50 Shades of Vampire: Our Lady of Cockroaches

Okay just one last vampire article for the year (ha!). This week I present a character concept that's high on the creep factor (at least for me, I hate roaches). This modern-day vampire protects both the people of her territory and her insect servants. Is she insane or is this all an act?

Our Lady of Cockroaches

Jeff reached through the shattered pane and opened the window. Rumors claimed the apartment had been abandoned but even in the dim light he could make out furniture. He licked his lips and climbed in.

He panned his jittery light across the room. His shoulder slumped as he made out only the profiles of a rotten sofa, a broken TV, and a pile of rags in the corner. The TV looked older than his grandfather and in equally terrible condition. He thought better of reaching into the sofa.

He opened the door to the next room.

The roaches swarmed over every surface: floors, ceilings, walls, the handle of the door Jeff desperately tried to swing the door shut as he stumbled back.

He bumped straight into something cold and solid. Turning around he saw what he mistook for rags, a woman, her skin and hair stained with dirt. He began to retch as he saw the roaches crawling over her too.

Then she grabbed him.

Description

Liz, as she calls herself, wanders around in a ragged dress darkened with dirt and less identifiable stains. Layers of filth obscure her naturally light complexion except in where she has recently scraped up against something. Vermin crawl through her hair and across her body.

History

Elizabeth Porter, to those who have pierced her murky past, grew up in the city, not far from where she now lurks. She and her husband (John she thinks his name was) moved out as soon as they were able, buying a small house far from the grime and danger of their upbringing. They dreamed of white picket fences, green lawns and the pitter-patter of little feet.

But their dream was not to be. A vampire, one of the last scions of the Melissidae (Bloodlines the Legendary), had begun to build a nest nearby, twisting the inhabitants of this cookie cutter neighborhood into her drones. In Liz, she saw the potential for a new queen.

Naturally, the current queen first removed everything that would tie her new daughter to her old life: her friends, her husband, her hopes, her dreams and finally her life. The queen bee entombed and molded Liz's mind. But something went wrong. A lock failed. A final frantic attempt at escape succeeded. Liz found a train into the city before her neighbors could retrieve her.

Now without a home and a mind half mad from magical brainwashing, Liz would be just another damaged vagrant if she wasn't also an undead monster. Never fully brought into the bloodline, her understanding of her powers remains limited. She's discovered a sympathy with the vermin the city, bending their colonies to her purposes, turning them into her guardians and spies.

On some level she recognizes the damage done to her and seeks to protect others from it. She prowls her neighborhood driving away other monsters who would feed or harm "her people." The inhabitants have noticed this protection, muttering prayers to the ghostly figure that prowls at night. Local Kindred have come to mock her as "Our Lady of Cockroaches" but have yet to dislodge her. For herself, she feeds from the inhabitants cautiously, sipping lightly from the thin children and desperate men of the slum.

Clan: Ventrue Bloodline: Melissidae
Covenant: None
Mask: Pariah Requiem: Nurturer

Adapting the Melissidae

For the most part I would keep the bloodline's bonuses similar to first edition. They gain a +2 bonus to using Animalism on insects and other anthropods but suffer a -1 penalty to control other animals.

I'd also consider adding the following devotion:

Ghoul Swarm

Prerequisite: Animalism 3, Dominate 2
Cost: 2 Vitae per yard of radius
Dice Pool: Presence + Animal Ken + Animalism

With this power, the Kindred can create swarms of animals that collectively function as a ghoul. By sacrificing copious amounts of Vitae and allowing the swarm of small creatures (Size 1 or less) to collectively feed from it, the Kindred can create a hive mind among the vermin. The swarm gains the mystic ability use Vitae to restore lost members (restoring Health and radius) and to gain Physical Disciplines. However the passive abilities of those Disciplines do not apply to the swarm, only those abilities activated with Vitae.

String Theory Recap: The Call

Time for another recap of my Night's Black Agents, String Theory. The title actually has less to do with the game than I originally intended as I changed the nature of the vampires several sessions in. Given the choice of fringe science, ancient conspiracy, and/or Dracula, my players went with fringe science. They also pushed for a disease theme and when offered a list of possible dooms, they favored the plague and dementia. Fun times.

Anyway, this week we officially leave the published scenario completely as the team gets a call on Robin's burner phone. Hints of operations to come pop up as well.

The Call

We review some optional rules, as I now have Double Tap. The group approves of all of them and Madison Smith is noted as John’s personal nemesis.

As the agents review the data at hand, Robin gets a call on her burner phone. The caller, Josef Lisky, head of the Lisky Bratva, wants the laptop and agrees to pay them each 200,000 euros for it. They agree to meet his agent, a vor named Foma Zivanoviv, at One Beirut in two nights.

Scarlet investigates the Bratva via Lennart’s laptop while they wait. With accounting help from Robin she learns a couple of items, the dossier connects the Lisky Bratva’s funding to the conspiracy and suggests that a lot of their cash comes out of Odessa. Their main financing operation is the Black Sea Bank which is in the early talks for a takeover of the Koernersbank. The later operation seems suspicious, with some banking experts speculating that the BSB is trying to buy respectability and a toehold in Switzerland.

Accounting use, no spends.

After flagging those sections in her cloned copy of the computer, she installs a tracer program on original laptop in case they can learn anything from buyers.

Robin meanwhile scopes the club determining ways in and out. The club is arranged in three levels, the upper levels overlooking the dance floor. The second level holds the bar while the upper level is reserved for private booths. Sewer access can be reached through the kitchen area.

