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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8803983" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Issue 61: Sep/Oct 1996part 2/5Jigsaw: Our cover story is the first out, and explains itself quite neatly. We're off to gothic earth for a remix of Frankenstein. A young girl showed signs of being extremely smart from a very early age and was encouraged by her father to become the first female physician in Ingolstadt. Unfortunately the forces of conservatism were too strong and she was bullied out of university before she could get her diploma. This did not deter her, so she continued to study on her own, one thing led to another, she started engaging in research on raising the dead to prove her brilliance to the scientific community beyond any doubt, and before you know it, she had a freshly animated flesh golem on her hands. Like Victor before her, she was revolted by her creation, but couldn't bring herself to kill him and abandoned him in the woods before skipping town and trying to repress the whole thing. Unfortunately, her creation retains an undying love for her and mental link, so he can track her anywhere, showing up in her bedroom in the middle of the night and disappearing just as mysteriously. If he can't marry her (holy oedipus complex batman!) he'll kill her and her new boyfriend too! She'll ask the PC's for help. (while not revealing that she's the one responsible for creating the monster in the first place) Can you protect her until the wedding, when he's bound to make a move? Will you stick close by her, or try and track him down proactively, finding about his side of the story in the process? In actual play, this isn't actually that different from Wedding Day a couple of issues ago, only with horror trappings rather than comedy ones, as you have a timeline of things that'll happen if you don't stop them and pretty free reign to figure out how you go about that. The difference then is that the stakes are rather more serious, but there's also a distinct possibility that you'll realise the woman has been lying to you and develop some sympathies for the golem's position, as like Frankenstein's Monster, he can be pretty eloquent in the right circumstances. Will this end in tragic violence, or can you break free of those genre conventions and find a better solution? This manages the fairly rare feat of having both a very strong backstory and the potential for good storytelling in actual play, without having a fixed idea of exactly what story the PC's ought to be participating in and railroading them into it. If you want to encourage some spirited debate amongst your players about what course of action they should take and the morality of playing god/responsible childcare, this is pretty top tier, and has plenty of ideas on how to extend it into a longer campaign if you don't kill the golem straight away. (and thoroughly destroy his body so he can't come back for a sequel.) If you find yourself on Gothic Earth for whatever reason I thoroughly recommend it.</blockquote>

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