Glasgow By Night | First Step Into The Night | V5 for beginners

Creating your character

In Session 0 we'll feel out the vibe of the group and check compatibility, choose chronicle tenets and coterie type, and build a group of characters with a shared goal and mechanical rewards for working together. Ideally we'll have the numbers down by the end of that session! Rules from the Corebook and Players' Guide are on the table. Do NOT read Crimson Gutter - I'm adapting the story structure from that!

Preparing for the session

You will need a Discord account. Message me with your username and I'll add you to the server manually. I'd prefer you to play on a proper PC or laptop, but I've had players on phones before and things have worked out. If you are using a PC or laptop, you'll also need a microphone, headphones, and ideally a webcam (that's negotiable).

What Jon brings to the table

My style is theatre of the mind, guided freeform. That means roleplay heavy, but we roll out scenes at the beginning to direct our play. Task resolution is often one-and-done (with whatever abstract dice pool fits the scene), social conflict or combat are three-rounds-and-out. Basically: rules and rolls are the foundations, then we roleplay on top of that. The tone is nobledark, with characters fighting to rise above their foul and fallen world. Cainites are predators, and parasites, but they're also people, and they try to hang on to that. I do accents - you don't have to, but I'd love it if you did. I use the Inconnu dicebot for rolls, sheets and tracking.

Homebrew rules

Experience is tied to Desire and Ambition. Set a Desire for the session and achieve it? 1 XP. Set an Ambition for the story and achieve it? 1 XP for each session it took. Corebook clans only. Loresheets are not in play. All Backgrounds are capped at three dots for starting characters. Characters only need to select ONE Touchstone to anchor their belief in their Convictions, and it may be a mortal, a place, an object, a song... but NOT another Kindred or ghoul. Simple tasks are one-and-done with a single dice pool to do the job, not a string of simulations. Combat is three-rounds-and-out. Don’t expect to roll for an individual punch unless it’s the only punch in a scene.

How Jon creates a safe table

During Session 0, we will set lines and veils above and beyond the chronicle tenets. Tenets are boundaries you *want* your characters to test and cross: lines and veils are boundaries you want to *avoid* in play. During play, any player can hold up their hands on camera in a T shape, or say "time out" in voice chat. This is the signal that play needs to break for *any* reason, and the signal will be respected and unquestioned. Players only need to divulge what they're comfortable with divulging, and are encouraged to message me directly if that's more comfortable. Timeouts will also occur at the end of a long or fraught scene, and be followed by a debrief. At the end of a session, the table will engage in a short debrief, closing down the game and divesting from characters by describing the game as a work of fiction. I frequently use Roses & Thorns to structure this conversation, which allows for quality control as well as safety assessment.