Doc Sammy
White Trash Weeb
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Author's Note: Alright, this is my first major serious attempt at RPG fiction in a while. I am posting this story here in the Media sub-forum for now, and if the Mods feel that it's better off in the main RPG forum, then they can feel free to move it over there. This story is a tribute to the 1990's and to one of my favorite RPG's of all time, the White Wolf classic known as Vampire: The Masquerade. It is a story within a story, the first chapter being a framing device for the main story detailing the in-character events of the campaign.
Vampire: The Masquerade is the property of White Wolf, I own nothing and make no profit from this story.
Chapter I: Ante Ludi
The Wong Household
Andale, Virginia, Autumn 199X
It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. It was the halcyon days of that wonderful decade known as the 1990's. Bill Clinton was in the White House, the economy was doing well, The Simpsons was in its prime and hadn't jumped the shark yet, anime was a new and wonderful thing in geekdom, and classic consoles like the Super Nintendo and the original Sony Playstation were the pinnacle of one's video gaming experience. And it is here in this decade that our story takes place, in a quiet suburbanite Northern Virginia town called Andale.
Andale was a small and quiet little town that wasn't fully rural or suburban, resting on the very edge of the metropolitan sprawl of our nation's capital and on a quaint little street known as Belmont Lane was a simple split-level house owned by the Wong Family, a third-generation middle-class Chinese-American family of four. Mr. Wong was a government clerk in DC, while Mrs. Wong was a registered nurse who worked at a local hospital and they had two children, a sixteen-year old daughter named Maria and a thirteen-year old son named Martin.
Maria was unusually tall and thin for a woman of her age and ethnicity, and was a bit of a social outcast, but in all honesty she could care less. Maria was a person whose style could be referred to as "Goth", as she wore a lot of black and was a fan of both Gothic fashion and Gothic literature like Edgar Allan Poe and Lord Byron, and she did hang out with some of the other Goths at her high school. But she never thought of herself as a Goth in the sense of the modern subculture. She wasn't pretentious or overtly angsty, she didn't take herself too seriously, and she didn't care for bands like The Sisters of Mercy or Type O Negative. Nah, Maria's jam was more along the great hits of the 50's, 60's, and 70's. It was all oldies all the time for her. But it was through her more serious Goth friends that she discovered a wonderful pen-and-paper role-playing game, a modern Gothic-Punk game called "Vampire: The Masquerade". In fact, she had recently purchased a copy of the core rulebook from the local mall, and since there was a sale going on for White Wolf products, she also purchased a supplement for the game titled "The Chicago Chronicles, Volume I", which provided a pre-built setting for the game. Maria read the two books endlessly in her spare time, and having played the game with some of her high school friends, she had decided to run the game herself for a different group. She was to be the Storyteller, the Game Master, the Referee, to what would be her idea of a dream campaign. But she needed players and that is where her brother and his friends came in.
Martin Wong was Maria's younger brother and an avid geek at heart. He was well-acquainted with the concept of role-playing games, as he liked to play Dungeons & Dragons with his friends on the weekends. The boys liked to play their own spin on D&D. They played with the Rules Cyclopedia book for the simpler gameplay, but the setting they played in was Ravenloft, a Gothic Horror fantasy setting for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. About a week ago, Martin's Ravenloft campaign had finally ran its course after six months of many fun sessions and now the group was looking for a new game. When Martin explained the concept of Vampire: The Masquerade to his buddies and told them that his sister was going to run a game of it, they were excited and eagerly jumped on board to play. The idea of a modern setting with guns, cars, and advanced technology appealed to them and so the group was almost complete. Martin and his two friends were joining this new Masquerade chronicle, but so was Maria's best friend, a kind-hearted yet socially awkward young woman named Helen Nguyen. Helen was a first-generation Vietnamese-American and had moved to Andale from Southern California, and was a bit of an outcast for her shy behavior and obsessive tendencies, especially in regards to the study of world history. While others found Helen a bit obnoxious and awkward, Maria found her to be a good person and befriended her quickly, and while the girl had no experience with tabletop gaming, she agreed to play in Maria's game.
