Date: Sun, 10 Aug 1997 13:55:36 -0400 (EDT)

Brujah - The Ambassadors of Whup

			The politics of whup ass,
			The politics of mmm, feelin' good
			The politics of moving, uh huh
			Is this message understood?

There it is, peoples, the advantage of being Brujah, in a few short lines.
Sure, that's not how the original tune goes. No shit. The original form
had grown passe' and useless, so I changed it to suit the needs of the
present. That is, after all, the Brujah way. You got a problem with that?

Let's face it, you can usually get a lot further with a kind word and a
gun than you can with just a kind word. Whoever it was that said "violence
never solves anything" was either smoking the good stuff or trying to keep
the masses in a state of ignorance. It never solves anything, yeah, right.
That's why nations spend mind-boggling amounts of resources to build up 
their military power. That's why cops carry guns, mace, and billy clubs.
That's why the animals in the wild depend on their sharp negotiating
skills to survive, rather than sharp teeth and sharp claws.

The ugly truth is that, in the end, the final trump card of any individual
or group is the ability to apply physical force, or the threat of it, to
attain desired results - survival, security, obedience, respect, whatever.
Moa Tse Tung once said, "Political power rolls out of the barrel of a
gun". And the true beauty of it is, the more whup ass power you got, the
less you generally have to actually use it.

Playing a Brujah means that you have the advantage in physical challenges
with the vast majority of your peers. You got the strength (Potence) and
the speed (Celerity) to start out with; keep at it and you gain the
ability to deliver aggravated damage - Potence 4, "force", which is only
an intermediate level and thus only costs 6 experience points. And unlike
wolf-claws, it costs no blood points to activate - important if you're a 
high generation character without a lot of blood points.

The Gangrel have a respectable amount of whup, also, having the clan
discipline of Fortitude on top of those vicious little claws. But if you,
as a Brujah, bother to learn the basic levels of Fortitude, then you're
all but set. Fortitude, Potence, and Celerity are the big three to have
for combat, and personally I'd rather be a Bru who has one discipline to
learn than a Gangrel who has two. Max out those physical traits, add some 
points to your brawl and melee abilities, maybe dodge and firearms, and
you're there. Now it's just a question of how much faster, stronger, and
tougher you want to be. Whup. It's not just for breakfast anymore.

And don't forget that Brujah clan advantage - if you need help, your
fellow Brujah spring to your aid whenever you're in trouble. Other clans
are often like that in a LARP situation, true, but only the Brujah risk
losing status if they fail to answer the call.


Something for Everyone

Ah, but perhaps such brutish methods are not to your liking. Maybe you
prefer intrigue and subtle machinations to such unrefined thuggery...
bringing harm to your enemies and rivals is almost as satisfying as a
deeply erotic feed, but it's nice not to have to wash their nasty vitae
off your hands afterwards. Well, possessing the third Brujah clan
discipline, Presence, ensures the best of both worlds. With choosing
Social as your primary traits, you can be just as popular and charming as
that Toreador socialite over there. And it helps you to move with that
much more confidence and grace to know that, if it really came down to it,
you could still slap that smug sneer right the hell off of his/her Torry
skull.

I've always loved playing the Brujah, for several reasons. I like having a
character who is physically well-developed and capable of handling himself
in a scrap. But the greatest reason, I think, is that there really is a
wide variety of character types to be. On one end of the spectrum, the
Brujah are the freethinkers, the idealists, the status-quo challenging  
intellectuals of Kindred society. Without those who bring change and new
ideas, all societies stagnate and eventually die...it has been said of
the Brujah that they alone embody the hope of the future for the Kindred.
And that's an easy role for most of us to fit into.  Because let's face
it, LARPers, most of us aren't conventional, conservative, pre-yuppie
types by far. In many ways, most of mainstream Society views *us* as *its*
Brujah.

