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Post by ericfromnj on Nov 21, 2013 14:30:58 GMT -8
So, my friends are willing to do a nWoD one shot. My wife, a Law and Order fan, would love to do a police procedural, knowing it is going to turn supernatural. I got the police book for nWoD. (Precinct 13? It's upstairs.) So far I have this skeleton of an idea for a one shot. - Cops get call and subdue perp who is much harder to subdue than initially anticipated (Must be on drugs)
- Perp remarkably lucid down at station getting interrogated. Hints at stuff being beyond cops knowledge.
- Perp's buddies discover what happened to perp and decide to spring perp out (maybe he is their leader). Mayhem ensues as perps are more powerful than normal humans.
I was thinking of using a pack of rogue ghouls for this encounter, but I am not completely sold on it. While the cops would know nothing about rogue ghouls they would know they picked up a guy on drugs, he had weird stuff to say in an interrogation, and then a group of people who are much stronger than they look attack the place. But to me this doesn't represent completely what a WoD story should be, based on very old memories. Where are the humanity choices? Where is the sense of dread (aside from the quick lead up to the assault on the precinct)? I want to flesh it out (or start from scratch with maybe ghosts and a mage or something) but retain the straightforward run of the session. help?
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Post by Grog on Nov 21, 2013 21:18:42 GMT -8
This is just weird. I'm running a cop procedural one shot tomorrow night.
Thoughts on your idea:
I think a pack of ghouls attacking the precinct moves pretty far from the themes of mortal WoD, which is supposed to be filled with mystery and things completely beyond the abilities of the PCs. Furthermore, there is no reason that the antagonists should be limited to the things available in the splat books. The writers regularly refer to the "other things that lurk in the shadow". On the podcast they mention a philosophy of designing monsters that amounts to "give them basic stats and one cool power. It doesn't matter if it follows the rules."
It sounds like instead of procedural, you're thinking of a more typical "big fight". Upon reflection, I think the key to a procedural is deciding what happened, coming up with some clue-by-4s if they get stuck, and then yes-and-ing them to victory.
Of course, I'll be able to let you know how well the above approach works in 24 hours.
My session:
I have 4 players and 5 pre-gens (detective, vet/rookie detective, CSI tech, Occult Consultant, Patrol Sergeant).
My plot starts out as a normalish murder mystery, except that there is an obvious vampire red herring. In reality, the murderer is a sort of were-lion (there's a book for shape-shifters too) that kills by biting through the spinal cord like cats do. The initial killing triggers a struggle for dominance in the pride that then leads to infanticide if the players don't stop it. That's dreadful in my opinion. In the event that my players are really into it, I'll probably spin it out into a Grimm-esque style of campaign. Also, the first episode of Grimm could be adapted very well. It's the little red riding hood story.
Other prop related notes: If you haven't already read it, get the rules update. It's awesome and alters Humanity to Integrity and radically changes the system for the better. I've made a 6 page Storyteller Screen (3 for players and 3 for storyteller) that I'm pretty proud of. It's not pretty, but IMHO it has a lot more useful information than the White Wolf screen. I'd be happy to share it. I've also made a "character sheet" that looks like a Personnel form (not fillable), and found a criminal record sheet and autopsy report. There's a thread going in the GM section where Stork gave a link to a place that has a good death certificate. If you want I'll put up links to all of those things.
Grog
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Post by ericfromnj on Nov 22, 2013 8:19:16 GMT -8
I see what you are saying, Grog. I was quick writing stuff up as a rules shakedown like I did GURPs or Savage Worlds, which doesn't do the system justice in World of Darkness.
Though I need to dig up my GURPs Mysteries book to see what exactly I want to do now. I like the idea of having rogue ghouls involved, along with a vampire, and play it fairly straightforward, but I am unsure where to go with it...
Let me check out these rules upda- HOLY CRAP THAT'S A LOT OF UPDATES!
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Post by Grog on Nov 22, 2013 9:24:08 GMT -8
Yeah man. It's basically WoD 2.5, but for free.
As with most White Wolf stuff, if someone wanted to, they could probably cut the fluff etc and boil it down to a mere 10% of its original size.
You could have the players start by wrapping up an investigation that somehow sets the vampires or ghouls on a warpath against the PCs directly. It would be all, ghouls following them home after their shift, Shit lurking in the corners, Getting way too drunk after one drink at the cop bar, equipment that gets stored in lockup mysteriously malfunctions. Make the watchmen the hunted. Yeah!
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sbloyd
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Post by sbloyd on Nov 22, 2013 19:08:36 GMT -8
As far as rogue ghouls go, I've always wanted to have a small pack of ghouls who are keeping a weakened Vamp chained to a wall in a basement, feeding him just enough to stay alive and to convert what they feed him into Vitae, which they drain immediately from him to fuel their own needs...
