Super secret discussions: for Jason, Dieter, and Brandon's eyes only!

From benscondo.wiki-rpg.com
Jump to: navigation, search

This is where I propose we put our notes re: the elders for the vampire game. My thoughts are as follows. Fundamentally, we're not players, we're GM aides. That being said, we should try to create situations that do the following: 1.) Enhance the thematic elements of the game world 2.) Provide interesting 'plot hooks' for the characters to follow, probably in the form of ways to get involved in the city politics. 3.) Drive the players towards interesting components of the main plot.


--Brandon 14:18, 22 March 2010 (MST) Hey Ben. I'm going to start chiming in here. I agree with all of the above!

So, I am going to put what I think will be the main "features" of Genevieve down. Then I'll post what her main "agenda items" at this time are, generally. Then I'll post 1-3 things that she's working on ca. this time, that the players might get tied up in or hear about. I'm open to a different structure, and others of you can opt to comment how you may or may not be involved in these things.

GM Stuff

Brandon, did you email Dave about Sarkozy?
This week we return to Vampire, so prepare for things to happen. This weeks storyline will reveal that there is a hunter in the Seattle area. This should provide some distractions for all.
I can implement the things you have suggested here. Anything else you guys want to do?

--E-mail just sent to Dave. I cc'ed you. I'll post Blade's thoughts on the Hunter below. The only other thing is that I'd like your thoughts on the possible plot points below. I.e., are you (both Jason and Ben) on board with the prior romantic entanglement stuff between Blade and the Prince (I know it was Ben's idea, but I added some possible details below), and what do you guys think about the Blade being behind Jericho's attack possibility?

JASON: I think its totally ok for you guys to have the romance. It will add some interesting subtext to the rivalry. As for the causing the fire, well, I dont know. In my previous thinking Genevieve did it to make it look like Blade was guilty. It required some intimate knowledge of Jerichos haven that she had acquired surreptitiously. So far, Blade has resisted messing with Jericho and always stood by him even when he did not do what he hoped. Jericho is close with Jacqueline, the only other Gangrel in the city, and also the only other unaligned kindred. Blade has tried to recruit her to the Invictus, and if she were to find out, not only does he lose Jericho, but also any chance of recruiting Jacqueline.

If you want to do this, that is ok. I think you guys should be free to do what you think makes sense--not what I would do. But if so, please give me an idea how and why you did it, so I can insert some clues into the scenario so that its more real.

When the fire was raging Jacqueline called Blade and asked if he knew where Jericho was. Blade responded: Im sure he is fine. This would have a completely different meaning. It could be interesting.

JASON: More about the hunter. The evidence is going to be a murdered ghoul, and a cryptic 'Where are your kindred now' written in blood on his wall. How would you guys like to go about investigating this?

--Brandon 13:30, 1 April 2010 (MST) Here's Blade's plan: If he is able to get to the scene before human authorities, he will have one of his retainers (Armstong or Carlos, whoever is more sutiable) gather evidence, tamper with the scene (mostly be making it so the message is unreadable), and ensure that the police will find the scene and investigate. Then, that retainer will keep track of the police investigation, pulling on whatever contacts I have in law enforcement, and also investigate himself. If he cannot get to the scene first, he will just follow the police investigation, and do the best he can on his own. Meanwhile, I want the other retainer to hit the streets, making use of Blade's extensive underground network, to drum up signs of the hunter, looking particularly for weapons purchases and people making contact with occult contacts.

JASON: I am hoping this is discovered by the PCs. It is likely that Vince might call you. If so, do you want to proceed by having one of your people go down and help with their activities? Mike Smith, who will be there, is in charge of keeping stuff out of the media, so hopefully that is worked in. If somehow the PCs dont find this, I will have your guys do this and maybe you can tell Vince about it.

--Brandon 16:11, 1 April 2010 (MST) Sounds good. Yes, if the PCs find this and contact me, I will send one of my men to help. That will also activate my plan to send someone to the streets to try to track down the hunter.

