So let me just preface this, that this post is slightly tongue-in-cheek. Interactive fiction games is all about telling a story, imagining the choices you make and words on the screen to tell a compelling story. Replaying the story to get new perspectives on the characters and situations, the point isn’t really “winning”. Also, let me preface this, that this post is heavy on the spoilers, so if you haven’t played the game much, go play it and stop reading :). It also the sort of you thing you’d probably only do after a few playthroughs as we are metagaming devilishly here, based on knowledge of what is gonna happen :).
With that out of the way, let me just share my “badass” vampire. Of course everyone’s definition of badass is gonna be diferent, so my version is of a vampire with a relatively decent standing in society, not a total anachronistic monster, charming and self-reliant, that is can hold her own in a fight. So notably, as it stands right now, one of the big moments in the story is the West fight, so we’re gonna make a vampire that will defeat him by preparation and fighting prowess without needing to be saved by Carlos or Memeskia.
This playthrough only works in the open beta version as it has a fix regarding silver weapons and the fight against West.
These are my ending stats:
Agility 3
Charm 4
Intelligence 2
Strength 3
Willpower 2
Creation 0
Fighting 4
Finance 0
Lore 2
Perception 2
Stealth 1
Status 2
Streetwise 1
Technology 0
Anne Waters, nee, Lisa Callander.
So a rough guide here things for this playthrough:
Chargen:
Pick the Padre Carlos as your dominus, choose the German background from the “needed for your talents” list. Pick learning English and being charming from your background. I’ll admit I did some restart scumming so the random bump to my stats gave me +1 intelligence, but anything really works, except, try to avoid having +1 Creation as you might have to show your middling pianoforte skills to Overstreet later which will embarass you.
New Orleans Chapter:
The important pick here, is in the first skill development, pick learning to defend yourself to get +1 Fighting and then later on involve yourself with the Turnverein to get +1 Agility. I think pretty much everything else you can play it as it suits you, but I like, trying to feed on Andrew Jackson (which lets you know about stakes later on), being nice to Jesse (so providing him accommodation in your home) and Estefania (lie and tell her you like feeding from wealthy people) but choosing to build rapport with Father Carlos so you can ask him about Andrew Jackson, Stakes and territories. Suggest yourself as Senator to Overstreet. Your status is just 1 at this point but she’ll like the sheer audacity. When Estefania gives you the calling card for Hébert, discard it.
In Vicksburg, here pick either learning perception (perception 2 seems to be the minimum to be able to figure out who is a vampire or not… important if you wanna be a Tribune later on). In here I think you generally can play however you want, except don’t get exiled from Vickburg, let your valet go so later on you can ask Withers to train you to hypnotize people with your gaze, gaining +1 Charm. I like introducing Calkins, letting him blow up the powder repository, not revealing he did it to Withers, then arguing for mercy from Withers. I also like approaching the confederate soldier and asking him about the harmonica, just so we can wittle a bit of our anachronism down.
In Memphis, pick Fighting at the start, play however you want, but you have to do two things. Romance Clotho because the romance is nice but from a munchkin perspective she’ll teach you to read and write, keep good relations with Carothers and offer to acquire vessels in exchange for a debt. Try to keep callousness down by picking options, because IIRC, Clotho romance will not trigger if your callousness is too high (badasses will know how to read… they just might not be the intellectual type 
). In here I like siding with the revolutionaries, chatting up Bailey, Ashmore, Chiara. There’s not much here you can do, unfortunately because you while you’ll figure out Partridge is stalling you won’t have the stats to confront him. What you want to avoid is pissing of Carothers too much, because you want to cash the debt from him at the end to gain +1 Strength. I also like gathering vessels (be mindful of your callousness stat, you don’t want it too low or you’ll fail that task), organizing the 2nd reception with Clotho and being nice to Dido (why wouldn’t you…). At the first opportunity try to find Wilson as that nets you +1 Streetwise. Deal with Wilson, at this point you can even either hypnotize him or just subdue him. I like staking him and sending him to Withers.
