GURPS CABAL: A problem

[zorg]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

I've long wanted to run a Horror campaign set in the world of the Cabal. One of the things that's put me off starting is that the 'default' campaign idea seems to be that of the player-characters being part of the Cabal. And that strikes me as not the best way to use the idea of gradually peeling back the out skin of the onion to show the hidden truth inside.

The fluff introduction of the various chapters of the book features a guy who starts on the outside, gets in, and rises in power.

[Xenarthral]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

I like the idea of Centrum's well intended (though authoritarian) meddling screwing things up more than interdimensional Nazis.

Well, the other point was that in a campaign/world where the Cabal gets top
billing or the main event is Infinity vs. Cabal nyper-rational and skeptic Centrum doesn't bring much to the table.
UNLESS the players have fully bought the "Centrum does not believe in the
supernatural and would either be completely and helplessly flabberghasted
by it or immediately turn their efforts to wiping it out" ideas.
The hermetic magic of the Cabal is a science with resonably clear rules - it's
the kind of magic Centrum would approve of, even if they'd never approve
of the Cabal. (If memory serves they're also bigger on psionics than Infinity.)

The EU is the kind of thing Centrum explicitly approves of and, thinking like a
Centran, the obvious way of making the modern US more supportive of
Centrum-style transnationalism would be to let it simmer for a while in, if
not outright warlordism, a combination of depression, isolationism, civil
unrest and too-small government.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Xenarthral

Well, the other point was that in a campaign/world where the Cabal gets top
billing or the main event is Infinity vs. Cabal nyper-rational and skeptic Centrum doesn't bring much to the table.

What if the PCs are working for Interworld?

[Astromancer]

Frankly, antagonists that think differently, and thus react differently are good. A Centrum Agent would expect a Cabal magus to act rationally, by his standards of rational. Anything else would seem mad. The Magus would tend toward seeing the Centrum Agent as hamstrung by a rigid psuedo-rationality, and mad in a different sense. Each would tend to surprise the other at odd times. The Interworld guys, used to pluralism, would be more flexible, but they'd also both underestimate and be underestimated.

Good times.

[Michele]

Originally Posted by Xenarthral

Well, the other point was that in a campaign/world where the Cabal gets top
billing or the main event is Infinity vs. Cabal nyper-rational and skeptic Centrum doesn't bring much to the table.

Well, a third player always brings uncertainty to the table when the moves are covert. If we're playing in two, whatever I didn't do, was done by you. But when a third party comes up...

[Rotwang]

The couple Cabal games I have run do end up with the PCs eventually joining. All that does is change the game from PCs v. Cabal to PCs + their Cabal allies v. evil/crazy lodge.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Michele

Well, a third player always brings uncertainty to the table when the moves are covert. If we're playing in two, whatever I didn't do, was done by you. But when a third party comes up...

LOL The inverse of Cosby's Law: Parents of one child aren't really parents, because if something gets broken, you know who did it. :)

[jspade]

To the OPs point, I've run a campaign like this with the PCs as Cabalists; like most, they were brought in as outer-circle dupes and only gradually had the nature of the organization revealed to them. Discovering that their English Literature teacher's (the late) Mina Harker, dealing with the troll living under the bridge in the college campus... small steps into the darkness.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by jspade

To the OPs point, I've run a campaign like this with the PCs as Cabalists; like most, they were brought in as outer-circle dupes and only gradually had the nature of the organization revealed to them. Discovering that their English Literature teacher's (the late) Mina Harker, dealing with the troll living under the bridge in the college campus... small steps into the darkness.

Given how vast a polymorphic the Cabal is, they really wouldn't need to be dupes. Even in the book there are plenty of Cabal members that would kill most other Cabal members on sight. And many most, far deadlier, who'd pretend good-will. They might not have evil intentions yet, but they'll keep you in mind.

[Gef]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Even in the book there are plenty of Cabal members that would kill most other Cabal members on sight.

Unless the other member had a powerful ultor. -GEF