The Watch House

#RPGaDAY2021 Vampire 31V: Thank

31V: THANK

Having thanked people in my main post, I’ve had more than two months to come up with a good response for Thank for the Darkness family of games, but...

I did briefly consider an homage to the in-joke Special Thanks in early books, as getting in there is a lifelong ambition...

What do vampires have to be thankful for?

Rare is the vampire who thanks their sire for the Embrace. Even the Sabbat and the Lancea et Sanctum aren’t universally big fans of the ones who damned them. If you want gratitude from somebody you introduce to being a supernatural type I suggest you try Mages.

They also don’t generally take the time to thank the people they take blood from. It gets awkward.

If the Kindred have anything to be thankful for, it would be the small human moments when they can honestly connect with someone or even do some small good.

For all their power and longevity, we should be thankful that we are not like them.

2.21: Take The Stage

With Nocturne threatened by the Camarilla, from surprise health inspections to attacks on customers, who can the coterie ask for help?

2.22: Thank You And Good Night

One way or another, this ends tonight. With the backing of some Anarch coteries, the group plan to take on the new master of the Rack while others strike at other Camarilla leaders’ assets. They might be able to stop the attacks, or they might fail and fall, but they have to try.

#RPGaDAY2021 31: THANK

31: THANK

And thank you to...

My cousin for giving me her copy of City Of Thieves, my brother for GMing my first (and his only) session with our cousins, them for playing my first session as GM, the player I had in primary school, the players and GM I had in high school and am still in touch with some of, on into college and beyond.

The vast majority of players I’ve GMed for and GMs I’ve played with.

The writers, artists, designers and other creators who give us things to play. Not least the ones who have let me take part in that.

The organisers of societies, clubs, conventions and online spaces, as well as events like RPGaDAY.

The people I know through games who have been there when I needed help.

The readers of this blog.

Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay, cropped

Same time next year!

Monday, 30 August 2021

#RPGaDAY2021 Vampire 30V: Mention

30V: MENTION

As noted in my main post, RPGs often cite their influences for inspirational reading and viewing, and sometimes become influences themselves. With recommendations and quotes as well, the World Of Darkness references quite a lot. And it’s become an influence in turn. Blade basically drops the existing character into a Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle, and John Wick is a Vampire movie despite not being a vampire movie.

One reference stands out though. On the back cover of the first edition rulebook, in the same format as the real quotes:

“No one holds command over me. No man. No god. No Prince. What is a claim of age for ones who are immortal? What is a claim of power for ones who defy death? Call your damnable hunt. We shall see who I drag screaming to Hell with me.”

Günter Dörn, Das Ungeheuer Darin

This reference (translation: The Monster Inside, in apparently wonky German) is fictitious. It returns on the back cover of V5 without the reference.

A second quote appears in the second edition Players Guide:

“What are we? The Damned childer of Caine? The grotesque lords of humanity? The pitiful wretches of eternal Hell? We are the vampires, and that is enough. I am vampire, and that is more than enough. I am that which must be feared, worshipped and adored. The world is mine – now and forever!”

And as far as I know that’s all we ever got. It’s never been established what this is in the setting.

Who is Günter Dörn? What is Das Ungeheuer Darin?

From the two quotes it sounds like the manifesto of an independent vampire, possibly a philosophical Autarkis. And not one who’s separated himself from the Camarilla because he’s too humane for it. My first thought would be that it’s something he published which he knew would, or already had, made him the subject of a Blood Hunt for breaching the Masquerade. The first edition also has the opening letter from V.T. to W.H. which also has the writer knowingly sharing too many secrets, so it’s a recurring theme.

(It would later be established that Dracula was written with notes from Vlad Tepes himself. Vampires fictionalise themselves and both risk and reinforce the Masquerade.)

“Hey, this description doesn’t sound like you at all!”

It could also be a work of fiction in the setting, such as a novel or a play. It could be a dramatisation of the importance of the Masquerade for the benefit of the Camarilla judging by the second quote, but it might equally be a rousing call to freedom.

