Vampire: the Masquerade - How to play a Ventrue
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
- Cheers and thanks to B. Dave Walter for helping me out with this project! Thank you so much!
/ bdavewalters
Bonum commune communitatis - For the greater good of the community.
If you're new to Vampire: the Masquerade, or are looking for further inspiration on how to play a Ventrue, hopefully this video will provide what you're looking for.
The Ventrue are the leaders, if not rulers, of the Camarilla, their clan intimately familiar with the trappings of power. They know what choices to make, what sacrifices are necessary, so that the greater community may thrive. Some may call them callous, heartless or outright evil, yet they do not understand what heavy burden the Blue Bloods carry.
In this video, we will explore what it means to play a Ventrue. We will discuss Dignitas, Ethic of Succor, and what sort of origin your character may have and what caught the eyes of their sire.
To help me, I have been granted the aid of B. Dave Walter, a man well-versed in the demands and expectations any Ventrue may come to experience. Thank you so much for your help and I wish you the best!
If you want to support BDW's project in making a documentary about not only the Black Lives Matter movement, but also the Systemic Racism inherent in the system, you can do so here: t.co/Kgnj95DMnS
Hopefully we will provide some new insight into the matter, and thank you for watching.
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It is my firm belief that the violence and punitive measures employed against the African-American community of the United States of America, and of people of color across the world, has caused untold damage, is unjust, disproportionate and should be condemned. George Floyd and so many more people murdered by law enforcement officers must have justice.
If you want to help support the movement for change, I strongly suggest you go to blacklivesmatt... to see what you can do to help and stand in solidarity with this movement.
If you want to donate to a good cause, there are many links there, and the link in my video, bit.ly/36SDWzf, leads to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Legal Defense and Education Fund.
Black Lives Matter
---
★ / theprimogen ★
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★ / theprimogen ★
Follow me on Twitter where I'll post quick little updates, thoughts on the games I'm covering and the occasional thinking out loud about editions and lore.
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Music from:
Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines
“Portions of the materials are the copyrights and trademarks of White Wolf Entertainment AB, and are used with permission. All rights reserved. For more information please visit white-wolf.com.”
"I would need no introduction. And if I do? You're already behind." - Ventrue in one statement. Or as Bloodlines would say: "If you have to ask~"
I know right!? :D
Is that Victor Temple, the UNDISPUTED baron of the Valley, teaching a new generation of Ventrue?
Cool...cool... cool cool cool...
;)
Normal Ventrue: Corporate Cringe
Ventrue Antitribu: *Crusader LARP*
;) Regere Sanguine Regere in Veritatem est
@@ThePrimogen To rule through blood, is to rule in truth...
Hot take: Ventrue Antitribu are better
Normal Ventrue: Better than you
Ventrue Antitribu: A squandered opportunity for greatness
The Undisputed Baron of the Valley! I love the crossover! Well done B. David and Primogen.
Thank you! He did an amazing job with his video! :D
"Because no one actually wants it" lol
Ventrues are often typecast as tyrannical or pompous assholes. I think however, a true Ventrue is the true prince, loved for his clemency and respected for his splendor. A lion need not bear its claws if it truly is the king of the jungle, and the measure of a true prince is not in whether you can force your will on the lesser, but to MAKE them reach your goals on their own. Rule so seamlessly that everyone underneath you would work for you, not because you force them, but because you are their dear leader, and you know the best.
Make them love you, make them respect you, loyalty is the true weapon Ventrue, if you want to play as a cold tyrant pick Lasombra anyways.
The best advice in the whole video
"...And don't get me started on the lupines. Just don't go near them. If you see any wolves, leave. Run."
Easy answer: Be cool but not as cool as a Toreador. Also, take care of the boring stuff so the Toreador can do what they want (within reason). (Once again: I'm biased).
This all makes absolute and perfect sense to me.
Bah!
The typical and completely unsurprising opinion of a Toreador.
