Chimerical Realm

So, I'm still working on the setting for my new Chronicle , and I wanted to do a quick digression on how I create NPCs, particularly for Vampire . The published sources tend to go into great detail with their tragic and horrible mortal lives, and what has made them the monsters they are today. Well, that's all well and good, but doesn't terribly help me with them in the game. So, when I create my own, I tend to focus on the now  of the character, what are they up to tonight, and how are they hoping to accomplish it. Then, I work out anything else I need from there, with particular attention to their feeding habits. Yeah, I've been accused of making my vamps be "blood addicts." Maybe, but I've also assumed that hunting and feeding are what vampires enjoy ; it's not a burden for them. Anyway, I've ranted about this before , so I won't go into it again. For my current setting, things are a bit different from how I normally setup my NPCs. Ther...

I've worked out the basic setting and ideas for my new Solo Vampire Chronicle. I talked more about it here , but in short it's going to be a geographically isolated locale, ruled by a manipulative and controlling religious fanatic. Now, I need to come up with who my main character is going to be for this world. I don't have a lot of ideas for the character yet. I know I want to play a Nosferatu. I know I want him to be a male, and of European/Christian descent. I also know I want him to "special" in some way, either a great warrior, or thief, or scholar or...something. He's cut from a different cloth, which is why he, unlike others of his generation, is given all the crappy assignments that make role playing such fun. I actually rather enjoy not knowing what I'm going to get, and a solid "random character generator" can be a delight, particularly when you don't have a really solid concept in mind. So, given that, I grab my copy of the M...

I haven't had a lot of time for Solo gaming lately. Given that what little free time I've had has been taken up with some standard gaming, this is a bit of a humble brag, but I still miss Solo gaming. Given that, and my current thoughts for how I'd like to run a Dark Ages Chronicle , I've decided to go ahead and generate a setting and get a game going. I've talked a bit before about how I generally like to get a Vampire Chronicle going, and I'm going to follow that outline in a general sense. I have a few vague ideas for a game. Part of the Long Night idea I had is to play up the isolation and ignorance of the world, and so I want the physical setting to be somewhere equally isolated. Really, any town could work for this, as I see medieval travel as being so dangerous for vampires as to be almost unheard of. But, I think I'll go with an actual island, just to emphasize this element. Secondly, I know I want to play a Nosferatu. Partly to play the "m...

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, ...

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...

One of the questions asked about the concept for my upcoming Twin Cities Chronicle is what, exactly, are the two cities fighting over, given that they both acknowledge the legitimate existence of the other? Essentially, they’re feuding over their own supremacy within their own domains, but it’s just complicated given the extreme ease in which the borders can be crossed. Literally, one can take the wrong turn in St. Paul and be in Minneapolis. The presence of such a porous-to-the-point-of-nonexistence border, means that one can easily play both sides. Whether for protection from crimes or issues in one city, or permission to embrace, or any number of decisions. Prince A doesn’t give you what you want? Take it up with Prince B! But is there more than that? In one manner, no. Fundamentally, I view Kindred as being petty, conservative (note the small “c”), and reactionary. They may claim to represent some higher ideal, but all it really comes down to is two Vamps who each claim suprema...

I'm currently working out a new Chronicle for Vampire: The Masquerade . The intent is for this to be an online solo game for an old friend of mine. He has specifically asked for an "old school" type game. Which, to me, means the following: * Focus on personal horror specifically, but also on the character in general. The story is limited, and personal. * A sense of isolation and paranoia. * "Low level" both in terms of general game mechanics (few, if any Vampires will possess high level Disciplines) as well as the stakes. The city is not about to be taken over by the Sabbat, nor are the Antediluvian due to arise at any moment. The story will be more focused on saving the characters ex-girlfriends child from a cult than saving the "Last Daughter of Eve" or the like. * War of Ages is in full effect--the Elders resent and fear the neonates, and neonates are frustrated by the Elders brutal repression. With nowhere to flee and nothing to fight, the ...

I've been thinking more about my upcoming "Hero Hunters" campaign, and I realized that I need to start working out some house rules to make this work in a way that I'll be happy with. I need to work out some ideas for how to do the various missions and jobs my mercenary team of villains will be undertaking, while at the same time coming up with other ways to reward/encourage the "right" kind of behavior.  Naturally, I could always use a "stick" to punish the players who stray to far, but I'd rather given a reason to do things the right way. First, I need to define what is the "right" way. I want the players to be a combination of gloating, over the top Super-Villains and cool and professional bad asses. As such, I've decided to implement a "Rep" score for the game--technically each PC would have their own Rep score, but since they're a team it should effectively end up being the same for all of them. In general, Re...

An old friend of mine is starting up a new AD&D campaign, here are the initial thoughts: General theme This setting (as yet unnamed) is one that rethinks the hackneyed genre of D&D campaign settings. We have become used to a particular feel in campaign settings, ones where fantastic worlds increasingly look like our own. Fantasy cities are places where half-orcs rub shoulders with halflings in ways that we wish various cultures did in our world today (much less in a previous time). Heroes with glittering magical swords stroll peaceably in full plate mail through city streets, and magical spells are routinely cast in a shower of colored lights. Taking a cue also from computer RPGs, disposable monsters pop up in creepy settings to be dispatched over and over again. But if we return to fantasy literature, none of this  feels  right. Tolkien is the inspiration for most of us who are fantasy fans – indeed, the Fellowship of the Ring feels like most adv...