| Character creation guidelines and tips | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 5 2013, 08:43 PM (214 Views) | |
| Psyche_Dreamweaver | Sep 5 2013, 08:43 PM Post #1 |
|
Administrator
|
Character Creation Guidelines: Allowable character types- * Original Kindred (vampires embraced before Gehenna) from any of the clans/bloodlines listed as having survived the Withering * Kindred embraced after Gehenna, whether a true member of their sire's clan, a variant (Tzimisce, Giovanni, or Malkavian), or a member of one of the new bloodlines that have begun to emerge from the original clans since the Withering ended * Ghouls...whether attached to a PC vampire (with that player's permission) or free * Mortals (vampires are people before they're vampires, and a well-rounded, well-written human character can always become a ghoul or a vampire during the course of play) Envision the role you want your character to play in the RPG: Each character performs a role in a story, even down to the one-use npc accountant who crosses a dark parking lot and falls prey to a player character’s hunger. Establish what role you want *your* character to play, then determine what qualities are necessary for the character to fulfill that role effectively. For example, A victim embodies qualities of sympathy, terror, and pathos. An antagonist, on the other hand, evokes qualities of ruthlessness, or cleverness, or even brute belligerence. Not everyone is a victim or an antagonist though...maybe you want to play someone who strives to be a hero or protector for others in spite of their vampirism, a loyal friend, or even just the person who can make other characters smile no matter how dark or dire their current predicament is. It really DOES take all kinds of people to make a story (and life) interesting. Once you have an idea of a role for your character, then come up with a basic concept for the character you want to play. A role such as `comic relief' 'bad-ass' or 'villain' is nebulous, but your concept solidifies it more into an actual character. Sample Concepts: • Criminal — jailbird, Mafioso, drug dealer, pimp, carjacker, thug, thief, fence • Drifter — bum, smuggler, prostitute, junkie, pilgrim, biker, gambler • Entertainer — musician, film star, artist, club kid, model, web celebrity • Intellectual — writer, student, scientist, philosopher, social critic • Investigator — detective, beat cop, government agent, private eye, witch-hunter • Kid — child, runaway, outcast, urchin, gang-banger • Outsider — urban primitive, refugee, minority, conspiracy theorist, junkie • Politician — judge, public official, councilor, aide, speechwriter • Professional — engineer, doctor, programmer, lawyer, industrialist • Reporter — journalist, blogger, paparazzo, talk-show host, media expert • Scenester — club-goer, goth, skinhead, punk, barfly, hipster, substance abuser • Socialite — dilettante, host, playboy, sycophant, trophy wife • Soldier — bodyguard, enforcer, soldier of fortune, killer-for-hire • Worker — trucker, farmer, wage earner, manservant, construction laborer Your concept is the basic `skeleton' for your forming character. It could be something as simple as "paranoid reporter" or "absent-minded philosopher", to something as complicated as "Transvestite construction worker who moonlights as a stand-up comedian". Pick one you know you'll have fun playing, and then go from there. Next, keep your concept in mind and then look over the list of natures and demeanors. These behavioral Traits, known as Archetypes, help players understand their characters’ personalities. Demeanor is the way a character presents himself to the outside world. It is the “mask” he wears to protect his inner self. A character’s Demeanor often differs from his Nature, though it might not. Also, Demeanor refers to the attitude a character adopts most often — and some people can change Demeanors as often as they change their minds. Nature is the character’s “real” self, the person he truly is. The Archetype a player chooses reflects that character’s deep-rooted feelings about himself, others, and the world. Nature should not be the only aspect of a character’s true personality, merely the most dominant. Choose a name: Carefully chosen names enhance characters, while poor ones detract from the character and can lessen the overall mood of the scenes in which the character appears. No matter how much effort you've put into your character or how carefully you've chosen her concept, nature, demeanor, and quirks, if you saddle your vampire character with a name like "Ravyn Nightmist" or "Midnight Rose", its going to be hard for other characters (not to mention other players) to take her seriously. Now, maybe your character's funny name is meant to be PART of their character (Maybe your tough-as-nails Brujah brawler is named Sydney or Horace, and people snickering about it is what ends up triggering most of his frenzies...), and that's okay, just in general put some careful thought into selecting your character's name. Also, if your character is a white, 100% from European heritage American, it's highly unlikely that she's going to be named Yuki, Sayuri, or some other Japanese name. If your character has an Asian name, they should probably actually BE Asian, not just have a Japanese name because their player loves anime (I've had players do that before...). Age: For mortal characters, this is easy, how old are they? A human child won't be able to have much of a role in the RPG, since most of the RPG will naturally