This mod seems really neat but I’m not really familiar with the lore and setting, and feel a bit lost when picking a character and starting to play, and grasping the intricacies of each religion and the vampire powers. Do you have any tips to offer a noob vampire?
Maybe try out Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, an RPG, before playing this mod, then. It's set in the modern day, while this mod is set in the middle ages of course, but it's a good introduction to Vampire as a brand and setting nevertheless and probably the way most people first encountered it, other than the tabletop game of course.
Anyway, besides what karde posted above, I wrote you a (not so) brief overview of the major types of vampires, that might help:
Brujah: Warrior-philosophers and humanists, tend to align themselves with minorities and underdogs. They tried to build a utopia where vampires and humans lived side by side in ancient Carthage, but the Ventrue destroyed it.
Ventrue: The clan of leaders, aristocrats and kings. They are masters at mind control, basically embody the establishment and consider themselves the successors of ancient Rome. On a more positive note, they at least nominally believe in the principles of
noblesse oblige, being more businesslike and leaving the decadent aristocrat schtick to the Toreador.
Toreador: Artistic vampires, stereotypically tend to be beautiful, seductive and more humane than the rest. Classy and socially gifted, they are the type who dances at a royal ball, sips blood from a wine-glass and has everyone wrapped around their finger in no time.
Nosferatu: Vampires cursed with supernatural ugliness. Often discriminated against by the rest, think of them as leper-vampires, if you will. Because they normally can't pass for human, they have learned to stick to the shadows better than most and make for excellent spies and agents. They are also surprisingly communal and solidary to each other.
Malkavians: All Malkavians are afflicted by some kind of supernatural madness, though a few can be quite lucid. They are psychically linked to one another by the "Malkavian Madness Network" and have oracular powers. Popular with people who enjoy "wacky" playstyles, although they can also be played as realistic depictions of mental illness.
Tremere: Originally human mages from the Hermetic Order who turned themselves into vampires. To do so, they killed off most of the Salubri and many Tzimisce, which makes them very hated. They are extremely authoritarian but among the most dangerous clans as well. Note that Tremere magic is very much based on rules, alchemical principles, occult systems and so on, in D&D terms, they're wizards, not druids or witches or the like.
Gangrel: Beast-like vampires with shapeshifting abilities. They tend to be loners. In the middle ages, they are often associated with pagan cultures, such as the Norse, and I think also the Mongols, but don't quote me on that.
Tzimisce: Eastern European Dracula-like vampires. They have two main strands, Old Clan and New Clan. The Old Clan are pagan blood-sorcerors, similar to the Tremere. The New Clan are much more widespread and powerful and basically the "default" Tzimisce. Those don't have blood magic, but they can melt flesh and bone at will and rearrange it like clay. They like turning humans into flesh-golem slaves or furniture and such, and are considered among the most monstrous vampires.
Lasombra: Shadow-wielding, kingly-clerical vampires. They are associated with Iberia and the Catholic Church (Ventrue are more secular) in particular and are rivals to the Ventrue and Banu Haqim.
Cappadocians: The most death-like of vampires. Have a scholarly disposition and practice necromancy. They like to dwell in graveyards, crypts and the like, where they can study the science of death without disturbances. In the Renaissance, they would come to be devoured by the Giovanni, an Italian merchant family who inherited their schtick for the most part, but added a mafia motif.
Setites: Snake-themed vampire cultists who worship the ancient Egyptian deity Set, believing him to be the true founder of their clan. Highly educated and cunning, they are infamous for their mastery of corruption and vice.
Banu Haqim: Literally the Hashashin, but they're also vampires. They are known for killing other vampires and drinking their blood to strengthen themselves, but if you ask me, they're still one of the more moral clans overall because they tend to be very strict with each other and don't like killing mortals, it's just that they (probably rightly) think most other types of vampires are a blight on the world. They have a schism in the Dark Ages between those vampires who are muslims and those who worship the founder of their clan, Haqim.
Ravnos: Illusionists and tricksters from India. They're associated with the Roma and kinda all the stereotypes that implies.
Salubri: Angel/paladin/healer vampires. Probably the nicest of clans, to the point that they can't feed on unwilling victims and everyone else distrusted them for being too nice. The Tremere mostly killed them off to take their place and spread lies that they're actually demon worshippers, so there's few of them left. Their founder, Saulot, is said to have discovered "Golconda", basically the Nirvana of vampires where they no longer need to drink blood or hurt others.
Baali: The actual demon-worshipping vampires. Everyone else hates them enough to kill on sight and as far as I know, they just really like to spread evil.
East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa also have their own types of vampires, called the Kuei-Jin and the Laibon, respectively. The Laibon clans, if you ask me, are mostly a "remix" of the motifs of the aforementioned vampire types, for instance there are the Ishtarri, who are very similar to the Toreador. The Kuei-Jin, meanwhile, are very different from all other vampires and not related to them. They're more like spirits who have risen from the dead and instead of a clan system, the kind of vampire they become depends on what sort of life force they feed on.
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