What is Undying | The Predators | Nocturnal Cities Through Time | The System | Buy |
Downloads | The Team | Community
Sam watched the spiked hair, the metal studs, and chains come and go. A fine specimen lights a smoke, then brushes back her black, shoulder-length hair. Is she only pretending to care what the blue Mohawk says? He’s so damn skinny.
Darling, on the other hand, well she’s just right. Plaid skirt that sits just so, black stockings, nose and lip piercings, red beret, slinky top, and a perky push up bustier that warms Sam’s cold heart.
Sam crosses the street toward the bar with a confident gait. The hunt is on. She parts the throng with poise. Sam’s entrance is just for Darling, front and center, grinding with a cute blonde thing.
Sam catches Darling’s eye. Darling’s lips purse and her eyes show hunger. Works every time. Eventually Sam lures Darling out into the back alley with the promise of a smoke.
The tension building finds its outlet. Darling pounces. They kiss and caress. Sam pins her squarely to the rough, red brick wall, and Darling wraps her legs around Sam. Sam’s left hand clenches a fistful of Darling’s ebon hair, pulling it back to expose her neck.
Sam sinks her fangs in. Darling bucks against the pain, then against the pleasure, and then against the life-theft, all in vain. Sam takes Darling’s breath away. Darling’s strength fails her and she falls limp in Sam’s arms. When Sam drinks her fill, she licks the pin pricks closed with a sloppy stroke. The glaze of blood, sweat, and fear is the icing on the cake.
What is Undying?
| 3-5 players | Campaign Play 2-4 hour sessions | Rated Mature |
Undying is a tabletop roleplaying game of vampires and their nightly schemes, filled with politics, passion, and predators. You play one of the creatures of the night, preying on the mortals while plotting to lift yourself up over your competitors, and all the while clinging to the shreds of your humanity with blood-stained fingers.
Players take on the role of predators, vampires who stalk human prey in the night, feasting on their blood. You will go to any length to feed, and the craving to do so is ever-present. Your humanity—your connection to what it means to be human—is the only thing that holds the beast at bay, and it is a flickering flame in the windswept darkness.
A game of Undying revolves around brief periods of intense conflict, where old rivalries and new slights spark an inferno, and long stretches of intrigue, where intricate plots are set in motion. In the crucible of the brief periods, the focus is on passionate action and drama. Then, the long years unfold and selfish aims ferment. Plotting and scheming over long periods of relative calm are summarized so that the narrative focuses on decisive events across the gulf of time. Will you rise up to topple the old guard, becoming every bit as ruthless as your predecessors?
If you are a fan of Interview with a Vampire, True Blood, or Vampire: The Masquerade, you will love Undying!
The Predators
Every vampire is an apex predator, and among their own, the strongest leads. During their nights, they satiate their own dark hungers while moving against each other, working to advance their own agendas.
During nightly play, you might:
- Hunt mortal prey across the city, from dark alleyways to nightclubs to halls of authority
- Wheel and deal with the other vampires to make alliances, arrangements, and power
- Flex your supernatural powers in a race over the city’s rooftops to reach your prey before an opposing predator can
- Furiously fight another vampire in a battle to the death
A young or inexperienced vampire will focus on their nightly predations, their momentary needs—but a true predator must learn to bend the entire city around them to their will.
Nocturnal Cities Through Time
When you start your game of Undying, you’ll pick your setting and detail its specifics. Vampires are immortal creatures, lying in wait over centuries and hatching schemes that take whole generations to come to fruition. So the whole span of time is open to you for your game, letting you set your vampiric schemes in anywhere from ancient Rome to Victorian London to the modern day. You can even take your game into the future or the deep, distant past.
But no matter where you take your game of Undying, vampire society keeps a similar structure. You’ll find yourself on one of four rungs of power:
Pariah
An outcast, a criminal, or a committed screw-up. You have no hunting grounds, and the community does not recognize any rights or debts owed to you. You have no place in the community, and if other predators don’t go for your throat, expect at best a cold reception.
Plebeian
A commoner. Most predators in the community are Plebeians. Sure, you have the short end of the stick, but that’s the lot of any entry level. Your biggest rivals are your fellow Plebeians because they have the same hopes of self-aggrandizement that you do. Best them and you have a shot at becoming a Patrician.
A pillar of the community. You have crawled your way up out of the mire to a position of prominence and respect. You are not to be screwed with. You have the Princeps’ ear. Shit heel predators answer to your beck and call.
Princeps
The eminent predator: you have no betters, but rivals aplenty. The Princeps is the acknowledged ruler of the community. As the Princeps, your influence is vast and your hunting grounds are peerless. Everything is yours for the taking.
The System
Diceless Play
Undying is an entirely diceless game. Instead of revolving around the turn of chance, Undying revolves around the usage of valuable resources like Debts you hold on other vampires, or the most important resource of all—Blood.
Blood and Humanity
As a vampire, you’ll have to feed to keep yourself sustained…but to do so, you’ll have to walk a tight line between monstrosity and humanity. Blood fuels your supernatural abilities, enables you to interfere with other vampires, and wins your lethal battles against other predators…but to feed on humans, you’ll have to carefully balance expediency and mercy, hunger and restraint.
Nightly vs Downtime Play
Undying is split across two kinds of play—nightly play, and downtime play. Nightly play focuses on important events, the crucial happenings and shocking events that can rewrite the course of vampire society. Downtime play lets you fly past long swathes of time, enacting schemes and plans that take years to come to fruition. Together, they provide the full spectrum of an eternal vampire’s experience.
Buy
Downloads
Play materials
The Team
Paul Riddle – Creator
The Core Team:
- Drake Kaiser
- Nate Marcel
- John Harper
- Nathan D. Paoletta
- Lillian Cohen-Moore
- Ryan Macklin
Community
Looking for other Undying fans? Have questions about the game? Want to keep up with the latest Undying news? Join the online community!
Kickstarter Video
Actual Plays & Interviews
Indie+ Demos: Undying with Paul Riddle
