Chimerical Realm

For Deirik, Eirik, Ygvard, and Boldulf, the Summer passes relatively uneventfully. They work as individuals or as a group on their skills and on generating a distribution network for the Fugue, as that seems to be the best road towards amassing greater wealth for them. In Autumn, come harvest time, Lord Krogan calls the Men into his temple. Usually this means he has a mission for them, and this time is no different. Krogan informs them that there's a town named Rulla within his territory, but fairly close to the border he shares with Torvald the Betrayer, that is due for its harvest tithe to him. Not only has he not received that tithe or any messengers from that town, but the messengers he has sent there himself have not returned. At this point, he's concerned that there's something wrong with Rulla, or at the very least on the road between Rulla and Alucard, and wishes the Men of Mjarn to investigate.

Deirik, Eirik, Ygvard, and Boldulf finally return to Alucard after raiding the East coast of the Sea of Pelluria with loot and casks of Fugue in hand. They bring the loot to Lord Krogan who picks and chooses the items that he wants as his share, and leaves a good amount for the Men of Mjarn and their crew. Krogan also gives his blessing to trading the Fugue in his territory as long as he gets a cut of that as well. Eirik realizes that to really get the gears turning on the Fugue trade, it's a lot of legwork. He also realizes that there are 12 other crewmen expecting their cut of the loot and 12 casks of Fugue to be distributed. Putting the two together, Eirik and Deirik convince the crew that they can take a cut of the items that they brought back *or* they can each take their own cask of Fugue and earn much more as they establish a customer base and a distribution network of their own. Each of the crew, not afraid of a little extra work, takes a cask and heads off to seek their ...

With their boat beached after escaping The Maw of the Pelluria, Eirik takes some time and evaluates the repairs necessary to ensure the rest of their journey doesn't still end at the bottom of the sea. With the damage done, he estimates it will take him around 3 days to repair it. Eirik sets himself to the task while Deirik, Ygvard, and Boldulf help establish a temporary camp with the rest of the crew.

As the harsh Northern Winter abates, Eirik finds that Kiro, the hobgoblin sergeant he's spoken to the most and accompanied him on his recent outing to take down the bandits, has expressed desire to accompany him on his adventures and be his right hand man. Deirik has learned some new skills as a brand new Nephilim (reminder: 3.5 Assassin & Avenging Knife hybrid). Ygvard is a brand new Legate, though his path is not one of true faith and piety in the Shadow but that of a path to power. Boldulf feels more in touch with the wolf inside of him, but feels like he may have lost some humanity in the process.

For this Winter, the Men of Mjarn spend it in Alucard. The men have discussed the need for additional funds, mostly in the form of trade goods (according to the setting). As such, each one takes on a job to generate some income to fuel their adventuring. Eirik, with his brand new (to him) smithy, spends the winter repairing vardatches, daggers, and any other metal items that are brought to him and his business. As a highly skilled blacksmith, it's not long before word is spread of his capabilities which brings the customers from throughout the town. Though, it's not just his skill, but the fact that he's a memeber of Krogan's elite squad that brings other customers who seek to gain favor with him, offering gifts, bargains, and family members to get on his good side. Aside from his income and the distractions his customers provide, Eirik can't seem to get his mind off of the boats that he "reclaimed" from the brigands shortly before Winter and the thought...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 8 Exhausted and drained, Hanson stumbled into her haven, a small apartment in the basement of the offices she shared with Gina. Dawn was less than an hour away, and the desperate need for sleep was ready to overpower her. The lights suddenly came on, and a voice said to her “pushing it a little close, aren’t you?” Gypsy sat smugly in the only chair in the place. She was not only Hanson’s sire, the vampire who had turned her, but also her “boss”—the Prince’s top enforcer. “What the fuck do you want, Gyp?” “Just to make sure my favorite childe is alive and well. Oh, and to ask you just what the hell you think you’re doing?” “My damn job.” “Really? Your job? Since when does your job entail getting into a brawl in front of a cop? Or mixing it up with Cora of all people?” Hanson merely shrugged. She didn’t feel the need to explain herself to anyone. Her childish defiance only incr...