I imagine some detectives tracking the ghouls to their lair, an abandoned building. Fight possibly ensues. Investigate building, go down into the basement. Oh, here's some poor blighter chained up, the hell beat out of him. Looks almost like a meth lab down here...
...until the lick Frenzies.
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HyveMynd
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Post by HyveMynd on Nov 25, 2013 4:39:38 GMT -8
So, my friends are willing to do a nWoD one shot. My wife, a Law and Order fan, would love to do a police procedural, knowing it is going to turn supernatural. I got the police book for nWoD. (Precinct 13? It's upstairs.) So far I have this skeleton of an idea for a one shot. - Cops get call and subdue perp who is much harder to subdue than initially anticipated (Must be on drugs)
- Perp remarkably lucid down at station getting interrogated. Hints at stuff being beyond cops knowledge.
- Perp's buddies discover what happened to perp and decide to spring perp out (maybe he is their leader). Mayhem ensues as perps are more powerful than normal humans.
I was thinking of using a pack of rogue ghouls for this encounter, but I am not completely sold on it. While the cops would know nothing about rogue ghouls they would know they picked up a guy on drugs, he had weird stuff to say in an interrogation, and then a group of people who are much stronger than they look attack the place. But to me this doesn't represent completely what a WoD story should be, based on very old memories. Where are the humanity choices? Where is the sense of dread (aside from the quick lead up to the assault on the precinct)? Sorry I didn't jump in on this sooner. It looks like you're using "ghoul" to mean a human who has drunk vampire blood. That's what I think of when I hear the word "ghoul", but then again, Vampire: The Requiem is my favorite nWoD splatbook (with Changeling: the Lost a close second). Anyway, my advice is to make it more of a procedural. Your wife wants to play a procedural, so why not give her that? Plus, I think it would help you work in the Humanity choices you say are lacking. Have the PCs investigate a completely mundane, yet brutal homicide. You could even give them some back story, and say that they've been investigating a string of murders over the past few years, all with a common MO. They're on the trail of a serial killer. Have them go around and collect clues, interview people who knew the victim, and talk to eye witnesses. All normal procedural stuff. Make some of the witnesses hostile, suspect, or minor criminals themselves. The tone for nWoD games is dark, so I would suggest not making any of the people they PCs talk to completely clean. If you want to push the Morality thing, present them with a situation where committing a sin (violating their Morality level) will obviously expedite the interrogation or investigation process. Don't do it too often, just a few times. See who bites and starts down the slippery slope to possibly becoming a crooked cop. Side Note: If you're making pre-gens, make characters with different Morality levels. Make a hardened, street tough cop with a Morality of 6. Make a fresh-faced rookie who's never fired a gun before with a Morality of 8. Maybe even make someone who's worked undercover as part of the mob (and has done some pretty awful stuff to ensure they weren't made) with a Morality as low as 5. Part of the reason I love nWoD is all the social interaction mechanics they have. I would really suggest you create situations and scenes where these can be shown off. To that end, don't have a rogue pack of ghouls attack the precinct. Or rather, don't plan for that. That would turn the game into a shoot out. Instead, after they haul the suspect in, have him/her make bail. Or have some fancy lawyer spring him. Better yet, don't have them catch the serial killer just yet. Instead they only find one of his/her associates, and all they have is circumstantial evidence. The suspect gets released, but the chief has the PCs watch the suspect to make sure they don't do anything weird. Which is, of course, exactly what they do. Rather than having ghouls assault the precinct (which would totally break the Masquerade, and probably result in the death of whatever vampire owned them), have the PCs follow the suspect into a ghoul meeting place. Preferably with humans present. Like a dance club or an underground rave. Make it really hard for them to tell the difference between ghouls and humans (as it should be, since ghouls are just humans with vampire blood in them) and see if they abandon their Morality. Only then have the ghouls display their super-human power. Eh, I kind of rambled there, but to sum up. Save the supernatural stuff for the last scene. Up until that point, make it a normal (but dark) cop procedural.
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D.T. Pints
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Post by D.T. Pints on Nov 25, 2013 8:34:15 GMT -8
"In the super natural criminal justice system, the people are beset by two separate yet equally important groups: the lupines who prowl the streets rending limb from limb, and the blood Sucking leeches... I mean district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories. " Bum. Bum. CLAW AND GORER. Murder mystery. Cops investigate and eventually apprehend a vampire. Then they have to actually put them on trial. While the rest of the clan shows up to make that "difficult". Better yet a court room RP drama scene with a 150 year old entity that looks 23 would be (I haven't said this in awhile...) AMMMMAZZZZING! Oh yeah and Sippowitz is a werewolf.
