Vampire (WoD) and STALKER crossover

[GolemsVoice]

I'm not really sure which forum this goes to, but here it is:

A thought struck me today. Vampires from World of Darkness are suited PERFECTLY for the Zone from Stalker. In case you are not famliar with the Zone:
It roughly equals the Zone of Alienation around the Chernobyl NPP. 2006, a second explosion, whose origins are not yet clear, created the Zone. Here, the laws of physics work very differently from the normal world. Anomalies, strange, local phenomena began to show all over the Zone. Examples for anomalies are fields of concentrated gravity that suck you in and crush you, or areas where massive pillars off lame erupt for no known reason, and so on. Then there where mutants. Ranging from mutant dogs to Zombies or psychokinetic dwarves, the origin of these creatures can't really be explained by science. Many are terrible foes, and some even have psychic powers. But what made the Zone really valuable are the so-called artifacts. These objects are found in anomaly fields and have many strange effects on the human body, from regenerating damaged tissue to reducing the weight of objects carried. A sort of gold rush started, and people, known as the Stalkers, braved the horrors of the Zone and slipped past the army that guarded it to hunt for artifacts and sell them to the highest bidder.

So, why do I think that this crossover would be perfect?
Think about it: The Zone in general is filled with weirdness, and everything is possible, since it doesn't really follow the normal laws of the world. So if somebody starts telling strange rumours about people with powers that normal men shouldn't have, well, he's either drunk, crazy, or these things really exist. So what? This is the Zone.
People have been found drained of all blood? Well, blame it on the Bloodsuckers, a type of mutant. Vampires? Don't make me laugh!
Some guy tells of things using domination powers? Surely this was a Controller!
What I'm saying is that Vampires, looking mostly human (and even if you don't, most Stalkers are clothed from head to toe, complete with face-obscuring gasmasks) would have no problem blending in, because all their powers would be blamed on the Zone acting up, or mutants. Also, their enhanced senses and vampiric powers give them an edge in combat and artifact hunting that normal Stalkers don't have. Vampires would make tons of money!
You can only go out at night? People may think you're crazy, but hey, that's the way some people get in the Zone.
And lastly: as far as I know, radiation, one of the greatest, and most hard to avoid danger, is no concern to Vampires. So they could visit places that would boil others in their suit and only feel mildy uncomfortable. Also, many artifacts, while adding great power to the wearer, are highly radioactive. Vampires could ignore these drawbacks and only enjoy the benefits!

I bet the Zone, and the way of life it brings with it would really appeal to many Brujah or gangrel, and even a clever Ventrue can easily gather a gang of Stalkers to work for him, while he rakes in cash from atifact dealings and weapon trafficking.

Thoughts? I just wanted to tell this to somebody.

[Comet]

Are we talking about the Zone from the computer game here?
If so, then yeah, vampires would have a field day out there. Radiation doesn't effect them much and the anomalies are easy enough to avoid if you know what you're doing.

If, however, we're talking about the Zone in the book, Roadside Picnic, or the pen&paper RPG based upon the book, matters become quite a bit different.
There isn't much radiation or even that many mutants or other beasties. Just the laws of physics bending over backwards to ensure that anything that spends any significant amount of time in the Zone dies a horrible death.
Vampires would have an edge, but they would still have to resort to traveling at a snails pace, since every single step can potentially trigger an anomaly.

Chernobyl? Easy? Canada? No chance :smalltongue:

[GolemsVoice]

In this case, I'd say we take the Zone from the games, since this is the one that's best explored. Of course, I forogt about Roadside Picnic.

[Lycan 01]

Hm. Interesting concept. Pray tell, how many Stalker games are there? Is there any sort of RPG or books on the subject? :smallconfused:

[warty goblin]

Hm. Interesting concept. Pray tell, how many Stalker games are there? Is there any sort of RPG or books on the subject? :smallconfused:

Three STALKER games, in chronological order.

1) Shadow of Chernobyl: Buggy, weird, and very, very Ukrainian. Where other games make you feel powerful, STALKER makes you huddle in a ditch, at night, in a thunderstorm, and hope like hell that the curiously lumpy mutant pigs don't decide you would make a good meal, because you're all out of assault rifle ammo.

