The Outer Presence PDF is live

Yep, it's up on DTRPG,  The print version should be available there and on Amazon by September 1st.

The system is as minimalist as I could get it, while giving players and GM options.  Personally, I feel it's old school designed from a 2015 mindset.

The actual "investigative horror" scenario has a whole bunch of things going on and should appeal to a variety of tastes - without being watered down into mediocrity.

I'd like to thank the Kickstarter backers (especially Greg Beck, Anthony DiNovo, and Chris Ayotte), contributing artists, +MonkeyBlood Design, playtesters, and everyone else who believed in this project and enthusiastically encouraged me to create The Outer Presence.

Hopefully, it's as enjoyable to read and play as it was for me to write.  I'd love to hear your feedback, so let me know how you feel.

VS

p.s.  An extremely favorable review over here.

The Outer Presence - playtest #1

This investigative horror scenario was born here.  Got to keep this short.  Busy, busy, busy!  Also, this session report will be short on details - spoiler free, it's called these days.  ;)

Below are the players and their characters.  I told them to create a character concept instead of going through the motions using Call of Cthulhu or something similar.  Interestingly, none of the characters were scientists, explorers, or even academics.  For an inexperienced Game Master, this probably would have led to either GM interference or crying.  I decided to massage their entry into the story.  Seemed to work well, no one mentioned anything.

Oh yeah, I also decided on the 1970's.  Not only is it a compromise between the 1920's / 30's and present day, but I was going for a Cannibal Holocaust type thing.

Tim Virnig:  "Lang"; grew up wealthy; father founder and editor of Gazette newspaper; supposed to follow in his father's footsteps; instead, photographer of B-list celebrities and scandals; in free time, hoping to write mystery novel; also hoping to be a news reporter.

Jeff Adamus:  He played Jeff.  Photography print shop owner; advertising, pop culture, and band/music enthusiast; owns a couple cats; band and business promotion with marketing specialty.

Russell Reed:  Frank Smith; writer; reporter; disco dancing freak; reveals corruption; wants to write detective novels.

Kent Nedland:  Vince O'Donald; accountant; believes world can be placed in a monetary paradigm; scrawny dude; pocket calculator; # crunching.

Marie Nedland:  Susan Thompson; tech person; plays poker and goes dancing; wants to fix the disparity between rich and poor.


Somehow, I turned a desperate need for more explorers into a desperate need for publicity now that the first expedition was such a success (not really a success).  The players were all game and they roleplayed their involvement extremely well.

Clues led them to believe that this wasn't just a fun, all expense-paid tax write-off.  For instance, a couple investigators found a hand-written note telling them that the expedition's last telegram should be shredded so that no one can learn the truth!

Onto New Guinea!  Their host was a piece of work.  I really wanted to push the envelope with what players and PCs might expect from the scenario's principle antagonist.  He pushed a lot of buttons and made everyone hate him.  PCs didn't actually vomit... but they wanted to.  Incidentally, the actor Sidney Greenstreet was my inspiration for Doctor Karl Steiner.

Exploring the temple!  Over the last few years, I've been on the jungle cruise at Disney World's Magic Kingdom probably a dozen times.  The part when the boat goes into that dark structure was the basis for my temple.  Could have been more detailed, but I think it was successful on the whole.

Two investigators went temporarily insane, none died.  Was the world saved?  Perhaps...

The timing went extremely well.  Including 15 min. of character creation, the entire scenario took 2 hours and 55 minutes to resolve.  Good thing as two players had to leave just as we'd finished the game.  The first hour involved the set-up, including arrival.  The second hour involved getting a lay of the land, interacting with the people, and learning what the scenario was really about.  The third and final hour involved exploring the next location, learning the truth, and final resolution.

Probably won't get around to publishing it for awhile as I already have two irons in the fire: the Game Mastering book and Crimson Dragon Slayer, my very own OSR rule-set.  Both will be available this summer!  Check out the g+ community for CDS here.  The support, feedback, and even playtesting (!!!) that I've received since mentioning the idea weeks ago has overwhelmed me with happiness and enthusiasm.  Thanks, everyone!

