101 Street Crime and Personal Horror Scenarios

 V5 Chronicle Tips

1. The Social Satire of Vampire: The Masquerade
2. An analysis of Anarchs in Vampire: The Masquerade
3. Ten Tips to Running the Anarchs in V5 
4. Ten Tips to Running the Second Inquisition in V5 
5. Ten Tips to Running the Sabbat in V5 
6. Ten Chronicles for Sabbat PCs in V5 
7. Ten Tips to Running the Camarilla in V5 
8. Ten Tips to Running the Thin-Bloods in V5 
9. Ten Tips to Running the Tremere in V5  
10. Ten Real Life-Inspired Chronicles for V5
11. V5 NPC Update: Sullivan Dane  
12. 101 Mundane Details for V:TM Games   
13. 101 Street Crime and Personal Horror Scenarios  
14. The Judas Compact or "How the Sabbat got their groove stolen" 
15. How much should Vampire PCs and NPCs know? 
16. Ten Tips to using Touchstones in V5 
17. Why metaplot matters in the World of Darkness

Hey folks,

I'm a big fan of Vampire: The Masquerade 1st Edition, Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition, and Vampire: The Requiem. These games tended to be a little more street level and with a focus on personal horror. A little more Daredevil and Punisher while a little less Spider-Man or Thor. However, I know a lot of people who struggle to do the dark and gritty stuff. So this is a post about a 101 scenarios for Storytellers who want to insert some Gothic PUNK into their Gothic Punk. 

A warning for sensitive readers that while I've attempted to avoid anything gratuitous, it does deal with a lot of nasty subject matter. The focus is meant to be on the evils of man and vampire condition but you should obviously clear with your players how dark they want to be willing to go. Just a heads up for the betterment of everyone. I don't think this is anything too beyond existing supplements.

101 Street Crime and Personal Horror Scenarios

1. The player character finds a man beaten to death in the back of an alley, who will not survive until an ambulance gets there even if one was called now. They have the option of feeding to ease his painful passage, comforting him as he lay dying, or a chance to rob him. If they choose to investigate, they find the mortal responsible nearby who did it because the victim had posted revenge porn about the killer's sister.

2. The player characters find an abandoned baby inside a bathroom stall in a vampire night club. The woman's mother was a popular Blood Doll and has ODed nearby. The combination of being fed on and drugs being too much for her. The owner of the club will assure the PCs it will be "taken care of" if they leave the child with his people and dispose of the body. There will always be more where the mother came from.

3. The player characters come across an encounter of domestic violence between a couple of their favorite feeding spot regulars that they can choose to intervene in. Both members show signs of injury at the other's hands. Depending on their action, one will kill the other in a few days.

4. There is a feral dog that the police are searching for which has killed multiple people. The player characters eventually find it and note that it is a ghoul dog that is guarding a 7 year old Thin Blood with Animalism. She had been killed by her Neonate father and Embraced who then abandoned them in horror. The Prince or Baron will want both the dog and child destroyed as well as their sire tracked down.

5. The player characters are approached by a man with a very unusual request. He wants them to kill him in exchange for money for his family. He's in severe medical debt and knows about the undead through his boss. He's a Masquerade breach and figures his blood might be worth something. The Circulatory System actually will offer the PCs $50,000 for him and stiff the family as a suicidal man to tap for years is a great deal no one will question the disappearance of.

6. A newly Embraced vampire acquaintance tried feeding on his or her partner and ended up screwing it up, killing them. They call the player characters in hope of help. They are suicidal, close to frenzy, and in a bad state.

7. After doing a favor for another vampire, said vampire is sincerely grateful (rare enough) and offers the player characters an unusual gift: there's a pedophile patrolling a nearby area for kids. The vampire says no one will miss em and to have at em.

8. The player characters hear gun shots and find a drug deal gone bad with one of the participants dead and the other dying. There's a significant amount of money in both drugs as well as cash available. The murderer on the ground begs to be taken to a hospital despite his botched robbery. An investigation reveals the two men were cousins and both ripping off their employer.

9. The player characters are told about a vampire who offed himself via the sun. They are given the keys to his apartment and told they can have pretty much anything they want there since this is how Kindred deaths are handled among "friends." Inside is evidence of a lonely bitter existence culminating in final death.

