While the Gangrel curse does strike hard at the moment of embrace as that of the Nosferatu does, each slip of control risks becoming irreversibly and obviously less human. Many Gangrel, already outsiders or outcasts before they became vampires, make the best of the situation or even revel in their new hardiness, swiftly settling into a life as a thinking predator in the liminal zone between human habitation and the deep wilderness. A few Gangrel, mostly young, strive to maintain a semblance of civilised life; however, with each fall to the Beast making the effort harder, many abandon the attempt and join their Clanmates on the fringes.

Those Gangrel who withdraw from human society but do not utterly shun interaction with other vampires often, by inclination or lack of choice, take up the roles of enforcers—official or not—or guards for more political vampires. A very few succeed in becoming political powers in their own right.

Whether from some aspect of their curse or a conscious choice to embody their animalistic nature, many Gangrel model their social arrangements on carnivores, either living as lone predators or in a pack; those who do bond into packs differ on how it is organised and who might join. While most of these care only that their choice is not infringed, some believe that there is a single right answer that all Gangrel should adopt.

While the Gangrel are no more likely to discard their mortal beliefs than members of any other Clan, the Clan as a whole displays no strong identification with any nations or religions. Tales told when Gangrel meet sometimes mention the exploits of Ennoia, the Gangrel Antediluvian, over the millenia. However, if any Gangrel does know her current location and whether she is active they are not sharing it, and most Gangrel do not care.

Naturally possessed of disciplines that aid in living beyond civilisation and frequently not disposed to constant social contact, the Gangrel are suited to the vast tracts of forest and mountain that fill much of Bavaria, making them one of the most populous Clans if all were somehow to be counted. However, while some gather in packs or maintain good relations with their neighbours, they acknowledge no unified leadership and feel no sense of loyalty to the Clan, meaning these numbers do not currently translate into political power.

However the recent growth of towns and cities in Bavaria, and of agriculture, mining, and other human exploitation of the land, threatens to make the Gangrel's age-old advantage a problem: unlike most Clans, human expansion eats into many Gangrel's natural hunting grounds rather than expanding them. Some Gangrel believe it is past time to act, although they do not agree on whether the solution is to stop the change or find a place within it.

East of Bavaria, in Hungary and other areas beneath the Tzimisce Voivodate, Gangrel live almost in symbiosis with individual voivode, having almost free rein within an individual realm in exchange for acknowledging and protecting the voivoide's total ownership of the lands. Some of these Gangrel have defected to the west, seeking a different unlife. Others have travelled to Bavaria as representatives of voivode who, seeing it as more proper or more practical, choose to send a powerful warrior rather than a glib diplomat.

Gangrel rarely create human ghouls. When they do, most see it as a way of temporarily strengthening a human who is both a proven survivor and already devoted to a cause the Gangrel currently pursues rather than the start of a permanent relationship.
The notable exception to this is those Gangrel who have chosen to embrace rather than tolerate mortal or vampire society, who might choose to keep a servant to support a stylish residence and the conventions that go with social status, or bond a powerful member of the local community to provide ongoing political access. However, even the most political Gangrel are unlikely to maintain close to the stable of ghouls a Ventrue or Toreador might.

Many Gangrel are loners by nature, and those that are not often hold territory with only a sparse human population; thus due to some mix of character and pragmatism, Gangrel bestow the embrace infrequently compared to the average vampire. However, the human side can get lonely so Gangrel do succumb to the desire for childer, whether to expand a pack or have a neighbour to occasionally interact with.

When they do embrace, most Gangrel tend to embrace those who already survive on the fringes of society: foresters, outlaws, and others who have proven they can endure—or even enjoy—living without the comforts of civilisation. Those Gangrel who seek to live in packs also give more weight to compatibility of character but even the most group minded of Gangrel is likely to prefer a child who can survive being beaten down in an argument to one who does not argue.

Although the Gangrel curse can steal someone's human appearance as much as that of the Nosferatu, Gangrel are unlikely to even consider using the Embrace as a punishment.