When running VtM, all the GMs I knew started with a specific City by Night, some times published by WW, but most of the time custom-made, and ran it as a sandbox where the PCs basically came into the picture, trying to discover the truth of who rules who, what the history of the place is, carve themselves domains, eliminate the opposition (including other PCs) and so on.

So, what City by Night are/were you running? Anything you want to share about it? Who rules? What's going on? How many Vampires, clans are there? Anything you feel like sharing.

Back when I ran VTM many moons ago, I used my own Boston By Night, a Camarilla setting where the city was under seige by the Sabbat and where the local Anarchs were called The Minutemen.

Last time I played Vampire, we were Sabbat running around in 1970s NYC. It was a LOT of fun.

Ive been playing in a sporadic 1983 Chicago by Night. Ive also run VtR, modern times in SF / Bay Area, where Ive pretty much tossed out clans and traditional WW vampire political structures. Characters have no memory of who made them, only that they "fell asleep" about six months before. That campaign is all based around "who made me and why".

My feeling is that the horror elements of VtM get sacrificed a bit by this complex feudal system, which is why I tossed out all of that for my own game. But the straight up VtR Chicago by Night game is fun - just not that scary.

Las Vegas by Night - power plays for water rights and control of the press and the Herd, dance clubs where you compete with the arbiters of what's fashionable, insane people living in the sewers...

It doesn't actually NEED vampires.

JG

I am developing and, sparsely, running Barcelona by Night, because I live here. Basically, I ported Chicago by Night here, changing names and backgrounds as appropriate (Barcelona, like Chicago, has had plenty of social conflicts and a Big Fucking Fire, too), and it is basically a small island of Camarilla amidst the sea of Sabbat.

More details later, if I can.

I ran Southampton by Night (where I grew up) and later Oxford by Night (went to Uni). I used local historical personalities for the Primogen/Prince in So'ton.

The Oxford game was mostly live action and we used the real locations we were familiar with. Someone had already written an article in our RPG magazine about the City of Dreaming Vampires and all of the funny things that happen in Oxford University like Sub Fusc and Sconcing (sounds like a blood-binding ceremony, eh). There were Nosferatu in the stacks of the Bodlean and rival Primogen heading up the colleges.

One issue I had was the vampire population. 1 vamp per 100k humans means about 2-3 total vamps in Southampton, so we all agreed the UK was massively overcrowded.

I feel the need to describe how I prepare for a Vampire campaign.

I can't explain why, but I do more prep for Vampire than any other setting.

I select a city (Detroit was the last one I used) and then gather any and all printed vampire books that can be remotely useful.

I familiarize myself with the actual city, and the city as portrayed in the game world.

I then create a paper file (I still use a lot of paper when I gm) of every vampire in the city, likely to arrive in the city, sire/progency connected; etc..

I then spend time reading over the file of Vampires and digest their motivations, connections, etc....

For some reason, when I gm Vampire, I feel compelled to know who every vampire is in the area; who sired who, who likes who, who is nuts, who is harmless, etc...

Its a lot of work, and the l;ast time I prepped this way the players decided at the last moment before we started the campaign that they wanted to do pathfinder instead.

So instead of suicide I ran Pathfinder with minimal prep

Quote from: Benoist;667581When running VtM, all the GMs I knew started with a specific City by Night, some times published by WW, but most of the time custom-made, and ran it as a sandbox where the PCs basically came into the picture, trying to discover the truth of who rules who, what the history of the place is, carve themselves domains, eliminate the opposition (including other PCs) and so on.

So, what City by Night are/were you running? Anything you want to share about it? Who rules? What's going on? How many Vampires, clans are there? Anything you feel like sharing.

Now I can share a bit more.

WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS OF CHICAGO BY NIGHT AHEAD.

As I said before, my Barcelona by Night is Chicago by Night with sun and beach I changed some NPCs and many names, but kept most of them the same.

Barcelona is ruled by Berenguera, the Countess-Queen of Barcelona. She's a Ventrue from the Middle-Ages (that makes them older than Lodin, but given than Lodin was incredibly powerful for his age I just used his stats for her). Berenguera is a strong Prince, but she has two problems: one is the Primogen Council, who secretly rules the city and whose approval she must get to do anything important, and the other problem is her feeding restriction. She can only feed on children, which is awkward to say the least and is going to get her in serious problems with both mortals and Kindred if it comes to the light.

