Actions

So, how does one go about doing things, and what can one do? In terms of the 'what', the answer is almost anything you can think of. What you can't do is create an army of NPCs to be able to run off and, for example, spy on everyone… remember that we are playing elders, and that they aren't stupid. They have been fighting spies off for hundreds of years. By all means if you can coerce other characters to tell you their secrets then fine, but simply expecting that a large auspex score will solve every problem is not going to get you very far. This is a role-playing system - not a wargame or a simulation. As soon as you start doing an action, your character is at risk for the duration of the action. That means that you can die whilst the action is resolving. This is why a lot of players never do actions, just stay at home and make witty comments.

The actions procedure works as follows. Your action needs a target (typically another character). Your action also needs a description. For example:

Target = Varpesh
Description = Attack him on his home ground and kill him.

The target(s), a ref and yourself then write prose between yourselves to work out the results of the action. The ref will look at the amount of detail in the description (note that description means how interesting the action is to the overall story arc, not a list of disciplines), and if necessary adjudicate an outcome. For some actions, refs will leave things to the players if they themselves are happy with an outcome they can agree on.

At the end of the action, the players should have a final piece of prose that can be posted to the mailing list from a ref that indicates that the action has occurred. Players involved in the actions can also make additional posts in the form of announcements that support the result of the action.

As an example.
"Fire engulfs York Minster one night as fire crews struggle to control an inferno that hits home there" (obviously you'd want to write something a little more detailed than this!)
Followed by a mail from Varpesh announcing: "Kindred, this night I was assaulted by an assailant as yet unknown, he is detained. I will act upon this attack against myself and my domain"

At this point, the other players can get onto Varpesh and offer deals for him to name someone else as the co-conspirator in the assassination attempt… and that is how the game works… Player A makes a statement about player B. Players C through Z can then talk to both A and B and stir them like mad. Clan mailing lists enable grand deceptions to be set up - the tools are there, one needs to know how to use them. Again, don't be overawed. You don't need to do actions ever if you don't want to.

There are two other ways of getting things done. The first is to suggest something directly to a ref. This should not involve individuals unless they are NPCs. Something suitable might be "Can you introduce this Sabbat plotline where the Sabbat attempt to infiltrate Albion"; or "the Scottish kindred will push for independence from Albion". The ref may or may not run the plot depending on how well you sell it. Most often refs will ask you to scribble away J An alternative way to get things done is through the harpies, which allows anonymous posting. To get access to this, convince a ref in character to let you, or talk to the Royal Harpy IC.