Restlessness pervades the Boston streets. Another block of manufacturing plants has just been condemned by the city. Crime is so commonplace now, it no longer impresses people – it’s just another section of town that you avoid. Drugs are cheap and bring a poor substitute for happiness, eroding hope one gram at a time. Gangs violence fills the streets with a fear uncontrolled by the police. Most of the younger generation doesn’t even expect to live past thirty. And to make it all worse, two men were recently hosed off the sidewalk, having been mostly disemboweled onto the sidewalks of Newbury Street.

But for the Kindred, it is another world entirely. The Boston Camarilla has enjoyed a streak of success in the private contest for control against the Sabbat, whose numbers have noticeably decreased. As Kindred might expect, Justicar Ariel has personally sent one of her Archons to witness the cessation. Sure, the clans all have their differences, as they always have. But the optimism of summer has lulled the mortal world into a rare slumber-like carelessness.

Why then, is the Prince suddenly calling in long forgotten debts? Why do the Nosferatu speak in worried tones? How much truth is in the rumors about Worcester’s Prince Madam DeMaurepais? Has she ruthlessly slaughtered the Kindred population in a savage madness? Have the werewolves truly sworn against venturing there? Why do elders speak venomously Gehenna?

The early winds of Fall already blow cool from the west. The carelessness of summer has started to fade into the guarded bitterness. Why does it feel as if everything is about to change?

Inquiry is a chronicle game based upon White Wolf’s Mind’s Eye Theatre. However, this game will make some very noticeable departures from the canon material, particularly with respect to systems. Inquiry is a sequel to Elysium; meaning that it exists in the same world which witnessed Elysium’s events. The game picks up in real-time about one and a half years after the events in Elysium ended. Knowledge of the events in Elysium won’t be required to play Inquiry, nor will it degrade the players’ enjoyment. Indeed, much of the knowledge that one could have learned from Elysium will be distributed around in various forms in Inquiry. Also, the emphasis does not center around what happened in Elysium, but rather the effects and legacy thereof.

We would like to have a game where the players become engrossed with the emotional complexities of their characters’ exploits, rather than with the details of their character sheets. We feel that the more interesting events are those with risk and the excitement of the unexpected. However, we realize that by focusing on role-playing rather than systems, some elements of strategy seem to disappear. We intend to replace this with some more strategically oriented elements that are very connected to the game and have very direct effects upon the game world.

Inquiry will be a game that specifically eliminates bulky systems in favor of role-playing, complex character interactions, and dramatically engaging story elements. We want to encourage players who can find entertainment in using their minds, rather than using their stats. As such, we wish to be up front with potential players that Inquiry is not a game for players who enjoy combat or direct physical action. We want players to get excited about their character’s exploits in trying to acquire that powerful artifact, acquiring political power, outthinking that business rival, or being the architect of your enemy’s social demise.

We feel strongly that Inquiry be above all else a story, with many facets and many characters that interact in compelling manners. In this setting of primarily Camarilla vampires and ghouls, players will play out a drama of mortal-world manipulation, escalating clan wars, internal power struggles, and revolution – all of it underlying the pageantry of an official inquiry into the hope of redemption and the fear of Gehenna. There will be fights, political games, mysteries, gang warfare and murder.

We think it will be a lot of fun.

With Inquiry, we are attempting to get closer to some darker elements in the World of Darkness, something we feel we haven’t explored enough in LARPs before. We envision the WoD as existing in desperate times. Crime is frighteningly common. Corruption is quickly becoming the norm. Technology hasn’t yet solved the problems of social collapse and moral ambiguities that have led to ineffectual government. In this era of decay, the supernaturals that feed upon and manipulate human society find reasonably easy living. But vampires are far from safe in the major cities. Though they live in constant fear from the werewolves in the more rural areas, vampires are often there own worst enemies. Drawn together reasons known and unknown, Kindred find themselves waiting patiently, waiting for their Kindred enemies to make mistakes, get sloppy. And that’s when the power struggles erupt into vendettas. To this end, much of the public plot in Inquiry will be a political power struggle where a player’s enemy is most likely watching them from across the room. We envision the stakes of said struggle to be very real and of practical use in the game itself. While prestige and "on paper" power is nice, we realize that usable power is a real thrill to wield, making the victories that much sweeter.

