Reports from the Orient Express - Overview & London

This is a review of the revised Call of Cthulhu campaign Horror on the Orient Express (Chaosium: 2014) based on actual play.  I intend to review each chapter of this venerable campaign as we play through it, highlighting what I see as strengths and weaknesses, and providing some suggestions along the way for what I’d do differently if running it again.  Spoilers follow, so don’t read on if you ever plan to play in this classic Call of Cthulhu campaign. 

I begin with an overview of the campaign, based primarily upon my read-though, then move onto the London segment of the campaign which my group recently completed.

Overview
It was a long wait to get the physical box set (roughly 2.5 years since it was funded), but it has to be said that the final product is magnificent, the production values are simply amazing.  In addition to all the props and pieces, there is excellent support for the keeper in facilitating the campaign – Book I is devoted to an overview of the campaign, key players and settings, while Book V (Strangers on the Train) is a cast of pre-generated NPC’s to help the GM flesh out the investigator’s journey and Book VI is a compilation of handouts. 

These are great additions to make the GM’s life easier, especially when navigating the 3 core scenario books at the table.  The utility and quality of this product has been recognised and reflected in the 4 ENnie Award nominations it picked up this year.

So what about the campaign itself?  Well, it‘s a pretty impressive and comprehensive offering.  There are exotic locations, including the Orient Express itself, multiple villains and some of the most evocative horror scenes to grace a table.  When you count all the new adventures, it’s probably enough gaming to last most gaming groups for the better part of a year. 

There are drawbacks too; the plot it is very linear, the setup and ending are restrictive and there are many sections where character agency is simply not assumed or factored, making plenty of additional work for the keeper (I'll cover this in more detail as part of each chapter review).  The authors of the revised product chose to keep much of the old campaign intact (and how could they not really, given its legendary status?), choosing to try and smooth some of the rougher edges (particularly the ending) and add a lot of additional material in the form of scenarios set in other eras, including a lengthy Dreamlands offering.

The revised campaign is also intended to be run using the 7th edition Call of Cthulhu rules (which currently exist only in electronic form).  However, it feels as though the text isn’t really optimised for 7^th edition.  Sure the skill checks in the text refer to difficulty levels and the NPC and monster core attributes and fighting skills have been converted to the new rules, but in 7^th edition a lot of NPC interaction is resolved using checks where the difficulty is established based on the NPC skill level.  So ideally relevant NPC skills would be written in the core text when the characters are extremely likely to interact with the investigator if following the plot as written, so the GM doesn’t have to keep skipping to the back. 

Then there are the chase mechanics which comprise a significant section on the 7^th edition rules.  There is at least one formal chase in the campaign but some other obvious opportunities haven’t been framed in this way (the conclusion to the Nocturne or the Little Cottage in the Woods chapters for example).  In addition, if popular films are anything to go by, it seems inconceivable that there not be a chase through (or on top) of the Orient Express itself (perhaps for a Pulp Cthulhu run anyway).

Finally, I want to mention what, for me, is the central campaign experience.  While treasure hunting and confronting horrors both mortal and supernatural are major aspects, to me key theme of Horror on the Orient Express is the journey of the characters from light into darkness (which parallels their journey across Europe).  The artefacts they carry, the horrors they will face, and the relentless nature of their objective all seem likely to erode the characters compassion, sanity and ultimately their humanity, giving the players a really fascinating opportunity to reveal the essence of their investigator through hardship. 

Of course, this means the investigators needs to survive, and this is no easy task as the lethality of the campaign is definitely weighted toward the latter chapters.  If you can manage this feat however, the 7^th edition sanity mechanics, paired with the campaign’s suggestions about the effect of the Simulacrum on investigators, are a great way to allow the keeper and player to mechanically reflect this journey, as the keeper may draw on the Simulacrum to twist the elements of an investigators backstory when they suffer a bout of madness, and the investigator may also use their backstory to employ a ‘self-help’ sanity gain between stops.  So, on to London.

Dancers in an Evening Fog and the Doom Train
1920’s London is an evocative setting to get things underway, and the campaign encourages the investigators to experience a little of British high-society against a backdrop of industrial unrest. Regrettably the London segment of the campaign is relatively brisk and punctuated with two lengthy monologues by Professor Smith, the first of which has little actual relevance to coming events.

The campaign setup that is the focus of this chapter seems weak on paper, but in actual play, the players were willing to meet the plot half-way and agree to undertake the dangerous quest that Professor Smith outlines, so as to help a friend in need.  Whether this motivation will endure the hardships the investigators have yet to suffer remains to be seen.

