Anyone interested?

[thormagni]

I've been reading Monte Cook's World of Darkness and it is pretty darn cool. Anyone interested in playing a modern horror/conspiracy game with D20, even as a fill-in for a couple of sessions? I'd really like to run this, especially with Halloween right around the corner

 

[Grimhelm]

Thanks for the offer, but I'm not all that interested.

 

[InzeladunMaster]

I do like horror games...

 

[Fyrestryke]

You know me. I'm jiggy with trying different systems.

 

[thormagni]

You know me. I'm jiggy with trying different systems.

Well Monte Cook's World of Darkness (MCWoD) is D20 and while I like some of Monte's decisions for the game and for the setting, I am sort of flummoxed by others.

For example, he has an interesting setting rationale for the horror that is happening in the world -- a reason that there are supernatural creatures wandering around and supernatural events happening. And while there are creatures who, for example, drink blood and shy away from sunlight, they have no relationship to mythological vampires, nor do they have any relationship to White Wolf's existing World of Darkness history. They are not vampires in any traditional sense and the rationale for them is entirely new.

But I'm not sure how I feel about his decisions in regards to the "Hunters."

A little background: Prior to the release of the new World of Darkness three or four years ago, White Wolf had a series of games called "Hunter: The Reckoning" which has really interested me. I have bought most of the books for that series.

I just enjoy the idea that there is a group of grungy, near-psychotic humans wandering around putting magic bullets in the heads of these blood suckers. Moreso than the story of an effete vampire lord politicking with his fellows, the story of the gas station attendant who caps that vampire lord has interested me.

But these Hunters were not heroes or even the good guys in the game setting. I mean, if the voice of God tells you that your neighbor is a vampire and you need to kill him with your newly enchanted shotgun, what do you do? What if you believed you had powers that only these monsters could see and that only affect them? These Hunters were really treading a thin line between being a force of vengeance and lunatics. And then the game world and all the NPCs treated you just as you might expect. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her cult would have the police after them in the real world.

THAT is a setting loaded with interesting role-playing opportunities to me.

In Monte Cook's World of Darkness, he has sort of resurrected that Hunter idea with a class called "The Awakened," who are normal humans who have realized what is happening in the shadows and are called to fight it. But while in the Hunter line, those humans gain some powers and abilities of their own, in MCWoD they basically are just heroic humans who gain feats and ability increases, but no powers.

On the one hand, I guess it IS scarier to fight the forces of darkness when you've got no supernatural abilities of your own, but on the other, the Awakened just don't seem as special to me as the monsters wandering around the world. Especially when you consider that the game setting gives players an option to play "vampires," "werewolfs" and "demons."

Needless to say, the game I am interested in running is a Hunters vs. monsters game and I wouldn't want players to play "vampires" or "werewolves." Even if these are entirely new creatures entirely unrelated to mythology or fiction.

In fact, I would feel much better about these creatures if they DIDN'T call them vampires, werewolves and demons. But what else would society call a bloodsucker who can't stand the sunlight, or a creature that changes into a feral shape when the moon is just right?

 

[thormagni]

And I would reveal more about how the monsters came to be, but I think that would ruin the mysteries of the game world. So I don't want to give out any Spoilers to anyone reading this thread.

 

[Fyrestryke]

I'm good with that as long as we aren't tied up in a van for hours on end waiting for the NPCs to save the day.