Pitch: Soul Cipher and other ideas

Originally published September 1, 2014

Mondays are when I typically post a series on different items, characters, or something else from my games. I can't decide what to write at the moment so I am going to pitch several of the campaign ideas floating in my head over the next several weeks. Let me know if anything interests you and I'll write more about it.

Demon: the Descent

This week I'm pitching three game ideas for Demon: the Descent, a game of occult espionage, where the main characters (called Demons) are fallen servitors of a powerful and incomprehensible device known as the God-Machine. Much like the characters of the Matrix, they are rogue programs in a world run by this machine, hiding from its still loyal servants (angels and cultists) and using the loopholes in reality to their own ends.

So here are some sample stories and themes:

Soul Cipher

The God-Machine's presence can be found everywhere: from the motion of planets to the tiniest atom. One thing you know for sure is that each demon holds one of its secrets, a secret to finding Hell, a place where they can be free. But there are other mysteries, mysteries hidden within the souls of mortals. If you could learn those secrets you might be able to use them to build your own hell, or at least improve your lot in life.

Rumors are circulating that someone has learned to use souls to do just this. They seem to involve some new street drug and a nearby school. But each secret leads to another. The drug leads to a mysterious pharmaceutical company and then to something called Project Babel. There are other demons (and possibly angels) involved in this, all trying to uncover what it is that the mortals know. You have the edge of being there first but you'll need to go deep undercover to learn the truth.

Theme: Secrets of the Soul. Every soul contains a secret. Though demons lack souls, their core hides a secret to achieving a personal vision of hell. Mortal souls seem to contain secrets of the universe. Some possess the ability to manipulate reality. These willworkers (i.e. Mages) contain a piece of a higher reality within them. Who knows what secrets lie within a vampire? A werewolf? Or the child of a demon?

Mood: Threat of Discovery. To learn the secrets of the soul the characters must go deep undercover, risking discovery by mortals, angels, and worse. They can't trust anyone outside of their ring yet must gain the trust of others.

Broken Code

God-Machine is flawed. If it was perfect, Angels wouldn't fall. Since it is imperfect, it can be stopped (or fixed). But to do this you need to go to the most dangerous of places: the facilities where the bulk of the God-Machine's work is done. There you and your allies can try to puzzle out, subvert, and/or destroy the machine's infrastructure. If the angels don't find you first.

But not all of the machinery is working correctly. Under the city, a broken machine seems to be spawning a mysterious illness. In the wilderness a forgotten building holds vats for creating artificial people. Then there is a school where the God-Machine seems absent. Are they opportunities or traps?

There are others working to take over these broken infrastructures. Can you trust them? They might loyal to the machine or just willing to sacrifice you for their own ends.

Some you know about. There's the Shop, they offer difficult jobs for cash and replacement covers. Then there is the Tick Tock Men, a weird doomsday cult. You're not sure what side they are on. Then there is a hacker named Infinity. Is he a demon or something else? He sounds like he wants to become part of the God-Machine.

Theme: Flaws in the Machine. From the characters themselves to broken infrastructure, the God-Machine is broken. While the character focus on the exterior flaws the game would also dwell on the characters' individual flaws and weaknesses.

Mood: Paranoia. Something of a default state for demons, no one can be trusted when the ultimate prize is might be the defeat (or redemption) of the God-Machine itself. Everyone has a secret agenda, one that might be advanced by putting a dagger in your back.

Enigma Strain

When did the God-Machine first enter our world? Some say it is older than Earth, others that it comes from the future. It has some sort of control over time, occasionally breaking off parts of the world into parallel time lines for its own obscure purposes.

Across Europe these pocket realms encompass events and lost (or hidden) parts of the God-Machine: a bombed out Nazi Berlin, turn of the century Paris, and in northern Germany, a strange future city. Can time be changed? Do these fragments hold the secret to the God-Machine's origin?

Meanwhile others seek to use these fragments to wage a secret war across time. The Tick Tock Men use strange sorcery to manipulate history...and destroy it. The Lucifuge claim demonic heritage and engage in unseen conflicts with a branch of the Vatican and a force from the past. Meanwhile the God-Machine rolls along, opening doors into the past and future.

Theme: Threats out of time. From ancient monster (and demon) hunting conspiracies to time traveling machines from the future, the characters must face a wide range of opponents, whose history or future may be of vital concern.

Mood: Technothriller. Action is the order of the day from daring car chases through the Alps to gun play amid the scenic parts of Europe. At the same time technology (or pseudo-occult technology) is important with supernatural gadgets being important.