RPG Antagonists: The Esoterrorists (GUMSHOE)

So, aside from World of Darkness, I like to think of GUMSHOE as my 'pet' RPG setting. It's got a lot of really cool ideas, and a lot of really cool lore. It's based on the primary assumption that investigation games aren't about finding clues, but interpreting them, and in a horror setting, that goes a good, long way. Horror is all about not showing. Letting the investigators see the eviscerated corpse of their friend, pinned to their ceiling, with no clue what did it, is a lot scarier than catching the monster in the act. With this in mind, let's take a look at the standard human enemies within the GUMSHOE setting of Unremitting Horror, the Esoterrorists.

Now, the Esoterrorists are a prime example for why not everyone should have magic. The Esoterrorists are defined, in fact, by not having magic, or at least, having only the smallest possible smidgen of it. What the Esoterrorists want, at its core, is power. Now, Esoterrorists will wax lyrical about how they want a world of wonder, where dragons and pixies, and angels that shit fairy dust frolic in the clouds, and to accomplish this, they're willing to gut a little girl from down the street, pull her entrails out, and work their magic from there. They're willing to murder dozens of people, exsanguinate their corpses, and display them for the public to make people believe, just for a split second, that the Chupacabra is real. You see, core to the belief of the Esoterrorists is the concept of the Membrane, the veil between objectivity and subjectivity. Human belief defines the Membrane, and the more the humans believe in the supernatural, the easier it is for the Esoterrorists to use their magic.

In a word, the Esoterrorists are totally misguided. In much less flattering terms, the Esoterrorists are unpleasant, irresponsible, stupid, fucking morons who are tampering with forces they have no hope of controlling. In exactly the same way as Chaos cultists in Warhammer, or alien-worshippers in Call of Cthulhu believe that they're going to be at the very top of the pyramid when the new world comes along, and end up being eaten by the monster they summon, the Esoterrorists are playing with fire. The Membrane is very real, and serves a very real purpose. What it protects the world from is the Outer Black, a horrible, hostile dimension of chains, electric drills, skewered flesh and nightmarish demons with wings of torn plastic from turning reality into their own personal hellpit. The Esoterrorists wearing the Membrane away would allow them to use magic, yes, real magic, but that isn't going to provide even the slightest defense against the powers of the Outer Black. To relate this to my other pet RPG setting, the Esoterrorists are exactly how the Technocracy sees the Traditions in Mage: The Ascension. Totally irresponsible, self-obsessed idiots who would feed the world into the maw of oblivion if it meant they could shoot lightning from their hands with no repercussions.

Now, accepting that the Esoterrorists are stupid doesn't make them any less dangerous, as the poor agents of the Ordo Veritatis will find out. In fact, if anything, it makes them even more dangerous. The Esoterrorists are so assured of their own power and understanding of magic, that they don't give a fuck what they summon up. The Esoterrorists are totally confident allowing and even encouraging a mortal occultist to summon up a horrifying demon, totally convinced that their wards and protective symbols will hold it. The problem with the Esoterrorists is that they can't accept that magic isn't real. The little hole that they create in the Membrane to let their flesh-devouring demon through, is not also going to allow themselves to protect against it magically. Yet the Esoterrorists are so fanatical, so totally committed to their goal, that they allow the most nightmarish monsters into our realm, all for the sake of weakening human belief in the rational. More often then not, the investigators of the Ordo Veritatis are going to find their first clue in the dismembered corpses of the idiotic magicians, and the shattered wards that they foolishly tried to defend themselves with. This is the kind of mess that the Ordo Veritatis has to deal with, but unfortunately, unlike the Technocracy, they don't have advanced laser weapons, HIT-MARK robots or other sci-fi gear to fight the monsters that the Esoterrorists summon. Just normal human brains, guns and body armor.

