This is a great convention. I feel that Call of Cthulhu Players are some of the best Players as they think out of the box and don't rely on Hobo-Murdering to solve all their problems. They're also able to accept death, dismemberment, or insanity as a story outcome.
This convention is to showcase scenarios that are or will be available through the Miskatonic Repository.
I've noticed a theme in this weekend of horror and madness. Expectations set by the game description and whether it was met in the play through.
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10/15 Friday 10am-2pm
Pilgrim's Hope
First stop in Illinois with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show and Frank Butler gets bitten by a venomous snake. It is up to Annie Oakley, his wife, and other members of the show to find Frank treatment in the nearest town of Pilgrim's Hope.
This is still a playtest, so things might go sideways. :)
GM: Jazmin Ospa (Zoekitten84)
Players: Morgan Hua (Annie Oakley - Gunslinger), GrapeApe (Jose Luis Hernandez - Scout), Geoffrey P (Robert Paul Gladstone - Soldier), James C (Samuel Builds-the-Fire - Cowboy)
This was an interesting play test. We ran way short, only 2 hours. Jazmin did warn us that it typically runs 3 hours long. The structure and bones of the scenario was fine and we gave feedback afterwards on what she might change.
We had a good group of Players and we galloped through the scenario. I think Jazmin was too easy on us. I'll point out areas in the spoiler section.
The game promised Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. We had shoot outs and snakes as promised, but I wished we had more of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The story starts out with Frank being bit by a strange rattlesnake with a crescent mark on its forehead. Those in the know (Mythos) know it's snake people. The venom quickly is spreading and finding a doctor is paramount.
We go to Pilgrim's Hope, the nearest town and look for a doctor. There are signs of a snake cult, possibly Snake Handling gone wrong, but we ask the Preacher for access to the town doctor who is being "punished." After we cut a deal, he tells us where he is and we break into the Preacher's house. Of course, there is a mural in the room where the doctor is bound and gagged, and snakes come pouring out of the mural, but we rescue the doctor. The doctor has an anti-venom which can cure Frank. *** We basically grabbed the doctor, shot some snakes, and threw blankets on the rest of them. I felt this scene could have been drawn out a little bit more to add more tension. Getting to the doctor should have been a bit harder. Having the snakes be more aggressive would have helped too. Even if we were bitten, the doctor had the anti-venom. Just let the doctor have enough to fix all of us. ***
Out from the well in the middle of town, with the parishioners chanting and dancing, a giant snake erupts and chases us. *** I think the snake only got a chance to attack us once. This would have been a good place to add a chase scene or at least let the snake try a few times before we got to the train station. ***
We get stopped by some snake people, we shoot one, and run over the rest with our wagon. We rush back to the train station and the giant snake gets stopped by an invisible barrier which it can't cross (actually some sort of max range). We shoot the snake to hell and back again and some Indians from the Wild West show do a ritual dance which also affected the snake. *** The giant snake shouldn't have stopped. I was actually hoping for some train vs snake action here, but the train had already left the station. Even if the snake did hit a barrier, maybe some snake people following the giant snake would be a nice second wave of attackers arriving right after the giant snake. ***
On the horizon, where the Preacher's town was, is a burning inferno.
We go to our show venue and we notice the Preacher there. Jose and Robert escorts the Preacher out and searches him. They execute him and bury him in the manure pile. We find nests of snake eggs planted around the venue and we destroy them.
Apparently, we short circuited part of the scenario by cutting the deal with the Preacher. Another group searched the whole town for the doctor. Also another group tried to have a shootout with the giant snake and wound up mostly TPKed. Our group thought saving Frank was the utmost importance and mainly beelined to the doctor to save Frank. We were the first group to actually get out of town with the doctor.
I thought maybe having more of the Wild West Show would be interesting, maybe having subtle snake things go wrong at the show such as snakes appearing in bottles being shot at, snake eggs in the hardboiled egg vendor, all culminating with Frank being snake bit. Also put the Preacher and his people in the audience, implying that they had a hand in sabotaging the Wild West Show.
