White Wolf Players Do's and Don'ts
This is a follow-up to my Storyteller entry, geared for players this time. :)
Hello folks. I’m glad to see the gamin’ types among you responded so well to the Storyteller’s post. I’m going to follow up with my professional advice to players, so this is player side stuff (and maybe a couple points for Storytellers that occurred to me since I hit the “POST” button on the ST entry). As usual, your mileage may vary; this is all based on my own personal experiences. But I hope it gets the creative blasting caps firing. FEED YOUR HEAD!
1. Ask What the Chronicle is About. If you’re invited into the story or you’re part of the founding troupe, the first thing you should do is ask about the theme, mood and feel of the chronicle. Making a character that fits the texture of the story is one of the best ways available to fit in seamlessly and with a minimal amount of implausible introduction.
For example, if you’re told the chronicle is a street level story along the lines of something like Sin City where the characters have to get their hands dirty and be a little extra cunning, making a multimillion dollar corporate mogul with five cars and three mansions isn’t going to do you any favors.
Don’t be afraid to ask the Storyteller for clarification on what’s going on and what the aims of the story are. On the contrary, ask any questions you need to; a good Storyteller will take time to answer them, for your benefit and his.
2. Put serious thought into who the character is. Most of the core books of the game (if not all of them) have a part in the character creation section that asks about who your character really is: What motivates you? What made your childhood unique? What kind of person are you? What are your hobbies? What is your family like? Dropping dots is nowhere near as important as knowing what they justify.
A good example of this was a player I had who drew up floor plans for his Mage’s sanctum and another who made regular updates to a journal she kept for her Vampire character, and another that had a printout with one of those core book questions neatly organized and answered with at least a paragraph each.
For a poor example, witness the player whose character background famously composed of nothing more than an index card that told me where his character learned to fire certain assault rifles - nothing else.
3. Superman/God characters are NOT that much fun. Sure, you could play an impossibly perfect vampire elder with no flaws, no weaknesses, no hang ups. But that’s only if playing a character who has no challenges, no triumphs, no conflicts, and no story potential in and of themselves appeals to you.
Remember that a character’s limitations - and their struggle to overcome those limitations - is the source of every story ever told. Stories are inevitably about a protagonist in conflict with something that could very well defeat him. From Perseus and Medusa to Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader to Frodo and the One Ring, how these forces grind against each other is how a story really becomes interesting (IE, comes to life). This can come in the form of a central antagonist (witness the Emperor from Star Wars) to an establishment (Oceania in 1984) to anything whatsoever that challenges your character’s equilibrium.
What makes a story interesting is how the character can use his/her own resourcefulness to overcome a daunting challenge, not how he can wipe out entire roomfuls of people with kewl powerZ without breaking a sweat. What the hell is interesting about that? Comparing notes over who can rip open a steel drum with their bare hands isn’t as cool as hearing about how a neonate vampire used his most basic disciplines and some serious cunning to undermine the entire local police precinct to get the case information she wanted.
4. Tell the Storyteller what kind of challenges you want to be faced with. This is always such a big help. If I know how you want to test the character, I can build story ideas and chronicle concepts to fit the idea, and I don’t have to go with generic moral challenges or generally challenging aspects of the chronicle.
My Mage player was very high-input; we’d comb sourcebooks together as they came out and discuss what we wanted to see incorporated. I had another player in college who randomly introduced things into his character and the story itself that were waaaaaaaay out of context of the story and its direction, and though I counseled him on this several times, I eventually had to remove him from the game.
By the same token, communicate clearly with the Storyteller where your limits are. If you were the victim of a specific kind of violent crime, for example (and there’s a few different types out there, right?) and you’d be very uncomfortable with seeing it portrayed in-game, tell the Storyteller. Do it in private if it pleases you but make sure you know where your boundaries are. He or she will thank you for that consideration if they’re worth a pinch of salt.
5. Accept that character death is always possible. Believe me, it sucks when a character dies. Knowing that is what makes a tense scene really tense, instead of being some dull cake walk with all the suspense of Chutes and Ladders. The threat has to be there to really carry the intensity of the Story.
