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[Dark Ages Vampire] Roses & Thorns

mystictiger

mystictiger

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Aug 5, 2014
It is the year of Our Lord 1198, and the Long Night is finally drawing to a close. Pawns are being moved into play amidst the shadows and violence of the lands that lie between The Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Poland, and the Kingdom of Hungary. These are desolate lands, populated by hardy folk that work the land under the watchful supervision of warlike nobles from their castles.

It is an ancient land, populated by Slavs, Celts, and all manner of tribal people, and has long been in service to the Tzimiscie Voivodates. But Germanic settlers are arriving in increasing numbers, and with them come Ventrue. At the moment, the western visitors live as polite guests, watching the feuding Tzimiscie with barely concealed glee.

Amidst all of this, the lord of a small castle perched along a trade route sickens and approaches death. Factions - mortal and Cainite - smell advantage.

I have in mind running a Dark Ages: Vampire game. The setting will be 1198 to 1230ish Europe. I aim to provide players both with a home-domain to explore, develop, and cultivate but a also a chance to see the wider Dark Medieval World, meet interesting people, and so on.

i would rather people use the mainstream DA clans (but if you're dead set on something exotic like a Salubri or a Lamia, knock yourself out).

Players should come up with interesting concepts that can get along with others. So if you want to go and play Loner-no-Mates the Gangrel, this might not be for you. Coterie task / premise will initially be to secure the middle-of-nowhere castle identified about. Your success, failure, decisions, and desires will determine what happens next.

In terms of material, Dark Ages: Vampire 20 will be the primary source. Anything that arises from other books (e.g. the various Road books, or Vampire: Dark Ages splat books) might be acceptable but will require approval.
 
Looks interesting - so would you want us to start as vampires but not locals, should we know each other in advance/be from the same place or would we be meeting once we arrive (negotiated by sires in the background etc).
 
To my mind at least, there is a large array of possible organisations:

[Local] v [non-local]
[Mortal] v [Cainite]

It depends on what people want to play. So it could work with three mortals and a ghoul, for example. The point being that you will have all been sent by the same group / faction (e.g Cainite Heresy, Tzimisicie Voivodate, Ashen Knights, whatever) to secure the castle for Their Side. Or if you're feeling brave, you could be a ragtag group of independents with a desire to hold the place for yourselves. That'd be fun.
 
*chuckles* Count me in if only because the DM nicely asked me. :)

It's been years since I last played VtM, and even then, both were LARPs, and in one case I was playing a Salubri. So, my knowledge of the factions is limited.

I can play mortal, mage, what have you - as the DM knows, I like to write. Admittedly, I can see playing a female character who is not so much a right hand woman to someone elite, but one who makes certain that orders are executed, plans made, and the coffers are well full - a kind of power behind the throne so to speak, though she's less the power and more the impetus.
 
Grand so - but you would want 'in the know' people rather than people who have no idea who they are working for?

Thinking a bloodbond mortal (not actually a ghoul as they would not have enough blood taken) with little knowledge of the creatures they work for but hopelessly bound to the service - and sees this as a chance to prove themselves to there betters - if that works for you.

Leaves everything open for you to have them embraced by a rival, granted the embrace by there own regnant for proving themself etc depending on how the story goes.

Currently thinking a lady's maid pulled off the streets to serve her lady as eyes and ears (and occassionally blade).
 
My preference would be "in the know" people, yes. Unless we can work something out to have you recruited if you'd prefer. It largely depends on what coterie concept people agree on. I do not want to stand in the way of creative, interesting ideas.

I've put some limited guidance up on what is / is not acceptable in the relevant subforum.

At the moment, we've got an interesting dynamic! I approve.
 
Ok so thinking a mortal Giovanni working to serve her family (and by extension the Cappadocians) - so they would be in the know but not overly on the clan politics etc.

LadyStarWarsFan any thought on your character (alive/dead etc) - I'm thinking either way that your right hand woman concept might also work with a the Giovanni so we could both be sent by the same master within the family to secure a foothold?

Mystictiger any thought on the rules you would have for making out a mortal (I don't see the rules within the Dark Ages 20 book).
 
My concern about player-mortals is that they'll get steamrollered by Vampires / Mages. I would therefore suggest using the Ghouls rules, but without anything too... er... Ghoulie. Meaning:

Attributes: 6 / 4 / 3
Abilities: 11/ 7 / 4
Advantages: 5 backgrounds, no disciplines, 10 points for virtues
21 Freebie points

Road should be humanity, unless your mortal is really rather odd.
 
Interesting concepts so far, now allow me to drop my hat into the ring

Since we would be starting pre-embrace (Would we?) I'm thinking on going for a Revenant with a slightly more physical concept, although I'm not exactly sure how yet, but I'm under the impression we'll need at least some muscle for this troupe
 
Revenant would be just fine. The rules I can find are in "Ghouls: Fatal Addiction", unless you're aware of a more up-to-date version.

