Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, Other TTRPGs

[The Cat]

Whitewolf definitely gives you a lot of background material and worldview settings.

I am not a DM but it sounds like 5e just kind of threw DMs to the wolves as its tenure progressed.

And even the wolves were like: Aw come on, dont feed us these sticks and bones, give those poor dms some meat!

 

[The Cat]

lol 5e Turned dms and grognards into Uruk Hai.

 

[The Cat]

This guy has some damned good videos on DMing
I have a feeling getting into old school d&D is gonna rekindle my enjoyment of 5e(which I still enjoy)
There are a lot of 5e adventures I want to run(homebrewed of course)
I was doing something like this when I was running Curse of Strahd, I ended up stepping away from that group though. There were some things that bugged me(i dont enjoy players trashing each other at my table, and I dont enjoy players who secretly want to be dms trying to run the game from the front of the dm screen. If you want to dm just say so and I'll happily let you and then you can run it just like adventurers league, but I probably wont enjoy playing it AL feels like kryptonite to me.)
But I dont like throwing a designated BBEG at the players. I like to start out with neutral people or good people who the player characters like then slowly start letting life and circumstances wear them down till they cross a line, and then the player characters have a choice to make. I feel like a BBEG needs to be something personal. That doesnt mean I dont enjoy wandering villains, but the BBEG...my dream scinario is one where the players are working for this person for a while before they have that moment where they wonder...Are we the baddies? No we cant be we work Keith. Keith is a good person....isnt he? Is he? Oh. Oh my. What have we done? What are we going to do?
I confess a Randal Flagg type villain is my favorite kind.​

 

[Totenkindly]

The New York Times did an obituary for Jennell. Wow. It's really nice and covers so much of her gaming contributions, including the Central Casting project she was completing when she died.

Jennell Jaquays, 67, Dies; Unlocked Fantasy Dungeons for Gamers

She created scenarios with myriad paths for Dungeons & Dragons, levels for video games like Quake II, and art that invited novices to try role-playing games.

www.nytimes.com

 

[The Cat]

 

[The Cat]

A lot of the comments suggest that the dm should have stopped the game and personally insulted the player threatening to kick them out if they ever meta game again...I read them shaking my head. I would much rather my dm handle meta gaming this way rather than stopping the game and threatening a player in front of the other players. There are few things that are as game killing for me than when players or dms stop the game to yell at players out of game. Because 9/10 times its something that could have been handled in game with a private conversation after sesh. Maybe its a generational thing, idk, but it seems like a lot of 5ers cant seperate players from characters. It cracks me up too because ime most of the people who get up in arms about meta gaming, are also meta gaming to keep their characters alive and "always the heroes"

Larry's table would be a lot of fun to play at I think.​

 

[Totenkindly]

A lot of the comments suggest that the dm should have stopped the game and personally insulted the player threatening to kick them out if they ever meta game again...I read them shaking my head. I would much rather my dm handle meta gaming this way rather than stopping the game and threatening a player in front of the other players.​

Yeah, in GENERAL you want to handle metagaming within the game -- however, the problem is that instead of punishing the metagamer, the DM punished the player who didn't do anything wrong. And now that player's character is dead.

Which is pretty lame IMO. That feels like bad DM'ing.

So in this specific instance, maybe smacking down the offending player would have been a better approach. Instead, now you have the good player pissed off at another player plus also kind of pissed at the DM. Do this enough times and your group will fracture.

You're telling me the DM couldn't have come up with some kind of outcome that punished the metagamer instead of the good player?

There are few things that are as game killing for me than when players or dms stop the game to yell at players out of game. Because 9/10 times its something that could have been handled in game with a private conversation after sesh. Maybe its a generational thing, idk, but it seems like a lot of 5ers cant seperate players from characters. It cracks me up too because ime most of the people who get up in arms about meta gaming, are also meta gaming to keep their characters alive and "always the heroes"​

As said above, there's a difference between "keeping your character alive" vs wanting a fair shake. THis was kind of a raw deal for Tamben. In fact, Tamben was kinda screwed from the start, in that he had a choice between "Sleep" or "Death" so he took Sleep. And he never got another choice after. Another player who was cheating killed him, in effect punishing him.

I also am bugged by your comment about how players can't "separate themselves from their character." Again, keeping a healthy perspective, people have invested a lot of time in their characters; I think the DM should respect their investment and not do shit that makes them feel a lack of respect for them as players. Otherwise the DM will soon have an empty table.

You want people to feel good even when their characters die. It should feel like it had some kind of value or barring that at the very least was "fair" in terms of mechanics. If it feels neither good, nor fair, you will AGAIN soon be looking at an empty table. Who wants to invest in a game where the DM is either capricious or unfair constantly, and you can't let yourself invest in your character?

--

Anyway, from the other end of things, I worry about a lot of tables when I see all the drama in my FB groups dedicated to DND 5e. Just like, where the F is all this drama coming from?

I have honestly never really had a problem in my 40 years of gaming regarding table drama. There has been an occasional flare up but people adjust and/or talk it out. Like, I remember only 2-3 instances in our gaming groups where there was an actual shouting match at the table. But we're all still playing together.

I dunno, I typically defer to the DM. It's their table. I will plead a case on occasion, and the DMs I've played with have invariably been pretty cool; and even when they didn't give me what I wanted, it was okay because I'm crafty and know how to be effective.

I have a hard time imagining all of these blowouts happening with people over the age of 22.

 

[The Cat]

Yeah, in GENERAL you want to handle metagaming within the game -- however, the problem is that instead of punishing the metagamer, the DM punished the player who didn't do anything wrong. And now that player's character is dead.

Which is pretty lame IMO. That feels like bad DM'ing.

So in this specific instance, maybe smacking down the offending player would have been a better approach. Instead, now you have the good player pissed off at another player plus also kind of pissed at the DM. Do this enough times and your group will fracture.

