{Ed. note: Article posted with permission of author. Edited slightly for web formatting.}
| Date sent: | Tue, 17 Jul 2001 22:20:08 -0700 (PDT) | |
| From: | DeAnna Johnson <[email protected]> | |
| Subject: | [stcircle] Re: Maybe... (In all its forms) |
After reading my first day of long letters (a task that took hours might I add LOL) I have tried to make my comments here in short numbered form so people can cut and paste and respond easier. Maybe I have a couple of points worth while in here. Anywho�
1) You will never be able to completely stop players from spending EXP on the min/max level (max attributes, combat skills, high level disciplines) unless you force them not to. However, as a ST in the Camarilla we really can't do that. Suggestion� help to focus your corner of the world of darkness on many things so they might say "OH man this plot about the prostitutes had me wishing I had some investigation but I really wanted Puissance� um� well maybe it can wait." Or "Gee another level of thaum would really kick a** but you know I saw how that new npc used subterfuge and I'd like to do that too! I suppose my uber discipline can wait another month." Give them a reason to want other more non-standard things. Let them see that Academics is a good ability or that influences DO help you. As a ST don't just tell them, show them.
2) Intrigue (politics and negotiation): Action (combat and challenges): Mystery (enigmas and investigation): Drama (ceremony and characterization): Darkness (probability of player character death or corruption), these things are on our venue sheets. Do our players know what they are and do you as a local ST know which of these things your are most important to your members. Until we ask we won't know. Then its just a matter of giving it to them.
3) Gothic and Punk is a style. Punk, for those old enough to remember and those who don't, was something very 80's. This style and atmosphere is what set VTM apart from most gaming labels of the early 90's. Pick up a copy of the VTM storytellers guide fist addition if you don't believe me. Just look at the picture on the cover and groan with memories of lots of hair spray.
4) Style vs. Plot Content� both important. Both needed. Style might be given in your descriptions of places (how often do you take the time to describe in detail JUST how creepy the Tremere chantry is or how the club they meet in looks.) Most often, in my experience, you can set the tone for a game by the atmosphere you give the players to work in. Plot content is another story altogether. See #2 first and find out what kind of game your players want. From there its in your hands. However plots properly set should run themselves leaving you only a papertrail. I've seen some very nice plots run that have the players running about all night and the ST merely responding to uses of influence, contacts, etc until the resolve of the plotline. In the end a plot like this leaves players feeling more satisfied because they've followed it at their own pace and how they wanted. Whether it was with "The nail in the board attacking" or via social political machinations.
5) MIRC is one of the greatest successes and failures of the Camarilla. How many times have you lo gged on to find people typing "I jump on the couch and cuddle with Bobby Brujah?" However, to MIRC 's defense it allows people to role-play who would never have met otherwise. Separating the "good" role-players and the "Bad" role-players is not the answer. Education is. We need people to realize you are eternal beings of the night� not Cammie Member who got bored at home tonight and jumped on MIRC looking to laugh a bit with friends. Honestly, how many of you would use an electronic medium such as MIRC if you were really vampires. Not me. In fact, 90% of the time I use MIRC I come in to find someone and when I'm there really playing my pc she doesn't talk a lot. Other times I use her to start socializing� which can be quiet deadly. MIRC can kill. As another idea I think a lso the log on message in the ic room should mention the ooc channel so that these people who are looking for fun and goofing can go there to do so. As to education maybe online classes could be offered by GSAs and their staff members on how to better play (insert clan name here) Locally STs can do this as well. Its always worked well in chapters I have been at. Offer a "Clan Only Game" and after a class (or before hand if need be) You might even ask someone who plays a note worthy member of said clan to proxy or come by thusly encouraging people to show up. Eventually, you will get through to people. Education, Education, Education.
6) Combat vs. Social/Political. Okay, I've had my rant on this one before. Example. Not too long ago I was in a domain where there were so vast differences in MC from one Player to the next. MC 1 - MC 10. As an ST I recalled something Bill Sherman (great lakes rst) once told me when I first became a storyteller and tried to remind the higher MC people� it is your responsibility as a playe r to ensure that other players are having a good time. Its not JUST an ST job. The longer you are in the Camarilla the more you should know that the game, though more in some places than in others, is based largely off of the deadly arena of the social political game. Encouraging your older me mbers to set the style of the game (parties, clubs, museums etc.) will really help your game over a ll. Asking them to every now and again help a newer player to learn the game, rather than just tea ring through them cause they said the wrong thing or did the wrong thing this is what will in the end keep the coming back. THAT�S NOT TO SAY that killing should not be allowed but judgement should be used. PC death isn't fun for anyone (well� maybe not everyone hates it but I don't think its why they play.) especially not those on the receiving end. No one wants to put time and effort int o a character only to lose it because they said the wrong thing to Bobby Brujah at the wrong moment . The player of Bobby Brujah should realize that with such a deadly weapon (his pc) there will com e a certain amounts of responsibility to ensure others are having fun. Even his victims.
