Approval Message

Congrats, your character has been approved!

Here are a few things that you should do next or know before jumping straight into the roleplay. Our first recommendation is brushing up on server consent rules lower on that page, it’s how we handle consent and how we expect players to approach it.

• Add your character name next to your username for the server! We don’t associate ourselves as our characters to help prevent bleeding, this is one way we do that. We also do not refer to our character’s actions or thoughts as our own, just to note.
• Set up a character profile within character-profiles. There’s a template already pinned in there for use.
• During your first week of play, you do not need to roll the wake-up Rouse, only the Rouse for Blush of Life should you wish to use it. The first week of play is the first week you write your character, if there’s a gap between approval and playing that is no problem.
• Another first step is for the character to write a letter to their faction and to Prince Cross to declare their entry into the city. Due to the nature of the server size we do not do in-person introductions. camarilla-contact is for contacting Cross and the Primogens/Harpy. non-camarilla-contact is for the rest of the factions. If your character has resided in the city before approval and has a history here, a letter is not needed.
• Good places to meet other kindred without needing to determine if they are kindred or not are places like Elysium, Razors Edge, Withering Rose, Seven Gables, Hole in the Wall (they must be declared anarchs first), Cutters Number. These are all faction locations and kindred only, if the character is brand new to the city in their background then Elysium is the only known location to them. Those who have been in the city for over a year as kindred can know the rest if you’d like. Please refer to the v5 primer when meeting others in non-kindred-only locations as spotting another vampire is harder than it might seem.
• When joining others’ scenes always ask first in rp-coordination to make sure it’s alright. The headers contain A or NA, A is approachable and NA is nonapproachable which should help determine who is willing for others to join in. The wanted-board is also a great place to spot people looking for a scene or to ask for one yourself, don’t be afraid to ask to join in!
• Reset is what we call the progression to the next night on the server. Time is wobbly here as there are only 4 nights in a month in order to allow us to play through the seasons and holidays. Reset occurs on Sunday at 12:00AM PST every week, if you are attempting to join a scene on Friday or Saturday it’s best to wait till after reset as most players will be closing up their scenes.
• Most importantly, remember that hunting and interacting with the world around the characters does leave an impact. Actions have consequences for good or bad. Breaches, murders, assaults, and other such actions can lead to flaws, negative status, imprisonment, or even character death, just to name a few examples. Remember to be careful and protect the masquerade!
• Here is a link to a tracker that is optional to use for your own record-keeping. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1S0hFeEIhrbwypOuztcg9IXF7jbmq473ynlYE2aZWjUs/edit?usp=sharing be mindful that we don’t accept this for leveling and you’ll need to copy and paste the rolls from here into a ticket when you’d like to purchase something with exp.
• The channel ask-the-st is intended for rulings on an ongoing scene (for example a messy crit or bestial fail) or a ruling for purchasing merits. If you have general questions refer to #rp-advice-and-mechanics. We know this is quite a bit to take in, but if you have any questions we’re here to help.

General Server Information

• The only homebrew we use is what we have made and approved for the server, as we primarily follow VtM v5 rules as written. Any suggestions can be made via the feedback channel.
• You are limited to 5 characters; only two of them are allowed to be Ancilla.
• You are NEVER permitted to severely alter or damage settings without ST permission first. You may not eradicate entire areas of the map either. Explosives and incendiary ammo are not permitted outside of campaigns.
• Always include your rolls within the corresponding posts in RP in a format such as [Dice pool, Successes, Difficulty]. The more information the better; this helps us track what is going on. An example is [Wits + Awareness, Succ 4, Diff 3]. If it’s a case where there is no difficulty, such as contested rolls, you do not need to include a difficulty. We suggest including if the roll is messy critical or bestial for EXP counting.
• Headers belong at the top of every post, it’s what helps us all organize the roleplay in channels and know what character you’re playing. It also gives STs crucial information when guiding a scene.
  **[Name, Location, BoL, Specific Information, NA or A]**
  –Name: Character name as on the sheet, we prefer last name used incase your character shares first names with another character. If the character is going by a nickname currently, please still use their sheet name. If the character will be going by this nickname for the unforeseeable future, you can have it changed by letting us know and we will rename the file. It otherwise becomes a game of Sherlock Holmes to find your sheet.
  –Location: Please give the general location and then a specific place if needed. Especially during events or when in large locations with multiple other players, specifications such as [Elysium, Bar Area] help immensely.
  –BoL: Abbreviation for Blush of Life It can either be “BoL” or “no BoL”, this is to indicate if they activated the Blush or not. Thin-bloods can place Lifelike here instead if they have the merit.
  –Specific Information: This is for things such as status when in the locations that match it. So Camarilla Status in Elysium. Active Disciplines should be listed as well if they are extended through multiple posts, such as Eyes of the Beast. Please also, if you’re in a campaign, include the title of the campaign in your master posts.
  –NA or A: Non Approachable or Approachable. Which means you want others to ping you in RP-Coordination to join the scene or not.
  –Things that shouldn’t be in the headers: Physical changes, such as damage, or hair changes. Beauty Merits, Nicknames, Fame, Loresheets and other unnecessary information. You can however just ping your partners and let them know in Rp-Coord that there’s this and that to be considered about your character.
  –During Events, Status and Loresheets are allowed, if they are relevant. But otherwise they shouldn’t be included. This is only due to the sheer amount of players interacting and moving about who might recognize another character from their background Status.
• Keep yourself up to date with recent news by checking the announcements whenever something is posted, or if you’re away for a period of time.

