The importance of genre in V:tM

One World by Night is a national organization with smaller games that have their own house rules and their own settings. While the basics are the same, the atmosphere in Wisconsin or Minnesota is different than the atmosphere we have in Tampa, Florida. While it's my opinion, I'd say the most important thing holding all of the games together is genre.

Loosely speaking, genre is the set of rules that define the World of Darkness, or the world Vampire: the Masquerade is based in. Genre comes from Laws of the Night, the V:tM clan books, and other White Wolf source material. A good rule of thumb for OWbN is that if you can't find a reference to something you want in one of the White Wolf source books, you should pretty much forget about it.

Genre explains why the Nosferatu put their clan before everything else and why the Ventrue and Lasombra hate each other. It sets a precedent for thin bloods having babies and describes why most of the Malkavians can "enlighten" the larger kindred population. My biggest pet peeve is players breaking the biggest, most important genre rules because they don't know any better.

I understand many players don't have access to the World of Darkness source material, because they don't have access to the out of print books and/ or don't want to spend money on PDFs. However, there are many ways to learn genre without expending a lot of energy.

The easiest way to learn is to watch more experienced players and ask questions. When I started playing, I had an idea of how the world worked, but I also spent months watching the power players around me and figuring out the intricate political system of the Camarilla. When I had questions, I asked. When I had to make an important decision in character, I thought long and hard about it.

I don't know why breaking genre bothers me as much as it does. Maybe it's just because I'm a curmudgeon.

/rant