Last fall I started up a new game session with my group. Historically, we’ve done tabletop games with D&D and Pathfinder, classic fantasy types, and we dabbled in other systems, other themes. Monster of the Week (MotW) by Evil Hat games always felt fun to me: modern settings, the homage to Supernatural, Buffy, and all the other spook-themed procedural mysteries. Hell, even Scooby-Doo reruns on Cartoon Network were awesome when I was a kid. Anyway, after the last campaign finished up, we took a long hiatus over the summer (two year campaign is a lot of commitment) and back into Magic: The Gathering (a financial mistake by many accounts) in the meantime. About half way through the summer I was drafting up plans for another campaign, but I wanted it to be in MotW setting for a few reasons. Primarily, as I said before, I love the aesthetic and theme: it’s contemporary, so there’s not too much from-scratch world building to be done and the system almost encourages homage for the fandoms that precede it. The other significant reason I like this system is the mechanic of making each session a stand-alone(ish) chapter in a wider season arc. Also, if handled properly, it allows for players to drop in and out as needed for scheduling conflicts, as well as offer an opportunity for some of my other friends to “guest star” on one or two episodes if they wish. On top of that type of episodic nature, it provides an opportunity to take breaks from the game at extension to build some anticipation for the story and respite for myself as the Keeper. So far, it’s been lean, but I liken that to the first season of any new, uncharted show: limited episodes, usually with a mid season premier to keep the production tight and cost effective. I’ve mentioned before that I like metaphors, but really it does work well for how the aesthetic of the game is designed.
Enough of that, more content-related behind the scenes talk: touchstones. Conveniently enough, this is what the MotW designers used as a rough map for how they built the system and themes. Also, invariably, people like having a reference point for things they have seen/experienced before in relation to new content. You like Supernatural? You might enjoy Grimm. If you think Warehouse 13 is fun, check out The Librarians. If you like Leverage, well, you’re just a cool person that likes Leverage, and probably keep a go-bag like John Rogers. Also, you might be interested in Wild Cards.
My point is, this campaign, I took a lot of inspiration from shows, books, and games that inform a lot of what is going on, then I went my own direction with it, as one does with a narrative driven game. The incomplete list of my touchstones and references for this game (so far) is here:
The Hunting Party – the big one at the top of the list; more to say on this below
Supernatural – obvious one, group of players hunting monsters across the country
Countdown – narratively speaking, I like the pace of a ticking clock (one of the game’s primary pacing mechanics as well), and that plays a significant part in season one
BPRD – it’s not all hunting, some of it is research (and defense)
Control – need a place to keep all the weird shit
SCP – and a team that keeps that shit locked up
Grimm – the nuance of the wider population not knowing what is happening at a collective oblivious angle, and the risk of them knowing about it
The Librarians – at times fantastical, but also the concept of aspects in relation to setting the scene (actually a mechanic taken from Fate Core, by John Rogers’ own admission)
The Dresden Files – gotta have that pinch of magic, in all of its delicious flavors
Warehouse 13 – not everything hunted down is a monster, and not everything hunted is evil
Resident Evil – shadow organizations doing shadowy things while “survivors” pursue their exposure and destruction
Alien: Earth – strangely convenient mix of Resident Evil and Control/Warehouse 13; powerful organizations doing shady things, while the little people clean up or investigate (or die) – also, shamelessly stealing the use of episode closing needle drops
The biggest inspiration for this game (by a goddamn mile) is the show The Hunting Party. Quite literally, I took the opening premise of a secret prison, the jailbreak, and the impetus of hunting down the escapees. Only instead of notorious serial killers, it was monsters. From there, the departures get a bit more over the top: some of the escapees are infamous, however, as they had the luxury of a human visage to mask their truer nature. Another change, seen quite early on, is that not the entire prison was compromised, and there were still some secured inmates in holding. Moving forward, things changed based on player involvement, so some things go a wildly different direction than I anticipated, but I’m managing to keep some keep plot developments with wide margins for error to retain their usefulness.
Since it’s a home-brew story with all the bells and whistles of what this game inspires to be, a lot of the content is homage or reference to some of these inspirational touchstones, as you’ll see in the “Coming Soon” trailer I drafted when I pitched it to the group last fall. They’re not 1:1 for reference, because that opens a whole can of worms that never ends, but the sounds of these references also provides a brief picture of what that can imply (assuming you understand the references).
