Things you should never do in Elders games

[havocthecat]

Anyone else ever played an Elder, either in an Elder game, or just get enough points accumulated into your character that, no matter young your character was chronologically, you were an Elder?

Theoretically, they are of greater maturity than their Ancilla or Neonate counterparts, but let's face it. We're playing for fun, not to be boring and mature.

Anyone want to share a story of things you should never do in Elders games? I mean, I've got a whole boatload of them, and I'll kick it off with some terrible decisions I have made IC for my favorite character.

Comments

[havocthecat]

Sometimes you really have to love those ramped-up power level games on steroids, and as long as you were having fun - and it sounds like you were - then that's the important thing. A 24d melee attack pool is awesome. Also, your poor Retainers. Bless their darling little hearts.

You are reminding me of my Elder Lasombra who was an abbess' companion, who had one point in Obtenebration and all her other default Discipline points in Dominate, and most of her XP soaked up in Backgrounds, because in the Dark Ages, it's all about Generation and Backgrounds. She was always the abbess' boon companion, and had, in fact, been every single abbess' boon companion for the entire time that the abbey had existed, and no one ever seemed to remember that about her, because, well, all her points were in Dominate.

You don't really need more than your four basic Discipline points if you buy enough Backgrounds in Dark Ages and you surround yourself with nuns.

I wish that game had lasted, but we had a couple of min-maxers who wanted to kill everything we encountered, and didn't understand that Humanity was a legit mechanic, not a thing that everyone ignored so that they could play superheroes with fangs, and we had a Ventrue who wanted his feeding weakness to be only women with five dots in Appearance (ew), so we fell apart after a couple games.

But I loved my Background-heavy Lasombra on the Road of Heaven. I'm keeping her off to the side so I can use her again if I ever need to.

[harpers_child]

Your Lasombra sounds awesome. An abby is a great resource.

I hope your storyteller let the Ventrue starve. That is a stupid prey choice.

[propergoffick]

That's pretty much what happened with the elders game I described, too: it just wasn't going to hold together for more than a handful of sessions, so we sort of... collectively decided to run it into the ground and see how far the pieces flew. I'm not sure I'd enjoy it now, but y'know, when you're seventeen...

(Also, I miscalculated: twenty-two dice. Lost track of the wound level bonuses. Like it really matters. It's still Too Damn Many.)

Backgrounds are ALWAYS the way to go at character generation, that's what I tell people. You can't always buy them later, and a little Domain and Status and Influence will go a long way. (I'm gonna admit that I also like playing characters with Fame: it's such a delightful double-edged sword, an advantage that potentially turns on you every time you use it, which is... a very Vampire way to tune, I think. I'll put my hand up to making powerful characters but I try my utmost not to make them boring with it.)

(And yes: Dominate is best Discipline. Necromancy has a unique flair, Protean is definitely practical, and Celerity is... well, action economy is always worth keeping an eye on, but I'm absolutely in love with the mind whammy. Powerful, but also horrible, and you either think twice before you use it or your soul rots away.)