We had to postpone our little Deathlands ritual last night because the Whisper wasn’t able to make it, instead, I decided to grab the Gaddoc Rail scenario by Sean Nittner to tell a story about the first job what would become the “Dark Roots” went on together.
In case we got through that, I also put together my own little imitation of the above. Word gets to your patron that a Spirit Warden has died in the Abandoned Ward, and for some reason they want the body…
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z9h4sgfnsjp1hd8/The%20Score%20-%20Empty%20Church.png?dl=0
It differs slightly in that the “Score” is already defined, in this case, the body of a dead Spirit Warden. In its place I put the “Cause” of said death as the third variable. Forgive its amateurism, but feel free to criticise. I’m thinking of taking it to GOD at Dragonmeet and would like to improve it.
As far as how Gaddoc Rail went? Well, one of our players got food poisoning so we had to cut it short. But, as a group of three players who were generally not that familiar with RPGs (one had never played before, one had never played anything but this game and one had a few months experience with D&D before BitD, none had GMed) they struggled at first to formulate their own ideas and most importantly, get out of the mindset of “play to win” but I think it ended up well in general.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pm98i4rkbk65fnh/The%20Score%20-%20Empty%20Church.pdf?dl=0
I like the idea behind this score. Very creepy and cool. A few notes:
I think the “Cause” section might create some problems, though. Seems like the cause of the Spirit Wardens death would be more interesting to discover in play, rather than simply choosing at the outset.
Also, the Complications kind of ask the players to shift into GM mode a bit. Take a look at the Complications on the Gaddoc Rail sheet. Sean presents them as things the PCs suspect or have been tipped off about — things that will manifest during the score, but haven’t quite happened yet. I think that’s a good approach.
The Tugging presents something that’s already happened. Maybe instead it says “People who visit the Lost Ward are sometimes consumed by suicidal ideas. Who among you is most vulnerable?”
“None Stay Fallen Within the Ward” asks the players to create an enemy NPC. Kind of an awkward thing for them to do — a conflict of interest, so to speak. I’d cut this one entirely an replace with something else. Keep the big nasty NPC on your side of the table. 🙂