First, if you have to ask, there is no Requiem and only the Masquerade.
Second, your character concept may be at odds with some of these guidelines. That's fine, but you should be aware of the consequences of those decisions. Havoc, go ahead and dig yourself a hole anyway.
1) You need to manage your night to night existence.
In D&D you kick down doors, kill orcs, and loot haunted tombs. In Vampire you hunt for blood and maneuver for power and survival in a hostile and uncaring world. In Vampire, you might see a little combat, you might see a lot. You will, however, always be hunting for blood, sleeping during the day when you are vulnerable, keeping the Masquerade, and dealing with vampires with political power. These details are key to your survival. Attend to them first. If you cannot survive and prosper doing the routine, night to night parts of your unlife then combat prowess is unimportant. You've already signed your death warrant.
2) Your skill at combat is only of moderate importance.
I know if you've played too much of the D&D family this will literally be incomprehensible to you, but the Shadowrunners can explain it to you. Combat happens. It's dangerous. You are not, however, kicking down the dungeon door to kill orcs and loot the chest. Running away and hiding are options, sometimes the best option. Fights can be avoided, proxies obtained, and the intervention of others arranged. There's nothing wrong with being awesome in a fight, but it is far from the be all and end all of everything.
3) That said, when there is a fight, be useful.
Be able to do something useful for your fellows. Whether your a Camarilla Coterie or a Sabbat Pack or an Assamite Kamut when things get nasty and unlives are on the line, your presence should be seen as a positive in those instances when you have to throw down. Dread gazing people in running away is good. Claws, swords, and guns are good. Hitting them with Potence is good. Nasty tricks with flammable substances that require no supernatural powers are good.
#2 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 6:20 pm
by Josh
Addendum: getting somebody else to sponge the bullets/claws/flames of the inquisition for you is almost always preferable to getting your own hands dirty.
There's old, there's bold, but there ain't much old and bold.
#3 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:49 pm
by Hotfoot
Bah! Let the old hear the tales of our exploits and die of jealousy and shame! Let the very foundations of their homes crack under the weight of their regret! The feasting halls will be closed to them, and we, the victorious dead, will sing on without them!
#4 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 8:36 am
by Josh
Can't hear you over the melodic hum of my limo. My ghoul receptionist will be happy to take a message, though.
#5 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 1:35 pm
by Hotfoot
I'm sorry, I can't hear you on account of how FUCKING METAL this is going to be.
[youtube][/youtube]
#6 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 4:08 pm
by Josh
Oh hey it's that sucker who was manipulated into starting the War on Asgard!
(In my heart of hearts, I totally get your groove. I'm just playing ye olde devil's advocate on behalf of the methusalehs.)
#7 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 3:34 pm
by LadyTevar
Sometimes, the best revenge is seeing your foe slowly losing all that is dear to them, and leaving them to weep as did Job.
#8 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 3:55 pm
by General Havoc
LadyTevar wrote:Sometimes, the best revenge is seeing your foe slowly losing all that is dear to them, and leaving them to weep as did Job.
There's also the theory of shooting them out of a flying DC-10 with six flareguns while in the middle of desert in broad daylight.
I think that one's from the Book of Isaiah?
#9 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 4:57 am
by Cynical Cat
4) Be Useful.
Problems arise. Someone screws up hunting, there are political intrigues, hard to accomplish tasks, favor trading, Masquerade breaches to cover up, secrets to protect, secrets to discover, and so forth. Be good at one of these. Disciplines can be wonderfully useful in this regard, but there are other ways. Whether it is smoothing over the displeasure of elder vampires or producing funding when it is needed, have something that is useful to other players so that when you fuck up they think you are worth the trouble of helping to bail you out. That leads to my next point.
5) Don't be that guy.
Everyone fucks up, but not everyone is a fuck up. Don't be a fuck up and don't be a passive sink of resources. Think. Analyze. Discuss anything dubious with other players if you need to, but for exercise your brain cells. Act in yours and in the group's best interest. If nothing else, move towards your goals in baby steps. That way, you're at least moving forward and accomplishing something. As with everything else, whether you're playing a saint or a monster you need to be in the positive when the group is calculating pros and cons. PCs will cut other PCs more slack than they will NPCs, but relying on other PCs to be mountains of awesome while you are a pit of suck and expecting to retain their good will while they are being hooked up to car batteries because they covered for your sins is a bad, bad idea.
#10 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:41 pm
by Hotfoot
Well, that's not a surprise. Thanks Canadian Treasury. It starts with three points, and it got rounded up to five. This is why Cyncat never gives two cents anymore.
#11 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 4:26 am
by Cynical Cat
6) The Best Killing Tool is an Elder Vampire
Or Werewolf. Or Arch-mage. Whatever. If at all possible, convincing an elder who has a GM sanctioned pool of points on his stat points kick ass for you is the best way to handle many problems. Try not to have the city's elders want you dead. Do remind the city's elders why they should want your enemies dead. Bonus points if you can convince the Storyteller's pet NPC to kick ass with an audience. Storyteller's love having their favorite NPCs kick ass in front of an audience. Remember that the Storyteller system can have some brutally unforgiving combat.
