[MOD] Vampire the Requiem - Prince of the City

[Cold Evil]

This is a little fan made project for the World of Darkness Roleplaying game Vampire the Requiem by white wolf. After a little while of thinking I decided that the Crusader Kings engine is perfect for the feudalistic system of the Vampire the Requiem. The quest for power etc.

There are some things that need to be done and here are the topics:
The system for the Vampire immortality.
Clan and Powers and weaknesses.
Covenants
The Vampire System of Government.
Mortals or no mortals?
The World Map
The life of the immortals.

FAQ:
Q: With time do this play out in?
A: At modern time 2010.

Q: What about the map?
A: The map will be remade into a modern city.

Q: What about the Camarilla and the Sabbath?
A: This is not Vampire the Masquerade. It is based on New World of Darkness. Though the Camarilla once existed in ancient Rome and fell with the fall of the empire. The Sabbath Never existed.

Q: Will there be bloodlines?
A: Not at start, but maybe on later. When I get the basics to work properly.

Useful links:
http://www.white-wolf.com/
http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness/index.php?title=Main_Page

 

[Cold Evil]

The system for the Vampire immortality.

A vampire is immortal, and there is a trait for this (and that is awesome). The trait the mayor thing of the vampire dynamic. There is one trait that vampires have and it is blood potency. A vampire grows stronger every year of its undead life. And there are a few ways to simulate this.
Blood potency could be a trait by itself or a trait bound to the clan. This I don’t know yet.
The blood potency gets higher every 50years and could get a spontaneous rise depending on the sires(makers) power of blood etc. But by the system a vampire gets higher blood potency every 50 years.
The blood potency doses some things. It makes the beast inside stronger there for more feared. This could be simulated by a rise and/or lowered general opinion. With represents the beast insides despite for lesser kindreds. And the respect and fear for those who are stronger.

A strong kindred are old, and that take us to the aging system. A kindred don’t age, but mortals do. I don’t know, and are not able to test this at the moment, if the immortality trait ages the character. But if not this is not a problem.

Possible trait?

Vampire = {
   immortal = yes
}
Vampire_BloodPotency = {

}

Clan and Powers and weaknesses.
Clans are one of the most important things of a vampire’s life. A vampire is created in to a clan. (I will spare the bloodlines for later, if this system is solved the bloodline system are easy to create.) The clan are a characters “family”. A clan gives weaknesses and powers. A clan whould be easly simulated by a trait. Eather with blood potency baked in to the clan or without.

Clan with Blood potency:

Vampire_Daeva_1 = { # Clan Disciplines: Majesty, Celerity, Vigor
   immortal = yes
}
Vampire_Daeva_2 = {
   immortal = yes
}
Vampire_Daeva_3 = {
   immortal = yes
}
Vampire_Daeva_4 = {
   immortal = yes
}
Vampire_Daeva_5 = {
   immortal = yes
}
Vampire_Daeva_6 = {
   immortal = yes
}
Vampire_Daeva_7 = {
   immortal = yes
}
Vampire_Daeva_8 = {
   immortal = yes
}
Vampire_Daeva_9 = {
   immortal = yes
}
Vampire_Daeva_10 = {
   immortal = yes
}

Disciplines could easily be made by making a trait for them example of Majesty one to five:

discipline_majesty_1 = {
   education = yes 
   intrigue = 1
   diplomacy = 4

   general_opinion = 5
}
discipline_majesty_2 = {
   education = yes 
   intrigue = 1
   diplomacy = 4

   general_opinion = 5
}
discipline_majesty_3 = {
   education = yes 
   intrigue = 1
   diplomacy = 4
   general_opinion = 5
}
discipline_majesty_4 = {
   education = yes 
   intrigue = 1
   diplomacy = 4
}
discipline_majesty_5 = {
   education = yes 
   intrigue = 1
   diplomacy = 4
}

 

[Mr. Capiatlist]

Feel free to ask questions of me, I have a half-way cobbled together vampire mod (see my sig) but I have run out of time to work on it.

 

[PyroAce2]

You may not want to make disciplines into education traits. Doesn't the game randomly assign available education traits? You also get weird situations where non-vampires might learn disciplines if they have vampire guardians.

 

[Cold Evil]

Mr. Capiatlist:
That for sure is one cool mod I've totally missed! Will try it when i get my gamerig back.

Vampire the Requiem are less about war and more about plotting and taking power. And vampires are concentrated to cites so the map most me remarked in to a city.


