Dare you listen to the whispers?

A newish trailer for the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society's film version of The Whisperer in Darkness is out, and it looks amazing (PS. Migo)!:

These guys really set the bar for film adaptions of Lovecraft's work, with this the follow up their highly acclaimed version of The Call of the Cthulhu.

Things are still pretty mad here in the lead up to Christmas, but by a fortunate coincident both my copy of Cthulhu Dark Ages and the limited edition, hardback version of Masks of Nyarlathotep have arrived pretty much at the same time. This will keep me in happy reading once I find time to do it on top of everything else.

Less cool it fact that it seems the Chaosium website may not be entirely secure, with a number of purchasers being hit with fraudulent credit card transactions. I put an order through on the weekend and although I haven't had any problems, I canceled my card this morning anyway to be on the safe side. As is life.

A thought...

A little while ago - during the whole Chilean miner saga - I had an idea for a Cthulhu scenario set underground in a mine collapse. The characters would be miners who were trapped you see, so it would be a race between getting rescued and surviving whatever they had dug up.

That idea is going to be shelved in my mind for a while - maybe forever. I'm not given generally to public displays of grief and am pretty detached from any news I read or see, but this is a pretty dark day for our mild little corner of the world.

My gaming life

After a busy few weeks, it is nice to pause for a moment and reflect on some of the gaming I have managed to sneak in.

Since the first season of 'Empire State Secrets' finished, Dan has started running a Dragon Blooded Exalted game, which has been mighty good fun. Playing Exalted has been a new experience for me and one, to my surprise, I have really enjoyed. He has even set up a very slick blog for the game, which puts my Trail wiki to shame.

If I'm honest, the concept of Exalted has always left me a little cold in the past, but Dan has done a great job of introducing me to the setting and the features of the game that do make it so much fun (I have forgotten how satisfying it can be to roll handfuls of D10s). I that feel there is a nice symmetry at play here, in that I have 'talked around' Dan to Cthulhu, while he has got me on side with Exalted.

Dan also spent a lot of time and energy in running in depth preludes for the characters, which has worked really well. It has given us all a lot more 'depth' to our characters and this shows in the quality of the roleplaying. I haven't really used preludes as a technique before that much, but I'm looking at re-accessing that for the future seeing how well it has worked in this instance.

Unfortunately just as we were getting into a good rhythm, one of our players had to go off and do something awesome like go to Antarctica. He'll be back in a few months, so the collective decided to hold fire until his return. Which is the perfect opportunity for me to throw some Cold City into the mix...

My other regular game is Dale's 'Kingsport's Tales' for Call of Cthulhu. This game continues to be a lot of fun and I have been involved in it for well over eight months now. Dale runs the game very well and rolls very easily with all our off the wall ideas. Playing the Innsmouth scenarios were a particular highlight, though all the different adventures have been strong. 

It has been particularly refreshing to work with some of the often maligned Dreamlands material, something for which I now have a new appreciation.

The only slight downside for me is that I still don't feel like I have a handle of my character's 'point of difference' in the game. Since we're usually playing with a big group (5-7 people), I feel his characteristics and mannerisms are perhaps too subtle and he blends a little into the background. His skills (like researching, history, persuading) also overlap with others in the group, so this has led to him being less involved at times than perhaps I would have liked him to be. This is something that is more of a 'roleplaying issue' for me than a 'game issue' for Dale, so I will keep working it through and see what I can do. 

However, this doesn't detract from the fact that I enjoy the game immensely and look forward to it. Perhaps the best part has been getting to meet a good bunch of guys to game with!

I really want to get my Kapcon scenario finalised in the next couple of weeks as well to have a playtest before Christmas, so say tuned to hear more about that!

Not so quiet published

I am a little slow off the mark in mentioning this one, but Pelgrane Press have recently released 'Not so quiet', the Trail of Cthulhu adventure some of the Kingsport guys and I play tested a while back.

Reading through it I was pleased to see they adopted some of the suggestions we made and have provide additional guidance is some of the areas we identified. 

All in all it is a really tight little scenario, though I still think that if I ever run it again I will make some extra changes to suit my own style of play more.

If nothing else, however, it is one of the more compelling treatments of the First World War I have read of in a gaming product.

FFG: Mansions of Madness

Fantasy Flight Game's latest Cthulhu themed offer looks to be a  stunner, with a follow up to Arkham Horror called Mansions of Madness. 


