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Glanced through the High and Low clan books last night, definately drawn to Lasombra at this point, probably at least somewhat influenced by the fact that I'm re-reading CS Friedman's ColdFire Triology. :P

The other clan I've always wanted to play (and I think I'm showing my colors here) in the Dark Ages was the Tzimisce (which I know Cheyne hates). Gotta love your shapeshifting feudal overlords.

This goes one more step towards proving that Yes, I do want to play a Sabbat game. :P That said, the DA is much cooler for these two clans than the modern time is. The recent centuries have not been kind to them. The Sabbat really is pretty much a hell-hole for everyone involved, excepting perhaps a few powerful Elders. It's the only place that allows a Noddist character to flourish though, which is the true love of my V:tM playing self :P Gogo Path of Caine.

I digress... I'm going to look into this a little more in deapth tonight after work, since I don't really have anything planned. Leaning very strongly towards the afforementioned petty Lasombra noble type. Need to research a little more into the period and area before I really cement anything.

flow... quasi-medatative state where the observance of time disapears and action becomes highly efficient and actors are fully engrossed in and entertained by, their actions?

i'm pefectly happy playing w/steven and 1 or 2 other people. i'm going to ask chet if he wants to play. with his background he would be incredible for dark ages. he wanted to do HARP, and i've asked around for players, but no takers as of yet. hopefully he hasn't just gone away in frustration. haley might play too.

and i actually like tzimice better in the dark ages. the sabbat clans are just so... 1-dimensional in the later books. they never even bother to talk about what make them tick, they might as well just be random monster encounters. lame.

So at this point, I really don't know if the game will take off, but I'm looking forward to trying at least to get to know the time setting better. Here's some links and info to help get things rolling. The point of the game is not to be an expert on the history. Imagine being someone in the 14th century. Unless you were a priveleged monk, you were likely to know little about well, most thing.
This game will be set pre-plague. It is a little later than the common setting for the supplement books, but we can adjust no problem. I think...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14th_century
Follow some of the links to people. I particularly like William of Ockham. So much in fact that he might play a role somewhere.
Someone in the group should be a Fraticelli. I really want to play with the ideas of heresy in this game.


http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~hanly/chaucer/ ... hcent.html

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historic ... entury.jpg
Good map here. The game will begin in Northern Italy. After that, who knows? Try imagining the setting in terms of contrasts to the modern wod. Think about feeding in less populated towns, where people are not out after dark. Hell, during the plague you might be hard pressed to find anyone in a particular night if you are traveling. Think about the role the church plays, for good and evil. How easy would it be to be a supernatural? How difficult would it be when everyone beleives in them?

when exactly in the 14th century will this occur? I had the idea of playing a Knight from the Order of the Temple which had some of their down fall in 1307 and were disbanded in 1312 at the Council of Vienna. Could be fun to play someone who was a knight of that order when they were at the height of popularity and power and then roleplay through the accusations and the dissolution. Comments??

I may be interested in playing this actually, when would we be starting? I have a two or three week period coming up during which I will be a ghost. But after that, well, it sounds fun.

Same here Rusty. I just finished one of three big projects. This paper was only 15 pages and looks to be the shortest of my assignments. In about a month, me thinks I'll be up for getting more into this. However, if I do in fact have to work this summer, I don't imagine that I'll be up for this. I'll keep everybody informed. Cheyne is making a character now. I may set up some situtations for him to rp a bit. If you are up for making your own character, by all means start interacting with him. We won't worry much about stats or dice rolls in the very begining. Just kind of flesh out some characters.

Paul, uhm... 1300ish. Probably good to give us a few decades to prepare for the plague. Kind of funny this setting, being able to metagame the future...

I found some very interesting stuff in 'wind from the east' a while back. There's a gangrel variant that actually takes some of their clan disciplines from the kuei jin book. I don't have the book in front of me right now, but if you're cool with it (and someone can forward me "information" about it) I can start working on the character. I do know the background the character would come from rather well. I might brush up on the mongol hordes. But I could see a follower of ghengis potentially finding himself in italy. It would be an involved background and require some approval.

On the other hand, though I am already stereotyped to that effect, a dark ages malkavian would be rather fun. I've played carson for a couple years now and precious was a similar concept, but it fits into the setting rather well. After all, "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". The tremere are really witches, but my usual favorite "medium + oracle + crazy" comes out very different in a medieval society. Also, if I'm not mistaken clan malkavian had dominate instead of dementation, not sure, haven't seen the DA clan book.

