symptoms can be quite debilitating.
People with social phobia are aware that their feelings are irrational. Still, they experience a great deal of dread before facing the feared situation, and they may go out of their way to avoid it. Even if they manage to confront what they fear, they usually feel very anxious beforehand and are intensely uncomfortable throughout. Afterwards, the unpleasant feelings may linger, as they worry about how they may have been judged or what others may have thought or observed about them.

Trichotillomania: Recurrent pulling out of one's hair resulting in noticeable hair loss.
An increasing sense of tension immediately before pulling out the hair or when attempting to resist the behavior.
Pleasure, gratification, or relief when pulling out the hair.

Voyeurism: Recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving the act of observing an unsuspecting person who is naked, in the process of disrobing, or engaging in sexual activity.

https://wodindex.wikispaces.com/Derangements

http://www.vtm.kismetrose.com/VampireDerangements.html

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_EML...US&pref=2&pli=1

http://theanarchstate.wikidot.com/mechanics:derangements

http://rose-and-apple.forumtwilight.com/...of-derangements

Acute Sanguinary Aversion: This derangement, unique to the undead, involves a persistent fear that any source of vitae is dangerous. Explainations vary - some vampires fear drugged or contaminated blood, the wrath of God or the presence of a blood-borne Antediluvian. Regardless, unless the vampire is frenzied, the player must succeed on a Willpower roll (diff 8) each time he feeds. Willpower cannot be spent on this roll, and a botch indicates that the vampire is so revolted by the prospect of feeding that he vomits up half his blood pool.
Acute sanguinary aversion usually leads to a starve-and-frenzy pattern, with the vampire avoiding feeding until he loses control. Instead, the vampire might develop highly ritualized feeding methods that involve obsession with repeated, largely arbitrary behaviors that must be observed before the Kiss is performed on a particular source of vitae. He might read a passage from the Book of Nod before feeding or drink blood only from a particular individual.
In any case, if the feeding results in a Conscience or Conviction roll, increase the difficulty by one.

Agoraphobia: Agoraphobia literally means "fear of open spaces," but the translation is misleading. Called "Mad Scientist's Disease" by younger neonates, agoraphobia manifests as an extreme aversion to places the sufferer fears he will panic. Sometimes the derangement is attached to a few locations, but generalized agoraphobics avoid situations in which escape is difficult (an airplane at 30,000 feet) or embarassing (making a speech).
Agoraphobics don't volunteer for situations that they fear might cause anxiety. Unless supernaturally compelled, agoraphobic vampires must succeed on a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) to leave their havens each evening and must spend a point of Willpower to enter a situation from which escape will be difficult or embarassing. If the character fails any Willpower roll during a scene that takes place in such a situation, the character must spend ap oint of Willpower or flee immediately. Vampires can ignore these constraints only while in frenzy.
The territorial nature of many Cainites makes this derangement relatively common. No doubt the world is scattered with at least a handful of agoraphobic Cainites driven into torpor from a lack of blood.

