Building A Free Adventure

I went and bought the very cool and very demented Death Love Doom which is body horror dialed up to 120.  Seriously, the pictures alone would induce nightmares for a fair number of people.  It's like Kult without being Kult.  If you're into that kind of horror, I'd suggest picking it up and running it for your group.  It would be pretty easily converted into whatever rules system you prefer as there aren't much in the way of rules in there.  You can check out the author's blog over here and you can find the book at the Pazio shop.

Enough about him and more about me.

You see, it was a good adventure but it's not the type of horror I run and, more importantly, not the type of horror my players can stomach.  So I decided to spin off a similar theme: a haunted house tale in the body horror genre where there's some illegal stitching.  Oh, and I decided to set it during World War II, specifically in the time of the Barrow Blitz, in a large estate near Barrow-in-Furness.  I'd already invented a London True Fae called the Seamstress, anyhow, so I could always use her as a possible antagonist.

As I kept thinking on it, I realised that as it was now an entirely new adventure that I'd need to type up that I might as well share it with the rest of you.  At the moment I'm designing the property which was created in the Victorian era and has been adapted to war work - primarily victory gardens but also some trenches for the Home Guard to use in their practice.  They have some servants (the men too old to enlist), have lost a family member to the war, and have three Land Girls living in their converted barn.

As I'm developing the rooms, and the horrors that lurk within, I've also started looking at the history and relationships interconnecting the various NPCs.  I wanted to feed that through the various rooms in some interesting ways.  Naturally I can't talk much about this process without giving too much away.

Once I'm done with it, I'll find someplace to host the document and give you links to it.  I'll be doing a version for BRP Call of Cthulhu, World of Darkness and Trail of Cthulhu with different antagonists that fit those paradigms.  I might do one for Pathfinder, as well, though I'd naturally have to shake it up a bit by placing it in Golarion and therefore altering the rooms and technology.  Each document would be a separate one for you to download.

Keep you posted!

Tatters of the King Campaign Coterie

As the character write-ups are a lot longer than expected due to all of the history I'm trying to encapsulate, I thought I would split it up so that each character would have their own page.  On this page I'll give you a bit of information on the five main characters, four of whom are NPCs, who will be helping James Tyler through the beautiful Call of Cthulhu campaign - Tatters of the King - that I'm converting to the World of Darkness.  See the main article here.

In 1949, James Pattison was Embraced by a Daeva called Jack Tyler who was going by the name of Peter Walsh in a bid to infiltrate some nasty members of Belial's Brood who were troubling Australia.  James was to aid Jack's cover but Jack got himself killed by Brood that very night and it was up to the passing shapeshifter to claim Jack's appearance and identity in order to get James out of there intact.  They stole a car while the Brood tried to dig up the real Jack Tyler (who had Earth melded) and got out of town. 

Feeling sorry for his plight, Songbird (still masquerading as Peter Walsh) offered to take him into a nearby city so that he could join the local vampire court.  He refused.  Instead he joined her on the faux Walsh on monster hunts and after a few years together figured out that she wasn't a vampire at all.  Learning that it was Walsh was actually someone who could shapeshift and become theoretically any woman he could want, James began to look at his old buddy a little differently.

What could be better than friendship?  Friends with benefits!

Ahh, Daeva.

A few years before that little revelation, they had picked up a 10-year-old girl called Charlotte Adams, a rough and tumble orphan and hidden genius, who helped them solve a case involving a vampire serial killer.  She refused to be dumped in some orphanage and offered to help them with their cover in exchange for fostering.  James wasn't so sure but Peter thought it was a good idea and so she joined their little group and they started teaching her the ropes of being a researcher, and later a hunter, as she got older.  Luckily for her, she was never blood bound or ghouled her.  James identified as a hunter, after all, and being a nomad he didn't give two tosses about kindred unlife or the Masquerade as it affects individuals humans.

