So Many Vampires, So Many Times

What if Bella was a wise master? What if vampires had masters and those masters were the teenage girls they can't resist? 
This idea overwhelmed everyone I described it to. 

Now let's get serious: what if we weren't mocking or shaming the girls who would be the protagonists in this story? 

How could this be good? Why do ancient vampires want to make out with 16 year olds? What's going on here? Why does this story keep being retold? Could this not be a horrible idea? 

These were some of the main questions I had when I designed the playbook for the Object character. I imagined Bella from Twilight not as passive, but as wise and subtle, a supreme taoist force that may not even know her own strength. I wanted to influence without speaking and acting, what would that mean? How could this be good, how could this be bad, how could this blow up in her face? 

Then I came up with two more characters, initially inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the journalist from Interview with the Vampire. What made them different, what made them interesting, why would they ally or fight with each other? This fit perfectly into Belonging Outside Belonging creating the core gameplay.

Meanwhile, I had been toying with turning Puppetland's basic character rules in order to support a Pokemon game. I had earlier created a game several years ago where these rules to create magical artifacts with the pcs being artisans. When I started trying to figure out how are vampires individualized, I revisited this to create vampires and describing how they act, their special powers, and what they are driven to do. 

The integration of the two games using the favor system created the core game to me. There are scarier things out there than you. There are monsters in the night, perhaps. That's scary. But worst of all, there is the Morning Sun and All It Brings, representing the forces of mundane society that might fear you, might hate you, but definitely wants you to stop playing with vampires and go get a real job.

The other setting elements pretty much wrote themselves and the rules came together fairly simply. Endless awesome parties, open mics, gatherings, and the drudgery or threat of the harsh light of day. 

In terms of gender and age, I want to note that at no point is the gender of the characters actually explicitly described. The Pretty Things are those with the hearts of teenage girls, they do not half to be girls or even teenagers. In fact, the Empyrean Stewards, npcs in the game, are no longer teenagers by definition. If you want to be an accountant, husband, and father drawn into this world feel free. After all, that might describe the journalist from Interview with the Vampire even I though the role is written for a teenage girl.

Unlike most games I made, I separated this into individual files to make printing out the materials for play easier and more organized. I'm not sure I made the write choice. 

Future Goals: 

Clarify the rules, the writing, and the sources

Add quotes for the setting elements

Add more roles 

Expand the rules to go into more depth about ways the game can be used to tell different kinds of stories