Morgan's Dead of Winter 2013 Adventures

Dead of Winter was held again at the Carey House in Placerville.  I found that the Foresthill Bridge is the tallest bridge in California and is a few miles from Placerville.  One plan was to go early and do a little bit of site seeing, but due to work schedules and such, I decided to go after work and carpool with Jack Y. and Shannon M.  Maybe next year?

On Saturday morning, I met a few people who are guests of the Cary House each year.  One guy belonged to a group of tree researchers who measure the trees in the Placerville area annually -- who would have guessed that was a job.  Another guy visited each year but I didn't ask what he did because he had an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of Placerville.  He told me that the new owners of the Cary House was better at increasing the occupancy rate, so it'll probably be full all the time.

Interesting tidbits about Placerville (could be true or this guy is a real good spinner of tales):
1.  The hanged man was taken by a couple of kids as a prank.  They cut him down and hid him, but the hanged man was found.  The kids had climbed up the scaffolding around the renovations, but to prevent possible injury in the future, the hanged man has been put away.  Unfortunately, a lot of tourists come by to take a photo of the hanged man and they'll be disappointed.
2.  There are about 1500 historical markers around town.
3.  Here's the story of hanging as told to me (but different from the official history):  Four men lost their money gambling and decided in the evening to rob the owner of the hotel they were staying at.  In the morning, a posse caught 3 of the 4 men.  The 4th man got away.  They held a trial out in the open with the towns folk and it was presided by Judge Lynch.  The sentence was something like 39 lashings each. After they were bleeding and lying on the ground, a sheriff from a different town dropped by and said that the 3 men were wanted for murder.  Another swift trial occurred and they were found guilty and were hung on one of the only trees in town.  Not long after, the tree was chopped down to expand the building next door.  The original stump from the old tree remains in the cellar of "The Hangman’s Tree" tavern on Historic Main Street.  At one time it was covered in glass to show case the stump.
4.  The 3 hanged men were buried near the freeway and there's a marker there.
5.  Ancient pilings have been found around Placerville.
6.  Another hanging happened in Placerville.  One man accused another man of cheating and the accusee pulled out a knife and stabbed the accuser.  The accuser died.  The murderer was found guilty.  Further outside of town was another tree.  The murderer offered to save them the trouble and to climb the tree and hang himself, but the town refused and hung him instead.
7.  Nearby was a community of Japanese samurai.  A trader brought a clan of Japanese samurai to the area to escape the Japanese civil war.  They brought with them silk worms and plants for the silk worms.  Unfortunately a drought killed all the plants.  The ship captain who had brought them here promised to return to Japan and return with more plants.  He never returned.  Each day, a young Japanese girl stood on a hill each day to watch for the returning ship that never came.  Either the captain had a mishap or lied and never intended to go to Japan again and just left the area.  In the Placerville museum are some artifacts from this Japanese colony.

So much for Placerville, onto the games of Dead of Winter.

Overall, I had a really good experience, almost rivaling the first year at DoW.  Having the bathrooms locked at 10pm isn't the same as a missing urinal at the Brookdale Lodge, but we have to make due with what we have.

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Saturday, December 14, 11AM – 5PM
Game System: Call of Cthulhu 6^th edition
Scenario Title: Upton Abbey
GM: Gil Trevizo
Variations: None
Power Level: Incompetent Upper Class Twats and Sniveling Lower Class Morons
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided: Yes.
Description: The manor house is in an uproar as the Earl of Groantham invites his new heir presumptive, the callow Mr. Crowley, to a weekend of shooting and dining, where he might vie for the hand of his eldest daughter Mary and thus secure the shaky family fortune… but the arrival of a strange Turkish diplomat and the revival of long-dead customs brings a darker chaos for those that serve Upton Abbey.

I had a great time playing in this game.  This was my favorite game at DoW, it only beat out Matt Garu's game The Block by an insignificant margin.  Definitely a game for those who are fans of Downton Abbey.  We play all the servants of Upton Abbey and the Upper Class characters are all NPCs.

I decided that since the Family was going to be evil, I didn't want to play any of the evil Machiavellian characters (O'Brien or Thomas) -- evil vs evil isn't that fun.  The good characters (Bates or Anna) were not that interesting to me either. So, I decided I wanted to play Daisy, dumber than cardboard and the ability to make horrible mistakes without being accused of plotting.