It looks awesome and has the high production value associated with their games. What I am particularly excited about is the range of plastic miniatures that come with it, which look perfect for tabletop Cthulhu. Aren't they awesome?


It is also interesting to see FFG further blurring the lines between 'board games' and 'RPGS, as Mansions of Madness seems to stray into that territory, at least from my cursory inspection. I certainly enjoy Arkham Horror, but have heard some very mixed reviews about their take on Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. This, however, will certainly be on the top of my Christmas list. 

Fright Night 2010

On Saturday night I was treated to a wonderful evening of horror themed role playing at the fourth annual Fright Night, held at the suitably atmospheric Turnbull House here in Wellington. It consisted on two session of fine gaming that ran the gambit from spooky to strange to horrific.

It was also a good chance to catch up with the various Wellington role playing locals and game with some new people. I had a great time and the whole night seemed to go very smoothly (at least from my end).

Below are more detailed reviews of the games I played in. There not too spoilerific, but probably best to avert your eyes if you're keen to play them in the future.

After a brief welcome and pre-amble, it was off to the first round game, which for me was 'Splinter of Corruption' run by Doug. I signed up for this one because I was keen to see how Dark Heresy plays as I've always thought that the Warhammer 40,000 universe would be a great backdrop for a role playing game. Doug didn't disappoint and ran an atmospheric and richly textured game, in which our novice inquisitor team sought information on the dark fate of Commissar Nihilius and his squad. It had a nice '80's sci-fi movie feel to it and I could feel the spirit of Aliens coursing through it.

I played a Novice Cleric called Castus who did his best to support his brothers and encourage them to follow the one truth path of the Emperor (he also proved more than a little handy with a hammer). I think our team was a little out of its depth in terms of leadership and adopted a very direct approach to the investigation, but this only added to the game's dramatic finale. We were a little pushed for time, though I understand that Doug intends to run this at Kapcon, so with a few minor tweaks this game will really do the business.

As we finished the first round game a little behind schedule, there was only time for a very brief break before I was into round two. In this round played 'Rivers of Gold', a Trail of Cthulhu based scenario run by Mike. I was really interested to be a player in a Trail game again as it has been a while since I had been in that position thanks to my GMing duties. The game was set in the Otago gold fields during the gold rush, with my fellow players and I taking on the role of a group of gold prospectors, who uncovered more than they expected in a previously uncharted part of the country.

I played Alex Masters, a young half-Maori, half-Scot who, against his better judgement, loyally followed his mate Bill into an increasingly bizarre world. I gather there may have been some mix-up with the character allocation as Alex was a quite a different man to the answers I provided to Mike's pre-game questionnaire. Nevertheless he was a lot of fun to play and for a while there I hoped he might make it through 'unchanged'.

Mike ran a very tight and polished game, which achieved its aim of producing more chills than frights, while teasing out the final mystery to the very end. Indeed it is a sign of the scenario's strength that despite being quite a linear and constrained scenario, those features didn't distract from the overall experience. For me it channelled the better aspects of Lovecraft's more science fiction orientated works, and some elements wouldn't have seemed out of place in The Colour out of Space. The other players too all really worked their characters well and proceed some genuinely creepy moments. We perhaps could have used a little more time to round things off at the end as it felt a little rushed, but that is only a very minor blemish.

So overall Fright Night more than delivered. A big thanks to Dale and co. for organising the event, and both Doug and Mike for running excellent scenarios. This has certainly set the bar for Kapcon and the mind is whirring already on what I can organise for Fright Night 2011. Hopefully I'll see some more of you there as it really was a great night.

Towards the Mountains of Madness

I am rubbing my hands together in glee at the moment and Dale is busily preparing to start running 'Beyond the Mountains of Madness' for our Call of Cthulhu group.

Based on the Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness, this is widely regarded as one of the best RPG campaigns ever published for any system. A long and hard journey to a forbidden Antarctic world await the characters, who face not only the environmental challenges, but also the mythos horrors that reside in that frozen wasteland. In other words, a hell of a lot of fun!

I am looking forward to taking my New England author Michael St Croix and matching him against this challenge. It should prove some great opportunities for role playing and character development, as well as some nice dramatic parts as well. I've also got some nice ideas for a back up character - an obsessed astronomer - if things get really bad.

I am also going to encourage Dale to take advantage of the amazing props available for this campaign at the Propnomicon site, which I have mentioned previously, as they are simply amazing (such as this photo I have included shows).

