The Hollows and Hobgoblins Blog

Tag: rpg

  • A Game of the Pool: Cthulhu Style!

    A couple of friends wanted to play the Pool, and picked a Lovecraftian scenario. So I updated my Cthulhu version of the Pool (available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xAJJUfMEksHb8TTC7pRdn_Hlh6fDyCbU/view?usp=drivesdk) and the players made one character each. They wanted a period piece, so we went with 1920s Seattle. 

    The first thing I did in my prep was read about Seattle in the 20s. The population at the time was 315,000, wages were about $35 a week, $1750 a year on average. A full, fancy lunch at a restaurant cost 40-80 cents, and a slice of pie 5 cents. There was no TV. Commercial radio had just started. There are phonographs and telegraphs; there were phones, and you could call throughout most of the country by this point. The Great War had ended in 1918; and the deadly 1918 flu pandemic was mostly over by 1920. Prohibition was in full swing, and smuggling booze was big business. 

    The famed Seattle General Strike of 1919 had just drawn global headlines. The strike was one of the first citywide work stoppages in a major U.S. city, and terrified the business community that a Bolshevik Revolution was about to sweep the country. The FBI swooped in to stop the strike, arrested the labor leaders, and shut down the labor newspapers. 

    This led to the country experiencing its first Red Scare, a time of national hysteria that brought crackdowns on trade unionists, socialists, anti-war activists, and so on. Vigilante groups such as the Seattle “Minute Men” formed, with the goal of discovering German spies.

    The Ku Klux Klan was a powerful component of the Democratic Party at this time, and led an anti-immigrant crusade. In the same vein, Woodrow Wilson’s government launched the “Palmer Raids,” where the federal government rounded up and jailed or deported more than 500 immigrants throughout the country.

    There were several incidents of political violence. In what’s come to be known as the Centralia Massacre, a vigilante group marched on the local headquarters of the IWW. In the resulting shootout, 3 of the vigilantes were killed. The police stopped the confrontation and arrested a Wobbly member, Wesley Everest. Later that evening, a mob raided the jail and lynched him from a bridge. 

    So, when I looked over this bit of history, quite dramatic and violent, I found myself drawn to the horror of the Centralia massacre incident. What if, I wondered, the slain man had a relative that wanted revenge – and was willing to go to extreme lengths to get it? In a Lovecraftian context, that would mean getting the power to identify Everest’s killers, and then bring to them a bloody justice. Suppose that was his son, who made a deal with a spawn of Nyarlathotep to gain dark powers. With that as a seed, I brainstormed from there. 

    In order to get the spell needed to identify his father’s killers, Everest would need a particular spell. How? Perhaps from a dealer in stolen or exotic goods. Let’s call her Gwendolyn Love, who does business out of a speakeasy. Love has her own problems – a rival, let’s say; Dave Vance, of Vance Export-Import Co., Ltd. 

    Vance will be a pretty bad guy. Looking over the history, I notice the KKK was quite active, holding large public rallies. Let’s make him their Grand Wizard, and have him be an actual sorcerer with a few spells in his pocket. He and Love have a gangland-type competition, not only in liquor but exotic goods such as scrolls. They’d each like to take the other out, and are looking to recruit others to help. 

    In addition, the local KKK suspect Everest knows or has some book or scroll from which he gained sorcerous powers, and are harassing him to get their hands on it. 

    Now, what about a starting scene to let the players know about and get into the thick of the situation? Well, suppose a couple of KKK thugs went a bit too far in harassing Everest, and he responded by letting the spawn of Nyarlathotep loose, killing them. The release of sorcerous energy would be felt by the PCs, who when they went to investigate would find the dead men, and a matchbook with the name “Jake Everest” circled. 

    I made a few notes on a few locations – the speakeasy, the Vance Company warehouse, a farm used for a KKK rally, and so on. I fleshed out the NPCs more, and my prep was done.

    The characters created by the players included:

    Name: Joseph Harbinger

    Studying as a Jesuit exorcist, Joseph Harbinger discovered a book of arcane formulae that could twist reality. One formula summoned the Whispering Void, which told him secrets that destroyed his faith. He left the order and seeks the Book of Thomas the Other, rumored to contain proof of a benevolent god. Pursuing the book, Joseph had an education in the seattle underworld and persuading people. 

    Jesuit exorcist +1

    Arcane formulae that could twist reality +2

    Summoned the Whispering Void +1

    Faith +1

    Seeks the Book of Thomas the Other +1

    Proof of a benevolent god +1

    seattle  underworld +1

     persuading people. +1

    And

    Name: Silas Whigham

    Accompanied by Jenkins (a rat) and plumbing tools, Silas leads the Subterranean Hygiene Intelligence Team. He knows the city’s underground, which is why politicians, detectives, and military officers call on him to deal with unspeakable messes. Silas inhales mind-altering fumes venting from underground: He’s convinced they inspire his prophetic visions. Silas uses his workman demeanor to persuade citizens that his activities are safe and authorized.

