The Vampire Game

[thebitterguy]

Okay, here's a thought: imagine you're in a World of Darkness game. You're playing a group of kids. These kids, led by the precocious young genius, discover a small facet of the world, that being the presence of Vampires.

Doing the only rational thing, they study them, and dispose of the nearest one. This would be quite an exciting game, eh? Very engaging? A sort of Harry Potter-esque adventure, only with no magic, just pure ingenuity and skill. A team of friends seeking to keep their families and the world safe from the monsters that surround them.

Now imagine you're the monster who's been sent to kill them.

The game is setup as a Vampiric police procedural, with the PCs members of the Dark Squad. The core concept is it's Vampire Law & Order. What's happened, though, is it's turned into Vampire The Shield, and I'm feeling like my character is the rookie in the pilot of The Shield, about to get his head blown off.

It's probably the worst situation I've ever found a character in. The worst part is that the GM played the grade school hunter NPCs so well. We got a sense of these kids. In a five minute interrogation, the kid laid out her entire life for my character.

And now, he's gotta end it.

I wonder how long constables last? How long do they survive before what little of their humanity dwindles away and the sherrif has to bring them in? If this is the kind of thing that happens frequently, I can see a darn steep curve on the downward spiral to inhumanity.

Feh. Never thought Peace, Order & Good Government could sound so dirty.

Comments

[tenzil.livejournal.com]

That sounds /awesome/.

I've been told in no uncertain terms that I must watch a bunch of The Shield before working on my next WoD project, and I have the first two seasons queued up and waiting for greenlion to return to civilization.

[thebitterguy]

Cool. I hope you enjoy them. Where's she gone off to?

[cheetahmaster.livejournal.com]

The Shield is every bit as good as you've been told.

[jadasc.livejournal.com]

That's wonderful. And it is stolen for future use.

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

I have the feeling my character is going to end up dead or insane by the end of next session.

His sheet says "Virtue: Charity."

Sigh.

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

by the way, i have a Plan.

[thebitterguy]

I would hear more of this plan.

But speak softly, for the walls have ears, and these comments are open.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Good grief. You're going to kill the younglings!

Or, you know, unlife them.

[rickj.livejournal.com]

Silly question. Is there a reason that these kids can't have their memories scrubbed clean?

[thebitterguy]

There's no reacon they couldn't; but since they've killed a vampire, the prince demands punishment.

[rickj.livejournal.com]

Ah. Well then, you're screwed. But then, that's the default state of affairs in Vampire.

if(Punishment != Death)

[bounty42.livejournal.com]

There are lots of 'punishment' things you can do to a person that don't involve death. Granted the best of them involve Toridors (or Deava if nWODs your flavor).

For example: There once was a very naughty Primogen, who betrayed the Prince's favored Ghoul to a group of hunters for his slighting of the gown she wore to Court. In responce, She was Dominated 3 ways to Sunday, made to strip naked (in character, though I wouldn't have minded if she did it OOC) and parade around the city. She of course felt she was 'touring Europe.' The icing on the cake was of course when the DVD of the whole affair was released on the internet.

YOu want to punish the kids, but not kill them? Do some domination, find some street people who need a few bucks with the Vice:Lust. Film it all, and send it to the local news. "Local Teens Run Under Age Sex Ring." For bonus points, leek that the kids, get this, blamed VAMPIRES for it all. They also habitually smoked Marajuanna cigarettes.

If you need something more concrete, get DNA samples, and next time someone accidentally drains a body plant the blame on the kids.

[wordwill.livejournal.com]

The Shield is a big influence on the pacing and tenor of my home Vampire chronicle, and I think it's generally a great guide to characters in a dark world doing terrible things to better themselves and their existences. I think there's a lot of great characters in there to use as a basis for vampires with a Humanity around 4 or so.