There is little opportunity for investigator agency as this chapter revolves around set-pieces which occur in sequence.  That said; it gets the job done, the investigators have a chance to test their investigation skills a little, and begin their quest with a clear objective, a list of clues and the resources to complete their task.

The corpse planted in the reading room of the British Museum is a nice touch, and certainly heightened the tension amongst the more research-focussed characters, but regrettably there is little explanation as to how this feat was accomplished (leading to the suspicion that Makryat may have engaged in Weekend at Bernie’s style shenanigans).

I also think there’s an opportunity to spice things up a little (for Keeper’s looking to inject a little more excitement into the opening chapter).  It seems likely that Makryat’s reputation would be well established amongst unsavoury elements of London’s occult underworld. The newspaper reports detailing his demise might lead some of these individuals to investigate his shop and see if there are any artefacts to be plundered.   The characters might chance upon a burglary in progress, possibly leading to (wait for it) a chase through fog shrouded streets, a scuffle or a tense stand-off.  This could, in turn, lead to the recovery of the ledger, or a page torn from it which details the model train sale (drawing the characters attention to this clue), or perhaps Makryat has left some notes about the simulacrum which could serve to reduce the length and detail of Smith’s monologue later and lend credence to the Turkish cult’s interest.

The main issue for me is that, as scripted there is little likelihood of the characters engaging in the Doom Train scenario.  Now I think the Doom Train is a neat little side adventure, but the main hook is not published in the newspaper until the day after Professor Smith has begged the investigators to “Go. Go quickly” fearing that the cult may already be moving to gather the Simulacrum.  Unsurprisingly the authors note that the two playtest groups for the new campaign didn’t play this scenario.

It is also possible that the players will have come to the scenario by reading the ledger in Makryat’s shop, but this seems pretty unlikely unless one of the characters is an accountant with a proclivity for breaking and entering (or you employ my earlier suggestion to spice things up).

This can be fixed by simply moving the publication of the newspaper story (and the manifestation of the Doom Train) earlier in the timeline of the week, immediately following Makryat’s triple homicide and hoping the investigators are suspicious, or bored enough to investigate. 

A more elegant solution would be to run the Doom Train as a prequel scenario.  It ties in very neatly with the interest of Professor Smith in phantasms.  Under this approach the investigators might be asked by Professor Smith to help with the preparation of his material for the Challenger Lecture by investigating the reported manifestation of a ghost train and disappearance of Albert Alexis in 1917.  Perhaps a witness to this manifestation who described the ghost train to the papers (since institutionalised) can provide information which puts the investigators on the trail of the model train, but before they reach him, Henry Stanley ‘disappears’, which segues into the scenario as written.

Running the Doom Train like this would allow the investigators to actually participate in part of the Challenger Lecture (lifting the load on the Keeper somewhat), describing whatever they chose to reveal of events on the Doom Train to a rapt audience, their incredible tale substantiated by the sensational reappearance of the train.  These events would certainly prove the resourcefulness and skill of the investigators to those watching…

In summary:

PROS

• The opening chapter of the campaign takes place in an evocative setting and sets up the campaign with the investigators clear about what must be done, and possessing clues and the necessary the resources to get the job done.
• There are some nice touches to add to the tension of the game, particularly the corpse in the British Museum Reading Room, the bizarre deaths of Makryat and attack on Professor Smith.
• The Doom Train is a neat and memorable side adventure that really helps set the tone of danger and supernatural horror for the forthcoming campaign.

CONS

• The rationale for the characters to drop everything and depart on a treasure hunt across Europe is weak.
• There is little opportunity for investigator agency as this chapter revolves around set-pieces and lengthy monologues which occur in sequence.
• There are some elements that may require Keeper improvisation; for example there is no provision for the investigators to seek clues from the Police following the fire at Professor Smith’s house (despite the Police being a line of inquiry for Makryat’s death and the disappearance of Arthur Stanley).  Beddow’s also seems a viable suspect following the newspaper report of the fire but there is no detail on his life, friends family etc.
• As written, it is unlikely the investigators will play the Doom Train scenario.

So, in summary; a reasonable beginning to set up the campaign, but with some awkward components that seem like they could have the potential to be much better fleshed out and integrated, to make life easier for the keeper, and increase player engagement.