The Book Of Nod and other in-character texts optionally exist in the published form in-game. I tend to have the Book scattered and incomplete, not something you can get a complete paperback of. The Testament of Longinus in Vampire: The Requiem is well distributed, on the other hand.

Vampires are pretty theatrical, as the name of the official LARP system Mind’s Eye Theatre demonstrates. The Vampyre being dramatised led to trap doors in theatres being known as “vampire traps”. Bram Stoker put on a staged reading of Dracula, supposedly for copyright purposes but it is often suggested as an attempt to persuade his actor-managed employer Sir Henry Irving to put on a play version.

At quarter past ten on a Tuesday morning.

The most organised group in Interview With The Vampire is a theatre troupe hiding in plain sight.

Mind’s Eye Theatre LARP adventure The Elder’s Revenge features a play called The Prince about the rise and fall of a political figure being suppressed for coming too close to Camarilla reality - and comes with the complete play.

And vampires put on shows for themselves as well.

2.19: Publish And Be Damned

Shane’s broodmate brings in a translated copy of Das Ungeheuer Darin. Someone is planning to publish and distribute it.

2.20: Closing Time

A new master of the Rack wins out, and strikes against Nocturne and other rivals to his personal favourite club. The street outside is suddenly in need of new gas pipes.

#RPGaDAY2021 30: MENTION

30: MENTION

Recommended reading and viewing in roleplaying games, and retelling staple stories.

Starting with Appendix N in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons it’s common for RPGs to list some examples of their influences and stories that could fit in the setting and tone. Vampire: The Masquerade first edition added quotes as well, from Schopenhauer to the Cure (and a surprising amount of Indigo Girls) and the original Storytellers Handbook had a piece on song choices.

You can also find references, in-jokes, expy characters and direct lifts in the public domain. Many superhero games with a new setting have “cover versions” of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Iron Man and some others, with various degrees of difference, as example characters to show what they look like in the system. Given how many Superman expies there are in the DC, Marvel and other comics universes they’re in good company.

Licenced games have an obvious list of relevant works, but they can also refer to additional sources the work draws from, like Star Wars games talking about The Hero’s Journey and The One Ring discussing historical sources of stories that influenced Middle-earth and using them for artistic references.

And it goes the other way too. There’s a lot of Dungeons & Dragons in fantasy fiction created since it came out even in series that aren’t based on the creators’ campaigns, and a lot of Vampire: The Masquerade in some vampire media in the last thirty years - and John Wick is a Vampire: The Masquerade movie without being a vampire movie.

There are also well-known storylines that get regular workouts as well. It can be a lot of fun to see how these particular characters deal with a familiar plot. The trick with an RPG is to change it enough that the players don’t just go “oh, it’s this” and proceed from there.

Buy-in helps as well. “Hey, do you want to do The One Where Everybody Acts Out Of Character?”

With multiple protagonists, RPGs are more likely to do Seven Samurai / The Magnificent Seven / Battle Beyond The Stars than Red Harvest / Yojimbo / A Fistful Of Dollars / Last Man Standing (the last one taking the story back to its original milieu by accident) or its comedy subset ¡Three Amigos! / A Bug’s Life / Galaxy Quest.

I’ve seen a few adventures which fit the Die Hard In An X model too.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer has quite a few obvious influences overall and in specific episodes, doing most of the genre series staples like evil twins and What If...? parallel universes and time loops, so with The Watch House I picked up some other genre classics like “discovering you’re in a TV show” and “Days Of Future Past” and “everybody gets what they always wanted”.

The fact that Supernatural went on to do all of these as well kinda proves my point...

Sunday, 29 August 2021

#RPGaDAY2021 Vampire 29V: System

29V: SYSTEM

Having talked about the various systems in the Darkness family of games before, and the Circulatory System in Flavour, fighting the system. Playing in, around, and against the Camarilla.

The Camarilla in Vampire: The Masquerade is a pretty obvious model for a secret society of vampires who grow more powerful with age - it has a cardinal rule about secrecy and the ones in charge tend to be old. Having one vampire in charge of a city gives you a clear antagonist and/or questgiver. Since there are clans it follows that often there’s a council of clan representatives, and in turn that they’re generally old too. Yet another in-game reason for the theme of the old clashing with the new.

