New Game: An American Classic

Well, the ol' creative juices have been a flowin' and I have come up with an idea for a game in WoD set in late 40's to early 50's America. A bit of film-noir detective thriller with a healthy spoonful of the occult.

The premise is that the characters, you the PC's, are elected by some process to join the FBI as a special section of G-Men (old term for FBI agents who worked undercover or in the field). You'll be using your talents to take on the most dangerous and strangest tasks not suited for more public action. You'll battle moral destitution, organized crime, political corruption, and plenty of strange and otherworldly things. You'll operate on your own terms, for your own reasons, get the job done, and make sure no one, but you (and the gov't) is the wiser. You'll work undercover, engage in a good ol' man hunts, assassinations, and Tommy-gun fights. You'll succeed and fail, all against the backdrop of the time of some of the most tumultuous events in organized crime, in a land of excess and beauty and poverty and ugliness.

With all that said I haven't laid out any real threads quite yet. There are a few things which I have laid in concrete:

The game will be play-by-post. Instead of the fast and furious approach of IM clients and the like, the game will take a much more calculated and narrative approach. I ,personally, am fond of this style.

Pros: Everyone can access it, no need to allot a time where everyone has to be on at the same time, pacing lends itself to greater narrative continuity: a chance for descriptive imagery and nuance

Cons: Overall this style is significantly slower paced and requires player to be attentative to the forum. Also, it requires some discipline, and tackling things with a bit of reserve so no one ends up being stymied (getting passed over when they want to do something).

I will most likely be at his point using the WoDMod system, however, without a number of the races. So far, Werewolves, Satyrs, Vampires, Void, and Magi are the only ones I will probably allow. Yet, again, if you can conjure a particularly compelling character idea, I am always willing to bend the constraints.

So, if this strikes you as particularly interesting feel free to post and give me your thoughts. If I can get a small group going I'll start some serious planning as far as outlining criteria and such. Until, then nothing is completely ruled out or in at this point. Also, suggestions are always welcome.

-Zanthoroctu

I dont have a solid character idea down yet, but I have been considering playing a Kitsune from our ruleset. or is that race out of the question?

OK, I've got a character concept, so it looks like I'm going to play.

I'm intending to play a vampire bat true satyr with dex as his good stat, the Summoning, Necromancy and Form schools and the merit for making magic items. He would have been found by the feds because he likes drinking the blood of his enemies and hired for both his wide ranging occult knowledge and his dangerous supernatural powers. The current idea is that he's attached to the team as a condition of not going to prison.
He'll bring with him a nemesis in the form of his own mother, who was always ashamed of him, is horrified by his decision to travel the world soaking up "heretical madness" and is married to somebody nasty and powerful (not sure who yet).

EDIT brief chatlog of me and namillus.

Tom says:
I'm going to say that his mother was an english woman and his father was a native american, but his mother him when she became pregnant and stayed in america to hide her shame from her family. That left him interested in the other half of his heritage, so he looked into various kinds of native folklore and mysticism. Eventually he ended up traveling all over the place.
While all over the place, he went way beyond his origional goal and started studying all kinds of spirits and occultism, including voodoo, satanism, hoodoo, european witchcraft, alchemy and all that kind of thing. Eventually he cut a deal with his spirit partener in exchange for a dangerous quantity of blood.
his mother LEFT him, not his mother him. That or his mother accientaly him. I'm not sure.
Baruk says:
SHe accidentally the whole him?
Tom says:
that's the idea, yes.
Baruk says:
Is this bad?
=D
Kinda reminds me of how my cleric's turned out on Terres. What with the whole half-breed missing out on half his heritage, getting involved in natural magic etc.
NATURE RITUALS. GOTTA SCRIBE 'EM ALL.
Tom says:
yeah, I can see how that works. Only my guy stopped worrying about his heritage when he started to realise there was some kind of truth in all that stuff.

EDITED SO IT MAKES ACTUAL SENSE (and tells you some important things, rather than whatever sounded interesting at the time)

Apologies, this original post was written with haste so I glossed over some details.

Humans, being normal humans are going to be allowed. Ya know, because there is no reason not to.

Kitsune, will most likely be allowed at this point. Again, I don't have a real reason to disallow them, so yeah.

The original post will be edited to reflect these changes.

And, Caput you'll have to forgive me, but I lose you about halfway through that. Not sure what race you are aiming for there. I do like the background though.

So, I'm intrigued, and I'm thinking of playing a Magi focused on investigative stuff, having been a Private Investigator before the Feds showed up for him. So pretty much classic Trenchcoat Brigade attitude, so like The Maltese Falcon, but since, you know, he's a Magi, leaning more towards a Holistic Detective Agency rather than proper detectoring. Which is probably why the Feds recruited him in the first place.

In short, another way to get my obsession with long flappy things like coats and cloaks satisfied.

Im wondering could I play a Kitsune Ex-Mafioso? (its assumed he left on good terms, because the major russian Mob activity didnt start untill the 1990's, 40 years after this campaign start(although Russian Mobs were moving into america since the 1930's) Besides, Fedoras are cool. and it gives another trench coat to go with the film noir style.

note: I was thinking of having the kitsune be about 200 years old, since they have no age limit and only start getting very old around 600-1000 years old.

The supernatural detective is always a welcomed trope (the Maltese Falcon meets Indiana Jones is always fun), and the ex-mafioso thing works here as well. Granted "mafioso" is a general term for any mafia member Italian or otherwise, but I assume you want to go with Russian mafia. Which is quite fine as long as you cook up a bit of something regarding the family's history. Just, where they settled, why the settled there and the general business that they delve in is fine. Feel free to give more specifics if you want to. The kitsune deal is quite fine as well, and the age works as well.

Another thing to keep in mind if your character is going to actually BE Russian, this is the era of the "Red Scare" so the general populace are going to have a generally negative disposition towards you. That's all up to you though.

Update: Well, soon we should have a dedicated category for the game, since there seems to apt player interest. I ask that all further character discussion be moved there to the Character Dossier section. Please and thank you.