10 TIPS ON HOW TO ROLEPLAY VAMPIRES BETTER in Vampire: The Masquerade

[@TitoLongBottom]

1: Don't over think your back story 2: Great sheet doesn't mean great roleplay 3: Avoid self inserts 4: Embrace your failures 5: Think outside of the box, but don't be afraid of stereotypes 6: Do not metagame 7: Remember about your humanity 8: Remember about your physical stat 9: The hunger and the beast are always there 10: Roleplay the time, because time is different for vampires

[@Razor7557]

First 6 rules are universal for pretty much all roleplaying, not just WoD! I've seen way too many people using blatant self-inserts everywhere XD

[@ursa_margo]

@@Razor7557 I can't roleplay to save my life. Therefore, my only option is basically to roleplay myself in a different situation

[@mrl9418]

You can use self inserts, but remember you're telling a tragedy. Which you can enjoy because your char is the protagonist and tragedy is grandiose, even when it's bitter and petty

[@RedFeralWolf]

@@ursa_margo something I did when I started was picking one part of myself and writing up a character based on that. After you do it for a bit it gets easier and you can branch out.

[@RazeAVillage]

There are some good videos about metagaming. Sometimes metagaming is good. Sometimes, it's just cheating, and cheating in an RPG just makes it awful.

[@ericjohnson8662]

Regarding the Hunger, in my mind and as someone who has struggled with nicotine addiction for almost 20 years, I roleplay that basic level of background hunger as someone too long without a smoke. Still functioning mostly okay, but slightly distracted, and a little over aggressive for silly reasons I feel like addiction withdrawls work better as an analogue to hunger, as most people, luckily, will never know the true feelings of starvation and might not really understand the pain that implies... I guess not everybody struggles with addiction either, but it works for my rp lol

[@ericjohnson8662]

Perhaps, but I find my personal methods of finding a method to my rp less cringy than most of the power fantasy (or as outstar calls them, self-inserts), and fishmalks I've met over the years. But who am I? Let's be honest with ourselves for a minute, we're talking about method acting techniques for rp'ing vampires. To the largest percentage of humanity, this is cringy. Everyone cringes at something. To each their own.

[@wisconsindeathtrip13]

Thats true

[@RazeAVillage]

That gives me an idea. I could kinda just rp my anxiety, but for a vampire, it's hunger. :)

[@Tantalus010]

That's an interesting insight. I fasted once for a week (all I had was a glass of diluted fruit juice once per day), and the hunger pains weren't nearly as bad as I expected them to be, and surprisingly enough, I found that if I ignored my hunger pains for a few hours, they'd just go away on their own. From lore books, it's obvious that a vampire's hunger is supposed to be far worse, but I've never had a personal experience with which I could filter that, so it's been difficult for me to RP what is essentially an addict when I've never been one myself.

[@Onionkid99]

A fun thing I like to do with Vampire characters is take another clan's stereotype (like an artist for Toreador) and have them embraced by an unexpected clan instead. A Malkavian artist? So surreal! A Nosferatu artist? A sculpture made out of rat bones! It's very simple but shaking things up adds so much.

[@Sirinoeles]

This is bound to result in united nosferatu/toriador art festival.😂 One positive event I would like to see in the WoD.

[@alexanderstilianov]

Well the Nosferatu do have their own kind(s) of art but your point is good.

[@RazeAVillage]

@@Sirinoeles Needs to be a thing!

[@lacel4753]

@@alexanderstilianov likewise toreador and malkavian are the most similar of the two clans, but the idea is solid

[@countdooku8827]

I like to twist things up, like a toreador that's consider art to be homicide or something like that

[@willieoelkers5568]

Your first point sound a lot like what I run into when I'm trying to write OC's; I have a bad habit of really over-engineering backstories if I'm not careful. What I try to do to curb this is limit myself to two or three major defining moments where I come of with a specific and detailed event that shaped the character, then three or four minor moments that are just one or two short sentences to help flesh out a specific facet in more detail. This helps me give the character a distinct backstory and personality while keeping it simple and flexible.

[@karunama3771]

I hear that. Personally, I like to make an outline for my character like I was writing a story, but just leave it there with details intentionally vague. I really like using 'my sire told me' or 'as far as I'm aware' etc. to allow me to define my motives and history without losing flexibility. After all, my Sire could have been lying through his fangs.

[@willieoelkers5568]

@@karunama3771 It's probably even more important to keep things loose when you're playing a tabletop game since whatever you come up with ideally should be able to mesh with what the Storyteller has in mind. I actually haven't done much in the way of tabletop RPGs lately, but that sounds like the approach I'd take if I ever find a good place to pick them up again. Make a bullet-list of a handful of key traits, events, knowledge, etc. and just keep the rest freeform so it can mesh with the story. Especially if I was doing a WoD chronicle (is that the right term?) since the series seems to put more emphasis on character interactions and the nuances of individual characters.

[@dougt947]

Great advice! Your comments about humanity made me recall an analogous point made by the late Bill Hicks - "They say if you stop smoking you get your sense of smell back. I live in New York City. Why would I want my sense of smell back?"

[@thedarkmaster4747]

Schreck Network You can't have 3rd Gen vampires - because it makes them antidevluvians(clan founders). Well maybe with cains blood, but then they wouldn't be a Tzimisce.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

Schreck Network try 6th generation Tzimisce on a path of elightenment, and no one will even look at goat boy funny - i promise. 😉👌👍

[@karunama3771]

While you were talking about Humanity, I realized how much I miss Paths. It feels like they were abandoned in V5, along with the Sabbat. I cry for my Tzimicze Metamorphosist.

[@Outstarwalker]

I hope we'll see a new version of Paths in v5!