Upon Eirik's return to Alucard, he maintained his focus on the future. He requested Lord Krogan obtain some ore from Steel Hill from which he intended to make better weapons for himself and his brother, Deirik. Unfortunately, this would take time. Lord Krogan could initiate the trade negotiations, but the ore would not arrive until after the coming Winter. A few days later, while seeing his family come in and out of the warehouse in which they were living, Eirik was visited by Lord Krogan. When he arrived, Krogan told Eirik to come with him to the Workman's District. As they progressed, Krogan and Eirik discussed the coming Winter and how Eirik may best utilize his time. It wasn't long before the two of them came to a small smithy already well stocked not only with the items Eirik would need to ply his trade, but also a number of vardatches and daggers to be repaired. As Eirik explored, he found that there was also a small one-man apartment attached to the back of it.

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 7 In the last post , Hanson finally got some much-needed information. The prompt for the next scene is: Suffer betrayal by an Actor; face a fight as a you try to escape or avenge yourself. Using Mythic , I determined that the Actor in question is Blaine, the well-connected Toreador who serves as Dona’s “patron.” Finally, I use Covetous Poet’s Adventure Creator to determine where the scene takes place. It was a good thing it was a weeknight. From Thursday to Saturday, the Voodoo Lounge was one of the most popular places in the city, at least for the young, beautiful, and rich. And even Hanson didn’t meet the requirements. But fortunately, tonight was a “quiet” one, at least by their standards. Which meant the line didn’t extend too far out the door, and that once Hanson was in, she wasn’t crushed by the crowds. Blaine was there, of course. Like she expected. She had done a check on the place a whil...

Ygvard spends his first few days back in Alucard continuing to read the Tome of The Shadow. He still doesn't know if it's fact, fiction, or a combination of the two, but it makes some intriguing arguments that lead him to believe that Izrador could *possibly* be a god worthy of worship. Could it be that Izrador is truly fighting for the survival of this world and knows that the suffering he causes now is for the greater good of breaking the veil that separates Aryth from the heavens? Is he truly doing all he can to prevent the situation from getting even worse while genuinely sorrowful that it's gotten this bad? The Tome makes a convincing argument that the answer to both of these questions is, indeed, yes.

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 6 In the last post , Hanson was suddenly ambushed. Her attacker was a man with burning tattoos, whose flames could have ended her. She triumphed, but is still left with more questions than answers. Her best lead at this point is the tattoos themselves—they are certainly unusual, and may even be unique. The prompt for the next scene is: Convince an Actor ally of the foe to betray them. On a failure, face a Fight. As of now, Hanson doesn’t know who is behind the events that have been plaguing Dona and her the past few nights. I decided that whomever she goes to for information next will be the ally, and that, no matter what happens as a result of the scene, she will discover who the foe is. Which raises the immediate question of “to whom does Hanson go regarding the tattoos?”  There’s no defined NPC in the game yet who would be the logical source, so I instead turn to  +Zach Best 's  Universal NPC Emulator .

Deirik returned to Alucard and continued to be consumed with finding the opportunity to kill Torvald the Betrayer. It was all he could ever think about, his sole focus, his reason for being. Lord Krogan knew this and, not long after their return, called Deirik in to the temple to have a discussion. When Deirik arrived, Krogan met him in the sanctuary. Moments later, a beautiful Dornish woman, a bit shorter than most and with dark, black hair stepped out of the shadows to greet him. Deirik barely noticed some platinum blonde roots in her hair, which made him believe she was mostly Dornish, though her height suggested some Sarcosan blood in her heritage at some point. Krogan introduced her as Lyra, and informed Deirik that Lyra has been hired to train him in the ways of the Nephilim (**a hybrid class between the D&D 3.5 Assassin and the Midnight 2E Avenging Knife**).

Before Deirik, Eirik, Ygvard, and Boldulf leave Halderton, Deirik and Eirik both hire Merrick, the town's master leatherworker, to create a suit of masterwork studded leather and to refine his dire wolverine fur into a proper cloak respectively. Then, the men return to Alucard with a few weeks of time available to them before they must hole up for the heavy Northern Winter. Each of them decides to spend it in their own way... GM Note: At this point, each player was given a solo session to lead into a Prestige Class they'd expressed interest in, or give some story behind any skills they planned to increase once they leveled, etc. Beyond that, I also wanted to give the players the chance to purely play their character without the others around to dive into them a bit deeper and come to a better understanding of who they are, what their limits are, and how they operate. It's easier if I tell the stories individually. One thing I will do though is italicize clues on how the...

