Resetting Expectations
As we leave edgelord Simon Sinclair behind, let’s reset expectations. Over the time between sessions, Lineage has congealed into something a little more structured than I had originally imagined. That’s fine, since the initial thrust of the game was just to jump into something and figure it out later. Well, here we are. In part, at least. There are two points of clarification.First, I’ve decided to commit to the idea that each new character (as in, primary protagonist player character) introduced to the game will also introduce another new system. Sloppy Simon used the very fast and loose, but very cool, two page Vampires and Claymores. A more fair exploration of that game would have lasted a little longer, so we could see the vampire’s slow decline into the total loss of identity and, subsequently, destruction. I want to be clear, however, that (while I may certainly comment on the mechanics or narrative of a particular game in play) my goal in using it is a selfish one. I certainly hope (as always) that any readers get something from my descriptions of the game systems I use, and/or are inspired to try them out as a result of reading my actual play fiction, but my goal isn’t so much to present and stress test these systems for an audience as it is for me to enjoy fiddling about with various mechanics. I hope that’s okay. I already move slowly, so anything that helps me maintain motivation over time is a boon. Thanks for understanding in advance.
There’s a bit of a wrinkle here. Very small wrinkle, because I am nobody of consequence and, even if I do act as an unofficial playtester, I’m almost assuredly a small one in a sea of plenty. The context is that I wanted to use Elegy as the next system, with the introduction of Anya to the narrative. When I started this game, I bought Elegy in its third edition but (because I move at a frozen snail’s pace) that game has since moved into 4th edition Beta testing. I did ask the creator in their Discord server which I should hew to and they told me 4th. Which only makes sense. So, that means I’ll be playing using a system subject to change. I’ll probably provide critique but then…I would anyway, even if it were an established edition. I’ll almost certainly houserule something (though I am kind of loving the direction the author is headed in with this edition; it seems very smart). Anyway, I just want to be clear where I’m coming from on this.
The second point of clarification is that I’m committing to the Hodgepodge. Before, I said that V:tM was acting as my baseline but I implied (or at least it seems to me to read that way) that I’d be trying to shoehorn other setting narrative into it. Also, my disclaimer was that V:tM lore was pretty vast and I never had too much interest in the metaplot so complainers can stow it. But I don’t actually need that disclaimer if I commit to the Hodgepodge. Imagine it as an oops all vampires parallel universe. The only established lore is whatever I create, so I only have to try to make my game internally consistent with itself. To that end, we can address Elegy’s World Truths to flesh out that structure a little.
The Hodgepodge or, The World of Lineage
Because I may include other vampire games in the future and because the narrative may change over time, the World Truths I set down here are subject to change. But they do give us a starting point.
Origins
The origins of Vampirism are totally unknown and unproven. There’s plenty of compelling evidence for multiple theories, some of them contradictory to one another. Just because a belief is old does not make it inherently true. The Origin Story is something that is still pursued with great fervor, however.
Blights
A vampire’s Blight–their particular weakness–starts when their humanity slips. However, for some people, their humanity slipped long before they became undead and so those people gain Blight immediately upon turning.
Natural Powers
A vampire’s natural powers and blight are influenced by circumstances, usually the ones occurring at or around the time of their turning. Circumstances, in this context, is a broad term. In addition to actual events and forces, it can also refer to personalities, intentions, and states of mind (whether those of the vampire’s progenitor, the newly made vampire, or even others meaningfully involved in the transition).
Courtesy
People (whether supernatural creatures or not) form spiritual affinities with their homes and personal possessions. So much so that the ghosts may become anchored to these “fetters.” To enter another’s home without permission is not only extremely taboo, it is spiritually destabilizing. When a vampire enters any place that shares an affinity with someone else without that person’s permission, they lose 2 clarity. To be clear, affinities are by and large only found in residences, not in public places like businesses, but that doesn’t necessarily always hold true. A private investigator that works all the time and sleeps in his office most nights likely has more affinity with the office than his own apartment.
