You want to play a Vampire here.


That's great news! It's good for us as a society of players and good for everyone who'll interact with you in a uniquely creative and personal way!


We're here to tell stories and to do what we can to create an engaging, broad and breathing fictional setting.


However, experience shows us that about 95% of new players will leave the site within about two to three weeks of their character commencing play.


Why is this?
What goes wrong?
What can we do to correct this?



I can guess that part of you will now be thinking; 'No, I'm here for the long haul. Don't worry about me. I'll last longer than two weeks.'


This protestation is not impressive. It's been said before and the outcome is usually the same. Something occurs in those first few weeks that erodes the energy of new players. They 'hit the sand' and simply stop logging in.


I hope that this guide will try to prepare your expectations for those first few weeks and you'll be better placed to enrich both your own roleplaying experience and those of the players you encounter.


We'll look at:


i) a bit of background concepts;
ii) ideas to help you make a characters that is likely to get through the first few weeks and,
iii) those first few steps your new Vampire character should do when actually in play.


Background


Designers of modern computer games have analyzed the basics of why people want to play their games. They have some interesting conclusions that can help us to help you last beyond those fragile first few weeks of play.


Game designers have noted that even the most basic games need a strong combination of several key things.


Players need...


1) Direction. You need, as a player, to have Direction. An objective. This can be both set for you and set by you. Sometimes simultaneously.
2) Progress. There is clear and defined progress. This is typically measured by metrics of rewards and incentives.
3) Behaviors. There are standards for what characters can and cannot break; what they can kill and what can kill them – and these are solid, inflexible, rules.
4) Drawing people in. Why should I interact with your character and the setting at all?


Let's look at these in turn and examine a few ways in which these key elements lead to players failing, and what we can do to try to avoid them happening to you!


ii) Now...think carefully about your character.


You'll be putting a lot of time and effort into crafting the character sheet [link] and organizing optimal and sensible spreads of points and dots.


Doubtless you'll also be looking at their biography too.


But one problem people run into – almost immediately – when in play is the social dimension of interaction with other Vampires.


To help you out, I'd recommend that you think about describing your character to others carefully on first encounter. This has to be consistent and useful in terms of outlining social cues to those who interact with you. It's good to add something for them to bounce off and react to.


Ideally you should begin this process by considering an answer to the following question:-


Q: Why do they involve themselves in situations?


This obviously helps with your DIRECTION.


Answering this question is essential to making sure your character's ambitions create a dynamic energy in driving your play.


You might think that I'm overstating this. But one thing I've noticed is that many Vampires lack IC drive and ambition and this correlates to them simply fading from the site. Deciding on why they invest energy and effort on reaching goals is essential to making certain you'll have goals and wanting to achieve them.

1) Direction
Now, many players will be coming to Play by Post (PbP) from a tabletop environment where the direction and trajectory of the story is set by the ST and the players follow along, trying to outwit the story.


In PbP there's a crucial difference.


You need to be ready for the fact that PbP requires an understanding that there will be long stretches of time between action and also a great deal more direct and personal effort from the Player than many people are typically used to.


The ST's will usually be working on one plot at a time and you have to work at it. So, the ST will be relying on you to start or join scenes and to largely direct your own Requiem story to an extent.


Unless you sign up to join a Plot, your interaction with the ST might be limited to: submitting monthly Experience Reports [http://nwod.org/forum/misc.php?do=form&fid=5] requesting approval to spend any earned Experience Points; encountering their character at a social Court setting or 'shooting the breeze' in the more informal OOC Chat room.


So (and this is crucial to grasp!) unless you actively join a Plot, you'll be relying on your own sense of personal purpose and drive to set up or join scenes with other Players.


Where will you invest your energy? What are your IC motives?


Vampires are killers and parasites. But, there's more to them than that. A lot more. Many want to try to recapture some creative drive of their mortal life. Or create some useful hunting ground...a nightclub.


But, what will I get, as another Player, from interacting with your character?


Will they help me out? Will they be challenging and argumentative? Will they push me to succeed or be an obstacle to eliminate, ignore or somehow overcome?


Each month the ST's will review your Experience Report and evaluate a reward based on (amongst other things) your interaction with others, the quality of your roleplay and the level of engagement with the setting. Clearly, the more active you are, the better things will be.


This leads to...

2) Rewards and incentives
How do we know we're winning and meeting goals?


Clearly roleplaying games, as the rule books constantly remind us, have no direct winners. But, all the same, the game offers two immediate practical and direct rewards to measure success. The first being, obviously, the Out of Character (OOC) Experience Points.

For more on this, look at this section on our Wiki: http://nwod.org/wiki/index.php/Experience
There are also the In Character (IC) 'Status' (rated in ascending order from 0-5) – be it as holding an office of note within the Domain. Such as Priscus or Seneschal, or raising your standing within the Clan and Covenant. This Status can be useful when competing with other Kindred IC for authority and also can impact on your characters' ability to access Feeding grounds and other valuable IC privileges.

For more info on this, look at this section on our Wiki:
http://nwod.org/wiki/index.php/Status
There is also an undeniable and intangible personal sense of success attached to having a character win and keep an important office or position in the game too.


Each month the Experience Report you're expected to complete and submit to the ST team has a small section based around this. Use it to help set goals and work on them. Try to think about how these goals can be helped along by competing against, or asking help from, other Characters.


You can expect to be awarded between 0-10 Experience Points each month. As an extra incentive, there's a regular bounty of five Experience Points awarded each calendar quarter for regular posting and IC activity.