PyroAce2:
Yes you are correct! That will be fixed

 

[Nuclearmouse]

Seeing such a small scale environment in CK2 should be very interesting. Exactly what size will "county" equivalents be?

 

[Mercadi]

I am a fan of World of Darkness myself. So looking forward to see you make this mod

I can already think of some random ideas you could consider if you wish.

Ambition to embrace a mortal (embraced mortal would become of your clan (dynasty), will inherit clan specific traits, and become sterile),
plot to diablerize a sire, or another clan's higher generation vampire.
Or send an assistant in a search of an Antedeluvian (and then choose to: deablerize or awaken, should he/she be found).
Kidnap a kine to be a blood doll in your court. Or charm/seduce one into being one (if your clan disciplines allow). Being a cattle means a health hit, and mental degradation (-all stats).
Similar thing with thralls. Being a thrall = stat bonus and longevity.

It would make sense for an established vampire to have thralls as helpers. What if some ruler could be vampire's thrall? It may be then possible to imagine that ruler to attempt to imprison his/her master, and use their blood forcefully.
Imagine a scenario where a Ventrue (many of whom settled in Rome) succeeds to enthrall the Pope... The possibilities are endless.
There could also be a Hashashin-like vampire hunter order, that would randomly (or not so randomly) take out singular vampires.

I hope I've written something you haven't thought about yet. Let me know if you would like further feedback.

 

[ticattack]

From the OP, I'm assuming you mean a modern-day, small-scale setting, and not a dark ages-type setting.

A few musings on possibilities:
The system for the Vampire immortality.
You have one trait "Kindred". This makes you immortal and -1000 fertility. As I understand it, immortal characters have their age increase, but don't physically age or get disease traits. You'd also need to edit any "My lover and I are pregnant"-type events to exclude Kindred or their lovers. I believe the fertility thing will make the AI reject kindred as marriage candidates, which is what you'd want.
You have ten traits: Blood Potency 1 through 10. A little cumbersome for checking, but not too bad, and neater than having several traits for the same thing.
You can also have a modifier or something called "Embraced". If it's a Modifier, it won't be given to randomly-generated characters. You can then have an event: "If a character doesn't have Embraced, but has Kindred/Ventrue/BP5/whatever, remove all the vampire-only traits". Bam, no random mortal Daeva.
Clan and Covenant
Clan could be a trait, with bloodlines as a possible second trait or modifier.
Covenant makes sense as religion. Carthian is to Invictus as Catholic is to Orthodox. This also allows "heresies" like the various factions in the covenant books.
Mortals could just have a "mortal" "religion", or possibly some other factions, such
Depending on your setting, culture would be ethnicity or nationality, as it provides for names and such. Subgroups are usable here, too. So, "Anglo-Australian Ordo Dracul", "Chinese-American Mortal", "French Canadian Carthian", "Yorkshire Invictus", etc.
The Vampire System of Government.
Someone else had this somewhere on the forums. May have been Mr. Capiatlist?
Empire = city,
Kingdom = section of blocks, or something like New York's buroughs
Duchy = neighbourhood
County = city block
Barony = house / business / site

Castle = residential, city = commercial/industrial, church = other (parks, government, libraries, schools, etc.)

Mortals or no mortals?
Mortals. Definitely mortals. There's too much lost by not including them, even having them as title holders. The mayor should be represented, with his seat as the barony of "City hall" and a higher-level titular title. Can you infiltrate his establishment? Sure, the Prince has succeeded with the "bribe" plot, and now has the corresponding opinion modifier and decisions/plots, etc., but if you find out that the chief of police has been sleeping with his secretary, you can probably get some favours from him. There's too much flavour lost by excluding mortals. Politicians, police, hunters, ghouls, blood dolls, mortal lovers, street and biker gangs, mafia, journalists, nighclub owners... the list goes on and on.
The World Map
At the greatest, I'd not go more than a handful of nearby cities, depending on size. For example, from my limited knowledge of the geographies, if you're doing New York, you might eventually include Newark and Jersey City. If you're doing London, you might include Westminster.

 

[Cold Evil]

The thought I have are that it will be in a modern city and only the city maybe some surrounding cites or villages as Ticattack describes. But the first of focus will be the main city at first. The city may be fiction or non-fictional. (I have a chronicle with a fictional city witch gives more control and less research to it when playing.( I have 30 with unique characters in Vampire, Hunter, Werewolf, etc works fine)) And I like the Empire, kingdom etc system you presented, and I will look at Mr. Capiatlist mod when I get my computer back for ideas.

