With Lovecraft's Revenge close to release, here are some more examples of game play. While the main game remains, we did tweak some rules to make the game more accessible for those not familiar with Two Hour Wargames game play. But don't worry, the terror is still there, and your chances of survival are just as slim.
For these games, I used the Battle Board and dice representing the characters. Green dice represent my group. Red dice represent the enemy. Other colored dice represent no-player characters. And finally, white dice represent the actual rolls I made. In addition, the white board represent outdoor locations, while the blue is for indoors.
I ran four separate games and got four very different results. Keep that in mind; each game will be your own unique horror story!
1. My group started at a university and we were called to search the nearby mountains. Apparently, people reported seeing multi-colored lights in the distance, and some wondered if creatures from other worlds were involved.
After conducting research at the university and later questioning people in town who reported the sightings, my characters, a scientist, a student, and a cop, reached the mountains. Seeing ruins in the distance, they trudged through the snow and up the hill. At this point, the Darkness Level remained low, so I figured we had a fighting chance.
However, a PEF resolved, and it wasn't pretty.
Several bears leaped out and immediately charged my group.
Your Star, which is the main character you control, gains Star Power at the beginning of each story. These dice allow you to survive potentially deadly injuries as long as you roll low enough. Unfortunately, I rolled ALL 6's for my Star, which means he took FULL punishment!
Our group never learned the truth about the mysterious lights as the apparently hungry bears mauled us in a matter of minutes.
Final result: No survivors.
2. While searching for a book that was stolen from the university, my group, 3 cops and a professor, went through an abandoned mansion, fought a number of rat creatures, and eventually ended up at a museum.
Although we hadn't faced too much adversity, the Darkness Rating rose extremely fast, and I was determined to finish the game as quickly as possible.
Eventually we found that the museum's curator had stolen the book to learn how to summon one of the 'Old Ones.' We managed to kill him, but before we could get the book, the final PEF resolved:
When the Darkness Level reaches its max, a deity appears.
Suddenly, the hideous, blob-like Ghatanothoa appeared and when rolling to see who got to act first, he got the advantage.
Final result: Entire group literally petrified.
3. This time only two of us started the story; a police officer and a detective. We were searching for some teenagers who had vanished after a wild party the night before. After speaking with a number of residents at the beach-front, we learned that some of the kids had dared each other to go to the Graveyard. Apparently that was our next goal.
Entering the mortuary, we found one of the teens who told us her friends were eaten by monsters. Then we met the monsters.
Several ghouls emerged from the shadows and attempted to surround us. My Star and the teen escaped, but the detective became dinner.
Final Result: Lost 1 character but still a success!
4. Four this one, my group, two detectives and two Explorers, set out to locate the fabled Tsdeth Idol. While we spent some time at the library, we ended up finding more information from a priest at small cliff-side church. This led us to an older part of town and an abandoned mental hospital.
Almost immediately after entering, we encountered some ghosts. We escaped unharmed and continued exploring. The building lived (and I use that term loosely) up to its atmosphere as more ghosts tortured us, either with their presence or through sounds and tossing objects at us. They also had learned to manipulate the environment (#%#@$% mirrors!) against us, but we made it through.
We then found a switch that led us to a large secret chamber. After facing and just barely driving off a wraith (Picture a powerful and really ticked off ghost!), we found the idol and managed to escape the hospital, almost.
Just because you complete your objective doesn't mean your story is over! The story 'Pickman's Model' ended with, "it was a photograph from life." 'The Picture in the House' ended with the narrator barely escaping only for a bolt of lightning to destroy the house. We use the Aftermath table to represent how the story ends. Usually, if you survive this far, you'll only come away with some scrapes. But other times, you'll escape only to walk right into disaster.
In this game, we did find the idol and escape the hospital, but unfortunately, things weren't over yet.
As we walked outside and turned around, we realized the huge hospital was, on the outside, barely the size of a museum mural and as two-dimensional as a piece of paper. My Star had nightmares for months while the others spent some time recovering in padded rooms and on couches.
Final Result: Success and everyone survived, but three members suffered some form of Insanity.
Those were just a few games I ran over the course of a couple of days. Each one went in its own direction and each had a very different ending.
How will your story go, and more importantly, how will it end?
Lovecraft's Revenge is coming soon from Two Hour Wargames.
