Deadlands: The Ferner Five: The Heart O' Darkness

Beware what lurks in The Heart Of Darkness! 

Welcome back to the adventures of the Ferner Five! Are you ready for one of the darkest chapters in their tale? I knew you were... Let's get started!

Chapter One: Fear and Loathing

Let's do a little bit of a re-cap, shall we? Since the adventure takes this time to fill in the Marshal (no peaking for you player types), we'll catch y'all up on the story so far.

In the last adventure, the posse had been contracted by Dr. Darius Hellstromme to recover a large black diamond called the Heart of Darkness, that had been stolen from him sometime earlier. The posse, using luck, skill, and a fair amount of money, had figured out that the stone had been stolen by the Tremendae Gang in the Junkyard, better known as Salt Lake City. After a showdown with the gang, they found out that the Heart had been taken to the city of Lost Angels, out in the Maze (the remains of California) by one of the gang to give to a man named Stone. The posse was offered the chance to get their money, if they went to LA and recovered the stone from Stone. Got it? Good.

For those of you paying attention, you've probably noticed that I've run many of these adventures more than once. Well, for this one, I've only done this one all the way through with this group. One group made it about halfway through, but that was many years ago. So, I should be able to remember this one better than the last few. Nor was there as much drinking when I was running it.

Chapter Two: No Stone Unturned

Our posse arrives in Lost Angels after a rather uneventful trip across the desert (read: The Marshal didn't want to come up with some sidetracks and didn't want to lose momentum). The city of Lost Angels in one of the few places in the Maze that can wear the moniker of “city” because it's crowded, dirty, and life has little meaning for the people there. With almost no fresh water or food, the city all but relies on the Sunday Feasts by the Church of Lost Angels, run by the Reverend Ezekiah Grimme. This makes Grimme a major power in LA. The city is laid out in a circle rather than a typical grid because of Grimme's desires.

Which means that the map was very different than the one for the Junkyard, when I put it down on the table. The posse had an address for Stone and started looking for him there. Of course, it couldn't be that easy. They went to the location they had, Hardwick's Boarding House, and asked for a Mr. Stone. And got shut down. Hard. But, with Deiter's Overawe and Penwood's money, they were able to find out that Mr. Stone was forced to check out. After fighting with Reverend Grimme himself! They went up to the room that Mr. Stone was renting, it being easy to find with the door knocked off and all, and start poking around.

What they found was that there had been one hell of a fight between Mr. Stone and Reverend Grimme. Furniture broken, burn marks on the walls, and even a pair of melted pistols. Exactly what happened between the two was a mystery for the posse, but they knew that it had been something else...

With that lead dried all the way up, they were back at square one. Well, not quite. They did know who had brought the stone to Stone and figured it might be a good idea to ask the Guardian Angels (the more militant arm of the Church of Lost Angels) about Doc Snead. Now, given how free they were with their money, I thought that this was going to be a breeze for the posse. Why? Because the man they spoke to, Clem Norbert, is quite the avaricious man. Perfect for the Vigilance Committee of LA... Anyway, all they had to do was bribe him and he'd give them all they wanted to know. But, since Penwood got all miserly, they almost got arrested. I had to take off the Marshal's hat and flat out tell them “If you don't give him the money he wants, you're going to get tossed into Church Court, which you will not survive.” They took the club over their head pretty well and we were able to move on. Thankfully. I was starting to pull out what little hair I have left out of my head because of this one. It was painful to deal with. I wish I had been drinking for it...

Now that they had a lead on their man, they were able to track him down to the Labyrinth Saloon and make contact with Snead. If you're smart, you're probably aware that Snead is a drunk and a coward. So, as soon as he got asked about Stone and the stone, he managed to get his “friends” to get him out of the jam from the posse. Cue one very short bar fight. With Ming and Deiter, it didn't take much to clean the clocks of the rowdies that came to Snead's defense. Of course, once Deiter drew down, well... The posse left the Saloon in a hurry and caught up with Snead and he spilled the beans. And the contents of his bladder. What he told them was the whole story. How he helped steal the Heart O' Darkness, brought it to Stone, and then got arrested by the Guardian Angels. To save his own hide, he threw Stone under the locomotive and went to the hotel with Grimme and his best Angels. He didn't see the fight but knew that it wasn't quite natural, what with the winds and lights and all of that. Last he knew, Stone was hauled off to Rock Island Prison.

The posse let out a sigh and walked poor Doc Snead home to where he had been staying. They then went to the hotel Penwood had put them all up in and hit the hay for the night, not sure where to go next. Of course, where there's a will, there's a way. Especially if there's a crafty Marshal and a good adventure writer to be found.

The next morning found the posse recovering from their bumps and bruises, as well as their hangovers, in an establishment where they could get some chow. That's when a mysterious stranger appeared. He was wearing a rough cloak and wooden mask on his face. He sat down and told the posse he knew what they were looking for and informed them that he might be able to help. After questioning him, finding his name to be Old Pete (no, I didn't make that up), he told them about once he'd been sent to Rock Island after being caught stealing. You see, Old Pete was not just a thief, but a good thief, because of some “special powers” he had. Of course, these powers hadn't helped him when the Angels came knocking. Before he knew it, he'd been tossed into the Rock to rot. He and two other prisoners had been able to escape, with him being the only one to make it to shore. The sharks got the others. It turns out that Old Pete is an old friend of Jasper Stone, the man the posse was looking for. In exchange for rescuing his friend, he'll help them get on the island and get away. When they asked for proof that he'd been on the Rock, he took off his mask to reveal that the skin on his face had been slowly flayed from his skull, square inch by square inch. They don't do things lightly on the Rock...

