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Johnjimco
2013-06-14, 11:40 PM
I want to make a Noir Mystery using sixth edition call of Cthulhu rules, its set in New York during the 50s. I want the Mystery to revolve around the upcoming heavyweight championship bout (not a real one just one i make for the game).

The problems i have in no particular order are: What the players are actually investigating, What kind of Characters to use ( i already have a Hardboiled Detective, a Beat Cop with PTSD from WWII, and a Spanish Club Entertainer), What style to GM in, a Villain(s?), and how to insert the characters in a believable way (so it doesn't end up with Scooby Doo Syndrome).

+ I need Source material to glean from, such as music and film.

I realize I'm not giving much to work off of but I've got a severe case of Writers Block :smallfrown:.

Kazemi
2013-06-15, 12:49 AM
These are always a bit difficult. First, I assume you want some supernatural stuff, correct? Probably to do with the villains, right?

If you want to include the PCs, the answer is simple (assuming someone went missing in a mysterious sort of way). You can have the victim's family, a detective, a reporter, or the family of someone who lost a loved one in a similar manner. Since this is partially publicized, any detective or reporter already chasing similar leads would draw connections. How many players do you have?

Example: You can do the son/daughter of one of the missing boxers, a reporter who caught wind of the disappearance and whose instincts tell him to follow it, a Spanish Club Entertainer whose husband/wife (EOE) went missing a month before in the same way, and the detective that the SCE had hired. Having already gone to the police and drawn a blank, the player characters take it into their own hands.


You also need a plot twist for this sort of thing. Preferably one that is not the first thing we think of, since it will likely be other peoples' first thoughts as well.

Johnjimco
2013-06-15, 11:33 PM
Yes i would like something supernatural for the villain.

i think at max I'd have around 7 or 8 people.


What if they're investigating something fishy about how the challenger got this far? or maybe one of the fighters get killed and they investigate that? i don't know.

so far I've written up the detective, the entertainer, the beat cop, the Reporter (with Kleptomania because why not?), a waitress that might be a love interest for a character, and an English gentleman investigator so i can have 2 players with a rivalry that will help progress the story because the Hardboiled detective and him will try to one up each other. I still need more characters unfortunately :smallfrown:

I was thinking maybe a character would have a supernatural secret such as one of them being an alien or something like that.

LokiRagnarok
2013-06-16, 01:29 AM
an English gentleman investigator so i can have 2 players with a rivalry that will help progress the story because the Hardboiled detective and him will try to one up each other.

Those are both PCs, right? Are you prepared for them deciding to not one up each other?

Johnjimco
2013-06-16, 07:40 AM
i cant think of anyone who would come that wouldn't take the opportunity, but it wouldn't throw too much of a wrench in my plans.

Kazemi
2013-06-16, 07:46 PM
Ah, 7-8 people may be tricky. We need 1-2 more, but you may want to develop a bit of an idea as to what they're investigating. That will allow you to pick characters that have to do with the plot itself.

Perhaps the missing boxer's manager? An actual partner for one of the existing characters, such as one of the waitress's regulars.

Also, one hallmark of Cthulhu-esque games is insanity. There are some shows that have a twist at the end, like Fight Club, where your perspective is skewed and you don't get a good idea of reality.

I read a very good summary of a session once (I can't find it to save my life, so if anyone's heard of it please tell me) with a DM and 3 players.
The players were a detective, the father of a missing boy, and the missing boy's sister. Since the detective was also missing his partner, who vanished similarly to the girl, they were all trying to get to the bottom of what's going on.

The players began to suffer from a bit of nervous breakdown as things got a bit weird; every time he checked his gun, the detective was missing exactly one bullet; nightmares that the kid was having of something coming to hurt her in the dead of night; etc.

More clues got dropped as the game went on until they encountered the main villain in an underground cavern outside of town. He was standing in front of a creepy alter to Nyarlothetep or something and turned to the intruders. Instead of getting hostile, he patiently asked "And who do you bring as a sacrifice":smallconfused:

"Her"
The detective and father both turned and pointed to the girl.:smalleek:

And the girl's player freaked out completely. Although she reportedly enjoyed the game and wanted to play another, so no harm no foul. :smallbiggrin:
It turns out the father and detective were both cultists, and although the players didn't know at the start they figured it out based on the clues they got and rolled with it (the missing bullet that the detective killed his partner with and the girl's memories of her abusive father, partially blocked out).

