A Sanguinary Starter

Legacy of Lies is a jump-start for use with Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition Dark Ages. Published by Onyx Path Publishing, it presents an introduction to the Vampire: The Masquerade Dark Ages setting, the basic rules, a complete scenario, and five ready-to-play vampires. It is set in 1242—primarily in Europe at the time of the ongoing Mongol Invasion as Russian forces commanded by Alexander Nevsky defeated an invasion attempt by the Teutonic Knights. Although the Mongol Hordes would suffer defeats they would sweep through Russia, Poland, Hungary, and more, representing an ongoing threat. In the vampire world, the War of the Princes continues, threatening to reach the continent’s most westerly reaches—England. Here in the Roman city of Chester, the Prince, Marcus Verus, seeks to enter torpor and rest, but believes his rivals, including Robert Durand, Baron of Edinburgh, is plotting against him and would take advantage of his lengthy absence. This is the set-up for the scenario at the heart of Legacy of Lies, which sees several vampires (the player characters) brought together by Marcus Versus to investigate possible plots against him.

Legacy of Lies introduces the world of Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition Dark Ages with a good lexicon of the terms and phrases used throughout the core rules and the jump-start and explains the vampiric world of 1242, focusing in particular on those clans who are active in the War of the Princes in England, the nature and traditions of vampiric society, and its hierarchy. There is much here that will be familiar to long time devotees of Vampire: The Masquerade—whether in its current or previous incarnations—and so Legacy of Lies will be easy for them to pick up and play. That familiarity though, does not preclude anyone new to Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition Dark Ages and the World of Darkness, from quickly grasping the ideas, concepts, and set-up given in Legacy of Lies.

Both Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition Dark Ages and Legacy of Lies use the Storytelling mechanics. This means rolling dice pools of ten-sided dice, with results of eight, nine, and ten counting as successes. Rolls of ten allow rerolls as long as a player keeps rolling ten. Anything more than five successes counts as an exceptional result. Under certain situations this grants a character a beneficial condition, such as Informed or Inspired. Penalties reduce the number of dice that can be rolled, but never below a single die. This last die becomes the chance die and only a ten counts as a success on the chance die—and cannot be rerolled—whereas a roll of a one on the chance die counts as a dramatic failure. 

Important to every vampire is his Willpower. It can be spent to achieve automatic successes, to resist automatic impulses—such as flinching away from sunlight and fire, to ignore wound penalties, to resist or control frenzy (when a vampire loses self-control through fear, rage, or hunger and succumbs to his inner beast, turning into a murderous monster), and resist mental powers being used them. It is also used as part of certain supernatural Disciplines that the various Clans have access to and teach. It is gained when a player roleplays his vampire’s nature and achieves his goals, as well as upon waking or completing a story. Obviously, a vampire needs to feed upon mortals for their vitae, or blood, as it is lost upon their awakening each night, for healing damage, to imitate being one of the living, and to use some of the Disciplines. For example, Celerity improves a vampire’s Dexterity and movement, but with the expenditure of blood, can ignore multiple action penalties and increase her speed even further.

Characters or vampires themselves are mechanically defined by nine attributes—Composure, Dexterity, Intelligence, Manipulation, Presence, Resolve, Stamina, Strength, and Wits—and skills in three categories—Mental, Physical, and Social, all ranging between one and five. Similarly, they have Backgrounds (the equivalent of advantages and disadvantages), such as Allies, Domain, Influence, and Status, which are rated on the same scale.  They also have a Nature and a Demeanour, such as a Conformist—someone who believes in the group rather than the individual. Vampires are also members of a Clan. There are some thirteen in Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition Dark Ages, but only five appear in Legacy of Lies. These are Brujah, Gangrel, Nosferatu, Toreador, and Ventrue, each of which embodies and includes certain types of vampire. So Brujah are principled warriors, Gangrel are outcasts who prefer wilderness, Nosferatu are physically twisted spies, Toreador are artistes, and Ventrue are natural nobles and leaders. 

Having presented the mechanics and the background to Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition Dark Ages, the jump-start presents the eponymous adventure, ‘Legacy of Lies’. This takes places in thirteenth century England, Scotland, and France. The player characters are summoned to Chester to undertake a secret mission for its prince, either because they or their sire owes Marcus Verus a favour. The mission will see them first visit France and learn what they can from an informant before returning to report to Verus, before going on Edinburgh to determine who exactly is plotting against the Baron of Chester. Although amounting to just six scenes, chronologically, ‘Legacy of Lies’ is not a short scenario, taking place over several months to take account of the difficulties and length of travel. The scenario also presents a variety of different scenes, mostly social, but some physical too. So there are opportunities to hunt and feed as well as for combat in between the many social and investigative situations that the scenario presents. In doing so, the authors nicely showcase vampire life in the twelfth century—both the mundane and the arcane.

