New Beginnings: 1001 Interesting Nights

I am in the preliminary stages of our next Interesting Times arc, tentatively called 1001 Interesting Nights. The inspiration for this game draws heavily from the middle east. All of the 1001 Nights stories, historical figures like Saladin, and themes from the era are in play.

Since I'm so early in development for the story, I thought I'd share with everyone as things develop. Right now the campaign is in its earliest stage. As things develop I'll share them here.

To get everything started, I thought I'd share a short piece I wrote for the gaming group's Facebook page. This is a short explanation of the Medjai, which I'd like to use as a nascent version of the men in black, the government organizations in IT that deal with supernatural and extranormal threats to humanity.

1001 Interesting Nights – The Medjai:

Once the Medjai (Or Medjay) were the court guards of the pharaohs of Egypt. Drawn from the Nubian peoples of Egypt's northern lands, the warriors of the Medjai trained to become the an elite paramilitary force.

By the 20th Dynasty of the Egyptian Empire, the Medjai were erased from the history of the empire. Their erasure was due, not to any sin of the Medjai chiefs, but of a higher purpose. During the 19th Dynasty, the vizier of the Pharaoh, a man named Imhotep, defied the deity Seti I. Imhotep desired the Pharaoh's wife and defied the will of heaven for her.

When he was discovered, Imhotep was mummified alive and sustained by the magic of Seti's most powerful sorcerers. The Medjai transformed to become the stewards of Imhotep. They guarded the faithless vizier's resting place. In doing so, the chieftains of the Medjai instructed their tribes to learn more about the world beneath the world of the living. In a few generations, the Medjai became as committed to the understanding of greater mysteries as they once were to the sword and spear alone.

Now, the Medjai are a secret order. They study the mysterious forces that act upon the world. They alone stand ready to resist them. Clad in the black robes and turbans of their order, every Medjai warrior understands that there are forces beyond the understanding of mankind. That there are entities who envy the world of the living and that wish to destroy it. On the edge of their scimitars countless djinn have been destroyed. Through their wisdom countless more are tracked, studied, and selected for destruction.

Centuries later, the numbers of the Medjai have waned, but they are more committed to their purpose than ever. Their hidden agents dwell among every city of the empire, each individual tasked with the protection of countless acres of desert. Wandering members of their order serve their many masters, hiding among the common populace. There is no more pharoah to protect them; the mystical secrets of their order are forbidden by the laws of the Prophet.

They are the first, last, and only line of defense protecting our world from the danger of any other. They are the men and women swathed in black. They are the Medjai.

Games Gone By: Villains

It's been many years since I ran the Great War game, but I still remember one of the chief antagonists: Georges Ernest Boulanger.

Based on a historical figure, Boulanger occupied a special place in the world of Interesting Times. We started from the presumption that his military accolades earned him political clout, eventually elevating him to the position of supreme authority in France. The real world Boulanger's philosophy, coupled with my need for a nefarious villain, transformed Boulanger into a prototype of the early fascists. Boulanger's popularity in the real world reached an apex at the end of the 19th century, and it didn't take a huge stretch to push him into the early 20th.

I loved using Boulanger as a bad guy. His policy of restitution and revenge was so Hitlerian that it made him impossible to pass up. It allowed me, in Interesting Times, to draw on the themes and imagery of a Nazi-occupied France decades prior to the occupation of that nation. Using his Revanche party as the villains of our Great War game also allowed me to drive home the point that the world of IT was not the world as we knew it. Once players understood that France was a fascist dictatorship everything else fell into place.

The final battle against Boulanger took place in the heart of Paris, hitting most of the traditional set pieces of that city. Of course, no battle would be complete without a high-stakes conflict that had at least one PC fighting atop the Eiffel Tower. Still, poor old Georges couldn't take on our WW1 characters all alone, so I spent some time drafting up some NPCs to throw their hats into the ring.

Sure are a lot of cobwebs in here.

Lord. It has been several years since I've added anything to the old Interesting Times blog. Since then, I've run multiple campaigns in the ever-expanding universe of IT, adding to the lore of the setting and the crazy characters that are a part of it. Since my last post on this deeply neglected blog, we've run through some of the following games. I'll give everyone a quick rundown of each arc, but it's been far, far too many years for me to remember specifics. So, in the last several years, our players have been through the following:

The Great War The Great War game took place in 1917–1918. The characters worked together against a conspiracy of supernatural agents that were trying to utilize the mass slaughter of men in the war effort as a sacrifice to liberate ancient and powerful entities. The Great War game introduced to Interesting Times the dogfighting rules and a host of new vehicles and equipment. Special equipment was created for Manfred von Richthofen, our resident German pilot. As always, special Edges were created for every player character that referenced the fiction, history, or inspiration for that character.

