Campaign Input Requested

[tunglashr]

I have always thought that the best way to do horror is when the players dont expect it. My idea for this campaign is to start the players in a 1970s espionage campaign, and then transition it to a horror game on the fly. I am testing out scripting scenes to help my prep, so what I am going to do here is post all my scripted scenes so you guys can see my plan. What I would like to hear from you is where you think the strong and weak points are, and any suggestions you have to make it better. These scripts are very general, but I would still appreciate having some details if you have good ideas. I still havent named the sinister cult, so it is just a placeholder for now.

 

And so, without further ado...

 

Setting: Eastern Europe, 1970s

Scenario: A small group of agents is inserted in eastern bloc nations to prevent a radical underground group from getting the materials necessary to produce a nuclear weapon. While investigating the death of one of the enemy operatives, the players stumble on evidence of a supernatural conspiracy involving secret societies and the Vatican. When they attempt to rendezvous with their handlers, they find that they are all alone with the societies from all sides targeting them for death.

 

Scene 1

 

Naples, Italy, May 1971. The agents are called together in a 3rd floor apartment overlooking the port. Each of them comes separately, but they recognize each other. An olive skinned man in a turtleneck comes in and gives each of them an envelope containing a passport, $2000 equivalent in Turkish Lira, a set of coded orders and a lapel pin. He tells them that the current mission has world security impact, as an underground organization calling itself is in danger of collecting the pieces necessary to assemble a nuclear device. Given their radical nature, the bureau fears they would look for the first opportunity to detonate it. The team is authorized to use deadly force where necessary, but discretion is in order because given the nature of the Turkish government it is unlikely they could be quickly extracted from their notorious prison system should they be apprehended. Players are given a day to prepare, as they will depart tomorrow evening from the port via commercial boat. They will be inserted into Turkey in such a way as to avoid customs. It is a 4 day journey.

 

Objective: Inform players on goals and set the expectations for the operation.

 

Scene 2

 

Port of Naples, the next evening. An operative meets them at the proposed location and escorts them onto the ship. Each of them are given rooms and introduced to the captain and first officer. The players will have an opportunity to socialize with the crew for a while, before retiring for bed. The trip is uneventful for 3 days. At least one of the players is awakened by commotion on the third day, and they have a confrontation with armed invaders attempting to hijack the boat. The insurgents are radical and seem unable to listen to anything the players say. Once the confrontation is over, a search of the ship reveals that everyone except the players is dead. They are within sight of the Turkish shore, and there is a speedboat aboard that can be berthed. The players know they must be careful to land under cover of darkness to preserve their identities.

 

When they approach the coast the players spot a body face down in the water. The body is missing any identification, but is clearly not a local; he looks like a northern European. He has had this throat slit and his tongue removed. He has also had his eyes gouged out, as well as fingertips and ears removed.

 

Objective: Get the players to Turkey. Place seed for further investigation. Indicate that something is amiss, possibly within the bureau.

 

Scene 3

 

Iskendurun, Turkey, two days later. No mention has been made of the body floating in the harbor by any newspaper or police. The players have placed their newspaper ad to let the handler know they have arrived, but there has been no contact. Investigating the dead body leads to his hotel room, where the players can use their ingenuity to gain entrance. The room has been ransacked, but a thorough search uncovers some items that have been missed. First, credentials indicate he was a visiting archaeologist from Helsinki. They also describe an excavation site near Urfu where he found strange religious symbols, he goes on to indicate he believes it is more than just a burial ground like the leader insists and he was heading back to Finland to put together his own expedition.

Objective: Reinforce the foreboding atmosphere. Foreshadowing for the players.

 

Scene 4

 

Iskendurun, Turkey, later that day. The handler makes contact and sets up a meeting with the players. He provides them information about the and some suspected and confirmed members. If queried about the professor he dismisses it, but players can sense he is hiding something. He denies all knowledge of the incident. He also discusses a communication plan and sets up future meetings.

Objective: Twist the plot and raise questions between the players. Set the McGuffin in motion.

 

Scene 5

 

Iskendurun and environs, next few days. Finding and investigating the members is a simple task for the players. They can determine that they clearly are meeting and planning something, but without making further contact cannot know more. One player notices another European man who happens to be around a lot. If contacted, he claims to be an Italian tourist. In reality he is the operative sent by the Vatican to eradicate this menace. The players learn of a meeting between the and a mysterious Ukrainian man.

