Nosferatu in the Worlds Of Darkness

Nosferatu is the source of one of the most direct references in Vampire: The Masquerade and Vampire: The Requiem, with a clan named after it and modelled on its monstrous vampire.

The clan went on to borrow as much from The Phantom Of The Opera and its secret underground labyrinths and rivers, Beauty And The Beast and the 1980s TV version in particular with a heroic and sympathetic monster as guardian of a hidden underground community under the streets of New York, and other sources to create a group more physically twisted by vampirism than others and often presented as among the most empathic due to their suffering when not revelling in their monstrosity.

I had an idea for one (totally swiping from Beauty And The Beast) before the game came out but have never played him as he would be suited for adventures, mysteries and tragic romance but not for hanging out in nightclubs or other common interactions with humanity. Maybe some night.

His distance from humanity comes from the clan weakness being one of the harshest in the first four editions, where they’re clearly monstrous and walking breaches of the Masquerade. Appearance is an Attribute and they can’t have it at all. This has made them a rarity at a lot of tables.

In Vampire: The Requiem the Nosferatu might be hideous, or look human but still be somehow unnerving. The first Nosferatu PC I ever had in a chronicle was in Requiem, even though he went all-in on being repulsive.

“What do you look like?”

“Monstrous. But I wear slacks.”

From episode two

I had one in a V20 game from a brand new player who wanted a deep dive on the tragedy. One in over twenty years.

V5 has balanced the weakness so that they don’t have to be clearly inhuman, having a penalty to interaction that varies with Bane severity, which has perhaps helped. I’ve seen a couple of Nosferatu PCs since. Though they’ve all been horrific and tragic, at least they could go out sometimes.

While rare at the tabletop in my experience, Nosferatu always been popular in Vampire LARP with players who tend to like makeup effects and costuming, and their stealth playstyle and very different look works in computer games as well, to the extent that Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt launched with them as one of the three playable clans.

Andreas at Convention of Thorns,
also featured in the World Of Darkness documentary

I also include a representative Nosferatu SPC in my chronicles. These vary in style and ways to be creepy. Jonas in my longest V20 game harked back to Orlok, a gentleman with excellent manners, a great chess game, a liking for nice dark coats and a bald head covered in dark veins. I used a Reaper from Blade II as a reference.

Is he watching you right now?

Mara in my first V5 game ran with the varying Bane so that she appeared like a sickly human on lower Hunger and like a drowned corpse when higher. I borrowed Mia’s changing look in the 2013 Evil Dead as a basis. You can choose whether to look that up.

Likewise Lydia in my recent V5 game Nobody’s Home, an Anarch activist with a look taken from Kimberly in Fear The Walking Dead.

Mason in my current chronicle borrows from Omnis in Bloodhunt, a hooded and near-silent figure you never see the face of.

Omnis welcomes you.

Fun fact: Alexander Ward, famous the Nosferatu Jasper in L.A. By Night, has also played Nosferatu in Spongebob Squarepants.

Jasper

Dracula and Dracula both exist in the Vampire settings, Nosferatu may or may not, being too close to reality in Masquerade, but seems to as of V5. Florence Stoker’s attempt to have the film destroyed could be brought in as a plot point...