Don't be embarrassed. I mean... wouldn't you expect the game that you bought from Steam to actually work properly with Steam..?
But as weird as it may seem to some people, VTMB is simply not going to work properly if you try to run it from under the Steam shell.
Some things to remember about VTM: Bloodlines...
(1) It predates the Steam service by about a year, hence it is not compatible with Steam.
(2) VTMB must be run as a stand-alone program. No launchers... no Steam shells... no nothing. The game was designed 12 years ago to be launched and run exclusively from its own executable file (vampire.exe).
(3) VTMB does not recognize any sort of "must be connected to the internet" requirements and so, any attempts made by Steam to force it to run that way are guaranteed to cause various glitches and headaches. Which, in fact, it does.
(4) VTMB was designed using the now-obsolete Safedisk form of copy protection (must have the CD in the drive in order to play the game). All versions of Windows from Windows 7 on upwards have SafeDisk disabled by default. If you are having trouble running VTMB on Windows 7 (or 8, or 10) after installing the True Patch, then it is almost certainly because the SafeDisk driver (secdrv.sys) is disabled in your version of Windows. The good news is that it can be enabled by doing a quick edit to the Windows system registry. Instructions on how to do so may be found on this board, or on numerous other game-related web sites. Just Google it: "How to enable SafeDisk driver in Windows."
(5) The multimedia aspects of VTMB were programmed using DirectX 8. If your version of Windows does not include the necessary files to support a DirectX 8 game, then VTMB will not run on your computer. Windows 10, for example, offers absolutely no support whatsoever for older versions of DirectX... so you can forget about trying to run VTMB on Windows 10, unless the DirectX 8 compatibility issue is remedied.
(6) VTMB was not designed to be run on widescreen monitors. It comes from a time when almost everyone was still using small screen CRT monitors. In order to see VTMB in all of its glory on a modern widescreen monitor, the game engine needs to be patched, so that it can output a proper 16:10 or 16:9 ratio video presentation. Fortunately, the True Patch Gold Edition includes all of the tools and instructions that you will need in order to accomplish this wondrous feat. It is also very easy to do... assuming that you carefully follow all of the included instructions.
What everyone needs to remember is that we're all trying to adapt a game that began its development waaaaaay back in 2002. Probably even earlier than that. It is, quite frankly, an obsolete game by modern standards. But if you are ready, willing and able to go through a few extra steps, then it is entirely possible to run VTMB on today's modern operating systems and hardware. But there's no getting around it -- you WILL have to do a bit of extra work in order to get it all up and running properly. That's just the way it is.