Cainite Heresy : nWOD : Vampire the Requiem : Hunter the Vigil

September 2009
Cainite Heresy
nWOD : Vampire the Requiem : Hunter the Vigil

A number of vampires in New York City are starting to grasp the existence of a hidden Covenant calling itself the Cainite Heresy, and how this ties in with the supposed Simon Dark entity (a comics character who I adapted to be a Promethean in my game), a public servant who seems intent in destroying it, and some conspiracy calling itself the Lucifuge who has located their most promising candidate yet.

The game has been going on for months now, and the players have had their share of victories and failings. Sacrifices were made, friends were betrayed and in some cases, lies were upheld in order for the greater good to seemingly win.

I gathered elements of cWOD's Cainite Heresy as well as a healthy helping of the old metaplot of having an Ancient sleeping beneath the city and gave it a nWOD touch.  The Covenants of the nWOD nicely filled the niche of what clans such as the Baali and sects like the Sabbat used to portray.  Add to that the fact that practically every Covenant has their own religious system or philosophical belief, and it wasn't hard to quickly create a darker version of the Heresy.

Sam played a vampire of the bloodline known as the Gullikan, whose hyper-active sense of smell resembled much that of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille of Perfume: Story of a Murderer.  His character was being stalked by a strange figure known as Simon Dark (yes, based on the DC comic property) which I eventually revealed to be a Promethean composite of the character's old mortal lover.  The story had a nice dark fairytale quality to it which I wish we were able to explore even more before the game got cancelled.

Rocky had recently joined the gaming group at this time, and his foray was to be a normal comic store owning guy who learns there is a bigger world waiting for him.   Zac Efron guest stars in the game as himself, and is later revealed to have been usurped by a demon that is warning him of a group known as the Lucifuge.  Zac attempts to seduce him and have him turn away from the group.

All in all, the game was pretty fun for a foray into the new World of Darkness and its Vampire the Requiem line.

Reavers : Serenity

2009
Reavers
Margaret Weis Productions' Serenity

It was September of 2009 when I received a request to run a Serenity game for the Open Gaming Meet.   My attempt to run BSG didn't pan out, so to my surprise this game gathered a LOT of players.

And I mean a LOT of players.  

Two players (a couple) had never gamed before and were not familiar with the show either but decided to play Mal and Inara. The father of the girl in the couple opted to play Jayne.   His youngest daughter, on the other hand, decided to go for River Tam.  To complete the ensemble, my dear friend Jovan took the role of her favorite character Kaylee (a role which she eventually will hold on to for games to come).  So yeah, this was a game with three totally new players (one couple and a young girl whose age was definitely lower than 18 years old), and a game that had a father and her two daughters in it.  Talk about a mixed group.

This was the game's other title, I believe.

The story was simple.  While handling a job in one of the less popular moons, after evading a group of Reavers, the Serenity crew found itself having to evade the vengeful presence of Nisska again.  The crew discovers Nisska was working on a trade with Blue Sun and were maneuvering what seems to be highly valued cargo.  The crew decide to take the cargo for themselves and discover it contains a fully-grown living clone of their long dead and dear friend Wash!  The Blue Hand Men show up try and tidy up the loose threads, forcing the crew to make their escape, but the Wash Clone realizes the Blue Sun corporation has better ships than Serenity, and so forces the crew to hide instead while he lures the enemy away with a different Firefly.

It was a session filled with both laughs and bitter-sweet regrets with many (both playing and listening in) commenting that the game could have been an unaired episode of the cancelled Josh Whedon show.   I extend my thanks to Margaret Weiss Productions for making a game system that truly captures the feel of the show.