New York By Night: Old World of Darkness

[Treymalkin]

I am looking for 4 - 5 players to fill the role of a Coterie in New York by Night! 

Here are the guidelines as well as a few house rules:

Politically there is no Camarilla, Sabbat, or Independant Clans.  Anarchs, of course, still exist and always probably will.  Now
this does not mean that Sects do not exist in New York; rather it means that Sects do not exist anywhere in the world.  Instead
Kidred are organized into the great Families, of which there are 7.  Each of these Families contributes to the ruling of the
region they live in, and the lcal family head serves as a member of the Primogen.  Politically the Kindred are still in the Dark
Ages, with kingdoms and monarchs, and the Prince of a given area is appointed by the ruling Monarch.  New York is the seat of
power, and the local Prince is the Monarch of the New England States.

Families are composed of kindred from any clan, provided either their sire
was a member of the Family, or another established Kindred within the Family has vouched for them.  Families are further broken
down into Coteries.  A Coterie generally numbers between 3 and 6 Kindred, who may be of any age, generation, or clan.  However,
the bonds within Coteries are strong, as the members often fight together and share a haven.  It is not uncommon for members of
a Coterie to engage in blood rituals such as the Viniculum together. 

A Coterie is led by one Kindred selected by Coterie members from amongst themselves.  Some Coteries do this by assigning the
most experienced member the role; others use an electoral process or a process of trial by combat or by ordeal.  The leader of
the Coterie may change at any time as the Coterie wishes.  The leaders primary task is to act as a liason with the leaders of
the Family and to ensure that their instructions are followed completely.  The leader benefits the most from the rewards of
success, but also is punished the most harshly for failure.

Each Family is composed of three to five Coteries, one of which is the leading Coterie.  It is the leader of that head Coterie
who is the leader of the family in that area.

Families (in order of approximate local prestige):
Altus
Militis
Sedes
Philogus
Nundinae
Viator
Mancipium

*EDIT* Each of the families is in competition with the others for prestige and power in Kindred society.  A member of Family Mancipium may expect to be looked down upon by other familes.  The exception is that the head of each family in theory holds universal status as an equal to the other heads of familes.  In practice the heads of families are still ranked in the above order, though the heads of families are still above the members of other families.

Character Creation:

Character Creation will follow the rules outlined in the core rule book.  The only exception is that no clans are considered
restricted.  A player may play any clan or bloodline (including True brujah, Old Clan Tzimisce, Nagaraja, etc.)  To play a clan
that is not in the original rule book, an extremely good backstory must be provided.  Additionally, if you decide to play a
character of 8th or 9th generation, your backstory MUST include what it is about your character that drew your sire to choose
you.

I have also been known to be lenient in allowing custom bloodlines and custom disciplines/discipline powers.  However, again,
you must provide an exceptional backstory that justifies this.

All characters are to have 5 years or less of experience as an undead (note they could have been sired during the crusades and
have been in torpor for the last 1000 years, as long as they only have 5 years or less of kindred life).

All Kindred will be in the same Coterie, and all Kindred will be from Family Mancipium.

The Background Status level 4 and level 5 are not permitted to any player at this stage in the game.

The backgrounds Domain and Haven (from Dark Ages Vampire (2002)) will also apply.  These reflect the nature, size, and condition
of your haven and the size of your domain.

Backgrounds may be cumulative for the Coterie -- any background that does not apply strictly to the individual (ie- Fame would
apply strictly to the individual) may be pooled between Coterie members.  Therefore if one Coterie member takes 1 level of the
background Domain, and another takes 2 levels of Domain, the entire Considered to have Domain 3.  The stacking of the Haven
background would apply only to coterie members who live together.

I am a big fan of rewarding players with Freebie points.  At creation all players get 7 Freebie points, plus a MAXIMUM of 7
points to spend on flaws, for a total possible 22 Freebie points.  I will award bonus freebie points above and beyond those a
warded at creation for excellent background story writing.  Please note that I don't want to read a novel, so keep it relatively
short.

Any Merit, Flaw, or background is acceptable, providing you meet the conditions for it (ie- Controllable Night Sight is a merit
available only to Lasombra kindred).  If it is not in the core rule book, please provide me with the book that it is in,
including the page number so I can look it up.  If this info is not included on your character sheet, I will veto the merit,
flaw, background or whatever.  This applies to disciplines that are not in the core rules as well.

Remember, the only stupid question is the one you don't ask.

[livingwill]

So what you are saying is that the clans exist but that they aren't politically aligned in any way, right? For example a Venture is no more likely to be allies or enemies of a Toredor then a Follower of Set?

[Treymalkin]

Correct -- there is no prevailing political leaning among any of the clans.