Other parts of this review:
The Blood Red Fez
Overview & London
Paris
Lausanne
Milan
Venice

Constantinople (1204)
Trieste
Dream Zagreb
Constantinople (330)
Vinkovci
Belgrade
Sofia
Constantinople (1923)
Across Europe
London Again & The Dreamlands Express
Istanbul (2013)
The Final Analysis

ADDENDUM: Dooming the Investigators
After further reflection, I'd like to make an additional comment on the lethality of the Doom Train scenario.  Regarding the attacks of the dead passengers, the scenario states "against such slow-moving attacks, an investigator may Dodge twice in a round."  Under 7e, investigators may make a dodge in response to each brawl attack made against them, so this reflects no actual benefit. In addition, as the passengers outnumber the investigators, the second attacker should receive a bonus dice.

Run as scripted, therefore, multiple investigator fatalities are quite possible. A keeper who wishes to avoid this outcome might reflect the slow nature of the dead by choosing not to apply the outnumbering bonus, and may even grant a bonus dice to an investigator attempting to use a combat manoeuvre to push their way through the press.

Another option might be allocate the dead passengers damage of 1D8 Magic Points per successful Kiss.  Under the 7e rules characters who reach 0 Magic Points suffer any subsequent damage as Hit Points (rather than falling unconscious as under previous editions).  This allows the dead passengers to more slowly drain the life of their victims, making the struggle slightly less extreme in stakes.

'Tis The Season

It’s been a busy time as EPOCH celebrates its 21^st;  that’s 21 scenarios of character-driven survival-horror published over the last two and a bit years.  These 21 scenarios have been written by 10 different authors and collaborators, and each has featured stunning artwork from Doug Royson, been carefully edited by Andrew Smith, and been fitted into the excellent layout template created by Marcus Bone.  I am very grateful to have worked with such talented folks, and I think the quality of the finished product is a good reflection of all the hard work that’s gone in behind the scenes.  Thank you all for helping to spread the horror.

 

Recently I published The Experiment Continues the companion to the EPOCH roleplaying game which has some new rules, more advice and also includes 4 new scenarios.  The companion had been in development for most of the year, and collects a variety of things drawn from my experiences in playing and facilitating the game, reports from others, and a collection of formal reviews.  Mostly this is in the form of advice, although one particular innovation I’m quite proud of are the Twist cards.  When I was first designing EPOCH there was some feedback that there should be more variety in outcomes for the characters, a degree of randomness which had a mechanical effect beyond the core outcome process.  At the time I stuck with the core idea of balance – that every player has an identical chance of  character survival, and that eliminations would be solely determined by collective decision making. 

 

However, the Twist cards add a layer on top of that mechanic, and have really enhanced the games in which I’ve used them.  There have been some extremely memorable plays of ‘Die Hard’, ‘Big Damn Hero’ and ‘In League With The Horror’.  One of my favourite plays was in a scenario which shall remain nameless. Igor had been dealt and then chose to play the ‘insight’ card.  Insight  lets the player look at one of the face down Horror Track Cards.  The card Igor peeked at read “Determine the entire town is gripped by homicidal mania’.  The look on his face was priceless, as were his characters, largely fruitless attempts to convince the others that they were in danger.

 

The scenarios are pretty fantastic as well.  My player were initially luke-warm about the premise of Donna’s scenario  The Tribute as they felt that playing characters in Ancient Greece would be tricky, but within a few minutes of getting started, they realised it was much more familiar setting than they had initially thought and they made it their own, invoking gods, heroes and pirates and having a great time.  Perhaps the best thing was hearing glowing reports of Donna’s run of the scenario at Fright Night, and seeing just how big the differences were between our respective facilitation of the scenario, but how both had delivered a gripping and entertaining experience for the players, despite being very different.

 

Mash’s scenario of gangster horror has an immediate and compelling setup, and I think it’s a scenario that will develop some very memorable experiences.  Our playtest was a lot of fun, and, as ever, the player stories were very memorable.  I was struck by just how many people have played some version of Death on the Streets when compiling the list of playtesters, it’s like a mini convention all by itself – which goes to show just how much thought and effort Mash puts into his craft.

 

Then there’s Liam’s scenario Slaughterhouse, which is deceptively simple, as the title would suggest, yet entirely perfect for EPOCH where character stories should be in the fore.  I had a great time playtesting the scenario, and I think Doug’s illustration perfectly captures one of the most dramatic moments.  Liam’s accomplishment is all the more impressive when you consider he wrote the first draft on an i-pad while overseas on a work trip in order to meet my deadline.

