Troubles with tremulus

I've run two mini-campaigns of tremulus so far, and while both have been enjoyable and created good results, there are a few issues I've repeatedly run into with the rules as written. Much of the time, I just fall back on my experience (such as it is) with Apocalypse World, papering over the cracks with the parent system.

Now I should stress, this is me looking literally at the rules as written, from the perspective of a game designer. I know that it's possible to work around the problems in the rules and use common sense, but I'm analysing how the game presents itself.

Sanity Checks and the Damage Move

First off, as a point of order, the book says:

When a character sees something terrifying or potentially startling (and thus, could reasonably cause shock), he must immediately Act Under Pressure. You can refer to this as a sanity check. It is a roll +reason (unless they have moves that indicate otherwise).

• On a 10+, they take 1 less shock and may act normally.
• On a 7-9, they take 1 less shock but are -1forward.
• On a miss, they take full shock and are either -1ongoing (for the scene) or the Keeper holds one (Keeper’s choice).

But this isn't Act Under Pressure, which is worded thus:

When you hurriedly flee, are doing something quickly and precisely, or are trying to resist something frightening, roll +reason.

• On a 10+, you do it.
• On a 7–9, you flinch, hesitate, cave, or stall. The Keeper will offer you a worse outcome, a hard bargain, or an ugly choice.

Perhaps you're meant to combine the results, but even so it seems somewhat superfluous. The Sanity Check is really its own Move, with its own set of consequences. The only reason to conflate it with Act Under Pressure, as far as I can see, is that it's a roll +reason.

In tremulus, Shock and Harm are two different forms of Damage, which is fine. However, there's a separate Damage Move:

When you suffer damage, roll +damage suffered (after subtracting any protections you may have). No other modifiers come into play. 

On a 10+, the Keeper can choose 1:

• You’re out of action: unconscious, trapped, incoherent, or panicked.
• It’s worse than it seemed. Take an additional 1 damage.
• Choose 2 from the 7–9 list below.

On a 7–9, the Keeper can choose 1:

• You lose your footing.
• You lose your grip on whatever you’re holding.
• You lose track of someone or something you’re attending to.
• You miss noticing something important.

On a 6 or less:

• The Keeper can still choose something from the 7–9 list above. If they do, damage suffered is reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 0).

So if you see something frightening, you first make a Sanity Check, and then immediately roll the Damage Move. While that functionally works, I have some issues with it.

It's two Moves in a row with no player input. If something terrifying jumps out in front of you, you roll +reason and note what penalties you end up with, and then you roll +damage and the Keeper gets to choose additional consequences.

In the worst instances, you might reduce Shock with the first roll and increase it with the second Roll. It's two rolls where one customised Move might serve the situation better.

Now, I can see where this two-roll structure comes from - it's sort of the same way Apocalypse World treats physical Harm. However, there are differences.

In Apocalypse World, you can take Harm by:

• Choosing to Seize by Force;
• Having another PC use Seize by Force or Go Aggro on you;
• Giving the MC a Golden Opportunity (missing a Move or ignoring a clear threat), and the MC chooses to Inflict Harm.

So it goes (rolls underlined): Move that opens you to Harm > Inflict Harm > Harm Move > What Do You Do?

In tremulus, you can take Shock by:

• Choosing to enter a situation you know contains something horrific;
• Making a successful Poke Around roll, if the Keeper reveals something Shocking;
• Missing a Move and having the Keeper choose to inflict Shock;
• Having the Keeper make a Hazard Move that reveals something Shocking;
• Having the Keeper perform a Hard Move on you that inflicts Shock.

So it mostly goes: Keeper chooses to inflict Shock > Sanity Check > Damage Move > What Do You Do?

There are very few situations where the player has a choice over whether to expose themselves to Shock or not. In most cases, it's something the Keeper decides. Once that decision is made, the player makes two rolls in a row, over which they get no input.

Maybe it generates a sense of helplessness and powerlessness in the player? That's the only genre-appropriate upside I can see to the whole procedure.

General vs Situational Keeper Move

The Keeper's section has this to say about Keeper Moves; underlining has been added for emphasis:

There are two classifications of moves: general and situational. General moves can be used at any time. Situational moves should be contextualized and make sense given what is happening. They are used when the characters are either in a threatening situation (often involving a hazard), or when a character successfully Pokes Around or Puzzles Things Out.

And here's the list of Keeper Moves:

General

• Separate them.
• Capture someone.
• Put someone in harm’s way.
• Announce trouble elsewhere.
• Foreshadow future trouble.
• Take away their stuff.
• Make them buy.
• Activate their gear’s downside (hitting tags is especially useful for this)
• Tell them the possible consequences and ask.
• Offer an opportunity, with or without a cost.
• Turn their move back on them.
• Let the dice decide. Call for a roll+luck.
• Make a hazard (obstacle) move (from your framework).

Situational

• Trade damage for damage.
• Inflict damage.
• Present items and clues.
• Reveal knowledge.

The problem is, most of the Moves are situational, and all of them need to make sense in the context of the fiction. You can't just choose to "make them buy" if they're not trying to acquire something. You can't "turn their move back on them" if they haven't made a move. You can't "separate them" if they're already alone. General moves simply can't be used "at any time", so the division is largely meaningless.

