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Jeivar
2012-12-06, 03:44 PM
Okay, my group and I have a vague plan to start a Vampire: The Masquerade campaign sometime early next year. We haven't sat down and discussed it in detail, but basically we want do an episodic, low-power game with a bigger focus on characters and interaction than we've done much of.

The PC's would be clueless neonates, maybe even Caitiff, with a considerable amount of social-related Backgrounds and Merits/Flaws. They would have some common goal holding them together (possibly just mutual survival) and some personal goals.

Given how unpredictable players are in their knack for finding shortcuts in the script or NOT finding the next yardstick, I'm hoping to keep things episodic (say, Kuei-Jin problems for the first few sessions, then vampire hunters snooping around, then vampire turf wars, then Sabbat incursion...), possibly with some larger looming threat in the background.

We've known of the setting for years, but haven't gotten much traction in playing it. So, I guess I'm asking for suggestions on good ideas for a long-running V:tM game. Preferably without delving into the bloated metaplot. What's worked for you people?

Aron Times
2012-12-06, 04:10 PM
Play Requiem instead. Masquerade has horrible mechanics for everything, since it was written during White Wolf's early days of "roleplaying is high art" and "good rules get in the way of good roleplaying." To describe the rules as a train wreck would be an understatement.

There is a PDF from White Wolf called the Vampire Conversion Guide or something that lets you port Masquerades fluff into Requiem crunch. I highly recommend this purchase if you want to play Masquerades without the frustration.

The Glyphstone
2012-12-06, 04:13 PM
Try to avoid the classic logical trap of 'Prince = Questgiver'. Neonates should be lucky getting to see the Prince from a distance at court, they shouldn't expect regular interactions with him and even being permitted the honor of speaking to him should require exceptional conduct/service. Being Caitiff is even worse on that front - you exist only on the Prince's sufferance in all likelihood, but that's just more incentive for him to keep you as far away from him as possible.



Play Requiem instead. Masquerade has horrible mechanics for everything, since it was written during White Wolf's early days of "roleplaying is high art" and "good rules get in the way of good roleplaying." To describe the rules as a train wreck would be an understatement.

There is a PDF from White Wolf called the Vampire Conversion Guide or something that lets you port Masquerades fluff into Requiem crunch. I highly recommend this purchase if you want to play Masquerades without the frustration.

This is also excellent advice.

Jeivar
2012-12-06, 05:13 PM
Play Requiem instead. Masquerade has horrible mechanics for everything, since it was written during White Wolf's early days of "roleplaying is high art" and "good rules get in the way of good roleplaying." To describe the rules as a train wreck would be an understatement.

There is a PDF from White Wolf called the Vampire Conversion Guide or something that lets you port Masquerades fluff into Requiem crunch. I highly recommend this purchase if you want to play Masquerades without the frustration.

Well, I bought the 20th Anniversary book so I might as well use it. And we can cope with the mechanics.


Try to avoid the classic logical trap of 'Prince = Questgiver'. Neonates should be lucky getting to see the Prince from a distance at court, they shouldn't expect regular interactions with him and even being permitted the honor of speaking to him should require exceptional conduct/service.

Definitely, though it does leave me with the same problem all modern-setting games do; how to reliably deliver "quests". In a D&D-esque setting it's so very easy to conjure up goblin raiders or a robbed merchant looking for mercenaries. Vampire is a lot trickier.

Aron Times
2012-12-06, 06:17 PM
Ask your players what they would do in real life if they could live forever and have cool powers to go with it. Make that the basis of your chronicle.

The Glyphstone
2012-12-06, 06:51 PM
Definitely, though it does leave me with the same problem all modern-setting games do; how to reliably deliver "quests". In a D&D-esque setting it's so very easy to conjure up goblin raiders or a robbed merchant looking for mercenaries. Vampire is a lot trickier.

Use lower-level officers. If it's a weird mystery that just needs some eyeballs on the issue, have the Sheriff give them his dirty work to do. If the Scourge needs some faces punched but he thinks this particular legbreaking is beneath him, he's got some disposable Caitiff muscle on hand. Maybe an ancillae or even another neonate asks them for a favor, that might or might not be on behalf on an elder who didn't want to be seen talking to Caitiff.

Just being Caitiff can be a plot hook. If there's an Elder at court who thinks they should be destroyed, and isn't subtle about saying so, give them opportunities to turn that to their advantage.

Jeivar
2012-12-07, 04:37 PM
Use lower-level officers. If it's a weird mystery that just needs some eyeballs on the issue, have the Sheriff give them his dirty work to do. If the Scourge needs some faces punched but he thinks this particular legbreaking is beneath him, he's got some disposable Caitiff muscle on hand. Maybe an ancillae or even another neonate asks them for a favor, that might or might not be on behalf on an elder who didn't want to be seen talking to Caitiff.