 

In addition to the Companion, I also recently released  White Wedding, the 2014 EPOCH Christmas Special.  Andrew pulled together this incredible scenario at short notice, which was amazing, as I was buried in editing the Companion for most of that time.  Andrew had a very clear vision of the scenario he wanted, and I think he’s created a really compelling and engaging piece.  Then there’s Doug’s stunning cover and fantastic interior art.  All in all, the twenty first published EPOCH scenario is one of the best yet.  If you haven’t yet, you should pick it up, and donate whatever you can afford to help children in need.   

Reports from the Orient Express - The Blood Red Fez

This week we completed the prequel scenario, “The Blood Red Fez” which is a new addition to the epic re-booted Call of Cthulhu campaign Horror on The Orient Express.  As people have recently posted, asking me to share my thoughts on the campaign, I’ll start here with a review of this scenario.  As a warning there will be some spoilers, so please don’t read on if you plan on playing this scenario.

We used the proof copy of the scenario supplied to backers at the end of 2013, so it is possible that there will be revisions and changes before the final campaign is published.  So, on to the review – ‘The Blood Red Fez’ is a scenario by Geoff Gillan, one of the original authors of the Orient Express.  It covers a whopping 55 pages, including a small section detailing the Gaslight era of the Orient Express. 

It is suggested that the scenario be run as a flashback during the first part of the main campaign, however, the complexity of this scenario and the time involved (it took us 4 sessions) meant that I didn’t believe this to be feasible.  For the record, I like the idea of a prequel, triggered during the campaign but believe that this would need to be limited to a relatively simple plot, so as not to detract from the campaign investigation.  Instead I chose another suggested option – to run the scenario in advance of the main campaign, and give the players the option to play any surviving characters thirty years on

The scenario takes three parts.  An initial investigation in London, followed by a tense journey on the 1890’s Orient Express, then a final confrontation in Constantinople.  

Overall the scenario has a mix of both highly structured elements, and relatively open sections.  For example it is assumed the characters will diligently investigate a nefarious artefact, then board the Orient Express, but they have relative freedom to determine the way things play out on the train, and what happens once they reach their destination.

I felt that the train section of the scenario was reasonably well supported, and I liked that the villain is travelling openly, and that his relationship with some of the other passengers provokes the characters moral outrage - although it might have been nice to get a sense of what the NPCs are doing during the trip, and how they will react to both mythos and mundane violence, should it occur so the Keeper need not carry the entire descriptive burden.

I think the main drawback of the plot as structured is that the villains have two key artefacts on the train necessary to undertake their ritual in the final section of the scenario.  However, it is possible, if not likely, that proactive investigators will recover one or more of these – potentially dispatching the villains en-route. 

If this occurs there is scant guidance on how to adapt the final section of the scenario with regards to the capabilities of the villains.  The scenario remarks that this eventuality is unlikely, but should the social constraints of the Victorian era be broken, and combat occur, it is the most likely outcome, as the main villain has no real protection against mundane weapons (this is also true for the final confrontation, where it seems that buckshot and bullets are a more reliable method of defeating evil than spending hours deciphering a Mythos tome).

A simple solution (and one which I will employ if running this scenario again) to make this less likely would be to place a famous detective or other military or law-enforcement authority figure amongst the other passengers to provide an outlet for tensions and conflict, reinforce the rule of law, and force the characters bent on violence to adopt a more surreptitious approach.

The final segment of the scenario feels very much like the conclusion of a Chapter of Masks of Nyarlathotep, detailing a host of villains, their lair and their plans (perhaps not surprising given Gillan worked on this venerable campaign as well).  While there is a list of possible investigative sites, the detail of possible resolutions to the scenario seems light.  There is no discussion of possible allies the characters could recruit to help them defeat the villains (once they realise they are outnumbered and outgunned), nor of what should occur if the characters seek the help of the authorities to dispatch the cult (by making allegations of white slavery or the abduction of royal prince for example). 

In my opinion the scene which covers the climactic exchange with kidnappers would have benefitted from the presence of a map and a few more details, and it might have been good to detail whether the characters can monitor the cultists lair from the surrounding islands (and perhaps explain why the villains had ferry tickets in the first segment of the scenario, if no ferry actually goes to their island).  The scenario might also have provided some options for the villains to be proactive (attacking the investigators in their lodgings to try and recover the items they seek for example).

I also think it’s necessary to discuss the centrepiece of the scenario: The Blood Red Fez itself.  While I appreciate the hard work that the author has undertaken to research all things Fez related, I think for some people the idea of horror headwear is simply too ridiculous to be taken seriously.  The Fez is at once described as loathsome (costing Sanity points to view for prolonged periods) and later openly worn on the Orient Express.  In my opinion a Keeper will have to work pretty hard to ensure the players take the Fez as seriously as the scenario requires.

