(10/07) A Dark and Restless Tide - (A D20 Dark*Matter Story Hour)
hmm, I think the MIB aren't human. In any case they are neat 
Man I am itchin' to play and run a campaign! And I have a question for the esteemed Heap. About how long does it take for you to create an adventure and how much background do you research/create? For instance, your using Chapel Hill and you've said you have been to NC. So your pulling on obvious personal experience but do you do any more. I haven't googled the company listed in the story hour but did you find a biotech firm in the rtp to dress up as this place?
And also, are these kinda one shot adventures? As the group is already part of "the Institue" I'm assuming you mean Hoffman. They aren't the same group from the sasquatch/indian story hour are they?
Tellerve
Man I am itchin' to play and run a campaign! And I have a question for the esteemed Heap. About how long does it take for you to create an adventure and how much background do you research/create? For instance, your using Chapel Hill and you've said you have been to NC. So your pulling on obvious personal experience but do you do any more. I haven't googled the company listed in the story hour but did you find a biotech firm in the rtp to dress up as this place?
And also, are these kinda one shot adventures? As the group is already part of "the Institue" I'm assuming you mean Hoffman. They aren't the same group from the sasquatch/indian story hour are they?
Tellerve
HeapThaumaturgist
First Post
*cracks knuckles*
Sorry for the hiatus, folks, I've been on vacation. For me, "vacation" means stretched out on the couch with books Lots of books. My fiance was excited about the Honor Harrington RPG coming out (but for T20 ...) and I'd never read the books, so in the last two weeks I've read most of the series. And most of the rest of David Weber's stuff, as well.
((For those of you who don't know, www.baen.com/library/ is a free library of books from Baen publishers. You can find "On Basilisk Station" there. I'm a man who appreciates free books.))
ANYWAY ... I should be writing up another post as soon as I'm done with this.
To answer questions ...
Question The First: How long does it take for me to make an adventure? Quite a while, really. I'm not sure in definate hours, but I've got quite a bit of respect for adventure authors out there.
I've been to NC, and I like the area for adventures mostly because it's ruralized in some areas, populated in others, and I know just enough about the area to get me in trouble. And the mountainous areas are very pretty ... and lonely at night.
First I got the kernel idea for the adventure ... then I decided what I'd need. Which, because of the 'company', was a populated area. Raleigh fit the bill. Then I needed a smaller city outside of it, to allow for a ruralized enough area that the cops and FBI wouldn't be all over any strange occurrances on their own, or put 2 and 2 together too quickly that I couldn't give the players a few days to figure things out without wondering where the hell the cops were during all of this.
I pulled Chapel Hill up on Yahoo, having never been there, and familiarized myself with the maps of the area ... I looked up car dealerships, etc ... and changed what I needed. For instance, the Toyota Prius was an important part of the storyline, but I couldn't find any Toyota dealers in Chapel Hill. So I replaced, on the map, a Saturn dealer (I think it was the Saturn dealer, anyway ... or Honda). I could then tell the players where it was, even point to it on the map. Part of the adventure takes place in a mall (haven't written to there yet) and I looked up the Chapel Hill mall online ... oddly, it has it's own website (alot of malls do these days). I downloaded a map of the mall ... but it doesn't have an Arcade or an Electronics Boutique ... each was important to my pre-arranged plotline, so I added them. I would say my research time was a good 3 hours, for the whole adventure (which lasted four game sessions) and my writing time was about twice that, if not more. Even then, parts of it were unfinished when the fit hit the shan.
Question The Second: Nanotecknolwedgies Inc. was purely my own making. It would have been better had I looked for something else and dressed. The company itself and Dr. Bauer were actually the least-researched parts of the "Adventure", on my end. That was a big mistake. I had made a few presumptions when I started writing the adventure and, in true form, the group blew those out of the water the first session, really. I ran out of time, really, and hadn't gotten to it yet. Anyway, Nanoteck I created as I wrote ... I placed it in an un-named "Industrial Park" the design of which I actually took from a 'Park up the street for the map. I designed the internals of the building itself as a scaled-down version of the office I used to work in and the "Lab" in the basement was purely out of my own imagination, and I'm sure was buggared to hell. Not that any of the readers have "seen" this stuff yet. For instance, I didn't expect one of my players, being an academic, to go looking through the scientific research journals to see what Bauer had published. Which was a very good idea, on his part, and something I'll plan for in the future if I have academic NPCs.