10. See 9# except the player characters also find a child trapped in a special jail cell, two days isolated and dehydrated, as said Kindred was a Ventrue who could only feed on children.

11. The player characters find a meat locker full of Dominated and incapacitated human beings just standing around waiting to be tapped for an Elysium meeting. If asked, the "chef" will explain that they're all in debt or agreed to do a drug trial/sleep study they won't remember.

12. See 11#, one then wakes up, tries to escape and has no idea how she got here and is freaking out.

13. A middle aged ghoul of one Kindred hangout regular is humiliated on a regular basis in disgusting and public ways. If inquired about, they find out he is the Kindred's abusive father. The owner of the local hangout would like the PCs to tell them to leave the guy at home because it's ruining everyone's vibe. Either that or just arrange for the guy to die as a way to help their mental health.

14. See 13# but as said ghoul is their Touchstone, killing him actually royally screws them up.

15. Speaking of ghoul antics, a man is panicking and begging to do anything for the player characters or other locals. These range from sexual favors to bringing them victims. It's a ghoul that had been cast out by his owner and will who age decades if they don't get a fix soon. Their owner is doing it just to see if the stories about rapid aging are true as he inherited the ghoul as a gift from their sire.

16. The player characters are asked to be backup by a vampire who was born in a way that they vaguely allude to as "wrong" but they only have words for in recent decades. They don't want to spend eternity this way and have found someone who can help but doesn't trust them. If the PCs go with them, they find out there is a Neonate Tzimisce doing cosmetic changes to Kindred for blood as well as cash. Is this a trap? Diablerie? Just a job?

17. A car crash happens nearby the player characters and it's very likely that people will die in the process. The player characters can play heroes but the spilled blood and possible flames mean that doing so could make it much worse rather than better.

18. The player characters come across a violent accident or attack and find themselves unable to look away, transfixed by the sight of the blood as well as violence, for the better part of an hour. This is not natural but they can't get it out of their head.

19. The player characters find a teenage boy spraypainting warnings against a particularly upscale house, calling them Monsters and Vampires. The boy is wrong about them being vampires but they are actually containing a serial killer that has been preying on the local minority community for some time. The local Sheriff is planning to make them disappear to discourage the habit of tattling. They are unconcerned about the serial killer.

20. A local vagrant screams and is utterly terrified of the player characters, running away, when they see them. They were once successful but in 2004 developed the power to see "Monsters" and it ruined their life, driving them to homelessness as well as madness. Killing them will protect the Masquerade but they have already ignored their calling for decades.

21. A vampire with a morality born from comic books and television wants the PCs to help him  rescue a bunch of human trafficking victims from the Russian mob. They'll kill or otherwise stop the mobsters, rescue the kidnapees, and turn the latter over to the cops. Things go utterly pear shaped when it turns out the cops are helping traffic the victims.

22. See #21, if they do succeed then a bunch of vampires buying them will be pissed.

23. The player characters are minding their own business when a guy enters their favorite hangout and starts shooting up the place. He is looking for a secret basement where children are being abused. No, there isn't one.

24. Humorous as #23 might be from a black comedy perspective, literally thousands of people are checking out his claims on the internet now and it has brought a massive amount of attention online. The PCs need a scapegoat or to shut the place down.

25. The PCs hear about a vampire leader in a local community college who is teaching people the mysteries of Caine and Lilith. It is actually a midlife crisis suffering professor using Anne Rice and Fevre Dream to get laid with his Goth Girl students. One of them will commit suicide if he's allowed to continue preying on them due to the humiliation of figuring out it was only a lie. Vampire authorities will find this hilarious rather than sympathetic.

26. The player characters meet with a Thin Blood hair stylist who offers to do them well and is quite chatty. The player character then witness the Scourge come in to drag them off to be executed for the crime of being Thin Blood. They'll be stabbed, covered in gasoline, and burned without trial in the parking lot.

27. If the PCs take advantage of the 26# stylist, they will find themselves doing odd things and missing time. A Tremere stole all of the hair clippings from the place and used them to do sympathetic magic. This starts small but may escalate to murder.

28. A local Blood Doll approaches the PCs and asks them to kill a group of mortals that drugged and abused several of her friends. They are, in every way, complete scum but this is a violation of the Masquerade.