The Primogen Council is the same as in Chicago, which means terribly old and strong vampires moving things from the shadows. The existence of the Primogen is unknown to most young Kindred in Barcelona, many of whom believe that Berenguera rules alone.

Arching over these figures we have the two Methuselah, Helena and Menelaus, yeah, the married couple from the Illiad. I felt that it was very appropriate to move them to a Mediterranean city, at the opposite side of the sea, to end their strife. Each one of them controls roughly half of the Primogen (only the Nosferatu Primogen is free, and aware of this), and try to find the other's location to destroy them. There are some other beings watching them and pulling their strings (Menelaus has started to get suspicious about this), but I will get to that later.

The city epitomizes the strife between Camarilla and Anarchists, with the Sabbat being the constant background menace. I decided that the conflict between Catalonian independists and the Spanish Government relfected very well the strife between the Sabbat in Madrid and the Camarilla in Barcelona. The Camarilla holds Barcelona with an iron hand, and they would not hesitate to send the heavy guys (a Justicar or two, or even Karsh) to fight the Sabbat if they tried to do a really bold movement to take it. Moncada, the leader of the Spanish Sabbat decided to fight the war on the economic front, hence the Spanish Government making stupid economic decisions regarding Catalonia and essentially trying to choke Barcelona economically speaking.

Apart from Barcelona, the Camarilla controls Tarragona, capital of the south province and a very important industrial zone. Berenguera has one of the progeny ruling there as viceroy, but is mostly a war zone with the Sabbat. No Anarchs there.

Berenguera hates everything outside the Camarilla so no vampires from independent clans are allowed to reside there. Caitiff are routinely victimized and abused. It is interesting to know that for the last 18 years Berenguera has forbidden the Embrace of new vampires in the metropolitan area, as Barcelona is already overcrowded (more than 70 vampires in the metropolitan area). Some vampires use creative ways to elude this restrictions. So, you will find mostly the vampires from Camarilla clans, a few Caitiff among the Anarchs, and some (very few) independent vampires in deep hiding.

At the moment the main conflict is the conflict between Berenguera and the Anarchs in one hand, and Salvador (aka Modius), the rebel Prince of Sabadell (a near industrial city). Basically, I madeGary into Sabadell, and thus this city became a shithole. If a vampire wants to Embrace a Neonate, an option is to go to Sabadell and ask Salvador to recognize the new vampire.

Dunno, any concrete question you may want to ask?

Lots of diversity of locations, feels, allegiances, some Sabbat, some Camarilla, etc on the thread! That is very cool.

Quote from: smiorgan;667851I ran Southampton by Night (where I grew up) and later Oxford by Night (went to Uni). I used local historical personalities for the Primogen/Prince in So'ton.

The Oxford game was mostly live action and we used the real locations we were familiar with. Someone had already written an article in our RPG magazine about the City of Dreaming Vampires and all of the funny things that happen in Oxford University like Sub Fusc and Sconcing (sounds like a blood-binding ceremony, eh). There were Nosferatu in the stacks of the Bodlean and rival Primogen heading up the colleges.

One issue I had was the vampire population. 1 vamp per 100k humans means about 2-3 total vamps in Southampton, so we all agreed the UK was massively overcrowded.

That's usually what happened with the cities of Europe that I remember with my friends*. The 1 vampire per 100K mortals was a guideline clearly intended for the US's massive urban areas, and we basically assumed that Europe, with its ancient cities and generally old vampire populations, was another ballpark altogether.

I had over 150 vampires in Paris at one point, all with stats, backgrounds, etc, but that was before the shit really hit the fan in the campaign and a lot of those vampires died. Average vampire population in Paris over the 22 years or so I've run it (holy fuck, has it been that long?) is more along the lines of 100-120 vampires at a time.

Question for you: were you using the Mind's eye theater rules for your LARP sessions in Oxford?

PS: * Many gamers/friends in my circles in France basically assumed we were playing in the same World of Darkness. So as GMs, we would each have a city and characters could get from one city to the next, back and forth, as though the whole thing was a living campaign of some sort. I ran Paris by Night. Other cities run by friends included Cardiff, London, Amsterdam, Venice, Athens and quite a few others. Occasionally we would veer off and someone would run another location, like when some of the players of my PbN went to Scotland for the Prince François Villon before he disappeared, or when I (or my character, should I say) went to Vienna to bust into the Tremere Chantry there and faced off with Etrius (I barely escaped with my un-life on this one, that was epic).

Quote from: Imperator;668191Now I can share a bit more.

