Originally posted by Justin on the V20 Blog
Good afternoon, class. Today, let’s talk a bit about the themes that characterize V20. They’re not quite as “crunchy” as other playtest material has been, but they shape all of the work that goes into the book, both behind the scenes and in the chronicles you play.
A Beast I Am, Lest a Beast I Become: Vampire was the game that let you play the monster and made you morally accountable for it. All of our protagonists are vampires, blood-drinking monsters who dwell in the shadows at the edge of society and subculture. We have tremendous power, but that power comes paired with the Curse of Caine, which carries a Biblical gravity. We have an emotional stake in these characters, and we see their dark side and watch them wrestle with morality. The riddle implies that all vampires must fall eventually, but when and under what circumstances? These questions make up the chronicles that we play.
The Masquerade: It’s the very foundation (and subtitle…) of Vampire. The Kindred hide among mortals, trying to convince their prey that no monsters hide among them. Inevitably, cracks appear in the façade and the Damned are revealed for who they are. What happens when this occurs?
The Sins of the Father: People rarely choose to become vampires. In most cases, a sire Embraces them without much regard for whether or not the individual wants to commit to an unlife of predation, scheming, and horror. Likewise, the childe acquires the sire’s clan, and thus his powers, weaknesses, and often predilections. This is all a great allegory for the Biblical idea of Original Sin, and very much tied to the prevailing religious origin than many vampires attribute to the state of vampirism. God cursed Caine for murdering Abel and, as descendants of that first vampire, all Kindred bear the stain of that primeval sin. This accountability, decided for each Kindred by the actions of her sire, pervades throughout the vampire condition.
A War of Ages: The elder Kindred hate those younger than them because they fear the new generations will take away the domains they’ve fought for decades or even centuries to establish. Younger Kindred resent their elders for the ways they selfishly lord over their domains and refuse to allow the young to make a place for themselves. It’s like waiting for a promotion that will never come because the guy in the position above you is never going to die or retire – except you rely on his domain to provide the blood you need to survive. All of Kindred history is characterized by the haves versus the have-nots, most often in the form of the elders versus the fledglings. The Anarch Revolt and the subsequent Inquisition were the apex of this struggle in history, but it plays out every night on more localized scales of Kindred community, and certainly influences the way all vampires interact in the World of Darkness.
Inherent Conflict: Camarilla versus Sabbat. Clan versus clan. Elders versus neonates. Anarchs versus the status quo. The Man versus the Beast. Everybody’s against everybody in the World of Darkness. These conflicts color the other themes of the game, and what your sire has made you — in terms of Kindred, clan, sect, outlook — automatically buys you a panoply of enemies.
Conspiracy: Wheels turn within wheels. The Kindred as a race are apt with manipulation and misdirection, the better to enact their schemes while maintaining a veneer of deniability. A neonate striking out against a hated elder might actually do so at the behest of that elder’s rival, who incited the turbulent fledgling with a clever ruse. Indeed, some Kindred wonder if the whole of the Jyhad is the machination of the Antediluvians, and whether any vampire truly has free will.
Sex and Sensuality: The modern conception of the vampire is a sexual metaphor. Being a vampire is about longing and want and someone dangerous and forbidden giving us attention. It might be a pang of desire, or it might be an undeniable physical lust, but becoming a vampire is a sexual consummation and so is the act of feeding. You can be lurid. You can be tawdry. You’re a dead sexy thing with a license from your maker to indulge your every erotic wile.