1. The elders in a large area, such as city or perhaps even a country, all die. Camarilla investigators cannot determine a cause. The region is thus left to the young. This is certainly no country for old Kindred.

2. Similar to the above, but the targeting is based on rank, not age. Anyone who holds the title of bishop, prince, baron, templar, archon, justicar, or even primogen simply disappears. True anarchy reigns, though certain rules, such as the Masquerade, are enforced by parties unknown.

3. Your Coterie of Neonates is, for reasons of principle or pragmatism, assisting a strike that one of the city elders wants to break. He may have the plant, but do you have the power?

4. Karl Marx was transformed into a vampire before his death by a Brujah admirer, but due to a complication in his embrace immediately succumbed to torpor. On the eve of civil unrest in London, he rises from his grave in Highgate cemetery.

5. A vampire has come to the city claiming to be a newly embraced Baali who escaped his creators.

6. A mortal serial killer has operated in this city for a decade and a half, claiming over seventy victims. The prince has tried to have him put down on numerous occasions because he’s bad for business, but he’s so damn careful that even vampiric investigators can’t track him. His latest victims has surfaced with all the classic hallmarks but there’s some additional very bad news- the victim was exsanguinated and had puncture marks at the throat. Someone has turned this human monster into an inhuman monster.

7. On live television a newsreader gives a lecture about vampires, their society, powers and weaknesses. He keeps going for a full and detailed seven minutes before he is finally cutoff. He promptly disappears afterwards, much to the chagrin of the Camarilla who wished to interrogate him. The official story is that it was a viral marketing campaign for a miniseries, that’s where the coterie comes in. You’ve been given a nearly unlimited budget to direct that miniseries and get it on air as quickly as possible.

8. Your coterie was ready for surprises, surprises happen even in small cities, yours. But were they ready for the prince revealing that he was a Baali and embracing a hundred mortals as shock troops in a single night? Were they ready for Baali across the world to begin converging on the city and declaring it (un)holy ground? Were they ready for the brazen smoke and the smell of ‘pork’ rising into the air each night? For the orgiastic screams of a mesmerised populace? For the mayor declaring that he was now a god? For the mystical barrier that has surrounded the city and makes it almost impossible for the Camarilla or Sabbat to enter? The coterie are among the few surviving non infernalist vampires in the city- can they prevent the opening of the way?

9. Here are some historical settings I like for Vampire the Masquerade:

A. The Russia during the Russian revolution, using China Meville’s “October” as a source book. My advice is to avoid the White Wolf write-up where the whole revolution is a simple Brujah plot, because it’s a bit boring and diminishes the historical interest of the situation.

B. Jerusalem just before the Zealot’s revolt.

C. The high neolithic, in what is modern day Turkey. Cities exist, but no states or governments in the modern way those terms are understood. Cities without centralised communities might seem like a golden age for vampires, but the communities are also more tightly interwoven, making it hard to blend in.

D. 1920’s New York- the Gilded age right before the crash.

E. The Haitian revolution.

F. Athens during the time of Socrates

G. America in a bohemian district during the beat generation

H. New York among the gay community during the Aids crisis

I. The high bronze age- a span of time about which we know a great deal, but also little. To a great degree you can simply define what’s going on yourself.

10. The ‘end’ comes, but Vampiric Ghenna is nowhere to be seen. The world burns in nuclear fire, a purely human apocalypse. Vampires find mixed fortunes in the new world- they are far more resistant to than humans to radiation, but they mourn the loss of their heavily populated urban centres. The vampiric resilence to fallout means there is a vampire overpopulation problem, with as many as 1 vampire per 20,000 humans globally.

11. There’s a sanctuary in which clan Toreador keep famous artists embraced by their clan, whose star has not sufficiently faded that they can safely operate in the mortal world without jeopardising the Masquerade.

12. By creating childer and fleshcrafting them into creatures which constantly absorb and secrete blood, a Tzimisce elder has made an unliving vitae producing factory, to which he feeds vast herds of sheep and cattle. What’s is he going to do with thousands of tons of vampire blood? That’s where it gets even dicier. This elder believes that the goal of metamorphosis can’t be pursued individually, it has to be pursued at the level of whole ecosystems. He plans to pump the vitae into the everglades, creating by far the world’s largest ghouled ecosystem, poised to terrorise all of Florida with preternaturally vicious and enhanced Alligators, Burmese Pythons, Black Bears and Pumas.

