From: [c--l--j] at [helium.Gas.UUG.Arizona.EDU] (Jason D Corley )
Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf
Subject: Jason's Stupid LARP Tricks for playing: Brujah
Date: 8 Jun 1994 03:15:11 GMT



WARNING: Many of these techniques require practice.  But as Live-
	 Action is one of the last refuges of amateur actors who
	 never had the guts to try to keep going professionally,
	 I don't think it'll be a problem for you.  For the rest
	 of you...well...just trust me.  These things will work
	 a lot better if you practice them in advance.

1.  Shaking with rage.
	There is an art to shaking with rage.  If you do it
right, people will get a very strong impression.  If you do
it wrong, it looks like an epileptic fit, and you set off
the Malkavians.  The trick to getting very angry is to do
an internal rant.  Rant viciously at a person or a situation
in your mind, but do _not_ say anything.  It's hard, after
a while, and after a longer while, you'll be one pissed-off
guy.
	A simple trick is to, wherever your hand happens to
be, clench your fist hard.  Harder.  Hold it as long as you
can.  A really disturbing trick is to palm a blood pill before
you do this and let it drip out.  (Be aware of where you are
standing!  You don't want to have to help clean a carpet
afterwards.)

2.  Shouting.
	Anyone can scream.  Anyone can yell.  Anyone can shriek,
but the Malkavians do it best, so don't bother.  But there is
nothing more frightening to people who know what it means than
a Brujah in the midst of a shouting fit.
	Shouting effectively means choosing when to shout and
which words to emphasize.  Suffice to say that shouting all the
time will not endear you to anyone, and eventually people will
stop listening to you.  However, there are some times when it
is unavoidable.  You have the right to be loud---so be loud,
already!  If someone deserves it, yell your head off at them.
Don't hold back for fear of offending them or embarassing them.
So what?  What are they going to do?

2.  The rant.
	The Brujah are the acknowledged masters of the rant.
The Malkavians do it just as much, and probably just as well,
but the Brujah have the advantage (?) of having the option
of making sense.  Nobody else even comes close.
	Rants are things which are crafted.  It's hard to
start writing rants.  (But once you start, it's hard to stop.)
Ranting involves keeping your thoughts on a single subject,
and skewering that subject from as many angles as possible,
with as many different points as possible regarding that subject.
	You can rant to humiliate: list the bad traits and
idiotic actions of a person.  You can rant to persuade: make
fun of an action or an idea.  Point out all its subtle and
not-so-subtle flaws in a very loud voice.  You can rant to
inform: describe an event or an idea in a way that will stick
in your audience's minds.  You can rant just for fun: Go wild.


4.  Individuality.
	_Don't_ let people label you.  Don't even let people label
you as a Brujah.  If people ask you what clan you're from, say
"What difference does it make?" or "Who cares?  I didn't ask you."
or something more polite, if you want.  Let them figure it out
for themselves.
	The flip side of this is not labeling other people.  You
need to decide whether your character is as generous with other's
individuality as they are with themselves.  Do you react to people
as individuals, or are you stuck with the "Tremere patsy""Ventrue
idiot""Malkavian loon" sterotypes?

--
*******************************************************************************
"Television is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to
 listen to the same joke at the same time, and yet remain lonesome."--T.S.Eliot
Jason D. "[c--l--j] at [gas.uug.arizona.edu]" Corley wanders the streets a free man.