Though I'm not sure how much time you have left to prepare it, this sort of thing is an option. It gives the game a sort of "Clue" or "And Then There Were None" feel. Come to think of it, that might be a pretty fun game to play...

Erasmas
2013-06-16, 08:42 PM
What the players are actually investigating?
Noir almost always hinges on murder/disappearance (as Kazemi suggested). So this kind of a thing is a great way to stick with the "theme' and establish a lot of shorthand with the people, who will know a lot of what to expect as far as what to do with the leads they get, etc.
What kind of Characters to use (I already have a Hardboiled Detective, a Beat Cop with PTSD from WWII, and a Spanish Club Entertainer)?
Are you talking about NPCs here, or the PCs. Wouldn't the players have the option to choose who/what they wanted to play?
What style to GM in?
Aloof, dark, heavily narrative, perhaps even a little purposefully misleading at certain points?
"You arrive on the scene of the gunshot... just in time to see a car with the driver's side door open and the engine running... and the driver lying on the ground with an ever-growing pool of blood under her head. You see a shadow of a figure thrown on the wall at the far end of the alley by the car's headlights... only to see it ducking around a corner. Giving chase, you turn the same corner, only to find a dead end... with no way to escape the small area... and with no one there."
- That kind of thing is what I envision.
A Villain(s?)
I really like the idea of one of the managers being one of the main villains, at least. Oh, oh... idea! One of the contenders is a surprise... being an older boxer that had had promise and was now kinda seen as a wash-up (a la "The Fighter" & "Cinderella Man"). But he has been making a remarkable comeback ever since he replaced his manager,m who has been promoting him like crazy - the secret is that the manager is a demon and the boxer has made a deal with him... selling his soul (or maybe even has been possessed by another entity entirely) for the shot.
How to insert the characters in a believable way (so it doesn't end up with Scooby Doo Syndrome)?
From my experience, your players will adapt about 90% of the approach that you take to it as a narrator. If you treat it as serious and non-camp... then chances are they won't (at least not much).
Source material to glean from, such as music and film.
As mentioned above...
+ Music: The only one that I can really think of is Road to Perdition (which is a great soundtrack with a lot of melancholy stuff).
+ Movies: (Fights) The Fighter, Cinderella Man, Warrior, Million Dollar Baby, any of the Rocky films; (Period/Setting) Great Gatsby, Lawless, Untouchables, Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Dark City.

Johnjimco
2013-06-16, 10:25 PM
Are you talking about NPCs here, or the PCs. Wouldn't the players have the option to choose who/what they wanted to play?

Short answer, all the characters I've mentioned are going to be PCs and people get to pick from the Pre-mades. Long Answer, at the store where i run at the games are put on Facebook and people sign up there but walk-ins are fully welcomed so i need to have a healthy supply of pre-made characters ready for anyone, and its easier to run when i can control what characters there are going to be.


I really like the idea of one of the managers being one of the main villains, at least. Oh, oh... idea! One of the contenders is a surprise... being an older boxer that had had promise and was now kinda seen as a wash-up (a la "The Fighter" & "Cinderella Man"). But he has been making a remarkable comeback ever since he replaced his manager,m who has been promoting him like crazy - the secret is that the manager is a demon and the boxer has made a deal with him... selling his soul (or maybe even has been possessed by another entity entirely) for the shot.

To add on to that would the challenger be trying to retake the title after an embarrassing defeat?

I love this story and am going to use this, thank you so much. Now i need to connect all the points together through investigation, think of 2 more PCs to add, think up minor characters and how i will portray them, add flavor text to draw players in, and write up short backgrounds for all the PCs. Still a long way from a working model but now at least i have the foundation :smallsmile:.


Though I'm not sure how much time you have left to prepare it

I have as much time as i need since i haven't announced it yet.

Erasmas
2013-06-17, 12:50 PM
To add on to that would the challenger be trying to retake the title after an embarrassing defeat?

I love this story and am going to use this, thank you so much. Now i need to connect all the points together through investigation, think of 2 more PCs to add, think up minor characters and how i will portray them, add flavor text to draw players in, and write up short backgrounds for all the PCs. Still a long way from a working model but now at least i have the foundation :smallsmile:.


