Michael Allens is a vampire, current prince of the city of Philadelphia. He is of the Daeva clan. His sire is Deborah Means, prince of Roanoke, VA. Michael was embraced at age 18 while a freshman in college at Virginia Tech and has been climbing the ladder of power ever since. He is young, but very cunning. He serves the Carthian cause.
For the rest, read the fan fiction.
No, who are you in real life?
Allen Schwarz, geek and gamer. Michael is my vampire character from my college days, a VTM Toreador ported over to WoD 2.0.
When does all this stuff happen?
The fan fiction tells the story of Michael's rise to power and it begins in 1991 at Virginia Tech and follows his Requiem up until he becomes Prince in Philadelphia in 2000. The now-defunct WoD campaign on which this blog is titled takes place 12 years into that reign, occurring in the fall of 2012 during the last months of the election season.
This campaign doesn't seem to follow the "standard" WoD 2.0. What's different?
1.
2. That universe has been modified to heighten the interactions and tensions between the various supernatural powers that lurk unknown to mortal man. This is a World of Darkness similar to works like Underworld or Twilight (I know, bad example, but it does fit) where werewolves, mages, and vampires share and compete over the world of humankind. A given vampire or werewolf has as much to fear from another supernatural being as he or she does their own kind.
The biggest way this will manifest in this campaign is how the various supernatural powers vie for control of Philadelphia. Vampires are not alone in the city, but are merely the dominant power against the fae, mages, and lupines. Too much infighting among the kindred, and one of the other groups might take advantage to tilt the balance of power and threaten Prince Michael's rule.
3. Vampires are nasty. White Wolf has always had a bad tendency to make its vampire race too weak. While VtR is better by far than VtM was, still I've taken the liberty to make them even stronger. Vamps in my universe can do pretty much anything humans can do (eat, have sex, etc.) only better. The only thing they don't do better is die, as they are nigh on impossible to kill. If you don't have a way to drag them into the sunlight, chop off their head, or set them on fire, all you'll do is make them mad.
4. I'm trying to be a bit more fluid with language. VtR, like VtM, before it has its own little vocabulary. I'm trying to be a bit more flexible with my descriptors in an effort to remind folks that this is not vanilla-WoD. "Ghouls" are "thralls." You're not "embraced," you're "turned." Stuff like that.
Okay, back up. VtR? VtM? What does all this stuff mean?
If you're asking this question, it's a pretty good bet you've had no experience with the World of Darkness role-playing universe, or at least you don't think you have. Truth is WoD is potentially one of the biggest influences on Goth entertainment today, given how many vampire/werewolf tropes in movies like Twilight are lifted wholesale from the game. But like many things, we have our own little short-cuts for talking about things, including acronyms.
WoD - World of Darkness. A series of Gothic horror role-playing games released by White Wolf Games over the last twenty years or so. There are two incarnations of the in-game universe and of the ruleset. The current one, often called WoD 2.0, was released in the early 2000s and was a big "reset button."
VtM - Vampire the Masquerade. Released in the late 1980s, this was the first World of Darkness game. It's out of print now and no longer supported.
VtR - Vampire the Requiem. Released in 2003, this is the successor game to VtM using the new improved WoD 2.0 ruleset. It shares some commonalities with VtM, but is largely a completely different game.
I've recently posted a Primer on WoD 2.0 for your edification.
You call this site "Philadelphia by Night" but all the action in the fan fiction takes place in Virginia?
It took Michael five acts of material, but he's finally in Philadelphia. Satisfied?
Are these characters in the fan fiction who I think they are?
Those of you who know me in real life will likely be asking this question. The answer is yes. Many of the early chapters in the fan fiction are highly autobiographical, as Michael Allens is something of an incarnation of me (Take me, remove most of my morality and ethics and pump up my dark side about tenfold and you have Michael). As such, the people he encounters and the places he goes are based, sometimes closely sometimes loosely, on real people and places. Some of those people are still within my close circle of friends, and anyone who remembers Blacksburg, VA in the early 90s will recognize a lot of scenery.
If you're curious about what the characters look like, use the tag "art" to find the series of portrait posts I've done using the Sims 2, 3, and 4.
Song titles?
Yes, the fan fiction uses the names of songs as its chapter titles. It's hard for me to envision a "world of darkness" without the sound of alternative and goth music in the background.
Of course, not all the titles are from those genres, but each song says something about the action or events of the chapter named after it. Spent too much time in my school literature classes to do anything random here.
I'm also trying to keep the songs reasonably contemporary to the events. A chapter taking place in 1993 will not be named for a song released in 2001 (although it might have a song from 1995. I will fudge a little if it suits me.) I want my readers to imagine the song named in the chapter title playing in the background of the story, like a track on a movie soundtrack. Sometimes, the narrative makes that explicit.
There's a guide for the songs here, here, and here. The guide presumes you've read the appropriate chapters.
Wow. There's some pretty vile stuff in this fan fiction.
Um, it's a story about vampires and werewolves, and unlike a certain bit of tween fiction that I've already referenced a few times in this FAQ, it is not a sanitized vampire/werewolf story.
Michael, the protagonist, and many of his allies and friends are anti-heroes in just about every way that term means. They are not completely evil, but they're also not very nice and at times do some pretty despicable things.
With all that in mind, the fan fiction is intended for an adult audience and contains a lot of sex, violence, profanity, and other adult content. If you don't like that or are offended by it, don't read it.
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