She uses Architecture to gain pool of 9 points to spend when dealing for infiltrating into, shooting through or escaping out of the building. We also establish that (via a Criminology spend) that she knows Foma and his tells.

Two nights later the team go to the club. Robin goes in alone, meets with Foma, and reveals via video the laptop (which they have at a laundry mat a block over). Foma wires half of the payment to their account. The rest of the team heads inside.

As they enter the club, Scarlet notices some suspicious figures forcing their way up the stairs to the upper levels. One of them wears a bulky coat that hides what looks like a bomb vest. She alerts Robin over the comms.

I let Scarlet and John make Sense Trouble rolls, Scarlet succeeds.

Robin checks that the Russians were not aware. As the shocked criminals exchange bullets with the attackers, she shoots the window and jumps out, grabbing a light and swinging down to the second story rail from the VIP room. She then dismounts from the rail to the dance floor. All in a miniskirt.

She gets an Athletics refresh for that description. She also uses her MOS to make the roll.

Then upper level explodes, showering the area in glass and steel.

Bomb vest guy was supposed to be an insurance policy but I decided he was nervous. Everyone makes an Athletics roll to avoid damage from debris. The use their pool from the prep, splitting it evenly to make the roll. Only Robin takes any damage.

Robin races across the dance floor as shards fall on her. As she escapes out through the sewers, the others move out with the crowd. They spot other thugs on the street and evade them by ducking down an alley and hiding in a garage.

I ran this as a chase using Surveillance as the chase pool. It sort of worked. I've generally had issues keeping everyone involved in the chases. I think having to gain 5 lead is generally too much for my play style. Anyway, a way was found out via a Human Terrain spend.

As they hide, they overhear their pursuers discuss how their boss Asif Amjad, who they recognize as an ex-explosives expert for ISIS, will be upset. But they seem more afraid of someone called “the Bride.”

A Criminology spend lets them place Amjad while Notice and Languages let them listen in (and understand what is said).

The pair then retrieve the jeep from Meet Site A, drive to Site B, grab Robin, and then pick from their many escape options. Ditching their plan to fly to Morocco, they take a boat to Cyprus.

I probably gave them too much time to plan their escape. Morocco came up because they like the idea of hiding in the mountains or something.

Anyway we begin a long chase. They have Hot Lead 5. The boat trip to Cyprus raises it by 2.

From there they take a charter flight to Athens. At the Athens airport, they hack the security cameras and lay down a false trail of connecting flight information.

The charter flight eats up any lead they would have gained but the tricks in Athens allow them to avoid pursuit. At this point only the Bride and her agents are hunting them. The hacking was a simple (if nail-biting) Digital Intrusion contest. Both sides spent themselves dry and came down to the luck of the dice.

They drive north to Albainia in a stolen car, clean and ditch the vehicle, and then take a train north.

My notes say they were at Hot Lead 7 by this point. They then failed a pursuit roll.

On the train they are attacked by a half-dozen men sent by the Nasa Stvar, the Serbian Mob. Robin hears them coming and the team sets up an ambush. Robin throws her pack into the lead goon, surprising him while the others fire into him and his buddies.

A Sense Trouble roll followed by an investigative spend of Infiltration to give the agents a surprise round.

John swings his shotgun from under his coat and sprays the lead Serbian's guts across the corridor. As the agents and goons continue to fire back and forth, Robin provides support, spraying a fire extinguisher into hall and turning off the lights to make it harder to hit them. She also pulls the brake causing the train to grind to a halt.

More investigative spends: Shooting and Athletics to boost Hit thresholds by 1 for a couple turns, thus minimizing the damage for the group.

As the goons withdraw into the hall, Robin tumbles out and grabs one. Using him as a shield, she fires into the final pair, busy setting up a machine gun. Her captive absorbs the worst of the harm while the final surviving foe crumples under John's stern gaze.

Robin makes an Hand-to-Hand roll to make use of a mook shield and does a second attack at the goon with machine gun. With the mook shield's -4 armor, she's mostly handles the return fire of 6 damage (with a further -1 for her Kevlar).

John makes an Intimidation spend to break the final foe.

After getting his bosses contact info, they ditch him and the train. Journey to the Adriatic shore they steal a boat which John sails to Italy.

John drops points into Pilot. Their Hot Lead ends up at 9.

2015 Year in Review

2015 is almost over and its time to look back over this year and forward to the next. It has been a fun year writing for the site and I think the current schedule works for me. With my Actual Plays behind me (at least the ones with transcriptions), I'm hoping to put more work into some more elaborate projects.

Blog Year in Review

Here are some of the highlights (at least I see them) from my writing this past year:

• Rosebriar: I enjoyed detailing my fictional Changeling: the Lost setting and I'm hoping this year to compile the articles into a single pdf.
• Sample Sanctums: this series on modern-day wizard hideouts was well received and I think I will do something similar in the future.
• GenCon 2015: the convention was a blast but also likely my last for some time. This year I'll be at DunDraCon and perhaps another Bay Area convention.
• Reviews: I did many game reviews this year and I hope to add more this year. Next up will be some classic games (Amber Diceless) and some new (Fate) with a few others I hope to try this year.
• 50 Shades of Vampire: I noticed that updating old bloodlines got more attention than average so I'm sure I'll revisit this. The well isn't dry yet but I am going to let it sit for a bit.
• The Climbers: While I didn't reach my goal of 20 sessions, I think the campaign was a success and I learned a lot about where I need to improve. I need a little breather before I run another Apocalypse World powered game but I think that system is going to be one of my gotos.
• Double Feature Horror Reviews: I didn't see much buzz from this and each article took a bit of time. On the other hand I enjoyed expanding my horror movie watching. I'll probably do this again but on a smaller scale and with more of a common theme. Maybe mummy movies.