Just being Caitiff can be a plot hook. If there's an Elder at court who thinks they should be destroyed, and isn't subtle about saying so, give them opportunities to turn that to their advantage.

Those are good suggestions.

But on a slightly different note; I haven't studied the fluff beyond the gamebooks and a single Brujah clanbook, but does it make any sense for a coterie of neonates to end up dealing with a Sabbat incursion? Wouldn't the Prince immediately launch a death squad at a Sabbat encroachment on his territory?

One Step Two
2012-12-07, 05:12 PM
Those are good suggestions.

But on a slightly different note; I haven't studied the fluff beyond the gamebooks and a single Brujah clanbook, but does it make any sense for a coterie of neonates to end up dealing with a Sabbat incursion? Wouldn't the Prince immediately launch a death squad at a Sabbat encroachment on his territory?

Yes and no. A particularly vengeful, or quick to act prince very well could do this, but he makes his orders on the strengths of the coterie in question. If yours happens to be built entirely of thugs, and skills combatants, no problem. However, if your coterie is more... subtle in their abilities, or less combat driven, they will be used to their strengths.

Examples could include:
Breaking and entering into some journalists apartment to swipe their digital camera of shots of a Sabbat gang in the streets.
Tailing a suspicious person who has been casing out several known Elysiums or Domains to find out who they work for.

And it's not just the local city's Prince, there's the Primogen to boss them around, not to mention any vampire with an hour's seniority over them. Especially for the catiff, bottom rung means you're everyone's gopher.

Peacemoon
2012-12-07, 05:22 PM
The hero's Vampire's, meet up in a Tavern Bar.
In the corner there is a Shady old man Guy in a hoodie,
he sends them on a Quest Contract to Kill a Rampaging band of ogres save the astrolite/some other bull****.


See, it quite easy, all you have to do is supplant word's, most of the players are to drunk to notice ...

Slipperychicken
2012-12-07, 05:24 PM
Definitely, though it does leave me with the same problem all modern-setting games do; how to reliably deliver "quests". In a D&D-esque setting it's so very easy to conjure up goblin raiders or a robbed merchant looking for mercenaries. Vampire is a lot trickier.

I don't know much about X: The Y, but the real world has plenty of raiders, bandits, militia, pirates, thugs, and corrupt lawmen. You just have to go the right places. Rich/developed countries with adequate law enforcement mechanisms are typically a poor place to conduct that kind of adventure.

You'd have better luck in lawless places like Afghanistan, parts of central Africa, or Somalia. Places where the government exists mainly on paper and in small pockets around the capital (being largely too weak to maintain order), where random killings are a fact of life (this alone should make any true PC cry tears of depraved, immature joy), and where hired guns abuse civilians with impunity. There should be quest hooks aplenty battling (or perhaps joining) these rapacious armed men, toppling governments, protecting/attacking traders, assassinating strongmen, protecting/attacking international aid convoys, defending towns, or even helping one militia battle another.

EDIT: If you really want to throw them a moral curveball, toss in some child soldiers. Little 8-year-olds with AKs. Make 'em think a little.

Driderman
2012-12-07, 06:16 PM
Those are good suggestions.

But on a slightly different note; I haven't studied the fluff beyond the gamebooks and a single Brujah clanbook, but does it make any sense for a coterie of neonates to end up dealing with a Sabbat incursion? Wouldn't the Prince immediately launch a death squad at a Sabbat encroachment on his territory?

Problem is, even the Sabbat hardly goes around waving their membership cards when they "incurse".
It's usually something along the lines of either
a) an isolated shovelhead retard pack and, even though there might be some Masquerade fallout (which of course someone has to clean up), any Prince worth the title should be able to contain it pretty quickly. If the Prince isn't up to it, the Primogen surely is, because it is in the interest of the powers that be to prove that theirs is a stable and unchallengeable rule

b) a major incursion, in which case somebody dropped the ball a long time ago on critical intel and the murder-packs roving the streets are the least of your worries cause there are now Sabbat elders who has decided to move into your neighbourhood and those bastards are just as canny as their Camarilla counterparts, if not more so. Odds are, their agents have been in the city for years, gathering intel and subverting critical Kindred and institutions in preparation for the takeover. Good luck, you'll need it.

On the subject of quests:

Make sure the Player Characters have at least a handful of common goals ( or at least related goals) that give them long-term reason to work together. Maybe they're broodmates, maybe they're all the Caitiff in town, maybe they're all part of the same Freemasons Lodge, whatever.

"Quests" should be driven by player initiative. If you have to provide all the hooks, you're doing it wrong. Your goal as a storyteller is to provide enough NPC and setting material that the players start to make plans for themselves.

