Autarkis

Over the expansions we've seen a lot of additional status text for Vampires, including Red List, Black Hand; a new non-ect Anarchs; and also semi-titles like Seraph etc.

Well in the role-playing game, I always liked the idea of Autarkis. Including Autarkis in V:tES as a type of vampire is probably a dumb idea, but I'm going to include my thoughts here, maybe others will have some interesting ideas to expand on it.

I would expect an Autarkis vampire in V:tES would be considered Independent and clanless (but not Caitiff). There would probably be a restriction on their ability to cast votes in referendums.

The first thing to consider: is being Autarkis a good thing or a bad thing? Well if you want it to be a bad thing, like Red List, then you make some cards that allow you to force others to become Autarkis and make cards that do bad things to Autarkis. Red List tends to be combat oriented, you might make Autarkis the political version of it.

If you want it to be a good thing, then what are the advantages? Well like the Anarchs, Red List and Black Hand, a full set of cards would be required to support playing Autarkis vampires. Unfortunately, it would probably be just another version of "anarcks" which would be kinda dumb.

Can we have it both ways? I think so.

Hers's what I suggest: Make anti-Autarkis cards, and ways to force others to become Autarkis. Also, make Autarkis compatible with going Anarck. An Anarch Autarkis might remove some of the restrictions of being Autarkis, and at the same time you can make cards that require Autarkis.

The reasoning is that the anarchs don't have a unified political system. An Autarkis, who either by choice or force, does not have a sect, would likely be recruited by anarchs.

Ankha wrote:

Could you explain what is Autarkis?

Sorry, for those of you not versed in WoD lore, Autarkis are vampires that are excluded from sect and clan. It is either by choice they remove themselves from vampire society, or they are shunned by their sect or clan.

Politically, Autarkis hold less weight than Caitiff. By and large, no one cares if an Autarkis is killed, and if the Camarilla or Sabbat moved into an area where an Autarkis resided, the Autarkis would likely just move on.

I personally would prefer not to have a new keyword that has rules attachec (e.g. Red List). Making it something like Bahari or Camarilla would be preferably, should such a mechanic come into the game.

Of course, the current online sentiment is "no new mechanics please", so I'm not sure how this idea will go down with the community.

Seems like a fairly boring description/trait.

I'd much prefer to see them focussing on synergy between Black Hand vampires, generally more interesting and violent sabbat tactics and so on.

Introducing a non-Clan, non-Sect vampire trait that would basically only function as a penalty for vampires (e.g. Autarkis vampire cannot have titles) seems like a big pain in the butt.