This is how I RPG!

Hey folks!
I like playing role-playing games, especially in the World of Darkness. This is how I'm planning to start the next one I lead!

This is a long one, here's a table of contents:

1. How does Brendan do things?
2. What's the world like?
3. How should I create a character?

• How does Brendan do things?

So, I call it a campaign, because that's what people call these things, but really my goal for the game is that it not be campaign-centric. I want us to build a world together. The stories we tell will be less quest/plot oriented and more life/daily goal oriented.

That might seem vague. It is. But I like making things up as we go along, and I LOVE the idea of collaborative storytelling.

I acknowledge that there's a learning curve to thinking in character and the mechanics of the game, so there might be more guidance and quest-like things in the first few sessions.

But sooner than later, I hope the game will be driven by both the desires of players to make things happen and also by players playing their characters' desires.

What will that look like? I honestly don't know. It might be that they'll follow some sort of path to power within the world that I've created, but it might also be that they'll decide that the group wants to move to Paris to open a bakery. That will have its own host of challenges, but whatever they decide will be absolutely fine with me.

There will be, I hope, no choice that I will force on them (or that they will feel forced into) by virtue of "the story needs to go this way".

That being said, a caveat.

I don't know what the intercharacter dynamics will turn out to be. I don't want to force them into some relationship with the other characters by artificial means ('cause that would just break down when inevitable tension arises, if we're playing honestly). Rather, I'd love for them, within the game, before the tension rises, to look for opportunities for their characters to grow attached to the other player characters. Maybe that means doing each other favors in the game. Maybe it means building backstory with the other players that involves closer relationships. Maybe it means creating a blood bond (more on this later) and then roleplaying that to the hilt! Whatever they do, the game will go more smoothly, if they can guide their characters to WANT to be together. I think jockeying for position within the group can make for fun gameplay, but giving up on the group (though it might be the honest choice) will make playing difficult. That doesn't mean it can't happen. It might even be a very exciting moment. But somehow keeping the gang together should be in their mind as a metagaming reason to build in-character relationships.

• What's the world like?

The world of Vampire: the Requiem is much like our own. The major difference is that, unbeknowst to mortals, all the things that lurk in the night are real: ghosts, witches, werewolves, vampires, ghouls, mummies. Of course, these creatures aren't the 2-dimensional monsters of fables, they have complex relationships and personalities as varied as humans do. The impact of these things being real is that the world of darkness is, overall, more miserable and dangerous. Of course, there's still plenty of light and laughter. But every problem is more dire, and the weight of that hangs on the world. For example, while the homelessness problem in L.A. is severe at 60k of the 19 mil who live here, in the World of Darkness Los Angeles, there are 200k homeless in a city of 30million.

They will be playing in Los Angeles. Assume that everything you know about our city is correct, except add that layer. Smog is worse, traffic is worse, education budgets are lower. The rich are even richer (if you can imagine) the poor are even poorer. Angry people are angrier. There were 670 murders in our L.A. last year. In the world of darkness, there were 3 times as many. And more mysterious disappearances by far.

Through this, though, love thrives. It can be a desperate love, but it holds people together, people who are falling apart. Can they find the beauty in a broken down city? I hope so, because they're going to inhabit it.

I promised to tell you about blood bonds... Anyone, vampires included, who drinks the blood of a vampire regularly, will being to fall into a Vinculum: an adoration of supernatural power. It doesn't deprive someone of their mind (necessarily - I mean, this was a problem Renfield had), but it does make them want to do things for their Regnant. If they want to establish Vinculums (Vincula?) with each other, that could give them an excuse for sticking together even if they weren't feeling it. They'd have to roleplay that hard, though.

• How should I create a character?

They're all going to begin as humans, but this is a vampire campaign, so I'd like to know in advance what kind of a vampire they'll want to be. Of course humans don't get to choose, just like babies can't choose their parents, but this ISN'T real life. (FYI).

There are different vampire lineages. They all share many of the same vampire characteristics: drinking blood, lethally "allergic" to sunlight, etc. but each encompasses an archetype of vampire.
Here are the five clan options:
Nosferatu: like the movie of the same name, these ones are fearsome. They literally cause uneasiness in everyone. They might be physically repulsive or simply have that creep air about them. They're also preternaturally strong.
Gangrel: animalistic. They embody the predatory nature of vampires. They might even be mistaken for werewolves by someone who doesn't know better.
Daeva: The opposite end of the spectrum from Nosferatu. Preternaturally attractive. Irresistable. Also generally fascinated by the arts.
Ventrue: Controlling. Forcible mind powers. Consider themselves the aristocrats of the vampires. I think of the Bill Nighy's character in Underworld.
Mekhet: Bookish, seekers of knowledge. I have in my mind's eye, an image of a vampire, who doesn't even really care that he's a vampire, except it gives him eternity with his books. I suppose they needn't be bookish, but they are defined by their intellectual prowess.

Now, instead of building a character sheet first, I'd love it if they write down an idea for who they want their character to be. Tell me about their life story. Tell me physical details about them. Tell me what they love, what they do for a living, what they spend their free time doing, what they want, but haven't gotten yet, their biggest accomplishments. All kinds of stuff.

Then I'll host a big ol dinner party. We'll start the evening as I'm making food talking through all through the game's mechanics and showing where to find information. This might take an hour. Then we'll eat, and while we do, they can start writing putting pencil to paper and making decisions on what the character has mechanically that represents the life story they told me about. Then, I'll take them each one at a time through their Embrace and maybe up to a few months after, depending.After those scenes, they'll have time to fill out the sheet the rest of the way with the things that becoming a vampire has added. And they can play board games with each other or just chat and drink red wine and pretend that it's blood.