Editing Demon: Toronto

A campaign of Demon: the Descent.

[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?718860-Toronto-Demon-Reboot OOC Thread]

[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?718863-Toronto-Demon-Reboot IC Thread]

==Campaign Overview==

===The City of Toronto===
If your first impression of Toronto is that it looks like a typical city, that's because it has so often played the typical city on screen. Toronto is a common stand in for NYC in films and TV shows, as well as a popular site for urban exterior scenes. The combination of many good sized public green spaces, Victorian homes, housing projects, sky scrappers, and every other sort of urban feature you'd want in close proximity makes it a particularly efficient place to sample from the various ideas for cities that have been implemented throughout human history. This experimentation is not limited to the typical projects of politicians and wealthy cranks. The God-Machine deploys innovations in urban Infrastructure in Toronto to see if it is ready for the big time. Before Tokyo, LA, London, or even NYC get anything innovative it has usually been stress tested in Toronto. As a result, cryptids stalk the abandoned subway stations and green spaces of the city while stigmatics cluster in the downtown hipster havens. Angelic activity is common at all levels of the city, ensuring that things run smoothly and that the next big thing doesn't get snatched by an enemy of the God-Machine.

====The Greater Toronto Area====
Beyond the modern City of Toronto, born of forced amalgamation in 1998, a number of other cities in the area comprise the Greater Toronto Area. Many of these serve as commuter cities, though some such as Mississauga have the right combination of cheap land and favourable conditions to serve as locations for the head offices of companies. While the more residentially focused cities have far less occult influence, those filled with industrial parks and corporate headquarters have minimal pretext over the Infrastructure.

Vast subdivisions are still being built in municipalities all around Toronto proper. Rows of near identical houses in repeating patterns are burying arable land. Cheap, large homes are fairly easy to come by thanks to this if you're willing to be far from the city. But the reach of transport is promises to continue to increase, likewise access to the highways that go straight to the downtown core.

====Getting Around====
Those who live in the heart of Toronto tend to use the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) to get around. A U shaped loop of subway with its bend happening near the Toronto Convention Centre serves as the spine of the system. An intersecting line runs along Bloor Street, the official end of downtown and start of midtown. Bus routes fill in the rest, with most routes having at least two different subway station stops. Downtown street cars run along major streets to speed along transport.

For those who live further out, cars are the preferred mode of transportation even for downtown destinations. The competing needs of the two modes of transport leads to frequent frustration and serves as a flash point for tension between those who live in what was Toronto before amalgamation and those who live in the suburb cities fused onto it.

====Hiding in Hostile Territory====
With particularly high angelic attention due to God-Machine projects, Toronto is hostile territory for those with deviant agendas. On the other hand, all those projects make the agents of the God-Machine very busy. It also means plenty of projects that don't pass snuff get quietly set aside, leading to assets for clever Demons to exploit. The result is a plethora of rings and agencies. Neutral meeting ground is rare but highly valued as there is too much for any single ring to take in and pay attention to.

===Themes===
*Mysteries that should stay that way
*Dangerous knowledge
*How knowing transforms you
*The price of ignorance

===Mood===
*Under pressure

===Sound Track===
*''Under Pressure'', David Bowie and Queen
*''The Becoming'', Nine Inch Nails
*''Help I'm Alive'', Metric
*''Metal'', Gary Numan
*''Extraordinary Machine'', Fionna Apple
*''Man That You Fear'', Marilyn Manson
*''Paper Girl'', July Talk
*''God's Away on Business'', Tom Waits

== Player Characters ==

* [[Vox/Erika Vocce]] - Saboteur Messenger
* [[Reverend Sail/ Robert Riemann]] - Inquisitor Messenger
* [[Zash|Zash/Godin "Horse" Burkashvili]] - Inquisitor Guardian
* [[Panopticophony/Steve Weine]] - Inquisitor Psychopomp
* [[Silavos/Dr. Ian Sulter]] - Inquisitor Destroyer

== NPCs ==
* Steve's Girlfriend Mel, who he confides in and who could give him up to the angels
* Zash's True Friend
* Jean Cowden, Rv. Sail's True Friend, a Stigmatic, has enough to give Rv. Sail to the angels
* Liam DuPont, who suspects Rv. Sail of being inhuman, lives near Rv. Sail's church
* Christine Leah, who thinks she has something on Rv. Sail but has nothing, is a member of Rv. Sail's church
* Barista who works the graveyard shift at the coffee shop that Erika after her shows, suspects Erika of being inhuman
* Samantha "VoiceAddict" Nielz, head of Erika's cult, could give Erika to the angels
* Marjore, Erika's neighbor and best friend
* Herbert Giles, Erika's station manager, thinks he has something on Erika. He does not.
* A security firm contact of Steve's who suspects he is inhuman
* Local mob boss thinks Steve is working with the cops against organized crime
* Rebecca Masters, a young girl that was Ian's target, who he confided in when he fell
* Edward the Blind Busker suspects Ian isn't human
* Valerie Yasmine, professor of cognitive neuroscience at University of Toronto, former client of the Ring
* Natasha Chernowski, former client of Steve's, apparent vampire victim

== Locations & Infrastructure ==
*'''The CN Tower''' — It stretches even taller and 'blooms' at the top for those who can see the God-Machine's work.
*'''The TTC''' — All stations are larger and most have substations or hidden areas hidden away by Concealment Infrastructure.
*'''St. Michael's Hospital''' — The halls become truly labyrinthian if you can see all of them, instead of just the ones the Infrastructure channels you through.

