V:tM warm-up

The "warm-up set" of Vampire: the Masquerade went swimmingly.  As is my practice, I've been volunteering to run old school paper & pencil, tabletop roleplaying games once a month for the Madison Geekery meetup.

It was a great time!  I had the chance to be Storyteller for a couple people who had never played an RPG before, a couple people with sparse RPG experience, and a few people who used to play V:tM, but hadn't in many years.  In fact, the last time I played or ran Vampire myself was about 8 years ago.  Long time.

A couple months ago, I announced that I'd be starting a weekly home game for V:tM.  Nostalgia called to me, and I've been keeping dozens of Vampire RPG books around since 1991.  So, that was one of my reasons for wanting to try it again as a one-off.  To see where the cracks were.

I fondly remember all those nights gaming in the early to mid 90's.  The ten-siders, the fantastic successes and botches, lost humanity, frenzy, and freshly xeroxed starting characters strong enough to punch through a human's skull.  It's a much different game than D&D.  For instance: upon sundown, I asked each player to describe where their character lived, spent the daylight hours, and what they were doing after rising from their death-like slumber.  Based upon their character concept, resources, and other backgrounds, they came up with a suitable response.  Much more "sand box", except within city limits.

There were a lot of players.  I wanted to be as inclusive as possible (I hate turning people away).  The sign-up allowed for 7 players.  Well, I emailed a couple on the waiting list and said they could join in, too.  Then, one of my best friends and frequent gaming buddy was over at my house watching Hawk the Slayer on DVD the night before.  I was telling him about the game (he's also going to be playing in the weekly home game).  Turns out, he also wanted to join the one-shot.

As luck would have it, one or two people who signed-up couldn't make it last minute, so there were about 8 or 9 players.  Not an easy thing for a Storyteller to negotiate when there's only 3 hours of game time and each character might decide to do his or her own thing - many Kindred are solitary predators.

Thankfully, there was a bar... that old RPG standby; and vampires being former-people, most wanted to socialize and be near others of their kind... for awhile, at least.  That helped.  Besides a single Nosferatu, everyone either played a Gangrel, Brujah, or Toreador.

I decided to use the sample chronicle from the back of the first edition rules.  The game started in Gary, Indiana with Chicago casting a particularly nasty black shadow over the characters' home city of rust, decay, and general ruin.  Even though Vampire is a dark game, there were plenty of light moments.  Everyone had a lot of laughs.  One gangrel tried to use his animalism to summon his pet bear to the bar, but with only a single success - a raccoon answered the call!

The plot revolved around a Chicago biker gang called the Blood Angels who worked for Lodin, Prince of Chi-town.  Modius is slowly losing control of Gary, and constantly antagonized by Lodin and Chicago Kindred.  As usually happens, the session organically evolved into its own thing, beyond my notes and theories about where the night would take us.

I gave everyone a taste of not only vitae but ultra-violence.  There were enough bikers to satisfy everyone's bloodlust.  Good times!  My idea of using Blood Potency instead of Generation also went well.  It seemed more appropriate.  After character creation, I gave everyone a one sentence origin story - vampires were spawned from ancient demons; the last of which slain during the Inquisition.

As usual, the end of the night came abruptly.  Just as the players were becoming comfortable with their character, the rules, setting, motivations, etc. it was over.  "Is that it?  Can we do this again?" A woman asked.  One player suggested we continue another night.  I still hadn't decided on September's game, and suggested a "part 2".  There was wholehearted agreement.

Hearing the enthusiasm and being asked to keep the game going makes it all worth while.  The conclusion will see the character's fighting Kindred, not just mortals with switchblades and 9mms.  Modius is pleased...


VS

Self-imposed Limitations

This blog post is a little more Devil's advocate than my usual stuff.  After all, I'm a dyed in the wool anti-authoritarian who loves creative license.

Just before falling asleep last night, a vague notion hit me.  Something about Facebook and MySpace... why the former was more successful than the latter.  If I told you that a MySpace page was totally open-ended, you could do virtually anything with it - colors, designs, fonts, images, have all kinds of wild, modular powers of manipulation and choice, and then told you that Facebook was artificially limited, that it imposed lots of regulations and restrictions... you might "like" MySpace over that other social networking site.

