Roleplaying VtM at the TCI board?

No G and K, and no old French names, please for the love of a rock ! XD


You expect some Bloodlines-like game, then, except maybe for the pure combat part, Childe ? Sure some physical action will be asked if the players go for a physical approach of the problem (cf. the Astrolite problem)

Simi, I've had many childish players, so I'd rather be "strict" ; I'll avoid most thaumaturgical paths, bloodlines and metaplots for 5th generation characters, because I don't want players to poke around every book published for the little detail to have the uber leet character (which always happens one way or another - optimisation, I hate that ^^). So to keep it simple for the ones that have never RPG, and accessible, so everyone can have fun under nice known borders.


As a ST, what I expect you to do is create a human that (might/may/will) enter the World of Darkness (ghouled and sired or directly sired) between 1960 and today, according to the setting and our city. I wouldn't like a afro-american character all about civic liberties and retribution for slavery if we're going to play in Mexico City (Mexico has little history with african slavery) or Spain or the UK. Saying this, I think Mexico City or Paris are great cities to have a Vampire game in, so I'd go with either.


The game is a contract between a ST and the players. My job is to create for you a good story, with NPCs you can get attached to (or hate with all your heart), intrigues and stuff you can have action on (well, in Vampire, there is a big degree of hopelessness and desperation, because it's a world of darkness, but that's fine), to show you the environment around you and allow you to do anything you can do in it (except making necropols fall from the sky). This is not a Door, Monster, Treasure game
My goal isn't to fanfic "my" setting and having huge dialogues between the Primogen and the Prince in which you can do nothing, players have weight and are part of the setting, as much as any NPC.
Your job as players consist in going along with whatever my decisions are. Your Dominate failed on this person, and I will not explain why (you can still investigate and find out he's a ghoul under Tremere ritual or he's a Mage or your generation wasn't low enough..), and follow the persona you've created (you created a gifted pianist, calm and inventive, you're not going to enter combat at every opportunity possible)


But then, this all depends on what Eliza wants to do, after all this is her idea.

Please, PLEASE do not have characters like the one I listed. I was joking, about exactly the type of player you mentioned... the one who calls for "Moar dots!"

I do not want to play anything older than Neonate. Starting as a human sounds good. It will be up to the player to come up with a concept for the character that would explain why some Kindred elder would want to Embrace you in the first place. Are you connected to the police? Do you have criminal experience? Or are you just pretty, and happen to bear a resemblance to your sire's 'long-lost love', and now you're paying the price for his sentimentality?

I do know the revised edition rules very well, but I can ignore this fact during role-play, if necessary.

This idea is sounding more interesting all the time.

PGM1961 wrote:

Please, PLEASE do not have characters like the one I listed. I was joking, about exactly the type of player you mentioned... the one who calls for "Moar dots!"...Starting as a human sounds good...

I knew you were joking and you made me laugh. It was the authenticity your inside knowledge lent to your rant, combined with your rhythm that did it for me. I didn't know what you were talking about, but I knew you knew what you were talking about.

Starting as a human sounds good to me too.

I liked Eliza's, "set post order" idea simply because I can only type 30 words per minute and also because my mind slows me down. The less colloquial the post, the longer it takes me to produce it. For instance: The "This is how men are made." bit took me ten minutes to complete.

So, if Eliza's okay with it, I vote for Claudia to act in the capacity of Story Teller with the fullness of her power as specified in her previous posts. Furthermore, Eliza should be in direct communion with Claudia, availing herself especially to the creation of setting and NPC's ('cause my insticts tell me she'll be good at it after having read her, "Alltägliche Pflichten") and to any other duties which may more aptly facilitate a hypostatic union between herself and Claudia.

8people wrote:

It seems a slower system I guess. I've been a player and ST for many years and have read most the material from revised and second edition as well as the other gamelines. Could probably participate until I can get a group together either playing and/or helping out the storyteller.

Might she be the complice of a possible triumvirate?!

I hope so.

8people, will you make it so? Please?

z.o.o. wrote:

PGM1961 wrote:

Please, PLEASE do not have characters like the one I listed. I was joking, about exactly the type of player you mentioned... the one who calls for "Moar dots!"...Starting as a human sounds good...