It is also a world where vampires are constantly struggling to hold onto what humanity they have despite the erosion of time upon the soul. This is the daily struggle that vampires endure and it takes on as many forms as there are Kindred in the world. To help them, vampires often take on ghouls to assist in their exploits. It is commonly known among vampires that ghouls will fraternize with other ghouls in an attempt to achieve their master’s wishes. But ghouls have a culture all their own, one based upon the need to service their master’s wishes. As such, ghouls go beyond the bounds of polite social contact, they often form what they refer to as "business relationships" with each other. It is important to keep in mind that at no time do they ever act against their masters’ desires, but they also realize the necessity to keep diplomatic relations open, in case it serves their masters’ future wishes. This is done to allow vampires, especially those of great social status, to save face. Though treated as second class citizens, ghouls are a vital element of Kindred society. As such, we envision ghouls playing a large role in Inquiry. We have explicit plans to elucidate to players who play ghoul PCs just where they fit in and how they can affect the Kindred society (and thereby the game, very directly).

Though vampires aren’t alone in the spectrum of supernatural creatures, they tend not to interact with them. In most cases, it is quite simply unhealthy for the Kindred to do so. But interaction is also rare because Kindred are deeply entrenched in the world of humans. Kindred live off the mortal herd, so to speak – something rather unique in the WoD. As such, there will be few other supernatural creatures in the game who are PCs. Any that are, would certainly be a curiosity at best, but more likely, rather, a genuine hazard. We want interactions with special elements in Inquiry to be noteworthy and unique. We can’t simply do this if every PC seems to have a werewolf buddy.

The same goes for magic. Magic is not commonplace. Tremere do not teach non-Tremere their secrets for this very reason. If you let the knowledge out, it will become worthless over time, as everyone will have it eventually. But hoarding magical secrets is a sure path to power. There will be no non-Tremere with Thaumaturgical Disciplines in Inquiry, period. This does not mean that there will be no magical-appearing behavior, however. In fact, any such behavior should, by virtue of its sheer rarity, be considered to be beyond the realm of common supernatural behavior.

In games past, Diablerie has been misinterpreted, in our opinion. Too often Diablerie is viewed simply as an opportunity to gain power, instead of the horrifying act we believe it to be. We envision diablerie to be a largely unspeakable act somewhat due to the grasp vampire maintain on their humanity, but more importantly out of shear fear. A Diabolist is a vampire that has buried their humanity so far deep so as not only to murder someone, but to literally ingest their victims’ souls in a direct attempt to gain power. It is rarely a good thing to meet someone so inclined, as their design upon your soul may be foremost on their minds. Moreover, vampire who commit diablerie often exhibit very sociopathic behavior. They embrace more and more of the underlying Beast and it erupts the crust of their ego violently. They often become addicted to the act, despite apparent lack of gains (due to generation). Also, associating with diabolists is good enough reason for a powerful Prince to order your elimination. Admitting diablerie publicly in the Camarilla is a sure way to have a Blood Hunt called upon you. We envision diablerie as something that even vampires, in their warped morality, refuse out of fear of destruction (by one’s self or otherwise).

Much the same as above can be said for Infernalists. Those that willingly bind their souls to demons do so largely because of shortsightedness or because they are being played as some pawn in a wholly otherworldly game of power.

A final note about the Masquerade – it will be ruthlessly enforced. Vampires are not creatures that live long by luck. As such, we expect players to make efforts to show the Masquerade an appropriate amount of attention (for their character). We also expect players to understand when their action precipitate in-game consequences. We wouldn’t intentionally set out to kill a character for simple infractions. But players repeating or committing large breaks of the Masquerade should expect harsh responses. Otherwise safe havens can become unsafe, vengeful Princes may exact their ire upon you, the Nosferatu may extort money from you, etc.

In order to focus upon storytelling, we will be trying to remove as much systems from the game as practical. The most obvious form this will take on is that all mob combat will be narrated by the GMs – there will be a system for resolving mob combat quickly that makes an attempt to be as fair as possible while resolving the combat quickly. In all players’ character card will be a power rating. This power rating will be generated by the GMs and will take into account factors like generation, skills, stats, and abilities. The GMs will examine everyone’s power rating and motivations in the combat and then narrate the ensuing events to an outcome acceptable by the GMs. In its most effective form, it should take but a scant few minutes to resolves a multi-person combat. In essence, the system is not designed to simulate combat – it is designed to resolve mob combat quickly. We expect to give characters some generalized information about the relative strengths of other characters where appropriate, so as to give some sense of scale and depth. The moral here is to avoid mob combat if possible, as it rarely turns out entirely the way you want it to turn out.