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maxinstuff
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Post by maxinstuff on Nov 25, 2013 12:41:18 GMT -8
The most important part of police procedure is removing your sunglasses correctly.
You have to know when to do it dramatically, and when to do it ironically.
It's surprisingly important.
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Post by ericfromnj on Nov 26, 2013 10:56:11 GMT -8
My wife's Law and Order fixation is probably the reason for this obsession with a cop procedural. I so want her to try another game.
Thank you all for the feedback. It is - difficult anymore for me to actually come up with new ideas for games, unlike in the past, so please forgive me if I keep throwing stuff at the wall here to see what sticks...
OK, so 4 players. 2 Detectives. One was threatened by a mob boss recently so the detective pair has a set of plain clothes police bodyguards. 2 Detectives. 2 Cops.
Grisly murder happens. Same MO that has happened before. (Making this a little railroady for new system and inexpereinced wife. Other players will be cool with it). Drop clue that favorite jazz band of one cop is in town. Also drop clues that this happens every few months. Then also drop clue that this times in with Jazz Band being in town.
Jazz band is a set of rogue ghouls from V:TR. Murdered subjects are ghouls from vampires in the city. Sometimes one murder, sometimes two. Vampires go missing due to exposure from sunlight wiping them out entirely. Looking at missing persons report (which is not crucial to solving case) would have missing people who work at night all going missing at the same time.
Talk with doctor about subjects being struck with hard objects. Mortician hiding something. Successful social challenge results in mortician confessing that he can tell that whatever the murder subject got hit with was shaped like a fist. Further success would have mortician show a wound that partially was healed. Analysis shows that unhealed part of wound was recent. It would be impossible for a wound in part to heal that quickly. (Showing uses of superior strength and vitae to heal wounds).
Interviewing witnesses can get that there were 5 males involved in the assault, and they used fists. Further investigation would state there were 2 people attacked and one was taken away (a woman who fought back). Another person would claim they saw the woman cause a man to go flying 10 feet with one punch.
I plan for a final confrontation where the ghouls are keeping the vampire chained up. Will figure out rest when I have more time on computer.
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Post by ericfromnj on Nov 26, 2013 12:14:10 GMT -8
Anyway, looking for a way to lead them to interviewing the jazz band, and from there yes anding them to the local lair of the ghouls (they could try to follow, they could see if any of them own property, etc.)
There they have a vampire chained up (the woman) who they are feeding and then taking her vitae so that they can stay young (they are from the 1920's - another thing with investigation I can yes and as they have come back as their own descendants a few times now).
From that point I can shake down the combat rules and then have the vampire to deal with.
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fredrix
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Post by fredrix on Dec 1, 2013 4:53:39 GMT -8
May be late to the party. But I'm loving what you are doing here, making the victim a vampire. But do make sure there's at least one voice of vampire hatred in the party/their superiors. Vampires are evil scum and it's every human's duty to destroy them. (I react badly to Twilight style "live and let live" interpretations.)
You could have the fire department turn up, with instructions to burn the building, with the vampire victim still chained inside. That might lead to some conflict, though it might turn it into more than a one-shot.
That last idea isn't mine by the way but nicked from the PC Peter Grant books, a police procedural with magic, vampires and fae etc based in London. The first, is called Midnight Riot in the states. Worth reading.
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HyveMynd
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Post by HyveMynd on Dec 1, 2013 16:25:46 GMT -8
I react badly to Twilight EVERYONE reacts badly to Twilight. Even those of us who are Vampire players who play PCs that are trying to retain their Humanity and adopt the "live and let live" mindest.
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1d4cast_James
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Post by 1d4cast_James on Dec 1, 2013 19:50:48 GMT -8
I react badly to Twilight EVERYONE reacts badly to Twilight. Even those of us who are Vampire players who play PCs that are trying to retain their Humanity and adopt the "live and let live" mindest. Truth. Anyway, I also think that this game idea is top notch and hope it goes off well . I would suggest making all of the characters 1st tier hunters from Hunter: The Vigil. I say use Hunter, because I really like the extra rules they get (Willpower and Tactics) and their Profession is actually an integral part of the character. I say 1st tier as they are the only hunters they know and they don't have any alligences with any groups/factions. All and all, have a great game!
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maxinstuff
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Post by maxinstuff on Dec 1, 2013 20:15:05 GMT -8
This thread makes me want to run some sort of Sin City hardboiled crime game.....
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HyveMynd
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Post by HyveMynd on Dec 1, 2013 21:12:59 GMT -8
This thread makes me want to run some sort of Sin City hardboiled crime game..... If someone says "Hey! You should run that in Savage Worlds!" they're getting punched in the junk. Repeatedly.
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