Although Storytellers rarely need to kill a character off, sometimes things go wrong and your hard worked character gets dusted. Most of the time, nobody will feel worse about this than the Storyteller, so take it easy on them; I’ve always felt guilty about a character death unless it was actually woven into the storyline with the player’s consent.
Is it tragic? Yes. Does it hurt? Yes. But so do the endings of some great movies and books, and sometimes - just as in real life - someone you love can die senselessly. It’s perfectly ok to be hurt about the character’s death as long as you don’t get carried away with it or start a tantrum.
Take five if you need to, come to terms with it, and move on. I like to have other character concepts I’m anxious about waiting in the wings so I can say “Cool, I can try out this character concept then,” and I tell players that just because the character dies in my story doesn’t mean it has to die in their imagination. Far from it; characters are immortal. That version of the character in my story may be dead but there are many ways the character can live on.
Just remember, though, at all times; you’re playing a character that has health boxes on his character sheet, and you do so in full knowledge that someday, all of those boxes may be filled in. It’s important to accept character mortality on a constructive level in this hobby.
I had a player when I first started running who was killed mid-Storyline and by god, did she throw a god awful tantrum about it, right there in front of the whole group. (Mind you, this did nothing to encourage her resurrection; in fact, following the severity of that blow out, I banned her from all future games).
6. Respect the Storyteller’s Hard Work. Do not sit there and make dumb wisecracks if the Storyteller is establishing a specific mood or scene. If I’m laying down a description fraught with tension and suspense, quoting Monty Python or spewing one liners after everything I say is incredibly rude and disrespectful to the other players who are invested in the moment. If you can’t get into the story, get out. Please. Don’t make the Storyteller and the troupe suffer for trying to entertain you.
My Nightmare Gamer was especially guilty of this; he wanted to play Mage, not Vampire, so I spent two and a half years defusing his sabotage attempts, crappy characters, and absurdist dialogue/antics in-game and out-of-game.
For another example, a friend of mine back in 92 when I tried to run Shadowrun; I was in the first scene of the game and he kept criticizing and ridiculing everything that came out of my mouth. He chirped happily, “Since (girl I like is here), I have to heckle you.” (In front of her, another player.) I killed the game right there, chewed him out for not having any respect for the energy I put into his gaming experience, and never ran for him again.
7. Don’t set yourself up as the antagonist to the Storyteller. This is a counterpoint to a piece of Storytelling advice I gave in the ST version of this list. This isn’t about waging some kind of war with the ST. It isn’t about who can outsmart the other - ever.
It’s about collaborating on a memorable story. I had a player who would brag to others about how to “extort” experience points from me and who met ever challenge they overcame by bellowing “Nice fucking try, Genius!” Needless to say, he didn’t last long in that setting and I was vocal about correcting him. Remember that you get what you give and give what you get, and turning the story into a competition is the wrong way to go in White Wolf.
8. Respect the investment the other players make. Gaming in any form (name it) is an ensemble cast. Everyone has their role to play, everyone has their place. It isn’t the (x) show featuring everyone else in a supporting cast role. It’s a communal project, a communal story, a communal experience, and if you can’t respect that, you shouldn’t be anywhere near a gaming table.
Nightmare Gamer was really, really bad with this; his deeply selfish antics eventually made every gamer I knew hate him with a passion. He would make comparisons about how the troupe was his band and this was band practice, but mind you, it was okay to game without anyone else present in the group - but god help us if we ever gamed without him. (And guess what the troupe wanted to do?)
If he’d remembered that everyone else counted, that the contributions they made were just as important (more so if he wasn’t willing to go with the flow), he’d have had a better time and not offended every dice thrower we mutually knew. Respect everyone equally and give everyone a chance to shine, thank them for the cool things they do in game, congratulate them for a brilliant idea or a sharp piece of gaming. It goes a long way.