[@thedarkmaster4747]

I don't think i can earnestly roleplay humanity well as a vampire. It always goes somewhere "else"... Good or bad, it just doesn't work well.

[@claimhsolais3466]

That didn't aged well. @@Outstarwalker

[@baronagony4767]

Yeah I played a fledgling Brujah once and he(and the rest of the Coterie) had to deal with a Toreador NPC who was found beauty in pain. And took a liking to me... Being a fledgling he assumed Toreador was this crazy woman's name. His reaction to finding out it was her clan? "HUH there's more of them!?"

[@Kingneo0053]

honestly I'd say this is good advice for RPing characters in general

[@ThePrimogen]

Great advice for roleplaying! I always tend to get waaaaayyy too much into overthinking stuff and I paint myself into corners, or project an expectation on the game I've not voiced enough. I also have trouble with long-term playing a character unless I have a specific goal or pupose with them; if it's "day to day RPing", it's hard to keep IC and I get bleed from time to time.

[@Outstarwalker]

Discord campaign is tough, because it does mean daily roleplaying - and playing one character for 12 months there, I can say that what kept me going the most were his failures and low moments in general. It just made it so much more interesting to push him into trouble. The fact that he was a blood leech and I had to feed from other players added a high level of difficulty that helped a lot in it - I imagine playing a low-laying, actually smart introvert who keeps to themselves and their rats wouldn't be as fun in a long run. :D

[@ThePrimogen]

@@Outstarwalker Yeah it's really tough keeping focused on finding interesting angles to play and I totally agree with you that failures can be so much more exciting than successes. I'm currently playing a Fitness KZbinr turned Gangrel who's had to fake her own death since her adopted sire was pretty hardcore about keeping up the Masquerade. She's still coping with not being human anymore, throwing herself into friendships and relationships just to FEEL like she's still, you know, capable of feeling. And then I'm playing a 300 years old Opera Diva who actively *pretends* to be younger than she is, just so she can socialize with Kindred who still haven't lost that ember of life in them. Playing a blood leech sounds so interesting though, trying to juggle your blood bonds, convincing people you weren't just a diablerist, etc. Makes for excellent roleplay! :D

[@WhiterThanAginger]

An entire video could be dedicated on how to role play an elder, very difficult in my experience, a jaded, low humanity, barely feeling monster, you definitely need to have a poker face when playing an elder.

[@pepethefrog6809]

Well, most vtm role-playing sessions these days especially in V5 doesn't really give much of an option for you to play Elders. Since they're suppose to be targets of the Beckoning. The oldest you can role-play would be Ancillae.

[@H4ndS0up]

I have two vamps under my belt. A auditor for the Camarilla And a Nos IT girl for her local Prince. My back stories for the auditor was that he was embraced during the battle of New Orleans, lost the love of his unlife in the civil war, and became a cold hearted beurocrat. He later died after getting sent into torpor by a band of Nos. My Nos (which was made years later) her backstory was that she was just a really reclusive black hat hacker who was embraced after she broke onto the Shreknet. Shes still a fledgling in my current campaign but god damn im having so much fun playing her and doing her vocal tic while voiceing her.

[@coffeebreakhero3743]

my biggest problem in role-playing is lacking real-life friends into WoD, and just being old

[@junkbucket50]

Same, I have to do D&D more as that is just what people I know, like.

[@alexanderking9462]

same.

[@ursa_margo]

Are you older than 31?

[@darksteelyurius]

@@junkbucket50 Yeah that is honestly getting annoying for me. "Wanna play a game." "Yeah let's DnD" "That's not the ONLY game in existence you know?"

[@MrRattlebones640]

Yeah we can barely get people to play D&D nevermind even trying something else like VTM which i honestly find more interesting.

[@maybemaeb]

Campaign run by the Gentleman Gamer with Jason Carl as a player? Whaaa? Where's that happening? I wanna be a fly on the wall there.

[@Outstarwalker]

Red Moon Roleplaying podcast, Cults of the Blood Gods campaign, it's on Spotify!

[@michaelandreyev5029]

It's unusual to see Jason roleplay as an actual player. Check out Cults of the Blood Gods kickstarter campaign btw.

[@fo0liner1985]

i think its a valid point that inserting yourself into a character makes it very challenging to stay disconnected with it, should things go south. However, i think there is a place for self insertion into vtm. i am creating a "single player" game for my girlfriend atm that plays in the city we live in, and she basicly plays herself as i (as the ST) lure her into the darkest corners of the city she (thought she knew) her entire life.. it is a smaller city in germany so it is mostly untouched by vtm lore which gives me a lot of freedom to create whatever i want in a sense. and i think that the idea of having to disconnect with the life she used to live.. (including me) her family, etc.. her job and friends.. and having to get practical about praying and feeding on people for the rest of her unlife is going to be much more immersive because of it.. it is a different scenario ofc since i am able to focus on her character entirely as the ST and would obviously want to avoid her getting into more then she can handle.. should it come to that ofc, i am confident that we can end it with a bang and we will both have a good laugh about it in the end. This is her introduction to vtm.. (atleast in a practical sense of the table top game) (it is also my first time as an ST)

[@Outstarwalker]

Don't get me wrong, I think this can work, especially in a very controlled environment where you are her storyteller and there are no other players. In bigger groups there are always some shenanigans, people doing things we wouldn't do, situations happening against our will, so I find self-inserting in regular campaigns risky, but if you know what you're doing and your girlfriend is comfortable with it, have your fun :)

[@mikegould6590]

VERY useful. I now see why my favorite characters are exactly that. They may have aspects of me but differ fundamentally. Deciding what voice or concept one's BEAST has is important. The struggle with hunting what you used to have empathy for is important. How that affects you or how it doesn't is key. Knowing your life is an eternity of small moments strung together is important Knowing that your life isn't your own under Vampire Law is important. Adding your banes and compulsions to RP are absolutely important. A flat combat build can still be wildly inspirational if RPed correctly. Realize the character is both a PERSON and a MONSTER....and each side only accommodates the other.

