Jump to content

Cape Town Vigil VSS


Jess OOC

Recommended Posts

BASIC INFORMATION

 

Organization: SPI
Domain: Cape Town (Online at rpgpost.com)
Genre: Hunter: The Vigil
VST: Gabe Meadow / Gabe OOC (meadowgabe@gmail.com)
VSS Publication: 03/12/2015


STYLE OF PLAY

 

Physical: 3
Mental: 3
Social: 3
Action: 3
Character Development: 3
Darkness: 3
Drama: 3
Intrigue: 3
Manners: 3
Mystery: 3
Pacing: 3

 

Each of the above operates on a scale of 1-5 . 1 means that the element in question will rarely be present, 3 meaning it will regularly be present, and 5 meaning it will always be present.


VENUE DESCRIPTION
Mood: Discord/Chaos

Themes:

  • Division and factional strife
  • The shattering of assumptions
  • Mundane history intrudes

 

HISTORY

 

Pre-colonization (Distant Past-1652)
 

For thousands of years, the creatures of the night were present in the Cape region – and just as naturally, the Khoisan and Xhosa peoples opposed them in turn. Not simply alone. Undoubtedly there were native organizations on the scale of compacts – but no records survive the impact of European invasion. And many hunters assume with a Eurocentric eye still that there could never have been such unity – assuming at best, groupings by clan or tribe.

The Dutch (1652-1795)
 

The arrival of the Dutch began the process of displacing the native African population – and their hunters in the process. As this occurred, European cells, already used to the hazards of the unknown and the supernatural, set up shop. The Brotherhood of Van Helsing (the name predating Bram Stoker's use in Dracula) formed in the 1670s. And quietly, certain families immigrated, with certain bloodlines, taking long-term directives from a certain lady in Milan...

Rule Britannia (1795-1899)
 

The British invasion of the Cape in 1795 was only a temporary victory, and the South African territories would not be formally added to the British Empire until 1814, but it marked the beginning of a new hegemony in the region.
This was also the time where the ground roots for the presence of various more hunter groups to enter the stage. The Bo-Kaap community created by freed Muslims became the initial rallying point for a cell of Ascending Knives of Paradise, and the diamond/gold boom of the 1870s and 1880s created a class of noveau riche who eagerly acquired franchises from the Reverend Marcus Ogilvy for a South African Abbey.

It also marked the roots of conflict between hunter compacts and conspiracies, as territorial and resource needs were further sharpened by class and racial affiliations – in Capetown, hunters have been defined by mundane history as well as the supernatural.

The Anglo-Boer War, (1899-1902)

 

The Anglo-Boer War proved disastrous to the hunter community. Though Capetown was never itself in danger, the Cape region was a site of back and forth battles by Boer and British invasions and counter-strikes. Many hunters were pulled from protecting against the monsters to the war effect – and many more fiends were emboldened to act more directly from the chaos created.
The Brotherhood of Van Helsing was destroyed, far too many of its members having decided to serve as Boer commandos, and many more hunters were killed in monstrous attacks designed to mimic the guerrilla fighting of the later years.


A New Order (1948-1994)

 

The era of apartheid marked the beginning point where it could be said that hunter society was recovering from the legacy of the Boer War, and the demands of two more World Wars. Over these decades, the other hunter factions not already present in Capetown worked their war into the area, including those still immensely young or newly formed like the Loyalists of Thule, Network Zero, TFV, etc.

Again, the stances on what was in the mundane world mattered as much if not more to hunters than philosophies on the supernatural. The younger groups tended to lean on the side of anti-apartheid, with the exception of Task Force Valkyrie, marked by its own segregationist issues back from the US and anxious to stay on good terms with the South African government.

Those that upheld the quo tended to do better, and kept a lid on predatory monsters.

Those would argue that looking back, the era of stability was worthwhile. Others would say it cast a shame over wrongs no less worse for being that of mortal man.


Apartheid Broken (1994-Present)

 

The end of apartheid set everything up for grabs. Resources long held by the regime and its allies began to open up, and territories shifted with the political and cultural landscape - and two decades of economic boom for Capetown. But the impact on the powers that be - in hunter society - has struck and not struck. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Somehow, the monsters have been almost secondary in the Cape - an attitude that may come back to haunt the hunters one day.

 

 

Special Notes

 

ST Fiat

  • I will be adapting the use of GM Fiat from Mutants and Masterminds. In times when I use ST Fiat, the player(s) affected will receive a Practical Beat.

 

Experience

  • Players get 3 Experiences per month, plus Practical Beats gained in play via the usual means or by ST Fiat.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...