7) BLOOD�I can count the number of games I've been to in my entire time in the Camarilla ON ONE HAND where I ran through a feeding scene or was tested for blood at the beginning of the night. I CAN NOT stress how important this is. The true horror of the hunt, of the beast's unbridled uncaring hunger, and the inevitable realization every night that the only cure for your pain� a pain deeper than any love or sickness you've ever had, is the blood of something you still view as JUST LIKE YOU!!! To look in the eyes of your victim and realize its you that they fear at night, you're the bo ogey man, you're the monster under the bed, the man outside their bedroom window trying to get in. You're all the urban legends and myths of the old nights all in one. This alone should be a good reason to come to the game. It has been and always will be one of my favorite parts of the game. Shock some players at sign in and have several feeding scene ideas ready. Grab visitors and local members pull them aside and take them back to the true reason they picked up VTM. Those smiles and look of wonder in their eyes makes your job worth it�
8) NPCS � Demons, Sabbat, Fae, Ghosts, Hunters� if I have only one request for you my fellow STs� j ust make them SMART. God. I know pulling punches is sometimes necessary not to slaughter the whol e chapter full of characters but sometimes we make less the true horror of these truly potent foes by making them with good stats but having them show up right where the vampire can fight them. I'm sorry but if I'm going to kill off a vampire I'm going to use influences to find their havens, chase them down during the day or when their alone. Re-read those uses of influences and take a look at all the options you have without even having these npcs meet a vampire until the players have tracked them down. Sabbat sieges on Elysium (while they do occur) usually don't happen quite like t here are commonly played up. Violence occurs but only after some Intel. Play your npcs like your play your pcs. This should be the world of darkness not the world of stupid. (As a ST once told me.)
9) White-Wolf books� okay, so we model our world after the world in their books but if you haven't noticed we are not their books. Okay blunt but here is what I mean. We look at this and say "Where in the books do you see their vampires doing �" Their vampires haven't lived our chronicle. Remember a character is not only made by stats and history but by the sum total of their experiences. They will act in accordance to what they've seen and done ic. In effect what you help to give them.
10) Okay, swore I wouldn't do this but � Once I was storytelling at a chapter game where one member of the city was summoning another to save him from a Tzimisce. They were in an underground lair beneath an old woman's home so when a coterie came to save him they followed the now summoned man to the door. A woman in a walker answered with her 3 tiny grandkids behind her. (now this is like 2am) She thinks because of beast traits on the gangrel they were trick or treating (it was about Halloween) and offers them candy. So they rip through her assuming she's Sabbat. The gross descripti on I gave left some in tears laughing at the stupidity of the "Billy the Brujah" type PC who did it and other in horror of just what his strength did to an old crippled woman. Sometimes shock value is necessary to remind the players their characters are 'really' killing someone. Sometimes this is a better idea rather than "don't be so violent guys�"
11) Giving the players what they want all the time IS NOT GOOD. Example. An ST (who shall remain nameless) was once in charge of a game I was assisting at. The words I heard out of that STs mouth have stuck with me to this very night "Give them some Sabbat to kill or they will start killing player characters." No lie. Players need to learn that if they are here for killing they are in the wrong game. There is more to this game than just violence and it is our job to show them that. Find the balance and walk it� that is the hardest part of being a storyteller IMHO.
And one last thought, from the people who brought us VTM in the first place:
"At the heart of all communication lies the story - the holder of hopes and dreams, fears and hatre ds, passion and mystery. What we are, what we will be and what we want to be comes to us in this form. But it is not enough to just create a tale.
Images must flash past the shocked faces of those around. Pulsing noises have to fill their world, allowing them little respite. Scents swirl around, and even the feel and taste of existence should flow through their bodies. Here exists the essence of the story; here it has life meaning beyond the voice of the Storyteller.
The Story can be no greater than its creator; the Storyteller, little better than her creation. But together they forge new ground, becoming far more than either alone." - 1st edition Storyteller's Handbook White-Wolf copyright 1992
Let's hear your thoughts...
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DeAnna Johnson aka Dee
CST of Innocence Lost Lamar, Missouri MO-025
High Priestess of the Order of Snacky Cakes
Llama Tamer Extrordinaire
Prisoner #9904061
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