You're telling me the DM couldn't have come up with some kind of outcome that punished the metagamer instead of the good player?


As said above, there's a difference between "keeping your character alive" vs wanting a fair shake. THis was kind of a raw deal for Tamben. In fact, Tamben was kinda screwed from the start, in that he had a choice between "Sleep" or "Death" so he took Sleep. And he never got another choice after. Another player who was cheating killed him, in effect punishing him.

I also am bugged by your comment about how players can't "separate themselves from their character." Again, keeping a healthy perspective, people have invested a lot of time in their characters; I think the DM should respect their investment and not do shit that makes them feel a lack of respect for them as players. Otherwise the DM will soon have an empty table.

You want people to feel good even when their characters die. It should feel like it had some kind of value or barring that at the very least was "fair" in terms of mechanics. If it feels neither good, nor fair, you will AGAIN soon be looking at an empty table. Who wants to invest in a game where the DM is either capricious or unfair constantly, and you can't let yourself invest in your character?

--

Anyway, from the other end of things, I worry about a lot of tables when I see all the drama in my FB groups dedicated to DND 5e. Just like, where the F is all this drama coming from?

I have honestly never really had a problem in my 40 years of gaming regarding table drama. There has been an occasional flare up but people adjust and/or talk it out. Like, I remember only 2-3 instances in our gaming groups where there was an actual shouting match at the table. But we're all still playing together.

I dunno, I typically defer to the DM. It's their table. I will plead a case on occasion, and the DMs I've played with have invariably been pretty cool; and even when they didn't give me what I wanted, it was okay because I'm crafty and know how to be effective.

I have a hard time imagining all of these blowouts happening with people over the age of 22.

Didnt mean to upset/offend you somehow? It was not my intention. But it seems that may have been the case?

TBH I kinda think that the barb probably never meta gamed like that again.(I certainly wouldnt, because while I may not always care what happens to my character, I care what happens to other players characters if they do) We also don't know what happened after the fact. And clearly the player whos character died was fine enough with it to keep playing and make a fun video about it.

Further, I'm not saying I would do this as a dm(though I do allow pvp), but as a player I can attest it can be kinda fun, but I enjoy that kind of thing.
I also would point out I never said anything about all players or every player, so I struggle to understand why a comment about some players having an issue(which some do, once upon a time I was among them) with it is upsetting?(could just be my autism)

I used to be a power gamer(I like optimizing my 5e characters and I make sure in 5e my players know that death is an obstacle to overcome if they really desire to), and I can min max with the best of them, but I've come to be able to enjoy playing ttrpg with more paper thin characters(though I still dont like standard array, rolling low is one thing, but being forced to pick a weakness is not fun for me), where you're not playing a character who the world revolves around, or is chosen by fate or prophecy or has anything to do with saving a world. I didnt feel good about it, but I didnt feel bad about it either.

Your play style might not be like mine, my play style isnt gonna be exactly like yours. And that's ok.

Regarding table drama. In person, Ive never had any whatsoever. Most folks are just happy to roll bones and collect treasure. Online, sometimes I have(usually when the dm is having their S/O play). Also internet is full of rpg horror stories, so the drama for good or ill definitely does seem to exist. I'm personally glad you've never had to deal with it. It's not fun. As far as I can tell, it seems to come from some players feeling like their way is the right/only way to do things. They tend to want to "win" or are playing a different game than everyone else. Or they make things that shouldnt be personal in game, personal.

I've been the Tamben before, and while it sucked losing one of my favorite characters of all time. It was still fun for me. Sometimes its satisfying(for me) playing a character that unexpectedly gets killed on account of something another player did. Especially when your character was the character who was telling the other characters how foolish it was to entangle the party in unnecessary heroics. And lo and behold if it came to pass. It was a powerful moment in its suddeness and "unfairness". That was narratively satisfying to me.(I've personally never played with anyone who got upset about their character dying(aside from the dm who didnt mean to kill a player's character in Death House.) Would it be satisfying to you? I have no idea. You do play horror, but from your games descriptions, it seems to be(to me) more heroic(no offense intended) than i like my horror, but that's just me. It can be fun to play heroic horror, but its not so much my cuppa rn.

I tend to avoid tables where I find drama, and I tend to go to tables where there's more of a feeling of life is fragile and fate is capricious and sometimes the true horror of an adventure comes from being koed because someone else triggered a trap(Percy and Vex) or didnt listen to the dm's hints(Keyleth swan diving over a cliff while shouting we're practically gods).

I just dont understand why so many people in the comments get so hot about defending Zee against a callous dm, because tbh I just didnt see the same video some people seem to have.

This also seems like it would be fun to me to play in.

​

Also, they weren't playing 5e, or even 3rd edition, they were playing original D&D which from what im discovering) the character creation is much faster, because the game is set up around your characters arent in a marvel game, part of the fun is the fragility of the characters. Its not wrong, or bad, its just different.


But yeah this is kinda where my confusion with some of the original youtube comments were coming from. There seems to be a lot of people getting hot and viewing what happened as a punishment, I as a player, just didnt see it that way. And given that the author of the video still plays those games with that dm and group, I get the feeling it was fine for them too.

But yeah, people do seem to get more into drama online for whatever reason.

As far as the ages go, I've met my share of mature teenagers and childish people in their 50's and 60's. In the end I guess there's just no accounting for taste in what people find fun or upsetting.

I enjoy these kinds of games at this stage in my life.
I like 5e. It's a lot of fun. Great way to play an anime/marvel style adventure.
But I'll always like the old school of it better, because its more dangerous, less heroic. Closer to sword and Sorcery.
Can 5e do it, yes to an extent. But the player base is more typically on the side of "balanced encounters" and "Heroic fantasies."
Which again is fine.
I guess at the end of the day one feels more real to me than the other. And for me its easier to escape into the world that feels more real. But there's 6 editions and so many other games out there, so to each their own.
​

I hope everyone has fun when they play them. I've run into abusive dms, I leave their table right quick and quietly. "Thanks but no thanks, this isnt for me, best of luck moving forward everyone." The scinario presented in the original clip. Didnt strike me as abusive. It would be like getting mad at a movie based on a single random scene I saw on youtube.

