Frenzy (World of Darkness)

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World of Darkness Vampire series

Settings Dark Ages Victorian Age Masquerade Eternal Struggle Requiem

Vampirism Blood bond · Blood point · Bloodline · Clan · Childe · Dhampir · Diablerie · Discipline · Embrace · Frenzy · Ghoul · Revenant · Rötschreck · Vitae · Wassail

Masquerade society Anarchs · Antitribu · Autarkis · Black Hand · Blood hunt · Bloodline · Caitiff · Camarilla · Clan · Inconnu · Laibon · Kuej-jin · Masquerade · Sabbat · Tal'mahe'Ra

Masquerade Mythology Caine · Lilith · Antediluvians · Book of Nod · Revelations of the Dark Mother · The Erciyes Fragments ·

Masquerade History Cainite Heresy · Time of Thin Blood · Gehenna

Requiem Requiem Clans · Requiem Bloodlines · Carthian Movement · Circle of the Crone · Invictus · Lancea Sanctum · Ordo Dracul This box: view • talk • edit

In White Wolf Game Studio's role-playing games set in the World of Darkness, a frenzy is a temporary state of rage and lack of self-control that a vampire character enters as a response to certain stimuli. During the frenzy, the vampire's inner Beast is in control.

The most common causes for a frenzy are:

• Anger or frustration: the vampire cannot keep his emotions under control.
• Danger: the vampire senses danger (real or imaginary) and reacts with a preemptive attack on (what he believes is) the source.
• Hunger: the vampire's blood pool (reserve of vitae) is dangerously low; he craves for blood and will try to feed from anyone in sight.
• Shame: the vampire feels embarrassed and attacks the source of his humiliation (and sometimes also its witnesses).
• Temptation: the vampire is tempted by the inner Beast to perform sinful actions, and cannot resist.

Some vampires can and do deliberately induce frenzy ("summoning the Beast"), and then try to direct their instincts ("riding the Beast") for specific purposes.

[edit] Effects

Wounds received during the frenzy will not impact on the character's dice pool (the amount of dice he can roll for actions, which normally decrease when the character is wounded). That is, the vampire receives damage but ignores some of its effects.

The Beast that commands the frenzy has a strong will of its own; the vampire can employ the mental Discipline of Domination on others more easily, and will forcefully resist being Dominated by others. The frenzied vampire will also be able to perform certain actions that in a normal state he would not attempt unless he succeeds in a Willpower roll.

A frenzied vampire may enter the uncontrollable state of fear known as Rötschreck when/if threatened by fire or sunlight.

[edit] Real-world parallels

The frenzy can be seen as a vampiric equivalent of the legendary berserk state (the beast-like fury attained by certain Norse warriors). This term has been used widely in other games (role-playing and otherwise) in order to indicate a state of rage, usually implying an unnatural strength at the expense of self-preservation and defense skills.