Brisbane Sabbat VSS

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ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

Venue Name, Number, City

Venue:

Genre: Vampire the Masquerade: Sabbat

Domain: Twilight Alliance (AUS-02), Brisbane

VC and VST

VC: ???

VST: Levian McCarthy-Atkinson 2011120002

Game Location, Time and Fees

VENUES

Twilight Alliance Games are played in a number of Venues across Brisbane. Commonly used venues include but are not limited to –

  • The Red Brick Hotel, 83 Annerley Rd Woolloongabba QLD 4102
  • Metro Arts, 109 Edward Street, Brisbane 4000
  • Bedford Hall, 10 Love Street Spring Hill 4000
  • Spring Hill Hotel, 100 Leichhardt St Spring Hill QLD 4004
  • Norman Hotel, 102 Ipswich Rd Woolloongabba QLD 4102

Times

Game - evening of the 2nd Sunday of the Month. Specific sign on, game start and game finish times may vary depending on venue limitations.

Downtime - 2nd Monday after the date of the game.

Fees

Twilight Alliance has no standardised recurring fees. Costs for attending particular games are up to the discretion of the respective Venue Coordinator.

Mailing lists, websites and other online resources used

Domain Resources

Twilight Alliance has no dedicated website although most of our information can be found on this wiki at http://wiki.beyondthesunset.org.au/Brisbane

Members of Twilight Alliance should subscribe to ooc.brisbane@lists.camarilla.org.au.

Information about our games can also be found on our facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/twilight.alliance/

Venue Resources

Relevant Storyteller Emails are As Follows –

VST: vst.sabbat(at)brisbane.beyondthesunset.org.au

DST: dst(at)brisbane.beyondthesunset.org.au

VC: vc.sabbat(at)brisbane.beyondthesunset.org.au

DC: dc(at)brisbane.beyondthesunset.org.au

Remove the (at) and replace with @. This is an anti-spambot precaution.

Addenda

Classic ("Old") World of Darkness: Universal

Classic ("old") World of Darkness: Vampire the Masquerade

GAME INFORMATION

History

The Sabbat have been in Australia for the last 20 or so years, hoping to find a new free place to settle down. Individual packs settled separately in different places, scattered across South Queensland and Northern New South Wales. With no central organisation or leadership this continued for a couple of decades, until a call came out in early 2012 from an unknown source. Most of the Packs went there, very suspicious of one whom would consider themselves important enough to put out a call to the Sabbat. When they arrived though, he was so charismatic, that those who came were swept up in the charge for the Camarilla reigniting the fires of the crusade in the dead hearts of the Cainites and reminding them of who they are and what they fight for.

The Sabbat rolled into Brisbane, only to smash themselves up against the Anarchs, not realising they were not the Camarilla they were seeking. The battle was won, but at a horrifying price. The war exacted a huge toll on the Sabbat, a full 60% of them were wiped out by the Anarchs This also left the kine of the city fearful, and the resources scarce. Blood was now harder to come by in those areas that were once a warzone. The Sabbat pushed forward in much smaller numbers, confident that the enemy was on the run. Then they encountered the true defences of the Camarilla bastion. They realize that this war cannot be fought in the same manner of the battle against the Anarchs. They slink back into the shadows of the South of the city, to lick their wounds, recruit, plot, and scout and to lay plans for a siege. They cannot make this mistake again.

Places of Interest

Brisbane in game is (on the surface) is exactly the same as Brisbane in the real world.

The Brisbane River: The river forms a natural barrier that is reinforced and patrolled by the Camarilla. North of it is relatively safe. South of it are the rich but contested hunting grounds of West End, South Brisbane and Woolloongabba.

Cultural District: The Performing Arts Centre, Queensland Museum, State Library and their immediate surrounds have been declared Elysium. Unfortunately they are all in the contested territory.

Themes and Moods

Suspicion

The Sabbat are not a trusting lot, hence the long time suffering of those not considered true Sabbat. The Sabbat is suspicious of any outsiders, even those who are True Sabbat but not of your pack are not to be trusted entirely. This is more poignant in a setting of espionage. The Sabbat are running a war of espionage, they have just realized they are up against forces beyond the abrupt way they have just fought this war in. So espionage is the way forward, who can you trust in this new way of war? You have to decide.