[@RedFeralWolf]

I just joined a campaign that’s been running for a while. I’m playing a Ventrue who is a doctor and works for the Circulatory System. He just fled a Cam city because he sired a thin blood when he didn’t have permission to do so. He went to an anarch place and is establishing the system there. It’s a fairly combat oriented game but my dude has 2 dots in firearms. He’s not great there. However he has a very high Dominate and focuses on trying to put himself in control of every situation even battles. Trying to play off his sheet and what I made in the backstory.

[@pedropages6111]

One piece of advice that I follow now for myself is to not plan/overplan and latch onto said plan too dear life to succeed. Because you get so sucked into it and if it fails, you start to feel like ya failed the game. Play in the moment and plan in the moment, so you can have fun and not be overthink if what happens next!

[@Neophoia]

One thing I've usually do to avoid meta-gaming, I mostly play dnd though, is to talk to the storyteller/game master and ask if this is something my character would know based on what they have been through so far. Often this means rolling dice to decide if and what they know. Be sure to check before hand though if the storyteller/GM is ok with this (as in asking before the game session), I know the ones I've played with thought it a good way to avoid meta-gaming, but everyone has their own view on it.

[@eirikastokes9652]

I'd love to expand on that first point as a GM/Storyteller for multiple systems because it's SO true and important. If you let the campaign/chronicle influence your backstory on the fly, you will always, ALWAYS feel more grounded in the setting - more lkke a character who was already in the world and less like a character made for it after it was finished. Also, giving yourself room to improvise means you're less likely to wind up in a situation your character wouldn't ever be in, and you won't have to be That Person and say "well my character just wouldn't do that" when it's the logical progression of your story, but the SUPER in-depth backstory you wrote before you got to roleplay in the world didn't actually help you roleplay better, it made it harder because you gave yourself a hundred different guidelines and it's impossible to follow them all.

[@Alkis05]

About character backstories, there are two different valid modes of playing. One is as you described, keep it flexible, so you can detail it on the go and make it fit better within the story. I would argue that the storytelling system as a whole is geared toward that philosophy: making good stories. And compelling narratives. But the other way of roleplaying is more akin to simulation: given an initial condition, how the system develops? You make very detailed characters and explore how would they react to the world, and how their backstory influences the current story. The point is not necessarily to make a compelling narrative, but a realistic one, by making it as close as possible to a simulation. The second one is much more trouble for the ST, because the character may not fit in the story he had planned. When making a very detailed backstory, I usually would consult the ST if they have any interesting hooks or characters types that he would like to be part of my backstory. I think they tackle different aspects of roleplaying and writing in general. One thing I did once with my GM, at the start of a campaign, while people were looking up the rule book and mini-maxing their characters, we went to another room and roleplayed sections of the backstory and I would go assigning points according to what was happening. That is specially useful for contacts, resources and those other stuff that doesn't have to do with the PC individually, but with his network of influence and his businesses.

[@n.henzler50]

Getting home from work at 7AM, drinking wine right out of the bottle and watching an Outstar video. Now this is a proper Christmas.

[@austinvanderveer213]

"And with Bloodlines 2 coming out next year..." Oh, oh no...

[@BertBerg]

13:10 The World of Friendship and Magic... brilliant!

[@CorvairGuy69]

Your videos are outstanding. My brother in law and I used your character creation video to guide us through our creation journey. I am definitely taking notes from this one and sent it to him as well. Thank You for your knowledge!

[@LongestJourneys]

I'd really love to get into roleplaying in the VtM universe, but I'm always kind of stopped by anxiety and also worry of getting burned out on it too quickly. Both seem like silly worries, since I roleplay in an MMO pretty often - maybe not daily, and rarely over Discord, but enough that I shouldn't have such uncertainties... yet here I am, haha. I think part of it is not being overly familiar with how the actual game itself works. I understand the basics due to playing D&D in the past, but overall I'm very blind about much of it and it's been quite a long time since I roleplayed in such a way (meaning with tabletop rules and the like). I don't know. I have an idea for a couple of characters and have the interest in it, but I keep freezing up on trying to join in on something. Regardless, this video is full of wonderful advice and I appreciate how dedicated you are to this universe and how often you try to not only entertain, but inform and encourage. You're always a treat to watch, and I can't thank you enough for the time and effort you give to people.

[@Kyran1996]

I'm having a similar issue. I've roleplayed and like to play roleplaying video games or MMORPGs, but I've never played a tabletop RPG before and tend to overthink things and shy away from finding anyone to play with. I'm interested in the lore and even have a couple of character sheets started, but I don't know where to begin and have too much anxiety surrounding the whole process.

[@WanderingRagabond]

I’m like a recovering min-maxing addict. I’m making progress, but I’m one lapse away from undoing all of it... xD

[@Outstarwalker]

we should make a meeting in a circle for former min-maxers. :D

[@coffeebreakhero3743]

@@Outstarwalker that would be very efficient. like maximizing the concentration of replased min-maxers in the room and minimizing their exposure to reality. therapy will commence at 16:59 and end 18:00 so I'll be able to charge two hours.

[@niffichains3445]

@@Outstarwalker where is your accent from if I may ask?

[@Outstarwalker]

@@niffichains3445 Poland!

[@niffichains3445]

@@Outstarwalker its a nice accent lol, I am rocking the "city" southern accent, If that makes sense.