Question The Third: None of them have been planned as "one shots" ... by One Shot I imagine you mean the characters are pregenned/handed out or quickly made and the one adventure is the only time we see them. Nope. I have two previous "One Shot" adventures using Dark Matter, though, because time/place constraints meant the groups broke up about the same time the first adventure rounded out. This adventure ended the last week of classes, but the plan is to start up with the same PCs in August on another adventure.
Question the Fourth: This group was already part of the Hoffmann Institute, yes. We were going to start with them NOT, earlier in the semester, but things got wonky and we ended up never getting to play until the last month of classes so I skipped the initial adventure and went right to this one (thus the unfinished nature of it).
This isn't the same group as the Wendigo adventure ("Cabin Fever"), no. Those were my room-mates of last year and myself. I wasn't actually going to use The Hoffmann Institute for that campaign ... the two professors in that adventure were from the stateside campus of Weygandt-Ellis University (Maggie Valley) ... a pure creation of my own that made a short appearance this adventure. W-EU was going to be the organization for the first campaign, but I've helved it as being too much work on my own time. Summed up, it's the ultra-liberal side of Those In The Know about the Dark Tide. The kookier folks, and one of the few places in the world you can get a degree in Applied Non-Euclidian Geometry or Parahistory. I was aiming for even fewer guns and a little more Call Of Cthulhu "Investigator" style game. This group, I knew I'd need to have firearms around ... bleh.
The other group in Cabin Fever is MAJIC, my version of MJ-12 ... which is actually more modeled after COM-12 from the Dark*Matter setting book. I like the sound of "Majority Agency for Joint Information Control", myself. For that setting they're in opposition to the elements of the Dark Tide on the rise in the U.S.A. .. violent opposition. Where W-EU or The Hoffmann Institute would investigate and attempt to understand, MAJIC moves in and engages with extreme prejudice. (I'm sure one of my players would much rather be in a MAGIC-centered campaign. But bleh.) I fleshed out the organization because it was an angle I was thinking of exploring, but it too was backburnered.
This campaign's going to deal with PCs from Hoffmann, though I'm already interweaving the others. Just because.
--fje
Sorry for the hiatus, folks, I've been on vacation. For me, "vacation" means stretched out on the couch with books Lots of books. My fiance was excited about the Honor Harrington RPG coming out (but for T20 ...) and I'd never read the books, so in the last two weeks I've read most of the series. And most of the rest of David Weber's stuff, as well.
((For those of you who don't know, www.baen.com/library/ is a free library of books from Baen publishers. You can find "On Basilisk Station" there. I'm a man who appreciates free books.))
ANYWAY ... I should be writing up another post as soon as I'm done with this.
To answer questions ...
Question The First: How long does it take for me to make an adventure? Quite a while, really. I'm not sure in definate hours, but I've got quite a bit of respect for adventure authors out there.
I've been to NC, and I like the area for adventures mostly because it's ruralized in some areas, populated in others, and I know just enough about the area to get me in trouble.
And the mountainous areas are very pretty ... and lonely at night.First I got the kernel idea for the adventure ... then I decided what I'd need. Which, because of the 'company', was a populated area. Raleigh fit the bill. Then I needed a smaller city outside of it, to allow for a ruralized enough area that the cops and FBI wouldn't be all over any strange occurrances on their own, or put 2 and 2 together too quickly that I couldn't give the players a few days to figure things out without wondering where the hell the cops were during all of this.
I pulled Chapel Hill up on Yahoo, having never been there, and familiarized myself with the maps of the area ... I looked up car dealerships, etc ... and changed what I needed. For instance, the Toyota Prius was an important part of the storyline, but I couldn't find any Toyota dealers in Chapel Hill. So I replaced, on the map, a Saturn dealer (I think it was the Saturn dealer, anyway ... or Honda). I could then tell the players where it was, even point to it on the map. Part of the adventure takes place in a mall (haven't written to there yet) and I looked up the Chapel Hill mall online ... oddly, it has it's own website (alot of malls do these days). I downloaded a map of the mall ... but it doesn't have an Arcade or an Electronics Boutique ... each was important to my pre-arranged plotline, so I added them. I would say my research time was a good 3 hours, for the whole adventure (which lasted four game sessions) and my writing time was about twice that, if not more. Even then, parts of it were unfinished when the fit hit the shan.
