Vampire: The Masquerade
en
English
Vampire 20th anniv Chicago(DA disciplines)
Homebrew
Roleplay focused
No politics of any kind: right, left, sexuality, real world religions, excessive feminism/whatever etc not allowed, if you have a need to make a fuss about that, you will be kicked out. It's perfectly fine to have those views, but don't bring them to the game (this is meant to be fun, social, intellectually challenging). If you have major psych problems that get in the way of simple social interaction (explosive outbursts etc) don't contact me. I do ask for telephone number just in case of you not showing up to game and you didn't tell me otherwise. Emergency stuff, like if you get sick or something. I do care about my players!
I have been GMing since 1997 or so, cut my gaming teeth on AD&D first ed. I go above and beyond for my players. I am very adept at teaching, btw. This campaign is on Mondays at 6pm Central time Discord video chat, but we could change time/day if the other players are willing and able. Set in Chicago, I've added abilities to the NPCs to support their discipline powers, and set the whole timeline from Chicago 1 to 2 and beyond more gradually, changed who lives. Note that I have changed some of the clans a bit, like switched Gangrel and City Gangrel, turned certain Brujah into True Brujah, a Ventrue into a Nosferatu, that sort of thing.
I had to make tiny changes to V20 to make it simpler, faster. Like Celerity, Fortitude, Potence. Also I don't use abilities like Awareness, Larceny, and I kept the damn Linguistics, Dodge as they are needed. That kind of thing. I even have combat rounds with meaningful character range when I gotta be aware of the local terrain/number of villains etc (minatures rules). The Giovanni I replaced with Cappadocians and Lamia, as the Giovanni were megalomaniacs and incompetent besides, plus they don't seem to be at all relevant to any setting (there are ghosts in Chicago note). The Ravnos I replaced as being totally divorced from the rest of the game, they don't have any influence, and seem to exist solely for troublemaking players. So, they got booted in favor of the Salubri, who actually ARE useful from a GM's perspective. Finally, I outright replaced all Setites with Baali, the latter are a much better written, and much more competent version of the Setites' Lovecraftian "I wanna bring demons into the world" schtick.
I noticed that if you played the Sabbat as written, they'd be wiped out entirely by werewolves, human hunters, and the Camarilla long ago. Worse, if they somehow managed to survive, they'd be discovered as vampires by humanity BECAUSE of their silly anti masquerade antics. On top of that, eating one's elders is a bad idea. All the Sabbat had was neonates and super buff elders, nothing in between. That means their stated purpose was a shambles. I changed their purpose to (eliminating the focus on fighting clan founders) dominating humanity, making humans into slaves. The Black Hand has been subsumed into the Sabbat as a whole.
1 Give me warning 24 hours before the game if you are gonna cancel. I need the time to tell the others and cancel the game if I don't have enough people to play. This is non negotiable! 2 Play well with others. If you are too disruptive, I will boot you after several warnings. 3 Take a different role each new campaign. Try new things! 4 You have to show up to play 75% of the time. If you cancel too many times, there's no point to having you in the group. 5 Sometimes you will be required to take a role you don't really want because the rest of the group made their picks already. If this happens, the next campaign I will make sure you get first pick as to your role/class. 6 If you have to make sacrifices for the group, like blowing feats on item crafting etc, I will try to send good things your way. Teamwork is important.
Vampire has difficult to make characters (you distribute dots, there are no classes, so you need to make the character with my help so you can use your super powers and I rig it so that you get the most power possible for what you tell me you want to do). However the game play dice mechanics/rules are easy as heck. The hard part is that it demands more forethought to play, because there's a lot of deceptive NPCs, including your own. It is oddly more ethical/moral than medieval fantasy games by far, even though you don't play a hero normally, and even though you're a vampire feeding on humans and aren't human yourself. It's darker I suppose, lots of intrigue and figuring out what is really going on. Kinda like watching Babylon 5 or Dune, you have to take notes to recall everything that could be vital later. A LOT less combat than medieval fantasy games! It's rare, but nasty when it does occur. Maturity is advised. Note that I broke my campaign down in a timeline, it can be altered yes by PC actions, even down to the year and month. The only thing I haven't added in is the end of the world, Gehenna, YET. Should take years to complete, we are a quarter of the way through.
