Scenes of Frenzy.pdf

Anger is momentary madness , so control your passion or it will control you .

— Horace, Epistles

Scenes for Vampire the Requiem using the Storytelling Adventure System

Written by Will Hindmarch Original Art by Avery Butterworth and JS Rossbach Product Design by Will Hindmarch

STORYTELLING ADVENTURE SYSTEM

SCENES

XP LEVEL

35-74

White Wolf

Publishing, Inc.

1554 Litton Drive

Stone Mountain,

GA 30083

MENTAL OOOO

PHYSICAL OOOOO

SOCIAL OOOOO

Anger is momentary madness , so control your passion or it will control you .

— Horace, Epistles

Scenes for Vampire the Requiem using the Storytelling Adventure System

Written by Will Hindmarch Original Art by Avery Butterworth and JS Rossbach Product Design by Will Hindmarch

STORYTELLING ADVENTURE SYSTEM

SCENES

XP LEVEL

35-74

White Wolf

Publishing, Inc.

1554 Litton Drive

Stone Mountain,

GA 30083

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Requiem, Werewolf the Forsaken, Mage the Awakening, Promethean the Created, Storytelling System and Scenes of Frenzy are trademarks of CCP, Inc. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by CCP, Inc. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or

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MENTAL OOOOO

PHYSICAL OOOOO

SOCIAL OOOOO

“Voluptuaries, consumed by their senses, always begin by flinging themselves with a great display of frenzy into an abyss.

But they survive, they come to the surface again. And they develop a routine of the abyss:

‘It’s four o clock. At five I have my abyss...’”

— Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Introduction

This is “Scenes of Frenzy,” a collection of six stand-alone scenes for

use in any Vampire: The Requiem chronicle.

Use these scenes to play out moments of frenzy, whether you expected

them or not. Though each scene is presented with a potential cause

of frenzy in mind — a sudden wound, a swelling fire, a gluttonous

euphoria — the heart of each scene really lies in the moments after

frenzy becomes unavoidable. These scenes aren’t about vampires that

are almost swept away by the animal instincts of the Beast. The drama

here is about characters wrestling with the Beast, whether to halt it

or steer it.

A N A NTHOLOGY

“Frenzy Scenes” is the first anthology product for the

Storytelling Adventure System.

The scenes in these pages don’t go together. They don’t

combine to make a story. Rather, these are resources you use on

the ﬂy, when your chronicle takes an unexpected turn and you

want a reliable source to turn to for ﬁery drama, rich narration

and challenging gameplay.

In this case, these scenes are meant to be used when a

character in your chronicle is faced with the ferocious horror

of frenzy, as described in Vampire: The Requiem, p. 178–181.

If you think the risk of frenzy is the right tool for dramatizing

a conﬂict in the current session, but you weren’t planning on

pitting a character against her Beast tonight, borrow one of

these scenes to bring that threat into play.

Because the circumstances of frenzy are so unpredictable

— they depend on the roll of the dice, after all — an outbreak

of furious, panicked or gorging vampires can blindside even the

most prepared Storyteller. In the event of an unexpected frenzy

of any type (anger, Wassail or Rötschreck), pull out one of these

scenes and keep your story moving.

Playing With Frenzy

Frenzy is a narrative device and a gameplay element as much as it is a

part of the fictional experience of the Requiem. Instead of being a repeti-

tive instance of senseless violence, look at it as a recurring part of the

game, emerging now and again to present the player and her character

with a challenging decision to make — decisions that bring the personal

horror of Vampire to center stage and, hopefully, reveal something about

the character in the process. It should be a surprising and fearsome event

loaded with meaning and followed by dramatic consequences.

Some of the following scenes deviate from the strict rules for frenzy

given in Vampire: The Requiem ( V:TR ). Other scenes present par-

ticular actions or dice pools that might seem to be a bit out of sync with

frenzy as described in the Vampire rulebook. But, despite their name,

the game rules are not necessarily strict limitations on how things work

in the World of Darkness. They are not scientific laws. They are tools

for turning the dramatic aspects of the Requiem into compelling and

playable game experiences. They model, rather than dictate.

For example, the third bullet point describing frenzy on p. 179 of

Vampire: Requiem says simply that a frenzying vampire “cannot

perform any action that requires much thought.” Pretty vague, right?

But the amount of thought necessary for Jarod the vampire doctor to

find someone’s carotid artery isn’t the same as the amount of thought

it would take Edgar the vampire antiquarian.

