Vampire the Masquerade - (Interest Check)

[karlaprox]

I was wondering if you're interested in playing some Vampire the Masquerade based game. I'd like to play as a participant, so I'd be looking for more players, and also a GM (that I guess could be a player too). The system of this game can vary depending on the interested people will; we can either play with all the rules and stats for creating characters or we can just describe them and have the situations and resolutions happen randomly, or based on what the GM describes. In my opinion we could try playing with stats and see how it goes, but in the end, despite which system we decide to apply, I'd like to make this story a hot one, full of horny scenarios, sexual encounters, sensual behavior, etc. So if you're interested, please let's play keeping the smut level up! Regarding players, I think we could limit the possibilities to the first 13 clans from the base book (Assamite / Ventrue / Tremere / Lasombra / Tzimisce / Followers of Set / Malkavian / Toreador / Nosferatu / Giovanni / Brujah / Gangrel / Ravnos), trying not to choose always the same ones, let's have one or two of each. If you feel interested, please let me know either in here or by PM, thanks!

[AndyZ]

Keeping an eye on this ^_^

[Raziel]

Love V:TM So I'm definitely interested in this.

[karlaprox]

Great! Tell me guys, would you like to play with the full system (stats and everything) or do it differently?

[Raziel]

I don't really mind either way, I think it would depend more on if there's going to be an overall story and what that story would be and then what the ratio to dialogue to fighting to sex there'll be and how we want to play it. If we want to play with the full system that's great, or we could not use it and go more with having the VTM world, lore and disciplines for example without the stats, it might be a way to encourage people who like Vampire Rp's but not know the whole VTM world and stat system to join too.

Might also want to consider limiting certain things, like Dominate for example so that it's more used in sexual situations for Dom/Sub scenes that people want to do instead of others to avoid any godmod type situations in other areas maybe.

[AndyZ]

Regarding Dominate, it might be best to let people decide how much NC they want to have.  Some people like mind control.

I'm good with either freeform or system personally.

[Elias]

always looking for a a good vtm game if there is still open spots

[RubySlippers]

I'll play if system based to a fair degree.

[karlaprox]

Ok, Raziel has a point, if we don't stick strictly to the rules, maybe some other players, not completely aware of VtM system, can feel interested in playing; but on the other hand, VtM players/lovers would like to have the role game system, cause without it, this story will become like any other vampire game.
So let's use the game system rules, but with little changes, so to simplify it; I'll add here my idea on how could we create the character sheet, and you could tell me your suggestions, also you can make changes and then we'll get a final sheet:

Name:	CHARACTER NAME
Player:	FORUM NAME
Clan:	CLAN NAME

Strength:	●○○○○		Charisma:	●○○○○		Perception:	●○○○○
Dexterity:	●○○○○		Manipulation:	●○○○○		Intelligence:	●○○○○
Stamina:	●○○○○		Appearance:	●○○○○		Wits:	●○○○○

Background 1:	○○○○○		Discipline 1:	○○○○○		Conscience/Conviction:	●○○○○
Background 2:	○○○○○		Discipline 2:	○○○○○		Self-Control/Instinct:	●○○○○
Background 3:	○○○○○		Discipline 3:	○○○○○		Courage:	●○○○○

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[quote]
[hr]
[table]
[tr][td][b]Name[/b]:[/td][td]CHARACTER NAME[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Player[/b]:[/td][td]FORUM NAME[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Clan[/b]:[/td][td]CLAN NAME[/td][/tr]
[/table]
[hr]
[table]
[tr][td][b]Strength[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Charisma[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Perception[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Dexterity[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Manipulation[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Intelligence[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Stamina[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Appearance[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Wits[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][/tr]
[/table]
[hr]
[table]
[tr][td][b]Background 1[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Discipline 1[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Conscience/Conviction[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Background 2[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Discipline 2[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Self-Control/Instinct[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Background 3[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Discipline 3[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Courage[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][/tr]
[/table]
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What do you think?

[RubySlippers]

Well what about backgrounds and skills?

We can simplify that like the LARP rules do just have ,say, a modest number of skills that can be customized here is my idea limiting this to ten skills.