You all need to stop living in the realm of dreams, and perhaps you will all be able to actually accomplish anything, my little dreamer.
Not even your... "works"... of art are complete, imagine those "pesky" menial tasks that you all keep bugging us to "deal" with, for you... And then you start complaining when you realize that we have become your sovereigns, as you hold no power, with the remarkable exception made within your "inner circle" of iniquities, always looking for petty fights in order to sort out the "pecking order" of your band.
Harpies.
A flock of harpies is how your kin behave.
Always screaming and bickering, ruffing feathers of each other in a perpetual futile fight to sort out who is on top of who, and this is not measured by power or by dignity, but by popularity. Pretty much like high schoolers, full of hormones and wanting to mate with the best mate they can find, as if perpetually horny, dealing "favor" with the tip of their penises or the bottom of their vaginas, and for what? "Fame".
HA!
Fame...
What a useless concept, for an even more useless state of being.
Imagine wasting time and resources, let alone risking losing dignity among your peers to pursue such a waste of time, respect and resources. No advantage is gained, but a lot of power can be lost.
A very... fragile... thing.
Like you.
Very beautiful to look at, but useless and frail, incapable of gathering anything other than a bunch of other mindless drones to court you in the iniquity of your un-life.
I absolutely adore playing Ventrue myself, my current Ventrue character actually comes from rather humble beginnings, a working class Alsatian Mortician who fought tooth and nail to establish a small empire in the funeral business only to be ghouled and later embraced.
That's such an awesome origin story! I love it!
@@ThePrimogen thanks so much! It's genuinely been the most fun I've ever had with any clan
Wouldn't that make him a Lasombra...?
@@BaldPolishBiotechnolClan is decided by sire not your mortal occupation.
THE BARON OF THE VALLEY
BDW is a natural Ventrue, I love it!
*UNDISPUTED*
The Baron is one of the greatest Blue Bloods out there, and his portray of Ventrues is one of the most accurate, by far, and yet, fail to meet one of the most IMPORTANT characteristics of the clan: The Obligatory Nobility, or as those within the ranks says, the "noblesse oblige".
Many of the interpreters I know lack this "royalty", this subtle superiority that makes the Ventrue a little bit more scary, when the carefully planned and executed schemes comes into fruition, making the humongous efforts put into this scheme look like "effortless", as if the kindred could pull this off day in and day out, with nothing more than that crooked smile that kings once wore, when they obliterated their enemies, most often than not without a sword, but with wits and sometimes a little "convincing" from a source, like a better life, money, fame or whatever the unknown prey considered "essential" to its life.
Too many people focus on the Ventrue eternal quest for power, and yet, they conflate money with power, which, to the true "illuminated" blue blood is nothing but a tool to make people owe FAVORS and willingly SUBMIT to their influence. These two, the true measure of power.
Investments, companies, assets, huge amounts of money... All that, just an outward reflection of what true power is, and yet it is merely a very pale and broken indication of power, for those truly powerful have solved long standing conflicts and the most difficult and challenging tasks, without even HAVING to show themselves. Just the mere mention of their names was enough to end any and all dispute, always in the kin favor, because he owned everyone and everything in that room, as they all are merely unknowing pawns in his plots.
And in the treatment of kin, that rather "unpleasant" and uncomfortable palpable tension, when they are in the same room, discussing disagreements and conflicts, or when one asks the other for asylum, protection or their influence over a particular matter.
Somehow people these days look to billionaires and imagines them as one of the kin, and forgot to look into the old wise kings and queens, princes and princessess, barons, counts, dukes, emperors, and general wise royalties around. These are the role models of the kin. Be like them.
100%
The noblesse oblige as a concept is hard to explain to those not aware of it, and the kind of "ruling as a duty" way of leadership is barely in existence any more in the Western way of thinking of things. We don't conflate absolute authority with absolute responsibility quite in the same way anymore, which might be due to the decentralization of power and the distance between the upper and lower echelons of power.
