Bloodlines II

Vampires and Humans

„The blood is the life!“ - Bram Stoker, Chapter 11, Dracula

One of the most legendary and evil monsters of our imagination is the Vampire. Long before Bram Stoker published “Dracula” in 1897, Vampires were creatures of myth and folklore for centuries in most cultures.

Our modern culture has taken the fabled Dracula to new heights with movies, novels, film, art, theater....and games.

BLOODLINES is a wildly popular - and at times wildly maligned - game within Second Life. Some Second Life residents were quite annoyed with the seemingly constant bite bite requests from Bloodlines Vampires and there was a bit of an uproar for a while.

The creators of BLOODLINES, Mars Bracken and Lyle Maeterlinck, fine tuned the existing HUDS, added a Nexus (more about that in a moment) and there was no longer the need for random bite requests.

The Thirst for Vampire Race The Virtue for Human Race The Rage for LycanRace The Ascent for Angel Race The Torment for Demon Race

No matter which of the races you decide on, or which HUD you purchase - all players start out as Human.

When you are attacked by another player you lose 5% of your humanity and that 5% is turned into either blood for a Vampire, Lumens for Lycens, Angels require Ether and Demons, Ichor. Until you join the BLOODLINES game, no more of your humanity can be taken.

All the HUD’s contain wounds and marks for Humans but are now only cosmetic attachments. Vampire HUDS have bite marks and fangs. The Lycan HUD includes sets of claws and claw wounds, the Angel and Demon HUD’s have their respective wings, particle effects and animations.

Each heads up display now contains a NEXUS OBJECT and this has been a welcomed game changer. There is now no need to wear your fangs or claws, bites or wings. This handy addition attaches automatically to the center of your avatar - and is invisible - both by default. The race specific items are now only cosmetic and worn for roleplay.

You can wear fangs or any other creation from another designer and there are some gorgeous wings to be found!

Perhaps the best part of this is you can add your own animations which will allow you to put your own twist of creativity to your avatar and your RP. Each player who has turned into one of the races has something in common - they must all suffer - and survive - the nightly Curse. This will send Vampires out in search of Blood, Lycans will seek out Lumens, Angels must have their Ether and the Demons will crave their Ichor. Every night they each lose various

Unless you drink a Wormwood Potion, the first person who attacks you collects your soul as soon as you join the game. The potion stops that - but the first person who attacks you after you join will be the one who takes your soul. You can pledge your allegiance to them, or not - your choice. At this point, you no longer own your soul and if you decide you don’t like your soul keeper anymore you can chose another one. To be a bit more specific about the notion of the SOUL, as everyone hearing it for the first time dreads the consequences of losing it. It is merely a metric, as of course, your avatar does not have a soul outside of the Bloodlines system. Same as the blood, ether, lumens, ichor and cider, they are also just metrics helping the players achieve their goals/survive. They are exchanged between players through bites, vials, and or transfers.

There are several stages to becoming a fully fledged vampire. As previously stated, everyone starts as human. Depending on your RP or your speed you want to go through it there are different tools that make that possible. If you prefer to indulge in the long RP then you would be bitten not less then 33 times, by the same person or by different persons. If you pledged 110 Sisters in SL Magazine

allegiance to your soul keeper then the last drop of blood (last 3% of humanity) must/should be his/hers. If you do not want to go the whole “lenght” of the 33 bites you may want to inquire if your Liege owns a Spike (vampires), Rampage Claw (Lycans), Absolver (Angels) or an Displacer (Demons), a cute little tool that attaches to your hand and with one thrust you can lose most of your humanity, except the last 3%. After you got biten the last time, you become a revenant (vampire and lycan), or a wraith (angel and demon). Only then you may tank up on your race metrics to the fullest and be welcomed in the lines of your keen. As part of the RP these phases are called turning rituals, and they are a huge part of welcoming someone in the clan/horde. Sometimes there are preparations and plans made, attire is purchased . . and there is music and parties. More or less as a “marriage into the darkness”, and with the same fuss and intensity. The bigger and the more prominent the clan the larger and fussier the preparations.

As for the Humans, they have been actually the „blood bags“ till recently when they have got a massive update on their powers and options through the Virtue HUD. Added option is now called becoming an ELDER. However there is no similarity to the other races „turnings“. The humans now have

the posibility to become an elder by donating 20% of humanity and wearing the human HUD. Once you become and elder you may attack and take metrics from any race, and transform

it into cyder. However an elder is undergoing the hurdles of the curse as well, while a “normal” human wouldn’t.

Bloodlines Legends

This extension of the game allows a player to go on quests and gather resources. Anyone who is already in BLOODLINES will get the LEGENDS HUD free. New players can purchase this HUD and aren’t required to play in the BLOODLINES system. You can now claim regions and become an explorer or even sovereign of a region with your Claim Flag. There is a built in Magic Map that helps you find resources on any claimed region and you can use your discovered resources to do things like cast spells, craft or you could collect

something that will come in handy on a quest. Also it is worthy to mention that scavenging for new resources will be random and will not allow you to choose the resource you find. There are 10 region levels, and each one of them have between 16 and 29 items that can be used in the quests. They also have their own rarity levels, so sometimes you need to scavenge a few regions to get the resource you need. Each of the 5 regions has a Tower where you go to find a guide who will teach you about the quest specific to the race region. Some have specific creation tools like ink stations on the Demons land. Those inks are components of a more advanced ink that would be crafted on the sim by adding more ingredients to it. The Lycans land has wood, you learn how to make the paper necessary to create the spells you would be writing with the ink. Also the demons land has mines, there you will get metals and coal, key compenents for creating and crafting other items. Throughout the sims there are objects and clues and different items you will interact with that help you complete these quests.

There are always ways to gain or lose stamina, you will get experience points that help you to level up, you can collect treasures and mine for minerals. Legends seems a fun, interesting way to spend some down time in SL, especially for players who enjoy a good quest.

The longer BLOODLINES is in world, the more things seem to change for the better.

Players are allowed complete creativity with their characters and roleplay, and as Mars and Lyle said in the interview, changes are mostly player driven. There is a massive support system and their website is informative and clearly stated.

Game Guide https://slbloodlines.com/guide

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/slbloodlines/

Flickr https://www.flickr.com/groups/slbloodlines/