Monday, January 6, 2014
Horror on the Home Front Q & A
So I've been talking a lot about my particular creation and I thought it might be time to ask you guys if there's anything you're interested in knowing about. Feel free to drop me a question in the comments box and I'll answer. If it turns out to be a little more complicated than a Comments Box reply would warrant, I'll make it the focus on another Monday segment.
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I'm sure there will be more of these to come, but starting fairly broad: can you describe how a sample session of HOTHF might play out? For example, a D&D session might go:
ReplyDelete* A group of trusted agents are asked to track down the thief of a magical artefact.
* They trace the thief to a hideout in a ruined temple.
* They battle monsters attracted by the artefact's aura.
* They find the thief has tampered with the artefact and danger threatens. They must find a way to shut down the spell.
* They recover the artefact and return for their reward / run away to sell it / plan to use it to take over the world.
I'll give a better rundown in another article but the general gist is that you take a mundane goal, often war-related, such as "Help eachother blackout your homes" and then alongside that overarching goal (which has its mixture of obstacles which can be surmounted by player ingenuity), you get a supernatural or mundane threat such as, "When this town's last visible light goes out and the air raid siren mock trial begins, a group of thugs will descend on the houses to steal what they may" or "When this town's last visible light goes out, those walking the streets must be cautious of the Barbed Woman."
DeleteIn both cases, hints to this will come up over the course of the mundae goal.
The thug hints might be townies from the local city cruising the streets (casing places) in moving vans, asking the PCs for gossip on the residents (to learn who has what), or even asking for a cuppa or a use of someone's phone so they can actually see inside properties. In this case, the players may piece it together before the blackout goes up and thus deal with it early. That's fine.
Or it might be, for supernatural instances, a series of ominous events that 'mark out' the PCs. They notice odd occurences, strange warnings, and might even be approached with cryptic messages by others who are well-placed to notice.
The mundane goal is designed to provide a cover for the supernatural aspect in a way that still keeps the players engaged, thinking and dealing with obstacles. They can still be high action (put out incendiaries or dig victims out of the rubble), but they're ordinary enough.