Building History (We All Met At An Inn)

The Bull 

East End boozer near Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park and on the edge of Limehouse, West India Docks, narrowly missed by Nazi bombs during the war and now a hangout for peculiar characters of all kinds. 

Owned by: Ex-IRA (silent partner). 

Publican of record: Charlie Brown (not the Charlie Brown), someone who everybody knows. The police may or may not realize he's a front for the Ex-IRA. Edom certainly knows. 

The Brewer: Bowman Brewery, vans coming and going at odd hours. 

Watched by EDOM via Maggie Canter, Church Scavenger (p96 Field Manual). 

Let’s talk history. 

For a major plot location like this it’s reasonable to assume that it has two kinds of history. One is the historical record, things that happened a while ago, probably before the characters were born. A cathedral in a fantasy setting might have been on that spot for hundreds of years. A brutal slum might have been there for several generations. That wizard’s tower might have been there since the beginning of time itself. 

The other is the characters’ history, their lived experience. 

They may not know about the historical record, but it’s a certainty they know about their own history. That time they had the lock-in and danced on the tables till dawn. That time the lads from the estate started a fight and got a kicking. That time the police came to break up a fight and got thrown out but came back again, in force this time, and everybody spent a night in the cells. Snogging in the toilets. Watching the 5th November fireworks display from the upstairs window.  

None of this may matter to the historical record, but it matters to the characters. It forges a connection with the adventure hub, which will play into future scenes. In games were Trust is a mechanic, it directly influences Trust and therefore conflict, which is future plot.  

Just as before this is a Four Things moment. The historical record gets at least four, and the character’s history gets four. There is a difference, though. Where the Director usually specifies the Things, this is one time where you let the players have their way. 

Let’s talk about the historical record first. 

Dracula Dossier has a convenient dividing line for the historical record. There’s the 1890s, the War, the 1970s and the current era. Not every system is as helpful, but since this one has been it seems only fair to divide the historical record’s Four Things along those lines: one Thing per era up till the 1970s, and then the Fourth Thing which could easily fit into any of the eras. 

With all that said: 

• 1890s: then known as the Black Bull, this coaching inn had underground stables which became notorious as a smuggler’s haven; it was said at the time that tunnels leading out from the stables emerged in a dozen different places. The stables were supposed to have been filled up in the 1890s due to subsistence problems. 
• 1940s: a bombing raid flattened the old Black Bull, killing the landlord and four other people and injuring a half dozen more. The spot remained an open crater till the 1950s, when the modern Bull was built. 
• 1970s: a series of slasher murders came to an abrupt halt when police raided the Bull and the bartender Duncan MacNeil was arrested. He committed suicide before trial. [Edom may or may not have been involved.] 
• FOURTH THING. 

As before, the Fourth Thing will depend on what variant you shoot for. In this example I'm shooting for Supernatural: vampires are the result of magical or other supernatural activities on Earth; spirits, ghosts, witchcraft and the like. 

So, the Fourth Thing in this example is: the lights either don’t work properly or are being interfered with in some way. It seems to happen most often during the summer; lights are seen on when they shouldn’t be and flicker off without warning. Tradition has it that this is ‘the spook’ monkeying with the electrics, and depending on who you talk to that might be the ghost of murderer MacNeil or some long-forgotten smuggler in the filled-in tunnels down below. 

That’s the historical record. I’ve gone into a little more detail on these four things as the Bull is the adventure hub. It stands to reason that the characters will be spending more time here than anywhere else.  

What about the lived experience? 

This is where the players come in. There should be a minimum of Four Things and the players should collaborate on what those things are. This may or may not happen in Session Zero. The important point is, this is their history. They get to decide what happens. If it physically changes the location in some way, then the location changes.  

For example, they could say that there was a big fire a few years back that damaged the Bull. Maybe that’s why the second bar upstairs is no longer used. There could be smoke damage or boarded up windows/doors as a result. That’s a change you may not have anticipated, but it happened, so now you work with it. 

In the ideal each player gets to contribute one thing. If your group conveniently has four players then you get four things. If you have five, then it’s five. This is one of the few occasions when it’s a good idea to break the Four Things rule, and it’s only a good idea because it’s the players doing it. They might not remember things you decide or say. They have a much better chance of remembering what they decide or say. 

You want to give the players as much freedom as possible but there are going to be boundaries. You can't let a random decision break plot. The Bull has to be the Bull; it can't be under new management, or burn down, or not be close to Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park. Those are plot-defining characteristics. Equally you don't want to give the characters access to too much power from the jump. The Bull can certainly have a London white van which the characters can borrow from time to time. A quartet of matched tuned-up Maserati GrandTurismos? No.  

So! The History.  

Next week: Rival Groups.