9. Costuming is perfectly ok, if you don’t get too carried away. Here, I expect good judgment to reign.
Three examples from my table top days: My pal April, a Toreador elder in her day, was well-loved for her very low cut black evening dress costume for our early vampire games (thank you forever for that, April!) while my old gaming buddy Paul had one of the best costumes ever. He played a Nosferatu named Figment, who I remember fondly to this night, and put together a black cloak (with a backpack under it for a hunch), gummi worms (which he alternately ate or stuck to his clothes) and a stance and voice for the character that really made it come to life. (Paul recently told me that I was the most immersive storyteller he’s ever known - thanks, Paul, but I was always encouraging the players to immerse themselves of their own accord - if you had a good time, the first person to thank is yourself) :D
Contrast these two brilliant players with Debbie the Brujah. This guy went into a Subway near where the game was held, dressed in a sports bra and a miniskirt (plus a really ugly wig and fishnets), and then walked down the street to the game, where his costume was more bad taste than characterful and creative. Personally, I really do think that display went way too far - especially the changing in Subway part.
Mind you, costuming doesn’t have to be extensive; you can get by with a signet ring or a cane or a choker, whatever makes the character come to life for you.
10. Real life always comes first. Never, ever, ever put off the real world for gaming. Ever. Ever. If you feel you’re starting to get too far into the game, step back. If you’re getting over-invested, do yourself a favor and take a break or find a way to emotionally disengage constructively. Celebrate what Mick Jagger said: “It’s okay to let yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back.”
I know a guy from 1993 who was getting so far into the stuff he was reading in the core books alone for Vampire and Werewolf that he started telling us that he was contacted be a secret cabal of Vampire-Werewolf hybrids living in Phoenix and that we were to be recruited into their ranks to fight local drug dealers.
I knew he was a pathological liar to start with but wow, that one took the kick. I raged against the dying of the light (his sanity in this case), kicked him out of my world and never, ever spoke to him again. I mean, seriously.
11. If you’re not going to make it to game night, let the ST know as far in advance of this as possible. Also, if the game meets every Thursday at 6 and you’ve been gaming on that schedule for 3 years, don’t suddenly say that you didn’t know game was being held because nobody called you. Respect an established schedule and the gamers who abide by it.
I had a memorable experience with a real shithead player who, after a year and a half of our regular meetings, decided she needed to be called in advance to be notified of whether we were on. She then wanted me to shuttle her best friend, a complete stranger, back home across town when I was finished and threw a god awful tantrum in front of the group because I refused. “I want to know why you can’t take him home,” she bellowed at me, right in front of the troupe.
Well, how about the fact that my schedule for the night is set, you’ve been very rude in ignoring our game night, you’ve disrupted it with your less than respectful antics, you’ve brought drama to my gaming table and I live in the other direction? She didn’t last long at my table after that.
12. STICK TO THE CHARACTER CREATION GUIDELINES. If you’re told to use the standard creation rules, never assume you’re ok to drop another ten to fifteen more points across the sheet wherever you want. This is very rude to players who have hewn to the stone as directed and it’s just bad form.
Nightmare Gamer did this once, doubling the number of points in some sections over what he was allowed. My ex-gaming buddy Greg called him on it and we forced him to make a new character sheet after apologizing to the group.
(For those of you familiar with oWoD Werewolf: This player criticized a seven foot tall native American player of mine who wanted to play a Wendigo Ahroun as a copycat. I’m shocked to this day he survived the encounter.)
13. If your character concept is “How about my mission is to kill the other player characters?” Go play WoW. I’ve had this pop up a few times. A once-good player I had decided this was going to be his character concept, and I rewarded him by letting him think it was going to go down, and then defusing every murder attempt he brought to the table.
Don’t waste the Storyteller’s time telling him you’re going to destroy his chronicle and the other players’ well-done long term characters because you can’t think of anything better to do. He got the message and never came back.
14. Very Important: Sometimes a Storyteller’s most important job is saying NO. If they’re playing Werewolf and you bring a Mage, they are right to stonewall your character. If they’re playing Changeling and you bring a Vampire, same thing. If they’re all neonates and you want to play a 1000 year old Elder….see a pattern forming here? Respect game balance and the limitations the other players are running under. It’s never too much to ask.
