Vampire: The Requiem

Re: Post your cities

Sgt Jacobs — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:25:01 GMT

I used Canterbury UK for my crossover MET game. Its actually quite small but the Cathedral gives it city status. Very conductive to vampire stories as the local Isle Of Darkness team can attest.

I ran a short Belial's Brood game set in Riyadh capital of Saudi Arabia. I didn't get much of a chance to go into detail with the city as my players trashed it in true Brood style.

Other than those two I find a lot of my games are set in villages and towns rather than cities. The claustrophobia factor of the community makes for some intresting horror gaming.

Re: Post your cities

MidwayHaven — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:08:20 GMT

I've been storytelling this for a year now:

MANILA
Requiem in Exile

For hundreds of years now, the city of Manila in the Philippines has been the shadow battleground of creatures of the night. Here, where the glory of the past meets the misery of the present, the aswang rule free and reign supreme. No vampire would dare prowl Manila's twisting slums unprotected tonight; those kindred who still do search for vitae risk the relentless wrath of the aswang Bamboo Courts.

But recent history shows this was not always so: before the violent upheavals of 1986, the grand Pearl of the Eastern Seas was haven to Asia's kindred. The Lancea Sanctum ruled over Manila's humid nights, and the heaving, restless masses provided a near-inexhaustible supply of vitae. Under the heavy heel of a dictator, Manila's requiem flourished like an endless meadow of red jasmine.

Then came the revolution of 1986, and with it the wrath of the aswang courts. With the collapse of the intricate vampiric structure came the chaos of the so-called "Age of Venom," when the aswang retook back the City they have once ruled over for a thousand years.

Diego Villagoza (Lancea Sanctum Ventrue, BP 12, Theban Sorcery 4), titulary Prince of Manila for almost 400 years, now holds court-in-exile in the northern mountain city of Baguio, where he patiently waits the years and creates an intricate bloody web to retake the city he once ruled.

Re: Post your cities

Unholy Pilgrim — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 02:27:10 GMT

I have a different take on creating cities.

1. I have to have a physical map first. I have to create that map out of borrow graphics from video games.

2. If it's for a Vampire game, I have to create it through time.

For instance, I'm creating an alternate history world, either the American's lost their Revolution and or there was a massive war between American and England in the 1930s. The city will be on the east coast and I will create it in four areas of time using Civ3 City View graphics.

1. 1700s: Walled, surrounded by farmland that's surrounded by forests.
2. 1800s: Industrial: Wall in the process of being torn down. Factories and buildings replace the farmland and forests. Rail roads
3.1930s: Post Industrial: Wall gone. Streets paved. Forest gone and farmland almost gone. Replaced by buildings that are getting taller.
4. 1970-'80s: Modern. Skyscrapers and the likes. (I believe vampire games should take place in the past).

The game will span about 200 years.

Another idea, using Western Front graphics, a game taking place in Wermar Germany over a span of about 40 years.

1920's: Autumn tileset: The town is poor, but the Jazz age is in full swing.
1930's: Spring tileset: Peak of town prosperity and the rise of Nazism, creation of a ghetto.
1940's: Winter tileset: The city's in ruins and bombed out by allied bombing. The Red Army is about to take the city.
1950's: Spring tileset: The city's still in ruins. Communism on the rise.

I'm also planning on making a Dark Ages town, then change it up to the Renaissance and add the changes.

Re: Post your cities

Drizzy — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 04:03:39 GMT

Deimos_Masque:
Damnation City is THE city building book. I highly recommend it to any World of Darkness storyteller, while a lot of it is vampire specific it has a lot of information that works great no matter what game line you are playing

Quoted for Truth

And, it even has sections that don't seem that they would work very well with the Vampire setting (gang tags are definitely Werewolf, and attitude and ambiance is just yelling spirit world, resonance, and gaining glamour by changing emotions.)

Damnation City is great for any ST and it really has helped me out more than any other book: besides the core books, of course.

Re: Post your cities

Deimos_Masque — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:34:39 GMT

Damnation City is THE city building book. I highly recommend it to any World of Darkness storyteller, while a lot of it is vampire specific it has a lot of information that works great no matter what game line you are playing

Re: Post your cities

Peloquin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:20:39 GMT

Damnation city. It gave a few Princely archetypes to use as a quick reference point, with everything from habit suggestions, traditions/laws they'd likely go by and so forth. The Prestige, the Tyrant and the Bogeyman are also Prince style examples. There's a selection of relatively orthodox Princes, and then a selection of "oddities" that run differently than most standard expectations for how a city ruler among Kindred would function. They aren't given stats or anything like that, but they give you a good framework to build up a Prince pretty quickly that already has some key areas relatively fleshed out in how they'd interact with others.

Really nice section, all in all. If your curious about what Prince styles they presented and their specifics, I'm sure we can give ya a general heads up (if not me, another).

