[Vampire] Ever Since I Started Drinking All That Blood...

...I started to understand vampires a little better. Well, actually, even though I do seem to have a pretty radical addiction at the moment, it's staying up to all hours of the night that really does it.

If you've heard me talk about Vampire, conceptually, then you probably heard my joking assumptions about vampiric life. Considering the astounding mortality rate of vampires in the public sphere, it amazes me that any would ever surface to do anything but feed and maybe watch re-runs of I Love Lucy. It's just too dangerous. On the other hand, after you've lived a few hundred years, it's likely you start to get pretty jaded (One of my favorite scenes in Vampire occured at the masked ball, when people started trading favors - dangerous favors and information - for penny tokens with the promise of a novelty at the end. It absolutely seemed like this is how vampire courts would act. ). 

At the same time, night time is incredibly boring. Or at least it certainly can be.  Let's assume your vampire is like me and can get up at 4 PM, sunlight be damned. Even if she can walk around in the light, many businesses and agencies close around 5ish, meaning she's only got an hour to access certain places. Most places will be open later though, cafes, department stores, many malls are open into the evening, so after you wake up and shower, you can still hit these places with ease, but if you've got a lot to do, you'll still need to prioritize. Finally you've got your late night cafes, your bars and clubs, and some libraries. I know I'm missing places, but the point is, I'm pretty sure I keep hearing about club-going vampires because clubs are the places that are open late. Unless you want to talk to the same toothy dudes and ladies forever, these are the places you'll want to go to meet (and eat) new people.

Places around here still close pretty friggin' early. Most bars shut up around 2 AM. Even if you don't go to bed when the sun rises and wait until 8 AM, like I do during work days, there's still several hours where, generally, nobodies really around. I feel fairly certain that hanging out at Denny's is going to get old after a while. It kind of makes sense that house parties, informal get-togethers, and cliques become the norm. On the other hand, I'm not sure how solitary vampires feel compelled to be.

What I realized is that summer feels a lot nicer, but winter is probably the kindest to vampires looking to stay up longer. The sun and day creates an unnatural drowsiness, as far as I was always able to tell. But even winter isn't going to provide that many waking hours. Vampires are often going to sleep, as a matter of course, more then 12 hours a day during the summer. Checking outside my window on several occurances, day starts to peek in around 5:00 AM right now, while it starts to look something like night around 9ish. This tells me a few things like, for example, vampires really do need ghouls or mooks if you want to interact with mortal society in any depth. It's just too frustrating otherwise. I have huge advantages over them just in the hour range I'm normally up for work. Two, boredom is really an issue.Even if there arn't a lot of vampires (and it's not like you can't just make more), it's better to find a concentration and hang out together. Being the only vampire in Bumfuck, Nowhere is going to be fantastically dull. When you get a bunch of bored, territorial hunters together, fun ensues. 

Anybody have thoughts on vampiric life? I'm just curious as to other people's opinions.

[WoD] Just a Dude, and some other stuff.

This is a two parter. The first part is now, and there's a good chance I'll get the second at work. I'll cut them into two once I finish. I just don't want to clog everyone's friend's list like I know I do.

( Some life stuff, some work stuff.  )

So, roleplaying is a topic tonight. I know people disagree with me, but I've always thought that playing regular mortals matched up against supernatural bugaboos is pretty cool. There's some problems with this, though, because once the big hardcover core books start getting printed, stuff like Mage, Vampire, and Werewolf, the temptation is to start busting these dudes and ladies out as the opposition to our stalwert Guy Whose Primary Weapon is Not Fangs, But Rather,  A Maglight'. We'll call him Guy, for short.

Between you and I, well, I think Guy's at a disadvantage. Even with bucketloads of experience points, mortals have certain limits that they can't typically overcome.  Merits don't let skin soak leathal, guns don't do agg, and you've got only one pool to try to overcome mind-effecting powers, and that last one's a doozy. In some important cases, people without a power stat can't even try to resist. Suck it, mortal world!

As much as I love a mortal game, and I do, I don't really see this as a design error. First of all, I really consider characters like Mages, Vampires, and Promethians to be Big Deals. Hard cover splats are basically the kings of the supernatural world. They're leagues more powerful, they've got self-awareness, they're organized, they can create or locate others of their kind, and their powers are diverse. Plus, putting myself in the shoes of a PC, and considering the nature of a mortals game (probably horror, for me) the idea that there's an entire warren for ancient blood-sucking undead is pretty harrowing. 

Sigh. Anyhow, I have an alarm that goes off every 12 seconds for a problem I already know about. Frankly, I'm baffled at the number of people awake and willing to call in at 3 am. Like, if your whole neighborhood is out, I'm pretty sure I know about it. I can' t concentrate though. I'm going to have to call this off.