Time for something a little different

One of the things I really want to do this year is to get back into some roleplaying games. I have played a few short ones recently but the plan is to run something that lasts a little longer. The usual go to system for my group, with me as the Story Teller at least, is Hunter: the Vigil. I recently picked up the newest edition and that has got the creativity working again.

I have been thinking about this chronicle for a while but I have to start making notes soon so that I can get everything compiled in a fashion that will make some sense. Having everything bubbling in my mind doesn't really make for a coherent game. The basic setting is a mid-sized town located in Green County, Wisconsin. The city is completely finctional and the county is very much an approximation of reality. I am calling the city Deliverance Falls. It was designed and built in the early 60's as a shining beacon of progress in the mid-west.

Deliverance Falls:
A plan was developed in Chicago in the late fifties to build a high speed railway between the city and Madison, Wisconsin with an eventual connection to the twin cities of St.Paul/Minnesota. This was hoped to alleviate urban crowding in the big cities and facilitate commerce between the three State Capitals. The plan was finished and a budget assigned. The first phase was the laying of the railway line and building of the commuter towns along the route. It was decided that the first city should be the one located at the centre of the route, a symbol to the cooperation between Wisconsin and Illinois. A few small farmsteads were already in the area and went by the name of Deliverance. These were bought up quickly but the name was used in the early stages of the development. When the new town was finally planned theplanners had incorporated a small waterfall into the city as part of the city park. The urban planners thereafter renamed the city to Deliverance Falls.

Deliverance Falls was initially planned to be more than twice as large as it currently is. The infrastructure for the town was built first. The area was subject to flooding so a large network of storm drains and sewers were built. Once this task was completed work began on the town itself. The first half of the town, that surrounding the train station was rapidly built by investors in the project. The buildings were designed to form the heart of a new community and were subsequently designed to be taller than would be standard for such a city. Areas along the outskirts of the town were not developped extensively as the return on investment wasn't deemed by most of the investors to be currently worth it. The land was purchased however with hopes that rises in property value in the area over time would yield a healthy profit.

The train-line was built in record time connecting downtown Chicago to Deliverance Falls. The Wisconsin Government had collapsed after a scandal was revealed whereby Republican candidates were accepting monies from development lobbyists who wanted the train corridor moved to incorporate lands owned by them. As a result construction firms hired for the job hadn't yet begun heavy construction works but the railway corridor had been purchased and upgrades to Madisons railway station were underway albeit delayed. Delays also hampered the building of the high speed train.

Families eagerly moved into Deliverance Falls, the houses and apartments were cheap and while the connection to Chicago was still only served by slower commuter trains everyone was assured that very soon the first high speed Metroliner service would commence.

By 2015 Deliverance Falls is still not connected to Madison by train-line. The high speed connection still hasn't been delivered and talks are that the train-line itself would need extensive modification if indeed it was to be finally used. The Midwest Regional Rail Initiative has included the line connecting Chicago and Madison. Some hope exists that finally after sixty years in the planning that the original plan may come to fruition. Deliverance Falls has grown slowly with a number of small industries moving into the west of the city over the years. The population remains steady with sizable minorities living in the area. A large percentage of the workforce endure the long commute into Chicago every day while the rest work locally. Crime is low in the area and in general the city is peaceful and prosperous.

Just in case you are interested here is a link to my older Hunter: the Vigil chronicle on this blog:

Season One Finished

So I finally managed to finish a roleplaying campaign. Last week we had the seventh and final session in our Hunter: The Vigil game. Its a pretty big milestone for me as I haven't finished a game before. I don't think any of my players finished one before either! I have started loads of campaigns with massive plots and world shaking events. This time I didn't do that. The game went really well and everybody is eager for more. I am attributing this to the shortness of the game and the fact that it had a clearly defined story. I took on the idea of using seasons for the game with each season being a contained story.

With Christmas looming on the horizon I think it is best to take a break and to begin again in the new year. Otherwise we would end up having around a four week break in the middle of a story and that wuld just result in killing the game. Even I wouldn't be able to remember the more subtle facts and happenings and that would make for a really bad game. The story arc I was going for was able to be brought to an end, maybe not a satisfactory one for my players, and using a seasonal approach it fitted perfectly as the end of a season. The players know that there is the possibility for more and that despite the fact they got their revenge they didn't get satisfaction. This can fuel season two a little and with the correct seeds planted season two doesn't end up as a monster of the week style game.

