Blood in Translation

Nearly a dozen creators reached out to me about publishing their own Blood Dark Thirst material since announcing the open license last week.  Which is awesome...

But now The Hills is pre-selling their Spanish translation of Blood Dark Thirst right over here!

I've seen their PDF and it's top-notch, just like the original.  And what is Blood Dark Thirst, you ask?  The PCs are vampires... though, more demon than undead.  The system is quasi-neo-OSR and rules-light using the VSd6 engine, just like Crimson Dragon Slayer, Alpha Blue, and The Outer Presence.

So, if you haven't already downloaded the PDF or purchased the full-color softcover on Amazon.com, get on that.  Don't miss out on the other vampire RPG that's taking the night by storm!

VS

What's Dark, Thirsty, and Red All Over?

What's it like being a vampire in your campaign setting?

RPGpundit's review of Blood Dark Thirst (and resulting commentary on g+) has inspired me to announce something I should have done months ago...

I'm officially opening up my neo-quasi O5Rish rules-light vampire RPG to those interested in licensing that shit for FREE!!!

Yes, you can write, publish, and reap all the rewards for your very own Blood Dark Thirst supplement, sourcebook, or scenario from now until January 1st of 2020.  You can even bounce ideas off me and I'll take a look at what you're making and probably give you suggestions.  I've got lots of opinions!  ;)

That game is literally dying for content and I'm committed to a big project in 2019 and won't be able to publish more than a short adventure until next summer.  Too bad, since it's a great little game with lots of potential.

However, I have a feeling that ambitious gamers will gladly pick up the slack.

Any questions?  Feel free to comment below!

VS

p.s. After this licensing term ends, what you previously published in 2018 and 2019 won't be affected by new licensing terms in 2020.

p.p.s. My friend Egg Embry reminded me of something... it would be nice if mention was made that Blood Dark Thirst was created by Venger As'Nas Satanis and is published by Kort'thalis Publishing.

Full Color Softcover Blood Dark Thirst

I just received and approved the "proof" copy of Blood Dark Thirst.  Not only is it softcover (which I've offered on most of my titles), but the interior is color.  Review of the PDF!!!

The thing is gorgeous, and now I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures when I had the chance this morning.  But to be fair, I was in a rush - these days I'm always in a rush what with a 6-year old, 4-year old, 2-year old, and twins who are almost a year old.  Plus, we're trying to build a house... yeah, the list goes on.  [See pics I just added below]

Anyways, CreateSpace discontinued their direct selling options - so this baby is available here from Amazon.com only.  However, I'm going to be ordering a lot of these very soon in anticipation of Gary Con in March.  So, there's an opportunity to get what I call the "gaming group bundles" so everyone can have the character creation info, rules, and whatnot in front of them while they play.

Small Gaming Group - you get 3 books, all signed with PDFs included* @ $40 (includes domestic, contiguous USA, media mail shipping)

Medium Gaming Group - you get 5 books, all signed with PDFs included* @ $60 (includes domestic, contiguous USA, media mail shipping)

Large Gaming Group - you get 7 books, all signed with PDFs included* @ $80 (includes domestic, contiguous USA, media mail shipping)

* If you've already purchased the PDF, you may choose a single (that means just one) non-Blood Dark Thirst PDF as a replacement

Payment via paypal.  Offer good until November 10th (I'll be ordering books on the 11th).  Delivery by Christmas.  Email me to get the ball rolling:  Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

Thanks,

VS

p.s.  I'll be at Game Hole Con all day tomorrow (Saturday 11/4/17).  Will have my proof copy of Blood Dark Thirst with me if you want to check it out in person.  You will drool over it - but don't drool blood... appropriate, but gross.

Blood Dark Thirst Character Sheet

Yep, we've got an official character sheet.

Hindsight being what it is, I should have included the character sheet from the get-go.  Anyways, it's here and Glynn Seal of MonkeyBlood Design did an amazing job as usual.

All DriveThruRPG / RPGnow PDFs have been updated and if you bought the PDF prior to last night's change, the latest version should be available for you to download on their site.

But if you just want to snag it now, here is the bloody parchment version.  For the b/w version, you'll have to purchase the PDF.

Enjoy,

VS

p.s.  Yes, Glynn and I are currently working on a print version of Blood Dark Thirst... soft cover and full color!  Soon...

Blood Dark Thirst PDF is live!

Jesus Christ, that took awhile!

Rarely have I felt the need to put down something I was working on (several times, in fact!) in order to clear my head and hopefully glean a different perspective that would allow me to finish.  Blood Dark Thirst was such a project.

