That Girl You Just Met

That Girl You Just Met
by Tobie Abad

At one point in time, in practically any game you play, you'll meet... that Girl.  That Girl might be just a passer by who catches your eye.  Or a key non-playing character who has more of the plot to share.  But sometimes, that Girl might be far more than you expect.  Here are some ideas to throw into your games for a little twist on That Girl.

1. Maybe the Girl is more than a Girl...
She's the daughter of the main villain and has started a whole new life.  She's the mother of your children.  An alternate time-line sort of wife.  She's the brooding witch with powers you've never seen before.  She's the technognostic wizard who holds unspoken lore.  She's the root of primal energy.  She's the queen of every troll.  She's the embodiment of Destiny.  She's a stormtrooper since she's tall.    She's music manifest into a person.  She's the greatest swordsman in the land.  She's the source of all temptation.  She's the owner of the band.

2.  Maybe the Girl is just a Girl....

She's a funny little anecdote to add to the adventure's fun.  She's the farmgirl without a future.  Of all the witnesses, she isn't one.  She's the momentary distraction to the cast of thieves and kings.  She's just a faceless, nameless victim.  She's the entertainer who sings.

3.  Maybe the Girl is more than a Person...

She's the target of the mafia.  She's the treasure of the hag.  She's the source that's poisoning the realm.  She's the other character's living bag.  She's the scapegoat.  She's the lure.  She's the answer.  She's the cure.

4.  Or Maybe she is The Girl.
Don't ever let her go.

Lend a Hand

Lend a Hand
by Tobie Abad

Sometimes in a game, a hand isn't just a hand.  Sometimes the digits mean more than fingers.  Sometimes the palm does more than just rest there.  Here are some ideas to throw into your games for a little twist.

1. Maybe the hand is a hand...
Someone must have cut if off for a reason.  Was there a bracelet that couldn't be removed?  A suitcase handcuffed to it's wrist?  A ring that granted immense powers to its owner?  A weapon that was far too deadly it had to be disarmed?

There is also the matter of asking who did the cutting.  If the owner was the victim, then clearly we can imagine the perpetrators being desperate enough to amputate the limb.  But what if the owner was the one who did the severing?  What would drive a man to slice away one's own hand?  And using what?

2. Maybe the hand is a glove...
Crafted from materials not of this earth?  Or perhaps of materials that are from this planet, but in no way meant to be capable of being sewn into a glove?  Remember Hellboy's stone gauntlet?  What about a glove sewn from flesh?   What if the glove was an impossible one - crafted from light?  Molded from sound?

3.  Maybe the hand is weapon...
Claws are a common trope, but what about hands that wove new memories?  Or hands that stripped things of friction?  Or hands that excited those touched to dance... even if they were inanimate things (that would explain why the winds always blow in her vicinity)?  What if the hand was a black hole that consumed anything it touched?  Or a matter whirlpool that twisted touched objects counterclockwise into impossible spiral shapes that still lived and breathed and loved?

4. Maybe the hand is a key...
And it opened any locks it touched.  Or worse, could slide into anything as if it were water, whether it was wood, stone or flesh and bone.   Maybe it translated any text it was slid over into something one could read?Maybe when laid upon a dead body revealed who did the terrible deed?

5. Maybe the hand can lend a hand...
The hand can be sentient with its own ability to move, act and think.  Perhaps it is all that remains of a close friend the character once had.  Or perhaps it is the remnant of the character's rival that seeks to destroy him some day.  Maybe it can transform into a miniature figure with its own weapons and armor?  Or perhaps its can manipulate reality with a wave of its digits.

Vampire 30-Day Challenge : Craziest Thing That Has Happened

Vampire 30-Day Challenge : Craziest Thing That Has Happened
The qualifiers make this harder to answer than expected.  Given the many vampire games my group has played through the years, choosing the craziest thing is a tricky prospect.  We've had neonate games, anarch sessions, Sabbat romps, elder campaigns, cross-generational stories and even multiple arcs of the same story (Giovanni Chronicles was run four/five times, depending on who you ask.  Transylvania was run around thrice.  The Gehenna book has been used a few times too, in once case having ALL FOUR SCENARIOS merged into one.)

There was even that one game where the players were portraying the Antedeluvians when they were still neonates and the game was set in the ancient times.  Oh yes, they would worry each time I'd mention in a scene that it was raining pretty hard.  Good times.  I should run that game again.

But I guess the craziest game we played would be our multi-character spanning session which I ran very many years back.  I forget what I called it, but the game basically was approached in this manner:

1) All players are Kindred Special Agents
Yes, you were a vampire.  And you worked for a special ultra secret branch of the government.
You were tasked to deal with threats and handle the maintenance of National Security.

2) Powers were gathered into a Pool of Assets
Every single power in Vampire the Masquerade, Vampire the Dark Ages, Werewolf the Apocalypse and Wraith the Oblivion were gathered into a single pool.   During Mission Briefing, players would select up to five powers which they planned to use.  So yes, you can, for example, have: Step Sideways, Telepathic Communication, Celerity, Form of Mist and Theft of Vitae while your fellow agent might be armed with Body of Sun, Fortitude, Sense Wyrm, Movement of the Mind and Mask of 1000 Faces.

Powers worked normally, but those that were beyond your Generational limits would cost an additional health level and willpower point to use.  Any powers that were non-Cainite immediately were considered beyond Generational limits.  And lastly, all uses of powers beyond level 5 cost three extra blood points to use each time.  So the Agent with Body of Sun?  Each turn he activated it, he would need to spend 1 Health Level, 1 Willpower point, and 3 Bloodpoints to activate (standard system) plus 3 to use since it was beyond 5.  Then required 2 blood points per turn to maintain (standard system).

This meant needing a Generation high enough to spend 6 in one go, or needing extra turns to "charge it up".
So it kind of balanced out :-)

3) The Enemies were the Ancients
The game progressed with the players learning the names of the counter-intelligence forces were Arikel, Malkav and the like.  This, of course, freaked them out big time!

4) Finally, the game ended with one single player being told the truth.
The rest of the players had an awesome romp fighting international threats and forces.  And the game ended with them just happy the world was saved.

