tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76946836944989853932024-03-17T11:11:02.197-07:00EphemeraKarloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.comBlogger595125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-14222983320866442492024-03-17T05:46:00.000-07:002024-03-17T05:46:21.922-07:00Sinister Buns (Call of Cthulhu, Hong Kong Cinema)<p>I held off getting a blu-ray player for a long time. </p><p>I didn’t see the need. Drives are dead. DVDs are yesterday’s tech. Physical is so last century. </p><p>Then those wicked pork buns drew me back in. </p><p>See, physical is still the best way to get hold of anything that isn’t Main Street USA. If I want Hollywood, if I want anything North American really, it is easily had. There are any number (God, oh God, so many) ways to get that content. Streaming options beyond the dreams of avarice. </p><p>But. </p><p>If I want, say, The Untold Story, how do I get that? If I want any kind of non-English language media, how the hell do I get it? There must be Spanish, German, Italian streaming services, and I shall want a VPN at the very least to access them, never mind a working knowledge of the language to understand the menu options. Netflix is a gateway but it offers only a glimpse; besides, damned if I’m paying $22/month for yet another streaming service. </p><p>No, if I wanted my pork buns – hot from <a href="https://shop.terracottadistribution.com/">Terracotta</a> in the UK – I’d have to get an external blu ray drive for my PC. Which is exactly what I did. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mqs5IeyID-s" width="320" youtube-src-id="mqs5IeyID-s"></iframe></div><br /><p>The Untold Story is a retelling of the infamous Eight Immortals killings in Macau. Two high stakes gamblers, one a restaurant owner with a family of ten, argued over debts. The restaurant owner Zheng Lin refused to pay Huang Zhiheng so Huang, in a fit of rage, tried to force Zheng to pay up. That went badly wrong and Huang killed Zheng’s whole family, thus becoming the owner of the Eight Immortals restaurant. Briefly. </p><p>How do you get rid of all those bodies? </p><p>Well, there’s a perfectly good restaurant in need of meat for its famous pork buns … or so the story goes. That part may be apocryphal, but it became part of the narrative. </p><p>The 1993 film version won awards and made a ton of money at the box office, but due to its graphic scenes of rape and murder – plus, of course, those buns – it was age restricted to 18 and up. It’s mildly notorious as a slasher, but difficult to get hold of. Unless you buy from an outlet like the folks at Terracotta. </p><p>Having seen it, my review: </p><p>It’s an odd little duck. The killing scenes are about as bloody and nasty as anything you’re going to see on screen and Anthony Wong Chau-sang as killer Wong Chi-hang is a standout. The comedy cops in hot pursuit are an incompetent bunch of bozos; they’re all stereotypes of one kind or other, led by their fearless Lieutenant Lee, and there’s a peculiar running gag where Lee parades around with a host of prostitutes on his arm much to the disgust of his only female subordinate Bo (Emily Kwan) who wants Lee all to herself. It doesn’t pair all that well with the main plot. That said, it does end in a stunning moment when all those same comedy cops realize that the pork buns they’ve been chowing down on free of charge came with a hidden cost. </p><p>Cheap, nasty, entertaining. It may be the unrelenting realism of the gore scenes (a stark contrast with modern cinema) but it really does stick in your mind in a way that few other films can. </p><p>If you want a good retelling of the pork buns saga I recommend <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kentobento2015/">Kento Bento</a>’s version, which I believe is on Nebula; not sure as it’s been a while since I watched Nebula. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hwxULsVoHuA" width="320" youtube-src-id="hwxULsVoHuA"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div>From a gaming POV there have been plenty of examples of suspicious meat on the menu. Sweeny Todd, Telltale’s Walking Dead (the comic too, for that matter, in a different plotline), Fritz Haarmann the Vampire of Hanover, who allegedly sold the meat of his victims on the black market – take your pick, really. </div><div><br /></div><div>There haven’t been as many haunted restaurants. </div><div><br /></div><div><div>There is a starting Call of Cthulhu scenario in the main book, The Haunting. It’s been around for donkey’s years. You can find it in the free-to-play <a href="chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.chaosium.com/content/FreePDFs/CoC/CHA23131%20Call%20of%20Cthulhu%207th%20Edition%20Quick-Start%20Rules.pdf">Quick Start rules</a>. In that scenario the investigators are called in to investigate a haunted house. So far, so normal – at least, normal in a Cthulhu-esque way. </div><div><br /></div><div>What if it wasn’t a haunted house? What if it was a haunted restaurant? What would need to change? </div><div><br /></div><div>Not much, really. The Keeper would need to change some of the details of the ground floor plan. But the plot would tick on regardless, and you’d have some interesting horror options – particularly in the kitchen. The family would live above the restaurant, so you wouldn’t have to change much about the upper floors. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Macario family would be the ones running the restaurant of course; a nice little red-sauce-spaghetti joint. Until Mr. Macario decided to add a little extra to the Bolognese. Then there’s a discreet pause while the place is shut up for … let’s call it redecoration. At that point Mr. Knott, the building’s owner, calls in the investigators. He wants to rent the place out to new tenants but the restaurant’s reputation frightens off any interested parties. If they could just give the place the all-clear, he could rent the place out. </div><div><br /></div><div>A potential plot change: as written Vittorio Macario, the former restauranteur, is locked up in the asylum. His only plot function is to hint at a way of defeating the evil. </div><div><br /></div><div>Suppose he has a secondary function. Suppose he escapes from the asylum with one thought on his mind: a grand reopening of Macario’s Restaurant. </div><div><br /></div><div>He’ll need meat for the Bolognese, of course … </div><div><br /></div><div>That’s it for this week. Enjoy! </div></div><p><br /></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-59905723668051494352024-03-10T07:02:00.000-07:002024-03-10T07:02:04.602-07:00Heaven's Library (Bookhounds of London)<p><i>This noble room, situated at the west end of the Cathedral, immediately above the Chapel of the Order of S. Michael and S. George, contains an interesting and important collection of books; comprising a number of early English Bibles, a few ritual books, a large and valuable series of Sermons preached at Paul’s Cross or in the Cathedral; a few plays acted by the “Children of Paul’s,” some royal and other important autographs, and over ten thousand printed books, besides as many separate pamphlets.</i></p><p><i>In the view is seen a model of part of the Western Front of the Cathedral, once in the possession of Richard Jennings, the Master-builder of S. Paul’s. In the case on which it stands is the superb large paper copy of Walton’s Polyglot Bible (large paper copies are of great rarity); an exceedingly fine copy of the Prayer Book of 1662, and of the Bible of 1640, both of which belonged to Bishop Compton, the founder of the Library, whose portrait hangs upon its eastern wall. Just to the right of this case, is a cast of an important Danish Monumental Stone, found in 1852, in S. Paul’s Churchyard: it bears a Runic inscription.</i></p><p><i>In the glass case in the middle of the room are exposed to view a considerable number of interesting objects: copies of episcopal seals, a facsimile of the tonsure plate once used at S. Paul’s, a chain with which a book was fastened to the Library shelves; some medals connected with the history of the Cathedral; and some curious books. The finely carved brackets which support the gallery, long ascribed to Grinling Gibbons, have been ascertained to be the work of Jonathan Maine, carver, in 1708.</i></p><p><a href="https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gutenberg.org%2Fcache%2Fepub%2F48491%2Fpg48491-images.html&data=05%7C02%7C%7C728a3cb2a293402afd1108dc3fa44c68%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638455222093493156%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=lAudtLPC9LnketnfNzuvx1ox%2B8lsVc%2BAT%2F6Bp78zC6Q%3D&reserved=0">VIEWS OF ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL</a></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYL1oUrP4jL8hxjS3gR4YVa6wVOFDW6SDkmZsweVhGhwKCzHqPKwJajIQU_TFBC9lSkW84kYwoX3aOaE02XK0e-pEUjv6hQj_25rP-frUi8hEuPDZIvLq4CfQD5wqkfuefo7aXNunMkN2FkLqL0tbghmmznm5Ka-d6RWecxjzb6-UPc-VFD8VX3mDAS4o" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="652" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYL1oUrP4jL8hxjS3gR4YVa6wVOFDW6SDkmZsweVhGhwKCzHqPKwJajIQU_TFBC9lSkW84kYwoX3aOaE02XK0e-pEUjv6hQj_25rP-frUi8hEuPDZIvLq4CfQD5wqkfuefo7aXNunMkN2FkLqL0tbghmmznm5Ka-d6RWecxjzb6-UPc-VFD8VX3mDAS4o=w408-h312" width="408" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>It adds a whole new meaning to bedtime reading: St Paul’s Cathedral is opening its hidden library for a once-in-a-lifetime overnight stay in honour of World Book Day.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>For one night only, two guests will be able to stay in the “secret” room of the historic London landmark on 15 March. It is the first time anyone has officially slept inside the cathedral since the second world war, when a voluntary organisation protected the venue from bombing raids.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>During their stay, the guests will enter the cathedral through the dean’s door and climb the spiral staircase, designed by the English architect Sir Christopher Wren more than 300 years ago.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>At the top of the staircase is the recently restored library, which dates to 1709 and hosts a rare collection of more than 22,000 written texts, ranging from medieval manuscripts, books from the earliest days of printing to upcoming releases ...</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/05/st-pauls-cathedral-guests-secret-300-year-old-library">The Guardian</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>It is often said that, at certain times of year, an auction of old incunabula is held in the crypts. This rumour began life, as far as can be determined, in 1713, when one William Fitzhugh attempted to convince a visiting Dutch merchant that the item Fitzhugh was attempting to sell came from the collection of the Prince of Lies himself ...</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://pelgranepress.com/product/the-long-con/">The Long Con</a></div></div><p>Good luck to whoever-it-may-be who ends up sleeping at St. Paul's on the 15th of this month.</p><p>Naturally this caught my eye. I enjoyed writing the Long Con for YSDC and was pleased when Pelgrane decided to pick it up. I hope anyone who runs it for their own group has a good time.</p><p>For those who don't know it: in the Long Con the characters are tasked with arranging a con game to sucker visiting American millionaire Hubert Walton, who bears a significant resemblance to actor Vincent Price.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qwXgintendM" width="320" youtube-src-id="qwXgintendM"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">His Kind of Woman</p><p style="text-align: left;">Price is one of my favorite actors and this is my favorite Price film.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Bookhounds has a fetish for unusual libraries and St. Paul's is undoubtedly one of the most unusual libraries in London. Substantially rebuilt since the Great Fire it contains all manner of oddities. As you might expect its main topic is Christianity and it's packed full of sermons, epistles, and theological texts, but you might find almost anything in there. The <a href="https://www.stpauls.co.uk/transforming-library">restoration project</a> is the first time anyone's seriously looked at the thing since the 1900s, when they installed electric lighting and, shortly after, heating. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Imagine going for over a hundred years and the only change that's ever been made, other than sweep up the termite dust, is to install electric light. </p><p style="text-align: left;">"Our conservators were especially concerned about the safety of the gallery structure and the water-tightness of the roof." Well fork me blind, Lassie, I would be too. Now go fetch the boy out of the well, there's a good dog.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Moving on.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Late Returns</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i>A post-Long Con scenario snippet.</i></p><p style="text-align: left;">After the events of Long Con, however that came out, the characters are approached by Cathedral representatives.</p><p style="text-align: left;">This may happen up to a year after the events of Long Con.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The Cathedral's people want the characters' assistance. Ever since the events of Long Con visitors to the Library have complained of strange events. The lights don't work as they ought, and there's a nasty burning smell that comes and goes. They've had electricians in to diagnose the problem, but as far as they can tell the lights are working as intended and there's no wiring problem. There's been a lot of loose talk about devils since the characters attempted their con game and the Church authorities want it very clear that there's no such thing as maleficent spirits, certainly not within God's House and the most important Cathedral in Great Britian. The authorities hope that by parading the characters through in a show they'll be able to stop loose talk.</p><p style="text-align: left;">While on site the Hounds' mouths will be watering: here are some of the most valuable books they've seen in their entire career, just ... sitting there. On shelves. If only they weren't under such heavy manners they might be able to lift something ...</p><p style="text-align: left;"><u><i><b>Option One:</b> Dusty Regret</i></u>. One of the Dust Things managed to survive the events of the Long Con and made its way up here, where it bonded to a collection of sermons. It appears as a careworn priest with vacant eyes. It's beginning to propagate among the texts in the Library; if left to its own devices it will spread, infecting scholars who will, in turn, take Dust Things to their own libraries. The smell is coming from the electrics; lead-sheathed wiring that hasn't been looked after causes havoc when it comes into contact with Dust Things.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><u style="font-style: italic;"><b>Option Two:</b> Wiring Faults</u> The wiring isn't everything it should be, but there are some indications that it's been fiddled with. There's a particular section close to the display cases that shows extensive signs of damage. This is because the electrician is trying to set up an opportunity for theft; if he can manufacture a 'fire scare' he can grab the opportunity and steal the items he has his eyes on. Why? Gentleman Jack, that's why; the scoundrel has decided to have another crack at St. Pauls and the electrician is his go-between.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><u style="font-style: italic;"><b>Option Three:</b> Devilish Drama</u> The whole scenario is being manufactured by one of the Cathedral staff, who works at the Library. This staff member is enthralled with the idea of Devil's Auctions and the events of the Long Con inspired them to take it a step further. They've been carrying out rituals up in the Library to summon Old Nick, the idea being to start up a Devil's Auction of their own. The trouble is, they have managed to contact someone. It just isn't Old Nick; Old Nyalathotep, more like.</p><p style="text-align: left;">That's it for this week. Enjoy!</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p><br /></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-68393185446722288082024-03-03T04:55:00.000-08:002024-03-03T04:55:19.358-08:00BOOKWORM (Bookhounds of London)<p> BOOKWORM wants young lady to catalogue library. Answer in own hand writing. Box 520. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1IlbW2LCue0" width="320" youtube-src-id="1IlbW2LCue0"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Lured (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@CohenFilmCollection">Cohen Film Collection</a>)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div>Lured is a fun little film. Made in 1947 with George Sanders as suave clubman Fleming and Lucille Ball as showgirl Sandra who gets recruited by Scotland Yard to find a killer, it bounces along with verve and has some interesting twists before the end. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys cozy crime, or crime in general. It’s fun, it has laughs, it has Boris Karloff chewing all sorts of scenery, while Ball and Sanders bounce off each other nicely. </div><div><br /></div><div>The conceit is interesting. The Killer places an advert in the personal column of the paper, victims write in applying for the post, and whoops, strangle, strangle. The audience never sees the strangle, strangle. There’s a chiller moment about halfway through the film when Saunders is brought into the coroner’s office to identify a victim who’s been in the river for … a while … but the audience never sees the remains. Kudos to Saunders on keeping his composure. And his lunch. </div><div><br /></div><div>The personal ad has a long and studied history which I shan’t bore you with. Boredom is what <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_advertisement">Wikipedia</a> is for. </div><div><br /></div><div><div>However, Lured isn’t the only example of a personal ad killer; far from it. There have been all sorts but the one I want to draw your attention to is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9la_Kiss">Béla Kiss</a>, the Hungarian vampire. </div><div><br /></div><div>Kiss, a tinsmith, practiced the romance bunco. He engaged in passionate correspondence with lonely women, drew them to his house, at which point they vanished. This was all pre-1914, and he was able to dispose of the bodies in tin drums filled with ‘kerosene’ that Kiss claimed he was hoarding in case war broke out. Lucky old Kiss: war did indeed break out. He was called up, went to the front, and in the meantime left the house in his housekeeper’s care. </div><div><br /></div><div>Kiss’ landlord decided to renovate while he was away. He raided Kiss’ workshop for supplies and found a quantity of tin drums. Cracking open the drums revealed horrors; corpses embalmed in alcohol, each drained of their blood, 24 in all. Documents found at the house showed he’d been corresponding with many more than 24. </div><div><br /></div><div>Kiss was off fighting the foe and was able to slip away when the authorities came looking for him. Some reports suggested he may have died. Sporadic sightings, most if not all of which were probably mistaken, cropped up over the years. The last recorded sighting was in New York, 1932. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then we have BOOKWORM’s personal ad, which crops up among the many that Lured’s Sandra Carpenter goes through in her search for the mysterious strangler. It’s a blink-and-you-miss-it reference, but it’s there. </div><div><br /></div><div>From these we get: </div></div></div><p><b>Brain Worm</b></p><p>The Hounds are asked their advice. </p><p>One of the shop's regular customers (or perhaps a staff member) has been corresponding with a Lonely Heart that they met through the personal column. The writer, Bookworm, says he has a library that he wants the young woman to catalogue, and he seems ecstatic about her handwriting style. It's just what he's been looking for, he says, and he urges her to meet with him to go over details of the arrangement. She asks the Hounds: what do they think about her friend?</p><p>Going over the letters he's sent her indicates (0 point spend) that he's a foreign national, probably well educated judging by his language choices, and signs himself Kiss, which may or may not be an affectation. A 1 point spend indicates that the writer is probably Austro-Hungarian, judging by some of his word choices and grammar, and remembers the Béla Kiss story. The address is a post box; Kiss wants to meet her at an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerated_Bread_Company">A.B.C.</a> (Aerated Bread Company) shop not far from London Bridge Train Station. It seems harmless enough - it's a public place, after all. </p><p><u>Option 1: <i>Hungarian Nightmare</i></u>. The writer is Béla Kiss himself. Having fled the front and escaped to London, he's set himself up as a tinsmith again but he can't get by on his own money so he's gone back to his old ways. This is one of his early attempts to lure in someone with the promise of work and then kill her, stealing what little she has. He's even gone back to his old methods of corpse disposal and leaves the bodies in tin drums at his shop. There are four such drums at his shop right now. What he doesn't understand is why those drums seem to be talking to him at night. Kiss is one short hop from becoming a ghoul, and the local ghoul population is watching him carefully.</p><p><u>Option 2: </u><i style="text-decoration-line: underline;">Copy Cat</i> The writer is inspired by Béla Kiss. Occultist and fringe cultist Sam Scarlett has been trying to get the attention of the Keirecheires for some time but they've rebuffed his advances. He's come up with a new scheme: vampire-inspired pornography, complete with photographs. That's his ticket in. His lonely heart is destined to become his latest subject, and after that will be pickled in a tin drum. Scarlett's gotten moderately competent at tinsmithing; it's part of his Kiss persona. The Keirecheires are moderately amused by Scarlett's efforts; less so, at the Hounds' interference.</p><p><u>Option 3: </u><i style="text-decoration-line: underline;">Brain Bugs</i> This is a Shan operation. The Bircester bugs have obtained a Mythos text that they're particularly interested in, but they've noticed that the text is difficult for their insect minds to decypher. If they can't do it they'll find a human who can. The library cataloguing is an invention but there really is a library; they just have one book that they want read. Just one. Then they'll take the head off for further study.</p><p>That's it for this week. Enjoy! </p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-13060006674254448162024-02-25T04:02:00.000-08:002024-02-25T04:02:57.561-08:00Improv Stats (RPG all)<p><i>This is where <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2024/01/scenario-structure-rpg-all.html">improv</a> comes in. I’m sure I don’t need to describe improv to you. The basic point is this: you need to have just enough random facts at your disposal that you can deploy them as necessary in a yes, and situation. If this becomes a crime scene, you need to have some stats for cops. If this becomes a fight, you need some stats for mooks, monsters, what have you. If this becomes a criminal conspiracy, you need some criminals, and so on. </i></p><p><i>The great thing about these improv stats is, you don’t need them for one scenario. You need them for all scenarios. Which means you can re-use them as needed. </i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e0dea7qrLdk" width="320" youtube-src-id="e0dea7qrLdk"></iframe></div><p style="text-align: center;">Money Heist</p><p>It’s not often you see an armored car taken out by bank robbers armed with anti-tank weapons. </p><p></p><p>A while back I mentioned Improv Stats. What does that look like? </p><p>In any game, no matter the setting or system, there is some kind of law enforcement. Someone represents The Man. In some games the players fill that role (hello Mutant City Blues, didn’t see you there) but in most cases the police are potential antagonists, or at least complications to a scene. </p><p>I’m going to use Night’s Black Agents in this example, but this could apply to any system or setting. </p><p>Night’s Black Agents, the spy v vampire thriller espionage RPG, does provide stats for police, dogs, vehicles and weaponry. A quick cut and paste makes an easy cheat sheet for those moments when it’s all gone a bit Pete Tong and you have to run a combat or a chase on the fly. A few extra cut and pastes make more cheat sheets for chase complications (is the street busy? Narrow? Is that a busload of nuns?). Is that what I meant by improv stats? </p><p>Not exactly. </p><p>Don’t get me wrong; I loves me some cheat sheets. They have saved my bacon more times than I care to count. But when I mentioned Improv Stats I was talking about how a potential actor in a scene might Act or React. </p><p>Think of it like this: </p><p>When someone <b>Acts</b>, they take the initiative. In this case, they do a thing that complicates the scene. </p><p>When someone <b>Reacts</b>, they take the back seat. Because you complicated the scene, they had to do something. </p><p>I deliberately chose that scene from Spanish crime thriller Money Heist because the Heist writers are very good at sketching in characters who they use again and again. Colonel Luis Tamayo (Fernando Cayo) from the clip is a case in point; he barely appears in the early seasons, then shows up as the main police antagonist in the remaining seasons. Meanwhile his predecessor Colonel Alfonso Prieto (Juan Fernández Mejías) features heavily in the early seasons but still shows up in the later ones as the man you love to hate. You know who these people are the minute they walk on screen, and what they’re likely to do. </p><p>There’s a <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00012327#:~:text=I%20divide%20my%20officers%20into,appoint%20to%20the%20General%20Staff">quote</a> that has been attributed to several different people and which may be apocryphal, about German officers and their qualities. It goes like this: </p><p><i>I divide my officers into four classes as follows: the clever, the industrious, the lazy, and the stupid. Each officer always possesses two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious I appoint to the General Staff. Use can under certain circumstances be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy qualifies for the highest leadership posts. He has the requisite and the mental clarity for difficult decisions. But whoever is stupid and industrious must be got rid of, for he is too dangerous</i>. </p><p>Once upon a time I talked about <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2023/06/things-to-steal-from-d-gumshoe.html">things to steal from D&D</a>, and I’m going to add another thing to steal: the social map, in which non-combat encounters with NPCs are affected by whether or not that NPC is Hostile, Indifferent or Friendly.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4tFyuk4-uDQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="4tFyuk4-uDQ"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@zeebashew">Zee Bashew</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">With those two things in mind, Improv Stats: in which everyone can be classified as <b>Clever</b>, <b>Industrious</b>, <b>Lazy</b>, or <b>Stupid</b>, with the qualifier <b>Hostile</b>, <b>Indifferent</b> or <b>Friendly</b>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div>Physical stats – how strong they are, how charismatic, what pools they may have in Scuffling and similar, all are irrelevant to Improv Stats. Those are things that might affect player versus NPC tests – combat tests, effectively – and that’s not what Improv Stats are about. Improv Stats are about giving you, the (Director/DM/What-have-you) something on which to base your portrayal of the NPC in question. </div><div><br /></div><div>Let’s say the policeman is Friendly, Stupid and Industrious. In any given encounter with your players, that’s what this policeman is like. These three qualities ought to give you enough to portray the NPC in any given situation. It doesn’t matter if the policeman is also, say, bald, or gangly, or wears an ill-fitting uniform. That kind of thing isn’t useful. It might lend a bit of spice, but that’s all. </div><div><br /></div><div>With those qualities, you have Inspector Clouseau. That’s exactly what he is: friendly, stupid, industrious. If he were friendly, clever and industrious he'd be Inspector Zenigata. Either one can Act, or React, depending on those characteristics. What happens next can be developed in play.