It started out as d10 dice pools just like V:tM.  I thought that's how it was going to end, but no - several fans of my work suggested I switch to the d6 dice pools I love so much.  And then there were many versions of the VSd6 version.

Suffice it to say, the shadow of V:tM loomed large over this project.  I was clearly inspired by the original and most popular be-the-vampire RPG, but didn't want to ape what they had done.  I wanted a game that had less meta-plot, less blood-tears because of inner-anguish, and less rule/setting bloat that went so far past their 1st edition, that it was like an entirely different game.

Blood Dark Thirst is my answer to the question:  Venger, if you were making your own vampire RPG in the vein of Alpha Blue, Crimson Dragon Slayer, and The Outer Presence, what would you come up with?

You can put a lot of yourself into the game.  It's pretty wide open in terms of setting and style.  While I furnish many small details, the big picture is only hinted at.  The rest is up to the GM and his players.

Anyway, I got it done by Halloween, and that's all I wanted (besides the fact that it also had to be awesome, or why the fuck publish it?).  +MonkeyBlood Design (Glynn Seal) did his best work yet pimping out the lavish and blood-spattered interior of the PDF.  Along with many pieces of color artwork, the layout is truly amazing!

I'm going to be working on a character sheet and probably another adventure, too.  If Blood Dark Thirst is well-received, I'd love to give this the full-color treatment and get it in peoples' hands sometime in early 2018.

Hope you like it and can't wait to hear your opinions!  Thanks goes out to all those who took a look, tried it out, write their experiences, gave me advice, purchase the final product, and review Blood Dark Thirst.  You guys are awesome!!!

VS

Blood Dark Thirst D6

I believe my unconscious mind deliberately held off on publishing Blood Dark Thirst because it knew something wasn't quite right.  I just realized it yesterday, which is why I'm making this official announcement.

Blood Dark Thirst (my upcoming vampire RPG) will use the VSd6 system just like Crimson Dragon Slayer, Alpha Blue, and The Outer Presence.  I'm going to start working on it soon, but until then... here are the basics.

• Pick two things you do well, and one thing you suck at.  That takes the place of class, race, profession, ability scores, skills, etc.  I'm talking about defining characteristics like "tough" and "clever."  Let's say my character's weakness is "getting along with others."
• The stuff you're good at, you'll roll 3d6.  The thing you're bad at gets 1d6.  All things being equal, everything else is 2d6.  However, if the GM decides a challenge is particularly difficult you subtract a d6 from your dice pool; and you add a d6 if it's easier than usual or you have some sort of edge.
• Other characteristics will be addressed in the form of a questionnaire, such as "What is your character's look, sense of style, or visual aesthetic?" There's no formula for coming up with an answer, it's purposefully open-ended.
• The following will be rated between 1 - 6 (instead of 1 - 10): Health, Willpower, Blood/Ichor, and Humanity.

I've got one or two things to finish up before I really dive into the revision, so expect a professional looking Blood Dark Thirst PDF available just before Halloween.

VS

Blood Dark Thirst - playtest "B" simplified

A lot of people signed up (approximately 50) and for that I'm grateful, but that also means at least a half-hour of non-stop emailing, assuming yahoo is working that day.

After a couple people responded to the playtest packet "B" that I just dispersed last night, I decided it would be much easier to include a Dropbox link here instead of re-emailing everyone.

Some sort of google document open to playtesters might be better, so I fiddled around with it until I got this.  Formatting seems even worse that what I had in the word doc, but oh well.  It'll serve its purpose.

The newest version has some rules for grappling and feeding during combat and something to cover the vampire trope of victims who seem to enjoy having their blood sucked out.

Emailing me is still the best way for me to receive feedback, so please continue to use my personal email address:  Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

Enjoy,

VS

p.s.  Meanwhile, I'm a couple days away from finishing The S'rulyan Vault II.

Setting ideas for Blood Dark Thirst

To those who have the Blood Dark Thirst - playtest "A" document, thanks again for participating!  I look forward to reading your feedback.

I've already received several surveys and even a review of sorts.

As I'm just about finished with my duties for The S'rulyan Vault II kickstarter, I've given more thought to the world of Blood Dark Thirst - the default campaign setting.  Even though I want this vampire RPG to support multiple styles of play, I do want to focus on what makes this game special.

I need to ask myself, "How is this vampire RPG different than others?"

The following is a drop zone of things I want to explore and investigate.  Some of these I've touched on in the playtest, others are new but still rooted in my growing list of influences.

