Your Office, President Varney...

Up again, down again, up again, down again; it's been hard to update with the server issues. I'll probably be tossing up some bonus articles up over the weekend to make up for it.

I had a neat world idea tonight. Remember Ravenloft, the D&D setting where the monsters are in charge? Well, the simplest way to sum up the idea would be a modern-day Ravenloft. It would be set up as an alternate history, diverging with the events of ye olde novelle Dracula. The main divergence occurs in the early part of the novel - Jonathan ends up becoming a Renfield before returning to England, and is a sleeper agent for Dracula. Because of him, Dracula ends up "winning" over the protagonists of the novel, and he and his minions end up more or less overrunning London entirely. With animals, vampires, and madmen at his beck and call, his influence spreads far and wide.

In this world, this essentially breaks tradition for the "creatures of the night". Because of past events - perhaps the Inquisition, or even older purges by humanity, monsters operate by a code of silence similar to Vampire: the Masquerade's code. Dracula ends up breaking that rule, and finding the world now ill-suited to a supernatural intrusion. Other creatures, some from gothic literature, some not - end up grasping for their own little states, seeking to keep Dracula from wiping them out (as he doesn't care much for competition). Chaos ensues. America becomes a "promised land", not for humanity, but for weaker monsters seeking thinly-populated and weakly-defended realms to dominate.

By modern day, you end up with a world where the world is divided between human and monster-dominated areas, with monsters clearly having the upper hand. However, infighting and ancient feuds keep any single one from dominating. Technology has stagnated in some areas, and more advanced in others; things like transportation might still be roughly around the 1940s, nuclear science is unheard of, while biochemistry might be very advanced (blame the early discoveries of Frankenstein or the like).

Not all "creatures of the night" are necessarily bad, but most are. Still, life in a vampire-dominated town or village is much the same as normal life; it's just that a handful of villagers are taken every year to 'supplement the stock'. In worse areas, humans might be cattle, playthings, or husks for possession, but in most places monsters have not plundered the resource humanity presents.

And, of course, you have monster hunters and revolutionaries. Unlike Ravenloft, it's not a given that the monsters will stay in charge, but the monsters have a definite edge due to their natural powers. The humans do have some edges - for example, things like crosses and silver are almost always useful against monsters.

As for system, it could be done with d20 Modern, or Unisystem, or Savage Worlds... I'd probably do it with an existing system. I'm more visualizing it as a action type setting, with cinematic action and wild powers. That's the rough overview, anyway.