PDA

View Full Version : DM Help Vampire: Storytelling Advice



Shveiran
2017-09-07, 04:50 AM
I've had my fair share of D&D in my life.
I've been a player for about four years, then started to act as DM for the group and, as players and adventures came and went, did a bit of both for 6 more.
The group changed and changed again, but the four of us sticked around for a long time now; as one of us had to leave for an extended period of time, we decided to take a break from D&D and try something new for the six months of his absence, before resuming our usual game.
So we grabbed us an old friend to join the party, and largely on my insistance we tried out Vampire The Requiem.

It's not going well.

So far I've not managed to get my party invested, and it is starting to be a problem. I feel like I'm a good enough GM, and I know my crowd, so I suspect this is likely rooted in the mood. Namely, my struggle to set it right and make them care at the same time.
Usually, I either scare them to the point where they take no actions because they don't dare risk it, or jest about without taking anything silly. No middle ground, apparently.

If any more experienced storyteller has some advice on how to make them care despite the place being, well, a world of darkness, I'd be most grateful.

A few more details:


The cast is composed of three fledgling kindred.

Mr J (Daeva) is a former gangster with a thing for flamboyant catchphrases, guns and stunt driving.
He is by far the less shaken by his new condition, and his somewhat the most stable of the bunch.
Though his morality of 2 should be mentioned...
The player is a known "Specialist" so far as etiquettes go.

Miss V (Mekhet) is a strong woman out of her depths. She used to be a lawyer with a strong morality, freshly divorced. She has been forced to do much she was not used to, mainly relying on her obfuscate to survive the "try and fail" approach. The player is the oldest and less experienced of the group, and she is the one that just joined the happy brigade.

Miss E (Gangrel) was a field surgeon in the army, fatally ill due to misterious circumstances together with most of her team. She is the one with most intimate connection in Phoenix (J is a loner, V recently changed city) starting with her family and comrades at arms and finishing with her dog. She has taken badly to her new condition and is becoming more cynic and ruthless (we just got our fist, mild derangement)

The fledgling were sired by three kindred who formed a strong consortium eight years before the start of the game. They have strong ambitions, and they have been plotting to deligitimize two of the Barons to replace them (the Prince has a very divide and conquer approach, so there are eight barons in a 270 kindred city).

The fledgling have been trained by their sire and the other senior member of the consortium that most fit their skills (knowledge, social grace, or muscle) and taught how to feed (which took very, very long, because they were not satisfied until they proved they could reliably do it without making a mess. And due to a few bad ideas and worse rolls... it took a while, it really did). They have now been assigned a mission to prove they are ready, which ties in to main plot as it uncovers the info that a carthian kindred is trying to establish a blood-doll service rival to the Baron to which the Prince assigned the monopoly.

We'll soon move to the "bachelorette party", the night where the fledgling will be presented to the society of the night. I'm planning to have them introduced to an uncaring prince and their priscus, and then let them free to roam and socialize.
Due to reasons linked to their siring, shortly thereafter a workling of the prince will demand a service from them, which I think will be finding and removing a ghoul gone rabid.

Pilo
2017-09-07, 07:26 AM
First I want to say sorry because I will make a lot of assumptions and I am not a native english speaker so I might seem rude, even if I don't intend to.

I am sorry to ask that but, are you and your familiar with the game you are playing?
WoD is a game about politics and (twisted) love. So you should motivate them with one or an other.
You shall let them think, wether it is true or not, that they will get more power, territory or status out of your story.
On the other hand you can give them a bad reputation if they do nothing useful for the city, so they have to correct that attitude.

What are your players characters short, medium and long goal?
You should try to build the story based on those goals.

Unlike D&D WoD violence is dangerous, you wont come back from death (again). With the life time expectancy vampire gets, I is harsh to die prematurely.
I can understand why they are sometime careful.

Maybe you should give them a warm and hypocritical welcome instead of the cold treatment, some propose to help them fit in if they can help them with a matter.

