It’s been several years since the War and you’re still down on your luck. You were one of the masses that got caught in the crossfire between the US government and the Elder Vampires that took over Chicago. Somehow you survived the onslaught and are struggling to make ends meet. Everyone who looks in your direction shies away from you if they have any sense. You feed on stray animals… mostly. The occasional human who offers themselves. No Vampires Need Apply is everywhere. So you move. Move away from the home you’ve known for so long and to somewhere seemingly less affected.

Not your backstory? Don’t worry, I have a few more thoughts.

You were one of the ones who fought in the Vampire Wars a decade ago, and were recognized for your skills by the Human Government, but since then life’s been difficult. They monitor everything you do just because you have scales, claws, and a knack for magic. It’s not your fault your grandmother got jiggy with a fae creature from the Otherworld. You just hit the genetic roulette wheel, and it shows, unlike with the rest of your family.

Or maybe…

It’s always been rather easy to hide, except on full moons. Those three days are the worst. The feral rage kicks in, and it’s all you can do to stay locked in your apartment and not on the prowl. Granted, your attachment issues with your girlfriends didn’t necessarily help you. You’d wolf-out at the first sign of another male homing in on your turf. Then again, before the Wars, it was easier to deal with. People weren’t as ‘aware’ of lycanthropy as they are now. If you could really call it that.

No? I’ve got one more.

It started about the time when the War on Vampires began. You’d always known something else was out there but never been able to put your finger on it. Not until vampires were splashed all over the news. You were twelve at the time. Just home from school, and there it was: Vampires overran Houston and Chicago, and you could see they were real. No fake fangs, no fake blood, they were tearing men and women limb from limb and feeding on them. That’s when your own skills began. You could hear your parents’ disbelief without them speaking. To them, the news was a hoax. You went to your room and realized that a shadow was lifting from you.

If none of these characters hit home, we could come up with a few more, but we’d also be here all day since there are endless possibilities. Heyo, I’m Kat, and I’ve been a Games Master (GM) for a little over a decade, and I’m here to introduce you to After the Vampire Wars - a Mythras campaign setting by John Snead.

There’s something to be said about your average fantasy, but these days a good portion of people would prefer what’s known as Urban Fantasy - or a nowadays version of syfy. Here’s where After the Vampire Wars (AtVW) comes in. Let’s explore this setting together, shall we?

What is After the Vampire Wars (AtVW)?

Time for a touch of lore and backstory. The bodies of government around the world have always known of the existence of the supernatural–including vampires. After extensive research, they thought they had the numbers down and could exterminate them like a nasty bug infestation. That’s when everything went wrong. The vampire numbers were far greater, and the eldest of the species were undetectable until we (the US) lost control of 11 major cities and one fully loaded nuclear submarine.

Vampires made their presence well known to the human populace all over the world, and thus began the Vampire Wars. These days (years after the fighting has stopped and the casualties innumerable), it’s just known as the War. But we found out that more than just Vampires exist. Other supernatural creatures are out there, and even another plane of existence known as the Otherworld. I’ll cover that later.

Now this is just a brief summary of the overarching theme behind the Vampire Wars and, of course, the ‘After’ is now. While we sit in our homes, sheltered, what’s known as the Shadowing keeps us–most of us at least–safe from the supernatural. There are those unaffected by the Shadowing and even fewer who are so enveloped in it that the concept of vampires and lycanthropes are perceived as just gang members and animal attacks. These individuals are known as the Unseeing.

This is why I find this world inspirational and intriguing. You see, I am a fantasy, syfy, nerd with a soft spot for the supernatural. One of the many reasons I found this particular setting so appealing. But, here’s the catch: I’m also not one for modern or urban fantasy settings. Gun mechanics annoy the ever-living sanity out of me. BUT, After the Vampire Wars does it a little differently, and I think that’s because Mythras does things a little different from what I’m used to in Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).

The best part of AtVW is this, though. As this setting takes place now, and is in our world, your neighborhood can easily become your campaign playground. There are no major maps to study. No major locations (unless you’re working in Siberia–more on that later) beyond what you yourself know. That makes writing a campaign or even a short series of modules–session–or games so much easier, if you want to go that route.

