VAMPIRE: THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE

Acting Minion: The minion performing the current action.
Action Card: A card that a minion can play to perform a special action.
Action Modifier: A card that the acting minion can play to modify the action they are performing.
Add: By default, blood counters are added from the blood bank.
Additional Strike: Allows a minion to strike an additional time in the same round of combat, at the same range as the initial strike.
Aggravated Damage: Type of damage that vampires cannot mend. It can even burn a wounded vampire.
Ally: A non-vampire minion. Brought into play by a recruit ally action, they act independently of the minion who recruited them, but cannot act on the turn they are recruited.
Ash Heap: The discard pile. Cards that are burned or discarded are returned to their owner’s ash heap. An action that targets an ash heap is always considered to be undirected.
Attached: If a card is put on another card, both are considered attached to each other.
Assamite: Banu Haqim.
Bearer: The minion an equipment is put on. If the equipment refers to a type of bearer (for instance, “the bearer with Auspex”), then the equipment can be used only by that type of bearer.
Bleed: An action that attempts to burn another Methuselah’s pool. By default, it can only be attempted against a Methuselah’s prey.
Block: The successful attempt of a minion to prevent the action of another minion. Typically concluded with combat.
Blocking Minion: The minion currently attempting to block an action, or the minion who has successfully blocked the current action.
Blood (also Blood counter): A token representing a vampire’s capability to mend himself or to perform certain feats.
Blood Bank: Inexhaustible repository of blood counters not in use.
Blood Hunt: The act of burning a vampire that committed diablerie. A referendum is conducted to see if a blood hunt is called.
Burn: Move a card in play to the ash heap. A burned card goes to its owner’s ash heap. A burned counter or token is returned to the blood bank.
Capacity: The maximum number of blood counters a vampire can have. It is also a relative measure of the vampire’s age.
Combat Card: A card that a minion can play in combat.
Combat Ends: A strike that ends combat before any damage or other strike effects happen.
Combatant: A minion involved in a combat.
Contest: The struggle for control of a unique card or title.
Controlled Region: Area containing a Methuselah’s controlled cards.
Crypt: The deck of cards containing a Methuselah’s vampires.
Diablerie: The act of burning a vampire in torpor. Can be used to gain a Discipline.
Diablerist: A vampire who commits diablerie. A blood hunt can be called to burn a diablerist.
Directed Action: An action of one Methuselah’s minion that targets one or more other Methuselahs, or the minions or cards they control.
Discard: Move a card in hand to the ash heap.
Discard Phase Action: During your discard phase, you receive a discard phase action you can use to discard a card from your hand, or play an event card, for example.
Dodge: A strike that protects a minion and the cards on him from an opposing minion’s strike. Retainers are not protected.
Draw: Library cards are drawn from the top of the Methuselah's library into their hand. Crypt cards are drawn from the top of the Methuselah's crypt into their uncontrolled region.
Edge, The: A token symbolising who has the upper hand at any given moment.
Equipment: An object a minion uses for a special bonus or ability.
Employer: The minion a retainer is put on.
Environmental damage: Damage not coming from a minion.
Event Card: A library card that can be played as a discard phase action.
First Strike: An offensive strike done faster than normal, so that the strike resolves before a normal offensive strike would.
Follower of Set: Ministry.
Group: A number on a crypt card restricting crypt construction. A crypt card with the group “any” is not subject to the group restriction.
Hunt: The action that a vampire performs to regain blood.
Immune to damage: If a minion is immune to damage from a source, any unprevented damage from that source that is inflicted on the minion is inflicted unsuccessfully: the minion does not have to burn blood or life to mend the damage or to prevent destruction, nor does the
minion become wounded because of damage.
Impulse: The opportunity to play the next card or effect. If two or more Methuselahs want to play a card or effect, the acting Methuselah plays first. At every stage, the acting Methuselah always has the impulse. So after playing one effect, they may play another and another. Once they are finished, the impulse passes to the next Methuselah in the following order: during combat or an action directed at a single Methuselah, the defending Methuselah first; during an action directed at a set of Methuselas, those Methuselahs in clockwise order; during an  undirected action, the prey first and the predator second. Then every other Methuselah in clockwise order gets the impulse until everyone passes. Note that if at any point any Methuselah uses a card or effect, the acting Methuselah again gets the impulse back.
Intercept: A measure of how well a minion can block the action of another minion. If it equals or exceeds the acting minion’s stealth, the minion’s block is successful. Intercept cannot be played unless it is needed.