Some details which don’t follow as clearly from the basic setup include the Boon favour economy being heavily codified and overseen by the court gossips, and the official position of not thinking about the existence or otherwise of the ancient vampire founders established in the game backstory.

The coins in John Wick are very much Boons, but overseen by the Keeper of Elysium instead.

Some things became standard by accident, several after being established in the first big example setting Chicago By Night. It has the Primogen being largely independent, though not the quickly standardised setup where they’re representatives of their clans. It codified most cities having a Sheriff too, and this goes back to the Dark Ages setting. While a system like the Camarilla having enforcers makes sense, the original Sheriff was the nickname for one who acted like a stereotypical corrupt Western lawman. He basically existed as someone for the Anarchs to hate.

Which he did really well.

The Anarchs started as the default player position, in opposition to the Camarilla as they were generally younger and closer to Humanity and not entirely happy to lose expectations for their political systems like getting to vote. They had their share of monsters, hypocrites and potential sellouts along with sincere and idealistic heroic types, some of whom had ideas for a better system.

Of course a better system doesn’t make for a great game, so when we got an Anarch city book in Los Angeles By Night it wasn’t all that different, with multiple Barons for each major centre instead of one Prince who were a little bit more accountable as a result. The Camarilla got a lot of worldbuilding and the Anarchs mostly got to be against it. So the Anarch game felt like it was trying to break the setting with nothing to replace it with.

One of the appeals of the Anarchs is that you can stick it to The Man and The Man will actually notice.

With its formal rules and titles the Camarilla quickly became the standard for LARPs, to the extent of the first global club being called The Camarilla. This was reflected in tabletop games, with PCs more likely to quietly resent that Camarilla than try to overthrow it. Taking down the Prince remained popular, but more likely to take the throne yourself.

Before long the Sabbat became playable as well, with their goal being the defeat of the Antediluvians that the Camarilla didn’t talk about, and the conflict between the Camarilla and Sabbat moved to centre stage. The first two sourcebooks for Revised edition were for the Camarilla and Sabbat, with Anarchs getting one a couple years later.

And apart from having a goal and some cultish beliefs which both require more explanation to new players than the Camarilla, the Sabbat also didn’t look so different from them in terms of elders bossing childer around and advisers arguing about what the leader of a city should do.

Vampire: The Requiem started with five Covenants who could work together or fight each other as part of an overall loose vampire society. The closest Anarch equivalent, the Carthian Movement has a number of alternatives, some of which make for nicer cities than the Invictus and other Covenants generally offer, and some very much don’t.

Now in V5 the Camarilla has become more exclusive, the Sabbat has pretty much stopped running cities and the cult side has spread, and the Anarchs are one of the usual well-supported playstyles again. Can they bring down the Prince? And can they make something better?

2.17: Wake Up

Multiple Camarilla ancillae look to take the master of the Rack’s position, and neonates who have been loyal until now start to question that choice as the barbed words look set to escalate to violence.

2:18: It Has To Start Somewhere

The Sheriff knows that Alice is a dhampir. Who betrayed her? And why would another elder offer to help her escape?

#RPGaDAY2021 29: SYSTEM

29: SYSTEM

System matters. How much it matters depends how much you use it. But even if you handwave a lot, you still probably went through character generation and the like and that set up some expectations.

The first RPG I ran for more than a couple of sessions was TOON, where the system absolutely pushes the Looney Tunes playstyle to the extent that when you run out of Hit Points you Fall Down - and get back up again fully restored three minutes later.

All systems, even the simplest, have effects on playstyle whether intended or not. Generic games still have specific feels.

Some of my favourite playstyle pushing rules include Drama Points in Buffy The Vampire Slayer which balance White Hats with Heroes and give rules for moments like Giles having an Orb of Thesulah as a paperweight, Stress Dice in ALIEN to model characters getting ever jumpier and being able to lower them by looking forlornly at photos of loved ones, and the initiative system in C7’s Doctor Who where you’re ranked by what you’re doing and talking always goes first, then running, then doing anything else except fighting, and then fighting.

