1/ An interesting conversation took place last night on the #LoreByNight Discord server, where a member was questioning myself and (mostly) a mod regarding how does one assign points for NPC stats without "bumping them up to the max because that would be boring" [A THREAD].

2/ I can tell you why that is boring: Vampire is not that sort of game where you have to power game to victory, to become a Caine Bro as I recently heard it described.

3/ The Kindred of the World of Darkness, the universe in which VtM exists, usually do not embrace mortals willy-nilly, meaning that there was a reason as to why you were embraced by your sire.

4/ What sort of person were they in life? What did they do? How did they go about doing it? Where & when were they Embraced?

5/ These are just some of the questions that should come to mind when building your character, as it is their life as kine, a human, that will determine the stats and concepts. Ask yourself, what does each point MEAN to that character?

6/ Why does Mr Example have 4 dots in performance? How would you roleplay that particular aspect of their being?

7/ In short, each point in a stat means something, rather than just a means to fuck up the opposition, something I feel is far more important in V5 (the game in question) than previous iterations of VtM, because of its focus on the Kindred's crutch to humanity and human contacts.

8/ VtM has so much more depth than other TTRPGs, for you do not have to have loads of stats to feel powerful or a force to be reckoned with.

9/ For example, a Tzimsice I am currently roleplaying in a recent V20 Sabbat game is not really strong, physically speaking.

10/ He's pretty weak actually, but he has a fucking good idea on how bodies works, being a Doctor of Forensic Science, which I think warrants him the 3 points in Science and 4 in Medicine (haven't level these up beyond character creation).

11/ I doubt Science would be useful in the game that I am playing in, but that is beside the point. I thought about the character's life as a human before how beefy his powers should be.

12/ Regardless of the edition, VtM has always been a game about politics. It is a natural part of human nature, be it in the Houses of Parliament, school, or your workplace.

13/ It's a game about coming to terms with your vampiric condition, and how that affects your past life as a human. The age of the Kindred would have an effect on their touch with humanity.

14/ Neonates would be fairly close to it still, whilst and Elder will no doubt be on the turning point to follow a Path of Enlightenment if they are not there already, simply because they are 100s of years old, stuck in 'the old ways', out of touch with society.

15/ A lesser example of this in real life is the stereotypical disconnect between the elderly and modern tech. Not a great example, but an example all the same. :P

16/ Again, all Kindred were human once and are either still fairly attached to it or experience those feelings as an echo of sorts.

17/ Think long and hard about how unlife has shaped them and assign points to them so you think that Kindred is frightening in what they do, but without becoming a Caine Bro.

18/ There is a suggestion found in previous editions (V20 I definitely remember this being present in a nice table on p79) where it a Kindred could have the square root of their age as discipline points (eg a 100yr old Kindred could have 10 points in disciplines).

19/ And that is the end of the lecture, thanks for coming to my TEDTalk...