Bulimia: Individuals with bulimia assuage their guilt and insecurity by indulging in activities that comfort them - in this case, consuming food. A bulimic will eat tremendous amounts of food when subjected to stress, then empty her stomach through drastic measures so she can eat still more. In the case of vampires with this derangement, the need to feed is a means of relieving the fear and anxiety endemic to the World of Darkness. A bulimic vampire may feed four or more times a night - gorging herself, burning the blood in pointless (or not so pointless) activity, then starting the cycle again.
Vampires: A vampire with bulimia gets hungry much more quickly than other vampires do. When feeding, a bulimic vampire must make a Conscience roll (difficulty 7). If she fails the roll, she feeds until her blood pool is full, whether the vampire needs the extra blood or not. A vampire who is forcibly kept from feeding risks frenzy (make a frenzy roll, difficulty 6). The difficulty increases by one for every 15 minutes that she is prevented from drinking.
Fugue
Victims suffering from fugue experience "blackouts" and loss of memory. When subjected to stress (not general stress, but stress invariably related to the incident which caused the derangement), the individual begins a specific, rigid set of behaviors to remove the stressful symptoms. This differs from multiple personalities, as the individual in the grip of a fugue has no separate personality, but is on a form of "autopilot" similar to sleepwalking.
Characters suffering from this derangement require a Willpower roll when subjected to extreme stress or pressure (difficulty 8). If the roll fails, the player must roleplay her character's trancelike state; otherwise, control of the character passes to the Storyteller for a number of scenes equal to the roll of a die. During this period, the Storyteller may have the character act as she sees fit to remove the source of the stress. At the end of the fugue, the character "regains consciousness" with no memory of her actions.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is much more than the normal anxiety people experience day to day. It's chronic and exaggerated worry and tension, even though nothing seems to provoke it. Having this disorder means always anticipating disaster, often worrying excessively about health, money, family, or work. Sometimes, though, the source of the worry is hard to pinpoint. Simply the thought of getting through the day provokes anxiety.
People with GAD can't seem to shake their concerns, even though they usually realize that their anxiety is more intense than the situation warrants. People with GAD also seem unable to relax. They often have trouble falling or staying asleep. Their worries are accompanied by physical symptoms, especially trembling, twitching, muscle tension, headaches, irritability, sweating, or hot flashes. They may feel lightheaded or out of breath. They may feel nauseated or have to go to the bathroom frequently. Or they might feel as though they have a lump in the throat.
Many individuals with GAD startle more easily than other people. They tend to feel tired, have trouble concentrating, and sometimes suffer depression, too.
Usually the impairment associated with GAD is mild and people with the disorder don't feel too restricted in social settings or on the job. Unlike many other anxiety disorders, people with GAD don't characteristically avoid certain situations as a result of their disorder. However, if severe, GAD can be very debilitating, making it difficult to carry out even the most ordinary daily activities.
GAD comes on gradually and most often hits people in childhood or adolescence, but can begin in adulthood, too. It's more common in women than in men and often occurs in relatives of affected persons. It's diagnosed when someone spends at least 6 months worried excessively about a number of everyday problems.

Gender Identity Disorder: A strong and persistent cross-gender identification (not merely a desire for any perceived cultural advantages of being the other sex).
The disturbance is manifested by symptoms such as:
a stated desire to be the other sex frequent passing as the other sex desire to live or be treated as the other sex or the conviction that he or she has the typical feelings and reactions of the other sex persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex · preoccupation with getting rid of primary and secondary sex characteristics ( e.g., request for hormones, surgery, or other procedures to physically alter sexual characteristics to simulate the other sex) or belief that he or she was born the wrong sex.

Histrionics: Some ghouls sublimate their urge to escape or believe that their new powers entitle them to a certain amount of attention. Ghouls who develop histrionics must be center stage in all situations. They affect extreme but shallow emotions or behave and dress provocatively. Each scene, a histrionic ghoul must spend a point of Willpower to avoid seeking the spotlight in some way. If his quest for recognition is unsuccessful, he cannot spend Willpower; raise his difficulty to avoid frenzy by three for the rest of the scene.
Vampires develop this derangement as well. A childe might subconsciously rebel against the indifference of a sire. An old Cainite who lacks the status implied by his age might become obsessed with being noticed. A Nosferatu might overcompensate for his hideous appearance or even for spending too much time Obfuscated.
Players beware: This derangement isn’t a license to hog every scene, then write it off as roleplaying. Histrionics are hypersensitive to the opinions of others, not oblivious to the glares of the crowd as they enact some slapstick melodrama. Histrionic cases are pathetic, and most people recognize them as such the first time they flash their shit-eating grins or refuse to leave the stage. A histrionic might latch onto one person the entire evening and pester her for every ounce of attention. He might become sullen or leave in a huff if he believes that someone has upstaged him. If your Storyteller allows this derangement, roleplay it as the emotion disorder it is rather than an excuse to be obnoxious.

Hysteria: A person in the grip of hysteria is unable to control her emotions, suffering severe mood swings and violent fits when subjected to stress or anxiety. For many characters in the World of Darkness, that can be all the time. Decide on a particular circumstance that triggers your character's episode: the presence of children, contact by your Sire or, as a Hunter, the Heralds, or perhaps an open flame.
Vampires: Hysterical Kindred must make frenzy checks whenever subjected to stress or pressure. The difficulties of these rolls are normally 6, increasing to 8 if the stress is sudden or especially severe. Additionally, any action that results in a botch causes the vampire to frenzy automatically.
Hunters: You must make a Willpower roll whenever your character is subjected to this brand of stress or pressure. The difficulty of the roll is usually 6, increasing to 8 if the stress is sudden or especially severe.