I want to stress, however, that - should you wish your characters to end up embraced, you shouldn't feel constrained by this arrangement. Tell me the clan you want to end up, and we'll work something out. Unless you want something exotic / silly like a True Brujah or a Salubri. So whilst Dan and Lady might be leaning towards Giovanni / Capadocian, it would be possible to imagine SweetKiss ending up as Tzim. Somehow.

Now, next question - would you want to claim the castle in your own right (or, for that matter, an NPC sire of one of you)? Or another Clan / Faction / Group? The advantage of claiming the land for yourself is that "base-play" is kind of fun. The disadvantage is that you're a bunch of very fragile mortals / semi-mortals sitting on prime real estate. Which... could well be fun too.
 
I'd go with on our own (May the Voivodes forgive me) because Baseplay, just that, I'm a basic bitch I guess LOL

Tho if its a specific faction, it could very well be our sire(s), since I'm hoping the whole being mortal is rather short and we can get to the fun part of being Kindred (Hoping here not to get squished by others too early)
 
So my thought for my character are:
Giovanni mortal officially serving a noble member of the family but the person they are serving is only a child still who has been sent away from home with servants and guards due to some hostility with other families, however the real reason my character is there is to see about securing the interests of the family in the region (before they commit more important people) and being a lady's maid/tutor to the child is merely a cover (so would need to keep up appearances but loyal to the mission rather than the person in question).

Before I do a full write up wanted to check if anyone wanted to combine backstories, i.e another member of the entourage or the noble (possible aged up as needed for your character).
 
I very much like the idea of you all having a combined and interlinked backstory (this comes from playing Fate a wee bit). Would one of you want to play the noble that you serve / is your cover / sire? Or would you want him / her / it to be an NPC?

But having said that, these are your characters. I don't want to put hard / arbitrary limits. I just want to make sure that expectations / hopes / aspirations are aligned.
 
Well at the moment I am thinking that the noble would effectively be a powerless child and really only a ploy to put my character into position (but if someone wanted to have the noble be an adult etc and play them that would be grand).

For supernatual stuff I have kindof settled on taking a decent bit on Occult but more importantly going with Medium, Oracular Ability and Spirit Mentor as merits ... so she would actually have a fair amount of non-standard access to tricks (indirectly) for a mortal, which might be why she was choosen - the family doesn't want to risk a vampire but also does want to see if she is worthy of being made a full member.

Just to clarify I don't want to rail-road others into following my lead - there is no reason anyone else would need to have any connection to her or the Giovanni depending on there own backgrounds just throwing it out there as a option (she could than be a mortal contact in the game with wierd knowledge and protection meaning the others are content to work with her).
 
Well, since it seems we are kind of moving away from starting off as supernaturals (Thought this might still work for a couple of Revenant Families) and just because I kinda love the idea of cowriting stuff like this up because that's how the most interesting ideas usually come about

I'm willing to play a young noble but putting my own spin on it:

1st) Not a child but definetly not a man either, say 15 or 16, young and inexperienced, mainly focused in the more martial aspects of his role, because we both desperatedly need the muscle and because what fun is to be a noble if you don'tget to ride on a horse, covered head to toe in heavy armor and answer to everthing by grabbing at your sword, so he might have made a name for himself already in squire tourneys and resently in regular ones, despite his young age, so he could be 'recently knighted'

2nd) Not exactly of the highest birth, just the cousing of a cousing or maybe even just the son of a bit of a praised knight that happened to be married to the right lady at the time when some other noble croaked, now however, he has the legal rights to this fortress and might even have enough mercenaries to put the place in order

3rd) Nothing is written in stone, I know I usually play Tzim and all, but if we are going to start as humans, we can lead one way but maybe we can end up in a completely different place, I'm willing to go building the character either mid play or just be spoiled and get to move a few dots to not be completely useless with my disciplines once I get any, I'm probably gonna base myself on Physical Disciplines at the begining anyways: Tzim, Nosferatu and Lasombra are all fine choices
 
That would work I wouldn't really see my character as subservient to your noble (they are there for the family's interests).

She may be 'serving' your lady wife (some woman you might not know that well).

So this might be that the lady wife might have gained the castle - my character would be officially serving her as a lady's maid while trying to make ensure that the Giovanni can have a foothold in the region if needed.

Meanwhile your character might be recently married to her (serving some other group of vampires perhaps) and trying to ensure that the interests of your masters are represented - and the two being on the lookout for competition decide to team up rather than oppose one another?
Your character adds legitimacy mine lacks - where mine with there connection to spirits adds some protections from others that yours lacks.

If that works LadyStarWarsFan might actually be the lady in question or an advisor to a local noble - if that interests them.
 
Not much Vampire experience, but I love groups that discuss concepts and tie-ins with each other. That is my jam. I am currently considering an older vampire with perhaps too much caution, one who is more about hiding and preserving than gaining. Lasombra or True Brujah seem possible choices. Thoughts?
 
The problem with older vampires (nearly any vampire really) as I see it, is they can't really have the knowledge they should have without being able to effectively being a co-storyteller.

