JakSpade Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Hey Herophiles, I'm running a slightly-in-the-future, down-to-earth, semi-gritty 300pt superhero campaign, and I need some help on a storyline. The players are the third generation of superhumans that were created by a secret government org. So far all the storylines have been pretty "X-Files"-ish, but I've got a snag on a storyline, and need to come up with some reasoning. In one adventure, one of the players finds out that his father is one of the scientists behind the results produced by the secret gov org. He needs to find out more about his family, so he travels to Montana, where there is an abandoned secret base, and a cemetary where some of his family are buried, namely his older brother. But, when the players arrive at the cemetary where the brother is buried, they encounter a Buffy/Scooby group that seems to be investigating something. They stop and chat for a moment, and then proceed into the cemetary. Before they arrive at the grave site, they encounter a small pack of werewolves searching the graveyard. When they stand-off, and questions are asked, they werewolves tell the players that they aren't looking for a fight, they're already at war (later in the adventure, they find out from the Scooby gang that the werewolves are at war with the vampires, and that they werewolves were searching the graveyard for a particularly influential/powerful vampire, and assassinate him). Needless to say, this set the players on edge. And I draw a blank... Why are the Werewolves and Vampires at war? Any ideas would be great. Jak:help: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpira Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Everything that immediately springs to mind has already had a crappy movie made about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpira Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Okay. How about if a third party that fears them has incited them into war. The idea is for them to weaken themselves enough so that this third party can wipe them out forever. Maybe something like a demonic monster has a cult trying to cause this to happen. Maybe in the past an alliance of werewolves and vampires destroyed the old cult and banished the creature, severely hurting it in the process. It is finaaly healed and wants to come back but does not want the past to repeat itself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schir1964 Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Territorial war. Werewolves may have a pack like mentality. Vampires may have a totally unrelated reason for wanting the area. Perhaps something important they are searching for in the area, or perhaps just a cultural reason for wanting to control the area. Details to be filled in by the GM. - Christopher Mullins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBikle Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! At the end of Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, the Wolf-Man grabbed Dracula in his bat-form and they both plunged to their death in the waters outside. That could be why they're at war. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodstone Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Warewolves and Vampires do not need an excuse to be at war! It's just a given! Heck you ask any ten vampires, you'll get 15 reasons. Same with the warewolves Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pogo Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Hey Herophiles, I'm running a slightly-in-the-future, down-to-earth, semi-gritty 300pt superhero campaign, and I need some help on a storyline. The players are the third generation [emphasis mine] of superhumans that were created by a secret government org. So far all the storylines have been pretty "X-Files"-ish, but I've got a snag on a storyline, and need to come up with some reasoning. In one adventure, one of the players finds out that his father [again emphasis mine] is one of the scientists behind the results produced by the secret gov org Was the father a child prodigy or exceptionally long-lived? Is the father involved with a different set of results from the creation of superhumans, or has the government been refining the creation process? But let us set this querulous nit aside But, when the players arrive at the cemetary where the brother is buried, they encounter a Buffy/Scooby group that seems to be investigating something. They stop and chat for a moment, and then proceed into the cemetary. Before they arrive at the grave site, they encounter a small pack of werewolves searching the graveyard. When they stand-off, and questions are asked, they werewolves tell the players that they aren't looking for a fight, they're already at war (later in the adventure, they find out from the Scooby gang that the werewolves are at war with the vampires, and that they werewolves were searching the graveyard for a particularly influential/powerful vampire, and assassinate him). Needless to say, this set the players on edge. And I draw a blank... Why are the Werewolves and Vampires at war? Any ideas would be great. Jak:help: My guess is the Buffy/Scooby (Bubby? scuffy? boo-no-that-will-not-pass-filters?) group is lying. They convinced a group of werewolves of a non-existent vampire plot, and sent them on this pre-emptive strike in the graveyard. The scuffies want to eliminate all monsters, and figure it is more efficient to stir one group against another. Whether 300 pt supers fall into the monster category remains to be seen . . . . One major flaw with my suggestion (I'm sure there are many) is that the vampires and werewolves can figure out they're being played. If that happens, they may gang up on the scuffies. The scuffies should have a contingency plan, but I are drawing blank here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! You could use something akin to the World of Darkness and make Werewolves the guardians of all things natural ... while Vampires are an abberation to that and thus makes them natural enemies. You could also make it so there's a natural blood feud that began with the founders of both the Werewolf and Vanpire bloodlines. Or, how about a Hatfields-McCoys problem, both species have been feuding for years over territory/object/revenge. Hope it helps ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenzil Kim Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! This government experiments goes back further than just 3 generation. The super powers that the players have all come from a common core source. The same source that the Vamps and werewolves get their fantastic abilities. The war isn’t a war over just territory or the other mundane stuff vamps and wolver fight for but the true source of this “super†power. If