The Whispering Vault Mastering the Vault, Podreczniki RPG, The Whispering Vault
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M
ASTERING THE
V
AULT
Copyright © 2003 Philip Reed and Christopher Shy. All Rights Reserved.
The Whispering Vault
is a trademark of Philip Reed and Christopher Shy.
The
Sanguine Seal
is a trademark of Alex Gray, used with permission.
The Whispering Vault
created by Alex Gray.
M
ASTERING
THE
V
AULT
W
RITTEN BY
Nigel Findley with
Chad Brinkley and Mike Nystul
E
DITED BY
Aaron Loeb, Mike Nystul,
and Philip Reed
Proofreading by
C
OVER AND BACK COVER ART BY
Christopher Shy
I
NTERIOR ART BY
Earl Geier, Larry MacDougall,
Dave Mackay, and Thron
P
RODUCTION BY
Philip Reed
W
ELCOME
After years of waiting patiently, the mate-
rial in this book is finally ready for your next
game of
The Whispering Vault
. Inside these
pages are:
• GM advice by Nigel Findley.
• A timeline by Chad Brinkley.
• A hunt by Nigel Findley.
• Unbidden as Player Character rules.
• A few adventure hooks.
G
AMEMASTERING
T
HE
W
HISPERING
V
AULT
by Nigel Findley
Gamemastering
The Whispering Vault
involves some very specific chal-
lenges, not necessarily found in other games. The game brings with it some
characteristic pitfalls into which GMs – new and experienced – find it all
too easy to fall. On the other side of the coin, these same challenges bring
with them some significant rewards that might not be found in other games.
This section discusses some of these pitfalls and ways to get around them,
and provides some specific techniques gamemasters of
The Whispering
Vault
can use to get the most out of their games.
M
OOD
More so than many games,
The
Whispering Vault
is a game of mood. A
game of
Vault
lives or dies by how well
the gamemaster – and, secondarily, the
players – build and maintain the mood.
If you look at
The Whispering Vault
superficially, there’s not that much
unique about it. “Let’s see,” you might
say, “take elements of horror and fantasy
– with maybe some superhero gaming
tossed in for good measure – add some
extra-dimensional bounty-hunters, and
you’ve got it.” Looked at that way . . .
what’s so special about
The Whispering
Vault
anyway? Sounds pretty boring, all
in all . . .
But
The Whispering Vault
isn’t bor-
ing – or, at least, it shouldn’t be. It can be
– and
should
be – compelling, evocative,
dark (but notably distinct from the many
other “dark” games on the market), even
disturbing . . . and, in a sense,
magical
.
What is it that sets
The Whispering
Vault
apart from a game of “whacked-
out bounty hunters on steroids”?
Mood
,
pure and simple.
G
ENRE
But
what
mood? It’s time to take a
look at that. What makes up the charac-
teristic mood of
The Whispering Vault
?
I
S
T
HE
W
HISPERING
V
AULT
A
“H
ORROR
”G
AME
?
Strictly speaking, I’d argue “no.”
(Caveat: This and other opinions
expressed in this article are
mine
. Not
necessarily those of the publisher, and
not necessarily yours – you gamemasters
and players of the game. Personally, I
think it’s important to remember that.
Your game of
The Whispering Vault
is
yours
, after all – not mine, not anyone
else’s. As long as you’re having fun
doing what you’re doing . . . well, keep
on doing it. What I’m providing you
here are guidelines you can try to
increase
the pleasure you get from your
gaming sessions, not hard-and-fast rules,
graven inn stone, specifying precisely
how the game is to be played
right
. End
of sermon.)
Certainly, there are horrific elements
in
The Whispering Vault
. Many conven-
tions used in the game are similar –
though generally not identical – to con-
3
ventions used in horror fiction, cinema
and gaming. There’s the mysterious,
often inscrutable foe, defended by
guardians that are often monstrous.
There are enigmatic, arcane forces at
work – often, forces that the player char-
acters understand only inadequately.
There are elements out of nightmare –
familiar faces concealing hideous intent;
transformation and transmogrification,
until it’s impossible to be sure that any-
thing is what it seems. There are flashes
of brutal violence, inhuman destructive-
ness, pain, loss, death. There are inno-
cents drawn into things beyond their
imagining; and those who consider
themselves predators, suddenly realizing
that they’ve become prey. And, through-
out, there’s the mass of “innocent”
humanity, blissfully unaware of the pri-
mal forces struggling and striving
around them, threatening to shatter their
comfortable worlds and lives forever. All
of these are mainstays of the horror
genre, and key parts of
The Whispering
Vault
.
But then there are two central con-
ventions of horror that are directly con-
tradictory to the mood of
The
Whispering Vault
.
In the familiar horror
story (or game), the protagonists – the
player characters – are almost always
totally outmatched by the antagonists,
by the opposition. Most horror “heroes”
are everyday types – not heroes (or, at
least, not people who’d ever
consider
themselves to be heroes). They’re drawn
into a mystery, usually against their will,
and then almost immediately put in dan-
ger for their lives. The archetypal horror
plot-line is one where the protagonists
have no choice but to pit themselves
against overwhelming odds – a coven of
vampires, a shopping-mall full of zom-
bies, or Great Cthulhu himself – because
the alternative is simply unacceptable.
Death (or worse) for themselves, death
of innocents the protagonists care about,
often the destruction of the human race,
the entire universe, or even the multi-
verse.
Horror heroes generally
know
they’re outmatched, too, and that knowl-
edge affects every aspect of their behav-
ior. They know that the only way they
can survive to “win” the conflict – what-
ever it is – is to keep a low profile, to
keep their location and actions, even
their very existence, a secret from the
antagonists. That’s one of the central
challenges of the horror genre: finding
the weakness in the antagonist that
allows the heroes to survive.
Even seemingly “powerful” horror
heroes are actually weaklings when
compared to their foes. The only way the
heroes can survive and triumph is
through stealth, cunning, a healthy
measure of luck, and a knowledge of
how to exploit the foe’s weaknesses.
(Case in point: Van Helsing meets
Dracula at midnight . . . and has care-
lessly left his crucifix at home. Would
you
bet on the “powerful” vampire
hunter to survive until dawn . . . ?)
Powerful Protagonists
And that’s a major way in which
The Whispering Vault
diverges from the
archetypal horror story or game.
Whatever else they happen to be, the
protagonists, the heroes – the Stalkers –
are
not
helpless innocents. They’re about
as far as it’s possible to get from “normal
people drawn into something too big for
them.” The Stalkers
are
heroes – or
maybe “champions” is the better word.
How does this fact affect a
Vault
story? Stalkers are going to be driving
the plot to a much greater extent than the
“heroes” in a horror story/game. The
Stalkers are – or
should
be –
agents
: peo-
ple who
act
, rather than people who are
acted
upon
. Once the Stalkers are
involved – once they’ve answered the
Call – they drive the events of the story.
They should be
acting
, making things
happen, rather than standing back and
waiting for something else to happen
to
them, or around them. (This is as impor-
tant a point from a character point of
view as it is from a story standpoint.
4
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