The Rule of 4 (Many Mansions)

Cthulhu is an infra-dimensional entity that has only a conceptual existence within the human “R-complex,” the brain stem and limbic system left over from our primordial reptilian ancestors. This is why he appears only in dreams, high-stress encounters (such as shipwrecks), and artistic impulses. He is attempting to create a critical mass of believers so that he may “emerge from R’lyeh” and open the eyes of all ... [p91, Trail of Cthulhu]

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:2, KJB

Last time I discussed the ground rules for Many Mansions. This week it's the OPFOR, and to discuss them I'm going to talk about the Rule of 4.

The Antagonists come in all shapes and sizes. Small and creepy, large and squamous, impossible to comprehend and so on. The chief thing to bear in mind whenever designing OPFOR, no matter what the setting, is that they have:

• Power, appropriate to their function within the narrative.
• Goals.
• Assets, to be used to achieve their goals.

Power, in context, doesn't necessarily mean POWER. It means they have some means, preferably a thematic means, to affect the course of the plot. Or, as everyone's favorite lich Xykon would say, 'Power equals power. Crazy, huh? But the type of power? Doesn't matter as much as you'd think.' 

So what do we already know about the OPFOR? 

Well, they are operating within Kingsport, that dream-ridden coastal New England town. We already know a little about Kingsport, thanks to Lovecraft and various other RPG books that describe Kingsport. We're not going to take all that information as gospel; we're going to make this Kingsport our own. That said, it's useful and time-saving to borrow some of what we'll need from other sources.

[Brief aside: let's say this wasn't Kingsport. What then? Borrow from the real world and use that. I can't begin to tell you how useful having, say, the Times Atlas of Geography, the Penguin Atlas of Ancient History, or the replica 1930s A to Z Atlas and Guide to London are. Having texts like these in your library exposes you to aspects of the real world you may not have realized existed, and are an incredible source of inspiration. Can't buy? No problem! This is why sources like Gutenberg exist.]

We also know that the big bad is Cthulhu, which in turn means that the ultimate OPFOR is going to be directly serving Cthulhu's goals in some way. Whether they're human cultists or from the cold, unfeeling depths of space, time and nightmare, they work to achieve Cthulhu's goals.

Added to that - because this is always true, no matter the setting or ruleset - it's useful to have a ground-level set of OPFOR that aren't the ultimate badasses. These are the grunts, the also-appearing-in-this-narrative, the supporting cast. These guys aren't working on Cthulhu's behalf, nor do they really have any idea that Cthulhu exists or has goals. Their sole purpose in the narrative is to muddy the waters, and if in the process they give the characters a few easy victories, so much the better.

If this were Dungeons and Dragons, and the main objective of the scenario is to breach the walls of Castle Ravenloft and put an end to that wicked tyrant Strahd, then the ground-level OPFOR are the random encounters in the forest on the way to Castle Ravenloft. Or maybe some luckless bandits, fellow adventurers, Vistani or other folk the characters meet along the way.

So having established these basic principles, what next?

Next is the Rule of 4, which works like this:

Whenever designing OPFOR - or for that matter anything else, whether it's the town the adventurers start in, the organization they work for, or the theatre which they notice as a potential adventure location, design four highlight points and no more than four. 

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The average player's attention span is short, and yours is not any better. You could go deep in the weeds and design twenty different things about the OPFOR, but who apart from you will ever know it? Even you won't, not really; in the heat of play you'll forget half your notes and curse yourself later when you realize you could have used the Thing, dammit, the THING, and never did.

That's why you limit it to four. You can remember four things. So can the players. That means come next week, or the week after, when they encounter whatever-it-may-be, they'll remember, and you'll remember, that this encounter relates back to the information they gained in the first episode. If they learned twenty things in that first episode then your chances of them remembering any one thing is virtually zero. Four, on the other hand, is doable.

For every one of the four things you detail, you can then add four things that are their specific highlight points. Four begat four begat four, and before you know it there's a plague upon the land and everything's Marmite forever and ever, amen.

Don't think for a second your four are the only elements in the narrative. The players will also be adding theirs, consciously or unconsciously. If they think, say, that the Deep Ones are somehow behind the [whatever it may be] then presto! They are. Same goes for any other element of the narrative, whether it's a question like 'is there a back door to this place?' or 'I wonder if the cops are secretly working with the bad guys.' If the plot element fits, wear it.

How does this work? Let me show you.

Many Mansions Primary OPFOR (Kingsport)

Peculiar storms swirl out at sea, concentrating on Pilot Island. It's said the lighthouse keeper at North Point knows more than he's telling about those storms, but whether he does or doesn't folk are becoming concerned at the strange mists and unseasonable squalls out there.

Empty mansion houses once the home of Kingsport's merchants and traders cluster in the West Town. Year after year another family dies out or moves on, and the grand mansions and beautiful gardens they once enjoyed go to rot. Strange lights can be seen there after dark, though most dismiss this as idle talk of the superstitious.

The Antique Emporium on Hall Street is where the Circle of the Sun meet, after hours. They say they're a civic organization like the Odd Fellows, but you suspect there's more behind that bland façade than meets the eye.

The Hollow, that odd low area between three hills, cobbled and ancient, hides something foul. Three people have died in suspicious circumstances, and the last had time to babble something about the Green Foulness before she expired. What uncanny thing haunts the Hollow?

