Vampire: the Masquerade (V5) - Recruiting players!
Hey, guys!
After a bumpy year, I've returned to the RPG scene, craving some vampire action! This is a neonate game built for the V5 system. The idea here is to build up a character-driven writing experience, focusing on drama and intrigue. Expect heavy use of relationship maps and mortal characters, lots of noir-style moments and a good deal of backstabbing, as usual!
If anyone's interested, please, give me a shout through this thread or via PM! More details (NPC's, a few rules) within the game folder.
See you when I see you!
Archon
ABOUT THE GAME
PROLOGUE
Spring... A strange cacophony of colors and sounds you’d never consider seeing again with fresh eyes.
And yet, as you stroll down Carson Street, Spring explodes all around you. The evening disappears under the palettes of flowerbeds, strong white lights and voluptuous trees. As mortals busy themselves around, you browse through the cafés and bistreaus. Nonetheless, your pick for the night is a bookstore, lit and alive. It is a survivor, predating the renovation age of Carson Street, and you find it charming, in a way. Few things have it in them, this pinch for rebirth. But this was always her thing, her attribute. And, as a testimony, here she stands…
Inside it’s hard to find the sweet spot for a meal, even now, after dark. A reading takes place, and the store’s full for it. You manage to isolate a suitable victim – a young tourist with a flower in her hair. Afterwards, you leave her in a couch, head bent as if asleep, to be found by her travelling buddies. She’ll probably stay at the hostel later tonight, while her friends go out for some drinks… She’s not well after all. Tough luck. All because of that flower, velveted red, swimming amidst her curls.
You take a peek at the reading before you go. Self and Solitude is the book’s name. The protagonist resents the demise of reclusive writers, the end of artistic sincerity. You walk out. Once they wanted to be heard, now they want to be left alone. Even people can cling to the past in confusing ways, apparently.
Outside, you step over the pavement. Memory serves. A foot below, you can still feel the lane for the old asphalt losing its shape under the pressure of darkness. Twenty years and Carson Street’s no longer housing industrial offices behind its federal façades. Your eyes rise to the front, to meet a horizon that’s no longer there. Come to think of it, it hasn’t been there for twenty years now. The sky-scrappers that swallowed it whole look down on Carson Street as the condescending adult staring at a playful child.
You move out. Your very steps refuse the high lights of the new city. Instead of walking on, you hop onto a tram. In the blink of an eye, you’re crossing the old center, made to remember the first days of New Concord. The hills in the west were lit as well: manors built by old fortunes and even older appetites, watching their city with the jealous stare of a scorned lover. They lost their battle, you realize, shut within their mansions, afraid of this new world. And the world punished them for that. You lean back on the bench, letting yourself rest. You want to reach the central station – just for the memories, you tell yourself, just for the vistas. But as you jolt across the city, Bates District calls out, ten stops too early for your plans. You go down amidst old industrial pavilions and forgotten railroads and visit a huge train cemetery with wicked pleasure. Here and there, noises of happiness and violence clash, stirring the ghosts of the past. The city forgot Bates District, but the dead did not. Battles fought, hopes lost, and only old metal moans.
You find your way towards one of the surviving neighborhoods. Too stubborn to leave, these ones, you think to yourself. You sit by a fountain as mongrels feast on the remnants of a daily fair. The fountain’s dry, the smell’s strong, the buildings around, silent. A worker’s death for a worker’s valley of sorrows. And to think that once, not long ago, this was such a lively place!
Suddenly, the weight of all these past years – all your past years - falls upon your shoulders. You’re reminded of the decades you’ve lived, the countless days you’ve managed to survive. You think of home, maybe of the many homes you left behind. They’re gone. Even if you went back, right there, beyond the limits of your vision plus two steps… It’d be gone. Transformed. Turned. And you’d be the same. You are the same. But the world around you, well… It never stopped. You look inside the fountain. Water puddles inside, stale and dark. You see the work of countless rains and countless days of sunlight. They passed you by, filling up the bowl, drying it again. Now, only leftovers rot inside. And, in the puddle, you see lights reflected, and amidst them you find yourself staring back, staring up. Unchanged in the flesh. But your eyes are tired, as if they’ve seen the worse half of things since the beginning of times… You ask yourself: am I truly still the same? The fountain’s mute.
Perhaps you’re doomed to lose all you hold dear. Perhaps the world will leave you behind. But if you’re lucky, you might be able to keep up with times, or maybe even to bring time to a standstill…
WHAT’S THE GAME ABOUT?
