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!

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.

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.

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!

The Type Of Game I Don't Enjoy

A browse through the pages of this blog should give the reader a clear impression of the games I really enjoy running or playing. Certain themes and styles keep coming up. I do make an effort to try different games with different groups too to get exposure to different approaches, and also to get a feel for the different systems. You don't know till you try!

That being said, there are sometimes when I run a game or play in one where I'm just left feeling flat. I know there are various factors in every game....the setting, the system, the GM, the group composition and the location all contribute. In my case I can say that there are two aspects that leave me cold, even with a great GM and group.

The first is when the focus of the game is combat and there is a strong tactical emphasis. I've experienced this in Pathfinder, Shadowrun and Twilight 2000. The game sessions have been essentially one huge combat setpiece, with grids and miniatures laid out. Initiative, distance, position and range all matter. This just isn't for me and I'm aware that it's the major approach in most roleplaying groups. I often feel that I'm the only one at the table not having a great time in these cases, and that it's exactly what the other players were looking for. I guess I'm looking more for mystery, investigation and story....the undeniable influence of "Call of Cthulhu", where a long combat situation is a sign that something is wrong.

The second is a high level of "crunch". "Crunch", if you don't know the term, is the level of complexity in the game mechanics. High crunch games will feature a lot of rules to consider in resolving conflicts, numerous combinations of dice to roll, lookup charts etc. Some games put more of this in the character generation phase, some in the actual gameplay...some both. I don't mind it in character creation, but in gameplay it frustrates me. I do like the random component that rolling the dice introduces, and I do like some lookup tables here and there, but I don't like having to know a lot of rules just to be able to play my character.

Obviously these are purely personal preference and I'm certainly not in step with the majority of gamers out there on this. This is another good reason though to get exposure to a wide variety of games and groups, especially when you're a GM. It helps you to understand what different players are looking for in a game, and how important it is to have their expectations line up with your approach and what you plan to deliver.

Apocalypse World - The Hocus and the Maelstrom

The second part of +Tony Reyes "Apocalypse World" campaign wrapped up last week, and as I've come to expect from this game, you can expect the unexpected regardless of who runs it.

I'm playing a "Hocus", often characterized as a cult leader, though a read through the playbook offers many more angles and options. The real essence of the Hocus is that the characters abilities are derived from their followers, the psychic maelstrom and their own personal charisma.

Having played alongside this class in the past, I wanted to push deeper into the possibilities that this character has, especially with the maelstrom. The beauty of the maelstrom is that it's an open concept for the group to define...it's a "thing" that we can all tap into with our minds. Is it "the Force", the collective subconscious or microwaves? All are valid. In the case of my character, it's seen as the remains of a shield built with advanced technology to keep us imprisoned. Now it is broken and contains pieces of communication channels. I can interact with this mentally, and did so in two major ways.

The first was rather than just interpreting the things I could "see", I pushed the information the opposite direction, to implant information into the maelstrom. The message was that a new character, the "Driver", was an emissary of sorts and totally unaware of his true role. By putting this information in, other people channelling the maelstrom would have an impression of this message, a potent way for the Hocus to shape his own prophecies.

The second was even more mindblowing and came at the session finale. After a disastrous confrontation (I'll swing back to this shortly) which left an entire village slaughtered, I was left looking for my main rival in the game, another leader named "Aristotle". I channelled the maelstrom and with a major success, literally pulled him through the maelstrom itself to our location in a bolt of lightning, where we swiftly disposed of him. It gave a great end to the chapter as all the characters were left to ponder the extent of the Hocus powers...and if he's been telling the truth all along.

As for that confrontation? That was a direct result of another Hocus power, the ability to rile up a crowd. In this example, it was the main gang in our town. They were out of control and my character managed to harness those emotions, inspiring the crowd and redirecting their anger to my rival,Aristotle. We marched on the other town where I attempted the same thing again with the local population, only for it to backfire completely! The result was carnage.

This all happened in the second half of the game session and it was amazing to experience the sheer havoc and destruction that a Hocus can inspire,very quickly and very easily. It's a challenging character to play and well worth it. 

My Life With Master - "The Countess"

When an unexpected gap in my schedule appeared, I decided to offer a "one-shot" or "demo" game. I really like doing that because it's a great chance for me and prospective players to try something out without having to commit to any further sessions.

Some games are especially well suited to this format, which is why you often see them played at conventions. This time, I returned to one of my favorite games of all-time, "My Life With Master" by +Paul Czege . It's billed as "a roleplaying game of villainy,self-loathing and unrequited love", and it certainly lives up to that. The game is about the Minions (think of characters like Igor), who are servants of a terribly evil Master. They have miserable lives and are trying to find a way out.

We had a small group of four players, the ideal size for this. Three were experienced players with a taste for dark games (yes, +Tony Reyes was one of them), the other was a total newcomer to roleplaying, and she handled it brilliantly.

As a one-shot I spent the first hour on creating Master and the Minions (the player characters). Creation of Master and the setting are done collaboratively, Minion creation is done by the player.
We then jumped into the game, which is played in "scenes",each owned by a player,giving the game a cinematic feel. I also altered the game balance and math to make it feasible for someone to trigger the "Endgame" in a single session. All "Master" games lead to this, culminating in the death of Master. To do this, a character must accumulate enough "Love" points to overcome their own weariness and fear of Master and successfully stand up to him/her.

The scenario that we created was one where Master was "Countess Elizabeth", an old crone living in castle ruins who wanted to act out fairytales. The actors in the play were special "toys", human beings captured from the nearby village and surgically altered to fit their roles. The Minions were a tailor (also the surgeon), the kitchen girl, the overseer of prisoners and a pretty girl who would lure victims from the village. The Minions made their attempts to protect or woo ("Overtures") the objects of their love with mixed results, some of which,in true "Master" fashion, were disastrous, sparking a village revolt.

In the end it was the soft-spoken tailor who rose up to protect a young boy,and killed the Countess. He went on to make a new life for himself in the village, two minions were killed and another took his own life.

All in all, everyone had a great time and were genuinely surprised at how dark this game really was. Having run this before, I can honestly say that the level of darkness we reached was fairly typical and to be expected in this! It really is a game like no other and I love running it. You do need a group that can deal with very dark,mature themes with a good dose of black humor.Next time I will run this for several sessions to play it out as it's meant to be played, and I look forward to seeing what the returning players will come up with second time around.