But I agree with you, it is the noblesse oblige that make the Ventrue what they are. Any two-bit conman can claim rulership, but it takes a real blue blood to carry the burden of it as well, to be responsible not just for the success, but for the failures as well, and do what must be done.
@@ThePrimogen that is a side of things I admit I had not thought out before, and it makes a great deal of sense, looking at today's world.
We do not have easily accessible figures of true power, members of nobility that actually have sovereignity and act upon it, as it was pushed to them to rule over their fiefs, they did not chose it, because the burden is passed on from their cradles, by blood.
And yet, we are one of the most blessed generations with easy access to information that Kings of yore would have fought wars, bribed entire populations or employed an army of spies to get, in the palm of our hands, and we somehow fall short of going deeper into the "noblesse oblige" side of things and give it if not a proper, then perhaps a shallow read to grasp it a bit more, to understand the true character and the burden of a blue blood.
On the "gaming" side of things, I guess it falls down on the backs of the Narrators to show the players what "noblesse oblige" looks like, so they can be inspired and at least see how it works, if they have not done that research themselves.
A very nice exchange of ideas, my dear Primogen. I subscribed to your channel, as your work is indeed of great quality. I hope I can contribute to it, somehow, on what touches my favourite clan among the whole World of Darkness. :)
You just described an end game Ventrue.
I am so freaking excited for this video!!!!
ME TOO! :D
HOLY CRAP! You managed to get the baron himself. I love seeing these types of collaborations. I don't want to push my luck, but after covering the various clans do you think you can cover "How to play the story teller" ?
I was blown away when he said yes! :D You can consider these videos my take on how to ST these classes as well, of course. I'd love to do more ST-focused stuff in the future though!
@@ThePrimogen Sweeet
I'm starting my first ventrhe game today and this video was super helpful!! Thank you!
I also loved the in-character intro/outro, it really helped me understand the way Ventrue hold themselves
I've been playing Ventrue for two decades now. From neonate to elder (even strategoi).
Ventrue above all!
I have a MIGHTY NEED for the Patriarch of the kindred to make a "how to play" video of the Malkavians, they are my favorite clan, an equal second is Gangrel
All in due time :D They'll come, I'm working my way through the clans the way I did my original clan videos.
@@ThePrimogen officially hyped!
B. Dave Walter is the perfect choice for a Ventrue introduction because his baron was not stereotypical Ventrue while being unquestionably all Ventrue.
Puppets dancing on the strings of the sleeping fathers and mothers! they'll be the first dragged to the table and devoured, The Sword of Caine is your only salvation! (I am so hype, one of my fave clans)
True power is not freely given, it is taken by force. It is held only by those individuals whom are worth their weight to hold it, if one is not up to the task it will not end well for them.
Wise words!
That's a hell of a cameo with which to book-end this video! I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this series :)
>:D More to come hopefully! Thank you so much!
Oh boi I'll be lectured by the undisputed Baron on matters of Ventrue leadership any night! Nice video Primogen and B. David :D
:D! Thank you!
Fiorenza must really like Victor then to refer to him as she does... And her bluntness now that I think about it.
Fiorenza doesn't give a shit about Ventrue conventions, she's in it to win
@@ThePrimogen Well, there you have it.
LOVE Victor Temple commenting on this. This is one of your best videos to date, very informative as always but with that extra treat that is the undisputed Baron of the Valley. Keep up the great work!
Much appreciated! I'm super happy that you enjoyed it! It was a pleasure working with the great BDW! :D
YAY! B. Dave! It was a great surprise to bring this up while cleaning and find one of my favorite men hosting!!!
Mine too! Amazing guy to work with!
Couldn't think of no one better for this video!
Right!?
Duuuuude! Victor Temple! Undisputed Baron of... where I live!
A great video with a great cameo. I'm very interested in the story on how you got B. Dave Walter to join in on this. Maybe it's as simple as "I sent a tweet" but who knows!
