A Monster Hunters World Ruled by Monsters

Micah Davis · 10-19-2020, 09:36 AM

What Goes Bump into the Light
The world has gone straight to hell - Sometimes literally, but everywhere metaphorically. Monsters, once confined to shadows and humanity’s nightmares, have sprung into the light and dominance all across the world. Fallen angels, demons, lycanthropes, witches, vampires, even mad scientists and their experiments. This is a Monster Hunters world where the Monster Hunters failed catastrophically. It can be a setting for an unusual Monster Hunter campaign, an interesting adventure or origin for an ISWAT member in Infinite Worlds, or even the basis of a “dark future” that players either visit or come from in a more normal GURPS Monster Hunter game.

In the Infinite Worlds setting, Chaney-1 (Q3, TL8^, 2026) is a high mana hell parallel dominated by classic horror monsters. It is named after the actor Lou Chaney Jr. from many early Universal Monster Movies, but Patrolmen who’ve visited often call it “Monsterville” since few are classic horror movie buffs. If Merlin and the Cabal have found this world, they’re taking a very hands off approach - The local practitioners are powerful and paranoid, and there’s good reason to fear they might master inter-dimensional magic.

The Feral Plains
The Therianthropic Outbreak was the first incident of the Unveiling, awakening the world from its slumber. The Grandfathers, a conspiracy of Weres with military experience, spread their plague across the Great Plains, infecting whole towns the night before the full moon. Destroying crops and infecting federal forces, the Grandfathers were ultimately successful in spreading the Greater Pack from north Louisiana to North Dakota and from Iowa to Idaho.

Life inside the Greater Pack has settled into an equilibrium. Much of the population that is there now are actually young men from elsewhere in the country, who came to the Plains while serving in the U.S. military. Most of them are still bestial and feral, following pack lords only nominally more put together than themselves. The Grandfathers lead a confederation that manages reciprocal attacks and defense of the territory, but (luckily) most neighboring have mastered treatment of the plague - Now the only danger is monstrously tough spec-ops commandos with a decade of experience.

Adventurers who come to the Feral Plains are in for a dangerous adventure. Hopefully they brought silver and someone who can treat Lycanthropy. If the adventurers are themselves Therianthropes or, somehow, they’ve received passage from the Grandfathers, they’re in a land that feels more like the Old West - Everyone has a hair trigger temper, military experience, and speaks monosyllabically and nobody has electricity. Therianthropes from the Feral Plains sometimes recover to full rationality and either aim to reshape the confederation into something more tolerable or escape to rejoin civilization - But they’re regarded with great suspicion in their old homes. It would not be the first time that the Grandfathers’ sent a spy.

The Novem Consortium
Along the Gulf Coast, the Novem Consortium rules everything. The Novem Consortium, officially so named because of the nine founding companies, is widely known to be a front for an organization of mighty witches and demon lords from across the Deep South. This is known even in Novem territory. Public facing propaganda barely bothers to hide it - It’s hard to pretend that demons aren’t running the show when you literally owe your soul to the company store. Everyone works for the Consortium, safety is non-existent and the pay is poor, but there’s three hots and a cot and if you lose any important bits, you get it replaced with an “improved” graft with only the minor drawback that it’s first loyalty is to the boss.

The Gulf Coast states were the last to officially depart from the United States - And even then, technically it was a corporate buyout of stranded assets after the fall of D.C. The alliance of the old companies is difficult and unstable, with intra-corporate war occurring fairly regularly. Officially, the Novem Consortium is a pure meritocracy - Unofficially, unless you’re a Witch or kin to one, the two social stations are “sacrifice” and “wage slave”. Union organizing and religious practice are very illegal and fairly common, as the hellish environment pushes people to rebel against their circumstances. Life is quick in the Consortuim and the billowing smokestacks and sweatshops always hint of brimstone.

