Masque of the Red Death - 1998

Masque of the Red Death - 1998

Updated rules for Gothic Earth in the 1990's

1. INTRODUCTION

The inspiration for this entire conversion came as I was playing the remake of RE on the GameCube. The idea that the T- and G-viruses were actually powered by negative energy, and that the world of Resident Evil took place in Gothic Earth, just fit so well I had to run with it. The idea was well-received by my players and an entire campaign was born. Further, I had toyed for years with the idea of importing "outlander" characters (characters not native to Gothic Earth and thus not subject to certain rules) to a MotRD campaign. The results were as amusing to watch as they were to play. Combined with the themes of bio-engineered viruses powered by negative energy, zombies neither wholly supernatural nor mundane, and creatures so familiar yet also so strange and unnatural, you have a truly terrifying game. You’re isolated from your own world.

It was also a change of pace. Gothic horror in the Twentieth-Century is just as relevant as it was a century ago. Man believes his science and technology makes him invulnerable to Nature. Yet when that technology fails before the onslaught of a mighty earthquake, hurricane, or flood, you can’t help but be reminded that humans are a nuisance at best. And even the most advanced of sciences can’t explain how some of the more enduring mysteries exist. Why is it that the Bermuda Triangle continues claiming ships and planes? How can we just ignore the possibility of ghosts in the face of overwhelming evidence that they do exist? (At least on Gothic Earth)

Mad science is a theme that was too easy to present. Cloning and genetic engineering have opened a Pandora’s box. As humanity explores what it is to be human, the Red Death sits by and eagerly corrupts good works for its own twisted ends. It has already harnessed the power of the atom, and even the Internet and World Wide Web are not free of its touch.

As the evil in men’s hearts grows, so too does the Red Death find a home. Despite a rosy outlook by most, the world is going to Hell in a hand basket. Over two-thirds of the world’s population languish in abject poverty as the rest simply look away and pretend not to notice. Terrorism and genocide are now a common practice in many places. And even in so-called First World nations, things rot as if afflicted by a disease as people struggle just to find enough to eat, to stay warm, or to find their dignity after being used and thrown away like a piece of garbage. Corruption and graft at the top only add fuel to the fire.

The years to come will not be kind to Gothic Earth, as history demonstrates. And the world has a choice: halt and cure the rot like the cancer it is, or let it consume society until it all collapses.

And finally, please note that this is not D20 Modern! While the campaign is just as easily integrated into a D20 Modern game it was designed for Masque of the Red Death and traditional D&D.

2. Gothic Earth: From the 1890’s to the 1990’s

The Twentieth-Century started out promising enough, but it quickly became apparent that a darkness would overshadow everything. The past one-hundred years have often been called the “Century of War,” and for a good reason. Death would become mechanized and even routine. The phrase “terrorism” would be coined and put into the English lexicon. And the most destructive force ever created would be unleashed.

World War I

At the beginning of the century, Europe was a powder keg. Tensions from the Napoleonic wars and countless other conflicts still simmered. Alliances were made and broken. Everyone was on edge. All that was needed to set things off was one spark.

The Red Death threw that spark when Serb rebels killed Archduke Ferdinand. Suddenly all of Europe was at war, and all of their allies around the world were drawn into it. New weapons, like the machine gun and poison gas, caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, and limited fighting to trenches. The ground so defiled it sometimes came to life.

In 1917 the United States finally got into the war when Germany offered to help Mexico take back the Southwest. The offer was laughed at by the Mexican government, but the insult was too great to ignore.

In 1918, with the Allied victory, the seeds of further evil were sown. Germany was made the scapegoat of the worst war in the history of the world up to that point. The country had economic limitations, military limitations, and all manner of other harsh and humiliating punishments imposed. Its dignity stripped away, Germany quickly sank into an economic depression, ten years before the Great Depression.

The Roaring 20’s

The Road to Hell is paved with the best of intentions. In the 1920’s there were many. A descent into Hell was almost inevitable.

In 1919, optimistic from its victory in the Great War, the US passed an amendment that outlawed the production and sale of any alcoholic beverage. Prohibition was now in effect. Yet almost nobody obeyed the law. The Red Death acted through some of the most notorious gangsters, such as Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel, to fuel the evil in people’s hearts.

