FAQs

FAQs:
Why Requiem over Masqurade?
	One of the issues I and others have with “Vampire the Masquerade” is that it is great for telling ‘Masquerade’ stories. The war of Jihad, between the Camarilla and the Sabbat. Werewolves blaming vampires for being ‘Wyrm’ tainted. But it is far too limiting. In using Requiem’s clan and covenant system I feel it allows for more open characters, based more on the concept of the player than the clans of Masquerade. 
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Why Second edition instead of first edition Requiem?  
After looking at the merits offered in the second edition lines, I greatly prefer the mechanics second ed offers. They allow for more social and mental based characters. The disciplines are more along the scale of what we want out of the supernatural powerhouses that vampires should be. I like that all vampires have better senses, especially for smelling blood and for hearing. All and all, I feel that Vampire the Requiem second edition really allows players to be the type of vampires they’ve always wanted. 
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Isn’t Clan unimportant in Requiem?
While some Requiem games may focus on covenant to the exclusion of clan, Second edition Requiem has more clan specific mechanics and even merits. The bloodties mechanics have been expanded not only including grandsire/grandchilde, but also including siblings and even ‘cousins’ of your lineage, thus who you are related to is even more important. It allows you to really feel your family’s presence. There are also clan merits, such as Dynasty (no longer limited to just the Invictus, though they are better at it). 
Specifically for City of the Damned, at game’s start there is going to be a council of ten, one from each clan and one from each covenant. As a character you can focus your attention to your clan’s needs, the city’s needs, or your covenant’s. Not even the eldest of the city can be on top of their clan, covenant, and the city. 
Who are the PCs?
They will be on the cusp of being the Ancilla of the City. They will be the backbone of the Damned of Jacksonville. There are more than 300 kindred in the Jacksonville Metro Area, due to the mortal population of over 3 million people. Elders and such will be ruling their own covenants and pulling the strings of their childer and grandchilder among their clan interests. 
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What’s the history of the City?
When the Spanish came to Florida, they brought the Lancea et Sanctum, and they found that there were already a few vampires here. When the French and the English came they brought the Invictus, but the Bishops and Cardinals of Florida held power. A Prince finally took over once the City became Jacksonville in 1832.  Princes never last, and it’s often violent. The kindred of the city had such infighting, whether between clan fighting or covenant wars, that conflict was ever present. The Carthians took over for a brief period in the early 2010s. They attempted a full democracy, stating all vampiric voices mattered, but the City became bogged down in committee meetings, and there were never enough people for a vote to be solid. Many of the kindred met and decided on using a council system, allowing a representative of each clan and one from each covenant to sit. 
This is designed for each character to have two representatives on the council, one for their clan, and one for their covenant (unless they are unaligned, then they only have their clan). A single individual can not have both seats. Having a seat does not grant you any more status, though someone with low status in their group might not be long for that position, or the other members of the council might not take them seriously, since they know their clan doesn’t think highly of them, or maybe they have greatness thrust upon them and can rise to that roll. 
Will you be using flaws?
Yes. The only thing I haven’t been satisfied with in the new world of darkness line are how they handle flaws. I understand where they are coming from:  flaws that never come up aren’t a detriment to your character.   I, however, see flaws as much broader. We will be using an adaption from other games for our flaws. Each flaw will have a point value in dots, those dots will give experience to your character, so that you will be able to add the points gained from flaws into any part of your character (this becomes even smoother using the second edition rules). One of my views on this is that the older someone is, the more flaws they’ve picked up, especially in the eternity of vampirism. So while a neonate might only have 5 dots in flaws, an elder might have 25 points in flaws. (Both of these are examples that I am still play testing, don’t quote me on them.)  I am also editing flaws across the board. The fluff in their writing, the value of their mechanics, etc. 
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Will you be asking for a Friday or Saturday night?
That depends on demand.  If I have more than fifty people that want this I will be asking for a Saturday night.  If I have fewer than fifty, I’ll look at a Friday night. 
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What bloodlines are you using?
	The game will be focused on fifteen different families in the City. The Daeva will have Anvari, Children of Judas, and Malintzin. The Gangrel have Bruja, Dead Wolves, and the Taifa. The Mekhet have Alucinor, Khaibit, and Osites. The Nosferatu have Calacas and Baddaccelli. The Ventrue have Architects of the Monolith, Bron, Gorgons, and Nahualli. By focusing on specific lines, this allows us to build lineages within the city. It allows a wide variety of choices while staying with the themes our game is aiming for. There are other bloodlines that have happened to the city’s history; the Ordo Dracul is rumored to have Moroi that are little more than guard dogs, Morbus plagued the City during the Spanish Flu outbreak, as two examples. The bloodlines we selected are the movers and shakers of the City’s history, both recent and older. They are the majority of the kindred of the city.  
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Will you be allowing alternate characters?
One of the interesting things about Requiem second edition is the use of Touchstones. These are often a person, a living, breathing, mortal that reminds you of your life. Connecting you to what life is. The kindred needs touchstones to keep them from devolving into just a mindless savage. They are even purchased as a merit. An option we are looking at is allowing other players to play Touchstones, with the authorization of the player whose touchstone they are. This allows for quiet side scenes to deal with deep emotion of your character, while not pulling staff for only a single player during game. It also allows for an alternative to sitting out of character without bringing in an alternate character that is deeply involved in Kindred politics, which helps prevent accidental metagaming. Then the two can catch staff up on anything earth shaking.