The title track for season one is “Anna Molly” by Incubus, and that has been considered back and forth until I realized of how well it fits the foreshadowing I want to lace into the background noise.
The one thing I have yet to announce is a title name for the series. All these reference points to take directly from, but can’t just steal the name of an existing show, right? Have to make it it’s own thing, somehow. It’s one of those things about finding your voice, naming of the beasts is also important. Before it goes here, I’m taking the title card to my players and getting some input on it (there’s a lore connection to it that they have not yet found/run into), hence the “Coming Soon” title of this post.
All of that to set the table, the following is the teaser trailer pitch I wrote and brought to my players. it’s definitely rough, I haven’t made any changes besides letter corrections for typos, and if I waited until polishing any pitch, we’d never play. (Fuck that)
-television static then snapping to sharp image of news reports from past years-
The Casanova Slayer has been apprehended! Authorities today have arrested a man in association with the deaths of multiple men and women in the Cincinnati area, with a particular method of using dating apps and speed dating sites to meet his victims. Many have been cautious, to say the least, with their social behaviors lately, and in the wake of this series of deaths, many admit that they will be on guard all the more, citing the unpredictable behaviors of strangers in intimate settings. While the suspect is confirmed to be in custody of Cincinnati Police, they have not yet publically disclosed the name of the suspect.
-static and snap-
It has been 30 days since the last known victim of the Hand of God Killer was found, and they are currently still at large. The victims of Hand of God have garnered more criticism than sympathy from the public, as more details about each comes to light. Authorities claim that these continued revelations have made the public more resistant to assisting police in apprehending the culprit, with many labelling them closer to a vigilante than a murderer. In response to public sentiment, US Marshall Daniel Hodge said, “There is nothing remotely close to vigilante justice at the scenes of these crimes. They are ritualistic, prepared, and performative. Hand of God is a murderer, not a vigilante.”
-static and snap-
It was a grisly sight this morning at Mirror Lake campgrounds, as authorities came onto the scene of what can only be described as a massacre. Lucas Michael Graves, long suspected to be the Lake Shore Slasher, has been taken into custody today, when an emergency distress signal was responded to by park rangers and followed by local police. After all the grounds had been cleared, a staggering 17 people have been found murdered in the past 24 hours. Two survivors of the attack, Abigail and Grace Hobbs, sent out the emergency signal and were found barricaded inside the radio tower two miles from the grounds. While last night’s assessment is the first confirmed association of deaths to Lucas Graves, he is suspected of 71 other deaths across the nation in other national parks.
-static and snap-
Financial consultant Julia Sullivan was arrested today on charges of fraud, kidnapping, and conspiracy to commit terrrorism. Sullivan, known by colleagues to be a more secretive person, was under federal investigation of having ties to the Fel Order, an organization that considers itself a secret society for powerful and influential individuals. Special Agent Carter Ramirez, the lead on the investigation, has said today that not only is Sullivan tied to the organization, but is also believed to be one of its many “fixers”, or particular influential individuals that both recruit new members and deflect from outside interference.
-long static no snap; fade in-
Rural Wyoming residents woke up to quite the noise this morning, as a nearby refinery plant exploded. An investigation is being opened by local police and fire departments, but site workers say the source of the explosion was in one of the casting rooms, where the heat pressure rose beyond the safe limits of containment. After the main hatch was breached, the fire spread to the rest of the main floor, igniting the rest of the materials in minutes. The area has been quarantined until authorities have confirmed there are no other hazardous materials exposed to the public.
-crt monitor turns off with soft glow-
–fade in with a slow zoom into a well-lit tent alive with activity, though the sound is completely muted-
The warden rubbed the bridge of his nose and blinked awake, not from tiredness, but of unbelievability at the report in front of him. 101 escapees fled the facility in the wake of the breach, hundreds more confirmed dead. So far the only good news that came in is that the Cellar is still secured. Then the phone rang. The black rotary phone on the desk behind him, ringing, the light indicator flashing red with urgency. The Oldest House is calling. The Oldest House wants answers.
Aberrant Arcade 