NUI Maynooth Games Society

Montmarte, Paris, 1903

The body of a shrivelled young woman is found dead, by a passerby, he covers her naked body up with his long trench coat. In her hand he finds a piece of dirty cloth, it has splashes of what looks like blood, probably her own, on the cloth is the icon of a Black Hand.
And as the sun begins to rise on the city, the air is filled with the smell of putrid smoke, the twisted body of the woman smoulders under the suns gleaming rays, and bursts into flames, the terrified man flees the scene.

La Belle Epoque, the Beautiful Era, is coming to an end rapidly, the once thronged cultural streets of Montmarte are decaying. The residents have slowly shifted from great writers to drunken madmen, the beautiful club dancers to common whores, Montmartre is rotten, and the Kindred are terrified. An organisation calling themselves the Black Hand are hunting the beings of shadow, with rapid and gaining success.

Who can you trust? What are the strange whispers on the night air about? Why are the Black Hand aware of the Kindreds every movement?

In a world of shadows and lies, where your 'best firend' is your worst enemy, the only thing you can trust is...the blood


____________________________________________________

Monday nights from 7, not sure if they are rooms allocated yet if not will play first game or two in my place.

Looking for about, 5 players. Newcomers welcome!

Confirmed Vampires
Ragdoll
BadWolf
Epyon
Maxam

Will take another one or two at most. PM if you is interested and am also looking for people to play once-off characters etc!

Couple of questions about this game and the on-going campaign.

First, the context. Is this the normal way White Wolf's Storyteller is played in Ireland? I mean that the game master has planned everything ready and then just reads it to the players? I haven't read the books or played the game in Finland more than once or twice, so I wonder. According to my (very little) experience and deductions (seen the free demo-scenario) this is the method. I'm just puzzled why there are all the other rules, if they aren't being used? Second thing: Is this your own scenario or have you bought / downloaded it from somewhere? I recall you having the material on your laptop.

Then a bit more practical things. It seems to me that no-one has written actual game raport to this thread. I'm voluntaring to do it, if you have nothing against it. It's been a while, but I made some notes during the game. In order to do so (and in each case), would you tell me the names of the other participants? My name memory is awful at best, and these weren't even in my native language. If they aren't public information, could you drop them to my PM? I mean the names of all the other players, the characters, the GM and major NPCs.

And last, how many sessions this campaign will last? It seems that you've measured the lenght quite accurately, if you can even hit it into chapters and give them titles.

Next time on Monday after midterm, right? In JHT7 at 7 pm?

Ahem, *clears throat*...

1. The game is planned to a large extent mainly because we are playing in the past in my game! I plan on running it over the two semesters, in the 20th century (1903) and 21st Century (present day) unless of course people are not happy with my way of running the game! But anyway thats why it all seems a little planned. The events/chapters you find yourselves in are the ones which will basically affect the storyline in the 2nd semester, the events I show you cinematically, e.g. the girl in the sewers being chased are ones in which play a part for the game but ones which are totally out of yourt control.

2. I dont know how its played in Finland, and I have played the game differently in other GM's games, but thats typically my style but am open to persuasion oh and I do plan on putting up a history and character base for the game but at the moment am swamped with work! Feel free though to contribute

3. I kinda answered the question about chapters and stuff in the first part. I'm a writer, my bad habits flow into my games, sorry lol


So anything else I can help ya with?

Well, that two-layered game idea sure explains things. And since the cat is out of the bag, I guess I can admit that this play style isn't my favourite. It doesn't leave much for me (or other players) to do, except to listen to the narration (comparable to watching a movie: fun, but not the thing I'm looking forward when role-playing). Still, I believe I can adapt and come up with other ways to contribute to the game. I haven't done this kind of "acting" before, but I'm willing to give it a shot. And judging the last time, other players were having good time. So don't change, but help us (me at least) to be part of it.

By the way, what kind of stuff do you write?

And then the game report. As said, this session was run on 23rd October, so I'm trying to remember old things. As I get them wrong, do mention about it. I figured this is the second session, so someone might want to fill in the report from the first go. Also, let me know if you wish your name to be erased and PM me about all the annoying typos I make.

Do You Believe in Guardian Angels?

So there I was, making my first Vampire character. I've played Vampire enough to know that PCs are getting their ass kicked and not even remotely as cool as Rice's vampires in mirror shades. So I decided to create a mediator, a diplomat, a character who can deal with everyone and has accepted his situation in the vampire hierarchy: no greater ambition or pride, as they only get torn. Other players came in one by one; there was five of us players and Declan as GM. We took a little introduction before starting, everybody saying their names and describing their characters.
Max played Fiona,
Fiona played Guinevere (don't get mixed: we've got same named character and player),
Dean played Eric,
I (Sami) played Michael,
Ian played William.
We also determined who would be the actors, who would be our characters, if this was a movie. For me this kind of stuff worked quite well as breaking the ice - after all, this was first time for me with these players. I got the picture that some of the other players aren't that experienced as role-players, but everyone seemed to be chatting and laughing, so I guess everybody is pretty relaxed in the presence of others (important thing in role-playing).