I knew you were joking and you made me laugh. It was the authenticity your inside knowledge lent to your rant, combined with your rhythm that did it for me. I didn't know what you were talking about, but I knew you knew what you were talking about.

Actually, I made up most of that stuff, especially the part about the merit ""Caine's Favorite" (from an April 1st blog post on the White Wolf website, but it's still canon)". As far as I know, no such merit was ever posted by White Wolf, even as an April Fool's joke; but the idea of some little munchkin taking an April Fool's post seriously, just to make his character more powerful -- I found that thought amusing. As a Storyteller, I would not allow a player to do any of that.

"A 5th Generation Gangrel/Ventrue/Tremere crossbreed with True Faith"... Well, the lowest Generation for a starting player is 8th Gen. (Not counting later Diablerie.) As for the cross-breed part... White Wolf said in one of the Storytellers supplements that if more than one Kindred's blood is used to Embrace a mortal, they recommend that the lowest Generation blood is the one that takes precedence, or that the new fledgling is Caitiff. They do NOT get starting disciplines from multiple clans.

As for True Faith... WW said it was remotely possible for Kindred to have this level of faith, but not recommended for player characters.

The part about the dragon/unicorn/water elemental mount was pure silliness, making fun of the weird mounts possible in World of Warcraft. A friend told me about some of the mounts available, and a few are almost that stupid.

PGM,

Your joke was so perfectly constructed that i missed most of the fun due my lack of knowledge.

feelsbadman.jpg

Alright !

PGM, no there wouldn't be characters you've described, not even for big NPC :-) But I can assure you I have seen characters like that, and what's more scary, official White Wolf NPC. Samuel Haight is one hell of a bad example. This is why I do not encourage to read up all revised books (except maybe the basic corebook). I have read probably all of them, even "local" versions (WoD France for instance) approuved by the wolf, novels, comics and stuff, but expect for a couple of nice and fun details, it's completly useless for players and story tellers.

Eliza, PM me about what you want to do and delegate

C-C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER

Can I start making my character in the proper section of the forum? The sooner we start the better the chances of pulling this off, stalling makes people loose interest Anyway, Mexico is a Sabbath-heavy town and Paris is full of French people (suprisingly). Perhaps some other city, preferably an old European one like Moscow - now that'd be fun

Hey, don't even think about the official BG of Mexico city, I'll turn it up as a Camarilla city (don't even bother with Shaitan, he does not exist, nor in legend )

Paris' history is very easy and there are many occult secrets usable and to immerge ourselves (besides I have more pictures of Paris than I have of Moscou). Most of us are from European and Occidental culture, I don't think I can pull up a slavic, nordic way of thinking and make it immersive for all of you.

I'd love to make a campaign in Tokyo too, again, "my world, my rules" so making it a Camarilla (new) city that's very possible (Kuei Jin did not even exist in the first games, we have Indian and Chinese "cainites" ^^)




Before making up your character, we first need to pull up the setting and the NPC, the struggles of the city, what's important in here, what's the history of said city...
I would like having Neonate PC, and to be Neonate, you're probably not a vampire from another city -> we have to chose you guys a Sire from the setting. Making the characters for the players is the very last thing to do for a RPG

ThePhilosopher wrote:

PGM,
Your joke was so perfectly constructed that i missed most of the fun due my lack of knowledge.

That's very kind, but the First Rule of Comedy says otherwise -- "If you have to explain the joke, it's not a joke."

Claudia wrote:

Hey, don't even think about the official BG of Mexico city, I'll turn it up as a Camarilla city (don't even bother with Shaitan, he does not exist, nor in legend )

I had a feeling you'd say that. In my experience, some of the best games (Vampire, D&D, et al.) have been the ones where the storyteller made their own version of the 'official' game world. "The Clan Novels didn't happen." "In my version of Chicago, there's a different Prince." "Ignore the whole 'Gehenna' metaplot."

My vote is for Paris, though. I'm betting you and Eliza know more about Paris, and that would be key to immersing the players in the world. Plus, it just fits my sense of irony that the 'City of Lights' would be our 'City of Eternal Night'.

