by page@cs.odu.edu (1 Dec 92)
Due to an overwhelming response of tell me, tell me!!! I decided to share what was going on in the game I'm running. Keep in mind that I'm making this up as i go along, and I am heavily influenced by Ann Rice's novels.
There is only one player, I like to keep the game small. He is playing a rather normal Tremere/Doctor. He was embraced in Seattle, but was asked to move due to overwhelming vampire population pressure there. He eventually settled in New Orleans (giving him thorough culture shock) and at the time of the story's start, he has been there for 1 day. He has bought a house (3 dots resources), and brought various and sundry with him.
Here is the outline of New O: The Prince is a very mysterious individual. He prefers to operate through underlings and is hardly ever seen. His name is Tiersten, (a Tremere as well) and he rules his city VERY strictly, creating 'fiefdoms' to keep vampires of different clans from jyhading each other TOO much. However, New O is 9/10th Tremere [too long to explain...but I do have a reason], so most of the dukedoms are Tremere as well.
The duke of David's (the characters) area is named Malbeth. He is a very nice, intelligent vampire who runs a safehouse for Tremere disguised as an outpatient clinic. Malbeth is very commanding, tho', and will not put up with any bunk.
Another major npc is Julien, a rogue-ish caitiff who just happens to be part or Mal's dominion.
{i will refer to the pc as david, since that's the name of the pc in my game}
David goes in to meet Malbeth, the duke of this area. After a quick greeting, David is given a job at the clinic for appearances, and an office. Later, as David is leaving, he bumps into Julien, who is entering the clinic. Julien is a very pleasant, but somewhat self-centered person, and he seems to have contracted a nasty cough. David realizes that this is very odd, considering that Vampires don't breathe. He takes Julien in and performs thaumaturgic blood analyzation on him, and discovers something is VERY wrong. David immediately gets Malbeth, who also analyzes the blood and gets very concerned. He sends David away. David walks the city for awhile to get his bearing, and eventually goes home as the sun begins rising. Then...
As David falls asleep in his inner sanctum, he hears a voice calling, as if from a long distance away. He struggles to wake up (lots of WP rolls) and discovers Julien (who had been put in quarantine) asleep in the corner. A sickly smell fills the room. Upon closer examination, David discovers that Julien's arms are now covered with tumors. David doesn't want to turn Julien out, and decides to sleep in the basement. After some creative leaping and crawling to get away from the sunlight streaming through the windows, he safely gets to the basement, where consciousness slips away from him.
This was most effective by describing New O in July: humid, hot, and green... just a thought.
I will post more if there's any more interest...this was just the first 2hours of the game that's run for about 10 hours or so...and I have a lot of ideas for the next session :)
{presented in the form it was played, merely to give other ST's ideas...}
David wakes up in the basement and walks up to his haven. Julien is gone, leaving behind the stench of decay. After calling for some professional cleaners, he calls Malbeth to check in. Malbeth tells him not to come in, and to just familiarize himself with the city.
David spends a few hours studying through his medical journals, he finds a mention of an ancient variety of bronchitis called Ghoul's Pox (red herring :)
David decides on a night on the town. First he goes to a dance club and finds a rather attractive young lawyer, who he takes to a showing of MacBeth. Strange, the actor who plays MacDuff so wonderfully has a nasty cough... Later, as he drives the young woman home, he nearly hits a terrified woman who is running from a lurking figure who runs across the building tops. Recognizing that such agility and grace belongs only to the undead, David leaps out of the car and begins chasing to see what is going on. Eventually, David overtakes the woman as the figure drops down in front of her. She spins, colliding against David and knocking him down.
The figure is dressed completely in black, no patch of skin visible. He says in a gravelling soft voice, "she is mine, brother." David nods and holds her as the vampire in black feeds off of her. As he feeds, David gets a good look at the vampires mouth--what's left of it; seems the vampire is decaying badly and has a nasty cough...
"Evil Creatures!" cries a voice behind them. As the vamp turns, he gets an Ithica Shotgun blast full in the chest! (can you say 8 damage successes? I knew you could, whew!) The vampire's chest sprays all over David, who is getting up at the time. David espies a man hiding in the corner, dressed in camo, holding a shotgun. There is a strange device on a trashcan next to the man. David rushes him, and takes 4 wound levels for his effort. David runs away and hears the man behind him finish off the vampire in the alley.
David heals himself with his few remaining Blood Points, removes his shirt (splattered with the other vampire) and returns to the car. The girl in the car faints.
David returns the girl to the dance club (where her car is) and feeds off of her as she lies unconscious. Then, he returns home, changes clothes, and calls the medical clinic. Malbeth informs David that the clinic is under quarantine and he is NOT to come in until the cause of the wasting disease is found...
David rounds out the evening by researching some more, and then turns in for the day, having botched his research roll.
end part two (this is the current situation until Wed night :)
What's going to happen:
There are two rival factions:
The first are vampire hunters. They have developed a type of radioactive bacteria that feeds off of decaying blood protein (like in a vampire). The man in the alley was one of these, the device a vampire-tracker which detects these bacteria.
The second faction is either (?) Mages/Vampires going for jyhad etc. They found out faction a's plans and 'acquired' a sample of the bacteria...and then developed a pathogen that feeds upon the bacteria, and whose excretions hasten the decay process...
(if you want a reason for everything: the bacteria feed on the blood, slowly sapping the vampires strength, the virus feeds on the bacteria, and the excretions kill the vampire as it is so weakened)
Now,
David has caught the bacteria from the woman he fed on, making him trackable and vulnerable to the virus. Eventually, he will raid faction a's base, with help acquired from faction b (he doesn't know their affiliation) and later raid faction b's base with faction a's help (who won't know he's a vampire (maybe--haven't figured this out yet))...
this is all I've figured out so far...any suggestions/ideas would be appreciated...
d.