Finally, we ran this scenario using the 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu Quick Start rules, and I didn’t appreciate just how deadly combat has become.  In previous editions, villains usually had less total attacks than characters, and a well-timed Dodge test could save an investigators life.  Under 7^th Edition, in close quarters combat there is the potential for both sides to damage each other with every action, and a successful dodge roll will not necessarily negate damage if the attacker secures a ‘hard’ success (one fifth of their chance). 

In this scenario there are several instances where close quarters combat is likely, and the investigators are likely to discover just how dangerous their enemies are.  In addition First Aid no longer works in the same way as it did and injured investigators no longer get a boost to restore in hit points following a combat. 

I gave each investigator a fate point (meaning they could negate a killing injury once) and this proved the difference between a hard won success and brutal defeat in the final session.  My party of 6 investigators all spent their fate points, and a further two were killed subsequently (meaning that 8 investigators would have died without fate points).

In Summary:

PROS

• The settings (Victorian London, The Orient Express and Ottoman Constantinople) are very atmospheric
• The scenario is well supported with descriptions and details, nice maps and a good cast of NPCs
• The conclusion of the scenario allows the investigators agency to resolve the scenario on their own terms
• The scenario neatly foreshadows several elements from the main campaign
• This is a sizable scenario, and pre-generated characters are provided

CONS

• Some people are likely to find the idea of horror headwear too ridiculous to take seriously
• The scenario is too long and complex to be easily run as a flashback
• There is not sufficient scripted motivation for the investigators to drop everything and risk their lives in a fight against an odd cult (I’d make this same criticism of many Call of Cthulhu scenarios)
• More detail about how the NPCs respond to likely events on the train, and options to keep the hostilities covert would assist the keeper
• Under 7^th edition combat rules, run as written, this scenario is likely to be extremely lethal to the investigators, and result in a brutal defeat
• The conclusion of the scenario is not sufficiently detailed to support the Keeper in detailing all the options it invites

In the final analysis, I did enjoy running this scenario (more than I thought I would when I first read it), and with the use of Fate Points the conclusion was genuinely tense and climactic.

Kapcon 23 - Part Two

I arrived on Sunday morning ready for day 2 of Kapcon, refreshed and ready for more!

Round 5: Silent Night
The Kapcon organisers had scheduled me to run a session of EPOCH in Round 5 on Sunday morning using the blurb for Road Trip, but when the players arrived I found that one of them had played in Road Trip during round 1 on Saturday, so I hastily suggested we play Silent Night instead.

As Silent Night is a Christmas scenario I suggested it might be nice for the characters to

play a family group.  In short order the characters created a memorable, if highly dysfunctional, modern family.  Conflicts swiftly resolved around Frank (played by Tigger), owner of an organic food store, who had recently married Molly (played by Sam). 

Unfortunately, Frank’s enthusiasm for healthy living wasn’t shared by the family and both his daughter Evie (played by Maggie) and step-son Darrian (played by Nicholas) thought Frank disingenuous.  This was exacerbated by Frank's insistence they use their 'Journey Journals' and formal family meetings to resolve conflict.  The inter-family conflict was so intense that nobody had much time for family-friend, poor asthmatic Victor (played by Nick C) who had been sent away for a Christmas break because his mother was dying of cancer.

My favourite scene in this game was when the family decided to ram a police barricade.  As bullets flew all around them, teenage Darrian who had been arguing with Frank for the whole scenario wrapped his arms around his step-father and shielded his body from harm, whispering a plea for Frank to look after his mother.

Round 6: Quintessence
You may recall that I had previously registered to play Incident at Talos in round 6. However, the GM facilitating that game was away and the game had been cancelled.  Casting around for another option in the break between rounds, there were few games with any player spaces to pick from, and none that appealed to me. 

I also saw that Home Front, Andy’s EPOCH scenario of Dad’s Army meets the Twilight Zone, did not have enough sign-ups and had also been cancelled.  But during the break I observed several people approach the desk and asked if they could play Home Front.  The organisers had cancelled the game, and were not accepting sign-ups for it, so as a work-around they suggested that it be offered in the Games on Demand room.

I was pretty keen to help people play some EPOCH if they wanted to, and Andrew agreed to pitch the game in G.O.D. to see if there was any interest.  I volunteered to play in order to help with the numbers, and we were able to round up 4 others, including the venerable Sophie.  As both Sophie and I had played Home Front, Andy offered Quintessence (published in Frontier of Fear), his sci-fi scenario about corporate marines intercepting a spaceship that has been missing for 100 years.

