Considerations when creating a Dark Before Dawn character

Not every Campaign LARP has interdimensional
adventure-style sessions.

Each and every LARP game works a little differently because of the house rules in place, player preferences and the sort of plot unleashed.  The following are a few suggestions that can help ensure a new character can be built in a way that ensures they will more readily get involved.

·         Existing vampires may only be made in the Ordo Dracul and Circle of the Crone covenants.  Newly embraced vampires may eventually join the Carthians if convinced by our sole Carthian who kept her character from the first campaign.

·         The Ordo Dracul have enough Axe (four) and therefore you will receive very little limelight if you join them.  There are very little Dying Light (one) and no Mystery Sworn though this will soon change.

·         Be open to creating links to family members.  The GM can help create such clan ties which needn't be close.  Even becoming a cousin or grandchilde can open roleplay opportunities.

·         You don't need to have your character come from outside Adelaide to be new to the game.  So long as they weren't present in 2009 - 2011, they could be present in Adelaide.  They might have been in torpor during those three years or traveling to learn something in another city. 

·         There are NPCs you can play to learn the lay of the land and to see if this is a game you might like to play.  You can then adopt those NPCs if you really like them.

·         Without conflict, there is no plot.  Without plot, there is no story.  Without story, you will be bored.  Create opportunities for conflict whether it is competing goals, character ties to PCs or NPCs that leave your character vulnerable, or simply a willingness to get involved in the social antics that fill any good LARP.

·         Many of the players are not fond of Player versus Player (PvP) and there is a general agreement that any serious Player versus Player action should occur through a process of tit-for-tat escalation rather than a sudden dramatic response.  In other words, creating a character who would kill for an insult would make a better fit for an NPC who is played to lose.

·         Since the player base are little interested in heavy PvP, it is necessarily a plot heavy game with a variety of supernatural NPCs lurking in the shadows.  Creating a character who wishes to prevent such complications from occurring during gatherings is a fine idea.  Accept as a player that like in any good television series, the best laid plans can and will go wrong.

·         Be mindful, though, that there's always a loop hole so long as it's fun and maintains interest for the players.  A soiree so chock full of legitimate vampire activities, games and events needs no external inciting events.  Creating a character who seeks stability through distracting the other vampires (i.e. PCs) through more appropriate channels can make for a fun challenge for a social character.

·         If you are willing to play a newly made childe, you will instantly have at least one other PC (and any of their covenant-mates and clan-mates) interested in your character's development.

·         While age does offer increased experience points, you really don't need a mechanically powerful character to get things done.  One of the characters who is involved in the most plots is a 5-year-old vampire with a pretty even spread in skills.  Attitude matters more.

·         Characters that are willing to task risks, aren't so impulsive as to be unreliable, and will do what they say they will do are more likely to be drawn into plots by other characters.

·         It helps to have a niche where your character excels and gaps where they will need some help.  These gaps are ideally related to the niche.  A con man with poor physical skills who wishes to negotiate with werewolves has a need to reach out to a bodyguard and that creates character ties, reasons for the bodyguard to hook you back into plot, and greater interest.

·         Current niches only partially covered (or covered by only one character) includes computer specialist, auctioneer / salesperson, ghoul breeder (ties well with auctioneer), social entrepreneur, event manager, groomer of feeding grounds and racks, supernatural negotiator, mechanical engineer, experimenter / inventor, devotions specialist / salesperson, demolitionist, logistics and administrative minds, and masquerade overseer.

·         If you are interested in playing a very political character, age helps (i.e. pre-1900s).

·         If you are interested in being in the action all the time, age detracts (i.e. post-1975).  If you play an older character, you are responsible for delegating tasks to younger vampires.

·         If you want a mixture of politics and action, being in the middle years is a very good idea (i.e. between 1900 and 1975).

·         Bloodlines are welcome.

·         Entering game with something to sell is an option with GM approval.

Session #7: Destiny's Scythe

Wish I had a picture of the Minis Map

The session began innocently enough with everyone invited to attend Yzador's festivities.  There were five Flowers of Demeter available (actually cup cakes) and some bottles of whiskey and wine (actually iced tea and cordial) that could only be truly enjoyed by those who ate one of the flowers.  Since Yzador was only charging a trivial boon for them, it didn't take too long for them to be all sold.

Most of the upper echelons were in the back room for much of the session, barring the prince whose player couldn't attend and so who was away on other business.  Yzador spent much of the time as a charming host who had some strange quirks that were unusual for those who knew him.  He also had the chance to introduce everyone to the Crone neonate, Contrary Mary, who had been rescued from the Undercity within the past week.

Contrary Mary (an NPC) got to impress everyone with her huge greatsword that was too heavy for a regular person to carry and which certainly drew the attention of the supremely strong elder, Michael Novichkov, who was one of the very few who could swing it.

