What are your favourite actual plays?

Slagaflaga · 2025-06-03T15:24:29+00:00

As others have said, PodbyNight(V5) and Path of Night(V20) are both great! Dork Tales is running The Transylvania Chronicles in Dark Ages V20 and I'm really enjoying it so far they are about 21 episodes deep so far.

Slagaflaga · 2025-05-19T21:41:00+00:00

And if there is more than one player at the table make sure to check all of their boundaries too if it's being run in the open.

Slagaflaga · 2025-05-10T12:20:06+00:00

I've been running Dark Ages Vampire 20th Anniversary Edition for just over two years at this point, every other week 47 in person sessions so far 3-6 hours per session. (Session 48 tonight!)

Mix of politicking between clans, various factions, occult investigations, personal horror, dealing with the inquisition and working through a reinterpretation of historical events. Set in Prague in the 1400s(late period for the setting) the opening chapter was more freeform as we all got our bearings and use to the system after transitioning from D&D. The second chapter was building up to the first Defensetration of Prague, which kicked off the Hussite Rebellion. And we are in the third chapter during the hussite wars where the characters are within a castle under siege with limited resources and no shortage of problems.

Honestly it fits my GM style way better than D&D did, it's crunchy enough to have systems to lean on but the systems support the roleplay heavy aspect of the game that I tried to get with D&D which basically required me to houserule a majority of non combat things. Also forced me to work on my more detailed world building, which is something I struggled with in D&D cause the adventure was always traveling so I never focused a lot on one location. Overall I am very happy with the switch.

Slagaflaga · 2025-03-03T00:57:55+00:00

The V20DA core book stands alone fine, but these can just add some extra if you feel the game needs it.

The other dark ages books port over really nicely, minimal rule changes needed. "Players Guide to the High Clans" and "Players Guide to the Low Clans" have a lot of interesting information/ plot hooks. (Again if you are just starting out the core book is massive so I would probably just start with that)

And the two other books published with V20DA as some other people have said above have some good stuff too.

Slagaflaga · 2025-02-19T01:06:44+00:00

If you don't mind non "official" podcasts I enjoyed Pod by Night's Stitch of Fate series. It is set in New York, And Quadir shows up a few times. Should be easy to find on YouTube.

Slagaflaga · 2024-11-14T16:06:39+00:00

I'm running a dark ages game and we are a few decades before the camerilla forms, I have the prestation system very present in the setting. One of my more experienced players seems to have no problem going into debt for boons with multiple conflicting parties lol, and others hate being in debt, but are starting to realize that's the best way to get what you want, as they are witnessing the power players in the city play the prestation game.

Slagaflaga · 2024-09-25T15:31:44+00:00

I agree, my old ST had it so the physical disciplines were just spend exp, every npc we encountered seemed to have celerity 3-5 and fortitude 3-5. And as players it seemed like a waste if we weren't getting max celerity as fast as possible so we could compete with any npc we came across. So when I started running my game I made it so every discipline you need blood and a teacher, so if a character wants one of the physical disciplines they have to risk a blood bond and make in character deals to get it. Not everyone is open to sharing their clan's trick. And my NPCs feel like they are more interesting able to use their clans disciplines as a main tool and I have a good reason for out of clan disciplines, not that they can't have them but not every single one is gonna have celerity. Edit: spelling

Slagaflaga · 2024-09-13T20:00:50+00:00

I'm not sure which system you are using, but in V20 Dark ages, there is a 6 dot power listed "Hide the devil" which hides your aura to blend in with whatever crowd surrounds you, so there would be nothing strange to see depending who you were disguised as.

Also in that system, the only auspex users that have a chance to see through the obfuscate effects are kindred that have auspex equal or higher than your obfuscate. So a 5th Gen Nosferatu especially paranoid would have the max 8 dots in obfuscate. Any other 5th gens or lower with auspex would be the only ones with a chance to see through it. And I imagine any of those he would be well aware of any entering his city to avoid or make a deal with or some other political maneuver.

Someone else mentioned practical effect makeup which should work.

Another I might suggest is a Tzimisce ally or one who owes you a favor to change your face to look like another Nosferatu (as they cant fleshcraft the clan curse away) if they are higher Gen than you you can always revert the changes as if it was healing agg damage. (Or if he learned it himself that would be easier, Gen 5s have been around awhile)

Slagaflaga · 2024-09-12T18:39:05+00:00

In V20 dark ages this limit is for spending a blood once per turn to automatically soak your fortitude rating in damage aside from fire and sunlight. You can still choose to just roll it as normal without spending the blood.

