Damnation City is a sourcebook for Vampire: The Requiem. It is designed to aid the Storyteller in the creation of cities and smaller places in the Chronicles of Darkness, such as neighborhoods and unique sites. While it addresses Vampire: The Requiem and is written with that game as its launching point, much of the material can be used when developing other Chronicles of Darkness games.
Summary[]
From the Onyx Path catalog:
- Look, it's simple:
- See that fat lick over there?
- With the backpack?
- When he steps onto the black asphalt of the parking lot, he's mine. Until then, he's in the fields, where any vampire can take him. I am the lord of this ground, and the penalty for poaching from me is you must drink from me. When you drink the kine that walk on my ground you drink from me.
- — Sycorax, Lady of the Blacktop
- The City-creation sourcebook for Vampire: The Requiem
- The Prince is the master of the city, but he has named you lord of your territory. It's up to you and your cohorts to maintain the Masquerade, influence mortal lives and pass judgment on the Kindred who dwell in your shadow. Are you a tyrant or a saint? Will you pull the Prince's strings or become the Prince yourself?
- This book includes:
- Guides to selecting or designing a modern city that's right for your chronicle, and giving that city the World of Darkness's gritty supernatural atmosphere.
- Tools and tricks for running dramatic and suspenseful stories in a crowded and shadowy city, including such new systems as "City of Millions" and "Attitude and Ambience."
- New styles of gameplay for Vampire: The Requiem, called Barony and Primacy, that take advantage of more than 50 urban Districts and unique Sites.
- A guide to the fictional city of Newcastle—a new World of Darkness environment ready for you to customize and activate in play.
Chapter One: Storytelling in the City[]
The chapter begins with advice on how to maintain the gothic experience in a modern setting, despite recent technology and the ease of global travel. It extends into the neo-feudal arrangement of Kindred society and how to handle lords parceling lands and favors out to their lessers. Options for different kinds of Princes, Seneschals, and other officials are presented, as well as ideas for what these authority figures might be doing on any night of the week.
The life cycle of cities is sketched before the chapter explains the ways that vampires use graffiti to send messages, mark territory, and spread Covenant propaganda. Nearly forty cities from across the globe are given thematic write-ups in this section, starting with a very brief history of the area and ending with details about local Kindred society. Chapter One ends with in-depth examples for ten very different types of Princes. The Princes vary widely in their Clans, Covenants, backgrounds, laws, and approaches, and can be used as templates for Kindred and non-Kindred rulers.
Chapter Two: The City That Works[]
Chapter Two begins with the many layers a city acquires over the years, in a literal sense, with suggestions for havens and the typical inhabitants. There is a section that gives character sketches for one hundred people you could meet on the streets at night in just about any given city, as well as fifty motivations that could be driving those characters. There is an extended discussion on Virtue and Vice, including many samples common habits and larger personal goals that fall in line with each one.
The next section renders a system for codifying and describing the predominant attitude of a location, which can then be affected by Kindred manipulations. Explanations and rules for using Merits and Disciplines to affect the attitude of a neighborhood are given. The Ambience system measures the appearance, financial stability, crime level, and supernatural activity of an area in dots. This can serve as a quick reference tool for Storytellers when they are designing locations, and/or a framework for characters to track effects in an area.
The chapter ends with a flowchart for the directions that foot chases can take through a city, with descriptions of familiar sites and sounds that might flash by. Depending on how the characters roll and the decisions they make, the flowchart can trace pursuits through different routes when it is used repeatedly.
Chapter Three: Barony[]
This chapter starts with major map segments that represent common patterns of neighborhood development. Each map is described and supplied with optional rules. These sections can be pieced together through a related supplement released by White Wolf to produce new maps for purely fictional cities.
Next, the chapter sets up a system for playing lords and vassals, with tithes in blood and services. New Merits are outlined for Kindred uses of graffiti, advanced political connections, domain, hunting grounds, useful sites, tenants, and vassals.
The chapter wraps up with schemas to represent alliances, religion, politics, Kindred hierarchies, geography, and the way these aspects can interconnect in an area.
Chapter Four:Primacy[]
Primacy gameplay pulls back from individual interactions and focuses on the many different strings that a vampire can pull at once. A system is presented to play agents against other agents.
Chapter Five: Districts, Sites & Subjects[]
This chapter considers the larger districts in a city, one at a time. New statistics are explained and given to each district to provide quick reference for an area's level of safety, prestige, stability, and so on. These aspects can affect what kinds of havens are available in a given neighborhood. Each district is briefly defined through moody details, ideas for play, haven qualities, and statistics.
Following the districts is a detailed section outlining the different locations in a neighborhood, from the Badlands Motel to the Underground Nightclub. Each of the 72 sites is outlined quickly with a physical description, history, Storyteller character ideas, and story possibilities.
The chapter ends with a look at the people who stand out in the city. Subjects, as they are deemed, are described, given a virtue, vice, and background, and are supplied with ideas for conflicts. They vary in age and social station as well as gender and could end up being meals, guards, lovers, or victims.
Chapter Six: The City of Newcastle[]
Adapted from the materials in the earlier chapters, the fictional city of Newcastle takes up the last chapter. The city's culture and districts are explored, with a coherent history and mood. The maps for Newcastle were adjusted from the Prince of the City board game and offer another series of maps for reference and use.
Background Information[]
Memorable Quotes[]
Characters[]
References[]
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