I have been listening to the THAC0 podcast a lot recently and they have covered approaching roleplaying games in the same sense as a TV series. I think this is a really excellent way to approach things. You can set up a story with a good view to an end and then play towards that. As long as you keep it a resonably achievable story it can finish in under ten sessions allowing the players to take a break. This gives you a season and as long as everyone is willing to keep going it is possible to continue playing, in my opinion, for much longer than games normally last.

Friday Night, Fright Night

So Friday sees my first game in the New World of Darkness. It has been well over ten years since I ventured into any World of Darkness product so this is really going to be interesting. I am planning a relatively short three scene beginning which should only take about three hours. That allows a little over spill in case we are slow with the rules. It also means I don't have to prepare too much. In this session I will be mainly concerned with introducing the players and then having some NPC's intorduced too. So I really just need to hammer out whats important and I don't need to have the entire Chronicle ready.

I finally have the group formed, a relatively small one considering the number of eager players where I work. The group consists of three very inexperienced players whose roleplaying extends only as far as Dungeons and Dragons. This will be a steep learning curve for them and I really don't expect that they will like it much at first. While I would like to dump them straight into some action so they get a feeling of what is happening I can't. Thats just not my World of Darkness. It has to be a slow tension building exercise otherwise all the effect of the game is lost. This has the downside, especially with an inexperienced group, that forming a coherent party with a strong story is difficult. While I have discussed this with the players I haven't as yet had a response.

The Wicked Witch

I am trying to reach a crescendo with my Hunter: the Vigil posts as I am getting very close to running the game now. I still don't have a massive story arc but as I intend to play in a more sandbox style that isn't a huge hinderance.I will present a number of leads that the characters can independently pick up on and I will give them some direct events that they can react to if they wish. So really it depends on what takes the players fancy once we satrt. I have a number of monsters in development and we can use these easily in sequence. I have also been considering recording the games... it might be nice to release them as a podcast. Though who knows, it isn't like we have expensive equipment.

The Mystery of Violence
With the discussion yesterday of Emmerson park I was trying to think about what might create such an area. This park was once filled with families playing, Now it is abandoned and considered almost a no go zone. I wasn't really sure what monster would do this, a ghost maybe. However thinking further I came up witht he idea of a Witch. Some of the mysteries presented in Witch Finders is that these powerful beings have a focus from which they derive their power, or source as it is termed in the book. Some of these include Passion and Disease. Some of the more powerful ones are Time and Space. What if a Witch discovered Violence as a mystery? In my mind this could easily account for a park that became a center of violence when gang trouble broke out. Maybe that trouble only broke out due to the tender ministrations of a Witch.

In keeping with the other mysteries I want to make a spell list but I am pretty stuck for inspiration. I know what I want to have happen but I don't really know how it happens. I am really stuck on the Fury spell, anyone else have ideas?

• Anger (*)
  Everyone gets annoyed but only a few people act upon it. With a subtle push the Witch can make these actions come to the surface.
  Cost: None
  Action: Instant
  Duration: Scene
  Range: Sensory
  Dice Pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Gnosis
  The Witch causes the victim to become angry. This anger is not specifically directed at anything in particular. A perfectly calm person will become agitated but not know why whereas an already angry person will become a raging bull! This spell simply pushes the victim gently towards a violent reaction. A police officer making an arrest might simply be somewhat more forceful throwing the criminal to the ground before hand cuffing her. A computer programmer tackling a difficult problem might suddenly smash his keyboard or if enraged enough already follow through on his threat of tossing the PC out of the window.
  When the victim lashes out due to the rage the Witch gains Source.
• Hatred (**)
  The road to true hatred of something is a long one. A lot of people are held in check by society, religion and upbringing. The Witch is able to temporarily help someone along this benighted path.
  Cost: None
  Action: Instant
  Duration: Scene
  Range: Sensory
  Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Gnosis
  The Witch is able to increase the natural feelings that somebody has towards someone or someones that they don't like. Instead of a low level dislike this suddenly becomes a complete hatred. The more people that the Witch tries to force the victim to hate the more disperesed the feeling becomes. For instance if the Witch tries to make the victim hate all Chinese people then she may only effect a slight strengthening of the current dislike. However if the Witch narrows the group to something like the Police then it will be more effective. The spell is most effective against a single person. When the victim causes physical harm to the specified target the Witch gains Source.
  