A pleasing touch is that at the start of each scene, the difficulty ratings—Mental, Physical, and Social—are presented to make the Storyteller’s task easier. The various scenes are well organised and explained, but one issue with ‘Legacy of Lies’ is that the full details of the plot are not fully explained until several scenes into the scenario. This makes preparation more of a challenge than it deserves to be, especially if the Storyteller is new to Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition Dark Ages—or even to roleplaying.

Legacy of Lies comes with five pre-generated player character vampires  ready to play. They include a Brujah Irish nun, a Middle Eastern Toreador merchant, an English Ventrue noblewoman, a Mongol Gangrel adventurer, and an English Nosferatu spymaster. If the choice of vampires—all of them neonates of tenth or eleventh generation—feels somewhat traditional, they at least come with a wide range of backgrounds and origins.

Physically, Legacy of Lies is a full colour book, with fully painted illustrations of both the player characters and the NPCs. It is a pity that the NPC illustrations appear in a group as otherwise they would have been easy for the Storyteller to show to her players when they appear in her chronicle. The book needs a slight edit in places, but is otherwise easy to read and digest.

Legacy of Lies is an excellent introduction to Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition Dark Ages. Not just the mechanics of the Storyteller System, but with the scenario the life of a vampire in 1242, both at, and away from court, as well. It showcases what a chronicle can be like and the expectations that are placed on the player characters as much as the chance they have to exercise their vampiric immortality. The scenario itself is involving—though it will require a close read upon the part of the Storyteller—and should provide two or three sessions’ worth of good play, whether as a one-shot or the beginning of a Vampire: The Masquerade Dark Ages chronicle.

A Motley Ordeal

Changelings are those who were abducted by the Faerie, underwent a great ordeal whilst in Arcadia, and returned changed, their eyes open to the Magic of the world, partly fae, but still human enough to want to tell a story that is theirs. The Gentry, the Faerie, have not forgotten the children they abducted and made into their families, twisting them into roles they could play in the same story over and over, and so send Huntsmen through the Hedge of thorns that separates the mortal realm from the Faerie to recapture what is theirs. Forever on the run, the Changelings have seen the beauty and the horror of both worlds, can see the fantastic which hides behind a mask everywhere they look, and as much as their memories draw them back to the mortal realm, they are forever separated from their pre-abduction lives by their time in Arcadia. Hunted and both blessed and cursed by what they endured, Changelings band together in Motleys, providing each other solace and support in the face of shared memories. Each Motley is part of a Court, which provides defence and support in a region or freehold, each Court having a seasonal aspect—Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter—and there will be one of each within a freehold.

This is the set-up for Changeling: The Lost Second Edition, the roleplaying game of mortals kidnapped by the fae and returned to the mortal realms published by Onyx Path Publishing as part of the ‘Chronicles of Darkness’. It is also the set-up for Hearts on Trial, a jump-start and introduction to Changeling: The Lost Second Edition, presenting a preview of the rules for both Changeling: The Lost Second Edition and Chronicles of Darkness, rules for creating and playing changeling characters, extra Contracts, and a complete adventure which comes with five pre-generated player characters.

Both Changeling: The Lost Second Edition and Hearts on Trial uses the Storytelling mechanics. This means rolling dice pools of ten-sided dice, with results of eight, nine, and ten counting as successes. Rolls of ten allow rerolls as long as a player keeps rolling ten. Anything more than five successes counts as an exceptional result. Under certain situations this grants a character a beneficial condition, such as Informed or Inspired. Penalties reduce the number of dice that can be rolled, but never below a single die. This last die becomes the chance die and only a ten counts as a success on the chance die—and cannot be rerolled—whereas a roll of a one on the chance die counts as a dramatic failure. Alternatively, a player can have his character voluntarily fail and gain a point of Willpower (this differs from Changeling: The Lost Second Edition wherein it grants Beats, used to advance a character’s traits and powers, but omitted for ease of play in this jumpstart). Willpower is also gained when a player roleplays his changeling’s Thread or Needle, when a character fulfills an Aspiration or resolves a Condition—beneficial or bad, which might be Frightened, Oathbreaker, Wanton, and so on. Willpower can be expended to add three extra dice to a dice pool, to increase a character’s Resistance to an effect, and use certain abilities.

