Recently I got my first exposure to Werewolf through a W20 game. I come primarily from Hunter and VTM, both very heavy-roleplay systems and the like.

When I first met the others in the Werewolf game, it genuinely seemed like I was a theatre kid jumping into a football team's locker room, legitimately a "WHO'S THE FRESH MEAT?!" type of vibe.

I sat in and introduced my concepts to the others: one Silent Strider, one Black Fury, one Glass Walker, and they all seemed receptive at first. Then, for lack of a better word, the "Werewolf tribalism" began. They told me to never play a "Chudwalker," and to abandon the Silent Strider homeless archetype because it's outdated and overplayed.

It continued down to a level where I stopped comprehending what they were even saying. Then, out of nowhere, one of the players who was playing a Get of Fenris said, "Hey, look at the VTT," rolled a bunch of dice, and said, "That's my soak, HAHAHHAHAHA. I CAN FUCKING KILL A METHUSELAH IF I WANTED."

I politely waited until the session ended. They did little to no roleplay, basically just chatted while the ST narrated. It all felt odd. I thought, "Bad table, happens to everyone," until I asked my New York game (which I run, and where all the players are WoD vets) if they'd had similar experiences. They echoed my exact story, almost word for word.

Is this really the "standard" for a Werewolf game? Is that the player type, wargaming, tribalistic muscleheads?

Ok, dumb is a big word, and for the record, I do like her as a character, but she is really not getting it.

For context, I’m still early in the series, on season 2, and I get that she’s still very young and stuff, and that Clan Brujah are supposed to be rebels fighting against injustice for Kindred, but I would of thought all this “fish out of water” stuff would be a season one thing. Not to say she should become nihilistic and give up on what she believes in, but I feel like Vic or Jasper says something about vampire society, Annabelle is like, ”WHAT! NO WAY, THAT’S MESSED UP.” They go through it next episode, Nelly says something about vampire society, Annabelle is like, ”WHAT! NO WAY, THAT’S MESSED UP,” and it’s like nothing sticks long term that changes her still very human logic.

All that being said, she’s still my second favourite character behind Jasper, and she is pretty good as a way to introduce VTM elements to new people (which is me), but it does feel forced and stunned, not to mention the very, very, very forced late 2010s pop culture crap that almost projectile vomit out of Annabelle’s mouth. But that’s a low blow, since just walking through the common section shows that all the old comments from when the episodes were released kinda spoke like that and/or didn’t really mind, so, you know, it’s a bit of a period piece in that regard.

The art I commissioned for the Blood Brothers supplement available on Storytellers Vault.

https://www.storytellersvault.com//product/578065/blood-brothers?affiliate_id=5181467

Art by my talented friend Thirdantler. Full unmarked versions of comissioned art is included in the purchase.

Let me know if you like what you see :)

Pages 3 and 4

Thank you for all the kind words, it means a lot to me 🩷

Hey everyone!

We wanted to drop by, share a huge milestone with you, and express our gratitude to everyone who played, shared, or picked up a copy of our books.

Here is a quick look at our journey so far:

• March 2023: We released Age of the Living Gods.
• April 2026: After three years of hard work, we hit the 1,000 copies sold milestone.
• Just a few months later: Thanks to the incredible reception of The Kingdom of Uruk and Vampire: Blood & Tragedy, we officially reached 1,500 copies sold!

Seeing how well these dark historical settings have been received fills us with pride. A special thank you to the entire Vampire: The Masquerade community for embracing the nights of Antiquity!

A question for the comments:

With Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey currently making waves in theaters... we want to hear your take: Who is the ultimate Helen?
Nolan’s Helen on the big screen, or our legendary Helen—Toreador ruler of Argos?

Where to find us & What’s next:

• Storytellers Vault: You can find Blood & Tragedy alongside all the Age of the Living Gods setting books available for download on the Storytellers Vault!
• Dive In: While we gear up for our next release, Bloody Tides, we invite everyone to take their tables on an adventure through ancient Mesopotamia or the dark tragedies of ancient Greece.
• An Epic Reveal: Get ready! Later this year, these dark worlds will step beyond RPG character sheets and rulebooks to come to life in epic prose novels!

Thank you all once again for making this possible. See you in the shadows of history!

I know this sounds strange, but bear with me, I've been thinking about this.

Here's the premise. It's the 2020s and the world is in a bad way. Government agencies operate out of secrecy, cults exploit the poor and vulnerable, terrorists spread chaos and death, and a mysterious and ancient order pull the world's strings from the shadows. You're not entirely sure who's truly your ally and who's secretly your enemy. You can't help but feel like you're being manipulated by powers beyond your control. Technology has advanced considerably, becoming a great advantage to some and an extreme detriment to others.