In a large city with call it 40 vampires even a 20 year old vampire would be a) expected to know all there names and b) at least have someone give them an overview of their personalities and history. The vampire would also be expected to have some passing ability to understand how laws are interpreted by the local undead (or at least have been briefed on it) etc.

Just working in a small company for that lenght of time you would pick things up - esspecially with quarterly meetings at Elysium where the faces never really change.

This is componded if for where there are less vampires.

Now this is a bit of a personal bias of mine against starting as vampires - there are ways around it (amnesia, having fled some other local and needed to take somewhere for hidding where you knew no one etc) - but I think it just makes things a bit harder than having the entire undead thing be a bit of a mystery that the storyteller can reveal in their own way.

Having said that if you were interested in going that route if your character owed a debt to the Cappadocians (or Giovanni) or some other clan - such as them getting you out to safety from your enemies in exchange for service we could easily tie things together that way.
i.e You are a vampire who owes your unlife to my characters masters so you need to lower yourself to working with a mortal in an area you are unfamiliar with while you hide out until you can (re)establish your powerbase. But not sure that (or a variant) would work for you.
 
To my mind, the best way to start a Dark Ages vampire game is to have players who are:
1) New to a city / region
2) New to being a vampire, or just about to become one. As in, they've not met the Movers and Shakes in the Court before, and only vaguely know about NPCs
3) Hit by some plot device which means that they don't know the big names.
4) The other option, of course, is simply to force-feed details when you meet the Vamps, and let you decide what (if any) dealings and feelings you have for them when you encounter them. This can get a little silly at times.
 
Really appreciate the troubleshooting. I actually kind of like the idea of an established vampire having had to uproot and work with mortals in a new area to reestablish a domain...very demeaning, which is fun to see. Perhaps the Prince in his old area (who offered him minor protection) was overthrown, and my char had to leave, taking something of value to an NPC like the previously mentioned lady wife (perhaps through dancrilis' char?) who made him the deal to let him oversee a keep if he helped capture it and swore fealty to her? Seems a decent combo of 1 and 3 from Mystic's list.

I'd see him as overwhelmingly a mental type with Disciplines focused on defense. Also, once the other PCs are embraced, he would know a *little* that he could teach in terms of Disciplines.
 
There's a whole heap of backgrounds and flaws that are available for "Plot Device" above:

Infamous Sire (1)
Outsider (1)
Sire's Resentment (1)
Amnesia (2)
Oathbreaker (4)
Nameless (5)

Or we can easily come up with a new disadvantage that explains why you're a vampire but know little / nothing, and have been sent to redeem yourself in the eyes of your Clan / Sire / Faction.

EDIT: Or you could just be a dirty dirty Caitiff.
 
Kckolbe: I'd just love to play movers and shakers at least once, but alas, this doesn't seem the place for it

Dancrilis: Well, I was hoping on being the legitimate heir, since that would make things much simpler, also, I like the idea of an arranged marriage (As if there were any other kind at the time?) but the hopes were to marry the daughter of some otherlocal noble, to have, you know an extra layer of protection, which would be really helpful, but I like the way you are opening up space for LadyStarWarsFan, if she like we can go with that arrangement, otherwise, we can let mystictiger break the tie

Mystictiger: There would also be one more option for a troup of old Vampires that would also make the ST have to work a little bit less, we get together, we come up with our characters, their stances, relationships (Kinda like in Fate) and the NPCs we would inevitably, drag along: Vampires and ghouls that work for them, by instance, rivals, enemies, lovers, we could populate a small place with about 20 Vampires in no time, best part is, you could still decide to change things and keep us guessing with either newcommers of duplicious bastards (Most Kindred anyways)

Just a suggestion though
 
I would like you lot to become Movers & Shakers, just not start out as such. In fact, my aim is for you to become the Big Fish (tm) in the relatively small border-town / castle.

Once you're established here, then you can go to the Big cities like Magdeburg or Constantinople or Rome as people of substance.

But!

As with all things, these are just suggestions :D
 
SKHB: I think you missed some key details. He would not be a mover or shaker. If anything, he'd be the shakee.


Mystictiger: Infamous Sire and Outsider both definitely fit the idea, couldn't find oathbreaker or nameless. I'd prefer not to have amnesia, makes it more embarrassing if he knows why he has to work with mortals.
 
Oathbreaker (4) (DAV20, p425): Once you swore fealty to a lord, promised your loyalty to an organisation, or made a binding business contract with a powerful person (or something similar). You have since broken that promise. Your motives may have been pure, but you are now branded as an oath-breaker. It is near-impossible to earn the trust of others, which, at Storyteller's discretion, can increase the difficulty of Social rolls to convince someone of your trustworthiness by as much as 3. Even the close members of your coterie have reservations about you.

Nameless (5) (DAV20, o425): You do not exist. Certainly, you still walk the earth and your friends and kin can still see you and touch you, but all records of your existence have been destroyed. Not even your vampiric progeny can lay claim to your name. As far as anyone can prove, you never were. If you take this flaw, you may not take any social merits that grant benefits based on reputation. Who or what you have made so angry that they have erased your existence from the face of this earth?!
 
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