2) Clear Sky: Generally considered less good, but adds some sort of faction warfare system.

3) Call of Pripyat. By all reports the least buggy and most polished STALKER game, and definitely an improvement on Clear Sky. Some people claim Shadow of Chernobyl is still better just for being so deeply committed to hating the player and being generally weird.

I read mention of a homebrew STALKER rpg, but haven't looked at, or played it. If it's anything like the computer games, I can't imagine it working very well since I at least tend to die an average of once every fifty feet.

[Comet]

On the Stalker worlds, both original and new (spoilered for length):

Originally there was the book "Roadside Picnic". In the book the zone is not a nuclear killzone, but simply an area where the laws of nature cease to work in the ways that we expect them to. Some blame an alien visit for this.
The book was made into a movie ("Stalker") and much, much later into an official pen&paper RPG (also called "Stalker" but not available in english so far)

Then there's the series of computer games, named S.T.A.L.K.E.R (because the developers couldn't get the rights to "Stalker" or "Roadside Picnic", I believe).
In this version the Zone is the result of some sort of nuclear accident and the threats within are less abstract and relatively more mundane (mutants, raiders, radiation, gravity wells).
There might be some sort of homebrew system available for the game world, not sure.

The world in the computer games is much more about combat and immediate risk while the original stories were about a passive-aggressive environment that offered daring individuals great reward for patience and cunning.
One might think of them as variations of the classic dungeon crawling fantasy story, set in contemporary times. The computer games offers an environment with emphasis to the 'monsters' while the books and RPG emphasise the 'traps'.

On the actual topic, one thing came to mind which could make the unlife of a vampire difficult in either setting: shelter. A vampire is essentially powerless for roughly half of a day. Where can he go? There aren't many safehouses around in the Chernobyl Zone.

Some vampires could get around this handicap, especially Gangrel, Brujah and other feral-minded vampires with their Protean discipline among others. Also, if we're including Requiem, the Ordo Dracul has some powerful members who can live during the day with relative efficiency.
A resourceful Ventrue/Toreador/Daeva/Mekhet-type could buy the loyalty of some bodyguards or create a bunch of ghouls to protect him.
But it wouldn't be easy for any vampire to survive in a place where every place is subject to sudden ambush.

[Flickerdart]

In an amusing twist, there are many books written set in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe, completing the circle. Naturally, these books are rather pathetic compared to Roadside Picnic.

And yeah, there's an enormous difference between Shadow of Chernobyl and the other two. It's a much more hostile game. Hell, in Clear Sky, the bandits start out as neutral! Enemies are shown on your radar! Within minutes of leaving the 3rd area, you get for free several weapons than in SoC you'd have to save up for quite a while to afford. With a truckload of bullets.

A game set in the original Zone (the book was published before the Chernobyl incident) would have to be much more like a point and click adventure game, except if you pointed in the wrong place, you died. There aren't even other living things in that Zone: even birds refuse to fly over it.

Still, though, Vampires wouldn't stand a chance against many of the new Zone's dangers. The Brain Scorcher, for example, or emissions would probably ice them as well as anyone else. And a vampire under the control of the Zone would be quite terrifying.

[Squeeck]

Umm.. actually there IS a pen-and-paper RPG about STALKER, although at the moment I think it's Finnish only. Haven't read it myself, but according the website the game uses a diceless FLOW system, and there are three books for a total of 200 pages; a GM book, Player's book and a book about the Zones. The setting is said to be quite faithful to the original novel, although some concepts have been modernized and expanded, according to the website. And, it boasts to be the only STALKER game that has been approved by Boris Strugatski :smallbiggrin:

I seem to recall that during the launch of the game there was some discussion about an English edition, but I haven't heard anything more since then. The website does not mention anything.

For what it's worth, here's the URL of the site. Most stuff is in Finnish, but the designer's blog seems to be in English:
http://www.burgergames.com/stalker/peli.html

...and ninjaed, of course! :smalltongue:

[Comet]

I seem to recall that during the launch of the game there was some discussion about an English edition, but I haven't heard anything more since then. The website does not mention anything.


