The Value of Trying Something New

Over the past few years, I’ve been pretty much locked into a standard pattern of games mostly revolving around Mage: the Awakening and Legend of the Five Rings. Both are excellent games, and are certainly worth playing, but I think I’ll need to figure out if changing my usual focus will help me improve in directions that I don’t usually take.

I think if anything I’ve learned that my Social/Political games are pretty involved, so maybe it’s time I lean slightly away from those. The current game I’m looking to work on is a Supers campaign, but I’m still not sold if I’m going to expand it to a full-length campaign just yet.

While that’s going on, I’ve taken to the habit of going over my collection of PDF books, some of which I’ve already mentioned in yesterday’s post about Games I Ought to Run. Upon further review, maybe I should force myself to run games that I found to be either too difficult or too arcane the last time.

Push myself further, in a manner of speaking.

So I’ve been taking a look at some of the games that have traditionally been giving me some trouble. Either with concept or getting a game off the ground. I’ll see if I can document the process of planning as well once I successfully sling a pitch to my players as well.

I don’t have a list of games as of yet, but already some of the early shoe-ins for this will be Geist: the Sin Eaters and Hunter: the Vigil but also some of the older classics like Werewolf: the Forsaken or Vampire: the Requiem.

[Vampire: the Requiem] DriveThruRPG Sale Until November 1st

Whether you’re a fan of White Wolf’s Vampire: the Requiem and you’re looking to fill out your collection, or if you’re a curious newcomer to the World of Darkness, the latest sale on Vampire: the Requiem PDFs on DriveThruRPG is something that you should pay close attention to.

All of the Vampire: the Requiem PDFs are on discount right now, with the corebook going for a mere $15.74 (Php 670.00) and many of the supplements going for far less than that.

Being the most popular flagship of the World of Darkness, Vampire: the Requiem makes for excellent personal horror gaming, with issues of morality, depravity and all sorts of disturbing detail that work to make Vampires scary again.

 

[Gaming 101] Games to Start With Part 2: Horror

Next to Fantasy, Horror has to be one of the most popular genres for Roleplaying games. In today’s installment for Games to Start With, we’ll take a look at the games focused on the creepy and horrifying.

Call of Cthulhu by Chaosium
If you haven’t heard of H.P. Lovecraft, then you have some serious catching up to do. Call of Cthulhu is one of the most revered and well respected horror roleplaying games in history. Aside from having an incredibly rich tradition of horror literature to draw from, the game’s Sanity system ensures that nobody survives an encounter with evil without developing a few derangements.

Trail of Cthulhu by Pelgrane Press
If the classic Cthulhu experience sounds a little dry, then perhaps the newer Trail of Cthulhu game will be more up your alley. Powered by the Gumshoe system, the game focuses less on being able to find clues and more on what to do with them. Pelgrane has some terrific support for this line, and you can’t really go wrong with this pick either.

World of Darkness by White Wolf Publishing
Perhaps the most popular horror game series in recent times, the World of Darkness puts players in a world similar to ours, but where things hide in the shadows and prey upon humanity. The default of the game has players take the role of ordinary people who have had a glimpse of the supernatural and need to survive it (like the protagonists vs. Sadako in The Ring.) But the line truly shines when it starts getting into the supernatural games, where the aspect of Personal Horror becomes clear when the players take on the role of the monsters themselves, as you’ll see in the games below.

Vampire: the Requiem by White Wolf Publishing
The most popular of the World of Darkness supernaturals, Vampire: the Requiem is an unrelenting look into the vampires of the World of Darkness. It’s vicious, ugly and horrifying, and there’s nothing sparkly about the vampires here. Some enthusiasts have likened it to The Sopranos with fangs, where the politics of the undead take center stage and the struggle for power is eternal. (Requires the World of Darkness Corebook to play)

Werewolf: the Forsaken by White Wolf Publishing
Predator and Prey, the Werewolves of the World of Darkness are live a life of constant struggle for survival. Tasked with an ancient duty to police the spirit world and mortal realm from incursions from both sides, the Werewolves live lives of terrifying violence and constantly ride the razor’s edge between fury and sanity. (Requires the World of Darkness Corebook to play)