Factions
I went back and forth on this. If I were playing Elegy only, I might have chosen one. As it is, kitchen sink. There are various political and religious ideologies, groups with specific goals, allies of temporary convenience, ancient secret societies, and (sure) clan lineages. Everyone’s got an angle. I will say I think that there aren’t any inherent claims on characters here. In V:tM, for example, clans have a pretty strong hold over the individual. I’m choosing to view them here more like real life blood relatives. I recognize one’s family can hold a great deal of sway over them but I find, for most of us, that is still a choice we make.
Governance
I appreciate the feminist pushback here. In Masquerade, a Prince is always called a Prince and never a Princess. Anyway, I’m fine with the Blade approach. I think Monarchs used to be a thing in the past but in modern nights, the few Monarchs that still exist are largely figureheads. Now, cities are controlled by a Council of Elders. I think each Elder is drawn from the cream of the crop of a particular district. Let’s say, by tradition, Councils are formed of 12 members and thus cities usually have 12 districts. There is real world symbolism in this choice but I’m doing it because of Blade (which likely made its choice based on that real world symbolism anyway). This would be different from Blade because those 12 Elders are drawn from global clans. Our 12 Elders would just be drawn from the city’s individual elite.
Hunting Territory
I can’t imagine how anything but "wherever they have access” would be any fun or make a lot of sense. I can foresee the Elders passing temporary feeding restriction Edicts, but I can’t imagine “feed like Louis de Pointe du Lac” would be the established norm. For example, after the explosion in our story, I imagine a lot of unwanted attention is on the former Elysium and no doubt whatever is left of the Council has decreed that no vampire in the city shall feed anywhere remotely close to the site for quite some time to come. When the heat dies down, I imagine that restriction would be lifted. What matters is maintaining the masquerade. Also note, I used V:tM terms (Prince, Primogen) in those Sinclair Sessions. If I never go back and change them, let this note stand that (at least some of) those titles have been retroactively changed (Monarch, Elder).
Sunlight
It’s ash, it’s fire and ash. Right? Why are we talking about this? I think maybe it’s not an immediate final death but you’re gonna burn hot and fast.
District City Access
Not being able to move around freely in a city strikes me as goofy and antithetical to the fantasy. However, I do like the idea of building off of the “affinity” narrative I presented under "Courtesy." I think one develops affinity with one’s home city in the same way they do their residence, just on a broader, thinner scale. Instead of suffering any mechanical penalties for entering another city without the invitation of its Monarch, Council, or someone of public note, I think one suffers a narrative penalty. Wherever one travels within the city, they feel as though they are being watched or chased through the darkness. It’s an unwelcome anxiety that sits heavy and does not retreat until they leave the city or gain an invitation to be there. From a social standpoint, the taboo is as strict as the “tradition” of respecting an invitation into another’s home.
Vampire Hunters
Hunters are uncommon but organized. Standard middle ground pick here. Look, I think the Second Inquisition of 5th ed Masquerade breathed life into the extremely stagnant 3rd ed setting but I also think they overcorrected and made SI almost as oppressive. I like the Hunter setting well enough (as of this writing, I mean the old one because I haven’t read the new one yet) but I dig other fiction’s hunters far, far more. Supernatural is a top 3 show for me (though I’m not necessarily leaning in that direction here). I want hunters to be enough of a threat that I can use them as antagonists if I want but I don’t have to feel like the whole story revolves around a secret war with them.
Other Supernaturals
I get why three of them are their own Truth categories but, honestly, it feels like a bit much. The game is about vampires…as much as I love and will likely end up veering toward Urban Fantasy myself. So we’ll just say, for now, they’re all uncommon but present. And if we’re going to include werewolves, fey, and witches, we may as well include ghosts, mummies, demons and angels too. Or, more accurately, other supernaturals are out there. If we encounter them, we encounter them. If we don’t, I guess it was just stories all along.
The City
As for the specific city we’re playing in, I think I’d like to make it an equally fictional hodgepodge. We’ll call it Saint Barnabus. There’s a tenuous web of very trivial, almost connections here that accounts for my choice. Let me tell you about it. I’ll be brief.
