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9littlebees
2011-10-01, 08:11 PM
EDIT: Made the specific points bold for the lazy.

I'm a new GM and am planning my first game/campaign with a solo horror themed adventure, roughly set on the nWoD fluff. My girlfriend is the guinea pig.

Mechanics: Fudge homebrew of the nWoD rules
Setting: New Orleans
PC: Julie, auto mechanic, originally from Texas
GMPC1: Joe, local garage owner and Julie's employer
GMPC2: Sarah, local bartender and Julie's friend
Foe: Vince, Julie's ex, another mechanic who left Joe's when Julie dumped him
Other: New Orleans mafia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_crime_family) blackmailing Joe into protection racket
Style: A bit of everything (roleplay, combat & investigation)
Aim: PC gets introduced to the supernatural, namely vampires
Curveball: Some sort of tarot inclusion?

So yeah, I've spent a long time working on my homebrew crunch and on backgrounds for these characters. My girlfriend has also worked on Julie a lot, and I now have a few ideas on where I want this thing to eventually end up, but I am now stuck at the very start.

I've made a couple of blank character sheets (pdf) if anyone is interested in how the character crunch is being handled, available at: LINK (http://9littlebees.com/DarkFudge_Ch_Sheet.pdf).

Can anyone offer some advice on how to start this thing off? I want the first session to be a real belter, but am struggling to think of something truly gripping that isn't clichéd or straight out of True Blood/Supernatural/etc. and which will leave my girlfriend wanting to play another session. Remember that I am a new GM, so if there are some obvious answers, please hit me with them!

Shadowknight12
2011-10-01, 08:50 PM
Firstly, you have to find out the theme and mood she likes the most. I assume you've read the nWoD books, because they make a point of detailing both things on their sourcebooks. If you're not familiar with what they mean, here's a quick rundown.

Theme: It's the running idea(s) that permeates the game from beginning to end. Humans like subtle repetition and patterns, and the theme gives your player that. Look at the sort of media she consumes and find out the undercurrents they all have in common. If she likes being torn between two equally appealing romantic interests, that's a theme you can incorporate. If she likes mystery and the thrill of discovery, well, you know the drill. Use the theme as the subtle glue that binds everything in the game together.

Mood: It's the ambience that permeates the game. This isn't as subtle as the theme. This is very much in your face, because otherwise it's not very useful. The mood is usually an emotion you want to evoke in the player and/or the character, and it's usually extremely specific. It's not merely "fear" or "suspense," but "the fear of knowing you're being watched by an unseen force" or "dark, oppressive suspense."

Once you've got these two things figured out, start slow and catch her by surprise. Begin by establishing Julie's daily life, but make it interesting by providing something for her to do. This means, usually, mundane problems. Start with a general description of what her life is, then introduce some easily solvable problem for her to get started. This problem should be at least mildly interesting, and it should appeal to her tastes. If she likes cars, you can start with that. You can also do something with the protection racket.

You can start with a hint of the supernatural, but you have to be extremely subtle. Rather than having a mysterious customer that could practically wear a "I'M A VAMPIRE!" t-shirt, have him be a completely normal stranger with a charming and disarming demeanour. Pick her favourite actor and take cues from him, for example. Make him dorky and adorable if that's what she likes, or suave and forward if that's her thing. Feel free to give him a specific physical quality she likes in men, if it fits the character.

Have this NPC be completely normal at first, then make him leave. Continue her day(s) normally, and have him reappear for whatever reason. Maybe she bumps into him on a club/cafe/grocery store, maybe he comes back because his car keeps falling apart, maybe he has a really obvious crush on her and makes up silly reasons to see her. The key here is that he comes and leaves, and every time he reappears, a little bit of weirdness starts to shine through. Maybe he avoids mirrors, maybe he doesn't eat or drink anything, and so on. At first, they should be completely normal things, stuff that can be easily explained away by the guy being a bit weird.

Then, as the game progresses, feel free to introduce more weirdness into her life, such as some of her furniture having been moved while she was out, or someone leaving a red rose on her doorstep (and everyone she knows denying having left it), strange noises at night, a creepy animal (cat, raven, dog) staring at her from outside her window all night long, feeling someone touching her arm or neck at night while she sleeps (and waking up to find nobody on her bedroom, of course), and so on. These should be things that are easily explained away as her being too stressed out or having an overactive imagination. Encourage her attempts to investigate and feed her information a tiny drop at a time, to build an atmosphere of suspense and mystery (assuming that's what she likes, though. If she likes action, just throw her dudes to beat up in between weird scenes).

Feel free to introduce the tarot curveball here to foreshadow what is to come. Remember to make it subtle, though. I can't tell you how many times great ideas have been ruined due to a lack of subtlety. Trust her intelligence. She'll get the hints eventually. If she doesn't get them as fast as you'd like, give her a scene to reflect upon everything she's found thus far, or have her talk to Sarah or Joe about everything, so that she can put the pieces together on her own. There's nothing more satisfying than that, believe me. Having the answer spelled out for you can kill the mood incredibly fast.

Finally, as the first session draws to a close, have the supernatural burst into her life like a broken dam. My suggestion is to use the NPC you introduced at the beginning as an unwitting pawn. A good idea is to have the NPC be a vampire that wants to be close to humanity, have human friends and lovers, but wishes to keep them away from the truth behind the Masquerade. As he does his best to keep Julie from finding out what's behind the veneer of normalcy she calls a life, other vampires (or any supernatural creatures, really) intervene just as she's poised to find out what's wrong with the guy she met, and the truth of the world is unveiled before her.

