Chimerical Realm

How I hope all my games end If there's one thing I really can't stand, it's a damn metaplot . Now, in theory, these should be great. A good metaplot in an RPG can be a wonderful tool to help make the world feel alive and dynamic and chaotic in a way that only the best Game Masters can hope to emulate. Probably the best use of metaplot in service of a game is with Pendragon and its Great Pendragon Campaign , and the players follow the story of Arthurian Romance beat by beat, from the rise and fall of Uther through the Sword in the Stone and the conquests of Arthur to the Grail Quest until finally to the Battle of Camlann. But, too often, they just get in the way of the game. For one thing, a lot of GM's feel compelled to stick to the published plot as much as possible. And I really doubt any of the designers of these games intend their plot to be YOUR plot. Looking at Pendragon again, there was a question on the forums a while back about Lancelot--a given PC reall...

The Kickstarter campaign for Rifts for Savage Worlds has launched.  Since Requiem has completely turned me off Vampire for a while, my thoughts turn to this other odd love of mine. Like many, certain parts of the game always bugged me. One of the big ones is the economy of the damn setting. For example, I just don't see how Triax can afford to manufacturer and sell a suit of power armor in North America, and get 100 million credits for it. NO ONE has 100 Million Credits. Even for the CS, that's a term used for accounting in national budgets, not something available in hard currency. In fact, I don't buy much of the "mass manufacturing for credit" economy. Instead, land and people are the key to wealth, and most equipment is custom made by skilled artisans. Yes, even Power Armor. Now, from a macro-economic view, this is incredibly wasteful in time, labor, and material; but the economy of Rifts Earth doesn't really work well on the macro scale. So, ...

So, I picked up a copy of Requiem 2nd Edition, hoping to give it a second chance. A lot of people speak very highly of the game, and a Vampire game with a murkier back story, no metaplot, and a stronger Humanity focus sounded perfect. Unfortunately, I don't think this game is for me. I still can't get into it. I've read maybe half of the core book, and I can't bring my self to finish it, not even to do a few "Let's Compare" posts, let along to run it.  This pains me, because it's not the ideas of the game itself that are turning me off. I mean, there are some really awesome ideas in there, that occasionally make the whole thing tolerable. It's the art, and the writing. Most of the art is just boring. There's no passion or anything interesting going on, and the bulk of it looks like clip art or something like that. There's no depth of field or tension in it. I don't think I can adequately express why the art is bad, since I do not ha...

I'm really into Vampire: The Masquerade . I really don't know much about nor am I terribly into Vampire: The Requiem . These are two very, very similar games. Years ago, as Masquerade  was winding down, a friend of mine asked me what some of my issues were with it. As much as I love Masquerade , as the years went by I grew more and more frustrated with many of its elements, and I wasn't terribly shy about sharing these opinions.  Now, this friend of mine was a freelancer for White Wolf at the time--in fact, he's still writing for Onyx Path. I doubt my words had any real impact in the direction Requiem  went, but it was still interesting timing. I assume he was just "taking the temperature of the frustrated fan." You might just get what you want I wanted a murkier and messier origin story, not this "Caine is the origin, everyone knows it; there is no debate." I didn't want Gehenna. I hated the Sabbat, and wanted them to be mysterious and...

In the middle of the 14th Century, the Long Night came to an end. The Black Death struck Europe, and utterly depopulated it. Best guess is that 45-50% of the population died between 1346-1351, but this is an average. Some communities were spared, while others were completely wiped out. The mortals had absolutely no understanding of what was happening, or why. The undead had even less. One night, everything was normal, and their eternal existence continued as before. The next, half their mortals were dead. They had pushed their own population to the breaking point, and could not respond to the catastrophe that was happening around them. Elders seized territory and surviving herd to support themselves and their favorites. Others were cast out to fend for themselves. Mortals began looking for scapegoats, and as the undead should have remembered from the Cultics, once mortals begin looking in the shadows, their time grows short. More childer were cast out to reduce the risk of exposu...

So, what does a world of darkness and stasis, ruled over for eternity by self-proclaimed Elders, actually mean in a game? Well, it means Ignorance, Monotony, and Obedience. Unlike a modern game, where the "truth" of Kindred existence is more or less understood, and a certain degree of toleration and independence is expected, the Long Night character is a prisoner. Not just of the Beast, and not just of geography (though travel is so perilous that few ever leave their home, and even fewer ever return), but of their own perspective and world view. It is this prison, and the tension it generates, that is the heart of a Long Night game. First up is Ignorance. A neonate in the Long Night knows nothing . They know only what their sires deign to tell them. And since they only know what their  sires told them, their knowledge is, at best, limited. Even if they choose to be honest with their childe, the knowledge they impart is most likely completely and laughably wrong. A childe ...

