The award-winning solo role-playing game Thousand Year Old Vampire (TYOV) is about to share its undead universe with a wider audience. This July 18th, Backerkit will launch Five Hundred Year Old Vampire (FYOV), a multiplayer keepsake adaptation of TYOV that’s suitable for fans of the original game and students in an educational setting.
Much like its predecessor, FYOV navigates through semi-random prompts answered from a vampire’s perspective. However, FYOV also incorporates player-created artifacts and introduces rules for multi-player vampire cohorts.
The game centers on players’ vampires who gradually lose their humanity as they grapple with the constant evolution of the world around them. The vampires commit both monstrous and awe-inspiring deeds, and players record these actions through journaling and artmaking.
The “keepsake game,” a term coined by game designer Shing Yin Khor, encourages players to create memorable artifacts or “keepsakes” that they wish to retain after the game concludes. These keepsakes in FYOV emerge as artifacts that players create and share throughout the game, seen not as “great works of art,” but as unique tokens of an experience.
FYOV comes with five decks of prompt cards, totaling 237 cards, representing the various ages of the vampires’ existence. A slotted and recessed tray helps keep the prompt cards organized and provides space for crafting and art supplies for creating keepsake artifacts. The game also includes a set of intricate dice for advancing the vampires through the ages, a detailed rulebook for multiplayer cohort play, and striking cover and card art by Jabari Weathers.
Exciting stretch goals for FYOV include a listening soundscape by Dr. Mark Cox from Central Michigan University and additional art from Tim Hutchings, Jabari Weathers, Priscilla Kim, Samuel Araya, Allen Panakal, and Goñi Montes.
FYOV is designed for 3-5 players in each cohort. Still, the game’s scalability allows it to accommodate classrooms or larger convention play, making it particularly effective in visual arts and creative writing spaces. It aligns with both the national common core writing standards and the national core art standards, and can easily facilitate up to four cohorts simultaneously.
With its launch on Backerkit this July 18, Five Hundred Year Old Vampire promises a new and exciting collaborative play experience that seamlessly blends role-playing, storytelling, and keepsake creation.