TEXT: Written by Stew Wilson     Developed by Eddy Webb     Edited by Genevieve Podleski 
  Layout by Jessica Mullins     Art: Craig S Grant, J S Rossbach, John Wigley
  A new character and Storytelling Adventure System scene  
  for Geist: The Sin Eaters
  A new character and Storytelling Adventure System scene  
  for Geist: The Sin Eaters
  Mental 
  OOOOO
  Physical OOOOO
  sOcial 
  OOOOO
  stOrytelling adventure  systeM
  White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
  2075 West Park Place 
  Blvd Suite G
  Stone Mountain, GA 30087
  XP LeveL
  0-34
  SceneS
  1
  
  © 2009 CCP hf. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and one printed copy which may be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf, Vampire and World of Darkness are 
  registered trademarks of CCP hf. All rights reserved. Vampire the Requiem, Werewolf the Forsaken, Mage the Awakening, Promethean the Created, Changeling the Lost, Hunter the Vigil, Geist the Sin Eaters, Storytelling System and The House Always Wins are trademarks of 
  CCP hf. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by CCP hf. CCP North America Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CCP hf. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark 
  or copyright concerned. This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.
  Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com
  Written by Stew Wilson     Developed by Eddy Webb     Edited by Genevieve Podleski 
  Layout by Jessica Mullins     Art: Craig S Grant, J S Rossbach, John Wigley
  White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
  2075 West Park Place 
  Blvd Suite G
  Stone Mountain, GA 30087
  Mental 
  OOOOO
  Physical OOOOO
  sOcial 
  OOOOO
  XP level
  0-34
  scenes
  1
  stOrytelling adventure  systeM
  A new character and Storytelling Adventure System scene  
  for Geist: The Sin Eaters
  
  1
  The House Always Wins
  Angelo looks around the joint, seeing 
  only marks. Back-room poker is always 
  a mug’s game. Every card dealt brings the 
  unlucky ones closer to losing everything—
  the shirt on their backs, next month’s 
  rent and more. Some schmucks end up 
  with a gun in their hand, doing some of 
  Lucky Joe’s less pleasant work to pay off 
  their debt.
  The hand’s over. One man smiles, greed 
  painted across his face. With a nod from 
  Joe, Angelo takes a seat at the table, in on 
  the game. Time to take it all back. Someone 
  knocks at the door and walks straight in 
  – despite the three locks. Angelo registers 
  little more than the stink of cheap cigars and 
  the stains on his old overcoat. Joe’s eyes go 
  wide, sweat sparkles on his brow. And in 
  a voice like rain falling into a freshly-dug 
  grave, the newcomer speaks.
  “Open a fresh pack, Joe. I got a hankering 
  for a high-stakes game.” 
  Joe goes quiet for a second, then nods. 
  His tongue darts over suddenly-dry lips. 
  “Gentlemen, the game’s seven-card stud. 
  No limit.”
  The newcomer turns to Angelo, smiling 
  with a mouth full of yellow teeth. He sets 
  down two chips from his pocket. They look 
  like ivory in the light. “Two years.”
  “What?”
  “That’s the ante. Two years of your life.”
  And suddenly Angelo realizes why Lucky 
  Joe’s scared.
  jean-sebastian ROSSBACH
  
