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View Full Version : [NWoD]Game Mentality... need to adjust.



Totally Guy
2009-04-19, 05:46 AM
I played my first session of Vampire the Requiem yesterday.

The first half of the session was very much like my previous experiences with D&D but the second half... was mindblowing.

It turned out that one of the PCs had engineered an entire plot against my character from the very beginning. He'd organised events so that he could commit a murder and frame me for it. I walked into every trap he'd set during the first half thinking that the ideas were all my own. Then when I was framed all signs pointed to me right down to false motivation, capability and even a cover-up plan was attributed back to me.

The session continued like a well done TV show with more twists and a natural conclusion that had the good guys (including me) succeed despite seemingly insurmountable odds and me unable to do anything about anything due to being tied up outside, I would have died at sunrise.

The bad thing was that I was getting ready to just leave at one point. I'd been utterly crushed by a fellow player in a group where we'd never even had an interparty conflict under any other system.

I think it's clear I need to change the way I'm thinking in order to allow this culture shift to work for me.

Attilargh
2009-04-19, 06:05 AM
I must say I admire your patience. I'd probably snapped something bitter to the manipulator about wanting to play my character, handed him the character sheet and went home to mope.

Out of curiousity, why did he do all that?

Totally Guy
2009-04-19, 06:10 AM
Well patience was my virtue after all.

We were trying to find a missing Nosferatu. Which we did, but it was a corpse. However the sneaky player in question knew that this missing guy was a Dialbolist, I still don't know what that means but I guess it make him a baddie.

So when I rescued the guy.. Or at least his corpse, I had a suspicion that he might revive at some point... the other player had a motivation to kill him. He just needed someone else to take the blame. Nothing personal, he said.:smallmad:

Attilargh
2009-04-19, 06:25 AM
I think you mean "diablerist" which means the Nossie had drunk the blood of another vampire. Which is rather Politically Incorrect and a generally pretty despicable affair that I may be somewhat mistaken.

1of3
2009-04-19, 06:30 AM
No. Diabolist is a term in vampire. It has nothing to do with diablery.

It means that the character made a deal with some devil.

Comet
2009-04-19, 07:25 AM
Backstabbing is a very central part of the games array of themes.
I'm glad you didn't get angry with the other player. You simply had different expectations for the game.

If you think you can enjoy playing slightly against the other players, cool. It can create heaps of interesting RP possibilities.

If not, you should talk with the group. Vampire can be played without the players going after each other's throats. You can team up and screw the NPCs over instead. :smallsmile:

The Rose Dragon
2009-04-19, 07:31 AM
Vampire can be played without the players going after each other's throats.

...heretic.

comicshorse
2009-04-19, 08:55 AM
In my experience the support of a coterie you can trust is a resource more valuable than gold. In a world where their are much older and more powerful vampires out to screw you over the support of other low-gen vampires may be the only thing you have going for you. And once you blow this trust its gone forever.
On the other hand if the prize is valuable enough it may be worth shattering your coterie and reputation for trustworthiess.
Of course if he did you over and made it look like he was completely innocent then he gets the prize and keeps his reputation. This is back-stabbing of the highest order :smallsmile:

Totally Guy
2009-04-19, 12:02 PM
I think you mean "diablerist" which means the Nossie had drunk the blood of another vampire. Which is rather Politically Incorrect and a generally pretty despicable affair

In fact that is right.

I must have meant diablerist, we found out he'd been doing the vampire blood drinking but I didn't equate the word with that action. Also, Diabolist is a more common word, so without seeing it written down it, and without knowing the word Diablerist I must have assumed it was a mispronunciation.

Anyway, I'm really not used to thinking in this way. What would be a good low level backstabbing scheme to get me started?

Maybe you have your own stories to inspire my selfish side.

Riffington
2009-04-19, 03:51 PM
In my experience the support of a coterie you can trust is a resource more valuable than gold. In a world where their are much older and more powerful vampires out to screw you over the support of other low-gen vampires may be the only thing you have going for you. And once you blow this trust its gone forever.
On the other hand if the prize is valuable enough it may be worth shattering your coterie and reputation for trustworthiess.
Of course if he did you over and made it look like he was completely innocent then he gets the prize and keeps his reputation. This is back-stabbing of the highest order :smallsmile:

Absolutely right, but one more thing: just remember that at least one other member of your coterie feels the same way :smallwink:

TheOOB
2009-04-19, 09:37 PM
Really, when I GM one of the few absolute requirements is that the player characters are able to work functionally as a group, though if you are going to break that rule, nWoD is the system to do it with.

Oracle_Hunter
2009-04-20, 11:59 PM
The session continued like a well done TV show with more twists and a natural conclusion that had the good guys (including me) succeed despite seemingly insurmountable odds and me unable to do anything about anything due to being tied up outside, I would have died at sunrise.

The bad thing was that I was getting ready to just leave at one point. I'd been utterly crushed by a fellow player in a group where we'd never even had an interparty conflict under any other system.

I think it's clear I need to change the way I'm thinking in order to allow this culture shift to work for me.
Yeah, culture shock can be rough. Vampire has a strong air of political intrigue in it, so this sort of thing can happen. I am surprised that a fellow coterie member would set up an ally like that from the get-go - as Comicshorse said, your coterie is really the only support you can count on. I trust the backstabber will be treated with suspicion for now on, if not outright sold-out to one of his enemies.

If not, you should get on that right away :smallamused:

Thrud
2009-04-21, 01:07 AM
Yeah, you tend to expect a little bit of backstabbing in a vampire game, but generally not by other players. Vampire is not really specifically set up as a game of 'screw the other players' any more than any other game is. Perhaps less so since the whole party tends to be massively overpowered by all the other Vamps out there.

It sounds like you might have one of those kinds of players who is disruptive and constantly trying to mess with the other players and tries to hide it all under a veneer of 'roleplaying'.

I have had fun in evil backstabbing games before, but generally speaking I only have fun in those games if everyone has agreed before hand that that is the sort of game we are going to play. And even then they don't tend to last too long. I think the longest I ever had one of those kinds of campaigns last was about a year (we met every other week), before it fell apart.

Not that it wasn't great fun whilst it lasted.

Totally Guy
2009-04-21, 01:34 AM
I trust the backstabber will be treated with suspicion for now on, if not outright sold-out to one of his enemies.

If not, you should get on that right away :smallamused:

Uhh, yeah, the trick was on all of us. As well as the in game trickery he'd fooled us for real too. He was a one shot character as the player moves back to university this week. But we have played with him many times in the past.

I knew I should have been suspicious when he was allowed not to provide a backstory because "he always plays the same ninja type character so we all know his character already".

Oracle_Hunter
2009-04-21, 01:50 AM
Uhh, yeah, the trick was on all of us. As well as the in game trickery he'd fooled us for real too. He was a one shot character as the player moves back to university this week. But we have played with him many times in the past.

I knew I should have been suspicious when he was allowed not to provide a backstory because "he always plays the same ninja type character so we all know his character already".
Then, there is only one appropriate response:

The Slow Clap (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlowClap)

hljhuhu
2009-04-21, 03:21 AM
Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.