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Dust to Dust |
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Average Rating:4.3 / 5 |
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Dust to Dust is a decent little story for new storytellers (or Storytellers who are in a creative slump) to put players through their paces. Quick and easy to set up. Not perfect but it gets the job done.
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This is an adventure for Vampire: The Masquerade V20 concerning the city of Gary, Indiana, a city which is in decline for reasons unspecified... and not wholly to do with vampires! It's deeply political, but is interesting that the party has the choice as to how much - even if - they get involved. Whilst they are assumed to be neonates, they ought to have at least some autonomy from their respective sires (although if they are in part acting as someone's agents that always adds to the fun!).
The Introduction includes details of how the Storyteller Adventure System works, for those new to it and explains how the PDF is set up with full hyperlinking to provide for ease of use. It also provides a comprehensive background to the plot and introduces some of the key players - vampires, mortals and others. Themes are recovery and progress, but the mood is bleak, due to the state of Gary itself. Unlike many adventures it is quite open-ended, in some ways more a 'setting' than an actual scenario, and - if the party decides to get really involved - could provide the basis for an entire chronicle. However all you really need is to come up with some reason for them to be in, or passing through, Gary. For that matter, they may not even be a party yet - if you are starting from scratch with new characters, their meeting and forming a cotorie might be an integral part of the game.
Scene set, we move on to the events themselves. It's not the sort of adventure which progresses neatly from event to event, rather there are a series of events which can occur within the setting and with the detailed NPCs provided - an excellent 'sandbox' adventure, but one which of necessity requires good planning and perhaps improvisation from the Storyteller.
The first event, Welcome to Gary, sets the scene for the whole adventure, concentrating on the thin pickings there are for a hungry vampire in the city, and giving them the chance to encounter some of the major players - for here even elders have to hunt in alleys like the meanest neonate!
Scene follows scene quite quickly. In each there's descriptive material to help you put across the picture, notes on which NPCs are around and what they are doing, and outlines of what could take place and how to moderate them. Certainly prior preparation is essential for this all to run smoothly whatever the characters decide to do. Each scene is rated as to whether its focus is social, physical or mental and there's a good selection so no matter what individual characters prefer they will get their chance to shire.
Possibly the most delightful scene involves a 'zombie walk', an event where ordinary mortals have been invited to dress up as zombies... it's not hard to think of ways in which a bunch of vampires could have fun at such an event. By the end, the characters should have changed the balance of power in Gary - for good or ill, who knows. It's open-ended enough that it could run and run, if they want to stay in Gary, or just be a sidenote in their reputations if they prefer to move on. It's intriguing, exciting... a fascinating spin on how vampires can affect, and be affected by, the world around them.
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Sometimes we storytellers get out of ideas or we just don't have the time to create a short story out of the blue. And this can be even more difficult if we didn't play Vampire in a while. Thankfully we have Dust to Dust. A short story with interesting characters, a good location and a couple of plot twists that will really get into the characters.
In Dust to Dust we have to visit the decaying city of Gary, Indiana. We will get into an ongoing vendetta between a forsaken Prince and a bored anarch. But things will get really messed up when not one but two tinkerers of the dead come to town. Oh, and a bad ass vampire hunter.
If you need a story to fill up or start your chronicle, or perhaps to play a one shot at a convention, Dust to Dust will be perfect for the job!
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Excellent old school vampire the masquerade game. brought me back to the endless nights of my youths gaming with mu friends 6 days a weeks 10 hours a day.
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The PDF is easy to read and the colors pisctures are great.
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Mit Dust to Dust erscheint das erste Supplement für die neue 20th Anniversary Vampire: The Masquerade Edition. Es handelt sich hierbei um die Weiterführung eines der ersten Settings, namentlich Ashes to Ashes, welches seinerzeit für die erste Edition erschien und bringt das Setting von Gary, einer Vorstadt von Chicago, auf den neuesten Stand.
Erscheinungsbild
Es handelt sich um eine pdf-Publikation, die jedoch auch als Druck zu bestellen ist, dann aber deutlich mehr kostet. Der Vertrieb geschieht bislang einzig und allein über DriveThruRPG, was wohl vorerst auch für alle künftigen Erscheinungen des Reboots der Old World of Darkness gilt.
