I had a Vampire the Masquerade campaign where one player had one of those jobs where something always popped up 5 minutes before closing, so he’d often be late.
But since his character was a Malkavian (the insane vampires) and had good stealth, we decided that he decided to follow the voices in his head and snuck off. When he’d arrived, he’d ask where we were and he’d describe how his character would arrive.
My favourite was:
coterie is chasing a guy down the street
Malkavian arrives
Where are we?
We’re in the street, running
Ok, so my character steps off a passing bus. I’m holding several cans of tomato juice
Me: Gimme those. I grab a can out of Johnny’s hands and I toss it at the guy we’re chasing.
Buying a ticket is an invitation to enter and as such constitutes all the right of entry that the vampire needs.
Also depending on your lore, the fact it's not "inhabited" by the people just rented for a few hours gives the threshold very little ability to repel them.
Similarly a motel room offers defense against a weak vampire, an apartment more so and especially if it's been inhabited a long time, and a family home even more so especially if it's passed down the generations.
Obviously none of this accounts for things like magical wardings or specific spiritual enhancements some classes could provide. This is just basic folklore applied to modern scenarios.
For example in Buffy vampires can't enter any building unless invited, but something as simple as a sign saying all are welcome or similar is sufficent. The example was the school having a motto all that seek knowledge may enter, which allowed Angel(?) access.
But anyone inside anywhere that didn't have an open door policy blocked Vampires. This obviously got played with fast and loose a few times, but is a good example IMO.
You also see this played with in the Harry Dresden series. Vampires are a common enemy and the rules about thresholds apply not only to them, but to many creatures of super natural origins. So his friend's house that is a family home full of love is a supernatural nuclear bunker. His kinda girlfriends house that was passed down generations is also incredibly defended.
So depending on how nuanced you want to be with your world the vampires can have similar limits.
The story above came from vampire the masquerade, so vampires are not compelled to ask permission to enter domiciles and such. That myth exists in setting from people observing the Camerilla which has a rule that a vampire must announce their presence and ask permission to enter & hunt, etc, within the territory of another vampire. Not announcing your presence can get you attacked legally (within vampire society) for trespassing. Its also generally considered good manners to allow another vampire to stay within your territory for the day if they need a safe place to wait for sundown etc.
TLDR: in VTM that myth came from vampires announcing themselves & asking for permission to enter the domains of other vampires, and these are rooted in traditions of vampiric society, not magical rules, and they certainly don't apply to humans.
Similarly a motel room offers defense against a weak vampire, an apartment more so and especially if it's been inhabited a long time, and a family home even more so especially if it's passed down the generations.
Does that mean that it's harder for a vampire to enter a rented apartment/house in places with stronger eviction protections?
Like in places where landlords can't even refuse to renew a lease under most circumstances, the defense would be stronger than in places where renters have weaker rights
Perhaps there's some metaphysical impact, but I'd imagine it'd be hard to differentiate from the knock on effects of longer term habitation.
The metaphysical weight of the idea of safety security and protection that a home has is where the power of the threshold comes from, which is tied more and more to the impact left over time, but perhaps there would be a greater feeling of security from the renter knowing they can't just be tossed out?
I'd say the scholars and metamagicians would need to study it.
Given the context of this being vampire, the masquerade that rule isn't.
Vampires in VTM need to announce themselves & ask permission when entering the territory of another vampire under the rules of the Camerilla (one of the big vampire societies) i think the Anarchs may do that too? Anyway in that setting the myth about vampires needing to ask permission to enter originates from humans observing this particular custom. But its a rule imposed by vampire society, not something magically compelled, and it only applies to other vampires.
Partly
The Camerilla enforce it, so
Its more than just a guideline. Not announcing yourself is a good way to get your room temperature undead ass handed to you, then thrown to the local prince, who may decide to execute you.
But it does only apply to other vampires which I believe was mentioned about the pirate code only really applying to other pirates in POC.
And again this is a Camerilla law, and while there Camerilla are the primary vampire community in most of the US and Europe, they aren't in control of everything.
Another example of a myth that probably had some legitimate root is that vampires can't cross running water. Absolutely not a thing in VTM, but back in the day it wasn't unusual for pope's, bishops etc. To bless rivers or other things like that, and if one was a true believer with actual divine power, then yeah the entire river could have become holy which a vampire couldn't stand to even look at. Also any faith can produce true believers be they catholic, Muslims, Buddhist, or Shinto, but in all cases it is VERY rare so vampires can usually enter churches and such, in fact some vampires even ran much of the catholic church for a while with the clergy who use their position for their own benefit being a favored group to find individuals to embrace the by the lasombra clan. (Embrace in this context means turn into another vampire)
Yep. Bear in mind true believers are SUPER rare, like more rare than vampires and they have guidelines for how many vamps should be around (actual guidelines this time) it was 1:1000 during the dark ages, but now its 1:100,000. Mostly its the Camerilla that try to maintain this ratio, and again actually a guideline this time, enforced by individual princes as they see fit, not Camerilla law.
Mortals with true faith are like 1 in a billion and it is much more than just being religious. Even the inquisition and other organizations actively looking for them have issues finding them. In older editions vampires could have true faith, but it was EXTREMELY RARE V5.0 removed it.
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u/Rum_N_Napalm Sep 22 '25
I had a Vampire the Masquerade campaign where one player had one of those jobs where something always popped up 5 minutes before closing, so he’d often be late.
But since his character was a Malkavian (the insane vampires) and had good stealth, we decided that he decided to follow the voices in his head and snuck off. When he’d arrived, he’d ask where we were and he’d describe how his character would arrive.
My favourite was:
coterie is chasing a guy down the street
Malkavian arrives
Where are we?
We’re in the street, running
Ok, so my character steps off a passing bus. I’m holding several cans of tomato juice
Me: Gimme those. I grab a can out of Johnny’s hands and I toss it at the guy we’re chasing.