Session 0: Character Creation

[SeaSaltSong]

Player	Character	Clan	New/Vet
werehounding	Elias	Toreador	New
Hadarai	Jonathan	Ventrue	New
Skara		Tremere	New
Gremlin		Settite	Vet
Shenron	Logan	Gangrel	Vet

Here to discuss what everyone is thinking of playing, but also to answer questions for you new people to VtM. I'll be available for voice chat in discord as well to help clear things up.

We will be playing the 20th anniversary edition. the cover should look like this:

For newbies:

If you do not have the book that's okay. I made sure to get people who have played in the group as well and we can build the characters just fine. For those of you that are new, here's the rundown. You were human and lead a human life. you could have ANY background more or less. Anything ranging from high school drop out to accomplished surgeon, street thug to politician. At creation all these things can get covered. (just know, if you're famous, which you can be, being more famous can be detrimental more than helpful)

At some age of your choosing, you were what we call embraced, turned into a vampire. Creature of the night. The masquerade refers to the lie all vampires tell the world to stay safe. You can tank bullets, some of you can turn into animals, others can summon the souls of the dead. But if people see this, if they knew, your existence as a species is at risk. you new players are fledglings, at most only 3-4 years old and at minimum 1 for the purposes of this game. the night is still new to you and your transgressions are your sire's to bear.

So for you newer players, come up with a human concept first, then the vampire powers will come after.

For vets:

Concept as usual. 25 starting XP after your character is complete and any XP you don't use gets held onto for use later should you be saving up. you guys are at least 30 years old, at most 45. Any of the 13 clans minus Tzimiche. This is a Camarilla game and lasombra are currently in the Camarilla as of roughly 15 years ago.

I'm thinking for newer players on giving them extra dots for backgrounds to help balance things out with your starting XP. I would like your input on this as well. The rough idea was an extra 4 dots for non-kindred backgrounds. Resources, allies, contacts, etc. or 5 points total to be used between merits and that. Any other ideas or suggestions?

[SeaSaltSong]

So far we have:

Player	Clan	New/Vet
werehounding		New
Hadarai		New
Gremlin		Vet
Skara		New

I talked to Skara last night about some things and the game, but what are all of you thinking?

[Gremlin]

Only just saw that this forum had been opening, sorry!

I have a couple of general ideas but nothing specific yet. Keeping in mind the coterie will be tasked handling Masquerade breeches (at least at first), I was thinking either a Lasombra (if I can get around the fact that the clan itself is a walking Masquerade breech due to their clan weakness) or a Setite (if I can come up with a good reason why one would be working with the Camarilla... maybe an independent contractor on good terms with the Cam/Prince?).

I don't have a specific background in mind yet though, other than maybe owning a nightclub and having a lot of connections around Central Florida.

I think I'll wait until the newer players have some concrete ideas of their own before committing to anything because they should have the opportunity to play what really looks interesting to them and I don't want to overshadow their ideas if what I picked turned out to be something they really wanted to try.

[SeaSaltSong]

It's all good, I thought I sent a mass PM, but I think I done goofed.

This particular Prince is very power in unity and settite could work. You wouldn't have a primogen so to speak, but frankly the guy is keeping the other clans close and still takes them into consideration. The view of the Camarilla is that everyone is in the Camarilla.

Ventrue from pre-New World.

[werehounding]

Sorry, I also just saw this forum opened. I'm making my character sheet and I think that my concept fits best with being a Toreador. I'm working on finishing up a character sheet right now, with the same mortician-turned-artist concept as earlier. His name is Elias Malachi Cohen. He's been a vampire for about four and a half years. As far as a sire goes - should we come up with a name and concept for them? I have an idea for a sire that I can write on the sheet. I'll post the sheet when I'm finished - should I also include a brief backstory blurb?

[SeaSaltSong]

Oh awesome. I'm going to ask everyone post their character sheets using the Myth-Weavers' World of Darkness [Classic] sheet.

Is toreador what you've fully settled on? If so, I'll mark it as taken. As for sire, I'd like a name and your relationship with them, since it could be all kinds of different. Could be romantic, big brother/sister, parental, teacher/mentor, etc. Don't need too many details on their backstory or anything, just a general personality.

I'm realizing that my mass PM didn't get sent properly, which is sad. But hey, now everyone is aware of the game.

[Skara]

Since Toreador is taken and I won't be dying by accidentally seeing a sunset lol, I'll be working on making a Tremere most likely. I am still learning how to create a character, I'll try to post more later today when I get it sorted/figured out.