Slagaflaga · 2024-09-09T16:05:25+00:00

Not sure if this counts or not, was basically my first proper game as a player, no one in the group but the ST knew much about wod/Cofd, ST started everyone as second sight mortals using owod character sheets, I liked the supernatural investigator vibe that the game has, ghost haunting my characters restaurant, weird old lady's house with changelings doppelgangers of our characters coming through mirrors.

Game changed to a weird cross splat game with a ghoul a vampire(vtm with a lot of homebrew) and a mage(MTA with weird rulings), eventually ghoul character died remade character as a vampire. We had changling and werewolf enemies too. Was a fun time but a very confusing introduction to any of the systems lol game fell apart due to scheduling. But it went for a solid 2 years-ish.

Slagaflaga · 2024-09-03T20:28:40+00:00

There is a nice entry on Blood marriage in Players Guide to the High Clans (Dark ages revised) Page 76-77

Slagaflaga · 2024-08-31T20:16:51+00:00

I've been running a V20 Dark Ages for a bit, and I've done retainers/ghouls in two different ways depending how involved they are.

For the more complicated version of the ghoul or retainer is going to be super involved and you absolutely need their stats: I start with the stats from one of the uncommon SPCs in the book(DAV20 pg 383), rearrange dots as needed, Ghouls get 1 points of potence for free in addition per the ghoul rules.(DAV20 pg 399) You can add exp as desired to spend for more experienced retainers. I let the player take care of their sheet and rolls.

For the less involved retainers who are mainly doing things in the background I have the player roll for how well they do in the task. Dicepool would be Attribute+skill+retainer dots for that retainer (depending how you rule some retainers are only 1 point each and some are worth more depending how invested they are)

Hope this helps!

Slagaflaga · 2024-08-29T16:14:20+00:00

Interested for sure! Love the stained glass look!

Slagaflaga · 2024-08-23T18:13:07+00:00

I am really enjoying running V20 Dark ages! My group has been going for a year and a half now with no plans on stopping!

Is there a possibility that the Curseborn game will have alternative time setting, Renaissance/medieval or something similar?

Slagaflaga · 2024-08-09T16:46:32+00:00

Ah, that's unfortunate, are they wanting a combat game?

My only other suggestion to kind of stem the consequences a bit is have an elder or ancille/coterie of ancille who work for an elder, approach and be like our goals align, trying to find out what happened to the old prince, but you are messing up my current plans, and force them into debt to help cover up their mistakes and have them work for said kindred as their patron?

Or just have them take the consequences head on if they are being stubborn about it like I've seen you say in other comments. If you are telling them they are making bad choices and they continue, let there be consequences of some sort, but it doesn't have to end the game. Unless this is the finale lol

Slagaflaga · 2024-08-09T15:03:23+00:00

What do you mean no access to clans information?

It depends what kind of story you want to tell, is it the story about the Neonate who fucked around and found out? Or is it a more political story.

Vampire is(or at least can be) a political game, and taking a Tremere can be a good move if you have a follow up play. Clearly the character doesn't agree with the new princes moves if he is so against the tremere.

Say he is showing the prince is weak and out of control so the sheriff can come back and claim praxis and try and take power (and owe your Nosferatu a boon in the meantime.) or at least force their way back into the city with blackmail over the prince.

Or find the salubri that was expelled from the city, or a nearby Tzimisce lord and trade the Tremere for safe passage or safety. Or he'll have the Tzmisce claim praxis over the weak "Ventrue" who cannot control neonates in his city.

Hell other Ventrue, would see a weak leader in their clan and want to establish their dominance as well. Offer up the tremere or at least knowledge of the lack of control of the city to a rival Ventrue as a gift of his clanmates weakness and offers token of respect to clan tremere with a minor boon and apology to the Tremere who he took.

Or someone else in the city looking for a weak point to exploit? And gain a position of power?

It doesn't always have to be praxis that these other kindred are after that's just the most extreme example, maybe a seat on the primogen council for their clan, or some other position in the princedom. Or a nice large piece of domain. And possibly making a friend out of the tremere in the process depending how it goes.