My favorite part of the character sheet was the back:

My favorite bit from the sheet:  "Thomas is dreamy. (...) Mrs. Fatmore claims that Thomas is a Sodomite but you know he's really from Manchester.  You want to have his babies."

Gil gave out prizes too and I won this.

One of the cool things Gil did that worked really well was that he let you burn San points to flip-flop a percentile die roll (1d6 san loss) or re-roll a die roll (1d20 san loss).  This represented your character becoming unstably obsessive with succeeding.

It was great fun, I think we went through the whole first season of Downton Abbey in the 6 hours of play.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

We were told that we're the new staff.  Last Christmas, all the staff died in a fire except for Miss O'Brien who was sent away during the fatal event.  So that didn't bode well for us.  Metagame-wise, we knew we were on the chopping block as Christmas was upon us and the Family were evil cultists.

The towers and 3rd floor of the Upton Abbey were locked off and off limits to the Staff due to safety concerns from the previous year's fire.  Of course, due to curiosity, most staff would go to the off limits area given the opportunity.

My favorite game bits:

The Crowley's automobile crashing into the staff and catching on fire.  Daisy caught on fire and Gwen (played by June G.), tried to put the fire out with a bucket of water, but critically failed and nailed Daisy with the bucket, so Daisy decided it was safer under the burning car which could blow up at any moment.  Gwen was nice enough to pull Daisy out from under the car before it blew up.

Thomas (played by Karen T.) sneaking into Mr Pamuk's room (NPC) and having Turkish sex.

Mr Bates (played by Frank F.) discovering the Librarian.

Thomas and Miss O'Brian (played by Jim  M.) knocking Mrs. Fatmore (NPC) unconscious and leaving her face down on the burning stove.  Then when Daisy finds her and wakes her up, Mrs. Fatmore says, "Grab a knife, Daisy, we got some killing to do."  We head up into the tower and confront Miss O'Brian and Thomas and Daisy critically fails with the kitchen knife and it shatters.  And when Mrs. Fatmore gets murdered by Miss O'Brian and Thomas, Daisy runs into the kitchen and grabs a frying pan and huddles in a corner.  Thomas then convinces Daisy to look for a Canopic Urn.  She finds the dust markings of one (with critical success) that used to be in Lord Groantham's dresser (stolen by Mr Bates), so she tells Thomas she found it in the dresser.  "Daisy!" was Thomas's comment when he found the empty dresser.

The Fox hunt and asking volunteers to wear the Fox fur.  Sheer genius, Gil.

Daisy trying food for Mr Pamuk and going unconscious and when later when all the players were asked if they would eat the Christmas dinner, Daisy said, "Yes, of course, she's the cook; she has to taste everything." And she fell unconscious as she was trying to clean the blood off of the Fox fur.

Daisy waking up in the field ready for sacrifice and asking Lord Groantham (NPC) if it was alright if she returned to the Abbey and got the Fox fur for him as she was supposed to.  "Sure," he said, "If you're coming back."  "Yes, mi Lord."  And Daisy came back with it.  "Now lay down," ordered Lord Groantham.  "But it's cold and damp."  "Well, put on the cloak, then."  "Ok."

The final fight where the Staff kills the Family. 

Daisy got to brain the Dowager Countess with a frying pan, repeatedly.

Gil gave out two cups and a Downton Abbey reusable shopping bag as prizes. I got the cup for going insane first.  Thanks, Gil. It was a great game.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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Saturday, December 14, 7PM – 1AM
Game System: Unknown Armies.
Scenario Title: Night Shift
GM: Duane O’Brien
Variations: Some House Rules
Power Level: Regular Joes
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided: Yes.
Description: Normally the night shift at this institution is pretty quiet. Occasionally the police will bring someone over for an involuntary hold, but for the most part nothing really happens. But tonight, a series of unexplained attacks will leave everyone praying for the dawn.
 We're all staff at a mental institution, except for one PC that was a patient.  To help determine which players played which character, Duane showed us ink blots and asked us what we saw.

I got to play the doctor and select the patients and their disorders.  The time period was late 1800's.  So, knowing some history of that time period, I picked some pretty unacceptable diagnoses (by our standards).  My favorite was the woman who was "1/8 Black who claimed that she was White" -- yeah, WTF.  And we're going to try to cure her by making her accept that she's Black.

I've been in a couple of Duane's games and they're always excellent.  Most of them are epic in scale; this time this game was more of a locked room mystery and very different in flavor.

