Character Creation

Below you will find our guide for character creation. Once you are ready to create a character, you can download the character sheet, make your changes, and send the edited sheet to staff@ne-gg.com 

Forward from the director:

Welcome to Worcester 1988! This is the first larp to be run by the New England Gaming Group. I’m honored that you’ve considered playing our game. Whether you are a long-time player of Vampire games or this is your first one ever, on behalf of the staff of the game I can assure you that we are happy to have you as a player! 

Character creation can be one of the most fun, but also challenging parts of getting started with a new project. The staff of Worcester 1988 have made this guide to character creation in an effort to help you get set up for success with your character in this game. In addition to this guide, we encourage any players of this game to reach out to us directly for any questions or advice you may need when building a character. All of us are very invested in the success of your character in this game and are more than happy to work with you on this incredibly important aspect of your enjoyment in this game.

On a final note, whenever you are building a character for a game run by the New England Gaming Group, we encourage a very simple piece of gaming philosophy: Ask yourself if your character is going to be fun for you to play, and if it will be fun for others to play with you. This is, after all, just a game, and games are meant to be fun. Your character is not intended to be a piece of abstract art that you use to impress the other participants of this game. Rather, your character’s intention should be to be the vehicle you use to have fun with your friends during a few hours of gaming. Do not lose sight of this philosophy; it’s important to us as game runners, and it should be important to you, the player.

Happy vamping folks!

– Ronald Bruce Rose JR, Game Director.

Part 1 - The vibes we are going for

Worcester 1988 is intended to be what the game runners would describe as a ‘classic game of Vampire the Masquerade’ with all the trappings that entails. For players who have played Vampire or other World of Darkness games, you would know that it involves stories of a darker tone, and an overall narrative of loss, regret and gray morals. For those who are new to the setting, you should prepare yourself for a game that is intended to be of a far more serious nature than what you may be used to in other games and systems. Now, that is not to say we won’t be having fun or light hearted scenes in this game from time to time, but we want all participants to respect the more serious nature of the tone, storyline, and characters that we will be using for this game, and encourage players to ‘keep in theme’ with this aspect of the game with the characters they intend to play. 

When sitting down to create a character for a vampire game as a player, participants are encouraged to design characters that were once people, who through some tragic happenstance, are now the cursed creatures of the night that are vampires. Players should remember that their characters are not ‘absolute heroes’ of this story, as the World Of Darkness is not about that sort of narrative. Players will be experiencing several aspects of the world of darkness and should take this opportunity to experience difficult situations in the safe and controlled environment of larping.

Maybe you want to tell a story about spiritual confusion as your character struggles to figure out just what it means to have faith after death, or contemplate the importance or existence of a soul. Maybe you want to use your character to tell a story about class warfare and how the struggle of the poor against the rich affects everyone, even the dead. Your character can have strong political stances for things you might find ‘objectively good’ out of game, but remember, as a vampire, your character’s means by which to achieve these ‘good ends’ should be, and will be, hampered by the circumstances of your existence. Vampires cannot solve problems with showing up to a voting booth or with strongly worded letters and boycotts. Vampires solve problems with threats of violence, dark magics, or, generally speaking, the terrible things they are capable of. Your ‘heroics’ in this game will not be like they would be in other games, and you should keep that in mind when writing your character.

Conversely, you may wish to play a character whose morals are more at odds with modern human sensibilities. Characters in the world of darkness may be more morally gray or antiheroic than characters from other games you may be used to. As always, ask yourself if this character will be both fun for you to play and fun for others to play with. Characters in the world of darkness can often touch on dark themes, embody power imbalances, or offer a commentary on the social hierarchy of our society. You might want to play a character who is a bad person, or a character who is trying to do good, but slips and falls and gradually loses their sense of morality and self. Remember that these are characters, not abstract concepts. Try your best to create people. When you encounter another participant who is engaging in villainous or antiheroic roleplay, remember that both of you are trying to tell a good story and that you should be mindful of how you interact to ensure both of you can have fun. 

If players find themselves worried about whether or not they will be able to enjoy a game with such dark tones and themes, we encourage all participants to give the game a try first. We want players to try and get outside of their normal comfort zones and we feel like larping provides a safe space to do so in.

Part 2 - Not your typical vampire game

Although we bill Worcester 1988 as a ‘classic Vampire the Masquerade game’ we mean that mostly in tone, setting and mechanics. There are some themes of a traditional vampire game that we are not indulging during this chronicle and there will be aspects of our setting and story that will seem rather ‘counter culture’ to more traditional vampire games. For players who have experience with Camarilla or Sabbat style games, you will find that the tone and themes of this Anarch game are much different than those other styles of game. For players who are unfamiliar with those game styles, you may find this game to be very different from the stereotypes of vampire games you have heard about before.