 

Objective: Distract players into thinking that the nuclear issue is real. Provide flavor and depth to the setting and scenario.

 

Scene 6

 

Near Urfu, Turkey, one week later. The players follow or otherwise find their way to the secret dig site near Urfu, that would later become Gobekli Tepe. Here the finally meet with the Ukrainian and his minions. The Ukrainian has a briefcase in his car which holds what the operatives want. They exchange a large amount of money for the briefcase, and while the players watch the Vatican agent intervenes, causing a huge shootout. This will go depending on the players actions, but the goal is for all of the NPCs to end up dead and the players escape with the briefcase. As long as the players end up with the briefcase the scene is a success. When the players get somewhere safe and open the briefcase they find it is an ancient, silver Elder Sign, along with photographs and film of it being excavated from Gobekli Tepe.

 

Objective: Let players in on the real plot. This scene is a good one to end a session.

 

Scene 7

 

Iskendurun, Turkey, a few days later. The players go to a scheduled meeting with their handler to update on the situation and plan their extraction, and they find their handler dead. In his place is another Vatican agent who is convinced the players killed his partner, whether they did or not. It is impossible to predict how the players will resolve this scene.

 

Objective: All that matters is they learn that the Vatican is also in on this.

 

Interlude

 

Now the players are in a difficult situation. Their handler is dead, they have no contact with the outside world and they know at least 2 factions want them dead or to get the briefcase from them. The remaining scenes will need to be planned once I know more.

 

Basically this scenario shows the players that there are Cthulhu cults that have existed since the bronze age, and also that the Vatican knows of them but is also participating in suppressing that knowledge.

[Zen Archer]

Re: Campaign Input Requested

 

Question: Do you intend to have the players know what the Elder Sign is and does, or does that come later? Along the same lines, how much info about the Mythos could they have by the end of Scene 7?

[tunglashr]

Re: Campaign Input Requested

 

The players may know, but the characters will not. At the end of scene 7 the characters will be completely clueless about this stuff, and that will be the beginning of the horror campaign. If the players are still interested, they can be contacted by other researches, be thwarted by cultists etc.

 

What do you think of the plot?

[Zen Archer]

Re: Campaign Input Requested

 

I think it does what you want it to do - starts out as a basic espionage game and then slowly introduces the horror element.

 

I'm not sure how Scene 5 fulfills the first objective listed. Am I missing something?

 

I imagine some players might try to research the Elder Sign between Scenes 6 and 7 to try and figure out what it is.

 

I take it the guy in Scene 1 is lying about the plans of the cult to assemble a nuclear device? Because he doesn't have to be. The cultists could well think a nuke would be the best way to wake sleeping Cthuhlu.

[tunglashr]

Re: Campaign Input Requested

 

In scene 5 the players will believe they are purchasing nuclear arms making pieces. Actually, what might be better is if they are actually trading the Elder sign to the Ukrainian for some Plutonium or something like that. Then we have 3 factions interested in this situation.

 

In terms of research, I welcome that. Hopefully they get into it quickly. And yes, nuclear armed doomsday from the stars cultists are pretty much the epitome of horror. What could be scarier?

[Manic Typist]

Re: Campaign Input Requested

 

I agree, have them trade the Elder sign for weapons grade plutonium so that there is still that "mundane" threat out there, another faction, etc. Keep the PCs busy.

 

However, how are they supposed to find the dead man's room when he has no ID and his body has been disfigured in such a way that they can't really track anything about him?

[Midas]

Re: Campaign Input Requested

 

A couple of metagaming questions:

 

Do the players know this is really a horror campaign, or is it a surprise? It depends on your players whether they will go along with the later, or rebel, but it helps for us to know.

 

Second, how much coincidence is there in the campaign? IOW, When the ship is attacked, and then the body found, are there reasons for these two events beyond "Well, the story wouldn't work if it didn't happen that way." I was once in a campaign where we drove the Referee crazy, because he kept leaving clues out, but we assumed that the events were happening only because otherwise there would be no plot. He gave up, and we only found out at the game postmortem - big mutual facepalm at this.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Campaign Input Requested

 

I was once in a campaign where we drove the Referee crazy' date=' because he kept leaving clues out, but we assumed that the events were happening only because otherwise there would be no plot. He gave up, and we only found out at the game postmortem - big mutual facepalm at this.[/quote']

 

Wait, I don't understand this. Can you provide an example to clarify?