Saturday, 28 August 2021

#RPGaDAY2021 Vampire 28V: Solo

28V: SOLO

Whether solitary or lonely, the vampire is often alone.

Games with small player bases will naturally focus more on personal concerns, which for game like the Vampire family can add a lot and change the tone. Rose Bailey ran a Vampire: The Requiem game for two players, Never Let Go, before taking over the series.

As noted when talking about coteries in Trust, vampires in fiction and in the games generally don’t socialise well, being mostly solitary or familial. Masquerade spinoff games generally run with this, with most board and card games being competitive and most computer games so far being solo. In a call back to my gaming history, V5 has computer ‘gamebooks’ with a bigger wordcount than physical gamebooks could hold but a similar play structure. (Try the Night Road and Out For Blood sample chapters.) The biggest spinoff is LARP, where of course you’re in a large group... but usually focused on your private schemes.

And as Angel demonstrates, better for brooding.

I discussed gamebooks and one-to-one games in my main post as well. The note about the speed of going through plot still very much applies.

2:16 Solo

Paris takes a call from an old friend, a Touchstone, who needs her help. While she trusts the coterie she doesn’t think it would be safe to bring them all and risk the attention they attract.

#RPGaDAY2021 28: SOLO

28: SOLO

And this is where I came in, with gamebooks and then the next step of one-to-one games.

Yesterday was the 39th anniversary of The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain, first of the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks that started me off and led to my first sessions as player and GM. One of my small claims to fame was telling Ian Livingstone about John Robertson’s adventure game comedy show The Dark Room when both were here in Edinburgh for assorted festivals, as they’ve since gone to appear together at conventions.

And I’ve still never gotten through that maze.

One-to-one gaming allows a character focus you normally have to share. But that focus goes both ways. With very little conversation about what to do, in-character dialogue only going back and forth, and less waiting around for their turn, a single focused player will charge through plot at great speed. The obvious downside to a very small group is that if one player out of four misses a session you can go ahead, less so with one of three, two, or one.

Also, Han Solo. And Napoleon Solo. And Ksenia Solo. And Hope Solo.

Bonus round:

Dream - I use omens and portents in games but very rarely dreams, as dream logic is unreliable, the “it was all a dream” ending is pretty hard to get away with nowadays, and most of the dreams I remember are disappointingly mundane. That said, the Sandman “instant adventure” RPG series from Pacesetter never made it past set one of ten but I’ve always been curious about where it was going.

Open - After various games with players keeping secrets from each other, I prefer an open approach to this. If someone can’t separate player and character knowledge this can be an issue.

Delve - I still delve into my RPG magazine collections. I’d happily run the Golden Heroes adventures from White Dwarf, for example.

Runeslinger on Dream

Friday, 27 August 2021

#RPGaDAY2021 Vampire 27V: Fraction

27V: FRACTION

Vampires and other creatures are divided by supernatural type, political allegiance, age, power level, and by human distinctions as well.

For example, Paris is a vampire, a Toreador, an Anarch, a neonate of the Twelfth Generation, a member of Nocturne, and in life had a political affiliation, a religion she was raised in, and a favourite bamd.

Political alliances break into factions, which are basically fractions of what they were in terms of power.

And they’re usually fractious - a holdover from when fraction, which means breaking in Middle English from the Latin for fragment or portion, could also mean a break as in a disagreement. I learned something today!

Who wants to stop them working together?

2:15: Are You With Us?

With the master of the Rack dead and hunting threatened, this could the time to strike. But will Nocturne and its people be safe if the Anarchs go on the offensive?

#RPGaDAY2021 27: FRACTION

27: FRACTION

Multiplication and division and fractions are best avoided in game mechanic maths, I feel. Multiplying stake through the heart or beheading damage in Buffy is fun, but doing it for regular attacks always felt a bit fiddly.

