We’ve had the outline for Children of the Revolution up for about a week now, and we’re seeing some good submission material. I always expected some good ideas to come from the V20 Open Dev crowd, but I’d like to congratulate you guys on the quality of the writing in the submissions, too! Usually, an Internet open call results in an avalanche of long-tailed crazytalk and semi-literate nonsense (some of which you may have read when it was released under the title of Twilight). This time, though, the responses have been of a remarkably high quality, so I really want to make a point of mentioning that. You guys are making my job easy… at least for now.
One of the places I’d like the submissions to steer, now that I’ve praised those of you who have put forth suggestions, is to place a little more focus on the “revolution” aspect of “Children of the Revolution.” We have several insightful character concepts, but I feel like we’re a little thin on tying these characters to times of rebellion, building order from chaos (or thriving amid the chaos), or other demonstrations of how the Kindred’s outlook was shaped by the revolution in question. Given that the tumult of society is the underlying theme of this title, it must feature prominently in the backstory, motivation, and outlook of each of the characters.
It also bears repeating: Marquis-de-Carabas asked if modern revolutions were fair game for character backgrounds. Very much so! The V20 project has made specific efforts to update Vampire into a “constant now,” and since that now is, well, now, it can certainly fit a Kindred’s situation and then seamlessly blend into the role of history as more time passes between the time the book is published and some undefined point in the future.
Whoah. All this talk about time and liquid now has my head swimming like a Cultist of Ecstasy.
So what’s next for the Children of the Revolution project? This week’s plan is to have the first character fleshed out and developed, which I plan to have done tomorrow. From there, we’ll move forward with other characters. If we’re at a place with the first character that feels right, I’ll pass it on to Richard Thomas, who can begin his art direction process. That’s one of the interesting aspects about working on this book, too. Because of its folio-type arrangement, there are no real traditional chapters sorting the content topically. If you have a handy copy of Children of the Inquisition or Kindred Most Wanted, you’ll see a similar format: The artwork focuses on the individual unique character, as opposed to the more general informational construct of the chapter.
Please include the following signature characters who did not ever receive stat write-ups, but likely fall into the criteria (or could):
No Statistics
Etrius, the Loyal
Clan: Tremere
Sire: None
Nature: Tyrant
Demeanor: Conformist
Generation: 4th
Embrace: 1022
Apparent Age: Early 30’s
Disciplines: Auspex ?, Dominate ?, Obfuscate ?, Protean ?, Thaumaturgy ?
Goratrix, the Betrayer
Sire: None
Nature: Monster
Demeanor: Rogue
Generation: 4th
Embrace: 1022
Apparent Age: Mid 30’s
Disciplines: Animalism ?, Auspex ?, Dominate ?, Thaumaturgy ?, Vicissitude ?
Aristotle deLaurent
Clan: Mnemosyne
Generation: 6th
Embrace: 11th Century
Disciplines: Auspex ?, Dominate ?, Obfuscate ?, Protean ?
Beckett
Clan: Gangrel (Mnemosyne)
Sire: Aristotle deLaurent
Nature: Visionary
Demeanor: Judge
Generation: 7th (6th)
Embrace: 1704
Apparent Age: Late 20’s
Disciplines: Animalism ?, Celerity ?, Fortitude ?, Protean ?, (Thaumaturgy ?)
(anything in brackets is achieved in the final nights during his time spent with Caine)
Baron Samedi a.k.a. The Baron
Clan: Samedi
Sire: Lazarus
Generation: 5th
Disciplines: Dominate ?, Fortitude ?, Necromancy ?, Obfuscate?, Thanatosis ?
Bindusara
Clan: Ventrue
Generation: 6th
Embrace: -273 B.C.
*Disciplines were based on their VTES cards, or (in the case of Aristotle) published narrative descriptions.
Extremely excited for this book.
You say you want characters from Revolutions. Does this also include important revolutionary type events that happened to just the kindred? Like the Assamite Schism for example?
Absolutely! In fact, I’d like to see a good mix of both among the characters we present, showing that being “born of the Revolution” has implications among both the mortal and Kindred worlds.
If this book is about revolution, let’s revolutionize the clans. Throw out some of the ossified old stereotypes and show how the essence of many streams of The Blood can be captured in new forms.
I definitely want to see the Brujah get some serious attention in this book; they are the clan with the most potential, and the clan that squanders their potential the most. Show them as they can be when they aren’t just posturing biker badasses – give us brilliant Nietzchean social engineers, techno-anarchists, politicial artists, street musicians, literal firebrands, genius inventors, utopian-Communist social engineers, and Chimeristry-assisted special effects wizards who revolutionize the way people see the world. The Brujah are the Kindred whose blood boils and burns; show how their fervent passion ignites the souls of those around them, producing quick loyalty through Presence while setting the adoring throng up for a very painful fall once it becomes clear how unstable and unreasonable their hero really is.
For a counterpoint, look at the Ventrue – icy and hypocritical, using the threat of chaos to impose ironclad order, whether through tyrannical order or a return to the deadly-but-honorable dark knight ethic of the Dark Ages. It’s hard for modern Ven to do any of this with the political pressure to conform to the Ven’s image – so kick over the anthill with one of those revolutions we’re talking about, and have brave blue-blood neonates take the initiative to stabilize a situation for which the old ways no longer work. Leave the business suits and subtle machinations to the Giovanni, the Ventrue should be standing up for their priorities with willpower, armor, and dead flesh all iron-rigid against the storm the Brujah and their ilk have brought.
As for the rest, the Toreador should be shown creatively overcoming their weakness to beauty, with an extensive sidebar on how they can master the art of combat to become badasses (after all we’re taking the Brujah off their Harleys to a certain extent, so new warriors must step into the gap). Show off just how horrifying the Nosferatu can be with tunnel rats who’ve come up from their sewers, sustained grevious wounds, and kept right on ticking even when half their face was hacked off and their back was on fire, wearing the evidence of that grim battle for the rest of their unlives and achieving a kind of nobility through their mutilation. Show how some of the Gangrel have stuck with the Camarilla, forming packlike communities of warriors to stand by their side in battle, ready to turn into a Viking-esque community of tight-knit survivors once the storm passes for a while. Give the Malks new ways to spark off chaos and divine the meaning in it with Dementation, and throw the Tremere a bone with a few surprising new rituals and some good reasons to leave the safety of their chantries. Let the Assamites and the handful of surviving Ravnos take up new roles in an expanded Camarilla in the wake of the tumult, where the previous bloodbath between Cam and Sabbat is replaced by the kind of uneasy detente currently enjoyed by America and Russia, with a lot of border skirmishes and tense negotiations where revolutions begin and fail, forcing both sides to constantly rethink their strategy.
Overall, get the game out of its rut, part the players from their chessmaster schemes and criminal empires, and get them to go out and DO STUFF. And then turn it all upside-down in your next supplement, where you talk about what it actually means to live for 500 years and spend the entire time learning new skills and gathering resources for an Eternal Struggle against your fellow immortals. Together that book and this one will showcase the breadth and depth of Vampires in general and V20 in particular, giving players all the tools they’ll need to set up a new Gehenna and fight its bloody battles, not as an endgame but as the new reality of an “end time” that never ends.