The 1930s

The follow-up to the Great War game, the 1930s game put the player characters in a world on the cusp of a second world war. Rather than jumping into WW2, I wanted everyone to play in a world where there was tons of uncertainty, a time when their rivals could be allied with foreign powers set on world domination or simply be selfish men interested in their own personal gain. The 30s game also introduced the Men in Gray, a group of supernatural entities that would become recurring antagonists in the IT games. The Men in Gray, also called Auditors, work to stabilize the universe, attempting to slow the chaos of existence into perfect stasis and stability. The 30s game introduced its own rules for traditional car chases, inspired heavily by those produced for the Adventure! ruleset, new rules for purchasing equipment and a list of new gear, era appropriate weapons, and of course new Edges for the 30s characters.

1966
After the 30s game, there was a long hiatus. When we picked up the story of IT again, we jumped forward in time to the 1960s. Set in Las Vegas and its environs, the new story focused on a series of strange heroes working to save the world against a capitalist madman; Howard Hughes. Inspired by the real-world Hughes purchase of vast swathes of the Vegas strip, the 60s game was based around the eccentric entrepreneur's deal with the Men in Gray. They gave Hughes the plan to build the city into a massive Lemarchand device that would keep the strip separate from the universe and give the Gray Men the ability to enact stasis on the rest of the world. I spent some time reading up on the casinos of Vegas in the era to give the game a decent sense of place. This game included some of the weirder characters we've seen so far, including Forrest Gump and Black Betty, a vampire-hunting vigilante inspired by the Ram Jam song. This game included a special guest appearance by Charles Manson as a vampire and his Family of flower-child thralls.

Rome: Part One
Following the '66 game, I chose to throw us back. Way back. Our next game took place during the twilight of the Roman Republic. There were few fictional characters to draw from for this game, so nearly everyone chose a historical figure to play. The game followed a strike force led by Pompey Magnus that headed into Gaul, investigating a falling star that landed in the hinterlands of Gaul. The meteor was inspired by kryptonite, the Color Out of Space, and the warpstone of Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy setting. This series of IT games not only gave me the chance to design new Edges for historical characters, but also allowed me to create an all new set of weapons, armor, and defensive measures. By far the game focused on melee combat, which required me to reevaluate how the close combat system of IT worked. There we go! To my knowledge that brings everyone up to speed with our IT games so far. There will be more in the near future (1760s, Rome: Part 2, 1944, I'm looking at you). Check back in a few years and I'm sure I'll have added more.

I'm awful at blogging.

So, a conversation with Tracy Hurley earlier today brought me back to the old Interesting Times blog, which I have shamefully neglected for far too long. By way of apology to the two, maybe three people who read it, I'm going to try to bring everything back up to speed.

So. Damn. What were we playing when I updated last? The Americans? REALLY?
Ugh.

So, the long and short of things for the American game (which I'm sad to admit I've forgotten most of the details of) is: they stopped the Barons (plural, there were several of them) plans to foment war in America, but were unsuccessful in stopping the World War. All of the lives to be lost during the coming World War were offered up as a sacrifice by the Rail Baron in order to secure more power, but the party boarded the Hellbound Train where they defeated him.

As an epilogue, it was mentioned that the various party members continued acting around the United States, locating and defeating the various Barons.

Okay. Super short summary of the end of the game, and I left out tons of awesome character moments, but c'mon. It was years ago. It did, however, lead immediately into our next campaign...

Third Session: Afterword

As the train approached Carson City, it stopped short. All the Deseret who were on the train disembarked, and began walking west. Initially the party was confused, until the Engineer informed them - the train had reached the front lines and would go no further.

Spread out between the party and the city stood a long line of Deseret military tents. They quickly learned that the Empire of California and the Nation of Deseret had a history of conflict over this region, and that Carson had traded hands between the two powers on multiple occasions. They happened upon Carson the night prior to a Deseret attack on the entrenched Californians. At first they moved forward to the town just to meet the Rail Baron's deadline, but on the way they met with a new figure, the Robber Baron.

This new Baron was entrenched among the Nauvoo soldiers, masquerading as one of their military clergymen, manipulating them into attacking Carson. The Robber Baron was just enough like the Rail Baron that they party knew they were related in some way, but much more arrogant and flippant. He told the party that they would be helping the Californians defend the city, and that he would provide them with "certain boons" if they did as they were told.