The story of Metal Angel has come to an end . I had fun playing that game--it was nice to try out a different genre and to play with some new tools. But, when all is said and done, I don't feel very satisfied  with how it all turned out.  There were actually a number of different elements in this game, and I want to approach them each on their own terms. In no particular order:

Once Deirik, Eirik, Ygvard, and Boldulf are comfortably out of Bergen with the unconscious Lord Voldash, they stop to discuss their next steps. Ygvard points out that Voldash knows one of them is a magic-user and may use that information against them to Lord Krogan when they turn him in. He's also fairly certain that Voldash can surmise who it is, seeing as he was the only one who did not dive headlong into melee combat. So the conversation then steers towards that presumption: "Do we kill Voldash, against Krogan's wishes, and say we had no choice to protect our secret? Do we hand Voldash over and plan our immediate escape? Do we wait to see if Voldash reveals us and, if so, fight our way out? or do we preempt Voldash by telling Krogan ourselves?" They all progress to the North, away from Bergen and back toward Halderton, while they continue to debate these questions. Ygvard is especially concerned since he's the source of magic, and feels fairly confident that ...

Solo Gaming Appreciation Month Metal Angel #5 With Cole’s escape , the scene is over, and I move onto the next prompt. The Hangman The reversal of a situation brings powerlessness, doubt, reunification, brings stillness and reflection. The head the rational mind - no longer controls so that a new and greater sense of life can emerge. Old pattern of behavior will die and with willingness and a full acceptance of the suffering that might be required implies an acceptance of waiting in darkness. This situation opens ourselves to life and life can hurt us, we feel terrible vulnerable. But this price of giving up our defenses and making the journey into loneliness seems to be necessary for any real sense of what supports us - the true faith can only be gained through risking ourselves in life. Cole came close to the purplish construct, a mass of undulating alien technology. It seemed almost alive, pulsating and writing, looking like a squid trapped in an old bronze tr...

Solo Gaming Appreciation Month Metal Angel #4 Following from the last scene , Metal Angel flies off to confront the robbers. Metal Angel soared over the city, following the old man’s directions. The outskirts of the city was full of dozens of seemingly empty warehouses, and it was impossible to determine which was the robbers hideout. Suddenly, a loud burst of purplish energy shot out of one of them, followed by loud womp of an electrical discharge! Metal Angel dove to the building, praying he was still in time. Metal Angel is flying around, so any attempt to avoid being noticed is a matter of luck. Do the robbers notice Metal Angel as he approaches the building? 78, Yes Do they wish to fight? 99 Yes and Unexpectedly…09 Upstaged. Upstaged means that an NPC makes a big move, and any motivations or goals they have “go into overdrive.” Since the only NPC with motivation is Dominic, and he desires revenge on Metal Angel, he come...

Deirik, Eirik, Ygvard, and Boldulf encounter no trouble on their way to Bergen, the town in which Lord Voldash's temple is located. Knowing that they're trying to take Lord Voldash alive, Eirik takes the time during this trip to craft saps for himself and Deirik. They finally reach the outskirts of Bergen after several days of travel, and see the large number of farms that surround the town itself. They note there is only one visible gate through the large palisade that surrounds it, and it appears to be well-manned by both Dornish mercenaries as well as orcs. Eirik and Boldulf decide to scout the rest of the surrounding area, and determine if there are any more subtle entrances to the town, leaving Deirik and Ygvard to bide their time. Deirik and Ygvard decide to approach one of the nearby farms and see if they might talk their way into an escort into town. The find a man out in his fields and make their way to him. As they do so, the farmer looks their way and gives them a ...

Solo Gaming Appreciation Month Metal Angel #3 After the last session , Metal Angel has brought the wounded Scarlet Wing home, and is surprised by a mysterious voice. Who is the voice and what do they want? To find out, I turn to the prompt. The next one is The Emperor . Father who embodies our spiritual ideals, our ethical codes, a god of inspiration and sudden creative vision, a revelation of the truth. Self-sufficiency, authority and ambition which drives us to achieve and the discipline and foresight necessary to accomplish our goals. The father within us also fosters self-respect, because it is this part of us which can take a standpoint from which to meet life's challenges. Responsibility as power, his strength can create and build. Pioneer, adventurer, urge for action, self-confidence and recognition, executive power, success, optimism, fulfillment of wishes. A good number of previous prompts from Loom of Fate (CRGE) indicated a plot thread was coming to a c...

