World of Darkness
- At August 08, 2017
- By Great Quail
- In Vampire
0
An Introduction to Vampire: The Masquerade
Archive Note
I first began playing Vampire: The Masquerade in 1993, and ended my campaign in 2002. I no longer run a Vampire campaign, and New York by Night is essentially an archive of old material.
Vampire: The Masquerade was first published in 1991. This was before “Settlers of Catan” or “Magic: The Gathering.” Geek culture was still largely underground in the early-1990s, and gaming was a lonely sub-culture. Thanks to Anne Rice, however, vampires were very much in style—although the Vampire game predated Twilight and the whole paranormal romance craze! (I’m actually quite astonished how many modern vampire tropes were first introduced in Vampire: The Masquerade, from warring clans to the frictions between vampires and werewolves.)
When I first posted New York by Night, very few gamers had placed their campaigns online, and I received a lot of confused emails: “What the hell is this? What’s a role-playing game? Is this an Anne Rice game?” That sort of thing. This page was an attempt to explain role-playing games in general, and White Wolf’s Vampire game in particular. Reading it today, it’s pretty laughable; but this was written a time when many people still thought role-playing games were Satanic or dangerous! (Does anyone else miss Jack Chick?)
Everything after this note is vintage mid-1990, so if you are crazy enough to keep reading, feel free to judge me as harshly as possible.
Introduction
My “New York by Night” website is devoted to my writings for the White Wolf game called Vampire: The Masquerade. For those of you not familiar with role playing games, or just not familiar with the Vampire game, this short explanation may help you understand what it’s all about.
Role Playing Games
Vampire is a role-playing game, or an “RPG.” An RPG is a unique style of gaming that focuses on the players’ imaginations rather than a static set of rules and a playing board. Probably the best known RPG is Dungeons and Dragons, put out by the company TSR and played by millions.
In an RPG there is no board or pieces; there is no time limit and no way to “win.” It’s more like a session of interactive storytelling than actually playing a game. Each player develops a character, as if they were writing a fictitious persona for a drama or novel. They invent that character’s personality, lifestyle, history, appearance, and individual quirks and characteristics that make him unique. Of course, the character must be a persona that fits in with the game parameters; for instance, in a science fiction RPG, the player might create something like an empathic nuclear scientist or a Starship Trooper. In a fantasy-based RPG such as D&D, a player might develop a wizard, or an elven warrior. (Or a half-Nilbog Ninja Death-Bard, of course. There’s always that.)
Although the actual personality and history of the character may be freely invented by the player, in most RPGs there’s a set of guidelines that must be followed; these represent basic rules of the game, because after all, a new character should not be omnipotent, or any better off than the characters being created by other players. That’s where the rulebooks and dice come in—for while an RPG has no board or pieces, players use dice to simulate random events or probabilities. So for most RPGs, when the player is creating her character, she may freely invent her type of character and personality, but a set of rules will dictate exactly how skilled that character may be, or how powerful—most characters start weak and grow more powerful as they “age” through the playing of the game, just like the heroes in most adventure novels. The dice add a bit of randomness to balance the game; for instance, a character’s traits such as “strength” or “sanity” are usually generated with the help of dice rolling, and therefore assigned numbers to reflect the character’s skill or rating in those particular areas. Dice are also used to determine random outcomes based on probabilities, such as whether or not your dwarven axeman lands a hit on the attacking goblin, or whether or not your detective will have his face slurped off by Yog-Sothoth in an abandoned warehouse.
There is one player, however, who does not “roll up” a character to play. Generally called the Gamemaster (GM), the GM may also have a special title depending on the game being played. In D&D the GM is called the “Dungeon Master,” in Call of Cthulhu he is “the Keeper,” and in Vampire, she is the “Storyteller.” Whatever the name, the gamemaster’s complex job is the same: if the game is reckoned to an interactive drama, he is a combination of producer, principal writer, and director. The GM is the one who sets the tone of the game, and he is the one who comes up with a basic story or a plot, set in a “world” either of his creation or borrowed from a sourcebook or a work of fiction. The GM does not play an actual character like the others—instead he plays a host of “bit” parts, walk-ons, and antagonists to go up against the players’ characters. These are called “non-player characters,” or NPCs, and may range from a simple peasant who throws a rock at a player-character to a complex arch-villain designed to be the players’ main foe. The GM has many responsibilities: he must be fair, he must work hard to keep the game flowing smoothly; he must keep track of all the NPCs and all the other plotlines that are brought into a game. Often he will provide lighting effects and music for atmosphere, and might even be prepared with small props and player “handouts” that duplicate papers, letters, or clues from the game. A good GM is like a good director—he knows when to allow his players freedom and when to reign them in and put their focus back onto the game. A bad GM makes playing the game intolerable—it can quickly become boring or overbalanced or too difficult, especially if the GM is on an ego trip. In a good game, there is a synergy between the GM and the players—it is the GM’s world in which the player’s interact, but it’s their actions that bring it to life. Imagine a director of a play who has painstakingly developed a plot, a beautiful set, and some great ideas—but if there are no lead actors, all that exists is an empty stage.
