LeviathanTempest:ArchivedConflicts

Some of the proposed pitches and themes for Leviathan include the following. They're generally not exclusive. Frank Trollman's discussion of thematic interests, quoted below, summarizes part of what I've been considering the basis of the "monstrous puberty" route.

A relevant quote:

• Leviathans are inhuman.
• Leviathans are majestic.
• Leviathans suffer the pains and misery of metamorphisis.
• Leviathans seek the serenity of their pre-Tempest ancestors (though whether it's ever been achieved is subject to legend. Those who try, in common knowledge, never get farther back than the first age of the Tempest, gaining Primevality).
• Leviathans are mighty.
• Leviathans feel deep isolation, as the more mighty a form they take, the less Firmament they have to grasp the human attachments they would use that might to protect.

Themes

Transition

Thematic elements focusing on the in-between state; unceratinty about one's future. The Leviathan comes into his or her power at a point in their life, and that alteration in their basic nature makes everything else go haywire. They can't have a white picket fence and a wife and two-point-five smiling children and soccer practice and track meets. Not anymore. Hell, they might not be able to hold down a real job. That sort of thing might stop seeming, y'know, relevant, in the face of the real history of the world.

Transition elements in plots are meant to give a sense of loneliness and isolation to a game of Leviathan. They have some strength inasmuch as they cover fertile ground in terms of social status, personal security, and anxieties about the future. However, the heavy use of transition means that some other elements of the way that Leviathans function, in-game-wise, means that settling down isn't an option for some reason. Things always go wrong, or whatever. To make the theme meaningful down the line, participation in "everyday" average life has to become increasingly problematic for the Leviathan.

Leviathans are fluid; they know no peace.

Transformation

You're something that isn't finished, not yet. This element of Leviathan hinges on the conception of them "coming into" their blood, and reaching a stage in which their physical body is no longer familiar or comfortable. The ability to change shape - perhaps the inability to avoid changing shape - adds a degree of body horror to the characters, who no longer can claim to have even semi-reliable self-knowledge. The distortion of the body to a new and grotesque configuration further distances a Leviathan from mankind.

Transformation forms the physical aspect of the Transition theme - elements of forced or inevitable transformation mean that a character is repeatedly confronted with their monstrous nature in raw physical terms. Transformation should be inevitable - the Leviathan is eventually going to become something - and horrifying - he or she has no idea what.

Leviathans are changing; they are becoming something (what?) else.

Monstrosity

The Leviathan bloodline is composed of primordial entities that, even if perhaps they are the original owners of this world, are not its allies. Their blood is tainted with the lineage of hostile, unknowable entities that would like nothing more than to sweep all Creation down into the briny deep. The Leviathan are not the inheritors of a heroic legacy or a divine charge, not really - they're the footsoldiers and infiltrators of horrors. They are Things which Should Not Be.

Monstrosity themes threaten some overlap with, like, almost every other World of Darkness splat, but it's important to recognize their place. Leviathans aren't Primordials cut off from their proper place of residence - they're hybrid abominations that belong properly to neither world.

Leviathans are monsters; they aspire to perfection.

Excavation

The inability to know your past. Leviathans can only come to understand their place in the world, and indeed to understand the real world in general, by investigating and considering relics of their past. Each Leviathan is indoctrinated into a mystery religion in which he does not know the handshakes or meeting places, and he will be hunted for it and haunted by it regardless of whether he cares to find out or not.

An important thematic accompaniment of much of the above, Excavation is about the drive to find a place to belong. It is meant to provide a motive for Leviathan actions beyond mere survival - after discovering some of the horrific truth of their lineage, they are compelled to discover more.

Leviathans are archaeologists; they seek to know themselves.

Covetousness

The desire to control things. Inspired by the image of the isolated monster as a guardian and keeper, this theme hinges on the idea of a Leviathan's connection to this world - real or unreal as it may be - being grounded in psychological attachment to an object or location of significance. The theme revolves around the necessary conflicts undertaken to secure that object, and the morality of hoarding revelations.

Leviathans are jealous; they want to keep what makes them feel good.