29. The player characters find out that they have been made the protagonists of a self-published urban fantasy novel series by a local ghoul who has passed it around to all of her friends. It's harmless and quite terrible but irritating their "scene."

30. It gets less funny in #29 when the ghoul's Toreador or Ministry master beats and want to kill them for making romantic vampire fiction about SOMEONE ELSE

31. A police officer believes the PCs are part of a Satanic sex cult or something equally ridiculous. They don't want to bring the PCs in but hit them up for bribes while threatening to expose the lot of them.

32. The PCs find a wight's den in the bad part of town with something like 50 bodies dragged down there in an enormous pile. No one apparently noticed because no one cared and the thing is still out there killing.

33. The world's easiest Blood Hunt concludes when a vampire who mocked a Toreador Elder's art ends up staked then left on the PCs doorstep to be diablerized with a note. Apparently, someone thinks they deserve the opportunity to grow in power. However, killing them or not killing them has consequences and diablerie means they will be a legal "cannibal" with all the social consequences.

34. See 33#, the Toreador Elder is actually filming all this because it's a kind of weird morality art as she wants to see what they do.

35. A player character feels weird one night and during an altercation with an obnoxious jerk, wakes up hours later with the jerk's body spread all over the walls of a house they don't recognize. Their victim's family is also coming home. What the hell happened!?

36. The answer for 35# was that the PCs had drank from a designer drug that is causing a lot of bizarre frenzies. This has caused a half-dozen deaths and the PCs are asked to find whoever is making it and kill the fuck out of them. They're a bunch of college students who have no idea what they've made (possibly with the help of something supernatural).

37. The PCs meet a friend from their mortal days who has become entranced with vampire conspiracy theories, harassing club goers, and also recording a podcast about the dark side of their hometown. Mental Disciplines will reveal that he believes in vampires because they are trying to cope with a horrifying but mundane tragedy they're trying to make sense of.

38. The PCs get contacted by an acquaintance who is cagey about the problem. When they arrive, the PCs find a little girl who can cause objects to levitate or the walls to bleed. She is both a medium as well as psychic with a Wraith companion. Sadly, there's no school for gifted mutants in this world and she is a danger.

39. The PCs find another vampire gloating about how they've been systematically destroying the marriage of a girl or boy they loved in high school. They plan to ghoul them and keep them as a slave (possibly with love having turned to hate). It's as normal to them as chatting about their new Honda.  There is absolutely no legal recourse among Kindred.

40. A very nervous man is in the local hangout. Talking to them will reveal that he has lost a vampire's entire fortune due to an incredibly stupid Bitcoin investment that turned out to be a scam. They are fully expecting to be murdered by their boss once they arrive, though they aren't 100% sure they're a vampire. They are, however, 100% correct about what is going to happen and see no way out.

41. Alternatively for #40, it is not a vampire and they will be killed by a perfectly normal human failed by their accountant. They could also be a ghoul. A baseball bat will be their preferred weapon for beating their former employee to death.

42. The PCs are told to investigate rumors of hunters among the city's garbage and fire men of all things. This is true and misleading as a small group of them have created flame throwers and makeshift armor to deal with an infestation of dog-sized cannibal rats that are breeding out of control.

43. #42 is just another weird random thing that occasionally happens in the World of Darkness and the PCs are doing the world a favor if they lend them poison gas or whatever to deal with it.

44. The local gunsmith the PCs use to stock up on their trench coats and katana offers to sell them silver jacketed bullets or vampire slaying explosive rounds. Even wooden bullets of a low caliber but functional make. The gunsmith doesn't know about the supernatural but knows several of his paranoid nutter customers believe and sees lots of money to be made.

45. The PCs have an encounter with the Second Inquisition. Just not the kind of Blade-like encounter they expect. A disgruntled mid-level operative in it wants to sell them information on it because he hates his female boss and co-workers.

46. If the PCs do #45, they get contacted by the guy a few days later for killing his wife in a frenzy due to having tried vampire blood he got from either them or another vampire he tried to sell information to. The PCs can use him but only if they cover up his "screw up" and dominate him into a useful pawn.

47. The PCs are approached by a former Blood Doll prostitute who wants the PCs to take care of (not necessarily kill) her pimp and make her a ghoul. She'll then take over their business and thinks they can run a vampire food service. While useful as a herd, the number of vessels involved will quickly sicken and die with more than a small number of Kindred feeding on them.

