Thousand Year Old Vampire

Thoughts And Musings On The Game By Tim Hutchings.

I really need to talk about this game for a second with you.

First, this book is, pardon some blue language here, absolutely fucking gorgeous. It looks like an old book that you might find in a library that recounts the memoir of some actual vampire whom has lived for a millennia or more. The pages are composed of a paper that is nice and the pages are somewhat glossy.

In terms of system, it’s light on rules, very light. About 85% of this game is going to consist of you using your own imagination, a bit of research if you like and yes, you can use just about any supplement with Thousand Year Old Vampire, if you’re so inclined.

The bigger majority of the pages are writing prompts, alternative writing prompts contributed to the game from other authors and an interview with Tim and his thoughts on the game itself.

I took a community copy of the PDF and decided to have a look. This game came up on my radar through a series of videos on YouTube concerning solo gaming. I decided, since so many of these YouTubers were recommending it, I would give it a try. I did a search, found the itch page and read the synopsis. I scrolled the entire page and saw there were community copies and took one.

Upon opening it and reading it, I thought it looked like something that interested me. Yeah, my imagination was stirred. Already, I had a few ideas and I started working on a character. I spent a little time working on it and talking to some people I knew about the game.

Eventually, I just went to Tim Hutchings’ site and ordered a physical copy. It didn’t take long to reach me. The book, itself, is even more beautiful in person than anything my photos or a video could convey.

I picked up my character notes and began working on it some more, I had spent the last few days making the character in my head. I’d have him start as a mortal, the son of a Goth and a Vandal, living in Ancient Germania. He’d fight in the battle of Teutoberg Forest and that’s when he’d be turned, if you will.

I watched a few other people do some live plays in videos to get a feel for it. I was pretty much on track to continue my game.

On Thursday, I packed a few items into my messenger bag and took off to the library for the day. I found a table, took a seat and started.

So what you’re seeing here is what I was doing all day Thursday. I know that the open book you’re seeing isn’t Thousand Year Old Vampire but it is, in fact, Castles & Crusades: Codex Germania.

Remember when I said that your supplements can be anything at all? Yep, this is the source I used for much of what happens in my character’s life. In fact, I used Codex Germania more than I used the TYOV book itself.

I started at prompt 1 and just began after I’d wrapped creating my character. Right off the bat, I didn’t follow the rules to the letter. In fact, I added in The Fate Mill Die when I wasn’t certain on certain elements in the entries I was writing.

…and I was writing.

You can do a shorter version of the game than what I’m doing. You can write those stories in Twitter-length posts. In my case, if this is a journaling game, then I want to really paint that character and fully flesh him out to you. I play the longer version for that very reason.

Fact is, there’s very little structure and very few rules to the game and I personally think the game is great.

It only uses a d6 and a d20. You start with prompt 1, write that one and resolve it, then you roll both. You subtract the result of the d6 from the result of the d10 and move that many prompts and repeat the process. If you wanted, you can even use a digital voice recorder, pair up with a friend and re-enact Interview With The Vampire as an audio series if that’s something that interests you. I know it would be fun for me, personally.

Also, this game can be played with multiple players if you wanted to run it as a muli-player tabletop role-playing game.

In the photos above, you can see some of the notes that I’ve taken and jotted down. Though I have tried to root this character in our own history. This is why I spent my day in the library because I did occasionally get up, look for a book, grab it from the shelf and search through it for some small facts I could use. In the end, my in-character posts weren’t historically-accurate as much as they were historically-themed. That’s okay. It helps to learn about another culture. I also have books on The Norse, The Slavs, Greek, Egyptian, Celtic and even China. I could have selected any one of those but I wanted a bit of a challenge. I hadn’t studied Germanic Culture but I knew there were some commonalities between The Ancient Germanic and The Ancient Norse, including some shared threads in terms of polytheism and culture. I did try to reflect those. Click the photos below if you want to read the final entries just keep in mind that I did unwittingly omit part of prompt four by not accounting for the mortal who accompanies me but I’ll introduce her soon.

So, overall, I do love this game. I’ll be going back to playing it soon and my hope is that I can take this character to create a real big bad for use by a GM in another game. By the way, if you wanted to use this to create a rival NPC for Strahd Von Zaravich to use in your Ravenloft campaign, why not give it a try? It’s a great Boss Generator for other RPGs if you’re playing Gothic Horror and you need fresh takes on what a vampire is, what it does and how it behaves.

Now, do I recommend this game? On the level of the game itself, absolutely.

We need to talk about Tim, though.

First, visiting that itch page, you’ll see the PDF sells for $15. Scroll down, and you’ll see nearly a million community copies that you do not have to pay for unless you decide to.

As of the day I took that screenshot, that’s how many copies there were. The number is only a touch smaller since then.

The physical book sells for $47.50 and, for the book’s quality, I think the price is fair. You also get a free PDF when you purchase the book and the PDF is one of those near-instant deliveries. As I’ve said, if you like just a bare framework of a structure that you can flesh out yourself, this is the game for you.