Who would have thought I would be so keen to experiences those lurking terrors hidden beyond the ice!

D&D and a geek confession

Last week while browsing through Wargames Supply here in Wellington, I picked up a copy of Wizards of the Coast's (WOTC) new starter box for Dungeons & Dragons. This is designed as an introduction to the game for new players and is modelled specifically on the famous 'red box'(right down to the design) of earlier fame. I grabbed a copy due to the fact it is disgustingly cheap and because I am it's target market.

That's right, I have a geek confession to make. I have never really played D&D (or any derivative) before, or had much interest in doing so. Although this means I cannot make a fully informed review of the product, I can add a few thoughts from that fresh perspective.

But first a little background on the lack of D&D in my gaming life. I entered the hobby in the early 1990s through a gateway drug called Warhammer 40,000 and, unlike a lot of other gamers, my first RPG love was not D&D but R. Talsorian Game's Cyberpunk 2020 (which deserves it own write up). I was of course aware of D&D being around (how could I not as it dominated our local comic store), but to be honest it didn't really grab me, in part due to the seemingly impenetrable rules and the overwhelming number of products required ("so wait, I need to buy how many rulebooks?"). The nineties was also the time when that behemoth of the RPG world TSR was going through the doldrums creatively and was taking a huge hit financially trying to compete with WOTC in the collectible card game market (anyone remember Spellfire?)

D&D took a further hit in my development with the emergence of White Wolf's 'World of Darkness' series of games. White Wolf set itself up in opposition to TSR in many ways with its dark focus on edgy, mature themes and preference (at least in theory) for story and narrative over mechanics (this also deserves a post of its own). It seemed far more interesting, vivid and exciting than what I perceived as the formulaic, overly mechanistic and predictable features of D&D.

My friends and I consumed veraciously everything put out by White Wold in the mid-to-late nineties as TSR stumbled and fell, although it is interesting to note how many of the accusations brought against TSR started to become 'business as usual' for White Wolf as its market share grew (more on this another day). 

In hindsight, it is interesting how this experience has shaped me as a gamer. I still prefer strong narrative based games that are character driven, and always put a great deal of stock in the 'mood'(including ambiance and scene painting) of a game. I am also pretty awful at learning new systems and, to be honest, to this day I still have a slight suspicion of anything involving a D20. So as a result of all this, I have tended to avoid D&D as a game. The few experiences I have had have been either unsatisfying or confusing (or both). 

However, the buzz about D&D fourth edition has been positive in some quarters and I have been encouraged to try it, even though I am suspicious of its 'wargamey' feel. But I'm not one to hold a grudge, so I thought I would have a crack in this instance.

So enough history and on to the product itself. The starter box is part of WOTC's D&D 'Essentials' line which is designed to hark back to a simpler, arguably purer form of the game. I can't make a full judgement about product (or the line) given I haven't read it all, but from the little I have looked over, it's good. 

Character creation is pitched like a 'choose your own adventure' game, so it doesn't get bogged town in technical terminology, and it also takes the reader through a basic combat to familiarise him or her (most likely him) with that side of the rules. It also comes with some quite neat extras, like maps, tokens, dice and cards. Although, as one would expect, it focuses heavily on combat, it also provides some options for non-combat related actions during the game and even a little roleplaying.

I plan to keep posting some thoughts here as I (slowly) work my way through it, but I think there is enough here to inflict a night's entertainment on my friends. It may even be enough for me to give D&D a second chance, though I still have my suspicions. 

Any of you out there have any thoughts on the 'red box' or D&D in general? What about formative roleplaying experiences? This is something I think I could write a lot more about...

Still here...

Wow it has been over a month since the last post. It has been a pretty flat out September for me with work, study and wedding planning occupying a lot of my energy. However, I'm back now, so on with the roleplaying update.


Due largely to the overseas excursion of one of our players, we have yet to kick off Dan's Exalted game with the Trail of Cthulhu group, but I have a neat character and am looking forward to getting into it in the next couple of weeks.


I have been largely keeping up with Dale's Cthulhu game and we have just finished the most epic and enjoyable 'Escape from Innsmouth'/'Raid on Innsmouth' campaign. The Shadow Over Innsmouth is one of my favourite Lovecraft stories and so I have always been keen to play (and one day run) this scenario. It was a lot of fun and Dale more than did it justice in his GMing, as well as showing me the skills needed to pull it all off.


