Night Gaunts, Ghouls, and Shoggoths, oh my - Demonbane RP (Interest)

Hey guys, I was just wondering if anyone is interested in doing a Demonbane RP.

Discussion Thread

RP Thread

The bullet points version, Demonbane is set in the fictitious Arkham City (and surrounding areas) and is a magnet for all sorts of Cthulhu Mythos-related troubles. The main source of problems for the ordinary folk are a criminal outfit called the Black Lodge who combine magic and criminality to do more or less as they please, and have at their head a cabal of powerful mages who possess magical grimoires mentioned in the Mythos itself — which they can use to summon giant robots. Essentially think of it as a gigantic game of Arkham Horror put in a blender with Cthulhutech and that's what you've got.

I've got a 4-6 player game in mind with scope for opening it up to more people if there's a sufficient amount of interest. What kind of stuff would you all like to see if you're up for it? Also, I'm no Mythos expert. I know a fair bit and wrote many of the Shout-Out entries on the wiki page, but anyone who could chime in with their knowledge would be most welcome.

Arkham City. A regular city of lights. A city that never sleeps. Well, actually, the second one's true but not quite in the way that you might expect. You see, there are things out there in the night that people couldn't begin to understand even if they wanted to. Things that would blow your mind if you ever saw them, and I'm not using any fancy metaphors. Here in Arkham, we get by because we don't even pretend to want to know or understand what goes on out of our sight. Really, we just pick up the pieces. But there are fewer of us every year; people just get tired of the rat race, or they miss the glory days when the Hadou family ran the show. But that was over 20 years ago. Things just haven't been the same since the young miss passed away, bless her soul.

We're fresh out of heroes, sorry to say. As if the nightmares and the mysterious disappearances and the reports of monsters out in the dark alleys weren't enough, the Black Lodge is still as strong as it ever was, even if they don't have gigantic flying castles anymore. Sometimes, I feel the police and us regular folk who have learned how to defend ourselves are all that stand in their way. Are we? Maybe it's time we left too; I've got a family to think about now and I'm not getting any younger. Maybe my sister down in Dunwich will help us out...

But I'm sure you're not here to listen to my rambling all night. You said you reserved a non-smoking room?

Around 20 years ago, Arkham City was in the grip of a powerful crime syndicate known as the Black Lodge that did more or less as they pleased due to a lethal combination of firepower and sorcery. They were opposed by a variety of challengers but the one who ultimately brought them down was a sorcerer employed by the Hadou Financial Group, the de facto masters of the city. Shortly after, the head of the Group, Ruri Hadou, passed away under mysterious circumstances and without her leadership or a clear successor the Group tore itself apart in a series of vicious power struggles.

The modern day Arkham is a shell of its former glory. Under a new inner circle, the Black Lodge is resurgent and has begun reclaiming its former holdings at an alarming rate, absorbing local cults into the fold and corrupting existing institutions. To make matters worse, all sorts of monsters and other-dimensional beasts haunt the streets of Arkham at night.

Now, that's not to say that the residents of Arkham City just take the abuse lying down; there are more than a few individuals and/or groups with power enough to hold their own, if not directly challenge the Black Lodge. Rumor has it that a healer lives in an old church near the Miskatonic University who tends to the wounded and the dying, and that she can mend even the most grievous wounds with the power of her faith alone. Shadowy men in black suits accompanied by guards in heavy and imposing tactical gear have been spotted skulking in the corners of peoples' eyes. Between the known knowns, the known unknowns, and the unknown unknowns, it's an interesting time to be in Arkham City.

But enough about that — what are you going to do about it?

Le Signup Sheet

Character

• Name:
• Age:
• Gender:
• Occupation:
• Appearance:
• Personality:
• History:
• Grimoire: (optional)
• Other Information:

Deus Machina (optional)

• Name:
• Description:
• Specialty:
• Armaments: (1-3)

Errata

On Grimoires: A Grimoire is a book of spells and forbidden knowledge that is often associated or bonded with a gigantic combat mech known as a Deus Machina. There are many such books in the world, known by such exotic names as the Necronomicon, The King in Yellow, and the Celaeno Fragments. Merely glancing at the contents of these books is enough to drive the average human being insane. Particularly powerful grimoires are capable of manifesting themselves as living, breathing individuals with their own personalities, but this is mostly true of the originals. It is rare that a copy of a book will ever attain as much power.

