How to Re-energize Gothic Eath

[Jonathan Winters]

Just my two cents,

What I did a couple of months ago, was to propose a GE one-shot to my players instead of our regular RL game (we were three out of six who could play that week).

Since we had nothing to lose, and it was our first time playing GE ever, I decided to not really care about the real world (and probably the setting for that matter) and I think I really kicked the whole thing in the b***s. In a good way that is...

I adapted info from ''When the Sky Falls'' and ended our session with a meteorite falling on parts of Halifax, Canada. One thing lead to another and we are now at session 4 or 5 and will be playing again Friday night.

My players LOVED IT! (I think I have a bit of a League of X Gentlemen thing going there. The comic, not the movie, shudder...)

I was amazed by how they were scared because they did not know what was inside the crater. I had never really seen them scared before in my games, or horrified for that matter. And we played Hour of the Knife... (I can't reveal too much info on my GE game here, sorry, cos one of my possibly new players will read this post)


So all of this to say:
I think the main thing holding back MotRD is the history thing. I think games need to be researched to some extent.

Here is the map I used for my game:
http://halifaxinfo.com/WaterfrontHRMt.pdf

Is it accurate to 1890 Halifax? To some extent.
Have I redesigned it? To some extent.
Was there a ferry back then? Not sure. But there is in my game! It was too cool not to use.

So yes to research, but no to necessarily staying true to world events. I don't have the time or a History B.A. (literature was enough thank you) for this.

I think it's a great setting, but so what if parts of Halifax are burning? We can rebuild (and we will!).

I hope my rambling made some sense, I am tired...

If we want adventures, NPC's, gazetteers or whatever made, I think we should go outside the box.

And I will try to translate my (short) MotRD journal from French to English soon.

Patrick

PS: Please feel free to nit-pick or ask me questions!

[Ronia Sun]

In the spirit of scavenging from other gamebook sources, you might consider the "Victoriana: 1867" penny dreadfuls, etc as good ideas. While there were significant technological leaps between 1867 and 1890, the books can still provide useful information. For example, "The Smoke" gives pretty in-depth information of London's different neighborhoods. There are three "penny dreadful" adventures that could easily be adapted to a GE setting.

I think it's easy to become intimidated by the idea of playing in an "actual" historical setting. Sure, the DM needs to do a bit more work than usual (and running a Gothic Horror campaign already requires more work than usual!) but unless you're playing with diehard history buffs I don't think the DM should worry *too* much about so-called accuracy. Besides, even if you DO play with diehards, it's unlikely they know everything about every area of the world.

Ideas can be found in unusual places. For example, the author L.M. Montgomery (yes, the woman who wrote Anne of Green Gables) also wrote a collection of spine-chilling stories dealing with a somewhat darker side to her idyllic Prince Edward Island.

Above all, though, remember that running a GE campaign is NOT about writing that term paper for history. Unless you have anal players, no one is going to be checking your sources.

[Jennifer]

Hi all,
I have recently started another GE game again. It will be short lived, four or five sessions only, to get through the summer holidays. But as soon as it is done, I will send it to the site.

I can tell you what it will be about.

The Netherlands, 1890.
King Willem III lies dying, his young second wife Queen Emma is a regent and she foresees that she will have to be regent for the Crown Princess Wilhelmina as well, until she reaches her majority in 1898.
A bastard son of the King makes a bid for the throne and in the city of Nijmegen he has gathered some significant support. So much so that the Dutch government is seriously worried. The Prime Minister Mackay and Queen Emma send a band of 'agents' to 'neutralise' the threat to the throne. (enter the heroes)

Will they succeed, or will the kingdom fall into the hands of one of the many bastards of the King?

I hope i can send this in the second half of september.

Edit: Well, it has been posted in the verande, quick, go read it.

Jennifer

[Georg Kristianokov]

I had an idea, mainly a way to finish a campaign:

December 26, 1899
The party is being contacted by Die Wactern, by the Pope himself. Since I had the Red Death be unleashed in 2600 BC, and every 500 years, humanity gains a chance to seal it up again. Johan Gutenberg formed a quabal, to warn people about the Red Death. His holy relic was his bible, and he imbued it with enough power to seal the Red Death away, if used properly. The Pope wants the party to obtain the book from the New York Public Library, but it's guarded by a Demi-Lich, with a book shaped body. After returning the book to the Pope, they go to Egypt, where the Red Death is sealed up in the Ark of the Covenant. History goes on as usual, with little to no supernatural interference.

That is, until the NASDP membes open it in 1936...

[Georg Kristianokov]

Any thoughts on my seed?

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Pretty good, though it does beg the question why such a book still exists and was not destroyed by the Red Death's minions. Was the demilich holding out on the Red Death? Maybe keeping a little insurance against the dread entity?

The ending is a good one, since the nature of the Ark suggests that someone will try to open it later. Kind of a "What were we thinking?" moment.

You could even restart the game later using D20 Modern rules to run the character's descendants.

[Georg Kristianokov]

I had another idea, linking the Thule Society back to Cthulhu and his spawn. Just think: Atlantis, in ancient Atlantean, is R'lyeh! The party was disolved in 1925, because Hitler didn't want monsters in his pure-human race. Of course, Himmler thinks differently.

I also make WAY to many prequels to the Hellsing manga...

[Georg Kristianokov]

Pretty good, though it does beg the question why such a book still exists and was not destroyed by the Red Death's minions. Was the demilich holding out on the Red Death? Maybe keeping a little insurance against the dread entity?

The ending is a good one, since the nature of the Ark suggests that someone will try to open it later. Kind of a "What were we thinking?" moment.

You could even restart the game later using D20 Modern rules to run the character's descendants.

The Ark was an obvious reference to Indiana Jones, and I should've elaborated on the book more. It could bind anything to anything, but just once. So, if Gwydion escaped, the Demilich could use the book to help its master.