Vampires call themselves “Kindred,” but some are closer kin than others. The connection between sire and childe carries supernatural power. Kindred can affect their immediate, linear “family” with their Disciplines more easily than they affect other vampires.
For this purpose, all Kindred within two Embrace “steps” away from each other count as immediate family and are subject to this effect. Therefore, a character receives the bloodtie bonus to affect her sire, her sire’s sire, her childer and her childer’s childer.
The character receives a +2 bonus when she tries to affect these close “relatives” with Auspex, Dominate, Nightmare and Majesty.
Other Disciplines state when such bonuses apply in their write-ups. Certain bloodline Disciplines may apply as well.
A character must try to affect a “relative” directly with the Discipline in question. The bonus is not gained by a character for using a Discipline on herself and then doing something to another Kindred. For example, a character does not receive a bonus to hit a relative while using Vigor. Likewise, indirect powers don’t enjoy the bonus. A character employing the Auspex power Spirits Touch does not receive the bonus. That Discipline affects the character herself, and what she does with the capability is incidental. Powers that affect targets automatically without the need for a player to make a dice roll do not gain any bonus. Further, the bloodtie bonus does not apply to any resistance to which a subject is entitled (logically, if the user gained a bonus and the subject gained the same bonus, that bonus would be effectively negated). The bonus is awarded only to the proactive user of a given power.
- Example: Prince Asa Clarke decides he doesn’t want to continue an argument with his childe, REDACTED, so he orders her to forget about it — and backs up his command with Dominate. Maxwell’s player would normally roll 12 dice for this effort. Because Persephone is Maxwell’s childe, however, Maxwell’s player rolls 14 dice instead.
Vampire Glossary