Intellectualization: You have recoiled from the horror of your situation and protect yourself by feeling nothing. You insulate yourself in a world of logic and intellectual vigor where emotions have no place. By isolating your incompatible needs and thoughts into separate compartments you avoid losing control. However, the pressure inevitably mounts and the dam eventually bursts. If you passion and emotion are thrust upon you during a stressful situation, you may frenzy. This frenzy may last for some time depending on how long it's been since you last "let off steam" (Ask your Storyteller).

Manic-Depression: Manic-depressives suffer from severe mood swings, sometimes resulting from severe trauma or anxiety. Victims may be upbeat and confident one moment, then uncontrollably lethargic and pessimistic the next. Characters with this derangement are constantly on a hair trigger, never knowing when the next mood swing will strike. Whenever the character fails a task, the Storyteller has the option of secretly making a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) for her. If the character fails the roll, she lapses into depression. Additionally, the character will go into depression whenever one other rolls is botched, or, as a vampire, if her blood pool ever drops below 2. The Storyteller should roll a die to determine how many scenes the character remains depressed, keeping the number a secret.
Vampires: Vampires in a depressive state have their Willpower ratings halved (minimum 1). In addition, the vampire may not access her blood pool to raise Attributes. Upon emerging from the depressive state, the character is energetic, relentlessly upbeat and active (obsessively so) for a number of scenes proportionate to the time spent in depression. When a vampire is in this manic state, the difficulty of all rolls to resist frenzy is raised by one.
Hunters: A Hunter in a depressive state loses a point of Conviction (to a minimum of 1) for the duration of the mental episode. Upon emerging from the depressive state, the character is energetic, relentlessly upbeat and active (obsessively so) for a number of scenes proportionate to the time spent in depression. When your character is in a manic state, the difficulty of all Willpower rolls is reduced by one.

Megalomania: Individuals with this derangement are obsessed with accumulating power and wealth, salving their insecurities by becoming the most potent individuals in their environment. Such individuals are invariably arrogant and supremely sure of their abilities, convinced of their own inherent superiority. The means of achieving their status can take many forms, from devious conspiracies to outright brutality. Any individual of equal or higher status than the victim is perceived to be "competition."
Characters with this derangement constantly struggle to rise to the height of power and influence, by whatever means
necessary. In a megalomaniac's view, there are only two classes of people: those who are weaker, and those who do not deserve the power they have and must be made weaker. This belief extends to everyone around the character, including members of her own coterie. This derangement lends an extra die to all of the victim's Willpower rolls, due to her towering sense of superiority.
Vampire: If a megalomaniacal vampire is presented with the chance to diablerize a more potent Kindred, she will be sorely tempted. A Willpower roll (difficulty 10) is needed for the vampire to avoid taking "what is rightfully hers."
Hunters: Hunters with this derangement struggle constantly to rise to the height of power and influence, by any means necessary, whether against monsters, fellow hunters or the defenseless. In a megalomaniac's view, there are only two classes of people: those who are weaker, and those who do not deserve the power they have, and so must be made weaker. This belief extends to everyone, including your character's immediate allies. This derangement lends an extra die to all of the victim's Willpower rolls, due to her towering sense of superiority.