Why, then, is Facebook more highly regarded and well respected than MySpace?  Why does Facebook get more traffic and have more gravitas?  How come no one made a movie about the CEO of MySpace?

This is just a theory, but it goes back to man's unconscious need for structure; the world should be regulated.  Human beings say they want loads and loads of freedom, they might say it until their blue in the face, but that doesn't necessarily make it so.  Consciously, man yearns for wide-open spaces.  However, he secretly craves the ground under his feet and familiar scenery at which to gaze.  After all, the void is a scary place.

How does this relate to roleplaying games?  I believe the vast majority of gamers dislike RPGs or campaigns with little to no structure.  Sure, they want choice, they want their decisions to matter, but at the end of the day, players want to know there are rules.  I'm not saying sandbox campaigns suck.  On the contrary, a well thought-out sandbox is usually preferable to a strictly linear scenario - as long as GMs are careful to occasionally leave a trail of breadcrumbs and clearly mark clues, plot points, NPCs with useful exposition, etc.

A GM has to lead just as much as he describes.  Not along tracks like a railroad, but in a realm of boundaries and barriers.  Don't characters enjoy the occasional feel of an invisible hand upon their back, gently pushing them in the right direction?  If you asked them, some might deny it.  Nine times out of ten, they're kidding themselves.  Suggest to them an RPG where the setting is anything they want, their character concept can be whatever they choose, and there is no pre-determined objective - it's all open-ended.  Lameness, game session for two.

Does this mean the silliest offenses to conventional storytelling should be thrown out without a care?  Must players give up on playing a Half-Orc, Half-Drow ninja/bard/sorcerer with a magic ring on every finger, a spell-storing bastard sword in each hand who can transform into a Were-Spider when it suits him?  Sure, it sounds cool.  So does a fantasy world of unlimited possibilities where the rules are whatever sound good at the time.  Trust me, the novelty will soon wear off, and then the only people enthused about that game will be the same teens using MySpace.

Have you encountered too much freedom in a roleplaying game, as either a player or GM?  Does the old school renaissance resonate more towards the limitation or unlimited end of the spectrum?  What about modern RPGs?  Does this also apply to horror RPGs?  Because there are few things more frightening than knowing the walls aren't really there.  Perhaps that's for another blog post...

VS

Lovecraftian as always

H.P. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu Mythos have influenced much of my life.  So, Happy Birthday to him!  He is a prophet to some of the warped apostles who admire his foetid works.

While fantasy and D&D retro-compatible and retro-clone RPGs have enough adventures, campaigns, and settings to go around (although, there's always room for a few more gems), the Cthulhu genre is deplorably lacking!  I can't objectively judge whether there's a deficit of quality gaming material according to others.  But for myself, I want more opportunities to suss out the Dreaded One and his untenable ilk.  Nevertheless, I think it's relatively safe to say that intrepid investigators could do with plumbing fresh eldritch horrors, for a change.

About a year ago, I got the itch to co-author a modern-day Cthulhuoid campaign.  A year ago, I wasn't actually gaming, so that particular itch was strange in itself; yet, was no doubt still brimming with inspiration from running the beyond brilliant Masks of Nyarlathotep years ago.  Those nights of MoN kept the dream of gaming alive, even if I'd more or less given up on the hobby.  Poppycock to you 4th edition D&D.... poppycock, I say!

Also, I thought co-authoring was preferable because I'm only one man and writing can be a lonely, not to mention, single-perspective pursuit.  Additionally, the word "campaign" doesn't seem right.  Campaigns are for D&D and the various RPGs that evolved from miniature wargaming.  "Chronicle" was born of Vampire: the Masquerade.  What about "sequence" when describing a set of thematically linked adventures in the weird horror/scifi milieu?  Yes, I like it.  "A disturbing sequence of events befell Arkham, Dunwich, and Innsmouth."

Anyways, I soon dropped that idea and picked it up again a few months later...but with a twist.  That's where Liberation of the Demon Slayer began.  I wanted to give D&D another shot by way of the Old School Renaissance.  It worked, and LotDS blossomed along with my passion for roleplaying.  BTW, the old school mega-dungeon should be available early September.