Before we can understand vampire society in the Long Night, we must look at how it came to be. Vampires are static, unchanging creatures, locked in place forever at the moment of their death. But even such things can be forced to change by the sweep of history, and the need for survival. In the earliest days of history, vampires ruled over the mortals as gods. Some proclaimed their divinity, and came to rule directly over the burgeoning cities that were coming into existence. Those of the most powerful blood could claim to be gods themselves, while the weaker were forced to admit they had limitations, and were merely the children of the gods or emanations.  At the time, few mortals cared for such distinctions, and gladly dedicated their lives to these mesmerizing creatures who could bend metal, catch arrows, command beast and man, and whose blood offered life itself. Inevitably, such creatures were unsatisfied with just one city or one tribe, and sought to expand their dominion...

There's something about the published historical setting for Vampire  that doesn't sit right with me. It's been bothering me for a while, but it really came home to me when I was working on my T ransylvania Chronicles series. The Dark Ages, as presented, just didn't work the way I wanted them too. Part of this is comparing what  I thought the Dark Ages were like to what Dark Ages  ultimately presented itself as. I've been a fan of Vampire  for a very long time, and when I read the few brief snippets of information presented to me, an image of the world formed itself. An isolated, benighted existence, defined by a claustrophobic entrapment in the few placed that the undead could feel safe, and lorded over by tyrannical elders whose sovereignty went unquestioned.  A world that would terrify even  the most tyrannical Camarilla Prince or violent Sabbat Ductus. I do understand why the altered this. Above all else, a game needs to be playable  and fun...

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...

A little while ago, I went through and compared the various editions of Vampire: The Masquerade . Unlike, say, D&D, Vampire has, at its core, relatively consistent throughout its versions. But, there are still a number of distinct differences. Some of these were unique to 1st Editions, others occurred as the game shifted from 2nd to Revised . V20, the fourth and (for now) final edition of Vampire  is a bit of an odd beast.  Not really a proper game in its own right, or at least something too large and unwieldy to hand to a new player and say "make a character." It's more properly viewed as an encyclopedia and rules update. While mainly based on Revised , it also borrows a number of ideas from 1st--most notably how Celerity functions. Which is my favorite? Honestly, I pick and choose from all the versions myself. I generally prefer 1st, but I do use the Thaumaturgy and Path rules from Revised/ V20. Which is the best? Well, that's for you to discover. Let...

Soundtrack of the Damned Music has always been one of the backbones of Vampire . The moody atmospherics of the songs blend so well with tales of the damned, that it's unsurprising that it has it's own official soundtrack-- Music from the Succubus Club .  In fact, any given fan probably has at least a dozen albums, soundtracks, mix CD's, and playlists that are their "go to" music for a game, be it table top or LARP. But, I always found the list put together by Rob Hatch for the  Storytellers Handbook  to be particularly fascinating. Personally, it introduced me to some amazing bands I would never have heard of otherwise. Secondly, it's an interesting glimpse into what the original team had in mind for the mood and themes of the game. So, to preserve this, I've gone ahead and created a Spotify Playlist with most of the music.  If you don't have an account, it's free, and I recommend you checking it out. There's some great music on there, t...

As should surprise few who read this blog, I've been on a bit of a solo RPG kick lately. Sure, I still have my semi-regular RPG games, though both the D&D and Fireborn game I'm playing are currently on temporary hiatus. For some reason, I don't feel compelled to blog about THOSE games, but the solo ones inspire me a bit more. It's a different experience, but still a heck of a lot fun. A few months ago, I found a project on Kickstarter for a solo edition-neutral D&D module. Well, it failed to fund, and I only discovered it towards the end of the campaign. Fortunately, the Lair of the Black Dragon is back, and I'm already backing it. Hopefully it will fund this time! Now, I know nothing about the creator, Anthony Dunkin-Moscato or his company, Infinitum3D. I can't find a website for either, and this is one of those dreaded "Ist created, 0 backed" situations. Ok, 2nd created, since this is a relaunch. He claims the work is already done, so...