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

and treachery you can accept in a chronicle. Tastes differ. For some players, having characters
at each other’s throats (when they aren’t stabbing each other in the back) offers unparalleled
roleplaying opportunities. Other players prefer characters to cooperate, considering betrayal
among the characters an insult to the other players. They would rather see treachery limited
to Kindred outside the coterie, while their characters remain honorably loyal to each other.
Ambition and manipulation, however, are built-in parts of the Kindred condition. While you
should never force betrayal on characters (and players) who don’t want it, the mere possibility
of treachery, deception and hidden agendas are powerful themes a Storyteller can draw upon
to evoke the ultimately lonely, isolated horror of being a vampire. It’s enough to assemble a
group of characters with potentially opposing goals. In proper dramatic fashion, you offer
choices: At various points in the chronicle, set up situations when characters could follow
personal agendas at the expense of the group’s objectives, and let them decide what to do.
Consider a coterie in which one character sees diablerie as a way to take revenge on other
Kindred for being dragged into undeath. Another member has political ambitions and wants
to curry favor with the city’s older and more powerful vampires. A third member thinks he’s
fallen in love with one of the city’s Primogen. Each of these three might face some temptation
to exploit another member’s goals. The diablerist could pretend to help the would-be
lover pursue his passion, in hopes of gaining unguarded access to the Primogen. The lover
could feel bound to expose the diablerist for the sake of the Primogen, or might see the social
climber’s shmoozing as a way to get close to his love. The political aspirant, meanwhile, could
see a chance to manipulate the other two, fi rst assisting in the destruction of the Primogen
and then betraying the diablerist in hopes of winning a place among the city’s elite. Or they
could keep faith with each other: All three of them might decide that their personal goals
aren’t worth hurting an ally. The choice is theirs.
FIGHTING WITHIN THE RANKS
In live-action games, players often compete openly against one another for
resources, position and power. So how do you prevent the aggressive nature of vampire
society from crossing over into the real world feelings of your players? After all, most
vampires are complete bastards to each other. Are your players mature enough to
leave game events at the door?
A good Storyteller should be up front about the nature of the chronicle from the
beginning. The actions of a character should not be an out-of-game refl ection of the
player herself. If you feel that some players are starting to take aspects of in-game
events personally, take them aside privately and politely address your concerns. If it
continues to be a problem address it with your staff.
INTERLOCKING BACKGROUNDS
Whatever the justifi cation for bringing a coterie together is, the Storyteller can strengthen
the ties between characters by interweaving the people and events of their backgrounds. For
instance, two players might say that their characters worked for a major corporation before
their Embrace. Could it be the same corporation? One character’s sister could be the woman
who broke another character’s heart. The drug dealer who ruined one character’s life worked
for another character’s sire.
You can overdo this, making it seem like a city contains only a dozen people apart from the
characters, and too many soap-operatic interconnections can make the players roll their eyes.
Still, it can be convenient to give each character an indirect link to one or two other characters.
For instance, you can use one Storyteller character as a hook to draw two players’ characters into
322
mind’s chapter eye four: theatre: storytelling requiem