Breathing Life Into a Clan

Adaptation: transmuting source material into useful information for a game is one of the greatest challenges facing a Storyteller. This challenge increases when that game belongs to a larger, shared universe with other games. Unclear expectations frustrate players, while haphazard implementation fosters distrust between games. How do you balance the players’ desires with the needs of the game and expectations of organized play? Focus on the barest bones of the character experience in Vampire: The Masquerade—the clan a player chooses.

Every other decision about a character stems from this selection: political affiliation, interactions with other players, core assumptions, and personal goals. While a concept does not need to be tied to a specific clan, an investigative character played as a Brujah is very different than one played as a Gangrel. While every clan has a different personality, experienced Storytellers find that certain basic essentials will always improve the overall experience. Consider These Three Questions How do you allow players creative freedom while permitting the clans to remain cohesive and recognizable?

Players choose to play a clan based on several factors; the two factors with the most impact are the number of active players playing that clan and the material written about it. There are few things worse than watching a player’s excitement nosedive into disillusionment when the gameplay does not match their expectations. How do you use the printed material to supplement the needs of your game? The best Storytellers have a vision for their games and utilize pieces of the setting to bring that vision to life.

It is no simple task to weed through the source material and find the seeds that will improve a game. Some players want to focus on the minutiae of the setting, while others flesh out their roleplay in broad strokes. There will always be players who do not care about the plot presented to them, while others dive in eagerly. How do you acknowledge the needs of various regions— and their conflicting cultures—while still holding them accountable to the larger organization? Storytellers cannot overlook the needs of the shared universe.

Interconnected games come alive when the stories synchronize across real-world boundaries. All organizations must grapple with the tension between universal experiences and the effect that regionalism has upon these experiences. A Nordic player has a very different view of game than an English player, and the United States has entirely different play-styles in adjacent states. The answers to these questions are surprisingly simple:

• First, you must create a set of standards that holds true throughout the organization.

• Then, you use those standards to create positions of leadership within a clan, which in turn enforces those standards.