What fraction of the games I own have I run, let alone played? Not a big one these days. The first RPG I bought and have never run was Monster Horrorshow circa age 13, but it was still rare before the era of disposable incomes. I’ve only run three of the five original World Of Darkness games, with Werewolf and Wraith for one short run each.

Bonus round:

Practice - GMing, playing, improv, systems, all get better with practice.

Kindle - I don’t know how to start a campfire for real, but I do know about dry kindling.

Group - Unless they’re specifically meant to be unique, I make sure to have a few other PC-type groups in settings besides the PCs. I talked about this with vampires here, but it also applies to adventuring parties, super teams, starship crews, bands and more. The tricky part is having multiple NPCs talking, but this also still works with individual NPCs. Having a clear signifier such as an image helps, as does switching somewhat to narrative - “Anson says to watch out in the warehouse, and Belle nods in agreement before continuing...”

CHVRCHES, Screen Violence

The fourth album by CHVRCHES, Screen Violence contains more perfect additions to a Vampire soundtrack.

“I don’t wanna say

That I’m afraid to die”

And the 70s horror deepfake advert also raises the bar for They Came From Beyond The Grave! streaming show title sequences.

Thursday, 26 August 2021

#RPGaDAY2021 Vampire 26V: Theory

26V: THEORY

Having discussed out of character theories in my main post, in-character theories. I discussed the origins of vampires in Flood, but there are plenty of other unanswered questions out there.

Masquerade has more of these with its ongoing metaplot, while Requiem still has deep mysteries but they don’t rear up anew. (See the deep dive into the Requiem Clanbooks for an example.)

Can vampires be cured?

In Masquerade this came up in the first edition fiction and was a big topic in the original Storytellers Handbook, along with Golconda and other options to fight the curse. It fell by the wayside but never quite went away, and as of V5 Thin-Bloods in particular can cure themselves taking the old method of killing the sire. The adventure for GURPS Vampire: The Masquerade had an NPC trying this with her sire, failing, and moving on to her grandsire, and so on. One of the Time Of Judgment series for the end of Revised, The Red Sign, introduced a complicated magical method. The Gehenna sourcebook is no longer canon, but are the other Time Of Judgment books? Maybe...

In Requiem, the Ordo Dracul are looking into it. The Chronicler’s Guide has a short section on Transcendence chronicles as well, with advice on adjusting the rules to focus on it. The quest to become human is a focus of Promethean: The Created and you could draw ideas from there.

Is the end really upon us?

Every generation thinks the end is upon them. With an ongoing game line Gehenna is off the table again... but it might also be going on right now.

Are Thin-Bloods a sign of the End Times?

If the End Times are here, I suppose they could be.

The ability to go out in daylight, to produce new powers that can in some cases affect other vampires, and to have children, are all pretty scary to older vampires who are used to the weaker generations being less powerful.

I ran with the latter as a plot hook for my first V5 chronicle, with a vampire scientist hunting Thin-Bloods in an attempt to study, steal and gain their power, a reverse of the practice of Diablerie where vampires of weaker generations drain the stronger. I’m not sure it could have worked, but the Thin-Blood player character didn’t want to find out.

There are many more questions out there to answer. Some games don’t really address these matters at all, but even in a night-to-night game of Anarch politics and worrying about finding blood a character might still wonder what it all means and if there’s a way out.

2:14: Children

A vampire from the Church of Caine approaches Alice during an Anarch meeting, seeking her advice. One of his flock is a Thin-Blood, and it seems she might be pregnant.

#RPGaDAY2021 26: THEORY

26: THEORY

Theory discussions cover every aspect of RPGs. One big set is looking at player styles and preferences. Eddy Webb looks at a number of these in his presentation Your Game Sucks (2012 edition) including the Gamist/Narrativist/Simulationist model and the D&D survey model, as well as his own based on large-scale games like LARPs, MMOs and chats but also applicable at the tabletop, with the proviso that players’ interests shift, sometimes in the moment. With that in mind I pitch games with what I tend to include and exclude, managing expectations from the beginning.

