Kickstarter Manuscript Preview – Chapter 1
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Kickstarter Manuscript Preview – Chapter 1 © 2020 White Wolf Entertainment © 2020 Onyx Path Publishing Introduction A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently; there is a whispering in distant chambers, an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window, the latch rises. Ghosts were created when the first man woke in the night. – J.M. Barrie, The Little Minister (1891) In the World of Darkness, a mortal’s first brush with the supernatural may be real — or it may be a trick of the mind. While many may not believe creatures like vampires or werewolves exist, most are willing to entertain the idea that ghosts do. Whether someone is convinced their lover is haunting them from beyond the grave, or they’re certain tragic, if not violent, deaths cause ghosts to appear, mortals assume there is an afterlife and spirits are real. Mortals are so determined to prove ghosts are real they often go to great lengths to investigate the supernatural, whether they believe in it or not. World of Darkness: Ghost Hunters presents paranormal investigation from a mortal’s perspective. Chapters cover skeptical ghost hunters, well-organized groups, natural mediums, and their families and the equipment they use to uncover the “truth” that ghosts are real. In the World of Darkness, however, paranormal investigators may unwittingly stumble across any one of its other denizens, putting themselves (and the creatures they encounter) at risk. Whether they’re the protagonists of a chronicle or the antagonists pursuing a wraith or one of the Kindred, ghost hunters introduce a new way to tell compelling stories using the 20th Anniversary World of Darkness games. Theme and Mood The prominent themes in World of Darkness: Ghost Hunters are mystery and fear of the unknown. Ghost hunters explore the supernatural and investigate the darkest, often oldest corners of the world, even when other mortals are too scared to linger in the shadows. A paranormal investigator doesn’t have to be skilled or an expert in the occult to hunt, nor do they have to believe the things that go bump in the night are real. For this reason, the secondary theme of a chronicle incorporating ghost hunters is a spine- chilling fear of the unknown — for both mortals and the denizens of the supernatural they unwittingly target. Whilst a vampire is more than capable of defending themself against a ghost hunter whose “weapon” is an EVP recorder, many paranormal investigators are organized into groups that are well-equipped and have plenty of resources to mount a bigger inquiry. A mildly curious investigator, on the other hand, who had a suspicion the supernatural was real, will face their greatest fears when their first brush is not what they expected it to be. The mood is tied to the role of the paranormal investigator in a chronicle. As protagonists, mortals are often totally unaware of what they’re getting themselves into. What starts out as a spooky evening at a haunted house quickly turns to dread when a skeptic cannot deny the things they’ve seen and believed. Even paranormal investigators who do believe in the supernatural will not know the full extent of their ignorance until they encounter a wraith who’s eager to toy with them. When ghost hunters and their organizations are antagonists, the mood shifts for the supernatural. While mortals may not cause outright terror, they will force different creatures to feel vulnerable at the possibility that they, and their secrets, may be fully exposed. That potential puts supernatural beings and their societies at risk in different ways. What’s in this Book? This book covers a variety of paranormal investigators in the World of Darkness who are eager to unlock the secrets of the supernatural. Chapters cover types of investigations, ghost hunting equipment such as infrared cameras and EVP recorders, and methods of research, along with mediums and ghost hunting organizations. Chapter One: The Origins of Ghost Hunting shows modern ghost hunting in the World of Darkness through a series of in-character journal entries, e-mails, and news articles detailing its history and rise in popularity. This chapter reveals how the explosion of paranormal investigators has been both a blessing and a curse to “serious” ghost hunters. Chapter Two: Tools, Tactics, and Troubles covers the methodology and common practices of paranormal investigators. This chapter then talks about how ghost hunters find cases, how they recruit new members, and how they set up shop when investigating a possible haunting or other sighting. Chapter Three: Ghost-Hunting Organizations introduces a variety of organizations that hunt ghosts, search for haunted artifacts, and are obsessed with lore. Groups like the Orphic Circle and the Chamber of Corvi reveal their modus operandi, how they recruit or hire outside investigators, and whether those organizations are fronts for something much