One player was allowed to break free from the illusions and telepathic manipulations the rest of them were in.  The Ravnos elder whispered to him that is what happens to those who cross the Ravnos.  Then he silently committed the Amaranth and took that character's soul away.  The rest he was to devour at his own leisure.

That player never told the other player to this day.
(Or at least that's what I believe since none of the others ever told me about this game's secret ending).

Now, if the entry were to require craziest thing a player did, rather than what a GM did, that would be a True Brujah player using Temporis to halt an ongoing battle between fellow Cainites and a pack of Sabbat hunters, then the same said Brujah raising his glock to shoot the Sabbat Pack Leader, but botching his roll so bad, we ruled he just shot his ally in the head.

Definitely a WTF moment we all enjoyed.

Game Idea: People We Hate

People We Hate
by Tobie Abad

Sometimes, through role-playing we get a glimpse of the other perspective.  Other times, it can be a means to just blow off steam and do something different.  So for today's article, the idea is to try playing a character based on the kind of person you'd probably really hate.  This might be an interesting resource for those who love playing Sabbat games, or anti-hero games, or maybe just a new challenge for those who have been gaming for as long as I have.

Why?  Because you can.  Or because you want to try something different.  (And if your reply is, "But I'm already that" then let's just move on to the next topic, shall we? :-) )  So here are ten character types to try playing, inspired by the article on 'Top 10 Toxic People to Avoid' by Marcia Sirota.  While I personally have varying reaction to the source of inspiration itself, I'll stick instead to how the same list can be worked into a gaming resource as character challenges to try.  I don't plan to have ten samples, though, given many can be combined into a single concept.

So without further ado, the infamous list that some players might want to try playing:

Character Challenge:  Short-Tempered Source of Trouble
Maybe the character has a short-fuse and tends to get angry about things very quickly?  Or maybe the temper tends to manifest in a specific area (He's okay most of the time, but when its combat, he becomes a brute)  Or perhaps even he's the kind of person who loves to make a fuss over the little things (I think the fashion and celebrity scene has many of these kinds of characters)

Added twist:  What if the character was all bark and no bite?  (Most of them are in real life)

Character Challenge:  The Silver-Tongued Charmer
Interestingly, this character type already exists in World of Darkness' Slasher book.  But I can definitely see other games that would support such a concept.   The question is, is your character a con-man out of habit, or out of desperation?  Does he do it for the fun of deceiving others?  Or does he do it simply because he is good at it, and its something that needs to be done?

Added twist:  Maybe he's so lost, he spends the mornings facing the mirror and lying to himself.  Without such a mirror, maybe he'd self-destruct?

Character Challenge:  The ME Concept
No one else matters but your own character's needs and feelings.  No one is more important and more vital than yourself.  Sometimes, it is about greed and wanting all for yourself.  For others, it is less greed and more the intense need to be acknowledged as being the one who made it happen.    Worse, these concepts have a tendency of viewing everything under a lens that it revolved around them.  That warrior that defeated the otyugh?  Oh, without my Bless spell he probably would have died.    You were worried about those drowning in the storm outside?  Good thing I told you about them, right?

Added twist:  You love being the center of everthing, but you HATE saying it yourself.  So there's always this passive aggressive attempt to make others say it.  "Is there anyone you want to thank?" is a common way this is shown.

Character Challenge:  The Drama is my Universe
Nothing goes "okay" when you are around.  Either they're too hot, too cold, or not the way you want it to be!  You hate the fact that people "can't seem to get it right" and how you always "have to do it myself just to get something so simple right!"   Some would say you seem perfectionist, but the truth is this has less to do with perfection and far more to do with you just wanting to always have something to rant about.

Added twist:  Be in a position of great power and influence.  Think you can make the pettiness start a war? Go for it!

Character Challenge:  Just being "Honest"
You love popping the joy and fantasy of anything that happens.  You love rubbing into people's faces how most marriages end up in divorce.  How love is just really a chemical reaction that happens similar to when people eat chocolate.  There are no unicorns for you. Nor happy endings.  In Changeling the Dreaming, these were called Banal characters - devoid of excitement and creativity.  But you can portray this in other games based on a number of reasons: His cynicism was born from experience?  His hatred of other people being happy is just him reminding them such things are temporal and not worth really enjoying?  He will never have something positive to say, because in as much as there are ups and downs in life, he only sees the slopes down as inevitable no matter how many times you can head up.

Added twist:  This happens so long as you are facing the world as usual.  But then, you actually fall in love... and to that person you're rose-tinted all the way.  Suddenly, that one SINGLE person get's it right.  Suddenly that one single person understands it all.  Grasps it perfectly.  And is the only one with the right to correct you.

Character Challenge:  You Shouldn't Have Done That!Anytime things don't go smooth, you have a reason why it is their fault.  You know what's the best course of action, but you don't see the point in even sharing that.  Why?  Because they never listen anyway.  And even if they did, they never do it right.    Worse, you never forget someone's blunder.  The guy who misspoke a word?  You'll be teasing him about the need to own Google Glass that shows nothing but dictionary pages for him as your hot joke for that player for the next few days.  Name calling comes naturally for you.  Even more natural than passing the blame, you tend to silently consider the best course of action, then watch others do the wrong one, and finally voice out what they should have done instead.

Added twist:  Play a character with visions or some kind of prophetic power.  So yes, people do know you do usually KNOW what is best.  But even then, you still don't normally share the information.    It is almost as if you enjoy watching others squirm and try.

Character Challenge:  The Forever Victim
They're all the ones who made it happen.  They're always the ones who force you to do things the way you do them.  They're the ones at fault!  Things would be better if they just let you do what you want.  But they never do! They always judge.  They always force you.  They always coerce you.

Added twist:  And you like it.  Handling responsibility was never your strong suit.

Character Challenge:  The Octopus of Social Graces
You have many friends who are connected to many great places.  So why feel bad about using the connections to push yourself forward in life?  Connections are a blessing and you're just reaping the benefits of being at the right place, and surrounded by the right people at the right time.  If they didn't want to help you out, they wouldn't be there, right?

Added twist:  You don't really need the connections.  You are wealthy. And influential.  But you prefer having them move you further than use the resources you actually have.

