Remind me what was the name of that vampire mafia comic series from around the early or mid 2000's? It's not "American Vampire".
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KickStarter Vampire Syndicate: Gangs of MoonFall
- Thread starter Tyranicon
- Start date
Remind me what was the name of that vampire mafia comic series from around the early or mid 2000's? It's not "American Vampire".
rusty_shackleford
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2018
- Messages
- 50,754
Blade?
It has vampire houses and predates VTM.
It might actually be the one who "created" it now that I think about it.
No the mafia were the main characters, not villains. One of the issues had a vampire chick drinking blood from a carton on the cover.
vazha
Arcane
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2013
- Messages
- 2,069
Giving very strong Lilura vibes too. Probably a blood relative. Dad, maybe?
That would explain this entire theory of Lil Lil being a byproduct of Vietnam war that I had, with this retard up there being the family-deserting soldaddo :D
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Tyranicon
A Memory of Eternity
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2019
- Messages
- 7,838
Aaaaand I'm back from outer space. Wrote some of this while moderately high so excuse any errors.
Okay, here’s a massive lore dump, organized for your (and whoever else’s) reading pleasure. The main vampire factions in this game are a transhumanist cult to a cosmic horror, the
I also spent about a decade working and building this setting, so expect some
The World:
Pretty standard cyberpunk/fantasy kitchen sink. Think of Shadowrun, but less fantastical shit and more grounded. Magic has long been supplanted by technology and modern mages live a life of either concealing their powers, pledging their service to national governments, or joining one of the many volatile shaper cults.
The last of three artificial moons hovers ominously over the world, with the first two having been destroyed in two seperate near-apocalyptic events. Nobody knows who made them, how or why. The shuttle missions to the moon have been kept secret from the general populace.
The City:
MoonFall is an island city-state formed from the remains of the second moon when it crashed into the ocean. A number of chad viking pirates used it as a strategic location to raid the shorelines of neighboring countries like Bren and Thule. Eventually, they legitimized due to MoonFall’s value as a trading hub.
In the modern day, MoonFall is one of the largest, wealthiest and most dangerous cities in the world. The last is due to a corrupt Constabulary, a decentralized city government controlled by a collection of alliances known simply as The Board, and the immense power of the leading crime syndicates. Also importantly, MoonFall is one of the few places with hyper-lax laws regarding magic.
The vampire lineages:
Vampires are just one facet of the world, but the biggest part of this game. For now, I am only thinking of five-six lineages, unless someone throws me like $10k and then I'll have another few I’m thinking of.
Lineages are not VtM clans, the differences here are much more drastic. You can consider each lineage a different species of vampire. All lineages have a different way to spread vampirism and a different portfolio of powers/weaknesses. Most of the lineages are still male-dominated, although due to mutual agreements, female vampires now outnumber their male counterparts (I really needed a reason for it not to be a sausage fest, and have plenty of booba around).
Like mortal crime syndicates in MoonFall, the vampire lineages can trace their origins in the city back to the mass migration following the Cataclysm of 721 AFM, which resulted in the destruction of Greater Gushan and most of old Dyavol.
The Chthonians
A transhumanist cult to a cosmic horror that sleeps somewhere in the lovecraftian magic abyss underneath the city. They are faith-based, can fuck your mind on command, and currently the strongest of MoonFall’s lineages.
They are considered the native sons and daughters of the island. The Chthonians carve out their dominion through the use of their proxy: the large and efficient Iron Cartel.
The Dragonblooded
Totally not based on the Triad at all, the Dragonblooded are vampires who value the study of magic over all things. Famed for their Wudajin fighting style, the true power of the Dragonblooded come from the more esoteric applications of their magic, as well as the sway they hold over the Shaper Cults.
They are refugees from Lost Gushan, and their syndicate proxy are the Dead Dragons.
