Summer 2021 Pitches: In the Shadow of Giants

 

In the Shadow of Giants

Protect your people in a post apocalyptic lost world.

Using their mastery of rune magic, the Giants built wonders across the jungles, mountains and swamps of this land. They raised up the ageless elves and put the tunnelfolk (dwarves, gnomes and halflings) to work. They forged towers taller than mountains, travel machines as fast of lightning, lava forges and cloud cities. Then something went wrong.

The disaster laid their civilization low, killing giant and small folk alike. Now the giants live in savagery like the rest of us. Nature and the dinosaurs have reclaimed mastery of the world. But within the towering ruins lay wonders of an earlier age: steel, rune forged tools, crystal codices and more. Those who dare the dangers within can secure their tribe's survival in this dangerous land.

Setting: A jungle clad land of fierce dinosaurs, giants and savage tribes. Metal working and other advanced technologies are uncommon. People worship the elements and the divine dinosaurs. Warlocks and Sorcerers greatly outnumber Wizards who must hunt for spells in the Giant ruins. 

System: D&D 5th edition with some house rules into available race and class options as well as restricted starting gear.

Story Possibilities:

• Stealing Fire: The giants left wonders in their spire cities and sky castles. The brave and resourceful can find food, tools and knowledge to make their people masters of this world. Beware however of the old inhabitants and the traps they left behind.
• The Great Migration: The tribe has lived for generations in the shadow of Red Mountain growing food in its rich volcanic soils. But the ashfalls grow heavier day by day. Soonit will bruy everything. The tribe must move on and they need you to find the way through this savage land.
• A New Order: As the cataclysm continues to ripple through the land, new creatures seek to fill the gap left by the Giants. Tribe against tribe, apex predator against apex predator. Will the dinosaurs drive the mammals to extinction or will they too pass on? Or will the giants yet reclaim their lost throne?

Summer 2021 Pitches: Geist Noir

 In the city that never sleeps, the dead don't rest easy. Ever since your "accident", the one that should have killed you, you can see them. As you lay there bleeding out, you made a deal with something older and stranger than a ghost. Now it haunts you. You work as a private detective for the dead, tied up in a strange world of ghosts, vampires, and others like yourself.

Setting: New York in the 1930s. Things are bad all over. Gangsters and corrupt politicians run things. The odds are stacked against good guys like you.

Mood: Noir. In a world of shadows and pessimism, hardboiled detectives and femme fatales, your investigator is trying to do the right thing. Or at least make the rent.

Action: The game would be mainly investigative punctuated with two fisted combat and bloody betrayal.

System: Geist: the Sineaters

Theme Possibilities:

• Old Secrets: The vampires have their fangs in this city. They also pay well if you don't ask questions. As someone who has secrets of your own, you respect that. You do odd jobs for the Giovanni's, a clan of gangsters, mystics and politicians. But lately their dirty laundry appears to floating to the surface. Or waking up. Why does the moon look red to you these days? What are the Giovanni smuggling into the city? And why are there bodies turning up that seemed gnawed on by human teeth?
• Rise of the Psychopomps: Some ghosts see you as a sort of ferryman for the dead. Someone to help them complete tasks they couldn't in life. Their payment is odd but honest. But there are older stranger things than you. Shadowy ravens and owls who nest in the low places, gateways to the Underworld. Why are those gateways opening so easily these days? Why are some people not staying dead? And why are there so many ravens around?
• Transitions: Death is a doorway everyone goes through eventually. It is supposed to swing one way. But sometimes rules get broken: a wealthy man staves off death by sacrificing others, a mad ghost decides to possess a human being forever, a corpse crawls out of the grave to inflict vengeance. Then you need to get involved. Somewhere someone is gaming the system. Why is it happening more often? Who is behind it? The Giovanni necromancers? The Orpheus Company? Or one of your own?

Summer 2021 Pitches: A Fracture In Time

You find yourselves unstuck in time, pulled through the decades by forces unleashed one summer night in 1984 as kids. Now you are pulled back to that era and thrust into new ones. Perhaps if you can unravel the mystery of what happened that night you can stop it - or gain control over this power. Do you rewrite your childhood? Undo regrets and avert personal tragedies? Or use your abilities to improve your "present"?

Meanwhile you need to deal with paradoxes, men in black and black helicopters, and stranger stuff. Was that an alien back there? What is up with all of the roaches?

Setting: The story begins in a suburban town in NY in the 1980s but quickly expands into other times from the 1940s and the Victorian Era to WWIII and the Jurassic.

Themes: What If? at both a personal and global level, starting with the Cold War.

Mood: Pulp. Mixing two fisted action with mystery, the PCs are experts and a match for any government agent or time travelling monster.

System: TimeWatch with some modifications to account for a lack of Time Agent training (so you can play a super spy or even a scientist working on time travel but you don't have a full understanding of time travel starting off)

Variations:

• No (or Not Just) Kids: If playing kids (for a bit) doesn't appeal we can open up the possibilities to older folk.
• Don't Worry We Are From The Government: We can instead play the other side of things as FTB agents (work out that acronym for yourself) trying to figure out why everything went wrong, dealing with pesky temporal anomalies and making do with only half of a time machine.

Play By Chat: The Black Pyramid: Location

So after I pitched two games to my online group last time, they chose the Black Pyramid. The next step in the process of launching this game is to decide on where and when it begins. We'll be following the mummies and vampires across history from the early 19th century to modern day so the location had better be interesting.

Time & Place Options

London, 1840

Change is in the air. Mummies flock to London as the British Empire continues to dominate the world. Vampires swarm in numbers not seen since the fall of Rome. The millions of mortals pouring into the city represent both a resource to exploit and threat to control.

Characters: PC mummies might be new arrivals or long time residents. The same is true for vampires. There are many other competing immortals. As the population explodes the local Prince has his or her hands full.

This is the second time I've tried to pitch a game in London (the other being the last Changeling: the Lost game that became the Price). For some reason it doesn't resonate with my players. Of course given London's long history, the British Museum, one of Cleopatra's Needles and other artifacts in the area it would work great for a Mummy game. Plus I could have included Roman era vampires as locals.

Washington D.C., 1820

A powerful meret (group) of Mummies seeks to turn the capital into a new Irem. News of their goal and the cover given by the resconstruction after the War of 1812 lead other mummies to establish themselves in the city. Meanwhile opportunistic vampires seek to get in the ground floor of this young nation.

Characters: PC mummies represent the second wave in an effort to guide the destiny of the city. PC vampires meanwhile struggle with limited prey but few Kindred distractions in this Prince-less city (or subjectless Princedom). With few mortals (and fewer still that remain year round), everyone soon knows the other players in town.

This is the setting presented in Cursed Necropolis: D.C or at least the historic version of it. It was also my least favorite. My players of course liked it best. At least I have a lot of future historical details to include and the vampire situation will be interesting.

Another interesting element is that my first Chronicle of Darkness game was set near here in Norfolk. Some of the vampires from that game were old enough to make an appearance in this one.

New York City, 1845

Egyptian Revival Architecture has swept into the city in the past decade, concealing the tombs of a wave of mummies. Why are they here, now?

Characters: PCs are among the first wave of Mummies to reside in the city. Vampires have been here longer and may or may not be founding members of the well developed Princedom currently in place.

My favorite of the three. I keep pitching New York and keep losing the vote. Well until I didn't pitch it. I'll talk about that game (my new Mage: the Awakening game) in a few weeks.

This option included the other of Cleopatra's Needles, more museums, mobsters, and in the future a whole transported temple. I also planned to start off with the mummies being uncertain why they moved here (Memory is a tricky thing).

