Being a parent has given me some interesting thoughts about how different our perspectives get as we have more years behind us. My child thinks that a week is a long time, a year is incredible to her, a decade may as well be eternity as far as a child is concerned. To a child every event that happens to them is the most important thing ever, every emotion is the strongest they have ever felt, and every setback is insurmountable and eternal. As an adult I watch how earnest my child is and I realize that my perspective on time is so different that I may as well be an alien as far as my child is concerned. I know that troubles come and go, I have seen years pass and I know that good times will come again. I feel no need to run because I know that walking will get me where I am going just fine. These observations got me thinking about immortal characters like vampires and how poorly written they are. If in a human lifetime I can become so very calm about things I view as fleeting, how much more calm would an eternal being be? Just like I let my child do those things I know won't cause permanent harm, wouldn't a powerful immortal being feel no need to interfere with "unimportant" mistakes? Really, most immortals just aren't "alien" enough in their thinking to make them believable to me. P.S. Good video, but I think your audio might not be syncing quite right.
@@raipe125 Yeah, I've always wondered about those stories where the characters are vying to be the heir of the Immortal Emperor or something. Why would an Immortal Emperor need an heir? And it almost never turns out that it was all just an amusement for the bored Court.
@@brushdogart am thinking more in saturn...omniman speaking or his human wife like pet have very sense in invencible. Or also th4 case of dead mount dead play (one of greatest author or urban fantasy)
@@brushdogartI guess in the end it’s loneliness. If a kindred wants a servant, they make a ghoul, but making a childe means making someone like you, someone who understands your pain. It also helps that some elders would eventually want to go into torpor (in Vampire The Requiem, a sibling setting from the same company if VTM, when one goes into torpor, their mind becomes attuned to what is happening in the world, so even the oldest can learn how to use Twitter), so you may want someone capable enough to keep things as they are for when you return or to put them in places of power in a way that they’re still your subordinates (if you become Prince, you may want someone of your blood to reduce the chances of betrayal)
I think humans could make chilling villains. I could see them doing atrocities against vampires and werewolves and feeling fine about it because they’re not “normal”
The problem is that there is no act which is not a priori justified against 99.99% of all Vampires. And the only ones which are not psychotic serial killing mass murderers by the nature of their very existence are so rare they are a rounding error.
I think that Brennan Lee Mulligan's character Adrian Clairmont is a superb example of an antagonistic human that is genuinely terrifying. His hatred is not obvious, if he even hates the main characters, or whether he truly believes he is saving them and the world. He picks apart their character flaws with practiced ease, and the scary part is, he's very much right about how messed up vampires are.
Remember the crazy cat lady from The Simpsons? Well I got inspired once and made a VtM villain based on her. The set up is that the PCs were tasked with enforcing the Masquerade in a medium sized city. They were fairly new still but not complete fledglings to they had some rep and were considered trust worthy and competent. Anyway, the villain for this particular session was a cat hoarder who had gotten in trouble with city government (the mortal city government) for having too many cats. When animal control would come by she would refuse to answer the door (obviously because she wasn't active during the day) and when they finally got ahold of her at night she set her cats on the Code Enforcement Officer and killed them. The criminal investigation was impossible to stall out completely due to it being a law enforcement officer that was killed so the characters were sent to bring her to justice and protect The Masquerade. Anyway this comment is getting long so to wrap it up she had ghouled several of the cats, the oldest of which I gave Protean Level 2. It was nearly a TPK as the old lady spewed gibberish and hurled cats at the party. The players were alternating between screaming in horror and rage as their precious PCs were shredded and laughing hysterically at the hijinks. tl:dr Throwing Cats are a deadly weapon.