Single challenges between players, however, will be unchanged from MeT’s 2^nd edition rules, save for some notable optimizations. We are abandoning the use of specific Traits as specific adjective-based units. Instead, we are simply issuing points in their place. Also, there will be no negative Traits (although players may wish to play their characters as if they had them, for more role-playing depth).

Other aids we intend on providing are cards for each Disciplines and abilities. Where applicable, the provided cards will also have the appropriate systems printed on the cards so that the wielder need not find a GM to work it all out. For the purposes of the game, area or group effect Disciplines are not considered mob combat (though the use of such may indeed cause mob combat to occur). We also are going to provide cards explaining the challenge process and how one might use Blood Points, Willpower, Abilities, and Stats. We are making an effort to put the systems in the players hands so that they can get common system question answered quickly.

We realize that by removing the systems from mob combat, we are taking away an element of strategy that some players find a lot of fun. So we are devising a means to put back some of the strategic elements into the game. We are doing this by making a sort of board-based game built around the use of one’s Influences. A map of the city will show the Influence activity within the city. Players will move their "pieces" around to maximize their advantage, whether it be to make money, find out information, or simply call a hit on someone. It will all be engineered through the "game board". Rounds of game board action will be setup and players’ moves will be processed on a regular and simultaneous basis. Various players may be allowed to see more of the hidden activities on the board from time to time, depending upon their use of Influences appropriate to information gathering. Likewise, players are likely to get information appropriate to the areas and activities in the areas of their Influence. To accommodate players who may not have the time to get down and dirty with their Influences, those not wishing to take an active part of the game board will be allowed to play passively, without fear of intrusion from other players’ exploits. However, the rewards for active Influence use are much greater, but incur much more risk. More information about how one does this will be forthcoming.

There are a couple of aspects of vampire existence that we think have become so commonplace that often players forget to pay much attention to them. In specific, character’s havens are assumed to be generally safe from intruders and hunters. Similarly, it is often assumed that acquiring blood happens without incident or much consequence. In Inquiry, we are going to make this assumption a bit more firm so that players feel comfortable about their characters when they are sleeping/feeding/etc. We are going to uphold that unless someone goes to great lengths to make situations otherwise, that characters’ havens are secure from both intruders and are generally in unknown locations. This is not to say, however, that a character (NPC or PC) may not spend a large amount of time and resources trying to discover the location of someone’s haven. We are simply stating that anyone wishing to do so is playing a game against a creature who is moderately experienced in arranging discreet living arrangements. Similarly, unless there is a situation that dictates otherwise, characters are assumed to start each night having fed to their maximum capacity without incident. Again, if someone goes to lengths to make acquiring blood difficult, it is quite foreseeable that this stable situation can change. As always, Toreador are assumed to have a herd of mortals from which they can get a moderate amount of blood.

Instead of giving Experience Points to players to spend however they wish, the GMs will give experience to the characters in the form of direct skill increases where appropriate. GMs will not give extras in areas that the character has not spent a noteworthy amount of time and/or effort. In general, the rule will be that each player will get the equivalent of 1XP worth of benefit for playing a game. Those putting in extra effort will get some more. If a player wishes to spend effort in a specific area, it is incumbent upon the player to notify the GM of such effort. Understanding that there may be differences in judgement, players will be encouraged to discuss skill bonuses with the GMs.

We will also be keeping track of money in the game. Each month, characters will get an allotment of money as income. The number of financial influences, abilities, financial resources, and character background will determine the amount. Furthermore, this money is expected to exist in the variety investment services available to players. The GMs will allow characters to make transactions between players, much like a regular bank. If a player wishes to access their money, they must "make a withdrawal" and yes indeed, the banks of the mortal world are just as susceptible to the manipulations of the preternatural.

The standard rule of thumb in role-playing games is that there is an exception to every rule. We’re going one step further to say that if you encounter (or are) an exception, that it is a rare and noteworthy event, certainly cause for suspicion and deeper consideration. Another thing that we’d like to stress is that if your interactions can be made more interesting by not following challenge systems, then by all means don’t use them – just make sure that the events are acceptable to all parties involved. If you want alter game reality, please ask the GMs if it is OK.