Character Challenge: The VisionaryThey will never understand you.  They will never appreciate your ideals.  So don't bother waiting for them to grasp it.  Just embrace the whole new world before you and approach things the way you feel are best.  At least, if you are on a sinking ship, it was one of your own making.

Added twist:  You're deeply afraid of being wrong.  Frankly, you just want someone to tell you to stop.  But each time someone does, your first instinct to rebel kicks in.  Maybe there is someone who CAN make you stop.

Character Challenge: Petty Petty 
You have grown older, but you never grew up.  While for most, that means embracing their inner child, for you it means never embracing responsibility or seeing the bigger picture.  You want what you want, and you'll get it when you want it.  You'll make a fuss, you'll start a fight, or you'll cry just to push everyone else to giving in to your demands.  And they should, because you deserve it.

Added twist:  You realize the truth.  But you have to keep up appearances and stay petty, or you will have no choice but to face the music.

Quick Ideas: Horror into this weekend's game

Halloween is just around the corner, so here are some quick ideas to inject some dose of horror into your game this weekend.

13th Age
None of the Icons can be "felt". The world seems devoid of their presence and reach.  Attempts to talk to agents give non-committal answers.  Replies tend to be "Not today," or "Perhaps after the night has broken." When they finally return, they refuse to explain what happened in the 24 hours that passed.  However, amongst themselves, the Icons would refer to that day as "The Moment," and seem to speak of it with much dread or reverence.

But nothing, not even Divination magic and the like will ever reveal what "The Moment" was about.

Aeon Trinity Universe
The day begins with a scream.  People see strange horrible things rise up from the darkness.  Soldiers see fallen comrades rise up like the hungry dead.  Civilians see night terrors and old childhood  fears brought to life.  The worst hit are the Psions who even see visions of Aberrants/enemies they have defeated and destroyed coming back to life.

People die. Property is devastated.  The fight for survival is intense.
Then, after 24 hours, they wake up.  It was a dream.  A nightmare.
But one the ENTIRE universe shared.

Big Eyes, Small Mouth
Given these games could be practically of any genre, the closest horror touch I could think of is to throw a dream sequence.  Draw inspiration from the nightmare sequence from Akira, or by having the players encounter a horrific encounter which is inspired by other anime shows.  Tentacle monsters, demonic possession and purple skies can all work.

Castle Falkenstein
Steam ceases to work for a few days.  No one knows if its magic gone awry or something else, but for some reason, water heated up creates only vapor, not forceful steam.   The various areas of New Europa are grounded and forced to help their people.  Many fear the effects may be long term.

Weeks.

Months.

Cat
The Boggins have learned to do something unheard of: become human.  One Boggin steps out of the darkness in the body of a man! The Cats have to deal with the threat, but now they have to find a way to do so without alerting the other humans.  After all, one can easily imagine what they would do if they learned the cats systematically hunted and killed down one of their own.

Changeling the Dreaming
The Sluagh curse reverses itself.  All the Kithain suddenly are unable to speak louder than a whisper, save for the Sluagh who now can speak and shout and all that jazz.  However, the reversal comes with a price:  Each name a Sluagh utters pulls forth a dark version of the owner of that name.  And these dark forces are malignant and intelligent.

Soon it is discovered that the dark shadows are a strange form of Nervosa that have gained power thanks to the Sluagh's universal desire to be heard.  And they will only be dispelled if every Sluagh swore to embrace the silence once again.

Changeling the Lost
The Hedge has grown hungry.
Each time one of the Lost travels into the Hedge, there is the possibility of being swallowed by the place and never ever being again.    Some say the Hedge swallows those who have sinned against its unknown precepts.  Others whisper that the Hedge has now allied itself with the Gentry, and those that have long escaped are being taken back.

But there are whispers, that the Hedge will ignore you if you directly sacrifice to it another changeling.
No one knows if that's true.  However many are willing to try.

Children of Fire
There's a new rumor spreading.
They say the Rapture had already happened.

And the Children of Clay are not the only ones left behind.

DC Heroes
Time to run a game focused on your favorite scary bad guys like Clayface, Scarecrow and Sinestro.
Or time to dig up your favorite movie monsters from Writeups.org

Dungeons and Dragons
Start the game as normal.  Play through scenes as normal.  But then, whenever an opportunity arises, have one player notice something terribly odd or wrong about another.  Best to do this without saying it aloud.  Like a note you pass on to the player.  Perhaps the knight doesn't polish his weapon as normal.  Perhaps the Paladin stops saying his prayers for the evening.  In EVERY players' eyes, another player character is NOT doing something he normally does.

Finally, when one of them decides to act about it, play it to the hilt.  Let them argue! Let them question one another.  But do NOT admit what you told the other players.  Let them try to prove among themselves which one is the imposter.  When finally one strikes or tries to kill another, that's when you step in and reveal that character was a Doppleganger.  Then reveal everyone else except the one who attacked are dopplegangers as well.

And finally, reveal the rest of the party to be trapped somewhere, finally waking up from the poison/spell/enchantment that held them prisoner.

Dungeon World
The Fate Hammer is falling, and all are fated to fail unless it is stopped.
How it is stopped is an epic move that your group can decide.
But while it falls, each time any player rolls 4 or below (not counting bonuses), the Fate Hammer strikes.  Each strike affects the game's system itself.

On the first strike, rolls of 10+ or higher now need 11+ or higher (while 7-9 becomes 9-10).

On the second strike, rolls of 7-9 suddenly need 8 to 10, will rolls of 7 counted as 6 or below.

On the third strike, rolls of 11+ now need a 12 or higher.  8-11 becomes the success at a cost.

On the fourth strike, rolls of 8-11 now need 9-11 for a success at a cost.  8 and lower are failed rolls.

On the fifth strike, and all succeeding strikes, everyone takes -1 ongoing, cumulative to the number of strikes beyond the fifth.  (So if it reaches the eight strike before the Fate Hammer is stopped, everyone is already suffering an ongoing -4 to their rolls)

Fate
Add the Aspect:  Butterflies In Stomach to the game session.
Whenever players are doing something they feel confident about, feel free to use this Aspect against them.  After the second hour of the game, add a second one:  Foreboding Feeling.
When they ask why, just say they feel it but cannot understand why.  They just know something is wrong.
By the third hour, add this new one:  Looming Threat of Danger.
Whenever scenes start with any level of uncertainty (meeting total strangers, interacting with villains, etc) always add a hint of something unsure. "You think they might be carrying weapons" "something that looks like the shape of a gun under the coat" or even "He seems to avoid eye contact, fidgeting often."

