This was an invite only RPG event. We took Amtrak down to San Luis Obispo, played 3 RPG games over two days and then returned home on the 3rd day. Game location was in the Madonna Inn, named not after the pop star singer, but after the construction magnate Alex Madonna. The hotel boasts of 110 uniquely decorated guest rooms. A favorite place for weddings.
Alex's wife loved the color pink, so many things in the hotel was pink. He even painted his construction equipment pink. You knew that any pink colored second hand construction equipment on sale came from his construction company.
I had a great time. Thanks to Todd E and Marty C for putting together this event.
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Session 1: Sat Night, 4 Hours, 7-11pm
Game Suite - Country Gentleman
In the tradition of a stately English manor with a casual atmosphere, this suite welcomes you into a sitting room graced with a large fireplace of hand-placed native rock. The master bedroom with king bed and private bath, is just off the sitting area and the staircase leads to the 2nd floor bedroom with 2 twin beds. Stroll the surrounding grounds and wander the pathways to a hillside oasis and heated pool. This suite is ideal for a couple and comfortable enough for a family of four. King and 2 twins. One bathroom through master bedroom, tub/shower combo.
THE EXCITING EXPERIENCES OF THE EXODUS EXPEDITION: VOLUME X
From the depths of you imagination, call forth your insatiable lust for wonder, riches and fame, to join the Exodus Expedition on their adventures, far, wide and deadly! Exotic locations, treachery, plunder and pirates a plenty stand against your curiosity, your cunning and your cutlass. Based on Inverse World but utilizing aspects of Inverse Fellowship, it's a PbtA hack of a PbtA hack of a slash of collaborative storytelling you won't soon forget!
GM: Tyler Pugliese
Players: Charles P, Gennaro K, Karen Y, Morgan Hua.
System: The Inverse World
I liked this game. The PbtA playbook was very extensive, 4 pages of things to select from, consisting of 11 things to customize. I picked an Elf for my character and through choices, I wound up with a cold-blooded killer pixie with several Companions: an elven blade dancer, an elven archer, and a killer hummingbird. The other players customized a Collector (Gennaro), a Dwarf (Charles), and a Constructed (Karen).
There's no spoiler section because this game is unique to our session and knowing what happened won't help you at all since your game would be completely different.
Instead of a Tolkienesque world, through Player choices, we wound up with an ethereal plane of concepts. Wound up being chased by the Shadow of the Overlord we had just defeated. The Overlord had destroyed half the verdant and lush moon before we had killed him, leaving behind a cratered desert on half the moon. We found that he could only be defeated by one of two ways because he was protected by the shadow of the moon: Destroy the moon (which would take away his power) or Imprison the Shadow in a device. We decided to Imprison the Shadow. We had to get the device from a Dragon who pooped out poop and sometimes gold coins that looked like old Chinese coins. These coins can capture abstract things like love, anger, pride, etc. So, we had to defeat a Excremental (a poop elemental) and sneak into the dragon's lair. Once there, we were able to enlighten the dragon who gifted us with one of the coins. With the coin, we were able to capture the Shadow after bringing it to a tesseract fortress which could power it.
I credit Tyler, our GM, and the other Players for creating such an imaginative and interesting world. I enjoyed the game due to the odd concepts and utter strangeness. Yeah, not your standard Tolkien world.
Session 2: Sun Morn, 6 Hours, 11am-5pm
Game Suite - Fox and Hound
Talley-Ho! The bugle is sounding... welcoming you to this country lodge. In the character of an English summer home, this rustic suite captures the ambiance of a restful retreat with a cozy sitting room and large stone fireplace. The master bedroom is located off the living room with king bed and private bath (tub/shower and double sinks) and the staircase takes you upstairs to the 2nd bedroom with a queen bed. This suite is cozy enough for a couple and comfortable enough to accommodate a family of four. One bath only through master bedroom.
VOLUPTUOUS PANIC
With Weimar Berlin in its death throes in February 1933, the Nazis rise and an ancient festival takes hold in the infamous Berlin demimonde. The players are prostitutes, hired to entertain for one final celebration in the estate of the notoriously perverse Obersturmbannfuhrer Wulf von Hellstrom. It will be a night of unearthly pleasure, pain and sacrifice and that they wish they could forget as true horror is birthed into the world.
GM: Marty Caplan
Players: Mike G, Bill L, Tyler P, Morgan Hua.
System: Delta Green
Play test of Marty's new game. Lots of good stuff going on with custom mechanics developed by Marty. Our group was cursed with really, really bad dice rolls. But in the end, we "saved" the day and only one of the PCs died (Mike's character).
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We got to pick from a set of cards our exterior (public) and interior (secret) identity: gender, preferred clientele, sexual orientation, etc. This was fairly interesting and innovative.
We're all down and out prostitutes in the last days of the Weimar Republic. We started with some short vignettes - a day in the life of a prostitute. My character witnessed a murder (by a serial killer) in an alleyway and I quickly ducked back into street and tried to hide in a doorway. When the killer walked by, he noticed me, but I propositioned him and he left in disgust. I then went to the victim and took any valuables from the body.
Then we got invited to the uberparty (Nazi escort required) while at our local club hangout. But we detoured to the Sex Museum first and ran into Jean Harlow and invited her to the uberparty. While at the Sex Museum, Tyler's PC got her fortune told with a Tarot deck and when the "future" turned up, the card burst into flame.
On the way back to the our local club to pick up a Nazis escort, we ran into two dead bodies on the street, one little girl was obviously pregnant (and biologically too young to have that happen). My PC had forensics, so I cut her belly up and found a weird chimera fetus inside of her.
Onto the party. It was at a grand estate - very Carcosa-like. My PC stole as much stuff as she could (brought along a big purse). The guests were mainly "degenerates" of Berlin. At the height of the party, wolf-masked men starting attacking (sacrificing) the guests.
Our party escaped from the mansion and tried to leave the estate. We ran into Loki who uglified my character. We ran into various Angels (also trapped on the estate) which liked to consume various interior aspects of our characters (those cards we selected at the beginning describing us). This was very cool. We ran into Raphael which didn't want to consume any of our aspects, so we brought her along. We ran into Gabriel in a church who consumed Tyler's PC and returned her pregnant. I spoke with Gabriel and found that we had to kill von Helstrom to escape his estate. Mike and Bill ran into Michael who started to consume their PCs, Mike sacrificed his PC to save Bill's, by having Michael charge at Mike's PC and barrelling them both into an obelisk which collapsed. The obelisk killed Mike's PC, but only pinned Michael's leg which he proceeded to chew off. With Raphael (an angel in tow), we returned to the Mansion to kill von Helstrom.
We found out our weapons were useless against von Helstrom. We finally cut a deal with Loki who removed von Helstrom's protection and after a fight, we killed him. The deal? We told Loki that the clown Hitler would cause more chaos than von Helstrom, if he became the leader of Germany.
