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Creating and Running a Custom Chronicle

By: Kiramin

STEP FIVE: Building the Chronicle in Vampire: The Masquerade.

Now comes the time to build the world in the game. Start up Vampire, and select MULTIPLAYER. When you are building a chronicle I recommend you use LAN and not INTERNET. The reason for this is it keeps the multiplayer rooms uncluttered by empty games. And yes, you can start a LAN game without being connected to a LAN. So, select LAN. You may have to make a character. Now, create a game and choose the hub you chose in STEP ONE.

The game will begin and you will find yourself in a huge, unpopulated city. First you should choose the location of the players' haven. Then, turn on storyteller mode by clicking on the button below you character portrait. Open up the LOCATIONS PANE by clicking on the house button at the bottom-right of the screen. Select the area you chose as a Haven and hit the JUMP TO LOCATION button. This will teleport your character to that location.

Now right click somewhere in the room. As long as storytelling mode is still on, this will create your storyteller head. Move him to the place you want to put the players rest coffin. You can either walk the head like you would a player or teleport it with a right click. When you have the head in the right place and facing in the direction you want to coffin to face, open the OBJECTS PANE (unclick the TOGGLE LISTS button to display all the objects) and find the object "restcoffin." Select it and click the ADD THING button. Follow the same procedure in order to create a "saveankh" and a "vault" object.

Now that you have established the haven, move out into the world and follow the same path the the players will probably follow (At this point you should toggle off the AI in the controls page). Add civilians and guards around the town, populate the lairs of the clans with vampires and minions, and set up a shop keeper or two so the players can buy and sell equipment. Use the "generic" shopkeepers if you want the players to be able to buy and sell equiptment through them as they could in single player. Try to make the enemies begin weak but get progressively harder as the players move deeper into the story. There will be times when you can't place some enemies during the preparation. For example, in my chronicle I want some Szlachta to attack the players on the way back from the Nosferatu lair. Obviously I can't add those enemies before they reach the lair, otherwise the players will run into them on their way there. These enemies will have to be added during gameplay while the players are off wandering in the Nosferatu tunnels. In order to make it easy to move to an area the other players aren't in, you can hide your character somewhere in that area and when you are ready to add the enemies, you can hit TAB to cycle through the characters until you target your character. Then you spawn the storyteller head in that location and use it to make the enemies.

One way to control and inhibit the players' movement to areas you don't want them in is to block off the path with either large objects or TALK-ONLY characters. For example, in my chronicle the Nosferatu will not be hostile unless provoked. Because of that, I will place a few Nosferatu at the entrance to the tunnels beneath the graveyard. I will then select them and toggle them to TALK-ONLY status (When placing a normally hostile NPC as a TALK-ONLY one, make sure the AI is turned off when you create it and switch it's status. Sometimes, when I set NPCs to TALK-ONLY while the AI is enabled they will still attack the players). That way the characters cannot walk past them without first interacting with them. When the characters approach they will have a chance to convince the Nosferatu to take them to their leader. If they do, I will at that point toggle off the AI and move the TALK-ONLY guards out of the way of the door. With the AI off, the players can wander among all the Nosferatu in the tunnels that are still set to ATTACK mode. However, if the players attack them, I will immediately turn the AI back on. Similarly, if the players provoke the guards or choose to attack them, I will turn them off of TALK-ONLY so they can fight.

I will also block off the exit to the silver mines with some "minecart" PROPs and a talk only knight, saying that the gate is closed due to dangerous creatures that have been sighted on the roads. When the players' prince orders the players to go investigate the mines, he can give them a pass to get them by the guard. Of course, if they choose to fight through the guard prematurely, I will let them because I don't believe in forbidding players to take certain actions simply because they upset my planned story.

I also don't want the players to be able to wander within the Monastery, into the tunnels beneath the Alchemist, or up to the Vysehrad Castle. I will block off the portal from Old Town to the castle with a the "cartempty" PROP and some "barrel" PROPs. And I will put an unmovable "magiccurtain" PROP in front of the moveable curtain in the Alchemists. In the Monastery I will delete the first door and replace it with an "altar" PROP. Every time you add such an obstacle, you should try your hardest to click behind it in some way and see if its possible for your character to walk through it. Sometimes they will surprise you by squeezing through where you thought they couldn't.

Once you have placed all the objects that you can and want to place at this point, you must save your chronicle (it is actually a good idea to save often during the process of building it).

STEP SIX: Playing your Chronicle!

This time when you start up Vampire, select MULTIPLAYER and then INTERNET. When you join/create a room make sure it gives potential players some idea of your intentions. For example, a room called "Custom Chronicles" or something like that. Once in the room, select CREATE GAME. For the game name, you should make it clear what kind of players you want, such as "3 Player - Fledgling Characters", or "4 Player - Neonates Only." Then select LOAD GAME and choose the same slot in which you saved your custom chronicle. I recommend not starting the game until a few players join it and you can explain to them what kind of game you are running. Once you have the number of players you want, then you should go ahead and start the game and probably lock it in the CONTROLS PANE so other players won't join in the middle of the story.

At this point you should make sure the characters have adequate equipment or funds to buy some. You then teleport them to the starting area and introduce them to the story. Lets say I have three players in my chronicle: Serena(Cappadocian), Wilhem(Brujah), and Erik(Gangrel). Here is what I might say to my players when we begin... As the storyteller, I would say:

Erik, your sire has summoned you before him, your companions Serena and Wilhem have accompanied you.