Look & Feel ist gezielt auf das gewohnte Erscheinungsbild anderer VtM Veröffentlichungen ausgerichtet, das Cover ist vollfarbig, der Text in zwei Spalten gesetzt und wie bekannt von einem Zierrahmen umflossen. Mit 56 Seiten hat es einen angenehmen Umfang und ist damit schnell in kurzer Zeit durchzulesen. Angenehm fällt auf, dass Querverlinkungen innerhalb des Dokumentes vorhanden sind. Damit kann der Leser schnell zwischen den Passagen hin und her wechseln.
Die Illustrationen sind von wechselnder Qualität, orientieren sich aber wieder mehr an der 2nd Edition von VtM und sind also öfter gezeichneter Natur, denn Photo-Art.
Inhalt
Wir finden uns in Gary wieder, einer sterbenden Vorstadt von Chicago in den USA. Die menschliche Bevölkerung verlässt wegen mangelnder Attraktivität des Wohnsitzes, zusammenbrechender Industrie, damit einhergehend weniger Arbeitsplätze und schlechten sozialen Dienstleistungen zunehmend die Stadt. Damit geht einher, dass die Jagdgründe für die Vampire immer schlechter werden, also verlassen auch jene die Stadt. Verbleibend sind Modius, ein Toreador der 7ten Generation und Fürst der Stadt, Juggler, sein Anarchen-Brujah-Kontrahent und einige andere unbedeutende wenige Vampire, die sofern nötig, vom Spielleiter in das Setting eingebaut werden können. Neu eingereist ist Maria DiMatto, eine Giovanni, deren Business das Drehen von Horror/Zombie-Filmen in heruntergekommenen Städten ist. Wildcard ist ein bereits von früher bekannter Vampirjäger, der in mehreren Staaten der USA gesucht wird, Sullivan Dane — dazu gesellen sich Lazlo Varga, ein menschlicher Nekromant, der bei einer Schiesserei ums Leben kam und dank eines abgehaltenen Rituals nun als Untoter sein Dasein fristet und Jean Lisle, eine Samedi, die jedoch als Asche gefangen in einer Urne im Besitz von Lazlo Varga ist.
Die Spielercharaktere können auf verschiedenen vorgeschlagenen Wegen in die Stadt kommen und sich auf die Seite des einen oder anderen NSC schlagen oder ihre eigenen Agenda vollführen. Jeder des NSCs hat seine eigenen Ziele, die allesamt nicht sonderlich gut für die Stadt sind — Maria DiMatto will den Moment erleben, in welchem die Seele der Stadt stirbt und ein großes Ritual vollführen, welches permanent die Grenze zwischen Geisterwelt und realer Welt durchbricht. Sullivan Dane will jeglichen Vampir aus der Stadt tilgen. Lazlo Varga will die Asche des Samedi nutzen, um sich eine Legion an Zombiesklaven und Kultisten heranzuzüchten. Juggler will Mordius ausschalten und Gary zu einem Anarch Free State deklarieren und hofft damit die Camarilla Hochburg Chicago, die keinen Fürsten hat, zu Fall zu bringen. Mordius will Juggler ausschalten und Gary zu einem Mekka der Vampire, einer Stadt der Nacht machen.
Aus diesem Geflecht ergeben sich einige interessante Handlungsstränge und Szenen, die jedoch sehr frei gestaltet sind und daher lose verbunden werden können oder neben der persönlichen Agenda der Spielercharaktere herlaufen können. Die Story ist ungewohnt frei, verläuft nach dem Motto „Alles kann, nichts muss“, daher ist das Quellenbuch auch in die genaue Beleuchtung der einzelnen Szenen aufgeteilt und bietet keine lineare Geschichtsführung.
Aus diesem Grund würde ich das Setting eher erfahrenen Spielleitern ans Herz legen, denn der lose Geschichtsaufbau bedarf in meinen Augen einiger Kenntnis von Techniken beim Aufbauen einer Story. Eigenleistung ist also durchaus nötig.