7) Backgrounds, Backgrounds, Backgrounds
Nothing gets things done as cheaply points wise as backgrounds. Anything your character sucks at is most easily compensated for by backgrounds. Lousy at hunting? Herd. Need a reason for other players to love you? Resources. Lousy at social skills? Contacts and Allies. And so on.
#12 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 5:35 am
by frigidmagi
For rookie players or those not good politics. Never doubt the effectiveness of silence. Your mouth can't dig you a grave if it's closed.
#13 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 12:41 pm
by Josh
Cynical Cat wrote:6) The Best Killing Tool is an Elder Vampire
Or Werewolf. Or Arch-mage. Whatever. If at all possible, convincing an elder who has a GM sanctioned pool of points on his stat points kick ass for you is the best way to handle many problems. Try not to have the city's elders want you dead. Do remind the city's elders why they should want your enemies dead. Bonus points if you can convince the Storyteller's pet NPC to kick ass with an audience. Storyteller's love having their favorite NPCs kick ass in front of an audience. Remember that the Storyteller system can have some brutally unforgiving combat.
7) Backgrounds, Backgrounds, Backgrounds
Nothing gets things done as cheaply points wise as backgrounds. Anything your character sucks at is most easily compensated for by backgrounds. Lousy at hunting? Herd. Need a reason for other players to love you? Resources. Lousy at social skills? Contacts and Allies. And so on.
Backgrounds are huge.
The key to living forever is to never fight a battle that you can get somebody else to fight for you.
frigidmagi wrote:For rookie players or those not good politics. Never doubt the effectiveness of silence. Your mouth can't dig you a grave if it's closed.
And the old 'better to be quiet and thought a fool than to open your mouth and confirm it' is good too.
#14 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2014 11:41 pm
by General Havoc
Do not default to direct combat
Vampire is a game filled with shit nastier than you, and the implied social contract of D&D ("The DM wouldn't put a monster in the dungeon that we had NO chance of killing,") does not apply to the Storyteller system in the slightest. Even if your GM isn't as cross-platform-happy as I am, there are no shortage of vampires that are perfectly capable of pushing your shit in. However badass you may think you are with your two-dot celerity or your full-auto assault rifle, the structure of a Vampire city almost guarantees that there are a plethora of individuals around who will happily fold you in half like an eight-dollar-suit. Even if you are not surrounded by people nastier than you, the Storyteller system involves combat which is both swift and decisive. For all your power and fortitude, one asshole with a shotgun can kick your bitch ass with a lucky roll (or a badly-timed botch on your part). Bear this in mind every time you're tempted to reach for your sword.
Do not be afraid of direct combat either
Don't let the above hold you back if the situation properly warrants it though. What's good for the goose is also good for the gander, and I have seen more players than I can count punch far above their weight class with good luck, good strategy, or a good mixture of both. There are absolutely circumstances where you can get far more out of a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word. Vampire, in my experience, comes down to knowing when you should fight, and when you should run, and when you should talk, and when you should run or talk to set up the fight you want. Vampire is a lethal system, and that applies to the mightiest NPC as much as it does to the player. Never forget either sides of that particular fact.
#15 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 12:52 am
by Lys
In any lethal system, much like in reality, the best fights are the ones that you've won before the first shot is fired. You don't have character shields, so don't act like you do. Instead make use of the assets you do have and maximize them by stacking the deck in your favour as much as possible. You want to walk into the heaven of the biggest, baddest motherfucker in the city and call them out in front of their servants? Fine, but first figure out how much firepower he has, bring twice that much with you, make sure they don't see it coming, and be the one to shoot first. You don't want a fair fight, a fair fight means that the other has a good chance of winning, a good chance of killing you. Don't want to die? Then don't fight fair. Personally, I recommend large quantities of fire and high explosives as the solution to all of (un)life's problems.
#16 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 2:38 pm
by LadyTevar
I, however, would suggest in that case setting your plans up far beforehand, Lys. I would have carefully sounded out his opposition, traded favors, leveraged his allies, and made damn sure that when this motherfucker goes down, the one who comes out on top is me, even if I'm not the next one "in line" to take his place.
#17 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 5:03 pm
by Lys
That's all part of stacking the deck in your favour, I just like blunt examples with fire and explosions because I'm a bit of a pyromaniac. I mean, you should have seen how my eyes light up when I discovered that in Requiem members of the Ordo Dracul can make themselves immune to Rotschreck. "You mean I can be a vampire who uses a flamethrower as a weapon? Sign me the fuck up!"
