Down Darker Trails- Anyone Keeping or Playing?

[Fallingtower]

I have gotten into a Weird Western mood via watching a few Weird West movies....El Topo and Bone Tomahawk to name two. Dead Birds another.

So while the iron was hot I ordered Down Darker Trails and am looking at the PDF. Very nice.

Anyway....I have a few pretty good ideas for scenarios already. I'm just not sure where to use them. The right players are hard to find.

I am thinking of doing a convention scenario for a con that's coming up.

(Gotta)Few Ideas thusfar...

-Pappy Yig's Snake Oil. Whole towns are going insane and mutating. The enigmatic and wily Alphonso T. Hazard, the salesman/wizard must be stopped. 

-Whateley's Go West - West Dunwich a weird town folks wander into, some don't wander out. Things happen.

-Arkham Ho!....Miskatonic U. sent out a team to research native cultures. Strange caves...lost culture...locals avoid the whole area...investigators are part of the team.

Anyone else dabbling with DDT? 
 

Edited January 20, 2019 by Fallingtower

[Valyar]

I have the book and plan to convert “The Haunting” into Wild West style of adventure. 

[MrJorgensen]

On 1/20/2019 at 9:37 AM, Fallingtower said:

-Pappy Yig's Snake Oil. Whole towns are going insane and mutating. The enigmatic and wily Alphonso T. Hazard, the salesman/wizard must be stopped. 

-Whateley's Go West - West Dunwich a weird town folks wander into, some don't wander out. Things happen.

-Arkham Ho!....Miskatonic U. sent out a team to research native cultures. Strange caves...lost culture...locals avoid the whole area...investigators are part of the team.
 

Not playing yet -- moving into the end stages of HotOE -- but I have the book and am looking forward to it. And I have to say, I love all three of these ideas. Alphonso T. Hazard: what a great name!

[Fallingtower]

On 1/22/2019 at 2:22 PM, MrJorgensen said:

Not playing yet -- moving into the end stages of HotOE -- but I have the book and am looking forward to it. And I have to say, I love all three of these ideas. Alphonso T. Hazard: what a great name!

Working on another one....a train based one. Yeah I know it's been done...but c'mon it'll work big time.

-Train goes into a tunnel, the tunnel collapses, crash, smash, investigators knocked unconscious...they wake up and have to fight their way out of K'n-Yan.

Anyway...a whole set of train based adventures are roiling in my brains.

-During a Buffalo shoot off a train, something gigantic and angry knocks the train off the tracks....fight to survive.

-Train stops in an unknown town...painted yellow....Carcosa Flatts. Everything is weird.
Everyone is worried about the Sheriff (in Yellow).

 

[Takeshidude]

I've been running a DDT arc in my game for about six months now. I love the book and the setting, although I'm still learning my way through being a GM, and Keeping Call of Cthulhu, so including western flavor in that is a bit of a balancing act.

I actually haven't run either scenario but I really like the look and feel of Pawheton's adventure ("Something from Down There"?) I started out with Sundown, a 6e convention scenario for free on Chaosium's website. Since then I've used this campaign to flex my homebrewing muscles and tie into an earlier campaign. One session I had the PCs adventure into the deserts near San Rafael and had them explore the Ghost Mission and accompanying Shadow Desert, though I wish I had spent more time on that. We stopped in Black Mesa, Oklahoma, after that to visit one PC's estranged father who had gotten himself involved with the man in the tan jacket (Nyarlathotep). Our last session was spent in Normal, OK, where they investigated a few disappearances that turned out to be a wendigo.

I'm preparing to run "The Iron Ghost" from Fearful Passages as it is based around various space-times converging on a train, as well as "Amidst the Ancient Trees" from the 7e Keeper Guide (that will be relocated to Bozemon, Montana). If you're looking at other scenarios that could make the jump to ~1880, I think Dead Light could work well if you found a location where a torrential rainstorm is plausible; you could also look into moving "An Amaranthine Desire" from Nameless Horrors to some coastal settlement in the Pacific Northwest. I'm sure "Ties that Bind" (Doors to Darkness) would work well too.