As I did earlier with Apocalypse World, I divided the Keeper Moves into categories to make the list easier to deal with in play. For tremulus, it looks like this:

• Positioning (Separate them, Capture someone, Put someone in harm’s way)
• Portents (Announce trouble elsewhere, Foreshadow future trouble)
• Gear (Take away their stuff, Make them buy, Activate their gear’s downsides)
• Bargain (Tell them the possible consequences and ask, Offer an opportunity)
• Revelations (Present items and clues, Reveal knowledge)
• Moves (Turn their move back on them, Let the dice decide, Make a hazard move)
• Damage (Trade damage for damage, Inflict damage)

Soft vs Hard Keeper Moves

From the "Moves in Action" section:

When you make a Keeper Move, it should always:

1. Flow from the fiction.
2. Allow for character intervention
3. Set up future moves.

This means you describe what happens, but pause just before the outcome is known. At that point, you ask the players what they do.

And on Hard Moves:

A Hard Move:

1. Flows from the fiction.
2. Cannot be interrupted.
3. Is to be feared by the players.

This means you describe something from start to finish and it happens before you ask the players what they do.

Which sounds fine in theory, but in practice this Hard/Soft distinction is also largely meaningless. There isn't really a Soft and a Hard version of each Keeper Move. Let's take a look at the examples provided in the book:

• "Soft": The creature leaps out at you from the rafters = Put someone in harm's way
• "Hard": The creature leaps down from the rafters and you take 2 harm as it bites into your neck = Inflict damage

• "Soft": The Mayor rises to usher you out of his office = Foreshadow future trouble 
• "Hard": The Mayor ushers you out of his office, closes the door, and you hear it lock firmly behind you = Hazard Move (probably Claim Territory)

• "Soft": The chanting rises to a crescendo and something begins forming within the mystic circle = Foreshadow future trouble
• "Hard": The chanting rises to a crescendo, something forms within the circle, and the slavering beast tears three cultists asunder as the rest run screaming past you = Hazard Move or Inflict damage (Shock)

 Really, when you threaten to separate characters or take away their stuff and give them an opportunity to do something about it, you're actually "Foreshadowing future trouble". You then trigger the "Separate them" or "Take away their stuff" move on a miss.

If we follow the procedure described in the book, you'd have to set up a Move like "Put someone in harm's way" and give the character a chance to intervene before figuring out whether they end up in harm's way or not – not whether they take harm or not, but whether they were actually in harm's way after all; "Inflict harm" would be a separate Move. You'd have to threaten to "Take away their stuff" but give them a chance to not have their stuff taken away. If you "Turn their move back on them" they get a chance to do something about it before it happens, despite already putting themselves in a situation that allowed you to turn the tables. How do you even give characters a chance to intervene part-way through "Announce trouble elsewhere" or "Foreshadow future trouble"?

By RAW, the only way you can pick one of the Keeper Moves and just have it happen is to spend Hold, which is not something you're always going to have. There's no other allowance to just pick a Keeper Move and have it happen, despite the book saying "In any case, to make a move, you simply select one, and do it." The examples that follow in the book contradict the written procedure by simply having stuff happen.

This whole section is very fuzzy, and while I know how it's supposed to work (thanks to Apocalypse World), the way it's written makes me think that the author either does not have a full understanding of how Moves actually flow, or does not know how to explain the procedure in writing.

Making Moves and Spending Hold

As the Keeper, you make a move:

1. Whenever there’s a pause in the conversation and everyone looks to you to say something.
2. As a consequence of a character’s failure (someone makes a move and gets a 6 or less on their roll).
3. At any time, when you spend a point of hold.

What, no "Whenever a player hands you a Golden Opportunity"?

Spending Hold to make a Move at any time is cool, and I think holding "Hard Moves" over the players and being able to hit them with stuff out of nowhere is great for building up tension and uncertainty in a horror game.

Apart from Hold, though, you're procedurally only supposed to make Moves when everyone looks to see what's happening, or if they fail a roll. Consider the following situation:

An Investigator is trapped in a cluttered attic with an axe murderer who's looking to increase their body count. What do you do? The player says "I'm going to search this desk for my uncle's letters," thus triggering Poke Around. Ooo-kay... Technically they've triggered a player Move; they're not looking to the Keeper to find out what happens, the Keeper has no Hold, and if they make the roll they haven't failed either. There's no option for the Keeper to use a Move on a Golden Opportunity (turning their back on an axe murderer) until Poke Around gets resolved. So they find their uncle's letters, and then the axe murderer will get back to them? But as I discussed in the previous section, they'd get a chance to intervene even if the Keeper goes straight to "Inflict damage" next.

That's obviously a ridiculous situation, though; no Keeper in their right mind is going to let you blatantly ignore an axe murderer without serious and immediate consequences, and yet if you follow the procedures in the book that's the result you get.

Conclusion

I've had very good play experiences with tremulus. The questionnaire-based Playsets are inspired (even though half the time I end up with the less-inspiring results), and the recently-released Derelict Adrift Playset really sparked my imagination (even though it has its own set of problems).