One thing to understand, most importantly, is that the Esoterrorists are losing. They can't simply manifest whatever monsters they want. Each monster needs to be individually created and made to fit into rational reality. Esoterrorists can't just wave their hands and conjure a creature made of living air that tears the blood-vessels  from its prey. The Membrane holds, as long as the Ordo Veritatis tries to maintain it. As much as the Esoterrorists don't want to admit it, the Ordo is the winner here. Reality bends to their whims, and if a monster doesn't work within the laws of physics as set down, all the Esoterrorists will have is a pool of burning viscera in their summoning circle, and a trip back to the drawing board.

Now, what makes the Esoterrorists evil, as well as totally idiotic, is the fact that if a monster doesn't exist yet, they'll do anything in their power to make people believe it exists. The Esoterrorists regularly gouge the eyes out of teenagers in their bathrooms to make people believe in Bloody Mary. They rape and slaughter young women to make people believe that the Pookas exist in the dark swamps of the Scotland. They're fanatics, and totally self-obsessed fanatics at that. What makes them so morally repugnant is that they're doing all of this, not because they're trying to make a better world, but because they want their magic to exist. All Esoterrorists are driven by the belief that they will be the dark, sorcerous overlords of the world they create, never imagining that they will be the one man in the world with a handgun, fighting against a world of utter darkness and terror, devoid of hope.

Some neat works of fiction to inspire an Esoterrorist campaign.

The Cthulhu Mythos: A pretty obvious one, given that it was one of the primary inspirations for the RPG, but it's an absolutely perfect example of what happens when someone with more ambition than brains decides to tamper with forces beyond their understanding.

Mage: The Ascension: I feel like I'm cheating with this one, because it's another RPG, but The Esoterrorists gives a near perfect example of how the Technocracy sees the Traditions. Admittedly, it's a bit more morally grey in that setting, but if nothing else, Esoterrorists gives Tradition players something to think about when they assault  the Technocratic base with summoned spirits and ritual magic.

The Evil Dead: Definitely more of a comedy than a horror movie, but everything about it, especially the more serious remake, shows exactly the kind of stupidity that the Esoterrorists can reek, especially when they try to utilize magic to open doors to things that probably shouldn't be opened to.

- Kephn

RPG Antagonists: The Ebon Dragon (Exalted)

So, it's been awhile since I've tackled an RPG antagonist outside of WoD or Dark Heresy, so today, we're going to be looking at one of White Wolf's less played RPG's.....Exalted.

Now, I've never had a chance to play Exalted, though it seems like a really fun game that I can get into. That said, I've read the books, and I know the lore of Creation pretty well, and that's why I feel qualified to talk about possibly my favorite villain within Exalted, the Ebon Dragon.

Now, the Ebon Dragon differs from many RPG antagonists because he, among them all, really doesn't have a goal or a selfhood. Like all Primordials, the Ebon Dragon is a concept made manifest, powered by Essence, and incapable of going against his nature in exactly the same way that other Primordials are. The key to the Ebon Dragon, and the reason he's such a cool baddie, is that he represents the principle of antagonism. The Ebon Dragon, to the very core of his being, represents the defiant urge to go against something. Now, I've heard the Dragon referred to as the embodiment of freedom, because one of his urges is to be free, but I find that quite the misnomer. The Ebon Dragon wants to be free only to spite the gods and the Exalted that trapped him in Malfeas. To understand the Ebon Dragon, one needs to understand that he has no sense of self. The Dragon is the eternal antagonist, that little bit of boundless malice that stands in opposition to everything you do.

In portraying the Ebon Dragon, there needs to be a personal element to it. Remember, that despite his power, the Dragon is a very personal antagonist, and even if he de-powers himself, the Dragon reshapes himself to be your personal enemy.  In a very real way, the Dragon lacks identity, and the only way he can get power over the world is by sacrificing his identity and becoming the opposite of someone else. In reality, the Dragon is the weakest of the Primordials, because he, of all of them, can't exist without mortals to torment or gods to oppose. Like Tzeentch, the instant he succeeds in one of his plans, he loses another portion of himself because he's destroyed something that gives him power through opposing it. The true tragedy of the Ebon Dragon, is that he has no endgame and no goal. As soon as every one of his enemies is dead, he will cease to exist, because there isn't anything to oppose any more. He's just a sentient, all consuming thematic, and  the true pity is that once he accomplishes his goal, he will die, however he cannot steer away from the path of accomplishing it.

