Transylvania Chronicles Redux -- ACT VII

-
Transylvania Chronicles III
Ill Omens
Act VII: Twilight of the Graverobber
(Massive Spoilers)
Summary: It is 1680, nearly 200 years since the characters witnessed the rebirth of Dracula. Maria Asuncion, the last of the Cappadocians and final survivor of the Giovanni purge, comes to the characters seeking sanctuary. If there is a Giovanni character, they are approached separately by their clanmates looking for their aid in hunting down Maria. Word soon spreads of who the characters are protecting, and powerful Kindred from across Europe come to attend a “festival” in the characters domain. There, numerous faction seek to beg, threaten, cajole and bribe the characters to decide the final fate of the Cappadocian. Regardless of their choice, Maria takes matter into her own hands and offers herself up to her foes. Despite this, the decisions the characters made will continue to haunt them going forward.
Key Factors: Final fate of Maria, and which of the various factions--Camarilla, Sabbat, Giovanni, Baali (!), Tremere, etc--the players either worked with or offended in the process.
Initial Thoughts: This was a really solid and fun adventure. I’ll admit, at first I was leery. Another “oh so important NPC” gets involved in the characters lives, oh, this is going to be great. But instead, the characters remain the decisions makers and the stars.  Like Act IV, it’s another party full of powerful NPC’s; only THIS time, they’re coming to the characters, and the characters have the power.


What do the players do with Maria? Honor their agreement and keep her safe? Sell her off to the Giovanni for gold, the Tremere for power, or the Baali for knowledge? Hand her over to the Toreador as a kept pet? Do they make their decisions based on morality, and if so whose morality? For the first time, the Roads and Paths the players are on really do matter, and have an effect of the game. If not morality, than what is their guidepost? Each faction can offer some sort of rewards, but what do the characters really value?
Honestly, I only have a few issues, and all of them are minor. One, is the potential Giovanni character. I like that they included it, but how damn awkward is it for a new player (or at least new character) to be placed in such direct opposition to the rest of the group in their first appearance? It’d be one thing if it was the Lasombra vs. the Ventrue, when they have 500 years of history between them already. As a side note, how damn weird is it that the Sabbat and the Camarilla just sort of...allows the Giovanni to murder the Cappadocians. I mean, I guess you could say that they view it as an intra-clan matter.And, ok, maybe the Venture don’t care about the Cappadocians, but surely a Ventrue cares about a Cappadocian, right?


Finally, I can see how Maria can come across as a “Damsel in Distress,” but honestly she’s really more of a Christ analogue.
Honestly, though, this whole Act reminds me of Sandman “Seasons of Mist” and that’s just fantastic.
Fixes:
Don’t really have one. It’s weird, but this is the first Act in all of the Chronicles that I’d run more or less as written. Now, of course, it’d need to be customized--but that’s something the Act explicitly calls for. You’d want to bring in significant NPC’s based on each character’s past, and bribe and pressure them based on their own desires and previous actions. Even better, it points out how various decisions here will affect the subsequent Acts in Book III.


Ideally, I’d love to base this around party dynamics. In most troupes I’ve played with, a “party leader” naturally emerges, generally based on the one player most willing to make decisions. This character would be the guardian on Maria, and it’s the other characters getting the pressure from the NPC’s. So, there would be real arguments among the players, perhaps based on their own agendas, and the various secret bribes they are receiving behind the other players backs.


Long story short, this is the first Act that I WANT to run. Even if I didn’t end up running the Chronicles themselves, this Act is going to show up in any Chronicle of Ages I end up running.


Seriously, Twilight of the Graverobber is like a breath of fresh air.

(Transylvania Chronicles III: Ill Omens, written by Reid Schmadeka with Brendan Moran. Published by White Wolf Publishing, Inc. 1999. Available for purchase at drivethrurpg.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Transylvania Chronicles Redux

-
Image
Here is the list of all my posts for my series on the  Transylvania Chronicles . The experiment didn't really pan out the way I wanted, but it was still an enjoyable and enlightening read. Hopefully other Storytellers will find these posts to be of some interest If you're a player who might play these, please note that each of these posts is full of spoilers. They were written from the point of view of a potential storyteller, so please do not read these if you are planning to play. For everyone else, here they are. Get it here I started off with the read through of Transylvania by Night. This is still an excellent resource, if perhaps overly ambitious. I wish they had focused more on a smaller area, such as Transylvania itself. Instead, the book seeks to cover the entirety of Eastern Europe, with mixed results. I'd still recommend it for anyone interested in running a Dark Ages chronicle, no matter where you wish to set it. Introduction . Chapters
Read more

Transylvania Chronicles Redux -- Act I

-
Image
Transylvania Chronicles I Dark Tides Rising Act I: The Making of Princes (Massive Spoilers) Summary The characters are summoned to Buda-Pest to meet their would be Patron (decided by Coterie Concept). En route, they come across a slave auction and witness a slave escaping; they can choose to intervene or not. They are confronted by a mad Malkavian prophet foretelling their involvement in great event to come. Their patron assigns them the task of building a fortress, and they are given money and men to accomplish this. As they travel to the build site, they are ambushed on the road, destroying their men, supplies, and wealth. A Myca Vykos provides them aid, and they meet with a local Prince. When they get to the building site, they meet Lucita and Anatole, who help them acquire ancient tablets (a “subplot” from their patron). The players begin building, and need to recruit Zelios, a master architect and Kindred. Short on funds, Myca Vykos again appears and offers them fina
Read more

Transylvania Chronicles Redux -- Act III

-
Image
Transylvania Chronicles I Dark Tides Falling Act III: The Death of Princes (Massive Spoilers) Summary : Players are Princes. They gather to discuss recent rumors of Gypsys, the Turks invading, and the growth of the Inquisition in the west. Anatole and Lucita arrive and fill them in on more recent events (Anarch uprising, death of Lasombra, peasant revolts, etc.). Their sires approach the PC’s and demand a Blood Oath. Players are tasked with a “simple” job--help Nova Arpad capture a thief and return various pieces of jewelry.  They track the thief to a gypsy camp. Receive the fortune. Inquisitors interrupt, and they fight. They retrieve the thief (?) from the Inquisitors. No matter what, they fail in some way. Enraged, sires strip them of their domains. More prophecy. Dragomir approaches them about diablerizing the Tzimisce Antediluvian. Players either assist or seek to hinder the anarchs. Key Factors : Players fail their sires, but can not strike back against them di
Read more