    Jenkins (rat): +1 

    Plumbing tools: +2

    Subterranean Hygiene Intelligence Team: +1

    Knowledge of the underground: +2

    Vision-inducing fumes: +2

    I had the players introduce their characters and say what they were doing, and then described the initial scene. Unfortunately, I immediately ran into a problem: one of the players got angry with me, accusing me of railroading. The player of Harbinger refused to go to the scene I had prepped, instead wanting to go to the university in pursuit of the Thomas tome. At the time, I was taken aback; I was confused by the response. I went with it the best I could. My notes on the Thomas tome were minimal at best, so I quickly made up a few things – the tome is in Palestine, owned by a man named Mazran. Other people wanted the book as well, for different reasons. Both Love and Vance would have the contacts to broker a deal, but everyone involved was a backstabber. With this background in mind, I kept playing, alternating scenes between the two players. 

    After the session, I asked this player what was going on. It turns out he and I had a basic misunderstanding: when I did my prep for the game, I did so with no regard for the PC backgrounds at all – similar to how I’d prep for running a dungeon crawl. The player, on the other hand, assumed the exact opposite, that I would base my preparation on his character background, as he wanted pursuing the tome to be his central focus of play. Ron Edwards has some terminology for these two approaches for GM prep, and also distinguishes a third option that’s in between the two, but unfortunately I can’t recall them or where to find them, so you’ll need to ask him if you need clarification. But the point is, the problem arose because the player and I had different expectations of what the focus of play was going to be. Once I learned what the player wanted, I then prepped the next session accordingly.

    Anyway, Joseph Harbinger wound up at the Blue Royale, the speakeasy where Gwendolyn Love operated. For a price, she got him the contact information for Abdullah Mazran, the current owner of the tome.

    Meanwhile, Silas Whigham pursued the clues he found on the dead klan members, and managed to sneak into Jake Everest’s apartment. Once inside, his luck ran out. After several failed rolls, he became possessed by another spawn of nyarlathotep, who Everest had been keeping in a box he’d hidden away. While the entity didn’t have total control, Whigham’s player would have to make rolls to resist when it tried to exert it.

    Behind the scenes: between scenes, I made brief notes about what the NPCs were up to. Everest went to Love in pursuit of the pnakotic manuscript, from which he could learn the spell Azathoth’s shadow (this would give him the ability to look into the past and discover his father’s killers). Everest wouldn’t be able to afford to pay cash for the scroll, so what would Love accept in exchange? She agrees to give him the manuscript if he kills Vance. As this is happening, Vance is preparing to lead a KKK rally. He plans to use the energy of the rally to cast a spell at Love, to kill or enslave her. 

    The session ended and the players advanced their characters according to the standard Pool rules. Silas’ player added “Possessed by a demon, he has developed secret mental reserves to resist his dark master” and “Mental resistance to parasitic demons: +2”.

    It would take a bit of time to describe the rest of the game in detail, but here are some of the moments that stand out:

    Since the KKK rally was widely advertised, Jake knew where Vance would be, and followed him there. Silas encounters Jake at the rally, and they have a conversation. They can see the spawns in each other, and Jake is slowly losing his humanity. He reveals he is going to kill Vance. Vance arrives, heading for the speaker stage, and Jake closes in for the kill. Silas has the chance to intervene, but chooses not to. Jake kills Vance, and loses control to his spawn, which proceeds to massacre a number of the rally attendees, absorbing their life essence and growing stronger.

    Harbinger locates and makes a deal with another antiquarian, a Mr. Said, who wants the Thomas book for himself but is willing to let Harbinger study it. Their plan involves taking Mazran’s son hostage, and demanding the book in exchange for him. To get the son requires Harbinger to cast a kind of dimensional gate spell, which unfortunately goes disastrously wrong. Said is sucked, screaming, into the void. Harbinger is left with nothing.

    Silas is concerned that Jake will lose control and let something horrible into the world if his plan succeeds, so he follows him. 

    Harbinger goes back to Love, but fails to get anything out of her. Angered, he destroys the entire building with dark magic. He then goes to a church and causes a priest to lose their faith. 

    There is a final scene where Harbinger, Silas, and Jake are in a church. Jake is ready to cast his spell, and begin to take vengeance for his father. Silas repeatedly tries to do things but his player keeps failing his rolls. Finally, they both try to stop Jake, Silas grabbing him around the neck and holding him as Harbinger’s void spell consumes them both, then himself, leaving no trace of any of them. IIRC, both players succeeded in these final rolls, and both chose to do a monologue, so they collaborated on it. 

