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sparkindarknessI was thinking back and trying to convert some of my old RP games into fic. SO I was going through my old notes (why, no, I do not throw ANYTHING away. EVER) and realized just how many monumental amusing disasters these games covered. Especially this one, an incident that most amused me from an old Vampire the Masquerade game.
This was not a session that I GMed, it was one that I actually played (shock horror, I rarely get the chance). It will go down in history as the WORST Masquerade cover up EVER!
Some Background:
VtM is based on the modern world with vampires lurking in the shadows. These vampires live in the modern world but must hide from humanity – their most sacred law. This secrecy is known as The Masquerade. The vampires themselves are divided into clans – each having their own powers, weaknesses and raisons d’etre (with extra accents).
My character was a suave, debonair socialite, with extreme political skills, known for his good looks, vast wealth, fine parties, quick wit and expensive contacts. After a political struggle, his sire finally managed to embrace him into the Ventrue clan (rulers and leaders) much to the annoyance of his rival who wished to make him her childe in the Toreador clan (artists and socialites). Unfortunately the pissed off Toreador then went on to become the Prince (supreme ruler of the city). And yes, she was bitter. To gain some allies (and protection) my poor Ventrue teamed up with a morally challenged Nosferatu, a fledgling Lasombra and a mystically inclined Caitiff in the hope of escaping from his would-be-sire’s spite.
Now the actual disaster. My Ventrue, like all members of his clan, can only drink the blood of a select group of humans (they being much more selective and posh than other clans). Draining the blood of any other human makes them violently ill. In his case, he could only feed on the very wealthy (he likes money). Waking hungry he made his merry way to one of the most exclusive hotels in the city. Chatting in the bar with the various pretty rich things he made his way to his prey… {and botched his hunting roll} a gentlemen in an extremely expensive suit wearing a rolex. Dinner is served.
He throws some vampire powers at him and convinces him to join him for some quiet time alone in his hotel room. Alone, at last, he sinks in his fangs into the poor mortal – and falls back, vomiting all his blood while being violently ill. Human is not rich – he just has credit cards! Now driven into a hunger frenzy (hungry vampires go into berserker rages) my Ventrue tore the idiot debtor into little pieces… And then the maid came in pushing a trolley.
She screamed in terror at the body and the blood everywhere, my Ventrue lunges angrily for her {and botches} and ends up falling over the trolley while she runs screaming murder through the hotel. My Ventrue catches her… in the hallway, surrounded by witnesses.
At this point my allies receive a phone call from the local spymaster telling them that I am merrily ripping out the throats of the city’s wealthy elite in full view of witnesses (HUGE masquerade breach) and to get there and sort it NOW or we’re all dead! Dutiful and loyal to the last they hurry to the scene and see people fleeing through the doors to escape my wrath.
Now, it’s worth noting the roles in this little coterie. The Nosferatu is a lethal fighter, the Lasombra a skilled thief and security expert, the Caitiff was an academic with mystical knowledge. My VENTRUE is the social one who can wipe memories and control minds. They have to stop the witnesses without mind control powers. So what do they do? Stand at the exits with pump action shotguns and shoot anyone who tries to leave. Yes, yes they do. The city’s elite are fleeing a blood crazed mad man, running to the street and been mowed down with shotgun fire. *headdesk* On CCTV *Headdesk headdesk headdesk*
The Nosferatu ventures inside and finds me killing hotel security. He realises that I need to feed and feed NOW. But there is a problem – they don’t actually know what my feeding restriction is. *headdesk x10*. I solve this by trying to eat the Nosferatu (Ventrue can feed off any vampire) and drain his blood. The Caitiff has a brain storm! They can use the Nosferatu as a COVERTER! So while I am bighting down on the Nosferatu’s arm, the Catiff and the Lasombra are rounding up the cowering survivors and feeding them to the Nosferatu.
I return to my senses and am duly horrified. We decide it is necessary to cover it up a little better (people have escaped and there are bodies everywhere) so the Nosferatu decides to stage a gas explosion – destroying physical evidence and any CCTV. We retreat to a safe distance to watch.
Did I mention vampires are pathologically afraid of fire and go insane when afraid, running and killing anything in their way? Well they are. The building explodes. Everyone is ok… except my Ventrue {BOTCHES his courage roll} who takes one look and runs SCREAMING through the streets (still covered in blood soaked clothes) and kills 2 policemen on the way.
