Emperor of All Mexico

Several years back, I was the Head Storyteller of a long-running vampire/historical LARP in Albuquerque NM. The game was set in the late 1800's eventually skipping to the early 1900's. Every 3 or 4 months, when a story arc would wrap up, we'd move the game ahead 10 to 20 years. We ran story arcs: 1)just after NEW Mexico had been seized from OLD Mexico, 2)during the civil war, 3)Lincoln County "war" with Billy the Kid, 4)turn-of-the-century hysteria, and 5)just prior to the start of WWI.

Sessions alternated: every-other-session was Elysium, with the in-between sessions being built of various scenes derived from player's actions.

In addition, we started every session with "Story Time", short vignettes to illustrate plot points that might have otherwise occurred off-camera. Major NPC comes to town - herald the arrival in Story Time. Important character died where only a couple players were witness - restage it in Story Time. More craziness unleashed at the evil haunted clock tower - Story Time it is. We also let players run Story Time segments, which was a delight but also a double-edged sword.

The game was a lot of fun, and way too much work. So much work, in fact, that I have a file on my computer full of ideas for things I'd do differently should I decide to start a LARP again. The name of that file is "If I Am Ever Stupid Again". It was like a second job that only paid in Clanbooks.

One of the hallmarks of the game was that we were always throwing curveballs and willing to take the story anywhere. We intentionally transformed nearly all the secrets of the Vampire: The Masquerade setting. That way the players would never be tempted to use out-of-character info gleaned from reading every WoD book ever published.
The Salubri were the badguys, Tremere had hunted them down to stop their apocalyptic magic. The Giovanni were possessed pawns of their ghostly masters. The Camarilla and Sabbat did not exist - there was a Guild that brokered passage between city-states, but a Prince was truly King of his city. We used old-school pre-Viccissitude Tzimisce. European Werewolves were Mad Scientists and Rail Barons, laying down track to steal the Chi of the new world. Native American were-coyotes were pretty prevelant, and at war with the European weres.

The players kept disregarding the masquerade, especially around the haunted clock tower in town square. One session, after a particularly bad breach of the masquerade (involving vampires, werewolves, ghosts, a kholdunic elemental, and a machinegun), the people who actually tried to solve the problem didn't coordinate and used such conflicting methods that they just made things worse. What to do?

We didn't just send hunters after them. We'd done that before, it would have been stale.

There was no Camarilla, so there was no one to enforce the Masquerade, either. The Guild could cut all Vampiric transit to the city, but that limits the concepts available for new PCs. And it's just not as scary as Anathema and Bloodhunt, or being judged by your superiors. We needed something new, and every bit as scary as the Camarilla "breathing" down your necks. But I also wanted it to empower the PCs as much as it punished them.

Instead I interrupted their next Elysium with a pre-recorded "radio" broadcast from the Prince of Mexico City.
He said "In light of the newspapers coming from Albuquerque, there's no use pretending Vampires don't exist anymore. Therefore, I am declaring myself Emperor over all of Mexico. By the power of my blood I have raised a shroud over Mexico City. The sun will never rise on my beloved home again. People of Mexico fear not, I will protect you from the mad monsters of Albuquerque."

The one player whose character was the Ambassador from Mexico City had a very rough night.