Music is a big part of my games, so I've had to dig a bit to find tracks that fit the mood and the western flavor. Tracks from The Legend of Zelda tracks such as "Stone Tower" (I'd look for a more mellow version of "Gerudo Valley" if that was an option), The Adventure Zone (Dust and The Eleventh Hour music is perfect), Derek & Brandon Fiechter's western music, and instrumental versions of a few popular music songs ("Doolin-Dalton" by the Eagles and Marty Robbins' "Big Iron") are what I've built my soundtrack around.

One of my books (can't remember if it's DDT or Doors to Darkness) says that there are supposed to be two more books in the Down Darker Trails lineup, so that could be even more fun.

[Fallingtower]

Here's what I'm starting with....

All the player characters will be survivors of the Delapore family who were burned out of their plantation in the Civil War (Rats in the Walls). A part of the family went North to live, this faction stayed in Virginia, tried to rebuild Carfax, but failed. 

The surviving Patriarch, Uncle Enoch, suffered burns from the ordeal and has been ill ever since. Doctor's recommend a warm, dry climate...his lungs were damaged in the fire.

The remaining Virginia Delapore's cobbled together their remaining fortune and sent some of the clan to South Texas (San Rafael) to set up a ranch/homestead.

The PC's are travelling there....when they finally get there, something is wrong...and our adventure starts there.

A Town Called CARCOSA...? Maybe

Edited February 8, 2019 by Fallingtower

[Larry Lovecraft]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

I am running a Pulp Darker Trails game right now that is a Frankenstein of a campaign cobbled together from BRPG stuff, stuff I wrote, and the DDT book.  It is heavily influenced by The Dark Tower novels, Joe Lansdale's "Dead in The West" books, and Hammer horror films. 

Brief plot as follows:

The players are all associates of one Marshall Preston, and are told to meet him in the town of Devil's Gulch (from the BRPG set) , yet when they get there, he is comatose...the players must contend with the locals and figure out who is on their side and who isn't, and are sent in a red herring direction at first during a shootout.  It spirals from there and I have made a gang called The Black Philip Gang (based on the antagonist from the film The Witch) who worship a goat and get orders from him to be the main foils for the moment.  Satanic Western Fun!

The next arc is the players finding out that Preston was searching for something old and powerful when he ran afoul of the gang.  This macguffin (probably a neolithic dagger or talisman) is going to have be disposed of, but first they need to travel to Pawheton (from the DDT book), where Jack Stratton's gang has possession of the macguffin and will only part with it if the players work for him (I am going to use the "Something Down There" scenario from the DDT book as well here, but with Vampire thralls and a vampire instead of the published creature). 

Too powerful to fall into the wrong hands, the macguffin cannot be destroyed, and therefore can only be sequestered away somewhere...and the only safe place to do so is the Shadow Desert. 

How do a bunch of cowboys, outlaws and Pinkertons get to the Shadow Desert, you ask? Why, through Sasquatch magic! So yes, the 3rd and final act of my DDT campaign sees the players gathering info and  seeking out the last Sasquatch tribe, so their shaman can send the players to the Shadow Desert.  On the way, aboard a train, will be the final showdown with The Black Philip gang before heading into The Shadow Desert with little hope of returning alive or sane. 

It's wacky, wild, weird and pulpy.  Players are having a blast, and it is a pleasure to prep and create!

The caveat to this whole thing is I just bought Masks Of Nyarlothetep, to play next, so if the players make their Masks character tied in to the DDT campaign by way of character or NPC lineage, they start with an extra 5 Luck!

 

 

Edited February 8, 2019 by Larry Lovecraft

[Larry Lovecraft]

On 1/20/2019 at 9:37 AM, Fallingtower said:

I have gotten into a Weird Western mood via watching a few Weird West movies....El Topo and Bone Tomahawk to name two. Dead Birds another.

 

Sick! I also watched Bone Tomahawk to get the juices flowing...also check out The Proposition and Ravenous.

