Chimerical Realm

A Simple Plan Scene 3 Mikes car wasn’t anything special. Just a generic sedan, nothing that would look out of place at a typical car rental lot or outside any office building. If you were looking for it, you’d never find it. But, I already had. I knew it was part of a fleet of cars through “Morningside Courier.” I’m not sure what kind of relationship “Mike” had with Morningside. Maybe he was a courier who took a chance at something big. Maybe he was a plant. Maybe the whole thing was a front. The only way I was going to find out is by going there. But first, I had to get out Vulcan. Terry snuck in to the quarr y in the back of a work truck, so he has no ride out. The simplest thing would be for him to steal one of the workers cars, but what’s “simple” and what is “right” are often at odds. Terry is, fundamentally, a good person, and his Humanity of 7 makes such theft repugnant to him. To see if he carries through with it, he’ll...

A Simple Plan Prologue Winter was the best time of the year. When he was alive, Terry despised the winter. It was cold, and dark, and slick with snow and ice and the dirty sludge that covered the city after every storm. But ever since he died, winter had become the only time he felt even somewhat human. The cold didn’t bother him anymore, and he had seen far worse things than the filthy sludge. Even better, with his hood pulled up and a scarf covering his face, he could actually go out in public, and be around the happy, normal people who still had their lives ahead of them. He had slowly and carefully made his way to the park. The wounds were still raw, and would take time and blood to heal. But for tonight, there was nothing more he wanted to do than to be around people. They may not speak with him, the cold driving them to move quickly to their destinations. But he could be at least near them, as if he were one of them. And, fo...

With the A Lonely Hope story having come to a close, I'm thinking about where I want to go next in my Solo journey. I definitely enjoyed the heck out of playing Hanson, but there were some growing pains involved in it. The " Scarlet Rules ," as a base line, worked out pretty well I thought. Though I did run into some issues with the Threat  element of the mechanics. Now, these rules are of course taken from Kevin Crawford's Scarlet Heroes , an excelled OSR style game. In those rules, Threat  is, roughly, related to the character's level. Well, that may not be entirely accurate, but it's close enough for now--I recommend checking out the book on it's own, as it's really an excellent game in its own right. The point is, for my game, I altered how Threat  was determined and utilized, to better reflect Vampire  and how its mechanics are implemented. My changes worked decently, but not wondrously, so I want to tweak them a bit. One of the challenges is ...

A Lonely Hope  was a Solo Vampire: The Masquerade I played between October 2017 and February 2018. While I have done Vampire  games before, A Lonely Hope  was a bit of an experiment. For this game, I combined the "urban adventure" rules from the Kevin Crawfords Scarlet Heroes game with Vampire. The result, while rather scatter shot, did end up creating a pretty tense and thrilling pulp-style game.

