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Meta-gaming

Learn the difference between Player knowledge and character knowledge. Some people call this meta-gaming, but either way learn it. I will give an example.

(Your sleeping in your haven when all of a sudden an explosion goes off. Falling into the Red Fear you bust through a new addition of your house effectively fleeing from the fire. As you leave you can see a shadowy figure escaping the burning building and disapeering into the night. You effectively determine they are responsible for the explosion)

~Since only you and one other person are online and you can read their posts and who posted. You can determine who destroyed your house and your next course of action. Revenge on the other player. You quickly reply that your character goes to the shadowy figures house in order to stage an ambush.

~This is wrong~
This is a pefect example of meta-gaming. You used knowledge that only you as a player would know and not your character. And I understand that your house was destroyed but in the World of Darkness. Sh*t Happens.

What you should of done was; Use your Allies, contacts, resources, etc...and determined who could of possibly blown up your house or determine a list of likely suspects with a motive and continued from there.

Hidden Knowledge

Much like Meta-gaming. Hidden Knowledge is private information the ST might of told you. Via PM or instant messenger. As such this knowledge might not be know by any other player or only a few players in the entire group know about it. As such the St respects the rights that this information is not to be shared. All though there is no true way to catch some one sharing Hidden Knowledge. Doing such hurts the game aswell as hurting the trust between the ST and the player. So just don't do it.

Examples Include:

Plot Twist, Dark Secrets, Auras, Who a person is, and any number of things.

A general rule is: If the ST has to tell you via PM or Instant Messenger...don't share it.

I understand what your saying, but surely the empowerment of being a Vampire/Werewolf 'should' mean emprovement in the skills you already posses. I always read the decriptions such a "top five in the world" as refereing to humans. It makes far more sense for you to impreove in the skills you already posses than to suddenly have knowledge of art when your concept was a soilder. An empowered character grows stronger not nessisarily wider.

I have to go with Stix, though, that even though one has the oppertunity to learn such things, you can't god-mod a thread. There would be no storyline, no conflict, and no real purpose. Characters die, and that's a fact of simply playing the game. However, a true gammer/RPer would make a new character, and start all over again.

I personally think that the funnest part of roll-playing is creating the character, and seeing how interresting you can make it. Other than that, without the interresting characters, trying to work together, once again, you wouldn't have a great storyline.

But, I have played a character where she tried to be the best diplomat that she could be (It was in a Star Wars setting, and she had a -1 to charasima), and every time she tried to bluff herself out of something, and it didn't work, then she'd pull out a gun, and just start firing. I loved that character! We also had a high charisma player on that team, and absolutely hated her, because every time she opened her mouth, the party would get into trouble. I'm not sure if it works the same way in WoD, but I would love to try to play a character with all her points at one end, but still tries to compensate at the other.

I totally agree. But, to have a character that is specialized, and all of her points are concentrated on three different categories, would still make a great character! I guess that it's about the person also playing, right?

The other think is the explanation.

If you have five in firearms, not only should you have spent experience to get it that way, but you should have a damn good reason.

For example, you could have been an Olimpic shooting sports gold metalist, but when you had your first change, it screwed up your chareer, and now you're using your skills in the defense of Gaia.
That one's simple, and I came up with it off the top of my head, but it has implications for your character.

You might resent being a werewolf. (I'm using a werewolf example. It's what I do best.) You might morne for your shattered career, or you might be glad to be rid of all the fame and pressure, and just get to shoot stuff. Either way, it opens you to some interesting roleplaying experiences.

When it comes to the 7/5/3 rule, I've always thought of it as portraying a regular human. Mentally and socially I think this makes sense because it doesn't seem like there is a real reason why a vampire or werewolf would necessarily (and that word is key) be smarter or more savvy than their pre-supernatural self. The physical attributes are where the argument becomes more complex. I personally would argue that it is still an accurate rule for human characters:

Consider a vampire with a 7 in physical attributes. This vampire might have once been some sort of athlete. Perhaps an olympic sprinter or swimmer. He has a 4 in Constitution and a 3 in dexterity. A 3 in strength is also justified because those Olympic sprinters are incredibly built if you've ever seen them. He has a 5 for social attributes because he is probably a celebrity spokeperson for wheaties or what have you. Not to mention all those high-brow parties he's probably attending. Then there's the 3 in mental. He's not necessarily a blockhead but he certainly doesn't have a lot of time to study with all that training. Then one day he gets embraced. Does he immediately buff up even more? Not really, but he does have powers that distinguish him from his human side. Now he can call upon his disciplines (whatever they may be) to aid him and if he wants supernatural strength or speed he can dump blood points into it.

My argument is simple. Most supernatural beings are not instantly granted herculean strength. The supernaturalness comes from their powers and some innate abilities that humans dont have (Demons have apocalyptic form, Changlings, well they change, Vampires have blood points, Werewolfs turn into giant frickin wolves, etc.)

Though I do not usually partake, I feel it is okay to create "outrageous" character types such as an assassin or secret agent. After all, this is the world of darkness. These types are more prevalent than in the real world and more necessary as well, because there are so many factions in each gameline with a vendetta against someone else. What you really have to keep your eye on as a storyteller or player is that it all makes sense. Sure you are some sort of prodigal hitman vampire but does mean you can walk into a council of primogen, whip out a magic sword, and then walk out the only one alive? Of course not! But you are an asset to your clan or faction (or yourself) in that one area of expertise, meaning that if someone has to go fight that werewolf heads are going to turn in your direction. And don't fret, you can improve over time as well.

This is a world where people have supernatural powers and there are fantastically powerful beings, one of which you are playing. Some can do things straight out of the matrix...but that is at the upper echelons. As a starting character you are not going to be able to quite as much.