Vampire: The Masquerade

[General Havoc]

So apparently the Rinmaru Games Mega Anime Avatar Creator was updated some time after i last used it.

Do you know what this means?




That's right, it's time for Luci-chan! ^_^

Oh yeah?

Well I'll raise you a shot from Marcus and Mathias' little throwdown in the streets.



... sort of.

[LadyTevar]

... sort of.

This is how I've been visualizing Marcus from the start

[Lys]

You can thank me for that, since i'm the one who showed Selim Bradely (aka Pride) from Fullmetal Alchemist to Havoc. Creepy little kid with shadow powers? Check. Massively prideful? Also check! It's amazing how well it fits.

[rhoenix]

You can thank me for that, since i'm the one who showed Selim Bradely (aka Pride) from Fullmetal Alchemist to Havoc. Creepy little kid with shadow powers? Check. Massively prideful? Also check! It's amazing how well it fits.

Disquieting, really.

[General Havoc]

You can thank me for that, since i'm the one who showed Selim Bradely (aka Pride) from Fullmetal Alchemist to Havoc. Creepy little kid with shadow powers? Check. Massively prideful? Also check! It's amazing how well it fits.

It really is a rather astonishingly-close fit, isn't it? Marcus has other preoccupations than Pride does, of course, but it's a really frighteningly-good match.

[Lys]

So i found this beautiful collection of images showing various views of Constantinople in her heyday, and i thought the rest of you might be interested in them.

[rhoenix]

Very nice, Lys. This certainly helps me get into the feel of the setting better.

[rhoenix]

Everyone, you have my apologies (or condolences, or both) - I've been called into work today, so I won't be able to join the game. I might not necessarily have to work a full shift, but we'll see.

[General Havoc]

Quick, Mathias isn't here, blame him for things!

[rhoenix]

Quick, Mathias isn't here, blame him for things!

Especially the social mishaps.

[Lys]

More views of Constantinople! A three-dimensional model of the city around 1200, along with individual models of the various notable buildings and monuments. The model unfortunately is lacking the strand and the Latin docks over in the Golden Horn side of the city, but overall is pretty good.

Though one important thing to keep in mind when looking at all these pretty reconstructions is that Constantinople did not actually look that good at the time of the game. Between earthquakes, plagues, riots, fires, and the decline of the Roman economy, many of the great buildings and monuments were in a deteriorated state. For example, large parts of the Great Palace had been abandoned and neglected on account of the imperial family and much of the administration moving to the Blachernae. Though given that in Vampire there's a lot of very wealthy and powerful Kindred still living there, it probably only looks semi-ruined from the outside.

That is not to say that city isn't a beautiful or impressive or glorious, though, it is all those things, and likely more so than other city in the world at the time. The point is that real cities are messy places even in the best of times, while reconstructions tend to be very neat, and thanks to the Angeloi's mismanagement it really isn't the best of times for Constantinople around the turn of the 13th century.

[General Havoc]

It is, however, the closest thing to Rome that still exists on the Earth. Not for nothing did the Varangians and Vikings call it the 'Mundberg', the World-City.

[Lys]

Like i said, around AD 1200 Constantinople might very well be the most magnificent city in all the world. Hell in terms of aesthetic appeal i'd say it's more grandiose than Rome ever was even with half the population, and it's certainly grander and bigger than the Rome Marcus knew. The point is that no city, not Rome, not Constantinople, not London, Paris, New York, nor whatever other city you think deserves the title of World City, was ever as pretty and neat and orderly as it will look in a reconstruction. Moreoever, Constantinople isn't really experiencing its best times under the Angeloi, so it's kind of like New York City in the 80s: On the one hand you have the glittering wealth of Wall Street, and on the other you have the deteriorated squalor of the Bronx.

[Hotfoot]

One of those churches needs to be burned down.

Just saying.

[Lys]

Blast from the past time! This is the original character concept i sent to Cynical Cat a bit over three years ago, when the Vampire game was still play-by-post. It never came to be because the game moved to Skype and i did not have the means to participate at the time. The original idea seed was a thought that popped into my head, "The mothers of Constantinople are always careful to warn their daughters to be wary of the charms of Italian men. Sometimes, in hushed whispers, they also warn them about the women." From that seed i developed the following pitch:

Girl born and grew up in the streets of Venice, having much the life one would expect from that. Through luck, charm, and some amount of ruthlessness, she was able to become a courtesan to the rich merchants and nobles of the Republic. Eventually she manages to impress a man who turns out to be a Sixth Generation Ventrue, and is embraced by him. She travels to Constantinople with him, and after he sees to some business, is left there to be his eyes, ears, and hand on the pulse of the city. Pretending to be a lady of high birth whose family has fallen on hard times, she runs a brothel, but her real business is acquiring and trading information. She keeps her true origins a secret.

