Playtest Report - A Time to Harvest, Episode 1 - Broken by Players!

[Khelbiros]

We ran a playtest of Episode 1, and completed in one session, for about 7 hours.  The group was other GMs who plan to run a version of this adventure for our later convention season. I tried to run this as close to ‘vanilla’ as possible.

 

Day 1

I showed the PCs a version of the Pasquallium handout, and the survey group PCs got excited about finding deposits of ‘contrarium’. This made them suspicious of Blaine on Day 1, when the site clearly had no Pasquallium. Blaine promised to take them to a site that was more likely to contain Pasquallium on Day 2. Meanwhile, the folklore group chatted to Agnus (can’t we spell it ‘Agnes’?) and gained some notes.  I introduced the flower bed and Maclearan’s footprint.  One PC going to the outhouse saw a Zoog.

 

Day 2

The PCs ‘broke’ the scenario on Day 2.  Firstly, the folklore group had said the previous night before that they were going to the library for most of the day.  When the rain started, Blaine went to desert the survey group to make his telephone call, to check in on the welfare of the folklore group. Only, this made the survey PCs suspicious, as the other group was going to be snug in the library all the day and out of the rain!  And the PCs just wanted to drive back to town and not wait three hours. The PCs didn’t feel that they were far from ton, so there was no sense of isolation. Driving back seemed to be the better choice.

 

I had the truck breakdown and Blaine go off to telephone for repairs.  A PC tried to go with him, but Blaine refused.  The PC then rolled a Hard success to Track Blaine, but I fudged it and said that they couldn’t find his traces in the rain. Then someone made a Mechanical Repair role and fixed the truck. They were suspicious of the damage, especially after Blaine left, and returned to town.

 

Then, the PCs got distracted by the collapsing bridge. This action sequence on the bridge was confusing to run, and I think needs  to be clarified a bit.  Maps of the area, and in particular, a diagram of the collapsing bridge incident, would have really assisted me with this section.

• How far out of town does Blaine abandon the group? It must be rather close if he can walk to a farmhouse and then appear at the broken bridge sequence. What if they try to follow him, and roll an Extreme success? What if they just drive back and can’t be bothered waiting?  Perhaps include some Keeper advice on what happens if Blaine is tracked or escorted by the PCs.

• Which side of the bridge breaks? Is there another way back into town?

• If the truck is on the opposite side, how does the Sheriff’s team pull the truck back on the bank? Is it dragged through the water to the far side again?  If it is on the same side, can’t the Sheriff just collect the surveying team? Can’t they just go back the farmhouse?

• The Sheriff went to get the folklore students (who were not at the farmhouse, but at the library!)  Since most of the PCs were ladies, he didn’t really want their help, which kind of cuts them off from the action.

• Blaine seems to teleport into this scene in the written notes; I had him arrive with the Sheriff.  When he accidentally knocks someone into the water, I assume he is on the opposite side to the survey group? This is a rather confusing incident and only serves to heap up more suspicion on Blaine.

 

Day 3

The PCs tied up Blaine on Day 3, and convinced the other students to keep an eye on him. Day 3 was spent resolving the Dream Gate subplot and rescuing Emily. No one trusted Blaine enough to do the dig.  It was hard to separate the group from Blaine at that point.    

 

What about including some notes on what to do if the PCs challenge and inhibit Blaine from carrying out his plot?

 

Maclearan showed up in a drunken rage and threatened a PC with a knife. A PC got lost in the woods, but found the hut.  He gathered all of the group, and they defeated the Men of Leng and captured one.  They returned to their farmhouse and got the dynamite from a survey student. They went to blow up the Dream Gate, but had to fight off the moon-beast.  Emily was rescued and her wounds/trauma tended to by the group.

 

I ended the scenario with the Professor arriving who promised to look into the situation with Blaine. He put the PCs back to Arkham on the train, and the NPCs stayed behind as well.  The Professor also promised to deal with the captured Man of Leng. This leaves it open for Part 2, as it creates a window for the mi-go to do their brain harvesting out of the influence of the PCs.  The PCs were sick of Vermont and eager to return to Arkham.  We await Episode 2, set at glorious Miskatonic!

 

Player comments were:

• PCs thought that the students work better as undergrads, as the reference to ‘class credit’ is more of an undergrad thing.  Why would graduates be doing the trip for class credit? Also, undergrad students are less likely to gang-up on, and mistrust Blaine.  Perhaps he could be written as the Professor’s teaching assistant?

