Vtm-V5 War of Ages - 05-02-23 [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

CREDITS BY NIGHT STUDIOS, LLC

Chris Angell, Ryan Aughtry, Rion Bergquist, Nicole “Nycci” Daniels, Matthew Grace, Elyse Haws, Holly Houtekier, Pete Houtekier, Allen Levy, Bernard “B.J.” McManus, Daphne Reeder, Silja Sample

PUBLICATION TEAM PRINCIPAL WRITER:

Juhana Pettersson

WRITER OF THE CHAPTER ABOUT ONLINE ROLEPLAY:

Gaia Lambruschi

EDITORS:

Chris Angell, Rion Bergquist, Nicole “Nycci” Daniels, Jimmy Reckitt, Daphne Reeder, Silja Sample

LAYOUT ARTIST:

SD Web Creation (www.sdwebcreation.com) Akansha Singh, Arindam Banerjee, Arpita Kundu, Sahnaoaj SK, Subhankar Pal, Nimai Pramanik

COVER ART:

Krzysztof Bieniawski (https://www.artstation.com/rabidblackdog)

ARTISTS:

Krzysztof Bieniawski (https://www.artstation.com/rabidblackdog); Marlena Zoe “Mars” Howard, James Johnson (@johnsonhavoc), Kamila “Louve” Maślak (@SewingCidal & @_How_Official), Natalie “Kera Now” Balle (https://kera_now.artstation.com)

PHOTOGRAPHERS:

No i Pstryk, O_to_to_foto, Photoredlens

MODELS:

Ryan Blackstock, Timothy Brachtel, Bryan Lee Briggs, Jason W. Brown, Kyle Vortex Chapman, Dave Desgagnes, Apostolis Dousias, Yôm Guillaume Faure, Lisa Nicole Hackborn, Bryan Himebaugh, Charlotte Persephone Hoffman, Martyna “Milo” Jankowska, Zuza Sanna Malinowska, Adam Malkmus, Kamila “Louve” Maślak (@SewingCidal & @_How_Official), Terrence Micheau, Joseph Moon, Sascha Peil, Psycheshire, Marta Qnert, Robert Rady, Kit s., Satti, Vincent Sharma, Henrik Sturesson, Vega,

Curty Backiss Volk, Charles Wheaton, Xavier, Mateusz “mejt” Zieliński

BENEDICTIONS, DEDICATIONS, AND APPRECIATIONS This book is dedicated to all World of Darkness™ fans. We are eternally grateful for your support. The night is better with you in it. Embrace the darkness.

VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE™ CREATORS: Mark Rein•Hagen with Steven C. Brown, Tom Dowd, Andrew Greenburg, Chris McDonough, Lisa Stevens, Josh Timbrook, and Stewart Wieck

SPECIAL THANKS Christian M. Christensen, (Journeysandtales.net), Colleen Kaster, Jason Herman, Min & Kevin Kreiner (Facebook.com/carcosacreations), Charles Morton, Paradox Interactive (https://www. paradoxinteractive.com/en/, Tomas Arfert, Jason Carl, Dhaunae Devir, Karim Muammar), Aubrey Picket, Reverie Studios (http://reverie.studio/), Mark “Mr. Rat” White, Rachel J. Wilkinson (www. racheljwilkinson.com) World of Darkness; Vampire: The Masquerade; Vampire: The Dark Ages; Victorian Age: Vampire; Werewolf: The Apocalypse; Werewolf: The Wild West; Mage: The Ascension; Mage: The Sorcerers Crusade; Wraith: The Oblivion; Wraith: The Great War; Changeling: The Dreaming; Hunter: The Reckoning; Demon: The Fallen; Mummy: The Resurrection; Orpheus; Exalted; Chronicles of Darkness; Vampire: The Requiem; Werewolf: The Forsaken; Mage: The Awakening; Changeling: The Lost; Hunter: The Vigil; Giest: The Sin Eaters; Demon: The Descent; Mummy: The Curse; Beast: The Primordial; Promethean: The Created; White Wolf; Storyteller System™; Storytelling System™; and their respective logos, icons, and symbols are trademarks or registered trademarks of White Wolf Entertainment AB. All rights reserved. This work contains material that is copyright of White Wolf Entertainment and owned in whole or in part by Paradox Interactive. Such material is used with permission and under license between By Night Studios, LLC, and Paradox Interactive. ©2023 White Wolf Entertainment AB, Västgötagatan 5, SE-118 27 Stockholm, Sweden. This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters, and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised. Check out White Wolf online at: http://www.white-wolf.com/ Check out By Night Studios online at: http://www.bynightstudios.com/

WAR OF AGES TABLE OF CONTENTS Be My Sin For The Evening

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Chapter One Intrtoduction: 4 • Enter a World of blood 4 • The World of Darkness 5 Three Decades of the Dead Chapter Two Vampire Society • Why Do The Anarchs Hate the Camarilla? • Why Do Those In The Camarilla Hate the Anarchs? • Night to Night in the Anarchs • Night to Night in the Camarilla Chapter Three Small Events • Swimming With the Sharks • At The Fireside • Dive Bar • Give Up Everything Interlude: Boytoy Chapter Four Anarchs Centric LARPs • Playing the Baron (And Other Anarch Notables) ▪ Baron ▪ Gang Boss ▪ Emissary

7 11

•

▪ Sweeper ▪ War Leader ▪ Ideologue Example The Domain • Berlin • New Orleans • Nashville Contested Domains

Interlude: Notes From an Execution

48 49 49 53 56 59

50

64

Chapter Five Camarilla Centric LARPs • Playing the Prince (And Other Camarilla Officials) ▪ Prince ▪ Seneschal ▪ Primogen ▪ Sheriff ▪ Keeper of the Elysium ▪ Scourge ▪ Heralds • Example Domains ▪ Warsaw ▪ The Quad Cities ▪ Helsinki • Domain design as LARP

74 78 82 86

42

Interlude: Don’t Fuck with the Sabbat

90

45 46 47 48

Chapter Six Sabbat in LARP • LARP Concepts

91 98

16 18 21 24 27 29 32 34 37 39

67 70 71 71 72 72 73 73 73

Chapter Seven Ghouls in LARP The All Ghoul Larp

102 110

Chapter Eight Ashirra Ashirra Character in LARP

113 118

Interlude: Enough with the Filth

120

Chapter Nine Big Event LARP Concepts • The Veneer of Sophistication • The Tunnels Underneath • The Power and the Blood • The Flower of Humanity • Blood Rave • Kneel in Prayer

122 125 128 131 134 138 141

Interlude: Siege Warfare

145

Chapter Ten The Second Inquisition • An Existential Threat • The Inquisition and LARP • The Spook Show

147 149 150 154

Chapter Eleven The War of Ages • Choosing Sides • War as LARP • The Grand Pageant of Diplomacy

158 162 166 171

Chapter Twelve The Boons • Quid Pro Quo • How to Spend Boons

175 180 183

Interlude: Storage

185

Chapter Thirteen Praxis • Playing for Praxis • Designing for Praxis • Changing of the Guard Outro: Dee’s Home Movies

188 191 195 198 202

Chapter Fourteen LARP Resources • The Vampire LARPer’s cheat sheet • Loresheets

208 208 209

Chapter Fifteen Collaborative Vampire LARP • Concepts • The Tool Box • The Workshop • Collaboration • Design

216 220 225 231 233 236

Chapter Sixteen Online Roleplay • Guidelines for Storytellers • Guidelines for Players

241 247 250

Backers

254

Index

259

BE MY SIN FOR THE EVENING Praxis. Is it possible for a young vampire to win the War of Ages and become Prince of the city? Can I seize praxis? It’s bizarre to think that not so long ago, I was worried about getting stiffed by a website for the pay I was owed as a freelance journalist. Now, I’ve become something else. One of the dead, introduced into a society of monsters deluding themselves into believing they’re still basically normal moral people. Just like me. “You do realize I’m taking a risk for you right now?” Annika whispered as we walked to the hotel’s reception. It was a fancy place, the kind I’d sometimes use to conduct interviews. “Miss Wall, this way please,” an older, well-groomed functionary said as he intercepted us. I watched as Annika straightened her back and an expression of disdain settled on her delicate features. Ordinarily, Annika looked like she would break apart if someone said a cuss word, but I’d seen her tear the windpipe out of an unfortunate mugger who gravely misjudged his prey. That incident was my first introduction to the brutality hiding under the veneer of the civilized “Kindred”. “Why are you helping me anyway?” I whispered as we waited for the elevator. “I owed a Boon to your sire, Deja. After this, it’s settled.” Annika seemed satisfied, like an accountant balancing her books. “Wait, so you do know who my sire is?” I asked. I’d resolved to be cool and composed but I lost all that the second it sounded like I could finally have answers. I glimpsed us in the mirrors behind the opening elevator doors. A wisp of a Scandinavian blonde and a Black New York journalist. It was creepy how much I still looked like the person I had been before my Embrace. “Yes. I never said otherwise,” Annika replied nervously. It was a short ride in an enclosed space, but I felt like I was going to explode from all the questions I had. Still, I forced myself to be cool. Annika was the only vampire who’d helped me. Found me and told me about the clans, the Prince, the Camarilla, the Traditions. Saved me from the Second

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Inquisition before I knew what that was. The elevator ascended to the top floor and the doors opened with a cheery “pling”. “Oh Annika, so wonderful you could join our little soirée!” an intensely magnetic, elegant woman said, kissing Annika quickly before turning her eyes to me. “Why hello there, little thing. My name is Victoria Ash. Are you the new promise everyone has been gossiping about? The one who’s going to make a play for becoming the Prince?” I couldn’t speak. I just couldn’t. “No, Mrs. Ash. It’s actually... I mean, they say that I’m the one who’s planning...” Annika stammered, clearly scared, and offended in equal measure. We’d emerged from the elevators onto the hotel’s penthouse floor. Important, well-dressed people were clinking glasses, some looking curiously at us. None of them mattered. Victoria was everything. When she smiled, I felt like my heart came alive again. “This is my friend Deja,” Annika said, rallying herself. “She’s new in town. A very promising young Ventrue.” “How delightful! I apologize for my confusion, Annika. Of course, I know that you plan to be the Prince,” Victoria said. She took me by the hand and pulled me towards the guests milling by the bar. “I must introduce you to my friends! I love new blood!” I looked back at Annika. Her expression was completely blank, as if she didn’t really see me, or anyone else. She had her ambitions, but she also knew Victoria could break her in an instant. “Now, before I make introductions, I have to ask a few questions,” Victoria said casually, her hand still on the small of my back. I was worried. Annika had warned me about this. An unknown vampire with no sire to protect her was going to have a hard time, Ventrue or no. “You’re a journalist and I know your work of course. Do you mind if I bring that up?” Victoria continued. “What?” I asked, like an idiot. It had never occurred to me that anyone among the Kindred would know my work, much less someone like Victoria Ash. “Oh, don’t look so stupefied!” Victoria admonished me and laughed. “What kind of a host would I be if I didn’t know a little something about everyone?”

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“You knew I’d be here?” I asked, hating how Victoria made me feel like I was doomed to play catch up. Victoria gave me a smile of understanding. “Well, this once I’ll let you know how it’s done. My servant took your photo downstairs and ran a quick facial recognition search. There were plenty of results. I decided I’d make you into my little sin for the evening.” “Oh,” I said, like the street-smart veteran of the city’s dying alternative press that I am. “We’ll have a little dalliance. A fling, or perhaps a friendship. Whatever you like. You’ll show me beautiful things in the world of the kine, and I’ll help you become the Prince. Then I’ll abandon you and you’ll feel an ache for my memory in your heart for ever and ever.” Victoria sounded satisfied, as if she’d done this many times before. “I’m not planning to become the Prince. I barely know what it means!” I protested. “You’ll know what it is. And you’ll want it,” she said, pulling me to a circle of people. “Thomas, Cedric, let me introduce you to my friend Deja! She’s a very promising young Ventrue!”

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Chapter One

INTRODUCTION ENTER A WORLD OF BLOOD Damned by the ancient blood welling inside you, you try to hold onto the last scraps of your humanity as you sustain your degenerate unlife on the blood of mortals. You are a vampire, existing in secret among the ignorant horde of ordinary people. The only ones who really know what it is like are the other vampires. They are your loyal allies and treacherous enemies. Unfortunately, it is often hard to tell one apart from the other. For many young Kindred, the most important moment of their early unlife is the night they are introduced to others of their kind. If it goes well, they have new allies in others who have experienced the same troubles they are experiencing. If it goes badly, they get used as a pawn or destroyed as a pointless liability. The Embrace makes them vampires but entering Kindred society makes them members of a community, whether at the extravagant cocktail parties of the Camarilla or the dingy bars of the Anarchs.

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The World of Darkness

For organizers, this book presents ideas you can use to enhance a LARP; concepts, locations and frameworks that work as the setting for the kind of events that make good LARPs. There are ready-made concepts that you can lift and run with or adjust with your own modifications. Additionally, there is information on how to use different kinds of antagonists such as the Second Inquisition and the Sabbat.

In a Vampire: The Masquerade LARP, you walk into this world. You assume the role of a vampire and experience their joys and terrors. A small LARP can model a tiny corner of a bigger World of Darkness while a long-running chronicle or a big urban LARP can bring a bigger slice of it into existence. You can try to make your political ambitions into reality or fall in love with an ancient monster. You can carve a niche for yourself in the society of the debased or seek their destruction. Whatever happens, your story is your own. You decide how your experience of Vampire takes shape while helping and supporting other participants to realize their own narratives.

After reading this book, you will know what it is like to be a vampire in the World of Darkness. The next step is to find a LARP or organize one and make the experience real.

As you do so, you become part of a global community of Vampire LARP extending from the U.S. to Brazil, from Turkey to Finland. Using this book as inspiration, you can put together your own Vampire LARP or chronicle and start building your own take on the World of Darkness.

A Vampire’s world is one of generational conflict. Older vampires seek to use their progeny to carry out their dark plots and insulate themselves from consequences. The young want to carve out space for their own and make sure they will have the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of an unageing existence. When these goals clash, the War of Ages rages.

Players And Organizers

This conflict is embodied in two great sects of vampires: the Anarchs and the Camarilla. The rebels and the establishment. In recent decades, the Camarilla has retreated into its bastions of power, leeching off great mortal institutions and pretending they direct the course of history. Meanwhile, they have ceded control of the streets to the Anarchs, young vampires forming their own communities, burrowed deep into the lives of ordinary mortals.

War of Ages

This book is intended to give both players and organizers of Vampire LARPs tools and ideas to bring the experience to life.Or unlife. For players, it details the world your character inhabits. Who are your allies and enemies, what are the ancestral loyalties you are expected to assume? What does something like the Second Inquisition or the Camarilla look like from the point of view of someone who has just come into this world?

Of course, this is just the most common configuration of the War of Ages. Perhaps in the city of your LARP, the Camarilla still

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reigns supreme, its leaders scared to death over the rumors of how even great domains like Berlin or London have fallen. Or maybe the Anarchs staged a revolution and drove out the Camarilla, only to find that managing the Masquerade is not quite as easy as the Princes of old made it look. Perhaps you decide that in this city, neither sect holds power. The domain is controlled by local forces of your own design.

Your World of Blood The World of Darkness is for you to make of it what you will. That is the beauty of LARP and roleplaying games. When you enter a LARP in-game, your character is the main character of your story. Their tragedy and terror are yours to chart out according to your vision while everyone around you is doing the same. As a LARP organizer, you will build experiences that your players will remember for years to come. Your World of Darkness is the one they have experienced first-hand.

Cities And Domains Through this book, cities such as Berlin or Nashville appear as examples of how vampire domains can be constructed. Their purpose is to demonstrate the variety in the setting and provide models you can draw inspiration from. These descriptions are not the official truth on what’s real in the world of Vampire. This is especially true if you happen to live in one of these cities and want to make your hometown LARP different from what we describe here. You should design your event the way you like it. These examples are not canon and you do not need to follow them if you are planning something different.

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Three Decades of the Dead

The first LARP book for Vampire: The Masquerade was released in 1993, just two years after the initial publication of the first edition of the roleplaying game. It was called The Masquerade and laid out rules and mechanics for how to play Vampire as a LARP. It is fair to say that the impact of Vampire LARP in the 1990s was explosive. In a few short years, Vampire became the second most popular LARP genre in the world, after fantasy. Vampire LARP was everywhere, brought a lot of new people into LARP and roleplaying, and became satirized in popular television shows. Looking back at the history of Vampire LARP, it is striking how quickly it became popular outside U.S. borders. Although traveling abroad to LARP was even less common in the 1990s than it is now, in just a few short years from its introduction in 1993, Vampire LARPs were already being organized in different European countries.

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Making It Your Own The way LARP works is that individual organizers take a game like Vampire: The Masquerade or a system like Laws of the Night and use it to run their own events. As they do so, they necessarily make their own interpretations and changes to suit the tastes of their player base. Because of this, since the start there was variety in the way Vampire LARP was played. The source material may be the same but differences in style still abound. In the U.S. the most common style of making Vampire LARP is Mind’s Eye Theatre, hewing close to the mechanics published by White Wolf and now By Night Studios. It has been enormously popular, providing thousands of players with the opportunity to engage in the Eternal Struggle. Other styles have developed in many different ways. Sometimes an individual organizer has decided to change the system provided in Laws of the Night and make it their own. In other

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cases, simple misunderstanding has accidentally prompted the development of a new style of play. This has been the case when Vampire LARP has migrated across sharp cultural and linguistic divides. This means that today the field of Vampire LARP is rich with many different takes on a shared subject. This is a wonderful thing because it means that it is easier for different players to find a way to engage with Vampire LARP that suits their own tastes. By Night Studios publishes material mostly for the Mind’s Eye Theatre rules but this book is system neutral so as to be useful for as many different styles of Vampire larp as possible. In addition, this book details online LARP and Nordic Larp, each of which apply different design principles to create engaging types of Vampire LARP that can supplement each other.

Vampire Culture Three decades is a long time; long enough for a subculture of Vampire LARP to grow, develop and establish itself. This ties back to one of the enduring qualities in Vampire: The Masquerade. In many vampire stories, especially older ones, vampires are solitary creatures, or a small brood as in Dracula. Vampire: The Masquerade presents an entire society of the undead, a global network of vast sects like the Anarchs and the Camarilla and clans which organize the vampires into recognizable types. Community is one of the building blocks of Vampire, so it should not be any surprise that it has lent itself exceptionally well to the formation of communities of play. In a Vampire LARP, you can literally walk into the World of Darkness, or at least a fictional facsimile. However—and perhaps even more importantly—you can be one of the types of vampires which inhabit this world. You can be a Tremere or a Toreador, a Brujah or a Ventrue. These archetypes have proved to have immense power. They make the LARPs accessible by providing social shorthand that makes the world easy to understand. They allow for the exploration of identity through fictional personas that interact with each other in the setting of the LARP.

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An Embarrassment of Riches Vampire LARP is flexible. There are a few common formats that showcase the breadth of options. The chronicle is a series of Vampire LARPs in which the story continues from event to event. Some events can be small, others big. Usually all take place in the same domain, such as a city. A chronicle can go on for years. An individual LARP is of course the basic unit of Vampire play. These can be small events of twenty players or large spectacles of hundreds or more. The difference between a one-shot and a chronicle is in how players approach their characters. You get attached to the character you play in a chronicle, but a one-shot LARP means your character does not need to survive the night. You can also make very small Vampire LARPs, perhaps of just a few players. You get together with friends, make yourselves characters and sit down in a local cafe, playing an Anarch pack. This too is LARP!

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Chapter Two

VAMPIRE

SOCIETY

At the Elysium:

Annika Wall: At least we don’t have to worry about that one. Salomé Diaz: Deja? I’m not worried. She’ll be entertaining. But she has a hunger for power deep inside her. I can tell. Annika Wall: Oh God, don’t you start on that too! Victoria Ash already said the same. Salomé Diaz: She has good judgment. Some neonates are like this. They’ve spent their lives in the margins, on the outside looking in, and convinced themselves there’s virtue in it. Now they’re dead, they realize that they can just take power if they’re clever enough. Annika Wall: Were you like that? Salomé Diaz: Me? Oh no. I was born to power. The Embrace merely made it easier to hold onto it.

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A SOCIETY

OF BLOOD L

ARP is not an individual artform. LARPs are always about groups and communities. It could be a dozen characters or a hundred, but every character is important, the protagonist of their own story and experience. Just as every character is equally important, every player is afforded the same chance to experience the best the event has to offer. Differences in in-game status only mean that the play experience is different too. The player of a Prince must manage a teetering regime beset on all sides by ravenous monsters pretending to be allies while the player of a ghoul has nothing to lose in their quest for immortality or death. When they interact in the LARP, the magic of the event comes alive, and things start to happen on their own. Since LARPs are about communities, it makes sense to ask what kind of a community is formed by the Kindred? Vampire: The Masquerade is a roleplaying game of personal horror. Its focus is often on the internal experience of the player character, the horror of the Blood inside you, the Hunger, the need for blood directing your actions and your thoughts. As Humanity ebbs away, only a monster remains. LARP provides an opportunity to look at the horror of Vampire from a wider perspective. The horror in a Vampire LARP is personal, but it is also the horror of having to spend your nights as a member of a society of blood. You may manage to hold onto your morals, but does it matter when you are surrounded by murderous creatures who do not care for your values or ideas? And worse, will associating with them eventually lead to you becoming one of them? Something less than human, good only at justifying your own moral degeneration.

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Backstabbers One And All If all Kindred are traitorous monsters who turn on you the moment you turn your back, why would anyone spend time with them? Why do not all vampires disappear into the crowd, content to hunt alone?

Of course, some Kindred do become solitary hunters, avoiding the company of their kind. However, these vampires tend to make terrible LARP characters because LARP is all about connecting with others.

There are many reasons but the most obvious one is that nobody is all bad. The idea that monsters are monstrous all the time is a comforting lie. Sometimes they are perfectly pleasant. The same goes for the Kindred. They have allies, friends, loyalties and loved ones the same as mortals do. It is just that the inescapable pressure of the Hunger tends to eventually pervert close relationships, turning friendship into exploitation and love into pain. A LARP is an event where you can see what that looks like from a communitywide perspective. Few among the Kindred specifically set out to be evil, yet most become so because their very sustenance depends on hunting the blood of mortals. Another reason to seek the company of one’s Kindred is that only a vampire understands what it is like to be a vampire. Among mortals, the Kindred wear a mask, pretending to be someone they are not. It gets exhausting after a while, and it feels good to talk to others who know what it is like to meet your childhood friend and the only thing you can think of is what their blood tastes like.

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Making Yo ur Debut

The first experien ces Kind neonates, red have it colors with und th ead socie e ir perceptio jaded an ty vary w n of vam d cynica idely. Fo p ir l e commu right fro r centurie nities. So m the sta s to arriv m r e become t while o e at the sa thers tak me conclu e decade sions. s, even There mig ht even b e the rar protected e elder w by power ho has n and priv ever been Camaril il ege that disillusio la tells a th ned, so e b y out itself really be believe th . I li t e is v e the sto always th eir own b ries the e preroga ullshit. tive of th e powerfu l to If you sta rt play a s a characte the start r who ge of the LAR ts introd P , c onsider h uced to K chance e ow the ex indred so ncounter p ciety at e r ie with a co nce shap towards n e d s e y sc our world ending H the Cam view. A arpy may arilla or duration lead to a the Tore of the ch a r e d se o r n tment as a wh ronicle, ole that if you so lasts for choose. the Some neo nates en te r th e world o Their sir f the und es and c ead prote la n s d o their b painless cted and est to ma and easy looked a ke their . It is ty fter. lucky the p entry in ical tha y are. Th to t th th e e se night ey will a Kindred their less ngst abo do not r lucky br ut becom e a li z e e how thren try ing und their ow ead pred to learn n, hunti a to th rs while e rules o ng in th f vampir caught. e bathro e existen oms of d ce on ingy bar s terrifie d of gett ing Others st art in th e gutter. they com They kno e to Elysiu w that th m and th ey are to feeders. eir only p lerated a eers are th t best wh en e mangie st Anarch bottom Some intr oduction s into vam Some of pire socie the Trem ty are un ere take ique, or u fledgling g o od care niquely h s obey the o f orrible. th e hierarch ir neona a modic y te o f s, th as long um of co e clan. So as the mpassion metimes ripped fr a Nosfera for their om a mo tu y o w u il n l r g, knowin tal life w have and hop ithout an g how it eless way y ability fe e ls available to to go bac be to the me k, even in mbers of the false o th er clans. The most brutal in troductio Sabbat w n into th ho mass e world o Embrace f the Kin Sabbat le sh ock troo dred is th aves tow p s at of the in n, many their mu and lone o r f d th erous wa ose newly ly, traum r. As the Embrace atized a their kin d vampir nd confu d. es end u sed with p lost no idea how to en gage wit h

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Eternity Eternity is a really long time. Eventually most Kindred come to realize that these are the people they will spend decades, centuries, and even millennia with. Mortals die but the undead endure. Everybody knows everybody, and everybody has allied with, betrayed, and tried to hook up with everybody. Petty resentments go back for longer than borders and social structures have existed.

Eventually, unlife’s infinite seductions get to you. You feel like you accumulate victories against your enemies and lift your peers but in reality, you only replace one monstrous elite with another, seeking to suppress and savage the next generation of neonates who enter the Elysium after you. Perhaps you even resent how principled and naive they are. How dare they seek to hold onto their dreams when you had to give up your own for the sake of security, power, and gratification!

This shapes the texture of Kindred society. Many ancillae and elders are interested in the young only because they bring the possibility of something new. This is one of the ways a Camarilla neonate’s introduction into Elysium can go: they find themselves courted by a gaggle of creepy ancients hungry for something young, fresh, and still connected to humanity. For many Kindred, the trouble with Elysiums and Anarch parties is that they get to meet others who share their predicament, but those same people are also the enablers of their worst behaviors. Many things that would seem shocking to a mortal become commonplace to a vampire who sees their peers behave horribly at Elysium every Friday. This is one of the most poignant tragedies that you can play out during a chronicle, especially if you start out as a principled and naive neonate. You want to change the world for the better, fight against your vampiric nature and resist the corrupting influence of the society into which you have been thrust.

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WHY DO THE ANARCHS HATE THE CAMARILLA? I’ve been at this a while, from the birth of the L.A. Free States to the Anarch resurgence of the modern nights. It’s not just what the Camarilla has taken from me personally; it’s what they have taken from all of us, every Anarch who walks the streets at night. There’s been so much pain and loss through the years. Blood Hunts called on spurious grounds, hapless neonates staked and tortured, Anarch domains destroyed.... Most of all, there is the simple fact that the Camarilla betrayed us to the agents of the Second Inquisition. They purposefully leaked key information about Anarch Havens which were then raided and burnt. So many of us died in just a few short nights of fire. Once something like that happens, how do you pretend that anything is okay anymore? The Second Inquisition is an existential threat and the Camarilla saw it as a tool to exterminate us. Every time I attend a meeting between the Camarilla and the Movement, I know that across the table are Kindred who prioritized murdering us to their own survival. Sure, they pretend that they wanted us to take the heat instead of them, but the truth is that all the agencies comprising the Second Inquisition were emboldened immeasurably by capturing and killing so many Anarch vampires. In the end, that hurt the Camarilla too because now all these different secretive organizations have real experience in exterminating Kindred. It’s no wonder many young Camarilla vampires realized that what happened to us could happen to them. In fact, the Movement has seen more new members from the Camarilla and the remains of the Sabbat than ever. They too have their own reasons to hate the Ivory Tower. — Salvador Garcia, the author of the Anarch Manifesto

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I guess the Prince just didn’t like my face. We’d come to town real quiet-like, not making too much of a fuss. Just parking my trailer at a local camping site, my boys standing guard during the day.

Never went back to that little garbage town. Let the Prince stew in the juices of his tiny domain. If I heard one day that it had been razed by a pack of militant Anarchs I would raise a toast with my boys.

I didn’t even have a chance to flee. The Prince’s ghouls shot up my darlings, leaving them for the cops to find, and torched my home. Everything I owned went up in flames. My clothes, keepsakes from years past... just everything. My whole past, destroyed.

— Juniper, a nomadic Anarch

My boys were such a lovely bunch. So dedicated. It took me years to replace them; to replace everything I had. And you know it’s true what they say: “You can replace a ghoul, but you can’t replace the last memento of your mortal life. That’s gone forever.” The Prince was a sneering sadistic bastard. Younger than I expected. Younger than me, I realized as he gave me his little speech about honoring the borders of a domain and all that crap.

A friend once asked me what’s the worst thing the Camarilla has ever done to me. Well.... I guess I’m visible. They know who I am, they know I’m an organizer. That protects me to some degree. They fear that if I’m killed, there will be more Anarch violence. Still, they do what they can. I’ve been kidnapped twice; escaped once, was freed by my friends the other time. A Brujah Sheriff once threw me to the floor in an Elysium and told everyone who fancied a drink to have a bite. They’ve tried to frame me for all kinds of crimes: betrayal, murder, diablerie, and so on.

It was bad. I’m not going to give you all the details. Torture, keeping me so hungry I almost yielded to the Beast.... They like their power games, those Camarilla do. They want to feel like they control you. It gets them off more than the Blood, more than anything.

The bottom line is it’d be easier to like the Camarilla if they weren’t constantly trying to tear us down.

Well, Auntie Juniper is not without a trick or two of her own. I let him think he had broken me, made me fall in love with his power. Real Stockholm syndrome shit. I slipped away while he was preparing to introduce me to his domain as his childe.

I don’t hate the Camarilla! Not at all!

— Rudi, Gangrel neonate

Why, I find Ventrue boys to be cute and tasty. Nothing can compare with the delightful little sounds they make as you suck ‘em dry. — Agata Starek, Brujah ancilla

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WHY DO THOSE IN THE CAMARILLA

HATE THE ANARCHS?

Why do I hate the Anarchs? That’s a fucking mystery. What did they ever do to me... except burn down my home, try to end me, and murder everyone I cared about? I was just a research assistant, in life and in undeath. I worked at the Chantry, helping the older Tremere with their studies. I know there are serious schisms in our clan but my Chantry was always very traditional, very Camarilla oriented.

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That was the problem, I guess. I was at work correcting translations from Aramaic when I heard screams downstairs. I rushed down to see this huge monster of a man force a wooden stake through the chest of the caretaker of our building, old Mr. Wozniak. I remember thinking: “What a fucking idiot!” Mr. Wozniak was a ghoul. What was the point of staking him?

The man realized his mistake when blood started to pool at his feet. He yanked out the stake and looked straight at me. He said: “My bad. Let’s see what happens when I try the same with you.”

My new friends killed my sire using the information I gave them; just staked him in his Haven, and sat him down facing the windows to the east.

I tried to run back up the stairs but he was just so fast. Probably a Brujah. He knocked me down to the floor and crunched the stake through my back.

Betraying my sire... surely that’s enough? What more do you need to do to prove yourself to the Anarchs?

I’d never had that done to me before. I was in agony, paralyzed and helpless, watching out of the corner of my eye as more Anarchs ran past me and poured gasoline all over the shelves of our library. So many unique books, rare editions... all going up in flames. The Anarchs laughed as they ran from the building. The flames licked my face, singeing my hair. If poor old Mrs. Wozniak hadn’t dragged me down to the vault and locked us both in, I would have died in the conflagration. — Jiao Liu, Tremere neonate

It turns out that they didn’t care about me. They just wanted a pretty little trophy—a pet Ventrue they could make fun of when they were too scared to actually go against the Camarilla. My sire told me that he was a powerful and respected vampire. That was just another lie. He was a nobody, a minor functionary in the local Ventrue machine. The Anarchs killed him because he was easy. When it came to those in the Camarilla with real power, they turned chicken. I didn’t want to spend my eternity with these useless fools who didn’t respect me. Lineage matters among the Ventrue and once I found my sire’s sire, I went to her and introduced myself. I confessed everything I’d done.

I don’t advertise it but once I was one of them: an Anarch. You know how some Ventrue Embrace for skill, ability, and talent? I like to tell myself that my sire did that too.... But he didn’t. I was a young actress, he was feeling disconnected from humanity, and he projected his feelings onto me.

She forgave me. I cried from relief when I realized I was where the real power was: among the Camarilla.

I was a doll he wanted to keep in his Haven and pretend to love. Once I understood what had happened to me, I escaped and fled to the Anarchs. I desperately needed friends and believed the hype: “Anarchs take care of each other, fighting against the rule of the aged to establish their own unlives.”

I just hate what the Anarchs did to our clan. Being a Brujah in the Camarilla is so much worse now that Theo Bell had his little temper tantrum and murdered Hardetstadt.

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— Annika Wall, Ventrue neonate

Pretty much everybody in the Camarilla now regards our clan as traitors to the cause, the ringleaders and the demagogues who caused

domains to collapse into chaos. I’ve personally been insulted by former friends who could no longer see past my clan! The Brujah are supposed to be the clan of philosophy, wisdom, and learning! Our roots go back to antiquity! Our history is one of reasoned debate, not bloodthirsty barbarism! We have always struggled with the smears other clans have inflicted upon us but now.... It’s impossible to deny that the Brujah really did betray everything that was good and proper in the world of the Camarilla. Every Final Death—every lost Haven in recent years—is a result of the juvenile Anarch desire to riot, steal, and murder instead of building something of their own. I will never forgive them for tempting my proud clan into becoming the scum they are now. — Roman Delgado, Brujah ancilla

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NIGHT TO NIGHT IN THE ANARCHS Rudi, Gangrel community organizer: Maybe you were chosen randomly or maybe the person who Embraced you was someone you thought you knew. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that one day you were living a life. You were a student, employee, parent, spouse, child, you had a place in the society around you. You had a role, prospects, worries, joys, and sources of stress.

The Embrace cut you off from all of that. You’re still here, perhaps you even try to hold onto the life you led, but now everything is different. When you hug your boyfriend, you feel the blood coursing under his skin and wonder what it tastes like, what it would feel like to sink your teeth into his body and just drink and drink and drink.... Some adjust quicker, for others it takes more time. Whatever the case with you, you realize you’re part of an invisible society of predators. Your problems are not yours alone. Your existence is impacted by other Anarchs, young Kindred like you. You learn about hunting territories, rules and limitations, punishments and opportunities. You learn about the Masquerade. As you settle into Kindred society it becomes harder to maintain your connections to your old life. Your mortal friends wonder at the change that came over you. You struggle to pay your rent and wonder if you should turn your landlord into a ghoul now that someone explained how that worked. After a year of unlife, you no longer make rookie mistakes on the hunt. Anarch business takes more and more of your time whether you like it or not. You’ve grasped that great secret forces like the Camarilla, the Sabbat, and the Second Inquisition will simply not leave you alone. And then you learn about werewolves; yip, they’re real too.

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There are choices you can make. You can try to maintain a mortal existence, pay your bills, pretend that you’re still alive. It’s possible for a decade or two but as time passes you must put more and more work into it. Or you can just let go. Many Anarchs make so many mistakes in their first few months as vampires that there’s no repairing the damage. They become Nosferatu who live in the sewers or Brujah toughs whose night-to-night existence is not so different from a mortal criminal gang. The vast majority of Anarchs are neonates. Ancillae are rare and elders even rarer. Many older Anarchs choose to keep themselves apart from the mainstream of Anarch society. It’s easier to be a legendary Anarch if people don’t see you at the bar every night. I’ve done so much to help others I forgot to help myself. I suppose that’s the irony of trying to hold onto your humanity by trying to be a good person. I’ve always felt that good is not something you are but something you do. If your acts help others, you’re fine. For us in the Anarchs, humanity is always right there, at the distance of touch. Sometimes it feels like this only underscores the fact that we’re not human. I wonder if it’s easier for a Camarilla vampire dwelling in their luxurious Haven to maintain the illusion that they’re not so different from the human they used to be. Here’s what I always tell our neonates: hold onto your mortal life as long as you can. Maybe it’s hard to keep your job but at the very least you should still visit your grandmother in the hospital. Make up a story about health problems, a new job... something that lets you keep contact with at least some of the touchstones of your mortal existence.

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You can’t live the life you led before, but you still need a place to live, money, somewhere to hunt for blood. The best way to have all those things is to live close to people, night-to-night. They keep you human and stop you from becoming an animal. Some Kindred say that we are poison, that our touch contaminates everything. We should forget those we loved because as Kindred we can only hurt them. I’ve seen plenty of evidence that this is true yet I refuse to accept it. Our blood is not our destiny and we can become the better people we want to be. This is not a solitary pursuit: as Anarchs this is what we should strive for, together. Every night is a struggle, but every night is also an opportunity to improve. This is not a grand project but a series of nightly choices. Are you a monster whose existence brings pain or a secret friend who protects the community? The couple of decades I’ve been a vampire is not much by Camarilla standards but from the perspective of recently Embraced neonates it’s an eternity. I never realized how far I’d drifted from their experience until I heard the nickname they gave me. They called me “The Melancholy Man”, for believing things they think are impossible and that can only bring sadness. I don’t care. I still believe in our better natures. Even if I lost all connection to my own human life in the throes of our fight to protect ourselves.

Bian, nicknamed “Bian the Bloody” by her fellow Brujah: I don’t care about who you were, or what you now think is important. Those are luxuries for when nobody is trying to kill you. Being an Anarch is a battle against impossible odds. Looking at what’s happened in the last few years, you might imagine that we’re doing well. Camarilla domains are falling, Anarchs are resurgent. It’s all an illusion. Camarilla negotiators accept our demands even as their masters hire Banu Haqim assassins to murder our kin. There are no easy victories. The enemy is never completely defeated, not even when you stand victorious over the ashes of a Prince. Welcome to the War of Ages. This is your war even if you never signed up for it. Your elders are seeking to control you, toy with you, suppress you; your only choice for dignity in unlife is to fight back. You had a wife or husband when you were still mortal? Congratulations. Prepare for the night when the Camarilla or Second Inquisition murder or kidnap them. You have a child, a cause you believe in, a community you were part of? All liabilities, all future losses in this war. Yet... we have no use for you if you can’t control yourself. You have to be able to go through your nights discreetly when the situation calls for it. You have to have something that keeps you sane even if you have cut yourself off from everything that could be used against you. Believe in us. Your compatriots. Your Anarch comrades. The only Kindred who will ever look out for you. Trust me when I say it matters why you kill. The Camarilla took everything from me, but they never managed to take my humanity. Or at least, not all of it. I still have things I cherish, that remind me of why we fight. One night this war will be over. We will be free to do as we like. I know the war seems eternal and I know I have so much blood on my hands I shouldn’t be talking of hope... yet the idea of something better is the only thing that keeps any of us going.

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NIGHT TO NIGHT IN THE CAMARILLA Salomé Díaz, Ventrue heiress: You started to feel like something was wrong long before your actual Embrace. It felt like shadowy figures seemed to always lurk in the background, watching your every move, evaluating and planning. The nature of your Embrace depended on how your sire wanted to conduct such an important event. Perhaps he was a Toreador romantic who drained you dry of blood on a bed of roses. Or maybe she was a Nosferatu, jaded and cynical, who unceremoniously Embraced you in a disused service tunnel. Whatever the case, suddenly you saw another layer of reality; a new world into which you

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could step. The doors of an exclusive secret society opened just for you. Perhaps it was less stressful when you were ignorant and naive. Before you grasped the dangers in your path and the threats behind the smiles. The Camarilla always talks a good game about how they’re there for their Kindred. A year in and you’ve learned that if you make a mistake on the hunt, they might just kill you for a Masquerade breach. That if you fail to follow the will of the elders you will be punished but also, they won’t tell you what the will of the

elders is. You’ve become conscious of the fact that you were inducted into the first level of a secret society but there are many, many more. You know that if you just manage to persist for decades, centuries, or even millennia, you will slowly make your way into ever more exclusive hidden centers of power. There are many neonates in the Camarilla, young vampires like you. The most visible wielders of power tend to be ancilla, sometimes defined as Kindred whose very last mortal relation has died. Once you’re old enough to be an ancilla, you find yourself in a difficult position. You have to keep the machinery of the Camarilla running such as the Elysiums and business empires. You know every neonate dreams of taking your place. Yet you’re not really free. The elders, reclusive– perhaps disappeared–still cast a long shadow. As you make your moves, it’s worrying to think what happens when a long-lost elder suddenly shows up. Exist long enough and you become that elder. The mortal world becomes increasingly confusing, and the world of the Kindred is little better. Most neonates are every bit as baffling as the generations of mortals they’re Embraced from. This makes most elders reclusive, temperamental, and prone to grandiose intricate plans of control and domination. What’s worse: they have the power to pull it off. The fact that they disappear into the Beckoning or enter torpor just makes it unpleasant because then their plans are left unfinished, dangerous forces loosed upon the world with no control or oversight.

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Henry Thomas, Gangrel Sheriff: Some nights, this feels like a dream. Growing up I knew our family had secrets. We were not rich, and we were spread all over, relatives in Mexico, the U.S., Guatemala, Colombia.... Strange relatives I saw at family events, whispering their business. The tradition was that the Gangrel bloodline embedded into our family for centuries Embraced one childe each decade. The best and the brightest of that generation. I don’t know what happened last year when my generation’s turn came up. My sire, an old Spanish Gangrel, chose me as his successor and then he left. I’m not the best or the brightest but now I live in a mansion, I have servants, money, access. Everything was just given to me for free. Still, I don’t like it when the Anarchs criticize us for being Embraced into the easy life. I had a steep learning curve. Managing a staff of servants is no easy task, especially since many of them are ghouls. Keeping the herd organized is a lot of work, and so is representing the clan in Elysium. My sire didn’t leave me with many instructions, but he did tell me that I must always project the strength of the clan. If the Kindred of the Camarilla see me smiling, looking good at their little parties, I will be left alone. If they smell weakness or fear, they’ll take everything I have. The truth is that I am weak. It’s not so long ago that I thought vampires only existed in the movies. Now I am one and I know there are so many terrors in the night waiting to tear me down. Sometimes I wonder what kind of thoughts my butler has about me. Does he want to use my blood to cheat death too?

It’s no use falling into paranoia. It’s just another type of weakness. The only thing that keeps me going is the other recently Embraced Kindred I’ve met in Elysium. Talking with them, I’ve realized I’m not alone. Sometimes this is a nightmare. Nobody really talked to me about how hard it is to keep hold of my humanity when everything around me suddenly changed and every servant obeys my whims. I look at them, the maids, gardeners, and drivers, and I wonder what they taste like. I know there will come a night when I lose control. It’s all we can do to keep the lights on. The Anarchs eat away our territories with the defections of whole clans, mine included. The Second Inquisition is everywhere and we can’t really hit back at them. Then, in the dark corners of the city, whispers of more insidious threats carry on the wind. The Camarilla is the best hope we have for making our kind into something more than monsters. To create a legacy. Our enemies seek to destroy all that by turning our strengths into weaknesses and their losses into victories. I suppose my sire found it logical, in his own way, to Embrace a sheriff for the role of a Camarilla Sheriff. The trouble is that the small town where I lived and worked had some property theft, people got rowdy at the bar on Friday nights, and maybe there was a murder once every ten years.... None of that prepared me for what I have to deal with now. Sabbat psychos leaving strangely sculpted corpses in their wake. Anarchs firebombing our Havens. Worst of all, our own elders are disappearing and leaving us to keep everything together.

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That’s the promise of the Camarilla as it was explained to me: I’d be part of this ancient power structure; a secret organization where powerful vampires would steer our destinies. We’d have no freedom, our nights ruled by the whims of our elders. It was dark, sure, but I also took comfort in it: I thought there was a plan that we could follow and orders we would implement. I didn’t realize that in so many domains, neonates like me are the inheritors who fight night-to-night to keep the demons at bay. We have no one to tell us what to do. So many elders just left! There’s only one thing that made it easier for me: I realized that when I look at all the liars and poseurs at the Elysium, I know that deep in their un-beating hearts they are just as scared and lost as I am. When they feel threatened by all the dangers the night throws at us, they look at me to protect them. The question is, who will protect me? I know that the night will come when I’m called to investigate, and it will be something new that will consume me. If not in the form of a violent death, then because I will give in to the temptations of the Blood inside me and degenerate into just one more killer.

At an Anarch bar: Aisha az-Zahra: The vampire is a lone predator, Sebastian! You must accept the darkness within. You will always remain separate from the common herd. Sebastian: We’ve been seeing other Kindred every night. Literally every night. Aisha az-Zahra: Of course. Who but others of our kind can really understand the struggle we go through?

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Small Events

Chapter Three

Where the Kindred Congregate

Sebastian: Out of respect for your age and position I will only say that I thank you for your wisdom. Aisha az-Zahra: Out with it! You know I detest the trappings of status, the groveling, those eager to please just because of my age. Sebastian: It’s just... sometimes your advice is inconsistent. You talk to me about being alone, selfsufficiency, but you yourself have a great hunger for company. Especially the company of the young. Aisha az-Zahra: Insolent whelp! You should know better than to point out the hypocrisies of your elders! Sebastian: Yes, Ma’am. I apologize.

Quick and Easy This section features four quick and easy scenarios you can make into a LARP. The basis for a LARP is always a social event. This can be a wedding or a funeral, or as is the case here, typical social gatherings from the world of Vampire. Since these are common events in the setting of Vampire, you do not have to justify why these characters are here. Rather, you can focus your energies into coming up with the minutiae of characterization and plot. What kind of tensions and conflicts come to the fore during this event? Fortunately, the Kindred are a fractious lot so it is not difficult to explain why they are at each other’s throats yet again.

Generating a LARP Concept If you want to get a LARP going quickly, here is a checklist you can go through to make a small Vampire LARP for a single evening: 1. Location options. What kind of possibilities do you have when it comes to the venue? Are you running the LARP at a convention or are you renting a bar or a ballroom? Do you have great open-air options nearby? Do you have personal connections that make a specific interesting venue available to you? Based on what you come up with, you can see if any of the options presented in this section make sense for the locations you have available. The Toreador salon and the Brujah bar are especially flexible, suitable for being set in many different environments. 2. LARP concept. Who are the characters and why are they here? This section presents four different LARP concepts that are easy to use. Feel free to come up with your own. Decide whether this gathering is Kindred only, or whether there are ghouls present. Perhaps there are

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unwitting mortals, forcing the vampires to operate under the Masquerade and allowing for hunting to become part of the play. 3. Sketch out actions and conflicts. What do the characters do at the LARP? What generates conflict? The answer to the first question should be baked into the concept but it is useful to elaborate on it some more. For example, if the characters are Gangrel who have come together to tell stories, it makes sense to think what else they can do. Fight each other, make deals, settle grudges, etc. As to conflict, fortunately the setting of Vampire provides a lot of opportunities. The young against the old, insiders versus upstarts, Camarilla versus Anarch, and so on. It pays to exaggerate these conflicts to make sure the players do not resolve them too quickly. 4. Make a LARP. At this point, you should have everything you need to know regarding what you and your players should be doing. Find a location, get players, write characters or ask your players to make them themselves. Whatever works best for you. And after that, run the LARP and have fun!

SWIMMING WITH THE

SHARKS

I met the most delightful young man today, a Brujah if you can imagine. They are fun to play around with and this young gentleman was no exception. His name was Sebastian, but I told him that was no good because I already know a Sebastian. I decided to call him Doudou because as long as he didn’t speak or do anything, he was quite cuddly. It was the opening of a new art gallery called The Craving. Some of the younger members of my clan were associated with it, perhaps even one of my descendants. Who can track them all? Mortals, ghouls, Kindred, all united by their appreciation of beauty. Some elder vampires fall into the embarrassing trap of regarding all art created after their Embrace as inferior. This is

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just one of the ways in which they showcase their inability to exist in the modern world.

LARP Concept

Me, I appreciate everything. Though I might space-out when a beautiful young artist explains their ideas to me but in my defense, I’m taking a moment to appreciate the play of veins on their neck.

The salon is the quintessential gathering for genteel Kindred who enjoy the arts. It can take many forms, from an actual literary salon held in the Haven of an elder Toreador to the opening of an art gallery or a private late night rendition of a performance that has been making the waves.

The funny thing about Doudou was that his friends had told him to come to the opening to get acquainted with our clan. Such a prank to play on a poor defenseless childe! Surely, they knew that this pack of piranhas would tear him apart! And sure enough, that’s what was happening when I made my entrance. They were swarming around him, insulting him in ways he could not comprehend, insinuating, seducing, betraying... all in the space of just a few minutes, like we are wont to do. I found it unsportsmanlike, so I decided to bestow him my favor. I went up to him and asked what he thought of a video installation of a screaming weatherman. This is really the funniest part: he didn’t know who I was, or that I was one of the Kindred. He tried to hunt, you know, me! I let it happen, of course. It was priceless to see my poor Camarilla compatriots so confused! It was when Doudou drank my blood that he realized his error. I told him it was okay. I wouldn’t kill a pretty thing like him! Well, not tonight. - From the diary of Victoria Ash, Toreador elder

Camarilla sophisticates are famous for their cattiness, and social games. Fashions come and go at a dizzying pace and it is difficult for someone not attuned to the clan’s culture to keep up. The small gatherings of Camarilla high society make for great small LARPs. They can be set in a wide range of venues and the choice of location can be explained by the latest trend. Art galleries and hotel suites are obvious but if the fashion suddenly dictates that the clan must congregate in the most rancid dive bar imaginable, then that is what the clan does.

Design To get the most out of the social games of the vampires, the participants must have an idea of what is cool right now and what is already hopelessly outdated. Because members of the clan are prone to excess and bizarre fashions, you can spice up the LARP by making up a few. Perhaps there is a sudden trend for having a Nosferatu paramour? Maybe the members of an artist collective become a must-have item as a ghoul, but there are just four of them? It is very common for fashion-conscious Kindred to mingle among mortals even when they get together. They enjoy fooling the

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mortals and playing strange games with them. From the perspective of a mortal, this can be fraught because the chances of getting killed are balanced by the possibility of a surprise Embrace by a Toreador overcome with emotion. Characters at a Kindred salon must include the hosts and a good selection of fashionable vampires. Apart from that, the characters can be from all walks of unlife. Most will be young of course, with a few ancillae. Toreador elders enjoy demonstrating they can still blend with the mortals even if they cannot really mingle with their own clan without making everyone afraid of their new whimsy. A salon works as a type of event in an ongoing chronicle. Many of the characters present will probably be Toreador but it works best if there are others as well, to provide nuance and variety.

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At The Fireside “Come on, that’s bullshit,” one of the neonates said, a young French woman called Cyra. “Just ridiculous.” “I swear on my sire’s ashes,” Lukas protested with mock sincerity. “It’s all true! Gangrel Valkyries really did assassinate Olof Palme! This is the proud history of our clan!” “Whatever,” Cyra muttered, shaking her head. “Does anybody have a story that isn’t like super dumb?” Rudi sighed and looked around the circle of faces gathered around the fireside. Since when had he become the enforcer of clan traditions? Despite his misgivings, he said: “Play nice, Cyra. This isn’t about the truth. This is about telling a good story. We’re all Gangrel here. We’ve gathered to spend the night telling stories for millennia. Camarilla or Anarch, our stories endure.” “I have a story for you, Anarch boy,” Cyra said, the firelight making her face a malevolent mask. The forest was silent beyond the circle of illumination, black trees silhouetted against a black sky. Much of Europe had been cleared of its old forests centuries ago but here, in the north of Sweden, civilization was still far away . Rudi felt a weight settling on his shoulders; it was the knowledge that whatever tale Cyra chose to tell would be an unpleasant experience for him. This too was part of the tradition: telling stories about those who are present to air grievances old and new. Some of the older and more bestial Gangrel would react to such a provocation with violence. But not Rudi. He fought for Anarch freedom, but not over social spats and slights. “This is a story about a young Gangrel, just recently Embraced into the clan,” Cyra began. “The young Gangrel is you,” Lukas interrupted, laughing. “Let’s not be pompous!” “Fuck you,” Cyra growled, and Lukas shifted uneasily. He was not a brave man despite his propensity for joking at the expense of others. “Go on, Cyra,” Rudi said softly. “The Gangrel were leaving the Camarilla,” Cyra continued, “retreating from the shadows of the Ivory Tower. The great and good of the clan were fading away into their hideouts and secret places... but no decision among the Kindred is ever unanimous. This was true here as well. My sire didn’t

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want to go. He had spent all his unlife building the Tower and protecting it from threats big and small, so why would he go?” “That was his right,” someone said. “We don’t force people to leave.” “I wanted to leave! I didn’t want anything to do with the Camarilla!” Cyra shouted. “I escaped my sire and sought out the famous Rudi, the Anarch organizer, the terror of the Camarilla establishment. From what they said, I thought Rudi would surely help me; that he would shelter me and that his Anarchs would take care of me and keep me safe from my sire and all the other monsters.” “Sometimes they’re just too powerful,” Rudi muttered. “That’s right,” Cyra said, staring at Rudi. “My sire came to the Anarchs, to their hideout, and said he would take me back. And none of these cowards lifted a finger.” “Come on, give him a break!” Lukas laughed again. “Your sire is Karsh, the Warlord of the Camarilla. How is anybody supposed to fight against him?”

LARP Concept

young, a few old, and perhaps a ghoul or two. Some predominantly city-dwelling Gangrel should be present, but the bulk should be nomadic or more country dwelling. The majority of the characters should know each other but there can be visitors from other domains as well. After all, along with the Ravnos, the Gangrel are the biggest wanderers among the Kindred.

Gangrel come together to meet as a clan, to sit by the fireside and exchange stories. It is a simple, functional concept for a small LARP of five to 15 participants. A duration of three to six hours works well. Since the Gangrel are not known for their expensive lifestyles, the LARP can be organized in a variety of settings. The most atmospheric choice is to organize the LARP in an actual campsite during a summer night so that the participants feel the wind in the trees and the night on their skin as they tell their stories.

Since most Gangrel have left the Camarilla, most characters are likely Anarchs or unaligned. Players should know in advance that they are expected to tell a story in-character. These can be tall tales of clan exploits but also used to create drama. Perhaps a character uses the opportunity to reveal the ill deeds of a respected clanmate or tries to get revenge for perceived slights?

Other options are possible as well such as renting a section of a bar or using the corner of a room at a gaming convention.

It is easy to fit this LARP concept into an existing chronicle as long as there are enough Gangrel characters to make it work. In that case, it is a mini-LARP meant for the Gangrel only, featuring a few guest characters from further away and perhaps allowing a few non-Gangrel to sneak a peek at the clan’s culture.

Design The LARP works best with a wide variety of Gangrel characters. We suggest that most be

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DIVE BAR “I suppose I should warn you,” Dee said, stopping just as she was about to open the bar door. “You gotta be tough. If they think you’re a wimp, they’ll make mincemeat out of you.” Sebastian scowled and looked Dee up and down. His guide did not cut an imposing figure. Dee was short and shifty, hardly a model of Brujah power. “If that’s true, how are you still here?” Sebastian asked. Dee laughed. “I have talents you don’t. Let’s go.” The bar was a dingy affair, with a filthy illegible sign and brick walls that looked like someone’s head got bashed into them every night. Inside, a cloud of stale cigarette smoke would have been a blessing. Without it, every grimy surface was uncomfortably visible. “You owe me a boon, Dee. I intend to collect,” a tall biker called from the pool table. “I’m good for it! Honest!” Dee said unconvincingly and led Sebastian to the bar. The patrons stopped staring and went back to their beers. “Who are you supposed to be?”