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 15 Blaine had pulled the car to the edge of the back alley, and Hanson and Dona quickly made their way to him. As they got closer, Hanson headed to the driver’s seat and Blaine, reluctantly, moved over. Dona hopped got into the back. “Where are we going?” She asked. “The Prince is bringing in everyone, wants to settle this once and for all. I know Marko has been questioned, and the Prince is pissed. Not sure if Gypsy has tracked down Adrian yet or not. “ “Adrian? What does he have to do with this?” Hanson sighed, forgetting how out the loop with everything Dona was. She turned around to face her, and noticed the cops were gone. It was time they got out too. She threw the car into gear and took off down the road, starting to fill Dona in what had been going down. Blaine kept interrupting with his own color commentary, and the explanations quickly descended into an argument. An arg...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 14 A cold rain drummed mercilessly on the roof of the Camry. Hanson and Blaine were parked at a closed service station, her beat up car blending in well with the others needing attention. Across the street, they could just make out the Quick Stop Shop and, more importantly, the bar near it. The bar where Hanson had run into Cora, and nearly died. The place seemed quiet, or at least less busy than it had been on Hanson’s last visit. Whether this was due to the time of the week or for some other reason, they couldn’t tell. “I don’t get it. Why would they bring Dona here, of all places? Why not Adrian’s monastery or, hell, somewhere no one knows about.” “Pretty sure no one knows about this place. Except for me, and I don’t think I count very much. But more importantly, do you remember your little ‘office’ at Voodoo ?” Blaine turned to look at her. “I remember,” he answered, carefully. “We...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 13 In the last scene , Hanson scored a victory and was able to capture one of Adrian’s pawns and bring her to the Prince for questioning. After the raid, though, the city is still on edge… “What the hell are you doing here?” Hanson was leaning contemptuously in the doorway. “Funny. I was going to ask you the same thing.” She brushed past Blaine and walked into the barely furnished apartment. It was a second floor unit in a “garden style” building, out in the middle of the suburbs. Ever since the raid, Blaine had made himself scarce. No one knew where he was hiding, and this little slice of “post-college suburban” life must have been torture to him. At least he had a lovely view of the parking lot. “No, I mean…SHIT,” he looked out into the hallway, apparently figuring half the vamps in the city were out there, waiting for him. Seeing no one, he closed and locked the door. Double locked, just ...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 12 In the last scene , Hanson tried and failed to find evidence to unravel Adrian’s web of blackmail. Instead, his scheme to lure the mortal police into a direct conflict with Dona and her followers resulted in death and a near rupturing of the Masquerade so necessary to keep the vampires safe. It had been three nights since the raid, and the city was still on edge. The raid happened near dawn, and there was little the vampires could do to mitigate the disaster. They had their allies and their pawns to limit as much damage as possible, but police officers were dead, and no amount of political pressure would ease their fury. Or the media’s thirst for a good story. And police officers in a gun battle with “drug fueled cultists” was just too good of a story to be buried in section C9. Everyone needed their pound of flesh. So, a pound of flesh had been provided. A few heavily dominated drug addicts a...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 11 Hanson has failed to intimidate Marko , Adrian’s inside man. Instead, she needs to head to Adrian’s haven, a converted monastery, and recover the tapes that are the key to his blackmail. Hanson sat in her Camry, watching the old monastery. Trying to think of how to get in, and how to find the tapes. Her thoughts, though, kept going back to Marko. Why the tapes? Assuming Adrian was even halfway competent, he of course had duplicates. Maybe he wanted to verify exactly what they said. Maybe there’s more Kindred trapped in the web, and he wants the leverage for himself. And if that’s the case, should she give them to him? She wasn’t sure. It probably depended on what was on the tapes, and how many people were affected. Not that it really mattered. Until she had the tapes, this was all theoretical. And finding the tapes was going to be an issue all its own.

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 10 In the last Scene , Hanson was able to track down an ally of Adrian’s, Percy, who gave up some key intel. The prompt for the next scene was Sabotage a tool, evidence, or ally of the foe so that it betrays their attempted use of it. Ok, so, Percy gave her something good, and Hanson is going to try sabotage it, to expose Adrian’s shenanigans to the wider vampire world. Now, I just need to figure out what exactly it is that Hanson is going to try to fuck with, and how said fucking will expose Adrian. Time to turn to Mythic ! One of the reason I like Mythic so much is its ability to not just answer yes/no questions (a feature most of its derivatives have), but also “complex questions.” So, I begin with the question of “What asset of Adrian’s is Hanson now aware of?” 99 Oppress 98 Fame Thinking about this for a moment, I decide that he has been blackmailing a notable Kindred. Since the key is “Fame,...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 8 Exhausted and drained, Hanson stumbled into her haven, a small apartment in the basement of the offices she shared with Gina. Dawn was less than an hour away, and the desperate need for sleep was ready to overpower her. The lights suddenly came on, and a voice said to her “pushing it a little close, aren’t you?” Gypsy sat smugly in the only chair in the place. She was not only Hanson’s sire, the vampire who had turned her, but also her “boss”—the Prince’s top enforcer. “What the fuck do you want, Gyp?” “Just to make sure my favorite childe is alive and well. Oh, and to ask you just what the hell you think you’re doing?” “My damn job.” “Really? Your job? Since when does your job entail getting into a brawl in front of a cop? Or mixing it up with Cora of all people?” Hanson merely shrugged. She didn’t feel the need to explain herself to anyone. Her childish defiance only incr...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 7 In the last post , Hanson finally got some much-needed information. The prompt for the next scene is: Suffer betrayal by an Actor; face a fight as a you try to escape or avenge yourself. Using Mythic , I determined that the Actor in question is Blaine, the well-connected Toreador who serves as Dona’s “patron.” Finally, I use Covetous Poet’s Adventure Creator to determine where the scene takes place. It was a good thing it was a weeknight. From Thursday to Saturday, the Voodoo Lounge was one of the most popular places in the city, at least for the young, beautiful, and rich. And even Hanson didn’t meet the requirements. But fortunately, tonight was a “quiet” one, at least by their standards. Which meant the line didn’t extend too far out the door, and that once Hanson was in, she wasn’t crushed by the crowds. Blaine was there, of course. Like she expected. She had done a check on the place a whil...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 6 In the last post , Hanson was suddenly ambushed. Her attacker was a man with burning tattoos, whose flames could have ended her. She triumphed, but is still left with more questions than answers. Her best lead at this point is the tattoos themselves—they are certainly unusual, and may even be unique. The prompt for the next scene is: Convince an Actor ally of the foe to betray them. On a failure, face a Fight. As of now, Hanson doesn’t know who is behind the events that have been plaguing Dona and her the past few nights. I decided that whomever she goes to for information next will be the ally, and that, no matter what happens as a result of the scene, she will discover who the foe is. Which raises the immediate question of “to whom does Hanson go regarding the tattoos?”  There’s no defined NPC in the game yet who would be the logical source, so I instead turn to  +Zach Best 's  Universal NPC Emulator .