In the last few minutes of the game, have these Aspects fade away.
And just when the game ends, have some news broadcast or newspaper talk about some other group of heroes that just destroyed a certain ancient idol of a forgotten deity from being used in a strange ritual by (insert name of enemy group).

And have the reporter end with, "God knows what could have happened if they happened to succeed?"

Fiasco
Go for a horror-inspired playkit.
Or better yet, choose any playkit, however for relationships, view them all with a lens that has all the characters either be monsters or murderers.

Houses of the Blooded
Most think the Fashuva are the things to be feared.  Or the Spectres.
But instead, let's play a game where the players are Veth servants of the Lady No.

Houses of the Blooded: Blood and Honor
Murder stalks the Clan.  People are dying.
What if, in the end, the group learns the deaths are caused not by treachery or cruelty.

But instead by a wicked fog that would not fade.
A disease that hangs upon the wind.
A sickness that has to be survived by sheer determination alone.

Lacuna Part I. The Creation of Mystery and the Girl from Blue City
Start the session with the mission parameters begin given.
But slowly let the players realize they are hunting down Mystery Agents of the Corporation.
Their Control responds with clicks and whirls as if using an ancient telegram device.
And upon a mirror, they see they are all Spiders.

Legends of the Wulin
Time to bring the dark forces into the game.
The necromancers and the spirit talkers and the worshippers of the dark and the shadows.

Monster Hearts
The monsters discover that something hungers for them.  A monster that feasts on monsters alone.
And worse, only humans can see it.  Somehow, the predator has found a way to become invisible to all other supernatural creatures.

Night's Black Agents
Draw inspiration from games like Amnesia and movies like Chernobyl Diaries.
The group wakes up to find themselves in the ruin of an abandoned nuclear facility.  And the city around them is dead.  No tools, no communications, naked and weaponless.

And they have 24-hours to get to a safer location before the environment, the residual radiation and the monstrous children that have become servants of the vampires come to kill them.

Our Last Best Hope
Something is in the blood, killing people.  A conscious virus.  A sentient cancer.
Once inside a host, it can take control of that host and use it to spread itself further, by overriding the host with a belief that only he can stop it.. but in doing so spread the virus more.

The team is the only one that knows it exists.
And the only one that can stop it.

Pathfinder
The sun does not appear.  Night remains even as day break should come.  The kingdoms worry as monsters and other horrors relish the darkness.  Another day passes, still no sun.  And another..

Soon it becomes clear a powerful ritual has been used to keep the sun at bay.
And the only way to bring it back, is to burn a populated city as a sacrificial rite.

The Magic of Doors

The Magic of Doors
by Tobie Abad

Doors.  The mysteries that they hide.  The stories that they birth.    Doors are portals to more than just the next room, they are gateways to adventure and secrets.  Here are some ideas on how to make a door curiously interesting in your games.

1. The Door is Locked
No one knows how to open it.   Or the key was something you have to find.  Maybe the key isn't even a typical key.  Consider Pier's Anthony's The Skeleton Key and how that story explored the many ways "key" can mean.  Or perhaps the key unlocks more than just the door itself like in the graphic novel series Locke and Key.

2.  The Door cannot be Closed
This usually entails the need for a reason you'd want to close it.  Or a desire to never have it closed.  The door can be an actual portal, wooden frame and all.  Or it can be figurative - like access to creativity or dreams.  Or money.

3.  The Door Was Not There Before
You wake up to notice a second door in your room which you never saw before.  Or you wake up one late night and realize down the alleyway visible from your window, the dead end now has an open door with light streaming out and pounding music coming from within.  Maybe the door isn't even where a door should be.  You catch your lover mumbling in her sleep, and a small doorway has popped open from her temple.   Sometimes, it can even be something as simple as a door opening the impossible way, separating from the wall hinges side, and yet not falling off the frame as it swings open to reveal a path that could not exist before.

4.  The Door has Changed
Sometimes it might be just something subtle, like the white door now appearing gray.  Or its simple handle suddenly replaced with an ornate iron one.  Maybe it suggests something having visited, like the door now having claw marks at the outside.  Or worse, a bloody hand print on the inside.  Maybe your key stops working with it.  Or maybe the noises through it sound different from what you can see outside the peephole.

5. The Door Isn't.
Maybe it was a maw hungry for more meat.  Or a throat swallowing new souls into hell.  Or a closed eyelid and now the massive orb stares at you and judges you silently.  Maybe the door turned out to just be a drawing on the wall - and now you wonder how you got in the room in the first place.  Maybe it is alive and talks back.  And offers secrets, if you figure out the riddle it asks.

Doors.
Who said they had to be boring and simple?

Game Idea: The Infection

The Infection
by Tobie Abad

It doesn't have to be a zombie game.
But it needs to be a game where horror elements are welcome.

The Onset
It starts as a twitch.  An unconscious thing which no one usually notices.   A word happens more often than not.  Simple yet there.   Most overlook it.  Most even don't realize it.  But when they do, they probably don't even think its anything to be worried about.   And eventually they will realize how wrong they were.

System:  Choose a simple common word.  But be sure that the infected non-playing character ALWAYS uses that word at least once in every instance when he speaks.    The infection is insidious however, so questions that require a single word are usually answered with non-verbal responses.  And there's always the shrug that says "beats me?"

System to have a player infected:  Tell the player the one word he needs to always include.  It can be as innocuous as "okay" or as challenging as "peculiar."  But remember, it shouldn't be too obvious.

It Grows
Then it begins to get stronger.  The infection wants to live, so it keeps its host alive.   So it begins to push the biological systems of the Host in ways that will keep it alive.   It cannot do this without a cost, however.  And the price to pay for such benefits is the loss of a good night's sleep.  The body just cannot cope with the strain it had undergone when the infection pushes it beyond its limits.

System:  The character tends to have nightmares.  Dreaming horrors.  He awakes screaming.  He mumbles in his sleep.