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Sebastian turned slowly to look at the woman who had spoken. She had a broken nose and wore a leather jacket. She was leaning on the bar, an untouched beer in front of her; details that hinted to Sebastian that she was one of the Kindred. This was the moment. Dee’s warning echoed in Sebastian’s mind. They would peg him as someone to be reckoned with or a weakling who could be bullied and bossed around. Sebastian took the stranger by the greasy hair and smashed her face into the bar. He felt the broken nose giving in against the surface of the bar. Blood spattered. He still was not used to his newfound strength, the gift of supernatural power from the Blood of his clan. “Anyone else want to make a thing of it?” Sebastian asked loudly, turning around to look at the bar. Dee was staring at him, eyes wide. So was the barkeep and the other patrons. “What did you do that for?” Dee asked, checking on the unconscious woman, her face still on the bar. “Haha, this is a human! You just bashed in the face of someone’s ghoul!” “Dammit, you told me to...” Sebastian started but then quieted down. Eyes in the bar had turned towards the pool table. Two people were playing, a man and a woman.... She was blonde and shorter than Sebastian in an oversized flannel shirt that looked like it had belonged to someone else. “That was my ghoul you just knocked out.” Agata Starek did not sound particularly angry. “I’ll make you a challenge. Come play against me. If you win, you walk away. If you lose, I’ll rip your throat out. But don’t worry. I’m terrible at this game.” She laughed at her own joke, not really looking at Sebastian. “Hope you know how to play,” Dee whispered as he walked to meet his fate.

LARP Concept Vampire low lives, criminals and revolutionaries have their hangouts in almost every city. Many of them are Brujah. The clan is big, unruly, and largely composed of young Anarchs who want to get rowdy. If you want to make a LARP out of a night in a vampire dive bar, you can take the literal route and use an actual bar as the venue. Alternatively, you can use any place that could sensibly host an “illegal” in-game party. You can also run this LARP in a convention, assuming you have a private space and players who can imagine themselves in a dive bar. Sometimes the vampire dive bar has mortals too, in which case the Masquerade is in effect. These

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mortals are drifters, lowlifes, drug dealers, and similar types. It can be fun to make them predators too, eager to hustle the vampire characters. The player of a Kindred character then has to choose whether to go along with it for the sake of the Masquerade or use vampiric abilities. Such a bar can also be for Kindred and ghouls only, at least for one night. In that case, vampires can fight openly among each other. This is good because cracking skulls is part of the fun of playing dumb and violent vampires.

Design The dive bar works when you have 20 to 50 players. Most of the characters should be young Anarchs, often Brujah. You can have a few Camarilla characters in there as well. Perhaps they are slumming, or here to act as envoys. Whatever the case, they provide a little spice to the social dynamic of the situation. Before you run the game, it is good to make sure players know that among the regulars, fights do not always have to be life and death. You can hit somebody in the face and then laugh and share a vessel with them. It is no big deal. This makes it possible for players to have fun with the violence inherent in the clan without escalating the situation too much.

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GIVE UP EVERYTHING This is just a quick note letting you know I did like you told me to. I’m not sure I should be doing favors for you but they tell me Victoria Ash doesn’t like getting a “no” for an answer. The Ministry. This was the dodgiest place I’ve ever been to. You told me to go check them out and that’s what I did although I’m not sure I managed to scout out any secrets. The way to access the temple was through the back room of a massage parlor. There were stairs leading down, incense in the air, red and green colored lights.... They figured out I was one of the Kindred and they were surprisingly welcoming, considering I’d never met them before. Two women, they said their names were Zhala and Elin, members of the Ministry. They were very open and offered to take me on a tour of the premises. I accepted of course. There was an altar with a naked man lying on it. They said he was a ghoul engaged in religious devotions. They also told me to have a sip if I wanted. I was thirsty so I did. The energy in the man’s blood was not what I expected. He felt so happy. I was thrown by that, so I didn’t ask questions about all the paraphernalia. The ritual knife, the cheap-ass statues of various gods and goddesses, the jumble of cultural symbols, the sound system they’d rigged up, the music they played. It all looked so cheap, but I thought that just can’t be all there is to it. I couldn’t get the taste of the man’s blood out of my mouth. They told me he was a judge.

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Once we’d chatted for a bit and I’d poked my nose everywhere I could, people started to show up. Zhala and Elin welcomed them and told them to kneel as they waited. They talked in these soft murmurs that made even me feel like I was being hypnotized. I wanted to stay for the ceremony but I remembered what you said: it would be a bad idea... that I might enjoy it a bit too much. — A note from the Ventrue Deja to Victoria Ash

LARP Concept The Ministry specializes in building cults of mortals to act as herds, vehicles of influence, and buffers against the troubles of the World of Darkness. It is not difficult for an experienced Ministry vampire to abandon their cult, escape, and rebuild in another city. After all, there are people seeking meaning for their lives everywhere.

options in terms of venue, it requires more props and scenography than the other three clanbased LARP ideas presented here. A ritual space must look the part, after all. One consideration to keep in mind is the religious sensibilities of your players. If it is okay for them, you can draw inspiration from real religions and cults, but you are generally safer making it more fictitious.

The great advantage of a Ministry cult as the basis of a small LARP is that cult ceremonies are excellent content. Because Ministry vampires are often happy to use whatever spiritual framework works best for their intended targets, you have a lot of leeway on how to design the experience. Although a Ministry cult LARP offers a lot of

After all, members of the Ministry are not particularly concerned with the authenticity of the religious front they build for their gullible herds.

Design A good Ministry cult LARP features 15 to 40 players, most of whom should be mortals with no conception of vampires. They believe they belong to a secret religious group that grants access to real truths about the world. Of course, in reality they are members of a vampire’s herd. Just going through the rituals of the cult provides plenty of interesting LARP action, from the initiation of new members to collective affirmations of the faith. Sacrifices can play a part, where mortal members are symbolically sacrificed, requiring only a small bite from one of the cult leaders. To make the LARP more complex, you can

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add non-Ministry characters and give them conflicting motivations and plans. Perhaps the Ministry is in danger of getting run out of town and they invite Camarilla and Anarch vampires to witness their ceremonies, hoping that they become so enamored of easy blood that they withdraw their objections to the Ministry’s presence. One or two of the mortal characters can be relatives and friends of a former victim of the Ministry cult, here under false pretenses, seeking to find the right moment to have their revenge. Or perhaps they are ghouls abandoned by another vampire, desperately seeking for a fix.

Interlude: BOYTOY “I won”, Sebastian insisted. “I won and you promised I’d be okay.” Playing pool against Agata Starek had been nerve-wracking but Sebastian had won handily. Either Starek was just playing with him, or she genuinely did not know how to play. Only his victory did not free him. Instead, Sebastian had been dragged along when Starek left the dive bar. “Stop whining”, Starek said. “I’m going to make a man out of you yet. You look too pretty to be credible. It’ll help if you have blood on your hands.” Sebastian was a good-looking man and he knew it. It had rarely been a liability before but somehow he started to feel that maybe with the Anarchs it would have been better to look rough and violent. “Hey, look, I appreciate...” Sebastian did not get further because Starek grabbed

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him by the throat and pushed him against the fence of the estate they were skulking around.

Starek whispered as she yanked open the kitchen door, its lock breaking surprisingly quietly.

“I’m doing you a favor, little boytoy”, Starek said. “I want to see you stick around. You need a rep.”

***

The estate was a grand neo-colonial affair, with dogs prowling the grounds in the dark and the discreet eyes of security cameras tracking every intruder. Sebastian had heard it was associated with the Camarilla that everyone was warning him against. “Look, I don’t want to get into trouble”, Sebastian managed to say despite the pressure on his throat. “The weak and the useless die. Those who make a mark get to go on”, Starek said and dropped Sebastian to the ground. She tried the iron bars of the antique fence, then yanked one of them free and let it clatter on the asphalt. “Follow me.” Sebastian tried to emulate his guide’s grace as he pushed his way through the opening in the fence when he suddenly heard a tearing, wet sound. A breath, like a bark that failed to find purchase. Mouth open, he saw Starek tear off the lower jaw of a black Doberman and toss the carcass on the wet lawn. “I abhor cruelty against animals”, Starek said. “It’s just that it would have made noise.” “Why are we here? What are we doing?” Sebastian said, trying to follow Starek’s route. Surely the security cameras would have spotted them by now. Why wasn’t she concerned about that? “We’ll send a message and you’ll get to sign it”,

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During the day, the gallery room must look magnificent, Sebastian thought. Such huge windows! It did not seem like the Kindred whose Haven this was would appreciate such things, however. Spots illuminating the paintings and the sculptures lit up as Starek switched on the lights. “Why are we not worried about cameras?” Sebastian finally snapped, half fearing that Starek would hurt him again. “Let me tell you a story. Once there was an old vampire who modernized all his security systems. The cameras recorded everything and if there was an alarm a signal went to an external security contractor.” Starek spoke as she looked through the paintings one by one. They were in a wide variety of styles. Clearly a personal collection, not a curated exhibit. “One night, an Anarch broke in to piss blood onto his porch. The cameras recorded the use of vampiric strength, the Second Inquisition tap on the security company’s systems flagged it, and the next day a strike team turned the old vampire into ashes.” Starek stopped to look at Sebastian. “That’s one of the intricacies of the Masquerade. It’s not enough to protect yourself. Sometimes you have to protect your enemies too.” “So, you assume that the image from those cameras is seen only by very few people”, Sebastian said uneasily. “Yes. Salomé Díaz, the Ventrue who’s Haven this

is, is not a fool. Nor is Victoria Ash, who’s here as a guest”, Starek said and stopped to regard a painting. It looked old, a portrait showing a Spanish gentleman. “Now, Sebastian. You’re going to deface this painting with your blood.” *** “I still feel like I don’t understand anything”, Sebastian said, feeling the hunger coil inside him. He had spread blood on the painting and then mended the wound on his wrist. He was driving, Starek on the passenger seat looking satisfied with herself. “You know why I did this?” she said. “Many Camarilla vampires are bored. They want something exciting to spice up their long nights,

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so they take an Anarch lover. The moment I saw your pretty face, I knew you were a prime candidate for getting turned traitor for the privilege of amusing some degenerate Ventrue socialite for a decade or two. Now, that won’t happen. You’re too toxic.” Sebastian could feel his unbeating heart sink. He was being manipulated into becoming a soldier in a war he did not care about. “What was the painting?” he asked weakly. “Salomé’s sire when he was still living. She feared its destruction more than she’d fear anything connected to herself”, Starek said.

Chapter Four

Anarchs

A BLOODY, BLOODY BEAT

“We’ve totally failed to infiltrate this place! Look at you! You don’t fit in at all!” Deja shouted, both in anger and in an attempt to be heard over the beat of the thundering music that was drowning out conversation even in the filthy unisex bathroom. The walls were covered with scrawled messages, the toilets blocked ages ago. The only light came from a single unbroken yellow bulb hanging overhead. “Have you seen how these animals treat new licks?” Annika asked, checking her make-up one more time. Being a vampire, she didn’t have to worry about her sweat smearing her eyeliner but she had just drank from the young groaning man now collapsed on the dirty floor, so better to be sure. Deja considered herself pretty worldly but having to touch that floor with anything except the soles of her shoes seemed pretty vile, to say nothing of rubbing one’s cheek into it as the man was doing. “No.... This is my first Anarch party,” Deja admitted. She could guess what Annika meant. She’d learned that Camarilla Kindred loved playing status games and there was no reason to suspect that their Anarch brethren were any different, despite their rhetoric. Deja had always felt like an outsider in Camarilla get-togethers but now she realized she had adopted some of their values without acknowledging it. Like the fact that being a vampire makes it possible to have nice things. Wallowing in garbage was not necessary if you played your cards right. Of course, some, like Annika, liked to wallow in garbage from time to time. She turned to look at Deja and said: “When you’re an Anarch and you date a Ventrue, you want her to look the part. You want to show her off to your friends. That’s part of the fantasy. It doesn’t work if she’s as grimy as the rest of the licks in this club.” “Isn’t that...” Deja started to say when the door of the bathroom crashed down, hinges breaking, wood splintering. An enormous Chinese man stood in the doorway, fangs out, the beat of the music suddenly louder. He had an incongruously neat mustache and a t-shirt barely able to contain his bulging upper body. “You! Camarilla princess! I don’t care who you fuck or suck. You don’t play with my brother,” the man

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screamed, looming over Deja and Annika, filling out the stained bathroom with his presence. Deja glanced down at the man on the floor. He did indeed bear a resemblance to the approaching giant. Smaller, clean-shaven, older, but otherwise the same. “Okay, let’s take it easy. The WWE tryouts are next week,” Deja said, raising her hands palms out to placate the Anarch. The man was lightning quick. He grabbed Deja’s arm, lifted her, and smashed her through the door of a toilet stall. Deja felt things breaking, whether inside her body or another wooden door, she wasn’t sure. She’d landed upside down on the remains of the stall door and the toilet seat, sliding down to.... Deja caught herself before her face hit the floor. The beat of the music was so powerful, it

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drowned out all other sounds. It took a moment for Deja to straighten herself before she realized the giant was pummeling down on Annika, hitby-bloody-hit. Annika tried to keep upright against the sink as the man’s blows rained down. Looking around for a weapon, Deja noticed a fractured piece of wood from one of the broken doors lying on the floor. A stake. She picked it up and realized someone was watching them. A Latino man, young, rakish. He looked alarmed but Deja knew he wasn’t a mortal. She’d developed an instinct for it. But he was too handsome to be just another Anarch asshole. Too well dressed. Annika’s lover. “Chao, please,” the man said in a pained voice. “She’s had enough for whatever she did.” Chao turned around, fists bloodied. “Sebastian.

You should know better than to play with the Camarilla. They’ll just use you; make you betray us. They’re already walking around here like they own the place, leeching off our humans.”

last look at Chao, now with a bloody stake in hand, looking at his gaping facial wound in the mirror. “Jesus,” Sebastian muttered before he followed Annika and Deja.

Deja noticed Annika straightening herself as Chao’s back was turned. Annika’s face wasn’t so broken anymore. She was already mending, the splintered cheekbone now intact and the nose as delicate as ever.

A short corridor led to the bar and dancefloor, packed with Anarchs and their mortal hang-arounders. Deja was not sure how the Masquerade worked in a place like this. Perhaps it was like a blood cult, with dependent ghouls sworn into secrecy. Or maybe the Anarchs handled it some other way.

Making a gesture to Deja, Annika said: “Hey big guy.” As Chao turned, Deja threw her improvised stake to her. “Kneel,” Annika said, locking eyes with the giant. Chao knelt on the grimy floor, his face strained with the effort of trying to resist the command. Annika held the stake with both hands and thrust it down at his face, stronger than she looked, the sharp wood piercing his flesh somewhere in the vicinity of his mouth. Deja heard a strangled groan over the beat of the music as Chao struggled upright, trying to pull the stake from his face. “That’s not how you use a stake,” Deja said. “They told me you strike the heart, not the face.” “Come on, have you ever staked anybody?” Annika said, stepping out of the Anarch’s way. “No...” Deja admitted. “Then stop trying to give me advice!” Annika snapped and smiled at Sebastian. “Let’s get you back to the party,” Sebastian sighed and stepped aside to let them pass. He took one

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Just before they emerged into the throng, Annika pushed Sebastian to the wall and breathed in his ear: “Have you fed recently? I’m feeling thirsty.” “Yes...” Sebastian replied. Annika bit into his neck and his expression turned into that of reluctant ecstasy, the effects of a vampire’s bite doing their job. For a moment, Deja watched awkwardly until it became clear the sharing of blood would go on for some time. Annika had not cleaned up after her fight with the big Anarch and her face was still bloody, if intact. Deja decided that worrying about Annika’s appearance was not her problem and walked into the dancing crowd. It was hard to navigate for someone used to the genteel dignity of a Camarilla party. Here, people jumped half naked, sweating, shouting, crying, laughing.... There was something very attractive about it. Something that made Deja feel like she wanted to know more. After all, the Camarilla was not all there was to the world of Kindred. She had to get with the program and learn more about the Anarchs, whether she liked their sticky nightclub floors or not.

“Hey…” someone shouted in her ear. As Deja turned, she saw a girl in an oversized t-shirt staring at her. She might have looked innocent except for the unmistakable look of hunger in her eyes. Deja recognized her from the Elysium. Dee. “What do you want?” Deja warily, worried now that Annika was not with her. “Can I have a bite?” the girl drawled. “Don’t worry. I won’t drink much. You remember, like last time.” Deja realized she was not in danger. At least, not physically. She decided to play the game. “Sure. But you have to do something for me first. Show me around. Make some introductions for me.” “Fine,” Dee whined. “Whatever you want.”

PLAYING THE BARON

(AND OTHER ANARCH NOTABLES) Trying to figure out the local Anarch hierarchy is so difficult. It goes like this: first everyone tells you that there is no hierarchy. All are equal. Sounds good, right? Then when you hang around with your new Anarch buddies, you start to hear words like “Baron’”. You wonder, what does that mean? It sounds suspiciously like the Prince, but that’s a Camarilla thing, right? Treasure this moment because it’s the last time you feel things are uncomplicated among the Anarchs. Once you start to understand how it really works, nothing will be simple anymore. — Sebastian, Brujah Neonate Anarch domains have even less standard models of organization than Camarilla ones. In some domains, a Baron rules much like a Camarilla

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Prince and the domain is unified. In others, there is no centralized authority. Instead, the leaders of different Anarch gangs try to keep things peaceful among themselves. From the perspective of LARP design it is good if the Anarchs have some internal organization. This makes it easier for both the players and the organizers of the LARP to see what is going on. The basic unit of Anarch organizing is the gang. Not all Anarchs belong in gangs but most do, and from a LARP design perspective it is good that even those characters who have no gang still belong to an equivalent social unit. This way, everyone has a social group they can always go to if they have nothing else going on. As to authority figures among the Anarchs, you can use the ones provided here or invent your own. The Anarchs have a lot of variety.

assume they will get to be free. A Baron who wants to maintain a grip on power has to at least pay lip service to this ideal. This makes it difficult sometimes for an outsider to understand how an Anarch domain really works. There might be authoritarian structures of power in place even as everyone pretends there are not. Playing a Baron, you must figure out what kind of a Baron you want to be. A benevolent if toothless symbol or a ruthless player of the game of realpolitik? - A Baron must be accessible to their people. You cannot sequester yourself away from the other characters in the LARP. You should avoid secret meetings and private gatherings, instead seeking to make sure as many of the others see you as possible.

THE BARON

S

ome Anarch domains are ruled by a Baron who keeps the peace and makes the rules. Some Barons are relaxed and hands-off, essentially figureheads without much real power. Others are Camarilla Princes in all but name, ruling their domains with an iron grip. A Baron’s position is precarious, crucially different from that of a Prince in one important regard: the attitude of the Kindred in their domain. A Camarilla vampire knows that most domains are ruled by a dictatorial Prince. In contrast, Anarchs

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- You can play on the hypocrisy inherent in the position of the Baron. Make beautiful speeches on the importance of freedom and equality even as your rule epitomizes anything but. This may cast you as a villain and you might end up deposed but it will be in service of the core themes of playing an Anarch Baron in a Vampire LARP.

GANG BOSS

M

ost Anarch gangs have a boss. The gangs tend to be from six to ten Kindred in size, which is also conveniently the ideal gang size for LARP design purposes. Big enough to have complex internal dynamics, small enough to still be a single social unit. Anarch gangs vary dramatically in style. Some are loose collections of desperate urban Kindred huddling together for protection. Others are violent groups of aggressive Brujah who will hit anyone who disrespects them in the face. The nature of the gang also dictates the nature of its leader. As with the

balance ideals and rhetoric with the practical realities of rule. For all their vaunted ideals, many Anarchs are not much better than rabid beasts and that means that sometimes rough measures are needed to keep things under control.

group are doing okay. You should assume they are, but if someone looks lonely or like they have trouble connecting to the LARP, you can actively include them in more scenes. Perhaps even deputize them to go with you to important meetings.

- As an Anarch gang boss, you are well placed to check whether all the players in your

- Stir trouble with other gangs and never let anyone trample your rights. Perhaps some

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silver-tongued demagogue makes the case that all the city’s Anarchs would be better off under the rule of a single Baron but you know better! Avoid sensible solutions and stick to principle. This keeps the dynamics of conflict in the LARP running.

Emissary Anarch domains are complicated. There might be several different gangs all with their own small territories, along with a neighboring Camarilla domain and other independent domains all demanding attention from an Anarch leader. Contrary to a common cliche, many Anarch bosses are deft diplomats and they have to be, considering how complex the political network of their domains often is. Because of this, Anarchs have plenty of emissaries: Kindred whose job it is to represent a leader or a domain in another. Because emissaries by definition are not on their home ground, they work best if they come in pairs or small groups, unless they are very well embedded in the social fabric of their new community. This way, there is less danger of them being shut out of the action of the LARP. There are many different types of emissaries. For example, the representative of a Ventrue Prince is a patrician, high class vampire disdainful of the barbarism of the Anarchs. Similarly, an emissary can be a low-status character, representing a small nomadic pack seeking residence in the domain. Sometimes a truly monstrous vampire decides not to appear at a gathering of their Kindred and send a representative instead, someone disposable and terrified who does not really understand the situation they are in. Playing an emissary, you can:

- Make dangerous promises and new temptations. This is also a possible way for a character to exit a chronicle. The emissary demands that a counterpart be sent to their domain and the character of a player who is going to leave volunteers.

Sweeper The most brutish and least liked of all official positions in Anarch domains, the Sweeper is rare but sometimes Barons feels they are a necessity. A Sweeper’s job is to sweep the domain clean of undesirable Kindred. For example, Anarch packs who are not part of the local system, undesirable cults, young Caitiff who just sprouted from somewhere, etc. Essentially, they kill excess population. Playing a Sweeper can be tricky because you might be a badass feared by all but it can also lead to a situation where other characters do not want to interact with you. To stop this from happening, make sure you know where your sweeper’s mandate comes from. The local Baron? A group of gang bosses? No Sweeper is going to survive the night if it becomes known they are alone, with nobody powerful in their corner. A Sweeper is often a temporary office, set up and then discarded after the immediate problem has been resolved. Playing a Sweeper, you can:

- Hint at a wider world beyond the LARP. By design, you represent something beyond the ordinary unlives of the characters present. Do not over-explain yourself. It is better to have a little mystery while still making sure everyone knows where you are from!

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- Intimidate others like there is no tomorrow because it is possible there is not... for them or for you. - To drive home the impact of the Sweeper’s murderous role, you can ask organizers to

make sure there are several Caitiff or thin-bloods you can murder during the LARP, supporting characters whose job it is to communicate what you really do to the others.

War Leader When war comes, a war leader often emerges to lead the Anarchs until the fulfillment of a particular objective. This can be a revolution, a counter-revolution, driving undesirable vampires out of the domain, staving off a Sabbat siege, or dealing with werewolves. Something that requires the participation of all the domain’s Anarchs and effective, dynamic leadership. It is not unusual for a war leader to be someone with no political ambitions, and in fact many Anarchs prefer it that way. After all, they do not want their general to develop delusions of authority after the crisis is over. Anarchs are also more open than usual to being led by an older vampire since it is assumed they know better how to deal with serious supernatural threats. Because of this, a war leader can be a grizzled Anarch elder, long since sidelined from the nightly business of running the sect. If you play a war leader, it is obvious there is a war, revolution, or crisis you must fight. Your fate is tied to how successfully you prosecute your campaign. - As the war leader, your role is to task others. Delegate everything until you have nothing to do yourself. - Consider what kind of play you want in the war’s aftermath. You can make a bid for becoming a Baron, possibly necessitating another war to get rid of you led by someone else as a war leader.

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The Ideologue The Anarchs are big on ideas. There is no official ideology, just competing systems of thought. Some are more popular, some less. The most famous Anarch ideologue is Salvador Garcia, the author of the original Anarch Manifesto, but there are many, many others. Playing an ideologue, remember you can crib shamelessly from actual anarchist thinkers and other political writers, just giving their ideas a vampiric bent. You are not expected to shoulder any actual responsibility so you can safely demand others dedicate their unlives to the fulfillment of the beautiful ideas you espouse! - Ideologues are fun if there are at least two competing ones. You can denounce your competition! - Demand, push, motivate other characters. Stick to principle and avoid real world politics!

BERLIN I’ve heard the stories, sure. It all blurs together. Things like Caine, the Second City, the Prince, the Anarch Revolt. That last one apparently happened just a few years ago. They say it’s the night when I was Embraced but who knows. These things sound so remote. What do any of them have to do with me? What I know is this: I was at a party in Friedrichshain. I was taking a leak by the dumpsters when a guy hit me in the face. Three vampires drank me dry. I didn’t understand it then but that’s what it was. I don’t know why but they gave me blood and I became a vampire too. I made all the mistakes. Got accidentally burned by the sun. Posted online and had my home stormed by Second Inquisition hunters. Turned my best friend, mom, and the girl I had a crush on all into vampires. Now they hate me. Am I the only one having a hard time with this? Are there others out there suffering as badly as I am? I wish I could find someone to talk to about it all; someone else like me. I don’t care about Princes or Barons. I’d just like to talk to someone who has shared this experience. — A Brujah neonate

The Domain Berlin is a shattered domain of roving Anarch gangs hunted by the Second Inquisition. Many of them have only a tenuous connection to Anarch culture at large. The recent Anarch Revolt in the city led to the destruction of the Camarilla Prince and the fall of one of the most important Camarilla domains in the world but it also left the Anarchs in tatters after the public violence attracted the Second Inquisition. For the Anarchs, victory was bittersweet. They rid themselves of the oppressor but have to hide from the threat of technologically enabled hunters combing the city for every trace of the undead. That does not mean that Berlin is free from vampires. There are plenty. The social structures that normally limit Embracing have frayed to such a degree that Kindred who themselves have only spent a month or two as vampires are already making progeny as they desperately try to understand their condition. A LARP set in the Anarch domain of Berlin features disparate gangs coming together, trying to survive and make sense of their new unlives. Among them there are a few survivors of the old order, more

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experienced Anarchs haunted by how quickly the giddy heights of the Revolt devolved into running from the Second Inquisition. Fewer still are those who used to belong to the Camarilla. They were first hunted by the Anarchs and then the Second Inquisition. Most of them fled the city but some could not bear to leave and joined the Anarchs instead, strange relics from a bygone era distrusted and respected by the uncomprehending new Kindred who have only known the current era of Second Inquisition oppression.

the distance between the locations is too long, players will spend too much time in transit and arrive at new locations tired and frustrated. Some cities have a compact, walkable center with a number of excellent venues in close proximity to each other. In these cases, the center is the obvious area for the urban LARP. In Berlin, the city is sprawled over a large geographical area, meaning that if you are making an urban LARP, you should choose a specific neighborhood and communicate to the players that nothing will happen outside it. This way, they will get the feel of a big city game while still keeping distances manageable.

The layout of the city is important if you are making a multiple location urban LARP. If

Developments The desolation of Berlin provides an opportunity for young Anarchs to build their own society of the dead. Unburdened by tradition or elders, they have to figure out how to thrive under the shadow of the Second Inquisition. Although Berlin’s Kindred are young, they are often disconnected from their mortal lives much more

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than Anarchs tend to be in other cities. The reason for this lies with the lack of guidance and help a newly Embraced vampire gets in Berlin. Thrust into the night with nobody to tell them what to do, many make grievous mistakes that make it impossible to associate with their friends, family, or colleagues. It is common for an intelligence agency to figure out that a certain mortal identity is now a vampire, making the switch into unlife hard indeed. Many new Anarchs are effectively homeless, trying to find ways to keep a Haven while unable to pay with a credit card. This means that stories of Berlin Anarchs are often about groups of Kindred and their relationships with each other on the margins of mortal society. The Nosferatu are famed for their sewer Havens but in Berlin vampires of other clans are often finding it difficult to influence mortal society to any great benefit. Paradoxically, this has also helped protect Berlin’s Anarchs from the Second Inquisition. Since they live outside the system, they cannot be tracked by the methods that have snared Kindred of other cities. Here are a few developments which can occur in a Berlin chronicle: SECOND INQUISITION CORRUPTION. The local Second Inquisition presence grows corrupt, fat off the success of being able to report the deaths of so many Kindred. Addiction to vitae spreads among Second Inquisition officers and individual Anarchs make inroads into corrupting the Second Inquisition death machine. At the same time, an agency sends agents to infiltrate Anarch gatherings to find out why they keep Embracing new Kindred at such a quick rate.

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FRIENDS OF THE PRINCE. Once upon a time, Berlin had a Prince, the Ventrue Gustav Breidenstein, an authoritarian monster whose ideas of domain and tradition came from the late Middle Ages. His reign was long but it ended in blood, as they so often do. Now some of his old friends and supporters creep back into the city, trying to find any sign of the domain they once knew. They can be villains seeking to re-establish Camarilla control, or just a sad reminder of a status quo that has long since passed into history. ANARCH AGITATORS. Berlin is an Anarch domain, but a very unorganized one. The city has high status in Camarilla circles and more established Anarchs wish to solidify the sect’s hold over the domain to make it their crown jewel in the heart of Europe. Committed Anarch ideologues and agitators come to town to tell the locals how they should organize their city and live their unlives. Some greet them warmly, happy that someone is finally explaining what this vampire stuff is all about, while others view them as a hostile force. MYTHS OF OLD, ALIVE ONCE MORE. The undead inhabitants of Berlin are ignorant even by the standards of Anarch neonates. They know little of the established lore of the Kindred, handed down from sire to childe. This means the city is fertile ground for Kindred faiths such as the Church of Caine or the Bahari. The local Anarchs can come up with strange mythologies of their own. What is more, some of them might actually be true, much to the surprise of experienced Camarilla and Anarch visitors who came prepared to laugh at the ignorance of the local thin-bloods. In a city as chaotic as this, even an ancient rewoken into the modern nights can disappear into the crowd, only to stand revealed when locals start to worship them.

NEW ORLEANS I had a lovely time when I was at Saturnalia. Sometimes it gets competitive among the elders. Who’s going to go as the most abject, powerless neonate? That’s the point, after all. The one time during the year when you get to be a nobody! To be honest, this is a game I love so much that I do it on my own sometimes. At Saturnalia, the fun is in seeing some of my oldest friends and enemies try the same. Some of us age gracefully, while others lose their humanity. They can pretend but they always seem off. Even at Saturnalia. — The Toreador elder Victoria Ash

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The first few times I was at Saturnalia I just enjoyed lording it over all those Princes and elders. A rare bit of fun! But then I realized what going to New Orleans really meant for me: transformation. Trying out who I could be. Some of those experiments never led to anything. Others become part of who I am now. — The Anarch ideologue Salvador Garcia has been under attack from the Sabbat or the Second Inquisition, its Kindred have received much more assistance than is usual in the selfcentered world of vampires.

The Domain New Orleans is technically a Camarilla domain but the reality is different. The Prince does not tend to stay in power all that long and the Camarilla is not capable of controlling domain access. Anarch gangs come and go pretty much as they please and for the majority of local Kindred, underneath the Camarilla facade this is really an Anarch city. The Prince has a court but they understand that they do not have the muscle to enforce their dictates.

Historically, New Orleans has had an unusually big Hecata and Ministry presence. Both clans have waxed and waned along with the city’s Kindred population but their unique brands of death and corruption have always found strong purchase here.

Saturnalia

Some Anarch domains are ruled by Barons of such authority that they essentially become Camarilla in all but name. New Orleans is the reverse; technically Camarilla but free in a way that is rare in the sect.

In many ways, the domain of New Orleans is defined by Saturnalia. Once every three years or so, Kindred descend to New Orleans in droves to lose themselves in a celebration both modern and ancient. Modern because the vast majority of the Kindred who participate are young; ancient because the tradition itself goes back to the time of the Romans and beyond.

The domain is defined by numerous festivals, the vampire festival of Saturnalia the most important among them. The undead population of New Orleans fluctuates more than in any other North American city as Kindred come to celebrate and leave after they have had their fill. The city is not big enough to support hundreds of vampires but fortunately visitors tend to prey on tourists or arrive already sated so as to avoid any undue Masquerade breaches caused by excessive hunting.

Or that is what older vampires tell their childer. Saturnalia has been organized in different domains for centuries but in North America the most famous ones have been in New Orleans. During the festival, all ordinary hierarchies of power are reversed and ordinary titles rescinded. The Prince becomes the pauper and the lowliest neonate the king.

Because of all the festivals, many Kindred have a soft spot for New Orleans. They have had transformative, important experiences there. That is why in the few times the city

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Many Kindred use Saturnalia as an opportunity to try identities, personas, and ideas not part of their ordinary nightly existence. In this way, Saturnalia can serve two opposing purposes, depending on the individuals present: 1. It can let neonates blow off steam so that they will be more docile and easier to govern the rest of the time. This is one of the big reasons the Camarilla likes Saturnalia. If younger Kindred get to feel important every once in a while, they will stay in line. 2. It can let Kindred try things out in the liminal space of a festival before taking them into the real and dangerous world of actual vampire unlife. In this way, Saturnalia foments discord and revolution. This is not the purpose the Camarilla intends for the festival but it happens anyway when young Kindred feel free of their usual constraints and start to ask why they should give that up after the festival is over. One reason many elders turn a blind eye to the destructive effects Saturnalia can have on their own rule is that they have many fond memories of the festival, making them unwilling to suppress it.

Developments The festivals held at New Orleans—Saturnalia the most important among them—are great material for LARP. If you want to organize a LARP in the actual city of New Orleans, you are in luck. There are plenty of venues suitable to an urban LARP, and people generally understand the sort of unconventional attire and acts that LARP tends to entail. When you design a vampiric festival for the

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purposes of LARP, consider what you want the players to get out of the event and then put those elements into the cultural makeup of the in-game event. For example, if you want the LARP to be all about somber reflection, you can use this: The Night of Memory. Kindred have cheated death but that does not mean they cannot die. Violence takes its toll. Since the Masquerade makes it difficult and dangerous to keep written records of vampire culture, much of it is held in the memories of elders and ancillae. When they meet their Final Deaths, those traditions are lost forever. The Night of Memory is dedicated to passing on Kindred history, culture, and practices in different sects, clans, and cults. Here are a few more festivals, each with their own theme that can be used as basis for LARP: Palla Grande. A high point among the Sabbat’s annual festivals, it is also sometimes celebrated by ex-Sabbat packs who have since joined the Anarchs. Rumors of Palla Grande being celebrated in a domain is a surefire way to make everyone suspicious that the ex-Sabbat are in fact infiltrators. Palla Grande is held on All Hallows Eve and features extravagant blood feasts culminating in the re-enactment of a legend from vampire history as an ersatz, semi-improvised theater play. The Vows. An old-fashioned festival from the nights before the Camarilla even existed, The Vows are an annual reaffirming of the loyalty the Kindred of a particular domain feel for their Prince. During the festival, they make vows of loyalty and ritually celebrate their submission to the Prince’s authority. The festival has not been part of the Camarilla mainstream since the first Anarch Revolt but sometimes a Prince

decides to bring it back to the consternation of their domain’s inhabitants. The Blood Wedding. A wedding celebration between two Kindred, usually involving a mutual Blood Bond. For ordinary Kindred this can be a smaller ceremony but when two important

Camarilla elders or Anarch celebrities get married, it can become a full-blown festival, sometimes lasting for many nights. Often a Blood Wedding prompts Kindred to consider their humanity, love and romance, all difficult topics for the bloodsucking undead.

NASHVILLE Q: How do I tell which of them are

VAMPIRES?

A: This is the music business. They’re all vampires. — A joke often told among Nashville Anarchs

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The Domain

each decade in addition to replacing lost members with newly Embraced ones.

Nashville is an Anarch domain where visiting Kindred often have a hard time finding any local vampires at all. The Anarchs have held the city for a long time and they are thoroughly embedded in local mortal society. Most Nashville Anarchs maintain a mortal identity, often complete with a job and a family. They are deeply embedded in the city’s famous music industry as well as tourism, theater, sports, and other sectors where crowds regularly provide fresh hunting.

3. Hunting must focus on tourists, newly arrived hopefuls who want to make it as performing artists and other transients instead of the local population. Although the Baron has set down the rules, most of the city’s Kindred associate them with Nashville, not who rules over them. They take the Masquerade so seriously; Kindred gatherings are extremely rare. It is much more typical to have a mortal event where local vampires come to surreptitiously conduct their business while they celebrate a new artist’s first gold record.

It would be wrong to say that the local Anarchs control Nashville, any more than a particularly influential music producer might control the city. They are part of mortal networks of power, influential but essentially parasites in a system much larger than they are. The key is that a Nashville Anarch does not set themselves apart from the society; they inhabit it. They are right there, often recently Embraced enough that their friends marvel at their youthfulness but have not yet started asking uncomfortable questions.

The Nashville domain is perfect for LARPs where mortal characters play a big role. They might comprise even the majority of a given LARP so that their stories of ambition, backstabbing and music business desperation intersect and interweave with the traditional greedy grasping of the undead. In a LARP like this, you might not know who is a vampire and who is not until it is too late. What is worse, sometimes the mortals are more dangerous than the bloodsuckers, if only because they get underestimated.

The city has a Baron, Carrie Strait, who used to be a country singer of minor renown before she was Embraced into the Toreador. Her presence is rarely felt in the unlives of local Anarchs except if they break the rules she has set for the city.

Does it matter who stakes you and leaves you for the sun, a Brujah or a veteran of the Nashville Sound? In both cases, you will burn.

Population Breakdown

They are:

The biggest clans in Nashville are the Toreador and the Brujah. The Ministry has always been well represented. By vampire standards, the city is overpopulated, maintaining its numerous Kindred by strict control of feeding habits that make it possible to stay under the radar.

1. The Masquerade does not mean just hiding from the mortals. It means becoming one of them, maintaining a flawless mortal identity, in all ways pretending to live just as they do. 2. Each Anarch gang is allowed one Embrace

The city’s Anarchs are inhospitable towards nomad gangs. The requirement to have a fully realized

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mortal identity is hard for many transient Anarchs, especially those who failed to hold onto the ones they had before the Embrace. Because it is difficult for outsiders to settle in the town, transients who have done so form the biggest opposition to the city’s established system.

by clans and sects for Vampire, transposed to the mortal setting. The reasons for the conflict can be anything from greed to pride, love and hate. The important thing is that the conflict still allows all the characters to interact in the same social space the same way vampires do at Elysium. Hidden monsters. There are savage predators prowling in the shadows. The only thing is, they are not vampires. Instead, they are perfectly ordinary exploiters and extortionists. With a suitably monstrous mortal character, even a vampire might get exploited without the mortal even realizing just what they are playing with. For Kindred, there are many different directions the city can go:

The Kindred in Nashville mostly came to the city as mortals and were Embraced here. However, surprisingly many of them were born somewhere else, usually in various towns and cities across the American South. Transient in their mortal lives, the Embrace rooted them in the fabric of Nashville and made them local.

Developments

The Masquerade fails. Local Kindred place a premium on the Masquerade but they also live very close to humanity. Slowly, vampire by vampire, the secret of the Masquerade starts to fray as mortal friends and family members figure out the truth, or a vampire exposes them to it in a moment of weakness. Soon the insiders know that there is a supernatural evil creeping among them, in their families, workplaces, and houses of worship.

The way to make a Nashville LARP work is that you have to make human stories that are as compelling as those of the vampires. Think about how the LARP works if a player never interacts with a vampire. Here are a few ideas for mortal play: The young wannabe superstar. A talented young artist comes to town in search of fame and fortune. The most sordid elements of the local music business descend on them, trying to snatch them up before their rivals manage to do the same. This type of a story is great for reminding players that the vampires are not necessarily the worst creatures prowling the night. Sometimes you lose your soul by signing a predatory record deal.

Mortals and vampires at war. Local Kindred are deeply enmeshed with music venues, organized crime, production companies, and other mortal institutions. When such groups go to war with each other, the vampires follow. Sometimes they prey on those who get caught in the crosshairs but other times they can get so invested they try to make their side win. A mortal hitman can get lucky planning the assassination of a vampire without even knowing why their target went up in flames the moment they crashed through the window at noon.

Civil war. Two or more production companies, artists, or families of artists decide that they cannot share the town. One must reign supreme while the others fall! This is the same kind of a dynamic as that fostered

Families. Nashville Kindred live close to mortals. You can emphasize this by focusing on what it

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looks like when a vampire is part of a mortal social unit. What does it mean when the bride at a wedding is a vampire, the groom a ghoul? Do people working for a vampire boss wonder why they are never seen during the day, even if

the business is a nightclub? Vampires tend to degrade everything they touch and looking at the nuances of this dynamic in a mortal context can be highly compelling.

CONTESTED DOMAINS The stories of vampire unlife interwoven through this book are set in a contested domain. They are domains which are not decisively controlled by the Camarilla, the Anarchs, or some other entity. Instead, multiple sects seek to gain power for themselves and find advantages over the others. In the tumultuous atmosphere of modern nights, it often feels like most domains are contested one way or another. The Prince or Baron may rule tonight but that is no guarantee of their position tomorrow.

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Note that having a few Anarchs hiding in a Camarilla domain does not make it contested. It requires a real balance of power; the wealth and supernatural might of the Camarilla challenged by the numbers and mortal aptitude of the Anarchs. For a Vampire LARP, and especially a LARP chronicle, the contested domain is the most fruitful setting. It makes it possible to run two types of events at the minimum–Camarilla and Anarch–and it means there is a dynamic interplay of power. No character can ever feel too secure in their accomplishments. One of the peculiarities of a Kindred’s existence is that vampires are perfectly capable of being in a civil war with each other yet also meeting at Elysium and clinking champagne glasses full of blood. This is fortunate for the LARP designer because it allows for high-stakes conflict while still making possible the kind of social encounters and events LARP consists of.

Contested Chronicle Here is an example of a LARP chronicle featuring a contested domain: First Event: The Old Prince The Old Prince of the city has recently risen from torpor, assuming rule from the Seneschal who ran affairs in their stead for decades. The Old Prince imagines that they can just continue the same as before they went into torpor, ignoring all developments that happened in the interim. The Old Prince believes that the Camarilla is as unassailable as ever and hosts a reception at the Elysium where they high-handedly condemn a number of Anarchs to final death for various breaches of the Traditions. After all, a returning Prince must show their power! Second Event: Revolution The Anarchs rise up, provoked by the thoughtless brutality of the Old Prince and the breaching of the accords struck with the Seneschal while the Prince slept. The event itself is a victory celebration as the Anarchs have destroyed the Prince and sent much of the Primogen into

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exile. Other Camarilla members have decided to take their chances with the Anarchs, despite the lowly position they have in a conquered city. Third Event: The Government in Exile This can be a smaller event in a different venue. The remnants of the city’s Camarilla have sought refuge in a neighboring domain. They are treated to the hospitality and the scorn of the locals, making it possible to feature colorful one-shot characters. The Camarilla survivors decide on their internal organization, making sure all the roles at the Prince’s Court are filled, and plot revenge and reconquest while attempting to talk important allies from other domains into helping them. Forth Event: Stagnation Meanwhile, those Camarilla members who elected to stay behind and risk the mercy of the Anarchs are still there, living much like

they did before. It turns out that it is no easy task for a Brujah tough guy to take over the Prince’s holdings in mortal media and the police department. To make it all work, they need the help and support of the low-level Camarilla Kindred who actually handled all those affairs. It becomes evident that secretly, much of the old deeper Camarilla power structure in the mortal world is still intact, only superficially taken over by the Anarchs. The event is a party held by the Anarchs. They are driven by internal squabbles concerning the division of the loot from the Camarilla. Many of them do not have any idea what to do with influence operations or financial holdings and those who do are cowed by their more violent compatriots. Meanwhile, the Camarilla holdovers keep their heads down and plot to hide their best assets from their conquerors. Fifth Event: Failed Reconquest The event is a negotiation between the Anarchs and leaders of neighboring Camarilla domains. The Anarchs bring a large retinue and many of the Camarilla characters are present in the entourages of neighboring leaders. The leaders themselves present another opportunity to play fun one-off characters. The Anarchs start defiant but as the evening progresses it becomes clear that the Camarilla is intent on restoring a Prince to the city and is willing to hold all their instruments of mortal influence hostage to do it, including the media control required to maintain the Masquerade.

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Yet if the Camarilla were really sure of their position, they would not bother with negotiations at all; they would just attack Anarch Havens. The truth is that neither side is strong enough to control the domain, forcing a compromise. Sixth Event: Peace Accords The Kindred of the city come together in the Elysium of the new Camarilla Prince, with the city’s Anarchs as honored guests. All old animosities have been buried and everyone rejoices at a new era of peace and prosperity. Or at least, that is the official line. In reality, junior Anarchs are already plotting to replace their leaders, now seen to be in bed with the Camarilla. Meanwhile, the supporters of the deposed Old Prince plot and scheme to eradicate the hated Anarchs from the city once and for all, no matter what the weak compromise of a new Prince says. Of course, as you run the chronicle, player actions might require updating your plot. Perhaps the Anarchs decide not to execute the Old Prince, leading to a situation where the city is divided three ways between the Anarchs and two separate Camarilla factions one with their own Prince consisting of the Old Prince, and the other with the Seneschal who has now decided to claim praxis for good.

Winners And Losers Decisive victories are rare in the world of the Kindred. The Anarchs discover that the Camarilla was rooted much deeper than they thought after a supposed victory. The Camarilla finds out that the Anarchs seem to replenish themselves faster than they can be stamped out, no matter how many Anarch Havens are leaked to the Second Inquisition. This is also a good state of affairs for a LARP designer. Every time a conflict is resolved, the seeds of the next one are already sown. If the LARP is a one-off, an ambiguous ending is more suited to the World of Darkness than a clearcut one. The animosity between the Camarilla and the Anarchs is an eternal engine of grievances that motivate the next round of conflict. The Camarilla hate the Anarchs for the threat they pose to the established order and the Anarchs hate the Camarilla for oppressing them and limiting their prospects, to say nothing of more personal humiliations. In this way, the eternal War of Ages where the old and the young among vampires fight to attain freedom or hold onto their privileges is the motor that keeps generating more action for your LARPs. Resolutions where every side is permanently satisfied are impossible.

Breaking Down a City The limits of Camarilla and Anarch power in a divided city can break down in many different ways. Geographical domains are common, some strongly held by a single sect and others contested. For example, the Anarchs hold the central party district, the docks, the slums, and the poorer suburbs. The Camarilla controls the affluent neighborhoods and the administrative center as well as wealthy suburbs. Some of the city’s parks have become no man’s land; areas where you can hunt with impunity if you are willing

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to risk being attacked by someone on the other side of the divide. If you want to go for a realistic feel for your LARP chronicle, you can try to use real-world venues that are in line with who holds which domain in the city at any given moment. Thus, when the Anarchs sweep their way into ruling over City Hall, you can hire a venue in that area for a Anarch game to demonstrate their newfound reach. The domains can also be broken down in a more

abstract way. This has the advantage of making the LARP more flexible in terms of physical space. You do not have to explain why the Brujah are hanging around City Hall if physical territory is not important to begin with. Instead, domains are broken down according to spheres of influence. Thus, the Camarilla controls the traditional levers of power in mortal society: municipal politics, major businesses, etc. The Anarchs maintain an iron grip on all nightlife, crucially important for Kindred seeking to feed. Thus, their influence is more limited in the mortal world but significantly higher in the world of the undead.

Beyond the War of Ages It does not have to be just the Camarilla and the Anarchs. In a big city, it is possible for two Camarilla Princes to fight over the control of

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the same domain, complete with rival courts. Anarchs can do the same, with different gangs holding onto their own areas and seeking to destroy the others. After all, in the World of Darkness those who are almost like you but not quite are hated with much more passion than those who are completely different. The domain can also be under attack from the Sabbat or an independent Prince who rejects Camarilla affiliation. There can be even stranger creatures contesting the rule of the undead, from werewolves to mages. Who knows what is really behind all those mysterious challenges to a vampiric domain? Of course, since you are running a LARP, the best enemies are those you can put into your LARP as player characters.

INTERLUDE: NOTES FROM AN EXECUTION From Deja’s notebook: After a while you get lulled into a false sense of security. I suppose that happens to everybody but with all that happened to me, I really thought I was being careful and understood the world I was in. I mean, seriously! I had been Embraced. I’ve seen people beaten and bloodied, hunted and seduced. I’ve been told that if I make a mistake, they’ll kill me and this time it’ll stick. The weird thing is that nothing happened to me. It was just one more Camarilla party, like any other. I’ve been to so many in a short time that I didn’t even think about it. That’s what we do in the Ventrue, apparently. Go to each other’s parties and pretend to be human. At some point, there was a buzz in the crowd. I knew that often happened when they brought in humans for us to feed from. Such an extravagance, we don’t have to hunt because someone does that for us. Eager humans who want the thrill but don’t understand what they’re in for. Only this time I recognized the people we had our hungry eyes on. I’d seen them many times, opening doors, driving cars, managing finances. They were ghouls, servants of different Camarilla Kindred. Everyone says that ghouls are hard to train and if you have a good one, it’s worth holding onto. They also say that if you’re not strict in your training, your ghoul might start getting ideas above their station. Annika was there; Salomé Diaz as well. She did a whole speech about loyal service and how we knew how to reward those who proved themselves worth it. Some of the ghouls cried. They’d served at the whim of undead monstrosities for decades and now finally they would be made into vampires. They would become truly immortal, free from service. Perhaps they could have ghouls of their own. Everyone applauded. It was all very touching. People dressed up, used to casual wealth, congratulating themselves on their excellence. They said that the Embrace must be a special event. After all, it was when these ghouls would finally become fully fledged members of the Camarilla. Real vampires. A second birth.

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There was music, a string quartet. The ghouls knelt in a circle, baring their necks, knowing the familiar bliss to come. The Kiss that would usher in their new existence. We know how this works: you drink a human dry, then give them your own blood. They become us. It’s not that long ago this happened to me. The Ventrue and the Toreador, the odd Brujah or Tremere all circle the ghouls. They lean in and drink, from one after another. Slowly the humans become depleted, enervated, dry. They slump on the floor, dead. I thought they must have arranged beforehand for each sire to Embrace their childe at the conclusion of the ritual. That didn’t happen. Instead, Salomé clapped her hands and said that now that we’ve enjoyed our refreshments, we should go out to the garden where she’d had some of her recently acquired sculptures displayed. The crowd relaxed, the ritual feeding now over. They walked out in pairs and small groups, leaving the unfortunate ghouls to lie dead on the floor.

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When I think back to the betrayal, there are small details that stand out. One was how comfortable the Camarilla were with letting their servants see the spectacle. You’d think that if you were going to betray your longtime ghouls and make mockery of the promises you’ve given them, you’d at least do it in secret. None of that here! Many surviving ghouls saw what happened, and in a few nights they would have gossiped about it to every vampire servant in this city. Didn’t the Camarilla Kindred care? Are they so comfortable in their superiority that they don’t need to worry about what their servants think? Or did they do it on purpose as a warning? Don’t think you can ever become us. I don’t know! I can’t make it out. It doesn’t seem smart but they just didn’t seem to care at all. The second thing is even worse. I keep thinking about how my fellow Camarilla members talked about what had happened. They said it was a mercy! They painted themselves as great humanitarians. Some even got emotional about it, a little teary-eyed at how much they cared and what wonderful people they were. They said that many ghouls wear out and become unreliable. At that point, they’re so old that withdrawal from our blood would kill them or cause them to age decades. The best thing to do is to tell them a beautiful lie so that they can die happy, like a dog that gets a treat just before you put it down. I can’t take this anymore. I just about accepted the cynical plots and betrayals but when these same creatures start constructing a story about their uplifting moral principles, I’m out.

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Chapter Five

CAMARILLA ELYSIUM “Are you sure I can just go into Elysium? I’m an Anarch,” Sebastian said, watching the throng of people outside the opera entrance. They looked exactly as you would expect. Some were dressed well, others looked like art students. The only unusual detail was the low number of elderly people, usually well represented in high culture audiences. “Sure! Of course! Just put on your best suit and walk in!” Dee said, punching Sebastian in the arm. “Don’t be a coward!” “Is that your best suit?” Sebastian asked, glancing at Dee. She was wearing ratty sneakers and an oversized t-shirt with the faded image of her own face. “No... But they know me. They don’t know you. Make a good first impression!” Dee didn’t stop to listen to Sebastian’s reply. She walked in confidently, saying hello to some of the other guests. Some humored her, others recoiled. “Are we going to see the show? Or is there a secret party somewhere?” Sebastian whispered as they walked up the red carpeted stairs. The opera staff bowed, nobody asking to see a ticket or even for them to give their names. “Of course we’ll see the show!” Dee replied.

Half an hour later, Sebastian sat on the balcony, watching as a young Japanese soprano sang in a language he didn’t understand. The audience was sparse, locked in their small cliques. Sebastian did not feel like he could join any of them and Dee had disappeared somewhere. How did you get to know anyone in a setting like this? Surely it was not only about watching the performance in a half-empty opera hall? Sebastian decided to find his guide. He sneaked back into the crimson-carpeted corridors, making his way down the stairs and towards where he imagined the dressing rooms to be. Something told him that this was where he might find the people he had wanted to meet. The Anarchs were not all bad but Sebastian was drawn to power. Surely instead of griping about the Camarilla he could deal with them? So many of his Anarch compatriots seemed smallminded, locked in their tiny mortal concerns. He did not want to join the Camarilla but he admired their grander perspective. Sebastian found his way to an unadorned, echoing staircase opening from a door marked “employees only”. The smell of a dressing room guided him forward, soft voices murmuring, laughter surfacing from underneath the grandeur of the music. The dressing room was long and well-used, mirrors with lights fronted by make-up tables

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Design

lining one wall. He recognized some of the performers, one flirting with an ancient Ventrue matron. Dee was there too, crawling on all fours, licking blood from the floor as the Camarilla Kindred around her laughed.

For the purpose of making Vampire LARPs, the concept of Elysium is a blessing. In the Elysium, even bitter rivals must co-exist. To do otherwise would be to risk the wrath of the Prince. It means that wildly antagonistic characters can interact without escalation into violence, making it possible to create a wide variety of interesting LARP scenes.

Sebastian waited uncomfortably until the ancillae had had their amusements. Nobody paid him any mind. Dee rose to her feet, wiping blood off the side of her mouth and asked: “What? Why do you look like that?”

Not every Camarilla LARP has to be set in Elysium but many will be.

“You’re an embarrassment to all Anarchs everywhere,” Sebastian muttered.

As a setting, Elysium works best if participants play their characters, so they take Elysium seriously. If there indeed is violence, there will be repercussions, and everyone understands that. The reason why it is best to play it this way is that while Elysium is an in-game concept, it also has a design function to allow different characters who would not otherwise interact to come together. One of the dangers of setting a game in Elysium is that it becomes too much of a default choice. “Where are we?” “At the Elysium, same as always!” The LARP has more nuance and character if we always know whose Elysium it is, what kind of rules are in force, whether it is temporary or permanent, and so on. The Elysium itself can become a character in the story of the LARP.

Permanent Elysiums The Prince’s Mansion is always considered Elysium, or perhaps the city’s Kindred meet

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at a local theater every Friday night and these meetings are granted the protection of the Primogen. Whatever the case, permanent Elysium means that the rules of Elysium are in force at the given location either all the time or following a regular schedule. As an in-game location for a chronicle, the permanent Elysium is especially useful if the LARP has a standard venue that is easily available for use. For production reasons, it makes sense to have that venue be the Elysium and to organize LARPs there. To have variety, a chronicle with a permanent Elysium benefits if some games are held at other venues. Perhaps between two LARPs set at the home of the Prince we see a game where a Brujah coterie is the host, using a bar or a nightclub as the venue.

