Philosophy of this game and other random thoughts

[ST Joe]

I am writing this here, because I was not sure where else to put it; basically I am sort of outlining my broader thinking with respect to the game.

Why use the old rules? Most feedback suggests people like the old rules, rock paper scissors and all, better than the new ones. [If asked, my own preference is for the new rules, as I like dice or cards, and did not find that distracting.]

Why only Law of the Night? Is the fact that I own laws of the night and nothing else a good reason? Seriously though there is a lot of rich material in supplements and a lot of powerful options-which in theory provide a lot of interesting possibilities for characters. In THEORY. In actuality, most of these outside options are used to twink characters by circumventing limitations inherent in the original book. Now some people might actually want these special options for role play, but these people can also find clever things to role play in the core book. If one person is allowed the exception, then the exceptions become the rule. Yes, in theory I will allow things on a case by case basis, but its not very likely.

Also, this is a neonate game, and most thinking in other books seems aimed at making more advanced characters-your characters are not there yet...the PC's are relatively new in the world of Vampires, and they have not yet worked a lot of fancy stuff out.

Finally, if we stick to basic rules, we will have less tension over differing interpretations.

Why Neonates? A big part of this decision is a reaction to "By Blood and Oil" which was a very powerful game, which required very powerful plot lines. I am more interested in the smaller intrigues of being a vampire: not the great war between Cam and Sabbat, or the coming of demons, but just the politics and backstabbing of vampires trying to survive.

It is a very different game when you are not the biggest badass on the block.

This is not to say the PCs are not important: it is after all your game-its just that in a LARP, it works better if the stories and intrigue are generated by the PCs. The larger NPCs are simply there so people know who is who in the city. Your character might know who the Prince is, but you won't see the Prince regularly. The city politics simply provides the framework for generating plot. The game is not about NPCs, its about PCs. Just because the power level of the game means your character is not going to be Prince, does not mean your character cannot advance within the power structure of Sunnydale. You are in the game to gain reputation, advance in power, undercut rivals and such-all the things you would do in a higher power game-its just the scale that changes, not the nature.

Games are about players. This is my biggest guideline - I want PCs and not NPCs being the driving engine of the game.

Putting limits on the scale, scope, and character choices might at fist seem to turn against this, but limitations create opportunities. I want the things you do in game to be more important than how powerful your character was in the past.


These are just some chaotic thoughts which underly my reasons for making the choices I have. Other staff members might have different reasons, but I promise you, we have put a lot of thinking and talking into every choice. I am certain there will be kinks to work out, but overall I think we can have a terrific game.

[ST Joe]

More random thoughts from Joe...

Obtenebration: Broken, at least to me, therefore there are no Lasombra Antitribu.
Celerity: We have fixed this power, it is no longer the "I kill you in four hits with my pipe(or gun, or katana) requisite power to survive combat." You will now have one opportunity to damage an opponent each round: extra celerity actions will contribute to movement (basically), which means that celerity gets you across the room into combat faster. Now no vampire is useless in combat.
Dementation: we have given the malks dominate instead.
Samedi: I am not really disturbed by thanatosis, I am less favorable to necromancy, but the Samedi satisfy my voodoo impulses. They are thus in the game subject to approval. Also I am working on having a Samedi as a recurring NPC (or player resource) and initially I don't want any NPCs who have access to disciplines the players don't. That being said, you'd really have to convince me to play a Samedi (as in get your tickets for new orleans over thanksgiving now - j/k but you get the idea).
Gangrel: They have left the Cam, so they have left this game (as PCs). I just cannot see how, or why, a Gangrel would choose to live in the city. I reserve the right to include a storyline that involves Gangrel, but i have no plans to do so now.
Assamite Schismatics: Seriously? What are the chances that an Assamite neonate lives in Sunnydale and admits to who they are? Almost the same as me winning the lottery-if I don't play.

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Things that are in the works: a reputation system. A mechanical way to show what opinion the community of vampires has of your character as a whole. Keep in mind the PC vampires may think what ever they want of you, reputation might translate into bonus social challenge traits. . . but they don't mandate respect.
Firearms rules: I will put it down here that basically I am a gun guy, but some of the crap that the rules have done to firearms in the past is silly. Rather than try and reconcile all sort of insanity with celerity and rate of fire and such..guns get one attack per round. The STs and I are working on a system to account for autofire and three round burst, but overall play balance will override your arguments about rate of fire and combat rounds. Again I am trying to get to the point where there is one attack action per round.

[ST Joe]

Ok, so that last missive seemed a little opressive...like I was denying all the cool stuff. I am not really here to be the disabler, rather I want to be the enabler. I was playing in the White City Storytellers Unknown Army Game tonight, and I was struck by what a fabulous job the staff has done to make the game work with my character's vision...I mean they were hitting the books on RICO cases. I want to build a game that works like that. I want to set a stage, and have you guys write the script. This is my shout out moment.

Your characters are more than just individuals. As Vampires you rely on a whole assumed network of help. You have have a haven, ghouls and servants, who take care of things during the day, provide you cover, and even security when you are vulnerable. You also have a whole network of contacts and relationships. Part of that I want to do in this game is to bring these things more into focus. I want to enable you to develop and use these NPCS as assets. You are not just a vampire, you are a household. In some ways this game is a game of intrigue between houses, thus you will have more control in shaping, and using the mortals around you.

[ST Joe]

The firearms rules are up. This is not, obviously a nuts and bolts reflection of firearms, but is a set of rules designed to balance the way we want combat balanced. Basically we want combat to be part of the story, not the story itself. Thus the firearms rules make the use of guns conform with our general philosophy of the game.
The changes we are making to celerity reflect the same idea. Of course the real art is not dumbing down combat so much that smart play goes unrewarded. We think we are there, but we also know some tweaking might be in order. Ultimately these concepts are designed to enable you not limit you.

The reputation rules are up as well. We are really engineering a whole mechanic from scratch here, but the idea was to give players the opportunity to have concrete social or mental objectives. Its easy to say: "I want to destroy X. . ." and resolve that, its harder to say "I want to humiliate X by wrecking her party in a very public way." The reputation system will allow just that. You can work actively towards increasing your own rep, or taking another down a notch.
This is a bit different than status, which sort of remains static. To be sure, gaining (or losing) status can increase (or decrease) your reputation, but one can lose reputation much more easily than status. This is our most experimental rule so we ask you to bear with us while we try to work it out.

Also its your game more than its our game, feel free to comment constructively. We will listen. One of the things I hoped to accomplish with this thread is to let people know the reasoning behind decisions and rules calls. Obviously in any ST based system, the ST is the final arbiter of the rules, but I am hoping through this forum, I can let you understand some of our collective thinking as a staff.