Farewell 2020. It was a year, just a year when things piled up.

Adventure Calendar 2020 31: New Year's Eve

Adventure Calendar 2020

31: New Year’s Eve

Happy Hogmanay!

Two decades past the futuristic Year 2000, and still going. The second edition of Cyberpunk is set here, as Blade Runner is set in 2019. Children Of Men is set in 2021.

But like the solstice, a time for reflection. (Having New Year eleven days after the solstice is a minor worldbuilding detail that most editors would cut.)

Or, you can emphasise the midnight deadline and have an impending apocalypse. In cinemas 21 years ago to go with pre-millennial fear, Arnold Schwarzenegger versus Satan in End Of Days. It’s not exactly a classic, but the cult with members throughout society and the conflict with Church agents are pretty WOD-ish. See also the Eighth Doctor’s big moment, shown in spring 1996 but still about NYE 1999.

Have a good and safe Hogmanay, and I hope to see you next year.

Jackie Cassada

Today we learned that Jackie Cassada, whose extraordinary creative talent helped shape the World of Darkness, passed away due to complications from COVID-19. She blazed bright new trails and crafted powerful stories, particularly in Changeling: The Dreaming, that continue to inspire today. We extend our condolences and sympathies to her friends and family.

World Of Darkness social media

Jackie was one of the guests on a Mage: The Podcast designer panel in September.

Adventure Calendar 2020 30: The Year In Review

Adventure Calendar 2020

30: The Year In Review

It’s been a... year.

Ever done one of these? Look back the games you’ve played, run and read through the year.

I’ve introduced several players to Vampire: The Masquerade fifth edition and Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

I haven’t tried running anything new. Trinity Continuum, Relics,The Yellow King, WFRP 4 and Age Of Sigmar: Soulbound are on my list to do something with.

The only new game I’ve played for more than a couple of sessions is Beyond The Wall, where the most interesting part of the system to me was the playbook-specific lifepaths creating the group’s home together as well as defining the individual characters.

I swiped this from Twitter as a guide.

You could also do this in a session with a regular group, which would doubtless get a bit “let me tell you about my character” but I think that’s okay once in a while.

You could also reflect on the year in-character when a series hits a suitable landmark, particularly if a game advances as quickly as Pendragon where everything that happens in a year except the adventures can be covered in a session. Characters might reflect on New Year, solstices, birthdays and anniversaries.

Adventure Calendar 2020 29: The Fine Arts Segment

Adventure Calendar 2020

29: The Fine Arts Segment

Opera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong.

Terry Pratchett

One more bit of semi-regular Christmas entertainment, on TV and on stage, a suitably themed ballet or opera. The Nutcracker is the go-to choice for first ballet in the US, while in the UK ballet and opera companies often put on versions of fairytales, which most of the canon ae based on, and the Beeb will put one on BBC 2 or Four in the evening.

Short of doing a ballet horror story like The Red Shoes, Suspiria or Black Swan, the characters could get involved in a production or get into the audience, or could find themselves in one of the plots.

Adventure Calendar 2020 28: Leftovers

Adventure Calendar 2020

28: Leftovers

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. 

Calvin Trillin

By now there probably isn’t much turkey or equivalent left, but still enough for a decent sandwich. 

What do you look back on and feel like enjoying a little more of? Which adventures did you not do every scene from, which plots did you drop as the road not taken? What would the Deleted Scenes extra of the box set include?

15 Buffy hooks from Hayley Williams's Petals For Armor

For Hayley Williams’s birthday, using song title from Petals For Armor as Buffy The Vampire Slayer plot hooks. Possibly a bit influenced by the video trilogy, though it skews scarier.

Simmer

A potion needs to be brewed at midsummer, and nobody particularly wants to be in the kitchen during a heatwave. And that’s before the Hideous Sun Demon turns up.

Leave It Alone

Seriously, why do people keep doing archaeological digs around a Hellmouth? What did they unearth this time?

Cinnamon

Someone at the college craft fair is making cakes that mess with people’s emotional states.

Creepin’

This one’s actually about vampires trying to stalk an unbiteable person.

Sudden Desire

Someone cast a love spell. But who?

Dead Horse

Christmas special! Krampus you can handle. Evil elves, sure. But what can you do against Mari Lwyd, the horse skull that will invade your house and raid your fridge if you don’t defeat it in a singing contest?

My Friend

One of the gang is hurt / stricken / cursed and the slayer reflects on the danger her life puts those around her in. Despite the reasonable argument that everybody would be long dead without her, she needs some more help getting out of this funk.

Over Yet

The gang has to stop a prophesised threat... and this one isn’t conveniently Hellmouth-adjacent so they need to go on a road trip and then an overland trek to get to it in time. Expect something in between The Blair Witch Project and National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris

Valentine’s Day, and the campus formal attracts a heartbroken ghost.

Why We Ever

One of the gang takes a hit from a mystic energy blast and wakes to find it’s ten years in the future, and the slayer and her followers are commemorated on a plaque describing how they died heroically a week after the day they left.

Pure Love

One of the gang meets the perfect partner and finds their life turning into a Hallmark Christmas movie. Which is nice, but definitely weird.

Taken

Who kidnapped every under-twelve in the city? Did somebody not pay a musician who helped with a rat problem?

Sugar On The Rim

Our heroes have to stop a vampire ensconced in a really fancy nightclub. How are they even going to get in?

Watch Me While I Bloom

The Queen of the May arises. And plans to destroy modern technology.

Crystal Clear

A vampire mystic has done something strange, and now nobody in town has a reflection.

Adventure Calendar 2020 27: Going For A Walk

Adventure Calendar 2020

27: Going For A Walk

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring

Going for a walk, as families sometimes do after Christmas lunch, is just about the most low adventure kind of adventure possible. You go out, brave the weather having checked it can probably be braved, you look at some possibly new but mostly familiar things, and you maybe have a snack though that is not entirely its purpose.

What is within walking distance of your characters’ homes? A favourite place to walk, to sit, to get a coffee or a sandwich? What do they see when they go for a walk?

Adventure Calendar 2020 26: Boxing Day

Adventure Calendar 2020

26: Boxing Day

“But don’t stray too far, it could be dangerous. Any day now they start boxing!”

Doctor Who: Voyage Of The Damned

Boxing Day has its own odd traditions here, like a name which may have something to do with guft boxes but nobody’s actually sure. Some major sports forego Christmas and play the day after. The former January Sales now tend to start around eight in the morning after Christmas, though at least generally not at midnight.

In fiction, the time right after the final confrontation tends to get little attention. Time to see who survived, to check the after results of heartfelt confessions...