However, I'm glad that I ran and read Apocalypse World before tremulus. The latter's florid and archaic 'voice' is fitting for the genre, but also serves to obscure information and procedure.

I know that this article is tragically nit-picky, but as a game designer it irks me when you're given procedures that say one thing and imply another. When you drill down and examine the Keeper's rules, there are parts missing, and other parts seem to connect together oddly and possibly create unintended consequences if followed literally – which is something you should be able to do with MC rules. While vague "GM advice" is de rigeur in RPGs, games Powered by the Apocalypse should be treating MC Rules as hard rules, not vague advice or riddled with "you know what I mean" or "use your default GMing style here" gaps.

If you're familiar with *World games, then by all means buy it and play it, but take the Keeper's section with a grain of salt and be ready to back it up with prior knowledge. I wouldn't recommend tremulus as your first PbtA game – try reading Apocalypse World, Dungeon World, or Monster of the Week first.

Ebon Eaves: Chapter V

A powerful, creepy, and life-threatening session, full of unexpected developments!

• +Paul plays Father Aaron, a Devout. He is a Presbyterian priest, sent to Ebon Eaves for being difficult and asking too many questions. He wears formal vestments, has an open face with bright eyes, and is of slim build.
• +Annette plays Amy Hearst, a Librarian. She's recently come to the town of Ebon Eaves to open a new library. She wears a nice suit, has an open face with clever eyes, and has a lithe frame.

Previously, they had been invited to Rain House and met the twins, Taylor and Maximilian Rain. Aaron and Amy had reason to believe these two were behind the disappearances eight years ago, and after the meeting Father Aaron suspected they meant to finish the job by getting rid of Clark Lewis.


After leaving Rain House the pair return to the church, where Father Aaron manages to find an old book that describes a ritual for exorcising ghosts. Amy pokes around among the books while the priest reads the rituals; unfortunately, she pulls too hard on one tome stuck in the shelf, and the rickety old thing falls over on her! Aaron tries to rush to her aid, but was too late, and she took a nasty knock to her head and pride.


About five minutes too late, I realised I could have "taken away their stuff" by having Amy cause the ancient books to crumble, thus robbing them of any further potential mystical aid. Then again, can I really take away stuff they don't yet have? I suppose I could have broken her glasses instead, robbing her of her +1 Reason bonus. Also at this point, Father Aaron failed his Help roll and opted to let me take a point of "hold" against him for later use.


They decide that the best course of action is to lay low and wait to see what happens. Aaron is hoping that the Rain twins will take care of Clark Lewis for him, and Amy needs to go back to the boarding house for a bit of a lie-down with a cold compress.

Amy is lying in bed after dark when she hears the sound of something smashing in Mrs. Rain's room next door, followed by odd noises and cries. She goes to help, finding Mrs. Rain having a seizure on the rug, a broken jug next to her. She makes sure the old lady isn't going to hurt herself, but Mrs. Rain's bony hand clamps hard around her wrist. She tells Amy that "they are calling the children! The twins are calling out to them!" Her lips are pulled back from black gums and jagged teeth, and her eyes are as black as the night sky. Amy slaps her, managing to bring her back to her senses. She tells Amy that the children are being called to Manley Manor, and then passes out. Amy finds Mrs. Partridge who, familiar with Mrs. Rain's "turns," goes to put her to bed. Amy heads out into the night to find Father Aaron.

Father Aaron is just sitting down for dinner at the Vales' house when Mrs. Vale walks out the back door from the kitchen. Her husband stands up from the table and silently follows her, leaving their dog and the priest both a little confused. Aaron follows them, dashing ahead of Mr. Vale to see that his eyes are glazed as though in a trance.

Meanwhile, Amy's been running through streets filled with entranced people. She sees the Mayor among them, and slaps him to see if she can snap him out of it! He seems dazed and disoriented, but recovers his senses and wonders what everyone is doing in the street. With the help of Father Aaron and Marjory, Amy leads a full-on slapping campaign with the help of Father Aaron and Marjory, and manages to awaken all of the waking sleepwalkers. By the time they've dealt with them all, it's become obvious that only the paler members of the community were affected; those from old families long associated with the town. They finish their task close to the driveway to Manley Manor, as that seems to be where all the people were headed.

The two are about to head back to the safety of their homes when they hear the sound of breaking glass from the Manor. They cautiously approach up the road; as they round the bend, they can see that the boards have been ripped away from one of the front windows, and the entire lower half of the window has been smashed in. Curtains flap in the breeze as the lights flicker on and off, and a disturbing, inhuman howl shatters the night from the woods to the North. They head for the back door, and check to find the door-handle trap has been switched off. Strange barking noises from the trees sound oddly, distortedly human. 

They open the door and head inside. Just as they enter, they hear a man's hideous scream from upstairs. Amy looks about for a weapon, and discovers a heavy old fire-poker with a nasty hook at one end. Terrible gurgling and tearing noises can be heard upstairs, but Father Aaron searches the downstairs hallway for interesting books. He discovers an aged notebook that's fallen between a shelf and a cabinet, which seems to contain hand-written observations of the experiments from fifty years ago.

