Step 2: Reduce XP Awards and Get a New Draw System

Let’s start with some math. By most accounts, a 2 year, MC 7 character is considered a mid-level power in the Requiem global setting. That PC would have:

• MC 7 XP = 250 XP
• In game XP = 240 XP
• Overcap XP = 10 XP

• Total XP = 500 XP

According to the Requiem core book, this PC would be considered an elder. In our Chronicle, such a PC is well beneath elders. Cam Elders are characters with more than 1000 xp, rare bloodlines, and custom items. They have friends who know every Oath in the Invictus book and vassals who control vast empires of retainers, allies, and resources.

Why do these “super” elders have so much stuff? Why is the Camarilla so saturated with these uber-powerful, canon-bending figures?

It’s not because they are crappy, powergaming, evil players. It’s because we are all deeply worried about failing too often on draws.

Step 1: Admit We Have a Problem

The Cam isn’t perfect. We all know that. But it’s actually getting worse. And the first step toward changing that is admitting that the organization as a whole is suffering from a systemic failure to manage our own growth. It’s time that we start dealing with the facts on the ground: Something is rotten in the state of the Camarilla and the smell seems to be coming from the Vampires, Werewolves, and Mages.

So why does our first fix sound like the first step of a 12 step program? Because in so many ways the problems in the Cam are the result of “binge roleplay.” We’ve doused ourselves in experience points, bathed in game-breaking custom approvals, and wallowed in crazy, self-pitying appeals. Our desire for an uncompromising good thing has risen up and consumed the awesome time that we promised to ourselves because we ignored the consequences of our own excess.

We are the cause of our own unhappiness.

And to save the Camarilla…we need to relearn to say “No.”