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Old 04-14-2017, 04:47 PM   #21
KarlKost
 
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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Originally Posted by Railstar View Post
Honestly I’m not sure yet. The first time I’ve had the group appear was outside of any city, on the trail of a werewolf who likes to travel cross-country and a necromancer who wanted to set up an isolated base/laboratory – so they had been far enough out into the middle of nowhere that police attention wasn’t really an issue. As a group they tend to travel a lot, I think they have a home base but would operate from an RV or motorhome a lot of the time, so they probably wouldn’t get too well-known in any particular area.

I think there would be some police/legal contacts to minimise the risk of arrests, and some fudged paperwork from those contacts – I figure the support they receive from the church is more pulling those strings rather than cash. Perhaps some of their combat-gear might resemble police or army issue, so when they burst into an area armed to the teeth they can pass for a SWAT team or something similar.

Of course this can only go so far, but hopefully a lot of their prey does enough to make their theatres of operation hidden from the police that it provides some cover for the monster-hunters going in there as well.



That’s a clever cover! I like it. The “wild animal” problem might work to hide the monsters committing the maulings. While they might not get much money directly from it, or not funded directly, this “phantom office” could provide an excellent front which explains them being armed and searching dangerous places. It would also explain them having a rural base.

EDIT: I could combine this with the question "how do they not get arrested?" Maybe their legal/police contacts or church-support pulling strings was able to make this office be created, which might have met minimal resistance because it was expected to fund itself. But if they have this base, this office out in the wilderness, then there's nothing to stop them from also having a system in place to work the land and build up some productivity from that.
How about, instead of being an official branch of the local police, why dont have this as a private company that in theory hunts down dangerous Wild animals? That gives less need for contability to the goverment
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Old 04-14-2017, 04:52 PM   #22
KarlKost
 
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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Originally Posted by Rolando View Post
One of the members can be a evangelist church priest.

With the correct background he may have an obsession or personal vengeance, may be a little deranged and single minded enough to patron for a bunch of monster hunters with a certain common background.

The priest may have lost his family to the monsters and some of the other hunters maybe lost loved ones. The priest may have had a vision (schizophrenia or stress from the loss and reveal of the monsters reality induced) and he think it is a God send task.

The church priest can get a lot of cash from a small community and a lot from a big one and he think that it is a good way of using it.

Some of the hunter may be ex special forces or CIA agents and the rest trained with them.

They don't need tons of money and support to be a menace to a group of players, they just have to be smart and very cautious, specially if in your setting there is not a concerted world dominated monster conspiracy.

A way of justifying there is not such a thing as a world monsters conspiracy is that monsters, just as humans, are just as selfish and unable to work together, not even for their survival, most monsters where humans, so it is not a stretch at all. they may have big secret organizations, and humans may have them too, but don't work together, and this particular, underfunded group can sip between the cracks and strike to what they can (the players), meanwhile hoarding evidence of the monsters conspiracy to make a reveal to the world and start a world ending war for what is good and pure... a single perturbed and suffering man is the key to apocalypses...
Thats EXACTLY why, IMHO, I dont think any such world for a setting of monsters hunters can exist without the existence of MiB. There will ALWAYS be some crazy men. If there were no one there to silence those crazy men that would trigger the Apocalypse by revealing the Secret, this would have happened a long time ago already.
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Old 04-14-2017, 04:58 PM   #23
KarlKost
 
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
Just make them as self destructively stupid and short sighted as humanity always is in all zombie fiction.
Their greatest enemies are still other monsters, not hunters... so far.

The Canadian book/TV series Blood Ties had vampires go berserk when other vampires are near after a fledgling stage. Instinctive territoriality overriding desires for cooperation.
That doesn't exclude the possibility of one single individual taking over. Some thousands of years lived Vampire or Demon who is paranoid and smart enough could do it, playing all the others.

But the real danger to the scenario as it is, is the madmen showing on the internet with proof of the monsters, and showing those to goverments, News, etc. Exposing the secret would be declaring all out war, and THAT would unite the monsters
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Old 04-14-2017, 05:04 PM   #24
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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Thats EXACTLY why, IMHO, I dont think any such world for a setting of monsters hunters can exist without the existence of MiB.
Well, you need something that is enforcing the secret, but MiB aren't really the best choice. The basic problem with MiB is that entities powerful enough to prevent the secret from getting out tend to be powerful enough to have no reason to need the secret to be kept.
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Old 04-14-2017, 05:05 PM   #25
Varyon
 
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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Thats EXACTLY why, IMHO, I dont think any such world for a setting of monsters hunters can exist without the existence of MiB. There will ALWAYS be some crazy men. If there were no one there to silence those crazy men that would trigger the Apocalypse by revealing the Secret, this would have happened a long time ago already.
People who come out raving that there are space vampires trying to eat their brain are generally treated as being, well, ******* crazy. And you'd have to already be crazy to reveal the existence of said brain-eating space vampires to the public, because you know doing so is likely to get you locked up as crazy, in a place where the vampire's lackeys can probably reach you and stage your suicide before you get a chance to prove anything. "Nobody will ever believe me" doesn't require an active conspiracy, after all. Even if you don't end up being considered clinically insane, the world at large is likely to treat you as having hallucinated, dreamed, or similar, with a few inconsequential fringe elements believing your story.
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Old 04-14-2017, 05:23 PM   #26
KarlKost
 
