A Game About Tears in Rain - Thousand Year Old Vampire RPG Review

Tim Hutchings’ Thousand Year Old Vampire is one of the...

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Seems like the perfect game for 2020. Might need to get this.

With both yourself and Thurot being enamoured of this thing this week I'm intrigued anew. Interestingly it seems to have already inspired offspring such as the recent indie 'Into the Deep' though they perhaps requires less of an emotional investment. Perhaps if I live to be a thousand years old I'll forget how much the postage was to get this thing to my doorstep in Australia.

Thanks for the review and the caution about wallowing in introspective tragedy. They should have those on Smiths LP's.

First printing is sold out. I just plunked down $40 USD to pre-order the second printing, which should reach my doorstep by October. Perfect timing, as there will be five weekends this October, but probably zero social events that I will attend (in case any of them turn into re-enactments of The Masque of the Red Death). There was also an additional $10 USD charge for shipping. The shipping charges are much higher for overseas, but there is also a pdf-only option. Speaking of pdf, my pre-order came with a pdf to download, available immediately. I may have time to take a look at it tonight.

$44US shipping for me. The tyranny of distance is taking the piss.

So is this like an adult version of a Fighting Fantasy book or something? I'm not grasping the mechanics of it but the narrative result sounds amazing.

You have a character sheet with slots for memories, experiences, skills, resources, etc- all the game elements. You roll a d10 and subtract a d6. You move forward that many pages of prompts, and there are three on each page. You use the prompt to write an experience into one of your memories, which may require you to gain/lose something. Or lose a memory completely. There are no resolutions- you either have something or you don’t. It is also not a branching narrative or preset story beats other than “you become a vampire- anything that actually happens is something you create.

Dan Thurot really loves this thing too so that's a good triangulation between your tastes...

Andi Lennon wrote: Thanks for the review and the caution about wallowing in introspective tragedy. They should have those on Smiths LP's.

That joke? Not funny any more.

hotseatgames wrote:

Andi Lennon wrote: Thanks for the review and the caution about wallowing in introspective tragedy. They should have those on Smiths LP's.

That joke? Not funny any more.

Oof. Nice one, Dad.

What I am expecting will be an unusual creative writing project, with just enough structure to get my creativity going without feeling like I'm staring at a formidable blank page. Less of a Choose Your Own Adventure and more like Dear Diary I Slew A Lamplighter This Eve And Drank Blood From His Heart.

I suspect that it requires a significant degree of buy-in from the player, but may reward it with a rich and unusual experience not found in other games or entertainments. Try to whip through it fast with low commitment, and you will get the approximate entertainment value of a book of Mad-Libs. Take your time, do some research and thinking, and you might discover a unique diversion.

One reason that I am particularly interested in Thousand Year Old Vampire is the gradual erasure of past memories of the character. My mother passed away in 2017 after nearly a decade-long spiral into Alzheimer's disease. She was living with my sister in a distant part of the country, so I only saw her about once a year, and the changes each year were jarring. I also talked to her on the phone on a fairly regular basis, until finishing sentences became too difficult for her and she mostly stayed on the phone just to hear me talk at her.

For most of her life, my mom was somehow a warm, friendly extrovert who also loved to read. The dementia gradually stole language from her, to a point where she could read a sentence out loud and not comprehend it because she had already forgotten how the sentence started. At first, she mainly lost short-term recent memories. After years, most of what she had left seemed to be childhood memories, often leaving her in a childish state. I was just as relieved as saddened when she died, and I have not really allowed myself to fully process those feelings since.

Every review I read of this makes me want it more. It sounds like an extended engaging creative writing project that offers a lot of immersion and a unique twist, and frankly it's the only "solo RPG" that I've seen that made me even halfway interested in playing it (Dragonholt was fantastic, but it was definitely more of a guided experience than a true RPG.)

And yet.

I have a deep, deep phobia of Alzheimer's, for familial and personal reasons. I'm not sure I'm in a place where playing this would be remotely healthy right now, and so I very much appreciate the caveats in the review.

This game sounds like it would be an amazing one to pass around a circle as a creative writing exercise, or as a play by mail.

Pretty much echoing what has been said already, but I think this sounds like an amazing achievement. As someone who watched my grandmother wither away due to Alzheimer's.... I don't think I want to intentionally relive that.

I went to Disney World while she was in a nursing home, and got her a tiny Mickey Mouse snow globe. When she passed, I got the snow globe back and put it on my mantle. It was really the only keepsake I had of her.

Years later, I got a cat. It jumped onto the mantle, knocked the snow globe over, and it smashed into bits. I can't describe the despair I felt at that moment.

Paulo (original name forgotten)

Marks:
Twin puncture wounds on the neck which have scabbed over but never healed

Skills:
Can hold my ale
Care and feeding of horses
Bloodthirsty
Sketching with Coal
Mastery of knots
Recognition of ghosts
Pistol
Bartending
Painting

Resources:
A pouch of gems
A poem written by the lover I turned into a vampire

Mortals:
none

Immortals:
Lucius, Roman centurion turned vampire and my sire
Poppy, my half-sister, lover, and vampire childe
The necromancer Pierce
A foolish old man turned into a walking blood supply

Memory 1:

In Venice, I take up work as a barkeep; the hours suit my aversion to sunlight.

I return to Venice and find an old cache of wine, aged to excellence.

I sell the old wine and invest in jewelry and paintings.

Memory 2:

An unfortunate series of events leads me down the Silk Road to Cathay; I ply a new trade as the fur trader Paulo.

I awaken in an ornate tomb in the orient, covered by the dust of ages.

To occupy the long nights, I learn to ply the brush in creation of intricate landscapes.

Memory 3:

Increased trade along the Silk Road makes my pale skin less remarkable.

Memory 4:

In Milan, I meet a familiar woman but know her not; Poppy tells me that we were sweethearts until I turned her into a vampire, but now we are friends again.

Time takes a toll; my fangs have fallen out and hunting becomes too difficult. At dawn, I choose to pass into dust and history.

Memory 5:

The mortals have deadly new weapons, so I learn to fire a pistol.