Freedom vs. Loyalty

The inner battle for every Sabbat member is that of where does freedom end, and loyalty begin, the Code of Milan asks for both of those, but they can be very opposing forces. Are you a person who believes wholly in freedom being of the utmost importance, or do you believe that if you are not loyal, nothing will move forward. Most are a little of each, which is preferred, from a character concept view.

Overt vs. Espionage

You’ve just fought a huge battle and while you didn’t lose, you did take unacceptable losses. This attack started with 8 packs, and now it’s just you, who are left. But you did destroy your opponents, so the question is, are those losses really unacceptable if you won, or should you wait, bide your time, garner information, so that when you do attack you can be all the more effective, and all the more victorious.

Guiding Principles

Show. Don’t Tell.

This principle has many applications and implications for both STs and players. Wherever possible players will participate in scenes rather than receive written descriptions of scenes. Character history and flaws should not be just something on the character sheet but should be viscerally shown in the portrayal of the character.

The Journey

It’s all about your personal story, are you a young cainite, changeable and adaptable, or are you an Elder, never changing, set in your way, or somewhere in between. It’s all about your own personal journey, your jourey as a pack, and your journey as the Sword of Caine.

The Setting is Unfair - the Game does not have to be.

Vampire is a game of political, social and literal backstabbing. And there is always, always, something out there much bigger set to crush you. Those are elements of the setting - they should be expected and will be encouraged.

However all that is IC. OOC interactions are expected to be based on honesty, integrity and trust.

CHARACTER CREATION AND PLAY

Documentation

It is recognized that there is little correlation between the ability to write a background, history or application and the ability to portray a character and add to the game. As such there is no need for extensive paperwork for low approval characters and approvals as long as the basics are covered. Bullet points are fine.

Characters seeking approvals above low should provide at the very least a completed Character Development Document to go with the character history.

Character records for the venue will be managed by the ST in Microsoft Excel. Players may submit characters in Excel, PDF or hardcopy.

Clans

Preference will be given to the core Sabbat Clans being Lasombra, Tcimizce, Brujah antititribu, Malkavian antitribu, Nosferatu antitribu , Toreador antitribu, Ventrue antitribu and Country Gangrel antitribu or City Gangrel are all low approval within this venue, but beyond that the interactions and politics within and between these clan

Members of clans outside the core will be considered but heavily scrutinised. Character concepts that are marginalised from, do not participate the nightly activities of the Sabbat will likely be rejected regardless of clan.

Paths

Paths in the Sabbat are important, but not all Sabbat are on a path. Some of you have been in the Sabbat even before they came to Australia, but some of you will have been embraced with a mind to attack Brisbane. The younger Sabbat members will mostly not be on paths, but the journey to becoming a more established Sabbat member often involves getting on a path. With this in mind, some of the more established paths will be more accepted have a Low approval at creation, or are more likely to be approved.

Low approval:

  • Path of Honorable Accord
  • Path of the Power of the Inner Voice

More likely to be approved:

  • Path of Caine
  • Path of Cathari
  • Path of Death and the Soul
  • Path of the Feral Heart
  • Clanspecific Paths from Laws of the Night for members of that Clan only

Please refer to the CWoD addenda for path approval levels, link is below for convenience.

Classic ("old") World of Darkness: Vampire the Masquerade

Age

The Sabbat have not been in Australia long, only about 20 years, mostly in separate packs scattered throughout Queensland and Northern New South Wales, and the Sabbat are a violent sect, so great age is a rarity in the Sabbat, while Elders and Ancillae type generation will be considered, they will not be the greater part of the game.

Character Concepts

With the chronicle aiming for a more subtle approach, investigatory characters are important to the game, though this does not mean that there is no place for the brash, brawn over brains type character, just that they will be more unlikely to be in a position of power. With this in mind, I am open to concepts, but cunning, and intelligence is preferred. This can be a Gangrel on path of Feral Heart with a more animalistic, but in no way less useful path forward, or a firebrand Brujah Antitribu, with his heart on his sleeve, but willing to work with others to make for the best end result.

Generation Distribution

In order to maintain an appropriate distribution of generations in the game, players are encouraged to seek pre-approval for purchasing the Generation background before submitting a character. Consideration for approval will be based on character concept and the existing distribution of generations in the game.

