I'm GMing again
Jul. 5th, 2006 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparkindarknessI thought I had successfully excised this habit - GMing involves too much work too much effort, and with my group, too much travel. I was supposed to have replaced this addiction with WoW addiction (which i need to rant about).
But I am GMing vampire again - already the plot has formed.
So far this is my rough rough rough ROUGH outline of plot that should keep me going for several sessions.
City Under Attack
History and Outline:
City is close to the Sabbat stronghold of Detroit and has recently suffered a wave of severe attacks. The city is under siege.
Players are residents of the city doing their own thing and trying to stay alive. Vampires are disappearing (relatively low level) in an area of the barrens (low value). This is being ignored by the Prince, or just assumed to be part of the general evil Sabbat attack.
Prince is paranoid as hell about the Sabbat – has her sheriff, primogen and chief officers constantly engaged with anti-Sabbat measures. The Sabbat looks about to invade and everyone is on edge
Archon Maximilian Stewart (Tremere) is in the city. He has presented himself to the Prince who is slaveringly happy at having Archon help to begin with who quickly cools when the Archon becomes less co-operative. The Archon is interested in the disappearances and will recruit the characters to investigate.
City itself was based on the American automobile manufactories and is very poor as the industry in the city has collapsed. Lots of slums, low level jobs and poverty. Has a very high crime rate exacerbated by near constant kindred warfare.
Plot Development
Chapter 1 – the investigation
Set to a background of near constant Sabbat raids.
Prince originally very happy with Archon and fawns all over him in a most unbecoming manner. Archon makes some token gestures against Sabbat. Prince may even assign some people to help the Archon since he has no staff (Including the players)
Archon starts to investigate the disappearances. Prince humours him. Then ignores him. Prince becomes steadily more irritated with the Archon since he is unwilling to help in the defence and becomes more concerned as to what the Archon is actually doing.
Mages are discovered to be behind the disappearance, curious since mages are rarely aggressive towards vampires.
Discover it is not just an isolated coven and more an organised campaign.
Discover a second branch of Mages – the Brotherhood of {need name} – who have vampires among their members.
Find that the Mages are also hunting this coven and have largely blamed vampires for their own losses (they did send an overture to the Prince. It was ignored because it wasn’t Sabbat related).. Negotiate peace with Tradition Mages (poss alliance?)
Continue to investigate and learn more about them – learn that the Brotherhood are not just confined to the city.
Start taking down local chapter masters (big dramatic show downs). Suggestion of Daemonic taint.
Take down the head of the city’s Brotherhood. Find werewolves among the Brotherhood. Freaky and scary… indication of other chapters in other cities
Chapter 2 – Society crumbles
Sabbat attacks become ever more prevalent.
Prince begins to suspect Sabbat spies and infiltrators as the attacks grow
Brujah unrest spreads as they feel they are being used as canon fodder.
Prince begins to become severely paranoid about infiltrators and plots against him
Pretender for the throne arises and makes a bid for the princedom (Maximilian angry – NOT the time for petty politics. Is seen meeting with the would-be Prince’s officials).
Prince launches a near inquisition against possible Sabbat.
Tremere become more and more isolationist after speaking with Maximilian. Prince becomes completely paranoid and all but accuses the Archon of being Sabbat. Archon dismisses him.
Archon dealing with Nosferatu, Nosferatu become isolationist.. Prince and Archon have show down. Archon slaps the Prince down.
The Prince gathers more fanatical followers to him, even beginning to practice mass embrace and mass ghouling. Some begin to hunt down Sabbat ‘sympathisers’. Constant fanatical military training.
The Archon goes into hiding as the Prince loses it; he has to avoid the Prince’s forces without causing damage.
Chapter 3 – the attack
Brief and action packed.
The Sabbat attack and the fighting is vicious. Both sides use mass embraces.
Archon and his followers take pot shots at the Sabbat, no more. Do not take part in the defence.
The Nosferatu and Tremere both isolate themselves, refuse to defend anything more than their own territory. Prince goes ballistic. Archon must work at hiding them and sheltering them from the Prince.
Archon leads his forces in a series of raids to save prominent and worthy kindred (who he has judged worth saving) these are then hidden by the Nosferatu.
Archon runs to try and hold together the Masquerade as mass embraced fanatics on both sides run wild, have to put down many wights, fanatics and war ghouls.
The Prince and most of his forces and supporters are killed. The city is lost to the Sabbat – only Tremere and Nosferatu strongholds remain.
The city now belongs to the Sabbat
Chapter 4 – the insurgency
Archon reveals his plans to the party, to hold an insurgency while the Camarilla prepares an invasion.
Concentrates first on plugging any Masquerade holes.
