The Gentleman Speaks- Beckett’s Jyhad Diary Interview

Recently we published a review of the book, Beckett’s Jyhad Diary. This book takes the Vampire: The Masquerade meta-plot and updates it and looks at it through a V20 lens. From a design perspective though, it is something drastically different than most books on the market for most RPGs. This book focuses on plot and provides very little in the way of crunch or mechanics to play around with. We’ve seen some comments around the internet about the whys of this book. Why was it designed the way it was? Why does it present the hooks that it does? Why don’t we have some character stats? (Ok, that last one is purely on me)

To help us answer those questions we spoke with Matthew Dawkins, the developer of the book, to get an idea of what drove some of the decisions behind Beckett’s Jyhad Diary.

Mr. Dawkins, thank you for doing this interview. Do you mind telling our readers a little bit about your background and what brings you to your current place in the RPG industry?

Always a pleasure, Josh.

Until the start of this year I was working in the RPG industry in my spare time. My full-time role was as a trainer on a variety of subjects, and previous to that a team manager in an office. While those roles were tangential to writing and developing RPGs, what they did do was provide me with the skills to manage projects, handle people, and maintain a professional persona in whatever industry I moved to next.

It so happens that around the middle of last year I started working for Paradox Interactive on an unannounced (and sadly cancelled as of January 2018) video game while I continued working as a trainer and writer / developer of tabletop RPGs. That was relevant for me as it showed that I could organize various tasks around having a family, still get out to play, and earn a living doing what I love: working on games.

I’ve freelanced for Onyx Path Publishing since 2013 (and worked with other RPG and board / party games companies since that time as well, such as Chaosium, Green Ronin, Cubicle 7, Helmgast, Lark & Clam, White Wolf, etc.) but last year I was offered a full-time in-house developer role with them to start in January 2018, which I accepted.

My role is now to develop books, manage game lines, help our freelance staff, train up new developers, and troubleshoot any books caught in a development jam. I’m relatively new to this industry, but I’ve been roleplaying for well over a decade. It’s a real joy to work in this industry as my primary form of income.

What was the main design goal of Beckett’s Diary? How did you determine which elements of the vast Vampire meta-plot you were going to update? If you had one thing that you’d direct every reader to in this book what would it be?

The main design goal was to make a book that revisited, explored, and expanded the metaplot for Vampire: The Masquerade. It wasn’t initially conceived as a bridge to V5 or even necessarily the capstone to V20 (bear in mind that it was planned before the new White Wolf came to be), but it nicely fit that role later in development.

We threw a lot of ideas around about the book’s content, how much of it would be artifact-based, which parts of the metaplot to step over, and so on. In the end, the developers with the greatest Masquerade knowledge proposed the chapters they would like to see, and honestly, I can’t think of one (until stretch goal chapters) that wasn’t implemented.

If I was to direct every reader to a single chapter in this book, it would egotistically be Shadows Coalesce (driven by ego because I wrote it). It’s not my favorite chapter in the book (though I love all of them, naturally), but it is one of the best for a mixture of mortal level horror (a cop investigates Kindred activity and has their life ruined), humor (Beckett browsing the book selection in a brothel), political brinkmanship (Vitel’s plan of making a Libertarian-esque Kindred city), and Jyhad (Camarilla vs. Sabbat, hidden puppet masters, and so on).

Can you tell us a little more about The Drowned Legacies? These are a group of Vampires(maybe) from S. America who offer compelling potential for deeper exploration. What drove you (or others in the process) to create them and will we see more of them in the future?

I’m a big fan of the Caine mythos being just one of many origin stories for vampires. It just so happens that with the rise of Abrahamic faiths, the Caine legend took hold and never let go, rising to the prominence it now has. I’m also a big fan of Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom, the Ashirra, and the idea put forth that there may be more creatures out there that don’t want to be found. This is a World of Darkness, after all. If a South and Central American strain of vampires exists and are in small enough numbers, why would anyone know, or be believed when they tell their coterie or pack?

