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\section{Changes to Vampire}

\subsection{Malkavians}

Malkavians: vision through insanity, great idea! Clanbook Malkavian,
cunning piece of work. Pranks that seem insane, but infact contain some
brilliant comment on the real situations. 

But I have yet to find anyone who actually has thought of a good prank
idea. Most of the Malkavians characters I see are either: mindless
killers or zany pranksters. Nothing clever about that.

All, except one: Jack Dracula {\tt <vampire at wam dot umd dot edu>}. Jack wrote
himself up and I must say its a scary piece of work for a Malkavian
curse. The curse: total sensory input, having to filter it all
manually. That's horror.

\subsubsection{The Idea}

Right, so Malkavians have insight. Make that insight a curse. Cursed
to see more than anyone else, the stuff that the Storytellers Handbook
hints at. Things that normal people are not ment to see.

The Malkavian has this special gift that allows them to see the world
differently, so differently that they are often alien to everyone
else.

This tends to add a horror element to the game as the Malkavian player
slowly descends into this alien work and is isolated from everyone.
As they see more, their sanity is ripped from them.

Plus it is fun to watch the faces of Malkavian players as they find
out about this stuff. It gives a huge chance to those willing to
roleplay and can be used to 'punish' killers and pranksers for not
{\bf role playing}.

\subsubsection{The Birth}

Most people sired by a Malkavian become Malkvians, having been
selected to crack under the strain, and thus inheriting the curse.
Those who survive the process without becoming insane, usually become
Cattiff.

Malkavians are also created when a newly embraced Vampire is driven
insane by the Embrace, or was insane to begin with. The Embraced
vampire is a Malkavian of the generation deterimined by their sire.
In this way, many Malkavians are Embraced into other clans.

Note, that most insaitys start off small and build more and more,
until The Rebirth.

Anyone using Thalmaturgy to determine the sire of a Malkavian will
have the choice of two sires. If they select to find information about
the 'shadow' sire, they will gain info on Malkav. Play this up. You
can get some really good reactions when people trace a 3rd gen. [I
played Thalmaturgy slightly differently].
\typeout{Look up thamlmaturgy ritual}

\subsubsection{The Rebirth}

As the Malkavians slowly slip into a private Hell on Earth, they are
driven more and more insane. Eventually it becomes too much, they can
nolonger relate to the Real World (TM) :) and the character snaps,
undergoing what the Malkavians call the Rebirth. (This replaces the
5 stages given in the Malkavian clanbook.)

The character will be drawn to some location where they will start to
break down. Other Malkavians (from all places, reguardless of
background) will be drawn there too, each with a gift.
They will defend and care for the character until they finally snap
and are reborn, starting afresh with some new derangement and
potentially a totally new character.

This is supernatural stuff, so dont be afraid to make changes that
can't be accounted for.

Then, slowly, they start to sink again.



\subsubsection{Example Malvavian curses}

In the Adventure starts given below, Annita starts off as a Spirit
Sighted Malkavian. Events drive her further and further into this
world until she finally snaps and is reborn as a clone. The character
she selects for the clone is determined by the events she
'experianced' while she could see into the Umbras.

\begin{itemize}

\item	[Visions] The future, the past, both. Possible futures. Mix
and stur.

\item	[Temporal Drifter] The Malkavian in question, lives 30 seconds in
the future.  Somehow, all input to the brain arrives before the event.
This causes the Vampire to react to things that have not yet happened,
if surprised, and to really need to consentrate to hold a
conversation.

\item	[Temporal Drifter] Time is fluid for this Malkavian, flowing
at different rates. Days will pass in the blink of an eye, or time
will slow down or stop. The character has no control over this and it
can lead to moments of natural celerity or vulnerability.

\item	[Spirit Sight] The cursed vampire can see into one of the
Umbras, death, spirit or thought. Unfortunatly, the image is
compressed on top of normal vision, so what they see is really quite
freaky. This is the world in which they live, not the 'real world'.

\item	[Auspex Touch] Auspex on everything you touch. Memories and
images from everything you do. Auras on everything alive, but too much
to actually read, other than the most general impressions.

\item [Mage's Curse] The Malkavian in question lives in a world with a
different set of laws. These laws operate automatically whenever the
Malkavian has no witnesses (sleepers or other supernaturals), but the
presence of observers solidifies reality again. The Malkavian has no
control over the laws selected. One Malkavian I have spoken to said it
had something to do with what happens when Mages play with reality.

\item	[Zooming vision] The Malkavian has the capability to endlessly
zoom in on anything they look at, looking closer and closer, fascinated
at what they see. They may be mistaken for Toreadores as they stare
and stare, at objects, trying to get them into view at the right size.

\item	[Clone] The Malkavian will become someone else. They lose
their personality and actually gain knowledge from their target
(although this is lost if they ever revert). They almost completly
assume the identity of the target, although what happens if they are
confronted with their target after they have become them varies.

\end{itemize}