Seeking GM for Vampire the Masquerade Revised / 20th Anniversary game

[Rummy Tum Tum]

I need some good ol VtM in my life. I have an idea for a sneaky 'secret agent' Nos who's very insecure about his ugliness and has plenty of different identities to disappear into. That, and/or a Gangrel or Brujah who actually has very good social skills and a sense of refinement challenging even Ventrue standards. Maybe a Malk who believes they're a noir detective. I have a lot of ideas >.>

But now, onto some particulars:
- I'm no expert at VtM, so I might need some help in certain areas, especially when it comes to lore.
- I would prefer a group game, but a solo game is perfectly fine if it makes things go smoother.
- This would have to be a play by post game with dice rolling involved (which is funny to say considering how often the dicebot has fucked me in the past xD ).
- It has to be plot-centric. Smut is great by me, as long as plot, interpersonal connections etc. are concentrated on more.
- I'd like there to be opportunities for combat in the story. It's pretty fun from what I've experienced.
- I would love it if we could work out a way for good chunks of time to pass in this game, to make the immortality aspect feel more real.

[LisztesFerenc]

  I would be interested in running a V:tM game, dice are fun (or can be) and a Camarilla coterie offers plenty of opportunities for a colourful collection of characters. I can do a story with plot and combat and relationships between the damned, with options for smut on the side. Maybe the coterie is a cleanup crew, smoothing over potential breaches of the masquerade.

  The one thing I am wondering about is the time skip factor. Technological development in WoD is slowed, but its still a thing, so if we start to close too the present I'll have to make up what the future is like, which is not my favorite thing. If we start in the 80s, that should give us about 50 year worth of time skips before we reach modern day (with a 10 year grace period due to things being a little backwards). If you want more than that we'll need to start earlier though.

[Rummy Tum Tum]

I like the sound of this. Always thought masquerade cleanup could be interesting, and the 80s would be a fun place to start. I'm assuming there'd be room for advancement too, as there always is in a Cammy game

[LisztesFerenc]

  I'll have to find a full right up of my houserules, nothing major, just some changes to blood drinking rate (1 bloodpoint per 3 turns instead of 3, which is very fast), some adjustments to merits (cannot embrance is a 2 point flaw rather than 5 point flaw) stuff like that. The one big change I made is to be stricter about the curse. Bloodlines keep the curse of their parent clan and develop a new curse, in addition to gaining a new discipline. Bloodlines basically represent a mutation, swelling of the vampire condition. This shouldn't matter too much, bloodlines are meant to be rare, but I can clarify it to any player who wants to use them. The one change that might matter is assamites, who keep their Dark Ages weakness (always registering as having committed diablerie), and also have the inability to drink vampire blood, as per the Tremere Curse. However this is not a clan curse, and is treated as a 2 point flaw. As a flaw, and not a clan curse, it is easier to get rid of.

[Rummy Tum Tum]

Reasonable enough, especially the infertile vitae one. How do you feel about Fortitude as a discipline? Playing a Gangrel I got the feeling it was pretty underwhelming, especially compared to Potence and Celerity (though that might have to do with my shitty Soak rolls). I know combat's meant to be more offense than defense in this system, and even though I'm leaning toward playing a Brujah, do you mind considering a Fortitude change? Basically, my idea is that you can spend 1 bp to autosoak your level of Fortitude when it comes to bashing or lethal damage. You still have to roll Fortitude for aggravated, however, and this autosoak I'm proposing lasts 1 turn or even for 1 attack, depending on your preference. That sound balanced?

Also, how many players would you be able to accommodate in this game?

[LisztesFerenc]

  The problem with your proposed house rule is, it works well at low level, automatically soaking 1 or 2 points, but once you get 5 fortitude, auto soaking 5, and then also rolling stamina is a lot. Does the blood spent not count towards the usual limit, like celerity? Maybe is fortitude soaked lethal and bashing damage at a lower difficulty, so -1 for lethal damage, -2 for bashing? It means needing to roll fortitude seperate, but it should make its a bit more useful, and I agree it is the weakest of the 3 physical disciplines.

  As for players, I think I can handle up to 5 players. I'd like at least 3 for a coterie.

[Rummy Tum Tum]

Yeah, that is true. Your change definitely works. Would the diff be lower with or without spending bp in this case?

And good to know. Any other specifics we should get into?

[LisztesFerenc]

  The reduced difficulty would be without spedning any bloodpoints. Any specifics can be discussed with players as part of character creation. I'd probably limit starting willpower as well, maximum 8, and double the cost to raise it above your path rating, but looking at your sample characters that won't be an issue for you.

[Rummy Tum Tum]

Twice the xp is a lot. I take it you had problems with high willpower, low humanity PCs in the past?

And speaking of xp, how will we be doing that? Milestone? By scene?

[LisztesFerenc]

  The willpower thing is only for freebie points, increasing it in game with XP will be the standard cost. As for XP, I think I'd wait to have a group ready before deciding that, as people may have a preference one way or another. My preference would be at certain milestones, everyone gets 1 XP, with additional XP awarded if a character learned something or did something heroic. I am not sure how to handle the roleplay XP, let players vote or just ditch that aspect.

[Rummy Tum Tum]

Ah, gotcha, that makes more sense

And cool, I know some folks who may be interested in joining up. But of course we should work out the setting details before I go inviting people

[LisztesFerenc]

  Setting wise I am open. I live across the pond, so I am better at conveying European culture, but I do feel Vampire works better with the American layout and culture. Since I'd need to do research for any US city I don't mind which, though I would prefer a larger one, say a population of 1 million at least, which just happens to be the 10 biggest cities in the US:

New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Dieg, Dallas and San Jose

  Any preferences for a city or other setting details?

[Rummy Tum Tum]

Seeing as I'm in California, I have to go with LA :)

[LisztesFerenc]

  Pretty sure LA is an anarch stronghold in WoD, but that can just make things interesting, the balance of the Camarilla and Anarchs.

[Rummy Tum Tum]

Yes it is, and it'll definitely add some intrigue, especially for the folks who have to clean up the messes vamps tend to make. I'm sure there'll be a lot of jurisdiction tensions there.

[Rummy Tum Tum]

After thinking it over, time progression would be incredibly complicated with a group of characters. Just deciding when we should move ahead several years would be difficult. Maybe we ought to plan to stay within a few years max, and I can try out long time progression in a solo game somewhere down the line. I do still like the feel of the 80s though :)

[Blythe]

Interest Check & World Building

I do not know if this would be your cuppa tea, but I thought I'd share it here in case you were still looking & still willing to consider games I GM. No worries if not, man, and I hope you find a good game. <3