Exiles of Dyavol
Also totally not based on the Russian mob. The Exiles of Dyavol are known to be proud and honorable, but also unpredictable. They place a high priority on physical fitness, martial ability and a strange species of chivalry. The Exiles prefer work that includes lots of chances for violence, as long as it’s against able combatants.
Old Dyavol was crippled by the same cataclysm that destroyed most of Gushan. As a result, the vampires of Dyavol voluntarily went into exile in hopes of a better feeding ground. Their proxies are the Dya Skapetr.
Sunseeker’s Court
The vampires of Sunseeker’s court can trace their lineage back to the mythical heroine Naika Sunseeker. When Sunseeker delivered the killing blow on the serpent goddess Telakhment, the deity’s blood spilled forth and cursed the heroine.
Before she vanished, Sunseeker founded a sacred order with her own blood to protect her homeland from evil. Unfortunately, the knightly order of Sunseeker’s Court has fallen far from grace and is now little more than petty criminals with delusions of grandeur.
They are fleeing the collapse of the loyalist, aristocratic government of Zimalaya due to civil war. Their proxy is the Kabila.
The Drukah
All vampires eventually trace themselves back to the Drukah due to one simple reason. What causes vampirism is a curse, and not to do with the blood itself. This is a common misconception as vampires... drink blood.
The Drukah were the ones who first discovered the curse and how to pass it on, mostly as an accident when looking into ways of gaining immortality.
They consider themselves the most pure of all vampires, but due to infighting and the results of the last war between the vampire lineages, the Drukah are all but extinct. They are not considered a major force in MoonFall’s underworld.
Familiars
The great vampire lineages are limited by The Final Accords to how many active vampires they may have at any one time. Although loopholes to the Accords exist, the lineages still rely on human familiars for their organizations to function.
Familiars are humans bound in service to their vampire masters, a relationship that can only usually be severed upon death, but not always.
The vampire factions use familiars to run their criminal organizations. Any task seen as beneath the notice of a vampire is delegated to their familiars, who have a hierarchy of their own based on seniority, skill and respect.
Technically, any human employed by a vampire syndicate is seen as a familiar, even low-level street thugs. On a more practical level however, familiars are the ones who have knowledge of the Uzakh Drucah, and serve their vampire masters directly.
Vampires select their familiars carefully, as humans not only serve as the rank and file of the great lineages, but it is also from this pool that new vampires, or the Respected Ones, are chosen.
All familiars are exceptional, although each vampire faction has different priorities and requirements when inducting new familiars.
The player will start off as a newly-initiated familiar to any vampire faction they wish. In order to rise in the dark hierarchy, they must curry favor with their new masters, accomplish great deeds, and otherwise prove themselves in the Uzakh Drucah.
The ultimate prize of the player’s undying service is to be reborn as a vampire. Immortal, powerful, and the ultimate predator masquerading as a human.
The War of the Accords
The various vampire lineages are only bound by one fact: that they survive as predators of men. Beyond that, the lineages are fundamentally different and hold great animosity towards each other.
Since their earliest encounters, the vampire lineages have waged a war of supremacy. This eternal conflict is not only for greater power and the security of their lineage, but also on philosophical and even religious principles.
The War of the Accords marked the final, and bloodiest, war between the major lineages. Suffering heavy casualties and the devastation of their strongholds, the surviving lineages agreed to an iron-clad pact, brokered by the Traveler’s Guild, now known as the Traveler’s Mandate.
The Final Accords, as it was known, set down the following rules:
Sworn before the guild’s Oathstone by the surviving elders of each lineage, The Final Accords is seen as unbreakable, and is now enforced by the might of the Traveler’s Mandate and its Department of Special Affairs.
The Traveler’s Mandate
A powerful covert international organization that protects mankind from dangerous anomalous creatures and events. As the arbitrator and enforcer of The Final Accords, the Traveler’s Mandate finds itself in a custodial role over the various vampire lineages. Using memetic and other advanced technology, the Mandate preserves the Partition (a difficult task in the Information Age) and acts as peacemaker between the lineages.