48. One of the PC's lovers is hacked and they find themselves on the internet, possibly even so far as a local porn site depending on their feeding habits. This is actually fairly easy to get taken down and just another disgruntled lover who doesn't know what they have (vampire play is a genre after all), but could get them, the PC, and possibly a dozen other people killed by a panicky Luddite Elder.

49. The PCs find themselves dealing with a white middle aged blonde woman with a cellphone that is trying to film them and call the cops on them. If the PCs handle it peacefully, she does it again a few days later and another vampire just snaps her neck out of frustration. It turned out to have been motivated by her catching her child hanging out with these "degenerates." Now it's an issue.

50. The PCs are given an old gas station by a Nosferatu heading out of town. This is a bizarre gift but a free haven is a free haven and the place is still functional. Then the PCs find that the place's basement is utterly stuffed with bodies.

51. #50 except the place is actually haunted by an enormously powerful ghost. It is actually capable of possessing people and burning others. The PCs find themselves unable to leave the gas station until they either destroy it or somehow lure their "friend" back to be murdered.

52. #50 except the place is now being investigated by the FBI's SAD who are looking into a wildly successful serial killer they believe operated out of the gas station. Ironically, they actually think this is one of their mundane cases as the ratio of human monster to supernatural is still about 3-1.

53. The player characters receive a very odd gift in the form of 50 odd years of porn starring a local vampire and sometimes their friends (including a couple of Elders). It takes awhile to realize that not only is this impressive blackmail material, the other vampires weren't always aware they were being filmed.

54. A Thin Blood private detective approaches the PCs and says he specializes in odd cases so they don't break the Masquerade. Oddly, his request is that the tell a vampire that her mortal father is dying and wants to see her one last time. He can't get close because he messed up with her in the past.

55. The vampire gladly accepts if told about #54 and goes to visit their father before the PCs will hear about (or actively witness) her tear their father limb from limb in the most literal way possible. The vampire thanks the PCs and says that they feel much better. Other people may also be caught up in her "therapeutic" frenzy of revenge for their father's past actions.

56. A Thin Blooded man or woman wants to offer themselves up as the PCs' slave (laborer or sexual) in exchange for protection. They were part of a group before but lost their friends to nastier vampires repeatedly and think they need to work like they're in prison now. It might be E or Lily from Bloodlines.

57. If the PCs are stupid enough to agree to #56 without investigating, they may find the Thin Blood is actually part of a group planning to diablerize their way into being real Kindred.

58. A guy dressed like Duncan Macleod crossed with Blade claims to be a vampire hunter. He is standing around brooding a lot like an idiot but has real weapons. He's not actually a cosplayer or promoting something as everyone assumes but a guy who knows vampires are real. So he's come to "protect" the club scene. He doesn't have the stones to actually attack someone, though.

59. A woman is passing out flyers looking for her missing daughter who disappeared a year ago outside the club. She doesn't know vampires exist but it is likely they killed her. The club owner will give free drinks for a month if they make her disappear.

60. See #59, the irony is that her daughter is a newly Embraced vampire and now avoiding the club. If she confronts her mother, she'll have an emotional breakdown and reveal everything, which means it's the worst option.

61. See #59, another worse irony is her daughter is dead and died horribly in the champagne room. The ghouls just assumed vampires rather than rich mortals did it and cleaned it up as usual.

62. The PCs next door neighbors have opened a drug lab and are hosting parties, having shady characters, and drawing needless attention. The PCs can either take over the operation, drive them off, or demand a cut for operating in their territory.

63. If the PCs have ready access to Dominate for #62, they also find that they seem strangely immune to it. They're also gross and unappetizing in a way that doesn't make sense. Stray dogs and weird looking homeless people are seemingly checking out the drug lab. Yes, it's Formor and Bone Gnawers but the PCs don't know that. The lab has brought some holy hell down on their neighborhood.

64. The Prince or Baron isn't fond of "degenerates" (there's that word again) and upon discovery that their private server for the "Bitcoin thing" (that too?) is being used to traffic in particularly monstrous forms of pornography, probably snuff, asks the PCs to go kill the man running it along with finding a replacement for managing the "normal" part of the business. They can do it themselves if they want, possibly cheating them of vast money.

