Masks of Nyarlathotep: This is gonna get interesting

[Pentallion]

My son and daughter both really wanted to play Call of Cthulhu so I said we'd play MoN, since I have the new slipcase edition.  Yesterday I informed the rest of our group to start figuring out who they'd like to play.  "Who" seems to be the operative word they've honed in on, not "what kind of character."   Right off the bat this took an unexpected turn as my best friend I've rpg'd with for 35 years said he wants to play Travis Jackson, who was a rookie shortstop for the New York Giants in 1922 when they famously upset Babe Ruth's Yankees and went on to play in the next four World Series, beating the Yankees twice.

Okayyy.  Real life historical figure.

The next player then points out that DNA evidence proved that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid weren't actually the two bank robbers buried in Bolivia and that no one can actually prove the two died in 1908.  He wants to play the Sundance Kid, who would be 53 in 1921.  He points out Bolivia is right on the border of the adventure and it makes sense he'd be hired on as he would be fluent in Spanish and English.  Not to mention a damned good guy to have around if they ran into any bandits.

Okayyy.  Another real life historical figure.

My daughter wants to play a union activist named Lottie Adams, an Irish jew who lived on Delancey Street and was a member of the WTUL (Women's Trade Union League).  She went to Broward college to take WTUL courses for union organizers and played on the womens baseball team.  She may or may not have had intimate relations with Eleanor Roosevelt from 1922 to 1924.

Okayyy.  That one's fictional, but still....

My other player took the standard professor from Miskatonic University.  Whew!  Thanks bro!

My son?  I'm still waiting on that one, but I will lay good money on him saying, "well, if Butch Cassidy is still alive, you can't break up the set." Or worse, the Babe...

I am NOT playing pulp Cthulhu.  This is gonna be interesting.

[Lordabdul]

28 minutes ago, Pentallion said:

I am NOT playing pulp Cthulhu.  This is gonna be interesting.

Maybe you should, now... would be a shame to kill so many famous people

[klecser]

I'm confused as to why you might think this is a problem.

[g33k]

A wise man once said, "The GM's plans never survive first contact with the players."

 

Also, remind your daughter that her character may have jiu-jitsu training; this'd be the "classical" usually-upright style, not the modern Gracie/Brazilian method emphasizing a clinching "ground game."  And I don't know how "historical" they are, but sword-umbrellas always fall under the Rule of Cool.  

 

[Pentallion]

21 minutes ago, klecser said:

I'm confused as to why you might think this is a problem.

Well, I think it's cool and I allow it due to maximum game fun, but at the same time, I worry about the scare factor.  How scared are you going to be when you're playing The Sundance Kid?

[Lordabdul]

2 minutes ago, Pentallion said:

How scared are you going to be when you're playing The Sundance Kid?

Assuming The Sundance Kid is built on the same point totals as everybody else? I think "just as scared as everybody else"

(actually, even if that character was somehow more powerful than average, I'm pretty sure the player will still be pretty scared when they meet the Chakota in session #2!)

[DevintheGM]

What an amusing and interesting problem to have.  My best guess, I don't actually know your players so just a guess, the first little bit will be rather goofy with plenty of lines delivered directly to the "camera," with a wink and a nod.  However, as MoN begins to progress and the depth of the clues add up...and the body count rises, I think prior historical adventures are going to pale in comparison.  Also, the idea of the real Sundance Kid being locked up in an asylum somewhere insisting upon being the real Sundance Kid...I mean isn't that what all the effort of being a Keeper is for?

[Pentallion]

And my son picked...Edward Pierce, Private Investigator.

I guess he Really Loved the computer game.

[Joe Kenobi]

This is crazy cool. I've never seen--it's never even crossed my mind!--that players might adopt minor historical figures as their investigators.

I think @DevintheGM's got it right. Early on, there'll be some hamming it up--although you'll avoid the curse of players who aren't sure how to embody their investigators or what their personalities should be like. But when the Sundance Kid confronts a Lovecraftian horror against which he's clearly overmatched... well, in some ways, isn't that even scarier?

[Travern]

4 hours ago, Pentallion said:

I am NOT playing pulp Cthulhu.

This sounds like a Session 0 problem.  Are your players creating their characters separately?  It doesn't sound as though anyone discussed with one another exactly how this assortment of disparate PCs will band together to fight the Mythos.  Are they relying on you to provide the inciting cause that brings them together?

1 hour ago, Joe Kenobi said:

players might adopt minor historical figures as their investigators.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are too well known to count as minor historical figures.  While I could see a one-shot/convention scenario of the Wild Bunch vs. Yig as a "Down Darker Trails" scenario, such notable PCs may add more complications than they're worth.  For starters, how is a fugitive from the law like the Sundance Kid supposed to travel to NYC and then all over the globe?

[Lordabdul]

48 minutes ago, Travern said:

For starters, how is a fugitive from the law like the Sundance Kid supposed to travel to NYC and then all over the globe?

I think the idea was that everybody thinks he's dead, including law enforcement, and he now has a new identity or something? What I'm more concerned about in this case is that I believe he would be 60 years old by the time Masks starts. I hope he stayed in shape so he can outrun the baddies!

