Month Of Darkness 2026

#MonthOfDarkness 2026 prompts

Important news

Posh supermarket has its Halloween candy in. They've gone with the cheese puff vampire fangs for the third year in a row, and the chocolate skull has peanut butter filling, ew.

The Odyssey

The Odyssey is big, beautifully done, sad about the people and the world, doesn't give Penelope enough to do but they never do, shows Christopher Nolan could do horror if he feels like it (the Circe sequence could have been designed to squick me) and could have been two regular sized movies that would both work fine.

Mage: The Ascension - Sunrise City

Mage: The Ascension - Sunrise City

The further adventures of a circle of mages in San Francisco

Sunset City 1 (not yet called that)

Sunset City 2

Sunset City 3

Sunset City 4

Cara Lawson, Akashayana

In every generation there is a chosen one

Simon Donovan, Hermetic

May have consulted on the new season of The Librarians

Alissa Kwan, Ecstatic

All the pretty girls and all the pretty boys they get dressed up and go out dancing

Michael Lang, Verbena

Cowboy Druid

And last but definitely least:

Didi Duvall, Hollow One

Wants to be Agatha Harkness when she grows up

4A.01: Into The Portal

26/07

Our heroes (and Didi) have been enjoying relative peace and quiet - cut to Cara kicking a ghoul in the face and Simon casting out a demon - when Martin, the master of Time magic who pressed them into rewriting history to save his wife a while back, approaches them seeming tense.

Someone is planning to launch an attack on the city's Tradition Library, the base of the mages on the west coast.

When it was built.

Over a century ago.

It's been well enough concealed that he just detected it.

We go to try and stop the time warping ritual before it activates.

But it's too late.

Whiteout, hard to look at.

So Martin throws us back in time to stop it.

At least this time he tells us that's all he can do and gives us a moment to nod before he widens the portal and in we go.

Promising a soft landing.

--

Didi wakes to find herself in a nice bed. In a nice room.

With a couple of women in old-fashioned maid uniforms coming to help her get ready for the day.

II's 1883.

Surprise! Mage: The Ascension - Victorian Age

Didi tries not to look too stoked about getting a wardrobe full of Victorian dresses in mourning colours.

Miss Didi Duvall

1-2-3-4-5-6-6-6

When you want the team to win but you're also wholly supportive of the sermons of Caine and smashing the corruption of the antediluvians (art by Emma Beatrez)

Justin Achilli on Bluesky

Well it took 35 years but I finally have a Sabbat character idea

Me

Anne Rice's Immortal Universe RPG

Anne Rice's Immortal Universe RPG coming soon from Renegade Game Studios

Interesting. Especially coming from the main recent licensed publishers for World Of Darkness.

Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows animated series? Maybe.

Designs by Abigail Larson? YES NOW PLEASE

The Hunger by Annie Wu

Catherine Deneuve as Miriam Blaylock, by Annie Wu

Gig guide: The Vampire Lestat, Death Valley

Like a lot of people, I was really looking forward to The Vampire Lestat's first live appearance, and I have to say I was severely disappointed.

The crowd was a good one (and while star-spotting I think I saw the lead from Type O Negative there, as well as Paul McGann!) although with all the walking around I missed the support band completely. I don't know who they even were.

But anyway, it started great with the man (ahem, "vampire") himself flying down from the rafters (nice bit of wireflying) and launching into Slept So Long, but then after like forty seconds of the second song, a bunch of other "vampires" flew up to the stage and there was a big wire-fu stunt scene. Cleverly done, granted - unseen wires, probably some back projection, and having the band run off in a panic was a clever touch - but then some half-naked chick bursts out of the stage and pulls Lestat to her and they fly off.

And no matter how much we clapped, they wouldn't play an encore.

My advice: wait for the Unplugged video.

The Vampire Lestat Live

The Vampire Lestat Live

Better show than last time in Death Valley when he only got through two songs before he flew off to avoid a stage invasion.

(Reviving this gig review from Queen Of The Damned)

J: They were a good two songs though

Me: Yeah, but getting our parking validated after, yeesh

Reuel: You got your parking validated? #NotARealFan

Me: 8O

Funny VTM AP?

