Completely new player to OWOD

    Well, after hearing about Vampire over the years, and thinking "That sounds stupid." I actually picked up a copy and read through it. Sure enough I said, "That sounds awesome!" and now I am really wanting to play.

    I'm not new to roleplay, or pen and paper games, but the problem is, I have zero experience with the system, and the game, and I know no one who does know anything about it. At first I thought, "Perhaps I'll run a chronicle for my friends," but then it turned into, "What am I doing? I have no clue what I'm supposed to do..."

    I began researching like crazy, reading through the books, played Vampire : Bloodlines (from what I understand a decent representation of how things work in the pen and paper universe), thoroughly enjoyed it. I could list off the clans, and I generally understand how they operate, and I sort of understand the mechanics behind it all.

    So, after spending an hour searching for an active board (I found this one, hurray), for which to ask, would anyone be willing to accept a player? I would hope it would be online, I can do that no problem, I have a keyboard, and even a mic for people who like to use skype.

    Now, some of you are probably thinking, "Oh geeze, new players, they're the worse, they usually just sit there not sure what to do twiddling their thumbs." Not this one! I promise! I'm a fairly vocal player, and how will I ever learn the system if I just sit there? So, (I apologize I'm fairly verbose) in the end, what I want is to find a neat game over the net with some cool people so that I can have fun, tell a sweet story, learn the system, and hope my presence will add to the game.

    So anyone looking and willing?

You might want to consider the 'fan made environments' sticky at the top of the forum, or the link in my sig.

Online chat games aren't the same as table top play, or LARPing, but it's one of the easier approaches to the game in terms of getting into a group as a new player.

    Well I checked out the link in your sig, and I wasn't sure what I was looking at. I did do a little investigating before I started this thread, and I was a little skittish towards the concept of the chats. I wasn't sure what they were, because some I think were play-by-post ? Others were MUDs, I believe. I've only ever done one MUD before and it had mixed results as to my feelings of it.

    Unfortunately I don't believe I have the patience for a play-by-post, and I don't know what I'm quite doing with the others. Though if someone can explain the gist of it to me, I may go that option.

 
    On a brief side note, I'd like to say that so far from what I've read on this specific forum, and a few others as well, generally your lot is a far cry from D&D forums as far as maturity goes, debates are a lot more civil and coherent, it's quite refreshing!

There are IRC games around. Have a friend active in two of them. I havn't ever gotten into them, even though he's been telling me to. I'm not at home now though, but I'll ask him for the URL's and post them once I have them.

What I think you should do is to just go into it, head first. All you really need is the Vampire the Masquerade revised core book to start with. The more extra books you have, the more complicated it tends to get. And about the system, it's one of the easiest most versitile systems around. Vampire isn't really about the system at all, it's just there to compensate for what you lack in role-playing, and to make it somewhat structured and easy-going. What you should embrace is the setting, atmosphere and mood of Vampire. The history, politics, clans, sects and so on. So my advice would be to read the VtM core book, get an idea about a setting and a story, get together with your buddies and discuss the upcoming game (and help them out), and then just go with the flow. It probably sounds rather intimidating, but there are loads of inspiration sources (movies, books, urban legends etc) and help to be had. Just ask around on these forums for tips, people tend to be glad to help and answer questions around here. The first couple of game sessions will probably be a bit of a bumpy ride, but if you can have fun with your group, you should get into it fairly quick. And if your story isn't fitting the meta-plot, if your picture of the Camarilla is a bit off, your geography of NYC isn't a copy of the real deal... it doesn't matter. As long as you can get a fun and interesting story going which enraptures your troup and keeps your motivation on top, you've won the game! =D

I would go with a stereotype setting. Pick (or just make up) a city, make it Camarilla controlled. Create a badass Ventrue Prince and the other power-players you find worth mentioning, throw a plot in there somewhere and present it to the player characters. Keep it as easy as you can, but with enough depth to get the characters interested.

Either way you go, I hope you have a great deal of fun, and that you love the game as much as the rest of us. Best of luck to you.

Nothing to add really, I've never managed to wrap my head around online play.

And all of Teller's advice for your game is good.

Just wanted to say welcome aboard really, and don't let anyone's views on the Clans etc colour yours.

