- Pronouns
- She/Her
Quick rule of thumb: 2 dice=bad, 4 dice=average, 6 dice=good, 8 dice=elite and 10+ dice=olympic/nobel winner or better
White Wolf's World of Darkness
MiracleGrow
Miracles for only $19.99 [They/Them]
- Location
- DOOR STUCK DOOR STUCK PLEASE I BEG U
My mind has been blanking out on this. But what's the best way for a Hunter to figure out if someone is a ghoul?
Catch them drinking a vampire's blood.
Failing that, if they have a form of aura sight, ghouldom shows up as pale veins in the aura.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
If they have the spare time then the lack of aging will do it. 
Otherwise there is the optional rule that Ghouls can develop weaker versions of Clan Weaknesses or paying attention to signs of addiction and/or romantic obsession with someone who they only meet at night. However, both of those methods will produce a lot of false positives.
Otherwise there is the optional rule that Ghouls can develop weaker versions of Clan Weaknesses or paying attention to signs of addiction and/or romantic obsession with someone who they only meet at night. However, both of those methods will produce a lot of false positives.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I'm thinking of doing a Vampire: The Requiem Quest starting on Halloween. I have a premise already (and I've written the rough draft of what an opening post might be like), but I'm pondering the mechanics, setting elements, etc, etc. But I thought I'd share, since it's been a long time since I've dipped even that much of my toes into WoD universes.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
I've been looking at the V20 Rites of Blood book.
I wonder if there are any plot points that can be done with the whole "Rite that frees Diablerie victims" thing?
because i know that quite a few people think that DIablerie destroys the devoured soul...and having that be shown to be false might have some interesting consequences
I wonder if there are any plot points that can be done with the whole "Rite that frees Diablerie victims" thing?
because i know that quite a few people think that DIablerie destroys the devoured soul...and having that be shown to be false might have some interesting consequences
Well, are you badass enough to rip Saulot out of his current meatsuit?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Also, the first concern I have with the Quest is... should I do the full VtR 2e (with modifications., removals of bits I don't like, and houserules and etc), or should I try to create a more stripped down, Quest friendly version of it?
The latter, the former should only be done if you want to give control of specific characters to specific people.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
It's just I have no idea how to strip it down, while keeping the stuff I want. I like Mask and Dirge (doesn't need to be mechanically, but at least their existence), I obviously want the flexibility of all the different weird powers, etc, etc. So it's sorta, like, "I want a hamburger minus everything but the bun, burger, pickles, lettuce, tomato, onion, and ketchup."
Ah, so you want Hamburg Steak?So it's sorta, like, "I want a hamburger minus everything but the bun, burger, pickles, lettuce, tomato, onion, and ketchup."
edit:
Also, no idea, I'm bad at making/altering mechanics.
If I could I would go full-fluff and ignore crunch, but with White Wolf that tends to get nonsense output due to unreliable and/or conflicting narrators.
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- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
@The Laurent - I'm afraid I don't know much about nWoD 2e in general, so I'm not sure how much help I can provide beyond bringing up things I remember and had interest in from Requiem 1e for you to cannibalize. Still, if you're interested, I'm happy to do so.
Also, I swear there was something I found within the last month or so that I was thinking of posting up here, but now that I'm actually back in the thread it's completely fled my conscious mind
Again, my ignorance of "Chronicles of Darkness" leaves me kind of out of the loop for a good chunk of the WW discussion nowadays. Right now, the best my headachey brain can muster is some ideas for a 1e nWoD mortal oneshot I'm thinking of running, specifically ones that got cut by my sounding board for being a bit too spicy - mostly due to translating current RL trends and events into WoD.
Also, I swear there was something I found within the last month or so that I was thinking of posting up here, but now that I'm actually back in the thread it's completely fled my conscious mind
Again, my ignorance of "Chronicles of Darkness" leaves me kind of out of the loop for a good chunk of the WW discussion nowadays. Right now, the best my headachey brain can muster is some ideas for a 1e nWoD mortal oneshot I'm thinking of running, specifically ones that got cut by my sounding board for being a bit too spicy - mostly due to translating current RL trends and events into WoD.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Okay, by the way, here's the first draft of the opening post I have planned. I'll probably be modifying it and working on it, but thought I'd share, since the mechanics aren't really coming off in my mind yet.
VTR Quest First Post Roughdraft
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Don't Depend On It (???, sometime past midnight)
The Prince believed in the principle that the craftswoman made her own tools, and had designed the means of execution, the site, and every small element of the experience herself.
It was on a trail far from the city, far from anything at all. It was out of use, not even for some grim reason that might have drawn people like maggots buzzing around a corpse. If you used a lost or haunted woods in America for your execution grounds, or dark rituals, or anything the Kindred might want unseen, then sooner or later the forest would have the label haunted, and then a plague of idiots with cameras or YouTube channels would descend upon it.
Some no doubt viewed it as a buffet waiting to happen, but the Prince had taken a longer view.
The prisoner was at an unused end of an old trail that had been replaced decades ago with a less difficult, more beautiful trail, one that passed gorgeous vistas instead of winding its way towards a long-demolished mansion in the woods. All that was left of that mansion was the basement (and most didn't even know that it existed, still), but there were no horror stories about it.
There should have been, about the things on its walls, on its floors, and the stairs that should not exist.
There are things even the Kindred fear, besides of course each other. (Open the door and walk down the creaking stairs, each groaning with the pain of a thousand dead: yet it is known that very few have walked in. The average Vampire is more deadly than the room down there, quantitatively. So you step down, slowly. One. Another. Another. Another Step. All the while, cursing your luck.)
But even if a Kine sought to visit this basement--a one way journey, no doubt--they wouldn't have turned off a half-mile away from this unknown basement to go down an even less used path. If so they wouldn't have had the persistence to go through brambles that seemed to sup on the blood of those around them, or continue past stones almost deliberately placed to make one trip and fumble. It was not a path truly maintained anymore, not even by the Prince. But if you followed it, you'd eventually reach, willingly or not, a grove, a clearing, with shriveled grass, a huge patch of uncovered ground and a clear view of the sky.
That was where the prisoner would die. In the dirt.
It was dark still. There were probably hours left. Hours were not a long time for anyone. This place stank, but not of blood: they always cleaned it up, so instead the stink was of dirt and dust, of the spoor of countless animals and the decay of dying trees. It was a smell that stuck with you, that clung to your clothes, if you wore clothes.
The prisoner did, of course. It was the smallest possible bit of dignity. Dignity was not always a mercy. Sometimes it only reminded one of one's circumstances. This was a very merciless and deliberate sort of execution.The prisoner had been starved, until they were half out of their mind, almost beyond the point of reason, and then fed just enough blood to keep from reaching their second death, but not enough to sate any sort of hunger. Not enough to do anything with the Vitae.
They could still taste the blood, of course. More than that, of course, they could taste the gag. They could taste the strange poisons that the Dragon had put in them to keep them weak, and writhing, staked to the ground. Not even real stakes, not through the heart to post the prisoner in sleepless, dying torpor.
Instead, stakes driven through the hands, the feet, strong, sturdy rope that any clever vampire could have done something about… if they had the strength for it.
The Dragon is clever. So is the Prince.
The odds of anyone being there to hear the prisoner's cries was nonexistent. It didn't matter. (There would be no last confessions, no shadows to hear what words the prisoner has to say.)
There was a watch, carefully set so that the prisoner could see it. It was dirty, old, something that would be thrown away after. Was it fast? Was it slow? What mattered was that it was ticking. It was the only real sound, though once the sun did begin to rise, there'd be a serenade for the prisoner's death. Birdsong in morning.