Despite this arduous and oftentimes thankless task, the Mandate does enjoy certain benefits from the arrangement, such as filling their coffers with near-untraceable funds. But vampires do not enjoy being leashed.
Thankfully for the Mandate, it has experience dealing with much greater threats than just mere vampires.
Pretty standard cyberpunk/fantasy kitchen sink. Think of Shadowrun, but less fantastical shit and more grounded. Magic has long been supplanted by technology and modern mages live a life of either concealing their powers, pledging their service to national governments, or joining one of the many volatile shaper cults.
The last of three artificial moons hovers ominously over the world, with the first two having been destroyed in two seperate near-apocalyptic events. Nobody knows who made them, how or why. The shuttle missions to the moon have been kept secret from the general populace.
The City:
MoonFall is an island city-state formed from the remains of the second moon when it crashed into the ocean. A number of chad viking pirates used it as a strategic location to raid the shorelines of neighboring countries like Bren and Thule. Eventually, they legitimized due to MoonFall’s value as a trading hub.
In the modern day, MoonFall is one of the largest, wealthiest and most dangerous cities in the world. The last is due to a corrupt Constabulary, a decentralized city government controlled by a collection of alliances known simply as The Board, and the immense power of the leading crime syndicates. Also importantly, MoonFall is one of the few places with hyper-lax laws regarding magic.
The vampire lineages:
Vampires are just one facet of the world, but the biggest part of this game. For now, I am only thinking of five-six lineages, unless someone throws me like $10k and then I'll have another few I’m thinking of.
Lineages are not VtM clans, the differences here are much more drastic. You can consider each lineage a different species of vampire. All lineages have a different way to spread vampirism and a different portfolio of powers/weaknesses. Most of the lineages are still male-dominated, although due to mutual agreements, female vampires now outnumber their male counterparts (I really needed a reason for it not to be a sausage fest, and have plenty of booba around).
Like mortal crime syndicates in MoonFall, the vampire lineages can trace their origins in the city back to the mass migration following the Cataclysm of 721 AFM, which resulted in the destruction of Greater Gushan and most of old Dyavol.
The Chthonians
A transhumanist cult to a cosmic horror that sleeps somewhere in the lovecraftian magic abyss underneath the city. They are faith-based, can fuck your mind on command, and currently the strongest of MoonFall’s lineages.
They are considered the native sons and daughters of the island. The Chthonians carve out their dominion through the use of their proxy: the large and efficient Iron Cartel.
The Dragonblooded
Totally not based on the Triad at all, the Dragonblooded are vampires who value the study of magic over all things. Famed for their Wudajin fighting style, the true power of the Dragonblooded come from the more esoteric applications of their magic, as well as the sway they hold over the Shaper Cults.
They are refugees from Lost Gushan, and their syndicate proxy are the Dead Dragons.
Exiles of Dyavol
Also totally not based on the Russian mob. The Exiles of Dyavol are known to be proud and honorable, but also unpredictable. They place a high priority on physical fitness, martial ability and a strange species of chivalry. The Exiles prefer work that includes lots of chances for violence, as long as it’s against able combatants.
Old Dyavol was crippled by the same cataclysm that destroyed most of Gushan. As a result, the vampires of Dyavol voluntarily went into exile in hopes of a better feeding ground. Their proxies are the Dya Skapetr.
Sunseeker’s Court
The vampires of Sunseeker’s court can trace their lineage back to the mythical heroine Naika Sunseeker. When Sunseeker delivered the killing blow on the serpent goddess Telakhment, the deity’s blood spilled forth and cursed the heroine.
Before she vanished, Sunseeker founded a sacred order with her own blood to protect her homeland from evil. Unfortunately, the knightly order of Sunseeker’s Court has fallen far from grace and is now little more than petty criminals with delusions of grandeur.
They are fleeing the collapse of the loyalist, aristocratic government of Zimalaya due to civil war. Their proxy is the Kabila.