I have also been doing some more thinking about next year's Kapcon. I have decided to go ahead with running the Cold City adventure I mentioned back in August, as I had some inspiration on how to bring it all together. It's now titled 'The Lesser Evil or the Greater Good' and I hope it will succeed in its aim of forcing the players to make some hard decisions. You can check out the blurb on the Kapcon website. I'll be calling for playtest victims volunteers in the next couple of months in order to get it nice and tight to fit into the three hour slot.


Speaking of that, I'm still tossing up whether to run another game (probably Trail) at Kapcon. I was looking at running Graham Walmsley's 'The Dance in the Blood' which has now been released and I have downloaded, though I'm little uncertain if it will fit into the three hour Kapcon slot. It's a very atmospheric adventure, so may require longer than the three hours provided at Kapcon, though the premise and 'twist' is very satisfying. I'll keep you all posted on how that one goes.


Other than that, things are looking good for the next while with Fright Night coming up later in the month and my regular groups kicking on. Now to start writing that scenario...

The Wreck (finale)

Monday saw the suitably epic finale of this current 'season' of Empire State Secrets, where our brave band of NYPD's finest fought back against the accursed and eldritch secrets of Innsmouth and saved the city of New York.


The last game went well and the players really gave it their all, which was really appreciated. Even the miserable Wellington weather came to the party. As we started a little late, I felt a little like I had to 'push' the story along in parts more than I would have preferred. I also wasn't able to draw out the tension as much in the final scenes as planned, but these are only very minor quibbles in what has been a very enjoyable series. I've really had a great time.


Although things started a little hesitantly, we all fell into a really nice groove with the game and hit that gaming 'sweet spot', where it all just seemed to work. This was really gratifying for me as a GM as this was something I really wanted to work and for which I put a lot of effort into. It was also a couple of players first real Cthulhu experience, so I wanted to share what I love about the game and mythos and give them an authentic experience (contrary to the popular opinion of some, this does not mean going mad and dynamiting a Shoggoth, but taking part in a really creepy mystery where you have no idea where it will lead).


I'm taking a break from the GMing duties of the group for a few weeks as Dan is running an Exalted game, which I'm looking forward to as I have never played it before. However, I will confess I'm feeling ambivalent about wrapping up my game (even if only for a couple of months). 


While I'm looking forward to the break, as I have some more mundane tasks to concentrate on, I'm also a little concerned about loosing the momentum and great vibe that has been developed so far. My players assure me I have nothing to fear, but what if a younger, more attractive GM comes along!


Jokes aside, the mature and solid relationship my players have means it won't be a problem. And I've already got some suitably grim ideas for next season... 

From my Fevered Imagination: the Chuck Norris Memorial Hard Man RPG Challenge

I should preface this by saying that I love the concept of stupid challenges undertaken by a group of mates. I think it's to do with the (generally) male bonding involved or something. 

Anyway, my fevered brain last night channeled whatever sick muse it was listening to create in my mind's eye the Chuck Norris Memorial Hard Man (or Woman) RPG Challenge.

What this clash of the titans involves is five (lets say five) GM who all agree to run a three to four hour session over the course of a weekend away somewhere. The kicker is that these GMs will only know what games they are running two (lets say two)days before where they are randomly provided with a system and a time slot over the weekend. The GMs would then have a couple of days to digest the rules, write a short adventure(or if they are lucky adapt one from the game they are given) and create pre-gens (if need be).

And these just wouldn't be any old games. This would be five games covering different genres and different systems, usually obscure and well out of date. No Storyteller System or GUMSHOE here. It would then be a challenge of the GMs skill and ability to create and convincing and enjoyable game out of a foreign system with a short time to prepare (for the record, my nomination would be Star Frontiers).

If the GM really hated their randomly selected game, then they could swap it for the MYSTERY GAME which they would have to keep, which could be either completely awesome or completely arse.

I was also thinking (yes I've given this quite some thought over the day) that scoring would be done by the four players in each game and the GM with the highest score would win an AMAZING prize*.

I've still a little undecided on how long the GMs should have between receiving their system and running their game. Two nights (if they are on the first day of the weekend) doesn't seem like much, but then again a week sounds like too long. But I guess it's meant to be a challenge. Also those going in the latter session would have a slight time advantage in preparing, but would probably be more fatigued, so it might balance up in the end.

I think a lot of fun would be finding the games, as there are some classics floating around out there. Of course, all this would be accompanied by beers and ideally a nice out-of-town location.