I originally planned to include Chicago as a potential location but on further examination I found that the Egyptian elements arrive far too late for my desired timeline.

Play By Chat Pitches 2018

This week I'm presenting the pitches I made for new Play By Post/Chat game. My initial experiment with transitioning my Demon: the Descent game to Play By Post failed. There were several causes. I over extended myself (the demon game tended to involve each PC going off on their own). We had difficulty with engaging all the players (some of whom rely on the social element). The pacing of the game was slow. All of these I hope to resolve in the new game.

The Pitches

I asked my players to rank these on a -5 (hate it) to 5 (love it) scale.

Inhuman Magics (Trail of Cthulhu)

Short pitch: Globe trotting scientists battle sorcerous cults and otherworldly horrors.

It is the 1930s. As political turmoil grows, a small group of academics, scientists, and dabblers in the occult uncover the hints of a supernatural threat to humanity. Witch cults, mad sorcerers, and less human things have begun a war for the secrets to true magic. Some seek to rules the world while others would call down god-like beings whose presence could erase current civilization. Only the investigators have the skills and belief to face this threat.

Inspiration: Indiana Jones, Ninth Gate

Player Characters: Academics, scientists & people associated with academia (former students, doctors, administrators, explorers) who know each other from their time at school (as students or educators) or through mutual friends.

Each has had a brush with the supernatural: a Mythos book or artifact, Fortean phenomenon, a brief glimpse of something not of this world, or an example of magic. Through correspondence with the others you have come together to investigate the Mythos more deeply.

Setting: Based in Western Europe, United States, and/or Canada but with global trotting possibilities (with enough funding); 1930s

The Black Pyramid (Mummy: the Curse/Vampire: the Requiem crossover)

Millenia after the fall of Irem, the Nameless Empire once again rises to claim the dreams and souls of the world. In the Egyptomania of the 19th century, ancient tombs long quiet are opened and withered remains stir to life. The undead revel in the new anonymity of the Industrial Age, sinking their fangs into city flush with new blood and new opportunities. Others with a long point of view plot and plan to bend this new age of science to their will.

Threats abound: soulless vampires, soul eating wizards, mortals wielding strange new science, and ever-present rivals. Who is the Theban and why does that name keep appearing? What secret lies beneath the city and who is really funding those tunnels? Why are the stars going out?

Chronicle Structure: Play would start in the early to mid 19th century. Every story would jump of a decade or two forward. There would also be many flashback scenes to look at the pasts of these ancient characters (and to fill in time, if someone ends up getting particularly active on posts). Overall it would be a sandbox with PCs able to pursue their own agendas. However I will try to push people together in twos and threes.

Player Characters: Mummies (Mummy: the Cursed, basically indestructible servants of a long vanished empire with little initial memory of their pasts and an instinctual duty to seek out offerings for their former (?) masters. They also are served by cults), Elder Vampires (Vampire: the Requiem), and whatever you can pitch to me that works within the campaign frame (basically you need to survive from the mid 19th century to current day and be interested/involved in the big picture).

Possible Locations: London (because of the British Empire, Victorians, and Museums), NYC (because of Museums and being the Axis Mundi), or Chicago (because rivalry with New York, Museums, and possible Mage linkages)

I'm not sure if anyone put this together but this game is essentially playing out the alternate history of the world where the Black Pyramid from the Demon the Descent game originated.

Campaign Pitch: Dracula Unredacted

A final potential game for 2017. Dracula Unredacted revisits Night’s Black Agents and makes use of the massive campaign I helped kickstart. Rather than use one of the options outlined in the book, I intend to make my vampires more psychological. Think of Dracula and his cults more like Tyler Durden and his Fight Club.

Dracula Unredacted

It isn’t just a story.

Now that you know, you see the Un-Dead everywhere.

In the streets.

Controlling your government.

In your dreams.

Stalking those closest to you.

They don’t appear on electronic cameras.

So you can’t be sure why you hear footsteps behind you.

You are elite espionage agents, burned by or estranged from your agencies. You work freelance, doing illegal spy work to get by.

Someone hired you safeguard their secret research into vampires and that mission ended with a blood splattered first copy of Dracula in your hands. The version that British Intelligence redacted before Stroker could publish it.

Dracula actually exists.

Now those who kept the secret intend to kill you or worse. A shadowy cabal within the British government seeks to use him as an asset. Other governments want what you know and don’t intend to ask nicely. Dracula and his minions seem obsessed with you.

You must eliminate him and his network of satanic cults and murderous madmen if you ever want to be free.

System: Night’s Black Agents using the material from the Dracula Dossier

Inspirations: Dracula (obviously), Fight Club, Taken, Bourne Series, Oculus

Themes:

• Paranoia: anyone could be a minion of Dracula or his next target.
• Madness: the Un-Dead appear and disappear at will. They pass through solid earth. They don’t appear on film or mirrors. Can you trust your senses?

The major twist of this game would be that vampires exist as only as figments of the mind. Figments that can spread via text and conversation. Dracula recruits cultists to act for him but can interact directly with those who believe him. Like the PCs.

Campaign Pitch: Stranger Dreams

Here is the fourth potential game for 2017. Stranger Dreams ties up some loose ends, satisfies my desire for psychic action, and attacks Hunter: the Vigil from a different direction.

Stranger Dreams

Elevator Pitch: Stranger Things meets the Nightmare on Elm Street's Dream Warriors as small town inhabitants discover that their weak psychic powers make them the only ones who can stop the nightmares devouring their community.

Life just got turned upside down.

It started with the dreams. Nightmares of monsters haunting your town. Spiders infesting the flesh of your friends. A horrible grinding emerging from government facility in the nearby woods.

Then came the powers. One of you could shift things with their mind. Another sees auras...and worse. But the guy who glimpseS the future has it the worst.

Something terrible has come to your community and you are the only ones who realize it. Your powers don’t make you superheroes. But maybe these gifts are enough to stop it from devouring everyone and everything you love

Theme: The burden of power. The characters have been given gifts but also a responsibility. They can stop the horrors haunting their town but only at risk to themselves and they have no one they can turn to except each other.

Mood: Night Terrors. Mere mortals would be helpless, paralyzed, against these monsters. The powers you have been cursed with allow you to act. But is it the nervous decisive action that can save this town or the slow futile motion of being trapped in a dream?

System: Chronicles of Darkness with material from Second Sight and Hunter the Vigil. Some adjustments will be made to the Supernatural merits to fit my vision of the costs and power level of psychic abilities.

Practically I want to change the in-game cost from Willpower to levels of automatic Bashing damage. Characters can choose to upgrade the damage (to Lethal or Aggravated) in exchange for creating much more powerful effects.

Character Creation: Normal starting characters but each character will get 3 extra Merit dots to be spent on supernatural abilities as part of their “psychic template”.

While Stranger Things is clearly a source of inspiration, this game owes more to the original source material, especially the stories by Stephen King.

This game would also allow me to conclude the storyline of the Mother of Nightmares, a variant Azlu whose tale runs from my first Mage: the Awakening game to my Hunter: the Vigil game Corrupted Transmission to a convention one shot Plague of Spiders.

Campaign Pitch: Left Ended Alleys

For my next pitch for this year I have an idea that has been stewing since the end of my long Mage; the Awakening game. Or really from the game I ran before that. A story of bad choices and incredible power, of street level action and left handed paths:

Left Ended Alleys

Elevator Pitch: In a city without friendly Orders, mages must find their own secretive paths under the ever searching eye of the Panopticon. Not all routes lead to Wisdom.

Once you were asleep. A simple drone scurrying under the gaze of a million electronic eyes. A mortal blindly walking amid a sea of mysteries.

