Archived-Sydney Requiem Questions

Questions, Questions...

The questions that follow can be used to flesh out a character’s background, providing insight into areas a player might gloss over during character creation. Even if there is no time for a sufficiently detailed prelude, you should answer as many of these as you can, either by writing out a brief back story and description or talking about these issues with the Storyteller. The devil is in the details, as they say, and these specifics help make your character far more real once the story begins.

How old are you?
When were you born? How old were you when you were Embraced? How long have you existed as a vampire? How old do you look to others? Are you more or less mature than you seem?

What was unique about your childhood?
What do you remember about your early years? What forged your basic motivations and attitudes? Where did you go to school? Were you a good student? Who were your immediate family members? What is your clearest childhood memory? Did you go to high school. College? Did you have a hometown, or did your family move often? Did you run away from home? Did you play sports? Did any of your childhood friendships last until adulthood?

What kind of person were you?
Were you a kind and gentle person or an arrogant bastard? Were you popular or a social outcast? Did you have a family? How did you earn a living? Did you have any real friends, or just acquaintances? What kept you going from day to day? Will anyone miss you?

What was your first brush with the supernatural?
When did you first realize you were being stalked? Had you dabbled in the occult at all before your Embrace? When did you first meet a vampire? Were you afraid? Disbelieving? Curious? Angry?

How did the Embrace change you?
How did your sire catch you? Was the Embrace painful? Did you get perverse pleasure from it? Did the Hunger tear at you? Were you frightened? Did it somehow feel right? Are you grateful to your sire? Do you want to kill her for what she did to you?

Who was your sire, and how did she treat you?
What do you know of your sire? Was she seductive, forceful,abusive, cryptic or open? Why do you think she chose you? Did you even know your sire? How long did you stay with your sire? Did she teach you anything at all? How long was it until your sire released you? Where did you stay? Where did you go? Did you meet any other vampires during that time? Did your sire Embrace another? Do you judge other vampires by your opinion of your sire?

Were you presented to Kindred society?
Did the Prince welcome you? Was he reluctant to accept you? Did prominent Kindred need to be bribed or threatened before accepting you? Did your sire have permission to create you? Are you on the run from Kindred authorities? What do you suppose your domain’s preeminent Kindred think about you?

How did you meet the others in your coterie?
Were you brought together by chance or design? Are you all of one covenant or clan? Are you united in purpose, working toward the same goal? How long have you been together? Did you know any of the others before your Embrace? Do your sires cooperate, or are they rivals? Do any of you share the same sire? What holds your coterie together when the situation is at its worst?

Where is your haven?
Where do you sleep during the day? Do you have any permanent home, or do you migrate from place to place? Do you stay in or near the place you inhabited in your mortal life? Do you hide in an abandoned building? Is your haven above or below ground? Do you have anyone to protect you during the day?

Do you retain any connections to your mortal life?
Have you been presumed dead? Do you still watch over old friends and relatives from afar? Do you pretend to still be alive? Have you abandoned your mortal existence entirely?

What are your habitual feeding grounds?
Do you frequent a particular place to feed? Do you consider this territory yours alone, or do others use it? Do you compete with others to feed? What is your preferred prey? Will you risk hunger to find this type of prey? Do you ever kill when you feed? Do you have a specific herd? Do you seduce your prey? Kidnap them? Intimidate or beat them? Do they come to you?

What motivates you?
Are you bent on revenge? Do you long for your mortal life, or to again look upon the sun? Do you have ambitions within Kindred society? Do you wish to Embrace any childer? Are you involved with inter-covenant conflict? If you could have any one thing in the world, what would it be?

A final note...
Those without motivation are likely not to have survived the Embrace at all, or to struggle for survival in subsequent nights. Although a vampire’s values often differ greatly from those of a human, stemming from his experience with death and rebirth, he must still have something worth existing for, or he would likely watch the next sunrise and be done with it.

Give thought to where your character has been and where he’s headed. Is there some overarching, ultimate goal or possibly several small ones? While Vampire is a Modern Gothic Storytelling game, these beings do not sit around each night lamenting their sad existence and wishing it would all just end. Once you have an idea of what it is that your character wants to achieve, you have come one step closer to making him a complete, realistic personality.