I, personally, have a weird amount of almost but not quite connections to the city of Minneapolis and, by association, of course, its twin city St. Paul. A couple of my friends are from there or moved there, some game industry folks I admire are from there, and I almost moved there myself to pursue certain job opportunities. When I was very young and stupid, I got roped into doing a magazine sales thing. Turned out to be a scam but don’t worry, I never sold anything and I left soon after I joined. In any case, I joined in Indianapolis and was part of the group when they moved, suddenly, to Minneapolis. I was stuck in a hotel room a short distance away from the Mall of America, which I never got to see. That trip almost killed me. I won’t go into why here but know that I almost joined the ranks of the undead. So nothing solid, nothing super meaningful. Just trivial connections.
Additionally, I’m not far from Gary, Indiana and I’ve been almost on top of Indy my whole life. Gary, of course, is famous for inspiring the Masquerade’s creators on their way to GenCon. I believe the convention was held in Milwaukee at the time but it’s held in Indy now. I recently started reading the Masquerade comics. Winter’s Teeth, it turns out, takes place in St. Paul.
So, another story. When I was in highschool, I attended a rural backwater. I made the mistake of bringing the Masquerade book to school with me to read. Understand, at the time, I wasn’t being bullied and I wasn’t an outcast anymore. I was just a nice, quiet kid. I was fairly well liked by more than a few people. I had finally started to figure the social thing out. But the book was a misstep. I had my nose in it all day, so I was completely oblivious to the nonsense going on in the background, which involved a bunch of the less stable country kids driving themselves into an hysteria. I gather some of the jocks were throwing girls into lockers and pretending to bite them. One kid had told people he was going to go outside to sharpen stakes so he could stab me. The principal called the sheriff and I got called to the office to talk about my reading habits. Sheriff took one look at me, literally laughed in the principal’s face, and left. Real goofy shit. Anyway, after the incident, I went over to a friend’s house to hang out after school and met his dad for the first time, who laughingly greeted me as “Barnabus Collins.” Which I found funny, because it was, but also because I was a fan of Dark Shadows as a kid.
So I wanted a Saint’s name for my fake city. Couldn’t say why, it just sounded vampiric. I looked up a list of Saints and came across Saint Barnabus. And who, does it turn out, Barnabus used to hang out with? Well, St. Paul, of course. These are all just words. It feels weird to not mention how many of our eyes have been drawn to Minneapolis in recent days but the point of my little ramble was to connect a bunch of disparate elements in that goofy, tinfoil hat kind of way. The real events in that city are anything but trivial.
So, to answer the book’s limited questions about our city. I think it was part of, or adjacent to, the Rust Belt, somewhere in that upper midwestern region of the States, and originally involved in Steel production. Founded in 1899, we’ll say. It got hit when Steel declined but, unlike certain other cities, managed to pivot and revitalize its economy. I’m inclined to think they embraced the entertainment industry but there might have been other industries it was still able to embrace (owing to not being cut off from major transportation routes in the same way as certain other declining cities). I think the revitalization efforts have been taking place since the 60s but haven’t been amazingly successful. They have succeeded, but very slowly. The climate is humid continental and I’m thinking it sits on Lake Michigan (somewhere in one of those states), so it is affected by lake effect. I’m an English speaker, so I’ll use that as the primary language but I like the idea of other languages being markedly present. In terms of highlights, I think the city lures folks in with its entertainment districts. There are a lot of casinos, riverboat or land based, surrounding the Lake. I hear Gary recently tried to revitalize using them, so I imagine something similar going on here. I can flesh it out more later, maybe. Ugly side of the city? I can’t think of anything specific. But it seems like it's one of those “nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there” kind of cities. Touristy, high crime rate, maybe a little more expensive than it should be.
Now that we have some infrastructure, let’s build Anya Brandt.
Anya Brandt, Firebrand
Step 1: Background
I think Anya was an administrative assistant, up until she got unfairly fired. She was friendly, warm, and authentic and I think these traits saw her through many social situations. In life, I imagine her as a bit of a people pleaser. She loved people and was usually willing to see the best in them even when she should have been more cautious. We’ll go with Empathetic, which will be Empathy with the second feat (which I’ll call Accuracy).
