Guess whose coming to dinner?
Red Moon Roleplaying, with the assistance of Onyx Path Publishing did a podcast playthrough of the Chicago By Night chronicle The Sacrifice for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. It is part of the Vampire: The Masquerade line and World of Darkness franchise by White Wolf. Serving as the Storyteller is game designer Klara Horskjær Herbøl and playing is Vampire: The Masquerade creative head Matthew Dawkins. Also participating are gamers Hjalmar Nordén and Craig Austin.
A trio of Kindred strangers are brought together by the Sheriff of Chicago, Damien, in order to guarantee safe passage for a pair of vampire V.I.Ps. None of the trio is particularly well-suited for the task and all of them are carrying deep personal baggage. Little do they know that the "favor" they're doing the Prince could affect every vampire in the world.
This series features fantastic music and an intro composed for us by the talented Simon Kölle, guaranteeing a moody gothic feel.
The playthrough is available on Youtube
and the Red Moon Roleplaying website
- Adaptation Expansion: While The Sacrifice is a complete chronicle in Chicago by Night 5th Edition, the game expands on it by giving additional time for character development and interaction with the player characters' touchstones. It is Armed with Canon as Klara the Storyteller is also the original chronicle's writer.
- Adaptational Personality Change:
- Noah "Flyboy" Grewal is a Consummate Professional and spymaster in Chicago By Night 5E. His depiction in this game is of a feral beast literally panting at the possibility of either money or respect.
- Brett Stryker is usually a arrogant blowhard but is meek and stuttering in the campaign. Justified as he's terrified of Dolph due to the latter's diablerie.
- All There in the Manual:
- A lot of information is available in the Patreon's "Episode 0" about the characters.
- You can also read how the campaign will roughly go (minus Adaptation Expansion) by reading it in Chicago By Night's 5th Edition. It is an adaptation of an official adventure found there.
- Alone with the Psycho: The player characters become this when escorting Malenkov into the city.
- Bar Fight: Dolph gets into one after Genghis feeds on his girlfriend.
- The Beautiful Elite: The Toreador and Ventrue embody this at the Succubus Club, to the point of annoying Dolph.
- Bittersweet Ending: The group successfully delivers Malenkov to the Prince and witnesses his public execution. The Lasombra are then voted in to become part of the Camarilla. Dolph then alienates everyone in the group by trying to frame Brett Stryker for aiding the Sabbat, then murdering him in secret. Alan has found his sire but is now terrified of Dolph. Vincent's circumstances have not significantly changed and he remains under his sire's control.
- Berserk Button: Due to frenzying rules in V:TM, all vampires have a Hair-Trigger Temper with each of the player characters having specific weaknesses (see their character sheets).
- The Berserker: Malenkov is described as such by Marcel.
- Breaking the Fellowship: The ending of the campaign results in the group alienated from Dolph and choosing to part ways. Vincent tries to remain friends with Alan but the latter admits he finds him despicable too.
- Cassandra Truth: Telling your boyfriend that you are a vampire will result in him thinking you've lost your mind and breaking up with you.
- Dinner and a Show:
- One of the Adaptation Expansion elements is a family dinner that goes wrong in every conceivable way.
- Happens again at Crook's bar when everything goes south following Dolph's frenzy.
- Epic Fail: Alan attempts to intimidate Crook in Episode 6. Crook is a hardened criminal, murderer, and Nosferatu. Alan is a Friendly Neighborhood Vampire, Heroes Love Dogs good guy, and wouldn't hurt a fly. Crook is so unimpressed he doesn't even get offended by Alan's baseless threats.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Sierra, a member of the Sabbat, is shocked by Dolph diablerizing Genghis.
- Human Resources: Unknown makes his art out of human corpses made to look like fake human corpses.
- Jerkass:
- Dolph and Vincent are not exactly the nicest people.
- The Smythe-Winter family is a bunch of condescending Blue Blood homophobes.
- Genghis is portrayed as this way, feeding on Aida and then abandoning the situation at Crook's.
- Killed Off for Real:
- Genghis is diablerized by Dolph.
- Teller was killed during the conflict with Malenkov.
- The Masquerade:
- A major part of the game (it's in the name). All of the vampires have to keep their status as vampires secret and it is illegal to reveal their true natures to human, punishable by death. At the start of the game, Dolph has already informed his girlfriend of his true nature while Alan is planning to reveal his to his boyfriend.
- Dolph breaks it by frenzying in Crook's bar. Thankfully, Vincent helps him by clouding everyone's minds to believe it was just him wearing some fake fangs.
- Morality Pet: All the Kindred of 5th Edition have these, called Touchstones.
- One Degree of Separation: Dolph and Alan meet at a dinner party for their families, completely out of the blue.
- Ragtag Band of Misfits: A high class twist on this. An art dealer, a model, and a piano player are recruited by the Prince to deliver a group of Kindred VIPs to a secret meeting.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The much put-upon vampire Sheriff Damien just wants to protect The Masquerade and keep the peace. Unfortunately, he's Surrounded by Idiots.
- The Renfield: Mr. Teller is the ghoul of Vincent's sire but serves as this to Vincent.
- The Reveal: Alan discovers that Crook is his sire.
- Riddle for the Ages: Who did kill Teller?
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Dolph is confused about how much pull Genghis has with the Sheriff despite his being an Anarch.
- A Simple Plan: The player characters are some low-level expendable Kindred being asked to escort a pair of visiting Lasombra to the Prince for a meeting where he presumes they're going to defect. They're supposed to get them rooms for the night and protect them from local trouble makers. It turns out the defectors are representing the entire Lasombra clan and there's elaborate plots to kill them.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Dolph, Alan, and Vincent are effectively forced into cooperating by the Prince.
- True Art Is Angsty: In-universe. Unknown makes his art out of human corpses (which the public believe is faked) for a morbid controversial statement.
- Vampire Monarch: Kevin Jackson is the Prince of Chicago and ruler of the most powerful city in the North America Camarilla.
- Vampires Own Nightclubs:
- The Succubus Club is the most famous and important club in Chicago. It is also a center of action for the series.
- Crook's bar is an unusual example of this, being a pretty seedy joint.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Damien is horrified by the fact that Dolph is a diablerist and the others tried to cover it up.
- Wretched Hive: Crook's Bar is one of these, being a low class dive that does good music.
- You All Meet in an Inn: The coterie doesn't form until they all meet in Crook's. Played with as Dolph and Alan meet at a dinner party the night before.