The posse accepted the offer and Old Pete told them to meet him at the docks at midnight, ready to go. While the posse took the rest of the day to gather supplies, they also tracked down Phil (who was drinking and enjoying himself, until these Ferners came to collect him), thinking they could use the back-up. For the record, I hadn't even mentioned his name since the start of the adventure, much less suggested he join them. They were the ones who came up with this idea. And that's how you do DMPCs right, kids. Phil always faded into the background and let the posse take the lead. When they thought they needed him, he was there to lend a hand. Or an axe. You get my point.

Chapter Three: A Piece O' The Rock

Finally, midnight rolled around and the posse found Old Pete waiting for them. He leads them to a beat up Knifeboat and they head out on to the dark waters. As they traveled, they asked him some questions about the layout. He told them two thing: The prisoner (and the stone) were on the bottom level of the prison and the only key was in the warden's room on the third floor. Beyond that, he couldn't recall too much, as he and his compatriots had been in a rush. He did warn them that the prison was full of guards and stealth was their best bet. The posse briefly discussed their plans as they continued on. He handed them a pair of flares to use, if they needed a rescue.

After a while, a huge fog bank rolled in, caused by Old Pete. He then shut off the steam engine and got Phil to help him row. The posse was tense, especially after they saw a few shark fins break the water near them. After a while longer yet, they arrived at the prison. Old Pete stopped the boat at a huge pipe that was dumping sewage into Prosperity bay. He explained that this was the best way in and out, and he would be waiting here until just before dawn. If they weren't back by then, he would assume they weren't coming and would leave before he would be caught. He had no intentions of being held there again. “Once was more than enough” was how he put it.

The posse began their journey up the pipe, with Phil having to help some people along as they slipped and started to fall. Some of that was because they were losing their dinners to the smell and muck. They did a good job of keeping quiet and made it into prison itself. After a bit of exploring, they left Phil to guard their escape route and crept their way towards the third floor.

Eventually, they found a guard standing by himself in the middle of the room. While they were trying to figure out what to do, we found out that Ming was sitting on a mountain of Bounty Points because he didn't know what to spend them on. After a discussion, Ming now had some fair Sneak and became the resident ninja (yes, we knew he was Chinese, but he used martial arts and was stealthy, you do the math). He carefully made his way towards the guard and put him down quickly and quietly, dragging him to Phil and made him hide him. And tie him up.

As they continued, Penwood did a bit of poking around at some frescoes and paintings, discovering that they weren't made of stone or tile, but chips of human bones! That caused him a Guts check, which made him lose more of his dinner. He filled the others in and there was a renewed sense of urgency.

It didn't take long for them to make their way to the warden's room. They were just barely able to keep quiet enough to catch him off guard. If I remember correctly, he beat the hel out of him after they got him to reveal where the key was. And, if my memory hasn't totally failed me, they killed him and then set the records they found on fire. I think the plan was to create a distraction. Nevermind that those files would have been worth thousands of dollars in the right hands, but I will give them points for creativity.

Again, they made their way back down and then into the basement. They had another brief scuffle (I think) and then finally entered the Throne Room. This is where having two people with medical experience kind of damned them. While the didn't trigger the Bone Fiend (which I wasted good money a mini for because I fully expected them to do something stupid), they did see the human teeth marks on the bones. It didn't take them long to connect the dots and figure out that Grimme was feeding his faithful the prisoners of the Rock. More Guts checks ensued. After a bit of doing, they got the door open... The one behind the dark throne in the room. Yeah, I forgot to describe it here, but I would suggest you go and buy the PDF of this adventure. It's worth your money.

Anyway. They opened the door (I think we had Ming take some levels in Lockpickin') and found their way to Stone's cell. They found him chained up to a wall and looking down right shitty. They helped him out and starting running for the exit. Since they had played things smart, I let the fire they had started become a roaring blaze and the way back was almost completely clear. They met up with Phil, who was more than a little scared, and went back down to the pipe...

Where they met the Dweller in the Muck. If you've seen Star Wars: A New Hope, you have a pretty good idea of what they were up against. With the fire raging and all that, they didn't even try to be subtle and killed it dead.

When they came out of the pipe, there was no sign of Old Pete. But, they remembered their flare and fired it off. Not much later, he turned up and the posse, Stone, and Phil clambered aboard. With that, Old Pete started taking the “long way back” to throw off suspicion. Which wasn't unreasonable, given how the Rock was still burning and now one of their Very Important Prisoners was about to turn up missing.

Chapter Four: Mass Murder

Before we get too far into this part, I have to tell you that I ended up narrating most of this section. We were running late into the night but we were almost done with the adventure, so with the posse's permission, I sped this up.

As the posse, Phil, Old Pete, and Stone got closer to shore, the sun had started to rise. As they docked, they could hear the bells from the Church of Lost Angels ringing through the city streets. Stone, who had been silent and resting, sprang to life and told them that Grimme was planning something evil in the church. So, with barely enough time to bandage up their few wounds, they headed off to the church. Before they left the docks, Old Pete told everyone to meet him at the Sorenson & Co. warehouse, in case they got separated.

As they made their way there, they noticed that the streets seemed oddly empty. When they made it to the church, they soon found out why, as most of the city was there, listening to Reverend Grimme give his sermon. It was in prime form, all hellfire and brimstone, yelling about the evils of the world. Mostly about the railroads, a common theme for him, but also the state of city and damnation. One of the posse members spied the Heart O' Darkness on the altar in front of Grimme, and the posse started to push through the crowd to get up there.

