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View Full Version : Developing a first Vampire campaign (Hamburg, 2010-2030)



Yora
2020-12-11, 10:43 AM
Strange things are happening in these strange times, and I actually find myself really wanting to run a campaign of Vampire: the Masquerade. I think I was a little bit too young for it when it came out, and later I was too cool for what I had filed it away as that angsty emo-drama game with ruffled shirts and sunglasses. I played a good bit of Redemption way back in the day and seen some parts of Bloodlines, and in those Vampire doesn't actually look that bad, and over the years you just pick up bits and pieces of knowledge, which does seem quite intriguing. Some weeks back I've been thinking about what an updated, contemporary alternative to the Gothic-Punk style from the 90s could look like, and the thought to give it a look and sound of Neo-Noir like in Drive, Hotline Miami, and John Wick really makes me want to make this happen. Garish LED lights, suits with dark shirts, fancy cars, synthwave music, and people full of intense violent rage hidden under a calm and collected appearance. More stoic than melodramatic on the outside, but under the surface with the same intense emotions. The characters display calmness, but it's also a drained and exhausted one. I really think this can be a great alternative aesthetic that is still very close to the original concept. From what I've seen of Bloodlines 2, they seem to go with that color and lighting style as well. Hotline Miami and John Wick are very hard over to the fast action side, which from everything that I understand really isn't what the system is meant for and capable of. But I think "Drive, but with vampires" seems like a great concept.

Having grown up and lived in Hamburg and Lübeck most of my life, it's the obvious for a location. It's a metropolitan region with 5 million people, a long history I am decently familiar with, a major harbor, airport, and highway hub, and the gateway between northern and central Europe. I got an inspiration from a major tunnel construction project that is currently in the works, that will create a direct road between Hamburg and Copenhagen, and from there over another recently build giant bridge on to Stockholm. The new tunnel will cut the drive between Hamburg and Copenhagen almost in half to only 3 hours, which makes it possible for vampires to make the journey in a single trip even during the very short nights in summer. (Helpful map (http://spriggans-den.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/NEP_region.png))
Hamburg is under the control of a relatively young Ventrue prince after most of the city's elder were killed in a massive firebombing attack in World War 2. With modern transportation and huge post-war housing construction, it merged together with numerous smaller cities into one huge metro region that makes up the prince's entire domain of 50 vampires. By far the largest of these cities is Lübeck, where 14 of the domain's vampires live, including all its Toreador. It also lies directly on the new road, which puts it smack where the territories of the princes of Hamburg and Copenhagen meet.
Copenhagen is a considerably smaller domain mostly inhabited by Toreador, which immediately absorbed the smaller neighbouring city Malmö when they were connected by a bridge between Denmark and Sweden. The prince of Hamburg rightly fears that the Toreador of Copenhagen will try to win the Toreador of Lübeck to come over to their side. Excluding anarchs in both cities, the price of Hamburg currently has 32 vampires under his rule wile the prince of Copenhagen has only 18. But if the Toreador in Lübeck switch sides, it will change to 24 against 26 in favor of the Danes. And once the new tunnel is build and open, if the Toreador in Lübeck decide to rebel, they could get reinforcements from Copenhagen in just 2 hours, making retaking the city for the Ventrue prince impossible.
Because of his young age, the prince of Hamburg would likely be deposed by older primogen of his city if that happens. At the same time the prince of Copenhagen has reached an age where it's really hard to keep up with the changing time and she has to prove to her own people that she is still in full control by expanding her territory and influence.
In this situation, the prince of Hamburg declares that all seven clans in his city have permission to create one new fledgeling. The calculation is that he can rely on the Nosferatu and Tremere, and maybe the Malkavians to back him, so he'll get three or four new pawns while the Toreador get only one. That still works in his favor. But the players will have no obligation to fight for him when he calls, and they won't know about this brewing conflict when their characters are made. One of them picking the Toreaor fledgeling is entirely possible. (And since it's Toreador, I think even quite likely with 3 or 4 players.)
The campaign starts in 2010 when the first plans for the new tunnels are being made and an upcoming conflict between the princes starts to loom. My idea is to have some simple adventure in which the PCs get to know Hamburg and many of the important NPCs, and settle in to their new lives. Eventually time skips forward to 2020 when all plans to stop a building permit in German courts have failed, and it becomes clear that it can't be stop. In that part of the campaign, the prince or primogen start sending the PCs on assignments to Copenhagen, where they will meet the locals and get a first chance to notice that they are used as pawns in some kind of hidden conflict between the elders of the two cities. When that has played out, time advances again to 2030 when the tunnel is completed and the secret war turns into open fighting.