  2
  The House Always Wins
  The House  
  Always Wins
  Mental •• 
  Physical • 
  sOcial ••• 
  Overview
  Bill Montague and his geist the Puppet-Man wander the world, showing up 
  wherever people bet on games of luck and skill. Whether it’s back-room poker in 
  Vegas or a quiet game of dominoes in a London pub, he’ll get there eventually. 
  Bill always plays for the same stakes: time. The characters might see him out 
  socializing—he might even invite one or two into a game. Bigger fish lead to 
  bigger prizes. He stakes his own life, but the months and the years he wins all 
  go towards the woman he loves, a woman he’s never so much as spoken to.
  Description
  One night out, a chance to relax and let your hair down, maybe paint the 
  town red a little. That’s when you see him: the Puppet-Man. The barbed wires 
  jerking his limbs around are a dead giveaway. He’s looking for a high-stakes 
  game. Only thing is, most people won’t know what they’ve really lost until he’s 
  won. He doesn’t have many takers just yet, but he’s coming your way.
  Storyteller Goals
  Bill’s presence in a story adds a note of desperation and fatalism, along 
  with some of the thrill of gambling for high stakes. A lot of things that 
  a Sin-Eater does go well beyond the law—and not just human laws, 
  but laws governing the Dead Dominions and the basic laws of life and 
  death. It’s only natural to revel in that glorious feeling of getting away 
  with it, the same feeling as winning a game with everything riding on 
  it. Encountering Bill and gambling with him puts the thrill front and 
  center. For all that, the Puppet-Man is an isolated encounter. Some 
  Storytellers might want to use him as no more than a reminder that the 
  World of Darkness is a strange, scary place even when the characters 
  aren’t actively seeking the darkness.
  The noble—stupid—truth is that Bill’s mind is clouded. He’s become 
  obsessed with keeping “his girl” alive, and in his mind that means 
  gambling for time, trying desperately to win a few more months. To do 
  that, Bill goes for any game of chance where it’s player against player: 
  poker or liar’s dice rather than blackjack or roulette. He wants to win 
  big, and in his mind taking time from Sin-Eaters might give his girl 
  enough juice to kick death’s claws away for good. If the characters take 
  him up on a game, or even if they just seem interested, he’ll talk quite 
  happily about the game. Mostly, he’ll try to psych characters out, but 
  he’s obsessed enough that he’ll let some things slip. One thing the 
  Puppet-Man won’t do is fight; if things start getting at all physical, 
  he’ll make his excuses and run like hell. 
  Character Goals
  Find out what this guy’s doing with the time he wins, and put a stop 
  to it before he throws things too far out of balance.
  Actions
  Player characters can try a range of actions to influence the game at 
  hand, mostly based on Larceny or Subterfuge. Resolving Bill’s obsession 
  involves convincing him that he can’t save everyone.
  Convincing Bill
  Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion vs. Bill’s Wits + Composure 
  (dice pool 7)
  Action: Contested
  Hindrances: Speaker appeals to authority or “the way it is” (-1), char-
  acters are winning (-1 to -3, depending on how much they’re winning 
  by), Bill is obsessed (-2), characters aren’t gambling with him (-3)
  Help: Speaker has lost someone close to him (+1), Bill is winning 
  (+1 to +3, depending on how much he’s winning by), speaker knows 
  Bill has never spoken to the target of his affections (+3)
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: The speaker provides an excellent straw man for the 
  Puppet-Man to rail against. Bill becomes more reckless with his bets, 
  and if he loses the next hand he may well die just to prove his point.
  Failure: The speaker fails to convince Bill that some things just 
  have to happen. He shrugs, and turns all his attention towards the 
  next hand.
  The House Always Wins
  
