The Haunted Case of Eleonore Zugan by Marek Golonka (Grade: C)
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/221110/The-Haunted-Case-of-Eleonore-Zugun
Blood in Budapest by Marek Golonka (Grade: C)
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/232925/Blood-in-Budapest
I wanted to like these mysteries much more than I did. They deserve praise for professionalism in the face of almost no published examples to draw from and an outside author bravely entering a foreign language market. I was advanced free copies for review with no strings attached. The author solicited feedback from both Michael Sands and the Dungeon World Tavern community. All of this should be applauded.
The mysteries are not horrible, I have written far worse. However, I did not expand any of my fan mysteries to thirty pages and then charge a reasonable fee. I am now convinced this idea itself was a mistake. Most Monster of the Week mysteries are simply not strong enough in my opinion to alter the standard mystery format and support a full thirty page treatment. Say ten mysteries in the standard format with some sort of unifying theme would have been far better. An exploration of the Monsters and Legends native to Eastern Europe with a unique Campaign Arc I might have found promising and compelling.
While the Eleonore Zugan module is something like the Eastern European version of the infamous American “Bell Witch” case; neither historical events to my mind dramatized present mysteries ideally suited to the Monster of the Week role playing game.
The Blood in Budapest presents Hungarian vampires. Why Hungarian and not Romanian or Serbian in following with the actual history of vampire mythology? Budapest is a lovely city but then so is Toronto and I find the idea of extremely polite Canadian vampires far more amusing.
I think Marek Golonka is a promising author who I hope will soon present us with Role Playing adventures that are exceptional as opposed to merely routine.I wanted to like these mysteries much more than I did.
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/232925/Blood-in-Budapest
Thanks a lot for your review! I understand your viewpoint, I must admit that “can something for a single MotW session be so large” was one of my main points of doubt when writing these mysteries. I tried to write them so that the situation presented on those 20+ pages will be deeper but not heavier than in typical few-pages format and I see that in your opinion I didn’t succeed – sorry to hear that but good to know your opinion!
Do you think that the idea of writing anything that long as a session setup for MotW (or PbtA games as a whole) is a failed idea by itself or that I simply took a wrong approach? And, if I might ask, is Blood in Budapest in any way better for you than The Haunted Case? I tried to make it much more actionable, with less fluff and more ideas that directly translate to the quality of the session (custom move lists etc.).
As for the topics of the mysteries – I think Eleonore’s story as I presented it is good for PbtA games because it allows a total freedom of approaching the case while also having a good pacing thanks to the poltergeist haunting the hunters. Over many playtests it almost always turned out both non-linear and dramatic, a good mix for a session.
And as for the vampires, I didn’t aim for an “ethnic” story about the Central European origin of vampires. I wanted to write a background text about the Buda castle dungeon being a prison for historical Vlad the Impaler and how it might connect with vampiric spells cast over the city in the mystery but I found out the mystery doesn’t really need it. I choose Budapest mostly for it dual nature – I needed a city split into two distinct halves for the story – and simply because it’s much easier and more interesting to set RPGs in places you know personally. It was also a mild nostalgia case – I rarely see RPGs set in the part of the world I’m from and I wanted to change it somehow.
So, thanks a lot again for you review and I hope you’ll like my other materials more 🙂
And, by the way, I already plan one publication in the short mystery collection format you’re proposing – an arc happening in Poland with a few mysteries 2-4 pages long each.
Marek Golonka You are very kind to be so understanding about a less than overwhelmingly favorable review. I do worry I was too harsh. I also did not play test with a group; so the mysteries may play much better than I imagined. I can imagine a 30+ page adventure working, but not as a standard mystery. A good example would be the Torso murder case adaption from Trail of Cthulhu I posted recently as it required a lot of background. Even then I imagine two 15 page mysteries would work better for this type of thing.
If I had played the Eleonore game it might have run much better than I imagined.I rarely use a “poltergeist” or “ghost” monster because for me it seldom works well. This may be a personal fault or illustrate a lack of my own imagination.I almost always have a likable ghost that was murdered.The “devil” like poltergeist would also not work well for me; I still live in an area where some people still think RPG players do worship the devil :(! As a result I avoid such mysteries and ask my players to imagine they are in a “movie”.I do think the case was very interesting as a historical matter.
I do feel that the Vampire mystery would play better with groups I know. I did want less generic vampires and the vampires do not seem “native” to Hungary to me. I do think it worked better as a ” MotW RPG mystery” but also seemed less interesting or unique. When you write something that has both qualities I believe you will accomplish something really special.
Your talent is not in doubt; you just need to find the proper format for proper adventure writing in this game system. I’m trying to find my way there myself.
Mark Tygart Your review might be unvaforable but it’s also constructive and polite 🙂 The only thing I regret is that you had no chance to actually playtest because I put a lot of effort to make these two mysteries Keeper-friendly and I hope a playtest might alter your judgement.
I’ve just found your Torso material and I’ll read it soon.
As for Eleonore – I see the problems with a poltergeist as a monster but I also see great potential and I hope my advice in the mystery is enough to avoid the biggest pitfalls. And I think MotW is great for poltergeist cases thanks to harm moves – flying objects can do much more interesting stuff than just causing damage and hunters are in real risk of fainting, dropping something important etc.
In Poland the panic about RPG being “satanic” or something probably never was as strong as in the US and even when it surfaced it was mostly connected with WoD and not RPGs as a whole. Do you think that a lot of gamers share your reservation about using devils in their RPGs?
As for Budapest… you see, to me vampires are urban fantasy/horror stock characters and I think that they don’t need to be less generic in Budapest than they are in New York or Toronto. If I understand your words correctly you’d like vampire story set in Europe to somehow use the European legends about vampires – legends that are, indeed, more commonplace in Serbia or Romania than in Hungary.
But from my European perspective Budapest is a city just like those English and American cities where lots of generic vampire stories happen and there’s no need to stress their folklore origin when setting such a story in Europe. I wanted them to be interesting and challenging, but not necessary connected to any local folk legends.
“Your talent is not in doubt; you just need to find the proper format for proper adventure writing in this game system. I’m trying to find my way there myself.” Thank you very much for such kind words and good luck with your search! You’re totally right that my adventures need more experimenting, I hope you’ll like the upcoming ones much more.
Marek Golonka In general the US is a more religious society than Europe so I have to worry more about such “devil” issues possibly offending people…