The game was opened with some atmospheric reading, explaining the background. Our characters were captured by a vampire huntress, stuffed in a carriage, and the horses were galloping towards the harbour. Other players started to find out ways to break free, while I was more interested to get in contact with others - my character was folded up in the trunk. Finally most of them got out, except my and Max's characters. They went into the water with the carriage and others landed on the dock. The huntress, who drove the carriage, started then to paint the dock with other characters' blood. The fighting system is pretty fast, but I and Max were still off the spotlight quite some time. I didn't mind, as I just wanted to see what the game style is and Max didn't yell for turn either. It was quite quickly evident that our characters were taking beating from an angel - nice aesthetics, got to admit. And I mean taking beating, as it seemed that we weren't laying a finger on her, while she was chopping us to pieces (was the GM playing according to the rules, I don't know, but I guessed that we were written to lose here). Others kept on fighting all the same and seemed to be pretty excited about the situation. Even Max tossed his character in, although he had to know that there was no way we could win. I was up to a tough choice: Turn my character blue and show solidarity to other characters, or keep out of fight and save hit points. Finally I thought things would get onwards faster (after all, the fighting scene had gone on quite long) if I didn't take an action, and so it was.

After the angel had beaten the Oops out of our characters and was just up to "finish hims", she fled. Our saviour was Andre, probably quite a powerful mage. He also brought in his vampire "family", Angelina, Matthew and Eric (yep, another character with same name). As you could figure, this Andre gave weird bossy talk and invited our characters to meet him in some other place. To my mild surprise, other players started to argue, throw bitter remarks and suspected this Andre-fellow big time. Especially Max's Fiona seemed to have problem with him. I spotted that this was just one station on the tracks, and that nothing would be gained with arguing, so I kept my mouth shut. On the other hand, some of the remarks were pretty amusing - Declan sure knew how to play arrogant & noble Andre.

Finally we accepted the request; naturally it was "an offer you can't refuse". Other characters seemed to be cursed somehow and Andre could solve this problem. And I didn't wish to drop off the adventure, so off we went. There was a maid reserved for us, and other players treated her as you'd think people treat healing potions in D&D. On the other hand, I guess that's the way vampires relate to human-cattle. As the characters drank too much and the woman died, the players were worried if Andre would be pissed about it.

The characters had arrived at the Twilight club, where we pretty much just waited someone to lead us on. I tried to take an initiative finally and made my Michael sat in a table with some other folk, but I didn't have much of a chance to find out what was going on (this was greatly due to my own crappy small talk playing). Dean's Eric tried to act as a big man and go where he wanted, but managed only to get hypnotized by the bouncer. We had a good laugh as Eric danced alone around the club; hopefully Dean's self-esteem wasn't damaged (good example of PCs being losers, though). GM took the lead and brought in Sally, who guided us to sleep. The session ended with Declan's narration from a bird-eye view; have to admit that he is pretty good writer. He also used background music during the game, which worked especially fine in the end scene.

As clock was just about ten, we had to get out of JH Building quite quickly. Declan went on this way, but I had a chance to walk part of the trip with others. Unfortunately I didn't get to debrief the game as much as I had hoped to. Still it seems good that players are friends even outside the game room - it promises good playing in the future.

Where Devils Fear to Creep

We returned to the old campaign after three weeks. Dean had to drop out and Ian couldn't make it to this session, so we had only three players. I didn't mind, on the contrary: this would just leave more room for the rest of us. Starting the session took a late call, because we had a few visitors and Max and Declan ended up chatting about coming-up games. Fiona couldn't make to seven, so we launched the first scenes without her. Interestingly Max showed a softer side of his character as she didn't go for feeding just like that. I on my behalf got a monologue from Coco, the story's femme fatale. I myself was so frozen that I couldn't come up with any cool response to her. Still, it was interesting, because Declan had said me before that this was the turning point of the campaign, and now this NPC was letting me know that there would be a revolt. Whose side would my character take?

