Extremist Environmentalists, Were-Panther, Ninja Occult Nazis?

There, fixed that for you.

Also, no. Not at all. Do it and video their reactions.

Dang - why didn't that idea happen two weeks ago.  Way too funny.  No video, but I do audio record the sessions for my own notes.

Little background.  My players couldn’t bring themselves to help me create New Orleans for DFRPG beyond two Themes and a Threat.  So I created the locations and all the faces.  Then at the last minute they threw in two city faces.  “The Cult of the Blue Oyster” and “Were-Panther Clan” with no idea what they are beyond the names and a hand wave, ‘the GM can figure it out’.  “oh, and GM they want to rock the boat.”   Grrrrrr

So, I decided The Cult of the Blue Oyster is an occult Nazi origination from Brazil in direct completion with them to gain all the pieces of a key to open a seal.  (the threat).  I’m good with occult Nazis.  Defiantly bad guys, but all mortals so the spell slingers have to be careful.

But what to do with “Were-panther Clan”?  I had planned to introduce them as extremist environmentalists, were-panthers.  That could set them up as both good and bad guys to the PC’s.  But last night I had a vision of a Were-Panther Ninja Clan.   The visuals in my mind are pretty assume.  The first few encounters would have standard ninjas working with black panthers, leading the players to believe that the WPNC has animal companions, and are not shapeshifters.  Later they would learn the truth the hard way.

However – I still have this shapeshifting environmentalist in the bayou story I was planning for the weekend.  So, am I too silly to have them as Extremist Environmentalists, Were-Panther, Ninjas?

One of my players has a Man of Faith with Ritual, specialty of Warding.  I am trying to figure out how to apply his Warding during a conflict.  How long to strengthen a Threshold?  How long to create a Circle?  How to use his ability in an action orientated game?   I am worried he will become too background during physical fights. 

In order to be able to realiably rip the soul out of an otherwise healthy person, you need to come up with a way to do enough stress to take out your target in one attempt.  Which sounds to me like a Thaumaturgy-at-the-speed-of-Evocation effect, which it turn would mean a sponsored magic power (simmilar to Kemmlerian Necromancy, but customized). 

To reflect the unique quirkiness of the death, each level of bizarreness of the death should be considered a tag-able maneuver to be used in “Thaumaturgy-at-the-speed-of-Evocation effect”.     The Sponsor magic could be something like Soulfire, but as the magic to release the soul from the body.  As an effect, if the body does not die, the soul reattaches to the body.

As an example of a bizarre death for tangible maneuvers; a priest enters the confessional to start confessions while an alter-boy and girlfriend are getting it on.  After a brief awkward back and forth, the priest realizes he doesn’t have an upset crying for their god young lady in need of saving, but a couple doing… well yea, he calls out in surprise and they kids bolt.  He runs after to, not confront in anger but to help them in the way a good priest does.  The scared boy knocks over a basin of baptismal water.  The priest slips and bangs his head on a pew.  Staggering after them he falls in a open floor hatch, somehow managing to get his head caught in a loop in the bell rope.  Mercifully he dies instantly and the bell rings steadily as the grim reaper escorts the released soul to the light.
I count that as 7 maneuvers to be tagged. 

For these maneuvers, I would make the player devise the death before hand.  Put the work in the player’s hands, not the GM.  If they start repeating death maneuvers, then start refusing the maneuver values.  One thing I remember from the show was how bizarre the deaths were.

Don’t forget about the great work the Hedge Wizards did during the Battle of Dunkirk.   

Quoting from Professor Wiener’s “Military History in the Supernatural 20th Century World”; “While the English practitioners, working mostly in London, focused on using the weather to ground the Luftwaffe, several covens of Irish practitioners influenced Goering, using black magic, to convince Hitler in holding back the amour long enough to enable the evacuation of the beaches at Dunkirk.  Most of the Hedge Wizards then presented themselves to Wardens for judgment.  The aftermath of those judgments resulted in years of debate and internal strife for the White Council, keeping them out of direct involvement of World War II.”

Sadly, my copy of Wiener’s book is nearly unreadable.  It was found in the burned down and flooded accord sanction neutral grounds in the heart of New Orleans 9th Ward.

I am guessing, but it seems the Wardens became even more proactive after the Dunkirk judgments.

I’ve decided to make the players determine how the thresholds work for Scions.   As each Scion can be unique there can be different affect for different characters.  If I can get the Scion characters to come to a common decision that would be great.  Not expected, but it would be great.  I see three basic levels of affect.  1) no affect at all and no potential of extra Fate Points.  2) Suffer suppression inside the threshold and a potential of a few FP.  3) The threshold acts to block as if the scion is a pure supernatural creature, such as a vampire or demon, providing even greater potential of Fate Points.

Finally, if any player ends up with a Changeling, then they get to decide how it works for all changelings in my game. 

Would a threshold cause problems for a scion lawman?  In the case of a Scion, they are not completely a supernatural being.  In this specific case, the High Concept is “Demon Spawn US Marshal”   The guy needs to be able to bust in doors to chase after fugitives. 

I am sure he would want to have his Inhuman Speed and Supernatural Sense while looking in dark closets and going down creaky basement stairs.