Unfortunately, Father Aaron's distracted by the book, and doesn't notice the creature until it creeps around the corner and is almost upon him - a misshapen humanoid form, silhouetted in the moonlight slanting through the boarded window. He turns to move the other way, back towards Amy in the sitting room, but his robe catches on the corner of the cabinet and it loudly scrapes on the floor. The creature leaps on him at once, sinking its sharp teeth into his leg and causing him to fall to the floor.

Amy rushes into the hall to see the priest being attacked by a scrawny, eyeless goblin of a creature, with skin like wrapped bandages made of pasty white flesh. She smashes it over the head with her poker, causing it to retreat and howl in pain. Its cries are answered from upstairs. Amy helps Aaron to his feet, and they make for the back door.

Amy takes the lead, but as Father Aaron passes a darkened doorway another of the creatures barrels into him, inflicting serious injuries! Amy turns and engages the creature head-on, beating it into submission even though she suffers a terrible wound from its claws. She grabs the creature around the neck, taking it hostage and threatening its life with her poker. Father Aaron attempts to wield the seven-pointed star amulet against it, but it doesn't appear to have any effect. Amy drags the wounded, mewling creature towards the back door, using it as a shield to threaten and hold back the four others who lope down the stairs and stalk them up the hallway.

Once they make it to the back door, Amy tosses the wounded creature back inside. They shut the door and arm the trap, and pause to catch their breath. Barking howls come from all around them in the woods, and Amy is at a loss. Father Aaron, having lost a lot of blood, is in bad shape. Luckily, the creatures don't attempt a pursuit. The pair hobble to a thick patch of bushes just to the West of the house, where Amy performs first aid on Aaron's wounds. They hear the breaking of glass from an upper-storey window on the North side, and the muffled thump of something hitting the ground.

And there we leave them, for now...


This was a really great session, on several counts. I'd created a mini-timetable based on previous events and the intentions of some of the major NPCs, so there was always something happening and I never felt lost or like I didn't know what to do next. I managed to inject some creepy horror with Mrs. Rain and the mesmerised townsfolk, although in the end it turned into gut-wrenching fight-for-your-life horror in the confines of the old mansion!

But by far the most awesome and unexpected thing, from my point of view, was Amy gaining a 10+ on Resort To Violence (thanks to her Lore Move allowing her to use Reason instead of Might), and choosing to eschew "take little harm" in favour of "take definite hold of it." I was like, "Take definite hold of the creature?" "Yes, I want to take it hostage!"

The second attack on Father Aaron was a "hard move," the result of spending the Hold I gained earlier from his failed Help roll. Again, I probably could have chosen a move other than inflicting harm, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time. I'd originally intended to use the Hold during the first attack, but when I described things I gave him something to react to; it was only his failed attempt to Act Under Pressure that resulted in him being wounded the first time.

Our intrepid investigators aren't quite home safe yet. The night is full of terrors, and the Manley Manor stands between them and the town.

>>> To be continued!

Ebon Eaves: Chapter IV

Due to technical hitches and other commitments, we only had a pretty short session tonight - only an hour and a half. Even so, it was fairly eventful!

• +Paul plays Father Aaron, a Devout. He is a Presbyterian priest, sent to Ebon Eaves for being difficult and asking too many questions. He wears formal vestments, has an open face with bright eyes, and is of slim build.
• +Annette plays Amy Hearst, a Librarian. She's recently come to the town of Ebon Eaves to open a new library. She wears a nice suit, has an open face with clever eyes, and has a lithe frame.

Previously, they had both done a spot of book-research and talked to some folks around town, and they are gradually piecing together a picture of Ebon Eaves' sordid past.

On Tuesday evening, Amy returned to the boarding house and overheard her landlady referring to her neighbour as Mrs. Rain.

On his way from the church to his humble cottage, Father Aaron noticed Lewis' electrician truck parked in the street nearby.

Tuesday (continued)

Amy offers to take Mrs. Rain her dinner, as the old lady eats in her rooms. The landlady, Mrs. Partridge, gladly accepts her offer. Mrs. Rain is suspicious of Amy, but lets her in because she won't hand over the food tray until it's on the table. Mrs. Rain complains about the voices of the children that are constantly talking to her, and Amy asks if she means the children who died in the experiments. Mrs. Rain says not all of them died, and some crawled away... It becomes confusing when she starts also talking about her own children, the Rain twins Taylor and Maximilian, whom she says cast her away because they have no use for her any more, and they think they're better than everybody, and she doesn't need their money anyway, but she can feel their hand reaching across the voices of the children. Amy realises the old lady is rambling chaotically, and returns to her rooms to "wash the crazy off."

Father Aaron waits around the corner of the church to see what Lewis is up to. The electrician comes out from around the side of the house, looking around furtively. Aaron accidentally makes a noise, and Lewis hurriedly gets in his truck and drives away. Father Aaron is deeply suspicious that Lewis has booby-trapped his door-handle or doorway, and goes to great lengths to test it. After determining it's safe, he heads inside and goes to bed.

In the middle of the night, Father Aaron awakes to discover his house on fire! Thick smoke chokes the hallway, and it looks like the fire is well underway in the front room, just near the fuse-box. He hurriedly evacuates out the back door, and raises the alarm with the church bell, waking the whole town. Amy rushes over with a bucket to help, but by the time she arrives the volunteer firefighters are already at work passing a chain of buckets from the well to the blaze. The fire is extinguished, but half the building is lost, and most of its meagre contents smoke-damaged.