Academics (how much education you have or skills using mental attributes)

Athletics (obvious)

Crime (you know criminal skills, could be a career or area of skills)

Fight (how well you fight, use dex to hit and for close combat strength for weapons with modifiers for the weapon.)

Life (those little skills you just use in your age this can include hobbies as well as things like understanding modern technology)

Social (you are socially skillful)

Survival (sneaking, navigation, surviving in some environment like urban or in general)

Trade (blue collar sorts of work and related skills if your a gunsmith or a chef it would go here)

Vampire (covers your clan's special qualities a Toreados uncanny gift at art, fleshcrafting for a Tzimisce, magic for Tremere) 

And us simple dots 1 to 5, giving a pool of points say 13 and you get a specialty free what its focused on, and add specialties for a skill dot if you want more variety. Would not give bonuses just you can use that kill for that area like Fighting (close combat, firearms) at 3 Dots would use four skill points. Vampire should get one dot automatically if your in a clan.

Backgrounds just follow the rules but with no freebie points give say 10 points with a cap if the GM wants.

Just to keep it for guidelines and a framework without going nuts.

I suggest toss generation assume all vampires are the same just some very old are also very advanced in many areas.

[karlaprox]

Ok, more or less what you say is adding these categories? (I added some extra ones that thought may come in handy)

Name:	CHARACTER NAME
Player:	FORUM NAME
Clan:	CLAN NAME

Strength:	●○○○○		Charisma:	●○○○○		Perception:	●○○○○
Dexterity:	●○○○○		Manipulation:	●○○○○		Intelligence:	●○○○○
Stamina:	●○○○○		Appearance:	●○○○○		Wits:	●○○○○

Alertness:	○○○○○		Drive:	○○○○○		Academics:	○○○○○
Athletics:	○○○○○		Firearms:	○○○○○		Investigation:	○○○○○
Fighting:	○○○○○		Social:	○○○○○		Occult:	○○○○○
Subterfuge:	○○○○○		Stealth:	○○○○○		Trade:	○○○○○

Background 1:	○○○○○		Discipline 1:	○○○○○		Conscience/Conviction:	●○○○○
Background 2:	○○○○○		Discipline 2:	○○○○○		Self-Control/Instinct:	●○○○○
Background 3:	○○○○○		Discipline 3:	○○○○○		Courage:	●○○○○

Blood Pool:

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Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

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[quote]
[hr]
[table]
[tr][td][b]Name[/b]:[/td][td]CHARACTER NAME[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Player[/b]:[/td][td]FORUM NAME[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Clan[/b]:[/td][td]CLAN NAME[/td][/tr]
[/table]
[hr]
[table]
[tr][td][b]Strength[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Charisma[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Perception[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Dexterity[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Manipulation[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Intelligence[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Stamina[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Appearance[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Wits[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][/tr]
[/table]
[hr]
[table]
[tr][td][b]Alertness[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Drive[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Academics[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Athletics[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Firearms[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Investigation[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Fighting[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Social[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Occult[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Subterfuge[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Stealth[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Trade[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][/tr]
[/table]
[hr]
[table]
[tr][td][b]Background 1[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Discipline 1[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Conscience/Conviction[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Background 2[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Discipline 2[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Self-Control/Instinct[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][/tr]
[tr][td][b]Background 3[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Discipline 3[/b]:[/td][td]○○○○○[/td][td][/td][td][b]Courage[/b]:[/td][td]●○○○○[/td][/tr]
[/table]
[hr]
[table]
[tr][td][b]Blood Pool[/b]:[/td][td]■■■■■■■■■■□□□□□□□□□□[/td][/tr]
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With:

• Alertness: How probable is that you find, see, or hear things others won't.
• Athletics: How well and graceful you move (can be used during sex scenes).
• Fighting: The higher this skill the better you fight in close combat (applies also to dodging attacks).
• Subterfuge: How well you lie (hiding the truth counts as a lie too).
• Drive: The higher this skill, the better and faster you can drive without having an accident.
• Firearms: How precise you're when shooting.
• Social: How well you interact with others (can be used to seduce, convince, manipulate, etc.).
• Stealth: Your survival skills, also includes lock picking, hiding, looking for shelter, etc.
• Academics: General culture level, includes computers, laws, linguistics, etc.
• Investigation: The higher this skill the easier it's for you to learn new things.
• Occult: Being a vampire does not mean you know about other vampires, this skill describes how much you know about the vampire life.
• Trade: When doing business, your social skills will not be enough, trading is a separate "science" and the higher this skill, the better your are at it.

