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View Full Version : Discussion- A supernatural event in a non a supernatural world...



Redchigh
2015-08-23, 07:54 PM
Note- This refers to a horror game. There is gore.

I run a game called.. Well, let's postpone the name a bit because I don't want the players to find this thread.. The name isn't important. We'll call it 'Imbued RPG'.

The world, the second the first game starts, is ours.
Obama is president of the US. The middle east is in turmoil. Hundreds of people disappear every year around the world with no leads or explanation, but suggestions of 'vampires', 'werewolves' and 'bigfoot' are ridiculous, ignored, or results in rolled eyes and snorts of derision.

Every PC is a normal person, at the beginning. They get 'recruited' on missions by mysterious entities, and the missions are of a supernatural nature.

Normally, a few murders or disappearances aren't a big deal (mechanically). The populace gets scared a while, the media goes crazy, but everyone forgets about it as a freak event.

This game went sideways, and about 20 npcs were killed by the big bad- shredded, impaled on trees, etc. This was built into the game as a semi-scripted event, and the bodies weren't SUPPOSED to be found for at least a week, when they would have fallen in a storm.

However, the PCs actions and behavior accidentally led to them being discovered the next day.

My plan *was* to have the supposed sighting of the big bad to be written off as mass hysteria/hallucination, and the corpses as an animal attack (bears, boar, and moose are native to the area so its somewhat believable.)

The characters killed the big bad, won the game, but the police showed up and promptly arrested them. The PCs trespassed on an abandoned military facility, pretty much blew it up (with the power surge) and took down high voltage-long distance power lines (and the power in several states).

Their rented car's GPS places them nearby (1/4 mi) the explosion.
Their phones and electronics were destroyed by the EM pulse and are now in police custody.
One of the PCs had a dead person's blood on their shoe.

Currently the characters are being held, but the evidence is circumstantial. Unless they turn on each other, they will probably be released. The victim's blood is incriminating, but just not enough since there is no motive whatsoever.

The problem is the victims. They were impaled on trees and torn apart, and there are no defensive wounds. Any ideas how police, government, and the press would handle such a thing?

Government cover-up, maybe?

TurboGhast
2015-08-23, 08:14 PM
A good solution would be to have the government not be able to piece together the solution, but keep it classified. The event would look oddly mysterious to the outside, but secrets you don't want to be out for your adventure's sake still stay secret.

Redchigh
2015-08-23, 08:45 PM
I had thought of that, and many details will be classified.
Something very important that I didn't mention-
Every session exists in a partial vacuum. Each 'game' is resolved in a single session. (Some last up to 12 hours..)
The games are not set up to take place in a bigger 'story arc'. Its much like the first season of fringe, or the first few x-files seasons. The only continuing arcs, are explicitly ramifications of the PCs activities.
It doesn't take many games for the PCs to be suspected terrorists.
They travel to random towns, and supernatural stuff/murders/fires/mysterious stuff happens.
They win a game, the event(s) stop when they leave. They fail a game...worse outcomes happen. (They FAIL to stop the alien invasion. The Big Bad escapes to raise an army or attack Tokyo. Cthulhu gets summoned. They fail to prevent a cult from detonating an atomic bomb in Washington. Or, worst of all, a government agency is created to shut down, eradicate, or repurpose supernatural items/creatures/places... "Don't worry, we're from the government. We're here to help.")

I also failed to mention- one of the players got hit by an extra dimensional attack- so the MRI shows hairline incisions on the lungs, spleen, a large bruise on their back, and two ribs cracked from the inside...

Maybe enough for the NSA to be very intrigued, not enough to found a new agency.

EnglishKitsune
2015-08-23, 11:39 PM
Not to sure how this would work in Universe as it relies on the monsters being semi-organised, but you could have a linker episode, used to introduce a bigger bad and maybe use it as the first step towards a Government Agency. Technically they did fail a key part of the previous session, the getaway. This is the repercussion of that.

While the Police have them locked up for now in the local Prison, with the feds on the way, something else caught wind of their activities and due to their previous ripples now considers them a bigger target. It could be a Coven/Pack Leader, something new they've never seen, even a Big Evil Corporation that is using the monsters for experiments. Either way they view the players actions as a threat that must be stopped. (Kinda like breaking the Masquerade in V:tM. So they pay these fellows a visit in Jail, taking it over and killing/controlling the prisoners. Leading to a mass riot.

