I've actually made a masquerade campaign that is everything that he says it must not be. And it still works, and my players still says they like it. Just shows that it can come in all shapes and sizes. It's a party based, adventure style game, with 5 players. The three main sects are up for grabs. For my 5 showerheads who wake up with no sires. They have alot of liberty in my game where politics are low, and the personal journey as a group is high. If you take this video it should not work, jet some how it does. Just to prove that sometimes you can do something different, as long as they players buy the premise.
I'm a Vampire veteran who has been out for a while but I'm starting up a new chronicle with some familiar players and some not. I think this channel will be very helpful. Have a sub!
Finally I got some time to watch this video. Watched it couple of times. I like your fast talk. You talk fast and you don't talk empty. So it doesn't bore when you watch 2 or 3 times over and over. No matter how much one knows about WoD, you still can teach something. It was a nice call that you gave an example about bussiness world. That's one of the big catches in Camarilla I think.
I've never understood why some people smacktalk the Camarilla. The Cam has been keeping bitches in check since the 15th century. They are easily more ruthless and organized than the Sabbat. The Cam is the big dog that does not need to bark or act rabid to get it's way. Great vid btw! Thank you for inspiring me to revamp my Camarilla chronicle for San Francisco.
I completely agree. Pacing is incredibly important. The perception of a dense world is necessary, but, while you want them to feel somewhat overwhelmed, you can't let them actually get overwhelmed. That said, another major difference in my personal experience is running LARP as well as tabletop. LARP's tend to have more going on due to the larger group size, so a different animal. In the smaller tabletop games, I like slower pace. And, yeah, Cam games are harder to run. No doubt there. -Roy.
My Main Man! This is an excellent video; all of your how to run/ gm videos are. I would really love to see one on "How to run Vampire: the dark ages." I'm putting together some ideas and npcs for a chronicle, I've never ran Vampire before (and have only played VtM) I would greatly appreciate your input. I figure that the Dark ages is best for my group and myself, as we're all fans of game of thrones and I love how isolated everything is, (Same reason I love CoC) :] among many others. Thanks.
I have played Vampire since 2000, initially as a player and then eventually running my own games this last five years. Always good to find another experienced player who has a similar take on the game as myself. Camarilla games are always the best I believe
Ah cool,really helpful. As I know when I get back to college and find/start a gaming group. I will be playing VTM, and I will go with the camerilla first as the first few games of that system before I move on to doing a sabbat or independent game. so thanks for the advice.
And, wow, not a lot of characters available to respond with. And I'm not exactly concise. Wanted to say that I liked the video quite a bit, and am strongly in agreement with the idea that camarilla games are the pinnacle of the OWoD Vampire experience. Glad to see someone coming out in favor of them. -Roy.
You make a good point. Pacing is everything in a game. In the past two decades games, both table top and electronic, have become more and more fast paced with no believable amount of time between the time your character starts and the moment they hit max power. The only time created a character in tWoD with the a short rise to power it was a member of 4th generation who diablerized his sire in a remote part of the world with no one close enough to his generation or power to challenge. That is the only scenario I could think of where a swift change from fledgling to price of a domain worked without coming of as cheesy or overblown.
I have ONLY played/run Camarilla Vampire games. Every time I run it I make sure I have the scenario of: "The Camarilla is being buttrammed by the Sabbat and the Anarchs. We gotta band together to see another night." This is essential so the coterie doesn't devour itself. I've only used the Sabbat as villains but I allow characters to ally with (or join!) the Anarchs. The computer game "Vampire- the Masquerade: Bloodlines" did this same thing and did it well.
Overall, I agree. The only exception I would take would be to the idea that one cannot run a cam game that has real-time action. While it's not likely to be nightly, or even weekly, it is possible to maintain a pace of sorts. But you have to work it, and the work takes place in setting creation. Deep Space Nine is an example of this. Star Trek universe is conflict-light, so they created a very specific spot to put the station in a high conflict spot. Artificial? Perhaps, but feasible. -Roy.
Thank you, glad you found it useful. The reason a lot of people like the sabbat better comes down to this, a Sabbat game is easy to run & a Cam game isn't. However, when run well a Cam game is so much better.
Glad to see you over here Roy. You can do that but you need to make sure you don't pack the game too tight with stuff, it cannot be a huge event every few game session which is how most people seem to run it, if they use that sort of pacing. I think one of the problems with Cam games is they are a lot harder to run than other sorts of games.
@woodwwad Bloodlines is the 2nd one, yes. The Gent is building a "Let's Play" of it, so that's going to be great. Oh yes! Another Camarilla setting I've used is the players begin in the aftermath of a Cam/Sabbat war. Most vampires are too busy being ash and now there's actually a chance for upward mobility as many positions need to be filled.