Yeah, I'm pretty sure the plans for an English version of Stalker have been pretty much dropped, since the writer has his hands full of other stuff.
But hey, never say never. The RPG is definetly the best version of the Stalker world I have seen and the mechanics of the game itself are fairly innovative. I'm willing to bet that someday, someone will get the ball rolling and get the good stuff out there into the world at large.

[Lycan 01]

Hm. I used to want to try S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and I bet it would run on the computer I have now. How buggy is it, though? Like... do the sounds just not work sometimes, or texture glitches? Or will it crash and bluescreen of death a lot? :smalleek:

If I had to play a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, what would ya'll personally suggest? :smalltongue:


And what RPG system do you think would work best for a STALKER-based game - Call of Cthulhu, D20 Modern, or New World of Darkness? :smallconfused:

[chiasaur11]

I'd actually think Vampires would be worse off, believability-wise.

It wouldn't go "Oh, it's only bloodsuckers."

It'd go "CRAP! Bloodsuckers mutated so they can look like people."

Look, when every day in your life leads to new things previously unimaginable killing you, I figure skepticism would be thin on the ground for vampire stories.

[shadow_archmagi]

Hm. I used to want to try S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and I bet it would run on the computer I have now. How buggy is it, though? Like... do the sounds just not work sometimes, or texture glitches? Or will it crash and bluescreen of death a lot? :smalleek:

If I had to play a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, what would ya'll personally suggest? :smalltongue:


I heard terrible things about Clear Sky.


Shadow of Cherynoble was a game I started to play and then abandoned. Later, I started it up again and became completely immersed and addicted. I can't remember having any glitches with it. (NOTE: I think it might've crashed a few times, but not inordinately often.)

NOTE TWO: I was told by all my friends that the only way to play Shadow of Cherynoble was on the highest difficulty with the Oblivion Lost mod, which makes it harder and adds more enemies and improves the AI and stuff. I must say, they were completely right.

Differences between Shadow of Cherynoble and Call of Pripyat:

Pripyat is by all means an easier game, however, it is also much more polished and it takes many of the interesting aspects of Clear Sky and keeps them while removing a lot of the nasty bits.

At the same time, it feels like there has been a subtle shift in style. I'm not sure precisely what it is. The zone feels more like an adventure than a desperate struggle to avoid being slaughtered.

I'd suggest playing through Cherynoble first, and then Pripyat.

[Lycan 01]

Is it true that in Chernoyble you have to hide from the radioactive rain, actually make camp and eat to survive, and other such realistic things? :smalleek:

[Flickerdart]

Is it true that in Chernoyble you have to hide from the radioactive rain, actually make camp and eat to survive, and other such realistic things? :smalleek:
No. Maybe Oblivion Lost adds that.

You do have to eat, so you carry around food (bread, sausage or tins of meat) and energy drinks. In Call of Pripyat, you have to take cover whenever there's an emission, unless you have really good armour and feel like walking around to prove you're a badass, but there's no radioactive rain or anything. Only regular rain, and rain of bullets.

[Lycan 01]

I'm fairly certain I saw a review where they guy was literally forced to hide from the elements, or else get radiated...

I'll see if I can find a copy, just to see how it fares.


Oh, back to my earlier question - what RPG system would work best if I wanted to run a tabletop STALKER game? :smallconfused:

[shadow_archmagi]

I'm fairly certain I saw a review where they guy was literally forced to hide from the elements, or else get radiated...

You're probably thinking of the Blowouts.

Blowouts are when the SCIENCE!!! that created the zone decides to start acting up again, and a wave of deadly SCIENCE!!! sweeps across the land, killing any human caught out in the open.

You can't build shelter, you have to flee, flee for your lives.

Oblivion Lost adds blowouts to Shadow of Cherynoble, while Pripyat has them built in. Pripyat, true to its theme of "Slightly easier" goes ahead and marks the nearest safe location on your map, while Cherynoble leaves you scrambling to remember where you've been or run in a random direction and pray.

[GolemsVoice]

In an amusing twist, there are many books written set in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe, completing the circle. Naturally, these books are rather pathetic compared to Roadside Picnic.

I wouldn't really compare them to Roadsice Picnic. They are not meant to be compared to this book, since they exist in a wholly different universe. As far as game novels go, they are actually rather decent, and manage to capture the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe quite well.

