The Nightfall Society
Character Generation: Playing Elders
A classical guide to your friendly overlords
Introduction
Elders have always been a controversial topic in vampire games. They are beings of great power, can be unbalancing, often have a large impact on the game, and everyone has their own idea of what a "proper" elder should be.
This document is not here to say who can and can't play a good elder, nor is it here to suggest how to restrict them. What this is for is to talk about how to play elders responsibly, with simple points to follow to ensure we, as ST’s, can support you in play, and keep the game enjoyable and immersive for everyone.
- Do you need to be an Elder?
- Often players look at elders and take them purely for the power boost and stat lines. This ideally should not be the case and concepts that are built like this are more likely to be rejected. We appreciate some people enjoy building powerful characters, but then why are you after the status? True Elders should be a character who has survived hundreds of years for a reason, not so they can throw themselves in harm’s way and be more likely to survive thanks to better stats. That’s what neonates are for. We would also remind players that you can play equally politically successful kindred, without being an Elder. There are quite a few merits that support this too. Additionally, many elders shun positions other than Prince or Harpy, yet several positions get great authority over elders and it can be greatly rewarding for players who are not playing Elders to work towards these roles.
- Positions of Inadequate Power? No thanks
- Elders typically do not take positions in court unless it’s of power over other elders, such as Prince or Harpy (the latter due to the social influence it grants over the Court). Why would they give up their Elder status and protections just to give one kindred a night warned as sheriff? Have a think about the Jihad and your reason for being at court rather than in your own castle somewhere. An Elder wants power over other Elders. Having their loyal neonates or ancilla in those positions will ensure an easier and more powerful position at court, especially when your loyal followers know you helped them get there. You’re playing a game of Chess, why be a piece to be taken, when you can be the player?
- Safety doesn’t happen by accident – don’t be the superhero.
- Elders have been around hundreds of years and are used to stasis. They don’t go out to dangerous fights or investigate who robbed a store. That’s what the expendable young are for. Amassing a loyal group of supporters should be priority one for an Elder, which comes with its own challenges and satisfactions that are part of playing an Elder. Elders don’t want to risk their own lives so why are you playing your Elder as such?
Elders are more powerful. There is no question of this - whilst there have been incentives added to make worse generations more appealing and detriments to make elders less attractive, ultimately an elder can be a powerhouse with far less effort than other characters, and gets bonus political power to boot.
The difficulty with this is that if you then get involved in everything going on, the game can very quickly lose its appeal for everyone else - to use the analogy above, the neonates and ancilla are the normal people in a world of superheroes. Elders will almost always have an edge no matter the form of plot being run, whether combat, investigative, or other items.
So, what is the answer? For this one, it is pretty simple. Decide early on what really matters to your character, and only get involved with things that relate to that. It could be destroying the infernal, learning more about mages, or simply defending what you regard as yours.
This has the side benefit of helping to show why you've survived all those years. An elder who risks themselves once in a while for something important to them is far more believable than one that goes out on combat runs every game they attend
- Elders have been around hundreds of years and are used to stasis. They don’t go out to dangerous fights or investigate who robbed a store. That’s what the expendable young are for. Amassing a loyal group of supporters should be priority one for an Elder, which comes with its own challenges and satisfactions that are part of playing an Elder. Elders don’t want to risk their own lives so why are you playing your Elder as such?
- Respect your Elders!
- Gaining the loyalty of lesser vampires is a critical part of play for an Elder, but equally you don’t want the court thinking you are soft. There is a fine line here and other Elders are watching for you to either push a supporter their way, or to show weakness to a direct assault. Make sure neonates show you respect - throw status around or have their territory targeted and reduced. Vulgar is a great mild warning for someone who hasn’t addressed you properly or has just come up to you without introduction. If you want a more subtle way of punishing someone, use boons and get other people to do it for you. The Harpy will probably enjoy some Boons over an elder to watch the decorum of a rude neonate all night like a hawk. Make it known that it was your doing to spread some fear amongst your enemies.
- Have you tried turning it off and on again?
