Hour11's "Monster Hunters" game Repair/Rebuild.
Aug 9, 2013 8:41:32 GMT -8
Post by HourEleven on Aug 9, 2013 8:41:32 GMT -8
Hey everybody, been gone awhile - dealing with unemployment, but that's neither here nor there.
Background
So I began running a game of World of Darkness: Hunter with my group about a year ago. This was the third WoD game I was GMing at the time and I got serious system burn out. I convinced my players to let us shift the game over to GURPS (my original comfort zone) and now I have a chance to fix all the burnout mistakes I made those few sessions where I feel like [in hindsight] I might have been phoning it in.
I'm going to list the facts that are already cannon to the world, and I'm looking for some serious suggestions for the secret background story. Just throw out ideas and maybe something will stick. I need somewhere to bounce ideas around, and this seems like the place.
General Game Feeling:
It is definitely not (and maybe never was) a very World of Darkness game. It's a lot more fun and less bleak than that. We've always just referred to it as "Monster Hunters."
The best way I can think of to describe the game simply is the world of Supernatural, the plastic cinematic combat of Buffy, and maybe a slice of Rom/Com playing out at the personal level.
The format is a very "Monster of the Week" picaresque structure with a slowly unraveling greater story. I have 2 players, one playing Ginger & one playing Luke - although it is already decided that Ginger is the main character of the story.
Facts of the Story Thus Far:
ABOUT GINGER
• Ginger Evans is a secret witch and fledgling hunter.
• If any hunter finds out, they will probably try and kill her.
• Her father, Jack Evans, was a hunter - but he died recently under mysterious circumstance.
• She discovered her father’s hunter records and began training.
• Her mother, Elizabeth Evans (also a witch), uprooted the family when Jack died and moved them to a new town.
• Ginger, due to her secret (being a witch, her strange mother, and dealing with “Han” [see below]) has kept her an outcast most of her life.
ABOUT LUKE
• Luke Hardy-Friel wants to be a hunter like his father Ryan Friel (He will fill those shoes no matter what it takes).
• Ryan Friel is regarded amongst hunters as the best their ever was (at least in recent memory).
• Donna Hardy is a house wife that Ryan knocked up after banishing a poltergeist from her house.
• Luke has followed Ryan's trail back to this town where his base used to be.
Ryan's gone missing.
• Luke is too good looking, and he knows it. Luckily he’s a little dumb, but that just makes him more charming.
ABOUT HAN or Hikanadono
• He was the rape product of a Native American Healer and a Demon around the time of the Louisiana Purchase.
• As the healer raised him, it became apparent his powers would be practically unlimited and completely uncontrollable... oh, and evil.
• Before the evil took him over completely, he begged his lover to convince her grandmother to bind his power forever.
• His powers had to be attached to something [preferrably something unbreakable and eternal] so she chose her family line, starting with her grand daughter.
• As long as a female of their blood exists, Han's powers are bound to them, and he is tasked to protect them.
• The fact that he became a 6 inch tall, adorable little purple demon [who conveniently fits in a purse] was an unforeseen circumstance of the spell mixing with his demon blood.
• Only when the witch he is bound to is threatened can he assume his true form and gain back his human form and a sliver of his powers - but only for a moment.
• In demon form, Han can’t speak, he can only gesture.
• He is also indestructible, as long as the witch lives.
ABOUT SHAKES
• [She is loosely based on a Changeling character from a Hunter SNS adventure]
• Sara "Shakes" Friel is John's unofficially adopted daughter.
• She occasionally contacts Ginger with unfinished cases that Ryan had started to investigate before he went missing.
• She is horribly damaged and untrusting. She sets up absurdly complex meet ups in order to give the players their assignments.
• The name Shakes comes from her uncontrollable trembling and the fact that she can’t remember her name. Ryan called her Sara, after someone…
ABOUT PRIEST
• He knew both Jack and Ryan.
• He gave up his real name when he became a hunter. Now all that matters is destroying the unnatural.
• Priest became a hunter when a demon possessed his body and slaughtered his entire congregation with his own 2 hands. He is now just divine vengeance.
• Priest is Ginger and Luke’s only official contact. He is affiliated with the Hunter network and is their key to admission – if they want to.
• Priest would kill Ginger in a second if he knew she was a witch. Half a second if he knew she carried a demon with her.
Possible Future Story:
Demon's can almost never manifest on earth in their true forms. They take the forms of willing humans, or non-consecrated corpses. The rite to gain passage to this plane is costly, brief, and gains the attention of holy forces. A demon prince paid the exorbatant costs and gained momentary presence on earth for the sole purpose of planting the seed of the destruction of the world. Once his child is born, he will be a fully fledged demon with all his powers (the same as a demon manifested on earth in it's true form), who can walk freely amongst the humans without gathering the notice of heaven.
Too bad his plan was foiled by an old witch. He has now been eradicating that family line one at a time hoping to release his son's binding and tear open the gate to hell.
Through his hunting, Jack learned about this demon and was trying everything in his power to stop it, and protect his family (without any other hunters finding out - because witches are abominations in the eyes of hunters).
Ryan Friel was helping Jack. Jack was the real hero, but he always left Ryan to take the credit.
How will Luke deal with learning his father wasn't the hero in the stories he's heard since his youth?
Where did Ryan go? Was he taken over by the demon?
What's the demon's next move? Does he know where Ginger is?
Suggestions? Other story ideas? Any inspiration in fleshing this out is welcome.
