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GUMSHOE: Night's Black Agents - Tinker Tailor Vampire Die
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<blockquote data-quote="Piratecat" data-source="post: 5842095" data-attributes="member: 2"><p>I was really intimidated by core clues and adventure building when I started. They turn out to be much easier than I'd thought, because we've all seen a jillion spy movies and they work the same way. Here's how I put together my last one-shot; please don't read if you plan on playing in my game at next weekend's Boston game day.</p><p></p><p>[sblock]</p><p>I decided I wanted something that starts with action and involves Colombian drug lords. I also want it to involve vampires but seem for most of the game as if it doesn't. I didn't want it to start and end in South America, though, so I decided to start in media res in some eastern European city. Bucharest? No, after glancing at a map I think Krakow looks cooler. </p><p></p><p>Okay, a gunfight in a warehouse? No, more cinematic. A car chase? Hell yes. So we start with a car chase in Krakow, the PCs trying to catch someone. Who? A known terrorist, but a minor one who has something they want and who leads them to a big guy. Hmm, let's say a Russian mobster. What do Russian terrorists have? Suitcase-sized nukes!</p><p></p><p>So I start off with the PCs chasing a Russian terrorist who they think has stolen nukes. I have my maguffin. If they catch him, he'll immediately spill what he knows about his boss [CORE CLUE], who has clearly taken the nukes and flown off somewhere to sell them.</p><p></p><p>In play, I treat the car chase as the beginning sequence to a James Bond movie. I treat the interrogation as something that happens behind the movie's title sequence -- glossed over quickly in montage, then cutting to the punk spilling what he knows. </p><p></p><p>Okay, where to next? I know and love Cartagena Colombia, so let's make it there. That suggests drug cartels. Why would a drug cartel want to buy nukes? Damned if I know. Wait -- what if one of the cartels is run by a vampire who is going insane and wants to drive up the value of his drugs? Pulling a Goldfinger and nuking a rival's coca fields will certainly do that. But that still doesn't ring true. Okay, we make the vampire a camazotz (a man-bat) who was created by a pre-Columbian tribe that worshiped bats. They worshiped at an idol of him that later disappeared into the jungle, forgotten by all but the vampire, and which is now found and owned by another cartel. Having it in the hands of an enemy is literally driving the vampire crazy, making him make irrational decisions (like thinking that nuking a rival is an entirely reasonable plan). So we have a cartel leader who can use nukes to both raise the value of his crops and to punish a rival who is withholding the most important thing in the world to him? Okay, that'll work!</p><p></p><p>That suggests a couple of clues. </p><p></p><p>1. The Medellin cartel has a huge drug shipment in the US that still hasn't hit the streets several weeks later. </p><p>2. In Cartagena, where the Russian terrorist has flown with the bombs, the annual gathering of the three big drug cartels is happening at neutral ground (a resort hotel).</p><p>3. While the Cali and Cartagena cartels are sending their best men, as always, the Medellin cartel is sending mostly mediocre lieutenants. [CORE CLUE - it suggests that Medellin doesn't want to kill their best people.]</p><p>4. There's tension brewing, with Medellin and Cali fighting. Apparently the head of the Cali cartel has an archeological find (a statue) that the head of the Medellin cartel wants</p><p>5. That statue is a bat-winged totem with a face that actually resembles the Medellin drug lord's. Huh. Wacky coincidence.</p><p></p><p>The plan, of course, is that the insane vampire is going to take one bomb away with him (to irradiate his rival's fields) and use the other one to blow up the hotel in Cartagena, wiping out all of his rivals in one fell swoop and destroying the evidence. </p><p></p><p>Into this come the PCs. I encourage them to infiltrate the hotel and parking garage and party, to meet the Russian (in disguise!) and the cartel heads, and to gradually figure out that the Medellin head is a vampire. They have the opportunity to disarm the one nuclear bomb just in the nick of time, and hopefully they stop the vampire from escaping with the second. Then they have to take down the vampire before it can get to a place of safety with the warhead.