[@fylimar]

About character background: I normally write a background story of one event of my characters life to get a feeling for him or her. It helps me fleshing them out. In our Vampire group, my Malkavian is the the most social one. So normally, she has to do the talking, she is shitty in fights though. I love giving characters a lot of personality and like them imperfect. And I do agree about trying to avoid self insertion. Luckily, none of our groups does that.

[@Biouke]

I like to build a VTM character by thinking first about who they were before the embrace, why did they pique the interest of their sire, how have they accommodated (or not) to their new un-life, and build the character sheet from there. For the background I like to leave space while keeping defining traits and events as you said. Too bad I until now only played Pathfinder as I'm much more a fan of story-telling RPGs than door-monster-treasure ones. I think there are RPers who run Vampire games in my city, just haven't taken time to go meet them yet :) As I like History and social struggles I'd want to try playing a character in particular which is inspired by my grandpa who during WW2 was an anarchist in Spain then joined the resistance in occupied France.

[@damienmanners6337]

Lots of roleplay seems to be testing the jungian shadow against other's nervous system. So in doing so we express a darkness that doesn't cause tangible harm and so baring this in mind tends to have players avoid the sense of loss when final death or so. That it gives a light to those that might remain unexpressed which can in turn be very cathartic. :))

[@NationalDevin]

SO i've been playing Bloodlines through for the first time. I've had a couple false starts but usually put the game away at the beach house and life would take me. But recently I decided I wanted to finally play it through, made it part of the night ritual before bed so I could get extra immersed into the vampire life style, and I'm big into roleplaying RPG games, so I went in knowing I didn't know anything and what I did know was mostly forgotten in detail, and only remembered in major beats. I created a Malkavian, I already forget what I named him since I started a 2nd playthrough as a Tremere, but if you're familiar with the skin, I decided to take out the angle that he was a Drug dealer in his real life, he'd be the guy you see going to the club or rave to hand out drugs, and that he was at a rave the night prior when he was embraced, and if you know the Video game you know what happened from there. What I really liked most about it is that Being a Malkavian, you have these whispers in your head, sometimes it's just pure chaos and mental illness, but then sometimes it's actual insight, but that also somewhat explains your behaviors as a fledgling learning the game. When I started the journey, I remember feeling super weak, like I was out of my league as a vampire, and I didn't know the parameters of certain things in the game, the things you have to feel out and play with to learn. I walked through places slowly, taking my time to regen or hold my gun steady, though I preferred close quarters (but going to it immediately got me killed after a certain point), and everything felt really like delving into the unknown of vampire society. But then I made it to the hospital downtown. I'm not going to spoil it, but there was this moment that, in me retaining the fledgling vibe, that I'm dead, why should I be afraid of this, it's not like it's going to happen to me. At this point, as a Malkavian, I had frenzied twice in the overworld, had drained a target I figured would have regened by then, and attempted to save the civilian from the mugging downtown, so I had low humanity, and at that point, it just clicked. At that point, I did what you have to do there to get more quests, again, limited spoilers. From that point on, it felt as though my character was finally starting to click. It was really cool, because after that moment, it felt like me and the character both resonated on the fact we were vampires now, that we can handle anything that comes our way, and while we were cocky and horribly, horribly wrong (Spent my money on ammo not blood), it felt like a well earned fight for survival every step of the way, as though I was slowly growing stronger on my own merit, and when the game ended, it felt like a natural impulse, a whisper in my head telling me something I decided not to do from the get go, and it felt great.

[@cindychung7002]

I was going to add that doing some research can help a lot. Let’s say you don’t know much about fine art, but really like the idea of running a character who owns a macabre art gallery. Well, some research into the subject can do both you and your character some good. Playing someone outside your comfort zone can be an opportunity for self improvement. Win-win!

[@InfiniteBoxworks]

I love Toreador that aren't primped up little divas. My friend played a Toreador who was a middle-aged salt-of-the-earth type who was embraced because of his talent for carving wood sculptures with a chainsaw. Mostly bears. He crafted the Prince a desk (his dice made it a really, really nice desk) as a show of good faith and in turn was awarded the Primogen position.

[@occupationalhazard]

Many great suggestions in this video. I had to learn most of these lessons the hard way. Thank you for outlining them so adeptly.

[@FlackooPretty]

This is one of my new favorite channels on KZbin. Great work!

[@Ketsu357]

Currently playing a Ravons fledgling that was already a criminal before turning. It's kinda funny with his extremely straight line counterparts

[@pnutz_2]

22:34 here lacroix, eat a snickers

[@Philistine47]

Supplemental to a couple of points in the video - I haven't played much WoD, but one thing I've figured out over years of playing in various other systems is that _the Character Sheet is not the Character._ The best example IME came from a science fiction game where all the PCs were pilots: all the Character Sheets looked *very* similar, but we ended up with half a dozen Characters who were *very* distinct in their personalities, approaches, and responses. Following on from that... I would argue that min-maxing itself isn't necessarily a problem. It *can* be a problem, if a player focuses exclusively on that and doesn't put in the work to figure out how that Character fits into the world; but it doesn't have to be. If you consider *why* your character is so focused on (whatever they're optimized to do), maybe give your character mixed feelings about (whatever it is), and consider how other characters in the world would react to someone who is *really* good at (whatever) but isn't much good otherwise, well... I've had a lot of fun playing "min-maxed" characters, especially when GMs push hard on the characters' weaknesses (and whatever else can be said about min-maxing, it does result in characters whose weaknesses are *really* weak).

[@Outstarwalker]

There are definitely storytellers out there that *require* players to minmax to survive, which can also be fun :D But I found that a lot of storytellers care about players survival (to _some_ extent, of course), so minmaxing is often not needed!

[@nehamaw]

Amazing advice! Never thought about the bad things that happen when u put urself into it! Definitely going to try change how I play from that.