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>You don’t need a character sheet for this or a spread of stats, or potential pool spends. That kind of thing is helpful but not critical to your portrayal. But if you know he’s friendly, stupid and industrious then you have a rough idea of what this particular policeman will do in any given situation. </div><div><br /></div><div>You can add more to Improv Stats, of course. It might be great to have a picture, or a list of potential names, a standard equipment list. But you don’t need any of those things. All you need is a brief description, with that list of qualifiers giving you the bare bones of the character. </div><div><br /></div><div>Let’s say that this is a heist, and your players are walking out of the bank in the dead of night with their arms full. Bags of cash. Swag. The getaway car is just a few steps away. </div><div><br /></div><div>Into the scene walks Friendly, Stupid, and Industrious, either Acting or Reacting. </div><div><br /></div><div>What do you think he’d do? Because that determines what will happen next. </div><div><br /></div><div>That’s all for this week. Enjoy! </div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><p><br /></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-27965618243856373222024-02-18T04:48:00.000-08:002024-02-18T04:48:14.826-08:00A Hearty Meal (Bookhounds)<p>Where do you get your ideas?</p><p>Life, mostly. Anything and everything can be turned into grist for the mill. I've taken inspiration from a <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2023/08/les-babouains-cthulhu-city.html">church fete</a>, from <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2012/06/history-in-making.html">Greek myth</a> and a dozen other things besides. It's all there for the taking. Which is why, in my collection, I've books about train wrecks, ghost towns in British Columbia, about New York, London, Paris, the Lusitania, flying aces, domesticating drink, flim flam, stage magic - the list goes on and on, but the point is you need to absorb as much as possible, even if all you take on at first reading is the skim version. You need to have a decent grasp of what's out there before you can start work.</p><p>Today's post comes courtesy of <a href="https://helleborezine.bigcartel.com/product/occult-britain">The Hellebore Guide to Occult Britain and Northern Ireland</a>, 2021. Page 140: St. Margaret's Churchyard, Ratlinghope, which houses the grave of Richard Munslow, the last <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin-eater">sin-eater</a> in England.</p><p>Sin eating is an old funerary practice. The eater takes on the sins of the dead, symbolized by eating a ritual meal handed to them over the coffin of the deceased. Munslow got into the practice when his children died and carried on as a service to the community. Given that Munslow died in 1906 it's reasonable that the practice is still well known in the 1930s, prime Bookhounds territory.</p><p>If adding a bit of mythos to the ritual, charnel god Mordiggian is the best fit. The progenitor of the ghouls, that ancient symbol of decay. The <a href="https://pelgranepress.com/product-category/gumshoe/trail-of-cthulhu/">main book</a> gives several versions but I'm going to use this one:</p><p><i>Mordiggian, the Charnel God, appears as an enormous, worm-like mass of death, darkness, and corruption. Its idols resemble limbless, eyeless, rotting corpses. Its exact form shifts like time-lapse photography of putrescing flesh and is hard to determine, not least because the Great Old One absorbs all heat and light in a room.</i></p><p>With that I give you:</p><p><b>A Hearty Meal</b></p><p><a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-bookstore-winter-or-spring.html">du Bourg</a>'s has suffered a financial reversal and a tragedy: the eldest of the family, Edouard, has passed away at the grand old age of 42. Nobody's entirely sure about the cause of death; only the family know for certain and they're not saying.</p><p>However, there's no storm without a silver lining and this time the silver is a sale: du Bourg's is clearing out some of its older material at bargain prices, in a keep-the-lights-on blowout. The auction is to be held at do Bourg's, after hours. </p><p>To get in, prospective buyers have to pass one simple test: they must eat a portion of Edouard's sins, passed to them in pie form over Edouard's open casket. Nobody knows for certain what's in that pie. Except that's it's packed full of meat. </p><p>As the Bookhounds approach du Bourg's on the appointed day they see one of their rivals stumble out of du Bourg's, retching. The rival flees down the street rather than answer any questions. </p><p>Now it's their turn at the pie.</p><p>Option 1: <u>Charnel Meat</u>. This, the investigators will realize (potential Mythos spend), is a ritual to Mordiggian. It's not clear why Edouard's brothers and sisters chose this ceremony to honor their departed brother. What is clear is that the meat is Edouard's. A nibble is enough to get entry to the auction; a hearty bite earns them a special scene with Mordiggian itself, as the room gets colder and darker by the moment. Of course, they could fake it; Filch may help them pretend to have a bite. Faking it may fool Edouard's brothers and sisters but Mythos old ones aren't so easily betrayed, and Mordiggian will mark the defaulter down in its own special charge book.</p><p>Option 2: <u>Rashomon</u>. Eating the pie puts the eater in a temporary dream state in which they relive Edouard's last day on earth. They discover that Edouard was murdered; the question is, by who? Was it his sister Eloise, who wanted advancement in the family business but was never going to get it while her brother was alive? His second-in-command, Marcus Shelby, who was afraid that Edouard had finally realized that Shelby was fiddling the books? Was it his brother Daniel, who was afraid that Edouard's worship of Mordiggian had taken him down a cannabalistic path that could only end with a death in the family?</p><p>Option 3: <u>Adulterated Meat</u>. The pie has been unknowingly dosed with some of the Elixir of Kathulos, prized by the Hsieh-Tzu Fan. Edouard's sister Eloise did the dosing; she found the stuff amongst Edouard's possessions and mistook it for an exotic spice. Edouard wasn't an enemy of the Hsieh-Tzu Fan but he was hardly a friend; he'd been hired by one of his more eccentric clients to acquire the stuff and acquire it he did, but the Hsieh-Tzu Fan found out and killed Edouard. The cult wants its Elixir back and there's still a good portion of it left; anyone who ate some of the pie can find the rest. Of course, eating strange elixirs found in funeral meat has its own complications ...</p><p>That's it for this week. Enjoy!</p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-73407328030726719322024-02-11T03:46:00.000-08:002024-02-11T03:46:31.700-08:00Low-Level Scenario Design (D&D5E)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TWEZGyq-ljs" width="320" youtube-src-id="TWEZGyq-ljs"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@deerstalkerpictures">Deerstalker Pictures</a></p><p>This week’s post comes courtesy of something I disliked. </p><p>Fuss! Fume! </p><p>I was reading an article about low-level encounters for Dungeons & Dragons groups, encounters which weren’t just ‘go kill the rats in my basement,’ and, while I appreciated the sentiment, the suggested alternatives were … dull. </p><p>Unbearably dull. </p><p>As in, I would leave the campaign if you tried that crap on me, dull. </p><p>The big difficulty Dungeons and Dragons has is that it’s still dragging around <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chainmail_(game)">Chainmail</a>’s corpse. At heart, it’s a skirmish wargame. Its mechanics, spells, equipment and ethos is all about reducing the other fella’s hit points to zero as quickly as possible. </p><p>Other fantasy games do this. GUMSHOE’s Swords of the Serpentine does this. But the difference between Dungeons and Dragons and Swords of the Serpentine is, Swords doesn’t start you off at level 1 and say ‘go forth, hero, and do great deeds.’ With Swords, and games like it, your character starts pretty much at the peak of their career and things can only get better. Whereas in D&D and its iterations you start with a handful of hit points and a gleam in your eye. </p><p>A gleam which is quickly extinguished if, say, a goblin punches you in the unmentionables. Fury of the Small is not to be sneezed at. </p><p>Other games choose other solutions. Ars Magica deals with this problem by giving you a half-dozen characters or more per player, so if one gets chewed up by a rampaging beast there’s another four or five behind them to fill the gap. Ars also focuses on story goals rather than combat goals, because it didn’t start life as a skirmish wargame with dreams of grandeur. </p><p>But Dungeons and Dragons is a skirmish game which means the solution to any problem posed in the campaign is often ‘hit it till it falls down, then hit it again.’ It’s the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNBjJXtaIzs">wargamer mentality</a>. Nobody asks a Civil War tabletop gamer to hug it out; Lincoln didn’t defeat Davis in a spelling bee. Though it would have saved a lot of lives if he did. </p><p>Which is why ‘kill the rats in my basement’ is such a popular trope. Rats are small. They have almost no hit points. Their damage output is minimal. It’s a quest that can reasonably be achieved by even the most incompe … the most inexperienced group. </p><p>Still, there are only so many basements to go around. Eventually your band of pest controllers will run out of rats. Or get bored hitting them. What to do? </p><p>Before I start talking about scenarios, let’s nail down some basic principles.</p><p>1)<span> </span>Keep the combat to a minimum. </p><p>Yes, there will be combat. It’s still a combat-focused game. But the characters only have so many hit points and short rests plus clerics working overtime is not going to solve that problem. Plan for one or two thrilling fight scenes, not <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9TFXin2zns">The Game Of Death</a>. </p><p>It’s fine if the combat is nonlethal. Particularly in an urban setting where there’s active law enforcement and the death penalty (also known as hanging, drawing, quartering and there goes your weekend) it’s perfectly reasonable for the average ne’er-do-well to prefer nonlethal over lethal violence. </p><p>2)<span> </span>Make sure there are exciting things to do. </p><p>This ought to be obvious but time has taught me that the obvious is anything but. These are heroes. They need to be doing heroic things. Sure, Hercules cleaned the Augean Stables, but he did it in a heroic way and it was one of his twelve heroic tasks. It wasn’t his Sunday second job. </p><p>3)<span> </span>Make it fantastic. </p><p>This is a fantasy world where Gods, Devils and things beyond imagining walk the earth. Where physics and chemistry take a back seat to mystics in tune with the mythic forces of the universe. One of the reasons why busting rats in basements gets boring is that it’s just rats, just a basement. Where’s the drama in that? </p><p>With all that in mind, let’s talk scenario ideas. </p><p><b><u>The Laughing Cat</u></b> </p><p><i>Type: investigative; murder mystery</i>. </p><p>This adventure location is a burnt-out travelers’ inn on the high road. When it was still an inn, it was a popular spot for wayfarers on a well-traveled path. The reasonable thing to do would be to rebuild it but it has a bad reputation. Word is, it’s haunted. The [guild/monastery/family/noble house] which owns the land would appreciate it if someone deals with that problem before the inn gets rebuilt. Generous financial reward offered. </p><p>Journey: 2-4 days across forest terrain to get to the Laughing Cat. The heroes may encounter a faerie dragon on the way there which, if treated with respect or properly entertained (it likes music) can provide a clue as to what might have happened at the Laughing Cat. Otherwise, combat. </p><p>The Laughing Cat is a burnt-out shell. Preliminary investigation (DC10 investigation, history, perception) indicates arson. Someone set the main room on fire while everyone was asleep upstairs. If History is successful, the heroes remember that this happened about ten years ago and there were three survivors; everyone else perished, including the Awakened cat which gave the inn its name. </p><p>A DC15 check remembers that the three survivors were Myria Whispermouse, a roguish Halfling who’s gone on to become a renowned hero; Aramil Caerdonel, an elf paladin (now fallen) whose whereabouts are unknown, and the innkeeper Bron, who was badly injured in the fire and now lives with family far away. Among the dead were Proserpine, a renowned Tiefling bard, and her half-orc companion Morg. </p><p>That’s all that can be seen during the day. At night, the Laughing Cat comes back to spectral life once more. All of its people go about their business as if no time had passed – which, to them, it hasn’t. It’s always and eternally the last night of their lives. To them, the characters are just other guests at the Laughing Cat. The survivors are also there, as their dream selves; a nightmare none of them can escape. </p><p>At which point the Cat enters the picture. Peridot is the only one out of all of them who knows that they’re all dead, and Peridot has a proposition: if the heroes can find out which of the three survivors did it and why, the haunting will stop. </p><p>Was it Myria, whose greed for the party’s loot got the better of her? </p><p>Was it Aramil, whose unrequited love for Morg tempted him to do something catastrophic? </p><p>Was it Bron, whose drunkenness finally had disastrous consequences? </p><p>By talking to those present, finding out what they saw and how they died, the heroes can gather the clues needed to reveal the killer. </p><p><i>Potential combat encounters</i>: </p><p>Skeletal rats in the cellar (they guard a clue to the villain’s identity, a fossilized memory that will only reveal itself once they are destroyed) </p><p>Bar-room brawl with the dead (nonlethal, but Morg has a punch like a mule’s kick). </p><p>The imp Pazzu, whose temptations pushed the killer over the edge. Pazzu has a stake in the game; if it can drag the killer’s soul back to the infernal regions, it gets the soul coin that the villain’s misdeeds will mint. But until the killer dies, Pazzu is trapped at the Laughing Cat with the rest of them. If the heroes reveal who did it, the killer will die that night of a heart attack and Pazzu will be free to collect the coin. If the heroes squash Pazzu before that happens then Pazzu won’t have time to collect. Pazzu is a ‘hide-in-the-shadows, rely on invisibility’ kind of miscreant, but Pazzu can’t resist boasting about their clever scheme. This may trip them up in the end. </p><p><b><u>Immortal With A Kiss </u></b></p><p><i>Type: social, romance, urban</i> </p><p>The heroes are hired as extra guards at a rich man’s villa, one week only. The eldest daughter Olympia is getting married and valuable wedding presents are arriving every day. It’s the heroes’ job to make sure those presents don’t go missing and that Olympia’s privacy is respected before the big event. No visitors, no scandal; everything’s being coordinated to create the big event of the social season and there cannot be even the slightest hint of hijinks. </p><p>This is particularly important to the family because Olympia is magically Blessed; all her life she’s had the Bless spell effect as a permanent, but according to fortunetellers and prognosticators that Bless effect will pass to her true love, when she kisses them for the first time. This story is well known; how true it is, is anyone’s guess. </p><p>The villa is besieged by wedding tourists daily. Bards looking to try out their latest ballads; dressmakers wanting Olympia to wear their designs; cake-makers and confectioners who want Olympia to choose their treats for her wedding; ‘friends of the family’ who haven’t been seen in decades who turn up unexpectedly looking for a place to stay, or a short-term loan, or just a quick word with the bride-to-be. The heroes have to manage all of this discreetly.</p><p>Among the wedding tourists are a peculiar band of warlocks and astrologers who, day in, day out, prognosticate the wedding based on Olympia’s birthday and that of her husband, Kairon, the handsome and famous Ranger whose exploits and treasure retrieval bought him instant access to high society. These guys just won’t go away; they fulminate and gibber in the street, producing alarming magical effects, incense, smoke, dancing mice – you name it, they’ve got it. Their omens and portents cover the entire wedding from break of day to the last breath of nightfall. </p><p>The heroes soon realize (DC10 insight, perception, deception) that Olympia’s younger sister Callistra is up to something, but it’s not clear what. She’s seen chatting with the astrologers and passing them insider information – but to what end? </p><p>Further investigation (DC15, and this can involve bribing Callistra’s cat familiar with treats) reveals that wizard Callistra plans to use Disguise Self and Friends on the day in question to pass as her sister on the wedding day. She figures she can get away with it because she physically resembles her sister (size, bodyweight) and most of the day the bride will be wrapped up in veils and dresses. The heroes may work this out when they realize that she’s feeding the astrologers her own date of birth and personal information, not her sister’s. </p><p>She thinks she’ll get away with this because Olympia’s planning on skipping the wedding and embarking on her own heroic career as a Thief. Her lover is an important member of the local Thieves Guild who taught her a few tricks. [The guild member may or may not be her true love; they may just be a seducing scoundrel.] The family would be appalled if they knew, and it’s exactly this kind of hijinks that the heroes were hired to stop – if they want to stop it, of course … </p><p>Olympia intends to make her getaway on the wedding day, as that’s when there’ll be the most confusion. </p><p>What nobody appreciates (except possibly the heroes, if they’ve been paying attention to those astrologers) is that the prognosticators are actually burglars. They’ve been casing the joint all week under cover of magical hoodoo. They know how to get in and how to get out without getting caught, which is exactly what will happen if the heroes don’t intervene. </p><p><i>Potential combat moments:</i> </p><p>Brawl with drunken aristocratic youth who think it’s funny to sing romance ballads under Olympia’s window every day up until the wedding. </p><p>Chase/combat with the astrologer-thieves as they make their getaway. They prefer nonviolence, ball-bearings and tanglefoot bags to cover their retreat, but they may confuse things by running through a rough tavern hoping that the ensuing bar brawl will help them escape. </p><p><b><u>Pilgrim’s Passage</u></b> </p><p><i>Type: Negotiation/Problem Solving, Insight, Perception, Animal Handling </i></p><p>Near the village of Three Hills there is a magical well that has become a popular spot for those on pilgrimage. (Life, Light, Nature). The village is within the fief of [noble/church/monastery] and its patron rakes in a small but not insignificant amount of tolls from those on the pilgrim trail. A nice extra comes from the sale of trinkets and medals organized by a small hermit community near Three Hills. It’s also a well-known fact that horses bred near the well have special properties, and the sale of those horses is a nice earner for the family that breeds them which in turn pays the fief holder a tidy sum for the benefice. In short, there’s a fair amount of cash at stake, which becomes a problem when the pilgrim trail is shut down by druids. Angry pilgrims complain to the fief holder, and the fief holder reaches out to reliable third parties to investigate and (hopefully) solve the problem. Enter our heroes, stage right. </p><p>The druids, a trio of halflings, (Garth, Morrin, Gynnie, all novice members of a far-off circle), say that they have the right to shut down the trail when it is clear that the balance is negatively affected, and further that this right is in writing. Three generations back the fief holder agreed to this is negotiation with the druids’ circle, when a blight threatened the land. The druids cleansed the blight and extracted this promise as payment. </p><p>The druids say that the horses bred near the well do not have special properties; quite the reverse, in fact, which hasn’t stopped the breeders from selling them at inflated prices based on reputation alone. Animal Handling DC10 shows this to be true; DC15 shows that this condition is being disguised by the breeders who use magical feed mash to pep up the stock before sale. The feed makes the horses seem great for a week or so; after that, not so much. The DC15 also shows that the older horses, which the family keep for breeding stock, are still as magical as ever; it’s only the current sale stock that is affected. </p><p>The druids say that this shows the well is being over-used, threatening the balance. They demand that the well be given time to recover – perhaps a year or more. This proposal will not please the fief holder, which conveniently lost the paperwork on that druid deal as soon as possible after it was signed. The fief holder isn’t pleased to hear that the druids kept a copy. </p><p>What nobody realizes is that the source of the problem is the hermits, who have become warlocks, tempted to more-than-mortal power by a devil who wanted access to the well for its own purposes. The hermits knew how to bypass the magical wards put there by the druids and they let the devil in. The devil did what it wanted and then left a few infernal serpents behind to watch over ‘its’ property. The serpents allow the devil to come and go as it pleases, bypassing the wards. The serpents can be defeated in combat but can also be instantly defeated by one of the magical horses, if that horse is brought to the well (Religion, Insight). </p><p>If this is revealed then the druids can restore the protective wards and, after the serpents are dealt with, the well will recover. If the devil is left in place then the well will become permanently affected within a year. </p><p><i>Potential combat moments: </i> </p><p>A fight against infernal, poisonous snakes. </p><p>A nonlethal brawl with the horse breeding family, or angry pilgrims. </p><p>A potentially lethal scrimmage with the druids, or the warlock-hermits. The warlocks are likely to take to their heels if discovered; they got into this for power, not to get stabbed. </p><p>The devil, if encountered, will insist on a battle of wits (Arcana) – a riddle challenge. If the heroes win, the devil promises to leave. If the devil wins it will remain at the well for a month. This challenge can be attempted more than once; the devil likes playing games. </p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-75218264170927819722024-02-04T03:27:00.000-08:002024-02-04T03:27:36.612-08:00Rewards (RPG All)<p>OK, it’s end-of-session. The characters have triumphed. Or at least they aren’t dead, which is a triumph in and of itself. The time has come to divvy up the good stuff – or whatever passes for good stuff in your campaign. </p><p>What does that look like? </p><p>Dungeons and Dragons and similar fantasy games have a definite advantage here. Everyone knows what the good stuff looks like. It’s shiny and spendable, glows with magic power, or increases your character’s level and therefore prowess. It’s all easily quantifiable. A +1 sword is a +1 sword, which by default is better than that nasty old ordinary sword you were using five minutes ago. Gaining 500 experience points is an undeniable rush, particularly when you can look at your current totals and think ‘I’m only a few hundred more points from the next level!’ </p><p>Call of Cthulhu has a similar reward system, where at the end of the scenario your characters get Sanity rewards depending on what they did and how well they did it. Sanity, for those not in the know, measures the characters’ mental state and can be reduced to 0, through various shocks and trauma. 100 is the theoretical human maximum. 0 = time to book you into a long-term-stay at Casa de Soft Walls, from which you shall not be returning. Nobody’s ever explained what 100 =; I presume you leave your physical body and ascend to the heavens on a cloud of sunshine and rose petals, at which point something quite nice happens beyond the ken & barbie of mortal folk. </p><p>Point being that, in theory at least, if you gain enough rewards you can exceed your original Sanity total. Which in a game like this, where Sanity is the oil that keeps the engine going, is a reward prized above rubies and titles. </p><p>However, there aren’t any other rewards. That’s pretty standard for horror games. You’re not meant to be the dashing hero; you’re meant to be the weedy academic, or similar. Victory for you means survival, not advancement. Sometimes you get to save someone’s life, which is great; saving lives is a good thing. However, it doesn’t fatten your wallet. </p><p>Nor does it have the same impact as that +1 sword or those 500 experience points. It’s not easily quantifiable. The gold you swiped from that dragon all adds up to a total which can then be spent on goods and services. The fuzzy warm feels you got from saving little Suzy from the shoggoth cannot be spent on goods and services. Not unless your in-game economy is radically different from the norm. </p><p>So, to the question: in games where the reward isn’t easily quantifiable, what will make those rewards fun? </p><p>Sometimes the game makes it easy for you. Bookhounds of London is a little like that. You have a shop, which your players are constantly trying to improve. That shop has stock, which your players are constantly trying to get. The obvious reward there is more stuff for the shop, more stock to sell. Replace that dingy little cash box with a shiny new cash register. Design custom book covers for your collection. Thanks to your efforts the shop now has a valuable collection of grimoires on vampire lore (effective increase 2 points Occult). That sort of thing. </p><p>However, as a rule rewards can be characterized as one of three things: </p><p><b>Reputation </b></p><p><b>Resources </b></p><p><b>Shiny Things</b> </p><p>Reputation is a bit like pornography. Nobody really knows what it is, but they know it when they see it. There’s a really good reputation tracker in 13th Age which has since been ported over to Night’s Black Agents and other GUMSHOE systems: the <a href="https://pelgranepress.com/2012/04/25/13th-age-choose-your-favourite-icon/">Icon system</a>. There are a number of Icons – powerful entities or organizations – whose favor brings a range of powerful rewards, and whose enmity can bring terrible destruction. Your reputation with that Icon helps determine whether or not that Icon will lend aid. </p><p>Point being that reputation is useless without someone to acknowledge it; if, however, the CIA knows you and respects you that could mean you can rely on the local station chief for aid, or get a cache of weapons at just the right time, or transport, or whatever it may be. Reputation = tangible reward. </p><p>This can apply to pretty much every gaming world. Cyberpunk has its corporations, gangs and medias; City of Mist has its avatars and proto-demigods; Troubleshooters has world governments and sinister organizations. Any and all of these can become Icons, which in turn reward gains in Reputation. </p><p>But! It follows that a gain in reputation for one Icon results in a loss for another. If you gain reputation with Scotland Yard because your actions helped foil a cult conspiracy, those cultists are going to have an unfavorable view of you. That can lead to future plot – conflict often does. But it’s something worth bearing in mind. </p><p>Resources are those things that the characters can use either in the current adventure or in future adventures. GUMSHOE has a habit of reducing these things to pool points rather than specific items, which is useful. Pool points can be anything; a gun can only ever be a gun. </p><p>Night’s Black Agents has a fun idea which could probably be ported over to other systems: excess funds. For whatever reason your characters have money to burn. Maybe they had a good run at the local casino; maybe they stole it from some luckless villain. However they got it, they have it and more. </p><p>In fantasy this is often the reward that a swords and sorcery campaign gives. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser were always rolling in excess funds after a job, and by the start of the next story they were broke again. Easy come, easy go. </p><p>The great thing about this kind of reward is first, it can be abstracted, but second, you can make it more concrete by asking the players how they want to represent this resource. It’s one thing to say you have excess funds; something else to say you have a bag full of cash. That bag can be stolen. It can break open mid-chase, scattering bills all over the street. It can be given to someone else. It can be gambled at the casino. </p><p>Alternatively, it’s one thing to say you have transport; something else to say you have a cherry Ford Mustang with custom detailing. One is an abstract. The other is style. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/no7XR7s8Z7o" width="320" youtube-src-id="no7XR7s8Z7o"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">Bullitt</p><p>Let the player choose the physical representation. They’ll have more investment in something they chose as a resource reward. You can abstract it initially if you like, or need, but they give it form. </p><p>Finally the Shiny Things. </p><p>Those are a little bit like Resources in that they have value, but really, they’re trophies. Let’s say that the characters come away from an alchemist’s lab with a half dozen jars that contain God Knows What, but it’s glowing and has little eyes. Fine. It probably has value to someone. But really, it’s the in-game equivalent of a lava lamp. Pretty, meaningless, and there’s a non-zero chance it might explode showering hot wax everywhere. </p><p>It’s often the case that characters choose their own trophies, but it can be fun to design a few as rewards. The hat made entirely of shadows. The golden spider pendant. The illustrated scroll with alchemical writing on it that nobody living can read. The crystal skull that glows in the dark. The mirror that shows your reflection as it appears in an alternate dimension. The framed Nosferatu poster signed by Bram Stoker. These are the meaningless in-game things that players find attractive; they make excellent rewards. </p><p>I started by asking: in games where the reward isn’t easily quantifiable, what will make those rewards fun? </p><p>The answer, ultimately, is by giving those rewards weight and attraction. Reputation has weight: it confers easily understood in-game benefit. Resources also have an in-game benefit. Shiny Things are a bit different but can be equally useful, because they have attraction. The cool tchotchke that they put in their office, to impress visitors. Nobody asks why the hell Batman wants a giant Lincoln penny in his cave; but all eyes go to it whenever they walk in the room. </p><p>It’s just too fun to ignore. </p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-4985344830154643562024-01-28T02:45:00.000-08:002024-01-28T02:45:35.316-08:00Blighted Villages & Chicken Coops - Description (RPG All)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1T22wNvoNiU" width="320" youtube-src-id="1T22wNvoNiU"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">Launch Trailer via <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@gamespot">GameSpot</a></p><p>Like half the planet (it feels like) I too have been sucked into Baldur’s Gate 3, developed and published by Belgian game developer Larian Studios. Present to self for Christmas.</p><p>God alone knows when I’ll finish it. The damn thing’s huge. I haven’t even gone through Act One. I’m still noodling around goblin camps and wondering whether that nice Auntie who lives out in the forest really can homeopath me back to health. I shan’t tell you what I think of the game. Unless you’ve been living under an RPG rock you already know how good it is. I wouldn’t be writing about it now if I didn’t enjoy it.</p><p>That said.</p><p>There’s a bit early on that sticks out at me. Very minor spoilers ahoy.</p><p>Blighted Village. It’s within a stone’s throw of a temple, now defunct, and easy walking distance of what seems to be a grand monastery (ish) with a tomb underneath it, also defunct. Already you can get a sense of how this community used to work: priests in the temple, monks in the scriptorium, with a village in the middle producing goods to satisfy their needs. Probably there was some little gift shop selling tchotchkes to pilgrims as they wandered through.</p><p>Visually the Blighted Village reminds me of those tiny villages out in <a href="https://www.azitalianproperties.co.uk/properties-for-sale-italy/entire-village-lunigiana-tuscany/entire-village-tuscany/for-sale/italy">Northern Italy</a>. You know the type; everything’s made of stone, streets very narrow, and there’s probably someone trying to sell it because nobody wants to live there anymore. Big features include a windmill, apothecary, and school. It’s abandoned, overrun by gribblies.</p><p>The more I poke around in there, the more the feeling grows. Is this a once-functioning community, or is this basically a bit of window dressing for the dungeon below? Did this village have a purpose, or is its purpose to get you down in the adventure area ASAP?</p><p>Point being if it feels as though the Blighted Village, or whatever it may be, is just set dressing, then the set starts to wobble. Immersion is threatened. Some background material is required for a place to feel lived-in. In Baldur’s Gate that seems to come most often from books and secrets you find after poking through all the crates and shelves; not so much from the things you see on the screen. Every so often you might, say, search through a schoolhouse and find a much-loved teddy bear. What happened to the child who owned that bear? How did the bear end up buried in a hole?</p><p>How much is too much, when it comes to background material? There’s no point designing things the players will never experience or care about. But if you set something in, say, an abandoned vineyard, do you want to outline how a functioning vineyard would, well, function? Or do you just want to sketch in some eye-catching details and handwave the rest?</p><p>If you’ve read my stuff, you know I prefer setting things in the real world, adding some historical data to make things flow properly and lend a bit of spice to what might otherwise be a boring narrative. Sometimes this leads to trouble, revisions. A while back when I wrote <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2012/10/necessity-is-somebodys-mum.html">Sisters of Sorrow</a> I realized that submarines in World War One were nothing like I imagined, and that meant rewriting the entire concept. C’est la vie.</p><p>I find it useful to poke around in old books and find out how things once worked. If nothing else it can provide plot, or at least an interesting scene.</p><p>Let’s wander over to Gutenberg, and ask the question: can I design a <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/65618/pg65618-images.html">Chicken Coop of the Damned</a>?</p><p>Probably the better question is why I’d want to do such a damn silly thing, but here we are.</p><p>A lot of games have, say, an abandoned farm as a setting. Something happened here in the before times and as a consequence the place is now Ripe For Adventure. Hideous things lurk in the shadows, each of them malignant and dripping with treasure.</p><p>For that to work in a scenario, how much do I need to detail about how the farm used to function?</p><p>The answer is, <u>as much as is useful to me</u>. However, that’s more glib than helpful. A bit fortune cookie-ish.</p><p>I start at Gutenberg because it’s useful to have a basic overlay of how things worked before The Unpleasantness. It’s also a pretty decent source of copyright-free maps and images. I could say the same about Wikipedia. I rely on neither for factual accuracy but then I’m not writing a thesis: I just want ideas.</p><p>Gutenberg reminds me that, if my adventure site includes a stable, then that stable needs somewhere to store harnesses and tack; somewhere to store grain and feed; somewhere to put the carriage (if this is that kind of stable); a source of water. Do I need to plan all this out? Probably not. But I do need to know that these things exist, because knowing this allows me to add details that can make the game fun.</p><p>It can also be a source of … other things …</p><p>From the description found at Gutenberg: <i>The carriage room is sixteen by twenty-five feet, and the manure pit is in the basement beneath this room; to prevent the escape of ammonia from the manure pit into the carriage room a good cement floor should be laid down</i>.</p><p>So, if I wanted to design a trap that, say, dumps the characters into, oh, a manure pit why not … I trust you can work out the rest for yourself. A whiff of ammonia might be the one warning the characters get before their moment of unhappiness.</p><p>A while back I put out a D&D scenario, <a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/363998/For-The-Sound-Of-His-Horn">For The Sound Of His Horn</a>. In that scenario there’s a haunted mansion. Did I plan out the entire mansion from basement to rafters?</p><p>Hell no. This is what I said:</p><p><i>The Manse consists of the manor house, the hunting dog kennels, stables, and formal garden.</i></p><p><i><u>Manor House</u>: a minor country house, first built over 400 years ago as a fortified country manor, renovated 150 years ago to be more comfortable and include a glassed sunroom. It was abandoned 100 years ago. Heavily overgrown and the roof is basically gone. In its day would have been home to four of the family and twice as many servants, or about twelve people in all. Rooms include: the great hall, the solar (private lounge for the family only), glassed sunroom now overrun by plants and mold, bedrooms, library, garderobe (latrine, single hole, discharging to outside), kitchen (including pantry and buttery, food prep and storage), attic (in almost complete ruin), wine cellar (ransacked). Most rooms have some furniture in them, but anything truly valuable has long since been stolen. <u>Haunted Effect</u>: footsteps heard in the next room, but nobody is there. <u>Trigger</u>: if anyone finds the library, if anyone is alone in the house.</i></p><p><i><u>Hunting Dog Kennels</u>: Stone built with slate roof, space enough for a hundred hounds, or fifty couples. Still stinks of dog even after all these years. <u>Haunted Effect</u>: shadows of hounds flit across the walls. Though they do not attack people, they harass the shadows of anyone in the kennels. <u>Trigger</u>: if anyone is alone in the kennels, or if a hunter (eg. Ranger, someone dressed in hunting gear or similar) is in the kennels.</i></p><p><i><u>Stables</u>: Stone built with slate roof, space enough for a dozen horses including tack room for their gear, and the manor house’s carriage, capable of seating four plus driver. The carriage and tack are far too rotten to be any use to anyone. <u>Haunted Effect</u>: the sound of stamping horses being loaded with tack for a hunt. <u>Trigger</u>: if anyone is alone in the stables, or if a hunter (eg. Ranger, someone dressed in hunting gear or similar) is in the stables.</i></p><p><i><u>Formal Garden</u>: rolling lawns with tree groves scattered about, small lake now choked with reed and mud, artificial ‘hidden grotto’ cave, artificial ‘antique’ statues (cupids, heraldic animals, foxes). <u>Haunted Effect:</u> the fox statues seem to move about and there are more of them than before. <u>Trigger:</u> if anyone finds the hidden grotto, if anyone is alone in the garden.</i></p><p><i><b>Secrets</b></i></p><p><i><u>Manor House: Library</u>. In its day this would have been an impressive collection. That was before the windows smashed and damp got in. Now most of the books are ruined and the carpet is a soggy, stinking mass. <u>Secret: Will & Legal papers</u>. Hidden in one of the books is the last will and testament of Gelbert’s brother Wyllin, including plans of Wyllin’s estate. The papers show Wyllin’s two children, son Bartell and daughter Allecia, were to inherit. <u>Secret</u>: <u>Family Holy Book</u>. The Huntingtower Scriptures of Ezra, annotated on the frontispiece with the family tree. Bartell and Allecia, Wyllin’s son and daughter, are both crossed out. <u>Secret: Estate Plan.</u> A framed copy of the estate’s total land holding hangs on the wall. If Wyllin’s share had passed to his children Gelbert would have been left with less than half; if they didn’t inherit, Gelbert got it all.</i></p><p><i><u>Formal Garden: Hidden Grotto</u>. In its day this was a quiet spot with a good view of the gardens and lake, part hidden by a grove of trees. The sort of place lovers and poets might enjoy, on a pleasant summer’s day. <u>Secret: Bartell’s Diary</u>. This is hidden under a stone near the grotto’s bench. Written in a child’s hesitant script, the diary tells how Bartell and his sister were forced from the family home after their father died. For a brief time they hid in the garden where once they played as children, but Gelbert soon found all their childhood hiding spots. ‘But he shall never find our secret wood, and we will hide there until we can get someone to help us!’</i></p><p><i><b>Potential encounters</b></i></p><p><i>The Butler, manor house only, night only.</i></p><p><i>Twig Blights, 4-6, formal garden only.</i></p><p><i>Giant Bats, 3-6, manor house only during the day in what little is left of the attic, night only in the gardens, hunting.</i></p><p><i>Rats, 10-20, hunting dog kennels and stables only.</i></p><p><i>Potential Treasure</i></p><p><i>Bloodstone earrings, 100gp, manor house, bedroom.</i></p><p><i>Obsidian carved family seal, 50gp, manor house, library.</i></p><p><i>Book, antiquarian, local history (gives +2 to any History check concerning Mordent), 80gp, manor house, library.</i></p><p><i>Book, antiquarian, vampire lore (gives +2 to any History check concerning Barovia), 100gp, manor house, library.</i></p><p><i>3D6 GP, manor house, one time only, any room.</i></p><p><i>Potion of animal friendship, hunting dog kennels.</i></p><p><i>1D3 bottles of good wine, 50gp each, wine cellar.</i></p><p><i>1 bottle of bad wine, DC15 CON save or lose 1D6 CON, CHA, INT for 24 hours (constant retching, nausea), wine cellar.</i></p><p>Enough description to be helpful, not enough to be overwhelming. There’s just enough history to the place that you, as DM, can get a sense in your head of how things used to work and how things work now. That’s all you really need. It might be a little different, in a combat-heavy game, if you need combat areas. Then you want maps. But most of the time you’re not going to need detailed maps, particularly if you’re the only one who’s ever going to see them.</p><p>Going back to the Blighted Village, where this conversation began, that’s broadly what you, the player, get. A visual that paints a picture. Enough of a working design that you, the player, get a sense of how it was supposed to function when it was a functioning village. Secrets, hidden away, that you, the player, can find.</p><p>Notice I repeat those words, you, the player. That’s who all this is for. Never lose sight of the fact that there is an audience and that audience needs to be catered to. All this description, this verbiage? It has a purpose.</p><p>Put it another way. I came up with a concept I called <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2023/09/rome-rpg-all.html">Rome</a>. All roads lead to it. For the campaign, Rome is an event, location or circumstance that is the end state of the game.</p><p>That’s for the game.</p><p>For you, the DM/Keeper/Director, Rome is the player. Everything you do is headed towards that Rome – player engagement.</p><p>Fun.</p><p>Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to stick a tadpole in my eye and go smack goblins.</p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-65438092822084927702024-01-21T10:03:00.000-08:002024-01-21T10:03:16.264-08:00Scenario Structure (RPG All)<p> … <i>I'm struggling to convert them to proper scenarios. Do you have any tip to create a scenario structure using a hook? Do you create a set of clues? Do you write scenes that connect all the facts of the hook so that the bookhounds need to go one scene after other one? You improvise?</i> Carlos Roig </p><p>Now there’s a question. </p><p>I had something else in mind for this week's post, but this caught my attention so I went ahead and wrote this instead.</p><p>Let’s go back to Coleshill Abbey for a moment; that destroyed library which has hidden secrets buried both in the past and the present. </p><p>… <i>the estate be used to run the library, open by subscription to certain scholars. Mostly friends of Vincent and fellows of Vincent’s old Oxford college, though the list included a scattering of worthies who got in on merit alone. The library was in operation from 1872 to its destruction in 1915</i> … </p><p>The hook is that forger Winona Pryce, who used to work with Coleshill Abbey’s librarian, has a book stolen from the library which she now wants to sell. Before the Bookhounds can arrange the auction Pryce dies of a heart attack, and her body is found at the ruins of the old library. The book is nowhere to be found. Important customers are impatient for the auction. The Bookhounds are caught in the middle and must resolve the problem. </p><p>Because it’s the problem that’s the issue. </p><p>I spent some time talking about Baldur’s Gate 3 last week. In that game the problem is the Illithid tadpoles that the player is infected with right at the start. Those tadpoles will kill the player and anyone else they infect, so the player has to get rid of them. Thus begins a search for a cure. Everything else in the game, all those complicated plot tangles and quests, flows from that. </p><p>Which is exactly what a good hook does. It poses a problem that the players have to solve. </p><p>Coleshill Abbey poses three problems: </p><p><u>What to do? </u></p><p><u>Where’s the book? </u></p><p><u>What was Pryce doing at Coleshill Abbey? </u></p><p>Let’s tackle them and see what they lead, because that, my friend, is how you design a scenario. </p><p><u>What to do?</u> </p><p>This is about those disappointed customers. They wanted that book. Now they won’t get it. This means problems for the store which in turn means problems for the Bookhounds. Since this is a valuable book it stands to reason that the people who wanted to buy it have money in their pockets. Since this is a Mythos book it stands to reason that the people who wanted to buy it are mad, bad and dangerous to know. Some of them more than others, no doubt. </p><p>At this point it would be helpful to know who they are and sketch in a little of their history, the amount of detail dependent on whether we’re talking about background players or potential threats, even long-term threats. I’m not going to do that here; just be aware that it’s something you have to do. </p><p>Now, look at the problem from a structural point of view. You have the Hook. It has the Question, which is the foundation of the scenario. Put yourself in the Bookhounds’ shoes. If it were you, and you had to deal with an irate customer, what would you do? </p><p>Well, there are two obvious solutions that spring to mind. </p><p>One is to dodge the confrontation altogether. Whenever so-and-so calls, I’m out. To Lunch. To Dinner. Sick. Whatever. From the Keeper’s perspective, you want to sketch in a scene that deals with this possibility. Potential spends. Will this result in, say, a chase scene? Will this result in a fight? What might the Bookhounds learn about the book, or Pryce, or the Library, as a result of this plot choice? </p><p>The other is to meet the confrontation head-on. Negotiate. Bluff. Pretend they have the book after all and the auction will go ahead. Again, you want to sketch in a scene that deals with this possibility. Will this result in a Maltese Falcon series of confrontations with strange and dangerous characters?</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sGuNGXmQZSE" width="320" youtube-src-id="sGuNGXmQZSE"></iframe></div><p style="text-align: center;">Maltese Falcon</p>What will the Bookhounds learn about the book, or Pryce, or the Library, as a result of this plot choice? <p></p><p>Going back to Carlos Roig’s original question these are the scenes that connect the facts of the hook. That’s part of scenario design. However, that’s not the whole of scenario design, because in any given scenario you have to have one scene constantly available, which is: </p><p><i>Whatever the players want to do to solve the problem</i>. </p><p>There’s no accounting for taste. Players get all sorts of ideas in their heads. You can’t anticipate them. They might decide to forge their own copy of the book, or steal a copy from somewhere else, or murder all those disappointed customers. Anything’s possible. </p><p>This is where improv comes in. I’m sure I don’t need to describe improv to you. The basic point is this: you need to have just enough random facts at your disposal that you can deploy them as necessary in a yes, and situation. If this becomes a crime scene, you need to have some stats for cops. If this becomes a fight, you need some stats for mooks, monsters, what have you. If this becomes a criminal conspiracy, you need some criminals, and so on. </p><p>The great thing about these improv stats is, you don’t need them for one scenario. You need them for all scenarios. Which means you can re-use them as needed. If Constable Grigson doesn’t end up being used in the Coleshill Abbey scenario you can use him in <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2017/07/vathek-and-burning-tower-bookhounds-of.html">Vathek and the Burning Tower. </a> Or you can use him in both scenarios. The cheap-john <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2021/01/cheap-john-swords-of-serpentine.html">Morris Farraday and his partner ‘Ribs’ Macavoy</a> can turn up in as many scenarios as you like. </p><p>The same applies to any other yes-and contingency you devise, whether it’s an NPC, an event, or something similar. Think of these things as guest stars. Or recurring characters. TV Tropes. </p><p>Moving on. </p><p><u>Where’s the book?</u> </p><p>This question gives you a little flexibility, because you, as Keeper, know where it is. You designed the scenario, after all. From that point, you need to put together one or more scenes that guide the Bookhounds from the hook to the end goal. </p><p>Let’s say that Winona left the book with a friend of hers for safe keeping, <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2023/11/held-in-pawn-rpg-all.html">Howard and Thripps</a>, a pawnbroker with a reliable safe. </p><p>Again, put yourself in the Bookhounds’ shoes. You have to find out where the book is. How would you do that? Well, you’d look around. You’d search places where you think it might be or have been – Winona’s apartment is the obvious choice there. You’d talk to Winona’s friends, her neighbors, her business contacts. </p><p>All these scenes or mini-scenes give clues, which will eventually lead to Howard and Thripps. Exactly how many of these scenes you need is up to you. If it helps, think of it as a police procedural. At the beginning the cops interview everyone they can, search the crime scene, probably talk to the forensic examiner to see if any scientific evidence is available. That’s pretty much what your Bookhounds are doing. </p><p>Always remember that extra scene: <i>whatever the players want to do to solve the problem</i>. The improv moment. The Bookhounds may decide that the best way to find the book is to hold a séance to contact Winona and ask her. Or use their own magical abilities, whatever they may be. Summon up a Rat-Thing and get it to sniff out the book. Hire a private investigator to do the legwork for them. </p><p>The solution to this is the same as before. Have just enough random facts at your disposal that you can deploy them as necessary in a yes, and situation. </p><p>Going further, whether this is an improv moment or a designed scene there’s still that final question which needs an answer: what will the Bookhounds learn about the book, or Pryce, or the Library, as a result of this plot choice? </p><p>OK, let’s take a look at the overall scenario. We’ve got the hook. We’ve got questions that flow from that hook. As a result of those questions we’ve anticipated scenes which answer those questions, and we have some improv hooks in our pocket for those moments when the Bookhounds decide to use their initiative, precious little angels that they are. </p><p>What happens when the questions which flow from the hook are answered? What happens when the characters have dealt with What To Do, Where’s The Book and What Was Pryce Doing At Coleshill Abbey? </p><p>When that happens, you’ve reached scenario midpoint. </p><p>In game terms, this is a Core scene. The Bookhounds will always get to Core scenes; the interesting thing is how they get there. But it fulfils the same function as the Hook, which is: it proposes problems which the players have to solve. </p><p>Exactly what those problems are depends on the kind of scenario you want to write. </p><p>In the example last time I gave three Options and today I’m going to use one: </p><p><i><b>The Library Eternal</b>. Sykes died in 1915 and the Abbey burned to the ground, but that didn’t mean it was gone forever. Sykes used his occult skills, and his Megapolisomantic ability, to turn the Abbey into an eternal institution just as the flames consumed it. </i></p><p>By the midpoint all the questions asked by the Hook have been answered and the Bookhounds should be aware, as a result of those answers, of the Eternal Library, that it has the book, and that Winona’s there now along with Sykes and possibly others. The Bookhounds will also know by this point that the Library has a peculiar clientele that can include almost anyone or anything. </p><p>Incidentally if you’re wondering why the Bookhounds are aware of this, remember that bit I kept repeating about ‘<i>what will the Bookhounds learn about the book, or Pryce, or the Library, as a result of this plot choice</i>’? That’s why. This is what they were learning. This was Rome, for this scenario. </p><p>This plot choice also means that the book, if it was ever being kept in a safe at Howard and Thripps, is no longer where the Bookhounds thought it would be. Maybe it dissolved into dust or dream-stuff the minute they tried to pick it up. Maybe it just wasn’t there. However that gets resolved, the book is now on the shelves of Coleshill Abbey Library. </p><p>So what questions are being asked by the midpoint? </p><p>Probably something along the lines of ‘how do we get that book’ and ‘how do we satisfy our unhappy customers,’ both of which have the same solution: get into the Library Eternal and swipe it, so the Bookhounds can sell it. </p><p>Exactly how that is done could involve a variety of scenes. The Bookhounds might approach an existing Library member – one of those peculiar cultists, say – and steal their library card, so they can get in. They may attempt a mystic ritual, preferably one that you’ve hinted at in one of the clues the Bookhounds gathered in a previous scene. They may try to enlist Winona’s help. Each of those three options involve at least one scene each, so three scenes in all. </p><p></p><p>Plus, of course, that inevitable fourth option: <i>whatever the players want to do to solve the problem</i>. </p><p>Once in, they have to get out again. This could be a clever heist, a smash-and-grab, a chase. Again, you want to account for those contingencies and again, that’s a scene each. </p><p>There will almost certainly be an antagonist reaction of some kind in which Sykes, his allies and his library members rally to protect the Library against intrusion, and you want a scene for that. </p><p>Finally, there will be a Resolution. At some point the Bookhounds either get away with it or not. They get the book, or don’t. However it goes, by the time they get to this point they have answered all the questions posed by the Core midpoint scene. </p><p>What happens when there are no more questions to answer? </p><p><u>The End</u>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W2ETsQ-DveY" width="320" youtube-src-id="W2ETsQ-DveY"></iframe></div><p style="text-align: center;">Cabaret</p><p>In summary: yes, you want a series of scenes that connect up to reach certain Core moments which, in turn, lead to a resolution. There will be a certain amount of improvisation but improv doesn’t solve all your problems. Improv is a support for your existing structure, not a replacement for that structure. </p><p>Crucially, you need to bear in mind that your structure isn’t some magical castle in the clouds that can only be reached by imagination wizards. Your structure is very simple. It starts with this: </p><p>You put yourself in the characters’ shoes and ask yourself, if I had to answer this question, what would I do? </p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-4159114091817834302024-01-14T09:11:00.000-08:002024-01-14T09:11:55.340-08:00My Buddy The Library (Bookhounds)<p>Product endorsement incoming. </p><p>For a long time I’ve been noodling with the idea of creating a library record for my collections, movies and books. I resisted because all the apps I looked at wanted a subscription and I couldn’t see the value in that for me. Even if it’s a couple bucks a month … why? If I’m not going to pay 20-odd bucks a month for Netflix why the hell am I shelling out for something to keep my library organized? </p><p>Then I discovered Kimico’s <a href="https://www.kimicoapps.com/bookbuddy ">Buddy</a> apps. $5 one-time, and I get to curate everything I own with a quick scan of a barcode. They do a version for films as well, and while I don’t have as many barcodes for those (the boxes go in the bin pretty quick) I can search by film title and that works, for the most part. When it doesn’t there’s usually an understandable issue; I love the 1931 Peter Lorre film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsVproWjN6c">M</a>, but if you put in M as a search term … hoo brother. </p><p>Also, it can be a bit fuzzy on ISBN. Not the modern stuff; they're great on that. I've noticed that the old numbers - the ones on the flyleaf in books from 1970-ish - just don't compute. The Brain Says No. However, minor quibble.