Bonus round:

Play - What we’re here to do. But in the context of roleplaying games play has two meanings. We play the game, and we play a role. Which takes precedent varies with players, GMs, and times.

Origin - I’ve talked about how I started with RPGs, but before that I was already primed. I had Star Wars wallpaper, I remember having Tolkien read to us, I was always more 2000 A.D. than the Beano.

Renew - A new game, edition, or group can bring a lot to the table.

Wednesday, 25 August 2021

Bloodhunt early access, September 7th

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt opens wih early access on September 7th, as revealed at GamesCon along with the clan Toreador trailer.

Maybe I can not die in the first third of a match! After a few days, at a quiet time.

Marvel Midnight Suns

Midnight Suns is a forthcoming turn-based tactical video game from Marvel, based on the Midnight Sons series from deep in the 90s where supernatural heroes came together to fight Lilith, mother of monsters.

As you can have multiple characters in play, it has a pretty big cast. It picks up some unsurprising Avengers and new characters like Nico Minoru from Runaways to go with characters who were in the comics like Doctor Strange, Blade and Ghost Rider, although it goes with Robbie Reyes rather than Danny Ketch or Johnny Blaze. And as this team concept is a 90s flashback, Wolverine.

It also introduces a new character to play, the Hunter, a rogue child of Lilith. As the first Marvel character called Lilith was the heroic daughter of Dracula, having Lilith’s own child fight against her is kind of a deep cut.

Not 100% sold on the New Orleans Saints colour scheme.

#RPGaDAY2021 Vampire 25V: Welcome

25V: WELCOME

“Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own free will!”

Bram Stoker, Dracula

Vampires are territorial, but in order to have a functional society for the games they have to get together sometimes. As well as the neutral ground of Elysium and the Rack (see Safety) the Camarilla has the Tradition of Hospitality in which anyone recognised as a guest is safe in another domain. The Anarchs and Sabbat do not acknowledge it officially, but can still make agreements for safe passage.

The idea of vampires requiring invitations to enter did not become the bane of any of the clans, though it’s a popular house rule for the Tzimisce. (It would fit the Ravnos in V5 as well.)

Not today, thank you.
(I spared you the ’Salem’s Lot version.)

And a public space has its own requirements on both sides.

2:13: Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome

A new academic year means students away from home with spending money for the first time, the best week for nightclubs seeking new customers and vampires seeking new blood. All of the major clubs on the Rack are running promotions, as are non-Camarilla clubs like Nocturne. And the master of the Rack just turned up dead.

#RPGaDAY2021 25: WELCOME

25: WELCOME

How do you welcome new players?

Most of my experience here comes from public-facing game groups, notably GEAS (the University of Edinburgh RPG society) but also club nights, as well as conventions. For a club, start by showing inclusiveness and diversity. Have introductory events at Welcome Week for freshers, and at the starts of semesters, as well as other things like GMing workshops. Conpulsion is one of these - having games new people can come into and try helps there too.

And do try to make introductory one-shots welcoming, not just to new players to that specific game but to new players in general.

This is easier for some games than others. D&D has known expectations. Licenced RPGs have the advantage of familiarity. One-shot-friendly games naturally work well although they’re not so good if it’s all campaigns all year from then on.

Games with big and unfamiliar settings ask a bit more. There’s a reason that there have been four quickstart adventures across Vampire: The Masquerade and Requiem and three of them start with the PCs waking up after becoming vampires with no idea what happened to them. And those still aren’t great introductions to the core gameplay, where PCs are more established and expected to know the basics. Following from advice from Rose Bailey, a good tactic is to run some other kind of story such as a heist, where the PCs being vampires gives them some extra options and complications and gives them a chance to show off as well.

Bonus round:

Tradition - Don’t do something just because it’s traditional.

Fresh - Or because it isn’t. Try it, sure, but don’t drop everything old.

Box - I’m old enough to like boxed sets for core rules, but I also acknowledge that in many case they weren’t necessary and nice hardback books are generally better unless a game has a lot of specialty dice or other components. But they still give that nice “this is a game” feel, and things like separate player and GM books have their advantages.

Runeslinger on Tradition