Games for Next Year

So what is up for next year? This year I managed to try most of the games I wanted with the exceptions of Kingdom and Hillfolk (though I might be able to fix the latter gap at DunDraCon). The question now is what systems do I want to delve deeper into.

My exposure to GUMSHOE thus far suggests that I could easily hack it to do most of the stories I want (it's just short of Fate in that way). But there is not much new intrinsic to the system once you get past the mystery solving component (which I already used incorporated into a previous World of Darkness game).

Fate, for its part, breaks immersion too much for me to be my regular game. I have definite game ideas where it would work best but as a system of choice it is lacking.

So my main systems will be World of Darkness (flexible and with a wealth of game ideas) and the various Apocalypse World games (low prep and fast play). I also plan to split those systems between my local (horror adverse) and remote groups. So once my online group completes destroying the vampire conspiracy in Night's Black Agents sometime early next summer, we'll move to some combination of Beast, Mage, or Demon.

Locally I'm considering possibly a cyberpunk (the Sprawl) or urban fantasy (Urban Shadows, low on the horror angle) games. The one complication is that my local players are expecting their own little one next year and that may limit our gaming heavily. I might end up having to recruit new players, thus changing the entire set up.

Gaming with Baby

Or as it will soon be: Gaming with Toddler.

Things are working out here. I've carved out 1.5 hours between the end of work and when my son gets picked up from daycare for myself plus up to 2 hours after his bedtime. That should hopefully give me plenty of time for my projects and writing.

Writing Plans

This is part about the blog and part about some new horizons.

For the blog I don't expect much to change. There will be no more dialog filled Actual Plays (unless I find a good software answer for transcription) but synopsis-style blogs with notes for rule usage and game master decisions will continue. I plan to keep a similar schedule to this years: every Monday (following a given theme for some months) and Friday, alternating between campaign recaps and whatever random ideas I have (mostly reviews, game mastering theory and random thoughts).

As for new stuff, I'd like to work on my own fiction writing. It's been many many years since I wrote purely for fiction purposes and not as part of prep for a game or for a blog. But I know I can produce much more material than I currently do for the blog. I've been looking at freelance writing. I'd like to dedicate that free time to material that might someday be published, whatever that might mean.

Related to that subject, one project I hope to complete soon is to compile some of my larger series of articles into pdfs for easy distribution. Specifically I have a couple of World of Darkness adventures and my Changeling setting. Expect one of more of them some time in the first half of the year.

50 Shades of Vampire: Changelings

As we near the end of the year, it's time to finish off my backlog of vampire ideas from last summer. This time we'll look at another crossover idea mixing Vampire: the Requiem with Changeling: the Lost.

Dark Dreams

A Changeling: the Lost Crossover

So first I need to decide on the themes of the game. They should draw strongly from both games. Two ideas come to mind immediately. One is the theme of stolen lives. Both Changelings and Vampires had their lives snatched from them. Both can never really go home again. And both supernaturals have to come to terms with that or lose their minds.

The other theme is that of deals. Vampires are political creatures, well aware of favors owed and payment due. They possess an innate way to bind people to them through their blood bond. If Changelings put their faith in magically empowered contracts, Vampires put their's in blood. Changelings of course have their Contracts and Pledges. The interaction between these two sets of dealers should be interesting. Changelings should have the advantage but I find Vampire players much cannier in practice.

Speaking of blood, a vampire might lair in the Hedge, perhaps feeding on hobs through the Unnatural Affinity merit. They are not explicitly harmed by the Hedge though it would seem uncomfortable (and draining should they stray from the path).

This suggests an idea to me, one that I used in my Changeling game: Into the Hedge. A Vampire bloodline could be created when its founder broke a Pledge, perhaps with a True Fae. The curse penalized them and their childer with a new bane. But somehow part of the boon lingers twisted in their blood.

Covenants and Courts

A few covenant choices recommend themselves for a game like this. The Lancea Sanctum can draw on the rich seam of legendry about the church and the fae. The Ordo Dracul would of course be interested in exploring whether fae magic could yield a release from aspects of the curse.

Then there is the covenant from The Danse Macabre, the Children of the Thorns, who serve some sort of fae creature known as Bloody Mary. Through her they possess the power to travel (awkwardly) vast distances. The logistics of such travel are complicated and I'm not sure how well it would work in anything but a globe-trotting game.

As for Changelings, the Autumn and Winter courts work well with vampires, through curiosity and mutual survival strategies respectively. Darklings and Beasts probably also get along well with the Kindred.

Devotions and Disciplines

One way to make Vampire work better with Changeling is to create some custom Devotions dealing with dreams and emotions. That would allow Kindred to involve themselves in more aspects of Changeling existence.

Nightmare would fit thematically with powers involving real nightmares and dreamscaping. Here's an example:

Nightmarecaping 

Prerequisites: Auspex 2, Nightmare 3
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Presence + Expression + Nightmare (see Dreamriding for further rules)

Upon a successful use of Nightmare 3 on a target they can then access their dreams when they next sleep. By meditating on the subject and spending a point of Vitae, they can enter and manipulate the subject's dreamscape. The dreams immediately take on a dark terrifying cast as the Kindred's Beast twists them unconsciously. Otherwise this works as dreamriding using the above dice pool for all actions.

Majesty and Nightmare might both be used for emotion manipulation. There are ample Devotions to show how that might work.

