Verona Beach '04 is an ongoing chronicle based on the First Edition of White Wolf's Vampire: The Requiem based out of an IRL group in Roanoke, Virginia.
The story itself takes place in the fictional city of Verona Beach, California in the year 2004. A group of four young vampires are called upon by the Prince to look into a bizarre and mysterious conspiracy that has been brewing in the city. A trail of murder, drugs, thuggery, and conspiracies begins to emerge and each of these four vampires, previously total strangers to one another eventually begin to forge their own destinies in the mean streets of Verona Beach.
The four strangers are all unaligned and belong to no major covenant. These four Kindred are...
- Brock "The Prospector" Goldberg, a savant jewel thief and a security expert, Clan Mekhet
- Amy Halford, an insecure and manic freak with a chip on her shoulder, Clan Mekhet
- Matthew, a mysterious and aloof man seemingly content with his unlife, Clan Daeva
- Slim', a young hoodlum always looking for the next big hustle, Clan Gangrel
Eventually, they are joined by another Kindred stranger who has been keeping his head down in the chaos but eventually decides to step up. That stranger is...
- Martin Rupp, a suave and well-dressed genteel vampire who is quiet at first but sees a new opportunity in joining forces with the other protagonists. Clan Ventrue.
Verona Beach '04 contains examples of
- Abandoned Warehouse: The storage unit owned by Alex Falconer isn't abandoned per se, but it's got a creepy vibe and the only one there is an old lady at the security gate and the bikers who were awaiting the deal with Brody.
- Abominable Auditorium: The Nightingale is a run-down theater and a meeting place for most of the vampires in the city. It is also the headquarters of Uriah, an elder vampire and a director of stage plays.
- The Aggressive Drug Dealer: The trio of Axel, Brody, and Falconer are drug dealers and drug users, as well as human traffickers who prey on innocent mortal women and aggressively pander to other Kindred in the city.
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: The Mongrels MC appear as mortal antagonists early on
- Ambiguous Gender Identity: Amy Halford is a woman, at least biologically, but is heavily implied to have severe gender dysphoria and is a closeted/unaware trans man who resents being born female and tries to act like a violent macho man. She still uses her birth name and female pronouns, much to her subconscious chagrin.
- Asian and Nerdy: Dylan Park, the mortal lover of Amy Halford is an American of mixed Korean and Kazakh ancestry, and is a huge fan of anime, video games, horror films and B-Movies, and weird campy gothic aesthetics.
- Big Bad: Richter ultimately is this. A nominal mid-ranked member of the Invictus, Richter is in fact an opportunistic mercenary and drug trafficker colluding with the more renegade Kindred such as Axel, Brody, and Alex Falconer. He also serves as the Final Boss of the chronicle.
- Bittersweet Ending: Martin Rupp is subject to this. His mission of preparing the city for a takeover by the Circle of the Crone is generally successful and he remains in good standing with his covenant, but his beloved wife is dead and the chaos that has spiraled so out out of control that he must flee to Las Vegas and the actual invasion is delayed until the next winter.
- Book Dumb: Slim is a bit of a dimwit but he manages to get ahead through a mix of sheer dumb luck and determination.
- Chuunibyou: Amy Halford is a bitter ex-high school outcast and geek girl who tries to reinvent herself as a cross between a tough roughneck biker and a very masculine pseudo-gay male. Unfortunately, all of her knowledge of bikers comes from Easy Rider and The Wild One while all her knowledge of gay male culture comes from a mix of the Yaoi Genre, the Bara Genre, the movie Cruising, and vintage 1970's sadomasochistic gay porn.
- Combat Medic: Martin was a US Army field medic during 'Nam and even after the war, he got licensed as both a Paramedic EMT and a Licensed Practical Nurse. He still does his best to keep his license and skills up to date and keeps a fully stocked advanced first aid kit in his car alongside a combat knife and a Colt M1911 pistol.
- Cool Bike: Amy's Honda Shadow motorcycle
- Cool Car: Martin Rupp's 1979 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue.
- Coolest Club Ever: The Impulse Nightclub in downtown Verona Beach
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Richter is an amoral vampire of the Mekhet clan who is all about money, owning a nightclub and also dealing in black market weaponry.
- Dead All Along: Alex Falconer was dead the entire time. He was investigated by the council because his blood had caused strange mutations (a consequence of being HIV+ from years of rampant IV drug use prior to his Embrace) and was ultimately a bit player in Richter's drug and human trafficking rackets.
- Disco Dan: Martin Rupp is very much a 70's throwback
- Even Evil Has Standards: Both Matthew and Martin are visibly horrified and disgusted when they learn of Axel's actions and the human trafficking racket.
- Expy: Matthew is directly based on David, Kiefer Sutherland's character from The Lost Boys
- Martin Rupp is an expy of Frank Langella's portrayal Dracula from the 1979 film but with the appearance and physique of Akira Fudo from the 1987 Devilman OVA.
- Face–Heel Turn: Amy Halford becomes an antagonist NPC after setting fire to the Prince's mansion.
- From Camouflage to Criminal: Alex Falconer served in the United States Marine Corps before he became a vampire. After he became a vampire, he was a drug dealer and a drug user, as well as a possible serial killer.
- Martin is a mild example of this, as he served in the US Army during the late 1960's and early 1970's but kept to a mostly legit life during his mortal days yet still keeps small baggies of cocaine on his person from time to time.
- Kill It with Fire: After her attempt at infiltrating the Prince's mansion fails, Amy Halford decides to go rogue and torch the place to take out the Prince and the Sheriff, using a mix of cooking oil, hard liquor, and an open gas line to create the blaze.
- Leatherman: Amy tries to present herself as a mix of this trope and a more typical Badass Biker.
- Loves Only Gold: The Prospector is an autistic jewel thief and expert at burglary precisely because he's obsessed with gold.
- The Münchausen: The Prospector is this, claiming he was a 19th Century prospector in San Francisco and spinning wild crazy tales of witch doctors and various tropes and storylines he ripped off of movies he's seen, namely those of The Western genre.
- Noodle Incident: We don't know exactly what happened on Arbor Day 2003, but it was apparently amazing for Amy and disturbing for all the people she tells about it.
- Pretty Boy:
- Amy describes her boyfriend Dylan as a Bishōnen. Also an apt way to describe Matthew's appearance.
- Martin Rupp is also an example of this trope, but slightly more masculine (he's described as having the physique of a "twunk" and he's also over six and a half feet tall).
- Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Slim lives and breathes this trope
- Prospector: The Prospector claims he's this, but he's actually a very self-conscious jewel thief with a weird fixation on gold. He tells everyone he's actually a 19th Century prospector, despite being much younger.
- Really 700 Years Old: Subverted with Prospector, who claims he was from the 1849 Gold Rush but was actually born in the 1930's and embraced in the 1960's.
- Seme: Amy Halford tries to fancy herself as an unconventional gender-bending variant of this trope
- Serial Killer: Alex Falconer might've been this, in addition to a drug fiend
- Signature Scent: Brut brand splash-on cologne is the signature scent for Amy Halford
- Turn of the Millennium: The campaign is set during late September 2004, though the game itself began in the summer of 2022 in real life.
- Uke: Dylan Park, the mortal lover and compadre of Amy Halford, at least according to her words
- Vampire's Harem: Matthew has three girlfriends as his close accomplices, all of them human but aware of his condition. One is a goth, one is a witchy hippie, and the last is a raver.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Matthew lives and breathes this trope
- White Gangbangers: Slim is implied to be one of these
- Yaoi Fangirl: Amy Halford, natch.