System to have a player infected:  The player can automatically succeed in a single roll wherein failure can mean bodily harm or death.  But he then must portray himself unable to sleep for that night.  And if the game has any systems for penalizing one for not getting enough rest, they should be applied here.

It Hungers
The infection does not crave flesh.  Surprisingly, it hungers for words.  Words tied to precious memories.  So what it does is it encourages those around it to share personal stories.  To share anecdotes.  To share their experiences.  And when it has a chance, it eats.  It doesn't wound or damage those it feeds on though.  It just silently takes a few details from the memories.  Details no one would probably remember.

Like the time when that first kiss happened.  Or the name of the movie you saw when he proposed to you.  Or the passkey to your bank account.  Those kind of details.

The infection doesn't keep them.  The actual detail is irrelevant.  Its importance is what is.  Cause important details in a memory are laden with psychic energy.  And that is what the infection truly desires.

System:  As the game progresses, throw the player tiny moments of memory loss, or gaps in their recall.  It works best if you tie it in to related sharing or discussions they had earlier with the infected npc or other players.  Like when the npc asks her about her husband, and the player talks about him being the only man she ever loved, maybe you can later bring up something personal that she should remember (like say, their song playing in the radio) and mentioning it in passing that the song just sounds familiar for some reason.

Then throw the whammy later, by having the husband arrive, and play the same song for them to dance to as he greets her since it is their anniversary.  But she can't remember.

System to have a player infected:  The player can be assigned to be the trigger of a certain memory, and later, the catalyst to the scene revealing the memory loss.  As a reward for this, each time he succeeds in this, he can have the It Grows bonus without having to suffer from nightmares.

And Spreads
By now the others realize something is wrong.  Something is definitely happening.  But they might just not know about the Infection yet.  Interestingly, this is usually the same point in time the infection tries to spread.  To reproduce.  And it does so in this manner.

It spreads through the Word.

Remember that word back in the beginning?   The Onset word?  The infection can latch on to it once someone else who has not been infected says it enough times.  Words have power, and when they are repeated enough times, the power weaves in a pattern wide enough for the infection to leap onto.

So watch what you say as your very words to warn others might be the thing that lets the infection in.

System:  This is where it gets tricky.  But tricky is always fun.  The players still probably have not figured out what the exact word is.  Or worse, they do, but do not realize saying it is dangerous now.  Since not knowing removes the tension and fear, you cannot run it that way.

Instead you get some counters.  Glass beads.  Dice you don't normally use.  Any kind of counter.  You bring it out and don't tell them why.  But each time they say the word, you pull out a counter and mark it.   A cool move is to ask each player to lend you one of their dice (assuming they all bring their own) or to simply have something from each of them (car keys, cellphone, etc) and whenever the word is mentioned, you place the counter beside that object.  You are tracking how many times they are saying it after all.  But you don't mention what you are tracking.

They will notice.   They will see it has to do with "them" somehow. And then the panic rises.  When the counters hit a target number, that character is now infected.   What the target number should be depends on how quickly you want the infection to spread.  A good rule of thumb is twice the number of players.  Oh and don't track the number between sessions.  Each game session resets the counter.   You have to be kind somehow.

Once they're infected, then you give them the Onset rules.  And it continues on.

System to have a player infected:  The infected player does not have to track the infection.  Instead, he is encouraged to try to get them to say it.  If the infection is ever made known to the others, then the player realizes his chances of getting them to say the word may diminish quickly.  Only then can the player opt to force them to say it, whether through fear or coercion.


The Long Term
Knowing how it spreads, you can imagine the game world eventually being run over by this meme-fection.  It can be an awesome influence to the eventual apocalyptic setting for the game, as people get divided between the two factions.  Or it can be frustrating.

The infection is insidious but not evil.  Just... hungry.
And thankfully that same hunger can be used against it.

If the singular word for Onset is found, and people stop saying it long enough, the infection dies out.
Alternately, the infection can be killed with the destruction of the said Onset word.  This one may mean the actual destruction of a word (it is given a whole new meaning that everyone knows) or a symbolic destruction of the word (tougher to do right).

But eventually.  Someone out there.
Feels it in his chest.  Rage.  Anger.  Envy.
And utters the word out of spite.

And it is born again.

Game Idea: Familiar Grounds

Familiar Grounds
by Tobie Abad

This idea was born after thinking about the following things:
1) Dungeon World's Ranger familiar
2) My previous articles on Side Kick Stories and Untold Monster Stories
3) Movies like Babe and Ratatouille

 Why not have a game where the players portray the animal familiars of the troupe, and other characters in the game setting?   For example, if you were playing Dungeon World, have one session where a player focuses on playing the animal companion they have as the character.  Other players whose characters do not have animal companions can instead portray other animal companions of other characters (such as the evil Wizard's imp familiar) if not the other animal threats that the familiar may face?

This could be an awesome if not exciting twist to one's typical fantasy romp, with the story possibly taking over the course of a single night while the party rests.

Imagine it this way:

The group sets camp and the Ranger decides to keep watch.  The rest of the troupe gets some sleep.
The Ranger commands the animal companion to fly off and make a perimeter check of the area for anything strange.  The owl hoots and takes to the sky.

The GM now asks the Ranger player to portray the animal companion, and continues the story as the owl.    As the owl flies the perimeter, it notices a nearby camp of goblins that seem to be complaining about how hungry they are.  (You can have some of the other players who don't have an animal companion now portray the goblins)  And eventually they notice the owl and perhaps try to shoot it down to eat it.  

Or, the owl finds itself stalked too as a Wolf Spider leaps from the trees to snag it!

Clearly the "sub-session" ends when the owl finally is able to alert the Ranger of the incoming trouble.

Or not.

Perhaps the attack distracts the owl enough that it fails to warn the party.  And the party ends up captive by the Goblins.  Or ambushed by less scrupulous adventurers.  The Ranger, being at watch, is disabled with a sleeping dart.   And now the Owl has to help them escape.

Lots of fun to be explored there!

Alternately, you can even go the whole nine yards in the opposite way.
The Evil Wizard plots and plans, with the monstrosities it had summoned ready to be unleashed.     The players then have a session to portray these monsters as they assault a nearby town.  Give them full freedom to go wild, destroying houses, attacking townsfolk, devouring dogs, and even attacking each other!  Let them let loose the monsters within.

