Vampire: Dark Ages - OOC Discussion

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Vampire: Dark Ages - OOC Discussion

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On your marks...

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Post by Seven Words »

first post!
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Actually, mine was. ;)

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Post by Taduz Illyannovich »

I look forward to when this is running. My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.
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Post by Goatkiller666 »

Don't worry. I'll probably delete this thread at some point, leaving only threads that *I* started.

(Of course, Avatar started the whole sub-forum, so... he still wins.)
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Vampire: Dark Ages - Registration and OOC Discussion

Post by Goatkiller666 »

As has been mentioned, I'd like to run a game of Vampire: Dark Ages (from White Wolf's original World of Darkness line). I have some other personal projects I need to work on for the next few weeks, but after that I can get started with the game. Luckily for us, I'd already come up with the story line years ago, but never got the chance to finish it. I'm looking forward to finding out what kind of mess you can make of my intricately woven storyline.

I'll add a Rules thread shortly, with more details, but just to get things started off, know this:

We're going to start with an adaptation of the Giovanni Chronicles: Last Supper module. I say "adaptation" because I'm making it fit into a bigger storyline I have, so there are some changes. To start with, it's happening several hundred years prior to when the module says. The year is 1205 AD. The story starts out with all of the characters being mortal. Each of you will be invited by the local lord to his castle for some kind of event. None of you know him, other than the fact that he's the lord here. Many of you aren't even from this immediate area, either passing through or whatever.

At this event, you will all encounter some vampires, and by the end of it, you will have been turned into vampires yourselves. That's the prelude to the actual story. What endears this module to me the most is that the characters themselves know nothing at all about vampiric society. They don't know the powers or the clans, or sects, or any of the other supernatural beasties out there. It's a great way for new players to join the game, since the players can learn about things as their characters do. On the other hand, this and the other Giovanni Chronicle modules allow experienced players to take part in some of the events that shape the modern Vampire: the Masquerade world. So, something for everybody.

As an FYI, White Wolf released the original Vampire: the Dark Ages game suppliment. A couple years later, to go along with revising the rules for Vampire: the Masquerade, they released Dark Ages: Vampire. The two sets of rules are basically the same, but there are a few minor changes. When in doubt, I'll be using the original rules. I'll try to make note of these instances in the Rules thread. There are also some situations where I just disagree with how the rules work, usually when they interact with rules from the other game systems. I'll try to post those, as well.

As a rule, I challange my players to think outside the box. If I present you with a situation, I usually have a solution in mind... a way for you to get through it. If you can think of another way, especially one that totally derails my storyline, you'll get extra points. That said, unless you're playing a Malkavian, just doing random weird things in hopes of busting my storyline will simply annoy me, and hilarity will ensue. I'll be laughing, anyway.

Also note, in many cases, combat with the NPCs is NOT the intended way of solving the situation. I have a healthy respect for White Wolf's world, and I'm very happy to have the methuselah prince of the city actually be an awesomely powerful being who can and will crush you into paste for offending her. In that case, knowing when to suck up can be helpful. Or knowing when it's best to go to the next city instead.

So, what do you need to be able to start the game? A copy of the core rule book would be handy. The book is out of print now, so anyone who needs a copy, please contact me. I have a few spare copies I can lend out. Inside that book, you'll need to know the basic stats, and make up a character as normal. As part of the module, there are a few minor changes to the starting character generation rules.

1. All characters start at 7th generation. This is free, so don't spend background dots on it.

2. Characters can be of any clan EXCEPT the Cappadocians. No bloodlines are allowed. Because it amuses me, I will allow someone to take the Ventrue Antitribu clan instead of the normal Ventrue clan. I just like the mis-print from the Sabbat book, where they had Auspex instead of Dominate. And it happens to work with the story.

3. Since you all start out as mortals, any backgrounds you have will be within the mortal world only. So, all contacts are mortal contacts. All allies are mortal allies. Any mentor will be a mortal mentor. These are still valuable, but nobody gets to start out with a vampire elder in his back pocket.

4. I've had a couple people ask me about playing people with a mystical background. I'm not against this in principal, though it does complicate things for my story. At the very least, know that any mystical powers you had as a mortal will be destroyed by the Embrace. So, if you want to be a vampire who used to be a witch, but who lost her powers when she was turned, that's fine. I'm sure it'll add a new level of angst to the character. What I haven't yet figured out is how to deal with the fact that you probably knew some more powerful witches, whom you might be able to call upon for help later. Part of the point of the game, at least in the beginning, is that you're all lost and confused, and all of these big bad monsters have you running around in circles. If there's a fairy godmother who can swoop in and help... where's the fun in that? So, I'll allow this on a per-person basis, once we hash out the details.

5. The game starts out in Transylvania, though will eventually go elsewhere. You don't need to be from this area, but you need to give me a good reason you're in this area now. Now that you're here, you'll get this mysterious invitation to visit the lord, and hilarity will ensue.

So, feel free to post to this thread, or PM me with questions. I'll add more content as I have spare moments to ramble on.
Last edited by Goatkiller666 on Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by sgt.null »

i would be willing to try this. but it has been some 20 yrs since i did any role playing/ and i have never done it online.
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Post by Goatkiller666 »

So, as far as format goes, I intend to boldly lift the format of the other games here in Gravin Threndor (all of which I'm playing). Plagiarism is the highest form of flattery, right?