Back when I ran Vampire games, I liked to plot out an over-arching story for what would happen to who, and where, in the city for the next year or so, sometimes more. I'd basically run a number of "what-if" scenarios for the various NPCs and make note on how they might relate to the players' goals or resources. Even if the player characters just wanted to hang around the local Gothshop and brood, the city would have a life of its own and they would interact with it from time to time. Of course, this requires both a fair amount of planning and improvisational skills, as players interacting with your setting will necessarily screw up all your carefully laid plans :)
Don't be afraid to adapt!

Try to avoid regarding a Kindred coterie as a "adventuring party". The Kindred, at the best of times, are rarely on such good terms that they can afford to trust each other. Sure, they may like one another and have goals or ideologies in common, but they seldom buddies. Don't be afraid to let your players have conflicting goals or interests, just try to make sure they're not so major as to prevent cooperation.
Also, don't expect your players to stick together like an adventuring party. Sure, at Elysium locations or various hunting grounds along the strip, there might be plenty of Kindred but by and large they don't wander from point-of-interest to point-of-interest in groups unless there's a good reason for it.

For ideas on how to run Camarilla/Vampire politics, take a look at any movie about organised crime, particularily Italian mobsters and try to apply that way of operating to Vampire society. At least, that's how I see it.

Pokonic
2012-12-08, 09:37 PM
I don't know much about X: The Y, but the real world has plenty of raiders, bandits, militia, pirates, thugs, and corrupt lawmen. You just have to go the right places. Rich/developed countries with adequate law enforcement mechanisms are typically a poor place to conduct that kind of adventure.

You'd have better luck in lawless places like Afghanistan, parts of central Africa, or Somalia. Places where the government exists mainly on paper and in small pockets around the capital (being largely too weak to maintain order), where random killings are a fact of life (this alone should make any true PC cry tears of depraved, immature joy), and where hired guns abuse civilians with impunity. There should be quest hooks aplenty battling (or perhaps joining) these rapacious armed men, toppling governments, protecting/attacking traders, assassinating strongmen, protecting/attacking international aid convoys, defending towns, or even helping one militia battle another.

EDIT: If you really want to throw them a moral curveball, toss in some child soldiers. Little 8-year-olds with AKs. Make 'em think a little.

Then, when there vulnerable, have them find a mellow-mannered older man wishing to visit them. They would probably assume that he's some sort of vampire himself, or bar that, a ally if there that lax in general.

Then have the little old man go into Crinos and have his pack send the little vampies scampers. Vampires need to be reminded every so often not to get intangled with the bigger things that lurk in the dark. If it's OWoD, have Werehyenas of Molk'e scare the twits into shape. Nothing is better to spice up a Vampire game set in Africa or such than half a dozen were-things knowing where the PC's live, let alown actual enemy vampires.

Peacemoon
2012-12-12, 04:03 AM
Try looking at the already written campaign's on the internet, and see if you get any idea's there.

GungHo
2012-12-13, 09:55 AM
Definitely, though it does leave me with the same problem all modern-setting games do; how to reliably deliver "quests". In a D&D-esque setting it's so very easy to conjure up goblin raiders or a robbed merchant looking for mercenaries. Vampire is a lot trickier.
Work through the Sheriff, Primogen/elders, or another one of the Prince's lackeys, or, if there's a large population, the lackeys of the lackeys.

Maybe the Prince parcels out certain bouroughs like a feudal lord and the various "middle management" curry favor not only to rise in rank, but to get more prestigous/more popular neighborhoods.

Or, maybe it's a little less controlled like in the Godfather or another gangland movie/show where territory expands and contracts depending on how well they various primogen can carve out area/niche, all the while making sure they don't piss off the Prince by breaking the Masquerade. Call it Deadfellas.

Some quests may be self-generated at first, as well. The coterie may be beneath notice, especially if they're Caitiff, so just being everyone's favorite towelboy or shoeshiner may keep them occupied while starting out. No one's going to notice a Caitiff who isn't a self-starter. Maybe they uncover some one who's acting out of line, a Sabbat scout, or just someone like them who is passing through and didn't present themselves to the Prince (because they don't know protocol, or they're a Camarilla courier, or whatever)

Unseenmal
2012-12-13, 11:33 AM
Grab a few "By Night" books. Those provide a good bit of NPC's and their plans. Nothing wrong with taking ideas from other books and using them. If nothing else, you can use the NPCs from them. It gives all of the stats you need plus ideas on how to play them. Taht should give you some plot hooks/quests

Driderman is correct...Vampire should be more player driven. Each PC should have short, medium and long term goals. The actions they take to complete those goals will give plot hooks. Especially when their goals conflict with other PCs. Just be sure that they know their goals should be kept secret from the other PCs. Hell, we used to play with our character sheets upside down so our entire character (stats, disciplines, backgrounds, etc) were not fully known to the other players. For example, they might know I have some skill in Auspex but not how much.