I think that's a really cool setup, but it's not actual playable content yet.

One thing I noticed about Vampire is that the lore of the setting seems to directly contradict the premise of the game. As I understand it, it's meant to be a game about the suffering and struggle of looking forward to live forever, but seeing everything you know and care for die and disappear. And as you lose everything that connected you to the word around you, you lose what is left of your humanity and turn into murderous monster that will likely try to kill and destroy whatever still matters to your. Great and intriguing idea, but it becomes completely pointless when everyone knows for certain that the Vampocalypse is going to happen within the next couple of months and everyone get eaten by ancient über-vampires anyway.
After looking around for information and opinions on that matter for a good while, I think I've decided what the truth about Gehenna will be in my campaign. In this world, it will be another revolution of the generations. The antediluvians killed their progenitors, created their own empire, and then disappeared. And then the methuselah that replaced them eventually also eventually grew weary of the world and went into hiding to sleep away the ages to avoid becoming a beast as they continued to age and get alienated. The older generations of the elders now also have reached that point. They all became vampires during the middle ages, and while many of them managed to adapt well to the 18th and 19th century, most of them feel that they are no longer able to keep up with the constant changes to the world around them. During the 21st century, most 6th and 7th generation elders will follow the methuselah and disappear from vampire society, while others lose their grasp on power and will be challenged by younger vampires intending to replace them. That's the real meaning of Gehenna, and why it is inevitable. The disappearance and toppling of elders will leave behind a power vacuum in which the younger generations will fight for dominance, and the stubborn elders who will refuse to give up their positions yet will unleash any ancient horrors they have keep hidden away for centuries. For many, many vampires these will be the Final Nights. Both for many elders as well as countless ancilla and neonates who will get swept up in the fighting. With the Anarchs being of the opinion that the Camarilla and its rules and institutions really only exist to secure the positions of the elders and keep the younger generations in their place, this might very well be the end of the Camarilla or even the Masquerade as well. And the Sabbat wanting to see the world go down in an orgy of blood won't make things better either. The Flood really only destroyed Enoch, and the uprising against the antediluvians only resulted in the destruction of Carthage. In the same way, Gehenna will not wipe out all kindred or destroy the entire world. But in the meantime, there will be a century as horrible and terrifying as the Thirty Years War with seemingly endless fighting and horror for vampires. But nobody in the campaign knows that. Many still deny that Gehenna will actually happen, while others believe it will be the apocalyptic carnage awaited by the Sabbat. But everyone knows that something big is coming and will be get really ugly.

For some random bits and pieces at the end, I've been thinking about how to actually evoke the theme of vampires seeing everything die and change around them as they slowly lose all their connections to the world they knew. Having campaign span several centuries probably isn't actually workable for a first time campaign of indeterminate length, and I certainly don't want to try it out. But I think playing material that covers about a year and then jumping forward by a decade could be a good balance.
Another thing that seems kind of necessary is to do what almost all other GM advice always says not to, and directly go after their stuff. Kill their ghouls they gathered, burn down the houses that hold all their treasures, and steal their cool cars they literally saved years for. Players will hate it, say it's unfair, and think it's awful. Which it is, and which is the point. It shouldn't come as a surprise for completely unprepared players, but I think when it's made clear in the pitch for the campaign, it probably should work. Being a vampire is supposed to be a curse. Not a fun romp being immortal sexy superheroes.
The rules say that the main instinct and motivation for vampires is to feed on blood. But I think that should actually be their second compulsion. To make the inevitable defeat against the beast even more dreadful, I think the primary overwhelming drive for vampires should be the need to survive. I don't know what kind of philosophy the creators were thinking about when they came up with the ideas in the 90s, but I think when you fear to become a wild monsters that will kill and destroy the few things in the world that still matter to you, death is an obvious and clean solution. I think it's totally fine for vampires wishing they were dead for the good of everyone around them, but to make the curse truly cruel, they should be absolutely unable to take that option. I feel it should be stressed to players that the unbreakable need to survive at any cost is permanently controling the unlife of their characters.