Preis-/Leistungsverhältnis
Ich denke, dass das Setting gut ausgearbeitet ist und ohne weiteres verwertbar. Circa 7 EUR (je nach USD-EUR-Kurs) sind durchaus fair, denn das, was wir bekommen für da sGeld, kann ohne weiteres viele Spielabende füllen und gibt einen guten Hintergrund für eine interessante Stadt, die etwas weitab der pulsierenden Metropolen und ihrer vividen Vampir-Population ist.
Fazit
Was ich zugegeben sehr schnell gelesen habe, gefällt. Das Setting ist durchdacht, macht an einigen Momenten klar, wie sehr es eine Farce ist, wenn zwei alte Kontrahenten sich um eine sterbende Stadt streiten, wirft durch den sterblichen Nekromanten eine interessante Wendung in die Story und ist überaus gut spielbar. Ich begrüsse auch den losen Aufbau der Geschichte und die damit einhergehende Freiheit bei der Erschaffung des persönlichen Gary der Spieler. Verbunden mit dem niedrigen Preis und der guten Spielbarkeit gebe ich daher eine unbedingte Kaufempfehlung. Solltet ihr zuschlagen wollen, findet ihr oben unter den harten Fakten, den Direktlink unter „Bezugsquelle“.
Bonus/Downloadcontent
Es gibt keine weiteren Inhalte zu dem Setting als Download.
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Dust to Dust is the first Storyteller Adventure System supplement for the 20th anniversary edition of Vampire: the Masquerade.
I'm very excited to be reviewing a Vampire: the Masquerade property, makes me feel like I'm back in the George H. W. Bush administration. In fact, this SAS (and I imagine the V20 core book) have a great retro look to them complete with artwork by Cobb, Timbrook and others dating back to the early 90s.
I have not read Ashes to Ashes or the old intro adventure in the back of the 1st and 2nd edition of Masquerade but after reading Dust to Dust I intend to rectify that. What you've got here is a pretty decent adventure. It's one that I wouldn't mind running with a few changes to tighten things up and oh look the Wrecking Crew already ran it at Grand Masquerade 2011 and have left their notes interspersed in the text even though they recommend some pretty drastic changes. That's a nice touch. I even liked their Mickey Mouse cocktail napkin sketch they used for one of the action sequences. That's a term that old people use for something simple, kids. Disney: don't sue CCP.
I like a lot of things about Dust to Dust. You have the opportunity of at least two really awesome scenes happening with dire consequences on the line depending on how feindish your player characters are. Most of the characters are solid too, with Prince Mobius of Gary, Indiana being sublime in his faded glory, one real barbed fatale of a Giovanni and a low generation foe that'll curl your toes. I support Wrecking Crew's suggestion to leave the mortal hunter out of the action, however. There's enough conflict as it is and while he is a decent retro Masquerade kind of dude the plot is tighter without him. I dig the mood and theme of the piece too, and imagine it meshes well with the rest of the tripditch.
On the bad side the pacing might be a bit off. Some scenes are real talky-talky chuffa with not a lot of results. Establishing atmosphere and mood as well as putting the chess pieces in place is important but it would rule out making this a decent one shot or convention game. Trim them.
I found the layout a bit cumbersome but I think it's because I'm too used to SAS products being in landscape format and I didn't print this one out. That would have erased the retro feel, however.
I could follow the mechanics just fine considering I haven't gotten V20 yet and it would be pretty easy to translate into any previous edition of Masquerade or even Requiem if you have the Translation Document. The price is a bit high for the digital release but hey it's a 55 page book and I say it's worth it if you want to revisit Gary, or just drop by for the Zombie Walk.
