You've seen different aspects of game play and last time, you say how things go when the dice are pretty-much on your side. Sure, one character suffered a startling revelation at the end, but everyone pretty much made it through the game in one piece.
This won't always happen.
Here's a game I recently ran where things went really bad, really fast! This is one of the fun parts of Lovecraft's Revenge; seeing IF you can survive, because although you do have a chance, if you go by Lovecraft's stories themselves, the odds are not in your favor!
So let's see if my characters have a chance . . .
Kim Stevens and Harold Steps are detectives who discover that a boat-house has been ransacked and several boats have been sunk. While residents reported seeing someone in the area, they never heard any sounds, even sounds of items getting destroyed.
After spending some time exploring the beach-side, they are attacked by mysterious, masked individuals wearing cloaks and attacking with clubs. Drawing their guns, Steps and Stevens take them out, but upon removing the masks and opening the cloaks, they find not people, but millions of worms and maggots. Steps is noticeably shaken by this revelation.
Searching the pockets, they find a note with the word; "Drouning."
Later, the duo find a dog, Rowlf, who follows them around. After several hours, they encounter a group of cultists near the pier.
With crazed expressions, the cultists attack, but Stevens, Steps, and Rowlf take them out. In the leader's pocket, they find another piece of paper, again with the word, "Drouning."
After questioning a local fisherman, they learn Captain Drouning died when his ship, caught in a horrible storm, crashed into the side of a cliff. He was buried in a cemetery across the bridge.
(At this point, the Darkness Level has risen quickly; if it gets any higher, that could mean the appearance of something Very Very Bad!)
Deciding to play things safe, the three enter the cemetery in the morning, just as the sun is rising. Safe enough, right? Not quite. almost immediately, two glowing figures appear; Wraiths.
One of them passes right through Steps, and the detective turns pale white, his eyes bulge, and he drops to the ground in a lifeless heap. Seeing all of this, Rowlf vanishes into the woods.
Left on his own, Stevens takes off running. Racing past the various tombstones, he trips and falls, landing in a recently dug-up grave. Staring at the open coffin and the decayed corpse inside, Stevens also sees a torn-up diary detailing Captain Drouning's jealousy of other, more-successful fishermen.
All of a sudden, each page changes so the word, "Drouning," appears. Climbing out of the grave, Stevens figures out what was going on. Whoever robbed the grave found the diary and was possessed by the former captain to destroy as much as possible in the harbor.
Breaking any hold the ghost might have had on him, Stevens closed the coffin's lid, refilled the grave, and walked away, satisfied that he had solved the mystery and more-importantly, survived.
Not so fast!
(With the Darkness Level as high as it is, I roll on the Aftermath Table. It's not pretty.)
Suddenly the ground opens up and a screaming Kim Stevens is dragged into the darkness, right before the hole closes again, leaving no sign of the hapless detective.
(Yep, everything went to hell, but at least the dog probably lived.)
Your own adventures could go one way or another. And it all depends on what happens in the game. In Lovecraft's Revenge, no two games will be the same, and not all will be pleasant. Although your chances of survival to lie somewhat in your hands, your fate ultimately depends on the whim of the game itself, and whether it allows you a happy ending.
Lovecraft's Revenge is coming soon from Two Hour Wargames.
Once you start your first game, good luck.
You'll need it!
What few realized was that in the later years of his life the captain was rarely far from his ever faithful hound. It is said that after his death, the aged hound bayed mournfully at Drouning's grave site far days until one day it suddenly stopped. Locals speculated that it had wandered off, or perhaps some grimmer fate related to the local wildlife.
ReplyDeleteOver the years, scattered reports of a dog looking remarkably similar to Drouning's old hound persisted, but were generally disregarded as merely fanciful minds focusing on some wayward stray cur.