Hi

I have just started a new group with the intent of playing another round of the Forbidden Tome scenario, from Sorcerers Soul.

The players all decided that London would be an acceptable setting.

Player 'B' has a strong Heroquest pedigree, and is often caught out with 'interesting' characters not fitting the groups that he has played in. He has created a Malkavian visionary. Obsessed with consipiracy theories and demonic visions. Is he a psychic or just a vampire suffering with some form of bi-polar disorder?

Kicker: Constantly updating various journals. Returns home and finds that someone has been writing in his journal(s).

Player 'M' is a D&D DM and veteran. He has created a Brujah vampire who wasin the milatary, and is now a butt kicking trouble shooter for the camarilla. His dark secret is that he has an infamous sire. Has created a bit of a combat monster, with some extreme kit items like kevlar vests and automatic weapons (in London!!)

Kicker: Walking down the street and meets a woman who looks exactly like his dead wife (she died of cancer when he was mortal)

Player 'L' is a WoD and Larper. Has created a 70 year old (looks 60) complete with suprising undead strength. Owns a jewlers/ watch repair shop in a back alley somewhere in the city. Used to be a sniper during the war.

Kicker: A mysterious figure brings in an antique watch for repair. When he completes the repair he notes that he can feel his heart beating in time with the ticking of the watch.

Could anybody lend some help with spiking the kickers?

Regards
Rob

Hi Rob,

This is interesting. Each person has created a character which seems to match your quick-phrase gaming-experience summary of him. With only that to go on, I'll take a shot at spiking each Kicker, but of course, you'll have to adjust all of what follows with your own knowledge of the people involved and your own points of interest for the game itself.

For the B guy (I hate the letters thing, can we use names? I get confused): it seems as if preserving the question (vision or bipolar disorder?) is better than answering it, so the point seems to lie in raising the most interesting questions ... That leads me to say that your first task is deciding what the journal additions actually say. I suggest that they say some really important, really insightful, and really clear things. Rather than clues or mysteries or hints, they should be solid and fascinating, the kind of thing the character himself has been seeking.

OK, then, you have to decide who's writing in the journal, as GM. Is it someone else, or is it him, without knowing it? My inclination would be to have it be someone else, because the latter (although edgy and so on) does not ultimately go anywhere. Once you've decided who it is, then it's a matter of why. Does someone value his visions? If so, why? Has someone fallen in love with him? If so, why? And most especially, what is this person's next step? Because he or she really does need to have a next step, and I recommend that it not be using the character in some kindof pawnish way, but really a next attempt to get close to him.

I very strongly recommend that you emphasize the phrase "what do you do" at every scene, at every new bit of material you introduce, and at every opportunity in general, for this player, because based on your description, he's used to withdrawing into his own scenes and character head-space (playing a Malkavian no less, the tailor-made autistic RPG concept). I also think that you should have stuff happen in other characters' scenes that match his character's visions and speculations, all the time.

My reasoning: "not fitting the group" is usually a euphemism for simple failure to do anything. A character can be colorful and still just sit there. By emphasizing relationships and significance of vision, you're saying to the player, "Listen, your guy matters if you want him to matter. You can have him mutter and wander around, or you can get interested and do something." In fact, you might want to say that outright at some point during play, once it's clear that you're putting in your end of the effort.

For the M guy: so! The dead wife! What does he do? Your job in this case is similar to the above, specifically that you as GM must create and take hold of the content underlying this kicker. You decide: is it really his dead wife? Is she dead? Or is she alive? And if she's alive, did she die, or was that all some kind of mistake? What is her life like? Is she happy? Even more importantly, and this is what I'd recommend, is she looking for him? I strongly recommend against the idea that she has no memory of him or is some kind of alternative not-with-him version of the wife (that's a boring-ass copout and goes nowhere).

My reasoning: This is all about the design of Kickers, which are intended to be a duet. He really stepped up and provided a great set of material for you, which is sort of like giving you a fantastic lead guitar riff at the start of a song. It's now your job to provide the rhythm section, which validates and supports and provides a platform for his next input. Then it's his job to lay more riff down on top of that, and then it's your job to keep that rhythm going, and so on. You must pick the initial rhythm because it can support the kind of riff you've heard so far, then back-and-forth, and sooner or later in tandem, you guys are playing music. He's done his job admirably. I'm saying, do not fall down on your job regarding the real content of this kicker. Answer those questions about the wife, and have her take action as if she were your own, hard-core, proactive, and determined player-character.

One last thought on this player: When I see such characters, I also need to find out whether the player is a stand-up tough guy who's willing to put his character on the line and see him lose once in a while, or a kind of Wolverine-wimp, who insists and expects that his character will never lose, never give up, and never look bad. I am speculating, in thinking that perhaps the ultra-heavy hard-core combat emphasis the player's taken is pretty much a habit, and not necessarily an indicator that he wants to fight-fight-fight all the time during play. I can't say for sure, though; a lot of people with his gaming background are under the impression that you "role" for a while, then you fight/"roll" for a while, and then go back, and so on and so forth, with the fights being more important on the average. Such an attitude is poison to valuable, fun, social play. See, it's tricky - either all that combat trimming is a signal to you that he needs a combat-scene in order to be happy, or it's a warning that combat-scenes are his way of checking-out of doing anything interesting.