Adventure Calendar 2020 25: Christmas

Adventure Calendar 2020

25: Christmas

Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Having done the Nativity and other miraculous births last year, what Christmas means now. This is different things to different people, and at different times as well. Besides “the true meaning of Christmas”, how the holidays can affect you. A light in dark times, a connection, or a reminder of the lack thereof.

In games, the plots of Christmas-related stories can work year round, but consider the feelings of everyone at the table too.

I hope you all have a good and peaceful festive season.

Merry Christmas if appropriate!

Merry Christmas if appropriate! Have a good day in any case.

Adventure Calendar 2020 24: The Night Before

Adventure Calendar 2020

24: The Night Before

“The board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last... the great battle of our time.”

The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King

The night before a major event. The anticipation, for good or ill. The kind of thing that usually gets skipped over as we cut to the action, but characters actions beforehand say a lot about them as well. Who comes through? Who wants to run?

Also looking back, as in the Beatles song and the Jonathan Levine movie of the same name. What would you do if you could go back one night?

Free Trinity Continuum and Monarchies Of Mau PDFs!

Now until the 26th, free PDFs of Trinity Continuum (which I worked on) and Monarchies Of Mau (which I didn’t).

Adventure Calendar 2020 23: The End Rush

Adventure Calendar 2020

23: The End Rush

“You guys haven’t gotten your presents yet? Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve, what are you gonna do?”

“Don’t you have to be Claymation to say stuff like that?”

Friends: The One With Phoebe’s Dad

I hope you have everything non-perishable ready by now. And if you don’t have a festive adventure idea yet, I doubt I can help. But the rush to get everything done ahead of a big event can be a hook in itself. For a holiday, see also getting home, getting the Must-Have Toy and the like. But also laying in for a siege. Which the holidays might feel like, ha ha.

Adventure Calendar 2020 22: Holidays In Genreland

Adventure Calendar 2020

22: Holidays In Genreland

“Giles, this is bad, isn’t it? A new kind of bad.”

“Just in time for Christmas.”

“You know, I didn’t even realize it was December. Maybe when we get home we should decorate the rubble.”

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Bring On The Night

So, we have Christmas as a set of subgenres, and Christmas visiting other genres and affecting them, either directly or ironically. But there are also genres where it doesn’t have much of an impact, except perhaps as a backdrop.

Like the normal emergency services, superheroes may have to be on call. 

Maybe helping Santa save Christmas is too weird or out of genre for your specific series, but consider hijackers taking over the giant container ship that delivers basically the entire festive season to our retailers, months in advance of the big day?

Spies can’t rely on getting the holidays off either. The MI6 office Christmas party is a plot point in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but also serves to point out the down-to-earth drudgery of spying in John le Carré’s world.

If the jollity of the season adds an ironic counterpoint to a grimmer setting, go for it. Downbeat Christmas carols and all.

You find yourselves in a maze...

By Ian Boothby and Pia Guerra

Adventure Calendar 2020 21: Midwinter

Adventure Calendar 2020

21: Midwinter

Low the tide, low the light

Comes the sun again

Thea Gilmore, Sol Invictus

Today is the winter solstice here in the northern hemisphere, a significant enough event that I discussed it last year and here we are again.

To spin it to a plot for a fantasy setting with a mythological Weird Level, what if somebody had to actually go and bring back the sun?

Some Egyptian gods have to protect it on a nightly basis. The Buried Moon is a famous Lincolnshire folk tale. Are your characters up to the task?

This year in particular it is also The Great Conjunction, which fans of The Dark Crystal might pause on hearing.

Adventure Calendar 2020 20: Dark Future, White Christmas

Adventure Calendar 2020

20: Dark Future, White Christmas

“Santa Claus is gunning you down!”

Futurama, Xmas Story

Having done Christmas In SPAAAAACE last year, I admittedly included some less cheerful futures there, but it being the very Cyberpunk year 2020 this seems like an apt moment to take another look. See also the kinds of Christmas Batman and Vampire characters have for overlap.

Cynical takes on Christmas commercialism, with Black Friday riots and corporate publicity.

Maybe go all out with a retelling of the Nativity focusing on the plight of displaced people now.

You can also include a little spotlight for hope in amongst it all, people trying to help those in need.

Adventure Calendar 2020 19: The Baffling Tradition

Adventure Calendar 2020

19: The Baffling Tradition

“Tradition!”

Fiddler On The Roof

Brussels Sprouts. Candy canes. Stockings hung on the fireplace. A horse skull that will rob your pantry if you don’t keep it out with a singing contest.

And indeed a guy coming from the North Pole in a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer to come down your chimney and deliver presents to everyone in the world in one night.

There is a lot of weird stuff attached to Christmas.

Some of the oddities of the festive season already have entries here, but consider some of the ideas that haven’t stuck around.

Like we accept robins, but what is up with all the frogs on Victorian Christmas cards?

An aside like this can make a world feel lived-in, or just more odd. (My favourite example comes from Trinity first edition, where a sourcebook establishes that colour-changing mood rings and the like are now possible through biotech and were fashionable a few years ago.)

And traditions can turn plots as well. Borrowing a reference from a grand old White Dwarf article on games centred around nobility, traditions sometimes persist through inertia, and can also be brought back to make things happen...

GEAS Winter Special

Nine games a-running, and rather a lot of Santa needing help. I could offer a ghost story at Christmas if we get a bazillion players.

The Mandalorian 2.08

Maybe not a huge spoiler, compared to other titles, but...

Adventure Calendar 2020 18: The Office Christmas Party

Adventure Calendar 2020

18: The Office Christmas Party

“Got invited to the Christmas party by mistake. Who knew?”

Die Hard

For the last Friday before Christmas, a seasonal nightmare. Depending on the characters’ workplace this can be a fun time with friendly colleagues or a political minefield, even if it isn’t invaded by fake terrorists. Approach with caution.

This goes double for social obligations for things like royal courts and vampire domains, where the Winter Solstice ball is likely to be more like one of these than anything fun with an increased chance of a bit of murder mixed in.

The Force Awakens

Tonight marks the fifth anniversary of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, launch for the new era of films and series and spinoffs, with the new era in-character seeing much less use. It is in itself a fun Star Wars movie, though its parallels to the original remain blatant. I would still watch more new adventures with Rey, Finn, Poe and BB-8, and Kylo Ren is a brilliant answer to the problem of following Darth Vader. I still love the teaser and trailer too.

Adventure Calendar 2020 17: The Annual

Adventure Calendar 2020

17: The Annual

I first read science fiction in the old British Chum annual when I was about 12 years old.

