Blood & Bourbon (2022)

GM's Note: The time given under "Next Game Will Be" is a placeholder. See below for more information on when the game is played.

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 an ongoing Vampire: The Masquerade chronicle started in 2015 that's set in modern-day New Orleans. It's an open world sandbox game whose primary focuses are political intrigue, personal horror, and exploring the city of New Orleans. While the GM tailors personal horror to the individual personalities and relationships of PCs, the larger city's political setup revolves around a power 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-faire 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 overdue to enter torpor and must soon take his rest. The already tense city has become a powder keg waiting for a match to set it off: 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 undead. Those with cunning and drive can carve out domains and 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! I'm your potential GM, 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 his 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 players 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 (our setting is primarily V20), 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. The game's players and I trust each other to explore these topics tastefully, and trust each other a lot in general. If you'd prefer not engage with these topics, 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 unreasonable 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 listing discussion below and please answer the questions from this thread. Applications that don't follow this format will not be considered for the game.

If you have any questions of your own, feel free to hit me up over Discord at False Epiphany#8386.

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!