Oh, and I'm not worried about mechanics, me and Gurps go back almost 20 years.
EDIT: Fixed a John/Ryan snafu.
Background
So I began running a game of World of Darkness: Hunter with my group about a year ago. This was the third WoD game I was GMing at the time and I got serious system burn out. I convinced my players to let us shift the game over to GURPS (my original comfort zone) and now I have a chance to fix all the burnout mistakes I made those few sessions where I feel like [in hindsight] I might have been phoning it in.
I'm going to list the facts that are already cannon to the world, and I'm looking for some serious suggestions for the secret background story. Just throw out ideas and maybe something will stick. I need somewhere to bounce ideas around, and this seems like the place.
General Game Feeling:
It is definitely not (and maybe never was) a very World of Darkness game. It's a lot more fun and less bleak than that. We've always just referred to it as "Monster Hunters."
The best way I can think of to describe the game simply is the world of Supernatural, the plastic cinematic combat of Buffy, and maybe a slice of Rom/Com playing out at the personal level.
The format is a very "Monster of the Week" picaresque structure with a slowly unraveling greater story. I have 2 players, one playing Ginger & one playing Luke - although it is already decided that Ginger is the main character of the story.
Facts of the Story Thus Far:
ABOUT GINGER
• Ginger Evans is a secret witch and fledgling hunter.
• If any hunter finds out, they will probably try and kill her.
• Her father, Jack Evans, was a hunter - but he died recently under mysterious circumstance.
• She discovered her father’s hunter records and began training.
• Her mother, Elizabeth Evans (also a witch), uprooted the family when Jack died and moved them to a new town.
• Ginger, due to her secret (being a witch, her strange mother, and dealing with “Han” [see below]) has kept her an outcast most of her life.
ABOUT LUKE
• Luke Hardy-Friel wants to be a hunter like his father Ryan Friel (He will fill those shoes no matter what it takes).
• Ryan Friel is regarded amongst hunters as the best their ever was (at least in recent memory).
• Donna Hardy is a house wife that Ryan knocked up after banishing a poltergeist from her house.
• Luke has followed Ryan's trail back to this town where his base used to be.
Ryan's gone missing.
• Luke is too good looking, and he knows it. Luckily he’s a little dumb, but that just makes him more charming.
ABOUT HAN or Hikanadono
• He was the rape product of a Native American Healer and a Demon around the time of the Louisiana Purchase.
• As the healer raised him, it became apparent his powers would be practically unlimited and completely uncontrollable... oh, and evil.
• Before the evil took him over completely, he begged his lover to convince her grandmother to bind his power forever.
• His powers had to be attached to something [preferrably something unbreakable and eternal] so she chose her family line, starting with her grand daughter.
• As long as a female of their blood exists, Han's powers are bound to them, and he is tasked to protect them.
• The fact that he became a 6 inch tall, adorable little purple demon [who conveniently fits in a purse] was an unforeseen circumstance of the spell mixing with his demon blood.
• Only when the witch he is bound to is threatened can he assume his true form and gain back his human form and a sliver of his powers - but only for a moment.
• In demon form, Han can’t speak, he can only gesture.
• He is also indestructible, as long as the witch lives.
ABOUT SHAKES
• [She is loosely based on a Changeling character from a Hunter SNS adventure]
• Sara "Shakes" Friel is John's unofficially adopted daughter.
• She occasionally contacts Ginger with unfinished cases that Ryan had started to investigate before he went missing.
• She is horribly damaged and untrusting. She sets up absurdly complex meet ups in order to give the players their assignments.
• The name Shakes comes from her uncontrollable trembling and the fact that she can’t remember her name. Ryan called her Sara, after someone…
ABOUT PRIEST
• He knew both Jack and Ryan.
• He gave up his real name when he became a hunter. Now all that matters is destroying the unnatural.
• Priest became a hunter when a demon possessed his body and slaughtered his entire congregation with his own 2 hands. He is now just divine vengeance.
• Priest is Ginger and Luke’s only official contact. He is affiliated with the Hunter network and is their key to admission – if they want to.
• Priest would kill Ginger in a second if he knew she was a witch. Half a second if he knew she carried a demon with her.
Possible Future Story:
Demon's can almost never manifest on earth in their true forms. They take the forms of willing humans, or non-consecrated corpses. The rite to gain passage to this plane is costly, brief, and gains the attention of holy forces. A demon prince paid the exorbatant costs and gained momentary presence on earth for the sole purpose of planting the seed of the destruction of the world. Once his child is born, he will be a fully fledged demon with all his powers (the same as a demon manifested on earth in it's true form), who can walk freely amongst the humans without gathering the notice of heaven.
Too bad his plan was foiled by an old witch. He has now been eradicating that family line one at a time hoping to release his son's binding and tear open the gate to hell.
Through his hunting, Jack learned about this demon and was trying everything in his power to stop it, and protect his family (without any other hunters finding out - because witches are abominations in the eyes of hunters).
Ryan Friel was helping Jack. Jack was the real hero, but he always left Ryan to take the credit.
How will Luke deal with learning his father wasn't the hero in the stories he's heard since his youth?
Where did Ryan go? Was he taken over by the demon?
What's the demon's next move? Does he know where Ginger is?
Suggestions? Other story ideas? Any inspiration in fleshing this out is welcome.
Oh, and I'm not worried about mechanics, me and Gurps go back almost 20 years.
EDIT: Fixed a John/Ryan snafu.