It was a Friday afternoon on a cool late September day, and the Wong siblings were getting everything ready for the game. Maria had her composition book filled with hand-written campaign notes and plot hooks, along with bags of ten-sided dice loaned to her by her brother, and a piece of white cardboard to use as an impromptu Storyteller's Screen all laid out on the old oak coffee table in the downstairs den. Martin was setting up bean bag chairs around the table for his buddies, and had already brought down several cases of Mountain Dew and Pepsi from the kitchen upstairs, sweet and cool refreshments for the gamers to enjoy for the night. Soon, everything was in position and then there was a knock at the door.
"Ah, my buddies must be here already. Right on time, in fact." remarked Martin as he looked at his watch. The kid walked up and opened the door to find his two best friends at the door, the boys having carpooled to get to the Wong household. First was a tall and stocky kid with dark brown hair and deep green eyes who was clad in a backwards baseball cap, an open Hawaiian shirt with a Sonic the Hedgehog T-Shirt underneath it, and black track pants. This was Roy Smith, Martin's best friend since childhood. The second kid was a young man of average height with spiky hair dyed a bright neon green. He was wearing a plain gray T-shirt and blue jeans and went by the name of Tony Gomez. He was the one who introduced the boys to D&D and was the usual Dungeon Master. Both Roy and Tony were excited to play the new Vampire game and after a round of high-fives, the three boys entered the house and followed Martin downstairs to the den.
A little while later came another knock at the door. Maria was the one to answer the door this time, and she was greeted by a meek and slightly chubby young woman with glasses wearing an open dark blue hoodie, light purple shirt, and blue sweatpants who immediately shook Maria's hand.
"Ah Helen! Good to see you here! Welcome to my home. Come on in and make yourself at home. Take your shoes off and get comfortable."
"Thank you, Maria. I can't wait to try this new game you told me about."
"Me neither. I hope you don't mind but my brother and his friends are going to be playing with us. Are you comfortable with that?"
"Sure. The more, the merrier, I suppose."
The two women walked down to the den and Maria made the introductions.
"Helen, this is my brother Martin and his two friends Roy and Tony. Guys, this is my buddy Helen. She's new to the concept of role-playing so let's do our best to make her feel welcome."
"Sounds good to me. It's good to see new faces around here. Feel free to sit beside me if you want." said Roy as he grabbed two cans of Mountain Dew and laid them on the table. The nerdy woman immediately sat beside Roy and opened the can of soda pop, taking a drink.
"Alright guys, you guys ready for our game? For this campaign, we will be on the mean streets of Chicago and I hope you guys have your character concepts ready. I'm going to go around the table and ask who is playing what character and what clan they belong to."
Martin was the first to reply.
"My character is a Ventrue named Lord Nero. He is a Gothic European aristocrat in the style of the classic Count Dracula from those old movies. He wears a black cape and tuxedo, sleeps in a coffin in his mansion, has a lot of money, and rides around in a Rolls-Royce when he's not riding around in his private steam train."
"My character is a Brujah named Angelo Carolla, a traditional old-school Italian mafioso embraced in the late 1950's and the trusted bodyguard of Lord Nero. Angelo may not have the money that his boss has, but he is the muscle of the organization, armed with a baseball bat and a snub-nosed revolver." said Roy.
Next came Tony, who began to describe his character in detail.
"I'm going to be playing a Gangrel called Chris Anderson, a rough and downtrodden street punk from the slums. Chris is a bit of a rebel and marches to the beat of a different drum, but has allied himself to Lord Nero and Angelo for his own personal gain."
Finally, Helen spoke up.
"Well, as I have discussed with you at lunch today, I want to play as a Tremere. They're the ones with the magic, right?" Well, my character is named Sara and she is both a historian and a modern witch of sorts. She's not a Wiccan or New Ager, but is instead a traditional witch who practices Celtic folk magic and is also familiar with classical Hermetic magic and alchemy, although to a much lesser extent. While Sara has a high level of intelligence and a reasonable grasp of Thaumaturgy, she is not physically strong or resourceful and turns to Chris and Angelo for protection, bringing her into the employ of Lord Nero."
