Sunday, July 20, 2008

Vampire – The Masquerade


It seems that I’ve been on this sort of “goth” information kick lately so…before I go on let me clarify something here. While many goths do appreciate the vampire, and the vampire image, it does not mean that every goth you meet has some type of unhealthy obsession over them. This post is actually discussing a role playing game and not a goth thing so…

Since R is not going to be able to run our D&D game for a longggg while; N has agreed to run a Vampire game! Yippie! I have been trying to play Vampire-The Masquerade for years now, however, each time I get ready to play we manage to get one, maybe two, games in and then something happens and the game gets canceled. It’s been very frustrating, especially after one spends so much time developing a character and a background for that character.

I have hope for this game, though. We have a stable group that has been playing together for years now and though we have always done D&D in the past, everyone is on board with the Vampire game. I think this will go well. I know N will bring in some awesome ideas, she has the best imagination and she knows the game well. Not too many people in the group have played Vampire before but at least they’re excited about it and they’re wanting to learn it.

I have no idea, yet, what the setting will be. It’s too soon to expect N to have things worked out so it’s impossible to know if we will be coming into the game as Fledglings or maybe as Neonates or Ancillaes, or some type of mixture. Who knows? But, because we don’t know anything about the character requirements yet I can’t really decide what I want to play.

The characters I’ve created in the past, but never really got to play, were always Toreador. I’m drawn to their artistic / writing qualities. I’m toying with the idea of going Brujah this time, however. It seems that Toreador may just be cursed for me or something *wink*. The only thing with Brujah, though, is that I would want to play the character very punk like which could make me be seen as an Anarch which could be problematic for me regarding any power positions within the Camarilla. Of course, N may throw us all for a loop and have us play Sabbot, but I doubt it, but you never know.

At any rate, I’m brushing up on the clans and the traditions and such. I’m looking forward to playing and I’ll keep you posted, now and then, on how the game is going. Until then…Do you remember the Vampire poem I posted in April? No? Gee and I thought you cared *kidding* I hardly remember it myself. Well anyway, I took it to the writer’s workshop and have since done some revising. I think it has come along quite nicely and since there seems to be a running theme going I thought I would post the latest revision. Here we go:

Turning

Cradled dark kiss gift
of unlife.
Death’s love waking
to night’s Gothic arch and lace

Shadows of rolling mist, drawn into
the hush of eternity
Captured in gibbous ashen beams

Marbled façade and truth

Broken skin and gasping tremors of
final moments

Pyretic liquor surges
into the paunch of the giver
taking his fill

Still crying whispers;
rapture vibrations,
plead a hallowed testament

Burgeoning beyond the world

Boundaries left searing as
sunlight forgets its lost.
Travailing into darkness
Embraced

4 comments:

ctm said...

I didn't know that they still made that RPG. I played it fairly regularly about fifteen years ago, during my first go-around as an undergrad down at Ball State. I blame that game for my Buffy the Vampire Slayer obsession...

Fifteen years? Suddenly, I feel old :)

I dig the poem, too--it reminds me of early Cradle of Filth lyrics, only more literate.

maeve63 said...

I know the books are still available. I don't know how long it's been since a new publication has come out. R has several of the books. Most of our gaming group has been playing one thing or another since the 70s so...there has been a long time to build up the gaming book collecion.

BTW...I'm a huge Buffy fan as well, she rocks!

And...last but not least...thank you for the feedback on the poem, that was a very nice thing to say.

Charmi said...

Terri, it's so hard for me to comment on this form. I'm just not well versed enough. I like cradled, but dark kiss seems cliche. I would keep one or the other and re-envision the one you don't keep. Either expand dark or kiss.

Jeez, I'm bad at this!

maeve63 said...

Hmmm...well, while I don't want to seem cliche; I chose the word "kiss" for a particular reason. I wanted the poem to begin with the actual term used in Vampire lingo for the beginning of the turning process. That's why I ended with the word "embrace" because that's the term used once the act of turning is complete. If you have any ideas as to how I can make it seem less cliche I'd love to hear them, but I do want to keep the term. Thank you, as always, for you're feedback. I really do value your input.