I was thinking about your post about how Thursday by Night and the new D20 season are your only exposure to VtM and how that juxtaposes with the overall ttrpg community usually saying that VtM is one of the more serious systems. I remember when the trailer came out I was a little hesitant because it did seem pretty wacky, and having now seen the episode it definitely is that. And when I brought it up to my own group one member responded with "System does not dictate tone". Which we see a lot with D&D because of how varied games can be, I just had never really thought about it in regards to VtM especially because the books do try really hard to lean into the "personal horror" aspect. And your post just kinda solidified for me that this season of D20 while not doing anything really new is going to be very much going against the grain by simply being a lighthearted game. *sorry if this is an "ask that should have been its own post" I have thoughts but they also were kickstarted mainly by your post, and you often talk about AP as a medium and how to explore in it so it seemed up your alley.
Hey! It's definitely something where you might want to also make your own post to further explore your own thoughts - especially because I'm not an expert in VtM by any means - but it's a good ask, and I appreciate you sending it to me because I do have some of my own thoughts!
I think it's true that system doesn't dictate tone - it has some definite notes on tone, to be sure, but you can choose to play a very silly or a very serious D&D or VtM game. Now, some of my own feelings on VtM are colored by the fact that when you take yourself VERY VERY seriously when we are playing dice-mediated make believe, there is something in that I find funny. The name "Vampire: The Masquerade" is inherently silly to me already even if you are playing the most dark and serious version of said game. I was looking at VtM publications and one of their earlier adventures is in Gary, Indiana, and I started laughing because my personal association with that is the song "Gary, Indiana" from The Music Man and it's very funny to me to imagine a Camarilla in the turn-of-the-century midwest.
This is not bad, by the way. I said recently that Actual Play has similarities with opera because it does not on the whole strive for realism but rather intensity, and there is a ridiculousness in intensity. Sorry to keep bringing up Hamlet as an example but it is The Tragedy and I saw it recently and like, it is a tragedy, but there is something kind of really fucking funny about Hamlet stabbing Polonius who was hiding in the curtains. I think people who suck call earnestness cringe, because they are uncomfortable with it, but really, an earnest intensity is a lot and one of the reactions we have to it is humor.
Now D20 is just going straight comedy but it always has done that, and on some level that's also given it leeway to say some pretty intense things by dodging the discomfort. A Crown of Candy is like. It's Candyland Game of Thrones, which is very unserious, but it's probably also the most serious show D20 has done and I think part of what permits that is that they nerfed the uncomfortable Too Serious, Too Potentially Cringe/Earnest, Must Deflect instinct by having all this drama and tragedy happen but also the evil pope is a broccoli and they worship a refrigerator light. I think by saying "lmao look at the Purpee Oregon Camarilla of fuck ups" there is potential - no guarantee, but potential - to say some really dark and deep stuff because we're not self-consciously worrying about being A Serious Vampire Show.
tl;dr the line between goofy unseriousness and high drama doesn't exist and those concepts wrap around each other in many ways, I didn't even get to the concept of camp because I want to watch The Pitt followed by Critical Role and also should probably read more Sontag but like. Tone is a malleable thing, I guess is what I'm getting at.