My own dm style tends to run towards being more permissive to my players, but I warn them in session 0 that the narrator is more rod serling or ray bradbury than stan lee. I love granting wishes to my players and then sitting back and watching their characters pay the price of getting exactly what they asked for. But again. My players know what to expect, and I tend to believe that Larry's players did to. I dont believe in the dm being against the players, but I do believe in the dm letting the players fuck up bad, I'm not going to pause the world for the players at every potential bad choice they make. I owe them nothing just like they dont owe me backstories, or engaging with down time activities. The players that do level up faster and get more things they're interested in because they put in the work. No one has to, its a game. If it turns out to be a problem for the table. Conversations out of game(before or after session) happen. And we decide where to go from there. Would LArry's table work for everyone, no. That's statistically impossible, hundreds of billions of people is too much to account for....but it would work for ME. And that's all I was posting about. I have no issue investing in a character even if that character is destined for a sudden and unheroic death. Matches up with how people tend to die in real life and that kind of realism can be fun for me. It just doesnt take the piss out of me for whatever reason. And yes, while I am aware there are people who arent able to enjoy that, I wish them luck at whatever table they find that gives them what they need. I'm finding my place, and its been a lot of fun to get to play at a table where the culture isnt seemingly trying to make me feel like a freak for playing "differently"(but still within a system of rules) or finding different things fun. In a game system with 6 editions where being able to try anything is printed on the tin, I tend to think this shouldnt be a problem. But maybe its a sign of the times. Everyone wants to feel free, and lord knows there's not a lot of that in real life, maybe that's where the drama comes from.

 

[The Cat]

"You won't be making a character build, but instead you'll be building a character through play. You character is a sum of experiences and treasures and relationships you establish during play, not by reaching landmarks defined in the rules."
"Among my 5e peers, "roguelike" seems to be the keyword that captures their interest the most."

It really is a lot of fun.

 

[Totenkindly]

Didnt mean to upset/offend you somehow? It was not my intention. But it seems that may have been the case?

I'm kinda feeling like it's the other way around.

You were critical of people who didn't appreciate how the DM handled this, so I came in expecting to agree with you -- but then could see exactly why people might have been upset. But you seem really committed to dying on this hill. So... whatever floats your boat. I told you my thoughts so you could see another side + this is a forum. I'm a little confused as to why you thought the DM's position was so defensible, but you are still creating mountains of text to defend him and justify yourself so I'm not feeling like I'm the one who is emotionally wrapped up in this. The immediate "you're okay, I'm okay" defense also undermines actual exchange of ideas when played, rather than dealing with the inherent quality of both positions; I feel like it is just a way to shut me up.

But okay, it is just what it is. Obviously it's a huge deal to you. I am getting that you have felt criticized or looked down on in some way by others by preferring certain play styles, which wasn't my original point -- I was expressing my opinion about the DM in the video.

I still think that, as a team lead(er), as a parent, and as a GM, that it is best to punish (if you're going to slap someone down) the person who actually caused the problem / committed the wrong, NOT an innocent party. And I would not dismiss players for actually investing in and caring about their characters. Most people do, although there is a variance involved of course. So if you run across it, accept it and take it into consideration, rather than seeing it as the anomaly. I think in my gaming groups, pretty much all of one group cares about their characters, and the other long-running group is about 50/50.

I've been the Tamben before, and while it sucked losing one of my favorite characters of all time. It was still fun for me. Sometimes its satisfying(for me) playing a character that unexpectedly gets killed on account of something another player did. Especially when your character was the character who was telling the other characters how foolish it was to entangle the party in unnecessary heroics. And lo and behold if it came to pass. It was a powerful moment in its suddeness and "unfairness". That was narratively satisfying to me.(I've personally never played with anyone who got upset about their character dying(aside from the dm who didnt mean to kill a player's character in Death House.) Would it be satisfying to you? I have no idea. You do play horror, but from your games descriptions, it seems to be(to me) more heroic(no offense intended) than i like my horror, but that's just me. It can be fun to play heroic horror, but its not so much my cuppa rn.

You are overthinking this big-time and reading a LOT of shit in again, for some unknown reason.

You're in a series called Death House? Sounds like death is expected, so... not a biggie. Some games like Call of Cthulhu, you're expected to go mad. It's just a matter of time. Other games, not so much.

What matters up front is a Session 0 where the DM lays out the game expectation. I think the annoyance is where the DM promises you one thing and delivers another. If I know there's an expectation that unfair shit can happen in the game and/or the mortality rate is high, then it's not a big deal. If it's a game where you're supposedly building a great story together and your character gets food poisoning because his buddy purposefully didn't properly cook the group meal, spends three weeks in a hospital bed, and then expires, that's not really a fun story.

[As a side note, one of the worst fantasy novels -- worst as in "most unsatisfiying, where I wanted to literally throw the book across the room" and I never have THAT response -- was a late 80's (?) tale called "Wizard War", where on page 190 out of 220 or something, the leader of a trio of wizards breaks his arm and soon just expires from complications. The book acted as if it was a heroic fantasy until that point, i believe. Just a pretty stupid plot twist that amounted to nothing. I never read anything else by that author. Shit might go down in a Stephen King story, but he has a way of making even the dumbest detail feel like it actually matters; he understands each character in his stories is a "hero" in their own narrative, and even dumb twists make sense, whether it's Harold Lauder essentially dying in the wilderness from a broken leg -- which still felt pretty epic, because he was used and cast aside due to his own personal blindness, or other characters of his who die from mundane causes.]