As the Reverend reached a frenzied pitch, the stained glass window behind him suddenly exploded and a “no shit, that's a real demon from Hell” landed behind him. While the two of them engaged in battle (with Grimme being surrounded by a magical white aura), the people inside panicked. Which only got worse when the rest of the horde showed up. While not as big as the one fighting Grimme, these guys weren't any slouches and the fight was on. As I was narrating the fight, I had Penwood firing and helping people, Deiter blowing the demons back to hell, Ming and Heinrich fighting as hard as they could. As their fight was winding down, the big demon retreated, as did the rest of them, “defeated” by Grimme.

In the scuffle, Old Pete and Stone had vanished, as had the Heart O' Darkness. The posse helped patch people up as best they could, then went after Old Pete and Stone. They had a suspicion that one of those two had grabbed the Heart in the confusion and were looking to get in back. By force, in necessary.

As they entered the warehouse, they found Old Pete by himself, the Heart in his hands. As they were about to confront him about it, Stone appeared...

Before I continue, I have to give you a massive spoiler warning. If you're planning on being in this adventure as a player, this is your chance to leave. We're about to reveal something big. And you'll probably want to skip the next adventure, too.

Anyway, where were we? Ah, yes, Stone and Old Pete. Well, Stone pulled a gun on Old Pete and demanded the Heart. Old Pete just chuckled and said they'd need to talk. Stone asked him who he was and Old Pete took off his mask... To reveal that was also Stone! He looked a little more haggard and rough around the edges but it was the same man! The two Stones looked at one another and then came to an agreement. The posse, recovering from their shock, started throwing down on Stone and Stone to get the stone. Or Heart. You know what I mean. Well, the Stones just went ethereal and walked out of the back of the warehouse. Like, through the wall. Then, the posse was jumped by a group of Walkin' Dead. Which distracted them long enough to let the Stones get away. Soon enough, the posse was having a hard time with the zombies, which was when a posse of Guardian Angels turned up... To help them out!

Turns out, that people had seen the posse in the church, and afterwards, and saw them as heroes. The good news is that no one knew they were the ones who had slipped on to the Rock and freed Stone. Which they were a might bit pissed about, in hindsight.

However, they did get the chance to be hailed as the heroes they kind of were and even got a photo op with Grimme himself.

After one of their longest days, the posse made their way back to their hotel to sleep off the pain. Oh, wait, that was what the whiskey was for...

Well, folks, I hope you enjoyed this recap of the Heart o' Darkness. As the adventure says, this is the “The Empire Strikes Back” part of this trilogy. And, boy, does it feel like it. After the adventure, I made sure that everyone was still on board to play and they were. I think they were mostly mad at Stone for making fools out of them and were itching for revenge. Did they get their revenge? Well, you'll have to check out the next part of this series: Fortress O' Fear!

Battle Report: Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse - Solo game #1

Welcome to my first Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse battle report and my first battle report in a very, very long time. Hopefully I remember how to do this...

Forces:

For this game, I ended up picking my HassleFree minis “closely resemble but are legally distinct” Scooby Doo group. Originally released by in 2012 (if I remember correctly), these are the “post apocalyptic” versions they made. Sadly, I wasn't able to get the Scooby mini and ended up with the minigun version of Daphne. I also really want to track down a Mystery Machine...

Ahem. The forces. Due to the rules, I ended up making a Selfish force, as follows-

Fred (tough guy, neutral) armed with semi-auto pistol and a heavy blade

Daphne (survivalist, selfish) armed with a SAW and a knife.

Velma (leader, selfish) armed with a chainsaw and magnum pistol.

Scary Doo (dog, neutral)

Shaggy (tough guy, neutral) armed with a pump-action shotgun and a heavy club

Their Refuge is a Mall. Since I don't have to worry about competing against another player, I can spend all my Scavenge Points on Perks and just have some fun.

Mission -

Set-Up/Terrain:

As per the rules laid out in the book, I used a few vehicles to create a group of car wrecks in the middle of a crossroads, using some cars and trucks I've picked up. I then put down some ruins, barricades, barrels, and some other bits. I didn't use any difficult terrain because I didn't want to have one more thing I'd forget while playing. And I felt like I had more than enough terrain on the table.

After that, I set up five zombies in the middle of the board (using some Torn from SpineSpur so I could tell them apart from the ones that would be spawning). After that, I set up my own survivors, splitting up the group just like they do in the old show. Fred and Daphne to one side; Velma, Shaggy, and “Scary Doo” off to the other. I didn't want to have too much distance between the two groups, but I also knew that it was better to make sure that one wouldn't be sending zombies after the other.

The last part of the set up was the other group of zombies. When you're playing solo, you place zombies equal to the level of the group you're playing. so you're going to be dealing with more and more as the campaign advances. That's going to be fun... Not. These zombies replace the other player's group in missions.

The Game:

The first turn was pretty mellow, the zombies advanced towards the survivors. I was a little worried that I'd get swamped right away, but I far enough back to have the distance I needed. I then moved my forces forward, getting Scary up front and engaged. That was the whole point of him. He could move ahead of everyone else and doesn't suffer from a penalty when engaged by a group. Since most of the group was lugging several pieces of Heavy gear, I had to be careful. I made sure to position everyone else carefully, so they could open up on different zombies.

Which is what they did. While my dice were good most of the game, they weren't doing great at the start. I got in some hits and took out one or two. Those dropped the Supply Tokens I needed. I sent out Shaggy and Fred to grab them, as Velma was already moving slowly and Scary couldn't. That was fine, it allowed me to keep them mobile and have them cover the ones with the Tokens. 