On characters who are not sorcerers, do not possess grimoires, or are something else altogether: Please note that I didn't say you couldn't create characters that are wildly different from what I anticipated. When in doubt, it is better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, just in case I needed to spell that out for anyone.

On spells: It occurred to me that sorcerer player characters, being just that, would have a spell or two in their arsenal. Here's how this is going to work — player characters who are sorcerers and possess a grimoire are going to define a sphere of magic that their grimoire specializes in (i.e. in Demonbane, the Celaeno Fragments were heavily associated with wind). Characters with a bonded grimoire may cast any spell they can think of in their specialty sphere. In addition, they have one signature spell, which they have memorized and can cast without the need for a grimoire, and can be from any sphere.

List of accepted characters

• Ominae as Mark Lao, age 25, a demon hunter from a secret society
• Azure as Libya, age incomprehensible, the living embodiment of the Book of Eibon
• Sixth Saint as Monica Vãduva, age 29, mercenary, occultist, and serial killer
• Troyand Hawk as Daniel Roivas, age 47, a freelance demon hunter
• Ragnathe Saviour as Mafteah Shelomoh, age incomprehensible, the living embodiment of the Key of Solomon
• KSPAM as Clark Phillips Howard, age 18, a student of sorcery at the Miskatonic University

edited 8th May '13 5:30:03 PM by HouraiRabbit

DEFINITE INTEREST.

As a mythos buff, I'm interested, and I've heard a lot about Demonbane. Still, I haven't played the game. So... tentative interest. Book me unless I say otherwise or if I disappear for weeks without contact

Will do.

Nice to see ya Hourai.

Reminds me of my Survival Horror RP that I had, except that I had to maybe consider throwing in the towel.

Guess I need to ask about the character requirements.

edited 1st May '13 7:14:19 PM by Ominae

Interested.

Hey, what's up? I remember the Survival Horror RP, vaguely. What do you mean by character requirements?

Mmm, four hearty souls. Excellent, keep 'em coming! Also, I want to hear a little bit about what you guys like in your RPs so I can make this more fun for everyone!

edited 1st May '13 6:59:50 PM by HouraiRabbit

I mean what kind of characters do you have to use? Established characters from media series/franchises or original characters?

Fanservice. Fighting. Explosions. And guns. Lots of guns.

But in all seriousness, just an overall well-rounded plot with chances for good character interaction and badassery is all I really want/need. Please note, by well-rounded I do not necessarily mean complex. I consider TTGL a well-rounded plot

edited 1st May '13 7:04:08 PM by KSPAM

Oh, I prefer original characters so we'll go with that. I'm mostly borrowing the setting and the source material.

Ah. Well as long as I can encounter some good Survival Horror aspects, I'm game.

Pyschological horror, gore, insanity, Bodyhorror and brutal violence.

Y'know, I think you might be shooting for a theme here, but I can't for the life of me tell what it is.

Anyway, this looks like a pretty neat thing here. The setting's maybe a little much for my tastes, but I'm a sucker for Mythos bullshit. You can count me in.

Thou art in the wrong kingdom, knave.

edited 1st May '13 7:47:16 PM by KSPAM

Honestly, I think you might just wanna tone down the whole "100% PERCENT BLOODGOREHORROR ALL THE TIME" shtick.

Gets a little exhausting.

edited 1st May '13 7:50:48 PM by Bindlestick

THUMP

edited 1st May '13 7:48:11 PM by RagnatheSaviour

Especially in a setting like Demonbane, which is basically TTGL + Cthulhu and lolis. The things you pointed out exist in said setting, but the tone is less horrific and more HOT BLOODED MANLINESS.

...Oh, then this should be fun.

edited 1st May '13 7:58:59 PM by TroyandHawk

Interested SO MUCH.

No year setting or is it 20XX?

Interest.

Also, I'll say it in case no one else is going to. Demonbane is pretty much the Cthulhu Mythos with a heaping side-helping of TTGL. Anyone expecting this to be tense, survival horror, a thriller/mystery, or something that doesn't involve giant mecha punching out Nyarlathotep, then you might want to look elsewhere.

Still interested.

Mine too.

As soon as Hourai's back on.

I'm thinking approximately 20 years after the plot of the VN; it won't follow any specific route to minimize the amount of background knowledge required. I don't recall there being any particular time period specified in the original; it seemed very 30's or 40's America with a heaping helping of Schizo Tech.