Question The Second: Nanotecknolwedgies Inc. was purely my own making. It would have been better had I looked for something else and dressed. The company itself and Dr. Bauer were actually the least-researched parts of the "Adventure", on my end. That was a big mistake. I had made a few presumptions when I started writing the adventure and, in true form, the group blew those out of the water the first session, really. I ran out of time, really, and hadn't gotten to it yet. Anyway, Nanoteck I created as I wrote ... I placed it in an un-named "Industrial Park" the design of which I actually took from a 'Park up the street for the map. I designed the internals of the building itself as a scaled-down version of the office I used to work in and the "Lab" in the basement was purely out of my own imagination, and I'm sure was buggared to hell. Not that any of the readers have "seen" this stuff yet. For instance, I didn't expect one of my players, being an academic, to go looking through the scientific research journals to see what Bauer had published. Which was a very good idea, on his part, and something I'll plan for in the future if I have academic NPCs.
Question The Third: None of them have been planned as "one shots" ... by One Shot I imagine you mean the characters are pregenned/handed out or quickly made and the one adventure is the only time we see them. Nope. I have two previous "One Shot" adventures using Dark Matter, though, because time/place constraints meant the groups broke up about the same time the first adventure rounded out. This adventure ended the last week of classes, but the plan is to start up with the same PCs in August on another adventure.
Question the Fourth: This group was already part of the Hoffmann Institute, yes. We were going to start with them NOT, earlier in the semester, but things got wonky and we ended up never getting to play until the last month of classes so I skipped the initial adventure and went right to this one (thus the unfinished nature of it).
This isn't the same group as the Wendigo adventure ("Cabin Fever"), no. Those were my room-mates of last year and myself. I wasn't actually going to use The Hoffmann Institute for that campaign ... the two professors in that adventure were from the stateside campus of Weygandt-Ellis University (Maggie Valley) ... a pure creation of my own that made a short appearance this adventure. W-EU was going to be the organization for the first campaign, but I've helved it as being too much work on my own time. Summed up, it's the ultra-liberal side of Those In The Know about the Dark Tide. The kookier folks, and one of the few places in the world you can get a degree in Applied Non-Euclidian Geometry or Parahistory. I was aiming for even fewer guns and a little more Call Of Cthulhu "Investigator" style game. This group, I knew I'd need to have firearms around ... bleh.
The other group in Cabin Fever is MAJIC, my version of MJ-12 ... which is actually more modeled after COM-12 from the Dark*Matter setting book. I like the sound of "Majority Agency for Joint Information Control", myself. For that setting they're in opposition to the elements of the Dark Tide on the rise in the U.S.A. .. violent opposition. Where W-EU or The Hoffmann Institute would investigate and attempt to understand, MAJIC moves in and engages with extreme prejudice. (I'm sure one of my players would much rather be in a MAGIC-centered campaign. But bleh.) I fleshed out the organization because it was an angle I was thinking of exploring, but it too was backburnered.
This campaign's going to deal with PCs from Hoffmann, though I'm already interweaving the others. Just because.
--fje
HeapThaumaturgist
First Post
Kyong was springing back even as Tim fell, and her eyes searched the morgue. It was now two against one, and neither her taser nor Tim's gun seemed to have any great effect. She had no hope against both of the "agents", and they were between her and the way out. The cooler drawer room lay to her left, but it was a dead end and guarded only by swinging doors. There was a small office to her right, however, for the coroner and she rushed toward that, low, keeping behind the tables as much as possible. ffSKT, fffsKT,ffSKT the agents' weapons sounded behind her, but their shots went wide. She dived into the office and kicked the door shut, scrambling back to her feet and reaching for the lock. She twisted the deadbolt closed and put her back to the door, praying it would hold.
***************************
"What can Puce do for You?" Georgi said. She sounded a little incredulous.
"Huh." Was all that sam said.
"Really unfortunate choice for a color." Georgi continued as they looked at the Mailboxes'n'Stuff store from the van.
"Seems like the corporate designers took it and ran, though." Sam said. He got out of the van, followed closely by Georgi, and they walked into the store.
Two puce-uniformed employees were behind the counter. Business didn't seem to be especially brisk, so Georgi and Sam were the only customers. One of the clerks had a slightly larger nametag, "Chad", and his overly-interested falsely-polite smile pegged him as the manager on duty. Sam took the load of samples and notes toward Chad and set them on the counter. Georgi split off to corner the other clerk, a much less-interested looking girl.
"Hi, um, Tiffany, is it?" Georgi said, reading the girl's nametag.
"Yea ... what can Puce do for you?" Tiffany asked, trying not to sound COMPLETELY bored.
"I was wondering if I could ask you some questions ... about one of the mail boxes?" Georgi pressed, lightly, so they wouldn't be overheard. "Box 117 ... a friend of mine ..."