But let’s be real, I said supernatural and have only mentioned two types, Vampires and lycanthropes. Now, those aren’t the only things that AtVW has to offer. There are FIVE new species you can play and all at varying Power Levels. Let’s discuss Power Levels before we get into the species though.

Power Level Plays

You would think leveling the playing field between a vampire and a human is hard work, but here’s how AtVW takes care of that. There are three different Power Levels for your campaigns. From lowest to highest you have: Ordinary, Impressive, and Powerful. Let me give you some quick facts.

Power Levels to choose from:

1. Ordinary: This is the, you-roll-out-of-bed-and-go-to-work level of supernatural characters. You aren’t much better at anything, even if you’re a lesser vampire or a lycanthrope. Shifters (I’ll cover species next) are unlikely to be played since it’s hard to integrate them at this level.
2. Impressive: This is the level where your supernatural characters start to make a true impact on the world around them, and begin making waves that others can’t quite ignore. Your Seers are more powerful and can contend easily with the other species like the half-fae, the shifters, lesser vampires, and lycanthropes without much effort.
3. Powerful: This is the powerhouse level. These are the characters rebuilding the world around them. Elder vampires, powerful sorcerers, potent shifters, psychic lycanthropes and half-fae are the ones making the rules.

Before playing, you decide on which Power Level the campaign will use, and design characters accordingly. Personally, until my players are a little more experienced, I’d start at Ordinary and (if playing long term as our crew normally does) work our way towards Powerful. AtVW has rules for making those jumps happen in a relatively smooth fashion too, which is a huge bonus.

Now that we have the Power Levels established, let’s talk about the new species.

Five New Species to Play

There are five, as I stated above, and in the intro I only gave descriptions of four. You start with a lesser vampire, move to a half-fae, then a lycanthrope and last a seer, all affected by the War at some point in their timeline. The one I didn’t cover was the Shifter. So let me give you the short versions of each.

New Species for Players:

1. Half-Fae: While these are listed as fae, the term fae is actually a very broad spectrum.
   1. They can learn multiple styles of magic.
   2. They gain two mutations to start and can gain more depending on how they spend their points.
   3. They have accelerated healing rates, like the vampires and lycanthropes.
   4. They also can travel to the Otherworld.

 

2. Lycanthropes: Now these are handled better than I expected, fear aura and everything when they beast-out.
   1. You are either made or born with the lycanthropy.
   2. You can transform into your feral form by choice, and are forced to on the full moon (3 days of it).
   3. You have enhanced instincts and power as you are both magical and bestial.
   4. You have conveniently accelerated healing.
   5. Potential downside–when you are in your feral form, you have a fear aura, so you intimidate anyone who isn’t a supernatural

 

3. Vampires: These are split into two categories, and this is for both player and GM.
   1. Lesser Vampires: These are the newer made vampires–some predate the war, others were made during it much like our intro character.
      • You have enhanced physical abilities compared to humans.
      • You can have an accelerated healing rate so long as you feed on fresh blood regularly.
      • You require blood to survive, and the game mechanics provide a full checks and balances system or it.
   2. Downside–you can spontaneously combust when in daylight. (This is 100% amazing and challenging for players, which I love.)

 

1. Elder Vampires: These are the vampires that legends are born from. They are proficient in magic AND can have considerable adcantages over the lesser vampires.
   1. You can stall the sun’s effects on you so you can essentially become a daywalker.
   2. You can control lesser vampires with a simple thought–humans too.
   3. You can create hordes of lesser vampires with only a few drops of blood and a bite. (well, death, but who’s counting).

1. 1. • You can raise hordes of undead zombies–even make them contagious so others will become them upon death.
      • You can summon scores of bats, rats, or other animals (listed within the book itself) to your aid.
      • Your prowess as both a magic user and a psychic surpasses many.

• • There are also a few ways of becoming an elder that aren’t age related.

 

4. Shifter: Now when I saw shifter, I thought shapeshifter. This was not what I expected, but I love the twist. A shifter is more like an expert animist brought to the modern age.
   1. You can manifest yourself as an animal outside your body.
      • This can be made tangible with enough focus (spend the magic points)
   2. You can be a master of the magic arts.
   3. Your specialties revolve around changing perspectives
   4. You’re a master of psionics.
   5. You feed on psychic energy fields.