Re: Post your cities

GhostSong — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:05:20 GMT

What is this "tyrant", "boogeyman" and "Prestige" of which you speak?

Is there some book that talks about detailing a city's political structure?

Re: Post your cities

Peloquin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:06:58 GMT

I went of a mix of "the Prestige" and "the Bogeyman" myself. The city is still in development (it is a Larp setting), so I have the room to define and tweak aspects as necessary to keep the stories interesting for the players, but I got a general skeleton and some NPC's to build from along with a generalized timeline (with no NPC names mentioned. If you weren't present for the events, pinning down who -really- did what without actual investigation in-game is very unlikely, indeed, contradictory "historical documentation" often further obscures the truth, and for good reason). I'd toss down a bit more, but that could create way too many spoilers for my players. So, for now, I'm leaving things somewhat abstract.

Once things have settled down (and more information brought to light) I'll set my own city down here for persual. A bit of a change of pace from the examples we've seen so far in published material so far, the closest I've ran into is some elements akin to what's mentioned of Budapest in Immortal Sinners. As is, few have ever met the Prince (or Princes, rumors circulate) directly. Even those that believe they have, have uncertainties in most instances. Higher-ups are relatively tight-lipped on matters, and paranoia in the setting is not only rampant, but one of the only safe outlooks to have with the cities Kindred society. It's something of an oddity in the end. Every city has backroom deals and hidden movers and shakers. This one has a very public face and initial appearance that, in the end, seems to be just an illusion to draw others in.

You rarely have the city officials breathing down your neck, or outside of a couple, being public figures in the hiearchy making frequent attendances to gatherings, but on the flipside, Kindred disappearances are relatively common, and many breaches of the law are dealt with quickly, and supposedly, fatally. So, you get the intial sense you've got a pretty loose society and the freedom to do anything you want within reason, be it personally or along Covenant lines, only to make some unknown error and be in hot water without having a wit of how you screwed up. Your invited into the Kindred society, and then find yourself in something of a bear-trap. Once your considered a part of the Domain, barring an outright exile or blood hunt, your -always- considered part of the Domain. It seems relatively inoccuous at first, until you decide to leave, or go nomad. Then the gravity of situation often, slowly at times or quickly, makes itself known. Your never really free. You could setup shop in another alien city, should you survive, and you -still- find that your being watched, apparently by individuals or forces from this domain. You may even find "coincidental", or even blatant events that conspire to bring you -back- to the place, setup by, well, who really knows? It's as if by becoming a recognized member of the cities Kindred, your marked, possibly for good.

It makes for a city that's fairly cosmopolitan on the exterior regarding covenants though, at least on the first encounter, with it's seeming openess to any Covenant and lack of outward stagnation that would enforce a particular "style" one has to pay lip-service to. Keep to yourself, rule your personal domain without stepping on too many toes and, seemingly, your safe, able to push for personal or Covenant power without some uppity Lancea trying to call some theological slots, or some Carthian trying to force-feed you the newest social model without the powers-that-be of the city crashing down on you for your bids for power. Until you slip up unwittingly, that is, and for many the idea is that it's only a matter of time until one does. Unwittingly, because despite the public nature of the city Laws, -when- they get actually enforced seems often arbitrary, rather than consistent. Ignorance seems to be no excuse, even for seeming breaches of city laws that, well, aren't even stated to the public. Could be days. Could be decades, but many who stay for long assume that sometime, your gonna run into trouble despite your best efforts. People pass on through the city only to be never heard from again a little too often for the comfort of many. Sure, nomads come on by, spend a bit, then go on their way, but all too often, any destinations they've made plans with others to meet up at, they simply don't show. That it's often over an hour, if not 3 hours to drive at a nice click to another city center doesn't help matters either, especially with the fragmentary and small nature of the towns along the routes. It's more than a little difficult to find many with many services open all that late, and with the small population in the province, that makes feeding prospects for many a tad slim. Talk of an official "secret police" that quietly get rid of, or collect nuiscances make the rounds very frequently to top it all off. Supposedly these enforcers have little issue pursuing their targets outside of the city, potentially into others if rumor holds true. Fucking up in the city can haunt you, literally or figuratively, even if you turn tail and get the fuck out.

Supposedly the Ordo Dracul are the ones calling the shots behind the scenes, though confirmation (true, factual confirmation) that the Prince is one of them is fairly shady. Hell, most aren't certain that the Prince is even a singular individual anyhow, which further confuses the truth. If it is the Ordo really running some hidden agenda, it -really- makes one wonder what they're up to. Ask a member of the Ordo, who are relatively secretive to begin with, and your average member seems ignorant of any major agenda, even under severe scrutiny and interrogation. The domain is definitely one where looking over your shoulder, or watching your back is perhaps the only sane way of surviving, and where implicit trust is a luxury too costly to afford. Building a support network on comradre, even along Covenant lines doesn't seem to always be enough to avoid problems, so the city thrives on debts to establish a sort of false-trust between residents on services owed. It's one thing to expect friendship and rapport, even a coterie to see you through living there. It's entirely another to have people you can call to back you up, or in turn, that you owe enough that they're likely to make sure you stick around long enough to repay. Most eventually learn the latter is all you can rely on. Perhaps that's the crux of the matter. By ensuring such webs of debt continue, whoevers at the center continues to reap the rewards. Keep the flies in the web, to feast at ones leisure. It'd make sense, can't have the flies just get untangled and buzz away, can one? That'd muck up the entire affair. At least some figuring some elder or diablerist with a strong potency of blood might be at the root of things, are prone to theorize about.