So, I'll keep copies of everybody's character sheets, and manage all the die rolling myself. I'll describe some basics of a scene, and the players will them describe their responses. Hopefully, it'll turn into a bit of a creative writing endevour for everyone, where the players will feel free to describe the actions (within reason) of the various NPCs. That makes it easier for a player to manage a grand entrance to the scene, if you can also describe the crowd falling back, etc.

In the other games, we've taken to using colored text for things like stage queues, or to reference specific invokations of rules.

I spend 1 blood point to activate protean claws

Something I've done sometimes is to have the character's internal monologue done in yet another color, but I think I go a bit overboard in that area.

One thing that will be a little different is that my story is, to some extent, a linear thing. This chapter follows that one, etc. There's definitely an epic plan to it all. I hope I don't end up steamrolling everybody into following my plotline, but it won't be quite as much of a sandbox as Requiem is, for example. Perhaps somewhere between Darkwood and Rogue Trader, but typically the players will be interacting with each other in the scenes. Hopefully that will be more interesting, but it does require that others may need to wait on someone else to post.

Hrm. Now I'm pondering... could I restructure things so that the players had their own threads, independant of each other, unless they crossed paths? Anyway...

The main point is that, if I do my job right, it should come just as naturally as a group of people collaboratively writing a story, one paragraph at a time.
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Post by Loredoctor »

Count me in. I would like to play a Tzimisce.
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Post by Goatkiller666 »

That's two for the Tzimisce. Which works well in Transylvania.
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Post by Menolly »

Having no idea of the clans for this setting, I guess I better get reading the core rule book...
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Post by Goatkiller666 »

Menolly wrote:Having no idea of the clans for this setting, I guess I better get reading the core rule book...
One secondary benefit to how everyone is being brought over, is that your vampire sires choose you. If you'd prefer to be completely in the dark, you can just invent a mortal character, and let me choose which clan you end up being.
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Post by Menolly »

Goatkiller666 wrote:
Menolly wrote:Having no idea of the clans for this setting, I guess I better get reading the core rule book...
One secondary benefit to how everyone is being brought over, is that your vampire sires choose you. If you'd prefer to be completely in the dark, you can just invent a mortal character, and let me choose which clan you end up being.
Ooo, that would be interesting to play. Having to mold a character to someone else's vision. Seems to fit more in to your setting...

OK. I think I like that idea, and as you said, will learn as I go.
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Post by Goatkiller666 »

[just kidding]So, perhaps this can be our first contest... suggestions for which clan I should make Menolly, and why. I imagine Toreador would probably go over pretty well. Brujah clan weakness would... amuse me.[/just kidding]
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Post by Goatkiller666 »

So, in case anyone was wondering, I have two big projects I need to do before I can really focus on this game. Luckily, both tests are done whenever I feel like. I just need to find the time and enthusiasm to study for them.

First, I'm due to recertify my Cisco certifications some time in the next 18 months. No rush, except that since I work for Cisco, my company will pay me a sizable bonus for maintaining my certification. I'm enough of a corporate whore to go chasing a check when they wave it. The hope is to take the test in the next week.

After that, I'm applying for grad school next fall. The application deadline is in May, but I need to take (and dominate) the GRE as part of my application. And quite honestly, I haven't had a serious need for geometry or most algebra since the early years of college. So, there will need to be some refreshing.

I say all this partly to let people know what's up, but partly to shame myself into buckling down on it, instead of goofing off. If I must finish these things before we can get to the game, I'll now have to admit to having sat around watching Stargate SG-1 all day.

So, I welcome the support, and probably need the oversight.
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Post by Menolly »

Brujah clan weakness?
*thinking more and more I better read this core rule book soon*
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Post by Taduz Illyannovich »

Ravnos.

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Post by Goatkiller666 »

So, been doing practice tests for the past week or so, on my certification. Passing score is 70%, I've been in the high 80s / low 90s. The practice test is borderline cheater, though. On the other hand, it's very badly edited and sometimes wrong. So, I rationalize that if I can tell when the practice test is wrong, and why it's wrong, then I must know the material well enough.

Anyway, I'm scheduled to take the test this Friday.
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Post by Goatkiller666 »

Well, first hurdle is out of the way. Today, I extended my certification until July of 2013. Now on to the GRE.

Most likely this weekend, I'll spend some time working on my Acropolis turn submission and some other Watch writings. And I'll try to get started on adding content to Dark Ages.
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Post by Goatkiller666 »

Okay, so... there's my first stab at the character generation rules. I'm sure there's lots I can do to polish up the formatting, if nothing else. I still need to flush out the discipline list (you know... have one, and all) and the list of Merits & Flaws. But, that's a whole bunch of transcription, and I didn't feel like doing it just now.

I might consider granting XP to anyone willing to transcribe that kind of stuff. (I'm imagining a thread devoted just to the various discipline powers. And maybe another one devoted to Merits & Flaws.)

Anyone knowledgable in copywrite law willing to comment on where the line is? If we RUN a game based on White Wolf's game, it's fine. If I copy whole sections of rules into the forum as reference, at what point am I in violation? And since their game is out of print now, do they really care to enforce their rights?
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