You Awakened. You glimpsed the truth. You signed your name on a Watchtower and seized the power of the Supernal.

You can do magic and bend the laws of this reality. You see the horrors in the shadows and the cracks in world. The dark places promise enlightenment and danger.

However you are alone and untutored in the limits of your powers.

You need allies. Do you trust the child with the aura of carrion birds? Do you trade for the secrets to yantras with the old woman who smells strangely of pork? A potential mentor promises you the power over the darkest of nightmares. Do you take him up on his offer?

Meanwhile the electronic eyes watch and report to unseen masters.

In plain terms, you are recently Awakened mages in a modern major city that lays under the watchful eye of the Panopticon, an organization dedicated to surveilling the population and suppressing rogue Awakened. No “friendly” organization of mages exist in the city currently, forcing you work out the secrets of magic on your own or by go to dubious mentors who might be corrupt, manipulative, and possibly insane.

Theme: Trapped in the Labyrinth. Without guidance, mages have difficulty figuring out what routes will lead them closer to the truth. Or truths. Crafting one’s soul can grant great power but also irrevocably twist it. Is it better to release the paradox caused by magic, possibly twisting spells awry, or to contain it within oneself and risk Abyssal infection? Is the mage offering to recruit you into an organization trapping you in a pyramid scheme?

Mood: Paranoia. The enemy holds the high ground. They see everything. They could be anyone. That “helpful” wizard down the block. The police officer who smiles every time they see you. Your sister who sends arcane text to her new “boyfriend”. Who can you trust? Even if someone is not with “Them”, who knows what other agenda they have.

System: Mage: the Awakening 2nd Edition with some house rules for the morality mechanics. Also some merits will be off-limits initially.

My main gripes with the system has nothing to do with Mage and more to do with the Chronicle of Darkness system in general.

One of those problematic parts is Conditions. My players and I forget to apply them, forget to use them, and let them linger well past their applicability. However I’m giving the mechanic a second try. Conditions worked better in person (which this game will be in) and I intend to try to make them more readily resolvable.

More relevant for this game is the Wisdom system. I hate linear systems for sanity/morality. I like more nuance and less direct connection to experience.

House Rules (adapted from Unknown Armies): Wisdom will be replaced by several Stress Meters which measure how comfortable a character is to certain psychological strains (like exposure to the supernatural or helplessness). Each Stress Meter consists of 10 tiers of stresses. Encountering a trigger for a given strain forces the character to roll of the lower of Resolve and Composure. Success means the character grows more hardened, eventually becoming immune to the stress of such experiences. Failure causes them to suffer a momentary break (including an immediately resolved condition with a Beat) and starts a slow slide toward madness.

Recovery is divorced from the experience system. Multiple options (magic, Astral journeys, therapy) exist to remove levels of hardened or failures, each with their own costs and downsides. Too many failures and you go insane. But on the other hand, beware of getting too hardened as that leads away from Wisdom and toward the Abyss.

In the past I’ve had great success adapting Unknown Army’s Madness meters system for Hunter: the Vigil. Since I ran that game as normal people newly exposed to the supernatural, the system helped facilitate the experience of “ordinary” people falling down the rabbit hole that is the World of Darkness.

Since this game has a similar “innocence” about the characters, I figure this system could work equally well. Hardened levels to the Unnatural strain will accrue quickly (I think I might grant a +2 bonus for exposure caused by one’s own magic) but I think all the strains will eventually come into play: Violence, Helplessness (against the Panopticon), Isolation and Self (Shadow names anyone?).

Mechanically effective “Wisdom” for spellcasting purposes is 8 minus 1 per 5 levels of hardened or failed a character has for their Stress Meters.

Campaign Pitch: The Apocalypse is Other People

Next up on my pitches for this year is another Apocalypse World game. This time using the new edition and with a bit more focus.

The Apocalypse is Other People

Elevator Pitch: After the end of the world, everyone has to rely on their neighbors. Even the ones they hate.

Once, when the world was whole, things were better. People could get food anywhere with just a piece of plastic. Water came out of a pipe clean and fresh, even hot if you wanted. Everything you needed would show up magically at your door and entertainment flowed like water into your hands.

Now we live in the wreckage of what was. If you need food, you make a deal with with the Barrow Boys for servitude or salvage. Mother May is the only one who can fix the water filtration system but she’s getting old. And if want something more exciting than fire, you have to pay to get into Rod’s. He only accepts blood.

System: Apocalypse World, 2nd Edition

This was inspired by how my previous Apocalypse World games failed to deliver certain relationships. Notably my players tended to become murder hobos and we’d end up without a continuous community. 

So basically I want a Hot focused game.

Initially Available Playbooks: Battlebabe, Brainer, Child-Thing, Chopper, Hardholder, Hocus, Maestro`D, News, Waterbearer

The rationale behind these is to include playbooks with a focus on either the maelstrom or people/communities. 

The Chopper and Hardholder bring gangs (plus I rarely see them played). The Hocus adds cults. The Maestro’D is a social manipulator with a place of entertainment. The News has to investigate and propagate information through a community while the Waterbearer delivers law and order through control of a resource.

I still need some weird options (besides the Hocus). The Brainer needs people even if others might not want them. The Child-Thing makes children a thing and thus brings out an often neglected dimension to societies. I considered including the Savvyhead (my favorite playbook) but they are perhaps too useful in this setting and too easily isolate themselves from others.

Of the pure combat types, the Battlebabe has the most social options so it also gets included.

After play begins all standard and extended edition playbooks (except the Quarantine) will be allowed.

Campaign Pitch: For Liberty and the Homeland

As I work out the details of raising two kids, I also find myself needing to pitch a new game to my local group. The first of my ideas revolves around a popular movie I saw recently and an old idea to run a successful revolution in some detail.

For Liberty and the Homeland

Elevator Pitch: Swashbuckling heroes in a fantasy version of 17th century Europe seek to free a small kingdom from an oppressive major power.

The time for revolution is now. The harsh overlords who stole your land’s independence so many years ago now find themselves distracted and weak.You and other rebels see an opportunity. If the governor can be thwarted, influential and talented political prisoners freed, and the army’s plans sabotaged, your homeland might once again be free.

Setting & System: 7th Sea. This game of swashbuckling adventure is set in a fantasy version of Europe (Thea), taking the most exciting bits from the 16th through 18th century: musketeer France (Montaigne), inquisitorial Spain (Castille), fairy queen ruled England (Avalon), and so on.

As a group we will collaboratively create a former kingdom or city-state nestled between two or more of the great nations of the age. What was it called? Who are its people? What is the terrain like? How was it conquered so many years (decades? centuries?) ago?

Character creation will use the standard 7th sea rules, though characters whose backgrounds fit within one of the bordering countries are encouraged (since the nation you are attempting to liberate share those traits). Those PCs from elsewhere could be mercenaries and ideological allies seeking to liberate the nation for their own reasons.

Adventures: Following orders (at least initially) from the leaders of the revolution, the PCs steal battle plans, destroy or raid weapons depots, rescue captive revolutionaries, guard or conduct diplomatic missions, and so on.

I am intrigued by the 2nd edition’s experience system and I want to see how well it plays. It might make a good alternative to the Chronicle of Darkness Aspiration system which I feel can get a bit muddy and ineffective.

Additionally I want a high action but simple style of combat which 7th Sea seems to promise.

Inspirations: Rogue One and parts of Final Fantasy 6.

My original idea for this game was to use a variant of the setting for D&D’s Spelljammer. I have been fiddling with that setting on and off for a couple of years now. My setting currently lacks a story and system to go with it and I thought this would be a good match.

Unfortunately it would mean a lot more work for me adapt the system (mostly for the magic and dueling schools) and feels too close to my original inspirations.