• Fury(***)
  Cost: Source
  Action: Instant
  Duration: A number of rounds equal to the successes scored
  Range: Sensory
  Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Gnosis
• Rage(****)
  In a tense situation anger quickly comes to the surface. A Witch can detect and manipulate this turning friend against friend.
  Cost: Source
  Action: Contested
  Duration: One Round
  Range: Sensory
  Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Gnosis
  The Witch makes a contested roll against both targets. She splits her dice pool in half using each half against one of the opponents. If both are beaten by the Witch having more successes then they will direct their next attack against the other.In the case that only one is defeated then only they will make the attack.
• Frenzy(*****)
  Some areas have always had a bad reputation but some areas really have the worst. In the case of this spell a Witch creates a zone of utter hatred and protects himself at the same time.
  Cost: SourceAction: Extended Duration: Scene
  Range: Area
  Dice Pool: Resolve + Manipulation + Gnosis
  The casting of this spell is an extended action that requires a total of 12 successes. Each roll is equal to half an hour. A Witch may only cast this spell in a place where he has lived for three months. The Witch creates a zone of agression. This zone must have defined physical bondaries. It can occupy an area up to three acres maximum. The Witch may extend this to double the area by expending a willpower point during the casting. Anyone entering the zone is immediately effected by the Hatred spell as described above. The target of this effect is anyone else within sensory range. The effect ends once the affected person leaves the area.
  While within the zone victims may not attack the Witch directly. Instead their violent tendencies are directed at anyone else within sensory range. Victims may make an opposed roll to resist this effect.
  The Witch gains no Source as a result of these actions.
  

A Hunters Paradise?

Emmerson park is one of seven parks in the Lincolnwood area. It is also one of the most notorious. The rise in gang warfare over the last five years rendered the park a no go zone. Recently it has developed a reputation of fear. People that do frequent the area report an uncomfortableness in the air. It is so strong that even the gangs don't frequent the area anymore, this hasn't encouraged the nearby residents to return however. Stories are told of the now overgrown and ill tended place. Certain occurences at night time and in some cases apparitions are discussed in whispers in the local bars. The offical description for this park has never been changed to reflect its new reputation.

History of the Park:
In 1931, the Lincoln Park Commission created Emmerson Park, the last of the district's seven neighborhood parks. The population of the West Ridge neighborhood had grown from 7,500 residents in 1920 to 40,000 residents ten years later, and there were few public parks in the area. The park commission acquired a two-acre parcel from the Chicago Town and Tennis Club, adjacent to the Chicago Elk Club. Although the new park was quite small, it was improved as a lovely green space with a wading pool, a children's playground, tennis courts, gardens, and a comfort station. In 1934, the Lincoln Park Commission was consolidated into the Chicago Park District. The Park District remodeled Emmerson Park comfort station into a recreation center in 1961.

Emmerson Park honors Louis L. Emmerson (1863-1941), who was Governor of Illinois during the park's creation. Having served as Secretary of State for three terms beginning in 1916, Emmerson was elected Governor in 1928 and remained in office until 1933.

In 2010 four bodies were found in the park. All four belonged to teenage girls that had gone missing over the last two years in the Lincolnwood area. Each were buried in a shallow grave amongst the undergrowth near the centre of the small park. These were found by a dog and an elderly gentleman walking in the park. There was never an arrest following the finding of the bodies but the offical police statement is that the investigation is ongoing. There were rumours of some strange artefacts found on the bodies but nothing more than rumours reached the newspapers.

The Surrounds:
The apartments in the north eastern corner of the park have been abandoned since 2001. They are fenced off for safety. They are in a rather depalidated state. The church in the north western corner is still open. However the congregation has dwindled and only a few elderly members visit services regularly. The large car parking space is now without working lights in the evening and in many places it is over grown with grass and weeds. Further out there are a lot of apartment buildings. These are also in an advanced state of disrepair but a fair few of them are still occupied.

