Hi all! I was wondering if people had any advice for an eager group ready to jump into the world.

I am a long time DnD dungeon master and have experience being a game master in other TTRPG games as well. The latest I've wanted to sink my teeth into is Vampires, and I recently bought the 5th edition core book to get started. My group is usually down to try whatever TTRPG I throw at them and have been very open to learning new systems. When I mentioned this a couple had even played the video games and were excited to give this a try.

My issue is that reading through the corebook, this world seems like... a lot. Character creation seems incredibly in depth and complicated and there feels like a lot of lore you have to absorb, even as a player, if you don't want to be lost. I worry that I may tell the story in the wrong way or get mixed up on lore and possibly confuse people. Hell, gameplay in general still seems not exactly spelled out to me.

I know they're open to diving into whatever I throw at them, but I worry they're having second thoughts from simply being overwhelmed.

Is this the type of game you can just pick up and play without much research? What is some advice for reassuring my players that this system will work once things are generally understood? Is there a lot of wiggle room for made up storylines despite the multitude of lore? What are some things that may have given you pause at first, but you've learned not to sweat?

I want this to be a fun experience for my players as I'm excited to have a game we can truly dive into deep character with and have a focus on cooperative storytelling. Too often I worry I railroad my players, so with the sheer amount of roleplay involved in this game, I felt it would help get everyone involved more with big decisions and actions. Do I have the right impression?

I'll appreciate anything you guys can offer. This game is still so relatively unknown to me, but I adore what it seems to offer even at face value.