The Giovanni Chronicles Vampire 20th Anniversary Player Characters Create a vampire from any of the clans listed below. This chronicle starts off in medieval times so I’d like to keep it as pure as possible, therefore please consider not using Bloodlines. If you are adamant that you want to play a bloodline character please make sure it fits into the time frame and explain why you have to play it. I’m interested in telling a fun and a good story that starts at the inception of some major changes in vampire lore. I don’t want to have any comebacks because your bloodline gives you major advantages in the meta. Assamite , Brujah, Followers of Set, Gangrel, Lasombra, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Toreador, Tremere, Tzimisce, Ventrue If you want to research real life history to get a better feel for how your character lives then the year is 1444 and the place is Romania. Basically the Turks are taking over everything as the Ottoman Empire expands. Your average serf would know little outside of their village and some wouldn’t know much outside of their father’s pig farm. You are probably Christian, or Pagan, the Muslims are terrorising lands headed West. It’s basically their time to shine as Western terrorism has been failing recently. Sounds familiar somehow. I would recommend you do not research Kindred history, your characters will start off as humans and so aside from things that go bump in the night, vampire activities are very much concealed under the masquerade. You will be writing or at the very least witnessing Kindred history as part of this Chronicle so much of what you read could very well be science fiction by the time you encounter it. Page !1 of !4 The following is taken from the Chronicle book as it explains any rules regarding character creation and is freely distributable. Creating Medieval Characters merchant or scholar, a runaway serf or even a All the material in this Appendix is for players refugee fleeing the lands to the south, where and may be freely copied and given to them. Turks are successfully besieging Christian The Last Supper offers a unique opportunity to cities. Vampire players. Your character will begin the As you would with any Vampire character, game mortal, and will be Embraced during keep in mind the link between your character play. You may pick your clan now and even and your clan (or in this case, clan-to-be). You assign freebie points. However, you must not are not required to make an obvious use Disciplines or the benefits of the freebie connection, but some connection helps. This points until after your character is Embraced. still leaves a wide range. For example, a This story gives you the chance to play period character of Clan Brujah may be anything from characters in an historical World of Darkness a rebellious peasant youth to a firebrand cleric setting. You may create a mortal character from in the still-nascent Reformation. A Nosferatu any medieval background you choose. Sample can be anything from an unwanted immigrant character backgrounds include: peasant, noble, fleeing the wars to a leper from the holy lands. clergy (nun, priest, or zealous lay person eager A Malkavian might be the village idiot or a to drum up men and resources for another painfully inbred member of a royal family. A Crusade), crusader (Christian or Moslem), Ventrue can include a noblewoman, a silk weary deserter from the Hundred Years’ War, merchant and an enterprising poacher. foreign mercenary, Gypsy, prosperous trader, trailblazing merchant, itinerant peddler, Jewish New Traits moneylender (Christians are prohibited from Players can use the standard Vampire character lending money at interest during this time), sheets during character creation, but they innkeeper, scholar, courtesan, troubadour, should make a few minor changes to the revolutionary, doctor-barber. Abilities section. First of all, the Drive Skill Having players know one another at the start of should become Ride and Firearms should be a game is a good way to build bonds between Melee. Under Knowledges, Theology replaces characters quickly, and is generally a good Computer. idea. It should only be discouraged (or Also, characters need to spend one point in forbidden) if real-world pals decide to make Linguistics in order to be able to read and write their characters buddies so they can snub the their native language. others. Hopefully you’re totally unfamiliar with this Advanced Roleplaying sort of problem. You know that your character is destined to If everyone is in agreement, your character become a vampire during the story, but he does may know one or more of the other characters not. You are required to keep this information before the game begins, or they may begin the separate from your character and not have him game as strangers to one another. act on this basis. This can be a real challenge: The only common feature is that all the for example, your character would know characters have to begin the game in Northern nothing of the politics or clans of vampires. Romania, at the foot of the Carpathian mountains, and they all must speak Italian. If Playing Medieval Characters your character is not a native of the area, you The world was a very different place in 1444. must create a rationale for them her there. She Customs, manners and personal habits were may be a sightseeing noble, a traveling Page !2 of !4 quite different from today, though the fears and (In the Middle Ages, gossip of female priests hopes were much the same. and even female Popes was rampant.) The players do not need to be Medieval Studies majors to do a credible job of roleplaying Fear of Travel: Most people in the Middle people of this era if they keep a few key Ages did very little traveling. Setting out on elements in mind. the road was often considered a perilous venture. For the characters, the trip to the Inflexible Social Positions: Upward social Giovanni manse may be one of the longest mobility was not common in the Middle Ages. trips, if not the longest, in their lifetimes. Some merchants gained great wealth, and the Deeply Ingrained Superstitions: Modern clergy or military service sometimes offered humanity has a strong skepticism of the enterprising youths a chance for advancement, supernatural world. Much of this was but these were the exception. Most people cultivated by vampires seeking to remain lived their lives in service to an acknowledged hidden among humanity. But in the Middle master and behaved respectfully even if they Ages, everyone knew that evil spirits in many hated him. Deferential behaviour toward one’s guises roamed freely over the land. acknowledged “betters” was common and Due to the slow ebbing of magic and the considered vital to survival. Unless a player incipient Masquerade, many people had little chooses five dots of Influence for her character, or no first-hand experience of the supernatural, the vampires in The Last Supper will be of a but most people believed in it strongly. higher social class. For the characters to Though reason and scientific thinking are on behave any way but respectfully (and perhaps the rise during the period in which The Last with a bit of awe) would be a shocking breach Supper is set, the strong technocratic forces of protocol. actively seeking to debunk the supernatural Nevertheless, there is a strong undercurrent of have not yet succeeded. Emotions run stronger, rebellious, anti-authority thinking among some passions are more easily inflamed, and blatant in the underclass. This attitude, encouraged by contradictions are not always considered the Brujah and some Lupines and mages, improper, or even strange. People do not erupted in peasant uprisings and sometimes subject everything they experience to reasoned, brought down kings. Characters with this sort critical analysis - and they do believe in of background would be the exception to the monsters. general rule of submission. Starting the Game Rigid Sex Roles: Though there were notable Several weeks ago you received a visit from a exceptions, women had few opportunities to richly dressed messenger. He brought you a gain economic power or education and hence perfumed invitation to a sumptuous dinner at had very low status. Female characters chosen the manse of Lord Claudius Giovanni. from the general population would be expected Giovanni is from a wealthy Italian trading to be demure, reserved and submissive. This family and is as feared as he is respected. Such limits the pool of female character an invitation is a high honour, and one not backgrounds somewhat. lightly turned down, even when it is from one However, audacious mistresses, domineering as mysterious and distrusted as Lord Giovanni. wives and bold widows were often able to buck You get to decide whether your character the system and behave independently. Creative reacted with shock, gratitude or terror, but your players can put together fascinating female character chose to go. characters, from the rare (but very real) female Those from the lower social orders may warriors to rebellious peasants to educated conceivably be terrified at the prospect of women disguised as high-ranking clergymen. being called upon to dine with the great and Page !3 of !4 powerful, and may aspire to nothing more than After a fortnight of jarring travel through rough getting home with their heads intact. roads, mud and pouring rain, you arrive late at When an ornate carriage arrived for you, you night at the Red Lamb, a cozy inn where most packed your possessions (anything from your of the travellers are also on the road to the tunic without the holes to trunks full of Giovanni manse.