These games are called "entertainment," not the same old tedious pointless shit we experiencing daily IRL. The default seems to be to expecting to have fun and also that you have a fair shot at success, and that you will be aware ahead of time if things will not be fair so the players can manage their expectations. This shouldn't be a complicated concept to accept. Just be up front about what people are being asked to buy into.

I tend to avoid tables where I find drama, and I tend to go to tables where there's more of a feeling of life is fragile and fate is capricious and sometimes the true horror of an adventure comes from being koed because someone else triggered a trap(Percy and Vex) or didnt listen to the dm's hints(Keyleth swan diving over a cliff while shouting we're practically gods).

You are way off the original topic of conversation. The original scenario is another player was METAGAMING, so the GM killed off a different innocent player's character to somehow punish the offending player and/or teach them a lesson. This has nothing to do with two characters spelunking together, and despite them both trying to not die, one accidentally triggers a trap -- the expectation ahead of time is that there will be traps, and if your buddy triggers one, you could die. Those are two entirely different scenarios.

I already have said my piece. If you don't get it, you don't get it.

Everyone wants to feel free, and lord knows there's not a lot of that in real life, maybe that's where the drama comes from.​

Maybe ask your players why they are playing your game and just find out directly, and tailor your game to suit. This conversation has way too many words in it than required.

 

[The Cat]

I apologize. I'm not trying to be confrontational or critical if Im coming off that way. I was rambling a bit, but I'm medicated for another cold. I was just enjoying the conversation, I got excited. Also the campaign wasnt death house, the campaign was curse of strahd, the dm wanted to run death house as the first adventure.

 

[Totenkindly]

There are things I know as a player (if only from being aware of other people's rolls or GM comments), but I will specifically choose not to respond because my character wouldn't know unless they have a in-game reason. I also like to come up with probable narrative reasons they might fail a check or an attack.

 

[Totenkindly]

Wow, we managed to continue blowing through the gnoll campground after some nasty calls. We managed to take out a good 12-14 gnoll fighters and antipaladins (mid level) casting smites on our holy warriors and the evil priests casting some nasty spells. We really positioned ourselves strategically, kept groups separated or controlled by the terrain, etc. (My pally swooped in and punted one caster off the bluff down into the yard for the rest to fight.) The dwarf monk managed to tank 6-7 gnolls for multiple rounds up on the bluff without dying, tripping and smacking them around. It was really impressive, they had trouble tagging him solidly, and even when the touch attacks for Slay Living came out, everyone made their saves thank god.

Meanwhile the huge air elemental kept trying to sweep up critters and dropping them from on high as needed, rinse and repeat.

The casters really earned their pay keeping everyone alive. My cleric summoned that earth elemental first, then the air elemental with extended time (metamagic), silenced the major clump of casters enough to stymie them even after he was out of AoE damage spells, and channel healed repeatedly. So the weakest people were hurt badly at times but managed somehow to survive.

The funniest thing was when our two paladins and the war cleric had the last antipaladin gnoll trapped in the middle, and he did a full withdrawal and was running away to hide when the air elemental went after him, he failed both of his Reflex saves, got picked up in the air, and like a happy puppy fetching a stick the elemental brought him right back and dumped him in the square he had just left, whereupon Suun just nuked him down. (He deserved it for his cowardice.) It was like, "Yeah, sorry, time for your whuppin'!"

 

[Totenkindly]

So basic story beats from Deviant the Renegades (Cairo campaign), since last I posted (somewhere around Session 5, and we're now at Session 10)

We escaped from the market square, but only after Hakim's persona emerged in Amal and wiped out a bunch of pedestrians + a SWAT team. Fortunately we all still got away, but we're getting too much heat.

Zahra ended up doing a safety inspection on another company in the roster a few days later when the first inspector mysteriously broke his femur in a traffic accident. When she got her nose into too much stuff, somehow a fire alarm was pulled and the inspection was called off. Her criticisms in her report ended up causing a client/inspector political firestorm and she's being forced to "redo" the inspection -- but this tells her she was onto something.

Some of the others pick up leads on a mad scientist type working for the gov and a middle manager whose girlfriend is... some kind of undead. Both seem highly protected, so we're not sure about going after them further right this second -- but the lost puppy assassin killer we picked up early (Silent) says her team had made a failed attempt on the undead woman, who had escaped. When we investigate that abandoned facility, we find some evidence + a secret area with eerie swimming ancient writing. Two of our characters succeeded in writing it down and were sucked away to the land of the Egyptian dead because it overwhelmed their composure. One of them fails his test to receive the god's blessing, the other perseveres and manages to win freedom for himself and his friend -- they reappear in an underground chamber and in the process of getting back to the surface encounter some kind of ancient evil that can manipulate their perceptions.

Getting back to town, Zahra is followed on her way home by a tag-team of people. She manages to ditch her tail, then follow that one to HER house for later investigation... but when Zahra finally does get home, her roommate has left a note saying she and her dog are taking a walk at the park. However, that was a few hours ago.

When the gang investigates the park, they discover that Zahra's dog was found and taken to the pound where she needs to pay a $600 fine to get him back or he'll be put under in three days. Meanwhile, her roommate was captured seemingly by people related to Silent's old gang (the same people who left her dog behind to be picked up by the authorities). One character can see back in time briefly to recognize a man we had only called the "moped man" who has been hounding us occasionally since our first session as the person who chloroformed Khepri and is presumably responsible for her disappearance. Another character had lifted his wallet a few days prior, so we have his address and credentials -- Zahra immediately says she is going after him, regardless of whether anyone else wants to go along.

We all go and arrive at his apartment building around 11pm, with Zahra's shape changed to resemble the target. We had expected him to be a loser living in the basement, so there wouldn't be any issues with pumping him for information -- but that ends up not being the case, which complicates matters once we are in over our heads. This session is actually a bit darker than most of our sessions so far, since we kinda positioned ourselves to not have many good options.