Anyhow, now Charlie is fourteen, soon to be fifteen, and the trio have traveled to London, ostensibly to get away from the Jim Crow legislation (blacks get one fountain, whites get another, etc.) that had plagued the Iraqi-appearing Peter Walsh for the past four years.  Walsh reunited James with his Aunt, Joy Tyler, but there was some tension there as James doesn't trust vampires, Joy was involved in teaching him his coils in a non-consensual manner (long story), and James is pretty sure that Joy's prior history with the Songbird means that Joy will try to keep the Songbird around.

Interesting team, huh?  Well, it is working for now.

In Summary

James Tyler (PC – Daeva Neonate) has protective, fatherly feelings toward his apprentice hunter, Charlotte Adams.  James is attracted to his old buddy and pseudo-sire, Peter Walsh, now that Peter has taken on a female persona and appearance (named Dr. Kellis).  James has a custom coil that allows him to feel true attachment to both Charlotte Adams and Peter Walsh.  He is suspicious of Joy Tyler’s intentions, resentful about her part in experimenting on him, and concerned that she will try to steal Peter from him. 

Peter Walsh / Dr. Kellis / Songbird (NPC – Shapeshifter) is concerned by James’ reaction now that he has shifted into the form of a previous identity, Dr. Kellis.  The Songbird doesn’t want things to change as she enjoys their friendship and playful rivalry.  She sees Charlotte alternately as a friend, ally, and pet, and sometimes even manages some maternal instinct there, though she has a habit of thinking of Charlotte as a peer rather than as a child.  She has mixed feelings toward her old flame and current colleague, Joy Tyler, but is enjoying the opportunity to follow an occult investigation with both her old flame, Joy, and new friend, James.  She’s worried that jealousies might flare, however, and finds any romantic dramas surrounding her to be stupid, frustrating and altogether annoying.  She has little to no patience for it.

Charlotte Adams (NPC – 14-year-old girl) is eager to prove herself to James though she’s not quite sure how yet, as she’s not dumb enough to get herself in over her head if she can help it.  She is largely unaffected by Walsh’s change in gender as her history as an orphan has made her quite adaptable.  So long as they don't try to ditch her, she's happy.  She does want to spend more time with the Songbird and get her attention somehow.  Joy Tyler is a mysterious entity and Charlotte has been trained enough as a hunter to know that you don’t go randomly trusting some vampire.  Err, other than James, that is.

Joy Tyler (NPC – Daeva Ancillae) has missed the exciting allure of occult investigations with Dr. Kellis (a.k.a. Songbird) and is glad to have her back.  Joy wants to rekindle their relationship and convince the Songbird to stay in London as Joy is too old as an ancillae to be willing to travel far out of London.  Joy sees James as a rival and as a potential student who could, ironically enough, enable her to keep hold of the Songbird.  Charlotte is an amusing distraction to her.  Joy hasn’t really said more than a few words her way and is aware that James wouldn’t take kindly to her paying the girl any attention.

GM Merit Badges

I've read about this neat idea where GMs can let people know about the sorts of campaign they run through selecting a number of badges.  That way players who are considering joining their game get an idea about what they will be getting themselves into.  You can read more about it over here.  New players about to join a GM's game should totally ask the GM to select their top six icons so that the player can either bow out or join with gusto.  Or at least be prepared.  The list is below.

Tactics are an important part of my games.
My games will tell an interesting Story.
My games will be Scary.
My games focuses on Exploration & Mystery.
There will be Player vs Player combat allowed in my games.
My games are Safe and you don't need to worry about content or character death.
I will Mirror back player ideas I think are interesting in the game.
My games use a pre-made Map and pre scripted content.
The GM is In Charge in my games and "rule-zero" is in effect.
My games rely on a lot of Improvisation rather than pre-scripted content.
My games are Gonzo and can include a lot of strangeness.
Characters in my games are Destined for greatness, not random death.
I roll Dice in the open and don't fudge the results in my games.
My games include Disturbing content.
My games focus on interesting Characters and Drama.
Players characters Death is a likely event in my games.
I play By-The-Book and "rule-zero" is not being used to alter existing rules.
My games are more of the Social, Fun and "Beer & Pretzels" style.
My game is primarily Non-Combat in nature.
Players in my game should be prepared to Run when the odds are against them.
My game has Shared GMing responsibility with the other players.
I frequently Tinker with the rules of the game.
My game focuses on Player Skill rather than character abilities.

