[Dark Ages Vampire Pdf Download
Eliora Shopbell
Vampire: The Dark Ages is set in medieval Europe in 1197, in the World of Darkness;[2] the updated version Dark Ages: Vampire moves the timeline forward to 1230,[3] and Vampire Twentieth Anniversary Edition: The Dark Ages further to 1242.[4] Players take the roles of vampires, who believe themselves to have descended from the biblical Caine, the first murderer. Each vampire belongs to one of thirteen clans with different vampiric powers and weaknesses, and with different relationships with other clans. Vampires hold a lot of power, and humans know of their existence, unlike in the modern setting of Vampire: The Masquerade; because cities were smaller in the time of Vampire: The Dark Ages, however, it is more difficult for vampires to hide their activities, and they need to face enemies directly as they do not have access to modern technology. In addition to vampires, all other beings from the World of Darkness games appear in the Dark Ages setting, including werewolves, changelings, wraiths and mages.[2]
Vampire: The Dark Ages was published by White Wolf Publishing in March 1996 as the first in a line of World of Darkness games with historical settings,[5] each based on previous games in the series; the series also included 1997's Werewolf: The Wild West and 1998's Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade.[6] An updated version titled Dark Ages: Vampire was released in 2002,[7][8][6] and received supplements based on other World of Darkness games, including Dark Ages: Mage and Dark Ages: Inquisitor in 2002; Dark Ages: Werewolf in 2003; and Dark Ages: Fae in 2004.[6] A further update of the core game, Vampire Twentieth Anniversary Edition: The Dark Ages, was published by Onyx Path Publishing, and was funded through a Kickstarter campaign in 2014[9] and released on July 29, 2015.[1]
The game was given a French translation and published in France by Hexagonal in November 1996;[10] Twentieth Anniversary Edition also got French and Spanish releases by Arkhane Asylum Publishing and NoSoloRol in 2016 and 2017, respectively,[4][11] both of which were financed through crowdfunding campaigns,[11][12] and is planned to be released in Russian by Studio 101 in 2022.[13]
Andy Butcher of Arcane called Vampire: The Dark Ages a great game with a lot of potential for many different kinds of scenarios. He called its "moody" atmosphere one of the biggest achievements of the game, which was helped by the artwork in the rule book, and enjoyed the interaction between the medieval setting and the vampires. He did however criticize how the game does not clearly define the nature of its version of vampires and only describes the setting broadly, making the game more difficult to play unless players have experience with Vampire: The Masquerade and some knowledge of 12th century history. He appreciated the single-roll, dice-based system for determining whether attempted tasks succeed, describing it as "simple and elegant" for allowing degrees of success or failure, but also criticized the gameplay for having unclear combat rules, something he described as a recurring problem in World of Darkness games.[2]
The scenario presented by this edition takes place in 1230 CE, approximately thirty years after Vampire: The Dark Ages. The Long Night has ended, and now the War of Princes rages across Europe. The vampires who fought the War of Princes are riven across complex boundaries of clan and Road, with additional caste boundaries caused by the divisions between High and Low clans.
Dark Ages: Vampire introduces many of the philosophical ideas outlined in revised edition of Vampire: The Masquerade, into the Dark Ages setting. Characters are now less tied to clan (although the boundary between the noble high clans and the poor and outsider low clans does reverberate through the system) and the Roads have been expanded from paths into full religions.
This edition differs considerably from its predecessor (Vampire: The Dark Ages), not only in terms of the massive social changes outlined in the book, but also by introducing a sequence of rulebooks in the same fatsplat manner used by Exalted and eventually refined with the revised Storyteller System.
The clans in Dark Ages: Vampire are slightly different to those presented in Vampire: The Masquerade. The original thirteen clans still exist, and division of loyalties is very different, as the Camarilla and Sabbat are still over two centuries away. The clans are divided by ideology into a semi-caste structure, being High and Low Clans. While there is no game mechanic for dividing the two groups, one can expect others to behave a certain way towards you based upon whether you come from a High or Low Clan.
