EPISODE SUMMARY (Awakening): Wherein James Paterson, Australian private investigator in London, awakens in hospital in 1938 to find everything changed. Desperate to solve the mystery of his own coma and his beloved's apparent death, James Paterson briefly manages to investigate the case from his own hospital bed when an unexpected visitor arrives.
EASTER EGGS: Did you guys notice the various name drops and subtle hints for the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign? Or the historical inaccuracy?
Interesting points to note include the re-introduction (first time in the audio play) of Jackson Elias and the mention of the four books he had written which James Paterson has read, which include the Way of Terror, Witch Cults of England, Master of the Black Arts and Skulls on the River (details of which can be found in the Masks of Nyarlathotep Companion).
I also name dropped Mickey Mahoney from the Scoop and there is a very subtle hint about Agatha Broadmoor in one of those newspaper articles - referred to in this episode as an impressive medium.
The historical inaccuracy in this episode includes the mention of the National Fire Service which isn't established until 1941. At this date, 1938, it should be the London Fire Service. That's my mistake and has no bearing on the plot.
Haven't yet had a chance to listen, but I notice this is Archived as an item specifically for the first episode of Masks. What I did with my Deathwatch stuff was have an item for a whole scenario/campaign with all the files in one place. I'm not sure whether I explained badly last time or you just have a different preference, so just mentioning it :)
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing it later this week.
It's more that I did it at the last minute before heading off to work so didn't look around as much as I should have. I'll fix it over the weekend and put up a new link or what-not.
DeleteIt's sad how long it's taking to get to the actual Masks bit! I've now roped myself into a corner with the Half Moon Cult.
Ah well, the episodes should hopefully be entertaining on their own merit.
Turns out, they are. I'm really interested to see what you do with this. I genuinely can't tell how much you've colluded over James' memories and the reality changes, which is nice - I get to share his bewilderment.
DeleteNo collusion. He had pre-warning that he would become human and that the game would switch to a Cthulhu game though he had (still has) no idea how much of the world is Call of Cthulhu and how much of it is World of Darkness (if any).
DeleteThat's about all I gave him as that's kinda core to his character and switching systems / games / character types this far into the game without player awareness is generally foul play.
There was technically an hour-long session before this one which involves the 'transformation' but as it was the end to the last campaign arc, it really would be too confusing to come into cold.
You'll get hints through conversations and dream sequences as to what happened.