A. E. van Vogt (according to a bunch of quote mining sites, citation needed)

A big book or extra-sized issue of a magazine or comic, or a tie-in for a film or series, an annual is something fun for fans in time to go under the tree at Christmas.

This is a British tradition apparently, US comics sometimes have annuals independently of holiday specials. (I just got the 2000 A.D. annual-ish end-of-year issue yesterday, for example.) It’s an equivalent to the Icelandic tradition of giving books on Christmas Eve.

These vary from thin books with some stories and puzzles aimed squarely at children to huge end-of-the-year publications for older fans - Doctor Who had one of each at one point during the Smith years, after previous years had a standard annual and a Storybook as well - but they generally have short stories, features and the like.

The stories may or may not be canon for a given publication as they come outside the regular run, so they might be designed as non-canonical skits like TV series doing sketches in charity telethons.

Or maybe not - US comic annuals have featured major events and introduced recurring characters, and these days some charity telethon sketches count as canon too. And Sherlock Holmes first appeared in an annual!

So you could have this kind of short scene as part of meeting friends from a game around the period, or do a non-canon special. Or a canon one.

Or go all-out and produce a campaign zine annual, complete with wordsearch!

V5 Companion

The Vampire: The Masquerade Companion is out now, free with a World Of Darkness account, with fifth edition rules for ghouls and mortals as well as vampires of the clans, Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce, rules updates and errata and more.

Adventure Calendar 2020 16: Peace On Earth

Adventure Calendar 2020

16: Peace On Earth

“We’re going to win this war not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love.”

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Like the Christmas Truce, a Christmas episode could forego some of the regular violence of an action-oriented series. (Though consider the most prominent run of specials in recent genre TV is Doctor Who and most of them show a certain glee in their body counts.)

So a good time for a truce. A non-violent plot like a disaster rescue. The Alison Brooks example of monster hunters laying a ghost to rest instead of staking a vampire.

There are games for non-violent adventure plots like Hammerheads, as well as setting details like (hey) the Neptune Foundation in Trinity Continuum.

Black List 2020

The AV Club looks at highlights from the Black List, the annual look at great unmade film scripts, often a look into the future but more often what might be.

True crime, fake crime, biopics, and of course some SF/fantasy/horror ideas. Saturday Night Ghost Club sounds like it could be a lot of fun, for one, with a boy recruiting his uncle and friends to hunt a ghost. Stan and Jack get a biopic. Cosmic Sunday takes the Groundhog Day loop and applies it to enough people to build a probably-not-really-functional community. And Ripper is the Forty Elephants movie I’ve been wanting for a while... sort of, as you can perhaps guess by the title indicating who they’re going up against.

Adventure Calendar 2020 15: Go To The Snow

Adventure Calendar 2020

15: Go To The Snow

“What is the point of this? The Earth does not want you here!”

L.A. By Night / Winter’s Teeth special

If the snow can’t come to you, go to the snow...

How do you get a lot of snow into a series set somewhere without a lot of snow, and no Christmas miracle snow? Go skiing. Or have to travel across somewhere snowy as part of a quest.

Characters unused to the conditions have to deal with them, the GM can bring in cold-weather monsters, and you can spend the entire episode isolated by a blizzard or stuck in a broken-down ski lift.

Being out in the snow almost kills Luke Skywalker and endangers the Fellowship of the Ring, while James Bond gets to show off his skiing expertise in several of his adventures.

Adventure Calendar 2020 14: Following Yonder Star

Adventure Calendar 2020

14: Following Yonder Star

This is my quest, to follow the star

No matter how hopeless, no mater how far

Man Of La Mancha

After the Three Wise Men, what are they following?

Signs and portents appear frequently in mythology, fantasy fiction and elsewhere. They can be tricky things in RPGs, as too much predestination limits players’ options.

Multiple interpretations can help. The best prophecy I ever came up with was in The Watch House season four and could refer to either our hero Milli or our recurring Big Bad Victoria.

Likewise, how much does the portent give away? In the case of the star, it just shows the Magi where to go, and doesn’t warn them about Herod - they get warnings about him in dreams separately.

John le Carré

John le Carré forged the idea of spying as a job much like any other, with its own dull routines, its experts and its Peter Principle hires, except that mistakes mean lives are lost and being enticed away by another company is treason.

V5: Nobody's Home 1.11

Premonitions in RPG are tricky, some are playing the odds but most are things I can arrange or at least arrange the possibility of. I kept them short and ominous, hopefully enough to be helpful

Let’s take it right back to where we used to go

But we never look back

No, we only look forward to all the new pain

And violence that we blame

No, we never look back

No, we only look forward

Adventure Calendar 2020 13: The Three Wise Men

Adventure Calendar 2020

13: The Three Wise Men

“Well, what are you doing creeping around a cow shed at two o’clock in the morning? That doesn’t sound very wise to me!”

Monty Python’s Life Of Brian

Sometimes priests, sometimes Magi, latterly kings, the first people to figure out the significance of the star and come to bring gifts and acknowledge what a big deal this all is.

Getting a sign or portent of something happening is generally the start of a quest for PCs, which is much more likely to involve an evil to fight than a good to welcome...

In this case we do have the bit where they have to avoid leading Herod right to the family, so we should probably include an obstacle like that.

Chronicles Of Darkness fifth anniversary

The Chronicles of Darkness rulebook came out five years ago today at the start of the rebranding of the setting.

Adventure Calendar 2020 12: Showing Off

Adventure Calendar 2020

12: Showing Off

“On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...”

Okay, the Twelve Days of Christmas start at Christmas Day, but go with me here. Various activities are associated with various days, but the idea of the twelve is mostly associated with the carol and its extremely extravagant gift-giving. And half of the gifts involve birds for some reason.

But like the Must-Have Toy, Showing Off is part of the festivities for some. Who can give the most impressive gift, throw the most lavish party, have the most lights on their house? One-upmanship may not suit the season of goodwill, but here we are, anything involving competition for prestige or attention can turn out like this.

The Mandalorian: The Believer

A shocking development...

Adventure Calendar 2020 11: Happy Holidays

Adventure Calendar 2020

11: Happy Holidays

A candle is a small thing. But one candle can light another. And see how its own light increases, as a candle gives its flame to the other. You are such a light. 

Moshe Davis

Overnight tonight is the beginning of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, not the biggest Jewish religious festival but the one closest to Christmas and therefore bigged up for celebration purposes. There are a number of other holidays celebrated around midwinter, including the Solstice itself by some pagan groups, up to New Year and beyond. Many traditions could inspire ideas.

More Disney+ coming

As in quite a lot more.