My group has a pretty diverse age range when it comes to our coterie: the eldest is a Ventrue that was turned in 1830, and the youngest is our Malkavian who was literally turned a month ago and has all the zany Zoomer energy. My character falls on the younger end as well, and they're essentially attached at the hip. 😆
Super fun! That sounds like a great dynamic to lean into with the old an new vamps leading to lots of great banter during roleplay. Thanks for sharing! 😁
For any game I run, I concentrate on designing the antagonist/antagonists that my plot is centered around. I think up the back story, introduce a motivation, give them a specific goal, and then go over what resources I want to give them access to in achieving said goal. This is contrary to the trap I see many STs/GMs/DMs run into where they develop scenes as if they were writing a novel. I find this helps avoid railroading characters as the initial starting scene is usually the only pre planned scene. It also counteracts issues of players doing something unexpected making progression to a later pre planned scene impossible when using the "novel" method of storytelling.
Really enjoyed the bit about the Egyptian child all the way through to modern times. There's a Toreador ancilla in my Chronicle and sometimes I'll do scenes set in the 19th century when he was a fledgling to help hammer out the changes in his psyche through the decades and his crumbling relationship with his Sire and her eventual defection to the Sabbat. Just discovered your channel! Keep it up :)
Thanks for this video. You brought up two points that are integral when I am creating a villain. One: Where and when did they come from? What pressures of history and society forged them? Two: How poorly have they handled uncertainty. We're all terrified of uncertainty, so what choices did they make in an attempt to abate that fear. Particularly in VtM, I try to write the psychology of an antagonist with a quote from Nolan's second Batman film doing a lot of the heavy lifting: “You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain”
I got a billionaire in my VtM chronicle that is a stereotypical evil billionaire menace. He bought up big chunks of the vampire PCs domain and filled it with criminals and addicts to ruin the value of the place. Also making the police more frequenting their domain! It was quite fun to see the players try to solve it. He did it just out of fun and to mess with people.
I'm running all the modules from 1e to Present Day. In Milwaukee by Night, I had my coterie interview Jeffery Dahmer (all my players, in real life, were either a couple years old or weren't yet born when he was finally arrested). I didn't explain who they were talking to (after his arrest), but described his crimes, then revealed who he was as a cliffhanger. I brought in a Giovanni NPC, so they could put the victims' souls to rest. The best villain is one who has no clear motivation outside of "Because I can." Heath Ledger's Joker is a perfect example.
Yes, a “watch the world burn” villain can’t be reasoned with or bought off or bargained with. This can put the characters in a tight spot morally (which can make for awesome roleplaying in the form of character debates) as they may have to go down to the villains level in some situations to defeat them. But might not be the perfect villain for every situation. But another great arkham-type 😁
Oof please make more of this style of videos. There is a lot of resources about the Lore in vampire but not as much content in this kind of advice. Maybe an idea would be how to build a chronicle for new STs
One way I like running my stories, is kinda like fallout new Vegas. Where there are many factions, all with their own pros and cons, the party can choose which one wins, but they Can’t fix all the problems. They will always have a very tough time fighting elders, in the case of the hidden ancients they will never win. All villains have their on Strengths and weaknesses, if there is an 8th generation prince that is 500 years old, you are not going to win in a fight with her, directly, so use her arrogance, to turn most of the city against her and then maybe jump her. They have choice, but there is no right choice. The Ventrue primogen, helps more vampires than anyone else, he provides free housing, jobs, money to new vampires and even has people to teach people how to use their disciplines, however he is still very loyal to the camerilia, and if you want the anarchs to take over you will have to kill or otherwise incapacitate him. It’s his kindness that prevents a revolution because the little guy thinks there is someone lobbying for their grievances, and someone who took them in, after they were abandoned by their toreador or bruha sires.
Being a parent has given me some interesting thoughts about how different our perspectives get as we have more years behind us. My child thinks that a week is a long time, a year is incredible to her, a decade may as well be eternity as far as a child is concerned. To a child every event that happens to them is the most important thing ever, every emotion is the strongest they have ever felt, and every setback is insurmountable and eternal.
