Tommy's Take on The Light At The End

It is real easy to have "vampire fatigue" anymore, since they became the "hot ticket" a few years ago...and so it becomes easy to forget why vampires became "cool" in the first place.

I just finished "The Light At The End" (read it on my book), a novel from 1986 about a punk with a chip on his shoulder who gets turned into a vampire by an 800 year old vampire and turned loose in New York City. While it helped to define the "splatterpunk" genre, "The Light At The End" has been far surpassed on the "gore" scale in books, even by author John Skipp himself, but despite the 80s setting, the narrative still holds up well 25 years later...(in fact, the third act hinging on beepers and payphones is the only real reminder that it is definitely set in the pre-cellphone era).

It has been said that the primary antagonist, Rudy Pasko, served as inspiration for Spike from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and it is REALLY easy to see that, from description to personality and mannerisms.

The cast, even at their worst, are at least stereotypes from horror central casting, and Rudy himself is alternately portrayed as (depending often on the perception of the characters dealing with him) as the alluring Hawt Vampire, a sickening servant of Death itself or a tiny man who suddenly got a lot of power.

The climax is very thematically appropriate and viscerally satisfying, with the tension ratcheted up hour by hour in the third act over the course of one night when the rag-tag group of would-be vampire hunters can't stand back and let a monster like Rudy run wild.

"The Light At The End" quickly shot up the list as perhaps my favorite vampire novel. Highly recommended if you want to remember why vampires were a big deal in the first place and don't mind some mature content.

Tommy's Take on Bloodsucker: The Angst

And now...Bloodsucker: The Angst, a Tale-Telling game of bitching and self-delusion. This would be the game that spawned the Shadow World line to begin with, originally in the d20 system and now in the Xpress system (and for the better, in my view). You can read my reviews of its sister games Chav and WizKid by clicking on the titles.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Powered by the Xpress System, a d6 dice pool in which your skills set your target numbers, you roll a number of dice equal to the relevant attributes and add up your successes, Bloodsucker is a parody Vampire: The Masquerade, and annoying gothy types in general. While being fully compatible with Chav and WizKid, everything you need is in this book, although there are three supplements available: Bloodsucker: The Juice (just extra stuff for the game), Bloodsucker: The Batshit (the outcasts if the Bloodsucker society) and the Cliquebook: Gothistocrats (Yeah, a full supplement for one of the Cliques of the setting - the Ventrue parody). Bloodsucker is 116 pages and available in PDF through RPGnow, as well as in print through Lulu (as are the other Shadow World books, I neglected to mention).

Like with Chav and WizKid, the "What You Need For Play" has some cute requirements: pancake-white make-up, clove cigarettes, and a complete collection of either Anne Rice or Laurell K. Hamilton books. There's also a saddening discussion of vampires and how they have (d)evolved...from Nosferatu to Angel (Hey, I LIKE Angel) to Twilight's Edward. We also get a hefty glossary of the groups and terms relevant to Bloodsucker society.

Right before we jump into character creation, we get a "Welcome to Eternal Life" letter, which actually does a decent job of spelling out how Bloodsuckers work (sunlight is okay, the rising sun Is Not, decapitation equals instant death, stakes are just paralysis, etc). The character creation is point buy, starting off with a budget of 60 points to spread over the 10 stats and 70 points to spread over the 40 skills. You also get 9 points for Powers, which cost 3 points a level (and are ranked in three levels). Then you top it off with Merits and Flaws and your "Cool" ranking.

The chapter gives us a basic breakdown of the eight Cliques: Crowleys (they use Magic(k)), Freaks (they're the ones who aren't pretty), Gothistocrats (they wanna be in charge, like the Ventrue), Grungies (they are also "back to nature" types), Moshers, Outcasts, Perkies (yes!) and Pretentious Art Whores. There are nine powers, broken into three levels as noted above: Go Faster, Be Stronger, Be Tougher are fairly self-explanatory. Same with Magic(k). Ignored is the minor invisibility, Venom is kinda like mega intimidation, Transmogrification is shape-shifting, Poinging is, well, being chipper...and Dramatics allow you to become the center of attention.