Funny VTM AP? Eh.

16/4

Have now seen the first minute. That was plenty.

Ready Or Not (2) Here I Come

Ready Or Not (2) Here I Come is pretty fun, though it makes a big retcon its emotional core and can't match the "wait, what?" original. And one scene that really made me wince, intercut with a funny one. But it has Sarah Michelle Gellar as a surprisingly un-comedic villain along with some funny ones.

Tales From Black Friday 2025

#talesfromblackfriday

You arrive at the mall with time to spare.

Everyone seems to be lining up patiently, chatting amiably, sharing snacks.

This is WRONG.

You hear people discussing which stores have the things they're after. Offering advice and even directions.

Mall staff dispending warm drinks.

You ask what's going on, and a clerk explains "This is the chosen mall. Every year one mall gets properly supplied."

Really? Huh.

"The tricky part is that we only have a limited time before staff and customers from the other malls hear about it. So no need to rush for bargains... but we do need to be quick about this." She smiles, but her eyes dart to the food court clock.

It's all quite orderly, for the first hour or so. A band plays shopping classics, and the PA includes regular assurances that the security watch teams haven't spotted any approaching convoys so far.

But then the alarm goes up. Delivery trucks from West Harbor. And they're high on the axle, empty in back. Looking to be filled.

Mall security hold the line, knowing this is their best chance of an extra bonus.

And the new tablet you got is SO light, you agree to help shore up the shieldwall for half an hour. If you make it out it'll be so worth it.

Character plans

Found my next player character.

No idea which game for but I can make it work.

A.R.: I'm feeling changling or mage

J: Gangrel. They all count as one Famulus

Frankenstein

Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein is so Guillermo del Toro. Not at all scary, going more for the big sweeping grand version. Beautiful, sad, kind.

Vampire: Lonely City

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th edition

Lonely City

New York, and the Camarilla cracking down on Anarchs

0: New Players

0 part 2

28/9

Alice, Thin-blood runaway

Marla, Gangrel street defender

Steven, Brujah student activist

Swan, Ravnos courier

1: Fall

28/9

At a raucous meeting of the anarchs of Brooklyn, the borough's elder Stirling confirms that Callihan, the Baron of the Bronx and liaison with the Queen of Manhattan, is dead. Nobody knows how or why, yet, but he had a long list of enemies across the city.

Chronicles Of Darkness

Happy 21st anniversary to Chronicles Of Darkness and Vampire: The Requiem!

We may not see more for them but they gave us a lot and more fun can still be had with them.

MarkK: VtR gave me Requiem for Rome, my favourite vampire rpg thing in the ever of ever. I still go back and re-read it.

Finale Destination: Bloodlines

Final Destination: Bloodlines is the first good one in nineteen years. The scene used in the teaser is maybe its best, but the opening is great, and Tony Todd gets a touching farewell.

Vampire: The Last City

Vampire: The Masquerade 5th edition

The Last City

Los Angeles, held by the Anarchs against all enemies, now in need of new leaders. Is there a better way to do this?

Session 0: too early to say.

Matt: MacNeil get the final death?

Nobody much canon around... or are they

J: Claudia and Tanith just dancing at goth clubs?

Me: "I consider it my duty to the Kindred of the city that there's a decent goth night at least every other week." One of the NPCs

1: Nightfall

11/5

September, and LA's vampires have time to do more than hunt again after the short nights of summer. The guiding council of the Free States want to investigate San Diego having gone dark. The Rack clubs are in a currently good-natured feud looking for ways to lure in students as the academic year starts. There are rumours of agents for the Camarilla - or someone else - in the city.

And someone's preying on street kids, in a way that will leave someone dead soon if nobody stops them.

Martin, Ravnos, community activist

Rake, Caitiff, tagger

St. Clair, Brujah, former detective

Snow, Caitiff, runaway

Willa, Toreador, history student

SINNERS

Sinners is rocking fun.

If you've seen a trailer you know where it's going but it took its time getting there and let us get to know and care about the characters getting into that predicament.

Yes I want this Hunter game.