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Wednesday, November 11

Chapter 48: Landscrapes - Introduction

This story hour is a combination of the scenario from “A Night on Owlshead Mountain” from Arc Dream's Delta Green: Eyes Only by Dennis Detwiller, At Your Door, and The Killing Jar by Bruce Cordell for the Dark*Matter campaign. You can read more about Delta Green at http://www.delta-green.com. Please note: This story hour contains spoilers!

Our cast of characters includes:

• Game Master: Michael Tresca (http://michael.tresca.net)
• Jim “Jim-Bean” Baxter (Charismatic Hero) played by Jeremy Ortiz (http://jeremyrobertortiz.blogspot.com)
• Kurtis “Hammer” Grange (Fast/Dedicated Hero/Gunslinger) played by George Webster

At Your Door gets a lot of flak for being goofy, but Landscrapes is singled out as being superior. The irony is that the agents, upon arriving at the farm at night, refused to enter because "that's when all the bad things happen." Of course, that wasn't the case at all.

I combined this scenario with the Tiger Transit's background, which provided a perfect backdrop for "showing, not telling" the dark history of Dawn Biozyme and Fumo Loco. The last part of this scenario is from The Killing Jar, which takes place in a series of winding cavern passages and ultimately a Mothman base.

Both the Landscrapes and Killing Jar scenarios provide a great setting for conflict but little guidance on how to create narrative tension. In the case of Landscrapes, I created a scene, triggering the intoxicating scent of Fumo Loco with the Gelid-Creature's attack. The Killing Jar, on the other hand, had a series of dangerous environments without an accompanying stress point like an attack. So Agent Balance and friends showed up at the worst time.

Still, the Fumo Loco incident played out more effectively than the underground scene. And the ending? The ending worked out far better than I could have hoped.

Defining Moment: Brain Jar + Elder Sign = a showdown the agents will never forget. more

Labels: d20 modern

posted by Mike Tresca at 8:33 AM

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