If I'm going to do this, though, I'll probably have to make up a different ID just for the game. PGM1961 was chosen because it's my default ID in a few other forums. A different ID, and avatar, would help me get in the mood (and give me plausible deniability, hehe).

PS - Samuel Haight would not exist in any world of mine, even as an NPC. The very concept goes against every rule of serious role-play, and erodes the credibility of any setting/game he's in.

Okay, back alive (more or less - damn you, cold! Damn you! *sniffle*), but I'm gonna keep this short and start flooding Claudia's PM-box soon. Noah's flood is nothing compared to my mail bombs. Har har.
Err, nevermind that last part.

Claudia:
For the timeline problem, I'd suggest following rule: Players are allowed to be on the plot-relevant place and one other area at the same time. Not more, and the other area should be a Haven or something that doesn't run cross with what's currently happening at the plot-relevant place. Although it's best, not to mention easier for all others involved, if you, my dear players, can manage to keep your character only at one place at a time. But it probably won't work like this. Haw, c'est la vie.
Expect the PM with all other stuff left unsaid.

z.o.o.:
Yeah, I take my time for posts, too. I'm quite fast as for typing, but I need more time to actually think about what I want to write (and how I want to write it, sometimes I need to describe this stupid, certain word I don't know) and, concerning roleplaying, I want to be absolutely certain that my character acts believable and doesn't do anything stupid just because I wanted him to. But on a forum, that's not a problem. I don't think so, at least.
And I'm absolutely for Claudia as ST. If she wants to do it, that is. I'm happy she volunteered for it!


Phew, I don't know what else to say. Everything you say is either pretty much self-explanatory or out of my area of expertise. (Never actually played VtM, remember? ^^)
But I can say that I can't wait to see what Claudia has in mind for the game. Mexico City and Paris sound both so mouth-watering! (Although being a European citizen doesn't mean I know Paris any better than Mexico City, PGM. (Hell, I don't even know Berlin, for that matter..) Except the little tidbits I know because of school. French Revolution and stuff, you know. But please don't ask for any dates, pleaaaase...)
Err. Yes. Short message. For my standards, I mean.

As for the character sheets. So what happens when it comes to spending XP? I think it's very different to need storyteller interaction when creating a character than it is to have a storyteller keeping the sheet. That's never been the storytellers job in my experience of the games, sure you keep a copy for secret rolls and to keep track on how things are progressing. I guess it depends on how strict the system runs. (Then again one of my first players had Drive 4 specialising in Tanks because she had been in a juvenile detention centre so I can PERFECTLY understand it!)

I've personally always played from the vantage of creating a person and weaving a sheet from their life experiences, not the other way round. So I guess someone else putting the two together is just an awkward sensation.

As for background settings, completely agree on ditching the majority of 'canon' for each city. For one a lot of the books contradict each other, for another you'll always get some smart arse wiki it

Culturewise I am apparently quite sheltered, watching a discussion of a Swede explaining to an American what Scotland was... rather eye opening ("Scotland has mats all over the floor? What does she mean? Wait... she's talking about CARPET?!")

Again if there's any help needed for storytelling I'll be around, will probably play unless objected to though.

I can't really imagine how the conversations and fights are going to be held when we are supposed to write what we are doing?

YamiRaziel wrote:

I can't really imagine how the conversations and fights are going to be held when we are supposed to write what we are doing?

Oh, it's possible, believe me, although it might require some attention not to mix things up in posts if it gets really messy.
Although I don't guess (can't know for sure, of course) there'll be that many fights. As I see it, VtM is all about politics and subterfuge, at least the Camarilla side of the deal, and since the city is going to be Camarilla ... well, we'll see, but don't be afraid, we'll show you how to pack everything you'd normally say (or do, if you're LARPing) into a post and make it look like the written word. You get used to it all too quickly, I would say.

I'm excited to start playing with you guys!

I have a feeling this is gonna be full of awesome!

8people wrote:

As for the character sheets. So what happens when it comes to spending XP? I think it's very different to need storyteller interaction when creating a character than it is to have a storyteller keeping the sheet. That's never been the storytellers job in my experience of the games, sure you keep a copy for secret rolls and to keep track on how things are progressing.

simison wrote:

As for this whole "no character sheet, no dot" thing, I'm confused. Claudia, are you saying we're not going to be making sheets, right off the bat?

