Tell Me About Your Characters

[propergoffick]

Forget about the pages of rules and the handfuls of dice. Close the book, turn out the lights, and tell me a story about dark desires and relentless hunger. Tell me about a vampire: about her talents and her weaknesses, and you tell me what kind of challenges she faces, what rewards or perils come her way.
-- Vampire: the Masquerade (Revised)

 

Since we're all new here: let's do what used to be not the done thing at all, when I was a lad. Tell me about your characters! Open your hatch and disgorge that nourishing vampire tea.

Comments

[sluggybunny]

I have a More than I truly need amount of ocs but here's some of my faves

Rory Graves- Ventrue, bloodlines oc. Following his dad's footsteps of being a hitman until he got bit and left for dead in LA. Tried to shrug off the Past Human thing and become cold and ruthless but it always comes back to bite him and his soft heart.

Carson - Gangrel. A really good example of "my sire and her sire and HER sire all ruin everything for me" and that long mess of ancestry. Low generation but a newbie, also the town's punching bag and Mistake concerning an incident three years ago. Also was a spite embrace.

Korin - Malkavian. Listen he's more then a joke character but Idk what to say here. He makes a good pov for following other's stories though.

Goodknight - Ventrue. And his entire Ventrue Gang. Rather young to hold All That Power but he's smart and uses it well. He actually has infertile vitae which is why he's picking up stray ventrue instead of embracing his own lineage.

K8/KVIIIlyn - Brujah. I can't Not comment on one of your posts and not mention K8. Anger issues but in the more 'breaks your jaw and snaps your arm off' rather than shrill woman.

[propergoffick]

There is a point at which "more than I truly need" becomes "enough to ST my own chronicle", y'know. I've always liked Rory, Goodknight and his crew would make a great SPC brood, and my perspective on K8 is a matter of historical record and not of interest to these lovely people I am sure.

[eternal_life_sentence]

Interesting!

How did Goodknight pick up his name? Did he pick it himself, did someone give it to him, or is it his actual, legal name? Infertile Vitae is such an interesting flaw, glad to see someone utilizing it.

[sluggybunny]

Goodknight's just his last name, haha. It's taken from a character from the movie Magnificent Seven. His first name is a mystery.... (He doesn't like to be called it, that is.)

And yes, it's a very interesting flaw :D My friend suggested it and it just instantly clicked and gave me so many ideas.

[eternal_life_sentence]

Hello! I'm one of the recent tumblr immigrants (I was/am CleverMird over there)


Like @sluggybunny, I have way too many OCs, most of whom are characters for the VtM fan comic I'm developing. I'll stick with the major comic characters at this point, though, or we'll be here all night :P


Haruko Setoyama (Ventrue)- All she ever wanted was to follow her father into the family profession- yakuza boss. But the patriarchal nature of the family and her lack of subtlety about her ambitions got her sent on the dead-end job of trying to expand into the US, where her operations both angered and impressed the local Ventrue primogen. Now she has a new ladder to climb, and a course of revenge set against the sire who used her boyfriend to sate her post-embrace frenzy.

Luke Parsons (Tremere)- Born and raised in small-town Mississippi, Luke was Embraced in Vegas where he was using his photographic memory and talent for pattern recognition to win poker games. Recently released from his sire, the Pyramid has sent him to continue his studies under the local regent, in hopes those skills can be turned to Thaumaturgy instead. A good person at heart, Luke is more than a little disturbed by all the sketchy stuff his clan is up to, but is also intrigued by blood magic and the secrets it holds, as well as the chance to finally make something of his life (even if that only comes after his death)

Connor Clancy (Brujah)- A fresh Embrace, less than 3 years of unlife under his belt. The childe of the local Anarch baron, Connor is as dedicated to helping the movement as he once was to studying and preserving Irish culture and language, even as he deals with the growing realities of unlife, including an ever-worsening political situation in the city, an unrequited attraction to his sire, and the looming shadow of the Beast

Mallory "Mal" Hobbs (Toreador antitribu)- Genius and math prodigy, turned cynical, burnt-out grad student fed up with humanity. Actually searched out the Sabbat after finding clues to their existence and willingly threw herself in their path to be Embraced and transcend her mortality. The unlife of a shovelhead wasn't all it cracked up to be, but she adapted, found herself a good pack to run with, and now must make a choice- to hang on to the last shreds of her old life, or abandon them entirely and loose herself in the malestrom that is the Sword of Caine?