Temporary Elysium Temporary Elysium means that someone, usually the Prince, has declared a specific place Elysium for a short period of time, usually just one night. This makes sense when the local Kindred come together at a one-off event that would not be repeated. This can be the case both in-game and off-game, the production realities of the LARP mirroring the plans of vampires. Since temporary Elysiums tend to be one-off events, they can be strange and idiosyncratic. Once players have internalized the basic rules of an Elysium, you can change them or introduce new ones for the sake of variety. Perhaps the temporary Elysium has been declared by a visiting elder, someone so powerful the local Prince cannot say no to them even when their edicts and ideas go against local norms. Or maybe

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a member of the Primogen hosts a one-off event seeking to garner support for a bid at Princedom.

Strange Rules The personality of the host is reflected in the nature of the Elysium. A corporate Ventrue Prince has a modern, slightly impersonal Elysium while a Gangrel Prince might decree that only outdoor venues count. Sometimes elders used to have their every whim catered to institute bizarre rules such as demanding that all guests must wear red or Nosferatu are not allowed to hide their faces. There might be a reason for such a rule, shrouded in antiquity, but its real purpose as a LARP designer is to offer a bit of variety to the game experience. After all, if everyone wears red, the LARP’s aesthetics will be very specific and if all Nosferatu must show their faces the players of those players can show off their make-up skills. In this way, you can use the irregularities of the elder mindset to subtly introduce LARP design into your event. It does not matter if one or two characters rebel against such rules. The important thing is the collective aesthetic effect. Another choice is to imply events in the story of the chronicle by hinting at them in the form of rules. The Keeper of the Elysium conveys the Prince’s dictate that the Sabbat, and especially the war with the Sabbat, cannot be talked about under any circumstances. A rule like this will make characters curious: why is it needed in the first place? What’s really going on with the Sabbat?

PLAYING THE PRINCE (AND OTHER CAMARILLA OFFICIALS)

Playing a character with an official role in the local Camarilla comes with power, but it also means your choices can have a significant impact on the LARP experience of your fellow players. This is why the more power your character has, the more you should also consider how you can build a great LARP experience for everybody. Of course, it is rare for a single Camarilla domain to have all of these roles present. Many domains have their own, unique official positions. This is by necessity an overview of the most commonly seen functions.

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The Prince

- Try to steer the political action in the LARP towards big scenes with lots of characters. If you are called to judge a criminal, make the scene open to all. If you have to decide the fate of the domain, make it into a public hearing of all the Kindred under your rule. You are the dictator still, but this way the spectacle of your authority also becomes LARP content for a large number of other characters.

The Prince tends to be the single most powerful vampire in a Camarilla domain, if not supernaturally then at least politically. Typically, this power is what grants the Prince their position. The Prince rules the city and its Kindred, safeguarding the Traditions of the Camarilla and making decisions on who gets to sire childer or which hunting grounds belong to whom.

- Avoid being a “good Prince”. Sure, your character might imagine themselves to be a benevolent, just ruler but generally your position generates more action in the LARP if you are unreasonable and petty. Of course, this might mean you get deposed soon.

In reality of course it is a rare Prince who can wield all this power at their whim. Other powerful forces in the city provide a check to the Prince’s authority, perhaps even conspiring to depose the Prince if they are provoked enough.

Finally, if you really do get deposed, make a spectacle of it if you can. It is easy to make a Prince into a villain, and if you do, make sure it is fun to beat you! Promise revenge. Threaten everyone with eternal doom. And of course, your successor can soon do the same....

In Vampire LARP, events have a tendency to revolve around the Prince. Becoming the Prince is the ultimate win condition for politically minded characters so it is not unusual for the holder of the title to change fairly frequently in a long-running chronicle.

The Seneschal

If you play the Prince, here are a few things you can do to improve the game of all around you:

A Seneschal helps the Prince run the city, often taking care of practical matters while the Prince focuses on the big picture.

- Delegate. After all, you are the Prince. Why would you do anything yourself? LARP dynamics may conspire to bring every little thing to you, but you can fight against this phenomenon by delegating relentlessly. Delegate to the Primogen, to the Sheriff, to random members of the local Camarilla who just happen to be there. If someone brings you a problem, delegate solving it to them.

The role of the Seneschal is a great way to distribute the usual responsibilities of the Prince for two players, making it easier to avoid the congestion of people wanting to take their problems to those at the top. For this reason, it is a good idea to arrange it with the player of the Prince that the Seneschal is able to make independent decisions without always checking with their boss.

- Avoid long meetings in rooms closed off from the rest of the LARP. You can say: “My people need to see me!”

Much of the same advice given for the Prince also works for the Seneschal, with the added

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The Sheriff

possibility of contributing to the general milieu of conspiracy that tends to infest Camarilla Elysiums. For prospective palace coups, the next Prince the plotters want to install is often the current Seneschal. After all, they already have a good idea of how the city works.

The Sheriff is the Prince’s main tool for keeping order in the domain. The Sheriff investigates breaches of the Traditions and punishes those who break them. A good fit for martial, physically capable characters, the Sheriff is often one of the most feared individuals in a Camarilla domain. As the Prince’s enforcer, the Sheriff is often tasked with dealing with the Anarchs, interrogating suspected thin-blood sympathizers or digging up criminals holed up in the sewer domains of the Nosferatu.

Primogen The Primogen are a council of the most powerful vampires in the domain, advising the Prince. Often they are the eldest Kindred of each dominant local faction or clan. In some domains, the Primogen are collectively more powerful than the Prince, although they still take a back seat to the nightly running of the city.

Playing the Sheriff, here are a few ways you can improve the LARP for your co-players: - Form a posse. If you have a difficult task ahead, try to drum up volunteers to help you and make deputies. This means more characters will be involved in the scenes ahead. This can extend to interrogations and other social scenes. Perhaps you feel that someone who personally knows the target is better suited to digging up secrets than you are.

A Primogen council should have from five to seven members to be useful in a LARP; enough to have lively discussions but not so many as to bog the meetings down. What to do as a Primogen player:

- Embrace strategic incompetence. What this means is that sometimes it is better to be bad at your job if the LARP would suffer from extremely efficient law enforcement. If the Anarchs never get their insurrection in motion, the game will be boring. You can justify this as an in-game thing too: perhaps your character feels that it is best to capture your targets after they have played their hands so that their guilt is clear.

- Avoid getting stuck in long meetings behind closed doors. For many Vampire LARPers, the meeting of the Primogen is the archetypal scene where powerful characters seclude themselves from the rest of the LARP, causing a lot of the action outside to grind to a halt. Avoid this by making meetings short and public. - Embrace the use of representatives or whips. If you do not have time for a meeting of the Primogen, designate another member of your clan to go instead. For the player of a neonate this can be a thrilling experience! You can brief them in advance and give them goals to achieve.

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The Scourge The Scourge has a very similar function as the Sheriff, except maybe a bit darker and more violent, more focused on ridding the domain of undesirables. If the domain has both a Sheriff and a Scourge, there is a great potential for conflict between them. Otherwise, if a new Prince comes to power, fires the Sheriff and installs a Scourge, that is a clear signal for how things are going to be in the domain. A Scourge can be a good villain character, brutalizing the domain until they get overthrown by a concentrated effort by the other characters. A particularly obnoxious Scourge might work best as a supporting character.

The Keeper of the Elysium The Elysiums are the backbone of Camarilla social life and the most common setting for Camarilla LARP. The Keeper of the Elysium can be a very central character, not in terms of power like the Prince but in terms of social prestige. After all, the Keeper is often the host of the in-game event. This means that playing the Keeper has some elements you should consider in terms of how your actions affect the LARP as a whole: - In-game the characters are your guests; offgame they are players in a LARP. This means that it is hard to throw anybody out of the Elysium since it would mean the end of their LARP as well. If someone insists on breaking rules, other types of punishments work better. - Embrace the role of the host. Flit from one party to the next, ask people how they are

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doing, gossip.... This means you will always have something to do and it keeps the LARP’s social dynamics moving. - Spot players who seem lost or lonely. Talk to them the way a good party host would. Introduce them to someone else.

The Heralds The Heralds are gossipers and enforcers of social standards among the Camarilla. Their status may be official or unofficial but it works best if there’s a gaggle, five to seven, so that they can collectively cast judgment on the hapless residents of the domain. The Heralds are essentially high school mean girls, keeping the social dynamics of the Camarilla suitably dysfunctional, stirring up trouble if things are too quiet. Perhaps the Prince keeps

them around because they distract attention from real issues or maybe they represent a counterforce to official authority, subverting the establishment with innuendo. In a LARP, their function is to keep information flowing and prodding other characters into action. As you play a Herald, keep in mind: - It is better to deal in truths than lies. Lying in a LARP is ridiculously easy and it is hard to tell the difference between something made up for the fiction and something made up inside the fiction. Because of this, it works best if you make yourself into a dependable gossip.

- It is good to gossip somewhat destructively. If you think the Brujah will go nuts if they hear what the Ventrue are saying about them, make sure they get the info. It probably leads to trouble, but in a LARP that just means more action. - Provoke people. If the Brujah does not react to being insulted, you can ask them: “Are you really going to let them talk about you like that? In front of everyone?”

WARSAW

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o, I will sacrifice and offer to my dear motherland, my body and life, my possessions and my blood; I want to give myself completely. — King John III Sobieski, the once and future Prince of Warsaw Only when the land is pure, will He return. — A hopeful member of the Royal Cult Warsaw is a city of death and rebirth. In the 16th and 17th centuries it was one of the most important cities in Europe. During the partitions of Poland and the World Wars it suffered greatly, leveled to the ground in World War II.

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And after all the destruction, rebuilding and reconstruction. The terrors of history haunt nearly every street. All this death has never quite managed to erase old memories of more prosperous times. This is especially true among the Kindred, some of whom still remember how it used to be. Of course, for a vampire the world was a simpler place back then. You could still imagine yourself ruling over the mortals from the shadows. For many among the undead, such fantasies were dashed in the tumult of the 20th century as vampiric motivations shifted towards mere survival.

Jan III Sobieski was the king of Poland in life and the Prince of Warsaw in death. He disappeared during the World Wars and might well have perished, a fact about which many in the city are in complete denial. There is a Royal Cult which longs for the return of Prince Sobieski and that judges all subsequent Princes in terms of whether they are good stewards in the old Prince’s absence. The Cult is one reason no Prince has managed to establish a long, stable rule since the wars.

The Factions Warsaw is not a unified domain with a single Kindred ruler. It has splintered into a number of smaller domains which are sometimes in conflict with each other. The Camarilla. Perhaps if you squint, you can pretend that this is still a Camarilla city. There is a Prince (currently the Tremere Tobias Geist but how long will that last?) and centuries of Camarilla tradition so surely the current splintering is just a phase that will soon be corrected. Various Kindred faiths and cults are gaining currency among the Camarilla creating internal discord. The Anarchs. The Anarch Revolt has caused turmoil in countless domains across the world, Warsaw being no different. Recently, the city’s Gangrel defected from the Camarilla en masse, leading to the creation of a new Anarch Barony, one of the three in the city.

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Nosferatu. The Nosferatu have their own Anarch Barony. The Camarilla has never been a comfortable fit for the clan and dissatisfaction resulted in the creation of their own domain in the undercity below city streets. The Second Inquisition. Poland is a strongly religious country where such influence is felt everywhere. The local Second Inquisition hunters have two internal factions: the professionals who come from intelligence agencies and seek to eradicate Kindred using modern technology; and the old school inquisitors whose ideals and tactics harken back to Society of Leopold traditions. The two factions do not always get along but both are well funded and very motivated. The Autarkis. Some of the Kindred in the city are unaligned. The number of competing domains makes it possible for individual vampires to stay out of all of them. The most important group among the Autarkis are the Hecata, with their own agenda currently outside any power structure.

Locations Here is a list of actual Warsaw locations that have been used as venues in a multi-location urban Vampire LARP: - Kolejowa Street, Dworzec Zachodni. Anarch territory. The biggest biker bar in the city is close by, as is the big West Warsaw train station. Busy and loud. - Zofiówka Sanatorium. A haunted, derelict old mental health facility. It’s well known among local Kindred that good things rarely happen here. - Łazienki Królewskie. A big garden and park complex, its construction began when King Sobieski was still a mortal. There are many tourists but also numerous hidden places. The Tremere Chantry is known to be in its vicinity. - Palace of Culture and Science. A known Kindred “no go” zone that should always be avoided. The rumor is that the Second Inquisition is watching the area. - Opera Club. A club and the Camarilla Elysium. - Wilanów Palace. A former royal palace and the meeting ground of the Royal Cult. - The Undercity. Warsaw has a lot of tunnels and underground construction projects ranging from forgotten passages used by partisans to fight invaders during the World Wars to rumors of complete

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underground luxury apartments built during the Communist era. All of these are under the control of the Nosferatu. -St. Augustine’s Church in Nowolipki. A church which survived the destruction of the past wars. It used to have vampire connections but now it is strictly Second Inquisition territory. - The town of Kirsztajnów near the Kampinos National Park. Gangrel grounds and the territory of the Gangrel Baron. - The Soho factory. An old factory, now a place for shopping and restaurants. An Anarch stronghold and a very lively place. - Jabłonna Palace. A palace used as a Camarilla Elysium.

The Stories Nosferatu supremacy. The Nosferatu have not been treated well by the city. They were persecuted under a prior Prince who sought to clear them out entirely and this has left its mark in their attitude towards the city. There is a rumor that the Nosferatu have kidnapped Tremere for the purposes of trying to gain their occult power and further strengthen their defenses in The Undercity, preparing for a takeover of other domains. The domain of Praga. There is a saying in Warsaw that the best thing you can find in the district of Praga is getting your teeth punched in and your phone stolen. There is a discrepancy between what the district looks like to mortals and the Kindred now that the Gangrel have established their own Anarch Barony of the “Iron Branch”. Most of its members have been Anarchs only for a few years, having defected from the Camarilla. As a result, they still see things in Camarilla terms. Because they split from the Camarilla in moral disgust over its corruption and turpitude, they seek to handle their own domain with the utmost correctness, making it the best run and most law-abiding of all the city’s domains. Yet discontent is brewing among the Kindred of the Iron Branch. What is the point of being an Anarch if you have to stick to the Traditions? The Camarilla is none too happy about being upstaged either. The Consumptionists. The city is awash with cults, especially among the Camarilla. The Nosferatu have a cult of their own, although it is not a religious one. Born of the atheism of their Baron, it is a philosophy built on the idea that the role of vampires is to consume. They drink blood, they suck mortals dry. They do not produce, they use. It is a destructive cult, especially now that the first whispers of the word diablerie have been heard among its members. After all, that is the ultimate in vampiric consumption. Who says the mortals are the only legitimate targets?

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THE QUAD CITIES Dear Friends, I’m sorry I could not attend your little party. Prior engagements with my own have called me away at the last moment. These things can be tedious, and deadly, as some of you know. But alas, duty calls. Apologies for that. As for all of your dirty little secrets. I will not divulge them. You are all safe... in that regard anyway. Enjoy your city and your power. Have faith, dear friends! I will come back to see how you are all doing. Someday. Your Benefactor, — Ira Not all Kindred domains are individual cities. The Quad Cities metropolitan area is home to 400,000 people in the intersection of three

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interstates and the Mississippi River in the U.S. It consists of an interlocking series of urban areas in Iowa and Illinois. Originally there were the Tri-Cities of Davenport, Rock Island, and Moline. The name changed with the incorporation of more areas. Today there are five cities but the name got stuck at Quad. The Beckoning has made it possible for younger Kindred to hold power in major Camarilla domains. In smaller areas, this has been true for much longer. The Quad Cities domain is controlled by a coterie who moved in when Davenport was founded in 1839. They were originally marginal figures in Kindred society but the recognition of an emergent domain made it possible for them to establish themselves. As former outsiders become established, they gain the sort of history that always plagues those who claim praxis. Among the Kindred, it’s never possible to account for every loose end. The bodies never stay buried.

The Betrayal The original coterie who made the Quad Cities into a proper domain consisted of Ira of the Ministry, the Ventrue Eli, the Toreador Sasha, the Tremere Darius, and the Brujah Mary. Ira led the coterie but eventually the others turned on him, ousting him from his role in an internal coup. He managed to escape and hasn’t been seen since the 1920’s.

there, influencing his former domain and plotting a comeback. Since the 1950’s, the main vehicle for his efforts in the mortal sphere has been the purposefully quotidian The Northern Illinois Leisure Center which organizes and runs street festivals and carnivals and produces television promotions. They also own restaurants, bars, and nightclubs.

Since then, the other members of the coterie have settled into familiar roles. Eli is the Prince and Mary the Sheriff. They have had luck in maintaining the domain free from more powerful Camarilla players because of its geographical location and the presence of a werewolf pack. It takes skill and experience to evade the werewolves, something that Kindred with designs on the domain usually do not have.

Under the surface, the Center also deals in drugs and prostitution, providing ample blackmail material for the vampires who oversee its operations. COVID-19-related lockdown measures have made feeding increasingly difficult for many Kindred. Ira has chosen this moment for his return, banking on his enemies being distracted by their own difficulties. He has also floated the promise among Ministry allies that were the Quad Cities to fall, the new regime would be much more lax in terms of feeding restrictions. Of course, he knows that this could lead to a Masquerade breach and a Second Inquisition hunter operation in the domain but he has judged the risk to be worth it.

Despite keeping away from the spotlight, Ira has always been

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The Domain In terms of its Kindred population, the Quad Cities is a long-time Camarilla domain. When it was originally founded, the Anarchs were at low ebb worldwide and the coterie who made this their own domain sought to assume the privileges the Camarilla granted to those in power. For external enemies, smaller domains are harder to infiltrate. Local Kindred know the area well and the occasional Anarch scout sticks out, making it easy to eliminate them. Or leak their presence to the local werewolf pack who rarely mind destroying a vampire. Now, for the first time in its history, the Quad Cities are facing a concentrated Anarch attempt to establish themselves in the domain in the form of Ira’s Ministry cult. Unlike previous contenders, they have the advantage of significant local knowledge and support from Ira’s assets in the area. The NILE Group has provided new arrivals with Havens, prey and useful roles they can take in local operations. Because of this, Ira has managed to establish himself fairly well in the domain before anyone has noticed. The obvious setup for a LARP chronicle is to make the main characters the Camarilla of the Quad Cities, slowly becoming more and more aware of the trouble in their midst. However, you can also make Ira’s Ministry cult into player characters, running them as a parallel smaller chronicle until they start to merge with the main chronicle. A Camarilla vampire can find their way to a meeting of the cult or the Ministry may join the local Camarilla under a false identity.

Stories The core conflict in the domain is between the Camarilla and the Anarchs but with atypical inflections. The Camarilla elite used to be downtrodden outsiders before they got together and founded their own domain. The Anarchs are either Ministry or followers of the Ministry, giving their activities a decidedly cult-like bent. Because the original impetus to form the domain came from Ira, the Ministry has been in the Quad Cities since the beginning. Indeed, they argue that they are just claiming what belonged to them all along. The Center for Light and Wellness. The Center is seemingly a mortal quasi-cult focused on personal growth and wellbeing. You can walk in, learn breathing exercises, and enjoy the communal love until

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it becomes time to tithe the Center for all they have done for you. In reality, the Center is another front for the Ministry. In a chronicle, you can create an event entirely built around the Center, with mortal supporting characters, chronicle regulars from the Camarilla seeking to convert its members into a herd and Ministry vampires scheming in the wings. Social sabotage. The ministry has sought to subtly undermine the mortal influence held by Prince Eli and his court. Methods include covert support for rivals in business, government, and crime. For the purposes of organizing a LARP, another form of sabotage concerns public social events, galas, and gallery openings. Each represents a financial stake in the city’s wellbeing, but also the court’s continuing project to insert themselves into the fabric of the city. You can make a LARP event out of a gallery opening, with undercover Ministry Kindred seeking to turn it into a fiasco. A new generation of werewolves. Strict avoidance of local werewolves has been a tenet of faith for the Camarilla since the domain’s inception. Werewolves live short and violent lives and they can go through multiple generations in the time a vampire truly settles down into a new domain. Ira’s Ministry has covertly provoked the local werewolves, trying to get them to attack the Camarilla. Some of their younger members have started to wonder whether the war with the vampires really serves their purposes. They seek to make contact, to the terror of the local Kindred. Warlike werewolves are scary enough but how to deal with one who wants to talk?

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HELSINKI Xenia Kozyreva: Come on, I have to see the Prince. I have to plead for mercy. Laura Tokka: Yeah, that’s not so easy. I’m sorry. Xenia Kozyreva: Please, you have to help me! You’ve been here all your life. I’m a newcomer, I don’t understand why everything is so... I don’t know, shady. Invisible. Laura Tokka: What did you do anyway? Xenia Kozyreva: I think I Embraced somebody. I made a few ghouls. Laura Tokka: How many is few? Xenia Kozyreva: Maybe ten, fifteen? Laura Tokka: The Unseen Assassin will get you. Xenia Kozyreva: Come on, don’t talk to me like that! You’re just a slacker, what do you do here anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be an Anarch?

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Laura Tokka: I guess.... It’s a good cover. Nobody finds it strange if someone like me plays videogames all night and covers her windows. Xenia Kozyreva: You’re a disgrace to our Blood. We’re supposed to be fighters, not sniveling losers who fear urban legends nobody has even seen. Laura Tokka: Prince Bobrikov has a reputation for cruelty. I don’t want to cross him. Xenia Kozyreva: Okay, real talk: have you ever seen him? The Prince? Laura Tokka: No, he doesn’t maintain an Elysium. Or maybe the Court has something like that but I’ve never been invited. Xenia Kozyreva: So, we’re just a bunch of scared losers with no idea how to stand up for ourselves. Laura Tokka: Look at you. You’re a real predator. You take over the lives of mortals and make them your servants. You literally live in the house of an entire family who’ve become blood addicts. Why don’t you make a revolution? You’re much tougher than me!

Xenia Kozyreva: I.... The people I care for are better for it! Laura Tokka: *snort* Xenia Kozyreva: Really, they are! Laura Tokka: You’re being evasive. Xenia Kozyreva: Yeah, okay. I’m scared too. I am. It’s the disappearances. Somebody talks revolution and then they’re just never heard of again. Laura Tokka: It’s... I’ve lost friends too. Xenia Kozyreva: So, you understand why I need to see the Prince. Laura Tokka: I don’t know how. There’s a way to contact the Prince’s ghoul but I don’t think anybody’s gotten a reply in months. Or years. Xenia Kozyreva: Fuck. So, I’ll know they caught me breaking the Traditions when the Unseen Assassin comes for me? Laura Tokka: That’s pretty much it, yeah.

The Domain For an average Helsinki vampire, the Camarilla is both distant and terrifying. Ostensibly the Kindred of Helsinki are ruled by His Eminence, the Nosferatu Prince of Helsinki Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov. In practice, there are loose groups of Brujah Anarchs and Toreador trying to hide among the mortals comprising maybe 30 or 40 vampires in total. If they still exist, the old elite would number 15 vampires more. It is unclear if anyone really knows all the vampires in the city. The old Camarilla elite of Ventrue and older Brujah and Toreador has always been remote, but since 2003 they have become so reclusive, they could well be invisible. The old vampire villas in Sipoo have

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been sold and the townhouses in Ullanlinna stand empty or have been newly occupied by IT millionaires. Old Bobrikov never liked to deal with anyone except his closest advisors (and handsome young Brujah, whom he adored), but the last anyone had seen him was 20-years ago. Still, his laws live on. Feeding in Helsinki is controlled extremely tightly. The areas of Ullanlinna, Kaivopuisto, and Eira are reserved for the Prince only. The rest of the city has been parceled for his oldest friends and confidantes, none of whom is seen on the streets today. Only small areas in the center and the suburbs built after the 1990’s are free. Nothing prevents a young vampire from breaking the law and feeding to their heart’s content in the shadow of the trees in Kaivopuisto. Sometimes when you do that, nothing happens. Other times, you disappear.

Other Camarilla rules seem to be enforced with varying degrees of laxity. Breaches of the Masquerade seem to be taken seriously. Making new vampires seems to be okay, unless you make too many. One has not gotten anyone destroyed. Making two in five years has, but not always. The only concrete proof of the existence of Prince Bobrikov is a phone number that ostensibly reaches his office. You send an SMS, and sometimes you get a reply. Sometimes it is silent for months at a time. There is a story about what happens when the Camarilla decides to execute a vampire who does not follow the rules. They say that Bobrikov has a right-hand man, a Nosferatu well-versed in the arts of supernatural concealment. If someone breaks old Bobrikov’s commandments, the Unseen Assassin will find them, and they will never know what ended them. If a young Brujah Anarch feeds in the correct place, the Camarilla and its rules have only a minimal impact on their unlife. Unfortunately, the feeding restrictions are pretty severe, and the possibility of integrating into the vampire elite of Helsinki seems to have quietly disappeared. The only prospect a young vampire has is to eke out a meager existence in fear of breaking an arbitrary rule and being made to disappear.

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Developments The domain of Helsinki has been designed to be a tenuously controlled Camarilla city persisting solely on inertia. All playable characters are neonates, most of them so young they have been vampires for less than a decade. They are getting used to the world of the Kindred and scared of the monsters in the dark. During a LARP chronicle, it is possible that the Camarilla domain of Helsinki becomes an Anarch city instead, its vampire inhabitants finally casting off the fear of the Prince and fighting for their own liberation . As the chronicle progresses, they unearth many of the secrets of the domain and have to deal with the remnants of the Camarilla: - Is the Prince still in the city or has he left for the Beckoning? - Is the Unseen Assassin real, or is he just a legend meant to scare young Kindred? - How will feeding territories be divided under the new rule? - The remaining Ventrue try to hold onto their privileges but they are all young Kindred as well, outnumbered by the Anarch underclass. Do they manage to adjust to the new regime or will they lose their unlives? - As the Anarchs develop a better understanding of the city and its history, they realize that some of the disappeared elders and ancillae had ghouls who now operated independently. They kidnapped young Kindred for their blood, trusting the others to ascribe the disappearances to the Unseen Assassin. - One of the old vampires of the domain, perhaps Prince Bobrikov’s sire, wakes up from torpor. Can the Kindred of the domain maintain the pretense that all is well and they are still a good Camarilla city or does the situation escalate into a fight?

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DOMAIN DESIGN AS LARP DESIGN

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hen you think about what kind of a domain you are going to set the chronicle in, you must think like a LARP designer. Not in terms of what would be “realistic” or what are your favorite Vampire elements, but in terms of what kind of a domain will produce the LARP you want. The parameters of the domain gently guide the action of the LARP. If you get this right, your players will naturally gravitate towards the desired kind of interactions and dynamics without you ever having to push them. Such is the magic of LARP design: players will have a sense of freedom even as they fulfill the design of the LARP as intended. The core of domain design is to think of the LARP or chronicle in terms of character groups. Ideally you should rarely think of individual characters, instead focusing on groups. There are two important reasons for this: 1. Less work for you. If you come up with a great concept for a group, it is easier to follow with the internal breakdown of the group. Or let the players come up with their own character concepts within that wider group concept. 2. Less lonely experiences for players. Ideally, every single player character belongs to a social unit they can hang around with during the LARP. This way, there is less danger of players being left out and feeling lonely.

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The setting of Vampire has much of this design inherently in place. A standard Camarilla LARP features vampires from different clans, providing ready animosities and home groups for players to hang around with. The standard organizational unit among the Kindred is the coterie, a common group united by an idea or a purpose. If your characters have both coteries and clans, they already have two different axis on which to relate to other characters. Make sure that this method of thinking about characters and groups extends to every single character in the chronicle. No exceptions. Cases where it is easy to create characters who end up lonely are mysterious envoys, traitors, and ghouls. If you have a strange visitor to the domain, it works better if they come as a pair, or even a three-person group. That way, the mysterious envoys can always hang together if they find it difficult to penetrate the social fabric of the local vampire scene. A traitorous character is in danger of being ostracized by their home group. If a Nosferatu betrays their coterie, who are they going to hang around with? It is not impossible to come up with answers; you just need to make sure there is something. In this case, perhaps they divulged clan secrets to an Anarch coterie, who now form their social home base.

Conflict The domain should have a strong, fundamental conflict baked into it straight from the start. Ideally, it should be something essentially irresolvable so that it will keep giving characters motivations to go at each other in perpetuity.

Conflict can be thematic, ideological, material, cultural, supernatural, etc. Ideally something where the issues at hand are hard to reconcile because there is no way everyone can have what they want.

The prime conflict of this type is naturally the War of Ages. The old seek to retain their power and privileges while the young chafe at the restrictions on their unlives and potential. As individuals, young vampires will eventually become elders but by then, new generations of neonates have taken their old roles as rebelling firebrands.

An example of a bad conflict would be that The Ministry and the Ventrue hate each other because of an ancient grudge. It makes it too easy for the players simply to bury the hatchet.

Ideally, the core conflict of the domain can then be extrapolated into all the individual conflicts that happen between characters. This way, you will have less work since you do not have to think up conflicts character by character.

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If instead Ventrue and Ministry vampires both seek to control the drug trade in the domain, and the loser will suffer catastrophic loss of income, then the conflict is based on something material and much harder to resolve peacefully. Of course, it can still be initially presented as an ancient grudge so that player characters can learn about what is really at stake during the LARP.

Social Groups Conflicts should break down along the lines of social groups. That makes it easier for the players to figure out the landscape of the LARP. That the local Toreador hate the Ventrue is simple but it also works and is easy to grasp. All characters should belong to at least one social group. Especially in a longer LARP or chronicle where it is fun to shift between social groups so you might want to come up with two or even three layers of social contexts for every character. In practise, this could mean:

This way, a single character can go to a Ventrue coterie meeting, then hang around with fellow Camarilla neonates until it is time to slip away to the secret meeting of the Church of Caine. The choice of whether your domain needs one, two, or three levels of groups depends on how much other content there is. If the players are expected to create their own action, it is good to have three levels of groups. If there are plenty of things happening all the time, they might be better served with only one or two.

Roles

1. The clan. For some, such as the Nosferatu and sometimes the Tremere, the clan is the most obvious and visible social group. If there are Caitiff in the LARP, there must be at least four so they can form their own group.

Vampire’s domains tend to be replete with characters holding office: Princes, Sheriffs, Primogen, etc. These are a great way for you to set up conflicts, injustices, and other problems that will then generate action.

2. Position on the War of Ages. A domain could be split four ways, with a hardcore entrenched Camarilla power elite, younger more disadvantaged Camarilla Kindred, downtrodden Anarchs cruelly treated by the Camarilla establishment, and secret Anarch revolutionaries who seek a violent overthrow of the established order. Characters in all four groups have reasons to trust each other and have differing agendas regarding members of other groups.

When you design how such roles are set up in the domain, your goal is to make the system dysfunctional on purpose. This will generate action in the LARP.

3. The secret group. Everyone in the LARP belongs to a secret group, whether a conspiracy, a cult, a cell of Sabbat wannabes, or something else. Belonging to a secret group is inherently fun and you can make sure that everyone is in one at the structural level.

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For example, both the Prince and the Primogen argue that they hold ultimate power in the city. Technically they rule together but in reality, they are constantly sniping at each other’s power base. Meanwhile, the Sheriff and the Scourge hate each other and sabotage each other’s operations. On the Anarch side, two Barons both claim domain over the whole city while various would-be revolutionary leaders cripple the movement’s efforts at change by attacking each other. If official roles have overlapping functions and

the distribution of power is contested, player characters who are not directly involved can still try to play various officials against each other. Another positive side effect of creating roles with overlapping functions is that it reduces the risk that the player playing an office-holder is stuck playing the role instead of their character. After all, the player of the Sheriff might want to deal with the personal issues of their character instead of just doing Sheriff stuff the whole LARP.

What’s Happening? Big, important things must be happening right now as the LARP begins. If you have a chronicle, they must keep happening so it helps to think in advance what kind of change the LARPs can document. What is the old status quo, and the direction it is changing into? Perhaps a Camarilla city is on the cusp of an Anarch revolution. Alternatively, perhaps it is an Anarch city in danger of a Camarilla counter-revolution. You could have a small domain surrounded by the Sabbat, in danger of being subsumed both by the external threat and young Kindred who start to emulate Sabbat ways. An old guard of survivors of Second Inquisition hunter attacks feel dismayed that young neonates do not take the danger seriously. These are all domain-level vectors of change. You can also have events built around more specific things and individuals. For example, a Justicar will arrive in the city to root out infiltrators once and for all, providing an opportunity for everyone to frame their enemies and get them destroyed.

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Or perhaps local Princes from neighboring domains hold a summit in the city, during which it becomes apparent they are planning to take over the domain and distribute its assets among themselves. Can the old Prince escape, and do the inhabitants of their domain want them to? The goal is to give the players the feeling that this is a dramatic, interesting time in the domain and the unlives of their characters. They should understand where they are coming from and where they are going, as a community and as individuals. This does not mean you cannot establish a seemingly static domain if the goal is to then break that status quo during the LARP. More than one chronicle has started with the Prince getting assassinated in the first LARP, thus thrusting everything into turmoil. When thinking about the crisis engulfing the domain, it is good to start with ideas that affect every single character. This way, you can be sure the drama of the LARP will catch all players. After these elements are in place, you can then work towards smaller crises that affect only a portion of the characters.

INTERLUDE

Don’t Fuck With the Sabbat Sebastian: Some of the other Anarchs at the bar were talking about something called the Sabbat? I think? It sounded.... Agata Starek: No. Sebastian: What do you mean, no? The way people were talking, I got the impression that the Sabbat could be a useful ally in our war against the Camarilla. Agata Starek: One more word about the Sabbat and I will punch you in the face. Sebastian: Okay, please don’t punch me. But I just got to say, you can’t threaten me with violence every time I ask a difficult question. I mean, it worked the first few times but I’m starting to see that you do it just because you’re not ready to.... Agata Starek: No. If the choice is to talk about the Sabbat or my feelings, I choose the Sabbat. Sebastian: So why shouldn’t we at least talk with them? We have a common enemy! Agata Starek: Let me tell you about the Sabbat. Sebastian: Yes. Please! Agata Starek: Compared to us, they are as we are to the kine. They’re killers of course, but they don’t kill because they’re hungry or scared. Or even so they could feel powerful. They kill because it’s as easy for them as faking human breath is for us. They don’t have a conscience to rein in their impulses. Some say they want

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to take down the Antediluvians. Find them, kill them and take their power. Sebastian: Aren’t the Antediluvians.... Agata Starek: Yes, the third generation. I’ve heard it said that the Sabbat believe the Antediluvians still control us, their progeny. Sebastian: That doesn’t sound too implausible. I mean, every other Anarch is telling me Camarilla elders secretly control everything we do. This is just the same thing, but larger in scale. And they’re doing something about it. Agata Starek: No. The Sabbat say they do it for freedom, to be liberated from the machinations of the Antediluvians. But they’re not free. They’re monsters shackled by their base impulses. We have a lot more freedom than they do. Sebastian: I’ve never seen you like this. It almost feels like you’re scared. The mighty Agata Starek, the Killer of Krakow or whatever title you made up for yourself this week. Agata Starek: Are you making fun of me? Sebastian: No... I’m not. Sorry. Agata Starek: Haha, it’s okay! You should make fun of me more often. Anyway... just one thing you need to remember. Sebastian: What’s that? Agata Starek: Don’t fuck with the Sabbat.

SABBAT

Chapter Six

The Sabbat are antagonists. Their purpose is to give your LARP an external enemy; someone to frighten, threaten, and oppress player characters. The Sabbat can be everywhere and nowhere. Its infiltrators can subtly threaten the stability of a Camarilla domain while its war parties decimate the ranks of the Anarchs. The Sabbat is a domain-level threat. The danger they pose is not confined to individual Kindred but affects everyone present in the city. If one Camarilla neonate is kidnapped by the Sabbat, it is likely that others will be too. The Sabbat always escalates. This is why the war against them must be fought with everything the characters have. The trouble is that the Kindred are a fractious lot. There are traitors in every domain.

The Sabbat A common myth among vampires holds that they are all descendants of the biblical Caine and the bearers of his curse. The Sabbat holds Caine to be their Dark Father; a semi-divine figure who has directed his Black Hand to free the world from his traitorous grandchildren, the Antediluvian third generation of vampires. The Sabbat are organized into packs of intense loyalty and dedication, with Priests acting as commissars who keep members in line. They follow Paths of Enlightenment, various alien mindsets that shape Sabbat culture much the same way the clans do in the Camarilla and the Anarchs. Because the Sabbat has abandoned Humanity and holds themselves to be superior to mortals in all ways, they tend to come across as inhuman, cruel, and deranged—at best.

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The Sabbat does not respect the Masquerade except as a practical necessity that should be discarded as soon as feasible. Most packs are composed of recently Embraced Sabbat Cainites because Sabbat casualty rates are astronomical

compared to the other sects. There are Sabbat elders who direct the war effort against the Antediluvians and their pawns but they are rarely glimpsed by outsiders. Sabbat ancillae are quite rare.

Outside Perspectives The Camarilla has had an extremely frustrating experience with the Sabbat. In recent years, great gains have been made in terms of territory. Sabbat domains have fallen left and right, and the Second Inquisition operations have mopped up the rest. Once Camarilla Archons and Princes recovered from their smug celebrations of victory, they noticed that somehow Sabbat-related violence only seemed to increase with each loss. Freed from the demands of holding territory, the Sabbat could focus on what it did best: terrorizing those it deemed tools of the Antediluvians. In the Anarchs, knowledge of this new status quo came earlier, sped up by the Sabbat packs defecting to the sect. They could tell their new comrades what was happening: experienced Sabbat crusaders focusing on their holy war, leaving much of the less committed rank and file to fend for themselves.

Sabbat Characters Sabbat present in your LARP should be supporting, organizer-directed characters. Their function is to provide an antagonistic experience for the players. The Sabbat should be portrayed as inhumane, something that is easier to do for effect in short bursts because you do not have to get into the head of the character to do it. Possible organizer-controlled Sabbat characters are: The envoy. The Sabbat sends a representative to communicate with the local Camarilla or Anarchs. The envoy can make threats, demand concessions, or just propose immediate surrender. They present a great opportunity to demonstrate the alien and strange nature of the Sabbat. Perhaps the envoy is a recently Embraced brainwashed shovelhead with no greater conception of what being a vampire even means. Or maybe they are an intellectual, lost in the labyrinthine twists of the Paths of Enlightenment. A good rule of thumb with envoys is to introduce them in pairs or small groups so they can support each other.

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Prisoners. The local Prince has managed to capture Sabbat members and wants to display them at the event to shore up the Prince’s personal authority. The local Camarilla members come to gawk at the feral and violent Sabbat. Does the Prince get what the Prince wants? Does everyone marvel at the Prince’s might after bringing such monsters as trophies or does the Prince’s rival decide to sabotage the display by freeing the captives? A war party. The Sabbat attacks. Sabbat Cainites pour in to assault the gathered Kindred. This can be very effective but only do it if you are confident that your combat mechanics will carry the day and your players enjoy scenes of violence. There are also exceptions to the organizercontrolled Sabbat characters where the event has a Sabbat player character or a player character who is heavily involved with the Sabbat while not actually a member.

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Examples are: The infiltrator. The Sabbat has sent an agent to infiltrate the Camarilla or the Anarchs. They are in it for the long term, cultivating influence and collecting information. Because the Sabbat are so inhuman, it is hard for them to infiltrate groups of more humane Kindred without getting caught. Nevertheless, some exceptional individuals manage it, playing the long game and waiting for the right moment to strike. A perfect infiltrator is boring since their Sabbat plotline only really enters the game when it is revealed. Because of this, even a talented infiltrator should trip or reveal their hand at some point. Victim of blackmail. The Sabbat found a character’s Haven and threatened to murder that character and all their loved ones if they did not cooperate. The character is terrified but what can they do? With this character concept, the Sabbat’s influence is there but the character is not Sabbat per se. They can betray their friends to the Sabbat or strive to break free, or both.

The (Wannabe) Traitor. Both the Camarilla and the Anarchs have their share of bitter Kindred who dream of finding a way at getting back at those who slighted them. What could be better revenge than betraying their domain to the Sabbat? Typically, these plots end badly for those who instigate them as either they are found out and executed by their comrades or they succeed and are destroyed by the Sabbat. Nobody likes a traitor. Ex-Sabbat. In recent years the Sabbat has imploded with peripheral low-level packs who weren’t really part of the Sabbat proper defecting to the Anarchs. In Sabbat terms they may have been unusually humane but many have found it difficult to adjust to their new unlives. Their fellow Anarchs are scared of them and they have trouble controlling their Beasts. Ex-Sabbat can wax nostalgic about the freedoms they enjoyed in their former sect or thank the twists of fate for giving them a chance to escape its relentless brutality.

Themes Internally, the Sabbat is strongly connected to a common vampiric origin myth. Because of this, it allows the exploration of big questions like “where did we come from” or “what is our purpose?” For example, the Sabbat attacks the chronicle’s domain. Sabbat prisoners are present in a LARP and player characters interrogate them. They learn about the Sabbat’s ideology and understanding of vampire history. They do not have to believe everything these Cainites tell them but it serves to introduce the topic. Even if the Sabbat is lying or misinformed the original questions remain: do vampires have a grand purpose? Is there an original sin that must be atoned for? After all, the Mark of Cain is often understood to be a sign of divine disfavor but the Sabbat holds that the original sinners are the Antediluvians who turned against the Dark Father.

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Modern Kindred might be tempted to dismiss such ancient fables but there is one incontrovertible piece of evidence that something supernatural must exist: the Kindred themselves. Given that they are here, what else could be true? To develop these themes further in a LARP, it helps if there are other perspectives besides that of the Sabbat. For example, worshippers of Lilith have an entirely different view of where vampires come from and what it all means.

Repression in the Name of Safety The Sabbat can affect your chronicle even if no Sabbat are ever seen in person. Perhaps the Prince uses the threat of the Sabbat as justification for repressive new measures. For example, the Prince decrees that each Camarilla vampire must report to the Sheriff once a week and that feeding must be tightly controlled to maintain the Masquerade. As the repression intensifies, members of the Prince’s court start to wonder whether the Sabbat threat is real at all. Maybe the Prince just made it up to justify more control. In the Anarchs, an unscrupulous Baron faces a challenge to their leadership, so they start accusing their rivals of being Sabbat moles. The anti-Sabbat campaign gets out of hand as everybody with a grievance starts accusing each other of being Sabbat members. As demonstrated with these examples, the Sabbat does not actually have to do anything to cause chaos in an enemy domain. Their r e p u t a t i o n does the work for them, making Kindred of other sects lose control and make decisions with terrible consequences. In the unlives of ordinary Anarchs and Camarilla members, this is the most common way the Sabbat affects them, by far. When the Sabbat actually do attack a city torn apart by paranoia and false accusations, it comes as a relief. Finally, a real, physical enemy to fight!

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The Sabbat LARP The Sabbat are antagonists but that does not mean you can not build an unusual LARP experience explicitly around them. The Sabbat’s communal ritae are highly evocative and function well in a LARP setting since you can perform the ritual for real (or at least real-ish as it is better leave any actual blood-sacrifices to the world of make-believe). Inverting the earlier idea about prisoners of war, the Sabbat has conquered the domain. They have murdered many of its residents and taken the rest prisoner. Now the Sabbat is holding a victory ceremony where the remaining Camarilla or Anarch Kindred have a choice: will they hold true to their ideals and get executed?

Will they join the Sabbat or will they find a way for a counter-revolution? In small games, the Sabbat LARP is difficult to pull off because you need a lot of supporting Sabbat characters. However, it can be fun to play even if you are playing an organizer-controlled character who is there to provide a concrete spectacle of evil. The main challenge with a Sabbat-focused event is that they are inhuman to a degree that makes them hard to portray. This means that for those who play the organizer-led Sabbat characters, it is better to focus on making a spectacle of it rather than story or character play.

FOR THE LOVE OF CRUELTY Some experiences are so terrible you can not talk about them with your mortal friends because you do not want to break the Masquerade. You can not talk about them to other ghouls or the Kindred because the greed in their hearts would propel them towards the very same fate you only barely escaped. So instead I will write here and then I will burn this notebook.

She was Korean I think, here to study and then be Embraced so she could never go back home. Or so she thought at least. My job was to look after her because the others were worried she was too inexperienced to know how to hunt or keep from being discovered by the Second Inquisition. Her name was Ji-a. They were right to worry about her. She couldn’t accept that so much of her new vampiric condition was unknown, so

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she took to talking to some of those ex-Sabbat freaks who pretend that they’re now good, ordinary Anarchs. I’ve never trusted those fucks and what happened proved me right. I visited Ji-a’s Haven to see if she was alright and she wasn’t there. She had a roomie whom she’d made into her ghoul (never make your friends into ghouls... but I suppose everyone has to learn that lesson the hard way) who told me that she’d slipped away at sundown, furtively, like a teenager sneaking to a party without the knowledge of her parents. Following a premonition, I drove to where I knew the ex-Sabbat pack had their communal Haven. They’d tried to keep it a secret but news travels. I suppose I imagined myself running in guns blazing, saving the girl, killing the bad guys and making a triumphant exit. Well, no. I saw some of it from a hiding place. The red

light. What they did to her body, changing it. The killing, the blood, the sacrifices. Somehow I’d assumed that she was a victim and they were leading her on like a lamb to the slaughter. Perhaps she was a victim. But she wasn’t the one being sacrificed. She was initiated. They were practicing Sabbat, they’d used the laziest infiltration method imaginable, and they’d gotten their recruits. I’ve known Anarchs who kill in anger and Camarilla who kill with cold, impersonal cruelty. These Sabbat fuckers made a celebration out of it. Just blood spraying everywhere and she was right there, laughing and mutilating with the rest of them in a mad frenzy. She didn’t really need answers and explanations. She just needed someone to tell her that it was okay to heed the voices of cruelty and terror whispering in her blood. - A page from a half-burnt notebook in the Anarch ghoul Szymon the Sad’s home

THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD.... The Sabbat has distinctive qualities that make it great for bringing certain setting elements in Vampire to the fore. Trying to hold onto your humanity is a core concept and the Sabbat embodies what it looks like if you give up on that and choose to accept vampire supremacy. The temptation can make the sacrifices a vampire makes to stave off the Beast more meaningful. The Sabbat demonstrates that becoming an absolute monster is a feasible choice. As an

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element in a LARP, they can be used to show concretely what it means when vampires simply let go. Another setting element that can be demonstrated through the Sabbat is the mythic level of Vampire: Antediluvians, Methuselahs, Gehenna, Caine, and so on. These concepts are remote from the unlives of ordinary Anarchs and Camarilla members but to the Sabbat they are forces that shape what they do every night.

The average Kindred knows little about this side of the Sabbat but they can learn about it from the mess the sect leaves behind. The tortured ramblings and confused messages strewn around in a former Sabbat lair can paint a picture that makes little sense but hints at a lot. These concepts are not the sole province of the Sabbat, of course. Many in the Camarilla have great faith in them and there are cults like the Church of Caine whose theology greatly resembles Sabbat ideology.

Domains in Confusion In the nights of old, strong Princes ruled their domains fairly and justly, making sure everyone benefiting from their benevolence was safe and prosperous. Or at least this is what some nostalgic Camarilla Kindred say. Many modern domains are nothing like that. It would be a mistake to even call them Anarch or Camarilla because the truth is much messier. In such unstable conditions individual Sabbat packs can hide in plain sight but more importantly Sabbat ideas and concepts spread even without any real connection to the sect. Here is one idea of what such a domain could look like: Technically, this is a Camarilla city, ruled by a Prince and their Primogen, and perhaps in the fantasies of the Prince this is true. However, the reality is that the Prince is pretty much holed up in their Haven with little influence over mortal matters in their domain and the Primogen consists of a few fractious ancillae who hate each other and feed lies to their liege. In other circumstances a city like this would fall

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to the Anarchs. However, they are scarred from an earlier failed attempt at a revolution leaving most of their leaders and ideologues dead or disillusioned. Because of this, newly Embraced Kindred do not really have anyone who could authoritatively explain what’s happening to them. The lack of stable power structures has fostered a chaotic undergrowth of cults and idiosyncratic packs. The Church of Caine has established itself in town but the ideas they speak about sound exactly like Sabbat dogma. An Anarch pack argues that the Sabbat has some good ideas and the Masquerade was a mistake anyway. Individual Kindred declare themselves Cainites and make ignorant attempts to follow a Path of Enlightenment, only to fall to the Beast because they have no idea what they are really doing. Maybe there is a real Sabbat presence in the city but it is not necessary. Sometimes it is easier to explore Sabbat concepts when there is not an actual war party mass Embracing vampires left and right.

LARP Concepts The Kids Are Not Alright - Local Camarilla and Anarch leaders become aware of the fact that many of the younger Kindred in the domain start to adopt Sabbat ideas of vampire supremacy. It feels like the ambient humanity of the young is dropping, instances of brutality directed at mortals are increasing, and rhetoric becomes violence. The trouble is that past failures have left local leaders with a crisis of authority. The neonates do not listen to them anymore.

Worship the Dark Father - The local Church of Caine is gaining adherents. A Church ceremony makes for a great LARP event. Perhaps they hold an open doors night for the purpose of finding new converts among the local vampire population. The trouble is, the particular brand of faith preached at the Church veers towards an apocalyptic interpretation that sounds like what the Sabbat believes in. The Church of Caine has always been suspected of secret Sabbat loyalties but this time it might be true. Or not. Perhaps local Church leaders have independently arrived at the same conclusions the Sabbat adopted centuries ago. Cargo Cult Cainites - Based on hearsay and rumors, a local Anarch pack has decided to “join the Sabbat”. They have no actual connection to the sect but try to emulate Sabbat practices and rituals on their own. It is all in good fun when it is only about sacrificing pets in ersatz rituals but trouble arises when the Anarchs try to purposely extinguish their own humanity and follow the Paths of Enlightenment, vague concepts they know almost nothing about beyond the promise of becoming somehow more true vampires.

LARP CONCEPT: THE TRIAL A Camarilla Prince feels threatened by the prospect of an Anarch insurrection in their city. Together with the Primogen they concoct a plan to make it seem as if the city is under siege from terrible forces with the Prince as the only defense.

The Prince decides that instead of summarily executing the faux Sabbat pack there will be a trial at the Elysium. All the Kindred of the domain are invited to witness the Prince’s power and wisdom. The Prince hopes that this will shore up their faltering authority.

What could be worse than the Sabbat? Fortunately for the Prince, an Anarch coterie has recently taken to calling themselves a Sabbat pack and boasted of membership in the Black Hand.

The trial is rigged against the accused, of course, and they do themselves no favors. The faux pack’s members do not understand that if they are found guilty they will be left to the sun. They boast and brag of their nonexistent Sabbat connections until slowly, as the proceedings continue, they will start to figure out that they are going to be destroyed.

The truth is that the Anarchs are young idiots who imagined that pretending to be in the Sabbat would give them a fearsome reputation. For the Prince it is a blessing because it will cause a fracture among the Anarchs.

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Faction Breakdown The domain’s characters belong to a number of different factions who all have their own perspectives and goals for the trial. The Prince and the Primogen - The leading lights of the domain have committed themselves to the deception. Publicly they talk about the threat of the Sabbat and the danger of allowing its influence to fester among the Anarchs. Privately they know it is all bullshit. Some of them might even privately admit as much. These characters provide an opportunity to play up the hypocrisy of the Camarilla. The Accused - A “Sabbat pack” consisting of four to eight members. They were all dumb violent assholes even when alive and becoming

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vampires has not improved their temperaments any. They are not particularly sympathetic, boasting and bragging of things that will get them destroyed. These characters provide an opportunity to stay in the spotlight and have fun with playing dumb fucks. The Anarchs - For ordinary Anarch characters, the trial is confusing and scary. This particular domain is ruled by the Camarilla and they are subject to the Prince’s edicts despite their Anarch affiliation. There has been a lot of talk of revolution and killing the Prince but the threat of Sabbat assault is a great cause for concern. If the Sabbat are really coming, maybe everyone is better off under the protection of the Camarilla? Some Anarch characters are on good terms with

the accused, others hate them. These characters provide the most humane perspective on the themes of the LARP. The Anarchs have to figure out what is true and how they feel about it. Even if they realize that the whole trial is a fake, it still pays to get rid of an annoying rival Anarch group. Or maybe the revelation that everything is fake launches the long-awaited revolution. Former Sabbat - Among the Anarchs is a coterie of former shovelheads who got a glimpse of the real Sabbat before they were left behind to fend for themselves. This is a closely-held secret and none of the other Anarchs know about it. These former Sabbat are alarmed at the idea that their original sect might be coming after them but they also have the best chance to figure out that the accused are just dumb braggarts and not real Sabbat at all. These characters provide the chance to explore choices that place them into various kinds of danger. If the characters reveal what they know, they might also end up revealing their own background.

Setup The LARP works best if it is set up like the sort of trail we all know from tv. The Prince stands for the judge of course. There is a prosecutor who is a Camarilla hardliner who lays out the case against the accused. An Anarch representative defends them but it is clear that this is just a Camarilla stooge. To make sure that the LARP plays out properly, it should last for a single evening with a number of breaks to allow the characters to mingle, discuss and plot. When possible, the traditional roles of the courtroom should be distributed so that more than one character serves each function. Thus, the prosecutor has an assistant or two and so on. This connects more characters into the courtroom drama.

Outcomes There are several different outcomes possible within this framework. In the most cynical, the accused are found guilty of being Sabbat and executed. The Prince’s power base is strengthened and the Anarchs are cowed. This can come about as a result of Anarch characters taking this opportunity to make individual private deals with the Camarilla, becoming turncoats or stoolies. Another outcome is messier: The assembled Kindred realize the accused are just idiots, not Sabbat. The Prince senses the changing attitudes and decides to showcase their infinite grace and wisdom by giving the faux Sabbat over to the Anarchs with an exhortation to make sure they would not cause more trouble. In a third ending, the Anarchs become so incensed at what is happening that the situation devolves into violence. If not immediately, then immediately after the LARP has ended.

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Chapter Seven

GHOULS

Glorious Immortality Sebastian fidgeted in his seat, looking out of the car windows without stopping to process anything he saw. Suddenly he twisted around to look at the man driving the car. “Szymon, you’re not a servant. I want you to know that. You’re my friend. I just asked you to drive because I’m worried about what will happen. I broke into her Haven....” Sebastian’s voice had an edge of anxiety. He had yet to fully acclimatize to the cruel hierarchies of vampire unlife. “It’s alright. Don’t worry about it,” Szymon said wearily. He had served the Anarchs for three decades as a ghoul. In that time, he had learned that some of them preferred to pretend that there was no power imbalance between them, that Szymon did menial tasks for them out of friendship and not because he needed their blood. “Look, please don’t tell the others that I’m visiting Salomé Díaz. They wouldn’t understand. To them she’s just a Camarilla Ventrue but she sent me an invitation and I had to accept. I felt guilty about desecrating her Haven with Agata Starek.” Sebastian was babbling, his nervousness getting the better of him. “I know how to keep quiet,” Szymon said. It was one of the secrets of his long employment among the Anarchs. He never took sides in their internal squabbles and he never snitched. “Good, good…” Sebastian muttered; the reflection of his handsome face visible in the car’s window. They emerged onto the driveway of the Ventrue Salomé Díaz’s mansion. “Can you wait here? It shouldn’t be too long”, Sebastian said, stepped out and disappeared into the building. Szymon parked the car and settled in to wait. It was not the first time he was outside while his undying masters and mistresses were handling business. Someone knocked on the car window. Szymon was startled, putting away his phone and looking up to see a casually but expensively dressed girl in her twenties. At first he thought it was the mistress of the house herself, Salomé Díaz, but then realized that while there was a strong resemblance, her demeanor was completely different. When Szymon had glimpsed Salomé, she had been the very picture of privileged wealth but this woman was more animated, knocking again when he did not react fast enough. Szymon unlocked the car door and the girl slipped inside to sit next to him. “You’re an Anarch ghoul, right?” she asked and Szymon flinched. It was a rule in his usual circles that Kindred terminology was never to be used in public.