[@josephmayberry3638]

I also agree you need to back story wise have enough for your story teller your dungeon master etc to understand the past enough to be able to adjust his story to help your story

[@nonamegiven202]

Wait, there are sires that DON'T avoided their Kids?

[@pepethefrog6809]

If you're talking about Sires that doesn't abandon their kids then yeah, there are plenty of sub-clans that embrace only within their sect or family. Like the Giovanni.

[@nonamegiven202]

wow 10 months ago, i really can't remember the context of my joke comment.

[@josephmayberry3638]

I am a huge fan to prove it I was introduced to your videos less than 2 hours ago and wow 😳 I am like where have your vids been

[@masoncray9815]

I like putting traits of myself in my characters, I still liked seeing my character get his heart broken in the first day discovering what love felt like

[@meris8486]

When it comes to Backstory I make one that's for the GM with all the plot hooks and a solid understanding of their character which I limit to two pages. I do add things later but these are more to help me understand the character, though I do send these out if there's something cool but at that point they're tailored to the campaign and the direction it's going

[@SaintOrphee]

In one campaign my Toreador (director in a theatre academy) blood bound a Malkavian (another pc) just because he want to learn Dementation to mix with Precense, and because he had the opportunity

[@RobCrowley85]

About great sheets, one piece of advice I heard was to make a functioning human first, then use the leftover dots to make the character a vampire.

[@MrHacros]

It would be great if in the future there was a role-playing game of Vampire the Masquerade with a real-time tactical game system with pause and an isometric user interface.

[@Malakiel]

I have been watching your videos for a while but this one made me subscribe! Great work! and good luck with your new job. Best wishes!

[@theseusc1]

Outstar, hi! Sorry, new viewer and obviously late to the conversation, given this videos time-stamp. I really enjoyed your thoughts on how to approach h your character, particularly regarding the element of time. Just my two-cents, but I feel that further applies to regional gameplay, particularly hunting grounds. In essence as a vampire, it would make sense that you would want to play/hunt in cities that are warmer climates as this usually means larger communities. The flip side to that would be less gameplay too, due to shortened nighttime hours. Conversely, longer nights typically mean colder climates and therefore less people, which severely limits your ability to hunt as well as maintain the masquerade. Both settings have their merits and can be useful, albeit subtle, twists on storylines. Thanks!

[@TheChesher]

I was really wondering about what magic is available to vampires, alchemy, permenant physical/arcane buffs such as elemental infusion, like fusing earth with yourself to gain resistance to fire (two clans need that more than most, you know who I'm talking about).

[@TheChesher]

@@thedarkmaster4747 Tremere gas chambers? And what exactly does not allow them to use true magic? Couldonic sorcery is close but still not it.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

Nickolay Chesher The tremere along withe giovanni are genocidal clans. The tremere do the kind of magic you're thinking about(like arcane from dnd) via thaumaturgy. They also purged almost all, and are still purging all salubri(a clan that is akin to dnd divine casters) from the face of the earth. The giovanni are necromancers, and they are also holocausting the capadocians, after they holocausted the capadocians. The idea is that these clans want to have a complete monopoly on their services - so they're irreplaceable within the realms of vampire politics. Tzimisce kolduns, assamite sorcerers, ministry, ravnos, lasobra ect, ect... Other clans with blood sorcerous bloodlines or disciplines are both fortified, organized and militant, where the salubri and capadocians weren't. Infact, both of those clans used to be relatively nice, as far as vampires in W.O.D. Go. Now the survivors are - "without any sense of humanity what so ever." And work closely with the sabbat. If an unaffiliated vampire sorcerer is just walking around, the tremere will try to kill or extract knowledge from them without consent and then ruthlessly experiment on them. So do it, but it's not without it's costs.

[@TheChesher]

@@thedarkmaster4747 Yikes, no decency or spirit of cooperation for sake of knowledge and betterment of kindred in general, at least the Tremere have a splinter group karno i think that are sorta nice, why do they have to be dicks to each other? (seeking knowledge for knowledge, yeah right), their coming to being is a usurping not true clan creation, i wonder if it's possible to lower your generation or to become an antedeluvian with or without diablery . Are there kindred outside the line of kane? (is it even possible? Like being made by a blood god such as Morigan).

[@pepethefrog6809]

@@TheChesher Caine is the first vampire, so it's pretty much impossible to have a "Kindred" that is not tied to the blood curse of Caine. Though, there are similar supernatural creatures to Kindred. Like the Kuei-jin. Normally referred to as "Vampires of the East".

[@johnmurray7333]

Love the shirt! I’ve seen Ghost 2 times and soon it’ll be 3 times! Love. VTM

[@Ishanah]

12:20 Oh yes. I'm playing a toreador and she is one of favorite characters. She got a real problem. After her embrace - 3-4 years - she found her family slaughtered by a malkavian called "the reverend" who she and her family know. Cause of seeing her young brother and her mom dead and ripped apart she got furious and bit him. She didnt knew what she was doing and she keep drinking till nothing was left of him. So, yea ... she diablerized him - didnt knew to which factions he belonged or anything. And here comes the interesting point: She got a split personality after this and now in her head is a fanatic mass murdering woman named "Jane". Janes trigger are religious humans. She want to free the world of the "sinners" (humans). Last session I failed during my hunting and stumbled upon a priest and than the shit show started. Jane just carved her way through the alleys killing people even a 17 year old girl. The only good thing: we didnt wanted to stay in the city, only get on a cargo ship and go to america ^^' - Jane also came out during a fight with our ventrue player and she nearly diablerized him if not the gangrel of our group stopped her.

[@fangroyal]

As a paragraph style rper for many, many years (not necessarily for VtM, but you know), I can definitely second every one of these.