After the second turn saw a few more zombies pop up on my rear. Between the Chainsaw and SAW, plus having Scary Doo, I was generating a few Noise Tokens. Since the closest board edge was behind me, that meant that I ended up with quite the little group coming up from the rear. However, I was able to clear off the zombies I had started with without too much trouble. I did have to shuffle the Tokens around, to keep things moving.

As the game went on, Scary was always in the fray. Since dogs don't take penalties for taking on multiple enemies, I kept him moving towards every fight he could. Velma kept getting caught in combat because of how slow she was moving. While she was able to cut down zombies with ease, she would have another one jump into a fight. Daphne had something of a similar problem. The SAW was great at cutting down zombies from a distance but was generating just enough zombies to hamper the other half of the team. I also had to make sure that Shaggy and Fred opened fire first, as Selfish models target the zombie closest to them, so I could work on thinning the ranks. Scary was really the MVP of this game. When I would get a group of zombies built up, he was always there. Sure, he didn't have the greatest CQC stat nor did he have a bonus to the Lobo rolls but I'll be damned if he didn't take down more than anyone else. It's a shame I can't level him up because he deserves it. Fred did alright, mostly doing cover for Daphne and hauling around a Supply Token. Shaggy was also good at moving and recovering things. And, when he was in combat, he used his axe very effectively.

I was really lucky with the End Phase events rolls. Only twice did have a car alarm go off and had one Supply Token get back up as a zombie. I did stop rolling it during the last two turns because I was getting a little frustrated and wanted to get on with my night! Besides, I knew that was soon as I was about to finish, I'd get something really bad...

As things started to wind down, I only had two zombies left. One was about to be surrounded by Velma, Shaggy, and Scary; and the other would have easily been gunned down by Fred and Daphne. So, I called the game there. I also said that I eliminated all of the zombies and got to collect all of the Supply Tokens. Hey, my board, my rules. I only had to fudge one other roll, because it wasn't quite cocked but I needed anything besides the 1 I rolled.

What I learned from playing this game:

Oh boy, there were a lot of missed rules and things I read incorrectly the first time. And I made several mistakes at first. I had the zombies with Supply Tokens moving at full speed at first, which was mixed. It meant that I didn't have to work as hard to get them. I also messed up and thought they were Heavy 1, not Heavy 2. I also had Shaggy hauling two them around for a while. Oops. I also couldn't find the rule about car alarms (page numbers are really nice, people) so I just said it was like a Noise Maker item, since I could find that easily.

That's one thing I can't stress enough: This book needs to be cleaned up, badly. You have to jump from page to page to page to find the cost, stats, and then special rules for equipment and models and etc. There's also a huge problem with things having several different names in different parts of the books. I'm already working on reference sheets I'm going to type up and print out.

The Post Game Results:

When everything was said and done, I made out like a bandit. Everyone that could gained a level. I got some okay rolls for my loot. I did end up with three Hunting Rifles. I didn't get the minigun (it'll happen, I know it will).

I didn't have to modify my rolls too much when it came to leveling everyone up. I had Velma roll on the Characteristics table, as I really want to get her some AP, but she got another point of CQC. Which is absolutely fine. I had everyone else roll of skill tables. Shaggy got Heavy Lifter, which gave me a chuckle. Daphne got Quick Load, which was another thing that was pretty good. And Fred got Gear Head. So... Yeah, the dice really loved me this time around. Maybe it was the blessing of Scooby Doo? I don't know.

Since I ended up with a good stash of Scavenge Points, I had Fred build a Fenced-Off Garden, so I could get some more Salvage Points as the game advanced. I had everyone else go on Guard duty so I didn't have to worry about a Zombie Attack. Well, also most everyone... Since I had enough points, I decided that the Gang needed someone to help carry things and kill zombies. Who? Well, you'll have to find out next time!

Mastering The Game: Making your own adventures

And we're back here at “Mastering The Game.” Today's topic is how to make your own adventures.

So, I've already talked about how to run prepared, or “canned,” adventures, and I mentioned that you can use prepared adventures to make your own. So, we're going to start with that.

Let's take an adventure for an example. Some time ago, a friend discovered a treasure trove of used gaming books for super cheap (we're talking $1 a paperback book) and clued me in. I found two supplements for a game called Dark Conspiracy, but not the core books. That's fine. One was an adventure called “Heart of Darkness.” You can't see my face, but it's currently covered by my palm and my eyes are rolling. That name has been over used. It's done. No more, please. (Note: A full rundown of this book will eventually pop up in Sources Say in the future.)

Ahem. Anyway. So, I don't have the books, but the module itself looks promising. I read the whole thing, cover to cover, twice and looked at how the story goes. It looks good and I like it, so this is a solid choice. Now, first I have to figure out what I'm going to use it for. The game seemed to be about aliens and stuff, but with a strong element of horror. There's psychic powers and magic, maybe? Plus, horrible monsters from other dimensions. Looking at that, I'm going to choose Conspiracy X for this one.