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“I came with Sebastian,” Szymon said, trying to see if the girl was a vampire. She was too lively for him to be comfortable but that did not mean she was alive. “You’re his guard dog,” the girl said and nodded. “I guess the Anarchs need servants too, right?” “Now, listen....” Szymon started, regretting letting the girl into the car. He should have stepped outside to talk with her. Whoever she was. “Don’t worry,” the girl said, placing her hand on Szymon’s arm. “I’m just like you. A blood junkie. I know what it’s like.” “You do?” Szymon had been played around by vampires more times than he could count but usually his fellow ghouls were easier to manage. With this one, he felt continuously out of depth. “Yes I do. I’m Valentina Díaz. Salomé is my sister. Mortal sister I mean. She’s a vampire and I’m just....” Her voice trailed off and suddenly she seemed subdued and small.

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“Yeah, it sucks,” Szymon said morosely. “They’re all assholes no matter what they pretend.” “They call you Szymon the Sad, right?” Valentina said, looking at him. He realized that this was not a random meeting between an Anarch and a Camarilla ghoul. She had sought him out. “I don’t care for the nickname,” Szymon grumbled. He had acquired it after losing too many people, mortal and Kindred, who used to be close to him. He was never sure whether it was being used in sympathy or mockery. “I think it’s cute. Soulful.” Valentina sounded like many Kindred Szymon had known. Sympathetic but only as a facade. She would go far in the night. As she continued, Szymon had the familiar feeling that he was being manipulated. “Salomé made me into a ghoul because she loved me. That’s what she said. She didn’t want me to grow old so she gave me glorious immortality.” Being around Kindred and ghouls for so long had attuned Szymon to the tell-tale signs of when someone was jonesing for blood. With the Kindred it was because they were Hungry. With

ghouls, it was more about the addiction and the fear of losing the privileges granted by vitae. “Let me guess. Your sister has cut you off,” Szymon said. “Don’t be mean!” Valentina replied, hitting him lightly on the arm. “But yes. She did. She said I couldn’t drink her blood every night. I needed discipline. Can you imagine that? Discipline! My own sister said that!” Szymon could not imagine it because his thoughts had gotten snared at an earlier part of her confession. “You used to get blood every night?” he blurted in amazement. How could any ghoul be so privileged? “Well, yeah,” Valentina said defensively. “I know it’s a lot but I need it, you know?” One of the downsides of being a ghoul in the Anarchs was that sometimes they simply forgot to give Szymon blood for weeks. It was not rare for him to be only a few nights away from the point where his body would go into withdrawal and start aging. Only once had he gone over that point. “What do you need?” Szymon asked. “Blood. Their blood. I need it. Do you have any?” Suddenly Valentina’s face was inches away, the need naked in her eyes. Szymon’s rule was to never play the games of the Kindred but something in Valentina’s raw desperation weakened his resolve. Maybe he could make a play, get something. “Yes I do,” he said and Valentina almost stopped breathing. “You know the Kindred traffic in boons? If I give you blood, you’ll owe me. And

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I’ll come calling sooner than later.” “Whatever. I don’t care. Yes, I accept,” Valentina said, her mind already in the ecstasies of the Blood. By the time Sebastian returned, Valentina was long gone and sunrise was teasing its appearance in the horizon. The vampire looked drained and confused, a smaller man than when he went in. They sat in silence as Szymon drove the car out of the estate’s grounds and started making his way towards Sebastian’s Haven. They would be there in time, but only just. Finally Szymon asked: “How did it go? What did she want?” “What? Oh yeah, Salomé...” Sebastian sounded unhappy, helpless in the face of the world’s cruelties. For a fleeting second Szymon considered revealing that he had acquired a boon from the Ventrue’s ghoul sister but decided against it. That belonged to him and him alone, not to his Kindred masters. “She saw right through us,” Sebastian continued forlornly. “She saw right through Agata Starek’s game. Maybe.... As a killer Agata is the best but the Ventrue are manipulators. Salomé said that she forgave me for defacing her painting, that it was not the original anyway. She said that I could make up for it by....” “By what?” Szymon asked after a moment of silence. “Becoming her boyfriend,” Sebastian finished. “She said I looked pretty. That I’d looked good when I was dating Annika Wall.”

Servants in a Palace of Blood Ghouls do not have it so bad. They still get to breathe, eat, watch the sunrise.... Sure, they are addicted to the Blood, but so are we. If a vampire gives them a taste of the good stuff every now and then, they are good. We have to hunt every night! I think we are all in this together, all trying to survive the night and hold onto our humanity. In the Camarilla, we don’t abuse our ghouls. They’re essential parts of the machine that allows us to exist in some comfort. I have a few ghouls myself helping me with taking care of the city. They can go to places I can’t and I make a point of telling them how valuable their contribution really is. One of them has a cancer diagnosis and he’ll die without the Blood I give him. Not tomorrow or in a year but sooner than a mortal would. What’s a few nights of service every now and then compared to the fact that you get to live? — Henry Thomas, a Camarilla Sheriff You should never stoop to having intimate relations with the help. Not even when they’re gorgeous and you’re feeling nostalgic and long for a reminder of what it felt like to lust for something other than blood. It makes them think they hold something over you and it’s awkward and tedious to disabuse them of such notions. Why, I once had a ghoul who believed he was my boyfriend! How absurd. I admit I’ve made this mistake once or twice but that doesn’t mean you have to do it too. Learn from those who came before you. If you have to fuck a mortal, choose someone who isn’t a ghoul and doesn’t know you’re a vampire. Such mortals have a virginal innocence I find quite charming, especially compared to the grasping greed of the ghouls. I once knew a Ventrue who would only feed his ghouls vitae from a dog bowl. That might have been extreme but he surely didn’t have the same kind of embarrassing problems I’ve suffered from. — Victoria Ash, Toreador elder I don’t like it when people talk about ghouls like we’re all servants. I for one am not and I think it’s harmful to all of us to reduce everything to one stereotype. You know what I’m talking about, the ghoul butler who loyally looks after his Camarilla mistress and silently deals with all the abuse heaped upon him because he needs the Blood. Of course, my sister Salomé has a ghoul like that, old Barnaby. That’s not the name he was born with but Salomé wanted a British butler so she told him to change his name and fake an accent. I don’t know how we’d ever survive without him! I think he just enjoys serving.

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My role is different. I’m Salomé’s sister and she keeps telling me nothing has changed between us, that we’re still the same. I know it’s not true and it breaks my heart but that doesn’t make me into some kind of an awful Renfield-type creature.

the Díaz family was that the vampires demand to be lied to. They detest the truth and savor falsehoods. They want to believe that you enjoy serving them, that you love them, that this is what you were meant to do with your life.

— Valentina Díaz, a Ventrue ghoul

When you feed them the lie they want to hear, they’re satisfied. Tell them the truth, that you hate them with every fiber of your being, and they become angry and hurt you. They’ll grab your face, look you in the eyes and say: “You don’t really hate me.”

Is this the life I would have chosen for myself? Of course not. I had hopes and dreams like everyone else and instead I was reduced to a servant tending the needs of spoiled immortal brats.

The Blood and their horrible abilities mess with your head. You don’t know which thoughts belong to you and which to them. Maybe it doesn’t matter. I’ve been a butler so long, I don’t have any hope of another life.

One of the earliest lessons I learned in service of

Sometimes I see younger ghouls who don’t

I have all the privilege and wealth I’m entitled to, with just the small unfortunate fact of blood addiction.

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understand what the Blood will do to them. They think it’s a gift. Who doesn’t want to be strong, healthy, and immortal? The trouble is that no matter what the vampires say, in time they will come to see you as a lesser creature. Maybe not today or tomorrow but the night will come that they’ll tell you to do something and

you’ll do it because you don’t want to jeopardize your blood supply. From that moment onwards you’re a servant. — Old Barnaby, a Ventrue ghoul

Less Among Equals Being a ghoul in the Anarchs is not so bad. Hell, sometimes I think I’d be happier as a ghoul! All the benefits of being a vampire with none of the drawbacks. Immortality, strength, and you still get to see the sun. Sure, sometimes things can get a little rowdy at a Brujah rave. I know sometimes ghouls can fall victim to roughhousing. But I’ve also seen Brujah tough guys apologize afterwards and give the poor ghoul some extra Blood to mend up. So you know, it’s all good. The important thing is that we’re all equal in the Anarchs, vampire and ghoul alike. Nobody is better than any other. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and we should support each other. This is why Blood Bonding ghouls is sometimes frowned upon but really, what can you do? They need the Blood and eventually it’ll happen for sure. The important thing is to treat them with dignity. — Sebastian, a Brujah vampire Immortality sure sounds better in the abstract. As a ghoul... all of us learn that we need to be able to secret a bit of vitae away if at all possible.

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They don’t always remember to give it to us and the results can be terrible especially I’ve you’ve been a ghoul for decades. They talk about equality but it’s always a lie. Even if they don’t realize it themselves. You can have a young Brujah or Toreador very earnestly telling you that they’re not like the other vampires, that they’re not seeking to subjugate you. You’ll be taken care of. That’s what the Anarchs are all about! I’m here to tell you that there are no good vampires. Even the most considerate vampire will fail you when it’s convenient for them. They might apologize afterwards, but more likely they’ll tell you no harm was done and give you a bit more of their Blood. Would I make the same choices I made before if I’d known this was the price of immortality? Yes. I would. Despite everything, all the petty humiliations of being an Anarch ghoul, I don’t want to die. — Szymon the Sad, a ghoul

It’s a game. If you play it successfully, you can have everything the licks have, with none of the drawbacks. If you fail, you become a servant besotted with their master. I play poker for a living. I’m used to risks, mind games, surviving against long odds. There’s a thing that we do before we play, to desensitize us to the money we win or lose. We flip a coin, with ten-thousand-dollars on the line. Do that five or six times and you lose the fear of money. That’s the only way to be an Anarch ghoul. You can’t fear the licks. If you do, you start acting desperate. Servile. You start to keep things bottled up inside you and just hope they’ll give you what you need to survive another night. No. Make them forget you’re a ghoul. Treat them like

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they treat each other. Steal Blood from them instead of having them give it to you. Never drink twice in a row from the same vampire. Make them think you’re doing them a favor, not the other way around. What are your odds? I can’t tell. That’s up to you. I know I’m happy with mine. — Soo-jin Choi, poker pro and Anarch ghoul At the end of the day, a vampire is just a sack of blood. If you get lucky, you can squeeze enough vitae out of a single lick for all your buddies before you kill them. The Blood Bond doesn’t matter much if they’re dead.

Sure, you can be careful. Take a vampire prisoner, avoid drinking straight from the vein. Make sure the Blood becomes inert out in the air before ingesting. Only the thing is, you’ll eventually fuck up. Vampires can be charming little fuckers. They’ll tell you a sob story, and promise to always give their blood. Or you get sloppy and drink from the vein and then you’re bonded. Squeeze them dry, kill them. It’s the only way to keep your head straight. The Blood Bond is some fucked up shit. The vampires are not brooding lords of the night. They’re sordid little pushers who want to chain you to the product they sell: their own Blood. With the Bond they do just that. I don’t pretend to kill vampires out of a sense of justice or duty although it’s probably a net good for the vile world we live in. I do it because I want to live and live free. You can do that too. The only thing you need to do is to let go of the fantasy of the vampire as a romantic figure. — Nayla, an independent ghoul

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ABOUT GHOULS In Vampire: The Masquerade, ghouls represent a special niche of the setting where themes of addiction, dependence, and power imbalances really come to the fore. Having to make do without the more extravagant Discipline powers or other advantages of the Kindred and being highly susceptible to the Blood Bond, or at the very least a crippling addiction, the ghouls get the short end of the stick in the quest to cheat death.

Many vampires keep their ghouls in line by promising that loyal service would be rewarded with full vampiredom. Unfortunately, vampires are inveterate liars and most ghouls end up dying abandoned by their masters and mistresses instead of being Embraced into the world of the Kindred.

The All Ghoul LARP

There are different themes and metaphors you can go for: if you want the LARP to be relentlessly grim, play up the ghoul’s need for vampire Blood and the capricious cruelty of the Kindred in doling it out. If you want the characters to feel more powerful, you can emphasize the cluelessness of older vampires concerning the modern world. They rely on their ghouls to maintain their networks of power and this means that the ghouls often know far more about their business than their master does.

If you want to make a World of Darkness LARP with a more down to earth focus, where the desperate scramble for a few crumbs from the tables of their betters, then the all ghoul LARP is your best bet. If Kindred are present, they are supporting characters. All the players characters are ghouls, keeping the LARP’s focus squarely on the ghoul experience. It also makes it possible to keep the vampires under strict organizer direction, making sure that they are suitably awful, highhanded, and vicious. Whether Camarilla Kindred who have subtly corrupted their mortal families by making them into ghouls or Anarchs who preach equality while subjecting their ghouls to a thousand small indignities, the role of the vampires in a ghoul LARP is to represent the system that is keeping the player characters down.

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Indeed, some vampires actively avoid Embracing ghouls. To them, it feels like the ghouls are eternally tainted by their servile position.

The Social Landscape A ghoul LARP works best if the characters are broken down into factions, opposing ideologies, and groups that have conflicting goals. The design of Vampire already breaks down the social map of vampire characters along these lines with the clans, sects, and so on. How do you do the same for ghouls?

The relationship of the ghoul to the Kindred creates a key distinction: Friends and family. Sometimes vampires seek to help their mortal friends and family with the gift of blood. It keeps them in better health, maybe even preventing life-threatening disease! No matter how selfless the original impulse, the result is that from that point onwards, the ghoul is dependent on the vampire. In some ways, this is the easiest way to be a ghoul. You can even pretend that you are truly equal with the vampire who is giving you their blood. Servants and staff. The traditional role of the ghoul in vampire society, and especially Camarilla society, is that of a servant. The ghoul is stronger than an ordinary person and loyal to boot. The conditions of employment vary wildly. Some of the luckier ghouls are basically employees with extra perks. Their masters tend to be younger, more modern Kindred who want to build a functional organization. At the other end of the spectrum are ancient Tzimisce who consider it entirely reasonable to fleshcraft their servants into identical doppelgangers just for the aesthetic effect. Serving such masters is miserable, with little chance of rebellion. Unaffiliated ghouls. Especially common among the Anarchs, some ghouls manage to navigate Kindred society without becoming chained to any single vampire. They often fulfill a useful purpose and get their blood from many different sources. A typical origin for such ghouls is that

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they served an elder who was called away by the Beckoning, leaving them to fend for themselves. In such a situation, some fail and die but others manage to make themselves indispensable to Kindred society. Hunters. Being a ghoul does not mean that you have to wait for vampires to give you blood. You can take it. Some of the ghouls in this category started as servants, developed a hatred of their masters, and rebelled despite the blood bond. Others were hunters first, trying to improve their abilities with a little illicit ingestion of vitae. Whatever their origins, these ghouls know that as long as you keep your blood supply varied, there is no reason to bow down to vampires just because you need their blood. In an example all-ghoul LARP, a group of hunters could be masquerading as unaffiliated ghouls, all the better to find new sources of blood. Perhaps some of them secretly yearn for the life of a kept ghoul, hoping it would be easier than being constantly on the hunt.

Ghoul LARPs Here are a few example concepts for an allghoul LARP: The staff party. The city’s ghouls have a traditional get-together where they complain about their masters, share tips, and just generally support and backstab each other with others who share their unique predicament. The evening’s atmosphere is relaxed until a group of young Camarilla vampires crashes the party, amusing themselves by humiliating the ghouls. Can the Kindred have their fun and then leave or does one of the ghouls lose their temper, causing an incident in which one or all of the vampires get destroyed? For a less confrontational version of the same idea, perhaps a couple of Anarchs join the party, figuring that surely the ghouls think they are okay! Awkwardness ensues as the ghouls pretend to like the vampires. Tables turned. A small group of young vampires are having a get-together which gets attacked by a group of bloodthirsty independent ghouls. In this setup, the vampires are all supporting characters, technically superior but in reality victims to the ghouls’ whims because of their small numbers. The ghoul player characters

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revel in their power, intimidating the vampires, making threats and having fun, their internal dynamics complicated by the fact that some of them are blood bound to the Kindred present. If they reveal themselves, they risk being destroyed by their compatriots but they still want to keep their masters safe in some way. Upstairs, downstairs. This concept combines a stately Camarilla LARP with a ghoul LARP by keeping them largely separate. The Kindred have their intrigues in the salons and the dining rooms while the ghouls interact among themselves downstairs in the kitchens and other servant’s spaces. The fact that the ghouls serve vampires makes this easier because they are spared the logistics of making and serving food. Victory party. A group of ghoul hunters have managed to find, exsanguinate, and kill three young Kindred. They are flush with their success, roaring with blood and glory. Servant ghouls end up at the party and the hunters do their best to convince them to turn on their masters. After all, the servants of the Kindred get treated terribly. The trouble is that no city can sustain too many independent ghouls. There is only a limited number of vampires and the older ones tend to be too wily to trap.

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ASHIRRA

Chapter Eight

Remembrance of the Ancients From the diary of Salman Hariri, a Lasombra traveler:

without the comforting remembrances of her past.

It must feel peaceful to know that monsters millennia old are unlikely to slumber under the tarmac of a shopping mall parking lot. Sure, there are rumors of Methuselahs who have traveled to America and made this their home. Perhaps one or two can be found somewhere, sleeping or pretending to be hapless neonates.

Will their recovery keep her at peace, perhaps willing to return to her deathless slumber? Perhaps. Perhaps not. It’s a vain hope but it’s the one I cling to.

Still.... the U.S. is huge. The ancients are rare. Few here have ever witnessed one face-to-face. I have. I suppose that’s why I returned. There are many monsters still sleeping under the sands of Egypt. I didn’t believe in them at first. I lived my mortal life in Pittsburgh but I wanted to get in touch with my heritage. I had become one of the undead and I needed to know what it all meant. I traveled to Cairo seeking for something, anything that would let me know why I was here. Now I’m just a scared dead man, escaping back across the ocean, to try to alleviate the destruction our forefathers will cause when they wake. I thought both my mortal and undying ancestors came from Egypt. I was right on both counts. My mortal family was perfectly happy to see me. Unfortunately, so were my Kindred among the Ashirra. The Englishman who started all this had no idea of the repercussions of his act of thievery. Of course, he thought himself an archeologist, a researcher digging through layers of history. An excavation in 1877, a looted tomb the contents of which now grace private collections all over the world... and a methuselah who will wake

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One of our local Ventrue, Salomé Diaz, has acquired a small child’s toy carved from rock; a little toy elephant from three-thousandyears ago. I don’t know its significance to the methuselah but I do know she likes it. Diaz seems entirely unaware of the connection. To her, it’s just an ancient bauble. I was there the last time the methuselah woke and asked for it. I didn’t understand her words but her will pierced my mind and I knew her desires. Blood and comfort, something from the time when things still made sense to her. She had a sadness to her, even if I failed to appreciate it because she was covered in the blood of my friends and compatriots, having drunk them dry to slake her own thirst. I understood why the Ashirra preferred me to be the one to deal with the methuselah instead of themselves. They had been dealing with the monsters sleeping in the ruins of other times and other ages for decades, centuries. They figured they could always throw a dumb traveler to the wolves. The methuselah was beautiful in the way of the ancients. The memory still makes me weep as I settle to sleep for the day, unable to escape yearning for something I know will kill me. Even if I manage to steal the toy from Diaz and return it to Cairo.

THE FIRST AND THE LAST Most Kindred in North America and Europe know two of the great sects: The Anarchs and the Camarilla. If they’re unlucky, they might have had personal experience with a third, the Sabbat. Yet there is a fourth sect, the Ashirra, with whom the Princes of the Camarilla have recently joined in a grand alliance sealed with the Vermilion Wedding. A Camarilla Kindred knowledgeable in the matters of the great sects might believe the following: The Ashirra consider themselves the first Kindred sect, rooted in the Arabian and North African homelands where all vampires originate, at least if the stories of Caine and Enoch are to be believed. According to legend, the Ashirra was founded in 622 by an Arabian Lasombra called Suleiman bin Abdullah who envisioned it to be a vehicle for bringing Islam to his fellow Cainites. Such religious fervor is long in the past for the Ashirra of modern nights, a conservative sect that sees itself as a precursor and a model for the European Camarilla that was to be founded much later. Of all the sects, the Ashirra is most defined by the weight of history. Its origins resemble those of the Sabbat and the Anarchs in that it started as a revolutionary movement among the Kindred with the goal of bringing the word of the Prophet to the undead. Before the Ashirra was established, North African domains were organized much like those in Europe and elsewhere, as individual cities and territories controlled by powerful vampires who often warred among each other. With the establishment of the Ashirra, a modicum of cooperation, tradition, and organized culture was established. Perhaps because of this, Ashirra domains managed to escape some of the worst depredations of the Inquisition and other vampire hunters that decimated the ranks of European Kindred. Of course, verifying any of this would require traveling to the Ashirra homelands, a perilous prospect for most Kindred. This is why knowledge of the Ashirra is mostly in the hands of the elders and travelers of various levels of trustworthiness.

The Weight of History For the Kindred of the Camarilla and the Anarchs who know the Noddist legends of vampire mythology, it is difficult to separate the stories about the Ashirra from the tales taken from the Book of Nod. From this perspective, the Ashirra are defined

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by the mortal and vampiric history of their homelands at least as much as it is by faith. The Ashirra established itself on lands where vampires had prowled for ten-thousand-years, from the earliest nights of recorded history and before.

The rare vampire traveler who manages to meet the Ashirra in their own domains talks about how they feel like they exist on borrowed time, their unlives always in danger of being cut short by a ravenous Methuselah who emerges from the sleep of the centuries. Vampire legends from the time when the Antediluvians walked the earth feel more

immediate and relevant when you can meet someone with memories that span millennia, although it is unlikely that you will survive such an encounter. This history may also explain why real knowledge of the modern Ashirra is still so spotty among Kindred of other sects. When faced with a legend and a fact, they choose the legend.

Ashirra Across the World Like the Camarilla, the Ashirra has spread its influence across the world from its original North African and Middle Eastern domains. Unlike the Camarilla, vampires of the Ashirra have not been focused on claiming new domains or fighting the Anarchs for territory. Rather, they have seemed content with subtle influence and advantageous alliances, allowing them to remain discreet and unobtrusive. This position of studied neutrality has been challenged in the last two decades as Sabbat packs have significantly ramped up their war efforts in the Middle East, the countries where they believe many of the Antediluvians to sleep. The Sabbat’s holy crusade is understood to have been deeply unwelcome to the Ashirra making their havens in these domains. They see the actions of these Sabbat packs as an unwarranted, violent, and destructive incursion into their territories by a fanatical foreign enemy. To combat the Sabbat, the leaders of many Ashirra domains have sought

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closer relations with the Camarilla, symbolized especially by the aforementioned Vermilion Wedding between the Toreador elder Victoria Ash and the Banu Haqim ancient Tegyrius. This also means that the Ashirra have been a topic of conversation in Camarilla and Anarch domains to a greater extent than in centuries past. Sometimes you may even meet an Ashirra emissary, or more likely someone pretending to be one.

The Final Witness If the stories are to be believed, the Ashirra are the oldest of the four sects. Some of the more mystically minded among the Noddists of the Camarilla and the Anarchs assume that they will also be the last sect, still here after the upstarts in the Camarilla, the Sabbat, and the Anarchs are long gone.

know that they can always just wait until their enemies are no more. After all, it seems to work for the monstrosities who slumber under the sands of Egypt, Libya, Saudi-Arabia, and elsewhere. The only trouble is that the creature who will one night rise from their grave and wreak vengeance does not seem to bear much resemblance to Kindred who still seeks to hold onto their humanity.

It’s unclear whether this focus on the vast gulfs of time is an actual Ashirra quality or something projected onto them by members of the other sects. It is said that vampires of the Ashirra are prone to an expansive historical perspective, a view that extends thousands of years into the past and projects a millenia into the future. They have witnessed the rise and fall of empires both mortal and Kindred and

It is rumored that the Ashirra have managed to hold onto their humanity better than members of other sects thanks to the community of faith provided by Islam but this may just be wishful thinking.

FAKES AND FRAUDS How to use Ashirra vampires in a LARP? In most cases, characters presenting themselves as Ashirra will be fakes and frauds, liars who have no real connection to the sect. They merely wish to assume its aura of strength and wisdom for their own short-term benefit. This means that the present Ashirra, whether real or fake, will be a minority in a principally Camarilla and Anarch event. Their role can be compared to that of the Sabbat in that they are often best used as a setting element giving context to the events in your domain. The Sabbat are adversaries and enemies; nightmares who haunt the unlives of ordinary Camarilla and Anarch characters. In contrast, ostensible Ashirra are potential allies who might provide a refuge to those in need or act as neutral arbitrators in a conflict when there is nobody else to trust. Of course, when the presumed Ashirra turns out to be a con artist, their arbitrations will lose whatever legitimacy they might have had.

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Ashirra Characters

There are a few rules of thumb to remember in how to make this work at your event.

Traditionally, the Ashirra are a North African and Middle Eastern sect. However, like all vampire sects, they too Embrace people of all races and ethnicities, according to the needs and whims of individual sires. Although the majority of Ashirra are Arab Muslims, there are plenty of exceptions, especially outside their traditional homelands.

1. Usually it is always better to have a small group of Ashirra instead of a single representative, if the size of the event allows it. It can be lonely to play an outsider and it is easier if you have friends. 2. There should be points of contact with the local Kindred. The Ashirra elders who sent their childer to the city may be old friends with local eminences, seeing the Camarilla and their own sect as siblings in the war against the Sabbat, or the Ashirra may sympathize with the Anarchs finding common ground in the closeness they have with mortals.

This means that if you decide to feature actual Ashirra characters in your event, they may be of any ethnic background. As a sect, the Ashirra place a lot of importance on the Islamic faith, or at least their vampiric interpretation of it, and sometimes Muslims Embraced originally to the Camarilla or the Anarchs decide to seek out the sect as they see it as their own. These individuals form another category of extraterritorial Ashirra: they have decided they are part of the sect despite having little real communication with old Ashirra domains.

3. Neutrality gives the Ashirra their distinctive quality but it should not hamper stories. Some Ashirra may take their neutral role seriously while others may use it to cover for their selfserving activities, cheerfully taking sides while pretending not to. Finally, envoys and emissaries should have a concrete purpose. They should not just represent the Ashirra, but a specific interest of an individual or a smaller group, ideally something that causes controversy among the other characters. For example, an Ashirra domain may seek the rendition of a Camarilla elder for crimes committed centuries ago, on another continent.

Of course, there are non-Muslim Ashirra too. A secular Lasombra Embraced in Egypt is a member of the Ashirra the same way the majority of European and North American Kindred default to the Anarchs and the Camarilla whether they believe the stories of Caine or not.

Envoys and Envoys

Of course, if the Ashirra characters are actually charlatans, they can pretend to have a mission and powerful backing when in reality it is all made up.

A common role for both actual and fake Ashirra characters is to act as envoys or emissaries for their sect, representing the interests of their elders and domains. They become almost like an embassy; a purportedly neutral force in a city where everybody is at each other’s throats.

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Refuge The Ashirra can provide refuge to Kindred persecuted by other sects. This can lead to interesting situations. For example, the Prince declares a blood hunt on a local Anarch leader who subsequently petitions the local Ashirra representative for safety. The local Ashirra take the Anarch in, refusing to give them over to the Prince. What does the Prince do? Do they want to aggravate the local Ashirra? Do they attempt a trade, finding something the Ashirra vampires want in exchange for the Anarch? And what about the other Anarchs? They may discover a sudden love for the Ashirra, romanticizing their commitment to humanity through religious practice because they so clearly stood behind their values. What happens when local Kindred discover that the “Ashirra” giving shelter to fugitives are not Ashirra at all? Like Hecata, the Clan of Death, the Ashirra are often understood to maintain a position of neutrality in domains far from their own, and that can create interesting story opportunities. Another possibility is that local Kindred ask the local Ashirra for arbitration on an important issue because they are seen as powerful, yet disinvested in local conflicts. For example, the Camarilla Court argues that the nightlife district is their territory while the Anarchs say that they do all the work of actually cleaning up Masquerade breaches resulting from hunting accidents. Because the sects of the city are equal in power, a local Ashirra is called in to hear both sides. Of course, both the Camarilla and the Anarchs resent such outside interference in their business so the situation can be delicate for the Ashirra vampire in question, especially if they are not actually Ashirra at all. Being the center of attention often means that powerful members of other sects make it their business to find out all they can about you.

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INTERLUDE: ENOUGH WITH THE FILTH A letter from Sebastian to the Anarchs: Hey, I’m telling you all this in a letter for a reason. Remember when that Gangrel started badmouthing the Anarchs and telling everyone she’d join the Camarilla? She was young, much like me. You beat her up and staked her. Maybe you even ended her. I don’t know. Point is, I’m not going to have that happen to me. I’m joining the Camarilla and you will have to deal with it. Next time you see me, I’ll have protection. I don’t want to be an asshole about this. If everything was up to me, we’d remain friends and all would be good. There’s no reason for you to hold a grudge just because I didn’t fit in and made a different choice. Okay, cards on the table. I was offered a choice. The Ventrue Salomé Diaz offered me membership in the Camarilla. I’m not going to lie to you, or to myself. She said it was because she thought I had a pretty face and she wanted to bring her lover to Elysium. It’s not more than that. I know it won’t last but once she gets tired of me, I’ll still be a member of the Camarilla. I wasn’t born rich, back when I still breathed. I guess I was good at pretending to be richer, better educated, more sophisticated than I really was but the truth is that for most of my life I had nothing. Then, the Embrace! Once I got over the shock I became aware of the possibilities. I saw the Kindred of the Camarilla carve out vast empires of wealth for themselves. Only I wasn’t Camarilla. I was a poor Anarch Brujah, expected to exist discreetly among the kine and pretend to be one of them. Seriously, what are we doing? What is immortality if you can’t even make yourself comfortable? Among the Anarchs who make this city their home, I know a guy whose Haven is the back room of a bar. Auntie Juniper hunts out of a camper van! And don’t even get me started on the Nosferatu. A sewer? That’s just nasty. Being one of the Kindred is hard. Not to see the sun, not to see daylight, to be a danger to everyone you ever knew in life. Some nights I wasn’t sure how I’d be able to exist like

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this. I miss so many people but I don’t want to get them killed. I know that every Kindred is a poisonous presence. I’ve seen that enough times already. The Anarchs are good for learning that lesson because so many of us choose to continue our old lives as if we hadn’t become undead parasites. You know as well as I do how that tends to work out. Maybe, just maybe, we could accept that the Camarilla is right on this one. Let’s make a clean break with our mortal lives, accept that we’re undead creatures and make some money to allay all the angst and suffering. I don’t know about you but I find it easier to wrestle with my demons in the suite of a five star hotel. You know what made me do this? It’s been simmering for a while but I admit there was an incident. Something happened. I was at the usual hangout, doing what we do every night. Griping about the Camarilla, sitting on our asses, doing nothing. Some of the older Anarchs were there, Agata Starek and Auntie Juniper. They said we should all go hunting together. Sure, I said yes. I was bored. I figured maybe I could learn from them because they’re so much more experienced than I am. During that night, I saw Starek murder some poor bastard because she said he was a Ventrue ghoul. Was he really? I have no idea. Did he deserve to die? Maybe. But I don’t think so. Auntie Juniper stopped a young man at a gas station and decided to take him on the spot. He was her type, young, dumb and hot. The way her ghouls always look like, as if she had a gym in her camper van. I suppose he had a life. Maybe he had ambitions, loved ones, desires.... None of that mattered. Now he’s just a servant to Auntie Juniper, another toy in her collection of Blood Bound, Presence-addled pretty boy dimwits. He’ll die in a few years in some violent incident down the road, just like they always do. We’re not more moral than the Camarilla. We’re not the good guys. We’re monsters just as they are, only our crimes are small and petty. We sell our souls for nothing, table scraps when we could live like kings. You’ll hate me. I know you will. Still, I hope that once I get established in the Camarilla, I’ll be able to pull some of you along with me. Your friend, — Sebastian

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Chapter Nine

A HOUSE

FULL OF

BIG EVENTS

DEVILS

There’s no upper limit on how big a Vampire LARP can be, at least in theory. Experience shows that LARPs for 10 to 40 players are fairly easy to produce. Beyond that, scale generates new issues. Here are some of them:

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- The size of the player base. How many participants do you believe the LARP can attract? If you have a potentially small player base, you may struggle to fill your LARP. If you have a big player base, you may end up with more people who want to play your LARP than you can accommodate. - The venue. How many people can your venue accommodate? If the venue is too small, your players will feel cramped and out of options. If too big, your LARP will feel empty. Fortunately LARPs are no different from other events such as weddings in terms of figuring out how many people fit into a venue. (When choosing a venue, the best ones have a number of separate spaces like side rooms, nooks, and crannies. They also have a few bigger common spaces. This makes it possible to have big scenes and for players to hold secret meetings, unexpectedly stumble into one another in the side rooms, and for the social map of the LARP to become more nuanced.) - Sleeping arrangements. If the LARP runs for multiple days and the players are expected to sleep on site, does the venue have enough beds for the participants? If players take care of their own sleeping arrangements, are there enough hotels in the area? - Food. If you plan to have food at the event, can the venue itself feed your players? If not, are there restaurants in the area? - Bathrooms. Vampires might not need them but your players do. Make sure there are spaces where players can put on their make-up and costumes and answer the call of nature if necessary. As can be seen from this list, a lot of the issues that affect the maximum size of a LARP are practical production questions. When you bring a lot of humans together, you need to see to their basic needs. Once those are satisfied, they are ready to LARP. Not before.

Big Ideas A big LARP needs a big idea that can govern a very large group of characters through a unified concept. You can design a LARP of ten players through interesting bespoke character concepts that intersect in a fun way. As the number of players goes up, the complexity of the social map increases and it becomes more labor intensive to handcraft every character and interaction. As your writing and design team grows, there is a danger that the production becomes unwieldy and stressful for the organizers. You can avoid a lot of this labor by using three methods that reduce the workload. They are: (i) carefully chosen big ideas; (ii) group-based design; and (ii) interaction engines. “Carefully chosen big ideas” means that some LARP concepts inherently generate action. In the official

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Vampire: The Masquerade LARP Enlightenment in Blood played in Berlin in 2017, action flowed from the core concept of revolution. This word immediately tells you what to do. If you’re a member of the establishment, you’re trying to survive; if you’re a nobody, you join the joyous destruction of the old order. Because the concept inherently suggests action, the LARP does not require quite so much precreated individual content. The opposite of this would be a LARP that’s a big get-together of the Camarilla of a few different cities with no specific overarching goal. Such a LARP is inert until animated by individually created plots and character motivations. The possible pool of big concepts can be limited but these concepts can be recycled to make very different LARPs. Other similar organizing concepts are war, exodus, and festival. These are big events that affect an entire community.

Groups and Engines Group-based design means that instead of crafting individual characters, you should conceptualize the LARP on the level of groups Fortunately, Vampire: The Masquerade does a lot of the heavy lifting for you because the game already has numerous factions. When you think of in-game events in terms of the Toreador and the Brujah or the Camarilla and the Anarchs, you are already doing group-based design. If you say that the local Toreador and the Brujah are at war, you have created a motivation for

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action for all of your characters in those two clans. An interaction engine is a mechanism set in the game that automatically generates action as the characters encounter it. A good engine is a simple mechanism that allows the players to generate ideas and actions themselves without organizer input. Here are a few simple examples of interaction engines: - The timetable. If the players have an in-game timetable available to them, they can structure their play around it. This works whether there are ten players or 200. - The magic item. A cursed item travels the LARP, causing the bearer to act erratically and then pass the item on causing the next person to suffer similar effects and then pass the item on, and so on. - The tournament. The Prince declares that in honor of the centenary of their rule, any Kindred who wins ten duels against their peers will gain a spot on the Primogen Council. As a catch, you can only challenge those of similar age as yourself or older. Neonates can challenge elders but elders cannot challenge neonates or ancillae.

THE VENEER OF SOPHISTICATION A memo from the Ventrue Salomé Diaz to her staff concerning a planned soirée at the Elysium: Servants gossip. That’s unavoidable so I know that the emerging unrest hasn’t passed you by. You know that some among the Kindred are making moves, that the Anarchs are restless and our elders increasingly distant. In a situation like this, it’s more necessary than ever to show that we are not afraid. They have not rattled us. The power of the Camarilla holds, and Elysium is as sacred as ever. We will hold Elysium and we will do it as expansively, generously, and openly as we can. Our doors will be open to all Kindred, barring those who have violated the Traditions. We will see whether our wouldbe opponents will make the mistake of violating the peace of the Elysium. Perhaps they will, but I suspect not. Many Kindred like to talk about the revolution, fighting in the streets and assassinating their enemies. Still, even among the Anarchs, when things get serious many of them don’t actually have what it takes to thrive in open war. They talk big and then slink back into their holes. As we hold Elysium, we call their bluff. We invite them to walk up to us and look us in the eyes and see who blinks first. Everything must be perfect. Some of you have been serving the Camarilla as ghouls since before I was Embraced. You know how this is done properly. Even the mangiest Gangrel must be welcomed into the Elysium, the grand stage on which the greatest political moves of our kind are played out in a genteel, civilized atmosphere only possible thanks to centuries–no–millenia of tradition. After all, tradition and the weight of ages is on our side.

The Concept The Elysium is the most common, traditional setting for a Vampire LARP. It is the baseline against which all other Vampire LARP concepts set themselves. The exact rules in force at the Elysium vary domain by domain but the most commonly understood one is that Kindred are prohibited from attacking each other while there.

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The Elysium is neutral ground. From a LARP perspective, this is highly convenient because it makes it possible to organize a large social event in which there are characters and groups who are violently opposed to each other. This is why it is a good idea to communicate this Kindred culture so that everyone respects the sanctity of the Elysium, even the most hardened Anarchs and high-handed elders. The

in-game idea of Elysium as a neutral space makes the LARP itself possible. The traditional Elysium LARP is an event hosted by the Camarilla, often the Prince and their court. There can also be a separate official, the Keeper of the Elysium, who is in charge of making sure that the rules are followed and no conflict escalates into violence. The Elysium is essentially a party or a reception, a chance for all Kindred in the domain to meet.

The Venue The classic Elysium venue is fancy, befitting the Ventrue and Toreador who often organize these events. If you have the production capacity and budget for it, you can rent a mansion or a similarly striking space. Sometimes it is possible to rent museums for private events, or art galleries. These also make for fine Elysiums.

the usual venue for Elysium was raided by the Second Inquisition, forcing the Kindred into making alternate arrangements.

The Characters Every vampire in the domain can feature in the Elysium LARP. Indeed, it is often fun to have wildly disparate groups of characters present. The Ventrue and Toreador in their sophisticated finery, the Brujah and the Gangrel feeling out of place and alienated. You can take advantage of the rules of the Elysium by introducing characters who want to murder each other. This can play out on the individual level: perhaps the Tremere Primogen just had the mortal boyfriend of a Ventrue Harpy killed “to protect the Masquerade”. From a higher vantage point, the mutual hatreds of the clans and other Kindred social groups can fester and boil because the LARP would not descend into all-out physical combat.

In a sense, the task of a LARP organizer who is looking for a venue is very similar to that of a ghoul servant told by their Toreador domitors to find a good place. In both cases, you need to check out what is available within your budget range, subject to the limitations and requirements of event design.

It’s a good idea to avoid overplaying how strange it is for the Anarchs and similar outsiders to be among the Camarilla. Stressed too much, it is possible to create the feeling that they should not be here at all, and it would make sense for their characters to leave the LARP. Such a situation points their characters in a useless direction.

Since budgets are often limited, you can also get creative with what is an Elysium. Vampires have eclectic tastes and a Prince or a Keeper can designate anything from a city park to a parking garage as Elysium if they so choose.

It is better if the assumption among local Kindred is that the Anarchs, the Brujah, or other outsiders are always there. They can gripe about it and feel unwanted but next month, they will be there again.

An unusual choice of venue can be connected to an ongoing story in the chronicle. Perhaps

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The Stories The Elysium is a great place for traditional Vampire LARP stories. Here are a few examples: - Deposing the Prince. You decide that the Prince should be replaced, preferably by you. Get together a coalition of other Kindred, line up powerful backers and organize a palace coup. In some domains, a powerful Prince rules for decades while in others the office changes hands all the time. - The veneer of sophistication. Camarilla Kindred are good at maintaining a civilized aura even when their actions are horrifying and barbaric. The Elysium is where they uphold the facade and you can play on this contrast. Perhaps local Kindred must discuss which mortal assets to use as cannon fodder in the war against the Sabbat or snipe at each other by assassinating mortal relations of members of rival clans.

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- A forum for personal stories. You will have as many personal stories as you have player characters. Each has their own motivations, dreams and hopes. Elysium is a good place for the players and their characters to further their personal goals because all relevant characters are there. A Camarilla vampire is considering defecting to the Anarchs? They can talk to a few Anarchs about it at the Elysium. Kindred who are normally difficult to reach are there if you need them. - Social games. The Elysium is the domain of the Heralds and the Toreador, the pettiest and most cliquish tastemakers among the Kindred. The Elysium is the place where the social butterflies execute their plans and hunt their prey, playing games out of boredom or because they know that under the trivial veneer, their actions have real consequences.

THE TUNNELS UNDERNEATH “I’m new to this!” Deja said, instinctively touching the wall to steady herself. It felt cold and chalky. She looked at her hand. It was stained with a black residue. She considered wiping it off but she didn’t want sewer filth on her clothes either. “You’ll get used to it,” her guide said in his bubbling, strained voice. “There are advantages to living like this.” Deja was about to make a biting remark but held her tongue. She was the one looking for sanctuary. Qiao and the other Nosferatu were providing it for her. The sewer tunnels were not all filth and grime but the deeper they went, the older the tunnels got, and with age came repellent encrustations of moldering, indecipherable substances. Eventually they emerged into a maintenance room with a low ceiling and white, glaring halogen lights. Someone had managed to

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bring in a ratty sofa and a surprisingly new television. Two other Nosferatu were watching a reality show. Like Qiao, they were grotesque to look at, their flaking flesh somehow seemingly more alive than you would expect from one of the living dead. “Is this where you hang out?” Deja asked, looking around. It was not as bad as the tunnels but there was brown dirt flaking on the floor. “Where do you sleep?” “Oh, we’re not so formal around here. Just anywhere you want, basically. This space has been decommissioned and it’s not on the sewer plans. This is one of the safer havens in this town,” Qiao said and leaned against the sofa, the other Nosfertau glancing curiously at Deja.

“There’s a lot of space here,” Qiao continued. “You’d be surprised how many people forget basements, sewers, access tunnels, even whole metro stations. We claim them and make them disappear from city plans. There’s a lot of us living here, mortals too.... Once you’re settled in, I’ll take you to meet some folks.” Deja was still standing in the doorway. She realized she was being rude and forced herself to walk into the room. “Thank you. So during the day, I’d sleep....” Qiao laughed, an unpleasant sound like his throat was not meant for it but was trying to mimic genuine emotion. “I know it’s a lot. We’re not so glamorous down here. But just remember, your pursuers will not find you. To make it easier, you can take the sofa. Me and the boys will sleep on the floor. What does it matter anyway? We’re all corpses here.”

The Concept The Nosferatu tend to have their havens in the tunnels underneath the city. It is difficult for them to move among mortals because of their appearance so they favor abandoned spaces. In vampire society, the Nosferatu tend to be outsiders, apart from the Elysiums of the Camarilla and the hangouts of the Anarchs. Even a Nosferatu who belongs to one of the sects can find themselves on the periphery. This LARP is set in the underground world of the Nosferatu. It can feature characters of all clans but the Nosferatu are at the center of it, the characters with the highest status and most power. In other places, the rest of the clans dominate. Underground, it is the Sewer Rats. In a chronicle, this concept works best if it is not the first event. Once the players have gotten used to a status quo where most events are held at Elysium at the pleasure of the Ventrue and the Toreador, you can shake it up with a game set underground or in an industrial wasteland.

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The Venue The venue has to sell the concept. To make the LARP work, you need an industrial space, an underground space, or something equally gritty. You may get lucky with sewer museums, decommissioned metro stations or the like. In some cities, there are such spaces available for rent. Sometimes disused factories or other industrial spaces are available for parties or other events and that should work for LARP too. There is a balance there with how much filth is too much. This also depends on your players and play

culture. Sometimes you can find an abandoned factory that is available very cheaply and has the right atmosphere but will also cover all participants in actual grime. The main things to look for is whether the venue has bathrooms, places where people can sit, and whether it is physically safe. Some decommissioned buildings are hazardous because of neglect. The liability you have in such situations as an organizer changes from country to country.

The Characters You can make this into a big LARP by including all sorts of outsiders inhabiting the World of Darkness; all the recluses who might share an underground habitat with the Nosferatu. Exiled vampires might have found refuge in the sewers, the Prince’s bloodhounds unwilling to brave the filth and unknown darkness. Some characters might not even be vampires at all, but instead Ratkin or Bone Gnawers. There are surprising alliances to be made among the outcasts and traditional hostilities might not necessarily break down along their usual lines. The most important division between character types is those who live here and those who are just visiting. For the Nosferatu, this is home. For the Toreador, it’s a disquieting adventure into a thrilling and scary new environment. What do the locals think of Camarilla ancillae who think they are slumming?

The Stories The local characters in this LARP know they are at the bottom of the totem pole. Some might resent those who live among humanity indistinguishable from them, while others are resigned to it. For a few, this could even be the superior way to exist as a vampire.

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The LARP works well if there is a twist in ordinary power relations giving the sewer dwellers the edge. Perhaps the Sabbat has attacked the city, forcing the Camarilla elite to seek refuge underground. The Nosferatu relish the opportunity this provides, as the Kindred

who usually snub their noses at them suddenly have to bow and scrape. Another possibility is to use the LARP to flesh out the culture and milieu of the city’s downtrodden. The Camarilla resides in wealth and luxury while the Anarchs integrate themselves into the lives of the mortal population. Both ignore the fact that many cities effectively have a third sect, a nameless group of Kindred unable to exist unnoticed if they are surrounded by mortals. If this is the basis of the LARP, then for Nosferatu, and perhaps Malkavian and Gangrel characters, this is their moment to shine. They

can figure out how their characters actually deal with things among themselves. For characters among the other clans, it is a chance to step into a world they did not really know even existed, or which they steadfastly ignored. From a more personal perspective, this LARP concept heightens the differences between the haves and have nots. Individual Toreador and Nosferatu see their different privileges and advantages in stark relief as the action moves away from its usual genteel context. It is a chance for Anarch characters to realize that perhaps they are not at the bottom after all. There are others more unfortunate than them.

THE POWER AND THE BLOOD SEBASTIAN: Wow. It’s so quiet here. It’s like the walls just absorb all sound.

SALOMÉ DIAZ: Did you bother to look out of the windows of our limo when we arrived?

SALOMÉ DIAZ: Stop gawking like a yokel. You’re my lover now. Act like it.

SEBASTIAN: No, I guess not.

SEBASTIAN: Okay, okay.... It’s just that I’ve never been to the Tremere Chantry before. I didn’t know Kindred had places like this in the city. SALOMÉ DIAZ: I can see that. Now, be a good boy and follow my lead. SEBASTIAN: Before we go in, I have a question. SALOMÉ DIAZ: What? SEBASTIAN: How come this is safe? What if Second Inquisition hunters find this place? It’s a big neoclassical building with occult runes and everything. Not exactly discreet.

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SALOMÉ DIAZ: This is the university library, or the oldest of the several library buildings. We’re at the campus. The Tremere have a lot of influence here and they’ve secreted their Chantry in a building that’s visited by hundreds of students every day. SEBASTIAN: Oh. That’s clever. SALOMÉ DIAZ: The Tremere may be desperately unfashionable but they’re not dumb. Now, your job is to look pretty and not embarrass me. Do you think you can do that? SEBASTIAN: Sure. I guess. SALOMÉ DIAZ: Good. Let’s go.

The Concept Many domains boast a Tremere Chantry; a building occupied by the Tremere, used as a central repository of knowledge and often also a communal Haven by some or all of the clan members. The building is a landmark on the mental map of local Kindred because few clans or other Kindred organizations have such a clearly defined headquarters. This means that a LARP can easily be set in the Tremere Chantry. Perhaps once a month, the Tremere host a reception for members of other clans. Or maybe the event is more unusual, prompted by recent events in a chronicle. The focus in a Chantry LARP is obviously on the Tremere, their plans, culture, and practices. It works best if characters in other clans are curious about the Tremere so if you insert this concept into a chronicle, you may want to build up the mystery of the Tremere a few events in advance. Who knows what is happening behind the walls of the Chantry? Now is your chance to find out!

The Venue This is a LARP concept that requires due consideration to find the right venue. Since it is supposed to be the Tremere Chantry, it should be a building where the Tremere could plausibly have their libraries and Havens. In ideal circumstances, you would have an occult library; a ritual space and the private chambers of clan members, decorated in dark wood and perfected by a cabinet of curiosities. Unfortunately, such ready-made venues are not easy to find!

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If you want a venue that fits the traditional Tremere atmosphere of erudition, scout local universities, libraries, or other places of knowledge. Sometimes they will have spaces that you can rent with the appropriate atmosphere of history. Then you can make it so that the Tremere do not want to let outsiders into their inner chambers and limit their visitors to these more public spaces. In modern nights, the Tremere have fragmented. They are no longer a monolithic organization dedicated to the aesthetic of Hermetic wizardry. This means that if the majority Tremere faction

in your city is the followers of Carna or some other splinter group, the Chantry can also have a different vibe. The clan has traditionally spent a lot of resources on maintaining imposing and impressive Chantries. In the age of the Second Inquisition it is possible that the old Chantry has been lost and suddenly the clan has had to adapt to new circumstances. All this means that you can decide whether you want to create the traditional Tremere Chantry experience (limited by practical realities) or if it feels more interesting to look at other options provided by changes in the clan and the threat of hunters. In an ongoing chronicle, an event held at the new, improvised Chantry of Tremere who have just been forced to leave their traditional home can be interesting.

The Characters This concept works best if there are enough Tremere in the city for the clan to have internal politics. Since the Tremere will be hosting the event, it is more interesting if there are visible cracks in the unified front presented by the clan. The Tremere must have a reason to open their doors to members of other clans. Perhaps they are looking for allies, or maybe they are worried about recent negative rumors swirling around the clan. After all, everyone knows the Usurpers are devious blood magicians seeking to control you through the very vitae that makes you into a vampire. In an ongoing chronicle, the reason for the event can be more specific and related to ongoing storylines. For example, if the city has acquired a new Prince, the clan can host a reception in their

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honor to show their loyalty and commitment to the new rule. Other characters can be anyone the Tremere have invited. It is not strange to be curious about what is happening behind the walls of the Chantry so even characters antagonistic to the Tremere have a simple motivation for visiting. Outside visitors to the Chantry should have a variety of motivations regarding the Tremere. A Caitiff wants to ask for their help to determine their true lineage while Anarchs wonder how committed the Tremere really are to the rule of the Ventrue Prince.

The Stories The most dramatic story you can implement through a Tremere event is the further splintering of the clan. Perhaps there are rumors of internal division among the Tremere and the Regent decides to fight them by hosting a public event that is meant to show the clan’s unity and purpose. Instead, the internal divisions among the clans flare up and followers of Carna or even a new splinter faction destroy the seeming hegemonic unity of the Pyramid by declaring independence. What does this mean for the remaining loyalists among the clan? They find themselves suddenly weakened, in sore need of allies. As for the newly independent Tremere, they too find themselves alone in a hostile world. Do they go with the Anarchs or seek protection from the Prince? The Tremere are famous for blood sorcery and this makes for a good subject for smaller stories in a Chantry LARP. Here are a few ideas:

- The Prince says they are a Ventrue, but are they really? Perhaps the Tremere can find out if someone manages to acquire a drop of the Prince’s blood. - The Anarchs have heard rumors that the Tremere Chantry features a “library of blood”, where samples of vitae from all kinds of Kindred are stored. Some Anarchs want to steal them for their own uses, while others just want to taste them. There could be blood from a Methuselah! How often do you get to drink that? - The Tremere have been developing a new ritual that sounds suspiciously like the Vaulderie of the Sabbat. The Sheriff tries to discreetly get to the bottom of the matter while pretending to be an ally of the Tremere.

THE FLOWER OF HUMANITY From a police interview tape: Detective Fakhoury: Can you describe what happened at the nightclub? Lloyd-Atkinson: I’ve lived here for a few months. I’m an exchange student from Leeds. It’s in the U.K. Detective Fakhoury: Yes. Lloyd-Atkinson: I just wanted to go out. I haven’t had a chance to do that while I’ve been here.

Detective Fakhoury: What’s their relationship to you? Lloyd-Atkinson: They’re just friends from the uni. They invited me along. Detective Fakhoury: You arrived at the club at eleven, right? Lloyd-Atkinson: Yes. Roy got us drinks while I went dancing with Emma. Detective Fakhoury: Were illegal substances involved?

Detective Fakhoury: It’s okay. Did you go alone?

Lloyd-Atkinson: No... I mean....

Lloyd-Atkinson: No, I went with friends. They asked me along.

Detective Fakhoury: Your friends have disappeared. It’s best if you tell me the truth.

Detective Fakhoury: Would that be... one moment.... (Papers shuffling.) Emma Martinez and Roy Bryant?

Lloyd-Atkinson: Roy and Emma were using something, they were high.... But I don’t know a lot about that stuff.

Lloyd-Atkinson: Yes. Both.

Detective Fakhoury: You didn’t use anything? Please, it’s important.

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Lloyd-Atkinson: Maybe a little LSD.

Detective Fakhoury: Vague but strong?

Detective Fakhoury: Considering the timeline of events, would it be fair to say you’re still under the effects of the substance at the present moment?

Lloyd-Atkinson: I can’t explain it.

Lloyd-Atkinson: ...yes.

Lloyd-Atkinson: Back at the dorm. I don’t even know how I got there. Everyone was feeling so good....

Detective Fakhoury: Okay. Time may be of the essence so we will continue with the interview despite your current state. Can you describe the first moment when you felt something was wrong? Lloyd-Atkinson: Roy and Emma are a couple and they’re pretty monogamous. But I saw them dancing and they were making out with strangers. A girl was kissing Emma’s neck and she was really into it. Detective Fakhoury: Can you describe the girl? Lloyd-Atkinson: I don’t know... I don’t remember it so well. She was Black. Older than us.

Detective Fakhoury: At which point did you realize you had lost your friends?

