Prestige:
One prestige trait from another Clan is an amazing accomplishment.
Prestige from two other Clans is amazing. Prestige from three or more
probably means that your game is into prestige-pez. Three or more
prestige from any Clan other than your own is ludicrous.
Primogen:
Players walking into game and being Primogen in two months or less is
silly. Primogen need to demonstrate excellence either in disciplines,
influences and/or backgrounds. How can you do that with less than two
months worth of xp?
Revolving Primogen (a new one every month or less) is silly. Voting on
Primogen is silly unless you are playing a Malkavian or
democratically-minded gang of Brujah.
Status Inflation:
The less status you have the less is required of you and the more likely
you are to be eligible to gain status. The more you have the more is
required of you and the less likely you are to be eligible to gain status.
If you are new to the domain it should take a while for you to gain
status. You're new. Kindred shouldn't trust you. If you are a non-Cam-7
Clan it should be harder for you to gain status. Period. If you are a
Caitiff, doubly so.
Lying:
Do it. Often. Do it even when there's no purpose to it. Kindred lie.
All the time. Be evasive. Be deceptive.
Vulgarity
Asking someone to testify on a Bone of Lies is highly impertinent, boorish
and rude. Asking someone to relent to testimony under Disciplines is
highly impertinent, boorish and rude. Even if you are Prince. Even if
you are innocent, letting a strange Kindred into your mind is unthinkable.
*Especially* if the Prince "promises" that it will be "OK". (See "Lying"
above)
Books:
In addition to Laws of the Night you should have read AT LEAST the
Clanbook for your own clan, the TT Guide to the Camarilla (or Sabbat
depending upon your character's Sect affiliation), and at least one Clan
Novel (preferably several and not all from the same series). Why? So you
know the genre you're playing in and so you don't do foolish things or
make your game look foolish.
If you make stupid mistakes (unless they deliberately reflect the naivete
of your character's background), you break genre which cheapens the gaming
experience for other people, and waste their time when they have to
correct you.
If you can dedicate all that time to ICQ/AIM/E-mail and play, you can
spend some time learning the genre. If you can spend all that money on
game and on food afterwards, you can spend a few on some genre novels.
Infernalism:
If you are Sabbat, it is a BIG no-no. If you are Camarilla, it will
probably get you killed (although not as quickly). Openly displaying your
Infernal powers, talking about your demonic alliances, or showing off
several new disciplines is the quickest way to get found out and killed.
Signing infernal contracts to get kewl powerz is the hallmark of a cheese
monkey.
Influences:
If you are a Ventrue, Toreador and in some cases Tremere, you should spend
xp to buy influences. Why? Because you spend most of your time
interacting with mortals and its your responsibility to uphold the
Masquerade.
Gangrel, Malkavians and Nosferatu can acquire influences but never to the
degree that Ventrue and Toreador do unless the PC has been in play for
over a year. Specializing in one area of particular interest to your PC
(University, Health, Street and the like) is not uncommon.
Brujah:
The reason Brujah are oppressed is because they lose their temper and
often speak painful truths. Brujah are also often uncomfortable with
fancy airs and graces that go with being a respected city official. When
was the last time you saw a Brujah PC yell? Lose their temper? Rant
about injustice despite the potential cost to their status? Exactly. You
probably want to play an Intellectual Brujah. Most intellectual Brujah
end up being played like Ventrue with thug powerz. Don't be that guy
(gal).
Malkavians:
Malkavian PC's always come up with cool derangements that promptly
evaporate once they become a
hinderance to their political career. Resist the temptation. Also resist
the temptation to play
a Malkavian whose derangement is so subtle that it takes a 15 minute
monologue to explain after game.
Ever been on the street next to a crazy homeless guy/woman and you went
out of the way to avoid them
because their insanity made you afraid? That's the effect you're going
for.
Malkavians tend to overcompensate and become functional, scheming
paranoids like Tremere but without magic.
Nosferatu:
It would be helpful if Nosferatu PC's actually dressed like shit and put
on make-up and wore a pin or badge
that said "Mask of 1000 Faces" instead of dressing up all fancy and pretty
and wearing a pin that says
"I'm actually ugly" Unattractive people get discriminated against, often
subconsciously. Tap into that
discrimination factor by looking like crap.
Yes, your Nosferatu may have a very nice, clean haven in the sewers with a
kick ass computer, but he/she
probably has to walk through shit and runoff tunnels filled with mud in
order to get there. Yes, sections
of the Nosferatu sewers can be made quite habitable but sewers are filled
with shit, water and garbage.