Hearts on Trial covers combat, objects, and building equipment in a smart fashion, along with entering into Goblin Contracts and acquiring Goblin Debt (the danger being that acquiring too much and the changeling with transform into a Hobgoblin), making oaths, and the dangers of entering the Hedge, before moving onto character traits. Characters themselves are mechanically defined by nine attributes—Composure, Dexterity, Intelligence, Manipulation, Presence, Resolve, Stamina, Strength, and Wits—and skills in three categories—Mental, Physical, and Social, all ranging between one and five. Similarly, they have Merits (the equivalent of advantages and disadvantages) which are rated on the same scale. Characters also have a Needle, a Thread, a Seeming, a Kith, and a Court. The Seemings are Beast—clever, wary, crude, and aggressive; Darkling—silent outsiders with a love of riddles; Elemental—alien forces of nature transformed into living plants, bonfires, storms, and so on; Fairest—adored whose judgement carry great power; Ogre—blunt and ugly, heroes and bullies; and Wizened—busy finding solutions to crises and vexing issues. Needle is a character’s personality like Daredevil or Teacher; Thread his motivation, like Revenge or Friendship; and Kith what he was transformed into by the Gentry, such as Brightone, a passionate changeling with shining soul who cannot help but attract attention, and Playmate, a loyal changeling whose healing power makes him a steadfast companion.

Changelings also have a true face—or Mien—showing their fae nature, which they hide behind a Mask of human appearance. All fae creatures can see through the Mask, which does not work in the Hedge. Their Wyrd represents his power and how much fae magic he can draw from, whilst his Glamour is drawn from strong human emotions—literally harvested from them if the changeling is close enough, and actually powers his fae Contracts and tricks. For example, the Autumn’s Fury, a Contract which can only be made by members of an Autumn Court, either causes heavy rains and heavy winds which can affect everyone around the changeling who invokes the Contract, or storms that strike with lightning. This costs the changeling either two or three points of Glamour, with the lightning strike needing an attack roll. Every Contract has a Loophole. So for Autumn’s Fury, the changeling lifts a metal pole into the air and points it at his foes.

Having presented the mechanics and the background to Changeling: The Lost Second Edition, the jump-start presents the eponymous adventure, ‘Hearts on Trial’. It takes place on South Street in Philadelphia, a bohemian district of the city where the motley has found a home in the Nevermore freehold after having escaped from their durance in Grandmother, Grandmother’s Cabin where she molded them into the ‘perfect’ family. In Nevermore, they are in the middle of a negotiation with a rival freehold when a young girl taunts them with riddles and hints at things that the motley might have left in the Hedge. Getting through the Hedge is a challenge in itself, but then the young girl decides to hold her own special court at which the members of the motley are her very special guests… 

Hearts on Trial is just four scenes long and so does feel somewhat short. Nevertheless, it presents some solid opportunities in terms of roleplaying and action for the changelings and their players, whilst the Storyteller will have fun portraying the young girl and playing with the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and candyland imagery that runs throughout the adventure.

Hearts on Trial comes with five pre-generated changelings. They include a Wisecracking Vizier, who played the black sheep in Grandmother, Grandmother’s household and who is now a tinkerer; a Cheerful Diplomat who was Grandmother, Grandmother’s golden child; a Bellwether Beast who was many creatures in Grandmother, Grandmother’s household and has now become an urban legend; a Relentless Constable who was a wooden doll for Grandmother, Grandmother, but full of fury whilst becoming the fashionista she once was; and a Restless Skater, forever the forgotten middle child. Each is given a full character sheet, a full page of background, and an explanation of their Seeming, Blessing and Curse, Kith Blessing, Mantle—Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and unaligned, and both Needle and Thread, as well as Contracts known. 

Physically, Hearts on Trial is well presented and well written. It is also decently illustrated with some really nice pieces of artwork, all done in green tones. Overall, this is a nice booklet which will sit well alongside the Storyteller’s other Changeling: The Lost Second Edition books.

If there is an issue with Hearts on Trial it is two-fold. First, there really is not a means of creating changeling characters in its pages as is claimed on the back cover. Second, it includes a high number of different terms—Needle and Thread, Seeming, Blessing and Curse, Wyrd, Glamour, and more—that not only the Storyteller has to learn, but also teach to her players. Perhaps a cheat sheet might be useful for the Storyteller to prepare prior to running Hearts on Trial? Get past this though, and mechanically, Hearts on Trial is quite straightforward and easy to grasp, whilst also giving its players some nicely detailed pre-generated changelings which come with plenty of roleplaying hooks in terms of their background, their Needle and Thread, Seeming, Blessing and Curse, and so on. Overall, Hearts on Trial presents everything a Storyteller and her players needs to begin a Changeling: The Lost Second Edition chronicle—rules, characters, and set-up—along with a demanding scenario. Or at least give them a taster.