Detective Fakhoury: At the dorm? Lloyd-Atkinson: No, at the club. People were making out all around me, dancing, moving, and I felt so loved.... I lost all sense of time. Detective Fakhoury: You realize this is serious, right? We’re investigating the disappearance of your friends. Anything you might give us is helpful. Lloyd-Atkinson: I understand. Detective Fakhoury: So.... Lloyd-Atkinson: One guy was a monster but he was also human, like both at the same time, and he bit me I think.

Detective Fakhoury: That’s not much to go on. Lloyd-Atkinson: I’m sorry. I was so confused. Detective Fakhoury: Did you engage in intimate activities while dancing? Lloyd-Atkinson: Yes. Yes I did. I don’t even know who it was. It felt so good. I was so... Detective Fakhoury: Please, Ms. Lloyd-Atkinson. Collect yourself. Lloyd-Atkinson: I’m sorry. It’s just that the memory is very strong. Vague but strong.

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Detective Fakhoury: A monster bit you…? Lloyd-Atkinson: Yes. But it felt good. So good.... Detective Fakhoury: Okay. I think we’re done here. This is going nowhere.

The Concept Vampires are defined by their need for blood. A vampire hunts. To make that possible in a vampire LARP, you need a lot of mortal characters and a setting where the Masquerade is in force. A nightclub, a rave, or a party are all good settings for this kind of LARP. For mortal characters, it is an ordinary night out. For vampire characters, it is a chance to go on the prowl and satisfy their need for sustenance. This concept goes to the core of what vampires are all about. Hunting and being hunted. Both can be a fun experience. From the standpoint of a mortal character, it means being seduced by a mysterious stranger and perhaps even accidentally turned into a vampire in the middle of the party. The LARP works best if the vampire characters are young Anarchs, not too good at controlling their impulses or maintaining the Masquerade. Of course, the Masquerade is more robust when everyone is drunk and high, prone to ignoring troubling signs all around them.

The Venue Organizing a LARP like this is very similar to organizing an actual party, with the added work of creating characters and stories for them to play out. That means that you can exploit existing nightlife infrastructure. Rent a nightclub or some other venue that is regularly used for parties anyway and you are good to go. The same goes for DJs and other requirements. The choice of venue affects the atmosphere of the event. A nightclub has a different vibe than a warehouse party. You can explore the options for partnering with professional party organizers since they already have the expertise for this sort of an event, sans the LARP parts. A good goal to consider is whether this would be a good party if it did not have any of the LARP elements. If the answer is yes, you are going in the right direction.

The Characters The majority of the characters should be mortals who do not know anything about vampires. This means that you should consider the experience of the players of those mortal characters first, before you think about how the LARP is to play as a vampire. What is it like to go out in the World of Darkness, into the sordid nightlife of a decaying city where everyone knows they have no future? What is it like to be hunted by bloodsucking monstrosities?

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Mortal characters should have their own cliques and rivalries, motivations and goals that keep their LARP running whether there is vampire contact or not. The Kindred should represent a minority of the characters, perhaps only 10%, and they should be only marginally removed from the human experience. They can be neonates with only a few years as Kindred, a motley bunch who do not have all that much trouble blending in among the mortal characters.

The Stories This concept is best suited for doing the kind of stories about hunting and being hunted that are difficult when most characters are Kindred. Ideally the fact that the Kindred need blood and are here to hunt will in itself generate interesting interactions and dynamic action. How do they hunt while maintaining the Masquerade? It is fun if the vampire characters are less experienced, forcing them and their players to come up with new hunting tactics that fit their circumstances. You can complicate the scenario by giving some of the mortal characters the opportunity to hunt vampires, turning predators into prey. Perhaps there are disgruntled ghouls or even actual Second Inquisition agents among the partying throng. That could be a funny scenario in itself: a team of Second Inquisition agents have a night off and decide to go out. At the party, they start to suspect that the undead might be preying among the crowd. Are they just imagining it–the pressures of the job getting to them–or is it real? You should consider what to do if the Masquerade is truly broken during the LARP. This could be how it ends, with inexperienced vampires making a mess of it, leading to panic. Or maybe everyone is too high to really trust their own sense of reality.

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BLOOD RAVE Deja: Okay, I got to ask. What’s with all the parties? I understand that sometimes you want to have fun. That’s fine. But you spend so much time organizing these things.

Dee: You sound like a schoolteacher. It’s that patiently exasperated note in your voice.

Dee: Me? You know, I’m not really an organizer type... I’m all about the vibes.

Dee: Okay, fine. It’s because of the Blood. We want to have fun with our prey, drink when we like and forget the Masquerade for a few hours. It’s here out of town because the Camarilla hogs all the best feeding territories and because there are no bystanders to see us drink blood on the dancefloor.

Deja: Not you personally. The Anarchs! Dee: You’re an Anarch too. Didn’t you defect? Deja: Yes. I did. Let’s stick to the point. Dee: Yeah, so…. Look at that guy! I bet he tastes good. Deja: You mean that guy who looks like a lecherous creep? I mean... he doesn’t look very appealing to me. Dee: You got to look inside his veins. Feel the taste of his blood. I promise, it’ll be good. Deja: How can you tell? Dee: You develop an instinct for these things. Look at those veins on his neck. Deja: That’s one advantage of pale skin, sure. Brings out the veins. Dee: Yeah! Anyway, I call dibs. Deja: Feel free. I’m not touching that guy. But you didn’t answer my question. We’re at a warehouse rave in the middle of nowhere. Why do we, the Anarchs, spend so much time on party organizing?

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Deja: Dee...

Deja: We’re breaking the Masquerade? Dee: No. This is an Anarch party. Vampires, ghouls and blood dolls only. Deja: If the Camarilla knew about this, they’d claim these feeding areas too. Dee: They sure would. But it’s useless. It’s not about the territory. It’s about cultivating a herd and bringing them together so we can have a bit of fun. Deja: This is... actually very smart. Dee: Hey, look at that guy! Deja: Is he vomiting blood? Dee: Yeah! What a waste of good blood. Although if you’re desperately hungry… Deja: You know what? Let’s just drop this subject right now.

The Concept The Anarch rave is big, chaotic, and bloody. This is where the Kindred can let go without having to worry about being seen or making mistakes in front of their compatriots. Even the undead can feel the beat in their bodies as the Kindred revel in their unageing resilience, surrounded by their adoring herds and resentful ghouls. Where the Camarilla’s events tend to be genteel and sophisticated, an Anarch party is loud, crass, and energetic. You can dance, feed, and brawl to your heart’s content, knowing that everyone around you is there for the same reason. The strength of the rave is in the tenacity of the Anarchs themselves. More than a few raves have been raided by Second Inquisition hunters or shut down by the Camarilla for threatening to breach the Masquerade but new ones will always pop up. There are plenty of young Anarchs with the skills and connections to make them happen. As a LARP concept, the rave works best when you really stress the contrast from other, more Camarilla focused events. Here the Anarchs do not have to be outsiders that are barely tolerated as young ingrates who do not know how to act or behave. This is their element, their party, and it is here that they make the rules.

The Venue You can use any venue where there is a dancefloor and where you can get loud music pumping. It is best if the dancefloor is slightly too small for the crowd so that it looks packed. If you have a big LARP with a hundred or more players, you can go for maximum authenticity

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and try to find a warehouse or industrial space similar to the kind that gets used for real raves on which the event is modeled. Considering that the Anarchs’ need to uphold the Masquerade coincides with your need to make sure the owners of the venue and their neighbors are happy, this is a loud LARP that is best organized somewhere people do not mind a bit of noise late at night.

The Characters You can break down the characters in this LARP into four broad groups: 1. The Anarchs. This is their home tuft and they know it. They are relaxed and having fun among their own kind. They are mostly Brujah, Toreador, Gangrel, Malkavian and Nosferatu, with a smattering of other clans present as well. 2. The Camarilla. Many Anarch raves are open to all Kindred but when a Camarilla vampire shows up, it is clear they are outsiders and certainly get treated as such. For a Camarilla neonate, an Anarch rave can be a disorienting, threatening, and exhilarating event. Older Camarilla members remember their youth, when they were not quite as jaded as they are now. 3. Ghouls. The Anarchs have plenty of ghouls, often the friends and acquaintances of individual Kindred who have become part of the Anarch Movement through osmosis. Your friend gets sick and you decide to help them get better by supplying them with your blood. The next thing you know, they are blood addicted servants. Many Anarchs maintain romantic views about their ghouls that are not exactly mirrored by their mortal lackeys.

4. Blood dolls. It is a dirty secret among the Anarchs that the Masquerade is leaking at the bottom of the hierarchy. Individual Anarchs accumulate herds of blood dolls so that hunting becomes easier. The mortals often become essentially vampire groupies, hanging around Anarch haunts in the hope of experiencing the Kiss and its pleasures. They come to Anarch raves in droves and it is then that you see how many of them really are out there, and how loosely they are controlled. For the LARP to succeed it is important that all four character types have an equally fun experience. They do different things from different standpoints but there must be something interesting for everybody. Ideally, the Anarchs get to party, the Camarilla get to be scandalized and tantalized, the ghouls get to hatch and execute plots against their supposed betters, and the blood dolls get to lose themselves in the debauchery.

The Stories The Anarch rave is the best arena for stories about Anarch characters. This is their home

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domain; the area where the dramas of the sect are played out. Relationships between Anarch gangs, disagreements about who gets to Embrace and who does not, and debates about the tactics of the entire Anarch Movement all play out to the steady beat of the music. If you can imagine an Anarch story, you can put it here. If the LARP is part of a chronicle, this is where you can draw out the map of local Anarch society. What are the power structures? Is there a Baron who is respected or reviled? You can also look at it from the perspective of a visiting outsider. What would they see? What kind of conflicts could they observe? The biggest difference from a Camarilla event is the presence of so many mortals. From their perspective, the Kindred are painfully cool, and hold the secret of immortality in their desiccated veins. Some mortals may go quite far to get their hands on that secret.

KNEEL IN PRAYER The Blood of Caine is within all of us. Each of us can trace our lineage all the way through the centuries until we reach the Dark Father himself. His blood–his sacred vitae–makes us what we are! His blessing! Elevating us from mere mortals to a higher level. We’ve been chosen to wrestle with the Blood, with the urges constantly tempting us to destroy, defile, and consume.

I won’t lie to you. All those things are a result of the Dark Father’s blessing and how could I hide them? You experience them every night, same as me. We are being tested! The Blood’s blessings carry a price that we must be able to pay. Sacrifice is not easy but when we have been chosen for a divine purpose, we know we must give everything we have. You and I. All Kindred are one, united in the purpose given to us by our Dark Father! — A priest addressing a congregation at the Church of Caine

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The Concept The role of the Church of Caine varies from domain to domain. Sometimes the Church is a major force of the establishment, backing the Prince and enjoying the full privileges of a quasi-official religion. In other domains the Church stands apart from local hierarchies or even faces persecution from authorities uncomfortable with a challenge to their rule. The role of the Church in the domain strongly influences the nature of LARPs built around it. Here are two options: The Prince is Caine incarnate. The Church supports the local Prince, arguing that each Camarilla ruler is a representation of Caine on earth, imbued with a divine mandate. Going to Church means bowing at the feet of the local establishment, making religious services fraught for Anarchs and other malcontents. The Church is a refuge for the dispossessed. For whatever reason, the Church is not popular among local elites. Perhaps the majority of the domain is Bahari or its ruler’s distrust religious authority. The result is that the Church is popular among Anarchs, thin-bloods, Nosferatu, and others who tend to get a raw deal in Kindred society. In any case, the LARP is built around a religious service conducted by the Church. It explores themes of faith, redemption, and divinity in the context of vampires doomed to exist as parasites subsisting off the blood of others.

The Venue The most obvious venue for a Church of Caine ceremony is a church, whether deconsecrated or not. Other options include Masonic

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Temples, wedding chapels, etc.; really anything that has the right layout to suggest worship and devotion. Experience has shown that churches have widely varying attitudes towards the idea of Vampire LARP on their premises. While many expect churches to react negatively, you might be surprised at what is possible if you just ask. Just be honest with what you are going to be doing to avoid problems later. If an actual church is not possible, you can have the same effect by copying the layout with chairs facing the altar in the front. If you do this, make sure you also have spaces where characters can mingle and interact. The frontfacing traditional church layout is great for ceremonies but bad for more interactive play. If you can swing it, religious paraphernalia invoking Caine goes a long way. Candles and eldritch books in Latin are always great. You can even make a cloth backdrop with the Cainite symbol or a big physical version out of wood.

The Characters The most important distinction among different character groups is in terms of their relationship with the faith. The inner circle is the core of the local Church of Caine, consisting of the officials and the most devout followers who do not have to prove their dedication to the cause. They are privy to the innermost secrets of the Church, its clandestine connections, and its malignant agenda. If the Church is really allied with the Sabbat or planning to resuscitate a Methuselah, these are the Kindred in the loop.

The faithful are the ordinary members of the Church. They are Kindred who find meaning and community in its tenets but have other interests as well. This is probably the biggest character group. They look up to the inner circle as religious authorities and seek to find their own meaning in the teachings of the faith. Their stories connect to the Church but also usually relate to secular matters from their nightly unlives.

faithful are mostly Ventrue and Brujah, the Church will have a different vibe than a typical Elysium event.

The Stories

The seekers are new to the Church. They might be skeptics who have come to see what the Church is all about or pilgrims who are dissatisfied with their vampiric existence and hope that the Church can give them answers. They often have strange ideas that may not be entirely compatible with the teachings of the Church. They bring baggage that can cause trouble for the congregation but they are also necessary if the faith is to prosper and grow.

The Church as a whole provides ideas for different stories:

On an individual level, the Church is a great setting for stories of faith, doubt, the search for meaning, and the importance of community. Being in the Church means something for everyone there and the LARP works best if all characters take it seriously. After all, why else would they be here?

The Schism. Two (or more!) rival factions in the Church each espouse their own interpretations of the faith. Their followers start to get into fights with each other and the acrimony threatens to tear apart the congregation. Is there any hope for religious unity? Typically, this sort of schism is ostensibly about a theological issue but in reality has to do with material questions. For example, one faction says that Caine still walks the night while another claims Caine has ascended to a higher plane, perhaps even Heaven. Behind the scenes, the real fight is about whether the Church opposes or supports a new claimant to praxis.

The role of the Church in the city has a huge impact on who the characters are. If the Church is a staunch supporter of the Prince and their regime, the congregation is composed of Ventrue loyalists. If it is a refuge for the dispossessed, there are plenty of Nosferatu, Brujah, and Malkavians. You can create interesting hierarchies by playing on the compositions of the different categories of Church members. For example, if the inner circle consists of Nosferatu and Malkavians but the

Holy War. The Church of Caine and the Bahari cannot exist in the same city. They hate each other’s guts. Because the Bahari are nevertheless there, the Church is becoming increasingly shrill, dogmatic and militant. Some characters want to save it from itself. Others want to use it to destroy their enemies by claiming they are Bahari. And of course, there might be a few among the faithful who have secretly become converts to the Bahari cause.

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The Prophet. A mysterious new vampire arrives in the city, claiming to be an ancient from the time of Caine. They have just recently risen from torpor, having slept for millenia. Most among the Church think the prophet is a fraud but some wonder if they might learn true wisdom from someone who actually met Caine himself. To make things more complicated, the Prophet appears genuinely unworldly, unaware of modern developments or struggles.

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INTERLUDE: SIEGE WARFARE As per your request, here’s my report on the first six months of the Ventrue Deja’s joining the Anarchs. I expect payment in blood and money through the usual method. The Anarchs are not good at maintaining their ghouls. That makes tasks of infiltration taxing, although it certainly helps to avoid any unpleasant blood bonds. — Yours, X

Initial Impressions Deja did not make a good initial impression among the Anarchs. She evidently believed that she had a lot in common with them because she’d felt like an outsider in the Camarilla and because she was young enough to maintain an easy connection to mortal life. Some of her mortal relations are still alive and she keeps tabs on them. After she was initially sponsored by the Nosferatu Qiao, she visited an Anarch party with the goal of introducing herself, with disastrous results. I’m speculating but it’s my belief that the Nosferatu intentionally set her up to fail so that they could take the credit for helping her when nobody else would. This was a good gamble in light of future events. After being physically attacked at the Anarch party, Deja again sought sanctuary among the Nosferatu.

Gaining Trust I’m not entirely sure why, but in the weeks after that first introduction, the perception of Deja among the Anarchs shifted. Perhaps they felt like she had paid her dues by being beaten

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up and residing in the Nosferatu tunnels, an unpleasant prospect even for an uncouth Brujah. Next time she participated in Anarch social activities, she had numerous contentious exchanges with Anarch ghouls and the Brujah but these didn’t lead to violence. Instead, they seemed to be part of the usual flow of Anarch interactions. The basis of Deja’s relationship with the Nosferatu remains something of a mystery because infiltrating their havens is not possible. Or, I suppose I could try but chances are they’d catch me before I got very far.

The Incident One night, many Anarchs were hunting at a mortal party held outside on the outskirts of town. They had punk bands playing, barrel fires, and a lot of drugs that also inevitably affected the Kindred feeding from the mortals. Deja was there too when she was spotted by the Brujah Agata Starek. She started goading Deja, talking about the taste of Ventrue blood. (I agree with Starek’s assessment of Ventrue blood, if not with her methods of obtaining it.) Eventually other Anarchs were able to guide

them away from the party and mortal witnesses because the discussion was obviously escalating fast. Deja argued that Starek was doing the Camarilla’s work by fracturing the Anarchs. Starek didn’t like that and throat-slammed Deja to the ground with the obvious intent of draining her dry.

She talked about Camarilla weakness and how many elders had left, leaving a lot of Camarilla assets unprotected, tended to by ghouls who were starving for blood. She suggested that Anarchs should take over these assets in secret and starve the Camarilla of the influence it has enjoyed so far.

Starek’s clear physical superiority may have played a part in what happened next. It didn’t look like a fair fight and the Anarchs are always suspicious of anyone who’s too old. And Starek is not quite young anymore.

The strategy she proposed was one of siege warfare, where the Anarchs don’t necessarily seek to destroy Camarilla Kindred but rather corral them into increasingly narrow domains while they themselves enjoy everything the city has to offer. In the end, the Camarilla may still have its Elysium but it would be functionally irrelevant in mortal affairs.

The gathered Anarchs, most of them Brujah, started jeering and insulting Starek. It’s the first time I’ve seen this happen because Starek is both feared and respected due to her ability to inspire terror in the Camarilla. As a result, Starek started arguing with the crowd and Deja was able to slip away.

This strategy is in direct opposition to the methods older Anarchs such as Starek have proposed, where the goal is to start by murdering Camarilla Kindred and then proceed from there.

Subsequent Developments

Recommendations

Surviving an encounter with Starek significantly boosted Deja’s popularity among the Anarchs. It was at this time that Deja started talking about change. How the feeding grounds in the city were distributed unequally with the Anarchs forced to hunt in suburbs while stodgy Camarilla relics hoarded the nightlife district for themselves.

In her short time among the Camarilla, Deja was able to learn a lot. This may be because of her professional training as a journalist and the observational abilities she has developed. Her ability to gain significant influence among the Anarchs makes her a threat to the Camarilla.

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I recommend her to be terminated. She is young and without a Camarilla sponsor so this solution should be possible without stepping on the toes of anyone who matters.

Chapter Ten

SECOND INQUISITION

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Making Things Up INTERROGATION TRANSCRIPT 22TH OF OCTOBER 2020 SITE [REDACTED] INTERROGATOR: Before we start, do you need something? I know you’ve been here for a while. SUBJECT: Fuck you. Your goons have been beating me for days. INTERROGATOR: I’m sorry about that. They’re not from my department. Interagency problems.... But that’s not your concern. Point is, I can help you. SUBJECT: How? INTERROGATOR: If I can show results, I can make sure they won’t get to you. SUBJECT: What is this, good cop bad cop?

INTERROGATOR: Blood? SUBJECT: Yes. I’ve been here for a few weeks. Bad things will happen if I don’t get my fix. INTERROGATOR: I’m not sure I can arrange that. SUBJECT: I won’t be much use to you while I’m dead. INTERROGATOR: I’ll see what I can do. It helps if you can give me something. I’m not your enemy here. The more I can show to my superiors the better it will be for you. SUBJECT: Okay. Fuck. I used to have one boss but he died so now I’m a sort of general busybody. Just hustling to stay alive, the same as anyone else....

INTERROGATOR: Does it matter if it’s true?

INTERROGATOR: What kind of things did you do for them?

SUBJECT: Maybe it doesn’t.... I could have a cup of coffee if you don’t mind.

SUBJECT: I was a driver, mostly. Cleaning their messes. Disposing bodies. Just organizing things.

INTERROGATOR: Sure! (Sounds of coffee being served.)

INTERROGATOR: Organizing what sort of things?

SUBJECT: You want to hear about the....

SUBJECT: Someone needs to clean up the clubhouse.

INTERROGATOR: Blankbodies. Yes. Can you explain your relationship with them? SUBJECT: Blank Bodies.... Okay. I’m what you might call a retainer. I help them and they give me blood in return. What I really want to know is: can you get me some of that blood?

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INTERROGATOR: Because there are dead bodies there? SUBJECT: That too. But mostly because these vampires don’t pick up after themselves.

INTERROGATOR: Are you trying to be funny? It doesn’t help your case. SUBJECT: Okay. Fine. It’s because of all the crimes. Murder. Drugs. Taking the Lord’s name in vain. INTERROGATOR: You’ll be here many months more if you don’t change your attitude. SUBJECT: Fine, fine.... It’s just that after you’ve been brutalized by undying predators for decades, this setup you have here doesn’t feel so bad. INTERROGATOR: We can easily make this worse. So far, you’ve been given the friendly treatment. SUBJECT: Like when those goons...? Whatever. It doesn’t matter. So, there are a few of these clans. The Anarchs, the Tremere... INTERROGATOR: The Tremere?

INTERROGATOR: Tell me more. SUBJECT: They’re vampire blood wizards. INTERROGATOR: Okay. If this is going to work, you have to stop lying to me. SUBJECT: I’m not lying! INTERROGATOR: Vampires who are also wizards? Come on. You’re making this up. SUBJECT: No I’m not! INTERROGATOR: This is useless. I’m tired of you giving me the runaround. (Sound of a fist hitting a table and a coffee cup crashing to the floor.) SUBJECT: No, please... INTERROGATOR: We’re done. Let’s see if this is going to get better in a few days. SUBJECT: Fuck....

SUBJECT: You haven’t heard of them?

AN EXISTENTIAL THREAT I find it funny sometimes... when they say that vampires are susceptible to fire. So is every other creature! Mortals are quite vulnerable to fire too! That’s one of the things I remember from the Burning Times. We burned. So did the mortals. Many, many more of them than us. I was young then, traveling in Europe as a neonate. Perhaps that’s what saved me. I was an outlander, but I was young enough to blend in as people were burned all around us by the witch hunters: The Inquisition. Mortals smell different when they burn. A vampire is more acrid. Don’t know if you knew that. Now it’s the time of the Second Inquisition and the Burning Times are here again. Only it’s global

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and not just a European problem. Havens get raided during the day all over the world. It helps to be a nomadic soul like me. It’s not good to get attached to things the modern-night Inquisitors can take away from you. — Aisha az-Zahra, an Ashirra elder The Second Inquisition is what vampires call the realization that intelligence agencies around the world have become aware of their existence and are moving to destroy them. The expression refers to the first Inquisition; the conflagration that gave birth to the Masquerade and caused the destruction of an untold number of Kindred in the late Middle Ages. Of course, the world has changed a great deal from those times. In some ways, it is much easier for a vampire to hide now that the mortal population numbers in the billions. You can just blend into the crowd, disappear among the teeming multitudes. A vampire hunter can no longer simply head to the most menacing looking old castle to find their prey. On the other hand, modern times have brought modern surveillance. Intelligence agencies are able to leverage all the tools of the modern state to track vampires, from algorithmic analysis of data patterns to straight up electronic spying. This creates enormous difficulties for those wishing to hide when one can be caught by someone sitting in a cubicle half the world away. In this day and age, a Second Inquisition analyst can flag a suspected vampire Haven and ask local law enforcement to raid it without even telling them that there might be vampires inside. An unwitting SWAT team bursts through the doors and the sunlight they let in causes Kindred to burn, leading to stories of terrorists who set themselves on fire as police came in. Of course, behind the scenes, the picture may be very different. Second Inquisition agents trying to fight something they don’t understand, seeing threats everywhere, and making terrible mistakes that end up costing the lives of innocent people. But their prey doesn’t see that. From the vampire perspective, the Second Inquisition is a monolithic awesome force.

The Inquisition And LARP In a Vampire LARP, the Second Inquisition is mostly a shadowy force that characters fear but that does not manifest itself visibly in actual events. Its impact is felt subtly. The threat of the Second Inquisition shapes how the Kindred go about their nights. It affects their plots and plans, their fears and hopes. The most obvious and common use for the Second Inquisition is as a background force informing character play and influencing in-game events without making itself visible at a LARP event itself. For example: - Two members of the Primogen have just had their Havens eradicated by Second Inquisition hunters.

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This presents local Camarilla with a conundrum: are they destroyed or in hiding? Should others try to take over their domains? - A Herald is rumored to have leaked information about her rivals to a Second Inquisition agency. How do other vampires feel about this? Is it true or a rumor that has been seeded by someone else? - Second Inquisition agents are combing through local law enforcement agencies, seeking to root out vampire influence. Should the Prince terminate their agents in the police preemptively or hope that they will escape detection? If they terminate their agents, does that mean another vampire can take the risk and move in? Events instigated by the Second Inquisition can also inform the LARP event in a more direct way, as something that has just happened. For example: - One of the characters has narrowly escaped their burning Haven the very night of the event. They come to the Elysium to warn the others and beg for a place to sleep during the day. - The LARP is supposed to be the first event hosted by the new Prince, but the Prince fails to show up to their own party. As the night goes on to become clear they were snagged by the Second Inquisition. - In the middle of the event, characters receive reports or a supporting character arrives bearing the news that a neighboring domain is being cleansed of vampires in a massive operation right now. More terrible news and details come as the night progresses.

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You should take care with this sort of drama because if the Second Inquisition threat seems too immediate, The player should always feel that participating in what happens in the LARP fundamentally makes sense for their character. If it feels like the Second Inquisition is going to charge in any second, the players will feel like their characters should be escaping, not engaging in light banter.

Getting Swatted If you have the resources to do it, a Second Inquisition raid is a dramatic ending to a LARP. Perhaps the agents choose to attack during the night because they fear they will lose track of their prey if they are allowed to leave the venue? Lights go out. Doors bang open. Shouted commands, chaos, flashlights… A surprise heavy police raid is a terrifying, impressive spectacle.

A lot of the equipment needed to make it look good can be found surprisingly cheaply in military surplus stores and sometimes players have appropriate gear in their closets already. If the scene is designed to end the chronicle, you do not have to worry about the story implications. Vampire characters are destroyed or carted off to unknown fates. The more common scenario is that the chronicle is assumed to continue at the next event. How then to deal with the deadly implications of such a raid? Here are a few possible scenarios: - The raid causes a melee to erupt, with some vampires escaping and others choosing to fight. The chaos of the LARP determines what happens, with even a total vampire victory as a possibility. If you choose this option, you have to have players who enjoy big combat scenes. - The Second Inquisition team is unprepared for the supernatural abilities of the Kindred present. Many will escape, a few will be captured or destroyed. These latter could even be arranged beforehand so their players know what will happen. - Camarilla notables get advance warning of the raid, allowing many characters to discreetly escape. The question is: do they tell everyone? Or is it better to leave low-ranking, disposable servants and lackeys for the Second Inquisition to find? This probably works best if there are supporting characters that can be sacrificed for effect.

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Safe Swatting

The Ingredients of a Raid

There are some practical safety considerations when it comes to organizing a cool-looking police raid in a LARP. If not done with care this can result in an egregious safety blunder, so here’s a few tips:

If you want to stage a showy raid, here are some of the items you can use: - Police sirens and lights outside the windows. However, you need to take precautions to ensure that outsiders will not confuse this for a real police action.

- Do not brandish real-looking gun props while in public. This sounds like a no-brainer but LARPs have been raided by the police for real because of this.

- Megaphones you can use to shout things like “Surrender peacefully and you won’t be harmed!” and other lies.

- Be careful with gun props in general. Make sure the general LARP environment is okay for their use. If local laws or culture make their use inadvisable, do not use them. When using gun props, make sure an organizer with relevant experience checks every single prop at the venue for safety, especially if some are brought to the venue by players.

- Gun props. (See the “Safe SWATing” heading) - Military or police uniforms. Because the Second Inquisition often draws from various clandestine units and agencies for its agents, it is fine if the uniforms do not bear insignia and are not appropriate for any specific police unit.

- If the LARP is visible to the public, consider informing the local police department about the event in advance. This is helpful in case a concerned citizen decides to call the cops, since it means the police will know what is actually happening. They might still feel obliged to come, but it will go better.

- Balaclavas, ski masks, or other headgear designed to expose only part of the face, usually the eyes and mouth. - Uniformed police or soldiers commanded by agents in civilian clothes. - Plastic cuffs. (Again, remember safety and never put these on too tight!)

- Consider your player base and local culture. For some players, getting subjected to a realistic police raid may not be the experience they want to have in a LARP. If you suspect this to be the case with your players, you can either make a Second Inquisition raid more abstract or move it to something that happens between events.

- Big intimidating flashlights. - Laser pointers for pretend sniper rifle sights. Because a good raid scene happens very fast, you can create a strong impression with less than realistic gear! Players get quick visual impressions and their imaginations fill up the rest of the scene.

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THE SPOOK SHOW There are shadowy entities controlling mortal society, influencing their every decision, driving them on a path to chaos and destruction. All at the service of their secret masters, immensely powerful creatures who’s privilege and wealth must never be questioned.

collection of various agencies who only barely manage to cooperate across departmental and international lines. For a Second Inquisition LARP to work, they need internal power struggles, ideological conflicts, corruption, and personal issues.

And that’s just us in the intelligence services! The vampires are worse. Well, a little bit worse. Okay, it really depends on the day. Or night. Anyway....

Fortunately, in the World of Darkness these things are not exactly unknown.

— Andrea McKinney, a disillusioned former CIA agent The Second Inquisition are usually antagonists in a Vampire: The Masquerade LARP but you can also build an experience where they are the protagonists instead. The players play Second Inquisition agents and staff, and vampires are relegated to the role of a shadowy threat. This kind of a game can be a fun interlude in the middle of an ongoing chronicle. What would the actions of the usual characters look like viewed from the outside? Naturally, the Second Inquisition would be scarily well informed on some issues and get others wildly wrong. Just like real-life intelligence services. From the perspective of the Kindred, the Second Inquisition is a scarily effective; singleminded machine of death, rooting out Havens and murdering neonates by the score. The vampire sees SWAT teams, special agents, and coordinated strikes. Ordinarily, the vampire never sees what really goes on behind the scenes. From a LARP design point of view, it is good that the Second Inquisition is also a fractious

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To start with, a Second Inquisition LARP needs a framework for who the characters are, where they are, and what they’re doing.

Who? The Second Inquisition is what the Kindred call the collective phenomenon of various intelligence agencies figuring out that vampires—or blankbodies in Second Inquisition lingo—exist. From the perspective of Second Inquisition agents, the picture is much more complicated: an international mess of secret departments and programs organized under various national agencies with their own histories, motivations, and idiosyncrasies. The Vatican’s old Inquisition standard-bearer Society of Saint Leopold is there too, advising and providing a link to vampire hunts of the past, but they by no means control the operation. In a sense, nobody does, although various operations conducted under the Second Inquisition umbrella naturally have their own directors. What this means is that the geography of your chronicle matters a whole lot in terms of who the characters are going to be. If the LARP is set in the U.S., it makes sense for them to be DIA, NSA and CIA agents tasked to the

FIRSTLIGHT Special Access Program, perhaps supplemented by a few FBI agents from the Special Affairs Division. Organizational paranoia has many Second Inquisition agents worried that their colleagues are actually vampire spies or that various politicians are controlled by nefarious undead interests (which they are, of course! Getting program funding yanked has been one of the more effective tools the Camarilla has against Second Inquisition). Other stakeholders who could be present at a FIRSTLIGHT command post include Society of Leopold members and its current mother organization, the Vatican’s secret service known as the Entity, as well as the British service S013. They are consulting American organizations and providing their own expertise, perhaps on specific Kindred thought to be in the area. If the LARP is set elsewhere in the world, it makes sense to have local secret services in the lead, such as France’s DGSE. In each case, a mix of local agents and consultants from the outside helps to create tension. You can take your cues from cop shows replicating the themes of local police annoyed that the FBI has swooped in and claimed jurisdiction. The same dynamics work here as well. For a different dynamic, the Second Inquisition agencies can also conduct an operation illegally. Perhaps non-American agencies are chasing after vampires on U.S. territory without informing the locals or asking for permission. Or Americans can do the same in the U.K., Germany, or Brazil. Obviously, they get busted in the middle of the LARP, but it is not clear what happens then. After all, ridding the world of vampires serves the common good!

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Where? The great thing about FIRSTLIGHT agents and other Second Inquisition members is that at the end of the day, they still work for the government. This means that their base of operations does not necessarily have to be particularly fancy. Of course, if you have a production team that can whip up a convincing action movie-style high tech space, go for it! If not, a rented office space works fine. The concept of a temporary command center makes it possible to run a Second Inquisition LARP virtually anywhere FIRSTLIGHT agents might be imagined to set up. And after all, the agents must go where the vampires go, so they can be anywhere: an university campus, a private apartment, a company’s building complex, etc. If you have the capacity for some production value, technical gear, weapons props (unless inadvisable under local conditions), and other “cop stuff” helps create the right mood. A big whiteboard where you can create a convincing conspiracy map helps build the right vibe and also acts as a fun visual touch for players who find their regular vampire characters displayed there.

The Ops Center Here is a concept for a Second Inquisition LARP: FIRSTLIGHT has taken over an office space, building an improvised command center. The agents in the room have radically different ideas about how the blankbody threat should be dealt with. Some advocate burning them out with fire while others suggest capture and

medical experimentation. A lone voice might even propose that they could be cured.

It’s possible to make other types of Second Inquisition LARPs as well, especially if it is a standalone event and not part of a chronicle. Here are a few ideas:

As the night progresses, news of an operation currently in progress comes back to the room, agents on mission return and leave (you can play out these missions tabletop style in a separate room) and high-ranking officers call in to demand results. At the end, vampire prisoners are brought into the ops center after it has been revealed that local law enforcement might have been compromised by the enemy.

- A global symposium of agencies working to counter the blankbody threat. There can be a comedy element here too as bizarre suppositions are mixed in with actual facts about how the Kindred operate. After all, vampires are prone to mythmaking and they are terribly unreliable sources of information, even about themselves. - A team of Second Inquisition agents have captured a number of vampires and are holding them in an improvised command center. It is less than ideal, especially since they can not rely on support from local law enforcement, but it is okay because their superiors will send help soon, right? During the LARP, the agents realize that no help is coming and soon the vampires figure it out too.

Why? The concept of the typical Second Inquisition LARP is that a command center has been set up in the area of the chronicle and the agents investigate local Kindred while also having conflicts and disagreements with each other over different issues.

- So far, the various Second Inquisition agencies have had the upper hand. The Kindred have been slow to grasp the enormity of the threat. They have leaked information to hurt their enemies without regard to the problems it causes down the road. But now some enterprising vampires have successfully infiltrated a Second Inquisition command. Some of the agents are under vampire control or are even vampires themselves. Others suspect that something is wrong.

For example: - FIRSTLIGHT and the FBI’s Special Affairs Division both maintain this is their operation. Before the question of who leads the operation is resolved nothing much gets done. The conflict is complicated by the fact that both sides suspect the other of having been infiltrated by vampires. - Society of Leopold agents are fanatical but experienced old grumps, distrustful of technology and all these newfangled methods. Why? Well, when they were hunting vampires back in 1952....

Second Inquisition agents are always on a mission. They have a task to do–their job. This directs how their motivations are structured. An individual character does not necessarily agree with their orders but that is just one more site for interesting conflict that will enrich the game.

- Scientists drafted to work on the blankbody problem, uneasy about the ethics of their work but aware that if they complain too much, bad things will happen to them.

It is important to note that individual agencies can give out conflicting orders. Here are a few

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Possibly the most dangerous and closely monitored assignment is making deals with blankbodies. There is a lot of superstition about what vampires can do among the Second Inquisition but the idea that sometimes benefits can be gained by talking to the enemy has not been completely abandoned. After all, vampires can be used as sources of information.

things agents can be tasked with: - Destroying blankbodies no matter what. - Destroying blankbodies discreetly. - Rooting out blankbody influence in other agencies.

The temptation offered by such information is tempered by an intense fear of the mental powers the blankbodies sometimes manifest. They cause a lot of paranoia among agents from various Second Inquisition agencies, causing them to engage in extensive protective measures.

- Spying on other agencies. - Capturing blankbodies. - Collecting information on individual blankbodies.

The worries Second Inquisition agents have about vampiric abilities are not entirely baseless. There is a good reason they prefer to talk to the enemy in controlled conditions but unfortunately sometimes that’s not possible. This is the mechanism through which hubris leads to infiltration: an agent decides to make a deal of their own with the enemy, the enemy blood bonds them, and suddenly allegiances are much more complex than before.

- Mapping blankbody networks. - Interrogating blankbodies. (This is rare and quite dangerous because of the confusing abilities the enemy sometimes manifests.) - Experimenting on blankbodies. - Capturing blankbody prisoners from other agencies. - Sabotaging other agencies because of interagency rivalries. - Asserting jurisdiction.

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Chapter Eleven

WAR OF AGES

The War “How do you maintain the Masquerade when you’re existing like this?” Qiao asked, opening the door of the custom-built fridge and looking inside. He had never seen anything like it. Vials of blood stored in what looked like a cross between medical equipment in an expensive kitchen appliance. Cold bluish light bathed the blood but the scent was still perceptible. At least if you had a vampire’s instincts. Deja watched Qiao. It was touching, in its own way. The Nosferatu was so out of his element. He and his clanmates were so cool and composed in their own environment, the derelict abandoned spaces of the city. Transplanted into the midst of luxury and he looked like the permanent outsider he was.

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“You’ve never visited before?” Deja asked gently. They were exploring the kitchen of Salomé Diaz’s mansion, more out of curiosity than need. Diaz had already escaped and Deja did not expect her to have left any particularly damning secrets behind her. “No. Sometimes Nosferatu are invited but I was always afraid that....” Qiao stopped and picked up a vial of blood. “Is this vitae?” “Maybe. Give it a taste,” Deja replied. She knew Qiao was worried he would be laughed at because of his appearance. She did not have the heart to tell him that he would probably have been laughed at because of his poverty, youth, and lack of status, not because of his clan curse. Elysium was a cruel place, and Salomé Diaz had done her best to make sure it was even crueler. Qiao drank the contents of the vial in one go, stopping to feel it in his mouth before swallowing the coagulating, thick liquid. Deja was about to tell him that usually Salomé would let the blood warm and breathe for a few moments after taking it out of storage because that improved the flavor but decided against it. She did not want Qiao to feel uncultured. He and his clan had done a lot for Deja. Not without compensation, but still. Cultivating friends was what power was all about. Deja had realized that she could be a nobody, waiting to become old enough that her supernatural power would enable her to protect herself. Or she could leverage the discontentment of the Anarchs and especially the Nosferatu and become a player in the War of Ages. She knew the Camarilla was weak, self-absorbed, and preoccupied with its own internal drama. That meant someone could walk in and take power.

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“You have the instincts of a good vampire revolutionary. Always ransack the blood storage first. There are some real delicacies there and they spoil if you don’t drink them.” Deja turned around slowly to see who was talking. She had a sinking feeling of the kind that she thought had gone from her unlife with the last pulse of her heart. She had hoped she could execute her plan without involving any of the older Kindred. After all, she knew from experience with the Camarilla that the nightly affairs of the sect were handled by younger members like Salomé, not visiting dignitaries like Victoria Ash who was casually leaning on the kitchen door, improbably in an evening dress as if one of Salomé’s soirees was taking place outside. “I just thought...” Deja babbled. What did she think? That this would be easy? She had always seen herself as an observer. That was her job when she was still alive. And now she was making power plays like in some gangster movie. Victoria laughed, and for a moment she looked like the young perfectly mortal woman she often pretended to be. Her age and predatory nature disappeared under a well-cultivated act that made Deja relax. “Yeah. Waste not, want not,” Deja said with more confidence. Qiao had frozen, looking at Victoria. “The Nosferatu. Such a loyal clan if you treat them well,” Victoria said, looking Qiao calmly in the eyes . “I had a Nosferatu lover once. A wonderful individual.” Deja understood what Victoria was telling her.

She could make her bid for power but if Deja tried to go against Victoria, the elder Toreador would take it all away from her. Deja could manipulate the Nosferatu but Victoria would do it better. “I... Aren’t you Camarilla?” Qiao finally managed to blurt, his voice sounding even less human than usual. “Sure I am,” Victoria said, stepping closer, past Deja to caress Qiao’s cheek... And then Qiao’s corpse was decaying on the floor, his head severed neatly from his body by the razor-sharp blade Victoria held casually in her hand, as if she had just discovered it. “What... Why...” Deja babbled, unable to keep up with events. “I did you a favor. Your revolution needs a martyr. It needs to be more than just a power grab. It needs to be about ideas, emotions.... The Nosferatu are your biggest allies and if one of them meets final death at the hand of Salomé or her minions, they’ll be all the more committed,” Victoria explained reasonably, picking two vials from the fridge and slipping them into her purse. “But you destroyed him,” Deja said, trying to will herself into any sort of reasonable response. “Is that the story you’ll tell?” Victoria asked, her voice quiet, intimate. “If you tell them I destroyed your friend, they’ll want revenge. It’ll be a true war of the young against the old. Are you prepared for that? Coming after us is not as easy as cheating these Camarilla neonates of their meager holdings. If you keep this a secret, then I’ll owe you a boon. Why, you’ll be able to ask me to do anything! I’ll be at your mercy!”

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As she finished speaking, Victoria placed her hand on Deja’s shoulder, leaning in so Deja could feel the closeness of her body and its hidden, blood-blessed power. “What do you choose?” Victoria whispered, teasing, her hand touching Deja’s cheek. Deja had grown to like Qiao. He was so innocent despite being a vampire and a Nosferatu. He had been protected from the worst of the power games the undead amused themselves with. And now he was gone, ended by Victoria Ash. “I’ll call in that boon soon enough,” Deja said, her voice thick with suppressed emotion. Rage, sadness, resignation. She was a monster, the same as Victoria. Better act like it.

No Neutral Ground A lot of Kindred believe that they can remain neutral in the War of Ages. Neonates figure that they have no stake in this conflict; that the world is big enough so that they can feed outside the territories proscribed by the Camarilla. Elders may delude themselves into fantasies of invincibility, believing that centuries of secrecy and hidden power make them the masters of the game, unthreatened by mere novices. Yet the war had a habit of pulling everyone in. It is the engine that keeps vampire society running and its conflicts fresh with a nightly spectacle of new tragedies. This is why the war is also the engine for creating conflicts in Vampire LARP. It can never truly be resolved and those who imagine themselves outside it can easily be pulled back in. All it takes is to be reminded of the stakes.

The Stakes Why can’t we all just get along? It is common in Vampire LARP that the issues at stake in the War of Ages are not tangibly present at the LARP event itself. It’s easier to make peace with your enemies when it feels like the stakes do not matter all that much. Surely the Prince can make a few concessions? To make sure that the stakes matter, it is good to keep in mind what the characters are fighting for. - Feeding territories. This is a big cause of conflict in the War of Ages. Vampires drink blood and hunting is a nightly pursuit. Preserving the Masquerade means that only a limited number of vampires can hunt in a given territory and these territories are typically closely guarded by those with power. Young vampires become disgruntled because they do not have access to good territories, or possibly any territories. - Power in Kindred society. Who gets to make the rules? Who decides how Traditions are interpreted? Who drafts the invite list to the new Elysium and who calls a blood hunt when someone breaks the law? Issues of power range from the trivial to the all-important but nobody wants to be subjected to the whims of

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others. On the other hand, to give up power and accept a more equal society is to leave yourself open to the whims of a bloodthirsty mob. Or at least that is how the privileged elders of the Camarilla tend to feel about it. - Power in mortal society. Do you have the connections needed to spring yourself from jail before sunrise? Can you influence what gets printed in newspapers? Many Kindred cultivate mortal influence and use it to keep themselves safe. These domains of power get contested when new Kindred arrive, threatening the holdings of those who came before. - Progeny. Many, if not most Kindred, want to make more of their kind. Perhaps they have fallen in love with a beautiful mortal and imagine that they could have the love story of their romantic dreams if they only could give the gift of undeath. Or maybe they want to increase their own power base by making a childe. Whatever the motivation, it tends to irritate others that only the Kindred in power have the right to decide who gets to create progeny and when. This is especially true among the Camarilla where virtually all Princes flagrantly abuse this right by favoring their cronies and ignoring younger Kindred, to say nothing of Anarchs.

CHOOSING SIDES I suppose this is one of the upsides to being dead, Sebastian thought. If I was still alive, my heart would be racing, I’d be sweaty, all this stress and uncertainty showing itself in my body. Now I can be cool and collected, just an animated corpse that doesn’t show the terror I’m feeling within. During his time as the lover of the Ventrue Salomé Diaz, Sebastian had learned a lot about the Camarilla. They were not particularly hard to find, if you knew how to navigate the world of privilege and wealth they were accustomed to. Perhaps that was one of the greatest drawbacks to the Anarch plan for a coup: they did not have that knowledge, not even the leader Deja. Sebastian did not have it either but he had seen enough in recent nights to make out the contours of this world. “Everybody’s flocking to her now,” Valentina Diaz said, looking bored in the discreetly dimly lit hotel corridor. Sebastian stopped uncertainly. Valentina was hard to make out. It felt like she flirted with Sebastian purely to spite her sister. Then again, Salomé had made her into a ghoul but refused to Embrace her so perhaps she was entitled to her spite. “You mean I shouldn’t go in?” Sebastian asked, feeling foolish. He had panicked when he had heard that things were heating up between the Anarchs and the Camarilla. Nobody seemed sure what the right word was. Revolution? Rebellion? Coup? At least so far, it had not escalated to open war between the sects but Sebastian had rushed to Salomé’s haven only to find it occupied by a few Anarchs and ghouls he knew. Sensing danger, he

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had bolted before they managed to see him. He knew that there was only one hotel in the city luxurious enough for Salomé so he headed there and took the elevator to the top floor and the most expensive suite. Judging from Valentina’s presence, his instinct had been correct. “What I mean is... you knew we were here. You could have betrayed us to your Anarch buddies. Told them that you’d been undercover all along. Redeem yourself.” Valentina seemed to take great pleasure in her words. Sebastian was so terrified of what was happening in the city and Valentina looked so smug, like she enjoyed seeing him squirm. The Blood roiled inside him. This will not stand! Later when he remembered this moment, the most shameful part of it was that Sebastian knew he lost control with Valentina because she was no threat to him. He was a coward even when the Beast took over. The carpeting was almost white, seemingly designed so that it would have to be cleaned incessantly. Valentina’s blood formed an archipelago of crimson spatters climbing up on the wall and joining in the whirls of color in an abstract painting. There was an intriguing familiarity in the taste of her blood, similar and yet so different from that of Salomé. Sebastian stared at Valentina’s corpse in desperate terror. She was dead, awkwardly splayed on the floor, one leg up on the chair she had been sitting in. Without thinking, Sebastian knelt by Valentina’s head, opened his wrist with one extended incisor and pressed it against her mouth. His blood dribbled in. The carpeting and the decor

were designed to eat up sound. If Salomé had company, nothing could be heard through the doors of her suite. She did not have a security guard outside. It would have been useless against the Anarchs anyway.

Well, almost everyone! A canny elder can sabotage the revolution by pretending to support it and then acting in a divisive way to split the resistance. If loyalties and allegiances are not clear cut, it also makes themes of betrayal more complex and interesting. If an ancilla chooses to go against their sire and support the oppressed neonates, are they disloyal to their lineage or loyal to their values or both at the same time?

Valentina twitched back to life. Or unlife. Her eyes opened and she stared at Sebastian, a smile creeping on her lips. “You did it. Thank you,” she whispered. Sebastian did his best not to think about what he had just done. Salomé would kill him. He had Embraced her sister! Her ghoul!

Allegiance can be factored on a number of different ways: Clan. Many Kindred are loyal to members of their clans. Family is family after all, even though the clans are not organizations but just lineages of blood relations. This works especially well in single-event LARPs where clanmates have not had much time to backstab each other and the LARP benefits from a clear-cut social map. Which clans are for the establishment, which for the revolution? Are some clans split?

“Oh God... Why am I so thirsty? Fuck. I need... I need something. To bite something,” Valentina said. “Blood. Please, I need blood.”

Conflicting Loyalties For some characters, the side they are on in the War of Ages is a done deal. They support either the young or the old, and that is it. They will never do anything else. Examples of such characters are Brujah ideologues subjected to the Blood Hunt for their traitorous ideas or Camarilla elders who have held a grudge towards the Anarchs ever since the first Anarch Revolt in the 15th century.

Sect. It is extremely common for the War of Ages to be a Camarilla vs. Anarchs conflict, with Kindred loyal to their own sects. You can create complexity by having Kindred with grievances towards their own sect as well as outsiders such as the Ashirra. Ideology. Many Kindred still believe in some big ideological idea, often from their mortal days. Freedom is a common rallying cry among Anarchs. They are loyal to whoever furthers their cause. Many in the Camarilla believe in the Masquerade, a common tenet of vampiric ideology. Some ideas have nothing to do with the Kindred. A New York vampire Embraced in the 19th century may believe in Manifest Destiny and choose vampiric allegiances based on who is likely to further the cause.

Conflicting loyalties are good play. That is why it makes sense to try to create a situation where between these two extremes there is a large group of characters who might swing one way or another depending on the circumstances. It also means that winning the War of Ages becomes a game of influence and persuasion, trying to get everyone on your side.

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Faith. The Beckoning, the Gehenna War, the Second Inquisition.... All the tumult of the last two decades has caused a resurgence of faith among the Kindred. The Church of Caine, the Cult of Set, and the Bahari all have their adherents both among the young and the old. It is not unusual for a devout individual to choose faith over sect or clan. Personal connections. Many Kindred are loyal to their sires and seek to protect their childer. They help their friends. Often personal connections turn out to be more important than any other affiliation: The Prince protects a rebel leader

because they are secretly childe and sire. The Anarch revolutionary helps a Toreador ingenue because they are in love. Material interests. Sometimes Kindred are even motivated by their actual concrete material interests. These are things like hunting grounds, security from the Second Inquisition, and enforcing the Masquerade. It is not impossible for a single vampire to have conflicting allegiances in each of these six categories.

Rising Tempers The War of Ages is a constant conflict in the world of Vampire. Sometimes it runs cold, other times it is more of a simmering presence under the surface of nightly affairs. When the war starts to heat up, tempers run hot. The war can be a matter of survival for a neonate even as the elders view it as an entertaining diversion, at least until the anarchs firebomb their haven. Typically questions of allegiance become fraught when tempers rise. When everything is chill or the domain is united by the threat of the Second Inquisition, the important thing is for every Kindred to pull together. When that feeling of togetherness frays, when the fundamental issues that cause the War of Ages rise to the surface, suddenly it matters a great deal who is on which side. This influences how certain character stories play out. People who have carved a niche as go-betweens, fixers, and other figures who traffic in the gap between the sects suddenly find their maneuvering space much reduced.

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The consequences of belonging to the wrong camp can be fatal once everyone is angry enough. When your Anarch friends figure out that you have been maintaining a backchannel with the Toreador Primogen, they may accept your explanation that you did it to get intelligence or they may tear you apart in a frenzy of blood.

Bad Choices Sometimes there are no good choices in the War of Ages. When that happens it is a good moment to consider what you want out of your LARP experience. You can try to win the war for your side, or you can try to benefit as much as possible personally, or you can play for maximum drama. The last option is great if you have grown tired of your character in a chronicle or are playing in a one-event LARP where your character is not expected to exist after the night is over. You can make bad choices on purpose too, messing up your character’s allegiances so badly that there is no untangling them. This will surely lead to the death of your character but the road there can be great fun. What is more, you will be generating boatloads of action for every other player in the LARP.

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WAR AS

LARP

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he War of Ages is the best, most comprehensive generator of conflicts and action in Vampire. Because the interests of the young and the old will never be reconciled, the conflict is doomed to go on forever. For a LARP designer, it is a very useful tool because it gives characters things to do. It provides motivations, and goals. It also comes with a few difficulties of its own that you will have to consider to make it work.

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What’s Cool?

someone who betrayed you when it was not their fault? Can you trust your friends when they have proven to be susceptible to mind control?

The theme of the War of Ages provides a fertile ground for different types of cool LARP scenes to emerge. These are some things you can try to nurture through design: The Anarchs storm the Elysium. Unhappy with the way they have been treated, the Anarchs storm the Camarilla Elysium demanding better terms between the sects. An Anarch leader marches up to the Prince backed by their followers, making a speech about how this world is for the young, not the decrepit and the lost relics of the Camarilla. Camarilla Kindred scramble to accommodate the invaders out of fear of physical violence. This can be a dramatic event in an Elysium event that is organized as part of a chronicle. The Anarchs should storm in one hour after play has started so the Camarilla characters have had a moment to settle in. Loyalty oaths. The Prince decrees that all neonates in the domain, Camarilla or Anarch, must swear a public oath of loyalty or be subjected to a blood hunt. How do the Anarchs react? After all, the Prince should not have any authority over them. What about neonates in the Camarilla? Do they side with the Prince or does the new dictate cause revolutionary unrest? Betrayal. The Prince’s childe goes publicly against their sire in a great act of betrayal, giving hope to the downtrodden young of the domain. Only... is this a double-betrayal? Has the Prince tasked their childe to become a pretend revolutionary? Vampiric powers and the Blood Bond further muddle the issue. How do you deal with

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Repression The young feel alienated from the structures of power because they are constantly repressed, their unlives made intolerable by endless edicts. To get the War of Ages going, this repression has to be tangible and concrete. If you are running a chronicle, it has to show at the events themselves. There is a bit of complexity here, design-wise. Your Anarch characters should feel like they are being repressed and find motivation to fight against their elders but at the same time many players do not really enjoy getting humiliated all the time. Having the worst of the oppression happen between events is the obvious solution but it also makes it less visible at the actual LARPs. Here are a few ideas for this: Limit feeding areas to a ridiculous degree. The Prince decrees that neonates are only allowed to feed in the harbor area, and only during the last two hours before sunrise. Go after ghouls, touchstones and mortal contacts. The Prince keeps abducting, terrorizing or killing the servants, friends, and loved ones of neonate vampires. The argument is that this is done to protect the Masquerade but it looks like a ploy to limit the influence younger vampires have in the affairs of the city. During the LARP, repression can be done without targeting individual player characters: Oppress supporting characters. The Prince

The Camarilla is despicable. The enemy of the revolution is reasonable compromise. In LARP, this happens because it is easy for those playing characters in power to make concessions because it is all make believe anyway. This in turn robs the revolutionaries of their energy.

executes three newly found thin-bloods at Elysium. They are supporting characters specially created to die as piteously as possible. Nominally exclusive events. The Keeper of the Elysium declares that no neonate is allowed in the Elysium during a special night of celebration. In-game this is exclusionary but you can remove the problem by running two parallel events, one for older characters and one for the young. All players are treated fairly and get the same amount of play even as their characters are discriminated against. Ideally of course the neonate event is used to foment aggression against the ancilla and elders.