We feel that write-your-own-character games lack some common tapestry to bind characters together, to give the characters and plots connections to each other, and to heighten the intensity of the LARPing experience. To this end, we are going to the characters in Inquiry will be pre-generated, with some measure of input from the players. On the Inquiry registration form, we will give a list of questions and some free-form space for the intended player to specify what kinds of plots he or she would like to be involved in.

We are going to generate as much character history as is practical. To make greater connections between characters, we are providing common Kindred events in history that characters may have shared with each other. Of course, not everyone will be connected to everyone else, nor will every character’s perspective on the events in question necessarily be the same. In fact, we expect for opinions to vary wildly on many issues. And we will tell you right now that some of these past events will be very relevant to game’s plots.

Also, we want to identify how much each player would like to participate in between-game activities. Our intention in this is to identify players’ who do not wish to play outside of the game dates and pair them with people who wish to play more often. The relationships formed thus would be conducive to the more active player being able to cover for the less active one or perhaps for one to act using one’s resources for the benefit of both. In this fashion, players do not get sucked into game plot but still remain active and up-to-date.

After we have gotten enough information from you to decide your character, we will generate your character stats and background. Ideally, there will plenty of time to review this character with you so that any questions or concerns you have can be addressed well before game time rolls around. Even more ideally, we’d like to give you a chance to expand upon what we’ve done in order to fill in the blanks and give you the chance to indulge your creative urges to make your character even more personal to you. Any such effort of course, will need to be reviewed and accepted by the GMs, of course. But it is more of an attempt to make sure that you haven’t conflicted with any reality that we created, unknown to you. After this is done, we may take some of your new ideas and weave them tighter into the game – and then you’re ready to walk among the creatures of the night.

First of all, we want to unequivocally state that we encourage any all to role-play between gaming sessions. But, there are a few guidelines that you can follow to make the game run more smoothly.

• Always keep the GMs informed of all conversation, decisions, actions, or combats you may have had.
• Make it very plain to other players when you are "in game" or "out of game". It only takes one slip of the tongue for secrets to get out that shouldn’t.
• Assume that there will be no GM arbitration between games. GMs will step in if absolutely necessary. But doing so for 40 players will soon become unwieldy. Uses of Influence on the game board are separate from interacting with other players. Getting stuff from use of Influence will take time, just as is real life. Something from the game board (weapons shipments, money, etc.) is not in the characters’ hands until game rounds are processed.
• Though we’d like to minimize problems or deadlocks in communication, accept that they will occur occasionally and be polite and patient while the GMs sort it all out. If a situation seems to you that your character is being treated unfairly, ask a GM to sanity check the situation in question for you. Mistake can happen sometimes. But politeness will diffuse problems a lot easier than will belligerence.
• If you can’t find a system for it, role-play it. That’s why you’re gaming in the first place.

Well, the simple explanation is that we want you to have a good time playing in a game that we find stimulating for as many people as possible. In order to do this, we’re making some notable departures from the canon methods of LARPing in MeT’s World of Darkness. We’ve come to find out that Elysium’s LARPs (and other associated LARPs, such as those by Wyrd productions) are run very differently than most vampire LARPs anywhere. As such, we want people to understand the kind of experience they might have playing a character in Inquiry. We think it will go a long way to stopping confusion before it causes you to have a bad game.

We also know that there are some that may not like this kind of LARP. It is perfectly fair to feel someone to feel that this isn’t the game for him or her. We certainly don’t want players to get caught in a game where they don’t wish to participate. It bores them, it hurts the game, and is no fun in general.

But for those who think Inquiry sounds like a lot of great fun, we want to present the best game we can. We encourage you to consider the information provided and if you are so inclined, you are welcome to fill out a registration form. We envision Inquiry taking place at a location outside of WPI, meeting about once a month starting January 24th. In order to make up for the cost of game materials and possible site fees, we will be charging a $5-10 per game fee. It is a minimal expense that will go completely towards the game effort. If we are lucky enough to find a site that doesn’t charge us a fee, we will lower the per-game fee accordingly.

Sub Semper Tenebras,

Elysium Productions