I did enjoy the game, but it wasn't on the same epic scope as some of his other games.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

The game starts with police bringing in a new temporary patient.

At first, I tried to get some background info on the patient, but we soon learned that due to lack of technology, and long traveling distances, that this was a locked room mystery.  Without access to external information, our only avenue of investigation was the new patient.

Back then, you used to look at a person's teeth to determine how healthy they were.  They do that with horses.  The patient spoke oddly and I tried to get him to show me his teeth, but he refused.

We soon learned that Tooth Fairies were collecting people's teeth and leaving behind strange coins.  Duane had great props: A bag of bloody teeth, various foreign coins, and great vintage photographs.

In the end, we learned that we had to nail 32 teeth (per person) around window and door frames to keep out the Hungry Mouths.  After being eaten by the Hungry Mouths, you turn into a Tooth Fairy.

At dawn, you're safe to leave your warded cell.

In the end, Skyler W. took over a patient's protected cell and left the patient out to die.  Chris O. got eaten while trying to save that patient and was turned into a Tooth Fairy.  Shannon M. who tagged along with Chris somehow just walked out of the institute after Chris died horribly.   Badger M. and Karen T. killed a Tooth Fairy and used it's loot of teeth to ward a cell.  I was graciously invited to spend the night in safety with them.

I had already decided to resign my post as the institute's head doctor (during a bout of insanity).  In the morning, I left.  Badger and Karen were dedicated enough to stay and when the police arrived, they got into trouble.

I escaped to the West and became a dentist.  My #1 recommendation?  Extraction.  My log cabin has teeth studded windows and door frames.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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Sunday, December 15, 11AM – 5PM
Game System: The Veil (Diceless/Narrative)
Scenario Title: The Block
GM: Matthew Grau
Variations: Base-Level Convicted Felons
Power Level: Mortal Humans
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided: Yes
Description: You’re just trying to do your time. Felons don’t have it easy at San Quentin. Yeah, they built on so that you and your fellow cons weren’t living on top of each other. Yeah, they built that new medical facility. That when things got weird – weirder than the usual race fights, gang BS, and crap from the CO’s. Word on the block is that they’ve opened up one of the oldest wings again, trying to renovate it. They say that place has been closed down for more than a hundred years. Nothing feels right in prison, but something that really ain’t right seems like it’s coming.

Matt had great maps and info about San Quentin.  We were all inmates in San Quentin.  

This was my character sheet:

I had a really good time being a depraved homicidal Mexican Gang Hitman.   One of the other choices was someone that looked like a serial killer.  That was my other choice, but Jill S. took that character.  Well, after seeing Jill in action, I bow to her genius.  I don't think I could have played the serial killer as masterful as she did.  She was an artist.  It was great seeing her in action.

One of the best moments was at the end.  Martin H. wound up in a car chase and gun fight with Jim M., Nik G., and Dovi A. across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Jill and I just drove by, but then Martin decided to hold a innocent girl hostage by dangling her over the water -- that was the last straw and Jill decided that Martin's Skinhead character wasn't a good protege and turned our car around. Jill then saved the girl and dumped Martin's body over the bridge.

Good times.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

This game starts with power getting cut off from our cell block.  After hours with lack of food and water, a few cells popped open.  The chosen few, the PCs and a few NPCs decided this was time for revenge and mayhem.

One of my favorite bits was that I had gotten a shiv from Reese, another Mexican gang member (but not my cartel), if I promised to shiv Jim's character.  I got the shiv, but when Reese saw that I was loose, he said that I didn't need to shiv Jim if I got him free.  Jim and Nik's character got into the control room and wouldn't let us out of the cell block unless I killed Reese, so I went back to Reese's cell and told him I need to whisper to him the secret of getting out. He came up to the cell door and I shiv'ed him good multiple times and told him, "You're free now."  I then cut off one of his tattoos as proof.  That was poetic justice.

The game was pretty simple, just get out of prison.  But it was the situations and character interactions that were a lot of fun.

We had a Mexican hitman (Morgan H.), a white cannibalistic serial killer (Jill S.), a mafioso (Dovi A.), a skin head (Martin H.), a black serial rapist (Jim M.), and a gang banger from the hood (Nik G.).

We ran into the medial ward, the mess hall, the library, the chapel, death row, residence quarters, etc.  We had fights with other inmates, riot police, guards, and the warden.