 

5. Seer: Last but certainly not least. Seers are those who see through the Shadowing or the veil protecting the majority of humanity from the supernatural influence.
   1. You can be a powerful magic user–accessing all the major magic options.
   2. You can have additional powers or abilities depending on how you spend your points.
      • This also depends on the Power Level of your campaign.
   3. You are human–yes–but unable to be easily influenced by the supernatural. (bonus!)

You can see why I would be excited about any of these options from both a GM and player perspective. There is such versatility that comes with each species. And this doesn’t cover the new expanded spells and powers list that’s within AtVW. There are new spells for Sorcery and for Mysticism along with powers for vampires, lycanthropes, shifters, and half-fae.

Let’s start talking a little about how to start and why this book.

NPCS, Starting Locations, and Some Fun Ideas

After the Vampire Wars is a smaller and easier-to-digest book in comparison to the rest I’ve read this year. It gave me a great amount of inspiration for locations and for quest options after reading just the character creation and the history of the war. This book essentially sets you up to work across the world–our world. In a short 147 pages, I had five character concepts (one Non player character (NPC) and four characters I would love to play) and an entire storyline for them to run through for their first five sessions.

AtVW sets you up in the US, while touching base on how some of the other places in the world reacted to the US-based War. Europe was involved, Africa, and of course, I mentioned Siberia. Let me touch upon that before I explain my concepts.

In this lore, the US wasn’t the only country readying to exterminate the vampire populace. There were several other regions involved, much as listed above. Russia had the biggest issues after the first week of the US’s war on vampires.

Russia had about as many casualties as the US did and now, after the War, is a neighbor to the Vampire Enclave, which took thousands of humans hostage in Siberia. IF you were to choose Siberia as the start or end of your campaign, that is up to you, but equally you may find it easier to start closer to home, sticking with the concept of “Write What You Know”. I take that quote from Mr. Stephen King quite seriously, because a lot of what I do–campaign or novel wise–is writing what I know in a fanciful way. So my suggestion is, play in your neighborhood. I live in New Hampshire, so my campaign would start in New Hampshire and likely extend to New England since this is what I know.

There is also the other location that I mentioned throughout this blog, known as The Otherworld–this in fact is a dimension of dimensions, a sort of dream world where the fae prey on powerful emotions from humans and supernatural alike when they enter the fae’s chosen space (called a domain). So, there is always the ‘create your own world within the world’ if that’s your flavor and calling, taking characters and the campaign into the world of Faerie alomost.

Thinking along the lines of campaigns, I would also likely have a hodgepodge group of detectives that work for a human precinct. Even if none of them have a career in anything remotely law enforcement, the supernatural are capable of solving cases to make ends meet. This acts as a good way to introduce players to the world and then ease them into something bigger - handing them bread crumbs through the cases until they stumble on something that requires them to up their own game. This concept inspired me to write a little more than those blurbs up page. There was an entire scene written where the characters were interacting with their contact, a Non-Player Character, called Bill, who was so unaffected by the supernatural he is considered one of the Unseeing.

This, in my mind, is the perfect NPC to hire a group of misfits for their skills in tracking down scum that think they can get away with murder–sometimes literally. If you aren’t into the whole detective thing, there are plenty of other campaign options out there and even suggested in AtVW. Even the section on the Social Standings can bring about more inspiration.

Conclusion

While it’s a little obvious that this is my favorite Mythras setting so far, the urban fantasy concept won’t be for everyone. What I would suggest, though, is that you pick up AtVW for the species listing. And if the modern setting isn’t for you, this can easily become a late medieval campaign: it even includes rules for flintlock and black powder guns.

That’s why this one is on my top five list of campaigns to run. While it’s supposed to be set in the modern era, it’s still flexible enough to bring back or even bring forward the timeline.

If you’re ready to bust right in and learn more, check out After the Vampire Wars on the Design Mechanism site. If you’re a little hesitant, join the Discord channel and get into the discussion with the rest of us!

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