One of the great joys of running a Vampire chronicle for people who have never played Vampire before is tossing them into a stew of contradictory conspiracies. Vampires love to present themselves as erudite and sophisticated, but they have very little evidence about their own supernatural world.
So far my group has heard...
* Three different creation myths about vampires
* Two different theoretical ways out of the curse
* About the existence of bloodlines, but not specifics
* About the existence of the Sabbat, with some (useless) history
* About werewolves and ghosts
They also heard about wizards ("they died out in the Middle Ages") shortly before meeting a mage, and about unaligned clans ("mostly weirdos who have very limited power") before running afoul of a Follower of Set/Ministry vampire.
They met a vampire who can survive sunlight at dawn
They met a mortal who can just see through Obfuscate. No idea why
They ran away from mortal hunters wearing FBI jackets, who were obviously not real agents
They have failed several gambits to get blood, and are coming to grips with the fact that they will have to do some questionable things
They discovered that animal blood is not very satisfying, then met a Kindred who feeds on animals exclusively
They heard that the Prince is Malkavian, then met her and the coterie's Malkavian immediately clocked that she is not
The Malkavian learned to aura read and has no idea how to interpret it
Everyone seems to be having a great time. It's a World of Darkness where there is lore, there is history, there are societies, but a rule is only a rule until it's broken. Supernatural things work the way they do because of magic, and symbols, and metaphors, not because of science.
Soon they'll get introduced to Gehenna, the End Times, Gehenna cults, and the mythology of the turning of the age. Probably hand-in-hand with crossing paths with actual Sabbat, an Anarch Revolt in their city, and thin-bloods looking for a place to survive.
The huge, sprawling metaplot of the World of Darkness causes some players to pursue setting mastery, to have full fundamental knowledge of the "truth" of the world, so I've made it pretty clear through events that "truth" is highly subjective and context-driven.
Everyone's got goals and agendas, but at the end of the night, it really comes down to, what will you do to survive? How are you going to make it happen? Where are you going to get blood? And who's going to pay the price for your sins?