Multiple Personalities: The trauma that spawns this derangement fractures the victim's personality into one or more additional personas, allowing the victim to deny her trauma or any actions the trauma causes by placing the blame on "someone else." Each personality is created to respond to certain emotional stimuli - an abused person might develop a tough-as-nails survivor personality, create a "protector," or even become a murderer in order to deny the abuse she is suffering. In most cases none of the personalities is aware of the others, and they come and go through the victim's mind in response to specific situations or conditions.
When a character suffers this derangement, the Storyteller and the player must agree upon how many and what kind of personalities develop, and the situations that trigger their dominance in the victim. Each personality should be relevant to the trauma that causes it. Not only is each personality distinct, but in the case of Kindred, the different personalities might believe themselves to be from different clans and sires.
Characters with multiple personalities can manifest different Abilities and even Virtues for each of their personalities, but it is the Storyteller's responsibility to determine the specific details.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: The trauma, guilt or inner conflict that causes this derangement forces your character to focus nearly all of his attention and energy on a single repetitive behavior or action. Obsession relates to an individual's desire to control his environment — keeping clean, keeping an area quiet and peaceful, or keeping undesirable individuals from a place. A compulsion is an action or set of actions that an individual is driven to perform to soothe his anxieties: placing objects in an exact order, constantly checking to make sure a weapon is loaded, praying every few hours to give thanks for surviving that long.
Mortal: If your character has an obsessive or compulsive derangement, determine a set of specific actions or behaviors, as described above. Your character follows them to the exclusion or all else, even if they interfere with the mission or endanger his life or others' lives. The effects of obsessive/compulsive behavior can be negated for the course of one scene by spending a temporary Willpower point. If a hunter is forcibly prevented from adhering to his derangement, he may lose control amongst enemies or allies and attack either (or both) indiscriminately.
Vampires: Vampires with an obsessive or compulsive derangement must determine a set of specific actions or behaviors, as described above, and follow them to the exclusion of all else. The effects of obsessive/compulsive behavior can be negated for the course of one scene by spending a temporary Willpower point. The difficulty of any attempt to coerce or Dominate a vampire into ceasing her behavior is raised by one. If a vampire is forcibly prevented from adhering to her derangement, she automatically frenzies.

Panic Disorder: People with panic disorder have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. They can't predict when an attack will occur, and many develop intense anxiety between episodes, worrying when and where the next one will strike. In between times there is a persistent, lingering worry that another attack could come any minute.
When a panic attack strikes, most likely your heart pounds and you may feel sweaty, weak, faint, or dizzy. Your hands may tingle or feel numb, and you might feel flushed or chilled. You may have chest pain or smothering sensations, a sense of unreality, or fear of impending doom or loss of control. You may genuinely believe you're having a heart attack or stroke, losing your mind, or on the verge of death. Attacks can occur any time, even during nondream sleep. While most attacks average a couple of minutes, occasionally they can go on for up to 10 minutes. In rare cases, they may last an hour or more. Panic disorder strikes between 3 and 6 million Americans, and is twice as common in women as in men. It can appear at any age - in children or in the elderly - but most often it begins in young adults. Not everyone who experiences panic attacks will develop panic disorder - for example, many people have one attack but never have another. For those who do have panic disorder, though, it's important to seek treatment. Untreated, the disorder can become very disabling.
Panic disorder is often accompanied by other conditions such as depression or alcoholism, and may spawn phobias, which can develop in places or situations where panic attacks have occurred. For example, if a panic attack strikes while you're riding an elevator, you may develop a fear of elevators and perhaps start avoiding them.
Some people's lives become greatly restricted - they avoid normal, everyday activities such as grocery shopping, driving, or in some cases even leaving the house. Or, they may be able to confront a feared situation only if accompanied by a spouse or other trusted person. Basically, they avoid any situation they fear would make them feel helpless if a panic attack occurs. When people's lives become so restricted by the disorder, as happens in about one-third of all people with panic disorder, the condition is called agoraphobia. A tendency toward panic disorder and agoraphobia runs in families. Nevertheless, early treatment of panic disorder can often stop the progression to agoraphobia.

Paranoia: The victim of paranoia believes that her misery and insecurity stem from external persecution and hostility. Paranoids obsess about their persecution complexes, often creating vast and intricate conspiracy theories to explain who is tormenting them and why. Anyone or anything perceived to be "one of them" is often subjected to violence.
Kindred who suffer from paranoia have difficulty with social interaction; the difficulties of all dice rolls involving interaction are increased by one. They are distrustful and suspicious of everyone, even their own blood bound progeny. The slightest hint of suspicious behavior is enough to provoke a frenzy roll, with the difficulty relative to the degree of the behavior. This paranoia may even extend to complex and rigorous feeding practices, to keep "them" from contaminating the vampire's food supply.