After this we waited a bit more for Fiona to join in and Max and Declan went on discussing about digital RPGs. The game continued finally at 7.50 pm. Some servant took our characters to meet the prince, who explained the angel girl being one of the Black Hand vampire hunters, but without a doubt there's more to this. The game got really interesting, when the prince Joseph called us for acts of loyalty. The atmosphere was very My Life With Master - the prince was stepping on our pride and self-esteem, but we couldn't walk out of it because of his power. Fiona, or actually her character Guinevere, got the first call: "cut off your arm". She did it. But then the character's hand was mystically restored, so that really took the pain off from me and Max. The demands weren't real. So when Joseph asked my Michael and Max's Fiona (the character, not the third player) to fight till death, I knew there was no real danger. But what was surprising was that my character was actually victorious - at least in the beginning. I mean that my character is old Sean Connery (I'm thinking Untouchables), sort of vampire diplomat and Max's Fiona is anime-beast, Grangel, twin sickles, or something. Sure, I got lucky with the dice and Michael's spells slowed her down, but I must say I felt pretty mighty. The biggest problem was to imagine Connery beating up a woman - you know, he wouldn't do Matrix kung fu moves.

Our tussle was interrupted when this dangerous woman, Coco, attacked the prince. I had already made up my mind: Michael wouldn't rise against the prince. Too risky. On the other hand he was in no hurry helping Joseph, calculating that there was no reason to piss off anyone like this femme fatale (this is his survival strategy: go between, don't get involved, never make commitments). Of course this was about my own experience as well: revolutions are never successful in Vampire. Elders rule, end of story.

And that's why we all were quite surprised, when Coco ripped prince Joseph into bits and ate his heart. Declan actually threw dice for the NPCs and took the results as they were. This meant that Declan has to rewrite some of his material; this definitely was not part of his plan. Coco was a badass before, but now she's assimilated Joseph's powers (including magical abilities) and great part of his position (it's the prince's blood in her). And what makes the situation even more interesting, Max aided Coco while Fiona's Guinevere was dominated to fight against Coco. This ought to create some sort of relationships between our characters, which we really haven't done so far. But wait, there's even more to it: Guinevere went to check Joseph's corpse and got his final kiss. In game terms this means that Declan told us some fine, emotionally engaging monologue about Joseph and boosted Fiona's character. The session ended as the characters teleported into Elysium of Paris and ran into Black Hand fellows.

Gotta say, this really left lots of interesting loose ends. What is going to happen in the big picture, in the whole vampire society? What is going to happen between our characters? What is going to happen between Guinevere and Coco - clearly Guinevere is our plot device now. I have to try to go into vampire politics, even if I'm afraid my wings will clipped before it even starts. I'd be fun to stir the situation even more. Me, Max and Fiona discussed about the game fiction and tried to solve the hinted mysteries on our way home, so have to give credit to Declan for this session. It was also socially enjoyable: as there were only three players, everyone got their time in the spot light and there was some interaction between our characters (mine and Max's), even if it was just a fight. I'm really looking forward for the next session.

Guys, sorry game is not on tonight have to help Oisin with a talk on coming out...stupid gay thing and have clubs and socs council till 7:30 so thats my evening tied up! to catch up we will need an extra session this week so please let me know what times suit y'all!?!

Making Alliances With Devils

We are losing players: this time there were only me and Max. Declan wished this December session to be the last chapter of the campaign, but because of the lack of players, he decided to run one more session. This time it was a little shorter bit, like setting the pieces and the stage for the final showdown.

The situation continued from the Elysium, which was filled with Black Hand -vampire hunters. Interestingly Max was already getting ready to fight with them all, but since my character is better with the way of words - and since the combat system of Vampire: The Requirem isn't the hail to the glory and finesse - I tried to talk our way out of it. And look at that, they actually listen to us! My plot is of course to form a mega-alliance and kick the Oops out of Coco and her group, and the vampire hunters seem to believe that we are all needed in the battle against the new queen of the block. But then again, maybe they don't listen nice and easy: "prove you are worthy allies by fighting". That line is getting old real fast. Yeah, the angel lady was there and off we went again. Max seemed to be in his element - after all, his Fiona is a fighter character - but I was getting bored with this constant fighting. I wanted to take the fate in my own hands, afftect the story, take initiative. I was still in the illusion that we had broken the railroad of pre-written storyline in last session. So I tried to sneak up the bystander (have you noticed, there's always a bystander in these battles: someone who is judging how well we shed blood) and fumbled the dice roll. The angel nailed my character for that and I went berserk - you want to fight? Fine, I'll give you a fight.

To cut the long story short, I was once again amazed how well my Sean-Connery-diplomat managed in the battle. Cruác (or whatever) spells on the low level don't do much damage, but are extremely handy in the means of disgrace and confusing the enemy. I mean that our sweet angel was trying to eat Fiona's hand and puking all over - an image worth to remember. Anyway, it seemed like we were winning the lady, even if she last time turned our whole group into a pulp (though Max's Fiona was pretty messed up at this point).

