Re: On Mooring a Tale
Thanks for the nice comments. I've been doing this for quite a while on Rpol and a lot longer offline (though not so much lately), having started back in the mid-70s with OD&D. I find running published scenarios quite challenging at times because I'll diverge from the written text (or mis-read) and find myself cornered. This one ran pretty smoothly from my perspective.
I'll start by explaining my concept of the ending. When the Mother was 'silenced' those most affected by her gift went off the rails. In town Rev. Windom burned his own church and died in the flames in an act of repentence. At the Cartwright's Eric, who was most altered by the Mother into the Lurker in the Corn, something huge and barely human with a psychic connection to the bugs and rats and snakes in the cornfield, went on a rampage until he was cut down by Joey's Tommygun as hundreds of vermin attacked him, leaving him a suppurating mass of bites and stings. Adam, who George had met, was apparently gone on some errand, maybe to town to consult with Stoughton (who was self-appointed as Sheriff) about how to deal with the outsiders.
You guys were where the plot was, though you went at it a bit sideways. The dice added their randomness to what occurred in the cave, but I thought your responses were real and arose from your characters. Well done.
There was no way to "save" the Abigail and Henry. They were too corrupted by the Mother to have any hope except a clean end. I believe Henry finds his way to the cave and to the Mother Chamber where he lays down and dies. Maybe his remains are found in later decades by some spelunkers.
I don't know what the MU biologists would make of the samples from the creek. Maybe it would prompt a field survey next summer that finds no living specimens in the dried up creek bed. Then they get stored on slides in a forgotten cabinet in the cellars.
Walter Gerwig's mother died last year, but he was so touched by the Mother that his loss trandformed into a need to care for her. I was surprised how much you all invested in finding her, though no one asked him anything about Blackwater Creek as a result and he could have added a bit to your knowledge.
There was nothing provided in the scenario for non-psychic communication with the Mother/Abigail, but fungoid conversation would certainly have challenged my creativity.
The history of Cade and the Sciatuck tribe is somewhat sketchy, but basically involves his son being injured and restored by the "immortal elders" in the cave. When Cade realizes the form his son's salvation has taken, he recruits a band of men back in Boston and wipes them out, blowing up the cave and sealing the creek. They massacre his group as well in case they are tainted. That's who's buried in the mound.
What makes the least sense in the whole thing to me is why the village is called Blackwater Creek, since the creek had stopped flowing before the village was settled. Oh, well.
I generally do well with characters and voices because I spent 35 years acting and directing in community theater. That's some of my best fun in RPGs. It helps with improvising/ad libbing too, though that's less a scramble in PbP than at the table.
"I would pull up that one time George suceeded in an improbable Skill check (his...what, 7% in Archaeology?) and got an entirely negative result, though - might be a playstyle thing, but I find that if one of my players decides to, say, Spot Hidden a room where nothing of plot relevance is hidden to Spot, then they're far less disguntled if I describe the nothing. If there's something that might plausibly be there you could maybe tie back to the plot should the character continue to pay attention to it, or a neat red herring to offer a player getting too far ahead of the pack, it makes you look smart. If that'd be excessive work or potentially confusing at the time, a blatantly irrelevant but hard-to-spot result will get the player on the same page whilst still feeling the roll was worth something, e.g. finding dropped coins, a cool spider, someone's stash of naughty pictures. So if George had randomly remembered some unrelated archaeological fact I'd have been more content there, but probably only I'd remember that."
I had to go back and look this up to reconstruct. Your criticism is valid, I think. I'd have had more leeway if the roll was in terms of examining a site, but it was about remembering something Henry might have said while reading his journal. Still, I should have figured out something to reward the roll. Apologies.
I'm grateful you three stuck with me. Not sure why the others left, except for Bliant who seemed to take offense that I narrated an inconsequential interaction instead of letting him play it out. My regret.
I'll look forward to playing with you again in the future.
I'll leave this up for another week or so in case there's anything you want to salvage.
Best wishes.
