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

supporting chapter one: cast society • crafting of the damned stories 319
Defy your players’ expectations. The stereotypes for each clan exist for a reason: The clans
do tend to select certain sorts of people, from certain walks of life. Those are only tendencies,
though, not ironclad rules, and even the tendencies are vague enough to hold many variations
in the details. Even a character who seems to fall squarely in the mainstream of a clan’s image
can be personalized to become a unique and interesting individual.
Consider, for instance, that stereotypical Ventrue businessman who wields a controlling
share of one of the city’s major corporations. He (of course a he) should be cool and arrogant
in his power, refi ned in his tastes. Yawn. Now let’s put a few spins on the stereotype:
Ventrue One spent most of his mortal life as a surfer. Daddy dragged him to lead the
family business’s branch offi ce in the city, and then a Kindred turned him into a vampire to
strengthen his stranglehold on local industry. Ventrue One still has long, sun-streaked hair
and lounges around in shorts and a T-shirt whenever he can escape the offi ce… and when
the wind blows strongly at night, he’s out with his board again, riding the waves.
Ventrue Two is a woman. She graduated from business school and clawed her way up the
corporate ladder until she hit the glass ceiling. Her sire saw her as an eternal secretary, but
she had other ideas. Now she has her own company and ruthlessly competes to crush every
former boss she feels held her back. Her herd consists of her own secretarial pool… all young,
male, fi t, tanned and looking scrumptious in identical bespoke slacks and sport jackets.
Ventrue Three made his fortune in real estate. He became successful enough that his sire saw
him as a way to become the one-stop supplier for Kindred in need of havens. The fact that Ventrue
Three already had a wife and children did not matter to his sire. Some years later, Ventrue
Three’s sire suffered an unfortunate accident that resulted in his destruction. Ventrue Three now
holds back from political machinations, though many Kindred still request his help in securing
havens. Ventrue Three’s great secret is that he drank his young son dry in frenzy… and, mad with
horror and remorse, Embraced him immediately afterward. The rest of his mortal family now
serves as his ghouls and conditioned retainers, hiding and protecting his undead son.
Yes, they are all Ventrue businessmen, but players would never forget who’s who.
When plotting out your cast of support characters, keep in mind that all of these parts
will have to be played out at one time or another. Do not arrange for so many characters
that you and your staff have to continuously change hats throughout the long evening of
the game sessions.
Talk to your staff and decide the minimum of supporting cast roles that need to be fi lled.
Make arrangements with your staff of Narrators to fi ll these roles but try to remain in positions
outside the fl ow of action. If you become so enmeshed in the web of deceit going on
in your chronicle, some might accuse you of bias toward certain other characters and events.
Also, if you are so busy interacting with players as a strong character, you will fi nd yourself
distracted from adjudicating rules and other Storyteller concerns.
Crafting Stories
You’ve outlined the chronicle you want to tell, designed a setting and detailed the major
Storyteller characters who inhabit your World of Darkness. For their part, your players have
created their own characters and made suggestions you incorporated into your plot and setting.
It’s time to begin play and turn this mass of notions into actual stories. Now all that
background work starts paying off because you know your World of Darkness well enough