AKA how to play a Caitiff, a thin-blood, a rejected from the Pyramid, an artistic inept, a failed embrace, a misunderstanding…
I’ve been kindly asked to tackle Caitiffs, but Caitiffs aren’t really a “clan”, they just have in common their ignorance. They weren’t taught the ways of kindred, their sires maybe didn’t have the time, or maybe they just abandonned the childe when they found out they have made a huge mistake.
The only point in common is the ignorance, and ignorance is something one can fine accross many other clans and other situations of kindred.
So I’ll just call them outcasts.
Obviously, because they have so little in common, I can’t have this be a "how to play an outcast", but rather a "why play an outcast"
Playing the underdog is always attractive and interesting, especially as a narrative trick for new players ; this way the players learn about the world through the eyes of their ignorant characters. It also gives interesting plot devices for STs to use and tell a very classical story.
I’ll use, again, a video of Extra Credits, about how to deliver tutorials
youtu.be/BCPcn-Q5nKE
And another video about “amnesia” and story structure (the three act structure + in media res are the most important for you to watch)
youtu.be/bIQ6yWptvfA
And a last one about Exposition (the use of text in games, which in our case translates to the use of jargon and terminologies in our rpg games)
youtu.be/TEERJ1a2rsU
Why do I throw in these in the middle? Because the main goal, the core of playing a thinblood, a caitiff, a lost boy… well, it’s “discover” ; the outcast who aw born outcast is a blank canvas, learning the ways of Society.
Playing caitiff, abandonned thinbloods or fleglings unaware of who is their sire, is a great way to introduce new players to the game.
Don’t just toss them the books, make them learn through play!
Playing an outcast means that the players will be able to experiment all of the biases that most of our characters have towards their powers. Don’t just tell them about generation, make them learn about the mechanics through narrative.
Outcasts are a great opportunity for this, and this is why, even with regular clans, I give each character their own world view of what matters to them, what they were taught and most importantly, how they were taught ; how do they perceive the use or the understanding of a given discipline. After all, we don’t really all understand exactly how our bodies work, so why would a vampire have their blood bar to “check on” ? Do they understand that they don’t rest? That 25cl of elder blood is enough for them to spend the day while younger kindred need 50cl (half a liter)? Are Elders aware of this?
Outcasts, Caitiffs and Thinbloods will be great starters for a narrative game such as VTM, even if they throw us god damned mechanics all around, all over the place, with exceptions to exceptions (I hate WW for this! Nothing is consistent damn it).
And this “misunderstanding”, or “lack of filter” of what the world and themselves are about is they key point to playing a Caitiff; They didn’t go through a formalized education about themselves and their disciplines.
This of course should make you question how neutral and how accurate was the education of every single kindred about the supernatural, their disciplines, their feats ; it’s not like supernatural biology handbooks were distributed, or classes given to all fledglings, right?
We are talking about the Jyhad, informing everyone of everything sounds very counterproductive. Each sire teachs their own way, and let’s face it, Everyone is Not Aristotle.
The hard part is playing through the flaws of education, this is why it comes so much more naturally to players who are newbies to the game. Established Kindred will influence them, correct them, or mislead them.
Caitiffs and Thinbloods are a great way for everyone to just drop the books, and work with the core concepts only. It doesn’t really matter if it doesn’t fit the exact mechanic, but say, a very charismatic thinblood who is prone to develop Presence, may do it outside of the regular canvas we know of as being “Presence” ; maybe they can only use it when touching their target, maybe they can only use it in a seduction approach, and then, eventually, they’ll find how their charisma can induce fear…
