The Plot Thickens

First of all, I should note is that I am no longer running a World of Darkness game...
The whole line has been renamed into Chronicles of Darkness!

With that out of the way, I shall note that since I haven't used either of the scenes I had prepared for last session, I only had a bare minimum to prepare for this one. Our were-polar-bear had a nasty surprise when he was coming home only to hear his dogs barking that there's an intruder on his territory. Yes, he has the uncanny ability to understand animal speech to some extent.

Suffice to say, Devlin's attempts to remain sneaky and locate the intruder in his own home ended up being fruitless. Fortunately, he called in the cavalry and VT managed to spy someone sneaking out of his house by the backdoor. A chase ensued shortly thereafter.

I personally don't require players to have read an entire corebook just to sit down and play. That sounds like way too much homework to me. Games should be accessible for newcomers and I found no surer way to discourage someone from gaming than slapping him with a 300+ book to read within a week... oh, and make sure you'll remember everything.

It's been my rule for quite a few years now. The problem with doing something this often is, unfortunately, that you end up forgetting you're doing it. So with a slight embarassment, I realised I should have reminded people earlier on that they can spend Willpower points to add 3 dice to their rolls. Instead, I only did that after it was clear who the dice smiled upon that day.

The players managed to catch the intruder who turned out to be a woman. Latter interrogation revealed she is also a shapeshifter and was snooping at the 'murder' scene as a deer. We had a glimpse at VT's warform which was appropriately creepy. A large falcon with human hands for talons and, unless I'm misremembering, a human/falcon hybrid face.

During their interrogation they learned that the woman was named Fawn and she followed a trail from Fairbanks to hear when she was looking for whatever/whoever was responsible for kidnapping people off the street. She wasn't very talkative at first but after being unable to break Peyton's webbing and receiving a punch from Devlin, she warmed up a bit.

In the end, Fawn went to stay with Peyton, her Striking Looks Merit working like a charm, while Devlin noticed he was invited to dinner by the head of the local hunter's club.

A Split Party

Allow me to pre-face this entry by saying that no (were-)bear has been shot or otherwise harmed during our last session and that we do not condone violence towards animals. Especially ones that can turn into hulking monstrosities and rip your face off.

This time I came in with two scenes in mind that I could use, neither of which saw any use other than a hint here and there. It's entirely my fault as I tend to be a reactive GM and already having established an issue within the setting, I wanted to give the players a chance to react to it in their own ways. I was waiting for a hook I could use to start off either of the scenes I came in with. Even though none appeared, everyone had fun so I can't say our time went to waste.

We went on to the day after everyone has given a statement on what happened in the woods. I began the session asking people what they would be doing the very next day.

VT decided to look at the scene again from the skies. She clearly likes her falcon form. She decided to track where Windy (official nickname) went by looking at snow patterns. Since her falcon form gives her Keen Sight and a Perception bonus I allowed it and she found out the trail of fresh snow leading from the scene of gruesome murder up to where the hunters' group was gathering. There was also a doe having a look at the aforementioned scene. Then it went off to graze on leaves and twigs. Perfectly normal behaviour!

Devlin had a look through his mother's notebooks in hopes of finding something that could cause blizzards out of nowhere. Going through books sounds boring but we had a nice glimpse into Devlin's backstory. I do love it when players take time to flesh out their characters. We've learned that Devlin's mum is in prison. She's innocent but took the blame for his father's murder when he was beating her and young Devlin snapped, turned into a bear and frenzied in the living room. I loved the story enough that I rewarded him by saying he found mentions of one Wayne Webster who was good friends with his mum and a source of most of her information on local tradition.

At that point Devlin wanted to go and speak with him but I ruled by that time it would be too late for a polite visit. This was mainly because I didn't want to have the whole evening spent on single-player scenes. I try to avoid the lack of player-to-player interaction during a game.

Next up was Peyton who, while working at a hospital in Fairbanks, went to the local coroner to see if he could provide them with the autopsy reports of the body they found. Whenever I see coroners on screen, they always seem unfazed by dead bodies. I take it, it comes with the territory but then I thought that this was probably a horrific event in this guy's life, I'd make him be uncomfortable talking about it... and just when I was about to give out some information, I realised there's actually a Social system of Opening Doors that I should be using rather than making things easy and simple. Things were said and done, and Peyton had a very good approach at convincing the coroner to do him a favour.