Just what exactly “much thought” means is intentionally left for you,

the Storyteller, and the rest of the troupe to define according to your

idea of a good story.

To keep frenzy a compelling and varied part of a Vampire chronicle,

repetition needs to be diminished. Every instance of frenzy should be

characterized, whether subtly or grossly, by the Kindred that succumbs

to it. An intellectual vampire may find some traction in her century

of experience with medicine or the occult that gives her a rare edge

— perhaps just this once — to wrestle her Beast back into its pen.

The Frenzy Roll

In these scenes, when you see a reference to “the frenzy roll,” we’re

talking about the default Resolve + Composure roll a player makes

for her character to gain control over any kind of frenzy, whether that

means trying to resist it (as described on p. 179-180 of V:TR ) or try-

ing to ride the wave (p. 181). Thus, modifiers to the frenzy roll impact

the character’s likelihood of keeping control of the Beast, whether the

vampire wants to make it heel or let it slip.

In comparison, “the frenzy action” refers to the whole extended ac-

tion to resist frenzy or ride the wave, which is often made up of mul-

tiple frenzy rolls, depending on the number of total successes needed

for the action.

The Beast’s Dice Pool

A few of these scenes make use of a new, experimental mechanism

in Vampire , used to roughly gauge the power of a vampire’s Beast. In

some scenes, you’ll find references to “the Beast’s dice pool,” usually

used to oppose the vampire in some kind of contested action.

A player never uses her character’s Beast’s dice pool. It is not a

feature of the character, but of her Beast. And the Beast is, so often,

an antagonist.

The Beast’s dice pool is the inverse of the vampire’s Humanity.

That is, the Beast’s dice pool is equal to 10 minus the character’s

Humanity. A vampire with Humanity 2 has allowed her Beast’s dice

pool to swell to eight dice. A vampire with Humanity 4 has a Beast

dice pool of 6.

Whether this represents, in the metaphysics of the World of Dark-

ness, the relative power of some mystical creature lurking within the

black and decrepit wilderness of the Kindred body, or whether this is

a statement of the Kindred’s own internal struggle against her own

human psyche and Damned impulses, is a question to be explored

through stories and contemplation. All this simple mechanic is con-

cerned with is providing an easy tool for Storytellers to use to help

dramatize the conflict.

How to Use These Scenes

Each of these scenes is meant to be used as a single instance of frenzy,

whether you, the Storyteller, planned for frenzy to be a part of the

current chapter of the chronicle or not.

Each scene is robust enough, though, to add a bit of dramatic depth to a

story, too. You can include one of these scenes into your plans for a story

by incorporating a conflict that could result in that scene’s frenzy for one

of the characters. Use the inciting incident sketched out at the beginning

of each scene, or devise one for your troupe’s unique characters.

When using these scenes on the fly, in reaction to an expected

frenzy that happens during play, you have two main ways of selecting

the right scene:

Storyteller’s Choice

As usual, the Storyteller decides the consequences of frenzy and

presents them to the player. “The Beast sets your blood on fire,” the

Storyteller says. “That fucking asshole can’t talk to you like that!

Show him what you do to pushy scum-suckers who think they know

better than you!”

Or, “The whiff of Vitae from under the door is so strong, it’s like you

have blood in your nose. Get in there. The Beast wants you to get in

there and get it blood.”

Or, “No way in hell is your ass getting burnt up tonight. You’ve got

to run. Go, go, go!”

A BOUT THE S TORYTELLING A DVENTURE S YSTEM

If this is your ﬁrst Storytelling Adventure System (SAS) product,

you’ve chosen a ﬁne place to start. However, to keep this product

lean and sharp, we haven’t included any of the Storyteller advice

and dramaturgical meditations we put at the beginning of full-

length SAS story kits. The scenes in this product are easy enough

to use on their own — most of the entries in each scene are self-

explanatory — but if you’re looking for a way to get more out of

this product, be sure to read the free SAS User’s Guide , found at

the SAS website:

www.white-wolf.com/sas

The gist of the SAS format is this: The actions described in the

World of Darkness Rulebook are archetypal, but by no means

exhaustive. The “Foot Chase” action on p. 65 of that book, for

example, describes foot chases in general. It gives you a place to

start. The action in an SAS scene describe one speciﬁc event, one

instance of action. So while the World of Darkness Rulebook gives

you mechanics for a foot chase, an SAS product gives you game

mechanics for this one foot chase.

