The finally getting that table top game happening thread

DrHappyAngry

I haven't posted much in this board, but thought this might be a good thread.

So, I'm finally getting my Vampire: Dark Ages game going, after having ideas kicking around in my head for awhile. Early last year, I had tried to do a Vampire game set in 402BC in Greece and Persia, based on Xenophon's Anabasis for a tutorial section, but it fell apart after a few sessions. I've actually managed to secure 4 players for a game tomorrow, I'm using 730AD Lundenwic (The Saxon trading town near the ruins of Londinium) as a setting for kind of a tutorial section. That'll give me a feel for what the players want and the characters they're playing. I plan on running them out of town after a short chronicle, and then they can either go to Francia and get embroiled in the politics there, or go a Viking and build a Northern Kingdom. I was thinking of giving either path a chance to take part in the Norman conquest in England, to give them power. The whole Viking path opens up tons of possibilities to go damn near anywhere in Europe. I was thinking of giving them the option to go to Paris, Constantinople or Venice after a bit of a run in Massalia (Marseille) to get them used to politics. If they go a Viking there's all sorts of fun raiding to do.

For ruleset, I'm using the 20th Anniversary Dark Ages rules (because it's mostly compatible with all the other books). Even got myself the fancy high grade paper color physical copy. Very pretty book, if you're a book fetishist, like me. It's mostly like the old school 2nd ed, but really nerfs celerity.

ElysianEchoes

So envious...

DrHappyAngry

Finally actually got to run a first session. I only had a couple of people though and it took me a couple nights to get them through character creation, so we only just started. One guy had somebody quit at his work, so he hasn't been able to make it and another's no show. One more person's interested and might come next week.

For the player characters, I've got one Warrior Salubri and a Lhiannan. I kept the first session pretty simple. The first story in general will be fairly simple, but next time I'm going to throw a complication things. They've been investigating the rape and murder of a girl and found some evidence of Baali in the area tied to it. A Brujah they've been working with, whose ghoul is the father of the girl that was killed took the evidence with him, since he's most involved. Next session they're going to find him burned at the stake by a witchunter. The twist with the hunter is he's unaware that the guards that accompany him are independent ghouls hunting vampires for their blood. So in addition to tracking down a Baali cult, they've now got a hunter in the area that's been attracted by them. I threw one super easy combat at them, some bully boys attacked them on the road and they took them down easily. I made the first combat an easy win, so they can feed and just get a feel for the systems, combat flow and rolling the dice.

Botches are my favorite thing to play with, they're so random and give me the chance to just randomly throw harm at people. The Brujah they were working had frenzied and was going to kill his ghoul and the Salubri stepped in. When the Brujah had a hold on the Salubri, the Salubri tried to headbut him and botched. So he failed to hit him with the top of his head and instead struck him with his forehead taking damage.

DrHappyAngry

So the players found the Brujah and his ghoul burned at the stake, with the ring and the dagger missing. When they interrogated some of the nearby slaves, the slaves pieced together some of the information that the priest who had burned the Brujah had told them. They realized the pale skinned people they only saw at night might be demonic. The Lhiannan botched her presence roll, so the slaves attacked them. I also introduced some new characters, a Brujah viking named Wulfstan and Toreador from Massalia (modern Marsaille) named Cleo. Eventually I intend to have the players vote on who to leave with, when they're run out of town.

The Jarl's set them the task of getting the ring and dagger back that they had found the last session, but were taken by the priest. So they'll have to track down where they're staying and somehow get the ring and dagger back next session.

One thing I seem to keep doing is underestimating the time it takes for the players to get through content. I had tried to write this to move quicker than my last game where I had this problem, too. It probably didn't help that I had made pulled pork, so there was a dinner break. They spent a lot of time just talking to people at the longhouse and poking around the dead Brujah's place. I had to throw back in some of the stuff I had cut, because the interactions make a lot of sense for the clans the players are playing. The Salubri was asking the town's Nosferatu about why the ruins of Londinium were off limits and the Nosferatu got really nervous and just told him "We don't go there because it's against the Jarl's law." What they don't know is the Nosferatu's way older than he lets on and is guarding the ruins with another hidden Salubri. There's a cache of weapons and books that belong to the ancient torpid vampire Mithras hidden away in the ruins. Mithras himself isn't sleeping there, though.

