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So getting the itch to storytell my first game, I have decided that I am brave/foolish enough to give the Giovanni Chronicles a try. If enough people are interested I'd like to give it a go.
Description
Spoiler
The year is 1444. The characters live lives appropriate for their station, be they noble or peasant, merchant or thief. Their daily routines are interrupted when they are greeted by a servant with an invitation...
"The honor of your company
is most respectfully requested
for a late dinner at the home of
LORD CLAUDIUS GIOVANNI,
EARL OF STAVLACHIA
the Fourth Day of April,
the Year of Our Lord 1444.
A coach will be send round
to collect you and provide
all necessary traveling
arrangements for the feast.
Do not arrive early."
The characters all accept the invitation, be it out of curiosity, ambition, or fear, and began traveling towards the manor.
Other information
Spoiler
System: OWOD, The 20th edition of Vampire with some minor Dark Age Vampire elements mixed in
Players wanted: Depends on how many are interested. I'd like at least three. Realistically, I can't see me taking more than five or six, but we'll see what works depending on the number and quality of the applications, and my confidence that I can provide you all with a fun experience.
Style of Play: Largely role-play focused, with occasional combat and other dice rolling. I'm big on giving players freedom, so I'll try to work your personal quests and such into the story. If you want to go in sword swinging to every challenge encountered, I won't stop you. But you might not live long. :)
Players roll their own dice, using the forum dice roller. If wanted I may occasionally roll for players, mostly if they need to soak damage from an attack.
Allowed Content: We'll be using V20 rules, with a few minor changes, explained below. Besides the Giovanni, which don't yet exist, all 12 major clans will have one slot be available for play.
Character Creation: All characters will start as mortals living in or close to Northern Romania. Characters need to buy at least one point in the Language merit to be able to read and write in their native tongue. Every point after that doubles the amount of languages they know, up to 16 if five points are put into the merit.
Characters should be created using the standard Dark ages template, with a few noted differences. Kindred start with four discipline dots, not three. All characters will become vampires at 7th generation, so the Generation background is prohibited from being bought. If you like, feel free to buy your disciplines now, but of course they will not take effect until the actual embrace. Finally, Put no dots into Linguistics. This remains a merit. 1 point is needed in it to read and write your language,e very point after that doubles your languages. If the game gets far enough, the empty Linguistics skill will be replaced with science, but it's not really applicable now.
Tremere's a good choice. Our current game is my first real experience with them. They're probably my 3rd or 4th favorite clan too. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
I'm not really familiar with Dark Ages, but if there are any changes in particular you like I'd certainly consider them.
Actually, I think I'm looking for something modern right now. Also, I'm not really up to learning the old rules right now. So I'll withdraw my interest.
I'm not really familiar with Dark Ages, but if there are any changes in particular you like I'd certainly consider them.
Well on rules DA:V is closer to VtM Revised then VtM 20, which made a bunch more like Potence costing blood, etc. Big one off the top of my head is the Roads versus Humanity/Path, a few Disciplines have different powers in Dark Ages, a couple more skills are changed, and characters start with 4 Discipline dots and lower Gen. Though that last doesn't matter as fledglings.
But there's also a lot of fluff info, like what does Resources 2 versus 5 mean for example.
And scattered around the various parts of the setting there are various medieval merits/flaws out there. Like somebody wants to be all Joan de Archetype there's a social flaw in IIRC in a book called Ashen Knight for that explicit purpose.
I'm generally interested, although I have some pacing issues. Are we going to play here, via chat or something like google docs?
BTW, I've read the Giovanni chronicles and like quite a few parts of it. If I play, I will do my best to keep player knowledge separate, though.
We'd play here. And prior knowledge isn't a problem, as long as you'd try to stay IC. Any ideas in particular for a character?
@ Soras Teva Gee: Noted on the Disciplines. I'll edit that in the description.
As for roads/paths, all characters will start on Humanity. If they want to switch over, they can in the interval between GC 1 and 2(provided we get that far.) Though of course by then many of the Dark ages paths will have fallen out of favor...