As an adult I watch how earnest my child is and I realize that my perspective on time is so different that I may as well be an alien as far as my child is concerned. I know that troubles come and go, I have seen years pass and I know that good times will come again. I feel no need to run because I know that walking will get me where I am going just fine.
These observations got me thinking about immortal characters like vampires and how poorly written they are. If in a human lifetime I can become so very calm about things I view as fleeting, how much more calm would an eternal being be? Just like I let my child do those things I know won't cause permanent harm, wouldn't a powerful immortal being feel no need to interfere with "unimportant" mistakes?
Really, most immortals just aren't "alien" enough in their thinking to make them believable to me.
P.S. Good video, but I think your audio might not be syncing quite right.
Thank you! Yeah we had a computer go down so we know the audio is junk. Hope to get it better soon! 😁
Also if you can be forever...dont need sucetion. A new child is not diferent that a new cat
@@raipe125 Yeah, I've always wondered about those stories where the characters are vying to be the heir of the Immortal Emperor or something. Why would an Immortal Emperor need an heir? And it almost never turns out that it was all just an amusement for the bored Court.
@@brushdogart am thinking more in saturn...omniman speaking or his human wife like pet have very sense in invencible. Or also th4 case of dead mount dead play (one of greatest author or urban fantasy)
@@brushdogartI guess in the end it’s loneliness. If a kindred wants a servant, they make a ghoul, but making a childe means making someone like you, someone who understands your pain. It also helps that some elders would eventually want to go into torpor (in Vampire The Requiem, a sibling setting from the same company if VTM, when one goes into torpor, their mind becomes attuned to what is happening in the world, so even the oldest can learn how to use Twitter), so you may want someone capable enough to keep things as they are for when you return or to put them in places of power in a way that they’re still your subordinates (if you become Prince, you may want someone of your blood to reduce the chances of betrayal)
I think humans could make chilling villains. I could see them doing atrocities against vampires and werewolves and feeling fine about it because they’re not “normal”
That's how the Tremere got started. At least, the atrocities against vampires. The Inquisition are notorious for it too.
The problem is that there is no act which is not a priori justified against 99.99% of all Vampires.
And the only ones which are not psychotic serial killing mass murderers by the nature of their very existence are so rare they are a rounding error.
I think that Brennan Lee Mulligan's character Adrian Clairmont is a superb example of an antagonistic human that is genuinely terrifying. His hatred is not obvious, if he even hates the main characters, or whether he truly believes he is saving them and the world. He picks apart their character flaws with practiced ease, and the scary part is, he's very much right about how messed up vampires are.
Remember the crazy cat lady from The Simpsons? Well I got inspired once and made a VtM villain based on her. The set up is that the PCs were tasked with enforcing the Masquerade in a medium sized city. They were fairly new still but not complete fledglings to they had some rep and were considered trust worthy and competent. Anyway, the villain for this particular session was a cat hoarder who had gotten in trouble with city government (the mortal city government) for having too many cats. When animal control would come by she would refuse to answer the door (obviously because she wasn't active during the day) and when they finally got ahold of her at night she set her cats on the Code Enforcement Officer and killed them. The criminal investigation was impossible to stall out completely due to it being a law enforcement officer that was killed so the characters were sent to bring her to justice and protect The Masquerade. Anyway this comment is getting long so to wrap it up she had ghouled several of the cats, the oldest of which I gave Protean Level 2. It was nearly a TPK as the old lady spewed gibberish and hurled cats at the party. The players were alternating between screaming in horror and rage as their precious PCs were shredded and laughing hysterically at the hijinks.
tl:dr Throwing Cats are a deadly weapon.
That's amazing. I might steal that.