Now that LotDS is almost off my plate (final touches being added as write this), and even though I have dozens of little notes for a follow-up OSR D&D type adventure, I'm still toying with the idea of creating a Mythos-based sequence for those wanting something new but still very much in the Lovecraftian tradition.

I've given up on collaborating with my fellow gamers and HPL aficionados, but not completely... surely as the ichor flows black, hope springs eternal.  So, let this be a warning to the world.  Venger's wheels are turning!  Feel free to throw ideas at me like they were shoggoths... some just might stick.

By His loathsome tentacles,

VS

p.s.  Someday, I'll get around to writing that Lovecraftian novel, too.  Someday...

Seed of a Chronicle

There won't be spoilers because I haven't gotten that far.  I've only worked out the bare bones introduction to my own personal World of Darkness.  The following will serve as the basis for my Vampire: the Masquerade chronicle.  Without further ado...

All (or at least most - I love exceptions to the rule, as long as, their reason-for-being is exceptional) of the PCs are neonates (newly embraced vampires for those who aren't familiar with V:tM jargon).  A city (not sure which one - maybe it will go unnamed throughout the chronicle) has just lost its Kindred population; wiped clean... no survivors.  Most likely the handiwork of a vampire hunter gang.  There are several known throughout the country, but unfortunately (for the Kindred) they keep moving.  Nomadic gangs of vampire hunting badasses are difficult to kill.

Anyways, this kind of extermination is a rarity, but it does happen from time to time.  Kindred are practiced at keeping a stronghold for decades if not centuries.  The urban areas are their domain.  Sure, a few Gangrel exist out in the wilderness, but that's werewolf territory.  Kindred need cities to survive, they need people and civilization.  To lose one is definitely a blow to their bloodsucking ego.

There are many reasons for re-populating a lost city with Kindred: contacts, allies, investments... all will run dry if the Camarilla just leaves it be.  Plus, feeding grounds are valuable commodities - a vampire's gotta eat, and the masquerade dictates that a certain population can only abide a certain number of Kindred. So, abandoning the city is not an option.

In go the neonates.  They're the most expendable.  With all those vampire hunters running around (it's been determined that all the city's Kindred were wiped out by vampire hunters, but no one is 100% certain), the elders don't want to risk it and the ancillae are preoccupied with power struggles in their present domains.  Various neonates from several different clans, cities, and (possibly) covenants are being selected to re-populate the city, restore the Camarilla's influence, and, most importantly, eliminate the danger.

This allows players to come up with pretty much any character concept they want and still have a reason for working alongside dissimilar characters in a particular location.  There's a built-in threat to jump start the action.  Plus, great potential for upward mobility.  By the end of the chronicle, perhaps one of the PCs will become Prince of the city...

As for the tone/atmosphere, here's a vague abstraction: dark, gothic, industrial... rust everywhere, black rain falling on mean streets, broken concrete, graffiti, and corroding inner-city slums with traces of decadent opulence for those elitist 1% living behind wrought-iron gates.

Thanks for reading.  If you want to make a suggestion, comment, or pose a question, please do.


VS

Old School Vampire: the Masquerade

This post is just what I've been thinking of and toying with regarding an upcoming Vampire: the Masquerade chronicle.  For the most part, I've decided to stay true to the first printing of the rule book - with a few Requiem changes for good measure.  For instance, I'm using Blood Potency instead of Generation, as well as, obscuring Kindred origins (probably nothing to do with Cain).  

I'm only allowing the original core clans.  The following are the descriptions I sent to the one-off Vampire game I'm volunteering to run for a local geek meetup...

Here's the list of possible clans which will strongly influence the type of vampire you are. Vampires (Kindred) tend to choose certain types of people to vampirize (embrace), those who will best fit into their respective clan. You can play against type, but you need to have a compelling reason for doing so (i.e. your being made a vampire was a case of mistaken identity).
___

Nosferatu: Physically, they are repulsive. They like to live in sewers, staying hidden or in the background of Kindred society (the Camarilla), trading in secrets rather than showing off in the spotlight.

