hawkeyefan
Legend
So for Christmas, my wife picked me up a copy of Thousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchings. It’s a kind of solo- storytelling RPG of sorts. It’s got some really interesting game mechanics that involve replacing old memories with new ones as the vampire gets older and older. Less and less of its original self remains. I haven't played through yet, but it seems like the game is focused on the loss that such a long lived being would face.
Essentially, you determine some starting traits for your vampire, and some loose sense of their place in the world and their history and relationships. Then, you use a d10 and d6 to randomly generate prompts for play. Each page contains three prompts. You roll both dice, subtract the d6 result from the d10, and then move that many pages forward (or backward in the event of a negative result) and use the first prompt on that page. If you have already used the first prompt, you move down to the second, if you’ve used the second, then move on to the third. If you’ve used all three, then you move along to the next page.
The prompts may alter your vampire’s traits or remove them or introduce new ones. A vampire can only have 5 memories at any time, with 3 experiences related to each memory. When prompted to add a memory, you must eliminate an older one. They suggest that however you track this, you strikethrough the memory but leave it visible on the page.
I thought it’d be cool to go through it and record my results here as a series of posts. I’ll post my vampire and his stats in the next post, which I’ll edit as needed, and then will record each prompt in a subsequent post. Feel free to comment if you like, or follow along, or ignore this altogether.
I’ve decided on England in the 1000s as my starting era, and I’ve drawn very loosely on actual historical figures and events. My goal is more about having a sense of time and place than about historical accuracy. Anyone who would like to correct my inaccuracies will be summarily executed.
Also, the starting situation for the vampire is pretty loosely sketched. I don’t have every detail mapped out because we can either add them as needed, or else they may become irrelevant due to the passage of time. My goal here is to see how the game plays, and to be entertained. I'm not trying to impress anyone with my writing ability. I'm going to lean heavily on things that we'd all likely consider tropes or even outright cliches.
Each vampire is defined by certain traits, the types of which are summarized below. Most prompts will result in changes to the traits… they can be lost, replaced, restored… and so on. Here's a bit of a summary of the traits and the rules that pertain to them.
Okay, next post will be the Vampire’s details and traits. I'll have to come back to this second post to edit the traits as needed throughout play. After that, I'll start playing. Each prompt will be in a new post, and I'll include the prompt itself and then the results in the story. I'll write it in first person from the Vampire's point of view. Some posts may be short and light on detail, and may get fleshed out in subsequent posts; I expect sometimes context may come from posts that follow. We'll see.
Essentially, you determine some starting traits for your vampire, and some loose sense of their place in the world and their history and relationships. Then, you use a d10 and d6 to randomly generate prompts for play. Each page contains three prompts. You roll both dice, subtract the d6 result from the d10, and then move that many pages forward (or backward in the event of a negative result) and use the first prompt on that page. If you have already used the first prompt, you move down to the second, if you’ve used the second, then move on to the third. If you’ve used all three, then you move along to the next page.
The prompts may alter your vampire’s traits or remove them or introduce new ones. A vampire can only have 5 memories at any time, with 3 experiences related to each memory. When prompted to add a memory, you must eliminate an older one. They suggest that however you track this, you strikethrough the memory but leave it visible on the page.
I thought it’d be cool to go through it and record my results here as a series of posts. I’ll post my vampire and his stats in the next post, which I’ll edit as needed, and then will record each prompt in a subsequent post. Feel free to comment if you like, or follow along, or ignore this altogether.
I’ve decided on England in the 1000s as my starting era, and I’ve drawn very loosely on actual historical figures and events. My goal is more about having a sense of time and place than about historical accuracy. Anyone who would like to correct my inaccuracies will be summarily executed.
Also, the starting situation for the vampire is pretty loosely sketched. I don’t have every detail mapped out because we can either add them as needed, or else they may become irrelevant due to the passage of time. My goal here is to see how the game plays, and to be entertained. I'm not trying to impress anyone with my writing ability. I'm going to lean heavily on things that we'd all likely consider tropes or even outright cliches.
Each vampire is defined by certain traits, the types of which are summarized below. Most prompts will result in changes to the traits… they can be lost, replaced, restored… and so on. Here's a bit of a summary of the traits and the rules that pertain to them.
- Memories- these are the important events of your vampire’s life. A Memory is a set of Experiences, which are all related. Each Memory can have up to three experiences. When prompted to add a new Experience, it can be placed in an existing Memory if there is space and if it is connected to the Memory. If not, then it must be added as a New Memory, and another Memory must be deleted to make room. The Vampire can only remember so much. It is possible to transfer deleted Memories to a Diary. But the Diary must be listed in the Resources section, and once entered, the Memory and associated Experiences cannot be altered further. A Diary can hold up to four Memories.
- Skills- a broad descriptor of the Vampire’s capabilities. Some prompts will indicate a Skill should be checked. I’ll add a mark on the sheet to reflect that. A Skill can only be checked once. Prompts may indicate that a Skill is lost.
- Resources- these are assets or items that the Vampire has which can be used to assist the Vampire in some way. Some Resources may be Stationary; a hereditary castle or a hidden cave, for example.
- Characters- the people that are important to the Vampire. Some are mortal and others maybe immortal. Mortal characters should be stricken when a prompt indicates enough time has passed that their life would have ended.
- Marks- a mark is a strange indicator that there is something supernatural about the Vampire.
- Note- when a prompt indicates that a skill should be checked, and the Vampire has no unchecked skills, lose a Resource instead. If a prompt says to lose a Resource and the Vampire has none, then check a Skill. If a prompt says to check a Skill or lose a Resource, and the Vampire cannot do either, then the game is over, and the Vampire’s existence ends.
Okay, next post will be the Vampire’s details and traits. I'll have to come back to this second post to edit the traits as needed throughout play. After that, I'll start playing. Each prompt will be in a new post, and I'll include the prompt itself and then the results in the story. I'll write it in first person from the Vampire's point of view. Some posts may be short and light on detail, and may get fleshed out in subsequent posts; I expect sometimes context may come from posts that follow. We'll see.
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