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 5 H anson had run into another deadend trying to get help from Samuel , and has left the park frustrated and annoyed. Rolling for the next scene, I got the following prompt: Be waylaid by a hostile Actor with a Clue. Face a Fight instead of a check. Normally, I would use various tools to randomly determine this Actor, but this time I don’t. Almost immediately, an image came to my head of a big, tough guy, covered in burning tattoos, consumed by an unquenchable fire.  I decide his combat prowess is typical for the Story (Physical Threat 2, or 7), and that he is going to try and ambush Hanson. But, to keep things interesting, I decide that his tattoos mean that his attacks are going to be aggravated . Which means that Hanson both will not be able to soak the damage for this combat, but also that they will be particularly hard to heal. It also means that she could face final death in this fight. Is he able to ambus...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 4 At the end of the last Scene , Hanson was dumped into the sewers, after being beaten to near death by Cora. She fed as best she could from the rats that crawled around her, barely sustaining herself. At dusk, she crawled out and fed as best she could. Each victim gave her more strength and helped her to heal. Finally, she made her way back to her apartment, grabbed a quick shower and a change of clothes. Gina was of course worried for her, and Gypsy has left multiple messages. Hanson placated Gina, and ignored the phone calls. She grabs a good-sized satchel to complete her ensemble, and disconnects the sawed-off shotgun she keeps under desk and stashes it in the purse. She’s not sure when, or if, she’ll run into Cora again, but she’s going to be ready. As Hanson took a “Rest” for the last Scene, allowing her to heal all her wounds, and replenish her Blood Pool and all spent Willpower points. The still-unknown Opponent, however, gained...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Scene 2 Hanson stopped in front of the Quick Stop Shop Convenience store. It was a rundown store located in a half-empty shopping strip on the edge of town. The place seemed dead—based on the signs in the window, it looked like most of their clients came for the calling cards, lotto tickets, and rolling papers. But a few shops down, past the closed shoe store and Chinese restaurant, was the only sign of life, a dive bar. It didn’t even have a name, just a neon green shamrock in the window. Clearly, they didn’t care to advertise. That’s where he got hired , she thought. A guy out for a drink, looking for anything. Gets paid, grabs some smokes, and heads out to the “quick and easy” job . She parked her grey Camry in the parking lot towards the back, making sure it was a decent distance from any other cars and angled to get out quickly. As she stepped out, she noticed her side. The bullet hole had healed, but her...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope Following the events of the Prologue , Hanson is attempting to shadow the stranger. To accomplish this, I use the mechanics from Vampire . Shadowing someone requires two separate rolls. The first is to Track the target, and the second is to remain Unseen . Tracking involves a Perception+Investigation (Hanson has 6 dice for this roll) against a difficulty of 5 (the streets are practically empty around here). Remaining unseen is a Dexterity+Stealth (also 6 dice) against a difficulty of 8. The same empty streets make remaining unnoticed very difficult. Shadowing : Rolling 6 dice, Hanson gets 6,2,4,1,5,7 , she gets three successes against a difficulty of 5. But, the 1 costs her a success, leaving her with just two. Still more than enough to keep the target in site. Unseen: Rolling 6 dice, Hanson gets 1,10,1,7,1,3 . She gets one success against a difficulty of 8. But, the three 1’s means that she not only fai...

Scarlet Vampire A Lonely Hope With all the prep work out of the way ( here ), I'm ready to start playing.  I've gone ahead and created a brief chart to keep track of all the various narrative elements for the game, and I'll be updating it after each scene. And with that, we're ready to start.  Victory Points Heat Hanson 0 Opponent 0 0 Investigation & Action Scene Count Scene Number Type Description Result Prologue