</p><p>Yes, I did just spend several minutes of my valuable time (and yours, for that matter) gibbering about an app. Well, sometimes I gibber. These things happen. </p><p>I mention it because, first, there may be some of you out there who want some Kimico love. Second, because it got me thinking about libraries in general, and how they’re portrayed in games. </p><p>Religious libraries are probably the most interesting, from a gaming POV. I expect you all know that monasteries in Europe preserved the history of [Rome/architecture/theatre/civilization in general]. Then there’s institutions like Baghdad’s House of Wisdom, lost, as so many wonders are; the Mouseion of Alexandria, ditto; Saint Catherine’s at Mount Sinai; institutions created by preservers of knowledge like the Kanazawa Library (Bunko) which became a Buddhist temple. </p><p>What makes them interesting from a gaming perspective is, first, their collections are eclectic, unusual, and often penned in a dead language which adds a layer of mystery and exoticism to a document that might just be about ungumming a blocked toilet. Still, it looks more elegant in Latin. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WwO0CDYxyxc" width="320" youtube-src-id="WwO0CDYxyxc"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">The Matrix</p><p>Second, their collections are often private or secured in some way, like the chained libraries once so popular in Europe. Or there might be curses laid on the book to discourage theft which, in a fantasy setting, might have more substance than the would-be thief expects. </p><p>Point being, if you put barriers up that encourages players to find clever ways to break those barriers. It’s the same for every other rule or system; the minute you put one in place someone tries to find a way to break it. This is a low-key form of conflict, and conflict breeds plot. </p><p>Destroyed libraries are also handy for gaming. It’s the Maltese Falcon in book form; the more exotic the backstory, the more interesting the McGuffin. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aogWdNKef2o" width="320" youtube-src-id="aogWdNKef2o"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Maltese Falcon</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It’s even better if you can still get to the destroyed library somehow, perhaps in dreams or through magic. That’s the main story arc of <a href="https://pelgranepress.com/product/the-long-con/">The Long Con</a>; there’s a repository of destroyed tomes out there and the Devil holds an auction every so often, ransoming those dead books back from a burnt past. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Academic or antiquarian collections have a similar charm to religious libraries, in that their books are often eclectic, unusual and penned in a dead language. Pride of place here goes to Miskatonic U (rah rah sis boom bah) with its infamous Necronomicon; all manner of gaming fun times have been wrung from that peculiar grimoire and its academic keepers. The Bodleian at Oxford is a similar institution, with all sorts of strange and forgotten tomes hidden away in the stacks. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Then, of course, there is the Librarian. The one in charge of the books. Sometimes not fit for office, sometimes less than diligent or appointed purely to grub up the stipend and neglect the collection. Or a true scholar, their head in the clouds, incapable of dealing with their fellows. Or hard-headed soul with their feet on the ground and their mind on the job. Or a mixture of all types. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Finally, there are the Thieves. For there are always thieves, sneaky-minded, light-fingered weasels who connive their way into the stacks and make off with the most valuable tomes. The <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2020/10/thieves-of-book-row-bookhounds-of-london.html">Three Blind Mice</a> are always on the lookout for new treasures … </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">With all that in mind: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><b>Coleshill Abbey</b> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This is, or was, a manor house on the outskirts of London, in Kilburn. Its library is supposed to have contained a number of medieval manuscripts including a copy of [insert Mythos tome here], which – along with the rest of the library – is supposed to have been destroyed in 1915 when bombs dropped in a Zeppelin raid set fire to the Abbey. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In the late 1700s, Josiah Goll made the money. His son Newman spent it. His grandson Vincent, being a more tight-fisted soul, kept what was left and used the books his father Newman collected as the basis for an antiquarian library held at the family manor. Vincent was a scholar, not a moneymaker, and when he died without heirs he left a stipulation in his will that the estate be used to run the library, open by subscription to certain scholars. Mostly friends of Vincent and fellows of Vincent’s old Oxford college, though the list included a scattering of worthies who got in on merit alone. The library was in operation from 1872 to its destruction in 1915. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It’s long been rumored that the Abbey’s last librarian, an eccentric would-be occultist named Edwin Sykes, had a profitable sideline in stolen books. He’d get one of his forger pals – Winona Pryce was one of his favored contacts – to copy the book in question and use that to replace the stolen tome. After a suitable grace period the book would be recorded as lost and the forgery destroyed, to prevent anyone discovering the truth. Since the Trustees of the library were grey-haired academics who cared more about nice lunches than academic rigor, the scheme went unnoticed. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Sykes went up in the fire. If there was any truth to that old rumor, it went up with him. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Or so everyone thought at the time. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Winona Pryce, now an old woman, says she has the [insert Mythos tome here]. She was tasked with copying it but hadn’t finished the job before the bombing. Sykes was the only one who knew who the customer was and since she couldn’t find a way to make an immediate profit she squirrelled away [insert Mythos tome] as a kind of pension. She knew there was a market for it; she didn’t know how to reach that market. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">She contracts the Bookhounds to sell it for her, in a special auction. One item’s up for sale and one only. It’s a valuable piece; the Bookhounds stand to get a nice little sum in commission, and Pryce will walk away with a lot of money. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">If only she didn’t suffer an inconvenient heart attack. Her body was found at what’s left of Coleshill Abbey; nobody knows why. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Nobody knows where the book is either. The one she left with the Bookhounds turns out to be a forgery. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Now there’s a lot of well-heeled annoyed customers at the Bookhounds’ doors. What to do? Where’s the book? What was Pryce doing at Coleshill Abbey? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b><u>Option One: The Library Eternal</u></b>. Sykes died in 1915 and the Abbey burned to the ground, but that didn’t mean it was gone forever. Sykes used his occult skills, and his Megapolisomantic ability, to turn the Abbey into an eternal institution just as the flames consumed it. It still operates to this day as an antiquarian library for … peculiar … customers. However, when Sykes heard that Winona was trying to auction off one of the library’s better pieces he sent an agent to make sure the book was returned and Winona brought to the library so she could be dealt with. Now she’s a very junior member of the library staff for all eternity and the library has [insert Mythos tome] back; if the Bookhounds want it for themselves, they’ll have to break in to get it. </li></ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b><u>Option Two: An Unhappy Customer</u></b>. When Sykes died before he was able to hand over [insert Mythos tome] to its buyer, the disappointed purchaser assumed that it went up in flames. Now, to their chagrin, they learn that the book survived. It’s not as if they can enforce the contract; but they could use Sykes’ ghost and the spectral memory of Coleshill Abbey to take revenge on Winona. However, they’d hoped to get the book as well. That didn’t happen. Looks like Winona pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. The question is, where is it now? </li></ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b><u>Option Three: Grand Albert</u></b>. The book is more self-aware than anyone gave it credit for, possibly due to a direct connection with an Old One. It wants to be cherished, honored, given the proper respect. That was what happened at Coleshill Abbey. Then Sykes tried to sell it on to some parvenu, a middling occultist with no intention of putting it on a grand shelf or displaying it at its best. That would never do. So Sykes went up in flames and the book went to live with Winona for a while as a stopgap. This wasn’t ideal, but better than nothing and certainly better than the middling occultist. Then Winona tried to sell it and the risk, once again, was that some bungler bought it, not the powerful sorcerer it was looking for. So Winona had to go, but now the book has a problem: how best to ensure it gets the owner it deserves. Enter the Bookhounds … </li></ul></div></div></div>That's it for this week. Enjoy!<br /><p><br /></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-12009741453687971662024-01-07T05:11:00.000-08:002024-01-07T05:11:53.010-08:00Notices - Color Coded For Your Convenience (Night's Black Agents)<p>We had an exercise at work that involved INTERPOL which meant I had to look up their Notice system. It's the kind of thing that spices up your day job, and I thought the Directors out there <a href="https://www.interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Notices/About-Notices">might find it interesting</a>:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Red Notice</b>: To seek the location and arrest of persons wanted for prosecution or to serve a sentence.</li><li><b>Yellow Notice</b>: To help locate missing persons, often minors, or to help identify persons who are unable to identify themselves.</li><li><b>Blue Notice</b>: To collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation. </li><li><b>Black Notice</b>: To seek information on unidentified bodies.</li><li><b>Green Notice</b>: To provide warning about a person’s criminal activities, where the person is considered to be a possible threat to public safety.</li><li><b>Orange Notice</b>: To warn of an event, a person, an object or a process representing a serious and imminent threat to public safety.</li><li><b>Purple Notice</b>: To seek or provide information on modus operandi, objects, devices and concealment methods used by criminals.</li></ul><div>The Red Notice stands out, obviously. Eye-catching. Very <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Browder">Bill Browder</a>. But a Director may get more juice out of the Blue, Black and Yellow ones.</div><div><br /></div><div>Blue Notices are the ones most likely to apply to player characters. All that Heat has to go somewhere. A Solace might reasonably become the subject of a Yellow Notice. Black Notices, though, that has potential. You might find almost anything hiding under that rock. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://www.interpol.int/en/How-we-work/Notices/Operation-Identify-Me">Operation Identify Me</a> is an example of a series of Black Notices and I wouldn't go clicking that link if murder upsets you as it's a sad, long list of dead women. Cold cases going back 40-odd years, for the most part. However, if you want to invent a Black Notice of your own it gives a pretty comprehensive means of doing so.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>Case name:</b> The woman with the artificial nails</div><div><b>Case code:</b> 2023-BEL06</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Very simple case name. The code is year of entry on the system, location (BEL - Belgium) and number in the case file. In this instance she's the sixth in the Belgium list.</div><div><br /></div><div>I find myself drawn to that case name. It's almost poetic. It looks like the kind of thing you might find on the cover of an old detective novel. Not an Agatha Christie, but perhaps a Dashiell Hammett or a Raymond Chandler. Even a Steig Larsson </div><div><br /></div><div>There follows some facial reconstruction and pictures of items found with the body, then a series of relevant points:</div><div><br /></div><div>Date of death (estimated): </div><div>Date of discovery: </div><div>Location: </div><div>Sex: </div><div>Estimated year of birth: </div><div>Estimated age: </div><div>Height: </div><div>Skin tone: </div><div>Hair colour: </div><div>Eye colour: </div><div>Clothing: </div><div>Tattoos, birth marks, scars: </div><div>Jewellery: </div><div><br /></div><div>This is followed by a brief description of the case itself, the circumstances under which the body was found, likely point of origin and so on.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yellow Notices work in a broadly similar way, except without the colorful case name as the names of the missing are usually known. The notice would include a picture of the missing person and some relevant information:</div><div><br /></div><div><div>Family name<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Forename<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Gender<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Date of birth<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Place of birth<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Nationality<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Place of disappearance<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Date of disappearance<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Countries likely visited<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Issuing country</div><div><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Details</div><div>Father's family name and forename<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Mother's family name and forename<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span></div><div>Language(s) spoken</div></div><div><br /></div><div>The police would have a more detailed version of each Notice so agents may find Cop Talk or Law useful, but in practical game terms if you wanted to use these in a session this is likely all you'd need to give the agents. </div><div><br /></div><div><div>All that said, let’s gamify. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Black Notice: The Burned Body of the Mauerpark</b> </div><div><br /></div><div>The agents come across this Black Notice through Tradecraft, Law or similar, probably as part of a general sweep for information in Berlin. </div><div><br /></div><div>The burned body is an adult female approximately 20-30 years old, found on 28th April 1992. The body was found in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauerpark">Mauerpark</a>, a public park on the site of the old Berlin Wall where the heavily guarded Death Strip used to be. The Wall crumbled in 1989 and the spot was designated a green space; these days it’s a popular spot, with a Wall memorial, Karaoke amphitheater and flea market as well as the green space where the East German defenses used to be. </div><div><br /></div><div>That was all in the future, in 1992. </div><div><br /></div><div>The body was discovered in the early hours of 28th April, by garbage collectors who noticed a peculiar smell and alerted police. She was short, probably between 20-30 years old, red dyed hair (original color light brown) no clothing when found. It was believed by investigators at the time that she was killed in another spot and then dumped here. No sign of sexual molestation. Fingerprint analysis came up empty. </div><div><br /></div><div>This case is as cold as it gets. </div><div><br /></div><div>Or it would be, if someone in the British secret services wasn’t making enquiries. Discreet ones, but not discreet enough. There’s just enough Heat on this one to attract notice, particularly if the PC agent in question has Berlin as one of their Favored Cities. It doesn’t help that [the Investigative Journalist / Human Rights Activist / Mysterious Monseigneur] is also poking around, and not being that subtle about it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Who was the dead woman, and why is she attracting attention now? </div><div><br /></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><u>Option One: One Of Ours</u>. The British connection is the Boffin, and he’s looking for a former associate. Way, way back he sent one of his assistants, Dani Forester, on what ought to have been a milk run to collect some important material on the German Vampire Program, and she never came back. The Prince of the day assured the Boffin that everything had been done that could have been done, but the Boffin never believed that for a minute. Now he’s retired he feels the need to kick over his traces and find out what really happened to Dani. The Americans, who have a vampire program of their own, would rather he didn’t find out that Dani was the victim of one of their botched operations, disposed of to cover up their own vampire’s misdeeds. The Prince of the day, eager to cooperate with his American cousins, collaborated in their cover-up. Chickens are about to come home to roost. </li></ul></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><u>Option Two: One of Theirs</u>. The British connection is the current Hound and she’s after what she thinks is evidence of the Alraune, aka Dani Forester. Back in the day Edom was closing in on her, and Hound thinks the fiery death scene was a fake-out. The [Investigative Journalist / Human Rights Activist / Mysterious Monseigneur] isn’t after the dead woman; they’re after the Hound and think that linking them with an old scandal may be the perfect way to drag Edom into the spotlight. What none of them appreciate is that it really was Alraune back in 1992, who faked a death to cover their escape. Now they have a life in Berlin, but wouldn’t you know it, they never bothered to change their appearance all that much. Someone showing an interest in a woman with her face, whether burnt in 1992 or not, isn’t helping her Cover one bit. </li></ul></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><u>Option Three: One of the Enemy</u>. The British connection is Cushing, who’s memory isn't as confused as he pretends. He's pushing old contacts to find out whether there was any evidence of a people-trafficking Node operating out of Berlin. He believed at the time that his superiors were covering up a nasty little scandal because there were important members of Thatcher’s government who might have been caught with their hands in the till. The [Investigative Journalist / Human Rights Activist / Mysterious Monseigneur] is after a modern version of that same Node, and isn’t aware that it goes all the way back to 1992. If they only knew, it actually goes all the way back to 1942; the Conspiracy’s ‘man’ in Berlin has been busy all that while, and there are more than a dozen bodies disposed of with roughly the same MO throughout the 20th Century. It’s still involved in human trafficking, but it’s gotten cleverer about disposing of the unfortunate accidents. </li></ul></div><div>That’s it for this week! Enjoy. </div></div><p></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-81408375759729713812023-12-31T05:02:00.000-08:002023-12-31T05:02:38.531-08:00Happy New Year!<p>Lest old acquaintances be eaten by gruesome gribblies, and all that.</p><p>According to <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Funk_Wagnalls_Standard_Dictionary_of_Fol.html?id=830YAAAAIAAJ">Funk & Wagnalls</a> the New Year, as in 1st January, is a relatively recent innovation adopted at various times by various nations. You wouldn't see general acceptance in the West until (roughly) the mid-1700s. </p><p>There's a school of thought that says the drunkenness, debauchery and let-the-good-times-roll atmosphere is a hangover from the Roman Saturnalia, but this probably isn't so. When Julius Caesar made January the first month, way back in the before times, that meant the first month fell directly after the Saturnalia, and nearly every Christian of the day (and later) deplored this as irreligious. You just don't celebrate a new year after getting bladdered in the last days of the old one, was their point. It verged on Satanism. The Council of Tours, to name but one, insisted that the New Year begin with fasts, expiation, the banning of dances and frivolity, and so on. Most Christian communities of the day had similar views: you might get toasted at Christmas (grrr, how very Satanic) but God help you if you tried the same at New Year.</p><p>Funk & Wagnalls goes on to point out that many cultures celebrate the New Year with parties and jollity, not just the West, which suggests that the celebration's <i>joie de vivre </i>isn't based on one cultures' idea of what is proper. Everyone thinks the new year should begin with celebration, so it does. The form that celebration takes is determined by the culture. It can be as relatively benign as first-footing (being the first to walk over the threshold of the house in the new year) or as robust as flinging balls of fire about the place.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_b2HxWEsCSA" width="320" youtube-src-id="_b2HxWEsCSA"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">Sourced from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@steve-marsh">Steve Marsh</a>'s feed</p><p style="text-align: left;">Let's gamify this.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The <a href="https://pelgranepress.com/2018/12/05/nights-black-agents-directors-screen-resource-guide/">NBA Resource Guide</a> has this to say about markets:</p><p><i>A crowded market on the streets of an old city. Is the market themed – a Christmas fair, stalls full of antiques and old books, local crafts, or mass-produced plastic junk? Is it a seasonal event or a fixture of the city? Old European cities often have warrens of narrow streets and alleyways full of small shops; North African cities have a similar medina quarter. Push through the crowds, grab a snack from a food cart, and follow your target as they browse the bazaar. A street market’s a good place to meet a contact or pick up rumors and intel from the streets – and that fishmonger deals in black-market weapons if you know the right passwords</i> ...</p><p>We've already established that this particular 'market' is in fact a New Year's event. You won't see that many stalls; plenty of food & drink stalls, mind, less so the antiques and plasticky tourist crap. Nobody will be selling fresh fish. While there will be stores, they'll be shut and shuttered. There will be an increased Police presence, which in game terms means Heat goes up by an extra point for any dodgy dealings, and up by two extra points for anything involving overt violence. So, punching out that mook out in the open earns you 2 extra Heat on top of the usual 1 point you'd get for what amounts to a mugging. On the other hand if you lure that mook down a dark, deserted alley before you give him a thumping that only earns you 1 extra point. Better for you, really, to find some other means of dealing with the pesky little fellow. </p><p>I'd argue that one of the better 'quiet violence' options is to wait until there's a suitable distraction. A bunch of bagpipers and some firey balls ought to do it. Then you could bounce the little weasel's head down a dark alley without gaining extra Heat. Time it right and you could get away with no Heat at all. Say, if you dinged him and then covered it with 1 point Reassurance, Cop Talk or similar. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OWFg6KiBCsk" width="320" youtube-src-id="OWFg6KiBCsk"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">Bond, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059800/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_thunderball">Thunderball</a></p><p style="text-align: left;">All that said:</p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2022/09/lets-play-game-nights-black-agents.html" style="font-weight: bold;">Rescue/Hunt</a> the <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2022/09/lets-flip-target-nights-black-agents.html">software expert</a>, aka <i><b>Candles Go Out</b></i>.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Erika Donnadieu, Kube Group's star, has broken from her dubious employers and tried to alert France's <i>Direction générale de la Sécurité intérieure</i> (DSGI) but, due to Conspiracy influence within that organization, her alert only brought more Heat on her. Now she needs to get out of the country but the Conspiracy is hot on her trail. She's made it as far as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lille">Lille</a>, on New Year's; she just needs to get out of France. In this scene the action takes place at the <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_du_G%C3%A9n%C3%A9ral-de-Gaulle_(Lille)">Grand Place</a>, at the height of the celebration.</p><p>The Grand Place is where the Christmas Market traditionally sets up, complete with Ferris Wheel and other carnival rides. During the New Year's celebration it will be absolutely packed with locals and tourists. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjk4jb5St5xZBRU1UYmFRBzY8IsBe9NTlP_Uy8R5hfMqpHZYia43yGQbsU1dUDOHv9KRgE6slXMuy7We_3CGyfVMa2zxsnVKy0U9fqmmWCbOy0p8eachyBT4pvsmqH2-2u0PNEyBiLruD0Ei6flfH84QEwB9sJwkkR-JyB_LOanagzv0h2cqOio600fQ0g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="969" data-original-width="800" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjk4jb5St5xZBRU1UYmFRBzY8IsBe9NTlP_Uy8R5hfMqpHZYia43yGQbsU1dUDOHv9KRgE6slXMuy7We_3CGyfVMa2zxsnVKy0U9fqmmWCbOy0p8eachyBT4pvsmqH2-2u0PNEyBiLruD0Ei6flfH84QEwB9sJwkkR-JyB_LOanagzv0h2cqOio600fQ0g=w278-h337" width="278" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">sourced from Wikipedia</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Personally, I enjoyed going to Lille over Christmas while I was in the UK, which is why I picked it. Plus, thanks to the Eurostar you can get pretty much anywhere from Lille, which is a bonus from Erika's perspective. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Erika's booked a room at <a href="https://www.alliance-lille.com/">Couvent de Minimes</a>, a former convent turned four-star hotel, under an assumed name (effective 2 points Cover) and has disguised herself as a postgraduate arts student. Little does she know, her cover has been blown and the Conspiracy knows where (and who) she is. A snatch team made up of a half-dozen mooks, a Renfield team leader and local supernatural talent, a Strix left over from the <a href="https://historycollection.com/12-historys-baffling-mass-hysteria-outbreaks/5/">1630s witch hysteria</a> outbreak, are in place to grab her. Their plan is to do it while disguised as an ambulance team; Erika will just be another poor unfortunate who got a little too merry and had to be taken to hospital during the celebrations.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's the agents' job to get to her and get her out before the Conspiracy spirit her away.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The agents are acting as third parties; their employer is an anti-vampire organization (or individual, eg. the Mysterious Monseigneur) who knows about Erika and wants to get her out of harm's way, probably for their own nefarious reasons. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Possible variations:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>In a Satanic campaign the Couvent is a natural Bane to vampires as it maintains an air of sanctity despite its modernization.</li><li>The Stryx is all that's left of headmistress Antoinette Bourignon who started the witch hysteria. She still runs a school of sorts: a school of cultists. Thank heaven for little girls, as they say ...</li><li>Perhaps Erika takes refuge in the Ferris Wheel, which mysteriously breaks down at the perfect moment. Time for an aerial rescue?</li><li>There is a famous Lille ghost story set at Place du Lion d’Or, not far from the Cathedral, in which a small boy is said to have been tortured to death by his schoolmaster. He haunts the room where he died, trapped in an iron cage. Dickens used it for his <i>A Christmas Tree </i>collection, in which he transposed the legend to England and made the boy's tomb a wardrobe rather that Lille's iron cage. In real life Place du Lion d’Or is some distance from the Couvent, but why rely on real life? A ghostly child emerging from a wardrobe (iron cages are so last century) whether at someone's command or by pure accident (to add to the chaos) has to be worth your time. In a Supernatural game perhaps Erika knows the story and uses the ghostly wardrobe as part of her getaway plan ...</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That's it for this week. Enjoy!</div><br /><p></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-40365627534927224292023-12-24T06:08:00.000-08:002023-12-24T06:08:52.176-08:00NYC Book Loot<p>Still a bit on the stuffy side but I have returned with spoils, so it's only fitting I talk about those spoils. I'm not going to discuss anything bought as a present; this is just for me. </p><p><b>Head-Hunting in the Solomon Islands</b> Caroline Mytinger, 1942, McMillan. Bought at the Argosy.</p><p>... <i>we were unencumbered by the usual equipment of expeditions: by endowments funds, by precedents, doubts, supplies, an expedition yacht or airplane, by even the blessings or belief of our friends and families, who said we couldn't do it. We especially lacked that 'body of persons' listed for expeditions by the dictionary. We were a staff of two rather young women: myself, the portrait painter, and Margaret Warner, the bedeviled handyman, who was expected to cope with situations like God - if machinery was lacking, then by levitation. Her expedition equipment was a ukelele</i>.</p><p>If that opening sentence does not tell you why I bought this book you have no soul. </p><p>I'll only add that, once upon a time I was part of a team that worked on Pelgrane's <a href="https://pelgranepress.com/product/mythos-expeditions/">Expeditions</a> book. We spent such a lot of time calculating what an expedition might need, how best to simulate that in play.</p><p>Two middle class white kids and a ukelele. Jaysus H. </p><p>They'd stop in a place for a while, earn a crust by painting portraits, and when they had enough in their pocket they set out for the next stop. Eventually they reached their destination, which they only knew about from books. It's pretty Trail-friendly; it covers an interesting part of the world in the right time period. But seriously, how could I pass this up?</p><p><b>The Pyrates</b> George MacDonald Fraser, 1983, Knopf. Bought at the Argosy.</p><p>MacDonald Fraser is best known for his Flashman series, and those never seem to go out of print. His other books have vanished into the ether, for the most part. I got a copy of Black Ajax and Mr. American while I was in the UK, and I strongly suspect that those two remain in print only because Flashman or his antecedents appear briefly in them. His MacAuslan wartime comedy stories are still in print, but his own war memoir is more difficult to find. Pyrates, and his Hollywood memoirs, have eluded me. Now I have Pyrates. Can the memoirs be far behind?</p><p><b>Murder at the Manor, Final Acts: Theatrical Mysteries, Death on the Down Beat</b>, all British Library Crime Classics, bought at the Mysterious Book Shop. </p><p>Again, how could I not? Death on the Down Beat has a particularly interesting premise: a conductor is shot dead, and the shot can only have come from the orchestra. But which player could it have been? This one's a bit gimmicky but it's saved by brilliant writing, and the location - fictional UK town Maningpool - is worth stealing for your campaign, if only for its eponymous Lumps. </p><p><b>Scandinavian Ghost Stories</b>, edited by Joanne Asala, 1995 Penfield Press, bought at the Strand.</p><p>The Strand's mythology section isn't up to much but occasionally you find gold. Bought and read in the same day, which should tell you how much fun I found it. </p><p><b>Dictionary of City of London Street Names </b>Al Smith, 1970 Arco Publishing, bought at the Argosy</p><p>Well, that's the budget blown, I thought. I honestly wanted to only spend about a hundred at the Argosy. Silly me and my haughty airs. It is literally what you think it is: the title does not lie. Every so often there's a gem, and even if there isn't one on every page it's packed with information about Baghdad-on-the-Thames.</p><p><b>The Mafia is not an Equal Opportunity Employer,</b> Nicholas Gage, 1971 McGraw-Hill, bought at the Argosy.</p><p>A useful little bridge between Prohibition and the 1960s, which means it's Noir Country. Based on investigative reporting by the author, who I presume is the same <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Gage">Nicholas Gage</a> who was involved in Watergate's reporting though this book isn't listed among his published works. Which may mean Wikipedia got it wrong. </p><p><b>Forgotten News: The Crime of the Century, </b>Jack Finney, 1983, Doubleday, bought at the Argosy.</p><p>An investigation - more of a histori-fiction retelling, really - into the 1857 murder of Harvey Burdell in New York, and a half-dozen other 1800s-era misdeeds. Finney, the mind behind the Bodysnatchers, has a talent for this kind of work. </p><p><b>The World And The 20s: The Best From New York's Legendary Newspaper</b>, edited by James Boylan, published Dial Books 1973, bought at the Argosy. </p><p>I mentioned this last week, but it's worth repeating: if you want to write historical fiction it is useful to know what they thought, said and worried about. You can't do better than by reading their news.</p><p>That's it for this week! Enjoy.</p><p><br /></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-80087628962274005152023-12-17T05:16:00.000-08:002023-12-17T05:16:16.868-08:002022 <p>I have returned from New York and, while my journey was trouble free, not long after returning home some doorknob-licker passed on their head cold. I'm not dead but I'm a little stuffy so, rather than do a whole post on the loot - that will be a later post - I want to talk about one purchase:</p><p><b>The World And The 20s: The Best From New York's Legendary Newspaper</b>, edited by James Boylan, published Dial Books 1973, bought at the Argosy. </p><p>I trust you can work out why I bought this one. For a CoC & ToC enthusiast this is a no-brainer. History as talked about by the folks who were there to witness it, and to publish same in the New York World, Joe Pulitzer's paper. At this point in its run Joseph's sons Ralph, Joseph and Herbert run the show, with famed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Bayard_Swope">Herbert Bayard Swope</a> as its editor. </p><p>I shan't do a potted history - again, head cold - but at one point the boys in the print room decided to pontificate. What would life be like, they wondered, a hundred years hence? What would the United States be like in the year of our Lord 2022?</p><p>Well.</p><p>Shame to pass that up, really.</p><p>To begin: </p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._W._Griffith">David Wark Griffith</a> (yes, the fella who directed <i>The Birth of a Nation</i>) thinks we'll do our reading on the screen. <i>Talking pictures will have been perfected </i>(remember, this is published early 1923) <i>and perhaps have been forgotten again. For the world will have become picture-trained, so that words are not as important as they are now. All pictures will be in natural colors, the theatres will have special audiences, that is, there will be <a href="https://filmforum.org/">specialty theatres</a>. </i></p><p>Absolutely spot on so far as it goes. However, he goes on to say that <i>I do not foresee the possibility of instantaneous transmission of living action to the screen within 100 years. There must be a medium upon which the dramatic coherence can be worked out and the perfected result set firmly ...</i></p><p>He didn't anticipate reality TV, streaming or news broadcasts, and he has a writer's eye for content. Writers aren't always the best judge of what makes a good performance. Otherwise, very perspicacious.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken">Henry L. Mencken</a> thinks the United States will become a British colony. <i>Its chief function will be to supply imbeciles to read the current British novels and docile cannon fodder for the British army.</i> Mind you, he also thinks that Woodrow Wilson will be a talking point in 2022. Sarcasm detected.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hamilton_Anderson">William H. Anderson</a> thinks that Prohibition will still be in place. <i>The beverage use of </i>[alcohol]<i> will be utterly unknown except among the abnormal, subnormal, vicious and depraved, which classes will largely have been bred out of the race in America.</i></p><p>Oops. </p><p>Mind, this is the fella who did two years in Sing Sing for fraud, over the Anti Saloon League's bogus financials. That would happen about two years after this article was published.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordell_Hull">Cordell Hull</a> thinks that <i>The principles of democracy being eternal, they will necessarily exist a hundred years from now, and the achievements of government through the application of those principles to changing conditions will logically be greater than they have been in the last 100 years. That there will be two political parties then as now seems almost inevitable ...</i></p><p>He's not wrong, exactly, but recent events seem about to make him a liar. </p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Sanger">Margaret Sanger</a> thinks that <i>Birth control will have become part of education in health and hygiene. Women especially will be keen in demanding it. They will realize that it is a foundation of freedom and intellectual development for them. Women cannot make real progress today so long as they are haunted by the fear of undesired pregnancy. The results, in much shorter time than four or five generations, will be happier homes, greater mutual respect between husband and wife, honeymoons lasting two to three years before children arrive, with husband and wife thoroughly equilibriated to each other, because there has been time for mutual understanding ...</i></p><p>Another one with their finger on the pulse. Ms. Sanger is a bit more optimistic about the end result than perhaps she ought to have been, but she nailed the details.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Garrett_Hay">Mary Garrett Hay</a> thinks that <i>Women's drudgery in the household will be eliminated, her care of the family will be lessened, as new inventions come in and new methods of work. </i>Broadly true. Keeping house is certainly easier than it would have been in 1922. <i>Politically, women will be powerful. They will share with men the real constructive work of government. Many will hold office. If there is not a woman President, the thought of one will shock no-one. </i>That last bit isn't 100% accurate but it's getting closer to 90%. <i>Co-operation will be the magic word in 2022. </i> Oh dear. The thought bubble burst. Still, it was a good run.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._Sumner">John S. Sumner</a> thinks there will be no censorship. <i>I do not foresee a censorship over books in this country, nor any official censorship of the stage. </i>Um. I mean, compared to the censorship that existed in 1922 he's not wrong, but ...</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Weldon_Johnson">James Weldon Johnson </a>thinks there will be no lynching or racial antagonism. <i>The Negro problem will probably be reduced to a thin and wavering line of opposition to social recognition and intercourse. Long before 2022 such a primitive manifestation of racial antagonism as lynching will be unknown, for the reason that the Negro will be in a position not to tolerate it and the country will be sufficiently civilized not to want to indulge in it.</i></p><p>Again, compared to the situation as it existed in 1922 he's not wrong. He's a bit starry-eyed and optimistic, but he's not wrong.</p><p>What strikes me about all of these articles is how optimistic they are. Admittedly, the World wouldn't have printed doom & gloom. The bits here are only a selection of what was actually printed in 1923 but I suspect, for example, that anything which predicted a second world war or some kind of jeremiad against the future would have been toned down or cut.</p><p>The only exception is Mencken, and I wish he'd taken the assignment seriously. It would have been more interesting, even if he was flat wrong, to read his actual thoughts, not his scattershot attempt at humor. </p><p>That said, consider: these are people who just came out of a catastrophic military conflict. Who just survived a global pandemic. Economic conditions aren't exactly rosy, not in 1923 at least (it would get better). Yet they are full of optimism about the future a hundred years hence. Not one of them predicts disaster, yet it won't be long before a global depression seems to threaten global anarchy, and fascism at home and abroad threatens the roots of democratic government. </p><p>They think they can survive. Thrive.</p><p>It would be interesting to see a similar article written today. I wonder what thought leaders would say about the United States, and the future, a hundred years from now?</p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-72378879421444751412023-12-03T04:47:00.000-08:002023-12-03T04:47:49.210-08:00The Gambler (Bookhounds of London)<p>First, housekeeping: I shall be in New York for a few days and so will not post on Sunday. It’s my Christmas trip. I’m hoping to see the Boy & the Heron while I’m there. </p><p>On to the subject! </p><p>Taken from <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/56811/pg56811-images.html#The_Den_of_a_Pessimist ">Adventures in American Bookshops, Antique Stores and Auction Rooms</a> by Guido Bruno, published 1922. </p><p><b>The Gambler</b> </p><p><i>On Thirty-fourth, near Lexington Avenue, Jerome Duke has opened a bookshop of a peculiar sort. It is not exactly a book shop because there are antiques and curiosities all over the place. The books are thrown together topsy-turvy, Latin authors, modern novelists, theological books, old French tomes and German philosophers. I asked the proprietor about his books and his answer was: </i></p><p><i>“I don’t know anything about them. I never read books and would not be bothered with them. I buy them at a certain price and I try to sell them at a profit. In fact, I intend to buy anything I can get cheap enough, no matter what it is. I went into the book game in order to gamble and I am going to gamble on anything that people bring in here. </i></p><p><i>“There is one thing I have just refused to buy because the man wanted too much for it. He said that he had recently returned from Europe, had been a soldier, and wanted to sell me the embalmed finger of a German general. I forget the name of the general, but the man said that it was authentic and that he would sign a document before a notary public, swearing that he had been present at the time the finger was cut off of the general’s hand. Now, if he had asked fifty cents or a dollar, I would have been willing to take a chance, because it would make a good window display in this time of war; but he wanted five dollars, and I couldn’t see my way clear. That’s too much of a chance, to stake a five-spot on an embalmed finger of a German general. So I bought a slipper instead. It belonged to a Madame Jumel, and she is supposed to have worn it on the day that she got her divorce from Aaron Burr. I paid a dollar for it and I consider it a pretty sound gamble.” </i></p><p><i>“How so?” I asked. </i></p><p><i>“Well,” he answered, “because Aaron Burr was the second Vice-President of the United States.” Of course that argument was final, and I wished him luck with his purchase. </i></p><p>Gutenberg can be a useful source of inspiration. </p><p>They’re not all winners, but you can find some historical oddments and useful architectural drawings. The great thing is, even if it’s nonsense, it’s period nonsense told by the folks who were there, in their own words. </p><p>Take that German general’s finger. I have absolutely no idea if any World War One generals lost a finger. Or, for that matter, two fingers. I couldn’t tell you which generals fought in the war. Not even Wikipedia can tell you that, though it does have a list of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_colonel_generals">colonel generals</a> if you’re at all interested. </p><p>As a rule generals don’t die on the battlefield; they tend to succumb of some disease or other, safely behind the lines. At least, that’s the case for modern generals, and World War One is sufficiently modern for death by ouchie to be less of a risk. Lord alone knows how that finger came to be severed. Odds are pretty decent that it belonged to someone of less consequence than a general officer. </p><p>However, as a period souvenir it ticks all the boxes. War plunder? Sure, why not. There might even be a little testimonial from someone who was there when the finger took flight. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_art">Trench art</a> flourished during the war; I have a couple ashtrays made of artillery shells, for instance. People did make trench art out of body parts, and it’s within the realm of reason that someone might have made a reliquary out of bits of shrapnel. </p><p>Plus, there’s the enterprising Jerome, who strikes me as a perfectly good foil for any Bookhounds game.</p><p>With all that in mind: </p><p><b>The Duke’s Mess</b>. </p><p>Duke’s Head is the informal name for a bookshop in [<i>pick a district</i>] recently opened and getting a reputation. It’s a bit of a catch-all place; you can find anything there. About one step above a junk shop, really. No organization, no method. Some book scouts favor it as a hunting ground because the owner, Jerome Duke, apparently has no head for books – though some scouts say this is all a ruse, and Jerome knows more than he’s telling. </p><p>Jerome Duke is an American, a former serviceman settled in London after the war. He says his people used to be Cockneys and he’s just reclaiming his roots, but his Noo Yawk accent is as thick as boot leather. He’s a manic gambler, card sharp and risk-taker. Cop Talk knows his shop is a well-known gambler’s house, with all kinds of illicit games in the back room after hours. It’s a regular shebeen, but so far Duke has avoided any consequences. </p><p>Duke’s Head is best known for its collection of History, foreign Languages, and Craft. He does have some Occult texts but he doesn’t specialize in that stuff. He just picks up whatever’s on offer. </p><p>The other thing Duke’s is famous for is trench art. He brought in a few things from his time in the trenches but after a while his collection grew and grew. If you want some odd bit from the war made of bullet casings and shrapnel, Duke is the fellow to see. He’s also the fellow to see if you want to offload trench art, and even ten years after the war there’s a plenitude of the stuff to get rid of. </p><p>Duke’s collection includes an odd reliquary with a crucifix made entirely out of bullet casings. Inside the home-made reliquary is a mummified finger. Duke made this one himself and he won’t tell a soul how he got the finger, or why he thought it was a good idea to seal it up in this peculiar little artwork. </p><p><i>Option One</i>: <u>Ghoulish Tendencies</u>. Duke is a ghoul, made such by his experiences in the war. His American persona is one he adopted early on, and it stuck with him. He has other disguises, but Duke is the one he comes back to again and again – out of habit more than anything else. The finger is a memorial to his first official meal as a ghoul. </p><p><i>Option Two</i>: <u>Megapolisomantic Guru</u>. Duke speaks the language of cities and listens to their secrets. He settled in London because this is the best place to practice his craft. He may be willing to teach the art, or other Magick techniques, to people willing to devote themselves to London and its story. The finger is an artefact he’s crafted, which holds 4 points of Magick he can call on to help his castings. The pool can be refreshed every full moon, if he leaves the reliquary out in the moonlight. </p><p><i>Option Three</i>: <u>Things Just Happen.</u> Duke is one of those people who attracts problems. Occult problems. Mysterious problems. Maybe he just has one of those faces, or maybe he has a Drive that points him in the wrong direction. Take that finger, for instance. He cut it off himself, from a monster he says he encountered in the trenches. The monster – a vampire – would like it back but, so far, the vampire hasn’t been able to track Duke down. So far … </p><p><u>Jerome Duke</u>: Health 6, Scuffling 6, Fleeing 8, Firearms 4. Honest face, complete with Abraham Lincoln chinstrap beard; does not like loud noises; a friend to horses everywhere. </p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-81346405769129116002023-11-26T06:31:00.000-08:002023-11-26T06:31:06.982-08:00Held In Pawn (RPG All)<p>There comes a time in any hero's life when they find themselves in need of easy credit.</p><p>Traditionally this role has been filled by the humble pawnbroker, who lends on collateral. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oJ_2e3gdfNQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="oJ_2e3gdfNQ"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059575/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_the%2520pawnbroker">The Pawnbroker</a></p><p>The traditional symbol of the pawnbroker’s shop is three balls hung a little bit like an inverse Club. Nobody knows why. There are all kinds of theories some of which may have some validity; it almost certainly comes from heraldry, but its actual origin is obscure.</p><p>There’s the slight possibility that the image originates from the tale of St. Nicholas, who once gave three bags of gold to three impoverished women, daughters of a pious man who had been brought to penury by Satan. If Saint Nicholas hadn’t stepped in, the daughters would have been forced into sex work. Because of this legend St. Nick is supposed to be the patron saint of pawnbrokers.</p><p>In order to know how much to lend you first have to know what the item is worth, which means you have to know a little about a lot. If you’re unscrupulous you can lowball the value to reduce the risk you’re carrying; the less you pay out the better, since so many of your clients default on payment. If that wasn’t a risk, they probably wouldn’t be knocking on your door to begin with.</p><p>If the client doesn’t pay up, then the item is sold to recoup the loan cost and hopefully provide a little profit on the transaction. From a buyer’s perspective that means you can find almost anything at a pawnbroker’s, and it’s usually better quality than you’d find at a junk shop – though possibly not by much.</p><p>There are other means of forcing payment. According to <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2133/pg2133-images.html#link2H_4_0014">this Gutenberg text</a> Chinese creditors had the option of taking their cause to the magistrate but preferred not to, as the magistrate’s love of bribes (gifts) was notorious. Instead, some of them went to the debtor’s place of business and camped out there, giving the hairy eyeball to all and sundry until they got paid.</p><p>Of course, if your setting happens to be magical (Swords of the Serpentine, eg) you have even more options at your disposal. Sorcery is the obvious route; lay curses on your debtor’s head until they pay up. In a game where social combat (Sway) is just as important as physical, you could also hire a professional slanderer to do your dirty work. They follow the target wherever they go, repeatedly sniping with Sway attacks.</p><p>Say:</p><p><b>Chatter Pappa</b> is a well-known Derogatory. Short, slim and trim as a pirate’s sloop, they offer their services to the highest bidder. They don’t attack with their rapier (though they’re no slouch in that department - think Haughty Duelist, with a tongue that wags even more often than usual). Instead, they follow their target about Eversink, repeatedly targeting them with vicious barbs and slanders. If the target barricades themselves behind closed doors Chatter Pappa takes up their vigil outside, their tongue ceaselessly wagging so all passers-by know what kind of lowlife is hiding inside. Like all Derogatories, Chatter Pappa wears the silver badge of their trade. Guardsmen and city officials know better than to interrupt a Derogatory on their mission; while not technically approved by the courts, a Derogatory is a dangerous person to quarrel with. Chatter Pappa often works for the loan shark Vido the Rock, and it’s rumored that Chatter Pappa works for free, possibly because of some debt Vido holds over Chatter Pappa.</p><p>Having said all that let’s go to London and put a pawnbroker into the Bookhounds mix.</p><p><b>Howard and Thripps, Oxford Street</b></p><p>Mr. Howard, a former pugilist, and Mr. Thripps, a mousy little accountant, went into partnership ten years ago when Howard retired from the ring. Physically they closely resemble the comic characters Mutt and Jeff, and they have several strips clipped and pinned in the shop.</p><p><u>Four Things</u>:</p><p>Howard is a prodigious drinker and when not at the shop he can usually be found at his favorite boozer, The Hanged Man, just around the corner. Thripps despairs whenever Howard drinks; Thripps is teetotal.</p><p>The shop has several rooms and a large elaborately decorated safe from John Croft & Sons, engineers. Nobody knows who John Croft is; the business probably expired years ago. The safe came with the shop. Thripps is the only one who reliably remembers the combination; Howard says he does, but often forgets.</p><p>Thripps is an enthusiastic investor in odd inventions. If you want to raise money for your latest Heath Robinson farrago, he’s the man to see. However, so many of these businesses fail that the shop has an impressive selection of oddball inventions in its inventory.