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Originally published at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2011/11/18/tabletop-review-vampire-the-masquerade-dust-to-dust/
Until 1991, I had only ever played two tabletop RPGs: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes game. I owned a third my father purchased for me called Lords of Creation, but neither my friends nor I had any interest in playing it. So until 1991, my RPG adventures either took place in Greyhawk, Ravenloft or Earth 616. Then that fall of 1991, I saw two games on the shelf of my local B. Dalton (Remember those?). One was Call of Cthulhu 5th Edition and the other was the first edition of Vampire: The Masquerade. Both fascinated me, but I could only get one. Reading this article you’ll be surprised to hear I chose Call of Cthulhu but I would eventually pick up V:TM in 1992 with the release of second edition. I fell in love with it and it became a big part of my life for a while. I even got to do some writing for it (albeit it under a pen name because as Justin Achilli put it to me, “No one is going to look at the credits for this game and believe that’s your real name.”). I ended up playing the game with friends throughout high school and then at college I played V:TM online via WBS.net and later in an official Camarilla based LARP where my Setite actually got to be Prince Pharaoh of Minneapolis. I even ran a White Wolf endorsed online game that had between 100-150 people actively playing it back in 2000-2001. So you could kind of say I was in to Vampire: The Masquerade in a major way. However third edition, the sheer number of books White Wolf was putting out, graduating college, and the eventual move to Vampire: The Requiem eventually turned me off and I ended up moving on and never really looked back. At least, not until this year when White Wolf announced Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition.
As much as I missed the game from time to time, I couldn’t bring myself to pay a hundred dollars for the book. I still had all my old second edition stuff and that was a lot for someone that doesn’t roleplay much anymore. Besides I had my V:TM and Hunter: The Reckoning video games. Depending on the cost of the “print on demand” version of the book, I may get that or I’ll just finally buy the PDF version on DriveThruRPG.com. However, since the announcement of V:TM 20th, I’ve had this craving for the game. Thankfully I was able to get my fix when White Wolf offered me a review copy of Dust To Dust, set in Gary, Indiana of all places. You see, Gary, Indiana was not only the setting for the first adventure I ever played in V:TM, but it was the location most gamers first experienced V:TM in back in the early 90s as the location was the backdrop for the free adventure that came in the back of the book called “Forged in Steel.” It was also the location of one of the first V:TM supplements, Ashes to Ashes. So of course it’s only visiting that White Wolf revisits Gary as they revisit the Classic World of Darkness.
I have to admit, I read the entire fifty-six pages with a huge smile on my face. I hadn’t realized just how much I missed Vampire: The Masquerade (although not the drama that seems to go hand-in-hand with the game), but Dust to Dust brought it all home for me. There were familiar faces like Modius and Juggler and the decrepit hellhole that is Gary, Indiana – all updated for 2011. It was a bit sad to see how both the city and Kindred that dwelt within had fallen, but that’s the World of Darkness for you – it takes a real world locale/situation and darkens it up tenfold. Of course, the real Gary, Indiana is pretty dismal to begin with, so you can only imagine how bad it is in Dust to Dust. In fact, it’s so close to a ghost town that one of the subplots in Dust to Dust involves a Giovanni and her attempts to raise the city in the same way one would raise a zombie. She’s curious to see if a city can be raised from the dead similar to a zombie. The entire “sociological necromancy” was such a great idea, I was envisioning entire adventures or even campaigns that revolve around it.
Unlike most tabletop adventures that take place in a linear fashion, the nine scenes that comprise Dust to Dust unfold in a more organic way. White Wolf has patterned this adventure after a sandbox style video game like Batman: Arkham City or Grand Theft Auto. Basically some scenes happen when they feel appropriate to the Storyteller and others may not happen at all. The adventure mentions how Dust to Dust was run at the Grand Masquerade this year along with what was emphasized and what was left out. Now most Storytellers/GM/Keepers/DMs that make their own adventures are used to things changing on the fly, but for those that run store bought adventures, this is definitely going to be a change of pace. After all, those types of adventures are meant to unfold in a specific order. Not so here. To help Storytellers who are used to a more “structured” adventure style, Dust to Dust comes with a flowchart to help show the different ways things can go. This ensures the adventure can be run in a multitude of different ways. Maybe one Storyteller wants to focus on the sociological necromancy bit. Maybe another wants to focus on the Juggler-Modius feud finally climaxing. Perhaps another wants to run the entire thing in the exact order the scenes were published in. it’s all doable. I love how flexible Dust to Dust is this is one thing that was oft cited as missing from White Wolf penned adventures.