It had been some time since the prisoner heard real birdsong in the morning, hadn't it?
Is this bad luck, or just desserts? Can you even tell the difference by now? The taste of the strange chemical concoctions is vile, is searing, it tastes… well it tastes like all food does compared to the sweetness, the richness, of blood. Vampires otherwise lacked taste, and not just because far too many had watched far too many vampire movies.
It was a strange jest, and a strange time to jest. The prisoner might have laughed every Night, with friends about the absurdities of some Kindred, or this might have been the closest to a joke they'd made in decades, in the privacy of their own minds. It all came to the same thing. A second death, the prospect of execution, they reduced one to nothing. Less than nothing. It made even the strongest being a coward, and pared away all of those niceties. How could you remember your favorite novel when there was no one but you here, when your story was about to end like this, in this desolate grove.
(Yet one had to try.)
It would hurt, oh it would hurt so completely and it wasn't a pain most could ever get used to. It was the kind of pain that obliterated the mind, the body, the soul, everything that made someone themselves.
But before obliteration, understanding. Before understanding, knowing. Before knowing, remembering. Before all that, the brute physical realities of Tonight. There's not much time left. You're not going to learn anything, but perhaps you can witness something. Perhaps you can glimpse in the long-past flash of fang and the slash of throat, in the rot of the earth and the turning of the seasons, something like sense.
Tick tock, goes the watch.
Time's running out for the prisoner.
Let's begin simple, what was the year the prisoner died for the first time? Can you remember that?
[] 1999, one decade after history failed to end.
[] 1954, as the cracks in the post-War consensus began to form.
[] 1932, the year of the Hoovervilles.
[] 1900, the start of a new century.
[] 1896, in which a cross of gold was erected.
The Prince believed in the principle that the craftswoman made her own tools, and had designed the means of execution, the site, and every small element of the experience herself.
It was on a trail far from the city, far from anything at all. It was out of use, not even for some grim reason that might have drawn people like maggots buzzing around a corpse. If you used a lost or haunted woods in America for your execution grounds, or dark rituals, or anything the Kindred might want unseen, then sooner or later the forest would have the label haunted, and then a plague of idiots with cameras or YouTube channels would descend upon it.
Some no doubt viewed it as a buffet waiting to happen, but the Prince had taken a longer view.
The prisoner was at an unused end of an old trail that had been replaced decades ago with a less difficult, more beautiful trail, one that passed gorgeous vistas instead of winding its way towards a long-demolished mansion in the woods. All that was left of that mansion was the basement (and most didn't even know that it existed, still), but there were no horror stories about it.
There should have been, about the things on its walls, on its floors, and the stairs that should not exist.
There are things even the Kindred fear, besides of course each other. (Open the door and walk down the creaking stairs, each groaning with the pain of a thousand dead: yet it is known that very few have walked in. The average Vampire is more deadly than the room down there, quantitatively. So you step down, slowly. One. Another. Another. Another Step. All the while, cursing your luck.)
But even if a Kine sought to visit this basement--a one way journey, no doubt--they wouldn't have turned off a half-mile away from this unknown basement to go down an even less used path. If so they wouldn't have had the persistence to go through brambles that seemed to sup on the blood of those around them, or continue past stones almost deliberately placed to make one trip and fumble. It was not a path truly maintained anymore, not even by the Prince. But if you followed it, you'd eventually reach, willingly or not, a grove, a clearing, with shriveled grass, a huge patch of uncovered ground and a clear view of the sky.
That was where the prisoner would die. In the dirt.
It was dark still. There were probably hours left. Hours were not a long time for anyone. This place stank, but not of blood: they always cleaned it up, so instead the stink was of dirt and dust, of the spoor of countless animals and the decay of dying trees. It was a smell that stuck with you, that clung to your clothes, if you wore clothes.
The prisoner did, of course. It was the smallest possible bit of dignity. Dignity was not always a mercy. Sometimes it only reminded one of one's circumstances. This was a very merciless and deliberate sort of execution.The prisoner had been starved, until they were half out of their mind, almost beyond the point of reason, and then fed just enough blood to keep from reaching their second death, but not enough to sate any sort of hunger. Not enough to do anything with the Vitae.
They could still taste the blood, of course. More than that, of course, they could taste the gag. They could taste the strange poisons that the Dragon had put in them to keep them weak, and writhing, staked to the ground. Not even real stakes, not through the heart to post the prisoner in sleepless, dying torpor.
Instead, stakes driven through the hands, the feet, strong, sturdy rope that any clever vampire could have done something about… if they had the strength for it.
The Dragon is clever. So is the Prince.
The odds of anyone being there to hear the prisoner's cries was nonexistent. It didn't matter. (There would be no last confessions, no shadows to hear what words the prisoner has to say.)
There was a watch, carefully set so that the prisoner could see it. It was dirty, old, something that would be thrown away after. Was it fast? Was it slow? What mattered was that it was ticking. It was the only real sound, though once the sun did begin to rise, there'd be a serenade for the prisoner's death. Birdsong in morning.
It had been some time since the prisoner heard real birdsong in the morning, hadn't it?
Is this bad luck, or just desserts? Can you even tell the difference by now? The taste of the strange chemical concoctions is vile, is searing, it tastes… well it tastes like all food does compared to the sweetness, the richness, of blood. Vampires otherwise lacked taste, and not just because far too many had watched far too many vampire movies.
It was a strange jest, and a strange time to jest. The prisoner might have laughed every Night, with friends about the absurdities of some Kindred, or this might have been the closest to a joke they'd made in decades, in the privacy of their own minds. It all came to the same thing. A second death, the prospect of execution, they reduced one to nothing. Less than nothing. It made even the strongest being a coward, and pared away all of those niceties. How could you remember your favorite novel when there was no one but you here, when your story was about to end like this, in this desolate grove.
(Yet one had to try.)
It would hurt, oh it would hurt so completely and it wasn't a pain most could ever get used to. It was the kind of pain that obliterated the mind, the body, the soul, everything that made someone themselves.
But before obliteration, understanding. Before understanding, knowing. Before knowing, remembering. Before all that, the brute physical realities of Tonight. There's not much time left. You're not going to learn anything, but perhaps you can witness something. Perhaps you can glimpse in the long-past flash of fang and the slash of throat, in the rot of the earth and the turning of the seasons, something like sense.
Tick tock, goes the watch.
Time's running out for the prisoner.
Let's begin simple, what was the year the prisoner died for the first time? Can you remember that?
[] 1999, one decade after history failed to end.
[] 1954, as the cracks in the post-War consensus began to form.
[] 1932, the year of the Hoovervilles.
[] 1900, the start of a new century.
[] 1896, in which a cross of gold was erected.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Thank you! I was trying to go for a different sort of style than some of my other stuff.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Also, unrelatedly, or rather related in the sense that I was thinking about it, I have a huge post in the works about Vampire: The Requiem and the unlikely topic of Vampire Migration. Feel free to ask questions to stimulate my work on this, like, 3k+ endeavor and I'll try to have it out for the thread to judge in a jiffy.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
More into Masqurade than Requiem, but i can see Migration being a thing some vampires do...
Drink enough blood, move to where theres more people, rinse and repeat so that theres always enough available and the places they leave has enough time to restock?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Nope! That's kinda Nomads, who have their own books. I suppose it's more... Vampire Immigration.
The topic of Vampires changing or moving locales, which the game at base specifically makes very, very rare.
I'm not really contesting that facet of V:TR worldbuilding, but just looking more into the kinds of things that can drive vampires to change cities, how that looks narratively, etc, etc.
And then of course, how to use it in a Chronicle.
