Venue Style Sheet

Rating	Description
1	Never present
2	Sometimes present
3	Often present
4	Usually present
5	Always present

Action (Combat and challenges)	2
Character Development (Personal dilemmas and choices)	5
Darkness (PC death or corruption)	3
Drama (Ceremony and grand story)	3
Intrigue (Politics and negotiation)	5
Manners (Social etiquette and peer pressure)	5
Mystery (Enigmas and investigation)	4
Pace (How fast do stories emerge, develop, and resolve?)	3

Action and Character Development: It's Not a Michael Bay Movie

Unless you plan on picking a fight, you might never be in one.

That said, indiscretions, poor die rolls, and just plain bad luck can and do happen. There are hunters out there, and whether you're a black belt or a bookworm, if you run into the wrong one, it may end very poorly for you. If the Sabbat aren't ferretted out in time, they may decide you're a threat and gather enough information on you to have a horde of shovelheads waiting for you in your haven one night. Treading carefully solves many of those potential problems, but certainly not all of them.

This is why vampires form coteries. In a society of competing predators, everyone is ambitious and no one is truly safe -- the smartest hunters band together, watching each other's backs but never letting their guard down around their fellows.

The personality you create is infinitely more interesting and important than the dots on the sheet. Concern yourself with how the character acts and thinks... who she was as a mortal and how it affects her now, her goals, methods, quirks, nightly activities, even hobbies. A Ventrue financier and power-broker who loves to sing is equally interesting whether he's got Performance 5 or croons Sinatra like a dying cow.

On the subject of combat, I'd like to add: elders don't survive for two or more centuries by getting their hands dirty and chasing every fight they can find. Yes, they're more powerful than those below them, but they've learned to hew to their less deadly -- but equally dangerous -- sociopolitical realm of double-dealing, to use their power cautiously and to stand back from the fray (that's what disposable ancillae and neonates are for). If you want to throw some weight around and participate in action-oriented plot, you are advised to play something other than an elder.


Darkness and Drama: ...And I Feel Fine

It's an End Times chronicle. Gehenna is up your butt right now, and in most Kindred circles, you'll still get laughed out of Elysium if you suggest believing in that kind of superstitious garbage. Keep fiddling while Rome burns; it's what the Camarilla does best.

With the End looming, characters may die, even outside of PC-on-PC violence. Don't take it personally, the staff is not trying to kill anyone off -- character continuity is as important to the players as it is to the story, or at least the Storytellers. The "Darkness" rating is not out of frequent planned PC death, but with regard for the ravages of the Beast. Frenzy and degeneration checks will happen, and you just may lose some of them. Vigilance against the Beast means staying out of high-pressure situations like combat, conserving vitae to avoid hunger frenzy, and keeping an air of politeness and civility in Kindred society, however false.


Intrigue and Manners: The Monsters' Ball

Kindred exist in a society all their own, a civilization hidden from the daylight world -- and civilizations fall to pieces if people are constantly murdering each other. In a city as divided and paranoid as Las Vegas, a Kindred who takes the Right of Destruction into his own hands or makes a regular show of openly rebelling is probably going to be treated as a Sabbat agent.

Paranoia is rampant. Two self-proclaimed Princes, a Seneschal who handles all the business himself, a dead anarch Baron, the alleged Setite presence and Sabbat spies... who's left to trust? Finding out just who everyone is and exactly what they've been doing is a top priority for most Kindred, one that provides a valuable commodity in potential blackmail material.


Mystery and Pace: Toward the Unknown Region

There are plenty of unknown factors in Las Vegas -- who killed the Baron, and to what end? What's in the Spring Mountains and the Golden Nugget, and why does the Camarilla want people to stay away from them? Does Benedic really hold power, or is he an elaborate cover story (or even a whole-cloth creation) of the Seneschal and Primogen? Who's working for the Sabbat (or, for the more pragmatic, who are the Sabbat's targets)? Who's the observer, who sent him, and what does he want? What dirty secrets of their own are the sects trying to cover up, and what would be the cost if they came to light?

The Pace depends entirely on the approach taken by the players in resolving whatever they create or fall into.