The E Street Gang

It has been a while since I really planned some stuff for my Hunter: The Vigil game. I have been reading the sourcebook a lot at least and I have listened to the podcast from the Knights of the Night. This has mainly been to get me into a mood to prepare for a Chronicle and to learn the rules a little better. It will probably take me a few sessions before I have a good idea of how the rules work so any help that I can get beforehand would be good. They are playing a Tier Three or Two game while I intend to only play a Tier One game. That grounds the game in a more down to earth horror style. There maybe a possibility to expand the game into the second tier but I am not planning on that. At the moment I am still trying to think of who to invite to the game. As it is done with people from work I have a lot of available players however I only want to run with a small group. That means someone is going to be annoyed as they are left out...

I have been playing a few online games recently and from one of them I got the idea of having a more mundane threat present in my city. The area that my hunters will work in is also the territory of the E Street Gang. These will form a constant threat in the area and serve to anchor the game in some reality. They will be moving in on the players territory and there will be some conflict with another gang. I will be locating the characters in Lincoln Park in Chicago. The territory is an upand coming area quite prosperpous but bounded by rougher areas to the east and west (at least in my game). The ghouls I mentioned before will be located in the Rosehill Cemetery and they will be part of this gang. So while the gang poses a mundane threat they will be controlled by the monsters of the World of Darkness. I will actually use the gang as the first glimpse some of the players see that something is wrong. When a gang member thats been riddled with bullets simply gets up and walks away they will quickly figure out that something strange is at play.

A situation like this poses a good question to the Hunters who can kill Monsters with some justification. Can they act as vigilantes too? Are humans any less of a monster than the supernatural threats present in the city? If the players can't tell if a gang member is a ghoul, a vampire or a real flesh and blood human can they simply wade into a gunfight with them all guns blazing? Well I guess they would but at least it presents a moral challenge which is the stuff that makes the World of Darkness such a good setting. So what does this mean for our ghouls? Well I need to remake them a little. They will have a vampire overlord now and maybe some of his coterie.

What is Hunter: the Vigil

This question is a tought one. I have struggled with it for a long time. I can't really start to design a game until I know what that game is. I have read the books and I think the problem is that there is too much information. All the conspiracy and organisational stuff just gets in the way. There is too much confusion. Keeping it simple and down to earth for me is paramount.

I scanned the White Wolf forum today. Why I don't really know why but the following post clearer up a lot of confusion for me:

Hunters are not some big game hunters who happened upon Supernaturals and decided to change specialties. They are people, ordinary people, who found the supernatural and recognized that most of them are not exactly friendly.So they decide that they need to do something (this step is important! This is were the character picks up the candle and becomes a hunter).What they do, depends. They might try to contain them, study them, frighten them off, talk to them, etc. But sooner or later they are gonna be noticed by less friendly creatures or creatures who do not even understand the idea of talking. Hunting is not a life you choose. It is forced upon one by ones own morals. By an inability to stand aside and close ones eyes.

My players are getting restless . They know I have started to prepare stuff. I am nowhere near ready for gaming yet though. One of the toughest challenges I face is keeping the group small. I have about eight prospective players and I only want to have a group of four. Anymore than that makes it the game unruly and hard to creat an atmosphere for. So with the mantra above in my mind I can start designing the chronicle.

Witches, Ghouls and inspiration

I picked up two books this week to help out with the campaign preparations. I haven't finished either of them, I guess that happens when you try to read both at once! Ghouls being one of the main antagonists in the campaign, at least in the beginning phases, need some meat! While I have discussed them before I wanted to nail down some rules for them. I thought that the sourcebook for them would be enough but actually it isn't. It is very Vampire centric which I should have suspected really. It deals very much with using Ghouls in a Vampire setting rather than just in a World of Darkness setting. Witchfinders has been great. It has detailed Witches pretty much as I wanted them too. The book is about twice as big as the Ghouls book and it contains everything relevant for a Hunter campaign. What it doesn't do though is present the horror of the setting well. It attempts to portray horror by the repeated assertion that Witches are just humans. To me that engenders a feeling of paranoia rather than horror. I guess that injecting the horror into the campaign is the problem of the games master and relying on supplements to do this isn't going to be satisfactory for anyone involved. The examples given in both books are fine and have sparked my imagination. I hope I can lift some examples directly and place them in my city while others with some simple modifications should also be easy to use.