In World of Darkness 2nd Edition, I believe there’s a throwaway line about unidentified lineages in South America. There are also several Methuselahs and elders introduced in other books, lacking a clear bloodline or being placed into a clan due to Discipline use, when the likelihood of a Gangrel (for instance) crossing the Atlantic or Pacific prior to the second millennium C.E. was incredibly slim.

So I spoke with some of my friends and former colleagues of Central and South American heritage, many of whom live there to this day, about their own myths, ghost stories, legends, and campfire tales. What do they have that could resemble a vampire elsewhere in the world? South America is hardly cut off from the world, of course. I wanted to avoid exoticism, and instead go for the reality. Just as the major clans of Masquerade reflect our common vampire myths (the mind-controllers, the beasts, the seducers, the monsters, etc.) I wanted authenticity, but from a South and Central American perspective.

So that’s how we ended up with the Lostundo, Cipactli, Unhudo, Titlacauan, Kalku, and Karai Pyhare. The Cipactli and Titlacauan are the easiest to trace back to well-known Aztec religion and myth (along with that of their cultural predecessors), the Karai Pyhare are connected to the Guaraní myths surrounding the Pombéro, the Kalku originate in Mapuche culture and legend, while the Unhudo and Lostundo are more colloquial, but with a bit of research I’m sure you could find stories relating to them online or in history books.

Now, just because the Drowned Legacies exist, does not mean they suddenly overpower the clans we know and love and “take back America.” Their culture and personal motivations are by no means homogenous. Most of the Drowned Legacies willingly threw their mortal herds under the bus and clamped on to the settlers from Spain, Portugal, and elsewhere. These creatures are parasites, and parasites go for the greatest source of blood. As their forebears died out, they simply clung to the newcomers, adapting with the sudden spread of Catholicism, hiding from the main clans or masquerading as them, until they found it appropriate to make themselves known. Their Cultura is not one of pride but survival. They don’t need to take thrones to feel powerful. Now, with the Beckoning calling Cainites east, South America may become theirs simply due to absence of powerful Kindred elders.

So what is in store for the Drowned Legacies? We will have to see how they’re received by the fans, and whether they make even a fleeting appearance in V5. I hope they do, because I could see some excellent tales being told involving these creatures.

Throughout this book you’ve done a good job of collecting characters from the entire breadth and width of Vampire: The Masquerade media. I don’t remember seeing any references to Kindred: The Embraced though. Did I miss that? Or were you not allowed to touch on that property?

That’s a funny thing, because we scoured everywhere for little hooks, nods, and obscure references, but I don’t remember us once mentioning Kindred: The Embraced. We all know of it of course, but honestly, if someone put a reference in it wasn’t under my direction and it passed me by. I quite like that though. I’ve re-read the book and found references I missed the first time. I’m sure I’ll find that again when I read it in another couple of months.

Eddie is disappointed

This concept of the cyclical Gehenna is one of the core plots that ties this book together. On the surface, quickly, this is the idea that vampire power rises and falls, and that the view the Kindred have about Generation is one of many cycles which vampires (as a whole) have experienced. This appears to do two things; it allows the main conceit of Vampire to continue past ‘the inevitable end’ which was a concern in the original run of the game and it allows for more depth in extending the VtM mythos outside of the Judeo-Christian model on which the game was initially based. Of course, all of that is my pontification on the concept. What was your design philosophy behind cyclical Gehenna?

You’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head. Gehenna should still have bite though, which is why we allude to great sacrifice being required in order to stave it off. It’s still an end of the world scenario that brings changes whenever it occurs, but if Cainites play (or resist) the Jyhad and make whatever sacrifice is required (and it gets bigger every time Gehenna rolls around), they may give themselves another couple of centuries. It’s a little like global warming or the coming ice age. We know it’ll kill us all one day, but if we work together as a species, we may be able to stop it.

Funnily enough, I imagine there’s more chance of the Kindred working together to stop Gehenna than humans putting aside differences to heal the world, make it a better a place, for you and for…(etc.)