Tremere: They are vampire wizards, but instead of casting fireball or magic missile, The Tremere use elaborate rituals and alchemical potions containing rare ingredients. The most hierarchical clan - don't expect a neonate (new vampire) to quickly rise in the ranks.

Ventrue: A sophisticated, conservative, calculating, and old-world clan. The Ventrue are power brokers who more or less "lead" the clans, claiming to be Fathers of the Camarilla.

Gangrel: Loners who are in tune with their animalistic roots. Gangrel are most likely to survive outside the city.

Toreador: Hedonists, sensualists, artists, and epicureans. This clan sees vampirism as search for truth, beauty, pleasure, or as a purely aesthetic exercise. Since they also consider themselves sophisticated and refined, Toreador get along fairly well with the Ventrue. If clan Ventrue are Camarilla Fathers, then Toreador would be the Mothers.

Brujah: Rebellious malcontents. This clan despises authority and revels in anarchy. Even though clan Brujah is part of the Camarilla, they are on the outskirts. In that way, they are sort of like the Gangrel; however, the two clans rarely get along.

Malkavian: The Kindred equivalent of a "wild card". These vampires are more or less insane. Very unpredictable. They see things from their own warped perspective, and love a good prank or practical joke.

Caitiff: This is the category for those without a clan. These vampires are definitely on the outside looking in and treated as second class citizens by most, yet they have more freedom than any Kindred belonging to a clan. 
___


After that, I sent another email.  Here are the questions I wanted each player to think about...

1. What's your character's name? Birth name and nickname or what he/she goes by these days? 

2. How long has your character been a vampire, as well as, the age he/she was embraced (your character's apparent age)? 

3. Does your character have any close mortal friends? If not, then why not. If so, then do they know that he/she is a vampire? Keep in mind that allowing humans to know about the Kindred is a breach of the masquerade. 

4. What is your character's nature and demeanor. Nature is your inner desires, who you really are - the core beliefs you hold. Demeanor is what you've picked up along the way, learned behavior, affectations, and surface bits of personality. Sometimes, nature and demeanor work in conjunction and are very similar to each other, other times they seem downright opposed. A list of nature and demeanor archetypes I found online: [not included here]


5. Who was/is your character's sire? Is he/she still around? If so, describe your relationship. 

6. What are your thoughts on your character's clan? 

7. Describe a typical night for your character. 


8. What was your character like as a person before he/she was embraced?

In a few days, I'll post again, exploring chronicle stories, concepts, themes, motifs, and whatnot.

VS

Other Side of the Screen

Occasionally, Game Mastering feels like a thankless task.  GMs give and give and give.  Sometimes they receive an accolade here or there, other times the scornful, disapproving eyes of ungrateful bastard players!  Hopefully, that's a rarity at your table, but yeah, GMing isn't always glamorous.

That means a long-term Game Master must find fulfillment in different ways.  Chiefly, his achievement is the power of creation, and sometimes that alone must sustain him in the dark times of whining, looking up stupid irrelevant stuff on one's internet-capable cell phone, and weaselly avoidance of any possible damage or ill effects.  Just as God (assuming He exists) must be thoroughly disenchanted with the sentient beings running roughshod over his world, there has to be a certain amount of satisfaction in knowing you made something cool, something alive... and that it wouldn't exist without you.

But this blog post really isn't about GMing so much as returning to playerdom.  Yes, a mere mortal again - or vampire, half-orc, mutant, etc.  It can be quite a shock.  A comedown.  Instead of manifesting a world and controlling nearly everything in it, he's now little more than a scavenger trying to survive another night.

I recently played in a friend's Call of Cthulhu one-shot.  As GMs tend to agree, it was a refreshing change of pace.  Playing is its own kind of fun, different from GMing but still a good time.

There's a mindset that comes with running a PC for a change.  The GM-turned-player wants to make up for lost time.  You see, he's watched all his players blasting away at imperial stormtroopers, beheading trolls, drinking blood, smashing cars, manipulating shadow, committing treason against the computer, and summoning nameless servants for dark puposes.  There's all this awesome stuff that a career GM has voyeuristically lusted after for months or even years.  Suddenly, it's within his grasp!

