Gary, Indiana is a small city on the shores of Lake Michigan somewhat between Chicago and Fort Wayne. Gary has the somewhat dubious claim to fame of being the birthplace of Michael Jackson, as well as the other members of the Jackson family. It was once a prosperous industrial area, but the steel mills that comprised the main tax base closed in the 1970s. Things went downhill very quickly from there, and the area lost about 50% of its population. Only those who cant afford to live anywhere else call Gary home now, with a population hovering just over the 100,000 mark as of about 1991. These days, practically the only reliable employment to be found is substandard or minimum wage, mostly working on the docks or similar labour based roles.
Abandoned buildings and shopfronts are common with residents joking that such abandoned buildings 'outnumber the living' - a joke perhaps in poor taste considering the low Vampiric population of Gary.
Better known for it's output of Steel and whilst some factories remain in business, there is a large rusted expanse of abandoned steel mills and decaying warehouses known as the Wasteland situated within the city's boundaries. This place knows no law, not even the law of the Prince, Modius and no one knows what goes on there after the sun sets. Lupines are said to roam there, and even vampires fear to antagonize the gangs that live there.
December 31st, 1991, 7:00pm
With the sun having set, you each arrive at Modius' residence.
The prince’s house is an old decaying mansion in the center of Gary. Once the home of a steelbaron, it was built in the most illustrious neighborhood of the growing city. However, times have changed and most of the mansions in this neighborhood have been divided into apartments. Only Modius’ house is left, and it has apparently sheltered Modius for quite a while. The passage of time has begun to affect the structure; indeed, the roof is near the point of collapse. Snow has gathered on the roof, and now water drips through holes in the ceilings and is collected in buckets that must be constantly emptied and moved by the servants.
Standing outside of the building are four large caucasian men, each armed with revolvers and truncheons and dressed in blue jeans and flannel shirts. They stare blankly forward as guests arrive and offer nothing in the way of greeting and little acknowledgment to you as you arrive beyond ushering you forward through the front doors.
Stepping through the ageing doorway, you are confronted with the front parlor of the building. Despite the dilapidated external appearance to the Mansion, the inside is far more luxurious, with gorgeous fineries including tapestries adoring the walls as well as rugs of ostentatious design that cover the floor. Champagne flutes of blood stand on silver platters positioned clear of the dripping water that leaks from the holes in the ceiling. Classical music plays in the background softly and there's even a cleared floorspace you deduce to allow guests to dance should they desire.
Modius, dressed in a dated but pristine Tuxedo stands in the centre of this space, talking at a lithe woman of short build dressed in old-fashioned but elaborate clothing.
At this point, to get settled, feel free to describe how your character arrives. Taking in your surroundings in a general sense would require no specific dice rolls, but if you wanted to perceive anything specific, take a Perception + Alertness roll at DC 5. I'll assume you're arriving separately unless you state you're arriving together.
Dressed in his best Bulls Jersey, baggy jeans and hightop shoes, Jaymac walks casually into the mansion, paying the guards little heed. Eying the expensive interior, he wonders again why he decided to attend. He scans the room and when he spots Modius' conspicuous figure, he briefly wonders if he should have stolen a suit for the occasion.
Nah, he brushes off the thought internally. I aint bought into the bullshit for the last 45 years. No point starting now.
Spying the flutes of blood on the side tables, he immediately saunters over and grabs one. He pauses briefly before drinking. What if they are drugged or poisoned or something? Shrugging he downs the glass in one mouthful. Can't pass up free blood on offer.
Grabbing a second glass, he finds a wall to lean against and scans the room, playing it cool but eyes peeled to find someone he knows, or spot something who looks to know a little more; like why Modius suddenly decided to host this party again.
Modius' eyes come alive at the arrival of another guest. Politely excusing himself with an exaggerated bow he turns on his feel from the discussion with the short-built woman, who in turn curtsies as Modius departs to walk towards Jasyon - his expression welcoming.
"Sir Macintyre, ah my dear boy!" he exclaims in an enthusiastic tone as though he were reconnecting with a long-lost loved one, his arms wide.
He extends his hand in an open palm gesture to handshake upon coming within arms reach.
NB: as neonates of Gary, you each have actually met Modius before - being the prince of Gary he knows all the Kindred present in the city to some extent hence the level of familiarity he has towards you each.
"Good evening, please, please - make yourself comfortable"
"I see you have chosen such...formal attire for our soiree this evening?" he adds with a wily smile.
Noting Jayson's drink in his hand, he proclaims;
"My boy, why stop at two?" He snaps his fingers together and an ebony skinned elderly man with a blank expression not dissimilar to the guards posted at the mansion's entrance appears at his side, weilding a silver platter with further champagne flutes each filled with blood.
"Drink your fill - before the night is out I expect to hear stories of your recent capers over a drop!"