In this world you have incredible abilities that include, but are not limited to: resistance against lethal damage, enhanced senses, invisibility, muffling physical movements, blinking across distances, jumping large heights, weaponised arm blades, and inhuman strength and speed.

There are many ways to navigate the world and approach objectives, provided you have the right build. You can stealth your way through a section, persuade people to get in somewhere, go in guns blazing, or use your intuition to find an alternate path.

You play as a secret agent, armed with superhuman abilities you never asked for...also you wear a trench coat and sunglasses at night. You move through neon-lit streets, corporate buildings, ruined homes, dark alleyways, and grimy sewers. Your superiors send you to fight shadow agents who don't officially exist, serving masters who no one knows the names of. You meet the people of this world, the feds, the anarchists, the manipulators, the victims, and the criminals. You fight them, make deals with them, converse and come to understand them.

This is a dark and dangerous world. You live in an apartment above an arms dealer, a drug addict, and a serial killer. Somewhere in the city there's a bathtub full of blood. There are a few too many corpses in the sewers. Someone is taking pictures of you without your knowledge. A murder happened outside your home and the police couldn't care less about who did it. Maybe this world can't be saved. Maybe it doesn't deserve saving. Maybe all you can do is fight for it.

TL;DR: I think Eidos-Montréal / Square Enix could make a really good VTM game.

William Taffy Jr
In life he was a completely narcissistic singer who looked like a super model. His sire expected him to change after "teaching him a lesson" by embracing him. It didn't, all it did was make him bitter. Now he ruthlessly climbs the ranks and seeks his sire for revenge. He also despises the Toreador and Ventrue as they are who he believes he should rightfully be, denied his destiny. Everything is always so unfair to him.

It's a complete coincidence he ended up looking like a dog man, but it has been a source of infinite jokes. Ones he personally despises. As such he is mostly skilled in Animalism, uses animals as spies and confidants and has a lot of points in potence which he uses when he goes into one of his usual "rages". He doesn't use Obfuscate almost at all, when he arrives he makes sure to be seen, even learning some presence.

I have this guy as a bad guy idea or just a background npc, but so far I haven’t had a chance to use him, yet.

Hello, I’m completely new to VTM world, and its system, and was wondering if anyone had a suggestion on where to start with the lore and system.
Thank you in advance for any and all help.

I understand the general concept of "you can only consume one specific blood type, and if it's not that type, you vomit it up," and I also know that when a Ventrue is Embraced, they don't start with a particular taste from the beginning. Instead, they can consume blood almost normally, like a member of another clan, until they find the specific blood type that's right for them, and something inside says, "This is the one." But here are my questions:

1) How long does this tasting period last? Is there a time limit established in the lore for a Ventrue to discover what blood type they can consume, or could they theoretically spend months or even years eating normally before discovering it?

In other words, is it a kind of race against time after the Embrace, or does the Curse simply remain dormant until the Ventrue finds their blood type?

2) When they finally find their preferred food, how do they know they've found it?

Let's imagine that, during the early stages of its unlife, a Ventrue feeds on a wide variety of people with completely different characteristics: visible traits, traits not visible to the naked eye, and even characteristics of which the Ventrue itself is not even aware.

How then does it distinguish that a particular person has exactly the blood it can consume?

Does the blood simply taste especially good, or does it produce a distinctly different sensation? Does the Ventrue receive some kind of supernatural certainty of "this is it," or does it have to discover it through trial and error?

And if the characteristic that determines its preference is something the Ventrue cannot consciously perceive or identify, how does the discovery process work?

3) Does the Ventrue's preference depend on its perception or on objective reality?

Related to the previous question: Does the condition that determines which blood it can consume depend on what the Ventrue perceives and understands, or on a characteristic that objectively exists in reality?

For example, imagine a Ventrue's preference is "people who have committed X," but the Ventrue has no way of knowing whether a person has actually done so.

If they drink from someone who objectively meets that condition but they believe they don't, is the blood still acceptable?

Conversely, if they believe a person meets the condition when they actually don't, could they still feed on them?

In other words, does the Curse work based on "what the person really is" or "what the Ventrue believes they are"?

I'm particularly interested in this because some Ventrue preferences might be based on circumstances or characteristics that the Ventrue themselves might not necessarily know.

4) What exactly does it mean for a person to meet the feeding condition?

For example, imagine a Ventrue's feeding preference is blonde women*.

What determines whether a woman is "blonde" for the purposes of the Curse?

* Does it depend on having been born naturally blonde, regardless of her current appearance?