[Hadarai]

I'm a little split between Ravnos and Trumere for my character but I'll have a sheet up today and maybe I can get some thoughts on what I've come up with so far.

SeaSaltSong, you mentioned that you had a thought about which clan my character would be a fit for. Let me know if I'm in the ballpark!

Edit:

Here's a link to my character Jonathan Pablo "JP" Garcia, Crooked Stock Broker. He still needs final touches but I wanted to make sure his mechanics looked right before getting into the details.

https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2157958

[SeaSaltSong]

I'm a little split between Ravnos and Trumere for my character but I'll have a sheet up today and maybe I can get some thoughts on what I've come up with so far.

SeaSaltSong, you mentioned that you had a thought about which clan my character would be a fit for. Let me know if I'm in the ballpark!

I was thinking Ventrue with your concept, but the Ravnos angle works very, very well too. Skara is making a Tremere atm. Again though, powers are only secondary.

Here's a link to my character Jonathan Pablo "JP" Garcia, Crooked Stock Broker. He still needs final touches but I wanted to make sure his mechanics looked right before getting into the details.

https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2157958

Mostly looks good. From what i can see you spent 12 freebie points:

• 7 - +1 Discipline
• 2 - Willpower +2
• 3 - Merits

You only spent 3 Background points, but you have 5 to start with so you can spend two more.
Humanity, I forgot to add to the house rules. you can choose what you want it to be between 5-8. that said, you're currently at 7 and at that rating you would have a hard time being a corrupt broker and make the job undoable basically. Humanity 6 would be perfect though for that.

[Hadarai]

Mostly looks good. From what i can see you spent 12 freebie points:

• 7 - +1 Discipline
• 2 - Willpower +2
• 3 - Merits

You only spent 3 Background points, but you have 5 to start with so you can spend two more.
Humanity, I forgot to add to the house rules. you can choose what you want it to be between 5-8. that said, you're currently at 7 and at that rating you would have a hard time being a corrupt broker and make the job undoable basically. Humanity 6 would be perfect though for that.

Thanks for catching that I was having trouble figuring out what to spend my freebie points on but I think I've figured it out, I've switched some things around on the sheet and decided to go with Ventrue that seems to gel a little more with the concept.

I dropped the boosts to his humanity and willpower/virtues and instead took phobia (Bee's) and grabbed a second point for disciplines. If that phobia is too weak I was thinking of maybe taking Vengeful instead against some rival from JP's professional life who screwed him over or something like that, I'm thinking of something real petty.

[SeaSaltSong]

bees is fine, though i will use it to include wasps and similar black/yellow stabby bois.

And whatever clan you feel fits you. As a Ventrue the clan will have your support, but also their own agenda and will be requiring extra things off you. Think of it as being a cog in a mega-corporation where you're upper management so to speak. Ravnos tend to be travelers and drifters, so you'd be a lot more loose in your concept with them.

A note about stereotypes though, you can literally be anything. Gangrel are shapeshifters that are seen as stereotypically brutish, ganglike, and rugged. I played once where someone's gangrel was an experienced computer hacker and it made perfect sense. Clan choice should be what you think might be the most fun.

That said, your sheet checks out. If you are going ventrue though, i would reccomend some dots in the generation background. Dominate powers don't work on anyone lower gen than you, so as a rule of thumb without anything in the background most other vamps will be immune to that. Given, you have other tools at your disposal and dominating through everything can leave some... ill feelings about you from other kindred. That's up to you though

[werehounding]

Alright, here is my sheet so far: Elias Malachi Cohen, a Toreador mortician by day and punk-rock-clubber by night (or at least, by day and night during his human life... now they're both by night). I think I've done everything right - hopefully everything looks good.
https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2157217
I do have a quick question, though; if Elias's native language is not English (he grew up between a Yiddish-speaking household with his grandparents and later went to an English-speaking one with his parents), do I need to take a merit for speaking that language, or is it just part of his background?
For accounting's sake, I spent the freebies on a point of Willpower, a Background (Herd, 1pt), the merits Protégé (1pt), Elysium Regular (1pt), Early Riser (1pt), the flaws Prey Exclusion and Tic/Twitch (1pt each), a point of Appearance (5pts), and a dot of Presence (7pts).