If this is what you’re looking for, I do recommend this game. You won’t regret the purchase.

There is, something, that I think we should address. Wherever you fall on the political spectrum (libertarian with the small “l” on this end) I really don’t care. I may or may not agree with it. I may or may not oppose it. It depends on the issue and whether or not I discuss it with you, depends on how reasonable you’re willing to be. Sometimes, the takes I have on politics, it’s not there to convince the unreasonable, it’s usually posted for the benefit of those who may have not stopped to consider something that needed consideration.

When you go to Tim’s website to purchase a book, this is what you’ll see immediately.

Needless to say, I went and clicked Catalog and didn’t bother scrolling down. I placed my order and later came back to the site. I wasn’t sure what was below this until I scrolled down and then I saw this.

Right then, I face-palmed. Great…here we go again.

Let’s go through this because it’s needed.

Well, Tim, you can say you don’t want my money, however, there’s this and if you’re so fortunate that you never need my money, then I wonder why you said this, specifically on your itch page?

It’s your only job. You need money to live? Tim, on this we can agree. You do need money to live. Absolutely. I’ll never fault you for getting out there and making it happen. Those like myself, we don’t demand that you be taken down from Itch. We don’t even demand that your site provider shut you down and take you offline. We don’t demand payment processors not process payments. None of us are out to ruin your life and, today, right now, believe one thing. The exiled far outnumber the exilers…we very well could but we don’t because we do stand on principle.

Let me go into principle just a bit. Your declaration here, I am absolutely certain, betrays the principles that you have professed and let me detail how. For starters, no, I didn’t cancel my order because all of this got me thinking. Don’t celebrate just yet, Tim, I will completely step back and let you spin it any way you would like to yourself but yes, you got my money. Yeah.

Now the question is, will you offer to refund it and demand I send the book back? Did you already spend the money?

I wouldn’t send this book back, I’m going to play it. Simply put: How I vote is none of your concern and all those conspiracy theories you posted in the first paragraph alone, my advice is make a bio because you can’t cite a single instance of any of what you claim. Not. One.

That means you’re going to have to keep the money and spend it.

Capitalism wins again.

By the way, need I remind you of The Satanic Panic that occurred here in America? Tim, go through the music you listen to. Are you aware that it was Democrats that got the Explicit Content Warning via the P.M.R.C. (which was political in nature and censorious, every bit) put on albums they found “objectionable?” That’s the party of censorship and, The Twitter Files (as

Matt Taibbi

documented and detailed in his article) were the most onerous and recent illustration of how Democrats in our own government engaged in censorship with sources cited and illustrated. Again.

Tim, you made a product. Might be your book that you wrote that I didn’t with full copyright and legal protections, certainly. However, I own a copy which is now my thing. I’ll play that game when I like, where I like and even how I like. That’s the beauty of tabletop gaming…I can make any game my own. Once the book is in my hands, it’s out of yours.

If you revile me, I really don’t care. I don’t feel a single hint of concern at all. Otherwise, I’d have cancelled my order.

Again, not mad. I just don’t care. There’s nothing you can to to me, Tim.

Also, let’s point something out. I spoke with my friends about this game, Tim. Several of us went over it and looked at it and thought it was pretty great. Those that would make fun of me, well whatever shall I do?

If I’m going to be reviled by both sides, I might as well do what makes me happy, then. Or what are you proposing, Tim? That I align with your political stance in totality? I don’t even align with this mythical boogeyman you’ve posted about in totality. The thing about your political persuasion’s culture, Tim, is that it’s never enough and I’ve written about that before as well. If they hate me, they certainly don’t really show it over me buying a game, Tim so…until you can produce proof of that, I’ll just go ahead and say, again, request denied.

Okay, let’s take this summation. Yes, there has been too much violence. None of which we have caused and I can actually cite examples. On that I can agree, however, give you everything and walk away with our…what?

Non-negotiable point here, Tim, you are in no position to make demands. That’s what this is.

Also…threats of physical violence? Really?

I thought you said that anyone right of Mao here is violent and here you are preaching and promoting violence? Seriously? Unhinged as hell, but okay.

Like your conspiracy theories, Tim, your threats are empty and hollow.

Ultimately, my purchase, the fun I’m having with it and the like is me standing up to you and telling you the only thing you’ll ever do to me is nothing. But you did accept the money. You set forth an unenforceable request, you virtue-signaled principles that you can’t demonstrate and you also failed at being a bully.

I paid for the game and the privilege and right of standing up to you and showing you that none of us are afraid of you.

Readers, if you want to play this game, know that I recommend the game itself even it Tim seems to really need professional help. If you want to skip this one based on the nonsense the author spewed out, that’s also your call. If you want to play it without paying him, grab one of those community copies.

This is one game that I enjoyed but your mileage may vary. I know there are those that don’t like solo journaling games and that’s fine, that’s a matter of taste and preference. If you’re like me and you operate with both of these “sides” hating you, then go right ahead, get into this game.

If Tim can hate you for free, that’s something I also understand.

In summation, the game is great. The author? I’ll leave that to you.