I love the French background both because of the history and because of the wonderful names in the naming list.
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The goal is to get St. Louis written, and then release all three volumes on Steam together.
The problem remains: how do I give players the feeling of affecting the world while still keeping History (with a capital H) close enough to the real world that I donāt have to write totally different versions of the later volumes.
Especially as the PC becomes more powerful and learns more about vampire society and history, and advances through the ranks of the Society.
The particular vignette that I should work on today/this weekend is about the Exodusters, in case anyone was curious.
But to answer your question, @AAO, no, I donāt have a favorite ethnicity. Iām partial to the French, because Iām from New Orleans and my momās fatherās family is Cajun and thereās a certain romance there. But Iām going to try and make the different ethnicities each have an opportunity to shine.
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German Warrior! Mine is named Reinhardt Wilhelm, 100% german power!
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This should get a thread of its own - a very important subject we as a community should talk about.
The typical way I see it handled is by creating a "shadow-society/power structure that influences things ābehind the scenesā
A recent example was in the new NBC tv show Timeless where they created an organization whole-cloth
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World Of Darkness, my boi?
I aināt complaining.
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Well, thereās two things that keep vampire PCs from affecting the course of RL history. One is the Rule of Reserve, and the power of the vampire society that enforces it. The other is that this isnāt Choice of the Dragon, and the PC has very limited hard power. You canāt even massacre a crowd of angry peasants. So a PC setting the course of RL history is not really within the boundaries of feasible goals.
On the other hand, the PC absolutely has to have more flexibility in the third book with regard to vampire society. Part of the theme of the first book is that youāre the eldersā bitch, obviously, and in Memphis youāre trying to ride out and survive a situation that was predestined before you ever got there. Okay, fine. Now in book 3, youāre a veteran vampire in your own right in a time of change and chaos. You should have a chance at Quaesitor or Senator status, a chance to decide whether to support the Consul of Europe or America and the Shepherds or the Wolves. Alternatively, you need to be able to achieve such goals as finding true love, finding the deep secrets of the blood, becoming human again, and so on - not all in the same game of course.
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This is where I believe the danger of outgrowing history can occur in the series. As the MC grows and matures, so do the challenges and adversaries.
Especially with regard to the shepherds v wolf conflict but also the jurisdictional conflict, the danger of growth into the history stream is amplified. Meeting Andrew Jackson at a social gathering (should) mean something different to a Senator-level vampire then it does to a young just-turned vampire.
Going from the situation of competing factions to one of ascendancy of a faction changes the relationship not only internally but externally to more visible influences of history and widely known public centers of power. An analogy of history would be the monastic orders and their rise and consolidation within the Roman Catholic church.
Our vampire is on the cusp of becoming a faction leader internally - consolidation is logically next and it is at this point the nexus of concern is in critical mass for both story momentum and world-building during writing.
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I guess I already tried every path in the first game and couldnāt get a romance with Guillaumeā¦I am missing something or just in the second game?
Welp, I just finished replaying the game again.
Hereās my build, for anyone who is interested.
Vampire Name: Katherina Kistenmacher
Maker: West
Choice of Prey: Children
Income (US$2012): 10
Wealth (US$2012): 13529
Face Value of Memphis Municipal Bonds (US$1873): 796
Literate? No.
Language(s): English, German.
Agility: 2
Charm: 3
Intelligence: 1
Strength: 3
Willpower: 2
Creation: 0
Fighting: 1
Lore: 1
Perception: 1
Shapeshifting: 3
Stealth: 2
Status: 0
Streetwise: 0
Technology: 0
@jasonstevanhill I apologise mate, but, from what Iām gathering from the more recent posts on here, youāre working on a third CoV?
I have been, off-and-on, since V2 came out, yes. Iām just lately trying to make some actual progress on it. My wife and I want to have a baby; getting V3 out will help with that substantively. 
I actually have a not-insignificant portion of V4 written as well. But I wrote that way back in 2010, and it will need to be heavily revised.
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Is there a possibility to select gender I mean I donāt know I always end us as a girl ā¦Is boy available as gender if so help how to become a boy
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@sarath_a You bow, my friend.
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Ohk thanks friend I think it has some implicit meaning
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@jasonstevanhill In V1, there were plenty of satisfyingly brutal feats that our vampires were capable of, allowing us to truly feel like a monster, like I wanted to. Such as feeding on another vampire, and killing soldiers in direct combat. In V2, I felt like all that was missing. What can you say, if anything, about V3? Obviously I donāt know exactly how far along you are, but will these moments from V1 make a return?
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Thatās an interesting request.
Mind you, thereās no reason I canāt add more content to V2. If you go back and play it again, tell me where you wish you could have done something else/more brutal!
The issue, however, is this: as time passes and the PC exists in cities with more vampires, more humans, and as your age/status increases, doing stupid things results in death much more quickly. And giving the player the opportunity to do stupid things that gets them killed is not good game design. So, moments of ābrutalityā have to be very carefully chosen, especially because most PCs donāt have the capacity affect human memories (yet). (The logic being: brutal things attract attention, the sort of attention that can swiftly spiral out of control. Even if the PC can survive the brutal feat itself, if it attracts too much attention, then a Praetor will come knocking. And, sure, I could spin out that story for a while, but why spend my time on a thread that just exists to kill the PC, instead of the threads that will carry forward into the subsequent volumes?)
As I said though, if there are specific moments where you wish you could do something in V2, by all means, let me know, and Iāll see if I can add them.
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@jasonstevanhill Perhaps I should have thought of it, that way.
Let me go back and do a few reruns. It has been awhile. What you said makes perfect sense, itās just that, in a game in which you play as a monster, I like to be just that. A monster. It makes for exciting roleplay opportunities, to do things no human character of mine would ever do. In V1, itās the reason I fed on children, why I mostly chose a Germanic background, and why West was my favourite Maker. Basically put, Iām a fan of the brutal version of the vampire: the demon of the night, the pale predator, the bane of mortality.
For right now, I would love to see more opportunities to use my Shapeshifting powers. In both parts.
Take that one scene in V1 for example, where you could choose to fight and feed on two soldiers. I thought, since I had low Fighting but high Shapeshifting, that I would be able to, well, you know, shape shift. But I failed, and my Yankee character had to be reconsidered. It seemed there was absolutely no reason to even have a character that can Shapeshift. As a heavy roleplayer, I pay great attention to details like this. It has quite a fair impact on my playthroughs (I had to do alot of experimenting in that game in order to get the ārightā character. See, I wanted West as my maker, but I also wanted to have a combat-effifient character. It sucked to learn I canāt have both).
Maybe I just wanted a Germanic MC w/West as Maker combination too much. Like I said, allow me to do some rereading. I could definitely come up with more and better feedback.
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Ah, the problem is, you need Shapeshifting 3 before combat is improved/affected. 1 and 2 are the ability to communicate with and command animals.
That said, which patrol are you talking about? The one where you are trying to skip out of Vicksburg? Itās entirely possible that the difficulty is set too high, there or anywhere. That was before the days of any sort of statistical testing.
I canāt recall where, but an option that accompanied it was to feed on some wounded soldiers, Confederate soldiers. That leads you to vomit blood for a night, if Iām indeed correct. And I believe you have hit the nail in the head regarding the difficulty, because I couldāve bet my life that I had 3 Shapeshifting. Yes, I did, because that was one of my many attempts at a āperfectā Southerner playthrough. I remember getting the Pied Piper achievement before that part.
Hey Josh,
Youāre exactly the sort of player I could have used during the beta process. And even now. Play V2 and tell me where you would have liked more/different options to reflect that condition/state of mind!