Chav has corruption and WizKid has Wizdom...Bloodsucker has Angst. You gotta stay angsty if you wanna stay in the game. Get non-emo, and you're out.

The Cliques Chapter is broken down like the similar chapters in the sister games (as well as the Clans in Vampire, and the other games that have borrowed from White Wolf). You get an archetype image from the clan, a breakdown of how they act and so on, and then a soundbite regarding how they feel about everyone else. Crowleys want to become the power behind the Gothistocrats, who do NOT consider the Perkies to be Goths, who don't even notice the Outcasts.

The Dramatic Systems chapter is largely the same as the chapters from its sister games, although Bloodsuckers use Juice and not Bile to power their abilities, although Chavs begin with a greater Bile capacity than Bloodsuckers have Juice capacity.

Skills are virtually identical from game to game (which helps with the mixing and matching), although the actual examples used as more fitting to Bloodsucker.

Much like with the Chav Powers, some of the Powers just add growing bonuses, while others have differing effects at different levels. For instance, Poinging 1 allows Bloodsuckers to spend 1 Juice to overcome fatigue. Poinging 2 can provide Diplomacy bonuses and Poinging 3 can make them completely immune to mind controlling effects, ESPECIALLY if it were going to break their book.

On Merits and Flaws, I noticed more Bloodsucker Unique Flaws than I did Merits, such as Cannot Eat (you can't hold down anything but blood) and Classic Schtick (like not being able to enter a house uninvited, or being repulsed by garlic).

The Background chapter breaks down Bloodsuckers and their society. Even among the Cliques, there is no One True Way for Bloodsuckers to act...although it is noted that many of them try to adopt either the same cynicism or act ticked at the world, when really, they're just like you and I. Similarly, it is noted that Bloodsuckers often call themselves Pagans and Satanists, but it's usually for attention. We also get the full treatment of Angst and the Table of Sins, like Refusing to Drink Human Blood, thinking Happy Thoughts or gravely insulting the goth scene. The chapter ends with the 20 questions questionnaire, as well as common weapons and equipment.

The Magic(k) spells have some similarities with Chav's Voodoo, although there are some Bloodsucker specific spells like Juicebox, which allows Crowleys to get blood from non-standard sources, Sunscreen 5000 holds off even the morning rays and Overdone Stake is a protection spell that causes stakes to break when used against the Bloodsucker.

The Combat chapter hits the standards, but also delves into vulnerabilities to fire, sunlight and states, as well as a unique state Bloodsuckers can reach: Moping. Lastly, there is Turning, which is pretty standard: Bloodsuckers drain a victim, and then give them Juice.

Bloodsucker Society is set up with a pseudo-royalty, with Kings and Queens lording over each city, Lords and Ladies in charge of the Cliques, Bitches as the "official gossips" and so on. Bloodsuckers also gather into "Murders" which, coincidentally, coincides with however many characters you have in your roleplaying group.

The Shadow World chapter talks about Bloodsuckers around the world. It is worth noting that they are largely non-present in India or the Middle East.

The Antagonists chapter includes the Sparklers, which are Bloodsuckers that...well..guess. Yes, they are an unabashed rip on Twilight vampires. From there, this chapter is almost identical to the Antagonists chapter from Chav. In the PDF I have, there is a "naughty teacher" art piece  right before the Sparklers that covers up some text. I have no idea if that has since been corrected or not.

The campaign chapter offers 20 plot seeds, like the Bitches pushing a Freak into a TV makeover, or the town running out of clove cigarettes.

The book ends with an appendix covering vehicles and chases, plus a character sheet and index.

