No Security by Caleb Stokes

[Jakob]

I'm just reading Caleb Stokes' scenario collection "No Security" - featuring five scenarios set during the great depression - and boy, am I impressed! The scenarios are system agnostic, but would definitely work wonderfully with classoc CoC (or ToC, or whatever you prefer). I skimmed through them and right now, I'm reading through the first scenario, "The Wives of March", in earnest. Its mythology works in a Lovecraftian world (although it might be, in some ways, an even better fit for the settings of Esoterrorists or Unknown Armies), and it makes extremely good use of some classic subtle horror tropes - like the idea that They're Everywhere and There's No Way to Escape, or that you keep seeing strangely familiar faces. The antagonist is pretty interesting thematically, and the historical elements of the scenario are spot-on, as far as I can tell; also, it talks openly about how to deal with the racism and sexism of the times. It's also a very well-organized scenario.

I really can't recommend this enough. There's a POD version availabe on DTRPG, but the adventures are also available for free as PWYW pdfs there.

Edited April 11, 2019 by Jakob

[trystero]

Stokes wrote Lover in the Ice, which I encountered in its Delta Green adaptation. It's inventive and brilliant and quite uncomfortable to read (if sexual assault is a trigger for you, steer well clear). It's one of those "I want to run this for my group… but also, I don't want to run this for my group" scenarios.

I may have to check out No Security based on that and your recommendation.

Odd that there's no PDF option for the full book. For those who don't want to search, the five individual PWYW scenarios that Jakob mentions are:

• Bryson Springs
• The Fall Without End
• The Red Tower
• Revelations
• The Wives of March

[Jakob]

7 hours ago, trystero said:

Stokes wrote Lover in the Ice, which I encountered in its Delta Green adaptation. It's inventive and brilliant and quite uncomfortable to read (if sexual assault is a trigger for you, steer well clear). It's one of those "I want to run this for my group… but also, I don't want to run this for my group" scenarios.

I may have to check out No Security based on that and your recommendation.

Odd that there's no PDF option for the full book. For those who don't want to search, the five individual PWYW scenarios that Jakob mentions are:

• Bryson Springs
• The Fall Without End
• The Red Tower
• Revelations
• The Wives of March

Thanks for providing the links - I'm often too lazy for that ...

Yes, there's no pdf option for the full book. However, if you download all the scenarios, the only thing you're missing out on is a short and very general introduction (that, however, has something interesting to say about the notion of putting out system-less scenarios).

From my ongoing reading, I think that "Revelations" is the most outlandish of the scenarios, while "The Fall without End" ist very much a solid horror-movie scenario (I reminded me a little of Neil Marshalls "The Descent" in its setup, but the creatures are much more original).

The Wives of March is an excellent, highly investigative scenario, but also very complex and demanding of the GM.

The other's I haven't taken a closer look at yet.

[rsanford]

4 hours ago, Jakob said:

Thanks for providing the links - I'm often too lazy for that ...

Yes, there's no pdf option for the full book. However, if you download all the scenarios, the only thing you're missing out on is a short and very general introduction (that, however, has something interesting to say about the notion of putting out system-less scenarios).

From my ongoing reading, I think that "Revelations" is the most outlandish of the scenarios, while "The Fall without End" ist very much a solid horror-movie scenario (I reminded me a little of Neil Marshalls "The Descent" in its setup, but the creatures are much more original).

The Wives of March is an excellent, highly investigative scenario, but also very complex and demanding of the GM.

The other's I haven't taken a closer look at yet.

Are these totally hopeless / purist scenarios? I just ask because my group doesn’t care for that style as much.

[Jakob]

4 minutes ago, rsanford said:

Are these totally hopeless / purist scenarios? I just ask because my group doesn’t care for that style as much.

Yes, I would say so.

[rsanford]

5 minutes ago, Jakob said:

Yes, I would say so.

Thanks! I have been horribly tempted by some of those but I fear rebellion by my players...