Mrs. Vale, head of the Church Foundation, offers the priest a bed at her place. He accepts her offer, but insists on taking the slightly-too-short couch, where his feet are attended by the Vales' labrador.

Wednesday

In the morning, Father Aaron and Amy start picking through the ruined building to see if anything is salvageable. They are visited by Mayor Wilson, who says Father Aaron's presence has been requested at Rain House that afternoon. Apparently they have heard he's been asking after the Church of the Seventh Star. The mayor doesn't think the Rain twins would mind if Amy went too.

That afternoon, they front up to Rain House. The edifice is carved from white stone in a classical style, with steps leading up to an imposing set of black double-doors. Their knocks are answered by a slick butler in a tailcoat, who escorts them inside. The decor is heavy; thick, plush carpets, burgundy paint and dark patterned wallpaper, furniture of teak and mahogany. Velvet curtains block much of the light from outside. The pair are escorted to a sitting-room, and shortly afterwards to a well-appointed board-room. Along one side is a long table. A grand fireplace dominates the opposite wall. In the far corner are several ornately carved and upholstered chairs around a coffee table. In one of the chairs sits a figure; behind them stands another. They are identically outfitted in pant-suits, with eerily pale skin and white-blonde hair, contrasted by deep, almost black eyes.

Maximilian bids them both sit, and takes a seat himself. He asks of the priest's interest in the Church of the Seventh Star, and Father Aaron tells him that he's worried that it's more of a cult, and that a surviving member may be attempting to return to power. This is of concern to the twins, who share his concerns, and ply him for more information. The pair don't reveal exactly what it was they saw at Manley Manor, but Aaron freely tells the Rains that the local electrician, Lewis, is the suspected cult member. Amy also mentions that they found a book in the mansion that detailed the cult's activities, but that they lost it while fleeing. The Rain twins are very interested in all they have heard, and thank the investigators, asking them to return immediately if they uncover any more information.

During the conversation, Father Aaron surmised that some members of his church group are also under the sway of the Rains due to receiving trust-fund payments, which is how the information got back to the twins so quickly. He's also fairly certain that the twins intend to finish the job they started eight years ago, finding Lewis and causing him to disappear.

The butler escorts them out of the building, closing the ebony doors behind them.


Another in-town chapter, but this one sung a little more! I'd set up a couple of good situations at the end of last session, so we were able to dive straight in. There weren't an awful lot of moves made by the players (more than last time though), but I could consciously make and identify lots more Keeper moves.

Partly what helped was that I managed to figure out how the PCs were upsetting the status quo in town, and to see where that was pulling on strings connected to my major NPCs. Once they started disturbing the web of connections and influence in town, it became apparent how NPCs would react and create new, dynamic and confronting situations. Before that happened, it felt like this Ebon Eaves was a little too quiet and complacent, with folks who really had no good reason to rock the boat.

It's been a slow burner, but I think things are starting to pick up speed...

>>> Chapter V

Ebon Eaves: Chapter III

It's been a few weeks, but we finally managed to get together for a decent session! We actually played a tiny bit a week or two back, but it only went for an hour and not much actually happened, so I've saved it for the start of this post.

• +Paul plays Father Aaron, a Devout. He is a Presbyterian priest, sent to Ebon Eaves for being difficult and asking too many questions. He wears formal vestments, has an open face with bright eyes, and is of slim build.
• +Annette plays Amy Hearst, a Librarian. She's recently come to the town of Ebon Eaves to open a new library. She wears a nice suit, has an open face with clever eyes, and has a lithe frame.

Previously, our intrepid pair investigated Manley Manor, and discovered it was being used by the town electrician. Just as they thought the whole "haunted house" thing was a ruse to scare people away, they narrowly escaped the house pursued by two apparitions under the electrician's command!

Tuesday

Amy checks the library, and digs through old civic records. She finds some more information on the men who went missing eight years ago; they were all pillars of the community, their religious affiliation had been glossed over, and the coroner had listed the deceased as "death by misadventure" with no details or specific causes, which smacks of a cover-up.

Father Aaron meditates on the revelations of the previous night, realising that the ghosts are more likely to be warded against with the strange seven-pointed star amulet his mentor gave him than with his cross. He goes through the church records, but can't find any information on the vanished men, as they were apparently not members of the congregation. He does notice that, starting about 50 years ago, there was an increase in both the number of births and the number of deaths. Most of the deaths were of newborns or young children.

On her way to lunch, Amy sees a small truck driving past with "Clark Lewis - Electrician" painted on the side. 


This is about where our first mini-session ended. The start of the next session was a re-cap of all that had gone before, and a reiteration of everything they'd found out about the town's history. I also suggested that in small-town 1920's America, the library hours probably didn't need to be 9 to 5 Monday to Friday, thus hopefully freeing Amy up to do more investigating during the week.


After lunch, Amy muses on the ghost problem. While she figures that the seven-pointed star is probably a ward against them, she also reasons that the Church of the Seventh Star may have books of rituals that might be used to banish them. Mystery enthusiast Marjory Debnam visits after lunch and volunteers to be a library assistant, thus freeing up a little of Amy's time. 