Really. A first look at Andor, confirmation of Anakin appearing in Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Lando series, a High Republic series...

And rather a lot of Marvel as well, though we’re used to that.

And Disney and Pixar series.

How many people are making Star Wars series? Is anyone I know making a Star Wars series? Am I making a Star Wars series?

Space Sweepers

Taking the space junk scavenger idea Titan A.E. started with, the new Korean SF action comedy Space Sweepers, coming soon to Netflix, has salvagers in our littered future orbit find something dangerous / valuable.

Adventure Calendar 2020 10: Santa's Little Helpers

Adventure Calendar 2020

10: Santa’s Little Helpers

“Have you ever wondered how it all gets done? How Santa gets in and out of millions of homes all in one night? Let’s just say he has a little help...”

Prep & Landing

Among the various side characters in the complicated Santa Claus Mythos are the Elves who make the toys. In modern and often ironic versions like Elf, Arthur Christmas and Prep & Landing they do a lot of other jobs for the big delivery as well. As a workforce that is also magical, they make good alternative protagonists for Santa-based adventures. They can help a regular or replacement Santa or have adventures of their own as part of the runup to Christmas Eve.

Delta Green on screen (sort of)

As an occasional perpetrator of the fake trailer, I think this latest example from bloodrunsclear looks great even though it’s pretty much nothing like the fake Delta Green trailer I’d make. (Which would crib from David Fincher films and something with a creepy cult and a barely-glimpsed monster.)

Christmas TV

The traditional Christmas and New Year two-week Radio Times listings mag is out and so I know what’s going to be on here. The big Christmas afternoon family film premiere on BBC One is Coco, which is a solid choice apart from... being about a completely different holiday.

Adventure Calendar 2020 9: Cold And Dark

Adventure Calendar 2020

9: Cold And Dark

“First goddamn week of winter.”

The Thing

Snow is lovely and magical (until it’s been there for days and you have to go to the shops in it) but it comes with the cold and the dark. The cold is inhospitable, we want to stay in and keep warm by the fire. The dark is isolating, and we can’t see what might be out there. Christmas is a time for ghost stories.

Ironic Christmas films like festive horror often isolate characters with the cold (something the top ironic Christmas movie Die Hard doesn’t do, but Die Hard II does) because it provides a hostile environment, low visibility and muffled sound.

Many cultures have monsters that stay in cold places or only appear in winter, from the Abominable Snowman to the Yuki-onna. D&D has Frost Giants and White Dragons and more. Some undead appear only on winter nights and carry the cold with them as well. Personally, I was partway through plotting a book about vampires attacking an oil drilling town above the Arctic Circle when 30 Days Of Night was announced. And the reverse, vampires in games where you play them partying and plotting as they enjoy the long nights.

What would a blizzard summon in your setting?

101 Underutilised Scary Locations

101 Underutilized Scary Locations on RPG.net hit 101 today with me suggesting... an internet forum...

Cyberpunk 20??

It feels strange seeing posters advertising Cyberpunk 2077 at bus stops.

Cyberpunk was never a particularly big RPG - it was the “pure” genre game overshadowed in the tabletop market by Shadowrun which had a clearer goal structure, more adventures, and magic and elves and stuff - and now it has probably the biggest tabletop RPG based computer game ever.

(I mention this now as it’s “current events” and a new tabletop edition is out too. I wasn’t planning on picking 2077 due to various choices involved.)

Of course cyberpunk the genre is a natural for computer games, and Cyberpunk the setting is basically a mashup of the popular bits of the genre which became its own thing with some specifics and the effects of overlap.

I preferred it when Night City was a metaphor, “any city in the world - it could be yours - late night and up against the wall” to when it became a city in California founded in 1993 by a civic architect called Richard Night, but I acknowledge that the Night City sourcebook has a lot of entertaining details and useful adventure hooks and makes for easier GMing.

There are some great books for the line. When Gravity Fails adapts the setting of the George Alec Effinger novels with a thoughtful look at trans representation, sex work and the impact of scientific advances on religious cultures. Near Orbit is a very solid book about space travel and life in space stations, though it emphasises the realistic need to be careful in a fragile artificial environment so well that it seems a regular group of PCs would wreck a station as soon as they arrive. Spinoff subgame CyberGeneration ramps up the nanotech sci-fi Weird Level but focuses on the punk aspects of desperate youth and rebellion better than the core game usually did. GM guide Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads!!!! is a fascinating mix of great advice on setting and adjusting tone, suggestions for campaign premises, and GM versus player adversarial ambush tactics.

I haven’t played tabletop Cyberpunk since the second edition and would want to adjust a lot to do it now, but I’d certainly play the genre again.

Adventure Calendar 2020 8: The Big Festive Game

Adventure Calendar 2020

8: The Big Festive Game

“I’ve never actually been in a snowball fight.”

“Really?”

“I don’t even know the rules. Is there like a point system or is it... to the death?”

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

Taking part in (or watching) a major sporting event as part of the season.

A less immediately relevant sibling to playing tabletop games around Christmas, and an encouragement to get some exercise slightly brisker than going for a walk after Christmas lunch.

Scottish examples include the Kirkwall Ba Game where an entire town divides into two teams for an ancestor of football, and the Loony Dook swimming in the Firth of Forth on New Year’s Day. Similar events happen all over, and it goes back a long way, to traditions like tournaments around Christmas, referenced in Sir Gawain And The Green Knight.

The player characters might take part themselves, happily or otherwise. They might be proud to join a tournament, or unable to avoid getting dragged in to a Ba Game.

Maybe they play against a rival group of NPCs. “Death to the opposition!”

Perhaps being annual and high-profile it becomes a Big Game and gets fiercely competitive.

Or perhaps the reverse. The most famous impromptu football game ever held around this time was in the Christmas Truce.

Adventure Calendar 2020 7: What Christmas Can Mean

Adventure Calendar 2020

7: What Christmas Can Mean

I don’t think Christmas is necessarily about things. It’s about being good to one another.

Carrie Fisher

Cut through the glitter and tinsel, and the hope of renewal and the value of good will carries a lot of weight. The most moving example for me is the Christmas Truce of the Great War.

Not to get too heavy here, share time with your friends and family including your gaming groups, maybe do some good along the way.

I would advise not trying a “true meaning of Christmas” plot hook, not a serious one anyway. The Christmas Truce appeared in Doctor Who as a small aside, which I think was sensible.

V5: Nobody's Home 1.10

And just before the Christmas special and holiday break, I dropped an escalation of the events of the night before.

And the session came at the end of a whole week of watching Vampire streaming games, so no pressure.

