From corleyj@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu Wed Aug 10 11:55:28 EDT 1994
From: corleyj@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Jason D Corley)
Subject: Jason's Stupid LARP Tricks: The Tremere
Date: 9 Aug 1994 01:32:42 GMT
 
Jason's Stupid LARP Tricks!  Low in cholesterol!
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1.  Talk to each other a lot privately.  If you don't have really much to
say (or, more likely, you're plotting against each other), make it a point
to exchange pleasantries and look nonchalant.  This will drive people nuts
and make them think you're planning something.
 
2.  HOW TO BE SMARTER THAN YOU IS...er.....ARE
 
a) There's hints for this in the Amber RPG, in the section on playing the
Elder Amberites.  Some are applicable.  Some ain't.
 
b) Minor retrofitting.  This one involves a Storyteller.  Basically, 
retrofitting is making events correspond to an "overall plan" _after the
events occur_.  So when a minor event occurs, maybe on that the ST didn't
plan on, take them aside and offer to "take responsibility" for the event
and work it into your overall plan.  As one player said, "It's easy to be
Machiavellian.  All you have to do is do the opposite of what you really
want to...and then justify it."
 
c) Speak learnedly.  Take your time and pick the words you want to say. 
Those word-a-day calendars are a good investment for the Tremere LARPer.
If you can't think of a learned way to say what you're thinking, ponder
for a while.  People will think you're really pontificating the weighty
issues, whereas you're trying to think of another word for "horse."
 
d) If you want to be subtle about it, you can pretend to be denser than
you really are.  Imagine!  The Brujah are secretly calm, the Gangrel
secretly associate more with suburbia than animals, the Malkavians are
coldly sane, the Nosferatu ham it up on the street every night, the
Toreador have the taste of an insane magpie in an aluminum recycling
plant, the Ventrue are losers who couldn't lead a Little League team, and
the Tremere are dumb as posts. It could happen!
 
3.  Rarely volunteer information.  When you do, make sure that it is small
and crucial.  A very little planning will help take care of this one.
 
4.  Occult props?  You may feel stupid wearing them, but let's be
honest---you can't have too many.  After a while, you'll forget they're
there and you'll act like you've had 'em all your life.
 
5.  Magic?  You have two choices:
        a) "I have seen things that you will never see.  Leave it to 
memory me."  The look that says "you have no clue what's going on." The
attitude that the most aloof Mages have towards Sleepers.  The manner that
informs the other Kindred that haven't earned your respect that you can
change reality and you know it and it ain't pretty. 
        b) "Power tools!  Ruff ruff ruff!"  Magic is a tool to get what
you want, but it isn't intrinsically important.  It's possible, however,
that it's the best tool.  Move with that knowledge of power. You could
take them.  You could take them all.  And you will.  And the company
that'll bring it to you?
        c) "Naah, not important."  Blow off any mention of it. Wave your
hand and say things like "Piffle" and "Tchah!"  Act like it doesn't
interest you at all and imply that you've spend your time on better things
than sitting around reading old fusty tomes of things man was not meant to
know.  Do it right, and you'll quickly get the reputation as the baddest
magician in town.

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"Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to
 listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome."--T.S.Eliot
Jason D. "corleyj@gas.uug.arizona.edu" Corley wanders the streets a free man.