To combat this, the Camarilla should be unreasonable, proud, and monstrous. The Anarchs are radicalized. There should be no moderate voices among the Anarchs. If even the mildest have suffered grievously under Camarilla rule, the revolution will continue. This does not mean there can’t be dissent, just that the dissent should not be about whether to have a revolution or not. Rather it can be about whether the Prince should be exiled or executed, or what form will domain rule take after the revolution.

Revolution If things escalate enough, the end result of the War of Ages is open revolution. In some cities, such as Los Angeles, this has resulted in the creation of Anarch Free States–domains completely outside Camarilla control. Many cities have experienced similar uprisings in recent years, Berlin being the most famous example. The Beckoning and the Second Inquisition have resulted in a weakness in Camarilla rule exploited by the young and the furious.

There’s a path to revolution. It is important that the players of the Anarchs feel like there is a concrete set of actions they can take to achieve revolution. It helps if the organizers clearly signal that a revolution is an acceptable outcome. Some players are shy about pushing for such dramatic changes to the setting because it feels like it breaks the LARP. Since the revolution will have a dramatic effect on the fates of many Camarilla characters, it can be a

More commonly, an Anarch revolt leads to a city where the two sects have to co-exist side-by-side. The Anarchs are out of the Camarilla power hierarchy but pretty much every Prince will try to subject them to their authority anyway. If not directly then by treaties concerning feeding territories. Revolution is a powerful, dramatic event in any Vampire LARP or chronicle. To make it happen, you can design for it in the following ways:

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fitting end to a chronicle or possibly a beginning with Camarilla characters then forced to find new ways to exist in an Anarch domain.

War Is Hell Have you ever participated in mass combat in a LARP, run with detailed game mechanics? Experiences vary but they tend to run less than smoothly and take hours to resolve. This is why the War of Ages works best if it is a war of influence, politics, plots, and counterplots, instead of open warfare with gangs of vampires trying to murder each other. You can have physical fights but consider carefully how the system you use to handle combat actually works. Is it fun enough to use a lot? Does it scale up? If no, try to design the LARP so the focus is on other types of conflict. The Masquerade is a great tool for this purpose: maintaining the Masquerade conveniently motivates the characters towards actions that are more LARPfriendly than mass combat. Another reason violence is difficult in LARP is that it may lead to character death. It sucks if your character is destroyed or taken out of play five minutes into the LARP. This is why you may consider planning your LARP so that if violence does occur, it happens near the end. That way, if someone’s character gets removed from the game, they have still had a full LARP experience. Of course, this makes sense for dramatic reasons as well. Things escalate towards the end and the adrenaline surge of a big fight is hard to come down from, but that would not be a problem if that is also when the LARP ends.

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The difficulty of running combat, and especially bigger fight scenes, can be alleviated by changing the mechanics. Generally, the bigger the fight you expect, the faster the combat rules have to be. You can take inspiration from fantasy LARP where dynamic, physical combat rules make bigger fights feasible.

The Anarchs It is easy to see the War of Ages as a conflict between the Camarilla and the Anarchs. However, the War of Ages also makes sense inside the Camarilla, as the power held by the elders weakens because of the Beckoning and neonates hunger for power. The Anarchs wield a lot of egalitarian rhetoric and the overwhelming majority among them are young so at first glance, they feel less susceptible to the War of Ages. In reality, underneath the surface, the same tensions simmer as in the wider Kindred society. There are leaders among the Anarchs, such as the famous ideologue Salvador Garcia. These leaders are lightning rods for the controversies pulling the Anarchs apart, always accused of nepotism, complacency, and corruption. They might be young by the standards of the Camarilla of old but in the Anarchs someone who has spent 70 years as a vampire is a venerable relic of a bygone era. After all, if your ideas of the world came from the 1950s, it is hard to fit in the modern nights. The Anarchs are often more ideological than Camarilla members. This brings its upsides and downsides. For the luckiest Anarchs, it has helped their community of Kindred to remain

more humane and hold onto their moral principles. For others, ideology becomes a bludgeon they can use to carve a power base for themselves. It is not unusual for a new generation of Anarchs to attack their sires, who themselves may only have ten or twenty years of unlife behind them. The failings of the vampires in their immediate vicinity have more immediacy than the monolithic and distant power of the Camarilla.

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THE GRAND PAGEANT OF DIPLOMACY The Toreador Victoria Ash at Elysium: Politics can be such a bore! You have a good fight coming along. Everyone has done their work perfectly. The enemy has been painted as the ultimate evil, every transgression by our own side has been excused. There’s a gorgeous selection of strapping young warriors ready to prove their worth in physical struggle. If we win, there will be a grand celebration and there is a special kind of enjoyment in having one or two of those victorious warriors entertain you in your bedchamber. If we lose, why... it can be quite thrilling! Whatever will they do to a helpless ingenue like me? But then the worst happens. Diplomacy! Instead of the young and the beautiful dying for your honor, you are consumed by endless meetings, speeches, discussions, and proclamations. It can get unbelievably tedious. Yes, of course I know all the arguments in favor of diplomacy. It protects the Masquerade, avoids unnecessary death and so on. All very sensible. The truth is that sensible is just another word for boring. I would have succumbed to the various maladies of the old and the powerful long ago if I wasn’t able to enjoy the embrace of a victorious gladiator covered in the blood of their enemies!

The Excitement of Diplomacy Done properly, diplomacy makes a great basis for a LARP event. Done badly, it can be extremely tedious. A failed game of diplomacy strands the players in endless meetings where they do not have a clear idea of the stakes they are negotiating for. Everybody sits around a big table and dies of tedium while someone makes a limpid speech trying to cover for the lack of real issues. Character play and personal conflict fall by the wayside as everyone reverts to their off-game work personas and just tries to muddle through the situation.

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Fortunately, there are many ways to avoid this dire fate. The War of Ages plays out in a multitude of different ways and that means you can stack your LARP full of conflicts and drama without making it all about meetings even if diplomacy is the substance of the game. The best approach is to consider what kind of play is fun and interesting for the participants and then try to make that happen. Sometimes you can use methods that are quite crude: if you decide that meetings are awful and have no place in your LARP, the Prince has declared that no meeting shall run longer than ten minutes to avoid important Kindred getting trapped when they should be mingling and solving problems. It is artificial but also works.

If you feel that there is a type of play that may happen but is not fun, then you should do your best to stave it off. Sometimes you can take this out of the fiction entirely and just tell your players to avoid certain types of actions because they are not interesting. It depends on the scenario whether such simple instruction works or not. Your players may play accordingly, or they may fall into boring patterns because of habit.

The Concept What is the LARP event about? What are the issues discussed and who are the characters? There should be distinct sides to the conflict, a credible threat of escalation that would hurt everybody, seemingly irreconcilable differences, and clear stakes that are hard to resolve. Here are a few example concepts: The Anarch Revolt. This used to be a Camarilla domain but now the Anarchs are rebelling, threatening to take over the city and drive Camarilla Kindred to exile. At the last moment, Camarilla and Anarch leaders convene a grand convocation for the purpose of trying to avoid outright war. The Camarilla wants the revolt to end and the Anarchs to return to the fold, while the Anarchs want their freedom and an end to Camarilla rule. Camarilla Intrusion. Traditionally, the domain has always belonged to the Ashirra but now there has been a powerful influx of the Camarilla related to cooperation between the sects in the Gehenna War. Supposedly we are all allies here but the Ashirra have come to suspect that the Camarilla is trying to take over their domain. At a supposedly casual soiree, they do their best to forestall such an event before war flares up between the two sects.

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Anarch Civil War. Two or more distinct camps of Anarchs are on the verge of going to war with each other over ideological and material differences. Some feel that the whole domain should be one open hunting territory while others want to give each gang their own area. The Baron tries to hold onto power while their enemies accuse them of being a Camarilla stooge. It is all even more difficult because there is no protocol for how to handle something like this. The Dueling Princes. This is a Camarilla domain. The problem is that there are two Princes who both claim praxis. Neither is willing to submit to the other and a full-scale influence war seems to be on the horizon. As a last resort, an unaligned Toreador elder invites everyone in the domain to her haven, widely seen as neutral ground. Is it possible to resolve the issue when the interests of so many of the domain’s inhabitants are tied to one Prince or the other? One possibility is that the would-be Princes fight it out by proxy in some sort of a staged competition which tends to require local Kindred to demonstrate allegiance one way or another. Sabbat Survivors. As the Sabbat repurposed itself for the Gehenna War, it left behind a large number of less important packs who had only paid lip service to the ideology to begin with. Now they want to join the Anarchs or the Camarilla in the local domain. The only trouble is, there are so many of them it would effectively double the domain’s Kindred population and there is worry that it would amount to a Sabbat takeover. Advocates for the Sabbat survivors host a party to reconcile these differences but old troubles have a habit of resurfacing.

Secret Agendas The event must have as many conflicting agendas as there are characters. There should be betrayals aplenty, characters changing sides, treachery revealed, and surprising twists and turns as boons are called in. Ideally, every single character has public goals and private goals, often in opposition to each other.

Importantly, many of these goals should be ones that are best realized through private deals, backroom negotiations and subtle influence games. The purpose here is to provide as many things as possible that can not be done in official negotiations, requiring characters to interact in other ways. Ideally, this leaves the most official and publicly diplomatic forum to be the place where all the plans and plots are revealed in fairly dramatic but quick scenes.

The Characters The characters should be duplicitous double-dealers who are always trying to further their personal agendas at the expense of the common goal and their own side, whatever that is. In short, they should be vampires. There is a common pitfall in LARP character design that you should be wary of. You may think that if most characters are lying backstabbers, wouldn’t it be good to have a few honest and straightforward characters in the mix to provide contrast? This works if the substance of the LARP is something other than double-dealing and devious plotting. If sordid betrayals are what is fun in the LARP, they should be available for every single character. There should be no honest Joes because they are boring to play if you are stuck being the righteous person watching everyone else backstab to their heart’s content. If an honest person is absolutely needed, they should be a supporting character players can enjoy fooling.

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It helps if none of the characters are rational and reserved. Everyone should have their own obsessions and weird compulsions; hatreds and loves that motivate them to make political plays that are dramatic and surprising. They may have an aura of sophistication and reason but given cause, the Beast emerges in one way or another.

The Event Diplomacy does not have to be handled in great conferences and meetings. The Kindred are more subtle than that. It can take place at dances, weddings, and parties. The Vermilion Wedding sought to unify the Camarilla and the Ashirra through the Blood Wedding of the Toreador Victoria Ash and the Banu Haqim Tegyrius. While ostensibly a tale of romance, most Kindred understood the Vermilion Wedding to be all about the need for a united front against the Sabbat in the Gehenna War. The best events have something obvious to do that helps give the players an idea of how the social situation is structured. A wedding is great for this because everyone knows how to act in a wedding. A diplomatic meeting is terrible, for the same reason: everyone knows that at such meetings, you are supposed to sit and be as boring as possible.

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That is why you need event types that direct the flow of action in the LARP into other, more interesting avenues even as the diplomacy also happens. Here are a few examples: The Prince’s Hunting Party. The Prince has been hunting for Sabbat stragglers with their cronies and organizes a celebration for their victory. They invite the Anarchs for diplomatic talks, looking to negotiate from a position of power. Saturnalia. At the annual Kindred celebration of excess and personal transformation, it is easier to make deals and redraw the diplomatic map because everyone is freed from their usual social positions for one night. The Warrens. The Nosferatu host a meeting of all the domain’s Kindred every year, held at their underground warrens. It is a filthy spectacle but also a great place to conduct discreet negotiations with enemies because the Nosferatu are very strict about their neutrality and the rules of the Elysium. They also forbid diplomacy but that only means it has to be sneakier.

Chapter Twelve

BOONS

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What You’re Owed At the Haven of the Ventrue Annika Wall:

Annika Wall: What?

Annika Wall: No no no please don’t kill me, please, I’m not going to.... Is this an Anarch revolt? Like in LA?

Deja: Play the game, Annika.

Deja: Maybe. Although to be honest I’m more interested in becoming the new Prince.

Deja: That’s tough. To be the Prince, you need a base. You need people who back you up. I have that.

Annika Wall: Okay... please... could you tell your goons to stop ransacking my home? That painting... Deja: Okay. Fine. Boys, please wait outside. I’ll have a little discussion with my clanmate here. Annika Wall: Thank you. Deja: Your Haven was pretty easy to find, you know. You should.... Annika Wall: Okay, what the fuck? What are you doing? One minute you pretend to be one of us, then you’re an Anarch, and now you want to be the Prince? They’ll put a Blood Hunt on you! And I don’t blame them! Deja: I’ll say this only once, Annika. My boys are getting antsy. I’ve promised them that once I become the Prince, they’ll get the best feeding grounds in the city. They’re very motivated and they don’t like defectors like you. Annika Wall: I’m sorry. Please, I don’t want to die. Deja: I’ll give you three choices. You can oppose me and die. You can stand aside. Or you can help me and I’ll owe you. A boon from the Prince is no small thing.

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Annika Wall: But I wanted to be the Prince.

Annika Wall: Fine. What do you need? Deja: Make yourself useful or I can tell my boys to come back in here and stake you so I can be sure you won’t be a threat. Annika Wall: No, no... that’s not necessary. I’ve been accumulating boons. You know, for my own bid to become the Prince. I can call in a few favors for you. I can ask some of the other Camarilla members to stay neutral. But in return I want something more than just a boon. Deja: Do you think you’re really in a position to make demands? Annika Wall: No. But you’ll need a loyal Seneschal who understands how the city works. A Seneschal who you’ve assured will never suffer the indignity of having those brutes in her drawing room again. Deja: You’ll betray me the first chance you get. Annika Wall: Maybe. That’s the game. Deja: Okay. Fine. It’s a deal.

At the temporary haven of the Toreador elder Victoria Ash: “Oh, Annika, so good of you to come visit me! I was just thinking about going out tonight. Perhaps we could go together? I’ve heard there are exciting things happening among the Anarchs and I’m in the mood for an Anarch lover. Somebody young, dumb, and violent. It’s always so touching when an Anarch kills one of their friends to avenge an insult to your honor. I love it when they do that. So charming! Yes, I do remember granting you a boon. You helped me when I came to the city. I’m never stingy with boons! That’s the mark of a bore.

And now, you’re calling it in. Are you making a play, little neonate? You should be careful. There are dangerous people prowling in the night, much more dangerous than you. The boon you have from me is the most valuable you own. You’re supporting somebody else? That’s wise. I haven’t been a Prince more than once or twice. Or maybe thrice. It’s so tedious! Better let someone who owes you carry the burden. That way, you don’t have to listen to people’s grievances all night long. Although seducing a Prince is often fun. You can make it into a game: who seduces the new Prince fastest? Although these nights with so many young Princes, it’s not as interesting as it used to be. Too easy. You want me to stay out of the affairs of the city when the Ventrue Deja makes herself the Prince? That’s fine. I’m a visitor here, anyway. But like I said, I’m not stingy when it comes to boons. I’ll give you a bit of advice on how to use them. You’ll ask me to host a party and invite the Prince, your friend. I’ll do so, and why not! I can’t be expected to know the intricacies of local power struggles in every town I visit. At the party, I’ll have a pleasant chat with the Prince where everybody sees it. And that will be that. When her opponents consider deposing her, they’ll think back to that moment. Was it just an innocent chat? Or will they make an enemy of me? They will hesitate and that will be enough for your new Prince to retain power, at least for a little while.

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You know, I’m proud of you, Annika. You’ve finally accepted who you are. You’ve never been the main character in your own story but you’ll make a fine supporting actor when someone else takes the stage. I know you won’t resent your Prince or try to depose her. You used to be just a toy and now you’ve become a tool for others to use. That’s plenty of personal growth already! Who needs more?” The Anarch Dee explains a scene at the Elysium: “I was right there, I was in the middle of it! Okay, not in the middle because I was hiding under the bar. You know I’m going to be an elder one day and there’s only one way to do that: by staying alive... or dead... well undead.... Anyway, I was prudently avoiding the risk of violence. Right? So many of us just throw our weight around like we’re super badass, talking about how once Deja is the Prince we’ll all be Camarilla and this will be our place, not theirs. Maybe that was a mistake. You know, some of the other Brujah don’t have the well-developed political acumen that I possess! The Camarilla guys, they started asking what Deja intended to do, drive all of them into exile or kill them? Could they trust her as the Prince? Which, you know, is a fair point because Agata Starek was there too and she was talking a lot about diablerie. That makes people worried.

quickly. The Camarilla don’t look tough but some of them are pretty scary when they get mad. One Toreador had a sword cane! Can you imagine? So cool. Deja said that Agata had promised her one boon to help with her coup. Agata agreed, like yes, she’d promised that. Deja said she was calling it in. She needed to reassure the Camarilla that if she became the Prince, she wouldn’t just turn them over to an Anarch mob. She’d be a uniter, bringing the Anarchs and the Camarilla together in the city. So, to do that, she needed to make a symbolic gesture, and Agata symbolized some of the Anarchs’ most destructive qualities. Agata was looking pretty stone faced at this point, by the way. She’d been having fun terrorizing people but now things we’re moving into an uncomfortable direction for her. Deja said that since Agata enjoyed Ventrue blood, she was using her boon to ask Agata to allow the Camarilla in Elysium to taste her blood in turn. Not to excess of course, but just so their curiosity would be satisfied. Things got super quiet. Agata was staring at Deja. I thought there was going to be a destroyed Camarilla Prince before she even became a Prince. But a boon is a boon.

You know, me and Agata are very much alike. We’re both Brujah, we both like Ventrue blood.... Although she prefers diablerie and I just drink it in any form I can. It would be so cool if she was my sire. Nobody would mess with me then!

“Well then. Come and get it.” That’s what Agata said. She spread her arms like she was inviting people to bite her.

Anyway, I was hiding because it was escalating

I’m a coward and I’m not ashamed of it. Like I

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Nobody did. They were too scared of her.

said, I intend to become an elder. But I was also crawling under a table right next to Agata because I wanted to see better and her shins were right in front of my face. I know Deja said Camarilla and I’m not Camarilla but I bit in. I just wanted a taste! Agata is so cool and famous! Once I started, the others dared too.” At an Anarch bar: Salman Hariri: How many boons do you owe when you’re the Prince? Deja: A few... including to you. Is that bad? Salman Hariri: No. I’ve never been a Prince of course, but I’ve observed a coup or two. What you want is to owe the right amount of boons. Too many and you’re pulled into every direction. Too few... Deja: What’s the advantage in owing people? That feels like a liability. Salman Hariri: A boon from a Prince is worth more than a boon from an ex-Prince. If you owe someone, they’re invested in your rule. They want to keep you on the throne at least until they get a chance to call in the favor. Deja: I don’t like owing people. Salman Hariri: Too late, my friend. In ancient times you could be a powerful vampire Prince just ruling over everybody. Not anymore. Tonight, the Prince needs backers. Deja: Like you and the Ashirra. Salman Hariri: Oh no! The Ashirra are neutral. I just like you, that’s all.

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QUID PRO QUO The Kindred exchange money and goods, the same as anybody else. Still, when you are an undying parasite, there are situations where mortal means are inadequate. That is when boons enter the picture. They are favors promised, to be cashed in at the recipient’s convenience. Boons are the lifeblood of the vampire economy. The Kindred help each other out, incurring debts that must be paid with services of equal value. When a vampire says: “I’ll do it but you owe me one,” a boon has been incurred. The responsibility for keeping track of boons lies with the character and player who received the boon. They must know what kind of boons they can call and on who. It is also probably a good idea to keep track of what you owe to others, but if someone forgets that you owe them a boon, it is on them.

Boons and LARP The purpose of the boon system in terms of LARP design is to create an in-game economy of transactions and obligations that can be leveraged by players and characters to attain their various goals. Ideally, the system should provide opportunities for dynamic play and surprising events. A longtime friend betrays you because someone called in a boon. You get the Prince to back you up because they owe you a boon. Boons work best when characters grant them and use them at a steady pace. When you use a boon, you are compelling another character, but on the player level you are also extending an invitation to someone to participate in your story. If you wish, you can further differentiate the boon system so that there are major boons, lesser boons, etc. The easier solution is for each player to adjust the favors they ask for according to

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the situation when the boon was incurred. You should ask: is this favor of equal value to when I was granted the boon? If you got a boon from the Prince because you saved their skin, it is different than if you did them a routine political favor.

Acceptable and Unacceptable Boons Some favors work well as boons, others not so much. As such, the questions of what works in a LARP and what makes sense in-game intertwine. Here are a few examples of boons you can not ask for: - A vampire to destroy themselves or do something suicidal like walking in the sun. - A vampire to genuinely risk their mortal loved ones.

- Specific emotions or intimate relationships. You can not use a boon to make someone your lover or to be your friend. In addition, there are some types of boons that you could ask for inside the fiction but would have a negative effect on the game of another player: - Guard this door for the night. This is just boring. Who wants to guard a door for an entire LARP? - Follow me on all fours and bark like a dog. Depending on the type of LARP you are attending, this may be inappropriate. Make sure you have a solid grasp on local play culture and leave an out for the other player before considering seeking things like this. - Stay out of the city’s power struggle. This is another tricky one. It depends on how important the power struggle is for the LARP. If it is a peripheral concern, you can ask for this boon. If it is the core theme of the LARP and the main source of play, you should not ask for this boon because it would make it impossible for the other player to meaningfully engage with the LARP. Some boons are great for LARP. Here are a few examples: - Calling in boons to support your bid for power, social recognition, etc. If you are making a big play at Elysium, it is great if you can involve a lot of other players in it and boons are the tool you use to do that. - Open-ended requests that leave a lot of room for interpretation. These are fun for the other player and allow them to take care of their boundaries. For example, you can use a boon to

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ask someone to sabotage the plans of the local Brujah or make the Prince hate them. The latter is an obviously hostile use of a boon but leaves the victim in charge of deciding on the particulars. - Using a boon to create a scene. A Toreador ancilla widely known to be an awful singer uses a whole load of boons to force others in Elysium to listen to them perform. This kind of boon use is not about plots or plans but building character and creating interesting, fun situations.

How to Make the Boon System Work What if my character just ignores the boon I am asked to perform? This question breaks the boon system. There is no all-encompassing system of enforcement that would cover every single character type from the Prince to a Nosferatu Anarch. Sure, the Camarilla and the Anarchs frown upon those who go back on their word but in a LARP, it is hard to maintain a punishmentbased mechanism for keeping people in line. A boon-breaker is ostracized and this can be lethal over the long term but in a LARP, such effects may not have time to manifest properly. The solution to this is for players to respect the boon system when they play their characters and treat it as inviolate. You, as a player in a Vampire: The Masquerade LARP, must respect the system. That way, it will work. If you do not respect the system and do not play by the established event rules and agreed upon parameters, it will break down. The boons work as a meta-level mechanism

as much as an in-game system. They are both something that exists in the game world and as a game mechanic, and thus require all players to treat them the way they would treat any other game mechanical rule: with respect. This also means that you should not play into a direction that makes the boon system break apart. For example, if you cash in a boon and demand that a character do something obviously suicidal, this means they will be forced to either ignore the boon and break the rules of the game or fulfill the boon and get destroyed. That is a terrible choice because it forces the other player into conflict with the design of the LARP. For this reason, you also should never try to cheat the boon system in other ways. For example, you should never lie that you hold a boon if you do not. In a LARP, lying is easy and the fabric of the fiction starts to break down when others have to start doubting your word when it comes to boons.

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Failing to Fulfill a Boon Sometimes you fail to fulfill a boon through no fault of your own. You are compelled by a boon to assist in an attempt to oust the Prince but get staked before you get to Elysium. These kinds of situations are fodder for in-game controversy and discussion. Some Kindred think that an honest attempt is enough while others consider such failures unacceptable. A failure to fulfill a boon tars you, makes you seem untrustworthy and unreliable even if it was not your fault. This means that you have to take steps to repair your reputation. Perhaps you can grant a few boons and then ostentatiously fulfill them to demonstrate that you are a vampire of your word!

HOW TO SPEND BOONS What's the use in accumulating boons if you do not use them? Every unused boon is a freebie you did for someone else. You only get what you are owed if you actually call them in. Boons have a tendency to expire, especially if you do not have the power or the status to hold onto them. An elder might be able to call in a boon incurred a hundred-years ago but most Kindred are dependent on their compatriots and peers remembering why the boon was granted in the first place. Tarry too long and nobody will care anymore. Sometimes boons are dangerous. They tie two Kindred together in ways that are not always advantageous to the recipient even if on the surface it seems so. For example, a Brujah neonate has been granted a boon by the Prince. This makes other Anarchs suspicious. Can they really trust a Brujah who seems to be in such good favor with the Camarilla? The only way the Brujah can allay the rumors is to cash in the boon quickly.

Boons As Invitations When your character uses a boon, you as a player are extending an invitation to play. You are proposing action to another player and their character. You are suggesting something that could happen and be interesting to play. There is an in-game component to this as well. A common use for boons is to facilitate the devious plots of the undead. Your character can use a boon to effectively invite someone into their schemes. This is an effective way to motivate other characters. Why would they help you to get rid of the boon you are holding over them? Because the boon is an invitation to play, you need to know what you want out of the LARP and what kind of scenes you want to play before you start using your boons effectively. For example, if you are interested in political plots and schemes, you should use your boons to make those happen. After all, a single boon can be more effective than any Discipline power if used in the right way. If you want strong social scenes, you can use boons to stir up social controversy and invite people to participate in your melodrama.

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Boons As Status Symbols

In a LARP, everything tends to work better if it is shared with other players. If you are blackmailing the Prince, you can use a boon and ask another character to hold your secrets in case something happens to you. In this way, your blackmailing plot now involves another person and there is a chance it leaks, leading to new and interesting developments.

Conspicuous consumption is a thing in the world of the Kindred as well. What better way to flaunt your influence and power than calling in boons for frivolous or demonstrative reasons? A boon is a power trip. You did something for another character and now they have to repay you. Because you are so much more powerful than they are, or want to appear as such, you can spend your boon on something ridiculous. Of course, this works best with an audience.

You can also use boons to trip up other characters. Use a boon to make them participate in your plot, only the whole thing is a lie to make them implicate themselves in something that is sure to anger the Prince. They might even realize you are doing this but still feel compelled to fulfill the boon.

Here are a few examples: - Cash in your boon with the Prince and ask them to hold a ceremony in your honor . - Use a boon to ask someone to get you a drink.

Grand Plans A common way to pull off plots is to accumulate boons, then use a whole bunch of them at once. This way, your sudden tsunami of influence gets you the effect you want. For example, you want to swing the vote among the Primogen. To do that, you use every boon you have on members of the Primogen themselves, and some on their clans as well, to make sure that they are on your side.

- Ask someone to wear a t-shirt with your face on it. - Tell someone that the boon you have over them is annulled but they must thank you publicly to make it happen.

Things get interesting when two or more vampires try to do this at the same time. The iconic scenario is when there is a fight over who is going to be the Prince. All contenders fling boons around trying to get enough backing to succeed.

Boons As Stories You can use boons to inject story elements into a LARP. For example, you are playing in a chronicle and your character has a mortal ward who will be introduced as a player character at the next event. Why not use a boon to ask another vampire to look after them between events so that when the new character is introduced, they already have one more contact? At the same time, you involve another vampire character in the story of you and your ward.

If you realize you do not have enough boons to sway the Primogen, perhaps you can use your other boons to get their members replaced with those in your pocket? That is one way to increase the value of a boon: make sure the person who owes you is as successful as possible.

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Coercion Like many Discipline powers, boons are fundamentally coercive. They allow you to make other characters do things they would not otherwise do. This means that when you call them in, you have to consider both what your character wants, what makes a good LARP, and what works for other players. Sometimes a boon that’s dangerous for the character is also fun for the player. For example, you use a boon to ask a Brujah ancilla to back you up when you go to challenge the Primogen. It’s a risk for the ancilla but also a chance for the player to see something they wouldn’t otherwise have been a part of.

after the LARP is over. You can ask for things that are awkward or boring to play but you also miss an opportunity to generate action in the LARP. For this reason, it is a good default to focus on asking for boons that are realizeable during the LARP unless there is a specific reason to do otherwise. One possible reason is if you have a big collection of boons you want to get rid of. In that eventuality, you can use some for tasks during the LARP itself and burn others on things that do not require anybody to waste too much LARP time on them.

Interlude: Storage How could it have gone so wrong?

During the Event or Afterwards? One important question when you cash in a boon is whether the other character has to perform a task during the LARP event or after it? Obviously, there are a lot of boons that only make sense if the character performs the required actions after the event is over. They can still be part of the story, just not scenes that are actually played out.

Sebastian always knew that it wouldn’t last. He had been invited to Camarilla high society because it amused the Ventrue Salomé Diaz. She wanted to have a Brujah boyfriend to show around until she grew bored and switched to something else. If he had been older, more substantial, the story could have gone differently: a Blood Wedding, eternity as partners in ambition and treachery. As it stood, he had expected to be discarded in a few years.

For example:

Just not so soon. And not like this.

- Help me steal police evidence that endangers the Masquerade.

Salolmé was not all that good at pretending she was mortal. She grew tired of the pretense, her predatory nature showing. She did not have a lot of empathy and she delighted in small cruelties.

- Let my childe stay at your spare Haven. - Don’t feed in the city center. There are advantages and disadvantages to asking for a boon that will be performed only

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Sebastian knew all that. Perhaps he should have realized that something was amiss when a few of the visitors to Salomé’s salon looked

at him with pity in their eyes. Still, he did not expect her to stake him on her bed as soon as the last guests had left. She kissed his paralyzed face and gave him to her servants to put in storage. She explained her plan to them quite matter-offactly, giving instructions as if he was not there. And in her world he wasn’t. He had ceased to matter the moment she decided it was over. He was to be put in a secure storage, fed blood by a ghoul just often enough that he would not fall into torpor. He would be ravenously hungry, unable to move, just lying in the darkness for years, decades... until Salomé would host a party where she needed an amusing diversion. She would dress him up in some hilarious outfit and let him loose among her guests. His sanity would be long gone by then of course. Perhaps he would have to be in restraints to make sure he would not bite the guests. Or maybe it would be funny if he did bite them. She would think about it later. To his shame, Sebastian cried in his confinement, the stake sticking out of his chest as tears of blood streaked his cheeks. He wanted to pretend he was crying for himself and his sorry fate but the truth was he had allowed himself to love Salomé. She was quite lovable when she was not making someone’s life a living hell. Sometimes he felt a trickle of blood enter his mouth. Human blood, animal, even Kindred. Time passed and he grew attuned to the darkness and its sounds. The insects scurrying over his face disgusted him at first but then they started to feel like company. It was nice to have someone there.

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“Fucking hell,” Szymon the Sad said, shining a flashlight into Sebastian’s face. Sebastian had been aware that someone was approaching but he had thought it a dream. He had had such fantasies many times in the past. Szymon pulled on the stake with both hands, steadying himself on the mortuary table Sebastian was lying on, until the wooden shaft came loose. Sebastian felt unsteady. The hunger was a roar in his ears, his eyes swimming towards Szymon who was full of blood. Blood entered his mouth. It tasted disgusting. Pig’s blood. Cold. Better than nothing. Sebastian drank from the bottle Szymon was pushing against his lips. The weak, rancid blood entered his body, invigorating him. “Where are we?” Sebastian croaked. “It’s a decommissioned mortuary. They store some of their secrets here, like you,” Szymon explained, gesturing around him. Walls the color of toothpaste. Medical tools decades old were scattered about. “Are there others here? Staked?” Sebastian looked at the bodies on the tables, covered by plastic sheets. He’d had one such sheet haphazardly covering him too. It was lying on the floor now. “Yes,” Szymon replied. “I checked a few of them before I found you. But we don’t have time for them. Let’s go.” “But...” Sebastian protested. He had vague thoughts of rescuing others who had suffered like him but the Blood inside him said to forget

it. What did they matter to him? He was not mortal. He was a vampire and he had suffered like one.

“She’s making plays against her sister. There’s a lot of things you hear when you’re a ghoul, that you bloodsuckers miss,” Szymon said.

“No buts. I got the location of this place from Salomé’s ghoul. Her sister, Valentina. I don’t trust her,” Szymon explained, helping Sebastian to his feet.

“Do I owe her?” Sebastian asked and noticed a small red light glaring at him from under a table. “We’ve triggered surveillance for sure.”

Was Valentina still pretending to be a ghoul? Sebastian had Embraced her by accident. Hadn’t Salomé realized? He had wondered if that had been the reason she had decided to dispose of him.

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“Yes, you owe her,” Szymon replied, pulling Sebastian along.

Chapter Thirteen

PRAXIS Sebastian: But if she doesn’t know this and the Camarilla doesn’t know this... how come you know all about it? Szymon the Sad: Some in the Camarilla know. They’ve watched her, assessed her, wondered if she’s up to assuming the legacy of her sire. They wanted to see how it played out. Sebastian: Yeah, but... At an Anarch bar: Sebastian: So what happens now? Will Deja become the new Prince and the divisions between us and the Camarilla disappear?

Szymon the Sad: I know about it because ghouls talk. We always talk and nobody ever listens to us. Sebastian: I’m listening to you. Szymon the Sad: You’re no different than the rest.

Szymon the Sad: Maybe. Sebastian: You don’t sound too convinced. Szymon the Sad: You spent some time in the Camarilla. Do you think they’ll let the rabble in so easily? Sebastian: But Deja... Szymon the Sad: Deja is one of them. She’s a Ventrue and her sire is the former Prince. Sebastian: What? Szymon the Sad: Oh yeah, she may not know that. Sometimes the Ventrue do this to test their childer, Embrace them and then force them to make their own way to toughen them up.

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The transcript of a speech given by the Ventrue Salomé Diaz at the Elysium: Kindred! This is a difficult time for any city. Our beloved Prince is gone and we’ve had to accept that they will not be back. That’s the reality of the Beckoning, as many of our kind have come to realize in domains across the world. Why, I myself have felt the stirrings of the Beckoning in my Blood... (Jeers: “You’re not old enough!”) Quiet, you! Let me speak!

We need a new Prince. That much is clear. Yet we also need continuity. We need stability. Of course, we all know that I’m making this speech because my fellow Ventrue Deja is making a bid to become the Prince. So perhaps we should let her? I say no! She paints pretty pictures with her talk of redistributing old feeding territories abandoned by Beckoned elders and ending the conflicts between the Camarilla and the Anarchs. She promises we can return to how things used to be, with one Camarilla city where the Prince rules over all and the Brujah and the Gangrels as our loyal compatriots. She makes it sound like she’s looking to return us to the old ways but that is mere rhetoric. She may be a Ventrue but she’s not one of us. She’s an Anarch through and through and this is nothing less than a coup; an attempt to make this into an Anarch domain in everything except the name. She will take your feeding territories and redistribute them to her friends among the rabble. You’ll find yourselves booted out of your Havens, pushed to the edges of the city, in suburbs far from prime feeding areas. She wants to take everything we have and she thinks we’re so stupid, we’ll thank her for the privilege! No. We need a Prince who understands the importance of the Camarilla in this city. The work we’ve put into maintaining the Masquerade and keeping the mortals in line. The Anarchs are welcome to join us at Elysium when, and

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only when, they understand the meaning of the word “responsibility”. As long as they don’t do the work of maintaining our rule, why should they benefit from its fruits? (Shouts: “You want to be the Prince! Admit it!”) Yes I admit it! Make me your Prince and I promise your privileges will stay intact! You know me. I’m one of you and I will look after you! The transcript of a speech given by the Ashirra Salman Hariri at the Elysium: Dear members of the Camarilla! First of all, I must thank you. You have welcomed us into your domain and shared the fruits of your territories generously. We have never been bereft of blood to wet our lips. Now, I have no wish to intrude upon matters as important as the ascension of a new Prince! This is your domain, not mine, and we shall not meddle. I merely wish to bring up a few details that may have escaped some of you. As you’re aware, the Beckoning doesn’t make your elders vanish into thin air. They go to fight a war that may end up making all of the decisions you make here null and void. But that happens over our heads, yours and mine. I make no claims at understanding the specifics of the Gehenna War. Your Prince has made the acquaintance of a few of the Ashirra, as our sect and the Camarilla are partners in this war. They are well looked after, I assure you. In conversation, they have casually mentioned

their interest in what happens in the domain they used to rule for so long, and of their childe who now seeks the position of the Prince. (Noise from the crowd.)

Dee: We’re vampires too. March Davis: Yes. We are. That’s how I know.

Yes. Deja is the childe of the Prince. I suppose they must have had their own reasons to elide that fact, even from Deja herself. But I hope I’m not confusing matters too much by mentioning it now.

Dee: I choose not to believe you! She’ll open the doors of the Elysium to everyone. We’ll be Camarilla too, all sharing the best hunting grounds. Deja said she wouldn’t reserve any for herself. Did you hear that? She’d hunt the same as anybody else. That’s revolutionary!

That’s all I wanted to say. I wish prosperity and peace upon this domain!

March Davis: You’re not naive, Dee. You know how the world works. Don’t be stupid.

At a garage owned by the Brujah March Davis:

Dee: I don’t want to spend my eternity puttering away in a garage, fixing people’s cars the way you do.

Dee: This is going to be great! Deja will become the Prince, we’re all going to be Camarilla and there will be plenty of Ventrue blood for everybody. Well, me at least. March Davis: Nothing is going to change. Dee: Come on. Don’t be like that. Have a little faith! March Davis: In what? The good nature of the Ventrue?

March Davis: This is a 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda. It’s mine. Restoring cars from when I was still breathing is a hobby. Dee: Did you ever fuck anybody in that car? Or suck I guess, after the Embrace? March Davis: Dee. Dee: Come on. It’s an innocent question!

Dee: Deja is not just a Ventrue. She’s....

March Davis: Yes I did.

March Davis: An Anarch, like us?

Dee: Before or after the Embrace?

Dee: Yeah!

March Davis: Both.

March Davis: I don’t know. Maybe her time with us will save her from being co-opted by the Camarilla system. But I doubt that. They’re good at corrupting people. That’s what vampires do.

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PLAYING FOR PRAXIS Your character can have many goals when playing in a Vampire LARP but becoming the Prince of the city is a classic. Rule the domain and all who call it home, at least until the next upstart begins to eye your throne.

term. You need to be personally exceptionally powerful, have strong and violent allies, and reckon with the fact that after your victory absolutely everyone will hate you and seek to undermine your rule.

In some domains, the same Prince rules for decades or even centuries. The cities depicted in LARP chronicles tend to be of the other kind; chaotic domains where the Prince changes often.

Despite these issues, this is a classic tactic for becoming the Prince, especially for very old Kindred who’s instincts for seizing praxis were formed sometime in the Middle Ages.

Playing for praxis makes more sense in an ongoing chronicle where you have more time to set up your plans and execute them than in a single-event LARP where stories of ruling and being ruled do not really have time to develop. Still, if you are fast enough and if it fits the theme of the event, surely you can topple a Prince even during a four-hour mini-LARP!

Trickery. Lie and cheat your way to victory. Abuse the rules and traditions of your domain. Use every trick in the book to gain power before anyone notices what you are doing. Considering that vampires tend to be skilled in social games and plots, this is a surprisingly unpopular tactic. The trouble lies in the weakness of the power base thus formed. At some point, the inhabitants of the domain will realize that the Prince is weak and full of shit. At that point, a trickster Prince’s nights in power will be limited.

Tactics There are a couple of common strategies for becoming the new Prince. It used to be that you would first have to depose the old Prince but now as the Beckoning ravages domains across the world, it happens more often that a Prince abandons their post and the domain’s Kindred are forced into a power struggle, sometimes much to their surprise. Absent a vacancy, here are some ways to claim the chair: Force. You can take over a domain using violence and vampiric Disciplines. Just beat everyone into submission and Dominate the rest. This is possibly the most difficult way to become the Prince and the worst if your goal is to retain control over the domain for the long

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For LARP purposes, trickery can nevertheless be fun especially if you are not all that interested in actually being the Prince. The chase is the fun part, after all. You can maneuver yourself to praxis and then lose control as others realize what you have done. Politics. You negotiate, build a coalition, and find allies until your power base is strong enough that you become the Prince. When the Primogen backs you up and your friends in the Anarchs, Ventrue, and Toreador consider you their candidate, you are set for a long and prosperous rule. The main difficulty with the political approach is that everybody wants something and you

have to make all kinds of promises to gain their support. This becomes even more difficult if you have a rival; someone else who also wants to become the Prince and makes promises to the same people you are talking to. The most common bone of contention is domain, whether that be physical feeding territories or areas of influence such as the police or the healthcare system. Your potential vampire allies can always be trusted to want more than their share and to do their best to undermine each other. Thus, the political method for gaining praxis can become an exercise in trying to stave off chaos long enough for you to attain the throne. Fortunately, this is good practice for the chaos you will have to manage once you actually become the Prince. Selling your soul. There are many entities, individuals, and organizations in the World of Darkness who can make you the Prince. The only thing you have to do is to become their minion, subject to their whims. Sometimes you can play this to your advantage by using the backing of some powerful entity and then reneging on the deal you made, turning against them. This is a dangerous move, however, but with the backing of your domain and position, maybe you are the Prince who makes it work. So who will you sell your soul to? There are many choices. The important thing is to make it someone so powerful as to allow you to skip the usual quid pro quo of politics. Instead of being beholden to everybody in your domain, you will have to answer to just one backer.

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The most dangerous and difficult choice is the Second Inquisition. If you somehow manage to make a deal with an implacable enemy of all vampires, they can clean out the city and you can start afresh as the Prince of an empty domain. Of course, it is likely they are just playing you and will kill you in the end. Another possibility is a Methuselah so powerful, they can ignore night-to-night Kindred politics. Of course, they might also be so powerful that they can just take over your will and leave you a witless husk of a puppet. The Sabbat is another option. Of course, they want to destroy your domain but perhaps you can have a few good years as they use your city as a staging area for the Gehenna War.

Creating Play Ideally, making a play for becoming the Prince is a major story within the chronicle which will create action for dozens of other characters. Here, fortunately the motivations of your character and the considerations of good LARP design coincide. Your character wants to become the Prince which is easier if you have a strong coalition of backers behind you. Conveniently, that means that you will have to make sure as many other characters as possible have a stake in your being the Prince. A Prince without any support is no Prince at all. There are no institutions certifying vampire rulers. You are a Prince if the Kindred of your domain accept your rule, usually out of fear. If they do not, you are just another pretender. This means that any plot to become the Prince will start with you telling people that you intend to become the Prince. You can gauge support, keep it a secret from those who would

oppose you, scope out potential rivals, and make promises to your allies. You will try to butter up important people in the domain and perhaps even make a strategic enemy, getting someone who is universally hated to come after you so you get sympathy points. Having a rival makes becoming the Prince harder but it can be great fun in a LARP. The rival can be the existing Prince who tries to suppress your ambitions or another character with the same goals as you. With a rival, you have someone to rail against, and someone to vilify publicly to make yourself look better.

The Anarchs What if you are an Anarch? It does not make sense to aim for becoming the Prince if you do not believe in Princes to begin with. Leadership structures among the Anarchs are more complicated and the strategies for getting to the top are different than in the Camarilla. Nevertheless, you can become an Anarch leader if you set your mind to it. Anarch domains have a lot of variation when it comes to power structures. The Baron. Some domains have a single Anarch Baron which acts as a Prince-like figure by setting the rules and maintaining control over the domain. Barons typically come under a lot of internal criticism because many Anarchs feel that they just replicate Camarilla power structures. Because of this, being a Baron can be a thankless job: you have less power and authority than a Prince and half of your people feel compelled to defy your every edict out of principle. Becoming a Baron is easier than becoming a Prince because it is a less of a contested position. In some domains, nobody wants to be the person in charge and you can adopt the position as long as most Anarch gangs do not actively hate you. The Camarilla is full of wily old bastards who have spent centuries learning how to play political games. Although many Camarilla Princes were caught by surprise each time the Anarch Revolt experienced a resurgence, in some domains the local Camarilla elite were able to contain the situation by propping up a puppet Baron. This is how an Anarch can sell their soul to become a leader: be the secret proxy of the Camarilla while pretending to resist their rule. Anarchy. Many Anarch domains do not have any sort of a centralized power structure. They are a collection of gangs where nobody really asserts authority. On the face of it, it is impossible to gain praxis in these conditions, but appearances can be deceiving.

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Older, more powerful and established gangs tend to be respected by their peers. A charismatic individual in such a gang can have a lot of pull even when officially they are not an Anarch leader. War and similar crises provide wonderful opportunities for popular authority. This is why it pays to hype up the threat posed by enemies such as the Second Inquisition, the Camarilla, and the Sabbat. Once your whole domain is gripped by fear and hatred for an insidious, dangerous enemy, you can make yourself into a war leader and assume dictatorial powers. What is best, your enemies are not going away anytime soon so you can maintain an atmosphere of heightened agitation indefinitely. Of course, there is the danger that you will then have to actually lead Anarchs into war.

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DESIGNING FOR PRAXIS Some Vampire LARPs are designed for power games where characters can make the attempt to become Prince of the city. Others are not.

Here are a few examples of how a sitting Prince can make unlife difficult for the inhabitants of their domain:

Before you start designing, you should decide what kind of a chronicle you want to make. If you want power struggles to play a central part in the experience, make them meaningful. If you are interested in some other aspect of Vampire, make the role of the Prince peripheral so that attaining Princedom does not feel like an interesting use of player time.

Unjust distribution of feeding rights. The Prince hogs the best and easiest hunting grounds for themself and their allies, relegating certain clans and political enemies to hunt in the suburbs and industrial areas.

If you want players and characters to struggle for Praxis, you need to ensure that being the Prince means something. The player who gets that role must be able to make changes that affect the chronicle in a meaningful way. What is more, players should have a path to Princedom and the Prince should feel like someone they want to topple

The Role of the Prince What does the Prince actually do in the chronicle? If the Prince is a person who sits on a fancy chair at the Elysium but does not do much else, toppling the Prince will feel pointless. What would it change? This is why the role of the Prince must be designed so that it creates as much friction with other characters and political factions as possible. This way, a new incoming Prince can make promises that the tension and friction will end and everybody will be happy, only to then fall into similar patterns as the old Prince.

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Capricious grants to make progeny. How do you get permission to sire a childe? Who knows! Sometimes the Prince grants the right to progeny to their closest allies, other times to random neonates. It all seems to depend on random whimsy. Rank nepotism. The Prince clearly favors their allies, clan, and progeny. On every issue, they get the best options and everyone else has to do with less. Unfair and heavy-handed justice. The Prince calls blood hunts on their enemies based on flimsy, fabricated evidence of treason. They inflict serious punishments for minor infractions, dabble in collective punishment, and enjoy lording over their lessers. You can set up supporting characters specifically to take the roles of neonates who get executed by the Prince. Prejudice. The Prince just hates the Brujah, the Tremere, the Anarchs, or whoever. Can’t stand them. As a design element, this hatred should only be based on supernatural characteristics from the Vampire setting such as clan or sect affiliation, and never on real-life demographics. At the start of a LARP chronicle, the Prince can be a supporting character who behaves as

obnoxiously as possible so they get removed from power by a player character. After that happens, the player character Prince discovers why it is so hard to be a just, well-loved leader in a city of bloodsucking monsters.

Rules and Structures It is enormously helpful for players who want to play on Camarilla power struggles if the domain has traditions, rules, and structures in place regarding how to become the Prince. If the Prince is an autocrat and there is no system for determining who gets to be in that position, it is very hard for players and characters to challenge the current office holder. They have to foment a violent and total rebellion to get there.

an interested character. They can lobby the Primogen to become Prince. Or even better, they can join the Primogen, elect a weak Prince and rule through them. The Prince has to fulfill certain obligations to stay in power. For example, the Prince pledges to keep the Sabbat out of the city and the Masquerade in place. The reason this is helpful for potential aspirants is that it makes it possible to delegitimize the Prince. You can argue that the Prince has failed to protect the Masquerade and must be removed or you can orchestrate events to make it appear the Prince has failed! The Prince’s power is conditional. Everybody in the domain knows that the Prince will remain in power only as long as they enjoy the trust of a powerful Methuselah, the Ventrue, or whoever. A weak Prince might even be beholden to the Anarchs; as long as they are happy, there is peace and the Prince can stay on their throne. If the Anarchs become unhappy, a war starts and the Prince loses their legitimacy.

In the setting of Vampire, autocratic powerful Princes are not all that rare but in a LARP the should be used only when the goal is to keep playing for praxis out of the scope of the event. A weaker Prince beholden to a powerful Primogen offers more opportunities for play. If there are rules such as these in the domain, the question is who made those rules and why. In the case of these examples, the answer would be the Primogen who would then have enough power to enforce their will.

The Prince has symbols of power. As per tradition, the Prince always holds the city’s parks as their personal hunting ground, carries a scepter made of iron and is the only one allowed to dress in purple in Elysium. The purpose of these types of social and setting rules is to make it clear who the Prince is. In a LARP, things can become muddled in the fiction sometimes, so it helps if the position of Prince is extremely clear.

Here are a few examples of rules you can design into the domain to foster power plays: The Prince is chosen by the Primogen. If the domain has a tradition whereby the Pimogen can collectively install a new Prince if they so choose, that provides an avenue of political influence for

The important thing about rules is that everybody

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knows them. It is of course helpful if the Prince has secret weaknesses that characters can exploit but the purpose of rules known to all is that players can use them to orient their play. The existence of the rules guides them in thinking about their tactics and how they want to approach their bid for power.

Being the Prince Being the Prince should be fun, the same as any other character role in a LARP. If it looks like the player of the Prince is relegated to sitting alone on a throne while everyone else is enjoying themselves, it does not seem very appealing to strive for Princedom. The core to this is that there should be meaningful choices and actions the Prince can make, whether in consultation with others or alone. The Prince makes decisions concerning social events. This can be something utterly trivial. For example, is the color scheme of the Elysium purple or red? It can be slightly more meaningful if the Prince makes decisions about which clans get preferred treatment or how new childer are introduced to the court. While trivial in the fiction, these kinds of choices are very visible in a LARP, further establishing the Prince. The Prince gets invited into fancy meetings. The Prince and their aides get to meet visiting Archons, the Princes of nearby domains, or Ashirra diplomats. Essentially, they get to make foreign policy decisions. Of course, this requires the chronicle’s domain to have a wider setting context. The Prince takes center stage at rituals. Perhaps the local Church of Caine invites the Prince to take an important role at their rituals, standing in for Caine himself... or the Heralds regularly stage a play making fun of the Prince and their politics.

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CHANGING OF

THE GUARD What does it look like when ambitious Kindred seize praxis? Fortunately examples are plentiful. After all, it is in the nature of the vampire to cheat, lie, and murder to serve the goal of attaining power.

The President

Unclaimed The great thing about claiming praxis over a domain, even a small domain, is how it changes the way people see you. That was the lesson the thin-blooded Tremere neonate Vita Varnas learned after making the previously abandoned town of St. Joseph, near Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan, into his domain. Originally from Australia and still pursuing a career as an actor thanks to the advantages of being of the 14th generation, Varnas has tried to maintain ambiguity over whether he is Camarilla or Anarch. Better each sect thinks he is one of them so he is a Prince or a Baron depending on who he is talking to. St. Joseph may be small but praxis is praxis. It is something to build a reputation on.

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“Fake it till you make it” is a common phrase of advice but the Ventrue Cassius Dunn took it further than most. The son of a preacher studying for a business degree in life, he was violently inducted into the Sabbat and thrust into an unlife of violence and horror. Dunn’s Christian outlook persists even as a vampire. He knows he is serving infernal powers and he knows it is wrong and that he has to save himself and those around him. To this end, when Sabbat territories started to collapse in the face of the Second Inquisition, he took his motorcycle gang–the Sons of Amaranth–and joined the Anarchs. By human standards, the Anarchs are not exactly pinnacles of morality, but by Sabbat standards they are angels on earth.

The Second Inquisition dealt Dunn another blessing as well, although it was as a consequence of horrific events. The Kindred of the domain of Las Vegas were exterminated, leaving a power vacuum that could be filled with enterprising souls. The president of the Sons of Amaranth was not willing to take over the entirety of Las Vegas and make himself and the people closest to him into targets for every ambitious lick around. Instead, he claimed a smaller domain nearby and made himself into an Anarch Baron. To survive in the Sabbat, Dunn had to fake being a tough guy. Now to take his next steps on the road of redemption, he has to find a way to shed that persona.

Peace Talks These are not the best times for the Ivory Tower. The Camarilla has had some of its most important domains fall to the Anarchs and the Second Inquisition and its elders have been called away by the Beckoning to an unknown fate. These concurrent crises have also made it possible for the sect to revitalize itself, and for old ossified power structures to gain flexibility with the introduction of new ideas. One such example is the attempted Anarch takeover of Pittsburgh where the Camarilla Prince Sebastion Tyler saw the city and its self-styled Royal Family threatened by an insurrection of the underclass. Prince Tyler saw his end when the Anarchs successfully assaulted the physical symbol of his power, a grand edifice called Bastion Tower. His death also had another consequence, unintended by the revolutionaries: the end to local Camarilla weakness. Prince Taylor may have been weak but he was also politically connected. The Archon Lucretia Wright was a veteran of suppressing Anarch insurrections in different domains and was a member of the Prince’s court, his Royal Family. When she arrived at the city, it was on the edge of complete Camarilla surrender. Wright successfully neutered the Anarch insurrection through what she called her “Peace Talks”, ostensibly to avoid unnecessary violence and bloodshed. At their moment of truth, the Anarchs faltered and accepted a position on the Primogen so they could take up their grievances directly in the halls of power. The city remained Camarilla and the key Anarch figures had been subsumed into the existing power structure. Just as Wright had intended.

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The War Leader

War creates opportunities. Generals become peacetime leaders too, with mortals and Kindred alike. The war against the Sabbat created such an opportunity for the Nosferatu Carrick Driscol. He started as the Camarilla Warmaster of Alberta and became the Prince of Calgary. As so often happens in the world of the Kindred, an external war became an internal one after Driscol realized that increasing setbacks in the conflict were probably caused by a mole. Allying with the Ventrue and the Tremere because the Sabbat were not known to be keen on these clans, he conducted an aggressive mole hunt which also laid the basis for his later claiming of praxis. In the end, four Kindred were found to be Sabbat agents and executed, starting with the Toreador Harpy Bastien Sprski. The violence of the war attracted the attention of the Second Inquisition, making the situation even more difficult to navigate. The Second Inquisition was hurting the Sabbat but could also cause all of Alberta’s Kindred to burn. In response, Driscol adopted the strategy of total lockdown, using the crisis to become Prince and forbidding the use of communications technology. He also made maintaining the Masquerade the primary focus of his rule. This strategy of caution was successful, leaving the Sabbat scattered, its power broken.

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Elite Enclave The city of Madison, Wisconsin may have been small but you would not guess if you only knew who among the Kindred spent their nights there. Some towns become the havens of Anarchs and lowlives while others are elite enclaves and refuges from the ravages of the Gehenna War. The Prince of Madison, the Gangrel Jean Nicolet, was facing heavy odds indeed the night the praxis was challenged at the meeting of the Primogen. Against Nicolet stood an august personage of eminent lineage, a childe of Francois Villon of Paris, formerly a member of the Prince’s court in London: the Toreador Alistair.