    Although I enjoyed the game overall, I felt bad because the players kept failing rather spectacularly on critical rolls – and I saw my role as to make sure these rolls had serious consequences. My impression was these multiple failures frustrated them a bit, but I didn’t know what I could do about it. 

    As always, I appreciate any comments, questions, or analysis. In particular, what is your experience when players have really bad luck with multiple critical rolls?

  • Some Lessons From Tunnels & Trolls

    Having heard from some people, such as Ron Edwards, that T&T was the quintessential dungeon-crawling game, I wanted to give the game a spin to see how I liked it and what I could learn from it. The 5th edition of the game is what got the most praise, so that’s the one I tried. My bottom line: the game as a whole is clever and worthy of play, but the text is vague enough that it requires interpretation; such interpretation can differ dramatically from table to table. I’ll include what I came up with below in a comment; for Ron Edwards’ (substantially different, but also perfectly functional) way of playing, please see his website, http://adeptplay.com.

    Here’s what happened during the actual game:

    So the setting of the game is my own. The evil queen Aletheia, recently released from centuries of imprisonment, and her right hand mage Judore, took over the realm of Varhold, enslaving its inhabitants. From there, she called all the remnants of the Elven diaspora to her. Together, they continued enslaving and conscripting humans and other races into her army, and began a campaign of imperial conquest. None seem to be able to stand against her forces. Desperate for any chance, any hint of weapons or items to fight against the evil queen, rulers of the surrounding territories are willing to pay high prices. So, brave adventures roam the land, exploring caverns and ancient ruins in search of such treasure.

    In the dwarven town of Boltheim, refugees fleeing from the depredations of the elven forces have found that their trials are only just beginning. The locals tell of how strange creatures are coming into town and abducting people, who are never seen again. Recently, a teenage abductee successfully escaped, and told how she was held captive in some sort of cave, where she could see chests full of crystals glowing with strange magic. Pleading for someone to help rescue her family, she gave directions to the location from which she escaped.

    So the adventure begins with the player characters in front of an iron door leading further into the caverns. I was GMing for two players, each of who controlled two characters, who included warriors Hayoshiko, Atticus, and Enneada, and Sezerain the rogue. The characters were able to enter the door, forcing it open with a combined strength roll. One rules point here: the fifth edition rules talk about saving rolls, but these are really attribute checks. The easiest way for me to understand them was that the player rolls two dice (doubles explode), and adds the relevant attribute value to the total. They need to equal or exceed the difficulty number, which is five times the difficult level +15. The level of difficulty is determined by the GM. So 2d6+attribute >= 15 + (difficulty level X 5). This is mathematically equivalent to what the text describes, but it is more intuitive for me.

    The characters quickly found themselves in a room with a fancy rug on the floor, and three doors to choose from. They noticed the rug was clean and looked pristine, so they were quite suspicious of it and avoided stepping on it. I asked for some IQ checks here as basically perception rolls; for those who didn’t roll a 20 or above, I just gave very basic information. One character rolled above 20, and I mentioned how they could hear people screaming faintly in the distance, and that the doors to the east and south were closest to the sound.

    The players open the door to the east, and see nothing inside, except a chest and another door. They are suspicious, and don’t go in. They then proceed to the door to the south. One character opens it, and because they didn’t use the key, it triggers a trap. Three giant, hungry spiders are released from above them, and proceed to attack.

    Now, when creating the spiders, I gave them the following features. I thought I would give them a monster rating of 20 – but that would mean they’d roll three dice each, and add 15. This seemed too harsh, so I gave them three dice and an add of just five. I was then worried this would make them too easy, so I thought that I would make it so that they didn’t get weaker (roll fewer dice) until they were down to a 5 constitution. In other words, instead of them taking damage to their monster rating they’d take damage to their Constitution of 20. In addition, I gave them a web spinning attack: they can spit out webs, forcing the targeted character to make a dexterity save of 20 or be trapped; once entangled, a character would have to make a Strength roll of 25 or above to escape.

    Unfortunately, I didn’t realize just how challenging the spiders would be. A giant spider managed to corner one of the characters, Hayoshiko, into a one-on-one battle. This became a bit of a grind, as the character was a warrior with 12 points of armor. After several rounds where no one did any damage to each other, we quickly instituted the spite damage rule: if you roll a six, then someone on the opposing side takes one point of damage, regardless of armor. Slowly, they were each getting hurt. Hayoshiko tried to retreat to join the other characters so they could fight together. I interpreted this to be a dexterity roll. Unfortunately the character failed (they rolled less than 20). Now here is the first rules question: when someone does a stunt like this, how to adjudicate the attack from the opponent? Normally, you compare the total of weapon rolls from each side, but when one side isn’t using a weapon roll, how to determine the result of the opposing attack? In this particular case, I rolled for the spider as usual, and compared this total to the player’s total for their dexterity roll, basically substituting it for the weapon roll. The spider’s total was less than the player’s. So I interpreted this to mean that the character was not able to reach his companions, but also the spider was not able to damage him. But I’m not clear on how this works in general. 

