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Play Report for Urban Shadows: High Society Parts 1 thru 4

Play Report for Urban Shadows: High Society Parts 1 thru 4

Our Cast

Ariana Ramos as Natalie the Wolf

Aaron Merhoff as Ron the Tainted

Andy Hauge as Anthony the Aware

Beth Mitchell as Yuko the Oracle

solange simondsen as Galina the Hunter

Once upon a time there was a small hole that linked our world and the world of beings known as the Fae. Some of these Fae found their way across and discovered they were in a magical land along a western ocean. Into this land they infused their temptations, and from across the land mortals trekked to seek fame and fortune in this place. Missionaries briefly glimpsed these Fae creatures and mistakenly thought them to be angels thus they named this place Los Angeles.

Natalie is the leader of an urban pack with Inglewood as her territory, her rival/ally Castor rules the pack to the north in South Central. Ron is a struggling middle aged actor who made a deal with the devil for fame and fortune and ended up cursing his daughter Bella to a life plagued with angry spirits haunting her for his sins. Anthony is a rising star in screenwriting who has had the doors of perception opened for him after glimpsing elements of the supernatural on the set of his series Werewolves in Paris. Yuko has made her fortune on informing the Hollywood elite about which paths they should take and she has made it this long by being pragmatic and picking her battles carefully. Galina was a young immigrant lured into the world of adult films and subsequently substance abuse, saved by a veteran hunter who trained her to be tougher than she ever imagined.

These characters’ lives seemed to revolve around the presence of an artifact acquired by the Power faction but coveted by the Wild faction. It was discovered that coterie of celeb vampires indulging in their assorted vices was being recruited by demons to aid in the acquisition of the item. Even Anthony was tagged as being so insignificant that he would be unnoticed taking the item. He was offered a multi-picture deal by a hallucinatory Fae studio executive that only appeared when Anthony partook in a narcotic produced by mages.Anthony refused the deal as a result of being jerked around by the supernatural a little too much (attacked by mafioso mages, sex with a werewolf, tossed through the wall of an apartment by another mage). The Fae subsequently burnt down Anthony’s apartment complex, all his scripts and back ups destroyed, in an effort to get their message across.

Galina was hired by Yuko to track and stop the Vamp Pack, the aforementioned hedonistic celebs, who were trying to stop Yuko from outing them and ruining their careers. Galina staked out their Hollywood Hills den and got help from a pursuing Renfield-types from a vampiric plastic surgeon and her thrall Ron the Tainted. Ron and Galina’s paths crossed again when they ended up at a beach party in Venice. Alexis, Galina’s mentor, claimed to be staking out a demon possession and ended up killing Ron’s daughter Bella. This manifested a nearby demon and Ron popped up to see who hurt his little girl. Galina ended up killing her mentor to gain enough corruption of her soul to slaughter the demon and ended up Ron’s patron. Bella was resurrected and she followed Ron and Galina out only to end up in the clutches of the rest of Galina’s hunting clan who suspected Galina had betrayed Alexis.

Natalie the Wolf had Castor call in a favor to have her house a van containing a strange artifact he had helped the Fae hijack from the Mages. Natalie agreed but only ended up having a mage call in a debt to have her lure Castor over and get killed. The Mage took the artifact back and Castor’s pack started a gang war with Natalie’s group. The Mage returned and offered his people’s help if Natalie would pledge her pack to work security at a special event that night. Natalie agreed.

Ron and Galina convinced their captors to work with them to stop the vampires before settling their grudge, but not before Bella was injured and Ron asked Natalie to help his daughter. Natalie pawned the girl off on two of her soldiers who were attacked by mages who took Bella to their mob boss, The Little Mage. Ron, Galina, Yuko, and the angry hunters took on the vampire pack only to find out one of the hunters was in league with the vamps. They barely survived and returned to Yuko’s shack only to find Anthony had been their and drugged out of his mind. With these four players together they compared notes and realized what was going on:

The Fae were working to open the rift between this world and their own so that they could swarm into Los Angeles and feed on all the wild emotions, the low lows and the high highs, whether natural or drug induced. The Mages had acquired an artifact that would allow them to seal the rift for a 1,000 years but were going to need a mortal conduit that had been touched by the supernatural…poor poor Bella. These fours arrived at different times to the grand gala held in a converted warehouse. Ron tried to bum rush the party only to be subdued by wizened mages who shackled him in cold iron and made him a point of mockery for the party. Natalie hung back trying to make sure her people were protected. Even Yuko, seeing Ron, knew it was in her best interest to pretend they had no connection. Anthony and Galina arrived with a forged invitation and Anthony spied the mage who has given him a savage beating a day earlier. He opened fire sending the proceedings into chaos.

