Kelsey MacAilbert's Untitled Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Kelsey MacAilbert


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I have Mirrors, and I want to whip it out. Specifically, I want to use the materiel about how the existence of the supernatural world could be revealed to humans.

Here's what I have in mind:

Background:
This is set in an alternate history where the British Empire averted collapse by backing off on the racism in the late early 20th century and re branding itself as the Commonwealth of Nations, a union for the prosperity of all it's members. It also colonized some things the IRL British didn't and didn't colonize some things it did. A list is below.

The secret came out during the 1980s. The shock came first, as people tried to figure out just what was going on, then the violence. Vampires, werewolves, and mages are scary, after all, and a great many do slaughter innocents, and humans weren't going to stand for that. The problem is, it wasn't just the dangerous ones supernaturals they want after. If it wasn't completely human, they went after it. The ranks of the hunters swelled massively. The violence was finally brought under control by the implementation of martial law, with the military being instructed to protect people from supernaturals while preventing vigilantes from killing supernaturals simply for being supernatural.

Soon after a coalition of supernaturals and humans formed the Commonwealth-wide Ministry of Supernatural Affairs to handle supernatural issues, and martial law was lifted. Part of the MSA's resources for doing it's job was the brand new Commonwealth Ranger Service. The basic idea was simple: let supernaturals hunt down any supernatural who poses a threat to humans, and humans just way be willing to put the torches and pitchforks away and refrain from slaughtering them all. It's only been a few decades since then, but so far it's worked fairly well. There is definitely tension, and it does boil over at times, and there are some hunter groups actively hunting down supernaturals, but for the most part humans and supernaturals are not warring with each other.

It is currently 2012.

Structure of the Commonwealth:
The Commonwealth is structured along much the same lines as the United States, but with a bit more focus on state government and a bit less on federal government. The military is federal. The Queen of England is sovereign of England only, and some other nations of the Commonwealth have monarchs of their own. Nations are led by prime ministers, and the Commonwealth is led by a chancellor. Monarchs are figureheads, and marked in parenthesis.

Nations that have historically been part of the Commonwealth:

England (Queen)
Scotland (King)
Wales (King)
Ireland (Queen)
Canada
New England
California
Cascadia (Oregon and Washington State)
Jamaica
Hawaii
New Zealand
Australia
South Africa
Kenya
Ceylon (King)
Peru (King)
Egypt (Queen)
Confederation of Dixie (Covers the same area as the Confederate States of America. Slavery is not legal here. It was banned at the same time it was banned everywhere else in British territory. Culturally highly similar to the real life area.)
Assorted small islands worldwide

(For reference, the parts of the US not listed above are German possessions.)

Nations that joined recently (Germany, Russia, China, and India are major world powers, and are seen as expansionist threats by many smaller nations. Brazil is also a major power, but is allied with the Commonwealth. Many have joined the Commonwealth, which has long since stopped billing itself as British, for protection and economic benefit, and the Britishness of the Commonwealth is rapidly diminishing. The Commonwealth of Nations resembles NATO with a federal government much more than it does the old British Empire.)

France (Queen)
Sicily (King)
Greece (King)
Southern Italy
Japan (King)
Korea (King)
Spain (Queen)
Persia (Queen)
Iceland (King)
Sweden (King)
Denmark (King)
Norway (Queen)
Finland
Thailand (Queen)

Character creation details are negotiable. I have a general plan, but am open to suggestions.

Interest?

Dark Archive

I'm interested, I'm thinking Sherlock-Homes-like mage


One thing. This chronicle is a mix of investigation and combat and not very political. The PCs are all Rangers, and tend to kill the dangerous creatures they go up against.

Minimum age is 20. One must be at least 18 and have some sort of supernatural ability (you may be a vampire, werewolf, mage, changeling, promethian, or geist [though geist rangers are VERY rare], or take another template that exists in a WOD supplement if I decide that the template fits in.) in order to join the Rangers, and the training takes two years. There is no maximum age do to the non-standard lifespans of many supernaturals.