I guess the only problem is it's always snake people and snake handlers, a worn trope, but what I like is the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. It'll be fun to play Buffalo Bill and the other famous people in the show, including Frank Butler, and instead snake bite various people at the show and force Buffalo Bill to find enough anti-venom to cure everyone. Also there is a lot of history there to mine. My advice would be to expand the scenario to be more about the Wild West Show instead, then it could be a source book for other games.
If you build it… THEY will come! Pulp scenario. In rural Iowa in the 1920s, a barnstorming baseball team is all set for a game in a small town. There’s just one problem: the whole town says that field is haunted by ghosts!
Rural Iowa in the 1920s. In any other era, you would be international baseball stars. But given the racism and sexism of the time, you instead make your way barnstorming with the All Nations baseball team across America, playing in rural town after rural town, working for what is essentially a carnie advertising a sideshow. You're not making millions living in New York, but hey, it's baseball, and you get to play it for a living.
But now, your boss has seemingly screwed the pooch. The piece of land that he rented out for tonight's game would make an amazing field. If not for the fact that nobody in town wants to attend the game, because they all think that field is haunted by ghosts! You're going to have to figure out what is going on with that field, and possibly, confront this evil spirits that threaten to ruin your baseball game!
This is a Pulp scenario that has investigation as well as action, but focuses on fun and uses the full Pulp rules.
GM: Al Smith (diesel680)
Players: Morgan Hua (Ginny "Pretzel" Washington - Two-Fisted), DoctorKreiner (Jose "Cannonball" Alvarez - Beefcake), Matthew G (Leroy "Mudkat" Malarkey - Rogue), Geoffrey P (Jessie Carter - Dreamer), Richard C (Hiroshi "Boots" Akada - Outsider)
I so wanted to use the line, "There is no crying in baseball." But I never got to use it.
The pre-gen characters were a lot of fun. Richard was a great Hiroshi, amazingly entertaining. Another good group of Players.
I felt there was too much investigation for a pulp game, but it's my problem as the scenario description did say, "investigation as well as action." In our play, we did 50% investigation, 50% action. I go with the philosophy that in a purist Call of Cthulhu game, you find the clues; in Pulp Cthulhu, the clues find you.
I enjoyed the game, but some of these baseball players are really dogged investigators! Who would have expected that. The investigation did pay off and probably saved our bacon.
Field of Screams is a play on the movie title: Field of Dreams. The only thing is I wanted was more baseball! We actually, never got to play a single inning of a game. The only game sort of happened off screen.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
Scenario starts with the PCs, all baseball players, listening to an argument between our bosses, Edith (manager) and Eddie (owner), about how the field we're on is haunted and no one will come to watch our baseball game. We get tasked to go into town to drum up some interest. We throw balls around and sign autographs. The townies are friendly enough, but all have excuses NOT to show up at the game.
After talking to the Mayor and others, we find that a blue light shows up with ghosts and people vanish, some to return with odd injuries or aged differently. We also learned the Mayor owned the land we were going to play on.
We obtain an idol from a brother that had returned and find that if we combine it with its matched pair on the missing brother, it would seal the away the underground K'n-yan, preventing them from materializing. One PC got a critical Mythos roll (01%) when examining some info and we learned about the K'n-yan.
Edith gets kidnapped by ghostly K'n-yan. We enter the hollow earth via a tunnel in the pitcher's mound. After mowing down some K'n-yan, rescuing Edith, and getting chased out of the hollow earth, we seal the entrance (we rescued the missing brother too, he had the other idol).
Outside, the Mayor grabs Eddie hostage and we negotiate his release. He explains (yeah, villain monologue) that we ruined his sweet deal with the K'n-yan. We tell him the K'n-yan was tired of us surface dwellers and was ready to invade and punish us. As he leaves, I bean him with a baseball, and we take all his money (to make him penniless) and stow him on a cross country train.
