From: dbachman@ionet.net (Donald Bachman) Subject: Re: A Storyteller needing help with Mage Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf Date: 4 Jan 1997 20:58:53 GMT Organization: ioNET Lines: 105 Message-ID: <5amgad$hdb@ionews.ionet.net> References: <5ajnqp$8fe@lex.zippo.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ion1.ionet.net X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Path: news.kth.se!nntp.uio.no!news.cybernet.dk!netcom.net.uk!news-lond.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!ionews.ionet.net!dbachman Xref: news.kth.se alt.games.whitewolf:89674 Malcolm wrote: : Hey there everyone. : I'm running (trying to at least) a Mage campaign...but I've got a block. : Do any Mage STs out there have any Story ideas they want to share? : If so, please post them here or mail them to : Malcolm@hyperchat.com Some ideas (some of which are not original) are: Thaumivore A series of unexplained disappearances have been occuring involving women in their mid-20s. Apparently unrelated, the first of what will work out to be a series of corpses of extremely elderly women will beging to be found and reported to the authorities. Story will center on tracking and subduing the responsible party-- an Orphan mage with a flair for self-improvement along the lines of bodybuilding. Not having been trained, and warned as to the results of sustained improvement, he has strayed into thaumivorism. Can either be played as willingly killing the girls or it happening subconsciously (and taking a horrible toll on him emotionally). Characters will get involved after a linkage is made between one of the elderly corpses and one of the missing girls. Ability to drain Quintessence, thereby killing people, can be viewed as an ongoing expression of a Permanent Paradox flaw. Requires sustained contact as one health level is taken per round. If playing him as unwilling, Flaw also gives a vampire like hunger which can only be kept at bay so long. In fact, players may assume with proper encouragement that they are hunting a vampire. Firestarter A series of deadly arsons have occurred in the heart of the toughest, most run down part of the city in recent weeks. Official investigations have yielded that witnesses to the fires all recall the pressence of one, fairly non-descript individual before or just after the fires became evident. The one striking feature all comment on, that made him memorable, is his strikingly effeminate, if beautiful, face and that he'd asked several questions each time about the specific occupants who all seem to have perished in the fires. The individual will turn out to be an angel who, within Divine Rules but without Higher Sanction, has tired of watching minions of The Adversary operate with an apparently free hand. Finding specific minions--who know now what is going on and have been lying low--he uses his abilities to invoke a mystical conflagration which will destroy their physical form and cast their spirits across the Gauntlet. That mortals have died in the ensuing fires does not concern him. He did not directly cause their deaths (which is forbidden) and besides, ". . .mortal life is a fleeting thing compared to eternity, and each sould should be prepared for Judgement at all times." Player will have to figure out if they can stop the angel--who if questioned will admit who he is as he can't lie (though he can refuse to answer). The angel is not immune to magick, but does have True Faith (go figure) to use as countermagick. May want to assign some static abilities. Magick, in the angel's eyes, is a presumptuous act, allowed by being created in God's image, however, ". . .suffer not a mage to live." One truth a demon may offer is that an angel may not fail to answer a direct question from a mortal more than twice, though it may attempt to avoid the asker's pressence. Similarly true, a demon may not speak the same lie three times--but no demon is going to let that one slip. Players who make an appropriate Theology, Enigmas, or Intuition roll may figure this out. Direct combat against the angel should be presented as the least likely scenario to stopping him. Make this a thinking one, and have the characters either persuade him to stop (not likely) or make use of the information above regarding answering mortals to find out from him what will make him stop. Intruder: A discredited former member of the chantry pays a visit one day, ostensibly to indicate that he harbors no ill will at being kicked out of both the Chantry and his Tradition for continued violations of the Rule of Shade. Can either have been kicked out due to a player having reported him that final time, or due to an NPC member of the Chantry having done so. In truth he is serving as a distraction while members of his new group--all rogues like himself--attempt to steal a recently retrieved talisman known as the 'Onyx Skull' [Okay, you come up with a name.] Having used Entropy and Time to find the moment the Chantry would be most vulnerable--when most of its members are out and away--have only one or two players present for the theft attempt. Needless to say, the players should be given a chance to prevent the robbery, if things develop along lines where they discover that others are inside the Chantry building, but with only one or two present against a group of five, they would likely fail to prevent the robbery. If they do not prevent the robbery, then eventually they will notice that their holding area has been broken into and the talisman stolen. They will want to retrieve the talisman before the majority of the Chantry returns (off in a realm performing initiation rituals, away on business, whatever) and may find added reason to do so if later investigation of what the talisman does (think of something particularly horrific and useful) reveals its powers. (The talisman is only recently found and acquired, so no research into its powers and functioning have yet occured.) : Thanks! Hope this helps, Donald