The Clan and Covenant system are tho tricky I intend to use trait as clan. But using a dynasty are tho also cool cause you could look back on your family three. But the trait system gives you more use when it comes to Covenants tho there political nation. And the religion system are really good to class kindred’s into a political faction. And the heresy could there for be used for kindreds that are outcasts from their own covenants. The religion map could then also describe different arias belonging to a covenant. And by conversing the population could symbolize that you tag or taken over the place. The Embraced trigger is a good trigger and I will probably try to use this. I don’t know how I add this trigger yet but I will look in to it. (When I get my computer back... -.-‘) But it is a good way to ensure no random mortal nosferatus

The Immortal trait thingy could be set in the clan specific to and there for removing the Kindred trait to minimize the amount of traits. Tho that trait could give you the basics in vampirism. So I’m not interlay sure what to do with it.

Mercadi I like your ideas! Will defiantly use some of them the diablerie thing are one of them, the character need uncover the secret of diablerie first. Maybe the Ordo Dracul would be the ones to know that secret from the beginning?

This will be based on Requiem so the generation system from masquerade is gone and replaced with blood potency. Which makes the character more powerful by years instead of the sires generation. But the characters are tho affected by the age of their sire and will get higher blood potency easier cause of the sire’s stronger blood.

I got one idea on how to solve the army system and army is will represent retainers. (Other the n ghouls with I intend to use as playable characters.) The retainers could be a controlled Criminal gang, Police S.W.A.T, Military, Mafia, you name it. This will also make you’re the numbers men in an army down to only 1-10 (huge fights). When an army attacks a county they search for the house. Represented by the siege and could also start to fight represented also by the siege. When drafting armies you draft everyone.

 

[Bj0rn]

You have one trait "Kindred". This makes you immortal and -1000 fertility.

Just a heads up: -1000 fertility is not enough to stop procreation. Mr. Capitalist's mod showed that well. I recommend you immitating the amount of fertility penalty that he put in his mod.

And maybe clans could be Dynasties I think that would be interesting...

 

[Cold Evil]

Ok! Will do that. Well I don’t want vampire babies.
By mixing Dynasties and Clan Trait is one thing I think would be cool to, the requiem clan gameplay are though a little bit different then the Masquerade one. There are still 2 ways to do this; the first one is making a clan as Dynasties and the second is to make more dynasties by this way get more plotting between them. And not bound it to clan But a family tree could go long back and there for also make one the clan as one. I don’t know. ^^

Here are the basic neo-hierarchy
• The Prince grants land to Regents or any lower status of Kindred.
• The Regent grants land to vassals or any lower status of Kindred and owes fealty to the Prince.
• The Vassal grants tenancy to any lower status of Kindred and owes fealty to a higher vassal (e.g., a Regent) and the Prince.
• The Tenant can allow any vampire who she’s willing to be associated with to spend a few nights in her haven or immediate feeding ground. The tenant has to answer for any trouble caused by her guests should her lord demand it. The tenant has no authority to grant territory and owes fealty to a liege vassal and the Prince.
• The Serf toils in the turf of higher-ups. Though he has a haven on land belonging to a lord, he has no authority over anything outside the walls of his haven.

 

[sir Eyeball]

Any plans on adding the whole white wolf universe? IE mages, Werewolves, mummies, wraiths and changeling's.
Edit I am missing some but this is just of the top of my head.

 

[Mixxer5]

Great! I'd love to see some fantasy world in CK2 (other that Westeros ). I'm looking forward to this mod!

 

[unmerged(451257)]

In a Vampire Bloodlines game, Lacroix wanted to drink out the blood of the one of the oldest vampire, to gain more power, it was called ,,diabolise" i think. It would be awesome, if for example you could have decision to ,,diabolise" older vampires in your prison to gain their power.
But, the major problem is Nosferatu portraits, any ideas?
This is my first post, so hello everyone, and sorry for my bad english.

 

[Cold Evil]

Any plans on adding the whole white wolf universe? IE mages, Werewolves, mummies, wraiths and changeling's.
Edit I am missing some but this is just of the top of my head.

I will start and focus on first Vampire other species could be implemented later, the system on how they work is different from the vampire feudalism, and will there for be little bit harder to work with and be played as at the same time.

Not now but maybe later

Great! I'd love to see some fantasy world in CK2 (other that Westeros ). I'm looking forward to this mod!

Yes and thx!

In a Vampire Bloodlines game, Lacroix wanted to drink out the blood of the one of the oldest vampire, to gain more power, it was called ,,diabolise" i think. It would be awesome, if for example you could have decision to ,,diabolise" older vampires in your prison to gain their power.
But, the major problem is Nosferatu portraits, any ideas?
This is my first post, so hello everyone, and sorry for my bad english.