one faction gets the source they will win The Scooby gang belongs to some foreign super organization that has come to America to find the secret of the super powers and is using the players to find it. Or Maybe the werewolves and vampires are all part of some old experiment that follows the same lines as the experiments now done by the Vatican over a thousand years ago. The Inquisition was a super hero purge back in the day and a new one is on the horizon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenzil Kim Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Maybe the people behind the entire thing is a group of Alchemist from Egypt that have been trying for centuries to make a true super human and have only managed to create Werewolves and vampires. After the library of Alexandria was burned this knowledge was thought lost and forgotten. The organization the player’s father works for found the notes some time ago and have unlocked the secrets to super humans again. The Scooby gang is actually a Vatican investigation team looking to get the notes back…or maybe the Scooby gang is a group of rogue operatives or Rosurcruitians looking to regain the power and majesty they had before the church destroyed them. Maybe throw in the Mason for good measure. Maybe the Werewolves and Vampires are actually two different alien races that have come to earth for some reason and are behind the alien abduction stores all over the world. Since these beings are shapshifters and posses super natural abilities they have hid themselves for a long time. Why are they abduction people and doing whacky stuff? Maybe humans posses a gene that allows for greater supernatural ability and they are here to harvest it for their respective space empire. The one who unlocks it 1st will be able to rule the universe. Humanity knows all about what the Werewolves and Vampires are doing so they have been trying to unlock the gene themselves so that they can fend off these alien invaders. Hmmm…..this is starting to sound a lot like my own game:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenzil Kim Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Maybe they are just fighting over Pie;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tenzil Kim Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! My suggestion what ever you decide to do is throw the players something obvious and easy to figure out then twist it so that what they believe to be true isn’t. The most improbable reason and course of action is the one to take. You have already introduced Werewolves and Vampires so why not flip the script on the players and make the two factions incredibly unconventional and weird. Most people who see “the Vampire Werewolf war†will already have certain assumptions based on White Wolf, Anne Rice, and laurel K. Hamilton. The movie Underworld gave us an almost good reason but was so full of tired clichés that it left me feeling unsatisfied. There was no twist. My suggestion is to leave out what has been done before and go for the truly esoteric and weird. Maybe Vampires are what an old Werewolf becomes. Maybe Vampires can sustain themselves on the blood of the living but need the blood of a Werewolf to be immortal. Maybe the vampires have heard about what the humans are doing with human super eugenics and believe this will allow them to be immortal without having to risk their necks fighting Werewolves. Maybe the Werewolves see the human experiments as a way to cure themselves of become vampires when they grow old. The Scooby team could be a number of things that can throw the players for a loop. Maybe they are a team from the future sent back in time to stop a disaster created by the proliferations of super humans. Their future is a bleak and very Terminator like since super humans took power. Maybe the Scooby gang is just a bunch of nosy kids and nothing more. Maybe the Scooby gang is a group of aliens examining the super human condition and maybe trying to help us along. Maybe they are angels…… Hit the players with a twist, you can never go wrong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i3ullseye Posted December 3, 2005 Report Share Posted December 3, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Ok, let's get wacky with this one. Vampires live for decades, centuries or even millenia. And through all their years, the things they had in life, and many of them might still crave, have always been out of their reach. True love, companionship, family. What they have is a mockery of life, and a limited existence. They are hollow and many of them use this sorrow to fuel their deisre to feed. Any moral restrictions eventually get broken down by this over arching depresion that is their entire existence. In the past however, a few Vampires found something remarkable. While in wolf form, they were accepted into the packs. Often they were mroe than accepted, but held aloft as the alpha male. And while in wolf form, their body held the warmth of living blood. A group of these vampires started staying in wolf form longer and longer, enjoying the feeling of acceptance, and the feeling of family they gained. For years other vampires looked down on these 'lesser' vampires and called them everything from mongrels to *****-fiends. What that did not know was that these vampires had found that they could indeed mate with these wolves, but the result was more horrifying than any could have imagined. Their offspring were wolves with an insatiable lust for human flesh. Once they reached adulthood, they seemed to have the ability to occasionally turn into a human form. They had given birth to Wolfweres. Wolfweres are wolves who can beome human, unlike the reverse which is the traditional werewolf. For years the vampires who lived among the wolves protected this secret. This was their family afterall, and they loved their children even though all others would shun and outright destroy them. This was all well and good until even more unthinkable happened. A wolfwere mated with a human woman. The details are left up to you whether it was voluntary or not, but the end result was the first 'born' werewolf. As he grew, the Wolfweres came to him and told them of his parentage, and he was outraged! He took it upon himself to avenge this atrocity on every wolfwere, and for that matter wolf, he could. His power was par beyond theirs, and the few survivors in his area turned to hiding from him. But as he fought on, his lust for this rage overcame him time and again, normally with the full moon, and he started to attack humans. The wolves had protectors however, in the form of their vampire friends. They approached this alpha werewolf and explained the entire history. This did NOT make things better. He attacked them in a fit of rage, killing 3 of 5, sending the other 2 running. As they sent more and more, his personal battle raged on. Thats when someone first noticed the news reports, that others of his kind (uncontrollably changing with the moon at first) were killing. He took this as a means to an end, and started purposely infecting people, and trying to use them as his own persnal army to wage a war against the vampires. And thus the fued has been raging ever since. Assumptions- If you like anything like this, here are some things that would have to be true. 1) Some vampires ally with wolves mroe than other vampires, but their numbers are VERY few now. 2) Wolfweres exists, and are even more rare that any other type creature. Maybe 2 dozen worldwide are left. 3) Some werewolves are infected in combat or an attack, and become feral on the full moon, and attack anything they can. These often look like normal wolves, but much larger. 