 Solo Gaming Appreciation Month Metal Angel #2 Following the last scene , Metal Angel is flying across Eagle Harbor. A new hero, Scarlett Wing, is taking her first flight, and one of the men who almost killed him is watching her. And he’s dressed as a cop! For this scene, the prompt is The Empress . A matriarchal goddess, a beautiful earthy woman - experience of being part of nature and rooted in natural life, the appreciation of the senses and the simple pleasures of daily existence. Without this Great Mother within us, we can bring nothing to fruition, here is patience and gentleness to wait until the time is ripe for action. She governs the orderly rules of the seasons and the laws of the cosmic, she gives birth of new life, is initiative and has an eye for details. She is a caring and protecting wife and virgin, accepting the responsibility of own feelings, she has strength which nourishes and sustains. There is sweetness, passionate love and a playful erotic inv...

After winning the battle, Deirik, Eirik, Ygvard, and Boldulf take stock of themselves, their army, and their winnings. Ygvard realizes that he used magic in the presence of a Legate, Voldash, but hopes in the chaos of the battle that Voldash was not able to pinpoint the source. Eirik eyes the well-made chain shirt left behind by Voldash and decides its best use is for him to wear it. The men decide to return to Halderton to give them the news before returning back to Alucard with the hobgoblins. When the men arrive back in Halderton, they get a mixed reception. Tianna and her friends consider them heroes, but the elders believe they've doomed the town to an even worse fate than they were about to experience. Deirik honestly doesn't care at this point whether it's a stay of execution or if the town was saved, as his outlook on life since dealing with his family's (especially his grandmother's) death has been bleak, dismissive toward others, and solely focused on re...

All right, the prep work is all done, now it's time to get to the game! As part of SGAM, I've been provided with a number of prompts from the Lone Wolf Community, which take the form of Tarot Cards. A number of people use a Tarot deck or other images (such as Story Cubes ) to help inform their solo gameplay experience, but I never have. So, this will be a new experience for me. I have to make a bit of a confession, though. Despite my interests, I really have no particular knowledge of Tarot beyond the most absolute basics. Given that, I'm going to be relying on the information provided by  +Todd Zircher 's Tangent Zero site, which is the source of these prompts. If the information provided is wrong, take it up with him. Any failure of interpretation, though, falls squarely on my shoulders. The first image is The Fool . Here's the info for this card: The roots of one's abilities, talents and potential. Decision to start fresh, open to new possibiliti...

As I discussed in my last post , for SGAM this year I wanted to do something more upbeat and hopeful than some of my other Actual Plays, and I've decided to go with a superhero game. Specifically, Palladium's Heroes Unlimited game. One of the great features of Palladium's games for a Solo player is how well them embrace randomness and uncertainty, which is something I plan to exploit for this game. But, before I begin, there are three rules I want to put into place: The character is going to be GOOD. He's going to be a Captain America, Spider-man, or Superman (Reeves) style character, not a grim dark avenger like Punisher, Venom, or Superman (Cavil).  He's going to have superpowers. Heroes Unlimited  includes rules for a variety of heroic types, but I don't want to play a gunslinger "hardware" character or a battle-suited hero or the like.  Combat is going to be "comic booky" non-lethal. Even if a character is using swords or guns, peo...

Lord Voldash and his orcish army arrive at the edge of the forest and camp exactly where the Men of Mjarn predicted. They wait until the orcs remove their armor and go to sleep, leaving only the unlucky few to strain against the daylight to perform their watch duties. Once enough time has passed such that those orcs that are sleeping will surely be groggy, the assault begins! The orcs react slowly to the rain of arrows pouring down on them as they shake the sleep from their minds. Lord Voldash's tent is easily visible as the most prominent, but he makes no appearance yet. With no time to put on their armor, the orcs, under the command of the three oruks, grab their vardatches and charge! The hobgoblins, bolstered by the Men of Mjarn, continue to fire their arrows on the orcs, making the most of their ranged advantage. The orcs numbers are constantly being whittled down and they have yet to even reach the forest's edge!

I've recently learned that November is "Solo Gaming Appreciation Month" (SGAM)--a time when a number of us Solo gamers work together to share stories that are linked in someway. 2017 is a bit of a special year, as we all come together to commemorate and celebrate the life of  +Zach Best , who was not only a wonderful member of our community, but an outstanding creator as well. His work through Conjecture Games  has been a major factor in many of our journey's. While many Solo gamers will be aiming to create new games or tools to use, I will be focused on something a bit more humble, an Actual Play. I was already working on one , but I want to put that on hiatus and focus on the works that Zach had created. The first is CRGE, the Conjectural Roleplaying GM Emulator .  This is Zach's take on the GM Oracle, and a bit of story framework. It is incredibly well regarded within the scene, considered by many to be superior to my beloved Mythic . I picked it up due t...