Michael Jackson is not a vampire.

Or is he?

Can you comment on how BJD might impact V5, are there certain things we might see more of in the future?

Without spoiling too much (and because I’m under NDA) I was asked as part of my writing job on V5 to propose plot threads from Beckett’s Jyhad Diary that could have an impact on V5. There are definitely some elements introduced in this book that will be furthered in V5. There are also some elements that will be left as they are.

I think one of the best things about BJD is that at the end of each chapter, you have a bunch of “what if?” plot hooks that could take a chronicle in any number of directions. We’re picking up some of those and running with them. The ones we’re leaving untouched won’t ruin anyone’s chronicle if you decide to pursue them with your group. There should still be room for whatever metaplot threads you decide to follow.

I enjoyed the book immensely, but I have one frustration I’ve voiced- I hope politely. Why don’t we have character statistic or at least references to where we might be able to find such things for the characters presented in these books?

A boring answer, sadly, but the main reason is page count, and having to weigh up whether we write more setting content or spend words on stat blocks. I would certainly like to see a Children of the Night book for V20 (maybe someone could make it for the Storytellers Vault) that stats up characters from Beckett’s Jyhad Diary. Of course, another way to maybe get something like this made is rally your fans and get them to email Onyx Path and / or White Wolf to express a desire for such a book. We do listen to what people want, and if there’s a market for it, we will consider pursuing it.

White Wolf has talked about expanding the World of Darkness to a truly global perspective, and having people ‘write what they know.’ This blog and our projects focus on inclusivity. How do you try and create a more inclusive gaming society in your work and actions?

To use the Drowned Legacies as an example, I consult experts on the respective subject matter, whether by dint of their profession or cultural heritage. I hire a diverse mix of writers for my books, across a range of spectrums. Frankly, RPGs read better (to me) when they have a diverse cast of authors. If I want someone to write for the experience of being pregnant, I will try to hire someone who’s had a child. If I want someone to write about suffering racial prejudice, I’ll aim to get someone on board who has lived that life.

I think it’s fair to say I do not tolerate intolerance. I’m by no means the loudest activist, but at my home and club level, if I even gain an inkling that someone is being abused for their ethnicity, their gender, or whatever, the abuser is educated. If they will not listen, they no longer play with us. Once upon a time, some segments of our hobby had this idea that “it’s better to have these people in the hobby and tolerate their bigotry than kick them out and have fewer people playing.” I disagree with that view, and our industry seems to feel the same way. No gaming is better than bad gaming, and no bigots is better than some bigots.

In terms of playing my games, my city thankfully has a number of roleplaying venues. I’ve always encouraged people from all walks of life to join in and play games. In a sense, games are one of those great levelers of society. Everyone abides by the rules to get the best game, every player at the table is equal (even when the characters are not), and everyone is there to have a good time. When you pitch it like that, it cuts away a lot of apprehension surrounding white males dominating our hobby. Every year, I see more and more diverse crowds at our conventions, and that’s just fantastic.

Please join us in thanking Mr. Dawkins for his time and for answering these questions for us. He is currently developing They Came From Beneath The Sea for Onyx Path Publishing. He is also a lead writer for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition, and has dozens for products he’s developed or wrote for OPP. If you are interested in reading more of his work you can find it here.

Plot To V5: Review of Beckett’s Diary

Anyone with a passing familiarity with this blog knows we write largely positive reviews. Mostly this is because I get motivated to write reviews for things I like, this tends to be true of the people who write for the site as well. We want to exalt the books we love, and allow others to focus on the negative if they so choose. That said, there are a few critiques we have of Beckett’s Jyhad Diary and I’d like to be upfront with those. The critiques are not about the writing though, the writing in this book is top notch. Matthew Dawkins and Neal Raemonn Price developed the book and their stellar ability to steer a ship into awesome territory holds true here. Written by: Alan Alexander, Matthew Dawkins, Steffie de Vaan, Joshua Doetsch, Renee Knipe, Matthew McFarland*, Neall Raemonn Price, Myranda Sarro, Malcolm Sheppard, and Monica Valentinelli, Additional Writing: Eddy Web. You all did really well here. We’ll get back to those elements soon.

