What more perfect environment could there be for the nocturnal Kindred than the glorious city of New Orleans? It is a place—perhaps the only place—that fully embodies not only the feel but the very essence of what it is to be damned to darkness. Even the paradox of unlife itself is mirrored in every contradictory facet of this roiling city that is at once gaudy and genteel, pious and perfidious, daring and discreet. Here, in the bloated belly of the Deep South, the wine flows, the dice roll and the pleasures come slow and steady as molasses. Nothing is difficult here, unless it has to be, and yet nothing is free, either. Nothing is ever free. Some readers might think they are familiar with such a place. Some might even have been there, a fair number on more than one occasion. But the New Orleans you think you know, though it seems to be the city of which is spoken here, is not the New Orleans of a Gothic-Punk world. No, the New Orleans of the World of Darkness is a significantly darker place, filled with more people, more crime, more vice, more wine, more desire, more despair—more everything than its real-world counterpart. This is where it all hangs out, for both Kindred and kine, where dreams intercourse with reality, begetting nightmares most unreal—where even the dead must toss in endless, fitful sleep. Setting Details Blood & Bourbon is a ongoing, 7-year-old Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle set in modern-day New Orleans. The game's twin focuses are the bread and butter of Vampire: personal horror and political intrigue. While the GM tailors the former to the personalities and relationships the game's PCs, the latter's political setup is a three-way struggle between the prince and two rival elders. The prince is an iron-fisted Old World Ventrue who believes in absolute order enforced at any cost, no matter how bloody. His Toreador rival takes a more laissez-fare and easygoing approach to rule, but permits his Kindred subjects within the French Quarter to indulge their most decadent appetites without hindrance. Their mutual foe is a Samedi houngan who protects the city's often poor and disenfranchised Vodouisants, but traffics with dark forces and cares nothing for the lives of those who do not number among his followers. Due to the actions of PCs, it's come out that the prince is long overdue to enter torpor. Battles have already broken out along the borders of the three elders' territories. The already tense city has become a powder keg with a lit fuse: the prince's supporters now jockey to position themselves as his heir while his rivals smile and sharpen their knives. PCs in Blood & Bourbon's setting immerse themselves in the plots and intrigues of their fellow Kindred to carve out power bases of their own, yet the dark deeds power requires may turn them into monsters as awful as any of the elders they wrest it from. An ambitious neonate can go far in this city, but all power has a price. What will you pay? Group & Game Details Hi there! My name's Calder (pronounced "Call-der"), thanks for your interest in the game. I'm a 30-year-old RPG geek who's been involved in the hobby on and off for roughly half my life and GMing Blood & Bourbon since 2015. We've got three current players (two in their early 30s, one around 40) and are looking for up to several more. Newbies and veterans are equally welcome: several of our past and current players were brand new to the World of Darkness when they first joined. • The game itself is seven years old and has produced thousands of pages of text logs. Our chronicle is geared towards fixative nerds who seek to emulate series like A Song of Ice and Fire and Malazan Book of the Fallen in depth and complexity. All of the PCs have grown and evolved over years-long story arcs and made significant impacts upon the setting. Everyone involved has put a lot of blood and sweat into the chronicle, and we're looking for new people who share our level of passion, enthusiasm, and desire to get involved with something for the long haul. There are no plans to end the chronicle anytime soon. And just to be clear on what the game is not, B&B is a terrible game for someone looking for a more "beer and pretzels" or casual pick-me-up experience. • The playstyle has been described by one of the players as, "An open sandbox in a city with NPCs actively advancing their own plots. Players are characters in the city advancing their own plots, typically also getting involved in NPC ones willingly and unwillingly as is the nature of the setting. Game is heavily intrigue, politics, and social focused, with a rules system that’s pretty simple. Heavily rewards accomplishing goals and accepting setbacks, as well as playing to your character instead of simply most optimal move. Player interests and goals can be as simple and low level as carving out a comfortable life in an uncomfortable existence, or as complex as trying to maneuver with the highest levels of politics in the setting." No character in B&B's setting is too big to fall. If PCs diablerize the setting's elders, go them! By that same token, PCs aren't too big to fall either. The GM is your cheerleader and roots for your character's success, but will not cheat PCs out of victories by sparing them from defeat. Multiple PCs have died and/or suffered horrible fates in this game. They have also changed the setting in big ways that not all GMs may have been willing to let them. I firmly believe the