Discuss.
c.t.
Hello folks. I’m glad to see the gamin’ types among you responded so well to the Storyteller’s post. I’m going to follow up with my professional advice to players, so this is player side stuff (and maybe a couple points for Storytellers that occurred to me since I hit the “POST” button on the ST entry). As usual, your mileage may vary; this is all based on my own personal experiences. But I hope it gets the creative blasting caps firing. FEED YOUR HEAD!
1. Ask What the Chronicle is About. If you’re invited into the story or you’re part of the founding troupe, the first thing you should do is ask about the theme, mood and feel of the chronicle. Making a character that fits the texture of the story is one of the best ways available to fit in seamlessly and with a minimal amount of implausible introduction.
For example, if you’re told the chronicle is a street level story along the lines of something like Sin City where the characters have to get their hands dirty and be a little extra cunning, making a multimillion dollar corporate mogul with five cars and three mansions isn’t going to do you any favors.
Don’t be afraid to ask the Storyteller for clarification on what’s going on and what the aims of the story are. On the contrary, ask any questions you need to; a good Storyteller will take time to answer them, for your benefit and his.
2. Put serious thought into who the character is. Most of the core books of the game (if not all of them) have a part in the character creation section that asks about who your character really is: What motivates you? What made your childhood unique? What kind of person are you? What are your hobbies? What is your family like? Dropping dots is nowhere near as important as knowing what they justify.
A good example of this was a player I had who drew up floor plans for his Mage’s sanctum and another who made regular updates to a journal she kept for her Vampire character, and another that had a printout with one of those core book questions neatly organized and answered with at least a paragraph each.
For a poor example, witness the player whose character background famously composed of nothing more than an index card that told me where his character learned to fire certain assault rifles - nothing else.
3. Superman/God characters are NOT that much fun. Sure, you could play an impossibly perfect vampire elder with no flaws, no weaknesses, no hang ups. But that’s only if playing a character who has no challenges, no triumphs, no conflicts, and no story potential in and of themselves appeals to you.
Remember that a character’s limitations - and their struggle to overcome those limitations - is the source of every story ever told. Stories are inevitably about a protagonist in conflict with something that could very well defeat him. From Perseus and Medusa to Luke Skywalker versus Darth Vader to Frodo and the One Ring, how these forces grind against each other is how a story really becomes interesting (IE, comes to life). This can come in the form of a central antagonist (witness the Emperor from Star Wars) to an establishment (Oceania in 1984) to anything whatsoever that challenges your character’s equilibrium.
What makes a story interesting is how the character can use his/her own resourcefulness to overcome a daunting challenge, not how he can wipe out entire roomfuls of people with kewl powerZ without breaking a sweat. What the hell is interesting about that? Comparing notes over who can rip open a steel drum with their bare hands isn’t as cool as hearing about how a neonate vampire used his most basic disciplines and some serious cunning to undermine the entire local police precinct to get the case information she wanted.
4. Tell the Storyteller what kind of challenges you want to be faced with. This is always such a big help. If I know how you want to test the character, I can build story ideas and chronicle concepts to fit the idea, and I don’t have to go with generic moral challenges or generally challenging aspects of the chronicle.
My Mage player was very high-input; we’d comb sourcebooks together as they came out and discuss what we wanted to see incorporated. I had another player in college who randomly introduced things into his character and the story itself that were waaaaaaaay out of context of the story and its direction, and though I counseled him on this several times, I eventually had to remove him from the game.
By the same token, communicate clearly with the Storyteller where your limits are. If you were the victim of a specific kind of violent crime, for example (and there’s a few different types out there, right?) and you’d be very uncomfortable with seeing it portrayed in-game, tell the Storyteller. Do it in private if it pleases you but make sure you know where your boundaries are. He or she will thank you for that consideration if they’re worth a pinch of salt.
5. Accept that character death is always possible. Believe me, it sucks when a character dies. Knowing that is what makes a tense scene really tense, instead of being some dull cake walk with all the suspense of Chutes and Ladders. The threat has to be there to really carry the intensity of the Story.