 I'd say that I'm a Story, Scary, Exploration & Mystery, Disturbing, Destined, and Run Game Master.  I wonder what my players would say that I am.  I might go and ask them and get back to you,  much as John Arendt did in his blog.

What about you?  What would your badges be?

Dystopic: Assassinating an Auroch

The team had a long conversation about whether they should take out the Auroch Minister and whether they even had that right before beginning a discussion on tactics.  London was pretty angry that they didn't seem to think his predicament was worth getting into a murder match with Minister Ortega.  He eventually convinced them (a few didn't need much convincing, like Leningrad who was immediately happy to do it) and they started talking about outcomes.

Kill the Auroch Minister?  Frame her for something?  Break down all of her alliances?  They weren't sure what to do.

In conversations with their handler, Nice, they were told that the Prometheus Project could provide them with a device that flushes the area of its place memory so that Patterns and similar powers couldn't determine what had happened there.  They could also provide another artefact (pre-Abyss item of Fallen construction) that would destroy a Fallen's sympathetic connections with other people (such as pacts) if it penetrates the heart before that Fallen dies.  This meant that they could sever Minister Ortega's pacts and prevent her from immediately possessing a thrall when she died.

They then decided that they'd station a sniper (London) and a spotter (Miami) on a rooftop with a direct sight line to her own rooftop.  I decided to allow all of Miami's successes on a spot roll to add to any successes London made to make having a spotter more worthwhile.  If his successes just added more dice to London's roll, those dice might not roll successes and therefore wouldn't be as good as Miami simply having a rifle himself.  I pre-warned them that this wouldn't be a permanent house rule but would work during this set up and they were okay with that.

Oxford and Nomad 6 waited in the chopper a short distance away so that they could provide an immediate extraction if necessary.

They waited until Minister Ortega and her Fallen Angel pilot (whom they had identified as a pilot who used to work for the Center for Disease Control) flew off.

Then Leningrad and Tokyo decided to take a chance sneaking into the building through the basement via access tunnels to avoid security and people's attention on them.  Dallas led them through the tunnels as he has a perfect sense of direction.  They found a corridor which led to a locked door into the basement that was guarded by a single camera.  Tokyo snuck up as it rotated (going with Deus Ex tropes rather than real world) and touched it to hack it into showing a loop.  Then she unlocked the door and got inside.

They then found access into a vent and went up to the top two floors which were Minister Ortega's apartment.  The bottom floor seemed to belong to her two security guards and the Fallen Angel, judging by the room set up (two singles in one room, one queen-sized bed in another).  Leningrad can use his three roll system to either assassinate or knock out (one success on a Stealth, Medicine, Brawl) to knock out the two guards.  Tokyo then hacked the cameras, of which there were many, and after studying the pilot for awhile figured out a couple syllables of his True Name.  She could then identify his Celestial Name from that.

Remiel.  Devil of Flame.  Ebon Legion.  Luciferan.  Formerly Eminence 2 but had it ground down to 0 through a number of poor choices as he was an example of everything a devil is stereotyped to be and this was pretty humiliating for the others of the First House.  Part of a combat squad of Fallen back during the war.  Tended to be pretty mouthy and didn't watch what he said.

When the pilot and Minister Ortega landed on the roof in their own helicopter, there was a bit of a discussion through invocations as to whether they should slay the pilot or not.  They decided not to (though Oxford was pretty eager to blow up the helicopter or something similar and take him out too). 

