Anyone interested in MP thousand year old vampire

First time venturing into the Roleplaying section but Her it goes… Was wondering about starting a game of thousand year old vampire on the forum.

More specifically I was wondering if there is an appetite for the multiplayer variant. It’s very much the same rules with everyone taking the roles of vampires over the same time period and the journal entries taking the form of letters posted to each other.

I have a copy so we can agree the best format for me to submit writing prompts to players. Depending on if players and possible spectators might enjoy seeing the prompts that have generated the letter and if players are happy with that. I’ll post more detailed guidance if it is of interest to people.

Obviously the roles are vampires and there will be an element of murder / predatory behaviour and if it is to work then I think anyone wanting to join in should share some ground rules on any non-obvious topics or material they would wish to avoid (stalking, graphic violence, etc…). If people are vampires it doesn’t mean they aren’t people.

I would probably cap at 4 players for a first shot otherwise it may become unwieldy for me and I’m happy to play/ facilitate.

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Yes please!

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I could be persuaded :vampire:

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It is actually something I would very much like to take part of

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Cool I’ll pull together some guidance on how it works. If we don’t get a 4th player then I’ll join in too. There are a couple of opening questions we will need to agree:

At what time will we start? The game will move forward as the correspondence is sent between us. So we can either start in a historical time period and location and move towards the present or start in the present and move towards the future? Does anyone have any preference or particular time period they are interested in?

I’ll explain turns later on but depending on die roles you will be provided prompts that you will write your letter around on your turn. What would be people’s preference:

  • I could post prompts in the forum for everyone to see.
  • I could post prompts in private to Completely keep the element of surprise on what will happen to you next.

My preference would be the latter, but open to suggestions.

I’d rather start in the Middle Ages, and I think your second bullet point looks better to me (PM option)

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I’m fine with that

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Thirded on both points

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Cool we’ve reached a consensus I’ll pull together guidance on how to play/take turns and best practice.

Any objections if I Also PM prompts to any interested spectators who wish to follow on?

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No objections from me

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You could also

do this

to hide the prompts

or perhaps blur the spoilery text, instead.

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I’ll definitely be spectating from the sidelines.

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No objection

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Like @Scribbs, I’ll be following this game with interest and would appreciate seeing the writing prompts you give the players, @GeeBizzle.

(And I didn’t know that this could be played by more than one person. Very cool!)

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How many players can join in?

Wun player! Ah, ah, ah!

Two players! Ah, ah, ah!

Three players! Ah, ah, ah!

Four players! Ah, ah, ah!

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You weren’t following our game of Fury of Dracula a while back, were you? :slight_smile:

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Ok so I’m going to post some outline rules and tips here. I’ll be posting summaries of your vampires as the top post of a new thread once we start.

I’ve tried to summarise these rules in my own words and nowhere near as succinctly and and as thoroughly as they are summarised in the actual book. With this in mind please feel free to ask for clarifications now or PM me once we get going as questions arise.

To put it simply on your turn You will receive a prompt resolve your “traits” through writing a letter. Perform upkeep on your “traits” and roll your dice for your next prompt.

Finally before I paste the mammoth next post we need to consider a couple more things:

  • We need not all be in the same location but our paths will cross, where roughly in the world will we start?

  • does anyone wish to start the game as an existing vampire rather than as a new vampire?

  • how do we propose to control turn order or do we just post as much/little as we wish (or as I can keep up with)?

So each participant will create their vampire. I will talk each of you through this in PM’s.

You will start the game with 5 experiences , 3 characters (close relationships to your character), 1 immortal character (or another player), 3 resources and 3 skills. Your turning into a vampire you will receive a mark (something unique to you that identifies you as a vampire).

You will be given prompts to respond to based on dice rolls these may involve skill checks (this means you use one of your skills and cannot use it again). They may also involve the lose and gain memories, skills and relationships.

Memories are made of a maximum of 3 linked experiences (they need not be chronological order). All prompt responses must be summarised into a one sentence experience (what happened, how did you feel). When you have used all 5 memory slots you must start a new memory and score out an old one. Or move it to a diary.

You can have only 1 diary which can contain 4 memories. This is a record of your life you cannot remember but assume to be true. Diary memories cannot be further expanded with other experiences. If you create a diary it becomes a resource which can be lost.

If you are told to check a skill but have none available then you must lose a resource or vice versa. This should be treated as an addition to your prompt that something has gone horribly wrong to or for your vampire.

Your story will end when you are either prompted/told to check a skill but cannot/ told to lose a resource or skill but cannot (the above stated two possible substitutions is the only exception). At which point please use the prompt to summarise you demise. This could be a letter from a spectator to the event/ or a friend, or a letter you have written yourself before dying. The game will continue until the last vampire is no more.

Some basic advice to keep the multiplayer flow going. Basic improvisation rules of “yes, and” should be applied. Although if you can you may try and use your prompt to deceive another player but be aware that the other player may cement your deceit as fact before you have a chance to reveal your sneaky plan.

You letters need not always be to another vampire, you may be writing to any other character. A character you know, a historical figure. I would suggest avoiding other players characters as this could become convoluted and lead to multiple conflicting events.

I would suggest all letters take the form of something like:

‘6th April 690
To my dearest Eloise

I fear I must share with you the gravest of news. Our dear friend Jonas has gone mad. He is yelling about monsters in the house. I have locked him in a cage for his own safety, although I fear the madness is draining the very life from him.

It is like each day a little bit of his life leaves him. I fear he is not long for this world, maybe some acquaintances of mine can help him with his passing.

Yours eternally,
John’

Key details being, date-recipient-response to prompt.

In the normal game your entries should be relatively short. With this forum approach of letters there is no such restriction, although making them excessively long may lead to too much superfluous information. Remember your letter is written to address the prompt and this must be it’s focus. If you are writing a series of related prompts into a narrative you might find you need to abandon that narrative. This is fine. You might be able to pick it back up later or not, these are snippets from the life of your vampire not intended to be a cohesive story. The gaps add mystery.

The first 3-4 prompts should be in the first busy year with time advancing as it suits the narrative of the next prompt. If a player advances the time then within reason that will advance time for all of us.

One of the things that I think could be cool in this variant is the interaction of these vampires. They do not need to live together but throughout their life they may encounter and forget each other.

Once we sort out that everyone is ready and answer the previous questions I’ll send out PM’s to create our vampires.

Ok so RossM has kindly been a test subject for going through character creation.

RossM Vampire Sheet

@Whistle_Pig, @Chewy77 if your still up for it let me know and I’ll take you through character creation.