Adventure Calendar 2020 6: Shelter

Adventure Calendar 2020

6: Shelter

“This job... we try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. But if we can't find a way to live with that, next time... maybe nobody gets saved.”

Captain America: Civil War

The Nativity starts with a family forced to move by the colonising government for bureaucratic purposes, looking for a pace of safety, and then being pursued by a local tyrant.

These are all the sorts of things that player characters react against.

Can you help someone? Or stop the oppressors doing this kind of thing?

L.A. By Night Vs. Winter's Teeth

A charity Vampire: The Masquerade fifth edition game tonight (8 p.m. UK time) at World Of Darkness Twitch with Victor and Annabelle from L.A. By Night and Winter’s Teeth Anarch Tales writers Tini and Blake Howard, for the Worldbuilders charity set up by guest star Patrick Rothfuss.

Update: now on YouTube in two parts.

Adventure Calendar 2020 5: Saving Christmas

Adventure Calendar 2020

5: Saving Christmas

“Christmas is cancelled.”

“Thank you!”

“No, I mean Christmas is cancelled for the whole world and soon after the whole world will be cancelled because Santa Claus has disappeared.”

The Librarians And Santa’s Midnight Run

Santa needs your help!

Heroes often find themselves Saving Christmas (TVTropes Alert) at this time of year.

They might end up directly Subbing For Santa (TVTropes Alert 2) in a setting with a suitably high Weird Level, but a more grounded setting can evoke it with a vital delivery, particularly in inclement weather. (The Nome Serum Run started in January 1925 but it was necessitated by snow.)

Trinity: Year One

Happy one year anniversary for the public release of Trinity Continuum and Trinity Continuum: Æon!

Dragonmeet

Dragonmeet is tomorrow, virtually.

The Mandalorian: The... chapter 14

“Don’t you wanna learn more of that Jedi... stuff?”

Oh, Din, who are you trying to convince?

Adventure Calendar 2020 4: The Must-Have Toy

Adventure Calendar 2020

4: The Must-Have Toy

“This can’t happen. It’s just a doll. It’s just a stupid little plastic doll.”

“Ah-ah, that’s action figure!”

Jingle All The Way

Possibly somewhat influenced by going shopping yesterday...

You’ve probably seen the stories about parents fighting over the year’s must-have toy or gift, with Jingle All The Way as the slightly exaggerated movie version of the story.

This is unlikely to be a direct issue for many player characters, but they could still get caught in an angry mob of holiday shoppers.

And there’s the Leverage episode The Toy Job (not its most direct Christmas special but definitely seasonal, first shown December 18th 2012) where the Crew cause this to bring down a CEO who wants to put an unsafe toy on the market.

Consider superheroes and other well-known player characters (or characters stumbling into a parallel universe where their adventures are a TV show... or something...) who might find that they are the season’s must-have toys.

How would the player characters react to toys of themselves?

And to comparative sales charts?

Adventure Calendar 2020 3: Home For The Holidays

Adventure Calendar 2020

3: Home For The Holidays

“Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs...”

Die Hard

The reverse of I’ll Be Home For Christmas sees the characters staying with family, friends, peers in a courtly setting or something like that for an extended period of time.

They probably don’t all get along... maybe to the extent of a Clue style mystery.

Or maybe the place itself is besieged, or haunted...

Adventure Calendar 2020 2: I’ll Be Home For Christmas

Adventure Calendar 2020

2: I’ll Be Home For Christmas

“Are you saying I could be stuck in Wichita?”

“I’m saying you are stuck in Wichita.”

Planes, Trains And Automobiles

Someone really wants to get home in time to be with their loved ones. Can the PCs help?

Hey, if it’s good enough for The Star Wars Holiday Special it’s... okay, not necessarily good enough for anybody, but go with me here.

How many obstacles can you throw in the characters’ way? The more comedic the tone, the more absurd the pile-up of problems can get.

Arecibo

One of the great science facilities, the Arecibo Observatory, has collapsed, breaking down beyond repair.

Adventure Calendar 2020 1: Celebrations

Happy December!

After last year doing a festive writing prompt through the month, I’m dumb enough to do it again. Having covered festive traditions largely as I thought of them last time, this year I’m going with hooks based on film, song, book and other titles. I will probably mostly stay generic, but I may specify settings and genres for some. Some overlap may occur.

Adventure Calendar 2020

1: Celebrations

“Sure! We saved the world, I say we party.”

Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Prophecy Girl

As I started last year with the simplest idea, I’ll look at it again as it’s something that could come up in every game with a suitable holiday and repeatedly in the same game.

How do the player characters celebrate the holidays?

And for a plot hook spin on it:

How would the characters organise a larger celebration?

A game with a large social scene involved is the obvious place to put this. Fantasy games have royal courts, state occasions and diplomatic dinners. The Vampire family of games has the regular Elysium and special occasions where the Damned hang out. This can be a chance to social climbing, or something foisted on the characters, and the threat of leaders being displeased if the occasion is a letdown can add to the tension.

But many settings could have a festival, a surprise party for a friend’s birthday, or something like that. Buffy stresses more about Thanksgiving dinner than the attack by vengeful spirits that interrupt it.

December!

I just sent My Chemical Romance covering All I Want For Christmas to the Nobody’s Home group.

World AIDS Day

We’ve made progress, but we have much further to go.

V5: Not A Drop To Drink

Jacob Burgess STing a short Vampire: The Masquerade series for LoadingReadyRun, starting with an excellent Session Zero, now on Youtube.

Happy St. Andrew's Day!

Happy St. Andrew’s Day!

Last week the Scottish Parliament voted unanimously for the bill to provide free period products to all. I am at times proud of my nation.

V5: Nobody's Home 1.09

And tonight, depending on how it went it could have been Drain The Blood, but as it went, Heads Will Roll.

David Prowse

Most known for embodying Darth Vader, David Prowse was produest of his work for road safety with the Green Cross Code. Stop, look, listen, think.

TTRPG Wishlist

Inspired by Steve Kenson on Twitter, “my personal wish-list of tabletop roleplaying games to play in or run, if I had unlimited time, energy, and resources...”

1: Running another Buffy RPG series that gets past season one.

2: Or indeed playing a Buffy RPG series.

3: Having created some groups for Trinity Continuum, it would be nice to run a game featuring some or all of them.

4: Playing Vampire: The Masquerade fifth edition and/or playing Vampire: The Requiem for more than one session.

5: A blockbuster LARP. Partially for the “being around people” part of it.

6: Star Wars. With D6s. This is the Way.

7: Playing an MCU-ish superhero game, where protecting people is as much of an action beat as fighting villains.

