Every game of Noche de Los Vampiros is a single night (from dusk until dawn) where the Characters try to survive against vampires south of the border. The Characters are vampire hunters, tourists, high-school seniors on Spring break and so on. The vampires can be anything from Nosferatu-style, rat-toothed monsters to suave, gothic teenagers. As long as the vampires want to kill the heroes, you're fine.
Every Player needs ten six-sided dice and a sheet of paper (to serve as a character sheet). On the sheet, which will act as a character sheet, you need to write down five boxes, labeled "10", "8", "6", "4", and "2". The GM should have a handful of dice, a clearly marked area for the "Vampire Pool," and a sheet of paper with 12 boxes. These are the Hours.
First thing, you create a character with a first name only. No background. Write every other Character's name on your sheet.
Every Player rolls a die. Starting with the highest roller, and moving clockwise, the Players create their Relationships. Your Character will have a Bond with the Character to your left, and a Conflict with the Character on your right. Write this down on your Character sheet and announce both the Bond and Conflict to the group. This continues until every Character is tied to every other Character.
Relationships will be the most powerful if the ties are ones of blood and sex. Daughter, ex-husband, blames him for the death of his son, slept with her mother. All these are fine reasons for a Bond or Conflict.
Make sure you've drawn your five boxes, labeled "10" down to "2". The highest label of the unchecked boxes is how many dice you get at the beginning of the Hour. Since all of your boxes are unchecked at the beginning, grab ten dice.
Play revolves around three measures of passing time: Hour, Scene and Shot. An Hour represents an hour of game-time. A Scene is a single conflict or dilemma, such as escaping the bordello. A Shot is a small part of a Scene, such as a Character and vampire attacking each other.
When an Hour begins and your Character is still alive, you grab as many dice as the highest label of your unchecked boxes. If you have "10", "8", and "6" checked, you grab four dice (the unchecked are "2" and "4"). These are all the dice you get this Hour.
The Vampire Pool starts each Hour with one die.
If your Character is dead, you get one die. Your role is now to act on behalf of the Vampires.
Whether to resolve the entire Hour in one roll or go Shot by Shot is a decision left up to the group. If a Scene is being narrated and the group decides to get grittier and resolve by Shot, this can be done. Likewise moving between any of the three lengths.
If you are resolving a whole Hour, you simply up the Vampire Pool to ten dice and roll that against all of the Players' rolls.
Before the Scene or Shot, every living Player makes a roll. As a Player, you grab as many dice as you want to risk (from the dice you get for the Hour) and roll them. For each Relationship of yours you incorporate into your conflict, you get one bonus die to roll.
For every pair of matching dice in your roll, set one of those aside and do not count it in your roll. For example, if you roll a 1, 2, 2, 2, 4, 5, 5, 6, you have two pairs: 2,2 and 5,5. You set aside one 2 and one 5. Your roll is now 1,2,2,4,6.
The GM and all dead Players roll the Vampire Pool. The dice from the Vampire Pool are distributed among the dead Players and GM as evenly as possible, with the GM taking up the remainder. For example, you have seven dice to distribute and three people to distribute to. (7 / 3) = 2 remainder 1. The dead Players would each get two dice, with the GM getting three (2 + remainder of 1).
As a living Player, you compare your roll with the entire rolled Vampire Pool. You set aside a die of yours if it matches a die in the Vampire Pool. A single die in the Vampire Pool can only remove one of your dice. For example, you roll a 1,2,3,3. Living Player Joe rolls a 3,4,4,6. The Vampire Pool is 1,2,2,3,4,5. You compare your dice and lose a 1,2 and a 3. Joe compares his dice and loses a 3 and 4. So the final result is your roll: 3, Joe's roll: 4,6.
Look at the highest value rolled on your remaining dice. This determines the outcome of your roll. Whoever rolled the highest value among living & dead Players and the GM narrates. GM wins ties against Players, and dead Players win ties against living Players.
| Nearby Vampires | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highest Value | Outcome | Hour | Scene | Shot |
| 6 | Kick Ass | A whole mess of 'em die | All present (or a single major baddie) die | One dies |
| 5 | Solid Success | A few die | Whole group set back real good | One hurt real bad |
| 4 | Mixed Blessing | Most of 'em get hurt or thwarted somehow | A few get killed | One hurt, but really mad |
| 3 | Oops | Minor victory for the vampires | A big band of angry vamps | Just pissed off |
| 2 | Crap! Crap! Crap! | Major victory, like killing all supporting cast | Get a taste of your blood, and they want more! | Hurt you a little |
| 1 | Better Pray | Kill all supporting cast, even pets | Get some severe upper hand | You're in trouble now, human |
| 0 | Vampire Snack | Destroy some gigantic structure or small town | The entire area is smashed, covered in blood or maybe even burnt down | Whatever happens, you get bit |
Lastly, put all the dice set aside from the rolls into the Vampire Pool. You can never be brought below one die, so if you set aside all your dice, take one back. As soon as the Vampire Pool reaches ten dice, the Hour immediately ends.
All your remaining dice that didn't go into the Vampire Pool are yours to roll again (including the bonus dice for incorporating Relationships).
At the end of the Hour, if you only have one die left to roll, you check one of your boxes. If you've checked your last box, your Character is nearly dead. He will die automatically in the next conflict. Sorry. The good part is that you get to narrate your own Character's death, probably at the hands of vampires. After that you work with the GM to narrate. If it's the end of the twelfth hour and you've just checked your last box, your Character lives to see the sun, only to die (of wounds, turning into a vampire, exploding, etc).
At the end of the twelfth hour the sun comes up with any surviving Characters living another day.
This game has not yet been playtested, so any bugs, issues and questions are very very encouraged. Especially if you play the thing and find problems.
Let's see. Eddy Webb, for suggesting Mexican Vampires. Ron Edwards for Relationship maps. Jared Sorensen for swapping narrative control. James V. West for the Pool. Playtesters, critics and insightful suggestions: Mike Holmes, Christoffer Lerno, Bob McNamee, Paganini.
This entire document and all contents is Copyright © 2002, by Zak Arntson. Permission to duplicate for personal use and captions for review purposes is granted. You must receive explicit permission from the author (email: zak@harlekin-maus.com) to use this game and any portion therein for public use, such as publication or convention play.