For using Dark ages Merits and Flaws, I'm willing to consider them on a case by case basic. As long as it makes sense to your character at the start of the story, I'll most likely approve of it.
We'd play here. And prior knowledge isn't a problem, as long as you'd try to stay IC. Any ideas in particular for a character?
I've been thinking of several. A sailor or poacher assamite (maybe a sub-caste if available), a wandering mercenary ravnos, or maybe even a ventrue swordmaster-in-training. I guess it depends on what else we have.
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Last edited by The_Shaman : 10-01-2012 at 03:47 PM.
I'll post interest, although I want to run the idea by you before I flesh the character out. The idea I had was a European Assamite. Basically, he was your standard Joe Huntsman before being turned by an Assamite that, for some reason, had gone off the reservation. Since Assamites don't take kindly to Europeans, Assamites that go off the reservation and Assamites that don't tithe blood, he's basically hit the trifecta for earning the enmity from the rest of his Clan, and he's only stayed alive by effectively trading food and his Quietus know-how to a few Nosferatu and/or Gangrel in exchange for them hiding him.
In theory, I could keep the tithe; it would just be paid to a Nosferatu and/or Gangrel elder rather than an Assamite.
I'll post interest, although I want to run the idea by you before I flesh the character out. The idea I had was a European Assamite. Basically, he was your standard Joe Huntsman before being turned by an Assamite that, for some reason, had gone off the reservation. Since Assamites don't take kindly to Europeans, Assamites that go off the reservation and Assamites that don't tithe blood, he's basically hit the trifecta for earning the enmity from the rest of his Clan, and he's only stayed alive by effectively trading food and his Quietus know-how to a few Nosferatu and/or Gangrel in exchange for them hiding him.
In theory, I could keep the tithe; it would just be paid to a Nosferatu and/or Gangrel elder rather than an Assamite.
The game begins before your character's embrace, so chances are he'd not even know about the tithe or have to worry about it for awhile. But he'd certainly have trouble relating to the rest of the clan, and might want to look for allies outside it. There would be many opportunities to find them, or even to prove himself to the "legitimate" Assamite clan if he desired.
Sure, I have no problem with it. Only one character can be an Assamite though(or any other clan for that matter) so I may have to chose only one if I get more then one application.
Last edited by Dark Seeker : 10-02-2012 at 12:20 AM.
Its worth noting 1444 is a good fifty years before the Treaty of Tyre and resulting blood curse. And only the cursed era version of the Path of Blood actually mandates tithing. Though a little late for a Warrior caste to not have the Baali curse.
Very true. For the first part of the game at least, Warrior Assamites would have the addiction to kindred blood, having to make a self control role anytime they drank of kindred blood, lest they become addicted to it and risk frenzy the next time they encounter it. IIRC Vizier and Sorcerer Assamite weaknesses are unchanged, unless they take a specific flaw.
I guess I'll mention the ideas I have. I did have an Assamite concept, but since deifnately one, possibly two players have an interest, I'll let that one go. Also had a Malkavian, but I think I'll hold off.
Toreador: Former soldier turned artist. A devout member of the church.
Tzimisce: Brilliant noble cursed with being the fourth son of a smaller noble family. Sickly and weak in body, but ruthless within.
Ravnos: Handsome bastard son of a noble turned con artist and thief extraordinair.
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All good if different ideas Daelrog. Any of the three could work.
@BananaPhone Unfortunately, only one Tremere is allowed. Ventrue and Lasombra both could work though.
So if my counting is right we have six interested players. I'll wait to see how many applications I receive before I close this though. Assuming all six apply, I might be able to fit in one or maybe two more, so any whom are still interested, please don't hesitate to express interest. Assamite, Tremere, and Nosferatu seem taken, but I don't think anyone has expressed sole interest in any of the other nine clans,so you may still have a shot with one of them.
I'm formulating ideas for a retired foreign mercenary who gets turned into a Nosferatu, but I'm considering a Tzimisce for a change: I've played Nosferatu characters before, and a lot of my other characters have been social outsiders as well. That being said, I don't want to steal Tzimisce from daelrog if he wants to play one, so if that happens I'm quite happy picking another clan.