• I've started watching the Subspecies films again (only the first one so far).  I love Radu's belief that attachment to the feelings of mortals is a weakness that vampires can't afford to have.  Also, his preoccupation with consorts and fledglings.  
• I want character creation and the introductory adventure to focus on what it would be like to awaken as a vampire just after being turned - especially, under less than ideal circumstances.
• The existence of vampires is somewhere between an open secret and common knowledge.  Maybe it's something that most people don't like to talk about, but is an ever-growing threat on the edges of popular culture.  While I don't want to go anywhere as far as that Daybreakers (which I did not care for), the masquerade is certainly over.  If you remember that Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode from season 3 "The Wish," that's kind of what I'm going for.  Vampires have effectively taken over the bad parts of town - the inner cities, but the affluent areas and suburbs are more or less bloodsucker free... for now.
  
• Because mortals know about vampires, a fair number of them retaliate.  The hunters become the hunted.  So, that means the PCs will have to watch out.  It won't always be easy pickings out there, they'll have to watch their backs.  That's a good reason for vampires to form packs.
• This also means that vampire competition can be brutal.  Remain in your usual hunting ground and eventually hunters will come after you.  Stray too far from your usual hunting ground and other vampires might try to kill you because you're on their turf, indulging in their limited resources.
• Since the secret's out, it's hard to casually insert oneself into a gathering of mortals and drink their precious blood without causing a panic.  That means vampires will have to be stealthier and smarter in order to feed.  Some pale dude with a Eurotrash accent pulls up in his black porsche and asks a couple of females to get in because he's in the mood to party - that's going to work approximately 1% of the time.  This forces vampires to be more creative.
• There's no strict hierarchy, political squabbles, or "vampire government."  Vampires tend towards the animalistic, feral, demonic, impulsive, and predatory.  They are more instinctual than contemplative.  I can't imagine vampires in Blood Dark Thirst sitting in a fancy room of green marble, subtly manipulating other vampires like chess pieces in order to get what they want.  Sure, you can plan, coerce, intimidate and even manipulate humans and vampires alike, but with this game it's more immediate.  "GTFO or I'll kill you where you stand."
• Because of the nightly struggle for survival, there's no ennui or malaise - you fight to stay alive, night after night, enjoying small pleasures where you can.  Achieving lofty goals is on the horizon, but that's tomorrow's problem.

Feel free to comment, share, ask a question, or whatever.  Even if you just want to talk about vampires - go ahead and post something!

I'll let you guys know when the playtest "B" document is ready, possibly this weekend.

VS

Blood Dark Thirst - open playtest

You play a blood-drinking demon, commonly referred to as a vampire, yet vestiges of your humanity remain.  Struggling for survival and dominion, your vampiric nature makes you an extremely dangerous and desperate predator in a pre-apocalyptic world on the precipice of another inquisition.  This night is for the taking! 


At midnight tonight, I'll be emailing word documents with the bare bones beta-version of my vampire RPG, Blood Dark Thirst.

If you'd like to be a playtester, please send me an email with "BDT playtest" in the subject line:  Venger.Satanis@yahoo.com

I greatly appreciate your support and hope that you will enjoy your first taste of Blood Dark Thirst!

Thank you,

Venger As'Nas Satanis
High Priest of Kort'thalis Publishing

First Blood - Blood Dark Thirst playtest

I had a "working lunch" with a couple of my friends and gaming buddies today.  I'm so strapped for face-to-face roleplaying time that I decided to combine roleplaying with having an extra long lunch at a nearby restaurant.

TL;DR:  Still early nights (see what I did there?), but in general the playtest went well and we all had an awesome time!

Though the Vampire: the Masquerade bones are evident, it takes many twists and turns, ultimately going in a totally different direction.

A few people have mentioned, including one of today's players, that my d6 system (used in Crimson Dragon Slayer, The Outer Presence, and Alpha Blue) might be the way to go.  After all, it's an established, awesome system that has worked perfectly thus far.

While I wholeheartedly agree, there's something about the d6 that works for those genres / games, but I've got a kind of mental block when it comes to transferring d6s to a game about vampires.  I'm going to suggest something that probably sounds like pseudoscience - the d10 has formed neural pathways in my brain from years and years of playing V:tM in the 90's.  It just feels more right than any other die type.

Where d6 has a fun, free-wheeling, super rules-lite, pulpy gonzo feel, the d10 seems a bit more sophisticated, intricate, mysterious, and... dark, for lack of a better word.  That probably sounds crazy to non-gamers, but hopefully you guys in the gaming community understand where I'm coming from.

So, regardless of the sense it would make, I'm going to stick with the d10 system (VSd10?).

Keeping track of blood and willpower with glass beads worked great.  I was worried about all the bookkeeping.  As you many know about my design goals/aesthetics, I'm not a fan of crunch or accounting.  Blood Dark Thirst has a little bit of both, but not too much.  And I think having markers/tokens makes things easier - the playtesters agreed.  Plus, the GM can see at a glance how much blood and willpower a vampire has remaining.

