[Dawn of a New Tomorrow] a game of vampires

[davide.losito]

This is another project I was working onto.
It is at a stage I consider almost complete and I already made some play test.
It's a game about Vampires and the exploration of the struggle between the rational side and the predatory beast of an undead.
It is inspired by Ann Rice novels and all the modern series dealing with the them: Moonlight, Angel, Vampire Diaries...

It has a specific mechanic to represent the loss of control when the beast takes over, during a conflict: the other players will narrate how the beast wins the conflict, with unnecessary violence escalating according to the successes scored with the dice coming from the beast-traits.

http://www.dpucms.com/Dawn1-3.pdf
Comments, feedback and proof-reading is welcome.

[Thriff]

Hey DL,

I notice many unique terms here and suspect you've invested a great deal of personal time and energy into this project, for that: good job. Glad to see people investing themselves into their projects.

The greatest nagging question I have (for now) is "why?" Why would you choose vampires as the foundation for an indie RPG?

I sure hope you know why I'm stunned, but if not... a vampire indie RPG seems like financial suicide and a quick way to be overlooked by a culture inundated with vampire material.

White Wolf's Vampire the Masquerade "VtM" (one, the biggest I can think of, example) has beat you to the punch.

So why persist? Do you just really love vampires? If so, that's perfectly fine! I'm just abso-positiv-ilutely confused about your design choice on the setting material (btw, I didn't notice any setting beyond "vampire" which doesn't seem substantial enough).

If this is a personal venture with no commercial aspirations ok... sure, I can get that. But if DoaNT isn't so humble...

You've worked on it and I hope all the best for you... but why vampires?

T

[davide.losito]

Hey there Thriff.

The game has born after a post on the italian forum, where I suggested a "new" way to play VtM with a set of house rules.
The block of mechanics seemed solid enough to build something more, so DoaNT started to be structured into what it is now.

So the subject is "Vampires" for a number of reasons.
I personally like the figure of the romantic vampires and especially the struggle between the rational and instinct that is at the core of the original literature in the '800. And this is the theme the game is centered onto.
I also spent some month working 16 hours a day for my (beloved) customers and italian television broadcasted some series about vampires in that times at late night (Angel and Moonlight) so I had time to elaborate over their structure.

Actually, the game may support any kind of character who may be defined by an interior struggle on the pair rational/instinct (not only "your-standard-White-wolf-type-of-teen-monster" I mean...).
The game does well also with setting like Hero and 440, for example, or the movie series called Scanners. And of course... Jedi (ok, this last one about Jedi is more of a joke...).

At the moment the game needs play test, so the Vampire setting is enough to provide people a background for playing.
I do not know what this will develop into: I am soon going to test the game in a completely non supernatural setting. Characters will be normal people with addictions; former schoolmates who promised to help each other in life, but everyone has a specific addiction that may ruin things.
I will preserve the duality of the sheet and traits and all the mechanics, just re-named to reflect the different situation.