Has anyone run The Walker in the Wastes campaign (by Pagan Publishing)?

[KarlF]

I was given this as a birthday present a few years ago and have started running it with a group of friends. I would be very interested in thoughts on what worked well, what didn't, additional plot hooks etc that people brought in.

Myself - I really like the story and the great background research but feel it is seriously lacking on general resources to help the GM. Luckily in this modern age I have the internet to help with this.

Cheers

[K Peterson]

Nope, but I'd definitely like to. I've got a copy that I bought 5 or 6 years ago but have had plenty of other material to run over that time.

Please post a reply when you get further into the campaign and let us know how the WitW campaign plays out for you.

[KarlF]

In preparation for the campaign I read a couple of books about the Franklin Expedition and British arctic exploration during the early-mid 1800s, one about the crash of the airship Italia, and one about a man who kayaked through the Northwest Passage. These were good for getting a feel for the arctic environment and setting. Also the horror novel The Terror by Dan Simmons is another take on what happened to the Franklin Expedition and a quite enjoyable read (IMHO).

(As an aside excellent news came through during my preparation about the Canadian Govt discovering the wreck of the one of Franklin's ships: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/lost-franklin-expedition-ship-found-in-the-arctic-1.2760311)

I also did extensive searches for background material and maps on the internet. The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, UK, has a good deal of Royal Navy historical info available online, and the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection has an amazing range of period maps. Info on the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-1918 was also really useful background reading (it's amazing what you learn when you go searching for information!) as it is very similar to the expedition outlined in the campaign. I'm glad I could find so much background info regarding the settings as I feel this is the weakest aspect of the module.

We have played three sessions so far, all of which were based on the Prologue: Dead of Winter chapter. I changed the timeline - bringing the main scenario forward by a year - then added two further scenarios of my own to round out the expedition. In the main scenario progress was hampered by the party's reluctance to travel too far - not surprising really given it starts in the arctic winter, perhaps the start date should be brought forward by a month - certainly nowhere near the distances indicated by the map to get to the Red Caribou camp. In order to help the story progress I had the Red Caribou tribe hiding nearer to the western side of the Boothia Peninsula and eventually the party was able to locate them. (I balanced this with a sizeable Blue Seal band on the prowl - the party realised they had to make sure they avoided this group to have any chance of success). Having enlisted the aid of the Red Caribou the party headed to King William Island - I had the gnoph-keh turn up during the ritual to add some serious danger to the process but ignored its special cold and storm abilities as it probably would have slaughtered everyone (it is a very dangerous opponent for "beginner" investigators!) and the party were able to drive it off after a brief battle. They found the lair after the ritual had been completed and marked it to come back the following summer.

The next session was about the party returning to look for the lair but the Blue Seal clan got there first, moved the marker and set a trap in the form of a ritually slain Inuit man who, once disturbed by the party, became a weakened Child of the Wendigo and attacked their camp that night. The session ended with a very frustrated party returning to the expedition base having been unable to find the lair.

The third session had the Blue Seal clan raid the expedition base and kidnap one of the members to use in the ritual described in the module - I had this take place near to the base with the intention that they would call Ithaqua down to destroy the base. The party had to undertake a desperate midnight rescue mission, not realising just what was at stake until they fled the scene with their companion as Ithaqua arrived and took out his anger at the botched ritual upon the Blue Seal clan.

The party are now back in Toronto undergoing the debrief but they have been contacted by Dr Barrow in preparation for the next scenario.

I should note that these sessions are most definitely not regular - they have taken place over about two years! I don't run CoC with my regular gaming group as there is not as much interest in this game so I only run these sessions when we have our "special" weekend-away gaming sessions. Unfortunately that means it will probably be some time before I post anything further on this campaign.

[rbrandolph]

I have been looking at running this scenario and worry that the missions after the initial chapter may seem too much the same...fine base, infiltrate, blow up blimp, repeat...  I like how you split up the first chapter.  I look forward to when you do post again.

[KarlF]

I totally agree regarding the scenario repeat - when I first got this module and trawled through online forums for comments the most common complaint was "too many airships". I was thinking that after the first two airships (Endurance and one other) I would play out the suggested scenario of a group of cultists actively hunting the characters - this could take the form of a "Murder on the Orient Express" type scenario worked in with the group travelling to the next airship location and finding themselves fighting for their lives before they even get there, possibly forcing them to flee their proposed destination. Another scenario I will think about is finding alternative transport to the north pole, especially if the party are not well-placed to get aboard one of the airships.