Farmers, having produced a glut of food for the war, suddenly found themselves with too much and the price fell drastically. An economic depression on farmers set in even as the Midwest began to dry out and turn into the Dust Bowl, the virgin sod torn up and the trees gone, leaving the land barren and vulnerable to wind and erosion.

Mass production came to a head in the 1920’s. Suddenly it was cheap enough for anyone to own a car, decent furniture, or a number of other things. The Stock Market also boomed as high-risk investment became a trend and people dared to venture their money.

Then it all Crashed.

The Great Depression

October, 29, 1929, Black Monday. The Stock Market had been falling for weeks prior. People had been taking their money out of banks and liquidating it—turning it into hard cash or other assets. But it was on Black Monday that the Market crashed and the economy of the United States—indeed, the entire world—was ruined.

Those with money hoarded it, afraid to spend it for fear of losing what they had. Those that had none struggled to find work in any way they could. Some tried honest work; others turned towards crime. Few doubt that the Red Death profited from this turn of events. The misery fed it, and the desperation allowed it to recruit many new souls into its unholy legions

The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal started to reverse things. Public Works, such as the Hoover Dam, were revived. Banks were federalized so that they wouldn’t fail should a second Depression happen; banks had lost people’s money, and thousands were ruined as a result. This would prevent such a thing from happening again.

Meanwhile, over in Europe, a Polish man Adolf Hitler rose to the fore in the Nazi party. Originally just a political party, this man brought in the hate and evil that would never be exorcised. He eventually rose to the rank of Fuhrer, or President, and the Nazis became the dominant force in Germany. Under his gaze Germany began to militarize, despite the sanctions against it. The rest of the world was too poor to do anything about it. He even forged alliances with fascist dictator Mussolini and with a military regime in Japan that had all but deposed the Emperor. A Second World War was now inevitable.

World War II

The warnings of Hitler’s conquering nature were clear, but the world ignored them. When he demanded “just a bit of the neck,” all but the most enlightened looked away.

Then came the Blitzkrieg, or Lightning War. Using mechanization to take Poland, France, Greece, and other parts of the European continent before anyone could react, the Germans soon dominated. Years of fighting ended up with Great Britain and a small French resistance being the only ones to resist the Nazi advance. America remained obstinately neutral.

Then on December 7th, 1941, planes from a Japanese aircraft carrier bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The nation was instantly polarized, and declared immediate war on Japan. Days afterwards Germany declared war on America. The US joined the UK in the Second World War.

When the Germans broke an alliance with Russia, Stalin declared War on a former ally and joined with the Allies. Suddenly Hitler was fighting a war on two fronts. His days were now numbered.

Yet while all this was happening, the Red Death sat and watched with glee as one of history’s most evil men rose to power. The Red Death itself had nothing to do with the rise of Hitler. Hitler was all too human, and his evils were all too human to boot. Even his most vile officers, such as Himmler and even Mengele, were human as well.

Hitler’s fascination with all things supernatural, though, was justified. The Red Death fed his lust and allowed many of his most heinous projects to succeed. Countless artifacts, such as the Spear of Destiny—the spear used to pierce the side of Christ—and possibly even the Ark of the Covenant were reportedly unearthed and stolen by the Nazis. Where these items went after their defeat is unknown. When Hitler committed suicide, it’s possible the Red Death and its minions took them all, fearing the holy power such items possess.

Hitler’s final fate is a mystery.

The concentration camps themselves became some of the most haunted places on Gothic Earth. All are rating five Sinkholes of Evil, and most are phantasmagora. When the allies liberated the Jews and other prisoners, they saw the true perversion the Red Death allowed the Nazis to pursue. Necromancy and cybernetics, early forms of genetic engineering and biological warfare, all were fair game.

Yet it wasn’t just the Axis Powers that caused evil. Even the United States was itself guilty of sin. Italian and Japanese were rounded up and put into camps not unlike the concentration camps. The justification was that they might be spies. Yet more Germans were spies than any Italians or Japanese, and both groups often served more valiantly than most Caucasian soldiers. The Red Death had infiltrated both sides of the war, and used them like a puppet master. The consequences are still being felt to this day.

Yet the greatest victory for the Red Death was the fear that the Germans had the atomic bomb. Acting on a letter from the famed scientist Albert Einstein, the American government had scientists gather and develop the first functioning atom bomb in 1944. In 1945, when Japan refused to surrender, they dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Then another on Nagasaki. Appalled at the loss of life, the Emperor himself announced his country’s surrender.