8: Running a very social game, courtly intrigue, fancy parties, that kind of thing. Possibly historical, maybe with vampires.

9: Adventure! Playing, running, trying the forthcoming Continuum edition. It's been too long.

10: Pirates!

11: Running or playing something GUMSHOE for longer than I’ve had the chance so far.

12: Last pick, tricky. So many games I could list, beyond those I have already. So, a format feature instead. A game featuring a band.

Bonus: I'd like to do one of them there RPG stream things.

That’s mine, what’s yours?

The Mandalorian: The Jedi

Several things happened.

Tales From Black Friday 2020

My own modest (and early) contribution, in hopes that the holiday goes as it should... like a nightmare.

Are we? Can we? Do we dare?

TalesFromBlackFriday

The automatic doors open with a pained hiss, pausing as if reluctant to allow us entry. Or escape.

Savage Pathfinder

Pathfinder for Savage Worlds, Kickstarting early 2021.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a good one, to all who celebrate.

A gift

V5: Nobody’s Home Actual Pay 1.01 written, for Faye’s birthday. I hope the players like it, and if so expect to see it here soon.

Mapping The Multiverse

Mapping The Multiverse with PBS Space Time, mentioned by Ian Watson, not least for the comments shoutouts at the end.

On being a Prince

Advice on being a good Prince in a Vampire LARP specifically from Minds Eye Theatre.

A Witcher Holiday Slay Ride

Some well-done effects additions to scenes and emphasising the snow, feasting, and Geralt’s general grumpiness - and some classic gore - makes a very funny trailer to The Witcher series getting to suggest a Christmas special, a reminder that not every series fits a Christmas special.

2001: A Utah Odyssey

Metal monolith found in Utah desert. This is fine.

V5: Nobody's Home 1.08

At the end of every session of Nobody’s Home since we’re online I’ve put a relevant ‘end credits’ song in the chat. Nine Inch Nails, Garbage, CHVRCHES, and then this week... At The Ballet from A Chorus Line.

You don't have the cards

I’m not good at poker, but I like the terminology and slang. I’ve considered doing something like a Leverage Crew or Les Fantômes group that uses a lot of poker terms and anaologies.

I was reminded of this recently by Edward Norton (who is good at poker) describing a current political issue in poker terms.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. 7.03

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. 7.03: Alien Commies From The Future!

It’s okay folx, I was gonna watch the episode anyway!

“She couldn’t stay with Rick, she had to go with Victor!”

The Mandalorian: The Siege

“There’s no guardrail on this.”

Tales From The Music Video

A music video directed by Simon Stålenhag may be of interest. Duvchi, Geronimo. 

It is very Stålenhag, an abstract oddity with a robot in a coat.

Wolfenoot sale at DTRPG

Animal-themed games from Werewolf to Pugmire, Mouse Guard to Ponyfinder, on sale for good causes like 50% of Pugmire sales profits going to Guide Dogs.

Top Secret / New World Order

The new edition of Top Secret, the superspy game I played quite a bit in the Cold War era, now free in PDF. I didn’t back for a physical copy, but free is worth a look.

Everway

Everway is coming back, the experimental RPG that got a huge original print run and then nothing due to the fate of Wizards Of The Coast at the time.

Solo play for dogs

The street finds its own uses for things. In this case trampolines for playng fetch.

LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special

And a very happy Life Day to all of you at home!

A lot of nice gags, right from the start, including some great runners. Snark. A moral. And even a little emotional bit.

Favourite little note: characters like Yoda who in LEGO have moulded heads rather than the usual decal on a round face of humanoids are animated so that their lips move.

Need an ominous name?

Thanks to a charity promotion by Freekibble, I have just discovered the existence of an animal sanctuary in England called...

Bleakholt.

It seems great, but it sounds like somewhere lovable animals should be trying to escape from.

Or a party of adventurers should get a map before entering.

“Where are we going?”

“Bleakholt.”

“... Can we do some sidequests first? I don’t think I have enough levels.”

V5: Nobody's Home 1.07

 Oh, your city lies in dust, my friend.

DIE at Thought Bubble

Kieron Gillen runs a game of DIE, the RPG of the comic about RPGs, at the online Thought Bubble comic convention, as an RPG about comics and RPGs.

Perfume Advert Weird Level

The festive season must be close. I just saw a new baffling perfume advert. Marion Cotillard jazz dancing in spaaaaace!

Cyberpunk RED

Well, reading this made me feel fifteen again. I would want to change most of the slang, for starters.

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. 7.01 and 7.02

Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. S7 is airing here. Starting Friday the 13th, lucky for some who have Disney+!

It’s about time!

The Mandalorian: The Heiress

That was a fun half-hour. If you avoided the last episode due to spiders, skip the recap! (You can skip the recap anyway, it’s mostly establishing where they were going right away.)

Vampire: The Masquerade Companion

Coming in December for free download, the Vampire: The Masquerade Companion, with full rules or mortals and ghouls, coterie powers, errata, and the Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce. Video presser

Part of moving development in-house, along with Renegade Game Studios (makers of Chapters), with OP negotiating what comes next.

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart

Trinity Continuum: A Quantum Leap, a jumpstart and adventure by Jacob Burgess, now available, along with print copies of Terra Firma for Aeon.

Star Wars: The High Republic with Cavan Scott

io9 takes a deep dive with High Republic comics and novels writer Cavan Scott, looking at how the new era setting kicks off.

R.I.P. Ken Spears, co-creator of Scooby-Doo and more.

A vaccine at trial 90% effective. A start, maybe.

The Goodies

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of The Goodies, one of my moral and logical guides growing up. You would call and they would help.

Sort of.

V5: Nobody's Home 1.06

A visit to the hospital. Not for the usual reasons.

Thank you.

The Mandalorian: The Passenger

Spiders. Why did it have to be spiders?

Further thoughts beyond line. Not many, though.

LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special trailer

Headcanon accepted.

Making a flat character sing

Advice from Nordic Larp on adjusting pregen characters, obviously of most use in games such as weekend LARPs which use them extensively but also of possible interest for convention games in general and for looking at your own characters in an ongoing game.

Trinity Allegiance Merchandising

New designs at the Onyx Path Redbubble store include Trinity Continuum Allegiances that I wrote and created.

I could get a shirt with the Global Cartography Initiative or Neptune Foundation logo on it.

That feels weird.

(Maybe not as weird as the L.A. By Night cast shirts at the World Of Darkness store may feel to them, but...)

Hero Forge has arms!

Excuse the old Aberrant joke.