In no particular order, let me list some of the things that came up during the session...

• The spicy cheesebread was amazing!  Actually, the entire meal was great.  And the gaming space was better than average.
• While driving to the restaurant I thought of something - a way to emulate that scene in several vampire movies where the vamp sees blood spilled and has to resist his instincts taking over.  Didn't get to use that in the playtest, but wrote it down once I was at the table.
• Explaining the origin of vampires to the players, +Tim Virnig and +Jacob Nelson, felt satisfying.  It could probably use some flair, but it got the message across (you'll have to wait to find out).
• I came up with 20 skills, but think I can reduce those down to 10 or 12.
• Since this was a 90 minute playtest, we left a few details blank.
  
• Attaching blood lust dice to a vampire's blood supply worked out well.  Though, it wouldn't make sense for mental actions to trigger frenzy.  Hmm, let me do an occular pat-down on this guy coming into the bar [rolls dice, gets a red 1] DEAR GOD THE BEAST!!!  So, I'm going to reserve blood lust dice for physical and social actions only, at the GM's discretion, of course.
• The mental ability score deals with noticing things, as well as, knowledge.  Pretty much anything that's not squarely physical or social will be mental, I suppose.
• Combat seemed to work well.  Didn't notice any glaring deficiencies.  That's one of the downfalls of V:tM, in my view.
• The red glass beads represent vampire blood and the larger black beads represent willpower. They worked better than expected.  It made both of those stats more... tangible, more real.  I can't remember doing that back in the day with V:tM, but it seems like a no-brainer.  Shading circles, erasing circles, and shading them in again was tedious and lacked immersion.
• The adventure?  Not a lot happened - the PCs interrupted a bar fight and things got ugly.  Then another vampire appeared while the PCs were making their way back to their apartment with a couple of soon-to-be victims.  This new vampire watched them for awhile and attempted to intimidate them.
  
• Overall, it felt like I was playing a vampire RPG in the early 90's, but in some alternate dimension or surreal dreamland where the rules were vaguely reminiscent of what I'd known but completely different.  
• By the end of our session, even the waiter had to ask what we were doing and told us he wished he could have joined in.  

I'll be posting details about open playtesting of the beta this Friday.

VS

p.s.  Both Tim and Jacob were vampire RPG virgins, so popping that particular cherry (twice!) was an unexpected treat.  ;)

New Vampire RPG survey

I'm developing my own vampire RPG called Blood Dark Thirst. I'll be self-publishing it through Kort'thalis Publishing.

I've got some of the basics down and recently re-watched my primary influences - The Lost Boys, Near Dark, and Fright Night.

While I consider myself part of the game's audience, I don't want to be the only one.  So, this seems like a good time to engage the rest of you, getting valuable feedback while the concept is still malleable.  If you'll oblige me, I've got questions and would love to read your responses...

1. Single purpose or general purpose?  By that I mean, would you prefer a game that focuses on one mode or playstyle or something open-ended that was more of a sandbox of design goals?
   
2. Beta version first for people to try / playtest or would you prefer I release the game once it's more or less "done?"
3. I've shared my big 3 vampire movies above, what are your top 3?
4. Vampire origins?  Would you prefer an origin story that describes how/why vampires exist?  The downside to that is it demystifies the setting.  Or no origin setting?  Vampire: the Requiem tried to do multiple vampire origins, but I'm not sure how satisfying that was.
5. What's something you'd like to see a new vampire RPG emphasize (one more than the others)- A) hunting, feeding, and dealing with mortals; B) squaring off against competing vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, demons, etc.  C) politics, backroom deals, manipulation, influence, etc.?
6. Theme?  A) sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll - party it up; vampires as rebellious teenagers; B) angst, brooding, self-conscious, oh the curse of being undead! C) darkness, horror, eldritch Hellraiser shit.  Basically, edgelord without the child molestation and infanticide of 5th edition V:tM.
   
7. Is there any familiar RPG mechanic, system, or sub-system that you'd like to see here, perhaps with a fresh coat of paint or tweaked for a vampire game?
8. Presentation - color vs. b/w, softcover vs. hardcover, PDF vs. print?  Along with that... aesthetics?  What kind of overall look do you want?
9. What are some characters, conflicts, settings, and stories that excite and inspire you when you think vampire RPG?
10. Anything I've left out?  If I forgot to ask something, feel free to comment.

Thanks for taking the time to answer this questionnaire!  Expect an official announcement post next week.  Playtesting information will be included.

VS