Sadly I don't think it is something that would see the light of day easily, but what do you guys think? Any thoughts to add?

* Warning: prize may not actually be amazing.

Empire State Secrets: The Wreck (Part 2) + Cthulhu Dice

Monday saw part 2 of our Empire State State Secrets campaign called 'The Wreck', where our noble characters investigated the arrival in port of an almost abandoned steamer carrying a mysterious cargo.

Looking into the events around the ship arrival and the cargo, the investigators dug up all manner of fun terms like 'Innsmouth', 'Kingsport', 'the Marsh refinery', 'Project Covenant' and 'R'lyeh'.

The investigation heavy parts of these Cthulhu adventure can sometimes be a little bitsy, as the characters are often off following up their own leads and contacts, but overall I think the game went well. The tension is slowly building and I think things are nicely coming together for the next couple of sessions.

As an added bonus, I also got the sanity loss inducing present of Cthulhu dice from J. and some delicious cookies from S. Thanks guys!  

Kapcon Calling

It's about five months to go until Kapcon 2011, but I'm already starting to think about what to run. This year was my second Kapcon, as my first time running a game (The Murderer of Thomas Fell for Trail of Cthulhu), and I really enjoyed the experience. Due to the high standard of games run, it pays to be on to these things early in order to build in enough time for playtesting and tweaking.

This year I think I'll stick to running two session and playing in four (though I might also go for a three-three split). Kapcon is interesting in that the sessions are all only three hours long, which presents its own set of challenges, especially if your players aren't used to the system. So this has to factor into any decisions as well.

I'm still very much in the brainstorming stage at the moment. I'm pretty sure I want to run at least one session for Trail of Cthulhu, possibly the soon to be published adventure called A Dance in the Blood by Graham Warmsley. The buzz online has been pretty good about it so far and it sounds like it might tick the boxes. I'm also feeling increasingly confident with the GUMESHOE system from my regular game, which means the learning curve wouldn't been so steep.


However I'm also thinking about running something that is not Cthulhu related. Current ideas include: 


A Cold City adventure I've had kicking around for a while involving a trail of murdered ex-Nazis. I've got the start and the ending of this one worked out in my mind, but I've got to figure the rest out before I can write it.


Something for the Esoterrorists set in old Wellingtown itself. This one has the advantage of using the GUMSHOE system, and I also really like the idea of setting it in Wellington for both the locals and the out of towners. In fact I've got a great idea in mind for the first scene at Wellington airport. I haven't written a word for this, so would have to figure out a story to go with the premise.


A Spirit of the Century game, which I haven't got anything more for than a vague inkling that I would like to run it. I like the concept of a 'high pulp' game and the fact that it's designed for pick up play, but I don't even own this one yet, so it would require some investment.


So those are the ideas so far, though there are still other options around including something for the Doctor Who RPG, though I'm probably just looking for an excuse to buy the books. I'm going to use this blog to record how my decision making progress goes and, if nothing else, the more adventure I write up, the better I'll get at them.

Dr Strangeplot: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love my Players

I have been thinking a little lately as Empire State Secrets progresses, and as I read more GUMESHOE related material, about how my approach to running games has changed over the years. The moment of 'self-awareness' really dawned on me last weekend when I was running a session for the Thursday night (soon to be the Monday night) group.

When I was younger and less experienced, I remember getting frustrated or disappointed if the game didn't proceed down the carefully crafted plot line that I or the published story author had devised. If my players wanted to do something outside what was anticipated, which happened quite often players being players, it would throw me a little. If scenes were jumped or missed out, I would feel a little like I had failed. I would have 'succeeded' if I had carried out the scenario successfully and my players would have a good time accordingly.

As I have run more games and written more stories, I have to come to redefine success in running a game. I am successful not if I tick off all the different parts of the story (like a compliance document), but if my players have a good time. If that means they decide to jump certain parts of the story or bulldoze through my plot, that's fine, as long as I can run it without missing a beat so they still enjoy themselves. This involves being way more relaxed about how the game goes and to stop worrying if things don't go as planned.

An example of this comes from Thursday's game where the characters were investigating the kidnapping of a child from a wealthy family. The story, as written, pretty much has the characters doing waiting around until the money drop before they follow the kidnappers back to the hideout at the docks. However, thanks to the proactive investigating of one character, I decided the location of the hideout would be found sooner, thereby jumping all the scene relating to the money dump.