BEN: Like I said, Genevieve will delegate this: a chance for someone to prove themselves or fail and fall to the bottom of the prestige totem pole. The instructions will be to hang far back and see who is interested: If whoever she picks notes invicti on the scene, and depending on who it is, it might warrant some sort of additional help.

Genevieve:

My view of Genevieve is that underneath it all, she is a believer. She sees her domain as a crucible in which vampires and mortals alike are tested to reveal who serves satan and who serves God. Above all, her concern is the protection and strengthening of the faithful. As such, she should be continually pushing those in the lancea sanctum to improve themselves. She sees it as a divine calling to maintain order and structure amongst the kindred of the city, and thus is not afraid to use whatever means necessary to this end.
Currently, Genevieve is most concerned with firming her grasp on the city. She is less interested in restoring "stability" immediately than in making sure the members of lancea sanctum come out stronger and more experienced when the smoke clears. She sees this as a good opportunity to make some broad strokes and to give some of her allies the opportunity to prove themselves. She also sees it as a good opportunity to force Blade's hand a bit. Her second agenda item is securing Pope's alliance: not anything deep, but something functional.

Agenda Items:

1.) Liam will be kept on the job of ferreting out what blade's plays are right now.
2.) Genevieve will pick someone very loyal and have them be the "point person" for Pope. In a way, she intends it to be a test for both Pope and whoever it is that she picks. She will be straight with this person that it is their job to gauge Pope's trustworthiness, what it is worth giving him and what he is willing to give, and to act as his herald and advocate to Genevieve herself. IE: if you read him wrong, you will be to blame. If you read him right, and it benefits lancea sanctum, you win big.
3.) Genevieve will propose the following to Blade, in a "grudging respect" way, that she will agree not to woo Pope and let him continue to try to win him over, if he will help keep peace in the city by intervening with Jericho and getting Pope his territory back: if that is agreed on, she'll restore Pope's right to domain (at a price to him, of course)
4.) She will approach Jacqueline (assuming its become fairly obvious that jacqueline is quite smitten by pope)

and tell her the following: if she can "solve" the mystery of how her hound was set up, and helps her bring the responsible parties to justice, she will restore Pope's right to childer and give her as much credit for it as she wants

5.) RE: The hunter. Genevieve will want the hunter followed by someone extra stealthy, at a safe distance: given the recent setup of her childe and other suspicious activity, she is unconvinced that this person isn't a.) already a pawn or b.) going to become one, or at least a foil for someone to do some ultra-violence. She will want no intervention, just observation.

As an aside, here are some things I think would be interesting:
1.) Although genevieve is a social darwinist, she has a weak spot for her childe chester.
2.) I think it would be kind of fun if Blade and her were previously romantically involved.

UPDATE:
1.) on further reflection I think that genevieve would be quite concerned about the appearance of sarkozy. Until she pulls her stunt to get him out of town, she will probably be something of a push-over to many of Blade's demands, because she is essentially backpedaling.
2.) Another PLOT idea: this wouldn't necessarily have to be for genevieve, and might actually be more blade's style, but I just thought of another fun possibility. Since Jason said that gen is likely aware of elena's thinly veiled attempt to cut her off both literally and economically, she might have more motivation, but Blade could also possibly have beef with Elena, so who knows. Anyways, since the first ghoul to get whacked was elena's it seems logical that the killer could have "interrogated" him for other ghoul's names/addresses: so some elder might take this opportunity to whack one or more of the others and just blame it on the killer. If Gen did this, she would emphasize covering her tracks over doing more damage. Just a thought.
3.) Gen, while she's squirreled away, will do some digging to see if Blade, given his history of connections with the local tribes, has any specific ties to local casinos and/or major tribe leaders.

Simeon Blade

Simeon is a patient schemer. He has been in Seattle since it's beginnings, and has seen numerous opportunities to seize power pass him by. He is deadly sure that the strong survive to rule - this he shares with Genevieve, albeit with a different, not so theological interpretation - but has had enough experience with systems of power to realize that attempting to seize power at the wrong time tends to provide evidence that one is in fact not strong. As such, he has quietly gathered his strength in the Northwest for over 100 years - especially among "street" types often discounted by other movers and shakers - confident that his efforts will prevail in the long run.

