What is a Coterie?

A "Coterie", for which this game is named, is a small group of vampires (and/or compatibly similar creatures) who share a Haven, pool their resources, and try not to tear each other to shreds long enough to survive another night. That's the short version. The longer version involves trust, betrayal, Debt, territorial negotiation, and the tragic truth that, these nights, en esta economía, even apex predators need roommates.

Nobody hunts alone forever. Solo vamps get picked off by hunters, muscled out by rivals, or simply lose their minds from centuries of isolation (and an unfathomable distrust of therapy). Coteries form because the alternative is worse and usually lethal. Some are genuine partnerships built on mutual respect, while others are arrangements of convenience held together by shared enemies or a landlord who doesn't ask about the blood fridge. Most are somewhere in between, shifting from one to the other depending on the night.

Your Coterie is the unit of play in this game. Individual character stories happen within that frame. Even if your vampire is an edgy brooding loner who trusts nobody and has a mysterious past, the game assumes you're part of a group, and that group has its own stats, its own Moves, its own reputation, and its own problems. The Coterie is a character in its own right; one that every player at the table shares responsibility for. If your character isn't willing to participate in Coterie life, make a new one that is.

Creating your Coterie is a group activity. You'll typically build it alongside your individual characters during Session Zero, bouncing between the two as decisions inform each other. Sit down together, talk it through, argue about it (nicely, of course), and make something that belongs to all of you. The next section will walk you through it step by step! Let's do this!