DrHappyAngry

Ugh, didn't even get to play this week, at least I got 2 new players, but getting them through character creation took the whole evening. Probably not playing next week, since everyone's out of town. But in a couple weeks time, I might have another 2 more players, so hopefully I'll have 6 players then.

DrHappyAngry

So I got to add one new character to the group. They're a Brujah from Thrace. The backstory is during the 5th century he went into torpor for some reason and has amnesia and doesn't remember anything specific from his life or unlife from before he awoke. He remembers generally how vampire society works, but is thrown off by the fact the Roman empire fell in the West. He's just traveling Europe looking for clues to his past and just trying to figure out what to do with himself. The Jarl demanded he assist the other neonates with their tasks as compensation for being in his realm, so that was an easy way to draw him into events. The player's new to Vampire and not as knowledgable about the time period, so amnesia helps explain things. BTW, I'm using Jarl as the title for what would normally be Prince and Thegn for what would be Sheriff in later nights, since it's Ango-Saxon England. There's a High King Vampire in Tambrook, which is the center of power in England in 730AD, that the Jarl is subject to.

So the players tracked down where the priest and his guards were staying. The Brujah and Salubri tailed them while the Lhiannan snuck into the church and stole back the ritual dagger and ring the priest took off the vampire they killed. Ugh, it's so annoying when the group wants to split up, since it takes twice as long and I have to keep 2 threads going. At least with the splitting up, I was able to draw one player in whose been fairly quiet and just following along, since she was on her own sneaking around the church and rifling through the priest's stuff to get the dagger and ring back. I'm getting a better feel for the players, at least, and try to call on her more often to draw her into the game more. The other 2 are definitely more proactive.

The next night one of the local vampires, the Jarls' childer wasn't found. When they went to find him, a couple of the priests guards were harvesting his blood. They're ghouls hunting vampires for blood to feed their addiction. They bested the ghouls eventually... Dammit, they just kept rolling really well on their soak rolls so the combat took forever. They had walked in on them feeding and draining the Jarl's childer's blood, so eventually connected they were ghouls, but were unsure if they were vampires or ghouls until they killed one.

A visiting Toreador, Cleo, was able to use Auspex 3 on the dagger to inform them it was used by a blonde blacksmith during a ritual sacrifice, so they have that lead to follow up on next time.

Damn, even though I had tried to keep the pacing tighter than my game I ran last year, the group's still taking about twice as long as I had anticipated to get through content. I did have to restore some content I had cut since it made a lot of sense for the clans a couple people were playing, but haven't really even gotten to that. The Warrior Salubri had had a dream about Saulot being Diablerized, so is tracking other Salubri to try and warn Saulot. After they mostly finish with stuff, I'll have him meet the Salubri guarding Mithras' library and cache of weapons in the ruins. He'll give an ambiguous lead that Saulot either went to the mainland or Scandinavia, so he can go along either path.

There's a part of me that hopes they decide to go a viking, that will be a fun Chronicle to run. Although I've got some interesting characters planned if they go to France. The Viking chronicle won't be pure combat, though, since they'll be trying to convince the Jarl's in the Kingdom of Lade to side with them and building a small army before they attempt to challenge him. There's also potential to eventually fight some crazy magical creatures like giants.

DrHappyAngry

So I made it easy for the players and had Cleo suggest that once they discover who is behind the cult, they could dominate the captured ghoul into forgetting about them and believing whoever was behind the cult was responsible for killing the other ghoul, and divert the priest's attention to them. This is essentially my tutorial section, so I figured I'd help them out and show them how to scheme.