At the end of the evening, both in-game and out-of-game, the characters met in a pub. VT was already chatting people up about a new extreme sport she thought of that incorporated logs, lakes and hills. Devlin didn't get into a fight, amazingly enough. Some girl tried to flirt with Peyton because she thought they were a boy. I'm so glad I could come up with some randomness. Especially considering social interactions are certainly not my forte.

Without a Trace

When you’re forced to leave the game early due to circumstances beyond your control, there’s always a chance you’ll have to bring a new character for next session. Fortunately, our werebear player decided to make his character into a proper Engine of War and his trait, Warrior’s Restoration, allowed Devlin to heal up the hole in his side in an hour.

As impressive as that may sound, it’s even more impressive that Devlin managed not to punch the hunter who shot at him. In his defence, he thought he was shooting at a polar bear. While VT flew off to get her gun, Devlin and Peyton met with some hunters and had a chat. Most of them wanted to finish it quickly solely because Devlin has a reputation of punching people for no reason… even if they have guns.

During their chat, Peyton noticed that the hunters were wearing similar clothes as that severed armed that nearly hit him during the blizzard. Oddly enough, the players decided to try and track down the beast, now nicknamed Windy by VT. Sadly they lost the track. The wind and snow destroyed what little signs they could follow. The only thing they were sure of is that Windy headed for the town… and that it disappeared in mysterious circumstances.

I’m extremely glad Bill noticed that although VT was perched on a building overlooking where Windy would have emerged, she saw naught. Normally, you could hand-wave that as a simple plot hole but I do have a reason as to why Windy vanished. A reason which I shall keep to myself… such is the beauty of Game Mastering.

With so little to go on, our heroic shapeshifters went back to find the severed arm and piece together the identity of the victim. His name was Jonathan and none of the characters knew of him having any ties with the local hunters. Being the good citizens they are, they informed the local authorities who, quite sceptically, sent a state trooper with them to check it out.

The disbelief vanished quite quickly and was replaced by a visage of horror!

The site was secured, CSI was called in and statements were taken.
No other player got shot at.
For now…

Someone Heard You Scream

As a GM, I never know how to start a game.
A typical fantasy game starts in a tavern, I'm told, when an old wizard judges your motley of low-level adventurers worthy a task so grave that it can only be given to a random bunch of strangers... but what do you do when there's a significant lack of wizards and taverns in a given setting?

How am I supposed to know?
I just asked the players what their characters are doing in the woods on the outskirts of town... yes, yes, yes, that's a cool story. Oh, by the way, you hear a scream of terror followed by gunshots from within the woods!

That's as good a hook as any... and so, the local werebeasts found themselves checking out the scream. Coincidence or Fate? We may never know.

They went on in the direction of where the scream originated. Stopping only when encountering a blizzard! Expecting something supernatural going on, VT turned into a falcon and went on ahead to scout. Especially after one of them got nearly hit by a severed arm of some poor chap. I was expecting the players would stop and think things through. Maybe try and gather some more information but after VT returned to say she found an enormous beast with control over the winds, which might be responsible for dismembering a human being in no time... they decided to go and try to kill it.

It might seem like a bad plan but they do have a gigantic were-polar-bear. All things considered, they might have been successful... if not for VT getting swept away, the blizzard mysteriously disappearing and someone shooting at the enormous bear next to a poor, defenseless student.

There were so many rolls between players to keep Devlin from going on a rampage.
I was expecting someone to fail.

At the end of the session, Devlin regained his composure, turned back to human form and started putting his clothes on while someone was approaching the group.

It begins

'Any ideas as for characters you'd like to play?' I asked.
'An adrenaline junkie werefalcon.'
'I think I'll play a polar bear lumberjack.'
'Together, they fight crime.' Bill remarked.

Actually, that's a very good description of the scenario I have in mind... mostly because murder is generally considered an illegal act.

It's been a while since I've last run a game. I used to do it fairly often but even so, I was dreading sitting in the GM chair again.

I started off with two players, had elevator-pitch for the game and felt like my handling of the system was sketchy at best... but as we sat down and bantered, I felt happy to be were I started.

Last week we did character creation.
We didn't do as much as I had hoped and I'm at fault here. I intended half of the 2 hours we had to be spent making characters and the other hour on fitting them into the setting but I was worried that putting dots on the sheet would go fast that I feared all would be done in half that time... it didn't.

No plan ever survives contact with players, mark my words!

Fortunately, the sheets require minimal input from the players and I started working on some additional player characters for drop-ins.