So far, she's not wrong. I've been enjoying it very much, but then I'm one of those weird players who actually likes to roleplay in a role playing game.
Because we were starting out with a new system (all but one of us had never played it before), Ripley took the time and effort to make us demo characters and run us through a quick adventure to get us into the mood and learn the rules we'd be using. It was definitely an interesting change from all the swords, maiming, and killing of D&D. Being creatures of the night! The living dead! Horrors and abominations so dark and evil that humanity did not dare dream of it in the darkest of their nightmares!
.,.except we're not so much playing a Dracula or Angel character type as we are...the people on the bottom rung of vampire society's totem pole. Which seems boring to the munchkining type and...pretty much anyone who doesn't care for a deep role play experience. Don't get me wrong, however, when I say that I totally get the people who wouldn't be into it. In fact, there are problems that I have it, such as how advancement works...which is technically what this story is about, but that's not what I'm hear to discuss.
This is basically a story about using your power responsibly when you do get it - which I suppose could be applied to any RPG - and making sure to have a little common sense (which is actually a Trait in Masquerade, I'd suggest picking it up, whether you're a newbie or a seasoned veteran) and do you best to get rid of your naivete at the door, because a good Storyteller (the Dungeon Master of Masquerade) will twist it and leave you royally, royally screwed.
Yes, they will. Don't give me that look.
So, to set the scene, we started playing a campaign under Ripley's Storyteller-ing. Set in the distant land of...Canada! Returning from the last campaign was Keith, freshly recovered from his brain aneurysm, and our new player and current Pathfinder GM Cassie. Thus beginning, we were all given our demo characters and the one that I received was an Irish Ventrue by the name of Sean O'Malley. Yes, I immediately started with the cracks about how many stereotypes I could manipulate, and indeed made him repeatedly cry "Jesus, Mary, and Joesph!" at every exasperation.
Basically, through no fault of my own, I grew to like the rascally Irishman with a silver tongue...even though it had been revealed to me that the guy was a cocaine dealer for an international drug cartel who was not only hooked on it himself, but also had hooked on several others - among them a cop in Winnipeg - on the stuff, and had manipulated several others to his own ends.
Needless to say, not a nice guy.
But still, a Ventrue through and through. For those unfamiliar with Masquerade, there are several different clans to choose from, one of which is the Ventrue - essentially the upper class merchant kind of vampire. And Sean was indeed quite the capitalist, always looking to get something for something...but to make a profit off of it as well. He owned a bar in the city of Winnipeg, O'Malley's (where we'll make our escape) and was a generally respected businessman. But after some time, simply running a bar wasn't doing it for him. He needed more.
In the game, vampires have special abilities based on their clan called Disciplines. The Ventrue in particular have Dominate as one which...does exactly what it says on the tin, truth be told. Put enough dots in it, and you can even advance to a point of being able to rewrite people's memories, which Sean had after a few sessions. So he decided, rather than go through the long waiting game of buying his way through other businesses in Winnipeg...he would just mindscrew someone into handing over the keys.
He'd found a man by the name of Randall Taub, a prominent owner of several businesses in Winnipeg and - as it turned out - a devoted member of the German mafia. Between sessions, we played out some business negotiation between the two, eventually working out a deal that Taub would send a man to Sean's business and see how he operated things. But because Sean got a little greedy and forget that he basically had forever to wait this guy out, he decided to put to use his Dominate skills that he had acquired over his relatively short career.
...it actually went off without a hitch. Sean's rolls went insanely well with no botches. Taub was ready to hand over the keys to Sean and head off to start a new business in the Bahamas and well out of the way of Sean's power grabbing. Unfortunately, because Sean does not have Common Sense, Ripley could not tip me off to the fact that a man whose office was guarded by men with very obviously not street legal sub-machine guns might be a bad idea when Taub suddenly rushed out and told them he planned to hand over all operations to him.
Sean fought valiantly, but isn't a fighter in the least, so he was quickly gunned down. In Vampire, the rules work a little differently. Bullets can't kill vampires...or, at least, a bullet can't. It's a long and complicated process, but it basically ended with Sean going into torpor - the vampiric equivalent of a coma. Believed to be very, very dead, he was eventually buried in Winnipeg while still in torpor and it seemed that Sean would be lost forever, trapped in a steel-reinforced box in the bottom of a grave.
Talk about living hell, am I right?
It would have been a fitting end, but Sean thankfully had some connections with his cartel. One of them particular, a childhood friend, was his superior and arrangements had been made to dig up his grave and take the casket back to their homeland of Ireland. Due to some hilarious hijinks - including the wrong casket being taken all the way to Ireland, being held up at customs, and more - Sean finally woke up from his torpor and was forced to explain himself...afterwards getting a new identity and hiding out in Ireland with the whole world thinking he was still in that grave in Winnipeg.
So yeah, it's a story about "just because you can doesn't mean you should". Sean's retired for the time being, though he may potentially come back and hopefully a little wiser for his near Final Death experience. Vampires are tough, but...bullets fired by four men from high-grade illegal weaponry are tougher, it's best to always remember. No matter how big you get, the Storyteller or the GM always has something bigger.
That's not to say you shouldn't take risks, that is part of the game after all, but go into it cautiously. Otherwise, you'll be filled with enough holes to whistle as you hit the ground...
Oh, and if you're playing Masquerade, always spent the Freebie Point to get Common Sense! Always, always, always!
For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.
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