darker. Chapter Four: Mediums highlights the existence of mediums, both real and fake, while covering how they intersect with ghost hunting. This chapter introduces types of mediums within different occult traditions, and families who’ve inherited such abilities over generations. Chapter Five: Character Creation details how to create mortal player characters to investigate the paranormal. It introduces new Merits & Flaws, new Backgrounds, Numina, and equipment that’ll help them discover and deal with ghosts. Chapter Six: Case Files comprises a series of in-character journal entries by one ghost hunter, documenting police reports, newspaper clippings, and e-mails detailing possible haunted houses, monster sightings, and unexplained murders and/or disappearances. Chapter Seven: Storytelling ties the book together by showing how paranormal investigators can be introduced as player characters or as antagonists in a 20th Anniversary World of Darkness chronicle. Storytellers will find this chapter loaded with advice on how to introduce this aspect into an existing game or launch a new chronicle. Appendix: Ghosts and the Undead provides a set of generalized rules for ghosts that can be used in place of Storyteller rules found in 20th Anniversary game lines such as Wraith: The Oblivion or Vampire: The Masquerade. Roles A World of Darkness chronicle that features mortal characters takes a certain level of finesse to manage, because their involvement offers a different look into the world of the supernatural for both Storytellers and players. The Storyteller A Wraith: The Oblivion, Vampire: The Masquerade, Mage: The Ascension, or Werewolf: The Apocalypse chronicle is run with the understanding that all characters not only believe the paranormal is real, but are themselves proof of its existence. What other supernatural creatures take for granted, however, mortals can only guess at. As such, the Storyteller must decide how ghost hunters intersect in their 20th Anniversary game to ensure the focus and feel are enhanced by their presence. When ghost hunters are introduced as antagonists, the veil between the real world and that of the supernatural thins. When they’re the protagonists, the characters are facing immeasurable threats because they’re surrounded by the dark — and it threatens to engulf them if they’re not careful. The Player Players have multiple options for gameplay. In World of Darkness: Ghost Hunters, players may create a character fixated on ghosts. Their protagonist could be a medium, a skeptic, an entertainer, a dedicated paranormal investigator, etc. Should the player want to explore what it means to be a mortal in the World of Darkness, they can expect intrigue, misdirection, and danger unlike anything they’ve experienced before. Unlocking secrets for the sake of exploring intrigue isn’t enough to sustain the character’s role in a chronicle, however: determine why hunting ghosts is important to them for a more satisfying experience. Lexicon Mortals typically do not share the same depth and breadth of knowledge the denizens of the supernatural do. As such, their understanding is limited and, often, paranormal investigators not only misinterpret their experiences, but are likely to mislabel a ghost as a spirit or a vampire as a ghoul. Appropriate terms for use with World of Darkness: Ghost Hunters can be drawn from multiple 20th Anniversary World of Darkness games that may be represented in a chronicle, with the caveat that a mortal may not use the same vocabulary. Paranormal investigators will focus on hunting ghosts. The terms that affect them the most are drawn from the 20th Anniversary Edition of Wraith: The Oblivion and from their own personalized beliefs. • Body Snatcher: A wraith who possesses the living. • Caul, The: The amniotic sac of a wraith’s birth into the Shadowlands. The translucent covering made of ectoplasm into which all wraiths are reborn. • Corpus: The physical “body” of the wraith. • Doomsday: The end of the world. Most wraiths think it means the day Oblivion swallows everything, but any number of Heretic cults would beg to differ. • Doomshade: A term for a Spectre, generally used by older wraiths and mocked by younger ones. • Doomslayer: A wraith who specializes in hunting Spectres. • Fetters: Those things that remain in the lands of the living that tie a wraith to her old life. • Gauntlet, The: Another term wraiths use to describe the Shroud. • Ghost: The de facto term mortals use to describe invisible, supernatural entities. Investigators assume ghosts represent the disembodied souls of humans who have died. • Haunt: A place where the Restless make themselves at home and the Shroud is thin. Mortals also use this term, but can only guess why that specific place is occupied by ghosts. • Oblivion: The corrupting hunger of entropy to devour all things. • Penumbra: A spirit realm tied to the material, separated by the Gauntlet. The Shadowlands is one type of Penumbra. • Plasm: The physical matter of the Underworld.