We also win our baseball game (but offscreen as a yes/no question). Even a montage of greatest hits, asking each Player a game highlight would have helped here.
I found the chase a bit flat, it was mostly run as RAW (rules as written), but the obstacles were a wall to climb, a gap to jump across, a hole to squeeze through, and falling rocks to avoid. The bad guys got 2 actions and two PCs only got 1 action (the other three PCs got 2 actions), so I actually thought I was doomed as the chase track had 10 locations. There was no way to outrun our pursuers. Some of the faster PCs did slow down the pursuers once by blowing up a bridge and Jose sacrificed himself which bought enough time for my character to escape. I'm not sure what could be done to make the chase more exciting. To make it more interesting, I did suggest adding in baseball based obstacles, maybe areas where a slide into home base would be useful, or throwing some rocks like a pitch or swinging a bat at some natural feature that would create some obstacles.
We also didn't have to go far to get into the hollow earth, but hey, this is only a one-shot, and realistically, we wouldn't travel weeks underground, without food and water, to save Edith.
I sort of wished we actually got into an inning of a baseball game and had ghosts and stuff showing up during the middle of the game. Then we would have had a chance to use bats and balls against the ghosts (to no effect, or at least to horrific effect).
A letter from an inmate at HMP Dartmoor Prison, Devonshire, England. A request for your forgiveness in the final days of a man’s life in exchange for a substantial reward for your time. Is this too good to be true?
If curious souls are willing to cross the threshold of the prison gates, they will find answers to the questions they didn’t even know they were asking.
Questions about who they are, who they will become, and what they are willing to do to live long enough to see it come to pass.
Can you survive the deadly game of cat and mouse within the prison walls and find out what secrets lay beneath England’s most infamous prison?
GM: Thomas Newman (Newman)
Players: Morgan Hua (Eleanor Rigby - Dilettante), David J (Det Inspector Martin St John-Wells - Detective), Martin E (Thomas "Slugger" Malone - Street Punk), Andrew A (Dr Tobias Haigler - Archeologist), Geoffrey S (Captain Richard Hillwood - Army Officer), Denice K (Jimmy Mae Finley - Gambler)
Great atmospherics. GM brought sound effects and background sound tracks that enhanced the creepiness of the game. GM's descriptions of locations were well written and added greatly to the atmosphere. We also had an excellent group of Players.
I really admire the GM's descriptions and use of sound effects. His descriptions were the right balance of getting the atmosphere right and not being too long. A case of being just right which is really hard to do. I myself, generally try to error on the side of being shorter, so the pacing doesn't suffer. I've tried to do sound tracks for various games and I always forget to change tracks. So, kudos to the GM.
The game promised an infamous prison and most likely an escape. I think this game delivered in spades.
This was my favorite game of the convention.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
Six strangers all get a letter that brings us to Dartmoor Prison, unknown to us, the same letter.
We get escorted in and are put in the visitor's room to fill out visitation forms. After a long wait, we look for the Warden and find that something horribly wrong has happened in the prison. There are signs of violence everywhere. Every room has some creepy stuff in it. The theme is consistent, so it's not only there for shock value.
After exploring most of the prison and releasing some of the inmates, we find that the prison is a trap for individuals who are a threat to the universe. This prison has been trapping individuals for centuries. We find a map that leads the way out.
We escape after fighting the Warden and facing a test where one PC had to sacrifice themselves.
In the end, we escape, but there's a hint we're still hunted by Hounds of Tindalos.
At various points, I wondered if the secret way out was a test and part of the trap, and we would come out of the sewers back into the prison. When we finally saw the outside, there was a great sigh of relief.
It’s the Summer of 1969 and the whole family is coming on vacation this year. The station wagon is full. The destination: Valley Lodge off Route 10 near El Paso, Texas. However, it’s not long before the family gets lost. The station wagon is low on gas and the dirt roads just keep crisscrossing. Maybe you can get directions from that house - or perhaps a place to spend the night.