Lastly Bloodlines: the Hidden presents the Alucinor, masters of a unique Discipline known as Insomnium. Converting this Discipline into a set of Devotions opens up a number of crossover options.

Dreams of the Many

Prerequisites: Auspex 2
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy + Auspex vs. Resolve + Power

By attuning to the dreams of a mortal using some object of value to them, the vampire can learn about them, unraveling their secrets. Upon successfully activating this power, the Kindred experiences some aspect of the subject's current dreams. They uncover some minor secret like a hidden fear or valued item. This insight can be used to gain a +1 bonus to social rolls against the subject for a month or can be used to open 1 Door when Social Maneuvering the subject.

Oneiromancy

Prerequisites: Auspex 2
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Wits + Occult + Auspex

By dwelling on the dreams and nightmares themselves, the vampire can potentially see what the future portends. Success grants a single reroll to be used that night. This Discipline can only be used once per night.

Lucid Dreaming

Prerequisites: Auspex 2, Dreams of the Many
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Subterfuge +Auspex vs. Resolve + Power

An alternate route to dreamscaping, this power allows a vampire to manipulate the dreams of others. Each success allows a single detail to be changed in the dream. This level of power does not allow them to attack the dreamer or force anything from them.

Chain the Enslumbered Mind

Prerequisites: Nightmare 3, Auspex 2
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Empathy + Nightmare vs. Resolve + Power

The vampire inflicts night terrors on a sleeping mortal either physically present or affected by Dreams of the Many. The victims find their bodies and minds sluggish and almost paralyzed. With a successful activation the subject suffers a -2 penalty to actions for an hour per successes upon awakening.

Blissful Sleep

Prerequisites: Dominate 2
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Dominate vs. Resolve + Power

This power urges the subject to fall asleep and remain into a deep sleep until the end of the scene. Nothing short of suffering damage will awaken the victim. Vampires are affected as if they were active during the day.

Travails of Morpheus

Prerequisites: Nightmare 4
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Extended and contested; Manipulation + Subterfuge + Nightmare vs. Composure + Power. The target number is the Willpower of the opponent.

By reaching into the darkest dreams of a sleeping victim (either present or reached through Dreams of the Many) the vampire can physically harm them. Once the target number is reached the victim suffers Bashing damage equal to the vampire's Intelligence.

Sleepwalker

Prerequisites: Dominate 3
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Expression + Dominate - Resolve

This power works like Entombed Command except that the commands activate while the subject remains asleep and leave the victim with no memory of the event.

Experience Cost: 1 XP

50 Shades of Vampire: Demon the Descent crossovers

Finishing off some of the last ideas I came up in the process of creating a Vampire: the Requiem character, I have some crossover ideas. Specifically how I would make a Demon the Descent crossover.

Blood and Gears

A Demon: the Descent crossover

Themes

When combining games, I always find it best to start with themes that both games share. It helps to keep the game focused and generally drives the player characters of both groups together.

For Vampire and Demon, I think we need to dig deep into the generational struggles of Vampire and the rage against the machine of Demon. A theme of struggle against a cruel authority works well for both games.

In this scenario the elders of the city are in league, openly or in secrecy, with the Machine. Together they manipulate the mortal population, placing the right people in charge, pushing through the desired projects, and eliminating troublesome obstructions whether they be mortals, Demons, or Kindred. Our player characters should be the rebels working to overturn the establishment.

An interesting idea would be to add organizational occult matrices to the game. In other words, if people X, Y, and Z take key positions in city hall a magical effect is created.

Perhaps if a fourth candidate is financed enough to support a run for mayor and all the candidates' coffee is dosed with certain heavy metals, the elected mayor will achieve a landslide victory (with 88.8% of the vote) and be replaced by an angel upon being sworn in to office.

Covenants and Agendas

In any crossover game the politics of each different faction will be given less attention. So it helps to pick out a few that work well with the other side and focus on those.

An obvious new covenant to include are the Holy Engineers from The Danse Macabre. These vampires suffer from something called radio sickness, where they receive messages from the future for questions they haven't asked yet. These answers come from the God-Machine.

Following our theme above, they are clearly in bed with the enemy, a cult of monsters who serve the Machine and push its plans. We should probably use them to replace the Circle of the Crone and/or Lancea Sanctum in the city.

The Invictus, as our default vampire government, are probably already in league with the Engineers. Or maybe the Carthians with their "new" politics have teamed up with this symbol of technological progress to create a new regime. Either way both covenants remain viable for players as either the rebels seeking to topple the corrupt authorities or the men/women on the inside trying to clean up a broken system.

For the Demons, the same can be said for Integrators. The other Agendas should fit in fairly well with the various Vampire factions. Demons after all are natural rebels.

A few possible covenant/agenda team ups suggest themselves. Inquisitors and the Ordo Dracul could probe the secrets of the machine, sometimes at cross purposes. The Lancea Sanctum might join the Saboteurs destroy this false god. Any vampire is likely to be on good terms with a Tempter.

Another possible link comes from the source of the Theban sorcery. Are the rituals really the tools from God? Or the God-Machine? What if new rituals appear that summon Angels?

Bloodlines

Every time you've heard someone say they saw a ghost, or an angel. Every story you've ever heard about vampires, werewolves, or aliens, is the system assimilating some program that's doing something they're not supposed to be doing.

But like so many back then they caused more problems than they solved.

Adding a bloodline tied to the God-Machine might be fun. Riffing off the Matrix Reloaded, perhaps the Machine has created a set of vampiric servants to supplement its Angels. And to tie this into Demon, maybe some of those servants have rebelled...

