Wednesday, December 24, 2014

224 - Transatlantic Terror 02 (Playtest)

Skype of Cthulhu presents a Call of Cthulhu playtest: Transatlantic Terror. Published by Goodman Games.

Somewhere at sea
Sometime in the 1920s

Trouble is brewing on board the HMS Adriatic, as she sails from New York to Liverpool. But no fear, the cream of the American crop is ready to deal swiftly with whatever horrors might be lurking on the ship.


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4 comments:

Jonathon M. Johnson said...

Ok… So figured we would get into some action being the second part and all, but hours went by till something began stirring the (action) pot.

Jon’s overall performance as a Keeper was very good. To find out that he was part of the development of this adventure, I think that he should have had parts cut or as a Keeper ran through parts quicker. Definitely would have helped out those that were playing into the wee hours of the morning.

Jonathan is funny saying Mustachio. Mustache + Pistachio = Mustachio

The ending was a bit anticlimactic; maybe if played through it could have been better. Or maybe the red herring they talked about earlier would have been better?

Bummer the end got chopped, but at least Jon helped us by going into narration mode.

The end recap was excellent finding out the behind the scenes actions and the whys.

Was there going to be another player involved in this adventure? There is a bullet in the Dramatis Persone section missing a player’s name.

Love hearing the outcome when someone rolls a 01 or 100. On the 100, I would have loved to see the outcome as the character getting scared and thought they saw a darkened figure moving amongst the cars, shot at it and hit it; but finding out that the darkened figure was actually the steward. SAN check!

What adventure/episode was it that inspired your idea for this adventure?

Thanks for being a writer Jon.


Cheers

Jonathon M. Johnson
Colorado

JonHook said...

Hi Jonathon,

Thank you again for your insightful comments. I wrote Transatlantic Terror to be a short side adventure for characters that are traveling from New York to England. The pre-generated characters are all dilettantes from some of America's finest families, but it can be played with characters of any class.

But, because it is an adventure steeped in subterfuge, it is one that is naturally lower in violent action, (this adventure goes against type for the kinds of adventures that I normally write). As for my inspiration, well... allow me to insert a SPOILER tag here... just in case.

SPOILER

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So... for those who are still with me... my inspiration for this scenario was from a conversation me and my podcast cohosts had on the Miskatonic University Podcast where we talked about interesting ways to use the Serpent People monsters. And, at one point, I had the idea that the spell Serpent People use to "Consume Likeness" is an actual ritual spell where the serpent person literally eats their victim. And, knowing that snakes have a slow digestive system, I had this comical image in my head of a Serpent Person lying bloated on the floor as it digests its victim. And that during that time, it would be completely vulnerable to attack; which is why his/her buddies would need to help protect it during the ritual eating process.

Overall, I hope you enjoyed the adventure we had. I could have sped things along, but I didn't want to intervene in the player's investigation of the mystery, and if this had been part of an actual campaign game, it is entirely possible that the investigators do not solve the mystery, and the Serpent People are able to disembark safely.

Thanks,
Jon

Jonathon M. Johnson said...

Overall Jon I did enjoy the adventure.

Totally understand about not intervening with the player’s investigation, but of course when it comes to entertaining others or a time crunch at a convention, it has to be done. I have been there at the latter and it is not that fun when you know you only have four hours and you have to push it along when you are seeing them have all that fun talking it out and trying to solve it.

Yeah the bloated serpent reminds me of the scene in “Anaconda” when it eats Gary (Owen Wilson) and then it swims by and you see him in the snake with his mouth open. LOL

Though they did what they did, just like in movies, there is always that hidden something-or-other somewhere that can lead to a sequal.

Dum De Dum!


Cheers

Jonathon M. Johnson
Colorado

JonHook said...

A sequel... hmmm... Now you have my brain juices cooking. I should write a scenario that outlines the events that occur with the assumption that the serpent people successfully made the journey to England. Or, maybe there is a group of other serpent people that were waiting on them to come to England, and I write their scenario instead. I could then have a special "Keepers Eyes Only" section on how the scenario could be impacted if the Keeper previously ran Transatlantic Terror and the serpent people survived the scenario, or how the current adventure is impacted if they did not survive the overseas voyage.

Thanks for the sequel inspiration, Jonathon.

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