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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People who come out raving that there are space vampires trying to eat their brain are generally treated as being, well, ******* crazy. And you'd have to already be crazy to reveal the existence of said brain-eating space vampires to the public, because you know doing so is likely to get you locked up as crazy, in a place where the vampire's lackeys can probably reach you and stage your suicide before you get a chance to prove anything. "Nobody will ever believe me" doesn't require an active conspiracy, after all. Even if you don't end up being considered clinically insane, the world at large is likely to treat you as having hallucinated, dreamed, or similar, with a few inconsequential fringe elements believing your story.
And what about the crazy monsters? Every once in a while there will be one that decides to go on a rampage on mid town London
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Old 04-14-2017, 08:52 PM   #27
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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People who come out raving that there are space vampires trying to eat their brain are generally treated as being, well, ******* crazy. And you'd have to already be crazy to reveal the existence of said brain-eating space vampires to the public, because you know doing so is likely to get you locked up as crazy, in a place where the vampire's lackeys can probably reach you and stage your suicide before you get a chance to prove anything. "Nobody will ever believe me" doesn't require an active conspiracy, after all. Even if you don't end up being considered clinically insane, the world at large is likely to treat you as having hallucinated, dreamed, or similar, with a few inconsequential fringe elements believing your story.
The reason people claiming this in our world are treated as crazy is because their claims are delusions and either lack all evidence or actively contradict the evidence.

In a world where there exist human-like creatures with non-human anatomy, however, it isn't any kind of extraordinary claim. It can be proven, with tissue samples. And if such creatures have existed for any length of time, especially if they live among humans, it already has been.

A drug-addict or homeless person screaming inanities might be ignored, but when multiple witnesses or suspects to murders make statements that accord in many important aspects even though collusion seems implausible or actively impossible, that isn't just swept under the rug. Murders are investigated. Often with quite a bit of forensic science, which is perfectly capable of distingushing between the remains of a human and something that looks human, but has radically different abilities, diet and therefore biology.

Vampires or ghosts are only regarded as non-sensical explanations in our world because throughout history, a grand total of 0% of such claims have turned out to be true. In a world with vampires and ghosts, that won't be the case any more. Absent some convoluted method of keeping a secret, any creature that lives, kills and dies among humans will be well known to humans. And at TL8, pretty well understood in so far as science can quantify them.
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Old 04-14-2017, 08:56 PM   #28
Varyon
 
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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And what about the crazy monsters? Every once in a while there will be one that decides to go on a rampage on mid town London
The monster populations are a lot smaller than those of humans, and they learned a long time ago that letting their number rampage in large settlements ends badly. So, they make certain to neutralize problematic monsters before they become a serious problem. This doesn't need to be full-on Masquerade-level, just natural selection at work. In fact, if monsters are particularly long-lived, it may simply be the case that either a) all the crazies are already dead or b) the oldest, strongest monsters are the ones in the big, important cities, and they protect their territory from interlopers. In the former case, crazies aren't an issue; in the latter, they can't get anywhere where they could cause serious trouble, so all they do is cause some disappearances in swamps or whatever.

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
The reason people claiming this in our world are treated as crazy is because their claims are delusions and either lack all evidence or actively contradict the evidence.
Fair enough.

Last edited by Varyon; 04-14-2017 at 09:17 PM.
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Old 04-14-2017, 10:20 PM   #29
SteamBub
 
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

I'm just going to throw some thoughts out.

For a government backed entity, in the United States, I would imagine that it was founded before or after the independence from Britain. The early colonist should have been dealing with the beasts of the woods, Wendigo, Flying Heads, Black Dogs, and malevolent fair folk. So the people would organize hunts and a veteran from hunting might go around helping other communities. This would go on unwritten, or at least not as official, as who would believe monsters was the reason they couldn't meet export quotas? Then one day some of the founding fathers were saved by some volunteer hunters, which kick started the building of an official monster hunting agency.

For the group above, they might hide and be funded by a cover agency. Something along the lines of the Federal Wildlife and Game something or an other. Equipment would just be decommissioned items from military or other government agencies. Since this group is off the books the items wouldn't have to follow the modernization quotas set by law.

For monsters that hide among humans, I can guess Big Brother would be keeping a close eye one those. And moles would be out and about, better alive than dead helping some mysterious folk.

Funding independent hunters would be easy, just have a job. Rifle, pistol, and gun collecting is a hobby for some in the states and you can easily buy weapons that would be effective against monsters. And very legal in many states. Other ways might just have a front. The on the book government bodies might list these fronts as cults, secluded communities, terrorist groups, or anything that may show up on a FBI watch list. Or maybe independent hunters are just organized crime members. They act morally questionable in human society, but are the first line defense for humanity in the underworld.

Keeping out of trouble may be a little harder I would guess. Independent hunters may act more like hitmen than anything else. Try to make everything look like an accident or if guns need to be involved, plan the ins and outs as much as humanly possible. If caught, just need to try to make sure the monster parts are not found out and just bite the bullet for humanity.
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Old 04-15-2017, 02:16 AM   #30
Luke Bunyip
 
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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They probably aren't going to make more money than a dedicated criminal enterprise- but perhaps they will, which might be an extra motivation for some of them- they are in it for the money.
Sorry if you've moved on from this, but hey, here's 2c...

I've been thinking about ethical but *cough* legally dubious*cough* methods of making money. My favourite (courtesy of The Wire), is ripping off drug dealers. If these NPCs can take on monsters, they can take on a bunch of ne'er do wells.

As long as they don't run into any vampire drug dealers... (hey, it's a natural lifestyle fit).
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