Musings about the world, life, and everything in it.
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.
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.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
There's 3 groups of PCs. The gang of kidnappers (Jacob and Fergus), the "kidnapped" girl (Lucie) who's working with the kidnappers, and a group of "lost" hikers (Eve).
The kidnapped girl is in on the kidnap plot and suggested the scheme to the kidnappers, also suggested her dad's mountain retreat as a hideout. The kidnappers know each other, but are strangers to the girl. The lost hikers aren't lost, but are looking for evidence of Satanism at the mountain retreat.
Something "out there" is killing the kidnappers in a grisly fashion, but they're all trapped in there by the raging storm. The something has also killed some of the hikers.
Jacob is waiting for the money to be transferred into a Swiss bank account. In the basement, Fergus murdered the staff and hid their bodies. Tina, the tech person monitoring the money transfer is dead, frozen in a bedroom. A little girl shows up, afraid of Fergus as she had witnessed the murder of her parents. Jacob finds the bodies, but locks her in the basement anyway.
The hikers search the resort and find a ritual room. Eve connects with the altar and murders the other hikers, hoping to take the power for herself. She must also kill Lucie to take her power.
Fergus is convinced that this was all a setup and trap by Lucie and that she must die.
In the end, there's PvP as Jacob tries to escape the retreat with Lucie (who has supernatural powers and had healed Jacob). Fergus and Eve shoot at the car Jacob is driving. He crashes open the front gate, but bullets take out his tires and the truck goes off the road. The camera pulls out as we see a helicopter veer towards a helicopter landing pad at the back of the resort. Jacob screams to Fergus that this isn't necessary, that they've got the money. The screen fades to black and the credits roll.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
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.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
What's interesting about this scenario is that it's Mythos-tinged, but the PCs approach this via the scientific method and in the end, the PCs solved this via science!
The trees aren't bearing fruit, the cows and sheep aren't conceiving, nor are the women in the township. There's a taint in the soil and water. This is found through investigation.
PCs enter through the old growth forest and found a pile of rocks created when the farmers cleared the land hundreds of years ago. This area seemed heavily contaminated. There, Arthur spots a Dark Young, and tells everyone to run. They flee, hearing something large stalking them, finally escaping by putting a river between them and the Dark Young.
Research brought up that the current lord's family had accused another family of witchcraft and the witch was hung and the land taken by the lord's family. The land taken was closest to the old growth forest.
Soil samples and water samples point to a fungal contaminate. The only thing that would kill it is uprooting all the orchards, adding a fungicide to the soil, and burning the old growth (in a controlled burn) that is the source of the fungus. This is reported to Lord Heatherton, the land owner. The lord precedes to eradicate the fungus as advised.
The burning wood emits a harsh black smoke, affecting the health of the town. 12 women claimed they were raped by a devil and gave births to malformed children. The land never recovered and was turned into an airfield in WW2. Unknown to the PCs, a descendant of a witch had returned to the town and summoned dark forces. The lure of a cure to infertility was used to create her new coven. Those women lost their minds when they saw Pan (an aspect of one of the Elder Gods) and were raped by him.
The PCs (Arthur and Evelyn) left after the controlled burns were started. Dennis worked the controlled burns and plowed up the land. Other than Arthur seeing the Dark Young (other PCs didn't see it), there was no other indication of anything supernatural. Stories of witches 300 years ago was just folktales, greed, and superstition.
I liked how the scenario tied in the Mythos to aspects of witchcraft.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
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.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
Scott gave us a list of grievances PCs had against each other. We were supposed to pick and choose and confer and agree. I said, can we just wing it, and use those things as we see fit, then let the other Player decide if the accusations are true or false? We can just play it out. Everyone agreed.
I wound up having an alcohol problem. Another PC smelled and used too much cologne. Etc.
PCs start off arguing in their van, then a tree shows up in the middle of the road and we have an accident. The PCs wake up in a single bed. Wearing only a simple nightshirt, covered in ointment.
We discover the all so helpful Agnes and Frank. They had rescued us, but Agnes had to cut off our clothes to tend to us. Agnes gives us tea and soup. Moxie has a rash, maybe an allergic reaction to the ointment. While outside, trying to wash off the ointment in the rain, there's some odd tortured animal sounds that Moxie hears. Moxie finds something growing in the pustules on her flesh and screams. Aubrey goes to help Moxie and sees a multi-goat-blob in the animal pen during a lightning flash. All the PCs eventually see this.