"We're not, officially, allowed to give any information out about the owners of private boxes, ma'am." Tiffany said, but low enough that her superior couldn't hear.
"And ... unofficially?" Georgi asked quietly. She reached in her pocket, then slid a twenty dollar bill across the counter under her hand.
Tiffany unobtrusively palmed the bill and jerked her head toward the mailboxes at the back of the store. Georgi followed her over.
"Yea. I know the guy that has that box." Tiffany said. "Or the kid, anyway. He can't be more than fifteen, even though people are supposed to be 18 to rent a box. He comes in here every few weeks to clear the mail, then he'll, like, try to hit on me and stuff. That's why I remember, really." She sniffed and tossed her hair. "No THANK you. I'm a senior, I don't go for freshmen." She sighed. "After he gets his mail and stuff he'll get on his BIKE and go riding across the lot to the mall... Mallrats are SO last decade."
Georgi smiled her thanks and walked back over to Sam, who was fishing money from his own pocket ... to pay the bill.
"You wouldn't BELIEVE what this place charges. I could've hired a tribe of African pygmies to backpack the stuff back to headquarters for that. Probably would get there faster, too." Sam grumbled.
Georgi filled him in on what she'd gotten from Tiffany, and they got back in the van to drive across the parking lot.
**************************
A few seconds passed. Then a few more. Nothing pounded against the door, and the room beyond was suspiciously quiet. After almost a minute, Kyong inched her head up to peer out of the small wire-cored window in the door.
The two "agents" moved about the morgue quickly. One stood up, the PDA in his hand, and slipped it into a pocket. The other was burning documents in one of the stainless steel sinks. They seemed to be totally ignoring Kyong's hiding place, and the only attention they paid Tim was to step over his inert form on the morgue floor.
Five minutes later, Kyong's meticulous notes were gone; fed to the small fire in the sink or stashed in various pockets about the 'agents'. All that remained was the body, lying pale on the slab, it's torso splayed open like a grayed-meat colored flower ... blackened at the edges. Finally one of the agents walked over and pulled a small syringe from yet another pocket. From the bloodstain on the front of his crisp white shirt, Kyong could tell it was agent Ferris ... yet the wound had already ceased to bleed.
And with that, the 'agents' turned as one and walked out the swinging double doors. Kyong ducked back behind the door and waited a twenty count, then slipped the door open to peek her head out.
And the body was gone.
***************************
"What can Puce do for You?" Georgi said. She sounded a little incredulous.
"Huh." Was all that sam said.
"Really unfortunate choice for a color." Georgi continued as they looked at the Mailboxes'n'Stuff store from the van.
"Seems like the corporate designers took it and ran, though." Sam said. He got out of the van, followed closely by Georgi, and they walked into the store.
Two puce-uniformed employees were behind the counter. Business didn't seem to be especially brisk, so Georgi and Sam were the only customers. One of the clerks had a slightly larger nametag, "Chad", and his overly-interested falsely-polite smile pegged him as the manager on duty. Sam took the load of samples and notes toward Chad and set them on the counter. Georgi split off to corner the other clerk, a much less-interested looking girl.
"Hi, um, Tiffany, is it?" Georgi said, reading the girl's nametag.
"Yea ... what can Puce do for you?" Tiffany asked, trying not to sound COMPLETELY bored.
"I was wondering if I could ask you some questions ... about one of the mail boxes?" Georgi pressed, lightly, so they wouldn't be overheard. "Box 117 ... a friend of mine ..."
"We're not, officially, allowed to give any information out about the owners of private boxes, ma'am." Tiffany said, but low enough that her superior couldn't hear.
"And ... unofficially?" Georgi asked quietly. She reached in her pocket, then slid a twenty dollar bill across the counter under her hand.
Tiffany unobtrusively palmed the bill and jerked her head toward the mailboxes at the back of the store. Georgi followed her over.
"Yea. I know the guy that has that box." Tiffany said. "Or the kid, anyway. He can't be more than fifteen, even though people are supposed to be 18 to rent a box. He comes in here every few weeks to clear the mail, then he'll, like, try to hit on me and stuff. That's why I remember, really." She sniffed and tossed her hair. "No THANK you. I'm a senior, I don't go for freshmen." She sighed. "After he gets his mail and stuff he'll get on his BIKE and go riding across the lot to the mall... Mallrats are SO last decade."
Georgi smiled her thanks and walked back over to Sam, who was fishing money from his own pocket ... to pay the bill.
