Pic from WW1
I did this a while back
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/my-token-vampire-cyberpunk-graff-fiction.html
Someone asked about what would it take to make vampires rpg not suck and I vomited up this RPG rant.
I guess I hate vampires and clowns and want them dead. More appealing than Nazi death camp guards or samurai by a few notches. I prefer superheroism. i play vamps i am a dandy jerk and annoy others for historical accuracy. Vampires rpg to me could be just as easily be school bully rpg or worekplace rituals of domination the rpg.
What would I fix?
Superheroism:
Id probably be more scifi horror superhero like blade. Marvel vampires of 70s were cool especially varny the vampire. atlantean elder were cool. Cap cutting of Barron Blood's head with shield. Had vamp hunting archer immortal in my marvel game for years and stole marvel story arc was cool. Use marvel rules with vampire rulebook for suggestions.
http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Varnae_(Earth-616)
No more occult/religious cliches:
The vampire rpg universe is gnostic and too christian so fix that. Im sick of western occult cliches in rpg games and comics. Specialty from Brit writers. I want layers of bullshit. Vampire cultist serve vamps who are batshit mad and members of cults all with untrue twisted mythology with no proof. When vamps call elder blood god they mostly have no freaking clue what will happen. Lest knowledge, so many tribes you cant know them all ever and create your own unique type every character. New gen vamps expose old clans heads as frauds stuck in past. Illuminatus trilogy but about vampires.
More Scifi:
Cyberpunk vamps id find cool. Alien cyberpunk tech. Red comet appears and vamps take over. They destroy the rich of the earth and take their place. 1965 Italian film Planet of the vampires (Prometheus prequel). Buck Rogers in he 25th century space vamp episode was the best. I love film life force too and Colin Wilson and Brian Lumley worth a look.
Time travelling vampires? Possibly vampires exist in separate time streams and can occupy different past or future or parallel selves but have flawed memories from times they have been killed. Dr who as vampire? (crisis is his spinach) .
Necro Illuminate Metatemporal Vamps - immortals of the multiverse with personal crusades incarnate different worlds and times as whatever passes as a vampire in this setting. Can kill incarnations off in off camera scenes or narrative intros each session.
First 40k rogue trader book had warpspace vampires that occupy bodies and drain life force through a host. So jump game system with each plane shift.
Psionic space vampires in silver and rubber body suits So much cool.
I want to chase vampire kids in trenchcoats and tears with a wooden steak and a leather satchel bag. Yet i was DJ in a goth/punk club for years. Evil Clown rpg would be more scary.
Other vamp game is cthulhu vampires. You lose san when feeding till you get used to it. Vamp culture forces you to perform more SAN blasting acts of inhumanity. Meanwhile cthulhu is coming and 99% vamps busy fighting and too ignorant to care. Possibly start investigating vampires then cabal have them turned to silence them. Waiting for them to go mad and join the fold. BRP vamps drain blood (blood=fatigue soul drain=MP).
In some cases you're describing the way the game is.
ReplyDeleteThis is a thing: "New gen vamps expose old clans heads as frauds stuck in past. Illuminatus trilogy but about vampires." Illuminatus Trilogy is in their appendix N.
"Other vamp game is cthulhu vampires. You lose san when feeding till you get used to it. Vamp culture forces you to perform more SAN blasting acts of inhumanity." That's the humanity system. Very obviously inspired by CoCs SAN.
"Meanwhile cthulhu is coming and 99% vamps busy fighting and too ignorant to care." Endtimes are coming and that's how they act. CoC also in their appendix N.
"I want to chase vampire kids in trenchcoats and tears with a wooden steak and a leather satchel bag. Yet i was DJ in a goth/punk club for years. Evil Clown rpg would be more scary." Your prejudice is showing. This sort of thing killed this RPG which is actually one of the better ones...and not nearly as incompatible with the old school as people think. Wraith for example, had a megadungeon written into the setting. Werewolf has a realm with every war ever going on at once; what's that for if not frankengaming it with wargames? And the whole damn company is named after an appendix N character.
Of course im predjudiced - thats what opinion pretty much is
DeleteVampire cannon universe old and new are rigid
I just dont like vampires being cool
should be a disappointment and uncool doom.
Humanity system is too tame
Just because they referenced some things i like doesn't mean i like what they did with it.
They do have ok ideas to plunder but i would use for more for super hero than horror. Implicit magic-gnostic;western magic thing is really inherent in setting.
Just because I have not learned a new game system for 25 years i dont really have beef with other gaming scenes but my vampire gaming friends overlap with larp and story gaming friends who have a whole script on how their games are more evolved and superior to my older games.
I didnt draw a line in the sand about old and newschool. I just dislike cranking out revisionist editions for a buck and books full of padding in text and design not the games per say. I get abused online for preferring COC to Gumshoe regularly which is sad.
Vampirism just never felt right as the adolescent struggle its presented to be so much of the time. Yeah its transformative, that doesn't mean it has to ape survivng highschool and figuring out how to be an adult without losing whatis importat to your youger self.
ReplyDeleteI prefer comics like xmen and blade and 70s dracula and DR Strange and I like the Angst in those titles. The angst in indy comics is lonely young men in trench coats in the shadows of a city by night in the rain. The vamp wannabe of the 90s fits into the same mold. I suffer and am more hip than though holy hipness. I don't think that is really horror any more than a puffy shirt makes you a pirate.
ReplyDeleteI believe there are Vampire games out there that are real horror and players are not aggressive story gamer's or vamp wannabes out there. It is within realms of possibility.
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80s Batman does neogothic-noir better than crow films
ReplyDelete