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
Hmm...Nope! That's kinda Nomads, who have their own books. I suppose it's more... Vampire Immigration.
The topic of Vampires changing or moving locales, which the game at base specifically makes very, very rare.
I'm not really contesting that facet of V:TR worldbuilding, but just looking more into the kinds of things that can drive vampires to change cities, how that looks narratively, etc, etc.
And then of course, how to use it in a Chronicle.
there is probably a maximum amount of vampires that can be supported in a single area due to the human populations...
After a Disaster that number would be lower, causing many vampires to have to seek blood elsewhere...
i could also see some vampires choosing to leave if there is a feud going on, or if they are close to being discovered
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
One particularly paranoia-inducing form of Migration would be what seems like a tiny group of new arrivals who actually have a cargo container full of torporous allies/family/etc that they'll start thawing out once they've properly established space for them and made sure there's enough resources to go around. Possibly by subtracting existing Kindred from the equation.
The Laurent Presents: Movin' On Up--A Guide to Vimpiric Immigration and Migration (VTR)
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Movin' On Up--A Guide To Vampiric Immigration and Migration (VTR)
Vampire the Requiem talks about two different sorts of vampires: those that stay in one place all the time, and those who are constant Nomads. But what about the un-people in between? In the Great Depression, did vampires search for better pastures? What did black vampires do when Kine that were in many cases their family moved up north during the Great Migration? When people move, so do vampires… and when individual people move, these same motives can convince a vampire to pack up and try it with another Prince, another Court.
This is all worldbuilding and headcanon. I can't promise you mechanics, it'd be silly. Of course, if you want your character to move to a new city in a Chronicle (or perhaps a Chronicle where you and a bunch of other migrants try to figure out some brand new city that's different than the one to know), you might roll at some point. But putting together a "Roll to know about a new city" check seems liable to just fall right into the talons of a player who, ala how high Occult can allow you to suss out five different splats in six seconds, just cheeses it.
So, this will all be narrative, and I'll be outlining things in a few sections. First, migrations with a group, or migrations that parallel human migratory patterns. Second, the whys and how's of individual movement. Third, a brief section on, "Going on business trips." Finally, some guides to how a ST or Player might do something with all of this.
Side-Note: I have not in fact read Nomads. From the description I was able to drag up, it seems to be about people who make a lifestyle of traveling. Most of the kinds of vampires I'm thinking about might change locales once in their entire Requiem. John Jacobson, JJ, moved north with his father's congregation, against his Sire's will, to Chicago in 1920. Eighty years later, the potent Lancea Regent still sticks around in Chicago, ruling that certain predominately African-American churches are sacred ground, in which nobody can control the minds, bodies, or blood of any within it. He's not likely to ever leave his new home willingly.
Mass Migration and Vampires
In days long past, most people migrated at least a little. When you chase a Mammoth herd, when you're following the seasonal patterns of a bunch of animals, you move. If vampires existed back then, they moved too, because the Kindred have a herd too. People. People are people everywhere, but when they move, whether all at once or as part of an obvious, years-long pattern, vampires have reasons to move with them. Some of them involve affection, some power, and some even familiarity. Most of these trips are one way, by and large.
As will be the norm for these sections, we'll be looking at it in three categories: Neonate, Ancilla, and Elder.
Neonate
They're the humanity story, most often. A (1920s) vampire that was just turned, and whose sister (perhaps even mechanically their Touchstone) and her mister and their baby that he's a godfather of all pack up to leave to Chicago, where at least occasionally African-Americans might be treated as human beings by accident, really has no choice. Either he stays as all the people he still cares about leave, or he goes along with them and takes risks shockingly similar to the ones they're making.
Will they find jobs? Will he find hunting grounds open to him?
And like them, he probably susses it out. African-Americans in the Great Migration read the Chicago Defender, they sent letters to family already there asking how it was. If the Neonate knows any Kindred who has already gone to Chicago, perhaps they can send him coded (hopefully truthful) information about whether the Prince is a tyrant, whether he holds racist views like a disturbing number of vampires in his hometown, and so on. Even then, it's always, always a leap of faith.
Neonates also migrate when there's no other choices. The powerful elders of a city soon to be conquered can perhaps make a deal with the vampires that come with the conquerors. Many elder Vampires in Saigon found ways to adjust to the influx of communist-inspired vampires seeking to control the city. Neonates, on the other hand, are small enough to die in little and big ways. When an entire people flee, so do the vampires, closer to them both emotionally and in terms of power.
Finally, Neonates might mass-migrate because of another: any Ancilla or Elder with a childer who moves, for reasons discussed below, might well take them along with them, the same way you'd pack all your bags first. Such young Neonates might resent it as much as any child would a similar move, away from all of their friends. But such is Tonight.
Ancilla
Their story is the power story. Ancilla usually have deep ties into the area they live, or at least the people, but they're likely too old for anyone to really remember them from before their Requiem firsthand. They're less likely to be fleeing north from racism, or migrating across the U.S. border just because they want a chance at better wages. No, Ancilla have power, and if they don't they want power.
The Ancilla that traveled with the "barbarian" tribes that conquered the "glory" that was Rome stayed when the tribes stayed, and made the cities and towns their own. When an entire congregation that a Lancea Mekhet had under his thumb ups and moves to Detroit, there goes one of the many power bases that he used in his bid to become Prince. Why not follow, and arrive with a herd, a line of credit in blood and money, to entice the local Prince to let you rise?
Ancilla leave because the herd is leaving, which sounds like the same sort of motivations that most Neonates have, but is subtly different: it's less often about individual bonds, and more about familiarity. There are exceptions: just as it's theoretically possible to be a high-humanity elder, perhaps this Ancilla does have deep and strong-rooted ties. But few enough do, and they have a lot more to lose than a Neonate does, all things considered.
Elders
Rare is the elder who moves just because the Kine is, excepting the case of a city dying the kind of death that cannot be recovered from. The Kine come, the Kine go, and there will always be blood for those powerful enough to seize it. Besides, an Elder usually has a very comfortable power base, and the ability to exploit it even if it's leaving. If an Elder with deep influences in the local African-American community during the 1920s notices the Great Migration, perhaps she even aids these migrants… in exchange for favors and power back home. Perhaps she encourages troublesome subordinates threatening to overthrow her to instead move north, leaving her safe and sound.
Other than by deliberate exile, which is not the topic of this document, it's more a matter of what an Elder will stand. They are rigid in their ways, often enough.
Perhaps the highly pious Jewish Elder is willing to take a chance packing up and moving to Jerusalem after WWII, sure that this State of Israel has a larger destiny that he must be part of.
Another example is Gin, a Regent in San Francisco. An ardent hater of western values, he interpreted the communism of North Vietnam as a personal affront, and when Saigon fell, he was far too outspoken, and eventually chose to immigrate with his childer and retainers, to America. It was not quite an exile, and his destination had far less to do with his inclinations, and far more to do with the movements of the Kine. Once there, he quickly established himself as a power to be reckoned with, but his disdain for Americans in general and particular has won him few friends outside the community, and so while he was second-in-command of the Kindred of Saigon, he's a relatively weak regent. Yet, by the standards of most elders forced to move in that manner, he's been wildly successful.
Like a plant transplanted to uncertain, non-native soil, whether an elder can survive the transition, even without the hostile political environment they might find themselves in, is often up in the air.
Individual Vampire Migration
People move. It's in their nature. They hear of a good new job the next town over, they move to the big city to pursue an acting career, they start dating someone from halfway across the state… even in the distant past, people circulated. The "middle ages" were not an era of serfs who spent their whole lives on one plot of ground, despite stereotypes. Even if only temporarily, they fled their homes, went on pilgrimages, poached in off-limits forests, or went to the next village over…
Vampires were people, once, and in that way it's not surprising. Individuals leave for all sorts of reasons, including in cases where the general feeling is: "You can't cast me out, I'm leaving!"
