Brave New World
I ran three adventures in November, the first one covering a super Halloween adventure which I write more about below. The beginning of the second adventure involved a vampire gang war. And then I started casting my mind around for the next thing to follow.
And I found the Heartless campaign at Wizards’ website. Designed for D20 Modern this free five part adventure embroils the PCs in a plot of increasing supernatural terror. It was a perfect fit.
I plan to run all five adventures of the Heartless campaign and leave clues about how to undo the Intrusion along the way. When the PCs finish that campaign arc they will know they have to travel to Minneapolis for a map, then to R’lyeh where Chthulhu lies dreaming for a supernatural artifact, and finally into the Intrusion itself for a mind blowing battle to decide the fate of the whole world.
I’m finally going to run the epic campaign that’s been eluding me for years. Huzzah!
The Growing World of Darkness
After two adventures, the PCs had established themselves in a run down mansion on the South Side of Chicago. They had a run in with a Hispanic gang and met a couple of the movers and shakers of business in town. They also visited the local university and a research facility for a chemical company.
On the third adventure they traveled to South America and then to Antarctica, greatly expanding the world. Dread settled in on the plane ride down. The in flight movie was the Thing by John Carpenter and the village the PCs were to find a boat in was named El Diablo.
Simply saying the name the town out loud for the first time created a feeling of unease in the PCs. Some players groaned out loud, the third time I’ve been able to get them to react in the real world to events in game.
The fact that they arrived on Halloween, October 31, 2008 didn’t help matters. I was amazed that one simple name could conjure up so much color in the world.
One of the advantages of a campaign in the real world is that I can use a simple name like El Diablo to worry the crap out of my players. I can’t easily name a village in D&D The Devil, but in the modern world it isn’t so difficult. And it set the mood nicely for the rest of the night.
The Third Adventure
The third adventure consisted of six main parts. The first was the burial of Ares Wright, an Awakened PC who died on the Moonlit Road battling a werewolf. When he found himself trapped behind werewolf lines he first called his friends to warn them away before trying to make it alive. It succeeded on the first task but didn’t succeed at the second.
Next was a trip to Antarctica to gather intel that the Russians were developing chemical weapons. A stopover in El Diablo, Venezuela ended with a battle with a demonic woodchipper. Taken from another free adventure, the woodchipper is the coolest villain I’ve ever run and the adventure one of my proudest moments. I mean, I got to roleplay a psychotic woodchipper. How cool is that?
Third was a ride on a Ukrainian fast attack boat that find the body of a US Marine floating in a raft. They took him onboard and learned he was Michael Myers. The raft was full of gardening tools strangely enough. Michael turned out to be the bogeyman powered by a Nightmare Site and ran amok using industrial sanders and a cursed chainsaw to spread havoc.
Up next was the exploration of the research station complete with terrorizing the scientists and burning down said station. And getting framed and painted as Russian thugs on CNN.
Fifth was a flight to the Mountains of Madness where the PCs met a Mi-Go, an ancient race of scientists and the Mi-Go monster, a subway sized horror created by genetic engineering gone awry. The Mi-Go sacrificed itself for the PCs and gave them a hint about how to stop the Intrusion.
Finally, the PCs voted in the new President of the United States.
Fratricide and Captain Kirk
Michael needed a power tool so I designed this chainsaw for him using the rules for Nightmare Items from MCWoD for inspiration. The white Captain Kirk mask is an homage to Halloween the movie.
Fratricide chainsaw: First wielded in Texas, this chainsaw is a powerful, frightening weapon. It grants the Blood Potency and Vigor Disciplines even to non-vampires but they only work with each other not other Disciplines and the blood used must come from wounds inflicted with the chainsaw; each Vitae used for the bonus Discipline Vigor causes the user 1d6 damage; if the user ever kills his entire family and all of his friends the curse no longer affects him.
White Captain Kirk mask: Stolen by a serial killer from the first person he killed when escaping the psychiatric hospital--an orderly dressed in white who had painted the mask to scare the crap out of the patients. It increases existing damage reduction by 1 if the wearer has caused the death of someone or seduced someone they do not know in the last twenty-four hours; the mask inflicts horrible facial scarring when the damage reduction is first used, inflicting 2 points of Charisma drain on the wearer (no save)
Basically, Michael killed his entire family so the curse wouldn’t hurt him. It goes without saying that he has no friends. He kills to get the blood he needs to be supernaturally strong.
The drawback for any PC taking Fratricide is the damage it inflicts. It may be worth it for a boost of +4 to Strength.
And, of course, if they kill their family and the other PCs, well they won’t have to worry about that pesky curse anymore!
Michael stole the mask from the orderly because the guy had tormented him. It didn’t help Michael’s looks any, though.
PCs probably won’t care about the Charisma drain. They do have to have damage reduction before the mask kicks in, however.
Actually, I didn’t have to worry about either item. Michael, on of the PCs, threw both items in the ocean. No one tried to stop him.
In twenty plus years of GMing I’ve never seen a PC throw away a magic item. Until now.
I must have done my job that day!
True Horror
On November 6, 2008 the PCs in my gaming group voted for the next president of the United States. Either Colin Powell or Hillary Clinton was going to win. Both candidates would bring both opportunity and danger to the US after being elected.
And next president of the United States is: Colin Powell.
Hillary only got one vote and that one from a player who knows who Greg Stillson (the new Vice President) is in the real world.
President Powell has big changes to implement come January 2009. More on those in a later column.
Rules for Characters
MCWoD has been full of pleasant surprises. PCs in MCWoD start out with 4 HD of power at 1st level. Since the highest level in the campaign is now 6th level, this change means that PC is actually around 9th level in power.
The preview on the book showed normal skill points for characters with 4 HD for 1st level. A late change in the book’s rules drastically reduces available skill points. I simply changed the formula back (1st level characters get x7 in one level of skill points as a 4th level D20 Modern character would have)because I’m using a lot of D20 Modern stuff that uses this formula.
A nice change to the base rules is in the balance of classes. I can’t speak about the mage, but the other four classes are fairly well balanced in regards to each other.
The monsters mostly get a special class ability at 1st and 2nd level and then one every other level. The demon gets slightly more abilities.
The fear of Awakened being underpowered seems true but actually works for the game. The players in my game who are Awakened are proud to be the underdogs, the only class who cannot heal themselves without taking a feat. It actually draws them closer together and they form a mini-group within the overall group. They watch each other’s backs and keep an eye on the monsters when the other Awakened sleep. Paranoia binds them together. It is a beautiful thing to see.
Despite being somewhat less powerful, Awakened gain a Humanity Point every level and ‘Points are powerful. They can turn a killing blow into simply a crippling one.
In addition, if Awakened are running around trying to be heroic and save humanity, they are much more likely to earn ‘Points. Monsters are sucking blood and eating hearts for power and will usually have less opportunity to earn ‘Points.
Finally, Awakened can just keep shooting and shooting. They don’t run out of spells or need to melee. If they have enough bullets they just keep going. So even being the underdog doesn’t mean you just have to stand around and do nothing. Or fire a crossbow like a 3.5 wizard out of spells.
Next Month
Tonight, we play the last adventure of November. The PCs are determined to bring the fight directly to the Iconnu and the capture of Dr. Howard at the beginning of the Heartless campaign arc will complicate matters. Next month, we play another chapter in the story arc of the Heartless campaign.
Charlie