I brought in a new player this week, a Cappadocian. The group managed to find the blonde blacksmith at a mead hall and followed him out of town. I had a little side scene, where they heard a scream from a church on the way. When they ran in, the priest inside was having sex with one of his flock and drinking the sacremental wine. This is a bit of a hint about the character that had the church built, Gurter. They didn't seem to pick up on it.

The ones that could snuck up and had to watch the cult sacrifice another girl. One of characters is on the path of humanity, so was rather bothered by watching this. The Lhiannan, on the Eight Fold Path was totally into it, and practices human sacrifice herself. They discovered one of the vampires from court, Antony, was running the cult.

They ratted him out to the Jarl, who dominated the ghoul into thinking Antony killed the other ghoul and forgetting the rest of the court.

Word came that the following day, Antony was dragged out of his home by the priest and burned at the stake. I gave them all 5xp for getting the good ending and diverting attention from themselves to someone else, even though I made it easy and told them. This hopefully should give them some ideas on how to scheme and keep the masquerade. A lot of them are new to the game systems and setting, so I though I'd help them out this time.

The 3 that didn't have homes and had only just arrived in the town, I had the Jarl give them Antony's house to stay at. After the first night, a note fell off the Salubri's pine box he sleeps in, saying "Meet me where you found the cult performing the sacrifice." They went out there and were led into the ruins of Londinium by Justin the Nosferatu.

They met an old Salubri warrior there. After the Salubri party member told him about the dream of Saulot's diablerie, he informed them Saulot came to speak with Mithras before Mithras went into torpor. All he knows is that Saulot went back to the continent and heard stories of him in both the North and mainland.

I had hoped to get just a little bit further, to the point of the vote on where they want to go next. That means I have to write a first story for both directions. I have the general plot and a lot of the characters already fleshed out for both paths, though. I get the feeling the votes going to be to go a viking rather than to get embroiled in politics in Francia.

I got a chance to ask what some of them of liked and wanted to see more of. I was surprised when one player said she liked the combat a lot. I kind of felt like there was a bit much of it, and combat really slows the story down. If they go the viking route, they'll certainly get more of that. I think if I just start fudging dice rolls of less significant combats in their favor, that might be the way to avoid dragging things out. Another player really liked the page I had written explaining the setting in detail. I wrote out about a page long description for the general history and culture of the area and how vampires fit into it, so I wouldn't have to answer the same questions about life in 730AD Lundenwic over and over. Another request was for more visuals. So I think I'll try to get some pictures together, particularly of viking longships, long houses, old forts and whatnot. I have my set of drinking horns on the table, so that fits well. I'll also try to get more descriptive on the visuals. I think I also need to give a crash course on travel in the middle ages, especially how vampires do it.

DrHappyAngry

We got a short session in this week, unfortunately my 2 new players will not be able to make it in the foreseeable future. There might be another who stayed for a bit who'll join. I made a big pot of beef bourguignon for dinner.

They had a house and wanted to spend some time cleaning it up and the Salubri convinced the Lhiannan to make a ghoul. I feel a bit bad of about doing this in retrospect, but I picked the ghoul to be killed.

The Salubri Michael awakened with his Auspex danger sense triggering. There was a naked girl with her chest cut open and her heart removed lying on the floor of the house. The girl is the Lhiannan's ghoul she sent to clean the house. This is the same M.O. of the ritual sacrifices of the Baali they had helped bust. After he inspects the body and realizes there's no blood on the ground, he tries to hide the body in the straw bed. The Brujah Okko busts in and declares the Jarl has called a blood hunt on his head for diabolism.

I cut to Brangwine the Lhiannan waking up under her tree stump to a similar situation. There's a girl with her heart cut out by her haven. The Huskarl of the Jarl, Bjorn the Gangrel arrives and accuses her of Diabolism. As he moves in to attack, a spear lands in between them. Wulfstan the Brujah tells Bjorn that he's set Bjorn's kennels on fire and if he hurries he might save his hounds. This cause the Gangrel to retreat. They need to get to the docks and get a ship out of town. At the walls of the city some mounted riders overtake them and Wulfstan tosses the Lhiannan over the wall into the town.