Now, one of the most important things about portraying the Dragon is that he is the opposite of the Unconquered Sun, Sol Invictus, that ultimate embodiment of righteousness and honor, who would sacrifice his own divinity to save a single mortal.  The Ebon Dragon, in his natural state, is the opposite of the Sun, the very original creator of darkness, and as such, he is devoid of virtue entirely. The Ebon Dragon, when it comes down to it, is a rather weak individual, largely because virtues are somewhat necessary to be a functional being. The Dragon knows no temperance, compassion, valor or conviction, and cannot summon up the willpower to continue his plans if they are sufficiently foiled. Sure, he can summon these traits as a defiant opposition to his opponents, as well as a blatant betrayal of himself, but he has no idea what they really mean. What this means, of course, is that the Ebon Dragon is only ever as willful as whoever he's opposing at this moment. He literally cannot summon these virtues from within because there's nothing there.

Finally, I think it's important to talk about the Dragon's goals. The Reclamation is something that the Dragon has been working toward from the first moment of it's imprisonment, mostly to spite the gods. However, it's difficult to think of the Dragon as a particularly effective planner, especially given his total lack of conviction.  However, one has to remember that the Dragon's conviction is always equal to the person he's trying to oppose, and in this case, he's opposing the Unconquered Sun. Another thing people always forget is that the Dragon has no friends, merely people he hasn't gotten around to hurting yet. As a Compassion 1 entity, he literally cannot comprehend the concept of Charity, and as such, plots to be the first one out of Malfeas just so he can seal the other Primordials in forever and laugh at their expense. The problem here is, while he is committed to his goal, his souls are equally committed to betraying the other souls of the Dragon and leaving them behind, being the sole soul (heh) to define the only free Primordial. The Ebon Dragon is a powerful opponent, but when fighting him, remember that he is the embodiment of betrayal. He'll always be betraying himself in some way, because on a very real level, he can't exist if he wins. That's the key to portraying him. A huge amount of power, but fettered by the fact that deep down, the Ebon Dragon is a loser. He can't just escape into bizarre alternate moralities like the other Primordials, he's stuck in a human morality, a very understandable, weak human morality, and he sucks at it more than any other being in creation.

Here are some neat bits of fiction to inspire a game of Exalted where the Ebon Dragon is the primary antagonist:

The Dark Knight: If you want to see a villain defined primarily by their antagonism to the hero, look no further than the Joker. Like the Ebon Dragon, he has no reason for what he does, and no backstory to make himself seem sympathetic. Gotham city, in fact, is nothing more than collateral damage for him, and his sole goal is to corrupt Batman. Like the Dragon, there is no reason for what the Joker does, he simply exists to oppose.

American Psycho: Both the book and movie are an intense character study of Patrick Bateman, who like the Ebon Dragon, has no sense of selfhood, and nothing to live for outside of murder and hurting people. The book in particular portrays a fairly spectacular breakdown when Bateman runs out of people to hurt, and has to come to terms with the fact that he's an empty shell of a person.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia: A really strange one, I know, but think of the protagonists as the reclamation Yozi. Dennis is the Ebon Dragon, the eternal sociopath who schemes and could be magnificent, but is sort of pathetic anyway, Mac as Malfeas, the sad and pathetic man who thinks of himself as a big shot, Charlie as Adorjan, who hurts who he loves, and is violently insane, Dee as She Who Lives Inside Her Name, smart and capable, but always unheard and ignored, and finally Frank as Cecyline, the spiteful, fallen power who takes pleasure in cynically hurting everyone around them. This show actually provides a great dynamic for how the Yozis interact with each other, and on top of that, is really, really, really,  funny.

Dead Puppies

Good afternoon my readers. Today I’m going to be tackling that black sheep of the oWoD, the word that every storyteller dreads hearing. Today I’m going to be looking at Abominations.