In the confusion, Yuko quickly released Ron who followed after The Little Mage, Bella, and a Golem Guardian who rushed away to avoid any further trouble. Galina intercepted Ron and managed to create confusion by claiming the artifact had been tainted while in the Fae’s possession. Surprisingly, her lie turned out to be true when the Little Mage had his scholars examine it. Ron tried to go for Bella, but Galina held him back and Ron had to watch as his daughter was taken away in the custody of the Mages. Galina falsely gave Yuko the credit for discover the taint in the artifact and The Little Mage extended a place in the Inner Circle to the oracle who accepted so that she would be close to the most vital information in her community.

Natalie tried to save Anthony by pretending that she was going to take him out back to execute him but the Mages saw through this and took them both out to the loading dock to be killed. Before the wizards could kill them a figure moving at great speed slaughtered the three magic wielders. Natalie saw this was the believed dead Castor, who died as a result of her betrayal, in all out wolf form. Upon closer examination she saw he was a reanimated werewolf corpse who informed her, “Your Abuela has words for you!”

And that is where we left our characters. At the start of November, we’ll return to them some time later in another 4 part story that will find Yuko taking part in the major decisions of the Inner Circle of Power, Natalie having to face her ancient and grand wolf alpha grandmother, Galina dealing with instability in t

Play Report for Monsterhearts: Distortion Parts 1 through 4.

Play Report for Monsterhearts: Distortion Parts 1 through 4.

All the trouble in Panhandle, USA began with the death of a young man, Grant. He was hit by a car while chasing after his girlfriend, Luna the Calaca. At the funeral tensions were high and Anastasia the Ice Queen watched from a distance before heading home. On her doorstep she found a video cassette that contained footage of Grant’s death as filmed by a figure in the bushes by the side of the road. Ana was naturally disturbed by this and sought out Luna.

Luna was spending time with her friend Delia at the local Applebee’s, while at a nearby booth Cassi the Queen held court with Aster the Minotaur and Hugh the Mortal in tow. Hugh was dating Madison, one of Cassi’s clique but pined for Aster secretly. Cassi lorded her position over the group’s poor put upon waiter, AJ. Luna was reaching out to the abyss at one moment and spied images of AJ practice voodoo as a result of years of bullying at Cassi’s hands but was called away by Ana. After her departure, Madison excused herself to the bathroom where she was brutally murdered by an unseen figure using garrote.

Ana shared the video with Luna and the two realized they needed to do further investigation. Ana was on her way to spend the night at Luna’s house when they encountered Ana’s creepy father who made a sexual pass at Luna. The next morning the two girls attended Luna’s church in the hopes of coercing Luna’s abuela into giving them access to the home of Ryan, the young man who staged the party where Grant was murdered. Aster was at home dealing with ongoing abuse from her stepfather Manny and fled to her secret hideaway in a crypt at the cemetery. Hugh followed her there and they gave in to their passions, convenient now that Madison was dead. This awakened something in Aster and she charged home and began to brutalize her stepfather almost to the point of death before Hugh talked sense into her. Back at the church, Ana lost control of her Ice Queen powers and Luna’s grandmother began to freeze internally and had to be rushed away.

Out of guilt, Ana fled to the cemetery where she witnessed AJ exhuming Grant’s corpse and then Aster and Hugh bringing the dying Manny to be hid away in the crypt. Ana pressured Aster into aiding her investigation over Grant’s murder and Hugh didn’t seem to like this. The lovers had a tiff and Hugh stormed off threatening to tell the authorities about what Aster did. Aster, Ana, and Luna all joined up and headed to Ryan’s house to question him about the party. They encountered Cassi and Aster turned coward seeing her leader, stating that Ana and Luna were responsible for some missing drugs. Ana and Luna forced Cassi to back down and cut ties with Aster.