Perfection: When things go wrong and nothing seems to be going right, you can become obsessed with perfection. Everything must be perfect, and you use all your energy to prevent anything from going wrong. All your energy and attention is focused on keeping everything about you in perfect, unaltered condition. When things become hopelessly confused, fault-ridden and messy, you may enter into a frenzy.
Phobia

Some ideas… some of these are just silly.
Ablutophobia - Fear of washing or bathing
Acarophobia - Fear of itching or of the insects that cause itching
Achluophobia - Fear of darkness.
Acrophobia - Fear of heights
Agrizoophobia - Fear of wild animals
Alliumphobia - Fear of garlic.
Androphobia - Fear of men
Aphenphosmphobia - Fear of being touched
Autophobia - Fear of being alone or of oneself.
Catagelophobia - Fear of being ridiculed
Catoptrophobia - Fear of mirrors.
Dementophobia - Fear of insanity
Eleutherophobia - Fear of freedom.
Erotophobia - Fear of sexual love or sexual questions.
Gynephobia or Gynophobia - Fear of women
Kathisophobia - Fear of sitting down.
Ligyrophobia - Fear of loud noises.
Melanophobia - Fear of the color black.
Nudophobia - Fear of nudity.
Nyctohylophobia - Fear of dark wooded areas, of forests at night
Photophobia - Fear of light.
Poinephobia - Fear of punishment.
Potamophobia - Fear of rivers or running water.
Pyrophobia - Fear of fire.
Rupophobia - Fear of dirt.
Sciophobia/Sciaphobia - Fear of shadows.
Selenophobia - Fear of the moon.
Sexophobia - Fear of the opposite sex. (Heterophobia)
Teleophobia - 1) Fear of definate plans. 2) Religious ceremony.
Xylophobia - 1) Fear of wooden objects. 2) Forests.
Atychiphobia - Fear of failure.
Chromophobia or Chromatophobia - Fear of colors.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) arises in response to severe trauma such as combat, rape or servitude to a Tzimisce. A ghoul who has been the subject of his master’s latest experiment with superdermal bone art or witnessed his hungry master devour his mortal family might develop this derangement. PTSD can even afflict vampires, perhaps those who survived a Lupine attack or awoke one night to find their havens on fire.
Symptoms manifest as recurrent, debilitating flashbacks and extreme avoidance of situations likely to recreate the initial trauma. The player of a ghoul or Cainite afflicted with PTSD must spend a point of Willpower for her character to enter such situations. If compelled by a blood bond or other forms of control, the sufferer’s player cannot spend Willpower to gain automatic successes on any rolls, and all of the character’s dice pools are halved (round down). In any circumstances, botched Willpower rolls or other stimuli deemed appropriate by the Storyteller induce flashbacks of the traumatic episode with the same penalties described above. Ghouls laboring under this disorder are typically disposed of by their domitors. Clan Tzimisce requires servants made of sterner stuff.

Power Object Fixation: The vampire afflicted with this derangement has invested much of his self-confidence in an external object, to the point where she believes she cannot function properly without its presence. Such a derangement is often linked to some past trauma in which the object in question played a major role - although not always in the obvious way. For instance, the victim might fixate on his dead fiancée's engagement ring if holding his fiancée's hand was his only comfort during hard years, but another individual might focus on the belt his father beat him with as a sorce of strength.
Victims of fixation lose two dice from all their dice pools if somehow seperated from their object of focus. It is hard to hide such a fixation from careful observers, in times of stress, the vampire must make a willpower roll to avoid cradling the object to her torso, rubbing it obsessively or otherwise physically comforting herself with its presence.
This derangement sometimes spawns other related derangements over time. The fixated person may, for instance, develop multiple personalities related to the object - the aforementioned abuse victim might spawn a bullying personality much like her abusive father, and so on.

Sanguinary Animism: This derangement is unique to the Kindred, a response to vampires' deep-seated guilt regarding the act of feeding on the blood of mortals. Kindred with this derangement believe that they do not merely consume victims' blood, but their souls as well, which are then made a part of the vampire's consciousness. In the hours after feeding, the vampire hears the voice of her victim inside her head and feels a tirade of "memories" from the victim's mind - all created by the vampire's subconscious. In extreme cases, this sense of possession can drive a Kindred to carry out actions on behalf other victims. Obviously, diablerie would be unwise for an animist to perform….
Whenever a vampire with this derangement feeds on a mortal, a Willpower roll is needed (difficulty 6, or 9 if she drains the mortal to the point of death). If the roll succeeds, she is tormented by the "memories" of the person whose soul she has partially consumed, but is still able to function normally. If the roll fails, then the images in her mind are so strong that it is akin to having a second personality inside her, an angry and reproachful personality that seeks to cause harm to the vampire and her associates. The player must roleplay this state; otherwise, control of the character passes to the Storyteller, who runs the character as if the mind other victim is in control. During the moments just before dawn, control automatically reverts to the vampire.