Although Storytellers rarely need to kill a character off, sometimes things go wrong and your hard worked character gets dusted. Most of the time, nobody will feel worse about this than the Storyteller, so take it easy on them; I’ve always felt guilty about a character death unless it was actually woven into the storyline with the player’s consent.
Is it tragic? Yes. Does it hurt? Yes. But so do the endings of some great movies and books, and sometimes - just as in real life - someone you love can die senselessly. It’s perfectly ok to be hurt about the character’s death as long as you don’t get carried away with it or start a tantrum.
Take five if you need to, come to terms with it, and move on. I like to have other character concepts I’m anxious about waiting in the wings so I can say “Cool, I can try out this character concept then,” and I tell players that just because the character dies in my story doesn’t mean it has to die in their imagination. Far from it; characters are immortal. That version of the character in my story may be dead but there are many ways the character can live on.
Just remember, though, at all times; you’re playing a character that has health boxes on his character sheet, and you do so in full knowledge that someday, all of those boxes may be filled in. It’s important to accept character mortality on a constructive level in this hobby.
I had a player when I first started running who was killed mid-Storyline and by god, did she throw a god awful tantrum about it, right there in front of the whole group. (Mind you, this did nothing to encourage her resurrection; in fact, following the severity of that blow out, I banned her from all future games).
6. Respect the Storyteller’s Hard Work. Do not sit there and make dumb wisecracks if the Storyteller is establishing a specific mood or scene. If I’m laying down a description fraught with tension and suspense, quoting Monty Python or spewing one liners after everything I say is incredibly rude and disrespectful to the other players who are invested in the moment. If you can’t get into the story, get out. Please. Don’t make the Storyteller and the troupe suffer for trying to entertain you.
My Nightmare Gamer was especially guilty of this; he wanted to play Mage, not Vampire, so I spent two and a half years defusing his sabotage attempts, crappy characters, and absurdist dialogue/antics in-game and out-of-game.
For another example, a friend of mine back in 92 when I tried to run Shadowrun; I was in the first scene of the game and he kept criticizing and ridiculing everything that came out of my mouth. He chirped happily, “Since (girl I like is here), I have to heckle you.” (In front of her, another player.) I killed the game right there, chewed him out for not having any respect for the energy I put into his gaming experience, and never ran for him again.
7. Don’t set yourself up as the antagonist to the Storyteller. This is a counterpoint to a piece of Storytelling advice I gave in the ST version of this list. This isn’t about waging some kind of war with the ST. It isn’t about who can outsmart the other - ever.
It’s about collaborating on a memorable story. I had a player who would brag to others about how to “extort” experience points from me and who met ever challenge they overcame by bellowing “Nice fucking try, Genius!” Needless to say, he didn’t last long in that setting and I was vocal about correcting him. Remember that you get what you give and give what you get, and turning the story into a competition is the wrong way to go in White Wolf.
8. Respect the investment the other players make. Gaming in any form (name it) is an ensemble cast. Everyone has their role to play, everyone has their place. It isn’t the (x) show featuring everyone else in a supporting cast role. It’s a communal project, a communal story, a communal experience, and if you can’t respect that, you shouldn’t be anywhere near a gaming table.
Nightmare Gamer was really, really bad with this; his deeply selfish antics eventually made every gamer I knew hate him with a passion. He would make comparisons about how the troupe was his band and this was band practice, but mind you, it was okay to game without anyone else present in the group - but god help us if we ever gamed without him. (And guess what the troupe wanted to do?)
If he’d remembered that everyone else counted, that the contributions they made were just as important (more so if he wasn’t willing to go with the flow), he’d have had a better time and not offended every dice thrower we mutually knew. Respect everyone equally and give everyone a chance to shine, thank them for the cool things they do in game, congratulate them for a brilliant idea or a sharp piece of gaming. It goes a long way.