Background: Once the Machine sought to create servants which could propagate themselves, that would help it control the masses of humanity it needed for this stage of its plans. Rather than create something anew, it took a short cut and transformed existing supernatural beings: vampires.

These agents gained access to its resources, learned new powers, and helped correct flaws in its schemes before they toppled vital occult matrices.

But like many tools of the Machine, they too were flawed. Slowly they began to manipulate the system to their benefit. Some rebelled, some simply subverted places of power. Eventually the God-Machine had enough and ended the experiment.

But a few escaped the purge and carry on the fight to this day.

Nickname: Agents, Unplugged
Clan: Mehket
Bloodline Bane: All Agents suffer a permanent Glitch (see Demon: the Descent, p.184)
Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Dominate, Obfuscate
Bloodline Gift: All Agents can perceive Infrastructure as if they possessed Unseen Sense (God-Machine). They also have the ability to manifest something like a demonic form. Pick a Modification or Technology upon joining the bloodline. If the Agent spends 1 Vitae they can manifest the ability but must also make a roll of Humanity +4 or gain the Surveilled condition (Demon: the Descent p.120).

It rumored that some members of the bloodline learn to activate multiple abilities through some form of the Terrible Form Merit (Demon: the Descent p.122).

Other Threats

Recently rumors have begun circulating of a new bloodline, possibly derived from the Ventrue clan. They've shown evidence of the Celerity, Dominate, Obfuscate, and Resilience Disciplines and seem prone to Glitches related to odd behavior and madness. Are they more rebels or new, more loyal, servants of the Machine?

String Theory Recap: (S)Entries

Earlier this year, I began running a Night's Black Agents game to fill in the gaps between sessions of my (then) main game, starting with the introductory scenario (S)Entries. Night's Black Agents is a GUMSHOE game about ex-spies who uncover a world-wide conspiracy run by vampires. The campaign has turned out to be a lot of fun so I'll be presenting synopses of play every other Friday. I talk more about the game system itself here.

Using the idea that the characters are mercenary ex-spies I assumed that the characters of people who can't make it to a session simply had other things to do. Their characters broke off, did their own investigation or handled their daily lives. In other words, the perfect game for busy adults.

I ended up adapting the introductory scenario. I decided to punch it up by starting in media res, with the PCs hunted by mysterious bikers while racing along the Serbian country side. Where did these bikers come from? Well I took some liberties with the plot as well.

(S)Entries, Part 1

My players mostly built their characters a couple of weeks before, so we jump straight into the action. The cast includes (using their code names):

• Robin, an ex-wetworker turned handler, who is built-in the mold of Black Widow. So she's a badass in every way. She also feels she needs to atone for her past misdeeds. Previous affiliation(s) unknown.
• Scarlet, an analyst and medic, who left Overwatch, a private espionage and defense contractor, in disgust over the material that they covered up. She's not much of a fighter but she makes up for it in technical skills.
• John, the muscle, who worked for the DOD after leaving the army. He's semi-retired though he talks to his old handler the "Chessplayer" regularly. He is an expert combatant and all around patriot.

They have a Robin Hood theme going.

Robin is hired by Georg Rudek by parties unknown for a heist. She assembles a team (Scarlet and John) and together they agree to steal a laptop from Brigadier-General Malcolm Lennart, a Canadian Air force officer working with the UN.

The job goes off without a hitch but as they crossover from Sarajevo to Serbia, they find themselves pursued by a group of bikers. A look at their insignia identifies the gang as part of the Bulgarian branch of the Night Wolves.

With John at the wheel, Robin leaps out of the agents' Jeep Cherokee and commandeers one of the motorcycles. With her help, the others manage to whittle down the gang's numbers. Though John does a fair job at the wheel of the jeep, they eventually crash into a barrier while entering a tunnel. After overpowering and/or killing the remaining bikers, the team take the sole survivor, Yoan, along with them to interrogate.

The chase rules worked well enough, though I would have liked better highlighting of how leaping from vehicles were handled. I didn't see them until after the session.

The bikers were somewhat hampered by the need to spend chase pool point to shoot and drive at the same time, which helped even the odds with the agents (who they outnumbered 4 to 1). All in all it was a fun fight. Robin used Military Science to pick out the leader which led to some complications later.

John crashed trying to Swerve. They probably need a dedicated driver (and get one in a few sessions).

The subsequent Interrogation (aided by Intimidation) was a straight clue finding expedition. No rolls or spends.

Yoan reveals that the gang was directed by their boss Boris (now sadly deceased thanks to Robin specifically targeting the leader earlier on) under orders from their chapter boss, the Axeman. Having extracted all the information Yoan has they eliminate him and dump the body off a bridge.

I'm not running with Burn rules, otherwise killing Yoan in cold blood would result in Stability loss.

Also on the Axemen, the real life overall leader of the Night Wolves is known as The Surgeon.

Working on a hunch Scarlet finds and disables the tracking device on the laptop. She identifies the model as one used by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, though modified to transmit on a different frequency.

Standard use of Electronic Surveillance with a 1 point spend for the CSIS info.

At the next town the team exchanges their jeep for a stolen car. Robin calls the contact number and leaves a message about a change of meet location to a night club in Belgrade she knows well. She also plants the number of one of her burner phones on the ditched jeep for the pursuers.

Robin has Infiltration 8+ so has the Open Sesame cherry which lets her open any standard locks. Like most car doors.

This is also where the paranoia due to the chase began to drive the story off the original plot as the group changes the meet site (and thus avoids an ambush). Also calling the contact number starts the clock on Rudek's death.