Diablerie or Amaranth will be implemented when committing a diablerie you always gain something throe it. But your blood (blood potency) only get stronger when you diableries some one that have more blood potency then you often someone older then you. According to kindred law Diableries are forbidden. Cause this will be based on Vampire the Requiem some Nosferatus don’t need to look like monsters. It will be a little bit tricky to make the Nosferatus portrait to work yes, I have also no experience with the portrait system.

Kindred Traditions
I: The Masquerade
Do not reveal your true nature to those not of the Blood. Doing so forfeits you your claim to the Blood.
The masquerade protects Vampires from the knowledge and interference of mortals. The masquerade is what keeps "rational" humans from believing that Vampires are real.
II: Progeny
Sire another at the peril of both yourself and your progeny. If you create a childe, the weight is your own to bear.
Any vampire can create more vampires. Doing so is to damn another soul for all eternity. It is not an act which should be indulged lightly.
III: Amaranth
You are forbidden from devouring the heartsblood of another of your kind. If you violate this commandment, the Beast calls to your own Blood.
It is said that while the blood of mortals is sweet, the blood of kindred as far sweeter still. Though drinking the blood of other vampires has its pleasures and perils, the Vinculum not the least of these, drinking the life blood, the heart's blood, of another vampire causing their Final Death is an act fraught with danger and the promise of power as well.

http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness/index.php?title=Traditions_(Vampire:_The_Requiem)

 

[sir Eyeball]

What about the Sabbath? they should be there as well for sure.

 

[Manchester.bw]

I gotta say, having the characters be immortal might be a problem. One of the biggest events in CK is characters dying. If they were immortal demesnes would just become increasingly stable. You'd never be able to swap character traits, either.

I have an idea for a map though, which would be from the game they did in 2000. They set the medieval part in Central Europe, and explained who controlled most of the territories. You could take the vanilla CK2 game's map, and add impassible territory to the areas outside of Bohemia, Hungary, Austria and Italy. IIRC the Ventrue controlled the Premyslids, Vienna was run by the Mage-clan, and the Carpathians were run by the Sabbat. Venice was the meeting-place where the Camarilla was formed and established the masquerade.

 

[Cold Evil]

As said in i think every single post.
The game will be based in New Wold of Darkness, Vampire the Requiem.
It will be political factions called covenants in the city they work similar to the to major sects.

The Covenants:

The Carthian Movement works towards finding the best form of government for the Kindred, basing its experiments on mortal systems like Democracy, Fascism and the like. It is the only Covenant that elects leaders, and is the newest major Covenant. Members frequently argue over the best form of government and this Covenant is primarily secular in outlook and character.

The Circle of the Crone is a collection of pagan and Neopagan cults and religions within the vampiric culture. Generally, these groups are structured around a belief in a generative cycle, though they often revere a particular representative goddess, and these shared associations give rise to their eponymous association with the Crone. They celebrate most of the major pagan holidays, such as the solstices and Yule, and practice the Blood Magic known as "Crúac". Despite many differences in belief and opinion between various circles and cities of the Covenant, they typically dislike the Lancea Sanctum.

The Invictus (also known as the "First Estate") An order of vampires that claim to be descendants from an ancient Roman sect known as the Camarilla. They are mostly concerned with material gain and power and therefore heavily involved in city politics and business. (Evil note: Almost similar to the Camarilla)

The Lancea Sanctum is an organization which grew parallel to Christianity, therefore commonly being mistaken for a vampiric equivalent of it. They claim the Roman Centurion Longinus as their founder and they believe Kindred (the word vampires use for themselves) have a role in the Divine Providence: that of the ultimate predators. As vampires, they're to prey upon humans, thus unleashing God's Wrath upon the unworthy and representing tests for the pious.

The Ordo Dracul is focused on understanding the vampiric condition, improving upon it and ultimately transcending its limitations. They learn a collection of powers known as The Coils of the Dragon which alter the practitioner, generally alleviating particular limitations of the vampiric condition. The members of the Ordo believe that this discipline was created by the founder of the covenant, the infamous Dracula.

The Unaligned is simply a catch-all term for any Vampires that do not belong to a covenant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Requiem

EDIT: And the map will be remade in to one modern city

 

[Deflare]

First: This is an awesome idea. I'm a big fan of VtR, and I'm quite pleased at the idea of converting CK2 for it.