The Fingers of Fate is a Call of Cthulhu scenario sequel to one of the worst movies ever made. Can the Waldrup family survive a night in the strange and terrible house of The Master? Can they even hope to escape? Players take the parts of various members of the Waldrup family of 10 of Sweetwater, Texas, come to El Paso for an exciting vacation. Extra characters can be used as backup characters if the worst should happen to them. This is a playtest for an upcoming Miskatonic Repository scenario.
GM: Andrew Miller (Max_Writer)
Players: Morgan Hua (Melvin Waldrup - mouth breather, Hugh Utley - Melvin's Uncle [replacement character]), John F (Leroy Waldrup - used car salesman), Justin L (Dough Utley - nerdy youth), John L (Phyllis Waldrup - aspiring teacher)
I had a lot of fun playing in this. I got to play a clueless mouth breather and after getting knocked unconscious, I played Hugh Utley, his uncle. The final fight scene was pretty exciting though I suspect 2 or 3 PCs should have died, but the GM was being nice.
The game promised Manos: The Hands of Fate and some helpless family getting slaughtered. The GM did a great job of making sense of one of the worst movies ever made. I came in cold, never having seen the movie, but it all worked for me. We all escaped alive, though some of us needed to go to a hospital afterwards.
Second favorite game of the convention, but only by a little bit. I think if we had more Players with more PC interactions, it could have edged out The Prisoner's Dilemma as my favorite game this convention.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
Our station wagon gets stopped by a cop, which Leroy (my PC's dad) talks out of the ticket. We then get lost in twisty desert roads (and low on gas) and find ourselves at a house we didn't see before.
We approach the house for directions and wind up staying the night. We meet Michael the caretaker and later Torgo. There are killer wolves outside (Leroy got attacked) and well preserved books inside the house.
Luckily, the nerdy kids like to read books and Dough figures everything out.
In the climatic fight sequence, where nothing affected the Master, we kill him and his brides by putting out the brazier. There was no water, so we used sand. Not only did the Master fight us, but the brazier attacked us with smoke and flames.
We take all the antique books and at the hospital report that we got burned during a camping accident and were attacked by wild animals.
After the game, the GM didn't expect us to go agro on the Master, but expected us to flee and hide until daylight. I'm glad that is an option because I wondered what would have happened if Dough had never figured out that putting out the fire was a way to put the Master down.
June 1926. Boston is in shock as it’s Mayor, Arlow Jeffreys is found dead in his own home, every bone in his body broken or pulverized and no sign of an intruder. Boston needs a new Mayor and there is one name that everybody is calling for; Miss Diane Draper, the charismatic repealist who miraculously calmed the savage rioters a month earlier. However, not everybody is convinced she's the right person for the job.
This is the follow up scenario to Bootleg Whiskey, Liquor, Champagne & Wine and part 2 in the American Empire Saga.
GM: Clym Arnold (thekraken75)
Players: Morgan Hua (Ashley O'Neil - mobster/bare knuckle boxer), David J (Huxley - butler), Geoffrey P (Brett Aberauch - Olympic wrestler/rich boy), Sean V (Edgar Dwight - private eye), Michael H (Zooey Aberauch - investigative reporter), Mike K (Eugene Forester - radio operator)
Definitely a weird game and not a in a good way. We had a good table of Players, but the pacing was very slow for me. I'll mark the weird stuff in the spoiler section.