This gives your story’s actions more color and detail, and adds

mileage to every Skill on the players’ character sheets. No two foot

chases — or whatever other action they’re taking — are alike.

If the player is up to it, she keeps making the decisions for her char-

acter, even if the character isn’t really making decisions for himself . The

Storyteller, in collaboration with the player if possible, determines what

the frenzied vampire wants and the player decides how her character,

running hot on hate, terror or hunger, does to get it. She decides what’s

in-character for her crazed monster.

But if the player won’t step up to the challenge, tries to dodge the

tough choices and the ugly side of the character, the Storyteller may

have to call the shots. Frenzy is one of the scariest parts of Vampire ,

and while it’s natural to want to skip the scary parts, or avoid the stuff

that makes a beloved character look ugly, this is a vital tool in the

personal-horror repertoire.

Frenzy fills a character with motives — animal impulses — that the

character might not want. That’s tough. That’s the consequence of

the Curse. That’s why they’re the Damned.

The shock or disgust that comes with a vivid, moving scene of

frenzy should be the kind of reaction the player would seek out from

a great horror film. The goal of horror isn’t to humiliate or demean

the audience, and the goal of frenzy is not to make the player regret

playing Vampire . It isn’t to embarrass or punish, it isn’t to teach the

player a lesson, even if it can have that effect on her character. If

a scene of frenzy is used to teach the character a lesson, the player

should be in on it.

If the player’s not the sort to appreciate the image of her character

reduced to a state of snarling, hissing insanity, evoke the frenzy in

other ways. For example: The character simply wakes crusted with

dried blood, a severed hand held in his like a lover’s. For a fleshed out

example of this idea in action, see the Vampire SAS story, Blood Red

+ Ash Gray . ( Click here to visit the webpage. )

It’s up to the player to either portray her character’s unique behav-

ior in those circumstances, or surrender her frenzied vampire to the

Storyteller’s control for the scene.

Player’s Choice

The player selects a frenzy scene to dramatize his character’s plight.

Thus, even a player who doesn’t feel comfortable calling the shots

for a bloodthirsty, immoral monster capable of the most inhumane

behavior is still able to have a say on what is at stake in the scene. The

dramatic details of the character’s behavior may still be surrendered to

the Storyteller, but what sorts of dice pools will be used, what sorts of

risks will be taken, and what sort of tough choices are to be made are

up to the player to decide.

All the above advice on frenzy and horror applies here, too.

To use the Player’s Choice option, try to have choices available

beyond just the six in this kit. (More frenzy scenes will be available

in the future, if enough people seem to like the idea.) Create more

options by swapping out Skills, targets, and consequences for failure.

Replace the Empathy Skill in “Ecstasy” with Medicine (to get a sense

of the victim’s body’s reaction to the blood loss), for example. Change

the subject from a lovely stranger to a friendly acquaintance, make the

consequence not just death but exposure or capture.

Your goal is to create a tough choice for the player of the frenzy-

ing character, or the character’s allies. Frenzy is ugly. These choices

shouldn’t be easy — this is a “two evils” situation. Here are some ex-

amples of the kinds of tough choices the players should be faced with

on behalf of their characters:

• Do you let an innocent stranger die or take the risk that he’ll ID

the frenzying vampire later?

• Do you risk the respect of a Retainer or Mentor by frenzying in

their presence or do you take your chances on the street?

• Do you lock the frenzying character up and accept whatever damage

he causes to the haven or do you let some other poor bastards suffer?

• Do you flee through a mortal crowd and risk exposure in the hopes

of getting your Beast to a safe spot faster or do you trespass on another

vampire’s turf and risk spending the day there, near his ghouls?

• The lover you drained nearly to death — do you take her to the

hospital where people will see you together or do you risk her life and

take the time to find some night doctor to treat her?

A Quick Summary

Here are brief sketches of the scenes presented for each category of

frenzy, for your reference: Anger

Pain: A bloody scene of senseless anger in the midst of violent chaos.

Spite: A scene of dialogue explodes into ferocious violence. Hunger

Agony: Starvation turns a hunter into a butcher without conscience.

Ecstasy: The distraction of the Kiss gives the Beast a chance to gorge.

Fear

Spark: The surprise of a sudden flash of flame leads to panic.

Flame: Peril spreads along with flame in a frenzied vampire’s wake.

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