Monday, August 26, 2013

Geist : The Sin Eaters RPG

"Geist : The Sin Eaters" is a role-playing by White Wolf for the World of Darkness setting, one of several games in the new series of games they launched with "Vampire : The Requiem".

"Geist" is the ghost game, following in the same vein as "Wraith" and "Orpheus". As in those games, the player characters experience death. Unlike "Wraith", the characters get a second chance at life, granted by an incredibly strong restless spirit, the Geist.

This makes it potentially one of the most positive World of Darkness games. The characters have a chance to live their lives in a very different way, perhaps finishing business on behalf of the dead, judging those who have wronged others, or maybe pursuing a hedonistic path.

The characters are also some of the most powerful in the World of Darkness, more along the lines of Mage in that regard, with an incredible array of powers at their disposal, granted by the Geist. Of course,this comes with a price. The Geist has its own needs and agenda which must be respected.

I think this game resonates with me because of the dark,gothic nature, but also as it lends itself very much to mystery and investigative games, very much my preference as a gamesmaster. It's easier for me to pull together a campaign for this in terms of inspiration than most of the other games in the series, closely followed by "Promethean","Werewolf" and perhaps "Mummy".

It's definitely an option I'll offer to my current gaming groups as a first step into the new "World of Darkness" series..look for a gameplay review in the next few months!

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Ravenloft - Nostalgia Time

Twenty-something years ago I ran my first genuine campaign in a tabletop RPG. The game was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, the campaign itself took place in the official "Ravenloft" setting.

"Ravenloft" was a Gothic Horror setting in a different plane of existence. It was composed of Domains, very much like states or countries, each of which was ruled by a Darklord. The Darklords were also prisoners of the Domains that they ruled, and the lands reflected the central myth behind the villain. There was a purgatorial quality to it, the Darklords being unable to leave their Domains. Each was based on a classic horror character, or drawn from other AD&D settings, the main one being Strahd Von Zarovich, the equivalent of Count Dracula. Frankenstein, Vlad Tepes, Werewolves and Mummies were all represented in their own Domains.

The idea was that players would pass through a mist from their own worlds into one of the Domains, so "Ravenloft" sessions could be added on here and there to other games or campaigns. I took a different approach and based my campaign entirely in the setting itself, with each chapter taking place in a different Domain. I used published scenarios as the basis. The beauty of this approach was the variety it presented. We had encounters with zombies in marshlands, Egyptian deserts and adventures on ships. On the other hand, the radical shifts in geography and storylines made it hard to maintain a consistent tone through the campaign.

"Ravenloft" also has it's own tweaks to the established rules. The polarity between good and evil is more pronounced and extreme with game mechanics added to reflect that. Acts of evil could manifest in a physical change in a character. The party Thief, for example, grew horns! These changes remain should the character return to their own world. The game had rules for fear as well, so in some ways it was closer to "Call of Cthulhu".

Some of the sessions simply didn't work well, I was extremely inexperienced at the time and my preparation should have been much better than it was. Occasionally though, it worked wonderfully. There was one game were the villains were werewolves. I'll never forget the atmosphere that we,as a group, captured that night. The characters were very powerful at this point and yet were extremely intimidated by the locals in the town inn. Great roleplaying all round and it's something I try to recapture in other games.

I need to get a copy of the game again to see how it reads after all this time. I have no doubt that I could do a lot more with it now, though I'm not sure what system I'd use. I did love AD&D 2E at the time, though again, it's been decades since I've looked at it. Even though I'm primarily a "Call of Cthulhu" GM these days, "Ravenloft" was my first signature game and will always hold a special place.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Trail of Cthulhu - The Campaign Begins!

This weekend I kicked off my latest campaign. It's in the "Bookhounds of London" setting for "Trail of Cthulhu". This campaign takes place in London, 1935.

The session lasted roughly four hours and the first two and a half were spent on setting things up. First was character creation, something we didn't rush, especially with most of the group being totally new to this system. We have a great cast of characters...the Bookseller (owner of the bookshop and party leader), the Book Scout (dodgy acquirer of books), the Catalogue Agent (think of Johnny Depp in "The Ninth Gate"), the Occultist (enough said), the Antiquarian (museum contact and part-time employee), the Forger (again,enough said) and a Private Investigator (unusually the one with morals).

Next we created the Bookshop itself. This was a collaborative exercise for us all,with the Bookseller having final say on some decisions. We came up with a name ("Marlowe & Sons"), physical description of the store, its location (Soho), main lines of business, clientele and rivals. This was great fun and gave me,as a gamesmaster, lots of hooks and material to work into the sessions I already have outlined. It was also a pleasure to see how everyone contributed with great ideas. It's a very effective way to get the players invested in the setting itself, as they've created so much of it. This is definitely an exercise I'll embrace in future campaigns.

I then turned over the names of the investigation stories that I'd created loose frameworks for, along with a one-line intro. The group could choose which one to start with,and the order in which the others will be played.Again, a bit of a gimmick, but it gives the group some ownership and helps me plan things out and get a sense in advance of how the sessions may flow. They were offered "Dust to Dust","The Poe Ritual","Lot 666","When The Wind Blows" and "The Seance". They went for the Poe story which was a really good choice for a starter.

We managed to get a solid hour or so of gaming in so they could get a feel for their characters and I'd say we got halfway through "The Poe Ritual". I really enjoyed the system,setting and group dynamic. That being said, as usual, the system was really there as a backup for the story, something that I prefer and encourage. I like the feel of "Trail of Cthulhu" and look forward to using it in other settings. If you like Cthulhu games with more emphasis on the investigation and storyline side of things, do give it a try.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Trail Of Cthulhu - Preparing a New Campaign

This weekend will be the beginning of a new campaign that I've written, using the "Trail of Cthulhu" system. I'm excited about this as it's the first time I'll have run "Trail" with my usual group, I have some new faces at the table, and the setting is also new.

This campaign will be in the "Bookhounds of London" setting, in the 1930's. I'm using what has now become my standard approach for campaigns. I run six sessions, once a month. The first is all about character creation and setting things up. The following five sessions are actual investigations, presented as standalone stories that have an overall story arc. This keeps the game open and accessible for people who join later on, or for players who miss a game here and there. Sometimes I get the first story going in session one, depending on how long character creation takes. I think the eagerness to play can mean rushing through this process,and it's something I want to change this time. I will also encourage the group to create a few extra characters which I'll have as NPCs, available to become player characters for newcomers or replacements to existing characters.

The stories I've prepared are loose threads. I have things like twists and the big reveal already in place, but the rest of the structure is very open so the players can take the story where they want it to go. I will also be trying a gimmick of allowing the players to choose which threads to follow, in such a way that they will be deciding the order in which the stories are played. I'm looking forward to seeing how this unfolds and how the story order will impact on the flow of the campaign.

Another aspect that's new this time is that I have certain situations or setpieces that I want to put in to really make each story a different experience, rather than just a "monster of the week" approach. I've done this a little with "Delta Green" and it's very rewarding to see the players really think through a situation with unique challenges.

Each story will feature a book. It may be a Mythos tome, or something less sinister. The goal in one story might be the aquisition of the book, in another it could be to sell one. It could even be a case of keeping a book out of the hands of a rival. Again,these are all angles I'm looking to explore.

I'll be posted summaries of the sessions in the coming months. I hope they play out well and they give you some ideas to throw into your own campaign, if you enjoy the same psychological horror that I do!