Having both playtested and edited this scenario, I was fairly familiar with the plot, so I determined to create a character that would take no part in leading the action or in making any decisions.  I had been dealt the cards War Scarred, Cautious and the traits of Idealistic and Romantic.  So I created Neil, a marine who had suffered hideous injuries when he accidentally dropped a grenade amongst his fellow marines, killing several of them.  Clearly traumatised by this error, Neil lacked confidence and was extremely accident prone, to the point where he was almost a liability to the other marines.  This allowed the other characters to unite in their disdain of Neil’s professional abilities, while ensuring that he was not consulted on major decisions, which fulfilled my objectives in not spoiling the scenario.

Sophie had established during the initial scenes that her character was a doctor, and that her father was a General.  I decided it would be neat to use this detail as part of Neil’s story, so over several tension phases I used flashbacks to show how Neil had been imprisoned following his grenade accident, and then been summoned by the general and ordered to protect his daughter and follow her like a shadow.  In preparing for the mission, Neil had been given to the General’s files concerning his daughter and watched hours of home movies until he had fallen in love with the General's daughter, although this was a secret he hadn’t revealed (I had noted it on my secret card at the beginning of the game). 

In the tense scenes of the final climax, I revealed that the General had turned Neil into a human bomb, placing explosives in his cybernetic replacement organs which were detonated when his daughters life was in jeopardy.  I was, however, denied an attempt to actually play a second Hero card, as Neil was Zeroed, and thus eliminated without further heroism.

I enjoyed the game and I think Quintessence generated some really interesting characters, whose end scenes were poignant.

Prize Giving
Before the main Kapcon prize giving I gave out a couple of EPOCH awards [you can read the details here] to recognise some of the excellent character play over the weekend, and thank everyone who had played in an EPOCH scenario.

Reflections
Reflecting on the weekend; player numbers in each round seemed to be considerably more volatile than in past years.  My evidence for this is limited to the games for which I collected stats (the EPOCH scenarios of which 2 were cancelled due to lack of numbers and 2 were run at short notice – several ran with just 4 players, but the majority had 5 or 6 players). This effect may be due to an over-saturation of EPOCH, or it may have been a more ‘con-wide phenomenon.  In either event, it’s unlikely I will be offering EPOCH to the same extent in the future.

No mention was made of Con-fusion or Day of Games one-day-conventions, leading me to conclude that the NZ tabletop convention calendar has shrunk as the LARP calendar has expanded.

Increasingly Kapcon feels to me like 2 or 3 separate ‘cons held at the same venue (if you include Games on Demand) with some level of interaction, but not a lot.  This isn’t new – a similar thing used to happen with D&D and the Harn folk.  Now, as then, Kapcon organisers have made it clear that they are happy to let things evolve holistically, and often say that “people will vote with their feet”.

I agree that it is important to let people do the things that they enjoy most, but I also think that failing to take a more strategic or proactive perspective may also lead to unintended consequences which are extremely difficult to reverse.

However, I also accept that change is inevitable – Kapcon already bears little resemblance to what it was 10 years ago and it’s likely that in the future it will be greatly different to the current event.

Reports of Kapcon's Past
Kapcon 22 - Part One and Part Two
Kapcon 21 - Part One and Part Two
Kapcon 20 - Part One and Part Two

Kapcon 23 - Part One

This Kapcon I had coordinated with several other GMs to ensure that a game of EPOCH was offered in each round.  I liked the idea that players might be able to play EPOCH for the whole ‘con if they so desired, and I also thought it was a good chance to showcase the diversity of scenarios published over the last 12 months.

Family commitments meant that night games were out for me this year.  Accordingly I planned to run 3 sessions of EPOCH on Saturday and play 2 other games on Sunday.  At the time I registered few of the blurbs for games on offer captured my interest, but I pre-registered to play in 'Flyover Country' (a Laundry game) and 'Incident at Talos' (an Ashen Stars game) on the strength of their blurbs. 

However, as it turned out I was to have even more involvement in EPOCH than I planned…

Round 1: Road Trip
Road Trip is a favourite EPOCH scenario of mine because in the later phases, the threat to the characters is generated by the characters themselves which provides a neat pay-out for the work of establishing relationships and linked back-stories between the characters.

Road Trip focuses on a group of people who travel to an isolated cabin to spend some quality time together, and get a lot more than they bargained for.  The players created a group of school friends reunited after the graduation of one of their number.  A good and diverse range of characters were created, from high achievers and budding politicians, to jocks, activists and loners.

