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Joe Kenobi

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Posts posted by Joe Kenobi

  1. I just discovered that my writeup of my play group's experience last year with Chapter 4 of Flotsam & Jetsam, "On the Banks of the Ohio," was lost in my inbox and never made it to this forum.

    For context, my group tends to play in shorter, 2.5-3 hour online sessions. It's a roleplay-heavy group and we always exceed the estimated number of sessions to complete a scenario.

    Session 1:
    Investigators meet up with Professor Peagram. Ask what he knows of the history of the area, Old Man Potts, etc. I mostly dodge to give them room to research. They are somewhat suspicious of Elle, I think because I gave her a slight accent, plus the inheritance originating with a distant cousin and Peagram's mother's death seem strange. They decide to conduct their research in the area, roll out by train with a car set up waiting for them in Louisville, arrive at 11 p.m. and drive to Potts' Tavern.

    Session 2:
    Get close to Patt's Tavern at 3 a.m. (drive through the night) and run into Mandias and his gang. After a stare down, the investigators claim they're just looking for Shawneetown and got lost; Mandias sends them back the way they came, and they never make it around his Packard blockade to Potts' Tavern proper. Stay in a hotel, grab coffee in a diner in the morning and talk to the waiter, who tells them the story of Potts' Tavern and just a bit about Flappy Flanagan. They head back out there around noon and let themselves in, Mabel being absent.

    Session 3:
    Searched the house and found the attic lookout post as well as the clues in the back parlor -- I also dated the map 1878 and had a marker on it for "Flanagan Place" so they knew it had been Flanagan's that long. We played online, and for the etching, I put it in the chat as "E S A U" which they pronounced like an acronym rather than a name. Their conclusion was that the Peagrams had cleaned up the house too much to find much for clues, so they searched the surrounding grounds, mostly to no avail (they did find the skull fragment, plus a decaying saddle in the collapsed stable). Next they took the path down to the river, and originally planned to follow the path up to the Flanagan place, but were intimidated by the "No Trespassing" sign. Instead, they split up, leaving one party member to watch the Flanagan place and Saline River from the attic lookout spot, while the others went into town. They looked into the Potts' Tavern Property records, then the Potts' death records, and then started asking about the Flanagan Place, which led the clerk to discuss the Towsons and Esau Richardson (the first time his name was uttered).

    Session 4:
    Two investigators gathered a bit of information on Flanagan and the Flanagan place, then headed out to the Gallatin Gleaner and learned the "Researching Southern Illinois" facts. They keyed in on Cave-in-Rock as something they'd need to investigate. (Given its prominence in the area history and its proximity to the Ohio River, it does seem like a location that could be fleshed out as an alternative sometimes-hiding spot for Esau.) The remaining investigator continued staking out the Flanagan Place. To keep things interesting, at one point I had the Icehouse Door open from the inside and someone start to step out--but then the sound of an arriving truck with a liquor delivery led Esau to retreat. The investigator also saw some movement in the trees, courtesy of the Mandias Gang.

    When all three investigators re-met up, the one who did the stakeout immediately pointed out the discrepancy of the Towsons raising Esau "Richardson." Two investigators headed back into town and gained the Esau Richardson gossip for their troubles. The remaining one (different this time) stuck around to stake out the Flanagan place. This time I had someone drop off a meal at the ice box--open the door and set it inside. When the three met back up this time, they decided to stake out the Flanagan Place overnight. They were quite confident it was Esau Richardson in the ice box and that they'd solved Professor Peagram's conundrum. Though they were afraid to approach the place and risk upsetting Flanagan.

    Session 5:
    While keeping watch during the night, an investigator saw one of Mandias's gang leave the woods around 5 a.m. The others, including Mandias, then headed to Potts' Tavern to take it over. They were a bit surprised to discover the investigators' car there, but as they stormed the house, my investigators managed to Stealth away from them and lose them (including dropping off the 2nd story balcony and circling back around to re-enter from the rear). The Mandias gang hung out until Ray Dane arrived with the plane, dropped his dynamite (landing two hits!) and flew away--then they raced in. The Flanagan buildings were on fire and up in smoke, and Mandias and his goons started to pick through the remains when Esau rushed them and unleashed his fury. The investigators backpedaled, but Esau easily spotted one who drove over in the car and took off after him.