VS

Qelong hard road out of Hell

This afternoon, I ran another 5th edition D&D game for a local meetup of the geek persuasion.  You get really big groups when you forget to put a cap on attendance.  At one point there were about 12 RSVPs, then a couple backed out and one no-show.  So, it was myself and 8 players.  For someone who used to struggle getting 3 players at a table, the meetup games are a dream come true.

Anyways, I purchased Qelong weeks ago.  It's a Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventure written by Kenneth Hite.  The hook sounded alluring with Mythos elements galore.  The stars were right.

Reading through Qelong, I was hit over the head by its strangeness and eloquence and depth.  This was no ordinary module / campaign setting.  This was fantasy fucking Vietnam with equal parts LotFP despair and Hite's obsession with Lovecraft.  Really a small, beautiful work of art.  Shades of Carcosa...

Luckily, I budgeted 4 1/2 hours for the session because this week was incredibly busy and there was no time to make the pre-generated 3rd level characters I had promised.  Instead, I had everyone make fresh adventurers - 1st level and without much in the way of equipment, background, skills, feats, or anything besides the essentials.  It wasn't so much an attempt at old school (even let the players roll 4d6 and drop the lowest for ability scores - still made them go in order down the line, though) as it was a desperate race to the finish line so these PCs could get gaming already.

45 minutes later, we had enough.  Oh yeah, this was my very 1st session with the new Player's Handbook.  It got passed around quite a bit.  Didn't have as much time to familiarize myself with it as I would have liked.  I still don't know if racial ability bonuses are added to racial subtype bonuses or if you only get to use one.

I took the spell casters aside, their characters had been approached by an Archmage of Chaos named Ibzuul the mad.  He wanted the cylinder's seal for himself.  I gotta say, it's just so god damn awesome when something that inspires you to the nth degree trips the same trigger as other artists and visionaries and creative types.  If you've never seen the original black and white British tv serial / film Quatermass and the Pit, do yourself a favor and watch it.  Assuming you don't mind vintage Doctor Who, you'll probably love it to bits.

Anyways, the adventurers travel to Sajavedra.  Sig the human sorcerer, Four Acre the straightforward mountain dwarf barbarian, Palleous the drow ranger, Rivken the dwarven cleric, Olo Underbow the halfling rogue, Chai Too the elven monk, Thimblerod the gnome monk, and finally Azidah the gnome wizard.  I have to hand it to this group.  Lots of roleplaying, speaking in character, witty banter, etc.  After a half hour, I just gave everyone a point of inspiration in the form of a little greenish yellow stone because they all deserved it.

Qelong is saturated with a sense of place and mood.  It was easy coming up with encounters since the text provides lots of suggestions for each location.  I did my best to evoke decay and ruin and some kind of Cambodian noir with magic-users.  How often do you get a chance to run something like that?

Skipping to the end, the PCs fought their most recent employer, another dangerous wizard who also wanted the cylinder rune-plate or whatever it was.  Oh, they had a good reason for turning on him.  He was working on a spell to bring the Great Old Ones forth.  I think Mr. Hite would be pleased.

I rolled a "1" for his initiative.  By the end of the first round, the wizard had one hit point remaining.  So, obviously he was going to cast fireball.  What else?  Well, I didn't realize until after I declared his action how much a 5e fireball does.  8d6!  Without keeping in mind the fact that the party is still 1st level, I roll the dice.  The total is 22.  Everyone rolls their saving throw.  A couple used their inspiration for advantage (basically, I just let those who failed re-roll).  The only one who wasn't either dead or unconscious was the barbarian because he started out with 12.  Now, he was down to 1.

This was one of those moments where everything - the entire 4+ hour session would come down to a single roll.  He was out of inspiration and I had already told the players the wizard's armor class: 17.  Well, even with the bless and all the usual bonuses, Four Acre came up a couple points short.