My favourite scene played out in the final phase.  Two of the characters were suspected of being infected by the horror and posing a threat to the world.  The others armed themselves and resolved to settle the matter once and for all.  They all drove out together into the wood at nightfall, but only two returned…

Round 2: Mass Destruction
Mass Destruction (published in War Stories) is both easy and tricky to facilitate.  The opening scenes place a fairly high descriptive load on the GM, but the setting and the role of the characters in that setting (reporters covering the 2003 invasion of Iraq) are familiar enough that there are usually strong characters created to experience the harrowing events.

In this run there were some memorable characters – Penny Prescott with Time Magazine (played by Hamish A.) had a terminal brain tumour and evoked plenty of audience sympathy with tearful conversations with her daughter living in the USA, while Lachlan Loader, blogger and founder of blog ‘Lock-n-Load’ (played by Ciaran) was unrelentingly patriotic, occasionally ridiculous, and ultimately heroic.

My favourite scene in this scenario featured the ruthless Edward Thompson of the BBC (played by Ruth) who had already used one of the characters as a human shield.  As the horror overwhelmed the military, desperate soldiers tried to climb into the helicopter the characters were escaping in, and Edward was pushing them off to ensure the helicopter got enough lift.  A few moments later the helicopter climbed into the sky, Edward tumbled out and plunged to his death – shoved out by one of the other characters.

Round 3: Red Gold
I was scheduled to run Shadows of Yesterday in round 3, but I was a little surprised to learn that there wasn’t enough interest to go ahead with the game.

As a result I was actually planning on heading home early when Igor confessed that he had to depart soon after the round 3 began and he was scheduled to run Red Gold with a full schedule of players.  I had edited Red Gold so I proposed that we co-run Red Gold.  Igor would do the initial description, opening scenes and run the first tension phase, and I’d take over and finish facilitating the game.

This actually worked fairly well, as Igor was able to return in time to facilitate the final tension phases and end scenes.  This was a fairly memorable game and many scenes were stolen by Mike Foster’s character Rhineheart, the body-builder with the Austrian accent and penchant for one-liners.

My favourite scene in this game occurred when Cyrus (played by Damon) revealed through a series of flashbacks that he had been a host for aliens all along, and killed his character in an attempt to pass the alien into the body of Todd (played by Theo).  In a final effort to deny the aliens a host, Todd shot himself in the head.

To be continued…

A Nightmare Before Christmas

I recently released the EPOCH Christmas Special Silent Night, a scenario which is a collaboration with the esteemed Morgan Davie, with all the proceeds going to charity.  This is the 16th published EPOCH scenario, and as you’d expect, it has a distinctly Christmas flavour.

 

The playtest of this scenario was a lot of fun.  The players decided that a family group would be appropriate for a Christmas scenario, so they created some excellent characters including:

 

Rose McIntyre - Grandmother and family matriarch, Rose had recently buried her husband and wanted to take her two adult sons and Granddaughter back to Patterson's Fork for Christmas (Secret: Rose has terminal caner and only a year to live)

Patrick McIntyre - A protective father (son of Rose, father of Abigail) and computer software engineer (Secret: Patrick's wife has been kidnapped, and the kidnappers are holding her for ransom, forcing him to hack into bank accounts)

Philip McIntyre - Patrick's brother (son of Rose), who recently abandoned his white collar job and embraced an eastern philosophy which he seeks to share with everyone he meets (Secret: Philip is Abigail's real Dad, but abandoned his old life when Patrick's wife wouldn't leave him once she became pregnant)

Abigal McIntyre - An teenage girl. (Secret: She has a tattoo and belly button piercing)

Nazomi - A Japanese foreign exchange student living with Abigail and Patrick (Secret: She was forced to come to America by her family to remove the influence of Japanese gangsters).

 

As you might imagine, a great deal of the scenario was spent exploring these stories against the backdrop of the horror unfolding around them.  From the initial cast, only Rose and Abigail survived to secure a total victory, allowing them to narrate their own ending for their characters.  Abigail opened a tattoo parlour near a large West Coast beach and got her father and uncles face tattooed on her back.  Rose visited the graves of her husband and sons to lay flowers, both buried next to where her own headstone was already prepared…

 

It's stories like that that make running EPOCH an enjoyable and unique experience every time.  And while I’m talking about EPOCH, let me point you in the direction of Mash’s excellent analysis on activating players.