The four players all filled out their character sheets that Maria had printed out at the library and quickly began to get into the mindset of this Gothic-Punk world. This was going to be a game they would never forget.
Vampire: The Masquerade is the property of White Wolf, I own nothing and make no profit from this story.
Chapter I: Ante Ludi
The Wong Household
Andale, Virginia, Autumn 199X
It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. It was the halcyon days of that wonderful decade known as the 1990's. Bill Clinton was in the White House, the economy was doing well, The Simpsons was in its prime and hadn't jumped the shark yet, anime was a new and wonderful thing in geekdom, and classic consoles like the Super Nintendo and the original Sony Playstation were the pinnacle of one's video gaming experience. And it is here in this decade that our story takes place, in a quiet suburbanite Northern Virginia town called Andale.
Andale was a small and quiet little town that wasn't fully rural or suburban, resting on the very edge of the metropolitan sprawl of our nation's capital and on a quaint little street known as Belmont Lane was a simple split-level house owned by the Wong Family, a third-generation middle-class Chinese-American family of four. Mr. Wong was a government clerk in DC, while Mrs. Wong was a registered nurse who worked at a local hospital and they had two children, a sixteen-year old daughter named Maria and a thirteen-year old son named Martin.
Maria was unusually tall and thin for a woman of her age and ethnicity, and was a bit of a social outcast, but in all honesty she could care less. Maria was a person whose style could be referred to as "Goth", as she wore a lot of black and was a fan of both Gothic fashion and Gothic literature like Edgar Allan Poe and Lord Byron, and she did hang out with some of the other Goths at her high school. But she never thought of herself as a Goth in the sense of the modern subculture. She wasn't pretentious or overtly angsty, she didn't take herself too seriously, and she didn't care for bands like The Sisters of Mercy or Type O Negative. Nah, Maria's jam was more along the great hits of the 50's, 60's, and 70's. It was all oldies all the time for her. But it was through her more serious Goth friends that she discovered a wonderful pen-and-paper role-playing game, a modern Gothic-Punk game called "Vampire: The Masquerade". In fact, she had recently purchased a copy of the core rulebook from the local mall, and since there was a sale going on for White Wolf products, she also purchased a supplement for the game titled "The Chicago Chronicles, Volume I", which provided a pre-built setting for the game. Maria read the two books endlessly in her spare time, and having played the game with some of her high school friends, she had decided to run the game herself for a different group. She was to be the Storyteller, the Game Master, the Referee, to what would be her idea of a dream campaign. But she needed players and that is where her brother and his friends came in.
Martin Wong was Maria's younger brother and an avid geek at heart. He was well-acquainted with the concept of role-playing games, as he liked to play Dungeons & Dragons with his friends on the weekends. The boys liked to play their own spin on D&D. They played with the Rules Cyclopedia book for the simpler gameplay, but the setting they played in was Ravenloft, a Gothic Horror fantasy setting for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. About a week ago, Martin's Ravenloft campaign had finally ran its course after six months of many fun sessions and now the group was looking for a new game. When Martin explained the concept of Vampire: The Masquerade to his buddies and told them that his sister was going to run a game of it, they were excited and eagerly jumped on board to play. The idea of a modern setting with guns, cars, and advanced technology appealed to them and so the group was almost complete. Martin and his two friends were joining this new Masquerade chronicle, but so was Maria's best friend, a kind-hearted yet socially awkward young woman named Helen Nguyen. Helen was a first-generation Vietnamese-American and had moved to Andale from Southern California, and was a bit of an outcast for her shy behavior and obsessive tendencies, especially in regards to the study of world history. While others found Helen a bit obnoxious and awkward, Maria found her to be a good person and befriended her quickly, and while the girl had no experience with tabletop gaming, she agreed to play in Maria's game.