Neonates
These are the teeming masses of the vampire world, and again the ones most connected to human motives. If their human lover, the touchstone of their mortality, goes off to college in another state, their only real options are to find a way to force them to stay, or to go along with them. Letting them leave would be devastating for a vampire still clinging to their humanity.
Or perhaps they hate their real parents, and want to be as far away as possible so they don't have to explain away all the signs of their vampirism. No doubt the bastard would assume they were on drugs, and start calling them at all hours, ranting about how kids these days don't work hard enough. Best to just cut ties… if you're able.
Because, of course, a Neonate is most likely to be deep in the sway of someone else, and without the power or resources to buy them off. Running from a hostile Sire is certainly one way to leave a city, and might even be the initial reason, but they best go far and find a new patron of one kind or another soon, or it could end very badly.
Another cause of moving has to do with just that. Sometimes a Neonate is frustrated not with a Sire, but with a tyrannical or restrictive (for good reasons and bad reasons) Prince. One could hang on, and plot for decades to unseat them, or they could just move. Obviously, if one is going to move, they'd need news of whether where they were moving was any better. These rumors aren't always accurate, and even 'good' Princes might not like outsiders moving in… or it might be just what they need. Grateful immigrants have always been a source of support for some.
Either way, these personal escapes often represent a sort of rebellion equal to that of the serf who runs for the freedom of the city. With some exceptions, most Princes and Kindred have a policy of 'you lost it, you deal with it.' If a Neonate escapes to their city, makes an unlife there, and finds a powerful patron, a Prince is unlikely to be swayed by demands that this Neonate be declared outcast, just because some angry Sire couldn't keep control of her childer. After all, he would keep his childer well in hand.
Ancilla
While an Ancilla can leave for all of the same reasons as a Neonate above, there's another common reason: frustrated ambition. An Ancilla who feels exploited and taken advantage of might begin to plot not for revolution, but to unwind and pay their quasi-feudal debts and get out of dodge with a suitcase of money and some likely Prince willing to have them. Ancilla are less likely to leave without warning, because they have more to lose, and more to owe. But at times their departure can be accepted, because of course when they leave, any territory or positions they have become open to be divvied out.
One other thing drives Ancilla away, the opposite of a Neonate's drive: the loss of a connection. When an Ancilla's childhood home is demolished, when their last relative dies in a car crash, some Ancilla start thinking about how to move, to escape from the pain in time and space alike. These Ancilla deal with separation by making sure to leave it all behind. Is it wise? No, but it's understandable.
SIDEBAR--Poaching
In this World of Darkness, Vampires from different cities struggle to communicate consistently. Certainly, no vampire Prince can put out a full page banner ad in a newspaper to try to lure Kindred from one city to their own. However, word does get out, and some Princes do spend resources, or send agents, when they hear of an unpopular Prince, or one who oppresses some particularly Covenant or Clan that the Prince is more favorable towards. Only rarely, in an absolute sense, are rewards reaped from this.
Even if an Elder or Ancilla agrees to move, the local Kindred are usually leery of having to share the city with yet more competition.
However, there can certainly be advantages to be had by poaching, and it's against no binding rules, as long as you aren't caught… or if you're caught, as long as there's nothing the other Prince can do to stop you.
Most 'poachings' are accidental, or the result of a snap decision by a Prince who hears of trouble a city over. Rare is the Prince who has a member of their court dedicated even to intercity diplomacy, let alone the dangerous task of luring away powerful vampires from Princes who, in many cases, would reward the Ancilla or Elder for refusing… and bringing the emissary to Elysium for a polite 'chat.'
*****
Elder
Rare is the Elder who leaves except in a high dudgeon. Sometimes they swear they will return, shouting or publishing or spreading speeches of dissent and rebellion as they flee. At times they return and successfully overthrow the Prince, and at times they instead find themselves in self-imposed exile, in some foreign city where they might not fit. However, their power and experience mean that they can sometimes land on their feet, and they're the most common target for poaching.
Each case is individual, but rather representative is what happened with the powerful Dragon scientist, who goes by the rather self-centered name Lamarck. He was engaging in experiments that involved the deaths of dozens and dozens of Kine in a matter of months, and some newly- Embraced Kindred, with the approval of a decadent Invicticus Prince who sought to use his research. After said Prince was replaced with an Invictus Reformer, just barely heading off a Carthian Revolution, the funds were suddenly unavailable. If Lamarck gets his way, the Prince claims, there won't be any Kine left to rule over or feed off of, and so he was forbidden from continuing his experiments, and removed from power.
As a compromise, he was not yet exiled… but of course he did it himself, when a Prince from several cities over promised that there'd be no such petty scruples standing in the way of true science of the blood, that he'd provide even more funding and support to Lamarck, and open up a nearby prison for his exclusive use. This was far too tempting, and he left to commit mass-murder and crimes against humanity in some other city. Which suits most of the city-- barring justice-hungry Carthians--just fine. He's someone else's problem now.
Vampire's Holiday--Temporary Trips
While the lines the Kindred draw are usually small, the lines modern business, and for that matter, modern crime, draw are far larger. Often a Kindred finds a need to visit some particular city, and some cities that are known as centers of trade, transportation, or business even have procedures in place for visiting Kindred.
"Visiting Kindred are to stay in the Grande Hotel, and must pay for any Vitae they take, to be hunted for them by the staff," is a relatively common Princely law, repeated with variations across dozens of cities. It's best not to let a foreign vampire stumble across the entire city through a dozen hostile territories, if you want Kindred 'abroad' to do business with you.
The Prince or some loyal vassal no doubt owns the hotel mentioned above, and thus profit from seeing it used, and there's every excuse to charge a premium for blood. The visiting vampire is generally willing to play along, since the alternative could end in their untimely death, and requires extensive knowledge of the lines and feeding locations of another city.
Of course, some Princes kill all outsiders, and drive away anyone who tries to visit, yet alone live there. But it's not truly a winning strategy for most Princes, and so as long as humans are interconnected, so too will vampires go from one Princedom to another temporarily.
Neonates
Neonates are the ones least likely to have business of their own, excepting of course PCs that might hit above their age. When your Lord tells them to visit a port city and bring back one of the girls he knows have recently been smuggled into the city from another country, you pack up and go visit, and hope you can get back with his expensive new Blood Doll alive. Creepy fucker says that foreign blood just tastes better. Similarly, one might run drugs, bodyguard an important Kine asset on a necessary business trip, or otherwise do whatever is needed to do.
This is very dangerous in all sorts of ways. Storytellers, as I'll outline later, should never make it feel safe. There's not even a chance, as with migration, of making this new city your own, and thus getting used to it. The local Kindred hopefully respect your Sire's name, but probably not enough to spare you if you break some grand taboo you hear about just moments after you break it. Local gangsters have no reason to fear you without evidence of your prowess, you know none of the dividing lines between where a Ventrue should and shouldn't be, and you usually have very little in the way of pull.
In their home city, a POC Neonate pulled over by leering cops looking to charge them for Drivin' While Black merely needs to mention "Mr. Hill" and suddenly it'll be as if every sensitivity training lesson they'd ever slept through had been imprinted on their souls. Whoever Mr. Hill is in this new city definitely isn't named "Mr. Hill." This applies to basically every facet of interacting with authorities, official or otherwise. Blind eyes aren't turned, unless the Neonate has local Kindred allies to help turn them.