We then set the mansion on fire and left in a stolen automobile with our loot. We all departed Germany and went to Hollywood with the help of Jean Harlow.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Session 3: Sun Night, 4 Hours, 7-11pm
Game Suite - Harvard Square
SMALL TOWN CHARACTER EMBRACES THE APPEALING CHARM AND SIMPLE COMFORTS of the Harvard Square. This spacious 3 bedroom, 2 bath suite captures the ambiance of an English country retreat with a large stone fireplace and sitting room. The master bedroom with king bed and bath (tub/shower combo) is just off the living room on the first floor. Upstairs is a 2nd bedroom with a king bed and bathroom with shower. Just a few steps more will take you into a quaint attic room with 3 twin beds.
A PLACE FOR WELLNESS
You will all play patients in an insane asylum being evaluated as to whether you should remain or be released. When not playing a patient, you will play as hospital staff: doctors, nurses, and orderlies in charge of recommending therapies, evaluating patients, administering therapies to the patients.
Patients suffer from various persecution complexes, delusions, paranoia, and some have violent tendencies.
Remember: The Institute for Wellness is here for your safety and wellbeing. Patience is a virtue and a patient is only released when they're ready to face the world.
GM: Morgan Hua
Players: David J, Tracey J, Gennaro K, Karen Y, Shannon M, Marty C.
System: Cthulhu Dark
This was a play test of my new game. The beginning was close to how I envisioned it, but interestingly enough, Marty pushed into the 3rd act early, so the game ran an hour or so short. Players had a good time hamming it up and gave me some great feedback. Marty did pick the perfect PC and he demonstrated deep knowledge of various movies in his dialog. Great job!
I had fun watching the goings on and a lot of people were laughing; people had fun.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The 1st act is the evaluation of the patients by doctors, nurses, and staff.
The 2nd act is the treatment phase, where various treatments recommended by the hospital staff are carried out.
The 3rd act is the end game where all hell should break loose.
In the 1st act, I thought more than one patient would try to act coy, but only Shannon decided to do that, everyone else went for straight forward camp. If the game went longer, I would suspect Shannon's PC would have been released.
We got through the 1st act, but then a majority decided to break out of the asylum and all hell broke loose as Marty forced the start of the 3rd act. So, we never got into the 2nd act that much.
I made the mistake of putting all the patients in the general population early, so they outnumbered the doctors (when you are playing a patient, the doctor isn't present). Once that happened, the patients sensed their advantage and decided to escape. Player suggestion was to only do 2 at a time, so do act 1 and 2 for 2 PCs, then move onto 2 new PCs. Another suggestion was to add some NPC interns that add to the die roll of doctors, so they can't be so easily outnumbered. I'll figure out the mechanism for that before the next run of this game.
Marty had Kirsty Cotton from Hellraiser and she got her hands on the puzzle box and worked to solve it just at the end of the 1st act. He solved it fairly quickly and that triggered the beginning of the 3rd act. As he started slaughtering various people, he brought in various one-liners relevant to those character's histories.
Another player feedback was to have a simple mechanism for the 3rd act if more than one big bad shows up and they face each other. There were also suggestions for other possible patients.
I've been playing Call of Cthulhu for years, so I get surprised when someone asks about character generation. My go to is https://www.dholeshouse.org; it's a free website. I use the random die roll method and yeah, if the stats are horribly low, I just hit the reroll button. The application also rolls your Luck, but doesn't set it on the character sheet, so you just need to take of note of it and set it when you save the character sheet as a PDF. Dholeshouse also doesn't roll the random backstory entries (p.39-45, Keeper Rulebook).
The main thing when buying skills is to put skills that you think you will use and be an expert in at or above 50% and have one or two key skills near the max of 75%. I enforce a 75% cap on starting skills (p.49 Keeper Rulebook, A Cap on Starting Skill Values - optional rule). It is better to have 5 skills at 50% to 75% than to have 20 skills at 20% -- and complain that they can't succeed in anything. You should rely on your party composition to cover any knowledge / skill gaps.
Where do you put skills? It depends on what your game focus is. My games are mostly investigative though eventually there will be combat. So, I recommend Spot Hidden, Library Use, at least one social skill (Charm, Fast Talk, Intimidate, Persuade) and one combat skill (Fighting Brawl, Firearms Handgun, Firearms Rifle/Shotgun). Secondary skills would be Dodge, Locksmith (to pick locks and for breaking and entering), Psychology, and Stealth. Once you get a hang of a game, you switch things around for variety, I sometimes deliberately skip combat skills, just to be different.
I had referenced two great articles on being a better player, but now they're gone (and back again).
Basically, don't be a dick. Play well with others and remember you control the PC, not the other way around. If you claim you're playing the PC and he/she "won't do that (investigate)" that's bullshit and you're just making an excuse to not participate. You (with help from others or the GM) can always come up with a reasonable excuse. Otherwise, that PC can go home and you'll need to roll up another one that will investigate. So, why go through that exercise in futility?
Just once, I'd love to have a whole party decide they won't investigate. And I'll pull a near future montage of the PCs and their families dying horribly as the world ends. Then have them wake up in a cold sweat. Make them do a SAN check. And I'll ask them, "What is your PC going to do?"
Q (JK): One of my Players wanted to create a Student whose Occupation states that the Credit Rating (CR) is 5-10. The Player must spend 5-10 Occupation Points to set their CR. Can that Player spend Personal Interest points to raise the CR past the max of 10?
A: The short answer is yes.
There's the rules and there's the exceptions. In my world, the PCs are the exceptions. I'd let them buy whatever CR they want because it comes out of the same skill point pool.
In real life, one of my college classmates was Steve Wozniak. This was after Apple was already a successful company. The Woz wanted to have a Computer Science degree. His CR was 90+.
Q (SB): How do you make a Player in my RPG a better team player and less of an ass?
A (MH): You need to privately talk to the problem Player. There maybe various reasons.
1. Game expectation mismatch. Player wants one thing, GM/Other Players want another thing. There's no solution to this other than, sorry game isn't for you, and you're disrupting the game and making it not fun for everyone else. We like you, but sorry, you're out of this particular game.
2. PC is lone wolf and "won't do that." This is a Player problem. You can see if you can make up some motivation/hook that would motivate the PC to work with the other PCs. This should be a conversation between you and Player to come up with a common solution. Do NOT let the Player put the burden on you to come up with a reason. You need Player buy-in for this, so best if you both agree on motivation/hook.
3. PC is being a dick and just throwing wrenches into your game for fun. Maybe ask the Player if he wants to play a secret villain. If he does, score. The other Players would love to kill his PC after a long campaign. Sometime, it should be revealed that the PC is a villain and now the job of the other PCs is to have revenge. Finale of campaign should be the extreme termination of villain PC.
SB: We’ve been in the same campaign for 10 months, maybe more, and it’s like something “clicked” in him and the last 4-5 sessions haven't been fun due to him. It's not just me. It’s the whole party, we’ve been texting about it.
MH: Sounds like your Player got bored or has a personal problem going on. You'll need to talk to Player privately and ask if he still wants to play. If the answer is yes, then bring up the disruptive behavior and talk about solutions.
If he's bored, which happens with a long campaign, then you can have a group discussion on how to make the game different enough to satisfy the whole group. If an agreement can't be reached, then it would be best for everyone if he left the campaign until the next one starts up. And when you start a new one, then a session 0 should be done where all can agree on what the new campaign is and how it can satisfy everyone. Or if you are all good friends and rather all meet, you can just declare the current campaign dead and do a session 0 for a new campaign.