The Stars Are (Coming) Right

Following my post about new Horror Games I thought it might be appropriate to post about the Call of Cthulhu renaissance that seems to be underway.  I’ve previously posted about both how I enjoy Call of Cthulhu, but also about how it has many old-school elements, which if played as written, are likely to create a less than optimal experience for many players. 

What is clear is that there is an enduring fan-base who enjoy playing the game and will support it despite some of these drawbacks.  I have personally been surprised at the consistent number of downloads of my free Call of Cthulhu scenario Sundown set in the Old West (it has been downloaded around 600 times via DriveThruRPG over the last 2 years – not bad considering Sundown is also available for free on the Chaosium website).

2013 has seen a number of interesting developments.  Firstly, the licensed Call of Cthulhu products have continued in leaps and bounds – with products like “Tales of the Sleepless City” from Miskatonic River Press, “Island of Ignorance” from Golden Goblin press and the previously mentioned World War Cthulhu: The Darkest Hour and Achtung! Cthulhu having maintained a high standard of quality.

In addition, Chaosium have been pretty active, with a number of new Call of Cthulhu releases including scenario collection “House of R’yleh”, stand-alone scenario “Canis Mysterium”  and new setting and scenario collection “Atomic Age Cthulhu”.

The excellent analysis via Yog-Sothoth provided by Dean (from Adelaide) shows that the number of scenarios for Call of Cthulhu published in books has jumped markedly in 2013, reaching a point near the high-water mark of the 1990’s. 

When you then consider the picture for 2014, with the release of the very successful Call of Cthulhu 7^th Edition Kickstarter, and the refresh of the epic Horror on the Orient Express campaign, as well as the new Cthulhu Britannica: London (which is currently funded and on track to deliver and old-style premium box set), it seems that the stars may finally be right for Call of Cthulhu to enjoy an upsurge in popularity. 

More kickstarters have been hinted at, refreshing other old campaigns, Pulp Cthulhu might allow a more heroic style of play, drawing in those turned-off by the purist character path (a downward spiral into insanity), and the new edition should make the game more accessible to players.

It will be interesting to see if these new products actually result in a spread of Call of Cthulhu, introducing new players to the game, or if they actually reflect publishers finding more effective methods of tapping into the existing fan-base, and leveraging an aging gaming community who now have more disposable income which they are willing to spend on direct sales. 

When I look at my local gaming community, there is not a single Call of Cthulhu scenario currently offered in the major local gaming convention in January, nor was there a Call of Cthulhu offering at the Horror Convention in October.   Perhaps this will change over time, and perhaps more gamers will be inspired to pull a Call of Cthulhu scenario off the shelf in 2014, and give it a try… or perhaps contemporary gamers expect more than a mere makeover of such a traditional game to fire their imagination and Call of Cthulhu is still dreaming in the dark?

New and Noteworthy Horror

Over on NZRaG Luke has begun his annual ranking of the top games & products of 2013.  When I looked at my own top picks, all of them were horror.  I found that little surprising - I don't exclusively read horror games, and I feel that several other products I've purchased have been of high particularly quality (e.g. Doctor Source Books for the Doctor Who Adventure in Time and Space RPG, The Laundry and Mutants & Masterminds products).

So, what (other than EPOCH) made the top of my list?

1. Eternal Lies.  The true test of a campaign like this is actually running it, but the sheer quality, size and attention to detail evident in this product are amazing.  Then, to top it off, Pelgrane offer additional support, including a soundtrack, map, comprehensive conversion notes for Call of Cthulhu, plus NPC portraits.  Truly a masterful product.

2. World War Cthulhu: Darkest Hour.  So far I only have this in PDF, so can't comment on the quality of the physical book but this seems like an interesting take on Delta Green style gaming in WWII, and the first in a series of Cthulhu war books. I'm not sure how easily this setup would mesh with the history of WWII - history buffs often have high levels of expectation about integrating games like this into the context of such a well-known conflict, and may therefore have trouble suspending disbelief - for example if the characters fail to prevent the horror from manifesting, how does this not have a visible impact on the war?  Interestingly with the parallel release of Achutung! Cthulhu you can choose whether you prefer a pulp or purist take on Cthulhu in WWII.

3. Esoterrorists 2nd Edition a refresh of the Gumshoe system in this clever and compelling contemporary horror setting.  I love the idea of the Esoterrorists setting, albeit not wildly dissimilar to Delta Green or The Laundry.  However, some of the scenarios have been very well executed, and this is a game I'd like to run more of.  I find the basic Gumshoe combat system a little clunky, so i'd be interested to see how this edition improves on that.