With limitations on generation removed players have more freedom to form lineages. This is strongly encouraged. Taking a position in a lineage will add weight to applications for an appropriate Generation.

The preferred distribution of generations will look something like this:

1 Elder (Gen 8-) to 2 Ancillae (Gen 9 & 10) to 7 Neonates (Gen 11+) With each group having its own internal distribution enforced as well (so we don’t end up with six 9th Gens and zero 10th Gens).

The number of Elder characters will be capped at 2 and will have to meet the criteria outlined below.

Players who lose or retire an Elder or Ancillae PC must take a Neonate as their next character. Additionally players who lose or retire an Elder PC will not be able to apply for a new Elder PC until at least twelve months after loss/retirement.

Elders

Elders shape the game as a whole. Therefore any application to play an Elder will be heavily scrutinised.

There will initially be a limit of two Elders. More than three will be hard to justify unless there are a lot of younger PCs (25-30+ regular players).

Players wishing to play an Elder will have to agree to abide by an Elder PC contract. This contract sets out limitations within which the Elder can be played. Failure to abide by the contract may lead to the character being desanctioned.

Elder concepts should meet the following criteria to be considered for approval:

Member of a core clan but that interacts with more than just their own clan.

  • Know and support the Code of Milan
  • Can work against the other Elder PCs in "civil opposition"
  • Interacts with and brings interesting story to neonate/ancilla PCs.
  • Be in the direct lineage of the Clan’s 6th Gen CPC (managed by the GST)

Out-of-Clan Disciplines

Characters may begin with out-of-clan disciplines, but only if they have a member of their pack with that discipline at a higher level. They may only start play with basic out-of-clan disciplines.

The Packs

Your pack is the most important thing to a True Sabbat. They are your brothers and sisters, and even more because of the Vaulderie. But just like brothers and sisters there is infighting, there is a struggle to the top of the heap, there is ambition and there is suspicion. You know that you think particularly well of certain pack members, but you don’t know how they feel about you entirely. There can even be faking of vinculum ratings to truly bring this to a head. You are a pack, but that doesn’t make the position holders safe from ambition, politics start at home remember. But remember, acting against people you are Vinculum tied to is a big effort. Monamancy is the only act that doesn’t require a willpower test for this.

Factions

Factions in this chronicle will not be political sides, they will be how your character thinks, feels, and goes about your nightly business, so while a status quo and a loyalist may never agree, it will be because they as Cainites disagree on their view point of unlife, it won’t be because they are part of two separate political parties that are in opposing sides.

Secondary PCs

Players are encouraged to make long lasting characters that are involved within the structure drama and action of the game until its death or retirement. “Throw-away” or “Once-off” character will not be considered for approval.

Secondary Characters or Second Primary Characters are strongly discouraged and will only be approved under exceptional circumstances. Wanting to “try something different” or simply wanting a range of occasional characters at your disposal is not an approvable justification.

Instead, players will be able to request a particular style of NPC to fulfil the role of what would be a secondary PC. In these cases STs should be more open to negation in the creation of the NPC. If the player in consistent in their portrayal of the NPC then the character it likely to be considered for Custodial Player Character status or transferral to PC status if the players current PC is retired or destroyed.

This process is to assist the Storytellers in creating a stronger universe of Non Player Characters and to ensure that Player Characters are developed and interesting rather than two dimensional cardboard cut-outs.

Location of Domain history information

Domain History will be available on the Beyond the Sunset Wiki at - http://wiki.beyondthesunset.org.au/Brisbane

VENUE SPECIFIC RULES

Experience

XP is controlled by an incremental cap as defined in the Global Addenda, as such players can earn XP for the following activities in game, with no monthly cap so long as they do not breach the current Incremental maximum.

