Family Game Preparation

As I mentioned the other day, our annual "Family Fall Festival" is coming up rapidly (this approaching Sunday as a matter of fact).

For this year's fare, I am steering clear of a miniatures-based experience, as time has slipped away from me for preparation. Since we primarily play RPGs in our friends and family gaming group, no one will bat an eye if I roll out an RPG scenario.

Although I still have plans to run Fall of Delta Green eventually, the sample adventure is potentially far too involved for a single session.

I have found a standard Call of Cthulhu one-shot adventure to run, but I will be instead running it with The Cthulhu Hack Cthulhu Grey, a rules-light game based on the even lighter Cthulhu Dark. Call of Cthulhu, 7th ed., is pretty easy to understand for the most part but I don't want a D&D 5e situation where everyone is reading their character sheets trying to figure out what they can do (which has, coincidentally, also been my experience playing Call of Cthulhu, albeit 6th ed.). 

Rules-light hopefully means we can get into it much faster without getting bogged down in mechanics and worrying about long lists of specific skills (characters have an occupation, three skills, and two stats).

The hard part, for me, is that I like the Family Fall Festival and Christmas games to stand out from the other gaming we do during the year. It's part of the celebration and I want it to feel that way to the players - not just ordinary ho-hum.

Minis are out, so I'm turning my attention to the ambiance. 

I've purchased a table cloth(we don't use tablecloths ever so while it's not spooky, it's different) and LED candles for lighting. 

Now, as I have trouble reading even in bright light, I know the dim light may be an issue - that's why I picked up 24 votive candles and three tapers. Unfortunately, in last night's testing, I found 3 or 4 votive candles each may not be enough - at least not for me. So, I'll probably order some more to make sure we're covered.

I have a playlist of 1920s music to put on in the background while I set up, and from which I'll segue into creepier ambient music when the game starts.

Sound effects on hand will include waves, wind, rain, lighting, and strange sounds, controlled from a venerable Boss SP-303 "Dr. Sample" rather than software on my phone or laptop (to minimize light from anything but candles).  

Sometimes being a music-gear pack rat pays off.

Now that I think about it, this whole thing has a performance vibe, where the actors don't know their roles until the day of. I digress ...

The adventure, like most Call of Cthulhu adventures, comes with player handouts. I'm getting those printed, since they are in color, and possibly aging some of them with tea or coffee. 

Strange coins play a role in the investigation, so I picked up some creepy made-of-metal prop coins from Etsy. 

Picture by The Unassailable Mage on Etsy

They don't match the ones in the story, but they are odd enough, and I got enough that each player can take one home as a memento. 

I also picked up inexpensive sets of five different d6s for each player. This is entirely self-serving so I can tell at a glance when someone's Harm or Insanity is higher than their other dice. It just happens to have the benefit that they can keep them to add to their collections after the game.

At the very least, if they don't have fun, they will at least come away with some goodies! (Is this bribery? Maybe.)

Finally, I was looking for a centerpiece for the table - there are plenty of cool looking Mythos statues on Etsy, but those typically cost more than I can afford to pay for a one-time use. I recalled I had some air dry clay left over and finding it still good, I decided to try a proof of concept.

Behold, an ancient (and tiny, like 3") evil idol

Cthuloid idol.

 

My crude (aka non-existent) sculpting skills actually work to my advantage here, I think. The downside, as I've encountered before with this stuff, is that it takes forever for the clay to dry completely when it's a thick chunk.

So, for the "final product", I made a mass of aluminum foil roughly in the desired shape and then applied thin strips of air dry clay.  At least that was the plan. I kind of used some thick lumps for the "legs".

Shub-Niggurath

Despite that deviation, in the whole, this process theoretically means it will dry quicker - which is good, since I need this all finished - including painted - by October 6!  My goal is a "crude and disconcerting ancient idol of a previously unknown religion" and  once the paint is applied I think it'll sell that even more.

Why Shub-Niggurath? (asked no one)

Because she's my favorite. 

Also because the adventure is tangentially based around one of the water-affiliated entities and I want to draw the players minds away from that at first - especially the ones familiar with the Lovecraft Mythos who will immediately grasp for Cthulhu and Dagon.

There's still a lot for me to do before Sunday not least of which is finishing converting the scenario from the format of the module to my preferred format for running (this process, though tedious, means I really learn the module, so that, ironically, the final document needs only minimal reference during the game).

Tonight I pick up my PA from the rehearsal space so I can start working on setting up the sampler. (See, it really is a performance!)

Finally, on top of everything, I've been re-reading some of my favorite Lovecraft stories -mostly to mine for his vocabulary for describing cosmic horror and the creeping dread that overcomes his protagonists as they realize the full horror of what they are experiencing.

I may post again before the game but if not, I'll see you on the other side!