Finally, having looked up some half-remembered information on ruins and remnants of the war in Hamburg and Lübeck, I think I really want to use fire as a prominent horror motive. All vampires fear fire anyway, but for the surviving elders who miraculously survived their entire world being incinerated around them, it should be much worse than that. (The week long firebombing of Hamburg was named Operation Gomorra, which fits neatly into the biblical mythology of vampires.) I also got an idea for a group of vampire hunters who hunt primarily with flamethrowers. With no regards to collateral damage. (Just have to make sure not to accidentally wipe all the PCs with no chance to escape.)

What's your thoughts on these idea? Any suggestions where I could take this to come up with adventure material to confront the PCs with?

Eldan
2020-12-11, 11:33 AM
I think the first question is "what would the Elders do with these new fledglings". They are created for political brownie points. What now? Why are they all grouped together, instead of being mainly used by their own clans?

So, I'm thinking that whatever their first "adventure", it has to essentially be a cover for political infighting. X fledlings out of 7, where X is your player number, are thrown together. Is that because those X clans want to form a closer alliance? Or are they trying to keep each other's new agents in sight? I imagine whatever job they are given to do, it will involve a lot of subtext from their clan Primogens. Keep an eye on that person for us, find out what the elders of clan X told their fledgling, etc.

Of course, fledglings can also be reasonably deniable assets, especially when a mid-sized war could be upcoming. "Whoops, this group of fledglings accidentally set the warehouse on fire where you were bunkering weapons for your ghouls? Sorry, what can you do, they don't really know the rules yet. We'll punish them a bit."

Or they could be used to make advances to other groups. Everyone needs allies in a war. Young, modern, reasonably tech-savvy vampires who understand modern times could be ideal to recruit some mortals in ways that a 300 year old Hanse captain with animal control powers really isn't.

Yora
2020-12-11, 01:15 PM
My idea was that they are made just to boost the numbers in case they will be needed 10-20 years down the line, and letting them just do their own scruffy stuff at first until they become useful agents.
But now I also like the idea that this is what they are being told if they ask, because that's the story the prince is also telling the primogen. But the game has already started and they already have their strings being pulled. Depending on what the players pick and how group dynamics play out, perhaps the Nosferatu primogen could try to make them his pawns, or the Brujah primogen/baron tries to win them as spies for the Anarchs. (Officially he's a Camarilla primogen, but most of his progeny are openly Anarchs and nobody doubts where his loyalties really are. If the Danish vampires attack, his clan won't help fighting them back, and might even try to use the opportunity to overthrow the price and make himself the baron of Hamburg.)

My idea for the two Gangrel in the city is that they really don't want to get involved in any of the politics but nominally acknowledge the price. When it was declared that all clans can create one new fledgeling, they made one on a whim, but then are mostly "Nice knowing you. You're on your own from here, kid." I think it might be interesting to start with the PCs being shoved out the door after being introduced to the prince and then left to find themselves hunting grounds and some lairs, with the understanding that the three or four PCs will team up because they seem to get along. (The other new neonates are NPCs who head out on their own and then maybe appear later in various places.) A Ventrue or Tremere PC would probably get some resources and a direct contact to get settled in, and I can see them getting orders from above to do rookie work.
They absolutely would have to get some guidance at the very start. Even if it's just an ancilla of no rank getting them a crappy apartment which they will have to share until they manage to find something of their own. Maybe it could be fun to let them build their first haven by scaring away some thugs in the area and getting nosy neighbors to leave them alone without violating the Masquerade?

