Vampire: the masquerade.. in-game genre awareness?

[dehro]

as it says on the tin..
I've only ever played one diceless session and a few online ones of the game, and it left me wondering:
is there any genre awareness for the characters playing Vampire? by which I mean both before and after they're embraced.
if IRL you were to say to me "look out, vampires are real", I would have an entire set of expectations and lore to fall back on and to look out for. not so much if you told me to look out for.. hullafrups.
is this true also in-universe?
does John Doe, shoe-salesman in city x who is surrounded by vampires know what a vampire is, whether he believes in them or not, or at least would he watch the same movies I myself could watch on the subject? or has he never heard the word or read/watched anything alike?
or is this up to the players to determine?

[Mr. Mask]

This is a good question for any story like that, come to think of it. Realistically, films and pop culture rarely get things accurately... so if they could design the settings with misunderstandings of vampires in pop-culture. Like, if they're just like our pop-culture vampires, you add in the fact that they're afraid of Nintendo products in films--it then turns out, that most vampires LOVE Nintendo.

[comicshorse]

There's actually the 'Hollywood' (?) flaw where the P.C. believes Vampires are exactly as portrayed in the movies.
That apart the World of Darkness is pretty much the world ( but worse and with supernaturals) so yes any newly embraced Vampire has probably seen his fair share of Vampire movies. Which apply to him is something he's going to find out the hard way.

[valadil]

In games like D&D, I expect some level of folklore to take care of this sort of thing. It shouldn't be a mystery that trolls need to be burnt when you live in a world with trolls.

In V:tM I feel differently. Why? The Masquerade. Good information will be covered up and misinformation will be freely distributed.

I would expect people to be a little less reluctant to accept the supernatural in the WoD, since the world is a little darker than ours and people have probably heard about some supernatural shenanigans. But I wouldn't expect them to be any more equipped to deal with it than we are.

I also think this is one of those variables that's easily tweaked depending on the type of game you want to run. I could even see it being something that varies regionally.

Disclaimer: I've played a lot of WoD but spent very little time reading any of it. I don't claim any of this is canonical, it's just the way we've played and I trust my STs to interpret the setting correctly.

[Brother Oni]

Which apply to him is something he's going to find out the hard way.

A good example of this are the different bloodlines, each with their own unique flaws. Your typical folklore vampire is a mishmash of multiple bloodlines and personal flaws (no reflection comes from the Lasombra for example), which is only compounded by other things like True Faith (a kindred could develop a psychological fear of crucifixes after being driven off by a priest with True Faith).

Of course the ultimate in-game genre awareness would be by the Malkavians.

[LongVin]

I think the general concept of Vampires would be understood. But as Brother Oni stated everything else would be a mish mash. So while a newly embraced vampire might think he might be weak to garlic, he will realize he isn't after he feeds off a guy who just ate a really garlicly meal.

[dehro]

it just occurred to me because I was rifling through my rpg books and bumped into the only V:tM book I possess..
I thought it would be funny to interact with a character steeped in movie vampire lore, with a penchant for quoting buffy episodes or worse.. twilight stuff. Would be pretty frustrating for other Kindred, I reckon.
Then again, the only character I ever created for that game would completely miss any quote or reference to those things.

[Brother Oni]

I thought it would be funny to interact with a character steeped in movie vampire lore, with a penchant for quoting buffy episodes or worse.. twilight stuff. Would be pretty frustrating for other Kindred, I reckon.

The first time a kindred tries to step into the sun to sparkle, he'll ignite so that should disabuse him of the notion very quickly.

As for frustrating, some kindred actively spread out mis-information in order to keep the populace confused on a kindred's capabilities. The main vampire organisation calls this the Masquerade. I believe the Bloodlines game lampshades this with a dialogue where you can mis-inform a fledging vampire deliberately as he is persona non grata in vampire society.

[TheCountAlucard]

It'd be pretty damn hard to mistake yourself for a Twilight "vampire." For one thing, you have fangs, and they don't. Also you have potential access to dozens of powers, where Meyerpires generally just have one. Also, if you become a Nosferatu, well…

[dehro]

I am slowly coming to the conclusion that I should keep my trap shut and stop tempting fate.
shortly after posting my last comment on this thread my main computer crapped out on me.. and as I try putting together a backup through the backup software, it freezes at 24% of the backup.. and the specific file the backup freezes on is a pdf of a V:tM manual.
now I've got to basically throw away most of my saved files, including a few work things..

[LongVin]

I am slowly coming to the conclusion that I should keep my trap shut and stop tempting fate.
shortly after posting my last comment on this thread my main computer crapped out on me.. and as I try putting together a backup through the backup software, it freezes at 24% of the backup.. and the specific file the backup freezes on is a pdf of a V:tM manual.
now I've got to basically throw away most of my saved files, including a few work things..

The Camarilla is stopping you from violating the Masquerade. Sleep in a place that has true faith points tonight.