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The Gehenna War may rage on as the Second Inquisition breaks down the doors of Havens all across the world, but the elders of the Camarilla still held fast to their courtly games. Alistair used boons masterfully to cause the Primogen to annul the praxis of the Prince. Just as Alistair had made his own claim to power, the Seneschal of the domain–the Tremere Jacques Laverdière–seemed to claim praxis as well but was quickly stared down. The detail many remembered from the night is an incongruous yet telling one: Alistair wore a jacket commissioned from the Toreador artisan Samira Kadir. Among the Primogen, sometimes style does win over brutality.

OUTRO: DEE’S HOME MOVIES TITLE: Dee’s Home Movies EXT. LIMOUSINE - NIGHT WE ARE inside a limousine driving down rundown city streets. In the back, DEE and SEBASTIAN. Both are in their twenties. DEE looks sordid despite her babyface. She wears an oversized hoodie. SEBASTIAN is a lean, handsome man, like an actor playing a bad boy. DEE points a handheld camera at SEBASTIAN’s face.

SEBASTIAN Dee, Dee, stop. This is going to get us destroyed.

DEE It’ll be great! The camera will capture the beauty and terror of the undead. SEBASTIAN Dee, we are the undead. Somebody sees that video and the Second Inquisition will be on us so fast... DEE Nah. They’re a bunch of losers. Now, smile, you’re on camera. SEBASTIAN, what do you expect to happen at this vampire party?

SEBASTIAN Fuck, Dee, not the V word!

DEE Sebastian, please, you must refrain from using profanity! Think of the viewers at home! SEBASTIAN sighs, exasperated. SEBASTIAN I’m not sure they’ll let me in anyway. I escaped from Salomé. She won’t like that.

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DEE She’s old news! Didn’t you hear? She fled the city after her attempt at a counter-coup failed. Don’t worry, nobody remembers. EXT. MANSION - DRIVEWAY - NIGHT STAIRS LEAD up to the magnificent doors of the mansion. A few guests mill outside, friends greeting each other. They are in evening dress, making SEBASTIAN and especially DEE look out of place as they step out of the limo. ANTOINE, a nervous-looking, handsome and very well dressed young man, stands by himself. DEE (to Antoine) You look like a condemned man.

ANTOINE I’m not sure I should talk to you. DEE (points the camera at Antoine’s face) Wait... are you one of those people who got Embraced because you’re so good looking? ANTOINE (panicking) What? Put that away!

SEBASTIAN I’ve tried to tell her. She won’t listen.

ANTOINE Listen, I’m waiting for a friend. Please. I don’t want to get into trouble. DEE blows ANTOINE a kiss and DEE and SEBASTIAN go past the doorman. A young, smug woman, VALENTINA DIAZ, joins ANTOINE and they too head inside. INT. MANSION - ENTRY HALL - NIGHT THE MANSION has an extravagantly appointed entry hall. White marble, statues, stairs seemingly built only so that someone can make an entrance walking down. Elegantly dressed, visibly wealthy people mill around. There is a predatory, malicious air to them.

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SEBASTIAN and DEE look around as they enter. They are clearly not used to these kinds of surroundings. DEE still has the camera in hand. DOORMAN Please, Miss. You can’t bring a camera inside. DEE Victoria told me it’s ok. DOORMAN You mean Miss Ash?

DEE Yeah. Her.

The DOORMAN is left wondering whether DEE is lying. She is. VICTORIA ASH makes an entrance coming down the stairs. All eyes are on her. She’s a fashionably dressed, perfectly coiffed young woman, radiating the easy confidence of the powerful. Behind VICTORIA ASH walks DEJA, a recently hardened woman trying to get used to stalking the halls of power. VICTORIA ASH (speaking to the crowd) Dear friends, Kindred. It’s so lovely to see all of you here. There are so many threats looming over us, it’s important that we can forget our worries and celebrate who we are. At least those of us who are worth the Blood. ANTOINE and VALENTINA fidget nervously. SEBASTIAN stops DEE from shooting video of VICTORIA ASH. VICTORIA ASH (speaking to the crowd) I was just chatting with the Prince. This is such a lucky city, to have someone like her in charge! VICTORIA ASH turns to smile at DEJA and DEJA smiles back. DEJA Thank you, Victoria. You’re too kind. VICTORIA ASH

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(speaking to the crowd) Now, to the entertainment we have for the evening. Executions are a grim business but sometimes we have to cut down on our numbers. We don’t want any ill educated childer endangering us all, do we? SEBASTIAN (whispering to Dee) Wait... Executions? She doesn’t mean us, does she? DEE (visibly excited) No. Victoria likes me. Honest. SEBASTIAN glances nervously at the doors, now guarded by DOORMEN. ANTOINE and VALENTINA hold hands. VICTORIA ASH (speaking to the crowd) Let’s have a little fun, shall we? VICTORIA claps her hands theatrically. Suddenly older, more distinguished guests growl and attack people in their midst, seemingly at random. Guests try not to panic and look up to VICTORIA for assurance. VICTORIA smiles. SEBASTIAN is about to run but DEE grabs hold of him, keeping him in place and shooting video of older guests jumping on VALENTINA, tearing out her throat and reveling in her blood. ANTOINE stands still, eyes closed, shaking, tears of blood forming in his eyes. SEBASTIAN stares as VALENTINA, his childe, is destroyed. Standing next to VICTORIA ASH, DEJA watches, stone-faced. It becomes apparent that the violence was directed at just five individuals, now being drained of their blood by gaggles of older guests. Both Anarch and Camarilla vampires are among the killers, and among the dead. Those guests not joining in the violence stand nervously, terrified of what will happen to them. VICTORIA walks down the stairs and stops in front of ANTOINE. VICTORIA ASH (to Antoine) Clever boy. They would have ended you if you had tried to run. Who Embraced you anyway?

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ANTOINE (voice trembling) My girlfriend. Valentina. You destroyed her... Also emotional, SEBASTIAN glances at DEE, realizing DEE saved his life by preventing him from running. VICTORIA ASH (to Antoine) You’ll get over it. Stick around. I might have a little fun with you later. VICTORIA walks away. ANTOINE looks after her with desperate hatred. DEE (to Antoine) Awww... Don’t look so sad. ANTOINE looks down at VALENTINA’s bloody corpse, now abandoned on the floor. ANTOINE (mutters) They can’t... She was... DEE (to Antoine) Nobody here cares about the backstory of you and the girl. Later, Victoria will want to fuck you and if you shrivel and cry, she’ll end you too. Pretend to have fun with her and you’ll live to see another night. SEBASTIAN stares at DEE. ANTOINE nods slowly and walks away. SEBASTIAN (to Dee) He’s going to suffer the same fate I did. Why did you help him anyway?

DEE I’m a morally upstanding individual.



SEBASTIAN No you’re not. But okay.

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DEJA approaches DEE, picks the camera from her and ejects the memory card, pocketing it. People around her look at her with respect and fear.

DEE I was going to give that to you, Your Honor! Your... Princeliness?

SEBASTIAN (quietly) Shut up, Dee. DEJA walks away, her eyes on the corpses on the floor. DEE What is she going to do with it? I don’t get it. SEBASTIAN It doesn’t matter.

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Chapter Fourteen

LARP RESOURSES

THE VAMPIRE LARPER’S CHEAT SHEET Here is a series of questions you can ask yourself before, during, and after a LARP.

Before the LARP Do I understand my character and what they can do in this LARP? It is a lot easier to play in a LARP if you have things you can do. If it feels like your character is irrelevant, sidelined, or without a clear direction, that should be addressed. Note that this does not necessarily correspond to in-game power at all. A young Brujah Anarch has a lot to do: rebel, challenge authority, get in people’s faces, etc. A Prince can be directionless if it feels like the only thing expected of you is to be a figurehead. Do I know who are the people I can hang out with in the LARP if I have nothing else to do? It is not good to feel lonely in a LARP. We are all social creatures! Normally Vampire LARPs give you a social group such as your clan. If your character is a Caitiff or something similar, make sure you are not accidentally left alone. You can talk to other players about this before the LARP starts.

comfortable with highly emotional love scenes, you can decide in advance that you will limit your romantic play to light flirting.

During the LARP What can I do to improve my own LARP experience? If your game is going extremely well, this question is unnecessary. If you are having a lackluster experience, consider what you need to improve it. For example, your character is very moral but you want to be included in scenes of depravity. As a solution, you ask a co-player to trick your character into coming along to such a scene. What can I do to improve the LARP experience of my co-participants? Do you see someone who seems lonely or struggling to engage with the LARP? Why not involve them in your plans! Do you see a player struggling to portray a character with authority? Play them up! If everyone looks out for each other, everyone benefits.

After the LARP

Have I considered my boundaries, whether the LARP is likely to impinge on them, and how I can I maintain them?

Have I checked in with other LARP participants with whom I had emotionally fraught interactions?

It is a good idea to mentally prepare for things that could overstep your boundaries so you know to police your limits as needed. For example, if you expect the LARP to feature romantic content and you know you are not

LARP can get intense! Whether you have had an intimate conversation or screamed at someone, it is good to check in after the LARP and normalize your relationship, reminding each other that you are participants in an event and not really the characters you play!

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LORESHEETS Each loresheet is built around an idea, an organization, a character or some other unifying theme. One or more of the Loresheet levels can be added to empower a player character in line with the theme. How many characters, if any, should have such powers or privileges depends on the LARP. Many of the individual Loresheet perks require collaboration from organizers or other players to function properly. For the purposes of LARP, a Loresheet works best when it’s localized to the immediate setting of the event or chronicle. This is why some of the Loresheets presented here as examples are also more local than the ones created for the tabletop roleplaying game version of Vampire.

How To Use Loresheets The best use for Loresheets is when the players create their own characters for the LARP. You want them to be connected to the LARP’s themes and ideas so you create a series of Loresheets or pick some of the ones presented here. Then you allow the players to add perks from the sheets to their characters. For example, each character gets to choose one perk and no two characters can have the same one. This means that although the characters are player-created, they’ll also feature elements that tie them to the larger themes of the chronicle. It depends on the LARP or the chronicle and its creative goals whether all characters should

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have perks, whether perks should be duplicated among characters or not, and how many each character needs. In a smaller event, perhaps with 10 to 30 characters, it’s easier to have unique perks for everyone. As the number of participants goes up, you may want to start duplicating perk levels or accept that not every character will have one. For example, let’s say that the collapse of the Sabbat and the introduction of many former packs into the Anarchs is a major theme in your chronicle. To drive this home, you create two Loresheets:

After you have the concept, you can make three to five perks derived from it. You can look at the perks in the example Loresheets in this book for inspiration. The most important thing is that the perks must be actionable in the LARP or the chronicle. They must also lead to something cool. A perk giving you in-game status or membership in a cool group is good. A perk that allows you to commandeer sailing boats is bad unless your LARP takes place on the sea.

The Sabbat. This Loresheet denotes a connection to the Sabbat. Depending on the perk chosen, it can mean you’re a former member, an informant among the Anarchs or even a famous Sabbat hero. (Or villain. It’s the Sabbat after all!) War Heroes. The war against the Sabbat is bloody and vicious. This Loresheet is all about the veterans of that war, Anarchs who have fought hard to keep the Sabbat out of their domains. A perk might mean that you have bragging rights from being present at a famous battle, or even that you’re one of the heroes of the war, famed for taking the fight to the enemy.

Here are a few examples of different perk types: A boon. You have a boon from an organization or an individual. Membership. You’re a member of a group or an organization.

Since both Loresheets are about big trends and organizations, you decide that multiple characters can have the same perks. They don’t need to be unique to a single character. However, you don’t want every single character in the LARP to be intimately connected with the war, so you decide that half of your 40 player characters will be able to choose perks from these two Loresheets. Perhaps you make a few more Loresheets for the rest of the characters, based on other themes you want to explore.

History. You were part of an important event and can talk about it with authority. Status. You’re considered to be important by an organization or a group. Between events. This only works in a chronicle, not in a one-off event. It means that you have something that benefits your character between LARPs. It’s important that this is something genuinely consequential, more than just the ordinary influence and ability every Kindred wields.

Creating Loresheets

Organizer support. These perks mean that the organizers provide something cool for the character. This can be a bodyguard or an assistant who’s a supporting character, or a cool scene specifically underlying something important about the character.

When you come up with your own LARP, you can complement it by creating your own Loresheets players can then use when they create their characters. First, you need a concept. This can be an organization, a theme or even an important single supporting character. The introduction to the Loresheet is a good way to impart relevant setting information. Players tend to read character creation options more attentively than they do other briefing or setting materials.

One question to ponder is whether Loresheet perks extend to relations between player characters. If the Prince is a player character, can you pick: “Favor of the Prince?”

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Glittering Lights The chronicle or LARP is set in an area close to another, much bigger domain. This can be a storied Camarilla stronghold like Paris or recently conquered trophy in the war against the Sabbat like Mexico City. Or for Anarch characters, it can be Berlin or Los Angeles, a domain with no real Camarilla presence. What matters is that the domain is big, important, powerful and in the hands of your sect. This Loresheet gives you connections to the important neighboring domain. It means you’re not just a local vampire who has never traveled out of your neighborhood but someone with contacts outside the sphere of the LARP’s usual activities. This means that you can’t be controlled like those with more limited prospects. You have a point of comparison in another domain and you can aggravate your friends by making endless comparisons. “Actually, when I was in LA...” To make this Loresheet work, you should adapt it to the specific circumstances of your own LARP or chronicle. Obviously, if your event is set in the biggest domain around, this Loresheet won’t make much sense.

Perks: Escape Hatch. You have allies in the neighboring domain and they will shelter you if you need to escape. The domain is so powerful, it will not care about the Blood Hunts and similar inconveniences declared by lesser domains. Your character is difficult to imprison between events. Unofficial Envoy. You have no real position in either domain but everyone knows you’re connected. Sometimes those in power use you

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as an unofficial envoy, conveying messages between Princes. The organizers of the LARP can provide you with such messages, or even allow you to make them up on your own. Slumming It. You spend most of your time in your big, important home domain, deigning to visit the smaller domain of the chronicle every now and then for a social gathering. Although your sense of superiority annoys the people around you, they’re wary of acting against you because they fear retaliation from a much more powerful domain. The Political Exile. You are the subject of a Blood Hunt called in the neighboring domain. For whatever reason, your Prince or Baron has decided that you must die. The leaders of the chronicle’s domain have chosen to offer you protection for reasons of their own. Although everybody around you thinks you’re doomed, there’s a certain cachet in being the declared enemy of such a powerful, important and glamorous domain.

House Alea The fracturing of the Tremere has led to the creation of many smaller groups, guilds, coteries and bloodlines who have rejected the traditional hierarchy and joined the Anarchs instead. House Alea is one of these. Some of the members of House Alea are descendants of the founders Simon Apollonius and Owen Liakos, but not all. Other Tremere have joined, looking for something less restrictive than what is usually offered by the clan. Joining House Alea requires participation in a ritual the true meaning of which is known only to House leadership. Supposedly, it purifies the blood of members from the sins of the clan and

returns them closer to a mythical Salubri origin. To pick this Loresheet, you have to be Tremere. If your allegiance to House Alea is known, you may get negative or hostile reactions from traditionalist members of the clan. The Loresheet works best if there are a number of characters with access to it at the LARP.

Perks: Follower of Athena. The founders of House Alea are both originally Greek and follow a revival of the ancient Greek faith with a particular affinity for Athena. You subscribe to this faith as well, speak Greek and have participated in the religious observances of the House. Saulot’s Heritage. For most, the ritual performed to initiate new members into the House doesn’t change them physically. For you, things are different: the Blood of the Salubri surges inside you and you have a third eye. This means you’re

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in danger of being hunted for ancient grievances against the Salubri but also revered because the ritual affected you more strongly than most. Ritual Expertise. You know many of the key rituals of the House, including the one used at initiation. Discuss with the organizers of the LARP whether you should receive instructions or create these rituals yourself. The initiation ritual requires blood from a Salubri vampire to function properly. You’re also known as a ritual master among local members of the House and expected to run rituals you perform together at events. Inner Circle. You’ve been with the House from the beginning, or almost. Whether you have an official position or not, you’re respected within the House and expected to mentor new prospects and help younger Tremere escape the Pyramid for something better. Your voice tends to carry in discussions of what the House should do and what it means to be a member.

Keeper of the Heralds The Toreador elder Kateline Nadasdy declared herself the Keeper of the Heralds because of a philosophy of structure, order and humanity. In her view, the social hierarchies of the Camarilla are the only thing keeping Kindred from descending into ravenous beasts. Without that framework for behavior and thought, Camarilla Kindred would be no better than animals. In many domains, the function of the Herald has been subsumed under the authority of the Prince, becoming just another function of Princely power. To Nadasdy, this was unacceptable. The Heralds are needed to keep the sect’s social structure intact, a goal more important than the petty and transient rule of an individual Prince. To this end, she has sought to enshrine the function of the Heralds in Camarilla tradition in as many domains as she can, creating a legacy she hopes will allow the sect’s social structure to survive these turbulent times.

Perhaps you protected Heralds against Princely overreach of power or maybe they just like your face. Whatever the reason, the whisper network always whispers in your favor. Member of the Network. You’re a Herald in your domain and a personal friend of Nadasdy. This means you have a level of autonomy with the local regime. If the Prince comes after you, it’s certain their reputation will be tarnished in other domains. It’s a rare Prince who wants to risk that because it strikes directly at their vanity. Who wants to be known as a two-penny despot?

After all, it’s the only way for the Kindred of the Camarilla to retain their humanity.

Connected. Whether you’re a Herald or otherwise in good graces of the Network, you’re extremely well connected in the social sphere of the Camarilla. You can name-drop half a dozen Camarilla socialites and a few famous names you’ve met at important events. You get invited to exclusive gatherings few in your domain normally get to attend. The organizers should provide you with names to drop or let you make up your own.

Perks:

Mr. Hellquist’s Shadow Cabal

Hot Goss. You know a lot of Heralds in this and other domains and you’re usually always up to date with the latest gossip. You can give other players in the LARP the opportunity to spill their secrets to you in advance or receive extra information from the organizers. Whatever the method, you know what’s what.

For some mortal mages, the Tremere represent not only a curse but also a chance to escape their own wars of power and ideology. Richard Hellquist was one such mage, blessed with a wider perspective on what magic could be before becoming first a ghoul and then one of the Tremere. Because of this, he sought to expand his social circle between the usual machinations of the undead.

Protected By the Network. Nadasdy knows a lot of Heralds in different domains. Her informal network is unparalleled in the Camarilla and for some reason, you are in their good graces.

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Always something of an uncomfortable fit among the hierarchically minded Tremere, Hellquist

was originally a member of the London branch of the clan. Since the 19th century, he has traveled and is currently the Tremere Regent of Warsaw, Poland, trying to hold his clan together in a fractious domain. There he put together a small society, a salon of his own where like minded Kindred with a focus on maintaining their humanity and searching for occult power could come together. The fall of the Pyramid wasn’t entirely unwelcome to Hellquist because it allowed him to focus on the traditional Enlightenment values he sought to foster in the dark world of the Kindred. For many of the Kindred visiting Hellquist’s gatherings, the most wondrous guest was his lover, the mortal mage Bajaraka. Her existence is a bittersweet

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reminder to those in the Tremere who used to possess real magic of what they lost in the Embrace.

Perks: The Mystic Expert. You have a personal connection with Regent Hellquist that you can call upon either locally if you’re in Warsaw or through a courier or similar secure method of communication. Between events, you can ask for information concerning mysterious artifacts, events or phenomena. “Blessed evening to you.” You’re a member of the Cabal. It has a credo: “You stand for what you believe in. No matter the situation, you don’t lose yourself to the flow of the night.” One per night, you can calm down a fellow member of the Cabal from the edge of Frenzy.

Former mage. You were a mage when you were still mortal. You still remember something of the strange perspectives you had while alive, before the Blood changed you forever. This gives you unique status among the Tremere, because the clan was founded by ones such as you. Furthermore, some of the magical resonance in your blood still remains despite the Embrace, giving your vitae an exotic taste. A Cabal of Your Own. Inspired by the Cabal run by Regent Hellquist, you have put together a Cabal of your own. It has made you well known in the domain, someone sought for your wisdom, power and connections. This perk works best when other characters have the option of being members in the Cabal by choosing the “Blessed evening to you” perk.

The Old Regime Many Vampire chronicles start with the death or disappearance of the Prince. It’s a good way to kick off the power struggle. Who will gain praxis now that nobody is in charge of the domain? This Loresheet is for characters connected to the old regime, the rule of the Prince who until recently upheld the Traditions. In one way or another, you’re connected to the old system. Perhaps you were one of its officials, a beneficiary or even an enemy who hated the Prince so much you can’t let go even when the fight is over. Whatever the case, in the brave new world of the future you’re still looking to the past. To function properly, this Loresheet requires a chronicle-specific story of who used to rule the city. Was the old regime lax or draconian, traditional or bizarre? Are Kindred nostalgic or relieved now that it’s gone?

Perks: A Loyalist of the Old Order. You were loyal to the Prince, God rest their soul. You believed them to be the best steward of the domain and members of the old regime remember your loyalty even

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as the world changes into new, unrecognizable forms. You can redeem a boon from any official in the old Prince’s court. I Used To Be Somebody. You were a member of the Primogen or a Herald, a Seneschal or a Sheriff. The Prince trusted you to do their bidding and backed you up when the going got tough. You were not powerful or popular enough to trade your old position into power under the new rule but people still remember you. Old Enemies. You hated the Prince and the Prince hated you. You were persecuted and oppressed and the change in the regime came as very welcome news indeed. Still, you’ve not ready to let bygones be bygones. You know one or more secrets about members of the old regime and can use them against them, whether through blackmail or public disclosure. Prince or Pauper. You are the old Prince, believed to be dead by most in the domain. You are disguised in a new identity but at a suitably dramatic moment you can reveal who you were all along. Or keep the lie going a little longer. Whatever seems best. Your reasons of abdicating and faking your own death depend on the needs of the chronicle and can range from trying to escape an assassination attempt to the monstrous ennui of the aged.

Chapter Fifteen

COLLABORATIVE VAMPIRE LARP

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Collaborative LARP

LARP and Larp

Nordic Larp, or collaborative LARP as it is also known, has its origins in the late 1990’s LARP scenes of the Nordic countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. LARP came to all these countries independently in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, often with multiple distinct scenes emerging in the same country.

In Nordic Larp communities, the acronym LARP is usually treated as a simple uncapitalized word: Larp. To respect the community and tradition being discussed here, we use the same formulation for Nordic Larp as is used in the Nordic Larp community.

LARP has emerged separately in many countries across the world, often based on rumors or stories of similar events based in the U.S. The process of starting a local scene tended to happen in a haphazard manner, with local organizers making things up as they went along. Because of this, LARP cultures vary so much from country to country.

Nordic Larp Emerges In the early years, there was no such thing as Nordic Larp. However, as people started to go to LARPs in different countries and ideas were shared across borders, a common identity as a Nordic Larp community started to emerge. An important moment was the 2010 publication of the photo book Nordic Larp, which documented important or interesting Nordic Larps from different countries. It solidified the idea that Nordic Larp existed as a unified community.

In 1997, LARPers from the four Nordic countries got together for the first time at the Knutepunkt conference in Norway to learn from each other. In those early days, the differences between the various scenes seemed massive and almost insurmountable.

The Knutepunkt conference is the annual focal point of the Nordic community, rotating between Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. In addition to these Nordic countries, there are attendees from numerous other countries including but not limited to Germany, Russia, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic.

LARPs based on Vampire: The Masquerade and other World of Darkness games have been played in the Nordics from the 1990’s. At the height of the popularity of Vampire LARP in the late 1990’s there were over ten concurrent chronicles running in Finland, a country of five-million-people. Many of the Nordic Vampire games used Mind’s Eye Theatre rules, adapted to local cultural conditions. Many of the people who ran and played those games continue to play an important part in the Nordic Larp scene.

Each year, the conference is accompanied by a book of articles collecting documentation of new LARPs, new theory ideas, and new design writing. The books are made available for free as PDFs.

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Although it was not so clear at the time, the LARP cultures meeting at the Knutepunkt conferences had a lot in common. They were all built on a collaborative playstyle where all players seek to contribute to the common goal of having a great collective experience. If we all help each other, we will have a good time... …or a bad time, but on purpose. Some of the best known Nordic Larps are about very dark subjects, such as oppression, war, prison, and the refugee politics of the Nordic countries. In Nordic Larp parlance playing these LARPs is often referred to as “Type 2 Fun”. Type 1 Fun is what we generally understand by the word “fun”. Type 2 Fun is when you have a difficult, harrowing experience that feels profound and meaningful. You can say: “It was a great LARP, but totally Type 2 Fun.”

International Influence As Nordic Larp became more established and better documented, its ideas spread into other countries beyond the Nordics, cross-fertilizing with local traditions. This often happened because of designers from Italy, Spain, the U.S., or other countries who had visited Knutepunkt, read the books, and decided to use these ideas in their own way, for their own LARP communities. The main attraction of the Nordic style for many has been extremely simple game mechanics (a single page of mechanics is often considered a lot), the willingness to experiment and come up with strange, new ideas, and a low threshold for entry, especially in LARPs that do not require a lot of costuming and propping. In 2016, the new owners of the World of Darkness roleplaying games–Paradox Entertainment–

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wanted to demonstrate that they were going to actively work to release new material. Since LARPs are faster to produce than videogames or roleplaying games, the very first release of what would be the 5th Edition era was the LARP End of the Line, played in Helsinki, New Orleans, and Berlin. It was followed in 2017 by the officially licensed Vampire LARPs Enlightenment in Blood in Berlin and Parliament of Shadows in Brussels, played partially inside the European Parliament building with two Members of the European Parliament playing themselves. All of these LARPs drew on Nordic Larp ideas for a back-to-basics approach where the idea was to look at what made Vampire LARP fun. In a larger sense, the confluence of Nordic Larp and Vampire was not as new since many Nordic Larp designers themselves had a Vampire LARP background in the first place. Many Vampire LARPs and chronicles with a more Nordic design style have been created and run in the Nordics since the 1990’s.

Nordic Larp Now Nordic Larp is a community but it has also become a marketing term. Many LARP designers far beyond the Nordics use it to communicate to potential players what their LARPs are all about and how they should be played. At the end of the day, Nordic Larp is what the people who design it, play it, and write about it make it out to be. There have been different fashions and contradictory design ideals. Some LARPs have embraced the 360-ideal where everything you see must conform to the visual look of the LARP world while others work in the Black Box idiom where the LARP is set up like minimalist theater scenography.

Sometimes Nordic Larp means tightly packaged scenarios for six people lasting just a few hours. Other times they are mass events for a big crowd in a Polish castle, building a whole magical world around them. Typically it has been difficult to determine the nature of future fashions before they arrive but change is inevitable. Tomorrow’s LARP will be something completely different, whether it flows from the Nordic tradition or something else. It is important to note that Nordic Larp is just one design tradition. It is well-loved in the Nordics where it originated and its ideas have been embraced by LARP designers in other parts of the globe but it is also designed to produce a specific kind of experience: emotion-driven, drama-focused, and collaborative. If you want other types of LARP experiences, you need to design them according to different ideals, using another set of tools. Nordic Larp is not the only way to make LARPs even in the Nordics, where other, less internationally well-known strains of design also flourish. When you look at the toolbox of Nordic Larp, consider what works for you and your players. Take what you need, experiment, and make it your own. Eventually your own ideas will shape the tools and the concepts so much that it is not Nordic Larp anymore but something entirely new. This is a beautiful thing.

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CONCEPTS Here are some of the core concepts of Nordic Larp. These are the ideas Nordic design revolves around.

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Collaborative Play

Bleed

In Nordic Larp, the goal of the players is to create a great LARP experience for themselves and each other. The play is fundamentally collaborative: the players look for opportunities to enhance the collective play experience.

Bleed means the way emotions that affect our character also affect us and vice versa. It is the primary mechanism through which a LARP emotionally affects us as players. Obviously, LARP is not in any way unique as an artform in this: we cry while watching sad movies and laugh while reading a funny novel. What makes LARP unusual is that the emotional response to the fiction tends to be experienced through the lens of the character.

The opposite of collaboration is competition. Nordic Larp is fundamentally non-competitive. The goal is to have powerful, interesting LARP scenes. Whether someone’s character wins or loses is irrelevant from that perspective. Because a collaborative approach is so important, sometimes this style of play is called simply Collaborative LARP.

Magic Circle The magic circle refers to the temporal and spatial limits of the play experience. A typical LARP has a play area and a certain time during which players are in-game. This means they are within the magic circle and subject to the rules and conventions of the LARP. Sometimes these contravene the assumptions we normally have about how to behave. The most powerful example of the magic circle comes not from LARP but the world of sports. In the boxing ring, you can hit a person in the face. Outside the ring, this is frowned upon and often illegal. In LARP, we understand that if a character betrays another, that should not be taken as an act of betrayal between the players. It is all part of the game.

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Of course, this is not automatically the case. Sometimes the themes of the LARP affect us emotionally regardless of our character, or we witness another player do something that creates a response in us that has nothing to do with the role we play. Nevertheless, the main vector of emotion in LARP remains the character. Bleed happens because although we intellectually separate the fiction of LARP from real life, on a simpler level we directly experience all the situations our character is in. We are there, whether fictionally or not. There are ways to design to increase bleed and to decrease bleed. Typically if the LARP plays close to home, there is more bleed. This means a modern day setting in which the characters are much like ourselves. When something happens to them, we have a strong emotional response because their circumstances are so emotionally plausible for us. If you want to decrease bleed, you can make the LARP more fantastical or engage in artificial distancing techniques such as abstract scenography or talking through scenes instead of acting them out. It is often good to give players tools to do this themselves if necessary

so they can calibrate their own experience. For example, a player might realize they are not up to playing an intense one-on-one interrogation scene. Instead, they can purposefully decrease bleed by asking the other player to talk it through with them instead. Bleed is an important concept for Nordic Larp because it is such a big part of why these LARPs are played in the first place. People want to feel big emotions, good and bad. This is sometimes called bleed-hunting; playing so as to purposefully maximize one’s bleed, meaning emotional response to the LARP.

360 One of the foundational aesthetic ideas of Nordic Larp is the 360-illusion. What this means is that everywhere you turn, what you see should look exactly like it does in the world of the LARP. The scenography, costumes, and other visuals should be the same in-game and off-game. This creates a powerful sense of being in the world of the LARP. As a result, the players always know where they are and what they see. They have that information directly from their senses. The desire for the 360-illusion shapes what kind of LARPs are possible. A contemporary LARP set in the same city you live in is easy while a spaceship is hard. Because of this, many genre LARPs within Nordic Larp are great feats of physical set production. Note that although a desire for a compelling 360-illusion is common in Nordic Larp, it is not the only way LARPs are created in this tradition. Black Box LARPs take place in an empty, neutral space in the style of the Lars von Trier film Dogville, aiming to take away everything except the players themselves.

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Emergence Sometimes a LARP spontaneously produces surprising events and situations. This is called emergence: when a complex system produces unforeseen events. In a sense, emergence is the opposite of plot. Instead of pre-planned events, the LARP produces its own organically. A lot of Nordic Larp design revolves around trying to foster emergence. The magic trick of good LARP design is to create a complex system that automatically produces the kind of emergence you want. The players will feel free to control the event but the LARP still functions as intended. Vampire has a few features that automatically promote emergent play. One is the animosities between the clans and sects. If you put a Brujah and a Ventrue in a room, something will happen. That is designing for emergence.

Affordance

Alibi

An affordance is a possibility for action on part of the player. For example, a hammer has the affordance of hitting nails. Its presence creates that possibility for action.

Alibi is an excuse to do something you want to do anyway. LARP is great for providing the alibi to do fun things that players can not do in ordinary life. For example, being conniving, decadent, bloodsucking monsters.

In LARP design, it helps to create affordances for players to engage in different kinds of action. For example, if the LARP is about deposing the Prince, there should be affordances that actually make it possible for the characters to do so. A car is a prop or a piece of scenography. A car with the key in the ignition is an affordance.

Agency When a player has agency, they have things to do, they can affect events, and their actions matter. They can do stuff. When players have no agency, their presence is irrelevant to the flow of the LARP. Ideally, players should have as much agency as possible. Removing agency from players must only be done with very good reasons, when the benefits outweigh the cost. Creating a story that is pleasing to the organizers of the LARP is not a good enough reason. Note that agency is most relevant in terms of the core actions and experience of the LARP. If the LARP is about the intimate relationships between local Anarchs, the wider story framework can consist of pre-planned scenes and a sequence of events. On the other hand, if the LARP is about whether the Anarchs or the Camarilla win control over the city, that should be up to the players and their actions.

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Alibi can be a tool of LARP design when you identify something players need an extra excuse to do. Often this involves taking risks, playing villains, or engaging in other behaviors that are destructive in normal life but create a lot of dynamic action in a LARP. Pre-written characters are one of the easiest ways to provide alibi. You can write that a character is vindictive, flirtatious, and prone to blurting out what they really think about people. The player will read that and think: “Well, if it’s in the character, I guess that’s what I’ll do!” Since many players need alibi for destructive actions, it is worth noting that they are fun to play because they lead to dynamic, dramatic LARP scenes. They are made possible because consequences vanish as the LARP ends and because of the active upkeep of consent enabled by calibration and safety tools.

Play to lose “Play to lose” is a common Nordic Larp slogan that requires some unpacking to be properly understood. Basically it means that sometimes it is fun to purposefully play so that your character fails to achieve their goals. The reason this is fun is because it can lead to dramatic, striking, and emotional scenes.

Example situations for when it is fun to play to lose include: Leaking secrets. Secrets tend to matter only if they are revealed in a dramatic manner. Perhaps your character has just committed diablerie in the war against the Sabbat. You purposefully let this fact slip even though your character wants to keep it secret, causing you to be dragged before the Prince and accused of the unthinkable. In a great, dramatic scene you plead that your victory against the Sabbat was more important than the resulting stain on your soul. Love triangle. You are in two relationships with Kindred who do not know about each other. Although your character wants to keep it that way, as a player you purposefully let slip the nature of the situation because it leads to more fun drama. Playing someone up. The Archon is supposed to be a terrifying badass. You challenge them to a duel and then lose to build up their character. Playing to lose does not mean that you always need to go for failure. Rather, it means keeping an eye out for when failure is interesting. There is an alternative slogan to “Playing to lose”, which is “Playing to lift”. It means playing to help other players realize their characters and scenes to the fullest extent. When everyone does this, the net effect is a lot of good LARP.

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THE TOOLBOX Collaborative, Nordic style LARP is based on the idea of bespoke design. You use the techniques, mechanics, and tools that are right for the specific LARP you want to create; for the next LARP you might use a completely different set of tools. In Nordic Larp, these tools are called “meta-techniques” and are designed to make various types of intrusions into naturalistic LARP play. In Vampire: The Masquerade, a very common use for these techniques is when you need to model Disciplines or other supernatural effects. One technique that works very well both in Mind’s Eye Theatre and Nordic Larp is to use “arms crossed in front of your body” to signify the Obfuscate Discipline. The LARP organizers must communicate to the players which techniques are in use and how they work. It is common in Nordic Larp to create variations of a technique for a specific LARP. Fewer methods is always better than more methods so if in doubt, leave it out.

Really Really ●

This mechanic was invented by LARP designer Bjarke Pedersen for the Nordic Larp End of the Line. It works with vampiric Disciplines being expressed as statements that begin: “You really, really…”. The words “really, really” tell the target that a Discipline power is being used so they know to react appropriately. For example, a Presence Discipline power could be enacted against a target by saying: “You really, really like me.” This approach works best for low-level social Discipline powers such as Presence and Dominate. Here are more examples: ●

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“You really, really fear me” can be utilized for the Presence power Dread Gaze. “You really, really want to forget what just happened” can be used for the Dominate power The Forgetful Mind. “Your Beast is really, really getting out of control” can be used for the Animalism

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power Drawing Out the Beast. “You really, really want to tell me how you feel” can be used for the Auspex power Scry the Soul.

The purpose of the mechanic is to make Discipline powers as unobtrusive as possible. They become part of conversation. This approach requires breaking down traditional Discipline effects into statements that work in the “really, really” framework so they end up being somewhat different than the Discipline powers in the tabletop roleplaying game. End of the Line is a street-level LARP where most characters are ordinary mortals and the vampires maintain the Masquerade. Because of this, it makes sense to have a Discipline mechanic that is not obtrusive or obvious from a distance. In End of the Line, the “really, really” powers always worked and there was no defense against them; however, each time a vampire used a power, they needed to recharge by drinking blood. The reason was to give the vampire characters a running motivation to hunt during the LARP.

A core concept of collaborative LARP play tying into how “really, really” works is that the victim of a power decides how they want to play it. This means that when you use a power on someone, you are making an invitation for them to engage in a scene with you. However, they can also play it their way. This can happen for many reasons. For example, you use the Presence power Majesty on another character by stating “You really, really love me.” However, for whatever reason they do not want to play that kind of attraction, so they decide to react to the power by being so bashful and shy by the love they feel for your character that they remove themselves from the scene. This principle means that you cannot use the powers to make other players engage in scenes they do not want to play, but you can use them to create fun or interesting situations with the character you are asking to participate.

Up-Or-Down A method used in some Nordic Vampire LARPs, Up-Or-Down is a very specific use of Dementation-style Dominate powers where the power either heightens or dampens the current emotions of the target. The use of the power is signaled by either lifting or lowering your hand as if you were trying to signal someone to change the volume on a stereo. In practice, Up-Or-Down works well in LARPs because the target player can react to it however they wish. They can use it as an invitation to go overboard with highly emotional play or do something more subtle, according to their reading of the scene.

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Violence Simulating physical violence is a very common use for meta-techniques. There are several different methods that have been used in Nordic Larp. The specific method utilized should reflect the things that you want to happen in the LARP. The methods are: Planning the Scene. In this method, the players whose characters get into violent conflict step aside and quickly figure out what they think would happen in an informal off-game chat. Typical considerations are what would make sense given the characters’ power levels and what would be cool for the characters involved, the story overall, and the onlooking players. Then the players return to the play area and act out the violent scene. Obviously, this method requires that none of the players are approaching play with a competitive mindset. It is very rare for anyone’s character to get destroyed with this method. Combat Score. All characters have a combat score consisting of a simple number. In a fight, a higher number wins. If the scores are equal, it is a draw. This obviously does not generate very nuanced fight scenes but it makes it possible to resolve combat very quickly. The Nordic Larp Enlightenment in Blood used a version of this method where the combat score ranged from one through five and could be communicated by holding up fingers. The scale was as follows: 1. Ghouls and mortals; 2. Ordinary vampires; 3. Vampires from clans with physical Disciplines, such as the Brujah;

4. Vampires with unusual fighting ability; 5. Werewolves.

You can also use music and lights to signal which act is in progress.

In that LARP, the fighting score of a character was reduced by 1-point after every fight. The purpose of this was to discourage needless fight scenes and to make sure characters engaged in combat only when necessary.

Slo-Mo. With this method, the players act out a violent scene but in slow motion so that nobody gets hurt and there’s no force in their blows. The scene is improvised. This works better with brawls rather than fights where somebody is really trying to kill another character. It’s also better if the slow motion brawl is fairly short.

No Fighting. With this method, combat is simply ruled out-of-bounds for the LARP. There can be scuffles but no serious combat that would result in real physical injury. This method is best employed if combat would not benefit the LARP in any way and there is no reason for combat to be a LARP element. Act Structure. Many Nordic Larps have used an “Act Structure” where the LARP changes depending on which stage of the LARP or “act” is in progress. The Nordic Larp Inside Hamlet had an act structure affecting how to play violence. In the first act, there was no serious physical conflict. In the second, all conflicts lead to non-lethal but still visible wounds or other consequences. In the final act, all conflicts were lethal. Obviously, this resulted in a serious body count at the end of the LARP. The Act Structure method is useful because it allows those running the LARP to make sure no character is removed from play before the player has had the chance to experience the LARP. It does, however, tend to create a bloodbath at the end. The acts do not have to be the same in duration. For example, a lethal final act could be just an hour.

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Hunting and Drinking Blood

The Black Box

Vampires drink blood. That’s one of their defining qualities. How to do that in a LARP so that it plays out well? Here’s a selection of techniques from Nordic Larp:

A very common meta-technique in Nordic Larp, the Black Box is a room designated specifically for this purpose separate from the rest of the LARP. The ideal Black Box is a theater-like space with black walls, a couple of chairs and easily adjusted lighting and music. In practice, Black Boxes have been created in a wide variety of available spaces.

Scents. In End of the Line, one of the goals was to make random mortal characters into highly desirable targets for hunting. Vampires would think that a mortal had particularly tasty blood and gossip about it among themselves. How to make that happen since all blood drinking must obviously be simulated? The solution was to use three obvious, clearly distinct scents for all players. One was coconut and some vampire characters had particular affection for this flavor. Thus, when the vampire player moved through the LARP, they could smell coconut on someone. That simulated the vampire’s instinct that this mortal seemed unusually attractive for hunting purposes. Miming. You want the act of a vampire biting someone’s neck to look natural but don’t want to have players actually bite each other. What to do? A common solution is to tell players to mime biting each other. This means that the vampire player acts as if they were biting their victim but they don’t actually touch skin. The victim’s player then plays the reaction accordingly. Biting the Hand. This is a more tactile version of the Miming method. The vampire player places their hand on the body part they’re biting, and then bite the back of their own hand. This can be done fairly quickly and the pressure of the hand and the movement of the bite communicate a lot to the victim even when the bite does not actually connect with their skin at all.

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Most memorably, the Battlestar Galactica -inspired Swedish LARP The Monitor Celestra had a real-life decommissioned submarine next to the Swedish navy destroyer that served as the primary venue. The submarine, although impressive, was relegated to the role of the Black Box. The purpose of the Black Box is to play out scenes outside the normal spatial and temporal limitations of the LARP. For example, maybe you’d like to play out the fateful night when you were Embraced. You can do it in the Black Box while the rest of the LARP runs outside. Often, the Black Box has a dedicated game master who runs scenes and plays different supporting characters. Sometimes players draft other players to play their characters or supporting roles in whatever scene they have in mind. The Black Box can be used to play small scenes in the past, the future, and sometimes even alternate futures. You can use it to play out different versions of something that would happen after the events of the LARP. The great strength of the Black Box is its versatility. As a player, to make the best use of the Box you should have an idea of the scene you want to play when you go in. If the Black Box is

especially popular, there can be a queue outside, creating a weird disturbance in the fabric of the LARP. For the organizers, the Black Box can be almost like a service provided to the players: They’ll make whatever they will with it. You can also create pre-planned scenes and invite players in according to a schedule. Whatever works for the LARP. An example: An Anarch makes a deal with the Tremere where the Anarch will surrender and confess to their crimes against the Camarilla and in return the Tremere will stop harassing their comrades. The player of the Anarch character suggests that they go to the Black Box to play a scene where they’re interrogated by the Tremere. In-game the scene happens after the events of the LARP but offgame it’s played in the middle of the LARP.

The Monologue Box

meta-level information to the player of the Prince. This can be done for many reasons. Sometimes it’s fun for its own sake but it can also help other players calibrate their own play appropriately. Here’s another example: A proud Gangrel: “I don’t need anybody! A vampire is a lone predator!” The Gangrel’s player makes the monologue box gesture and continues: “I’m desperately lonely.” Now that the other players know that the Gangrel character is lonely, they can play on that in different ways. The player of a socially astute Toreador can decide that their character figures it out while another player can use the information on the meta-level by making their character obviously twist the knife by talking about how admirable the solitary Gangrel have always seemed to them.

Fate

This technique works so that the player makes the shape of a square in front of them with their hands and then says what their character is thinking in a short monologue. It’s great for LARPs where courtly politeness prohibits characters from speaking their minds. For example:

Sometimes called fateplay, this method features specific fates that have been pre-designed for the characters. The idea is that the player knows their fate from the start and should actively do their best to make it happen. This means that the LARP will run along a predetermined path but there can be a lot of freedom within those constraints.

A Toreador courtier: “I so adore these parties you put together, my dear Prince!”

Here are a few example fates:

The Toreador’s player makes the monologue box gesture and continues: “I’ve done my absolute best to turn everyone against you!”

You will die by the end of the LARP. Note that the player is left to decide how their character will die.

What happens here is that the player of the Toreador character purposefully communicates

You will fall in love. Here too the player has some freedom.

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After the Prince has made their speech, you will attack them and fail. This is a very specific Fate created to engineer a specific scene. If someone offers you the role of the Sheriff, you will refuse. This Fate is designed to account for a specific situation the organizers feel would cause problems for the LARP. You can use Fates in two ways, to make sure that certain types of scenes happen during the LARP and to engineer specific plot events. Note that the more specific the Fate, the higher the chance of LARP chaos causing the web of pre-planned actions to fail. Generally you can build Fates using if/then clauses but complexity makes the event chains fragile. A good use for Fates is to reduce uncertainty and confusion from the LARP. For example, if your LARP is about the coronation of a new Prince, you can use Fates to make sure the coronation happens and is successful. The point of this is to free the players to focus on other things that are more interesting. They don’t have to stress whether the core structure of the LARP will happen or not. A bad use for Fates is to try to force a pre-planned narrative of events for its own sake. This reduces player agency for no benefit.

Actions Actions are a tool you can use in character creation to give players options for what they can do during the LARP. They’re not commands or superpowers but rather suggestions meant to help the player to come up with things to do especially in the early part of the LARP. For example, you could write these three Actions into a character: Seduce someone you hate. Spill your most important secret. Make a terrible mistake. The player doesn’t have to do any of these things but having them written on the character will guide their thinking into a specific direction. It helps if the Actions are provocative and of a type players might not come up with by themselves. Actions also have the function of providing alibi. A player might feel unsure whether they’re supposed to spill their secrets but if the character has it clearly spelled out as an Action, they’ll feel more comfortable doing so.

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THE WORKSHOP Workshops that happen before the LARP are a standard feature of almost all Nordic Larp. Even short, small LARPs for just a few people often feature a quick half hour workshop. Workshops serve several purposes: Creating a cohesive social unit. The better the players are able to trust each other, the better they read each other socially, the better the LARP works as an ensemble. After a good workshop, the players will feel comfortable with each other, they have a good sense of each other’s boundaries and they feel relaxed and supported. Imparting skills needed in the LARP. The LARP can feature specific techniques, scenes and situations the players should be prepared for. Perhaps in a certain scene, all characters are expected to join together in song. It makes sense to rehearse that song a few times. Or maybe there is an unusual mechanic for violence that players should try out before the LARP actually starts. Building the world. The workshop can be used to determine details in the world of the game and impart information about the fictional milieu to the players. This can mean just an organizer explaining things to the players but it works better if it’s co-creative in some way.

Warm ups. It’s better to have the players physically move around at regular intervals to stay energetic and warm. It’s a good idea to have a few exercises right at the start of the workshop for this purpose. There’s a wide selection of good warm up exercises available that can be lifted from other fields such as theater. Status line. This method asks your players to form themselves into a line according to some specific criteria. The name derives from the original use of the method: Highest status on the left, lowest status on the right. The players are left to figure out themselves how the hierarchy works. The great thing about the status line is that it requires physical movement and it’s very concrete in that it allows players to visually see the LARP’s social map. You can use it for virtually any social distinction that breaks down between two extremes. For example: Violent vs. peaceful. Camarilla vs. Anarch. Rich vs. poor.

Making the LARP unattractive to problem players. Experience has shown that players who are not into collaborative, consent-based LARP also dislike touchy-feely workshops. Communicating the nature of the workshops in advance can help such players avoid the event.

Scripted scenes. The players play out short, scripted scenes from their characters’ past while the other players watch. This takes a lot of time but works very well in creating a sense of shared history for a community.

Here are some specific workshop techniques:

Example scenes could be:

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That time years ago when the Toreador Primogen first came to Elysium and embarrassed themselves. A meeting of the Primogen when a disastrous decision was made. The execution of the Tremere Regent which caused a rift in the local Camarilla. What do you need? The players arrange themselves into a circle. Each in turn tells the other player what they need from them to have

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a good LARP. This is when you say things like: “I’m playing a Primogen but I feel unsure of myself. Could you play me up?” You can use the same arrangement to have players answer other questions too, starting with: “How do you feel right now?” When doing rounds like these, answering should always be voluntary and players should know they can pass the turn to the next person without saying anything if they feel like it.

COLLABORATION

Collaborative LARP works best with the inclusion of a robust set of calibration tools. Their purpose is to enable participants to control their own experience, maintain their boundaries and get out of situations they don’t want to be in. Sometimes these are called safety mechanics but their utility is broader than that. The mechanics make it easier for players to have the experience they want to have. When choosing the mechanics for your event, remember that there are three categories of safety that you have to consider:

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Physical. This means making sure your venue doesn’t have hazards that can hurt inattentive players and other, similar issues of preventing bodily harm. Mental. Dynamics, themes and events can be difficult to process or unpleasant to handle for some participants. It’s often hard to predict what will cause trouble, and sometimes these issues will be surprising even to the people affected themselves. This is why the goal is to empower your participants to take care of themselves during play. Community. Are the players safe in the context of the different communities they live in? An

example of a community issue would be that a player pretends to do drugs in the LARP. Somebody takes a photo and it circulates on the internet, losing its original context. You should analyze your LARP from the perspective of these three categories of safety and consider what you can do to minimize potential problems. One thing to bear in mind when selecting the calibration tool to use is that players have a limited amount of mental capacity, as all humans do. Because of this, it’s possible to have too many tools that the players then forget. It’s best to only use a few, carefully chosen ones that you can be sure people remember, and that you have time to practice during the workshops.

Prevention

have consented to an entirely different kind of experience. Avoiding problem players. You can analyze your event from the perspective of what kind of a player would disrupt it or cause problems for others. A common example would be a player who doesn’t respect boundaries. Once you have figured out who you want to stay out you can try to tailor your communications so that the event doesn’t appeal. to them. This way, they self-select out and you never have to deal with them. Experience has shown that messaging in advance about workshops focused on consent, calibration tools and touchy-feely community building tend to repel people who don’t like collaborative approaches to play. This is good.

There’s a lot you can do to make your event safer and enable your players to control their experience even before it starts.

Out of bounds. You can rule specific themes out of bounds at the event. These are not to be played on. Here’s an example of what such a list could consist of:

Communication. You should communicate clearly what your event is about and what kind of things people can expect to see and do there. This way, people can make an informed choice whether to participate or not. A great tool for this purpose is an ingredient list. Here’s an example of what such a list could contain:

• Sexual violence. • Homophobia. • Insults based on a player’s physical body or heritage. • Sexism. • Racism.

• • • • •

This means that players should not make any of these part of their play and should actively strive to move away from them if they accidentally appear.

Occult rituals. Partial nudity. Shouting. Fake blood. Crying.

You should avoid misrepresenting the basic nature of your event. A surprise genre switch is hard to make work well when your players

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At the Event Here are a few tools you can teach the players so they can use them during the event itself:

Look down. The way this works, the player places their hand over their eyes as if they were shading them from the sun. It’s used to signal that the player wishes to leave the scene. A player who uses the signal should leave the scene and the room and go elsewhere while the other players seek to normalize the situation ingame. They should not make a thing of it but just try to proceed as if nothing had happened. Ribbons. The larp features ribbons which indicate that the wearer is okay with specific types of play. For example, if a player wears a white ribbon, they’re okay with light physical play such as pushing and shoving. Once the player takes off the ribbon, it means they no longer wish to engage in such interactions. Safeword. The typical use for a safeword is that when a player says the word, the others should stop the scene. The person who used the word will then leave or explain what they need to continue. Bear in mind that people use the safeword for very different reasons, from small to serious. The safeword that’s easiest to remember is ‘safeword’. Tap-Out. You double tap on your co-player, yourself or

even a wall or a floor to indicate that the scene should stop until something that is causing you trouble can be addressed. The tapout has the same function as the safeword but often it’s easier or more intuitive for players to use. Meta play. You can mandate that for safety reasons, specific types of play such as violence or sex should be discussed out of character instead of played physically. This works best with small scenes of just a few characters. The participants talk out what happens.

Tapped Out What do you do when someone taps out or a problem appears? Experience suggests that most players prefer to deal with situations affecting them quickly. This means that if someone taps you out, listen to their concerns, address them when possible, and move on. This makes it easier for people to use the tools in the future as well. They know using the tap-out will not cause a huge scene. You can designate a specific safety person for your event. Their job is to listen to the players and talk to them as necessary during the larp, possibly in a specially designed safety area or room where people can go take a break. Often it’s helpful for players just to have someone to listen to.

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DESIGN How to design collaborative LARP? One of the most important words when you work in the Nordic style is “bespoke”. It means that when you make a LARP, you make every design choice purposefully to suit the vision of that LARP. The next time you make a LARP, you might use an entirely different set of tools and methods to make sure that a new experience is realized. Here are a couple of questions you can ask at the start of the LARP creation process:

story you may be better served writing fiction. If you want to give your players the experience of plotting and scheming in a World of Darkness where anything might happen, and does, LARP is your medium.

Basic Ideas Sometimes the idea for a LARP can be extremely simple. When the Vampire LARP End of the Line was created, the idea was to make a LARP where vampires could do vampire things like hunt and drink blood. Sounds extremely basic, right?

What do I want the players to experience? What kind of actions can they do at the LARP? What do I think is cool? The first two questions are about the play experience. In practice, you often have a vague idea of what the answers will be, but it will get clearer and clearer as the design process progresses. The third question has more to do with your own motivation and why you make the LARP in the first place. It is good to keep in mind why you are doing the project so you can keep yourself motivated. What is more, we are all more creative and better at coming up with cool stuff when we work on something we like. If you love the Toreador and their social games, it makes sense to create a LARP about that. While doing that, you should also remember that LARP is a co-creative medium. You need cool ideas that you love that also work for LARP. For example, if you want to create a cool

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From that simple idea, a lot of design choices emerged. Most characters should be mortals since that would enable the hunting and the drinking of blood. The LARP needed to be interesting for the players of the mortal characters as well so being hunted by a vampire should be thrilling in and of itself. The setting chosen for the LARP was an illegal techno party where the mortals had no idea vampires were prowling in their midst. It was chosen to be a dynamic, chaotic environment where vampires could prowl discreetly. Characters ranged from ordinary partygoers to vampire hunters. The goal was for as many characters as possible to be both the hunters and the hunted. The best LARP ideas tend to be simple. You can create a LARP where everyone will have the same fundamental core experience or lay out a few different modes of play. In both cases, all characters must be able to access the activities that make the LARP fun or interesting in the first place.

An example of a failure mode would be to create a LARP where the idea is to give players the opportunity to play degenerate, vile monsters. The LARP would then feature a few noble, good characters to stand in contrast with all the sordid filth around them. From a conceptual standpoint this makes sense but from the perspective of the players of the good characters this would be terrible because they would not have access to the core activity of the LARP.

secrets are possible so that not even the players know everything. This choice was made so that the players of mortal characters would be unaware of who was a vampire and who was not.

To make it work, it could be tweaked slightly so that good characters are expected to suffer a moral fall. This would grant them access to the LARP’s baseline activities.

Design And Production

Since a single LARP can feature multiple play experiences, you should take care to see that all of them are meaningful. For example, if there are werewolf characters in a vampire LARP, they need to have their own fully designed and functional werewolf experience.