I enjoyed playing tertius quite a bit, a DA brujah would suit me just fine, and I acknowledge that it won't be nearly as godlike as tertius was.

So let me know a bit more about what you're willing to allow in the setting, and I can put some more serious thought into it. I'll see if I can track down the books in the gamer community here. (believe it or not, some medical students like gaming!)

Also a list of books I need would be great.

hmm, just dug this up. Turns out that the chinese had missile launchers, two stage rockets, landmines, sea mines, fin stabilized anti ship rockets, cannons, and guns, during the period we are working with. Do we want to include any of this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huolongjing

I wrote a paper years back on how the Chinese could have taken over the west fairly easily, given their superior navy and cavalry tech. Good times.

Uhm, all the ideas sound nice. The Malky sounds really fun and I already have some crazy things planned. Be all the more fun to put a nutjob in the mix. Brujah are perfect. Someone should certainly play one. Gangrel rock as well. Not so sure on the mongol thing. I cringe when I think eastern vampire. I will have to look over that book soon. I'm not entirely against it, but it's more work for me too if something really weird walks in. An Arab I could manage with some difficulty. A mongoloid wildman... Damn. We'll just call him French and hope it passes.

the mongolian gangrel variant is actually a kindred, they just take one of their clan disciplines from the kuei jin book. It IS weird, but it makes sense. One of the thaum supplements talks about the indian kindred, and how they coexist with kuei jin. According to the map you posted, the 'golden hordes' border on the black sea, which allows naval passage into southern europe. I would be more comfortable playing a han chinese character than a mongol, I could see a particularly strong warrior (martial arts) being captured by the mongols rather than killed, and kept around as a part amusement / part amazement. he is embraced eventually, and using his powers escapes in the only direction he can. with the canonization of the buddha by the pope, and the religious hierarchy in the state that it is, he might seek shelter from the sun and pursuit in an anonymous abbey in italy.

on the other hand, I found some more powerful variants on medium and oracle in the 'viking' book, don't remember its name off the top of my head. I can do a soothsayer/oracle style character again, though it would be in a religious context. honestly, THAT complicates a GMs life more often than not, though it does allow for direction to be readily given to the plot.

On yet a third hand, I would be interested in playing a thaumaturge from one of the religious requirement variants, such as the mystics of india, or others even. Egypt perhaps, since it's right there. it's distinctly religious, and is incompatible with other religious ways. Keeping in mind the acceptance of buddhism, however temporary it was, someone from india might be considered a welcome guest to a 'borderline heretical' religious community, where he could share his scholarship and knowledge. (though the path I am thinking of is quite specifically hindu, the two are somewhat compatible, and in this instance the character would be a scholar). Of course, no GM in the world wants a starting character to have the power that permanently turns the whole pc party into kuei jin, but I *can* control myself and there are other things that power is good for. Again, though, it is largely about seeing the future or past. (if allowable, I could combine the seer idea with the indian mystic, I do like that approach, and the character would have remarkable insight into events past present and future. I do like this concept, but it *can* be game breaking)

Of course, a religious character that actually gains benefit from their faith and is actually on their way to becoming enlightened is rather disruptive in a scheming/plotting game.

Meh. A good old fashioned vampire doesn't hurt me any. any thoughts?

I've been reading through some other DA supplements I've gotten my hands on. I'm pretty torn as to which idea I want to go with.

The first concept is a Tzimisce that ascribes to the Road of the Beast's Path of the Gray Hunter (found in the Road of the Beast supplement) and is generally a very refined hunter of men. Despite following the Road of the Beast, this character fits very well into most social arenas, as the particular path he follows emphasizes hunting prey (humans, in this case) in their natural environment. Any time I think about the Tzimisce, I'm drawn to Koldunism, as I think its terribly neat. Elemental magic is always in style and given that the Tzimisce already have a very strong tie to the land, it just has a neat feel to it.

The other concept is a fairly stereotypical Lasombra power-in-the-shadows type. I've been looking through various roads to try to decide what fits him, and its turning out to be pretty tough. The Road of Kings offers the most candidates, although the DA version of the Road of the Night is also sorta neat (its fairly different than the modern Path of the Night). The Road of Heaven's Path of Divinity is also viable, though it feels less playable than some of the others to me.

I'm going to do a little more research on the time period, but at this point I'm looking at the Tzimisce as coming from the Hungarian area and the Lasombra being from somewhere a little further west, perhaps Aragon, by the map linked earlier.