On to St. Louis, again here pick Fighting at the skill start. We’ll have 4 fighting, 3 Str, 3 Agility, which nets you a combat potential of 12, which is not bad for a vampire less than one century old. You can also turn on the Charm with 4 Charm, etc. At this point, while you’re not the richest vampire possible, you won’t have financial difficulties.
In here you can play however you want, but you’ll want to be involved with either the Turnverein or criminals as we need to summon mortals with torches. Our status of 1 probably looks bad at this point, so we’re gonna look to become Tribune like Siobhan Malloy was. If you know about territories and have a decent rapport with Bailey, you should be able to settle in the Kerry Patch which has decent bloodflow and won’t incur you in a debt with Bailey or Aichinger. At this point just keep in mind that you should try to pick discrete options and treat your valet nicely. Also don’t try to romance Hiram or Sabine, you can be nice to them but you’ll want them to hook up, so that Becard comes along for the West fight when you are Tribune. One other thing you absolutely need also to do is write to your Dominus, now Praetor Carlos about West, so he’ll give you the information about silver.
In the baseball option, you can get a debt from Aichinger by getting the turnverein to go back to traditional pasttimes. In the Tribune election, ask Eliot (if Eliot is seeing Becard, you can comment on it with Eliot, but don’t mention it to Sabine) and then Bailey (avoid any hot topics with Bailey at this point like the Memphis caucus). Get elected Tribune. Sweet, now we have +1 status, for a status of 2. While we’re small potatoes still, we’re climbing that ladder.
At some point you’ll get the letter back from Carlos informing you about Silver. Pick rifle as your weapon (not sure if it matters, but it’s clearer to me that you commission bullets that you also give to Hiram latter on). Now let’s do our job. Find the Vampire of Cincinnati , observe him, now you can either drag him to Memeskia to get him memory wiped by Bailey or leave him be. But if you leave him be, make sure to talk to Sabine next to tell her the Vampire of Cincinnati is just a mortal. Next, I’d love to drag Gould’s stake carcass to Memeskia but I think that is currently not possible even in the open beta. Go see about West next.
Endgame stretch, in the next part, remember to summon some mortals. So if everything is set up correctly, Hiram and you will be shooting silver bullets which will hurt West, Sabine will be there giving a lot of help with her fighting prowess and your mortal assistants be harrying West. When the battle is joined, he’ll be wounded enough that you’ll be able to kill him yourself. To the slow clap of Padre Carlos grudgingly asking you why they bothered to summon him as you handled it yourself.
Unfortunately there’s not much you can do about Memeskia here. Just leave him to his madness.
I also made a variation of this playthrough, with more or less the same ideas, but instead you pick the Irish background (which for Padre Carlos, will have to be the “for his lust for you” option), which plays more or less the same, except you’ll have one less point of agility (so not as a badass fighter ) , but your ending status will be higher at +3. With this version, while you may be more strapped for cash for half the game (because it was an embrace of affection), your status will be enough, that you’ll actually be able to uncover Harding’s plot to ruin the Memphis caucus (just make sure to do a couple of rounds of “I don’t want to write to anyone this month” to get the Independence stat up) and thus gain a debt from Bailey (if you write to him about Partidge’s behavior). I don’t remember the exact sequence of stats I picked at chargen and between chapters, but I think the difference is I had just 2 agility but 3 intelligence at the end (and status 3) and less cash and income. With that one I was actually also able to talk down Memeskia at the end (if you ask his opinion on the skyscraper and ask him to take you to the City of Mounds). 3 Status, successful Tribune that defeated West (you can actually still pull it off with 3 Str, 2 Agility and 4 Fighting because having a weapon gives you a bonus to combat), a debt from Bailey, talking down the Quaestor so he meets the sun instead of sacrificing mortals… not a bad resume for a relatively new vampire :).
Setting out to Chicago (one day when it’s available), I believe this would be a nice setup for whatever awaits us. Probably next chapters this character would start reading more about the world. Can’t let the years pass us by after all so we’d evolve into a cultured badass ;).