(That's why they're called SEWERS.) There's no way you're going to live
underground and get around that
and if your PC has built sterile transit areas through the underworld
then you're playing the wrong clan.
Bring a squeeze bottle filled with water and when players meet outside,
squeeze out a puddle full of liquid
to stand in. Watch the reactions of other players.
Two of the reasons Nosferatu do not become Princes is because a) the
Prince is entitled to seize the lion's
share of influences in the domain in order to preserve the Masquerade
(this requires interaction with mortals)
and b) spending a decade in the sewers talking to rats and ones fellow
monstrosities SERIOUSLY erodes social skill.
Not every Kine is fooled by Mask of 1000 Faces. Remember that when you
get cocky about your amazing powers.
Children, the devout, the old, mystics, the insane can sometimes see
through the Mask. Your PC should be
afraid of the one slip-up that can bring the whole thing down.
Nosferatu players try to overcompensate and end up acting like Toreador
socialities rather than skulking
spies covered in filth with retarded social skills.
Gangrel:
Gangrel are great storytellers AMONG OTHER Gangrel. If your Gangrel sends
an e-mail of more than one page,
he/she is talking too much. If your Gangrel is going on a lengthy
explaination about the recent Sabbat attack,
he/she is talking too much. Gangrel do not become Princes often because
they do not like to be constrained.
Nothing limits freedom more than being Prince. Gangrel also, even if they
do not frenzy often, adopt the
mannerisms and psychology of animals to some degree. This interferes with
dealing with mortals, managing
influences, and employing the "people skills" necessary to rule a domain.
When was the last time your PC Gangrel growled? Crossed their arm and
held their tongue in disdain?
Walked out of a boring, pointless meeting? Sniffed the air? Dropped to a
crouch and watched?
Nothing spoils the mystique more than a Gangrel who talks too much.
Emulate the strong, silent hero/heroine
types from action movies.
Trading Thaumaturgy:
Tremere pride themselves on scholarship. They are in constant competition
with one another. To ask to swap
paths or thaumaturgical lore demonstrates laziness and incompetence. To
accept indicates that one values
personal gain over dedication and scholarship. Both should be punished
severely.
Teaching Thaumaturgy:
They will always come up with a good reason why you should teach them.
Don't do it. Ever. Only when you are
an experienced player will you be able to violate this rule. If you think
this applies to you, chances are it
does not.
Chantries:
Chantries should be fortresses and intensely difficult to location and
invade. Carrying off the contents of the
Chantry should not result in free Thaumaturgy or free paths. It should
result in lots and lots of books and lots
of junk that may or may not be practical.
Boons:
Every time someone does something for you or you for them, a debt is
incurred. Even if you do not take the
time to log it with the Harpy (and you should), no matter how trivial, a
debt is incurred. Keep track of
those debts and make people pay.
Dominate:
Dominate, unless used with Telepathy, does not allow you to view the
memories of the target. Rather it
requires the target to explain what he/she remembers. Nothing is more
annoying than someone who comes up
and says "I'm using Dominate and I find all the mesmerisms and changed
memories." No. You don't.
Dominate is one of the most feared powers a Kindred can possess. It
allows you to force Kindred to do
your bidding and is the tool used by Lasombra, Tremere, Ventrue and
Giovanni to consolidate their power.
If Dominate wasn't so potent, then why would these Clans be so powerful?
If Potence/Celerity was so potent
then why didn't WW write their game with Brujah making up the majority of
Camarilla Princes? Finding altered
memories and mesmerisms should be an incredibly difficult process akin to
finding a dropped contact lens in a
crowded room.
Spending XP on something other than disciplines:
A good rule of thumb is that anything you get should be paid for with xp.
If you just made a friend of an
Archon, pay for it. Kick ass haven? Pay for it. Lores? Pay for them.
This one change will reduce the
cheese level in your game dramatically. Players are more careful with
where they spend their points. The
occult researcher with a specialization in Infernalism who paid for the
knowledge with xp becomes more valuable
(and respected as a player) than one who merely gives themselves WW lore-5
with metagaming or a magic pencil.
If your PC quotes Camarilla law, they should pay for that knowledge with
xp. Is your character an Elder with
knowledge of the Camarilla? Pay for it with xp. Is your PC after a few
skirmishes suddenly an expert on the
Sabbat? Pay for a level-1 lore with xp.
Lore's Part 2
No matter how good your PC is, the World of Darkness is filled with lies
and half-truths. It is the rare
Camarilla PC who should have Sabbat or Garou lore above 1. If a PC
attempts to teach you this lore free of
charge, he/she is probably lying. The World of Darkness is filled with
lies and half-truths, remember?