[SeaSaltSong]

Alright, here is my sheet so far: Elias Malachi Cohen, a Toreador mortician by day and punk-rock-clubber by night (or at least, by day and night during his human life... now they're both by night). I think I've done everything right - hopefully everything looks good.
https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2157217
I do have a quick question, though; if Elias's native language is not English (he grew up between a Yiddish-speaking household with his grandparents and later went to an English-speaking one with his parents), do I need to take a merit for speaking that language, or is it just part of his background?
For accounting's sake, I spent the freebies on a point of Willpower, a Background (Herd, 1pt), the merits Protégé (1pt), Elysium Regular (1pt), Early Riser (1pt), the flaws Prey Exclusion and Tic/Twitch (1pt each), a point of Appearance (5pts), and a dot of Presence (7pts).

The sheet checks out. To answer your question on language, that's case by case with me. Typically you have to get the merit, but I make exceptions for underused languages if it makes sense. For this game, Spanish will be major because that's all over Florida, and German to a degree. Yiddish, however, is very underused so that's fine.

Everything checks out though and looks good. I only have one question, and that is what Elias' relationship with Jules is. it seems like a very close/dear friend type dynamic?


So far we have:

Player	Clan	New/Vet
werehounding	Toreador	New
Hadarai	Ventrue	New
Gremlin		Vet
Skara	Tremere	New

[werehounding]

Everything checks out though and looks good. I only have one question, and that is what Elias' relationship with Jules is. it seems like a very close/dear friend type dynamic?

Elias and Jules had a romantic relationship; I would say that their romantic relationship fizzled out for the most part shortly after Elias was embraced, but they remain generally close with one another.

[Hadarai]

That said, your sheet checks out. If you are going ventrue though, i would reccomend some dots in the generation background. Dominate powers don't work on anyone lower gen than you, so as a rule of thumb without anything in the background most other vamps will be immune to that. Given, you have other tools at your disposal and dominating through everything can leave some... ill feelings about you from other kindred. That's up to you though

Sounds good, I picked up the "Uppity" flaw J.P. seems like the kinda guy who would let the power go to his head and shoot his mouth off so I bumped him up (down?) to 11th generation. I also dropped a contact for 3 points in resources, is that too much?

Other than that my character should almost be finished I'm just having a bad case of writer's block when it comes to his backstory. I'm hoping to have it written down by the end of today or tomorrow.

[SeaSaltSong]

2 dots in resources is very comfortable living. Nice house in a good neighborhood and you could probably but a car on short notice. 3 dots is a few hundred grand net worth. Not a millionaire, but you can have a high standard of living.

So "too much" is in the eye of the beholder.

And nice. I'm at work so I can't read the flaw, but if it's what I think it is that can be fun. As a venture you were likely told how your blood is meant to rule and that you belong to a family who's rightful place is at the top. Probably didn't help with the inflated ego lol

[Gremlin]

It looks like people have selected their clans and are well on their way to making their characters, so I will start on mine. You can put me down for Setite.

I'm going to be going a lot heavier into backgrounds than I normally do since my character will be the 'elder' of the group. Probably won't be very physically capable though, more of a social character. Will definitely be putting points into Presence.

Question:

As a Vet I'll be getting XP to spend. I'd like to buy up more Backgrounds; what is your rule for spending XP to buy up Backgrounds? I know during play it has to be roleplayed, but this is before play is starting...

[SeaSaltSong]

I hadn't thought of that. Do the free 5 from creation and 15+7 freebie points not give enough for what you want?

I'll need to think about it. Settite sounds awesome though.

[Gremlin]

Not if I want some Merits and some Willpower at a reasonable cost.

[SeaSaltSong]

Not if I want some Merits and some Willpower at a reasonable cost.

Understandable. I'll say 4 XP/dot, and must be RPed out after game starts

I am new here but I am very interested. One of your other players told me about this game via discord. I am not sure when I will be allowed to post in the OOC thread but hopefully soon.

This is a post from the recruitment thread, so we now have 3 new people and 2 vets, the ratio I was actually hoping for. once the three new players have their characters built I'll figure out what to give them to balance with the 25 XP. mit will likely be the Common Sense merit, to symbolize things your sire told your character that you as a player don't know yet, I'm thinking 3 dots of mentor (which will be your sire). They won't actually be a primogen, but will carry some weight. If anyone takes sire's resentment (I don't reccomend for the new blood) then I'll figure something else out.

Gremlin and Shenron, what are your thoughts on that to balance with your 25 XP? Since you're the players it directly impacts I strongly value your input on this.

Player	Clan	New/Vet
werehounding	Toreador	New
Hadarai	Ventrue	New
Skara	Tremere	New
Gremlin	Settite	Vet
Shenron		Vet