Rules reference
Skills in Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
Skills overview and how checks typically work. Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition is a modern gothic horror tabletop roleplaying game where you play as a Kindred, a vampire struggling to maintain their humanity while navigating the complex politics of the Camarilla. Set in a dark reflection of our world, VTM5e combines personal horror with political intrigue, as players balance their Beast against their fading Humanity.
Key points
Skills describe trained competence. Use this page to quickly understand what the skill list covers and how to pick priorities.
- 7 Camarilla clans: Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, Ventrue
- 10 Predator Types: Alleycat, Bagger, Blood Leech, Cleaver, Consensualist, Farmer, Osiris, Sandman, Scene Queen, Siren
- Discipline system: In-clan Disciplines cost less XP than out-of-clan
- Hunger dice system: Replaces health, can cause messy criticals or bestial failures
- Humanity tracking: Starts at 7, decreases with immoral actions
- Blood Potency: Increases with age, affects feeding and Discipline power
Roll when the outcome is uncertain and matters. If it’s routine and no one at the table cares about failure, just succeed and move on.
Before rolling, say what success gives you and what failure costs (time, exposure, resources, harm).
- Mistake: Rolling without stakes. Fix: Say what success changes and what failure costs before rolling.
- Mistake: Treating failure as ‘nothing happens’. Fix: Fail forward: you still learn something, but pay a cost (time, exposure, resources, harm).