You can have her discovery be noted by the supernaturals, or (and this is what I'd do) you can have her witness something unmistakably supernatural from hiding, and then give her time to agonise over this finding on her own. You can even have a defining character moment where she chooses between a life of denial and delving deeper into the forbidden. And end the session there, perhaps.

Guaranteed to keep her coming afterwards. :smallwink:

EDIT: Oh, I forgot to add: make it clear (perhaps at the end of the session, or in subsequent sessions) that the vampire NPC was not behind the weird happenings at her apartment. That not only adds another dimension to the mystery, it also serves to separate the guy from the trite stalker vampire cliché. The idea here is that her brush with the supernatural has made her a mild magnet for it, or has increased her chances of running into it. Perhaps you can even combine that with a haunting or a curse, or vampiric society keeping tabs on the NPC's latest distraction. It should serve as an alternative for you to introduce the supernatural into her life. Remember: multiple venues is best for this sort of thing.

EDIT 2: Something else I forgot to mention, I recommended the pseudo-romantic angle with the NPC simply as fuel for Vince to actively interfere with her life in negative ways that fit the character, though you can easily have the NPC be just Julie's friend (and if that's the case, you can make him a woman if that'd fit best. Perhaps even someone who is very different from Julie as a way to establish a sort of oddball friendship, if she's into that sort of thing) as well. Or even a mentor figure, though I advise against killing those off. Mentors are killed off so often that it's a plot twist you can smell a hundred miles away.

9littlebees
2011-10-01, 09:26 PM
@Shadowknight, thanks very much, this is some brilliant material, exactly the sort of stuff I was looking for!

I do have the nWoD core, VtR core and the VtR New Orleans books. I've only skimmed through the VtR books, but have read the nWoD in its entirety. I understand the concepts of theme and mood - it was more the story angles I was struggling to come up with. I have a Gamemastering book, which stresses to base the storylines on character goals and background. This was getting me stuck, as I only really have 1 player to draw these ideas from.

Shadowknight12
2011-10-01, 09:35 PM
Well, it sounds like you've got the basics covered, so I won't touch on the fluff.

However, it's actually better for you to have only one player. Imagine having to balance the needs and wants of an action-oriented player who plays a gruff loner who can't do anything but punch people in the face; an interaction-oriented player who plays a beautiful socialite who can't fight; and a cerebral player who plays a frail curmudgeon whose only interest is to solve mysteries. You'd go utterly insane trying to run that kind of game and keeping everyone happy.

On the contrary, having a single player is the best thing that can happen to a new GM. Have a talk with your girlfriend and find out what she enjoys in the media she consumes and all the things I mentioned in my previous post. Ask her why she likes X and not Y, what are her favourite stories and why, and so on. Constructing a game that will be appealing to her, once you have that information, should be quite easy.

I can't really give you any more details without knowing what kind of game you're going to run, because an action game is different from a mystery game which is different from a stealth game which is different from an interaction-oriented game which is different from a game full of abstract concepts and symbolism which is different from a relentlessly horrific game and so on. I tried giving you broad advice and aiming for what I figured would be most likely to appeal to her, but I may well be aiming at the wrong target.

9littlebees
2011-10-05, 01:16 AM
I can't really give you any more details without knowing what kind of game you're going to run, because an action game is different from a mystery game which is different from a stealth game which is different from an interaction-oriented game which is different from a game full of abstract concepts and symbolism which is different from a relentlessly horrific game and so on. I tried giving you broad advice and aiming for what I figured would be most likely to appeal to her, but I may well be aiming at the wrong target.

Thanks again for the good advice and material! Funny, I mentioned my problem to one of the GMs in a campaign I've just started and he said that running solo adventures is extremely hard, and tried to put me off. I have to say I agree more with your sentiments, Shadowknight, than his.

Anyway, what I want is a character-driven Chronicle, with a more investigative theme than horrific or action-based.

In terms of similar (read "vampire") media, she likes True Blood and the Vampire Diaries (the latter of which I hate). She likes the characters and overarching story in Supernatural, but doesn't watch it because the monster-hunting elements are far too terrifying for her. She reads a lot, and enjoys Crime novels and just recently read her first fantasy trilogy, the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

So I'd say that an interaction-oriented game with some symbolism to add to the mystery (tarot, for example) is kind of what I'm aiming for. Characters and plot lines will be key.

Again, I'm really keen on making her intrigued so she wants to play again. She has never roleplayed before!

Iceforge
2011-10-05, 03:26 PM
9Littlebees, now, I don't know this for sure, but you use what you want a lot rather than what your girlfriend wants; That might be the same thing, but make sure it is, it can make a solo campaign a lot less fun if you focus to much on how you want it; It might just be your phrasing through.

Besides that, I am 100% behind Shadowknight12

9littlebees
2011-10-06, 12:20 AM
9Littlebees, now, I don't know this for sure, but you use what you want a lot rather than what your girlfriend wants; That might be the same thing, but make sure it is, it can make a solo campaign a lot less fun if you focus to much on how you want it; It might just be your phrasing through.

Appreciate the comment, Iceforge, but I think it is my phrasing. The problem is that my girlfriend has never gamed before, so it's hard to know what she will want. If I was doing this for myself, I'd do it a lot differently (more horror, more action) and that is kind of why I'm stuck - I'm having to try and imagine what she will enjoy playing, without having any real basis for comparison!

Anyway, your comment does ring true and I may actually write something like "would SHE enjoy this?" on a post it note, and stick it on the cover of my notebook.