RPGs are generally violent games. You defeat your enemies in combat, and take their stuff. At least that's the basis of D&D and a lot of games that come afterwards. Dark Ages: Vampire, and its modern predecessor Vampire: The Masquerade, is written differently. Your humanity matters if you're playing the storytelling game of modern horror as written. Killing your enemies comes with a price.
In Alexandria, I don't want to forget about that price. And roads are the way to do that.
If you look at the major Dark Ages roads, half of them prohibit casual murder (Beast 8, Heaven 10 and 2, Humanity 4-1; Kings and Sin are different), though some do allow or encourage destroying your enemies in self-defense and such. This is probably why in the modern setting, paths are popular even in Camarilla-focused games where Humanity should be the norm. When you start killing people, your road stat will drop. When that drops, it is harder to interact with mortals and you'll suffer when you attempt to interact with them. This makes feeding harder. Ultimately the game is set up to make this a death-spiral and part of the game is coping with the monster you've become.
Now, we might not get that far in Alexandria, but if your road drops, I intend to use that Aura penalty associated with it in some way. Embarrassing your opponents, destroying their resources, crushing their hopes and dreams, and turning their allies against them... All of this is encouraged. But vampire society should, by and large, frown on outright murder.
One rule I'm contemplating is stealing an idea from the old Giovanni larp: you don't get that automatic XP if you take an action to overly oppose one of your faction members. I'm not quite sure how to implement it, but it would basically be a slight cost for directly murdering (or something close to it?). I could tie it to your road, so acting against your road or nature gives you a slight penalty. Still debating how it might work best without being too complex.
In Alexandria, I don't want to forget about that price. And roads are the way to do that.
If you look at the major Dark Ages roads, half of them prohibit casual murder (Beast 8, Heaven 10 and 2, Humanity 4-1; Kings and Sin are different), though some do allow or encourage destroying your enemies in self-defense and such. This is probably why in the modern setting, paths are popular even in Camarilla-focused games where Humanity should be the norm. When you start killing people, your road stat will drop. When that drops, it is harder to interact with mortals and you'll suffer when you attempt to interact with them. This makes feeding harder. Ultimately the game is set up to make this a death-spiral and part of the game is coping with the monster you've become.
Now, we might not get that far in Alexandria, but if your road drops, I intend to use that Aura penalty associated with it in some way. Embarrassing your opponents, destroying their resources, crushing their hopes and dreams, and turning their allies against them... All of this is encouraged. But vampire society should, by and large, frown on outright murder.
One rule I'm contemplating is stealing an idea from the old Giovanni larp: you don't get that automatic XP if you take an action to overly oppose one of your faction members. I'm not quite sure how to implement it, but it would basically be a slight cost for directly murdering (or something close to it?). I could tie it to your road, so acting against your road or nature gives you a slight penalty. Still debating how it might work best without being too complex.
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