Nondescript white van. Cruising about, vague visual of a male human form hunched over the wheel. Could be a serial killer or could be someone cosplaying as a serial killer. Perhaps Van Man's tragedy is that he cannot escape the collective buzzy power of all our mean-spirited perceptions. Perhaps Van Man got so burned out telling people he's NOT a predator that he was just like, "Fuck it. They want me to be a serial killer, then I'll be a serial killer. After all, I'm a people pleaser at heart." The human driverly component could just be a decoy extension of the van itself which requires humans for fuel, while selecting a chosen few to use as a symbiotically attached lure and camouflage in one. Inside of van may constitute a torture chamber and/or an arsenal. In this schema, torture may also include food prep in the sense of using torture techniques as a kind of analogue of chewing or other pre-digestive processes. Campaign cosmology may have a central place for Van Man, in which much power spins out from it, or Van Man may be the expression of some divinity or force of fate. Van Man could be central to a creation mythology: picture a Great Cosmic Van cracking open to seed the universe with billions of Primal Vans; envision a bitter war between Titan Vans towering above puny humans; perhaps the interior torture chamber was the scene of some primal atrocity that gave birth to a cursed lineage of Van Men across the ages. Van Man could also be positioned as a kind of Ideal Form to which many aspire thereby establishing a Cult Pattern, or an Identity Trend. Van Christ, Van Messiah, Van Revelator, Van Destroyer of Worlds, Van Thought Leader, Van Executive Coach, Vanfluencer. You may also conceive of a Van as a holy site of power. Treading upon the innermost domain of Van may engender an extensive crawl all on its own filled with unique Enemies and Boss Fights derived from the Van Man's psyche or randomly accumulated junk or Collector's Pathology-motivated accumulations of stuff. Van Man can be a mook, a stage boss, a final boss, and/or an all-encompassing level, zone, domain, dungeon, environment, or seminar. Multiple Van Men may Voltronically combine into a Giga-Van Man that requires many rounds to vanquish. Bonus experience points for comically one-shotting a Van Man with a rocket propelled grenade or light antitank weapon. An especially sinister and psionically powered Van Man may use its brain waves to cause an ectoplasmic Van Imp to burst forth from an enemy's skull. A Van Man may be like a vampire in the sense that a Van Man can only be created by another Van Man. A Van Man's van may function like a shell that it abandons when it outgrows it . . . only to reveal itself to have a sleeker, more beautiful van growing into place. Van Men may make of themselves bitter factions, parties, wandering nations-behold the Plain White Rape Van Confederacy; the particolored Super Funky Bitchin' Swingers Coalition; the Square-as-Fuck Family Minivan Alliance; the hyper-utilitarian Worksite Additional Storage Vessel Republic-each Van Nation embodying its own values, doctrines, ideologies, and so forth. Campaign theme may revolve around the Doom of the Van Men as the Van Nations clash in bitter conflict until all are annihilated. You may also be interested in slice-of-life Van Life stuff in which Van Man is less predatory and more haplessly in thrall to social media-facilitated attention seeking behaviors. One may envision a one-on-one Van Fighter scenario in which Rape Van, Christian Fundamentalist Minivan, Swinging Shaggin' Wagon, Van Life Grifter, and others battle it out for supremacy. Another slice-of-life possibility involves Van Man Romance-dating, falling in love, Van Sexuality, Van Pregnancy, Van Birth-this could offer a climactic moment as a pregnant Van Man gives birth to a slimy, mewling Newborn Van Man. Espionage themed campaigns may center on the idea of "It takes a Van Man to unmask a Van Man within the Agency." Film noir influenced campaigns may feature Amnesiac Van Men trying to solve the mystery of who they really are while being seduced by Van Man Femme Fatales or being trailed by Van Man Private Eyes and hassled by Van Man Loan Sharks. A mecha campaign may cast Van Men as pilots of giant anthropomorphic vans. If your interests are of an aquatic nature, you could do a Moby-Van themed campaign in which a crew of Van Men venture out in a huge seaworthy Whaling Van to pursue a gargantuan Van Spermaceti for fun and profit. Solo gaming may consist of Van Man journeying down into ominously abandoned subterranean kingdoms in order to endure a gauntlet of battles with Van Doppelgangers that embody various aspects of Van Self . . . in the end, when Van Man re-emerges into the surface world it has taken on an unsettlingly meaty'n'juicy appearance to suggest a final ultimate merging of Van and Man. This Meats Van could go on to be the Final Boss of a multiplayer campaign or, alternatively, it could be beset by hungry dogs, bears, and vultures, who ravenously gobble Van Man back into the Grand Cycle of Nature. There's a lot you can do with Van Man.