And reveal my secrets? ;)c
Thank you for the support! :D
I love this, and it was a great treat to see the Undisputed Barron of the Valley himself helping out his newly embraced Ventrue neonate's! Kinda makes me really want to see other members of the cast in future videos though...! Know you've already done one for the Toreador, so we likely won't see Barron Griffith making a Cameo, but it would be cool to see Alexander Ward, Josephine McAdam's or perhaps other members of the cast providing advice on how to play their characters respective clans!
Personally looking forward to the "How to play a Tremere" video! They're my favorite clan! ❤️
Thank you so much for your kind words!
Unfortunately it was quite hard to get the other cast on hand, so that didn't happen, but the How to plays will return in 2021!
I am new to the game, playing a Ventrue in Chicago by night.
Great video here. Thankyou. 🩸
Hope you'll have fun! Remember that this is just a few ways you can tackle Ventrue, there is no true way, and as long as you have fun it'll be great!
who's this Shadow Lords and why are they talking about some leech tribe?
real cool to have the UNDISPUTED! Baron of the Valley for this, now the question is how are you going to get Carl's Strauss for Tremere.
How cool? REAL COOL! I was so happy to have him on!
I'm just waiting for one about Malkavian.
The clan that's the most interesting to me and also the reason I can't stand Vampire LARPers :P
It will come as well! :D
YES lol
I have been enjoying your videos thoroughly. I started from the bottom and have worked my way up and this one was a treat. Your style of putting these together is so entertaining and educational and then to have a visit from the Undisputed Baron of the Valley had me just gushing. Thank you so much for everything that you do
Thank you so much! I'm so happy you've found my content interesting and useful, it really makes me happy reading comments like this! And it was a great pleasure working with BDW! :D
The UNDISPUTED Baron of the Valley!!!! Excellent video!
Thank you so much! I was very excited to have BDW help me out with this one! :D
Ohh my god!!! B-dave!! 💙💚🖤💚💙🦇🦇 Such a great video
That was my reaction when he agreed to make the video too!!!
Love your work!, By the way are you going to make a
"How to play a Tzemice" video as well?
Oh you betcha I will! Thank you!
@@ThePrimogen Thank you too! (I know you're fond of this clan, i love this clan even though i wish there were good guy Tzemice as well).
I love the series, hope you'll cover the less popular clans and Bloodlines as well eventually (Salubry, Nagaraja, Banu Haqim, Ravnos and these plant discipline clans/Bloodlines cause their discipline combined with Thaumaturgy may open up the creation of blood plants which may result in vegetarian vampires lol ).
Remember fledglings, no Ventrue has ever been punished for falsely invoking Succor. They were punished because they got caught.
You just keep on amazing me all the time, man. What an awesome resource you put together, these videos are rare gems indeed. You always give me great ideas with these summaries, please keep up the good work! Also, Ventrue are the best! :D
Thank you so, so much for your feedback and comments! It's really nice to read and I'm happy this helps inspiring you!
Nobody better to teach us about the Ventrue than The Undisputed Baron of the Valley
The Ventrue still remain my comfort clan.
I very much enjoyed this video; I think it is very well done.
My only wish is that you had gone into how the ventrue antitribu style themselves as knights and crusaders (in tue styleof the first ones to go sabbat), tend to follow path of honorable accord, and practice auspex instead of presence. Other than thay Dominique, the Ventrue anti priscus is an absolutely amazing character, and I would love to see more about her.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you very much!
I agree, I think I spent far too much time on describing the Ventrue, repeating myself from previous videos, and had too little space for the Antitribu!
I was not expecting to see, Victor do the intro of this vid; very cool.
Finally, my fellow Kindred, your glorious leaders have arrived!
What a great introduction speech. Wonderful job.
45 seconds in, and just like that you won me over.
That which is done in secret has power; those that shun the light truly rule while the obvious kings play at it while actually being pawns.