Characters in this game are expected to be members of the Anarch movement, the underdogs and counterculture society of the vampiric world. Where the rest of vampiric society is dominated by a complex, anachronistic and corrupt government, or an inhuman, vicious and violent religion, the Anarchs represent an oppressed and frustrated rebellion of vampires who have been pushed to the edges of the society of the dead. 

These Anarchs come from a wide range of backgrounds, but all share a desire to make a better world for themselves and the rest of vampiric kind. The players are expected to play characters who are either new to the movement, or have been with it since its humble beginnings. Players may have characters who used to be from other sects of vampire society, but have left to join the Anarch movement and truly believe in its merit. Characters must be written to truly support the Anarch movement’s mission rather than just playing lip service to it. These are fundamental pieces of characters required for all players. At no point in time should you expect to leave the movement and continue to play your character.

We cannot stress this enough. If you were wishing this was a Camarilla or Sabbat game rather than an Anarch game; then this game may not be for you.

When writing a vampire for this game, we ask that you keep your expectations in line with the story we are telling. In other vampire games, you might expect to play a 500 year old vampire of noble lineage who’s ruled over kingdoms or multinational companies or even has god-like powers and magics. However in this game we are keeping things far more ‘street level’. Players should write their characters to be no more than 100 years old (Unless you take a special merit for it as outlined below), and will be limited on which types of vampire they can play. Some clans of vampires are incredibly rare in modern times and will not regularly appear in this story. Many of these rarer clans of vampire do not exist in open vampiric society, and more importantly, most of them have very little interest in the political movement that is the modern Anarchs. 

Players are strongly encouraged to write ‘scrappy underdogs’ or ‘black sheep’ of the vampiric world. Characters who have been cast out by their sire, stormed out of otherwise stable positions, or generally have nowhere else to go are the sort of vampires who end up in the movement. The Anarchs are wary of elder vampires who have nearly limitless resources and dozens of retainers, and oftentimes won’t even let those types of vampires join them. The vampires who come to the movement are the downtrodden, rebellious, and desperate for change vampires, who are taking a massive risk joining this young and fragile movement. The unlife of an anarch vampire is not a glamorous one. Where other vampires are living in their palatial mansions, elite penthouses, or subterraneous temples, Anarch kindred are often living in dingy apartments or abandoned buildings. While other vampires own multinational companies, anarchs may help run a local hardware store. Some vampires have incredible magic that has been passed down for thousands of years, while the typical Anarch has never even seen a bag of magic beans.

For this game, players should focus on building characters who will fit this ‘street level struggle’ that we are basing our story around. Writing a 300 hundred year old wizard won’t work for a game whose plot will occasionally have you rubbing shoulders with gangsters, computer hackers and corrupt cops. An all powerful wizard from Eastern Europe who’s been alive since the dark ages doesn’t really care much about who’s selling drugs in Dracut, Massachusetts. Players are encouraged to lean into this scrappy underdog type of character. We promise you, playing a character who’s more worried about their 1977 AMC Gremlin falling apart than the machinations of the antediluvians is rewarding in its own way.

Part 3 - Remember, it’s Worcester Massachusetts in 1988

The game’s setting of New England in the 1980s was done completely intentionally. Many canonical events of the modern Vampire the Masquerade setting happen later in the 1990s and we are not involving many of those things in our main story line. With the game being set in 1988, a lot of those lore elements will not be used and, generally speaking, will give us, the storytellers, more flexibility on what we are using from canonical lore. Although this will somewhat limit what pieces of lore are usable, we think this will simplify things and make the game more accessible. 

The geographical area of New England for the setting was also picked intentionally. All of the storytellers of the game come from different parts of New England and thus have a deep connection to its history and culture. We intend to tell a compelling story that will draw on various parts of New England folklore, history, and cultural elements. New England in the world of darkness has made a few appearances and is typically one of occult mystery and interest. We want to include these elements in our game’s storyline and characters.