The Pc's are in Isolation, in seperate cells but in the same Cell Block, 1 or two of them could be interrogated by the Detectives who were in charge of the case. Suddenly the lights go out, leaving them in the dull red glow of the emergency lighting, then the Cells unlock. All of them. There is a cacophony as the Prisoners start to riot. Meanwhile in the interrogation room there is a knock on the door, or some thudding behind the one way glass, the detective gets up, confused, when suddenly a monster (Maybe one the PC's have dealt with before, so they recognize it. Bursts in and attacks the detective, this gives the PC's a chance to either A) Save the Detective and gain an ally, or B) Run the hell out of the door and regroup with the others.

The end goal would be to have them escape the Prison fighting monsters amid the riot and avoiding being killed by the other prisoners or the guards, with it either being destroyed or burnt down etc, if the Detective is alive he could say the group died in the fire as thanks. (And gains them a small time ally.) If they don't save the detective and the Prison doesn't burn down, they are considered Fugitives and have a warrant out for them. They are also aware of a new BBEG, who could become a reoccurring thorn in their sides.

Edited to add: Post credits "scene" Could have the FBI detectives rolling up, asking what happened and saying "Don't worry, we're from the Government, and here to help. *sunglasses* If the prison didn't burn down when the PC's left, let them read about it in a newspaper that it did, with all lives lost. *cover-up*

dream
2015-08-24, 12:31 AM
Again I ask; what system is being used? Without that, any suggestion is speculation.

Redchigh
2015-08-24, 12:32 AM
I actually really like that as an encounter idea. Its terrifying, unpredictable, and full of action. Perhaps the secret govt agency staged the riot to kill the police along with the players...

This was this groups first game however.

There are three characters.
Player 1: has a PI license in a fake identity, former professional athlete who abruptly retired. when they drew police attention the first day, he claimed the others worked for him. His version of the story is went to spot a, found the missing kids. No mention of anything supernatural. After being arrested, claimed he didn't know the others very well.

Player 2 has no identity (Is from another dimension). Told the police about the final battle, and killed a 'magic critter' that was kidnapping children. Has unexplainable internal injuries. Says player 1 hired him.

Player 3, says she thinks player 1 hired her. She has a genuine identity. She rented the car that all the players drove around in. The GPS on the car shows they were close to the terrorist attack.

When they were found by police, they had just finished burning.. Something, and player 1 dumped its ashes in a lake. No evidence of any animal remains in the ashes they didn't remove. Witnesses saw something burning.. Looked like a very tall man, but will reason that it was something like a burning man bonfire. Perhaps some sort of idol. Scorched weapons (silver letter openers, iron souvenir ingots, field-tip arrows). They were found with three missing kids, two of which were suspected of violence. (The kids were possessed and armed, but the players managed to subdue them and capture them without harming them.) The kids have no memory of anything, but will eventually remember violence they committed (that caused them to be possessed).

Redchigh
2015-08-24, 08:32 PM
Again I ask; what system is being used? Without that, any suggestion is speculation.

Sorry, I didn't see this.
Its actually a game thats currently in beta playtesting. The system covers the ruleset, not the world, plots, characters, or even timeline. Each gm makes their own universe. Mine, happens to be our world. The supernatural has never existed, until now. (There may have been a few supernatural entities, but they didnt leave witnesses.)

TheThan
2015-08-24, 10:46 PM
here are my ideas.

1. The authorities are tight lipped about it, putting a gag order on the press, which should have it’s on consequences as the loved ones of the 20 dead people will want to know why. the leadership of the states caught without power will want to know what happened, how to fix it and most importantly, who to blame or this catastrophe.

2. Full disclosure, the press is informed that there is a bizarre incident and let them get all speculative and crazy over it.

3. The government dumps the blame on the PCs, portraying them as criminals, terrorists (minimum 20 dead bodies, exploded military facility which causes not only a small scale EMP blast, but also knocked out the power in three states. Sounds like terror activity to me.) Now the Pcs have escape and clear their names, while being the target of the biggest manhunt since The Fugitive.

4. Governmental cover up. they blame the power and the bodies on the freak storm. act of god and all that, nobody's to blame, move along citizen, nothing to see here.

McStabbington
2015-08-24, 11:01 PM
Not to sure how this would work in Universe as it relies on the monsters being semi-organised, but you could have a linker episode, used to introduce a bigger bad and maybe use it as the first step towards a Government Agency. Technically they did fail a key part of the previous session, the getaway. This is the repercussion of that.

