I'm about to start a table top Vamp (old style) game and I'm finding myself short of plot ideas.
Characters so far:
A female Malkavian
A female undecided on clan
A male tremere

Here is what I have so far:
The game will start with the tremere returning to town to discover that his chantry has been destroyed. The chantry leader seemed nervous before sending him away on an errand, possible foreknowledge of the danger.

In fact the entire town has been devastated, the news media is calling it a mass terror attack, but it was vamp hangout spots that were destroyed. Elysium is gone, the vamp bars and other main spots are gone. I should also mention that he city is San Antonio and that Mexico is Sabbat territory. With the exception of the players every other vamp in the city is just simply gone. The city will not be a safe place to remain and they will have to head to Houston or Dallas for safety.

I'm thinking something old and very dangerous woke up. Question is what and why and how to play that in to the rest of the game. I am thinking that the Nosferatu might be whispering rumors that the Sabat have tried to move in only to meet the same fate as the Camrilla vamps.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

The Tremer love magickal experimentation. Many of them used to be Mages. Perhaps they opened a door to the Deep Umbra and something suitably nasty came through. Like a Nexus Crawler. Or maybe it's just a little game in the Jyhad, and they are only supposed to think thats what happened...maybe it was the Followers of Set.

First off, how powerful are the characters?

If they are starting out, neonates, they need to run. They aren't powerful enough, even working together, to hold on to much. All they have is a reason to be running away together.

It does allow a bunch of kids from different clans to clean together in a world were everyone is suspicious of them and wants to know "what they are hiding?" Beyond that, story ideas begin to get a bit sketchy.

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If they are ancilla (?) with some power, position, and contacts (who just happened to be out of the city that night ~ their elders sent them out on a mission ~ and on hearing the news of the 'terror' attack, they have elected to return home, because they CAN hold onto power.

They have enough power (and the roots) to stick it out against most other newcomers. They have an incentive together to hold on to what they have, knowing they are more powerful united.
Still, newcomers have to be somewhat welcomed because the Sabbat will coming looking across the border eventually.

Its a 'Who is Really the Enemy?' scenario.
Who do they allow to stay in the city?
Who do they make prince? How do they handle suddenly being the Elder with all the rights and responsibilities of said position (like the right to make Childer)?
How much is their clan going to support them? At what cost? And how much can those Machivellian Elders be trusted?

Thing grow from a Wild West feel (how appropriate), to a Boom Town feel (there is a lot of territory and status to carve up), to a 'Junior Elder's Club' feel as you have to deal with other established clans, Anarchs, the Sabbat, and even your own Childer.

And then you still have the mystery of who killed all those other vampires off. Good luck. Maybe they can find out what did it right as a Sabbat invasion is about to happen . Now what do they do?

FYI, as an ST, I use a One Vampire per 50,000 person Rule. It is about double of what WW says, but I feel it gives a more accurate count for Caitiff and Anarchs, as well as the unnatural desire for Vamps to procreate.

Sorry, one of the characters, the male is an ancilla Tremere, pretty much have to be for the Tremere to let you off apron strings.

All the characters are young however and have few powers, so I don't think that holding the city will be possible, but your suggestion gives me several ideas for later in the game. Retaking the city would be a big ordeal and accomplishment that could easily last many sessions.

I agree on the 1 per 50k rule. I've never agreed with the 1/100k guideline. That would mean a city the size of Houston would only have 30-35 vamps, which has always sounded very low to me.

Just found out the undecided character will be Ventrue.

What kind of game are they looking for? Are they into politics, angsty role-playing, investigative, or what?



ALRIGHT!!! Glad to hear someone made the correct decision.

My vamp games tend to be a pretty good mix of politics and combat.

You may not believe it of me since there have been I think only 2 combat scenes in the entire Long March game in over a year, but in my table top games there tends to be a lot more of it, probably averaging once per session or so.

Given what I mentioned above it will be a mix of combat, politics, and investigative. Not likely much angst. Until I discovered Aberrant and thought how cool it would be to have the powers of a nova, I had always thought it would be pretty sweet to be a vamp, so even when I was young and angsty myself, I never put much of that into my vamp characters or the games I ran.

Finalized character selection:
Ventrue female
Gangrel male
Tremere male
Nosferatu female

Is this oWoD or nWoD?

oWoD

Well you could tie it into rumors of Gehenna and Caine returning, or similarly any of the antideluvians. Heck you could make up your own bloodline that may have been in group torpor in the area until recently, something Aztec-y with no tolerance for outsiders and a penchant for diablerie?

If you have 2nd edition Guide to the Sabbat you could use the Ahrimanes...I love their Discipline, Spiritus.

only have the 1st ed guide to Sabbat. What are the Ahrimanes?

Gangrel who are subjected to a magickal transformation. Very cool.