Library: The deck containing a Methuselah’s, master, minion, and event cards from which their hand is drawn.
Life (also Life Counter): A token representing a retainer’s or an ally’s health.
Limited: Some cumulative effects are forbidden by the rules. For instance, during a bleed
action, an action modifier card cannot be played to increase the bleed if the bleed amount is already being increased by another action modifier card (unless any of them does not count against that limit). Similarly, a minion cannot use more than one card or effect (a source) to gain additional strikes per round of combat. Those rules are reminded on those cards by the “(limited)” card text. (See Bleed and Additional Strikes).
Lock: Turn a card sideways. Typically done to indicate that the card has been activated for some purpose.
“Lock X to do Y” effects: Such effects cannot be used by locked minions under a wake effect. “Lock X. Do Y” effects are usable by locked minions under a wake effect.
Maneuver: The efforts of a minion in combat to move away from or to close in on the opposing minion.
Master Card: A library card that can be used as a master phase action.
Master Phase Action: The Methuselah’s personal activity for the turn.
Minion: A vampire or ally.
Minion Card: Any library card that is not a master, or event card. A card that a minion can play.
Monster: Any minion or retainer who is neither a mortal nor an animal. Vampires are monsters.
Opposing minion: From the point of view of any of the two minions involved in combat, the other one.
Out-of-Turn Master Card: A type of master card that can only be played during another Methuselah’s turn, using the next master phase action of the Methuselah playing it. A Methuselah can never play more than one out-of-turn master card between two of their turns, even if they regain a master phase action.
Performing an action: An action is being performed from the moment it is announced to the moment it is resolved.
Polling: The step of a referendum during which votes are cast.
Pool: A token or collection of tokens representing a Methuselah’s influence. A Methuselah is ousted if their pool is empty.
Predator: The person to a Methuselah’s right.
Press: The efforts of a minion in combat to escape from or to give chase to the opposing minion.
Prey: The person to a Methuselah’s left. A Methuselah receives 1 victory point and 6 pool when their prey is ousted.
Reaction Card: A card played by a Methuselah’s ready, unlocked minion in response to an action taken by a minion controlled by another Methuselah.
Ready minion: A minion in the ready region who can therefore perform actions and attempt to block actions.
Ready Region: Area containing a Methuselah’s minions that are not in torpor.
Referendum: The part of a political action or a blood hunt referendum, during which the terms are set, the votes and ballots are cast and the effects are applied (if it passes).
Retainer: A mortal creature or being that serves a minion. Brought into play by an employ retainer action, they remain with the minion who employed them and cannot act independently.
Sect: Clans do not have a default sect. This means that if a vampire changes clan, they keep their sect. New vampires take by default the sect of their the vampire creating them.
Steal (a card): A Methuselah who steals a card takes permanent control of it. The card stays in the same region as it was before (for instance, if a vampire in torpor is stolen, it stays in torpor). If the stolen card is attached to another card, the Methuselah who steals it can attach the stolen card to a card of the same type they control (for instance, a location that is attached to a minion will be moved to another minion they control). You cannot steal a card from yourself.
Stealth: A measure of how well a minion evades other minions’ attempts to block their action. If it exceeds the blocking minion’s intercept, the block fails.
Strength: The amount of damage a minion inflicts with a basic hand strike.
Strike: The effort of a minion in combat to harm their opponent or to avoid being struck by their opponent.
Target: A Methuselah or a card being affected by another card or effect (usually an action) that is not a referendum. Many cards or effects will have one or more targets, and the specific eligible targets are defined in their card texts. By default if a card targets another card, the target card must be in play (that is, controlled). Vampires in the torpor region are eligible targets by default, but vampires in the uncontrolled region and contested cards are not. Targeting a card attached to another card does not target the latter, it is therefore possible to target a card on a vampire with a directed action, even when the vampire cannot be the target of directed actions. Sets of counters on a card (such as blood on a vampire) or possessed by a Methuselah (such as pool) are never targeted directly: they can only be targeted as a quantity via the card or the Methuselah. The card or Methuselah does not need to have that exact quantity: if they do not have enough of these counters, then as many counters as possible are affected. For instance, a card that steals 2 blood from a vampire targets that vampire, whatever quantity of blood they have, and moves as much blood as possible if there is 1 or 0 blood  counters.
Thaumaturgy: Blood Sorcery.
Title: A title card is a placeholder for a title. If the title is yielded or lost, the card is burned. If the title is unique, contests are paid with vampire blood, as normal for titles.