If it's a personal problem, then tell him that maybe he isn't aware, but his behavior is disrupting the game and making it not fun for everyone. Can he tone down his behavior or does he need time off from the game to take care of his personal issues? Sometimes this is difficult because the social aspect of the game is an emotional crutch during a personal crisis. But the Player is unaware that he's acting out and ruining it for the others. That said, it's not your duty to be his therapist. He may need professional help instead.
The shuffler changed this year to a pre-shuffle before the convention. It worked out very well for me as I got into 5 games with the shuffler, crashed one game, and ran one game. Knowing my schedule, I was also able to get into two seminars: one on Alternate History for RPGs and another by the War College on First Blood at Bull Run.
I had an excellent KublaCon, one of the best, if not the best, in many years.
This year, I'm going to focus on what Players bring to a game and how they can affect it.
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Friday 10am (4 hrs)
The Tearing of the Veil
System: Unknown Armies, 3rd Ed.
GM: Todd Furler
Players: 6 (Dovi A, Gil T, Matt S, Martin C, Patrick R, Morgan Hua)
A small town experiences more than its share of violence. Random chance? Or something sinister, just out of sight? Weave together stories separated by three decades to find the answers.
I really enjoy Todd's games because he shoves a 6 to 8 hr game into 4 hrs. He runs cinematic games, explaining things with cinematic nomenclature such as what does the audience see, the camera angle, sometimes explaining the purpose of a scene with minimal direction. He knows when to cut a scene and when to let it run it's course.
The game jumps between the past and present day to bring everything to a climax.
This was a well done game and a lot of fun.
Some people like Todd's GMing style and some do not. He has tight table control and those who do not want to go with his flow will not like his style and feel too constrained. Luckily, our table were full of Todd veterans and we knew what was expected. It was a good table of RPGers who brought this game to life.
An excellent game.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
This game is basically Todd's version of Stephen King's IT. A bunch of kids meet some horror and they change, some lose memories, and all gain some supernatural power. This time the horror isn't an ancient evil clown, but The King of the Forest complete with demons and hounds of hell.
The scenes start in the present day and flash back into the past which start to explain all the problems the adult versions of the kids have.
Once all that has transpired before is explained, the adults have now gathered together to confront the evil and destroy it.
My favorite bits:
Matt's Hunter kills a peeping tom who is masterbating in the bushes. Is it a demon or just a kid?
Matt's Hunter is lecturing at college and Gil's Detective and Demon partner show up. The Demon partner handcuffs the exit doors so they can't be opened.
Everything with Dovi's alcoholic Cop.
There's a scene where my Astral projecting Escapee from the Asylum (wearing stolen clothing and no shoes, looking like a looney homeless person) finds Matt's Hunter (with amnesia of the past) and Gil's Detective at a cafe and cause a commotion. Just as I get dragged out of the cafe, I scream out: "The King of the Forest is coming!" And memories slam into the Hunter's head.
"Tricking" the Detective to go to the TREE, telling him that's where the other bodies are.
The TREE with faces of children who satisfied The King of the Forest are embedded in the TREE, his honor roll memoriam, the ones who ran the best with fear. Those who didn't satisfy him were fed to his Hell Hounds and their bones fertilized the TREE.
The final fight was very cinematic. Everyone brought air rifles with tranquilizer darts, the only thing that can take down demons (not bullets), except for my Escapee who opted for a spray bottle of acid. He wanted an axe, but another PC was better with it, so he had to give it up. Everything came in handy, especially the Axe, in the final fight.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Friday 2pm (1 hr)
Alternate History in RPG Settings
Seminar
Panel: Darren Watts (Moderator), Jess Nevins, Nick Cole
What if Hitler and the Third Reich won World War II? What if the USSR landed on the moon first? What if Nero was never a Roman Emperor?
Our panelist discuss alternate timelines and how those can be woven into a roleplaying game.
It was an interesting discussion with only 4 people in the audience, so it was more of a round table discussion than a presentation.
Some takeaways:
It's better to decide your endpoint and what you want that is cool, such as Kaiju during WW2 and work what needs to change to have it happen vs working your way forward with a what if Hitler was raised to be not Anti-Semitic. e.g. it's easier to work backward ripples vs forward ripples in building out your world.
Be watchful of sensitivity issues which is prevalent these days which can lead to blowback such as labeling who is evil. This devolved into an argument about killing Orcs in Tolkien = Nazis. Who is EVIL. Good vs Evil and shades of grey. Tolerance. Beware of blanket statements. Klingons used to be evil, but not anymore.
Friday 6pm (6 hrs)
To Write Thine Own Doom
System: Call of Cthulhu, 7th Ed.
GM: Arthur Wallis
Players: 6 (full table with Matt S, Morgan Hua)
England, 1085 A.D., King William's peace endures, and he wishes to survey his realm. For the task of the census of Manchester, he has assigned a Noble Knight, who along with his retinue shall compile information on the local farms and hamlets etcetera.
These great works will be compiled into the liber de wintonia. The Doomsday book.
Unfortunately, there are old things awakening in Northern England. Things which remember the Romans, and even a time before. Things which consider the region very much theirs, and mean to reclaim it...
An interesting game, but slightly ruined by a infamous bad player - who crashed the game. This player was difficult, arguing with other players, spouting nonsense, using up screen time on pointless tasks.
The game was chock full of scenes and interesting events, but the distraction by the bad player really derailed the game. We didn't get to the 3rd act of the game and basically the world ended. Arthur said he play tested this many times and we were the very first group not to get to the 3rd act.
Without this player, we would have had a much better experience.
Arthur will put this scenario on KickStarter soon.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We're camp followers of Bertrand de Verte, a knight of King William. Bertrand and his scribe go on a short day trip, but doesn't return. Only his scribe returns, mortally wounded, so we go to rescue Bertrand.
This is akin to Gulliver's Travel / Mysterious Island. We follow his trail and stranger and stranger things happen. Culminating in the Snails of Hale, giant snails attacking the town of Hale.
We missed out on the 3rd act where we're supposed to save the world, but didn't.
My personal favorite bits (I played a priest, a religious zealot):
Flagellating a priest caught having sex in a church.
Saving the town of Hale by leading them out of Lilliput.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sat 10am (6 hrs)
The Forcing Move
System: Call of Cthulhu, 7th Ed.
GM: Morgan Hua
Players: 6 (full table with Cro M)
Cold War Cthulhu: You work for MI6 and covertly for Section 46, a secret group fighting the "Other Enemy" (Mythos entities).
Date/Location: 1972 at the World Chess Championship in Reykjavik, Iceland.
MI6 mission: Prevent a Russian double-agent from defecting.
Section 46 mission: Assess and neutralize the Other Enemy's influence on Bobby Fischer. Do NOT terminate Bobby Fischer.
I had a good table of players and enjoyed running this game. What makes this interesting is that PCs are given two missions, sometimes the missions intersect, sometimes not, sometimes the two missions may be contrary to each other, so agents have to choose between loyalty to their agency or to Section 46.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
My favorite bits:
One agent tried to break into a supply closet to disguise herself as a maid, but critically failed and left her lockpick broken in the lock, so then she just choked out a maid and took her uniform and supply cart instead.