Kindred lie all the time, remember? Just because you know it's true OOC
is no reason to believe it
automatically in-character. Doing so makes you a cheese-monkey.
Item Cards:
If you are flipping through a stack of index cards in the middle of battle
or just prior to it, then you have
obviously never played Dungeons and Dragons. There is a limit to how much
your PC can carry. Even with
Puissance. And generally, carrying that warded axe with the motorcycle
helmet and full riot gear armor is
something you should have PROMINENTLY displayed on your badge. IN BIG
LETTERS.
Flipping through a stack of item cards in the middle of battle means that
you're tapping into your portable hole
or bag of holding, in which case you should go back to playing Dungeons
and Dragons.
If you have the items stored somewhere, like a car trunk, store the item
cards in a separate container so that
you don't look like quite as much of a cheese monkey when you whip out the
whole stack at once.
Books:
You should not be able to get free Lores from item card books. If you
find a player with such a book, point
them out to the ST and have it destroyed. Unless of course the PC bought
the book with xp....
Travel Time:
If you are going to travel during the course of the game, you must stay
out of play to reflect the drawbacks of
travel time. If you drive one hour away, go fight the Sabbat, feed, drive
to a meeting with the Gangrel in the
woods and then drive two hours back to the Elysium, your game night is
pretty much booked. There is no way the
whole process should take only one hour of game time. It is unfair to
the rest of the game that you have free
Temporis.
Private Rooms:
If you are in a private room, make a concerted effort to go somewhere
physically other than the MIDDLE OF THE
ELYSIUM. Who knows? Players may want to take advantage of your isolation
to do something devious to your PC.
Doing something devious is remarkably difficult when the private room
suddenly fills with everyone who just
"happened to be 5 feet away from the door." Your reaction will be
entirely different if you realize that you
are alone and out of shouting distance from all your friends and allies.
Going Indpendent:
Unless you are a Gangrel playing a part in the upcoming "Gangrel Leaving
The Camarilla" plotline,
"going independent" means becoming an Anarch. That means, no matter what
the Treaty of Tyre says,
the Prince can whack your PC at will. Once a PC has gone Anarch the road
to returning from it is
long and tedious. It certainly comes with the free "Probationary Sect
Member" flaw. If you aren't
skeptical of someone who has gone Anarch and then repented (unless you are
playing a Brujah or
converted Anarch yourself), you are doing the game a disservice.
Going Autarkis:
Going Autarkis means that the character rejects all the protections and
trappings of society, including the
support of Clan, sire, sect and coterie. Unless the character is
extremely powerful, the character should
quickly be killed. Coming back from going Autarkis, unless it is a part
of one's background story, is more
difficult than returing from being an Anarch.
Vitae:
Kindred love blood. All kinds of it. Especially mortal or Kindred
vintage. What often happens is that
players try to introduce a bit of mood by dabbling in the dealing of
drugs, or trading of vitae vintages,
or serving blood at Elysium and some player ALWAYS will do the dumb stunt
of trying to sneak their vitae
into the mix in order to force a blood bond onto the victim. The plot
never works or if it does, it gets
found out, and the mood is spoiled.
That's why Setites can't function in OWBN and huge plot and mood
possibilities are lost. ST's and PC's should
allow Kindred to automatically detect such blatant attempts. It's been
done SO many times, it's become
tediously cliche. BTW, the penalty for such a stunt should always be
immediate Final Death. Again, one
of the reasons Setites do not flourish in OWBN is because every Setite PC
and NPC has always tried the
sneaky blood bond trick.
Camarilla Positions:
The Camarilla is prejudiced and favors the old over the young, the
connected over the competent, and the
Cam-7 over everyone else. Just because that Ravnos would make a kick-ass
Sherriff, doesn't mean she should
get the job. Disciminate! Make the lazy Brujah the Sheriff and the
Ravnos as a perpetual deputy.
The non-Cam-7 players will invariably work harder and be more competent
than their Camarilla counterparts.
Why? Because they know that's what they'd have to do in order to rise in
the ranks. If you take away the
glass ceiling and the discrimination, you take away part of the fun of
struggling against that oppression.
It's not to say that a dedicated and loyal Setite can't get the position,
but they should really, really,
really have to work for it. Even when they've really worked for it, make
them work more. Charge them boons
while you're at it and keep their status low just to prove that they are
second class citizens.
Stop playing a democratic, tolerate, politically conscious 20th century
20-something and play an inhuman,
greedy, bitter, jealous, grasping, blood sucking corpse. Isn't that why
you starting playing Vampire to
begin with?
F. Gerkins, 2001