Setting The Stage

Perhaps it's unfair to post this article now given that we are still a ways away from running our next Vampire The Masquerade chronicle in modern day Chicago, but the truth is that writing a story without characters is a bit like driving with a blindfold. As long as the road is perfectly straight we'll be fine, but eventually I'm going to drive off a cliff and I feel as if I'm at that point now. In short, I need characters and in order for you guys to create characters, you need context so its a chicken before the egg problem but it needs to be solved before I can really get into the thick of things when it comes to creating this chronicle.
As such, despite the ongoing Star Trek game, we are going to now begin the journey of getting some details of this campaign on paper and it begins with this article, setting the stage. Consider the following a primer for the creation of your character, a sort of vague instruction on the do's and don'ts of building characters ready for the world of darkness. For now I will focus on helping with the narrative component, the mechanical character I will describe in a follow up article and there will be some rules and regulations as well.

Before you begin, be sure that you should

I'm going to put this here first so that its crystal clear and understood. Creating a Vampire The Masquerade chronicle is an impossible amount of work and the entire thing is as fragile as ice cream in the desert.
It's very simple, I will take no offense if you choose not to participate, I will take great offense if join and arrive uninspired and unmotivated looking for something to do on the weekend to pass the time. A game like this demands a lot from everyone involved, and for that I will not apologize. It is a labour of love, something we sculpt together passionately because we want to create something special, there is no room for half-assing it. Enter this game only if its a calling you can't resist, if your palms sweat with excitement and you can't wait to fuck over your friends in a virtual playground of horrors. This chronicle will make the last one look like a feel good romantic comedy, shit will get dark, shit will be raw and I want everyone to approach it like we are playing Texas Holdem with your rent money.
I hope everyone understands where I'm going with this, go all in or not at all. Nuff said.

You are mortal and naive, but not Irrelevant

We begin this chronicle in the truest sense of a beginning, you are mortal, you live outside of the veil barely even aware of it beyond the natural superstitions of your average joe on the street. Your character does not know about Vampires and Werewolves, Mages or Spirits. These things are nothing more than popular culture stories and vague myths.
This however is the world of darkness, a game of Vampire The Masquerade and as a player creating a character in such a setting for the purpose of role-playing it behoves you to create a character who might realistically be chosen for such a world. Sure you could create a cattle rancher from missouri who proudly wears a Make America Great Again trucker hat and goes about the business of raising a family but such people are cattle for vampires and are unlikely to be chosen for some Ventrue plot or have reason to stand out among the Chicago underdark elite.
Your character must be more, he or she must have a place in a world that can be made relevant in the world of darkness and as such though your character should be naive to the world of darkness, you as a player must ensure that your character is worthy of a place in such a setting.
What this really means is that your character must have a darkness about them. For example if you are a Rancher from Missouri, perhaps your ranch is used by the Mafia to hide dead bodies for a fee or you use your cattle to move drugs for some Mexican cartel. The point I'm making is that you can't simply be a simpleton or regular Joe, your character must fit the dark mold worthy of being dragged into the World of Darkness. Naive yes, but irrelevant, no.

Chicago By The Numbers

The city of Chicago was not chosen arbitrarily as a setting piece for the world of darkness, of all the places in the United States, it is one of the most frightening places imaginable, populated with an endless stream of bizzare history making it an ideal place to vamp-splain things. From organized crime to crime rates that would shock even the most staunch 2nd amendment activist, Chicago is a violent scary place in the real world and doubly so with a layer of the occultic world of darkness. Its a place that is easy to mine for dark inspiration and you do not need the Chicago By Nights book to get it, a simple current events google search in the city will be enough to give you nightmares. This is a place that has at least 1 murder every single day, 360 days a year and then some.
When creating your character, make the effort to find real world connections, real places, real people, real events. Take liberties if you need to but make it authentic. Vampire The Masquerade is a game of horror, and so you should let yourself dive into that premise, make your story raw and brutal and use the city as a muse.
I only ask one thing of everyone and that is make sure that whatever your creation ends up being that your comfortable role-playing it and feel the room to ensure everyone else will be comfortable with your role-playing. While I'm happy to explore just about any dark horror topic, I still want to be able to look myself in the mirror at the end of the night so please make sure to keep in mind that, while a horror shit show it should be, lets keep it within some level of social graces.