Another advise I would like to hand you is to scale it down. Jumping in to a new game and setting can get quite overwhelming, but once you wrap your mind around it there's tons of ideas to play around with. This is both great, and a trap. It's easy to find tons of good ideas that you really want to work in to your game, which in turn can make the game much like the tv-series Lost. In other words, you and your troup will become completly lost in tons of story hooks which will never find any closure. Try to find one major aspect to focus your story around. Add a mood to this, and put it down into your chosen setting, tell the players all they need to know (remember to not tell them everything!) and start your first game session there.

You said that you're not new to PnP games, so I guess I don't need to tell you to plan ahead of your first/next game session. And as I said before, it'll probably be a bit bumpy at the start. So if the players does something unexpected or goes in the opposite direction that you thought they would, just call for a time out and think it all through.

I'm playing a campain with a new group atm, and I told them that once we're done with this chronicle I'll ST for them. I have loads of ideas, and started to plan a Dark Ages game, which lead to ideas about another Dark Ages game. Then I got some great ideas about a Sabbat campain, and I also want to ST a Demon the Fallen campain. This combined with all the other ideas in my nerd-brain created a clusterf*ck. So what I did was to put all that on the ice for now, and started to plan for a short chronicle which won't take more than 2, maybe 3 game sessions. This will hopefully lead to a clearer more focused mindset, so I can continue with the bigger chronicle.

As said, hope it works out for you, whatever you choose to do.

Twoseph:

Well I checked out the link in your sig, and I wasn't sure what I was looking at.

RPG Soapbox is a forum that lists and does fan reviews of chats, play-by-post/email and MMO games, along with other discussions.

Twoseph:

I wasn't sure what they were, because some I think were play-by-post ? Others were MUDs, I believe. I've only ever done one MUD before and it had mixed results as to my feelings of it.

There's more than one approach, so defining them can be difficult.  IRC and Java based chats seem to be the most common in the WOD community (likely due to the precedent set by the old official mods).  Most chats combine elements of MUDs with elements of PbP and other things.  Since you're playing with a large group, the chat itself is usually used for scenes, while you have forums for posting downtime stuff, messaging STs about OOC things, and so on.  Many incorporate wikis for displaying setting, rules and character pages easily.  It's certainly a unique experience, though it does have its drawbacks.

Twoseph:

On a brief side note, I'd like to say that so far from what I've read on this specific forum, and a few others as well, generally your lot is a far cry from D&D forums as far as maturity goes, debates are a lot more civil and coherent, it's quite refreshing!

Well... usually.

    Well, according to the website in your signature, Zeev, you review these games, yes? Perhaps you could recommend one for a beginner? I noticed a few had a bit of drama, I'd like to avoid that as much as is reasonably possible (I've been around, I know how hard it is to avoid).

    And as far as Teller, giving me the URLs on the irc games, great! Thank you! I'll definitely see if they'd be willing to accept a new player. And thank you everyone for the supporting words and advice on StoryTelling as well, I may end up trying to run again.

I haven't played on an oWOD chat in a while, so I can't give you much advice there.

A lot of the people on Immortal Vigilance are good people, but as one of the last big oWOD sites, there's plenty of fools there too.  I've just played with some of them so long ( I mean that, there are people there I played on and off with for over 7 years) that I started losing track of which was which, so I pulled out.

Sorry for the slack, but I havn't talked to him. Me and a couple of buddies are meeting up at his place later tonight for a game session, so I'll tell my memory not to fail me and ask him about it then.

No big deal. I actually ended up joining a play by post, and am quite surprised that I'm enjoying it so far. If those irc games are looking for another player, than I'd like to apply, if not though, it's not a big deal. Thanks again for asking, it's much appreciated.

http://www.autarkis.net

If you feel that you wanna check it out, there you go.

Hi to the new players!

Yes, I'm also here mostly for welcoming, I think that despite the fact the oWoD game line reached its end, there are still a fair number of active players interested into it.

For now, I'd also stick Teller's idea: keep things basic. One of the things that are both cool and bad about this game is how they wanted to expand more and more and more the setting, and tie it all together, resulting in an overwhelming metaplot for newcomers (think X-Man). But a new player should find plenty of new, interesting things to have fun with on the very basic Masquerade book.

Oh, and BTW:

Teller:

Pick (or just make up) a city

I just put on a thread ("About fan-made Supplement") in this forum my plans to actually finish and release (freely, via web, as a fan work) a short fan-supplement about it. I'd really appreaciate if you guys could go there and comment on the issues I asked there!

Back on topic, welcome to the World of Darkness, even if you "arrived late" you're in for a great experience.