Game Play
A game can last anywhere from a few hours to a marathon stretch of days, with most lasting in the neighborhood of six to eight hours. The GM sets the theme and describes the players’ surroundings, and the players bring it to life with their actions—they interact with each other and with their environment. It is important that at the beginning of the game they have all described themselves; that way every player knows what the others “look like.” They then “role-play” that character throughout the game. Some players merely describe what their character is doing; others adopt a different accent and vocal style and actually project their characters from a first person perspective; and some groups even “act out” their characters. (To a limited—and safe—extent.) The style with which a person plays her character is pretty much dependent on her individual personality, creativity, and/or inclination. An extroverted actor might relish hamming it up, adopting a British accent and using props such as a cane and monacle; whereas another player, perhaps more shy and quiet, might simply describe what his character is doing. Group dynamic plays an important role as well—most groups eventually settle on a similar role-playing style shared by all members.
The Gamemaster is responsible for getting things moving, and often provides some tangible starting point to get the plot underway. A very stripped down and obvious start might be: “You are in a nightclub, when a mysterious man with piercing blue eyes casually detaches from a group of dancers and vanishes downstairs. Suddenly a dancer screams; and another woman drops to the floor in a twitching heap. What do you do?”
What happens next is up to the players. Player One might decide to investigate the blue-eyed man; and he tells the GM that’s where he is going. Player Two might walk over to examine the woman, and the GM tells her what she sees: two fang marks on her neck, oozing a trickle of blood. And Player Three might just shrug and continue sipping her bourbon. Meanwhile, the GM is already preparing for what will happen when Player One meets the blue-eyed man; and the GM also knows that in about three minutes the police will arrive—when the players will meet “Detective Lönnrot,” one of the GM’s NPCs that he has decided to role-play in a very “Columbo” style. He is also toying with the idea of spontaneously creating a drunk patron that will begin to annoyingly hit on Player Three, perhaps catalyzing her decision to get more involved with the others. Oh, yes, and the mysterious man sitting in a corner is a private investigator named Auster Quinn, and he will begin tailing the characters as soon as they leave the bar. . . and so the game begins.
The important thing to remember is that an RPG is interactive—it should be somewhat unpredictable and always fun. Characters should behave in harmony with their created personalities, and often the real joy of role-playing surfaces when one faces down and defeats obstacles in character. Role-playing can be a very cathartic experience, whether facing the “death” of a companion or celebrating the completion of a long and arduous task.
There is no real way to “win” a role-playing game; goals are generally accomplished with varying degrees of success or not. And when the game is over, the characters aren’t just discarded—the players pick a new date for the next game when they will continue their adventures as the plot thickens. When a GM and players are involved in one game for an extended period of time—say months or even years—it is called a “campaign” or a “chronicle.” Campaigns often have ultimate goals, and they usually track the growth and development of a group of characters over this time, watching the characters grow, change, expand in power—or sometimes die. When a character dies in the game, the player then has the option of creating a new character, which is often something completely different than the old one. The campaign, however, marches on.
What is Vampire: The Masquerade and the World of Darkness?
Vampire is an adult role-playing game written by Mark Rein-Hagen and published by White Wolf. Unlike D&D, it takes place in today’s world—but in the context of the game, vampires and other supernatural beings are real. White wold calls this setting the “World of Darkness.” It has a “Gothic-Punk” setting and feel, and the overall theme of the game one of personal horror and redemption.
Vampire is an unusual game in that players do not create traditional heroic characters to play—instead, they create vampires. But this does not mean the players are necessarily evil, for Vampire is a modern game, and borrows much from the Anne Rice concept of the undead. A vampire is often a beautiful and sensuous immortal, cursed to live off the blood of the living, and doomed to ponder whether or not they are eternally damned. The game stipulates that there are several clans of vampires (the “Kindred”), each with their own individual characteristics. Each player creates a vampire from one of these clans, and the game revolves around their trials and tribulations in the world of darkness. Undead politics, relationships with the living, and struggles over the nature of the soul are all important themes—of all the many RPGs, Vampire: The Masquerade is one of the most sophisticated, based on actual role-playing rather than combat. Again, to understand the basic nature of the game, read Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire; or at least go see the excellent film adaptation by Neil Jordan. This, more than any explanation I could write, will give you a sense of the game’s overall theme. You could also rent tapes of Kindred: The Embraced, a short lived TV series on FOX based on the game itself. It’s a bit awkward or cheesy at times, but it still has some fairly good moments, and it does give a good—if a bit simplified—version of the Vampire universe.