Sexual Dysfunction: A ghoul who spends any time in the thrall of a Tzimisce domitor is likely encumbered with a variety of sexual dysfunctions. Female ghouls typically develop vaginismus, involuntary contracting of the vulval and rectal muscles preventing penetration, or dyspareunia, severe pain during intercourse. Males, if not rendered completely impotent, sometimes fixate sexually on acts favored by their domitors. All such conditions are likely to instill an extreme aversion to sex, further separating ghouls from the lifestyles they lead prior to their servitorship.
Before allowing this derangement, Storytellers should consider whether its inclusion will make any players uncomfortable. Many people prefer not to explore such personal issues in detail, especially during a game. Although the setting is a suitable venue for such unpleasantness, you can challenge your players without resorting to poor taste. These caveats in mind, this derangement can be played without mentioning graphic details – Storytellers can extrapolate the likely effects such a condition might have on a ghoul’s relationship with his or her partners.

Schizophrenia: Conflicting, unresolveable sets of feelings and impulses can cause a victim to develop schizophrenia, which manifests as a withdrawal from reality, violent changes in behavior, and hallucinations. This is the classical sort of derangement, causing victims to talk to walls, imagine themselves to be the King of Siam, or receive instructions from their pets telling them to murder people.
Roleplaying this derangement requires careful thought, because the player must determine a general set of behaviors relevant to the trauma that caused the derangement. The hallucinations, bizarre behavior and unseen voices stem from a terrible inner conflict that the individual cannot resolve. The player needs to establish a firm idea of what that conflict is and then rationalize what kind of behavior this conflict will cause.
Kindred with this derangement are unpredictable and dangerous. In situations that trigger a vampire's inner conflict, the difficulties of all rolls to resist frenzy increase by three, and the vampire loses three dice from all Willpower rolls.

Easy Fears:


Fear of the dark - A vampire with this probably had some childhood fears that will never be overcome. A character would cluster around brightly lit places, and seldom venture away from company. Probably keeps a well-stocked backup set of light bulbs or carry a torch. Dark alleys are a definite no no.
Fear of animals - Just what it says, animals no matter their ferocity (or lack thereof) just scare the hell out of you. Nosferatu and Gangrel may apply.
Acute Paranoia - this could be everything or something more specific.
Fear of Heights - to the point of being frozen above second story.
Fear of Success - The Character will sabotage self at critical moments.
Fear of Losing - Will do anything to win…anything
Fear of Germs - They are everywhere.
Fear of Pink Fluff - Fears can come in all shapes and sizes fear free to come up with something of your own. (ST Approval Necessary)


Derangements:

Sadism: You revert to cruelty when under pressure. Causing pain is a major stress relief. This is not just physical pain, mental pain can be just as pleasurable. When ever confronted by stress spend a Willpower point to take it out on someone immediately.

Masochism: Sometimes things go wrong and you know deep down inside its your fault, even though it may not be. You must have a way to keep yourself inline. This maybe but getting yourself in dangerous situations or simply hanging out with those you know dislike you. You deserve their abuse. In the end you physically harm yourself but never to a degree that it can be noticed. You don't want people to know what a terrible person you are.

Hebrephrenia: The horror of the World of Darkness has shattered your perceptions of everything you once held as logical and real. this mental trauma has plunged you into a state of mind where you maintain your sanity by clinging to the idea that everything is going on in your head, to the point where nothing is real including those around you.

Quixotism: You believe in everything you see and hear. More than likely you have come form a mundane background where nothing out of the ordinary happens. Now you are subject to the world of darkness you take everything literal, stretching the limits of your imagination.

Crimson Rage: You have a tremendous capacity for rage and violence. When you are provoked, angered, bullied or threatened, you sometimes erupt into a frenzied rage during which you passionately attack the one who offended you. This frenzy may end as quickly as it began, but often only after you have vanquished your foe or have yourself been defeated.

Hunger: You suffer from a constant lust for blood. You crave it even when your Blood Pool is not yet depleted. When exposed to blood, you do whatever is necessary to get it. You'll attack for it if need be and drink it in reward. When you do feed, you seek to drink all you can until the source is depleted.