What do you think? I tried to keep the original skill names when possible.

[AndyZ]

The difficult part is that if you try to have a rules-light system, you're much more likely to alienate both the system and the freeform crowd than you are to please both.

I might recommend having a specialty, dots in Disciplines and leaving the rest freeform if that's the way you want to go.

[RubySlippers]

Yes but many disciplines up an Attribute and a Skill, Dominate for example, if you toss out too much its then no longer easy to use basics like Disciplines.

[Raziel]

Finding a balance between the two could be tricky, too much or less of one or the other might alienate both, but Disciplines are one that should maybe have a starting limit, either based on dots or age of character or a mixture of both. For example Thaumaturgy has some pretty powerful abilities that you might not want everybody to have at the start, so having a limit on what level a character can take their discipline to at the beginning could be something to consider, take for example Tremere who follow the Path of Blood, their highest level power can be Blood Boil which, as the name implies boils their victims blood until they explode, that's probably not something we'd want people to have access to right from the start, which would mean either limiting the rank you can get too, or maybe for example limiting it to only certain points in the story when it can be used, in which case the GM can PM the Tremere character/s and say what's going to happen and when the ability could be used, at least in the overall story.

Like Andy said in reply to something I said about Dominate, if there's a scene between two people that's outside the main narrative, it can be decided between those two or if the writer is writing a scene between their own character and an NPC of their creation it can be given free reign of use in those situations.

Another thing to consider could be merging similar Disciplines, for example the highest level Path of Blood options for  Tremere are Cauldron of Blood or Blood Boil, both are pretty much the same ability expect Cauldron burns victims from the inside and Blood Boil burns the blood till they explode, which in theory could just be turned into Blood Boil but the Tremere can choose whether to explode them or just burn them...maybe tie it into their Discipline level in Thaumaturgy so that only when maxed can they explode anything lower and it just burns them to different degrees depending on their point number.

Same with the other Disciplines for other classes, I was just using that as an example as I know Thaumaturgy better than the others, another example would be Malkavian insight, they may be bat shit crazy but those voices can sometimes be right....or completely wrong, in which case the GM could PM a Malk player and tell them what's going to happen in an upcoming story event, which could either be true or false that the player can write about and regardless of whether it's true or not it fits perfect for a Malkavian. And if over the course of the story what the GM tells the player is true some of the time, then the rest of players will have to decide to trust the Malk's Insight incase they are right, or not believe them because they're crazy and it could be wrong.

[karlaprox]

I think a starting specialty and limiting the character's initial disciplines level is the best option. For example, limiting them to three points can be a nice idea, so using your same example, a Tremere with Thaumaturgy would only get a Blood Shield/Blood of Potency as a max if they follow the Blood Path.

[karlaprox]

Also, any of you would like to be the GM?

[Elias]

Happy to play with either full system, so long as it isnt freeform I am in

[Nightcrawler]

I'll be keeping an eye on this one too. I haven't played V:TM in so long and I miss it so...

[Caradoc]

I might be interested in this one. I've played a LOT of Vampire, Vampire Dark Ages, Werewolf.

Let me know if there are openings/more players desired, please.

[Lady Onyx]

I'm interested as well. It's been ages since I've played Vampire the Masquerade and I have a positively Mad Malkavian fully created and gathering dust.

[nailcrosser]

Count me in. Love playing a Gangrel.

[Elias]

Still interested 

[Nicolae]

If a webcam-hacking, voyeuristic Nosferatu techie would work, who does a lot more blackmail/manipulation than actual erotic activity, then I'm pretty interested as well.

[zenpai]

would this game be playable by a beginner to the vampire role-play. i only watched kindred:the embraced. so those are the basic clans i know of. but from what i've read the Tremere sound like me 

[Nicolae]

This should help.
http://www.thesubnet.com/portal/wod/vtm20/index.html