There are many different clans of vampires in the game, but some stand out:
The Toreador
A clan of artistic vampires, they seek aesthetic inspiration in the chaos of the twentieth century. The Toreador are the undead the most like Anne Rice’s vampires, or the vampire in The Hunger.
The Ventrue
Powerful and equipped with the thirst to lead, the Ventrue clan are dedicated to upholding the Byzantine political system of the Camarilla, the organization that keeps all vampires in check. The vampire in Fright Night was probably a Ventrue; and the stuffy Vampire Council in Blade were Ventrue to the hilt.
The Tremere
Subtle and quick to anger, the Tremere are vampires that can use magic, and are not very trusted by the others. They are self-serving, clannish, and unreliable—like all mages.
The Brujah
This clan believes in anarchy, and have a reputation for being wild and dangerous—The vampires in Near Dark and The Lost Boys would fit here. I also think Spike from the Buffy series would make a nice Brujah. However, sometimes they believe that they can rule better than the Ventrue, and some older Brujah try to cause revolution rather than anarchy: perhaps Stephen Dorff’s character in Blade can be seen in this light.
The Malkavians
Infected with the curse of insanity, Malkavians range from whimsical to the utterly deranged. If Jack Nicholson were to play a vampire, I’m sure a Malkavian would hardly be a stretch. Angelus and his progeny Drusilla from the Buffy series—definite Malkavians. Oh yes, and ever see Escape from New York? That wild haired jester with the hiss . . . yup, just waiting to be a Malkavian.
The Gangrel
Vampires of the wild, these creatures are the closest to being confused with werewolves. They are feral, loyal, and have the closest ties to the Lupines.
The Nosferatu
Ugly and individualistic, these creatures haunt the sewers. Most are as disfigured as their German namesake. The vampires in From Dusk to Dawn might have been Sabbat Nosferatu, although they were more like pulpy vermin, so horrible that even I cheered when Seth Gecko staked them. And Radu, from the surprisingly good Subspecies films, is a Romanian Nosferatu to the core.
The Tzimisce
Grandiose, arcane, and utterly twisted, this clan is the most like the Dracula legend than the others. They are greatly feared by the other clans, for they are members of the Sabbat—the evil axis of clans that oppose the Camarilla. There are also two types of Tzimisce, the regal “Old World” part of the clan, and the more modern and thoroughly warped branch that revels in magic and sadism. Bram Stoker’s Dracula gives a good—albeit Romantic—image of an “Old World” Tzimisce.
The Lasombra
The “Ventrue of the Sabbat,” these vampires are royal in blood and can manipulate shadows. They are canny, manipulative, and haughty to a fault.
Getting Started
So in essence, a player chooses which of these clans is best suited for what type of character she wants to role-play, and then with the help of the Storyteller, she develops that character. Some groups like to start off human and role-play through their “Embraces”; other groups start as ancient and powerful vampires already beset by their own unique problems—it all depends on the experience of the players and the overall flavor the Gamemaster wants for the campaign. In general, the characters converge on a city which acts as their home base, and as the campaign progresses, they become increasingly more enmeshed in the undead politics as they explore the dimensions of their own tortured souls, forever striving to keep the Beast at bay—that day when a vampire loses all traces of humanity and becomes a hollow shell, retired forever from the game.
In my personal campaign, I am the Storyteller, and the city that we play in is New York: hence “New York by Night.” I have developed a host of non-player characters, nightclubs, plotlines, and sanctuaries that support my game and provide a stage upon which my players can strut their stuff. You may read some details about my personal campaign, if you wish, or you can just launch right into NYBN.
If you already play Vampire, I hope that my ideas can spark some of your own; and if you are new to the game, I hope this introduction whets your appetite to learn more. The game can be purchased at most hobby stores, or ordered through any bookstore. White Wolf has dozens of supplement books out to support the World of Darkness, but the only one you need to get started is the basic rulebook: Vampire: The Masquerade. Happy hunting.
Credits
The World of Darkness and the Storyteller System, which includes Vampire: The Masquerade; Werewolf: the Apocalypse; Mage, the Ascension; Wraith: the Oblivion; and Changeling: the Dreaming; are all trademarks of White Wolf Games. The banner image was designed by me, but the nifty three-dimensional effects on the cross were first added by NYBN visitor DarkSoul. All images taken from the game books will be marked as the property of White Wolf, which holds their copyrights. Some of my images incorporate the artwork of others; in every case I will credit the relevant artist, and I promise to remove the offending graphic if the artist makes this wish known to me. The mention of or reference to any companies or products on this website is not a challenge to the trademarks or copyrights concerned.
Author: Great Quail
Original Upload: 1995–1996?
Date Archived: 9 August 2017
Embarrassment Level: Moderately High
Email: Quail (at) Shipwrecklibrary (dot) com