Prepare thyself, GM, for the second come-down of Christ.  Chances are, a former GM's player experience won't live up to a sliver of what he was hoping for.  These days, I've become a master at managing my expectations.  Years ago, I fell into that trap.  I thought my years of GM service entitled me to a fantastic experience in front of the screen.  I was due, right?  Haha, not so.  A combination of bad rolls, bad luck, player inexperience (yes, years of GMing can corrode forms of common sense), and trying too hard... they all put me in my place.

Older and wiser, I now let the game evolve organically, and my place within it.  Mostly, I was comic relief.  An impossibly handsome and intelligent drifter without much education and the worst dice rolling possible.  In the end, I played my character as if I was him.  Didn't try to be the best, outshine the other PCs, save the day, accumulate fantastic loot, or do a bunch of radical super-maneuvers to impress anyone.

My expectations in check and sense of entitlement gone, I had a lot of fun.  And better yet, I was able to better facilitate the table's fun rather than hot-dogging it, failing miserably, and becoming indignant.  Focusing upon my character allowed the GM to do his thing and the other players to do theirs.  Sure, I was wounded, driven insane, and seemed kind of NPCish next to my companions... but that's the life of a PC sometimes.  His experience isn't always glamorous, either.

I was playing and made myself realize how fortunate I was to be roleplaying at all.  I welcomed the idea of not having the session's success resting solely upon my shoulders.

So, if you're normally a GM and about to play, keep that in mind.  You may not slay the dragon or roundhouse kick Dread Cthulhu in the eye, but fun can still be had.  And if you're a career player, then do something nice for your GM this week - send him a "Great game, man!" email after the session or buy him a 12 pack of his favorite soda or even volunteer to GM for a night.


VS

Kindred: The Embraced

As I've done in the past, I'll be volunteering my services as GM to those who've never played an RPG in their life, as well as, those who haven't played in awhile.  I started with Dungeon Crawl Classics, then Swords & Wizardry.  For a change, the end of August's meetup will be Vampire: the Masquerade.

Not only will it be refreshing to do something different like Vampire, but I'm also going be running a Vampire chronicle in September... and it will be nice to have 1 or 2 new players.  Yes, volunteering to run an RPG via your local game store, library, internet meetup, or whatever is a great way of finding new players or games looking for players.

I recently re-watched Kindred: the Embraced.  That was a blast from the past.  The Godfather meets Melrose Place by way of Dracula (The Lost Boys?).  A lot has transpired since 1996, so K:tE looks dated.  However, it's also an eight-episode guide to creating a chronicle, a living city with clans, sires, and plenty of blood-soaked secrets.  Here are my top 10 reasons why Kindred: the Embraced never made it past the first season.

1.  The main character, Julian Luna, played by Mark Frankel died in a motorcycle accident soon after the show aired.

2.  I don't think the word "vampire" was used once in the entire show.  I can understand the aesthetic reasons for wanting to avoid the V word, but marketing-wise... that was probably a bad move.  How are casual vampire fans going to find out about a vampire show if there's nothing to identify it as being about vampires in the title?  Sure, there's the roleplaying game, but that's pretty niche.  Plus, this is pre-internet.

3.  The pilot started right in the middle of things.  That can be cool, but also confusing.  If K:tE was done today, then not only would it be called Vampire's Embrace or something, but it would have the first 10 minutes explaining what a clan was and how they see each other, why there was a small table full of primogen, why a city needs a Prince, etc.  If you knew absolutely nothing about the Vampire RPG, then you'd get the gist by the last episode of the season.

4.  They're all day-walkers!  Vampires who can go out in the daylight, as long as, they're not starving?  I guess that makes sense, but it takes a huge part of the common vampire mythology out of the picture.  Basically, this made the show more Melrose Place than Dracula.

5.  Where was the beast?  Philosophically, K:tE made a big deal about the whole "A beast I am, lest I become."  However, except for a couple Brujah versus Gangrel mean girl looks across the club, there wasn't much to write home about.  How about some Kindred frenzy?  I wanted to see the dark animal below their vampiric surface.  Dexter is more beast than these guys.