Hero Forge already had arms, obviously... but now you can have zero to three on each side, partial limbs and replacements. This is really good for varied representation as well as more fantastic options, though in the ongoing superhero gap you can now make the guy from Cyber Force with three cyborg right arms better than you can make Superman or Batman.

They also introduced four new alien heads, include a huge Grey head.

November

Feels strange not to be drawing vampires.

V5: Nobody's Home 1.05

A Hallowe’en ball, and a protest against it.

VTMtober collected

VTMtober 2020

1: Your OC

2: Brujah

3: Haven

4: Lasombra

5: Sire and Childe

6: Nosferatu

7: Elysium

8: Hecata

9: Thin-Blood

10: Banu Haqim

11: The Kiss

12: Tremere

13: Ghoul

14: Malkavian

15: Embrace

16: Ministry

17: Blood Sorcery

18: Gangrel

19: Anarch Hideout

20: Hunger

21: Presence

22: Ventrue

23: True Faith

24: Frenzy

25: Auspex

26: Toreador

27: Golconda

28: Prince

29: Animalism

30: Final Death

31: You As A Vampire

A lot of art in a month for me - my hand cramped trying to ink everything in a day. Some I’m really happy with, both idea and execution, and some not so much. I also drew more hands than I was expecting.

VTMtober 31: You As A Vampire

VTMtober 31: You As A Vampire

Kindred existence is so awful that I would be tempted to go out to the sun. But anyway.

Would I be a cool scary vampire? Probably not. Maybe a shabby anarch.

Here I am about to have my head punched off by Martin Ericsson as Dracula.

Happy Hallowe’en!

Happy Hallowe'en!

Have a good one.

Sir Sean Connery

Perhaps I’m not a good actor, but I would be even worse at doing anything else.

Sir Sean Connery

31 Days, 31 Horror Films

Can I? Well, kind of, some are a bit off-topic.

VTMtober 30: Final Death

VTMtober 30: Final Death

The Embrace is not eternal life but eternal dying, and time will catch up with the vampire in the end.

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant

My Trinity Continuum: Aberrant advance backer PDFs have arrived, among other things including some of the Trinity Continuum Allegiances I created in new kinds of trouble.

The Mandalorian: The Marshal

Baby is interested in the art!

Cyclops with a combover!

The Mandalorian season two

Following a quick and fun demonstration of the Mandalorian kicking assorted butts, an adventure.

Which I will discuss more when the next episode comes out.

The Mandalorian Chapter Nine: The Marshal

Momo The Magic Cat Returns!

From Google Halloween 2016, our hero returns!

VTMtober 29: Animalism

VTMtober 29: Animalism

So easily overlooked. So dangerously overlooked.

The Orpheus Device

The Orpheus Device, a Hallowe’en present from World Of Darkness, a voice-controlled Wraith story via Earplay, Android Studio, and already waiting for you on Alexa...

The Golem

The Golem: How He Came Into The World was released 100 years ago today, two years ahead of Nosferatu also written by Henrik Galeen as a key work in horror film, a superhero/villain origin, and a prequel to the lost 1915 film The Golem, in case you thought prequels were new.

VTMtober 28: Prince

VTMtober 28: Prince

A Prince has a long list of duties. Which do they pass on to others and which do they take upon themselves? The Prince passes sentence, but will they deliver it?

John Carpenter, Lost Themes III

John Carpenter has been making music for most of his films since the 70s, and lately produced two Lost Themes albums of tunes that don’t have films attached in case you need Carpenter-style ominous electronic background music. And today previewed Weeping Ghost from Lost Themes III...

VTMtober 27: Golconda

VTMtober 27: Golconda

The hope of finding a balance between the needs of the vampire and the soul can become a drive that wards off despair or a longing that draws it in. Perhaps if the Kindred could find someone who really knew, they could find some peace?

GEAS GM Workshop: The Basics

Want to hear me ramble about RPGs, among others? Now you can!

VTMtober 26: Toreador

VTMtober 26: Toreador

Julia Barrett was a street thief in life, graduating to housebreaking. When she tried to rob the house of an art fence who was a vampire of Clan Toreador, she saw her potential. Now the city’s Sheriff, her expertise with stealth and covering up crimes also helps in reverse. She’s also very good with a knife.

VTMtober 25: Auspex

VTMtober 25: Auspex

A vampire can see more than they ever could in life. At times a blessing, but it’s so easy to learn too much.

V5: Nobody’s Home 1.04

“It would be a cruel and petty thing,” the Keeper of Elysium says, and pointedly looks around the room at the other vampires there.

Want to watch Nosferatu but only have half an hour?

Terror Of Dracula is apparently a reconstruction of an 8mm film cut of Nosferatu, keeping the castle, ship and finale and cutting pretty much everything else.

VTMtober 24: Frenzy

VTMtober 24: Frenzy

The need for blood and the threat of the sun might be small prices for power and immortality if not for the Beast within always a moment away from rage and madness. Can you stop it destroying everything you care for?

VTMtober 23: True Faith

VTMtober 23: True Faith

Are vampires truly Damned? And if they are, can they undo this? They still have free will, hard as it may be to use it.

VTMtober 22: Ventrue

VTMtober 22: Ventrue

Katherine Drake, Prince of Stamford, likes to hold court in the back rooms of civic buildings to make a point about the access the Kindred have. She considers a number of her duties necessary evils, such as negotiating with the current rulers of New York City for the right to visit, but she does enjoy the occasional Blood Hunt.

See me talk about GMing!

I will be one of the panel talking about GMing tomorrow evening on GEAS online, and possibly up on Youtube later. In case me writing about it on a daily basis isn’t enough.

Gaelcon Online

Gaelcon Online 2020, this weekend!

James Randi, the great sceptic of our times, has died.

VTMtober 21: Presence

VTMtober 21: Presence

Human emotions are so easily affected. So can you really trust your own?

(Not the least obvious vampire I’ve drawn for VTMtober...)

The Terminator RPG

A new announcement from Nightfall Games: The Terminator RPG is on the way. Not many details yet...

No trick, all treat

The traditonal DriveThruRPG Halloween hunt is on! Spoilers for locations and free stuff. Including a giveaway on the Halloween Sale page.

VTMtober 20: Hunger

VTMtober 20: Hunger

Nothing defines the vampire more than the Hunger. The need for blood is never sated for long. (The unpredictable rise of Hunger, its effects on rolls and the requirement to kill to fully sate it really add a lot to V5.)

Vampire: The Ruins Of Warsaw

A new streaming V20 game, The Ruins Of Warsaw, starts tonight at 6.30 UK time on Twitch, featuring friend of the blog Faye as one of the players. Character introductions and session zero are already on Youtube. Update: So is the first episode.

