Latest / Story Games / Episode 24: Thousand Year Old Vampire pt 2
Transcript
- Maggie Studio: Friends, and welcome back to Story Games, a podcast all about your favorite narrative-driven games. My name is Momo, and I will be your host. Today we are continuing the spooky season celebration by bringing you Thousand Year Old Vampire Episode 2. If you have not gone back and watched Episode 1, I highly recommend you do so. We go over the rules and how to play, and without it, you might be a little bit lost. But today we are diving right into character creation, which is honestly one of my favorite parts of playing these games. Without further ado, I hope you enjoy Thousand Year Old Vampire Episode 2. Hello friends and welcome back to Heart of the Deer Nicorn. My name is Momo, and today we are continuing our playthrough of Thousand Year Old Vampire. I'm so excited to get into actual character creation today. This is gonna be so much fun. Character creation is one of my favorite parts of playing a game like this, so I'm excited to dig in. If you have not watched the last episode, you do want to make sure you go ahead and do that. There's some important information about the game itself. Some content warnings because this game can get pretty heavy and just some overall, you know, stuff about the game that you're not gonna wanna miss. But with that being said, shall we just jump on into Thousand Year Old Vampire? Before I do that though, I do wanna show you my journal a little bit. So I do have my title page here, which I'm very proud of. And then I have our headings for the different parts of our journal and I'm very happy with how these came out too. resources, characters, memories, all the stuff that we need. I have double page spreads for all of it. But we are going to swap over to our character page. Which I have not filled out yet because I don't know what our character's name is going to be. I do, however, have a spot for a character portrait because something I like to do is I like to draw the characters that I create. So I have a spot in here where I can draw my vampire. But before I can draw her, I need to flesh her out. I need to know who she is, what does she look like? What is she about? Who was she before she turned into a vampire? Let's discover all of that together. So I'm gonna set my journal aside for just a second. And I'm going to swap in the game. And I'm going to turn to page. gosh, it's Roman numerals, my weakness. I'm going to turn to page, I believe this is 15, I think this is page 15, in the vampire creation part of the game. So I'm going to read this page again. I know I read this last time, but I'm going to refresh my memory a bit. And it says, Start by imagining a person in the distant past: a Roman emperor, a Mesopotamian midwife, a French knight. This person will become your vampire. Imagine when and where they were born and who they were in life. Start a memory with one experience that encapsulates their history. For instance, I am Henry, son of John, born near the Loyora Valley in the 13th century of our Lord. I am a poor knight swindled out of my inheritance. Okay, so we are going to start a memory with one experience. Okay. So if I am remembering correctly, we have five memory slots. with three experiences per memory, I believe. and every time we get a new memory with new experiences, we need to cross out the previous one because we can only hold five. And I think I want my memories to kind of exist in little boxes. So I'm gonna do a this. And this. And I will make the box maybe look a bit prettier later. But for now this will do. And then I'm going to write the number one. Because it'll be our first experience within this memory. We can have three. And okay, who was our character before she became a vampire? I have thought about this a little bit, but not a whole lot. Because I wanted to do a lot of the fleshing out with you on camera. So let's see. I know I want her to be a lady in waiting of some kind. So royal adjacent, but not royal herself. But to who? Maybe a princess? Maybe. The game encourages you to Wikipedia things and draw from history, so I might do that a little bit. Let's see. What region do I want my vampire to be from? And what like time era? I can totally make things up too. I can just pick a time frame and then create a random princess that my character was a lady in waiting for. I might go that route and maybe make it a bit more fantasy inspired. Or I can make it completely fantasy and base none of it in reality at all, which could be fun. Okay, I think I'm gonna do a mixture of not having it be a real person or a real place, but grounded somewhat in reality, because I think it could be fun to have my vampire be the most paranormal thing instead of making it like a whole fantasy world. so I'm gonna do that. So I'm going to say, what should her name be? I also have to determine her name. What's a good old-timey name? Very old