From: tbarnes@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (thomas wrentmore barnes)
Subject: Re: CHILL: Using Other Creatures with Vampires
Keywords: Chill, vampires, scenario design
Organization: Indiana University
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 18:09:41 GMT

In article <900667c.16.718502556@ace.acadiau.ca> 900667c@ace.acadiau.ca (GERALD RICHARD CAMERON) writes:
>
>Also, what are some of the more atmospheric places to set such adventures?  
>Obviously Transylvania comes to mind, as does New Orleans, but what other 
>places lend a little mystique of their own to the vampire legend, and how 
>can this be exploited?
>
Anyplace that is old enough to have spooky secrets, creaky old houses
and families that go back a long way. It also helps if the setting is
sufficiently isolated that the characters can be harried and terrified
without being able to easily flee. A sullen and hostile peasantry and
crummy transport and communications help provide the appropriate
forboding air (if you're into Lovecraftian horror).
	Stereotypical Suggestions:
	
1) The moors of Northern England (Read Hound of the Baskervilles by AC
Doyle)

2) Victorian London (Where part of Dracula is set, see also Cthulhu by
Gaslight)

3) New England (Read anything by H.P. Lovecraft, or Salem's Lot by
Steven King, also see the Call of Cthulhu game).

4) Rural Central Europe (Read Frankenstien by Mary Shelley, Dracula by
Bram Stoker starts out here)

 	Non-stereotypical suggestions:
1) Rural Midwest or Southern U.S. - If you get far enough back into the
hills or swamps who knows what you'll find. See the movie Deliverance
and then imagine a bunch of stereotypical hillbilly types serving the
local gentry, who just happen to be vampires.

2) Any big city - Millions of people provide welcome anonymity and
nourishment for vampires. See the Vampire RPG for a Vampire's eye view
of this. A vampire can go many places a human can't go; rooftops, the
sewers, through locked doors, in mist form. A vampire could live in the
sewers, because he is immune to disease and use his rat minions as
scouts and an attack force.

3) Anyplace out in the boonies - Africa, the Australian Outback, the
Yukon. What a vampire lacks in prey, he makes up in his better ability
to survive in the wild than the average human (esp. if he is not limited
to drinking just human blood) and distance from marauding vampire
hunters. He would use his bat form for aerial recon, his wolf form for
ground recon (with its excellence senses) and his human form to build a
formidable defense network of hides and traps. Imagine a survivalist
vampire sniping at a party treking into the Yukon to deal with him,
wiping them out with traps, or through minions and possibly enslaving
the survivors.
	Of course, if the characters come in with a strike chopper and
bomb the vampire out he's SOL, but a smart vampire won't let himself be
vulnerable to something like that.

4)In a repressive society - If the vampire is a ruling-party bigwig he
is virtually immune to scrutiny and public outrage. He could also
operate through selectively controlled party bigwigs while keeping his
existance secret. The government will be hostile to any furriners who
come into the country armed to the teeth and start snooping around. The
people will be afraid to talk to strangers and will be outwardly
cooperative with the stat. This means that the characters could quickly
find themselves imprisoned or expelled for breaking a law or "spying". 
("Ter are no vampires in Romania. Tey are myth created by church to
delude proleteriat! You will be held in psychiatric hospital until U.S.
embassy in Bucharest confirms identity as U.S. citizens. If you are not
U.S. citizens you will be tried for possessing firearms...").

5) Next Door - the new neighbor is behaving strangely. Children start
dissappearing from the neighborhood. The players suspect a connection.
What it lacks in exoticness, it makes up in horror, since the
cplayers will will really identify withthe characters in the scenario.

Good luck,

Tom \|/
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