[@medramonmasquedecendres2966]

I really want to play a brutal Gangrel, like a more bestial "Fight club" type character: ex military and a literal blood-hound for his coterie

[@medramonmasquedecendres2966]

​@Scott Whatever Thank you, I will apply all this as soon as I find a table of people to play with

[@medramonmasquedecendres2966]

@Scott Whatever Thanks for the advice: and giving the pseudo military backstory i plan on playing i don't think i wil jump in action all the time, i see it more as a tracker and maybe an enforcer, with maybe a goal of becoming sherif on the long run. But anyway, more of a bloodhound than anything else

[@FMD-FullMetalDragon]

Great video. I'm just getting into Vampire and this video is very helpful. Thank you.

[@nathancorso4067]

Interesting video and good advices, however i think the number 0 is missing: Talk with your master and let him talk to all of you players in order to sinergy the campaign to play and its mood. The situation descrived in the first advice, i.e., can be problematic only in a campaign focused on the storyteller's plot, where if it unfolds in front of your character or of one another it wont matter; instead if ut's a characters focused campaign an in depth described background can be very useful for the storyteller, especially if they gathers all the bgs and tries to connect them, because in the end they is telling that story and not another and it has those protanist and not others. The initial talk, a pitch we could say, it's also very important for the metagame situation and the hunger one too: maybe a player who exhibit those flaws is showing, even unconsciously, that is bored of starting from ground 1 all over again; i was a storyteller for a decade less or more and after a couple of years i started to understand that monotonous mood when starting all over again as a fledgling. Beside that there is however other types of meta, some good and other bad: the "oh, he is a tremere" one is very bad, where a smile on the player's face after a reference that he could get (but without their character understands it) is pretty satisfactory, like an easter egg between master and players! Lastly, the most important from these advices is the "embrace your failures": the most remarkable plays in my experience as both a player and a storyteller start almost ever from a botch or another mess. It's a world of darkness: embrace it instead of fight it... and maybe share with your fellows (players or storytellers) some common inspiration like movies, music or books: if everyone has listed to "music from succubus club" a certain mood would be shared and create a common ground. E.g. i was used to suggest the watch (or rewatch) of three movies: interview with a vampire (doh), blade runner and highlander. Nathan Ps: sorry for any linguistic mistakes trying to write in english

[@DERPER303]

Im a rly fresh storyteller and about to start my first chronicle for some of my friends, Im basing it in Brussels. The whole humanity no hanky panky thing made my players a little sad because they all really wanna have a thing with a certain NPC of mine. This NPC is going to be an entire conquest to romance so I decided IF they succeed they honestly deserves it... Therefore I let them keep their privates functional.

[@zoltanzafir5575]

Hi thank you for this video! I think your tips are very helpfull and make the game even deeper. It would be nice to see a similar video of Tips on how to tell a story in WoD.

[@johnathanstalker2682]

Corpo rat turned Gangrel *NY by night enters the chat*

[@vladimerlestat9185]

I have a question. Will we be able to smoke in vampire the masquerade 2?

[@justanon4709]

Totally agree about failures! If your Storyteller has a good imagination you will have fun even when you fail a roll.

[@michaelhottenstein660]

I now feel the need to make a Brujah named Damsel, or Cinderella from Rock & Rule.

[@Nagasakevideo]

bloodlines 2 coming next year, huh? a video posted 2 years ago....

[@gurgel4130]

I don’t know if I am bad at roleplaying or not because I can NEVER manage to join a game without becoming the DM... I can roleplay lots of characters at you know the sort of ”minimizing” way but I’ve never played just one character!

[@lokar9240]

"The code is more what you'd call guidelines, than actual rules"

[@kycool8684]

About #6, this is gonna be my first game, so I don’t know much. Now I am even more excited. I should stop reading the book though.

[@ThisisnotTwitter]

Re birds and the bees and comparing to Bloodlines, do you think Jeanette has Humanity above 8? She must be getting something out of it. She even hooked up with Bertrand the Nosferatu.

[@tylerh2548]

Don't overthink the backstory? What did I get Thousand Year Old Vampire for, if not V:tM origin history... I particularly like the final point about time perception. I could see a council of elders taking several nights' worth of meetings to come to a decision on matters, simply because none of them have ro worry about getting to lunch, using the bathroom or running out of work hours. Stubborn deliberation can reach new depths when the only consideration is naptime.

[@wisconsindeathtrip13]

The Problem of feeling the Charakter is so real. Digging how to play her/him. Im currently workin on an Album completely focused on creating a VtM Feeling. It helped immensely to have fitting new music, when playing.

[@wisconsindeathtrip13]

Love the lil peeks and commentaries to people’s limited creativity. I think that could also be a reason for so many self-inserts. Lack of empathy and creativity. But maybe that’s cynical.

[@wirormiror]

I love to use stereotypes for my characters. I usually take an existing character in a book and then extract its essence as a base. Example of my current character: phantom of the opera based nosferatu. So she is good with manipulation and performance but rather poor in education and research. Despite all, she knows a lot of occult legends and became a urban legend known as the Voice in the wall from which her cult is formed. But then it stops there with the base and I try to expand on it. So she was an italian opera singer who received a molotov cocktail in the face one night during a sabbat/camarilla fight . So she was embraced by a sabbat pack priest when he found her, still alive and up. She became a nos shovelhead who acted as a messenger during the war. She still have ties with her father whom she visits at night, singing to him disguised as the voice. She now sides with the camarilla after the sabbat left her alone as a mean of survival, still hiding her ties to the church of Caine. She wants to put an end to preconceptions on her kind and found a mawla that shares her view. Her sire recently reappeared, making it hard for her to choose allegiance and even harder to keep her coterie of fortune safe. Anyways, not the most original, but super easy to find patterns and ideas on the fly to rp since you can always go back to the concept original character and integrate more of them if inspiration fails that particular night. Other characters with this method: miss marple inspired elderly brujah neonate, Arsene Lupin based toreador who invested heavily in obfuscate or a captain haddock based malkavian who was fired from the docks and now seeks solace in the seas of time, searching for revelations in the blood of drunk vessels :) Great content Outstar! Already send the link to my group for inspiration.