The Rangers fill both law enforcement and military roles (they generally act as supernatural law enforcement, but the military also uses the Ranger Service, both when it needs supernatural specops for some sort of mission and when it needs someone to keep supernaturals from ripping up it's personnel). They have access to a wide variety of military and police ordinance, including body armor, fully automatic weapons, explosives, and so on.


Structure of the Commonwealth section updated.


So um just have a few questions before I throw my hat in the ring.So how will this game handle the social structure and how would you handle their outlooks on certain matters. such as how would you get the Invictus the leaders of kindred society and consider themselves to be unconquered to bend a knee to humans, How would you handle the Sanctified who are Gods predators to scare the mortal flock back to Christ and be the best predator. How would you handle the dichotomies between the Pure and the forsaken with werewolf. How would freeholds be effected and wouldn't this do the opposite of them trying to keep out of the keepers clutches once again and not also exposing others to the threats of Arcadia. With Mage I could see the Guardian of The Veil being problematic especially in the case of Mages start casting magic with out caring about paradox and the abyssal spirits it can attract and knowing the fanatical nature of the guardians what role would you see them play and what role would you see lodges, Packs, covenants, orders and other such things be represented in this setting?

Sorry if that is a lot of questions.


Jinchi wrote:

So um just have a few questions before I throw my hat in the ring.So how will this game handle the social structure and how would you handle their outlooks on certain matters. such as how would you get the Invictus the leaders of kindred society and consider themselves to be unconquered to bend a knee to humans, How would you handle the Sanctified who are Gods predators to scare the mortal flock back to Christ and be the best predator. How would you handle the dichotomies between the Pure and the forsaken with werewolf. How would freeholds be effected and wouldn't this do the opposite of them trying to keep out of the keepers clutches once again and not also exposing others to the threats of Arcadia. With Mage I could see the Guardian of The Veil being problematic especially in the case of Mages start casting magic with out caring about paradox and the abyssal spirits it can attract and knowing the fanatical nature of the guardians what role would you see them play and what role would you see lodges, Packs, covenants, orders and other such things be represented in this setting?

Sorry if that is a lot of questions.

The Invictus lost a great deal of their people during the initial fighting, and are not in charge anymore. The covenants in general no longer have the strength they once had. A very charge number of vampires do not belong to one.

The Sanctified are still acting as God's predators, and even have a few cults of human devotees, but vigilante hunters and the Rangers Service have thinned their ranks.

I'll answer the rest after dinner.


Crap this sounds fun. I'd kill to play a scottish ranger of some type (were prolly, as us scots are a hairy ppl, lol). I'm new as hell to WoD, so I might take some handholding. I do have some books tho. So, in short, dotting for later. :)


I'd be keen to play a werewolf, who'd been brought up just by her dad (her mum, a werewolf, had taken off soon after her 1st birthday) Her dad, a Major General in the British Army. She acted out a lot, never really concentrating on school studies, instead she was out picking fights and breaking into houses, for the fun of it. At age 15, after dozens of arrests and a stern talking to from her father, she decided that she did improve her ways, and focused on the goal of joining the army after graduating high school. Shortly before turning 16 though, she started undergoing the werewolf changes, with threw a spanner in the works, her violent and larcenous behaviour came back with full force, eventually running away from home, through the next four years she managed to get a handle on herself and chose to enroll for Ranger training, graduating from it two years later, shes now worked for the rangers for 7 years.
(will provide more detailed history once game starts, if I'm picked)


Jinchi wrote:

So um just have a few questions before I throw my hat in the ring.So how will this game handle the social structure and how would you handle their outlooks on certain matters. such as how would you get the Invictus the leaders of kindred society and consider themselves to be unconquered to bend a knee to humans, How would you handle the Sanctified who are Gods predators to scare the mortal flock back to Christ and be the best predator. How would you handle the dichotomies between the Pure and the forsaken with werewolf. How would freeholds be effected and wouldn't this do the opposite of them trying to keep out of the keepers clutches once again and not also exposing others to the threats of Arcadia. With Mage I could see the Guardian of The Veil being problematic especially in the case of Mages start casting magic with out caring about paradox and the abyssal spirits it can attract and knowing the fanatical nature of the guardians what role would you see them play and what role would you see lodges, Packs, covenants, orders and other such things be represented in this setting?

