Sanity's Edge
Sanity's Edge was a foray into a Lovecraft-esque world, sharing at least the locale of Miskatonic University. I conjured up Vernon Eldritch as the mysterious professor who researches the occult and arcane - and directs the party from the comfort of his cluttered office.
This campaign was short-lived, although it produced one of the best missions I've led. Read through the writeup of Faces in the Coal - once again, this is the power of role-playing. Dark gothic Americana, a prayer gone completely wrong, and the drink that "ain't exactly whiskey, and ain't exactly gin..."
The second mission was kind of forced and I didn't continue with the campaign. This was run in 2015 and 2016.
June 13 2015
I have too many ideas! I have the basics for the next Savage Worlds/SciFi mission together, so we'll need to do that soon...but now after reading Lovecraft I also want to do something set in that world!
I'm not sure I really want to invest in Call of Cthulhu (the manual is 400+ pages), but am thinking of even using the SW engine to drive a new world based in Lovecraftian mythos.
The premise is that your character has, well, a morbid fascination with oddity, weirdness, and the occult. Otherwise, you'd just stay at home and listen to serial programs on your wireless. No, you're the type that always explored the cemetery after midnight, stayed up long hours in libraries poring through obscure literature, and perhaps never went too far, even when a youngster, without a trusty jackknife hidden in your boot.
Either way, now that you've grown up, your obsessions never left you, and with the recent turn of the century and the new worlds Science is opening up to us, entirely new histories, older than the gods of man, are unfolding. Whether in the distant temples of Asia, the hallowed halls of Western Civilization, or the mundane and rustic backwoods of America, it is becoming clear that Mankind is but a passenger, a fleeting parasite, on a small planet with an unfathomable history, set in a cosmos filled with powers and presences whose nature and being confound our pitiable pantheon.
In other words, there's weird shit out there, and against your better judgment, you want to find it.
Mankind just has emerged from the Great War, the aspirations of civilization lost like so much blood in the mud. Amid these ruins your hope is to uncover a greater truth than the lies foisted upon the masses by those in power.
Maybe you're just a kid, fresh off the farm, looking for work.
Maybe you're a professor who's been dabbling in esoterica your entire life.
Maybe you're a daredevil, a thrill-seeker who picked up the wrong book.
Maybe you're a society dame, bored of the party life, looking for something real.
Maybe you're a soldier back from the War, disgruntled by authority, seeking a higher power.
Maybe you're a clergyman, convinced of great evils, and vowed to overcome them.
Either way, you're about to face it--the unknowable truth that lies out there--even if it drives you mad!
July 1 2015
Here's a heads-up on what I'm thinking about the Lovecraft-inspired sessions:
For your character, pick an Occupation: Painter, etc. This will help determine the amount of income you can make.
Characters may have to work to make money. A painter may have to spend time painting, a farmer might have to do chores for someone. This doesn't have to take much game time, but it's important if you expect to make any money, as chasing the supernatural rarely pays off financially. Each character can, once a session, describe what they're going to do for money. If they use a skill, they roll their Skill die x10 (bonus rolls and critical failures apply). This is a great way to get into your character. For example, if you are a painter and you're investigating a seaside village, maybe you make character portraits of tourists when you're not spelunking.
Remember you can select a Knowledge of your choosing just like a Skill, e.g.:
- Occult (magic, etc.)
- Canonical History
- Culture (Specific)
- Archaeology
No "permanent" Extras. I'd like to avoid large parties. All Extras controlled by GM.
No bennies! A critical failure is a critical failure!
Characters cannot start out with magic, and can only gain it through very special encounters, if ever.
Goals...these give you experience points:
- Doing the mission
- Encountering whatever it is that you're on a quest for
- Understanding the nature of the encounter
For example, if you go on a mission to explore a haunted but never encounter the haunt, you only get one point XP. If you run into the haunt but don't research to find out what it likely is, you get 2 XP. If you find out what it is and its approximate origin, you get 3 XP.
Aug 13 2015
Played Faces in the Coal part 1
Dec 22 2015
Played Faces in the Coal part 2
Dec 23 2015
I think yesterday proved that having no bennies makes gameplay just a little more interesting! Remember that it's offset with the rule that you (and your foes) can only get 2 levels of damage per damage roll.
Iris' failed climb from the wolf wasn't very disastrous, but Aggie's fervent and failing praying and Raffy's un-masterful McGuyver maneuver added drama that would have just been taken away by a benny. Rolling two ones on a Joker is something I'd never considered before.
I'll get the writeup going here this morning...hope you had a good time!
- Download (PDF)Faces in the Coal - PlansThe GM plans for the initial session of the campaign.
- Download (PDF)Faces in the Coal - WriteupThe writeup of RGS' playthrough.
- Download (PDF)Origin of Species - PlansThe plans for the second session.