[@tiggurai]

gentleman gamer is great

[@thedarkmaster4747]

He's really good in character.

[@DaHuntsman1]

Honestly it doesn't matter the rp or how light or dark it is, don't do self-inserts, if there was ever a one-way trip to a bad RP'ing experience, because once you create a character that is basically you, it becomes horrifically easy to be apart of that situation, meaning that whatever happens, if its negative to your character, it becomes negative to you, and it leads to things happening in-rp that makes you feel like its carried out into the Real world. This is especially the case when it comes to the darker rp's such as Vampire where you NEED to be able to step away from the world and your character.

[@aquaesque3490]

"Roleplaying a stupid vampire is also a very fun thing to do" One sec, rolling up a new character

[@aquaesque3490]

Fun fact, the final boss of our Changeling: The Lost campaign was an *incredibly* stupid vampire who became the secret architect behind the supernatural threat menacing the city after the Storyteller saw us all write him off as an idiot and thought "okay, now i HAVE to make him the main villain"

[@NoblePhantasm23]

I'm new to the Vampire system. My group hasn't started a campaign yet but most of us are reading the core material. I am finding that the writers added fluff that was not needed or pointless. I also feel like their idea of a vampire came from the glitter-pires of twilight and anything outside of that is generally shunned. I find the stereotypes limiting. Why can't a Ventrue know magic? Why limit that to the Tremere? Does a Toreador not consider seats of power? It just seems like we're gonna have to homebrew to make the game, enjoyable. a few of us have even said "These are vampires, right?"

[@MaricKillJoy]

I love that so many people are playing Vampire. I just can't pull myself into V5. I really dislike the game compared to the old material. I feel like way to many liberties were taken with the world from the names of clans and disciplines down to how lots of those clans function. It feels like a completely different game to me, but I still have my V20 players new and old. So when you take in how many people are getting into V5 also I love seeing so many Vampire players, regardless of what they choose.

[@cesaralejandrohernandez4840]

I had a player that played with himself in game. Literally. When his brother died in game he could not keep playing and ended killing himself (in game). After that he never did a self insert again.

[@TheChesher]

Is there a level up thing in the table top? Like getting permenantly stronger, like getting new skills, new powers, learning new disciplines, getting permenant power boosts regardless of age, what are the alternatives to diablery?, is it possible to at least resist the sun?

[@Outstarwalker]

You do gain experience during sessions and level up your character. The older character, the more powerful. Leveling up disciplines in V5 is a little bit more tricky, but also possible.

[@Outstarwalker]

As for resisting sun - by studying Golconda (which means mechanically spending experience in Golconda loresheet) you can eventually walk under the sun unaffected, although it comes with a price.

[@TheChesher]

@@Outstarwalker Questions: Whats the price of gaining Daywalk? And are there alternatives to golconda? is there a way to thicken the blood without relying on time?, Is there a thing you can call a permanent buff that you can gain through actions (rituals/spells etc. ) or storyline, alternatives to diablery? (like skill share but without consuming the soul of another). Reasoning and story: The thing is that as young vampire at a modern age you realise that the progress of humanity is accelerating at an alarming pace and elder vampires seem to underestimate that greatly (especially the Camarilla and those unfortunate to be affected by the beckoning of the holy war), if you relly on just your age you'll never outrun elders in might and power (Preferably without diablery), humanity may force Kindred to evolve disciplines and even make new ones even kindred themselves, for the sake of real independence, power, knowledge and allies are necessary to advance.

[@TheChesher]

@@Outstarwalker Is there a way for a kindred to go toe to toe with garu and even be strong enough to eliminate pack (or packs) of them in one go or battle? Is there a way for kindred to actually enjoy animal blood as much as human blood? A lifestyle like this may require fortitude, Celerity, potence, tracking disciplines,earth/stone/tree meld, maybe some protean.

[@Outstarwalker]

The price is, you wake up the next night in automatic hunger frenzy. The way to thicken your blood or a "buff" would be Blood Potency that you can level up with XP. It costs a bit though. High Blood Potency allows you to add dices to all your discipline rolls, gives you a chance to avoid spending blood on your disciplines and heals your wounds faster. On the other hand, vampires with high BP can't sate from animal and bagged blood and they need way more regular blood for sustenance.

[@avocadothecat]

So... is it bad that I made a self insert but I want bad stuff to happen to them?

[@013wolfwarrior]

Is it possible to play as a human with alot of true faith powers?

[@MrFlippybob]

White wolf published a number of mortal based games in the world of darkness setting

[@Outstarwalker]

There is ruleset for True Faith and example mortal builds in the v5 corebook, so totally, but if you want something more in-depth, you should look into older editions :)

[@BrokenButterfly255]

I have a question, how do Vampires fall in love? Like if they are not attracted by looks how do you say its okay for the players to fall for each other? Because there should be a way but I'm unsure how to establish it as a dm now

[@Outstarwalker]

They can be attracted by looks - even if they don't feel physical sexual urges per se, they can still fall in love like mortals do (studying asexuality may be a good start to grasp it). That being said, with immortality keeping our bodies forever young and many vampires possessing the power of Presence that makes them even more enticing from the outside, I think more vampires are "resistant" to physical beauty. That's why love happens in unexpected places and Toreadors can fall in love with Nosferatu (Victoria Ash in Camarilla corebook says herself that every Rose should taste a Nosferatu lover in their unlife). The less humanity, the less feelings like love and affection would matter to us, but you can go with ol' good "true love never fades" and play even the worst monster this way.