Robin takes them to a safe house inside a local hotel overlooking the club. With the cache of surveillance supplies hidden there, Scarlet keeps an eye on things while they wait for their contact Anton Dedopovic who has the other half of their money.

Robin makes a Preparedness roll for the "safe house" cache and Scarlet makes a good Surveillance roll.

Scarlet spots Anton’s ambush preparations as a sniper positions himself on a nearby roof. Down below Anton's men enter the club while Anton waits outside in his BMW. Quietly John takes out the sniper while Robin sneaks into Anton’s car and puts a gun to his head. When he resists she underlines her point by stabbing him in the leg.

Robin uses Infiltration again to access the car and then some great use of an Intimidation spend. She also added some great material by establishing a prior (poor) relationship with Anton.

John meanwhile makes his Infiltration roll and then beats the sniper unconscious with his Hand-to-Hand.

Persuaded Anton directs his goons to leave the money in the club and drive away. Scarlet retrieves it from the club and finds that all but the top bills are blank paper. Under pressure Anton babbles about vampires, his illness and how he no longer has their money.

At this point the PCs (who of course all have comms on them) begin to chuckle.

Then something moves in the shadows of the club. Something man-sized but much faster and stranger than a wolf attacks. It savages Scarlet badly while a similar creature, part man and part beast, gives Anton’s BMW a sunroof. A third climbs the building John is on. He puts a round in it before it jumps him.

The werewolves (whose stats I'll post at a later date) possess super human strength, wall climbing and inhuman speed. Things look bad for our agents. Scarlet in particular only had 7 Health and is soon dropped into the negatives.

Most of the group does well on Stability rolls except John who's Stability drops 5 points. He's okay for now but only a few points from zero.

Scarlet flees bleeding badly as the creature moves inhumanly fast from the building to a nearby alley and back. With a mighty heave John hurls his attacker off the building while Robin and Anton manage to smash their monster onto a wrought iron fence.

Anton blows his Drive pool on hurting the werewolf, Scarlet burns some Health remaining conscious and John uses his MOS to automatically succeed in a Hand-to-Hand roll.

Technically Robin's werewolf almost died, hover at -11 Health at the end of the encounter. They have no special immunities to death,

Robin leaves Anton under the watchful gun of a barely conscious Scarlet. She then retrieves John, who has outrun his monster, in a second stolen car.

An Architecture spend here helps put distance between the monster and them.

(S)Entries, Part 2

Our second session was much less eventful. Partly because I let the pressure relax and partly because we did more character creation (like sources of stability).

Anton soon turns the tables on Scarlet by crashing the car and forcing her to escape down an alley. Anton searches for her but ultimately decides to cut and run. After chatting with the others over the comms, she arranges to rejoin them at a nearby bridge.

Yeah, Anton's a dick and intends to get the laptop. The group sensibly did not leave it in his presence (Robin is carrying it). Scarlet (somewhere around -3 Health) has to scramble to escape him. Luckily she makes her Infiltration roll.

Next they find a new safe house, far from the werewolf attack. John makes up a new contact and then spends all 2 of his points to establish a safe house. Obviously things will soon go south.

John calls up his friend, Serge Milic, a local who keeps an eye out for potential defectors in Belgrade's embassies. Serge agrees to take 'Sam' and his friends to his safe house. While they recoup, Scarlet does some digging into their employers. Unfortunately she gets blocked out trying to trace the money trail for their payment.

So the group refreshes three skills each. Scarlet also uses her Medic to patch up the team from the combat (and restore Health). She has the cherry for that ability so she can heal herself as well as the others. Robin uses some of her Shrink to shore up John's nerves (and Stability).

Scarlet tries some hard Digital Intrusion rolls but bids too low.

A half hour later several Serbian gangsters bang on the door. Serge is not happy. The team decides to flee, splitting with Serge on the rooftops.

I think I should have made it clear they could have taken these guys. They were just a half-dozen mooks and could have directed them to their quarry much faster. Oh well.

The chase was a quick Athletics test.

After escaping the gangsters, Robin calls a contact of hers known as Zer0. The expert hacker accepts her payment and a half hour later they have Rudek's location. He's just arrived in Beirut and is staying at a fancy seaside hotel.

I have to say that Zer0 is my favorite contact so far. He (or she, Zer0 does use a voice scrambler) is a mysterious hacker who prefers to be contacted by payphone using a cryptic algorithm. He sells information, assuming you are willing to pay the price.

Operating under cover identities the team crosses the border into Montenegro and then arrange a flight to Lebanon.

The team arranges their first set of Covers: a military historian (John), tourist (Scarlet) and Miranda Bletchly (Robin), a photojournalist. They make the easy Cover test.

When they reach Rudek;s room, they find the door unlocked. Inside Rubek hangs dead, a knife pinning him to the wall. Bite marks on his wrist resemble those of a snake bite. They collect samples, grab the burnt remains of his phone, and snag the security footage on their way out.

From the clues they determine the killer was Madison Smith, a supposedly deceased comrade of John’s. It seems she is very much alive though she walks with what appear to be prosthetic legs. She also possesses superhuman strength and possibly a poisonous bite. The venom is a neurotoxin.

Basic uses of Military Science and Diagnosis.

The group finds another safe house via Scarlet’s local contact, Peter Yared. There they dig into the laptop's files and into Brigadier-General Malcolm Lennart's background.

Another Network use here, again to gain a safe house. Yarad only uses a few of his points so they might be able to use them should they return (in say the Treason in the Blood section of the Zalozhiniy Quartet).