timey. I like the name Guinevere, but that is also like a very historical person. But I like the name Guinevere a lot. Let's go with Guinevere. But not the Guinevere. Not like Knights of the Round Table Guinevere. maybe she is a bit more later than that. I'm gonna write some stuff down and I'm gonna come back when I have like a full fledged idea because I think I'm just gonna kind of let my hand do its thing. How do you spell Guinevere? my god. Okay, that took a while because I had to do some Googling, I had to do some Wikipedia-ing, I had to kind of establish a time frame, but I think I've got it. So what I have written down is I am Guinevere, lady in waiting to Princess Sabine of Wales, born in the 14th century. I am an ambitious woman with many suitors. So I picked the 14th century to be kind of our starting place, which I learned a lot about the 14th century in my little goog. which is perfect. I love learning about history and I love just kind of like refreshing a lot of that history class that I learned in high school. because I don't know if you know, but when you grow up you forget a lot of things that you learned in school. So I'm excited to kind of, you know, refresh myself on some things. But anyway, we are in the 14th century when we start. she is a lady in waiting, and I imagine she's kind of maybe a haughty woman. she is lady in waiting to the princess, so she has some kind of political power. Not a whole lot, of course, not like nearly as much as the princess, but being kind of like the right-hand man to the princess. Maybe she has the princess's ear. Maybe the princess trusts her. And she kind of maybe uses that to her advantage. So yeah, that's kind of the character that I'm percolating in my brain. Okay, so now we can continue. This first experience is a little different than most experiences in that it's a broad summary of the vampire's life before becoming an undead thing. This memory will be this experience will be slotted into the character record's first memory. Next, create at least three mortals and add them to the vampire's record sheet. These mortals will have a relationship with your vampire. Relatives, friends, and lovers, enemies, mentors, debtors, or anything else appropriate for the time and place you have chosen. Describe each character in a few words. Know that these characters can and should be very important but will not be around for long. So we're gonna do characters now. Do I want each character to have a box? Maybe. I'm worried I'm gonna run out of space. If I run out of space, I have a plan B, don't worry. In the character. Boop. these don't necessarily need numbers because they're not gonna be numbered. We can have as many characters as we want. So bop bop bop, how do I want to approach this? yeah, okay, so I am just going to write the first character, obvious, is gonna be Princess Sabine. And maybe the princess is actually very kind-hearted and maybe a little bit naive. and maybe my character Guinevere kind of has like a big sister role to her. That could be fun. I'm going to say she is a friend. naive and kind hearted. Should leave more space to write more about them? Maybe. Maybe I'll leave just like a little bit. if I do that though, we're gonna run out of space. You know what? That's fine. That's fine. Okay, so let's give maybe our character a lover because she does have many suitors. So maybe a who would want to pursue a lady in waiting? maybe a knight. Ooh, maybe a knight. That could be fun. So we can do sur. god. And now I need to look up names because I'm so bad with coming up with names. So I looked up a medieval name list, and we're gonna go with Sir Knoll. N-O-L-Lover. Okay, what about Sir Knoll? Who is he? So he is a chivalrous knight. Chivalrous knight. And maybe he's also a hopeless romantic. Maybe he is actually very much in love with Guinevere. And for Guinevere, maybe he's just kind of like one of her many lovers that she has accumulated. I'm not anticipating Guinevere to be a very good person, especially after she becomes a vampire, which I'm kind of leaning into a little bit. So yes, maybe she's a bit of a heartbreaker, and this poor Sir Noel. is hopelessly in love with our Guinevere, and maybe she is not quite the same in love with him. Okay, so we need one more. maybe a family member, maybe she has a sister. Maybe Guinevere has a sister. Mmm, I don't know if I love that. Maybe a cousin, actually. Maybe a cousin who she's close to who is also in court somehow. maybe she's a bit of an older cousin. And maybe she kind of looks out for Guinevere a little bit, but is also kind of like Guinevere, you know, you can't break all these hearts. it's gonna come back to you someday. I like that. Okay, so let's come up with a name, maybe. let's do Alice, but we'll spell it A-L-I-S-E. Cousin? And she is a bit motherly and looks out for Guinevere. Wonderful. So we have our three characters. Okay, what next? Give your