End result? Dead police (on CCTV). A goodly chunk of the fashionably wealthy now shot to death, blown up or ripped to pieces. The city’s most EXCLUSIVE hotel/restaurant is a smoking hole in the ground, and most of the rest of the city’s glitterati keep talking about blood crazy monsters, psychos and vampires – and they’re too wealthy for the police to write off as cranks. Oh, and my social standing among the movers and shakers plummeted because I ate them. And one of the Prince’s servants while I was at it.
The Prince was not amused.
And that was the worst Masquerade cover up there has ever been. Ever.
This was not a session that I GMed, it was one that I actually played (shock horror, I rarely get the chance). It will go down in history as the WORST Masquerade cover up EVER!
Some Background:
VtM is based on the modern world with vampires lurking in the shadows. These vampires live in the modern world but must hide from humanity – their most sacred law. This secrecy is known as The Masquerade. The vampires themselves are divided into clans – each having their own powers, weaknesses and raisons d’etre (with extra accents).
My character was a suave, debonair socialite, with extreme political skills, known for his good looks, vast wealth, fine parties, quick wit and expensive contacts. After a political struggle, his sire finally managed to embrace him into the Ventrue clan (rulers and leaders) much to the annoyance of his rival who wished to make him her childe in the Toreador clan (artists and socialites). Unfortunately the pissed off Toreador then went on to become the Prince (supreme ruler of the city). And yes, she was bitter. To gain some allies (and protection) my poor Ventrue teamed up with a morally challenged Nosferatu, a fledgling Lasombra and a mystically inclined Caitiff in the hope of escaping from his would-be-sire’s spite.
Now the actual disaster. My Ventrue, like all members of his clan, can only drink the blood of a select group of humans (they being much more selective and posh than other clans). Draining the blood of any other human makes them violently ill. In his case, he could only feed on the very wealthy (he likes money). Waking hungry he made his merry way to one of the most exclusive hotels in the city. Chatting in the bar with the various pretty rich things he made his way to his prey… {and botched his hunting roll} a gentlemen in an extremely expensive suit wearing a rolex. Dinner is served.
He throws some vampire powers at him and convinces him to join him for some quiet time alone in his hotel room. Alone, at last, he sinks in his fangs into the poor mortal – and falls back, vomiting all his blood while being violently ill. Human is not rich – he just has credit cards! Now driven into a hunger frenzy (hungry vampires go into berserker rages) my Ventrue tore the idiot debtor into little pieces… And then the maid came in pushing a trolley.
She screamed in terror at the body and the blood everywhere, my Ventrue lunges angrily for her {and botches} and ends up falling over the trolley while she runs screaming murder through the hotel. My Ventrue catches her… in the hallway, surrounded by witnesses.
At this point my allies receive a phone call from the local spymaster telling them that I am merrily ripping out the throats of the city’s wealthy elite in full view of witnesses (HUGE masquerade breach) and to get there and sort it NOW or we’re all dead! Dutiful and loyal to the last they hurry to the scene and see people fleeing through the doors to escape my wrath.
Now, it’s worth noting the roles in this little coterie. The Nosferatu is a lethal fighter, the Lasombra a skilled thief and security expert, the Caitiff was an academic with mystical knowledge. My VENTRUE is the social one who can wipe memories and control minds. They have to stop the witnesses without mind control powers. So what do they do? Stand at the exits with pump action shotguns and shoot anyone who tries to leave. Yes, yes they do. The city’s elite are fleeing a blood crazed mad man, running to the street and been mowed down with shotgun fire. *headdesk* On CCTV *Headdesk headdesk headdesk*
The Nosferatu ventures inside and finds me killing hotel security. He realises that I need to feed and feed NOW. But there is a problem – they don’t actually know what my feeding restriction is. *headdesk x10*. I solve this by trying to eat the Nosferatu (Ventrue can feed off any vampire) and drain his blood. The Caitiff has a brain storm! They can use the Nosferatu as a COVERTER! So while I am bighting down on the Nosferatu’s arm, the Catiff and the Lasombra are rounding up the cowering survivors and feeding them to the Nosferatu.
I return to my senses and am duly horrified. We decide it is necessary to cover it up a little better (people have escaped and there are bodies everywhere) so the Nosferatu decides to stage a gas explosion – destroying physical evidence and any CCTV. We retreat to a safe distance to watch.
