The Gentleman Gamer: Dark Ages Vampire Review

In which the gentleman in question reviews Dark Ages: Vampire, another out of print World of Darkness roleplaying game. This is the second attempt at upload, as the last one didn't seem to work.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• Vampire
• Dark Ages: Vampire
• Vampire: The Masquerade
• White Wolf
• World of Darkness
• The Gentleman's Guide
• Roleplaying
• role playing games
• roleplaying games
• rpgs
• ventrue
• Cappadocian
• toreador
• brujah
• tremere
• salubri
• ravnos
• assamite
• followers of set
• Setites
• Tzimisce
• Lasombra
• Malkavian
• Nosferatu
• wod
• owod
• The Gentleman Gamer

[1987cml]

dear mr. gentleman, which dark ages: vampire books would you consider to be essential?

[clackclickbang]

@1987cml The core rulebook, the Player's Guide to the High Clans and Low Clans, the Storyteller's Companion and Dark Ages: Europe is a good one.

[alokov]

one problem with this, in my mind, is the war, I think I might almost prefer the originial vampire the dark ages because of the lack of a huge war.

[clackclickbang]

@alokov Well you don't need to partake in the War of Princes by any means. The political intrigue going on in the background, in the courts and on the streets of medieval cities can keep the game interesting without your needing to be on a battlefield somewhere.

[alokov]

@clackclickbang But the Crusades are there, there's no way to aviod em you can avoid taking part in huge War of Princes stuff but they're still there.

[clackclickbang]

@alokov True, but battles relating to the crusades weren't going on in the British Isles or France, or the majority of Europe. For the most part it's confined to the Middle East. To be honest you can set your game anywhere and choose what parts of the history impact your characters.

[clackclickbang]

@cwilla321 Quite possibly.

[cwilla321]

You wouldn't happen to mean 'right of princes' and not 'war of princes' would you?

[clackclickbang]

@YuriPRIME Very true, but I think different groups want different things out of a game. My group for instance isn't really comfortable playing angsty neonates, but would rather play manipulative powerful elders.

[YuriPRIME]

Imho, the fact you can't use your disciplines openly is a very big plus of Masquerade. Mostly, because it is a new sort of a challenge and makes you think how for instance, lure your rival into desolate place, where you can unleash whole hell upon his ass. It also restricts the gameplay of beeing to overpowered, where group instead of using wits start to just bash forward casting Kame-ha-me-ha on on every step.

[TowerGuardDM]

@clackclickbang Awesome! Thank you! Will watch for it.

[clackclickbang]

@TowerGuardDM A video on the Storyteller system? I could make one quite easily.. It's a good system. I'll do it in the next week or so!

[TowerGuardDM]

I have a collection of Vampire, Werewolf and Mage for both modern day and dark ages. I also have Mummy and Hunter. I have never run nor played any of these WoD games. Very intriguing review. Do you have a review of the mechanical system of these games by chance?

[clackclickbang]

@ExplosiveOrange That sounds like a rather fantastic idea for a campaign. You could certainly populate a coterie with some rather brutal and territorial Tzimisce and Gangrel in that part of the world.

[ExplosiveOrange]

A friend and I were thinking of a campaign for Dark Ages. We were thinking of making it take place in pre-Christian Lithuania. The Teutonic Order are invading Poland and Lithuania is in danger of being next. The characters want to save this country from Christianization, but the order's army outnumbers the small nation and the best way save them is to head to the east.

[VoraxTranstellaris]

@clackclickbang True, but if there's no other option you could have these pdf's printed and bound as a substitute ;-)

[clackclickbang]

Ah, but nothing beats the feel of a heavy printed book in your hands... ;)

[VoraxTranstellaris]

Like with Victorian Age: Vampire the books are all available as pdf files from rpgnow.

[clackclickbang]

The Tzimisce in old World of Darkness are quite Cthulhoid with their "humanity is insignificant except as playthings" viewpoints. I'd recommend picking Dark Ages Vampire up, if you can find it.

[DeTzardis]

Heh... they are remarkably odd. Temporis is a very nasty discipline. They make great enemies for an unsuspecting Sabbat pack. my lads were all going "WTF is going on here!?", "Medic!".

I love them because they are just so odd. Having no emotions really is so alien for Vampires of any type. :)

[clackclickbang]

Our True Brujah (Ibrahim ben Tolrin) was a rather conflicted soul, wondering why he felt so different to all his Brujah brothers. Why he could go around killing rather dispassionately, where the rest of them were constantly succumbing to this rage of theirs.

[DeTzardis]

I'm with you there brother... oWoD is where it's at for me too. I've played dark ages a wee bit, we had great fun. It then went into modern day Sabbat, which was a lot of fun to play.

I love the True Bruja I find their character or lack of it very interesting. ;)