Blade sees this as a golden opportunity to shake things up in the city, and has made many recent moves to do so. In his mind, they have been very successful, and he feels like he has a bit of the upper hand. Pope is crucial to this, so his recent ambivalence is troubling, but Blade is confident that he can sway him or at least use him to continue to make things difficult for Genevieve. He plans to make more moves to consolidate his power, including getting Jericho back into the political mix and bringing Sarkozy back to the city to help with Pope.

Possible Plot Points

(1) I really like Ben's point about the prior romantic involvement between Genevieve and Blade. I think that they could easily find attraction in each other, because they are both powerful people who believe (in different ways) that such power is deserved and a sign of legitimacy. I think that their relationship could've played an important role in the events of Genevieve's rise to power. I imagine that Blade might have felt secure that he could leverage his connection to Genevieve to win out over Poor Old Willie, but was outplayed by Genevieve. Or, alternatively, Blade could have actively helped Genevieve to get in power, knowing that otherwise it would have been Willie, and thinking that he could have significant sway over city politics via his connection to Genevieve. Of course, either way, Genevieve turned out to be harder to "leverage" that Blade might've thought initially. This leads him to respect her more, serves to make her more attractive to him, and makes him want to put her into the sunlight and watch her burn.

(2) Another possibility: Blade was the one who had Jericho attacked, thinking to get Jericho "back into the fight" and framing the Sanctum for it, possibly allowing Blade to put more pressure on Genevieve and getting Jericho to agree to make a deal with Pope in order to get revenge for the attack.

How do these possibilities sound?

Agenda Items

(1) Get Sarkozy to Seattle, and set him the task of wooing Pope. Ideally, Sarkozy will be able to do so without further conflict with Jericho. Sarkozy will also be on the job of investigating Pope's connection to Genevieve. Something not good is going on there.
(2) Blade is going to make a very strong, yet subtle push to find out who attacked Jericho. (This is true regardless of whether or not he set the attack up himself. The only difference would be that - if he was behind it - he would have to make a simultaneous effort to cover his tracks.) I envision approaching one or more of the PCs to this end, though I am not sure who would be best (Mike? Jacqueline?).
(3) Make efforts to find out the story of how/why Old Willie claims that the cross found is the right artifact. Knowing the details behind this facade could provide further fuel to destabilize current power base of the city, as well as having some leverage with Pope.


(4) If the hunter causes trouble, Blade sees this is as a possibility to stir up some trouble. If, for example, the Prince cannot deal with him, doing so might make the Invictus look strong in the eyes of the city. So, Blade will start scheming on ways to take out the hunter with slick grace and efficient brutality.

Other Goals

Besides what Ben says here, which is all very good, there are more points. First, I want city politics to go on whether or not the players choose to involve themselves in it. If they do, great. If they dont, the city is not stagnant. Also, this gives the elders a real breath of life. Each of you is an individual, with different goals, and unlike me you dont have a vested interest in any part of the plot or the players. You can throw monkey wrenches into plans in ways I never could imagine.

You can each feel free to contact any player via email and request ther help, ask for favors etc. They want to be involved in some things, but they are a little lost as to who they can contact or how they can do it. Many are afraid to expose themselves given that they are relative neonates.

I am going to create a plot page, one that lists all the major items from each session. I wont get too deep, because that is what often kills my writing, but any of you can post questions and I will respond. I think we might want to create secondary secret pages for each group of two players, so the dialogue can be kept organized.

Dont be afraid to stretch. Do stuff even if you think it might blow up. Sometimes that is fun! Take risks or be cautious, either is fine.

Take your characters in new directions. Make them your own. Do things I would never have imagined or thought of. I am the kind of person who gets stuck in ruts, as I am sure you guys know. New stimulation keeps me fresh, and thats something you guys can easily provide. This game is for everyone, I consider the elders game and the players game separate but related games, this is to be fun for you guys too. And dont be afraid to make suggestions, even about stuff you arent involved with directly.

Elders Recap This is a rundown of the major events from your perspectives, and also some things the PCs may not have noticed or had the ability to know.