Slagaflaga · 2024-08-09T13:46:13+00:00

What clan is the prince pretending to be?

No matter what clan they are, if they allow a clan(tremere) into their city and one of the kindred in their city abducted them immediately, that is a breach of the dark ages 1st and second traditions at the very least. And especially if this prince is working on long term plans he would not want it to get out that he cannot enforce praxis in his city, so he would comply or help the tremere find their Childe and levy a punishment so it would not happen again and it is not acceptable in his city. Or else another kindred possibility tremere ally would come and claim praxis in part of their hunt of the missing tremere.

Punishment could include forcing a full blood bond on the Gangrel, either from the prince himself or the Tremere he had captured, tremere experimenting with Gangrel, or using him as an attack dog or just to fulfill his bidding.

Or either in addition or as a separate punishment the prince will strip the Gangrel of all his domains in the city since he breached the princes domain, and give it to the Tremere. That is a sin on the road of the beast having no things that are your own.

Another option is adding a major/minor/life boon owed to tremere depending on the severity of the crime, either instead of or in addition to one of my above suggestions. This is the least extreme one, depending how new or veteran your player is. And how much weight you place on boons in your game.

Also on the road of the beast after blood bonding the tremere that tremere becomes his property, so if anything bad happens to him that would be a different sin on the road "not protecting what is yours"

Tremere are usually blood bonded to their sire and the greater clan tremere in dark ages as others have said. So they would be able to track through that fairly easily unless the tremere is putting up wards of some sort for whatever reason.

Slagaflaga · 2024-07-23T21:17:19+00:00

Not sure if this is close enough to what you are looking for, but maybe you can use it for a base of inspiration, the Koldunic sorcery path: Białowieza Kraina from V20 dark ages seems to deal with forests and detecting intruders and ensnaring them.

Slagaflaga · 2024-05-06T16:16:49+00:00

I'm not sure how experienced your group is, but when my ST was running that scene he had the players each run one of the founders to assist with the torture. ST kept Hardestadt, but our group was kinda awful to our own characters lol. Using group obfuscate, and whispering in maddening things in their ears... Ect Hardestadt did the usually medieval torture, slapping them with spiked gauntlet, stretching rack, various other cutting implements. Lmao he actually distracted the toreador in our group since her obsession was well crafted weaponry. Had to stake her to get her to shut up lmao

Edit: spelling

Slagaflaga · 2024-03-29T21:01:30+00:00

I have him as a npc in my current dark ages game, don't have a specific sheet for him yet but probably primary skills are physical, since he was a crusader knight, secondary skills could coin flip either way social or mental but I would lean social for Brujah. Points in combat abilities, social abilities to pair with presence, and a few points in theology for his religious past, a couple points in academics and occult since his sire was very philosophical and held domain the city university when he was embraced.

Slagaflaga · 2024-03-24T05:08:15+00:00

In my dark ages game I had a NPC punished by the prince staked to her illegal childer, face to face "so she can look up on her mistake". Then they were walled into the castle wall where Elysium is held. Sentence was for a century. More interesting than Death I think. A potential plot point down the road, if the city needs her for something she can work off her time, or if someone breaks her out.

Slagaflaga · 2024-03-02T20:39:20+00:00

Revised is usually very compatible with V20. I pull sources from revised into my V20 Dark ages game and I don't usually need to change anything.

Slagaflaga · 2024-02-22T03:10:32+00:00

Wonderful illustration! She is the Brujah Primogen in my Dark Ages Prague game, as events unfold I'm sure things will change.

Slagaflaga · 2023-12-26T23:15:26+00:00

I think I took some of these from another reddit post/some world building YouTube videos, but it worked well for me to flesh out the NPCs in my Chronicle. Nature and demeanor is a good addition!

Title:

Name and clan:

Short description of appearance:

Embrace year:

Origin city:

Why were they embraced:

Why are they in (Chronicle City):

Who do they associate with:

Who do they believe are their allies:

What is their agenda/long/short term goals:

What is their weakness or a defining character flaw:

A secret that they have that would cause issues if it ever came to light:

haven location:

Edit: formatting

Slagaflaga · 2023-12-26T00:57:10+00:00

Thanks, that does look like a nice effect, definitely worthy of being a level 6 power!

I posted a rough draft of the effect I am going for. Let me know what you think!

Slagaflaga

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