Then the cinematic description started to roll again: Coco appeared, finished the angel and offered my character an alliance. Right after that the change of scene and we are in the meeting room. I had no idea who these other characters in the room were, but gradually I realized that this was the moment of making the truce between vampire hunters and vampires (and others, at least there seemed to be one Mage with us). The point is that if Coco wins, drinks the rest of the prince's blood which is in Fiona's Guinevere and the blood of some other almost dead vampire, she's going to sent the whole world to the age of darkness. And, of course, it's just our characters (and the NCP-members of the truce) who stand between Coco and these two poor vampires. Damn, are we really just going from a fighting scene to another? It's a good idea for D&D, but it really doesn't work that well with Vampire's system (then again, perhaps this is the real storytelling).

The ending scene was full of suspecting and distrust - Max really seems to think that I'm taking the side of Coco. We shall see.

Between Angels & Devils I Stand

As the darkness grows around us, only few of us arrive to play. It's just me, Max and Declan as the Game Master. The fourth and final session of the campaign Secrets of Blood is at hand.

The game started again with GM narration. I got to say that the framed scene for the last battle was neat: a cathedral. Also the musical score started to get me, as Declan played Enya, a sort of music I like myself. Plus, it produced interesting, atmospheric associations when he played the track from the Lord of the Rings Moria-sequence (May It Be), while our characters were walking through sewers to get to the cathedral. And the image of having a church filled with lurking unholy monsters - werewolves hanging from the ceiling rafters and pillars - and nuns singing prayers between the statues of Virgin Mary is just the kind of aesthetics that get me going. The movie demo sequence continued with the arrival of Coco and her army. They marched in, killed Guinevere instantly (you really got to show up in Declan's game once you've started it or he kills your character in the most brutal way) and then it's our turn.

The fight itself wasn't as glorious as I had hoped. Maybe because I lost it and even with the most frustrating way getting nothing useful done in either life or death. This was Max's night. The battle itself went on quite quickly, as the characters went down like crops at the harvest time one after another. I think it took only two or three rounds altogether. Then I made my move. The situation was, as I explained in the previous report that Coco wanted to drink blood of both Guinevere and another vampire in order to become invincible vampire ruler. Now, she had killed Guinevere, but the nuns with other NPCs prevented her from teleporting to that other vampire. She was trapped in the cathedral, and there was our change to take her out. My thoughts were that since the GM had time after time told me that I've got the power to select or at least influence what the end result will be, I'll use the power. The Vampire is very depressing (tragic, some might say) setting, where nothing ever changes. I wanted to change this by letting Coco win and bring the world of darkness upon the whole world - the change is change, even if it messes up everything. So, I figured, taking out the nun patrol ought to let her to teleport and slay the vampire and gain the power.

Unfortunately to me, the burning nuns ("Do I smell a burning virgin?" asked Max) caused the NPCs to really piss off. My character Michael was slain instantly with the burst of (holy?) light, though this extreme manifestation of power killed the rest of teleport-stopping-NPCs as well. But instead of Coco's teleportation she continued to tussle with Max's Fiona. And despite her oh-so-mighty-almost-godlike-combined-mage-and-vampire-powers, Coco lost, as the GM rolled a whole handful of ones (botches). So the light conquered the darkness and the world was saved from the eternal darkness once more. Hurrah! Instead of claiming the power over Paris, Max's Fiona retreated to the woods - she's a Gengrel, they do that. Well, if nothing else, at least we created a major power vacuum in the area of Paris. And yeah, my character didn't actually die: Michael is at the gates of Hell and something moves in the shadows.

As the game was over fairly early (eight o'clock; this session took only an hour), we had a moment for debrief. Nothing interesting was said, except the fact that Declan liked most when his original story plot was destroyed with the death of the prince Joseph. And that he's going to set another Vampire campaign in the same Paris about hundred years later, in modern-day time. Oh, and that the end was rather similar to the last time he ran this campaign.

---

The campaign as a whole seemed a lot like some digital RPG (like Final Fantasy for an example): The GM tells quite cool narrations, which connect battles to one another. The results of the beatings seemed at least in some cases be up to the dice, which might change the course of the story. It was a good campaign, if you could follow the GM's story (as you could see, I was out most of the time) and had a character with combat abilities (which Max and Fiona had). The style isn't my favourite as it leaves the players too passive, but... yeah, I'm up for the next campaign in the spring, provided that I can fit it into my schedule. I'll just practise some neat one-liners ("I aim to misbehave") during the Christmas holiday and create a decent werewolf-fighter, and I'm ready to go.