    Meanwhile, Enneada, Sezerain, and Atticus were fighting together against two spiders. The first round goes well for them, and they’re able to do 20 points above the spiders’ total, so do 10 points of damage to each spider. The spiders then unleash their web attacks. Atticus and Enneada fail their dexterity saving throws, and are entangled. Facing two giant spiders, Sezerain backs into the room with the chest, hoping to use the doorway to keep both spiders from attacking him at once. I winced inwardly as the player told me this, because I knew there was a pit trap just inside the door to the chest room! The pit trap opens. However, the player makes their saving throw – they needed a 25, and they got a 26. So I say they’re able to roll to the side, their lantern rolling onto the floor beside them.

    So now we have three separate fights going on. Hayoshiko is fighting one spider to the west side of the room, one spider is attacking the entangled characters, while another spider is trying to get at Sezerain, who is in the room with the chest, balanced on the edge of the pit trap. 

    Over the course of several rounds, Hayoshiko tries a number of maneuvers, retreating and trying to get back out the main entrance, trying to get the spider to flee using his torch, and again trying to reach the other characters. Unfortunately, each maneuver fails. I interpreted them as dexterity rolls, with maybe one luck roll in there. Now, the way that I read the rules, when someone does a stunt like this I should give them the difficulty level, consequences for failure, and the benefit of success. The benefits of success were easy to determine each time, but I wound up being continually confused about what failure would mean, in particular how to adjudicate the spider’s attack after the player failed. What I wound up doing was just applying the spider attack to the total of the players dexterity roll. The result was a slow grind, with spite damage slowly wearing away at each combatant. 

    Sezerain fought the giant spider with his spear, and the results were similar to Hayoshiko’s battle: they were slowly grinding each other down. Meanwhile, the third giant spider made free attacks on the entangled Atticus, eventually killing him. Enneada tried several strength rolls to get free, failing several times, helpless to prevent the spider from savaging the poor Atticus.

    The battle continues, Enneada fails to escape, and gets bit for some damage; Sezerain keeps fighting the spider and finally kills it. Enneada finally breaks free of her web, and attacks the spider. Sezerain throws his spear at the spider, so I interpreted that as a combined melee attack. This attack is able to take that spider out.

    At this point, after several failed rolls, Hayoshiko is fighting a giant spider in the dark, armed only with a rock. Sezerain and Enneada want to quickly join him, so I gave them a choice: Enneada can help Sezerain across the pit trap quickly with a combined strength roll; if successful, they’ll be able to reach Hayoshiko in time to make a combined attack against the remaining spider this round. Or, they can play it safe, Sezerain can cross automatically without a roll required, but they won’t be able to reach Hayoshiko until the next round.

    Here’s where another rules question comes in. They each made a strength roll, Enneada succeeding, but Sezerain failed by rolling a 4. Now their combined total was more than enough to beat the level of difficulty of 25 – but because one of them failed their roll, how to interpret the results? In this case, I erred on the side of  harshness, saying that Sezerain almost slips but he manages to get across, but not in time to help Hayoshiko this round. 

    Regardless, Hayoshiko and the spider do only a slight bit of damage to each other from spite damage. The next round, the characters join up, and are able to take the spider out with their combined attack. 

    I felt a little bit embarrassed, because I hadn’t meant the spiders to be that much of a challenge. They were powerful enough to almost take out the entire party. But I suppose that’s just my inexperience with the system. I felt sorry for the characters, and wanted to change the spider stats on the spot to help them out, but the players saw what I was doing and spoke up, refusing to let me go easy on them, which of course was the right call.

    The rest of the game went smoothly in my opinion. The characters cleverly disarmed a trap in the chest by pushing it into the pit trap so that it broke open. The sleeping gas it contained was released, but it dispersed sufficiently that it didn’t get anyone. The party proceeded further into the caverns, and found where the screams were coming from. They observed humans tied onto stone slabs, their blood being slowly drained and dripping into containers which glowed, gradually getting brighter the more blood dripped into them. In addition, they found a humanoid mushroom tied onto the one of the slabs, with a battle hardened Elven veteran and a pair of orcs experimenting on it, trying to get it to bleed. They also saw a couple of human slaves, with iron collars on their necks. One of the slaves noticed Enneada, but turned their head, not acknowledging her presence.

