Whispering Vault in play

[GreatWolf]

Hopefully that isn't a misleading title....

I'm actually looking for general comments, thoughts, etc. on Whispering Vault.  I was in Peoria, IL this weekend preparing for the big move, and I was (of course) scouting for gaming stores.  We only ended up with time to visit one, but it had a copy of Whispering Vault.  Now, I was entranced by the concept behind this game ever since I read the preview in Pyramid back in 1994 (IIRC), so I dropped the bucks and bought the game.

So, anyone have any wisdom to share?

[hardcoremoose]

Seth,

Our group is actually playing The Vault right now.  Well, not this very moment, but you know what I mean.  We started up a story arc last Friday, so I guess I'm qualified to comment.

First of all, I've played The Vault ever since its release.  Not extensively, but probably eight or nine times prior to this most current run.  It's a rich, rich game, with a lot going for it.

Chargen is great.  Look at the characters we generated just recently: A one-time Jewish freedom fighter from the Warsaw ghetto, whose Avatar is the fused and charred remains of the family she couldn't protect from the nazis; the living, fossilized remains of an Australopithecus, inhabiting a perpetually darkened museum; a near sessile plant, playing host to a variety of living creatures among its tangled branches and roots; and the living embodiment of Alcatraz, shaped like a man, but made of granite, punctuated by bars in its chest from which its prisoners peer out.  Cool stuff.

The game itself has a very tight structure - the PCs get a Call, head to the mortal Realm to see what's going on, and fix whatever problem inspired the Call.  Some people have called this a weakness in the game, but it's not; it's actually quite liberating.  As a GM, you don't have to deal with a lot of the crap other games leave open - you can focus your creative energy on designing cool villains and setpieces.

Our first session took place in lovely Narragansett, Rhode Island, and involved an Unbidden who had once been a Stalker (and before that, a mortal), and a mortal who had once been an Unbidden.  Of course, they had an ominous history together, which may or may not have been exacerbated by the PC Stalkers sometime in the past.

As far as what I like about the game, there's tons of things:

- I like the emphasis on character, particularly the Unbidden.  The game itself can play out very much like a sort of character study, if you take the time to portray the Unbidden as creatures of passion and obsession, things with motives and goals.

- I like the fact that the PCs aren't just out to kill these unfathomable creatures.  Their job is actually to try to understand them, and I tend to place a high emphasis on the judging and sentencing of the Unbidden.  The PCs have plenty of options in this regard, and it places a sort of moral weight on their shoulders that when done well, allows them to question their own goals and motivations.

- It creates a lot of cool imagery.  The game itself is a real workout for the imagination.

The one reservation I have about the game, and this only came to light after Friday's session (after a several year hiatus from playing it) is that the combat system is pretty clunky and old school: roll for initative, roll to hit, roll for damage.  At the time it was released, The Vault was something of a pioneer - it was one of the first games I encountered that encouraged explicit authorial power, group character creation, and a few other things that by now are considered part and parcel with narrativist play.  But the combat thing is kind of a drag (to be fair, it does move quickly for that sort of thing).

Overall, I think The Vault is a game just about everyone should try.  It's low-threat enough to appeal to a wide variety of players, with enough violence and oddity to cater to the lowbrow players among a given gaming group, while giving the high concept folks plenty to chew on.  A great, great game all around.

That's it for now...maybe I'll have more as our game progresses.

- Scott

[Petter Sandelin]

Well I'm playing WV at the moment too, so I'll throw in something..

Generally I agree with everything hardcoremoose says, but my group has one exception, we haven't dealt that much with the personality of the unbidden yet. I guess that's my fault as a GM, I've been a bit afraid to make it too human but I see now that there's a big difference between personality and human personality. Most of our horror comes from making the humans in the story human, suffering with them and deciding if a human being or the hunt is the biggest priority.

Problems we have encountered:

1. I feel that the choices of punishment for the unbidden are too limited. You pretty much beat the shit out of it and then send it to the vault. The other choices seems to accomplish pretty much the same. We haven't yet found any good alternatives.

2. As a GM I wanted a fortune based system for the forbiddance. I've written up this basic dice pool thing where you get dice from breaking the rules and roll all of them when the crime seems significant. It adds drama when stalkers try to get by breaking the rules. Also, it lets me drop a dice on them instead of saying "you feel an cold pain in your fingers" when they commit minor crimes.

[Blake Hutchins]

Following similar themes to the Vault's Hunt....  There was a pretty cool, but short-lived TV series about a cop let out of Hell to hunt down a number of other souls who'd escaped.  Pretty cool, some neat twists to the fugitives, including calling into question the nature of evil and judgment.  Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the show.

Best,

Blake

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Following similar themes to the Vault's Hunt....  There was a pretty cool, but short-lived TV series about a cop let out of Hell to hunt down a number of other souls who'd escaped.  Pretty cool, some neat twists to the fugitives, including calling into question the nature of evil and judgment.  Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the show.

Best,

Blake

That would be Brimstone, I believe. What was most interesting to me was the fact that a finite number of souls had escaped. I love stuff like that.

(30 seconds later)

Damn I'm good...
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0165564

[Blake Hutchins]

Brimstone, yeah.  Thanks, Jared.

What I liked best about it was how the writers twisted your expectations so the damned soul or souls weren't what you expected, either not as evil, or more sympathetic, etc.

Best,

Blake

[Jürgen Mayer]

Following similar themes to the Vault's Hunt....  There was a pretty cool, but short-lived TV series about a cop let out of Hell to hunt down a number of other souls who'd escaped.

There's also a RPG called "The Collectors" from Rogue Publishing which fits this theme:

The players portray demons sent to the mortal realm to fetch a soul that is owed to Him. That is, owed to the Master. The Chair. The Executive. The Home Office.

They have been given equipment and identities, and a task which seems at first glance very easy: simply locate the client, explain their purpose, and drag him--kicking and screaming if necessary--back to Processing.

Of course, things are never that easy. . . .

http://www.roguepublishing.com/cgi-bin/viewbook.cgi?value=q003

Here's a review...
http://www.rpg.net/news%2Breviews/reviews/rev_5623.html