Plus I want to do less prep.

The Unusual Suspects: Theme Questionnaire

Time to start a new Chronicle for my online group and for a new round of theme questionnaire. This time I decided it was time to run Demon: the Descent, a game I’ve wanted to run since it came out in 2014 (!).

Before we began play we needed to determine what the game would be about and how the group would be structured.

Some things were already decided. I had four main players plus my wife who would be playing in a one on one game that would exist parallel (and occasionally crossing over) with the others. I want the game to run for a couple of years or 15 to 30 sessions. Lastly I want the player characters to trust each other. After the issues in my Apocalypse World game, I want to make sure the players were all on the same side as much as possible.

That established the structure of the Chronicle as conforming to a single Ring plus a friendly and trusted outsider (my wife).

Themes

As I always do, I first began by looking at what themes I wanted to stress in the game. My initial list of possibilities included those recommended by the Demon: the Descent corebook and the other books of the line: Dissonance, Possibility, Disaster, and Technognostic Espionage. I also reviewed material from earlier drafts my Demon: the Descent pitch: Black Science, Broken Code, To Reign in Hell, and the Soul Cipher.

Black Science would focus on the idea of forbidden or impossible science much like the weird happenings of the TV series Fringe. To Reign in Hell would be a political chronicle forcing the PCs to find their personal Hells before others imposed their own ideas upon them.

After a short talk with my players, I shelved my ideas for a politics heavy game. Maybe one day I’ll do it after I show them how easy it could be.

Then I sent this questionnaire:

Theme Questionnaire

Choices:

Please rate the themes on a -5 to 5 scale (where -5 is hating it and 5 is loving it):

Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives: two or more versions of Seattle exist side by side. On the other side your allies might be enemies, your cover might still (or always) be human, and you might never have Fell. These What If worlds cross into our own and ours into theirs. There's danger...and opportunity.

A Digital Exorcism: The Vatican has a special force dedicated to fighting the forces of Hell. A cursed bloodline hunts monsters to atone for their progenitor's Fall. Those of the faith work together to push back the darkness and hunt Demons. Biblical imagery blends with that of the Machine.

Living the Lie: Agents of the God-Machine are always searching. Maintaining Cover and blending in with the human herd is a Demon's best defense. But how do you balance the obligations of life with those of your true nature. And what if you have multiple Covers? Do you take Joey to the soccer match or investigate that new facility behind the school? How do deal with your boss discovering that you really go to top off at that broken piece of Infrastructure on 9th on your lunch break?

My final question is a bit more open-ended and deals with the question of how many NPC demons you want in the game. More means more potential allies, more politics, and more rivals. It also means more Agencies. Agencies are organizations of Demons devoted to a common cause. A few options exist:

• We are on our own. There are a few other demons but they operate alone and we rarely interact.
• There's the one Agency (maybe you want in, maybe you steer clear) and a number of other demons who work alone or in small groups.
• A few Agencies exist and they don't always get along (maybe you want to form your own).
• Many demons frequent the city and the Agencies have organized against any upstart organizations. They run the shadow world where you hide from the Machine.

Let me know which appeal to you (or suggest other options).

The Response

In retrospect perhaps I gave my players too many options. The results were hard to disentangle. No one player caused a problem but together the results were almost mutually exclusive.

Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives received three 3s, a 1, and a negative vote. That vote came from a player who wanted to focus more on their character’s mundane life.

A Digital Exorcism got a 4, 3, 1, and was sunk by a -2. The dissenter was fine with the theme as the subject of an occasional story however.

Living the Lie scored well with three high votes, one zero, and a -3. This conflict is less of an issue however since I can apply this theme to individual players. I just need to work with those who were not interested in it to determine what sort of trouble will take its place for them.

The population vote was hardest to manage. My wife obviously wanted more demons involved since she would otherwise be even more isolated. Many players favored either One or a Few Agencies but one player voted for anything but that. I brought that person around with an assurance that their character would not be pressured into joining.

Aftermath

This process has left me with a few items to discuss with the players as a group:

• What are the Agencies fighting over?
• Are you (as a group) part of an Agency? Forming one yourselves?
• How did you meet? How did you learn how to trust each other?

The answers will need to wait until the character creation session.

Pitch: Night's Black Agents

Originally published October 20, 2014

Another post in my continuing series of campaign ideas. This week involves a somewhat complicated pitch about a game of destroying a conspiracy of monsters. As always, let me know if anything sounds like something you would like to hear more about.

Night’s Black Agents

You were the best of the best. Elite agents working for one of the world's top intelligence agencies. For one reason or another you dropped out of the game. Maybe you quit, maybe you were a victim of cutbacks, maybe they burned you, maybe you just burned out. In any case you didn't come back out of the cold.

To pay the bills you still did an odd op now and again. You knew better to ask questions. Who gave you that job in Prague? Who paid for your silence in that Swiss account? You told yourself it didn't matter.

Now you wish you did ask. You knew the people who you worked beside might be monsters, but you thought they were still human. Turns out you were wrong.

Monsters exist. What can they do? Who do they own? Where is safe? You don’t know those answers yet. So you’d better start asking questions. You have to trace their operations, penetrate their networks, follow their trail, and target their weak points. Because if you don’t hunt them, they will hunt you. And they will kill you.

Or worse.

In this game you play highly skilled ex-spies working for hire. You are freelancers with the skills of Jason Bourne or even James Bond who have stumbled across a conspiracy of supernatural monsters.

By default, these are vampires but depending on the choices of you and your fellow players it could be aliens, genetically engineered super-agents, the demonically possessed, or something else entirely. Using your investigative skills, contacts and expert training, you must untangle the conspiracy, tracing back the connections to the hidden masters behind it, and destroy the monsters at their source before they manage to destroy you.

Inspirations: James Bond (Dalton, Brosnan, or Craig), Bourne Series, the Femme Nikita, Hannah, Ronin, Taken.

System: Night's Black Agents.

Conspiracy Questions

To fine tune the game here are a series of questions about what you want to see in this game.

Mirrors: (Indicate if you agree) The conspiracy has its fingers in everything and can turn anyone. Your former (and current) employers, your contacts, even loved ones and trusted comrades could all be turned or compromised. If they haven't been already.

Burn: (Indicate if you agree) Fighting monsters on your own is stressful. Seeing those close to you die, things you value corrupted, and impossible horrors revealed sap your psychological stability. Will you crack before the monsters get you?

Monsters: Can science explain them or does religion and folklore hold the only answers?

Monsters: Is the condition highly contagious or can it only pass with difficulty (if at all)?

Monsters: Circle all that appeal to you: Undead/Shapeshifters/Aliens/Possession/Psychics

Conspiracy Theories

Here are a few basic concepts currently rattling around in my head.

The Forgotten: A conspiracy survives on its secrecy. Only dead men tell no tales. So what about a conspiracy of memory devouring undead? With so many secrets and the ability to erase themselves from the memories of those who see them, how can they possibly be stopped?

The Empty: these pale men who follow you, why do they cast no shadows? No reflections? Is it because they are empty, soulless monsters? Why do they cling to the shadows and the organizations that lurk there? What secrets are they hunting and to whom are they delivering them to? These vampires can drain your life with just a breath and none of that messy blood. Then you become like them. Empty.

Ultraviolet: The Cold War spawned many things: the space race, proxy wars, MAD. In a hidden Soviet military research facility, it birthed genetically engineered supersoldiers. Stronger, faster, and with a thirst for human blood. With the fall of the U.S.S.R. they disappeared into the shadows. Now they and their children have chosen to reemerge.