Sorry if that is a lot of questions.

The Forsaken and Pure still don't get along, but the Pure prefer to give the Forsaken trouble by causing problems with humans rather than attacking them directly. The Ministry of Supernatural Affairs handles the spirits these days, and the Forsaken make up the largest part of the personnel devoted to this task. The Pure, meanwhile, prefer to bide their time and gather resources, and keep their goals veiled as well as possible. There is no Lunacy.

Though the existence of Changelings is known, individual Changelings rarely reveal themselves as Changelings (Rangers are an exception), and they keep the locations of their freeholds secret. The Ministry of Supernatural Affairs assists them in this, as the danger of revealing precisely who is a Changeling and where they live is recognized.

The Guardians are problematic. They mostly act like vigilantes doing the Rangers' jobs, and it often goes badly. The same applies to most Hunters.

Lodges, covenants, orders, and the like all exist, but their power is diminishing a great deal. The Ministry of Supernatural Affairs is generally seen as the governing body of supernaturals, though a lot of lodges, covenants, and the like resent this greatly and make trouble. Werewolves still tend to form packs, but more out of biological conditioning and comfort than necessity.


easjo682 wrote:

I'd be keen to play a werewolf, who'd been brought up just by her dad (her mum, a werewolf, had taken off soon after her 1st birthday) Her dad, a Major General in the British Army. She acted out a lot, never really concentrating on school studies, instead she was out picking fights and breaking into houses, for the fun of it. At age 15, after dozens of arrests and a stern talking to from her father, she decided that she did improve her ways, and focused on the goal of joining the army after graduating high school. Shortly before turning 16 though, she started undergoing the werewolf changes, with threw a spanner in the works, her violent and larcenous behaviour came back with full force, eventually running away from home, through the next four years she managed to get a handle on herself and chose to enroll for Ranger training, graduating from it two years later, shes now worked for the rangers for 7 years.

(will provide more detailed history once game starts, if I'm picked)

How many convictions does she have? A criminal record isn't 100% disqualifying for Ranger service, but can be used as a reason not to accept an applicant. It all depends on the individual circumstances of the crimes and the applicant's life since then. How well does she control her temper?

A note on the military: there is a British military (England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland), even though Britain is four countries and has four different monarchs, and all the other Commonwealth countries have their own militaries. However, in practice they function more as one large military split into units by region (like many older militaries once were) more than they function as separate militaries. A supernatural who wanted to enlist would be put in special forces.

The Ranger Service is classified as both military and law enforcement, and often undertakes military duties, but is Commonwealth wide, where as militaries are national, so there is still a place for supernaturals in military uniforms.


They'd be petty crimes, shoplifting, underage drinking, indecent exposure. She wouldn't've known before her 'change' that she had any were-heritage. Between the ages of 16-20(aka whilst she'd run away) she would've been done for more minor crimes (see above) and gotten it well under control, about a year before enlisting in the rangers, and since then would've been on the straight and narrow.


Cerdyn Ferdyx wrote:
They'd be petty crimes, shoplifting, underage drinking, indecent exposure. She wouldn't've known before her 'change' that she had any were-heritage. Between the ages of 16-20(aka whilst she'd run away) she would've been done for more minor crimes (see above) and gotten it well under control, about a year before enlisting in the rangers, and since then would've been on the straight and narrow.

With that, she should still be able to join. It's drug abuse, violent behavior, and felonies that'd disqualify her.

RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Would you be allowing the rules for psychics from Second Sight?

If so, I'm thinking along the lines of a character who belonged to a psychic branch of a government military for one of the countries that only recently became part of the Commonwealth. When that nation was brought into the fold, maybe the psychic character was transferred into the Rangers because of his special talents or something like that.

Still mulling some other ideas over (would also love to play a mage or changeling, perhaps), but regardless, I'm definitely interested.


Yes, I'll allow Second Sight.

Dark Archive

Kelsey would this concept work?

