So, what threats, storms, and countdown clocks have you folks used?

So, what threats, storms, and countdown clocks have you folks used?

So, what threats, storms, and countdown clocks have you folks used? And how far into the countdown clock did things get before the PCs stopped the clock?

3 thoughts on “So, what threats, storms, and countdown clocks have you folks used?”

  1. If you’re one of my players, don’t read this. 😛

    Our game’s based in Boston. We’re 9 sessions in now, so I’m getting a little confused about what storms should look like. When we started, though, our threats (in a single storm that I suppose may have had the theme “community”) included…

    The Cursed Rosary. Ritual: theft. Cast included Caacrinolaas (the Tainted’s patron), Abe’s Angels (a rival demon gang), and the Chancellor of the Sundered College (the local wizard council). Generated from a PC’s first-session, starting-move rumor that there was a dangerous new artifact in town. Carved from the bones of the sheep the demon Legion was cast into, it can be used in reverse-exorcism rituals, calling human spirits toward it. Caacrinolaas sneakily got some local demon NPCs to think they stole it to help with soul-claiming efforts, knowing practically everybody in the city would want their hands on it – and that the local artifact hunter (the Wizard PC who suggested the rumor) would stop at nothing to get it. The ritual required the thing to be placed right next to the open portal to Sheol in the Wizard’s sanctum. It worked.

    ① Chancellor falls into coma trying to defuse ritual

    ② Chancellor’s assistant loses his soul, turns violent

    ③ Assistant’s soul seen wandering streets

    ④ Chancellor dies, stops containing ritual

    ⑤ If rosary is near portal, souls begin leaving Sheol

    ⑥ Caacrinolaas claims newly emptied Sheol for his kingdom

    The Sundered College. Power play: coup. Cast included a wizard nicknamed Prospero (leader of the Fraternity, a faction within the College), and some other members of the College. The College has long been a member of the Triumvirate, one of the three governing bodies of the worldwide wizarding organization known as the High Council of Elders. The sudden disappearance of the Chancellor (see above) caused some alarm, and a wealthy upstart decided to mobilize. We got to step 4 before the PCs shut it down, but by then (as per the rules) there was irrevocable change: The Tainted killed Propsero in a duel, leaving The Oracle as the new interim chancellor, with the College still technically on the Triumvirate but in effectively in shambles.

    ① Council expresses concern over College’s position

    ② Prospero declares self interim chancellor

    ③ Prospero calls for vote to dissolve College

    ④ Dissenters challenge Prospero to duels, as is custom

    ⑤ Triumvirate quells dissent, welcomes Fraternity

    ⑥ Prospero is Archmagus, self-styled “godfather” in Power

    The Pack. Passion: love. Cast includes Rico, Sheba, other werewolves. Adapted from an example in the book. Rico wants the pack to protect the innocents of the community, and only allow “victimless” crimes – no weapons deals, no dealing drugs to kids, but underground fight clubs and dealing to adults are kosher. He wants to expand so they can bring even more of the city into their community, and is even inviting people into the pack he thinks would be a good fit, offering to turn them to werewolves. He ends up attracting too many new members, though, including a violent contender for alpha. This threat’s still live, but at step 4.

    ① Rico invites movers and shakers to join his pack

    ② Drug dealers who break Rico’s rules found mauled

    ③ Pack takes Roslindale with Sheba’s help

    ④ Pack takes JP from vampires and demons in bloody battle

    ⑤ Attacks on innocents as pack grows unruly

    ⑥ Sheba takes over as alpha of the pack

    The Bloodsuckers. Revolution: strike. Cast includes Zheng, vampires, and nonhuman magic users invited to join him. Zheng, the longtime leader of Chinatown’s vampires, has his eyes on a bigger prize. Tired of being looked at as a minor player in supernatural politics, he’s been funneling his criminal enterprise’s earnings into amassing a collection of artifacts, quietly setting up local authorities to be turned (both figuratively and literally), and getting ready to unveil a new organization: The Conclave of Ancients, an alliance of magic-using nonhumans. We’re at step 4 and it’s unclear how the PCs will deal with this – the Tainted has been invited to join Zheng’s outfit, and also ordered by her patron to rob from Zheng to pretty much deliberately start a war.

    ① Rumors of cops on the take aiding vampire smuggling

    ② Zheng resurrects vampires with the Bloodstained Chalice

    ③ Zheng recruits Caacrinolaas’ enemies (changed during play to keep up with events)

    ④ Conclave of Ancients announced, Council nonhumans invited

    ⑤ Cops & politicians who don’t kneel are forcibly turned

    ⑥ Conclave comes to control city government and artifact trade

    The Faerie Courts. Revolution: revolt. Cast includes faerie monarchs and their subjects. The Daoine Sith, newcomers to the city, resent the Winter Court for continuing the outdated tradition of paying a tithe to Hell (in this case, a literal 10% of criminal earnings to Abe’s Angels, a demon biker gang). They try to frame the Winter Court for attacking other factions. This backfires horribly. The PCs found out what was going on, told all the local factions, and enlisted the College’s help to keep mundanes away while the Sith were ambushed and butchered by their enemies.

    ① A Winter & a Mafioso found dead – by each other’s hand?

    ② Winter & a demon found dead, same deal

    ③ Sith approach Pack, Bloodsuckers, PCs for allegiance

    ④ Truth is revealed when a victim escapes an ambush

    ⑤ Winter & allies assault the Sith’s local headquarters

    ⑥ Remainder of the Sith, including queen, slaughtered

    The Gold Line. Territory: surge. Cast includes mafia and the wizards who run the Gold Line. Adapted from the book. The Gold Line is a subway line that can get you anywhere in the city – and is the only way to reach the campus of the Sundered College in its pocket dimension. Strange phenomena start happening after the city unexpectedly finds the funding (thanks to the mafia) to continue its Green Line extension. Turns out Power actively fought that extension because the subway system is set up to funnel energy from ley lines to the College, and messing with that system would cause a magical backlash. The mob has been led to believe that this will create a magical dead zone downtown, but the truth is far worse.

    ① Work unexpectedly resumes on Green Line extension

    ② Strange visions reported around the T

    ③ Newspapers start looking into T phenomena

    ④ Subway cars go missing; magic effects are wild along T lines

    ⑤ Effects reach aboveground – buildings change, disappear

    ⑥ Magical explosion, killing many and weakening barrier between realities

    I often wonder if I’m doing storms wrong because I don’t really get how you do two or more at once, and the “theme” behind storms (family, community, fealty, etc.) feels very loosey-goosey to me. I mean, I can pick one for mine, but it feels like picking one just for the sake of picking one, not because I know what to do with it.

    Very curious to hear what others have been doing (though I suspect sane people can keep it briefer than I just did)!

  2. Thanks! This is very helpful. I’ve only played at conventions and never run the game. I will probably run it at AnonyCon, as I have 4 players signed up, as opposed to last year, when I had 2, and I’m guessing an emergency came up, as neither made the convention, far as I can tell.

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