User blog:Harold Burned-Mane/RP Idea: World of Darkness

Hey everyone, I recently had the idea after restarting a playthrough of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, of doing an RP in that universe.

One idea that I found quite appealing was to do an RP set in World War II, more specifically in 1940 two weeks after the occupation of Paris has started (June 14, 1940). I find it an interesting setting as it is essentially the same events as WW2 in real life, but with supernatural elements existing that, while they didn't ultimately change the outcome of the war, with vampires, werewolves, wraiths, mages, demons  - and everything in between - taking advantage of the terror of the war to prey on the innocent make for intriguing scenarios.

Premise
My idea was that we'd be playing as the Inquisiton, known in this universe as the Society of Leopold. The story would focus initially on Paris, during the Nazi occupation in late June.

When the nazis took over the city on June 14, the Society of Leopold lost contact with their old Paris Cenaculum at the Notre Dame. Thus, they had sent a squadron of inquisitors to investigate what happened to their Paris chapter and to recover sensitive information and valuable supernatural artifacts.

Officially, the Catholic Church is neutral in the war, but some chapters of the Inquisition have sided with the Nazis (Sons of Tertullian) while others are directly opposed to them (like the Pope) because the Nazis persecuted Catholics like the Polish. There is also the fact that the Nazis are studying the supernatural to try to weaponize them and create the Übermensch, which makes them targets to the more zealous members of the Inquisition. Thus, depending on the situation the player characters might be ignoring the war as a whole or trying to influence at specific points in the RP by hunting Nazis that are too involved with the supernatural.

Other enemies of the player characters would be the various supernatural entities that are taking advantage of the massive amounts of bloodshed and the chaos of the war to further their own goals and prey on the weak. As well as third parties, like the vampiric Camarilla and Anarchs.

Characters
While we are going to be playing members of the Catholic Inquisition, you aren't forced to play a religious or priestly character. Pope Pius X reorganized the Society in 1908 and officially released them from service to the catholic Church, allowing them to act more freely. Now unconcerned with doctrinal issues, the Society is dedicated to deliver humanity from supernatural evil.

Novices of the order are usually recruited from the catholic clergy, but after the reorganization they began to accept laypersons in their numbers. They also use various supernatural powers, like magic - which can be used for Healing, Divination, Pyrokinesis, etc. - to fight the supernatural. Inquisition members are generally mortal, though there are exceptions (naturally no such exceptions have been acknowledged by the Inquisition as it goes against their dogma). Thus it is possible to play as a vampire Inquisitor or a werewolf inquistor, etc. As long as your character is more useful to the Inquisition than a threat, they can be accepted among their order.

Character Card
I made an example character card for my own character concept. I will be playing the leader of the inquisition party that is sent to Paris.

Name: Richard von Schlorke

Gender: Male

Nationality: German

Appearance: 1.8m, Fit, blue eyes, Inquisition cross burned onto his chest (over his heart), scars on his face where he was struck by a vampire’s claws.

Age: 38

Attributes: Dexterity, Stamina, Perception, Intelligence, Wits

Skills: Alertness, Athletics, Awareness, Brawl, Firearms, Melee, Stealth, Investigation, Occult, Academics

Abilities: True Faith, Theurgy (Divination), Quadra-lingual (German, Latin, Italian, French)

Equipment: Mauser C96, Silver Dagger, Silver Rosary.

Personality: Chaste, Temperate, Zealous, Emotionally distant, Dutiful, Patient

Faction: Society of Leopold (Councillor), Office of the Censor (Investigator)

Backstory: Richard was born to a family of 5 in the Bavarian village of Marktl am Inn in 1902. As the youngest son in a highly religious family, he was sent to the clergy to become a priest even before his early teens. Only a few short months after he arrived in Italy at the prestigious seminary that he was going to study at, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, and the Great War began. Both his father and older brother fought for the German Empire during the war, while Richard remained in Italy at the seminary. When the war ended on 1918 with Entente victory, Richard received the news that his father and brother had both been killed in battle. This prompted the 16-year-old to move back to Bavaria to care for his mother and elder sister.

Richard took over the family farm and tended to it with the help of his remaining kin. After an incident in 1925, his farm burned down and the rest of his family died. He returned to Italy and sought forgiveness for his actions in the church. He became ordained as a priest in 1929, but by then he had already caught the eye of the secretive Order of Leopold. The Holy Inquisition’s Order offered him a place among their numbers. Richard gladly accepted the mission. He became ordained as a Novice and trained under Inquisitor Francesco di Rosa until he proved himself worthy of the title of Tertiary. Eventually he earned the title of Councillor by 1940.

When World War II began, Richard thought about returning home to Germany and fighting for the Reich but decided that his mission from god was more important than any loyalty to his country. When the Paris Cenaculum went dark, he was assigned to lead the investigation.