Bound in soul and blood
"I'm not a vampire, but I play one on tv."
That's not exactly true. I play one weekly in my friend's game, though. And something's been happening.
If you don't know the game, here's the introduction from almost all of the sourcebooks. We play Vampire the Requiem.
The setting of Vampire borrows greatly from gothic literature, not the smallest amount of which comes from the "set dressing" of the movement. Key to the literary gothic tradition are the ideas of barbarism, corruption and medieval imagery. This World of Darkness can be said to be our own seen through the looking glass darkly.
With regard to barbarism, the world of the vampires is like our own, but with a significant upturn in violence and decay. The streets are more brutal, with the desperate eyes of the unfortunate ever watchful for someone more priveledged from which they can steal something to make their own bleak lives more comfortable. Gangs are more active and violent; vagrants are bolder or they obliviate themselves even more. Even those with vast resources are more fearful of those who would harm them - or more jealous of those who rival their own wealth or power. Their actions can turn fierce with the slightest provocation.
Corruption goes hand in hand with the idea of barbarism. The world is nasty and brutish, and anyone who can get ahead had best avail himself of the opportunity. This is a world of indulgent clergy, avaricious businessmen, cops looking for a payoff and gangsters who have no other options than crime. Even those who don't fit into such neat iconic archetypes face corruption of their own, such as an unwed mother who finds herself addicted to drugs and sells her child for a few grams of crank, or an otherwise honest journalist who finds out that his brother has become a bloodthirsty creature of darkness and must keep the secret for kinship's sake.
Medieval imagery adorns all of the visual elements of the setting, and it can even bleed over into other aspects. Buildings soar heavenward, supported by flying buttresses, gilded when the architects can afford it and studded by gargoyles that scare away evil spirits that are all too real. Streets have fallen into disrepair. Even cities themselves are like medieval bastions, isolated from the outside world, xenophobic and cut off. Anachronisms abound, from antique decorations in otherwise ultramodern buildings to forgotten catacombs beneath bank vaults and subway tunnels. Honest-to-goodness castles might exist in the World of Darkness where none stand in the real world. Moss and vines cling everywhere. Torches and candles light hallways and anterooms. Walls bear breaches, cracks or other signs of disrepair. Ars moriendi punctuate works of art. A sense of dread and fear looms visibly on the face of every passerby.
Is it so strange, then, to believe that such a world hosts the Damned, as well?
And against all of that, we play.
I've played this game before, and the system is pretty good. It's even better since they revamped it, and it is certainly superior to the D20 (Dungeons & Dragons) system for modern-setting games. At least in my opinion.
Anyway, when I make a character to play as (like a lot of people do, I imagine) I imbue some personal aspects in there. Either parts of me, or parts I wish were of me. You can do things that you couldn't do in real life, either because of lack of opportunity, or because social convention wouldn't allow it. Or you could be nice. ;)
My current incarnation in the game is a Tasmanian who's been a vampire for a hundred years or so. Just long enough to get comfortable with his damned existance, and sort of eke out his personality. He was (in life) a standover man. That is, a criminal that preys on other criminals, usually by beating the hell out of them until they give up their goods, and as often as not they wouldn't survive it.
Flinch at the concept all you like - it's a real enough vocation (the term is Australian), and you did read the description of the world we're playing in, didn't you?
Of course, being a blood-fueled corpse only adds to the violence, but there is room for hobbies, moments of humanity, and hollow echoes of caring. Except...
Except that both in what the Storyteller is throwing at us, and our (my and my coterie-mate) own choices, limitations, and reactions... we're getting worked. Which is insanely fun, let me assure you!
But I'm getting sick of it. Not of the game, but when I slip on my character's persona and I feel mentally and emotionally neck deep in the blood (and knee deep in the bodies and gore), I can feel my (character's) humanity dribbling away, and the weight of the everlasting night before me. And I'm tired.
Even worse, as my humanity drains away (Humanity is an actual variable in this game, you understand. You chance losing it by either doing something heinous, or by merely being in the wrong place), and the resulting madness takes hold, I'm more and more unlikely to find my path (dark as it may be) and I draw closer to being a mindless ravening beast.
And sometimes that can be awfully rough on me, the player.
But am I enjoying it? Hell yes! It must be that perverse impulse that makes a little pain pleasurable. Not that I'm implying I masturbate with sandpaper or anything! (whistles innocently)
We play again tomorrow. I'm anticipating/dreading it greatly.
That's not exactly true. I play one weekly in my friend's game, though. And something's been happening.
If you don't know the game, here's the introduction from almost all of the sourcebooks. We play Vampire the Requiem.
A Modern-Gothic World
The setting of Vampire borrows greatly from gothic literature, not the smallest amount of which comes from the "set dressing" of the movement. Key to the literary gothic tradition are the ideas of barbarism, corruption and medieval imagery. This World of Darkness can be said to be our own seen through the looking glass darkly.
With regard to barbarism, the world of the vampires is like our own, but with a significant upturn in violence and decay. The streets are more brutal, with the desperate eyes of the unfortunate ever watchful for someone more priveledged from which they can steal something to make their own bleak lives more comfortable. Gangs are more active and violent; vagrants are bolder or they obliviate themselves even more. Even those with vast resources are more fearful of those who would harm them - or more jealous of those who rival their own wealth or power. Their actions can turn fierce with the slightest provocation.
