My players and especially my wife have mentioned that they are interested in investigation based games where the characters are surrounded by mystery and might not discover the full truth. I had considered several different games and at various points was prepared to run any of them. But now I feel drawn to the World of Darkness and specifically the conspiracies and weirdness that crop up in Hunter the Vigil.
Hunter: the Vigil concerns itself with mortals who have discovered the existence of monsters in the world and take it upon themselves to hunt and exterminate them. It can run the gamut from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to X-files but tending to a darker and more grim setting.
With a system firmly in mind I have turned my thoughts to creating a series of prospecti for my players to vote on. The first step, brainstorming a list of adventure elements and ideas, was pretty easy. I have a wide variety of books filled with adventure seeds. I combed over these to pick out the monsters, NPCs, and stories that sparked my imagination.
My next step was to group them according to theme. Not all stories can happen in the same game. In a campaign of occult book hunters, an encounter with an extraterrestrial would be jarring and possibly break the mood. It is also true that I had several different visions of what obstacles and problems the PCs might face.
Two ideas that came out early were the seeds for a conspiracy theory focused campaign and a game of psychics and madness. The conspiracy theory concept emerged from my continued fascination with an evil mega-corporation from my earlier Promethean game as well as the God Machine fiction from the core World of Darkness book. As I intended to have the Hunter game touch on some of those events this seemed a natural fit.
The madness and psychics came from various story ideas that suggested themselves as well as my plans to replace the World of Darkness morality system with the Madness rules from Unknown Armies. The idea of fighting psychic monsters and slowly losing one’s mind at the same time was intriguing to me.
Of course I always like to give my players at least three choices. I cast about on this part for a bit, toying with a story tied to the interference of angels and demons before discarding it. The final concept was a battle for control of a small city where the characters were involved in a gang war style conflict with supernatural horrors.
Here are the final prospecti:
Take Back the Night
This chronicle is about normal people trying to protect the ones they love by freeing their city from the monsters that lurk there. The community they live in has a long history with the supernatural and the monsters have carved out territories, hunting grounds, and areas of control. Dark forces permeate its alleyways and sewers, prowl in its city halls and boardrooms, and hunt amid its factories and quiet neighborhoods. Defeating them will be a long and bloody struggle and there will be loss (in life or innocence) along the way.
The chronicle would focus on combating the various supernatural monsters that have claimed sections of the city and wresting control of the city back, one block at a time. Stories might feature fighting deformed monsters in the sewers, exorcizing demons haunting a slum, and tracking the source of drugs that are leaving the minds of the city's children addled and broken.
While it is possible they might gain help from other hunters, the focus is on themselves and their immediate allies. Also this is a chronicle focused exclusively on a specific city to be decided during character creation.
This chronicle is about normal people trying to protect the ones they love by freeing their city from the monsters that lurk there. The community they live in has a long history with the supernatural and the monsters have carved out territories, hunting grounds, and areas of control. Dark forces permeate its alleyways and sewers, prowl in its city halls and boardrooms, and hunt amid its factories and quiet neighborhoods. Defeating them will be a long and bloody struggle and there will be loss (in life or innocence) along the way.
The chronicle would focus on combating the various supernatural monsters that have claimed sections of the city and wresting control of the city back, one block at a time. Stories might feature fighting deformed monsters in the sewers, exorcizing demons haunting a slum, and tracking the source of drugs that are leaving the minds of the city's children addled and broken.
While it is possible they might gain help from other hunters, the focus is on themselves and their immediate allies. Also this is a chronicle focused exclusively on a specific city to be decided during character creation.
String Theory
The truth is out there, hidden behind a web of coverups and conspiracy. There are puppet masters, some human, many not, who pull the strings of this web. One pull and hundreds die of an alien disease. Another pull and a handful of people are twisted into man eating mockeries. You might be trying to expose the truth to the world or perhaps you work from the shadows (or within the conspiracy) trying to save the world while keeping it blissfully ignorant. But you must be ever watchful, because “They” have eyes everywhere and no compunctions about killing to protect the secret.