We had loads of depraved fun.  There was actually a nurse rape/murder scene -- I can't believe we went there -- but we were good enough to keep it tasteful.

In the epilogue:
My character escaped back to Mexico and rejoined his gang, MS-13.  After being seriously injured, he retired as a priest.  Decades later, he wound up giving last rites to Dovi's character.

Jill's character returned to San Quentin as a sadistic prison guard.

Unfortunately, I don't remember epilogues of the other escapees.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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Sunday, December 15, 7PM – 1AM
Game System: CoC 7e
Scenario Title: Psychopaths on a Plane
GM: Morgan Hua
Variations: Delta Green and PvP
Power Level: Abnormal People
Number of Players: 5
Characters Provided: Yes.
Description: You’re at 35,000 feet, cruising at 590 mph on Asianic Airline Flight 313, flying across the Pacific Ocean on a Boeing 777.  Your seemingly ordinary flight goes horribly strange and horribly wrong. The inflight meal was a live octopus and a boiled fish head. In the bathroom, your warped reflection winked at you. All the passengers look a bit tense and unhappy. Then your flight gets hijacked. Who will survive Flight 313 on the night of Friday the 13th, 12/13/2013?

I had originally designed the game for six players, but by the time we got to the late session, I was down to 4 players (one of my 5 players volunteered to play in Karen's game) as Karen badly needed a 3rd player for a missing seat. For a PvP game, the more players the better, so having 4 players severely limited the character interactions.

I had 25 character portraits made up of fictional serial and cold blooded killers from various movies.  I emailed my players the portraits and asked them which PCs were they interested in and asked them to fill out a questionnaire.  I used the questionnaire to customize their first character sheets.

I felt the game went ok, but it didn't go great.  Also Jason F.'s die rolls were amazing and I didn't want to penalize the players for great die rolls.  I had assumed the plane would go down and I had another act set up for that eventuality.  But due to good role playing and amazing die rolls, the plane landed safely.

Of course, if I run this again, I got suggestions for how to guarantee that the plane would go down, so we could proceed to the optional last act.

In the spoiler section is a breakdown of how the game was constructed.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

The psychopaths:

Every psychopath needed their weapon.  I had a lot of fun getting various weapons through airport security.

Plastic Gun disassembled

Plastic Gun

Credit Card Knife

Ceramic Knife

Garrote Watch

Put in it into a sock and wham-o

Old Straight Razor

A 4 inch blade is legal

Nobody said anything about a 6 inch handle

Good for strangling people

Shoe Knife

The game started with introductions of each PC.  Each PC got to do a quick vignette as the camera goes over their faces in their plane seat.

As an experiment, I decided to hand out bennie points for good scenes or good role playing.  The bennie points could be turned in to burn a luck point.  Each bennie point let you burn one luck point to change a die roll.  The point gains were slow and people horded them for the critical moment of landing the plane.  So, I think this experiment didn't succeed.

The players fell into several camps:  Cthulhu Cult Terrorists, Hastur Cult Anti-Terrorists, Delta Green Agents, and Civilians which may include Air Marshals and off-duty cops.  One player automatically starts off as an Air Marshal (this time it was Shannon M.) and he is armed with

Sig Sauer P250

Glaser Safety Slug, x-section

Glaser Safety Slug

Switch Blade (yes, it's illegal)

Next was seating assignments.  I based it on the character's credit rating.

Boeing 777

If you were a cultist, I gave you spells like Wither Limb and Breath of the Deep.

Initially strange things would happen like tadpoles in drinks and unusually long bathroom lines (several PCs and NPCs had to assemble their weapons away from prying eyes).  During the meal service, half-eaten fish heads and live octopus arrive with the first class meal.  The cargo hold is actually flooded and live aquatic biological have escaped and contaminated the food service.

Dinner Service

Dinner Service

When a PC enters the cargo hold, he'll discover that it is flooded waist deep.  Once deep into the cargo hold, a shark will attack the PC (Sharks on a plane!).  In the game, Jason F.'s 2nd character missed his spot hidden roll, but the shark missed and Jason plugged the Shark with two shots (one was an impale) from the Air Marshal's gun and killed the shark.  There were other things like Moray Eels and Piranha (I would have used them on other players if they entered the cargo hold too), but Jason did a smart thing and shot a hole through the fuselage to drain out the water.

