Around about Christmas I ran a two-session game of Vampire: Dark Ages. Playing we had a mixed bag.
John Wilson (not terrificly keen on Vampire) who was playing a Gangrel from Fife. Shannon (over here at university and more a D&D and MMORPG/WOW player) was playing a Malkavian from Edinburgh. Shannon's boyfriend Paul (a real D&D/WOD lover) was playing a Toreador from France.
The game was set in Edinburgh in about 1300.
First, I'll throw up my overview comments that I made shortly afterwards. Then I'll write up each session. Then i'm hoping I can reflect on what went on.
So, overall notes (edited from original post on mon l-jay).
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Overall, I think the game was fun, and I had a good time for sure. However, it gave me a lot to think on with how most Vampire-hungry players play, and how I play now compared with how I played when I did a lot of Vampire. I think it worked out real well considering that there was a mixture of playing styles between the three players (I got a kick out of the fluffy ditherer -- John -- playing the be-clawed Gangrel). And it had the legs to sustain our interest for the story and it was a kick-ass ending.
I also did some things that got interesting reactions from the players in and out of character. Was it illusionism? I don't think so as I tried to take the attitude that I had no investment in the NPCs, which is unlike almost every Vampire game I've played. I think that was partly the reason that the PCs ended up squarely as the focus.
I kinda prodded John by having his Gangrel's claws disappear at one point (hey John, scene's over) that got a response out of him. That was interesting. It was utterly my call as GM to say "nah, they've gone, but you can pop them again if you want". The rub was that in his head he still had them.
I used some techniques that in another world would be "bangs" I guess. The a-hole retainer gets sired. And it didn't start with kickers per se. They were GM authored but I thought they were an interesting way to get everyone in game, and involved in potential conflict. [Most of the first session was character generation and I wove a pretty good tale to get them all together.]
I liked the Malkavian and the "drift" that Shannon gave the the Malk (a Toreador at times and a Gangrel at others). Quite significantly drifted from the book as written, and potentially something that would put the nose of other players out of joint (since it's a significant drift from the book). But we were all cool with it as it was for dramatic purpose and not for mechanical advantage. Mostly Vampire defaults to players seeking mechanical advantage though... even when they say they don't.
But I thought the personalities worked really well in creating our story. The randomness worked too.
I like to think that I played to Paul's interests in the game world and hit his buttons too, as he was pretty much a straight up WOD fan.
Considering my lack of history I thought I bluffed OK (now that I check wikipedia!). [Robert the Bruce makes an appearance later...]