Spoiler:
a mage in his late 30s, who while a ranger is more fascinated by the supernatural than actually fight it. He works as a detective for the rangers due to his ability to pick up clues and his vast knowledge. He has a thing for supernatural beings, often trying to befriend them or date them.


Ok. testing out an idea.

Hanna Stewart - 24yo glaswegian werewolf (or vamp, havent decided, have alternate idea in mind). Very unassuming childhood. Father was a policeman and mother, a former track star, worked a boring office job. Hanna did well in school, and like her mother, ran track. She did well on her Highers, and was accepted to the University of Glasgow, the first of her family. On holiday with her friends, camping north of Inverness, she was attacked by a werewolf. While her friends ran, she made a stand with a tentpole, and impaled the creature in a lucky strike, but not before being bitten several times.

Returning home, her father immediately knew what happened, and informed the Ministry of Supernatural Affairs. She attempted to attend University as normal, but could not focus with the new changes she was undergoing. The caseworker from the Ministry suggested the military, knowing of her father's work. The military, in a start contrast to other aspects of tolerance, took her unique abilities and problems in stride, and Hannah excelled. Rising to the rank of Warrant Officer after several years on the job, she applied for the Ranger service, intending to prevent what happened to her happening to anyone else.


Hi, I've already posted in your other post about WoD in Golarion.
I'm new to WoD, I like the setting you described here and I posting to show my interest. I still waiting to see what you want to do with the Golarion thing.

Idea for a PC: I'm not comfortable with monsters. What about an old hunter that made himself a lot of experience hunting monsters in the '80s and now is an MSA's asset? (Shooting in the dark here, I'll read the rules).


Uluganoth and Volty, your ideas will work.

Simon, a Hunter won't work. The fun of Hunter: The Vigil is in having to use guile and cunning to secure victory do to the fact that you don't have many supernatural powers, and the powers you do have have some pretty big downsides. This is great for many chronicles, as being the underdog can be great fun, but it's not good for this one, as the Ranger Service would rather hire a supernatural than someone who has to plot every encounter extensively and consistently be the smartest guy on the block just to have a chance of victory.

Liberty's Edge

I do not know too much about WoD, but am very interested. I was thinking of a mage-type, born in the slums of an indian town who was taught by an old swami and, when the swami died, got into some touble that brought him to the attention of the authorities. Seeing he had a good basic training in magic, they decided to sponser him to an order. Once of age, he joined the Rangers, in an attempt to repay the people who helped him.
As I said, I do not know too much about Wod, so I hope that this might be an OK background.
Thanks
daniel


Still considering vamp vs were. Would the night-sensitive nature of the vamp hinder progress? Dont wanna be leftout. ;)


Volty wrote:
Still considering vamp vs were. Would the night-sensitive nature of the vamp hinder progress? Dont wanna be leftout. ;)

Not overly. The Ranger Service makes allowances for this by assigning vampires to night work only. If we have a vampire in the group, we'll just work mostly at night.

@ Daniel, that doesn't work, as in this timeline Britain never colonized India. There is a list of what countries it did colonize and what non-British countries are in the Commonwealth in the OP, however.

Perhaps if you want a South-Central Asian feel you could be from Ceylon or Thailand?

Liberty's Edge

Huh..I could have sworn I saw India on that list..LOL...well let me think about this...I might move to the Canadian high Artic and make him an Inuit, but with the same basic background. Would that work better??


Daniel Stewart wrote:
Huh..I could have sworn I saw India on that list..LOL...well let me think about this...I might move to the Canadian high Artic and make him an Inuit, but with the same basic background. Would that work better??

If that's what you want, yes.


How do you want us to go about actually creating the character? I'm unfamiliar with mixing old/new WoD.


Volty wrote:
How do you want us to go about actually creating the character? I'm unfamiliar with mixing old/new WoD.

I'm not using any OWOD materiel.

What type of character do you want?


Assumed thats what 'mixed' meant. Ok, I'll get on it. :)

[edit]Still havent decided b/w vamp or were, but concept is up there ^^.