This same agent spotted a KGB agent following someone and decided to throw knives at him and got a critical success, killing him with 3 throwing knives on her first attack. What a killer lady.
PCs lay in wait for bad guy to return. Outside spotter, sees bad guy return from shopping, who pulls out shotgun from the trunk of his car before entering his house. I asked the spotter if he's going to do anything, he said, no. Bad guy kicks in the door and opens fire, killing one PC and injuring two others with his shotgun, then two other PCs laying in wait on either side of the door attack him; one garrotts him, but the other fumbles and whacks the other PC in the head. After a struggle, they finally put down the bad guy.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sat 6pm (6 hrs)
Indiana Jones And The City of Impossible Angles
System: Call of Cthulhu, Pulp Cthulhu.
GM: William Lee
Players: 6 (full table with Gil T, Cro M, Morgan Hua)
The year is 1940. The Nazis are masters of Europe, and they may soon be masters of the world. There are terrifying rumors that the Nazis have discovered clues to the location of an ancient Nameless City filled with lost technologies so wondrous that they defy the understanding of modern science. With the eldritch secrets they could loot from the Nameless City, the Nazis would be unstoppable.
Now, Indiana Jones and his friends must beat the Nazis to the Nameless City before unspeakable horrors are unleashed upon the world!
INDIANA JONES AND THE CITY OF IMPOSSIBLE ANGLES is a Call of Cthulhu 7th edition adventure using the Pulp Cthulhu supplement published by Chaosium. The players will step into the roles of Indiana Jones, Marion Ravenwood, Sallah, Marcus, Short Round, Willie Scott, and Dr. Henry Jones, Sr. and embark on a sanity-blasting, Nazi-punching adventure to save the world!
My favorite game for this convention.
A very cinematic game. William controls the table not as tightly as Todd Furler, but still uses cinematic tropes (but not as much), so there's more freedom to envision the pulp action your own way.
Gil's Marcus with his antics with Henry Jones were a big highlight of this game. I got to also get my Short Round in. "Doctor Jones, Save Us!"
And no surprise, the big set piece is The City of Impossible Angles. 😀
An excellent game.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
In this game, the player playing Indiana Jones was a newbie to CoC, a D&D player. So, I think he was a bit cowed by the free-wheeling nature of pulp. So our Indy was a bit muted. Coincidentally, I just read an article where Harrison Ford said Indy will retire with him and he did his own stunts. That may explain why our Indy was a bit slow, Harrison Ford is getting a bit too old to do his own stunts. 😎
My favorite bits:
The rope bridge: Short Round is hanging on the rope bridge, almost falling; Marion is grabbing Short Round and almost falling; Marcus fell through a rotten slat and is almost falling. Nazis are attacking us. "Dr Jones, Save Us!" Nothing happens. More stuff happens. Now Short Round is barely hanging on with Marion clinging onto Short Round. "Dr Jones, Save Us!" Finally, Indy uses his whip to pull Marion to safety.
Marcus falls on top of Henry and knocks both of them on the ground. "No time for that, Old Man," quipped Short Round.
Short Round water rafting down an underground river on top of a coffin lid, with Henry riding and Marcus barely hanging on to the back.
Hotel full of Nazis. Short Round throwing books at Nazis and knocking them out of a 5th story window. Meanwhile, Marcus is fighting with a firehose that has a mind of its own, blasting away at Nazis. Marion ineffectively fighting against a Hulk-like Nazis.
Short Round turning off a generator (turning off the lights) and opening fire with a submachine gun and missing all the Nazis and hitting everyone else in the party.
Short Round driving a tank and side swiping a T-Rex and knocking it into a portal to another dimension.
While everyone is killing Nazis, Indy spends several turns sneaking up on two remaining Nazis (GM repeatedly asking if he'd rather just shoot them, with him declining) and finally grabs one as a body shield while killing another one. Sallah then promptly guts the body shield with his knife.
The player playing Indy complaining after the game: "I didn't get to do anything." 😂
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sun 10am (5 hrs)
Life in the Shadows
System: Breakdown
GM: Wilson Zorn
Players: 4 (2 players: Thomas and Morgan Hua)
This is a game about people on the edge, protagonists striving to do some kind of good in a painful, mad world, swimming against the increasing tide of man's inhumanity to fellow man. Life in the Shadows portrays the struggle of individuals in an increasingly Orwellian state. You play a spy, refugee, student, or such desperately seeking something. Please note this is a playtest.
As a highly competent protagonist, you will engage your compassion or dispassion, each with attendant risks, to succeed. You must also learn to trust others, but always with a risk of betrayal.
Useful references and inspirations include the lyrics to the Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime," the movie Brazil, news stories around the NSA and Snowden (especially through the lenses of insiders and those on the fringe), and (in a non-comedic vein) the RPG Paranoia.
FYI the rules system is significantly informed by Don't Rest Your Head, with a little bit of Mountain Witch.
In this game, only one other player showed up, so imagine a storytelling game with only two players. The other player was young and an avowed D&D player. To my surprise he was very good and I had a very good time playing this game.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The setting is a Big Brother society. When a family member goes missing, a "black star" is placed on that family's window to show that someone has disappeared. Also if you witness a crime and don't report it, you will receive 1/2 the sentence the guilty person gets. And it's illegal to turn off electronics that can track you. e.g. cell phones, computer monitors, etc..
I decided to mold my character after Robert De Niro's Duct Repairman in Brazil. He was an off the grid repairman who used discontinued and unorthodox methods (doesn't follow the required repair manual) to fix air conditioning and furnaces. He was named Brad DeNiro and "Looked like someone famous."
The other player decided he'd be a college student making extra money as a medical guinea pig.
The story focused on an anti-gov group that wanted to steal the experimental tech inside the other player's character. I befriend him and have seen people "black starred" by persons unknown and accidentally overheard the anti-gov group's plot to grab my friend.
In the end, through player interaction, the anti-gov group got nabbed by the govt people who "black starred" people. The experimental tech was extracted from the other PC. And I got away with video of the "black star" people.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sun 6pm (6 hrs)
When did that prop get tentacles?
System: Call of Cthulhu, 7th Ed.
GM: Alicia Hansen
Players: 6 (full table with Cro M, Morgan Hua)
It's 1992. You’ve been working at GYRO's World of Terror for a few years now and everyone knows the stories of the “ghostly whispers” at one end of the mall. But the new stories of the weird stuff happening in the creature shop are intriguing. And when someone claimed one of the fake bodies was replaced with a real one last night you laughed it off. But Alix hasn’t shown up tonight and she has never missed a shift. After all, she wouldn’t want anyone to dethrone her as Chainsaw Queen.
GM's note: This haunt really existed and so did the characters and the rumors it was actually haunted.
This is Alicia's first time GMing a convention game and also with a game she designed. She did an amazing job.
Alicia had actually worked at GYRO's World of Terror, so we were getting an insider's view of that world. She took stories and rumors from her work to build out this game.
The infamous bad player also crashed this game. Luckily, for some unknown reason, he decided to sideline himself throughout the whole game, hiding out in safety and doing mostly nothing.