[propergoffick]

An interesting crew! I like the scholarly Brujah tradition manifesting itself in Connor (who seems like a good lad), I always like to see Tremere from non-spoopy backgrounds (people always forget that two out of three Tremere Disciplines are to do with MIND WHAMMY and they look for smart people, not just edgy Wiccans), and - well, I've always liked the name "Mallory" anyway, even before you bolt it on to a willing convert to the Sabbat cause. I wonder how you're planning on depicting that final fall/rise into True Sabbat status - it's not something the game itself has done particularly well.

[eternal_life_sentence]

Thank you! It seriously made my day to see people interested in my characters :) I'm still working on Mal's storyline, trying to figure out how to pace it out across the broader workings of the Sabbat within the plot, as well as the precise mechanics of what goes down. I've been way more focused on the Camarilla plotlines recently


On the subject of Tremere: I 100% agree with you. The way I've always seen it, you can teach Hermetic symbols, ritual preparation, and Latin vocabulary. What you *can't* teach is intelligence, ambition, drive, or loyalty. Get someone with the right personality, and you can indoctrinate them into the rest. Especially since not all Tremere are straight thaumaturgists anyway, anymore than all Giovanni are straight necromancers.

[mckelly]

They all sound absolutely precious. Luke and Connor especially! I would totally be down for hearing more about their stories, and look forward to whenever this comic of yours comes to fruition.

[mckelly]

I've one got one that I made myself (Scott). The other two were NPCs in the chronicle I played in, but the GM has given me permission to use them for whatever creative purposes I want, so I've adopted them for the foreseeable future.

Scott King: A shy, short, and perpetually exhausted Toreador. He was offered the embrace and accepted it willingly. He's ostensibly a member of the Camarilla. In practice, Scott really doesn't give a crap about their politics and focuses on maintaining the safety of the people he actually does care about. Scott was an experiment in creating the least effective Toreador on the face of the planet. He's a wallflower, honest to a fault, and has no social ambition outside keeping the rumor mill off his back. Scott was embraced because his sire was enamored with Scott's gentleness and humility. He thought those traits would be a good influence on the rest of the vampires in the city. Naturally, that plan did not end well.

Isaac Baum: Scott's sire. I think the phrase "embarrassingly proud dad" describes him best. He's much more outgoing than his childe, and much more loyal to both their clan and sect. He does his best to make sure Scott will succeed in both. Isaac was raised to be embraced. His sire adopted him at a very young age. Isaac never really knew what it was to be human, or to be among humans in any meaningful capacity, while he was growing up. His life (and unlife) was kind of a hot mess to start, filled with parties and drugs and sex and anything else that could potentially embarrass the kindred who raised him. Siring a childe was the first time he ever felt like he had a purpose.

Ares Salvatore: Scott's thinblooded childe and partner. Ares is a soft spoken nerd who's ideal night is spent in, playing Mario Kart and snuggling. He was from a branch of the Giovanni family, but ran from them when he met Scott. Ares was born with an extremely strong sixth sense. He was seen by many of his relatives as a goldmine of necromantic potential. Unfortunately his gentle nature put him at odds with them. His father and sister were especially abusive. Ares actively despises his family. When the opportunity came to make a new family for himself - with Scott and Scott's coterie - he jumped on it without hesitation.

[eternal_life_sentence]

I like the sound of Isaac- was there a particular reason his sire was raising a child in preparation for an embrace, or was it more of a "to see if I can!" kind of deal?


Ares is also quite interesting- although if I've seen anything, that whole "running from the Giovanni" thing is probably going to come back to bite him (no pun intended).

[mckelly]

"To see if I can." Isaac's sire was a bored-as-shit elder looking for something to make his existence interesting. Which meant Isaac was more of a pet than a son, and not a particularly well cared for pet. His sire would dote on him as long as it was fun. The moment it stopped being fun - like, say, when a kid is scared or sad or in some other sort of negative mood - Isaac was left to his own devices.

And yeah, running from the Giovanni was NOT a good plan. It did come back to bite him hardcore in the chronicle he was in. I have to post the recaps I did for that game on my journal here soon...

[eternal_life_sentence]

Ah, yeah, that sounds like a super Toreador thing to do. At least it seems to have turned out less-terribly than it might otherwise have!