    After a brief discussion, the party decided they were too wounded to attempt a rescue, and took the treasure they found and ran back to town. And that’s where that session ended.

    Overall I had a lot of fun, but I admit that, during prep, I had a very hard time understanding this text of Tunnels and Trolls. I’m speaking of the fifth edition here. To me, some of the most important parts of play were completely left out. It’s like, the game text makes perfect sense if you already know how to play the game – but if you don’t, it’s very difficult to know how to play from reading the text. I often find this problem; the authors are so familiar with their game that some of the most important practices or rules are so obvious to them that they don’t even think of writing them down. However, these are not obvious to most other people. Without exception, when I’ve heard a game designer say, “it’s obvious that you’re supposed to do such-and-such in that situation,” or the like, they’ve been completely wrong. Certainly their point was not obvious to me at all.

    One caveat: considering the time this game was written – 1979, I believe – it’s better than most comparable texts, and remarkably innovative. Despite the issues I had with it, I don’t want to forget this point.

  • Monsterhearts Episode Two 

    At the party, Nix is able to knock her assailant out, after which she and Morrigan steal a Lexus and head to Discovery Park. 

    Back at the park, Tien wrenches Odessa from the vampire’s grasp, and attempts to flee with her. However Lyra’s mesmerizing eyes take hold of him, and Tien agrees to hear her out. The vampire reiterates how she is reasonable, helping to keep this region safe for both human and supernatural folk alike; she warns Tien that if Jonathan, a particularly vicious vampire, is able to take up residence here they will all regret it. She denies taking Jamie, as she would never be so sloppy as to just disappear someone. She tells Tien to do his homework on this, and quickly vanishes. 

    Tien comforts the stunned Odessa, then goes to find Harvey, whose body is broken and dying. Tien heals him with his transference power, listening to how he had an unrequited crush on Jamie, and his other woes. He leads the now healed but shaken Harvey out to the parking lot, where Morrigan and Nix have discovered Odessa, who is no longer catatonic but starting to freak out. Tien takes Harvey and Odessa home, making up a story about how they were attacked by a rival school’s student. 

    Morrigan and Nix search the park for any sign of Jamie, and follow her trail to a grove off the main paths; the center of the clearing contains a flat stone slab. The area has some signs of recently being occupied, mostly with many people having sex. The PCs discover that the stone slab was used as a kind of psychic battery to absorb and discharge various intense emotions, including sexual ecstasy and terrible fear. Tien rejoins them, and after doing some computer research discovers a disturbing but informative letter, from a 19th century newspaper man by the name of Benjamin Gilbert. Having lost Jamie’s trail, they call it quits for the night.

    The following morning at Seattle High, they notice that Harvey looks quite pale, wears sunglasses, and seems to be uncomfortable in the sun. Tien questions him, and he mentions how a hot blond chick showed up at his house, wanted to be invited in, and they had a wild make-out session. The “hickey” she gave him is, in Tien’s estimation, rather large, and looks like a wound that’s several days old – but no such wound was there last night in the park.

    Students are being interviewed one-by-one by SPD’s Detective Avery. He asks standard questions like when they saw her last, who did she hang out with, did anyone not like her, etc. but also takes pictures of their shoes. He also asks about her yoga classes, and they notice a brochure about a new yoga studio entitled Order of the New Dawn.

    American history class is doing a segment on local history, so based on clues from the Gilbert letter, Nix and Morrigan decide to research Chinese immigration during the 18th century gold rush. Searching for the name “Ling”, they discover the sad event of the massacre of Chinese gold miners on the Snake river (read more here: The Snake River Massacre). Four names jump out at them: J. Canfield, Frank Vaughn, Hiram, and Hezekiah. 

    Morrigan, obsessed with finding out how and why she was resurrected, learns that Stacy’s mother, who recently lost her job, worked at the same hospital that treated her after the accident. Morrigan seductively cozies up to Stacy, and they have an intimate rendezvous in the girl’s locker room. She convinces Stacy to invite her over for dinner, so that she can interrogate her Mom; Stacy agrees.

    Nix and Tien look for more clues to Jamie’s whereabouts. Nix decides to head down to the OND yoga studio. It’s an impressive place in a high-rent downtown building. When she enters, the assistant looks her over and says, “oh, you have one of those auras. You must be here for the soma.” The now-smiling assistant leads her back to an office, where a very fit Mr. Stile greets her from a challenging yoga pose. He bids her welcome, and asks what flavor of soma she wants. Confused, Nix blurts out that she just wants to know where Jamie is. Stile frowns, and says the police already asked about this. When Nix persists, Stile tells her to remain in the office, and leaves, locking the door behind him. Concerned, Nix tries to figure some way out of the room, but can’t. The door opens and two large men in business suits enter – and she can tell immediately that they’re vampires. “You made a bad mistake coming here,” one of them says, shaking his head.

