I wanted to gauge interest in running one-shots to give people a taste of some roleplaying games that are like D&D, but not necessarily D&D. I've got two dozen settings and systems on my computer and some of them I haven't even played!
So I figured I'd run them. Maybe once a month, maybe longer periods of time. My goal is to introduce new people to the world of TTRPGs, and/or introduced more experienced players to new games they may not have played!
Here are some guidelines for future adventures.
Who am I as a Game Master? I've been DMing, GMing, and what have you for 17 years. I've played in lots of games, and DM/GMed just as many. I believe in story above anything else. While combat rightly exists in most TTRPGs, that is not my focus, and in most games I will streamline combat and focus on story and characters. If you like to min/max your characters for combat (or even non-combat), I'm not the GM for you. If you like to spend a ton of time OOC thinking of opitmal moves and metagaming with your own and your party's character sheets, I'm also not the GM for you. If you like to railroad me or your fellow players into your own machinations at the expense of everyone else's fun, I'm also not the GM for you. I preferred flawed characters, and I prefer players who understand that everyone at the (virtual) table is working towards a common goal to tell a story.
Some of the games in my catelog will tackle tough themes. When I propose a game I'll put those specific warnings out. Don't play if a game tackles a theme that makes you uncomfortable. I promise as a GM I will try to explore any tough themes with the utmost respect and levity, and if you are in one of these games I ask that you do the same. The games that I pick will be inclusive, and once again I'll do my best at being respectful and having the appropriate levity. Usually the game designers have nice blurbs about these I can go ahead and post about.
For the most part I will GM with theatre of the mind. I'm not a fan of battle maps. Some things might have maps or other visual supplements, but those are the exceptions, not the norm. I will do my best to paint a clear picture of what we're doing in the game, but sometimes I fall short, and if you play I want you to be okay with that.
We will play on the MS Discord in voice chat. My preferences for games is to have webcams on. This isn't a hard requirement, but please be open to the possibility that seeing everyone's lovely faces will enhance the experience. Voice is a hard requirement, you need to be able to hear the party/me, and speak to them/me.
Signing up to play is just committing to one session for about 4 hours. I'll be proposing times and such in the next post when I announce the first game. Playing in one game doesn't commit you to playing in future games. Missing one game doesn't mean you can't play in future games.
Spectators are welcome. Please be respectful of the players playing. It is likely that they will be on camera putting themselves out there. I may limit or remove spectators as necessary. I hope I won't have to but I will if you become an issue while watching.
Ultimately my goal is to have some fun with the community and introduce some new stuff to people. If you're on the fence about a game you can always private message me on Discord.
Vampire the Masquerade is a game originally released by White Wolf publishing in 1991 as the first of several Storyteller System games in the World of Darkness line. 5th edition modernizes the setting and the rules for today's TTRPG players. It is set in a fictionalized version of the modern world, where players assume the roles of vampires, referred to as "Kindred" and deal with the night-to-night struggles against their own beastial natures, enemies of the mortal world, and one another.
This game uses the concept of vampirism to explore dark themes. Inside each Kindred is something known as The Beast. The Beast drives the vampire to give into their cursed nature and become the monsters of lore. This battle with The Beast and with one another allows the story to explore some heavy topics including consent, violence, exploitation, corruption, power, and prejudice. The World of Darkness is a bleak version of our own world, but many parallels can exist between their timeline and ours.
The logistics of this game is as follows...
We will be playing an introductory story with pre-generated characters for the story. This introductory story will also teach the core concepts of the game play and introduce some themes. Despite all that I have written above the
introductory story isn't a dark fest of evil and awful things
. Nonetheless I wanted to approach this game with the appropriate amount of grace. Don't let the above turn you off either!
You will not need to worry about character generation or learning about game mechanics, those things are baked into the introductory story. Yeah, your characters might commit acts of violence in the course of the introductory story, and we will treat those acts with the proper amount of levity.
We will handle certain sensitive subjects as follows: like any good triple AAA game, children either don't exist and/or are immune to everything. I will not allow your characters to interact with children at all, nor we will tell any stories that features them. Sexual violence will just be alluded to, it will most certainly not be roleplayed. Issues around consent can possibly be roleplayed, but again with levity and grace. Same with violence.
If after reading all this you are still interested in playing I have room for up to 7 players. I will be proposing times on the following dates...
October 16th and 17th, and October 25th and 26th. The times I am available on those days generally will be between 9am and midnight Eastern time. That does give us a wide range of possibility, so if you're in a non-American timezone don't fret we might be able to make it work.
If you happened to have played in my VtM campaign in the past then you shouldn't sign up since you have already experienced this introductory session.
Okay, that's that. If you have any questions, feel free to post them here or ask me in a private message on Discord.
I second what ducky says(except the Toreador part, I'm just egoing cuz the Nosferatu drive to know things). T-Bone does a really fantastic job of making something like VtM still be not just fun but definitely not too far into nasty places. And the introduction story is a lot of fun, highly recommend giving it a try. And the system is incredibly easy to pick up.
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Discord is faster than PMs or sitechat: xofelf#1697