On the other end of the spectrum are the violent, radical, rebel-just-for- 
the-hell-of-it types, who are concerned only with destroying the system
and not with what should actually replace it. I am an anti-christ, I am an
anarchist, don't know what I want, but I know how to get it! That kind of
character can be fun, and satisfying, too...I mean, you may not have ever 
seriously thought about dropping a cluster of incendiary bombs on that
bastion of honesty and scrupulousness we call Congress, but don't try to
tell me the thought doesn't bring a smile to your face, if only for a
fleeting second. College professor, freedom fighter, hacker, artist,
bully, cult leader...the possibilities are endless. If you've ever wanted
to play life by *your* rules, challenge rote orthodoxy, or divest yourself
from the mainstream, you will probably enjoy playing a Brujah.


Tips for Fun and Survival

A few tips on playing one of the "Rabble" - First, be aware of your
weakness. The Clan disciplines of the Brujah are such that you're best off
choosing Physical and Social as your primary and secondary traits (either
or), and Mental as your tertiary traits. This means you are initially
vulnerable to things like the Dominate discipline, because you'll lose all
ties in mental challenges if the one trying to dominate you has more
mental traits. It also can make things like Auspex difficult to pull off,
if you ever take an interest in learning that discipline. The solution -
get yourself at least two willpower points, and eventually max them out.
Willpower not only helps you resist Dominate and Presence, but also allows
you to replenish all of your mental traits if they seem to be going quick
on a particular night. Also, willpower will help you resist frenzy and
heal aggravated wounds, if need be.

Second, choose some decent merits and flaws. These make for a more
interesting, three-dimensional character, and truth be told, merits are
usually more helpful than flaws are a pain in the ass. Danger Sense,
Berserker, Daredevil, and Iron Will are good ones for a Brujah. Note that
the merits and flaws listed in the Character Creation Manual are only
samples...check out Laws of the Night and other White Wolf books for
others. Or here's a radical idea: be creative and make some new ones up
(consulting your friendly neighborhood Storyteller for approval, of
course!)

Third, if you're a fighter, spar. You will never learn as much as quickly
about the cans and can'ts of physical challenges as when you find a
willing partner and go at it, and you can learn from your mistakes without
it possibly costing you dearly. But do it smart, not stupid. Allow either
fighter to submit, so they can quit if their blood points are getting low
(nothing like a hunger frenzy to put a real damper on things). Neither
fighter should deal aggravated damage - aggravated wounds cost 3 blood, 1
willpower to heal, and you can only heal them one health level *per
night*. Won't it suck if you get into a real fight one or two nights
later, and you have to start off at "wounded" or "bruised"? Fight to
incapacitation, if you want, but don't go all the way to torpor, and
obviously not to final death. Leave it so that when the fight's over, you
can both soon go off and feed, replenish lost traits, heal yourselves, and
be as good as new. You owe it to yourself and your fellow Brujah to be at
full fighting capacity at all times (that means being at full health 
unless you have a good reason not to be).

Fourth, if you want to win respect and status within the clan, have the
balls to stand up for yourself and don't kiss anyone's ass. But don't try
to play yourself off as superior until you got the stuff to back it up,
because Brujah *will* call you on it ("you can talk the talk, but can you
walk the walk?"). Show initiative, but do not break the Masquerade in
public, whatever you do. That brings shit down on your clan from the
Council (which is usually looking for any excuse to do so, anyway), and 
that consequently brings even more down on *you*.

Fifth, and this is probably good advice for all roleplayers - use your
brains, and use your imagination. There's a saying in the world of drama -
"There are no small parts, only small actors". Make your character more
than just an expendable extra in this unfolding drama; don't be afraid to
jump in and make things happen! Your character has goals and motivations
based on a lifetime of memories and experiences. They probably go beyond 
simply hanging out from game to game, accumulating experience points, and
moving up in the MLS pecking order. Think of how you personally can
contribute to enriching the plot of the story, and my guess is that the
Storytellers just might award you some of those coveted extra experience
points when the time comes. At the very least, your character will be
worthy of being called a Brujah.

Slack,
Christophe