Rules and Setting

The Carlisle by Night LARP chronicle is set in White Wolf’s old World of Darkness, and uses the Vampire: the Masquerade revised edition tabletop rules set, along with the associated in-game history and metaplot. All challenges which would require the use of D10s are resolved using electronic dice rollers, which allows the Storyteller team to maintain the level of detail and danger of the tabletop system without greatly slowing the progress of the game (in fact, the e-dice roller is noticeably faster than actual dice rolling). You will not find any of Mind’s Eye Theatre’s card-draw or paper-scissors-stone nonsense here.

That said, certain elements of the rules and the metaplot have changed from what is present in the corebook. Rules alterations and restrictions are presented below.

House Rules

• Domain - In the VtM Revised corebook, this is either a two- or four-point merit. Carlisle by Night runs Domain as a background, as presented in Dark Ages: Vampire.
  
  
• Generation - Player Characters can be of the 8th to 15th Generations. 8th Generation Kindred are relatively rare, however, and taking such a potent Generation at character creation is subject to Storyteller approval.
  
  
• Celerity - Celerity is activated reflexively on the turn that you spend the requisite Blood point. A character’s Celerity rating adds to their Initiative in combat if active that turn (so initiative is Dexterity + Wits + Celerity).
  
  
• Fortitude - Once again, Dark Ages rules apply. If a vampire character has any Fortitude at all, they are capable of soaking aggravated damage from teeth, claws and some mystical attacks with their full Stamina + Fortitude. However, a character only gets their Fortitude rating against fire and sunlight, the banes of the Kindred existence.
  
  
• Obtenebration - The optional Dark Ages rule allowing a vampire to spend an additional Blood point when invoking Arms of the Abyss in order to confer their dots of Potence to the Arms summoned that turn is in effect (assuming the character has sufficiently powerful Generation to spend two Blood points on a single action).
  
  
• Combination Disciplines - Combination powers from Vampire: the Masquerade Revised and Dark Ages: Vampire source books can be taken, subject to Storyteller approval.

Restrictions

• Ravnos - Are not allowed. This Clan was obliterated during the Week of Nightmares in 1999, and the hundred or so survivors since then have been steadily picked off. Very few remain in the world. One Ravnos character has previously been allowed in Carlisle, and it would stretch the bounds of probability to assume that another one would turn up here.
  
  
• Lasombra and Tzimisce - Available subject to approval, provided you have a damn good character concept and can convince the Storyteller that you are capable of playing one of these inhuman monsters.
  
  
• Bloodlines - Are likewise available on an approval basis. Some (namely the Baali and those bloodlines found only in Dark Ages books) are flat-out banned. All others are theoretically playable, if you have a sufficiently impressive back story and role playing ability. Caitiff are generally considered acceptable characters. Laibon (Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom) are also included under this category.
  
  
• Ghouls - Are acceptable (and it is assumed you will be playing the Ghoul of another Player Character if you choose this option).
  
  
• Other Supernaturals - Are really not. There are all manner of practical reasons, both IC and OOC, as to why not.

As you can see, there is very little from the corebook that is flat-out banned, and very few actual rules changes; just a handful of restrictions on things which are supposed to be rare anyway. If you’re new to Vampire (or to role playing generally) and didn’t understand any of that, don’t worry too much.

Changes to the Setting

As for the in-game world, a few things have changed from what is presented in the main Vampire game line. The Week of Nightmares did indeed happen in 1999. Everything that was published prior to the Gehenna book in 2004 is considered canon for this game. The difference is that the end of the world did not arrive in 2004, and the story has continued to progress since then. Of course, the approach of the End Times is still something which weighs heavily upon Kindred society in 2010.

• Mysterious events are unfolding and Kindred around the world have given accounts of ancient vampires arising from their slumber, but there have not been the fire and bloodstorms which many expected.
  
  
• Although there is little doubt among most vampires now that the thought-to-be mythical Antediluvians really are active once again, the predictions of their terrible hunger consuming all Kindred and Kine in an inexorable wave of slaughter seem to have been greatly exaggerated...for now, anyway.
  
  
• However, the silent return of the inscrutable Clan Founders has not been without its effects upon Kindred society. The Sabbat has crumbled into a loose coalition of vampiric warlords, and the Camarilla is but a shell of what it once was. Princes and Archbishops still rule in the name of the once-mighty sects, but the names are virtually all that is left of those organisations.
  
  
• In the British Isles, two major vampiric factions have arisen to replace the old sects. The cities of England (referred to as the Baronies of Avalon), owe their ultimate fealty to Mithras, the 3000-year-old Ventrue God-Prince of London. The cities of Scotland (known as the Protectorate of Caledonia) are meanwhile ruled by the scheming Lasombra Lord Charles Emmanuel de Sourriére.
  
  
• The two currently exist in an uneasy position; while conflict has yet to cross the Borders, talk of war is commonplace within the Elysium halls of the Kindred. With the old political boundaries having largely broken down, however, Clans which have been at each others’ throats for the last five centuries are once again opening into diplomatic intrigues.
  
  
• The Masquerade has so far survived these developments, and the Traditions are still upheld – at least in some cities – but the era of the Camarilla and the Sabbat is over. In 2010, sectarian allegiances have once more given way to the power-plays of ancients. The world of the Kindred is entering a new War of Princes.