Kyle

Depending on your experience level with Vampire 5 and Discord, and what you are looking for in your V:tM/WoD experience, Niamh can be the best thing ever, or might leave you feeling left out in the cold. I'd say after playing a couple of campaigns and a couple-few dozen sessions, that she is witty and she knows her stuff. But I left because I felt like my voice as a softer, maybe less assertive player did not go well with the brutal and cutthroat universe she creates. I would like to break down what I've seen in the hopes it helps potential players. Onboarding: If you are new to online TTRPG and don't know Discord, this is a MASSIVE BEWARE. The system Niamh uses is efficient and clever- if you know what the heck you're doing. It is not simple and easy, and there are no clear guides or helpers. To newbies and the casual Discorder, you may easily feel frustrated, abandoned, and have no idea what to do. Onboarding in her Discord is technical and not necessarily intuitive- more because of Discord than anything Niamh does. You will be dealing primarily with automated bots that are watching for certain commands, and its your responsibility to locate those commands in the vast numbers of references throughout the discord. You will build your character in an automated system on Discord, but jumping through those hoops to get there is frustrating. Asking for help (and where to ask) is not clear. Contacting Niamh: Niamh is difficult to get a hold of and the system of creating a ticket to get her attention is a bit complex. She reports transparently that she's had to institute this system because of some bad faith types. Even once you are in, where and how to contact her in the myriad of potential locales is not clear. She is generally good at getting back to you- if she sees it and has the time. It may be days, and it may be day of your game, which can cause stress. The Community: It is evident that Niamh has run this community for quite awhile and there are a number of established, regular players who will form at least a scaffold to her campaigns. If you are uncomfortable with returning characters and the natural leg ups they will have over your new character, player beware. However she is transparent about this and it can be discussed in Session 0. As with a lot of aging, established communities, it suffers from some cliquishness. From my experience, if you are looking for buddy chatting between sessions, etc. then you may feel a bit let down. The Discord rooms are mostly quiet. Most of these folks get on to have their sessions in voice and that's it. Again if you're the softie or the shyboy/girl or just awkward around new folks, don't expect much of a warm welcome. There are of course always exceptions. Play Style: I think this is where I struggled. Under the auspice of wanting to be efficient with player time, Niamh cuts the fat quickly. Involved roleplay that builds character and inter-character relationships is somewhat rare, and dialogue is... allowed but it usually has to be focused. Your character's time is probably going to be put toward accomplishing some sort of group goal and less important or less accessible is accomplishing character growth and character goals. I have seen personal touchstones and such come in to play maybe twice, and by player initiation only. Niamh's MO in both campaigns I was in was, "Regardless of how different, weird, incompatible, or divergent your coterie members are, your characters begin as a coterie, they are a coterie and have been a coterie for awhile." Full stop. The difficulty is that establishing how this all works is generally only in session 0 if at all, and its a challenge to reinforce it going forward because those moments are limited. So you just sort of have to accept your characters are part of this group even if it makes no sense, and if your goals are actually quite different. Niamh is a world builder and she knows her stuff, possibly better than most Storytellers out there. If you value lore, interacting with known character NPCs, established settings to play in, etc, you may very well be a happy player. But be warned: her world is harsh, cruel, confrontational and the demands on the player to meet that challenge is high. So again, newbie beware. You may come away feeling like you can't make much of a difference, or that you're getting crushed as a little guy under the weight of her creations. I recommend if you want to play in Niamh's worlds, come in expecting to play a campaign where your character is a vehicle to further a large, city-sized plot. Sometimes it feels questionable if you can actually affect that change, depending on your character and coterie alignment. Your ability to explore your character's interests, touchstones or abilities is going to be quite limited. Opportunities to build inter-personal relationships with your coterie mates is somewhat fleeting. Final Thoughts: Choose Niamh if you have a thick skin resistant to possible PVP and a ruthless setting, you have some serious experience and confidence, are undaunted by a complex and sometimes soulless on-boarding system in Discord, love the lore and personalities of the V:tM setting, and are comfortable with being a large scale story vehicle.

Joy is a fun and patient GM, really allows for that sandbox style play, great sense of humor. Just a relaxing and fun time!

BlackStrum takes a basic module and breathes life into it with much more engaging detail. He is patient with players and he checks in for feedback as the module goes along! He is adaptive in what his players suggest and need.

Just had a good time in a fun, creepy atmosphere. Brings a lot of useful tools to the table and is patient with us newbs.