[sinanju]

Re: Campaign Input Requested

 

I'd be very cautious about tricking the players into a horror campaign without their knowledge/agreement. I've been the victim of such shenanigans too many times--and it has left a very bad taste in my mouth.

 

I'm not a big fan of horror, either as a player/gm or as a reader. If i went to the trouble of working up a character for James Bond-style game of action and adventure, and the GM pulled such a bait-and-switch, I might very well either walk (the mature response) or do my best to submarine the "horror" story by throwing monkey wrenches into the plot by "playing my character" (the immature response) as obstinately as possible.

 

This is especially the case when you're geared up for an espionage game (where triumphing over big odds is part of the genre) and you're thrown into a cthuluhu-esque horror game where the cruel reality that all of mankind is a helpless plaything of forces too terrible to comprehend is the basic premise. That's a heck of a surprise to spring on your players--and may be very unwelcome. Worse, you're betraying their trust by pitching one game when you fully intend to do something else. In the worst case, it could poison the players' minds and result in distrust when you suggest future games (they'll wonder if this is another attempt to blindside them with misinformation.)

 

My reaction may sound extreme, and maybe it is, but a member of one of my former gaming groups had a habit of doing just this to us. Every campaign he started turned out to be a bait-and-switch effort, to the point that first we began making up joke characters* for his campaigns, before we simply refused ever to play in his games again.

 

On the other hand, if you tell the players up front that "this campaign is not going to be what it seems at first" and they agree, then I think none of this need be an issue. You don't have to tell them what it WILL be, just that you're planning something they aren't privy to and that you think they'll be intrigued by it. I ran a dimension-hopping "Expendables" game once, in which the players never knew from one session to the next what parallel/alternate world their character would find themselves. I told them "I won't drop you into vacuum, an unbreathable atmosphere or some other immediately lethal environment--but other than that, no promises." Nobody had a problem with that; they knew what they were getting into.

 

*After all, if whatever you do, you're going to find that your characters don't have the right skills, the right abilities, the right mindset for the game they're REALLY going to be participating in, what's the point of taking it seriously? Build a character who would be worse than useless ANYWHERE.

[Midas]

Re: Campaign Input Requested

 

I was once in a campaign where we drove the Referee crazy, because he kept leaving clues out, but we assumed that the events were happening only because otherwise there would be no plot. He gave up, and we only found out at the game postmortem - big mutual facepalm at this.

 

Wait' date=' I don't understand this. Can you provide an example to clarify?[/quote']

 

Generically, think of the standard fantasy opening:

"You're all sitting around in a tavern when a hooded man approaches you: 'I'm looking for a few discrete people looking for good money...' "

"Um, no. We aren't interested."

Ref : "OK, the next day, you're sitting around in a bar, and this hooded guy approaches, again..."

 

Point being that the story won't start until the PCs take the hint and get hired.

 

Specifically (Huge blush/facepalm here) we were playing a first generation Champions game, and our superheroes were joined by Brick, Cheshire Cat, et al claiming to be reformed villains wanting to go straight. We didn't really trust them be we said OK, we'll go with it. Later, they all got into an elevator together, and when it opened again, the elevator was empty. We just assumed that the ref wanted to get on with the story and had these guys conveniently exit. What he was really doing was giving us the location of the villain teams "secret" base.

 

What I was getting at in my earlier post was whether the raid on the ship and found body were actual efforts by The Black Hats to harass our heroes, or more like the Hooded Man; Events necessary to the plot, but just coincidences to get the story moving. Not sure if I've made it any clearer...

[Manic Typist]

Re: Campaign Input Requested

 

Huh, yeah, I dunno why you guys would pass on the Hooded Man sort of scenario.

 

I guess I was just confused by how, if you assume something is happening because of the plot, you don't follow up on it. Unless, you think it merely happens to EXPEDITE the plot, which means it's supposed to not be looked at too closely...