Gazing into the abyss, Luna saw an evil had emerged from the lake behind Cassi and Ryan’s homes, a black oily sludgy thing. Ana saw a terrible vision of her own, a fellow classmate entering Ryan’s home and being bludgeoned to death by a skulking figure that retreated into the cavernous home. The girls decided to call the authorities and Detective Jones, AJ’s father showed up and entered the home. Meanwhile, Aster sought her own guidance from the darkness and a voice from the ether led her to AJ’s home on the literal wrong side of the tracks. After muscling past AJ’s demented grandmere, Aster ends up in the dank basement where Grant is lying on a slab. AJ emerges with a large blade ready for some grisly act and ends up fighting Aster. AJ is battered and beaten and Aster removes his reproductive parts before finishing him off. Now she sets it in her sights to kill Hugh as she continues down this terrible path.

Ana and Luna hear gunshots inside Ryan’s house and Detective Jones emerges with a bullet wound in his gut. Ana takes him to safety outside and Luna ascends the stairs to check on Ryan. She finds Ryan also shot who is able to tell her that the Detective had been keeping him imprisoned and shot himself to look like he’d been legitimately hurt. Detective Jones turns on Ana who hits him with some of her ice powers and he backs off, retreating to his car and pulling away. Ana and Luna come back together and think they should call the police again to report what happened. Before, they can communicate fully to the 911 operator she says she’ll send Jones who is in the area. He reappears and wounds Luna in the back. Ana snaps and uses her ice golem to overturn Jones’ car. The weather in Panhandle begins to grow cloudy and light snow begins falling as Ana takes Luna and Ryan to the hospital.

Across town, Aster encountered Cassi again and showed she was no longer following orders. Madison was injured and Cassi fled. Aster went from being the muscle to giving orders and recruited some recently arrested fellow members of the high school wrestling team. A standoff with Cassi occurred at a gas station and Aster was shot and detained. Due to being a Calaca, Luna was declared dead even though she was simply unconscious and place in the hospital morgue. She got out and the hospital staff thought this had been a major error on their part. Luna managed to slip away but was quickly followed by AJ who was reanimated by the strange black oil that Ana glimpsed was a part of what was torturing Ryan. Luna and Ana were reunited and began searching the hospital for AJ, who Ana glimpsed was wandering the halls now. AJ finds his way to the recovery room where Luna’s grandmother was with Luna’s father and mother. The audience doesn’t see what happens until Luna arrives at the room and finds them slaughtered while AJ attempts to escape the hospital. Ana heads him off and she ends up tearing apart his torso while Luna douses him with gasoline from a nearby station and they ignite the villain. They embrace as the fire rages.

Our final scene finds Aster restrained in her hospital bed by the police and gazing into the abyss over her lost lover Hugh. She sees he is in the police station having ratted on her when the near dead Detective Jones shows up, kills the officer watching over Hugh, infects Hugh with a familiar black oil, and subsequently kills himself. Hugh simply grins, lips stained with the black slime. Aster is visited in her room by the now recovered Manny, her step-father. You see, Aster is so formidable because her step-father was testing his company’s human growth hormone on her for years. He tells her he will get revenge for the savage beating she gave him by locking her up in a deep dark hole and dissecting her slowly over the next few years. Aster uses her last ounce of strength to strangle herself with the restraints and passes away, depriving her cruel step-father of his sick revenge and torture.

We’ll return to Panhandle in late November with a 4 parter entitled The Manic Kingdom centered around a nearby theme park with lots of dark secrets.

I’m running the game Andy Hauge is in.

I’m running the game Andy Hauge is in. We had some great moments last night. My favorite was the end of the session when Galina the Hunter and her mentor Alexis tracked down rumors of a demon possession to a beach house in Venice. Alexis was making vague accusations towards Galina the whole time, implying disloyalty to their hunting party. When they arrived at the house a party was going on which left Galina a bit confused about what was going on.