On the games: Well, the first game IS deadly. Weapons break, armor goes to shreds, and once you're done with a gun, throw it away and take another. It was a gun you loved? Well too bad, there's no way to repair it. Radiation, anomalies, mutants, the Zone is like Australia. Everything there can and will kill you.

Haven't played the second one, never will.

The third is the best, I say. Without the bugs of the first one and the second one, but with the good inventions of the second one, but without it's bugs and the pieces that didn't work. A very good game!


It wouldn't go "Oh, it's only bloodsuckers."

It'd go "CRAP! Bloodsuckers mutated so they can look like people."

Thing is, if you, in a world without Zone, find a corpse drained off all blood, you'll at least find it strange. If you found such a body in the Zone, well, Bloodsuckers. Of course a Vampire would still be in a situation would he be caught red-fanged.

[warty goblin]

Hm. I used to want to try S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and I bet it would run on the computer I have now. How buggy is it, though? Like... do the sounds just not work sometimes, or texture glitches? Or will it crash and bluescreen of death a lot? :smalleek:

I've never had any trouble with Shadow of Chernobyl crashing, it's mostly little polish things, like if you take a mission, and the mission giver is killed he'll still call you up on the radio when you complete the task.

At least I assume that's a bug. Given the unceasing madness of the game, it could just be me going slowly insane.


If I had to play a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, what would ya'll personally suggest? :smalltongue:
I haven't gotten to Call of Pripyat yet, thanks to what appears to be the sudden and much lamented death of my graphics card, but ShOC is a very good game. I would not suggest starting it your first time on the hardest difficulty, as the game throws you off the deep end, and takes some serious getting used to, even if you've played quite a few other shooters. Most shooters play fair; Shadow of Chernobyl gives you the worst pistol, something like thirty bullets, three or four bandages and a leather jacket for protection. Then it tells you to go kill six or eight bandits with sawn off shotguns. If the damage from a blast doesn't outright kill you, the blood loss very well might.

That's what passes for its tutorial.

And even that does nothing, nothing to prepare you for the first time you go into one of the X labs.

Later, once you get used to STALKER's peculiar yet quite enjoyable ballistics, generally unpredictable (in a good way) AI, and the various other factors, turn up the difficulty. But I suspect if you crank it all the way up at first, it simply won't be enjoyable. I'd say fun, but I'm not actually sure STALKER ever is fun in the way most games are. It's more of an experience really.

[shadow_archmagi]

Actually, Golem, the trader can repair them.

Admittedly, at a stupidly high cost.

Or maybe that is an Oblivion Lost thing

[warty goblin]

Actually, Golem, the trader can repair them.

Admittedly, at a stupidly high cost.

Or maybe that is an Oblivion Lost thing

It's definitely a mod thing. I've only ever played the base game, and there is absolutely no way to repair equipment- weapons or armor. I actually kinda like it that way, it adds to the whole desperate, run down feel of the place, like the Zone simply isn't meant for people. Plus it plays up on the isolation. It's not just me and my trusty gun out on the trail, it's me and the unreliable piece of equipment that could betray me at the least opportune moment

[GolemsVoice]

Amusingly, I think my game had the bug that caused things to NOT degrade. At least armor, and I think weapons, too. Funny how things turn out, isn't it?

Looking back on the three installments of the game now, I feel like the first game went kind of like this: "Hey, check this book out, Roadside Picnic! iT#s got this Zone, and bla bla. That's totally cool!"
"Yeah! Let's make a video-game! It'll ahve this, and that, and here's this, and look, I have THIS idea!"
"Cool! Man, and this'll look like THAT, and there's these mutants, they are like woaaaH"

That's not meant to belittle the developers, I just mean that the first game looks a bit like a project by VERY dedicated fans of an idea. VERY dedicated and talented fans. And that's a real compliment.
The second game was the developers getting confident, and implementing all the stuff that SHOULD have been in SoC, but couldn't be included (I heard there's disabled script for a lot of things in SoC, like vehicles)
The third game shows that the developers have both confidence and experience, with a clear idea of what the gamers want, and what the Zone should llok and feel like. They know what players liked, and what didn't go well, and they have the reputation to back their plans. CoP just feels the most... well rounded and mature.