Conflicts

• Loss of Self-Control
• Uncertain Identity
• Outrage (Fighting Marduk, lashing out, etc.)
• Survival (How far will you go?)
• Possession (Of Atolls, of hoarded objects)

Approaches

Frank Trollman's Musings and Requirements

We have to understand for a moment that regardless of which of the WoD settings each of us likes the best, Vampire is the big name. It's the Jell-o of the WoD gelatin desserts, the sub-brand which defines the genre. And the reason is not simply because Lugosi is a lot cooler than Karloff, but because Vampire keeps its fingers directly on the pulse of some very primal concepts. To whit:

• Loss of Innocence
• Fear of Death
• Danger and Lure of Intimacy
• Moral Nostalgia
• Regret

Powerful stuff. And frankly Promethean's exploration of inadequacy and rejection, and Mage's exploration of rampant powergaming never really touch the Jungian heartstrings to the same extent.

And yet, for all of Vampire's incredible and palpable staying power, you can't just do the same themes. You need to find new themes. You have to stake out new territory (so to speak).

Where Vampire runs with the feelings of falling from grace, allowing people to tap into the emmotional veins filled with the ichor of regretful memories and stoked with the flames of bad descisions and failed romance - Leviathan has to do something else. And I suggest that the new thing should be tapping the emotional resovoirs filled with shame and shattered pride from all the times you found out that you weren't as good as you thought.

The history of the Leviathan shouldn't be a glorious past and some kind of acceptable but ultimately doomed intermediary, that's been done. The Leviathan should have been straight up the villains right to the very point that they were hunted to near extinction. Looking into your past should be a shaming and hurtful experience, where the initial matings between typhons and humans weren't even consensual.

There's powerful stuff to be tapped in puberty. Not in the way that Werewolf handles it where you get all hairy and strong - that's the good part, people don't have any emotional baggage to deal with after that. No, we're talking the part where your body became unfamiliar to you, it hurt like hell, you smelled funny, and you had to go to a new school. That's the part we should be tapping into, because WoD is about working through emotionally trying life periods, not just turning into a superhero and smashing things.

• The creatures should be in some important way horrible This is I think where Mage fails, and always has. Whether we're talking Ascension or Awakening, Mages may as well wear capes. Being one isn't a trade-off, it's not a curse, it's awesome. And that doesn't mesh with the gothic horror concept at all.
• The creatures should feel fantastic I honestly think that this is where nWoD lost so much market share and fan attention. It wasn't that there was specifically anything wrong with the new covenants over the old - it was that vampires in Requiem don't have super strength. While the characters shouldn't be super heroes, they need to have super powers that feel super or it loses the supernatural draw.
• The Antagonists should be Compelling. And I mean that in both senses of the word. The bad guys should have a compelling sales pitch where you can understand why people would join. And they should be doing some villainy which the players (not just the characters) feel the need to stop. Pentex was just silly, their plan made no sense and I had no idea how they made money or why people joined, and I honestly don't even care if the villains from Awakening keep the Atlantean Throne, because it's way out in crazy land and they don't seem to be doing anything with it.
• The Game should have Mythic Resonance This is Urban Fantasy, not Science Fiction. If you go back through White Wolf's press history, every time you use the word "space virus" people leave and don't come back. Every single time.
• The Game should have Emotional Resonance This is a "storyteller" game. People pick it up because they want to do cooperative storytelling with an emphasis on emotional drama. The game's setting and play progression should deliver on that or people will get bored.
• The Game should be downbeat The target audience of a White Wolf product has a favorite Trent Reznor album. Mine is Pretty Hate Machine. If the game is not sad in overtones, goths won't like it - and then it will fade from memory.
• ...But not too downbeat Players are going to be telling stories with beginnings, middles, and ends. There need to be things which can be accomplished along the way from within the setting. If you keep shocking the lab rats eventually they stop even trying to get through the maze and they just curl up and await death. Wraith, for example, went too far.

The "Monstrous Puberty" Approach

• Emphasize the transitional (socially-in-between) and transformational (body-horror) aspects of Leviathan alteration.
• Embrace the concept of easy-to-abuse power over others (cult control, emotional immaturity)
• Embrace the isolation caused by the Wake and the transformation (No one is my equal)
• Embrace the violent and confusing elements of transition
• Embrace elements of social dysfunction and desperate self-creation.

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