A good solid game with interesting surprises - and not derailed by a bad player.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
Alicia had interesting PCs with interesting powers. There was a Vampire, a Werewolf, a Chainsaw Maniac, a goth victim/screamer, a set of construction people (played by one player), and a triplet of security (played by one player).
I played "Chainsaw" Mike.
The scenario was interesting and kept us guessing. It started off with my missing screamer and built up to world ending Cthulhu-esque stakes. In the end, we saved the world.
One of my favorite bits was an Alien Egg: a player who'd never seen the movie didn't want to look closer, but a player who had seen the movie had to look closer with a Spot Hidden check. So very contrary, but funny.
Interesting facts about GYRO:
There's bragging rights to runners, screamers, punchers, etc. They keep track of how many people they scare or get to run away. So far, no pissers.
People who run the fright rooms, build the rooms. So, Chainsaw Mike is in charge of developing and building his room with support from the construction people and the creature shop.
The rule is you cannot touch customers and they cannot touch you. If they do, you call security. Security is generally near high risk places. Such as near where Chainsaw Mike's victim is; she is tied down and some creepy customers like to touch her.
The location is in an abandoned, but rented out mall. They rent it out for several months as they build out their rooms.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Mon 11am (6 hrs)
Criminal Gaiety
System: Call of Cthulhu, 5th Ed.
GM: dan pradanamus
Players: 6 (4 players: Chris F, Henry P, Morgan ?, Morgan Hua)
They were warned last year to stop. Once again it appears that revelry is in progress.
It seems like when the weather gets good the problems start. Meanwhile, your family's been hungry for months.
OMG, here's a horrible game rescued by good players. When I showed up, the GM said, "I had hoped no one would show up." It was soon clear that the GM was only running this game to get a free badge.
He had no characters prepared. So, we spent 1/2 hour generating characters.
The game lasted 1-1/2 hours. It was supposed to be a 6 hr game.
The setting was 1628 Plymouth. We were sent to Merrymouth, our neighboring trading post to shutdown their May celebrations. They were in good with the natives, were prosperous, noisy, and not good Christians.
We soon realized that we 4 PCs (a leader of a prominent family - a face character, a butcher, a tracker, and a print shop worker) probably had done something wrong and we were being sent on a suicide mission.
I was the face character and I asked if we had any native support. The response was "You've pissed them off, they don't like you."
When we arrived at Merrymouth, we saw people in various stages of undress dancing around a maypole, intermixed with natives, drummers, and people cavorting and having an orgy in the open. A den of sin. We lost SAN.
I rode up to the drummers, lined them up, and opened fire with my blunderbuss, taking all three of them out in one shot. What? Did you think I was going to talk to them? We gained SAN for killing them. 👿 I then called out for their town leader: "Thomas Morton! We are here to speak with you!" He never showed up. I reloaded as I kept on trying to goad him to show up.
We basically murder-hoboed Merrymouth.
In the end, the last to die were a threesome: Two Deep Ones shagging a human female in a hay cart. I blunderbusted them; only the woman died. My compatriots killed one Deep One, and I rode down the other one as it tried to escape.
We also set fire to the town and rescued all the abandoned goods from the trading post.
Before we left, I carved a message on a burnt shingle and attached it to the burned down maypole:
Thomas Morton
Thou hast been cast out
What saved the game? The players. We were making jokes throughout the game, about cannibalism, righteous fury, and inappropriate verses from the Bible. We were laughing as we burned down houses and bludgeoned people to death. We were horrible people. 👿
There's four social skills (plus one) in CoC 7th in order to get a NPC to give up information or do something for the PC in a short time frame:
Fast Talk (lying)
“My cousin is the Head Librarian and he said it was ok for me to get into the restricted stacks because I’m an eminent and respected scholar. (All lies).”
Persuade (telling the truth, appealing to logic)
“Lives depend on us getting this information. Do you want to be the guy who caused thousands of people to die? You can come with us and watch us if you’re afraid we’re going to steal your books. We're honest citizens: an antiquarian, a private eye, and a librarian. You can check our references. (All true).”
Charm (seduction or friendliness, appealing to emotion)
"You know when I first saw you, I knew you could be trusted. I'm in a bind here. Can you be a pal and just let us in?"
Intimidate (threatening harm or torturing)
"Look we're getting in no matter what. We can do this the easy way or the hard way." Crowbar slaps into palm of hand.
Credit Rating (bribing)
"Is this enough to buy access to the restricted stacks?"
Most players spend build points in Fast Talk and Persuade because they can be used in most situations; Charm and Intimidate are the ugly step children because they apply in fewer situations.
I GM social skills in one of two ways: either see what tact the PC uses and then ask them to roll the specific skill, or just have them declare "I'm going to use my charm and charm them into helping me look up stuff in the library." Sometimes the player suddenly says, "Oh shit, my Fast Talk is 5%, can I use my 50% Persuade instead?" I generally give them one Mulligan, but I won't let them do that repeatedly. This generally happens with a new PC (where the player is not familiar with the PC's skills) and early in an investigation.
Also if they can't roleplay Charm (and don't feel like doing a meta by saying "I'm going to use my charm") or rather roleplay Fast Talk or Persuade, I'd let them move the skill % (amount above the skill default) to the other social skill permanently.
There's always this argument as to whether:
(A) a Player with good social skills playing a PC with lousy social skills be allowed to roleplay out of bad situations
or
(B) a Player with bad social skills playing a PC with good social skills be allowed to just roll dice to get out of a bad situation (or get a NPC to react in a specific way).
The problem is that if you allow (A) then for that Player those skills become dump scores because they know they can role play out of any situation no matter what skill % they have. So, I generally force the Player to roll their social skill % no matter how great an argument they present. e.g. if for instance the PC has a 5% in Fast Talk and when we play, the lie sounds very convincing from the Player, I still make the Player roll their Fast Talk, because if they don't make their 5%, the lie sounds unconvincing, the PC is not convincing because the PC's a lousy liar and is stuttering, staring at his feet, shuffling them, hemming and hawing, not looking at the NPC in the eye, hiding a smirk, etc..
For (B), if the Player knows he can't role play the social skill, I'll let them just say "I use my [Fast Talk, Persuade, Charm, Intimidate] skill to convince them to help us." I'm actually good with that (and after the skill roll, I would tell the Player what they did that would have worked, making it a learning experience for the Player), but if the Player actually tries to role play first and says some horrible whopper or something the NPC knows isn't true, I have the PC roll their skill, but I would now require a hard or extreme result (depending on how bad that gaff was) to succeed.
Also, I consider the skill roll not just an indication of how well the PC used the social skill but also a measure of factors outside of the PC's control. For example, a PC makes a very convincing argument to a NPC (Persuade skill 65%). On a success, the NPC was convinced and does as the PC wants. On a failure, maybe the argument was completely rational, but due to reasons out of the PC's control, for instance the NPC is angry about his wife leaving him and just doesn't want to do anything for anybody at the moment, so the persuasive argument fails.
Fast Talk failure: NPC sees through the con or bad lie or bad delivery. "Yeah, that's the ticket. My cousin, I mean my brother, now I remember, it was my father's best friend's twice removed's cat. I get so confused these days. Anyway, I need to get into the restricted section because I saw the cat slip into an open window in the reserve section and I need to get in there and get the cat before it uses your books as toilet paper. Oh shit, that sounded so much smoother in my head. Did I just say that out loud? That didn't work, huh?"