Regular Awards:

  • Game Attendance – 2XP
  • Plot Involvement – 1XP
  • Downtime Activities – 1XP
  • Good Roleplaying – 1XP
  • ST Discretion – 1-2XP

In addition the VST is awarded a flat rate of 3XP per month. Additional XP for nongame incharacter activities may be awarded by the DST or GST. AVST’s are awarded 12XP for assisting the VST if unable to play their character for at least half the game at ST discretion

Unique awards:

  • Good Character Death – 1xp
    • If your character dies ‘well’ then the ST can award the XP your character would have earned in that month towards your next Character. This awarded XP happens after your new characters first appearance and is still limited by the Incremental Cap.
  • Haven Template – 2xp
    • Completing the Haven Template and submitting it to the ST Staff will result in 2XP for a fully complete Haven. This award is untyped and does not count to either the Incremental or Overcap limits for a character.
  • Wiki page – 2XP
    • Create a wiki page for your character, it must include a picture of your character, 3+ rumours, 3+ quotes from other characters. This award is untyped and does not count to incremental or overcap limits.
  • Character Development Document – 4XP
    • This award is untyped and does not count to either the Incremental or Overcap limits for a character.

Player Service

By playing in the venue you agree to provide some form of Player Service. Player Service means simply that the STs may call on you during or between games to do something to assist with the running of the game. This service is not expected to be onerous, nor take the player away from their character for an extended period of time. Most likely it will be donating some game time to playing an NPC which should be enjoyable. It may, at ST discretion, garner prestige as a service to the venue

Feeding

The starting blood of any character is determined as follows:

  • {State of City} + {Feeding Test Result} + {Character Modifier’s} + {Territory Value} = Game Starting blood
  • State of City – Set by the ST at the start of the game, this value shows how easy/difficult it is to currently feed in the city. It can have a value of 15, but usually sits around 3.
  • Feeding Test Result – When collecting your character sheet perform a simple test to determine how well your feeding has gone over the month using the following results.
    • Win = +3 Blood • Tie = +2 Blood • Loss = +1 Blood
  • Character Modifier’s – Herd, Downtime actions to feed, Clan Advantages Territory Value See below for how much blood your Territory can grant

Territories

Territories are hunting grounds designated by suburb names.

There are five tiers of Territories: They provide 1 point of blood per level of Territory. The wiki will keep an accurate list of what territories are at what value. Please note that these values are not fixed and can be increased or decreased by player and NPC actions.

The Storyteller is the final arbitrator on where territory boundaries are and who receives what Blood. Characters who feed in these territories divide up the Bonus Blood. The state of the city (i.e. being under curfew) may affect the bonuses provided by territories. Player actions may move territories from one tier to another.

The Storyteller is the final arbitrator on where territory boundaries are and who receives what Bonus Blood.

Monomancy

Monomancy is more than just a way to gain power and legally kill another Sabbat member; it is also considered one of the Sabbat's holiest traditions. There are several caveats to Monomancy that players should be aware of:

First, the challenged vampire gets to choose the arbiter of the Monomancy, and the arbiter may set any and all terms of the duel. This generally means that it is a bad idea to challenge someone within the sect with completely different strengths and weaknesses; it is likely that the arbiter they will choose will put the challenged vampire in an ideal situation. (Example: Billy Brujah from the Nasty Ones challenges Terry Tremere from the Chosen, an intellectual pack. Terry accepts, and asks his packmate, Tom Tzimisce, to arbitrate. Tom decides to set the terms of the deal to be thaumaturgy at a distance. Billy can choose not to accept the arbiter's decision and lose status and generally look like a fool – or to take the beating that's coming with good grace.)

Second, the victory condition does not have to be death. First blood is an acceptable victory condition for many challenges, especially if honour and not a position is at stake. Monomancy is frequently invoked to resolve disputes and disagreements within the sect, and a variety of different victory conditions exist, all defined by the arbiter (until one yields, torpor, leaves a circle, etc).

Third, in the case of Monomancy for a position, the victor has the right to choose who occupies the loser's position; the victor is not required to take the position.

Fourth, frequent attempts to initiate Monomancy say more than twice a year are likely to attract negative attention from the Sabbat hierarchy, especially if they are done to gain rank within the hierarchy, and are likely to merit a challenge from a Templar sent by the Consistory.

Lastly, the stigma to refusing a challenge is negligible if the vampire in question is of greatly inferior status if the challenger has half or less Sabbat status, the challenged can refuse the challenge without any penalty to status. In addition, any individual of archbishop rank or higher can defer the challenge to one of their Templars, although they are still responsible for the consequences of the duel.

