The Mark of Madness was a Dresden Files RPG adventure I ran at GenCon 2014. I also ran (or walked through) the adventure with other gaming friends to test the adventure. As I wrap up the last two multi-post weeks, I wanted to include some of my research links, images, thoughts on the creation process, and memories of GMing the adventure.
Adventure Creation
In 2009, I was running an all-demon PC campaign of In Nomine for my group. The games were set in Detroit.The Mark of Madness was little more than a 2-paragraph potential idea by the time the campaign came to a close (Phenex originally written as a renegade Shedite of my home-brewed Demon Princess, Abatha). When 2014 came around I decided I wanted to try my hand at running an official GenCon game. In years past, I had run private In Nomine games with friends, but never complete strangers. Running with friends while drinking presents its own challenges (like keeping the group focused on the game), but running a game for strangers means being able to know the rules, have a more detailed plan of action, and full character write-ups. GenCon games also added a time limitation, as people tend to be hopping from game to game. I decided to aim for a 4-hour session with a 4 to 8 player table.
I had thought about running the adventure using In Nomine, but by 2014 the game really wasn’t played that much anymore and I didn’t want to have to walk any potential neophyte players through the universe, rules, and oddities of the system while also dealing with a time limit. In the handful of times I’ve attended GenCon, there has been one In Nomine game run by a really fun group, so it can be done. I just lacked a bit of confidence in me. I had been running and playing in campaigns using FATE system since 2010, and with my knowledge on the much-easier to explain system and given the continued popularity of the Dresden Files RPG, I realized I could take one urban fantasy/horror adventure seed (set for In Nomine) and turn it into one set for another (DFRPG).
Though I was moving the adventure out of In Nomine, I wanted to keep the idea of it being set in Detroit and being played with more “evil” characters. I thought about putting the adventure in Chicago, but didn’t want the baggage of the canonical setting to impede. I didn’t want Harry & co barging in on the PCs, and I also wanted to make sure certain factions could be represented among the players without the weight of the books making their presence feel off. I kept my Detroit notes, removed the angels (and most of the demons), and created a simple write-up of the factions I wanted to see in the game and some notes on the PCs. Only once I had what I felt was a good mix-and-match team of characters for 4 to 8 people did I begin to flesh the seed into an actual adventure.
I made one concession to linking the game to the books, the addition of Molly Carpenter as the Winter Lady. I knew this was a potential spoiler to those who may not have read through the latest books, but it was a minor spoiler and I made sure I noted that the GenCon listing did note that some spoilers from the books up to and through Cold Days would be present.
Research Links
Along with my Detroit write-up, I still needed to put specific types of places into the adventure. I started by re-examining Forgotten Detroit, a site I used often during my Detroit-based In Nomine campaign. After that, I turned to search engines and my well-practiced art of search-fu. I needed an introductory meeting place for the adventure so chose the Detroit Boat Club. It was a sturdy, but much abandoned building and could provide some good ambiance.
The elf, Gannelon Walenski, was the first victim I wrote and I knew I wanted the PCs to talk to him. I decided to place him in the vacant apartment buildings of The Lee Plaza Hotel. Most of the other victims could be questioned in their homes or hospitals and these could be just about anywhere in the city. Iain Kingswell, however, was another one of the clue-heavy victims, and I wanted an older neighborhood with a large lawn on which to potentially fight ectoplasmic animals. I decided on the Boston-Edison Historic District.
Finally, I needed locations to take a child and link to mind-breaking memories. The Detroit Zoo was obvious enough, but other locations were a little more city-specific. I thought about a Showbiz/Chuck E. Cheese pizza, but decided to go with the local name stay of Buddy’s Pizza. I thought about using a corn maze, but in my research found Scarefest Scream Park which seemed like a much more fun idea, should the PCs actually follow the clues to the “playdate” locations. Similarly, laser tag seemed a little too generic, so picked a spot with a specific ride, and went with the Zap-Zone located in Taylor, for it’s “Slime Bucket” ride.
Shout-outs
There were a few characters from other sources that I thought about when putting together the adventure, various little Easter egg/shout-outs for fans of other series.
- I wrote Antonio “Tony” Tuzzolino’s character specifically with Ken Marino’s character “Vinnie” from Veronica Mars in mind, basically picturing that character with psychic powers. I didn’t even try to hide it and used a picture of Mr. Marino in character presentation.
- If I was going to make homage to one character in Veronica Mars, why not all but lift another character? Mark of Madness victim Julio Navarro shared the last name as the TV character Eli Navarro and, once more, I used a photo of the VM actor, Francis Capra, for his portrayal.
- I needed some sort of Winter Fae protector for Gannelon Walenski, so chose the name Snowclaw, a furry, yeti-like beast (though more ursine in nature), from John DeChancie’s Castle Perilous book series.
- Speaking of Gannelon, I based the mentally maze-trapped elf on Detective Walenski from the 1998 movie Dark City, and used a photo of Colin Friels from the film as his portrayal.
- While she bears only mild character trait resemblance, I knew from the start that I would use a picture of Angela Bassett in the movie Strange Days as reference for the Valkyrie, Jada Taft.
Session Thoughts
I had a walk-through (going through the scenario without actual RP, but poking holes at the adventure) with one group and a practice full run with another group before taking my adventure to GenCon. In all three cases, I saw that I had over-planned/overwritten. But I’d rather have that happen than have to wing it and be caught in a moment of forgetfulness. Players focused on Gannelon Walenski and Iain Kingswell, specifically. Letty Skavis-Reid and Lindsey Landry were not as often sought out and Julio Navarro was often dismissed completely. I had somewhat hoped that players might meta-game and think the biggest clues were in the hardest spot to access. Like Julio, the actual locations Ryan went were typically ignored. And, once Ryan was discovered, the focus usually went directly to him and never his family.
Somewhat interestingly, half of the players who attended the GenCon game were from or used to live in Detroit. Perhaps this gave them a leg up on some of the location-specific clues, but if so, they stayed in character and didn’t use that info obviously. The four hour session wrapped up a half hour early, though, beating even the “walk-through” version of my test runs.
No one ever wanted to play Hexbait. People have some real qualms with Juggalos, I guess.
Malcolm Baird seemed to be a typical group favorite, though. Everyone loves a bloodthirsty, creepy child (or child-like) character. At GenCon Malcolm was played in an almost sullen monotone. Again, a big hit with the table.
If I ever do return to GenCon or run a game at a convention elsewhere again, I will also create personal picture placards for each player to use, allowing the players to remember who was playing whom. As it was, I had the pictures of the PCs on my GM screen, but there were occasional moments of confusion.
While additional potential action beats were never needed, I would have like to have put in a few red herrings or suspected victims who actually had nothing to do with Phenex. However, given the GenCon time constraints, I’m glad I didn’t. While we wrapped up with 30 minutes to spare, I fear things could have been quite rushed if players were sent down the wrong track. If this had been an adventure within a campaign, I would have included more combat, confrontation, inner-party political issues, and more mystery. I could see this adventure being turned into a multi-session mystery with just a few tweaks.
Recent Comments