13. A rogue revenant has an unusual strategy for bringing down the world as we know it and supplanting homo sapiens sapiens with a ghoulish variant. He’s bought out a sperm bank, and is replacing the stock with his own seed. Hundreds of revenants have already been born, and tens of thousands more will be if the process continues. The ethical breach is staggering, but how will you manage the situation without doing even viler deeds?

14. The above premise, except it’s a Black Spiral dancer.

15. A Kindred scientist is trying to create super vampires. First he removes large sections of a mortal’s brain reducing their capacity for higher cognition and impulse control, then he or another embraces them, and they are placed in a tank continually refilled with blood for the first six months of their unlife. During this time they do naught but swim in red darkness and gorge themselves on blood. He hopes this will induce in them a transformation to a higher state of vampirism. The higher part is debatable, but certainly they are changed.

16. A Malkavian elder believes that she has found the secret to reversing the curse of Caine- she must correct for the sin of Caine by making a sacrifice pleasing to god on behalf of all vampires- a lamb without blemish. The only problem is that the conditions for making a valid sacrifice to god in the post-covenant period according to the books of Moses require that their be a functioning temple in Jerusalem, built according to very exacting specifications on the location that now holds the Dome of the Rock. This elder is planning to blow up the Dome of the Rock to help advance this process. Doing so will almost certainly start a religious war between Jews and Muslims. Can you stop her before it’s too late?

17. True, Malkavians are incurably insane, but their primary derangement can change, and for some Malkavians moving away from more overtly destructive forms of insanity is the difference between unlife and final death. Moreover, even if they do not wish to change it, they can learn to manage their derangement, ensuring that it is not triggered at the worst possible time. It is perhaps unsurprising then that there are a handful of undead psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists who specialise in the mental ailments of the Malkavians. A member of the coterie is encouraged to seek out such a therapist, only to discover that her clinician has been killed. Further investigation reveals a string of suspicious deaths among practitioners of this most rare form of mental health management.

18. It’s not often that vampires fly, and it’s even rarer that they fly in high altitude aircraft. A Malkavian is claiming that, above a certain height from the surface of the earth, certain aspects of the clan curses and the manipulations of the Jyhad begin to fade. The mind clears, the body feels stronger, and a perfect and beautiful longing, long ago suppressed, begins to fill the heart.

19. A new Iconnu monitor has arrived in the city. It’s weird, because this city is, at best, of moderate size and contains no Kindred more potent than the 9th generation. No one has a clue why a 5th generation Methuselah has turned up to intently watch everyone, and no one is happy about it.

20. Why are the Sabbat acquiring functional space suits with camera mediated vision? Are they planning a daytime assault, or something even weirder?

21. You discover that a certain elder, widely reviled as a heartless bastard, has been generously patronising a particular charity dedicated to an obscure medical condition for many years. Is this a clue to his past? A keyhole view into a sinister plot?

22. Your Coterie become aware that an ancient vampire slumbers under a particular patch of forest that is soon to be bulldozed. You very much do not want this elder to awaken, and so you join a group of forest-defenders trying to deter loggers.

23. A twisted Ventrue stalks the city. He can only survive on blood of those who are either dying, or have just died, by suicide. He uses dominate and presence to persuade targets they no longer wish to live. Unfortunately he’s a friend of the prince. Whether for alturistic or pragmatic reasons your coterie plan to assassinate him. Can you stop this sicko without getting caught?

24. The three-fold mirror is an artefact which shows three separate reflections for each vampire who views it- a corpse, a human and a beast. It is said that the relative size, disposition and character of each of these images gives valuable clues as to the true nature of a vampire. It is said that gazing into it can fill a vampire with self-knowledge, and perhaps even help them attain Goloconda.

25. The circlet of bone and diamond is an ancient thing. Its wearer gains total immunity to illusion and mental influence, and all who hear the bearer know that they do not intentionally speak any lies. However, the wearer loses forever the capacity to lie to others, and even to deceive themselves. Who hunts for it, and who dares to put it on?

26. Archaeological science marvels at its latest find- an obsidian axe head found beneath a pile of bones and fire-ash in an ancient cave, covered blood which somehow still seems fresh and slimy.

27. The book of the accuser is a 256 page book of blank pages. If you place a strand of hair into it from any creature, mortal or immortal, it will transform into a biography of that creature. This is not an ordinary biography, it is written with knowledge of every moment of that subject’s life, and selects events and incidents so as to portray its subject in the worst possible light it can while remaining truthful. It revels in unstitching every vile secret, every hypocrisy that seemed so small at the time.