The apartment layout is modular, with doors to the two bedrooms and the bathroom opening off of a central area that includes a kitchen on one side, a dining table in the middle, and a living room area past the table with a sofa marking one side and the wall with the TV another.

While Masil is making a sandwich, Mohdi quietly goes to sit on the couch. Zahra is looking at all the pictures on the wall, surprised that this man even has a family. How long has been lying to them? And how could he do terrible things while pretending to be an attentive father?

We hear a door creak and turn to see a wide-eyed six-year-old boy – one of the boys from the pictures -- staring at us in shock.

A second later he starts to scream.

Quick as thought, Rasheed lashes out with his telekinesis to shut the child up. For a moment, he’s very pleased at how effective his action has been – the scream is immediately cut off – but the way the boy is jerked up in the air by the throat, kicking with his feet, and then going limp right after the sound of a soft snap, that leaves him cause for concern.

The others don’t seem to notice right away, as Masil peers past the boy to see if the other child is inside the bedroom. He relays through the telepathic link that a younger boy is lying on the bottom bunk, with a pillow over his face, desperately pretending to be asleep.

Samara approaches the child suspended in the air, to see if he is hurt, but she’s not sure how badly since Rasheed quickly maneuvers the dangling boy back into the bedroom towards the top bunk. Scanning surface thoughts, he can hear the other boy thinking over and over, “The monsters are real, they are real, they are going to eat me, I am going to be eaten, please please please don’t eat me --”

Rasheed projects a thought into the terrified boy’s frantic mantra: “If I’m very quiet, the monsters won’t notice me and I will be safe. If I keep my eyes shut and under the pillow, I will not see them and they will not see me.” The younger boy responds to this thought by holding his breath and remaining very still, eyes tightly clenched, pillow still propped over his face.

Back in the living room, Silent slips towards the other bedroom door, gives a look to the others, and holds up a finger while reaching for the knob with her other hand.

“Don’t kill him, we need him to talk!” shoves Zahra at Silent through Rasheed’s link, while giving Rasheed a sideways stink-eye for treating the first boy so roughly. It’s still not clear that any of them realize what just happened. As she approaches Silent near the other bedroom door, she thinks she can hear someone moving inside. Since Rasheed has put the first boy back to bed and telekinetically shut the boys’ bedroom door, Samara and Masil come up behind Zahra as backup.

Silent reaches out and opens the door carefully. As she does so, a bleary-eyed man – the proverbial Mahud Fahmy – comes at her with a knife. She doesn’t even try to dodge it, she just takes the thrust through the palm of her one hand, then twists it to wrench it out of his.

As he remains off balance, Zahra’s arms lash out unnaturally, easily grabbing and yanking him into the living room area and spinning him around with her one hand stretching around over his lower face so he can’t make any noise. With Fahmy incapacitated, she starts dragging him towards the kitchen area.

As he watches this unfold, Rasheed reluctantly tries to scan the strangled boy’s mind again and finds… nothing. He knows what that means and feels his heart clam up a bit, to protect himself against the guilt.

Samara looks inside the bedroom and notes through the link that the wife is still asleep, before quietly shutting the door.

Silent thinks: “Are we silencing the wife?”

Zahra: “She’s already quiet.”

Rasheed: “Plus we need her alive for leverage.” This last excuse seems to resolve Silent’s concerns.

Getting the man over to the table, Zahra thrusts him into a dining room chair, then leans over and stares coldly into both of his eyes, her strange flesh still covering his mouth.

“Don’t talk. Listen carefully.”

Fahmy’s eyes widen as behind Zahra he sees Silence pulls his knife out of her hand and the wound almost immediately closes up.

Rasheed opens a channel to the man’s surface thoughts: “Who are these people? Why does he look like me? Oh dear god I am fucked.”

Then another thought: “Oh my god it’s the people from the park!” and now he is utterly terrified. Which might be to their benefit, but to help things along, Rasheed nudges his emotions with telepathic pheromones.

Zahra’s voice, sounding like the man’s voice, is cold. “Tonight you kidnapped a young woman and abandoned her dog. Don’t talk, just nod.” Fahmy can’t help but remember as Zahra speaks and he nods, and Rasheed catches the mental image of him seeing both Khepri and Ptah. They definitely have the right man.

“You took her into the bathroom facility and called your friends to come get her.” He half-nods but hesitates. Rasheed scans him again: “Actually I left her in there and called the cleaner.” He passes this to the others.

“We need to know who took her,” continues Zahra. “How do we do that?”

Fahmy’s mouth moves but it’s muffled. When Zahra opens a gap between her fingers, he croaks, “Phone. Dresser.”

Zahra silently stares into the man’s terrified eyes as Silent enters the bedroom to fetch the phone. After she is gone for a short time, we all receive a relay through Rasheed: “Wife will be out for awhile.” Apparently there’s an orange bottle with a white cap sitting on the dresser near the phone.

When Silent returns, the phone is a face + fingerprint lock. Zahra scans her own face (since she is still wearing Fahmy’s), then forces his finger onto the screen. The phone unlocks.

We hand the phone off to Mohdi to pull up a list of contacts for Fahmy to respond to. He points out a contact – “Zheng” – with a title of “Cleanup” but no company attached, or first name listed. This is the man he called to get Khepri.

“Have you ever seen Zheng face to face?” Zahra asks. Fahmy hesitates, as he scans the rest of us, then slowly nods. Rasheed gets an immediate image off his surface thoughts – elderly Asian man, in his late 70’s. We note that the number is also a Beijing exchange, and the name “Zheng” is an absurdly common surname, so it might be difficult to locate him even if Zheng is his real name.

“Do you know where the woman might have been taken?”

The man slowly shakes his head, but Rasheed can hear his thoughts: “Oh, god, they are going to kill me, and I honestly don’t even know!”

“All right. But I bet you can tell us who asked you to kidnap her.”