6.  Where was the blood?  I think there was a little red stuff here and there - badly dabbed on an actor's skin after a fight scene - but I wanted so much more!  Blood is the essence of a vampire's (un)life.  It's like sex, drugs, and rock n' roll all symbolically wrapped up into one powerful thing.  The lack of crimson joy, again, made the series look less like Dracula and more like Melrose Place.

7.  Phosphorescent guns!  These were somehow large Tommy-style guns that could hurt or kill a vampire.  Yeah, I get the idea, why the writer(s) wanted it, suspension of disbelief, etc.  But... no.  That's just stupid and takes away from the Kindred's mystique.  If you want a vampire dead, you hunt him down and stake him in the heart, chop his head off with a sword, or burn him alive.  Probably all three, just to make sure.  Some Kindred died in the traditional ways, which was nice, but those phosphorescent guns were way too prominent.

8.  C. Thomas Howell's acting.  I know he can act.  I've seen it.  Plus, he's been in a thousand different things.  Howell is not really watchable here.  Almost so bad it's good levels... but not quite.

9.  I didn't realize how much of a launching pad K:tE was for a lot of great shows.  Ok, three of them:  Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Dexter.  Hmm, all of those shows are the first names of the protagonist.  Anyway, half the cast is recycled between the three.  Yeah, this isn't really a reason why K:tE didn't last, I just wanted to mention it.

10.  No sense of mystery, the supernatural and unknown which man cannot fully explain.  Maybe, the writers and producers were going to wait for season 2 before bringing up the "why" of vampires instead of focusing only on the "what".  Or, maybe it never occurred to them.  I wanted something deeper.  Sure, a couple plot hooks were there: drinking a baby's blood by the full moon around some standing stones to bring back the old ways of the Nosferatu, but that was just an episode and it was never expanded.  Cool idea, no legs.


Well, that's it for this blog post.  Still, for all its faults, Kindred: the Embraced was a good show back in 1996, just as it is now.  Worth watching if you're going to run/play the RPG.  Want to talk about anything Vampire-related?  Comment below!


VS

p.s.  Expect to see more blog posts about Vampire: the Masquerade and Requiem in the coming months.

Unexpected Encounters #5

Next to reading someone's journal, one of the most effective ways to convey information in-game is for the player characters to eavesdrop upon a private conversation.  And that they did.

On the outskirts of a large Drow settlement, they spied a dimly lit mausoleum tenanted by long-dead Dark Elves of prominence.. and two very much alive, conversation in progress - Thesselor of House DuVont, dressed in violet robes accented with silver glyphs and Hanzred of House Morcane, clothed in the black spidery brocade of Drow nobility.

Hanzred:  Do you believe Lloth is coming back?

Thesselor:  Of course!  Lloth's attention is focused upon her hatred of our enemies and their assured destruction.

Hanzred:  Its been three weeks - no manifestation, no sign... nothing.  This is Lloth's longest absence from Maerimydra.  I don't like it, Thesselor.

Thesselor:  Are you afraid?

Hanzred:  I merely anticipate... trouble.

Thesselor:  You believe the natives are getting restless?

Hanzred:  I fear House Morcane being overthrown.

Thesselor:  Why is that?  You have soldiers, wizards, assassins, and clerics just as the other noble houses.

Hanzred:  Do you forget what is in our house's possession, Thesselor?

Thesselor:  Ah yes, of course.  The Ruby Spider of Thokrahn.  You believe there will be attempts to steal it?

Hanzred:  I believe the artifact is so powerful that some will try to bring down House Morcane in its entirety.

Thesselor:  Surely, it's well guarded.

Hanzred:  Indeed, it is.  By a crawling emissary of Yogsoggoth, no less.  We obtained it from Lackless the Black.

Thesselor:  The diabolic assassin?  I thought he was dead.  Just thinking about his one white eye gazing forever within the abyss at which he nightly prostrates himself... well, it makes my blood run cold.

Hanzred:  One and the same.  And what it cost, evil Lloth!  A truly blasphemous amount.

Thesselor:  For Lackless the Black or the crawling emissary?