Pitch: Colony of New Terra

Originally published October 13, 2014

Another post in my continuing series of campaign ideas. This week we have a pitch that evolved from my science fiction Fate game To Boldly Go. It might also be a game I run DunDraCon this year. Let me know if anything sounds like something you would like to hear more about.

Colony of New Terra

You are humanity’s farthest extent, leading the first colony ship to reach an alien world. After three centuries in cryostasis you have arrived at an oxygen rich planet perfect for settlement and the expansion of the human race. But what unexpected challenges will you face? What issues did the settlers bring with them? Crucial decisions lie ahead, decisions only you can make.

System: Kingdom, a GM-less game by Ben Robbins. In Kingdom you take on the roles of the leaders of community, deciding how it responds to the choices, or Crossroads, placed before it. Will your Kingdom survive, be changed, or change you?

Kingdom Seed

A kingdom seed is sort of incomplete kingdom engineered for fast play. Here is one for the Colony:

In the late 21st century scientists confirmed the existence of an oxygen rich world fit for human life close enough to reach with the technology of the time. The citizens of Earth, aware of how fragile their world was, decided to send a colonization mission to this world, dubbed New Terra, to ensure the continuation of humanity.

The planet was only several light years away but even so it took over three centuries for the space vessel Opportunity to reach it. To survive the passage of time and the radiation of deep space (not to mention that of the antimatter reactors hurling the vessel through space at several percent of the speed of light), the crew and colonists spent the majority of the trip in cryostasis, frozen in pods until they were needed.

But now the long journey is over and the colonists are being decanted. Leadership for the mission is being transferred from the flight crew of the Opportunity to the administrators of New Terra whose job it is to make this planet humanity's new home.

Customize:

• New Terra is [a rich world with a complex and deadly ecosystem | a barely habitable planet where the most complex life form is a slime mold | a seeming paradise with an incompatible biology].
• The colony ship Opportunity is [the first of three, meant to break ground for the colony | the second of three, but finds its forerunner never arrived | supposed to be alone but detects another ship close behind].
• The crew and settlers are [the best and brightest humanity has to offer | desperate and hopeless refugees from a dying world, seeking a new beginning | criminals, both political and otherwise].

Threats:

• The food vats aboard the Opportunity are failing. An alternative source of protein and carbohydrates will be needed.
• Hostile native life. Something on the planet is killing people. Maybe it is nothing more than a hungry beast, maybe it is a flesh-eating disease, or maybe it is intelligent.
• An uncivil society. People are fighting among themselves for the last luxuries of old Earth. How long until this planet is baptized in alien blood?
• Divided leadership. The captain runs the Opportunity but the Governor administers the colony. Until things get established on the surface, who is really in charge? And what about the people clamoring for elections?
• Some of the cryopods have malfunctioned. Who can't be revived? Can they be repaired?
• Transmissions sent after the launch indicate Earth suffered from wars and ecological devastation over the next century. Then they stop. What happened? Should a mission be established to find out? More pressingly, what happened with the follow-up missions?

Locations:

• The bridge of the Opportunity in orbit about New Terra.
• The cryostasis revival chamber where colonists are decanted and recover from three centuries of sleep.
• The food vats, vast chambers where meat and vegetable matter is grown.
• The shuttle bay, busy with the constant unloading of the Opportunity.
• Point Landing spaceport. The location of the first landfall on New Terra by humans, surrounded by acres of prefab housing.
• The Governor's house. A white prefab structure made from several modular homes.
• Loner's Cove. A bleak and isolated sea-shore where one can get some privacy.
• Point Landing's Hospital. Another prefab house surrounded by tents to care for the everyday injuries of a bustling colony.

Character Concepts:

• Captain of the Opportunity: even though you slept through much of the trip, you still have seen decades of service and command. Now you must give it up.
• Governor of New Terra: you spent three centuries dreaming of the world you would help build.
• Chief Medical Officer: you oversee the "defrosting" of hundreds of colonists and are responsible for the health of an entire colony.
• Xenobiologist: an alien world with life requires careful study. Can you document everything before the foreign invaders destroy it?
• Senior Agronomist: a colony requires food and that requires someone to know how to grow it. You are what stands between the colony and famine.
• Security Officer: in an ideal world, this new Eden would require no law enforcement. This isn't an ideal world.
• Chief Engineer: As if maintaining the Opportunity wasn't enough, you also oversee all construction in Point Landfall.
• Colonist with a Dream and the Means: there is always someone who finds the opportunity to turn a profit. Owed favors in orbit and on the surface, you seek to rise above your fellow colonists.

Crossroads:

• Remove the Opportunity's main reactor to use as Point Landing's primary power source?
• Establish a second settlement on the southern continent?
• Silas Duncan, a rogue geneticist wanted on earth for a long list of offenses, forged his credentials and managed to join the colonization effort. Earth discovered the deception after the Opportunity left. He is a brilliant bioengineer. Should his death sentence be carried out?
• Send the Opportunity to search for the other vessels that are supposed to arrive?
• Sterilize a section of the countryside to make way for farming of crops?

Pitch: You Can’t Go Home Again

Originally published October 6, 2014

Another post in my continuing series of campaign ideas. This week we are back to the World of Darkness for my (thus far) final Changeling: the Lost concept. As always, let me know if anything sounds like something you would like to hear more about.

You Can’t Go Home Again

Perhaps you took the wrong moonlit path through the woods or accepted an invitation to a dazzling ball from the wrong mysterious gentleman. Maybe you discovered that your son's closet contained a real monster or that house at the end of the lane was more than haunted. Or maybe just maybe you found a market where you could buy your heart's desire.

That was the beginning of your nightmare. You were snatched from your mundane life, carried off into the deepest parts of the Hedge, and changed into something more and less than human. Maybe you were chained to an entrance-way and fed scraps until you became the beast or ogre your captor desired. Perhaps you spent what seemed like decades crawling through an endless haunted house until you became one with the shadows. Or maybe that deal did bring you beauty and power at the price of your soul.

Now you've returned, freshly escaped from the Hedge. There might be hounds at your heels but you are free to reclaim the life taken from you...

But you find things are not that easy. Someone took your place while you were away and they have done a better job than you might have. Your experiences in the Hedge have changed you and transitioning back to your old life won't be as easy as you hoped. It's not just that home has changed but that you have not changed with it.

System: Changeling: the Lost using the God-Machine Chronicle rules update (or perhaps Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition once it is available).

Character Creation: The player characters should all be recently taken Changelings, with none of them having been missing for more than a decade. In theory each character should be able to step back into their old life if not for something in the way: a fetch, a relationship with a loved one that has changed, or simply the awkward questions of where you have been for 7 years and a day. But there are no physical or age related obstacles. their life is not gone, just occupied.

Setting: The fictional town of Rosebriar, nestled in upstate New York, west of Albany and east of Buffalo. On the eastern most edge of the Rust belt, it survives off tourism and the old chemical plant on the edge of town. The characters should be natives.

The local Hedge is oddly empty with only a smattering of Hobs and Changelings populating it. Each of them wants something they can't have. The mad wizened Hedge seeks a happy ending he can barely recall. The creature known as Alice seeks her lost mortality while the curiously informed mortal Dr. Lada seeks eternal youth. None of them provide any real help to the characters as each is too absorbed in their own desires.

The mortal realm is little comfort as well with the characters' mundane lives so close but just out of reach.

Themes:

• Isolation: between the lack of a proper Freehold and lack of mundane connections, the characters have only themselves to rely on. Do they retreat from the mortal world for the madness of the Fae? Or live on the fringes of a place they can never truly be a part of? Overcoming isolation is the primary struggle of the game.
• What is real?: Fetches look just like the character and believe that they are the real version. Until you open them up to reveal the sticks and shards of mirror that make them up, there is no way to tell if they are lying. The characters can see that they themselves are not human however. Maybe they are the impostors? Evidence begins to pile up that their memories of the Hedge are incorrect and that they really are not who they say they are. Where is it coming from? Is it true?