Alexis led her upstairs where they found Bella, the ghost-tormented twenty-something daughter of Ron the Tainted. Without hesitation, Alexis fired and struck Bella in the head killing her. This triggered the appearance of a demon Galina had a run in with earlier who subsequently broke her arm and set his sights on Alexis. Sensing his daughter in trouble, Ron the Tainted appeared in full demon form and crushed in Alexis skull to get at a protection amulet she wore with the hopes of aiding Bella. It didn’t work and Ron has to pledge himself to the demon to ensure Bella’s survival.

Galina sized up the Nameless Demon and realized that he would be vulnerable if she committed an act of corruption. As a hunter, her corruption move was to kill a mortal while in pursuit of a supernatural being. She eyed her mentor Alexis and made the decision to finish her off. For that brief moment she was infused with enough corruption to grab the Nameless Demon by the horns and snap its neck. In that instant, the Demon’s hold on Ron transferred to Galina. Now she is a hunter with a demon at her command. And that’s how the session wrapped up.

Just kicked off a new four part campaign last night.

Just kicked off a new four part campaign last night. Our setting is Los Angeles and I’m going to try to play with the economic class distinctions between characters. In our game we have:

Galina the Hunter (East. European who came over 25 years ago to be a star, was pulled into the world of prostitution and porn, her mentor Alexis got her out of it by training her to be a hunter).

Natalie the Wolf (Member of a gang/pack in Inglewood, fighting against the spreading gentrification around her territory, particularly by ambitious Fae).

Anthony the Aware (An ambitious young writer, pens scripts for the teen drama Werewolves in Paris. He has a penchant for getting those around him into trouble with the motivation of becoming wealthy one day. Is seeing how in control supernatural elements are in the City of Angels).

Yuko the Oracle (An elderly Japanese woman of undetermined age. She helps the rich and famous foretell their futures for a price while pursuing more noble goals. She has recently learned of a group of closeted vampires in the industry, The Vamp Pack, and they want her dead for discovering their secret).

Ron the Tainted (An actor who decided to go the extra mile for a role and ended up in the thrall of a demon who sold Ron’s contract to a devious plastic surgeon. Now Ron has to work for said surgeon while defending his daughter from the souls of the demon’s previous victims).

Lots of potential plot threads already floating around in this game. Very excited to see where things go.

Which system/hack do you recommend if I was wanting to run something with a lot of modern conspiracy plots/creeping…

Which system/hack do you recommend if I was wanting to run something with a lot of modern conspiracy plots/creeping horror/violence? I was contemplating using tremulus, have had mixed feelings about it in the past, and wanted to see what the community’s thoughts were.

So our attempt to run this tonight went bust, only ended up with two PCs that could play.

So our attempt to run this tonight went bust, only ended up with two PCs that could play. Are trying for Friday, September 19th and looking for 1-2 more players who could do four consecutive Fridays for this game. Going to push aside the classroom set up for something a little more provocative.

Originally shared by Seth Harris

Four consecutive Fridays. A story of adolescent horror in the digital age. More to come on playbook options after I read through the latest Second Skins additions.

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Wrapped up our three part Urban Shadows game set in Boston.

Wrapped up our three part Urban Shadows game set in Boston. I was able to take all the disparate elements introduced by the players over the first two sessions and actually break down a plot that tied everything together. The big showdown occurred at the run down night club The Full House where an Egyptian sorcerer-turned Lich had been devouring the souls of his descendants for centuries in an attempt to become permanently corporeal. He amassed a following from the Night faction to aid him.

Our Aware (a police detective) had teamed with a Hunter to solve the murders of residents in Beacon Hill with no visible signs of foul play. He run afoul of the Mages’ Cabal based in the neighborhood and our Wizard was pressured to encourage them off the case. The Wizard ended up in an avalanche of debt to our florist Fae who used her pull in the Boston PD to pressure the Aware. The Aware was a bulldog and wouldn’t let off though.

Our Specter was framed for murder during the 1883 World’s Fair in Boston but only had fragments of memory. He felt drawn to a young woman in the present day named Amy but didn’t know why. Our Fae ended up at The Full House to hunt down a victim tied to a business deal and ended up in the clutches of the Lich. He vowed he would owe her a debt if she would slit the throat of Amy, who he had abducted. She did and the Lich became a completely physical being. The Fae spent her debt to get released from the club without hassle.

