Mage: The Ascension - Sunrise City

We concluded the Victorian Age time travel miniseries and normal service may resume shortly.

It was touch and go but Cara managed to avoid having to become Queen of California.

Vampire LARP one-shot systems

A request for help with a first Vampire LARP reminded me that, as an observer from a safe distance beyond one-shots, I actually know a bit. Published LARPs, variant systems and the like. Might as well put my links here.

By Night Studios have resources (enough to run a V20-era LARP with a tablet) as well as a quickstart and Storyteller advice.

Published adventures, not many but mostly available on DriveThruRPG

Some free unofficial ones, among other genres

The really really system as used in End Of The Line and Enlightenment In Blood, nice and simple.

Vampire: Empire 2026 1

Vampire: The Masquerade fifth edition

Empire

1. In The Blood

Daisy, Toreador jazz singer and club owner

Silas, Ventrue enforcer

Jesse, Tremere phlebotomist and Circulatory System supplier

Emmet, Hecata researcher

(Echo, Malkavian fortune teller)

New York City.

The equinox, the end of summer, and Kindred in good standing are invited to the ballroom of the Delancey Hotel for an open court with the Prince.

Daisy and Silas hunt in or near her club - Daisy so impresses her victim that he might be a problem later.

Jesse and Emmet deliver blood to a non-Camarilla vampire called Franklin. He seems on edge, but then that’s normal for the trade... right?

The court is busy, maybe thirty vampires and various in-the-know mortals. One notable absence is Ella, head of the System.

The Prince has a warning, and a request for assistance with a hint of a possible favour in return. A new drug has hit the club scene, and Kindred who drink from its users find themselves agitated, tense - reportedly some are overcome by their violent instincts.

Daisy offers to help and... shall we say encourages the others.

Saint, Host of the Rack, confirms there was an incident in one of its clubs, and Thea, host of Paradise Lost, advises them to check with the Anarchs.

Before they can leave, the Malkavian Harpy Colette approaches, clearly shaken by a premonition that Daisy might be another victim soon, three nights from now. Something involving a vampire called Dane that none of them know, and someone else that she can’t see.

Jesse knows the best place to contact Anarch leader Stirling. He arrives soon after being contacted, like he was expecting someone to visit, and takes the group to a lockup nearby.

In a locker bolted to the floor, a vampire lost in a berserker rage...

Hunter: The Reckoning Portlandia session one

During a matter-of-fact discussion of vampires:

Mark, college student trying to understand monsters rationally:

“I’m sorry, I must have missed the ghosts and goblins class at school.”

Violetta, spirit medium from a family connected to a clan of vampires:

“You must not have gone to Catholic school.”

V5 Empire references

Some from New York By Night and other official sources, some old friends

Camarilla

Outsiders

The living

Strangers

Small tweak, use Rebecca Ferguson as Hellene

Hail to the Prince

Mage: The Ascension mic drop

Sunrise City

Snooty member of the Akashayana, Cara’s Mage Tradition of martial artists from 1883: “Let us see what our Tradition learns in the next century. That they let someone like you claim their name.”

Cara: “Well, I don’t wanna brag. So I’ll just kick your ass and you can draw your own conclusions.”

Hell yes proud of that one.

Didi’s player: My sister, my captain, my queen.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Empire 2026

Vampire: The Masquerade fifth edition

Empire

When I am through with you
There won't be anything left

We have...

A Toreador jazz singer turned club owner looking for the soul in music

A Ventrue former labourer looking to move up in the world

A Malkavian seer looking to make a buck with their gift

A Tremere phlebotomist looking for independence from the blood trade

A Hecata scientist looking to challenge death itself

I’ll have to be sure to connect the first three and last two so this doesn’t feel like two games at one table. (Still better than five one-player games!)

Looking to be a less scruffy bottom rung of the ladder game than usual. I’m sure there will be plenty of ways to get them in trouble though, just starting in nicer scenery.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Nocturne 2026-7

Reused placeholder chronicle title subject to change depending on emergent theme

Vampires hunt for blood in a world that looks like ours. They have their own societies, their own laws, their own conflicts, but they also walk among us, trying to hold onto their humanity - to some extent, at least.

Vampire: The Masquerade is a modern horror game where you are the monster. Knowledge of the system and setting are not required, the system is straightforward and the setting is full of mysteries.

CW: Horror and action violence, political and occult themes, metaphorical addiction, uneven power relationships, and blood.

V5 one-shot autumn 2026 edition

Vampires hunt for blood in a world that looks like ours. They have their own societies, their own laws, their own conflicts, but they also walk among us. Tonight, some of them just want to hear a singer's set and have a night out. But things are rarely that easy.

Vampire: The Masquerade is a modern horror game where you are the monster. Knowledge of the system and setting are not required, the system is straightforward and the setting is full of mysteries.

CW: Horror and action violence, occult themes, addiction with possible alcohol and drug use, and blood

VTMDND Bones Of The Empire

Jason Carl demonstrates the D&D version of Vampire: The Dark Ages, from Gen Con 2026. Hopefully we can get the V6 demo back soon too?

(Update: 22nd September)

In the meantime the small number of Blood Points and the various uses for them is interesting - especially having to use one not a Frenzy.

Fun facts about Violetta Rossellini

Going a bit broad on Violetta for Hunter: The Reckoning, spent lunchtime coming up with weird backstory details to drop in casually.

(This is a favourite bit for suitable games, dropping the kind of thing that would be the subject of an adventure in backstory, dating back to a retired Watcher in a Buffy game assuring a new slayer she wasn’t doing as badly as the one who destroyed the world. See also the time I stopped myself doing it in Vampire.)

My family moved to Portland for work when I was five. I went St. Sophia’s Academy. As such I did not get a prom. But I have attended some formal dances and have an invitation to the city debutante ball in three months’ time.