Don't work in a bubble

As a meta concept, eventually your characters must somehow converge and relate to form a consolidated story. As such it's important that each of you reach out to each other during the writing/creation process and make connections, even if they are only vague and in passing. You should attempt to find some commonalities and relationships that might bring you together.
These story relationships should be within the mortal realm as the rest of your general backstory, so please avoid writing in vampires and other supernatural stuff (remain naive) and though I will not set any boundaries here I would really prefer not to see any preconstructed "clicks" or blood relatives between characters. In a sense its ok for you guys to know each other, have some sort of interaction, but don't write in that your inseparable blood brothers from birth that would never betray each other. Leave space for growth.
Finally include me, let me help you form ideas, concepts and backdrops. As the GM I have a distinct advantage and I can help you. In particular in cases where you need help with the creation of an organization or NPC, with this sort of thing, it's often better to fit something from the existing list rather then create from scratch. For example instead of inventing a street gang, lets use one that already exists.

Depict your surroundings and define your world

It's going to be very tempting to expand on the you of the character, but it's actually more important to define the when, where and how. Certainly you should define your personality, your beliefs and develop a persona and history for your character, but realistically speaking your character development in game will be far more important and relevant to the game than anything you write into your history.
Far more important is to understand what your character does, where do they go, what do they do, who do they hang out with, what does their day to day look like. This is important as when the game begins, this will define a lot about your character's motivations. The thing that drives them, their internal dialogue and their goals for the future are far more important than a deep dive into their childhood or their colorful upbringing. I'm not suggesting skip it, but if you are going to put pen to paper, consider writing in a fashion that allows us to draw your stories into the present, give me something I can use.
Be creative, remember that character creation often involves creating NPC's and you should do so liberally. Do you have a daughter? A wife? A drug dealer friend? Create them, give them names, give them personalities, expand a little so that we can invite them into our game as more than just faceless backdrops. In this chronicle the mortal realm and mortal realities of life will play a much bigger role then they did in our last game and as such defining the extras becomes more important.
Be sure to speak to where and how you live. Your apartment, the cafe you work at, the school you go to. Any place where you might be found with any regularity should be given some color as these places are likely to be where many of your in game scenes will take place, so brush up on those adjectives.
Side story's are welcome. While speaking to the point in a background write up of a character is great, White Wolf often gives you insight into the world of darkness by telling side story's. This is a fantastic way to define an important moment, person or place in your life and so I highly recommend you adopt this approach and include it into your character submission. Journals are also great, but you can get creative. For example are you a drug dealer? How do you get your drugs, tell us a story of such an occasion so we can get a feel for your character.

Public and Private

I want the character creation process to be something of a prologue, a way to introduce some interesting and colorful people to each other. In that spirit, as part of the character creation process and writing of backgrounds, I will be quite demanding.
I would like everyone to segregate public and private information about their characters. Private write ups are things you create for GM only eyes. You can write these as a matter of fact, short form even. The purpose of these is to get the information to me so I understand your character.
Public write ups are things we are going to publish for the other players as part of the initial prologue of the game. Here you want to use some colorful language and spice things up, make it fun for everyone else to read. Think about the external for these public tidbits, what would people assume about you, how do you appear on the exterior.

Getting Started So You Can Finish

When it comes to creating world of darkness characters, it can be a challenge even when creating a mere mortal. Who are you is not an easy question to ask when your staring at a blank page.
I suggest doing things in what I call "creative splatter".
Begin by writing a one or two sentence description (as some of you have already done) about who your character is. Then work from there to create physical and mental details. Do you have a tattoo? Are you a recreational drug user?
Follow that up by asking the question "what do I do for a living"? How do you survive? Are you a chicago PD detective or perhaps a college football star?
Invent yourself piece by piece and when you have scrapped something together and find yourself stuck get in touch with me and I can help you flesh out your character.
The important thing is to start.

Conclusion

I hope that this is enough to get you going. Unfortunately, simply by the nature of our story start, the fact that you are mere mortals in a world of darkness means very little of that world will be revealed to you as part of the prologue. There will be articles, for certain and naturally related to said dark world, but you aren't going to get play by play of who's who in the city of vampires as was the case in our previous chronicle.
You are writing a mortal character that lives in Chicago in the the year 2020. That is a person living there today. That is just about everything that is relevant to character creation at least narratively speaking at this point.
I will say this. You guys want to play? I need some characters, so while I don't want anyone to rush, the sooner I have some characters the sooner this chronicle kicks off.
I hope everyone is excited, I know that I am!