"You wouldn't BELIEVE what this place charges. I could've hired a tribe of African pygmies to backpack the stuff back to headquarters for that. Probably would get there faster, too." Sam grumbled.
Georgi filled him in on what she'd gotten from Tiffany, and they got back in the van to drive across the parking lot.
**************************
A few seconds passed. Then a few more. Nothing pounded against the door, and the room beyond was suspiciously quiet. After almost a minute, Kyong inched her head up to peer out of the small wire-cored window in the door.
The two "agents" moved about the morgue quickly. One stood up, the PDA in his hand, and slipped it into a pocket. The other was burning documents in one of the stainless steel sinks. They seemed to be totally ignoring Kyong's hiding place, and the only attention they paid Tim was to step over his inert form on the morgue floor.
Five minutes later, Kyong's meticulous notes were gone; fed to the small fire in the sink or stashed in various pockets about the 'agents'. All that remained was the body, lying pale on the slab, it's torso splayed open like a grayed-meat colored flower ... blackened at the edges. Finally one of the agents walked over and pulled a small syringe from yet another pocket. From the bloodstain on the front of his crisp white shirt, Kyong could tell it was agent Ferris ... yet the wound had already ceased to bleed.
And with that, the 'agents' turned as one and walked out the swinging double doors. Kyong ducked back behind the door and waited a twenty count, then slipped the door open to peek her head out.
And the body was gone.
Last edited:
HeapThaumaturgist
First Post
It seemed the "agents" were gone, but she wanted to be sure. After waiting another full minute, she crept into the room and over to Tim. She moved to check his pulse, which was strong and steady, as was his breathing. For all she could see, he was merely unconcious. Tim cleared in her mind, Kyong stood up and walked over to the table the body had been on. Contrary to her first thought, the body had not "vanished", the table was covered in an irregular layer of black soot or dust. Whatever had carbonized parts of the body initially had finished the job, rendering the entire corpse down to cold ash.
Kyong found her purse, upended on a nearby table, and rummaged around in the contents. She pulled a bottle of smelling salts out of the clutter and knelt by Tim, wafting the opening near his nose. After a moment he twitched and sat up, blinking tears from his eyes.
"Gah, that's horrible."
"It works, however. You were unconcious. Apparently some sort of psychoactive or narcotic in the darts the two men in black suits were firing." Kyong replied. She started looking for her cell phone.
"I see they burned the body." Time said.
"Not quite ..." Kyong replied. She found her phone and started dialing.
***********************************************
Sam and Georgi stood just inside the mall entrance, looking around. The mall was a cacaphony of sounds ... like a warehouse full of circus clowns and old radios. Muzak drifted down from above, while the incidental conversation and movement of a thousand shoppers drifted up.
"Man I hate these places." Sam said. He looked around. "So what does a kid with money do in a mall? And would anybody even remember him?"
Georgi pursed her lips and thought for a moment, then blinked. Drifting over the other sounds of the mall was something else, close or she'd have never heard it. The tinny sounds of techno music from small speakers, and the laughing of kids. Off to her left, she spotted it.
"Um. Go to the arcade?" She asked.
The arcade was near the entrance and the food court. It's cavernous opening sported neon columns and flashing lights, TVs linked to games further inside, and a large window ... behind the window several overweight pree-teen boys were desperately jumping and jiggling up and down on the latest Dance-Dance Revolution game.
"Oh Lord." Sam mumbled under his breath. They were just about to walk toward the arcade when his phone rang.
"It's Kyong." He said when he checked the ID, then flipped the phone open. "Sam, here ... just a sec." He lowered the pickup from his mouth. "Georgi, you can check the arcade. I doubt any of the kids would talk to me anyway." He turned his attention very purposefully back to the phone with an inner sigh of relief.
Georgi shrugged and twitched her T-Shirt down farther under her jacket, putting on a "Cute Geeky Girl" face, and headed for the arcade.
***********************************************
For his part, Olie was at the police impound yard. He'd flashed the insurance investigator papers the group had been provided with and had been allowed to prowl around the car some more. While Georgi had gotten quite a bit of information from the black box of the car, there was still no real answer as to why it had exploded. He had a suspicion of course.
After little more than a half-hour of searching, he had his answer. Some erroneous bits of wire, plastic, and a shard of circuit board were in the remains of the gas tank. The major initial damage to the car appeared to be localized around that area, with the fire finishing off most of the vehicle later. Had he not been looking for it, or had he been expecting a truly accidental reason for the burning of the car, he'd have missed it. As it was, somebody had planted a rather sophisticated device in the gas tank to cause the car to explode. From the lack of wiring to other parts of the vehicle, the trigger was most likely remote. Somebody else had been there, that night, and they had blown the car. Olie got his cell phone out and punched up Sam's number.
