@icanbeyourmuse So when Vampire was first written in the early 90s, the game was primarily about the Camarilla (a large Vampire faction of many different Vampire clans that has a sort of Medieval lords vibe to it) and their conflict with the Sabbat (a smaller Vampire faction that also had several clans, but not as many, with a sort of Crusading church vibe to it), but layered with hundreds of years of history and bloody vampire horror.
This conflict was written as frequent, hostile, often intensely violent, and an intrinsic part of the game. Some variation of it has been baked into every version of Vampire since, whether it was in VtM 2.0, the anniversary editions, or as Invictus/Lancea Sanctum (with a few additional convenants just for funsies!) in what became the Chronicles of Darkness. It’s a big part of why - as much as I love both WoD/CoD Vampire as it’s written - I generally don’t think it’s a great fit for large online games unless staff actively wants to spend a decent bit of time telling stories around and adjudicating interfaction and interpersonal conflict. Most of the other splats will have some shared antagonist that they’re willing to at least temporarily set aside their petty differences to face, but in most versions of Vampire, the antagonists are… some other group of vampires. Could it do well in a smaller, controlled setting with a clearly outlined group of antagonists and and a narrative driving towards a particular endgame? Yeah, I think it could. But that would have to be baked in from the beginning and constantly reiterated, because otherwise you’re eventually going to get some random player(s) that decide their primary goal is to be Lord of All the Fangly Ones and being an ICly scheming, manipulative dickface to get there is part of the theme as written.
Note that I have had plenty of fun over the span of many years playing exactly this theme. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. But in comparison to a lot of the other World of Darkness lines I’ve run on various games over the years, I’d say that Vampire: the Requiem was 100% the one that caused the most amount of me sighing and going “…fucking really, guys?” at something that was OOC, in comparison to both versions of Mage and both versions of Changeling, which I’ve also staffed.