Almost any cyberpunk adventure can take place as the nine original companies (and whatever mix of Witch and Demon Lord own them) fight against each other - Witches replace hackers, traveling through the Astral Plane and breaking security wards instead of jacking in and cracking codes. Players interested in doing something more purely heroic can find their way into the underground network of churches and unions organizing a revolution. All they have to do is figure out how to convince everyone that they can hold off all their neighbors from dragging them down into some other form equally terrible autocracy or anarchy. It might be good to have a plan for doing that as well as being convincing, but plenty of revolutionaries are ready to settle.

The Land of Inspiration
At first glance, it looks like the land ruled by the Golden Host got off easy. There’s wild new technology, relative prosperity, and angelic figures. This gilded land is sometimes called, “the land of inspiration” and the West Coast is still beautiful. But underneath all these apparent benefits, the land of the Golden Host is far from free and happy. During the Unveiling, six angelic hosts appeared - Most of these were religiously monolithic and in a holy area for their sect. Then there was the Golden Host which is… weird.

Whatever they are, or wherever they come from, the Golden Host leads new religious movements. There were two dozen “true” angels and not a single one of them agrees about God, the afterlife, the nature of humanity, or anything of the sort. These mighty commanders led armies of hundreds of “outcast” angels. Regardless, they agreed that they - not humanity - should rule. This holy confederation has a great many arbitrary rules and holy laws that would be inscrutable, and it can change if you move or if your angel trades territory. And everything rests on the divine judgment of the angels. In the process of carving out their own holy confederation, they found and elevated numerous geniuses who helped them keep the West Coast alive and untorn to pieces in the face of deprivation. These geniuses are often touched with madness - They have their own pet projects which they endeavor to hide from their overlords in one way or another.

Adventures in the Land of Inspiration should take inspiration from Star Trek, the Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, or other high-concept, episodic shows - Between the Golden Host and the Mad Scientists, almost any kind of society could exist in these forbidding lands. Any sort of social experiment may be carried out by force by an Angel who believes they are working the will of the gods and any sort of device could be the pet project of a local inventor. A land where no one grows up? A place where people wipe their memories every night? Put it in here. Adventurers from the Land of Inspiration might be true believers from their psuedo-utopia, or refugees from a new religion totalitarianism.