Persuade failure: NPC not convinced or still has doubts or has another reason to not comply (see above example). "Just go away and leave me alone. I don't gotta do nothing for nobody."
Charm failure: NPC sees through your charm offensive or has another reason to not comply. "You're such a snake charmer. I bet you say that to all the gals."
Intimidate failure: NPC doesn't feel threatened or think PC is bluffing or has another reason to not comply. "Go ahead, do your worst. I'll never talk."
Credit Rating failure: NPC wants more money or not bribable or has another reason to not comply. "Sir? Who do you think I am? I cannot be bought."
Also a good Fast Talker can spot another Fast Talker (e.g. a bullshitter can always spot another bullshitter), so a Fast Talker skill roll is against the target's Psychology or Fast Talk skill, whichever is higher. Actually a rule on p.64 Keeper Rulebook.
Same for Charm and Intimidate. Charm is against the target's Psychology or Charm skill, whichever is higher (p.59 Keeper Rulebook). Intimidate is against the target's Psychology or Intimidate skill, whichever is higher (p.66 Keeper Rulebook).
This doesn't seem to apply to Persuade though (p.71 Keeper Rulebook). No other opposing skill is explicitly called out as in the other 3 social skills. Actually no opposing skill is called out at all, but under Psychology (p.73 Keeper Rulebook), Persuade is explicitly called out, so Persuade is against the target's Psychology.
Note that on p.71 Keeper Rulebook, that "Persuade may be employed without reference to truth." e.g. you can persuade someone to act against their own best interests by convincing them of some falsehood. "The world is better off without you." "I'm the best person to be the executor of your will." But this requires long term manipulation and consistent arguments. A very different use of the Persuade skill than running into a NPC and getting them to do something in a short time frame. I assume this is used multiple times over long time periods to adjust a NPC's frame of mind by building up a framework of faulty logic or feeding the NPC consistent lies that are hard to discredit.
So, that's my take on social skills.
Q: If a Player switches skills after a failure is it a Pushed roll? For example a PC tries Charm and then switches to Persuade?
A: If the goal is still the same, such as gaining info or a clue, any switch in tactics or rerolls are Pushed rolls.
For social skills: Intimidate, Charm, Persuade, Fast Talk. Any switch in tactics or rerolls are Pushed rolls, even by a different PC. This prevents Players from doing the following: PC 1 tries Charm, failed. PC 2 tries Fast Talk, failed. PC 3 tries Persuade, failed. PC 4 tries Intimidate, failed. Then PC with highest social skill tries a Pushed roll. Yeah, this is an extreme example, but I think you get why this shouldn't be allowed.
I consider any re-try even with a different social skill a Pushed roll because it's really fishy if someone tried to Charm you to get past the door, then moments later, either the same person or their friend tries to Fast Talk through the door. I tell the players that if you do that, that's a Push and if you fail, the doorman gets pissed off and decides to teach you a lesson. e.g. it'll be a combat situation. Of course, if they beat him down, they'll get past him.
As an aside, if you fail a Locksmith (lock pick) and then kick the door in, the STR test for kicking in the door is NOT a Pushed roll as the consequence is that it's noisy and obvious someone broke in. And the original point of trying Locksmith was to quietly and unobtrusively get through the door.
Q: It seems overpowerful that a PC who makes their social skill roll can make a NPC do anything.
A: I think within reason.
Trying to persuade an NPC you've just met to shoot themselves in the head won't work, even if you rolled an 01, a Critical Success.
In my games, the Player has an idea as to what the PC wants the NPC to do. Generally, the Player would say, "I want the NPC to let me in his house, so I can search it. I ask them if I can use the bathroom." Even if the Fast Talk works, there could be strings attached such as "You can, but the NPC's butler or thug will keep an eye on you, so there's no funny business." Then the PC would need to Stealth out of the bathroom to do a Spot Hidden.
If it's to borrow the MacGuffin, which is the key to the whole scenario, I wouldn't just hand it to the PCs. If it's important, there should be strings attached such as they might have to leave a hostage in exchange or there's threat of violence if the McGuffin isn't returned or they can't have it, but they can see it (then they'd have to steal it or fight for it).
I generally don't go to DunDraCon anymore because it's in the middle of ski season and the shuffler hates me. This year, I got into two games on Friday and nothing else the rest of the convention. One funny thing, all the games in played in or ran were fan service games: The Prisoner, Game of Thrones, Star Wars. I hide spoiler sections with JavaScript. If you have JavaScript turned off, you can skip the spoiler sections I have marked.
Six of One
Friday Noon in 149 for 6 hr
System: Delta Green; 6 players
GM: Todd Evans
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mature Themes
All characters provided by GM Welcome to the Village. You are No. 6. Or are you? There are five other Villagers who appear to be you. Can you trust them? Can you even trust yourself?
This game was The Prisoner game. I loved the props and ambiance. Got to do lots of No. 6-ish things and there were lots of references to the TV show.
I enjoyed it.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The PCs are all No. 6s from various episodes of The Prisoner. I have actually seen the "prequel" Secret Agent and I wound up with John Drake from that TV series instead. So, that was very cool.
Part of the TV series is The Village and No. 2 trying to find out why No. 6 resigned and No. 6 always outsmarting The Village and No. 2.
Co-GMs
We had an election, a Kosho match, an arts and craft competition (all mirroring tv episodes), very cool personal maps of The Village (which aren't all exactly the same), and of course, Rover.
I found the strongest parts of the game was the first (The Village) and last (Village Control Room) act. In the 2nd act, we wound up on a Shan spaceship. Spoke to Todd about this, he might modify the 2nd act to be more village-y or at least make parts of the Shan spaceship resemble rooms and buildings in The Village.
Basically some of the 6s are not who they seem. And the big reveal that One (the head Shan) is in a Six fits the TV series perfectly.
Two of the 6s died at the end, but John Drake survived and destroyed The Village.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Beyond the Wall
Friday 6 PM in 381 for 6 hr
System: One Roll Engine; 6 players
GM: Gil Trevizo
Variations: Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mature Themes
All characters provided by GM Brynden Rivers, Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, has disappeared. The men of the Night’s Watch and the wildling women of Clan Bloodsister combine to find him Beyond the Wall.
This game was a Game of Thrones prequel, set before the books. Some of the things we ran into explained some of the things that weren't explained in the books. Cool, huh?
I had a lot of fun in this game.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The PCs were all members of the Night's Watch or women wildlings from a clan beyond the wall. We got to pick and we would up with 3 Crows (men) and 3 Ravens (women), 2 PCs were unpicked.
I decided to pick a combat monster and the dice were really good to me. I don't think I failed in any significant die rolls (except when I lost my horse).
We ran into a young Magister Aemon, the origin of Craster's Keep, the origin of the Three-Eyed Raven, what the Fist of the First Men looked like before, how the cache of Dragon Glass wound up where it was, and we found what was way, way Beyond the Wall - another Wall manned by Wights protecting the heart of Winter.
There were lots of great storytelling in this game.