Still in Halderton, trying to understand what caused the rumors of a resistance, Deirik and Ygvard learn of a young woman named Tianna who may have some of the information they seek. They make their way out to Tianna's family farmstead and end up dealing with Tianna's overly protective mother who all but forces them to leave her land. However, Tianna is intrigued and meets the two at a fence further out in their fields. She, being 18 years old, is impetuous and has like-minded friends, so she explains that when the orcs were hurting her mother some weeks ago, Tianna decided enough was enough. Knowing that she couldn't attack just the one orc, she gathered a large group of the young adults of Halderton and ambushed all the orcs in town. Deirik and Ygvard realize that this is no resistance, only kids who thought they were doing the right thing and have only made matters worse. This explains the aggressive anti-rebellion attitude of Seamus, the town elder; he doesn't wan...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 5 H anson had run into another deadend trying to get help from Samuel , and has left the park frustrated and annoyed. Rolling for the next scene, I got the following prompt: Be waylaid by a hostile Actor with a Clue. Face a Fight instead of a check. Normally, I would use various tools to randomly determine this Actor, but this time I don’t. Almost immediately, an image came to my head of a big, tough guy, covered in burning tattoos, consumed by an unquenchable fire.  I decide his combat prowess is typical for the Story (Physical Threat 2, or 7), and that he is going to try and ambush Hanson. But, to keep things interesting, I decide that his tattoos mean that his attacks are going to be aggravated . Which means that Hanson both will not be able to soak the damage for this combat, but also that they will be particularly hard to heal. It also means that she could face final death in this fight. Is he able to ambus...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 4 At the end of the last Scene , Hanson was dumped into the sewers, after being beaten to near death by Cora. She fed as best she could from the rats that crawled around her, barely sustaining herself. At dusk, she crawled out and fed as best she could. Each victim gave her more strength and helped her to heal. Finally, she made her way back to her apartment, grabbed a quick shower and a change of clothes. Gina was of course worried for her, and Gypsy has left multiple messages. Hanson placated Gina, and ignored the phone calls. She grabs a good-sized satchel to complete her ensemble, and disconnects the sawed-off shotgun she keeps under desk and stashes it in the purse. She’s not sure when, or if, she’ll run into Cora again, but she’s going to be ready. As Hanson took a “Rest” for the last Scene, allowing her to heal all her wounds, and replenish her Blood Pool and all spent Willpower points. The still-unknown Opponent, however, gained...

Deirik, Eirik, Ygvard, and Boldulf all grab some well-deserved rest in the safety of the ogre's large tent. When they awake, they recall they're on a relatively short timeline. Voldash and his army should be arriving at Halderton in less than two months, and they still need to get there, connect with the rebellion, and empower them to win the impending fight! The Men of Mjarn take some time to discuss Krogan's orders to them. He told them that he wanted to recruit these hobgoblins to *his* forces, not that they were to be used against Voldash. Do they take even more time and take the hobgoblins to him now? Or do they press forward with the hobgoblins to Halderton? After much consideration, they choose the latter plan and give the command for the hobgoblins to pack camp and prepare to march.

Deirik, Eirik, Ygvard, and Boldulf all have a meeting with Lord Krogan, for whom they’ve been working for a short time. He informs them of their first “big” assignment. They are to go to the town of Halderton, to the East, where there are rumors of an active resistance underway. This town is in the territory of another legate, Lord Voldash, who shares a border with Krogan. The latest word is that Voldash is headed to Highwall, the Shadow Capital, to requisition more troops to stomp this rebellion and best estimates put him returning in approximately 2 months. Krogan wants the Men of Mjarn to ensure the rebellion wins and Voldash is embarrassed.

