Vampire: the Masquarade: Klingons interest and recruiting.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 1:16 am

The idea is simple. You are Klingon warriors. In the Earth Year 1500 you battled the Hur'q, in thir second invasion of Qo'noS, and you fell. But you did not die. You were taken as a slave, forced to work and toil for them as they striped your world of its resources and cultural heritige. When their ships were full, they left. They took you and your comrades with them.

But something happened, a freak accident. In their panic, your captors let your guard down and you kill all but the pilot. When you learned that he could no longer control the ship, you killed him too. The vessel crashed on a primitive world, not entirely unlike your homeworld, a world called Earth.

Unable to repair the ship, you bury it and begin exploring the world you find yuorself in. Makeup and concealing clothing allows you to pass for one of the locals and you eventually find yourself in a place called London, where you start a theater company and adapt several traditional Klingon plays to local sensibilities.

The popularity of these plays eventually leads to your entire company's Embrace at the fangs of a particularly impulsive and ambitious Toreador. This did not end well for her.

Now the year is 2015. You've lived longer than you ever expected. You still long for your native soil. You are a Klingon vampire. There aren't many of you on this Kortar-forsaken world.

Okay, after working several permutations of this idea around in my head, I still have nothing but the basic idea that you're a coterie of Klingon vampires on modern earth, doing what Klingons do.

I'd like to know if there is any interest in actually playing this game.

Schleiermacher · Post by **Schleiermacher** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 8:56 pm

I guess that answers why you were asking about anti-Stratfordian theories...

As eager as I am to play VtM with a group that isn't full of crap, Klingon Kindred are a bridge too far for me. Best of luck!

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 9:28 pm

Schleiermacher wrote:I guess that answers why you were asking about anti-Stratfordian theories...

As eager as I am to play VtM with a group that isn't full of crap, Klingon Kindred are a bridge too far for me. Best of luck!

If no one is interested in the Klingons, I'd do something more traditional involving a coterie of trouble shooters that goes around in a van, accompanied by a talking dog, dealing with Masquerade breaches.

Schleiermacher · Post by **Schleiermacher** » Sun Feb 07, 2016 11:37 pm

I'd definitely be up for that.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 5:25 am

That's actually an incredible idea for a game. What sorts of goals would the characters have? Trying to fund the development of alcubierre drives that were able to bring them back home? Maybe aim for torpor-ships with ion-drives and sleep away centuries instead? Perhaps try to develop ST style starships with both drive types several centuries before humans develop it?

Or could the goals be more along the lines of "taking all under heaven", here on Earth; and establish a global powerbase, then aim for the stars?

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 6:08 am

Judging__Eagle wrote:That's actually an incredible idea for a game. What sorts of goals would the characters have? Trying to fund the development of alcubierre drives that were able to bring them back home? Maybe aim for torpor-ships with ion-drives and sleep away centuries instead? Perhaps try to develop ST style starships with both drive types several centuries before humans develop it?

Or could the goals be more along the lines of "taking all under heaven", here on Earth; and establish a global powerbase, then aim for the stars?

Both returning home and conquering Earth are viable goals, I think. I'd like to leave a lot of leeway for the players to make their own decisions in that regard.

But, I'm also very tempted to go full heavy metal apocalypse, such that all under heaven would be unambitious.

It would certainly be an Elders game, where the PCs have an opportunity to be world powers.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 8:13 pm

A Klingon bard, or scientist; who became a Tremere (with the Path that allows for the conjuration of inanimate objects) would be one way to bootstrap up to higher technology in some secrecy.

Heavy Metal apocalypse could also be the result of the Klingons deciding they want to take over this monkey-infested planet. However, what other sorts of HM apocalypses do you have in mind?

vagrant · Post by **vagrant** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 9:04 pm

As much as I love Star Trek (and I love Star Trek), klingon vampire story just sounds like a continous slug of brawls and more brawls. At least you can invent bloodwine with actual Earther blood.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 9:45 pm

Judging__Eagle wrote: Heavy Metal apocalypse could also be the result of the Klingons deciding they want to take over this monkey-infested planet. However, what other sorts of HM apocalypses do you have in mind?

Mythologically, the first thing that the first two Klingons did, as disembodied hearts no less, was murder their gods and burn Heaven to ash.

In deference to that, I was thinking of taking it all the way to decapitating God was a Bat'leth and setting all of His angels on fire.

vagrant wrote:As much as I love Star Trek (and I love Star Trek), klingon vampire story just sounds like a continous slug of brawls and more brawls. At least you can invent bloodwine with actual Earther blood.

Also remember that the TOS Klingons were sly and devious Cold War standins.

Schleiermacher · Post by **Schleiermacher** » Mon Feb 08, 2016 11:14 pm

Mythologically, the first thing that the first two Klingons did, as disembodied hearts no less, was murder their gods and burn Heaven to ash.