It's no wonder that most Neonates dread such tasks, and seek to get in and out as fast as possible. Some Sires and Lords even use it as a sort of lesson: after seeing what it's like to be in a foreign city (even if this 'foreign' city is just a few hours' drive away), many Neonates known to grumble (they thought in private) about how bad and oppressive their home was gain a new appreciation for it.
Ancilla
Sometimes Ancilla are sent on the same tasks as Neonates, but when they are they usually have staff, allies, perhaps even concrete ties, as with a regular supplier of drugs for a gang in her home city that her powerful Regent Sire supports. They have more support, they have more backup… but it also makes them a very, very valid target. Neonates are too, but an Neonate is assumed to know nothing, and if targeted on a trip abroad, at least can look forward to the mercy of a quick death if such is in the cards. An Ancilla caught out between rival factions might long for just such a grace.
Of course, there's also more to gain. Perhaps on one business trip or another (including one's own business) they visit a city with relaxed rules. Less restrictions on Crone worship, or on hunting a particular type of prey that the Prince, remembering her past, forbids feeding upon. It can be a regular holiday, if holidays came with the distinct chance of death or dismemberment.
Which for the Kindred, they do.
Elder
Elder business can include cutting sharp deals with Princes, tracking down wayward childer, and even just deciding to play tourist. An Elder has many responsibilities, but often quite a lot of power to go along with all of it. Elder are often inscrutable for that matter, and a visit by an Elder from another city could be a big deal. Do they have some grand plan? Are they a threat? Will they snap necks and drink Kindred blood just for fun? Everyone knows what those vampires from the next city over are like, after all!
An Elder vampire on holiday, or on business, is fearsome indeed, and not to be trusted.
Storytelling Migration Tales
All of this, while interesting worldbuilding, is useless if it can't be used by any Storytellers. So what's the point of doing all of this? What does it mean?
Another equally important question is: how common is immigration of vampires? The default answer this entire section has been based around is the idea that, like in V:TR's base game, it's very rare. Most Vampires are Embraced and die their second death in the same city. Most of the time, exile can be a death sentence even still, since all the above migrations are, usually, planned. But, even though migration is difficult for Vampires… it's difficult for everyone.
What is often most horrifying or tragic about Vampires is what is most human about them. Throughout history, humans have faced great obstacles to escape terrible circumstances in the hope, often in vain, that their destination is better than where they were. Many operated on less information and fewer assurances than Vampires Tonight have, but even for modern people in affluent countries, moving can be socially and economically risky. You sever ties with one community for another, and while many people move in search of a promised job, what if the job doesn't pan out? In the World of Darkness, these worries are likely even greater, since disconnected people in a new city have even more monsters, human and otherwise, that would love to help them disappear. Even so, people move.
The themes of a chronicle involving any of the above are threefold: Hope, Desperation, and the Unknown. Few vampires, excepting flighty elders, flee a city for another unless they are both desperate and hopeful. It takes dire circumstances to uproot your entire unlife, and yet there are better and worse cities. Every Kindred knows the story of a just and fair Prince, even if only one and a thousand fit that even five days at a time. Every Kindred also knows that there are Princes that make the average corrupt tyrant look like a benevolent, heartfelt patron of goodness and light. Every Kindred has ties to others that can drag them from one place to another. These are familiar urges, and thus familiar things that the powerful in any city might watch for, if they don't want to lose any Kindred. Sometimes escape can be fatal.
This should help connect with the players, even those who have lived their whole lives in a single city.
All one can do is cast themselves into the unknown, and when one's visiting, there's all that fear of the unknown, of strange vampires, stranger monsters, and strangest customs to bring you down. But even if you have fifteen coded letters from a fellow Childer of the same Sire, all of which rave about how well Crones have it in a particular city, who's to say it's not a trap and they haven't already faced their Final Death, and are now being used to lure Crones to the witches' pyre? Even if it's them, and they're being honest, what if they were merely lucky? What if the Prince, tolerant of the Crones already there, doesn't want any more?
It's the risk that makes it real, and that's where the horror comes in. If the Chronicle involves trying to escape a tyrannical Prince, keep on upping the risk of their plans being discovered, Storytellers. If they're put in charge of security for a visiting elder making an arcane deal with the Prince, ask whether this elder might not do things differently back home… differently in ways that put the Coterie at risk.
If your Coterie's transition to a new city looks like checking out apartment ads, sending an email to the local Prince who goes, "Sure, go ahead, buddy, I'll roll out the red carpet" and this isn't way too good to be true, then you've passed up a lot of narrative chances.
Storytellers are encouraged to use real stories of immigration, fiction, nonfiction, and historical, as a guide not only to storylines, but to understanding the emotional resonance of such stories, which can be powerful indeed. Every year Americans celebrate a fictionalized version of Pilgrim survival, refer to the city on a hill, or demonize (or valorize) immigrants. Even abroad, immigration is a major political, cultural and social issue, and much of the world consists of immigrants or their close descendents.
All of that said, here are some story beats/ideas
*If you want an excuse for Coterie to know nothing about the local politics, so that you can show off the twists and turns without a player with high Politics going, "Oh, I figured that out offscreen before the game started" then having them be immigrants could be a bit of a power move. Are they trusted? Who helped bring them there? Do they owe anyone for their arrival, a contract and debt to pay off, in blood and service? Go from there!
*Your Coterie wants to escape a tyrannical city. It's entirely possible to make an entire Chronicle based around trying to plot and scheme and hunt for the right city to relocate, all while evading notice.
*Vinny, the Prince's stupid but beloved childer, went missing on a routine diplomatic mission to a nearby city. Now your Coterie is tasked with bringing him back intact, and if they can't, getting revenge on whoever did it… even if it means starting a war with the local Prince, if they were behind it.
*It's just a routine milk-run to pick up some drugs, exchange some artifacts the Mekhet Lord wants to trade away before the Lancea Prince notices them, and then return home. How hard could it be?
*Some new Vampires into town, fresh off the boat, having snuck in and hidden among the trafficked women, need to be caught up to speed. Either help while they're still vulnerable, or exploit them while they still might not know what's up and what's down.
*Your flighty Elder sire has expressed a sudden desire to pack everything up (including you) and skip town. What do you do?!
* A friend you keep in contact with (the joys of the internet, although you have to hint and dance around anything even related to both being Kindred, and speak in code at all times) suddenly expresses a desire to live in your city, and asks you to help arrange things on that side.
*Conversely, you travel to a new city a friend has been urging you into, only to find that they've been dead for over a year, but now you've burned all your bridges behind you and have to unravel their death, thwart the tyrannous designs of Lords and Princes, and survive to make a new home in a hostile land. Good luck!
*Any sort of historical game could include these elements! Or, for that matter, you could include characters who are partially defined by having moved. That much, at least, is in the game itself: ancient vampires do sometimes wind up in New York, very much not an ancient city at all. A vampire defined by their immigration, nostalgia for the past, or even ongoing Kine and Kindred 'constituency' based on these past migrations is a common and rich set of possibilities.
*Your Coterie is tasked with stopping some vampires from leaving the city, by any means necessary, up to and including bringing them to their Final Death… but the Prince would prefer it be more subtle, so that he can use their talents again.
******
A/N: So, this was all sorta written in the span of literally just today, starting about twelve hours ago and ending now. So if it has typos, I apologize, but I kinda just wanted to throw it out to the world to be critiqued. Please, comment on it. Point out typos, even, at least if you also comment in general. This was a lot of work, and a lot of brainbugs excised all at once.
So yeah, this is now done at 8 PM on a Monday. We'll see if there's any obvious typos to find tomorrow morning, then I'll release it. So yay!