I have slowly come to the realisation that I need a vampire. This guy will be the season finale. The players won't know it but defeating him is the reason they are playing. The Ghouls are indirectly linked to him and the Witch Coven have no links at all. I am thinking a Nosferatu as it gives a good chance for a dungeon crawl. Exploring the sewers underneath the city gives plenty of scope to bring in various elements of the World of Darkness. Also cramped confined spaces with an ugly as hell Vampire in them will be pretty nasty. The Ghouls will be subservient to him but will be clannish and look after themselves. The Ghoul book provides information on families and the inhabitants of St. Casamirs will be represented by one of these, most likely the Angustri. These are essentially gypsies though in my world east european is close enough. This demands a Mekhet Vampire regnant but I will have to read up more about them to see if that is better than the Nosferatu.




Character Sheets

Witches

I have decided pretty much on what I want my Ghouls to be. However I need more! The second spoke in my triumvirate of evil shall be Witches. A full coven to be exact. While the Ghouls represent a direct threat to the party the witches won't. These will be secondary enemies and as such be the next step on the road into the true Wolrd of Darkness. They will be the main adversaries of the residents of St. Casimirs and by investigating the Ghouls the Hunters will learn about the coven. The interesting theory of the triple goddess is one I will borrow from. I wasn't really aware of this except from Terry Pratchetts books so a little bit of research was needed to really figure out what it was about. The fact that it is a modern creation applied to Witches is not something I had realised at all. However for me it is a model that suits the size of coven I want to play with. I have three strong character types described and a good link between them. Basically it can be boiled down to:

• The Maiden represents enchantment, inception, expansion, the promise of new beginnings, birth, youth and youthful enthusiasm, represented by the waxing moon.
• The Mother represents ripeness, fertility, sexuality, fulfillment, stability, power and life represented by the full moon.
• The Crone represents wisdom, repose, death, and endings represented by the waning moon.

Using the three models above I have constructed an imaginary street where the three ladies in question have businesses. Hekation Street is a busy street located just to the west of St. Casimirs. It has a number of boutiques and cafes. The alley leading off from it also contains a homeless shelter. When creating the abode of Witches it is important to consider how they generate their power. The Witchfinders book describes this power as 'Source' and it details how it is generated. In each of the settings below I have mentioned at the end the primary source from which the Witch gains power.

The Maidenhead Club: This club is located on the corner of the street. It is frequented by a very youthful crowd generally older teenagers and college kids. Its a large venue on two levels. The basement houses a rock club that is only about half the size of the club above. The rest of the area is given over to storage and offices. This part of the club is open every night of the week and it gets a slightly older audience. The upstairs portion is the main club area. Here there is a huge dancefloor and equally huge bar and a small VIP area. It is open from Thursday late until pretty much Sunday morning. The music varies according to the different nights. The owner of the club Marian Voist is there most evenings until late. She is also very young, in her early twenties. Marian generates source from Passion.

Coner Health and Beauty Spa:
This instituition has been here since the sixties. Run by the now quite old Pamela Coner this lavish spa provides all the luxuries a person could want. It operates on three levels. Its slogan is:

At the Coner health and Beauty Spa, we provide the best Spa Products and Treatments available. Our dedicated, fully trained staff are committed to providing superior service in our beautiful Spa environment. Whether you visit the Spa for a day or an hour, our services will rejuvenate your body and enhance your personal well being.

The Spa is open everyday except on Sundays. Appointments are needed for any of the treatments as this really is the most sought after Spa in the city. Pamela generates source from health.

Mother Stanlovs Shelter for the Homeless:
Down a rather decrepit alley way just off Hekation Street lies the Shleter. It caters for men only and generally provides a maximum of six months stay. It also houses a small treatment centre for any sick men that might be staying there. It is infact one of the only places to treat the homeless other than the public hospital and it proves very popular. The men residing here are encouraged not to loiter around during day time especially at the Hekation end of the alley way. Instead they are encouraged to enter the alley from the Parkway entrance opposite Hekation Street. The men refer to Natascha Stanlov as mother and they are all very devoted to her. She has a small staff that help her out. She is a trained nurse. Natascha generates source from disease and nature. She is the most powerful of the three Witches.