Also, you ove rin the US, and we here in Europe, really don't realize just HOW popular STALKER is in Russia. I've heard it's the game with the most published books (only three or four of the, I think 21 are available in German), it's widely popular, and people even gather to act out LARPS in abandoned factories and such. It's just that little of this gets out of Russia.

And, anothe amusing detail, due to Germany's place as one of the most "eastern" western european countries, we actually did get the game before most of the world got it, and I revelled in the luxury of playing a game long before the US market would sell it, which I never thought was possible.

[Lycan 01]

What are the system requirements? :smallconfused:


Still want to know what RPG system to use if I wanted to throw this at my tabletop players, guys... :smalltongue:

I'm thinking Call of Cthulhu, for simplicity and horror gameplay... Thoughts? :smallconfused:

[Cristo Meyers]

I haven't gotten to Call of Pripyat yet, thanks to what appears to be the sudden and much lamented death of my graphics card, but ShOC is a very good game. I would not suggest starting it your first time on the hardest difficulty, as the game throws you off the deep end, and takes some serious getting used to, even if you've played quite a few other shooters. Most shooters play fair; Shadow of Chernobyl gives you the worst pistol, something like thirty bullets, three or four bandages and a leather jacket for protection. Then it tells you to go kill six or eight bandits with sawn off shotguns. If the damage from a blast doesn't outright kill you, the blood loss very well might.

That's what passes for its tutorial.

Yes, you will learn to love the quicksave key like it is your first born child...

You forgot that any better equipment is very expensive to start, and any decent equipment has very rare ammo in the beginning.


And even that does nothing, nothing to prepare you for the first time you go into one of the X labs.

Or the first time a snork comes rushing out of the shadows.



Later, once you get used to STALKER's peculiar yet quite enjoyable ballistics, generally unpredictable (in a good way) AI, and the various other factors, turn up the difficulty. But I suspect if you crank it all the way up at first, it simply won't be enjoyable. I'd say fun, but I'm not actually sure STALKER ever is fun in the way most games are. It's more of an experience really.

Yeah, definitely don't start at the hardest difficulty. I've started on the Stalker difficulty (I think it's the second easiest) and yet I still die more often than I've ever died in my 20-some odd years of gaming. It's still challenging enough that there's the constant threat of dying, but not so much that you're going to be constantly scraping for ammo and hiding from that bandit with a Walther because he can hit your eye at 50 meters...


What are the system requirements? :smallconfused:


Recommended:

Win XP
Intel Core2 Duo E6400/AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
1.0 GB RAM
10 GB HD space
nVidia GeFOrce 7900/ATI Radeon x1850/ 256MB DirectX 9c compatible graphics card

I can play it on my machine with a 512 MB graphics, at least the recommended RAM, & 2.2 Ghrz Dual Core on pretty high graphics settings with little problems.

[GolemsVoice]

But being below the minimal recommended numbers just adds to the masochism.

[Lycan 01]

I assume it could run on a 2008 laptop with Vista... :smallconfused:


Is there multiplayer? :smalleek:

[warty goblin]

I assume it could run on a 2008 laptop with Vista... :smallconfused:


Is there multiplayer? :smalleek:
Depends on your graphics card. Without knowing that, there's no way to say.

There is multiplayer, but I'm not sure why anybody would bother. The point of the game is the Zone, and the exploration thereof, not your kill count.

[Lycan 01]

Dunno what the card is. I'm not tech-savvy. :smalltongue:

[Comet]

Oh, back to my earlier question - what RPG system would work best if I wanted to run a tabletop STALKER game? :smallconfused:

Call of Cthulhu would indeed do the job fairly well, with a bit of tinkering. With that system I would put the emphasis a bit more in the environment, anomalies and mysteries, since combat can be a bit too deadly at times.

Another good one, suitably enough for this topic, is the New World of Darkness. The core book handles practically any kind of game with mortal characters and a bit of supernatural flavour fairly well. The combat is not quite as deadly as in CoC, so you could have a bit more of that without feeling too guilty.

Those two are the modern-setting RPGs I have the most experience with and I see no reason why either one of them wouldn't work in a Chernobyl-game.