Step 2: Turning
We’ve seen this bit. Her progenitor is, was, Simon Sinclair. Anya has not been a vampire for several years, she’s been a vampire for several minutes. Her real and apparent age are both 23.
Step 3: Survival
The first thing I want to do is homebrew a “Flames” Gift. The circumstances of her turning, according to my world truths, demand fire powers. There is precedent for it. In the Masquerade, the Tremere had a Thaumaturgy path called Lure of Flames. Now, it wasn’t particularly imaginative. All it did, if memory serves, was create small to large fires (as you gained dots). We’re not going to be significantly more creative here but I do want something a little more versatile. Pardon me while I take some liberties with de Oliveira’s formatting and organization.
Hellfire
You have the rare ability to summon and manipulate Hellfire. Fire is anathema to the undead. Hellfire is worse. Your own Hellfire can never harm you. This protection is extended to anything you wear or carry. Any Hellfire that leaves your body, after it does its initial damage, converts to regular fire (which can harm you). Whenever you use one of this Gift’s Feats, roll with Soul. On a failure, you may spend 1 Blood to reroll any dice.
- Summon Hellfire. You can cause any part of your body, clothing, or held object to burst into flames. In combat, mark progress an additional number of times (up to the number of dots you have in Hellfire).
- Walk Through Fire. You can mitigate 1 damage from another Hellfire source or up to your dots in damage from regular fire. If you mitigate Hellfire, lose 1 Blood.
- Flamethrower. [Requires Summon Hellfire]. As Summon Hellfire, except you can hurl fireballs at or cause anything within a short distance to combust. At one dot in Hellfire, your range is about 50 yards. At two dots, your range increases to 500 yards. At three dots, your range is unlimited as long as the target is in line of sight.
- Purification. [Requires 2 Dots]. You can burn away impurities from your mind and body. Remove any temporary or reverse any permanent mind altering effect that has been placed on you, remove any Clarity related condition, or remove any Health related condition. For each effect or condition burned away, lose 1 Blood.
- Mindfire. [Requires Purification]. Your enemies cannot escape your punishing gaze. Envision a number of sins (up to the number of dots you have in Hellfire) that stain your target’s memories and spirit. Create a Progress Track with a Rank equal to the NPC’s Rank. This is your roadmap to their sins. You may lose 1 Blood and mark progress for each sin you uncover. You may attempt to complete the Track at any time after its creation (thus, you may leave it open and chip away at it over time). To complete the Track, roll Hellfire as normal (except only add your progress boxes, your Soul attribute, and any Blood you wish to spend as bonuses). On a Stylish Success, you place a mortal into a comatose state or a creature into torpor for a number of hours equal to the progress boxes on the Track. If you have 10 boxes on a Stylish Success only, you may incinerate their mind entirely. On a Flat Success, this time is in minutes. On a Failure, their sins become your sins and you gain full memory of them as though you had committed them yourself. Take 1 Clarity or Conscience condition for each sin envisioned (remember that a higher ranked NPC has a lot more sins packed into each box). Any leftover sins can be paid for with a loss of 1 from any status (Health, Clarity, Blood, Mask, or Rush). Anything leftover after that must be paid by removing 1 XP per sin and anything purchased with it.
For Hellfire, I’ll take Summon Hellfire as her Feat. For her two other Gifts, I’ll take Control with the third feat (which I’ll call Temporary Suggestion) and Vision with the first feat (which I’ll call Aura). The author doesn’t name these Feats, by the way, and I understand why given the expansive number of them. Numbering them might be an okay way of identifying them but you might run aground of a cognitive bias where players feel like they have to take feats in order instead of according to prerequisites because they’re presented in an ordered list. I don’t know what the solution is, from a game design standpoint, but it suits my purposes just fine to give them names.
Now I need to pick an Aspect which represents how she’s surviving in undeath. This’ll have to be either previous life skills or an instinctive means of hunting because she hasn’t had the opportunity to become involved with vampiric society yet. I think Anya took Judo self-defense classes offered through a friend’s gym after her boss harassed her and cost her her job. She was shit at it but understands the techniques well enough. Now, with blood powering her supernatural strength and speed, those grabs and throws are suddenly a lot more effective. Let’s call the Aspect Kenkyu-sei, which will be Fighting with the first feat (which I’ll call Grappler).
