Dark Ages Vampire - Bloodlines

Game Master Dennis Harry

Bloodlines is a continuation of the now defunct table top Dark Ages Vampire game wherein the PC's have created lineal descendants throughout the ages.

Attendees seeking a seat or have a seat in the Inner Circle:

Assamite - Lord Bajazet al Nasir.

Brujah – Lady Meridie de Chancie, Lord Criatas, “Dark”Selena, Robin Leeland.

Cappadocian – Lord Benne.

Gangrel – Milov Petrankov.

Lasombra - Prince Narses the Archbishop of Nod

Malkavian – Antione le Fanu, Lutz von Hohenzollern.

Nosferatu – Cristo Petradon, Simon.

Salubri – Brian Stack.

Setites – Sadir.

Toreador – Rafael de Corazon, Francois Villon, Helene la Jouste.

Tremere - Radek, Mistress Fanchon.

Tzimisce – Myca Vykos.

Ventrue – Alyssa Gilbert, Lady Jadviga Almanov, Lanzo von Saschen, Prince Alexander.

Remember - only those listed get votes. Of course influencing their Childer can go a long way to getting a vote.

Social Combat:

Let me first thank Sir Dunstan and his excellent Game of Thrones campaign as the inspiration for this rules tweak. A shout out to Vitaliano who also does an excellent job as a player in that campaign.

Game of Thrones has a Social Combat system that, while not translatable directly, I used as inspiration for this campaign.

This is a proposed rules set and I am more than happy to hear feedback from Players before I implement it in full.

Roleplaying is still required to get your point across. However, I think a mechanical system could be beneficial for this scenario, a scenario quite unlike anything I have ever done in a Vampire game before.

Making My Case

To convince a “voter” to side with your Sire, you may roll the following set of Attributes and Abilities:

1. Against someone who is clearly NOT in your favor --- Manipulation+Subterfuge+Politics
2. Against someone who is NEUTRAL – Charisma+Expression+Politics

The difficulty of all rolls is that Cainites Willpower. You will need to score as many successes as they have Willpower to win the contest. Once you engage the voter, you will only have three rounds to make your case and can only attempt do so one time per night.

If you have Presence – Awe or Enrancement, you may attempt to use these powers in conjunction with the above roll. Each success utilizing that Discipline gives you one more success on your total roll.

Beware, failing in using Presence in Elysium can lead to Sanctions by Thomas Brexiano.

Also beware, Cainites may try to turn this system around on you…

But What if Someone Else Tries This on a Voter I just Brought to my Side?

Amount of successes is a key factor here, you will want to score as many success as you can to ensure that a rival does not try to take that vote from you!

Certain NPC’s already believe that others are in their favor and would never change their votes. Those will be the toughest cookies to break.

Note this system cannot be used on:

Your In-Clan rivals, no amount of sweet talking or bribes will change their minds they all want this position badly.

Prince Narses, he simply will not entertain such discourse. Of course, this does not mean you cannot try to get into the ears of one of his Childer to have them speak with him…

Discerning My Quarry’s Intent

How can I tell if someone is for or against me despite what they are saying?

Make a Perception+Empathy+Politics roll.

The difficulty is 10, less that Cainites Humanity score. Those closer to the Beast are much harder to read. For every Century over 300 years that Cainite has lived, the DC will be increased by 1, topping out at 10, as these Cainites have well and truly mastered this game to have existed for so long in the first place.

Once you engage the voter, you will only have three rounds to ferret out their intent and can only attempt do so one time per night. You will need to score as many successes as they have Willpower to ascertain their intent.

If you have Auspex – Read the Soul or Invade the Mind, you may attempt to use these powers in conjunction with the above roll. Each success utilizing that Discipline gives you one more success on your total roll.

How else can I make my case?

The use of Presence, while frowned upon, is much less cause for censure than using Dominate. Dominate does not work on a Cainite whose blood is closer to Caine than your own. If you seek to use Dominate to convince a voter (or perhaps one of the Childer?) to vote for your Sire, it would be best used elsewhere in the city.