Now, what I'd recommend doing is picking or making up a city, and then making up a quick history of the vampires that live there. Pick an initial 'seed' population of a few vampires who first arrived in the city, and use them as the basis of your dynasties (so, say, half of the city's Ventrue might be part of the Marcian dynasty, as they're all descended from a Ventrue named Marcus). Need more dynasties? Postulate immigrant vampires. If you can, you might incorporate a method of breaking away from a previous dynasty via event if there's a schism between sire and childe, preferably without ending the game.

I wouldn't represent mortals via the normal character system, with the possible exception of ghouls (who I'd treat as the game's bastards) barring exceptional circumstances of hunter invasions (more later). Instead, I'd say that the game's 'armies' represent the kinds of forces and influence that a vampire can bring to bear from their domain (small-time neonates, ghouls, blood dolls, and the people in their pocket); if the engines allow it, I'd lower all army numbers so that most consist of less than 50 people, given the need for subtlety in vampire wars. Greater influence among mortals would be represented by buildings in your holdings ("Police influence" and such, with Influence possibly being the currency instead of gold). New characters are "born" when someone chooses to Embrace a mortal, at cost to themselves (or create a ghoul, with the potential to Embrace them later).

The threat of discovery by mortals would, of course, be a big deal. You might be able to borrow an escalating tyranny system to represent Exposure; a character who indulges in several massive wars or executes their foes by crucifying them would build up their Exposure trait, increasing the chance that hunter mobs (large rebel stacks). A particularly large breach of the Masquerade may lead to the equivalent of a Mongol invasion. This would be when mortals (and possibly other supernaturals) would be represented by the character system, with massive penalties with vampires. Basically, I'd only represent mortals if they're 'in the know' about the supernatural.

I'd kinda like to be able to represent religion as being somewhat unrelated to covenant (there are plenty of lay members of the Lancea Sanctum among the Invictus); I guess you could represent covenant affiliation with another trait, with a Decision to defect to a new covenant at the cost of prestige and relations with your old covenant.

Unfortunately, I know nothing of programming (for CK2 or not), but I'd be happy to help with setting stuff. I've a bit of a passion for both games, and some experience with VtR.

 

[sir Eyeball]

First: This is an awesome idea. I'm a big fan of VtR, and I'm quite pleased at the idea of converting CK2 for it.

Now, what I'd recommend doing is picking or making up a city, and then making up a quick history of the vampires that live there. Pick an initial 'seed' population of a few vampires who first arrived in the city, and use them as the basis of your dynasties (so, say, half of the city's Ventrue might be part of the Marcian dynasty, as they're all descended from a Ventrue named Marcus). Need more dynasties? Postulate immigrant vampires. If you can, you might incorporate a method of breaking away from a previous dynasty via event if there's a schism between sire and childe, preferably without ending the game.

I wouldn't represent mortals via the normal character system, with the possible exception of ghouls (who I'd treat as the game's bastards) barring exceptional circumstances of hunter invasions (more later). Instead, I'd say that the game's 'armies' represent the kinds of forces and influence that a vampire can bring to bear from their domain (small-time neonates, ghouls, blood dolls, and the people in their pocket); if the engines allow it, I'd lower all army numbers so that most consist of less than 50 people, given the need for subtlety in vampire wars. Greater influence among mortals would be represented by buildings in your holdings ("Police influence" and such, with Influence possibly being the currency instead of gold). New characters are "born" when someone chooses to Embrace a mortal, at cost to themselves (or create a ghoul, with the potential to Embrace them later).

The threat of discovery by mortals would, of course, be a big deal. You might be able to borrow an escalating tyranny system to represent Exposure; a character who indulges in several massive wars or executes their foes by crucifying them would build up their Exposure trait, increasing the chance that hunter mobs (large rebel stacks). A particularly large breach of the Masquerade may lead to the equivalent of a Mongol invasion. This would be when mortals (and possibly other supernaturals) would be represented by the character system, with massive penalties with vampires. Basically, I'd only represent mortals if they're 'in the know' about the supernatural.

I'd kinda like to be able to represent religion as being somewhat unrelated to covenant (there are plenty of lay members of the Lancea Sanctum among the Invictus); I guess you could represent covenant affiliation with another trait, with a Decision to defect to a new covenant at the cost of prestige and relations with your old covenant.

Unfortunately, I know nothing of programming (for CK2 or not), but I'd be happy to help with setting stuff. I've a bit of a passion for both games, and some experience with VtR.

Well a large breach of the masquerade should/could bring on a crusade like war by the other vampires against the person doing the breach.