vampire to be three skills fitting for their lot in life, and three resources they obtained while still mortal. Remember, resources can be almost anything, big or small. A resource is a resource, whether it's an obsidian knife or a fleet of warships. Okay, so let's go over to skills. We're gonna make our boxes. and these can just be very small boxes. Cause the skill I think doesn't have to really say much to it. I like that. Okay, cool. So we can fit a lot more skills than we can characters. Okay, cool. So, skills. we have what, three skills? So, what does a lady in waiting do? What does she do? She is Can gossip be a skill? That can definitely be a skill, I think. I'm gonna put gossip as one of them. and I think gossip encapsulates just like sharing information in a strategic way. That is kind of how I am picturing it. Gossip slash strategy. another skill is horseback riding. She's a very adept horse rider. Okay, and then for her last skill, what else? dancing. Obviously, she's an amazing dancer. Okay, so those are our three skills, and now we have to give Guinevere three resources. And I'm going to make the same boxes. And don't worry, I will make these boxes pretty later off camera. So next time you see these, they will be pretty boxes. Or at least lined in some kind of pen. Okay, so resources. let's see. So what would a lady in waiting have? She definitely has a jeweled necklace that she loves. Ooh, maybe she has one of those like cool pouches, like those like chainmail pouches. I don't know if that was actually a thing in this time period or if that's like a more modern thing, but I like it, so I'm gonna give her one. A chain mail pouch. And I do like the idea of giving her some kind of weapon because I think ladies in waiting or any kind of royalty probably would have a guard with them most of the time, but I like the idea of she knows how to defend herself too. so maybe she has like a really sharp letter opener. Yes. with a bone handle. yes. Bone letter opener. And maybe she keeps it on her like at all times, maybe in the chainmail pouch, who knows? okay, cool. So we've got our skills and our resources. Then create three more experiences, with one experience each being entered into a separate memory. Each of these experiences should combine two of your vampire's traits. If your vampire has the long ship as a resource and the character Gundar, a Viking Yar like a father to me. You might write an experience like Gundar takes me on my first voyage aboard the longship. His touch calms me when we first leave sight of land. Okay, okay, okay, okay. So we're gonna create three more experiences, each within a new memory. Okay, so we're gonna combine some things. I see, I see how this is gonna work. So I'm gonna go to memory number two, make my box. And each one is going into a new memory slot. So, okay. I'm gonna write down one. So maybe Alice gives Guinevere a jeweled necklace when she is of age. Okay. Okay, so the next memory I wrote is Alice gifts me a beautiful jewel necklace to celebrate my coming of age. It shows how much she cares for me. And then we're going to go to another memory, memory number three. Maybe she won her bone letter opener as a gift, or not a gift, but as a prize for winning a horseback riding competition. That sounds fun. Okay, for the next experience, I wrote down, I compete in a horse riding competition and win a sharp letter opener with a bone handle. My bond with my horse is stronger than any of my human relationships. So I did a little bit of character building there where she feels very strongly connected to her horse and maybe to animals in general, but does not have that same connection with other human beings. So maybe she even has more like empathy and respect for like animals and creatures. and then that does not extend to other human beings. So that's fun. Okay, so we need one more memory or one more experience. okay, so maybe we combine dancing with this knight character, and maybe. She dances so beautifully at her debutante ball that she captures the heart of Sir Knoll immediately and he professes his love to her. Okay, cool, I like that. Okay, for our last experience, I wrote, at my first ball, I dance so beautifully that Sir Noel notices and immediately professes his love for me. I find him amusing, so I keep him close, but never too close. Ooh, okay, I'm loving this. I'm loving the way that this is kind of painting a picture of my character. Lastly, create an immortal. This is the creature that gifted or cursed your vampire with unlife. Create a mark and an experience that explain how your vampire became a creature of the night. One such immortal is Baron Honmueller, an Austrian noble and a vampire. He stole my deed to my land. The corresponding experience might be I duel the eerie Baron Holmueller across the rooftop of the abbey. He nearly cuts my head from my shoulders, but I do not die, which leads to the mark. My neck is permanently