65. The manager in #64 actually tries to save his life by saying he has all their addresses and identities. It could be a lot of guilt-free eating but is mass murder really the solution here? Is it not?

66. Certainly the studios for #65 is a place where Humanity loss would be very minor if they killed  everyone present.

67. The Assistant District Attorney tries to get the PCs to testify against another vampire's mortal identity, threatening them and pleading on their consciences for whatever horrible thing her target is doing. The other vampires find this hilarious and are already taking bets on how they will be horribly humiliated, discredited, enslaved, or killed.

68. The PCs find someone, a friend of theirs, to try to get the ADA  of #67 to back off before it is their head. Apparently, they were sent on this as a suicide mission from the Mayor or DA because they turned down participation in an illegal venture (or sexual favors--this is a sleazy sleazy world).

69. A Ventrue is so pleased with the PCs that he invites them to participate in a business venture. Some investigating will reveal that it is a Ponzi scheme or a Pump and Dump about to collapse. The Ventrue believes with the PCs help, they can keep it going for a few more years and make massive gains before disappearing with the loot.

70. The Ventrue in #69 actually plans to frame them for its collapse because his biggest customers are Elders who he pretended to be a genius for and needs someone to blame for the fact he's run out of money.

71. The Ventrue in #69 is entirely sincere but the lives he's ruined as a financial parasite are far greater in number than he's ever done as a literal blood-drinking one.

72. A spectacularly bigoted cop has been framing black and gay men for the murders committed by Kindred since he joined the force thirty years ago. He's now retiring and expects to be rewarded with the Embrace. The PCs are asked to take him out to the fields and "Old Yeller" him.

73. See 72#, but the cop saw this coming and claims he has plenty of evidence if they don't Embrace him. The Prince will actually grant permission for it if they call him because he considers it initiative. The cop will be as monstrous a Hound as he was a cop, though.

74. The PCs are approached by an old billionaire on blood thinners who wants the Embrace. He'll give them the equivalent of Resources 5 if they do it (maybe 10-20 million plus a mansion depending on how the PCs bargain). He has ties to the Second Inquisition and plans to use them to eliminate rivals and set himself up as a power in their city. He controls two US Senators and already has a Low Humanity score.

75. See 74#, he's actually not a billionaire at all. He's squatting in a mansion up for sale after its real owner's death and the people he's hired as security are just local actors. He fully intends to stiff the PCs with the bill.

76. See #75 and he is a former ghoul allowed to age to 90 after spending most of his life as a 20 year old. His old master will not be pleased that his ex-employee is now immortal and has access to all of his secrets.

77. A well-meaning vampire (they exist, sometimes) tried to treat the patients of his hospital job by giving them bits of vampire blood to help in their recoveries. While this helped with some, it actually resulted in a lot of them becoming violent and dangerous to their families. The Sheriff wants the guy staked and held up to the sunlight. They can be bargained into clemency if the vampire is forced to make restitution in some awful way like helping bleed patients.

78. The PCs are given a very valuable painting by an associate. It was stolen from a Toreador Elder a long time ago and they have since met the Final Death. Their childer will be very pissed at not possessing it as they were both artiste and (nude) model for it respectively. It's all fun and games until they start threatening horrible revenge or death against each other's servants.

79. The PCs are asked to give a ride to a Nosferatu to a motel in the middle of nowhere because the vampire doesn't have a car. While waiting, the building blows up and a massive gun fight breaks out that the PCs may be caught up in. The Nosferatu comes back with two massive bags of cash. The Nosferatu will cut them in but refuse to explain what the fuck just happened.

80. See 79# but add a car chase and later ninjas. Feel free to get increasingly surreal and/or Tarantino-esque. Possibly concluding with the Nosferatu exploding for seemingly no reason when he finally tries to explain things.

81. People dying due to Covid-19 in a particularly nasty outbreak. It's due to a Thin Blood with a mouth deformity that spreads the infected blood rapidly as well as increases its potency. Every vampire in the city wants them dead and is ready to kill all Thin Bloods and Caitiff in the city over this.

82. See 81#, it actually is just a rumor started by a Malkavian and there's no such thing as a plague-bearing Thin Blood. The people just died of the disease regularly and its hysteria in action.

