i'm starting a game soon but i've never even played. none of my friends have, but we're all decent role-players. any advice?

Get the storyteller's guide, it's got some great stuff. I won't give it away here for you strictly character-players, but the book is a must-read if you want to be the storyteller. Actually, any White Wolf sourcebook. I always play a Malkavian, by the way. They're my favorite clan ever.

..advice??


uhm..figure out what kind o game you want to play

There's enough info in the sourcebook and on the net (if you're broken and looking for something cheap).

My advice is to keep things simple. Keep in mind what the story's going to be. Things don't revolve around the characters. You should know what your NPCs are doing, even when they're not interacting with the PCs. The PCs shouldn't be able to control all change- sometimes, things happen without their doing anything to provoke it. Likewise, the PCs must themselves have the ability to affect the outcome of the story in some major ways. No one likes being railroaded. Keep a sense of balance in the story- have some lessons learned and some metaphors for real life, but don't be preachy or shove a morality down someone's throat. Keep a sense of balance in the characters- for every hot-head half-lost to the beast, have a cold and calculating manipulator. Keep away from Stereotypes. Clans are families, not unions. The Ventrue have their share of thugs and instigators, and many members of the Brujah are scholars or diplomats. At the same time, the Clans play an imporant role in the World of Vampire. Blood is thicker than water. Just because Clan-members don't always share an ideology or personality trait doesn't mean that they won't recognize their kinship when threatened by an outsider. I against my brother, my brother and I against our cousin, my cousin and I against the stranger. Also keep in mind always the Jyhad. The most powerful of vampires are great manipulators who use ages as their chessboards and kingdoms as their pawns. Vampires do not control the World, but the extent of their influence on it would terrify mortals if they were to learn the truth. At the same time, the most powerful beings in the World really are humans. If they became aware of the existence of Supernaturals, they would crush them in a fit of panicking terror. Keep in mind the themes of the game. Vampires are cursed with eternity. Their soul is being eaten by a black beast that craves blood and dwells in their heart. Golconda exists for those who would seek it. The Book of Nod and the knowledge of Antediluvians serve a backdrop for those who look into the history of the Cainite race. There are conflicts of Clan against Clan and Sect against Sect, but also conflicts within both Clan and Sect. Vampires cannot trust each other, but they can't relate to anyone else. You can use the Gehenna-theme if you want, but I personally ignore it. Keep atmosphere in mind. Get some moody music- the Interview with the Vampire, Ravenous, or Plunkett & MacLeane soundtracks- and use that. Be visual in your descriptions of everything. The words you use reflect the tone of your story. You want to create a World that's alive. This World doesn't care about your players, and it will keep moving regardless of what your Players do, crushing them underfoot if they get in the way. Yet, your Players can still shape the flow of this World, if they're clever, lucky, and powerful.


That's the sum of my advice.

My Advice.... get the GURPS version... it is much better then those damn dots.....

Heretic.


Nah, you're probably right. I've never tried GURPS.

Bloody hell messiah You've already said most of what I was gonna!!

Just a few personal points of view to offer then..

First off your title Black tape Malkavian lunatic?

I'm a pretty big fan of Malks as well but the last thing I'd label them is lunatics Ya gotta think that between Auspex in clan & the Eyes of chaos level of Dementation they percieve more of the real world than anyone else!!

It's just that others can't accept that hence why they are considered mad I personally like to have seemingly impossible elements in a Malkavian's background & let others decide if it's truth or madness.

For example an old Malk character of mine was embraced by his Imaginary friend & in turn embraced the cheshire cat..

& to top it all off he'd been to hell...

Was it real?
It bloody was to him!!


There ya go enough ranting!

One thing though as a favour to me PLEASE dont run Viscissitude as a disease!!!




Later evil dude
Blind

Hey, my Malkavian is a genius, so says his intelligence rating. (Four dots) His name is Stacy. He's a family charcater, my cousin Ryan played him first, them my cousin Tyler played him, and then Tyler passed Stacy on to me. He's schizophrenic, which I love playing, but he's also brilliant. Half the time when the rest of his group are ignoring him because he's just the crazy character they have to put up with, he's solving whatever problem they've gotten into single-handedly. That's when they all look bewildered at him and go, "Oh...yeah. Good work, Stacy" I'm just mentioning this to put the exclaimation point on what Blind Pugh said, they're not all raving maniacs. Although, Stacy does have a thing with walls...he doesn't like walls...

Actually Bling Pugh, s/he might just be referring to the Malkavian Antitribu, who are nicknamed "Lunatics".

Happy malks.. I hate em

more so cause of the experience I got with ppl who play them.. (bad role playing)..so for a change I got myself a malk also..hmm.. let's just say they got the hint of 'scary malks'

*washes his hands in innocents*

..I mean.. innocence

yep.