  3
  The House Always Wins
  Success: The Puppet-Man folds, gathering up his chips with a sigh. 
  For all that he’s no longer hurting anyone, the speaker has convinced 
  him to give up on something that has driven him for so long.
  Exceptional Success: The speaker convinces Bill to cash out and walk away. 
  He leaves one of the ivory poker chips on the table. If questioned, he tells the 
  characters they won it fair and square. Maybe one day, he’ll try to win it back.
  Consequences
  If the Puppet-Man wins the bet, he takes the stolen time right back to his 
  lady-love. Time taken from a Sin-Eater is more effective than anything 
  else (see the ceremony on p. 4 for more), but she probably only has scant 
  weeks left before she dies. If the characters win, the Puppet-Man ages quite 
  noticeably in front of them, and if they live long enough for old age to pres-
  ent a problem, they’ll notice the time they won. Finding out about the girl 
  might prompt some of the characters to find out what’s going on: she should 
  have died six months ago in a freak dog-walking accident, and deathmarks 
  cover her body. Coincidences and near-misses happen around her all the 
  time, often hurting the people near her. She doesn’t know that she should 
  be dead, but the wild swings of probability around her have turned her into 
  a regular Calamity Jane. If asked, she’s never heard of Bill Montague or the 
  Puppet-Man, and doesn’t recognize him if he’s pointed out to her.
  Background: Show Bill Montague a game of chance, and he’ll show 
  you a wager. He was the kid in high school who’d do stupid things on 
  a dare; drinking weeks-old milk or running naked through the home-
  coming dance. Thirty years on, the thrill of winning transformed into 
  a bitter sense of loss. Even two years of wedded bliss—quickly followed 
  by two more of shouted arguments and broken promises—didn’t change 
  him. The next score would be the one. That’d be his big win, and he 
  could stop gambling. Drifting from job to job, most of his paychecks 
  went on back-room poker and sports betting.
  One big win changed that. Bill’s system did him right, and he turned a 
  twenty dollar bill into ten grand. Bill Montague took that win as a sign, and 
  hauled ass to Reno. Stepping out of his car outside Circus Circus, he felt like 
  he’d come home. That feeling lasted for six and a half seconds. A cleaner had 
  snuck up onto the roof for a cigarette. Her cellphone slipped off her belt and 
  fell, bouncing off the wall and landing square on the top of Bill’s head. He 
  remained dead for six minutes before the Puppet-Man brought him back.
  Bill and the Puppet-Man both remember a face. Her face. She works in 
  a casino in Reno. He doesn’t know how he knows her, but she haunts his 
  dreams. He’s fixated on her, this girl who works as a maid at a hotel in Reno, 
  halfway between love and obsession. Once, he worked up the balls to speak 
  to her. As he opened his mouth, a car mounted the pavement. Jerked on 
  the Puppet-Man’s strings, Bill pushed the car away and saved her life. Now 
  the world knows the maid should be dead, and Bill’s got to keep winning 
  time. He travels the world, trying to find someone who’ll give him another 
  week, another month. Enough time that he can be with her forever.
  Once an addict, always an addict.
  Description: Bill Montague is a run-down guy, but he’s seen harder times. 
  He may wear old, crumpled clothes, but they’re mostly clean, and he remem-
  bers to shave most weeks. He’s shorter than average and his mid-brown hair’s 
  starting to turn gray, though he keeps it close cropped to hide a growing bald 
  patch. The deep lines on his face usually map out a grin edged with desperation, 
  and his teeth—when he lets the world see them—are ugly yellowed tombstones 
  jutting out of his gums. He smokes cheap cigars, more because the smell puts 
  other people off their game. Set deep into his face and ringed with dark bags, 
  his blue eyes occasionally sparkle with surprising intensity and wit.
  The Puppet-Man, to those who can see such things, floats above Bill’s 
  head. Strings dangle from it, attached to Bill’s limbs at the joints. Each 
  string passes through a symbol of man’s want for material things—a dollar 
  bill, a toy car, the latest cellphone. Above Bill, the strings are attached to 
  a crossed frame made of bone, with a membrane of skin stretched across 
  The House Always Wins
  Bill Montague
  Quotes: You guys fancy a game? Nice and 
  friendly, yeah? No money, none of that. 
  And you get to pick the game. What’ve 
  you got to lose?
  Ace showing? I’ll raise. You only live once.
  Heh. You wouldn’t believe what I’ve got 
  up my sleeve.
  Virtue: Fortitude. Bill’s got a righteous 
  mission, and there’s nothing in this world 
  or the next that will sway him. 
  Vice: Gluttony. The Puppet-Man 
  is addicted to gambling, and while he 
  claims a noble motive, he’s really just 
  in it for the thrill.
  john WIGLEY
  