Boons – the boon system of quid pro quo can also be used to gain votes. You will need to offer something of course that that voter does not have or cannot get from another candidate.

Eliminate my rivals. This one is obvious though failure to do so without detection may subject YOU to the Final Death!


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Male Ventrue 8 Generation 14/15 BP

@All games: My apologies for the unannounced absence.
As many others, I had been visiting family during the christmas holidays.
I figured I would have some time to post in the evenings - alas, I only had my work laptop with me, and due to neglicence on my part(I don't really actually restart it all that often...hibernate FTW) my certification for the VPN-Tunnel that is enforced on all internet access was not up-to-date. Result being that I had no access to the WWW despite W-Lan availability.
I could, and should, probably have written such an update from my phone, and posted it to all my games, but honestly, I've been too lazy for that - not really a big fan of writing much without a keyboard. So, apologies for that. I came back home today, and will try and catch up with all games as soon as possible/over the next 48 hours.


Shadow's Status

I was going to update tonight but got a bit sidetracked, will update tomorrow :-)


Gangrel Blood Pool 13/10

I have returned!


Hi all. Trying to get my games back on track. Been awol for a month.


Shadow's Status

Updates tomorrow for sure.

Thanks for your patience with me folks!


Shadow's Status

OK, my for sure finally happened!

I've only two more updates to get to. One for Franz and one for our new Tzimisce player. I will get to these once I put the child to bed tonight.

Unfortunately, our former soon to be Tzimisce has been gone from the boards for months so it is time to move on.

I am still waiting for our Brujah to check in from my last set of posts, I sent a PM to him today.


Shadow's Status

Ugh, updates tomorrow, now going on 3 hour sick child odyssey....


Male Ventrue 8 Generation 14/15 BP

Just as an heads-up(for all my games): In less than 24 hours from now, my second child will be born.
I took a one-month leave from work to stay at home, so chances are I will have opportunities to post.
But between bonding with the little one and keeping the bigger one entertained, my posting patterns MAY be erratic at times, which is why I feel it's fair to inform fellow players(and GM's).
Only the faster-moving games will find a need to bot me, I hope, but if I am responsible for delay, do move on.


Gangrel Blood Pool 13/10

Congrats Franz!


Gangrel Blood Pool 13/10

@ Storyteller Shadow

It might be the long absence over break, but I don't remember who Sergei is, or if I really have an objective. I remember there was a riot of sorts, and Adria and I left my home for something?


Male Nosferatu 6th Generation; BP 28/30, xp saved: 0, spent 155

Sergei is a moving target for several different vampires who want him for various reasons and are offering different rewards for him.


Shadow's Status
Luca Marano wrote:

@ Storyteller Shadow

It might be the long absence over break, but I don't remember who Sergei is, or if I really have an objective. I remember there was a riot of sorts, and Adria and I left my home for something?

Lucas Sergei Sub Plot:

ON - Aug 25, 2017, 11:12 am

Venice by Night – Thursday March 27, 1309

On a Gondola - Luca Marano

Luca and Adria follow Petrankov out as the voting continues behind them.

Once out in the fresh air there are several Gondolas they can take. Petrankov approaches and one of the Ferrymen waves you all towards him. As all three of you get on the boat and are in the water, the boatman turns to Petrankov, "I was promised by my Master that I would receive great powers for the duty and services I have performed for him. You are the one known as Petrankov yes?"

Petrankov looks up at the boatman warily, "I am Mortal, since when do you deign to speak with our ilk?"

The man keeps pushing the Gondola along, "Since I am starting to become desperate. I do not know when Sergei will return and I cannot locate Katriana. I feel my opportunity slipping through my fingers..."

Petrankov seems to forget about both you and Adria as the conversation unfolds, "Proceed".

The man continues, "I was the one that brought the Volkov's here from Paris for this set up, so that you could meet with Volkov and do whatever needs to get done. I can tell you all of the places that we have stayed since we arrived here, for a price".

