Mastering the Vault

MASTERING THE VAULT Copyright © 2003 Philip Reed and Christopher Shy. All Rights Reserved. The Whispering Vault is a trademark of Philip Reed and Christopher Shy. The Sanguine Seal is a trademark of Alex Gray, used with permission. The Whispering Vault created by Alex Gray. MASTERING THE VAULT WRITTEN BY Nigel Findley with Chad Brinkley and Mike Nystul EDITED BY Aaron Loeb, Mike Nystul, and Philip Reed Proofreading by COVER AND BACK COVER ART BY Christopher Shy INTERIOR ART BY Earl Geier, Larry MacDougall, Dave Mackay, and Thron PRODUCTION BY Philip Reed WELCOME After years of waiting patiently, the mate- rial in this book is finally ready for your next game of The Whispering Vault. Inside these pages are: • GM advice by Nigel Findley. • A timeline by Chad Brinkley. • A hunt by Nigel Findley. • Unbidden as Player Character rules. • A few adventure hooks. GAMEMASTERING THE WHISPERING VAULT by Nigel Findley Gamemastering The Whispering Vault involves some very specific challenges, not necessarily found in other games. The game brings with it some characteristic pitfalls into which GMs – new and experienced – find it all too easy to fall. On the other side of the coin, these same challenges bring with them some significant rewards that might not be found in other games. This section discusses some of these pitfalls and ways to get around them, and provides some specific techniques gamemasters of The Whispering Vault can use to get the most out of their games. MOOD GENRE More so than many games, The But what mood? It’s time to take a Whispering Vault is a game of mood. A look at that. What makes up the charac- game of Vault lives or dies by how well teristic mood of The Whispering Vault? the gamemaster – and, secondarily, the S HE HISPERING AULT A players – build and maintain the mood. I T W V If you look at The Whispering Vault “HORROR”GAME? superficially, there’s not that much Strictly speaking, I’d argue “no.” unique about it. “Let’s see,” you might (Caveat: This and other opinions say, “take elements of horror and fantasy expressed in this article are mine. Not – with maybe some superhero gaming necessarily those of the publisher, and tossed in for good measure – add some not necessarily yours – you gamemasters extra-dimensional bounty-hunters, and and players of the game. Personally, I you’ve got it.” Looked at that way . think it’s important to remember that. what’s so special about The Whispering Your game of The Whispering Vault is Vault anyway? Sounds pretty boring, all yours, after all – not mine, not anyone in all . else’s. As long as you’re having fun But The Whispering Vault isn’t bor- doing what you’re doing . well, keep ing – or, at least, it shouldn’t be. It can be on doing it. What I’m providing you – and should be – compelling, evocative, here are guidelines you can try to dark (but notably distinct from the many increase the pleasure you get from your other “dark” games on the market), even gaming sessions, not hard-and-fast rules, disturbing . and, in a sense, magical. graven inn stone, specifying precisely What is it that sets The Whispering how the game is to be played right. End Vault apart from a game of “whacked- of sermon.) out bounty hunters on steroids”? Mood, Certainly, there are horrific elements pure and simple. in The Whispering Vault. Many conven- tions used in the game are similar – though generally not identical – to con- 3 ventions used in horror fiction, cinema are everyday types – not heroes (or, at measure of luck, and a knowledge of and gaming. There’s the mysterious, least, not people who’d ever consider how to exploit the foe’s weaknesses. often inscrutable foe, defended by themselves to be heroes). They’re drawn (Case in point: Van Helsing meets guardians that are often monstrous. into a mystery, usually against their will, Dracula at midnight . and has care- There are enigmatic, arcane forces at and then almost immediately put in dan- lessly left his crucifix at home. Would work – often, forces that the player char- ger for their lives. The archetypal horror you bet on the “powerful” vampire acters understand only inadequately. plot-line is one where the protagonists hunter to survive until dawn . ?) There are elements out of nightmare – have no choice but to pit themselves Powerful Protagonists familiar faces concealing hideous intent; against overwhelming odds – a coven of And that’s a major way in which transformation and transmogrification, vampires, a shopping-mall full of zom- The Whispering Vault diverges from the until it’s impossible to be sure that any- bies, or Great Cthulhu himself – because archetypal horror story or game. thing is what it seems. There are flashes the alternative is simply