How Bad Guys can be Good Genre

In OWBN, the word genre has a specific meaning, that needs to be explained to non OWBN players. Being "In genre" is being consistent with the setting materials in terms of of character and story. The idea is, there are certain established norms regarding certain IC groupings, such as Clans, or Tribes or Sects, and these should be portrayed by the PCs appropriately. The easy example is Black Furies. Black Furies are a tribe of amazonian werewolves with Grecian roots. Playing a male Black Fury would probably be considered "out of genre" or outside of the genre conventions for Black Furies.

Of course if it was always that simple, I wouldn't be writing this. Lets take a look at a more complicated example, and one, in OWBN, which will hopefully upset some people. The Tremere Clan.

The Tremere are a group of vampiric magic users organized as part of a hierachical "Pyramid" which is supposed to be merit based in outlook. Also they are protective of their magic, and strongly discourage teaching them to outsiders.

Since the Tremere are a meritocracy and a hierarchy, often people feel that a dutiful tremere that obeys their superiors is in genre, and a Tremere that, say, rebels against their superiors or teaches their magic to others, is out of genre.

I think this suggests that only good in character behavior is consistent with portrayal. I think that's a simplification. Certainly, not every Tremere should be rebelling and/or teaching magic to passing strangers. It's important that there be a norm. But I believe that so long as that norm is present, characters that rebel against it, or undermine it are consistent.

In the case of the Tremere, the published source books list spells and magical effect that help detect rebels. They list punishments for individuals that cross the line. These are often pointed to when people say things like, "No Tremere, In genre, should be teaching magic to outsiders."

I think they point out the opposite. The fact that the genre goes over consequences means its something that happens often enough to have normal punishments. The fact that there are spells that are helpful in dealing with these issues, means those spells are meant to see play.


So I don't think Tremere, or any group, rebelling against the norm is "out of genre." There are other issues with characters doing so, but they aren't inherently violations of the setting expectations.

I do think that characters that do so will likely be caught and punished, since that's what usually happens when you buck the norm in a strict hierarchy. Characters getting away with breaking the IC rules of the clan that tweak their superior's nose about it and generally broadcast their presence will get slapped. I also think that a norm has to be maintained. Such characters need to be treated as abberations. IC, characters that toe the line need to be clearly rewarded for doing so, and characters that break from it need to be punished, or you risk changing the norms themselves. And characters that break the rules need to be watched to make sure they don't spoil the fun of players of characters that cleave closer to the IC expectations.

But there are opportunities for stories consistent with the norms of the setting where characters deviate from those norms. Not just rebels... tyrants are another good example. A tyrannical Camarilla Prince might abuse the laws of the Camarilla for their own benefit, grant unfair rewards to their sychophants and heap abuse on those who question them to silence critics. These aren't the only types, there are thieves, liars, traitors, subversives, spies.

Is that in genre? Yes, there are tyrants that break the laws, or twist them to their own benefit. There are bad guys. Sometimes the bad guys win. Usually they lose.

Why do I bring these up? It's not because I want to justify some guy teaching his friend magic when he shouldn't. It's not because I think that rebels and tyrants shouldn't ever be held accountable for breaking rules.

It's because I think that bad guys make for good enjoyable stories. Dealing with somebody who's betrayed your group because it's abused him, who forces you to question your loyalty, can be a good story. Taking down a tyrant who claims they acted out of the best interests of your sect, or even with the sect leaders blessings, is a good story. Being the rebel, and trying to make a change happen, that can be a good story, win or lose.

And I'm usually a fan of a good story. If it's in genre.

What do you think?

Running Sabbat Fights - an examination of a recent game event

Recently, a nearby game ran a big Camarilla fighting the Sabbat  event.  A city,which was previously Anarch, fell to the Sabbat, and the Camarilla domain nearby decided to organize an effort to take it back before the Sabbat dug in.  

I think the STs did a pretty good job.  However I wanted to offer my thoughts on what they did right, and what they might have done better.  I also want to hear what happened with groups different from mine, so I can build up a better picture.   I did manage to talk to a person who acted as both a PC in the background and played NPCs with extensive Sabbat experience, who have me his perspective.

