Murder Will Out - Post-Play Impressions (Warning: SPOILERS, Wall of Text)

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QualitySteel Posted: 19 Sep 2009 2:29 AM

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Okay, so I finished running Murder Will Out (Hunter SAS) last night. Overall, I'd rate this as a 4 out of 5 star product, which helped me run what my entire group said was the 'best game they have ever played' on more than one occasion - and we've all be playing together for over 10 years now. It really did stand out, and I probably wouldn't have bothered with writing this if it didn't. I set the game in Philidelphia, and this was a face to face tabletop session, not an online game, or I'd provide an Actual Play instead of a synopsis.

Length:

In total, running the entire S.A.S. took three sessions. The first two sessions were a good 4-5 hours long each, and the last was an epic 10 hour romp. So a total of around 20 hours of playtime. This was my first SAS (though I've run other pregenerated stories before), and I actually expected to be able to get through all eight scripted scenes in one sitting. Boy was I wrong!

Part of this was due to the fact that I started a whole new chronicle, new characters, etc. and the obligatory 'get everyone together' phase took up almost three quarters of the first session. I did feel like the SAS presented a little too much 'handwaving' for me (i.e. the assumption that everything would just go according to plan and one scene would run smoothly into the next) and my group, so the reality of the situation was that I had to invent anywhere from three to four scenes to actually get to the party from one place to the next, which was just fine but certainly meant it took longer to get to the climax than any of us expected.

The last session, well, we didn't intend it to go that long either. We reached a point where the characters were just about to enter West Bridge for a big showdown, but it was about 1:00 a.m. realtime, and I knew this was going to take some time, so I asked if everyone wanted to break for the night and finish later... got a resounding NO from my players. We finished up around 6:30 a.m., drained and tired but very, very satisfied.

Characters:

I allow players to choose their own level of experience, in blocks of 50, up to 150, but they must take a Flaw, Tell, or some other hindrance for each 'block'. Everyone elected for the full 150/3 Flaw setup (though taking a Major Flaw counts as two). They don't always do this, but I had told them this was about Slashers, and their impression of Slashers up till this point was 'Jason Vorhees will fucking kill you,' so all of them elected for higher experience totals for probably self-explanatory reasons.

I originally was going to allow any Tier, but then decided to start everyone at Tier 1 with a warning to possibly save some xp for Compact/Conspiracy Status and Endowments as they became available - with a promise that yes, they could join any Compact and/or Conspiracy they pleased, in time. The reason for the decision was that on my second reading of the SAS itself I decided some things would be too easy if any of the players had other Hunters to back them up.

The group consists of:

A retired C.I.A. assassin (based on the movie Taken), pushing 50, whose niece and nephew were apparently kidnapped by The Calculator. If you've seen the movie, you've seen this character, not terribly original I'm afraid but played to the hilt with more emphasis on the angst of loss and cold rage than 'I have lots of ways to kill you'... though there was a good bit of that, too.

A twenty-two year old graduate of the police academy with a bachelors in Criminal Law and ties to the Boston-Irish mob (pretty clearly based on the movie The Departed). The player wanted to go Lucifuge, so instead I allowed him to be a Child of the Seventh Generation and take a Dread Power (Crushing Blows). Obviously, his 23rd birthday is coming soon. Also, his sister never showed up for his graduation, and turns out to have went missing. She was last seen in Philidelphia....

The Reluctant Surgeon, a drug-addicted neurosurgeon who quit his practice to follow a famous Hunter around the world, Doctor Watson to his Sherlock Holmes, so to speak, who was called in to help interpret some of the weird occult markings and strange surgical techniques employed in the Calculator murders.

An ex-Hunter-turned-Drug Lord from Miami who moved to New York, and was on vacation when one crazy night of partying had him waking up hung over from the booze and coke and only vague memories of the brawl at the club that landed him in the holding cell of Detective Kim's precinct. Later, this character calls in a hit on Detective Kim, bringing in the last character, who was a 'generic' mafia hitman from New York who was intended to be an NPC until a friend of one of my player's asked to sit in and got handed his character sheet. After the SAS, I asked the player if he wanted to make a new character. He politely declined, having grown attached to him during the climax of the SAS.