Carefully establish and protect the contacts of the refugees
Begin Sabbat assassinations.
Protect the Chantry from assault
Protect Sewers from invasion.
Start using mortal influence and tricks to make life difficult for Sabbat (curfews, national guard, harassing mortal agents etc).
Chapter 5 – counter attack
The Camarilla arrives with a large force from New York and starts kicking arse HARD.
Archon and players work to keep plans of invasion secret
Coterie involved in a series of raids along side powerful Archons. Sabbat is squished (amount of squishiness depends on success of the insurgency). (ST note: diablerie will be overlooked at this point – don’t give them any 7th gens to snack on)
Camarilla wins. Sabbat painfully squished.
Chapter 6 – Future
The city is now Camarilla.
Archon and Players work with the Invasion authorities to establish some kind of stable government (how stable depends on how many dignitaries the characters rescued)
Archon and Players work to get the Camarilla army out of the city quietly – the army heads to DC to bring it back to the Camarilla while the Sabbat is distracted by all this effort in Michigan.
Archon offers players a permanent place in his retinue: choice for players – they can continue as respected members of the city – albeit a Sabbat sieged, poverty stricken one and will have to deal with more Brotherhood infiltration – or they can go with the Archon to greener pastures – the Archon will go on to focus on hunting down the Brotherhood.
Of course all this planning will fall apare as soon as the characters decide to play with the faeries or eat some hunters or something
But I am GMing vampire again - already the plot has formed.
So far this is my rough rough rough ROUGH outline of plot that should keep me going for several sessions.
City Under Attack
History and Outline:
City is close to the Sabbat stronghold of Detroit and has recently suffered a wave of severe attacks. The city is under siege.
Players are residents of the city doing their own thing and trying to stay alive. Vampires are disappearing (relatively low level) in an area of the barrens (low value). This is being ignored by the Prince, or just assumed to be part of the general evil Sabbat attack.
Prince is paranoid as hell about the Sabbat – has her sheriff, primogen and chief officers constantly engaged with anti-Sabbat measures. The Sabbat looks about to invade and everyone is on edge
Archon Maximilian Stewart (Tremere) is in the city. He has presented himself to the Prince who is slaveringly happy at having Archon help to begin with who quickly cools when the Archon becomes less co-operative. The Archon is interested in the disappearances and will recruit the characters to investigate.
City itself was based on the American automobile manufactories and is very poor as the industry in the city has collapsed. Lots of slums, low level jobs and poverty. Has a very high crime rate exacerbated by near constant kindred warfare.
Plot Development
Chapter 1 – the investigation
Set to a background of near constant Sabbat raids.
Prince originally very happy with Archon and fawns all over him in a most unbecoming manner. Archon makes some token gestures against Sabbat. Prince may even assign some people to help the Archon since he has no staff (Including the players)
Archon starts to investigate the disappearances. Prince humours him. Then ignores him. Prince becomes steadily more irritated with the Archon since he is unwilling to help in the defence and becomes more concerned as to what the Archon is actually doing.
Mages are discovered to be behind the disappearance, curious since mages are rarely aggressive towards vampires.
Discover it is not just an isolated coven and more an organised campaign.
Discover a second branch of Mages – the Brotherhood of {need name} – who have vampires among their members.
Find that the Mages are also hunting this coven and have largely blamed vampires for their own losses (they did send an overture to the Prince. It was ignored because it wasn’t Sabbat related).. Negotiate peace with Tradition Mages (poss alliance?)
Continue to investigate and learn more about them – learn that the Brotherhood are not just confined to the city.
Start taking down local chapter masters (big dramatic show downs). Suggestion of Daemonic taint.
Take down the head of the city’s Brotherhood. Find werewolves among the Brotherhood. Freaky and scary… indication of other chapters in other cities
Chapter 2 – Society crumbles
Sabbat attacks become ever more prevalent.
Prince begins to suspect Sabbat spies and infiltrators as the attacks grow
Brujah unrest spreads as they feel they are being used as canon fodder.
Prince begins to become severely paranoid about infiltrators and plots against him
Pretender for the throne arises and makes a bid for the princedom (Maximilian angry – NOT the time for petty politics. Is seen meeting with the would-be Prince’s officials).
Prince launches a near inquisition against possible Sabbat.
Tremere become more and more isolationist after speaking with Maximilian. Prince becomes completely paranoid and all but accuses the Archon of being Sabbat. Archon dismisses him.
Archon dealing with Nosferatu, Nosferatu become isolationist.. Prince and Archon have show down. Archon slaps the Prince down.
The Prince gathers more fanatical followers to him, even beginning to practice mass embrace and mass ghouling. Some begin to hunt down Sabbat ‘sympathisers’. Constant fanatical military training.