Mage: the Awakening by White Wolf Publishing
What would you do if you had the power to change reality? Players take on the role of Mages, ordinary people who have been blessed or cursed with the ability to see beyond the boundaries of this false reality. Much like the protagonists of the Matrix, Mages have been made aware of a higher reality and can no longer close their eyes to the unreal horrors that creep in from the cracks of this fallen world.  Mages are cursed with knowledge and hubris in equal measure, and the world shudders at the tragedy that follows in their wake. (Requires the World of Darkness Corebook to play)

Changeling: the Lost by White Wolf Publishing
Players take on the role of humans who have been abducted by the Gentry to the realm of Arcadia, home of the Fae. In their terrifying period of capture they are twisted and transformed, turned into something no longer human. They are the Changelings, and their escape from Arcadia was no easy feat, but now that they’re free, they must constantly remain vigilant against the jealous Keepers who want them back. (Requires the World of Darkness Corebook to play)

Hunter: the Vigil by White Wolf Publishing
Something happened, and you know it wasn’t some freak accident that took her away from you. The players take on the role of Hunters, humans who have seen the supernatural and have taken steps to take back the night. Desperate and perhaps more than a little crazy, the Hunters live a lonely life of struggle to find closure by killing the monsters that shattered their normal lives. (Requires the World of Darkness Corebook to play)

There’s more to the World of Darkness, with Promethean: the Created, Geist: the Sin-Eaters and the upcoming Mummy: the Curse but I feel that the above titles are the strongest in the line so far.

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That’s it for my initial batch, next week we’ll look at another genre: Sci-Fi

If you’re interested in picking up any of these in hardcover, you can order them directly from Gaming Library.

To place an order, please go to Gaming Library’s special order express page : http://www.gaminglib.com/pages/special-order-express-page

Take note that placing an order there doesn’t mean you’re committed, rather the Gaming Library team will be giving a quote and you can now choose whether to push through with the purchase or not.

[Let's Study V:tR] The Ordo Dracul

Nothing is permanent, even Damnation

In the eyes of the Ordo Dracul, the vampiric state is but a phase in what is ultimately an evolution of their kind to something else, something far greater.  One of the youngest of the Covenants, the Ordo Dracul are a forward thinking and admittedly optimistic society dedicated towards transcendence, or perhaps even Apotheosis.

Claiming descent from the legendary Vlad Tepes himself, the Ordo Dracul embraces their founder’s struggles against God, with the use of vicious and relentless experimentation to find ways to circumvent the nature of His curse.  In some ways they represent a philosophy that God cannot stand against the will, and a truly determined Ordo Dracul vampire will find a way to overcome.

The Ordo Dracul count some of the most brilliant minds of Kindred Society among their number, perhaps because the Ordo Dracul’s key philosophy is one that fits the very nature of experimentation.  Their organization is a strange one, a melding of Victorian-era secret societies and mystery cults with the structure of the the academe.  It is a meritocracy of sorts, mostly centered on a Kindred’s advancement along the Coils of the Dragon, a series of “cheats” that allow a vampire to alter the nature of their vampiric curse, allowing them to become more efficient at the consumption of blood, or even withstand limited exposure to sunlight.

The Ordo is not afraid of experimentation, and hold the act of observation and understanding through many years of experience to be key in their ability to survive.  Despite the fact that they are among the youngest of the Covenants, they are cold, calculating and methodical and use these characteristics to their advantage when it comes to any sort of conflict.

There’s always a better way

The Ordo Dracul understand that transcending the vampiric curse is something that isn’t about to happen overnight.  Nevertheless the gains made by improving upon the Coils of the Dragon have been bandied about as proof that they are on the right track.  This is profoundly disturbing to most of the other Covenants, particularly the Lancea Sanctum who hold the vampiric curse as their lot according to God.