Petrankov grunts, "Which is?"

The man stops and turns back, "I want to be one of you..."

---

ON - Sep 5, 2017, 09:51 pm

Venice by Night – Thursday March 27, 1309

On a Gondola - Luca Marano

Petrankov grins at Luca, "Well stated Fledgling, well stated.

He speaks true Mortal, we don't need any more pups roaming around. I could just kill you and be done with it but as you belong to another, even one who has vexed me, it would be impulsive of me to do that.

Instead, I will give you a choice. If tomorrow you bring my two friends here around to all of the places you know that Volkov stayed and you find him, I will see to it that one of our ilk Embraces you. If the search yields no fruit then your life will be forfeit to these Fledglings who have yet to have their first kill..."

The man swallows hard an looks at you and Adria, "Agreed".

Petrankov laughs, "You must be desperate. Tell me young pups, will you do this for me?" He turns to you and Adria.

---

You and Adria did indeed agree to go. In exchange Petrankov will:

ON - Sep 14, 2017, 01:01 am

Venice by Night – Thursday March 27, 1309

On a Gondola - Luca Marano

Adria pauses looks at you and then back at Petrankov, "We could but what will you do for us?"

Petrankov laughs, "One night in their Courts and already you act like one of them!

I shall give you succor and hunting privileges here that you may remain if you so choose. I will negotiate for them for you. I assure you, if I do not, the Prince will chase you away once I leave... Are we fully agreed now?"

Thereafter, Francois states:

ON - Sep 30, 2017, 11:56 am

Venice by Night – Thursday March 27, 1309

On a Gondola - Luca Marano

The man sighs in relief, "Tomorrow, meet me at the entrance to the Way of Kings Inn".

Adria nods, "We will be there".

Clear? :-)


Shadow's Status
Onfroi wrote:
Sergei is a moving target for several different vampires who want him for various reasons and are offering different rewards for him.

Yes, Sergei and Katriana Volkov are both NPCs of interest to the current plot. Both were former PCs at the outset of the Game way back when.


Shadow's Status
Franz Albert Capsali wrote:

Just as an heads-up(for all my games): In less than 24 hours from now, my second child will be born.

I took a one-month leave from work to stay at home, so chances are I will have opportunities to post.
But between bonding with the little one and keeping the bigger one entertained, my posting patterns MAY be erratic at times, which is why I feel it's fair to inform fellow players(and GM's).
Only the faster-moving games will find a need to bot me, I hope, but if I am responsible for delay, do move on.

Congrats!

Based on that development, I will keep you outside of Court until your posting becomes more regular again. In the meantime, we can explore Clan Ventrue and your role in it with less "in game time pressure".

Unfortunately, due to RL I'll not be able to get another post up for you until tonight.


Shadow's Status

Finally finished the updates from the other night.


Gangrel Blood Pool 13/10

Thanks for the reminder. Should be good from here.


Shadow's Status

Hmmm, we may have lost our Brujah.

Due to my own lack of steady posting, I'll give him till early February to post or PM me back. Then I'll start the search for a new PC if he does not resurface.

FYI, I plan on pushing this ahead pretty hard this Thursday so we can get this Toreador vote done :-)


Shadow's Status

Ranerius, I botted you for a short scene within Vitaliano's post just an FYI, bit of fall out from Onfroi's vulgar use of high level Obfuscate in front of the Dominated humans. Just a little presence by you to convince them they did not see what they thought they saw :-)


Male Ventrue 8 Generation 14/15 BP
Storyteller Shadow wrote:

Congrats!

Based on that development, I will keep you outside of Court until your posting becomes more regular again. In the meantime, we can explore Clan Ventrue and your role in it with less "in game time pressure".

Unfortunately, due to RL I'll not be able to get another post up for you until tonight.

Both child and primary provider are safely home from the hospital, and I should have more time again to post without the obligation of keeping the first kid in an operational state by myself, nor organizing trips to and from said hospital on a daily basis.