Most of this info comes from Data Recovery, Research and Tradecraft.

Lennart seems clean, except for one curious incident. His mother recently recovered from inoperable cancer thanks to the help of a firm known as Panecea Pharmaceuticals. It is possible he might have been leveraged by the Conspiracy through them.

Recovering the SIM card from Georg Rudek’s phone, Scarlet then tracks his recent calls to a boat in the Danube in Belgrade. That boat belongs to Danilo Brigovic, a boss in Nasa Stvar.

He must have been the money behind the operation. But who is the boss?

People and Other Hazards: More Moves from the Climbers

Now for the last of my material from my long running Apocalypse World game, the Climbers. Here are some moves, mostly unused, pertaining to people and places from the game.

People and Other Hazards

A major front that didn't see much fruition related to the Touchstone's goal of creating a new republic. After the Gunlugger took over the holding she had devoted so much energy to freeing, the Touchstone had to look for some place new. Sadly everyone else's story was ending quickly and I felt I'd spent enough time following her story. There wasn't enough decisiveness to it.

Anyway in the end I gave her a target for a new holding, someone who make it happen (at a potentially high cost), and some trouble in establishing it. Almost none of this came into use in the game.

The Cinema

A potential holding location, the ruined sixteen theater cinema had two flaws: it was a slaver hideout and it was surrounded by toxic plants.

Kind: Landscape – Fortress
Impulse: to deny access

Killer Kudzu: When you try to traverse the Kudzu roll +Sharp. On a hit you make it across. On a 10+ pick 2. On a 7-9 pick 1. On a miss you are stuck partway.

• No one gets poisoned (which deals 1-harm (ap) ongoing).
• You don't lose something.
• You can use this route again.

Fire's Anger

This hard looking woman is somewhere in her late teens. She keeps her dark hair short, exposing a number of scars and her fierce eyes. She wears real armor made from scavenged tactical vests and metal plates.

The second in charge of the Militia (a.k.a. Lieutenant), Fire is known for temper.

I introduced Fire initially as insurance in case the group made A.T. an ally. That way the Militia might remain a threat. Later she served as a counter to Violet. But when gator revealed he once had a daughter I knew had one of two choices. I decided Fire had the most potential for drama.

Kind: Affliction – Delusion
Impulse: to dominate people's choices and actions
Cast: Fire (who hates her father for failing her and wants revenge on Gator for destroying the Militia's dream of a democratic Big Ship)

Fire has the following custom move:

Play with Fire: when fighting against Fire suffer +1 harm. Gain +1 forward when you help her plans.

The Election

At some point a holding working under democratic principles will need to elect a leader. That choice will dominate everyone's attention.

Kind: Affliction - Delusion
Impulse: to dominate people’s choices and actions
Cast: Fire (with an authoritarian bent of enforced liberties), Wisher (running his campaign as cult of personality), Boo (supporting town hall style democracy), AOL (pushing for libertarian anarchy), Morgana (who support military strength first)

Decide the Votes: If you have followers or a gang who are included in the electorate, you may be able to dictate their votes. If Fortunes, Pack Alpha or Leadership yields a success gain 1 Hold (2 hold for a large gang).

Sway the Electorate: After candidates are decided and voters determined, any PCs can roll +hot to influence the crowd. On a hit, hold 2. On a 10+ diminish someone else's hold by 1. On a miss, someone takes violent action against you.

Voting: Spend hold to give a candidate a bonus. The MC will spend 2 hold of his own. The highest tally wins.

Lost Love Letter

Finally an unused love letter from the mid-game.

Gator,

Your gang gets hired to defend a holding. If you lead them roll+hard, you suffer what they suffer. If you just direct them roll+cool. On a hit pick one.

• You earn 2-barter.
• The team secures a working bit of tech: a functional landmine, a cache of grenades, or a jeep.
• The locals are impressed and three join the gang.

On a 10+ nobody suffers worse than a few scrapes. On a 7-9, there are injuries and one of the attackers had the climbers. Some of the team got exposed. On a miss, I'll get back to you, you or your team is pinned down someplace.

Double Feature: Nosferatu and the Blair Witch Project

Finally we reach the end of this series. This week I review two "classics": Nosferatu and the Blair Witch Project. One is one of the iconic vampire movies of all time. The other helped create the genre of found footage. One amazes me for its freshness of vision after almost a century while the other makes me wonder why I find so many "protagonists" utterly unlikeable.

Warning: lots of spoilers!!

Nosferatu

So let's start with the obvious. This black and white silent movie is essentially Bram Stroker's Dracula with the serial numbers filed off. Set in 1838 instead of the 1890s, in Wisbourg instead of London, it follows the couple Ellen and Hutter instead of Mina and Harker as they battle Count Orlock, our not-Dracula.

Mostly the film follows the storyline of Dracula though pared down of most of the characters. Our Van Helsing analogue has very little to do.

Harker's employer is the freaky looking Knock who combines the parts of Renfield and Hawkins into a real estate dealer who helps sell Count Orlock a home in Wisbourg then goes mad. Even before he loses his mind, Knock is looks mad and the image of him puzzling over Orlock's mad scribblings invites thoughts of madness inducing tomes.

Hutter seems ludicrously naive compared to his sleep walking wife. I know the original film was done in German, but the translations come off as particularly hilarious.

Count Orlock plays up the disease, specifically the Black Death, imagery with infestations of rats and sickening locals. It's an interesting contrast to the modern romantic tack on the monster.

I found the use of animals in the film be fairly interesting with wolves, spiders and other creatures (even a Venus flytrap) featuring prominently in a way that I rarely see in modern films (though Spring comes to mind).

