From the World of Darkness website:

Vampire: The Masquerade is the original roleplaying game of personal and political horror. You are a vampire, struggling for survival, supremacy, and your own fading humanity - afraid of what you are capable of, and fearful of the inhuman conspiracies that surround you.

I'll be frank and say that a lot of liberties get taken with the source material because my familiarity with the game is from the revised edition published back in '98, and let's face it--a lot of the material has about as much good taste as hot dog water laced with radioactive dirt. Most of these liberties are directly related to fixing some broken functionality/play-ability (especially regarding cross-property WoD interactions and more general cross-canon stuff) and trying to make it less of a bummer to engage with in general. Mostly writing out the following for friends so y'all don't have to suffer through the wiki pages.



Some basic vocab:

Kindred } What vampires call themselves and each other.

Kine } What they call humans.

Ghoul } A human that has ingested a vampire's blood. Doing so a certain number of times will both bond them to the vampire emotionally, making it difficult to resist orders and requests, as well as granting them some amount of power as well as incredible longevity if they continue to drink vampire blood at regular intervals.

The Masquerade } How vampires live in secret. It's considered to be a law in the Camarilla (see Sects) and is generally respected by all Kindred. Lots of faking humanity, taking great pains to not be found out, and not fucking around with the Second Inquisition (that one does what it says on the tin).

The Kiss } A very romantic way to speak about feeding from humans. A very pleasurable experience. See here for permissions info.

The Beast } The personification of hunger and loss of humanity within a vampire. Might also be a demon thing, depends on who you ask.

Frenzy } When a vampire loses control over their beast. It gets gnarly, and violent.

The Embrace } The act of creating another vampire. The human must be drained of blood and given vampire blood immediately.

Sire } The vampire that made you.

Childe/Childer } The vampires a sire has Embraced.

Clan } Vampires exist with distinct 'families' of blood that can be traced back to the original vampire, Caine (or Set, depending on who you ask). Each clan has its own powers and weaknesses, and vampires are generally very loyal to their clans.

Sect } How vampires ally and organize themselves politically.

-The Camarilla- Arguably the most organized and powerful sect in kindred society. They maintain the status quo among kindred for both protection and power.
-The Sabbat- Loosely organized, typically painted as the bad sect because some of them have dark rituals about baby eating.
-The Anarchs- Kindred that would rather overthrow the status quo. Poorly organized, but growing in number in North America.
-The Independents- Those from clans that are not officially tied to any sect and who do not join up.

Prince } The Camarilla ruler of a city or general urban area.

Court } The group of high-ranking Camarilla vampires in a city (including the Prince, Primogen, Seneschal, Scourge, Sherrif, Harpy, Keeper of Elysium, and more bc why not I guess--not every court has every position filled) as well as the other vampires that rub elbows with them.

Elysium } Vampire neutral ground in the Camarilla. There is no fighting allowed, nor is there any breaking of the Masquerade if humans are present. Typically also where one would seek an audience with that area's Prince or other court members.

Notable clans Birdie might mention:

Daughters of Cacophony } Sirens- Birdie's clan, see a lot of lore over here.

Toreador } Roses- The classic tortured artists/art aficionados. Great at seduction and influence but very easily 'distracted' by the things they find beautiful.

Followers of Set } Corrupters- Religious (in a sense) clan that believes kindred are descended from the Egyptian god Set instead of Caine. They accept converts and have snake powers.

Ventrue } Blue Bloods- The most painfully organized clan, and they value power and dignitas. Typically found in very advantageous political and corporate positions. Good at control, very picky eaters.

Nosferatu } Clan of the Hidden- When Embraced, they get permanent deformities that mark them as being vampires and have to spend their nights in hiding. The best information network any kindred can rely on, for a price.

Malkavian } Lunatics- (Problematic, I know.) They are all connected with a magical mind network that can provide insight, mostly written off as crazy among other kindred.

Brujah } Agitators- You ever see somebody that's fight on sight with almost everyone? They can be philosopher warriors, too. Most prone to frenzy but real good at fighting stuff.

Gangrel } Clan of the Beast- Animal powers. Sometimes animal features, when they frenzy.

Lasombra } Shadows- Previously leaders in the Sabbat, they've got shadow powers and cannot cast reflections.

Tremere } Warlocks- Relatively self-isolating and powerful, if newish. They do blood magics.