This review is based on the backer PDF of the book. We will add some details on the physical book once it’s in our hands. As of this writing the POD and PDF is available on DriveThruRPG

What is this book?

Beckett’s Jhyad Diary is an in-character collection of the stories of the title character, Beckett. He is a Gangrel scholar that has appeared frequently throughout White Wolf books, including fiction and game supplements. Beckett acts as a narrator for an update to virtually every major plot location featured over the last 25+ years. In this case, Jhyad refers to the eternal vampiric struggle between childer and their elders. Beckett is an interesting character and he has relationships with many of the other meta-plot characters created over the years.

Critiques

Size

This book is immense. At 549 pages it is going to be larger than the V20 book itself. It took me almost a month to make my way through and that made it all a little overwhelming. There is a good side to the size of the book, but upfront I would rather have had several smaller journals. Of course, there are pros and cons either way, but my preference would have been to steer toward smaller texts.

Font

Most of the journal are faux transcriptions of recordings that Beckett has created. At times though, the book includes fonts designed to resemble handwriting. Beckett’s own handwritten segments are not difficult to read. This is not true for several side characters. Thankfully these handwritten asides or additions are short overall, but I found it frustrating to try and decipher something that was clearly engaging information. The worst segment for this is one of the later chapters, The Drowning of Rasputin.

Who is This and Where are They From?

As should be expected there are references to characters and plotlines from hundreds of books. Over the last year, I’ve read most of the Vampire: The Masquerade supplement books. Because of this, I feel like I knew where to reference the plots that were being updated. However, there were several instances where a character was being referenced and I couldn’t place them. Some of these characters, like Strohmann, are from the Vampire card game, The Eternal Struggle (also called, Jyhad). There were also references to many characters from the Vampire video games. I liked this, but I really felt like I needed some form of reference chart. The Vampire Wiki is a decent resource to use alongside this book, but I would kill for a full list of where I can learn more about these characters. I also respect this is a hard ask and might take a ton of work, but it would make this book much more valuable.

For example, where would you find Aisling Sturbridge if you wanted to use her in a game? New York By Night.

How about The Stone Man? Outcasts: A Players Guide to Pariahs.

Hesha Ruhadze? Followers of Set Revised, Gehenna, various novels.

The first two I knew off the top of my head, the last I had to check the Wiki. Of course, the Wiki isn’t perfectly accurate so it has limits as a resource. An E-Resource or PDF index of the World of Darkness would be amazing to have. This could be an updated version of Encyclopaedia Vampirica and I wouldn’t complain.

Character Details?

On a similar note, I would love to have character statistics for the characters described in this book. If I want to use Strohmann (a possible progenitor of the Samedi) and an Archbishop in Berlin, I’ve got to make up a sheet. That’s not the end of the world, but it would be awesome to have these details on hand. Like the above critique, this would be a fantastic digital product to have. I’d pay for it, and I’m sure a lot of fans would. I could then choose which NPCs to use, fire up their entry in V20 Encyclopaedia Vampirica (You can steal this name, OPP and White Wolf), and then I could print them out when I need to use them. Or pull them up on my tablet at the table.

What is Amazing About This Book?

Writers Gunna Write

This book is literally packed with meta-plot. If there was a plotline, story hook, or idea generated in any of the various media products created for Vampire: The Masquerade by White Wolf and Onyx Path over the years, it gets some love in this book. Almost all of the chapters in the book made me want to run a chronicle with the material provided. The writing is top notch, the plot hooks could fill a tackle box, and this book was really enjoyable to read. That last point isn’t emphasized enough in most RPG supplements. One of the best things about Vampire books over the years is that they have been interesting to read. Becket’s Diary is a fantastic new book in that vein. I can see myself re-reading sections of this book on a regular basis.

What Can We Expect in V5?