Setting:

I used the default Hunter setting of Phillidelphia, as this whole Chronicle will be one SAS followed by another, with a chapter or two of 'downtime' (i.e. following the character's personal goals) between each, and wanted to place more emphasis on the story arcs than my own unique setting. I took a little bit of dramatic license and made Detective Kim's precinct Precinct 13 from the WoD book, with just enough emphasis on some of the themes in that book to make it recognizable to my players who had read the book. It was really more throwing those guys a bone because sometimes it's hard to get them to read books that don't directly affect their characters and I wanted to reward them. It worked out great, and now the Detective character is replacing Kim as the lead detective at the precinct.

Plot:

I made a lot of changes to the Plot and scripted scenes, in some cases just to take into account that these were all very experienced characters, in other cases because I didn't like them as written or had some spark of inspiration while reading them. The core change was the Calculator's identity. The demon at West Bridge was high enough in Infernal Rank to have other demons serving him, and one of them was actually Possessing (ala Inferno) each of the three Slashers in the SAS. This was partly so that I could assume that the Askhanarul (or however you spell the demon's name) had more direct control over them, and partly to cross the power gap between the recommended xp and the actual xp I allowed.

They were still Serial Killers before the Possession, of course, all except the Calculator... who Kim had already killed, only to be Possessed himself at the scene of the crime. Kim actually replaces the Calculator. This gave the demon key insights into the character's plans at almost every juncture, and really worked out well because everyone was looking for a seven foot tall black man when in fact the real Calculator was now a five foot six half-Chinese cop...

I left out the part where Donald Atcheson write the party letters to try and get them to kill each other. This is mostly because, even though I use lots of props and gimmicks, I just didn't think I could pull it off without the players feeling it was contrived. By the time we got to it everyone was so into the story that I was afraid to do anything to hurt their immersion, and partly because the only 'guaranteed' payoff from using the scene is having Kim go ballistic on a character and Kim was already 'on board' - no need to convince him anymore. All the other scenes got used, even if there were significant alterations. Sandra Myers became the C.I.A. agent's niece, and most of the 'reveals' and clues got taken in out of order because the party didn't have to be spoon-fed clues the way the SAS presents them - they had contacts and allies to draw on that let them find what they needed on their own.

I was particularly let down by some parts, though, such as the Calculator leaving his jacket behind at the crime scene and later Sally Duqesne just happening to have a flyer for Green Field's Retirement Home with "D. Atcheson" scribbled into the margins... it was just too easy, imo, but I ended up still using the latter, just making sure that the circumstances reeked of 'this is clearly a trap.' What a trap it was, too! Sally took off the Drug Lord's right arm at the elbow, and all but killed him before the Surgeon (who was the only one who'd objected to sending the Drug Lord in alone) got to him and put Sally down.

The last Plot Point I'd like to discuss is one I made up myself, but truly ratcheted the creep factor to Over Nine Thousand for my group. Over the course of the game, the Detective's Whisperer (which will eventually grow into his Familiar) helped him crack the Calculator's Code, and reproduce the ritual. At one point when the party hit a brick wall, he just gave in to the demon and performed the ritual himself, with the help of the Retired Assassin, and used the information gained to locate Ashkanaruul (sp) at West Bridge. I pulled no punches. They murdered Donald Atcheson at a Marriot Hotel, and I made them describe every tiny detail of the ritual as they performed it, leading them to believe that if they didn't get every detail just perfect there would be even worse problems than a serial killer loose in the city. This became the defining moment for the Detective, when he fully embraced the (literal) demon inside him, and truly joined the Children of the Seventh Generation. It also prompted my entire party to ask for an extended break because they were severely creeped out by the end of it (though in a good way) and the tension was getting to them.

Finale:

I really worked myself over here, watching about two horror movies a day for a month straight to get inspiration and the 'standard' horror tropes down. The scene at West Bridge took six hours, and was closer to a Grindhouse Event than a single horror movie, where I had the opportunity to just go absolutely over the top and include elements of nearly every horror movie I ever watched. The Hospital wasn't evacuated, but quarantined, and the Calculator (Detective Kim in disguise, using powers of illusion to look like the original Calculator until "the rules*" no longer allowed him to do so) had literally hundreds of potential victims to choose from in what amounted to an orgy of death. The 'demon host' that I added to serve Ashkanaruul(sp) also started possessing (lowercase p) random people and making them commit atrocities as well. Detective Kim, unlike the original Calculator, was not a Freak but a Legend, and simply couldn't be harmed except by someone who had a sympathetic connection to his victims (in this case the Detective or the Retired Assassin)... so he only fought them, personally, in the very, very end.

One example of a scene in the finale: The Retired Assassin hears screams down the hall. As he heads for the door, only the lights directly above his head remain on (and only flickering at that), they turn off behind him and on as he walks under them. When he gets there, it says "Maternity Ward" in big block letters (and is accompanied by some really funny looks from the players when they saw where I was going with this...).

Taking a deep breath, because this is about as bad as it could get, he imagines, he passes through the door - only to have it slam shut and lock behind him - and all but the emergency lights on the emergency exit sign at the far end of this hallway shut off. He gets out his cell phone and uses it for light, slowly advancing. Eventually, he starts seeing people near the end of the hallway, nurses and patients carrying the babies, nurses and doctors pushing patients in wheelchairs, all towards the emergency exit. He breathes a sigh of relief. It could have been worse, so much worse.

(in fact, just the mention of 'Maternity Ward' after all the disturbing events and bloodshed they had already seen in the rest of the hospital was one of the tensest moments for most of the players in the entire story... I find that implying true horror often is more effective than splatter, and 'mutilated babies' would have probably been going to far. I was really pushing their limits by this point.)

Before he gets to the end of the hall, he hears a woman moaning and grunting, and looks in one of the room. He sees nurses holding flashlights and a doctor in the process of delivering a baby. After watching for long enough to make sure they weren't Crazy Ninja Pirate Doctors delivering a Zombie Baby or some other nastiness, and that the doctor had things well under control, he started down the hallway again... only to hear a sound reminiscent of a giant water baloon bursting behind him. He looks back to see a gargantuan spray of blood, like the doorway had become the nozzle of the world's largest blood-filled fire hydrant, splash against the opposite wall of the hall and cover him in gore. As the blood drips down the walls, it leaves behind smears in the shape of the Calculator's Code, which could be found at the scene of all the previous killings. He runs back into the room, only to find it empty but the blood really there, and loses it a little bit, getting completely soaked through with the stuff as he tries to rub out the bloody symbols with his hands and arms. Once he finally gives up and leaves the room, he finds that all the blood except what is on him is gone.

Conclusions:

This is a really, really good product and I suggest anyone looking for excellent story seeds for their Hunter game to give it a serious look. I had to make extensive changes for the game to suit my players and I, but that would have happened no matter what SAS I was running.

Also, if you've actually read through all this you seriously deserve a gold star for perseverance. Thank you.

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Seryna replied on 19 Sep 2009 3:36 AM

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Hello,

You can ignore my post to 'favorite sas', you truly answered most of my questions. The length alone is startling, my group meets online, so 2-3 hours is normally our limit.

I appreciate all of the detail you've amassed here. Having the possession (and using Kim as one) was a great idea. It's great fun envisioning the player's reactions to that turn of events.
If you don't mind, may I ask a few questions?

Did the 'where is whatever that girl's name' of that Slasher ever get explored by your troupe? There's some concern that the characters may become interested in trying to 'discover that girl' more than finding the Calculator, or the wrong assumption that the Calculator took the girl.
How quickly did your characters grasp Askhanarul's nature and goal? I'm writing a bit of a prologue for that bit as my group is signifignantly newer to the Vigil and much more humble, XP wise, than your group.

Did you find the 'spoon fed' clues to be entirely too easy? I gather that a bit from this. Perhaps a few scenes could be inveted- or another Slasher invented whose sole job is to mask Askhanarul's location. Something to keep it from being cookie cutter.

Thanks for the especially detailed run down. Do you plan on hosting the session any where? If you do, please drop me a line. I'd be very interested.
~Seryna

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QualitySteel replied on 19 Sep 2009 3:52 AM

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I answered your other post, anyway, though I really was just trying to direct you here. ;) Of course you can ask questions.

The party did not investigate really anything about Sally at this point. Things moved pretty quickly from the ambush to the finale (relatively, anyway) and they honestly didn't seem to give it a second thought. I'm actually tying this back in with my next session, though, because the Retired Assassin's nephew was also kidnapped, and while they found the niece's body they never found the nephew. I'm hoping that in pursuing the nephew I can tie in the rest of Sally's story. In my case, I wasn't too worried about the characters getting off-track because half the party had family members who had been murdered by the Calculator.

As to the 'big reveal' and the players sorting out that it was a demon inhabiting the hospital, they didn't sort it out till they entered West Bridge with plans to take out the Calculator, and the demon actually started talking to them. Even then, there was still some confusion (that I encouraged) as to whether the Calculator was the voice in their head, or it was two separate entities. Only when the Calculator gave his 'You cannot kill me because my master inhabits this place, and unlike you he is not so easily broken' speech did they fully understand what they were up against. Note: While the characters were all very experienced, only the Drug Lord and the Reluctant Surgeon were actually hunters at the beginning of the story, and the Demon Detective, who might have figured it out, was too confused by his own demon (the Whisperer) to catch on about Ashkanaruul (spelling, I know). Oh, and I left out the part about the part about the Clarion Street Hunters entirely, because it would've made Subverting the Calculator's Code (the scene where the Demon Detective and the Retired Assassin murdered Atcheson) irrelevant, and I wasn't going to let that happen. Much like chasing down the missing girl, I intend to introduce them in the next session, as part of the aftermath.

I didn't like the clues at all, to be honest. I couldn't imagine a serial killer known as 'The Calculator' making a stupid mistake like leaving a coat behind at the scene after the hours of description the party had been given about how precise and methodical he was. It just didn't fit, and struck me as lazy writing. I found a way to use Sally's brochure, but in the end these spoon fed clues are why I didn't rate the product a full 5 out of 5.

What do you mean by 'hosting the session'? I'm sorry if I don't get the reference, it's probably because the games I run are live tabletop affairs.

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Seryna replied on 19 Sep 2009 4:26 AM

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Good to hear on the Sally front. If non interest in her obsession in a universal aspect, I might remove Sally altogether. One of the Lucifuge and a band of tier ones just battled a deranged child - canabal Slasher that escaped them while they rescued the child.

Using the characters' family ties as motivation is chill. How did the character handle discovering his nephews' death? Is his mourning affecting his Vigil in the aftermath?

*nods* Thanks for the information on the clues. Now I can devote some time to making some thing for them to actually spend time investigating in order to figure out where they have to go. I did find it odd that 'if your characters really suck at searching or are too lazy to bother, Kim finds it for them'. Eh? I really don't want Kim to be a furniture character, shuffling the characters from platform to platform like dutiful school children.
How did the characters handle Kim in the end? Had any of the characters any strong leanings towards one of the compacts regarding him? Did your characters decide to stay tier one at the end?

Ah yes, I caught your Actual Play information on the re - read. I'm a bit new to communicating to other STs and terms like ' Actual Play' take me a minute to comprehend. Sorry for throwing it out there when you'd already answered it.

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QualitySteel replied on 19 Sep 2009 4:59 AM

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S'ok, "Actual Play" is just a term they throw around on these boards (and maybe others, I dunno) to refer to line by line play logs of a session. Since I've no interest to write out twenty hours of gameplay that was spoken, not typed, at least, not without getting paid for it lol, so this is what you get, and it still took some time to write. :)

We ended the session precisely at "Lay Down Your Guns" so there's not really been any sort of aftermath or follow-up yet, that will be the focus of next session, where I hope to lay down the story hooks about the Clarion Street Gang, some connections between Sally's girl and the nephew, etc. Note: The Niece was found, murdered by the Calculator, the Nephew is still missing. Also, I wouldn't remove Sally, just remember that her entire backstory is really just optional, if it even occurs to the players to look into, because she really just serves as a plot device to move the focus of the story from the Calculator to Donald Atcheson for a short time. The Retired Assassin wasn't visibly stricken with grief when he found his niece's body, he just clammed up for awhile and let's just say Donald Atcheson really got it. The character is an old-time C.I.A. man straight out of the Cold War, he knows all about how few kidnap victims are ever actually returned alive. It was always mostly about revenge for him from the beginning. In contrast, though, he'll have a genuine chance to save the Nephew if he plays his cards right and is willing to make some hard decisions.

If the clues work for you, don't change them, they just didn't work for my group. There was no way in hell Kim would be figuring things out for them in my version, though, because he was one of the bad guys... but I probably wouldn't let it happen, anyway, because I don't like to use that kind of 'go to guy' storytelling crutch in my games.

I don't know what 'strong leanings towards compacts regarding him' means, though, so sorry I can't answer that one.

My players won't be staying Tier 1, though, at least most of them won't. They all have leanings towards Tier 3 and Tier 2, and I'll be working the first hooks towards that end next Thursday when we play again. Those leanings are:

Retired Assassin - Task Force: Valkyrie

He already has a long history working for the government, so all he'd really be doing is be coming out of retirement, with a new type of target than before.

Demon Detective - The Lucifuge

This one's pretty self-explanatory. The character is a Child of the Seventh Generation, has a little demon voice riding around in his head, and has already learned his first demonic ritual (which will be translated into a new Castigation Ritual called "The Calculator's Code," the specifics of which I'll post here once we've hammered it out in-game). Also, he's 22...

The Reluctant Doctor - The Ascending Ones

The character has spent many years in Egypt and the middle east, likes drugs, and has knowledge of both biology and chemistry. It's a closer fit than the Cheiron Group, which is where I originally thought he would want to go.

The Drug Lord - Ashwood Abbey

I didn't really touch much on this guy in the synopsis, except to explain that he had his arm cut off at the elbow, but he's a hard-rolling, partying, live-life-to-the-fullest type with no real moral compunctions about anything except getting what he wants, when he wants it. Perfect fit. NOTE: The player of this character has also expressed some interest in becoming a Slasher, and the Hunt Club, though I told him that would take at least as long as it will the others to become fully accepted by their Conspiracies, if I allow it at all. Given the maturity level of this player, however, I most likely will allow it.

The Mob Hitman

This is the newest member of the party (just came in during the last session kinda randomly, but has decided to join the troupe full time), and I don't really know how his character will develop from here.

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QualitySteel replied on 19 Sep 2009 5:52 AM

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Oh, and the players 'handled' Kim in the end by taking his head off with Sally Duquesne's Kukri. ;) Seriously though, it was all happening so fast they didn't have much time to reflect on the betrayal until the fight was over, and we basically drew the curtain with his radio buzzing and a very confused police chief on the other end asking the players why the hell he had been listening to the screams of the dying for the last twenty minutes.

This was important, because up until this point Kim had very thoroughly framed the characters for basically everything, up to and including pinning all of the Calculator killings on one of them.. so in their one stroke of 'freak luck' enough blood got on the radio that the button got sticky and the transmitter stayed on during some of Kim's more vicious murders in the hospital, essentially exonerating the party because Kim says some fucked up stuff to people while he's cutting them up, stuff that you wouldn't want your boss to hear, like "When I'm done cutting your heart out, I'll feed on it, and as I feed, your suffering will be my master's appetizer, your soul his main course, and all your hopes and dreams his desert.' You know, just an example. ;)

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Attrei replied on 19 Sep 2009 6:05 PM

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Being the player that played the Retired CIA agent, I must say this was one of the absolutely best games I have been in. It may just be QS's running, or the actual writing of the story. I can say that it did creep me out in quite a few parts.

I would recommend that the group that plays this be a more experience group that can handle true horror. Newer players would have a chance of being scared off from the game, just from the creep factor.

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Seryna replied on 21 Sep 2009 4:49 AM

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Thank you for the reply.
I formed up a prologue with Kim and found that the premise seemed to interest the players. I admit, I am now reconsidering launching Murder will out now due to the fact that most of the Hunters on the site that I admin at are very new to the Vigil. I don't want to scare them off completely and ruin some great stories that might have come together.

That said, thank you for sharing your game! I'm very interested in hearing more if any thing else occurs to you(or if the players have opinions!).
~Seryna

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QualitySteel replied on 21 Sep 2009 8:51 AM

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It's worth noting that part of what really, really creeped my players out was a home-brewed scene (Subverting the Calculator's Code)... and another part of it was a really over the top portrayal of the final scene... if you just didn't play the 'Slasher movie tropes' to the hilt like I did, it wouldn't be so 'scary.' That said, imo if you're worried that much about your players being turned off by horror in their modern horror role-playing, maybe you should consider Big Eyes, Small Mouth or some other kid-gloves game. :)

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Attrei replied on 21 Sep 2009 10:46 AM

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I don't mean if the players are new to the vigil, I mean young and inexperienced players. Those are the main ones that have a chance to be scared off. As long as you have mature players, don't worry if their characters are new to the vigil, or even if they are new to the Hunter game. Just realize that you will have to play up the Horror factor. It was an awesome adventure that I would probably enjoy playing through again.

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Seryna replied on 21 Sep 2009 7:31 PM

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'It's worth noting that part of what really, really creeped my players out was a home-brewed scene (Subverting the Calculator's Code)... and another part of it was a really over the top portrayal of the final scene... if you just didn't play the 'Slasher movie tropes' to the hilt like I did, it wouldn't be so 'scary.' That said, imo if you're worried that much about your players being turned off by horror in their modern horror role-playing, maybe you should consider Big Eyes, Small Mouth or some other kid-gloves game. :)'

'I don't mean if the players are new to the vigil, I mean young and inexperienced players. Those are the main ones that have a chance to be scared off. As long as you have mature players, don't worry if their characters are new to the vigil, or even if they are new to the Hunter game. Just realize that you will have to play up the Horror factor. It was an awesome adventure that I would probably enjoy playing through again.'

Haha, true (to the kid gloves game comment). I am in a conversation with one of the players debating if 'Auspex sight' should be harvesting the eye and brain or the eye and vitae, so the players are no shirking violets. Perhaps a bit too much hesitation on my part there.

I plan on finishing up Bad Night at Black Moon farm with the 'Bad Night' cell and the ghost posession SL with the Lucifuge cell; perhaps then every one is thoughly indoctrinated in WOD is not care bears.

All of the players are adults that seem comfortable with the scary scenes I've run in the past. The site also has a 'if you're uncomfortable, say so, and the scene fades to black and the ST writes up what happens'.

I have to admit, my mind is now churning out scary ideas that I'm itching to throw out.
~Seryna

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QualitySteel replied on 21 Sep 2009 10:59 PM

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Seryna:
I have to admit, my mind is now churning out scary ideas that I'm itching to throw out.

...that's what happened to me, too, lol... and boy did my players 'get it'... ;)

Murder Will Out - Post-Play Impressions (Warning: SPOILERS, Wall of Text)

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