I will constantly refer to the campaign world as a 'living world.' I want to define what exactly that means so you as players know what to expect. 

 

There are different kinds of styles that a game master can adopt, and different styles are suitable for different campaigns, or for the particular styles of the game master. In particular, there is a distinct difference between a stagnant world and a living world environment. 

 

In a Stagnant World Environment, the only things that change are the things that the players do in the environment. You see this a lot in Dungeons and Dragons, as players go on quests and the rest of the world is just there. Kingdoms don't vanish or go to war with one another unless it directly affects the players' characters and is part of the major storyline that the storyteller has created. 

 

In this game, if I had chosen a stagnant world environment, then when the players perform a quest, after that, they would just find another quest on the list and do that and there would be no problem as the list would always stay the same, with items on it being available until the players actually do them. 

 

This is not going to be the case. 

 

This is a Living World Environment. There are a lot of NPC competitors in the Contest of Will. The campaign starts with 5, there may be more later! In addition, there are tons of Kindred, Mortals, and Others who have their own agendas. There is a campaign being waged in the city of Chicago between many Kindred who want to become the new Prince there. There are rogue elements such as the Anarch Movement and The Sabbat who have specific agendas. There are mortals who are either oblivious to the fact that there are supernatural creatures but can affect the environment anyway - such as the mayor of Chicago, and there are mortals who do know about the supernatural creatures and are either for or against them. In addition there are other creatures such as werewolves, mages, and who knows what else in the area, and they all have their own agendas as well. 

 

Whenever you, as a player, make a move of any kind through your strategy and roleplay emails, that is what your character is doing on that particular evening, or evenings, if the action takes more than one night to accomplish. That will be determined on an individual basis for every action. The NPC's are also making moves on a nightly and sometimes daily basis. You will see a lot of that play out here on the site in the written story which features both your characters and the NPCs in action. But there is a lot of stuff happening behind the scenes that you have no access to seeing. And sometimes stuff will just happen as a result. 

 

When you decide what adventure to undertake, you are also making the decision what adventures you are not currently undertaking. If a quest lingers for too long, an NPC competitor will attempt to do it and it will close, perhaps opening new choices. NPC's will ask for help, but if they don't get it soon from you and the task is pressing to him or her, they will take their business elsewhere, and your opportunity to get them under Prestation and make a quality contact will be lost. 

 

When you have an opportunity on the Contest of Will task list to choose a particular NPC in Gary or Chicago for a prestation or invitation mission, as just two examples of many of these kinds of opportunities, when the PC's vote and choose which NPC they want to approach, the other options will all close, and will likely be acted on by NPC competitors instead. This is how a living world works. You are forced to constantly make choices. And when you choose, new doors open, but also, existing doors close, at least to your character. 

 

What is exciting about a living world environment is that the story IS always moving forward. Characters will take actions that either score positive or negative results for them and also, sometimes, for you. And the story chapters progress as time progresses, so events will trigger and the game environment will likely expand to allow you new and exciting choices.  

 

You will need to stay aware of everything that is happening. Check in on the website as often as you can to read the exciting new chapters of the story that are written, and also to see how you fare with your own plans.