Corruption goes hand in hand with the idea of barbarism. The world is nasty and brutish, and anyone who can get ahead had best avail himself of the opportunity. This is a world of indulgent clergy, avaricious businessmen, cops looking for a payoff and gangsters who have no other options than crime. Even those who don't fit into such neat iconic archetypes face corruption of their own, such as an unwed mother who finds herself addicted to drugs and sells her child for a few grams of crank, or an otherwise honest journalist who finds out that his brother has become a bloodthirsty creature of darkness and must keep the secret for kinship's sake.
Medieval imagery adorns all of the visual elements of the setting, and it can even bleed over into other aspects. Buildings soar heavenward, supported by flying buttresses, gilded when the architects can afford it and studded by gargoyles that scare away evil spirits that are all too real. Streets have fallen into disrepair. Even cities themselves are like medieval bastions, isolated from the outside world, xenophobic and cut off. Anachronisms abound, from antique decorations in otherwise ultramodern buildings to forgotten catacombs beneath bank vaults and subway tunnels. Honest-to-goodness castles might exist in the World of Darkness where none stand in the real world. Moss and vines cling everywhere. Torches and candles light hallways and anterooms. Walls bear breaches, cracks or other signs of disrepair. Ars moriendi punctuate works of art. A sense of dread and fear looms visibly on the face of every passerby.
Is it so strange, then, to believe that such a world hosts the Damned, as well?
And against all of that, we play.
I've played this game before, and the system is pretty good. It's even better since they revamped it, and it is certainly superior to the D20 (Dungeons & Dragons) system for modern-setting games. At least in my opinion.
Anyway, when I make a character to play as (like a lot of people do, I imagine) I imbue some personal aspects in there. Either parts of me, or parts I wish were of me. You can do things that you couldn't do in real life, either because of lack of opportunity, or because social convention wouldn't allow it. Or you could be nice. ;)
My current incarnation in the game is a Tasmanian who's been a vampire for a hundred years or so. Just long enough to get comfortable with his damned existance, and sort of eke out his personality. He was (in life) a standover man. That is, a criminal that preys on other criminals, usually by beating the hell out of them until they give up their goods, and as often as not they wouldn't survive it.
Flinch at the concept all you like - it's a real enough vocation (the term is Australian), and you did read the description of the world we're playing in, didn't you?
Of course, being a blood-fueled corpse only adds to the violence, but there is room for hobbies, moments of humanity, and hollow echoes of caring. Except...
Except that both in what the Storyteller is throwing at us, and our (my and my coterie-mate) own choices, limitations, and reactions... we're getting worked. Which is insanely fun, let me assure you!
But I'm getting sick of it. Not of the game, but when I slip on my character's persona and I feel mentally and emotionally neck deep in the blood (and knee deep in the bodies and gore), I can feel my (character's) humanity dribbling away, and the weight of the everlasting night before me. And I'm tired.
Even worse, as my humanity drains away (Humanity is an actual variable in this game, you understand. You chance losing it by either doing something heinous, or by merely being in the wrong place), and the resulting madness takes hold, I'm more and more unlikely to find my path (dark as it may be) and I draw closer to being a mindless ravening beast.
And sometimes that can be awfully rough on me, the player.
But am I enjoying it? Hell yes! It must be that perverse impulse that makes a little pain pleasurable. Not that I'm implying I masturbate with sandpaper or anything! (whistles innocently)
We play again tomorrow. I'm anticipating/dreading it greatly.
posted by Rimmy at 16:04
3 Comments:
I am lad you are enjoying the game Rimmy, and I appreciate that you actually blogged about it for good or ill.
Being a standover man is rough on the psyche when you think about it, and as a member of the damned, it may be easier to do the job, but defenetly harder to deal with the conciquences.
I feel you and Depaxus are doing well despite your in game proffesions.
Some nights the shackle of blood pulls at you, and you can do nothing but be pulled in its direction, but sometimes...sometimes..the memories of what you once were give you the strength to pull back a little, proving to yourself, even if for a moment, that the man in you still holds the leash....for now, and to some...that is more of a comfort than you can possibly imagine.
I think the Vampire system is great, though I wouldn't say it is better or worse than D20. Its all a matter of the type of game you are running, Vampire is much more about social interaction and political intrigue, where as D20 modern is a shall we say more combat orientated system. D20 is much more about killing things, and is designed on that principle. It also has more statigic elements built into the system, forcing players to think on how to kill things in the best way possible.
I think the game mechanics are reletive to the mood of the game, if the players want to kill things and blow lots of shit up, go for d20. If the players like to manipulate and role play character personality traits World of Darkness is the way to go.
Fictional - enjoying it a whole big bunch. And holding on to the dim echo of humanity, if that's what one wants, sometimes means bloody fingernails as you hold on and drag yourself back up one centimeter at a time.
Kibilz - I generally agree with you about what the systems are designed for, but the D20 system is both less flexible and less open-ended than the White Wolf one. That doesn't mean I don't like to play D&D, just that I (generally) find that anything approaching a modern-day setting is better represented by WW.
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