    Tien, meanwhile, has done such a bad job of researching that he attracts the attention of the police. Detective Avery stops by to grab him from the library. He accuses Tien of knowing more than he’s telling, and when Tien remains uncooperative he says he’ll have to come downtown. While headed to the police station in the back of Avery’s car, Tien makes a break for it – using his ghostly power he phases through the car door, into the middle of traffic. Brakes squeal and cars are rear-ended as Tien flees across the road. He heads with ghostly speed to the yoga studio.

    At Morrigan’s dinner with Stacy and her mother, Morrigan guilt-trips Stacy’s Mom into telling her about two of the doctors who worked on her after her accident. She confirms that these doctors, while not unknown, tend to show up infrequently, and mostly for unusual cases. She also tells Morrigan that, from what she heard, when the paramedics first brought her in to the hospital they thought she was dead, and had covered her with a sheet. 

    Back at the yoga studio’s office, Nix tries to escape, making a break for the door, but is caught by one of the vampires. A big fight ensues, Nix kicking one of the creatures savagely while biting off the hand of the other. During the struggle she hears one of the vampires call the other “Hiram”. Unfortunately they are strong and fast, and she gets hurt, pinned to the wall by a vampire. 

    Tien arrives at the studio as well, and the assistant repeats that, “oh, you have one of those auras, you must be here for the soma,” and escorts him to the back office. From down the hall, a frowning Mr. Stile tells them to go back, now is not a good time, but Tien hears Nix cry out in pain. He darts past Stile and his assistant, and phases into the room. He pries a vampire off of Nix and tries to escape with her, but again the vampires are too fast. One of them catches him and tears him apart. He escapes death by becoming his darkest self, which in his case means he becomes an invisible poltergeist only able to interact with inanimate objects. He throws the office table into the vampires, but one of them catches it and reverses the throw, blasting it into Tien. The creatures slam Nix onto the floor, then tie her up; wrapping her up with the sheet from the sofa, they carry her out of the building. Invisible, Tien follows. 

    To be continued…

  • Monsterhearts, A Clue or Two

    A letter from Benjamin Gilbert

     The whole history of the fire we published in the Times was a lie, of course. The fire had nothing to do with that foolish Swede in the wood shop, we just used him as a convenient scapegoat. It was all because of the vampires. 

     Hunters from the east were on their trail, and had been for awhile – one of the creatures they called “Jonathan” was particularly disruptive, hardly bothering to cover his tracks as he left a trail of destruction, broken lives and broken families from New York to Oregon. He ravaged Seattle for weeks before we finally trapped him and his henchmen in the wood shop. The owner, may he Rest In Peace, was part of the plot, and invited them in so they would be unable to harm innocents when we confronted them. The vampire Jonathan – an exceptionally tall man, with dark hair, striking blue eyes, and an ugly scar down the right side of his neck – tried to compel us with that curious mental power they have, but we’d taken precautions – the standard herbal remedy from the old country proved effective. But we were unprepared for his extraordinary speed and power, and that of his companions. 

     DeMarigny took out two of the bloodsuckers with stakes, and I wounded one with my silver knife, but failed to slay it. Grossman’s bullets proved entirely ineffective, and Jonathan snapped his neck in the blink of an eye. DeMarigny and the other hunters fought like lions, but the vampires were just too fast. Jonathan knocked the knife out of my grasp and pinned me to the wall with an insane strength. He forced me to watch, helpless, as they drained DeMarigny of his life.

     Gloating, the evil vampire looked into my eyes. “Now that your friends are dead or dying, I think we’ll take our time with you. You organized this hunt, and are worthy of special interest.” 

     Although my heart quailed within my breast, I put on a brave face. “Do your worst!” I cried, “I go to meet my maker with a clear conscience!”

     Jonathan’s grin grew wider. “No, you won’t,” he crowed, “because I will turn you. You will join us, and I will personally supervise your transition as you feed on the innocent and helpless. You will receive a punishment beyond death.” With these words, fangs sprouted from his mouth and he bit down, piercing my neck. I am not ashamed to say I cried out then, in greater despair and horror than I had ever known. 

     When I was weak and dizzy from blood loss, he opened a vein in his arm and forced me to swallow some of his blood. “You will die soon now,” the vampire said, “and when you wake up, you will be one of us.” I was too weak to move or respond, and lay slumped against the doorframe. The exit was inches to my right, but may as well have been on another continent. The creatures turned to begin feeding on those wounded hunters they hadn’t yet killed, and tears fell from my eyes as I heard their cries of despair and pain. 