Enemies and Allies: the familiar Courts are absent and strange Guilds dominate the society of the fae.

• The Red Company: guardians of the markets, explorers, and thrill seekers. Each carries a doom and are torn between two worlds.
• The Bridgeburners: a radical group which seeks to sever the connection between the Hedge and the mortal world. Half think they are saving humanity, the other half seek an end to their own illusory lives. They are systematically destroy gateways to the Hedge and those who can create more, such as the player characters.
• Durance Anonymous: little more than a large motley, these damaged creatures believe they are suffering a mass delusion. They provide support to new arrivals, trying to bring them around to the 'truth'. There is no Hedge and we are not who we think we are.
• Fetches: of themselves and others. How much do they know about what they truly are? And who has been making them?
• Monster hunters: not all mortals are clueless and many are willing to fight to protect humanity from those creatures seeking to steal the lives of others.

Closing Thoughts

This would be a short poignant game with little of the grandness of scale of my earlier Chronicles. Instead I want to focus on the personal stories the characters from their arrival in world with no place for them and ending once everyone has discovered a new life or been broken on the jagged edge of reality.

Pitch: Golden Years, Iron Age

Originally published September 29, 2014

Another post in my continuing series of campaign ideas. This week I have something a bit different and less horror infused: superheroes!

Taking a bit from the various eras of the comics (Gold, Silver, Bronze, Dark/Modern) and the movie RED, this pitch has retired superheroes from a brighter age having to save the world once again. As with all of my pitches, let me know if it sounds like something you would like to hear more about.

Golden Years, Iron Age

You were once the world’s greatest heroes. You fought the Red Menace, toppled the Fourth Reich, and stopped the alien invasion of ‘78. You have outlived enemies and allies, buried sidekicks and lovers. Now in the twilight of your life, you find yourself called upon to serve your country again. Put on your cape, recharge your power armor, and ready yourself for heroics again.

System: We will use Microscope to establish the history of superheroes from their (commonly agreed upon) origins to the present day. Then we would use Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Edition (because that is what I own) to build the characters at Power Level (PL) 12 but with their level derived traits capped at PL 10 due to the ravages of time and age.

Themes:

• Too old for this shit: the player characters are veteran heroes but they are also all over 70 years old at this point. Their old nemeses, allies, and even their proteges and kid sidekicks have either passed away or are old and gray themselves. Expect age and infirmity related complications as even superheroes have a limit. Bad backs, failing hearts and quaking hands hinder those who were and would be Earth's mightiest defenders.
• No world for old superheroes: In much the same way that the Silver Age of Comic Books eventually transitioned to the Bronze Age and still later the gritty Dark Age of Comic Books, the world has changed since the heroes were in their prime. The heroes of this age are smaller, less colorful, and more willing to kill to achieve their aims. Where once things were black and white, now everything is gray.
• The past doesn't stay buried: But to save the day, only the heroes of yesteryear can hope to win. The current threat to the world comes from their own past. Can they follow the trail of skeletons from their pasts, the defeated villains, scorned allies, and lingering fallout from doomsday devices, back to the true danger before it is too late?

Influences: Batman Beyond, Watchmen, RED (the movie).

Additional Thoughts

There are a lot of open questions in this pitch. For instance, what is the threat that faces the heroes?

The answer will only appear once the history and characters are constructed. Here's how I would proceed.

First we would establish the origin point for super powers. Personally I favor WWII, both for the possible Nazi action and because it will distort existing history less than some of the other options. But perhaps it occurred at the dawn of civilization, was infused into our genetic code by aliens, triggered by a mad scientist in the 19th century, caused by the first atomic bomb blast, or was the result of experiments during the Cold War.

Once we have that and the general theme of the power source (Science, Magic, Mutation, and so on), we would play Microscope to fill in the space from the origin point to the modern-day. We would treat "known" history as sticky. That is to say that events should tend to work out to create a society, geopolitics and technology level similar to our own. But if a cool enough idea comes along I would run with it.

I would steer the event and era creation to focus mainly on the larger arcs of the superheroes of the world. Thus we would create origin stories, major struggles, team-ups, and villainous plots. Any deaths should be left mysterious so the character can come back if it would make a sufficiently compelling story. The players should feel free to describe their powers as they feel fit without regard to power level. After all the characters might have diminished in power with age.

After that first world creation session is complete we can complete character creation and make any final changes or additions to the timeline. Then (assuming there is still time to fill in the session) I would run a simple story where the characters get to interact and show off that even in their twilight they are a force to reckon with.

From there we jump into the larger story of the game. Here are a possible few directions that jump out at me:

• Perhaps superpowers originally come from a secret serum developed in WWII. The serum didn't work on everyone but the children of those exposed all had the chance to be superpowered as well. But what about the unknown side effects, the ones that only appear in the 3rd and 4th generations?
• Perhaps there was an alien invasion during the heroes' watch. When they defeated the threat, how many of their foes' shapeshifting spies remained behind? Who hasn't been who they say they are? And for how long?
• My last concept works best with a central reoccurring villain. When the mastermind was finally killed did his plots really stop? Or did he have backup plans in case of his own demise? Perhaps his final doomsday device been slowly ticking along, bringing Armageddon closer day by day?

Pitch: Vampire: the Revolution

Originally published September 22, 2014

Another post in my continuing series of campaign ideas. This week I want to look at a game that one half reaction to most of the Vampire games I've been a part of and one half taking Vampire: the Requiem's toolkit to an extreme level. As always, let me know if anything sounds like something you would like to hear more about.

The Revolution

Source of much inspiration for this.

You have been dragged into a world of monsters, a world of ancient vampires and their disposable pawns, a world where you must live on the edges of society tormented by the Beast inside you and your fellow monsters who seek to use you. But the Revolution is on its way, the scent of ashes is in the air. The old order is doomed. Can you make it through the fires?

Concept: Mixing classic World of Darkness aesthetics with new World of Darkness customization dialed up to 11. In addition I am including a credible rebel faction, in other words something more viable and interesting than the disorganized Anarchs or bland Carthians. Ignore them as weaklings at your own risk.

Themes:

• Blood rules all. You can only trust those of your blood: your sire, your childer, those of your bloodline, those bloodbond to you, your clan. Maybe in that order, maybe not. The key thing is vampire society is organized around blood ties instead of covenant.
• A corrupt order ready for the flames. The elders of the city have ruled too long and become complacent, decadent and flaunting the rules they themselves put in place. Their enemies, the dispossessed neonates, the clanless, the chidler of their childer who have no place in society, have begun to organize. They may not agree on what should replace the old order but they have plans.
• Man verses Beast. Though the city hangs in the balance, this is a chronicle about individual vampires, newly embraced neonates, struggling to come to grips with the monsters they have become while the old order burns down around them. Can they protect those they love from their enemies? From themselves? What is the Beast really? Can they fight it?
• Strange dead. Embracing the weirdest aspects of both versions of World of Darkness, the clans and covenants include some of the most odd examples: memory stealing corpses, the ever popular Nosferatu, blood sorcery, Antediluvians, Strix, and even stranger forces.

Clans: With blood being more important than covenant, I want to make clan something more customizable. In addition to the clans mentioned below, the players can and should suggest several more clans for inclusion in the game. These can be clans from classic or new World of Darkness, bloodlines elevated to clan status, or wholly new creations. These would then be options for the PCs to belong to or oppose.

