Blood Tithe is a TTRPG where you play as a group of vampires trying to survive and thrive. They will have to defend humans from other monsters but at the same time defend themselves from humans that don’t want to have their blood sucked. Of course, they are powerful beings, and might have ambitions beyond mere survival that they’re trying to achieve. But no matter how powerful a vampire becomes, in the end they are still a slave to their thirst.
Version 0.0.3 changes a lot, but the most notable addition are Powers, a new system for gaining noncombat abilities.
Check it out if you're interested and join the playtest discord server if you want to, I'll try to actually get some playtest games going this time.
If you struggle with reading the white on black text, there is also a black on white version here
Full changelog under the read more
you no longer have to choke people to death, instead defeating them as with most abilities
changed losing controlling happening if the roll is lower than or equal to half the vampire’s current control, rather than only lower than, so you can actually hit 1 control now
you can now choose to take damager rather than suffer strain from a missed enemy attacks. This is pretty experimental and I already have a different alternative in mind if I don’t like it
added the risk to suffer strain on some maneuvers where I overlooked it previously
clarified how Undead summons can defend engagements
added group checks, a way to determine whether the entire group suffers consequences from something or not
added gm-called checks
completely reworked the Protect action
added encounter advice for including “Blood Bags”, neutral npcs that mostly exist to be bitten for healing.
biting now heals for twice as much (damage stays the same)
reworked most On Failure effects to no longer be equal to On Success with Empower 1
added damage spills to prevent damage on enemies that are at 0 HP already to be wasted as often.
added quick builds
changed base aim on all skills from 0 to AWR -2
Exception: Warning Shot uses CHR-2
added suggested rule changes for players who want to modify the game
renamed whips to reach weapons
reach weapons can now use the wide swing maneuver
renamed Marksman to Ranged Weapon Fighter
changed many On Failure effect to be more interesting instead of being “Deal 1 damage” or “Like success but with Empower of 1”
“Like success but with Empower of 1” was also too strong
changed some instances of the primary attributes being written out to using their 3 letter shortened names instead
changed the language around psychic powers to allow for the existence of non-vampire psychics
successful miracles no longer risk strain
many minor changes to wording/grammar/spelling
added critical hits
added Powers, a new system for narrative abilities
this made the “narrative spells” system obsolete
added the following Perks:
Bloodfast
Imitation Psychic
Master Healer (not really available to players yet)
Spoiler alert for future fanart. I'm thinking of stopping posting Reverse 1999 fanart on Twitter, because Twitter doesn't promote any of my work except Asoiaf fanart, and I hate it. I want to draw what I like. Of course, I adore Asoiaf and will continue to draw fanart for that universe, but I also really enjoy a lot of other fandoms that I'd love to draw fanart for, like Reverse 1999 and Lord of the Rings. Even the popular Honkai Starrail on Twitter isn't getting any views, I'm in shock.(
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Just posted the first chapter of a backstory narrative for Ghost I've been working on for a hot second!
This chapter focuses on a certain Pivotal Backstory moment for Ghost with not a lot of context yet, but we'll get there, promise, just bear with me for a second while I'm doing some non-chronological shit lol
What mechanical differences would you expect between the ability to imbue your attacks with elemental magic and the ability to telekinetically empower your attacks
In Blood Tithe, the RPG I'm currently designing, everyone chooses the action for their turn and then they are revealed at the same time.
In our last playtest, we noticed that this caused the players not wanting to strategize with each other because the GM would be listening in, which caused issues like debuffing an enemy on the same turn you're trying to mind control them.
I'm not really sure how to solve this. I could force the GM to lock in their turns before the players so the players get a chance to discuss things but the GM already needs the longest so it would significantly prolong the game.
That's an easy question to answer. It's Rocus, one of the first elves, created by the gods themselves, almost as old as this world.
But how did he become the first vampire?
Some say it was an experiment gone wrong. Some say it was an experiment gone right.
