CARDIANS: RURAL
The Cardians are a world-wide spanning shadow organization dedicated to hunting and containing the supernatural threats of the world: giving up their own freedom and sanity to maintain the separation of the supernatural and mundane that allow the rest of the world to live their lives in peace. They run outside the law and in concert with other hunter groups, well, those who don't turn their nose up at their illicit money-making ventures and non-discriminatory and strong-arm hiring practices at least. They label their hunters into card suits based on their skills; clubs the violent and athletic physical powerhouses, hearts the social manipulators and faces of the divisions, spades the knowledge keepers and informants, and diamonds, the skill specialists, support and upkeep necessary to keep functioning.
This story isn't about the Cardians vegas casinos or the well-funded world-spanning arms and divisions in the big cities around the world. This division is in... Carlsville Wisconsin? A tiny town with less than 200 people with enough supernatural activity to warrant a division of its own. The Carlsville division has been mostly forgotten by the greater hunter organization, left to their own devices with close to zero funds operating out of a single house in the small Wisconsin town.
Fate has suddenly and mysteriously brought six new members to the Carlsville division from across the country, most of them unwilling and magically dragged across hundreds of miles to land in the hands of the Carlsville division in apparently completely separate and unconnected incidents. They have to adjust to the town where the dark is so thick with monsters you leave the doors locked and the house lights on or you die. What makes Carlsville so dangerous? Why has the hunter organization has half-abandoned the town that clearly needs more support and has more going on behind the scenes? The supernatural origins of the town's plights aren't the only mysteries in the way of the new recruits surviving in the new world opened up to them.
The Cardians are a world-wide spanning shadow organization dedicated to hunting and containing the supernatural threats of the world: giving up their own freedom and sanity to maintain the separation of the supernatural and mundane that allow the rest of the world to live their lives in peace. They run outside the law and in concert with other hunter groups, well, those who don't turn their nose up at their illicit money-making ventures and non-discriminatory and strong-arm hiring practices at least. They label their hunters into card suits based on their skills; clubs the violent and athletic physical powerhouses, hearts the social manipulators and faces of the divisions, spades the knowledge keepers and informants, and diamonds, the skill specialists, support and upkeep necessary to keep functioning.
This story isn't about the Cardians vegas casinos or the well-funded world-spanning arms and divisions in the big cities around the world. This division is in... Carlsville Wisconsin? A tiny town with less than 200 people with enough supernatural activity to warrant a division of its own. The Carlsville division has been mostly forgotten by the greater hunter organization, left to their own devices with close to zero funds operating out of a single house in the small Wisconsin town.
Fate has suddenly and mysteriously brought six new members to the Carlsville division from across the country, most of them unwilling and magically dragged across hundreds of miles to land in the hands of the Carlsville division in apparently completely separate and unconnected incidents. They have to adjust to the town where the dark is so thick with monsters you leave the doors locked and the house lights on or you die. What makes Carlsville so dangerous? Why has the hunter organization has half-abandoned the town that clearly needs more support and has more going on behind the scenes? The supernatural origins of the town's plights aren't the only mysteries in the way of the new recruits surviving in the new world opened up to them.
POV CHARACTERS
Theo Warden
Salvador Santos
Richard Henderson
Tomoe Yakasuki
Guy Lemons
Natalie Cole
THE OTHERS (NPCs)
Bailey Oberplier - The cripplingly shy ace of diamonds who can barely speak and stutters when he does. His apparent timidity doesn't prevent him from single handedly protecting the town from the monsters that lurk in the expansive cornfield outside Carlsville. Rarely seen as he lives in said cornfield with the junk he puts together in his spare time and the cars he repairs for the team rather than on base.
Matthew Hellings Sr. - The transfered Ace of clubs with a British accent and a hair trigger temper. A stern disciplinarian with no room for a grey area between people and monsters. Unofficial second in charge when Aubry is gone.
Arthur St. Bellings - The highly paranoid and confrontational ten of spades who doesn't seem to so much solve secrets as find them and keep them from his superiors and the rest of the team. Another Carlsville native from the prestigious St. Bellings estate, he's eschewed living with his sister in their mansion for being the grumpy town mortician in his civilian life.
Carly Patchworth - A sweet and friendly woman who dual wields pistols and specializes in the frequent search and rescue missions the Carlsville division runs. The Jack of Clubs is probably the most well adjusted and nice of the entire division, but strictly loyal to her ace despite his temper and brutal tactics.
The Rest? Six people were manning the entirety of the supernatural battles for a town where nighttime is so crawling with monsters stepping outside the light is a death sentence? Where are the others and what happened to them?
The Town of Carlsville - In a small town of less than 200 you're going to get to know the places and faces around town. Carlsville is a town full of secrets with multiple hotbeds of supernatural activity that have necessitated a town-wide curfew once night falls. How the small town manages to turn a blind eye to what's going on at night and find a way raise its kids and go about its business is a mystery in its own right.
Everything else
Cardians Rural is based off a tabletop campaign myself and my friends played together using the New World of Darkness: Hunter the Vigil roleplaying system. The Kinetic novel would have the serial numbers filed off, but we used a unique hunter organization and characters, and almost entirely unique monsters, so it's not that big a deal. There were 6 evenly weighted npcs played by 6 players, so the player will have the option to switch which character to follow in each chapter which will reveal secrets and scenes unique to those characters. The vast majority of the story is shared by all the characters though, and the kinetic novel can still be enjoyed from the perspective of a single character or read-through for those who don't want to feel compelled to complete it 100%. It's mostly a dark work, but definitely has moments of levity (as any good tabletop game has) and ultimately is about the bonds of friendship and love formed by the characters in order to emotionally survive the darkness, and how well those bonds (and characters) end up surviving.
Plot - 100% as this is based off a tabletop campaign, the entire plot has been mapped out already!
Writing - 2%
Art - 0% There's pleanty of art that already exists drawn by the players, but none that would actually be going into the game. This IS just an ideas thread and not a WIP thread for a reason.
I'd love to hear your thoughts. What do you think of the characters presented as individuals and as a cast? Do you have any immediate concerns or questions? Do you like the set up?
As the creepy child drawings say:
Thanks for reading!