possibility of real failure makes success all the more sweet. • The medium is Discord. The game is played via text, so the experience is more like writing a novel together than conventional tabletop play. There are no scheduled session times: we're all adults with busy lives and scheduling 5-hour weekly blocks would be tough. Players post in their chat rooms when convenient and the GM responds when convenient. If we're both online at the same time, we effectively have spontaneous mini-sessions that can last anywhere from several minutes to several hours. I've come to prefer this format over traditional scheduled sessions, as we get to play whenever we want. • The party is not a party. Your PCs do not belong to the same coterie, but will cross paths with one another, sometimes as friends and other times as foes. PvP is allowed but not compelled: it's up to PCs how they interact with each other. If your PC belongs to a coterie (recommended--neonates benefit from allies), your coterie-mates will be NPCs. • The game system is a slimmed-down blend of the V5 and 2e Chronicles of Darkness rules, with many of the more complicated mechanics removed, and some other mechanics added from various sources that struck the GM's fancy. I enjoy mechanics design and regularly tinker with rules, but prefer them to be unobtrusive during play and to take up a minimum of everyone's time. Fair Warning: Graphic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, domestic violence, racism, sexism, homo/transphobia, incest, and a variety of other 18+ topics have all come up in B&B. I believe their inclusion in a tasteful manner enhances the game and endeavor to be worthy of the trust players show me in exploring topics that GMs can mishandle. If there are topics you’d prefer not to feature in your PC’s story, I’ll refrain from deliberately steering your PC towards them, but I also can’t promise they will never come up period. If there are some topics you’re not comfortable with under any circumstance, B&B might not be your cup of tea as a game. More information about the game can be found on its Player FAQ , which takes us to... The Chronicle Wiki Blood & Bourbon has an extensive Obsidian Portal wiki with 500+ articles containing logs of past sessions; biographies of the game's N/PCs; the game's mechanics; information about the city's history, culture, geography, and political factions; Kindred and mortal family trees; an advice guide by one of the players; and much, much more. You can check it out here for more info about the game. As stated, Blood & Bourbon is a 7-year-old game. Most of its storylines revolve around character relationships and the ongoing political machinations of those characters. In many ways, the game is like a book series the players and GM are writing together: since "writers" benefit from familiarity with previous material, new players are asked to familiarize themselves with the game's existing characters and storylines, which they do by reading the OP wiki. I do not expect prospective players to read all 500+ pages! That is an unfair time commitment to ask of people who aren't players in the game yet. Read as little or as much as you like right now. Once I contact you over Discord to create your PC in earnest (more on that below), however, you will be asked to read most of the setting info pages before play begins with your PC. You'll also be asked, after play begins, to begin reading the adventure logs of the PCs currently in active play. This is to aid with understanding of the setting and NPC relationships, and also to illustrate pattern of play. Blood & Bourbon asks a relatively big reading commitment of new players, but I believe that pays dividends with more narratively relevant and socially connected PCs. Newcomer PCs in the game do **not** have backgrounds like *"I'm from the next city over and recently moved to New Orleans, where I'm a total newcomer with no connections to anybody."* The GM works hard to integrate new PCs into the setting and to give them connections to its plots and characters. Players and I collaborate to give their PCs allies, loved ones, rivals, superiors, minions: everything they need to be central to the game's ongoing narrative once play begins. While you will not immediately be as emotionally invested in your character as the players of the years-old PCs, my goal is to give us tools so that can happen as quickly as possible. How to Join the Game Interested in playing with us? Awesome! Create a thread in the game's listing discussion and please answer the following: • #1. Tell me a little about yourself, your RPG playstyle, how old you are (this is an 18+ game), and what you hope to get out of playing in Blood & Bourbon. • #2. Let me know your background in RPGs in general and Masquerade specifically. Preference is not given based on experience but is useful for me to know. If you're brand new to the game, for instance, you should probably play a newly-Embraced Kindred instead of one with several decades under their belt. • #3. Let me know you're on board with the game's reading commitment and the reasons behind it. • #4. Let me know what your Discord ID is. You can PM it to me if you'd rather not post it publicly. • #5. Pitch one or more potential PCs , as described below. Applications without a character pitch will not be considered for the game. Your Character Pitch Please answer the below questions. Check out this page for tips, advice, and assorted