I been thinking about my next campaign, and I've been thinking more and more that some modern gothic horror monsters in a cyberpunk campaign might be pretty fun.

Setting-wise, I want an insanely wonky America like that described in Snow Crash. There will be vampires and zombies and werewolves and what have you. These have always existed but are more common now for some reason (not sure of the reason yet). There will be magic. There has always been magic, but most of it deals with interaction with supernatural entities. Hence it's always been around but hasn't so much been noticed or needed yet. The internet is not a VR thing... that annoys me. Likewise there is not other spiritual realm or anything. Beyond that I don't know very much.

Character-wise, most characters will get some cool powers from being monsters, mages, cyborgs/hackers, or from some mundane source like money or connections.

System-wise, I've got my homebrew somewhere on the design boards already. All that's left is to set certain things like damage for different weapons, gear costs, specific abilities that are available, and some rules for drugs, autofire, etc.

(Edit: Here is the system.)

So... this is really my brainstorming thread. More as I think of it.

Have you read any of Kelly armstrong's Otherworld books. They are not terribly good I have to say but they have some ideas that are very transferable to a game environment and could be easily tweaked in with some cyberpunk, like corporations run by vampires, half-demon heavies and anarchistic witches (I bought one in an airport once honest).
Also Paul J. McAuley's Fairyland is interesting because the vampires/werewolves etc could be technological in origin not magical (although I suspect that is not what you are after).
I definitely think the idea has legs and have a special place for the gristled monster hunter who relies on a range of self build techno gimicry to best the creatures of the night (even if he does end up a bit to much like Whistler in Blade...)

Sounds like CP2020's Night's Edge.

Quote from: EinSounds like CP2020's Night's Edge.

I am unfamiliar with CP2020. What is Night's Edge?

In an unrelated note, I'm going alternate history in an America that collapsed during the Cold War (Soviet Union also collapsed... war of attrition fought with supernatural weapons and all). Main setting will be the Soviet Republic of Delmarva (formerly Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia). So think of the Italian mafia maintaining a not always scrupulous (but always in high demand) free enterprise in the face of the socialist government. Also the whole Catholicism tie-in vs the vampires.

Vampires are getting modded in a couple ways.

First, you don't become a vampire by being bitten (vampirism is not a cold) or "embraced" (you are not a special snowflake). You become a vampire by finding an existing vampire, cutting off its head, and guzzling the black ichor that spills out of its neck.

Second, you don't get to live off donated blood. None of this blood bank bullshit. Vampires kill people. Vampires live on stolen life. It's how this shit works.

Third, no vampire babies. Vampires might fuck, but they don't reproduce. Sorry, Blade.

Fourth, old school breathdrinkers and new school bloodsuckers both exist. Breathdrinkers are the true old school vampires, and it's only by striking a deal with a breathdrinker that a new vampire can come into being without first killing another. The deal is such that the blood the vampire drinks sustains the breathdrinker (the whole deal gets passed on when a mortal kills the vampire and steals the curse). If all of a breathdrinker's spawn get nixed and the curse doesn't get passed along, the thing will get pissed and go eat a city or something.

Finally, vampires get more powerful with time. To start with, all they get is regeneration, and they have to sustain that by killing people. Might not be the best of trades. The cool shit players have to earn by levelling up. It's less of a pain in the ass to play the transformation out in game that way, you know? 'Cause you know somebody in the party's gonna kill a vampire and drink the blood. There are even abilities that let you create spawn, though these spawn aren't vampires proper (more like the new school fast zombies with fangs).

Not sure yet about the werewolves, but I know zombies are probably going to be some B-movie scifi technological justification. And more on how the cyberpunk fits in later.

Night's Edge is a Urban Horror Supplement for CP2020 focusing on Vampires (the German title Vampire in Chrome says it all). It handles all the stuff you need for Vampires in a cyberpunk setting, from creation to vampires and chrome to vampire power in cyberpunk.

You're details sound like Night's Edge even more. Sure you don't know it.

Quote from: EinNight's Edge is a Urban Horror Supplement for CP2020 focusing on Vampires (the German title Vampire in Chrome says it all). It handles all the stuff you need for Vampires in a cyberpunk setting, from creation to vampires and chrome to vampire power in cyberpunk.

You're details sound like Night's Edge even more. Sure you don't know it.

I'll have to check that book out. It sounds really interesting.

And I suppose I did pick the obvious methods for making vampires badguys again. Although... I'd be really surprised if I wasn't the first to use a "Soviet Delmarva" setting.

So the discussion on CP recently has got me thinking about organizations in Soviet Delmarva and other things. The timeline diverges from our own most prominently circa the cold war, though the idea is that the governments got interested in paranormal research based on things happening in WWII (I know I know... the whole Nazis and the occult thing is cliche.. sue me). So I've been thinking about what might have happened differently.

The main thing that's got me thinking is the statement (watch me paraphrase horribly) that cyberpunk is about people displaced by the new. I've been thinking back to my time in Delaware, and it seems there was always some historic building being leveled because it was poorly maintained and no longer safe. I have a feeling that in Soviet Delmarva, in my neck of the woods, such buildings would still be derelict but would not be demolished. I remember quite a few old buildings that were just three walls and either graffiti or vines, and at least one door randomly leading into the side of a hill (probably an old wine cellar... no idea whether it had collapsed inside or not).

Another thing I remember was the Barnes Foundation. link They taught a class in my school, and I remember the controversy about the move. I'm finding out now their headquarters are a little outside Delmarva, but wouldn't it be sad if much of the collection was lost in the (still poorly defined) war? Needless to say, a few things must be changed for an art school to become interesting enough to be an organization in an RPG, but I figure that with a name like "the Barnes Foundation" I have to try it. So what's the sinister secret of the wealthy art school that moved its headquarters to Delaware back when it was still called Delaware?

If you can find it, white wolf released an article way back when called "World of Future Darkness" or something like that.  It did a surprisingly good once-over of the effects of widespread cyberware on vampire society.

Sounds interesting. I'll have to look it up. Any idea where the article was (like what magazine or site)?

Quote from: beejazz;223824Sounds interesting. I'll have to look it up. Any idea where the article was (like what magazine or site)?

The .pdf I have says it's from White Wolf Magazine #36.  I don't remember where I got it from, though.

Night's Edge by Dream Pod 9.  They have several supplements as well.

I didn't know Dream Pod 9 did 2020. Loved Heavy Gear. Thanks for the link.

Quote from: beejazz;224272I didn't know Dream Pod 9 did 2020. Loved Heavy Gear. Thanks for the link.

Certainly.