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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Sorry for the tardiness. Here's a fleshed out backstory, appearance, and personality.

Giovanni Dal'este Backstory:
Gio is the very young son of a very wealthy man. His older brothers carry the load of all their father's expectations- the eldest as heir to the family business, second eldest a genuine war hero and now a politican, the third a priest at St. Mark's. Their father has few expectations and little attention for Gio and he takes full advantage.

Only 19, Gio has idled away most of his life. He was only a lackluster student, and his parents didn't force him to continue his studies after he turned 16. He learned to use a sword but is far from a master duelist. He took up riding but didn't care for breeding and lost interest once he learned enough not to embarrass himself in the saddle. He briefly took up painting but didn't have the patience for it.

With no work and no hobbies to speak of, Gio spends most of his time with his equally wealthy and idle friends. Drinking, gambling, fighting, gossiping, going to parties, and chasing young women are his primary pastimes.

The many idle young men of his class tend to travel in packs, brawling and betting with equal abandon. Gio has a small core group of friends and a large network of contacts, acquaintances, and rivals. He and his group have a small-scale rivalry with another band of young noblemen and both groups tend to focus their brawling and woman poaching on their 'hated enemies', but by the standards of most adults the rivalry is an anemic one.

Personality:
Gio is friendly, outgoing, emotional, excitable, overconfident, arrogant, brash, self-doubting, mercurial and moody in turns. Joy in the morning can turn to depression in the afternoon and a happy medium reached by midnight. In short, he is a teenage boy. He preens like a peacock in front of the opposite sex and puffs up like a cat in the face of male rivals.

He falls in love quickly, always convinced that this girl is the one, then falls in love just as quickly when the next one comes along. He stores up slights from other young men and broods on them, saving up past wrongs to avenge at some point in the future. Again- a teenage boy. He is young and has yet to really be hurt by anything or anyone, insulated from responsibilities by his family's money and his older brothers' successes.

Gio has a small number of loyal friends and a wide network of other friends, acquaintances, and people he knows well enough to call by name. He's generally friendly and eager to make new friends, and naive enough to think the best of most people.

He has never really been engaged by anything, from schooling to sword fighting to poetry to horses. That isn't to say he's unintelligent or unmotivated, just that he's never been pushed because he's never really needed anything that his family's money couldn't get for him.

Gio has few exceptional skills, but is a very good gambler, has an excellent palate for wine, and is looked to by his friends for his sartorial expertise. He is a middling fighter, able to hold his own in a brawl but not stand out in a fight, and only a passable sailor and rider. Having grown up in Venice, he knows the canals and bridges like the back of his hand, though his knowledge of the city is understandably concentrated in the better parts.

Appearance:
Gio is quite good looking, tall with a lithe build, dark brown eyes, and curly black hair. He dresses well, in the current fashion and in expensive fabrics, and with very good taste.

Attribute prioritaztion would be Physical/Social/Mental, with Ability points in Athletics, Brawl, Streetwise, Etiquette, and Melee. Backgrounds would be in Contacts, Influence, and Resources.


karlprosek wrote:

Sorry for the tardiness. Here's a fleshed out backstory, appearance, and personality.

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **...

I feel we would get along very well. Soul mates even.


I have sent Private Messages relating to some of the fixes I want to see to implement these characters into the game.

Silver Crusade

The slightly updated version. I've included the new parts in Italics to make it easier to spot.

Race Mortal
Gender Male
Size 5'10, 190 lbs
Age early 30's
Deity Orthodox Christianity
Location Venice, Greeting Inn
Languages Romanian and Italian (Speak only), Lingua Franca

About "Cantor"

Nature - Penitent
Demeanor - Survivor
Generation -None
Sire - None

Max Blood Pool /Current
Max Trait Tating -
Blood points Per Turn -

XP Earned -
XP Spent -

XP Expenditures:

Attributes:
Physical: Str 3, Dex 3, Sta 4
Social: Cha 2, Man 1, App 3
Mental: Per 3, Int 2, Wit 3

Abilities:
Talents:
Alertness 1
Athletics 2
Awareness 1
Brawl 1
Carousing 1
Empathy 2
Subterfuge 1
-
Skills:
Animal Ken 3
Archery 1
Crafts 2
Ettiquette 1
Larceny 1
Melee 1
Ride 1
Stealth 1
Survival 2
-
Knowledge:
Finance 1
Hearth Wisdom 1
Investigation 1
Medicine 1
Seneschal 1

Disciplines (None):

Backgrounds:
Allies 1 (Gunther)
Alternate Identity 1 (Yanos)
Contacts 2 (Jodi and Lindsay)
Resources 1

Virtues:
Conscience 4
Self Control 3
Courage 3

Humanity: 7
Willpower: 3

Merits: Celestial Attunement (1), Lingua Franca (1)
Flaws: Outsider (1)
Rituals: None

Description: Yanos is a bit taller than normal, and built like one would expect from someone that has worked their whole life. Recently he has begun to grow a bear and his hair long, (helping to hide his face a bit). He has dark brown hair, but pale skin compared to the local population, and speaks with an accent that clearly marks him as Eastern European. He is in his early thirty's, but already has greying hair from a hard life. Otherwise there is not too much remarkable about him. He is attractive, but not at all gorgeous, and the rags he wears does not help.