    Session 6:

    Staring down a major physical confrontation with Esau, one of the investigators determined discretion is the better part of valor and surrendered to Esau, saying he didn't know there was a Deep One in this part of the country. This took Esau by surprise and (with the help of an Extreme Charm roll) his curiosity outweighed his anger. The investigators made clear they had no association with the Mandias gang and answered all of Esau's questions as to his origins, with he in turn answering their few remaining questions, including telling the tale of Belle Gunness. Knowing his origins, he gathered up Jeremiah and Mabel and skipped town headed east, on a quest to reach Innsmouth.

    I skipped the Belle Gunness coda, feeling this was a strong enough scenario and mini-campaign resolution on its own.

  2. I once played as a blind character—turned blind by a spell cast by an NPC I’d offended. It was admittedly not my favorite experience, but it did lead to some creative roleplay for me, the party, and the Keeper.

    My suggestion would be to discuss with the other players and see how they feel about having a blind party member. See whether they think it would be a fun party dynamic to manage or an investigative constraint on the rest of them. Their level of appetite for it might be as important as anything else.

  3. I'm very proud to say XP Lovecat has posted a review of Cat's Cradle! For those unfamiliar, XP Lovecat is a YouTuber with in-depth scenario reviews and player and Keeper advice, not unlike Seth Skorkowsky.

    Here's her video review:

    A couple key quotes:

    • "A scenario with lots of investigation and lots of different options and paths... The scenario was reminiscent of some of the older Call of Cthulhu scenarios."
    • "It was definitely sandbox. My players did not go in the order in the scenario, and everything worked out really well."

    If you're interested, you can pick up Cat's Cradle here, or as part of The Haunting Sequels Bundle here.

    • Like 2
  4. My group is very roleplay-heavy, so we rarely do time jumps. Because of that, I make a point of noting the time whenever we’re transitioning between scenes.

    I also often make the roll matter for the time duration. A failed Library Use roll often means they still find the information, but they spend all day laboring in the library trying to locate it. Extreme success? They have great instincts and within 10 minutes they’ve pulled the right book off the shelf and flipped to a helpful page.

    I recognize this is kind of the opposite of what you asked for, which is useful guideposts for newer Keepers. But I think there IS a lot of room for major variation, or at least the best methods for tracking and managing in-game time are highly dependent on group playstyle.

    • Helpful 3
  5. This got me curious how those percentages might increase over time. I re-ran the same analysis with an eye toward how much time had passed since a scenario's release date using your Miskatonic Repository Catalog, Nick, although I limited mine to English language titles, so I have a slightly different baseline.

    Here are those same percentages for All Scenarios --> Scenarios out 6+ months --> Scenarios out 12+ months:

    • No medal (1-50 sales): 48% --> 45% --> 41%
    • Copper (over 50 sales): 14% --> 15% --> 16%
    • Silver (over 100 sales): 27% --> 28% --> 30%
    • Electrum (over 250 sales): 9% --> 9% --> 11%
    • Gold (over 500 sales): 2% --> 2% --> 2%
    • Platinum (over 1,000 sales): 0.5% --> 0.6% --> 0.5%

    The biggest takeaway is that after a year on the market, an additional 1 in 10 scenarios have achieved medal status, dropping No Medal from 48% to 41%.

    • Thanks 1
  6. 4 hours ago, Grimmshade said:

    These look great! I'll probably order them for my Masks campaign. The only thing I'm noticing is that several seem to last much longer than a bout of madness normally would. 

    Edit: Went ahead and ordered the deck. I figure I can always remove the ones I don't want in there. I can also sleeve them and add some custom bouts on paper (behind the card back).

    Awesome--thanks for taking the plunge!

    That's right, a number of them do last longer than a rulebook bout of madness. We concluded a handful of the less debilitating ones manifest better and are more fun to roleplay over a longer period of time. I'm happy to share:

    • Almost half of the cards are either 1d10 or 2d10 rounds
    • 12 of them add a permanent effect -- the bulk of these are phobia- or mania-related. This also includes the Hidden Genius card, which is the only positive effect in the deck (we liked the idea of one "joker")
    • The remainder are either 1d10 hours or 1d10 days -- I just counted and it's 4 of them have the multi-day effect

    Definitely our intent is to provide enough variety that Keepers feel comfortable picking and choosing to some extent, and pulling out cards they don't think will work well with their table or scenario.

    I love that you're thinking of adding some of your own custom bouts, as well!

