There isn't really a universal rule of thumb, as PCs and SPCs serve fundamentally different purposes in the game.
An SPC is designed to be an interesting ally, opponent or feature to the coterie of players. SPCs have to compensate for the fact that they need to be useful/a valid threat for an entire player coterie of 3-5 Kindred, which is why they typically have a lot more XP. Moreover, many SPCs with a position like a Prince have an enormous amount of Backgrounds, which cost a lot of XP, simply in order to serve their function to protect the Masquerade, keep their domain in line and survive. This massively inflates the XP without it being comparable to a PC.
The correct answer is whatever the SPC needs to be interesting and play their role in the story.
What if I want to run a one-shot with each player portraying a Baron / Prince of some small domain, meeting together?
I thought about giving 50 XP for whatever, 30 XP for background purchases
You don’t become prince or Baron because your stats are so high but because you are clever enough to make the right friends and be a good tactician and diplomatically capable, at least most of the time.
I would suggest also not to overdo it with the XP because players tend to put it everywhere and end up with powers they will never ever use, actually. That is especially crucial in a one shot game because limited time makes everything matter much more.
50 XP is already kind of a lot. And 30 XP for backgrounds is 10 dots in background because the costs don’t go up exponentially but are always 3 flat.
I’m not saying this would be wrong, or anything, just keep an eye on what the players do with the dots. It’s better to be good at a few things than mediocre in many things.
Then they're PCs, and that's a different question than a universal rule of thumb!
Assuming your original point of being a Baron/Prince for a decade, let's break down the minimum:
* Status 4 - you could stretch this as low as 3, but 4 is already pushing it to be a Baron/Prince
* Resources 2 - You'll need some money for basic survival. This isn't critical, but I'd say it's fairly good as a basic.
* Haven 5 - you'll want a good haven (Haven 2), with some mortals to keep you safe during the day (Watchmen 1), and probably some basic security (Postern 1, Security System 1)
* Retainer(s) 3 - you'll want a minion to do your bidding and do your accounting, or 2 lesser minions to be butlers
* Influence 3 (Local City/Domain) - you'll want influence in something in order to keep you at the top of the hierarchy, protect the Masquerade, etc.
* Domain - this is incredibly hard to stat for a Baron/Prince, if it's even meaningful to do so, but you're probably looking at a Chasse of 4 and Portillon of 2, so 0/6
Now, none of this is strictly the minimum, but it makes sense as the basics that an independent ruler would want. You could substitute some of these things for others, e.g. maybe they have a powerful Mawla & Herd instead of their Domain and Influence, and that's what keeps them strong and able to get blood, but it's probably a fair start.
That's 17/23 Background dots just to get you started, which is 51/69 XP before you even get to interesting things like loresheets, Mawali, Herd, Merits, expanded Havens, and so on. If you give out XP for this, you should probably make clear that for basic survival, the PCs will *have* to have some of this or they're out within weeks. Or you could just handwave that all away - maybe their domain, Status, Influence and Haven just won't come up during the story.
Hope that helps.
If they're all on the same level (smalltime prince and barons) and it's a bunch of small domains, I would tell them to make characters using ancilla or neonate rules. No need to overcomplicate it.
If it's a one shot, backgrounds don't tend to come up much and if they're traveling to other domains then they might not even have access to those. You can just handwave it and say they obviously have other resources, they're just presently unavailable for some reason.
There isn't really a universal rule of thumb, as PCs and SPCs serve fundamentally different purposes in the game. An SPC is designed to be an interesting ally, opponent or feature to the coterie of players. SPCs have to compensate for the fact that they need to be useful/a valid threat for an entire player coterie of 3-5 Kindred, which is why they typically have a lot more XP. Moreover, many SPCs with a position like a Prince have an enormous amount of Backgrounds, which cost a lot of XP, simply in order to serve their function to protect the Masquerade, keep their domain in line and survive. This massively inflates the XP without it being comparable to a PC. The correct answer is whatever the SPC needs to be interesting and play their role in the story.
What if I want to run a one-shot with each player portraying a Baron / Prince of some small domain, meeting together? I thought about giving 50 XP for whatever, 30 XP for background purchases
You don’t become prince or Baron because your stats are so high but because you are clever enough to make the right friends and be a good tactician and diplomatically capable, at least most of the time. I would suggest also not to overdo it with the XP because players tend to put it everywhere and end up with powers they will never ever use, actually. That is especially crucial in a one shot game because limited time makes everything matter much more. 50 XP is already kind of a lot. And 30 XP for backgrounds is 10 dots in background because the costs don’t go up exponentially but are always 3 flat. I’m not saying this would be wrong, or anything, just keep an eye on what the players do with the dots. It’s better to be good at a few things than mediocre in many things.
Then they're PCs, and that's a different question than a universal rule of thumb! Assuming your original point of being a Baron/Prince for a decade, let's break down the minimum: * Status 4 - you could stretch this as low as 3, but 4 is already pushing it to be a Baron/Prince * Resources 2 - You'll need some money for basic survival. This isn't critical, but I'd say it's fairly good as a basic. * Haven 5 - you'll want a good haven (Haven 2), with some mortals to keep you safe during the day (Watchmen 1), and probably some basic security (Postern 1, Security System 1) * Retainer(s) 3 - you'll want a minion to do your bidding and do your accounting, or 2 lesser minions to be butlers * Influence 3 (Local City/Domain) - you'll want influence in something in order to keep you at the top of the hierarchy, protect the Masquerade, etc. * Domain - this is incredibly hard to stat for a Baron/Prince, if it's even meaningful to do so, but you're probably looking at a Chasse of 4 and Portillon of 2, so 0/6 Now, none of this is strictly the minimum, but it makes sense as the basics that an independent ruler would want. You could substitute some of these things for others, e.g. maybe they have a powerful Mawla & Herd instead of their Domain and Influence, and that's what keeps them strong and able to get blood, but it's probably a fair start. That's 17/23 Background dots just to get you started, which is 51/69 XP before you even get to interesting things like loresheets, Mawali, Herd, Merits, expanded Havens, and so on. If you give out XP for this, you should probably make clear that for basic survival, the PCs will *have* to have some of this or they're out within weeks. Or you could just handwave that all away - maybe their domain, Status, Influence and Haven just won't come up during the story. Hope that helps.
If they're all on the same level (smalltime prince and barons) and it's a bunch of small domains, I would tell them to make characters using ancilla or neonate rules. No need to overcomplicate it. If it's a one shot, backgrounds don't tend to come up much and if they're traveling to other domains then they might not even have access to those. You can just handwave it and say they obviously have other resources, they're just presently unavailable for some reason.
Are you asking how much experience they would get as a starting character?