WARNING: MASSIVE SPOILERS OF CHICAGO BY NIGHT AHEAD.

As I said before, my Barcelona by Night is Chicago by Night with sun and beach I changed some NPCs and many names, but kept most of them the same.

Barcelona is ruled by Berenguera, the Countess-Queen of Barcelona. She's a Ventrue from the Middle-Ages (that makes them older than Lodin, but given than Lodin was incredibly powerful for his age I just used his stats for her). Berenguera is a strong Prince, but she has two problems: one is the Primogen Council, who secretly rules the city and whose approval she must get to do anything important, and the other problem is her feeding restriction. She can only feed on children, which is awkward to say the least and is going to get her in serious problems with both mortals and Kindred if it comes to the light.

The Primogen Council is the same as in Chicago, which means terribly old and strong vampires moving things from the shadows. The existence of the Primogen is unknown to most young Kindred in Barcelona, many of whom believe that Berenguera rules alone.

Arching over these figures we have the two Methuselah, Helena and Menelaus, yeah, the married couple from the Illiad. I felt that it was very appropriate to move them to a Mediterranean city, at the opposite side of the sea, to end their strife. Each one of them controls roughly half of the Primogen (only the Nosferatu Primogen is free, and aware of this), and try to find the other's location to destroy them. There are some other beings watching them and pulling their strings (Menelaus has started to get suspicious about this), but I will get to that later.

The city epitomizes the strife between Camarilla and Anarchists, with the Sabbat being the constant background menace. I decided that the conflict between Catalonian independists and the Spanish Government relfected very well the strife between the Sabbat in Madrid and the Camarilla in Barcelona. The Camarilla holds Barcelona with an iron hand, and they would not hesitate to send the heavy guys (a Justicar or two, or even Karsh) to fight the Sabbat if they tried to do a really bold movement to take it. Moncada, the leader of the Spanish Sabbat decided to fight the war on the economic front, hence the Spanish Government making stupid economic decisions regarding Catalonia and essentially trying to choke Barcelona economically speaking.

Apart from Barcelona, the Camarilla controls Tarragona, capital of the south province and a very important industrial zone. Berenguera has one of the progeny ruling there as viceroy, but is mostly a war zone with the Sabbat. No Anarchs there.

Berenguera hates everything outside the Camarilla so no vampires from independent clans are allowed to reside there. Caitiff are routinely victimized and abused. It is interesting to know that for the last 18 years Berenguera has forbidden the Embrace of new vampires in the metropolitan area, as Barcelona is already overcrowded (more than 70 vampires in the metropolitan area). Some vampires use creative ways to elude this restrictions. So, you will find mostly the vampires from Camarilla clans, a few Caitiff among the Anarchs, and some (very few) independent vampires in deep hiding.

At the moment the main conflict is the conflict between Berenguera and the Anarchs in one hand, and Salvador (aka Modius), the rebel Prince of Sabadell (a near industrial city). Basically, I madeGary into Sabadell, and thus this city became a shithole. If a vampire wants to Embrace a Neonate, an option is to go to Sabadell and ask Salvador to recognize the new vampire.

Dunno, any concrete question you may want to ask?

Very cool Ramon, thanks for sharing! I really like Chicago too, and I'm not surprised at all at the way it'd fit in the old world. I really like the way you reshaped the Spanish politics to fit the basic conceits of Chicago with the Camarilla-Sabbat dynamics without breaking the Spanish Sabbat groove with the Reconquista and so on. Really makes sense to have Menele and Helena there too, I agree.

How did the campaign veer off the established "Chicago" over the course you ran it? Like, was the setting deeply shaken/affected by the PCs action over the course of the Chronicle, and if so, to what extent/how?

Quote from: Benoist;668215Question for you: were you using the Mind's eye theater rules for your LARP sessions in Oxford?

No, we never got into MET, though I tried it for a bit (some of our group went to London to play Camarilla UK, though). We used the VtM character sheet and relied heavily on GM arbitration in live scenarios where we couldn't either go to the dice (in a breakout session) or forbid the action (because of Elysium, or whatever). This was partly because the original game sprang from a couple of tabletops (including mine), and subsequent games followed the same format because it's what the players knew.

It was an exercise in committee management and we didn't always get it right. I certainly wouldn't set out to run LARP like that today... but I've played a lot of live action games and TBH most of them turn out with the same chaotic mess even if they've got systems which are more fit for purpose.