So, the party was allowed to cross the Deseret line, to enter Carson, and after some quick negotiations with the Californian military, to help secure its defense.

Third Session: IthinkIcanIthinkIcanIthinkIcan

The party jumped the first train Monday out of Salt Lake City. Unfortunately for them, Johnny Appleseed had visited Temple services the night prior. There, he prevented the execution of a young woman accused of adultery. Appleseed managed to get the young lady out to where everyone else was staying without incident, but a few inhabitants of Salt Lake City saw her joining the party as they boarded the train.

The Nauvoo asked enough people enough hard questions to finally suss out where the supposed adulteress had gone, and quickly moved to respond.

Meanwhile, the party enjoyed a few hours of scenic countryside as they rode along the rails. They saw tall grasses full of pheasant that lined the tracks, small scrub towns along the railroad, and the rise and fall of telegraph wires... wires that carried a message down the line to the next town with an appreciable group of Nauvoo Soldiers.

When the train passed the small town of Bethlehem, Nevada, a force of 20 cavalrymen dashed out in pursuit of the train, intent on stopping it and getting the accused woman back...

As the game started, I laid out a series of 3x5 cards labeled as the different cars of the train. I did it like this for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted the players to have a clear picture of where they were on the train, and where the train cars were in relation to each other.




As the night went on, this became more important. See, the train was a dynamic actor in the night's game. When the train turned, I'd shift the car(d)s so people could get a clear idea of how the turning affected what they could see. Each turn started with the train taking an "action," determined by random roll. I got some great ideas for this from the brilliant Matt Sheridan, so I owe him a lot for this session. I only regret that there were so many cool ideas and too few turns to use them all.

Anyway. John Henry and Rufus were hanging out in the Livestock Car with Appleseed (Appleseed's player couldn't make the session, unfortunately). Teddy was moving around between the Passenger, Lounge and Observation cars, while all the ladies were resting in a private car leased by Molly Brown. The Nauvoo stared by riding along the train in 5 groups of 4, each trying to get on a different car along the length of the train.

Almost immediately, Rufus bailed out of the train and shifted into the Rider, while Teddy and John Henry climbed to the top of the train. At the rear, Anna-Maria shifted into her Four-legged Feral Female Form. The fight that progressed was... interesting, to say the least. The Nauvoo Soldiers did fantastically well when attacking, but miserably when rolling checks for things like climbing and staying atop the moving train. A handful of them died by falling between the cars, and many others were simply knocked from the train and out of the fight.

Eventually, all of the swarming Nauvoo soldiers were dispatched, though none of the party managed to escape unscathed. After the last enemy was driven from the train, the Rider and Anna-Maria both collapsed from exhaustion.

Fortunately for the party, none of the passengers were able to clearly identify the soldiers, and Molly was able to convince them that a group of bandits had attacked and been repelled by her associates. The train continued on to its final destination, Carson City.

Interesting People: Without Peer

The Rail Baron

-Note-
We won't be playing for a couple weeks, so I think I'll go back to filling the blog with information about the background/setting until I have new session summaries to share.

The enigmatic "Baron" has been around since the foundation of the group. The first Ghost Rider, Doc Holliday, received his contract from the Rail Baron. For many years, the Baron had no contact with the group, up to the point that he instructed Holliday to pass the mantle of the Rider on to its new host.

As far as the group has been able to ascertain, the Baron is a demonic entity. Locked within the iron rails of America's railways and Snakebacks, he travels in style on a black iron train. Primarily the group has met with the Baron on or around a railway, but he seems to be able to manifest away from the rails - for a limited time, at least.

The Baron isn't bothering to hide his intent toward the group. He's instructed them that important things are on the horizon, and that he wants them to make sure that "events unfold the way they were intended." The party doesn't yet know what this refers to, but each place he instructs them to visit seems to peel back another layer of the mystery.

Recently, the party discovered that the Rail Baron isn't the only creature of his kind, merely the only one they've ever encountered. In Salt Lake City, a fortuneteller warned Roosevelt that the Baron and his 9 brothers are spread across the continent. Their most recent addition, the group's defeated enemy Thomas Edison. At that time, the fortuneteller also provided Roosevelt with information about how to kill the Baron, should he need to, and the means of doing so: a rosewood box containing five vials of the black blood of Samedi. When she passed the blood to Roosevelt, she warned him that only a Baron can kill a Baron, and that they are only vulnerable when they are hiding in their homes. In the case of the Rail Baron, only when he rides the Hellbound Train back home.