Pitch: Vampire: the Revolution

Originally published September 22, 2014

Another post in my continuing series of campaign ideas. This week I want to look at a game that one half reaction to most of the Vampire games I've been a part of and one half taking Vampire: the Requiem's toolkit to an extreme level. As always, let me know if anything sounds like something you would like to hear more about.

The Revolution

Source of much inspiration for this.

You have been dragged into a world of monsters, a world of ancient vampires and their disposable pawns, a world where you must live on the edges of society tormented by the Beast inside you and your fellow monsters who seek to use you. But the Revolution is on its way, the scent of ashes is in the air. The old order is doomed. Can you make it through the fires?

Concept: Mixing classic World of Darkness aesthetics with new World of Darkness customization dialed up to 11. In addition I am including a credible rebel faction, in other words something more viable and interesting than the disorganized Anarchs or bland Carthians. Ignore them as weaklings at your own risk.

Themes:

• Blood rules all. You can only trust those of your blood: your sire, your childer, those of your bloodline, those bloodbond to you, your clan. Maybe in that order, maybe not. The key thing is vampire society is organized around blood ties instead of covenant.
• A corrupt order ready for the flames. The elders of the city have ruled too long and become complacent, decadent and flaunting the rules they themselves put in place. Their enemies, the dispossessed neonates, the clanless, the chidler of their childer who have no place in society, have begun to organize. They may not agree on what should replace the old order but they have plans.
• Man verses Beast. Though the city hangs in the balance, this is a chronicle about individual vampires, newly embraced neonates, struggling to come to grips with the monsters they have become while the old order burns down around them. Can they protect those they love from their enemies? From themselves? What is the Beast really? Can they fight it?
• Strange dead. Embracing the weirdest aspects of both versions of World of Darkness, the clans and covenants include some of the most odd examples: memory stealing corpses, the ever popular Nosferatu, blood sorcery, Antediluvians, Strix, and even stranger forces.

Clans: With blood being more important than covenant, I want to make clan something more customizable. In addition to the clans mentioned below, the players can and should suggest several more clans for inclusion in the game. These can be clans from classic or new World of Darkness, bloodlines elevated to clan status, or wholly new creations. These would then be options for the PCs to belong to or oppose.

• Rules: each clan must have three clan Disciplines, one of which should be a physical discipline. Each clan should also have a good weakness.
• Base Clans: Daeva, decadent socialites and social manipulators; Nosferatu, the tunnel dwelling masters of fear; and Venture, the old money of the city and mansions full of skeletons.
• Catiff: as an option, a vampire can belong to no clan. They have no favored clan disciplines and no specific weakness. This is the default state for new vampires unless they are brought into a clan by their sire. A Catiff who has a sponsor can join a clan at a later time.
• Other Clan Ideas: memory eaters who live permanently obscured, daywalkers who lack many vampiric advantages, blood sorcerers, undead hive vampires.

Covenants: As clan rules over political ties, the covenants have been reduced to cults and secret orders within the overarching system of government. This government system is roughly an Invictus-style Camarilla, devoted to ruling humans from the shadows and keeping the elders in power. The covenants are distrusted by the powers that be but offer vampire society a release for societal pressures or routes to secret power. As with clans, players should feel free to suggest new groups to include.

• Anarchs: These rebels spend almost as much time arguing about what will come after the revolution as they do working towards it. They do have a plan for the latter however and too many plans for the former. Will the Revolution be in the style of American or French?
• The Mother’s Army: this apocalyptic cult is devoted to the blood goddess who they seek to wake from her ancient slumber. Skilled in blood sorcery and aided by the Antediluvians, ancient vampires said to be her children, this cult is powerful due to their zeal and magic. But they risk destroying everything.
• The Ordo: Straddling the line between science and magic, this organization attempts to overcome the weaknesses of the vampiric condition and learn its deepest secrets. A small sect with limited resources, they are sheltered by the elders who seek to profit from their studies.
• The Society of the Accord: rebels who seek to deal with the Beast by indulging it to excess. This counter-culture is disdained by all but tolerated by the elders who see it as a useful means to control the young.
• Other Possibilities: religious group exalting vampires as servants of God, a cult devoted to the God-Machine, a secret organization of vampiric vampire hunters known only as the VII.

Variants

While the default assumption is "punk", characters in the lowest rung of vampire society trying to scrape by, there are a few other options:

• Leaders of the Revolution: Rather than be pulled by the tide of the revolution, you lead it. As the elite members of the Anarchs or the Accord you try to organize the rebellious neonates into a force capable of taking down the elders of the city. The city is ripe for revolt. The question is not whether it will succeed but how. Will you make your vision reality? Or will you become as corrupt as those you replace?
• Childer of Privilege: You were sired by the highest ranks of vampire society: the Prince and the Primogen, the eldest and most powerful vampires in the city. You were Embraced to be their tools and toys, given little freedom in what you can and can't do. Despite any sympathy you have for overturning the old order, the leaders of the revolution despised you for your “status”. You have everything to lose in the revolt: your safety, your patrons, your unlives. And if it fails, you can also forget any hope at freedom.
• Lost in the Shadows: Between the elders and the neonates are the ancilla, middle managers and pawns of the elders. But in a society where no one ever dies, there is also no opportunity to advance up the ladder. While the members of the revolution have nothing to lose, you do. But you also have so much to gain. If the revolt works, can you leverage your position to win a place in the society that emerges? Or can you help crush the revolt after it has cleared out of the ranks above you?