Sorry to break up the argument here.
Two settings have been discussed between I and my collaborator(s). They are as follows:
Wolves at the Gates
1359. It has been two hundred years since the Duke of Saxony took Lubeck from the Count of Schauenberg and Holstein. The cities along the Baltic have flourished under intrepid merchant trade and loose regulations. The success of the burgeoning Hanseatic League has not gone unnoticed, however, and barbarians from the East and Catholics from the South. Meanwhile, the League has turned its eyes to Denmark after the Kingdom attempted to cut trade through the Skaggerak. Kindred fangs are sunk deep into the chapterhouses and guilds, however, and monsters pull the strings of puppet-princes in this high-time of intrigue.
The Siege
The Strix are here. Archbishop Aloysius Gonzaga has sealed off the borders to and from Spokane: no communication, no travel, nothing. All Kindred must present themselves to his Scourges every week to be examined; every Kindred that fails to do so is burned in public at the stake. All Kindred that attempt to break the siege -- either by departure and causing others to arrive -- are burned at the stake. But some say it's not the Strix at all that threaten the gates, but a more insidious enemy from a place called 'The Land of Worms', who have come to avenge the white man's seizing of their lands. Nothing is safe and nothing is secure, even though the Archbishop's Scourges patrol the valley every evening -- not when the Archbishop is said to be insane.
As for the argument at hand, my thoughts: WoD is an easy system to understand, but it has so many exceptions and powers that a novice can get very lost very quickly. I don't mind helping people build their PCs, as I know the system and exploits fairly well. On a vampire game, it is not unthematic for a player's PC to learn as he or she goes; however, he or she cannot, and should not, expect complete safety as they do so.