Vampire the Requiem talks about two different sorts of vampires: those that stay in one place all the time, and those who are constant Nomads. But what about the un-people in between? In the Great Depression, did vampires search for better pastures? What did black vampires do when Kine that were in many cases their family moved up north during the Great Migration? When people move, so do vampires… and when individual people move, these same motives can convince a vampire to pack up and try it with another Prince, another Court.
This is all worldbuilding and headcanon. I can't promise you mechanics, it'd be silly. Of course, if you want your character to move to a new city in a Chronicle (or perhaps a Chronicle where you and a bunch of other migrants try to figure out some brand new city that's different than the one to know), you might roll at some point. But putting together a "Roll to know about a new city" check seems liable to just fall right into the talons of a player who, ala how high Occult can allow you to suss out five different splats in six seconds, just cheeses it.
So, this will all be narrative, and I'll be outlining things in a few sections. First, migrations with a group, or migrations that parallel human migratory patterns. Second, the whys and how's of individual movement. Third, a brief section on, "Going on business trips." Finally, some guides to how a ST or Player might do something with all of this.
Side-Note: I have not in fact read Nomads. From the description I was able to drag up, it seems to be about people who make a lifestyle of traveling. Most of the kinds of vampires I'm thinking about might change locales once in their entire Requiem. John Jacobson, JJ, moved north with his father's congregation, against his Sire's will, to Chicago in 1920. Eighty years later, the potent Lancea Regent still sticks around in Chicago, ruling that certain predominately African-American churches are sacred ground, in which nobody can control the minds, bodies, or blood of any within it. He's not likely to ever leave his new home willingly.
Mass Migration and Vampires
In days long past, most people migrated at least a little. When you chase a Mammoth herd, when you're following the seasonal patterns of a bunch of animals, you move. If vampires existed back then, they moved too, because the Kindred have a herd too. People. People are people everywhere, but when they move, whether all at once or as part of an obvious, years-long pattern, vampires have reasons to move with them. Some of them involve affection, some power, and some even familiarity. Most of these trips are one way, by and large.
As will be the norm for these sections, we'll be looking at it in three categories: Neonate, Ancilla, and Elder.
Neonate
They're the humanity story, most often. A (1920s) vampire that was just turned, and whose sister (perhaps even mechanically their Touchstone) and her mister and their baby that he's a godfather of all pack up to leave to Chicago, where at least occasionally African-Americans might be treated as human beings by accident, really has no choice. Either he stays as all the people he still cares about leave, or he goes along with them and takes risks shockingly similar to the ones they're making.
Will they find jobs? Will he find hunting grounds open to him?
And like them, he probably susses it out. African-Americans in the Great Migration read the Chicago Defender, they sent letters to family already there asking how it was. If the Neonate knows any Kindred who has already gone to Chicago, perhaps they can send him coded (hopefully truthful) information about whether the Prince is a tyrant, whether he holds racist views like a disturbing number of vampires in his hometown, and so on. Even then, it's always, always a leap of faith.
Neonates also migrate when there's no other choices. The powerful elders of a city soon to be conquered can perhaps make a deal with the vampires that come with the conquerors. Many elder Vampires in Saigon found ways to adjust to the influx of communist-inspired vampires seeking to control the city. Neonates, on the other hand, are small enough to die in little and big ways. When an entire people flee, so do the vampires, closer to them both emotionally and in terms of power.
Finally, Neonates might mass-migrate because of another: any Ancilla or Elder with a childer who moves, for reasons discussed below, might well take them along with them, the same way you'd pack all your bags first. Such young Neonates might resent it as much as any child would a similar move, away from all of their friends. But such is Tonight.
Ancilla
Their story is the power story. Ancilla usually have deep ties into the area they live, or at least the people, but they're likely too old for anyone to really remember them from before their Requiem firsthand. They're less likely to be fleeing north from racism, or migrating across the U.S. border just because they want a chance at better wages. No, Ancilla have power, and if they don't they want power.
The Ancilla that traveled with the "barbarian" tribes that conquered the "glory" that was Rome stayed when the tribes stayed, and made the cities and towns their own. When an entire congregation that a Lancea Mekhet had under his thumb ups and moves to Detroit, there goes one of the many power bases that he used in his bid to become Prince. Why not follow, and arrive with a herd, a line of credit in blood and money, to entice the local Prince to let you rise?
Ancilla leave because the herd is leaving, which sounds like the same sort of motivations that most Neonates have, but is subtly different: it's less often about individual bonds, and more about familiarity. There are exceptions: just as it's theoretically possible to be a high-humanity elder, perhaps this Ancilla does have deep and strong-rooted ties. But few enough do, and they have a lot more to lose than a Neonate does, all things considered.
Elders
Rare is the elder who moves just because the Kine is, excepting the case of a city dying the kind of death that cannot be recovered from. The Kine come, the Kine go, and there will always be blood for those powerful enough to seize it. Besides, an Elder usually has a very comfortable power base, and the ability to exploit it even if it's leaving. If an Elder with deep influences in the local African-American community during the 1920s notices the Great Migration, perhaps she even aids these migrants… in exchange for favors and power back home. Perhaps she encourages troublesome subordinates threatening to overthrow her to instead move north, leaving her safe and sound.
Other than by deliberate exile, which is not the topic of this document, it's more a matter of what an Elder will stand. They are rigid in their ways, often enough.
Perhaps the highly pious Jewish Elder is willing to take a chance packing up and moving to Jerusalem after WWII, sure that this State of Israel has a larger destiny that he must be part of.
Another example is Gin, a Regent in San Francisco. An ardent hater of western values, he interpreted the communism of North Vietnam as a personal affront, and when Saigon fell, he was far too outspoken, and eventually chose to immigrate with his childer and retainers, to America. It was not quite an exile, and his destination had far less to do with his inclinations, and far more to do with the movements of the Kine. Once there, he quickly established himself as a power to be reckoned with, but his disdain for Americans in general and particular has won him few friends outside the community, and so while he was second-in-command of the Kindred of Saigon, he's a relatively weak regent. Yet, by the standards of most elders forced to move in that manner, he's been wildly successful.
Like a plant transplanted to uncertain, non-native soil, whether an elder can survive the transition, even without the hostile political environment they might find themselves in, is often up in the air.
Individual Vampire Migration
People move. It's in their nature. They hear of a good new job the next town over, they move to the big city to pursue an acting career, they start dating someone from halfway across the state… even in the distant past, people circulated. The "middle ages" were not an era of serfs who spent their whole lives on one plot of ground, despite stereotypes. Even if only temporarily, they fled their homes, went on pilgrimages, poached in off-limits forests, or went to the next village over…
Vampires were people, once, and in that way it's not surprising. Individuals leave for all sorts of reasons, including in cases where the general feeling is: "You can't cast me out, I'm leaving!"
Neonates
These are the teeming masses of the vampire world, and again the ones most connected to human motives. If their human lover, the touchstone of their mortality, goes off to college in another state, their only real options are to find a way to force them to stay, or to go along with them. Letting them leave would be devastating for a vampire still clinging to their humanity.
Or perhaps they hate their real parents, and want to be as far away as possible so they don't have to explain away all the signs of their vampirism. No doubt the bastard would assume they were on drugs, and start calling them at all hours, ranting about how kids these days don't work hard enough. Best to just cut ties… if you're able.
Because, of course, a Neonate is most likely to be deep in the sway of someone else, and without the power or resources to buy them off. Running from a hostile Sire is certainly one way to leave a city, and might even be the initial reason, but they best go far and find a new patron of one kind or another soon, or it could end very badly.
