Vampire: The Masquerade (idea)

Keep your mind on the words personal horror. That is the core of any good Vampire game. Games lacking this aspect degenerate into bloody horror flicks or dungeons and dragons with fangs. So when developing your plot, remember that this should be a game of personal horror.

How do you run Personal Horror? Personal horror can be found in the character realizing that s/he is no longer human being and has become a monster. This does not mean you should run a game where the characters are boogey monsters. Rather, Humanity is key and should be jealously protected by the players and it is up to the Storyteller to challenge it. You create personal horror by placing characters still attached to their humanity in situations where that ideal is challenged. Essentially, what this means in that you need to run a game that is centered around the characters rather than a game that is centered around a linear plot.

How do you get characters who would fit into this type of game? Well, not all characters will work well in a character centered vampire game. If you want to run a political game, a loner caitiff would probably be a bad idea. Similarly, if you want to run a game focused on personal horror a battle hardened Brujah would be a bad idea. You want characters who will be horrified by the fact that they are surrounded by death and have to live on blood. Basically, you want characters who have high humanity because someone who kills for a living isn't going to have many issues with being a monster.

How shall I handle Character Creation? Be extremely selective as to what concepts you will allow in the game. My advice is that you only allow the standard Camarilla clans and that you make the players adhere to the clan stereotypes. What I mean by this, is that if a player says that s/he wants to play a Ventrue then you need to make sure that character has something the Ventrue would want and like (such as a banking genius).

It would be very wise of you to ask the players to create their characters as human beings. Have them define their jobs, their families, their relationships, where they live, what their favorite food is, what they like to do on the weekends, etc etc. Try to make these characters are real and human as possible. The players should know pretty much everything about them, a few anecdotes such as a story about getting beaten up in 3rd grade go a long way into making these characters be more than sheets of paper.

How do I start the game? The most effective way I've found is to Embrace the characters in game. What this means, is that the characters begin as human beings and become Vampires during the first few sessions. This allows the characters to get attached to being humans and then be suddenly confronted with the horror of having to hide from the sun, live on blood, and be a parasite of humanity. During this period do not fast foward through anything that occurs. Describe everything they feel, hunger pangs, etc. And make them detail how they plan to feed, find shelter, and cope with their new existance. The first few nights of vampiric life will likely be the most memorable part of the game and the part where the characters (and players) really bond.

NPC's It is very important to make three dimensional non-player characters. Go through the same character generation method for each NPC that your players go through. Work out what their goals are and how they interact with each other and how they'll likely react to the player characters.