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Old 04-14-2017, 10:58 AM   #11
evileeyore
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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Originally Posted by Railstar View Post
This is partly an intellectual exercise, and partly for a group of NPC antagonists I’m running right now, to challenge a few monster-PCs.
Depends on how "gritty" you want to get on that side of the campaign.

For instance the show Supernatural mostly ignores it with occasionally hand-waving a winning lotto ticket, friendly ex-victim giving them some cash, and copious amount of credit card fraud, but otherwise Sam and Dean are almost always short on funds (but they always have just enough for bullets, a hotel room, and take-out).


If you don't want to do some hand waving, then credit fraud and looting their enemies is your best method of funding.
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Old 04-14-2017, 11:26 AM   #12
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

Thanks to all for the advice and answers.

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
A few questions for clarification. Is this in the USA? Which state? How do you plan to avoid the PCs being arrested?
Yes, it’s in the USA, the state is Kansas, a fictional city just so I feel better about ignoring real-life geography.

How do I plan to avoid the PCs getting arrested? I don’t, but I figure that isn’t a problem for the monster-hunters. They might be hesitant to engineer the PCs arrest, in case that backs the PC-monsters into a corner that might result in a massacre.

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Originally Posted by KarlKost View Post
The Catholic Church may well have a secret agency exclusively for the Hunt, with resources of its own... And secretly aided by the "Big Brother"
This is what I am trying to avoid. The church would give some support, preferably in resources other than cash, but probably doesn’t have tons of cash to spare on this team. I figure the support would more often take the forms of places to stay, bed and board depending on the area, but not large cash sums.

On your first post, there will be factions who prefer to keep the existence of the supernatural secret for the reasons you mentioned (like the Cabal), but the Agency stuff would not really affect this group one way or the other. Maybe they get unexpected intel from unexpected sources sometimes, but it doesn’t really explain how this team covers expenses.

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Originally Posted by starslayer View Post
Loot.

This type of operation is not going to be a '0 intel strike on the vampire leader'.

They are going to have to move slow, cautiously and have a good understanding of what they are attacking, see how far the tendril's stretch to assure that they don't get wiped out by some contingency after the fact.

Further, unless they are unrealistically lily white in there mission, they are not going to sweat the lives of sympathizers or conspirators.

So a daytime raid on the vampire lord's compound, simultaneously with taking the banker who's been handling the vampire's account hostage. Mixture of chlorine gas and garlic powder for the compound delivered by drones, cut the power, show up with some repainted van's that look like the power company, a bit of torture gets the banker to release the codes for the accounts, move everything of value out of the compound, kill any survivors, then torch it. Drain the vampire's accounts, kill the banker (possibly using a 'pet vampire' they have on staff so it looks like it was internal strife).

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.
This is really good! The outline about how they siphon off the resources is exactly what I’m looking for. I think the group would prefer a less brutal method of getting the info from the banker (a psi or a mage, probably), but having a clear process how they go about getting full value from the monsters they kill is really useful. More on this nature would be fantastic.

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An investment banker with unusually strong willpower gets visited by a horrific creature who attempts to mind control him. Deciding its in his best interests to play along he just listens to the thing and nods a lot when the monster talks to him like he is thrall, eventually turning over a multi-million dollar account to manage.

The banker vanishes into the night and uses the money to build an organization stop such groups.
We could combine this with the earlier idea, and perhaps the banker was mind-controlled until the hunters freed them from it’s control? In which case, the banker might have a major reason for giving the team access to the monster's funds.
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Old 04-14-2017, 11:32 AM   #13
johndallman
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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Originally Posted by Railstar View Post
How do I plan to avoid the PCs getting arrested? I don’t, but I figure that isn’t a problem for the monster-hunters.
Drat, I misread the OP. How will the monster-hunters avoid getting arrested? Edit: arranging that night be a good tactic for the PCs.
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Old 04-14-2017, 11:36 AM   #14
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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There isn't a really plausible way of going about it without external funding; any type of monsters that can profitably be hunted by small self-funding groups would already be extinct.
Depends on how many are in a position to hunt them, and how difficult they are to hunt. If monsters are fairly unknown, a few small groups could regularly hunt them without depleting their numbers, particularly if each hunt was a serious undertaking. Hunting bison was rather profitable for Native Americans, but it wasn't until large numbers of hunters starting going after them with firearms (which make taking them down a heck of a lot easier) that they were in serious trouble.