Transparent vs Opaque Transparent design means that players have access to all the information about the LARP, including things that their character does not know about. The most common example is making all characters available for all players to read. The advantage of transparency is that players will have a better feel for the creative vision of the LARP as a whole and are thus able to adjust their own play accordingly. It means players are able to make informed choices. The LARP End of the Line was not transparent, opting instead for the opposite strategy of making the LARP opaque. This means that

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From an organizer standpoint, transparent LARPs are typically less work-intensive to make than opaque LARPs.

After you have a good core idea in place, it is time to design the LARP. This process is intimately tied with practical production. After all, design informs production and production can inspire design. The most important single aspect of production is choosing the venue and making all the necessary arrangements from a rental agreement onwards. A flashy, fancy venue is great because it immediately makes the LARP more memorable. This is what fuelled the “castle LARP” trend in Nordic Larp, where LARPs were organized in castles primarily in Poland. A venue like that has an inherent wow effect. Still, you can have a fancy venue that sucks for LARP. A lot of the questions about whether a venue is good revolve around extremely basic human needs: -

Are there enough bathrooms? Can people sit? Is the temperature good? Is the venue accessible?

Some more LARP specific questions are: - Does the venue have enough nooks and crannies that separate social situations can develop? - Is there a good space for workshops? - Does it fit your creative vision?

venue. You need to know what it is that you are announcing. 2. Opening the sign up. You have to decide what the sign up process will be like and make sure players know what kind of an experience they are actually signing up for.

One of the advantages of Vampire is that since vampires are fundamentally parasites in the body of mortal society, there is leeway in terms of what kind of venues make sense for different events. An Elysium set up in a strange place can represent an attempt to fly under the radar and maintain the Masquerade.

3. Characters. If the characters are provided by the organizers, getting them ready and in the hands of the players is a significant milestone.

When you consider your design, focus on the core elements of your basic idea and use the parts of Vampire’s setting that best fit them. Whatever game mechanics you choose should fit the LARP. If something is not part of the LARP’s idea, there is no need to have mechanics for it. A common example is combat. A refined salon game might not need combat mechanics at all.

Characters

The great thing about Vampire is that it supports many different LARP concepts. There are a number of examples through this book and you can see the breadth of possibilities in just the core clans. After all, a Toreador LARP is very different from a Brujah LARP.

Deadlines

4. The event. At the start of the LARP, everything has to be ready.

How are the characters created for the LARP? In Nordic Larp, it is typical for the organizers to write and design all characters and then cast players so that each has a character they like. These character descriptions include details on personality, history, vampiric powers, connections, and group affiliations. Other methods are possible as well. The Berlin Vampire LARP Enlightenment in Blood used a bespoke character creation system that broke characters down into their essential components, allowing players to pick and choose the ones they liked best. Sometimes characters are workshopped together with the organizers.

LARP production involves four important deadlines:

Outside Nordic Larp, it is also common for players to make their own characters. A common setting such as Vampire, known to all, makes this easier.

1. Announcing the LARP. To do that, you need a website, marketing copy about what the LARP is, and basic details like price and

All characters must be able to access the core experience of the LARP. This is especially

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important if the players create their own characters wholly or in part. A player can accidentally create an unworkable character because they do not have a good top-level view of the LARP. For example, the LARP is focused on the street-level experiences of recently Embraced Anarchs. A player makes a Tremere elder. The character may be cool but would not provide a good play experience because it is disconnected from the design of the LARP.

Runtime Nordic Larp is designed so that it runs on minimal organizer intervention. A typical player will never need to consult with an organizer during the LARP. The way this works is that the design is front-loaded. Players get all the information they need from their characters, pre-LARP communication, and the workshops. Armed with all this, they are able to play collaboratively so that conflicts are resolved according to what would be cool in the scene. Organizers can still contribute to play during runtime, of course. Sometimes a LARP requires supporting characters, organizer-played roles that are not suitable for players because they do not have freedom of choice, they are too boring to play, or because they are present only for a single scene. For example, an envoy from another domain who drops in to deliver a message and then leaves would make more sense as a supporting character rather than a player character. The organizers can also stage set pieces, make sure the rhythm of the LARP flows smoothly

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and play contacts outside the LARP’s play area. For example, the Prince has a direct line to the city’s Police Chief. They can call their contact and an organizer playing that role will answer. One technique is to have a dedicated organizer or organizers playing these roles so that players can call anyone they want by choosing the organizer number on their phones. The conversation goes like this: - Player: Hello, I’m Luke, I’m calling my sister Rose! - Organizer: Hello Luke, this is Rose! Of course, this requires improvisation on part of the organizer player and for the players to communicate what they need effectively. Handling the rhythm of the LARP is often connected to the timing of set piece scenes. For example, if there is a Sabbat attack on the Elysium, the organizers can walk through the venue and get a vibe for the general energy level of the LARP. Once it starts to lag, they initiate the attack.

Collective Experiences Nordic Larp places more of an emphasis on collective experiences rather than individual ones. It makes sense to design characters in groups, providing them with common backstories and easy social connections. You can always go back to your group if you do not have things to do in the LARP. This is also why so many Nordic Larps place a lot of emphasis on rituals. A well-designed, fun ritual is a great experience in itself. Fortunately, Vampire provides fun opportunities to do such scenes. Perhaps when a new Prince is crowned, there is a coronation ceremony during which

each clan has to swear allegiance according to a specific formula; that is a type of engaging ritual. The Tremere can have sorcery rituals and the Church of Caine and the Bahari have their own rites. All of these can be enjoyable to play out in full. Of course, this means they have to be designed. A good LARP ritual involves all present in a collective action such as chanting or dancing, with different stages so it does not become boring. The Sabbat is a great source of rituals. Although the Sabbat are antagonists, their rituals can still feature in a LARP. For example, a LARP can be about a domain overrun with the Sabbat who force local Kindred to participate in their rituals. The question is, will the characters fight to overthrow the Sabbat or will they switch their allegiance?

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Chapter Sixteen ONLINE ROLEPLAY

The Basics Vampire LARP does not necessarily have to happen face-to-face. Online Vampire play has boomed in recent years, becoming its own vehicle for play alongside tabletop roleplaying and LARP. Through an online medium, a Vampire game can be played with no rules, 5th Edition tabletop rules, Mind’s Eye Theatre rules, or some homebrewed rules. Here is some guidance on playing, designing, or running an online Vampire experience on a digital platform.

User Comfort One of the primary concerns with online spaces is accessibility. Roleplay servers and

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websites are communities that, unlike classic tabletop roleplaying games or LARP groups, rely entirely on their online presentation and organization to attract potential members. As an aspiring online community administrator, before you can open the doors to your roleplay servers, you will want to ensure that your interface is user friendly. As the community’s calling card, it is important to keep in mind a few basic principles: • Keep information easily accessible and clearly labeled; • Distribute and name your channels and links intuitively; • Repeat information; and • Keep aesthetics subordinate to readability. Your users must know where to click first.

Quickly understanding where to start and how much time it takes to do so may make or break a potential player’s engagement. For instance, if a user cannot find your server’s information and rules–perhaps because they are hidden in a submenu–it is likely that their confusion will drive them away from your community. Be certain to organize your links and channels in decreasing order of importance with general information and guides on how to play in the venue at the top followed by links to facilitate character creation (such as a guide and a blank character sheet) and general setting information, and then supplements and other communityspecific material. If rules of conduct do not have a separate page or channel, they should still be placed second in the organization. It is also important to clearly state what your server is about. Is it an online roleplay server with a minimum paragraph requirement, set in a certain city? If so, you need to say that and provide clear guidelines or examples of how to roleplay (i.e., minimum words or paragraphs requirements, where to head to start a scene, where to organize with your fellow players, etc.). By clearly stating how to engage with the forum, you may gain a fresh player intrigued by what you offer, even if they stumbled into your community by chance. Users benefit directly from the repetition of information. Make sure to refer often to where a user can access specific information if it is not immediately available in the section they are reading, and remember to make use of your platform’s features. For example, some online forums permit you to pin messages; this feature provides a great opportunity to describe and reiterate what a channel is all about, how to use it, and whether special rules apply.

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For example, the popular online game Seattle by Night links the server’s website in the server information channel. Within the website, the character creation guide has its own page, within which users may find links to homebrew materials and server rulings. These are linked twice at opportune intervals, once to remind users where to find useful server material to create their characters, and again when further details are necessary for the choice of Loresheets and other Advantages. The very same link, however, can also be found in the very same channel where the website and the character creation guide are themselves linked. A cycle of easily accessible information is thus created, no matter where a user is looking for it. Finally, the primary medium of roleplay servers and websites is writing. The visual accessibility and readability of your community must be of paramount importance, even on platforms with standardized formatting. This means ensuring that the background and text contrast does not reduce readability (a dark gray and a soft light gray will always be preferable to black and white), that your font is clean and large enough, and that commitment to aesthetics (such as the use of decorative formatting in writing) is not an impairment for your readers and players. This may also mean that your channel names will not employ any special characters, or that your titles’ color will not be a sanguine red against dark blue.

Kickstarting Interactions After you successfully drew your users in and provided them with methods to orient themselves on their own, it is time for the next step: helping them to become active players.

Even though directions on how to play can and should be added to your community’s general information, making the jump between awareness and practice can be a considerable stumbling block for new players who are less familiar with the format. You have several tools at your disposal to rescue your players from uncertain beginnings. For example, once their character is approved, you can send them a message from the staff greeting them and offering them ways to get started. This primer will considerably lessen the amount of “what do I do now?” questions that you will have to answer. Do you have a board where players can seek roleplay partners? Use this opportunity to point your newbies towards it. Are there game channels that provide an easy way of finding people for a first interaction, such as an Elysium? If so, list them. Are there coordination channels, or exclusive sect and clan channels where anyone can seek connections out-of-character? If so, list those too. Do you think your own character would mesh well with a new arrival? Offer a scene and show them the ropes yourself. Playing with new users as a staff member is worth expanding upon. It fosters a welcoming atmosphere, where Storytellers and moderators bring people into the fold and, in doing so, break the illusion of any hierarchic wall between themselves and regular players, or between established crowds and new arrivals. Smaller groups of interaction will inevitably form when managing a large user base: your job is not to discourage veteran players from gathering with their favorite writers, but rather to ensure that these groups of like-minded characters and longtime friends remain accessible, especially if they come with a veneer of prestige, like moderation roles. Breathing room for your game brings

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creativity and avoids the formation of locked cliques. Another potential wall between new players and effectively getting started is access to the Vampire: The Masquerade materials, such as the core rulebook. Facilitating the participation of these users by providing resources will minimize the risk of piracy. A character creation guide and a channel or page to answer basic mechanical questions will save you time. A small compendium of the simplest rules for play can improve your players’ knowledge, as well as prove a useful tool for veteran players seeking a quick and easy answer. For example, in Seattle by Night the staff gathered basic mechanics and the most frequently asked questions in a primer document, organizing its sections in alphabetical order. From the “B” of “bestial failures” and how to roleplay their compulsions to the “W” of “willpower” and its uses, each reference cited the relevant core rulebook page for further details. This document helps users who are unfamiliar with all the details of the 5th Edition.

Staff Presence and Behavior One of the cornerstones of a server of any kind is the behavior of its staff. It is assumed that, before proceeding with opening a roleplay community to the public, a founder and administrator will already have a tight and well-briefed core group of moderators. This step is doubly important when these moderators will likely double as Storytellers, becoming responsible for shaping the fiction and aiding players during their game time. Staff members greeting and playing with people old and new helps to foster a healthy atmosphere. This interchange is likely mandatory during a community’s early

stages, when the user base is still limited, but it is a rule of good behavior to keep in mind even for established and larger groups. For example, in Seattle by Night whenever a character sheet is approved, the staff member who processed it will give the new player a shoutout in the general chat, welcoming them to the roleplay. They will then proceed to ping the new player on the relevant clan channel, pointing them to functions and rules of the channel in pinned messages. This introduction to the community will foster easy connections. Let us expand on the concept of atmosphere! The kind of jokes a moderator will make in conversation channels will shape the sort of humor that users will consider acceptable and will emulate. Similarly, the way conflict is handled will also determine whether users perceive a server’s staff as curating chat atmosphere or as interventions to fear. Make sure to establish and routinely reassess how your staff behave on the server. Address concerns about their attitude honestly and give them a chance to correct it if needed. Be certain that a hobby does not become a burden and allow your moderators to take pauses to decompress. A healthy approach to these roles ensures that the entirety of a community’s staff is ready and present enough to answer user questions, be they mechanical or relating to server etiquette. For example, in Seattle by Night an official “Torpor” role for Storytellers and moderators came with considerable technical advantages. Players knew that the staff member in question is off-duty and the moderator was not pinged by role mentions. Organization chat for Storytellers will also be invisible to those in Torpor, though their moderation privileges will not be removed entirely.

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Here is another useful tip: spread staff so that each member can cover different time zones. Doing this is useful for communities with worldwide participation and where play continues actively without pauses.

Server Safety The first step to guaranteeing a safe environment on a roleplay server, or indeed in most communities, is to offer an easy way for users to report misbehavior and, above all, to have their concerns heard. However banal this may sound, community rules and especially the people who enforce them may have blind spots and you need to have a mechanism in place to hear about them and adjust your procedures as needed. It is one thing to state that a server has a no-tolerance rule for, to name one, racist statements; it is another to notice this behavior in action and timely respond. Remember that however much a community may strive to include people from different backgrounds in its roster of moderators, the founders of a server are often a group of friends. If these founders do not endeavor to diversify their crew as their community grows, blind spots are bound to remain unchallenged. What staff might not catch, or not handle properly, will almost always be noticed by an affected or more attentive party. And the larger the player base, the more likely it is that there will be an affected party. It is therefore important to provide methods to report worries and offenses that maintain privacy or a semblance of anonymity, rather than forcing users to air their issues in a

public channel or board, where stressful and antagonistic discussions are bound to happen. Privacy may be achieved via e-mails, or bot systems that open private channels where a user may talk directly and solely with staff. For example, at Seattle by Night the use of a bot not only allows users to open a private channel, but also permits the changing of settings so that only certain members of staff will be able to see its contents. This way, any concern can be escalated between moderation groups, all the way to limiting access to the sole administrator. This facilitates communication, even if a player has issues with other members of staff. What community rules cover in theory is then enacted in practice, without ever excluding the possibility of a corrective action even against a member of the moderation team and always keeping in mind how the team can mediate between affected individuals. Take any such occasions as an opportunity to grow, both personally and as a community. Can broad guidelines be applied to active play? This is a question best answered by one of the core mechanics of the Vampire tabletop roleplaying game: chronicle tenets. Even though communities with such a large player base may often lack the direct oversight that a small group’s dedicated Storyteller benefits from, the use of chronicle tenets will shape the game of every single user. A server that declares “Uphold the Masquerade” as one of its tenets will offer a very different experience from one that upholds “Do not harm the innocent”. Of course, what is feigned and allowed in play can be drastically different from what is permitted between users. Nonetheless, a chronicle that does not give stains for acts of murder and torture

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shapes expectations for the stories of its characters, and your potential users will be able to gauge whether this is a kind of story they would like to tell with you. For example, Seattle by Night’s chronicle tenets have gone through a few more or less subtle changes. When a tenet about intentional and unintentional Masquerade breaches was included, it was the Storytellers’ response to a lack of care for the first Tradition of the Camarilla among characters. This addition brought into sharp focus how this behavior needed to be redressed for the safety of the domain. When we realized that stains for accidental breaches were no longer viable for entertaining stories, the tenet was carefully edited and, with order brought back to the city, eventually removed as obsolete.

Initiatives You have got your community all set up, you have your Storytellers and moderators, and even a solid group of players. Now it is time to diversify their play experience beyond their day-to-day interactions. Since the majority of roleplay on servers is built by players interacting with one another, drawing the focus on interpersonal relationships and, often–on introspection– one of your best bets to provide something special and unique for them is building short term chronicles, or “campaigns”, that have the direct oversight of a Storyteller. These will be structured with specific goals and potential outcomes in mind, matching more closely how a small tabletop chronicle would play out and, perhaps even more importantly, allowing players and their characters to leave a more

consistent and relevant impact on the metaplot of the server. The overarching plot of your community may be built upon through these campaigns and will also give a sense of narrative cohesion to your shared world. For example, Seattle by Night has benefited from the many prompts Vampire: The Masquerade gives that may be used to affect an entire domain and bring action to the characters’ doorsteps. The server’s first large story was all about a Masquerade-breaching group of thin-bloods who used the Second Inquisition to attack Camarilla locations and institutions. The following blood hunt led to many weeks of intense roleplay. More recently, a shortage of blood provided by the Circulatory System in Seattle–capital of the blood trade–encouraged characters to group together and investigate how and why transport vans were attacked, so as to restore the comfortable “blood on tap” available at Elysium. Afterwards, the Prince often called court, updating the domain and asking for action, or thanking those who put

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themselves at risk for the Camarilla—a good occasion for player characters to interact with important pillars of the city. Both small campaigns and server-wide plots that affect the wider narrative require the Storyteller’s full attention. They are often rewarding but charged roleplaying sessions. To unwind, organize instead easy events, intended for meetings, conversations, and building new connections. At Seattle by Night, the server organizes similar events on special occasions: the community’s anniversary, for example, or two weeks of low-effort gatherings during winter vacations, all the way through new year, when daily gatherings and obligations tend to minimize activity both for our staff and our players. Tradition calls for a ball the first week, with a gifts raffle, and wintery activities like ice skating the second week. Both times, Hunger-slaking drinks are on offer.

GUIDELINES FOR STORYTELLERS A concept borrowed from the tabletop roleplaying version of Vampire: The Masquerade, the Storyteller is someone who narrates the world and the consequences of actions for player characters

The Team and Its Approach The larger the player base, the more difficult it will be for Storytellers to actively follow every scene as it is happening, and the more arduous it is to create ad hoc stories without disrupting or contradicting what has already been established elsewhere in the server’s history. Their availability further decreases if Storytellers are also players who write their own characters— and, although staff members who are dedicated solely to Storytelling may put greater focus on that activity, often enough people who are newly brought into the role were first evaluated as active players and remain so afterwards. Outside the scope of campaigns, then, the format of a large community calls for a team, which in turn calls for cohesion of approach. Recruiting members to the role of Storyteller may be done via server-wide open calls or by approaching trusted members. Whichever the preferred method, it is important that you brief them on your expectations for them, as someone who will shape the game for others. It is recommended that this briefing and guidelines are easily accessible for reference. And what is expected of them? Is a Storyteller handing out consequences, or are they helping the story along? Especially when a player acts in a way that is detrimental to their character, the line may be blurred. Striking a balance ideally

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merges maintaining an action-outcome logic and crafting roleplay that enriches the experience for the player. Often, interpreting a character in distress can be an opportunity to flex one’s writing muscles: the Storyteller’s work is also to ensure that the opportunity is not understood as a stressful punishment by the players. Transparency with mechanics and decisions is often key, and so is the tone with which results and consequences are delivered. Do not talk down to your players if they make mistakes or ask for their next actions as if you are delivering orders. There are more chances to achieve balance if the team is used to giving each other input, so that too harsh or lenient approaches are evened out. Asking a second Storyteller for input minimizes the possibility of unfairness and contradicting decisions, especially when the rules allow for personal flair and more or less strict interpretation. Instead, it is better to answer a player with a group-approved approach than with a single person’s opinion that might have to be overruled afterwards, disrupting play. Here’s an example from Seattle by Night: the practicalities of the Storytellers’ team day-to-day activities pass through a channel aptly named #ask-the-st, where players may fill out a form and send in requests pertaining to their scenes. Does a user want to obtain a new Merit, or a level from a Loresheet? Did a dice roll result in a messy critical in a crowded area? Are two characters engaging in a conflict and unsure about what to roll? All questions of this type are submitted to the channel and timely discussed by the team in appropriate threads before offering a ruling or a way forward.

Fair “Fairness” is difficult to define in the realm of roleplaying. Seattle by Night applies a principle of equity whenever possible—a new and less experienced player will be afforded more leniency the first time the character missteps. For example, a vampire who breached the Masquerade via phone might well be flagged down by agents of the Second Inquisition. Will this put the character on the path to gaining the Known Blankbody flaw, or even to final death? If the vampire is a recidivist or should know better, implying that the player has been warned before about the dangers of breaches through technology, or was caught before, perhaps so. If this is barely the first week of play for a new arrival, it is more likely that they will only receive a warning from the Storytellers, and perhaps a helpful Nosferatu from the Camarilla will scrub the internet of any traces of their mistake—this one time. It is “fairer”, on occasion, to be charitable with a player and account for inexperience, foregoing more realistic consequences.

Adapting Mechanics If you are using the mechanics of tabletop Vampire for your online roleplay, are there some among them that do not work when your “table” is dozens of people rather than only the four or five of typical face-to-face roleplay? Unsurprisingly, the answer is “yes”. Even though online written roleplay does not suffer from the visual restrictions of LARPing (you can absolutely control a swarm of rats, unlike in real life), limitations and contingencies will become apparent the more paths are explored by players and brought to your staff’s attention.

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In the online communities that use the full Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop rules, where players will often interact with each other without direct oversight, some things do not work or need extra steps to be used appropriately. One example is Predator Type standard pools (core Vampire: The Masquerade rulebook p. 307). The Predator pool for Farmer is Composure + Animal Ken. A player may suggest that their character would instead lay traps around and let them do the work, then return later, and the Storyteller may choose to roll with it and give an alternate pool, perhaps Dexterity + Survival. This standard sort of exchange between player and Storyteller may become quite a burden when, instead of a single Farmer, you are dealing with fifteen of them. Your team should then choose whether to limit Predator pools to what the rulebook offers, handle each hunt individually, or adapt the mechanics, either by downplaying the aspect of Hunger on the server (which will make hunts less frequent and pressing) or by expanding the number and type of standard Predator pools available to players (which will significantly lessen the need of oversight while maintaining flexibility). Here’s an example from Seattle by Night: how can Lasombra and Hecata raise the discipline of Oblivion if the Vampire core rulebook chart on page 228 that assigns numbers to temperaments and Resonances does not account for blood empty of Resonance and the vampire cannot (or does not want to) drink from corpses or blood bags? It soon became apparent that Storytellers on the server could not engineer a new ad-hoc scene every time a character seeking to buy dots in these disciplines needed to find the correct Resonance. So, Seattle by Night adapted the randomized roll chart to include Oblivion. At Seattle by Night, a d10 that lands on a one for

its temperament roll no longer results in a mere negligible resonance; rather, the vampire is lucky enough to have found someone whose blood’s humor is so flat to be empty, detached, perfect to feed the needs of the Abyss. This fulfilled our player’s requests for a more streamlined method and kept a low incidence of this rare nonResonance.

Documentation

Keeping things exceptional is another difficulty of big environments such as an online roleplay community. What should be so rare that only one or two characters, playing or otherwise, should have access to it or even know of its existence, cannot logically be present on several sheets at once. Applying a first-come-firstserved principle, however, would penalize new players and diminish their options; once again, then, these mechanics must be adapted and, at times, even banned from play.

Making extensive use of shared spaces such as online storage, easily accessible by everyone in the team, helps everyone in the long run. Any Storyteller-controlled characters and antagonists may be fully developed, and their sheets saved for later use. Extended tests to gain merits or purchase new dots in skills may be listed, tweaked, and used again when players make similar queries. Factions in play, be it Camarilla and Anarchs or factions within the Camarilla, will have fluid relationships, changed and rebalanced by characters’ actions: a document to keep track of this history will help with plot consistency.

Some of the more peculiar, exceptional, and certainly exciting things the 5th Edition has to offer are Loresheets. The process of combing through every merit from every Loresheet to decide what can be permitted, what must be adapted or restricted, and what must be prohibited is a heavy and meticulous task, but it’s only alternative is to exclude these merits from play altogether. A good rule of thumb is asking how realistic it would be for more than one vampire to have access to a merit—such as a vial of the blood of Zapathasura—and whether the entire Loresheet is linked to distant locations that cannot be adapted to a new setting. Be cautious and judge your staff’s availability also when handling Loresheets that call for the intervention of or direct interaction with a famous Kindred as they always require additional focused attention from Storytellers.

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The creation of up-to-date documentation collecting rulings, common rolls, previous decisions and adapted mechanics is of great importance when Storytellers must work in a group and account for previous decisions to maintain fairness in their rulings.

Save any text that is copy-pasted often such as welcome and introduction messages, common policies and storytelling notes, the setup for recurring events such as Camarilla court settings and rules, templates for submissions, and guidelines. Bringing in any new members will be simpler if you bring them up to date with existing material. There are several methods to save information and character sheets. Seattle by Night uses a shared online drive account, where all documents, sheets, and other miscellanea are stored in neat folders, where each update is recorded by the revision history. Any rulings and interactions with players that happen directly on server in private channels are logged by our bots in .txt files that the staff may download, search for in a designated channel, and reference at a later date.

GUIDELINES FOR PLAYERS How do you play in an online Vampire game, have fun and keep things respectful with other players?

Consent and Etiquette There are unique ways in which consent can be explored and managed in large online settings. When a scene is not overseen by a Storyteller, players must personally establish their own lines of comfort and those of their partners. Likewise, Storytellers must be able to oversee the development of a scene so that they may intervene when needed. It is crucial for online communities to have at least one public channel that is intended for roleplay coordination. The public nature of scene organizing prevents ambiguity should any conflicts arise: having negotiations on record avoids a large part of “but-they-said” confusion or intentional misdirection and lessens the chances of coercive convincing or manipulative strong-arming of consent. This is particularly important for new players, who may be swept into an environment they aren’t yet equipped to navigate properly. The conventions of Nordic Larp are useful for players even on servers and other online communities. It isn’t uncommon for players to “plan” a scene in broad strokes, especially when they aim to hit specific narrative notes. Doing so in writing rather than in person does not make it any less emotionally intense, even though it certainly is less physically taxing. To reach the maximum fulfillment of dramatic potential, you may want your partner’s character to understand that your vampire is lying; or perhaps you would like your vampire to take a punch despite their dodging—or, conversely, the one throwing the

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punch might think that it would be exciting if it landed. In these situations, a player can always choose to lose a roll, to let the other character catch the lie, or take that punch. This negotiation can greatly enhance and help the story

your fun with leading where you are envisioning it; the p e r c e p t i o n of collaborative storytelling between two people will also help with feelings of having “lost” or “won” a conflict, replacing them with satisfaction over a rewarding scene. This, of course, does not always happen, especially if the player’s goals heavily differ and rolls become necessary. In an unmediated scene, players always ought to state what they are trying to achieve, state their pools, and agree on what happens if either character loses. Other courtesies of communication are necessary due to the peculiarity of the writing medium. A common term in online roleplay communities is “metagaming”. Metagaming occurs when a character acts as if they were aware of thoughts, hidden occurrences, or intentions that they are not privy to. A vampire

who behaves suspiciously around another because the player knows that their character’s buddy is a traitor is metagaming—acting on their player knowledge of the game beyond the character’s perceptions. In games where all actions are on record and, depending on the style of play, the writing out of thoughts and emotions is allowed, this can become more of a problem than in voice games, where instead the scope of knowledge is often comparatively narrower. It is also the responsibility of Storytellers to mediate such instances, but politely pointing out to your partner that their character would have no awareness of a specific detail can help with establishing a boundary. Asking beforehand when about to describe or include in the scene something potentially upsetting (such as body horror, cockroaches, terminal illnesses, just to name a couple) is also good etiquette. A large player base often prevents implementing consent methods such as fillable forms on a large scale—this means that anything not expressly against community rules or chronicle tenets may be considered fair game. But no two players are equal in their levels of comfort with specific and varied topics. Opting in with questions is preferable to editing an upsetting post after the fact, and creating an environment where comfort lines may be altered even during a scene is of primary importance. Here is an example from Seattle by Night: rolling a Bestial failure just before a character must participate in a packed meeting at court could disrupt plans, especially when the Compulsion involved is dominance. A quick chat between the two players in the #rp-coordination channel first established expectations for the behavior of one of the two characters and laid out options to

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play the scene out without excessively disturbing plans for the court setting. As the second player confirms she is happy with letting actions and reactions proceed naturally, without planning for them beforehand, more involved emotions can be brought into the writing and enjoyed by the players despite the tense situation. Seattle by Night also requires players to always warn in advance if, for example, a vampire is about to sell information about another character, so that no player is blindsided by sudden betrayals.

Information Gathering However tempting it may be to enter the main chat of an online roleplaying community and ask how to start roleplaying, more often than not servers and similar platforms will have step by step guides that will lead you through the process of becoming an active player. Begin from server information, then follow introductory channels and resources as they are presented to you. If the community’s design is intuitive, channels and links will be arranged in decreasing order of importance: seek out instructions on how to create and submit a character and ask for a pointer if you cannot see them. If community channels and pages have pinned messages or descriptions, make sure to read them for any additional information. Soon you will have an approved sheet and a setting to explore. During the approval process, there will often be a window to ask questions directly to the staff: make use of this opportunity to clear any doubts about the next steps. For example, in Seattle by Night in addition to a welcome message with pointers that every new player receives when their character is approved for play, the #v5-mechanics-questions and #roleplay-advice channels exist to solve and

clarify problems any players, new and old, may encounter. The server has rules on gathering your own knowledge, so that players will enter scenes with as much awareness of rules and circumstances as possible—when in doubt, however, channels of this sort exist to dispel ambiguities and offer quick answers. Furthermore, a newly introduced feature on the server is an additional role that players may pick for themselves that represents their level of knowledge of 5th Edition rules. From fledgling to elder, picking these tiers helps the Storytellers with determining how well-versed any given player is in the technicalities of the game’s mechanics. Knowing how comfortable a player is with the system determines how many warnings, and of what kind, a Storyteller ought to give about any declared course of action. In absence of such roles as a guide, only clear communication can help clarify your familiarity with the rules. Asking for guidance from Storytellers before undertaking any actions is often vital to ensure that what you’re doing is in line both with the game’s rules and with your specific community’s expectations and guidelines. If there is a format to ask for approval, follow it. If not, the more information is offered upfront, the better it is for the Storytelling team. Never hide your plans from those who are meant to guide your character through the story: if you do not trust them to fulfill their role, it will be doubly difficult for them to judge a plotline and help it along. Finally, more often than not the answer to a question is in the books. If it’s hard to find, check whether your community has F.A.Q. or a document with summaries of the mechanics

Beginning Play Once a character sheet is approved, everything that is left to do is start playing. For users unfamiliar with a community’s format, it is advisable to first check how other people do it, banal as it may sound. Open a channel where an active scene is ongoing and read. Each community has conventions and lingo, which will presumably be explained in their guides, but seeing these conventions in action can always clear doubts for the more practically-minded. Seattle by Night uses headers, a short string of text that each player must place at the top of their character posts. Headers mark the character’s name, a feature that is particularly useful for players who write more than one, then the specific location within the channel, such as [Downtown, Atrium Dance Floor], whether they are using Blush of Life, and crucially, they mark with “A” and “NA” whether the character is available or not for interaction. This conveys at a glance whether a new player is welcome or not to join an ongoing scene, and where exactly the scene itself is taking place. Then, the users involved in the scene may be tagged in our coordination channels to ask how to best interact with their ongoing roleplay.

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If the community provides a board to search for writing partners, check out the posts and threads already present before making one yourself. You may well find that someone else is already seeking for the kind of plot you could offer. The plots that are explorable in a sandbox setting have the advantage of great freedom and the disadvantage of having to be conjured up by the players’ own minds, at least outside of the hooks provided by Storytellers in campaigns and specific stories. If your vampire can’t start out as the Prince’s personal Scourge, or can not claim to be the designated cleaner of Masquerade breaches in town, focus instead on what is on your character sheet. Merits and flaws are an excellent way to bring in complications to otherwise more linear scenes. Does your character have a stalker? Are they infamous with the police? Do they have a Loresheet, and are trying to buy a new level? Are they a cobbler? From these starting points, several stories can be built. Perhaps another vampire needs a mask, or is just the right person to seek when trying to lie low. Negotiate these opportunities with boons, discuss how a favor could be repaid in the future, or point to a third party who has exactly the skill that will save the night. Soon, a web of interactions between characters will naturally grow and link vampires to other vampires. The kind of relationship map that a small table builds at the start of a chronicle is virtually transferred to a number of player characters, each with their own goals and ambitions; the actions of some will ripple through the map and generate more play for fellow users, all without, for example, inconveniencing important Camarilla authorities. In other words, lean into the personal aspect of horror. And if the authorities are inconvenienced and the Storytellers step in, take the opportunity to add a thread of outside influence to your plots. Creating characters with an outwards focus, or reasons to interact with the world around them, gives therefore an advantage. Generating stories yourself, which you don’t necessarily have to do in play contexts where the Storyteller engineers ways for a character, even a loner, to be dragged into the plot, necessitates an outward push that must come from the character. This doesn’t mean that you can’t play a loner: even a vampire that seeks solitude by design might feel in danger and wish to find trustworthy coterie candidates. The main delight of online communities, the same as in LARP, is often that the plurality of players and characters lends liveliness and dynamism to the setting. The exchange of ideas and possibilities often responds better to a proactive approach—but the scope of a server may be intimidating. Seattle by Night, in addition to greeting newly approved characters in the main chat, has introduced clan channels for inter-clan organization, where group meetings may be arranged with a Primogen. These channels also provide an easy point of commonality between any two characters, and a smaller space of coordination, encouraging new users to get started with easy directions.

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KICKSTARTER BACKERS

A Godat Aaron Gomez Aaron Mouritsen Abby Estes Adam Grant Adam Malkmus Adam Rivas Adam Tomplait Adam. H. Adenak Raven Adrian Ward Adriano Nudo Agnieszka Rogowska & ya Warsaw by Night Ahrimus of Jericho Aira Vehaskari Alaina Almeida Alek Alex Cresswell Alex Thomson Alexander Octavian LeMont Alexander Ward AlexanderTF Alexandra Frund Clinton Alfisol

Allison Campbell Alratan Alysa Brice Alzuule AmeliaChn Andara Shadowfang Andrea Beduschi Andrea Brock Andreas Öggesjö Andrew Cummings Andrew Sayman Andrew Wilson Andy - Midian Gaming Angel d’Argy Angel Sorayama Annie Blitzen Ann-Kathrine M Anole Anth Anthony Howe Anthony N. Antoine Boivin Antonio Di Luca Apostolis Dousias April & Jack

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Arcanus Wolf Archbishop James Arielle Cormier Arienna Arkady “Wolf” Volkov Aron Hoskins Artemio Astolfo Antonacci Magno Arthur of the Rose Aubrey Richardson Avery Corvus Avgvst Azrael Von Braunschweig B.B. Hale BA Flowers Becca Marshall Ben Haedrich Ben Parrish Ben W. Benjamin Claybruke Berber Wierda Bert “SilentBob” Sanders Bill Imber Billy Littlepage Bjarke Pedersen Björn Butzen

Björn-Ole Kamm Blayke Strae Bob Bob Monkman Bob Ooton Bob the Tzimisce Brad Pasmeny Brandon Daniels Brandon Landin Brianne Markovic Brittany Schoen Bryan A. Ellis Bryan Ballard Bryan Himebaugh Bryan Jonker Bryan Lee Briggs Bumbalachacha Stan C. Hulvey Callum Turner Camarilla Italia Carey Clevenger Carlos Ovalle Carolyn Penelope Knowles Casey Corbin Cassiopeia Eagle Cassius Kennedy Cathi Gertz Cattaveria Salvatore Chad Jacobs Charles and Ashley Oliver Charles Bacon Charles MageST Campbell Charles Wheaton Charlotte Svolos Chell R Chipotlechris Chrifu Bernal Chris “Glacialis” Brinkley Chris (UnemployedWriter) Chris ‘eChryxius’ Wai Chris King Chris Murphy Chris Sauter Chris Williams Christine Lutes Christopher Bishop Christopher Campione Christopher Michael O’Neill Christopher R. Wain Christopher Rowe Christopher T Gibbs Christopher Wolverton Chuck Poppell

Cian McCarron Civyl Lovey Claire A. Malette Clayton Gaughran Cliff Stornel Cody Shadley Corrigan E. Cassidy Cory “Rook” Williamsen Cosmogonies Court of Moravia Craig Anderson Craig Wrenn Criss Walker Crüjen A Geist Curty volk D. E. Wright Dacar Aria Arundottir Dakota Poore Damiano Solletico Damon Edwards Dan Hughes Dan Rowland Dane Carll Jr Daniel “Illuminos” Persson Daniel Atson (Storyteller) Daniel Fresco Daniel Ley Daniel M. Stelzer Daniel Peterson Daniel Tan Danny Roullier Dave “Victor Thorns” Desgagnes Dave P. as Hoturi Masaki Dave Valcourt David Ashby David Fuller David McInteer David Ongley David Peters David Petro David Romako David Schwartz Deena Whelan Dennis A Appell Derek Guder Devillok Dimitri Vladescu DJI Dmitry Aveliate Dmytro M.A.G. Kustov Don Diego Santiago Cabrera Delarosa Blackthorne Donnie Baker

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Dorian Mae Doug Laflin Dove “Sun-Seed’s Sword” Dr. Reinhardt Dr. Ryan Blackstock Drake White Drakenova DrkDruidProductions Dustin “Ratking85” Varrel Ed “Finan” Schmalz Edouard Contesse Eduardo Ambrosio Edwin Wessels Eeyore Page Eidolon El Sobrino Elaine de Mor Elektra Diakolambrianou Eli Irvin Eli Ramsey Elke Norman Ellijah Burgos Elmer Gilbert Elon G Elyn Fritz-Waters Elzo Tovani Benza Emma Singer Eric Eric “Vinshalya” Schuler Eric Charette Eric Hadley Eric Mattson Escapistportraits Eternal Dream Productions Troupe Etienne d’Espinasse Evie Kay Eve @evilzug Fae Wilde Fatebender Father Krump Felipe Eduardo Felix Vincent Finch Flavio Kendi Hiasa Florian Enaud de la Matelotte Flux Forbathian & Palies Frankie Mundens Fransz Murphy Frédéri “Volk Kommissar Friedrich” POCHARD Frederik Symons

Gabe and Lexi Villagomez Gadesc Galcian of Seattle by Night Gandalf the Wookie Gareth Owings Garett Kopczynski Garth Westphal Gaza El-Diablo Genghis Pawn George Dolby George Mavroidis Georgii Perepechko Gideon “Gids” Hawthorne Giovanni ‘Gio’ Hernandez Giuseppe “Giude” De Lellis Glasgow By Night Glen “Dr. North” Anglin-Ingersoll Grace Black Grash Uriza Graspiloot Greg Berry Gregory Eburn Grymm Gumborrah Gustavo “Brujah” Mattioni H MacKiernan Hao Zhang Heather “Not-A-Seeker Seeker” Bryson Heather Minerva Harte HeftyYeti Heinrich Krebs Helen B. Henri Henrik Sturesson Hraefn cz Hugh Montgomerie HunteRose hyppolite Delacourt Ian Rugg Ian Smith Ian Stickles ianLovecraft Ibon Presno Ice & Dice Idleknight Illara Sunsurn Inshara Rafastio Iris Rohrh Isara Ivo Goudzwaard J. R. Foster Jacob Bieber Jacob Giovanni

Jacob Tessendorf Jake Nugent James Andrews James Foster James Walther Jason “Crash” Morton Jason Brown Jason Goldsmith Jason M. Jason Smith Jason White Jay (Salvitus) Wright Jay Haller Jay Page Jazz Tattersall JD Dos Passos Jeanne Batiste-LaFayette Jeanne I. Jeff Szappan Jeffrey Osthoff Jeffrey Polly Jen Kuiper Jennifer Fuss Jennifer Fuss Jer DuBois Jeremy Cottrell Jeremy Miller Jerome DeFelippo Jesse Gennrich Jessica Totten Jesus Alberto Barrios Lopez Jim Flood Jim Glass Jimmi Brown Jimmy Reckitt JJ Seeley Joachim Mander Joacim Hedin Joe Burgos & the Vampire Wednesday’s Troupe Joe Edge Joe McNamara Joel MacMahon Joel-Herustari Underwood John B. John Ingram John Long John M. Osborne John Thomas John Vikør Green, og kattene Sin og Sofia John Wells John-Paul Diamond

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Jon Munger Jon Pam Jonathan Feeney Jonathan Patterson (The White Knight) Jonathan S Joonas Iivonen Jordan McCain José Fabregat Joseph Moon Josh Bewley Josh from Tabletop Journeys Joshua Burrus JP Nilson Jukka Särkijär Julia Madrigal Juse Justin “Juice” Staley Justin Pulsipher Kaalia Raine Kaera Elaina Orphanatropos Kai Schiefer Kallen C Kalvelis Kamo Kari Kvittingen Djukastein Kat Smith Katie Staton Ken Ken Kimbrough Ken Pickering Ken T. Kevin Corrie Kevin Cyr Kevin P. Harris Kevin Thomas Schluter Kevin Zernel Kim Hosmer Kimberly Morris Kisaki & Kravenov Kit McManus Kit Wickliff KJninja Klil H. Neori Kniqui Hackborn Kość w Eterze Krinnson KrisP Kunekunos Kuromaru Kyle “Vortex” Chapman Kyle Clement Kyle Luhrsen Lady Jessica Lilith Darke

Lance Larsen Lauren Black Laurent Wandrebeck Lawrence Cicchetti LeAnn ‘Ellyham’ LaFollette Leo Giannoni Leon Yarwood Leonard Helding Lew Pearce Lex Blackthorn Liam Keptner Lily Armadou Lindsey Morse Liselle Awwal Liz Clark Lord Crossbower LTC Sir Glennwood Justis, Knight of the Blood Luc Teunen Lucas L. Lucian “Spike” Zantosa Lucian Shadow Scomparsa Luke M Luna Lapine Lunar M. Alan Thomas II Maarten Geirnaert Magikarp Magpie Manfredi Mangano, Serena Fioretti, Giulia Cursi Marcus Taylor Margaret J Hauck Marinda Mario Kellert Mark “Thunderhowl” Brunsdon Mark Cockerham Mark Duske Mark Scheid Mark White Martin B. Wagner Mary Doolittle Masud “Maz” Mendez Mateusz “Maeliraeth” Rusin Mathieu Dazé Matthew Carroll Matthew Costa Matthew Jones Matthew Lynn Matthew Priestley Matthew Sanderson Matthew Sharp Matthew Wasiak

Matthias Hofmann Matthieu de la Loire Maurizio de Galleani Max Metzger Mazi Melton MB Megan Dunn Meghan Kuschner Meghan Mattsson McGinnis Methodius of Macedon Micah Hadd Michael “Milan Mechislav” Brosens Michael A. Kvam Michael Curtis Michael D. Smith Michael Day Michael Hawkins Michael Kanaris Michael Nason Michael Neal Michael Walsh Ventrue1399 Michele Tani “Bless” Mike & Brian Goubeaux Mike Bosma Mike Brereton Mike Longley Mikel Ryskiewicz Mirko Schroeder Mister Lococco Mitsuki/Ilka Mlovessxw Monty Montgomery Mord4k More local games Morgan Duty “Magnus Cross” Myrtle C. Wells Nadja Mozdzen Natasha Drake Nathan Kiser Natty Struble Nawguthion Neal Blooflat Nederby Nels von Ralho NephthysNile Nicholas Chan Nicholas Fortugno Nicholas Macula Nick Julius Nicolas “Dak” Brouet Nicolas Villatte Nonna Emilia NtsDK

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Octavian Düm Orangebringer Darkness Ascending: Orlando by Night Oskar “Swedelicious” Mattsson Owen Alea Owen Parsons OyToy Paige ‘Morgue’ Yarrow-Ballinger Pamela McKinley Patrick Cossel (307 RPG) Paul Evangelista Paul Grayson Paul Vlasta Pericuolo Narr Pete H Peter C Peter Hag Peter ‘Malkira’ Lennox Petri Wessman Phil Louch Philip W Rogers Jr Philippe Molosse Bernatchez Phillip Bailey Pierre Toutain Pip Padden Porl Bowdler PotentialRain Prince Alianna, Elder of Clan Toreador, Childe of Prince Villon Prince Lucretia Wright Quentin A Quilliec Thomas R. Herzog Raimar Lill Ralph Lacy Randall Crawford Rantimus Raven Aviral Raymond Sweetsir Rayni McCollum Rebecca Catan Red Renato Gonzalez de Medeiros Junior Renatus “Wren” Ausper Renee Ritchie Rev. Phillip Malerich RexCelestis Richard Chilton, UEL Richard Steele Rick Gower Riley Rioxis “Rocky” Sardonis.

Rob & Whitney - 10 Year Anniversary Met at LARP Rob and Sabrena Hambright Rob Brockway Rob Nunley Robert “Luca” tuc Robert Eichler Robert L Villafane Robert Recckia Robyn Hackett Rocco Marando Roger Beam / NA / Jochei Romain Moreau Roman Lanzarotta Rory Hughes Ross Thomas Ryan of Toronto Ryan Omega Sage Blackwood Sam Damon Samuel Harverton San Antonio Yellowstone bani Tremere Sanpat Suvarnadat Scarlett Letter Scott “Oz” Milner Scott Braem Scott Kuban Scott McIntosh Sean McKay Sebastian Tremmel Sébastien Côté Sébastien Mary Selena Victoria Knight Serafina Kunert Seth C. Polansky, Esq. Seth Taggart Shane “Marcus Alistair” Sylvia Shane Stimson Shawn “Sutekh” Glass Shawn D. Ulmer, PC-Dorian LeBois Shea Anderson Sheldon Wales Shimon Klein Shoshana Kessock Shun & Zami SIGIFREDO ALANIS Silja S Simon “The Vampyre” Blackbourne Simon Dietsch

Simon Hall Šimon Kravár Simon Legault Skylar Nazar Snays SOL Solene Balezeaux (and his family) Solitude Soren A. Hjorth Stacey “Rie” Marie Steals-the-sun Stephen “Eddington” Near Stephen Whitehead Steve Stroud Steven Collins Steven Doyle Steven Splint Stryk Redkite Stuart Davies AKA Ebonblade Suvi Korhonen Sven Raabe SwiftOne T Hansen T.C. Moore Talita Amaral, “Setheus” Tamara Persephone Johanna MacIntyre (Auburnt_Amaranth) Tc Teagle Ted Ludemann Teemu Salminen Teranz Terrence Patrick TERENTIUS Joseph Micheau Terry E Roberts Thai Nosferatu Thanius The Vampire Interpreter The Virraszstò Thiago Ribeiro Thunaree Tiffany Korta Tim & Mitzi Gousie Tim Chanting Tim Ryan Timothy “Redwulfe” Adams Timothy Brachtel Timothy Snyder Tinker Tales Studios

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Tomás Ribeiro Tome Wilson Tommie Boatwright Tommy Johansson Tommy Svensson Torge Schepers Travis Alvarez Travis Hartland Trent Schulze Trevor J.J. Sherman Tuula Vilva Ty Storie Tyler Bryan Tyler Nafe Tyler Rose Tyne Arnold Vacantfanatic Valerie Palmowski Vedic St. Claire Velvet Alicia Lilith~Victoria Azshara Divine Veri Victor Inominae Victoria Donovan Ville Uusivuori Vincent Sharma Vitas Varnas Vivianne Violette W. Steven Carroll Wat3rm0le Wayne Hintergardt Weaver Vekah & Wesley McKeown William “Jack” Gallagher William O’Berry William Springer William Verheyden Wiz Xamiel “Xile” Markov Xavier Aubuchon-Mendoza Xzay Yuri Capadócio Yuria The Witch Z Going Zachary DeFoor Zachary Thomas Tyler, Ashirra Gangrel Zebediah Walker Zoly

INDEX 0 - 260 360

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A A Bloody, Bloody Beat about ghouls Acceptable and Unacceptable Boons Actions Adapting Mechanics Affordance After the LARP Agency A House Full of Devils Alibi Anarchs An Embarrassment of Riches An Existential Threat Artists: Ashirra Ashirra Across the World Ashirra Characters A Society of Blood At the Event At The Fireside

42 110 180 230 248 223 208 223 122 223 42 10 149 2 113 116 118 12 234 32

B Backstabbers One And All Bad Choices Basic Ideas Before the LARP Beginning Play Being the Prince Be My Sin For The Evening Benedictions, Dedications, and Appreciations Berlin Beyond the War of Ages Big Events Big Ideas Bleed Blood Rave Boons Boons and LARP Boons As Invitations Boons As Status Symbols Boons As Stories Breaking Down a City

13 165 236 208 252 197 1 3 50 63 122 123 221 138 175 180 183 184 184 62

C Camarilla Changing of the Guard Chapter Eight Chapter Eleven Chapter Fifteen Chapter Five Chapter Four Chapter Fourteen

67 198 113 158 216 67 42 208

Chapter Nine Chapter One Chapter Seven Chapter Six Chapter Sixteen Chapter Ten Chapter Thirteen Chapter Three Chapter Twelve Chapter Two Characters Choosing Sides Cities And Domains Coercion Collaboration Collaborative LARP Collaborative Play Collaborative Vampire LARP Collective Experiences Concepts Conflict Conflicting Loyalties Consent and Etiquette Contested Chronicle Contested Domains Cover Art: Creating Loresheets Creating Play Credits

122 4 102 91 241 147 188 27 175 11 238 162 6 185 233 217 221 216 239 220 87 163 250 60 59 2 210 192 2

Fair Fakes and Frauds Fate For the Love of Cruelty G Gaining Trust Gang Boss Generating a LARP Concept Getting Swatted Ghoul LARPs Ghouls Give Up Everything Glittering Lights Glorious Immortality Grand Plans Groups and Engines Guidelines for Players Guidelines for Storytellers

Helsinki House Alea How to Make the Boon System Work How To Spend Boons How To Use Loresheets Hunting and Drinking Blood I

Deadlines 238 Design 236,30,33,36,38,68 Design And Production 237 Designing for Praxis 195 Developments 51,55,58,85 Dive Bar 34 Documentation 249 Domain Design As LARP Design 86 Domains in Confusion 98 Don’t Fuck With the Sabbat 90 During the Event or Afterwards? 185 During the LARP 208

Index Information Gathering Initial Impressions Initiatives Interlude Interlude: Boytoy Interlude: Enough With the Filth Interlude: Notes From an Execution Interlude: Siege Warfare Interlude: Storage International Influence Introduction

E

K 2 201 67 222 48 4 118 15 4

F Faction Breakdown Failing to Fulfill a Boon

259

100 182

145 47 28 152 112 102 37 211 102 184 124 250 247

H

D

Editors: Elite Enclave Elysium Emergence Emissary Enter a World of Blood Envoys and “Envoys” Eternity Example Domains

248 117 229 96

Keeper of the Heralds Kickstarter backers Kickstarting Interactions Kneel In Prayer

82 211 181 183 209 228

259 251 145 245 90 39 120 64 145 185 218 4

213 254 242 141

L LARP and Larp LARP Concept LARP Concept: The Trial LARP Concepts LARP RESOURSES Layout Artist: Less Among Equals

217 30,33,35,38 99 98 208 2 107

Locations Loresheets

76 209

M Magic Circle Making It Your Own Making Things Up Making Your Debut Models: Mr. Hellquist’s Shadow Cabal

221 8 148 14 2 213

N Nashville New Orleans Night to Night in the Anarchs Night to Night in the Camarilla No Neutral Ground Nordic Larp Emerges Nordic Larp Now

56 53 21 24 160 217 218

O Online Roleplay Outcomes Outro: Dee’s Home Movies Outside Perspectives

241 101 202 92

P Peace Talks Permanent Elysiums Photographers: Players And Organizers Playing For Praxis Playing the Baron (And Other Anarch Notables) Playing the Prince (And Other Camarilla Officials) Play to lose Population Breakdown Praxis Prevention Primogen Principal Writer:

199 68 2 5 191 45 70 223 57 188 234 72 2

Q Quick and Easy Quid Pro Quo

28 180

R Really Really Recommendations Refuge Remembrance of the Ancients Repression Repression in the Name of Safety Revolution Rising Tempers Roles Rules and Structures Runtime

225 146 119 114 167 95 168 164 88 196 239

S Sabbat Sabbat Characters Safe Swatting Saturnalia Second Inquisition Secret Agendas Servants in a Palace of Blood Server Safety Setup Small Events Social Groups Special Thanks Staff Presence and Behavior Stories Strange Rules Subsequent Developments Sweeper Swimming With the Sharks

91 92 153 54 147 173 105 244 101 27 88 3 243 80 69 146 48 29

T Tactics 191 Tapped Out 235 Temporary Elysium 69 The All Ghoul LARP 110 The Anarchs 169,193 46 The Baron The Basics 241 The Betrayal 79 The Black Box 228 The Characters 126,130,133,136,139,142,173 The Concept 125,129,132,136,139,142172 The Domain 50,54,57,80,83 The Event 174 The Excitement of Diplomacy 171 The Factions 75 The Final Witness 117 The First and the Last 115 The Flower of Humanity 134 The Grand Pageant of Diplomacy 171 The Heralds 73 The Ideologue 49 The Incident 145 The Ingredients of a Raid 153 The Inquisition And LARP 150 The Keeper of the Elysium 73 Themes 94 The Monologue Box 229 The Old Regime 215 The Ops Center 155 The Power and the Blood 131 The President 198 The Prince 71 The Quad Cities 78 There But For the Grace of God.... 97 The Role of the Prince 195 The Sabbat 91 The Sabbat LARP 96 The Scourge 73 The Seneschal 71 The Sheriff 72 The Social Landscape 110 The Spook Show 154

260

The Stakes 161 The Stories 127,130,133,137,140,143,77 The Team and Its Approach 247 The Toolbox 225 The Tunnels 128 The Veneer of Sophistication 125 The Venue 126,130,132,136,139,142 The War 158 The War Leader 200 The Weight of History 115 The Workshop 231 The World of Darkness 5 Three Decades of the Dead 7 Transparent vs Opaque 237 U Unclaimed Underneath Up-Or-Down User Comfort

198 128 226 241

V Vampire: The Masquerade™ Creators: Vampire Culture Vampire Society Violence

3 9 11 226

W War As LARP War Is Hell War Leader War of Ages War of Ages Table of Contents Warsaw What You’re Owed What’s Cool? What’s Happening? Where? Where the Kindred Congregate Who? Why? Why Do The Anarchs Hate the Camarilla? Why Do Those In The Camarilla Hate the Anarchs? Winners And Losers Writer of the Chapter About Online Roleplay:

166 169 49 158 4 74 176 167 89 155 27 154 156 16 18 62 2

Y Your World of Blood

6

“Welcome to the War of Ages. This is your war even if you never signed up for it. Your elders are seeking to control you, toy with you, suppress you; your only choice for dignity in unlife is to fight back.”

– Bian the Bloody, Brujah Anarch

Welcome to the night. Damned by the ancient blood welling inside you, you try to hold onto the last scraps of your humanity as you sustain your degenerate unlife on the blood of mortals. You are a vampire, existing in secret among the ignorant horde of ordinary people. This is the role you embrace when you join a Vampire: The Masquerade LARP and by making that choice you become part of a global community of Vampire LARP extending from the U.S. to Brazil, from Turkey to Finland.

In this book you find: ~ Inspiration to create your own Vampire LARP ~ Concepts and framework for large & small LARP events ~ Guidance on the use of antagonists in LARP ~ Boons in LARP and to spend them ~ Tools for collaborative Nordic LARP style play ~ Guidelines for running a successful online LARP

ISBN: 978-0-9911312-7-3