Hitler’s legacy, sadly, survived. Some of the Nazi officers escaped justice. A few took up the cause in the form of white-supremacist groups like the neo-Nazis. This is the true horror of the Nazis.

Whatever horrors Hitler created or disturbed have not gone quietly back to sleep. Golems, zombies, ghosts, anything that the mind can imagine has likely been toyed with. And the power of the Red Death likely gave it life—or unlife.

The Cold And Korean Wars

Fearing that they would fall behind, the Russians began development of their atomic bomb. When they detonated their own in 1948 the Cold War was on as both sides rushed to stay ahead of the other.

America, flushed with plundered gold from the Nazis, entered a period of economic boom in the late-40’s and early-50’s. Yet America barely had time to relax. In 1949 the South Koreans were invaded by their communist neighbors to the north, and America rushed in to help. The Korean War was short but bloody, and often forgotten. The Red Death profited from the fear produced on both sides, and fueled the fires by prompting Senator McCarthy to accuse all sorts of people of being communists. Yet in the end people saw through this ploy and a fatal blow to evil was struck. But evil wasn’t down for long.

Civil Rights and Vietnam

The 1950’s and 60’s were a time when colored people—not just blacks—were tired of being treated as second-class citizens. The Jim Crow Laws—segregation—were being challenged, and the Red Death used groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the Neo-Nazis to fuel the flames of hate. Yet champions of the Light, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., stood up and fought back without resorting to violence or other such tactics. Yet others such as Malcolm X and the Black Panthers were far more willing to take more militant actions against these foes.

Some, such as Rosa Parks, became living martyrs for the cause of civil rights. And the Little Rock Five pioneered the way for integrated schooling when the Supreme Court ruled that segregated schools were not constitutional.

Yet the Red Death scored a blow when an assassin killed Dr. King. The true identity of this killer has never been confirmed, but that he, she, or it served the Red Death cannot be denied. Even President Kennedy, championing the cause for civil rights, met his end at the hands of an agent of the Red Death.

Yet while all this was going on, over in the Near East, the ancestral lands of the Hebrews was returned to the Jews. After the horrors of the Holocaust Great Britain felt it was only proper. Yet the Palestinians and their neighbors were not happy. From day one the Israelis had to fight to keep their home. And they were not going to lose it again. In the early-‘60’s the Six Day War was fought and won by them, gaining lands such as the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This only antagonized relations further.

In Asia, the French had been fighting a war with the Viet Minh, guerrillas fighting for a united Vietnam. Originally their leader, Ho Chi Minh, went to America for aid, yet America feared he was in league with the communists. Ironically, it was their refusal to help that led to his affiliation with China and communism.

When the French abandoned South Vietnam the Americans went in. From day one the Americans didn’t want to be there and the Vietnamese didn’t want them there. Add to this the loss of the focus on why they were even fighting this war and it was lost before it began.

Protests against the Vietnam War in the States threatened to tear the country apart as the hippie movement began to gain steam. New ideas clashed with established traditions and folks were no longer content to wait for change.

Soldiers returning from Vietnam were spit on, called “baby killers” and other derogatory things. Yet nobody that hadn’t fought could ever know the true hell they had suffered. The Red Death had won and there was more to come very soon.

The Energy Crisis and Iran Hostages

In the mid-1970’s OPEC—the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries—embargoed oil on America. The States were left in a lurch. Gas and fuel oil suddenly became more precious than gold. Smaller, more fuel-efficient cars popular in Europe and Japan became popular as people realized that gas-guzzlers made in Detroit were no longer viable. The auto industry nearly went bankrupt, and thousands were left jobless as a minor recession set in.

Then, as retaliation for aiding Israel, Iran took several Americans hostage. For over a year they were held as President Carter negotiated their release. In the end they were released, but the beginnings of terrorism against the United States by the Middle East was only just beginning.

Corporate Globalization

The 1980’s were a desperate attempt to return to the innocence of the 1950’s. Yet we couldn’t. Too much had changed. Too many things had evolved. Communications made it possible for us to talk with anyone across the globe with relative ease, computers were slowly taking over, and corporations were now the power—not the government.

As corporations merged a new form of corporation—the megacorporation—began to emerge. The Red Death saw what it could do with such, and used this new tool to further the cause of evil.