Another cause of moving has to do with just that. Sometimes a Neonate is frustrated not with a Sire, but with a tyrannical or restrictive (for good reasons and bad reasons) Prince. One could hang on, and plot for decades to unseat them, or they could just move. Obviously, if one is going to move, they'd need news of whether where they were moving was any better. These rumors aren't always accurate, and even 'good' Princes might not like outsiders moving in… or it might be just what they need. Grateful immigrants have always been a source of support for some.
Either way, these personal escapes often represent a sort of rebellion equal to that of the serf who runs for the freedom of the city. With some exceptions, most Princes and Kindred have a policy of 'you lost it, you deal with it.' If a Neonate escapes to their city, makes an unlife there, and finds a powerful patron, a Prince is unlikely to be swayed by demands that this Neonate be declared outcast, just because some angry Sire couldn't keep control of her childer. After all, he would keep his childer well in hand.
Ancilla
While an Ancilla can leave for all of the same reasons as a Neonate above, there's another common reason: frustrated ambition. An Ancilla who feels exploited and taken advantage of might begin to plot not for revolution, but to unwind and pay their quasi-feudal debts and get out of dodge with a suitcase of money and some likely Prince willing to have them. Ancilla are less likely to leave without warning, because they have more to lose, and more to owe. But at times their departure can be accepted, because of course when they leave, any territory or positions they have become open to be divvied out.
One other thing drives Ancilla away, the opposite of a Neonate's drive: the loss of a connection. When an Ancilla's childhood home is demolished, when their last relative dies in a car crash, some Ancilla start thinking about how to move, to escape from the pain in time and space alike. These Ancilla deal with separation by making sure to leave it all behind. Is it wise? No, but it's understandable.
SIDEBAR--Poaching
In this World of Darkness, Vampires from different cities struggle to communicate consistently. Certainly, no vampire Prince can put out a full page banner ad in a newspaper to try to lure Kindred from one city to their own. However, word does get out, and some Princes do spend resources, or send agents, when they hear of an unpopular Prince, or one who oppresses some particularly Covenant or Clan that the Prince is more favorable towards. Only rarely, in an absolute sense, are rewards reaped from this.
Even if an Elder or Ancilla agrees to move, the local Kindred are usually leery of having to share the city with yet more competition.
However, there can certainly be advantages to be had by poaching, and it's against no binding rules, as long as you aren't caught… or if you're caught, as long as there's nothing the other Prince can do to stop you.
Most 'poachings' are accidental, or the result of a snap decision by a Prince who hears of trouble a city over. Rare is the Prince who has a member of their court dedicated even to intercity diplomacy, let alone the dangerous task of luring away powerful vampires from Princes who, in many cases, would reward the Ancilla or Elder for refusing… and bringing the emissary to Elysium for a polite 'chat.'
*****
Elder
Rare is the Elder who leaves except in a high dudgeon. Sometimes they swear they will return, shouting or publishing or spreading speeches of dissent and rebellion as they flee. At times they return and successfully overthrow the Prince, and at times they instead find themselves in self-imposed exile, in some foreign city where they might not fit. However, their power and experience mean that they can sometimes land on their feet, and they're the most common target for poaching.
Each case is individual, but rather representative is what happened with the powerful Dragon scientist, who goes by the rather self-centered name Lamarck. He was engaging in experiments that involved the deaths of dozens and dozens of Kine in a matter of months, and some newly- Embraced Kindred, with the approval of a decadent Invicticus Prince who sought to use his research. After said Prince was replaced with an Invictus Reformer, just barely heading off a Carthian Revolution, the funds were suddenly unavailable. If Lamarck gets his way, the Prince claims, there won't be any Kine left to rule over or feed off of, and so he was forbidden from continuing his experiments, and removed from power.
As a compromise, he was not yet exiled… but of course he did it himself, when a Prince from several cities over promised that there'd be no such petty scruples standing in the way of true science of the blood, that he'd provide even more funding and support to Lamarck, and open up a nearby prison for his exclusive use. This was far too tempting, and he left to commit mass-murder and crimes against humanity in some other city. Which suits most of the city-- barring justice-hungry Carthians--just fine. He's someone else's problem now.
Vampire's Holiday--Temporary Trips
While the lines the Kindred draw are usually small, the lines modern business, and for that matter, modern crime, draw are far larger. Often a Kindred finds a need to visit some particular city, and some cities that are known as centers of trade, transportation, or business even have procedures in place for visiting Kindred.
"Visiting Kindred are to stay in the Grande Hotel, and must pay for any Vitae they take, to be hunted for them by the staff," is a relatively common Princely law, repeated with variations across dozens of cities. It's best not to let a foreign vampire stumble across the entire city through a dozen hostile territories, if you want Kindred 'abroad' to do business with you.
The Prince or some loyal vassal no doubt owns the hotel mentioned above, and thus profit from seeing it used, and there's every excuse to charge a premium for blood. The visiting vampire is generally willing to play along, since the alternative could end in their untimely death, and requires extensive knowledge of the lines and feeding locations of another city.
Of course, some Princes kill all outsiders, and drive away anyone who tries to visit, yet alone live there. But it's not truly a winning strategy for most Princes, and so as long as humans are interconnected, so too will vampires go from one Princedom to another temporarily.
Neonates
Neonates are the ones least likely to have business of their own, excepting of course PCs that might hit above their age. When your Lord tells them to visit a port city and bring back one of the girls he knows have recently been smuggled into the city from another country, you pack up and go visit, and hope you can get back with his expensive new Blood Doll alive. Creepy fucker says that foreign blood just tastes better. Similarly, one might run drugs, bodyguard an important Kine asset on a necessary business trip, or otherwise do whatever is needed to do.
This is very dangerous in all sorts of ways. Storytellers, as I'll outline later, should never make it feel safe. There's not even a chance, as with migration, of making this new city your own, and thus getting used to it. The local Kindred hopefully respect your Sire's name, but probably not enough to spare you if you break some grand taboo you hear about just moments after you break it. Local gangsters have no reason to fear you without evidence of your prowess, you know none of the dividing lines between where a Ventrue should and shouldn't be, and you usually have very little in the way of pull.
In their home city, a POC Neonate pulled over by leering cops looking to charge them for Drivin' While Black merely needs to mention "Mr. Hill" and suddenly it'll be as if every sensitivity training lesson they'd ever slept through had been imprinted on their souls. Whoever Mr. Hill is in this new city definitely isn't named "Mr. Hill." This applies to basically every facet of interacting with authorities, official or otherwise. Blind eyes aren't turned, unless the Neonate has local Kindred allies to help turn them.
It's no wonder that most Neonates dread such tasks, and seek to get in and out as fast as possible. Some Sires and Lords even use it as a sort of lesson: after seeing what it's like to be in a foreign city (even if this 'foreign' city is just a few hours' drive away), many Neonates known to grumble (they thought in private) about how bad and oppressive their home was gain a new appreciation for it.
Ancilla
Sometimes Ancilla are sent on the same tasks as Neonates, but when they are they usually have staff, allies, perhaps even concrete ties, as with a regular supplier of drugs for a gang in her home city that her powerful Regent Sire supports. They have more support, they have more backup… but it also makes them a very, very valid target. Neonates are too, but an Neonate is assumed to know nothing, and if targeted on a trip abroad, at least can look forward to the mercy of a quick death if such is in the cards. An Ancilla caught out between rival factions might long for just such a grace.
Of course, there's also more to gain. Perhaps on one business trip or another (including one's own business) they visit a city with relaxed rules. Less restrictions on Crone worship, or on hunting a particular type of prey that the Prince, remembering her past, forbids feeding upon. It can be a regular holiday, if holidays came with the distinct chance of death or dismemberment.
