Date: Wed, 12 Aug 98 12:39:38 -0500

Witches, Warlocks, and Necromancers: 
On Playing a Tremere and Possibly Even Enjoying It.
By Ranjani Prabhakara

The sun has descended completely in the sky and under the shadow of the 
moon you can see them.  Progressing forth is an unbroken line, they march 
through the doors of the old church.   Dressed all in black, whether 
anachronisms donning heavy cloaks or the more youthful taking each 
carefully planned step in patent boots, they remain silent and solemn as 
they make their way towards Elysium.  They are the Tremere, all 
unchanging, all unmoving, all living the same mindless, redundant ideal: 
Loyalty to the Clan.

It appears to me that the Tremere are often looked upon with a fleeting  
moment of interest by many players.  They possess strange and wonderful 
toys. They are evil and spooky.  They are feared.  Yet, some players may
also be apt to think that each and every one of them is nothing more than
the stereotype offered in the above paragraph: a stereotype that portrays
them as carbon copies, Halloween cookie cutter cut-outs, and all bound to
a world of boredom and a lack of creativity by the very thing that offers
them their powers, their clan.  This stereotype could be what deters some
players from going for that cool Tremere character.  You can say that 
since they all have only one goal, promoting the well-being of their clan,
that they offer no role-playing opportunity.  Maybe this is true, if you
think that all characters in all clans are flat, one-dimensional beings.
If this be the case, perhaps it is your own creativity and role-playing 
ability that should be challenged.

All characters have a goal, and they all have different ways of achieving
them. Maybe most, if not all, of the Tremere (at least those Vienna allows
to live) have one goal written in that supersedes all others, but how many
Brujah have goals to free their cities from oppression?  How many Ventrue
have goals to gain all of the power and money that they can get their
greedy hands on?  How many Nosferatu aim to be master spies?  Come on, how
many characters of all shapes and sizes have aspired to overthrow the
Prince and take over the city? If you have, then that's not very creative.
What is creative, however, is how you went about your plan to do so.
There is nothing wrong with having certain things for which your character
strives. At the same time, however, that does not make everyone who works
to achieve that thing, whatever it is, do so in the exact same manner as
every other Tom, Dick and Harry out there who has the same thing in mind.
Ultimately, you can also always have other goals that have nothing to do
with protecting your clan, as long as they are not in violation of it.
Remember that every character in the Camarilla is expected to do the same
thing, in a sense. The traditions play just another defining role.  

There is a difference between personal goals and personality. One 
determines how the other will be acted out.  Just as every Ventrue can 
have a different scheme to get rich quick and a different adeptness in 
achieving it, every Tremere can have a different scheme to increase their 
clan's power, knowledge, and their own status within it. They can even 
vary in their interpretations of this goal, and differ in their ability to 
understand it on a number of different levels.  An example: Sure, your 
elders are expected to know what is best, but how you perceive your 
Primogen's effectiveness and loyalty can affect how fit for power you 
think they are, as well as how you plan to handle the situation.   

You can always make your role-playing center around who or what you are  
playing, but a better way to go about things may be to concentrate on how  
and why you are doing it. Looking at things this way may open you up to 
the role-playing challenges and the creativity involved in playing a well 
written and executed Tremere character. Who knows, you might even have 
fun.