“Pull up the e-mail,” instructs Fahmy. Mohdi finds it and the attached picture: There is a clear camera angle of the park showing Khepri and Ptah walking, along with brief instructions to keep her quiet, drop her in the restroom, and call cleanup.

“Was this related to your work for La Vie Chamile?” Fahmy kinda nods, then explains that he works for them but not everything he does is directly for the company. They just pay him to keep questions away, and he will also do things for the company’s clients directly if they don’t conflict. He’s not necessarily aware of the chain of command either.

“Do you know what their plans are for the young woman?”

Fahmy explains that the park people would confiscate the dog and take it to the pound. When the owner goes to retrieve the dog, people will be watching to identify the dog’s owner, so they know who to contact next about ransoming the woman. Apparently the whole thing is to set up a trap, with the potential end goal being to silence the dog’s owner either figuratively or literally.

In the telepathic group discussion occurring, it becomes clear to everyone that this is not about something Zahra did as an inspector, because their unknown enemies would know her name; it must be something she observed or did after-hours, when they could not identify her properly.

“Why were you ordered to recover Amar’s phone?” Apparently Amar had recorded things he wasn’t supposed to, and he was supposed to take the images before Amar published them. “But then someone else got involved,” he nods at Masil, “and I tried to get the phone away but… that didn’t work out.”

“And why were you chasing Amar in the park?”

The man scowls. “The schmuck went back to try to record it again.” Rasheed can’t quite pick up all of the man’s surface thoughts here, but he thinks again that Amar was getting into places and recording things he should not have.

“Who are the suits?” The “competition,” answers Fahmy – which potentially could mean a rival company.

“And working for who?” Fahmy says he doesn’t know, but Rasheed clearly hears him think, “Autumn.” Autumn is the original company that Zahra investigated, in whose bathroom Silent had killed Jameela Jamal, and under which beyond the basement was the research facility that we could not get into.

“Well, what good are you if you don’t know who Zheng works for?” says Zahra. “He could be working for the competition.”

Fahmy explains that he has worked with Zheng for years but claims that all he does is keep things quiet – it’s Zheng who takes care of problems when they get messy. “I honestly don’t ask how,” Fahmy finishes. “And I honestly don’t want to know.”

He doesn’t know what happens at La Vie Chemile either. “They’re a chemical company, they make crap in vats,” and inside he thinks, “Probably illegal drugs.” We know their general legal portfolio centers around anti-psychotics.

Zahra’s eyes narrow. “So… does your wife know what you do in your free time?”

For the first time, Fahmy seems stricken. “Just leave her out of this – she’s not involved! Leave my whole family out of it!”

There’s a brief pause in the mental link, then Rasheed shares: “He might not be honest here. Maybe she’s not off-book like Fahmy, but he’s thinking about how his wife works for the same company.”

Zahra smiles coldly at Fahmy. “Well, since she works for the same company you do … what exactly does she do?”

Fahmy’s eyes widen as he realizes he was caught in a lie, and wonders how many others we might have picked up on. “She’s just one of the legal consultants,” he counters, voice shaking. “She’s not involved on this end.” A few moments later, Rasheed confirms that this might be an honest answer.

Another pause as information is relayed over the telepathic network and the group discusses its next questions.

“So are there any cameras or recording devices in your apartment?” asks Zahra. Fahmy only volunteers the door cam. Mohdi can wipe that. A copy of Mohdi elsewhere checks to see if there is an online backup at that address, and there is; but it is not automated and must be transmitted manually, so… all is good right now.

Fahmy next reveals that he doesn’t have any work equipment here, then volunteers that he wasn’t even supposed to have all those e-mails on his phone. Since we weren’t aware of other e-mails, Mohdi notes that he should scan the entirety of Fahmy’s phone for them.

“So, Masud Fahmy: Knowing the kinds of things La Vie Chemile would ask you to do, why did you ever agree to work for them?”

Fahmy admits that they promised, if he’d work for their security department, his mother’s care would be paid for. All the medications that La Vie Chemique makes, his mother now gets for free. He’s been working for them for six years to cover her treatments.

“What’s wrong with your mother?” We discover she is being medicated for psychological issues. Rasheed picks up that the last time Fahmy visited her, she actually remembered him again and said she hadn’t heard any of the voices for weeks.

Fahmy also admits he’s got records on his phone of other people he has been watching. However, he doesn’t seem to know the doctor that we’ve been investigating, even when Modhi flashes a picture of him.

Fahmy volunteers that he is allowed to use his phone to take pictures, as long as he deletes the photos after he uploads them to the system. His boss has a name and face. And along with Le Vie Chemique, Fahmy honors requests from clients – he just has a list of jobs, and not very nice ones. Mostly combinations of blackmail, intimidation, cyberstalking, rumor-mongering, perceptions of clients -- he’s kind of an intimidator. Because he hasn’t killed anyone directly, and because he avoids any knowledge of what happens to those he harasses, he believes he is not culpable for what happens to them.

“Are the children still out?” someone asks on the link.

“One is too scared to do anything,” volunteers Rasheed. “The other… well, he might be out longer than anticipated.” He doesn’t really know how to break the news, but the way he says it is a bit suspicious.

Samara quietly separates from the group and sneaks into the kids’ bedroom and takes a closer look at the boy sprawled on the top bunk, then swallows. While the boy on the bottom bunk tries to not breathe and holds himself as motionless as possible, Samara feels something flip inside her like before, when she tried to save Jamil, and lays her hands on the other boy … but nothing changes in his condition even when she sends healing power into him.

She quietly leaves the room, shuts the door, then almost imperceptibly shakes her head no. Rasheed hears her thoughts: “He’s beyond help.”

Rasheed absorbs this information, without sharing, but then Mohdi’s voice speaks into his mind – “How is the child?”

Rasheed sighs and asks Samara mentally to be very clear about the boy’s status to him. “Deceased,” she responds.