29. Crossover with ‘Honey Heist’. It turns out the prince of your city is a bear masquerading as an old Gangrel. Not a werebear, not even a bear that has somehow been turned into a vampire- just a bear much smarter than the average bear, and very good at disguises. Frankly the fact that the prince was calling themselves “Count Bearcula” should have been a tippoff. Your coterie finds out, and in exchange for keeping the secret, the prince offers to make you its right paw men, so long as you can supply it with vast quantities of honey and salmon.

30. For the last six weeks vampires in your city have been dealing with some weird shit. Specifically they’ve been finding the words “He’s coming” written everywhere. In Elysium, at the foot of their beds when they wake up in the evening, sometimes seemingly under their eyelids. Everyone assumed that some dread horror was soon to arrive, probably waking up from under the city. Those that could flee did. Shit got weirder last night though when the words “He’s gone” were found all over the city. Most vampires ‘breathed’ a sigh of relief and got on with it. You and your mates say ‘fuck that’ though. Who the fuck does ‘He’ think he is, terrorising your town like that? You’re going after him.

31. Someone has just published “Vampire, the Masquerade” in the world of Vampire the Masquerade! Not just an approximation either- it’s the whole core book. The Camarilla are simultaneously disturbed by the Masquerade breach, and by the claims it makes about the nature of the Jyhad, even the Sabbat are terrified. Worse, a catalogue at the back of the book promises that future releases will include books detailing the secrets of all the clans, sects and of various elders. Confusion, fear and even offence fill the hearts of Kindred globally. The publisher is shrouded in mystery, but there’s some indication that it’s coming from your city. Every imaginable party is sending people to investigate, but your prince, fearful of losing her own head, has demanded that you- along with every other vampire present- find out what has happened immediately.

32. The party find a phone with a contact list including all the names of every Antediluvian, Caine and even the second generation. No doubt it’s a Malkavian prank or something, but dare they ring a number to confirm? How long will they be psyched out by a phone?

33. An alien invasion by classic blue skinned Hollywood aliens! A heroic resistance by the peoples of earth! Cainites and other supernaturals doing their best to intervene while remaining in the shadows! It’s all terribly exciting, but then comes the twist- it appears the invaders have their own equivalent of the curse of Caine.

34. You find a passage to another world- a strange place lit through bioluminescent fungi- a cave with chambers so vast they could contain oceans. Down there, beneath the notice of the sun, you find humans who went below the surface to escape the wrath of the flood- and their vampiric overlords who rule openly without fear of day.

35. Ever heard of a poetry mill? It’s a bizarre scam whereby people enter a ‘poetry competition’ only to be told that they are one of the winners, and sold a copy of the anthology. These things have a very low circulation, because only the ‘winners’ (of which, admittedly, there might be dozens) buy them. Most entries are… not of great quality. Somehow you wind up with a copy of one of these books, and several poems are execrably written elegies about the Kindred condition. Do you investigate the potential Masquerade breach or leave it be?

36. A new find near the cave where the dead-sea scrolls were discovered leads to a publication in a respected journal of religious archaeology. Unfortunately no Kindred seem to have spotted it before it came out, because it is unmistakably a substantial portion of the book of Nod.

37. A museum of wax figurines features several unlabelled sculptures which appear to be uncomfortably close to the likeness of several famous Kindred.

38. A strange wight stalks the city, not only killing mortals but embracing childer. His childe in turn are wights, though mercifully these wights are not aiming to embrace their own childer- yet.

39. An antitribu Nosferatu advance scout has infiltrated the city. Powerful in the ways of Obsfucate, he is systematically embracing childer with no concern for the Masquerade or even Sabbat creation rites. In a single night, working alleys and backstreets, he has already embraced two dozen. He simply kills them, feeds them a mouthful of blood and leaves them to frenzy. The city vampiric and mortal authorities are on the brink of collapse, and the sheer volume of childer has made him impossible to track. If he is not stopped soon he may topple Camarilla control of the city on his own.

40. The above but exponentially worse. He leaves a short note with each of his childer, warning them to hide and seek shelter from the sun, and telling them that they may cure their condition and return to normalcy if they kill, then feed blood, to five mortals.

41. In the most ancient of imaginable tombs, a vampire is found in the receding Siberian Permafrost. This vampire isn’t of the 5th, 4th or even 3rd generation though- as far as anyone can determine, her blood is equivalent of the 15th generation, though she has some unusual abilities not possessed by contemporary thin bloods. When the language barrier is finally overcome, she explains that she was hiding from the younger generations of vampires, for each was more powerful than the last. She is confused by her excavator’s contentions that vampiric generations are each weaker than the previous because in her time the opposite was true.