Considering this has not been one of the faster-going games with daily posts before, I feel I can safely say that I'll be able to keep up with a 2-3 day schedule, or, depending on how things go, even a daily routine for a while.


Shadow's Status
Franz Albert Capsali wrote:
Storyteller Shadow wrote:

Congrats!

Based on that development, I will keep you outside of Court until your posting becomes more regular again. In the meantime, we can explore Clan Ventrue and your role in it with less "in game time pressure".

Unfortunately, due to RL I'll not be able to get another post up for you until tonight.

Both child and primary provider are safely home from the hospital, and I should have more time again to post without the obligation of keeping the first kid in an operational state by myself, nor organizing trips to and from said hospital on a daily basis.

Considering this has not been one of the faster-going games with daily posts before, I feel I can safely say that I'll be able to keep up with a 2-3 day schedule, or, depending on how things go, even a daily routine for a while.

Great, glad everyone is doing well!


Male Italian (Toreador)
Storyteller Shadow wrote:
Ranerius, I botted you for a short scene within Vitaliano's post just an FYI, bit of fall out from Onfroi's vulgar use of high level Obfuscate in front of the Dominated humans. Just a little presence by you to convince them they did not see what they thought they saw :-)

Sorry that was necessary. I am way behind and that's totally on me :(


Shadow's Status
Ranerius Bernerius wrote:
Storyteller Shadow wrote:
Ranerius, I botted you for a short scene within Vitaliano's post just an FYI, bit of fall out from Onfroi's vulgar use of high level Obfuscate in front of the Dominated humans. Just a little presence by you to convince them they did not see what they thought they saw :-)
Sorry that was necessary. I am way behind and that's totally on me :(

Not your fault, I forgot to address it IC when it took place so I was addressing it after the fact with my post for Vitaliano.


Male Nosferatu 6th Generation; BP 28/30, xp saved: 0, spent 155

Dex 4 wits 3 celerity 1

init: 1d10 ⇒ 2

Regardless of what the roll is one should follow those pesky rules lol


Norwegian Mercenary / Aspiring Condottiero | 7th Generation Clan Tzimisce | BP 19/20 | Willpower 7/8 | Wound Level 0 | Active Effects: Auspex (Heightened Senses)

Hi everybody! I haven't had time to introduce myself until now. Einar likes glory, money, and long walks on the battlefield. I like gaming, writing, and long walks through the stationery aisles of office supply stores. I'm very excited to be on board this Vampire campaign :)


Generation 8th Clan Assamite (Warrior caste) Blood 11/15; Will 5/7 Temp: Potency Point

Welcome to the game.

Myself I have a notebook an pen addition. I've recently fallen into an addiction to fountain pen and European paper.


Male Nosferatu 6th Generation; BP 28/30, xp saved: 0, spent 155

Good parchment between the fingers with its sweet yet acrid smell as you blow upon the ink. What could be greater?


Shadow's Status

Some RL s*%! to deal with tonight which will push back my originally proposed update from tonight to Saturday as I have D&D table top tomorrow (see two of you there!)


Gangrel Blood Pool 13/10

I am also in the fountain pen sinkhole. I keep checking the Pen_Swap reddit every couple days or so for new inks.


Shadow's Status

1309 called and wants their writing utensils back people! :-)


Male Nosferatu 6th Generation; BP 28/30, xp saved: 0, spent 155

I haven't seen anyone under 25 in my public library for a few years now so it might as well be the opiate of the masses...


Shadow's Status

Feeling a bit run down tonight, going to post tomorrow, sorry for the delays f+%#in' RL.

If I feel better in the morning, I'll get to it then, if not, when I get home from work, this next one is going to be fairly massive and will take an hour or two so...


Norwegian Mercenary / Aspiring Condottiero | 7th Generation Clan Tzimisce | BP 19/20 | Willpower 7/8 | Wound Level 0 | Active Effects: Auspex (Heightened Senses)

I haven't tried fountain pens yet - I'll have to get one and try it out. I maintain a wide variety of ball-point pens, technical pens, fine line Sharpies of all colors, calligraphy pens, mechanical pencils, and wooden pencils of various hardness.