    • Helpful 1
  7. I'm excited to share that my collaborators and I have just released a Bouts of Madness Deck on DriveThruRPG via the Miskatonic Repository. This is a deck of 54 cards designed to replace the Real Time Bouts of Madness table: When an investigator suffers SAN loss such that a player would normally roll for an outcome on the table, the player instead draws a card from this deck and behaves accordingly.

    We have released the deck with both physical print-on-demand and print-and-play PDF options. I'm probably biased, but I'm incredibly impressed by DriveThru's print job and the quality of the physical deck!

    624240138_Examplephoto2.jpg.27a9fba08353360f1344729bb47b4745.jpg

    To celebrate the release, we have discounted the physical deck by $2 through this Thursday, Jan. 5, via this link.

    If you pick it up, please let us know what you think!

    • Like 5
  8. I love Blackwater Creek! Ran it for my usual group a little over a year ago.

    I think it's doable with two players, but I also think you're right to wonder. It would leave little margin for mis-steps. I would definitely take the academic track as opposed to the bootleggers track--I ran it the former way, and the emphases of the latter would seem to make combat practically an inevitability.

    Regarding Location 8, the Carmody Farm:

    Spoiler

    My experience is that violence is highly likely, but that combat itself need not be. There is certainly room (in the academic track) for the investigators to flee and simply disengage when things turn violent. My own playgroup only made it to the Carmody Farm after destroying the Mother, so things had gone off the rails there and they didn't engage in any direct combat.

    More of an issue might be Location 9,

    Spoiler

    the Cave. With two or especially one investigator, the Mother is going to attempt to sink her tentacles into them, and it would be quite possible for an investigator to be incapacitated by a bout of madness, then Grabbed and Absorbed by the Mother before they regain their wits. The corruption in general could also prove problematic if a solo investigator or pair are less than cautious--this is true of all investigator groups, but the larger the group, the more likely you are to have someone who plays things a little safer.

    It's a strong enough scenario that I would think it's worth attempting with two, but for a solo investigator, Location 9 would need some restructuring--and possibly Location 8 some gimmes granted on Stealth.

    • Helpful 1
  9. I'm pleased to say Cat's Cradle has picked up a couple of (quite positive) reviews!

    Rolling Boxcars had these nice things to say about it:

    • "[A]dding Cat's Cradle to the mix will dredge up echoes from the past while providing you and your group an entertaining evening, or two, of excellent gaming experience."

    • "The bulk of the scenario is an investigation—a web of clues spread throughout the Boston area... Cat's Cradle is a sandbox where Investigators are free to follow the clues in whichever direction they please".

    • "Good sleuthing skills and thick sole shoes are the investigators’ best friends. The investigation and clue trails are solid and well thought out."

    And here are a couple highlights from Reviews from R'lyeh:

    • "Solid sequel to a classic scenario, The Haunting, which both explores the backstory to the scenario and personalises the consequences of the Investigators’ actions in the Corbitt house."
    • "Deep investigative dive into the backstory to The Haunting"
    • Like 2
  10. I'll add a second recommendation for Miskatonic Country Scenarios: A Keeper's Guide. It's awesome--provides excellent summary and reference across a wide range of scenarios tied to geographies, and will provide you with quick reference as to which scenarios are based in Arkham, in whole or in part. I see it's also included in the Quarantine Special Bundle @AlHazred linked out to. (And thanks for putting that bundle on my radar, too--I might need to pick it up myself!)

    In terms of specific scenario recommendations, I am currently running Crimson Letters from the 7th edition Keeper's Rulebook for my playgroup and it's a lot of fun. Plenty of NPCs to play, plenty of open options for the Keeper to customize things, and a nice, creepy mystery that's left my players guessing.

    I also adore Blackwater Creek from the Keeper's Screen pack--it starts out in Arkham before moving the bulk of the scenario to a place near Dunwich. So maybe not quite what you're looking for, but it's a wonderful sandbox scenario with multiple strange, apparently disparate elements that come together into a wonderfully horrific finale.

    • Like 1
  11. Didn’t know Scent showed up in The Two-Headed Serpent—on a fairly regular occasion, I find myself wishing investigators had a “Smell” skill I could ask them to roll. It’s become something of a running joke in our playgroup. (Solution has been to either give them the info for free, or have them roll Luck.)

    It could be fun to have them encounter an NPC or monster at some point with a Scent skill and see how they feel about that!

