Dança Macabra - Ugly Politics in a Beautiful City
Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition | Campaign
About the adventure
This is a stand-alone, short-term campaign, intended to run 6-10 sessions. It is also able to serve as the intro to a full-length campaign, so the option is available to continue beyond that point, for any players who choose to. Set in 2007 in Rio De Janeiro, in a setting that is not the World of Darkness, but which takes heavy inspiration from it. Vampires did not descend solely from Cain, and as such, though they still retained influence in elite circles, were still disparate and vulnerable until the 1990's. It was at that time, a proper vampire social structure was implemented, and the structures of Camarilla and Clans and Masquerade were properly established. The 20th Century had driven vampires to the brink as aristocracies around the world crumbled, but now with a unified front with which to make demands, their situation has been improving significantly, even if their heyday has passed. This game is intended to be an examination of irreconcilable wants and needs, the ugly side of politics and the threat of collapse staved off by compromises that do not satisfy anyone. It is meant to be approached maturely and with respect and curiosity. If you are not prepared to get heavy, and introspective, then this may not be the game for you. "Lights. Music. Drinking. Dancing. Carnivale in Rio de Janeiro means joy and freedom to all its people. Save you. No, for centuries now, the prospect of Carnivale looms over the kindred. The children of the night know that the grand parades are yet another battleground in the war for survival that you wage nightly against humankind. Ever since the church concocted a ritual some 30 years ago, they have been able to force their faith upon the vampires of the city, and for the 40 days of Lent, prevent them from feeding. Years of chaos followed, where crazed, starved vampires stalked the streets, easy prey for the hunters until they gorged themselves to bursting at the end of the month. Thankfully, an answer was found. A parade float loaded with the correct ritual elements, inserted into the Carnivale parade, could break the church's spell. Still, the chaos did not abate, it just made the beginning of Lent mirror the end, a warzone where desperate kindred were driven to slaughter. When the Camarilla was formalised, finally real progress was made. A bargain was struck. Unwilling to give up such a potent tool in their war, the church of Rio instead compromised, and agreed that each year, at the beginning of Lent, there would be a coterie of vampires formed, and a group of Catholic hunters. Between these two groups alone would the struggle continue, ritual and counter-ritual. This year, you are the ones selected. You may not have known each other before, but now the stability of the city rests in your hands. Lately things have gone the way of the kindred. Let us hope you can continue the trend. The Prince does not suffer failure." (Image attribution: Freepik)
Game style
Theater of the Mind
“Theater of the Mind” uses little to no visuals for scene settings and combat. Instead, the narrative imagery comes from the Game Master’s descriptions and character action and movement comes from Players’ descriptions.
Roleplay Heavy
“Roleplay Heavy” games place the focus on the story, the characters, and the world they live within, and tend to lean hard into the various roleplaying elements of the game. These games will frequently find the party talking with NPCs, exploring the personal elements of their backstories, or even having emotional moments around the camp fire.
5.0
(5)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
8 games hosted
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Creativity, Inclusive
Average response time: Under 1 hour
Response rate: 100%
Game Master Reviews (5)
Proficiencies
Players say this GM is great at:
Storytelling
Creativity
Inclusive
Joshua Blackburn-Hind
A great DM- He's DMed both Call of Cthulhu and Deathwatch for me, and both were very engaging and fleshed out worlds. In CoC he put a lot of time and research in a unique setting which was great fun to explore. I also played Pathfinder with him, and his unique characters are always a highlight.
Lassirrasta
Alex is an excellent GM who has run games for our friendship group for years. With a preference for his own brand of historical settings only made more wierd and supernatural, his games are both entertaining and engaging, with twists and turns and "the real story" of famous historical events being a delight to see unfold. That is not to say Alex sricks to his scripts rigidly however, and he values player expression paramount, creating new story improv seemlessly when players go off script or make an idea that sounds cooler. Alex is great with both experienced and newer players and I'd recommend him to anyone.