[10baseT]

Yes, playing it and loving it. My setting is San Bernardino CA 1870. The area as a whole was part of the Spanish crown, belonged to Mexico, then the Republic of California for about a month before it became part of the US. The area was on the very edges of the Spanish mission in San Gabriel and became part of the Mexican rancho system. San Bernardino was then purchased by the Mormons for their new colony in 1856... (the area had been seen by Mormons from the Mormon Battalion that fought in the Mexican-American war). Brigham Young called the Mormons back and the area devolved into the true wild west. Before the Civil War it was also a hot bed of Southern sympathy. The Mojave Desert and Death Valley are to the Northwest, literally thru the pass (The Cajon Pass which straddles the San Andreas fault). The parents of Wyatt Earp live in the outskirts of town. The Serrano and Cahuilla native Americans live in the surrounding mountains trying to maintain their way of life. Gold and Silver are in the mountains, in the Big Bear area and in Calico (which today is still set up as a western town). There is a lot of desert and wilderness and the train wont be here for several more years.

I converted The Haunting to be at the Barton Villa (Google it. Purchased by Dr Ben Barton from the Mormons in Old San Bernardino). I just bought the Stillwater campaign from Chaosium and am fitting it to San Bernardino.

It's been real fun. I found some old maps the Mormons did of the city layout so i'm making a map starting from 'Whiskey Point' (so called because there was a saloon on each corner, which is the corner of Third and D. But anyway, i'm rambling... DTT is tons of fun. (Also have the the BRP Aces High supplements and Devil's Gulch). Also converting 'Freak Show' which is a CoC scenario with a travelling carnival.

[soltakss]

You have to do the Hallelujah Trail, or at least some elements of it.

[Fallingtower]

On 2/8/2019 at 3:11 PM, Larry Lovecraft said:

YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

I am running a Pulp Darker Trails game right now that is a Frankenstein of a campaign cobbled together from BRPG stuff, stuff I wrote, and the DDT book.  It is heavily influenced by The Dark Tower novels, Joe Lansdale's "Dead in The West" books, and Hammer horror films. 

Brief plot as follows:

The players are all associates of one Marshall Preston, and are told to meet him in the town of Devil's Gulch (from the BRPG set) , yet when they get there, he is comatose...the players must contend with the locals and figure out who is on their side and who isn't, and are sent in a red herring direction at first during a shootout.  It spirals from there and I have made a gang called The Black Philip Gang (based on the antagonist from the film The Witch) who worship a goat and get orders from him to be the main foils for the moment.  Satanic Western Fun!

The next arc is the players finding out that Preston was searching for something old and powerful when he ran afoul of the gang.  This macguffin (probably a neolithic dagger or talisman) is going to have be disposed of, but first they need to travel to Pawheton (from the DDT book), where Jack Stratton's gang has possession of the macguffin and will only part with it if the players work for him (I am going to use the "Something Down There" scenario from the DDT book as well here, but with Vampire thralls and a vampire instead of the published creature). 

Too powerful to fall into the wrong hands, the macguffin cannot be destroyed, and therefore can only be sequestered away somewhere...and the only safe place to do so is the Shadow Desert. 

How do a bunch of cowboys, outlaws and Pinkertons get to the Shadow Desert, you ask? Why, through Sasquatch magic! So yes, the 3rd and final act of my DDT campaign sees the players gathering info and  seeking out the last Sasquatch tribe, so their shaman can send the players to the Shadow Desert.  On the way, aboard a train, will be the final showdown with The Black Philip gang before heading into The Shadow Desert with little hope of returning alive or sane. 

It's wacky, wild, weird and pulpy.  Players are having a blast, and it is a pleasure to prep and create!

The caveat to this whole thing is I just bought Masks Of Nyarlothetep, to play next, so if the players make their Masks character tied in to the DDT campaign by way of character or NPC lineage, they start with an extra 5 Luck!

 

 

There was a computer game called NOCTURNE that did a great job with the weird underground American West lost city...trying to remember details. The Mound is a great HPL story...need to read it to get juices flowing.

[Fallingtower]

On 2/8/2019 at 3:15 PM, Larry Lovecraft said:

Sick! I also watched Bone Tomahawk to get the juices flowing...also check out The Proposition and Ravenous.

The bloody Cutthroats 9 is on Amazon for free. Will check out Proposition...I'm an old punker....Nick Cave wrote it.

Thanks for heads-up.