Dispute Resolution outside of Monomancy

Another option for dispute resolution if you can’t roleplay the situation out, outside of Monamacy is a game of instinct, which a pack priest or a Bishop/Archbishop can set up and run a game of instinct at his choice, if both Cainites agree to the game, then the game will be played, with the loser backing down. Status will have the same role in this situation as it does for a monomacy.

Downtime Handling Procedure

Downtime Due Date

Downtimes are due the Second Monday after the game. This gives players a full week, including weekend, to submit downtimes. It encourages players to submit downtimes while the events of the game are still fresh in their mind.

Downtime Actions

Characters get the following downtime actions: 1 per point of willpower 1 per Retainer The following Backgrounds also grant downtime actions but can be split into multiple actions at different levels that sum up to the total level the character has in that Background. Allies, Contacts and/or Influences

Housekeeping tasks do not require downtime actions. Characters are assumed to maintain their havens, herds, resources, practice learned skills, hunt and do the duties of their station (if they hold one) or their career (if they have one) in their downtime. Indeed this nightly tedium is presumed to take all the character’s free time (limited as it is by the setting and rising of the Sun).

Downtime actions only need to be submitted for significant, unusual actions that have in game consequences. Note that your downtime actions can also result in other information, rumours and events being spun back into the rest of the game as they do not take place in isolation.

Activities that do not require a downtime action:

  • Learn a new ability (except Lore) up to Level 3
  • Learn a Specialisation
  • Learn an In-Clan Discipline
  • Learn a new Trait
  • Teach a new ability (except Lore)
  • Learn or Increase a Background

Activities that do require a downtime action:

  • Learn a new ability (except Lore) of level 4+
  • Learn or Teach a new Lore ability (takes 1 Action per level from both Student and Teacher)
  • Learn an Out-Of-Clan Discipline (requires 1 action per level of DisciplineBasic, Int or Adv)
  • Teach an In-Clan Discipline (requires 1 action per level of Discipline (Basic, Int or Adv)
  • Increase Willpower or Virtues (Requires st approval)

A teacher can handle multiple students per lesson so long as they are all learning the same ability of Discipline, but it does not need to be to the same level (i.e. Vince the Ventrue spends an action to teach Fortitude to Beth the Brujah and Terry the Toreador. Beth already has fortitude level 1 and uses this lesson to increase to level 2 while Terry has no fortitude and learns level 1 from this lesson).

Use this link for an appropriate sheet for downtime submitting, send it to VST Sabbat instead of Camarilla though (link at top of VSS)

Downtime Form

Influence

Sabbat characters will not at the time of character creation be allowed influence on their sheet. The only cases where influence will be approved is when it is a clan advantage, of which only 1 point of influence will be approved.

Influence should not be thought of as dots on a sheet or a numbers game. Each level of Influence will be treated as an NPC. Significant interactions with Influences (for example successfully growing a new level) may result in a scene interacting with these NPCs. Influence NPCs may in turn make their own demands on the PCs controlling them.

In submitting Influence actions players should treat them as requests made of independent, capable characters - not detailed, blow by blow instructions.

While the influence actions from Laws of the Night Revised and Dark Epics will be used, players need only use them as a guide as to what is possible with Influences and not get bogged down in mechanics. The Storytellers will interpret Influence submissions and apply appropriate systems in coming up with an outcome.

Crossover limitations and expectations

The Brisbane Chronicle is building towards a set of complete, extensive and entwined games. They will feature more cross-genera activity than the previous chronicle has permitted.

There will be no firewall between games and the antagonism inherit between the Vampire genres will not be removed. Instead it will be carefully monitored and controlled through the use of plot and strong in character consequences.

New and Visiting Players

Information for New Players

New Players are encouraged to contact the relevant Storyteller at least three days before game.

For contact information please see Administrative Information above.

Information relating to our specific games and White-Wolf’s World of Darkness can be found on the Beyond the Sunset Wiki -http://wiki.beyondthesunset.org.au

Information for Players from other Domains

Character Sheets for character outside of Brisbane should be sent through the relevant Storyteller channels at least three days before a game.

Character sheets for character outside Australia should be sent through the relevant Storyteller Channels at least one week before game in case any conversions need to be made.

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