General RP Information

• Every reset begins a new evening, so you will roll a Rouse Check when your character wakes. If you made rolls the previous week but did not post all week, such as a rouse and hunting roll, you are free to use those rolls the following week.
• Singular use of Blush of Life (Rouse check required) lasts for 1 IRL week, if you decide to deactivate it or until your character goes into day sleep.
• Characters don’t need Blush of Life to use phones/touchscreens. Blush of Life is still needed if the character wants to have sexual intercourse (even for humanity 8 and above) or to eat/drink anything other than blood, unless it’s wine and the character’s humanity is 8 or above, or unless the character has specific merits allowing them to do that regardless of the Blush.
• Characters cannot have Ghoul Touchstones
• The book describes Blood Bonding to be different than how we’ve ruled it in the past; we will be sticking with one drop being enough, no Rouse Check needed.
• The Beast flavor clarification; This isn’t Venom from the Spider-man verse nor Dissociative Identity Disorder. However, hearing the “voice” and “communicating” with it is fine, but it should be within very specific circumstances rather than a relationship created. The beast is a representation of a darker power or curse that has taken over the host and not a separate entity. How you decide to represent that is up to you, giving it a personality akin to your own characters or counter, naming it or a specific “voice” is all flavor. But remember it’s still part of the character and not a separate creature unless they have specific loresheets that allow for that.

Consent

Consent is something we value greatly on the server and require as it’s part of our tenets. What that means is communicating with your fellow players when in scenes. It’s important to ask if they are comfortable with a specific type of scene/plot be it physical or mental; remember that not everyone wants a physical fight or enjoys having their characters manipulated through certain means. You should also ask if you can make a roll against their character before doing so and simply check in with them when the scene is tense. This also serves to remind players that if they are in a scene where they are uncomfortable with the situation but don’t feel comfortable speaking up about it, tickets are always an option. Staff are here to help you through tense situations and to help resolve them as smoothly as possible between players as well as talk through the scene.

Consent Gathering

Consent and communication in roleplay is something we require on the server. This is a blanket rule and one of the server tenets for a number of very good reasons, up to and including the fact that scenes may often go in directions entirely unanticipated by the players involved. This might be due to bad rolls, or it might be due to players having not fully thought through possible consequences. All consent gathering must be done on server!

This helps prevents “he said/she said situations” due to conversations that occurred inside of DMs to which staff is not privy; and it also ensures that STs know and are aware of the fact that these conversations are occurring, and can be aware of and prepared for potentially stressful or dangerous scenes before they develop, not after. As a reminder, it is never appropriate to “cold DM” a user from the server. If the user is your friend, or if you have asked prior for consent to DM them, that’s different. But please do not message users asking for RP or connections without their consent. You can @ them in rp-coordination, which is the primary purpose of said channel.

All scenes on server are subject to ST oversight, regardless of any plans or ideas which might have been discussed in DMs. At any point the ST team can and will step in and call for rolls to shape the ongoing scene, and consequences can and will be handed out, from temporary flaws all the way up to and including the final death of characters. This is part of why consent-gathering and even plotting should be done primarily if not entirely on the server, where STs can see and make certain actions that lead to dangerous choices are known, rather than cleaning up scenes that were spun without knowledge of the server’s lore. We have seen players drop characters entirely due to situations like the one described, and that is something we want to avoid.

Rule of Thumb for Time

One turn = One post

One Scene = Till location changes

One Session/ Chapter = One week

One Story = 3 months

RP Etiquette

Self Inserts

On SBN we ask that you do not play a self-insert. This is a character that is essentially an extension of yourself. Why do we ask this? Self-inserters feel that their character is the same as them, and that anything bad that happens to the character is happening to them.

There is a difference between a player’s character and an actual player: often our characters say or do things we would never do. This being the World of Darkness universe, there are plenty of uncomfortable topics, that our players wouldn’t personally engage in their life – but their characters might. Self inserters cannot handle their characters in a bad position, or take their characters extremely seriously and must be the protagonist at all times. Their characters backgrounds tend to be a convoluted fantasy of their own desires to be strong and powerful, e.g. their sire being a Justicar or a Prince, and/or they are being chased and hunted but still manage to defeat the bad guy with no negative outcomes.

This often indicates that they are trying to play out a power fantasy out of personal fulfillment.

Power Gaming

This is when a player presumes or declares that their action against another player character is successful without giving the other player character the freedom to act against them as is their prerogative. This also may be a player who forces other players to participate in role-playing they do not want to engage in. For example, this is a player who unilaterally describes their character doing something with or to another character that would require both players to interact and consent (fighting or sexual interactions are common offenders.) There is also another type of power gaming where the player “minmaxes” the character to be literally the best at something, blocking any type of story if others do not agree with it. Often called munchkin; though there is nothing wrong with having a strong character, making it impossible for other players to affect plot meaningfully and having to bend to your rules ad ideas isn’t looked upon kindly.

Metagaming

This is a term used to describe instances in which a player uses real-life knowledge to influence their character interactions. This can be determining someone’s clan with no reasoning behind it, or even knowing that someone is kindred despite the character having blush of life activated and high humanity. This also means suddenly changing one’s opinion of a player character based on conversation outside of roleplay, or based on fear for your character’s safety. Metagaming is an example of breaking character, as the character is making decisions based on information they wouldn’t have access to, influencing their behaviour in ways that would not otherwise happen.

Godmodding

In essence this is when a character has the ability to do practically anything, and while this shouldn’t be possible in VTM due to the presence of rolls, if you are not rolling when needed and are not taking into consideration what your disciplines are actually capable of, you could end up godmodding. This is also taking control of another character against the player’s will and manipulating their character as you see fit.