[propergoffick]

"Embarrassingly Proud Dad" is a great concept - and it feels like a nice positive choice for that World of Darkness!!!1! that people sometimes get a little bit too into. I have to admire him for trying with Scott, even if it hasn't worked out too well.

Also: Giovanni thinbloods of the world unite! We have nothing to lose except, er, everything. (One of my losers is a tiny baby Giovanni who knows a lot more than she's capable of. I should probably do this "tell us about your characters" shtick myself, really...)

[mckelly]

Dear lord, does Isaac try... only for the same humanity he cultivated in his childe to go and cause said childe to make the absolute worst decisions possible in any situation. The moral choice doesn't matter in the long run if it puts a target on your back.

Also, I havea feeling if Sorcha and Ares ever met it'd end with Ares taking three cautious steps backward, then turning on his heals and making a mad dash for the nearest exit. XD

[propergoffick]

He's SENSIBLE. That's the correct response to Sorcha.

(She's not as hardcore as I make her sound. TBH I'm thinking about retooling her to make her a little less... edgy.)

[mckelly]

There's nothing wrong with an edgy character or two, especially in a case as well-rounded as yours.

[propergoffick]

Thank you! I always hope that tying these things into an actual context (like, well, being groomed for the Embrace since birth, raised by some of the strangest people in Europe and then in a lonely Scottish boarding school, and finally finding out that your dad is a full time vampire spindoctor) grounds them a little bit - but I still think it's important to emphasise that these characters are people who, by and large, function in society. Sorcha's a weirdo but she's not psychotic. Riccardo is perfectly charming unless you happen to be related to him. Alistair... well, OK, Alistair's a piece of shit, but that's what the job does to you. He needs to be like that.

deep breath everyone:

[propergoffick]

Let's start with three generations of horrible Giovanni:

Riccardo Giovanni - Domestic tyrant, property developer and funeral director. Charming, controlling, and quiet centre of the Kindred black market (he can fix you up with blood, temporary havens, burying the bodies, the works...). Absolutely not based on a former landlord of mine mashed up with Roger Delgado's Master.

Luciana Giovanni - Riccardo's wife and childe. Elegant, educated, somewhat erotic; necromancer, schemer and wheelchair user. For some reason I decided I really wanted to do a Shadowrun-style 'decker' character in Victorian Age Vampire and mobilise all those 'Gothic invalid' tropes but locate them in a character who wasn't Doomed To A Tragic Fate. Typically encountered via letter, wraithly manifestation, or occasional appearance at can't-miss Elysia.

Santino Giovanni - Luciana's first, chosen childe. Minor rock star and trans-sectarian spy/courier. Absolutely besotted with Luciana, absolutely hates Riccardo (to be fair, Riccardo cut out his eye, saddled him with the ghost of his rival candidate for the Embrace, and regularly sends him into horrible levels of personal danger). Here to steal your childer, seduce your ghouls, and somehow keep getting away with it.

Alistair Dunsirn - Luciana's second, not-chosen childe. Started off as a joke character, because I thought "vampire Malcolm Tucker" would be funny. People seem to like the idea that their harpy is a foul-mouthed git in a two thousand pound suit. Currently propping up a confused Toreador prince in Glasgow.

Sorcha Dunsirn - Alistair's daughter, childe, and secret shame, conceived on the night of his Embrace. Raised by revenants and turned out weird as hell. Thinblood, party girl, self-proclaimed web star, and only occasionally tortures people for alchemical reasons. Useless little drugsucker but she looks great while she's doing it.


And there are a few others:

Jennifer Pale (the 'canon' VTMB protagonist for my fic - wannabe Suicide Girl, now surprisingly effective Tremere enforcer)

Etienne Chevalier (Malkavian, mercenary, manic-depressive, made him for a TT game because the ST wanted me to "set an example" in terms of roleplaying, sadly he only saw one session and I think I might have gone a bit far)

the Reverend Hezekiah (Minister of Set, liberation theologist, the only one of these dorks I'd feel comfortable LARPing)

Helena Chernyy (token Requiem character: Mekhet, university professor, pillar of the Ordo Dracul, Russian emigré)

Adrian Royce (token Requiem character: Ventrue, 'outlaw journalist' and occasional vigilante, has a hair-trigger temper and a Carthian chip on his shoulder)