My real obsession is with notebooks, however - as if having just the right notebook for a creative project will ensure genius and success (despite all empirical evidence to the contrary). And so I have boxes full of unused notebooks gathered over the years. My collection inflated quite a bit when Borders went out of business and put everything on sale for 60%-80% off in their final days, resulting in the purchase of scores of moleskine journals/notebooks of all sizes, colors, and formats.

These days I attempt to control myself and try to ensure that my purchases only maintain the current level of unused product rather than adding to it. Mostly I am successful. Mostly.


Gangrel Blood Pool 13/10

Einar, you lucky son of a bat (vampire joke, heh heh). I have a small stack of notebooks when I find them on sale. While I like moleskine, I'm branching out into other notebooks as well. Leuchtturm1917 seems really good, but never find those in any stores near me.


Shadow's Status

Ah Children, passed out last night with the kid.

Final update post to move the evening forward is forthcoming.

FYI, I am once again seeking a new PC our Brujah has disappeared and I've not seen him post anywhere on the boards since around Christmas so I'd say it is time to seek anew.


This is the person behind Onfroi.

I have decided to run a world of darkness V 20 game starting as mortals Please look for recruiting under Edelsmirge for the game and its specifications.

I look forward to seeing some of you there.


Shadow's Status

Please welcome Sister Maria Bellarosa played by Dragoncat!

Our soon to be newest Brujah.

Good news, some Divorce paperwork came through today so next week I can move that process along. Hopefully by April.May I'll be back to my normal posting routines, thank you all for bearing with me.

I trust the wait and the latest post in Elysium are shocking enough to make it worth the while? :-)


Female 6th Generation Brujah|Blood Pool: 18/30|Willpower: 6/6

Hello, everyone. :)


Clan Malkavian Blood Pool 19/30

!!! A HARLET!

I tease, though my character does have some issues on the subject. It'd be funny to steal the soon to be Childe of another and sire them yourself but this is not the time for such crazy nonsense.

I am much too young in the night for Siring.


Gangrel Blood Pool 13/10

Greetings sister, may this world of darkness treat you well.


Welcome....


Generation 8th Clan Assamite (Warrior caste) Blood 11/15; Will 5/7 Temp: Potency Point

Welcome.


Male Ventrue 8 Generation 14/15 BP

I suppose saying hi&welcome is the proper way to greet a new player :) Sorry I didn't do so at first.
Say, do I know you, Sister?
I could have sworn...nevermind...Heck, if you started with that other profession early enough, chances are we have met-


Shadow's Status

It’s pretty late at night as I am writing this. I’ve been through a significant amount of struggles through the past two years (actually through the past 41 but especially the past 2). I’ve had worse stretches of time before but I believe that these past struggles were due to my own lack of maturity and self-awareness at the time those events took place.

Likely those events were necessary for me to experience to survive the events of the past two years and get through them as well as I have. Physical ailments, getting older and requiring more sleep, bankruptcy, and ultimately divorce. You know life is not going swimmingly when going to work feels like a vacation.

Regardless, when I first started getting involved in PbP on the boards it was a chance to play, finally! I’d been DMing for the bulk of the time that I’ve played table top that I was enjoying being able to be a player for once. Then with so many damn flaky GM’s I just started running games and well, things snow balled from there.

Life was fairly stable at the time the normal ups and downs. Then about two years ago, I started getting into PbP as a way to escape reality. Sort of the same ways drugs were casual and enjoyable for me as a teen and ultimately led me as close to suicide as I ever want to get again.

I am not saying that PbP has made me suicidal but I am saying that I recognize that I was using PbP as a coping mechanism to avoid a bad marriage. PbP did NOT lead to the failure of my marriage but it did contribute to my ability to tune it out.