Thomas
Alex is a dedicated and skilled GM and it is a genuine pleasure to play with him. I have played multiple campaigns run by him, in a variety of settings and systems, and each one has been fantastic fun. He’s a brilliant storyteller, able to get me invested in both the main story of the campaign and the various side-quests and b-plots of the world, with both feeling as important and worthwhile as each other. His campaigns are very character driven, with a heavy focus on roleplay; both within the party and with the NPC’s. Whilst his combats are good and entertaining, the real drive is the character interactions. One highlight was an entire session where we the party, magical FBI agents, were forced to go to ground in a fast food restaurant, spent the three hour session locked in a heated debate about the situation we were trapped in and how we planned to get out of it with both our lives and morality intact. Alex’s ability to roll with the sort of random chaos players can bring to a session is one of the best I’ve seen. He’s able to readily improvise around our madness, and balances that wildness against the main plot exceedingly well. That same campaign included a rather disastrous attempt at arresting a casino manager, for reasons best left to mystery, whilst another player actually focused on the main mission. And still, things worked out well with both plots. Perhaps one of the best elements of Alex’s skillset as a GM has been his ability to balance a party. In all the campaigns I’ve played with him (six at this moment), nobody has felt the central character, or been overshadowed by another player. Each campaign, we’ve had our own sessions to shine, and special character beats and arcs, and all in all, they’ve felt equal and we shared the spotlight equally. He’s been able, which is probably the most admirable, has been to balance a team of characters who hate each other. Whilst we the players are all friends, he’s been able to keep our heads in the game, and has managed to balance the toxic attitude we have to each other in-character, and has managed a very safe space. In so far as recommendations, Alex runs very roleplay heavy games with tremendous ability, and whilst I personally prefer his more heavy and drama focused games, his adventure games are great fun. I would recommend Alex to anyone who wants a character driven game, whether it’s a space opera or sci-fi, horror, or fantasy. He runs a clean, safe game, where even in the heaviest and grimmest moments, we can still feel happy to play.
Lamaron
For over a decade now, I have played an assortment of RPGs with Alex as my DM. Starting with Fate, moving on to Unknown Armies, Pathfinder and other more niche systems, Alex has been an exemplary games master both online and in person. He has told stories in many formats and environments - from archetypical fantasy to modern day investigative dramas - and in each one he has been inclusive in both the environment created around the table and the ideas that can be incorporated into his narratives. If you want to expand from the typical table top plotlines, and into areas that will let you explore characters and worlds through play in a way only the medium of RPGs allow, Alex is the DM that you should pick.
Mopsey
Alex is very much the storyteller as a GM - I've played in a couple of games he's run and both were original plots in historical settings, complete with era-appropriate music and NPC cameos of real figures, though his original NPCs tend to be more fun to interact with. You can tell he has a number of threads up his sleeve, but not necessarily where those threads will lead. When we've used a system I'm less familiar or comfortable with he's always very patient with explaining mechanics as often as needed. Similarly, he's unfailingly kind when I totally blank on what my character should do, which is frequent in the more narrative-heavy games Alex specialises in.
Additional details
How to prepare
Players will need a microphone of some kind to talk through voice chat on a Discord server I'll provide, and while I heavily prefer players have a webcam and have it turned on, that won't be strictly necessary. Once you have access to the discord server, you can also get more access to the setting-specific documents I've prepared. I will be having discussions with any prospective players before accepting them into the game, so please be prepared to just briefly chat about what kind of game you want to play and questions are very welcomed so that we can all arrive at Session 0 prepared and without any illusions. I'll be giving everyone their consent checklist as part of that discussion, so that it can form the basis of our safety discussion in Session 0 as well, and so that anyone that struggles with the open discussion is still going to have their issues addressed. I can provide you with PDF copies of the rulebooks to look through, but you wouldn't need to read through any of it in advance, I am fine with teaching as we go.
