We’ve talked about what Curseborne is, who the characters are, what kinds of places the world has in it, and what kind of creatures inhabit it. The last pressing question that must be on your minds is “What do the characters do in the game?”
We’ve used the words creepypasta, street level, and urban horror a lot, but what does all that mean? I personally think the best way to explain how to do something is to show, not to tell, but I’m going to do a little of both in this blog.
First, the telling. Characters in Curseborne are monsters who live a cursed existence. And while they have Families who might politic at higher levels, and those Families all belong to Lineages, which may also have their inter-group politics, your Accursed are new to the world. They are not necessarily young in age, but they are young in their power. They aren’t given the keys to the kingdom at this point in their lives, instead, they are lucky if they aren’t just thrown to the wolves and left to figure it out for themselves.
So the first and major thing characters do in Curseborne is survive. They are trying to make it, and they don’t have all the tools necessary to do so. The world is dangerous, and they only have a few people they can lean on other than the members of their crew. They need to establish a safe place to live, a steady income, and people who they can rely on. And establishing all of that is good fodder for the start of your Curseborne story.
But what next? Playing a game of people just scraping by isn’t that fun unless there are other things getting in their way. And the nature of the world means that happens with frustrating frequency.
So, I can tell you that the characters struggle to find their place in the world while the world does everything in its cursed power to screw them over. I can tell you that they try to make sure the people and places they care about remain safe, in a world that is anything but. And I can tell you that weird shit just seems to always find its way to the Accursed, and if you don’t deal with it, it might just kill you, and so the characters must deal with whatever bullshit comes their way regardless of if they want to.
I can also show you how that plays out. So I’ve got several plot-points, or story starters with some conversation on how you might implement these in your game, or how your characters might react to it.
Story Seeds
A group of your friends went into the local creepy abandoned house and never returned.
Maybe you only know one of them, but a whole group went in. You haven’t heard from your friend in a bit, and you’re starting to get worried. You could go in alone, but if whatever is keeping them there is still there, it might behoove you to ask for some help.
What’s going on in the creepy house? Is this a place the Accursed have lived next to and never given a second thought to despite its reputation? Or maybe it’s a place that used to be just fine, and something has moved in. Whatever it is, it bears investigating.
You’ve just discovered your family’s darkest secret, and your parents want you to keep it quiet.
This kind of story seed feels simple at first. But when we consider what a dark secret a Family of monsters might be keeping, keeping it a secret might be the least of your worries. Maybe they have a missing Family head trapped in the basement. And just maybe that’s the Family head of one of your crew member’s Family. Or maybe they are experimenting with a dangerous monster, and if it gets out, it will destroy half the city. Maybe it’s just something you are morally and ethically opposed to, and you must grapple with the knowledge that keeping it secret makes you complicit in this breach of your morals.
The sun has turned red, but no one else seems to have noticed it.
This one is fun because it is the start to a mystery. You might be thinking “the sun turning red doesn’t feel very street level.” But no one else is noticing it. So maybe it isn’t something that is actually happening to the entire world? Maybe it’s just you, or just the location that you’re in. Maybe you’ve just woken up to your home becoming a new liminality and you have to figure out how to escape. Maybe someone has cursed the characters and they’re literally the only ones who can see it.
The local radio station has new owners, who broadcast a series of numbers at 3am.
Another start to a strange mystery. Maybe you only know this because one of your Contacts has fallen down a rabbit-hole of trying to understand the numbers station and has finally come to you for help. It’s pretty clear that this obsession is new, and becoming unhealthy. But maybe it’s because the numbers aren’t meant for mundane ears. And maybe it’s because they absolutely were meant for mundane ears.
Oops, your Primal friend went all bestial and got put on YouTube. Again.
This kind of story is a great way to show that it isn’t exactly like other games where monsters must keep themselves hidden. Sure, one or two people might take notice of the weird thing someone found on YouTube. Maybe it even goes viral. But few believe it’s real. Maybe their Family is upset about it. The danger of even one person deciding to go venator on them is worth preventing this kind of thing from happening. Maybe they want to punish them, and maybe they want them to do some pretty terrible shit jobs to make up for the cover up they end up doing.
The scabby dog that lives on a lot down the street just showed up at your door with a bone in his mouth, and it looks human. You immediately recognize the Hungry sigil carved into the femur.
That bone belongs to a Hungry Family, and you don’t know which one. Where it came from. How the dog got it. There are so many questions, and not enough time to answer before whomever it belongs to comes looking for it. Why was it so close to your house anyway?
You had a fantastic takeout with your friends the other night. As you’re disposing of the trash, you finally crack open the fortune cookies: every one of them has a message that reads “HELP.” You ordered the damn meal three nights ago, so what are you going to do?
This kind of story seed can create the start of a slow burn story. Maybe someone is literally trapped in the takeout restaurant, but maybe something else is happening. Maybe it turns out when you go looking that this is an interstitial zone (a type of liminality that tries to lure you into complacency so you stay inside) and even investigating it leads to you getting trapped there as well. Or maybe it’s a wakeup call that you’ve actually been in one this whole time.
