Hey everyone,
I have a question on how to accomplish something that is happening but can’t be stopped by the hunters. To give some backstory.
I’m trying to create a mystery to run with my wife and friends. The idea was of a ghost story where the ghost is trying to complete a ritual to permanently possess the body of a little boy. I want to build the tension by isolating the hunters from the rest of the world by having a winter storm build in intensity around them (think the movie The Shining for inspiration).
My first thought was to include in the countdown the storm growing in intensity. However my concerns with that is that the countdown may not happen due to hunter involvement. I then thought of creating a special move that I could invoke but am not really sure on how to set that up. Since it’s not really sure how to space out the invoking of the move. Or how would that get triggered.
Does any other GMs have any ideas on how they would accomplish this idea? Or if I missed something in the book that can help, can you point me to it?
Thanks. 😀
I’d suggest you make some custom moves for these effects, e.g.
1. Fog rolls in.
2. It starts snowing.
3. You can no longer communicate with the rest of the world.
4. You can no longer get out of the area… walking into the fog you just get turned around and back where you started.
5. Etc
Then you can use these custom moves whenever seems appropriate, using the regular Keeper advice on making moves (i.e. in response to hunter actions or fictional events).
Michael Sands thanks for the input. That makes sense. Breaking down how the storm increases in intensity as separate moves that I invoke where appropriate.
Can’t wait to finish up this mystery and get it to to the table. I’ll try to link the mystery up here once I get it fleshed out completely.
That’s more or less how I rep the storm in one of my Fate Accelerated scenarios. I built them as a series of threats with skills and such ranging from driving rain which was good at concealing sounds and sights to a tornado. Used stress boxes as a marker of how many exchanges that environment feature would last over.
Good advice here, based on the idea that the building intensity of the storm is a background event that lets you manage the tone separately from the hunt.
Another way to think of it might be how and why a Monster might be actively pushing the storm in intensity. Making the storm a supernatural manifestation of the ghost’s ritual might provide interesting options.
From the hip: the ghost died in a blizzard in this area long ago, trapped with their son, who they helpless watched freeze to death before the cold took them, too. Now the ghost is awake, and upon seeing this little boy, the ghost’s own fear is causing the storm to manifest, and driving the ghost insane with the desire to protect the boy by possessing him and getting to safety.
Or, if the ghost is already developed as purely malevolent, perhaps the boy has some reason to be afraid of storms – he saw a scary movie last week; or there was a bad storm last year that knocked out the power. For whatever reason, the kid is scared of the dark, the cold, the howling winds; and the ghost is using the kid’s own phobia to cause terror and make the kid susceptible to the possession, by hitting the whole area with a storm.
If the storm is important to the Mystery, consider making it something the Players can engage, rather than something that simply happens to them. Write some custom moves, work it into the countdown as you initially though, and prepare some basic responses to Investigate a Mystery that will help the players flesh out the connection between the storm and the ghost during play.
This could provide them ways to struggle against the storm, instead of simply surrendering to it.
Luke Green Andrew Fish Both great ideas. I plan on spending this weekend fleshing out how the storm will really play out. This absolutely gives me plenty of good ideas on what to do. Thanks again for all the help. 🙂