• Finally, you reward the characters who work within the system. These three approaches reap results almost immediately once tailored to fit your organization. Creating Clan Standards Establishing standards is arguably the hardest—and most important—part of the process. Every clan utilizes different assumptions and understandings. Brujah players focus much more on individual leadership and the illusion of freedom, while Malkavian players rarely need more than a shared space in with to roleplay their derangements. A Ventrue player, however, expects a good deal more organization and structure from her clan. A thorough reading of the source material is important. The clanbooks are an obvious beginning, as are the general setting books. Storytellers will almost never be as well-versed in the minutiae of the books as the players who live and breathe them. As you work through the material, be sure to identify the differences between the sourcebooks and the needs of your organization. Many Storytellers are scared to let go of the reins and trust their players. This is why having standards in place before sorting out the leadership of a clan is so important. Clear guidelines, both in-game and out-of-game, create a set of expectations that everyone can measure themselves against. When done correctly, you have an awesome mixture of player-character initiative and Storyteller-character oversight, and you will find the clan inhabiting its own own space—living and breathing and letting the stories flow. Integrating Standards with Roleplay How do you get the players to buy into the concept, though? How do you guide that frustrated player into the right groove Breathing Life Into a Clan Rushing for your game? In the olden days, you would hear advice about punishing the player, hammering away at her until she either figures out how to mesh with the clan’s structure or she quits. That is rubbish. Reward the behavior you wish others to emulate; don’t punish the behavior that runs counter to your setting. “Appropriate behavior” is tricky to determine. Playercharacters are frequently created as the exception to the rule, and the greatest struggle with an organization’s concept of a clan is channeling that desire for exceptionalism into roles appropriate to the setting. If your organization values small personal stories over epic sweeping adventures of Gehenna, then a concept based around the big story is going to have less fun. If your game prefers a four-color approach, the angstridden loner bewailing her Humanitas will stick out like a sore thumb. Again, reward the players who play to the game’s tone, and make it clear why the reward is happening. This is not to say that everyone should get what they want; drama is about tension, and there is no tension in a Monty Hall cascade of “kewl toyz.” Rather, it is a matter of the proud nail getting the hammer. A player-character who inhabits space outside of the expected setting is already going to have trouble establishing herself, and she often will succeed in spite of the setting. For example, a Ventrue player who insists on playing an Anarch is already setting herself up for a wild ride, and punishing her is not going to make the experience any more fun. Instead, reward the Ventrue player who respects her elders and serves the clan. Rewarding Desired Behavior The options for rewards are limitless. Access to disciplines is always an easy option. It is more exciting, though, to reward player-characters who tend to color inside the lines by making their gaming lives easier. Resolving personal plot goes further in making players feel rewarded than dots on a sheet. Opening doors or providing them opportunities allows them to continue to succeed, and it showcases to the game how remaining within certain guidelines is beneficial to gameplay. In a shared universe, this reinforcement is even more important. Players travel because they want a group experience that is larger and richer than just one game, but they also expect a certain amount of uniformity. A Gangrel who runs in a pack of werewolves may work on an individual basis, but if that is not the norm for the organization as a whole, it breeds a certain amount of eye-rolling when she travels to a large event and starts bringing in information from an entirely different system and forcing other players to acknowledge her story. If you prefer your Gangrel to focus on vampiric society rather than mingling with werewolves, then reward the players who make that choice. Perhaps they hear of newly-arrived characters before other player-characters, making it easier to introduce plot or new players into the game. These player-characters then act as gatekeepers and take on leadership within the game as they direct other player-characters towards plot, or introduce new players to their Primogen or the Prince’s court. You have now rewarded the player who “colors within the lines” with tangible benefits, and your game prospers. Sample Ideas Let’s deconstruct three of the 13 greater clans found within Vampire: The Masquerade and use the three steps mentioned above to see what details can be fleshed out from the setting material. We’ll look at the Brujah, with their focus on community; the Tremere, who rely on an occult hierarchy; and the Ventrue, the followers of tradition. Brujah At first blush, the Brujah clan is easy for a Storyteller to moderate. Individualists to the core, they defy attempts to control them and lash out at perceived injustice or persecution. They hold clan meetings—appropriately called Rants—in which they hash out problems and policies in an aggressively personal fashion. They also hold sacred a concept named the Call to Arms, through which a Brujah can expect aid from her clan in times of need. These two staples of the clan can send an unprepared Storyteller into a panic if not managed properly. In organized play, a Rant is an opportunity for Brujah players near and far to force their agendas on one another. If your game has Brujah-specific plot, seeding it into the Rant is the most effective way of putting the plot directly into the hands of the players, but do not be surprised when a roomful of Brujah rip the plot to shreds and fashion whole-cloth something entirely different. The players will want a consensus, a feeling of community, after the arguing and shouting and posturing is done, when they can point at the Rant and say, “this was decided.” To achieve this sense of community, identify the key elements of the plot and provide those elements in-character to as many of the Brujah players as possible before the Rant. If there are Storyteller-characters present, avoid heavy-handed declarations, allow the players to lead the charge in any debate, and speak out in support of the characters who pick up the threads of the plot. This restraint allows the players to leave the scene with a sense of empowerment and involvement. The Call to Arms is another example of harnessing the Brujah sense of community to create exciting gameplay. There are fundamental questions, however, that must be answered before bringing the Call to Arms into play. How does the word spread to other Brujah? What happens to a Brujah character who ignores it? In a troupe game, it is easy enough to say that the Brujah