Did I mention vampires are pathologically afraid of fire and go insane when afraid, running and killing anything in their way? Well they are. The building explodes. Everyone is ok… except my Ventrue {BOTCHES his courage roll} who takes one look and runs SCREAMING through the streets (still covered in blood soaked clothes) and kills 2 policemen on the way.
End result? Dead police (on CCTV). A goodly chunk of the fashionably wealthy now shot to death, blown up or ripped to pieces. The city’s most EXCLUSIVE hotel/restaurant is a smoking hole in the ground, and most of the rest of the city’s glitterati keep talking about blood crazy monsters, psychos and vampires – and they’re too wealthy for the police to write off as cranks. Oh, and my social standing among the movers and shakers plummeted because I ate them. And one of the Prince’s servants while I was at it.
The Prince was not amused.
And that was the worst Masquerade cover up there has ever been. Ever.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 12:22 pm (UTC)And yeah, I probably would have killed you all, too. Sparky, man, those botches and frenzies? That's why they invented Willpower.
(Gerat story)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 12:34 pm (UTC)Pity the GM then dumped us in a post-apocalptic world... Had a fight with a party member who was in hunger frenzy... He took my blood, I went frenzy, he went out, I took his, and so on... Ended up sacrificing my li'l puppy dog to get an action off & chimistried a pool of blood to distract him...
That was a good game... Even if I was the only one in the party who could feed off animals and therefore the rest of the party spent most of the travelling times in torpor...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 12:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 12:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 12:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 12:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 12:49 pm (UTC)Of course, he was a 7th generation and had Fatuus mastery. Very frightening.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 12:42 pm (UTC)See, that's one we like to but we'd already used ACTUAL hallucinogens three times in the chronicle to cover our tracks *groan. Yes, yes we did.* We feared we may have overused it (even if we didn't use it, another story of hallucinogens would have caused trouble, especially since we were beginning to appear on various suspect lists for it). And we couldn't track down all the witnesses (other than fangs I don't think I was TOO vampiric. My Ventrue wasn't known for his supernatural physical abilities other than toughnes - which cause that Nosferatu to use me as a riot shield later on).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 12:49 pm (UTC)I've seen worse coverrups, once or twice. None of them were my fault, for the record.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 12:52 pm (UTC)But, remember, I was a wealthy, prominant socialite. Killing me would probably have required a lot of covering up
I have seen ONE worse that I GMed. It wasn't my fault but I did collapse laughing half way. And I killed 2 players by execution for it (Gangrel on humanity 1? Baaaad character)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 01:23 pm (UTC)What coverrup? Your dead body, riddled with shotgun holes, has been produced. There are hundreds of witnesses to your murderous actions. With a little creativity, they could pin a half-dozen previous unsolved "vampire murders"[1] on you, and enshrine you in London history beside Hawley Crippen, Reg Christie, and Jack The Ripper. The prominent socialite was secretly a serial killer! He looked just liek one of you! The horror!
And then cremate you before you come out of torpor.
This type of solution is one that always drives a certain kind of player/ST nuts - the kind who think that *secrecy* is important, as if signs of a coverrup didn't attract huge, persistent attention. It's not secrecy that matters, it's plausibility. If you go forward with certain "incontrovertible" proof of vampiric existence, my response is not to kill you or make you retract your claim. It's to make Art Bell support you and feature you prominently on his radio program. Get you the front page of the Weekly World News[2]. Make sure that all the people with NO credibility support you, clearly and openly and without reservation.
That alone is enough to ensure that the rest of the world will ignore you, and I can help that along a bit, too.
[1]: Oh, come on, you're telling me that in a Vampire game where PCs exist there are no other unsolved disappearances? Hmm?
[2]: My favourite character ever: Ventrue who owned the WWN. Need soemthing covered up and completely lacking credibility? For the right price, it goes on the front page, beside Bat Boy.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 02:01 pm (UTC)And I veto the cremate! YES! YES I DO!!!
Oh yes, one character I had increased the masquerade by funding a conspiracy theory radio station then every time there was a rumour he would report it sensationally... and no-one would believe it. Had a whole string of newspapers to go with it. He had 7 ghouls from Des Moines to act as 'authentic' witnesses :)
There were many unsolved disappearances... but they weren't me :)
LOL< sound slike we had the same character concept! But mine was a Tremere
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 02:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-01 02:28 pm (UTC)Yup - the SUN. Here si the dire news, but first here are some BIG BREASTS!