Eldan
2020-12-15, 05:21 AM
Starting out with a Haven is always a good idea. V:tM tend to be very location-bound games, so starting small is recommended.
You could also offer them some choice there. "Well, there's either these three abandoned garages near the port that we can knock the interior walls out of, or the third floor of this appartment building that's currently occupied by criminals."

Aliess
2020-12-15, 10:11 AM
Sounds like an interesting setting and your vision of gehenna first in fairly closely to what's going on in the v5 timeline.
Going for their stuff is fine as long as it's appropriate. If the players start going for NPCs ghouls, then have the NPCs goes for theirs in retaliation. If the PCs screw up then have the prince take their stuff, whilst making it clear that this is the nice option and they could just as easily have taken their unlife. On the flip side though give the PCs stuff back. If they do a good job, give them an extra street or club as their domain (with all of the added responsibilities and annoyed former owner) or a new car to replace the one that got destroyed. After all it costs the prince/primogen literally nothing and now the PC owes them a favour.

The Beast easily supports your desire to focus on survival. Deliberately throwing themselves into harms way is a perfect trigger for a frenzy or rotschrek (?) test.

The fire bombing is a great fit and can easily work into giving you stuff for players to do.
- researchers have uncovered a cellar that was sealed up in the bombing and happened to be the haven of a powerful kindred. The PCs are sent to make sure nothing that risks the masquerade is on site, or had already been uncovered.
- an elder survived the bombing and awakes from torpor. They try to enlist the PCs to bring them up to date, offer them patronage and start trying to undermine the prince who was conveniently out of town during the attack.
- An unexploded bomb is found in the nosferatu warrens. Is it still live? Who's going to be crazy enough to disarm it? Could it be moved somewhere more useful?

Morty
2020-12-15, 10:14 AM
I know "use another system" isn't very useful input at the best of times, but have you considered Vampire: the Requiem? It doesn't have any doomsday scenarios at all and is far more open to custom settings, so it feels like it'd require a lot less hammering into shape on your part.

Bulhakov
2020-12-15, 02:41 PM
Hey! "being immortal sexy superheroes" is a "fun romp" (at least that's how most my players played the game and really enjoyed it).

As for that bit of horror - fire is a good threat, encountering people with True Faith is another, but also supernatural threats, especially custom/rare ones that the players don't understand and can't meta-game. Also politics of power - players should live in a bit of fear who not to mess with and a who to trust (the team or the clans). From what I rememeber we also heavily house-ruled gunfire rules to make guns much more dangerous.

In my adventures the "masquerade" was a predominant theme - trying to keep the whole "world of darkness" thing a secret is increasingly difficult in a world where everyone has a smartphone. Luckily most conflict happens between factions that are interested in keeping up the secrecy (e.g. other vampires, mages and werewolves).

With very different strong personalities and clans it might be difficult to keep the team coherent, but I found that the clans can serve as a great way to push players towards working together (e.g. a Ventru player might have strict orders to protect the life of another player , while the Tremere player is ordered to get a sample of every team member's blood, while the Giovanni is tasked with gathering dirt and family history on one of the team member's progenitors). Each player had a short pre and post game session about his individual life and relation with the clan.

Yora
2020-12-16, 05:48 AM
- An unexploded bomb is found in the nosferatu warrens. Is it still live? Who's going to be crazy enough to disarm it? Could it be moved somewhere more useful?

Great idea, those things are a constant problem around here. (Detonators at the time were complete junk.) They are found less frequently now, but also more unstable and harder to disarm. If one is found while expanding the haven of a wealthy vampire, calling in the ordonance removal service wouldn't be an option. And a big bomb could easily annihilate vampires (along with everything in the building).