Which for the Kindred, they do.
Elder
Elder business can include cutting sharp deals with Princes, tracking down wayward childer, and even just deciding to play tourist. An Elder has many responsibilities, but often quite a lot of power to go along with all of it. Elder are often inscrutable for that matter, and a visit by an Elder from another city could be a big deal. Do they have some grand plan? Are they a threat? Will they snap necks and drink Kindred blood just for fun? Everyone knows what those vampires from the next city over are like, after all!
An Elder vampire on holiday, or on business, is fearsome indeed, and not to be trusted.
Storytelling Migration Tales
All of this, while interesting worldbuilding, is useless if it can't be used by any Storytellers. So what's the point of doing all of this? What does it mean?
Another equally important question is: how common is immigration of vampires? The default answer this entire section has been based around is the idea that, like in V:TR's base game, it's very rare. Most Vampires are Embraced and die their second death in the same city. Most of the time, exile can be a death sentence even still, since all the above migrations are, usually, planned. But, even though migration is difficult for Vampires… it's difficult for everyone.
What is often most horrifying or tragic about Vampires is what is most human about them. Throughout history, humans have faced great obstacles to escape terrible circumstances in the hope, often in vain, that their destination is better than where they were. Many operated on less information and fewer assurances than Vampires Tonight have, but even for modern people in affluent countries, moving can be socially and economically risky. You sever ties with one community for another, and while many people move in search of a promised job, what if the job doesn't pan out? In the World of Darkness, these worries are likely even greater, since disconnected people in a new city have even more monsters, human and otherwise, that would love to help them disappear. Even so, people move.
The themes of a chronicle involving any of the above are threefold: Hope, Desperation, and the Unknown. Few vampires, excepting flighty elders, flee a city for another unless they are both desperate and hopeful. It takes dire circumstances to uproot your entire unlife, and yet there are better and worse cities. Every Kindred knows the story of a just and fair Prince, even if only one and a thousand fit that even five days at a time. Every Kindred also knows that there are Princes that make the average corrupt tyrant look like a benevolent, heartfelt patron of goodness and light. Every Kindred has ties to others that can drag them from one place to another. These are familiar urges, and thus familiar things that the powerful in any city might watch for, if they don't want to lose any Kindred. Sometimes escape can be fatal.
This should help connect with the players, even those who have lived their whole lives in a single city.
All one can do is cast themselves into the unknown, and when one's visiting, there's all that fear of the unknown, of strange vampires, stranger monsters, and strangest customs to bring you down. But even if you have fifteen coded letters from a fellow Childer of the same Sire, all of which rave about how well Crones have it in a particular city, who's to say it's not a trap and they haven't already faced their Final Death, and are now being used to lure Crones to the witches' pyre? Even if it's them, and they're being honest, what if they were merely lucky? What if the Prince, tolerant of the Crones already there, doesn't want any more?
It's the risk that makes it real, and that's where the horror comes in. If the Chronicle involves trying to escape a tyrannical Prince, keep on upping the risk of their plans being discovered, Storytellers. If they're put in charge of security for a visiting elder making an arcane deal with the Prince, ask whether this elder might not do things differently back home… differently in ways that put the Coterie at risk.
If your Coterie's transition to a new city looks like checking out apartment ads, sending an email to the local Prince who goes, "Sure, go ahead, buddy, I'll roll out the red carpet" and this isn't way too good to be true, then you've passed up a lot of narrative chances.
Storytellers are encouraged to use real stories of immigration, fiction, nonfiction, and historical, as a guide not only to storylines, but to understanding the emotional resonance of such stories, which can be powerful indeed. Every year Americans celebrate a fictionalized version of Pilgrim survival, refer to the city on a hill, or demonize (or valorize) immigrants. Even abroad, immigration is a major political, cultural and social issue, and much of the world consists of immigrants or their close descendents.
All of that said, here are some story beats/ideas
*If you want an excuse for Coterie to know nothing about the local politics, so that you can show off the twists and turns without a player with high Politics going, "Oh, I figured that out offscreen before the game started" then having them be immigrants could be a bit of a power move. Are they trusted? Who helped bring them there? Do they owe anyone for their arrival, a contract and debt to pay off, in blood and service? Go from there!
*Your Coterie wants to escape a tyrannical city. It's entirely possible to make an entire Chronicle based around trying to plot and scheme and hunt for the right city to relocate, all while evading notice.
*Vinny, the Prince's stupid but beloved childer, went missing on a routine diplomatic mission to a nearby city. Now your Coterie is tasked with bringing him back intact, and if they can't, getting revenge on whoever did it… even if it means starting a war with the local Prince, if they were behind it.
*It's just a routine milk-run to pick up some drugs, exchange some artifacts the Mekhet Lord wants to trade away before the Lancea Prince notices them, and then return home. How hard could it be?
*Some new Vampires into town, fresh off the boat, having snuck in and hidden among the trafficked women, need to be caught up to speed. Either help while they're still vulnerable, or exploit them while they still might not know what's up and what's down.
*Your flighty Elder sire has expressed a sudden desire to pack everything up (including you) and skip town. What do you do?!
* A friend you keep in contact with (the joys of the internet, although you have to hint and dance around anything even related to both being Kindred, and speak in code at all times) suddenly expresses a desire to live in your city, and asks you to help arrange things on that side.
*Conversely, you travel to a new city a friend has been urging you into, only to find that they've been dead for over a year, but now you've burned all your bridges behind you and have to unravel their death, thwart the tyrannous designs of Lords and Princes, and survive to make a new home in a hostile land. Good luck!
*Any sort of historical game could include these elements! Or, for that matter, you could include characters who are partially defined by having moved. That much, at least, is in the game itself: ancient vampires do sometimes wind up in New York, very much not an ancient city at all. A vampire defined by their immigration, nostalgia for the past, or even ongoing Kine and Kindred 'constituency' based on these past migrations is a common and rich set of possibilities.
*Your Coterie is tasked with stopping some vampires from leaving the city, by any means necessary, up to and including bringing them to their Final Death… but the Prince would prefer it be more subtle, so that he can use their talents again.
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A/N: So, this was all sorta written in the span of literally just today, starting about twelve hours ago and ending now. So if it has typos, I apologize, but I kinda just wanted to throw it out to the world to be critiqued. Please, comment on it. Point out typos, even, at least if you also comment in general. This was a lot of work, and a lot of brainbugs excised all at once.
So yeah, this is now done at 8 PM on a Monday. We'll see if there's any obvious typos to find tomorrow morning, then I'll release it. So yay!
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Would love feedback of the above... but also I jumped the gun out of impatience and Vampire hype and started the Quest.
So, those who liked the above, or the above-above will probably like this:
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
So, those who liked the above, or the above-above will probably like this:
Time To Die: A Vampire Quest (V:TR) Historic - Horror
Time to Die is a bloody slice of Vampire: The Requiem, set in the past, whether somewhat distant or recent, of America. The dying memories and thoughts of a vampire whose time is finally up. An early October present/Quest. Enjoy!
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
Hrrrrrrm. My first concern is that this reminded me of how pessimistic Vampire is. If your story follows the canon/ES model of vampires by and large being contemptible bastards and/or soulless monsters, I'm not sure I'd be up for getting too involved in that. Not only would that be the kind of thing more likely to stoke my anxiety and depression than anything, but it just feels... hollow to me at this point. Contrived, even, since it uses the conceit of vampires to justify presenting a world where better things aren't possible, the capitalist model of exploitation is a universal law, and anyone telling you otherwise is either an idiot or a conman.