Gizmoh, you might need to guide me on the rolls until I get the hang of this gaming system. Jaymac will scan the room for any clues, then try and track someone down to start asking questions (quietly) about Modius' motives in hosting the party.
No problem - when doing any dice roll checks in VTM, it's almost invariably a case of taking the relevant number of Attribute dots you have and adding the required Ability dots you have together to form a sum total depending on whatever the task at hand is. Then roll this sum total in D10 dice versus the DC of whatever it is your character is attempting to do, totalling up the number of rolls that equal or beat the DC to determine how successful your character has been.
Example here - Jayson is attempting to perceive from the current guests why Modius has decided to throw this party. A Perception check at DC 5 in this case is required. Total the dots your character has in Perception + the dots you have in Alertness = sum of D10 dice to roll.
Then however many of those dice score equal or higher to the DC shows how many 'successes' you score. The amount of successes you get will provide the context of just how successful (barely to extremely!) you have achieved the goal. Rolls of 1 however are failures and cancel out successes, just FYI. IN this way, it's possible to not only simply fail at a given task (by getting no successes) but also to screw it up royally by having more rolls of 1 then you had successes in the first instance.
Let's say your character had 4 dots in Perception and three in Alertness. The best way of doing these rolls over post will be slightly time consuming in the sense that your dice rolls will become multi-lines so I can see each roll individually but it does allow for a greater scope of success and failure at attempted tasks as follows;
In this example, the character scored three successes versus a DC of 5 (great rolls hey!) at the Perception attempt but also one failure equalling a total of 2 successes, enough to notice certain bits and peices, but not enough to notice small details. I then see this, and provide you a spoiler on what you've seen.
Other examples could be you declare your character is attempting to sneak up on a guard on duty at a retail store to knock him out. Sneaking commonly involves totalling your dots in Dexterity and Stealth and depending on the conditions, a DC of 6. Perhaps if the Guard was alerted to your presence though (maybe an alarm had sounded, etc) the DC would be 7 instead, etc. Or, maybe the guard was tired - the DC becomes 5 as he's just not paying enough attention, etc.
If your character had to swim however, this check would be your total dots of Stamina + Atheltics, etc versus a DC of 6 (normal current), or perhaps DC 7 (strong current), etc. Let me know if that makes sense!
Dominic pulls into the drive on his Yamaha RD500, parking near the door of the mansion. "Keep an eye on it for me." He calls to one of the burly men.
He wears a sports jacket over a Guns N Roses t-shirt, and baggy suit pants, a Desert Eagle jammed in the back.
Dom tries to walk in casually, though almost knocks over the champaign class he reaches for. He scans the room.
"Sir Milazzo!" Modius exclaims upon seeing Dominic arrive.
"Excuse me Sir Macytintire - I must greet my guests but we shall converse soon. Please feel free to mingle with the other esteemed guests."
Modius bows deeply to Jayson before stepping past him to greet Dominic.
As before, he extends his hand in a handshake of greeting.
"Ah - it's been to long, has it not my boy? Welcome to my home!" Modius eyes sparkle with barely restrained enthusiasm at this new arrival.
"Please - please, where are my manners. A drink perhaps?"
He ushers to his left where an ebony skinned man holds a platter of blood-filled champagne flutes.
For Dom;
She seems uncomfortable in this social setting.
Another, taller individual stands in the middle of the dance floor, unmoving. His back is to you but you can see this individual's hair is thinning and now matted in clumps upon his head. He appears to be staring blankly at the wall and is dressed in a poorly maintained and tattered trenchcoat that obscures most of his figure.
Seated in a dilapidated armchair facing an inert fireplace is another individual though at this distance you can't determine any particular details of this figure.
You notice several platters of extravagant, untouched food setup around the parlour on various tables. You surmise this was likely done to uphold the masquerade due to the expected company here of only kindred.
You can also tell that Modius is genuinely pleased to see you and the collected guests at this event.
"Good evening my prince." Dom takes the offered hand, racking his brain for the proper protocol for this kind of situation, and doing his best to follow the conventions.
"Thank you for having me to your gathering." He takes the offered glass of blood. "I was pleasantly surprised to receive the invitation, I had heard tell of these New Years Eve parties, though your last one was before my time..." He leaves the unspoken question hanging, wondering if Modius will fill in any details
He makes note of the other occupants of the room, meaning to try to talk to them after the Prince is done with him.
"Good evening my prince." Dom takes the offered hand, racking his brain for the proper protocol for this kind of situation, and doing his best to follow the conventions.
[dice=Etiquette] d10
[dice=Etiquette] d10"Thank you for having me to your gathering." He takes the offered glass of blood. "I was pleasantly surprised to receive the invitation, I had heard tell of these New Years Eve parties, though your last one was before my time..." He leaves the unspoken question hanging, wondering if Modius will fill in any details
He makes note of the other occupants of the room, meaning to try to talk to them after the Prince is done with him.
