How It All Started

You might be wondering, however, how did it all start? This specific game, I mean. Well, I’ve been working for Peoplesupport for just over 4 years now. I’ve met a lot of people but a select few were interested in RPG as much as I was, if not more so. But we did not have a Storyteller – someone who would have us run the gauntlet, so to speak. Seeing I was the most experienced player of the system we would be using, I decided to be the one to act as ST.

My favorite game was Vampire: the Masquarade, published by White Wolf game Studios. Now, all I needed to do was choose a storyline. In retrospect, I chose Giovanni Chronicles unconsciously because it was notorious for railroading (i.e. forcing) the characters along a set path. I needed “structure”, something that was familiar to me and GC was that. I had a basic idea of what would happen as TROPA had run and was running the game again. As a Storyteller starting out, I needed as much familiar ground as I could.

So I sent the invites to 5 people I knew who were interested in playing. They were: Karlos Rey Manalo, Dennis Macapagal, Bennet Gubat, Maricor Dumlao and Maybelle Sy. I also invited Joan del Rosario because she seemed very interested in what we were doing. The invite basically outlined the period as I didn’t want to reveal too much about the story. I lent them the main book of Dark Ages: Vampire so they could get to know some basic facts about the game.

I pretty much gave them enough freedom to create their characters but I reminded them of the culture back in 1444. Most of the things we take for granted such as freedom and equality were almost non-existent. In Europe, there was only one religion but many languages. Nobles waged war for God, but also for wealth. People died from old age as much as from disease. My only advice was to keep their character concepts simple. The game would complicate their lives anyway.