A $15 PDF purchase now gets you a $15 credit toward the print book in December. See below.
Features:
• A completely new, stand-alone game with rules that will be surprising yet familiar to Thousand Year Old Vampire players
• 320ish pages of material, most of it very pretty to look at
• 600+ Prompts allow for ample replayability
• Easy, scalable rules–embrace the new rules or play like it's TYOV
• 100+ pages of collages give the Vampire something to talk about
• Suggestions for multiplayer play
Requirements:
• You will need a six- and a ten-sided die, and a convenient way to write out your Prompt responses.
Note:
• This is one of TWO sequels released concurrently during October 2026. The other is The Vampire Prisoner. They are two separate, self-contained games.
• This is book three of the TYOV series in the Horace Schilling (H.S.) number system and book two according to the Unknown Bookstore (U.B.) numbering system.
What's this game about?
It's a game about getting to know a mysterious stranger. It's about betrayal, about companionship, about surprising yourself with the stories that you write. It's about being a little less lonely, then regretting it.
What does your Character do?
Your Character will spy out, then get to know a mysterious and sometimes awful person. They will learn about the Vampire, both who it is and who it was, and the Vampire will, in turn, come to know them and get embroiled in their day to day life. Eventually your Character will perish, outgrow or avoid the Vampire, or settle into a rhythm with the Vampire which continues beyond the end of the game.
Your Character might see the Vampire as an antagonist, a romantic partner or rival, a cypher to be decoded. Whether it is over clashing swords, a treasure map, or a candlelit dinner table, the Character will interact with the Vampire, learning about it and themselves whether they like it or not.
The Vampire will be awful, it will be kind, it will tell stories, it will be on the knife edge of murdering you whether you know it or not. It will struggle with its humanity as it tries to please you.
What does the player do?
The player semi-randomly determines and interprets Prompts that guide the emerging narrative. These Prompts give the Vampire an unwholesome will of its own. The player writes responses to the these Prompts and makes the sometimes choices about how these newly created Experiences fit onto the Arcs that make up their Character. The player will feel pressures to push certain narrative pieces together, like it nor not, and the Character will be penalized when the player takes the easy route.
The player manages a very limited palette of game mechanics, including the Death Die. The Death Die is a single, concealed die that will determine the Character's fate should the game call for the player to "Check the Coffin." At that point the Death Die is consulted and the number compared to the number of Skulls which your Character has collected by upsetting the Vampire.
A PDF purchase now gets you credit toward the print book release in December.
Print books for both So You've Met a Thousand Year Old Vampire and The Vampire Prisoner will ship in December 2026. The books might arrive in time for Christmas. Everyone who buys the PDF of one of the games now will automatically get a $15 credit toward the physical book after available in December. All you'll have to do is add the $65 print book to your cart after it becomes available and you should automatically get the $15 credit. If you buy both PDFs you should get a $30 credit towards your later book purchase.
I suggest you press the "allow email marketing" button during checkout as it will be the best way for me to keep you apprised of book availability. I promise I won't abuse your email-trust as I only send out an infrequent newsletter.
If you combine this PDF order with a physical item that is currently for sale you will pay shipping and receive your additional item now. Your later order is a distinct, separate order for which you will have to pay shipping again. The credit only applies to purchases of the matching book on this website.
I reserve the right to cancel the extant credits at the end of January 2027. If you fuck up and miss your credit window just email me and I'll fix you up.
FAQ:
I have a question that isn't covered by the FAQ. What do I do?
Email your question to tim@thousandyearoldvampire.com.
Do I need to have Thousand Year Old Vampire in order to play this game?
Nope. It is entirely standalone. You don't even have to know what TYOV is.
You gave away community copies of the Thousand Year Old Vampire PDF. Are you going to do that with this book?
Yes, but later. Give me October and some of November. Maybe December. If you are in a rush for a community copy you can email me.
Can you tell me a little about the print book?
Yeah, 320ish pages. Fancy hardcover, all color fanciness throughout. Should have ribbon page markers and pretty gold and red foil on the cover. It is made to match the handsome Thousand Year Old Vampire book in style and feel. Together the new books all make a little set.
A set? What exactly are the TYOV-series books available right now?
Using the H.S. numbering system they are:
- Thousand Year Old Vampire
- The Journaling Notebook
- So You've Met a Thousand Year Old Vampire
- The Vampire Prisoner
Is the game scary? Bloody?
Not unless you let it be. The themes can vary between game plays. The game won't break if you ignore unwanted Prompt suggestions. The Prompts themselves are less likely to lend themselves to blood and gore than the other TYOV-like books.
This game does have gaslighting and betrayal. The Vampire can cheat the game itself, making established truths into tricks and falsehoods. Avoid the game if that feels uncomfortable.
What if I don't buy the print book? What happens to my credit? Can I transfer it to someone else?
No, you can't transfer it. Use it or lose it.
When you say "Prompts" do you mean AI prompts?
No. A Prompt, in this case, is more like a writing prompt. It is a evocative, context-shifting piece of text that you incorporate into your ongoing game.
Is this a game?
You are more likely to be able to buy this in a game store than a book store so, based on that, I'd say it is more of a game than anything else.
I'm new to this. Which game should I start with?
I'd try out Thousand Year Old Vampire or The Vampire Prisoner first. So You've Met... is a little more challenging than the others and is a little rulesier.
I have a child who reads at the college level. Would they enjoy this game?
The 'mature players' thing is not about the reading level. The games in this series allow dark and ugly things to happen and I am not sure that this is appropriate for people under 18. I tried to make your question moot by including illustrations featuring genitals and naughtiness. You don't want your kid looking at that stuff, do you? I didn't think so.
Are the PDF page numbers a little wonky on my Mac?
Maybe? I'm curious if that's the case for everyone using Preview on the Mac. There is a setting in Preview that toggles between the "logical page number" and the given page number. Play with that and it might fix your problem. All that said, the page numbers shouldn't matter that much as they don't get weird until later–at least for me.
Were any animals harmed in the making of this book?
I can only imagine you are asking this because you saw a yellowjacket in one of the collages. Yes, those were real yellowjackets but, no, I didn't kill them myself. They died en masse in my basement studio after burrowing in through a gap in the brickwork. I came in one day and saw before me a field of the dead spread around the window. It was tragic, even for yellowjackets who generally deserve worse than they get.
