Vampire: dark ages
My friends and I started a Vampire: Dark Ages campaign this last Sunday. Overall, it was a huge success and that is saying something considering 4 of the 5 that played (not counting the storyteller) had never played the game before. Our group had exclusively played Dungeons and Dragons (v2.0 and 3.5) for the last few years. So, as I said, you never really know how people are going to adjust to a new gaming system, especially one that is so different from Dungeons and Dragons.
To make this even more interesting, two of our players have only played any RPG, less than five times. So to go from the way D&D is played, to the way Vampire is played...well it is like night and day. The emphasis is on role-playing over everything else. But everyone had a great time and it was a very successful first part of the chronicle.
I did have a few issues, but they are mostly with myself. :)
Henry (the storyteller) changed some of my background on me and it threw me for a loop. My character is a Malkavian (known for being crazy) that had nightmares from his daughter that was murdered a few years back. She would come into my dreams and torment me until eventually my mind snapped. She then would put the idea in my mind that people were trying to kill me and that I should kill them first, to protect myself. So that is what my character had been doing prior to the game.
After the game started and he brought us up to speed (he actually changed most peoples stories in some way, which is fine), everything changed. He made us all part of a group and we had to swear a blood oath to our cause and to those in our sect (basically the other players, a cappadocian, brujah, ravnos, and a tzimisce.
All of this is fine, but I had my character planned out and being part of a group is hard for him (Loner by nature) and the derangement I had was pretty much nullified. I say all of this not to blame Henry for the way he runs his games, cuz that is so far from the truth. But my ocd need for order and never really getting my character to be played the way I wanted it too. I was off balance and I never really adapted that well to it.
Chris (another player) also pointed out how I tend to play characters that somehow always end up being very righteous. He is also correct. As I have gotten older, it has become harder for me to role play away from my personality.
I really need to work and concentrate on that and get back to the basics of role playing. I also need to touch up my character and make him more real.