Is there room for a Canadian Obrimos electrical engineer? He entered the Ranger service after his sister made a 'deal with a devil' that literally cost her soul...

(concept originally from this game)


Yes, there is room for that.

Liberty's Edge

Hurah...another canuck!!! LOL


OWOD Mage had the consensual reality rules and could adapt to public knowledge of magic without much trouble; how will you handle the NWOD Atlantean disbelief/paradox magic system? One possibliity would be using the Hubris system from Mage: Dark Ages.

@Volty/Kelsey: NWOD werewolves don't have contagious lycanthropy... will it be different in this setting?


Hah, I wished I noticed your last name before using mine. Eh, whatevs.

Here's the char I'll use. I made a better backstory, chose tribe/auspice. Will do the number crunching later. :)

Liberty's Edge

Hey no problem..that is my real name, not character...good choice if I do say so myself..lol


Daniel Stewart wrote:
Hey no problem..that is my real name, not character...good choice if I do say so myself..lol

Mine too, oddly enough. Cheers!


Lycanthropy is not contagious.

...Crap. I have no idea what to do about mages :/ Any ideas?

My last name... is not Stewart.

Liberty's Edge

But you are still scottish, so that is good!! As I have said I do not know that much about WoD so I could change from a mage to a vampire, it that makes things easier...and then I can make up a character using my Hero Lab program to make him/her...lol


Actually, I'm Dutch, German, Irish, British (May or may not include Scottish and Welsh blood) and French. Then again, my mother never knew her father, so maybe I'm Scottish on that side?

Kelsey MacAilbert is an assumed name. I'm transgendered, so I don't use my (male) given name, and the last name is to distance myself as far as possible from my father's side of the family (my given last name is an English name, despite the fact that my grandfather's an Irishman).

A vampire would work.


Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:
...Crap. I have no idea what to do about mages :/ Any ideas?

The simplest solution would be to rule that the exarchs lost ground, and the fallen world is just a little closer to the supernal realms. You could say that disbelief doesn't invoke paradox any more but keep the modifiers for covert/vulgar magic. Gives the mages a bit of a leg up considering their setting as-written, but it shouldn't be game breaking in your setting.


loimprevisto wrote:
Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:
...Crap. I have no idea what to do about mages :/ Any ideas?
The simplest solution would be to rule that the exarchs lost ground, and the fallen world is just a little closer to the supernal realms. You could say that disbelief doesn't invoke paradox any more but keep the modifiers for covert/vulgar magic. Gives the mages a bit of a leg up considering their setting as-written, but it shouldn't be game breaking in your setting.

Yea. Let's do that.

Can I get a re-post from everybody who's submitting a character?


just reaffirming. defense still interested. Kelsey, I normally ask this irl, but do you have a choice of pronoun? I'm guessing female but I prefer to ask.


Tristan's Previous Character Sheet:
Tristan Walters (Obrimos/Free Council)

Intelligence •••• Strength •• Presence ••
Wits •• Dexterity •• Manipulation •
Resolve •••• Stamina •• Composure •••

XP: 3

Defense 2
Health 7
Initiative 5
Speed 9
Willpower 7
Wisdom 7
Gnosis 3
Mana 13

Crafts (Illusions) •••
Investigation (Crime Scenes) ••••
Occult (Magic) ••••
Athletics ••
Firearms •
Stealth •
Expression •
Persuasion •••
Subterfuge •••

High Speech
Familar (••••)
Hollow (•)

Prime ••••
Space ••
Matter •

Rotes: Dispel Magic (13), Counterspell (13), Celestial Fire (11)

Raven familiar (Rowdy)
Attributes: Intelligence 1, Wits 3, Resolve 4, Strength 1, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2, Presence 3, Manipulation 1, Composure 3
Skills: Politics 3, Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Larceny 3, Stealth 4, Subterfuge 5
Willpower: 7
Initiative: 6
Defense: 3
Speed: 14 (flight only; species factor 10)
Size: 2
Health: 4
Attack: Beak, 1(L)
Influence: Trickery ••
Numina: Innocuous, Harrow
Ban: (chosen by GM)

This is my character with the base mage template +35xp. I can change it to fit whatever build process you end up choosing, but this should give you an idea.


