Acknowlegding and Recognising; Malkavians, Ravnos, Banu Haqim and Ministry

As Storytellers, the V:tM IP and setting holds a very important place in our hearts. The universe, and lore, is expansive, and does a wonderful job of incorporating the world we live in, and all it’s history, into a supernatural world. The gritty nature of the setting, along with the focus on moral quandaries facilitate a unique play experience when it comes to exploring meaningful themes. We hope to create a game that encompasses this, and allows for rewarding interpersonal experiences, whilst also ensuring that the community we hope to foster remains loving, respectful and safe.

It is worth speaking to the elephant(s) in the room, and we feel as if we would be doing our players a disservice if we didn’t. It is no small secret amongst the tabletop, and live-action scenes, that Vampire the Masquerade has a storied history when it comes to dealing with sensitive issues in an altogether damaging manner, that has often perpetuated harmful and appropriative world views in the setting. It has always been an unacceptable facet of the game, and the most recent edition, V5, has done a lot of the heavy lifting for us when it comes to making the game much more acceptable. We are aware of the ways the writing can, and has, impacted various marginalised and oppressed communities. This isn’t to say it was a deliberate decision in previous editions - but ignorance in this regard is just as damaging. As such, we have taken the decision to alter some of the source material at our game, in order to rectify these problems, in keeping with our stance on these matters (as outlined in our EDI statement). In particular order, the following are a list of ways we hope to actively remove the possibility for harmful representation in our game going forward.

Malkavians and Mental Health

It’s no small secret that depicting an entire clan as “insane” or “crazy”, and then having their weakness being various real-world illnesses led, in the past, to some atrocious representation of mental health issues. As such, we’ve taken the decision to remove the concept of “derangements” entirely from our game. Roleplaying mental illness can be harmful for a variety of reasons, and the idea of encouraging anyone who wishes to play a Malkavian to do so leaves a vile taste in our mouths. Fractured perspectives as a concept opens up many avenues for healthy roleplay, and do not necessitate adopting or emulating real-world illness. Instead of a derangement, we intend to spend time with our players during character creation, to discuss a specific truth that their character has learnt about the world, and the way in which that manifests within their character as a weakness. We aren’t removing the idea of the “Cobweb” or “Network”from the clan, but as opposed to it being “hearing voices” or “seeing things” like it was often described in previous iterations, we intend to depict it more so along the lines of a collective conscious, by which the characters in play can interpret the world around them by tapping into. We hope that by doing so, we will ensure that the essence of the clan is maintained, but is played out in a more appropriate and sensitive manner.

Ravnos and Appropriation of GRT Communities

Previous editions depicted the Ravnos as a clan of vampires compelled by vices, made up of charlatans and tricksters, as well as thieves. Along with this, the lore and writing tied them inherently to the GRT (Gypsy, Roma and Traveller) communities. This inevitably led to a depiction of a community that already faces oppression and prejudices, as harmful and inherently untrustworthy. Not only did this serve to perpetuate disgusting rhetoric and stereotypes that foster harm and hate in the real world, but it served to silence the voices of members of the GRT community when it came to engaging with V:tM at tabletop games and LARP games. Whilst the V5 source material attempted to rectify this by altering the weakness of the Ravnos, and attempting to remove the connections to harmful representation, we still found it maintained similar problematic elements. After talking at length with people who belong to the GRT community, we have made the design decision to alter the clan weakness entirely, focusing instead on the nightmarish events of The Week of Nightmares (an in-universe event that affected the clan) and diverge entirely from the problematic codification of the clan. It goes without saying, but we do not want players who do not have the lived experience of belonging to the GRT community playing Ravnos characters that belong to the community at all. We believe that this story should fundamentally only be played, and told, by the people that have lived it. This isn’t to say that Ravnos as a clan are reserved for members of this group, but that players who wish to play a Ravnos should make a concerted effort to not play them in this manner, if they are not GRT themselves

Banu Haqim, Ministry and Cultural/Religious Representation

In previous iterations of V:tM, the representation of Non-Christian faiths left a lot to be desired. It would be an understatement to say that in the cases of the Banu Haqim and Ministry (previously followers of Set) the source material carried with it a large amount of harmful stereotypes. The difficulty in incorporating religions that have been historically demonised into a game centred on moral exploration, and inhumane characters, is that it becomes incredibly easy to misunderstand a complex faith in which we have no lived experience, and portray it in a problematic manner. In the case of the Banu Haqim, their clan were depicted as predominantly Muslim, and designed with a weakness that led their skin to grow continuously darker as they aged. Furthermore, they were depicted as having an insatiable hunger for the blood of other vampires. Not only did this easily play into themes surrounding islamophobia in game, but it also led to a harmful representation of Islam as a religion in play. In the case of the The Ministry, they were depicted as hedonists devoted to debauchery, revering the Egyptian deity Set. They often played the roles of tempting influences, corrupters, gamblers and so forth in-lore and in play, whilst also being depicted as being characters that originated in the middle-east, or Northern Africa. Again, it is easy to see how these themes, when applied to V:tM and being aligned to a specific group of cultural practices and ethnicities, could (and did) become problematic.

Whilst we could write for hours about how we believe there are ways in which we can depict the variety of real-world faiths in a sensitive manner in game, without falling into the pitfalls that have caused so many issues in the past, it serves that it is best to remain to the point here. In the case of the Banu Haqim in the setting, and our game, we have made the decision to use the variant weakness in V5 (as displayed in our clan description and character creation) and also enforce the notion that as a clan in the modern nights, whilst they may well have practitioners of Islam amongst their ranks, this is not a prerequisite in the slightest. In the case of the Ministry, we have made the design choice to enforce that as opposed to following one strict creed or faith, they are a multi-faith organisation devoted to rebellion and disruption, with no direct connection to North African cultural practices or ethno-religious practices. We do not want to discourage players from playing characters from these clans, but rather we implore you to do so in a sensitive manner. If you do not have the lived experience of belonging to a faith, or ethnicity, then we do not want you to play a Banu Haqim or member of The Ministry that belongs to one. We implore our players to be mindful of the ways in which these groups have been historically and systematically demonised in the western world-view, and should you choose to play a member of such, to make a concerted effort to avoid contributing to the history of problematic representation in the game.

Should you find yourself in a situation wherein you are made to feel uncomfortable, or another player is being problematic in the above highlighted capacites: please do come and find an ST, so that we can resolve the situation as soon as possible.