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

• Story First, Rules Second: The rules are there to help you tell the story, not to get in
the way or to turn the game into a tactical exercise. Use the rules you need, when you need
them. When you can get by with narration, cooperation and common sense, do so. It saves
time that you can spend on more interesting things.
• Design, Stagecraft and Action: Bring your world to life with as much careful stagecraft
execution as you give to your plot design. Craft immersive environments that make your
players really feel as though they’re somewhere else (or at least remove elements that remind
them they’re not). Experiment with lighting, music, sound. Make your Narrator characters
memorable with interesting mannerisms, histories, costumes, props, accents and makeup.
Keep something happening at all times, and give the characters important choices to make.
Make sure there’s something to keep everyone involved, and check on things throughout the
night to get the pulse of the game.
• Avoid Stereotypes: An endless parade of identical, cardboard characters can drain the
interest from your chronicle.
• Keep the Focus on the Players: Don’t let your Storyteller characters take over the plot,
leaving the players’ characters with nothing important to do. Remember that the players’
characters probably aren’t the most powerful or important characters in the world, but they
must be the most important characters in their own story.
• Don’t Forget the Payoff: If the players work hard and make smart decisions, their characters
can overcome challenges and achieve something. If the characters’ success is not in
proportion to their effort and the challenges they faced, the players will feel cheated.
• Don’t Tell Them Everything: One of the biggest “hooks” in a story is actually for the
players, not the characters. They want to discover what’s going on! Part of the fun of any
story is the suspense of not knowing how it will turn out. Make the characters work to fi gure
out who’s really doing what.
• Don’t Abuse Your Power: As the fi nal arbiter of events, your word is law in your chronicle.
Don’t use this power to beat the characters into doing what you want, though. You’re playing
a game, it’s for fun and everyone wins if they have a scary, good time, whether they follow
your script or not. If the players pull the rug out from under your story, call a break to collect
your thoughts. This may happen a lot at fi rst, but with practice, you can handle every
surprise they throw at you.
CHARACTERIZATION
There are few things as truly terrifying as the idea of encountering an actual vampire. Strip
away the romance and aura of mystery that springs from movies and books, and what you
have is a monster of the Old World. It is a shark, cruising through dimly lit waters, searching
for a meal. The vampire catches you unaware, moving along with the crowd, blending in to
the background. As you idly wander home after a hard day’s work, they mark you as prey and
begin stalking. Oblivious to the danger, you ponder what’s on television that night, what bills
have to be paid or what you are going to make for dinner. All the while, there are eyes on you
that see you as one thing — food. What you carry in your veins is fuel for a body that has lived
past its time. It has already judged its own existence to be substantially more important than
yours, if it considers your life at all. In a snap, suddenly it’s next to you. A cold hand holds
you by the neck and lifts you off the ground. Its eyes shine in the dark, but it has no mercy.
You babble, maybe you plead, you forget all about television or food. Suddenly its mouth is
at your throat, and as you slip away, you are left praying that it’s all just a bad dream.
What sort of creature lives only by taking life from others? Does it even remember what life
was like? Has it existed so long past it’s lifetime that it’s forgotten all the sensations of being
alive? Have all of its emotions died along with its long stilled heart?
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mind’s chapter eye four: theatre: storytelling requiem