The two investigators compare notes at the church, and decide to go talk to the mayor's son, Johnny Wilson, who saw Old Manley's ghost. He recounts his tale, and Amy says he must have been very brave to approach the haunted house.  Father Aaron asks if he's ever seen a book with a seven-pointed star on it. He doesn't have much to do with books, but he recalls such a star used to be on the front of the big building in town when he was little, before it became Rain House. He's also seen similar stars hidden among the eaves of the Manley Manor.

Next, they go to talk to some of the locals at the pub. For a bottle of single-malt liquor, Julian Marlow the cobbler opens up and tells them tales of Ebon Eaves' dark past - how fifty years ago, the town elders sold the population out to be the subject of government experiments. They poisoned the water supply, which changed folk; they had more babies, but the children frequently died.

Eight or nine years ago, the local Rain twins Taylor and Maximilian, who had become big-name lawyers, returned to the town. They'd uncovered the government conspiracy, and led the population on a crusade against the town elders. Without saying as much directly, Marlow heavily implies that the Rain twins instigated lynch mobs that were responsible for the disappearances.

After that, the twins went on to win a class action suit against the government, and about five years ago they returned to the town and settled in what is now Rain House, from where they administer the fund that pays benefits to all the families affected by the experiments.

From what they've uncovered so far, it seems that the Seventh Star members of 50 years ago were responsible for selling out the town for government experimentation. The pair theorise that the Rain twins deliberately targeted the Seventh Star members, possibly in order to take over the community. They now have many more pieces to the puzzle, but still don't have the whole picture. Still, the outlook is very bleak - it looks as if the Seventh Star and the Rain twins may be two sets of evil at each other's throats.

They return to the church. Father Aaron calls on his faithful Church Fellowship members, led by Anne Vale, to find out if the Church of the Seventh Star is returning.

As Father Aaron leaves the church to return to his cottage, he sees the electrician's truck parked in the street just near his house...

Amy returns to the boarding house as evening falls. She hears Mrs. Partridge address her strange and disturbing neighbour as Mrs. Rain...


Another all-in-town session, and once more I felt the system's gears weren't really engaging. The players made no dice rolls at all (I suppose I could have suggested Read a Person once or twice).

Most of my work was in simply trying to provide as much information as I could through the channels available to me, to help them gain a better understanding of the situation. I'm not even sure if that's a Keeper Move; the closest it comes is "announce trouble elsewhere" (with "elsewhere" being mostly "in the past") or "foreshadow future trouble" (by letting them know what they're dealing with). Without enough information, they've been feeling a little lost and unsure what to do.

The only moves I consciously made were "offer an opportunity, with or without a cost" (Marjory offering to be a library assistant), and "make them buy" (Marlow requesting a drink to loosen his tongue). Actually, I did make a couple of other moves right at the end, which will hopefully set things up for a more involved next session.

On reflection, I should probably come up with more immediate "deal with this" stuff to put in their path if they spend too much time investigating or can't figure out what to do next - give them situations that demand an immediate reaction and may lead to their own revelations. Some dark thoughts are already bubbling to the surface of my mind for next time...

>>> To be continued!

Ebon Eaves: Chapter II

Our second Hangout session lasted about two hours, due to technical issues. Still, we got through quite a bit! One thing I've noticed with *World-based games is the fast-flowing nature of the narrative. The rolling barely slows down play, and always makes sure there's a development in the story.

• +Paul plays Father Aaron, a Devout. He is a Presbyterian priest, sent to Ebon Eaves for being difficult and asking too many questions. He wears formal vestments, has an open face with bright eyes, and is of slim build.
• +Annette plays Amy Hearst, a Librarian. She's recently come to the town of Ebon Eaves to open a new library. She wears formal garments, has an open face with clever eyes, and has a lithe frame.

Previously, our intrepid investigators were trying to find a way into Manley Manor as darkness fell. The house is supposedly haunted, but evidence so far points to a generator in the basement powering a variety of "haunting effects," maybe intended to scare people away.


Monday (continued)

As night falls and the light of a fungoid and gibbous moon spills eerily across the town, Amy and Father Aaron consider their options for entering Manley Manor - the nailed-shut front door, the booby-trapped back door, or the grimy and narrow cellar window.

They decide to go search a nearby dilapidated tool-shed, hoping to find something to help them get into the house. Father Aaron digs about inside in the dark, while Amy hovers near the door, somewhat unwilling to enter for fear of spiders and sharp things. Aaron finds a rusted wood-axe with a solid handle, but before they can leave Amy sees a figure approaching the house through the trees. She swiftly ducks into the shed and closes the door. Aaron opens it a crack as a man walks past, and recognises him as the electrician who was fixing the lights outside the tavern in town. The man walks to the back door, activates a hidden mechanism, then unlocks the door and goes inside.

The two go over and look through the window, seeing a shadow moving up the stairs. They decide to go in and try to find the cellar. The back door has been left unlocked, and the hidden switch has turned off the current to the handle, so they enter and begin finding their way through the darkened house. The lights flicker on and off in only a few rooms. In the hallway, Amy finds a bookshelf with only a couple of books on it. One is a leather-bound tome with a seven-pointed star symbol on the cover - a symbol matched by an amulet Father Aaron's mentor gave him before he came to the town. By moonlight they read the cover - "Church of the Seventh Star" - but the scratchy handwriting within is too hard to read in the dim light.

