General Category > Board Request ... Board

[V20] Kapten pitches Giovanni Chronicles - Nuova Malattia

(1/3) > >>

Kapten:
Devil Kindred... Necromancers... Masters of the Dark Soul. Names and epithets falling fearfully from the tongues of vampires who deride us. They pretend that we are of no consequence, that we are weak and have no influence.

Tell me, then, oh great lord of the night: How is it that a clan of independents, hated by every other childe of Caine, has managed to survive through the years, regardless of your terror and persecution?

Take heed, princes and priests - were you ever to see the truth, you would blind yourselves in order never to look upon it again. And in your blindness, we would consume you.



Boston, Massachusetts, 1929. With prohibition entering into its tenth year, bootlegging and organized crime has flourished. The Giovanni, the Kindred Clan of Death, the Necromancers, see the American Mafia as a perfect tool for their pursuit of lucre and souls. Andreas Giovanni, Capo of Boston, is growing his clan's influence, snaring new, capable agents with his lures of vice and blood, of power and respect.

You are about to step into the red night.

Nuova Malattia is a Vampire chronicle in four acts, spanning seven decades. It is a story of organized crime, vampiric intrigue with a dash of the ghostly. The players start out as mortal men and women with ties to the Giovanni, transformed into ghouls in service of the Boston Giovanni and dragged deeper into the webs of organized crime. Those who succeed will themselves become Kindred. Those who fail will either remain ghouls, half-damned forever in service to the Necromancers, or face death. With the Giovanni however, death is not always the end...

Nuova Malattia is also a story about ghosts. The Giovanni are a clan of necromancers, binding and compelling the souls of the dead. As the story progresses, the ghosts of the clan's past become unearthed, and the players have the chance to put one of the ghosts haunting the clan to rest. Or, they can let the clan's past sins catch up with it.

What do I need to play?

You don't need to be a veteran player of Vampire the Masquerade to play the Giovanni Chronicles. The story takes the character from mortal to ghoul, ghoul to fledgeling, fledgeling to neonate, allowing new players to learn with their character. To play Nuova Malattia you need to at least be familiar with Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition. While there are some additional resources to be considered useful reading, these are not strictly necessary.

Ghouls and Revenants will be useful as the characters will begin their service as ghouls.

Lore of the Clans has a chapter on the Giovanni that delves into who the Necromancers are and how they operate. As the characters will begin on the periphery of the clan's reach, not knowing the finer points of the clan will not be a setback. Clanbook Giovanni Revised is also a good companion source to Lore of the Clans.

Rites of the Blood is useful for players wishing to explore the discipline of Necromancy more in-depth. The book offers additional Rituals, a look at different paradigms, and generally exploring the ”flavor” of Necromancy.

Theme

The major theme of Nuova Malattia is desensitization. Throughout the story, the characters are in some cases asked and in others demanded to commit some obscene acts against their fellow humans (at least, while they themselves are still human). That said, during character creation, an important question to consider, and one best asked of the players is what their characters’ moral limits are. Does the character consider murder acceptable under certain conditions? What about torture? Has the character ever been a victim or practitioner of rape or abuse? How does the character’s Humanity reflect this? Is he grimly resigned to his fate? Has his Humanity started to crumble at its foundation? Bear in mind that during the first two acts of the story, women’s independence was just beginning to take form, and many people still held to the “woman-as-servant” ideal. There were no special hotlines to call, and most victims of incest and abuse grew up repressing their hatred, only to inflict it upon their own families later. A character who grows up in that environment might think it normal, or at least inescapable, and feel no real remorse about causing pain to others.

Along the same lines, what would the character do to survive? To get rich? What is the most important thing to the character? Whatever it is, it is about to be replaced by vitae. Mothers have sold their children for a hit of crack, and vitae is even more difficult to resist. How far will the character go, knowing that to turn back means death at best, and Clan Giovanni’s disfavor at worst?

Just as important, especially considering their domitor, are the characters’ views on sex. Andreas is very interested in human sexual desire and what happens to it after the Proxy Kiss – the Giovanni's name for ghouldom. Andreas is himself amazingly seductive, and has no problem seducing men; after all, his actual sex drive is gone, and everything else is only acting. This may touch upon some sensitive issues among the players, and certainly the characters. After all, until the modern era, homosexuality was usually classified as a mental illness. Are any of the characters secretly (or openly) gay or bisexual? Does the very idea horrify them? Is the housewife character married with an increasingly boring sex life that she wishes she could enhance, or has she been taught that sex is nothing more than a burden she must bear? Depending on the characters’ answers, they may find themselves with alien feelings as the Blood Bond takes hold, or find their libidos
amplifying terribly.

This story echoes the core theme of Vampire perhaps more strongly than many chronicles prior to it. Humanity and morality by nature come to the fore — this is not a story about amassing Disciplines and slaying foes. Even the political angle serves to illustrate the depths to which a character must sink to achieve prominence. A character (or several) may very well drop to Humanity 0 over the course of the tale — such is the price of power.

As a final note, I will never push the theme on a player who has grown uncomfortable. Vampire, while not necessarily a comfortable experience, is nonetheless a game, and if a player cannot enjoy herself under the circumstances, it is the troupe’s responsibility to respect that person’s mores. There is no shame in this — this story may simply not be her cup of tea.

Mood

The mood of Nuova Malattia can best be described as forced civility. Consider: The Mafia is a highly complex, very social organization. “Respect” is a serious consideration, as not showing it to one’s superior can be fatal. Meeting with an enemy boss is often done over a meal. This kind of casualness should be very unnerving for the characters at first; not only do they have to kill people, arrange brutal fights, sell drugs and find prostitutes, they have to remember to be polite while discussing it! As the characters get more used to the rules of conduct that accompany the Mob, however, this forced civility may eventually become something they force on others, perhaps their own ghouls or childer. This, of course, plays back into the theme of degeneration.

A second mood is one of New England mysticism. It is one of confusion, tension and madness, the mysterious and the eerie. Insular families hide their dark secrets behind polite facades, séances and Ouija boards reveal glimpses of the unknown, and the past always comes back to haunt the living. As Necromancers, the Giovanni are more in tune with these forces. Does this awareness make them safer, or does it only serve to speed their degeneration?

Munch:
I am definitely interested.

ColossusCrusher:
I've never played VtM or oWoD at all, but I'm willing to try.

Ominous Presence:
Formally expressing my interest here!

I see we're starting as humans, in 1929 Boston. Standard V20 mortal character creation?

Kapten:
I'll post character creation guidelines tomorrow :) It will be standard mortal character creation, with some useful info to get you into the swing of things.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page