42. Most of the elders who received ‘The call’ left for the Middle East. However, some weren’t called there but instead to another purpose entirely. As many as a quarter of the elders were called to pretend they were going to the middle east, and then hide themselves among the neonates and ancillae, watching them on behalf of the hidden masters. Some simply hide, while the more skilled infiltrators move to new cities and pretend to be of much younger blood then they really are. Perhaps a portion of them have even had their powers of deception and disguise boosted by the Antediluvians for this purpose. Your coterie cracks the truth- and is pursued by elder assassins for their trouble.

43. Some of the remaining elders begin to receive the call en masse. This time though, they are not being called to the middle east. This time, they are being called to Antarctica??? Curious Neonates investigate.

44. The Cappadocians- even if we do not count the Harbingers of Skulls, Laibon or the Samedi-, are not extinct- around thirty remain. According to Beckett’s Jyhad diary, it was almost exclusively elders among them who survived the purge, slumbering in forgotten crypts. Because their Antedeluvian is dead, their elders do not feel the call to the middle east, and the mass of deaths caused by the second inquisition causes them to stir from torpor. The Cappadocians reason that the current situation presents them with an unparalleled opportunity to seize power, for while they may be small in number, they are also among a handful of elders who remain outside the middle east. They begin the process of embracing new members, and orchestrating attempts to seize praxis.

45. You’ve been commissioned by a patriotic Greek Methuselah for what may be history’s greatest heist- stealing and returning the Elgin Marbles.

46. A collection of Minor bloodlines and clans often thought extinct or mythical have seized a discrete and highly defensible allotment of territory, such as New Zealand, a slice of Australia such as Perth, or other isolated stronghold. Relations with the Camarilla are tense, but may yet be salvageable. Against the protest of some of the clans, a coterie of relatively young elders has been sent to negotiate their possible inclusion in the sect, or at least a peace. Every single one of them has a double mission, assigned to them by the power-brokers of their own clans, and many of these double missions are contradictory to each other.

47. A liberal faction within the Vatican Entity holds that redemption can be bought to all- even vampires. To try and quell the wrath of the Second Inquisition, you have been directed to assist and strengthen this faction by any means necessary. This will be church politics dirtier than any that have been seen since the Borgias.

48. The Assamite ritual “From Marduk’s throat” (See Lore of the Clans page 31) allows a vampire to lower their generation without Diablerie, albeit with supreme effort. It does not even require the destruction of another vampire to achieve. How would the balance of power change if knowledge of this ritual leaked and became commonplace?

49. Why don’t more vampires take advantage of the possibility of living underwater? It’s a lot cheaper than a habourside apartment. There’s plenty of space, you’ll be almost impossible to find, fire doesn’t work, lots of places to seek shelter from the sun, plenty of animal blood, no reason you can’t come out hunt humans. Overall, living on coasts and rivers seems ideal for the Kindred. You could take this in two ways: 1. It’s just an odd hangup, clever kindred could seize the opportunity. 2. There’s a very, very good reason most Kindred don’t do it, it’s just not talked about much. Both could be interesting to explore in a chronicle or arc.

50. The prince of the city is a cruel tyrant who takes their right to vet potential progeny very seriously. The coterie have been embraced without her permission, and she orders them, their sires and any extant mortal family to be flayed to death as a deterrent. Even as the words leave her mouth, a terrible change overtakes the prince, for her humanity had been waning for a long time, and this finally pushes her over the edge. In the middle of Elysium she enters wassial and begins assaulting kindred in attendance. After she is despatched the question arises who is to replace her? The players are on black ice- despite the awful end of the previous prince, it is possible that the new prince will order them and/or their sires executed. They’d best use this temporary reprieve to make themselves useful, well liked, or both, fast.

51. The coterie are called to meet with an elder of the city, perhaps even the prince. Upon arriving the elder reveals that she is desperately lonely and simply wishes to spend time away from the necessities of politics. She explains that she feels this is only possible with neonates, as any other vampires would try to use her desire for friendship as a point of leverage. After enjoying a night of entertainment (ideas include cards, watching a movie or even a tabletop role-playing game), she asks that the coterie keep their time with her secret so no one will attempt to use her loneliness against her. Do the characters reciprocate her kindness, or try to wield her own soft side against her?

52. Strange beings are hunting kindred. It would appear they cannot permanently die, if killed they reappear the next night. Even attempts to hold them captive fail- after an hour or so they simply vanish. How can vampires defend themselves against the truly immortal?