The Drukah
All vampires eventually trace themselves back to the Drukah due to one simple reason. What causes vampirism is a curse, and not to do with the blood itself. This is a common misconception as vampires... drink blood.
The Drukah were the ones who first discovered the curse and how to pass it on, mostly as an accident when looking into ways of gaining immortality.
They consider themselves the most pure of all vampires, but due to infighting and the results of the last war between the vampire lineages, the Drukah are all but extinct. They are not considered a major force in MoonFall’s underworld.
Familiars
The great vampire lineages are limited by The Final Accords to how many active vampires they may have at any one time. Although loopholes to the Accords exist, the lineages still rely on human familiars for their organizations to function.
Familiars are humans bound in service to their vampire masters, a relationship that can only usually be severed upon death, but not always.
The vampire factions use familiars to run their criminal organizations. Any task seen as beneath the notice of a vampire is delegated to their familiars, who have a hierarchy of their own based on seniority, skill and respect.
Technically, any human employed by a vampire syndicate is seen as a familiar, even low-level street thugs. On a more practical level however, familiars are the ones who have knowledge of the Uzakh Drucah, and serve their vampire masters directly.
Vampires select their familiars carefully, as humans not only serve as the rank and file of the great lineages, but it is also from this pool that new vampires, or the Respected Ones, are chosen.
All familiars are exceptional, although each vampire faction has different priorities and requirements when inducting new familiars.
The player will start off as a newly-initiated familiar to any vampire faction they wish. In order to rise in the dark hierarchy, they must curry favor with their new masters, accomplish great deeds, and otherwise prove themselves in the Uzakh Drucah.
The ultimate prize of the player’s undying service is to be reborn as a vampire. Immortal, powerful, and the ultimate predator masquerading as a human.
The War of the Accords
The various vampire lineages are only bound by one fact: that they survive as predators of men. Beyond that, the lineages are fundamentally different and hold great animosity towards each other.
Since their earliest encounters, the vampire lineages have waged a war of supremacy. This eternal conflict is not only for greater power and the security of their lineage, but also on philosophical and even religious principles.
The War of the Accords marked the final, and bloodiest, war between the major lineages. Suffering heavy casualties and the devastation of their strongholds, the surviving lineages agreed to an iron-clad pact, brokered by the Traveler’s Guild, now known as the Traveler’s Mandate.
The Final Accords, as it was known, set down the following rules:
- None of the noble lineages may make open war upon another.
- None of the lineages may exceed any other in men, of issue, by more than a third.
- Any issue of lineage who kills another of their kind, by their hand or another’s, will also perish.
- No issue of lineage may expose the existence of the Uzakh Drucah or the Great Partition.
Sworn before the guild’s Oathstone by the surviving elders of each lineage, The Final Accords is seen as unbreakable, and is now enforced by the might of the Traveler’s Mandate and its Department of Special Affairs.
The Traveler’s Mandate
A powerful covert international organization that protects mankind from dangerous anomalous creatures and events. As the arbitrator and enforcer of The Final Accords, the Traveler’s Mandate finds itself in a custodial role over the various vampire lineages. Using memetic and other advanced technology, the Mandate preserves the Partition (a difficult task in the Information Age) and acts as peacemaker between the lineages.
Despite this arduous and oftentimes thankless task, the Mandate does enjoy certain benefits from the arrangement, such as filling their coffers with near-untraceable funds. But vampires do not enjoy being leashed.
Thankfully for the Mandate, it has experience dealing with much greater threats than just mere vampires.
Applies to everybody: don’t send me ideas unless you’re chill. I don’t need people accusing me of stealing whatever mundane idea they added to this thread, like daywalkers or vampire samurai with katanas (yeah of course there will be katanas, it’s cyberpunk).
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Tyranicon
A Memory of Eternity
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2019
- Messages
- 7,838
- Trailer is an intro cinematic, game will look closer to the screenshots.
- This game will be a two-man show.