EDIT: It will also depend on how profitable they are to hunt. If it's only enough to make ends meet and maybe upgrade your gear from time to time, that's quite a bit different than if each monster slain nets you enough to buy a couple personal yachts.

Last edited by Varyon; 04-14-2017 at 12:20 PM.
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Old 04-14-2017, 11:39 AM   #15
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

Take a look at The Beast in the Garden, about a mountain lion that killed a runner near Boulder, Colorado. If your monster problem developed slowly, over time, it might make sense to have a Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism office dedicated to taking them down. They have the resources of a fully-equipped urban SWAT team, but no one gives them a hard time as long as exsanguinated bodies don't show up on the news.
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Old 04-14-2017, 12:08 PM   #16
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Drat, I misread the OP. How will the monster-hunters avoid getting arrested? Edit: arranging that night be a good tactic for the PCs.
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.

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Originally Posted by thrash View Post
Take a look at The Beast in the Garden, about a mountain lion that killed a runner near Boulder, Colorado. If your monster problem developed slowly, over time, it might make sense to have a Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks, and Tourism office dedicated to taking them down. They have the resources of a fully-equipped urban SWAT team, but no one gives them a hard time as long as exsanguinated bodies don't show up on the news.
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.

Last edited by Railstar; 04-14-2017 at 12:32 PM.
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Old 04-14-2017, 12:59 PM   #17
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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...
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Old 04-14-2017, 03:04 PM   #18
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

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...
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...
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.
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Old 04-14-2017, 04:29 PM   #19
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

Endowments and bequeathed property might be a source of resources.

Say a person of average wealth who owned a small house lost their only child in "mysterious" circumstances. They put into their will that the beneficiary will be the person or people responsible for finding the individual responsible for the loss of their child. To make matters simple say the trustee of the deceased's estate is in the know regarding the threat. The group now gets a house and contents plus maybe a vehical and a well stocked gun cabinet.
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Old 04-14-2017, 04:43 PM   #20
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Default Re: Funding semi-realistic monster hunters

The idea of "The Agency" isn't exactly to give players TL 10 toys and global spamming Intel plus some black suits. Its just to add possibilities.

Well... Being hunted down by the Men in Black, by the mysterious faceless guys in Black Suits, it just add one more optional door to the game.

Besides, their role is to be an invisible hand, a God Ex Machinae in case you need, but most of the time, they are so invisible that you'll never see them - at all.

But, you can include "Men in Black" in the list of possible "monsters" the PCs may have to deal with.

One more thing to consider: it is highly probable to have many teams of hunters that are actually puppets of some monster(s). Those wolves on sheeps' skins may work for their masters knowingly or not, and can serve for two different purposes: luring gullible hunters to either destroy or manipulate them, but also to use those hunters as "deniable assets" to destroy rival monsters.

As such, it isn't impossible that some "mysterious benefactors" can show up from time to time, offering to sponsor the PCs, specially if there is some word out about how good they are. Such samaritans may truly be a powerful Patron seeking to fight the dangers of the night... But it may also be the Devil in disguise. Anyway, I would say that any good team of hunters have a chance of finding some patronage - but there are alternatives to just "rich millionaire wants to avenge dead son".

Hunters make connections. They are heroes, for God's sake! Every person that you save... Well, every single one of them, becames an ally. Even 0 pts people can be important allies. Most regular Joes doesn't have what it takes to become hunters... But they have the will to help. Even the beggar you saved can become valuable. Beggars have eyes you know... And they help those who share their pains. One beggar can set an incredible Contact network for you. Housewives and working class may not have much, but they can give you $50 a month for the cause. The librarian never took a gun, but she is the leader of the fundraising group of the neighborhood. Your friend, the bartender of Joe's Bar, he doesn't know how to fight, but he will give his life to help the hunters flee from the vamps.

People who have been victims become united in their grief and in their anger and desire for vengence or justice.

Common people can help the heroes-to-be a lot more than ypu may imagine. Most of their "resources" could come from those.

Also, police men, soldiers, thugs, doctors... Mundane, common people, those can always supply a HUGE help
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