• PCs thought that the dreamgate subplot, and rescuing Emily, should be the main spine of the adventure, rather than field trip bits as they thought those were a bit railroady. The PCs got really obsessed by Pasquallium, and thought it would be good to put the Dream Gate near a deposit site, or near the Day 3 site (if Blaine is still in play).

• They were disappointed that they couldn’t find any Pasquallium, apart from some samples found near the Dream Gate.

• They thought that there was a lot of NPCs to relate to!

 

Tips for other Keepers

• If your PCs tie up Blaine, I recommend ‘’the Professor arrives and sends the PCs home’ ending. It’s probably not elegant but it works. Perhaps the Professor could check-in by phone to see how things are going.  The Professor could then arrive earlier if the PCs call him and complain about the goings on, or if people forget to check in.

• Think of a Plan B if Blaine is exposed earlier.  Shift focus on the Dreamgate Subplot, or have the Mi-Go arrive under other pretences.

• Figure out the Day 2 sequence, especially if your folklore PCs are in a specific location and not a random farmhouse.

• If you find the field trip bits rather railroady like my group did, make the Dream Gate the spine of this adventure.

  • On Day 1, introduce how Emily is missing. Maybe have the school teacher walk into the diner and ask about if they’ve seen her.

  • Day 1 and Day 2, do the dreams and zoog sighting.

  • Day 3, perhaps have Maclearan show up and chase a PC to the hut if they aren’t exploring the Sugar Maple woods.

• I allowed hunting rifles but no revolvers. I allowed a mining student dynamite (as you can just buy it from a general store anyway).  This didn’t break the adventure.  However, other players thought that there was no real reason to allow dynamite.

[morganhua]

I think you got distracted by the Pasquallium.  That has nothing to do with Episode 1.  I think it has to deal with later episodes when the mining concern is brought in.  So, when I ran it, I did not bring any Pasquallium into the scenario.  As the dig sites only revealed Indian artifacts, I actually told the PCs that the digs have more to do with archaeology and native plants and geological survey.

As per the bridge, I assumed the Sheriff needed the PCs automobiles as the town is poor and does not have sufficient cars to tow the truck out of the river.  Not only that, it's the student's truck, so it should be pulled out of the river by the student's cars since dragging it out might damage the cars.  I also said it took the Sheriff's car and the two other cars to pull the truck out of the river.  Also, the folklore group includes various male NPCs who can help in getting the truck out of the river, not just the PC females.  The female PCs can be left at the library, but the male NPCs who drive the cars will definitely go to the bridge.

As per the library, that's not what the folklore group is supposed to do.  They're supposed to take a dictaphone and take audio recordings of oral traditions.  What does going to the library help in that regard?  Blaine would veto that, but the PCs can go to the library anyway without telling him.  Not a big deal, since the other group would think that everyone is outside getting recordings.  The NPCs would probably continue with their job of getting recordings, so there's still a group out in the rain.

I put the bridge far from town and told the players that the dig and the folklore homesteads requires crossing multiple bridges to reach.  Each day, they drive further and further as they talk to more remote homesteads.  That's why the mid-wife is the last to be spoken to.  She's at the far end of the valley.  (But you are right, if this scenario is going to be cleaned up for publication, more than one person has complained about the location of the bridge, so it needs clarification.)

I knocked out the bridge after the truck almost finished crossing the bridge, so they were on the side nearer to the Maclearan Farm and Cobb's Corners.  I put the dig sites and homestead north of Maclearan Farm.  The hood of the truck is closest to the shore and the PCs have to jump from the truck hood to the shore as per the scenario description.

Tying up Blaine is a bit extreme.  I think assault and battery would lead to severe punishment by law enforcement.  If the Sheriff or Deputy came by and saw that, they would be in deep doo-doo.  I would bring that up and if they wanted to proceed, I would have them make SAN checks.  And what are they going to do if nothing happens?  Let him go? Then he'll put them up on charges.  Kill him for no reason?  Then that's murder.

I think you forgot there's a big number of NPCs who would be against tying up Blaine and not going on the dig.  Of the seven NPCs, I'd think a fair number would be against it. They could bring up the illegal aspects of what the PCs are planning to do, then you'd have a conflict inside the group.  Some may go along with the PCs, but others will object and some may call the Sheriff, and others may tell Blaine about the PCs' crazy plans.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

Hey, at least your group did the 2 subplots.  Mine ignored the dreams and heard about Emily, but didn't care, and never looked for the dream gate.