83. Several members of a venerated Old Money family have been murdered or died in suspicious accidents. This is pretty Masquerade breaking, especially as there's a Ventrue in the city of said family. Someone is clearly planning to remove the bloodline and drive him to torpor.

84. See 83#. The Ventrue actually feeds on domestic servants and is killing his bloodline so he can liquidate the family assets since he was recently ruined. He plans to kill another ten or so people then blame it on "cartels or something."

85. Elizabeth Bathory was not a vampire but one of her self-stylized spiritual successors has been kidnapping young minority women to do blood baths. The PCs are asked to investigate but already the locals are forming an old fashioned lynch mob to go after her and anyone she was seen with on social media.

86. See 85#, the irony being that she actually is in her mansion as a wight since bathing in the blood caused her to frenzy and go insane until she lost everything remaining of what she was.

87. A predatory loan business has moved into a neighborhood and people are disappearing left and right. They're planning to gentrify the neighborhood and are going to replace everything with stories that sell nothing. The PCs can either try to profit off of this or shut it down, depending on how they like the neighborhood.

88. There's an actual slaving ring that provides Kindred with young men or women to purchase, Blood Bond, and brainwash before they pick up their property. Either that or just have them sent as meals. It is handled via an app and some tech savvy youngsters who think they're geniuses for this. It is not nearly as innovative as they think but not illegal either. What the PCs do about it is up to them.

89. A witness in the Witness Protection Program was a member of a local vampire's gang. Their former boss would like them to be taken care of. If the PCs aren't up for murder for hire, point out that they know too much and erasing their memories of vampiredom is also a good idea.

90. This is 89#, a trap by the Second Inquisition. Their bait is terrified that he's being set up and 100% correct about their expendability.

91. The PCs wake up in a tub with a missing organ or two. A Kindred prankster told where their "newly dead" bodies were and it was transported by organ leggers to transport (thankfully in a sunlight proof body bag). The PCs are probably very irritated.

92. The PCs are asked to get a pair of children out of town. This is because their parents were recently killed by the Prince and the Sheriff couldn't go through with the order to kill them too.

93. See 91#. The thing is the children are dhampir already drinking blood and are hopeless psychopaths. Possibly even Revenants.

94. A man is bothering a woman at the PC's hang out, insisting they're his wife and that they have a child together. She eventually calls the cops on him. Later, a vampire admits the guy pissed him off so he used Dominate to erase all her memories of the guy and implant new ones that he's a stalker. He's wondering how long it will last until their brains break.

95. For 94#. The vampire actually implanted the memory of their victim's marriage and fatherhood. Dude is a dick.

96. A prostitute shows up to the PCs home and says they were paid for by a friend. Their blood is laced with a chemical harmless to humans but incapacitating to vampires, possibly magical in origin. It is a very bizarre hunter.

97. A group of human vigilantes are going to go and slaughter a camp of homeless individuals squatting in an abandoned building. This is because an investor wants to redevelop the land. The group is only supposed to drive them out but the police could give two shits about whatever happens there. The PCs can involve themselves or ignore it.

98. A mobile clinic is providing free healthcare to the homeless but they're getting extremely sick as a result. Some have even died. Is a Kindred using it to feed on the least fortunate? Is it medical experimentation? Pentex? Technocrats? No, it's actually the fact that its a local teaching college's project and they're using a lot of expired medicine with incompetent students.

99. There's a farm full of guys who are kidnapping travelers, killing them, and feeding them to pigs. Nothing supernatural, just a bunch of sickos. An associate of theirs thinks that they could be turned into a useful service for Kindred.

100. The player characters find a van full of guns, explosives, and about $30,000 in drugs as well as cash. Someone is either dead or a complete moron. It'd be a shame for it to go to waste, right? Someone will show up looking for it later, though. But who? Domestic terrorists? Militiamen? The Mob? The world's dumbest but best-equipped vampire hunters?

101. The player characters are inside a grocery store getting orange juice, paper towels, cookies, duct tape, plastic wrap, color safe bleach, and a few other things you need as a vampire. That's when a group of violent drug addicted criminals come in to rob the place and handle it in the most unprofessional manner possible, possibly taking them hostage or killing customers. The police may actually show up soon because this is their second robbery of the night.