A Ventrue elder being burried alive under a destroyed and leveled building would also be interesting. It would strengthen the Ventrues' position to have an old patrician back, but also certainly threaten the prince. And a new prince who has been missing the last 80 years would be completely incapable to rule efficiently. That would require very delicate handling. The prince wouldn't pick the PCs to find and destroy the elder, but they could be send to deal with related side tasks, where they find out more than they were supposed to know. And then it gets really dangerous.
It also might be very attractive for the prince to diablerize the elder, as it would give him a power boost he's going to need in the near future. But if the other Ventrue or the primogen find out, he'd be toast.

Yora
2020-12-19, 01:48 PM
I've been thinking more on how I could give this game horror vibes (amazingly, there is nothing on that topic in either the books or anywhere on the internet) and also make it sexy to match basically all the artwork for the books, but giving it a morbid touch.
With all the talk about Vampire not being a game about sexy superheroes living the high life, the visual references are giving a very different impression.

My initial ideas have all been pretty top-down, about stuff that might happen in the long term. But when it comes to style and atmosphere, things need to be more immediate and about stuff that the players are facing and dealing with early on.
I actually started to quite like the idea of everything being covered by a sense of approaching danger and the anticipation of dread, which I think could provide a good background tension to create a sense of urgency and meaningful stakes. If you really have an eternity of slow boredom ahead of you, then taking a slow and lazy approach to vampiric unlife seems like a logical choice.
A lot of the places in Hamburg that I think would make for cool backdrops are close to the Reeperbahn and its seedy nightlife (basically the "Hamurg Strip"), which I believe had its glamour days during the 1920s. And that gave me the idea to go with a campaign style of "partying until the end of the world". Nightlife is glitzy, and bright, decadent and excessive, with vampires throwing themselves into it either to go out with a bang, or to convince themselves that everything is better than it ever was.

I think the upcoming wat between the two princes should be pushed back to be the ultimate showdown if the campaign turns out to run for a long time and eventually needs to be wrapped up in a dramatic fashion. It's the approaching disaster that is always looming just behind the horizon. If the whole powder keg hasn't gone off by then, that will definitely push things past the tipping point. But the city is primed to blow right from the start, and there's fuses and matches lying around everywhere.

Ultimately it all comes down to the 8th and 9th generations seeing that their elders can't keep up with the changing times, and neonates doubt that the institutions and traditions of the Camarilla will remain effective to maintain the masquerade for much longer. The princes and primogen are getting ready to disappear from the public stage or fight tooth and nail to retain their grip on power. Their progeny wants to succeed them but also knows that they will have to be careful or there will be nothing left for the victors to rule. The anarchs think that the upcoming transition of leadership is the perfect opportunity to abolish the Camarilla entirely and not above helping it along.
And while the three groups are trying to topple each other without destroying the great prize, the Sabbat is getting hyped up to see the whole world go up in flames in a glorious blaze of carnage.
When the PCs are turned into vampires, nobody is telling them anything about this, because all factions are interested in keeping the appearance that they have everything under control and there's nothing to worry about. They learn that there's a hidden fear of a violent end of an era for vampires, but eventually it becomes clear that the big free for all had already started before they were turned, and their superiors see them as simply expendable pawns.
Their options are to proove their value to their masters and gain status and influence in the new order of things, to join forces with their masters' enmies to get back at them, or join the anarchs to bring the whole rotten house down. Or simply trying to get out of the way and not getting stepped on by the ancients, which is not easy either.

To keep things simple, nobody really has a big plan or the full picture. Instead it's an environment where nobody trusts anybody and everything is a confusing mess that nobody understands. The goal for the players is not to uncover the big mystery, stop the main villain, and come out victorious. They are only 13th generation neonates in a big conflict between 8th and 9th generation vampires who mostly don't even know who they are. Their goal is simply to survive in a messy situation were all options seem like bad options. Whatever you do, it will get you one the bad side of someone powerful and dangerous.