White Wolf has previously stated that they want to see Beckett’s Jyhad Diary as the link between V20 (and earlier editions) and the next edition of Vampire. There are dozens of little hints of that material here. There are references to the Gehenna War, the Keening, and several expansions of the Vampire: The Masquerade mythos. There are references to both Kindred of The East, and Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom in this book as well. Some of the characters from early books are now tied into those supplements. That sort of meta-plot integration is needed to create a truly world-spanning vampiric conspiracy. It appears as if Kindred are no longer going to be tied solely to the Judeo-Christian model we found in previous editions. We don’t know exactly what this is going to look like at this time. What we do know is that the V5 world looks like it is going to be much more integrated. Options for vampiric origin stories have existed previously but haven’t really held much weight. The rules made the Caine myth the default for various reasons.

Cyclical Gehenna

This is one of the more interesting plot points filtered throughout Beckett’s Diary. Gehenna is something that has come before and will come again. There are constant endings and beginnings to the Kindred. Further, there is an interesting story seed about the possibility of Diablerie being a positive thing. The African legacies reference the potential for sharing powerful blood with neonates. Are they right? Are the antediluvians jealous beasts for guarding their powerful blood? Are all of the Cainite elders? What does this mean for Vampire: The Masquerade? I think this is an interesting plot hook and I’m curious to see how and if it continues on in V5.

More than Plot?

Most of the book is plot, story, and there are also a few rules updates and expansions that are peppered throughout. There are new rules for 16th Generation vampires. This is explained by a ‘settling’ of the blood that happens when a new vampire is embraced. There are also details on new Kindred bloodlines or clans that are based in South  America. At this time, these new groups of vampires are given very short bloodline descriptions and now explicit rules, but this expansion of the Cainite mythos has a ton of potential. Tying into the concepts of powerful elders and neonates, and the cycle of Vampirism presented, this offers some cool hooks too.

My Favorite Stories

This is hard because there were a lot of stories in here. Thirty to be exact. I think my favorite stories were in the middle of the book starting with Transvaal Nights and ending with Carthargo Delenda Est. This whole section was top-notch. There were a few stories in the Diary that were less solid than others, but overall the quality throughout was high. A Brief History of Beckett wasn’t bad, but it felt out of place and kind of tacked onto everything else. The Drowning of Rasputin would have been better a little sooner in the book. It was not a bad story, but it was the story that had the most Font issues. It also included the South American vampire elements that I thought were fascinating, so it was a bit of a rollercoaster chapter.

Conclusion

Should you buy this book? That depends, honestly. Do you like the meta-plot in Vampire? If so, then yes. Do you like to create your own plots and ignore meta-plot? Then, maybe? There are a ton of plot hooks here that make this book interesting for the ST that wants to strike out and design their own World of Darkness. Do you need this to get ready for V5? Also, maybe. I don’t know how useful this book will actually be for V5 until we get those actual books. There are some weaknesses, but overall I am happy I backed the book.

Buy the Book

Credits
Written by: Alan Alexander, Matthew Dawkins,
Steffie de Vaan, Joshua Doetsch, Renee Knipe,
Matthew McFarland*, Neall Raemonn Price,
Myranda Sarro, Malcolm Sheppard, and Monica
Valentinelli

Additional Writing: Eddy Webb

Developed by: Matthew Dawkins and Neall
Raemonn Price

Line Developer: Eddy Webb

Editor: Dixie Cochran

Art Director: Michael Chaney

Interior Art: Sam Araya, Mark Kelly, Michael
Gaydos, Ken Meyer Jr., Drew Tucker

*A victim has come forward with allegations of sexual assault against this writer. We believe the victim and don’t want our review of this product to be viewed as support for this writer’s actions. At this time we plan to refrain from reviewing any products where he is the principal writer or developer. Mr. McFarland is no longer working on any on-going products for Onyx Path Publishing

Josh is the administrator of the Inclusive Gaming Network, and the owner of this site. 

*Note, all opinions are the opinions of their respective Authors and may not represent the opinion of the Editor or any other Author of Keep On the Heathlands