VERY DETAILED homebrew campaign that can be changed if you do exactly the right things at the right time. RIght now they are in late 1990, you will get the PC's average xp to start with. You even get free generation if I can find a sire, an extra dot of disciplines, and 5 extra freebie plus 2 merits (Potent Aura, Common Sense/1 dot of Status). I give free Generation if you take from the official list. This can vary wildly based on what the two of us come up with (you dictate the parameters, I figure out how to make the mechanics do what you want and tell you about potential problems, and I pick out flaws so as to give you your own story arc). In general you will be making your PC on video chat with me, so that I can make sure you get all the benefits coming to you. I also set up PC's so they are good at their discipline rolls, as soon as you unlock the powers themselves.
Official list of clans/bloodlines you can take in Chicago compatible with the group as it is: Nosferatu (must take Dark Fate flaw), Toreador, Ventrue, Brujah, Gangrel (Sabbat), Malkavian, City Gangrel (Camarilla), Tzimisce (must take the Dark Fate flaw), Gargoyle, Caitiff (Anarch typically), Assamite (Milwaukee Sabbat), True Brujah.
The Dark Fate flaw means that your PC is destined to die by Antedilivuan during the end of the world. That doesn't mean you can't play, you can still run other characters even after your main one croaks.
Obscure list (you can take them if you want, but you won't have support from fellow clan members in Chicago): Daughter of Cacophony, Nagarajah, Salubri (Warrior and very Camarilla), Lamia.
Got a Cappadocian (a hospital morgue doctor), Salubri (one healer(an FBI agent), one watcher (a homicide Chicago police detective), and Lasombra (an amateur boxer and criminal lawyer, he wants to go Camarilla). I have set up each pc to have fast growth, to have really good rolls for their disciplines right away.
You gotta also pay for mentor ratings since you need a teacher to increase your disciplines outside of Celerity, Fortitude, Potence. If you pick from the obscure list, you can BUY up to 7th generation, but you blow 6 background dots to pull it off.
Caitiff are interesting, I made them able to teach ANY discipline they learn; normally the 13 clans can only teach their clan disciplines. A Tzimisce who goes Camarilla eventually has huge story potential, and could aid the group extensively via Vicissitude, Koldunism (need a level 3 ritual late in the campaign), and Animalism to hose over werewolves and aid the party vs frenzy. Brujah, Toreador, Ventrue, True Brujah, and the healer version of Salubri, all have clan access to Presence, and level 3 of that power requires Appearance being high, so a PC could be quite the entrepreneur among vampires and humans (note that the porn Hollywood, prostitution, and music industry would be lucrative)..... A Tremere is possible, but you'd need to be a diehard Anarch (meaning the local Tremere want your keister dead, although good news for you that the Chicago ones are less than competent). At the moment, the only Discipline nobody has clan access to is Celerity, but there's a lot of clan proprietary powers that nobody has. There is a 5 pt merit that allows you to buy an additional clan discipline, by the way, and in my version of it, you need lots of Wits.
If you don't know the clans, I can give you information but you will need the V20 core rulebook (learning the setting and abilities but not the disciplines), the dark ages core rulebook (mostly just for the super powers), tome of secrets (all forms of vampire magic, even obtenebration), and Erciyes Fragments (this will feature heavily in the campaign) books. Also a total of 20 d10's, basically two matched sets of 10 d10's, but the 2 sets cannot match each other. Preferably translucent dice, not solid. Chuck out any that have bubbles inside.
The Guide to the Camarilla from the Revised edition might be handy, but not strictly necessary. Prince's Primer is nice for understanding elder vampires' mindset.