Hey mate, this check would involve Etiquette + Charisma, so roll another 3 D10 for your three dots in Charisma.
Jaymac is surprised when Modius comes over to greet him personally, and then starts to get his back up when he calls for more blood. It was tasting pretty good while I was taking it myself. Now suddenly not so much.
"I honour you with my attendance here, and I order the other Prince; Prince Jordan - by my choice of attire. First championship of many at the Bulls, no doubt."
When Modius leaves to greet the next guest, he resumes his scan of the room.
"Good evening my prince." Dom takes the offered hand, racking his brain for the proper protocol for this kind of situation, and doing his best t
"Thank you for having me to your gathering." He takes the offered glass of blood. "I was pleasantly surprised to receive the invitation, I had heard tell of these New Years Eve parties, though your last one was before my time..." He leaves the unspoken question hanging, wondering if Modius will fill in any details
He makes note of the other occupants of the room, meaning to try to talk to them after the Prince is done with him.
Hey mate, this check would involve Etiquette + Charisma, so roll another 3 D10 for your three dots in Charisma.
Slate pulls over on the street outside the Prince’s mansion and turns the key, turning off the engine of his ’69 Mustang Mach 1. Pulling on his black leather biker jacket over his black and white Killing Joke t-shirt, he steps out of the car and strides through the gates of the mansion, his Doc Martin’s clapping loudly on the cracked concrete path.
He doesn’t acknowledge the men standing watch outside the doors, but strides inside. Inside the doorway, he rubs the stubble on his jaw and looks around for a dark corner to lounge in, and scans the room, looking for anyone he knows – friend or foe.
"Such manners!" Modius smiles, beaming at Dom's decorum.
"I knew I were not the only remaining gentlemen of my princedom sir - ah, to engage in such sophistication with a fellow polished man regardless of his chosen attire - ah, the finer things in life. We must talk again my boy this fine evening!"
Modius bows deeply before adding; "For now, I have another guest to greet, please please - socialise - our evening is young even if we are not!"
Modius then excuses himself from the conversation with Dom to sweep towards Slate, arms held out in greeting.
"The military man arrives - Sir Slater, welcome!" he bows deeply.
"I trust your talents won't be needed this evening sir - this is a gathering of the esteemed and we each understand the behaviour required at such formality, as I'm sure you do to"
Modius smiles, his eyes meeting yours, seemingly awaiting a response.
For Slate;
Another, taller individual stands in the middle of the dance floor, unmoving. His back is to you but you can see this individual's hair is thinning and now matted in clumps upon his head. He is dressed in a trenchcoat that obscures most of his figure.
Seated in a dilapidated armchair facing an inert fireplace is another individual though at this distance you can't determine any particular details of this figure.
You notice several platters of extravagant, untouched food setup around the parlour on various tables. You surmise this was likely done to uphold the masquerade due to the expected company here of only kindred.
You can also tell that Modius is genuinely pleased to see you and the collected guests at this event.
For Jaymac;
Another, taller individual stands in the middle of the dance floor, unmoving. His back is to you and you're unable to determine much else from his facing.
Seated in a dilapidated armchair facing an inert fireplace is another individual though at this distance you can't determine any particular details of this figure.
You notice several platters of extravagant, untouched food setup around the parlour on various tables.
“My Prince.” Slate inclines his head slightly – he may have something of a lack of respect for authority, but he’s not stupid enough to insult the prince. “It’s been a good while since I was in the military … I don’t think I’ve lost those skills, but no, I didn’t expect I’d need them here tonight.” He tries to think of what to say next, aware that some small talk is probably expected. “Thanks for the invitation,” he says. “I wasn’t sure of the dress code … I don’t get invited to many parties … anymore.” He scratches his neck unconsciously, aware that he probably sounds awkward. “Uh … in fact I wasn’t aware that you still threw these new years eve parties either?”
Suddenly he’s interested, wondering if the Prince might have some motive for hosting this shindig beyond the simple enjoyment of company.
"It's a happening party, clearly," Jaymac mutters to himself after scanning the relatively empty room. He walks over to the dark haired woman standing by herself.
"I see you had no better offers for New Year's, just like me," he says jokingly. "I'm Jayson."
He extends his hand to shake.
Relieved that Modius has moved on, Dom replaces his empty glass with a full one, and then takes another for good measure. This is a depressing party. I thought royalty were supposed to party in style. He thought, sipping from his glass. At least the blood is good.
He hesitates, then heads over to the balding figure in the old trench coat, hoping he wont regret engaging in conversation. "High, I'm Dom, how are you?." He extends his hand to shake, then mentally curses as he belatedly realising he has a glass in both hands. "Err, would you like a drink?"