Battlefield Tourist
MN (Currently in WY)
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Greetings all,
I recently got to GM a game using the Flashlight: Tales of Terror system using the example game in the PDF rules. The group was 4 relatively experienced RPGers, and a newer gamer. The timeframe was about 3.5- 4 hours to complete, including Character design.
The setting was 1997 Manhattan to start with and the players were called in by a wealthy, shadowy, cinephile; Mr. Bellinger; to help them locate a rare film called Le Fin de Monde. The film itself had only been publicly screened once, leading to carnage. It was thought to have been confiscated and destroyed by the French government. The players created the following characters:
Mr. Robert B. Bobb - Experienced journalist for the NY Post and drinker. Saw things while covering the War in Iraq that still haunts him.
Jack Fredericks - Apprentice journalist to Mr. Bobb, who was eager for a big break, the money from it, and the adrenaline hit. Had a near drowning experience at the ocean.
Harry Thom - A director of B-movies looking to fund his next project, and Cliff's boss. Was attacked and slashed by his mother with shredded aluminum can.
Cliff (Like the Notes) - Director of Photography and gorehound looking for inspiration for his next b-grade film. Parents were killed at the circus, and he saw them dragged away by clowns.
Shawn McSean- A rare film blogger and closet Occultist. Interested in seeing the film for himself, and distributing it for the world. No followers on his blog. :( He had been almost killed in a hazing incident by class mates.
After a brief set-up scene, the character got their mission and negotiated seeing the film once Mr. Bellinger screened it and confirmed it for authenticity. They received several news snippets from 1977 to the "present" of private screening gone bad. They also received a very short review of the film.
The Review
The players used their research abilities to track down the location of the movie reviewer. They located him and raced to interview him. After name dropping the film, the recluse let them in. There they found a disheveled man surrounded by pages of typed documents.
When the players attempted to read the documents, they were struck by episodes of madness, and to re-live a trauma from their past and describe it. As they went through the adventure, they built upon these traumas and the stories when they failed insanity checks from interacting with the history of Le Fin Du Monde. Cliff was struck by a bad bought of the shakes, while Sean dropped into a temporary catatonic state.
Eventually, the reviewer gave the players a taped interview of the film's director, Dagon Brakovic. This also triggered some trauma. As Harry, ran from the room in terror and others had various effects. They began to see flashes of yellow rings before their trauma started and this was a recurring theme in the film.
From the interview, they learned a copy might be in Paris at the institute of Film and Art History. They were off to Paris.
The Archive
Have taking a quick trip to the Eiffel Tower, the players went to the film archive. There they encountered the Archivist, and old friend of Cliff. He tried to warn them off from searching for the film, explaining that no one involved with it ever came to a good end. Even the people involved had misfortune and most are dead. The French government had confiscated the archives copy of the film and destroyed it.
However, their research skills allowed the to find a list of credits. Research into this list found that almost everyone involved in the movie were dead, except for 1 survivor in a Parisian invalid home.
Upon leaving, Cliff's friends tries to warn them off one last time. He tells them the story of his brush with Le Fin De Monde. Insanity Checks ensued.....
The Sole Survivor
The players manage to bluff their way into the invalid home and get the Nuns to lead them to the last survivor from the film's cast. They interview him about the film and manage to get a clue on a serbian backer of the film, Milovic.
The Backer
Here the player's are introduced to a shady side of the film business. Milovic is clearly a thug or gangster. They are met by thugs who lead them into a old warehouse, filled with lighting, camera equipment and sets. They meet Milovic, who has a taste for the theatrical. He offers them a box of props from the film... for a price.
The PCs manage to negotiate with Milovic, but ultimate agree to his price, but at a terrible cost. I don't want to give the twist away in case you play the game. I will just say the Milovic likes to make a particular type of film, and he wants the PCs to be part of his latest Opus. Insanity Checks ensue....
From the Props, they manage to track down the address of Dagon Brakovic, the director of [i[Le Fin Du Monde[/i].
The Wife
This takes them to Vancouver Canada, and the apartment of Brakovic. There, they encounter the director's wife. After some role-play, a big reveal, and a dramatic story she agrees to let them take a sealed copy of the film with them. Touching the film leads to insanity checks.....
There was then a spirited discussion about what to do with the film. Some wanted to watch it now, some wanted to try to distribute it themselves, but ultimately they decided to bring it back to Mr. Bellinger and honor their deal.