- Yes. You’ll be able to take over rackets and earn a daily income from crime. Not too sure how it will flesh out, but probably more detailed and in-depth than my current brothel sim
- Most humans are not aware of vampires. The Traveler’s Mandate (inspired by SCP Foundation) maintains the Partition. However, they’re pretty lax about this since they rely on memetic technology to memory-wipe large groups of people. This is a world with a LOT of conspiracies. Hierarchy and organization is different from lineage to lineage.
- I can beat around the bush, but it’s RPGmaker. There’s no such thing as a bad engine when you really know what you’re doing, and I do. My last game in RPGmaker was 3D. For this, I’m keeping it simple: I’m essentially recreating Infinity Engine for my needs. Backgrounds are 2D images, there is no real 3D. 3D is a waste of resources and money for something like this.
Tyranicon
A Memory of Eternity
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2019
- Messages
- 7,838
There's gon be a lot of vampire waifus. I don't judge if that's your thing. Hell, that's probably everybody's thing.
Have an egyptian flavored one (I'm keeping images SFW for now):
Sorry if I missed any questions, there was a lot of spaz on this thread.
Harthwain
Magister
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2019
- Messages
- 5,426
Sorry, what? Legacy of Kain had bloodlines (including the clans) and the council, but it was in no way a direct clone of WoD. The first makes sense in terms of how the vampires propagate. The second makes sense, because it gives some organizational structure to the whole thing. Hell, you even have the main vampire called Kain (although he is not the first vampire).
JamesDixon you're a very confused individual who manages to bring up "labor" and "capital" (IP is a form of capital) at the same time to appeal to purely your interests, nobody else's, yet attempt to present it as if it's basically the interests of the humankind. Then you talk about selling an interchangeable commodity like a house and compare it to an IP which is capital. I don't want to bother explaining anything, I doubt you'd understand. Humanities should stick to their liberal arts. Just stick to fiction writing.
This is why democracy is a myth. People like this are actual voters. Thankfully they don't decide anything.
I agree with your writing tips from the first page, because clones are boring. Not for your moron-economic reasons.
This is why democracy is a myth. People like this are actual voters. Thankfully they don't decide anything.
I agree with your writing tips from the first page, because clones are boring. Not for your moron-economic reasons.
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Show a video of your character walking around. I think it'll feel bad, because the background will *feel* static, even though there should be shadows and reflections at play everywhere on your screenshot.
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V_K
Arcane
To be fair though, this Great Partition thing does sound a lot like the Masquerade...
Anonymous Wife Scholar
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2020
- Messages
- 1,284
Thank you anon! You are a good anon! Give me cute vampire wifes!
There's gon be a lot of vampire waifus. I don't judge if that's your thing. Hell, that's probably everybody's thing.
Have an egyptian flavored one (I'm keeping images SFW for now):
Sorry if I missed any questions, there was a lot of spaz on this thread.
BruceVC
Magister
There's gon be a lot of vampire waifus. I don't judge if that's your thing. Hell, that's probably everybody's thing.
Have an egyptian flavored one (I'm keeping images SFW for now):
Sorry if I missed any questions, there was a lot of spaz on this thread.
You can never enough have enough entertaining Vampire games and I like to invest in them. Keep us updated and good luck with the project, I look forward to the final game
Also I appreciate the fact you are ensuring the Vampires are hot and aesthetically pleasing. That's another component in games I like to see
I love this Egyptian interpretation of a female Vampire or character, either way its looks great and I dont mind if it has similarities with Masquerade. Most Vampire movies\games are similar in certain ways
Yes you did spend your time arguing in bad faith. Welcome to the stupid list.
I love the Codex! 
I hope your game is successful, it's not something I'd be interested though, but good luck!
I hope your game is successful, it's not something I'd be interested though, but good luck!
- Joined
- May 5, 2014
- Messages
- 1,677
Lol DAZ assets
I urge you to rethink this design choice.
- Joined
- May 29, 2010
- Messages
- 36,741
Autism spectrum things; one can say we all belong to the same tribe.
