Help me get inspired to run this World of Darkness game

[Rel]

I need a bit of help here.

I've been jonesing to GM a bit lately but that isn't going to happen for a while with my regular gaming group. We're slated to start a Mage: Dark Ages campaign in early December and it'll probably go for around six months or so.

But I do have an opportunity to GM because my wife has expressed an interest in running a solo Mage game for her, based loosely on the setting presented in the Anita Blake books by Laura K. Hamilton. It very closely parallels the World of Darkness setting and I've got all the books I need and so forth.

The problem is that I'm just not hugely inspired at the moment.

What I'd really like to be running is an Eberron game though I think that the Storyteller system is probably a bit better suited for a solo game than Eberron D&D is. But that doesn't matter because that isn't the game that I have an opportunity to run.

I enjoy gaming with my wife a great deal and we've had fun with me running a solo game for her in the past. But I could use some help getting jazzed up to run another Mage/Vampire/Werewolf game.

Anybody care to sling some ideas my way for games of this type that you've had a lot of fun with?

 

[Umbran]

Anybody care to sling some ideas my way for games of this type that you've had a lot of fun with?

I tend to have the most fun with White Wolf games when I attempt to do things that other GMs don't. Set yourself a challenge, something that you clearly can do with the system, but requires you to stretch your GMing skills to manage.

In a typical WW game, though the action is set in a world very similar to our own, the concerns of the mundane world tend to fall away. If it isn't supernatural, the PCs are not concerned with it. It isn't easy for a GM to keep the mundane world relevant and interesting, so I take it as a challenge.

In a typical WW game, things devolve into "Us vs Them". The PCs vs other supernaturals. The factionalization and distrust that is written into the system are set aside for the meta-game consideration of "we are all PCs, and therefore won't screw each other". Create a game that strongly tries to maintain and use the fear, anger, distrust, and paranoia without causing self-destruct of the party. Again, difficult, but that's what makes it challenging.

 

[Rel]

In a typical WW game, though the action is set in a world very similar to our own, the concerns of the mundane world tend to fall away. If it isn't supernatural, the PCs are not concerned with it. It isn't easy for a GM to keep the mundane world relevant and interesting, so I take it as a challenge.

I think this is pretty often the case. One twist that I'm looking at for this setting (because it is a feature of the books I'm basing it on) is that there is no "veil" between the world of the supernatural and the mundanes. It is common knowledge that there are Vampires, Mages and Werewolves. But most people don't fall into that category. I'm trying to envision all the ramifications that would have. I'm guessing lots of things along the same lines as we see with the X-Men comics.

In a typical WW game, things devolve into "Us vs Them". The PCs vs other supernaturals. The factionalization and distrust that is written into the system are set aside for the meta-game consideration of "we are all PCs, and therefore won't screw each other". Create a game that strongly tries to maintain and use the fear, anger, distrust, and paranoia without causing self-destruct of the party. Again, difficult, but that's what makes it challenging.

This is tricky in that this is a solo game I'll be running. There will certainly be ample amounts of NPC's who may lend aid from time to time but I suspect that my wife will be plenty distrustful of them already. But I do think I can take this as a challenge of my GMing skills and seek to get that atmosphere of "Am I Paranoid Enough?" without it devolving into "Everybody is Against Me!"

 

[exile]

ATTENTION: POSSIBLE MOVIE SPOILER FOR "SAW" BELOW
(or maybe I'm being overcautious)









I just watched the movie "Saw" a few days ago. It may not be what you are looking for, but I think it'd be a neat way to open a solo game. Your wife's character awakes to find herself chained in a room. Is she alone? With someone else? Who put her there? How can she escape? Clues and answers are scattered throughout the room. Watch the movie. Steal some ideas. Depending on the pace of your game you may be able to fill a session or an entire campaign (or at least a campaign story arc) with the ideas therein.
Chad