Path Centricity

[Rule Monkey]

This is in response to some player questions and perhaps to clarify things a bit since most things relating to paths and roads require major mind twisting given that all players follow Humanity in real life.

Someone's path is a representation of what they believe in, how they think the world works (or should work) and the way to reach enlightenment, nirvana, salvation, etc. This leaves very little room for alternatives or other ideas, lest you lose your own conviction in the fact that YOU have found the RIGHT way and the RIGHT road.

Accordingly, those who follow other paths will seem alien, insane, misguided, sad, crazy, etc. to you. Even those that follow the same road but a different path than you are not also "right", they are just "less wrong". To get an idea of how what might go on in your character's head, imagine the following conversation taking place in real life:

You: So, what did you do over the weekend?

Other person: I had a great weekend. I found this hobo in the alley, I strapped him to a table and gutted him. It was ... beautiful. The way the large intestine slopped out and fell on the floor. Wow, just wow and the screams ... it only made it better. Everything makes so much sense now. I think I should try it on a priest next.

What would you think of this person? That they need to be locked up pronto? That's because their morality is completely alien to yours. The same goes for characters who follow different paths than your own, moreso if they espouse different virtues than you and/or if there is a wide difference between your respective morality ratings. Granted, not all discussions are as strange or extreme as this example and for a time someone on a path might pass as mostly normal but it inevitably will come out because you can't turn off you path.

There is one meaning to life and one way to reach enlightenment and YOU have found it. Everybody else is misguided, lost, sad, doomed or perhaps even damned, depending on what you believe in.

Perspective in this regard is what the ability Guiding is mostly about. To be able to accept that there may be many right answers and that your chosen path is not the only right one. The higher your ability rating, the more you are able to bend your mind to understand alien ways of thinking.
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Rule Monkey
Basket to the gasket, finger on the trigger ...

[Parson Fairfax]

I hope I'm not out of line chiming in here, but I'm going to throw some of my experience behind this, because I feel that the morality problem is the real crux and core of V:TM.

The "path" and "morality" system is one of the hardest things for many players to wrap their heads around, coming from a Western Liberal Democracy - we as people teach and have taught to be tolerant and open to other ideas. Most Canadians believe in pluralism and multiculturalism in some respect or another.

What's hard for many players to remember is that this is a relatively new idea. If your character grew up before the 1950s, your character probably doesn't share these ideals. It's also easy to forget that part of the Vampirism curse is that Vampires are relatively static creatures especially compared to humans, and don't pick up new ideas well.

A character born in Spain in the 16th century is likely going to have some really specific and unpopular ideas about black people and Muslims that are downright offensive to modern Canadians. Just to put it in context, in Don Quixote, Sancho Panza gets it in his head that he'll become the governor of an African kingdom and his first reaction is "Blacks? Great! I'll get rich by selling slaves!" It is just the order of things from his perspective. To Sancho today, it would be incomprehensible that Indo-European Christians would ever make compromises for or treat Africans or Muslims as equals - that would be like a goat making compromises for an apple. Most people today wouldn't go "oh that Sancho, he's such a character, we'll just shrug off his antics" - they'd say that he's downright wrong to have these attitudes and treat people that way. If Sancho Panza became a Vampire, it's highly unlikely that he'd pick up these liberalist ideologies as he got older.

Pluralism and tolerance only go so far. A young vampire might be downright shocked at some of the stuff that older vampires take as a matter of course. I'm sure that you've heard Fairfax utter many racist, sexist, or homophobic things just as a matter of course. He's a product of his time.

It's the same thing with Paths - feel free to have your character be offended and tell characters that they're wrong when espousing odd and offensive sentiments or actions. In fact, I often try to bait people into taking offence. Neal won't be offended if your character takes offence to something Fairfax says or does. It's not like "Oh, Fairfax just bludgeoned Richard Dawkins to death after he spit on a crucifix and said that there is no God, those wacky folks on the Road of Heaven, what will they get up to next?" If your character is on Humanity - especially from a modern liberal perspective - if Fairfax did that it's WRONG. Not even up for discussion. Don't let the "oh, that's just the way Scions are" perspective run through your head. If you're on Humanity, in all likelihood those of us that are on paths are offensive to you. How those of us that are on paths view those on humanity depends on the path. You likely don't want to know what Fairfax thinks of you.
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Yr. most Humble and Obedient Servant,
Revered Brujah Primogen of Ottawa,
Devoted defender of the Masquerade,
the Diligent Parson Henry Fairfax.

[Rule Monkey]

You're not out of line, these are good examples.
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Rule Monkey
Basket to the gasket, finger on the trigger ...