4) Some werewolves have learned to change to their wolf form at will, and also a half man and half wolf form. They do not change with the moon, but might be effected by it still. Just an idea..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trencher Posted December 4, 2005 Report Share Posted December 4, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! The vampires created the werewolfes to be their day light servant. The werewolfes are fighting for their freedom. Even though they were loyal servants (they are dogs right?) at first the degenerations and torments heaped upon them by the sadistic boot-clicking vampires made them turn on their creators. The vampires are fighting to keep their slaves in their place but also to stop the werewolves from hunting down and eating all humans because that is what freedom is to the werewolves; the freedom to kill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
levi Posted December 4, 2005 Report Share Posted December 4, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Okay. How about if a third party that fears them has incited them into war... If you go this way, the Secret Gov Org that created the heroes definitely should be the third party forcing them to war. Perhaps the PC's forefathers were the ones who set the war in motion (even if they had to travel back in time to do it). This fits nicely into your aforementioned "X-Files-ish" campaign, your PCs may work for the Gov, but don't necessarily have to trust the Gov. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost-angel Posted December 4, 2005 Report Share Posted December 4, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! I like the simple territorial war idea ... it allows for future development: it's possible this is an isolated incident between the two, thus letting you put them as allies in another area. Or it could be a localized conflict over a bigger war between the two, happening in the background of the world as a possible plot device/story arc for the PCs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Serpent Posted December 4, 2005 Report Share Posted December 4, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Could take the territory idea, but from a different angle. The war is over limited resources, that being people. Only people with certain genetic markers are suitable for transformation into vamps or weres. Over the centuries, as people have been transformed, their bloodline has effectively ended as they don't produce more offspring, and over time this has served to narrow the available number of new "recruits" dramatically. As normal losses, monster hunters, etc. take their toll over time, both vamps and weres are in danger of dying out as a group if the can't replenish their numbers. So, the war is over genetic survival, and which group will be left at the end as the secret masters of humanity. And pie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GestaltBennie Posted December 5, 2005 Report Share Posted December 5, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! The gypsy curse that birthed werewolves was sealed in the blood of the First Vampire. When every vampire in the world is dertroyed, the curse will be broken and all werewolves will be free! Or something like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted December 5, 2005 Report Share Posted December 5, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Why are the Werewolves and Vampires at war? Any ideas would be great. First question: what are werewolves and vampires? If they are demons, they are just plain nasty, and what they are fighting over might have little or no bearing on or meaning to mortals. If they are something cheesier, well, meh. Whack 'em all. Or rip their rubber masks off. Hmm... I wonder how a talking Great Dane would get along with werewolves? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinecone Posted December 5, 2005 Report Share Posted December 5, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! I dosen't have to be complicated....Werewolves hate vamps because they "smell funny"...vamps hate weres because "they started it"..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneWingedAngel Posted December 6, 2005 Report Share Posted December 6, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Slightly more gritty: No reason. They're not at war. The werewolves that were seen are professional assassins. This vampire has something, did something, killed someone, or other wise p!$$ed someone off, and has been contracted out to a group of elite supernatural assassins. Just my 2 cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Posted December 6, 2005 Report Share Posted December 6, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Keep it basic. The reason most folks go to war: One side has something the other one wants. Obviously Freedom, Oil, and Land are probably not the best choices for this case. Maybe the vampires want the werewolves' potent blood. Maybe the werewolves want the vampires immortality. I think these things are better if they grow organically. Come up with a basic reason then let the details form during play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Serpent Posted December 6, 2005 Report Share Posted December 6, 2005 Re: [Creative] Need help! Perhaps...vampirism and lycanthropy are essentially curses. Most vamps and weres don't like being cursed. They're always looking into ways to remove the burden of monster-hood. One of them found out that the two curses are linked - if all of one group is wiped out, POOF, the curse is lifted from the other. So, one group starts gunning for the other, and the war is on. Whether group B, or even most of group A, realizes the cause of the war or the result of a total victory, is open to question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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