Now I’m going to be straightforward here, and just state flat out that I love the idea of an Abomination. For the uninitiated, an Abomination is a werewolf that has survived the embrace, becoming a blood-drinking, shapeshifting undead monstrosity, with the powers of both, and hated by all. I think it’s a really cool expression of the idea of vampirism as a disgusting, diseased curse, capable of infecting even the most spiritually pure of beings, like one of the Garou. I think an Abomination is a great boogieman, capable of scaring even werewolves, a fallen warrior of Gaia corrupted to the Wyrm is a pretty powerful symbol, even more freakish than the most depraved Black Spiral Dancer. Abominations live up their namesake very well, being absolutely repulsive freaks that all of nature, the world, and even other servants of the Wyrm recoil from.

Now, all of that said, it would take a fuck-ton of convincing for me to allow a player to try one. Abominations are inherently really tricky to play, and if you let one out of control, it can be disgustingly overpowered. In a vampire game, an Abomination wrecks shit, and I really don’t recommend allowing this sort of shit in any kind of group game. Doing so will basically ensure that every other player is going to be sidelined in favor of the group’s dead puppy, and even worse, kiss any kind of meaningful boss fight and combat goodbye, because the Abomination player is going to tear through anything you throw at him short of an Antediluvian. In a werewolf game, bizarrely, you suffer the opposite problem. Most people don’t get this, but Abominations are actually way, way weaker than your average werewolf. I specifically enforce in my games that while an Abomination may have the strength of both species, they also have the weaknesses of both. In addition to that, their gnosis permanently drops slowly, effectively getting rid of their spiritual powers altogether. Abominations also heal like vampires, a less efficient way than werewolves, giving Garou an inherent advantage. Add to that the problem of hiding from the Gaia-lovin’ Garou, our feisty little Wyrm minion is going to be answering some very awkward questions like why he’s never seen in daylight, and why he stinks of corruption.

The first part of putting an Abomination in one’s game, is to define what it is. In classic White Wolf fashion, there’s a ton of contradictory ideas spread out through the various sourcebooks as to how to craft these beasts, and therefore, I’ll put forth my method. This write up isn’t exactly canon, but I think it’s one of the few ways to make an Abomination balanced.

So, start the character off in the normal way you would make a werewolf character. No double freebie points for you, because that’s just stupid. Pick a tribe, pick an auspice etc. etc. as normal. Now, once you’ve put that together, level it up as normal to get it to the point in life at which it was embraced. Now the fun starts. Apply the vampire template. Pick a clan, generation, all the normal stuff. Your werewolf’s gnosis is now frozen, and can never be increased. They keep the gifts that they had, but gifts that call spirits always call Banes, who are somewhat pissed that the werewolf has severed his spiritual side and weakened his connection with the Wyrm. In addition, their Gnosis is capped at their humanity. Pick disciplines and apply a blood pool as normal. The Abomination now has a blood pool and a rage score. They can only spend from one of those scores a round, no spending rage and blood in the same go, because they are intrinsically spiritually opposed and don’t go well together. Abominations lose their werewolf regeneration and heal like a vampire, by spending blood. They gain the vampire weakness to sunlight, fire and their clan weakness, on top of their tribe weakness and the weakness to silver. They retain their ability to shapeshift normally, but optionally, their werewolf form looks decayed and hideous and obviously undead. Like any other vampire, they need to drink blood and can be sent into torpor if their blood pool empties out. They also instantly lose all renown, ‘cause Gaian spirits aren’t going to accept any of your shit once you go leech.  The Abomination now subscribes to humanity, which, as mentioned above, caps their Gnosis, so their Gnosis score can’t be higher than their humanity. Switching onto paths are fine, as always, but you need to drop your humanity to 3 or lower, which means sacrificing quite a large chunk of your spiritual power. Finally, unless they were Black Spiral Dancers in life, they lose their pack bond and totem, and upon becoming an Abomination, they automatically gain a derangement. This is how I like Abominations to function, and for the most part, it neuters a large amount of their broken reputation. It’s not perfect, but thus far, it’s the best I have.