9. Costuming is perfectly ok, if you don’t get too carried away. Here, I expect good judgment to reign.
Three examples from my table top days: My pal April, a Toreador elder in her day, was well-loved for her very low cut black evening dress costume for our early vampire games (thank you forever for that, April!) while my old gaming buddy Paul had one of the best costumes ever. He played a Nosferatu named Figment, who I remember fondly to this night, and put together a black cloak (with a backpack under it for a hunch), gummi worms (which he alternately ate or stuck to his clothes) and a stance and voice for the character that really made it come to life. (Paul recently told me that I was the most immersive storyteller he’s ever known - thanks, Paul, but I was always encouraging the players to immerse themselves of their own accord - if you had a good time, the first person to thank is yourself) :D
Contrast these two brilliant players with Debbie the Brujah. This guy went into a Subway near where the game was held, dressed in a sports bra and a miniskirt (plus a really ugly wig and fishnets), and then walked down the street to the game, where his costume was more bad taste than characterful and creative. Personally, I really do think that display went way too far - especially the changing in Subway part.
Mind you, costuming doesn’t have to be extensive; you can get by with a signet ring or a cane or a choker, whatever makes the character come to life for you.
10. Real life always comes first. Never, ever, ever put off the real world for gaming. Ever. Ever. If you feel you’re starting to get too far into the game, step back. If you’re getting over-invested, do yourself a favor and take a break or find a way to emotionally disengage constructively. Celebrate what Mick Jagger said: “It’s okay to let yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back.”
I know a guy from 1993 who was getting so far into the stuff he was reading in the core books alone for Vampire and Werewolf that he started telling us that he was contacted be a secret cabal of Vampire-Werewolf hybrids living in Phoenix and that we were to be recruited into their ranks to fight local drug dealers.
I knew he was a pathological liar to start with but wow, that one took the kick. I raged against the dying of the light (his sanity in this case), kicked him out of my world and never, ever spoke to him again. I mean, seriously.
11. If you’re not going to make it to game night, let the ST know as far in advance of this as possible. Also, if the game meets every Thursday at 6 and you’ve been gaming on that schedule for 3 years, don’t suddenly say that you didn’t know game was being held because nobody called you. Respect an established schedule and the gamers who abide by it.
I had a memorable experience with a real shithead player who, after a year and a half of our regular meetings, decided she needed to be called in advance to be notified of whether we were on. She then wanted me to shuttle her best friend, a complete stranger, back home across town when I was finished and threw a god awful tantrum in front of the group because I refused. “I want to know why you can’t take him home,” she bellowed at me, right in front of the troupe.
Well, how about the fact that my schedule for the night is set, you’ve been very rude in ignoring our game night, you’ve disrupted it with your less than respectful antics, you’ve brought drama to my gaming table and I live in the other direction? She didn’t last long at my table after that.
12. STICK TO THE CHARACTER CREATION GUIDELINES. If you’re told to use the standard creation rules, never assume you’re ok to drop another ten to fifteen more points across the sheet wherever you want. This is very rude to players who have hewn to the stone as directed and it’s just bad form.
Nightmare Gamer did this once, doubling the number of points in some sections over what he was allowed. My ex-gaming buddy Greg called him on it and we forced him to make a new character sheet after apologizing to the group.
(For those of you familiar with oWoD Werewolf: This player criticized a seven foot tall native American player of mine who wanted to play a Wendigo Ahroun as a copycat. I’m shocked to this day he survived the encounter.)
13. If your character concept is “How about my mission is to kill the other player characters?” Go play WoW. I’ve had this pop up a few times. A once-good player I had decided this was going to be his character concept, and I rewarded him by letting him think it was going to go down, and then defusing every murder attempt he brought to the table.
Don’t waste the Storyteller’s time telling him you’re going to destroy his chronicle and the other players’ well-done long term characters because you can’t think of anything better to do. He got the message and never came back.
14. Very Important: Sometimes a Storyteller’s most important job is saying NO. If they’re playing Werewolf and you bring a Mage, they are right to stonewall your character. If they’re playing Changeling and you bring a Vampire, same thing. If they’re all neonates and you want to play a 1000 year old Elder….see a pattern forming here? Respect game balance and the limitations the other players are running under. It’s never too much to ask.
Discuss.
c.t.