Help me run nWoD- Hunter.

[HooliganTuesday]

In a couple of weeks i'm going to try running a game of Hunter: The Vigil for the first time and thought that it'd be a good idea to run my basic plot and premise past the internet first to see what more experienced GMs think of it and foresee any potential plotholes or pitfalls with it.

Setting: Modern-day London

Core Premise: The players are all friends of a student at the University of London, she was the second victim of a serial killer who seems to be reenacted the Jack the Ripper murders. Angered by the lack of progress by the Police in tracking down the killer they decide on vigilante justice in attempt to bring the killer to justice.

The Twist: The Ripper's victims are all part of a secret cult that has been attempting to free their god (need a good name for it) and bring about its reign on earth. The London sewer system in addition to helping to keep London sanitary is also an immense mystical sigil designed by the Masons that keeps the beast bound beneath the earth.

The original Ripper murders were an incomplete series of ritual sacrifices, that if completed would have destroyed the beast. The cult attempted to summon the spirit of William Gull from the afterlife in order to torture him into revealing how the Masons bound their god and how they can free it. Unfortunately their ritual was faulty and the spirit broke free, possessed the body of one of their members and is now stalking and ritually murdering them in order to finish the grim work the original Ripper killings left incomplete.

My Situation: So far i've got the basics of the plotline down.

The players will investigate the scene of the third murder, find clues that lead them to the victims apartment, the cults front organisation (a club at the University of London) and eventually lead them to the cults headquarters.

From there i'm starting to get hazy, i'd like to have them confront the Ripper for the first time after they investigate the Cult's headquarters, probably violently when he comes for the next cultist. He'd then probably flee from the scene of the murder, not wanting to murder uninvolved by-standers, which would give the group the chance to chase or track him back to his lair, where they'd then be able to corner him and force an explanation out of him.

After that i'm not really certain what i should expect from the players or where the plot should naturally progress to, it gives the players a nice supernatural ethical dilemma, but having them joining sides with Jack the Ripper to murder mundane human beings sounds a bit too insane.

The biggest problem i'm facing here is that i'm not really certain what level of lethality is a good match for a group or 4 to 5 rookie mortal characters in a nWoD game, i want to create a Ripper who's tough and dangerous but not one who's capable of slaughtering the players without breaking a sweat.

Anybody who knows the system care to help me out. Any ideas or inspiration for plot hooks, twists or other stuff that i could throw into the mix to keep my players interested as well.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Slashers, the source book, is an excellent source for merits and templates you can use for just such villains.

The moral problems of working with "Jack the Ripper" are where Breaking Points come to your aid. The moral system of a Hunter is more flexable than that of a normal moral. They are able to rewrite sins and make things acceptable.

For example, killing normal humans, even humans who are part of a cult and planning to summon a nasty being, is bad. It's a Sin 5 or 4, manslaughter, at least depending on circumstances. But a Hunter can swap "Manslaughter" for "Cultists Must Be Destoryed". It makes the Hunter seem creepier to normal humans but allows them to function socially without massively degenerating.

The ripper himself doesn't really sound supernatural, he's just killing cultists because he knows what their up to. I'd recommend just making him a powerful NPC with no real supernatural elements except their being really lucky (ie. bullets fired after him only graze him or the shadows give him enough cover that the thrown knife doesn't hit square). As long as he isn't in a face to face conflict, make any attack that hits deal only 1 damage of whatever type it deals. That should keep the players from "accidentally" killing him with a chance critical hit before things can be explained.

Also, I'd play up the face that their friend was a cultist. Push the "you never really know the truth about someone" angle on them fair hard. It'll help to isolate them, keep them from seeking help outside of their cell.

[HooliganTuesday]

The Slasher book is a good idea i'll have to take a look into it, i was planning on building him as a Reverent from the Antagonist book as it seemed to fit with the Soul possessing another body concept. My plan was for him to come off as a rather tough/agile but otherwise mundane serial killer until they finally confronted him and he kept going while shot full of holes & hacked up.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Then he doesn't need stats. If the NPC has to survive than he survives, it doesn't matter how many health boxes he has, you'll be employing him as a story device. You might consider giving him a number of damage boxes before he leaves a given scene, much like an avatar of one of the mythos dieties. Taking away all it's hit points doesn't kill it, it simply banishes that avatar or manifestation and the entity can be recalled later.

Just make sure the body is either gone or somehow seperated from the players. PCs will try anything they've ever seen in a movie to get that body to stay dead and become frustrated when it doesn't work because you need that NPC to keep the story moving.