VTMtober 19: Anarch Hideout

VTMtober 19: Anarch Hideout

Secret meetings in overlooked locations, the fear of being followed and discovered, mistrust of your allies - all vampires need this knowledge to survive, so this is some small help to the Anarch cause.

V5: Nobody’s Home 1.03

“If you’re supposed to be murdered, that brings an investigation. Would you prefer accident or...?”

Modern city generator

Procedural modern city generator

Thanks to Matthew Webb for the link.

VTMtober 18: Gangrel

VTMtober 18: Gangrel

Lowe is a monster.

Stargrave

Stargrave from Osprey sounds interesting, a post-recovery space opera skirmish miniatures game, with Frostgrave style plastic kit miniatures. Could perhaps be used for big fights in Ashen Stars...

VTMtober 17: Blood Sorcery

VTMtober 17: Blood Sorcery

Blood is life. The only life vampires hold.

Over The Moon

Over The Moon answers the question of what might happen if you used a space rocket to visit the moon goddess...

VTMtober 16: Ministry

VTMtober 16: Ministry

Naamah takes her name from the daughter of Lamech and Zillah, sister of Tubal-Cain. Childe of a scholar of Kindred history, she cares more for the here and now, fighting with the anarchs of Baltimore.

VTMtober 15: Embrace

VTMtober 15: Embrace

Surely the Embrace is proof that the creator hates humanity, not just the Kindred?

VTMtober 14: Malkavian

VTMtober 14: Malkavian

Matthew Elliott was an occult investigator in life, and his life ended when he discovered one of the truths he was seeking. Now he is an expert in the use of Auspex, the vampires’ supernatural sense... because he can’t shut it off.

Critical Role on what RPGs mean

“Role-playing games have changed my life for the better in more ways than I can describe.”

Matthew Mercer, in this interview at io9 ahead of The World Of Critical Role publication.

VTMtober 13: Ghoul

VTMtober 13: Ghoul

You can often tell a ghoul, the still-just-human servants of vampires, by the hunted look of someone who knows too much.

a|state Nicely, Done

Nicely, Done is a free introductory adventure for a|state second edition by Morgan Davie and Malcolm Craig.

Dossier Of Dracula

Dracula Dossier files released from Holding (Bundle Of)

VTMtober 12: Tremere

VTMtober 12: Tremere

Carson Eaves knows that the Pyramid was like any other academic structure, plagued by favouritism and with ‘tenured professors’ who could pursue any interest due to seniority, but it has always served him well.

VTMtober 11: The Kiss

VTMtober 11: The Kiss

Stilling a victim with desire, or dread.

V5: Nobody’s Home 1.02

Celeste homes in on the trail and darts off, not waiting on the others. Yay for Messy Criticals!

World Of Darkness politics

A link to the talk about the significance of politics of the World Of Darkness, in and out of character, to encourage voter registration.

Dungeons & Dragons cartoon ending

A fan animation of the unmade final episode of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, with audio from a table read of the script. Closure after a mere 35 years.

I particularly like the use of the title card door.

Thanks to Steve Kenson for the link.

VTMtober 10: Banu Haqim

VTMtober 10: Banu Haqim

Iosef Kader, professor of theology, appreciates the opportunity to study other vampires that his new position in Lyon affords him.

VTMtober 9: Thin-Blood

VTMtober 9: Thin-Blood

Corey knows vampires are real now. The older, stronger ones burn in the sun, while all it does to him is sting his eyes. And they hate him for that, resent and fear him for something they can’t do. They want to destroy him because they say he’s a sign of the end of their world. And if that’s what it takes, he’ll prove them right.

VTMtober 8: Hecata

VTMtober 8: Hecata 

Ligeia Di Giovanni was a medium in life, and woke from the Embrace blind. “I returned from the dead but my eyes did not.” Now she can only see the spirit world.

VTMtober 7: Elysium

VTMtober 7: Elysium

The Nosferatu elder Jonas can often be found at a chessboard in a corner of Elysium. The board and pieces are black and red. He will play with any who approach, such as the Malkavian Matthew Elliott, discussing matters of the night as they play, and his strategies vary seemingly at whim. Sometimes he sits alone and considers classic tactics, as if playing against some unseen opponent.

There are some other chess-themed Elysium illustrations on the tag and Discord, and someone noted it’s a popular trope in Vampire: The Masquerade. Indeed it is, with generation illustrations, adventures, book covers, and even an official chess set!

VTMtober 6: Nosferatu

VTMtober 6: Nosferatu

Mara is the best information broker in the Gateway City. She looks like a drowning victim, clammy and bedraggled with dark spittle and bloodshot eyes, and her appearance worsens with her Hunger.

On rare nights she looks almost alive. Don’t ask her how.

Inspiration: Mia from Evil Dead (2013).

Non-violent adventures

For Bruce Baugh’s birthday, an idea jam for non-violent adventures.

World of Darkness: Ghost Hunters

World of Darkness: Ghost Hunters, a mortal sourcebook for 20th Anniversary Edition rules, now on Kickstarter.

The Good Place

Steve Dee looks at what we can learn from The Good Place. Featuring a callback to The Night Watch, the game I swiped my best game idea from.

Vampires Vs. The Bronx

Vampires Vs. The Bronx (trailer) arriving on Netflix on the 2nd, a PG-13 / 12 rated (more thanks to one F-bomb than to the amount of blood on show) horror comedy about gentrification, with the vampires as both metaphor and actively involved. The comedy side lands well, and better than the horror, I laughed quite a bit but there’s only really one good “Oh no...” moment for me.

It shows the Bronx as a community, though not a perfect one (with a subplot that reminds me of Attack The Block) and has some nice callbacks to vampire stories, notably Blade, while the setup of the kids versus bumpy-headed and mostly obvious vampires is pretty The Lost Boys as well. (And ’Salem’s Lot too! I just rewatched both miniseries. No mention I could see for Vampire In Brooklyn though.)

VTMtober 5: Sire and Childe

VTMtober 5: Sire and Childe

Vampires choose childer for any reason from love to hate, utility to curiosity, and not least guilt. But no matter why your sire chose you, however noble or cruel, this is the person who damned you.

V5: Nobody's Home 1.01

Vampire: The Masquerade

Nobody’s Home

1.01: You Can’t Go Home Again

The first session of my new chronicle started late due to an assortment of video conferencing issues, mostly an introduction for one of the new players with the newest character. Not my best pacing work. I plan to start next session with all remaining introductions.

VTMtober 2020 4: Lasombra

VTMtober 4: Lasombra

“Brother” was a religious man in life. Now he knows there is a Hell, and it is closer than you think.