The chronicle focuses on unraveling the secret plots of the conspiracy and following the threads from one evil scheme to the next. Possible stories include discovering the true cause of alligator sightings (and attacks) in the sewers, finding the secret of an ancient Egyptian tablet and why it is worth killing over, and infiltrating the mysterious company Verdant Technologies to uncover the unholy experiments they are conducting with inhuman DNA.
The scope and scale of this game would be larger than most. The stories might be spread across the United States and beyond, though it will be initially limited. Various high level conspiracies (including potent government agencies and multinational corporations) will be important and characters might join them.
The truth is out there, hidden behind a web of coverups and conspiracy. There are puppet masters, some human, many not, who pull the strings of this web. One pull and hundreds die of an alien disease. Another pull and a handful of people are twisted into man eating mockeries. You might be trying to expose the truth to the world or perhaps you work from the shadows (or within the conspiracy) trying to save the world while keeping it blissfully ignorant. But you must be ever watchful, because “They” have eyes everywhere and no compunctions about killing to protect the secret.
The chronicle focuses on unraveling the secret plots of the conspiracy and following the threads from one evil scheme to the next. Possible stories include discovering the true cause of alligator sightings (and attacks) in the sewers, finding the secret of an ancient Egyptian tablet and why it is worth killing over, and infiltrating the mysterious company Verdant Technologies to uncover the unholy experiments they are conducting with inhuman DNA.
The scope and scale of this game would be larger than most. The stories might be spread across the United States and beyond, though it will be initially limited. Various high level conspiracies (including potent government agencies and multinational corporations) will be important and characters might join them.
The Abyss Stares Back
Some say there is a thin line between sanity and madness, a line that doesn't exist for monsters. You hunt not just inhuman creatures but also once human things: serial killers, cultists, and former hunters like yourselves who went mad. In their madness they have surpassed human capabilities. A serial killer takes three shots to the head without flinching. A cultist can set things on fire with his mind. Your character may share this dark gift thanks to experimental drugs or brushes with the supernatural. Can you hold it together or will you join the monsters.
The characters are investigators into the supernatural. They may be federal agents sent to investigate mysterious phenomena or paranormal investigators who actually find what they are looking for. Either way they cannot unsee the horrors. Adventures focus on maddening horrors: tracking down a serial killer who leaves well dressed dolls at the scene of the crime, investigating a slum where people are slowly losing their memories, or stopping the spread of parasitic spiders in people's brains.
Characters would likely belong to a larger organization though they might have little backup from it (for example, a small department in the FBI, members of a loose association of researchers). Scope would encompass an area larger than a city but still be limited such as New England, Southern California, or the Tri-state area around New York City. Finally characters will have the possibility of starting or gaining psychic abilities.
I asked them to vote on a -5 to 5 scale where -5 was loathing and 5 was wanting to play now. The results were much more varied than I expected from previous experience with several highly negative votes. Take Back the Night fell first due to a negative vote and a dislike for its more martial tone. It wasn't until a week later at our planning meeting that The Abyss Stares Back finally emerged victorious.Some say there is a thin line between sanity and madness, a line that doesn't exist for monsters. You hunt not just inhuman creatures but also once human things: serial killers, cultists, and former hunters like yourselves who went mad. In their madness they have surpassed human capabilities. A serial killer takes three shots to the head without flinching. A cultist can set things on fire with his mind. Your character may share this dark gift thanks to experimental drugs or brushes with the supernatural. Can you hold it together or will you join the monsters.
The characters are investigators into the supernatural. They may be federal agents sent to investigate mysterious phenomena or paranormal investigators who actually find what they are looking for. Either way they cannot unsee the horrors. Adventures focus on maddening horrors: tracking down a serial killer who leaves well dressed dolls at the scene of the crime, investigating a slum where people are slowly losing their memories, or stopping the spread of parasitic spiders in people's brains.
Characters would likely belong to a larger organization though they might have little backup from it (for example, a small department in the FBI, members of a loose association of researchers). Scope would encompass an area larger than a city but still be limited such as New England, Southern California, or the Tri-state area around New York City. Finally characters will have the possibility of starting or gaining psychic abilities.
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