(and yes, I know, "you don't need to outrun the Hunting Horror... you just need to outrun a few of the other characters")

[Pentallion]

18 hours ago, Travern said:

This sounds like a Session 0 problem.  Are your players creating their characters separately?  It doesn't sound as though anyone discussed with one another exactly how this assortment of disparate PCs will band together to fight the Mythos.  Are they relying on you to provide the inciting cause that brings them together?

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are too well known to count as minor historical figures.  While I could see a one-shot/convention scenario of the Wild Bunch vs. Yig as a "Down Darker Trails" scenario, such notable PCs may add more complications than they're worth.  For starters, how is a fugitive from the law like the Sundance Kid supposed to travel to NYC and then all over the globe?

I'm having fun working out how they all got brought together.  As for Sundance, everyone thinks he's been dead over a decade.  No one would recognize him.  According to Butch Cassidy's sister, Butch returned to Utah in 1925 (note the year!) and no one recognized him.  He reportedly moved to Washington state and died in 1937.  In 1921, when the Peru adventure takes place, Sundance would be 53.  57 when 1925 rolls around.  Those aren't too old for a PC. 

Afterall, it's CoC.  Everyone starts as a kobold and goes downhill from there.

Two other historical events of note happened in 1921.  I have worked them into the opening of the campaign as a means of bringing the group together.  We game tomorrow night.  I'll post up afterwards how they were all brought together.  But I won't post spoilers of what happens in Peru.

Edited August 22, 2019 by Pentallion

[Pentallion]

okay, maybe a bit over the top, but it was fun.  This is how we brought the group together.  (minus my son, who had a last minute thing cause him to miss).

We put on some 20's music and they read the following opening cut scene:

Quote

 

New York City.  January, 1925.  A blizzard is pounding the city as a group of people enter a quiet hotel late that night.  They stamp the snow from their shoes and shake the cold from their coats, then make their way up a flight of stairs.  A scream pierces the night and they begin hastily running up the stairs.  One of them bursts open the door to a room and the group is greeted to a grisly scene.

As one of them looks on in horror the scene fades away into the flashback.

...Four years earlier....a young man, 17, is strolling down Broadway past Broward College having just come from the Polo Grounds where he'd tried out for the New York Giants and been told by John McGraw to come back next year.   The disappointed young man sees a group of young women playing baseball on the college lot.....

 

Then the young would be baseball player informed the union activist that he was going to one day be in the hall of fame (historically true).  The girls got him to play in order to make fun of him, but of course, he's actually quite good.  The next day, Lottie is told that the Seamtress Union is going to go on strike and she's being sent to speak to a professor of Miskatonic University and try to drum up support for solidarity with the strikers.  The Seamstresses create many of MU's college apparel.  She is to urge them not to purchase from scab production.  When she arrives, a woman in her late 30's, obviously a woman of great wealth, approaches her and asks directions to the same professor.  Then Travis Jackson, the young shortstop appears.  Surprised to see Lottie, he says he's looking for the same professor they are.  He's answering a job offer to do some general labor for an archeaological expedition.

The older woman eyes them both keenly.  They meet the professor.  The older woman tells him, "We celebrated our victory over the forces of darkness in the Great War, but evil does not rest and the battle is now fought on new battlegrounds.  It seems my husband has been a casualty of this new war.  He is paralyzed.  Needless to say, we have developed a cover story.  In August the doctors will announce he has polio.  The entire report is here."  She passes the professor a sealed folder.  "I'm afraid our days as field operatives are over."  she motions to the two PCs.  "But fate moves in mysterious ways and it seems the forces of light have found our replacements."

Travis and Lottie exchange puzzled looks.  Travis speaks first.  "I'm just here to get some honest work.  I came for the general labor job you advertised for."

The professor explains the job is in Peru.  Travis agrees to the terms despite Lottie's opinion that 16 hour days, 7 days a week are outrageous.  The wealthy older woman then smiles, "then it's agreed, you two young people are going to Peru."

Lottie sputters.  "I'm not going anywhere.  I'm here to support the Seamstress strike.  We want MU to show solidarity with the Seamtress Union."

Now it's the professors turn to sputter.  The wealthy woman intervenes.  "It's high time Miskatonic had a womans branch don't you think?  I'm sure I can raise enough donors to make that happen.  I am sure that the dean will be happy to support the seamstresses don't you?"

A stunned professor can barely nod, his head spinning.

She turns back to Lottie.  "Now, about you.  I understand that the WTUL is losing financial support.  I can see that fate has chosen you for this expedition.  So I'll make you a deal:  I'll support the WTUL, you spend two months in Peru."

"Who ARE you?"  Lottie asks in exasperation.

"Oh dear!!  How rude of me.  I'm so sorry I completely forgot to introduce myself."  She holds out her gloved hand.  "I'm Eleanor.  Eleanor Roosevelt."

I think I heard my daughter's jaw drop over Discord.

"I - I - what's so important about Peru?  What's down there?"

"Why that's what we want you to tell us dear."  Eleanor replied, patting Lottie on the shoulder as she left.

After they left the room, Edward Pierce entered.  The professor asked, "So you heard everything?"

Pierce nodded. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Follow them.  Don't let Larkin know you're there.  Have their backs if they get in over their heads."

Once they got to Peru, they met Sundance aka William Long, who had been hired as a guide and translator.

And so it all began.

Note from Wikipedia:  In 1921 Eleanor Roosevelt became an active supporter of the WTUL.  In August of that year, FDR was diagnosed with Poliomyelitis.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Pentallion