Edited May 8, 2016 by morganhua

[mibagents]

I just ran day 1 and 2 last night.  I ended up with 4 players out of 6 who were initially interested, which is a much more manageable size for CofC to me.  Anyway, they were all so intrigued by some of the folklore they picked up on day 1, they all wanted to join the folklore mission so I allowed it; only NPC's are on the geological surveys, so I don't have to keep them occupied on day 2, which seems a bit problematic. 

After seeing the zoog, and hearing tales about giant rats in the sugar maple forest, my players sent a wire back to MU requesting a biologist to help out; they don't know this, but that will be when Harrold arrives too!

So far, my PC's are far more suspicious of Jason Trent than of Blaine, which is a good thing.  the only issue is they are sticking to the specific points on the map and not going door to door, which I think I'll try to nudge them into doing on day 3 so they can get rained out.  It will be interesting to see how this works out with NPC's on the geology digs; but I think it will work out ok, these players I have are very industrious and already talking about looking for the Braithwaite girl. 

 

[Khelbiros]

Hey morganhua!

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I think you got distracted by the Pasquallium.  That has nothing to do with Episode 1.  I think it has to deal with later episodes when the mining concern is brought in.  So, when I ran it, I did not bring any Pasquallium into the scenario.  As the dig sites only revealed Indian artifacts, I actually told the PCs that the digs have more to do with archaeology and native plants and geological survey.

It was a good hook; I hope it gets used elsewhere.

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As per the bridge, I assumed the Sheriff needed the PCs automobiles as the town is poor and does not have sufficient cars to tow the truck out of the river.  Not only that, it's the student's truck, so it should be pulled out of the river by the student's cars since dragging it out might damage the cars.  I also said it took the Sheriff's car and the two other cars to pull the truck out of the river.  Also, the folklore group includes various male NPCs who can help in getting the truck out of the river, not just the PC females.  The female PCs can be left at the library, but the male NPCs who drive the cars will definitely go to the bridge.

It's still unclear to me what side of the bridge the PCs' truck is on.  If they are stranded on the opposite side of the river, it doesn't make a lot of sense to drag the cars through the river and up the other side of the bank to where the Sheriff and other PCs are.  However, it looks like your reading works out; something that should be clearer in the text.

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As per the library, that's not what the folklore group is supposed to do.  They're supposed to take a dictaphone and take audio recordings of oral traditions.  What does going to the library help in that regard?  Blaine would veto that, but the PCs can go to the library anyway without telling him.  Not a big deal, since the other group would think that everyone is outside getting recordings.  The NPCs would probably continue with their job of getting recordings, so there's still a group out in the rain.

 

They were talking to various people, but also wanted to explore the town. They thought they could get some good leads on who might know what from the library. Otherwise, there's not much of an opportunity to explore the town.  A group of NPCs was also touring the outlying farms. My Blaine was a bit more laid back than yours; he suggested, but didn't dictate exactly what the PCs would and would not do. Also, my PCs enjoyed the sandboxy aspects of the game than the linear field trip events.  If my entire game had been the scripted field trip, we wouldn't have had much fun.

 

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Tying up Blaine is a bit extreme.  I think assault and battery would lead to severe punishment by law enforcement.  If the Sheriff or Deputy came by and saw that, they would be in deep doo-doo.  I would bring that up and if they wanted to proceed, I would have them make SAN checks.  And what are they going to do if nothing happens?  Let him go? Then he'll put them up on charges.  Kill him for no reason?  Then that's murder.

I think you forgot there's a big number of NPCs who would be against tying up Blaine and not going on the dig.  Of the seven NPCs, I'd think a fair number would be against it. They could bring up the illegal aspects of what the PCs are planning to do, then you'd have a conflict inside the group.  Some may go along with the PCs, but others will object and some may call the Sheriff, and others may tell Blaine about the PCs' crazy plans.

 

The PCs were suspicious of Blaine after the bridge incident, and Blaine's 'accidental' shoving of a PC in the water was noticed by a PC and he was accused of a deliberate murder back at the farmhouse. After a round of skill rolls, social engineering and excellent arguments on board, the PCs had the NPCs on side after a fun kangaroo court roleplaying session. It highlighted the growing tension and paranoia in the group. I couldn't think of any reason for the Sheriff or Deputy to come by. Blaine couldn't give them a satisfactory answer about the two incidents. After Blaine was 'exposed', the PCs moved onto the Dreamgate plot.