     It was then that she appeared. Beautiful, with a face showing traces of an ancestry from the east, and dark hair that fell in curls onto her shoulders. Kneeling down, she looked at me, and I thought I saw pity in her eyes, combined with a steely determination. I struggled to rise, entreating her to flee, to save herself, but she shook her head. “Invite me in,” she whispered, “and I will help you. This I promise.” 

     It was then I knew she was another creature of the night. My first instinct was to refuse her, but then, what did I have to lose? My fate was already sealed. “Come in,” I managed to croak. 

     Instantly she entered, followed by companions of her own. They were like a storm, unleashing a savagery upon Jonathan and his faction that words cannot describe. It was in this struggle that the fire started. I managed to crawl out of the burning building, and watched as the battle between the vampires continued, first onto the roof of the woodshop and then onto neighboring rooftops. The conflagration spread, as burning vampires set nearby buildings alight as they screamed and died. And so the Great Seattle Fire began. This was the truth we dared not print in the paper. 

     I died at some point during the night. Ling found me later, and cared for me, showing me how to feed. She had her own reasons for wanting Jonathan dead, but of these she forbids me to speak. She believes that monster perished in the fire, but I am not so sanguine. It is this Jonathan’s fault that I now walk as a creature of the night, condemned to darkness and to feed on the living for as long as my foul existence continues. And I make it my only goal to take vengeance upon this villain, and all those like him, who prey on the innocent with cruelty and malice. 

     I write this so that those on the inner council may know the truth, and be warned, and so take appropriate action. In my next note I will confirm for you the best and most reliable methods for warding against and destroying vampires. I urge you to employ these methods and protections throughout the region, using whatever excuses as may seem fit to the council. 

    I am most sincerely,

    Benjamin Gilbert

    A vampire

  • Monsterhearts Episode One

    I’m MCing Monsterhearts 2 for my gaming group right now, so figured I might as well post the updates to this blog. Here’s the first one!

    Characters: 

    Nix, the Hollow, a magical construct possibly created by a government agency

    Tien, the Ghost of a teenage boy who died when forgotten in the cold by his friends, many of the current students of Seattle High

    Morrigan, the Ghoul, died in a car wreck with a friend, but was resurrected, possibly by a secret government experiment 

    Homeroom is abuzz with gossip when the police arrive to question Ms. Waterkin about the disappearance of Jamie Tyler, a student at Seattle High. The other major subject of discussion is tonight’s party at Sandy’s house, the rich and popular girl who lives in Blue Ridge; “everyone who’s anyone” will be there, which excludes our main characters who were not invited. 

    During gym and lunch, we discover that Lucas (NPC) is into Nix, who is dramatically uninterested in him. Tien has a crush on Odessa, who unfortunately is hanging around Harvey, the mean jock. Tien gets intimidated by Harvey, but is able to shut him down and embarrass him in turn. Meanwhile Lucas invites Nix to Sandy’s party, who accepts, but then plans to bring Morrigan along. Tien approaches Odessa about the party, but discovers she doesn’t really want to go – she’s worried about Jamie, and wants to help look for her. Based on a clue that Jamie was last seen headed to Discovery Park, they decide to go there to search.

    Nix and Morrigan ambush Lucas and he reluctantly drives them both to the party. Sandy is perturbed to see Morrigan, who she deliberately said wasn’t welcome, but she doesn’t stop them from entering. The party is in full force with loud music, flashing lights, kegs and people doing kegstands, dancing, and teenagers diving into the outdoor pool. Nix notices that a small crowd has gathered around an exotic and beautiful dark-haired girl, who Lucas calls Lyra. She senses there’s something different about Lyra, and Lucas takes Nix through the crowd to meet her, with Morrigan pushing along behind. Very quickly Nix concludes that Lyra is a vampire, and so does Morrigan. When her eyes fall on Nix, Lyra’s eyes widen. She dismisses her hangers-on and drags Nix into an empty bedroom, where she questions her closely. Nix doesn’t reveal much, but gets the impression Lyra knows she’s not human, and is concerned she might be a construct made by one of her enemies. Lyra tries to seductively bite Nix on the neck, but Nix flings her off. The vampire smiles, then quickly vanishes. In the meantime, Morrigan tries to goad people into dangerous stunts, like jumping off the roof into the pool. She winds up on the roof of the house with Nix.

    At night in Discovery Park, Odessa and Tien search for a hidden grove that Jamie used to go to with some weird friends of hers. They find the grove, but hear a twig snap nearby, and a red light dances around the clearing. Tien tells Odessa to stay quiet and not move, then moves towards the red light. It turns out to be Harvey, who is also out looking for Jamie. Tien and Harvey have words, then Tien calls out for Odessa that it’s safe to come out – but she doesn’t reply.

