Image by Henryk Siemiradzki
Ancient Nights: A Vampire in Rome
At the height of the Roman Republic, the city is becoming the centre of the world. There is power there. And with power come the fangs of vampires.
TYPE
LANGUAGE
EXPERIENCE
AGE
$15.00
/ Session
Details
1 player following this game
Play by Post (Asynchronous)
Billed Weekly / Sunday - 10:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 1 hour
Campaign Length / 1 Sessions
0 / 1 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
It is the year of Gnaeus Octavius and Gaius Scribonius Curio, also known as 678 ab urbe condita or, by some barbarians as 76 BCE. It is a few years after Sulla took Rome by force and led brutal purges of the senatorial classes. But those weren't the only ones who were affected as many vampires faced final death as well at the hands of his legions. But now, Sulla has retired and died. Peacefully in his sleep no less. Slowly, the kindred of Rome have been rebuilding. At the same time, vampires from elsewhere see plenty of opportunity in the city that is turning into the centre of the world and they are making inroads as well, especially in the aftermath of Sulla's purge. You are a younger vampire, sired by one of these foreign vampires and are being sent to Rome to prepare the way for your master. Vampires don't really know what happened in the Eternal City, but they do know that somehow, vampires were wiped out in Rome and in many other cities nearby. So you are well aware that there might be great dangers there. One thing that is important to note is that we won't use the official history of vampires given in any of the sourcebooks. It after all makes little sense for a mythological figure from a backwater somewhere in the east to be the progenitor of all vampires or for there to already be a lot of lore to work around. That said, vampires do keep themselves a secret for a plethora of reasons. When using a game with generations, it also works better when not half of the vampires are sixth generation or even lower.
Game style
Play By Post
Puzzle / Mystery Focused
Roleplay Heavy
Sandbox / Open World
Theater of the Mind
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(7)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
23 games hosted
Highly rated for: Storytelling, Creativity, Inclusive
Average response time: 7 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
Hi! I'm Dirk and I've been GM-ing for around twenty-five years by now and like to think that I've gotten fairly good at it. Like many people, I started playing Dungeons and Dragons (3.0 back then. Just in time for the complains about 3.5. Yes, edition wars are that old). Fairly quickly, I found that some stories are better told with other systems and so, I built up a slightly oversized collection of books and experience with a plethora of systems. I've ran games for groups of friends and also like to run games at conventions and the like. I find that every story should be tailored to the people at the table, whether it's virtual or an actual one. Aside from games, I enjoy painting miniatures, literature, and, of course, cooking and baking. Those however are a little less relevant for online gaming.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
There are several options for character creation, based on what you prefer. We will first discuss a brief backstory for them that can, of course, be developed further later and of course choose where your character is from. There is quite a difference between being from a great city like Alexandria or being from the small towns of Gaul. They can of course also be a Roman, they just were embraced elsewhere. One option is that you make a character according to the rules in the rulebook. You can also give me a rough idea for your character concept and I'll make one for you. As a final option, we can do it together, through chat. All books for these gamelines can be used to make the character and balance isn't much of an issue with a single character in the game. Naturally, character sheets will have to be a bit different because there, for instance, isn't much use for a computer skill two thousand years before they were invented. So these will be more in a Dark Ages kind of style.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
We will be writing on a special-made Discord server that also includes a dice roller and where we can share all necessary information, from character sheets to extra rules and backstory elements.
What Dirk brings to the table
The main focus of this game is to follow a character as they arrive in Rome and build up their power base. They will also For the rules, we will use either the Vampire the Masquerade or Requiem rules. Whichever you prefer because I know both systems. Abilities and the like can be taken from all versions of the games (unless there are really complicated differences) and we will be generally relatively freeform with the application of the rules.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Platforms used
Safety
How Dirk creates a safe table
We will discuss in advance whether there are any topics that are to be avoided or treaded lightly around. We will also use X-cards to immediately stop anything that moves into an unwanted direction.
Content warnings
Safety tools used