The door opened and Minister Ortega stepped out in her full demonic glory (well, her 4 Low-Torment form abilities and the 2 High-Torment form abilities that no longer cost her anything).  This allowed her to see all around her with 360 vision.  Luckily, London and Miami ducked out of sight before she could see them.  She proceeded into the elevator while Remiel remained in the helicopter for awhile longer.

Minister Ortega dropped out of her demonic glory once she stepped out of the elevator and was no longer exposed.  She went into her living room on the top floor and Leningrad slipped out of a vent hatch behind him.  He snuck up behind her and stabbed her through the heart with the artefact.  Her demonic self was knocked out of the corpse and it hesitated in confusion as it took a moment for it to realise it was dead.  It then took another turn as it reached for pacts that were no longer there.  On the third round it rushed off in search of a new host.

Basically, with each round that a Fallen is outside of their host they must roll to prevent being dragged back into the Abyss.  They must also roll to see if they can spot an appropriate host.  I figure this out with a percentile dice.  The greater the number of miserable or dying people in the area, the higher the percentile chance of finding a new host within miles equal to Faith.  Miami had a reasonably high chance of finding someone (as opposed to a dessert).

The pilot then fled in his helicopter.  They'd thought he might be being controlled by his True Name and this supported that.

Tokyo set off the artefact-blast of energy to muddle the place memories and then they fled back the way they came through the tunnels.  On the way out, she tracked Remiel's passage through various airspace monitoring stations and detected that he was heading north west out of the city and over the walls.  She lost track of him once he'd passed over the wall.

Oxford suggested they threaten him in order to get Remiel to return to the city.  London vetoed that as he assumed that Remiel was just another victim.  And that's just about where we left it.

It's been a few weeks since the session, so if any of my players notice any discrepancies, feel free to mention them.

London Fae Spotlight: The Red Queen

This NPC is a True Fae from the Changeling: the Lost setting that was made for use in my Tatters of the King World of Darkness conversion.  In truth, she'll probably never appear in the campaign but while I was doing some world building I happened to have a bout of inspiration and thought I might as well type it all up for your reading pleasure.  Hopefully you find it useful.  If you do end up using this True Fae or taking inspiration from her, let me know in the comments box below.

Titles (4): The Royal Red of Passion (Actor), The Scarlet Render of Hearts (Prop), Liveried Servant that Pleases the Master (Wisps), and the Palatial Garden of Unearthly Delights (Locale).

  

The Tell:

The tell for this Fae is a bit of heraldry alongside a general preference for different shades of red.  All titles of this True Fae have somewhere upon them the heraldic symbol of a scarlet crown perched atop a crimson heart that seems to have been set afire with curving pale red lines.  This might be affixed to a Wisp's coat, attached to the pommel of the sword, engraved onto the actor's head, or found in numerous locations around the gardens or palace.

Storytelling Hints:

The Red Queen is a True Fae that mimics the passions of the human heart even though she neither understands nor feels them herself.  In all of her forms, she is a feminine creature of luxuriant fabrics and indulgence although she is neither entirely lusty nor gluttonous.  Instead her moods flow constantly and according to strange triggers.  Sometimes they even mimic the moods of any others who are at the location.

Favored Changeling Creations:

She may be an ex-Keeper for all forms of changeling kiths due to the Night of the Red Gala where she purchases the Taken from other Fae (or Hobgoblins) or steals the Lost from Earth.  However, she is more prone to creating Lost who can see to her palace or to her own needs while she accumulates other Lost in preparation for the next Night of the Red Gala.  She generally creates Succubi, Minstrels, Woodwalkers, Flowering Fairest, Dancers, Chatelaines, Asparas and Thussers, etc.  As she slays or sells Changelings who fail to be selected on the Night of the Red Gala, only Flowering Fairests, Woodwalkers and Woodbloods from her garden are likely to remain out of her original creations.  She always leaves a Fetch behind and steals humans from many European countries and colonies.  You can find a neat link to all of the kiths and their book locations over here if you want to track down a kith name that you don't recognise.