I fudged it.  Yeah, even with the dice out in front of everyone and the numbers clear as day, I told them the wizard's magic force shield wavered because he had just cast fireball and the hit connected.  Wizard hacked to pieces.

Normally, I wouldn't do that.  I'm not in the habit of granting phantom bonuses, fudging dice, or letting the PCs win just because.  It was a combination of DM error (I should have remembered to scale things back because they were only 1st level and I should also have known how much a fireball does or gone with my instinct and rolled 5 or 6d6 instead) and cinematic flair.  This adventure felt like a movie - a movie where the heroes conquer the apocalyptic sorcerer because that's the kind of epic storytelling we really want.

So, I consider that last roll to have included a DM ineptitude bonus or, if I'm being kind to myself, a swagger bonus because that mountain dwarf kept it real the whole time.  He was after gold and only gold... until the price was simply too much to pay.

I was on such a DM high from that moment that I allowed the dead PCs (those who failed their save against the fireball) to be revived by the monastery's resurrection scrolls.  Even more rejoicing!

By now I was convinced this was Quatermass and the Pit meets Indiana Jones.  The monastery also included a well that led down deep into the earth, possibly to its molten core.  I also started ad-libbing a prophecy about some magical super weapon and how it would one day be destroyed by dropping it down into the well.  The adventurers obliged.

This probably goes against everything that James Raggi believes in, but I even mentioned the land being healed by the disposal of this Cthuloid licence plate of doom.  Some day, it might even become the idyllic paradise it had once been.  Nihilistic blasphemy!  Might as well bring in Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan for the Qelong sequel, right?

What can I say?  It felt... right.

Wondering what the Call of Cthulhu RPG was doing there?  I flipped through the book for the perfect guardian entity that might be protecting the cylinder.  They ran and ran screaming!

Oh, and the unbridled to-his-face racism endured by the dark elf was something else.  That poor ranger.  Everyone was taking shots at him (even me).  I don't know if this comes up in other groups but during the adventure I seriously felt bad for drow culture and those dark elves who are more misunderstood than evil.  Still, a lot of the ridicule made us laugh in an out-of-character way.

Good times.


VS

Other Side of the Screen

Occasionally, Game Mastering feels like a thankless task.  GMs give and give and give.  Sometimes they receive an accolade here or there, other times the scornful, disapproving eyes of ungrateful bastard players!  Hopefully, that's a rarity at your table, but yeah, GMing isn't always glamorous.

That means a long-term Game Master must find fulfillment in different ways.  Chiefly, his achievement is the power of creation, and sometimes that alone must sustain him in the dark times of whining, looking up stupid irrelevant stuff on one's internet-capable cell phone, and weaselly avoidance of any possible damage or ill effects.  Just as God (assuming He exists) must be thoroughly disenchanted with the sentient beings running roughshod over his world, there has to be a certain amount of satisfaction in knowing you made something cool, something alive... and that it wouldn't exist without you.

But this blog post really isn't about GMing so much as returning to playerdom.  Yes, a mere mortal again - or vampire, half-orc, mutant, etc.  It can be quite a shock.  A comedown.  Instead of manifesting a world and controlling nearly everything in it, he's now little more than a scavenger trying to survive another night.

I recently played in a friend's Call of Cthulhu one-shot.  As GMs tend to agree, it was a refreshing change of pace.  Playing is its own kind of fun, different from GMing but still a good time.

There's a mindset that comes with running a PC for a change.  The GM-turned-player wants to make up for lost time.  You see, he's watched all his players blasting away at imperial stormtroopers, beheading trolls, drinking blood, smashing cars, manipulating shadow, committing treason against the computer, and summoning nameless servants for dark puposes.  There's all this awesome stuff that a career GM has voyeuristically lusted after for months or even years.  Suddenly, it's within his grasp!