</p><p></p><p>I've run this five times now, and it's gone well every time. I keep the beginning much more scripted than the end. I know what the mind-controlling bad guy is going to do -- get the bomb, send the terrorist back to blow up the second bomb, try to escape. It's up to the PCs to figure out how to stop him. </p><p>[/sblock]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Piratecat, post: 5842095, member: 2"] I was really intimidated by core clues and adventure building when I started. They turn out to be much easier than I'd thought, because we've all seen a jillion spy movies and they work the same way. Here's how I put together my last one-shot; please don't read if you plan on playing in my game at next weekend's Boston game day. [sblock] I decided I wanted something that starts with action and involves Colombian drug lords. I also want it to involve vampires but seem for most of the game as if it doesn't. I didn't want it to start and end in South America, though, so I decided to start in media res in some eastern European city. Bucharest? No, after glancing at a map I think Krakow looks cooler. Okay, a gunfight in a warehouse? No, more cinematic. A car chase? Hell yes. So we start with a car chase in Krakow, the PCs trying to catch someone. Who? A known terrorist, but a minor one who has something they want and who leads them to a big guy. Hmm, let's say a Russian mobster. What do Russian terrorists have? Suitcase-sized nukes! So I start off with the PCs chasing a Russian terrorist who they think has stolen nukes. I have my maguffin. If they catch him, he'll immediately spill what he knows about his boss [CORE CLUE], who has clearly taken the nukes and flown off somewhere to sell them. In play, I treat the car chase as the beginning sequence to a James Bond movie. I treat the interrogation as something that happens behind the movie's title sequence -- glossed over quickly in montage, then cutting to the punk spilling what he knows. Okay, where to next? I know and love Cartagena Colombia, so let's make it there. That suggests drug cartels. Why would a drug cartel want to buy nukes? Damned if I know. Wait -- what if one of the cartels is run by a vampire who is going insane and wants to drive up the value of his drugs? Pulling a Goldfinger and nuking a rival's coca fields will certainly do that. But that still doesn't ring true. Okay, we make the vampire a camazotz (a man-bat) who was created by a pre-Columbian tribe that worshiped bats. They worshiped at an idol of him that later disappeared into the jungle, forgotten by all but the vampire, and which is now found and owned by another cartel. Having it in the hands of an enemy is literally driving the vampire crazy, making him make irrational decisions (like thinking that nuking a rival is an entirely reasonable plan). So we have a cartel leader who can use nukes to both raise the value of his crops and to punish a rival who is withholding the most important thing in the world to him? Okay, that'll work! That suggests a couple of clues. 1. The Medellin cartel has a huge drug shipment in the US that still hasn't hit the streets several weeks later. 2. In Cartagena, where the Russian terrorist has flown with the bombs, the annual gathering of the three big drug cartels is happening at neutral ground (a resort hotel). 3. While the Cali and Cartagena cartels are sending their best men, as always, the Medellin cartel is sending mostly mediocre lieutenants. [CORE CLUE - it suggests that Medellin doesn't want to kill their best people.] 4. There's tension brewing, with Medellin and Cali fighting. Apparently the head of the Cali cartel has an archeological find (a statue) that the head of the Medellin cartel wants 5. That statue is a bat-winged totem with a face that actually resembles the Medellin drug lord's. Huh. Wacky coincidence. The plan, of course, is that the insane vampire is going to take one bomb away with him (to irradiate his rival's fields) and use the other one to blow up the hotel in Cartagena, wiping out all of his rivals in one fell swoop and destroying the evidence. Into this come the PCs. I encourage them to infiltrate the hotel and parking garage and party, to meet the Russian (in disguise!) and the cartel heads, and to gradually figure out that the Medellin head is a vampire. They have the opportunity to disarm the one nuclear bomb just in the nick of time, and hopefully they stop the vampire from escaping with the second. Then they have to take down the vampire before it can get to a place of safety with the warhead. I've run this five times now, and it's gone well every time. I keep the beginning much more scripted than the end. I know what the mind-controlling bad guy is going to do -- get the bomb, send the terrorist back to blow up the second bomb, try to escape. It's up to the PCs to figure out how to stop him. [/sblock] [/QUOTE]
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