How can you claim to be the Clan of Kings when you no longer even walk the Road of Kings?
I'm sure they'd have an appropriate, albeit disappointing, retort to that. ;)
The Primogen Nah, they’d just get their Toreador harpy to think of a retort for them ;)
@@Malkav65 just as you don't push a pup to pull the plough you don't command a king to consort with commoners
That last peer from Temple had me thinking… what would a sci-fi VTM story be like??
Only those who commit noble deeds may proclaim within themselves a sliver of nobility. Those who preform these deeds on a long and consistent basis are truly the bluest blood within us.
Ah, the Ventrue, quite possibly my favourite clan
I aspire to one day roleplay a Ventrue as awesome as Victor Temple, wish me luck
You can do it, I believe in you!
Baron Temple! Wonderful to see you!
The best!
could never get over this guy's flagrant anne rice lestat style disregard of the masquerade
Damn Baron Temple undisputed Baron thatw as great. excelent work The Primogen and thx B. Dave Walter.
Thank you once agin for a great vid that give perspective on a clan
No problem 👍 Glad you enjoyed it!
Loved the Loki reference.
It's lonely at the top but someone's got to hold the spot..........and we will climb a mountain of corpses to reach the summit if need be.
B. Dave Walters is a supreme Ventrue
Yeah! Victor!!! Great job once again man
Thank you very much! BDW is a pleasure to work with and an absolutely amazing chap in general!
The Baron!!! I love crossovers! Great job everyone!
Thank you so much! I'm so glad BDW decided to help me out! :D
UNDAD!!!!!!
I can't wait for you to do Brujah :)
Me neither! This series has turned out to be soooo much fun to work on!
The Mantle of Responsibility is heavy indeed.
The undisputed Baron himself!
I always wanted to get into the Masquerade Rp with friends but always find it terrifying since the only experience i have with vampires is basically Van helsing and dracula. After learning and reading it i find it interesting how the masquerade play and also as a venture. Always like the idea of actually RP as a highborn characters and venture was my first pick but i always am afraid of Rping as one.
I like the idea of your vid going lecture about venture and i feel like being like welcomed in an office and you explaining.
How cool!! I love B Dave! Wish he would turn up on YT more often!
Another solid video.
Much appreciated!
I wonder how well the Ventrue could work with the Lasombra now that they are in the Camarilla. While they have historically worked against each other for European control, they have also worked together to destroy the Brujah’s Carthage all those centuries ago.
Perhaps if this partnership had a mutual benefit in the past, then it may bear fruit now.
I think honestly the Ventrue are excited about the Lasombra joining, more so than the other way around; mostly because the Ventrue tend to value the stability and security of the greater whole, and the Lasombra bring a much-needed amount of political know-how and understanding of priorities to the Sect.
Great video. Yeah I just started a ventrue and I gave him a horrendous feeding restriction…. Babies.
Also love the Hot Fuzz reference
Glorious purpose?! Loki is a Ventrue confirmed.
Oh hell yeah!
I like this Barron guy. Is he a character in another video series? Cause he sounds like the mentor and perspective giver a character of mine needed and never got. And I'd love to learn more.
The Baron is Victor Temple, the Undisputed Baron of the Valley from the Let's Play series LA By Night, which you can find here on UA-cam.
I'm watching as many lore videos as I can...Ventrue are great.
But, I'm playing a chaotic Ventrue. So, I'm researching to find a way to make this character work. 🤔 It's been a fun exercise.
I just about fell out of my chair
I love B. Dave, but 'The Undisputed Baron of the Valley' should have been wiped out *hard* by either the Cam, the Inquisition, or some combination of both, with how public he was at. all. times.
;P
Awesome video loved every second
Yay! Thank you!