- This has been lightly touched on but I’ll start with a simple question; Have you ever had to show a Parent or Grandparent how to use a smart phone or computer? Elders, typically, are ancient creatures. One of the requirements in the Rulebook for status is being over 300 years old. When creating your Elder consider why they have (if any) knowledge or understanding on how modern technology and science works. Would it not be more appropriate to play a character that leaves the modern stuff to the younger ones? I’m not saying this is the case across the board, but most Elders are static creatures who are very slow to change. Smart Phones have only really been around 25 years, and the early ones didn’t have reliable internet or complex functions. 25 years is nothing to a being hundreds of years old, so consider this in parallel with the “Don’t be the superhero” section above with regards to sharing the spotlight.
Another point relates to knowledge of the world from older time periods. Just because your old doesn’t mean you know everything from the time you were from. For example; Do you know how they built houses in medieval times? No, you were a noble living in a castle or a knight on crusades in the Holy Land. Would a Carpenter from that time period know? Probably. Share the spotlight and don’t assume that your age = automatic knowledge.
To repeat what has been mentioned throughout, having a group of younger kindred who can do things for you that you can’t allows the spotlight to be shared, equally so with Lore and Academics in relation to other older characters. This shows that you’re playing the game in a more considerate way that keeps the game immersive, and your character more realistic.
- This has been lightly touched on but I’ll start with a simple question; Have you ever had to show a Parent or Grandparent how to use a smart phone or computer? Elders, typically, are ancient creatures. One of the requirements in the Rulebook for status is being over 300 years old. When creating your Elder consider why they have (if any) knowledge or understanding on how modern technology and science works. Would it not be more appropriate to play a character that leaves the modern stuff to the younger ones? I’m not saying this is the case across the board, but most Elders are static creatures who are very slow to change. Smart Phones have only really been around 25 years, and the early ones didn’t have reliable internet or complex functions. 25 years is nothing to a being hundreds of years old, so consider this in parallel with the “Don’t be the superhero” section above with regards to sharing the spotlight.
Troubleshooting in Games: Problem Roleplay
We have had a fair few question around Elders and what happens if someone is not playing them “well” and who will be responsible for it?
Firstly, there is no way to play and Elder “well” in everyone’s eyes. Everyone will have a different opinion of what is right and wrong. Hopefully the points above help, and if you as a player follow these, no one should have legitimate cause to complain. BUT, what to do if you feel a player isn’t following this guide, or is acting in a way we haven’t thought of that is affecting the game.
- Speak to your ST
- You should ask the ST for a private word and express your concerns to them. Please give examples of repeated behaviour that has been “wrong”. The ST will then review what you have said with what they have seen and speak with the player in question in private (Step 2). PLEASE keep in mind we’re all human and occasional slips do happen. Don’t go running to an ST straight away, give the player a chance to correct their behaviour.
- Private Chat
- The ST, if the situation warrants it, will speak privately with the player and advise them that they need to watch how they are acting in court. Please note that Elders may act differently in a private meeting with their allies etc. but publicly there is a standard that is expected of them. STs may have this chat without someone having reported to them if they feel it is warranted, so if an ST speaks to you, don’t feel like someone has complained about you, it maybe just that the ST wants to give you a heads up.
- In Character Punishment
- If the behaviour continues it is the responsibility of both the Player’s Characters in game, and the ST’s (Via NPCs) to appropriately punish that Character if they have acted in a way to deserve it. Please note “Character” and not “Player”. This should help reinforce that the fact that their behaviour is being noted by other players and characters in the game. This Step can be done legitimately independently of the Steps by players, but please keep it in line with the what would realistically happen in game. The ST can bring the extra weird and scary if they feel it’s necessary, it is not your decision to make as a player on what the ST should bring into the game as punishment.
- Yellow Card
- If behaviour has not stopped you should approach your ST as before and state as such with examples of the behaviour. The ST again may do this of their own volition. This will lead to, if required, another private chat with that player and warning them that things need to change quickly. They will offer to sit down with that player and perhaps revise their aims, review this document, or perhaps offer to have that character retired if the player feels they are struggling.
- Character Retirement
- This is a last resort which will require Lead ST Approval (in the case of the Lead ST being the problem Player, it will instead be another Nightfall ST approving this decision in their stead to hopefully prevent bias). This will force the player to retire that character and they will be invited to create a new character that may better suit their style of play. There will always be an offer to sit down with that Player and help work through issues they have been having with roleplay in game. I will state now that we hope to never have to get to this stage.
A note: all reporting of other players will be kept note of, but anonymous. In exchange we ask to please watch for “bleeding” of hurtful comments into real life. This is a game, and many different people play with different levels of LARP experience.