Blood & Bourbon Player Survey
If you're here, chances are you've read what Blood & Bourbon is about on its Obsidian Portal wiki and/or its reddit or Roll20 listing. You have a 500+ page wiki with oodles of information about the campaign world, its characters, its storylines, and the players and GM behind it all. You can get to know the game very well, if you choose to.

This survey is about the GM getting to know you. Its purpose is to help me understand what your personality, gaming tastes, and writing style are like, and whether those are compatible with the existing group's. For that reason, I don't ask prospective players to submit a PC concept: I'm more interested in whether our personalities mesh. If they do, coming up with a PC should be smooth sailing. If they don't, then at least you won't have written up a character you didn't get to play. (That's always a bummer!)

If I think you could be a compatible fit for the group from your responses, I'll invite you to join the game's Discord server and roleplay one or several minor NPCs in a scene with another PC. The character(s) will be temporary, stat-free, and may disappear or die horribly by the end of the scene, so relax and have fun with them. The point is for everyone to get a sense for what gaming together would be like.

If that scene goes well, and the other players and I think you'd be a good fit for the group, I'll invite you to join the game proper and we'll commence work on your PC.

If you have any questions about the game while you're filling out this survey, feel free to hit me up over Discord. My ID is False Epiphany#8386.
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Navigating the Wiki
B&B's wiki is huge! Where should I start reading?
You're right, the wiki is huge! The layout can be confusing to new players. I recommend reading the Player FAQ first, and then reading the pages off the Main Page in the following order:

1. Theme and Mood. This will tell you about, as the name implies, the game's themes and moods.

2. History. This will tell you about how things came to be the way they are and provides the context for the city's present conflicts. Vampires are immortal creatures and New Orleans is an old city: history informs the actions of many characters.

3. Political Primer gives you a rundown of the setting's political factions and their present-night conflicts with one another, as well as what vampires hold what titled positions in the city.

4. Laws and Customs tell you about the city's Kindred culture, including local variations on the Traditions and how the prince handles crime and punishment.  

5. The Character Portal is perhaps the wiki's most important page, as it contains information about the game's mortal and vampire NPCs. Blood & Bourbon is a heavily character-driven game. Players use the Character Portal as their primary resource when developing sires and other NPC connections with the GM.

X. The Adventure Logs are readable before or after any of the above pages, so they get listed as Step X. Since B&B is a text-based game, these are full transcripts of the game sessions that read more like a book series than a summary of past sessions. They're probably my favorite part of the Obsidian Portal wiki: everything else is ultimately supplementary material to playing the game, and the logs are the game as it's been played.

Beyond that, the wiki has a bunch of other pages you can explore in more or less any order. They're all linked to on the Main Page.
Player Questions
How old are you? *
The other players and I are 31, 32, 32, and 33. Players closer to 30 than 20 will be a better fit for the group, although we ultimately care less about your age and more about your maturity.

We aren't willing to game with minors, as Blood & Bourbon includes some pretty adult content. If you're under 18, I'll ask that you stop here.
Are you on board with the game's reading commitment? *
To repost that:

Blood & Bourbon is a 7-year-old game. Most of its storylines revolve around character relationships and the ongoing political machinations of those characters. In many ways, the game is like a book series the players and GM are writing together: since "writers" benefit from familiarity with previous material, new players are asked to familiarize themselves with the game's existing characters and storylines through reading the OP wiki.

I do not expect prospective players to read all of its 500+ pages! That is an unreasonable time commitment to ask of people who aren't committed players. Read as little or as much as you like right now. Once we begin creating your PC in earnest, you'll be asked to read most of the setting info pages and to start reading the adventure logs of the PCs currently in play. This is to aid with understanding of the setting and NPC relationships, illustrate pattern of play, and to help you come up with a PC whose social ties and narrative arc doesn't overlap with existing PCs.

Blood & Bourbon asks new players to do a lot of reading. In turn, the GM puts a lot of effort into integrating new PCs into the setting, and to delivering a high-effort game in general. Players and I collaborate to give their PCs allies, loved ones, rivals, superiors, minions: everything they need to be central to the game's storyline once play begins. While you will not immediately be as emotionally invested in your character as the players of the years-old PCs, my goal is to give us tools so that can happen as quickly as possible.

B&B is a terrible game for someone looking for a casual experience or who doesn't like doing a lot of background reading. This is a point I seek to be very clear on. You should give this game a pass if reading through a big wiki seems like a chore!
What is your Discord ID? Please include the hashtag number. *
Also be sure that strangers can send friend requests to you!
What's your name?
 *
So the other players and I know what to call you. I'm Calder (pronounced "Call-der") and the regular players are Aly (Allison), Emily, and Pete. We also have an irregular player, Sam, who's sometimes around during summers.
Tell me about yourself and your background in RPGs.
 *
How did you get into this hobby? What systems have you played/GM'd and for how long? How much experience do you have with Vampire: The Masquerade/World of Darkness?

This is useful for me to know because I've found new players do best playing PCs who are new vampires: that way, the PC's knowledge of the setting mirrors the player's knowledge.

Prior VtM/WoD experience isn't required to play with us. I'd rather play with a newbie who's passionately into the game than a multi-decade veteran who's only passingly interested. Enthusiastic players are the ones who stick around for the long haul.
What do you love most, and least, about gaming?
 *
No right or wrong answers, short of something like, "I love disrupting games and ruining other people's fun, and I don't like it when they kick me out." I'm mainly seeking to get a sense of makes this hobby rewarding for you, what stops it from being rewarding for you, and why you ultimately choose to play.
What do you want to get out of Blood & Bourbon? *
What interests you about the chronicle? There are lots of games out there which ask less of prospective players. What makes you want to want to play in B&B specifically? What kind of experience do you hope to have with us?
Tell me about something cool you're into outside of RPGs.
 *
What makes this thing awesome? Tell me all about it. Share your passion for it.
Have you read from any of the sourcebooks B&B uses? *
Check all that apply. If you have, you can still play with us! I've changed tons of material from the sourcebooks and added tons of material that's not in the sourcebooks. None of B&B's "deepest secrets" can be found in their pages and are unique to our chronicle. I mainly want to know what specific material, if any, I need to rework for you to avoid spoilers. (So if you haven't read any of these sourcebooks before, please don't start now!)
Required
*
Rough concept. What shtick? What clans? What covenant? Note that Toreador, Ventrue, are unavavilable to new players.

In the past, I have asked. I am no longer doing so, as it sucks to come up with.
What splat, tier, and morality are you interested in playing?
 *
Optional: Have any writing samples you want to share?
Can be for a game, can be for anything else. This question is optional because I'll see your writing anyway during the scene we roleplay together.
Anything else?
Have anything else you'd like to tell me? If so, this is the space for it.

This question is also optional. The survey's already long enough!
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