Now, in terms of roleplay, nobody likes Abominations. Kindred hate and fear them because they’re jealous of their power, and because no elder wants their centuries of planning to be ended by a swipe of a neonate’s claws. Abominations in kindred domains need to keep their heads down, unless they want to end up blood hunted as a massive Masquerade breach, or if nothing else, at very least, blood bonded to everyone even vaguely interested in not being eviscerated. In werewolf games, this is even harder, because werewolves can sniff out the Wyrm (something Abominations are just soaked in) and do a lot of their stuff during the day, so it’s basically impossible to remain hidden unless you’re of a ridiculously high rank and literally beyond reproach. All of this makes for a really cool roleplaying challenge in my opinion. On one hand, you’ve got a huge amount of power. In Vampire games, it’s really, really nice to be able to take out elders with one flick of your aggravated damage claws, and basically to outclass other neonates and ancillae a million to one. An Abomination who survives to be an Elder is going to be a bloody dangerous monster indeed, and can use its shapeshifting (even without Gnosis) as a nice ace up their sleeve. Still, it’s even more dangerous than being a Baali, an un-blood-bonded Tremere handing out Thaumaturgy like Halloween candy or even a Camarilla Lasombra. You need to be way, way, way more paranoid than a regular vampire, because all it takes is some random ghoul to see you transforming and it’s curtains for you. Other vampires are also capable of using their politics against you a lot easier, because whinging to an elder brings attention to you. That doesn’t mean that you can’t transform ever, but you’re going to need to be prepared to lay the smackdown on any kindred that gets too nosy.

A large inspiration for this page was a post on a WW forum (I’ll link it below), that suggests some cool combinations. Here’s what I think are probably the easiest and hardest to run.

•    Lasombra/Shadow Lord: Pretty easy to merge philosophies, as both of them essentially boil down to being a backstabbing douche. Both are also very accustomed to being the power behind the throne.
• Malkavian or Nosferatu/Bone Gnawer: Pretty easy to meld, as these guys know what it’s like to be an outcast already.
•  Red Talons/Gangrel: A pretty obvious one anyway, a Red Talon/Gangrel is really quickly going to be about embracing being the ultimate predator, but is going to have to handle the problem of their humanity and Gnosis dropping like a rock in a pond.
• Black Spiral Dancer/Anything: BSD’s are essentially the only tribe who will accept these freaks, and some really insane BSD’s may be tempted to truly become ‘one with the Wyrm.’

All in all, I don’t think Abominations deserve the kind of hate they receive. White Wolf fucked up, yes, when they decided to create Samuel Haight, their idiotic hybridized mage/werewolf/ghoul hybrid, but that doesn’t mean that the idea of a freakish hybrid is necessarily a bad one. Just please don’t go stacking a shit ton of templates on top of each other, like a mage-Baali-BSD-changeling, because that is just ridiculous. That said, if anyone manage to pull that off and make a good game out of it, they have won at oWoD and need never play it again.

- Kephn

[EDIT: I can't actually find the post, and I have a musical to prepare for, so I'll link it when I find it.]

Special Snowflake Syndrome

So, today, I'm going to be talking to all my GM broskies out there, about one of the most annoying things I've ever encountered in tabletop gaming. How many times has this happened to you? You're putting together a nice DnD game, you've got your story arc set, the hero's journey and all that good stuff, and all the players are rolling up basic characters. Then there's this one jackass who goes 'Can I play a vampire?' Or in a vampire game, where you've sorted out the city's politics and put together a nice interesting game of backstabbing and politicking, and one guy just can't get it out of his head that he wants to play a Baali, or an abomination or some other twinked out shit from one of the sourcebooks. My friends, we've just experienced a very special type of bad player, the Special Snowflake.