Getting back to the strange writing theme, Hutter and his wife get many clues (and warnings) about the Nosferatu from a curious book, Hutter finds in his travels that details the monsters powers and predilections. It makes me wonder if perhaps Orlock was summoned up by the stories of his existence.

There also seems to be a psychic connection between Hutter and Ellen, such that Ellen begins walking in her sleep and reacting to Hutter's interactions with Orlock. It almost seems like Orlock can reach through Hutter to her.

Another oddity is that while writing a letter to Ellen at the castle during a day, Hutter comments about two mosquitoes biting him on the neck. In the film it looks like he though they were recent (and not due to a vampire feeding on him during the night). The alternative is that Orlock was invisibly feeding on Hutter in broad daylight.

I also wonder how much Orlock's fast but jumpy movement is the effect of the technology of the time and how much it was intended.

A final odd thought comes from the beach scene, where Ellen waits for Hutter's return. The dunes are festooned with crosses which makes me wonder if they are for drowned sailors or a border defense against vampires. just an idea.

Our finale is reached when the book reveals to Ellen that she must allow Orlock to drink from her so that he ignores the arrival of dawn. She does so and thus he is caught in the first light of day, vanishing into a smoking pile.

So overall this film is good, especially when one takes the age of the film. As an alternate take on Dracula is it invaluable, contrasting so much with the "standard" version that we more often receive.

Gaming Thoughts

Where to start? Nosferatu both gives us many of the iconic vampire abilities and weaknesses (like sunlight) and is festooned with so many discarded ideas.

The beach scene sounds like an awesome idea for a world at war with vampires, like some Vampire Hunter D based game of monster hunters verses the hordes of the dead.

Psychic manipulation through our links to loved ones sounds like an awesome chaining of sympathetic magic for Mage: the Awakening.

Then you have the whole notion that this is just a story acting itself out in the real world, if we take the strange book as the cause of Orlock's appearance and destruction. Imagine that power placed on other books? Sounds like a great hook for Changeling, Mage, or perhaps Beast.

Blair Witch Project

I've long considered this a gap in my horror watching history. I tend to be dismissive of hype when a movie comes out and can be contrary about seeing such things. After finally watching the Blair Witch Project however, I don’t regret that decision in the least.

The premise is that three college students head out into the woods to make a documentary on the Blair Witch, a local legend. They are never seen again but their footage is found sometime later. As one of the early examples of found footage film, the quality (jerkiness and so forth) isn't all that bad.

We start with a number of complications for our film students: none of them really know each other, they’ve borrowed the department camera without asking, and only one of them has any experience in the woods. None of them have any clue how to navigate as we soon learn. Basically if there wasn't supernatural going on, they would probably have been found weeks later having died of exposure in the woods.

I want to make it clear what makes this film not work for me is that I don't like the characters. They are dumb, they have no business doing anything outside of adult supervision and they are unlikeable. Our leader, Heather, is a control freak. Mike the sound guy does little except complain. Josh, the camera man, is perhaps the most likeable but is incapable of taking charge of this messy situation. Essentially if any of them was less wishy-washy, more cooperative or just smarter this movie wouldn't exist.

The first part of the movie focuses on collecting local legends and is the most enjoyable part to me. None of the legends really tie together. We have stories of a weird mist rising from a river, seven missing children from the 40s, the legend of Coffin Rock with its stitched together disemboweled men, and the sighting of a hairy woman in the woods. Very little exists that suggests a single central force at work.

Once in the woods, the mistrust between the team sets in. Heather is convinced she knows the right way despite obviously veering off wildly. After a night in the woods, they finally find the ‘graveyard’: seven piles of stones. The main filming done, they try to return to their car but get hopelessly lost. As they camp at night, they hear odd things in the woods. The initial sounds don't seem that strange, at least from what I recall of my own camping experiences. They also find three new stone piles around their tent in the morning.

Days later, still lost, they encounter strange stick figures. The sounds get stranger and more threatening. Then Josh goes missing. A bundle of sticks appears wrapped in strips of his clothes, bloody with bits of flesh. They begin to hear Josh in the night. The sounds lead them to a house in the woods. Mike races to find Josh and ends up staring into a corner like the victims in on the tales they heard. Heather is knocked out and the film ends.

So let us ignore the lost map, their inability to read a compass (perhaps the ghost altered it), and the characters' mutual distrust. Why did it never occur to them to follow the stream out of the forest? Streams lead to rivers and rivers lead to people. When I was a kid, growing up in the middle of suburbia and not near anything close to wilderness, we all got some training on surviving in the woods. Did none of them go into scouts or have friends who were? Or read just a little on how to survive in the wilderness before spending what at a minimum was going to be two nights in the woods?

Also there are some simple goofs. None of the characters actually appear that dirty even after several days in the woods. The abandoned house consists of brick and wood construction and is unlikely to have been built that far into the woods. My wife claims she could see lights from neighboring homes in one camera pan.

Normally I'm willing to give a lot of leeway with horror films. but that leeway only comes if the film presents people who are at least somewhat intelligent. I'm not going to fear a supernatural evil whose actions are the equivalent of a terrified vulture. These kids are so dumb I suspect getting through college alive would have been hard.

Gaming Thoughts

I don't really have much to say here. When you see actions this dumb in a game, it is not usually because the players are dumb but because some aspect of the situation or setting was not communicated properly. Like not understanding that they will be several days walk away from any civilization or that they have a survival guide in their pack. When players propose stupid actions, make sure that they understand the full situation.