Torpor: See Torpor Region.
Torpor Region: The Area where vampires are placed when they cannot mend damage done to them. A vampire in torpor is vulnerable to diablerie attempts. A vampire in torpor is not ready but is still considered controlled.
Transfer: Influence phase action used to move pool to or from an uncontrolled vampire or to move a card from the crypt to the uncontrolled region.
Uncontrolled Region: Area containing a Methuselah’s uncontrolled vampires.
Undirected Action: An action that is not directed. An undirected action can be blocked by the prey or the predator.
Unique: Only one copy of a unique card can be in play at a time. If another Methuselah puts a copy of the card into play, the copies will be contested (and out of play) until all but one is yielded (see Contested Cards). Vampires are unique, by default.
Unlock: Restore a card to the normal, upright, position.
Victory Point: The measure of a Methuselah’s ranking. A Methuselah receives 1 victory point when their prey is ousted and for being the last Methuselah in the game. The Methuselah with the most victory points at the end of the game wins.
Wake: A vampire that wakes during an action can attempt to block that action and/or play reaction cards as though unlocked for the duration of the action. Wake effects can always be played during the “as a card is played” window, in order to play other reaction cards that must be played in that window. A reaction card that unlocks a vampire but does not wake it is not considered as a wake effect and cannot be played during the “as a card is played” window.
Withdraw: An attempt to leave the game by a Methuselah who has run out of cards in their library.
Wounded: A vampire who has received damage that they have not mended or a vampire in torpor or on their way to torpor is said to be wounded.

WORLD OF DARKNESS GLOSSARY

The following is a glossary of some of the relevant terms of Vampire: The Masquerade.

Amaranth: The act of killing a vampire by drinking all of their blood. Commonly known as diablerie.
Anarchs: A sect of vampires who fall outside of the Camarilla and rebel against its authority.
Antediluvian: An ancient vampire, a grandchilde of Caine. Most of the major clans of the Camarilla were created by the Antediluvians.
Archon: A powerful vampire who travels from city to city, in the service of a justicar.
Baron: An Anarch ruler of a domain.
Beast, The: The drives and desires that pull Kindred away from their humanity and turn them into monsters.
Blood Bond: A mysterious link that forms between Kindred that drink one another’s blood. The blood bond can give the donor control of the recipient.
Blood Hunt: A system of punishment for vampires who disregard the laws of the Masquerade. The hunted vampire is slain by those who heed the call.
Book of Nod, The: The sacred book of the Kindred, which allegedly traces their origins and history. Most of it has been lost to time.
Caine: The first vampire, from whom all other vampires are allegedly descended.
Camarilla, The: A sect made up of several clans that have banded together and are governed by the Traditions.
Canaille: Mortals, especially referring to the most unsavory elements of mortal society.
Clan: A group of vampires that share certain mystical and physical characteristics.
Consanguineous: Belonging to the same clan (usually used to refer to a younger member).
Domain: The fiefdom (usually a city) claimed by a vampire, most often a prince.
Elysium: The name given to a place where Camarilla elders meet.
Embrace: The act of transforming a mortal into a vampire.
Gehenna: The impending Armageddon in which the Antediluvians will rise up and devour all Kindred.
Ghoul: A mortal who drinks the blood of a vampire but has not been drained beforehand.
Haven: A vampire’s “home”; where they find sanctuary from the sun.
Inner Circle: The group of vampires who comprise the ruling body of the Camarilla.
Justicar: A vampire who serves as judge, jury and executioner of Camarilla vampires who have broken the Traditions.
Kindred: The term that vampires use to refer collectively to their kind. Sabbat vampires scorn the term.
Kine: A term for mortals, largely contemptuous.
Masquerade, The: The Tradition of keeping mortals ignorant of the existence of vampires, essential to survival.
Methuselah: A powerful vampire, thousands of years old (but still a few generations younger than the Antediluvians), involved in the Eternal Struggle from afar or in complete anonymity.
Praxis: The right of a prince to rule a domain.
Primogen: A council of vampires in a city that supports the city’s ruling prince.
Prince: A Camarilla vampire who rules a city and enforces the Traditions upon the city’s vampire population.
Retainer: A mortal or creature that serves a vampire master.
Sabbat, The: A violent sect of vampires bent on destroying the Antediluvians.
Sect: A group of Kindred arguably united under a common philosophy.
Traditions, The: The six laws of the Camarilla. These Traditions are laws that protect the vampires from mortals and from one another.
Vitae: Blood of a vampire.