So now I have three locations more. I need to detail the personalities and motivations of the owners a little better. Ideas so far have been pretty simple. One being the generation of more and more source by Natascha has lead to the blighting of part of St. Casimirs. The Ghoulds noticing this and having their business disrupted by it have decided to investigate what is happening. With some magical resources on their side they could easy find what has created the blight. The Homeless here are also acting as the foot soldiers of the Witches. The Ghouls and the Homeless are waging a silent battle each night and the Hunters are picking up on this. Te nightclub also offers a lot of potential as it can easily become the target of a clandestine take over by a Vampire. It would be a rich hunting ground. So there are plenty of options here to move forward.

St. Casimirs Cemetery

So having decided last week that I want my Ghoul Clan to essentially operate from a cemetery and hospital complex I need to find one that suits. I selected Chicago and searched through its cemeteries to find a map. For me a map is a must have especially in anything that is modern in theme. It is easy in a fantasy setting to describe a cave or a wood. In a modern setting you need to generate some believability. Also when the characters could easily find these maps on the internet I need to have something I can hand to them and say "hey you search for a few minutes this is what you find". I came up with two that suited. The first one I liked due to the name. It is called St. Casimirs Lithuanian Cemetery. Thats a great name as it immediately identifies the Ghouls inhabiting it as Lithuanian. This will work to give them a distinct feeling and makes it easier to find pictures for the NPC's I might need. Checking through some Lithuanian names I settled upon Kalanta. The Creamtorium will be run by Benediktas Kalanta and family. However the location also includes a High School and some aprtments pretty close to what would be the business end of the cemetery. So while I like the name I think I will go with my second option Rosehill. St. Casimirs is also a little too open for what I had in mind. There are not so many trees so I can't use a nice Google Maps image. This problem is immediately solved by the second option.

Rosehill would seem to be the more prestigious of the two cemeteries I selected. It has a lot more decorative monuments for instance. The map also works really well. I will be lifting this directly out of Chicago and placing it in the city/town I create. I just need to get a hospital plan that I can put across the street and I am all set. I can easily take a lot of photographs and use them without having to go searching. I will stick with the first name though as it suits my purpose best. I just need a plan of the church located there and hopefully a crematorium if they have one. So now when one of the players says "I check on Google Maps as to what the location looks like I can instantly provide them with a picture. I do have the possibility to present this to them on a large screen also so that is nice to have. The problem with that is the fact I can't create a map feature online for the game. Still it is nice to have and it will still let them investigate before they go near the cemetery.

Benediktas Kalanta and family Funeral Home:
Another search on Google turned up this nice floorplan for the crematorium/mortuary owned by the Kalantas. A lot of action will happen here eventually so I think it is important to have a good map. It also saves a lot of work as I would normally have had to draft this myself. I won't reveal the map here to the players as the Kalantas are not stupid enough to put this on the internet. It will be good for me though to mark the places during the inevitable fight that will occur here.

Ghouls - what are they?

These will be the main low level antagonists for the players in my upcoming Hunter: the Vigil game. However their exact nature remains elusive and is something I would really like to tie down. They are represented in medieval folklore already and this depicts them in a number of ways. The most common being the fact that they eat human flesh and that they live in graveyards. They are more often linked with Werewolves or at least exhibit similar traits than they are with Vampires. They are often described in Arabian sources as shape shifters though they generally change into Hyenas rather than Wolves. They are also reported to prey specifically on young children, to rob graves and to drink blood. One of the most interesting traits is the ability to take on the form of a victim they have previously eaten. The definition from White Wolf is:

Slaves to the addictive taste of vampiric Vitae, ghouls trade servitude for that heady substance. Servitude, however, damns them far more than they know, as their unnatural craving drives them to ever greater desperation and depravity. Among those known as blood slaves, there's no such thing as "just one fix."

However this doesn't fit exactly with what I have in mind. It is close but not exact. I would prefer to have the Ghouls act as the minions of a powerful witch rather than a vampire. I suppose a thaumaturgical vampire wouldn't be out of the question.