Things don't go well for Michael the Salubri. He pretty much gets his ass handed to him by the Brujah in a fight. The Nosferatu, Justin pops in before he can kill him and snaps the Brujah's neck and disappears. He runs into the Toreador, Cleo on the way out to the docks, who offers a ride on her ship out of town.

The Brangwine bumps into the Jarl's childer, Aelfric, on the other side of the wall. With the help of her presence, she convinces him she's been set up, so he lets her go. After a clash of metal, Wulfstan the viking Brujah hops the wall and goes to the docks with her. They bump into Michael and Cleo on the way. Cleo uses some high level presence to scare off a mob trying to bar their way to the docks.

This is where the first branch in paths comes. I gave them the option to travel to Massalia (Marssaille today) with Cleo to the more civilized parts of Western Europe, or, to go a viking with Wulfstan and conquer a kingdom in the North. This is where the group the threw me, I was expecting they'd want to go a viking. They opted to go to Francia with Cleo.

A part of me kind of wanted to tell the viking story. I wrote out a couple different plot lines, though, to take the story in a direction the players wanted it to go. The viking route more combat and the path to Francia leading to more social situations. That's not to say there weren't social situations in the viking path and combat planned for the Francia path, but it sets the tone for things to come. I am a bit excited that I get to use a character based off King Baldwin from Kingdom of Heaven. A Nosferatue who wears a mask and gloves, descended from nobility. I do have a plan to move them out of Massalia eventually, just to get them out of there before the city gets sacked by Charles Martel.

DrHappyAngry

We just had a short session this week, mostly them traveling to the mainland and along rivers and roads to get from Lundenwic to Massila. I gave them a little scare with some werewolves tracking them on the road, but just kept them there as a looming threat. They had a small encounter with some pilgrims who were wondering why they were sleeping in the carts during the day. The Salubri intimidated them into leaving them alone.

They finally get Massilia, and Cleo the Toreador takes them to meet the Princeps of the city, Demetrius. She gives careful instructions to introduce yourself and state your clan, don't volunteer any information or ask questions, but answer any he has. The Salubri's introduction goes smoothly, but the Princeps interest is piqued at the Lhiannan being there and makes a Gangrel take her to an old witch outside of town. The Gangrel complains about being tasked with dealing with betrayers, but they make it clear he'll do it or be killed.

The Salubri chats up a couple of the more important looking people at court. He meets the Brujah and Cappadocian primogen, as well as a Follower of Set named Xander, who of course he immediately takes a disliking to.

Duncan the Gangrel leads Brangwine the Lhiannan out to the woods to the Southeast. In a grove they're attacked by plants and a dark haired woman in a robe interrogates her about her presence while the Gangrel flees. The witch is an older Lhiannan who grills Brangwine about why she left her home (driven out for diabolism). To prove herself she demands Brangwine perform the Consecration of Esus on a hunter in the area.

It's kinda hilarious, she botches her roll to track the hunter and spends an hour wandering around. She fails her next roll. Just to move things along, I have the hunter bump into her and greet her saying "Hail." So much for getting the drop on him. She eventually cuts him up with her dagger, but keeps him alive. This is pretty bloody ritual where she feeds him some of her blood and hangs him up from a tree. She goes the extra mile and stabs him in the diaphragm to gain insight and read the blood entrails. She gets the sense of something very old that will be waking up soon. The plants in the area will now attack people for her.

The witch introduces herself as Morrigan the Lhiannan. She offers a cave to stay in and teaches her a ritual to keep the sun out of her haven. She also suggests she could find servants among the followers of the old gods here or perhaps an animal in the area.

The Salubri gets setup in Cleo's artist guild in a basement apartment. He's mainly asking about the situation in the South with the Muslim invasions. Duke Odo's been holding things for now.