After the meal service, the Cthulhu Cultists hijack the plane and try to make everyone chant: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" ("In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.")

They are channeling magic points to get a ritual off.   Etched into the ceiling of the cargo hold is a large arcane sigil that channels the magic energy.  Each death also powers the sigil.

Unknown to the Cthulhu Cultists, one of them have been replaced by a Delta Green agent (Jason F's first character).  During the hijacking, Jason actually dispatched the other two hijackers.  But unknown to him, there was an Air Marshal on board and the Air Marshal "took care of business."  Thus one Delta Green agent bites the dust.

I also looked up Air Marshal tactics and info and put it on the Air Marshal's character sheet.  They're trained.

One of the first thing air marshals learn is where not to shoot. The old myth that depressurization by bullet hole is the greatest danger. Normally, this is not the case. The pumps/compressors that keep a cabin pressurized can normally deal with a couple of small bullet holes.

A far greater danger is hitting hydraulic lines or electrical wiring. Which is the reason why, trainees learn where critical systems are located, so a shot may be placed without hitting them. Of course, the most important system to avoid shooting is the pilot or co-pilot. As a result, shot angles and ammunition type must be considered. (Glaser rounds)

Strong marksmanship skills is paramount. The ability to shoot at relatively long range, for example, could be critical should a shot have to be taken down the length of the cabin. Air marshals practice moving down the aisle while maintaining their shooting base so that they can close the distance to a potential threat, but a shot may still be necessary at 25 yards or more.

Tactics Used While Seated

Aircraft seats create problems, it’s difficult to pull yourself out of one. Under the stress of a hijacking, this can be even more difficult. Air marshal must train to take a shot while seated. He/she must also train to take a shot as he levers himself up out of the seat. One tactic is to choose a seat on the aisle and on the left side of the aircraft looking forward if you were right-handed (on the right side if left-handed). This allows you to take a lean-out shot while seated. Much attention and rehearsing of drawing the handgun discreetly from the seated position is just as important as shooting, drawing the handgun undetected is emphasized.

A lone air marshals must be able to engage multiple hijackers quickly. Reportedly, in training, U.S. air marshals must demonstrate the ability to engage three opponents quickly. Since a hijacker might well have grabbed a flight attendant or passenger as a shield, the air marshal must also be capable of making a head shot. Normally, a center-mass shot is preferable as the bullet will more likely stay within the chest cavity. Special ammunition (Glaser round) will, however, minimize the danger of over-penetration.

Monitoring Passengers

Monitoring of passengers prior to boarding and while in flight is another factor in identifying any problems. This skill is an art in not only observation of body language, but also being able to social engineer. In other words being able to socialize with passengers in your surroundings is vital in gaining intelligence. Air marshal emphasizes “we’re not stereotyping, but monitoring behavioral”. Recognizing behavioral that affects public safety is the priority.

Defensive Tactics

Training in non-deadly force is just as important as using a firearm all dictated by the “Force Continuum”. There is a time when the objective is not defending the flight cabin but on subduing an agitated aggressor. Air Marshals receive optimum hours of training on physical controlling a subject utilizing physical apprehension techniques. Defensive tactics includes one man, two man tactics to physically control an individual, also includes:

• Disable an attacker from a seated position
• How to fight from the ground position in an aisle
• How to use different onboards items to subdue and restrain an attacker
• Using seatbelts to restrain an attacker

These are the many skills required to perform air marshal duties. The other side to this profession is the law enforcement side which addresses the logistics and investigative functions.

The pilot will not open the cabin door under any circumstances.  When the players open the cabin door, it will become evident why.  The pilot has killed the co-pilot (a dried out husk) and is flying the plane in an arcane pattern around an island in the pacific.  When they force open the cabin door, the pilot will either fight the players or shoot himself in the head.

During our game, the pilot shot himself, but Jason's 2nd character could fly the plane.  A suggestion was to have a Cultist Bomber take down the plane.  I think that'll work.  The plane will crash on the island (full of cultists).  Luck rolls will determine who gets hurt and who dies in the plane crash.

Boeing 777 Pilot's Cabin

In the game, the players dispatched all the remaining cultists on the plane and then safely landed the plane on Hawaii.  But if the plane is headed for a crash, I have the following images:

We're Crashing

Water Crash Landing

Mountain Crash Landing

On the island are cultists still intent on summoning something real bad.  The players though possibly injured will now have to try to stop the big ritual.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===