But yeah, by the time of the big showdown, you want to have arranged everything so that you win. All credible opposition needs to be neutralized or firmly in your corner, assets added to your ledger, liabilities crossed out, friends in high and low places, that kind of thing. If all making a big showy mess does is leave you exposed and vulnerable, then you really shouldn't have made it in the first place. If getting your goals accomplished quietly works better, then by God do that instead. Sometimes you don't beat someone by seeing how many bullets to the head counts as decapitation. You simply stack the deck so much that they fold their hand and never come back. That too is a victory, and it can be even sweeter and more effective than ending things with fire and brimstone.
The point here, ultimately, is you gotta pick your fights, and when it's your life on the line, the fights you want to pick are the ones you're going to win. Also, listen to Kenny Rogers, he knows what he's talking about.
#18 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Sun Feb 16, 2014 11:26 pm
by Cynical Cat
Cynical Cat wrote:6) The Best Killing Tool is an Elder Vampire
Or Werewolf. Or Arch-mage. Whatever. If at all possible, convincing an elder who has a GM sanctioned pool of points on his stat points kick ass for you is the best way to handle many problems. Try not to have the city's elders want you dead. Do remind the city's elders why they should want your enemies dead. Bonus points if you can convince the Storyteller's pet NPC to kick ass with an audience. Storyteller's love having their favorite NPCs kick ass in front of an audience. Remember that the Storyteller system can have some brutally unforgiving combat. Inciting ass whuppin' lynch mobs and werewolves also fall under this rule.
7) Backgrounds, Backgrounds, Backgrounds
Nothing gets things done as cheaply points wise as backgrounds. Anything your character sucks at is most easily compensated for by backgrounds. Lousy at hunting? Herd. Need a reason for other players to love you? Resources. Lousy at social skills? Contacts and Allies. And so on.
#19 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:02 am
by Hotfoot
A Guide for Vikings to Gain Toreador allies:
Read them Tories some Sagas. Tories love Sagas.
#20 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 1:56 pm
by LadyTevar
Hotfoot wrote:A Guide for Vikings to Gain Toreador allies:
Read them Tories some Sagas. Tories love Sagas.
Show the Tories some of your carvings, the spirals and twisted beasts. Perhaps on walrus tusk ivory.
#21 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:15 am
by SirNitram
Never assume you know the Malkavian's insanity. NEVER.
#22 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 12:01 am
by Cynical Cat
8)If you're a blood magician, know your fucking Discipline
Necromany, Thaumaturgy, and associated atrocious blood magic arts are not like Fortitude and Obfuscate. They are (especially Thaumaturgy) extremely flexible Disciplines that can let you do all kinds of shit. Paths are fairly straightforward and useable on the fly, but that's only good if you know your powers and can spot the opportunity to use them. If you go "oh shit, I'm in trouble, let me check my Thaumaturgy powers to see if they can help me" you have already fucked the pooch. You need to be two steps ahead to get the most of your powers. Celerity and Fortitude, on the other hand, can really save your ass if you're one step behind.
That's for paths. For rituals that goes double. Rituals require time (sometimes not very much at all) and have costs. You need to have done the ritual before the situation the ritual is good for occurs. Rituals can be fucking huge. Some of can boost your soak or make drinking your blood like drinking fire. Wards can save your life. Some can unleash devastating magical attacks and some can drop the difficulty of using your Paths, making you a sorcerous boom stick. There's literally all kinds of shit they can do. This shit costs so try to get out of it what you paid for it.
#23 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 12:38 am
by Lys
If i may add a lesson learned from our last session? Always have a damn good reason why you're more valuable alive than dead. Your enemies may decide not to kill you on the strength of that reason, and your friends will be more willing to bail your ass out of the fire. That said, always have some other means of keeping yourself alive, as your enemies might disagree with your assessment of your value and try to kill you anyway, while your friends may not always be on hand to help.
#24 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 3:35 am
by Cynical Cat
Lys wrote:If i may add a lesson learned from our last session? Always have a damn good reason why you're more valuable alive than dead. Your enemies may decide not to kill you on the strength of your value, and your friends will be more willing to bail your ass out of the fire. That said, always have some other means of keeping yourself alive, as your enemies might decide that your reason is not good enough and try to kill you anyway.
A good extension of rules 4 and 5.
#25 Re: Cynical Cat's Guide To Playing Vampire
Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2015 2:26 pm
by General Havoc
10. Balance trust and mistrust
Vampire's reputation notwithstanding, it is a bad idea to assume that literally everyone is lying to you about literally everything. NPCs and PCs alike have agendas, and can be expected to act in service of these agendas. These agendas may be hidden of course, and one should never assume one has figured a character's intentions out, but it does not do to assume everyone is lying to you for the purposes of doing you in. Place yourself in a position where you can exercise what I call "provisional trust", wherein you will take a guy at face value so long as you can do so without compromising yourself. And always bear in mind, that just because someone is manipulating you does not mean you want to make them your enemy, or even necessarily oppose their goals. There is a middle ground between being a voiceless peon and being totally without allies. It's called "alive".