[GolemsVoice]

Jep, I'd think NWoD would do the job very well, which was why I thought of the original idea. I think combat should be deadly, but not too deadly.
You might have to tinke with a few of the skills, since some of them would be useless in the Zone, and you'll have to create rules for anomalies and artifacts, but that can't be too hard.

[shadow_archmagi]

Most shooters play fair; Shadow of Chernobyl gives you the worst pistol, something like thirty bullets, three or four bandages and a leather jacket for protection. Then it tells you to go kill six or eight bandits with sawn off shotguns. If the damage from a blast doesn't outright kill you, the blood loss very well might.

This is exactly WHY the hardest difficulty is obligatory.

Soon enough you'll realize that "PROGRESSED TEN FEET" and "KILLED ONE OUT OF FIFTEEN ENEMIES" are both milestones that are worth saving your game about.

In most games, I use a three-save system.

Save One is "My surroundings are pleasant, and I've gotten my shopping done. I'll head out into the wilderness"

Save Two is "I've gotten past whatever moderate difficulties are between me and my quest, and now the actual challenge is in front of me"

Save Three is "I've progressed partway into the main quest, and I think I can pull this next bit off, but I am not too sure"

In shadow of cherynoble, I used a ten save system. That worked OK against normal enemies, but once I went into the Xlabs it gave way to making a new save every time, with each one a more creative profanity or blasphemy than the last.

[shadow_archmagi]

OBLIGATORY STALKER SHORT STORY


The Stalker said I should talk to his brother for more information. I'm heading over there now, down this long and winding road. Alongside the road, the air twists, sparkles, and bends. I toss a piece of metal in; it flashes and bounces off, glowing red-hot.

Something catches my eye; a dancing rock. I toss bolts at the anomalies to try to determine exactly how close I can safely go. Edging around them carefully, I grab the rock. According to my PDA, it's extremely valued by scientists. Apparently it increases cellular division or something; Long story short is that putting it on my belt means my wounds will heal faster, but bleed a great deal more. I put it in my backpack for later.

I keep walking along the trail. Suddenly, a voice calls out to me. I whirl around for a moment before realizing it is my radio. There are Bandits at the garbage. The garbage is directly between me and my goal anyway.

When I arrive, a swarm of wild dogs attacks. One of the stalkers is brought down before his team can gun down the mutants. I give him some of my medical supplies and he thanks me. The bandits are about to attack, he says. Sure enough, little black-jacketed figures charge over the horizon.

The battlefield is an abandoned car lot positioned between two huge mounds of trash. Both sides take up positions amongst the rusted vehicles and begin blasting away at each other. I join in and kill two before my assault rifle runs out. I try to sneak up on them with my pistol but they see me coming and I catch flak from a shotgun blast. Bleeding and nearly dead I duck back behind cover. I fumble with my backpack, trying to get the bandages out before I bleed to death.

I make it, just barely. I decide to use that artifact I found earlier. Although the powers of the artifact are miraculous, recovery still takes hours. I go to sleep resting against the car. When I awake it is pitch black and the gunfight has started up again. Or perhaps it never stopped. It is impossible to see human shapes in the dark; each side is firing at the flashlights of the other.

There are three bandits. I flank them and fire seven shots before ducking behind a flaming barrel. When I turn around again, there is only one light. I blast it.

With the gunfire stopped, I become aware of a clicking. The barrel is radioactive. I am dying fast. I don't have any special medicine. I drag out a bottle of vodka and start drinking; the booze is a poor man's antirad. Not sure if I have enough vodka to cure myself though.

I can hear wild dogs attacking again, so I ready my shotgun and position myself in an old toll booth. I wait. The vodka starts to kick in.

My vision blurs, and as the darkness closes in, it begins to rain.



It's worth noting that everything here can happen in game, although I'm not sure that precise string of events ever actually happened to me.

[GolemsVoice]

That's the way things go, Stalker. It's not a fair world. And it's doubly unfair in the Zone.

[GolemsVoice]

If anyone is interested, I'm currently working on converting the game to the New World of Darkness rules system, and so far it's not as hard as I've thought.

I'm beginning with the anomalies and artifacts, and will later do some custom merits and flaws as well as the mutants, probably the most difficult part.