Four things. Four leads to chase up . At this point you don't need to know a great deal about any of the four beyond the details given above, since the whole point of the ground-level OPFOR is to delay the characters and give them something to think about before the characters encounter the primary movers-and-shakers. 

However with this information you can start salting the dig site, layering tempting nuggets of lore that lead to the primary OPFOR. The storms at sea make the news. Peculiar chanting is heard at the Emporium, or unfamiliar lights seen in those mansions. Depending on which of those nuggets the characters like the look of, you then start adding four things to the primary OPFOR the characters want to chase after.

If they concentrate on the Hollow, then the Hollow is where you add those four new things. If the Mansions, then add four things there, and so on. Always give the characters something to chase, but you don't have to push them towards something they're not interested in. 

Which brings me to:

Many Mansions Ground-Level OPFOR (Kingsport)

The Rowdy Yates gang of loafers and bullies have a hate for [pick a character] and follow them around like wolves haunting sheep. What is their problem, and is there anything [character] can do about it?

The allegedly Haunted House on Harbor Street has been a local legend for forty years. It's said the vengeful spirit of the murderer's wife stalks those creaky corridors. Nobody's ever been able to prove anything one way or the other - sounds like a challenge!

Patrolman Donaghue of the local police is making things very difficult for [pick a character] and will roust them at any opportunity. If Donaghue shows up, things are about to get much more complicated.

Miskatonic University Students calling themselves The Magicians, after the Tarot card, are hot on the heels of some mystery or other and seem especially interested in Kingsport for some reason. No matter where the characters turn, there The Magicians are. What do they want, and what do they know?

These four aren't necessarily supernatural; in fact, only the Haunted House has any connection with the outré, and even then it might be a blind alley. However, they all give the characters something to think about, to strive against.

Moreover there's enough blank space for character growth and development, on the players' terms. Why does the Rowdy Yates gang have a hate for [character]? Do you, as Keeper, need to know why? No. Not at the outset, anyway. All you need to know is that they do have that hate, and will work to fulfill it. It's between you and the affected player what that hate means. If none of the players are interested in exploring the Rowdy Yates angle then the whole business can be quietly shelved after a brief appearance or two. If they are interested then the Rowdy Yates gang gets its own four new things to explore.

Unlike the primary OPFOR you need to know a little about the ground-level OPFOR. You need to stat these out, to a degree. You need to have a rough idea what's in the Haunted House. However, you don't need to kill yourself with work at the opening. There's only so much the players will accomplish in the first scenario. They aren't going to knock out all four elements in a couple hours at the table.

Say we were talking about the Haunted House. Yes, you need to know what haunts it. You need rough stats for it, a concept of its power set. You need a floorplan of some kind for the house itself. All those things will be necessary if the players decide to make the Haunted House their primary objective in the opening scenario.

If.

On the other hand, if they don't, then feel free to add other elements to the Haunted House in your spare time between scenarios. They can even be thematic elements; say, Patrolman Donaghue dies on the same street as the Haunted House and is added to that hideous domain's repertoire. Perhaps you expand the basement, or add a secret tunnel that leads to other locations, magical or otherwise. You have time. 

If the players decide not to go to the Haunted House at all, your work isn't wasted. Maybe the specter of Patrolman Donaghue switches locales, or that extra basement is added to a different OPFOR location. You can afford to be flexible. Your players never get to see how the sausage is made.  

I hope you see the developing pattern. Eight things total, four of which are ground level and four of which are primary OPFOR. Any one of those items can be further developed with four more characteristics, but only if the players show interest. Otherwise after a brief appearance any one of these things can be put to one side. Perhaps the Rowdy Yates gang all die in the Hollow, victims of the Green Foulness, whatever it may be. Perhaps Patrolman Donaghue is transferred out of Kingsport after that unfortunate brawl in the coffee shop. The Haunted House on Harbor Street might burn down. Any or all of these things might happen, to close out an unprofitable side plot and also to emphasize the importance of the main plot.

Now let's round this off by talking a little about power, goals and assets, and how they affect the rule of four.

Going back to the Rowdy Yates gang, and without adding four new characteristics for the moment (though we could, and it might be fun), what power, goals and assets do they have?

It's not reasonable to suppose a street gang made up primarily of loafers and lowlifes control the hidden secrets of the universe, or even the hidden secrets of the coffee machine down at Screamin' Beans Coffee House. However, they do affect narrative (in their limited way) which means they have power, goals and assets. So what are they?

• Power: there's a lot of them. They have buddies. Their buddies have buddies. If you put one or more of them out of commission then one of those buddies will try to avenge them.
• Goals: they want to push [character's] face in, humiliate them at every turn. Why? Decide that with the player's cooperation. This doesn't mean they always want to beat [character] up; slipping a mickey in their drink or marking up their car might be just as fulfilling.
• Assets: Not much (they're basically Credit Rating 0) but one of them has a car, another's uncle has a fishing boat, and a third has pals on the police force (Donaghue, maybe?) so in a pinch they're both mobile and capable of punching a little above their weight, occasionally.

Moreover if the Rowdy Yates gang becomes more important in future episodes then they might worm their way into better power and assets, say by striking a bargain with the Circle of the Sun or encountering the Green Foulness and surviving, with strange new gifts granted them after their confrontation. 

Anything is possible.

That's it for the Antagonists. Next week: the Setting!