Players are encouraged to give their characters a ‘New England’ or ‘1980’s’ feel. Maybe your character used to be a lobster fisherman off the coast of Maine. Maybe your character is from a long line of Boston Brahmin. Maybe they attended a prestigious local college like Brown or Yale. With it being the 1980’s, maybe your character is getting into this new craze of ‘personal computers’ or has recently escaped from beyond the Iron Curtain. Characters should lean on these aspects of New England and 1980’s culture. If you find yourself including scenes of drinking Dunkin's coffee outside of a video rental store in your character’s backstory, you are doing it RIGHT. We want our players to listen to 1980’s music, talk about New England towns, reference historical events going on in the 1980’s and wear all those crazy 80’s clothes that you never thought you’d get a chance to take out of the closet. 

Part 4 - Your character should have a backstory

As mentioned above, your character should not be older than 100 years old (unless you take the old dog merit as described later). That means your character’s combined age of human years and vampire years should not be more than 100. The intention of this restriction is to limit the number of older vampires within the Anarch Sect to preserve their ‘scrappy underdog’ theme. It wouldn’t make sense if the sect known for its young turks, upstarts and rebels were all elders in their own right, and actually more of the problem with vampiric society rather than the solution. 

Thematically speaking, one of the greatest strengths of the Anarch movement has always been that since they are younger, they understand modern human society better than their elder counterparts in the Camarilla and the Sabbat. The elders of the Camarilla are terminally out of touch with modern sensibilities and technology while elders of the Sabbat dismiss human ideals as weakness. The younger, and often more human vampires of the Anarch movement are, generally speaking, more easily able to relate with human society and work alongside them, allowing them to better maintain their allies, connections and of course, the masquerade. 

When writing your character’s backstory, just remember; the older you make them, the more backstory you will need to write! If your character is only 40 years old, having been alive for 20 years as a human and then 20 years as a vampire, you only need to account for 40 years of activity. You do not need to account for every day of your character’s life or unlife, but you should detail the important things your character did, where they are from, and how they came to be in the Worcester County Baronry. 

In your character’s backstory you should keep their accolades and accomplishments modest in scale. Characters who used to be princes or bishops of massive cities very rarely end up titleless Anarchs in a small city that no one outside of New England can pronounce right. Anarchs in general are very wary of accepting vampires from the other major sects who once had serious power or titles, as the concern is whether or not that vampire truly left their original sect philosophically speaking. Some more seriously powerful or titled vampire may be denied entrance into the Anarchs entirely to avoid the baggage these vampires bring with them. What good to the movement is an elder Nosferatu that used to be a seneschal of Chicago if they’re blood hunted by every Archon in North America?     

Players are allowed to write important NPCs into their backstories, but are encouraged to limit how many they utilize to tell their story and to also keep them to a reasonable level of importance. If you’ve written a significantly older vampire, it may be hard to have living humans from your backstory in-game, as your character may have outlived them all. If you’re going to have vampiric NPCs be part of your character’s backstory, you should try to have them from somewhere other than the Boston area, or keep them to a lesser importance in vampiric society. No, you can’t have the prince of Boston be your sire. No, you can’t have the Bishop of Essex County owe your character a favor. Players are encouraged to work with the staff if they want an NPC to show up in-game to make sure that character will work with plots and themes that the staff have in mind for the game.   

In general, the staff reserve the right to ask players to change any and all parts of their character’s backstory to better fit the game’s story, tone, and setting. Players will be welcome to email their backstory to staff@ne-gg.com for review. Once a backstory has been approved by the staff of the game, the player will be notified. Players who have their character’s backstory rejected will be given an explanation as to why the backstory has been rejected or will be provided with suggested changes that will allow their backstory to be approved. We want to work with any and all players to make sure their character’s backstory is going to work as best they can for the story! 

Part 5 - Yes yes, there are mechanics

The moment you’ve been patiently waiting for: “What am I allowed to play”. Below is listed what types of vampires you are allowed to play for this game. We are currently using the BNS Vampire The Masquerade sourcebook 1 (And currently only a few things from the sourcebook 2. For the most part, assume any merit, flaw or technique from the second book is not allowed) with the following restrictions and changes. 

Common Clans

These clans of vampires are allowed to be played at no additional merit cost. Lore-wise, these vampires are the most common vampires to be found as members of the modern Anarch movement. 

• Brujah

• Caitiff

• Gangrel

• Malkavian

• Nosferatu

• Toreador

Uncommon Clans (2 merit points to play)

These clans of vampire can be found in the Anarchs, but in fewer numbers than the common clans. Some clans are geographically isolated while other clans are more dedicated to the sects they are known to help rule over.

• Followers of Set

• Lasombra

• Ravnos

• Ventrue  

Rare Clans (4 merit points to play)

Vampires from these clans are notorious for being isolationists and only very rarely leave their personal organizations or the sects they are more known for. 