Then cut back to the party, who had just arrived that moment to see the carnage, and let them now deal with the very horror they were playing just seconds ago.   If you want to be particularly cruel, whenever a player character attacks a monster, have the player portraying that monster decide on the monster's retaliatory strikes!  Sometimes, you have to admit, players love a good challenge, and the players themselves can be the very source of that challenge.

Lastly, you can also explore scene completely from the familiar's eyes.  If you've gamed long enough with your players, then you know the typical moves and tactics they would exploit against monsters and other threats.  So let them go wild with the monsters of the evil wizard, then throw in their own characters as having arrived at the scene to take them down!  Play it to the hilt, with the players most likely at first panicking at the thought of killing their own characters (but a nudge in the right direction might have them excitedly trying to kill the other player characters!) and if their original characters go down in the fight, you can then easily segue to a "captive" scene with the villain gloating at their defeat.

If they win, then let them go back to being in charge of their characters.  

Craftly GMs can even describe the scenes literally in that manner, as if the player characters found themselves mentally linked to the monsters they were fighting against, seeing and experiencing themselves as antagonists that were out to get them.

So try something unfamiliar by playing the familiars.
You might get enjoy it (far too much).

Game Idea: Celebrating Pride in your Game this Weekend

Celebrating Pride in your Game this Weekend
by Tobie Abad

We're celebrating Pride this weekend and I thought I should at least have some stupid Pride-themed post to celebrate it with a geeky twist.  So here are some gaming suggestions on how to celebrate Pride in your game this weekend.   If you get to add it to your game this weekend, good for you!

Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeon World, and all similarly themed games
Arcane Magic casters (such as Wizards, Sorcerers, etc) best prepare Color Spray and cast it on the first hateful monster they see.  More learned ones can prepare Prismatic Ray or Wall spells to make an even bigger statement.   Paladins can spend the session calling for the need for certain people to be given their freedom or to be treated equally.

Monster Hearts, Apocalypse World
Switch the Dark/Weird stat with Pride and all moves are now given a much more fabulous touch of fiction.   Oh and for this session only, the Fae, the Vampire, the Werewolf, the Witch and the Queen (for Apocalypse World, I'll let you guys decide) all get +2 to rolls when using Pride, but only if they're serving fishy realness.  Remember though, gay does not have to mean gender-bending.  There are a lot of non-effeminate gay guys just as there are a lot of feminine lesbians out there.  So don't feel you have to go campy just to give a touch of pride into your game.  But don't think campy is bad either! Just know the difference between loving the camp and making fun of it.

World of Darkness, Shadowrun, Shadows of Esteren, and other "dark games"
You can do it two ways:  One is to highlight the true existing struggle for LGBT to gain equality and acceptance, and have scenes which give players a chance to fight back or explore the themes of the struggle discrimination.  But that might be too serious for some groups that just want to play to have awesome moments.  For that, my second suggestion is that you throw in your i-take-no-nonesense gay character inspired by characters like Lafayette or as sizzlingly confident and disarming as Kinky Boots' Lola.  We've had enough crazy gay serial killers, thank you.  Let's have cooler gay NPCs join the fun.

Houses of the Blooded
The ven are fabulous.  Maybe it is time for them to be upstaged by the House of the Bear.  Bears are impressive.  And Tenacious, after all.

Inspectres
Throw in a gender-bending episode where the Inspectres crew have to deal with an incident where a whole town has turned gay.   And just as they realize the cause, decide on how to handle things when they realize the affected people aren't quite unhappy with their new life.   Do they choose for them?  Or do they live and let live?

Lacuna
There are odd colors today post Slab today.  An endless parade marches down the streets.  Even the Spiders are mesmerized.  Is this a chance to dive DEEPER?  Or is this the worst time to explore the Blue City.

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, DC Heroes and other Super Hero Games
Time to give the gay characters the spotlight for the weekend.  Maybe Northstar contacts the players to deal with a living plague.  Or maybe Wiccan and Hulkling visit the players from an alternate time-line and ask them to help out as a nation devotes itself into Hate.      Heck, go all out and run a Vertigo-inspired game answering the question, "What happens when Desire of the Endless is allowed 24-hours to explore his/her own heart's desire?"

Dice Rolling Games

Maybe for this session, any rolls that have to do with freedom, peace, equality, acceptance, love and beauty get a bonus to their roll.  You can explain it away as magical effect, as a skewing of probabilities due to a quantum influence  caused by billions of people thinking of the same thought that moment, or just a quirk that seems to happen every June.

Or throw in a colorful die and tell players they always roll it with their normal rolls, and once in the game session each player can opt to use the colorful die's result instead as their own.

Card-based Systems
The Hearts get the bonus. It doesn't matter why or what for.  So long as it has to do with Hearts it gets the bonus.  After all, hearts are all that matter.  Not whats between the legs.

What We Can Do Without
Gay jokes.  Gay bashing.  Gay used as a word to mean something bad, negative, or disliked.    We don't need more hate.  We don't need to be presented as caricatures to be made fun off.  Or feared as crazy or insane.  So, To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar is a yes.  Modern Family is a yes.  New Normal is stereotype-y but works.  Apollo and Midnighter is awesome, but only if you ignore the New 52.  Sam Adama of Caprica and Jack Harness of Torchwood are good guides if you want a non-campy approach.  Glee... tries to cross the spectrum but tends to wallow in stereotypes, but is acceptable enough.  But please, let's cut down on Silence of the Lambs type of portrayals.  Or have cross-dressing as a scene to laugh at the idea of men wearing women's clothing (or vice versa).

Let's just celebrate the unity, the love and the happiness of a world that is slowly taking steps forward.

Happy Pride!

Game Idea: Kumiho of the Nine - a KDrama RPG

As part of this year's Creative Pay It Forward, I promised my friend Dekya an table top role-playing game inspired by My Girlfriend is a Nine-Tailed Fox.   This is her request.  Also, happy Free RPG Day!