History: Born in far off Romania, "Yanos" worked the land his entire life, both farming and hunting to supplement what food he could for a small family. He never owned the land he worked, and the majority of his fruits went to the local lord. While he never the opportunity to study, or even travel, he was good with his hands.

Everything changed a few months back when he volunteered to help his lord with a problem. He joined as extra hired muscle for what was supposed to be negotiations with merchants and traders, but instead it was a massacre. When he refused to join in, the soldiers he was with turned on him, beating him to a pulp and then hauling him back in chains, claiming he was a secret traitor and spy, selling information to the outlanders. His family was taken and sold off as slaves, and Yanos was meant to be executed, but internal treachery and the reprisal of the middle eastern merchants allowed him the chance to escape.He fled, grabbing what little he had and could carry safely and ran.

With nowhere to go, he petitioned to join the Knights Hospitaller, not realizing that the group he was joining where nothing but more thugs, charlatans trying to use the order's good name both to cover their own cowardly activities and to help rob the innocent villagers they would "help" along the way to the Holy Land.

Yanos, or Cantor as he became called, (a fake title rather than a name, because he had a small knack for singing), was even initiated and taught some basic battlefield medicine before he discovered the truth, but he had heard enough tales of crusades, real knights, and the Holy Land from the thieves and the other initiates that he decided to make his way there regardless. Living off the land all the way, and doing odd jobs when he could, he made his way to Venice, hoping to find a way to the Holy Land, but soon discovered that here where no more crusades. Well, not there.

He has only arrived in Venice about a month ago, and has had a hard time at it. He manages to find work at the Greetings Inn, where he now lives in one of the back rooms, doing odd jobs around the Inn, and even making a few friends and contacts amongst the staff. Both Jodi and Lindsay feel they can trust him, and though they know he has a secret of his own, they get the feeling it's a sad one, and secretly look out for him, from whatever it is he is running from.

Likewise, Gunther, the Inn's owner respects his work ethic, and is willing to help where he can. It isn't many who would put up with such a job just for room and board, and the tiny wages Yanos lives off of.


Bassanio wrote:
I feel we would get along very well. Soul mates even.

Wow, yeah. I can definitely see these two hanging out.


I may have need for another player in this Vampire campaign. By Wednesday I Wil know for certain whether my 13th player can continue or not.

Please PM me if you are interested as the campaign is about to start a new chapter. Clan option is limited to a single Clan as the other 12 are currently being played by other players.


BUMP.


If it can be said, what clan is left?


I sent you a PM Ridge.

Silver Crusade

I would, but I have far too much going on right now, and I don't think I could handle one more. :(

Possibly in the future.


Recruitment has now closed.


b[b]Recruitment for Clan Gangrel[/b

I have a spot in my Vampire the Dark Ages 20th Anniversary edition game open again. Specifically for Clan Gangrel, the other 12 Clans are currently represented.

The other players have started as Fledglings. Based on where the campaign currently stands, that will not be necessary for the new Player.


RECRUITMENT IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED


RECRUITMENT IS OFFICIALLY REOPENED for VAMPIRE

I have an opening for Clan Gangrel, please PM me if you are interested.

Thank you!


BUMP


I've been reading the gameplay thread for this, and I've always had a desire to learn the WoD system. I have the Vamp 20th books but I've never got round to playing; would you be okay with a newcomer to the system being on-board?


GM Nostrus wrote:
I've been reading the gameplay thread for this, and I've always had a desire to learn the WoD system. I have the Vamp 20th books but I've never got round to playing; would you be okay with a newcomer to the system being on-board?

Absolutely, I have everything from Storyteller's to brand new players in this game, all are welcome. Go ahead and look at the Discussion thread for character creation rules. Start as a Mortal, the Embrace will be completed during Gameplay.


Another newbie interested, but if you go with Nostrus, I understand.


inxpitter wrote:
Another newbie interested, but if you go with Nostrus, I understand.

If someone drops I will put you at the top of the list Inxpitter.


GM Nostrus wrote:
I've been reading the gameplay thread for this, and I've always had a desire to learn the WoD system. I have the Vamp 20th books but I've never got round to playing; would you be okay with a newcomer to the system being on-board?

How is your submission coming along DM Nostrus?


Sorry DM Nostrus I have yet to see anything from you so I am going to give Inxpitter an opportunity to join the Campaign. Perhaps next time.

RECRUITMENT OFFICIALLY CLOSED

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