Feuds:

• The Red Queen must host the night of the Red Gala on a particular night every 10 years and at least a dozen Changelings must be arrayed as potential 'suitors' for the Snow Princess.  If she fails in this, she forfeits a title to the Snow Princess.  If the Snow Princess falls 'in love' (a mimicked affair) with one such Changeling, then the Red Queen wins one of the Snow Princess' titles unless the Red Queen kills that suitor within a month, in which case she must return the title.  If she doesn't kill that suitor within a month, the Red Queen forfeits a title to the Seamstress.  If the Snow Princess ever falls in love with a Seasonal King, then the Red Queen and the Snow Princess must battle for his hand.  The woman he chooses earns a title and the stale male is broken.  If neither woman is chosen (an unlikely proposition considering their powers), then the Feud is simply over.

• If Jack Frost can successfully disrupt the Red Queen's Night of the Red Gala so that no Changeling 'suitor' is present and prevent the Snow Princess from arriving, both of them will forfeit a title to him. If he fails to do so after three sincere attempts, he must provide a title to the first one who can catch him.

• The Red Queen wishes to own children from the fifteen families that Jack Frost has developed a Fae-touched mortal within and she has offered assistance to the Pied Piper as an ally in a Feud of his choosing if he can provide them for her without Jack Frost becoming aware of their presence in her realm.  If he does become aware, she is allowed to keep half of those relatives.  None of these relatives will be played in the Red Gala and instead will be kept in another chamber.  She has a deal with the Hunter & The Hounds to one day assist him in hunting down and slaying Jack Frost on the Winter Equinox - if they are successful, then they will each gain one of Jack Frost's titles.  If Jack Frost manages to defeat both of them, they must give him both a title and one of their most powerful tokens.

Story Seeds:

The Red Queen has cultivated a few Loyalists using pledges and pleasures in order to locate the Freehold and find herself a Changeling with the seasonal crown.  It's up to the player characters to root out the conspirators and ensure that the Freehold monarch isn't stolen away.  If this monarch is stolen, than the other seasonal monarchs are endangered as the crown won't last the season (and likely not even that once the monarch enters Arcadia).

The Changelings are attending the local Goblin Market when they notice a sudden surge in activity as the hobs prepare their stalls to look the best they could be.  Word is passed around that the Red Queen is coming in person with her retinue to purchase Changelings from the market.  Unless the player characters have appropriate pledges in place with the markets, they could find themselves up for sale.  They'll probably want to flee though a foolhardy few might decide to fight instead.  Alternately, the player characters might recognise someone in the Red Queen's retinue and be moved to try and spring them out.

Word is out that the Night of the Red Gala is approaching.  The hobgoblins and privateers are eager for trade items (people) and so neither human nor Lost is safe.  The Red Queen pays very well for unique specimens who may well have a chance at thawing the Snow Princess' heart so a particularly socially savvy or unique (dual kith, perhaps) Lost is likely to have a lot of attention drawn their way.

Title Information:

You can find more in-depth information on the various titles over here.  They won't be all shiny and underlined until they're all posted however:

Story of the Red Queen and the Snow Princess
Actor: The Royal Red of Passion
Wisps: Liveried Servant That Pleases The Master

Prop: The Scarlet Render of Hearts

Locale: The Palatial Garden of Unearthly Delights

Back To The Start:

Or you could just take a look at the main article from which all of this has sprung.

Worthy Links: Changeling the Lost

Changeling: the Lost Guide For New Gamers
For those of you who've been seeing my True Fae and Changeling posts but have no idea what I'm talking about, this is the guide for you.  It is a really good overview of the setting and system and even touches on what the actual World of Darkness core book is about.  I recommend reading it if you haven't encountered this particular roleplay setting before.  It also has links to reviews for a wide variety of Changeling books so if you have been kicking around the Changeling universe for awhile and are considering which book to buy next, you'll find something worthwhile to check out here as well.