The Wizard, Hunter, Aware, and Specter showed up at this point to solve the murders and ended up in a battle with the Lich’s assembled Night forces. The Specter was able to forcibly seize the Lich and with the Wizard’s Elemental magics they destroyed him and released Amy’s spirit. The Specter learned he had been an inventor and created a device that drew on a rare wavelength of energy. He inadvertently released the Lich from limbo and creature began its killing spree. The murders led authorities to the Specter’s lab, he was quickly convicted based on circumstantial evidence and electrocuted. He also saw the Fae was the one who spilled Amy’s blood.

Our characters had small epilogues and we ended with The Specter seeking out the Fae one dark night. He began to haunt her but she tricked him into completely manifesting and locked him in a hothouse while she escaped for parts unknown.

It was a great mini-campaign and I look forward to revisiting the system again soon. I think next up on my plate is a small Monsterhearts campaign that will let the players age their characters 10 years forward for a follow up Urban Shadows game.

We ran our first of three sessions last night.

We ran our first of three sessions last night. Here are some of the details and my thoughts. The game is set in Boston at the suggestion of a small rpg community I moderate.

Our PCs are composed of:

** Heru, an Egyptian Wizard and professor of Religious Studies at Boston College.

** Gus, a Specter killed at the 1883 World’s Fair in Boston and who is now drawn a mysterious woman named Amy.

** Jessica, a young Hunter originally from New Orleans who hunts vodoun created zombies and their sorcerous masters.

** Audrey, a Fae and proprietress of a flower shop specializing in rare breeds which are used in occult practices.

** Lt. Danny O’Mara, an Aware police officer who is working with Jessica is investigate a series of murders in the Beacon Hill district.

Some of the things we learned about the world through play:

** Audrey had taken a body for Edmond, an Immortal member of the Power faction, and let her flesh eating scarabs devour it.

** Audrey depended on Heru to use his credentials as an academician to order more of the illegal flesh eating scarabs, but he failed and owed her.

** Heru is being hounded by a cult based around the worship of Set. They want to gain legitimacy for their beliefs and need something Heru is in possession of.

** Gus is haunting Jessica. The Huntress defeated a mage who possessed a small black obelisk that once belonged to Gus and his spirit came with it.

** Gus hangs around Fenway Park at night and witness a strange rift attempt to reach out and take the soul of a janitor.

** Lt. O’Mara is confounded by a rash of murders with bodies that have no obvious signs of murder and victims with no medical history of fatal conditions. They are being found in the Beacon Hill area which leads him into conflict with the Mages’ Cabal.

** Boston is most definitely run by the Power faction. In the wake of the Salem Witch Trials, instead of fleeing the magic users made a mass exodus to reclaim the region in their name.

I’m enjoying the system so far, though most of the first session was understandably building these characters and the initial facts of the world. I’m looking forward to really exploring the Faction and Debt aspects of the game even further in our next session.

Kicking off a 3 part campaign in about 4 hours.

Kicking off a 3 part campaign in about 4 hours. Any last minute pointers or tips? Things I need to keep in mind? I’ve run *World games before but am looking for what specific about this system that will make it run beautifully.

Finished up a four part campaign in James Mullen’s The Hood.

Originally shared by Seth Harris

Finished up a four part campaign in James Mullen’s The Hood. I came in with very moderate expectations but ended up falling in love with this variation on the *World system.

In the game I was running we had The Neighbor, The Blur, The Schemer, and The Mover. Our first session established the streets and important locations in the neighborhood. We had some interesting conflicts off the bat and players really took to dealing with the problems around them.

I found the basic moves intriguing as even on a 10+ there is still a choice that must always be made that is detrimental. To me, that simulates characters who have become embroiled with crime. You may succeed in knocking out your rival on the block and making sure he never threatens you again, but you can draw unwanted attention to yourself or waste your day dealing with him or need to enlist a buddy to help who you now owe.

We had a PC’s sister kidnapped by angered organized crime thugs, a priest defrocked and replaced with PCs posing as clergy, a scheme to collect money under the auspices of a fund for a fallen police officer, forging papers to set up an elderly neighbor as suffering from dementia, framing a local thug for murder, and more. If you feel like your group would enjoy playing something in the vein of The Wire or The Shield this is a perfect fit. It takes the saying “crime doesn’t pay” to heart.