broken, I wear tight scars and I walk solely to maintain my dignity. Okay, once you have finished with your vampire, they will have three skills, three resources, a mark, at least three mortals, one immortal, and one experience under each of their five memories. So let's do some brainstorming here. My immediately my immediate thought is to have one of her lovers actually be a vampire. Maybe the one lover that she chooses to kind of trust more than the others. and he ends up being a vampire and blesses slash curses her with immortality. with like maybe not her even knowing. And as for a mark, I don't want to use the same one that the book said, even though something to do with the neck would make a lot of sense. maybe. So a mark is just something that marks them as a vampire. Let's see. I like the idea of having her eyes actually turn blood red. I think blood red eyes is a really cool mark, and maybe they even like shine in direct light like a cat's. so maybe she needs to find a way around. Maybe she like has these little like opera glasses that she'll carry with her going forward. That could be really fun. I like that. Okay, okay, okay, okay. So we're going to write another experience under memory five. Okay, so I'm going to write about we need to actually create another character first. Let's do that first. Do do do do do do characters. So we're gonna create an immortal. Ooh, okay. I know it's kind of cliche, but I want his name to be Dimitri. I love the name Dimitri. And I know it sounds like very vampiric already, but you know what? It's my game. I get to decide. I want my immortal to be Dimitri. Okay, so I wrote Dimitri, Immortal, the one person I trusted who broke my trust and cursed me with immortality. So we're gonna go to memory five and I'm gonna write down. So maybe I'm thinking that Dimitri actually proposed marriage to Guinevere. And when Guinevere accepted, he said that there was something she needed to do first before they could be wed. And then he attacks her and turns her into a vampire. And I think that is how that went down. Cool. Okay, so I did a little bit of, I'm not sure if I was supposed to do this. We'll see if this comes back. I can wreck on it if I have to. But here's what I wrote down. Dimitri proposed my hand in marriage, and when I accepted, he cursed me by attacking me with his teeth and nails until I too became an immortal vampire. He fled when I became murderously enraged. So my thought is Guinevere was so angry that Dimitri turned her into a vampire that she tried to kill him, and now She it's like her goal. Her goal now is to kill Dimitri for turning her into a vampire. And maybe he like fled once he realized how angry she was. and maybe he'll come back, maybe he won't. Maybe the game will tie into the immortal somehow, and I'll have like retcon a little bit, but at least for right now, that is where my brain is at. she's now a vampire, she's murderously angry about it, and she wants Dimitri's blood. That's where I'm going with it. Okay, so I have an experience under all five of my memories. I have three mortal characters and one immortal character. I've got three resources and three skills. So I believe we are actually ready to play the game. Yes, because the next thing we go into is the prompts, the passage of time, and then yeah, then it says we can play the game. So what I'm going to do is because this took a little bit of time. I am going to end the video here after character creation. And in the next episode, we are going to actually start playing the game. When I come back excuse me, Fly, thank you. When I come back, I will have a character portrait of my character. so you'll be able to see what Guinevere looks like. Again, this is completely optional. This is just something that I personally like to do because I think it's fun. if you are playing along. You can also print out like pictures of celebrities or pictures of characters from pop culture that you want to kind of like fan cast as your vampire. That's something you can do as well. Or you can do none of it. It's entirely up to you. But anyway, yes, that is where I am going to end today's video. Thank you for helping me create my vampire. I'm so excited to see what awful, horrible things Guinevere does, especially considering she wasn't the nicest person in life. I imagine as an immortal. I imagine to survive as an immortal, you've gotta be some degree of messed up anyway. So I'm excited to lean into that. But yes, I hope you guys are enjoying this series. If you would like to get a copy of Thousand Year Old Vampire for yourself, you can do so through our website. I will have the link in the description box below. You can get a physical copy or a PDF copy as well. So do keep that in mind. Anyway, that's gonna be all from me today, guys. Thank you so much for hanging out with me, and I will see you next time in the next episode of Thousand Year Old Vampire. Bye, friends.