The game promised an investigation inside a Radio Station, but we never even got into the building. Sort of a major fail here.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The Mayor is dead and we're asked by the widow to look into it since she was given a mysterious note. We go to the address and find that Eugene thinks there's been a conspiracy at the radio station. He plays a recording of the radio show the Mayor was listening to and Titus (the dog) goes bonkers. *** Eugene is a PC, so he has to wait until the other PCs show up at his place. GM did explain to the Player that Eugene would show up later before he was picked. So, this happens maybe 1/2 hour into the game. Absolutely not a good thing to do for a convention game, have a Player sit out until the other Players show up. ***
We visit Coleman Hardy, the previous radio host, replaced by Diane Draper. His voice is gone and he types out conspiracy theories about Diane and an Egyptologist. *** Giant expository dump. It only served to make us suspicious of Diane, but it didn't really help us. ***
We arrive at the Radio Station and then we have a 2 hour fight outside the Radio Station. We never even got inside. We fight a super strong, invisible Mythos creature. It kept on picking up random PCs, lifting them up into the air. Most of the combat was trying to save each other and trying to get away. This went on for about 2 hours. *** For me, the pace was really slow, the most boring climatic fight I've ever been in. ***
Eventually, the PCs get away. I went temp insane and hoofed it on foot and in the epilogue was picked up by the creature and killed because everyone else was able to drive away.
GM did say this was a shortened version of his scenario and it was mainly survival horror because of this.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
10/17 Sun, 8am-9am
Panel: Dramatic Structure in Scenario Writing
Moderator: Chairperson Heinrich Moore
Panelists: Sean Branney (HPLHS), Michael Fryda (RPG Imaginings), Lynne Hardy (Chaosium), Mike Mason (Chaosium)
Topics: Elements of a plot, building tension, developing strong characters, etc.
As of this blog post, I ran five sessions of 7th Sea (update: I did eleven sessions total). One of my groups wanted something historical and pirates and three musketeers seemed like the right fit. I backed the 2nd edition KS and it came with all the 1st edition books in PDF.
I really liked the world, it's a mishmash of various historical places and periods re-envisioned and crammed together. In a time of political correctness, Théah, is mostly politically correct. Racism, sexism, religious differences, etc. have mostly been erased. People relate more to their country than their skin color. The church is more scientific than religious. As one person said, everything is like something, but NOT exactly something. So, Castille is NOT-Spain. Eisen is NOT-Germany. Montaigne is NOT-France. Ussura is NOT-Russia. Avalon is NOT-Britain. The Inquisition is NOT-the Spanish Inquisition. Charouse is NOT-Paris. Though the world is more politically correct, there is still a richness that fills the world, so it's not bland.
Each country has its own brand of magic. Hexenwerk for Eisen. Knights of Avalon. Dar Matushki for Ussura. Porté for Montaigne. Sanderis in Sarmatia. Sorte (Tarot or Fate Magic) for Vodacce.
There are various secret societies which Players can join: Brotherhood of the Coast (pirates), Die Kreuzritter (monster hunters), Explorer's Society (treasure hunters), Invisible College (forbidden science), Knights of the Rose & Cross (just knights and moose lodge), Los Vagabundos (everybody is Zorro), Močiutės Skara (widows and orphans, red cross), Rilasciare (anarchists), Sophia's Daughters (freeing Fate Witches), Novus Ordo Mundi (James Bond's Spectre).
The Duelist's Guild is interesting making any PC a combat monster giving them combat Maneuvers which does more damage than normal. They also have their own school with special styles. During combat, non-Duelists do one Wound per Raise on their attack, but Duelists can inflict multiple Wounds with each Raise. e.g. a non-Duelist with 2 Raises can only do 2 Wounds, so you just attack and do 2 Wounds. But a Duelist with 3 Ranks in Weaponry can Slash for 3 Wounds (1 Raise) and Lunge for 4 Wounds (2nd Raise). Thus dealing 7 Wounds.
Character creation is very evocative due to the richness of the world and you can really create some interesting characters.
The artwork in the books are great too. They look like action scenes painted by Vermeer.
I first played this in 2017 at a convention: The Queens Cup
But I had reservations about the system. One was Players abusing the system; it was easy to always take your highest Trait and Skill and apply it to every situation by shoehorning it. The other was the Dueling system was a mini-game in itself; if two Duelists were fighting each other, everyone else basically watched as it was taboo to interfere in a duel.