The character I'm playing as in the Chronicle I'm a part of is a Venture Lawyer affiliated with the Camarilla and despite the fact she stays true to her street-roots and wants to do right by the other clans, and innocent humans along with actually showing kindness to the Duskborne/Thin-Bloods, and The Catliff which earns her the mockery from some of her clan and some of the more egotistical Kindred in the Camarilla she takes the saying "You want a shot at the Princess/Queen you better not miss" seriously basically you try to threaten her or scare her into giving up or come after the ones she cares about she'll personally starting gearing up for a hunt and with the other members of the Coterie and any street-born Kindred she's friends with come after whoever made the mistake of threatening her or her loved ones and personally deal with him/her.
FUCK ME. THE FUCKIN BARON OF THE VALLEY HIMSELF. THIS. THIS MADE MY DAY. B. DAVE IS THE GOAT FOR THE MODERN VENTRUE. So great to see him here!😊
Can you do Lasombra next?
It'll be a bit until we get to Lasombra, sorry >
Amazing video. Thanks for your job❤️.. Now i really want to know everything about the Brujah clan, because i have this character and a have some dubt. Please help me 😁
Glad you enjoyed! Brujah will come in time, it'll be a few weeks though, sorry ^^;
VICTOR MAH BOI!!!!
"If you play the game of thrones, you win... or you die."
Not sure if you can edit post publishing but there's a blip at 08:58.
I didn't notice that one until it was too late. I'll see if I can get it fixed, it bothers the heck out of me!
@@ThePrimogen i mean.. just do malk next and make it all meta!
Please do Cappadocian next!!!
The Cappadocians will be covered in later videos, unfortunately, as I do these videos based on the order I've covered the clans in before.
Vannevar Thomas ❤️❤️
This ol' Gangrel, will happily put you back in your overpriced box.
So i was right to make my gambler/Gunslinger a Ventrue
I think that even hefore the Tremere pyramid fell, Ventrue was the most stable and united clan. Tremere bonds were artificial and that is easy to topple, they were forced and sumbites to that *sham* , meanwhile Ventrue is a meritocracy who value honor and dignitas. If you kill the top of the Tremere, the pyramid falls. If you kill the top of the Ventrue, well, that wont go well, they will get replaced by their childer and you will have in your neck the while Clan until you die for good. Even if they got inside drama, they wont tolerate any disrespect.
But what if who you were before the embrace was a self-serving, cold-hearted, opportunistic, power-hungry prick, Lord Baron of the Valley? I guess this one is doomed.
Excellent cameo by D Dave Walters, but I also really appreciate that BLM insignia.
Sagittarian Silver Linings for you , By not posting the line on twitter your name and the connection to it grows stronger in the algorythm for sites like youtube.
Oh my bones swell with need to dee you work your rituals on the greatest clans since Cain in the Tzimisce ans Lasombra
Ah yes one of the few bluebloods,and even rarer the ones who arent the usual tyrant,teaching the neonate blueblood.
To quote:perfectly balanced as all things should be
Lol :)😂
at 7:09 what book is that image from? The Ventrue with the armor.?
I believe it's from the Camarilla Guide from Revised Edition if I'm not mistaken.
@@ThePrimogen yep! page 160 :P
Do more lore please.
It's on its way!
Holy fucking shit he caught me off guard I love it auebwsidyhwaytzgwywrzvdu
This was really cool, but I was expecting the video to give more practical tips into ventrue play
Thank you so much for your feedback! I actually came to this realization as well after my Tremere video, and I haven't been able to return to these again, but if I do I'm making 2.0s where I'm more out of character and giving practical advice, I think that would be better in the long run.
@@ThePrimogen
Yass, I really appreciate your channel, it helps me catch up on important things for the LARP I play in
Your awesome
At 8:58, there is a weird glitch followed by you repeating one of your lines.
Thanks for pointing it out! It bothers me a lot so I'll see if I can remove it!
الفيديو كان روعة اشكرلك
plz do How to play a malkavian and plz have X in the video
Well I sucked at being ventrue
Nah man, there's no wrong way to play a Ventrue! These are just bits of advice!