@ McStabby - heh, I was thinking for a huntsman as a lead-in, but a sailor eventually sounded better. He'd probably be Genoese to boot, if the character makes it...
BTW, here are some questions about the game conditions:
Spoiler
- skills: do we replace only drive and computer? DA:V had several other skills that were not in the regular game - such as seneschal, legerdemain, and whatever the trade skill was being called right now. How would they work?
- backgrounds: do we get no backgrounds points since they'd all go to generation, or do we get the normal background dots?
- disciplines - would all our starting disciplines be clan-only? I imagine it would be a while before that ever comes into play, though :)
- are languages determined by linguistics dots, or are they merits?
- have you thought about what merits and flaws you would (not) allow?
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Mr.Shizzles avatar by The Gremlin. Thanks!
Last edited by The_Shaman : 10-02-2012 at 04:41 AM.
I don't want to use all of the skills Dark Ages had since this is not really a Dark ages game. For those who don't know, Giovanni Chronicles contains several time skips, so much of the game would be played in times when the dark ages skill set is not applicable. However after thinking about it, A few other skills do need to be changed for this first part.
Firearms becomes archery and Technology becomes Hearth Wisdom.
Hearth Wisdom description
Spoiler
This is the lore of the people, as opposed to the academy. It's unsystematic, but in its haphazard way, it covers the body of knowledge accumlated by peasants, traders and other people who do not benefit from servants or live in isolation. It includes mundane matters such as which plants and animals are safe to eat in the area, which herbs are good for cooking and for medicinal purposes, signs of impending bad (or good) weather, rules of thumb for resolving domestic disputes and the folk wisdom regarding the dangers (supernatural or otherwise) of the night. Despite its diversity of topics, Hearth Wisdom is not a catch-all Ability with fields of expertise.
* Dabbler: You know all the common fireside tales of your home and you can recall them at need.
** Student: You know the obscure and traditional lore of your region, and very little--even if it's strange and dangerous--takes you by surprise within the fields you know.
*** Learned: You quickly acquire the lore of any area you pass through, and others know that when the unseen world makes itself visible, you're the one who most likely knows what to do about it.
****Scholar: You are famous for your knowledge of mysterious affairs, and some fear you because of the potential for pacts with dark forces that your explorations afford.
***** Master: Your supreme insights into strange matters make you the target of pleas from individuals both high and low who suffer mysterious depredations.
I'll edit these into the first post so look there as you're designing your character. Everything else we should be able to cover with V20's skill set.
Backgrounds are allowed at the normal amount. Your character gets 7th generation for free, as it were. :) No more points can be put into generation, but you still have five other backgrounds you can freely buy.
Disciplines... Well, each characters starts with 4. I'd not prohibit an out of clan discipline (Provided it's not one of the clan specific ones) But three dots should be in the character's "natural" disciplines. And there should be some roleplay as to why your character has this connection with this rare discipline that most of your clan lacks.
Language is merits. So you have to spend at least 1 point in it to be able to read and write your language. Every point after that gives you one extra language for free.
Merits and Flaws.I'm pretty sure I'll allow most mundane ones, including from Dark age Vampire and the clan books. Supernatural ones are a little bit trickier but would be on a case by case basis.
Hopefully that answered everything. I edited my first post with the updated information, for those who are interested. This is the first game I've run, so things are very much a case of trial and error. :)
Last edited by Dark Seeker : 10-02-2012 at 12:22 PM.
I've worked out the mechanics of a gypsy circus strongman turned Nosferatu but I still have to go and flesh out his background detail. I tried to think of a way he could have Fortitude but I can't, so he has Potence and Obfuscate at the moment disciplines-wise.
Ravnos: Handsome bastard son of a noble turned con artist and thief extraordinair.
Hey dael, you'd have the points go for maximum cheese-wiza rare discipline prodigy and start with Chimestry 6. Willpower on a Ravnos, pfft who needs that!
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V:TM Giovanni Chronicles(Closed to new interest)