***********************************************
Kyong found her purse, upended on a nearby table, and rummaged around in the contents. She pulled a bottle of smelling salts out of the clutter and knelt by Tim, wafting the opening near his nose. After a moment he twitched and sat up, blinking tears from his eyes.
"Gah, that's horrible."
"It works, however. You were unconcious. Apparently some sort of psychoactive or narcotic in the darts the two men in black suits were firing." Kyong replied. She started looking for her cell phone.
"I see they burned the body." Time said.
"Not quite ..." Kyong replied. She found her phone and started dialing.
***********************************************
Sam and Georgi stood just inside the mall entrance, looking around. The mall was a cacaphony of sounds ... like a warehouse full of circus clowns and old radios. Muzak drifted down from above, while the incidental conversation and movement of a thousand shoppers drifted up.
"Man I hate these places." Sam said. He looked around. "So what does a kid with money do in a mall? And would anybody even remember him?"
Georgi pursed her lips and thought for a moment, then blinked. Drifting over the other sounds of the mall was something else, close or she'd have never heard it. The tinny sounds of techno music from small speakers, and the laughing of kids. Off to her left, she spotted it.
"Um. Go to the arcade?" She asked.
The arcade was near the entrance and the food court. It's cavernous opening sported neon columns and flashing lights, TVs linked to games further inside, and a large window ... behind the window several overweight pree-teen boys were desperately jumping and jiggling up and down on the latest Dance-Dance Revolution game.
"Oh Lord." Sam mumbled under his breath. They were just about to walk toward the arcade when his phone rang.
"It's Kyong." He said when he checked the ID, then flipped the phone open. "Sam, here ... just a sec." He lowered the pickup from his mouth. "Georgi, you can check the arcade. I doubt any of the kids would talk to me anyway." He turned his attention very purposefully back to the phone with an inner sigh of relief.
Georgi shrugged and twitched her T-Shirt down farther under her jacket, putting on a "Cute Geeky Girl" face, and headed for the arcade.
***********************************************
For his part, Olie was at the police impound yard. He'd flashed the insurance investigator papers the group had been provided with and had been allowed to prowl around the car some more. While Georgi had gotten quite a bit of information from the black box of the car, there was still no real answer as to why it had exploded. He had a suspicion of course.
After little more than a half-hour of searching, he had his answer. Some erroneous bits of wire, plastic, and a shard of circuit board were in the remains of the gas tank. The major initial damage to the car appeared to be localized around that area, with the fire finishing off most of the vehicle later. Had he not been looking for it, or had he been expecting a truly accidental reason for the burning of the car, he'd have missed it. As it was, somebody had planted a rather sophisticated device in the gas tank to cause the car to explode. From the lack of wiring to other parts of the vehicle, the trigger was most likely remote. Somebody else had been there, that night, and they had blown the car. Olie got his cell phone out and punched up Sam's number.
***********************************************
HeapThaumaturgist
First Post
Yea, I need to get to work writing up the rest of this episode, we finished the adventure months ago.
I've been busy recently playing Alternity. My new in-laws like gaming alot, and new systems, and none of them had played Alternity before. I'd brought my D20Modern book and the Dark*Matter book, but we've been playing original Dark*Matter and Star*Drive. Last night was the first D*M adventure and the first time I've ever run "Exit 23" ... didn't go as planned, didn't go TOO horribly, but I let the folks make their own PCs and one guy got a little too carried away with the Perks and Flaws arena ...
And now I'm off to run Raw Recuits.
UPDATE
Well, I ran Raw Recruits AND London Calling tonight ... Raw Recruits went very well, if VERY different from how most people seem to have run it. It was a very quick adventure because the team went in to investigate what they were sent in to learn ... and little else. To them, their cover was alot more important than, I quote: "Going Mulder on these people and getting ourselves in the toilet with Patterson." Some highlights:
"Shhh, the kid's room has bugs all over it ... he's being watched by Masons."
"Yea, the Coach had a Masonic ring ... and I bet the teacher is one of the 'Daughters of Lot'."
(( For those of you that don't know about the Masons, there's an order for the girls (younger girls, anyway, and daughters of Masons) called "The Order of the Daughters of Job" ... in the bible Lot's daughters were the ones who got their dad drunk and slept with him. ))
Some things never came up in play:
Every time I had them roll a Perception check to notice Amanda Jernigan (the teacher/Jerry's mother) ... IE, when she got in the SUV etc, everybody failed it ... then, after drawing the connection between Amanda and the "bugged" items, and me dropping the fact that she lived ACROSS THE STREET twice, nobody thought to go over there to check out her place.