Kumiho of the Nine
A Korean Drama table top role-playing game

There are beings that live amongst us who are not human, though they appear to be.  Beautiful, seductive and sweet, these women have the power to change their forms and use magical abilities that are beyond mortal men.  Called the Kumiho (pronounced "goo-me-hoe"), these women have been mistaken as demons, or evil spirits, and myths have been spread about their need to devour human hearts and livers.  While Chinese, Japanese and Korean lore would contradict each other on what "facts" can be stated about them, if there is one truth that mankind has never known about the fox-tailed spirit maidens, it is the fact that there are only nine of them in existence at a time.

Until now.

Rumors of a tenth Kumiho have begun to spread and the current nine Kumiho are definitely concerned.   There are those who are anxious to welcome her to their ranks, seeing a useful ally they hope to control.  Some are fearful that the tenth fulfills the prophecy of the fox-tail spirit who would upset the delicate balance and be the very force that ushers the nine-tailed fox spirits into modern society's attention.    But what they do not know is that the tenth Kumiho knows nothing of her own kind, and quite frankly just wants to understand and embrace what she believes is a normal human life.

You are the tenth Kumiho.
And this is your story.

What is Kumiho?
Kumiho of the Nine is a solo-role playing game experience which seeks to mimic the fun and feel of a Korean Drama television series.  The game can also be played with others (see below) The player portrays the tenth Kumiho, a woman who is one of the fox-tailed spirits, but does not quite grasp that she is one.  She begins play with the following traits:  Amnesia, Empath, Beautiful.  And is allowed to pick up to three more traits from the following list to create her character's concept:

Athletic	Smart	Sassy	Shy
Stealthy	Strong	Quick	Deceptive
Gluttonous	Compulsive Liar	Temper	Lazy
Short	Artistic	Green Thumb	Cooking Goddess

The player then chooses four Myths that the Kumiho benefits from and has to abide by.  These Myths in many way shape the kind of KDrama story you want to explore.  Choosing, for example, Travel, Fox-Form, Immortal and Love might have a tragic story of a Fox-Spirit defending a man she loves, only for him to forget her as his love brings her back from the dead.

Marriage: The Kumiho can only marry a man who has truly fallen in love with her, but the man must have first been betrothed to someone else.  This can allow her to become truly human.	Illusions: The Kumiho can weave sense-befuddling illusions on objects around her.  The illusions can be broken by those who carry a bane of the Kumiho.. or by her true love.	Love: The Kumiho only feels true love.  However, if this true love is not returned, the man she loves will die in 100 days.
Diet: The Kumiho MUST eat liver once a week.  Eating allows her to retain her other Mythical powers.	Shape-change: The Kumiho can transform herself to look like another person.  The Kumiho retains her own personality and voice, however.	Travel: The Kumiho can travel through the spiritworld by staring through her reflection.   She can bring others, but only if they stare at her eyes when she carries them through.
Longevity: The Kumiho can live for thousands of years.  This can be given away to someone else, permanently.	Fox Form: The Kumiho can transform completely into a fox.  As a fox, she can communicate with animals and spirits at ease.  She cannot transform while being watched.	Immortal: A Kumiho can be reborn even after dying, so long as there was someone who truly loves her. That person, upon her rebirth, will forget she ever existed.

The game will make use of six-sided dice.   Each time the player faces a notable challenge where failure can be dangerous, the player must roll two six-sided dice.  For each appropriate Trait that may help in the encounter, the player can add an extra die.  The desired result determines what number is needed to succeed in the encounter.

1: For Myself The roll is intended to benefit the Kumiho alone and no one else.	2: For My Love The roll is intended to benefit the Kumiho’s loved one.  This however should establish who the one true love of the Kumiho is in the game.	3: For Society The roll succeeding is clearly to benefit the rest of Society, even if it may not  benefit the Kumiho directly.
4: The Enemy If there are too many fours, the enemy of the Kumiho gets the desired result instead.	5: Day Acts as your success number if you are playing during the day time.	6: Night Acts as your success number if you are playing during the night time.

So for example, you are trying to convince the guard to let you into the locked building, because you know your friend is in danger at the rooftop.  You have 2d6, and you have the following Traits: Amnesia, Empath, Beautiful.  As well as the following traits: Sassy, Temper and Artistic.   You gain an extra die for being Beautiful.  Rolling the three dice, you get a 1,4, and 5.  This means if you were playing during the day time, you have two successes over the one of the enemy.   A roll of 3, 2 and 6 might suggest the Kumiho isn't allowed in (3 means for Society) unless the player determines that moment to admit (I love him!) that a 2 is a success.

Whenever there are more 4s than successes in your roll, your traits must take a negative precedence in that scene.  So in the example above, if the roll was 4, 4, and 1, having more fours means you probably do get in, but only because your Temper takes charge as you punch the security guard to step aside!

Crafting the Scenes
A game session is called an Episode, and each Episode will be composed of around four to ten scenes, depending on the player.  A story can be composed of multiple episodes if the player wants (Rules for that can be found below) typically the system is prepped for single session fun.

The Basic Episode framework contains the following scenes:
I .The Opening.
II . The Introduction of the Problem.
III. The Introduction of the Loved One.
IV. The Threat.
V. The Ending.

The player starts with a number of Drama Tokens (which can be represented by beads, dice, coins, etc) equal to the player's Age.  As the game progresses, the player spends Drama Tokens to initiate certain sequences.  Once the player runs out of Tokens, the episode must come to an end.  The five Basic Framework scenes are free and need not be paid for.  However, if the player is not careful, she may run out of Drama Tokens to have characters help out or emerge in later scenes.  Part of the fun is balancing out the Tokens to have characters present in a scene.

Each Scene costs a Drama Token to start.
The player may always add more scenes to the basic framework, at the cost of a Drama Token per scene.

Other details added to a Scene cost a Drama Token. These only need to be paid for when they join a game if they are either named characters whom will reappear in later scenes, or vital unnamed characters which bring a challenge that must be passed.  Each time the character appears in a new scene, the cost must be paid again.  Note that nameless crowds are irrelevant to the cost.