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I must admit that after reading all the 5 main Covenants in Vampire: the Requiem, I can’t help but get a strong Mage: the Awakening vibe from the Ordo Dracul.  They’re cursed, but refuse to see it as a permanent state.  They work with remarkable determination and their zeal for experimentation (at whatever unholy cost) tends to breed all sorts of horror and “progress.”  Weaker-willed vampires will probably give up, or recoil at the depths at which the Ordo Dracul will explore in order to find their answers, and that’s just the way the Ordo probably like it.

If I were to choose a second Covenant after Invictus, the Ordo Dracul makes a very compelling case for a character I’d enjoy playing.  If anything, I can also see them working very well in crossover games that deal with the other supernaturals, especially against Mages.

[Let's Study V:tR] The Lancea Sanctum

My, what good little demons we are.

The Lancea Sanctum are a Covenant of vampires who adhere to the words of the Testament of Longinus, a spiritual take on the vampiric curse that paints the damned as not as lost souls, but demons with a purpose.  To the Lancea Sanctum, the vampires are indeed cast out from the sight of God, but they are not without purpose in His Divine Plan.  To the Sanctified, they are those chosen to be agents of God’s displeasure, his very wrath made manifest.

To the Sanctified, his very existence is dedicated towards furthering the goals of God.  He is an instrument, preying upon the sinful mortals to bring them in line with God’s will, while also adhering to the tenants of the faith.  This sort of near-zealous self-justification of what is technically cold-blooded murder is what makes them frightening to the other Covenants, as they seem to take it as the most natural of processes.  Even those of the bizarre cults of the Circle of the Crone acknowledge that life itself is somewhat worthy of respect, but the Sanctified will take a life without question.

That said, the Lancea Sanctum holds quite a lot of clout among vampires.  Their faith is a powerful one, and is often the only sense of morality that a young, newly embraced vampire can come to terms with.  Many Vampires who were spiritual in their mortal lives gravitate to this, finding some small measure of peace in the idea that they are somehow still part of the Divine Plan, regardless of how far they’ve fallen.

However, the Lancea Sanctum also an ambitious Covenant, as it seeks to address the issue that there are still vampires that are not of the faith.  To them, such vampires are misguided at best, and heretical at worse.  As such the Lancea Sanctum is the one that causes some of the most tensions among all the Covenants as they will actively seek out to convert other vampires to their faith.  They may not necessarily push the vampire into joining their Covenant, per se, but many vampires would rather pay lip service to the Lancea Sanctum rather than be forced to convert or die at the hands of the Lancea’s most ardent followers.

Wolves Among Sheep

The Lancea Sanctum posit an interesting moral code.  As the damned, they occupy a strange niche in the spiritual food chain.  Much like fallen angels, they prey upon humanity and serve God in doing so.  They are the self-styled necessary evil for those who are weak in faith to find a reason to believe in God and pray for his protection.  It is an interesting philosophy, to be honest and one that I can see working.  Vampires cling to such a spirituality with the desperation of the dying, as it gives them some semblance of purpose.  Little wonder then that they strive to prove all the other vampires wrong, just to silence the doubt in their hearts.

Miracles of the Damned

Of all the Covenants, the Lancea Sanctum practice a strange form of magic known as Theban Sorcery.  This is often used as proof of the Lancea Sanctum’s holy nature, capable of calling upon such miracles as a sign that they are in fact doing God’s will.  To their credit the powers often do manifest as divine miracles and require a sacrament in the form of an offering and faith in the form of a point of Willpower to cast.  The spells themselves take on a biblical tone, causing people to speak in tongues or suffers from other forms of curses.

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The Lancea Sanctum is a Covenant that has many strong Catholic undertones.  It’s heretical, yes, but draws strongly from the narrow-minded view of the Church during the Dark Ages.  It makes sense in some crazy desperate way, considering that the Vampires can’t exactly say that they’re exalted over mankind in the usual sens that most zealous religions use because they very well know that they’ve got the short end of the stick.  That said, Vampires who are plagued with doubt and guilt will no doubt find the Lancea Sanctum to be quite able to soothe their troubled consciences in the eternal night.