And finally, on to the L guy: a "mysterious figure." Crap. If I could, I'd line up every "mysterious figure" from every published White Wolf supplement or sourcebook, and do something awful to them. Anyway ... your job as GM is to de-mystery that figure as soon as you possibly can. Who is it? What's the watch for? What does the person want from the player-character? It better not be some fucked-up special mission, and that watch better not be some kind of device that the NPC controls to make sure the character obeys (or his heart stops, et cetera). Nope - as I say, your job is define that person, to define what he or she wants, and for that material to be made as clear to the player as possible, as quickly as possible. It doesn't have to be complicated - for all I know, the person is simply trying to kill the player-character, and that's that. But it should be colorful, dangerous, and immediate, and I strongly suggest building that content out of the most interesting and relevant aspects of the setting you're using.

My reasoning: this is the weakest of the three (the other two are actually quite good). It fits, unfortunately, with the description of the player's background, being all Color and no Situation. So basically, you have to decide, given that this is a Vampire game, what the situation really is, and hit it so hard, like a gong, during play, that the player will really demonstrate whether he wants to play a character or to have a whole bunch of people watch his character. You can't make him do the former if he doesn't want to, and since the character is essentially empty (a gaudy portrait, like most starting WW player-characters), the only source you have is the setting. Use the NPC to make the setting strong and fierce, and that's really all you can do.

I hope some of this is thought-provoking, and again, I emphasize that any or all of it may miss the mark, relative to you and to this particular group.

Best, Ron

Ah, one last thing - you'll notice that I didn't explicitly tie any of my comments to the actual scenario. I thought of about ten ways to do it, in each character's case, but as I see it, that would be taking over your most important role: deciding what aspects of the existing relationship map and general situation will be explicit at the outset of play. So, all I'm saying now is, take as much from the scenario and as much from the setting (vampire stuff) as you can, in answering the various questions I posed.

Best, Ron

Hi Ron

Thanks for the post - it was awesome. I have been mulling it over all week and think that I have hit on a few things that I want to bring to the game.

I'm pretty felxible on these things so I intend to go with the flow and what signals I get from the players. Feel free to jump in with any advice or tips or hints. That goes for everyone.

Brian (player B) - I have sort of decided that he is being stalked by a Nosferatu. I am thinking that this a character from the players past - and old flame, family memeber or some such. I am hoping that the player can come back with some backstory that I can mine in this regard. It is via Brian's character that the Forbidden Tome will be revealed, tieing him into Mitch's (Player M's) story, and via that into Larry's (Player L's) story.

With the Brujah guy Mitch (player M) I was thinking that his wife is a shade that has returned to haunt him, because he is a vampire. She wants to save his soul. The tie in here is that the Forbidden Tome reveals a way where you can become mortal again, and it is in fact the only way that he can release his wife from walking the earth as a wraith-like figure, but costing him his undead powers. The player choice is a powerful thematic address. I was thinking about tieing this in by making Celine his infamous sire, but that seems too straight forward. Thoughts?

With the Toreador guy Larry (Player L) I was thinking that the guy with the old watch is in fact a jesuit hunter who uses this device to flush out vampires. His true faith making any vampire in his presence feel incredibly uncomfortable, especially when they have Auspex of 5!! What I don't want to do is have the player turtle because he feels he is getting the shaft. I was going to tie him into the relationship map by making him an old friend of Colonel Hawthorne.

Any thoughts?

Regards
Rob

Hi

ACTUAL PLAY

Ok, I got to the pub early and set up. Its upstairs, the ambience is great and the oak panelling and red leather seating  adds a little to the atmosphere for this game, I feel.

Colin, a new player turned up. I got him creating his character after he had decided that he was going to play a mystic-loner-swordsmen type Toreador. His kicker is that his favourite samurai sword is stolen. Colin is a seasoned roleplayer and his favourite game is Exalted and he plays ShadowRun and a few others. Actually, he seemed way more clued up on the rules than I,asking about humanity paths and such. I asked if we could play it fairly vanilla for this chronicle as I really don't want to be adding to the stuff I have to revise to run the game. In fact, Colin even offered to be rules monkey if we had to look something up, which for me is a real boon - thanks Colin.

Brian, playing the certified schizo (voices in the head the wholeshooting match!) Malkavian, then showed up followed by Mitch (Brujah tough ass investigator type) and then last but not least Larry (Toreador watchmaker).

I started each character by asking about their haven and just running through what they do when they rise. We moved quickly to each kicker,starting with Brian's character, the female Malkavian. I ran through that someone had been writing in her notebooks. Direct answers to some of her questions. Brian never explicitly came up with stuff, so I just said that they were specific answers to questions. Oh, and yeah, your door is locked on only one catch (she normally puts all the bolts andchains across). This kinda freaked her out, so Iet her stew on that and moved onto Mitch.