I prefer the Sabbat. Sabbat's great for introducing new players who don't really know the game - shovelheads get to learn as they go - and it has a wonderfully fucked up, monstrous culture that just keeps giving with it's diverse rites, paths, internal sects, and bloodlines. Just watch out for Friendly Diablerie, Infernalist Conspiracies, and the Inquisition! The Independent clans that aren't Ravnos are also a blast. Followers of Set are my favorite for a Politics-heavy game - Did you know other clans can actually join the Setites? They have the potential to become a full-blown faction of evangelical gnostic maltheists. The only unique draw the Camarilla has is the Tremere, and that's like saying "I wanna play Mage but without all the cool stuff."
@MisterShade Thank you & right, that's a very good way to do it. Vampire are never the good guys, they are monsters & the cam is just a collection of often old & powerful vampires. In some ways they are even more the bad guys than other sects. Thanks for a great comment.
Yes, they have a bunch of models. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get one and run it, just to give you as you said the feel for it. I'm not sure what sort of games you are use to running but VtM is deemed one of the more unique and often difficult games to run. It is highly rp and character based as opposed to story based.
It's really about playing to strengths and theme both sects exemplify. A good Camarilla game can be thrilling in cloak and dagger intrigue kind of way. The Sabbat are great for stories that show how violent the OWoD can be.
Fascinating video. I don't see why a coterie couldn't work in a Camarilla game though. You can't get anything done without allies in any political situation and there's no reason why vampires can't have friends and loved ones. Which is not to say that they can't betray each other if opportunities arise, provided everyone at the table is on board with that kind of thing.
No, it is a table top role-playing game, also called a story telling game. I have a whole world of darkness playlist on my page here. You might want to have a look through it, it'll walk you through a lot of parts of the game. In the game you take on the role of vampires and play them with other people playing other vampires. One person takes on the role of ST. Let me know what you understand here & what you aren't clear on & I'll try to point you to some videos or answer the questions.
@StellusBattersea Ah thank you very much, I'm always very pleased to have others send me new viewers & greatly appreciate that. Glad you found it useful. I'll have plenty of WOD videos coming in 2012.
@woodwwad We begin as Vampires with a "flashback scene" for the embrace. The embrace is too important to gloss over. Maybe my group and I are too impatient to play the Camarilla "properly", heh. We begin post-embrace and I rarely follow the century-long process of gaining half a dot of status! I can thank you/Rob Pepper/The Gent for getting me interested in the Sabbat though. Only having Cam books, they just seemed like frothing maniacs to me. You three opened my eyes to the Black Hand!
@woodwwad Sounds awesome man, that sounds like a really good time. Need to get myself a proper decent mic, though. If you saw my last vid, that ringing drives me mad! I think as GM's it's kind of our duty to usher in players and make it clear that there is more to the game than fighting and loot grabbing. When you really see that this sheet of paper is more an evolving persona than an avatar to a game, it becomes all the more important, all the more emotional when drama occurs in the game.
No and I don't know why, it certainly should have been. There is no more clearly Sabbat city in the US than the D. There is a New York, Chicago and LA by night for US cities. There is also an Atlanta but it is actually a split book with Wraith and published under the Wraith line. There is a mod that has everything you need to run Boston by Night which I used.
Sure, I'll put it on the list. Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed it. These video, how to run, do seem to get high views. I think you're right, I should make some more of these.
I've been watching your content repeatedly for years. You give the best advice on Camarilla games there is. I'll be playing a Harpy with the Disciplines of the Ramanga and the weakness of the Ramanga and, Xi Dundo in an upcoming game. Do you have any advice on how to thrive as a Camarilla Harpy?
@woodwwad Oh yeah, I typically play very ambitious characters. It comes with its own rewards, you know? An axe to the head can be just as bad as losing face -which can often be followed by axes to heads- and prestige and power is a far greater reward than rubies and gold pieces. I really like how paranoid characters and players become once they get established. It adds a whole new aspect of the game, dark corridors and trapped chests are nothing compared to sycophants and would be supplanters.
Hey dude I really liked this video IV been looking for info on how to play vampire masqarade for a while now.you make the game sound so interesting and I'd like to play. are you using the fantasy ground to play?
@Catachan1brainleaf They are such a great clan. I think they are a little advanced for some players, the way you are talking about playing them (which is quality) will be lost on a vast amount of players. I know you do enjoy those types & do them well. I really think Auspex is a great disciple to pick up for a Nos. Of course animalism, the often dismissed discipline, really works wonders for what you are talking about doing. As you mention this character leads to a lot of additional mood IC.
Ah very good, figured I might be able to give you some insight into your question with those. But I certainly will be doing a video on clan Baali at some point.