The Purpose:
The Ghouls are in the game to introduce the players to the World of Darkness. They will be the cause of whatever incident is the first that the players come across. They will then be used to reveal that they are not alone in this World of Darkness but only pawns in a struggle. They will also provide a direct physical threat to the Hunters and will actively seek them out. The fact that they are almost indistinguishable from the normal populace will foster a sense of general uneasiness as the Hunters won' know who to trust.These will give the players that first sense that they have dealt with a problem and succeeded. Some hunting packs of ghouls will be easily dealt with and then there can be some for of a boss monster, maybe that can be a vampire. It could also be a better than average ghoul, I haven't decided. He (it?) can be hidden somewhere within their base of operations meaning that the party have to go in a deal with it.

The Hide-Out:
This is simple. The Ghould need flesh. Human flesh to be exact. Where is this easily available? A crematorium would be good. Who inspects the ashes to really see if they are human ashes and not something else. Combine this with a hospital and a large graveyard and you pretty much have the perfect setting for a Ghoul Clan. It also allows for a gunfight without too much worry that the police will arrive. A graveyard at night won't be filled with people afterall!

What they are doing:
Now here is always a difficult question. Survival is not really an option. If they are merely surviving then they are not going to be noticed by anyone. They can't be just minding their own business. So they need an adversary. I don't want to detail that just yet but the Ghouls must be acting against them. So what exactly are they doing? Killing homeless people might be a trope of the genre but it works. That is why it is a trope! So someone or something is controlling the homeless people. These are then being used against the Ghouls. Why? Hmmm well drawing on the Algol inspiration the Ghouls are in possession of some powerful Taliman and this other power wants it. Infact the talisman has just arrived in the city or is on its way. A play is being made for it which means the Ghouls are under surveilance. So they have reacted and are attempting to remove the people that are being used.

I now have one basic group in the web of intrigue that still needs some development. A good start is half the work after all!

Hunter: the vigil

I am planning on running a Hunter game within the next few months. Once the Ravenloft game is finished with of course. It is going well and I hope it continues but I am planning for the inevitable and I want to jump in while there is a gap in everyones roleplay sessions. Everyone wants me to run Gamma World to I would prefer Hunter. Gamma World is fine but I can't easily tell a story in that game. I am struggling a little with what story exactly I want to tell even with Hunter and therefore how to tell it is really causing me some problems. I would like a slow exposure to the World of Darkness background to the players for sure. Only one of my players is familiar with the game, though he is very familiar. I will probably ask him to play some form of occultist to explain how come he has that much knowledge. The rest don't have a clue so this means I can easily use what I want. I would like the horror part of the game to be high and to have a lot of tension.

This then easily leads into an overall but limited arc. Something has happened, a process has started. If the players don't stop the process something worse happens. So immediately they are on a time scale. They will not know exactly what is about to happen but they know when it will happen. Lets just say when the Moon is next full. So within twenty eight days they need to define and accomplish their goals. The next thing is the horror. This can come in many forms and it will serve to heighten the tension. Shock is one form but an insidious atmosphere of horror generally serves best. To create this one needs to give the players something very familar and friendly and then slowly change it to the unfamiliar and unfriendly. So their hometown should at first be a perfect society and then over the progress of the campaign it becomes something else entirely. The woods on the north of the town where the players enjoyed picnics with their families is revealed as a nest of Werewolves. The sewers hide Vampires while a coven of Witches are the caretakers at the homeless shelter. Defining these themes will take a while but will be worth it in the end.

One of the things I really want to include are Ghouls. I am not sure how to do this but as they are my favourite of all horror monsters I should be able to find a place. The local mortuary/crematorium/graveyard should be a fine setting. Though what role should they play? Well as in the Hunter rulebook Ghouls or at least a form of them are described. For me they will be the introductory horror. The first experience that the characters will have with the otherside. In some way the ghouls will effect the lives of everyone in the group bringing them together and providing an initial motivation. Thankfully some research from the link above has turned up a lot of useful information on the creature including the fact that a star is named after it, Algol. Even better this star has an occult tradition from the middle ages. Thats a lot of fuel for my inspiration.

For instance having Algol and its stronger influence when within 6° of a planet being the event that the players need to race against instantly gives something to work with. It is also a Behenian Star meaning that it was used in the creation of talismans and is associated with diamonds and black hellebore. The latter is a well known poison. Even better than this is the fact it is associated with the summoning on daemons! What better associations can you get for a World of Darkness game?

Further Campaign Thoughts:
The Ghouls
The Cemetery
The Witches