WHAT WORKS: Well, I get the humor here more than I do in Chav, if only because I'm a bit more familiar with goth types than hip-hop thugs. Despite not being a Vampire fan, I can still make an almost one-for-one comparison to the Clans. The Shadow World games are completely compatible, avoiding the obnoxious issues that old World of Darkness players faced when trying to mix their games.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Well, there was that weird issues with the art piece covering text in the Antagonists chapter. However, and if I had reviewed Bloodsucker before Chav, this would be reversed: I get using the same Skills and such, that just makes sense in the context of having the games playable together. Even with some of the Powers and Merits being the same thing renamed...no sense reinventing the wheel if it already works. The problem is that there are even large sections of fluff that are just cut and pasted from one book to the other, with specific terms changed. Chavs in America and Bloodsuckers in America have the same basic description, for instance, and there's even at least one of the plot seeds from Campaign chapters that is a word for word lift (the Dead Boy in the arcade tournament that I mentioned in the Chav review).

CONCLUSION: On its own merits, Bloodsucker's a great skewering of the vampire groupie fandom, and the perception of vampires in general. I still prefer WizKid over the other two if I had to just pick one, if only because it models the whole Harry Potter thing so well (if you tone down the hard-R rating). Chav and Bloodsucker, unfortunately, cover a lot of the same ground, both mechanically and in the fluff, and I have a hard time recommending someone pick up one if they have the other. Shameless cash grabs are cool (like omitting Bloodsuckers and Chavs from each other's books, as well as WizKid to tempt you to buy them all)...but the copy and paste was a too far.

Tommy's Take on Shanghai Vampocalypse

There have been folks who have felt, and not without justification, that while Savage Worlds is awesome...it falls short of "epic".

Savage Mojo has felt that way themselves, releasing their Suzerain multiverse setting for Savage Worlds, which goes so far as to add a whole new tier to character advancement beyond Legendary: Demigod.

I am ashamed to say that I only have the free version of Suzerain at the moment, which is pretty  comprehensive, providing most of the necessary rules needed to get your PCs at Demigod rank, and half a dozen sample PCs, scaled to various ranks...which is what Shangai Vampocalypse is built for. Let me reiterate: Shangai Vampocalypse is a Savage Suzerain plot point campaign *designed* for beings well beyond Legendary, and you can use the free version of Suzerain if you don't mind using pregens.

FOR PLAYERS

Shangahi Vampocalypse is set in China in the year 2048, after a nanotech virus was used to turn soldiers in vampires, for two reasons: 1) They're scary and 2) They can feed off of their rival soldiers.

This, shockingly, has not gone well...and now the PCs have to rush against time in order to save the world from a rampaging vampire army. No pressure.

You can either build to this as a grand culmination of a lengthy Suzerain campaign, or you can just level guys up to Demigod and drop them in, your choice. Luckily, popping Savage Worlds guys up from Novice to Demigod is pretty simple, just taking advances as you go.

In typical Savage Worlds fashion, we get a list of character archetypes appropriate to the setting, in this case falling more under party function (like Advisor and Long Range Fighter) rather than character concept.

NEW EDGES, HINDRANCES AND POWERS

The setting is Mysticism Meets Cyberpunk, and there are a number of suitable Edges and Hindrances to accomodate this. Ancient Master, for instance, requires your character being Elderly, but also makes his your unarmed damage equal to your Smarts + Spirit. Shang-Fu Edges are martial arts Edges, for those hand to hand types.

Rather than Arcane Backgrounds, Suzerain uses Pulse Paths, and Shanghai Vampocalypse provides Bioartificial Eugenics and Master of Veneration, the first being very much a cybernetics type thing and the latter allowing your PCs to do crazy mystical things involving spirits.

We also get a listing of setting tech, such as medpacks that get "slapped" onto the body and breakdown over time, the common "chip in the head" type feature and all kinds of crazy weapons and armor, including nanite-enhanced weapons.

FOR GMs