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 2 Hanson stopped in front of the Quick Stop Shop Convenience store. It was a rundown store located in a half-empty shopping strip on the edge of town. The place seemed dead—based on the signs in the window, it looked like most of their clients came for the calling cards, lotto tickets, and rolling papers. But a few shops down, past the closed shoe store and Chinese restaurant, was the only sign of life, a dive bar. It didn’t even have a name, just a neon green shamrock in the window. Clearly, they didn’t care to advertise. That’s where he got hired , she thought. A guy out for a drink, looking for anything. Gets paid, grabs some smokes, and heads out to the “quick and easy” job . She parked her grey Camry in the parking lot towards the back, making sure it was a decent distance from any other cars and angled to get out quickly. As she stepped out, she noticed her side. The bullet hole had healed, but her...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Following the events of the Prologue , Hanson is attempting to shadow the stranger. To accomplish this, I use the mechanics from Vampire . Shadowing someone requires two separate rolls. The first is to Track the target, and the second is to remain Unseen . Tracking involves a Perception+Investigation (Hanson has 6 dice for this roll) against a difficulty of 5 (the streets are practically empty around here). Remaining unseen is a Dexterity+Stealth (also 6 dice) against a difficulty of 8. The same empty streets make remaining unnoticed very difficult. Shadowing : Rolling 6 dice, Hanson gets 6,2,4,1,5,7 , she gets three successes against a difficulty of 5. But, the 1 costs her a success, leaving her with just two. Still more than enough to keep the target in site. Unseen: Rolling 6 dice, Hanson gets 1,10,1,7,1,3 . She gets one success against a difficulty of 8. But, the three 1’s means that she not only fai...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope With all the prep work out of the way ( here ), I'm ready to start playing.  I've gone ahead and created a brief chart to keep track of all the various narrative elements for the game, and I'll be updating it after each scene. And with that, we're ready to start.  Victory Points Heat Hanson 0 Opponent 0 0 Investigation & Action Scene Count Scene Number Type Description Result Prologue  

The tools are all in place. Now it is time to begin the game. Base Game: Vampire: The Masquerade (1st Edition)  Not familiar with Vampire? Check out the Primer Story Structure: Scarlet Vampire Oracle: Mythic Other Tools: Universal NPC Emulator, Covetous Poet's Adventure Creator , and Everyone, Everywhere Story Setup Theme: 3 Conspiracy. Powerful forces are aligning together for nefarious ends. Well, more nefarious than is typical for vampires. Threat: Physical 2 , Social 5 , Mental 3 . Narrative Summary: A  Target aspires to advance their business or status but an Antagonist opposes them Draw the Target and choose how they are trying to advance themselves. Either draw the Antagonist immediately or spend an Investigation scene discovering who is causing the obstacles. Scenes revolve either around trying to help the Target’s goal or trying to prevent Antagonist sabotage.

At the end of the Trader (Traitor) Saga , Deirik and Eirik had met their end at the hands of a pack of goblin worg-riders. However, after some time had passed, both the players (and the GM, honestly) expressed desire to play that game again along with a couple other friends who were interested in joining the adventure. So… we decided to apply the concept of a Fate Worse Than Death . So, rather than die, Deirik and Eirik faced a turn of events so dreadful that they may have been better off staying dead: Deirik and Eirik were, instead, captured by the goblin worg-riders and taken to the nearby city of Steel Hill. This city is the forge of the Shadow, where most of the vardatches (orcish swords) and plate are made to arm and armor Izrador’s legions. To supply this never-ending effort, massive slave camps are sent into the iron mines of the nearby mountains. Deirik and Eirik were enslaved and put to work for the next 4 years. During this time in the camp, Deirik and Eirik met ...

You've spent the past few months prepping for an exciting new game. You've purchased various supplements and adventures. You've carefully crafted NPC's and settings, and have done your best to make an exciting and engaging game. What do you do when everything falls apart? When the dice turn against the players? Or one simple plan turns out to be a disaster? When the entire party faces extinction at the hands of a "Total Party Kill?"

Now that we have the basics for creating a random vampire in place, let's see what we can come up with. Oh, quick note, I did some light touch ups on the random vampire post--cleaned up the tables, and added an "age of death" option. Step 1 Background Gender 8 Female Age of Death 6 Early to Mid Thirties Cultural Background 8 Natural Born American Ethnic Background 1 Caucasian/White Step 2 Concept Nature 21 Traditionalist Demeanor 7 Conformist Concept 6 Investigator Clan 1 Brujah

The Trader (Traitor) Saga The game begins with Deirik and Eirik’s family’s trading stop in the city of White Cliff. They have already dropped off the goods they are giving and are headed to the location where the goods they are receiving are hidden. Deirik and Eirik, and the rest of their father’s crew go to the barn with their goods to retrieve, only to find the crates and barrels are empty and they’re being approached by an orcish force. During the ensuing battle, several of the men die, including their father, Yakob. While their Uncle, Torvald the Elder, offers to take the lead, Deirik is the rightful leader according to the rules of succession and takes on the mantle of captain. With no goods to retrieve, and no knowledge of the people Yakob worked with or deals in place, the brothers take it one step at a time and go to the city of White Cliff to talk to their cousin, Torvald the Younger, whom they find was abducted by Legate Voldash too long ago for them to follow. Rhald...