• Rules: each clan must have three clan Disciplines, one of which should be a physical discipline. Each clan should also have a good weakness.
• Base Clans: Daeva, decadent socialites and social manipulators; Nosferatu, the tunnel dwelling masters of fear; and Venture, the old money of the city and mansions full of skeletons.
• Catiff: as an option, a vampire can belong to no clan. They have no favored clan disciplines and no specific weakness. This is the default state for new vampires unless they are brought into a clan by their sire. A Catiff who has a sponsor can join a clan at a later time.
• Other Clan Ideas: memory eaters who live permanently obscured, daywalkers who lack many vampiric advantages, blood sorcerers, undead hive vampires.

Covenants: As clan rules over political ties, the covenants have been reduced to cults and secret orders within the overarching system of government. This government system is roughly an Invictus-style Camarilla, devoted to ruling humans from the shadows and keeping the elders in power. The covenants are distrusted by the powers that be but offer vampire society a release for societal pressures or routes to secret power. As with clans, players should feel free to suggest new groups to include.

• Anarchs: These rebels spend almost as much time arguing about what will come after the revolution as they do working towards it. They do have a plan for the latter however and too many plans for the former. Will the Revolution be in the style of American or French?
• The Mother’s Army: this apocalyptic cult is devoted to the blood goddess who they seek to wake from her ancient slumber. Skilled in blood sorcery and aided by the Antediluvians, ancient vampires said to be her children, this cult is powerful due to their zeal and magic. But they risk destroying everything.
• The Ordo: Straddling the line between science and magic, this organization attempts to overcome the weaknesses of the vampiric condition and learn its deepest secrets. A small sect with limited resources, they are sheltered by the elders who seek to profit from their studies.
• The Society of the Accord: rebels who seek to deal with the Beast by indulging it to excess. This counter-culture is disdained by all but tolerated by the elders who see it as a useful means to control the young.
• Other Possibilities: religious group exalting vampires as servants of God, a cult devoted to the God-Machine, a secret organization of vampiric vampire hunters known only as the VII.

Variants

While the default assumption is "punk", characters in the lowest rung of vampire society trying to scrape by, there are a few other options:

• Leaders of the Revolution: Rather than be pulled by the tide of the revolution, you lead it. As the elite members of the Anarchs or the Accord you try to organize the rebellious neonates into a force capable of taking down the elders of the city. The city is ripe for revolt. The question is not whether it will succeed but how. Will you make your vision reality? Or will you become as corrupt as those you replace?
• Childer of Privilege: You were sired by the highest ranks of vampire society: the Prince and the Primogen, the eldest and most powerful vampires in the city. You were Embraced to be their tools and toys, given little freedom in what you can and can't do. Despite any sympathy you have for overturning the old order, the leaders of the revolution despised you for your “status”. You have everything to lose in the revolt: your safety, your patrons, your unlives. And if it fails, you can also forget any hope at freedom.
• Lost in the Shadows: Between the elders and the neonates are the ancilla, middle managers and pawns of the elders. But in a society where no one ever dies, there is also no opportunity to advance up the ladder. While the members of the revolution have nothing to lose, you do. But you also have so much to gain. If the revolt works, can you leverage your position to win a place in the society that emerges? Or can you help crush the revolt after it has cleared out of the ranks above you?

A Palette-able Campaign

Originally published September 10, 2014

How broad can a pitch for a campaign be and still be useful? How many different theme variations can you provide before any excitement inherit in the idea gets diluted away?

For the past few months I have been wrestling with a pitch for a monster hunting game. The major difficulty is that I want to give my players the option of making more radical choices as to the content of the game and the adversaries they will face.

Normally when I begin a new campaign with a group, I start by presenting them several mostly fleshed out choices, usually only 2 or 3. Sometimes the choice will be between game systems: Changeling: the Lost verses Diaspora. Other times I have decided the system beforehand but throw the choice of themes or general plot line to the players.

In the past this has worked well, but I keep wondering if perhaps I am missing some exciting choices or ideas my players have or would have if presented the right set of options. My question boils down can one create a set of options, a palette to choose from, and thereby improve the collaborative nature of game design?

For example, I feel Apocalypse World does this and does this well. The genre of post apocalyptic fiction is a fairly broad one but the playbooks the game provides cover most of the iconic concepts. The interesting thing is that not all playbooks necessarily exist in any given world. The Marmot might not be a viable playbook in some (or most) games of Apocalypse World. The concept of a talking rodent might be just a bit too weird.

However, by allowing the PCs to choose the playbooks or options that exist in the game, you then open up the design of the world in potentially exciting ways.

If someone takes the Hardholder playbook, they then establish the initial setting through their control of the hardhold. If there is a Space Marine Mammal (i.e. hyper-intelligent dolphin in a mecha) then that implies a lot about the world at large. But even minor seeming choices like the Gunlugger affect the flavor of the world. In that specific case, it reinforces the idea that violence is a possible option for any situation.

In any game, you can see every choice the players make as a vote for what they want in the game: what skills they max out, what classes/playbooks/clan they take, the moves & powers they choose, and so forth. Good gamemasters mine this data and incorporate it into their adventures.

What I want to do is open the list of choices wider. I want to know if my players want to face cyborg ninja or ritually animated crocodile mummies. I want to know if they want to play vampires who can walk in the daylight or one which ritually infect themselves with fungi. I want to provide my players larger and more far-ranging options, ways to define the game in broad strokes, beyond just a single character.

So the question is how to do this?

I still think the prospectus method is best for establishing the main parts of the game: the system, genre and theme. It is also important to establish the key assumptions of the game: how realistic the combat will be, what fields of endeavor (social, physical, mental) are worth pursuing and whether those will rely on character stats or player roleplaying. Once you have that down, that then suggests a palette of options to include in the game.

But once that is settled, how best to release the players' (and your own) creativity?

This is where I start to think the playbook analogy becomes insufficient. Any finite set of options is inherently limited. It is still a way to go but perhaps we can do better.

Tremulus uses a questionnaire to establish the initial setting (their Ebon Eaves sample location). Though I find that particular implementation limited (with its set number of variations), the idea of using a set of questions as a jumping off point certainly has merit. I've been surprised at some of the answers my players have given me to the open-ended questions I pose in my regular Apocalypse World game.

Perhaps the best solution is to combine several decision options. After establishing a game system and rough outline of theme via a prospectus choice, you then query the players for any specific ideas they want to see (or not see) in the game. These should be broad and open to lots of different interpretations. In this way it follows the pattern of Microscope's palette creation. You then give that an Apocalypse World spin by taking a break and turning that palette into a series of idea provoking questions. Then you use the answers to build a shared world.

That's the theory anyway. I'll let you know how well it turns out once I put it into practice.

Pitch: Chronicle of Shadows

Originally published September 15, 2014

Another post in my continuing series of campaign ideas. This week I am presenting a Vampire: the Requiem chronicle spanning centuries. Inspired by the ideas in Fall of the Camarilla and Ancient Mysteries, it deals hidden history and declining humanity. As always, let me know if anything sounds like something you would like to hear more about.

Memories of Shadows

This three-part chronicle follows a group of vampires from their embrace in the 12th century to modern-day. Along the way the characters participate in the final nights of the Camarilla, the sacking of Constantinople, the fragmentation of vampire society during the Medieval era, the rise of new covenants, and the return of an ancient threat.

The parts include:

Dying Preludes: this section begins with the PCs becoming vampires during the 12th century within Byzantine empire. Here the last vestiges of the Camarilla, a society of vampires founded in Rome, attempts to hold on to their old glory. But an ancient threat stalks them from the shadows.

As fledgling vampires, or neonates, the PCs first investigate and try to combat this threat and then as events turn against them, they must flee the capital with the arrival of their enemies and the 4th Crusade.