I learned that some non-emphasized lines in the core rule book was very important.
p.173, Improvising: "Whether a Hero’s Action falls within the scope of his Skill is the GM’s discretion." e.g. GM gets to veto any action that wasn't declared for the Approach. This sort of solves the problem of a Hero solving everybody's problem with a massive number of Raises.
p.177, Gaining Hero Points: "The GM buys any unused dice that aren’t part of a Raise. For each die the GM chooses to buy in this fashion, you gain 1 Hero Point and he gains 1 Danger Point." I was buying every unused die which was a mistake. There were too many Hero and Danger points hanging around and I should mostly decline buying them until I run low on my starting Danger points (1 per PC).
Action sequences go in the following order: Approach (action declarations), Consequences and Opportunities, Rolling dice, and Action resolution. Action order goes to whoever had the most Raises.
This is very much like ORE (Godlike). In ORE, everyone declares, rolls their dice, and the PCs with the widest matches go first and actions happen based on the declarations. In Godlike, most actions are shoot at X, dive for cover, throw a grenade, so most are quick short actions. ORE models the chaos of combat very well.
In 7th Sea, you roll a handful of d10s and group them into sets that total 10 (or sometimes 15) or more. e.g. you roll 4d10 and get 3, 5, 8, 10 = 2 Raises (10, 8 + 3) with a leftover die.
The problem is some PCs want to do longer actions than just I want to shoot or throw something. They may want to lure someone away or steal something which involves a longer time frame. So, as a GM, you need to juggle the shorter time frame actions and the longer time frame actions. And if there's a duel going on, that slows the pace of everything down as the dueling combat goes on for what seems like forever. For example: Abigail wants to knockdown a brute squad. George faces Jorge in a duel. Felicity wants to swing on a chandelier to steal the crown jewels. Jeff is throwing pies at guests and making them chase him through the house. After die rolls: George 7 Raises, Jorge 6 Raises, Jeff 6 Raises, Abigail gets 3 Raises, Felicity 2 Raises. George Slashes at Jorge (at 7). Jorge Slashes at George (at 6). George Ripostes (at 6). Jeff (at 6) throws pies and spends his Raises on avoiding guests and stealing some love letters. George and Jorge (at 5 to 3) exchange more dueling maneuvers until they're down to 3 Raises. Abigail (at 3) finally goes and takes down the brute squad. George and Jorge duel some more (at 3 to 2). Felicity (at 2) finally gets on the chandelier, but doesn't have enough Raises to steal the crown jewels. George and Jorge (at 2 to 0) duel some more until they're out of Raises. George and Jorge get all the action and the other Players wind up just waiting for their turn.
As a mini-game, dueling is interesting, but it breaks the pacing of the game. In my own game, there were two duelist PCs, in an action scene with two duels (in serial, a PC lost a duel, then another PC challenged the Villain), this compounded the problem even more.
Complications and Opportunities are added on the fly to help syphon off some of the Raises, so that the PCs don't get an auto-success without any type of Risk. Most complications are damage that would result in Wounds of some sort or potential for damage such as slipping and falling or dropping something. Complications and Opportunities seem like a way to balance a scene dynamically when you add additional PCs to a scene. You do have to have your improv hat on and firing on all cylinders for this to work properly.
Death is also almost impossible. Each PC has 20 wounds, every 5th wound is a Dramatic Wound where they either gain a benefit or a disadvantage. You have to get the PC down to their last Dramatic Wound. Then spend a Danger Point and declare that you are killing a PC. Then any PC can act out of turn order by spending all their Raises and save the PC, though the Villain can attack the new PC that came to the rescue. So, you can get a death spiral TPK, though unlikely. (Also all non-Dramatic Wounds vanish at the end of a scene.)
