Sunday, December 08, 2024

Morgan's Illusion Horror Con 2024 Excellent Adventures


The free online horror convention. They have raffles of physical and digital prizes. The raffle money goes to various charities.

I bought several Kult books, but I can't get my weekly gaming group interested in playing, so this time, I signed up for all the Kult games possible. And ... I got into no Kult games. But later, I got into two Kult games via the wait list.

After playing more Kult. I think the 2d10 PbtA system is a neutral system for Kult. What I mean is, if you play Alien RPG, the Stress & Panic system adds greatly to the game and supports it very well. Kult's PbtA system doesn't add nor subtract from the game play. It's just there. The system is serviceable, but what differentiates Kult from other horror games is the setting.

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12/6/24 Fri 10am-2pm (4 hrs)

The Blizzard's Teeth
System: Kult: Divinity Lost
GM: SpoJino (Joseph)
4 Players: manbeartroll (Lucie the teenager - Brian), yashtruna (Fergus the muscle - Dominika), rocinate_on_focus (Eve the hunter - Robert), Morgan Hua (Jacob the leader)
Pregens: provided
Content Warnings: Body horror, Loss of agency, possible PvP

Strangers eye each other across the frosty courtyard of the mountain compound. Outside the blizzard howls. The horrific storm has seemingly claimed some of your companions already who had sought a way back to rugged mountain roads. Communication with the village below has been spotty at best, and only getting worse as the blizzard gets stronger. Everyone has their own reasons for being here, as the CEO’s mountain retreat offers more than shelter from the raging storm. You have not all arrived here together, nor are you all known to each other. What you do know is that this place should have had, at most, a minimal staff presence to maintain the compound during the harsh winter months. At the moment, it’s unclear if the greater threat is the growing storm outside or the suspicious faces around you.

GM said this was a fantasy survival horror scenario written by Scott Dorward which he reimagined as a modern Kult game. We had a good table of Players and I really enjoyed this game.

This game wasn't designed for Kult, nor really used the Kult mythos, so even though the game was good, it wasn't a Kult game in my mind.




12/6/24 Fri 4-8pm (4 hrs)

Bad Apple
System: CoC
GM: J. Michael Arons (jarons20)
4 Players: JohnLapoint (Dennis the laborer - John), JustinLapoint (Evelyn the doctor and Arthur's daughter - Justin), Morgan Hua (Arthur Ashmore the Scientist)
Pregens: provided.
Content Warnings: Infertility, Sexual Violence

1920s, England. A Town suffering a bad harvest. Can the Investigators find the cause and end the corruption?

This was a play test and an interesting scenario, but I felt the pacing was a bit too slow for my tastes.




12/7/24 Sat 11am-1pm (2 hrs, game was in a full 4 hr slot, but GM told us it was a short game)

Getting the Band Back Together
System: CoC
GM: Scott Dorward
4 Players: EerieLunarose (Perry St James - guitarist), ghost_crystal (Moxie Mutter - manager), automeris_io (Robin St James - bassist), Morgan Hua (Aubrey St James - singer)
Pregens: provided.
Content Warnings: Body horror, violence, harm to animals, possible PvP

Massachusetts, 1928. This latest tour has not been going well for your band. Interpersonal tensions are running high and the band is on the verge of splitting up. Maybe a nice stay in the country is just the thing you need to rebuild your sense of togetherness.

This was a very fun game, but it's more of an incident than a full scenario. Thus the 2 hour run time.




12/8/24 Sun 10am-2pm (4 hrs)

The Twins
System: Kult: Divinity Lost
GM: mrtnj (Martin)
2 Players: deviliciouz (Sam-antha Anderson, mom and programmer - Setheus), Morgan Hua (Ian, boyfriend and drug councilor)
Pregens: In-game character creation.
Content Warnings: harm to children, losing family members, self-harm, drugs, drowning, puberty, parenthood

The twins were, as one might expect, inseparable until that night. You are their parent and the new partner of their parent. Will you literally tear reality apart to get your kid back? One-shot game for two players. Character creation in game, aided by a questionnaire.

Characters are created in-game. We have a few questions to answer about the twins, ourselves, and our relationship.

Wow. Excellent Player and GM. When there's only 2 Players, everyone including the GM has to bring their A-game. No one slept on the job. A very, very enjoyable game.

This game definitely used the Kult mythos. We rarely rolled dice which was good as we mainly roleplayed. I think the system neither added nor subtracted from the game, it was neutral.




Friday, December 06, 2024

Vaesen: Seasons of Mystery - Review


This 104 page book (including endpapers and such) consisted of 4 unrelated scenarios; each set in a different season. No pre-gens were provided.

A Dance with Death (spring)
Fireheart (summer)
The Devil on the Moor (fall)
A Winter's Tale (winter)

On the maps for each scenario, I've circled Upsala in green as a reference point. Red is the destination.

Most of my sessions are 3 hours long. Different groups take different times, but my run times are here for comparison purposes. At conventions, I generally book a 6 hour time slot which includes time for explaining the system and a break for food.

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A Dance with Death
Season: Spring
Location: Nusnäs, Sweden
Pages: 20
Run Time: 1 session
Hook: Two cows drowned, police won't help, person suspects something supernatural did it.





Fireheart

Season: Summer
Location: Lake Hären. Smolandia, Sweden
Pages: 22
Run Time:  2 sessions
Hook: Brother is influenced by an evil preacher-woman, a servant of Lucifer.





The Devil on the Moor

Season: Fall
Location: Jutland, Denmark
Pages: 22
Run Time: 2 sessions
Hook: An engineer asks for help suspecting dark forces.





A Winter's Tale

Season: Winter
Location: Russia, near St. Petersburg
Pages: 20
Run Time: 2 sessions
Hook: PCs are invited to a meeting of people who know of the supernatural.