The Archon goes into hiding as the Prince loses it; he has to avoid the Prince’s forces without causing damage.
Chapter 3 – the attack
Brief and action packed.
The Sabbat attack and the fighting is vicious. Both sides use mass embraces.
Archon and his followers take pot shots at the Sabbat, no more. Do not take part in the defence.
The Nosferatu and Tremere both isolate themselves, refuse to defend anything more than their own territory. Prince goes ballistic. Archon must work at hiding them and sheltering them from the Prince.
Archon leads his forces in a series of raids to save prominent and worthy kindred (who he has judged worth saving) these are then hidden by the Nosferatu.
Archon runs to try and hold together the Masquerade as mass embraced fanatics on both sides run wild, have to put down many wights, fanatics and war ghouls.
The Prince and most of his forces and supporters are killed. The city is lost to the Sabbat – only Tremere and Nosferatu strongholds remain.
The city now belongs to the Sabbat
Chapter 4 – the insurgency
Archon reveals his plans to the party, to hold an insurgency while the Camarilla prepares an invasion.
Concentrates first on plugging any Masquerade holes.
Carefully establish and protect the contacts of the refugees
Begin Sabbat assassinations.
Protect the Chantry from assault
Protect Sewers from invasion.
Start using mortal influence and tricks to make life difficult for Sabbat (curfews, national guard, harassing mortal agents etc).
Chapter 5 – counter attack
The Camarilla arrives with a large force from New York and starts kicking arse HARD.
Archon and players work to keep plans of invasion secret
Coterie involved in a series of raids along side powerful Archons. Sabbat is squished (amount of squishiness depends on success of the insurgency). (ST note: diablerie will be overlooked at this point – don’t give them any 7th gens to snack on)
Camarilla wins. Sabbat painfully squished.
Chapter 6 – Future
The city is now Camarilla.
Archon and Players work with the Invasion authorities to establish some kind of stable government (how stable depends on how many dignitaries the characters rescued)
Archon and Players work to get the Camarilla army out of the city quietly – the army heads to DC to bring it back to the Camarilla while the Sabbat is distracted by all this effort in Michigan.
Archon offers players a permanent place in his retinue: choice for players – they can continue as respected members of the city – albeit a Sabbat sieged, poverty stricken one and will have to deal with more Brotherhood infiltration – or they can go with the Archon to greener pastures – the Archon will go on to focus on hunting down the Brotherhood.
Of course all this planning will fall apare as soon as the characters decide to play with the faeries or eat some hunters or something
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 02:32 pm (UTC)Apart from running a Sabbat Invasion plot[1], the only thing I see that might be problematic is that your Justicar and flunkies really might wind up overshadowing the PCs if you're not careful. STill, if you ARE careful, sounds like a lot of fun.
[1]: which I personally despise because I've seen them far too often but may work just fine for your group if they're less overdone locally
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 02:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 03:29 pm (UTC)"Archon" is not a step above "Prince".
Neither is "Justicar".
"Archon" means "Flunky of Justicar" crossbred with "secret policeman". They can be scary, but a Prince who can get himself so utterly blasted by an Archon isn't much of a Prince.
A LOT of Princes aren't much of a Prince, but Detroit is pretty bloody big, and anyone who can credibly claim to be Prince there is going to be a power in his own right.
"Justicar" isn't a step up from Prince, either. It's in a completely different chain of command, and yes, it does tend to mean you've got phenomenal power and they're likely to be the most powerful vampire a PC will ever encounter.
Kinda like a Prince, that.
The average Justicar is more powerful than the average Prince, but the Prince is local, with all the advantages that allies and influence and even just knowledge of the terrain can bring. Only a crazy man confronts that lightly.
This "Archon" walks in and commands respect. Okay, for some Archons, that works. He doesn't do what the Prince wants him to. Okay, still good. He stands up to the Prince, openly defies him, and "slaps him down"? He's not only capable of doing this out of his own personal power (since you can't carry influence in with you, and the Prince wins there, guaranteed), but he guarantees a destabilising power struggle over the position as soon as he leaves, on his own authority?
Calling in mad reinforcements? Including *groups of Archons*? And he's entrusted alone with handling an armed in-person defense of a huge city? That really is the kind of thing that seems to fit the definition of "Justicar" a lot more than "Archon".
If the Prince is a gormless wimp and the Archon is a badass who was disqualified from the Justicar race last time for shoving, okay.