throughout the chronicle hear of the Call, but when you have an organization that stretches across a country, how feasible is it to expect a Brujah from California to respond to a Call to Arms in Florida? Take care when answering these questions, or Storytellers will find their players dissatisfied and frustrated. Understanding the inherent complications of the source material helps prevent headaches in the future as you create a baseline of expectations, and it enables the players to understand the limitations of their shared universe. A Brujah who summons her clanmates under a weak pretext should be held accountable, while one who can rally the troops and organize them deserves future consideration for leadership within the clan. Tremere As their clan is based on rank and hierarchy, internal structure is very important to a Tremere player. The most important Tremere character in your chronicle is likely the Regent, the leader of the local Chantry and overseer for the other Tremere in the game. The Regent acts as middle management for the Pyramid at large, and she bears a great deal of responsibility for providing for the enjoyment of other Tremere playercharacters. It is tempting to create a Storyteller-character, dub her Regent, and then occasionally weigh in on plots or clan matters. A more interesting approach is to have the Regent’s superior be the Storyteller-character, and to place a player-character in the position of Regent. The superior holds the player-character accountable for the success of the Chantry, and thus the Regent has incentive to encourage appropriate behavior from the other Tremere beneath her. You have created standards and found a player to uphold those standards; then her actions allow you to reward her if she succeeds. If done properly, the player of the local Regent will handle the Apprentices in a similar fashion, and suddenly you have a vibrant clan structure with players taking on responsibilities to prove themselves worthy of promotion. Earlier, I mentioned the need for understanding the minutiae of a clan. The Tremere clan, founded as it was by a shadowy cabal of wizards, has an almost inexhaustible amount of detail that can come into play. An example of this is Blood Certamen, a ritualized wizard’s duel mentioned in the clanbook. If your organization has a number of spell-slinging Tremere who challenge one another to ritual combat at the drop of the hat, rather than reserving it for matters of gravest importance, Storytellers must identify such behavior as different from the canon. Otherwise, a new player who has done her due diligence and read the source material will often be baffled by these sorts of changes and find her enjoyment of the clan lessened by what—to her mind—is a vastly different play experience than she expected. It is imperative that you explain to your players why such details differ from the printed material, preferably with both in-character narrative and outof-character explanation. Ventrue Once you have set standards for how a clan operates within your chronicle, it is time to populate the clan with the leadership needed to keep it running smoothly. No clan has more leaders within it than Clan Ventrue. Player-characters are always a more powerful motivator than any Storytellercharacter can ever be, and they are far more ruthless. Players create Ventrue characters to lead, to accrue recognition, and to foster a sense of excellence amongst themselves. Let them! No other clan offers as much opportunity to polish an incharacter resume as the Ventrue, and it is incumbent upon the Storyteller to provide the resources that allow the players to maneuver against one another. The Ventrue are organized in a fashion unlike any other clan. Local board meetings, regional Directorate meetings, knightly orders: if done well, the modern Ventrue has a myriad of ways to allow players to interact inside the clan. Clan Ventrue relies on its elders more than any other clan, so utilize that built-in respect to provide guidance and mentorship with your Storyteller-characters. A wise Storyteller creates these opportunities and then gets out of the way of the players as they try to live up to the challenges they set for themselves. Identify how your players want to get involved; many Ventrue players love the Influence game, as it is a sign of mastery over the chronicle. Perhaps assign one promising player the duty of working with the rest of the Ventrue to coordinate any weaknesses in the clan’s control over the mortals of the city, and give her the spotlight during discussions. It gives a player an opportunity to shine and subconsciously showcases the clan’s strengths to the players. Conclusion Ultimately, the choices Storytellers make when they prepare for a game will encourage players to play certain kinds of characters. Each game in a shared universe adds to the overall feel of the organization. Do not prevent your players from expressing themselves or force them down paths they may not want to take. Having a set of expectations informs the players and allows them the comfort of being able to deviate while still understanding the results of their choices. No one should feel pressure to stay inside a nice, comfortable box and play a boring character, but for those who play the stereotypes and the norms, how much more fun can they have when they are rewarded for making choices that are in line with the setting? No character exists in a vacuum. The choices that the players make affect their local game. The choices that the local game makes affects the organization. Understanding how to manage these choices, how to educate the players, and how to encourage them to make choices appropriate to the game are the hallmarks of an excellent Storyteller. Showing an understanding of the material and being able to explain the choices made establishes trust with your players. Giving them the freedom to play in the sandbox is important, and as they are rewarded and develop their coteries, plots, and intrigues, you will see them telling stories they did not even know were possible. Players who trust their Storytellers are more willing to take risks and engage each other. They will keep coming back to your game and will travel to other games in the larger organization more willingly. This in turn keeps organized play healthy and unified, which then feeds back into the local games and makes them richer, and more entertaining. Alex Rushing is a quintessential Southerner stuck firmly in Yankee territory. His love of gaming began in the ancient days of 1982, when he discovered a certain Keep on some borderlands. As a founding member of Dixie by Night and an active member of both the Mind’s Eye Society and One World by Night, he has been involved in LARP since 1994. Storyteller Secrets is a collection of original essays, guidance, design notes, advice, suggestions, and, yes, secrets that will help Storytellers get the most out their Mind’s Eye Theatre: Vampire The Masquerade games. This book includes 13 essays from experienced storytellers and game contributors from a wide variety of roleplaying organizations.

Originally published in Mind’s Eye Theatre: Storyteller Secrets by By Night Studios. Presented here under Resources for chronicles and live play.