I really enjoyed the cast and characters of Dust to Dust although it was a bit sad to realize that this would be final death for some, if not all, of the NPCs contained here. I grew up with some of these characters and knowing that Final Death is the end fate for at least one of these characters was a bit melancholic for me. The worst part is that one of these characters knows it’s coming for them too. It’s funny because when Lodin died between first and second edition V:TM, I didn’t care at all as he was a pretty lame character to begin with, but then the thought of losing any of the characters in Dust to Dust had my mind working of ways that the campaign could be run without losing any of them. Juggler and Modius are great examples of how being a vampire doesn’t make someone any less sad, mental, or a poseur than they really are. There are some great new enemies here that deserve a chance to be repeating villains rather than one-shots. Characters like Maria would make for a good potential love interest for players and it’s so rare to see such an unconventional Giovanni like her, that getting her killed seems like a waste. There’s so much potential for a campaign in this adventure, it’s almost shocking.
Although I really liked Dust to Dust, it’s not perfect. For one thing, the adventure relies on a lot of knowledge about canon first and second edition events that happened in Gary and/or Chicago. The adventure claims it can be played by newcomers to V:TM, but honestly, the way it is written, you wouldn’t get much out of Dust to Dust unless you had prior experience with the game and specifically Gary/Chicago. That tends to be a problem with V:TM in general though as supplements are all “in canon” materials as opposed to being more or less optional in other games. Newcomers to V:TM will be lost as to who Sullivan Dane is or why you should care about some of these classic characters and how they’ve changed since first edition. They can still play through Dust to Dust and even enjoy it, but this was definitely written primarily for White Wolf mainstays rather than being friendly to new gamers.
The other issue is the art. I was a bit disappointed to see the art quality here. Usually V:TM products have amazing art. Instead Dust to Dust either reuses old art from first and second edition releases or it uses some truly terrible computer generated art. Perhaps I’ve been working in the video game industry too long, but the “art” here looked like bad visuals from the Playstation One/Saturn/N64 era, or a version of Poseur from the late 1990s. I realize the industry has fallen as a whole over the year, but honestly, the art in Dust to Dust was more depressing than either Gary or its remaining Kindred. Considering the cost of the product, you have to wonder why some of the money didn’t go to art that was of the quality Vampire: The Masquerade is known for. Compare this supplement to similar products on DriveThruRPG.com in terms of page length, and you’ll generally that franchises of the same renown are slightly cheaper and have actually sprung for high quality art. Example: Shadowrun: Anarchy Subsidized.
So Dust to Dust isn’t flawless, but it IS a lot of fun, especially if you’re a long time fan of Vampire: The Masquerade, which definitely puts you into the “older gamer” category. I can’t really recommend it to younger gamers looking to get into V:TM 20th, as the adventure is written in such a way that you should have experience with first and second edition. I’m always impressed how White Wolf’s writers can not only make Gary, Indiana sound even worse than it really is in real life (trust me, I’ve been there a few times. It’s pretty terrible.), but also a fascinating place to set a V:TM adventure or even a campaign. Dust to Dust contains so memorable characters, so potentially appearing for their last time, and I love how flexible the adventure is as opposed to the more rigid and extremely linear adventures that tend to get published by companies. If you’re a long time fan of V:TM, then you shouldn’t hesitate to pick up Dust To Dust It’s only ten bucks after all and it’s great to see everything in the Classic World of Darkness come full circle again.
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I just purchased Dust to Dust and recently purchased V20 from DriveThru RPG. The creative team has done an absolutely, outstanding job! I am so impressed with how well they have retained the mood of the original VtM while giving the new material a fresh, concise, and updated feel.
I was especially thankful for the decision to include the stats for the Major NPCs in Dust to Dust. While I enjoyed sourcebooks such as Children of the Inquisition, Nights of Prophecy, Havens of the Damned, etc. I always felt like the lack of stats served as a major detraction from those works. I tremendously disliked the decision toward the end of oWoD to give lengthier narratives and eliminate stats. As someone with limited time due to work and family obligations populating whole cities and worlds with NPCs can get ridiculously time consuming. Not to mention as a Storyteller it is relatively easy to tweak stats if I decide that an NPC is too weak or strong for the PCs. The prospect of creating stats for every NPC can be time consuming and daunting. So, I applaud the creative team and I hope that they will consider including stats in future V20, W20, M20 products!
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