The Kingdom: a community of vampires in Las Vegas

The Locations: The Sun Chamber (located at the top of the Luxor pyramid), The Shelter (homeless shelter, aka farm) The Red Drop (vampire club), The Ancestral Vault (located in their sire’s mansion, full of their treasures), University of Nevada Las Vegas (potential feeding ground/recruitment center), “The Halfway House” (where newly turned vampires stayed as they learned how to control themselves)

The Threats: discovery, the supernatural world, times are tough (economic hardship and the like)

The Cast, in Alphabetical Order

“Dee-“ Perspective, then Power. She was a social worker who managed the shelter and wished that the Kingdom would integrate better with other supernaturals. Her issue was that she was willfully blind about the Kingdom’s ability to handle the threats facing it. Sylvia’s sire. (Dani)
Patience- Touchstone, then Power. She was a fairly recently turned vampire who had just moved out of the Halfway House. She reported to both Dee and Sylvia about different things. She wished the Kingdom would be awesome. Her issue was that she still had her mortal BFF Janelle. (Martin)

Sylvia- Touchstone, then Power, then Perspective. She worked as a guidance counselor at the college and recruited new vampires. She wished that the Kingdom would grow in power and rule the city from the shadows. Her issue was that she was short-tempered and domineering. Patience’s sire. (Alex)

Our first Crossroads was “Will the Kingdom drive the werewolves out of Las Vegas?” Dee was convinced they could work together. (Perspective predictions included the rise of another dangerous faction if the werewolves were driven out and an attack by the werewolves if they didn’t.) Sylvia and Patience were less convinced. What was supposed to be a diplomatic meeting turned into a massacre when Sylvia (who seized Power) and some other vampires decided to feed on the werewolves who had been invited to the club… and got the rest of them at their house.

The second Crossroads was “Will the Kingdom step up recruitment?” After a confrontation about the events at the club, Dee agreed to let Sylvia turn a couple interested and wealthy business. Sylvia ended up turning 15, which started a chain reaction as Patience took on herself to turn more. Dee (who seized Power) was going to kill Patience’s newly turned vampires! Eventually she was persuaded to agree to it. But the tension between the two remained high.

The third Crossroads was “Will the Kingdom openly take over Las Vegas?” Dee was making overtures to other supernatural groups. A meeting with the head of the local group of nagas was interrupted by Patience, who headed to the police station with the vampires she’d turned. Everyone who didn’t agree to become a vampire was slaughtered. Sylvia (who became Perspective) approached Dee about her plans and predicted that Vegas would become a mecca for the supernaturals. Dee disagreed. Patience and her forces took over the nearby military base. Dee and her forces attacked the base, using magic and powerful artifacts. The battle ended in a stalemate. Dee left the city to Patience, taking herself and her allies elsewhere. That was how things ended.

This was an interesting game of Kingdom! We had a vacuum of every sort, though we weren’t without Power for very long. Fortunately there were measures in place to deal with just such an occasion. They worked pretty well I thought. Alas, we’ll never know how things might have turned out if we’d had Touchstone and Perspective there too throughout the entire game.

Though we had a fun game, playing a Kingdom where the status quo was just fine (who wouldn’t want to live forever and chill out at The Red Drop with a bunch of interesting people?) made it a bit challenging to motivate our characters about the Crossroads. (The Crossroads did end up affecting characters and the Kingdom in some pretty big ways.)

There were some good moments between the different characters and we had an enjoyable night around the table. Seeing as it’s only my second time playing, I was glad to have a chance to see what happens when there is no (fill in the blank) player and get a better look at seizing a different role from a player or just making a switch. I look forward to more opportunities to explore this nifty system!

Thanks to Martin for facilitating and to Alex for his contributions to the fun.

- Dani, aka “Dee”