QuotePS: * Many gamers/friends in my circles in France basically assumed we were playing in the same World of Darkness. So as GMs, we would each have a city and characters could get from one city to the next, back and forth, as though the whole thing was a living campaign of some sort. I ran Paris by Night. Other cities run by friends included Cardiff, London, Amsterdam, Venice, Athens and quite a few others. Occasionally we would veer off and someone would run another location, like when some of the players of my PbN went to Scotland for the Prince François Villon before he disappeared, or when I (or my character, should I say) went to Vienna to bust into the Tremere Chantry there and faced off with Etrius (I barely escaped with my un-life on this one, that was epic).

Yes, that's similar to how we did it. Southampton and Cambridge by Night were the first two campaigns run and the cities were owned by myself and a friend (who grew up in Cambridge). They were purely table top. We had ambitions to cross them over more than actually happened, but they occupied the same universe as Oxford by Night later and the same characters appeared in all three.

The more I think about my game the more I realise what horrible liberties I took with the historical personages, like Thomas Wriothesley. I didn't have Wikipedia back then (or much of a sense of good taste) so I lifted his name from a history book and turned him into a baby-eating maniac.

Quote from: Benoist;668217Very cool Ramon, thanks for sharing! I really like Chicago too, and I'm not surprised at all at the way it'd fit in the old world. I really like the way you reshaped the Spanish politics to fit the basic conceits of Chicago with the Camarilla-Sabbat dynamics without breaking the Spanish Sabbat groove with the Reconquista and so on. Really makes sense to have Menele and Helena there too, I agree.

How did the campaign veer off the established "Chicago" over the course you ran it? Like, was the setting deeply shaken/affected by the PCs action over the course of the Chronicle, and if so, to what extent/how?

Well, the thing is, I haven't actually fully run it!

This campaign kind of floundered recently due to RL conceits (one of my players left the city, the baby girl was a massive attention drain and all that). So I made the prep and we played a few sessions, but we had not played it enough to see where it takes us.

Now this is a game we play when the Star Wars group cannot make it. At this moment, the coterie is in Sabadell, working for Berenguera as deep cover agents trying to unveil who in the Primogen is giving support to the Prince there. So, my PCs torched and destroyed a valuable resource for Berenguera (some sort of brothel/slave pen where mortals were held for the Ventruew to feed) in order to make their cover credible. At the last session the PCs managed to stablish a dominion in Sabadell getting a strip club from Alicia, the Prince's progeny.

What I did have in mind were several events that may happen in the future unless something drastic happened:

- I liked the idea of Under a Blood Red Moon: a cataclysm  that wipes out half of the vampires in Chicago, leaving the Prince's position open. But I am not interested in werewolves (though there is a pack of them in Collserola, the mountain inside the city), so I have decided that the Inquisition is going to do it, a series of surgical strikes that will leave the vampiric society in shambles. Thanks to the PCs, the Inquisitors know several things about where the vampires gather, by the way

- Menelaus fears that his actions are not his own (and he is right), so he needs to do something to prove to himself what is happening. As I have planned that the events of Ashes to Ashes would take place (those 1st ed modules are seriously cool), Menelaus will have the chance to notice the PCs. They can be excellent assets, that can be used to gather information without getting unwanted attention.

- Helena on the other side gives zero fucks about being controlled (which makes it the more easier) and only wants to kill her husband and be done with it. Regardless she controlling both Berenguera and some important Anarchs, she's considering opening the gates to the Black Hand in hopes that a Sabbat invasion will flush Menelaus out. The attack of the Inquisition is going to harm her plans severely, but is not out of the question for her to do something brutal like killing whoever is the Prince and several Primogens, even if that may expose her (after all she has Humanity 2, so she doesn't gives a fuck).

- Once the Inconnu Monitor realizes the active presence of the Methuselahs (Rebekah knows about them, but think that they're still in torpor), her priority will be to protect Menelaus because he's about to reach Golconda. That makes two Methuselahs against Helena, who won't hesitate to use the Sabbat against them, hold innocents hostage, or whatever happens.

More about the Antediluvians soon.

Here in Montevideo there was a kind of megacampaign of  Montevideo by Night, that encompassed more than 50 players both LARPing and tabletop play.  They even got me to play for a bit.

Quote from: RPGPundit;668770Here in Montevideo there was a kind of megacampaign of  Montevideo by Night, that encompassed more than 50 players both LARPing and tabletop play.  They even got me to play for a bit.

How did it go?  I've always been of the opinion that Vampire could work as a traditional RPG instead of just a story game.