unacceptable. Whatever else they happen to be, the of brutal violence, inhuman destructive- Death (or worse) for themselves, death protagonists, the heroes – the Stalkers – ness, pain, loss, death. There are inno- of innocents the protagonists care about, are not helpless innocents. They’re about cents drawn into things beyond their often the destruction of the human race, as far as it’s possible to get from “normal imagining; and those who consider the entire universe, or even the multi- people drawn into something too big for themselves predators, suddenly realizing verse. them.” The Stalkers are heroes – or that they’ve become prey. And, through- Horror heroes generally know maybe “champions” is the better word. out, there’s the mass of “innocent” they’re outmatched, too, and that knowl- How does this fact affect a Vault humanity, blissfully unaware of the pri- edge affects every aspect of their behav- story? Stalkers are going to be driving mal forces struggling and striving ior. They know that the only way they the plot to a much greater extent than the around them, threatening to shatter their can survive to “win” the conflict – what- “heroes” in a horror story/game. The comfortable worlds and lives forever. All ever it is – is to keep a low profile, to Stalkers are – or should be – agents: peo- of these are mainstays of the horror keep their location and actions, even ple who act, rather than people who are genre, and key parts of The Whispering their very existence, a secret from the acted upon. Once the Stalkers are Vault. antagonists. That’s one of the central involved – once they’ve answered the But then there are two central con- challenges of the horror genre: finding Call – they drive the events of the story. ventions of horror that are directly con- the weakness in the antagonist that They should be acting, making things tradictory to the mood of The allows the heroes to survive. happen, rather than standing back and Whispering Vault. In the familiar horror Even seemingly “powerful” horror waiting for something else to happen to story (or game), the protagonists – the heroes are actually weaklings when them, or around them. (This is as impor- player characters – are almost always compared to their foes. The only way the tant a point from a character point of totally outmatched by the antagonists, heroes can survive and triumph is view as it is from a story standpoint. by the opposition. Most horror “heroes” through stealth, cunning, a healthy 4 Stalkers are the servitors of the Primal And horror? Well, horror is defined Powers, the guardians of the Dream . as a sensation of abhorrence or repug- and, by all they once held holy, they nance. Usually, this abhorrence is cou- know it. Stalkers are the ultimate agents, pled with fear, but not necessarily. At its and agents must act. For a well-played core, horror is the sense that something Stalker, hanging back and waiting for is terribly wrong, that the world is out of events to develop should be totally joint, that the natural order of things has inconceivable – as inconceivable as for a somehow become perverted. For mor- hunting tiger to wait for prey to walk tals, this realization is more than enough directly into its jaws.) to cause fear; that’s why horror and fear Fear, Terror and Horror are identified with one another in com- Although most people use them mon parlance. For Stalkers, however? interchangeably, these three words have Stalkers do feel horror – the (possi- very distinct meanings. Fear is a reaction bly self-righteous) realization that the to a direct threat. It’s the natural reaction Unbidden has deserted its duties to inter- to danger, the energizing response that act with the Realm of Flesh, to pervert drives the “fight or flight” response. the entire Dreaming with its unbridled Although there are irrational fears (pho- passions and hunger. They feel the bias, for example), fear can be a rational abhorrence and repugnance that lie at the response to circumstances. Just as a core of horror . but they don’t feel the character in a horror story feels fear, so accompanying fear. In a sense, it’s hor- to might a Stalker (so I’d argue, at least). ror – this sense of inexorable wrongness The nature of the fear would be very dif- – that motivates a Stalker’s actions. ferent, of course. A dedicated Stalker (Looked at this way, perhaps The might have no personal fear of nonexis- Whispering Vault is more a game of true tence. Yet still, the Stalker might still horror than those more commonly bear- fear the consequences – to the Dream ing that label . ) and the Dreaming – if he were to fall in THE “FOUR-COLOR TRAP” the battle against the Unbidden.

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