== Agencies & Rings ==
* [[The PC's Ring]]
* Penitents of the Long Clock—Moderately well knowing Ring with Integrator tendencies and a long view things; very concerned about human extinction

== Plot Hooks & Notes ==
* [[The Night Hunters]]—Related to Steve's First Case; vampire like beings, inspire fear and mask their presence, repeatedly feed from the same victims it seems
* [[The Dream Haunter]]—A past case where what appeared to be Infrastructure hidden in an apartment's water tower induced recurring nightmares and gradual mechanical transformation in at least one of the residents

== Demon Rules Cheat Sheet ==
*Cover (pg 155)
**You can use Cover instead of Primum as resistance to supernatural powers.
**You can use Spoof to fool anything that would reveal you are not human. (157)
**You can use Legend by spending an Aether and rolling your Cover.  This allows you to fake having skills or merits appropriate to your cover, and gives yout he Impostor condition. (157)
**Going Loud: You can utterly destroy your cover in order to be incredibly powerful for a short time.  (158)

*Compromise (159)
**A Compromise Roll is Wits+Manipulation
**Assuming demonic form is a compromise roll with a -3 penalty.  Staying in your demonic form for more than a scene is another compromise roll, with a cumulative -1 modifier per scene.
**Some Embeds cause compromises, all exploits do.  You can spend a willpower to avoid this for an exploit.
**Information about your true nature being revealed to humans THAT BELIEVE IT can cause Compromises.  See the section for details.
**Taking actions grossly out of character for your cover cause compromise.
**You can investigate a Demon using Wits + Occult, requires a number of successes equal to their Cover, one day per roll.
**Compromise rolls are modified by the current strength of your Cover: 8-10 +2; 6-7+1; 4-5 +0; 2-3 -1; 1 -2.
**Compromise rolls can be modified by circumstances. If witnessed by an angel, it is penalized by the angel's Rank.  If humans see an overt supernatural act, it is -2.  If all witnesses are drunk/high, you have +1.
**Rules for Cover rolls are found on pg 161.
**Improve cover by living it (162) or via Pacts (163 & 286).  Soul pacts require a DOT of Willpower.  Lesser pacts require Points of willpower, and give Cover XP.

*Agendas
**Your Agenda gives you the appropriate condition at the start of each Chapter.  You can gain the Beat once per chapter and Resolve it once per chapter, which removes the condition.  You regain it at the start of the next chapter.
**Inquisitors are Prepared for Anything.  Beat: Make someone question their assumptions or course of action. Resolve: Connect disparate facts with a leap of logic, or +3 to any mental skill roll.
**Integrators have Angel Empathy. Beat: Put the Ring at risk or make them suspicious of his motives. Resolve: Gain a +3 bonus to any roll to evade, outwit, persuade, or learn the bane/ban of an angel. This bonus does not apply to combat rolls made against angels, however.
**Saboteurs have An Eye For Disorder.  Beat: Draw attention to yourself by destroying, disrupting, or destabilizing a system. Resolve: When performing an action intended to create chaos, take a +3 on the skill roll.
**Tempters tend to Know Someone.  Beat: Delegate a task or a risky endeavor, so that you don't get your own hands dirty.  Resolve: Gain a +3 bonus to a social roll where VIP status is the goal or would be a benefit.

*Conditions.  New Conditions are described starting on pg. 167.
**This includes conditions like blown, hunted, impostor, etc.

*Special Demon Powers (274)
**Total Control.  Rolls to ascertain a demon's true emotional state automatically fail.
**Natural Aptitude. Demons are fluent in all living languages and have eidetic memory.
**Other powers exist as well, and are described in this section.  Such as Aetheric Resonance.
**The ability to make Pacts is described on 286.

*Glitches are described on 278.  They are permanent or temporary supernatural flaws on your character.

*Gadgets are permanently useful devices that any Demon can make.  They are described on pg. 282, and cost a DOT of willpower to create.
**Embedded gadgets use modified embeds and are subtle.
**Exploited gadgets are bizarre devices that use Exploits.

*Demonic Forms are how a demon can change into a biomechanical badass.  They are described on 278.
**Demons in Demonic Form use different Conditions.  See page 320.
**Captivated & Disoriented are on pg. 324.

*Ciphers are described on 367, with mechanical information on 230.
**When you gain a beat from your Agenda Condition, you may roll to advance your cipher.
**Advancing through your Cipher is supposed to help increase Primum?
**During the game, if you gain a beat in a scene involving angels, demons, stigmatics, or the God-Machine, the player makes a reflexive Intelligence + Wits roll.  You can add your Primum if you are also following your Agenda.
**On a success, you may ask one of the following questions, which must be asked in order:
**Do I already know my next key?
**What attribute does my next key use?
**What category is my next key?
**What is my next key?
**On an exceptional success, you instead advance two questions.