The game is ordinarily 20 - 30 players, either local or visitors.  I think they had something like 70-90 total for this, based on eyeballing the crowd. (Edit: another player estimated 50 - 70, possibly not including late arrivals) The STs decided to not scale up the threat, and simply make the enemies smarter.  I'm not exactly clear how successful this was.

Non-Combatants/Influence

The STs asked some players as well as STs from other games to act as STs for scenes.  I think they were suprised by the number, since they ended up asking somebody to run the non-combatant masquerade covering portion without giving them any real instructions.

This lead directly to a significant amount of boredom for the players working to use influence.  Sure, we used influence to cover up the masquerade.  But there was no real influence use opposing us, despite the use of the dark epics system.  I would have liked to have seen Sabbat lasombra manipulating influence and prepping things from their end, so that it could have been a combat of influence... their sheriff deputies being blocked by our police contacts, The Camarilla media cover ups being avoided by their video bloggers.  

The ST, who had been given limited instruction, narrated a partial Sabbat fight when the Sabbat shadow stepped (a form of teleportation between shadows) in, but was unwilling to push very hard with it. So the Influence mongers fought for one round, against doppelgangers, then magically fell asleep, and it was called flavor.  A small and relatively weak Sabbat Pack, a group of shovelheads, or war ghouls would have been interesting.

On reflection, if no real challenge was going to be thrown at the influence mongers, their efforts should have been handwaved, with each individual getting a chance to do describe something great and creative they did with influence, and they should have been given the opportunity to play Sabbat NPCs.  

Combat Groups

There were three combat groups, each at different levels of ability.  The most powerful characters fought the most powerful NPCs.  The least powerful fought shovelheads (mass created indoctrinated vampires who are meant as a numerous distraction rather then a serious threat).  I believe this was a good strategy to allow players of different levels of experience and different abilities fight participate.  Some players acted as STs or NPC shovelheads. I am not sure to what extent that worked, but I will edit this when I find out.  I would guess that numerous PCs acting with unfamiliar sheets may have delayed matters.  That of course assumes they had pregen sheets. (edit, they did not, but made base characters, or had them made for them. )

Celerity/Extra Actions

Combat in a lot of cases lasted in real life several hours, and in game several seconds.  A lot of this has to do with a pernicious power... Celerity.  Celerity allows multiple actions within one round.  While in character the character acts faster, out of character, they act slower.  I believe, for massive combats, it may be useful to simplify celerity, and have the  third and fifth levels function normally, and the 1st, 2nd and fourth levels (which give extra actions, though the 1st may or may not depending on the game) give extra traits, or a retest.  This would have two effects.  It would speed up combat actions, and it would prevent celerity from giving those who had it more time with the STs then players who lack it.  

The game however did simplify the off-hand action, which in the mail rule book allows an additional action if one risks extra traits, to give an extra trait, and adjusts the amount of extra traits bid based on wether one has the merit, Ambidexterous, and a relevant ability aptitude (like firearms: double pistols).  I believe that an extra trait is not enough, when comparing to two handed weapons, and advocate an extra trait along with an additional point of damage, but I digress.

 Horror 

I believe the game did a relatively good job at creating a sense of horror, from the stories I heard.  The Sabbat in one location attacked a high school dance, simply to terrorize mortals and the Camarilla.  One Sabbat member killed a girl a Kindred was trying to help escape with a shot to the head that splattered the would be rescuer with blood, then taunted them by saying something like, "you can't save everyone, isn't it a pain to be noble?"

Then they released what are known as hell hounds, monsterous supernaturally adjusted and empowered dogs with an appetite for blood, into the dance.  

However I am not sure, to what extent, the players were challenged by their own inhumanity and monsterous nature.  The Sabbat are monsters, but when telling a story about the Camarilla fighting them, they can be effectively used as a dark reflection.  They should place Camarilla players in a situation where they have to choose between horrible choices... being unable to heal in combat, or killing a innocent person.  Letting a Sabbat pack get away to continue their rampage, or levelling an inhabited apartment building.  

Which brings me too.

Humanity

I know many STs make players throw challenges to keep their humanity after killing Sabbat.  Perhaps just as many don't.  After all, it can be argued that killing the bad guys is good.  I disagree with the later however.  