Prepare thyself, GM, for the second come-down of Christ.  Chances are, a former GM's player experience won't live up to a sliver of what he was hoping for.  These days, I've become a master at managing my expectations.  Years ago, I fell into that trap.  I thought my years of GM service entitled me to a fantastic experience in front of the screen.  I was due, right?  Haha, not so.  A combination of bad rolls, bad luck, player inexperience (yes, years of GMing can corrode forms of common sense), and trying too hard... they all put me in my place.

Older and wiser, I now let the game evolve organically, and my place within it.  Mostly, I was comic relief.  An impossibly handsome and intelligent drifter without much education and the worst dice rolling possible.  In the end, I played my character as if I was him.  Didn't try to be the best, outshine the other PCs, save the day, accumulate fantastic loot, or do a bunch of radical super-maneuvers to impress anyone.

My expectations in check and sense of entitlement gone, I had a lot of fun.  And better yet, I was able to better facilitate the table's fun rather than hot-dogging it, failing miserably, and becoming indignant.  Focusing upon my character allowed the GM to do his thing and the other players to do theirs.  Sure, I was wounded, driven insane, and seemed kind of NPCish next to my companions... but that's the life of a PC sometimes.  His experience isn't always glamorous, either.

I was playing and made myself realize how fortunate I was to be roleplaying at all.  I welcomed the idea of not having the session's success resting solely upon my shoulders.

So, if you're normally a GM and about to play, keep that in mind.  You may not slay the dragon or roundhouse kick Dread Cthulhu in the eye, but fun can still be had.  And if you're a career player, then do something nice for your GM this week - send him a "Great game, man!" email after the session or buy him a 12 pack of his favorite soda or even volunteer to GM for a night.


VS

Investigator Origins

Below are three options for getting 1920's and 30's era Call of Cthulhu investigators involved in the Mythos.  They are origin stories hooking ordinary men (or women with some changes) into a larger, weirder world of supernatural strangeness.  Keepers of Arcane Lore might want to roleplay these situations at the outset of a campaign.  Alternatively, they could be describe before play begins or have the player read his account aloud in order to set the scene.

1.  "Something in that night-haunted alleyway killed my partner.  There was a sound like a man's scream, quickly followed by the ungodly roar of a wild animal.  Henry and I went in.  I was immediately thrown back by something large and wet that knocked the wind out of me.  Seconds later, I got up, ran into the darkness with my flashlight shining and gun at the ready.  Henry's mutilated body lay before me - ripped apart by the ferocious beast we heard moments before rushing in.  No animal was ever found, though."

2.  "We had staked out the factory for three nights in a row, desperate to catch the men who had been kidnapping women each month and killing them in some kind of gruesome ceremony.  Finally, our coffee and donuts laced skulking paid off - three men approached the factory, a woman with them, clearly being forced along.  Another full moon hung heavy in the night sky.  We crept in, got close to them... real close.  Near enough to smell some kind of exotic incense or spice.  They were preparing their ceremony and distracted.  Walter shouted for them to put their hands up.  The group scattered.  A gunfight ensued.  Two of the men were shot, one through the heart, the other in his head.  The last one escaped down a row of machine parts.  I don't know how it's possible, but they both vanished.  We searched the factory high and low, finding no trace.  Nothing outside the factory either."

3.  "I used to work at a nightclub called All That Jazz; played the saxophone.  But the club showcased more than just music - all kinds of acts.  Just before I quit, there was a ventriloquist - you know, a guy who could throw his voice to make like his dummy is really talking.  The ventriloquist always gave me the heebie-jeebies... his big wooden doll, too.  Anyways, one night the cat finishes performing and starts putting his doll away in this old beat-up suitcase, except this long lump of wood is staring at me, and just before he closes the lid on the case, the dummy winked at me.  After that, I tried to stay out of their way."
___


Of course, each backstory can be expanded upon by an enterprising Keeper of Arcane Lore.  Many a couple different investigators have the same history?  Let me know if you use this in your Call of Cthulhu RPG.

Thanks for reading!

VS