It is the year 1227 in Transylvania, and the the storm of war has blown through and left devastation.

The Teutonic Knights have marched up through Transylvania, claiming territory in the name of Christ from the pagan denizens of the Carpathians. Unbeknownst to all but those of the inner circle, the Order of the Black Cross, it is not Christ they serve but the whims of Lord Jürgen. A creature of the night and vassal to the powerful Lord Hardestadt, the powerful vampire of Clan Ventrue has pushed forward for several years against the Fiendish Clan Tzimisce and their serfs and servants. But with the order from the mortal King Andras for the Germanic knights to leave his lands a year ago, Lord Jürgen and his nemesis, the [i]Voivode[/i] of [i]Voivodes[/i] Lord Vladimir Rustovitch met for a final confrontation that devastated both forces.

In what seemed an impossible chance to claim a piece of Transylvania for himself and prevent total war from rendering the land barren, a Tzimisce scholar by the name of Myca Vykos arranged for peace between the two parties. Swearing a lip-service oath of fealty to Rustovitch and preventing the demise of Lord Jürgen in the process, he established a buffer using his resources and connections between the two forces at the city of Balgrad. Both Ventrue and Tzimisce have slunk back to lick their wounds, but the retreat of both sides has left something of a vacuum amidst the Carpathians. As Vykos retreats for other ventures and leaves the city for his uninterested cousin Iszak to rule, the balance of power is shifting once again. It is here that we will begin our tale.

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There we are. A sufficiently dramatic opening.

For those of you from the general interest thread, thank you for your patience. For anyone stumbling across this and finding themselves interested, welcome. Before beginning proper, I should make a few things known:

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[*] This is an Old World of Darkness Vampire: The Dark Ages game in spirit. There is an existing lore surrounding the situation that is, frankly, too complicated to explain in its entirety. For veteran players this can be enticing, as it allows a great deal of intricacy--for new players this can be Hell, as it seems like everything is enmeshed. Due to my availability, I am forced to assume a degree of familiarity that may not exist with new players--I will do what I can, but I cannot be there to explain it all to you. I invite you to explore OWoD books, the White Wolf Wiki (link to come) and most importantly your knowledgeable fellow players to explain the basics of what I can't.
[*] As with the best of such games, I will be attempting to maintain canon background but there will be alterations. It has also been some time since I was really hardcore about the lore, and so I may not get [i]everything[/i] precisely right. You're going to have to roll with it.
[*] While I will be using the character generation and progression rules as a guideline, [b]I will not be using die rolls[/b]. I am using narrative mechanics to decide actions based on the real world comparative benchmarks that exist within the system and will arbitrate any arguments that arise if people can't place nicely. Which leads me to my next point...
[*] Play nicely. We're all at least some degree of adult here, which means that we're going to be civil about this. We're here to tell a cool story, not bicker and squabble and throw hissy fits. Standard roleplay etiquette applies--I trust that I don't need to explain what that means.
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Now that we've got much of that out of the way, let's get the ball rolling and give you lot something you can work with: Character Generation rules. As said, we'll be using Vampire: the Dark Ages as a base. I highly recommend that you all acquire some copy of the character generation rules for it, as [b]the starting character generation rules are what we will be using[/b]. I appreciate that you have your ancient vampire lord that you've been drooling over, but for the meantime you're going to have to suck it up as a neonate.

We will be using [url=http://mrgone.rocksolidshells.com/pdf/DA/DarkAges_Vampire_1-Page_Interactive.pdf]this[/url] sheet as our basis. Please use it to get your character in order--I will have a formatted character sheet set up shortly, but in the meantime this will at least whet your whistle.

As I am running this primarily by request, [b]I will reward players that assist others and make my life easier[/b]. Help out your fellow players, do cool things that help my book-keeping, etc. and I will do my best to make sure it comes back to you. Some people have already done so without motivation, and I am deeply appreciative of that--your contributions have not been forgotten.

Finally, it's late. This thread is a work in progress. I appreciate your patience.