He was driving to work and sawhis dead wife! That freaked him out (failed his self control roll). No effect but that it really freaked him. People started honking their horn as he was holding up the traffic, when he looked around the apparition was gone., I am notreally sure where I am going with this. I am thinking that his sire Celine is manipulating him via dementation; she has fed Greene and Sharpe enough information that they have summoned up the ghost of his dead wife but that the ghost wants to save Mitch from being a vampire, with,and to Celines horror, the help of the supposedly impotent Demonicon actually containing a working ritual to reverse the vampire curse making the character mortal once again. Or maybe something different. We are at the begining here and I am keeping things fairly fluid, looking for cues from players on where they want stuff to go.

With Larry, he got the watch and found that fixing it was actually a snap, but when he did so he felt his heart beat! Failed his self controland stepped away from the watch. He gave it the auspex once over. When he did spirits touch he got a flash of the Society of Leopold hunter that is tracking him. Basically he sends his flunky outto procur young ladies, and its this that has drawn the hunter in. Someone somewhere has hinted about diabolical goings on at the watchmakers in xxLane or whereever. With his HUGE die pool of nine he got 6 successes. I decreed that he got a massive jolt and blinding hot white flash. Take one agravated damage to his now blackend hand! The group summised this was somekind of true faith blowback. I neither denied or confirmed this.

How to spike Colin's kicker - the samurai stealing one. Well, we assessed that it was a professional job, and Colin really, really wants his sword back. Its an antique of the Satsuma Rebellion ofthe late 1800's. He calls in Mitch who contacts his underworld guy to put the feelers out. This I decided on the fly would be Sharpe, the baman about town. I suggested, via Sharpe, that the sword amy resurface, but that the bad guys will want to cut a deal. This is a device from Chandlers Goodbye my Lovely. The sting here is that it is unlikely that Colin's character willbe able to afford the price. not sure whetehr that is a good idea though, but I thought it was a great way to introduce Sharpe.

We moved back to Brians character and she wandered about a bit being allscared. When she gothomeshe saw that someonme had written 'do not be afraid' on one of her whiteboards! Freaked again she called a guy to get her locks changed. Werun through a scene where she heard her door open and close. When she gotinto the hall there was a knock. It was the Locksmith to change the locks. He said that he didn't pass anyone on the stairs. I am thinking of making the character that is stalking her a Nosferatu. When she goes deeper she will find that this nosferatu is someone fromher past, but I am planning that this will ultimately be some kind of subplot.

With Larry's character,hehad sent his flunky out to go and pick up a young lady. This young lady turns out to be Michelle- the daughter of his old war buddy, Colonel Hawthorne. He declared that he had no compunction indrinkingfromher, but when feeding he got a flash of a Tremere that he recognised as Matt Killian. He knows nothing about Killian, the fact he has been missing for two months can come out later. He assumed that Michelle must be one of his herd and is making plans for contacting Killian to make sure he is not put out that Larry's character took some of her vitae.

So Ron, how do you think that stacks up against your very good advice?

Cheers
Rob

Hi Rob,

I'm seeing some stuff I really like, and some stuff that I think is just jacking off ... or rather, it will turn into that unless you provide real motion and NPC action.

1. I like the wife as a ghost. I think the very next scene with Mitch's character should begin with him discovering her in his bed. In other words, put her right in center-stage and avoid that hackneyed, familiar crap about now-you-see-her, now-she's-gone. Play her as your character.

2. My problem with Brian's situation is that you keep saying "stalked" by a Nosferatu, but that really says absolutely nothing. Lurk, lurk, message, message, lurk, not-there, funny-sound-in-night. It's all foreboding with nothing happening. I suggest that you come up with a really interesting Nosferatu who really cares about that character in some way, and expresses it in no uncertain terms.

3. For Colin's character, yes, it's a great way to introduce Sharpe, but now let's take a look at Sharpe's situation in the back-story ... I bet he'd be happy to acquire this sword-toting character as special added protection, considering what he's mixed up in.

4. Larry's character is right on target! And your next step, along with finding out about Killian's death, is to have Michelle become a trial, a misery, a torment, and without question the absolute worst choice for a drinking-partner a vampire ever, ever had.

My final point is that my harsh comments promoting urgency are really directed toward the second session. Scenarios of this kind do very well to have relatively quiet, relatively disjointed-seeming beginning sessions. Your first session strikes me as 100% successful, and so again, the "get to it!" message of this post is really aimed toward the next one.

Best, Ron

Hi Ron

Ron wrote:

My final point is that my harsh comments promoting urgency are ...

Hi

The big bang for this game is going to be the revelation that the Forbidden Tome contains a way to become human again. Based on the supposition that the characters were all violently embraced, who would want to become human again, if they could.

Is this potentially as cool as I think it is?

Regards
Rob

Hi Rob,

Only one quick point:

Lamorak33 wrote:
Is this potentially as cool as I think it is?