3) Behaviors
Many Kindred fall foul of breaking the most simple social rules of Kindred etiquette. They just mess up in a social situation and get exiled by the Prince, or challenged to a duel by a temperamental Elder.


This happens more than we care to recall.


Please avoid this!


It might sound obvious, but: Think before you act! Be sensible. Don't do anything to break the local cultural norms. Find someone IC to help you out learn the ropes.


Vampires, even the most belligerent Gangrel biker sort, aren't morons. Vampires who survive are more likely to be those who emulate the actions of savvy gangsters or slick politicians. They are often cunning people who know how to work hard to be classy and get by without getting caught, or at least putting up a good 'front' when they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar.


You can get some cool scenes from that alone and you're building IC rapport and allies along the way. You never know when those contacts and relationships might come in useful!


Sadly, nothing removes a Player from the roster faster than when their character is exiled. It's disappointing to them and to others. Both you and the ST's have invested time and effort in making the character.


If it goes wrong; don't throw in the towel immediately. It's not the end of things!


People have rightly earned praise and esteem, both IC and OOC, by fighting back from a position of perceived defeat. There are avenues to work through the exile in scenes and also ways of still engaging in IC.


However, if you are determined to quit, please be decent enough to let people know so other Players can react accordingly and no one is left waiting for your next post.

4) Appeal. What draws people in?

Why, in short, would I, as another Player, want to invest time and energy in meeting with your Vampire?


Give some serious thought to this. What skills and knowledges can they offer each other? What information can they dig out? Who are their friends?


To help with this, each Character Wiki has a useful section which publicly avows their Allies and other Spheres of Influence [http://nwod.org/wiki/index.php/Spheres_of_Influence] and activity with which your character is associated. Use this to help target players for IC to build networks.


When creating your character, help define their look and outward actions by considering the following...


Q: What would we think if we saw them on the street?


Q: Which social situations would they ordinarily blend in?


Q: What are they afraid of?


Q: How do they comfort themselves? How do they pass their spare time?


Q: What's their vanity: i.e what's their dress style and presentation?


Q: Dichotomy: what's their inner conflict?



This last one is an interesting vampire question and can really go to the core of how they'll imperil their humanity and weave (but not exclusively rely on, Vice and Virtue [http://nwod.org/wiki/index.php/Vice] [http://nwod.org/wiki/index.php/Virtue] ) as a struggle between of their overall objectives, their immediate desires and their operational priorities.


Such a dichotomy, for example, might focus on a hero's reluctance to kill innocents and be faced with a villains exploitation of this trait. Causing momentary indecision in the hero and longer term repercussions.


All these could potentially play a significant part in fleshing out your character.


First steps in Play


A) Before you do anything else you must set up a face-to-face meeting with your Priscus


For identifying your Priscus, here's a link to our Wiki: http://nwod.org/wiki/index.php/Who's_Who:_Vampire
To enable this, Because of Reasons, it's assumed that your character knows the contact details for the relevant Priscus.


The local Prisci (the head of your local Clan) control approval and Acknowledgement and thus activate the ability of Kindred to Feed in the Domain.


Getting Acknowledged has two practical effects. Once Acknowledged you can enter the crossover City Shards scenes and many other wider activities and your Character is allowed to Feed in certain areas of the City.


B) You'll need to attend a Court.


There are two types of Court: the Eternal Court and the Official Court.


The Eternal Court threads simply represent a standard night of meeting and greeting at the Elysian Field – in Sacramento this is located in a cellar area of the Nox nightclub.

Info on the Nox can be found here: http://nwod.org/wiki/index.php/Nox
Official Courts are hosted and attended by The Prince and his principal courtiers. They tend to be held every few months and frequently involve a decorative theme of some sort and perhaps have a practical purpose beyond just hanging out. Such a purpose might be a trial or a competition for some IC honor or another status of varying value.


Attendance for official Courts is mandatory. Failure to attend means your Acknowledgement is revoked and you have to approach the Prince or Priscus again to re-activate your permission to be in the City.


This is a big deal. Don't miss Court!


C) Meet people! Join a crossover City Shard and also invite people to join you in some social scenes or setting in the Vampire forum.


[http://nwod.org/forum/showthread.php...ds-Crossovers]


The Vampire forum area has four key sections.


i) Cacophony - this is an area to watch for IC Proclamations advertising changes in City policy or notifying the time and date of the next official Court, etc.


ii) Requiem – these are usually threads relating to wider social scenes for two or more Kindred. These can be at almost any location. If it's open to more than those attending the thread, the thread should be tagged with an OPEN icon. When opening a thread, there's a small 'pull down' menu with a range of choices. If it's private and only for access to those invited, then tagging it PRIVATE will be essential.


This might be a problem if, for example, the setting is the Nox Elysian Field which is controlled by other Kindred and to host a Private scene there will probably require the IC and OOC permission of those who control that Location.

More on Locations can be found here: http://nwod.org/wiki/index.php/Locations
The Requiem area is also the place to Post your GLIMPSE scenes. Glimpses are like a flashback or cutaway in a film. Something informing the audience of something relevant to the character. There's also an incentive here – posting a total of six Glimpses impacts on a Vampire's Feeding activity.
More detail on Feeding can be found here: http://nwod.org/wiki/index.php/Feeding_Roll#Vitae_Pools


iii) Elysian Nights - This area is where the nightly and Official Courts threads are worked through.


iv) Dance Macabre - This section is usually dedicated to threads and scenes involving plot.