It was a Friday afternoon on a cool late September day, and the Wong siblings were getting everything ready for the game. Maria had her composition book filled with hand-written campaign notes and plot hooks, along with bags of ten-sided dice loaned to her by her brother, and a piece of white cardboard to use as an impromptu Storyteller's Screen all laid out on the old oak coffee table in the downstairs den. Martin was setting up bean bag chairs around the table for his buddies, and had already brought down several cases of Mountain Dew and Pepsi from the kitchen upstairs, sweet and cool refreshments for the gamers to enjoy for the night. Soon, everything was in position and then there was a knock at the door.
"Ah, my buddies must be here already. Right on time, in fact." remarked Martin as he looked at his watch. The kid walked up and opened the door to find his two best friends at the door, the boys having carpooled to get to the Wong household. First was a tall and stocky kid with dark brown hair and deep green eyes who was clad in a backwards baseball cap, an open Hawaiian shirt with a Sonic the Hedgehog T-Shirt underneath it, and black track pants. This was Roy Smith, Martin's best friend since childhood. The second kid was a young man of average height with spiky hair dyed a bright neon green. He was wearing a plain gray T-shirt and blue jeans and went by the name of Tony Gomez. He was the one who introduced the boys to D&D and was the usual Dungeon Master. Both Roy and Tony were excited to play the new Vampire game and after a round of high-fives, the three boys entered the house and followed Martin downstairs to the den.
A little while later came another knock at the door. Maria was the one to answer the door this time, and she was greeted by a meek and slightly chubby young woman with glasses wearing an open dark blue hoodie, light purple shirt, and blue sweatpants who immediately shook Maria's hand.
"Ah Helen! Good to see you here! Welcome to my home. Come on in and make yourself at home. Take your shoes off and get comfortable."
"Thank you, Maria. I can't wait to try this new game you told me about."
"Me neither. I hope you don't mind but my brother and his friends are going to be playing with us. Are you comfortable with that?"
"Sure. The more, the merrier, I suppose."
The two women walked down to the den and Maria made the introductions.
"Helen, this is my brother Martin and his two friends Roy and Tony. Guys, this is my buddy Helen. She's new to the concept of role-playing so let's do our best to make her feel welcome."
"Sounds good to me. It's good to see new faces around here. Feel free to sit beside me if you want." said Roy as he grabbed two cans of Mountain Dew and laid them on the table. The nerdy woman immediately sat beside Roy and opened the can of soda pop, taking a drink.
"Alright guys, you guys ready for our game? For this campaign, we will be on the mean streets of Chicago and I hope you guys have your character concepts ready. I'm going to go around the table and ask who is playing what character and what clan they belong to."
Martin was the first to reply.
"My character is a Ventrue named Lord Nero. He is a Gothic European aristocrat in the style of the classic Count Dracula from those old movies. He wears a black cape and tuxedo, sleeps in a coffin in his mansion, has a lot of money, and rides around in a Rolls-Royce when he's not riding around in his private steam train."
"My character is a Brujah named Angelo Carolla, a traditional old-school Italian mafioso embraced in the late 1950's and the trusted bodyguard of Lord Nero. Angelo may not have the money that his boss has, but he is the muscle of the organization, armed with a baseball bat and a snub-nosed revolver." said Roy.
Next came Tony, who began to describe his character in detail.
"I'm going to be playing a Gangrel called Chris Anderson, a rough and downtrodden street punk from the slums. Chris is a bit of a rebel and marches to the beat of a different drum, but has allied himself to Lord Nero and Angelo for his own personal gain."
Finally, Helen spoke up.
"Well, as I have discussed with you at lunch today, I want to play as a Tremere. They're the ones with the magic, right?" Well, my character is named Sara and she is both a historian and a modern witch of sorts. She's not a Wiccan or New Ager, but is instead a traditional witch who practices Celtic folk magic and is also familiar with classical Hermetic magic and alchemy, although to a much lesser extent. While Sara has a high level of intelligence and a reasonable grasp of Thaumaturgy, she is not physically strong or resourceful and turns to Chris and Angelo for protection, bringing her into the employ of Lord Nero."
The four players all filled out their character sheets that Maria had printed out at the library and quickly began to get into the mindset of this Gothic-Punk world. This was going to be a game they would never forget.
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