  4
  The House Always Wins
  The House Always Wins
  it like some demented kite. Occasionally, eyes or mouths open in the 
  fleshy membrane to stare and grimace accusingly at people.
  Storytelling Hints: Though his love—the woman who killed him—is in 
  Reno, Bill can show up anywhere. He’s past the point where winning anything 
  short of a couple of years from a normal person will help, so he’s traveling the 
  world in order to find something with a bit more of a spiritual kick. Thus far 
  he’s been successful, but by the time this scene plays out he could have scant 
  days left before time runs out and the reaper takes what’s rightfully his.
  Keep two things in mind when portraying Bill and the Puppet-Man: 
  First, he’s a chronic gambler. He can quit while he’s ahead in the short 
  term, but his lack of self-control means he will pour all his winnings 
  back into his search for a bigger win. Even if he wins time from the 
  characters, he’s just going to use that time to find more. Most likely, 
  he’ll run out on the road somewhere miles away, and his love will die 
  without him ever having spoken to her—and he’ll never know why he’s 
  fascinated with her. That cowardice, the fear of confronting his prob-
  lems and instead putting them off, is a running theme in his life.
  Second, Bill is a Sin-Eater. He’s a little wrapped up in his own problems 
  right now, but he follows the path of the Reaper: it’s his job to decide who 
  lives and who dies at any given time. He’ll back down on a lot of things, 
  but never that—he might admit to getting a certain case wrong, but that 
  doesn’t invalidate the bigger picture. Characters who try to convince 
  him that his basic philosophy is wrong will put his back up, and don’t 
  stand much of a chance of convincing him of anything.
  Ceremony: The Devil’s Bargain (•••)
  Time, freely given, can be the most valuable commodity a person will 
  ever know. This ceremony allows a Sin-Eater to use that time, keeping 
  someone alive just that little longer—with the full and frank knowledge 
  that the debt will be repaid in full down the line. Someone kept alive by 
  this ceremony is haunted by the Threshold that would have claimed her, 
  as death’s icy grasp clutches at those around her. A murder victim becomes 
  a walking nexus of muggings, car crashes, and other expressions of violent 
  death, while someone who would fall victim to illness instead becomes the 
  center of a web of illness and disease. When death does find the target of 
  the Devil’s Bargain the results are never less than spectacular.
  Performing the Ceremony: The Sin-Eater must prepare a token made of 
  ivory by writing a sigil on it in his own blood. He places that token onto a 
  table and buries it in a pile of tobacco, along with a torn-up photograph of 
  whoever is to gain the donated time—a person who must not be a supernatu-
  ral being. The person donating time writes the duration given on a sheet of 
  paper in black ink. The Sin-Eater then sets that paper on fire and uses it to 
  light the pile. The donor has to grab the token while the pile is burning for 
  the ceremony to succeed. If it has, the skin on the donor’s palm begins to 
  burn. After thirty seconds, the sigil on the token is burned into his skin. 
  Dice Pool: Psyche + Wits
  Action: Extended
  Time Increment: The Sin-Eater can roll for this ceremony once 
  every 5 minutes
  Roll Results
  Dramatic Failure: The intended transfer happens, but the strange 
  energies warp and twist. Both the donor and the target lose the do-
  nated time. 
  Failure: The donor might singe his fingers, but nothing more.
  Success: The donor loses the stated amount off his lifespan, though 
  he can’t give longer than he has. The person in the photograph—the 
  target—cannot die until the donated time has elapsed, though she will 
  remain incapacitated and unconscious once her Health track fills up 
  with lethal and aggravated damage. If the target would have died during 
  the donated time, she instead dies at the end, even if she’s in the full 
  blush of health at the time. A given person can only donate time via 
  this ceremony once, period. Any further attempts automatically fail. 
  The target must be a normal human being; if she has a supernatural 
  template of any kind, the ceremony automatically fails and the Sin-
  Eater takes one point of lethal damage due to feedback.
  Worse, the ceremony offers diminishing returns. The first transfer is 
  1:1. The second time the ceremony is used on the same target, she only 
  receives half the donated time. The third time it’s used, she receives 
  a quarter, and so on. The only way to avoid this is if the donor is a 
  supernatural creature, in which case the transfer is always 1:1.
  Exceptional Success: The target of this ceremony regains a point of 
  Willpower, in addition to temporary immortality.
  Suggested Modifiers
  Modifier Situation
  +2 
  Photograph was developed by hand
  -1 
  Photograph is a print-out of a digital photo
  -3 
  Donor will not naturally die of old age 
  
  Name: 
  Virtue: 
  Archetype:
  Concept: 
  Vice: 
  Threshold:
  Intelligence 
  Strength 
  Presence
  Wits 
  Dexterity 
  Manipulation
  Resolve 
  Stamina 
  Composure
  Notes         
  Skills
  Merits
  Health
  Synergy
  Size
  Speed
  Defense
  Initiative Mod
  Armor
  Plasm per turn  
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
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  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  Manifestations
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  Willpower
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  Plasm
  Psyche
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  O
  Flaws
  Keys
   
   mental 
  physical 
  social  
  scene:
  h i n d r a n c e s
  h e l P
  Other
  The House Always Wins
  ­•­•­
  ­•­ 
    •••
  Speaker appeals  
  to authority (-1)
  Characters are  
  winning (-1 to -3)
  Bill is obsessed (-2)
  Characters aren’t  
  gambling (-3)
  Speaker has lost  
  someone close to him (+1)
  Bill is winning (+1 to +3)
  Speaker knows Bill has 
  never spoken to the target 
  of his affections (+3)
  Barfly
  Ceremonies
  Contacts
    (Casino, Underworld)
  Iron Stomach
  Resources
  Boneyard
  Oracle
  Shroud
  Crafts
  Investigation
  Medicine
  Occult 
    (Divination)
  Athletics 
  Larceny (Cards)
  Stealth 
  Survival (Urban)
  Empathy
  Intimidation
  Persuasion
  Socialize
  Streetwise
  Subterfuge
           5
  5
      9
          2
    
    5
    
     
  Bill Montague/
     Puppet Man 
  Fortitude 
  Reaper
         Selfless Addict 
   Gluttony 
  The Forgotten         
  Ceremonies: The Devil’s Bargain 3
  Derangement: Compulsive Gambler
         18/2
   
  Industrial, 
  Stillness
  2
  Pcs
  sts
  Inject both fatalism and the thrill of playing for high stakes
   Find out what’s really going on, and put a stop to it.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Storyteller [multi]/World of Darkness (WoD) [multi]/CofD/Geist - The Sin-Eaters/SAS/Geist the Sin-Eaters - SAS - The House Always Wins.pdf