It is worth noting that in the year 1230 members of clan Tremere are still thought of as usurpers; ones who have drained the heart's blood of the Salubri (who are considered to be "noble" vampires, despite the claims of demon worship). Thus the Tremere are frowned upon by other clans, their campaign of misinformation against the Salubri not yet having borne fruit.
Details of the other Dark Ages clans and bloodlines (Salubri, Baali, Laibon, Lamia, Lhiannan, and Gargoyles) are found in supplemental books for players and Storytellers. Some of these, particularly the Baali, are treated solely as antagonists, not for use as player characters.
While other, older forms of blood magic exist, Thaumaturgy is strictly the domain of Clan Tremere. The leaders of the Clan know that the discipline has the potential to raise them to the highest eschelons of Cainite society, and they severely punish any Tremere who risks that future by sharing their secrets with outsiders.
The Tremere have made the study of vitae their foremost concern. Their present theory is that it represents the prima materia, the pure matter out of which all other things are generated. Without any form (in the Aristotelian sense) of its own, it can be shaped into whatever its possessor wills it to be, but it is vulnerable to those elements of nature that embody clarity and perception: the Sun and fire. Both of these, because they aid the mind and senses in recognizing the forms of things, react against the formlessness of vitae and force it back to an inert state.
The so-called lesser paths are most often the ones first taught to initiates in the Thaumaturgic arts. Increasing mastery of these paths does not teach the Thaumaturge new applications of power, but merely increase the force or scope of a single ability.
With this power, the Thaumaturge conjures an eerie flame in his palm that sheds light but offers no warmth and does not provoke Frenzy in other vampires. When he releases it at a target within sight, however, it burns like any ordinary fire and is beyond his control.
This power subtly strengthens the vigor of mortals, vampires, or animals so that they can cross great distances more quickly than they ordinarily could. It does not speed up their movement in the same way that Celerity does: instead, it instills in them a determination to press ahead and a relief from the fatigue of a constant march.
System: Choose a number of targets and roll for successes. Each success allows the targets to move along roads at a speed of thirty miles per hour for one hour without need of rest or any negative after-effects. It has no effect on movement speeds in combat, only for long-distance travel.
Botches: Instead of speeding up travel, a botch when invoking Iter Pernix causes mounts to become difficult to handle, slowing movement to half speed for the next hour if they are connected to wagons or possibly to wander off-course if they are not.
System: Each success allows the character to manipulate the object for one turn. At the end of that time, she may make another Willpower roll at the same difficulty to extend the duration without spending any more blood points. If the initial roll achieved five successes, however, the power can be maintained for the entire scene without need for further checks.
The power to influence weather is one of the oldest of magical techniques, common among both Tremere Thaumaturges and the koldun of the Tzimisce Clan. The Tremere version is less precise than that of the Tzimisce, but can still produce dramatic effects when used properly.
The difficulty to use Potestas Tempestarum indoors is always at +2. Rain, snow, storms, and thunderstorms cannot be conjured anywhere but outdoors, but fog, wind, and temperature changes may be created anywhere.
Botches: A botched attempt to influence the weather triggers a backlash from the local elemental spirits. Winds whirl around the caster, giving +2 difficulty to Perception and ranged attack rolls for the duration of the scene unless he spends a point of Willpower to compel the spirits to relent. Conjured lightning immediately targets the Thaumaturge.
Unlike the Lesser Paths, the Greater Paths are not mastered simply by concentrating more force of will onto a single purpose. Instead, they are collections of related powers that build upon each other through common techniques. Many Tremere teachers require that their apprentices study at least one of the Lesser Paths before being permitted to approach the Greater mysteries.
The thaumaturge learns to awaken elemental spirits further, and can now imbue them with limited powers of movement. Objects animated in this way cannot bend or warp in any radical way, but can shift and twist themselves by degrees in order to move. A door could open or shut, a chair could pull itself across the floor, a statue could walk slowly, or a sword could shudder to cause itself to be dropped.
System: The thaumaturge must expend a point of Willpower to use this ability in addition to the standard blood point and Willpower roll. Success allows him to animate one object for up to an hour, so long as it remains within his line of sight. Multiple uses of the power allow for the animation of more than one object, but a thaumaturge cannot control more objects at a time than he has points in Intelligence.
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