Now that I know what I'm going to use, I start changing the monster stats to the new system. I look at what it's suppose to do in the original game and then try to replicate it in Conspiracy X. Not too hard. And if I can't get close, I just change it to something else I think works. For the background, everything looks pretty good. I might need to make some changes here and there, mostly having to do with the change in setting, and make my notes about what's different. After that, we have to deal with the set up. In the original game, it looks like the characters would have been hired by some corporation to solve the mystery, so that doesn't work for Conspiracy X. Instead, we'll make it a mission from the higher ups and give them roughly the same information. The adventure did give the players a device that would allow them to get more info on things, which I don't have to change. There are some setting issues that I'll have to change (the book was done around the original Gulf War in Iraq and things were different then), so more notes there. The encounters should go the same, but can't forget to make the NPCs in the new system, too. And that's about all I need to do. Recreate the monsters and NPCs in the new system, make sure the setting stuff all matches the new one, and make sure everything is consistent. Not too hard, but I do have some experience. I think this is a good stepping stone to designing your own completely new adventures.

 

 

But, you say you're ready, you want to start completely fresh and make a whole new adventure, without using anything that's been put out. Alright, buckle up, this might take a while.

The first thing you need to do is come up with what's going on. Let's say you're playing D&D and you want to do something involving a haunted forest in the lands of a lord the players like. Maybe the lord is from an adventure you just ran and the players liked him a lot. Okay, great, we'll roll with this.

So we've got an outline of the situation. Local lord has a forest in his domain that's being called “haunted.” That means that people go in, but don't come out. This isn't a bad idea, to be honest, lot's of different ways you can take this. So, it's a solid choice.

The next thing we have to figure out is how long this has been going on. Maybe there's always been legends of a ghost or something in the woods, but it's been safe for a long, long time. Our first question is what's changed? That means we have to come up with the threat. You'll want to dig through your monster books and look at what offers a matched threat that the party can handle. For the sake of this adventure, I'm going to pick Drow. Probably because I'm a fan of dark elves, but also because I'm still wanting to run City of the Spider Queen. Okay, got my threat, but why are they here? We'll say that it's because the Drow were able to break a seal that had been put in place ages ago by some elves, keeping the Drow from getting out. With the seal broken, the Drow have begun to investigate the area. Since they're masters of ambushes and use a sleeping poison, they'd be a serious threat at night. That's why people are disappearing. They're being killed or kidnapped and taken as slaves into the Underdark.

Now, we have to figure out what the lord has been doing. After people vanished, he would probably send out some knights or something to investigate the vanishings. We'll assume he actually gives a damn about his people, so he does the right thing. Of course, the knights are outclassed and vanish as well. So he sends some more. None return. Maybe he sent out some lower level adventurers, who also never returned. Ever since, the people have been avoiding the area as much as they can. But, maybe they still need firewood, so while disappearances have slowed, they haven't stopped completely. We'll also say that some people who have gotten to close to the forest have also vanished. Now, we've got a good idea of the Who and the What, as well as the Why.

Now, we need to tackle the most important part of getting the party involved in the situation, the party's motivation. Most parties, even the more noble, are usually motivated by money. You'll have to figure out how much the lord CAN pay and how much he's WILLING to pay. There's always someone who wants to negotiate for more money, so make a note of how far the lord is willing to shell out. Hopefully, if you reach the cap, the others will force him to accept the offer. Don't be afraid to metagame a little bit. As for how the party hears about the situation, you can have the lord reach out to them directly if they're on good terms. Otherwise, the lord can offer a reward that the part can hear about in the tavern, the church, or other places they hang out. If you have a more... Murderhobo party, maybe they get tossed in jail and only get released if they agree to clear out the woods.

Once we have the motivation and reward done, we have to go back to our threat. First thing is making sure you have some facts and rumors characters can pick up before they leave. Come up with the original legend of the forest, which could be totally unrelated to the current threat. I'm a big fan of throwing out a red herring or two to keep the party off balance. And you don't want to reveal the real threat quite yet. But, give them some hints so they're not caught completely off guard.

Now, we have to come up with what the Drow have been up to. We have a rough idea of what they're doing, but let's dig a bit deeper. Who's in charge of this expedition? Given how Drow society works, there's a strong chance a female cleric in charge of everything. What's she like? Is this a chance for her to gain power and standing back home? Or is this a punishment for something and she's trying to make the best of a bad situation? Is she competent? Or is she an idiot who doesn't really care about this mission? Once you have your Big Bad Evil Girl (BBEG) worked out, you can work on the underlings, the trusted mages, scouts, and the like. You'll want to know how strong the force is wandering around the woods. What their main goal is. Based on what we have, I'm going to assume that the Priestess is competent and looking to make this into her little kingdom, controlling the flow of surface race slaves and goods. She's not stupid, but doesn't know too much about the surface world. Thanks to the element of surprise, and a fair amount of luck, no one has survived to tell everyone what's going on. As for her forces, she's got a few wizards to give her some power and a lot of rangers and fighters to do the dirty work. Of course, one of the wizards belongs to a rival house and might be willing to do something to cause the priestess to fall out of favor back home. This is what I call “leaving an out” should the party be captured. The wizard will free them, on the condition that they mess up the priestess.

The major threats will be the groups of Drow wandering the woods, who will stalk the party until they're ready to ambush them. But, that's not all there should be. In addition to the increase in spiders that should be stumbled across (damn those spider kissers), you'll want to come up with a few other threats that make sense for the area. Not only to throw the party off the trail of what's really going on, but it's really important to have a variety of threats, so the party doesn't get bored. Or something to throw at them so they don't get overconfident. Maybe some undead created by the Drow, or just by their acts of murder. A few wild beasts, like dire animals. Maybe they have some druids or rangers that can prevent a fight or maybe not. Remember, variety is the spice of life.