Three PCs died at the end, but I survived unscathed.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Assault on Singularity Base
Saturday 4 PM in Salon H for 6 hr
System: Cypher System; Edition 1st 36 players
GM: Matt Steele (Matthulhu Steele)
Troupe: Matthulhu
Variations: Rebel Galaxy setting
Level: 1st Tier
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mainstream
All characters provided by GM An amazing multi-table gaming experience! Your group is 1 of 6 Rebel teams attacking in a coordinated but desperate assault to eliminate the Imperium’s superweapon prototype. Six interconnected games.
Our last run of NOT-a-Star-Wars game. Thank goodness, we were getting tired of running this, though we're actually getting better and better at creating GM intrusions.
We were worried that we wouldn't get enough players since this is the 4th time we're running this in the Bay Area, but we filled all the seats and actually had to turn a way a few people on the waiting list.
We did have an AV failure, but we were allowed to use the Anime room for our presentation, so that saved the day. Thanks to Mark Schynert for fixing things for us at the last minute.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
This was the first group that didn't set off the alarm early in the game, but eventually they did fail enough to set off the alarm, but way latter than all my earlier runs.
The janitor surrendered, but they shot him anyway.
At one point, they just opened up all the prisoner cell doors before entering the cell block, so the serial killer got out and started killing prisoners, which caused a pressure situation as the PCs tried to disable the pop-out lasers guarding the hallway to the cell block before the serial killer murdered all the other prisoners.
This time, I was able to insert a garbage chute and a garbage monster with many teeth which came out of the chute.
PCs rolled an incredible number of natural 1s which are free GM intrusions and I used them to great effect, upping the pressure on the PCs.
This is the 10th Anniversary of Dead of Winter Horror Invitational (DoW). Next year, Matt says DoW will be open to non-horror games and it'll be the "next level" of gaming. Stay tuned as to what that means. 😊
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Sat 11am
Scenario Title: El Alisal
Game System: Delta Green
GM: Marty Caplan
Variations: Playing cards: 2 Suits, Ace to 10. Insanity Cards. Everyone Wears a Black Hat.
Power Level: Cussed Hard-Cases, Pinkertons, and Outlaws
Number of Players: 5 (Dovi, Liz, Rob, Skylar, Morgan)
Characters Provided: Yes
Description: 1853, The California Gold Rush is in high gear. El Alisal is the outlaw shadow of San Francisco to the east. The omnipresent sycamore trees of this small town that is swollen with gold dust hides the dark deeds of Joaquin Murietta and his lieutenants (the PCs) as they recuperate. Only, nobody’s seen the “Robin Hood of El Dorado” for a few days… He headed out to the Diablo Range with a new lady he met, dark haired and strange. Some whores overheard them talking crazy, un-Christian talk about eternal life, raising the dead, and most of all bloody revenge on the white miners who raped Murietta’s wife when he got his first big gold claim jumped back in ’49! Maybe we should go check on the boss? The gold’s running out after a few days of R&R and it’s time for the next job to keep us all in liquor and women! TRIGGER WARNING: EXTREME GRAPHIC VIOLENCE, SEXUAL SITUATIONS, NUDITY, TORTURE, RACISM, SEXISM, BLASPHEMY. The game will use the X-card system. Tone: Hardcore 50/50 Horror with good ol’ western themes & other elements. Bad people doing whatever needs to be done, no matter who suffers.
This was a good game, but it really wasn't Delta Green. I think it originally used the Delta Green system until all the dice mechanics were replaced with cards. Hit points and Sanity were replaced with poker chips. As you draw cards instead of rolling dice (1st card 10's die, 2nd card 1's die), if you pull an Insanity card, it comes into play. A critical success (a success with matched colored cards) lets you gain a poker chip; a critical failure (a failure with matched colored cards) gains you an additional Insanity card to be shuffled into your deck. If you have a Bond, you can bet chips on the Bond's die roll. On a success, you double your bet; On a failure, you lose your bet. Overall, an interesting new mechanic.
We had a good range of PCs to choose from, based on real historical figures.
Overall, a good solid game.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The creature was interesting, a variation of Sub-Niggurath, whose roots infest the world and creates root zombies that does its bidding. Only magic fire from the Indians can kill the creatures and its network of roots.
There were some small issues that Marty will fix in future runs. We kept on arriving after the evil killed its victims, so there wasn't much to do, other than be an observer afterwards. I recommended that we need to arrive just in time to maybe do something (small chance in the first few encounters), then as we are hot on its trail, have bigger and bigger chances to do something to save the victims (if we so choose to, some PCs had backgrounds more aligned to Joaquin's plan of revenge).
The plot was pretty much predictable, chase after the trail of bodies, arriving too late, but getting closer, then finally meeting the big bad and try to defeat it.
Highlights:
1. Root zombies - root zombie guard dog, our introduction to the fast root zombies.
2. Mining camp / Mine shaft fight - with more human root zombies and finding Joaquin enthralled by the Evil Lady in Black.
3. Final climactic fight in the cave with the lake - Joaquin falling apart like cottage cheese after we saved him and burned the infestation from his body. I dove into the lake to retrieve a lantern of magic fire (which was knocked out of our hands) and got a critical hit hucking it at the Evil Lady in Black and set her on fire.
Overall, a solid game, but a bit too predictable for me. I did like the variety of PCs and the creature. We basically arrived too late for the first 3 encounters and became passive observers, but having us arrive a bit sooner for the 2nd and 3rd encounter would make the PCs more involved and active.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Photograph By:
Dr. Keith Vanderlinde, NSF
Sat 7pm
Scenario Title: Dark and Lonely Ice
Game System: Cthulhu Dark
GM: Jim Mathews
Variations Physical die and sanity die variant
Power Level: Intelligent and Skilled
Number of Players: 5 (Dovi, Gil, Jack, Liz, Morgan)
Characters Provided: Yes
Description: The highest winds in Antarctica reach over 300 mph. The coldest temperatures drop bellow –100 F. The Sun will not rise again for six months and the closest humans are a thousand miles across difficult terrain. You are the winter crew of AmScott Station. Do your job, run your experiments, and try to keep Antarctica from killing everyone. Oh, and don’t ask anyone why they’re here. You all have your reasons. Tone: Tense psychological horror in a deadly and isolated environment
A great game. Subtlety is what made this game great. We found all these clues and a lot of them were ambiguous and sometimes misleading until we did more analysis. This kept us guessing and in the moment. My favorite of the games I played in at DoW.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
First, Antarctica in the winter (no daylight) is trying to kill us by just being freaking cold. Then people start seeing things and it could be something like Ergot poisoning, or an evil experiment by the corporation, or mental issues like being stir crazy. Then we find weird stuff under the ice, like a burial pit with bones. Then weird runes drawn in blood. Then missing people. Then deliberate sabotage. Is our equipment bad because the corporation was cheap? Mismanagement? Deliberate? Is there a killer loose? Or someone just going crazy? WTF is going on?
All this stuff continuously ran through our minds throughout the game. It was great.
Two great moments:
1. The burial pit with bones. Aha! Cult stuff, right? Analysis showed that some lost South Pole expeditions might have come near where our camp is and the depth of snow makes it possible it's the remnants of a failed expedition. The bones belonged to dogs. Buried sled dogs or ritual sacrifice? Answer: remnants of a failed expedition.
