My hunters and I are approaching the final mystery of an arc, and I’m having some trouble figuring out how to design it. The basic gist is that War, Pestilence, and Famine, (four horsemen of the apocalypse) have been sending monsters onto earth to hunt down and kill people. The one who kills the most gets to choose how the apocalypse arrives this time. The hunters have spent the last 3 mysteries hunting down each of their monsters.
I had a general idea that Death would need to perform some sort of ritual to “tally up the score,” before the apocalypse can actually take place. I didn’t have specific ideas, so I spoke with the hunters to discuss what they think would be an awesome last scenario. They came up with the idea of going into the underworld to try and stop whatever the ritual it is, either by freeing the captured souls or some other undetermined means.
Here’s where the questions come in. This seems like a fundamentally different plot than the normal mystery, as there isn’t specifically a monster to hunt down. I’m considering adopting the More Weirdness Phenomena rules for this mystery, but not sure where to go from there. It also has the hunters primarily in hostile territory, so I’m wondering if I should have some sort of stealth component / system to go along with it.
Do y’all have any thoughts/advice for how to set up a mystery like this? I’m happy to clarify anything I wasn’t specific enough about.
Fundamentally, the ritual has a lot of components that parallel monster design. You’re trying to track it down, you want to learn about its weakness (i.e. figure out how to disrupt it), and it has threats/moves associated with it. I would give it a “health track”, maybe call it a stability track or something, and when the Hunters do things that disrupt the ritual, mark off damage on the track.
Insofar as being in hostile territory, you don’t have to invent a special stealth mechanic/move for that, but do constantly bring that reality up. Ask players what they’re doing to not get identified right off the bat, ask how they’re blending in and passing themselves off as people who belong in the Underworld. Keep the threat of being unmasked as a potential hard move (and follow through if the occasion strikes).
Sounds like the end of Good Omens….why not homage? 🙂
Mark Tygart I’ve read Good Omens, but I didn’t realize that it was becoming similar!
Nathan Shields 🙂