We've got the basics worked out. The hook, the background, and probably a lot of encounters ready to go. So, what else do we need? Of course we're going to need some maps. Those are important. I'd also suggest rolling for the treasure and rewards now, while you'll putting together the encounters, so things don't slow down after the fights. You'll want to work on tactics for the enemies, make notes so you know how they're going to fight. Drow aren't stupid and will probably start to withdraw as they start to lose. After we've got all that, make sure to work on that priestess and who's usually in her camp. I strongly suggest making notes on the camp being Prepared and Unprepared for a fight. Trust me, it'll save you time when the dice start rolling.

It's time for a final part you need to plan for: What to do after the players win. Does the priestess seal the opening, so the party can't invade the Underdark? Or is she unable to do so, leaving it open? You'll want some idea of that could happen next. Of course, even if you leave it open, the players might decide that they'd rather just seal it again and stay the hell out of the Underdark. If they do this, give them a cookie, because only fools go down there. If they do decide to go down into the land of dark and murder, you'll want to have a few notes ready to get started. After you know you're going down there, best to break out those books and look up what sorts of threats you can throw at them. I strongly suggest Mind Flayers. Those give people nightmares. And, besides, they did ask for it...

Now, let's say you're playing something else, maybe something modern or futuristic, where you can't just do a dungeon crawl. So, what do you do? There's a few options. You can do investigations, which is what a lot of horror games do. I could probably write up a whole other article about running those kind of adventures, but the best thing is to make sure there's multiple ways to figure out the answer.

That's the most important thing you have to keep in mind when designing your own adventures: Make sure you have multiple paths to find the end. While you want to plan for every possibility, don't. That way leads to madness. And the adventure never getting finished. What I do is figure out what my players are most likely to do, having played with them in a few adventures first, and then make some notes about some other things they could do. Since you can't plan for everything, look at the most likely and go from there. They not to prevent the players from doing anything, just know what they might do and give them some clues or hints based on what they do. For example, if you have someone who can read minds, make sure that the killer doesn't get close to them or is able to deflect the mind reading. Don't make it too obvious, like completely blocking it, but instead they get a hint that something is wrong, but they don't find out the truth right away.

Also, outside of dungeons and ruins, you'll really need to figure out the enemy's motivations and plans. And what they'll do to react when those plans go awry. Remember that most villains should be smart and you should play them that way. Have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and all the way to Plan O. Don't go all the way to Plan Z, that's going to take too damn long. Make sure you know what they want and what they're willing to do to get it. And what they'll do when they don't get it.

Another option for modern and futuristic games is the social interaction. This is good for letting players roleplay and gives you a break from having to memorize the game's combat rules. While these are usually part of investigations, you can also use them to build a much needed alliance. Or maybe you need to get that information that you've gathered into the right ears. Most games also have rules for social interaction, or even social combat, and it's always fun to try something new. Don't be afraid to throw these in to any sort of settings.

One thing I haven't tried too much is the heist game. But, I do have some adventures that focus on pulling off one of them. I have very mixed feelings about this sort of adventure, because these sorts of things can go sideways fast. When I played video games, I always hated stealth missions, that might have something to do with it... But, I seem to always have a group that seems to think that “subtlety” happens to other people. Running a heist is a lot like running a dungeon, you need detailed maps, a list of threats and where they are, and how the the players could circumvent things. The difference between the two is that when you're pulling a heist, you don't want to fight everything. In fact, if you are fighting everything, you've probably already failed. That's what makes heists so hard, what do you do when the party has fumbled so bad and now they're debating about blowing up the building to cover their tracts? All I can say is good luck!

When you get down to it, making your own adventures is both freeing and daunting. When you run a premade adventure, you can just use it as an outline if you want to. When you're making it up from scratch, you have to think a lot more about how things could go. And don't just make it up as you go along. I've only known one person that can do that. Most of us can't. It's okay if you have an outline and a list of things they could encounter, but don't just make it up. Only if you get seriously off track should you need to do this. I usually keep a note of the average stats for a normal person handy, as well as common weapons and equipment, just in case. The players decide to start a fight in the tavern rather than talk to the bartender? Okay, we can roll with it. It might not be as cool or go as smoothly as if you'd done all the work on everyone inside the tavern, but if you do it right, they'll never know...

 

Okay, this has gone on way longer than I was planning, so I'm just going to end it here. If you want me to talk more about making your own adventures, let me know and I'll come back to this one.

Sources Say: Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse: Seasons

Name: Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse: Seasons

Produced By: Osprey Games

System: Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse

Genre(s): Zombies

Since I've already reviewed Last Days:Zombie Apocalypse, let's take a look at this first expansion. But, before we get to that, I need to go over some stuff I forgot in my review. So, I guess you can think of this as an expansion of my review.

The big one is the Refuge. I was going to talk about it but it totally slipped my mind as I was finishing up the review. As I mentioned, you have a refuge. This limits how many models you can have in a group. They also have some innate special abilities and others the group can build later. Picking a Refuge is really important when you get started, but you can move to a new one if you want during a campaign. However, you'll leave all of your expansions behind. Another thing that I forgot to mention is that your group will be attacked in between games. It's a simple dice roll, modified by the amount of people you have injured, how many are on guard, and some of the stuff the Refuge has in it. Fail the roll and you're forced to move to another, leaving everything behind.

I also forgot some stuff about the missions and the campaign. As I mentioned, the goal of the missions is to get as many of the Salvage Tokens as you can. When you get back to the Refuge after the mission, you convert these Tokens into Scavenge Points as well as equipment, based yet again on a random roll. You use the points to get more characters, expand and improved your Refuge, and whatever else.

