From: domnatr@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Kane)
Subject: Re: Vampire Help Needed
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 03:49:11 GMT

A few things you might want to know --

* d10s are all you need... lots of them though... and I do mean
  lots... (maybe order 30 or so from Wargames West or some such)

* I'd start my players MORTAL if they have roleplaying experience
  but no specific Vampire experience.  Let them augment (with,
  say, half their freebie points) their stats after the Embrace.

* Remember that every vampire in the system is supposed to have
  some tragic flaw, which forms a center for his/her roleplaying.
  Vampires (I don't share this belief) are abominations;  they
  don't have the strength to purge themselves from the earth, so
  they attempt to redeem themselves... often to no avail.

Let me give you an example or two...

(1) My London, England character.  Stefan Magyar.  13th Gen.
    Tremere.  Stefan was the eldest son in the Magyar family in
    the British 1940s... he suffered from extreme lethargy in
    his youth.  He possessed singularly sharpened intellect and
    strength of will, but applied himself towards nothing...
    kind of like Sherlock Holmes (who took cocaine when he didn't
    have a case to pursue, for lack of any better entertainment
    for his mind).  So he is found by the elitist powerhungry
    Vampire magi, and Embraced and subjected to their rites of
    initiation.  Horrified, Magyar fled their secret societies,
    and took refuge in the steppes of WWII Russia.  He was sought
    and found by his Sire (a very prestigious Tremere), who came
    to destroy him but still saw in him the strength and resolve
    he knew as a mortal.  He spit in his face, and let him live.
    Thus Magyar settled in the Ural Mountains, in his ancestral
    mansion, with his wife (and Childe) Katrina.  A forest fire
    took his wife and home from him in the late 1980s, and Magyar
    realized he could not spend eternity hiding from the world
    he so desperately sought to keep out.  He swore on Katrina's
    grave that he was returning, but would never again bow to 
    another's wishes.  He has been given, so to speak, a 'second
    chance' at reclaiming the pure essence of LIFE which he all
    but ignored as a mortal.

    (He's in London presently, in Mithrandir's PBEM campaign)

(2) My Boston, Massachusetts character.  Solomon Conrad.  12th Gen.
    Gangrel.  If you've seen the movies, Solomon is a cross between
    Bruce Willis's character from *The Last Boy Scout* and the
    villain Mr. Joshua from *Lethal Weapon*.  He was Secret Service,
    then mercenary after he was dishonorably discharged, and then
    subjected to the Embrace after coming across a Kindred in the
    jungles of darkest Peru... on a whim, just because he lasted
    longer than the others in his squad.  Conrad was always a bit
    of a 'cold fish' in life, and became even more of one in his
    unlife (Humanity 5).  He has only recently become aware of how
    great and cold the void is in his soul.  Recently, my GM has
    run him into a woman named Holly Archer, who comes to him each
    night (she appears to know he is Kindred even though he has not
    revealed anything) and takes him places, asking him questions
    which reflect on his inner being.  He more often than not is
    left without answers, and infinitely saddened for the loss of
    what he feels he may never regain.  Solomon has recently come
    to realize that he loves this woman, a mortal, and is left 
    without recourse or action.  His past life of killing for gain
    and prestige is now meaningless;  all he knew as a mortal does
    him more harm than good in his quest to escape the Beast.

Whew!  Talked more than I meant to.  The reason I sent you this is
simply that a lot of players start Vampire off on the wrong foot.
It's not really a powergaming session -- it's about the people, and
Kindred, and their personae.  Your players will be a lot more 
attached to their characters if they can build up this sense of
conflict and/or torment (there ARE vampires who enjoy being vampires,
like Anne Rice's Lestat, but they are either very rare cases or
inhuman monsters of the Sabbat).  A lot of the satisfaction is borne
out in playing out the Hunt each night.  There are some really tight
spots our players have gotten into (a character (Toreador) got into
a nightclub in New York, very taken with the Hunger, and had a bona
fide insane role playing session with our GM in his staggering
through the warmed, sweating, blood-filled vessels thrashing all
around him in the warped, hellish colored lights and deafening,
throbbing music...) 

All the vampires they meet should either be knowledgeable (having
been in the city for quite some time, as most vampires rarely get
out of a set pattern of life -- feed, pose as mortal if desired,
bow to the ancient and time-honored Traditions of Caine, kowtow to
the existing Prince) or newbies (which will sometimes be the sources
of the problems they'll encounter).  The Prince should have absolute
power over almost all of the Kindred in the city (the younger ones
will fear him, while the older ones will follow him out of respect)
except for those which you designate as troublemakers/rebels/Anarchs.
Vampires are scarce among mortals -- one in every hundred thousand is
supposedly the 'optimum number' for no chance of detection (say, from
notice of random murders in the city) -- but vampires, like people,
are overcrowded.  Typical numbers will be maybe five or ten times
that.  Keep that in mind.  Even in a city like... oh, I don't know...
Lowell, Massachusetts (about 100,000 people), there will only be
about nine or ten vampires, and maybe a couple of other interesting
features (some alcoholic Catholic priest whose wife was Embraced and
now goes hunting Kindred with a sickle and stake, but sometimes kills
mortals by mistake, maybe a Werewolf or two who have some business
in the city or have blood relations to a Kindred, or a Magi who is
trying to attract others to the city to start an Order, or maybe
who has begun to secretly dispose of Kindred for his own purposes...
hell, our GM even started off an earlier adventure with some Kindred
(probably insane) who was killing and crucifying other Kindred,
then sending news networks videotaped footage of himself nailed to
a cross with a crown of thorns, pulling himself slowly and painfully
off the cross to the frenzied chanting of his worshippers!

For the above reasons for overcrowding, a Prince should generally
be reluctant to harbor more Kindred visitors/Neonates in his city
unless they give him reason to value their presence (like maybe
discretely taking care of some Elder who has begun to challenge
the Prince's power base, or proving themselves by surviving two
weeks time in the Saskatchewan plain, where Lupine run free and wild,
or... you get the idea).  This is an exceptionally good idea for a
first formal Vampire adventure.  Also keep in mind that fledgling
vampires, or any visitors in a city, need to present themselves, and
they will be hated and perhaps attacked by all Kindred who come 
across them in that city until they do present themselves to the
Prince.  This can start all sorts of mischief (particularly for the
beginner Vampire player, who probably knows as much about the
Vampiric Traditions as his player would... that is, diddly squat)
and is really pretty fun to roleplay.  (Conrad always slashes his
wrist and offers the Prince whose city he visits a good portion of
his own blood in a goblet... It's an honor thing)

Well!  That is certainly enough from me.  Keep in mind that acting
is often more important than any other mechanic of this game... 
I hear stories all the time about Vampire sessions which run smoothly
without a single dice roll, just involving conversation, the hunt,
what have you, which are just as entertaining as those with combat
or other action.  That's about all I can offer as an experienced
player.

___________

Please do keep me informed as to what happens with your game.
Feel free to use any of the ideas/characters/plots I mentioned.
Good Luck to you.

___________

Kane
[Most people know that as Sven, my real name]
domnatr@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu

___________






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