Voros
Doomed Investigator
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2017
- Messages
- 15,122
- Reaction score
- 33,008
So I never really played Vampire the Masquerade. I bought the rule book and perhaps the Werewolf one as well, read it but never played it. Mainly because it was right around the time I entered university and had to give up RPGs due to time and money constraints but also because it was never clear to me how to play the actual game. Can't recall if there was a sample adventure in the rule book, but I doubt there was as I would have probably played it.
But the idea of the game continued to intrigue me. But from what I read online even the fans of the game weren't that big of fans of its system and thought it contributed little to the setting assumption of political schemes and counter schemes. The idea of a creature struggling to maintain its humanity was also apparently often lost at the table due to less than perfect mechanics.
So my curiosity brought me to Magpie Game's Undying, a 'diceless' narrative game by Paul Riddle that acknowledges that it is a homage to Vampire by Mark Rein-Hagen and is based on Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker and Monsterhearts by Avery Alder. It is really too thorough to be considered merely a 'hack.' One of its strengths is that it builds the mechanics from the ground up for the kind of game it wants to be.
First thing to note is that this game is well laid out, clearly explained and has some appropriately creepy artwork.
It also comes with a good sample scenario set in Seattle in the late 1800's when a huge fire destroyed a large part of the city, along with well detailed NPCs, pre-gens and a relationship map (see below), which is central to the game design.
It also has some very good GM advice on how to prep and run the game and how tweak the game for convention play. I was really impressed by all of this and thought how every designer should be doing the same for their game.
There are two kinds of play: Nightly Play, a conventional session and Downtime Play, that can be years, decades or even centuries. There are specific Downtime Moves PCs and the GM can use to summarize the schemes they enact that lead to the need for a Nightly Play session.
There are a handful of Playbooks (PbtA equivalent to character archtypes) with a small number of Moves (special powers, feats) per playbook in addition to a small number of standard moves (Hunt, Feed, Flaunt, Dominate) available to all vampires. These Playbooks include The Devil, The Nightmare, The Puppet Master and The Wolf. Compared to a lot of other PbtA games Undying keeps the Moves and Playbooks to a minimum, which I think is a good idea.
The GM and players decide together what parts of vampire Lore you're going to include or exclude in the game and what Lore Moves this allows vampires (eg. turning into mist or bat). You also decide if there are only vampires or other supernatural creatures.
The main, perhaps only real significant mechanics in the game are Humanity and Blood. Humanity ranges from Lost (0) to Humane (3). Your Max Blood depends on your humanity, a Humane Max Blood is 10, a Lost Max Blood is 20.
To wake up each night costs 1 Blood, to do most supernatural actions (largely left up to the GM and player to decide) is 1 Blood. Humanity and how little of blood you have can effect how much control you have when you feed on a victim and how well you can hide evidence of your feeding. If you feed between 1-3 blood they are going to survive, 4 will leave them on death's door (and if allowed to die they will turn), 5 kills the victim. If you drop below 3 Blood you are Starving and go on a rampage which you won't be able to remember.
Combat is determined simply, whoever has the most number of Blood tokens or points (which is not readily apparent usually) wins.
Groups of vampires can pool their Blood in this combat. Usually defeat results in destruction but a vampire can be spared. But then this humilation means you are cast out and become a Pariah. Blood tokens/points are also bet to determine who suceeds in schemes and counterschemes (the players and GMs are to come up with in-game explanations for their successes and defeats).
Your Humanity is adjusted by a vote at the end of the session by the other players. They get to determine if your actions were callous or humane (there are criteria and guidelines in the game).
If your Humanity drops to Lost (0) you have one chance to redeem yourself or else you become a beast and a NPC.
You can pick what Humanity you begin with but all PCs start with their Status as Plebians or Pariahs, you can scheme your way to being a Patrician or even a Princeps (boss of a territory). Status determines the abundance of prey, proximity and safety of your Hunting Grounds and your Means, which can be used in your schemes. Changes in Status or Means are up to the GM based on what has happened in play.
In this game a vampire is a vampire, no endless clans, there are factions but they are based around major and minor debts, established between NPCs and the PCs. These debts include if another vampire is your maker or vice versa, if their Status is higher than yours, etc. To refuse a request of a major debt from a vampire of a higher status makes you a Pariah.
Also worth noting is that the setting assumption for the numbers of vampires in a city seems more reasonable than what I've seen in Vampire, all of Seattle in the sample session for instance has only half a dozen vampires.
NPCs can become Rivals (they want to get back at you for a slight or defeat), Enemies (they want to ruin you) or Nemesis (they want to destroy you) depending on play and/or if you destroy or humiliate those they owe or are owed major and minor debts.
These relationships between the PCs and NPCs are drawn out on a Relationship Map that is placed in the centre of the table. Most of the game is based on this RM, say a Patrician is mysteriously killed or disappears, some kind of human made disaster disrupts vampire society or humans discover the vampires and rise up to destroy them.
Overall I was mighty impressed by this game, it has a very simple and flexible but flavourful system that looks to me like it would play very well at the table. The Relationship Map and system of major and minor debts is a great idea that could be imported into any game, particularly any political game.