@Samwise7RPG VTM is a very hard game to run well, & a game that requires a load of prep work before hand & it likely takes most a few games to get the hang of running it. That's right & that's something a lot of players don't really think about, they just want to make whatever they feel like, but they need to think why would someone embrace this person.
Great vid. I would LOVE to have you as a storyteller for a Camarilla game (I play a french Toreador horror writer veteran of WWI). Could you do a video about how to run a Sabbat chronicle ?Cause Sabbat politics can be fun and tricky as well, besides while forming a pack I've always had a problem to put a Tzimisces, Toré antitribu and a Brujah antitribu in the same pack.
Well, the majority of LARP PC's are all young'uns, usually still in their first lifetime. This leads to a still human sense of time's passage, and thus more frenetic, mortal-esque pacing. And, well, they're PC's. The vampire may have less worries about how long something takes to complete, but the player behind the lick wants it done yesterday. In a game where timescale is dilated, as you suggest, this is less of an issue, and I've run that way, but with LARP, things move... differently. -Roy.
Yeah, I plan to do one once I've finished the clans. I've done vids on the nephandi and on devils though, which will both give you a load of info on playing a baali. It is pretty close to the same deal and I think those are 2 of my better videos.
@Onionkid99 Yeah, Pepper might be the most knowledgable out of the 3 of us on them. Of course the Earl of RPGs & I know them well. I like to start my players as human & work them up. Status is hard won in VTM.
Sure there are a load of sites you can check for finding other gamers. white-wolf com meetups com facebook com and you can check your phone book to see if there are any hobby stores in your local area or if you live near a college if they have a gaming club. Also you might want to check out some of my other videos on the world of darkness, there is a playlist on my page to make it easy to find them.
@Onionkid99 I've seen the idea of young vamps getting a push like that a lot. I've never liked that idea. I think it is better to advance a lot of time if you want the players to get power position, then they should be old & powerful themselves. Do you start your vamp games with the players as humans or vampires?
Do you guys think the Camarilla Guidebook (hardcover) is a must buy? Some people say it's just a retread of things in the Corebook, but its like 224 pages so I don't see how that's possible. I'm just getting started, so I would appreciate any advice in allocating my meager spending dollars.
@TabletopTitan That's right, power protects you & when it falls, it is time for those you've snubbed to get theirs from you, the axes fall. I like that level of paranoia too, it really adds a lot to the game. Yes, the usurpers are many. I've never been a fan of traps. You seem like you have it though, that you get it & that's really good, I like to hear that as I see so many that don't which is a jack to us all. We'll have to get you in on skype at some point, I think you'd fit right in.
@TabletopTitan They don't have Camarilla in the NWOD, they are from the original game. I would think they'd be happy to eat you though. You must taste wonderful. I've played Lost before, it is pretty good. Are you saying your players are the ballz?
@TabletopTitan Right on, I thought you might have been saying they were the ballz. I've heard several of the guys on here talk about not liking the players they have. Mythic themes & great challenges can certainly be fun though. You like the politics though yourself?
@23penguins32 Thanks, yes, you are of course correct, any game can have a heavy political bent to it. & all games should heavily encourage selling, sadly that's not often enough the case as far as I've seen, so I'll keep beating my drum & slipping it in, so it sinks in.
Heh, sweet o A o Currently I'm trying to get back in this rp I'm in on a website, where the events take place in modern Boston and the prince has been killed by werewolves. Really interesting stuff : D
Have a shot at running a couple of my Pathfinder players through Vampire, any ideas on how to offer a vertical slice of what the game is about in a session that runs about 5-6 hours?
@NordtheBarbarian Yeah, sadly you'll run into that a lot. It's something I've bitched about for years. & the reason I started this channel. I figured if it bothers me & I can do something to help fix it, even in the smallest of ways, I need to try or stop complaining.
can i just search for Vampire the masquerade adventures? Since you said that its more character based does it make it easier to run a game? it sounds like it is the perfect game to be able to improv as a ST
I thought the Gehenna books was fairly poor. Yes, Vampire is a, as you say, "more in-depth game." That is the type of game I play and how I write RPG games when working on material for sale.
I play dnd with my group currently and would love to start playing V:TM. I am just confused where to start. What books should i buy and how can i best learn the rules? Reply to this comment or send me a message if you have any time or suggestions. Thanks!
You really need to make sure you understand your npcs well. If you don't the game won't be good. You need to understand what their relationships are with each other and what their goals are. Alien Hunger is the name of one of them.
If done well the violence does not have to be the star of the show, it should be more about the pack working together against a common foe or some other goal. A good sabbat game is all about the virtue to teamwork. Like right now the pack in the game I am running is about to go "liberate" California from the Kuei-Jin.