I have at least been to a few slumber parties. And the other girls didn’t always ask me to perform a séance.

I do not currently have a boyfriend. My mother keeps introducing me to young men from good families who she reckons will be healthy. I suspect that this is because I manifested my sight younger than she did and she hopes a grandchild will be more powerful still.

I was raised Catholic, which made it a little awkward when I saw the afterlife. Turns out the ancient Egyptians were right. Just for their time and place, but still.

I believe that death should bring release from pain. I can do something about that, so I will.

As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. (off looks) Apparently it comes from some Victorian politician before Spider-Man.

I have a fake ID, and also there’s one club where they never card me. (off looks) Yes it’s The Coffin.

So far as I know I have met five vampires. One of them is my great-grandfather.

There are a number of doctors in my family and I would like to follow their lead, but am more likely to end up in academia.

My favourite Taylor Swift song is Shake It Off. I know, people expect it to be Bad Blood or Look What You Made Me Do, but come on.

I once met the Devil. (She pauses and looks at one of the others.) So have you.

It was on a book tour.

Hunter: The Reckoning V5, summer 2026

A short summer game, a chance to play the V5 version of Hunter: The Reckoning, briefly considered a gun guy for the most basic option, a book-heavy researcher but we have one already, a thief due to the Underground Creed, recreate Cara but would need a lot of Edges and Perks, settled on an idea from Huntober 2022 for The Unusual Hunter and influenced by Ligeia:

Violetta Rossellini

“I hear the voices of the dead. Victims crying out for justice. Can you help them?”

RPGaDAY 2026 28. Devotion

#RPGaDAY 2026

28. Devotion

28. Devotion: Game you have played the most!

GMed - Due to a long history with it and several year-long runs recently probably Vampire: The Masquerade, though Buffy The Vampire Slayer is the longest I’ve run a series, almost six years.

Played - Star Wars is probably up there, mostly the D6 classic but also tried others (and wanted to go back to the D6 classic). Also a lot of the various Star Trek games almost all with one keen GM, up to Star Trek Adventures currently. Longest single games, there’s the four-year Werewolf: The Apocalypse run with that Star Trek GM and about as long with a Silver Age style Marvel SAGA game.

Autocratik - “If you’ve done every day of #RPGaDAY since it began, this is your 400th entry to the challenge. I feel tired just thinking about that!”

Runeslinger

RPGaDAY 2026 26. Regret

#RPGaDAY 2026

26. Regret

26. One game you regret not trying?

Having read the full adventure series for Orpheus I couldn’t really play it when offered a chance, though it was a few years later. I’d really have to run it.

And scheduling has prevented me playing Buffy and Adventure! at the Nationals, Alien and Mothership in the last two years at GEAS, and more.

As a GM there are... let’s say a few I’d like to get to the table someday. Including a break from “first chance to play this, do something normal” setups for the games I do run, like high society historical Vampire instead of usually scuzzy modern, or going all-in on the black market and thief setup that didn’t come together last year. Running Trinity Continuum would be nice too.

Okay, Orpheus is a good choice for one, as it’s a reference to someone who regrets looking back. Ha ha.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

V5: City Of Angels 41

Vampire: The Masquerade - City Of Angels session 41

Paris got to use her event planning skills for the third time this chronicle, to make it look like we weren’t just hiring a venue as a potential ambush spot.

And on meeting a Nosferatu spy: “Rat? What, were you at the end of the line for nicknames? Or the start?”

Vampire: The Masquerade V6 alpha playtest

Overall, this feels like an edition I could run, with quite a bit of houseruling and throwing some of its changes out entirely. Combat (physical and social) both feel more systemised. Clan Traits push clans too close to classes as is. STs not rolling dice is fine but NPCs having mostly flat difficulty feels a step too far. Coming after one of my favourite edition and getting rid of its biggest innovation, this feels like a step back while trying various new things.

(Also the feedback form really needed some N/A options for STs rather than players, and an Other spot for the list of other RPGs played.)

RPGaDAY 2026 21. Charity

#RPGaDAY 2026

21. Charity

21. Share an RPG charity past or present that moved you.

Tim Bradstreet had his signed early Vampire: The Masquerade art portfolios for sale at the 2011 Grand Masquerade convention in the US and I went to get one to put into the Conpulsion auction here, I mentioned this and he gave me it for free. (I bought another for myself, naturally!) And I was glad to let him know it was the first lot to go for more than £100 that year.

Photo by Martin Ericsson

There was also the time a family illness led to Conpulsion switching charity for the auction, for which I am forever grateful.

And as GM Ian mentions, the long-running Marvel SAGA game where I played Charity Chance, Agent Of SABER!

Autocratik

Runeslinger

RPGaDAY 2026 17. Integrity

#RPGaDAY 2026

17. Integrity

17. A satisfying example of a character’s integrity.

Matthieu Lasalle, doctor turned street medic for the French Revolution turned vampire, died fighting for the rights of the people twice.

Alternate word:

Intensity

I suppose my games are fairly chill usually. I can dial it up for horror and the like, but usually have space for a tension breaker.

Autocratik

Runeslinger

RPGaDAY 2026 16. Composure

#RPGaDAY 2026

16. Composure

16. One thing that will cause a character to lose their composure?

Paris in Vampire: The Masquerade - City Of Angels would love it if she could go a week without discovering some new atrocity being committed by somebody who’s supposed to be on the same side as her.

(So we’ve had questions about breaking Resolve and losing Composure now. How very Chronicles Of Darkness of us!)

Autocratik

Runeslinger

ST starting tips

Five tips, and a bonus, and a second bonus, for VtM but often for city games in general, from Sed8ed Princess