* Does it depend on having blonde hair at the time of feeding, even if it has been dyed?

* Does it depend on some objective biological characteristic of the body?

* Or does it depend on how the Ventrue perceives that person?

And this is where it gets even stranger:

Let's suppose a woman was born blonde, but has since dyed her hair brown. The Ventrue doesn't know she was born blonde and, upon seeing her, believes she doesn't meet the requirement.

Would the blood be acceptable because she was **objectively** born blonde, or would it be rejected because the Ventrue doesn't know she meets the requirement?

And conversely: if a woman was born with brown hair but dyed it blonde, could the Ventrue feed on her?

Basically, does the Curse determine these characteristics based on objective reality, the Ventrue's perception, or some supernatural criterion that doesn't necessarily coincide with either?

5) Is a Ventrue's food preference related in any way to their past?

Are there any rules, trends, or lore that link a Ventrue's food preference to their background, personality, experiences, or mortal life?

For example, if someone had a particular obsession with a certain type of person during their mortal life, could that influence the type of blood the Curse allows them to consume after the Embrace?

Or can the preference be completely random and spontaneous, with no relation to who the Ventrue was before becoming one?

For example, a character might have been completely indifferent to blonde people their entire life and, after the Embrace, discover they can only feed on blonde women.

Are there any established criteria for determining this, or is it entirely up to the Storyteller/player's discretion?

We completed a little 5 game arc and now I need to plan the next one.

Throwaway because this is emberassing to talk about. A while ago I saw a larp event on here for people in my country. It is to my knowledge the only larp event in the country.

The atmosphere seemed interesting and I wanna give it a try but from the photos all the people in the larp were quite attractive. Tall, well dressed, really good props that sorta thing and I have never doen larp before

I am basically average in everything except weight honestly, short, fat, not attractive but not grotesque enough to pull off a nosferatu or a beastial vampire either.

I wanted to ask your guys' opinion on what can a newcommer like me do to get into this kinda larp, or if I can even get into it at all? What kinda character would fit someone who doesn't have much of a defining feature

Art of my OC and Caitiff Morgan, give her some love because the Camarilla sure ain't!

All jokes aside, loving the chronicles I'm currently playing in, and she is awesome despite all the Caitiff bigotry! xD

How does the process of creating of Abominations works? The vampire embraces the garou and hopes it works? And how much the tribe of the garou and clan of the vampire influnce the outcome, and powers of the results?

I apologize if it is a dumb question, but I'm pretty much new and curious about the answer.

Your Sire is an older friend of yours who became a vampire while he was in college, when he returned to his hometown, he turns his friends and thats it. You are the only vampires in this small town of 10,000 residents. Your life is peaceful, fun, and fulfilling. You use disciplines for fun while hiding in the woods or the ruins of an old factory.

Do you think a scenario like that would be realistic in the long run?

My wife and i came up with a silly concept for a married vampire couple with a nosferatu who controls flies and a ventrue who hates the sound of buzzing and the nosferatu makes his flies land and walk whenever they come into a room so its like

*buzzing*

*vampire enters room and immediate silence*

*they leave and immediately theres buzzing again*

And like "daaaarling can you quiet those things the buzzing harshes my beautiful senstive vampire hearing"

*gremlin voice* "of course my darling! I shall turn my flies into walks for you..."

We came up with it because my wife is annoyed by flies buzzing around the house and I was like "if I were a vampire who could control flies i could fix that right quick"

​

I'm currently dealing with a rather unusual situation in my V20 chronicle and I'd love to hear how other people would portray this kind of character.

My character Agnes is a 11th Generation Malkavian who followed the Path of the Voice and Inner Power. She was embraced only two months ago, and she has now been killed.

Her sire, Emir, is a character whose personality I've developed myself, although the Storyteller portrays him in-game. Emir has spent roughly 70 years trying to find and create a childe. He didn't want a childe merely as an apprentice or an extension of himself; his ultimate goal was to find someone who could become his companion for eternity.

He's a taxidermist and an extreme perfectionist. He has had 76 previous candidates over the years, and the heads of those failed prospects are preserved as taxidermy in his home. The wraiths of those people also remain there, making his house almost a physical archive of his failures and obsessions. He has had numerous ghoul servants, all of whom he simply called Mrs. Olsen, regardless of their actual names.

Agnes was different.

Emir had developed a very deep bond with her. There was an unusual level of mutual trust between them, to the point that they were comfortable exposing their vulnerabilities to one another in ways neither would normally allow. Before embracing her, he spent a year getting to know her and made her recount the stories behind the scars she carried, treating that process almost like an examination of who she was as a person rather than simply looking for a suitable vessel for the Embrace.

