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Published: 2015-03-08 07:20:47 +0000 UTC; Views: 734; Favourites: 1; Downloads: 0
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Description
A little bit taken from the draft of the book sections on sample campaigns, themes and moods:(Sample Campaign
Akiras in the Wild
At the current time, there are a large number of people out there spontaneously developing psychic Talents. Likewise, the growing population of non-human sapients has resulted in making it more difficult for the supernatural world to keep track of all of its members. Whereas before it was relatively easy to make sure an orphaned nonhuman or Talent ended up with people that could understand them, now some have ended up in the regular system like any human child.
In this sort of campaign, the players have no contact with any of the established supernatural societies. There’s nobody for them to fall back on to explain what the hell is going on in their life. They don’t have the Community, the Families, Avalon, Heralds, Faustians or even a government think tank to give them advice. They have to figure out about mindscapes and corruption all on their own and they have to decide what it is they’re going to do with these abilities they’ve just discovered.
This campaign assumes the characters will be young since most supernatural abilities come either in early childhood or in puberty. Adults are far less likely to suddenly develop supernatural abilities. Mundane friends and family might also be good character concepts. So might an “expert” who is finding out that all his beliefs about psychic abilities are actually wrong. At the extreme end, someone who stumbled upon an instruction manual for magic, shaping or even channeling might also fit. Self-taught psychics aren’t usually called akiras unless they’re really irresponsible, but it fits the play style.
You’ll want to further define what the characters have in common. Maybe one of them is a scientist that is interested in studying these fascinating abilities as well as helping these young people deal with this strangeness. Maybe they’re all students at the same middle school or high school (more rarely college). Maybe they’re all just in the same neighborhood, which begs the question as to why did several people spontaneously generate Talents or such in one neighborhood?
Note that while this supplement assumes that the focus will be on day to day life, it is easy to conceive that a bunch of akira and their friends immediately start playing superhero. Depending on mood that could go hilariously or horribly wrong, but masked vigilante-ism in Divine Blood doesn’t usually last long. Some society or another usually ends up noticing and reigning in the akira in question. If they’re lucky it’s someone like Avalon or Psyche. If they're unlucky, it's someone like the Path of the Golden Dawn or the Thule Society.
(Sample Theme
Slice of Life
To one extent or another, every Demon Next Door campaign is a Slice of Life campaign. It is the default assumption of the sort of campaign played. In this case all the above themes will likely be played out to a greater or lesser extent at one point or another. There is no one focus aside from portraying the daily life of civilians in the world of Divine Blood.
A general slice of life campaign is the hardest to actually plan directions for since there’s not an overall theme to focus on. Take a look at your characters and their Aspects carefully. One might have a character focused around a relationship such as trying to attract the affection, or even just the attention, of some popular student in school. Another character might have a secret that they want kept from the rest of the group. One might be searching out information on who and what they are. There’s any number of possible ways that the characters might mix and match the above themes.
On the other hand, it creates the most freedom for character creation. Having a specific theme for the game assumes that each player will make that theme a large part of their character concept. This won’t usually be a terribly difficult thing to do, but the situation where a particular theme does not interest one of the players is always going to be a problem. For example, a number of the above themes require a very proactive player who initiates action regularly but some players are uncomfortable with that play style. A player who is more reticent and reactive would have troubles getting involved in a game of discovery, for example, but might deal well with a theme of secrecy. As such having a general theme of “slice of life” in your game helps accommodate a greater range of players.
This theme is not so much about a particular focus as it is about just free-flowing through the lives of the characters. For inspiration you’ll want to look at slice of life television shows such as American sitcoms and slice-of-life anime. The way these shows take a common everyday occurrence or headache and blow it up into ridiculous proportions is exactly what you’re going for. On the other hand, if you’re not seeking comedy, you might review the sort of dramas and soap operas where situations are still blown out of proportion but are played straight and serious. The main difference between these styles is that consequences in a comedic story will be less permanent and less severe than in a dramatic story.
(Sample Mood
Soap Opera
Soap opera mood stories are sort of a mix of comedy and drama. This label has more to do with the common perception of soap operas than on what they are actually like. Soap opera campaigns are based on convoluted and inter-connected story arcs that are hard to keep track of. Individual situations might seem entirely serious, but trying to give a summary of the overall plot might require flowcharts and some water to keep the throat from drying out.
Things in a campaign with a soap opera mood are always played straight. Whatever is front of the characters right now is serious and could conceivably result in serious consequences that would quite thoroughly ruin a character’s life. The awkward situations and physical slapstick that gets a laugh in a pure comedic game is going to be rare or even absent. The comedy from a soap opera is not coming from the individual situations, but from the absurdity of the overall tableau of plot.
Campaigns that have this sort of mood are likely to suffer from what would otherwise be called plot cancer. Everything is connected to everything else. Almost nobody dies and if they do, they come back later with proof that it was faked somehow. There are likely loose ends to prior storylines all over the place. Sometimes the players will go back to those loose ends, other times they will be left hanging until someone asks “whatever happened to X”. Of all the campaigns, this is the mood that is most likely to have the ridiculous situation mentioned under Secrets above where six people from different societies are all trying to keep major secrets from each other while still being close friends.