Now I could have 'blocked' his progress in order to keep to the story as written, but that would have felt really artificial as part of the story. So I relaxed, rolled with it and let the story take its course. The result was a really good scene that felt organic, natural and something my players seemed to really enjoy.

Taking a more laid back approach to running game has been helped by using the GUMSHOE system, which is a style of play that I am coming more and more comfortable with and fond of. The focus is on giving the players clues for the story without getting bogged down in the mechanics of how they get them. This is articulated well by another blogger sharing his thoughts about Trail of Cthulhu: 

So now I don’t worry about whether a clue would be better found by Evidence Collection or by Forensics. I just see that a character is looking where they should to find a clue, and give it to them. I keep a list of what abilities the different characters have, and I phrase the evidence in keeping with whichever of the abilities makes the most sense given the information. If they’re looking for more, I’ll ask for a spend from a particular ability, or I’ll ask them what ability they’re using to get more information.

The two important things are that the clues get found and that the players enjoy themselves.

Once the characters have the clues, it then up to them to decide how they want to proceed with them. This take a lot of stress out of running a game, as I don't have to quickly shoe horn another scene in if the players miss their roll, since plot advancement isn't dependent on dice. It also means I can spend more time on the stuff I really enjoy, like setting the mood, building the back story or working on the plot.

The total result being that my perspective on running games has changed, in my opinion for the better, which has in turn enhanced my enjoy of the process and I think that of my players.

On an unrelated topic, this weekend I watched the recent Sherlock Holmes movie that came out here in New Zealand about 6 months ago. I really enjoyed it as a movie, but what struck me how very similar it was to a roleplaying game, from the plot to the pacing. It also re-sparked my interest in running a Gaslight Cthulhu game again, so watch this space.

Lovecraft links

Not strictly a role playing entry, but I thought I would point out some nifty Lovecraft links that I have been enjoying recently in lieu of something more substantial:


Lovecraft is Missing - An enjoyable little Lovecraftian homage webcomic which is particularly enjoyable if you know your Lovecraft. More pulp than classic cosmic terror, but still a lot of fun.


H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast - This is a regular half-hour podcast by two guys going through and discussing every Lovecraft story. Usually their inane banter is a little too inane for me, but often there is also a lot there of interest, especially when they have guests like Ken Hite.


Propnomicon - This is another fantastic site, this time about prop making. Not just for Cthulhu related things, but for a whole bunch of interesting topics. The creator also produces and provides for free some really awesome props for all manner of role playing games, so big ups for that.


That is about it for now, but I have some more things festering around in my fevered mind to post later.

Play-testing time

Today, assisted by some kind souls, I ran a play-test for a soon to be published adventure for Trail of Cthulhu. Set in a field hospital during World War 1, the adventure asks the players to investigate some recent unexplained deaths. Overall I think the game went OK, but running a play-test presented me with some interesting challenges.

Probably the biggest challenge was not modifying the scenario before hand. As the game was a play test, I deliberately decided not to modify things in order to provide the most effective feedback. This is something I have taken for granted in my recent gaming life and, to be honest, something I wasn't aware I did so much. I guess it's only when I didn't have the ability to do this, that I realised I really appreciated it.

This made the game being a little more messy than I would have normally preferred, as there were aspects that didn't sit totally right with me. The adventure was also designed with a real 'sandbox' approach to the setting. The players found this good in that it gave them a lot of freedom to investigate different leads, but I felt some of the scenes were a little 'messy'. There were also a large number of NPCs to juggle which was a little draining and quite a shift in tone towards the end of the story.

This meant some aspects of the game didn't really 'pop' as well as I would have hoped, which is a little disappointing, as I was the GM for a new bunch of guys who I respect as gamers. I am also fighting off the beginnings of a cold, which didn't help matters much. However it did remind me of the importance of scenario familiarity, especially when you can't make changes, and I think the feedback generated will be very useful for the publishers. Next up is Thursday's regular New York campaign, so hopefully I'm feeling better by then.

Thoughts on Cold City (Part 1)

Thanks to a rainy Saturday night while my beloved was out with some old Uni friends, I finally got around to sticking my nose into Cold City,a game of trust and lies, set against the backdrop of post-World War II Berlin. I played the sister game, Hot War (which I also have but haven't read yet), at a Kapcon a couple of years back, and really enjoyed the rule light approach and strong narratives both games share.
 

