Character Guide

LA In Anarchy is a character-driven community for Vampire: the Masquerade. So it follows that defining who your character is as a person is important for you to have a great time and do fun interactions with other player’s characters. This is a guideline to help you flesh out your character by providing examples of what you should think of and write. Who is your character? What has shaped them? What are they like to talk to? What do they want from life, or unlife, as it were?

Something that also helps is talking to other players and figuring out possible ways your characters might have met in the past or even have become acquaintances, friends, allies, or bitter enemies.

We’re going to use an example character, Violetta Giovanni, to help illustrate filling out a character’s details. Violetta Giovanni is a young Kindred of the Giovanni clan. We start with a high-level idea of who she is in mind.

One sentence summary


Put into words on a page what your character’s concept is. Short is good—if you have more than one or two sentences, you might need to think about what stands out the most about them. Why are you excited to play them?

  • Rich kid wild child who jumps into situations before thinking. Who also talks to ghosts.

Personality


Write a quick summary of their personality, one paragraph or so. It doesn’t have to perfectly describe every part of what they’re like, and it’s not something that’s set in stone. A lot of players figure out their character’s personality as they start playing, and interacting with other characters often affects one’s personality as well.
A good rule of thumb is to start with a short impression of who they are, then describe how they interact with people or with challenges, and finally write a hidden, not obvious aspect of their personality that could even sound contradictory. Because people are often contradictory.

  • Intensely friendly. Loves meeting people, and she likes figuring out what makes people tick, how she can talk them into joining her for the adventure of a lifetime (=doing stupid shit). But she never learned how to handle a ‘no’ in a mature way, and will lash out if that happens.

History


This is typically the longest part of your character’s description. This is the story of how they became the person they are at the start of the game. You don’t have to write an exhaustive description of every little thing that happened to them. Think of it like the ‘greatest hits’ of your character’s life. Focus on key events, ones that changed them, ones that you can point at and say, “This aspect of the character today was influenced by this event that happened in their past.”

This is also where you might want to provide a little biographical information, such as birth year, current age, and apparant age (for ghouls and vampires). Keep in mind that history doesn’t necessarily have to be fancy writing. The role of the History section is to communicate character.

  • Born 1993, current age 26 (apparent age 23). Violetta was born into the Giovanni family in Italy. Her parents were incredibly controlling of her older siblings, but they had a blind spot for Violetta, the baby sister, and she was allowed to do as she pleased. Anything she asked for she got. She was essentially spoiled rotten and never got told no. She’s always been surrounded by her extended mobster family, and passed time playing totally normal childhood games with other Giovanni children, such as “who can carjack the fastest” or “stick a pin in the elder”.
  • While studying abroad in the US, she got into a sky-diving accident. Her instructor packed her parachute wrong so it deployed too late. She landed too hard on one leg and it was shattered, and she was wheelchair-bound as a result. Her family sued the bejeezus out of the skydiving company, of course, resulting in a settlement that could only be described as a vindictively unnecessary fortune, one that would set anyone for life. Not that she needed it, being a Giovanni kid. It’s the principle of things.
  • After the near-death experience she had, Violetta started sensing and hearing ghosts. She kept the fact that she could sense ghosts secret for as long as she could, because she thought the family would think she was insane. At a large Giovanni family gathering, though, one of the elders had brought a substantial collection of ghosts with them, and Violetta freaked out. Once the elders realized her ability, they took her aside; told her she was not, in fact, crazy; and told her that, in fact, they valued that ability a lot, and introduced her to the undead side of the family as a ghoul.
  • She spent some years studying the basics of necromancy with the family. Throughout this process, she managed to charm basically everyone she worked with, despite (and sometimes because of) the ‘accidents’ she occasionally caused due to her complete lack of common sense and impulse control. Eventually, she was selected for the Embrace.
  • Paired with her sire and mentor Carmen Giovanni, Violetta learned the finer aspects of Necromancy, and also the fact that a good party never dies, not when you have ghosts at your command.

Important people


Write a short paragraph or two about the people who were important in your character’s life, especially if they might show up over the course of the game. This is also where you want to specify your major Contacts, your Allies, your Mentor, Retainers, and your Herd. Sires are typically Mentors, if they would gladly give your character advice, or sometimes even help them out of a rough spot.

  • Carmen V. Giovanni. Sire & Mentor. Treats Violetta almost like her daughter, whom she reminds her of. Tends to baby her because she’s in a wheelchair, which Violetta does not appreciate at all. Carmen is enthusiastic about Necromancy, and has taught Violetta the finer details on top of the basics she learned while she was a ghoul. One time, Violetta crashed Carmen’s Lamborghini after taking it for a joyride. Carmen was annoyed, but Violetta managed to charm her into writing it off as a business expense.
  • Coyotes Gang. Herd. Violetta has a gang she’s worked out an agreeable relationship with. If they need someone quietly killed, they hand them to her. She drains them and uses her family’s methods to get rid of the corpse. Everyone is happy, except, perhaps, the victim.

Short & Long Term Goals


What does your character want? What are their next moves going to be, and what do they want from their life as a whole?

  • Short term: Make connections with other sects. You know family, but other people are interesting and new af.
  • Long term: She got Embraced. Now it’s time that the world learns about the glory of Violetta.

Exceptional skills


If you have abilities at a rating of 4, we suggest you write a short reason why they would be so good at that ability.

  • Expression (Spec: Networking): All her life, Violetta has been getting into and out of trouble by talking to people. It’s weird how they remember you once you have an adventure or two together.
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