Immortal Terror: In the presence of sunlight and fire, you sometimes experience such extreme terror that you become completely unable to take any sort of action except to flee in fear. Even the sight of a lighter flame might instil you with a wave of fear. Your reaction is considered a frenzy, but it is a frenzy of fear rather than anger.

Intellectualization: You have recoiled from the horror of your situation and protect yourself by feeling nothing. You insulate yourself in a world of logic and intellectual vigore where emotions have no place. By isolating your incompatible needs and thoughts into separate compartments, you avoid losing control. However, the pressure inevitably mounts, and the dam eventually bursts. If your passion and emotion are thrust upon you during a stressful situation, you may frenzy. This frenzy may last for some time depending on how long it's been since you last let off steam, STs Discretion.

Manic-Depression: You suffer mood swings that take you from euphoric bliss to utter despair. You begin each game in either a manic or a depressive phase (STs call). In your manic phase, you are wildly happy and excited to the point that anyone or anything that tries to bring you down i.e, make you listen to reason or frustrate you may trigger a frenzy. You will readily spend Blood points for the most trivial of reasons. In your depressive phase, you act as per Undying Remorse. You may switch from manic to depressive at the whim of the ST, or let role play dictate.

Multiple Personalities: You possess a number of different personalities and may change Nature and Demeanor in times of great personal stress. Thus you behave in radically different ways at different times. Naturally this causes others to distrust and be wary of you. Your current personality persists until either you change personality again during a stressful situation or you expend Willpower to return to your basic personality.

Obsessive-Compulsive: You are obsessed with keeping track of things. You can sometimes get obsessed with a person or fetish associated with the situation. this Derangement gives you a perverse ambition toward which you direct all your energy. If you are directly thwarted in your obsession you may reach violently.

Obsession: When a new person enters your life, or you are faced with a dramatic situation, you can sometimes become obsessed with that person or some fetish associated with the situation. This obsession is some sort of per verse ambition toward which you direct all your energy. If you are directly thwarted in your obsession, you may enter into a frenzy.
Examples of Obsessions
* Cleanliness - You must clean up any area he/she is in for more than a few minutes.
* Timeliness - The character is obsessed with being on time for everything.
* Sex - You Character is a nymphomaniac.
* Opposite sex - You are obsessed with the opposite sex.
* Wealth - You will do whatever it takes to get money.
* Secrecy - Everything must be a secret, no matter what it is.
* Appearance - You are obsessed with clothing and other such stuff.
* Thrill seeker - To this character, there is no rush like danger.
* Gambling - You are willing to bet all you have on one dice roll.
* Loner - You either can't stand to be alone, or can't stand to be with somebody.
* Collecting - You are an obsessive collector of items or an object.
* Religion - Self explanatory.
* Horder / PackRat - You can throw anything away, you never know when you may need it. Anything of interest you must have. If you loose something…well…

Paranoia: When someone threatens or stubbornly opposes you, you become convinced that the person is after you. You become obsessed with those you believe to be your enemies and make all kinds of insane preparations to protect yourself. During bouts of this Derangement, you trust no one and hold even your closest friends under suspicion. If you are pushed too far while in a paranoid state of mind, you may enter into a frenzy.

Perfection: When nothing seems to be going right, you can become obsessed with perfection. Everything must be perfect, and you use all your energy to prevent anything from going wrong. You focus all your attention on keeping everything about you in perfect, unaltered condition. When things become hopelessly confused, fault-ridden or messy, you may enter into a frenzy.

Power Madness: You can become so obsessed with control, power and dominance that you lose all control of yourself. When your ambitions are thwarted, you sometimes become enraged and attack those who oppose you. In general, you seek total and absolute control over everything and everyone around you.

Regression: In times of stress, when much is being demanded of you, you can become childlike, retreating to a less mature aspect of yourself. At such times you find it difficult to do anything for yourself, and without the aid of others, you are quite helpless. If, after you have become childlike, you are physically threatened, you may enter into a frenzy.

Undying Remorse: When reminded of some great evil or vile deed that you once committed, you sometimes enter into a state of such complete remorse and self-pity that you are incapable of taking any action except defending yourself. The pain can become so great that you enter into a frenzy.