While the Police have them locked up for now in the local Prison, with the feds on the way, something else caught wind of their activities and due to their previous ripples now considers them a bigger target. It could be a Coven/Pack Leader, something new they've never seen, even a Big Evil Corporation that is using the monsters for experiments. Either way they view the players actions as a threat that must be stopped. (Kinda like breaking the Masquerade in V:tM. So they pay these fellows a visit in Jail, taking it over and killing/controlling the prisoners. Leading to a mass riot.

The Pc's are in Isolation, in seperate cells but in the same Cell Block, 1 or two of them could be interrogated by the Detectives who were in charge of the case. Suddenly the lights go out, leaving them in the dull red glow of the emergency lighting, then the Cells unlock. All of them. There is a cacophony as the Prisoners start to riot. Meanwhile in the interrogation room there is a knock on the door, or some thudding behind the one way glass, the detective gets up, confused, when suddenly a monster (Maybe one the PC's have dealt with before, so they recognize it. Bursts in and attacks the detective, this gives the PC's a chance to either A) Save the Detective and gain an ally, or B) Run the hell out of the door and regroup with the others.

The end goal would be to have them escape the Prison fighting monsters amid the riot and avoiding being killed by the other prisoners or the guards, with it either being destroyed or burnt down etc, if the Detective is alive he could say the group died in the fire as thanks. (And gains them a small time ally.) If they don't save the detective and the Prison doesn't burn down, they are considered Fugitives and have a warrant out for them. They are also aware of a new BBEG, who could become a reoccurring thorn in their sides.

Edited to add: Post credits "scene" Could have the FBI detectives rolling up, asking what happened and saying "Don't worry, we're from the Government, and here to help. *sunglasses* If the prison didn't burn down when the PC's left, let them read about it in a newspaper that it did, with all lives lost. *cover-up*

That's my vote as well. My only suggestions to add would be 1) allow them to save the interrogating agent, who was previously unaware of the supernatural events they were dealing with. This agent then can unofficially "lose" them, and serve as an ally later on in the story. 2) You could try making the new Big Bad a false friend. Maybe there's some other group out there who is also hunting monsters, but they are doing it in a sinister plot to uncover artifacts of mass destruction. Maybe the rescuers are unknowingly controlled by some larger evil; puppets of a demon lord that is pulling the strings behind the scene and has now taken notice of the group as potentially useful pawns.

Obviously, at this point they would realistically need a "then ninjas kick in the door" kind of external event. Regardless of motive or not, the fuzz has probable cause to arrest these people, and realistically what they would do is isolate and interrogate each of these individuals until some motive came out, then they'd try and convict them. Youtube "The Wire D'Angelo's Interrogation" to see how it's done (warning: NSFW language).

Telok
2015-08-24, 11:15 PM
Call of Cthulhu has two books that explicitly deal with this situation. The 1990's book (a bit dated now on technology but not on FBI/police investigation vs. supernaturals) and Delta Green.

DG is based on the premise that sections of the government know about supernatural activities and keep it secret, either for self profit or to keep the sheeple from panicking and making really stupid choices. It also assumes that the PCs will be government employees of various agencies involved in an illegal conspiracy to save the world. That's the premise, but the book has really great information about government secrecy and police/FBI investigation techniques.

The 1990's book's technology is dated, as I said. But it too has several sections on how officials will react to supernatural incidents.

I'll look at my copies and write something up for this, but it you want a good reference for this kind of event you might consider tracking down a used copy of one of these books.

Redchigh
2015-08-24, 11:26 PM
One of the cultists is still alive,( their leader) but his mind is shattered (irrevocably insane). The police will eventually find him, decide he drugged the cultists, knocked out the power, and did everything else to put a nice bow on it.

The fact still remains they were nearby, one had cultist blood on their shoe, and two of them have fake IDs and no identity whatsoever. Also, they have not told the police about the dead cultists, which screams suspicion. They also know the cultist leader is alive, and could easily direct suspicion, but none of them have. They haven't matched the shoe blood to a dead cultist yet.

Redchigh
2015-08-25, 12:26 AM
Call of Cthulhu has two books that explicitly deal with this situation. The 1990's book (a bit dated now on technology but not on FBI/police investigation vs. supernaturals) and Delta Green.

DG is based on the premise that sections of the government know about supernatural activities and keep it secret, either for self profit or to keep the sheeple from panicking and making really stupid choices. It also assumes that the PCs will be government employees of various agencies involved in an illegal conspiracy to save the world. That's the premise, but the book has really great information about government secrecy and police/FBI investigation techniques.

The 1990's book's technology is dated, as I said. But it too has several sections on how officials will react to supernatural incidents.

I'll look at my copies and write something up for this, but it you want a good reference for this kind of event you might consider tracking down a used copy of one of these books.

Wow, I didn't even think about that. I might actually have that book. The game is actually pretty similar to CoC and delta green story wise. (another gm's world knows about the supernatural, has mythos magic, and has MJ-12, I just wanted to differentiate mine.)

I even based the game I ran loosely off of black lilith- a delta green shotgun scenario.

Telok
2015-08-26, 12:05 AM
So from what I found something like this will happen:
1. The local police show up, get everyone into custody, secure the scene, and the start trying to make sense of what's going on.
2. Everyone is separated and statements are taken. The three main points are who the person is, what happened, and who the other people are.
3. While that's happening the crime scene is photographed. Every inch, every angle, with rules and notes, and then photographed again. Then forensics people will start going over it. If it's a rural or small town police department the detectives and other officers will double as the forensics team (and they will have been trained to do so), if it's near a city then they'll have the career forensics in to gather evidence.
4. With the right kit gunpowder residues, fire accelerants, and human/animal blood will be determined on site, otherwise it may be an hour or two before results start coming back. If there are any inhuman remains (bones from a burnt thing) they'll be identified as non-human now, a local large animal vet will probably recieve a call in the morning to come and identify them.
5. After about four hours, maximum, everyone has been interviewed, fingerprinted, and the IDs have been run. This is where the PCs start getting into real trouble. If anyone's story doesn't match up they get more interviews. The detectives won't say that the story doesn't match, they'll ask for details, retellings, clarifications, and such. If the PC doesn't have a script they'll probably contradict themselves at some point. If the PCs didn't collaborate and determine what they were going to tell police then they'll probably contradict each other. Enough warning bells should sound in the detectives minds that everyone will be held on some sort of charge or as a material witness.
6. The autopsies start about now. Any inhuman inflicted wounds should show up quickly, chemical stuff will take a few hours more and victim's DNA won't be tested unless the authorities can't ID the bodies.

This will mostly stay a local police matter with a few exceptions. If the press gets a hold of it and runs a hot story then someone higher up in the state's justice department might move in to claim credit. Then local/county police will be replaced by state police and more resources allocated to this, which means that problems will crop up faster and more people will know about it. If there are any underaged cultists who crossed state lines to get there then the FBI is involved as it's a federal kidnapping case as well as the mass murders. If there appears to be any commercial arson, black market firearms, or illegal firearms then the ATF is involved. Possibly the U.S. Marshall service could get involved, apparently they sometimes get to handle wierdness, and the INS may be called in to identify or hold the guys from other worlds.

Generally your PCs fome another world/dimension are pretty screwed. They have zero government records, which is going to set off alarm bells in peoples minds. It's not just that they have no previous criminal records, they have no SSN, no drivers liscence, no credit history, no academic history (including grade school), no birth certificates, no health records, nothing. Unless they can bluff their way out and disappear before they're in custody then they won't get to go anywhere but different jail cells untill someone can positively identify them. It's perfectly possible for Interpol to be called up and asked if anyone matches these guys. Even the INS won't let them go unill they can be identified as being from somewhere.

Ooh, hey. I reread the OP. Explosions and EMPs. The word terrorist will get thrown around and federal agencies will be called in early. These guys either need to break and run soon or hope that a secret agency that deals with the supernatural want's them alive.

Redchigh
2015-08-26, 12:50 AM
They are already in custody. They did the whole session in a very round-about way, acted suspicious (gave police a fake name once before), took down two high capacity powerlines which triggered a rolling blackout in three states, did not shift blame when they had the opportunity, and let the big bad lure them to a final conflict 80 yards from a hotel.

Still, I feel bad their characters are 'screwed' their first game. Just the same, I can't hand-wave it, because that precedent will break tension.
Games are unrelated- they are single missions. A game wouldn't be 'escape'. A game -could- be 'do X mission that takes place in the prison you're in, that could easily result in a riot that enables youto escape if you play your cards right'.

Telok
2015-08-26, 02:55 PM
If things are weird enough then they may be held in a local temporary facility or drunk tank while agencies try to foist the problem off on each other. If the bad thing escaped it may be time for revenge. If they grabbed an artifact or book that something wants it's probably in the same building with them.