One Shots
Modern Nights strives to offer a platform where both staff-driven metaplot and PRPs can have high stakes, significant NPCs, and intriguing adventures. Stringing together a complex plot is a labor, though, and sometimes we just want one-shots. Hell, sometimes, you string together enough one-shots, and they're just as good as a complex metaplot. So, we'd like to provide one-shots to encourage your creativity and confirm that you can run stuff like this. You do NOT have to create PRPs that are strictly and only within the confines of the content provided here. This is just to provide resources and ideas!
The RP Hooks that people are asked to take in character generation are intended to be used to help PRP runners and staff STs gauge what sorts of plots and shenanigans would be interesting as well as provide a springboard to create NPCs and other setting details by providing a vibe and theme. Type "+census/hook" to see which hooks have takers!
Any Sphere
Crime And Combat
Crime and combat hooks for vampires are Destruction Worker (Camarilla), Sin Runner (Sabbat), and Hired Gun (Anarchs).
The Camarilla historically hijacked the city from the Wan Kuei years ago, and so the NPCs you create to represent the social circle in the Camarilla's criminal underworld are mostly Chinese (eg the 14K or the Wah Ching). The Sabbat's mortal associates beyond the Sinaloa Cartel tend to come from the likes of the Mexican Mafia, MS-13, and occasionally the Hells Angels. The Anarch mercenaries are tied in with the Hells Angels and the Mexican Mafia.
- Make Or Pick A Fixer NPC: Pick somebody to hook up your player characters with the job. If you need inspiration or want to simply grab an NPC off the shelf, check out our borrowable NPCs!
- Offer A Challenge: Your Fixer NPC could give the characters a task like ...
- Exterminating Pests: A drug or weapon supply route has been getting sabotaged lately. Dead drops raided, pushers jumped ... Something is happening that makes it so that the supply isn't meeting its destination. So the last shipment was bugged up with a GPS tracker. Follow the ping. Either find out how the goods were intercepted or put an end to these pesky competitors.
- Rescue Mission: The spouse of an extortion debtor. Family of of a high-profile gang member. A supplier. Whoever they are, they've been captured by a rival. The characters need to get that person out, hopefully quietly. Maybe the place is booby trapped! Maybe the place has a bunch of guards! Maybe it's a race against the clock before they're offed. Either way, the players should have a challenge to get 'em out of there.
- The Hit: The wife wants the insurance money. The mark's enemies are the fixer's friends and the fixer owes said friends a favor. Whatever the case may be, the players need to make the mark eat dust and do it quietly.
- Cold Case: The police don't give a fuck about these people and so the criminal becomes the coroner and the detective to look out for his own. The fixer is almost certain of an old gang member's fate: their car found shot out and abandoned, a word from a birdy about a run down house with the stench of death. Find the victim's remains -- perhaps with a fight from their killers guarding the area -- and bring them back to help somebody find peace.
- Jail Break: The fixer knows somebody who got arrested with hot cargo and now he's detained at a particular station. Fortunately, with some help from corrupt police employees who want our courier and the cargo sprung, we know where that is! Find the detainee, break them out, and make sure nobody notices a thing.
- Offer Rewards: Cash-money, a cut of the goods ... Whatever it may be, you are welcome to have the fixer NPC offer a reward which you can then have staff administer through +request. Successful completion of a fixer's challenge may also be rewarded with at least 1 XP (more if they go above and beyond).
Camarilla
A Symbel is a political contest described on page 318 of the 20th anniversary Minds Eye Theatre book. It's a way for two or more vampires to measure fangs without resorting to violence. There are two versions, one of which is the Ordeal. To run an Ordeal, a vampire with some status announces a contest in public, open to any kindred to join. The victor obtains the Victorious Status Trait, meaning he now has some laurels to rest on in the future when he makes a mistake ("I know I screwed up, but I'm clearly skilled! Remember back when I..."). You can run an Ordeal through your own character or you can even borrow Camarilla NPCs on our wiki.