What I provide
Firstly, for this game specifically, I am planning on running a short, self-contained arc as a sort of 'pilot episode' so that everyone can get more comfortable with the rest of the party, with the setting and system, and at the end of that arc I will have the option for people to continue into a fuller campaign, or if they prefer for any reason, to step away instead. More generally, my main focus as a GM is story and roleplay and I only write my own campaigns. I run an inclusive table, and actively encourage diverse player groups to bring different perspectives to the table. I use the rules as my base point, and will typically stick to them as written, or as homeruled in advance, but I am flexible enough to amend them when the rules prove to be at odds with everyone's enjoyment or with the kind of story being told. I tend to start hands-off, and allow my players as much freedom as possible to approach things as they wish, then make the scene responsive to your choices, focus most on what matters to you, and tailor each game, scene by scene to the party and the players. I love to do character work with my players if you struggle with fleshing out your character or need to know more about the scenario. I do character voices whenever possible and I encourage but don't require players to do the same. My challenges tend to be more based on social, political, or even philosophical difficulty, making difficult decisions and piecing together information. In general I do not kill player characters, but have more specific rules regarding that, see my profile for more information. I can provide access to PDF copies of the rulebooks for every game I run. I use Kenku FM to stream music through discord and always make a playlist, and I have a subscription to the Obsidian Portal campaign management tool, so my players can use it for free. Please see my profile for more details on all the above points!
Gameplay details
This campaign will be a very in-depth look at some very difficult topics, and I will be asking you to go a lot of very grim places. For this reason I want to make it especially clear that we will all be working together to support each other's mental health during these sessions, as while the content is flexible, it is still deliberately meant to provoke parallels to real world issues and pains, and is meant to be an exploration of them to help us better come to terms with them. I use Red/Yellow/Green card in place of X/N/O's, and they can be messaged to me privately or said verbally. Session 0 will include creating characters together so we can discuss if anything we create crosses lines for others. I will be sending everyone a consent checklist prior to session 0 as part of first discussions with any potential players. A lot of the campaign is still to be determined, so while other triggers may be introduced, I can use our discussions to avoid anything relevant to those at the table. The listed content warnings are just the things that are unavoidable with the premise and setting given. My Open Door policy is a general one, not just for safety measures, but for anything players would like to discuss. It's something I urge players to use if they have any safety concerns though, and I will never be upset if you come to me with a problem. I will be happy for the opportunity to help.
Content warnings
• Alcohol Use
• Animal Cruelty
• Blood
• Body Horror
• Cannibalism
• Classism
• Cults
• Death
• Deep or Large Bodies of Water
• Devils / Demons / Fiends
• Drugs (addiction, use, withdrawal)
• Execution
• Forced Blood Draining
• Fire
• Guns
• Hostages
• Kidnapping
• Language/Cursing
• Microaggressions
• Mind Control
• Murder
• Paralyzation
• Police Brutality
• Prejudice
• Real World Religion
• Slavery
• Talk of Superior Race
• Torture
• Trauma
• Uncanny Valley
• Violence
Safety tools used
• Aftercare
• Lines and Veils
• Luxton Technique
• Luxton Technique Discussion
• Monte Cook RPG Consent Checklist
• Open Door
• Session 0
• Stars and Wishes
• X, N, and O Cards
How will character creation work
Character creation will be done as a group as part of session 0. I encourage people to have a character concept ready, and would also recommend having more than one just in case, but the actual mechanics of character building will be gone through together over discord. This is so that players unfamiliar with the system get to take part in the process and learn as they go without feeling singled out, and so that everyone's characters complement each other. In my take on the VTM system, the clans are not inherited from sire to childe, but are instead political organisations that bind together like-minded vampires, and guard the secrets to certain disciplines. Player Characters are still affiliated with a clan, but build their characters and spend XP as if they were Caitiffs, but with a mandatory 5 points worth of flaws chosen from those listed. These flaws do not grant additional XP, but any taken beyond that mandatory 5, do. This is to help retain as much of the flavour of the original WoD setting as possible, while allowing for extra flexibility in storytelling and character creation.
Players can expect
Combat / Tactics
Low
Roleplay
High
Puzzles
Low
Experience level
Intermediate
Platforms used
• Discord
• Roll20
$25.00
/ Session
Each player will be charged when a session starts.
Details
Weekly / Friday - 1:00 PM UTC
3-3.5 Hour Duration
0 / 5 Seats Filled
Requirements
Experience required: Intermediate
Age: 18+