A prince is important and if you use him to give them trivial tasks, it will lower the esteem they have for him/her.

If it is a fellow vampire offering an hideout in exchange of finding his/her ghoul, it might create more story. If they succeed s/he offers them a favor, if they fail, then the problem can escalate to them being the accomplices of the vampire that failed to keep her/his ghoul in control.

A story in WoD should generally lead to an other. (Not necessarilly the one you hoped for...)

JeenLeen
2017-09-07, 07:58 AM
When my group shifted from D&D to WoD, our biggest shift was the mentality of how combat and encounters (social or otherwise) work. It was a Mage game, but a lot of it probably carries over.
I'm exaggerating a bit for effect, but hope it helps.

In D&D, combat usually leads to killing the enemy with minor consequences for the party, plus loot. In WoD, combat is rarer, more likely to lead to serious injuries, and can have serious political ramifications (did a mortal witness you using powers? does someone more powerful than you care about who you killed? do you have permission to operate in this manner? sure it was on the Prince's orders, but did doing that tick off a rival of the Prince?).

In D&D, you often find a foe or enemy base and (unless it's a BBEG or their lieutenant) defeat or destroy it. In WoD, the enemy may well persist, and you may never or just late-game go to the enemy base. (It took my group a long time to realize we weren't suppose to raid and destroy the Technocracy base in town.)

...okay, I thought I'd have a couple more, but I don't. Just it is a hard mental shift, and the threats in WoD can be paralyzing (which seems to be the case with your group), so talk to your players about expectations, how they are or aren't enjoying the game, and about the mood. That should help you all understand each other better and set the game on a better footing -- or if the players are sincerely happy, help you be more okay with the game.

Shveiran
2017-09-07, 08:38 AM
Right; this is probably me failing to explain things properly... I apologize, I'm no native english speaker either.
Let's try and clear it up.

I'm aware of the change in focus from combat to politics and intrigue, which is why we have never rolled inititiative so far (save, admittedly, for a couple feeding gone wrong, but I digress).
If anything, that change in focus is the reason we picked this game.

However, while that's all good in theory, it's a bit of a mess in practice.

In retrospect, I think the main error was the character creation. They came up with human characters, and we played through their embrace as short vignettes (J was "selected" among the criminals his sire maneuvers, E was offered the embrace as a cure from her deadly illness, V found things she wasn't supposed to find and was embraced rather than killed because of her resourcefulness).
That was great.
However, that means they have an hard time coming up with goals.

They feel their characters are too dazed to have long (or even short) term goals, so they pretty much do the bidding of their sires. Fear of death is a good enough motivation to push a character into action, but not to make a player grow invested in their character's fate. Their characters end up being passive, and thus unremarkable, forgettable, uninteresting. This makes the PLAYERS not care.

That lack of investment is the problem.


Now, normally, I know what I'd do. But my usual solutions won't work here, so I'm a bit stuck.
I suppose I could hope the problem fixes itself, but I'd like a more proactive approach.


Also, yes, I know that would diminish the Prince, which is why I'm not doing it.
They have never encountered him so far, and they will only be introduced to him as part of an Invictus rite. Something resembling a oath of obedience, plus feeding rites in unrestricted areas.
The quest will be delivered by an underling later on (the siring priviledge that spawned the trio must be payed back, sort of things, so he'll throw them at some of his background bothers to have them removed. But it's more like a tax than a direct relationship with the man in charge).

Lentrax
2017-09-07, 08:54 AM
Actually I think thier lack of focus and just currently doing thier sires' bidding is probably dead on for newly embraced vampires.

The real next step for them, and for the players, is to really hammer home the Danse Macabre, and that long term goals are really long term. And if this is just a hiatus filler game, then I wouldn't even bother with long term goals at all. Maybe something a lot more short term, like securing a better Haven. Or really play on the characters Masks and Dirges (if 1e) or make them deal with thier Touchstones (if 2e).

But really try and put a heavy emphasis on the characters so they know that the lives they knew before are gone.