</p><p>Fourth Thing Arabesque: one of the discarded inventions in the shop window is a prototype television set of peculiar design. According to the brass plate it’s the brainchild of Theo. Muswell of Croydon, whoever he is. It turns itself on and apparently has no power source; the fuzzy images it shows are hypnotic and threatening.</p><p>Fourth Thing Technicolor: cultists of the vampire priest often pawn their religious artefacts to raise funds for their projects, or to cover an emergency deficit. They always recover the items they pawn, but sometimes it’s a close-run thing.</p><p>Fourth Thing Sordid: A collection of photographs piled in a miscellany in a box on the counter includes several candid shots of the SS <i>Princess Alice</i>, post-sinking, its remains beached on the Thames. Those who pay the shots too close attention hear unsettling whispers from the drowned dead.</p><p>That's it for this week! Enjoy.</p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-41438079664992019892023-11-19T05:42:00.000-08:002023-11-19T05:42:23.304-08:00The Grey Man of Berlin (Night's Black Agents)<p>I'm going to draw on some information from the Dracula Dossier, Double Tap (ekimmu, the Babylonian possessing spirit p107-8) and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2011/nov/03/top-10-cocktail-bars-berlin">this article</a> about <a href="https://becketts-kopf.de/">Beckett's Head, Berlin</a>.</p><p><b>What came before</b>: the German Vampire Project, pre-war, experimented with various necromantic techniques to create their supernatural crew and one of the less successful projects was Rattenfänger, which created one successful prototype but was unable to replicate its work. </p><p>Its prototype, the Ekimmu that came to be known as Herr Flint, escaped the lab in the hectic last months of the Nazi regime. It survived the immediate inter-war years by making itself useful as a freelance operative serving the Americans, British and Russians; Herr Flint knew where the bodies were buried, literally and figuratively. It passed itself off as a low-level research assistant who just happened to know where the good stuff was kept, swapping information for security. Twice its cover was penetrated, and twice it faked its own death only to pop up again months or years later as an informant. </p><p>When the Berlin Wall shot up Herr Flint saw an opportunity and, using the contacts it had made in the inter-war years, became an independent information broker between the living and the dead, whether Conspiracy dead or just regular. It wore out several bodies but accumulated a small fortune, as well as a significant amount of favors - currency, in the Cold War.</p><p>Recently Herr Flint decided to retire, after a close brush with permanent death thanks to the Mysterious Monseigneur. However, it's under pressure from a Conspiracy node, the <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2015/09/nodes-glorious-nodes-nights-black-agents.html">Bankhaus Klingemann</a>. Lisle wants Herr Flint to do one last favor for her, and as a substantial portion of Herr Flint's assets are held by the Bankhaus the Ekimmu finds Lisle's blandishments difficult to resist.</p><p>However, Herr Flint doesn't want to have anything to do with Lisle's schemes and has hit upon a solution: the Yojimbo option.</p><p>Enter the agents.</p><p>From the Guardian:</p><p><i>Beckett's Head is unmarked save for an eerily glowing photograph of Samuel Beckett in the window, so you'll need to ring a doorbell to gain access to this Prenzlauer Berg bar. Inside are two elegant, dimly lit rooms (one reserved for smokers) with low tables and chesterfield sofas. The comprehensive drinks list – ensconced between the pages of a Beckett tome – is divided into sections such as fresh and funky, and herbal and floral, and always features seasonal specials. The ice is hand-cut, and staff are happy to tailor-make drinks for the undecided. Absinthe fans may wish to sample the bar's take on the classic <a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/monkey-gland-cocktail-recipe-759322">Monkey's Gland</a>, made with English marmalade</i>.</p><p>From <a href="https://pelgranepress.com/product/double-tap/">Double Tap</a>:</p><p><i>The ekimmu was a spirit of an unburied (or improperly buried) man that wanders the earth (or the underworld) bringing bad luck, disease, or a supernatural curse to its victims. Most often, the ekimmu possesses or attaches itself to a living victim, but some ekimmu animate corpses ... the </i><i>ekimmu spends most of its time attached </i><i>to or possessing a human or corpse, not </i><i>least because (barring necromancy) it </i><i>requires a human voice to interact with its </i><i>Conspiracy colleagues. If it remains in the </i><i>corpse too long, the skin shrinks over the </i><i>bones and becomes pale or gray ... </i></p><p><b>A Quiet Night Out</b></p><p>Information through the grapevine (tradecraft, streetwise or similar) suggests that important information concerning a Conspiracy operative is going to be traded in Berlin. One half of the deal is the infamous Grey Man of Berlin, but nobody knows who the buyer is. It might be interesting to find out ...</p><p><i>Opening</i></p><p>The agents pick up the Grey Man on the underground or U-Bahn, on his way to the meet. Surveillance is needed to avoid being spotted, and Sense Trouble notices a pair of disguised Bodyguards (p69 main book) following his every move. Herr Flint pretends not to notice these two, but he makes sure that they're never far away. </p><p>The bodyguards look like a pair of students on a night out. Herr Flint looks like a bag of bones wrapped in an expensive suit. People on the U-Bahn avoid sitting near him if they can help it; he seems unwell. He has an expensive-seeming leather suitcase chained to his wrist. Anyone who pays him close attention also notices the gun he has in a concealed holster under his armpit. Agents with Law know that guns are heavily regulated in Germany; he's taking a big risk carrying something like that.</p><p>If the agents are spotted, Herr Flint tries to lose them by switching trains repeatedly on the U-Bahn (Difficulty 4 to keep up). It's a busy night and there are plenty of people trying to get home or to go out for a good time; a big crowd scene. If the bodyguards get an opportunity, they try to block the agents' path without seeming to do so deliberately. </p><p>However, Herr Flint wants the agents to keep up with him so, if it looks like his attempt is successful, he'll deliberately sabotage it with an act of seeming carelessness. Clever agents with Sense Trouble may pick up on this deception and wonder why.</p><p>Agents who make a Sense Trouble Difficulty 5 notice that they're not the only suspicious characters on the U-Bahn tonight. A duo with special forces training (the agents may recognize them as members of the Gendarmerie Corps of Vatican City State) are trailing Herr Flint and have identified the agents as potential threats. If the agents recognize them, it raises a question: what are the Vatican's people doing quite so far from their turf?</p><p>Agents who pay close attention to the Vatican's people see them conferring every so often with what can only be surveillance assistance somewhere off-site. So there are more of them out there somewhere.</p><p><i>Arrival at Beckett's Head.</i></p><p>This cosy high-end cocktail bar is the sort of place anyone with High Society might start an entertaining evening, and tonight a group of execs from Bankhaus Klingemann are enjoying the finer things in life. Among the group is Lisle, the queen bee, holding court. They're in the smoking section, which (tonight only) is marked off for a private party.</p><p>Agents with Vampirology or Occult may notice that Herr Flint reacts badly to Lisle's bright red dress; the color red is a Dread for his kind.</p><p>Herr Flint takes up a spot at one end of the non-smoking section, enjoying a herbal cocktail. His bodyguards, who saunter in after him if they're still in it, are not far away. </p><p>The Vatican group take up observation outside the Beckett's Head. The agents may notice a nondescript van parked not far away; the Mysterious Monseigneur or one of his senior henchmen is paying close attention from that observation post. Meanwhile the two special ops types the agents may have seen from before work their way around to a back entrance; they expect Herr Flint to make his way there and are planning to hit him when he does. </p><p>Herr Flint is toying with a chess problem and using a board in the bar to play it out. He's paying it close attention. What he's not paying attention to is his leather case, which is by his side, unchained. </p><p>Lisle saunters over and pretends to be interested in the problem as well, as is one of her inebriated colleagues. Though Herr Flint isn't too happy about her choice of costume he accepts her interest with polite decorum.</p><p>The inebriated colleague wanders off in search of the bathroom, but not before picking up the leather case. His instructions are to check the goods and, if satisfactory, leave Beckett's Head. If unsatisfactory, he rejoins the party.</p><p>That's what Herr Flint was hoping for. As an Ekimmu he has a special ability: when wounded his blood becomes an aerosol phantom that takes the shape of a predatory bird or storm cloud. He booby-trapped the case with a blood bomb; the colleague sets it off as soon as he opens the case. Herr Flint used 5 of his Health to make the phantom, which is one of the reasons why he looked so unhealthy tonight.</p><p>The first the agents may know about this is when the blood bomb goes off and the Bankhaus Klingemann exec comes stumbling out, drained dry by the blood phantom and breathing his last. While this distraction is going on, Herr Flint collapses. </p><p>Except not really. Herr Flint has decided the time has come for a change of body. He had intended to take Lisle but she protected herself by wearing red. Now he has to choose someone else.</p><p>His options, in descending order: the agents, the Vatican agents, a Bankhaus employee at the party, some random civilian.</p><p>Meanwhile his bodyguards, not realizing his deception, leap to the defense of their principal. </p><p>Thus starts a three-way melee. Herr Flint's bodyguards are almost innocent bystanders in all this and are armed with non-lethal weaponry, but they are a complicating factor. The blood phantom is immaterial and is partly controlled by Herr Flint, but it lacks a motivating force and is basically draining everything it can. The Vatican's people will intervene as soon as they realize what's going on, but that will take a few combat rounds. Meanwhile Lisle, who has a bodyguard of her own at the party who doesn't believe in non-lethal weaponry, will first try to get hold of the briefcase and then, when she realizes it's a scam, make her exit.</p><p>Herr Flint's objective is to find a new body and get out.</p><p>The Vatican's objective is to put an end to Herr Flint once and for all, and they have the Banes to do it but lack a target - at least until they find out which body Herr Flint now operates from. </p><p>Lisle and Bankhaus' objective was to get hold of the data Herr Flint promised them. Once they realize the data is a sham, their next objective is to get hold of Herr Flint.</p><p>Once Herr Flint has a new body he'll move outside, where he has a fast motorcycle stashed not far from Beckett's Head. This may provoke a Chase scene, as Herr Flint makes his getaway. </p><p>Herr Flint has a safe house luxury apartment in Berlin where he'll stay the night and, if he isn't tracked down, he'll leave Berlin soon after in his new body. The Grey Man lives to fight another day ...</p><p>Interesting footnote: Prenzlauer Berg has been a center of youth counterculture and squats that, today, is undergoing gentrification. The old hippies are being squeezed out, but it's still a youth-trending neighborhood. Added to that, there are any number of WWII era bunkers under Berlin, including Prenzlauer Berg. You're spoilt for choice: that safe house could be in one of the few bits of Prenzlauer Berg that hasn't succumbed to gentrification, daubed with Cold-War era graffiti, or it could be in a lost Nazi bunker beneath Prenzlauer Berg. Either way, an excellent and evocative spot for a final showdown!</p><p>That's it for this week. Enjoy!</p><p> </p><p><i><br /></i></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-22519106933793426922023-11-12T05:46:00.000-08:002023-11-12T05:46:52.158-08:00The Small God of Belluccia Bridge (Swords of the Serpentine)<p>The phrase small gods make a lot of people think of the Pratchett novel of the same name. I first encountered the idea in the Fritz Leiber short story <i>Lean Times in Lankhmar, </i>where barbarian Fafhrd becomes the shaven-headed devotee of a very peculiar God and his long-time companion Mouser tries to drink him out of it. </p><p>In our world probably the closest equivalent is Mecca, pre-Muhammad. Before the Prophet captured Mecca and turned it into the heart of Islam Mecca was a hotbed of paganism, home to all sorts of since-forgotten gods. This was probably a relic of Mecca's trading post past; where the world's peoples gather and worship, peculiar practices become the norm. You might walk down any street - in Lankhmar it would have been the Street of the Gods where deities rise and fall by their position on that ill-destined thoroughfare - and find a divine who predates Rome and is now all but erased from history.</p><p>Mind you, as Leiber put it:</p><p>... <i>the gods have very sharp ears for boasts, or for declarations of happiness and self-satisfaction, or for assertions of a firm intention to do this or that, or for statements that this or that must surely happen, or any other words hinting that a man is in the slightest control of his own destiny. And the gods are jealous, easily angered, perverse, and swift to thwart</i> ...</p><p>With all that in mind: </p><p><b>The Small God of Belluccia Bridge</b></p><p><i>Location:</i> under the shadow of the Well of Tears, Ironcross. Some prisoners can see Belluccia Bridge from their cells. It's some distance from the Bridge of Tears, though those unfamiliar with Ironcross sometimes mistake the two.</p><p><i>Description (day)</i>: A crossing point between two busy streets and a narrow alley, used mainly by bureaucrats, lawyers, and relatives of those who might find themselves in the Well of Tears. A trick of architecture encourages chill breezes at unexpected moments, threatening the security of wigs and hats. A statue of some unnamed person looks out from the bridge across the waters, their face and features long worn smooth by the touch of unnumbered hands. Those who bother to notice it at all call it the Cheese, and there is a persistent rumor that the Cheese is a nickname of a long-forgotten judge in whose honor the statue was made. Legend has it that if the Cheese favors your case you cannot fail, which is why so many lawyers have caressed its worn face over the years.</p><p><i>Description (night)</i>: A lonely and unremembered stretch that seems longer, somehow, and narrower than it does during the day. There is no breeze at night, and the air is, if anything, unnaturally still. Without the bustle of lawyers and clerks Belluccia Bridge echoes at every footfall, and when there's no-one around the gentle lap-lap of the water below becomes oppressive, as if each watery caress is the tick of an eternal clock slowly winding down to nothing. There is a statue of a sharp-faced man here whose staring eyes seem to follow every visitor. In one hand he holds a dirk, in the other a key. The key, a symbol of knowledge, is in the left hand which some consider a sign of sorcery - knowledge of sorcerous techniques is called the left-hand path. The dirk, in art and sculpture, is sometimes called the martyr's point.</p><p><i>Rumor</i>: if you seek knowledge or success in a legal cause, you must make your appeal to the Judge at the dead of night at Belluccia Bridge. If your appeal is heard and granted, your action cannot fail. If the Judge can be bribed, as so many earthly judges can, nobody knows what offering would find favor in his eyes.</p><p><i>Danger</i>: At least three people claim to have met a shadowy duelist on Belluccia Bridge. Of those three, only one escaped without injury and there have been seven corpses found in the waters underneath the bridge, all run through the heart, that might be victims of this unknown assailant.</p><p><b>The Small God</b></p><p><i>all want to learn, but no one is willing to pay the price ...</i></p><p>It calls itself the Balance. When the Well of Tears was first built (and few remember when that was) it came here as the last resort of the unfortunate, the one who put its thumb on the scales of justice to release souls from confinement. </p><p>Not bodies. Souls.</p><p>The Balance considers itself a God of Law. However, it's not blind justice. This is the kind of law which, with a nudge and a wink, adjusts the scales in favor of one side or the other. The kind that uses rules of procedure and precedent to get what it wants.</p><p>The very first lawyers who came to the Well to see their clients were the first devotees of the Balance and they learned a great deal about their profession from the God. However, despite its blandishments it could never persuade any of these clerks and scriveners to become its champion, its proselytizer. They took; they did not give back.</p><p>In time the Balance soured. It forgot why it settled beneath the Well of Tears and began to obsess about the lost and damned inside the jail, the ones who never saw trial, who vanished inside its innards. It forgot the law. It forgot precedent and justice. It wanted revenge. </p><p>It whispered at night to the duelist Lorenzo Vasari, betrayed by his employer and left to rot in jail for an assassination disguised as a legitimate duel. Vasari wanted out; his lawyer kept promising freedom but never delivered. Lorenzo came to believe that the statue he could see from his cell was speaking to him at night, that it knew a way out of the Well and would help him - for a price. </p><p>It did know a way out. Now Lorenzo is the skeletal duelist, strong right hand of the Small God who will take vengeance on those who displease it. At its urging Lorenzo comes out of the water below, slime oozing from its ruined finery, its sword still gleaming bright.</p><p>The Balance still offers legal advice to those who know how to ask for it, and it will lend its supernatural support to those willing to work in its service. It can get souls out of the Well. It may even be able to get bodies out too; nobody can say for sure.</p><p>If it is displeased, it has its strong right hand. Vasari has the stats of a duelist (p47) and the weakness of a skeletal giant (p197). Vasari cannot be defeated unless its Health and Morale are both at 0, and Morale regenerates at the end of every round. Vasari cannot die so long as the Small God remains at Belluccia Bridge, but he can be defeated and if that happens he sinks beneath the water. He will be able to return the next night. </p><p>There is one special condition that will rid Eversink of Vasari for good. If it can be proven to the duelist that both its lawyer and its former employer are dead, Vasari will be released from the Balance's service and never be seen again.</p><p>That's it for this week. Enjoy!</p><p><br /></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-49919278862046139922023-11-05T04:19:00.000-08:002023-11-05T04:19:25.868-08:00The Hook (GUMSHOE All)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QU9ENFY-B7U" width="320" youtube-src-id="QU9ENFY-B7U"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;">Casablanca Opening Scene</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">What makes a good hook?</p><p style="text-align: left;">In GUMSHOE and in most investigative games the hook, or opening scene, is used to lure the characters into the plot. It alerts them that something is going on; it gives them a rough (and possibly misleading) idea of what is to come; it may even give a hint (again, possibly misleading) of the kind of opposition they will face. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Take a look at the opening scene of Casablanca. In less than two and a half minutes, you know where you are, when you are, how serious the situation is, and the broad strokes of the kind of narrative you're about to witness. You even know the name of one of the main characters, M. Renault, the prefect of police. </p><p style="text-align: left;">But you don't see M. Renault, nor do you see any other main character. You see two minor characters, and one recurring character, briefly. NPCs, all. You see the signage for Rick's Café Américain, but you don't see Rick. </p><p style="text-align: left;">In any RPG setting some of this heavy lifting is done for you. You always know when you are: Cyberpunk is a game of the dark future, not 1890s London. Trail is a 1930s setting, Call a 1920s setting (for the most part) and so on. The rest of it is up to you.</p><p style="text-align: left;">But that gives a clear indication of the nature of a good hook. It tells you how serious the situation is, and the broad strokes of the kind of narrative you're about to experience. It should also give you a clear indication of where to go next since, unlike Rick and M. Renault, your players don't have a script to work with. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I'm going to borrow the example I used last week for Night's Black Agents:</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">An apartment in a Wandsworth council house exploded thanks to a mistimed suicide vest, which the powers that be are covering up under DORA as a gas leak. There's an official investigation; the agents are parachuted in as 'experts' by whichever agency sponsors them. Edom, why not.</blockquote><p>As Director you already know that this is a modern spy game set in London with supernatural opposition as the major players in the shadowy underbelly of Europe. You know where you want the agents to go. The question is how to get there.</p><p>Some of an opening scene is setting rather than information: you set the tone. </p><p><i>Rain spits from grey skies as you pass the police tape line. Nobody looks you in the eye. Not the plod, not the people. They don't know who you are, but they know what you are. Only the CCTV, sprouting like fungal growths off every wall and corner, doesn't look away. The electronic eye sees all. </i></p><p><i>Inside, the apartment is meat feast mixed with brimstone. Forensics in their noddy suits are going over every inch and you watch their progress as you get into noddy suits of your own. At least three people lived here, according to the police report. Two of them accounted for; that would be the pile over there, and the plonker who set off the bomb by accident whose constituent parts now decorate the walls. Nobody knows where the third, the brother, Marcus, is.</i></p><p><i>The scene lead, Inspector Dawkins, is conferring with one of the forensic techs. He pretends not to notice you.</i> <i> </i></p><p>You could add more but that's enough to be getting on with. That's the tone set. The Casablanca moment.</p><p>The next thing to think about is the clue trail. You want the agents to find clues that lead to the next scene, or at least lead to a scene which is interesting. </p><p>Key point, that. You can have as many red herring trails as you like but they all have to be interesting. Either they lead to an action moment of some kind, or they introduce something unique to the plot. </p><p>For example: brother Marcus might not be involved in the main plot at all. He might have taken to his heels when he saw the bombs go off. Following him doesn't lead to main plot. But he almost certainly knows something useful and the OPFOR know he knows something useful, so chasing that lead gets to either:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>an action moment where Marcus has to be saved from certain death, or,</li><li>a horror moment when the agents find out what hideous atrocities the OPFOR inflicted on Marcus. Eaten by ghouls, say, or turned into a zombie, or used as a ritual sacrifice.</li></ul><div>The next question is, what clues to leave? Where do they go?</div><div><br /></div><div>It's useful for any hook to have at least one Clue per specialty, and one Clue for Rome. </div><div><br /></div><div>In Night's Black Agents there are three specialty pools: Technical, Academic, Interpersonal. The geek skills, the scholar skills, the talky skills. Other systems follow similar lines. If we were talking about D&D, for example, it would be STR based, WIS based, CHA based and so on. All GUMSHOE systems follow broadly the same Technical, Academic and Interpersonal principles. </div><div><br /></div><div>In this particular setting there are also Network contacts that the agents can call on if there's a skill pool that they lack. So even if none of the agents have significant Technical pools, say, they can call on someone who does.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, in each heading there are various different possibilities. Technical, for example, includes Astronomy, Forgery and Pharmacy, among others. Does that mean you have to have a Clue for all three? For all Technical possibilities?</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course not. If you know the agents' capabilities from the start you can tailor the Clue trail to those capabilities but assume for the sake of this example that you don't know what the agents are capable of. In that case, just assign an Academic, a Technical and an Interpersonal skill, and <u>let the player choose how they got there</u>. They can use any Academic pool they like to get the Academic Clue, and so on.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are two advantages to this. One is that it allows creative players to make use of pools that don't often see play. Astronomy is my personal bugbear; I can't imagine a use for it outside of a particularly restricted set of circumstances. However, a creative player might come up with an idea I haven't thought of, and if it's not completely Scooby Doo and fits the narrative, why not use it?</div><div><br /></div><div>The second is that it allows easy jump-off to the next scene. If, say, you planned it so that only Forensic Science would work, and nobody has Forensic Science, nobody thinks of a way to use it in the scene, or nobody uses the magic words 'I'd like to use Forensic Science, please, Director,' then the Clue trail stops dead. Which is the very last thing you want to happen, especially in the opening scene of the scenario.</div><div><br /></div><div>Understand, I'm not suggesting that you do this in any other scene but this one. Nor am I suggesting that you only have four clues in the opening scene. What I'm saying is that, in order to guarantee smooth passage from here to the next moment, have at least four clues and don't worry about assigning particular pools for these clues. Just make sure there's one each for Technical, Academic, and Interpersonal, and one for Rome so the agents get a sniff of what they're dealing with.</div><div><br /></div><div>Put it this way: James Bond fails all the time. He never fails in the opening scene. Later on, sure, he might be captured, bungle a rescue, whatever. But in the first ten minutes Bond does nothing but shine. Occasionally he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-MFzYNNMWc">wears a seagull on his head</a>. But he shines.</div><div><br /></div><div>OK, so let's put this to work.</div><div><br /></div><div>We already have the opening moment. We know what Casablanca looks like. The agents are on the bomb site poking through the debris. We need at least four clues to propel them from here to somewhere else. </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Academic: </b>there's<b> </b>information here about someone's medical history over the past two years; their last appointment was four months ago, for a consultation at London Bridge Hospital - the Shard, where they keep their fertility clinic. How did this lot afford it, and why were they keen to see a fertility specialist?</li><ul><li><b>Point spend: </b>the doctor at the Shard, Felicity Pocock, is a suspected Conspiracy asset, but it's never been clear whether she has any status or is just a cog in the machine.</li></ul><li><b>Technical: </b>the explosive vest is fairly low-level tech; even so, it's beyond this mug's technical capability. It must have been put together somewhere else and brought here.