I make a decent living but between bankruptcy and divorce I’ve little to show for it (well except for this killer book and RPG collection ). I could point the finger at my soon to be ex-wife but when you point one finger at a person, three more point back at you. I could have prevented things from becoming this bad and I chose not to. I did it, ironically, because I believed that if I had the marriage would have ended and ended badly, so much for best intentions. I am not going to second guess myself, what happened happened. As divorces go, this one has been rather amicable as we have put our daughter first and ourselves second.

Being married to someone who makes as much if not more money then you (depending on sales that year) places one in a position to “take it easy” when it comes to being aggressive about making money (well it placed me in such a position anyhow perhaps because making money does not move me).

Early on in my career I had an opportunity to become a premiere M&A Financial Services Tax Attorney in a Big 4 Firm. It’s a big deal and potentially a lot of money but I did not really want it because I knew I would be working a lot and traveling a lot. My ex agreed that I should turn it down as she did not want to be married to a workaholic and that was not who I wanted to be anyway. Nor do I want to be that person now. (In yet another twist of irony, she has become a workaholic, funny how things turn out).

I do not regret the decision though I do lament the loss of income that such a decision would have brought to me.

All of this rambling nonsense is leading to the point of this post, I need to work more. Not at my current job nor do I want to get a new job, I actually like being there as odd as that sounds (to me). I need to get a second and perhaps a third job, side gigs. At 41 about to turn 42 with no retirement and no savings for my daughters college, I can no longer hope that the ex’s business will come through as an investment plan. Even if it does, I will not be the beneficiary of that largesse. I need to make up for 11 years of being “comfortable” simply working.

Thus, it is with heavy heart that I am announcing that I will need to close down a number of the threads I run and withdraw from a number of the games I am a PC in.

I suppose this decision will not be a surprise to many of you as my posting rates have been abysmal since these events took a turn for the worse (in some respects the better to be honest) since Thanksgiving of 2017.

I am not generally a person that feels remorse or guilt but I do feel a level of disappointment with having to make this decision. I apologize for disappointing many of you who put work into PCs relying on my consistency as a GM/DM over the course of the past several years.

My plan had always been to run a hardcore dose of RPG’s until my daughter was a teenager and then, spend my free time writing the novel I had been working on since before she was born. I had hoped that over the next 9 years or so I could wrap up most of these campaigns and the few that remained would be more manageable.

Life has not worked out that way.

The good news is that I will still run several games but the current load is too much for me to handle in this transition. The further good news is that I believe this will allow for those games to move along much more quickly.

By tomorrow I will have made my decision as to which games I will keep and which I will shut down.

Thank you all for taking the journeys with me despite the lack of length or resolution of so many of them.

I will still be around just in a diminished capacity so this is not goodbye just a “be seeing less of you”.


Shadow's Status

Spoiler Alert - this is one the of the games I know that i will NOT be shutting down. I pan to run this till I finish what's in my head or I die.


Shadow's Status

3 hours of shoveling has put me behind in my posting tonight. I will update this game in the next few days but not tonight as it is time intensive, just wanted to let you all know.


Norwegian Mercenary / Aspiring Condottiero | 7th Generation Clan Tzimisce | BP 19/20 | Willpower 7/8 | Wound Level 0 | Active Effects: Auspex (Heightened Senses)

No worries, Shadow. BTW, I'm really impressed by the set-up of each clan having a corresponding station of the cross. Great stuff!

Also - welcome on board Maria!


Shadow's Status

Life is finally starting to get a bit less hectic. Thanks for the patience, I will be back to normal posting again this Sunday.

Please sound off so I know you are still with me :-)


Male Ventrue 8 Generation 14/15 BP

*Turns sound of laptop off*
How will that help?


Male Nosferatu 6th Generation; BP 28/30, xp saved: 0, spent 155

what's the spirit of the bayonet?

blood Sgt blood, the bright red blood of the enemy!


Norwegian Mercenary / Aspiring Condottiero | 7th Generation Clan Tzimisce | BP 19/20 | Willpower 7/8 | Wound Level 0 | Active Effects: Auspex (Heightened Senses)

Present!

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