Now, these people aren't necessarily bad players. Maybe they've played the game long enough that they want to try out something new. Maybe they've got a really good character concept, and think that it genuinely only works in this race/class/bloodline. Maybe they just took their mother's advice on being unique too literally. The problem comes in when you remember that, most of the time, roleplaying a is a collaborative experience. The story becomes really unfairly focused on the one guy in the coterie of vampires who just happens to be the last surviving Cappadocian, or that one inquisitorial team that employs a bloody aspect warrior. Before you know it, all your players are trying to have their cake and eat it, soon, you'll have a dungeon crawl starring a Minotaur, a Devil, a Mind-Flayer and a Yuan-Ti, and that way madness lies. This is actually way worse in Dark Heresy and World of Darkness, because at least in DnD and Pathfinder, those things can be sorta-maybe-not really balanced by level adjustments, but in systems like oWoD or the Fantasy Flight warhammer games, balancing that shit just starts inflicting sanity damage. Protips for GM's: Vampires and werewolves and mages are not even remotely balanced against each other. Vampires especially get the short end of the stick here, because really, their only advantage is outliving the other two. When a werewolf is dealing aggravated damage with each swipe of its claws, or a mage can transform your skin into fire, vamps are going to be outclassed, very, very quickly. Mages and werewolves are a slightly different story, as given prep time and a good hiding place, even a nooby mage can absolutely annihilate an entire werewolf pack, but up close and personal, even an archmage becomes doggy-chow. Likewise, Eldar, Orks and chaos people in Dark Heresy are absolutely going to outclass their humie counterparts in every possible way. We are talking aliens that can make your brain leak out of your ears by screaming, and epic psykers that can kill people from three ships away. Players don't really like being outshined by their compatriots, and sooner or later, they're going to wonder exactly why one player gets to have all the shiny toys.


The second problem, especially for games like WoD and DH, is that it breaks the setting of the game. Vampire, Werewolf and Mage are games with very distinct tones and settings, and including too many elements from each one sort of breaks that. Now, I'm not saying I'm a fan of every bit of metaplot that White Wolf has ever put out, because some of it is in fact atrocious. Still, I think the main settings of the games are very, very well done, and do a lot to set the mood. Vampire is all about politics and the long game, and doesn't involve a lot of hack and slash. Even Sabbat games still focus on politics and the eventual apocalypse bearing down on everyone. Werewolf games are all kicking ass, all the time, and while there is some good cultural and interpersonal goings on here, they do take second place to murdering the enemies of Gaia. It becomes problematic when you start introducing vampires into werewolf games, because in canon, they are flat out servants of the Wyrm, and need to be re-purposed as lawn fertilizer posthaste. They don't even like mages too much, given that they smack of humies trying to tamper with the environment. The thing I'm getting at is that the GM has to go through a lot of idiotic loopholes to try and make it make sense, and sometimes, it's just not worth it so one person can have their super speshal mary sue.

I find the best kind of special snowflake character is one that has a lot of inherent drawbacks, essentially so they don't feel like they're playing a ridiculous power fantasy. For example, in my vampire games, anyone who wants to play a Baali absolutely can. The instant they make themselves known as one of the demon-worshippers, though, they're going to be getting a very permanent rooftop suntan. I think that's the appeal of one of these characters. The singular chaos-cultist in the group, or the single secret Esoterrorist in the party of investigators. If you're a GM like me, and enjoy watching all your players plot against each other, it becomes quite an excellent sit-com. Just remember, with power, must come a price. If a player wants to be special, remember to fuck them royally with the power of plot, and that way, the rest of the party isn't going to feel so maligned.

Now, I know a lot of WoD GM's can be elitist about this sort of thing, because far be it from anyone to tamper with the sacred cow of metaplot. I think, however, that most, if not all these problems can be overcome with a solo game. If I'm running a solo game for you, and you're not making my other players feel like extras in a fanfic, go nuts. I'll practically let you play whatever the hell you like. BSD-Lasombra Abomination? Go ahead. Cthulhu-Worshipping Deep One? Easy. Solo games are a good chance to explore the crazy shit that you wouldn't touch in a group game with a ten foot pole. I actually find that it's quite good fun to explore what it's like to be something that really shouldn't exist in your setting, and to just go wild in a way group games don't allow. Remember though, it falls to the GM and the player to make it interesting, because stacking a shit ton of templates over a base character doesn't mean jack-shit if he's boring. Remember that underneath all the cool powers, there needs to be a good story, because without that, you're not going to be able to run a good game anyway.

- Kephn.