The two of them hear chanting coming from upstairs, and decide now is a good time to find out what's happening downstairs. They find the cellar door somewhat ajar, but it's pitch black within. Father Aaron goes looking for a candle or lamp, while Amy pokes about looking for a light switch. Aaron locates an oil lamp in good condition, and Amy finds the switch for the cellar lights without tumbling down the stairs. She flicks them on and off to confirm they work, but they decide to use the lamp.

They head down the stairs to find a large basement under the house, with a few shadowy alcoves piled with junk. Most of the central area is clear, and a few brick pillars hold up the mansion floor above. In the far corner sits a small new generator, humming away to itself. Nearby there is a stack of gasoline cans, with lids matching the one Father Aaron found outside. At this point, Aaron is convinced it's just someone playing haunted house, and he's willing to forget the whole thing and head back to town. Before they leave, they realise that they now have a light source to read the book by, so they sit down near the generator and leaf through it.

The book appears to be the chronicle of a church or cult, going back nearly a century. It has records of memberships and events, although much of it is in a sort of coded shorthand. Checking the more recent entries from about ten years ago, the "church" had seven members, six of whom were the missing men from the newspaper articles. The only member who didn't go missing was a "C. Lewis."

Suddenly, footsteps on the floor above their heads bring them back to the moment. They douse the lantern and hide under the stairs, witnessing the electrician walk past their hiding spot flanked by two horrific and ghostly apparitions! Amy recognises them from the newspaper clippings as Pope Manley and Vincent Miller. The electrician starts refuelling the generator, and the spectres hover silently in the middle of the cellar. Our investigators take this opportunity to sneak out of hiding and up the stairs; Amy gets away cleanly, surmising that the electrician is the seventh cult member, C. Lewis. Father Aaron, shaken by the ghostly encounter, looks back and is spotted by Lewis. As Aaron flees, Lewis shouts for the ghosts to go after him!

As Amy runs through the corridor, one of the ghosts slowly comes up through the floor in front of her! She tries to leap over it and keep running, but it reaches out and its hand passes through her leg. Her leg turns to ice and she stumbles, dropping the leather-bound tome. She manages to right herself and run for the back door despite her numb and aching leg.

Father Aaron reaches the top of the stairs and is confronted by the fully-emerged ghost of Manley. He wields his cross and smites the unholy entity, causing it to recoil and allowing him to flee past it with only a minor scrape from its flailing arm. As he passes the ghost, it implores him to "free me!"

Both of them make it to the back door and escape the house. Once the door is shut, Amy turns on the switch to electrify the doorknob again. The two of them hurry back to town, where they can recover from their ordeal in the safety of their own beds...

>>> Chapter III

Ebon Eaves: Chapter I

Our first session by Hangout lasted about three hours. Details of the town are in the Prelude post.

• +Paul plays Father Aaron, a Devout. He is a Presbyterian priest, sent to Ebon Eaves for being difficult and asking too many questions. He wears formal vestments, has an open face with bright eyes, and is of slim build.
• +Annette plays Amy Hearst, a Librarian. She's recently come to the town of Ebon Eaves to open a new library. She wears formal garments, has an open face with clever eyes, and has a lithe frame.

Sunday

Amy's staying at the Partridge Boarding House, run single-handedly by the aging Mrs. Partridge, and home only to Amy and an unsociable old woman with dark eyes and milky-white skin. It's a Sunday, and despite not being particularly religious, Amy decides to bike to the church to hear Father Aaron's first sermon. It's foggy, but many other people are headed in the same direction.

After the sermon, Father Aaron greets his new parishioners at the door, including Mayor Wilson and his large extended family. Johnny Wilson, the mayor's twelve-year-old son, saw the ghost of Old Pope Manley at the Manley Manor a few weeks back. He asks the preacher how to deal with ghosts, but Father Aaron tells him there's no need, as they don't exist. The boy looks dubious. Aaron and Amy exchange a few words, and part ways. Amy decides to go for a bicycle ride along the stream, and after finishing his duties Father Aaron heads to the local tavern to seek some lunch.

A man on a ladder is repairing some of the lights out the front of the inn. A table of farm-hands quiets down as the priest enters, and talk softly among themselves. Father Aaron joins Julian Marlow, a dour, leathery old man sitting in the corner. Marlow seems unimpressed by all the talk of ghosts.

Riding along the road following the stream through town, Amy is waved down by an enthusiastic young lady, Marjory Debnam, a murder mystery enthusiast who recognises her as the new librarian. They discuss the haunting at Manley Manor, and decide to go up there to take a look in the light of day while providing moral support for each other. Marjory is reluctant to get too close to the eerie old boarded up house, but Amy pokes around a bit. She goes as far as the front porch, where she finds a piece of recently-cut copper wire. She tries to find out if there's a hidden wire connecting the house to the town's power supply, but instead from a certain point near the house she hears a hum which she theorises might be caused by a generator. Unfortunately the narrow window into the cellar is grimy, and she can't make out anything in the darkness beyond. As Marjory's courage is starting to evaporate, they return to town.

