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Bloodsucker: the Angst is a game running on the d20 system under the Open Gaming Licence (OGL) which parodies both the World of Darkness (WoD) and the people who play it (in particular the Camarilla LARP organisation). Playing does benefit from a knowledge of the WoD setting, although there is enough scope here to still make it amusing for other people – the Cliques for example, whilst matching up with VtR Clans, are also broad stereotypes of goth/“alternative” culture.
Style
The book has a clean layout, very easy to read and with clear formatting. The artwork is varied in style and quality, perhaps a little too cartoon-y in places. In my opinion the artwork on the cover is the best, followed by the portraits for each of the Cliques.
The writing style is rather acerbic towards White Wolf and the Camarilla, which is entertaining for those “in the know” without being too ranty and off-putting for a wider audience. There are also lots of nice touches throughout the book, such as the section on vulnerabilities which comments on how beheading and getting a stake through the heart are not only deadly to vampires, but to pretty much everything else as well.
Fluff
Set in the dark and foreboding Shadow World, “a world not dissimilar to our own but no less frightening for it. Perhaps the nights are a little darker, the jeans a little baggier and the top twenty a little sparser when it comes to good tunes, but the world is as ours is.” A world where goth and “alternative” kids discover that their secret dreams of becoming vampires have come true! Kind of. Well, technically they now subsist on “juice” – though clove cigarettes and absinthe are an acceptable substitute. Also their powers are kind of lame and they still have to put up with the fact that nobody understands them.
The Clan-analogues are the Cliques, very amusing if you are familiar with Vampire the Masquerade, yet also funny if you’re not. The range is broad, covering moshers and grungers in addition to the more traditional goth archetypes.
Antagonists include plays on the other WoD lines (Wizkids, Dogboys, etc) and also more mundane threats such as chavs, Bible-bashers and the police. In each instance there are three examples, offering a challenge at varying levels of difficulty.
Crunch
As mentioned, the game uses the d20 system (apparently for reasons of irony) so it is simple for people who have played any other OGL games, and the simplification of it makes it easy to pick up if you haven’t. There is the a good introduction to the system included in the book; this game does not require you to refer to a copy of the D&D Player’s Handbook – unless you were feeling perverse and wanted to pit your player’s characters against PHB classes…
There are some changes to the basic system and some additional rules added, overall though this is a much simpler game to play than standard D&D; you could quite easily use this game as an emergency stand-in with little or no preparation. In fact the nature of the game is such that it would probably be used in this sense more often than not; I can’t really imagine the group I play with wanting to run a long campaign with this.
The changes are essentially to make the system more realistic, particularly in terms of character survivability in combat. The big change is that there are no hit dice – instead your hit points are the sum of your Str and Con modifiers, or three, whichever is highest. The change here is that everyone is on 1st-Level Wizard equivalent hit points for most, if not all, of their lives. Also, Armour Class (AC) has been dropped, and instead characters use their Reflex modifiers only - not too many people walking about in suits of armour nowadays. As you can see, the emphasis on combat is very much removed in this game, or at least if the characters attack each other it’s more slapstick than gorefest.
Experience has been greatly simplified, which I personally think is fantastic as I found Challenge Ratings and level progression tables to be quite difficult to use. Instead you have a nice, two columns and a much easier system; your level being calculated by the number of sessions that you have attended. I know that some people will criticise this as it unfairly rewarding people who show up for games but don’t contribute enough, but on reflection this game isn’t really about levelling up as fast as possible and a group of players with the right frame of mind for this game probably won’t see this as a problem.
An interesting addition is the idea of Life Templates, which help flesh out your character and provide class skills, features and income. Income is the alternative to treasure; rather than looting bodies, you get a job. These combine with the Cliques to produce your full range of “class features.” Cliques not only give you extra class skills, but also a bonus on certain actions.
Powers are all feat-based and come in chains of three. They are a mix of close parodies of the original Disciplines and somewhat broad takes on the themes of the Clan/Clique. For example Protean has become Transmogrify and the two are quite similar, whereas Dominate has become Venom and deviates more from the source but is still in character. I’d perhaps criticise some of them for being a bit naff, I know that it’s a humorous game and not about “kewl powerz” but still feel that some of the powers are a bit unbalanced. In fairness though the wanky, over-poweredness of Thaumaturgy is equally reflected and scorned by Magick.
A very original system is for fashion; basically characters who buy the latest “in” items get bonuses, people who wear last year’s styles may get a penalty. This is the alternative to magic items. No, really. Remember that this is not a game about running around killing things, instead you stand around bitching about the people on the other side of the room.
My Take
Overall, I would say that, in theory, I love this game. In practice, however, I think that it would be tricky to find a suitable group of players to really do it justice. As a stand-in for times when a “real” game isn’t possible, this would be a good alternative. I want to rate this game higher, but the fact that I will probably never play it makes me mark it down slightly to reflect this.