Julian insisted i make the character Genoese, for obvious reasons, but otherwise approved her. Then when i finally made Lucretia two years later, the Ventrue brothel-keeping information broker instead became a power-hungry Toreador merchant. Her Road changed too, as the original character was leaning very heavily toward the Road of Sin, and i was still considering it when i spotted the Path of Tyrants. It was a bit of a happy coincidence, as i acquired the Road of Kings book mainly to look at the merits. So i guess i was always going to play against type, as the original idea was a lascivious Ventrue, and the one i went with is a tyrannical Toreador. Also Ventrue Lucretia was a lesbian or at least bisexual, since her feeding restriction was young women, but she would make a point to occasionally drink from the brothel's costumers as misdirection. Meanwhile Toreador Lucretia is straight, and is in fact the first straight character i've played since... um... a while.

[rhoenix]

I hear you on the sentiment, Lys. For what it's worth, Matthias is a far more coherent character for me to get into the mindset of than Gunnar ever was.

[General Havoc]

Road of Sin would not have meshed well with the party we have going on here, which is full of people on Road of Humanity, Chivalry, Aesirgard, and Romanitas, none of which look kindly on the dictates of the Via Peccata.

[Lys]

That really depends on how exactly our beloved ST views and enforces the tenets of the Via Peccati, as some interpretations i can make work with the group, and others i cannot. It's something that we would have discussed had i decided to go that way, and if it didn't work then i would have done something else. Besides, it was more of an issue for the Ventrue version of the character three years ago, as she was the one supposed to be a hedonist. For the actual Lucretia, the only reason i was considering anything but Via Regalis is that the V20DA version has entering frenzy as its worst sin, which i think is bullshit. (Frenzy should be a source of Road violations, not a Road violation itself.) So absent my spotting Via Tyrannus the most likely outcome was my using the DAV version of Kings. Fortunately i did notice it and realized that it fit who and what Lucretia is very well, and so we have our illustrious Tyrant.

[White Haven]

Ciara is a difficult character for me, not because I dislike her, but simply because she's far more difficult to climb inside than others I play and have played. We've all had 'that character' that can be slipped inside at a moment's notice, and she...is not that. That doesn't mean I dislike playing her, far from it, but when game-night rolls around, there are times I just can't fully get inside her head, and those are the nights when she's a lot quieter than usual.

[Lys]

And yet you managed to make those moments of quiet work for Ciara as a character. She comes off as someone who enjoys watching people interact and events unfold, only interrupting to push things in a certain direction, or teach someone a needed lesson. So you're roleplaying her even when you're having trouble roleplaying her, which is pretty brilliant on your part if you ask me.

Lucretia's mindset can also be difficult for me to get into, but fortunately i get to cheat. You see, Lucretia is by nature a very deliberate person, someone who prefers planning her moves, having contingencies in place, and generally being in control at all times. Hell, i almost bought the Meticulous Planner merit, declining only because i worried i could not do it justice. Her traits allow me to outline Lucretia's behaviour ahead of time, rehearsing many of her actions and conversations between sessions, and still have it come off as a natural expression of her character.

Those preplanned actions and interactions then give me references points that i can use to anchor further roleplay. This allows me to stay in character when unexpected things happen, such as when Marcus decided to go see the Keeper of Secrets. Sometimes though things just don't go as planned, like the conversation with Fiorella Gatti. Prior interactions lead me to believe Gatti was a seductive type who liked to play games, so that's what i planned for, and yet that's not at all what i got. It was surprising enough that it didn't just knock me off-guard, it completely knocked me off-character, which resulted in Lucretia taking Fiorella at her word instead of being more properly paranoid. Fortunately i can work that angle as Lucretia giving the woman enough rope to hang herself, but that's just me improvising a new plan out of the wreck of the old.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Power outage due to blown circuit breaker at utility substation.
Will be late by a significant margin. Estimated repair time is approximately two hours from this timestamp.

[White Haven]

Comcast's been up and down all day erratically. Hopefully it clears up, if not, well, fuck.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Due to a recent death in the family, I wont be available this monday (tomorrow: 12/14) for vampire

[Lys]

That's understandable Ben, you take as much time as you need. One question though, Isaak and Lucretia had a thing they were going to do together. Is it okay for your character to be NPC'd for it, or would you rather a sudden unspecified emergecy among the local Jews keep him busy for a night or two?

[Comrade Tortoise]

Either way works. Julian knows the parameters of what needs to be done, and he knows what I want to do with that ritual (feel free to spend willpower), but he can handle that how he likes.