take place at night, but a teenager or college student could work easily enough...as could someone in their 20s and up. For ghoul and especially vampire characters a character’s age is significant; when filling out the character profile list both their actual, chronological age and what age they physically *appear* to be. For vampires, immortality can wear away at all the ties that connect them to the mortal life they once knew. For the Kindred, each year of unlife separates them further from mortal society, as their experiences and ambitions broaden and their perspectives become increasingly alien. A vampire who has existed and schemed for enough centuries might have no more regard for the mortal societies she coldly manipulates than a beekeeper has for his hives, whereas one that's struggled to keep close to mortals might be far more human in their outlook. A vampire who was embraced less than a decade ago (as most vampire characters in the game will probably be) is probably still mostly human in their mindset, which makes their dark urges all the more striking. Note: All Kindred embraced post-Gehenna (including the Giovanni, Malkavian, and Tzimisce variants, neonates who were embraced after the Withering who `bred true' to their sire's clan, and all members of the new bloodlines) will have been vampires for between 1-9 years (you *could* play a post-Gehenna fledgling less than a year old, but you'll only have two disciplines as you haven't `settled' into your clan/bloodline yet). Original Kindred characters can have been vampires for no longer than 250 years, as most elders were killed during the Withering and Beckett is the oldest vampire confirmed to have survived Gehenna. Personality: Choose one or two words that embody the character’s personality. The Natures and Demeanors provided for character creation are a good starting point, but don’t feel constrained by them — you can expand your repertoire of archetypes as needed. To make interesting characters, consider choosing personality types that seem to run counter to the “role” that you intend them to play in the RPG. For example, if you are envisioning a master villain who will haunt the other characters at every turn, you could challenge your fellow players’ expectations and make your character friendly, outgoing, even compassionate — someone who believes that destroying the other characters is a regretful necessity, but one that will benefit everyone in the long run. One big tip to making a memorable/good character is to give them depth. Don't fall for the trap of making your vampire a cardboard stereotype of their clan. For example, just because Tzimisce have a historical tendency to be monstrous and alien in outlook, doesn't mean your character, if you choose to make a Tzimisce, HAS to be that way. Players weren't forced to make characters into cookie cutter Kindred even before Gehenna, after Gehenna, so many things have changed and organizations have been destroyed that the playing field has been leveled. Challenge the conventions and mindsets of the other characters if you want. It is YOUR character after all; if you want to play a Lasombra or a Tzimisce that's truly noble in personality and has more morals than a high humanity Salubri...go right ahead! The same goes true for the player who wants to play the opposite of that...maybe everyone *thinks* your Toreador or Salubri is a saint among Cainites, but is in reality the most monstrous character of all on the inside. Paint a picture: Envision what the character looks like, taking into account the qualities you have chosen. Pick out one or two characteristics that make the character interesting to you. Personality and actual character should come before what a character looks like, but appearance can still play a large part of a character too...especially if your character comes from a clan/bloodline that has an inhuman appearance. Its not required, but finding or picking a picture that represents your character to other players can be a useful tool to help them picture him/her during the game. Weaknesses: Nobody’s perfect. All people have weaknesses or character flaws against which they struggle. This is especially important with regards to major antagonists. Villains who do nothing wrong, make no mistakes, and are afraid of nothing are not only discouraging but boring as well. Blind spots or flaws provide chinks in a villain’s armor that the other characters can exploit, or give an extra level of pathos to a heroic character who must battle not only external demons, but internal ones as well. Quirks: Everyone, mortal or Kindred, has quirky habits accumulated over time. Whether it’s drinking milk right out of the carton or only feeding on a mortal to the music of Die Fledermaus, individual quirks further define characters and make them memorable. Check the list of merits and flaws. These are completely optional, but they can really help flesh your developing character out. You can pick a merit only, a flaw only, or one of each, but you're limited to just ONE merit to start out with. There's no restriction on how many flaws your character can have (but you might be seen as a little sadistic if you plague your poor character with too many of them). Oh the Humanity: City of Ashes has a modified humanity system that has a significant impact on Kindred characters. As soon as Gehenna ended, a vampire's level of humanity began having an effect even more serious than it once did. The end of the Withering might have weakened the vampire's