Professor Jasmine Hadley declared that her childe, Talitha Salvatore, was now the Lesser Harpy and that people could register their boons with her.  The current harpy, Amity Fine, was aware of this development and though she didn't attend the gathering her approval had been sought.

The gathering was plagued by strange spiritual activity which included a bizarre knee-high fog, doors that wouldn't open unless asked nicely, and strange illusions written on mirrors and other reflective surfaces.  Finally Yzador quietly sang that "Alas he cannot stay" and then dove into the tall mirror that had been brought into the event for the purpose.  (Well, the player made the motion and described his action in front of the tall mirror - glass hurts.)

This left the neonates on their own so in typical neonate fashion, they decide to break into the museum to get their hands on some cold iron meteorites as Siobhan O'Baoill was currently obsessed with gathering information and tools against the fae.  Their attempts were interrupted as Jonathon Williams went and told on them and they were chased down by Seamus O'Baoill (well, he hurried up to them as they stumbled drunkenly down the street).

It turns out there were plans in the wings to finally take out the Delphin Island demon.  Everyone was brought together, armed up, and headed over to Delphin Island.

Now since large group combats can be an exercise in prolonged agony and hours of waiting, I've developed a few tricks to speed things up.  I had already pre-rolled Initiative for everyone and so I had them sit in a circle of chairs around a coffee table upon which I placed a map.  While they discussed their tactics, they also picked a miniature from the Inner Sea Pathfinder Pawns.  Why?  It's hard enough keeping a normal set of terrain clear in everyone's minds when there aren't 9 PCs, two dogs and 11 NPCs to manage and picture.

The Pawns also made it much easier to figure out how far people could get in so much time, whether the demon's scream would affect them, and how close people had to be to use their weapons.  I used a Stone Golem of Deskari from the Worldwound Bestiary Box to represent the demon that only came up after five rounds of fighting the larvae (near mindless mob of recently made and weaker vampires).

There were three players who didn't have combatant characters so I gave two of them five of the larvae apiece to control and the third got to run Contrary Mary.  He even wore her mask.  The fourth non-combatant player at least had two zombie dogs to field so he was okay.  I kept control of the Big Demon as I'd been surprised by the sudden assault and didn't have a write up explaining all of the creature's powers to hand.

Some key moments in the combat included:

• Seamus' two zombie dogs dropping bag loads of salt into the dark ponds.
• The ten zombies standing up in the ponds (ponds represented by plates).
• Everyone tensely holding their actions so that the two snipers could aim for five rounds.
• Novichkov staking a larvae with a thrown stake.
• The larvae mobs tearing the two zombie dogs apart.
• FatherMother being slammed by a larvae mob to the ground - then Earth Melding away.
• Yzador being slammed by a larvae mob to the ground - who ignored his Nightmare.
• FatherMother joining the pile on the ground to help Yzador by smashing larvae into the dirt.
• While Talitha picked them off the both of them using a rifle.
• Contrary Mary being slammed by a larvae mob to the ground - who ripped her arm off.
• The demon rising from the depths of the pond with a giant scythe.
• Siobhan failing a save and thinking the demon is actually a possessed Monroe (human boss).
• Siobhan begging everyone not to hurt him and then trying to stumble in the way.
• Professor Jasmine Hadley being uncertain of her claims and so shoots the larvae.
• Jonathon Williams using Celerity to tear across the field to the demon.
• Jonathon Williams using Parkour to run up the demon to reach its head.
• Jonathon Williams slamming a holy water balloon down its gob.
• Jonathon Williams being knocked to the ground and then implanted with a parasite.
• Jonathon Williams arising as a controlled vampire, pops the equivalent of Greater Darkness.
• Contrary Mary frenzying and feeding on two larvae.
• Yzador running out of blood and feeding on a downed larvae.
• Yzador slaying that downed larvae to remove the blood bond.
• Talitha Salvatore growing wings and flying above the field.
• Talitha Salvatore getting ten successes plus four damage on a shot that kills the demon.

It was a pretty good combat and while it did take a couple hours, we got through almost twenty rounds and no one seemed bored.  For a mass combat, that's pretty amazing.  For a LARP combat, that's pretty spectacular.

Session #6: Territorial Domains

Professor Jasmine Hadley had to step up as seneschal and help organise people's feeding grounds claims because Prince Harry Saeed was busy propping up the Rack (aka player was sick).  For those who don't play vampire, there's basically a sub-system in play where various high traffic areas (CBD, North Adelaide, Port Adelaide) are better eating spots and are therefore called Racks.  If vampires over feed from the area, they damage it and it can support fewer vampires and provide less of a blood bonus.  If they groom the area, they can increase it's value and the number of vampires it can support.