Re: Post your cities

Deimos_Masque — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:23:27 GMT

Heh, that's awesome, my current Prince is based of the Tyrant as well!

Though she's a Duchange bloodline member and 400 years old.

Re: Post your cities

Drizzy — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:24:58 GMT

I have to admit, when i started the game I only knew I was using "The Tyrant" and that Wrench would be the Sherrif. Everything else came about through about 4 sessions of play. This is an after the fact city, It is good to start thinking about major NPCs their goals and stuff, but I never got to use any of my circle of the crone stuff becuase they never really came up. I barely used my Invictus, and Lancea Sanctum stuff: actually no Cruac or Theban Sorcery was even used in the game.

So, start with just a politcal structure, know who is on top, and know what covenants run the show and then tailor your NPCs as the story flows.

Re: Post your cities

Deimos_Masque — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:05:04 GMT

GhostSong's advice is very wise. I have often had to retcon aspects of my city because I overdeveloped the setting and realized as it was played that I had put certain things in the wrong direction. It can make things confusing as you mess up and remember the old direction when you needed to focus on the new direction. Heck, I realized after posting what I did post that is was actually inaccurate to a degree because alot of it was written when my Prince was Invictus instead of Unbound. (Though the wiki is definately up to day)

Re: Post your cities

GhostSong — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:54:31 GMT

Nomah:
I doubt I canc ome up with something that compares to some of these...

Here's some advice, it might be something you already know but I've fallen into this trap before. Don't try and develop your city from the get go. When I started my game I knew two things Detroit was a theocracy and it was run by the Gangrel. Then I ran a few games and it became clear to me what I wanted to do and what the game needed. Then I included more and more, fleshing out the whose who, the other clans and covenants. After about eight games or so I have the city where it is now and it's no where near done. I purposely left blanks in things like the Mehket because they haven't come up yet and I don't want to bind myself to some story that, at the time I might not want to play.

Re: Post your cities

Deimos_Masque — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:53:45 GMT

Well keep in mind with me, I've been refining the setting since the day Vampire the REquiem came out so that's years of work.

Re: Post your cities

Nomah — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:44:50 GMT

Wow

Since I posted this, i've tried to find time to get through all of the responses, but it took me a while.
I am impressed at how detailed you are all and how much thought you've put in. Hats of to ya.

I appreciate all the input, it will be very helpful
I doubt I canc ome up with something that compares to some of these...

Re: Post your cities

Roma Naim — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 19:42:46 GMT

Well, let me put it this way. The reason CotDL came into existence was because I had a lot of time on my hands when I was initially drafting it (The irreconcilable benefit of being made unemployed after the dot.com bubble burst). I created a dozen or so frenetically crafted characters here and there and eventually it blossomed and grew out of the SnE NPC project where it began unlife (embraced if you will). A few thousand words of setting, plot and history later and it had evolved into something of a leviathan (to my amateur perspective anyway) and had become a sprawling morass of characters and plot ideas tied together with little to no formal structure outside of basic chapter headings. I have no idea how many words the project currently takes up, but it's extremely unwieldy and needs copious quantities of editing and proofing poured into it. However the thing that allowed all of this to come into being meant that I was also pretty much broke. My lil blue and white G3 puter was not up to the job of handling the heavy amounts of material needed to create the pdf which had even struggled to get the LA .pdf to layout due to various component (and yes I'll admit it, nefariously acquired software) problems that I simply didn't have the cash to fix or overcome. Things being what they were I managed to get work, but only recently managed to save enough to comfortably afford a brand spanking new Macbook Pro within the last few months (part of which was funded by my freelance work on Night Horrors Immortal Sinners!), which in turn reduced the level of time I would devote to my baby. I went through spurts of adding material but had basically lost the impetus to continue with the project and left it on the back burner (back burner in this case implying a level of stasis eclipsed only by Weaver spirits :P). That's where the project is at the moment, so with respect to your question; Yes, it has always been my intention to get this to pdf. The when and how of it though remains an unanswered question that I am doubtful I can commit to answering with any level of certainty, partly due to intermittent bouts of perfectionism that I have for this project in particular. Art creation, editing, layout and copy are things I simply don't have time to commit to at the moment easily. Basically, I don't want to give anything like an assurance it will ever become a pdf in the near future. But then, you never know...