So, let's get to what Seasons does:

The first thing is that it gives you a bunch of new status effects you're going to need to keep track of during the four seasons of the year. Things like Hunger, Thirst, and Sickness. As the seasons change, you'll need to keep track of different ones, and roll to see what ones might come up during the transitional periods. How your group deals shortages of the supplies they need depends on what alignment the leader is. Selfish leaders are going to look over themselves and their cronies, Selfless leaders are going to look after everyone else first, and Trained leaders can do... Well, whatever they feel like.

One of the more interesting things is now you can roll for the weather during a mission. There's also a new mission for each of the seasons, which is really nice to see. They don't do a whole lot but they are a welcome addition.

With these new missions and status effects, there's some new Scavenge tables for the few new bits of equipment and other stuff you need to manage those status effects.

After all of that, there's finally a new update and additions to the basic rules. The first big thing is that there's new characters to add to your groups. There's one Selfish, one Selfless, and one Trained. There's also two new Neutral characters, one of which is horses. And they do make sense.

There's some new equipment, including motorcycles and bicycles. You can also give your leader one piece of “rare” equipment, including the aforementioned cycles. And a chainsaw. Now, you can finally have a group led by Ash from the Evil Dead. Because you know you want to.

And now we get the real good stuff: Rules for solo and co-op play. First, I want to talk about solo play.

The execution is... Off, I feel. I feel this way because your characters aren't completely under your control. Everything else is fine but, this doesn't sit well with me. It all depends on what alignment the character is. Selfish look out for themselves, shooting and attacking zombie closest to them and always shooting. Selfless characters are going to look out for everyone else first and themselves last. Trained are going to... Do whatever works best. Honestly, this book makes the case that you should play with a Trained group to be successful. And given the limitations on weapons and the expensive characters, this really sucks. Unlike a normal game, where more numbers are a mixed bag, having a smaller number of characters can be a very big liability in solo play. They say you should have 30-40 zombies ready to go, instead of the normal 20. Sure, you can argue that it should be okay with a smaller group, but there's this new table to roll on during the End Phase. One of the effects is you get a D3 zombies instead of one when you roll for noise. I'd like to see a small force survive that. One series of bad rolls and your entire group gets wiped out.

Co-op play introduces three new missions you can use. And they're complex. One of them has both zombies and bandits to deal with. Both of which activate during the Menace Phase. How's that for complicated? If I ever run that one, they'll be controlled by a third player. Because fuck that noise.

While I have complained about this stuff, it is really good to see and I do think it's a good idea. Since we're still dealing with a pandemic here, I can't really play this game with anyone else. But, I can play the all of this with by myself. I'll be able to go through a campaign and really get a good feel for the game. I'm also looking forward to playing with some people are being able to have a game where we don't try to kill each other. I do with there were more co-op missions, but I'll take what I can get.

As much as it might seem like I don't like this book, I really do. The stuff they've added is great, especially for keeping people playing. I look forward to seeing what else will come out for this game.

Building Silent Hill: Monsters

Are you ready to return to Silent Hill? I hope so, because I have such sights to show you...

We've discussed some of the history of Silent Hill. We've talked about the characters from the games and comics. Now, we should discuss the monsters we're forced to battle in the games.

In the first three games, you had your “roaming” monsters and your boss monsters. These monsters were inspired by the minds of the characters observing them. In the first Silent Hill, the monsters were from the mind of Alyssa, as seen in her room. The drawings in this room match many of the monsters you see in the game. In Silent Hill 2, the meaning of of the monsters are much deeper. The obvious sexual appearance of the nurses and mannequins, the tortured movements of the Patient Demons or Lying Figures, and the Doormen or “daddies” are all inspired by the minds of James and those we encounter. In Silent Hill 3, the monsters contain imagery of birth, children, impregnation, and exaggerations of the female form. Each of these games used this imagery perfectly and made these monsters memorable.

But, there were more monsters than that, weren't there? I'm talking about the boss monsters. Each one used that same imagery, but some of them were more memorable than others. Yes, I'm talking about Pyramid Head. Aside from the P-Head, there's not a lot of memorable boss monsters, are there? Maybe the Missionary that kills Harry. Or the Demon at the end of the first game, who's appearance depended on which ending you had gotten. I remember the moth monster from the first game very well, both forms, because they were a pain to kill. But, when I go back to play the games, I also seem to go “oh, yeah, that's right, there's a boss fight here.” I think the reason why we remember Pyramid Head so well isn't just because of his strange and iconic appearance, but also because he's the only boss we fight several times in a game. Resident Evil had this in their sequels, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was an influence for Pyramid Head's recurring fights. Another reason why we remember Pyramid Head is because we never actually defeat him. If you don't remember, I'm sure you can find a video of the final fight with him in SH2.

The normal monsters from the first game have always stuck with me. The “demon children with steak knives” in the school. The creatures in the sewers. The doctors and nurses in the hospital. The weird teddy bear looking things. And the flying monsters in the town. To name just a few. The bosses didn't stick with me as much, except the moth monster and the “demon” at the end. Of course, the demon would look different depending on what ending you got.

The second game had some of the most disturbing and unique monsters in the series. All of them were dark and unsettling. Of course, you didn't have too many boss monsters, except for Pyramid Head. And he was one of the best things to happen to the series. Until he was put in damn hear everything...

The third game went for a different style. While I didn't notice at the time, each monster is based around pregnancy, children, and the feminine form. Think about it. The boss monsters were slightly more memorable, but they were few and far between. There's a total of five in the whole game, including “God” and the ghost or memory of Alessa.

The comics didn't add anything to the monster roster, they just reused the ones from the games.