What he sends back through the link: “I’m sorry, but Samara’s efforts were less than successful.” He follows up almost immediately with, “I think Fahmy has about expended his use to us. What should we do with him?”

“No witnesses,” thinks Silent. Zahra gives her an ugly stare when this is relayed -- we’ve been in this situation before.

We have a fast and furious debate through the mindlink with everyone. While the man cannot identify Zahra, Mohdi, or Rasheed, he would be able to identify Masil, Samara, and Silent. But if he just disappeared? Maybe the cops would just assume he was guilty of something and it would sidetrack them.

Rasheed is now bombarded by a swirl of thoughts from the others and overwhelmed by trying to pass them all back out to the group.

“He’s a terrible human being, with no morality of his own -- how can we let him keep doing what he’s been doing?”

“He’s a family man with a wife and two kids.”

“One.” Rasheed doesn’t pass that comment along.

“He’s got a sick mother. What happens to her if he dies?”

“He should have thought about that before kidnapping Zahra’s friend.”

“And look at all the other terrible things he has done and all the people he’s hurt!”

“He’s a human being.”

“He’s a tool – and they’ll keep wielding him until he’s gone.”

“Maybe he’ll change.”

“Maybe he won’t.”

“How many people are we going to kill as part of this? Are we any better?”

“How many other people are going to die if we do nothing?”

“No witnesses,” thinks Silent again.

“If we let him go, he’ll pop up later and cause more problems.”

“Well, I’m not going to be the one to kill him.”

“Is anyone asking you to?”

“We can’t just carry a body outside the building, but we can’t just leave it here either or the police will be looking for us.”

“We are not going to let his family find his body.”

“Enough,” snaps Zahra finally through the link.

She looks down at Fahmy as her fingers flatten back up over his mouth so he can no longer speak. His eyes look anxious. “Thank you for all your help,” she says coldly, as her grip tightens. “You have been extremely informative.”

Her skin takes on a greenish tinge as her body suddenly swells and swirls around the man’s extended limbs. There is a faint gentle hissing, along with virescent steam billowing lightly up into the air. Fahmy fights against Zahra’s corrosive substance, but she has him pinned to the chair now and he can’t get free even though he fights like the largest fish caught in a net.

“This is for my friend.”

Fahmy’s limbs, buried under Zahra’s form, are looking notably shorter. Everyone is too stunned to move as Zahra continues to dissolve him.

“And this… is for my dog.” Zahra’s form now surges over Fahmy completely, mercifully obscuring his bulging pleading eyes.

Still mentally tapped into Fahmy’s thoughts, which are now almost incoherent, Rasheed considers trying to put him to sleep but it’s too late for that. “Your child and wife are okay,” he tries to tell him as way of consolation, “they will be safe now.” But he doesn’t know if it got through, and after a few more seconds, there is nothing but a deathly hush where Fahmy’s mind used to be.

When Zahra reforms and straightens up in a human form again, nothing remains of Masud Fahmy but the spotlessly clean chair where he had just been sitting. She takes a moment to compose herself. She seems both angry and sad at once. “That’s what we wanted, right?”

She is still wearing Fahmy’s face, which is just eerie.

She stares daggers at the others. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“I’ll see you outside,” says Mohdi flatly, breaking the silence, and then slowly dissipates into nothingness. Silent retracts her claws, looks at the knife she extracted from her hand earlier, wipes it off with a cloth, then puts it back in the drawer before leaving.

Weirdly, monitoring someone who was actively dying has shaken Rasheed enough from his stoic earlier state of mind regarding the boy’s death, to leave him feeling more or less himself again.

When we walk back out on the street, it’s about 1am. We walk back to our respective homes in silence.

--

Elsewhere, a copy of Mohdi tries to trace Zheng’s number, but it is routed through multiple hops to get to the tower thousands of miles away and clearly the destination is outside the country. Having dialed it through a proxy, he is a bit disturbed to see something trying to call him back – but he doesn’t answer.

When Zahra gets home, she files a report that her roommate and dog never came back from an evening walk and it’s clear they are both missing, considering the time. At least this will establish a credible alibi for her. She falls asleep eventually, but tosses and turns a bit from worry over Khepri and Ptah.

Other people are also struggling to sleep – but mainly from having witnessed the end of Masud Fahmy.



--



The next morning, Rasheed calls his friend Sallah and discovers he has a job where a lookout is needed. Sallah agrees for Samara to come with on the job, which is stealing a box from a shipment arriving at a high-end clothing store that day. While Sallah knows a fence for the stolen goods, he needs someone to keep watch for the police on a particular corner as he and another person make a single box disappear while the drivers are unloading the shipment.

When Rasheed and Samara arrive, they are introduced to a guy named Ham, who shows them the signal to give when everything is clear, and then they all take their positions. The wait goes as expected, and eventually Rasheed signals for Ham to go. For a brief moment, Samara thinks she almost sees two of Ham – when he moves, there is a weird after-image – and then it vanishes. Samara notes that the clerk who opened the back door for the man to unload the truck is just outside smoking, unexpectedly making it harder for Ham to walk off with a box.

Samara mentally asks Rasheed if they should just leave, but Rasheed can’t really do that to Sallah. Samara at least tries to keep moving her position so she isn’t as noticeable. Now she thinks she sees an ape forming among circling bits of smoke from the clerk’s cigarette, and the eyes seem to be looking at her. Greatly unnerved, Samara relays this to Rasheed and leaves the scene. Rasheed can’t see what she was describing but mentally scans the smoker. The man is just annoyed at how long the unloading is taking. “Can this guy go any slower? We open in ten minutes; the boxes have to be brought in in five.”

Rasheed tries to make a minor distraction with telekinesis to distract the smoker, and it works – the smoker turns and looks for the source of the distraction. Almost immediately he thinks he sees a weird after-image of Ham as the thief rolls out from under the truck, snags a box, then rolls back underneath. As the smoker stops looking around for the noise, the guy with the pushcart trundles back, loads up a few more boxes, and delivers them inside.