2. Two PCs trudge towards a facility, but camp in the snow after being exhausted, suddenly they see the lights of a vehicle drive by. They jump out to catch it, but it didn't seem to see them and drives right by. Is it going to the other facility to help or kill people? Answer: To kill.
What was great was that throughout the game we were very much in the moment, trying to survive and trying to figure things out. Clues we found could be attributed to various things and we worked very hard to sort things out. All the clues were subtle. There wasn't some whack you on the head clues that pointed to what was going on and the quick easy solution.
I loved this game.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sun 11am
Scenario Title: Home for the Holidays
Game System: Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed.
GM: Michael Ripley
Variations: Non-Mythos tale of holiday horror
Power Level: Various Citizens of Granite Falls
Number of Players: 5 (Gil, Jack, Jim, Matt A, Morgan)
Characters Provided: Yes
Description: Description: Snow is on the ground and the town’s become a winter wonderland. Festive decorations are appearing on Main Street and the magic of the holidays is almost here. Time for the citizens of Granite Falls to put the finishing touches on their 100th annual Christmas Festival. How is it that no one has noticed the extra chill in the air or the unusually deep shadows once the sun sets? Why doesn’t anyone remember the stories of the first Christmas Festival and the dying curse of Old Man Talbot? Tone: A tale of mounting terror and violence with a deceptively cheery backdrop of the Holiday Season.
Great pacing in this game. And Michael was extremely tolerant of our joking around. We made a lot of jokes and we had a really fun table. My second favorite game for this DoW.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
All the PCs belonged to the Granite Falls celebrative council, sort of a city council for promotion of historical and seasonal events. 5 other NPCs also belong to the council. 100 years ago, the city burned down and was rebuilt.
First our kids get kidnapped. Then members of the council wind up dead. Then murdered in full view of the citizens by small "children." We finally figured out who the killer was when we were down to only one NPC council member.
Highlights:
1. Santa Claus being decapitated by small "children" who then put his severed head on top of a x-mas tree.
2. Opening fire in a crowded church to take down a small "child."
3. The Mayor drives away and we find his car abandoned. There's some blood in the car and a doll attacks us. Is the Mayor dead in the woods somewhere? Is he safe?
4. We break into the Mayor's house and as the Sheriff kicks in a door in the basement, the Mayor opens fire with a shotgun and kills the Sheriff. We open fire and kill the Mayor. Behind us, the town's priest slams the door behind us, locks it, and sets the house on fire. Did the priest just freak out? Or is he the killer? Answer: He's the killer. And we had just accidentally murdered the Mayor. 😊 And why did we trust the priest? Because we thought we saved him from a killer doll in his church and thought he was going to be the next victim.
5. Final fight scene. Save our children or kill the supernatural Ragman? Answer: Do both. We had to slaughter a lot of creepy dolls and stop the priest from setting the church on fire with our kids in it. We pulled our kids out and WE set the church on fire instead. 🔥 Only 3 of the council members survived. Luckily, one was the Fire Chief. 😊
The handouts were great:
1. Michael hands us a handout. It's a xerox of an old newspaper clipping. Yep, instead of trying to mock up an old newspaper clipping and printing it on newsprint and aging it, he told us it was a copy of an old newspaper clipping. e.g. "You find a xerox of a newspaper clipping." and hands us a fresh piece of paper. Genius.
2. A NPC council member made a flyer with all the council member portraits as x-mas ornaments on a tree. As each council member dies, they're x-ed out.
3. A flyer with pictures of all our missing children with their names (because we really have problems remembering them in game.)
The pacing of this game was spot on and there was enough ambiguity near the end that we really didn't know who the killer was until we found the killer dolls waiting for us in church. It really played out like a horror movie with the right twists.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sun 7pm
Scenario Title: My Final Abode
Game System: Cthulhu Dark Ages, 7th Ed.
GM: Frank A. Figoni
Variations: Home brew Japanese variant
Power Level: Heh, you have none
Number of Players: 6 (Gil, Jim, John, Matt G, Morgan)
Characters Provided: Yes
Description: It’s November 1586 and medieval Japan is in the midst of civil war, which the honorable Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi is determined to win and unify all Japan. It’s at this time he puts out a curious summons to all loyal Daimyo to send their best warriors or scholars to Heian-kyō. Some loyal Daimyo procrastinate, explaining their best are currently fighting for the honor of the Emperor, but most send their best and brightest. What will the Shogun require? Some warriors whisper they will become hostages, while others claim they will gain much glory. Monks and sages claim they will find wisdom. The Christian priests point out, “In the end, only God knows…” Tone: Get your honor on! Much like Seven samurai, Shogun, or Ran this will test most players devotion to ones honor.
I ran a 16th century Japan campaign for 2 years and did a lot of research for it. One of the best resources for a Japanese game is Sengoku. The problem is that most RPG players' familiarity with Japanese culture is Legend of Five Rings (L5R) or D&D's Oriental Adventures (OA). Some may have watched Kurosawa's samurai movies, the Zatoichi series, or the Lone Wolf and Cub series.
The problem is that L5R is a mish-mash of Japanese and Chinese, so L5R is a bad representation of Japanese culture, just like McDonald's is a bad representation of a hamburger. OA is even worse.
The best parts of a samurai game are the social contracts and the consequences of breaking them. It adds another dimension to the game vs straight murder hoboing.
For each character, there should be an outward facing face that outsiders see, an inner family face, and a secret inside face. Most games don't go to that level. We didn't get this in the game.
So, the problem is how do you run an authentic feudal Japanese game without spending hours going over the subtle differences and issues. You can't just skin a D&D game with Japanese themes and call it an authentic Japanese game and do it justice. Or do you just don't bother educating your players and see what happens?
Frank had a quick two sheet description of some terms and the social hierarchy which helped, but it probably wasn't enough.
There were two parts of the game, a social part and a combat part. I really enjoyed the beginning of the game which was the social part. But the later half of the game just didn't work for me. I think others liked the later part of the game more. So, your mileage may vary.
Overall, for me, an ok game.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
At the start of the game, the PCs were summoned to Heian-kyō and were told the Daimyo was fickle and dangerous. So, we all went on our way trying to figure out what was going on before our audience. This part I really liked. Any misstep could lead to our deaths.
We meet the Daimyo's representative and he tells us to go to another province and pacify the roads for the merchants. Which some samurai thought was beneath them.
Then the Daimyo's representative was murdered and we were fingered as the #1 suspects. Still, so far so good. Then we're sent to investigate the murder and rectify it. Also fine.
On the boat ride up, we run into a disguised avatar of Nyarlathotep who tasks us to kill the White Witch. Out of game, I already figured out who he was. He showed another PC the ruin that would happen if the White Witch isn't defeated and the glory that would come to pass if we did his bidding.
We travelled north and wound up in the Dreamlands and face some supernatural powers and defeat the White Witch.
Where I had problems was that it felt like the first part (meeting the Daimyo's representative) was completely separate from the second part (Nyarlathotep, Dreamlands, and killing the White Witch). It felt like two completely separate stories just smashed together.
My preference was to actually go and pacify the roads and have adventures and make hard decisions while doing that vs the second part which was a standard action adventure quest.