Vampire is not a game intended to have moral absolutes, or easy answers.  Actions can both be ostensibly good, can be completely justified and nonetheless morally damaging.  This is because of the nature of the beast.  I'll be writing a larger essay on this issue, but I believe fighting Sabbat justifies humanity challenges because the violence, and bloodshed, and killing strengthen the beast.  Keeping one's morals is about feeling guilty, and I'd let any person kill Sabbat and not feel guilty, assuming they agreed to lower their humanity.  Because it's not about who you kill.  It's about the fact that you chose to kill.  

In any case, I don't know the extent that people were encouraged to throw chops (edit some did, but perhaps not everyone who should have), but I did, and felt guilty for injuring the Sabbat and seeking glory, instead of working to help others escape.

Pre-event stuff

there were several things that happened prior to the event night that I thought deserved comment.  

One PC, intimately involved in the planning process, had been asked if they were willing to have their character screwed over by the ST, without details.  They agreed, and the ST decided that they were attacked and controlled by dominate to give information before finally breaking free.  This lead to some great scenes for a variety of players, and an ongoing storyline for some of those in the know.  

Also the Sabbat spent the previous game doing some general attempts to breach the masquerade and damage Camarilla interests, in an attempt to create problems for the Camarilla and probe their responses.  They attacked a hospital transformer (with no real effect on hospital function), a blood bank, and a bus (making the blood driver's blood boil from a distance).  Frankly, I thought the blood bank attack was good, but the rest seem disjointed and ineffective.  I would have liked to see some more effective attacks that served as double threats, as well as attacks that .  Sabbat dressed as police using disciplines and shooting people in shopping district.  ghouling and releasing animals from the Oakland zoo.  Making a Berkeley Lecturer's blood burn. Driving an Armoured Car into a Police station. 

Additional Thoughts

Having talked to a few people who witnessed combat.  I think I can say that the STs were not as well prepared as they could be.  Elders who should have been wily enough to challenge powerful PCs... or better yet, simply avoided them and reaked havoc.  As well, more STs would definitely have served the game better.  Shovelheads attacked in small groups, and were easily defeated, instead of being a real threat.  Finally, there was a lack of ST communication.  A set of Radios would have allowed the STs to keep in touch.

I also think that differing options that the STs didn't attempt would have been interest.  A Player who was unhappy with his PC volunteered to have him be killed by the Sabbat, and ended up playing a shovelhead.  I think it would have been interesting if that PC had been replaced by a Sabbat member.  The same player could have had an integral role, acted as an informant, and otherwise disrupted the Camarilla.

I think it would have been interesting if the victory was more pyhrric, with more Camarilla dead, more infrastructure destroyed, more breaches to cover, etc.  It seems like everything happened incredibly neatly, and aside from the volunteer I believe there was only one PC death.

There were also no assassination attempts.  I think attacking (and possibly killing) one of the PCs in charge would have made the story more interesting either way.

I also wonder, if things had gone differently, and the Camarilla had lost, If that would not have made for a better story.  Less satisfying for the players in the short term... but they were attacking like the Sabbat, in a series of nightime raids by groups on holdings of the other side.  In a toe to toe match, the Sabbat has the greater martial focus, so mindless violence should tilt the advantage in their favor.  The Camarilla could then plan and scheme and succeed by clever strategems instead of brute force.  

Gold Star Method of dealing with new Players

This was tested at Kublacon 2008, and reportedly worked very well.

Make up a bunch of pregen character sheets.

Contact established players and arrange for their characters to know or be otherwise related to one or more of the pregens. It's better if multiple people are.

List the relations on the pregen sheet.
If somebody uses the pregen, make sure the established player remembers how they know the pregen.

Give the new player a gold star sticker to wear, or other prominent symbol, that indicates, "new player, playing a pregen."

Basically the idea is to get new players playing, not have them spend the whole game making a character. making a character when you don't know the game is time consuming and generally fun killing. Most new players are there to have fun, not to do paperwork.

Having the gold star means everybody knows to help the player, go OOC to help with rules, establish that they know each other, treat nice etc.

New players are often treated badly. Players try to take advantage of them or just don't act well towards them. A friend of mine went to an OWBN game in the midwest, and was yelled at by the player of the Prince. She had given no indication that she was an experienced roleplayer, but she told me that she almost didn't come back. I don't think a new player would have come back.

I think in general, establishing a new player symbol, and rewarding those who interact with the new player and if necessary, disciplining those who try to take advantage, will serve to help recruit players and get them to stay in game.