Vengeful: When you have been wronged in any way, you can become so obsessed with vengeance that you direct all your energy toward it. You will not rest until your foes have been punished for their sins. If you are thwarted in this goal, you may enter into a frenzy. Once activated, this obsession persists until you have won your vengeance or spent Willpower point to ignore it.

Blood Taste: You hate the taste of blood. Your body craves it, but you think it tastes disgusting. You go out of your way to feed on drunks (the alcohol helps kill the taste), even going to such extremes as hanging out in mortal bars to get your dinners sloshed. You have tried everything to make it taste better, but nothing seems to help.

Creation Memory: High stress, especially violence, usually triggers plaguing memories of your Embrace. You may also choose a random factor and invoke the memories. Your thoughts will immediately return to the time of your creation, and you feel a pressing need to share these memories with whoever is around. This Derangement can be played as anything from a near frenzy to the burning desire to tell anecdotes. You are down one Mental Attribute whenever you lapse into memory.

Handler: Guns are for pansies. If you can't do it with your hands, you don't deserve to do it. It is your philosophy that vampires are a superior species and should use their Disciplines as their war tools. Force the bravery out of those you fight. Ropes, stakes and weapons of nature are acceptable in a pinch, but firearms are a no-no.

Hangover Helper: You like to kill, but not if it's really hard work. You prefer to feed on those who have incapacitated themselves. You have cured many hangovers by feeding fully on those who have been in need of a remedy. Death is a wonderful cure for a hangover, and you feel so lovely after wards.

Ideology Fanatic: You believe in an ideology so deeply that you are willing to do anything to spread the word. For example if you are a Sabbat fanatic you believe in converting before killing, although those who are weak and stupid are not worth proselytizing. You are driven to convert from within the ranks of the enemy and will sacrifice your unlife to do so. Your personal mission is to win a willing Camarilla to the Sabbat. You can retest once a night with a Self Control test diff 6 + the number of nights resisted or resume your fanaticism.

Sect Fanatic: You love and are unwaveringly loyal to your sect, for your sect made you what you are today, a powerful hunter long past your miserable life. Moreover, the ideology of the sect enchants you: You unquestioningly believe every word and will do anything to see that the Sect is victorious.

Mercenary: Killing is a gift. You are a great and powerful hunter and may, if you so choose, bestow the gift of death . However, it is not remotely worth your while if there is not an exchange, a gift for a gift. You happily kill for money, valuables or elder blood, but you refuse to bestow your gift without receiving one in exchange the satisfaction of doing the sect or a friend a favor is not enough. You rarely kill those you feed from (a complete waste of time) and will not kill or feed from animals unless they have something you need, like a pelt, bones for some ritual you need performed or something else of value.

Paranoid of Ancients: Everyone, everything is a tool of the Antediluvians dedicated to your personal destruction. All of your loyal comrades are doomed along with you. You are suspicious and wary of anything. You feel the need to purify those you don’t know to be sure they have not been overcome by the influence of the Ancients themselves.

Passion Player: While you strongly dislike and refuse to take part in torture, you believe that killing is your divine duty. Camarilla vampires avoid killing because they disrespect their Creator's wishes. They hide behind the Masquerade even when they do kill, though it is God's will for them to reveal themselves as the angels of death that they are. Each time you kill, you make sure your victim knows exactly what you are first.

Path Lust: You are obsessed with your code of ethics, following your Path to the letter and not backing down when some point regarding your Path philosophy is debated. Thanks to your overwhelming dedication to your Path.

Promise: You force people to promise you things in order to help them learn to keep their word. Honor is the only thing that will strengthen the sect, and it is your personal quest to be sure the sect is strong. You run the risk of frenzy if you discover that someone has lied to you.

Compulsive Liar: This character will often lie about most things. You cant help it. Be it fear of trouble or an excuse a lie is always better than the truth.

Kleptomaniac: The compulsion to steal. The character will often steal things which they can get away with. The easier it will be to steal, the higher the difficulty becomes to keep from stealing. Even if you don’t need it that fact that its there and you can is all that matters.

Recluse: The character prefers to be alone, quiet and unobtrusive. City life is for crazy people; that’s why you prefer your own company. This pairs well with a loner nature; the character often fears company, and will often frenzy if forced into such a situation.

Schizophrenia: You hear voices in your head and see things that aren't there. It comes largely at the STs discretion or the way role play goes.