    Meanwhile, Nix refuses Morrigan’s temptation to jump off the roof, and climbs back onto the third floor through a window. She’s alarmed to see an apparently stoned and distraught teenage boy inside, who says, “I don’t want to do it… I don’t!” Nix asks him what’s wrong, and he says, “I don’t want to kill you!” as he draws a gun and levels it at her. She tries to persuade him to drop the gun, but he just starts crying, and pulls the hammer back. Morrigan hears this and bursts into the hallway, and rushes the boy, grabbing for the gun. She misjudges and the gun goes off, hitting her in the shoulder. In the ensuing struggle, the boy loses the gun but slashes Morrigan with a knife, who falls down a flight of stairs. He turns to attack Nix, sobbing about how he’s sorry but he has to kill her.

    Back in the park, Tien is horrified to see Odessa up high at the furthest reaches of a tall Douglas Fir, in the cold embrace of Lyra. He flies up to meet them and pleads with the vampire to let Odessa go. Stroking Odessa’s hair lovingly, Lyra says she’s pleased to meet Tien, and offers to make an alliance with him. In return for Tien’s help against her enemies, she promises to give him what he’s wanted for so long – vengeance against all those friends who left him to die in the cold. She will even release Odessa to him, unharmed. The vampire asks for a sign of his sincerity – subdue Harvey, who is still cluelessly wandering around the grove, and bring him to her.

    At the party, Nix jumps out the window and climbs down a drainpipe to the ground. Knife-wielding boy pushes his way through the gyrating bodies on the first floor with little notice, except for some snickers from a couple of stoners. Outside, he finds Nix and attacks her, crying about how “she” is making him attack. Nix falls to the ground as they grapple, and is cut in the arm; sand spills out of it. Morrigan, badly wounded but still functional, stumbles towards them.

    Meanwhile at Discovery, Tien subdues Harvey, and flies with his body towards Lyra and Odessa. Lyra smiles in triumph when she sees him, but Tien flings Harvey at her with all his strength. She cries out and is stunned by the blow: she manages to hold on to Odessa, but no longer has her in a tight embrace. Harvey’s unconscious body bounces off her and falls through the trees, breaking multiple branches on the way down to the hard ground.

    To be continued…

  • And Now For Something Completely Different

    There were some cool ideas flowing on the Story Games forum, so I stole one of them and came up with this: A Truly Silly Dungeon Crawl. Just for the pure fun of it. Let me know what you think of it, and if you actually play it let me know how it goes.

    It’s copyleft attribution non-commercial share-alike, which basically means you can copy it, distribute it, and change it how you like, but don’t sell it.

  • Edited Cry of the Wilders Post

    I put a shorter version of the audio drama up and explained a bit more of what I was aiming for with the game.  If anyone tries the game or just has any impression or feedback, let me know!  I’d love to hear from you

  • Cry of the Wilders: My Game for Game Chef 2014

    The theme for 2014 was “There is No Book”, so I used the opportunity to explore the use of audio to explain a game. I wanted to emulate what happens in actual face-to-face sessions – usually only one person has read the game’s book, and then they teach it to the other players. So why not skip the book entirely and get to that core stuff?  That’s what my humble attempt here was about.

    The game comes in three files, one audio drama that presents the game’s setting, one play sheet with a summary of the rules, and another audio file of me explaining the rules to some friends.  Here are the links:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Pwq-FbdThtYWFCeTJ0U0ZoRW8/view?usp=sharing – this is a shorter version of the audio drama that introduces the setting of the game.  Yes, it’s a bit choppy and amateurish, but it was all a labor of love done under a short time constraint; it gets the job done, I hope.  Everyone who acted in it volunteered and gave generously of their time, my deep gratitude to them.

    (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Pwq-FbdThtNUM4Q3phM0ZBWWs/edit?usp=sharing – this is the longer audio intro; skip it, it’s a bit too long)

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Pwq-FbdThtRlU4MzkwdzBRRHc/edit?usp=sharing – two-sided play sheet with a summary of the rules

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Pwq-FbdThtek9meDNMQ1NFQms/view?usp=sharing – audio explanation of the rules with Q&A from my play group. Listen to this while looking at the play summary sheet, above.

    The audio files are mp3s, the play sheet is a Word document.  Let me know your impressions – do you like the setting? Does the game system seem like something you’d like to try? I’d love to hear whatever you’d like to share!

  • Game Chef 2013

    I’ve submitted a game, called Finding Haven, here, for Game Chef 2013.  It’s a sci-fi role-playing game inspired by stories like Logan’s Run and alien invasions like V combined.  I’m grateful for any feedback you have, please leave a comment here or on Praxis.  Thanks!