From His Red Right Hand...

While getting ready for work today, I perused the nWoD section of the Louis Wieland Jr. Memorial Gaming Library looking for a Vampire book or two to take.  With the craptastic mix of snow, rain, and slush, I think there will be few, if any, walk-ins today, so I'll need something to pass the time.

I realized that in the six months between last year's Gen Con and today, I own almost the entire line of Requiem.  I think I'm missing 5 books.  Thanks eBay!

This is my subconciousness telling me that I want to run this game.  After pondering it this morning, here are the game ideas I have.

1) Milwaukee, reimagined.   I first ran High Holy Vampire when I was a sophomore in high school, some fourteen years ago.  My perspective was very limited.  Even as the setting evolved though the countless people that came in contact from the setting, a Requiem game sounds like a good way to make a clean break and take a look at the city from a new perspective.  Rather than the classic game of neotnates struggling to find their place in a power struggle, Milwaukee is a city where all the cast-offs from the other power structures go to hide and/or die.  The PCs would get in on the ground floor and have a chance to set themselves up as the movers and shakers of the city.

2)A political Madison game.  This game borders on dark satire, West Wing meets Forever Knight.  The covenant in charge of Madison holds an 'election' every ten years to see who will be the Prince.  Ironically, te person that put this idea into play has been reelected three times now..and is not seeking a fourth term. The PCs are Emraced to 'stuff' the ballot box but the game becomes a question of them finding a place in politics, or working to watch it burn.

3)Requiem for Rome.  I have been devouring the Rome HBO series and think one set in the empire would be a great change up from what people expect from Vampire.  There would still be the politics, the blood, the violence, the angst, but from much different sources.  I'm probably picking up a copy of Fall of the Camarilla as part of my trumphant visit to the nerd store. It might also be fun to run this, then, when I do a regular Vampire game, throw in a few callbacks to Rome.

Which one would you play?

 My first Sunday at the office.  Strangely, it's the day that seems busiest, with the most sales staff here and the Packer game on the TV instead of the silly DVD.

Wedding update: We're definitely going to Hawaii for our honeymoon.  Anybody know any good places to pick up a cursed tiki idol?

It's been a week chock full o' gaming.  Last sunday was a game of the BSG RPG for antigonewest and some of the infamous Bamber Bunnies.  While the system is fair, the group had a wonderful chemistry.  I felt the moment that it 'clicked' for one of the new players, and that's always a good feeling.

Mage went well on Friday.  A little slow, but I wanted the group to come together a bit more naturally than "you all meet in a bar."  Game will reconviene the first Friday in December.

I'm still waiting on Wrangler for her thoughts on Changeling.  With Saucy Babylon's breakup, Brab has elected to leave the game during the awkward phase.  I'd like to continue, but I'd like to have another player.  3 Players is fine for a game, but I'd like at least one more if I'm going to truck out to Madison.  

After reading an actual play thread of Vampire: Requiem, my hunger to run it grows.  I think I'll definitely pitch it to the Monday Night kids.  I like the idea that everone will be starting on even footing with Requiem as far as OOC knowledge.  I'm still debating if I want to 'BSG' Milwaukee and reimagine the characters from High Holy Vampire or just start from scratch.  Either way, I'd like the story to be about the PCs seizing power in Milwaukee.  See how they do as the Prince and Primogen.

It has been a strange path but I finally own a copy of the new World of Darkness and Vampire the Requiem.

It started with borrowing Fortinbras' copies. I puttered around RPG.net and read a few threads that made me reconsider my initial "Why bother?" stance. I liked what I saw, since Requiem seems to focus more on the single city chronicles that I prefer instead of the metaplot heavy stuff that was coming out toward the end of Masquerade's run.

I won an eBay auction with the three main cores (Vampire, Werewolf, Mage) and a few of the generic WoD books. I liked what I saw, and parlayed that into a shot writing an SAS for WW. Mostly I'm in it for the free books, but it felt good to be writing again and getting paid, instead of writing on spec and trying to break in somewhere.

With Rocket Boots leaving, I gave him the WOD core and Requiem. Another auction popped up shortly before Gen Con with the cores and about a dozen Requiem books. I jumped, won it, and figured I would get my core book and Vampire back soon.

This, of course, is the perfect time to have my first every eBay rip-off. After a month of nothing, I reported him to eBay and got my money back from PayPal. But I was out a couple of books. I found a temporary solution in antigonewest's wedding present, since I HAD to take advantage of the fact that they registered at the FLGS. Even then, I didn't want to use them too much, since they were gifts.

I stumbled into a trade thread at RPG.net with someone looking to trade Requiem for Masquerade stuff. After a bit of negotiation, here's how I made out:

She got:
Chaining the Beast (The book about Paths - which I always disliked, since they took away from one of the core ideas of the game. Paths were too often used as a reason for players getting away with heinous stuff and then going "But, my Path of Stabbing in the Face means I actually gain a dot)
Ashes to Ashes (an old first edition adventure that was pretty bad. I remember running it for High Holy Vampire before completely reading it. After the first session, I realized how much I didn't like it, but was stuck seeing it out to the end)
A VTM Final Nights poster (which I have two of)
A Vampire Dark Ages handout from the year it was released at Gen Con
A Guide to the Camarilla/Sabbat handout
A set of four Final Nights handbills

Total cost: $30 (and I'm pretty sure I bought Chaining the Beast at HPB, because I picked up a lot of the late VTM books because they were surprisingly good)

I got:
WoD Core
Vampire Requiem
Requiem: Ghouls (The reviews I've read have basically said if you owned the Ghouls book for VTM you didn't need this one. Strangely, I can;t find my old ghouls book)
Prince of the City board game
Total cost: $125

It's like Vampire Christmas in October!!!!