Female pronouns, please.

Does someone want to be an assistant storyteller? I've had a few disaster campaigns recently, and I'd like the assurance of an extra set of hands just in case. I'm fine with someone being both a player and assistant storyteller.


Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:
Does someone want to be an assistant storyteller? I've had a few disaster campaigns recently, and I'd like the assurance of an extra set of hands just in case. I'm fine with someone being both a player and assistant storyteller.

What exactly would you need an assistant storyteller to do? I am fairly familiar with the WOD system (mostly mages, vampires, and changelings- but I have all the books) and have enough free time that I could probably be of assistance.


loimprevisto wrote:
Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:
Does someone want to be an assistant storyteller? I've had a few disaster campaigns recently, and I'd like the assurance of an extra set of hands just in case. I'm fine with someone being both a player and assistant storyteller.
What exactly would you need an assistant storyteller to do? I am fairly familiar with the WOD system (mostly mages, vampires, and changelings- but I have all the books) and have enough free time that I could probably be of assistance.

I need you to be available to answer rules questions and to jump in if I look like I'm making the wrong decision. I've been getting overruled by my players a great deal lately, and I plan to stop tolerating it, but I'm afraid of going too far on the backlash, so someone watching me would be nice.


I can do that. I'm comfortable with most of the basic WOD rules and I can make a point of looking up anything that I'm not familiar with if it comes up during character creation.

Liberty's Edge

I will work up a character later tonight and try and get it posted. Please look it over, as, like I said, my running of WoD had been limited to human investigators.


Thanks.

I look forward to seeing the character. I plan to start accepting them in a day or two so we can start RPing.


Sweet. Really excited about this. I cant help with GMing, as I'm fairly strong with RPing, but very weak when it comes to rules. Again, I'll have the numbers up tomorrow. How's the story look?


Mary Stewart wrote:
Sweet. Really excited about this. I cant help with GMing, as I'm fairly strong with RPing, but very weak when it comes to rules. Again, I'll have the numbers up tomorrow. How's the story look?

Good.


Still thinking about joining. I got the gist of the rules. I had a quick look at the creatures but I still haven't found a concept that suits me.
Sunday I'm seeing a friend who is a WoD fan, I will have him help me building the character.

I must say half of the things you are saying here look like chinese to me. I hope that is not a problem.


Simon Hayes wrote:

Still thinking about joining. I got the gist of the rules. I had a quick look at the creatures but I still haven't found a concept that suits me.

Sunday I'm seeing a friend who is a WoD fan, I will have him help me building the character.

I must say half of the things you are saying here look like chinese to me. I hope that is not a problem.

In WOD, a "mixed chronicle" means that we are pulling rules and characters from more than just one line of WOD books, i.e. having vampires and mages in the same setting. It can be done, but it takes some work. While all of white wolf's books use the d10 system and have consistent rules, they are set in very different worlds.

If you get a chance to browse the books, read just the first chapter of each one. The explain that the vampire wold is not our world (for instance). It is a grimmer, darker place that is literally run by vampires. Between books, at the very least the political structure of the world changes and usually the cosmological assumptions change too. In Mage, the story is about a magical conspiracy (The Seers of the Throne) trying to keep the powers of magic for themselves and their masters. Werewolf is completely different from either, focusing on animistic spirits and being hunted down over an age-old grudge. Promethean is an order of magnitude weirder. Changeling is the friendliest setting to run a mixed chronicle, but even that has issues.

Throwing out all the books' settings and running things in Kelsey's Commonwealth should make it easier to avoid the contradictions that would normally happen in a game like this.

Part of the reason everything looks like a foreign language is the specialized assumptions about the world that were introduced with each book, where White Wolf made up few hundred new words to describe the traditions and political factions involved in each story. The White Wolf Wiki might help you keep track of things, I know it's been very handy for me in catching up with new settings. It is chocked full of spoilers so if you will be playing a traditional WOD game using the setting and plots from the books, you might want to be careful.

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