Vampire Storytellers Handbook 1 Vampire Storytellers Handbook By Bruce Baugh, Anne Sullivan Braidwood, Deird’re Brooks, Geoffrey Grabowski, Clayton Oliver and Sven Skoog Table of Contents Introduction............................................................................................................................................................................................4 The Most Important Part... ............................................................................................................................................................6 ...And the Most Important Rule .....................................................................................................................................................6 How to Use This Book...................................................................................................................................................................7 The Game as it is Played..............................................................................................................................................................7 Cool, Not Kewl ..............................................................................................................................................................................9 Violence is Prevalent but Desperate...........................................................................................................................................10 Vampire Music ............................................................................................................................................................................10 A Moral Gray Scale.....................................................................................................................................................................11 The Only Thing That Really Matters ...........................................................................................................................................12 Chapter One: The Undead ..................................................................................................................................................................13 How Do Vampires Work?............................................................................................................................................................13 Chapter Two: Among the Nights........................................................................................................................................................20 Clans Are Not Fraternities...........................................................................................................................................................20 Role Models ................................................................................................................................................................................21 Can't We All Just Get Along?......................................................................................................................................................26 Baali ............................................................................................................................................................................................27 Nagaraja......................................................................................................................................................................................30 True Brujah .................................................................................................................................................................................32 New Backgrounds.......................................................................................................................................................................34 New Disciplines...........................................................................................................................................................................36 Storyteller's Option: Temporal Exclusion ....................................................................................................................................41 The High Cost of Not Living ........................................................................................................................................................43 Bloodlines....................................................................................................................................................................................45 Storyteller Characters .................................................................................................................................................................49 The Elders' Game .......................................................................................................................................................................53 Maintaining the Horror.................................................................................................................................................................57 Downtime Systems .....................................................................................................................................................................61 Chapter Three: The Storyteller's Craft...............................................................................................................................................64 Play Balance in Vampire.............................................................................................................................................................64 It's a Dark and Unfair World........................................................................................................................................................66 Betrayal.......................................................................................................................................................................................67 Using Theme, Concept, Mood and Setting .................................................................................................................................69 Gothic and Punk, or Beauty and the Beast.................................................................................................................................76 Control.........................................................................................................................................................................................78 Offices and Titles ........................................................................................................................................................................78 Tokens of Favor ..........................................................................................................................................................................80 The Long and the Short and the Tall...........................................................................................................................................84 Storyteller's Screens ...................................................................................................................................................................87 Experience For New Characters.................................................................................................................................................89 Gehenna .....................................................................................................................................................................................91 Advanced Storytelling Techniques..............................................................................................................................................92 Chapter Four: The Troupe ..................................................................................................................................................................98 Alternate Character Creation ......................................................................................................................................................98 Fine-Tuning the Process.............................................................................................................................................................98 Merits and Flaws.......................................................................................................................................................................101 Vampire Storytellers Handbook 2 Problem Players........................................................................................................................................................................105 Adversarial Chronicles ..............................................................................................................................................................105 Real Problem Players ...............................................................................................................................................................107 Storytelling Degeneration..........................................................................................................................................................112 Optional Rule: The Secrets of the Soul.....................................................................................................................................114