In deference to that, I was thinking of taking it all the way to decapitating God was a Bat'leth and setting all of His angels on fire.

You know, you're making a mighty hard sell here... and really, it's pretty easy to conceptualize "ToS Klingons" as eldritch horrors from space. It's mostly the idea of Trek/VtM crossover that turned me off, but if the only element of such is the Klingons themselves... color me tentatively intersted after all.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Wed Feb 10, 2016 5:06 pm

Schleiermacher wrote:
Mythologically, the first thing that the first two Klingons did, as disembodied hearts no less, was murder their gods and burn Heaven to ash.

In deference to that, I was thinking of taking it all the way to decapitating God was a Bat'leth and setting all of His angels on fire.
You know, you're making a mighty hard sell here... and really, it's pretty easy to conceptualize "ToS Klingons" as eldritch horrors from space. It's mostly the idea of Trek/VtM crossover that turned me off, but if the only element of such is the Klingons themselves... color me tentatively intersted after all.

No one ever wrote operas about brooding and self-hating Brad Pitt lookalikes. It should at least be worthy of Wagner, if not of the true greats such as Keedera.

If enough people are actually interested in this, I'm thinking of doing it in three parts. A setup adventure where the players get used to everything and we establish the Klingons and their goals. Then the apocalypse. Then the aftermath where everything winds down and a new journey is started.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Fri Feb 12, 2016 4:58 pm

Okay; so I'm going to assume that would mean:

[*]A "lower powered" stage set in 1500
[*]A "mid powered" stage set in 2015/2016
[*]A "high powered" stage set in.... 2016-2063 (when Earth becomes Warp-capable)

What sorts of goals might the players be working towards in each stage?

Also; I'm totally fine with leaving this narrative to not affect ST canon. Sure it's easy to stomp all over a setting when you're a player (and I personally prefer players do so as an MC); but in this conceptual narrative, having Klingons doing all they can to repress their urge to conquer; hiding in the shadows; and clandestinely developing the technological infrastructure to reverse-engineer and then rebuild the crashed Hur'q ship sounds like an interesting challenge.

I could even see the war that devastates Earth prior to 2063 being these Klingon-Vampires objective, as a means to make Earth technologically and hegemonically regress far back enough that when the Klingon-Vampires do leave, there's no one on Earth who realizes what's happened.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Sat Feb 13, 2016 3:14 am

Judging__Eagle wrote:Okay; so I'm going to assume that would mean:

[*]A "lower powered" stage set in 1500
[*]A "mid powered" stage set in 2015/2016
[*]A "high powered" stage set in.... 2016-2063 (when Earth becomes Warp-capable)

What sorts of goals might the players be working towards in each stage?

Also; I'm totally fine with leaving this narrative to not affect ST canon. Sure it's easy to stomp all over a setting when you're a player (and I personally prefer players do so as an MC); but in this conceptual narrative, having Klingons doing all they can to repress their urge to conquer; hiding in the shadows; and clandestinely developing the technological infrastructure to reverse-engineer and then rebuild the crashed Hur'q ship sounds like an interesting challenge.

I honestly don't care if the players stomp over the setting. Both approaches are interesting.

Building up Earth's tech base to the point where the warp drive can be repaired is going to be a big goal, of course. Claiming Earth for the Empire is also perfectly reasonable; there certainly is glory in it. But that's not something that a handful of refugees will be able to do on their own. There's some advantage in creating a culturally Klingon bloodline/clan, to serve that end. But then there is also the other Kindred to deal with, either sweeping them away or uniting them.

This is a scenario, I think, with multiple potential endgames, diplomacy, technology, and conquest being the three most obvious possibilities.

Schleiermacher · Post by **Schleiermacher** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 12:12 pm

So I guess the interest here was deemed insufficient?

I was honestly kind of on the fence about this, but if you want to run that Mystery Machine game you mentioned, I'm all in.

radthemad4 · Post by **radthemad4** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 7:15 pm

I've been meaning to get around to watching Star Trek one of these days (thinking about starting with Next Generation) but right now I don't know anything about Klingons.

I'd be down for some Scooby Dooing though

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 7:51 pm

I would like to point out that, according to official Star Trek canon, Shakespeare was a human, and was quite possibly Flint.

hyzmarca · Post by **hyzmarca** » Tue Mar 01, 2016 6:47 pm

Shrapnel wrote:I would like to point out that, according to official Star Trek canon, Shakespeare was a human, and was quite possibly Flint.

Yeah. That line by Gorkon was meant to be a joke. But it was just so interesting not to take it seriously.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 2:07 am

hyzmarca wrote:
Shrapnel wrote:I would like to point out that, according to official Star Trek canon, Shakespeare was a human, and was quite possibly Flint.
Yeah. That line by Gorkon was meant to be a joke. But it was just so interesting not to take it seriously.

Ah. Carry on then.