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

to match. What insights can a mortal who has seen just a few decades offer to a creature who
considers World War I a recent upheaval and the rise and fall of Communism a short-lived
fad? After a century or so, Kindred tend to regard mortals as domesticated animals. They
have their uses, and you might even like some of them, but they remain creatures of limited
life span and awareness… and you don’t feel too bad when you turn them into food. Elder
vampires become inhuman. Not only does their Humanity drop; they develop a detached,
ruthless sense of expedience that renders them more alien than any mortal stranger. An elder’s
passions grow from hopes, fears and habits that have had decades or centuries to grow into
obsessions that would seem insane to mortals.
• Personality: Pick a few words to describe each character’s personality. To make your
characters more interesting, pick personality traits that don’t obviously fi t together, or that run
against the players’ expectations for their role in the chronicle. For instance, if you plan an
adversary who will dog the coterie at every turn, you might make him cunning, ruthless… and
affable, or even compassionate. Sure, he believes that he must destroy the characters, but he
regrets the necessity and hopes he can persuade them to cease their opposition to his plans.
• History: Every major character needs a background, just like a player’s character. What
confl icts has this character already faced? Who has she loved, hated or feared? Could former
friends or enemies appear to complicate her unlife and that of the players’ characters? If
she’s a vampire, why was she Embraced? How did she reach her present status, whatever that
is? Design as much of the character’s past as you feel her role demands. A character who
fi lls a limited role in the chronicle, such as a street contact or the mortal pawn of a Kindred
character, might not require much background. The unlife of a 200-year-old Priscus who will
play an important role in a story arc deserves a fair bit of attention.
• Quirks: Little quirks of behavior can help the players remember a Storyteller character.
Kindred, like kine, accumulate odd habits over time. A mortal who picks his nose while talking
to the characters stands out as a disgusting slob; a Kindred who enjoys feeding on mortals to
the strains of Die Fledermaus establishes himself as a twisted creature of the night.
• Flaws/Weaknesses: Everyone has some sort of fl aw or weakness that he struggles against…
or that he cannot perceive and refuses to admit exists. At the very least, everyone in the
World of Darkness suffers temptation from at least once Vice. Defi ne it for major Storyteller
characters.
In particular, you need to establish a few weaknesses for the major adversaries of the coterie.
An enemy who fears nothing and never makes mistakes is not only discouraging to the players,
he’s as boring as a hero who never does anything wrong. The players will enjoy discovering
and exploiting an enemy’s blind spots, obsessions or other fl aws, while a well-chosen weakness
adds pathos or tragedy to a hero who must battle inner demons as well as outer dangers.
• Traits and statistics: Do these last. They’re just numbers, and if your characters aren’t
unique and interesting, the best trait ratings in the world won’t help your chronicle. For many
Storyteller characters, they won’t even come up. (You don’t need to supply traits for every
herd member or the snitch who tells characters the world on the street.) Only important
Storyteller characters deserve the same detail you would apply to the players’ characters. Most
of the time, you can settle for writing down ratings for the traits that matter most, such as,
“Jackson the Snitch: Intelligence 2, Streetwise 4, Contacts (Street) 4.”
Always try to avoid leaving Storyteller characters as nothing more than stereotypes. It’s
easy to get lazy and fall back on a few well-worn images such as the Ventrue businessman or
the unbound Gangrel. Sure, many Ventrue are in business, and it’s hardly rare for Gangrel
to become independent. All too often, though, every Ventrue businessman or unaligned
Gangrel starts to look and act the same.
318
mind’s chapter eye four: theatre: storytelling requiem