A quick storyteller guide to a sucessfull STORY???

Noir

1. Introduction
It's a place very much like our world, sharing the same history, culture and geography. Superficially, most people in this fictional world live the same lives we do. They eat the same food, wear the same clothes, and wastetime watching the same stupid TV shows. And yet, in the World of Darkness, shadows are deeper, nights are darker, fog is thicker.

2. Mood - Dread
People fear what they don't know or understand. On some level, most people suspect that things aren't right, that they're being lied to. Rather than confront this terrible truth (Who's lying to me? Where are they?), they choose to repress it. People pretend nothing is out of order and go about lives as usual.

3. Theme - Dark Mystery
The overall theme of the World of Darkness is dark mystery. The world is one of shadows within shadows. Those who participate in these conspiracies should uncover as much of them as they can, lest investigators become unwitting pawns in the games of greater forces. But drawing back the curtain on one mystery reveals even more curtains, each hiding new secrets. It's not possible to uncover them all. Yet, characters can certainly work to reveal more than would otherwise be known, and so free themselves from these dark influences.

4. Atmosphere - Threatening Symbolism
Combine theme and mood in the fog-bound streets, rave clubs, towering penthouses, midnight woods and cloistered sanctums of the World of Darkness.

5. Morality
Morality reflects a character's sense of compassion for his fellow human being and basic respect for the rule of law. This isn't an absolute value. As people grow and change over time their perspectives on society and morality often shift. Some individuals strive to become more compassionate and virtuous, while others, driven by desperation or embittered by dire circumstances, reject their old convictions and adopt a more callous and selfish approach to existence.

6. Virtues and Degeneration
It's important to note that Virtues are not extensions of a character's Morality. Rather, they are ideals that inform his actions and provide a framework by which he interacts with society. Thus, it's possible for a character to commit ostensibly immoral acts in the pursuit of his Virtue. This doesn't excuse the immorality of a particular act, but the character may be able to rationalize the deed as a necessary one in pursuit of a higher purpose, and thus avoid compromising his ethics.

7. Degeneration
Alternatively, regret, guilt or remorselessness for inflicting abuses eats away at mind and soul.

8. Virtues and Vices
All characters have strengths and weaknesses, noble aspects and dark sides to their personalities. While most people try to cultivate virtues and eschew vices, both are intrinsic elements of identity and both equally reinforce a sense of self, whether we like to admit it or not...Fulfilling a Virtue is more rewarding than fulfilling a Vice for two reasons. One, it is inherently challenging to accomplish a surpassing act of goodness in a world that's rife with selfishness and aggression. Doing so demands sacrifice and perseverance. Two, the temptation to indulge base inclinations and desires is constant and often means taking the path of least resistance, which precludes doing the greater good. Fulfilling Vices therefore offers small rewards that are easy to come by.

9. Combat
In the World of Darkness, a bleak place where the health and happiness of others is taken for granted or utterly dismissed, violence is pervasive. All too often problems are solved with violence. It might be a random mugging, a simple argument gone out of control, the result of road rage, or the frustration of an unfulfilling life vented on whomever gets in the way


Horror

1. Introduction
In the world you're about to enter, the horrors and nightmares of legend aren't just scary bedtime stories they're real, even though most people don't realize it. The truth, or at least some of the truth about this world's hidden terrors, is revealed in other books.

2. Mood - Dread
Whether this behavior can be traced back to the ancient depredations of supernatural creatures or to fear of the occult, people refuse to recognize it. They are asleep to the realities around them and refuse to open their eyes.
Even those who do confront the shadows do so with a sense of dread. Exploring the unknown promises rewards, but also risks unforeseen consequences. Are the potential
rewards worth the risks? Every step into mystery is onto unsafe ground, and few march boldly into the night.

3. Theme- Dark Mystery
While each story has its own central theme, the looming theme behind them all explores the dramatic ramifications of a world of supernatural secrets. Storytellers and players alike should be mindful of this theme when they feel the need to return to the roots of the game.

4. Atmosphere - Threatening Symbolism
Everything in the World of Darkness has foreboding significance. Nothing is necessarily what it seems. A dead tree might secretly harbor a bitter spirit. A car might be a reservoir for magical energies that could kill the unwary. Everything is a cipher for something else, lending mysterious significance to otherwise coincidental events. Is it just chance that you receive a letter from a schoolmate you haven't seen or heard from in years, and you read the next day about his horrifying death by exsanguination?

5. Derangements
Derangements are behaviors that occur when the mind is forced to confront intolerable or conflicting feelings, such as overwhelming terror or profound guilt. When your character is faced with impressions or emotions that he cannot reconcile, his mind attempts to ease the inner turmoil by stimulating behavior such as megalomania, schizophrenia or hysteria as an outlet. People in the World of Darkness, unwittingly tormented, persecuted and preyed upon by incomprehensible beings, often develop these ailments by the mere fact of existing

I'll follow up this thread with some thoughts concerning story telling and building, please feel free to indulge.

I just thought of something that may be helpful in creating story, and how to execute it. This won't be a all out Rambo flick of course. This would be more fitting for those of us who appreciate a more Intellectual take on the World of Darkness.

The horrors and nightmares of legend are short term only. The monster shouldn't really feature (either physically or intangibly in the form of direct evidence) more than 3-4 times in the story. Following the noir trend the resolution options are; the monsters are beaten but at a severe cost to the PCs, escape (to return much later in the chronicle), PCs negotiate (if possible). The supernatural shouldn't feature as part of the setting (otherwise it becomes natural).

The majority of humans/ supernatural splats should dismiss the idea of whatever mysterious phenomenon is present. Those few who do should POINT BLANK refuse to get involved knowing the cost from prior experience and thankful of their close escape. It is up to the PCs to persuade them otherwise. Allies should be few and far between. Those NPCs who are neutral/ positive to the fact of the mysterous phenomenon should be utilising their knowledge and/ or power over the supernatural for their own personal ends. They are on the slippery slope to death and/or worse.

The supernatural should not be referred to or known about directly but rather through the dirty lense of occultism, providing as many useful leads and clues as red herrings and dangerous misinformation.

Monsters come in human guise too, derangements should be applied to NPCs closer to "the truth"/ monster than those closer to the 'real world'. PCs should suffer derangements after encounters with suitably disturbing... things.

The noir setting should gradually become more and more exaggerated as the story progresses until the pivotal encounter, the location of which should be nightmarish to the extreme.

These are just some of the important things that I think should be present and how to utilise the noir setting with horror stories. This of course is if you are planning a Mortal story, the conclusion of the story might be that the coterie would all be embraced or some such, or maybe they awakened? - Thus opening up for a sequel where you get to be one of the supers, with the benefit of the past.

What do you think`?