inherent Beast...but it didn't get rid of it. The powers-that-be are done playing games with the Cainite race- if you act like a complete monster as a vampire (beyond the necessity of drinking blood to survive), then you're going to be more easily recognizable to mortals AS a monster. On the opposite spectrum, the higher your vampire's Humanity level is, the easier it is for them to pass as mortals and the easier it is to avoid frenzy and Rötschreck. (When making your character check the Humanity system post and see what merits/flaws your character automatically has simply by virtue (or detriment) of their humanity level. A vampire character cannot begin the game with a humanity level higher than 8 (it wouldn't be fair to let a player start the RPG with the highest humanity perks when other players have to earn those perks through role-playing...) There's no limit on how *low* a vampire character's humanity can be at game-start (aside from the no-playing-a-humanity-level-0 vampire rule), but keep in mind that whether your character survived Gehenna or was embraced *after* Gehenna, the flaws gained with each level of humanity dropped applies to him/her too. All vampires embraced after Gehenna start off at Humanity 7 when embraced. For those whose sires pre-date Gehenna (`original' Kindred), this rating is critically important, as it is their level of humanity at the end of their first year as a vampire that determines whether they become a true member of their sire's clan/bloodline, a variant, or a member of one of the new bloodlines springing off from these original lines. In most cases, if the fledgling's humanity has remained at 7 or dropped, they `breed true' and become a full member of their sire's clan (this includes developing the clan's flaw that they had gone their first year without...for Malkavian or Nosferatu embraces, this does suck very much for them, as they develop a permanent derangement or deform, respectively...). For neonates who managed to rise in humanity, they become members of the new bloodline and gain the first level in the power belonging to that new line as their third discipline. Note: If you're playing a vampire who was embraced by one of these Kindred who `bred true' after Gehenna (or if you were embraced by a member of one of the new bloodlines), your character didn't/doesn't experience this `year of grace'- they automatically become a full member of the sire's clan/bloodline. (For this reason, clans who were decimated in number during the Withering are clinging even more tightly to those progeny who DO breed true, as they know any new vampires *they* sire will instantly add to their clan/bloodline's ranks. Past History: Every character in the RPG benefits from some amount of past history. What conflicts has the character faced; whom has she loved or hated? Are there enemies or former lovers out there who might cross paths with the players’ characters at some point? Did the character have a mentor, and how did that relationship affect the character? Establish a character’s past history in as much detail as you deem relevant to the story. A character who performs very limited roles, like a street contact or a mortal family member, might not merit as much detail, whereas the course of a century-old former Archbishop’s existence could benefit from a record of the Kindred’s past experiences. Note: Your character's background section on their profile doesn't have to be a novella, and if you haven't fully fleshed out your character's present (let alone their past), don't feel intimidated if you can only come up with a brief overview. Part of the fun of role-playing is letting your character grow and change as you play him/her. Find a good starting point, and let your characters develop from actually being played...you might think your character is one thing, but as they meet and interact with the characters of the other players, they might end up becoming someone completely different than you originally envisioned. That's a good thing! Assumptions make an- Most people will probably start play with a character that's already a vampire, this IS a vampire RPG after all. However, some people might enjoy the setting but either aren't familiar enough with it to be comfortable jumping into the ring with a Kindred character, or else decide they'll enjoy the RPG more if they get to portray their character's entire journey from mortal TO vampire during the course of the story. On the other hand, while many players might want their human character to eventually get embraced during the RPG, don't automatically assume that a human character IS embrace-bait- maybe that person enjoys having an otherwise normal character who is thrown into the world of the nocturnal undead, or maybe they want to play a vampire HUNTER, you never can tell. If you think another player's human character is someone your vampire might want to embrace, contact their player and see how they feel about it. I have the power: When it comes to disciplines and how many levels a character can have in them, I've tried to be as fair as possible. We're not using the points system of the original PnP game, nor do we use attributes/abilities, so by giving a limit of how many levels an individual vampire can have in their disciplines I'm trying to avoid having miniature gods stomping over the younger, weaker characters. Keep in mind that the very premise of the game (that virtually all Kindred elders were killed during Gehenna) by itself makes the playing field far more level. By