Hanzred:  Both.

Thesselor:  Your House must be doing quite well.

Hanzred:  I cannot deny it.

Thesselor:  What's your secret?

Hanzred:  The Ruby Spider of Thokrahn.  It's ability to warp the nebulae of magic is... scarcely believable.

Thesselor:  It was wise of you to steal it from those unworthy fools.

Hanzred:  Yes.  Yes, it was.  Hahahaha.  Come, I feel we've paid our respects enough for one evening.  Let us dine at Szith Morcane before the envious thieves of Maerimydra grow bolder.

Thesselor:  Lead the way, Hanzred.
___

A few bits and pieces were borrowed from City of the Spider Queen.  As for the PCs at my table, they made quite a meal of my overheard dialog.  It was the adventure's hook, forging the story to end a campaign. Word of advice:  just speak both parts back and forth without regard for exactly who is saying what.  The players will get the gist.

Use this device sparingly, but use it.  As always, feel free to alter any of the above to suit your own particular campaign.


VS

p.s.  Description and stats of the Crawling Emissary of Yogsoggoth can be found on this blog, published in March.

Bittersweet Nights of Gaming

This post isn't about any particular session, so much as it's about that exhilarating rush we feel at the gaming table... and knowing the game must end at some point.  Just as bittersweet as nostalgia, it's awesome to remember the good old days, but, at the same time, it must be acknowledged that those days are gone.

I took a group of 6 players through B4: The Lost City last night using the Swords & Wizardry retro-clone RPG.  It was a local, face-to-face meetup for those who have either never played a paper and pencil roleplaying game before or those who haven't played in many years.  It was a great experience, and a fun time for all.  Three hours into it, we were getting up from the library's special reserved room and saying goodbye to each other, goodbye to the step-pyramid of Cynidicea, goodbye to gaming for who knows how long.

"Well, there wasn't enough time, Michael.  There just wasn't enough time."

This Saturday is going to be the last session of the campaign.  The cap to six months of weekly to semi-weekly gaming.  As some readers may know, this campaign galloped on the heels of my second child's birth.  My wife was kind enough to let me start gaming again after only a couple months of sleepless nights and constant attention.

And those first sessions would determine if I ever gamed again.  You see, I had become increasingly burned-out by roleplaying over the years.  Something got lost... maybe it was my gaming style or focus or the fundamentals had slipped through my fingers.  Fourth edition D&D definitely did not easy my gaming malaise.

Half a year ago, I took up the Dungeon Master mantel yet again with my old school gaming primer in hand and my head full of psychedelic Erol Otus eldritch science fantasy neo-nostalgia, as well as, visions of dancing sugarplum fairies with vorpal scimitars +3.  Luckily, the OSR did me just fine.  I was a new man and gamer.

Yet, all that gaming took its toll.  The scheduling and logistics - agonizing over who could be there, making sure everyone had transportation, food/drink.  Sometimes there were too few, a couple times there were too many... one night almost turned into a drunken brawl.  My wife complained about never seeing me on Saturday nights.

It needed to end, or, rather, it needed an ending.  The campaign should have a final chapter, I thought.  A conclusion.  And then a short break from gaming, followed by more gaming of a different sort.  You see, I also don't want to get burned out on fantasy - even the weird fantasy of sword, sorcery, spaceships, lasers, and Lovecraft.

So, I'll be going OSR circa 1992.  Yes, back when I was a Junior in High School, playing and running Vampire: the Masquerade on a regular basis.  Joy Division, lots of black ten-sided dice with dark red numbering, and riffing off cinematic bloodsucker classics like The Lost Boys, Near Dark, Fright Night, Sub-Species, Interview with the Vampire, Dracula, and Nosferatu.

Don't worry though, I'll still be blogging.  And my OSR mega-dungeon Liberation of the Demon Slayer is still being self-published by the end of August.  Hopefully, I'll be back playing D&D (more like a cross between Dungeon Crawl Classics and Swords & Wizardry) in September.  Who knows, maybe my wife will even let me run games twice a week!?!  Not going to hold my breath.  ;)

"We'll get there, Pop.  We'll get there."


VS