Others dispute that he truly was the first vampire and assert that he was actually turned by an even older vampire from another plane. But if that were the case, shouldn't we have found at least one vampire on another plane that can't trace their origin back to Rocus?
The most popular theory is that he created a spell to drain the life force of others to prolong his own life and then the gods cursed him for this transgression with all of the downsides of vampirism, though that doesn't explain why they then let him continue to terrorize the world for decamillenia instead of just killing him.
The only person who has ever spoken to him and lived was his emissary Cazata, but they claim to have never been told the truth either.
Whatever it was that transformed him into a vampire, it is clear that the process is not easily replicable, or else someone would have done so throughout history.
Not that you need to replicate it to become a vampire these days.
The second playable version of Blood Tithe is now public!
Blood Tithe is a TTRPG in which you play a group of Vampires trying to survive and thrive. They will have to defend humans from other monsters but at the same time defend themselves from humans that don’t want to have their blood sucked. Of course, they are powerful beings, and might have ambitions beyond mere survival that they’re trying to achieve. But no matter how powerful a vampire becomes, in the end they are still a slave to their thirst
Check it out if you're interested and come to the playtest discord if you want to discuss the game.
If you struggle to read the white on black text, there's also a version that is black on white
Changelog under the read more
Fixed various spelling and grammar errors
added the concept of associated primary attributes and adjusted starting attributes accordingly
notably you can no longer have more than one 3
added the option to defend engagements with AWR instead of SPD
added roles as a guide to build more balanced groups
added the Mage archetype as well as a bunch of Magicks
the Magick previously called Burn is now Shock and Burn has an entirely different effect
added the Bind sorcery
clarified how Break Free works when you are grabbed with a whip
Added an On Failure effect for Targeted Accelerate/Decelerate and Daze (I think I just forgot them previously?)
Added Perks, the primary way of becoming more powerful as well as another way to diversify your character
now each skill that risks strain mentions this explicitly
Protect and Take Aim no longer risk strain
Reworked Hex’s “can use only body attacks” mode to instead inflict a heavy penalty when using a non-body attack skill
added a penalty to Aim while engaged with a hostile character
Changed Aim and Subdue to be equal to instead of higher than to succeed, which was my intention all along, idk why I screwed that up
Buffed the failure effect on Teleport
Renamed Ranged Defense to Entrenchment
Added Threats, a new category of enemy difficulty
added the Pixie as an example Threat
Added rules for Legends
added the Wyvern of Fire as an example Legend
Added the keyword Fast for skills that affect the current turn
changed the example for a specific rule beating a general rule in Rule 0 accordingly
Reworked how skills that deal damage based on STR work
this also allowed me to get rid of the maneuver damage cap
reduced the impact of SPD on rolling engagement
reworked how running is resolved to make it much easier to run away
added the option to take a character you’re grabbing with you when breaking an engagement or joining another
added the option to escape
removed the restriction preventing you from using a shield while unarmoured. Don’t remember why that was there in the first place
renamed the engagement roll to the movement roll to better differentiate it from all the other things named engagement
made a general rule for what happens when you roll 0 dice instead of writing the same thing each time
renamed Werewolf Claws and Werewolf bite to more generic names so non-werewolf monstrous enemies can use them too
changed the base attack of Grab or pin to be based on STR so strong character have an easier time grabbing someone while weaker characters have a harder time.
Added a fly spell and a leap maneuver to deal with the new flying enemies
Added the upkeep phase to combat, which doesn’t really change anything but should hopefully make things more clear
added stealth as one aspect of Awareness so now there’s finally a stat for stealth
I'm unsure what to do as the condition for the advancement system for Blood Tithe.
I think the most flavourful option would be that characters level up every time a certain number of years pass. Old vampires are more powerful, regardless of what they do. But unfortunately, that would suck to actually play
Maybe I'll do XP/Milestone based advancement with the additional rule that you automatically level up ever 50/100 years