Arcanum debate (Chris Zac stay out)

[PazuzuAxelf]

Scenario: The Arcanum has a hall reserved at a university for a private event. This event is by invitation only, but does deal with the topics of the Supernatural. It is a formal debate between two members with a moderator and everything. The attendees are all either members, or associates of members who were personally invited. There is some minimal security enforced to prevent anyone not invited from attending.

The Question: The debate is on Vampiric influence in society. What sort of bullet points should be gone over on both sides of this discussion?

[Thoth]

The main deciding factor for the topics is how you set up Vampire culture in your game.

For instance if you keep to the less than 50k vampires world wide rule of thumb, the cainites will be considered more of a rare group worthy of study. On the other hand if you have the vampires running around a city with dozens of vampires per clan and most clans being represented in each city and occasionally in every town, the topics to be discussed will be more along the lines of how to deal with the infestation. Once you have decided on the population ratio and considered the ramifications that result from it, the bullet points become self evident.

Another thing to consider beyond the population is how "smart" the vampires in your game are portrayed. Since vampires are created from fully developed humans and the vampiric existence tends to weed out the weak, the stupid, the impulsive, and the incompetent, chances are that the majority of the vampire population is careful, well trained, and most of all patient. This breaks the setting since it was designed to have things like fishmalks and brujah running around. Alternatively most vampires could essentially be the Lost Boys 2.0 where eternity is just a very long beach party. This also breaks the setting given how much power and influence the vampires are supposed to have over large swathes of society.

In the end unless the Arcanum has truly extensive information about the clans, the various factions, and the paths, a seminar and discussion will probably be more about what they have theories about, rather than what they actually know. A good example is that most people invited to the discussion will believe that vampires only drink blood, but then some one shows proof of a nagaraja requiring the consumption of meat, well now everyone has to reconsider what they thought they knew. Do they need to keep an eye on meat packing plants as well as blood banks when trying to track kindred influence? Did that Samedi just reform after being reduced to ash, have all those vampire hunters through the ages been duped? Vampires are terrified of fire and won't go near it, but wait that vampire in robes just controlled fire.

In the end a lot of the discussion will spiral into just more questions, unless you decide to give the Arcanum insider information to a degree that even many vampires don't know the answers to.

[Illithid]

In the end unless the Arcanum has truly extensive information about the clans, the various factions, and the paths, a seminar and discussion will probably be more about what they have theories about, rather than what they actually know. A good example is that most people invited to the discussion will believe that vampires only drink blood, but then some one shows proof of a nagaraja requiring the consumption of meat, well now everyone has to reconsider what they thought they knew. .

Do they Classify KotE as Vampires, and then think some can survive based on Chi as well. Maybe they're just a bunch of other clans?

Do they recognise the difference between Sabbat and Camarilla, so they can tell that some are "Just" manipulating the population and trying to keep their juniors in check, and the others don't care so much about deaths?

[Michael]

What's your underlying purpose for holding a formal debate? I mean, they're basically logic games, as opposed to the lecture and response formats that you get in academia.

[PazuzuAxelf]

What's your underlying purpose for holding a formal debate? I mean, they're basically logic games, as opposed to the lecture and response formats that you get in academia.

Story wise I am showcasing two opposing individuals within the Arcanum in the Washington DC area with a great deal of influence in the PCs lives. A debate shows the semi-antagonistic relationship the two have while presenting the players with more information to use to solve their own mystery.

[Nosimplehiway]

PazuzuAxelf

What are your narrative goals in featuring this debate? Is there some critical piece of evidence one of the sides will use, which also helps advance the story? Do you want the debate to be over a topic the pcs are invested in, like whether a particular vampire the Arcanum has identified should be destroyed? Is this just a set piece?

The reason for the scene is the best inspiration for the scene's content.

[Black Fox]

Is this debate just two people's personal opinions, or is there actually a formal debate resolution where one speaker is affirmative and the other negative? If the latter, we need to know the specific resolution in order to provide any kind of bullet points. If it is just two guys giving conflicting opinions, it is really too open a question. You need to give more information on the position for each person.