In Cold City the players each take on the role of a member of the Reserve Police Agency, comprised of members of occupying powers (USA, UK, France, USSR) plus Germany, who investigate and clean up the strange occult experiments of the Nazi regime, known as twister technology. There is certainly a strong noir feel to the setting, which is reinforced by the shady deals and conflicts between the occupying powers. Check out The Third Man and you'll have immediate sense of the setting.


Cold City also shines in its approach to character creation and game structure. It's highly narrative focused, which encourages players to contribute scenes or concepts they would like included in the game. The mechanics of the game are also light, which means there is plenty more room to flesh out character personality, with how a character is roleplayed counting for more than what stats they have.


At the heart of the game lies trust, and all characters have different national agendas and personal agendas (which can be in conflict). As all the players are working towards different agenda (and can get in game bonuses for doing so), it makes for a really interesting experience, especially as trust also plays an important role. 


I'm still working my way through it, which isn't a chore at all, so will have some more thoughts by the time I am finished, but already I have some ideas for a game or two. What is really exciting is that the rules could be adopted to any other slightly shady, noirish setting. I would love to run a game with an adapted version of this rule set set in 1930s LA, with a real Raymond Chandler vibe going on.

I'm thinking haunted lighthouses...

Spooky enough for you? Maybe it could use a little mist. However the best part is that it is (well was) nuclear powered. In Russia.

That's right, it's an abandoned Soviet-era atomic lighthouse.

Continuing with the music theme...

Just following up on my previous post about music in RPGs, I just thought I would point out that Pelgrane Press, who publish the exceedingly awesome Trail of Cthulhu, are putting together a classic, large scale campaign for Trail called Eternal Lies which includes its very own music suite, complete with opening and closing tracks, ambient music and short scene specific 'stingers'.

This is an awesome idea, especially as the music will be written directly into the fabric of the campaign, and is what I have come to expect from the innovative folks at Pelgrane. I totally can't wait to get my greasy mitts on it when it comes out, probably later this year sometime.

Why I play...

A Game for Grown-Ups

"It's for this reason that Ken Hite, for example, has called CoC the only adult roleplaying game ever made, because it presumes that your characters aren't venal, self-interested rogues interested in lining their pockets and increasing their fame. Instead, they're men and women who labor, almost certainly unknown, to fight against the Dark that threatens to consume us all, in the full knowledge that they may not only fail but lose all that they value in the process of their fight. That's some heavy stuff right there and it's why I still love Call of Cthulhu despite its flaws."

The always interesting RPG blog Grognardia sums up for me pretty well my continued fascination and enjoyment of Cthulhu based games despite the inherent bleakness of the subject matter. It's probably the most heroic RPG I can think of!

RPG Soundtracks

I have been thinking a bit recently between the relationship between music (including sound effects) and tabletop RPGs. Over the years I have been both a passionate advocate and skeptical user of music in role playing games. While I think when done well, even just as background 'white noise', it can make a good game great and adds to the players' immersion in the game, it can also result in the GM fiddling around with a computer or CD player to the detriment of the game's flow.

Another issue is the amount of prep time it can take to listen to music, cue it up to the right scenes, organise the special effects and bring it all together in one package. All this can sometimes be to the detriment of the quality of the game itself when it takes precedence over the GM's familiarity with the story or character involvement. I have been involved in games when the GM was so intent on us getting the 'meaning' of the music, that I felt more like an audience than an active participant in a story.

Part of the reason I have been thinking about this was that I was originally wasn't going to bother with any music for my new Trail of Cthulhu Campaign, preferring to use the limited time I had on streamlining the plots and making really nice handouts, but two things have made me revisit the decision. The first was some of my players expressing a preference for it, which kind of surprised me as last time I used it I thought it didn't go too well, and the other was the discovery of the  Scene Sound programme which allows you to more easily manage music and effects by overlaying tracks, looping them and the use of hotkeys. It is not the most user friendly programme out there, as I'm still figuring everything out, but it's free, so I can't really complain.

I think I'll start small with the music and effects, and see how it goes, partly so I'm not listening to creepy music all day, and partly because I think the integrity of the plot is more important, but I will be interested to see how it plays out. I'm quietly excited I guess, as I tend to view the games I run quite cinematically, and the score is obviously an important part of any movie.

I'm also interested to hear how you all feel about music in RPGs. How do you use it? Is it an integral part or a last minute add on? Is it worth the time and effort? What about effects? Any thoughts welcome.