The Grand Finale
I am not going to go into details here. Suffice it to say that the PCs honor their deal with Mr. Bellinger. Ultimately, they watch the film. As the credits for this session roll, the only one left alive is Harry Thom, who decided to leave the building prior to watching the film. He had a bad feeling about the whole thing and wanted no further part in the story of this sordid film. The rest ended up dead in a spectacle, gory, horrifying, and surprising finish.
The Player Reaction
I set the ground rules for the game, explained how horror as a genre was very different from High Fantasy, sci-fi, or other genres. I also set-up a safety tool and how to use it. I knew these players VERY well, but I also knew that we were going to talk about some strange things in this game. Therefore, I set up the safety tools.
To break the tension, I think they made somewhat silly characters, I mean look at the names! However, the game system asks you to create a drive, a personality, a quirk and a trauma and they played them so well. Making this in character creation kept the players grounded in their characters.
At the end, they said:
"This was unlike any RPG experience I have had in the past. It was amazing."
"At one point, I was actually shaking."
"This was your best game yet."
"I absolutely had to find out what was on that film.... and now that I have..... wow."
"Great ending!"
So, they ended up getting pretty invested as the game went on and it was well received.
Mechanics
The mechanics are super simple, BUT the players are not set-up for success at all. In fact, the mechanics themselves are a bit of a death spiral. AS things go wrong, they only get worse. I had to fudge a bit to make sure the players could all get to the end and not go insane prior to getting there. However, when the finale came it was very easy to make sure that the finale was horrific. However, if a player is going to make a test, their is a strong chance they will fail unless they work hard to set-up their circumstances for success.
Character creation took about 15 minutes, but the focus was less on mechanics and more on character creation. The categories were broad but applied in game. Players were encouraged to engage with their character sheets and choices on the sheet and try to apply them in game in a easy, story-telling way. The character creation choices seemed like they made playing your character in game very easy.
As the GM
This scenario encouraged me to use a lot of different voices and characters. I typically do not do voices, BUT the characters demanded it. So many of them were French or Eastern European. I had to really stretch myself. In addition, the scenario gives basic guidelines in how to play them which I was able to lean into. Even the French Nuns ended up being very memorable to the players.
As far as managing the module itself. It was easy to move players between Scenes, and there were clear points to kick it to the PCs. Each scene seemed to have scene-setter, a clear idea of what the players should get from the scene, and an easy clue to the next scene. There are a few places where the players can go into some detail about their trauma.
That said, this is a railroad! It is obviously a railroad. The question is if the players want to go for the ride. In my case, the mystery was compelling enough to the characters AND the players that they wanted to ride the rails. I see this as a potential weakness to this scenario. However, there are only a few points were the players really make decisions, and those decisions are relatively meaningless with the big exception being the scenes with Milovic.
In the end, it was fun revealing the truth and nature of the game to the players. In 4 hours of play, we took one 15 minute break. The players were engaged and wanted to keep moving. This was easy to run for me. I was firmly in control and setting the pace and there were very few options for the PCs to completely go wildly out-of-control. The only surprise was I expected some fighting in a certain scene, but it played out very different from my expectation, which was probably for the best!
Final thoughts
The system is simple and easy and quick for players to wrap their head around. However, it does a good job setting up strong characters with the GMs help. This system does not set players up for success. If they have to roll, they will most likely fail. That means, GMs may have to work hard to keep characters alive and sane enough to continue the game.
The scenario led to horror as defined by what the "Horror genre" is in the game. No one used a safety tool, but I am glad we set them up ahead of time. I have never used them in a game before, and I think the introduction to what a Horror game is and the safety tool made the players start to wonder what they were getting into. However, it also got them into the proper mindset and they played hard. If the group did not lean into the game and genre, I am not sure a game like this would work.... at all. I think this "setting the bar" for the game and Session 0 in 15 minutes was critical.
As a GM, this was a fun scenario to play as it encouraged me to stretch myself as a GM. The NPCs were a bit "out-there". I think the scenario would be enhanced with some art that depicted the NPCs that I could have used as a hand out to the players. A few hand-outs or physical props may also have helped such as a typed copy of the nonsense review, an image of the props from the film, a sample movie poster, etc. Not deal breakers, but it would take it to the next level.
If you do not like railroads, AVOID this at all costs. If railroads are fine for your group... then this will be fine as well. Also as a GM< you may need to bend the rules in a few places to keep the game going and not knocking out the players half way or more through the game.
Thanks for reading.
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