Aubrey and Robin start to merge via ropey flesh that burst out of their boils. Agnes explains it's a good thing for the Mother. Our flesh will heal her. There's a fight and eventually, all the PCs start merging, but they had surrounded Frank and their merging flesh crushed Frank to death. Also using music and rhythm, the PCs were able to corner Agnes and murder her. Both Agnes and Frank were "woody."
The PCs leave and run into a walking-talking tree that asked us to follow it. The PCs comply and find a clearing surrounded by Dark Young chanting a ritual. Aubrey uses his singing skill to subvert their song and take it over. After a very lucky Luck roll, the ritual energy, instead of entering and transforming the PCs, enter the Dark Young and unprepared for this, they explode.
The Audrey St James Band, now a Siamese Quadruplet oddity, performs hidden behind a white bedsheet. If you're in Dunwich, drop by the venue they're playing in. It's a hoot.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
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.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
Here are the first 3 questions from character creation:
The Parent (Sam):
What are the twins’ names, and why did you choose them? Eva & Lilly
Which twin do you love the most, even though you know you should love them equally? Lilly
What is the one thing you can admit is concerning about the twins, even if you love them more than anything? They have this look of pitying sorrow when they look at you.
The Partner (Ian):
What do you think is worrying about the twins’ behavior? They bury things in the backyard.
What is the worst thing you have done to a child? Accidentally broke my nephew's arm while discipling him.
What is the reason you don’t want any children of your own? Fear of loss of freedom.
Sam has twin girls, aged 6. Ian is the new boyfriend of 6 months. Game starts in 2014 with everyday life and then Ian having a nightmare. Sam wakes up and finds Eva upset and Lilly missing. Elements of what Eva witnessed were also in Ian's nightmare, a specific song, glowing green lights. Lilly is never found. There is no sign of abduction.
2022. The girls are now 14. Lilly is still missing. Ian has dreams of Lilly. She is growing up like Eva, but emaciated, wearing tatters of what she wore when she disappeared. Eva goes to a nearby woods and does a ritual to rescue Lilly, but it looks like a suicide attempt. Ian snoops around and finds Eva's journal which also describes her dreams of Lilly and a ritual that requires something of Lilly's, drugs, and sudden physical shock.
In the end, Sam goes to the woods (where Eva was found) and downs alcohol with sleeping pills. Ian goes to the living room (where Lilly disappeared) and takes a measured amount of sleeping pills and teaches Eva how to hit him with an anti-overdose drug. Sam and Ian arrive on an oil platform. They find kids hiding from a monster. Ian faces the monster and gets grabbed. Sam tries to hamstring the monster, but in doing so, all three of them (Ian, Sam, and the Monster) fall off the oil platform. (Ian and Sam both failed their die rolls).
Sam's body is found in the woods. Eva failed to bring Ian back. Eva is put in a foster home. Six months later, Lilly returns and so are a number of lost children around the world, all this relatively unnoticed.
There were a lot of cool moments. I think one was Ian having installed a GPS app on Eva's phone (Sam was against this, but he did it anyway), so he was able to find Eva in the woods (he lied and said that he's seen her go there before, so he'll go and see if he can find her there). Another time, again, he wanted to go through Eva's stuff after the suicide attempt and Sam was against it. He did it anyway and brought Eva's journal (and her hidden knife) downstairs to show it to Sam. He wanted to talk to Eva about the similar dreams, but Sam didn't want it, so Ian snuck a note into the journal telling Eva that he had similar dreams and to not tell Mom that he told her this. Of course, at one point, when Sam wanted the ritual, she found Ian's note in the journal. The nightmare Ian initially had was quite good, using various elements we had made up during character creation, going into the backyard, following footprints weaving between snow mounds that looked like graves, taking the shovels from the girls, chasing Lilly and accidentally breaking her arm.
Pippi Longstocking doll as an introductory gift to the girls for the win! (Yeah, totally uncool and I only brought one for the two girls).
The Blizzard's Teeth
Bad Apple
Getting the Band Back Together
The Twins
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