Tremere Academic Symposium

It’s funding season, and also tribunal season. Tonight, Clan Tremere gathers to decide who among them is most deserving of praise and promotion, and also who is most deserving of scorn and ridicule. Tremere Academic Symposium is a dark comedy parlor LARP for up to 32 players. The game is a mix of TED Talks (as players describe and present their magical theory), thesis defenses, and vampiric insanity.

Long Description

It’s funding season, and also tribunal season. Clan Tremere was born from wizards who wished to live forever. They kidnapped and consumed the most “peaceful” of the original Cainites to do so. They are among the most hated of the Vampire clans for a multitude of reasons, both earned and unearned (though mostly earned). Tonight they gather to decide who among them is most deserving of praise and promotion, and also who is most deserving of scorn and ridicule. Vampire: The Masquerade: Tremere Academic Symposium is a dark comedy parlor LARP for up to 32 players. Tremere Academic does not use any pre-existing Vampire: The Masquerade system. Instead, it uses an exceedingly light rules system for Kertamen (magical duels) and a very light bidding system. The game is a mix of TED talks (as players describe and present their magical theory), thesis defenses, and vampiric insanity.

The clan views itself as a house first and a clan of vampires second. For this reason, they function more akin to an institution of higher learning than they do a feudal society, or fucked up family, as many other clans do. The local lord (the highest-ranking Tremere on the East Coast) prefers to call all his subordinates together to take care of clan business only once or twice a year. This year's meeting has three purposes: first, for the Regents ( the highest-ranking vampires in attendance) to decide which projects are worth funding; second, to decide which subordinates are worthy of raising in rank; and third, to decide which subordinates have broken the laws of House Tremere and deserve punishment, censure, or death.

Of course, as with all things Vampiric (and Academic), the merit of one's research, their character, or their crimes often takes a backseat to the politics at hand. In the end, the regents will promote whom they wish to promote, fund whom they wish to fund and punish whom they wish to punish.

A note on the TED Talks: Most players will be expected to present to some degree. The Regents (the Selection committee) will ask the presenters ahead of time how hard they would like the committee to question them about their topic. Players will be given a large amount of freedom in their presentation, as they are the experts in the specific magical praxis they are presenting. There are a limited number of non-presenting roles available in the form of the Regents and one assistant gargoyle.

Knowledge of Vampire: The Masquerade is not necessary to enjoy the game. All pertinent lore and keywords will be sent out to players in advance. The total reading required for the game does not amount to more than 5 -7 pages.