  12. 6 hours ago, Ejlertson said:

    Link leads to an empty page, at least on my phone.

    Hmm. I have the same issue from my phone--but it appears to be something buggy with DTRPG's mobile experience.

    Is the DriveThruRPG navigation bar loading at the top of a white page for you? That's what I have. But then if I click the account logo in the top left to open up the menu, and click Desktop version at the bottom, the bundle page loads just fine. (It also loads just fine directly from the link on my laptop.)

    I wish I had a better answer!

    • Like 1
  13. An update I'm pleased to share: We have now created and launched a three scenario The Haunting Sequels Bundle on the Miskatonic Repository. It includes:

    • The aforementioned Cat's Cradle
    • Jon Hook's Of Wrath and Blood
    • Evan Perlman's Dream House

    That's three scenarios for less than $9, which is a 31% discount vs. buying them each individually. They are also all playable by the same playgroup--though I'll note Dream House is intended as a one-shot and not built to serve as part of an ongoing campaign. (But a playgroup that has played through The Haunting, Cat's Cradle, and Of Wrath and Blood can still experience Dream House as it was intended.)

    • Like 4
  14. 9 minutes ago, Ejlertson said:

    Mind if I ask a question?

    How well does it handle interaction with: Of Wrath and Blood?
    I ran it as a sequel to The Haunting, but if this could be used as a third chapter it would be awesome.

    Great question. I am pleased to say they are fully compatible! Of Wrath and Blood and Cat's Cradle pick up on different narrative threads left by The Haunting, so either one can be run before or after the other as follow-ups to The Haunting.

    In fact, we even include a brief section at the end of Cat's Cradle that suggests possibilities for more tightly aligning the play experiences between Of Wrath and Blood and Cat's Cradle. So yes, it can definitely serve as a third chapter following the other two!

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
  15. I am the co-author of a new scenario just released on the Miskatonic Repository: Cat's Cradle. This is our second scenario for the Repository, and more than a year of work went into it, including extensive playtesting. I am proud of where we landed!

    For those who have always wanted a follow-up to The Haunting focused on Pastor Michael Thomas and the Chapel of Contemplation, this scenario is our love letter to you. We also designed the module with an on-ramp for players who have never experienced The Haunting, but would enjoy an investigation-heavy, handout-heavy, sandbox-style scenario set in 1920s Boston. You can see a trailer here:


    If you check it out, please let us know what you think!

    • Like 4
  16. A few I'm aware of--most of which I haven't actually played:

    • "Christmas in Kingsport" from The Eldritch New England Holiday Collection -- It's third party published, but I've generally found Golden Goblin Press's work to be of high quality. Of note, the investigators play as preteen cousins.
    • Cold Warning -- Also Golden Goblin Press. Set in the dead of winter, with events in both Arkham and rural Maine.
    • Trail of Tsathogghua -- Classic Chaosium scenario published in the 1980s. Officially set in late spring/early summer, but with events in Greenland and Canada, so plenty snowy and wintry-feeling.
    • Beyond the Mountains of Madness -- Another classic scenario from the Eighties, set in Antarctica and written as a functional sequel to Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.

    Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention I'm the coauthor of Prisoners' Dilemma, a Miskatonic Repository scenario set in the wintry wilderness of the Soviet Union circa January 1929, and inspired by the true life Dyatlov Pass Incident.

    • Like 2
  17. 1) I mixed it up by inserting some additional scenarios in between—ran Flotsam & Jetsam 1 and 2, then two other scenarios before part 3, then two more before part 4.

    2) See above—I inserted a couple other scenarios to help the time pass and to keep things fresh. However, the second scenario does leave you with a few tools to play with (if your chosen investigator takes the needle) to help fill that time.

    3) Maybe insert a scenario that makes a tome available.

    4) I can’t comment; my group is actually in the midst of the extra scenario I inserted just before Flotsam & Jetsam Part 4. We should be starting in within the next several weeks, but we’re not there yet.

  18. I don't own a copy, but I wonder if Paul Fricker's Full Fathom Five might meet your needs? I've heard good things.

    The Lightless Beacon is of course lighthouse themed (and free!), but would take some lifting to get it to 4 hours. Maybe if you merged it with Transatlantic Terror?

    Finally, Terror Australis includes a couple scenarios for the Australia angle.

    I'm drawing a blank on anything with a hospital or quarantine theme.

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