This game is a writing experience, and it is about your characters. A lot will be left out for now, so it can be built and written by all of us as we play. This means that this game is a sandbox. You’ll define where your characters go and how they deal with people and events. Remember, though: this game is also about change. Things will happen around you. People will leave. Others will arrive. The city will evolve. Allies may come and go, as well as enemies. Places will transform, ideas will die and give birth to new perspectives, institutions will rise and fall, fortunes will be made and broken…
The question you must ask yourself is simple: as an immortal, how will you cope with change? Will you resist, adapt, surrender or be forgotten?
Come join us and dare discover how long your humanity lasts within this ever-changing world.
WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
Again, this is a writing experience. If you want to apply, remember that we are writing a story together. We don’t want you to be Oscar Wilde. You just have to love writing to join.
You don’t have to know the system. Part of the task is to discover how well it can tell the stories we create. You don’t even have to own the book. Everything you might need will be explained to you during gameplay. If you have experience, that’s even better. You can help others learn while writing with us.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO APPLY?
If you want to apply, give us a character concept and a small backstory. Notice that we’ll start with mildly experienced characters (neonates). That’ll allow us to live the shock of vampiric life in opposition to the mortal ties that remain – as well as those that might have been lost.
As you build your character, try to answer me the following questions:
- Who is the character?
- What was the character’s life like?
- How was the Embrace?
- What does the character do now?
- What does the character want? What does the character do to survive?
Also, give us a quick rundown on you. How do you play, what do you like to see when you’re playing and why are you applying to this game in particular.
THE SCENARIO
New Concord. This city (fictional), located at northern Georgia, held a place of prominence among american greatest cities till the early nineties, when a severe economic crisis led its logistics sector to sink. Property values followed suit and the city began to shrink, but seven years later an injection of resources led the city to an astounding recovery. The logistics sector became active once more, bringing many companies to choose New Concord for their headquarters. The food industry became quite prominent, soon to be followed by great media companies. In recent years, these same media companies have built a true artistic empire, with several studios opening up and bringing along all sorts of technology investors.
Nowadays, the city meets its renaissance. Most areas have been revitalized, with the notable exception of Bates District (the old railway meeting district, dating back to the Civil War) and old residential areas. Otherwise, the city has been reorganized to stimulate tourism and receive the massive waves of immigrants that increase year after year. The Financial Center (or New Downtown, as it’s been called) feeds the development of the south side, now crawling with contractors and new projects for the highly educated professionals that live around. The western areas still hold the traditional fortunes, the old parks and the fancy clubs, but that changes as the balance of power tips towards the new wave of investors. Old Town remains a hotspot for tourists, revitalized around the architectural project of Carson Street and Liberty Park. More and more, suburban life disappears, with most of the population moving inwards New Concord. Other centers, such as Beckonsville and New Arkham, profit from this growth, increasing integration and reforming their urban landscapes as well.
It is an age of hope, some would say. Others, less optimistic, would only say that every blessing has its price…
THE RULES
We’ve chose V5 for this project because it seems to offer great support for social gameplay and dramatic scenes. That being said, these are the rules we are going to use:
- Hunger rules
- Blood Potency
- Relationship map (for dramatic purposes and social conflict)
- Three convictions and three Touchstones
- Ambition and desire
- Tenets: we might use them, as long as all players agree to it and to what tenets should be used (in other words, we can use them if they help building up the story)
CHARACTER CREATION
- Standard creation for NEONATES
- Any of the seven clans allowed
- Caitiff allowed
- Thin bloods allowed (obviously, not neonates at that point; will receive the same 15 experience points to begin with, though)
- If the players choose to begin as a coterie, we will distribute coterie points as adequate
- Remember, you can create whatever you want, as long as it plays well with your fellow players. Storyteller-played characters, areas and historical bits can be included. Just discuss it with the Storyteller and everything will be fine.
QUICK DISCLAIMER
This is an adult game, dealing with adult themes. Still, no need to get hurtful or to cross anyone’s sensibilities. Please maintain common sense while describing heavier scenes. No sorts of sex, dark violence or anything of the sort will ever come from the Storyteller. Please, remember to keep it civil. If anything such as cursing or intimate scenes need to be present, leave it to the imagination of your fellow players through appropriate and creative use of the text.
Let’s keep it clean and healthy for everyone.
This message was last edited by the user at 23:39, Fri 21 Dec 2018.