After running this with 5 Players, I feel like it would run smoother with 1-3 Players. And if I was running a single player game, a Duelist would work great. Or maybe all Duelists, like The Three Musketeers.
p.s. To make encounters challenging, I found that Pressure (p.176) should be used when possible. The PCs faced Black Beard the Pirate and due to his fierce reputation, if PCs didn't flee as their action, it cost them a Raise to do other actions. It was cheap (1 Danger point + 1 Raise). I also gave Black Beard multiple loaded pistols which gave the PCs a scare.
Also when encountering a mid-level or higher Villain, I'd purchase the +5 Raise (requiring 15 for a Raise for Heroes, p.177, 1 Danger point). This makes the encounter tougher.
I also send multiple groups of 10 Mooks to accompany Villains. A group of 10 or 2x5 generally get taken out very fast. 2x10 survive long enough to do some damage.
I've also added vanishing Treasure. Opportunities for grabbing Treasure start decreasing over time. So there would be 5 Treasure at the start and each round that lapses with no one taking the Treasure decreases the amount available. I did this for booty from a ship they were attacking.
Monstrous Qualities really work and add nice narrative flavor to combat. Rock Trolls with Chitinous and Powerful made me wish PCs had more leftover dice for me to buy Danger Points. Suddenly, they stopped having leftovers. Funny, that.
According to various blog posts, most Heroes get about 3 Raises on any Risk, more if they get rerolls or exploding 10s.
Why all these things? Otherwise, the encounter becomes a cake walk and the Heroes generally will escape with no Wounds and at most only 1 Dramatic Wound.
p.s.s. I did something interesting. The PCs had captured a duelist assassin and was questioning him. Of course, he doesn't want to talk and is a tough nut to crack, but I let them roll Wits + Intimidate and they got 4 Raises. So, I decided the outcome was two "Yes/No" questions the interrogator could ask, and I as the GM, would answer truthfully Yes or No. This would be the result of the interrogation after lots of back and forth between the PC and the NPC. The PCs really wanted to know who the target was and who ordered the contract, but I wasn't going to automatically give them answers to open ended questions. They luckily guessed who the target was. "Was X your target?" And who put out the contract. "Did Y order the contract?" I really liked how this put the pressure on the Players to figure this out vs just roll dice and get enough Raises and the answer is automatically dropped into your lap. This way, they got to confirm their hunches. It was very rewarding.
After they let the assassin go, after he pledged to not fulfill the contract, on his duelist-to-duelist honor, he left a coded message for the duelist PCs, telling them there was still another assassin, but a non-duelist.
p.s.s.s. John Wick and Chaosium parted ways in Nov 2023. I had supported the 7th Sea 2e 2016 KS. The KS collected $1.3M which should have paid for the development and printing of the books, but in April 2019, John Wick had to cut a deal with Chaosium to complete delivery of the promised books. I got my last 7th Sea book in Sept 2023. The original ship date for the last book was Oct 2017. So, basically 6 years late. I actually thought the aggressive ship dates, mostly 1 month between books, were because 2e was supposed to be just a rewrite of 1e material. Most of the 2e books were flavor text describing different parts of the world without much in game statistics or additional mechanics. I actually realized 7th Sea 2e was in trouble when John Wick asked people to send in writing samples for undelivered books which told me those books weren't written yet and he was trying to farm out the work. I assume that as part of the bailout deal with Chaosium, John Wick had to complete the writing for the promised books (by himself) and Chaosium would do the publishing. I have no insider knowledge, but that seems logical. Something similar happened with the Call of Cthulhu 7e 2013 KS.
It remains to be seen if Chaosium will do much more with this game line as I see various books and accessories sold at deep discount. I assume Chaosium will continue to sell the PDFs to recoup costs, but not spend further money on this game line.
10/15 Friday 10am-2pm
10/15 Friday 3pm-7pm
10/16 Sat, 11am-3pm-7pm