After being very sure to catch the whole "Poltergeist Strike" on tape ... nobody thinks to go back and review the tape at all.
The gang very quickly figured out that Jerry was the source of the poltergeist activity around the house, which seemed to satisfy them. They went to the game to tape Jerry and FINALLY spotted Amanda Jernigan and FINALLY spotted the MIBs for the very first time.
"As you're looking around the game, looking for anybody with a particular interest in Jerry, you notice two men in the upper bleachers ... white shirts, narrow black ties, hats, overcoats ... sunglasses at sundown ..."
"Ah. I was wondering when they were going to show up."
At the end of the game the three people in the group split up, one to follow the MIBs, one to follow Amanda, the last to try and corner Jerry after the game. Jerry and Amanda get in his jeep and drive off with one of the group running behind trying to get his attention. Amanda turns to scowl, but Jerry does not, even though that PC was the person he came to trust and had talked with about his "problem" earlier.
The person with the van shows up and they set off to tail Jerry, but when he tries to lose them in traffic they decide that the case parameters were to find out WHY things were happening at the Desmond house, not chase down "Masonic Psychic Recruiters" and get in car accidents. So they broke chase and headed back to Chicago with enough evidence to show that Jerry Desmond was a psychic talent and that Amanda Jernigan and The Coach were probably Masonic agents interested in his talent.
Totally and utterly incorrect ... but it DID meet with what Patterson had sent them out there to do AND they never broke cover with the Desmond family AT ALL, so the party felt it was very much mission accomplished.
One of the players had taken "Danger Sense" as a perk for his PC (Jenn, a female Physicist and UFO buff). We'd discussed what this meant earlier (during Exit 23) and he'd decided that maybe Jenn was a latent ESP talent. Which sounded good to me. I told him she got headaches around the "Masonic bugs" (nobody really put 2 and 2 together untill they decided formally and finally to break off and return to base, THEN somebody says "Hey, I bet these things do something wonky with psychic abilities.") and as they were heading off for Chicago she had an "episode" and a vision of a woman and a young man floating upward in a shaft of light. To which the player replied: "Hrmmm, now THAT'S interesting ... I take it there was just a LITTLE more to the teacher angle, then." During the wrap-up the group was sent a memo several days after to the effect of that Amanda Jernigan and Jerry Desmond weren't seen again after the game and were reported as missing persons some time later.
Since it was still early, I said we could do quick housekeeping and move on to London Calling. I started them at lvl 1 for Exit 23, and bounced them to 2 for Raw Recruits. After "Raw Recruits" I bounced them to lvl 3. Justin (Jenn's player) used the skill points to buy the ESP broad skill, then took the Wild Talent flaw and with those skill points bought Precognition. Which works out really well for me, as now I have an Instant Plot Device ... which came in real handy during London Calling, as once again the group totally ignored one line of questioning while shooting right to a conclusion (though this time a right conclusion).
Actually, London Calling worked out so well I'd like to do a Story Hour write up of how it went ... although it isn't officially D20. I have to say that was quite possibly THE BEST adventure I've ever run.
My favorite bits of table talk from that session:
"Do I need to make a roll or something to see if I can find a broom handle and some duct tape? ... Do they HAVE duct tape in England?"
and
Player 1: "I surreptitiously pull the tranq gun from under the blanket in the trunk ..."
Player 2: "You're going to try and TRANQULIZE the demon ..."
Player 1: "Hrm. Yea. You have a point. ... Should work pretty well on his little Voodoo Handler Dude though, shouldn't it?
Now ... do I have any idea which one of them is the demon ... ?"
--fje
I've been busy recently playing Alternity. My new in-laws like gaming alot, and new systems, and none of them had played Alternity before. I'd brought my D20Modern book and the Dark*Matter book, but we've been playing original Dark*Matter and Star*Drive. Last night was the first D*M adventure and the first time I've ever run "Exit 23" ... didn't go as planned, didn't go TOO horribly, but I let the folks make their own PCs and one guy got a little too carried away with the Perks and Flaws arena ...
And now I'm off to run Raw Recuits.
