World of Darkness/Vampire: The Masquerade New RP Interest?

It's been quite awhile since we've had any RP happen here, especially since Gonzalez has gone off the grid.

I figure establishing a new RP, but doing something like World of Darkness/VTM might be different enough spark interest in a new RP.

The basis around it would be a group of Hunters from different backgrounds and various reasons to why they became hunters, led by a grizzled old war vet/former Green Beret who has been hunting for decades, and taught the party PC's to hunt (background open for changes, of course). They then travel around like the Scooby Doo Mystery Van, but instead of solving child friendly crimes they're ruthlessly tracking down vampires, werewolves, mages, et cetera and brutally murdering them.

If World of Darkness/Vampire: The Masquerade doesn't interest you, we can always do Shadowrun. We also wouldn't necessarily need to use a full RP system, that way people can join the RP and don't have to worry about keeping track of stats and a bunch of other crap, they can just jump in and have fun with a simplified system when any rolls would be done by the DM (myself) behind the scenes.

In a sense it would be more about the RP than the min/maxing tabletop gameplay of creating a character where you need to keep track of fifty different stats. Though, if a simplistic system doesn't interest, we can always switch over to using a more traditional, complex RP system. I'd handle all of a grunt work, i.e. drawing maps, making rolls, creating the campaign, et cetera.

I just need to know how many people are interested. Ideally, we'd want to have a minimum of three people participating. The more the merrier. If there's no interest then we'll just leave this thread to collect dust and that'll be that. I'd really like to get a campaign going, though.

So, any interest for old times sake?

 

Awesome. If we can get one (fingers crossed for maybe even two) more people we can get this going.

 

This would definitely be something we would decide on together, as I'm open to options. Originally I was just thinking about going with the old school Gonzalez style and have it ran here on the forum via board posts, but then again I didn't think so many people would be interested.

Right now there's two options as for the RP system we can use. We use a traditional RPG system (though perhaps not something as clunky as the WOD traditional system and just make adaptations to what we use, like D&D 5E) OR we can simplify everything and do it all homebrew, i.e. basic stats and basic rolls for things like attack/perception, et cetera. On the other hand, we can use Fallout's own SPECIAL system since that's something we're all familiar with, and just make adaptations (for example, perception might not just be what you can perceive physically, but also within the paranormal). You'd draw up a character using the SPECIAL system (for example), and create a background - i.e. who is your character, why they became a hunter, et cetera.

As for where and how we will do this, again there's two options. We can use one of the actual free tabletop programs to run the game, or we can go with my original idea to run it via the board. The way I planned to do that was basically by stealing the way Gonzalez used to run RP's here. Have two threads: OOC and IC. IC is where we're in character and make all the roleplaying decisions (and I, as the DM would lay down the plot), and also where we would make our rolls. OOC would be for everything else, such as the inevitable conversations we'd need to have outside the game - and would also be the place where I post general lore info or terms you might need to know for those of us who haven't played V:TM or WOD.

These are my ideas, but if you guys think there's an easier or better way to do this than definitely let me know. I'm honestly just surprised so many people are interested. I legitimately expected this thread to graveyard, but I've been wanting to run a Vampire: The Masquerade campaign (as hunters) for so long I figured I'd give it a shot here.

I'm leaving this open because I want us to decide as a group. I don't want to use a system or platform anyone is either uncomfortable or unfamiliar with, so as far as I can see it, the options I gave above are the most reliable ways we can run this campaign (though again, if you have ideas please let me know).

I'm GMT -6:00 myself, but there are ways we can make this work despite timezone disparity, such as running it via forum.

 

Sounds good. So we've got one vote for running it on the board via post. Also, don't worry about having never played the pen-and-paper, I honestly doubt many (including myself) have.

For that reason I recommend that we implement a more simplified system that all of us can understand: the SPECIAL system. You'd make your characters just like you would in FO 1/2, 5 baseline stats with 5 extra to add (with the option to deneg a skill to gain a point), OR we can just have everyone roll a 1d10 for each SPECIAL stat and draw up their character that way. This is what I'll have you guys use to create and draw up your characters IF that's ok with you all. We can even include things like traits and skills (swapping out some of the skills like "gambling" for others that make sense within WOD), however that might be going too far/getting to detailed.

As for right now this thread is just the preparations thread. If/when we get things underway we'll have two threads in operation: IC for the RP and OOC for everything outside the RP, such as discussion, questions, character creation, et cetera.

For those who aren't that well versed in V:TM/WOD lore, it's ok. I plan on doing a write up of basic terms and lore kinda like a simplified dictionary that way, if a topic comes up at some point, for example let's say two characters are talking about diablerie (the act of one vampire feeding off another), you can just check the OOC thread to get a quick definition so you can understand what the hell people are talking about.

EDIT: I am going to begin working on a homebrew system now. It will be familiar, but also unique and easy to use. It won't take me long to make, while I wait for answers from the others. It will be based off and then expanded around the SPECIAL system.

 

Thought I'd post this so you guys can get a general idea/inspiration, it's from the original sourcebook:

EDIT: There's more to it, I shortened it quite a bit. If you want me to post the rest tell me. Or I can just give you the sourcebook PDF.

 

Ok awesome. I'll gather up the names of everyone whos in for sure, then tomorrow I'll lay down the homebrew I've been working on so you guys can write up characters.

I'm trying to make it easy for everyone to understand to be able to make a character, but I have been including a few things from the various Hunter sourcebooks so you might find stuff you recognize.

 

I used to sound like I was 14 over a phone/mic. Eventually that shit stopped as I hit my early/mid 20's, and I'm now proud to say that like any grown man I sound like I'm 17 now instead.

Anywho, last recall people. I've got a pretty good idea of who is going to be participating in this campaign but this is to know for sure. Here's how we'll do it.

I'm going to tag everyone who replied to this thread. Those of you who are ready just respond with, well... a response.

From there we're going to ditch this thread and I'm going to open up the OOC thread which is where you three (or four depending on if GM joins) will create your characters. Because Risewild is literally the only one here who's used the WOD system before, and because after taking a look at that system and realizing it's totally different from what everyone else is going to be used to, we're going to be using a modified SPECIAL system, with traits and attributes that I've prepared (attributes will stand in lieu of skills but it'll be done differently than fallout - each skill having five ticks with each tick giving a +1 to dice rolls, you'll see what I mean when we get into the thread).

So, after roll call here I'll create the OOC thread, and drop the system I've created specifically for running this campaign on the board that won't make everything a fustercluck, and will (hopefully) allow it to all run smoothly. The first post you guys make there, should be your character sheets.

Now... Final Roll Call:
(Respond With One Last Post If You're In):

@TorontoReign
@Risewild
@Alphons
@TheGM

Spoiler

Also, TR, noted. We'll have to set something up