(PS: Preventing the PCs from playing with the fairies or dining on Imbued is easily solved, by not having Changelings and Imbued in your game. It's my preferred solution, for the record.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 03:37 pm (UTC)This makes the PCs question their previous loyalties, and provides multiple incentives to go along. First, they get a powerful protector if they can jockey themselves into a full-time Archon gig, and have to prove themselves in order to get it. Second, they've got a strong incentive to KEEP the newfound respect and authority they've been handed. Third, if they fuck up, he knows where they live.
I always find that fun, myself.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 05:31 pm (UTC)I think everyone is just polite and gets by as they can.
Ah, she isn't the prince of detroit - it is a city NEAR detroit (made up city)
but he guarantees a destabilising power struggle over the position as soon as he leaves
Not a problem in this case :).
(Oh no, I like having fairies and imbued - but on my terms)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 05:39 pm (UTC)> involved.
> I think everyone is just polite and gets by as they can.
I think I love you in all the ways it's legally allowed to love a lawyer.
> Ah, she isn't the prince of detroit - it is a city NEAR detroit
> (made up city)
Near detroit? Large enough to hold a fair number of vampires? Where the hell would you PUT it?
(Ah, the wonders of being on a different continent than your game setting. I won't really give you a hard time; after all, I tried to use London for a game, once. That really didn't work out too well.)
> Not a problem in this case
But he doesn't *know* that in advance.
I hope.
I mean, really.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 06:38 pm (UTC)Imaginary cities don't have to play with reality :p I stretch geography because I don't like to start chronicles in REAL cities.
I had a Chicago chronicle revolving around the marine ports.
I like to set in America because of guns and canon :)
He starts out polite, but once he has assesed the Prince (waste of unlife) the primogen (wastes of blood) and the defences (pointless) - he reuses to waste any more time on them: besides he already knows that an invasion of Camarilla on the way.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 07:27 pm (UTC)......... Wait... that didn't sound right did it?
....... or maybe it Did?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 08:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 05:07 pm (UTC)Power of Archon vs Prince varies from city to city. There's no exact hierarchy. Queen Anne is probably more than authorative enough, powerful enough and secure enough to tell even a Justicar that she's not interested.
The prince here is a weak prince - she has little support, wealth or influence - she is locked in a desperate battle against the Sabbat that she cannot win - she is desperate. She needs help and everyone knows it.
The Archon is powerful, influential, old and confident with vast resources and connections.
it's a matter of personalities and powers more than actual rank
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 05:23 pm (UTC)I'd still probably use a Justicar, in your place, on the grounds that a powerful, old, influential and confident Archon would be more likely to "retire" to a life of luxury as a Primogen or Prince than stay with the dangerous, sloppy gruntwork, but that's a matter of personal taste.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 05:37 pm (UTC)In Maximilian's case, he prefers being an archon :) Because he is infinitely curious and LIKES to travel and look at all the interesting weirdness all around. He has no wish to be Justicar (far too political and scrutinised) and if he settles down Clan Tremere will start making him play the Pyramid game again. He gets bored relatively easily if he has to do the same thing for too long - he is sure that's why many kindred succumb to torpor.
I'll also admit some of my own tweaking in my own games of 'upper level archons'. Sure, the likes of Bell can do a lot but some problems are going to need some heavy hitters even above that (and not just in combat) - and there are only 6 Justicars. My players tend to call them my 'gold star archons' with varying degrees of respect or fear
I suppose I should call them Astors but Astors always suggests combat to me.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 03:23 pm (UTC)~whines~ why does everyone but me suddenly have a good game going on? i wanna get my play on too! bah, you all are bullies. ~pout~
that being said...
Prince who is slaveringly happy
that is a fantastic line. really. i love you for it.
Brujah unrest spreads as they feel they are being used as canon fodder.
awww... no love for the poet-brutes. i love old brujah. when played right they are fantastic and need to be cuddled (even against their wills).
question: you do know that, depending on how old the prince is, pushing one that hard may very well drive her into chucking in with the Sabbat...
question 2: why does the Archon deal with the prince that way? just doesn't like her? support and manipulation of existing power structure would probably make defending the city easier. Archon could be much more supportive and still get what she wants done. unless, of course, the Prince is even more of a raving lunie than demonstrated by the plot.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 06:02 pm (UTC)Thank you
I like Brujah - but in battle they are abused :)
1) Yes pushing round a prince is USUALLY bad. This Prince is weak, desperate and politically broken - the archon is old, powerful and well connected.
2) Normally yes - but Maximilian kind of hates the Prince - not so much hate as has a great deal of contempt for - he thinks she is a failure and a disaster. After arriving he has decided that the prince will be replaced when the city falls - so her co-operation isn't necessary.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-05 11:03 pm (UTC)Er... You'd make an excellent ventrue or toreador prince...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-06 03:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-14 08:52 pm (UTC)Yes, yes I do :)
:p