Setting: The Basics

If you’re reading this, we’re going to assume that you’re familiar with the idea of Roleplaying games in general, and LARP in particular. If you’re not, then we’d suggest reading the wikipedia entries on the subject, they’ll provide a better explanation than we have space to here.

In the world of Interregnum, vampires are real, and have been around for as long as mankind, hiding in the shadows, fighting amongst themselves in a great and secret war that has lasted for millennia. The players take on the roles of vampires in the modern era, vampires who are still young by the standards of the some of the undying ancients in this conflict, who still have some idea what it means to be human. The game is about their participation in this clandestine war, and their attempts to secure power and advancement for themselves, all while they attempt to preserve (or eliminate) the last traces of their humanity in the face of the monster they have become.

Clans

Vampires are divided into 13 distinct types, or lineages, known as Clans – groupings of vampires whose blood can be traced by to the same root, and who have similar powers (called Disciplines) and weaknesses. Because vampires tend to Embrace (their term for the act of making a mortal into a vampire) mortals who appeal to them in some way, the members of these Clans tend to have more in common than just blood.

Sects

Vampire society is also divided on ideological lines, into two Sects – The Camarilla and The Sabbat. And while being Embraced into a certain Clan is not an iron-clad guarantee of membership in a given Sect, it is generally held that six Clans belong to the Camarilla, two to the Sabbat, and five remain independent. Members of a Clan who belong to a Sect that differs from that of their parent Clan are referred to as “anti-tribu” – for example the Toreador Clan belongs to the Camarilla, so a Toreador who is a member of the Sabbat is referred to as Toreador anti-tribu.

The Camarilla

By far the most numerous group of Vampires, the Camarilla is a society of Vampires that concerns itself mostly with the continued survival on the Vampire race, by enforcing a set of laws on its members, designed to prevent the existence of Vampires from becoming known to humans – a set of laws referred to as The Traditions. The Sect is run along more or less feudal lines – a given territory is ruled by a Prince, who has various advisors and vassals to serve them and enforce their will, and the rules of the Camarilla. It isn’t necessarily a just or fair rule, since it does rather enforce the primacy of older vampires, but it does provide a reasonably stable system that allows most of it’s members to get on with their unlives in (relative) peace, provided they don’t break certain rules.

The Clans of the Camarilla are:

• Brujah – Long ago, this was a clan of warrior-philosophers, but the millennia have turned the youngest amongst them into little more than rebellious thugs.
• Malkavian – A clan of lunatics and madmen, given to disturbing insight.
• Nosferatu – Hideously disfigured information brokers and gatherers of secrets.
• Toreador – Artists and aesthetes, lovers and degenerates.
• Tremere – Secretive sorcerers, all bound to a common goal.
• Ventrue – Businessmen and policiticans, the nominal leaders of the Camarilla.

We would strongly recommend that players new to the Vampire setting pick from one of these Clans for their first characters – their lives (and minds) tend to be slightly more stable than some of the other options.

The Sabbat

Holy warriors, organised like a cross between an army and religious cult, the Sabbat pursues its war against the ancient lords of the Vampire race with a terrible zeal. Its monstrous members view humanity as a weakness to be transcended, and follow their own strange codes of ethics. They often treat humans as little more than cattle, or victims for their bloody religious rites. The Sabbat have fewer authority figures than the Camarilla – their are organized in a cell like structure, with the leaders of individual cells reporting to the Archbishop for a given area, but the very nature of their holy cause means that their membership in that Sect tends to be the dominating factor in the unlives of it’s adherents.  In so far as they have an laws to govern their conduct, they have follow a document known as The Code of Milan.

The Clans of the Sabbat are:

• Lasombra – Masters of darkness and shadow, these manipulative monsters lead the Sabbat.
• Tzimisce – These alien monsters reject all that was once human in them, and have the power to warp their flesh and others according to their twisted designs.

The Sabbat welcome anti-tribu from almost any Clan and the majority of the Sect does in fact come from outside these Clans, but no individual Clan is a numerous within the Sect as these two are.

The Independents

The members of these Clans generally hold themselves apart from Sects, although individuals may chose to belong to one or the other. Generally, they are expected to balance the codes of conduct of the ruling Sect of the area they live in with the demands of their Clan, if they are to survive in a given area.

The Independent Clans are:

• Assamite – Blood cultists and assassins for hire.
• Followers of Set - Egyptian in origin, this reviled Clan of corruptors has few allies, and works to it’s own mysterious agenda. Despised though they may be, individuals have been known to seek them out for the mystic secrets they alone possess.
• Gangrel – These bestial hunters are more at home in the wilderness than the cities. Until recently, this Clan was part of the Camarilla, and many of its members still belong to that sect.
• Giovanni – Necromantic businessmen who traffic in money and human souls, and are almost as despised as the Followers of Set. They are the only clan who have absolutely no members belonging to either Sect, and are bound by ancient treaties to remain neutral in the conflict between the two.
• Ravnos – Rootless wanderers and compulsive criminals distrusted because of their powers of illusion.

Playing members of Independent Clans who chose to remain Independent is not recommended for novices, as they lack many of the protections and allies that members of the Sects enjoy, and will almost certainly have to work harder to get ahead.