UPDATE
Well, I ran Raw Recruits AND London Calling tonight ... Raw Recruits went very well, if VERY different from how most people seem to have run it. It was a very quick adventure because the team went in to investigate what they were sent in to learn ... and little else. To them, their cover was alot more important than, I quote: "Going Mulder on these people and getting ourselves in the toilet with Patterson." Some highlights:
"Shhh, the kid's room has bugs all over it ... he's being watched by Masons."
"Yea, the Coach had a Masonic ring ... and I bet the teacher is one of the 'Daughters of Lot'."
(( For those of you that don't know about the Masons, there's an order for the girls (younger girls, anyway, and daughters of Masons) called "The Order of the Daughters of Job" ... in the bible Lot's daughters were the ones who got their dad drunk and slept with him. ))
Some things never came up in play:
Every time I had them roll a Perception check to notice Amanda Jernigan (the teacher/Jerry's mother) ... IE, when she got in the SUV etc, everybody failed it ... then, after drawing the connection between Amanda and the "bugged" items, and me dropping the fact that she lived ACROSS THE STREET twice, nobody thought to go over there to check out her place.
After being very sure to catch the whole "Poltergeist Strike" on tape ... nobody thinks to go back and review the tape at all.
The gang very quickly figured out that Jerry was the source of the poltergeist activity around the house, which seemed to satisfy them. They went to the game to tape Jerry and FINALLY spotted Amanda Jernigan and FINALLY spotted the MIBs for the very first time.
"As you're looking around the game, looking for anybody with a particular interest in Jerry, you notice two men in the upper bleachers ... white shirts, narrow black ties, hats, overcoats ... sunglasses at sundown ..."
"Ah. I was wondering when they were going to show up."
At the end of the game the three people in the group split up, one to follow the MIBs, one to follow Amanda, the last to try and corner Jerry after the game. Jerry and Amanda get in his jeep and drive off with one of the group running behind trying to get his attention. Amanda turns to scowl, but Jerry does not, even though that PC was the person he came to trust and had talked with about his "problem" earlier.
The person with the van shows up and they set off to tail Jerry, but when he tries to lose them in traffic they decide that the case parameters were to find out WHY things were happening at the Desmond house, not chase down "Masonic Psychic Recruiters" and get in car accidents. So they broke chase and headed back to Chicago with enough evidence to show that Jerry Desmond was a psychic talent and that Amanda Jernigan and The Coach were probably Masonic agents interested in his talent.
Totally and utterly incorrect ... but it DID meet with what Patterson had sent them out there to do AND they never broke cover with the Desmond family AT ALL, so the party felt it was very much mission accomplished.
One of the players had taken "Danger Sense" as a perk for his PC (Jenn, a female Physicist and UFO buff). We'd discussed what this meant earlier (during Exit 23) and he'd decided that maybe Jenn was a latent ESP talent. Which sounded good to me. I told him she got headaches around the "Masonic bugs" (nobody really put 2 and 2 together untill they decided formally and finally to break off and return to base, THEN somebody says "Hey, I bet these things do something wonky with psychic abilities.") and as they were heading off for Chicago she had an "episode" and a vision of a woman and a young man floating upward in a shaft of light. To which the player replied: "Hrmmm, now THAT'S interesting ... I take it there was just a LITTLE more to the teacher angle, then." During the wrap-up the group was sent a memo several days after to the effect of that Amanda Jernigan and Jerry Desmond weren't seen again after the game and were reported as missing persons some time later.
Since it was still early, I said we could do quick housekeeping and move on to London Calling. I started them at lvl 1 for Exit 23, and bounced them to 2 for Raw Recruits. After "Raw Recruits" I bounced them to lvl 3. Justin (Jenn's player) used the skill points to buy the ESP broad skill, then took the Wild Talent flaw and with those skill points bought Precognition. Which works out really well for me, as now I have an Instant Plot Device ... which came in real handy during London Calling, as once again the group totally ignored one line of questioning while shooting right to a conclusion (though this time a right conclusion).
Actually, London Calling worked out so well I'd like to do a Story Hour write up of how it went ... although it isn't officially D20. I have to say that was quite possibly THE BEST adventure I've ever run.
My favorite bits of table talk from that session:
"Do I need to make a roll or something to see if I can find a broom handle and some duct tape? ... Do they HAVE duct tape in England?"
and
Player 1: "I surreptitiously pull the tranq gun from under the blanket in the trunk ..."
Player 2: "You're going to try and TRANQULIZE the demon ..."
Player 1: "Hrm. Yea. You have a point. ... Should work pretty well on his little Voodoo Handler Dude though, shouldn't it?
Now ... do I have any idea which one of them is the demon ... ?"
--fje
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