[@BrokenButterfly255]

@@Outstarwalker thank you for clarifying!

[@010RTT]

That moment you realize you have been watching the videos for months without subscribing... Resolved that :D .

[@tracesosebee5485]

If you ever feel like you have trouble not metagaming, ask your Storyteller "Hey would I know this?"

[@josephmayberry3638]

Um my favorite old school magical vampire in Vampire The Masquerade

[@alexanderstilianov]

Step 1: Make a Methuselah character (spend all your points during character creation and bribe the Storyteller) Step 2: Fart and that kills half of the domain's kindred Step 3: Fill in the void by claiming the empty domain as your own Step 4: Force any surviving kindred into a blood bond Step 5:??? Step 6: Profit, neonate.

[@marty_elise]

Hey, I know this is off-topic but I wanted to ask you if you plan on doing a review of the witcher series I'd love to hear your thoughts about it since i really didn't like how they handeld some stuff (especially Yen's infertility issue)

[@docette2015]

Good stuff! Though I think "avoiding self-inserts" should have been paired with the "metagaming" tip, as metagaming probably doesn't help the whole "I think of my character as myself and thus may take it personally when bad things happen to them" issue. Totally hear you on the final tip, though -- making sure to keep an eye on the time. I don't actually RP VtM, but I AM writing a fanfic based around Bloodlines, and -- yeah, knowing just how long my character has to do things is VITAL. (The wiki claims the game takes place over 11 nights, which -- yeaaaaah, way too short even BEFORE you factor in Alice having a life outside the quests.)

[@notorious.scoundrel]

I've been thinking of making a Thin-blood for my first time playing Vampire: the Masquerade. I'm really new to the game and its lore, so I wanna play him like literal human who got turned by accident and is just learning about the existence of vampire society. Question, though, can you make a vampire by accident in the world of the Masquerade?

[@Outstarwalker]

You need to feed the freshly drained person your blood, so it would be hard to do it by accident - you can certainly drain a person "by accident" though (for example, via hunger frenzy) and then, in quick act of trying to fix the situation, the vampire could feed the victim their blood without giving it much thinking. This is usually how "accidental" childer are being made, and abandoned soon after.

[@DividedStates]

Is there a link for the campaign with Jason Carl as a player?

[@rottingnothing3438]

now I really, really need to find a good polish vampire roleplay, cuz my english suck when it's comes to long description X"")

[@LazarL]

I wanna play but I'm not sure if I can memorize everything I need. I only played with GM's guidance so far. :(

[@robertsiwek7503]

Really nice and eyes opening :). Thank you. Best regards from Poland.

[@shinshilko]

15:53 Agree, she did a great job of portraying a neonate. Her character was annoying as hell, at the beginning though. The whole cast of L.A. by night are awesome. About the self-insert - most people are boring in real life. If my character would think like I do irl, he would be abandoned by his sire for asking so many questions that the sire would run away screaming.

[@eldritchkaiju5829]

I've never played a vampire, Only Werewolves and mages, I appreciate the advice

[@NationalDevin]

Don't forget that when you're a vampire, you don't have any other body fluid than blood, so that's going to be noticeable during intercourse.

[@nosferatu-369]

Love your videos and the band ghost!👍

[@Cainite]

I, well half, disagree on the _"Self-insert"_ part. Done right _(mostly knowing the difference between inGame and RL, duh!)_ it's probably the best expirience one can have, as the self-insert but also as someone playing with a self-insert. Filtering ones own morals ect. through the lense of the WoD and/or a specific clan... But hey, on the other hand... I'm a strange person and who prefers to play Malkavians... 😋

[@Outstarwalker]

In my experience in playing with self-insert players, it's the best for them as long as everything goes their way. It's very similar with books and their authors - self-inserts in fiction very often turn to Mary Sue's. We're just not used to wishing ourselves bad. :)

[@Cainite]

@@Outstarwalker Reflecting on my own life, if shit didn't hit the fan for my character I would be...sad. 🤣 If I had an one euro for each time I died because I played like me, I could buy White Wolf from Paradox. No matter if it's D&D, DSA _(yep, I life in germany)_ or WoD. 🤣

[@kriegkorpsman402]

How often does a Vtm vampire need to feed? Daily? Weekly? Does it depend on clan, age, etc.?

[@Outstarwalker]

Depends on your luck with Rouse Checks :) you roll the dice daily in-game to check if your hunger rises, you roll it when you use Blush of Life to make yourself look more human and you roll it while using most (but not all) discipline powers.

[@mariusmikaelson3940]

23:20 Poor Outstar she is so hungry!!! blood for her!!! fast!!! she got frenzy!!! 🤣

[@atomicturist]

I always play a Brujah with insomnia who loves skateboaring and throwing minivans at bad people :) And it's basicaly been the same character for the last 16 years :)

[@PedroDoderoEscalante]

This is great advice, some of it is great for all RPGs.

[@Damnationization]

I like the Gentlemen Gamer and have watch his videos, even chatted with him in the comments. I am going to run 5e for my players and only 1 has played before. I plan on instilling the idea that you are damned. You must spend the rest of your life trying to satiate your endless hunger, praying on people. I think at the start this should be difficult. But if not quelled the beast will take over. It helps players understand their situation. Along with dealing with whatever other Vampires might try getting them to do. As if they are created, why? Making a fledgling is responsibility, so it better have some sort of merit to exploit to further the Vampires goal(s).