Best Friend	Hunter	Fellow Fox
Mentor	Supernatural Ally	Enemy Fox
Neighbor	Supernatural Threat	Spirit

Example:
Lee Gi, a Kumiho, has convinced the guard to let her run up the building and help her friend.  The new Scene opens (costing one Drama Token) as she arrives at the rooftop to see an Enemy Fox, Dae-Woo.  (This costs a second Drama Token)  Dae-Woo has held Lee Gi's friend hostage to force Lee Gi to reveal herself! Notice that the guard himself earlier cost a Drama Token given he represented a challenge that must be passed, but any other people the character ran past to get to the roof did not since they presented no challenges.

On ties, the player must pay a Drama Token to roll again. Or choose to embrace his negative trait to accomplish the action.

The reason the Drama Token costs exist is to act as a "counting down" timer on how many scenes and characters the player can have before the Episode must be wrapped up.    Whenever the player does not roll favorably, the player might have to find a way to steer the narrative back without using too many Drama Tokens.

Gaining more Drama Tokens
Each time a Trait's negative effect is brought into focus (such as the Kumiho's Amnesia getting her into trouble, or her need for Liver complicating a scene), the player is rewarded a Drama Token to further develop the story.

Multiple Players Option
Rather than just making it a solo-experience, multiple players can join the fun, each one representing a different Kumiho in the story.  The players can all be part of the same Fox-Tail story, or can represent various time lines of fox-tail stories or stories happening in various locations.

In this version of the game, each player has their own Drama Token pool.  Each player takes a turn to set the Scene and introduce how it relates to one of the Kumiho.  Each Kumiho has an end goal in mind, based on how the Myths were chosen for it, and the players can work together or against each other in reaching their goals.  While a player is setting the scene, another player can pay that player a Drama Token to join in the scene as a key character they want, or as their own Kumiho (if possible depending on the way they story is approached).  Players who run out of Drama Tokens have either ended their Kumiho's stories or have taken steps to the background and become members of the supporting cast.

Multiple Episodes
If by the end of all your Tokens, you have not resolved the story, you can opt to call it "To Be Continued" and start a new Episode at a later time.  Alternately, you can also do this if you haven't finished your Tokens but need to stop playing for the nonce.

In Both cases, a new Episode begins when you are free to start one, but this time, you have three less Tokens than your usual starting number.  Each time you need to start a new Episode, you must reduce your starting Tokens cumulatively by three.  This pushes the need to reach certain goals and to end the story before things run out badly.

Cancelled Show
Sometimes, the show is so great, but there just aren't enough Drama Tokens to give it a grand finish.  You can always go the realistic route and declare the Episode over, and claim "The Show Had Been Cancelled" as the ending.  In such an ending, be sure to lament how such a great show came to end so soon, and how the show will now be remembered the way Firefly, Dollhouse, Terminator and other wonderful shows were sadly discontinued.

Less-Solo Drama, More Serious Game
Dekya mentioned to me wanting the game to have the feel of a gritty-serious bloody Romance version of Vampire the Masquerade and for that, I realize I might need more time to write things out and do proper research.    That version will have varying Kumiho Clans, a divination system using cards, and a nice selection of weapons to use in the fight to protect one's loved ones from other horrible monsters out there.  So for now, this is the star-crossed drama version of Kumiho.

Maybe later on, I can release a darker more fleshed out version of the game, less focusing on it being like a show and more on it being like a long term running game.  Til then, hope you enjoy this!

Game Idea: Living Shadows

Living Shadows
by Tobie Abad

Start with simple things.
How there is always that feeling that someone else is in the room with them.  How there is a nagging sensation of someone watching them.  Of someone standing close by.    But strangely, this never seems to be the case when they are in total darkness.

While with others, or among crowds, the feeling is negligible.  Irrelevant.  But once they are alone - doing their business in the bathroom, or while alone in the shower, or just before they shut the lights to sleep - the feeling returns.   Nagging.  Persistent.  There.

Then the smaller hints begin to come.

A man tries to mug the character one evening.  But before the player can opt to do anything, the mugger runs away screaming for his dear life.  His knife left on the sidewalk.   A lover tears away at the character's clothing, ready for a night of wild abandon, but minutes later, screams as she throws her clothes on and rushes out of your room in utter terror.   Animals at the zoo growl, hiss, snarl and bare their fangs at you.  Your loyal pet refuses to come close.

Someone is always there.  Even when you are alone.

Then, finally, revelation.

Some crazy band of weirdos snatch the character on her walk home. They pull a sack over her head.  They drag her to the nearby van.  Blind, the player hears the sounds of an ongoing struggle, but then the sharp sting of the taser hits her and everything quickly goes silent.

She awakens with the bag gently being pulled off her head.  She is still at the alleyway.  Her eight assailants are in varying states of injury all around her.  And her rescuer is her very own shadow.

The shadows live.

They cannot speak.  They cannot make any sounds.  But they are intelligent, and bonded to their other.  They do not "fear" light, but rather understand in the strong presence of such, they can only exist beneath our feet, or behind the curves of our bodies.  They are, however, indestructible.  Affected by either fire, guns, blades, nor words.  They are perpetual.  They are impossibly fast.  The moment light shines, they are there.  They are strong, however, and with effort can affect the material world.

Doing so, however, has a price, and the player would be wise to learn what that price would be.  Perhaps it would be a cost paid in memories, and the player never realizes the price at first simply because he cannot notice the irrelevant memories he has already forgotten about.  Or perhaps the price is in dreams, and the player starts to realize she barely sleeps well at night with the absence of the dreams that relax the mind.

Or perhaps one day, the character realizes that he suddenly seems to have gained his own manner of power. His own fingers slip through the glass window.  His own wrists slip through the metal handcuffs that the policeman had strapped him upon.   He shoves against the locked door to get to his imprisoned mother, and finds himself sliding through the wood and all.

But then his face gets harder to recall.  His features seemingly more difficult to make out.  His presence less noticed by everyone else.  Perhaps the price of letting your shadow become real enough to help you, is that you slowly trade places with it.  And one night you awaken and realize he is now the real thing.  And you are a prisoner to his choices, forever forced to tread after his own steps and touches, like an addict desperate for touch.

by kindomany

And while you do not fear the light, you hope and pray he will find himself in instances where he will need you to be solid.  To be real enough.

You hope to get that chance to trade places once more.
And be, once again, that which casts the shadow upon the wall.