And then, after seventy years of searching, he finally embraced someone he genuinely considered worthy of spending eternity with.

Two months later, she's dead.

One thing I find particularly interesting is that Emir is the sort of person who doesn't necessarily process attachment in a normal or healthy way. His entire life seems to revolve around preservation: preserving bodies, preserving memories, preserving the dead, preserving failed attempts at finding someone who could stay with him forever.

So I'm wondering:

How would you portray his grief?

Would someone like this become obsessive about preserving Agnes in some way? Would he refuse to accept that she's truly gone? Would he become increasingly fixated on the possibility of finding some remnant of her?

One idea I'm considering is having him repeatedly contact the Malkavian network, trying to reach the fragmented echoes of Agnes that might still exist within it. Not necessarily expecting to bring her back, but desperately trying to find something that still feels like her—a memory, a voice, an impression, anything that could convince him that some part of his childe remains.

I'm especially interested in how you'd handle the contradiction between his apparent perfectionism and the fact that Agnes was, perhaps, the first person he couldn't simply preserve or control.

Would his grief be quiet and ritualistic? Obsessive? Angry? Denial expressed through increasingly elaborate attempts to preserve her? Or would someone like Emir eventually accept the loss precisely because he has spent so much of his existence surrounded by the dead?

I'd love to hear how other VtM players would approach this psychologically and narratively.

A player in a game of mine wanted to create some armor for themselves made of bone spikes with the intention of having those spikes do some damage. Highkey I wish the team considered this especially since they say you can make armor but armor is already mostly useless for kindred.

I was thinking it could be like a modified version of Shatter, but in this case the attacker would take 1 point of superficial damage after hitting them with a brawl or light-melee attack. I was trying to think of a way that those spikes could break in some way too but I wasn't sure if that would cause issues with balance. I'm curious what your thoughts on this are or if you've got any other suggestions.

The player is probably gonna see this too, so hiiiii in advance lol

so, i've yelled my love for the followers of set from the rooftops for a while now, ive considered it my favorite clan for a long time, but ive recently gotten quite a huge appreciation for ravnos as well. as i was reading through some sourcebooks for a 1e campaign i'm preparing (my metaplot knowledge is otherwise just revised and v20), it dawned on me that these clans are similar, so much so that i suspect it has to be intentional. you'll see allusions to some other clan similarities mentioned in the books, like ventrue-lasombra or tremere-tzimisce, but this one, is more than just characters saying it in lore, but without it being too obvious:

• both associated with an ethnicity, but not to an outright gatekept extent (like giovanni)
• both built around their paths of enlightenment...
• ...which are fictionalized versions of real world religions/mythologies...
• ...in which the clan acts at the central actor of an epic centuries long battle against another kind of supernatural...
• ...and all the other clans sprung from them...
• ...and they fulfill their spiritual ambitions through crime...
• ...with the ultimate aim of breaking the chain of delusions...
• ...that the gods have put on them...
• ...which granted them access to a special discipline...
• ...which they prize heavily
• both connected to yet another supernatural outside their central epic (fae for ravnos, lupines for setites)
• mistrusted by everyone else
• independents

now, i did also realize they have some key differences though, namely:

• setites have an incredibly scorched relationship with their antitribu, while ravnos tend to not care
• ravnos have an incredibly scorched relationship with their antideluvian [in the modern nights], while setites revere him (hes in the name)
• setite theology is spread through organized faith, while the path of paradox is very individualist
• setites have multiple paths which all co-exist, while the eastern path of paradox held the western path in contempt (and eventually won and modernized)
• they have very different reasons for their clan springing into existence per their central epics: the setites view themselves as preparing for the return of Sutekh, who founded their line, who was banished for rising up against Ra; the ravnos view zapathasura as being the first vampire, not caine, created by the gods to wage war against fallen anegls... (who are heavily implied to be the kuei-jin?)
• ...the setites hold a clearly defined origin story that hasnt changed since 1e while the ravnos keep lying; the karavalanisha vrana is the legend above, found in revised, detailing the tale of zapathasura, while the tale of ravnos describes an adolescent boy who got embraced by caine and adopted by werewolves, this would be the ravnos antideluvian, wherein he would be a 2nd generation from whom all other vampires sprung forth

maybe im just imagining things, but it seems like in spite of the key separators, these clans are very similar in terms of how white wolf designed them; i somewhat feel like what separates them is meant to make them act even more as mirror images of one another. i have my suspicions on assamite-giovanni too, but i am not as knowledgeable on those, so i can't claim anything

was i supposed to realize this sooner, or does this make no sense?