Anyway, so we had the usual Welcome to Game speech and then I had to chase them outside so that they could re-enter in character as allowing them to remain in the same room basically just leads to a really long and blurred IC / OOC period where no one's quite sure if anyone else is roleplaying or not.  I've never allowed this to happen in this campaign but I've seen it in other games.

Professor Jasmine Hadley had her speech and I (as Dr. Mirrim Hargey, prince's childe and general secretary) drew in people's feeding grounds claims onto various printed out maps.  A few people grumbled, namely those who had feeding grounds in the last chronicle under other princes, but most people gained more than they had to lose so most were pretty happy with it.

The venue was behind the Tuxedo Cat, an old nightclub on North Terrace that basically opens up into an old and defunct concrete catacomb a few storeys tall.  Amity Fine was the hostess and though she had no music going, I put on some warehouse ambiance from Tabletop Audio.  She declared it Elysium and had Michael Novichkov, who had recently had his status stripped by the prince, perform the duty of Master of Elysium.

Michael Novichkov soon got to play the part when Seamus O'Baoill interrupted Gary Dodd's attempts to haggle with Lewis Epcott over the price of a bottle of  top shelf lacrima that Epcott drank last game (under manipulations by the sheriff).  Seamus O'Baoill threatened Gary Dodd for asking an exorbitant price of a fellow Ordo Dracul (as the starting requested boon was a major) and Gary Dodd told him to fuck off. 

Seamus O'Baoill had been having a hard week so he frenzied on him and only Novichkov shoving him under a table and sitting on it fixed the frenzy.  Why?  Because they needed him to switch targets from Dodd to something else and then exhaust his frenzy tearing apart that target.  Turns out that being trapped under a table makes a good target.

This all happened in the back yard which we had popped a few tables and mismatched chairs about on the little courtyard.  We play during the day but funnily enough it's less immersion breaking than playing at night would be.  In the new 2nd edition rules, vampires can see perfectly in anything other than pitch darkness and so having to bring something closer to the light to read it makes less sense.

Dr. Jonathon Taylor was feeling quite poorly, having had a pretty rough few weeks.  You see, he was a duplicate of the arch-villain from the last campaign and had been copied a few months before a terrible ritual drove his first self evil.  So he's not evil and has never been evil but many of the things that are plaguing the city are still his fault.  So he gets drunk and smack talks Jonathon Williams who is currently suspected of dressing homeless people up in gimp suits shackled in his haven.  And then draining them dry.  Jonathon Williams just calls him a hypocrite and leaves it at that.

Amity Fine lectures a few people on damaging the Racks and tells them to stop over feeding.  She doesn't really address the fact that there are a lot of fangs per location nor does she give them advice on boosting the Rack.  Harpies, huh?

NOTE: A harpy is a social position whose job it is to reinforce appropriate social behaviour, humiliate those who disobey and to record the IOUs called 'boons' that are the life blood of the vampire economy.

Partway through the festivities, I headed off and changed from Dr. Mirrim Hargey's costume to Julia Dannenburg's costume.  Few of the characters currently in Adelaide had met Julia Dannenburg but a number had heard of her due to her crazy text messages that she had sent over the forums.  So that I could keep her appearance a surprise yet still ensure that the older players knew who she was, I made a dramatic appearance that was basically a loud: "Hello!  Julia Dannenburg here!"

There was a bit of a fuss and she was quickly dragged into a private room by Seamus O'Baoill who interrogated her about where she had been and what she'd been up to.  Then he allowed her to return to the main room where she poked a few people, spread her theory that the gloom walls currently dividing up the city were a form of quarantine to prevent the spread of infection.  She also stated that Contrary Mary, another vampire NPC from the old chronicle, was currently trapped in the old Nosferatu catacombs beneath the city by an evil cult.

Then Julia Dannenburg went to chat with the seneschal, Professor Jasmine Hadley, about stuff and things.  The harpy, Amity Fine, called out that Hadley shouldn't go into a private room with a Daeva to which Julia quietly grumbled that a Toreador can hardly talk as they have Majesty and Dominate.  Amusingly enough, a few other characters came with them in Obfuscate (and spider form) and hid around the large room. 

Normally there'd be a chance to spot people with basic Obfuscate as it just makes them forgettable, not invisible, but the venue involves large gaping rooms so it's not impossible to be within listening distance and remain in hiding.  They got their spying on.  There were a few gasps of surprise.  And I got the joy of dropping a few bombs in a room load of players while playing a character who didn't know they were there.

All in all, it was a strictly part-social and part-political session but it worked out and everyone seemed busy and entertained so it worked out well.  I just need to figure out something else to drop mid-session so that it's not just NPCs coming in and shaking things up.  Though that's fun too.  Or at least, not just previously unknown NPCs.  Need some recurring NPCs causing trouble.  Or other sorts of game play.