• Banu Haquim (called Assamites in the book)

• Tremere

• Tzimisce 

Not allowed to be played:

Vampires from these clans are so rare or isolationist in nature that they do not appear in any significant number in the Anarch Movement. 

• Daughters of Cacophony 

• Giovanni 

• Salubri

• Clans of death (Cappadocians, Samedi, Lamia, Harbingers of Skulls)

• Gargoyles

• Baali

• True Brujah

• Ahrimanes

• Kiasyd

• Telyav

• Koldun

Bloodlines

In this iteration of vampire, the playing of various bloodlines within a clan of vampires is usually restricted by merit cost. For this game however, the storytellers have decided to eliminate the merit cost for playing a member of a bloodline. Some blood lines, however, have been disallowed for this game in general. 

Allowed Bloodlines:

These bloodlines of vampires are common enough that they may have members within the modern Anarch Movement.

• Vipers (Followers of Set)

• Coyote (Gangrel)

• Ananke (Malkavians)

• Knights of the Moon (Malkavians)

• Crusaders (Ventrue)

• Brahman (Ravnos)

Unallowed Bloodlines:

These bloodlines, although from clans that are allowed to be played, are too rare or geographically isolated to be seen in significant numbers within the modern Anarch Movement of 1980s New England.

• Tlacique (Followers of Set)

• Noiad (Gangrel)

• Ahrimanes (Gangrel)

• Kiasyd (Lasombra)

• Angellis Ater (Lasombra)

• Ishtarri (Toreador)

• Volgirre (Toreador)

• Telyav (Tremere)

• Carpathians (Tzimisce)

• Koldun (Tzimisce)

Don’t see something you were planning on playing? Assume it’s on the unallowed list! But if you have any questions about what you’re allowed to play, please feel free to reach out to the staff. 

Lastly, some of these clans are often largely made up of specific cultural groups. Although we are not currently limiting any clan of vampires to a player’s personal cultural identity, we reserve the right to refuse certain character concepts if we find them to be culturally insensitive or offensive.

Other unallowed mechanics:

In addition to vampire clans, there are some other mechanic lists that have been restricted for the sake of ease of game play, game balance, or because they touch on topics that we are not using during our story.

Unallowed Merits:

• Infernal Power

• Golconda Seeker

• Personal cult (Followers of set)

• Walk the abyss (Lasombra)

• Counter Magic (Tremere)

• Paragon (Ventrue)

• Dampire (Anarch) 

• Ear to the ground (Anarch)

• Elder of the revolution (Anarch)

• Moniker (Anarch)

• Sorcerous Dabbler (Anarch)

Unallowed flaws:

• Amnesia

• Childlike

• Hunted

• Cursed

• Dark secret

• Haunted

• Infamous Brood

• Known to be dead

• Methuselah’s Thirst

• Nightmares 

• Notoriety

• Prey Exclusion

• Thirst for Innocence 

• Bastard Childe (Anarch)

• Black Sheep (Anarch)

• Dubious Loyalties (Anarch)

Paths of any kind are not allowed in this game for players at the start of the game. The modern Anarch movement does not look favorably on such personal philosophies in general.
Players are also not allowed to play ghouls.      

Altered mechanics:

Some mechanics of this game will differ from what they are listed in the core rule book. There will be a separate document outlining these mechanics in more detail, but a short list of ‘house ruled’ mechanics are listed below:

Merits:

• Efficient digestion 

• Talisman (Clan Tremere)

• Old Dog (Anarch)

Techniques: 

• Animal succulence 

Generally speaking this game will be using a different version of humanity and hunting than what is listed in the core rule book, and mechanics that interact with these concepts will be altered to work better with our house rule version of them. More details about these are outlined in other documents. 

Starting XP and gear:

Below is the general outline for starting XP and gear for your character. Additionally listed is the amount of XP a player can assume they will get per session of the game so that they can more properly plan out their character’s build. 

Starting XP : 40

XP per session: 10 (With a total of 6 sessions that give XP for a total of 100 XP)

Generation: Every player character starts with 1 dot of generation for free, and can buy up to their second dot (If they have the old dog merit). Although Generation is not directly linked to a character’s age, it often is and thus is restricted just like a character’s age. 

Age limit: No more than 100 years old (Unless you have the old dog merit)

Starting Gear: 1 item per dot of resources (To be further outlined in the house rules document)

Merit points: As per the core rule book; characters will have a maximum of 7 merits.

Flaws: As per the core rule book; characters can have a maximum of 7 points of flaws