10-19-2020, 09:36 AM	#1
Micah Davis Join Date: Apr 2020	A Monster Hunters World Ruled by Monsters What Goes Bump into the Light The world has gone straight to hell - Sometimes literally, but everywhere metaphorically. Monsters, once confined to shadows and humanity’s nightmares, have sprung into the light and dominance all across the world. Fallen angels, demons, lycanthropes, witches, vampires, even mad scientists and their experiments. This is a Monster Hunters world where the Monster Hunters failed catastrophically. It can be a setting for an unusual Monster Hunter campaign, an interesting adventure or origin for an ISWAT member in Infinite Worlds, or even the basis of a “dark future” that players either visit or come from in a more normal GURPS Monster Hunter game. In the Infinite Worlds setting, Chaney-1 (Q3, TL8^, 2026) is a high mana hell parallel dominated by classic horror monsters. It is named after the actor Lou Chaney Jr. from many early Universal Monster Movies, but Patrolmen who’ve visited often call it “Monsterville” since few are classic horror movie buffs. If Merlin and the Cabal have found this world, they’re taking a very hands off approach - The local practitioners are powerful and paranoid, and there’s good reason to fear they might master inter-dimensional magic. The Feral Plains The Therianthropic Outbreak was the first incident of the Unveiling, awakening the world from its slumber. The Grandfathers, a conspiracy of Weres with military experience, spread their plague across the Great Plains, infecting whole towns the night before the full moon. Destroying crops and infecting federal forces, the Grandfathers were ultimately successful in spreading the Greater Pack from north Louisiana to North Dakota and from Iowa to Idaho. Life inside the Greater Pack has settled into an equilibrium. Much of the population that is there now are actually young men from elsewhere in the country, who came to the Plains while serving in the U.S. military. Most of them are still bestial and feral, following pack lords only nominally more put together than themselves. The Grandfathers lead a confederation that manages reciprocal attacks and defense of the territory, but (luckily) most neighboring have mastered treatment of the plague - Now the only danger is monstrously tough spec-ops commandos with a decade of experience. Adventurers who come to the Feral Plains are in for a dangerous adventure. Hopefully they brought silver and someone who can treat Lycanthropy. If the adventurers are themselves Therianthropes or, somehow, they’ve received passage from the Grandfathers, they’re in a land that feels more like the Old West - Everyone has a hair trigger temper, military experience, and speaks monosyllabically and nobody has electricity. Therianthropes from the Feral Plains sometimes recover to full rationality and either aim to reshape the confederation into something more tolerable or escape to rejoin civilization - But they’re regarded with great suspicion in their old homes. It would not be the first time that the Grandfathers’ sent a spy. The Novem Consortium Along the Gulf Coast, the Novem Consortium rules everything. The Novem Consortium, officially so named because of the nine founding companies, is widely known to be a front for an organization of mighty witches and demon lords from across the Deep South. This is known even in Novem territory. Public facing propaganda barely bothers to hide it - It’s hard to pretend that demons aren’t running the show when you literally owe your soul to the company store. Everyone works for the Consortium, safety is non-existent and the pay is poor, but there’s three hots and a cot and if you lose any important bits, you get it replaced with an “improved” graft with only the minor drawback that it’s first loyalty is to the boss. The Gulf Coast states were the last to officially depart from the United States - And even then, technically it was a corporate buyout of stranded assets after the fall of D.C. The alliance of the old companies is difficult and unstable, with intra-corporate war occurring fairly regularly. Officially, the Novem Consortium is a pure meritocracy - Unofficially, unless you’re a Witch or kin to one, the two social stations are “sacrifice” and “wage slave”. Union organizing and religious practice are very illegal and fairly common, as the hellish environment pushes people to rebel against their circumstances. Life is quick in the Consortuim and the billowing smokestacks and sweatshops always hint of brimstone. Almost any cyberpunk adventure can take place as the nine original companies (and whatever mix of Witch and Demon Lord own them) fight against each other - Witches replace hackers, traveling through the Astral Plane and breaking security wards instead of jacking in and cracking codes. Players interested in doing something more purely heroic can find their way into the underground network of churches and unions organizing a revolution. All they have to do is figure out how to convince everyone that they can hold off all their neighbors from dragging them down into some other form equally terrible autocracy or anarchy. It might be good to have a plan for doing that as well as being convincing, but plenty of revolutionaries are ready to settle. The Land of Inspiration At first glance, it looks like the land ruled by the Golden Host got off easy. There’s wild new technology, relative prosperity, and angelic figures. This gilded land is sometimes called, “the land of inspiration” and the West Coast is still beautiful. But underneath all these apparent benefits, the land of the Golden Host is far from free and happy. During the Unveiling, six angelic hosts appeared - Most of these were religiously monolithic and in a holy area for their sect. Then there was the Golden Host which is… weird. Whatever they are, or wherever they come from, the Golden Host leads new religious movements. There were two dozen “true” angels and not a single one of them agrees about God, the afterlife, the nature of humanity, or anything of the sort. These mighty commanders led armies of hundreds of “outcast” angels. Regardless, they agreed that they - not humanity - should rule. This holy confederation has a great many arbitrary rules and holy laws that would be inscrutable, and it can change if you move or if your angel trades territory. And everything rests on the divine judgment of the angels. In the process of carving out their own holy confederation, they found and elevated numerous geniuses who helped them keep the West Coast alive and untorn to pieces in the face of deprivation. These geniuses are often touched with madness - They have their own pet projects which they endeavor to hide from their overlords in one way or another. Adventures in the Land of Inspiration should take inspiration from Star Trek, the Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, or other high-concept, episodic shows - Between the Golden Host and the Mad Scientists, almost any kind of society could exist in these forbidding lands. Any sort of social experiment may be carried out by force by an Angel who believes they are working the will of the gods and any sort of device could be the pet project of a local inventor. A land where no one grows up? A place where people wipe their memories every night? Put it in here. Adventurers from the Land of Inspiration might be true believers from their psuedo-utopia, or refugees from a new religion totalitarianism.