DraculaDossier-MotW

Dracula Dossier run with Monster of the Week

This will be an improvsional campaign using Night's Black Agent's Dracula Dossier but run in Monster of the Week with an espionage flavor. This will be a cinematic high action flavored game. The characters are action heroes who are capable of amazing things. We will write the scenes as such. This game will have an epsoidic framework, with distinct missions that YOU the players will decide what to investigate, and I will build each scenario around your choices. Neither of us will know the outcome of any given action. That is the beauty of this creation, we are making our own story out of whole cloth.

Game Conceits

• All characters are action heroes.
  

• The game will be full of cinematic action and scenes. I expect the players to write to this goal.
  

• While the characters might not be spies, they will be drawn into a web of dark shadows of paranoia and not knowing who to trust.
  

• Best of the Best: Write to this. Your characters are people like Jason Bourne, James Bond, and anything played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Use movies like Red, Mr Nobody, and John Wick for inspiration. You get the idea.
  

• The intention is for the characters to be out to deal with the situations, nefarious enemies, and overarching schemes. That being said, the choices being made will allow for what will be investigated and dealt with.
  

• This is a living world. Things are changing with or without player interaction. There is a living conspiracy that may or may not become aware of the character's actions and may work against you depending on how you go about dealing with things. In short, there will be ramifications of player agency.
  

• Defeat Doesn't Always Have to Mean Death: Per standard action movie plots, there are many times when the main baddie or main protagonist should die but doesn't. Otherwise, how would we have the "Now Mr Bond, you will die" kind of a monologue
  

• Characters could die, though I prefer planned death; sometimes the dice can go wrong. There will be luck, so there will be mitigating methods. If a player choose to drop out, or change their character, that is perfectly acceptable, we can write the story to fit. You aren't locked into your choices forever. That being said, it offers continuity if the story moves forward coherently.
  

Characters

Character Creation

• Pick a playbook. While we could have duplicates, it is likely better that each player picks a different playbook to offer more individuality. However, if two players want to play the same playbook, let's discuss things and see how that would work.
  

• Follow the instructions to set the playbook up, flavored with the idea of espionage and cinematic action heroes.
  

• Multilingual:All characters are or have been part of the espionage game for some time. As such, they speak multiple languages. You may pick up to 3 additional languages plus your native tongue. You don't have to pick them all right at character creation, and they can be set as we play if you wish.
  

• What Attributes Mean:

• Cool is how calm and collected you are. It is added to your die roll for the act under pressure and help out basic moves.

• Tough is how strong and mean you are in a fight. It is added to your die roll for the kick some ass and protect someone basic moves.

• Charm is how pleasant and persuasive you are. It is added to your die roll for the manipulate someone basic move.

• Sharp is how observant you are. It is added to your die roll to investigate a mystery and read a bad situation's basic moves.

• Weird is how attuned to the supernatural you are. It is added to your die roll for the use of a magic basic move.

• The ratings range from -1 to +3.
• -1 is bad
• 0 is average
• +1 is good
• +2 is really good
• +3 is phenomenal

Playbooks

• The Chosen
• The Crooked
• The Divine
• The Expert
• The Flake
• The Initiate
• The Monstrous
• The Mundane
• The Professional
• The Spell-Slinger
• The Spooky
• The Wronged

Other Playbooks out there

• Action Scientist
• Big Game Hunter
• Constructed
• Exile
• Gumshoe
• Hard Case
• The Hex
• Mad Scientist
• The Pararomantic
• The Searcher
• Snoop
• The Spooktacular
• Summoned

Not every one of the playbooks works for this game, but we can talk.

Playbooks can be found by looking on the web and are free to download.

Current Story

• We are going to start with The Van Helsing Letter as an introduction and to get us all on board with how to make this work. We will discuss and interweave the characters so that we can build a foundation that we can work from.
  

Other Rules

Expected Harm Ratings

• If it’s hardly more dangerous than a punch, 0-harm hand.
• If it’s sharp or heavy, 1-harm hand.
• If it’s dangerous, 2-harm hand heavy.
• If it’s a weapon designed to kill, 3-harm.
• If it’s overkill for a person, 4-harm.
• If you can throw it, add +close.

Range Increments

• Intimate
• Hand
• Close
• Far