We don’t know where her Home is yet. We’ll just have to find out if she can make it to ground before the sun rises. Sure hope so, I feel like I’ve put in a lot of work for one session with her.
Step 4: Assigning Attributes
Body -1, Mind 0, Charm 0, Soul +1
I see Anya as having become self-possessed.
Step 5: Identity
Anya has a vaguely goth/punk aesthetic. No white face paint or anything too extreme, just a general vibe made of a petite frame in dark hose under a black, chained skirt, a band t-shirt under a black short leather jacket, lots of jangly jewelry and piercings, and black hair styled in an asymmetrical bob with a side shave. At least, outside of work. When she was alive, she was quiet but friendly and warm. Depressed, but still pleasant to be around. Dead, she’s more intense. She’s got an odd gleam in her eye now and she’s much more engaged with and interested in her surroundings.
She has no possessions, apart from the clothes on her back.
Step 6: Connections
I am to create two connections. However, one of them is my progenitor. And, oops, he’s dead. So I’ll do one other. This’ll be Lilya, the Witch.
Borrowing from The Originals (which is a very funny phrase to write), I think St. Barnabus has a large witch population. They’re a significant supernatural superfaction in the city but they’ve managed to integrate much more openly. At best, most ordinary mortals see them as harmless crystal and tarot loving hippies and at worst, some mortals confuse their rich sense of community for cultish vibes. Our witches here will be very similar to the witches presented in Elegy. Where Elegy presents them as power-collecting wizards, however, I will turn their focus to the more sacred communal piety. All witches belong to their Coven but the Coven also belongs to them. Alive or dead, they all contribute their energies to a communal well of power. There’s a kind of hierarchy at play where experience and wisdom are venerated, so the eldest witches (particularly the longest dead) exert a great deal of authority and guidance. Where I will differ from The Originals is that the dead witches don’t really form a collective board of directors that holds all the magical power (cool as that dynamic was). It makes more sense to do that if the Coven members involved can willfully withhold power (because, at some point, there are going to be a lot more dead folks than live ones). I don’t want witches to be enslaved to their Covens, though, so we’ll call this a generally voluntary arrangement. You’re in or you’re out but if you’re in, you’re all the way in.
Now, Lilya will be an established witch. I don’t like the staggered, preferential supernatural creatures thing Elegy does (keep in mind Elegy actively encourages you to make these kinds of changes to suit your Truths), so I’m just going to use the idea behind the Ranking scale and not the actual descriptors. Here, in St. Barnabus, our strongest witches are every bit as powerful and scary as any ancient vamp or high fey. We’ll place Lilya at Rank 2, then, as an Affection: Friend. I think Anya and Lilya grew up as childhood friends, say, from middle school on. Elegy instructs us to make this connection opposite (in terms of relationship type) to the progenitor, to create balance. If one is a professional connection, the other is emotional. But since we’ve gone and tossed all that out of the window with our dead sire, Lilya can be whatever. That did get me thinking that Anya and Lilya could be generally opposites in terms of personality, though. As mortals, anyway. Where Anya was on the straight and narrow and eventually became a professional working adult, I think Lilya was a bit more of an emotional wild child. While she mellowed in adulthood and her formal induction into her Coven, Anya (for all the love she has for her friend) has still always thought of Lilya as being a fairly unserious person, though kind and compassionate. Flighty, sometimes shallow and self-involved, more concerned with plants and animals than with serious business people problems. I don’t think Lilya is unserious, though, and I don’t think Anya was ever really privy to the deeper undercurrent that runs through her and her connection to witchhood. I think their connection has become strained in adulthood, pulled apart by differing choices and attitudes.
Step 7: Finishing Touches
I set my Max Rush at 10, my Base Rush at 2, and my Current Rush to 2.
I set my Health, Clarity, and Mask to 5.
I set my Blood to 4.
And with that, we’re ready.
Next: Session 4
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