Possibly, or maybe the up-and-coming (possessed) fighter is the challenger. He could be in his late 30s/early 40s and the defender might be in his mid 20s. No one would have thought that the challenger could have risen as high as he has at the age that he is... and there is some real doubt as to whether or not his is going to get killed in the ring by this undefeatable kid in the prime of his life.

You are welcome! I'm glad that I could offer up something useful that you liked.

HKR
2013-06-17, 06:48 PM
Here´s what I came up with:

The upcoming fight is the sports event of the year. Everybody in the city is really excited about it, because the contender for the title is from New York. The fight has been announced several times and then cancelled for various reasons, but this time it looks like it´s actually going to happen. The bookmakers have reported record bets and the venue has been sold out within hours. Needless to say the whole city is rooting for their man.

A week before the fight the contender´s sister suddenly dissapears. The fighter and his family are worried sick and think about cancelling the fight. The promoters keep the whole thing secret because there is so much money at stake. They convince the family to not call the police and hire a team of private investigators instead (the PCs).

This is what actually happened:
The girl has been kidnapped by a cthulhu cult. They want to use her as a human sacrifice (You´ll have to come up with some unique attribute that makes her and no one else their "chosen one" (third daughter of the third daughter of the third daughter of someone... something like that)).

Years ago the contender´s coach has been offered a deal by a mysterious stranger (a cult member of course). The stranger offered to help the fighter by supernaturally weakening his opponents before they fought him. When asked about his price he just said: "Time will tell..." (or something appropriately mysterious). The coach agreed without his fighter´s knowledge and over the next years the mysterious man manipulated all the guy´s fights until he became the number one contender for the heavyweight title.

Two weeks before the upcoming fight the coach tried to cancel the deal because he grew increasingly uneasy about the stranger. The stranger would hear none of it and a few days later, the fighter´s sister dissapeared.

Possible clues from the top of my head:
- The coach accidentally mentions some detail that suggests he knows more than he tells (for example he knows the girl has been kidnapped although there´s no evidence of a kidnapping)
- If the PCs look at photos and video recordings of the contender´s past fights they see the stranger in many of them (usually as a member of the opposing corner staff).
- The fighter´s past opponents have all ended their carrers after fighting him and live in seclusion. Some of them cannot be found at all. If the PCs visit them they see that all of them seem strangely fragile for their age and seem to suffer from some sort of emotional trauma.

Possible encounters:
The retired boxers´ homes might serve well as encounter locations. Maybe the cult send assassins after the boxers once they find out about the investigation. One of the boxers might even turn into some kind of disgusting monster (Who knows what the stranger has done to the guys...)

I´m starting to like this story. Maybe I´ll run it myself. I hope I could be of help. :smallsmile:

Johnjimco
2013-06-18, 12:54 AM
I´m starting to like this story. Maybe I´ll run it myself. I hope I could be of help.

I don't really use Lovecraft Mythos much in my adventures, i usually just go real world with some supernatural elements, which sometimes disappoints people that come to the game expecting to kill Cultists.



On another note, I'm stuck with thinking of 2 other PCs that could believably be in the story, i was thinking something like a doctor but then i think "why would a doctor suddenly jump up and start investigating alongside a detective :smallmad:".

Erasmas
2013-06-18, 09:49 AM
On another note, I'm stuck with thinking of 2 other PCs that could believably be in the story, i was thinking something like a doctor but then i think "why would a doctor suddenly jump up and start investigating alongside a detective :smallmad:".

For the same reason(s) that a nightclub owner could/would... but you could always go with something a little more obscure - maybe he was a medic in WWII and was assigned to an airborne unit that was dropped in behind enemy lines. So he's used to high-tension and being right in the middle of the action... so he jumps at the chance to see what's going on.

As for the other - maybe the challenger's old manager/sparring partner? They know that something isn't right and the guy isn't acting the way that he used to and is avoiding all of his old friends and even family.

DM Rage
2013-07-16, 11:55 PM
As an Italian I must insist you add a greaser "the kid"element tothe protagonists

Here is some fuel:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/825398-the-mob-muder-inc-and-madison-square-garden-boxings-tale-of-corruption

Zahhak
2013-07-17, 12:08 AM
Ignore his reputation: Stephen King mostly writes mysteries.

Also, Shutter Island.

That's all I'm going to say.