</li><ul><li><b>Point spend: </b>there's a terrorist group, <i>Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain </i>or Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, known to have 'acquired' C-4 exactly like this from USAG Benelux. The GICM have links with a London coke and hash smuggling group, the Fassih Collective. Is that how the C-4 got from Belgium to London? </li></ul><li><b>Interpersonal: </b>Inspector Dawkins is a known face, and a dogged investigator. However, his career has taken some pretty serious alcohol-related dings in the last few years. There are other candidates just as skilled as he; why is he assigned to this case?</li><ul><li><b>Point spend: </b>Dawkins has an angel in his corner. Someone high up the chain has taken an interest in his career and is pushing him forward, which means Dawkins has politics on his side. Someone at Assistant Commissioner level in the Met, at least. </li></ul><li><b>Rome: </b>the people who lived here went to a lot of trouble to protect their electronics against EMP damage. It didn't work; there's a pile of discarded watches and portable electronics, completely fried. </li><ul><li><b>Point spend: </b>damage to electronics is a possible indication of supernatural or vampiric activity. There have been a few other crime scenes with similar markers, and three out of the five were in the Greenwich area. There's an informant down that way, runs a phone shop on Powis Street; Babichev, aka Fat Bob. Links to Russian criminals, Turkish - a very popular lad, is Bob. </li></ul></ul><div>There you go.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>You can have more clues, of course. I encourage that. But with this little trail the agents have two defined places to go (the Shard, Fat Bob) and two potential lines of enquiry (the Fassih Collective, Dawkin's angel in the Met). Plenty to be getting on with. </div><div><br /></div><div>That's it for this week. Enjoy!</div><p></p><p></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-44308061688391552182023-10-29T04:47:00.000-07:002023-10-29T04:47:47.492-07:00Playing With Spines (GUMSHOE)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4s94Uv42i2c" width="320" youtube-src-id="4s94Uv42i2c"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq_wZE93ZAY&t=489s">original source</a> Randy Writes a Novel</p><p style="text-align: left;">If you're new to this whole GM/Director/Master of Minds malarkey, you'll probably look at the section on Clues and Spines in the main book and say 'crikey!' Possibly also 'foozle!' and 'pob!' because you have a full vocabulary.</p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><p><i>A straightforward investigation can be seen as a series of scenes arranged in a straight line, with multiple ways to move from each scene to the one following it. Improvisation consists of reacting to the players by switching the order of scenes around or interpolating new scenes in this order. This is simple to write and run, but difficult to hide.</i></p><p><i>A looser structure will still consist of an investigative line, in which the Investigators pursue a series of core clues until they achieve a resolution of some sort. This is called the <b>spine</b>.</i></p></blockquote><p><i></i> <a href="https://pelgranepress.com/trail-of-cthulhu/">Trail of Cthulhu</a> p192</p><p>Let's play amateur chiropractor. </p><p>The main setting for this example is Night's Black Agents, a modern-day spies v. vampires game. Characters for this example are Fibber McGee, a bang-and-burner; Molly, the black-bagger, Gildersneeve, the former crime scene investigator turned Cleaner, and Belulah, the wetworker. The setting is London.</p><p>Someone's blown a hole in it.</p><p>A very small hole, but a hole nonetheless. An apartment in a Wandsworth council house exploded thanks to a mistimed suicide vest, which the powers that be are covering up under DORA as a gas leak. There's an official investigation; the agents are parachuted in as 'experts' by whichever agency sponsors them. Edom, why not.</p><p>That's the Hook, and since I like to start with action the scenario will open at that point, with the agents and the official investigators poking through the crime scene in an uneasy, mistrustful partnership. This is the inciting incident and also the first point on the Spine.</p><p>Let's take a step back.</p><p>As Director, you already know a few things. For instance:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>You know who the OPFOR are;</li><li>You know what they want;</li><li>You know where this is going to end.</li></ul><div>You probably also know your players' characters well enough to be able to plan around their MOS and investigative pools. That's not a given, though; this might be a one-off for a completely fresh group. However, if you do know that, say, Molly is a fan of Electronic Surveillance and Architecture, then you can plan for a few clues that allow her to make use of those pools.</div><div><br /></div><div>You also know one other thing.</div><div><br /></div><div>You know the type of scene that makes up the Hook.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some scenes are action scenes, with all the explosions and broken bones that an action scene implies. Some are investigative. Some are interstitial; that is, it transitions from one moment to another. Whichever kind of scene it is will determine, to an extent, the kind of clues the characters might find, which in turn determines how they get from point A to point B. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is an Investigative scene, which means agents will be drawing primarily on Technical and Academic pools. It's reasonable to assume that every group has at least some Technical and Academic expertise. Each character had the option to buy all sorts of pools at creation. </div><div><br /></div><div>Fibber, being a bang-and-burner, is likely to be bringing his Forensic brain to bear on the equipment and debris found at the scene. Molly will want to use Electronic Surveillance, finding security camera footage from nearby businesses and combing through it. Belulah might use Streetwise or Urban Survival to find out if any local criminal groups supplied the bomber. Gildersneeve will be drawing on his Human Terrain abilities to track the bomber's social media posts and see if there's a connection to known extremist organizations. </div><div><br /></div><div>All these are means by which each agent can find a clue that leads to the next Core scene. Possibly it will be a direct jump. There may be an interstitial moment, or an antagonist reaction, but ultimately clue A leads to scene B. You, as Director, know that the agents will do this; that's how it's supposed to work. Each point in the Spine is riddled with clues that are designed specifically for this purpose. </div><div><br /></div><div>But.</div><div><br /></div><div>Suppose we don't want this to be straightforward? Suppose we want a parallel spine?</div><div><br /></div><div>In this example let's say that the OPFOR, being an extremist group puppeted by the Satanic Cult of Dracula, are meant to be detonating suicide jackets on the London Underground, spreading not just terror but also a vampire-spiced bioweapon that will create quasi-Renfields among those exposed, civilians and crime scene investigators alike. The intent being to create a subgroup of people desperate to join the Satanic Cult so they can get relief from their symptoms, while at the same time spreading terror and distrust of the bumbling authorities who let this happen.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fine. That's what they want. </div><div><br /></div><div>But they're not the only people in the game. </div><div><br /></div><div>Which creates a second spine.</div><div><br /></div><div>The first spine is about finding out who the bombers are, what their target is, and what their timetable is. If the agents are successful, they prevent the attacks. If they're only partly successful, or if they fail, then the bombs go off. That means conclusion of that spine comes when either there is a scene where the bombers are captured, or a scene in which the bombs go off.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let's go a step further and say that there is a faction within Edom led by, Nails, why not, which wants those bombs to go off. If they do then it furthers his scheme, which is [whatever it may be]. Fort, who is the agents' sponsor, doesn't know which of the Princes is playing with fire and suspects this faction exists but has no proof. </div><div><br /></div><div>This spine is completely separate from the main event. Since the opening scene of the main event relied heavily on Technical and Academic pools, it seems reasonable that this parallel spine relies on Interpersonal pools. Which, in this example, Belulah happens to be good at. </div><div><br /></div><div>That gives the characters who didn't invest heavily in the other two pools a chance to shine on this parallel spine. While Fibber and the gang chase up Technical or Academic leads, Belulah breaks bones and blandishes informants in her Interpersonal search for the parallel truth at the end of the second spine. </div><div><br /></div><div>Which ends when the agents either expose Nails' shenanigans or fail to do so, which pleases or embarrasses their sponsor Fort. </div><div><br /></div><div>If I were to represent this with a diagram (I'm bad at drawing) it would look as if each spine started from the same point and then diverged. There might be occasional points where they intersect again. There might not. Both spines can be completed, or one might be completed and the other not, or the agents may fail to complete both.</div><div><br /></div><div>Why do this? </div><div><br /></div><div>First, because complication and conflict drive plot and plot is the objective in every investigative game, whether it's Night's Black Agents or Mutant City Blues. You want plot. You want the players to bathe in plot. </div><div><br /></div><div>Second, because it gives the characters two chances to win. </div><div><br /></div><div>Think about it. If the bombs go off then the characters lose entirely, if there's only one spine. However, if there's two spines then there are two chances to win. OK, one win - bombs go off but Nails is exposed - is at best a Pyrrhic victory. However, every victory is a victory if you're fighting an unholy war in the blood-soaked shadows of London. </div><div><br /></div><div>The two spines can touch, in certain Core scenes. Let's say that the NPC investigative team is being led by someone who's indebted to Nails, for whatever reason, and tries to sabotage it so Nails' plan can succeed. The agents might use Interpersonal abilities like Cop Talk to find this out, or even to trace the team leader to a clandestine meeting with Nails. </div><div><br /></div><div>However, for the most part it's a completely separate chase. Will the agents uncover Nails' involvement? Will they chase up the bombing angle without ever realizing that they're making an enemy within Edom, whether they foil Nails or embarrass Fort?</div><div><br /></div><div>One last thing. I said at the start that knowing where this is going to end is one of the three definite things in every scenario. Well, there's one more thing.</div><div><br /></div><div>You also know that there will be consequences, no matter which outcome occurs.</div><div><br /></div><div>If the agents foil the bombing and expose Nails, then the consequence is the Satanic Cult lashes out, Nails may be removed and replaced, and Fort's star rises. All of which gives rise to future plot. </div><div><br /></div><div>If the agents foil or partly foil the bombing and do not expose Nails, then Nails stays but is angry, Fort may also be embarrassed and angry, and the agents will catch hell. All of which gives rise to future plot. </div><div><br /></div><div>If the agents do not foil the bombing and do not expose Nails, then there's a bunch of people out there - including them, perhaps - desperate for the cure that the Satanic Cult offers. Meanwhile Fort is off to Edom's equivalent of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9ZJChzPn0U">Slough House</a> and Nails is reaping the rewards of service to Dracula. All of which gives rise to (sing along with me now, folks) future plot.</div><div><br /></div><div>No matter which is the case, those consequences create more spines. Which creates complication and conflict. Which drives plot. </div><div><br /></div><div>Goodness. Did I just mention Slough House? That's because this is exactly what <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2022/09/not-quite-book-review-corner-mick.html">Mick Herron</a> does. There is an A plot, the supposed main plot, the bit that the blurb on the back of the book talks about. Then there is the B plot, the actual plot, the one you really ought to be paying attention to. The great advantage for Herron is that, as he has so many characters, he can split them along the different plotlines. That is exactly what I'm suggesting you do.</div><div><br /></div><div>Enjoy!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-7893022784749391582023-10-22T05:24:00.000-07:002023-10-22T05:24:07.349-07:00Bertie's Dross & Cast-Offs (Night's Black Agents)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhnsFRA11EX9U5-zgzNxxPWtkvE-Skc1Yl23dvBrSNtNzFADzT2J2DFiwHvS1eARkvi46XMI19TbzxpUBUMUKOyEUlOrms05KUVuy__4-lY6z-20JjjWs3wtKImFFHXNYWOF9Ez0yz6US-RX3gVfP9ADNFVuP7nxiyGKHMCse0VAX2PmhvQIbTK8RFEOnQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="620" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhnsFRA11EX9U5-zgzNxxPWtkvE-Skc1Yl23dvBrSNtNzFADzT2J2DFiwHvS1eARkvi46XMI19TbzxpUBUMUKOyEUlOrms05KUVuy__4-lY6z-20JjjWs3wtKImFFHXNYWOF9Ez0yz6US-RX3gVfP9ADNFVuP7nxiyGKHMCse0VAX2PmhvQIbTK8RFEOnQ" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Sourced from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/19/silvio-berlusconi-heirs-weigh-up-fate-of-his-mostly-worthless-art-collection">The Guardian</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i></i></div><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>The heirs of Silvio Berlusconi inherited billions from his empire but now they are faced with a dilemma: what to do with his vast collection of mostly worthless artwork, including paintings of nude women and the Madonna, stored in a warehouse opposite his home near Milan.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>The former prime minister, who died in June at the age of 86, reportedly amassed the 25,000 works during the final years of his life, buying the majority from late-night shopping channels in his quest to become a top collector.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>Vittorio Sgarbi, an undersecretary at the culture ministry, art critic and close friend of Berlusconi, said the compulsion for buying art sold through TV auctions began in earnest in 2018 as a result of “sleepless nights”.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>He told Report, the investigative series broadcast on Rai, that Berlusconi spent an estimated €20m on what Sgarbi described as a collection of “crusts”, and the focus appeared to be on quantity rather than quality.</i></div></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i></i></div></div><p>Oh dear. </p><p>Well, billionaires have their little quirks. Berlusconi's heirs will probably burn or otherwise get rid of the vast majority - they'll go to '<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/silvio-berlusconi-hoarded-monstrously-entertaining-art-collection-2382531">the most appropriate destination</a>' according to the latest from the heirs - as it costs close to a million Euro to fund the warehouse where his collection's stored. Given than the average piece probably isn't worth $2, with frame, that cost must be eating away at their souls as well as their wallets. </p><p>After all, a billion - one measly billion - would only fund about a hundred year's worth of storage. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/phSxxVJCZsc" width="320" youtube-src-id="phSxxVJCZsc"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>However, let's step back from the schadenfreude and gamify this. <div><br /></div><div>Let's say that there's a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNiq7jrdYXY">deceased billionaire</a>. Accidents happen. Let's further say that they have an extensive collection of 'art' hidden away in ... oh, their mansion on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Riviera">Côte d'Azur</a> and a warehouse near Nice, why not. The news caught the silly season and there are some amusing TikToks and YouTube diatribes, but there the matter rests. </div><div><br /></div><div>Or does it?</div><div><br /></div><div>The agents' Network hints at other developments. Someone connected with the Conspiracy is taking an interest. Who is this mysterious art speculator and why are they interested in Bertie's soon-to-be bonfire material? </div><div><br /></div><div>A point's worth of investigative pools finds out the identity of the buyer, but perhaps the real question is, who's put them up to it?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Buyer</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Options: </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Art Forecaster (p103 DD), and rumor has it that they're after a particular piece but don't want to say which of the many, many bits of tat they're after.</li><li>The Online Mystic (p126), who claims that forces beyond the veil have directed them to make the buy.</li><li>Van Sloan (p87) and not even his closest friends know why, but his catspaws are already on their way to the Riviera. </li></ul><div>But why do this?</div></div><div><br /></div><div>The <b>Art Forecaster</b> wants to cover up two unfortunate facts. One is that the Forecaster was the billionaire's art expert who curated the collection; it's time to burn the receipts. The other is that some of the collection was actually an esoteric effort at mind control; it's not the bad art but the sigils on the canvases, obscured by the art, which are the key. Sure, if they're burned that solves a problem, but only if all the affected canvases are destroyed and the Forecaster wants to make sure of that. The billionaire was supposed to live for at least another decade to further the Conspiracy's goals, but cocaine and sex parties wore him out before his time.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>The <b>Online Mystic</b> really has been directed by forces beyond the veil, but those forces are actually trying to lure the agents into a trap. The warehouse near Nice is the real target; the intent is to draw the agents into a killing zone and burn the place down, with them in it. If the agents dig a little deeper into the <b>Mystic's </b>social media posts they may discover clues that suggest the <b>Mystic's</b> talking to the <b>Human Trafficker</b> (p119) with the goal of hiring fascist thugs to carry out the ambush.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Van Sloan</b> wants closure. The billionaire isn't just any old billionaire; he's the son of one of Van Sloan's wartime contacts in Italy. Van Sloan is the boy's godfather. Van Sloan left an artefact in his safekeeping: the Portrait of Dracula. It's this portrait (whether major artefact, minor, or fake) that started the billionaire on his art buying spree; he wanted to get the Portrait out of his head and tried to do that by drowning it in bad art. Van Sloan feels guilty. He feels he poisoned the boy's life. He wants the portrait back or proof of its destruction.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's it for this week! Enjoy. </div><div><b><br /></b><p><br /></p></div>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-79241007574633298712023-10-15T04:20:00.001-07:002023-10-15T04:20:28.187-07:00Flipping The Personal Mystic (Night's Black Agents)<p><u><b>Servants seem out of touch. Enter the billionaire’s battalion of experts</b></u> (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/of-interest/2023/10/12/wealthy-experts-self-improvement/">Washington Post</a> Christopher Cameron)</p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><p><i>“There are areas I want to work on,” says Gill, who would prefer not to name the monk she met while at Tibet House US in New York, a cultural center established at the behest of the Dalai Lama. “There’s professional growth, being a better CEO and a better founder. So he helps me by organizing meditations, where we just sit in noble silence, or we may talk about things.”</i></p><p><i>To deal with stress and practice mindfulness, she joined a holotropic breathwork community with Angell Deer, a shamanic healer, mystic, medicine man, teacher, permaculturist, beekeeper and international speaker, according to his website.</i></p><p><i>In July, she traveled to Esalen, the storied Big Sur retreat known for its connections to the Human Potential Movement of the 1960s.</i></p><p><i>“I’m there exploring breath work and these new modalities, but it’s all very steeped in Silicon Valley tech culture. There’s a guy from Google there,” she says. Ben Tauber, a former Google product manager, was CEO at Esalen until 2019 ...</i></p><p><i>... Personal chemists now help CEOs hack their psyches with psilocybin chocolates, ayahuasca retreats, microdoses of LSD and IV drips of ketamine (Elon Musk is one alleged user). Teams of private doctors, dietitians, scientists, wellness practitioners and trainers help aging executives search for the Fountain of Youth — with occasionally gruesome techniques (like tech mogul Bryan Johnson’s “blood boy”). Shamans guide board room bosses through difficult decisions. Mixed martial artist Khai “The Shadow” Wu trains Mark Zuckerberg. “Pro-natalists” tap matchmakers to secure high IQ partners to produce elite super children for a world they agree is doomed to societal and environmental collapse ...</i></p></blockquote><p></p><blockquote>... <i> “I placed a full-time, permanent gaming expert,” says a person working for an UHNW family, who could not be identified due to a nondisclosure agreement. “My client wanted someone who was the best at all of the best games.”</i></blockquote><i></i><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Gosh, isn't it just appalling to have lots of money. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WIih5gB6Qcw" width="320" youtube-src-id="WIih5gB6Qcw"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Jeeves & Wooster, P.G. Wodehouse (Fry & Laurie)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We all knew the rich have peculiar tastes and the idea of a personal beekeeper is neither here nor there, especially if they happen to be a shaman on the side. A personal gamer, though? Someone whose sole job is to make psychedelic chocolates? That's a new one on me. No doubt I'm appallingly naive. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">However, it does suggest intriguing possibilities, particularly for Night's Black Agents.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The obvious is that handy-dandy narrative placeholder, the Strange Psychiatric Facility. The place way off in the never-know-where, or it might be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Sur">Big Sur</a>, that specializes in recovering your peace of mind, for a fee. The owner (or are they a cover for the real owner?) has all sorts of mystic credentials. Anywhere else, if you happened upon an impressive shrine dedicated to hideous beings from beyond the veil, you'd suspect foul doings; but here, that shrine's just part of the treatment. Meditate upon the swirling colors in that portal to another dimension. All will be well. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDsIlAXWORw">All will be well</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The agent's task in this situation is to infiltrate the Psychiatric Facility to get closer to the billionaire and do whatever it is they've gone there to do. Warn them, remove their handler, extract the McGuffin before the Conspiracy before they get their greasy hands on it, whatever works for the narrative.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I want to go in a different direction.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Let's say that the Billionaire (civilian stats, bodyguards, martial arts trainers, the lot) is someone of importance to the Conspiracy but they're not yet part of the family. Maybe the billionaire has <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekefMUICOGo">valuable documents</a> they want to steal, or has connections within a particular industry, or valuable proprietary technology, or just lots of money. For all these reasons the Conspiracy might want to infiltrate the billionaire's luxury compound and gain control of the billionaire and their McGuffin. They might promise the billionaire something they really want, like a super-baby, extended life, or just pleasant dreams. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For purposes of infiltration the mansion is Monitoring 5 Security 5. There's cameras everywhere, a small army of staff, any number of ways <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2019/04/espionage-fubar-gumshoe-nights-black.html">a snooper might get caught </a>on the way in. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The agent's job is to get in, identify the Conspiracy asset, neutralize that asset <u>without killing them</u> as a murder investigation will only complicate matters, and then get out.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The trouble is, which of the many, many possible subjects is the asset? Is it the chocolate maker with their peculiar candies? The Feng Shui expert (a possible Chinese spy, perhaps)? Their personal religious studies tutor, a high-ranking member of the Catholic church? Someone else?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For purposes of gameplay whoever it is has no supernatural background but does have sufficient Aberrance to power their magical/satanic/psychic abilities. Assume Aberrance 6 and the ability of the Director's choice, chosen from the Vampire list. Also assume that the enemy operative can regain Aberrance in some way, eg. by causing Stability loss which refreshes Aberrance on a 1 to 1 basis, blood sacrifice, use of magical/psychic artefacts or some other means.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But who is it?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Is it the Mysterious Monseigneur (p144 DD), providing spiritual guidance (and connections with the Vatican)?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The Medievalist (p122), who's advising the billionaire on his many, many trips to auction houses to refurnish that baronial castle he just bought?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The Retired MI6 Boffin, now a freelance cybersecurity expert for hire? Or possibly an adviser on that elaborate bitcoin mine the Billionaire's setting up in, oh, Alaska, why not?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Or one of the many, many, many flimflam artists, conmen and grifters who've sneaked into the billionaire's inner circle, to <a href="https://www.grunge.com/143134/the-secret-parties-billionaires-dont-want-you-to-know-about/">plan a party</a> perhaps, or give them advice on the inner workings of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Meeting">Bildeberg Group</a>? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Choices, choices ...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">For an added bonus, what about flipping the Mystic?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In this version the job isn't to eliminate the Conspiracy asset. The job is to get in there and turn the asset to good use. Persuade them that the Conspiracy doesn't have their best interest at heart, that Dracula killed their Solace, or that the reward they were promised will never materialize. That way the asset will do the agents' bidding rather than Dracula's. Probably not for very long (Dracula will eventually eliminate them), but hopefully long enough. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Where is this happening?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Well, the billionaire's mansion (one of several) is the obvious choice, as is their <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2021/08/its-living-super-yachts-nights-black.html">superyacht</a>. But it could as easily be somewhere like <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2018/06/playing-with-real-toys-monaco-yacht.html">Monaco</a> or <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2017/06/quick-and-dirty-macau-nights-black.html">Macau</a>, the <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2018/03/playing-with-real-toys-abandoned-orient.html">Orient Express</a> (or a facsimile thereof), their favorite ski resort, or some debauched party paradise. Anything's possible. Anything goes. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2022/03/05/a-guide-to-all-the-outrageous-mansions-and-estates-owned-by-sanctioned-russian-billionaires/?sh=bc02d462e0fd">Anything</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Enjoy!</div><br /><p><br /></p><p><i></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-10606412037468003462023-10-08T05:06:00.002-07:002023-10-08T05:06:56.843-07:00Another Mask Behind You<p><i>I've seen it in his eyes. Screaming mad. Starkers! And dishonest! Hiding his face behind a fright mask. Well, no masks for me! I have nothing to hide! </i>Joker, Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-3KwxcCA-bs" width="320" youtube-src-id="-3KwxcCA-bs"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Opening scene, Halloween, John Carpenter</div><p><i>“Who dares,”—he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him—“who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him—that we may know whom we have to hang, at sunrise, from the battlements!” </i>Edgar Allen Poe, The Masque of the Red Death.</p><p><i>Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.</i></p><p><i>Stranger: Indeed?</i></p><p><i>Cassilda: Indeed, it's time. We have all laid aside disguise but you.</i></p><p><i>Stranger: I wear no mask.</i></p><p><i>Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask! </i>Robert W. Chambers, The Mask</p><p>Masks are odd things. </p><p>You don't often see them outside of carnival, traditional dance and ancient theatre. The Greeks and Romans were fond of masked actors taking on archetypes - the drunk, the old man, the soldier, the wife, the cuckold, the prostitute or wanton. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sock_and_buskin">Sock and Buskin</a>, aka Comedy and Tragedy, come from this tradition, as does <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commedia_dell'arte">Commedia dell'arte</a></p><p>In mythology you often hear about masks allowing the wearer to take on archetypes, whether heroic or tragic, but the difficulty with mythology is that it's impossible to check your data. All the people who actually knew what it was supposed to mean are long since dead. Dead, dead, deadski. Almost no written records survive, which means you can make things up as you go and there's nobody to tell you different. </p><p>Then, of course, there is Halloween. Where masks are the only thing separating us from the normal people. Originally a time to honor the dead, it has become a Saturnalia of booze and chocolate, fun as much for the adults as the kids. The original Myers Halloween mask, the iconic one in the film, is actually a William Shatner mask suitably modified - $1.98 at a costume shop, they were on a budget - but now it's so iconic that, if you mention Halloween to people, odds are one of the first images that springs to mind is that blank, hideous non-face worn by the most evil kid who ever lived. </p><p>You don't often find them in ghost stories, funnily enough. Sometimes they float to the surface along with the other mental flotsam and jetsam lurking in the deeper waters of the psyche, but usually they don't appear except in the old-time tales of the likes of Poe. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vCPEJ982dxo" width="320" youtube-src-id="vCPEJ982dxo"></iframe></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCPEJ982dxo">Onibaba</a> Trailer (1964)</p><p>In film, masks work best when establishing mood, or defining a character. Everyone remembers Jason; everyone remembers Scream. Even if they didn't watch any of the films, they know just by looking at them exactly what kind of character they are. As cinematic shorthand, they work wonders. Even a mediocre film - and God knows there are plenty of those in both franchises - becomes just a little bit memorable when those masks appear on screen.</p><p>Why wear a mask?</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Performance</li><li>Ritual</li><li>Protection</li></ul><div>You want it to enhance your performance (which can include performance in combat), provide magical assistance or evocation in a ritual, or to protect you against some form of attack whether natural or supernatural.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the superhero genre - and possibly only in that genre - masks are used to protect identity. Which is ludicrous, but there we are. I've lost track of the number of people who know who Batman is (<a href="https://www.cbr.com/dc-every-character-who-knows-batmans-identity/#silver-st-cloud">there must be a list somewhere</a>), but it never makes any difference to the ongoing plot. It sometimes feels as if the 'protect identity' bit is an excuse for ever more elaborate costume concepts, each more evocative than the last. </div><div><br /></div><div>In our world 'protect identity' becomes 'play a part.' At Halloween the part is pretty simple - sexy nurse or sexy pirate? - but there are more elaborate versions. Carnival, a masquerade, a pantomime - all these involve ritualistic behavior of one kind or another, played by actors whose job it is to impersonate the characters that everyone knows and loves. Harlequin plays an important role in early pantomime, St George and the Dragon are traditional characters in a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummers%27_play">Mummer's Play</a>. The modern version is the Pantomime Dame, the comic mother figure, and a host of others - but the Dame is the most recognizable. </div><div><br /></div><div>The old May Day traditions follow in this train. You abandon your identity to play another and your role is preordained - the fool with his bladder, for instance. </div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_f9UxudjAxQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="_f9UxudjAxQ"></iframe></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Wicker Man</div><div><br /></div><div>The chief benefit - or problem - in all three cases is that masks are impersonal, therefore unsettling even at the best of times. A gas mask protects against inhaling poisonous or dangerous gases, but there's no denying that the odd inhumanity of them frightens those who see them. The Samurai mask in Onibaba was meant to be unsettling. Jason's blank fright mask empowers Jason and terrifies his victims. All of which is to say that they work just as well on your friends as your enemies; it's terrifying either way.</div><div><br /></div><div>Yet often - as with Onibaba - the true horror comes when the mask comes off. When Michael Myers removes his mask he stops being the Killer; he's just a little boy. When the Scream mask comes off, the killer, a friend, is revealed.</div><div><br /></div><div>All that said, how best to use them in, say, Night's Black Agents?</div><div><br /></div><div>OK, you could adapt one of the ideas like Pantomime or Carnival and stick them in a scene. The major event in the scenario takes place at Whitby during May Day, that kind of thing. It could also work well in a dream sequence - your nightmares are masked and you're being chased through, oh, your old high school, why not. </div><div><br /></div><div>But. </div><div><br /></div><div>What if the vampires are the masks?</div><div><br /></div><div>Works best in a Supernatural or Damned setting, but picture this: ancient vampire spirits bonded with the masks they used to wear in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia">Saturnalia</a> or the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacchanalia">Bacchanal</a> - too many crimes made the man less than a man, the mask more than a mask. Now the only way the masks can survive is to bond to another human, effectively superimposing its vampire spirit onto the host. Every time the host dies, a small part of it becomes part of the vampire mask. The first few times this happened it was accidental, but they've spent their centuries perfecting the technique so that now, for instance, the <a href="https://bestveniceguides.it/en/2019/02/15/the-artisan-mask-makers-of-venice/?">traditional mask makers of Venice</a> are one of their many Nodes, manufacturing new vampire masks to join the cult. </div><div><br /></div><div>The masks can extend the lifespan of the host and give them powers beyond comprehension, but only while wearing the mask. Even an extended lifespan eventually ends, but before that happens the host has to make sure the mask is passed on to someone else.</div><div><br /></div><div>As the host ages, the signs that they're tainted by the mask becomes more obvious. The masks have developed special techniques to disguise these marks but they become less effective the older the host becomes. Which is why that renowned actress, for example, retired early from film and spent the rest of her days in her mansion, refusing all calls for an interview. Or why that industrialist is so reclusive, never leaving their yacht. </div><div><br /></div><div>You could, if you choose, go for a classic mythology route. One interpretation of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa#:~:text=In%20Greek%20mythology%2C%20Medusa%20%28%20%2F%20m%C9%AA%CB%88dju%CB%90z%C9%99%2C%20-,gazed%20into%20her%20eyes%20would%20turn%20to%20stone.">Medusa</a> myth is an ancient cult used Gorgon masks to frighten the profane. When their shrines were overrun, the masks stolen, mythology interpreted the event as the beheading of Medusa. Suppose Medusa didn't die, and her cult lived on through one mask that survived the event? That the cult rebuilt using that mask as a prototype? Then your characters have the opportunity to literally behead Medusa; if they destroy that one ancient mask, the others lose their power and the cult is broken for good. Dracula Dossier for the ancient Greek history enthusiasts.</div><div><br /></div><div>Why go this route?</div><div><br /></div><div>First, it works in any setting. I mentioned Night's Black Agents but you could as easily use this in Trail, Fear Itself, Esoterrorists, D&D - whichever you fancy, really. Details change, the concept remains the same. The mask is the monster; the monster wears the mask.</div><div><br /></div><div>Second, it becomes a means of setting friend against friend. Your Network Contact, your friendly NPC at the tavern, whoever, whenever, can fall under the spell of the mask. You can never be sure who's on who's side. Think of it like an addiction mixed with Possession; the person wearing the mask can't bear to be without it, but at the same time you never know what will happen if they put the mask on.</div><div><br /></div><div>Third, it sets up an enemy that is both iconic and undying. Sure, you can burn the mask, drop it in acid, whatever you fancy - but there will be another mask. Someone's making them. Who? To what end? If the enemy wears a Michael Myers mask does that mean they become Myers? Share his abilities, obsessions?</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, it might just set up a moment like this:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KotC5NxpZYg" width="320" youtube-src-id="KotC5NxpZYg"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Twilight Zone 'You're caricatures! All of you!'</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Which, as the ending of a one-shot, is priceless.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Enjoy!</div><br /><div><br /></div><div> </div><p></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-46146974879281459792023-10-01T05:24:00.000-07:002023-10-01T05:24:11.475-07:00Nodes, Glorious Nodes, Even More Glorious (Night's Black Agents)<p>The <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/2015/09/nodes-glorious-nodes-nights-black-agents.html">last time</a> I touched on this topic I said:</p><p></p><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">a Node should be treated no differently from a Villain, for the purposes of campaign design. A Node should have power to affect the plot. A Node has things it wants, things it's in charge of, things it's prepared to kill for. A Node has personality, and it's up to the Director what that personality ought to be.</blockquote><p>When discussing <a href="https://karloff-shelf.blogspot.com/search?q=facility">Facilities</a> I went on to say:</p><p><i></i></p><p></p><blockquote><p></p><p><i>They:</i></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>Manufacture,</i></li><li><i>Collect,</i></li><li><i>Distribute, or</i></li><li><i>Analyze.</i></li></ul><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><i>A manufacturing facility makes something, a collection facility stores it, a distribution hub delivers it, and an analyzing facility investigates.</i></p><p><i>What do all these facilities have in common? They need:</i></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i> Security, and,</i></li><li><i> Monitoring.</i></li></ul><p></p><p><i>Someone has to keep the facility maintained and safe from prying eyes. This may mean a simple padlock on an important door, or a full-fledged electronic surveillance system. Also, someone has to monitor what's going on, whether the facility is doing as it should.</i></p></blockquote><p>How do these concepts work together? </p><p>In <a href="https://pelgranepress.com/nights-black-agents/">Night's Black Agents</a> a Node is an enemy power center. It can work on the local level, affecting only a small area. It can control a city, a country, a continent.</p><p>It can control more than one facility, or only one. As a general rule it's a good idea if all facilities controlled by one Node have the same Security and Monitoring statistics, so you as Director don't have to keep track of too many numbers. It also makes sense from a worldbuilding POV. The Node will want to maintain a standard. </p><p>It may even have the same security firm for each Facility, providing you a chance to drop some handy clues. '<i>Cerebrus Security? Again? You know what that means ...'</i> Or <i>'the cybersecurity protocols here are exactly the same as those we encountered at that corporate headquarters, and you remember who was in charge of that ...' </i>As for Monitoring, <i>'didn't we see that middle manager before? Don't tell me ...'</i></p><p>However, it's reasonable to suppose that one Node might have several different facility types. It might have Manufacture and Distribution facilities working together, or Collect and Analyze. </p><p>Let's go a step further and ask four questions:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>What is this Node <u>supposed</u> to do?</li><li>What does it <u>actually</u> do?</li><li>What are its <u>resources</u>?</li><li>What are its <u>methods</u>?</li></ol><div>I want to talk a little bit about 1 and 2, which seem contradictory. However, if you think about it, just because the bosses up top said 'do this' doesn't mean the Node is only doing this. It has personality, goals and the means to achieve them. If the bosses aren't paying close attention to the Node it might drift from its stated goals.</div><div><br /></div><div>Think of this as a long-term project. If ever you've worked with a team you know from personal experience that, just because Bob is assigned to X within the overall project structure, does not mean that Bob is actually doing X. Bob might be ambitious and is plotting for his own advancement. Bob might be lazy. Bob might have misunderstood his role in the team, or be quiet quitting, or be doing any number of things that are not X.</div><div><br /></div><div>Or Bob might actually be doing X but you, as project lead or fellow team member, misunderstood the true nature of X. Oops. Maybe Bob should have your job.</div><div><br /></div><div>OK, so how does all this work in practice?</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RUdlEC0Lc-U" width="320" youtube-src-id="RUdlEC0Lc-U"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>Let's take an example from Dracula Dossier: Billington & Sons, Solicitors, Whitby.</div><div><div><i></i></div><blockquote><div><i>A small law firm, mostly handling wills and other property deals for local clients. The firm’s musty </i><i>offices occupies the bottom two floors of a house on Flowergate Street in the heart of Whitby; their archives, dating back to old Samuel F.’s era in the 1890s, are crammed into the attic on the top floor. Dracula employed them as his local agents to receive and convey his fifty boxes of earth to Carfax.</i></div></blockquote><p>I'm assuming for the sake of this example that Billington is a Level One node, with assets local to Whitby. It doesn't matter what kind of Conspiracy this is. </p><p>Its function is to Collect. Dracula picks up all kinds of odd things, documents, grimoires, title deeds - you name it, Dracula keeps it. However, often what happens is, Dracula picks up, say, an occult tome and has no need of it right away, so he shoves it at Billington for safe keeping until such time as he remembers to take it back. </p><p>The Collection process is handled by outside forces, couriers (a different, Distribution Node), who deliver the items to Billington. The job of the firm is to make sure they're securely held.</p><p>However, old Tom Billington, the traditionalist head of the firm, is the only one who believes in the mission. His sons John and Michael are taking it on themselves to Analyze what they have. The sons have noticed that nobody ever comes to get any of the many, many documents in their keeping. Nobody would ever know if they studied some. Not take - they're too cautious. But if they follow the rituals or chase up on some of the clues, they could get themselves some real power. </p><p>If Tom found out, he'd be devastated. The kids have managed to keep him out of the loop - so far.</p><p>I'm assigning Low Security and Medium Monitoring, which applies to all Facilities held by this Node. So, what Facilities does it have?</p><p>Billington & Sons, of course, which is where the critical documents are kept. What else?</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A lock-up garage (for immediate storage or low-priority items).</li><li>A couple of bribed cops whose job is to provide extra security.</li><li>A ritual chamber under the Star Inn. It used to be a smuggler's haven; now it hosts darker rituals.</li><li>A safe in the storage area of the Whitby Museum, and a curator who's been persuaded to keep an eye on it. (this is for the valuable stuff).</li><li>A special grave in the Church of Saint Mary, for visiting dignitaries.</li><li>Robin Hood's Bay Books & Curiosities. This one's for John and Michael. This is where they conduct their studies. They don't want to be caught by dear old dad looking at the company books. The owner, Sam Carmichael, has a private arrangement with the Billingtons; they pay a high rent and get the back room, undisturbed. The Billingtons don't realize Sam is also studying the papers they bring here.</li></ul><div>That should be enough. You could make it more complicated, of course. This is a level one, and I chose it specifically because level ones aren't usually that complex. A National level Node will probably have dozens of Facilities. </div><div><br /></div><div>Point being that a Node, like a Villain, has power to affect the plot, personality, goals. Its Facilities will reflect those aspects of the Node. This is a low-level Collection Node; it's not going to have elaborate safes or many assets. It's going to have a few Network Contacts (eg. the local council members, members of Tom's Masonic Lodge, criminals that owe Tom a favor) but none of them are going to be Special Forces or talented necromancers. </div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, if you as Director discover that the agents are making a bee-line for the Museum, no problem. You already know that it's Low (difficulty 3) security and Medum (difficulty 4) monitoring. The agents should be able to break in without too much effort but will have to keep an eye out for that meddling curator. The meddling curator in turn can call up those cops on the Billington payroll if things get complicated. Or as a conspiramid reaction Tom Billington can call in a Network favor from some of his low-level criminal clients. </div><div><br /></div><div>As for Resources and Methods, Billington probably doesn't have too many Resources and its Methods aren't going to be gung-ho, release the hounds sort of thing. They can't afford hit men. They can afford to have someone Intimidated or rough someone up.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is the sort of place Dracula would never visit, except out of a sense of nostalgia. However, the auditors - or what passes for Conspiracy auditors - may drop in at any time to look at the Node's policies and practices. Which could cause all kinds of complications ...</div><div><br /></div><div>Why go through all this trouble?</div><div><br /></div><div>Because you want to scatter clues. Any Node has to be a clue-rich environment, to give the agents a direction to follow. Remember, all clues lead to Rome and you want them to get to Rome at some point. The vampire temporarily staying in that grave at Saint Mary, the documents in Books & Curiosities, the contents of the safe at the Whitby Museum, they all contain clues and those clues lead further into the narrative. That way if the agents miss out on the actual clue that you intended they find at (wherever it may be) there's no reason to panic; they can find it again at (wherever they actually go).</div><div><br /></div><div>That's it for this week. Enjoy!</div><p></p><div><i></i></div></div><p></p><p><i></i></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7694683694498985393.post-591951172776692492023-09-24T05:01:00.000-07:002023-09-24T05:01:20.624-07:00The Collector (Trail)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiycATrTVDWDPUQ_Kkd65EbV2Umnl82Mop8zjVuy_tCvshMF46YqSkOXQuxXrZ5Asp-dUAy19EPiI3wFJaUYTbmlA_TCF7zh_rtsOzRcemxaG3xBX5ZhkY1ananEBnzYQi8oFogpjK6phHbhjWOMm0mR09e_92Ve-MJCaSjACgh6QSxZ31e0odH9rX5vg8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="329" data-original-width="220" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiycATrTVDWDPUQ_Kkd65EbV2Umnl82Mop8zjVuy_tCvshMF46YqSkOXQuxXrZ5Asp-dUAy19EPiI3wFJaUYTbmlA_TCF7zh_rtsOzRcemxaG3xBX5ZhkY1ananEBnzYQi8oFogpjK6phHbhjWOMm0mR09e_92Ve-MJCaSjACgh6QSxZ31e0odH9rX5vg8=w240-h360" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Sourced from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A4rklin">Wikipedia</a></div><p></p><p>This piece is loosely based on a project I'm working on.</p><p>A bit of background about toys circa 1900.</p><p>The best toymakers by far could be found in Nuremburg. The firms Marklin and Gerbruder Bing were renowned, and every boy wanted one of their magnificent liners. Other countries attempted to capture a portion of the market – Ives of Connecticut, Radiguet the French manufacturer, to name two – but the Germans reigned supreme. Of course, such workmanship cost money. Marklin’s 98 cm ocean liner for example, produced in 1900, with a choice of clockwork motor (twenty minutes propulsion), steam engine (one hour) or electric (six hour) with all the accessories, cost 200 gold francs.</p><p>Motivating power could be had in many ways. Bing favoured clockwork engines, but electric motors and steam engines were also available. The clockwork toys were wound with keys, which sometimes doubled as ‘clouds’, so the key appeared to be steam coming from the ship’s funnel. The steam engines were delicate; if they overheated the engine could blow, perhaps damaging the model. Many models came with interchangeable parts; separate engines and accessories could be bought, as desired. In those models the superstructure could be lifted right off, to allow clear access to the working parts.</p><p>Founder of the company Theodor Friedrich Wilhelm Märklin released Märklin's first wind-up train with carriages that ran on standardised track in 1891, noting that railway toys had the potential to follow the common practice of doll's houses, in which the initial purchase would be enhanced and expanded with more accessories for years after the initial purchase. To this end, Märklin offered additional rolling stock and track with which to expand its boxed sets. </p><p>With all that in mind:</p><p><b>The Collector</b></p><p>The investigators are asked to inventory the library of bibliophile and Golden Dawn affiliate Edward St. John Dandridge, Sinjun to his friends. The library contains many lesser (but valuable) occult tomes, and it's their expertise as occultists that got them the job.</p><p>The investigators may think they're working for relatives of Sinjun Dandridge, but his only surviving relative, a widowed sister who lives in Brighton, has no money and won't see any until the estate is settled, which is complicated as Sinjun had no will. Probate will take months, possibly more than a year. In fact (1 point Interpersonal spend) the investigators were hired by members of the Golden Dawn acting through the widow and providing her the cash. They think that Sinjun was hiding valuable stuff in his library and want first dibs.</p><p>Sinjun's house, not far from fashionable Chelsea Park, is remarkable for two things. First, the library, which doubled as Sinjun's ritual chamber. It is very well stocked but missing a few key texts. Sinjun's notebooks, where he kept records of all his purchases, show he bought [insert mythos text here] about six months before he died. His notes of his magical experiments also show he used that same book intensively right up to the day of his death. </p><p>The other is Sinjun's collection of clockwork toys, particularly trains and ships. Almost every room in the house is occupied by cleverly designed model landscapes through which his trains and ships travel. One room is devoted to ships in particular and Sinjun built what amounts to an indoor pool in one of the extra bedrooms, complete with a little port and an island in the middle. Most of them are quality German make and the investigators can (0 point) tell that it must have cost him several fortunes to buy all this stuff, not counting the items Sinjun must have made himself. A further 1 point (Appraise or similar) sees that even some of the model ships and trains are self-built. </p><p>Checking into Sinjun's death shows that (0 point) he died of a heart attack which (1 point) is very unusual in a man of his age and health. However, his heart was overtaxed by some kind of repetitive strain. Occult (1 point) or Mythos (0 point) shows that his magical experiments might have caused the strain. </p><p>Options:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i>The Secret Room. </i>What Sinjun was trying to do was establish a little Utopia, a magical secret room. The island holds the key; the model house on the middle of the island is where Sinjun spent a lot of his time, miniaturized. He could play with his toys as if they were real-sized. That's where the missing books are. However, his magical alterations proved too much for his heart. If the investigators minaturize themselves following Sinjun's experiments they may discover what was chasing him, down there amongst the clockwork toys.</li><li><i>The Model Catastrophe. </i>Sinjun was following in the footsteps of Koschei the Deathless and wanted to hide his soul away in a model train. It exploded, and his heart exploded at the same time. Why? Because one of his magical rivals planned it that way. This same rival is bankrolling the investigators because the most valuable books aren't in the collection, and he wants to know where they are. He doesn't realize that Sinjun hid them away in a special bookshelf in his library, built into one of the overstuffed leather chairs.</li><li><i>The Self-Built Assassin. </i>Sinjun used some of his creations as killer toys. He'd build, say, a car or a train and use that model, together with other magical ingredients, to kill off his enemies. The model car served as a totem; the victim would die in a car crash. However, what Sinjun didn't realize was that each time he did that the essence of the dead person would become part of the model car. Do that enough times, and you have a collection of ghostly killers with one thought in mind: kill their creator. Except, with Sinjun dead, the killer toys are trapped in his house. Waiting for someone to play with them ...</li></ul><div>That's it for this week. Enjoy!</div><p></p>Karloffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07740627776272488925noreply@blogger.com3