commentary on how to pitch a compelling PC likely to grab the GM's and the existing players' interests. • #1. Sum up your character concept in four words or less. Examples might be, "Hot-tempered rebel without a cause," "Sadomasochistic biker chick," "Vision-plagued surrealist painter," etc. Please use this for the name of your application thread. • #2. What is your PC's basic shtick? Who is your PC? Include their goals and whatever else you like here: history, personality, anything that gives us a preview of the character and makes us excited to develop them further. Goals is the most important part of this. What agendas is your PC pursuing in Kindred society? What do you want them to accomplish in the gameworld? This a pretty sandboxy game that favors proactive, go-getting characters: storylines tend to develop as a result of PC crossing paths with NPCs who are pursuing related agendas, rather than because the GM is shepherding PCs onto an ongoing "main plot." • #3. What clans interest you? Please identify at least three. Multiple clans gives me more wiggle room when considering how to integrate your PC into the chronicle: some clans may be better fits for your concept than others. (Please don't pick every clan, though! That's essentially asking me to decide your clan for you.) More information about clans in B&B can be found here. Toreador, Tzimisce, and Ventrue are off-limits to new PCs at this time due to conceptual overlap with extensively played current and prior PCs. • #4. What political factions interest you? More information about the city's factions can be found here. Note that the Tremere and most of the independent clans (Assamites, Giovanni, Setites) are insular enough clans to be factions in their own rights. PCs from these clans can belong to another faction, but don't have to. Sabbat characters and characters unaffiliated with any faction are currently off-limits to new PCs. • #5. Who are some mortals your PC has relationships with? These can be friends, family members, significant others, work associates: any NPC who grabs your interest and you'd enjoy your PC interacting with. Mortal interactions are an important part of Blood & Bourbon, as I believe they keep the chronicle “grounded” in real life and provide contrast to the supernatural politics. Choose them from the personae off the wiki. Please identify at least five (feel free to identify more!) and describe either the nature of the relationship or why you think these NPCs will be fun to interact with. • #6. Who are some other vampires your PC has relationships with? These can be sires, coterie-mates, lovers, associates, enemies: as with mortals, these can be any NPCs who grab your interest and you'd enjoy your PC interacting with. Choose them from the same personae linked to in the earlier clan and covenant questions. Please identify at least five (feel free to identify more!) and describe either the nature of the relationship or why you think these NPCs will be fun to interact with. Sample Applications: If you want to read some sample PC applications by two of the game's current players, you can do so here. Both of them wrote amazing applications that could've (and did) get them accepted into the game. What if I've already submitted an application? I created another listing for Blood & Bourbon back in 2020 that got a number of replies. If you submitted an application there, I will be reviewing and considering all of the old applications. You're free to leave yours as-is, to submit an updated application under this listing, or to submit a completely new application: whatever floats your boat. What Comes Next? On June 15th, I'll contact via Discord (by 12 PM PST) whichever players the current group thinks have the most compelling character pitches, compatible-feeling personalities, and greatest potential to enrich the game. Admission is not first come, first served: take as long as you like to explore the wiki and draft an application. After the 15th, I'll continue to follow this listing and read character pitches (Roll20 sends me emails) if we end up having any player vacancies or I decide the group can handle more players, but no promises there. If you hear form me on the 15th, • #1. We'll do the following more or less concurrently: (a. We'll collaboratively hash out more details on a variety of topics relevant to your character concept, including their stats. (b. You'll join the campaign over Obsidian Portal and post a character page for your PC. (c. You'll read through the OP wiki to familiarize yourself with the game's setting, storylines, and characters. Prospective players will have a week to finish step #2 with me before I'll reevaluate whether to keep them or bring in a different player: when PC creation takes a while, that's often a warning sign the player can't fully commit to the game. • #2. We'll run your prelude. This will give me a chance to see what you're like to game with and how compatible our personalities are. • #3. Once the above “interview” is over, you’ll join the Discord channels with the other players and be welcomed into the game proper. We’ll hopefully have many years of fun gaming ahead of us. If I feel like we’re not a good fit for each other at any point during this process, I’ll let you know and we’ll go our separate ways. If you end up deciding Blood & Bourbon isn’t the game for you, I’ll likewise appreciate hearing so. Well, that's that. Thanks again for your interest in the game!