Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire The Requiem.pdf - RoseRed

As the player develops more details about the FBI task force, then, she does some of your
work for you. Each personality at the task force (or the criminals it builds cases against)
becomes another character for you to blend into your world, and another hook to draw the
character into stories. You gain allies for the character to protect, hide from, exploit, betray
or slaughter in frenzy; enemies to hunt him or to reconcile with him; rivals; potential helpers
— all story material waiting for you to use it.
As the example suggests, Social Merits can play an important role in defi ning a character
and providing impetus for stories. Newly Embraced neonates still have many connections
to their mortal existence they left behind, so encourage players to buy these Merits for their
characters. Brainstorm the details of each Merit and how the character acquired it. Why,
for instance, does a character have high Resources? Does she come from a wealthy family?
Did she make a fortune in business, or through some well-paid profession such as medicine
or law? Did she win the lottery? Does her money spring from darker sources, such as dealing
drugs? Never let these Merits sit as abstract dots on a character sheet. Tie them back to
something concrete.
Don’t forget to ask how the Embrace affected the character’s social connections. Did she
somehow keep her mortal friends, relatives or co-workers from realizing she became a vampire?
Does she maintain a completely false existence as a mortal, or does the world think she’s dead
and only a few people know she isn’t? (Well… not quite dead.)
On the other hand, did the character try to walk away from her old existence, perhaps to
the extent of faking her death? If so, how does she feel about this break with everyone she
knows and loves? Can the character really stay away from her old home, family and friends,
maybe even a spouse and children? Yet how can she not, knowing what could happen if the
Hunger overwhelms her? Do the character’s loved ones accept her disappearance, or do they
try to fi nd out what happened to her? Such broken connections offer their own opportunities
for wrenching drama, pathos and horror.
Most dangerous of all, do some of her contacts, allies or other people know what she really
is? Such breaches of the Masquerade open wonderful Pandora’s boxes of story opportunities.
The character must prevent these people from telling anyone else. He must hide or defend
them from other Kindred who would kill them to keep the secret, or justify her own connection
to them. For their part, how do these other people react to learning that vampires are
real and the character is one of them? Does a person turn against the “monster,” freak out
some other way, try to ignore the character’s undeath or try to come to terms with it? Does
one ask to be made a vampire too, because he sees the power and none of the horror?
Make sure that players don’t ignore the Embrace itself as part of their characters’ background.
It is important to emphasize to your players that the Kindred don’t sire childer lightly
or often. What made this particular mortal so important to one particular vampire that he
sacrifi ced part of his soul to bring her into the darkness? Such a deed suggests a great need
for the character’s abilities, great love… or great hatred. Odds are, the character dwells in the
same city as her sire, too. If not, the character (or sire) made an extraordinary and dangerous
effort to move to a different city. What drove the character to this desperate deed? Has she
found acceptance by other Kindred despite her lack of a sire to vouch for her? More likely,
though, the character’s sire still plays an important part in her unlife. Even if both of them
think the Embrace was a ghastly mistake and never want to see each other again, other Kindred
see them as linked. Each character’s deeds refl ect on the reputation of the other. Each
character’s enemies might oppose the other (and if the character and her sire are themselves
hostile, the opportunities for opposition, alliance and treachery between them and their
various enemies become downright Byzantine).
302
mind’s chapter eye four: theatre: storytelling requiem