Edit: It occurs to me that I didn't say too much about what the characters would be doing. The Tzimisce, who is the one I've primarily been thinking about recently, would primarily be there to educate himself. He's an avid hunter, even if its not for feeding, and takes the opportunity to practice his sorcery out in the wilderness on prey he considers worthy. His favorite practice, which he doesn't get to indulge in very often, is to chase terrified mortals though the woods all night - he considers them the ultimate sport. When not hunting or studying, he enjoys social gatherings like parties, as they give him a chance to locate new prey and to assert his dominance as a predator. He's very territorial, as most Tzimisce and followers of the Road of the Beast are; if there is a local Prince, he'll want to immediately work out feeding grounds where he has sole rights. To justify the Koldunic Sorcery some, I'm thinking that he may have come from a family of hedge wizards. Perhaps his sorcerous talent caught his sire's eye. Any talent he might have had with that sorcery was destroyed by the Embrace, but the trade off was an affinity for Clan Tzimisce's own brand of elemental magic.

The Lasombra, by contrast, will be very concerned with the general social hierarchy and generally edging his way to the top of that. This character would likely pay lip service to the Church without actually being very pious. This character isn't as fleshed out as the Tzimisce, as I haven't focused on it as much as a concept. I flipped through my Clanbook: Lasombra a bit though and found a few choice passages about how the Lasombra view Dominate and Potence that I thought were just awesome. If you've ever read it, I'm specifically referring to the description of the painting that used to (probably still is, in a DA game, since this is before the Anarch Revolt) hang in the Lasombra's Sicilian stronghold which depicts the Lasombra view of Dominate. The potence description I thought was pretty cool talked about how many (esspecially Christian) Lasombra view Potence's strength as coming from a form of transubstantiation. Simply the idea that some Lasombra view Potence's strength as using shadow to fortify their body rather than project it outwards changed the way I look at the clan, to a degree. At the very least, its terribly flavorful.

Anyway, enough ranting from me. I should have been in bed almost two hours ago...

Rusty wrote:on the other hand, I found some more powerful variants on medium and oracle in the 'viking' book, don't remember its name off the top of my head.

Wolves of the Sea?

avilister:

I really like the idea of a koldunic sorceror in this setting. We had that come up in my vampire game a while ago, and one of the paths is almost useless in a modern setting. The water path peaks out with a power which creates a gigantic whirlpool. it says that modern kindred with the power use it to upset late night swimmers. (*sigh*) however, in a medieval setting...

I think the idea is good, I'd like to play along side the character.

I'm pretty thrilled to hear that, 'cause its the one I want to play the most :P

If you ended up with any of the mystic-types, I could see that being pretty interesting. Thought 'paradigms' aren't a game mechanic in Vampire, it would still be interesting to see their concepts of things clash, even if it was purely academic.

"I see, he thinks that he's simply directing 'ki' through a 'chakra' but what he's -actually- doing is channeling an earth spirit..."

avilister:

that...makes me want to play even more. A friend of mine is going to hook me up with some books, and I can look more seriously at the indian mystic. I'd have to get more familiar with ancient hindu practices, I know some of it, and I'd have to see how it blends in with Dark Ages. There never was a 'kindred of india' book. They 'aren't' tremere, so finding the right clan might be weird. Hmm. They tended to be ascetics, does gangrel work? and I buy an extra in clan discipline? I think that's up to chris. I found it in one of the thaum supplements. There was a definite dark side to hindu mythology (and still is), so 'being a vampire' and vying against others for power or goals is totally possible.

I have a number of character concepts forming, but until I find a boundary or approval for a broad concept, I don't want to flesh out huge amounts.

The hindu mystic would be Guhyakadhipati Dhara, ascetic scholar from the Orient. Having shunned the world most of his life, living out in the country and making a life as a nomad, he eventually came across another ascetic, one fateful night. [insert choreographed embrace dance number here]. His life since then has been one of travel, fleeing the threat of the mongol hordes to the north, and seeking out the western world, in the infancy of its enlightenment. He would have come to italy to attempt to fit in more. (it is a strange and documented phenomena that even in modern italy, an indian man is often confused for an italian man. To us they may not look alike, but there is frequent confusion with tourists.) He will attempt to take advantage of the sudden open mindedness in the west and introduce some hindu thought, while the dharma is being examined by catholic scholars. He would be a scholar of buddhism, and would try to find a home at the nameless monastery (here after "The Monastery") where he might discuss and debate with other scholars.

Does that work? Chris? Are you real? or is it just cheyne with an alternate login.