This bit moves the story told by the Fall of the Camarilla to a more modern era, which also shortens the time between the first part of the Chronicle to the third by several centuries. Also I hope this makes the character creation easier. It is an attempt to have my cake (deal with declining humanity) and eat it too (tell the story of ancient vampires).

The general theme of this section is of personal stakes against a backdrop of history. The PCs cannot hope to change history or save the Camarilla but they can save themselves and grow in personal power. The mood is of being in over their heads, manipulated by powerful elders to stop an encroaching threat far beyond their capabilities.

The Long Night: After the final death of the Camarilla, the PCs find themselves adrift, isolated from their sires and other elders. Left to their own devices, they can seize control of their own Domain, where they can manipulate mortals and run their own schemes.

This section would use the game Kingdom to cover the macroscale decisions over the course of decades and centuries, with each story revolving around the current Crossroads. Will the vampires lead the city to greatness or decline? Will it form the heart of a new Roman Empire or revert to uninhabited wilderness.

As the game slowly progresses from the 13th century to the 20th, the PCs must deal with declining humanity, local politics, and other more mysterious threats. Perhaps an Elder presumed dead crawls in from the wastes. Do they slay him? Drive him away? What if a pack of angry werewolves infest the nearby forests? How do they deal with them? And then there are issues of internal divisions: their childer, their ghouls, and their minions. What happens when they begin to demand more and plot against their betters?

The Shadows Return: Finally we reach the present where the PCs are now the ancient elders ruling a European city. Now their agents bring word of mysterious occurences. Threats move in the shadows. Foes believed long dead resurface. And the doom of Rome returns.

This would be a Strix Chronicle where the PCs are the elders who must combat a threat older than themselves. Elements from the previous parts return and the characters are placed in terrible positions, forced to choose between survival and the last bits of their humanity.

Themes: Overall the theme of the game is one of threats from the past: the doom of the Camarilla, their own lost history, and things long thought put down.

The other theme is that of lost humanity and what it means to have outlived not just your mortal life but the civilization that it belonged to. How can you identify with humans when you have seen dozens of generations be born, live and die? When your power and age makes you clearly superior to mere mortals? When the passage of time means that you no longer speak the same language?

Mood: The mood of the game is as the name implies one of darkness, of incomplete knowledge of the world. This is a darkness that clouds facts, obscures truths and leaves gaps in memories. The past of the characters becomes swallowed up by the shadows. But those shadows are never really empty. Unknown horrors live there as do horrors mercifully forgotten.

This darkness extends into physical space as anything more than a days travel disappears into rumor and hearsay. As the Camarilla falls the world shrinks. Safe routes disappear and former friends become hungry enemies. Later Europe becomes a patchwork of feudal domains with no group of vampires trusting another. As science and civilization advances the roads become open but so does the threat of dangerous travelers. Light the shadows and you might not like what you see.

System: Vampire: the Requiem with some usage of Ben Robbins's game Kingdom for the middle third of the game.I might possibly use Vampire: the Requiem 2nd edition (a.k.a. Blood and Smoke: the Strix Chronicle) but I haven't yet gotten around to reading it.

Pitch: Fracture in Time

Originally published September 8, 2014

Another post in my continuing series of campaign ideas. This week I am presenting more time travel ideas unified under a shared setting. Let me know if anything sounds like something you would like to hear more about.

Fracture In Time

System: TimeWatch plus a possible session of Microscope in the beginning to fill out the future history.

Inspirations: Sliders, Primeval, the less silly episodes of Doctor Who.

Reality consists of many branching worlds off a central timeline. Each branch point is a place where someone from another time or timeline made a change. Not all changes create new timelines. History resists major changes and minor alterations get drowned out in the flow of history. But strong changes or sufficiently subtle ones will cause it to split and fracture. Someone killing Hitler, saving an obscure member of a steppe tribe, or introducing anachronistic technology might alter history and create a new timeline.

The problem is each timeline generates its own set of time-travelers and each extra time-traveler increases the odds of creating a new timeline. What happens when the a critical mass is reached? What happens when the timelines propagate exponentially?

There are hints. Scarred timelines where nothing lives. Mysterious time-traveling reptile people descended from a history that never was. Strange figures that try to patrol the timelines and stop just such a disaster.

What will the PCs do when they discover the secret? Do they fix the timelines, eliminating the divergences, or will they exploit them? And what if the cost of fixing history involves erasing your own timeline?

In this shared world here are three separate campaign pitches:

Lost in Time

Through luck or long hours of work, the characters obtain a time machine. Maybe they find the wreckage in an abandoned military junkyard, like in My Science Project. Perhaps one of the characters invents it. In any case it is untested and glitchy.

Their first trip in time goes poorly and they need to leave in a hurry. Only afterwards they find that they can't return to their home time (or timeline!). In this combination of Sliders and the Time Tunnel, the characters find themselves lost in time and space. Each session they explore a new time or alternate history, trying to get back home and solving problems along the way.

Unlike those series, the option exists for them to gain control of the time machine. While temperamental, they soon learn that the machine can be set to specific coordinates to return to a time/world that they had previously visited. Perhaps with more work it can even be tuned to a specific year or timeline, allowing them to return home.

They can establish a base of operations if they wish, a world from which they can explore. Do they keep jumping, hoping to get home? Do they try to fix and improve the time machine so they can better control the destination? Do they give up on returning home and carve out an empire for themselves?

As they pursue these ideas, they have to deal with local troubles and other time travelers ranging from Nazi's using unethical fringe science, Reptiods from a destroyed timeline, cockroaches from a possible future, alien invaders and secret conspiracies seeded by all of the above throughout history.

Agents of Infinity

This setting borrows from the GURPS Infinite Worlds setting. Here the characters work for an organization nominally dedicated to protecting hundreds of parallel worlds. They manage humanitarian relief for Earths suffering from cataclysms (natural or man-made), work to suppress wars, and advance more "primitive" societies to the point where they can join Infinity, the timeline spanning government.

But are they protecting these worlds or exploiting them? When they sacrifice liberty for peace, is it the right choice?

Infinity in this setting is closer in form to Centrum in the Infinite Worlds setting (but with a less villainous name and more positive spin).

The PCs are elite troubleshooters, special forces and highly skilled social engineers in the service of Infinity. They start off well equipped and with lots of backup. But they also don't realize that time travel exists. According to their scientists, only dimension hopping, travel between alternate histories, is physically possible. Some of these dimensions mirror the history of known worlds and are called echoes.

But what if the echoes really are the past? What damage will be done when Infinity begins to exploit them?

Do the characters follow their orders? Even if it dooms whole worlds? And if they don't do they work within the system? Or go rogue and alter time itself?

Would Be Great Men and Women

In this scenario the characters find themselves captured in prison in some remote time and place (perhaps an island in the Cretaceous). Each of them has been snatched from a different time and place. Also each of them, whether they know it or not would have been an important, indeed pivotal, figure in history.

Their captors have replaced them with duplicates or simply made them disappear. Their goal is simple, to rewrite "true history” so that events arrive at a desired state in the future. That future? The alien invasion of Earth.

But placing that many potential world changers in one place is dangerous and the player characters escape. Can they stop the alien menace? Will they restore the true account of human history? Or will they exceed their original greatness?

Valid concepts are the great men (and women) of history as well as the ones that never were. Our version of history might not be the true account and indeed might be the one that leads to an easily subjugated humanity. PCs might be a cinematic version of Benjamin Franklin, a Mongol warrior who would have completed the work of Batu Khan in conquering Europe, or a more stable version of Tesla.

You are the best of humanity. Can you save it?