Review of Changeling: the Lost as a Genre
This article is a review rather than a summary (though it has components of that as well), but it's also a worthwhile article to get a better idea of what Changeling is about, such as the sort of themes and mood that it evokes.  It also talks about the True Fae themselves so if you're curious about my True Fae examples, this is the place to look.  Sadly enough, the story seed put forward at the end of the article about the Fae's kidnapping other World of Darkness races isn't canonically accurate for most genres.  They *might* steal the occasional Mage but it's pretty much been outright stated that they don't bother with vampires (as they lack the creative spark and probably can't be altered).

A Round Up of Other Changeling Materials
This articles is a round up of the blog author's posts filled with Changeling materials developed for their own campaign.  There are plenty of links here to juicy materials that are good for people with experience or interest in running, or playing, in a Changeling game.  The articles contained within include such things as Changeling GM tricks, Changeling songs, Changeling civil ceremonies and custom mechanics like new contracts.  Well worth a look.  I know I'll be diving in to devour it all later on.

Vampire: Custom Coil of the Core

The Coil of the Core is a custom coil designed to assist Storytellers and players who would like a justification for playing a kindred a little less sociopathic and a little closer to human but who don't want to change the general nature of vampires in their game.  This may not be appropriate for every game but few things are.  If you would like to institute this in a game that doesn't feature Ordo Dracul, you could make it that this coil isn't known among the Ordo Dracul but was developed among the Carthians or even the Crone.

Tier One: Reaching For Sincerity
The kindred has managed to manipulate the remnants of their soul to allow themselves to feel true, albeit weaker, emotions.  While this doesn't meant that the kindred feels things as keenly as the average mortal, far from it, they are still capable of sincere bouts of emotion that aren't tied to associative memory.  Where most kindred couldn't sincerely coo at a cute mobile phone cover unless they had emotive memories of adoring such covers as a mortal, this kindred needs no such history to make such a connection. One of the beneficial side effects of this is that the kindred regains some measure of their original creativity and may create original and moving artwork / musical pieces.  One of the neutral side effects is that the bands of colour in a kindred's aura are stronger and more reminiscent of a ghoul.  While the difference is still visible and can be pointed out to an Auspex user, some users of Auspex or other aura reading powers who lack experience might become confused and assume the individual is not a kindred.

Tier Two: Awaken The Soul's Heart
The kindred learns how to adapt themselves to provide space for a limited number of attachments equal to their Resolve.  These attachments might be to anything a human being might grow attached to and this could be a particular item, animal or person.  The attachment isn't automatic and must grow over time as it would for a mortal.  It also doesn't need to be positive.  The kindred might hate the subject, be fascinated by them, or feel a possessive lust toward them, but it does need to be a lasting emotion that binds them together.  The binding emotion can also change.  A hated nemesis could become a good friend, and vice versa, much as it could for a human.

However, the kindred can't consider the subject of their attachment with indifference unless several years go by without any real interaction AND the kindred burns a willpower dot to represent the effort of will needed to force themselves to move on.  Torpor won't wipe the attachment so a beloved childe will be remembered as a beloved childe when the kindred awakens from even centuries of torpor.  Even if the kindred doesn't meet their childe, they will at least know their name, face, and affection which will likely haunt the kindred until they meet again.  The kindred will gain a +2 to all rolls to remember memories involving that subject.  Naturally this can lead to pain if the subject dies as the kindred has several years of grief to look forward to before being able to burn that willpower dot.

Tier Three: Loud and Vocal Conscience
While humans may raise and lower Morality through their choices and actions, for kindred it requires active striving.  With this tier of the coil, the kindred can almost recapture that ease through rekindling the human conscience and a greater flexibility of thought.  If the kindred performs a series of action, or one great action, that would have resulted in the gain of a free dot of Morality were they human, they may then purchase an additional dot of Morality at 2 x New Dot rather than 3 x New Dot.  This only counts in situations where the kindred has performed a particularly good deed.

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Let me know if you choose to use this coil in your game and if it works out for you.

Oh, and if you'd like to read the series of articles from which this one came, you can find them here.