BruceVC
Magister
Good thing I'm not autistic or play video games 
Pretty interesting and the idea of setting it not on earth is a good one. Overall, it's a good idea and a nice start for an interesting setting. Now for the critique.
Lineages as written are clans. You can say that they aren't, but in every description so far they function as a clan. So you just might as well stop denying it. It's okay on that aspect. The lineages are okay with nothing new or innovative about them.
The Accords reads just like the Camarilla from VtM down to the way things are handled including the Masquerade. I would suggest that you change it to something like the merchant princes of medieval times with each lineage having a monopoly over a certain enterprise related to their powers. Think more The Republic then the Camarilla complete with the entire Machiavellian plots.
What's the population breakdown for humans to vampires? Unless you have artificial blood, vampires will need to be outnumbered by quite a few humans like a ratio of 100 to 1. That all depends on how much your vampires need to feed daily. If a vampire needs 1 pint (475ml) of blood that would take the donor no less then 2 weeks to replenish it while maintaining their health. Already that 1 vampire needs 14 people to feed from and that's only for them. If their donors give up more blood then 1 pint they have the possibility to get sick and even die. Thus, your population ratio needs to be 14 humans for every 1 vampire. If you have 15,000 vampires you'll need a human population of 210,000 minimum. You'd want a higher population by several magnitudes in order to hide the presence of the vampires.
As an aside, how does technology affect the vampires? Are they able to be seen on cameras and the like? The more tech out there the higher chance that vampires will be discovered, especially if you have a large population. If your vampires control the human government then you can easily mitigate the dangers. However, having the vampires control the government is easy mode and not much of a challenge to vampire characters.
That's off the top of my head. Enjoy the day.
Tyranicon
A Memory of Eternity
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2019
- Messages
- 7,838
It actually looks remarkably good but there are issues (such as shadows and reflections). My last game I went a bit overboard (like putting dynamic lighting in a 3d pixel game...) so for this one I'm going back to simplicity and relying on my dev partner's good art direction.
Current problems are increasing the walk cycles animation frames, and creating animated layovers for lighting. The first will be fixed by breaking the RPGM engine (something I'm used to), and the second can only be fixed by lots of manual labor.
I only have ugly, hyper alpha content to show, but you can see an in-game capture of the player character walking in the last few seconds of the trailer. Like I said, the animation looks stilted because it's only 7-8 frames and that needs to be bumped up. For reference, RPGM is hard-coded for a three frame walk cycle.
I don't really consider the Masquerade itself unique at all in vampire/supernatural media. It's a well-codified trope by now.
MoonFall has the best weapon control laws in the world: none. You can buy an ICBM and install it on the top of your skyscraper penthouse. And people do!
So Jitte are cool and all that, but less-than-lethal weapons aren't too popular in a city where everyone's packing serious heat.
Also melee-range weapons only work in a setting with guns party because of rule-of-cool (like 40k!) and partly because of vaguely explained magic physics.
Tyranicon
A Memory of Eternity
- Joined
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I will rethink it when Paradox offers me a license at an affordable rate, or when IP laws change. Or when I get too rich to be sued effectively. Something like that.
Vampires are incredibly rare. I don't want to put out hard numbers yet, but think much less than 1% of the population. There's more than enough blood to sustain them. Also, I'm not keeping my world in status quo stasis. The technology is already there. Vampires are able to produce lab-grown human blood to sate their thirst, although not everyone has moved on from the old ways...
Technology not only affects vampires, they have readily adapted to it. While generally very conservative, the lineages have long recognized technology as a threat and potential advantage. The advent of more advanced technology and body modification means that vampires can now go out in the sun, something that was unthinkable generations ago.
As for maintaining the secrecy of their society, the Traveler's Mandate takes care of that. The Mandate is a SCP Foundation-like organization with access to memetic technology and able to effectively not only mind wipe large groups of people via social media, but also clean up any evidence.
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