Is that FEAR I smell? Good...Very good. It becomes you both. I want you, both of you. I will give chase. And I will have you. Take comfort in knowing that your blood will not go to ruin in the earth. No dear ones, like God, I can not create waste. Neither of you will be wasted on me. Providence demands as much. And Diablerie, such an ugly word, is merely, a service.

z.o.o. wrote:

8people wrote:

As for the character sheets. So what happens when it comes to spending XP? I think it's very different to need storyteller interaction when creating a character than it is to have a storyteller keeping the sheet. That's never been the storytellers job in my experience of the games, sure you keep a copy for secret rolls and to keep track on how things are progressing.

simison wrote:

As for this whole "no character sheet, no dot" thing, I'm confused. Claudia, are you saying we're not going to be making sheets, right off the bat?

Is that FEAR I smell? Good...Very good. It becomes you both. I want you, both of you. I will give chase. And I will have you. Take comfort in knowing that your blood will not go to ruin in the earth. No dear ones, like God, I can not create waste. Neither of you will be wasted on me. Providence demands as much. And Diablerie, such an ugly word, is merely, a service.

*quietly slides a pen out of pocket and holds it out* Don't mistake it for an opening. I was a writer long before I was a role-player, and if need be I can forego the mechanics side of the game. *writes quickly in the air, and, with a blinding flash, the cheap, black pen becomes a flaming, gleaming saber. Points it toward z.o.o.* You won't find an easy prey here.

Only a fool would consider a query a sign of an upper hand. I have nothing to fear from someone who starts with a glib proclaimation of something as crass as diablerie. Even presuming knowledge of it.

What's this? Why, I do believe it's a foreshadowing of Elysium -- that peaceful battleground, where many of the biggest shots in the jyhad are fired. Could it be that some of us are eager for the hunt-- that is, eager for the game?

*mockery pervades the rubbing of his eyes, their subsequent blinking, and the smacking of his lips. he smiles.* (to simison) To the hilt dearest whelp! To the hilt.
*reaches into his pants pocket and haphazardly fishes for coins.* (to simison) Your blade defies reason, but your will does not. I will break you.
*all but, four copper pieces remain in his pocket. they now rest in his upturned palm.* (to 8people) Your mouth is much too pretty to suffer the travails of mimicry any longer. Oh dear one, at least your screams will be original. For the Ferryman.*lets the copper pieces drop to the ground.* GRRAAAH!...

O.O.C.: Assuming that I'm a vampire in this situation, how then do I defer to the ST with regard to the success of my next move? Yes, PGM1961. But we're not in Elysium...yet.

z.o.o. wrote:

*mockery pervades the rubbing of his eyes, their subsequent blinking, and the smacking of his lips. he smiles.* (to simison) To the hilt dearest whelp! To the hilt.
*reaches into his pants pocket and haphazardly fishes for coins.* (to simison) Your blade defies reason, but your will does not. I will break you.
*all but, four copper pieces remain in his pocket. they now rest in his upturned palm.* (to 8people) Your mouth is much too pretty to suffer the travails of mimicry any longer. Oh dear one, at least your screams will be original. For the Ferryman.*lets the copper pieces drop to the ground.* GRRAAAH!...

Is it just me, or does anyone else have to read what you've written twice to even get the grist? Maybe my brain is on stand-by mode, but you're confusing me like hell now. (You should play a Malkavian.)

Hey don't RP randomly if you don't even have characters or have defined what you can and can't do

Eliza, no it's not just you

I'm certainly hoping the rp will be better than that anyway. If it's just going to be a series of random attacks and presumed knowledge then it's going to be very short and pointless.

8people wrote:

I'm certainly hoping the rp will be better than that anyway. If it's just going to be a series of random attacks and presumed knowledge then it's going to be very short and pointless.

Seconded. Just know that I'm not RPing. I'm only having a little fun with z.o.o. If I was really RPing, then I would be writing in 3rd person, and be using a different name.