I'm surprised it hasn't received more attention among the PbtA hacks as it is certainly among the best designed I've seen. Maybe people are just burned out on Vampire or vampires in general?
But the idea of the game continued to intrigue me. But from what I read online even the fans of the game weren't that big of fans of its system and thought it contributed little to the setting assumption of political schemes and counter schemes. The idea of a creature struggling to maintain its humanity was also apparently often lost at the table due to less than perfect mechanics.
So my curiosity brought me to Magpie Game's Undying, a 'diceless' narrative game by Paul Riddle that acknowledges that it is a homage to Vampire by Mark Rein-Hagen and is based on Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker and Monsterhearts by Avery Alder. It is really too thorough to be considered merely a 'hack.' One of its strengths is that it builds the mechanics from the ground up for the kind of game it wants to be.
First thing to note is that this game is well laid out, clearly explained and has some appropriately creepy artwork.
It also comes with a good sample scenario set in Seattle in the late 1800's when a huge fire destroyed a large part of the city, along with well detailed NPCs, pre-gens and a relationship map (see below), which is central to the game design.
It also has some very good GM advice on how to prep and run the game and how tweak the game for convention play. I was really impressed by all of this and thought how every designer should be doing the same for their game.
There are two kinds of play: Nightly Play, a conventional session and Downtime Play, that can be years, decades or even centuries. There are specific Downtime Moves PCs and the GM can use to summarize the schemes they enact that lead to the need for a Nightly Play session.
There are a handful of Playbooks (PbtA equivalent to character archtypes) with a small number of Moves (special powers, feats) per playbook in addition to a small number of standard moves (Hunt, Feed, Flaunt, Dominate) available to all vampires. These Playbooks include The Devil, The Nightmare, The Puppet Master and The Wolf. Compared to a lot of other PbtA games Undying keeps the Moves and Playbooks to a minimum, which I think is a good idea.
The GM and players decide together what parts of vampire Lore you're going to include or exclude in the game and what Lore Moves this allows vampires (eg. turning into mist or bat). You also decide if there are only vampires or other supernatural creatures.
The main, perhaps only real significant mechanics in the game are Humanity and Blood. Humanity ranges from Lost (0) to Humane (3). Your Max Blood depends on your humanity, a Humane Max Blood is 10, a Lost Max Blood is 20.
To wake up each night costs 1 Blood, to do most supernatural actions (largely left up to the GM and player to decide) is 1 Blood. Humanity and how little of blood you have can effect how much control you have when you feed on a victim and how well you can hide evidence of your feeding. If you feed between 1-3 blood they are going to survive, 4 will leave them on death's door (and if allowed to die they will turn), 5 kills the victim. If you drop below 3 Blood you are Starving and go on a rampage which you won't be able to remember.
Combat is determined simply, whoever has the most number of Blood tokens or points (which is not readily apparent usually) wins.
Groups of vampires can pool their Blood in this combat. Usually defeat results in destruction but a vampire can be spared. But then this humilation means you are cast out and become a Pariah. Blood tokens/points are also bet to determine who suceeds in schemes and counterschemes (the players and GMs are to come up with in-game explanations for their successes and defeats).
Your Humanity is adjusted by a vote at the end of the session by the other players. They get to determine if your actions were callous or humane (there are criteria and guidelines in the game).
If your Humanity drops to Lost (0) you have one chance to redeem yourself or else you become a beast and a NPC.
You can pick what Humanity you begin with but all PCs start with their Status as Plebians or Pariahs, you can scheme your way to being a Patrician or even a Princeps (boss of a territory). Status determines the abundance of prey, proximity and safety of your Hunting Grounds and your Means, which can be used in your schemes. Changes in Status or Means are up to the GM based on what has happened in play.
In this game a vampire is a vampire, no endless clans, there are factions but they are based around major and minor debts, established between NPCs and the PCs. These debts include if another vampire is your maker or vice versa, if their Status is higher than yours, etc. To refuse a request of a major debt from a vampire of a higher status makes you a Pariah.
Also worth noting is that the setting assumption for the numbers of vampires in a city seems more reasonable than what I've seen in Vampire, all of Seattle in the sample session for instance has only half a dozen vampires.
NPCs can become Rivals (they want to get back at you for a slight or defeat), Enemies (they want to ruin you) or Nemesis (they want to destroy you) depending on play and/or if you destroy or humiliate those they owe or are owed major and minor debts.
These relationships between the PCs and NPCs are drawn out on a Relationship Map that is placed in the centre of the table. Most of the game is based on this RM, say a Patrician is mysteriously killed or disappears, some kind of human made disaster disrupts vampire society or humans discover the vampires and rise up to destroy them.
Overall I was mighty impressed by this game, it has a very simple and flexible but flavourful system that looks to me like it would play very well at the table. The Relationship Map and system of major and minor debts is a great idea that could be imported into any game, particularly any political game.
I'm surprised it hasn't received more attention among the PbtA hacks as it is certainly among the best designed I've seen. Maybe people are just burned out on Vampire or vampires in general?
Last edited: