As I had previously mentioned here, I was particularly worried as to how I was getting the campaign up to speed for the big story arc of 1925. With sessions #11-13 in the books, we are now 13 months away from that, and I believe I have finalized the storyline for 1924.
In most fantasy games, a year is a short period of time. When you have players with 19 year old name-level characters, the concept of time is very low on the list of important things. When you're playing a group of people in the 1920's with real jobs and families, there must be some balance between investigating and "living life," unless, of course, they wish to throw it all away and fight the horrors in the shadows full time. With 13 sessions in the campaign over the game time of three years and four months, there have been huge gaps of downtime as investigators recover from the previous episode.
That's about to change.
Thanks to some free material at www.yog-sothoth.com, I've properly crafted together scenarios to both fill out the "New York Experience," establish current NPCs as reliable sources of aid, and set-up storylines for the near and distant future.
The great thing about my players is that they don't read the books (the ones produced by Chaosium, not mad Arabs), so I can outline 1924 without fear of them metagaming and reading the scenarios.
The Pennywell Hangmen: I just discovered this gem on yog-sothoth last night and immediately fell in love with it. So much so, that despite poor formatting of the pdf, I had it printed and bound. It's a great set-up for the investigators to finally get together in one place, the role-playing potential is huge, and the players might decide it would be a good idea to start arming their characters on a regular basis. Plus details about Professor Steven O'Hara, might finally come to light. Frightening details... or not.
Dark Rivals: From the Dead Reckonings book. Current 4th tier NPCs will come to prominence, "grittier" investigators will get their chance to shine, and transplanting this to the Big Apple will make the original Arkham version seem like a basket of kittens
Half-Moon: From Secrets of New York sourcebook. The scenario seeds have already been planted. Plus, I have no compunction in ending the scenario early if the investigators piece together the initial objectives and leave the rest for later. Sometimes it's better to watch Rome burn for awhile.
A heavily revised version of Mary: It might be nicer to allude to the greater evils in Massachusetts than force them upon the investigators when their heads are already full of other conspiracies and disasters.
I'll either end the year with The Horror, a little ditty I'm writing to ease with the transition into 1925 or I'll run The Dreamer and let them get sucker punched with the new storyline, while expanding a current one.
All of this does fill one nefarious purpose. With two players (wives) having kids this year, by the time these five are completed, that first year of chaos will subside, and they might be allowed to leave the house again.
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