The movies reused stuff as well, but it did add in what I called “The Dollmaker” in the second film. And it scared the shit out of me. It was the perfect addition to the movie, especially since it was based on the third game, and contributes to the feminine image stuff. Also, it was nice to have something original added.

So, there's a huge list of monsters available to me to use for the game. But which ones do I choose? As I was starting work, I had my potential players make a note of their sins and fears (I may have mentioned this before), so I used that as a source of inspiration. I also looked at the monsters that effected me. Of course, most of those were from the first and second games. However, I chose the nurses from the third game, rather than the second, as they were more doll like and would be a bit more unexpected. I did have a rough list of what locations I wanted to use, and made sure to make a note of which monsters you would encounter in them, but I didn't limit myself to what had been in the game. I did want to catch people off guard. But, I knew that I would be including the more iconic things no matter what.

Using the information I had for the players, the characters I was thinking about including, the list that I had, and the locations I was thinking about, I started working on the list. I chose only one of each “type” of monster, as there were several different dogs and flyers in the games. I also picked some “minor” enemies to be encountered in the “normal” version of Silent Hill and then some more “serious” monsters to be encountered in the “nightmare” version of Silent Hill.

Then, I had to start thinking about boss fights. I know, some of you may disagree with this mindset, thinking this sounds too much like a video game. However, I'd like to remind you that this whole idea is based on a series of video games. As such, I don't mind going with that idea. So, I looked over the bosses of the games. Beyond the final boss and your fight with Cybil, the big monsters in the original Silent Hill were... Weird. A giant lizard, a giant caterpillar, and a giant moth. While these make sense in terms of the game, they seem pretty cheesy for a table top game. If someone starts laughing at the monster, it can break the tension at the wrong moment. I did think about including them, as I have fond memories of them, I did realize that they didn't work with what the game was shaping up to be.

In Silent Hill 2, the main boss was, of course, Pyramid Head. Yes, there were other bosses (mostly the other characters), but I know they didn't stick out in memory as much as nearly as much as Pyramid Head and the characters. The problem with Pyramid Head is that he's become one of the mascots of the whole series. I feel like it's a mixed bag. I think he's one of the most unique and iconic designs in gaming. This is why he's kind of everywhere. Many people will say that he only exists to punish James, and I do agree that the two are tied together, but Silent Hill is a very unusual place. I don't see why he couldn't exist as something independent of James. A wandering judge. Or, if we include the Order, as some kind of servant for them...

Silent Hill 3 had only five boss fights. Which I know because if you want get one of the special things, you can only kill 10 (!!!) monsters in the game, including bosses. Sadly, beyond the final boss and the Missionary, there's nothing that jumps out in the bosses. I do remember the giant worm, but that's because I killed it in my second play through in about five seconds with the infinite ammo SMG. The Missionary is also memorable because it was in the second movie. Even if they did change it quite a bit.

 

But, what about other monsters? As I've mentioned, monsters in Silent Hill are based on perception and fear. So, I had seen this line from someone online when I was doing some research for this project:

It would be interesting just coming up with monsters for this. Two people's main vices combining to form a monster that would hurt them both greatly.
Lust + Insecurity + Silent Hill = Crazed good looking chick screaming "DON'T LOOK AT ME" as she rakes her nails across her face, lashing out with the blood that oozes from her face.

This was what helped me start developing new monsters. I had a list of people I would like to play this game, so I asked them to write down their two major “sins” from the good old list of the Seven Deadly and then asked them to write down their fears. Anything they were afraid of. I will not reveal these, as I promised not to, but I did notice some common things. Bugs and spiders were mentioned a few times. So, what could I do with that? Well, a while back, I played a game of Pathfinder, which you can read here. When I talked about the spiders, I was afraid. And the GM showed a video of someone cutting a spool of twine to describe what it was like to cut the spider webs. This clicked in my mind. Making the normal abnormal. I created some horrible things that were part sewing machine, part spider. They creep me out, so that's always a good sign. I also noticed a fear of needles popped up several times. Which isn't too surprising, it's a very common fear. I'm not terrified them, but I don't exactly like them, either. I began thinking about needles and death and my locations. I remembered that I wanted to use the prison and things clicked. I came up with a monster I call Injectors. This is the description I wrote:

This gaunt humanoid walks with its shoulders slumped, its long arms almost dragging along the floor. When it turns around, you see that its face has been covered with a smooth white mask, leaving only the eyes exposed. As it looks at you, you notice in horror that its eyelids have been removed, leaving the glassy orbs to stare at you. As it advances, the creature raises its hands, and you see that the fingers have been replaced with syringes.

How's that for creepy? I feel that it fits with the fear of needles, the dehumanization of prisoners, and is just unsettling. I admit the wording isn't the best, but that's what editing is for.

Now, I want to talk about boss monsters. While I am borrowing a few from the games, I did want some more surprises for the players. I used their fears, their sins, and my own fears. I also thought about various myths and legends. I won't reveal what all I came up with, as some of my potential players might be reading this, but have you ever heard of a “Sin Eater?” They're something I've heard comes from the south. Mostly benevolent, I knew that they would be something interesting to encounter. Assuming the players are able to recognize them. I also pulled the one good monster from the second Silent Hill movie, as it scared the crap out of me when watched the movie for the first time. While the comics do have some unique and interesting monsters, I decided not to use any of them, even the big bads. Just not quite good enough. I also didn't want to have too many things running around.

Of course, there could always be a sequel game...

 

So, there's my thoughts on the monsters. Now, where do I put them? Well, that'll be my next entry in this series: Mapping Silent Hill.