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Hey, at least your group did the 2 subplots.  Mine ignored the dreams and heard about Emily, but didn't care, and never looked for the dream gate.

It's a sign of a solid adventure that Keepers can run it in different ways in different styles, and there's enough meat it for different events to appeal to different groups.

[Khelbiros]

Hey mibagents,

It sounds like its working out well for you.  Are you going to run the bridge incident? I guess your PCs on the folklore group could rescue the NPCs.

The map encourages exploration of the town. The vague door-to-door visits for the folklore group could use a map to provide something for  the visual PCs to focus on.

 

[morganhua]

6 hours ago, Khelbiros said:

They were talking to various people, but also wanted to explore the town. 

Ah, in my game, they explored the town after the free lunch provided by Blaine at Jim's Grill.  The Deputy gave them a tour (and introduced NPCs in the town) and they did some exploring themselves.  So, they had little reason to return to the town on the next few days when they were given the assignments to dig sites and oral traditions at farm sites.

Edited May 10, 2016 by morganhua

[mibagents]

13 hours ago, Khelbiros said:

Hey mibagents,

It sounds like its working out well for you.  Are you going to run the bridge incident? I guess your PCs on the folklore group could rescue the NPCs.

The map encourages exploration of the town. The vague door-to-door visits for the folklore group could use a map to provide something for  the visual PCs to focus on.

 

I'm going to have the PC's help with the bridge rescue, ATM.  Of course these players may surprise me and blow off the interviews and go schlepping through the Sugar Maples after the second dream (3 of 4 PC's had the same dream, which of course, is creepy AF).  I do have the map of Cobb's Corner's on display (it's a Roll20 game so I always use as much visuals as I can including a zoog pic I found online) but rather than explore the town these PC's are really honing in on specific lore points; like all the young deaths for example.  I had one PC holed up in the library for hours researching genealogies of the townsfolk to see if a particular family had more young deaths than others.  I so should have put a Kennedy family in there...;-)    

[Philippa]

On 10/05/2016 at 9:41 PM, Khelbiros said:

The PCs were suspicious of Blaine after the bridge incident, and Blaine's 'accidental' shoving of a PC in the water was noticed by a PC and he was accused of a deliberate murder back at the farmhouse. After a round of skill rolls, social engineering and excellent arguments on board, the PCs had the NPCs on side after a fun kangaroo court roleplaying session. It highlighted the growing tension and paranoia in the group. I couldn't think of any reason for the Sheriff or Deputy to come by. Blaine couldn't give them a satisfactory answer about the two incidents. After Blaine was 'exposed', the PCs moved onto the Dreamgate plot.

 

Tbh we were suspicious of Blaine from the start because of his sketchy behaviour and his lack of information about previous expeditions.  One of our suggestions was to have Blaine either be friends with a PC (randomly rolled) that he can confide in, or else bit a little more open.  Yes he may be insane but that doesn't mean he is screaming at the walls (at that point anyway). 

All he has to do is say something like 'I feel so guilty about what happened last time, I wasn't here because I broke my arm and the others died / went missing / whatever.  I feel like I have to prove myself to the professor, will you help me?'  I think it will make him seem a bit more believable, and then any odd behaviour can then be put down to him not wanting to risk any accidents, wanting to show he can run a safe dig, etc etc.  Having him behaving like a suspicious moron right from the start meant we didn't trust him at all - only the NPC cast of thousands did apparently.  Hence the packing up and heading home when things just got too stupid to stay

[morganhua]

1 hour ago, Philippa said:

All he has to do is say something like 'I feel so guilty about what happened last time, I wasn't here because I broke my arm and the others died / went missing / whatever.  I feel like I have to prove myself to the professor, will you help me?'  I think it will make him seem a bit more believable, and then any odd behaviour can then be put down to him not wanting to risk any accidents, wanting to show he can run a safe dig, etc etc.  Having him behaving like a suspicious moron right from the start meant we didn't trust him at all - only the NPC cast of thousands did apparently.  Hence the packing up and heading home when things just got too stupid to stay

In my game, that's exactly what Blaine told them.  I played it up though. At first, Blaine was very reluctant to talk about what happened.  Then a PC pressured him and that's what he said.  He also told them he had a relationship with Devine (true in his head, but untrue in reality) and really didn't want to talk about this anymore.  And I told them he was really upset about talking about all this and was truthful (if they used Psychology).  Since in the 1st expedition, he had nothing to do with the death or disappearances.