Social Contract

CONSENT & CONSIDERATE PLAY

Vampire: The Masquerade is steeped in dark themes and can easily include scenes of intense content. In order to work, all players must be safe and comfortable. This should obviously be the baseline for playing any tabletop RPG, but Vampire: The Masquerade is so immersed in danger that it becomes that much more important to regularly ensure safety is established.

Safe play allows Vampire: The Masquerade, with all of its threats of political and personal horror, to be a uniquely involving and enriching experience, even in its world of monsters. To that end, we will be employing a system of Lines & Veils to calibrate the experience for player comfort.

The RPG Consent Checklist found here can be used to anonymously voice these desires.

_{For more information, please see Appendix III of the Vampire: The Masquerade core rule book.}

STORYTELLING

While the Storyteller gets the final say on any interpretation of rules, the general modus operandi is to rule in favor of the players at the table. Clarification can then be sought after the game, at which point it will be made clear to everyone what the rule actually entails going forward.

Furthermore, keep in mind that roleplaying is a narrative group activity. The Storyteller's role is to facilitate the, well, story. Despite throwing challenges and plot twists at players, the Storyteller is not an adversary and her goal is not to kill your character. Think of the Storyteller as more of a referee or movie director.

PLAY TO ENTERTAIN

This game is meant to be fun. No one person’s fun trumps the fun of anyone else at the table. Furthermore, you aren’t playing your character just for your own sake, but for the sake of everyone at the table. Which means that you should strive to make a show of it. Have your character do or say interesting things. Use your character as a tool to set up other people’s characters to do interesting things. Cooperate as players on a meta level, even if your characters have beef.