the same token, some of the 4th and 5th levels of the new disciplines are extremely powerful, so limiting the levels a player can put into the disciplines of their new bloodline vampire keeps him/her from wiping the floor with or having an unfair advantage over those players with original Kindred characters. To me it makes sense. Even if your vampire was embraced the day after Gehenna and became the very first member of their respective new bloodline a year later, they're not going to have the 4th or 5th level powers of their new discipline, because it IS a new discipline. There's no one around to teach them how to use it; they have to figure it out all on their own, or, if they're lucky, by running into another member of their new line and comparing notes (and that's not even taking into account the *other* worries they might have been having to deal with, such as a sire ticked off that they're not a member of his/her clan after all the trouble it took to embrace/train them, and might decide to try killing them to start over with someone else). General rule of thumb: Celerity, Fortitude, and Potence are `freebies' pretty much. In story terms it just means your character can move supernaturally fast, or is even more inhumanly tough or strong than an ordinary vampire...you don't have to put `levels' in those disciplines. Disciplines with active abilities DO require their levels to be noted in the character profile, and it mostly depends on how long your character has been a vampire. Newly-embraced vampires: If your sire was an original Kindred and your embrace was less than a year ago, you have access to only two disciplines to start off with because you're living in a sort of limbo-status state of not belonging to any clan or bloodline yet (see the detailed clan information to see which disciplines pertain to your specific character). Your character still has the beginning 3 `dots' in those two however to allocate as the player sees fit. If your neonate has been a vampire for at least a year, their clan/bloodline status has been decided and they have at least the first level power of their third discipline. New bloodline vampires 1-5 years old: 2 is the maximum level you can have in your new discipline, and you can have a maximum of 2 in your other active disciplines, but keep in mind it should be realistic. If your sire tried to kill you (or you didn't know who your sire even *was*) and you've been having to dodge hostile parties since you were embraced, who taught you how to use your disciplines? The first few years is hard for *any* vampire simply by having to adjust to their new state and hunger, let alone developing their supernatural abilities. So, if your kindred's `upbringing' was less than ideal, you might have level 2 in one discipline, and only level 1 in the others, or level 2 in two and 1 in the third. If your sire was fine with you not breeding true and still kept you around, then level two in two disciplines is more justified. New bloodline vampires 6-9 years old: You were among the first of these new bloodlines, so you *can* start play with the third level power in your bloodline-specific discipline (you in fact might be the teacher a weaker/younger member of your line has been looking for). But you're still restricted to a max level 2 in your other disciplines, as you were busy developing your new power at the same time. If you'd rather have the third level power in one of your other disciplines, keep your new discipline at level 2 instead...you can always develop the third level power during the course of play. Post-Gehenna true/variant clan vampires 1-5 years old: Max of level 2 in two disciplines. Post-Gehenna true/variant clan vampires 6-9 years old: Max of 2 in two active disciplines, if you have three active disciplines you might have 2 levels in all three. You're probably enjoying a relatively coddled existence by `breeding true', but whether Kindred blood as a whole was strengthened by the end of the Withering or not, you're still a baby in vampire terms. If your character `has' been tutored/protected by his/her sire, then you have the choice of taking a lower level in one of your active disciplines in favor of putting more levels in another (for example...you were a post-Gehenna Ventrue who bred true; you decide your character had a gift for Dominate but isn't so good at Presence, he might have level 3 in Dominate but only 1 level in Presence). Original Kindred 1-10 years old: (It IS possible your character could have been embraced literally right before Gehenna after all...) Maximum of 2 in your active disciplines. Original Kindred 11-25 years old: Maximum of 3 in one active discipline. Original Kindred 26-50 years old: Maximum of 3 in *two* of your active disciplines. Original Kindred 51-100 years old: Maximum of 4 in one of your active disciplines. Original Kindred 101-200 years old: Maximum of 4 in *two* active disciplines. Note: You still have the option of `specializing' in one of your active disciplines if you think it suits your character's style. But they should be `handicapped' in one of their other active disciplines to make up for it, and I don't want 10 or more vampires walking around with super buffed-up disciplines..I'd like a variety so if one character is weaker in one discipline and another is stronger, role-playing a relationship out might get the more skilled one to teach the other. |
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
|
|
| « Previous Topic · Character Creation · Next Topic » |