My group has a pretty diverse age range when it comes to our coterie: the eldest is a Ventrue that was turned in 1830, and the youngest is our Malkavian who was literally turned a month ago and has all the zany Zoomer energy. My character falls on the younger end as well, and they're essentially attached at the hip. 😆
Super fun! That sounds like a great dynamic to lean into with the old an new vamps leading to lots of great banter during roleplay. Thanks for sharing! 😁
For any game I run, I concentrate on designing the antagonist/antagonists that my plot is centered around. I think up the back story, introduce a motivation, give them a specific goal, and then go over what resources I want to give them access to in achieving said goal. This is contrary to the trap I see many STs/GMs/DMs run into where they develop scenes as if they were writing a novel. I find this helps avoid railroading characters as the initial starting scene is usually the only pre planned scene. It also counteracts issues of players doing something unexpected making progression to a later pre planned scene impossible when using the "novel" method of storytelling.
Really enjoyed the bit about the Egyptian child all the way through to modern times. There's a Toreador ancilla in my Chronicle and sometimes I'll do scenes set in the 19th century when he was a fledgling to help hammer out the changes in his psyche through the decades and his crumbling relationship with his Sire and her eventual defection to the Sabbat. Just discovered your channel! Keep it up :)
Thanks for this video. You brought up two points that are integral when I am creating a villain.
One: Where and when did they come from? What pressures of history and society forged them?
Two: How poorly have they handled uncertainty. We're all terrified of uncertainty, so what choices did they make in an attempt to abate that fear.
Particularly in VtM, I try to write the psychology of an antagonist with a quote from Nolan's second Batman film doing a lot of the heavy lifting:
“You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain”
Good discussion. I'm a WoD newbie but I'm starting a game soon. Definitely gave me some stuff to think about!
I got a billionaire in my VtM chronicle that is a stereotypical evil billionaire menace. He bought up big chunks of the vampire PCs domain and filled it with criminals and addicts to ruin the value of the place. Also making the police more frequenting their domain! It was quite fun to see the players try to solve it. He did it just out of fun and to mess with people.
I'm running all the modules from 1e to Present Day. In Milwaukee by Night, I had my coterie interview Jeffery Dahmer (all my players, in real life, were either a couple years old or weren't yet born when he was finally arrested). I didn't explain who they were talking to (after his arrest), but described his crimes, then revealed who he was as a cliffhanger. I brought in a Giovanni NPC, so they could put the victims' souls to rest.
The best villain is one who has no clear motivation outside of "Because I can." Heath Ledger's Joker is a perfect example.
Yes, a “watch the world burn” villain can’t be reasoned with or bought off or bargained with. This can put the characters in a tight spot morally (which can make for awesome roleplaying in the form of character debates) as they may have to go down to the villains level in some situations to defeat them. But might not be the perfect villain for every situation. But another great arkham-type 😁
Oof please make more of this style of videos. There is a lot of resources about the Lore in vampire but not as much content in this kind of advice. Maybe an idea would be how to build a chronicle for new STs
Can do!
Also check out our video on V5 one shot preparation from about a year ago. It may also have what you are looking for but it is due an update 😅
One way I like running my stories, is kinda like fallout new Vegas. Where there are many factions, all with their own pros and cons, the party can choose which one wins, but they Can’t fix all the problems.
They will always have a very tough time fighting elders, in the case of the hidden ancients they will never win.
All villains have their on Strengths and weaknesses, if there is an 8th generation prince that is 500 years old, you are not going to win in a fight with her, directly, so use her arrogance, to turn most of the city against her and then maybe jump her.
They have choice, but there is no right choice. The Ventrue primogen, helps more vampires than anyone else, he provides free housing, jobs, money to new vampires and even has people to teach people how to use their disciplines, however he is still very loyal to the camerilia, and if you want the anarchs to take over you will have to kill or otherwise incapacitate him. It’s his kindness that prevents a revolution because the little guy thinks there is someone lobbying for their grievances, and someone who took them in, after they were abandoned by their toreador or bruha sires.
"You love to play Fortnite, you can only play matches at night but..." bro is going outside to play Fortnite?
4:05 the V 5 memoriam rules could be helpful
Thank you