After the afternoon service, Father Aaron also decides to take a look at the Manley place. Around the back, he finds a reasonably new lid from a gasoline can lying among the leaf litter. Intrigued, he returns to town, deciding to see if he can find any records or historical accounts at the library when it opens tomorrow morning.

Monday

Amy is up bright and early; not even strange old ladies and cold fog can dampen her enthusiasm, for today is the day she opens her library! It's not a separate building in its own right, but a repurposed side-room of the Town Hall, now full of shelves, tables, and books. There are also some locked filing cabinets of council records that have been moved in here to free up space in the offices. Marjory stops by and brings some morning tea. Father Aaron also visits, and together he and Amy search the shelves for some accounts of local events.

They find a scrapbook full of newspaper clippings, which started about nine years ago, covering a series of disappearances. At first they were seen as individual cases, but soon the reporter was treating them as related events. Overall six men disappeared from the town; about half turned up dead, and the other half remained unsolved. Pope Manley, of Manley Manor, was one of the missing men. There were also news articles covering the class action of Rain vs. the U.S. which led to a large compensation payout for the victims of illegal government experiments in the town.

Father Aaron and Amy decide to check out the Manley Manor at dusk, to see if they can witness the lights. From the town, the mansion is concealed by thick trees, so they have to head up the driveway to take a closer look. In the gathering gloom, some of the lights are flickering on and off, sending silent beams across the clearing from between the boards nailed over the windows. They try the front door, but it's been nailed shut. They try the back door, but Father Aaron receives a nasty jolt from the metal handle that throws him backwards! He also learns that this door is locked.

They consider their options for entering the house - levering open the front door, bypassing the booby-trapped back door, or squeezing through the narrow window into the basement...



The first session started pretty slowly, which I was expecting, but I found it a little frustrating as a Keeper to try and figure out how to make Keeper Moves straight off the bat. I didn't want to jump out and yell "look weird stuff!" right away, but at the same time needed to prompt the players towards the mystery. I guess in the end I tried to do a little foreshadowing and announcing trouble until the players started asking questions.

Part of the problem, I think, was that most of my prep work was to do with those involved in conspiracies, who are not likely to be the most forthcoming about their motivations. I floundered a little trying to come up with a good way to ease into things, and eventually introduced a couple of improvised NPCs to talk about the weirdness with.

Once the PCs started poking about the haunted house, though, things really picked up and I felt the game mechanics engaging. Having re-read the introductory player info, I just need to keep in mind things like the generally weird behaviour of the townsfolk, and think of some ways to weave important NPCs into the PCs' life.

>>> Chapter II

Ebon Eaves: Prelude

+Annette expressed an interest in playing an RPG with more than one player, since our Blood Hunter and Maid games have always been one-on-one. We recruited +Paul as a second player, and decided on tremulus - a game of Lovecraftian horror based on the Apocalypse World engine. I recently got a copy of the pre-release PDF from the Kickstarter, although I'm expecting a softcover book in the next few months.

• +Paul plays Father Aaron, a Devout. He is a Presbyterian priest, sent to Ebon Eaves for being difficult and asking too many questions. He wears formal vestments, has an open face with bright eyes, and is of slim build.
• +Annette plays Amy Hearst, a Librarian. She's recently come to the town of Ebon Eaves to open a new library. She wears formal garments, has an open face with clever eyes, and has a lithe frame.

I decided to use the "Playset" of Ebon Eaves that comes with the book. A Playset presents the players with two sets of seven questions (in this instance, about Local Colour and Town Lore), each of which requires three "yes" answers. This provides two sets of codes to cross-reference with a paragraph of information for the players, and a paragraph of secret information for the Keeper (GM). Each set of seven questions has 35 possible combinations.

For this iteration of Ebon Eaves, the players chose that the locals display strange behaviour, and it's an old town with a tragic past. In addition, there has been a history of ghost sightings, rumours of dark rituals, and there are several old or ruined buildings in or about the town. That led to the following player-facing information:


Ebon Eaves is a little known enclave located far off the beaten track. About fifty years ago, a lot of folks underwent secret government experiments. It made national headlines about five years ago, though the details of exactly what was done remain a mystery. In light of world events, the news faded rapidly. The residents settled for an undisclosed amount, but few have to work, though many carry on as they always have.

The old parts of Ebon Eaves are fashioned in a very classical Greek tradition. The Manley Manor stands apart. It seems to be far older and sits cozily but abandoned on the far edge of town near a dairy farm owned by Mayor Thad Wilson. Johnny, Thad’s youngest son, has claimed to have seen the spirit of old Manley moving through the house in the dead of night. No one paid him any mind until the house’s lights began flickering on and off three weeks ago, even though the power was cut off long ago. People now give the place a wide berth.

I spent a week or so building the basic outline of the town, and working up some dark and nefarious plots based on the secret Keeper information related to the above information, tying the two separate storylines (or "threads") into an interconnected cat's cradle of conspiracy waiting to be uncovered.

I decided that this Ebon Eaves was located in the foothills of Vermont, and that the game would start in the late Summer of 1923.

>>> Chapter I