Soon enough the smoker drops and crushes out the cigarette, needles the man with the cart to finish up, and they take the final batch of boxes into the store. As soon as they disappear, Ham creeps out with the box, straps it down on a moped, and he and Sallah ride off. Rasheed takes his departure as well.



--



Meanwhile, Zahra meets Mohdi on her way to the pound the next day to acquire $600 in cash. When she goes to retrieve Ptah, she manages to strongly argue the point that she should not need to pay a fine at all since her dog had been reported missing/stolen and so obviously she was not the one who had “abandoned” him.

The clerk is quick to agree – as long as $200 of that money goes towards helping him “fill out the correct paperwork.” Zahra sees what is going on and carefully slips him the $200, which he tucks into a safe place and sends word to bring out the dog after waiving the fine.

Ptah seems ecstatic to see her and Zahra feels a wave of relief as she scoops up him and hugs him. … along with an undercurrent of rage that Khepri is still missing and captive somewhere. From what Fahmy had said, she knows someone will be monitoring the footage of the center in order to identify her, to present her with the hostage demands. She vows that they will regret their audacity.

They don’t even take long. As she leaves the building, with Ptah happily leashed, she sees three men in suits out front, strongly resembling the guys who were chasing Amar at the park.

Their eyes lock at the same time, and then Zahra just marches right up to them as if she personally knows them.

“I have my dog back. So where’s my friend?”

Her bluntness startles them into silence as they look back and forth to each other, then back and over to the street cameras.

Finally one reaches into his pocket and pulls out a blank envelope, which he hands to her. “Errr, yeah. This is for you.” He tries to smile pleasantly, although the grin is strained. “Good seeing you, miss. Nice dog. Why don’t you, uh, take him home and relax for the rest of the day?”

The other two men turn and walk off. The envelope guy clumsily bends down to pat the dog, gives her a final forced smile, and walks after them. Ptah wags his tail excitedly at the attention.

Zahra sighs and opens the envelope, which is 5x20cm. The flap was only folded in, not licked, and she pulls out a sheet of paper and a photo.

“If you want her back and want to live, return the drives to [this address]. Be there at 9:45pm.”

The address is not one that Zahra recognizes, but the contents of the photo are: It’s her roommate Khepri – bound, gagged, and chained to an unknown wall.

Every rulebook in Chronicles of Darkness has some differences. For the Deviants (who typically have been made into something other than human, against their will), they have touchstones -- either Loyalty or Conviction. Loyalty touchstones allow them to retain their humanity, it is positive ties. Conviction touchstones are based on animosity and the deviant will want to destroy them, often they involve the people who inflicted their current state upon them. The character is rewarded by strengthening their Loyalty connections and destroying the targets of their Convictions.

Meanwhile, rather than focusing on powers, the deviant has a collection of physical, mental, and emotional/social scars that threaten to overwhelm them, to which their abilities are attached. To become stronger with your abilities, you typically have to have bigger scars. However, bigger scars means you might eventually have a meltdown after which your character can no longer function.

(Seth Brundle in "The Fly" is one example of a Deviant, who eventually imploded; but there are many examples in our film and literature -- from those who seem more human to those who have been turned into something less than or more than.)

Basically in this game, it's more a matter of how long you can go without completely blowing out and totally losing your humanity / dying, versus how stabilized can you become by anchoring yourself in important human connections and reasons to live. In this case, despite what Zahra did to Fahmy, this actually positively impacts her: She destroyed someone related to the conspiracy that turned her into a monster and furthered the investigation + she is closer to saving Khepri, who is one of her Loyalty touchstones, and she also got her little dog back.

We have five players / characters:

• Zahra -- young woman who is lower rung safety inspector -- pushed into a vat of chemicals, now is a plasmoid girl. Very headstrong and determined, kind of intimidating .... and she's great at feeling people out and smelling a rat. [My character]
• Rasheed -- Street urchin. Runs low-level theft/larceny games; has telekinesis, teleport, and telepathic abilities both to gather info and cause brain damage; seems to experience high amounts of anxiety and rejects responsibility for his actions.
• Mohdi -- Kind of like a cross between Elliot (Mr. Robot) and Dr. Manhatten in that he can create interdimensional spaces plus apparently has multiple versions of himself simultaneously each doing different things. Detached in general, but also suspicious and out to destroy whoever made him this way.
• Masil -- Merged somehow with an Egyptian mummy, might have been betrayed by his brother. Has ancient occult and Egyptian knowledge, can turn his body into sand, and other things we don't yet know.
• Amal -- A young naive somewhat anxious woman who hangs around with Rasheed. Turns out she has multiple personalities that come out during stress. So far we've seen Samara, who is more capable than Amal and street saavy; but there is also Hakim who is always furious and has a devastating energy attack that he levies at any perceived enemies. Usually he just destroys immediate enemies, then gives control back.

We are investigating a 5-6 company conspiracy that is also tied to the government in some way.

 

[The Cat]

The fans complaining need to shut up and trust Critical Role.
First some people accused them of being too plot driven,
Now the same people are mad because they're not plot driven enough.
Just. Leave it all alone and wait and see.
Let the Voice Actors have their fun.
I really miss the days when people could just like things that come out from people they like, every show or movie isnt gonna be an orgasm every time your eyes lay upon it, but but they've delivered enough good times I'm willing to give them a season or two to just fuck around.​

 

[Totenkindly]

The fans complaining need to shut up and trust Critical Role.
First some people accused them of being too plot driven,
Now the same people are mad because they're not plot driven enough.
Just. Leave it all alone and wait and see.
Let the Voice Actors have their fun.
I really miss the days when people could just like things that come out from people they like, every show or movie isnt gonna be an orgasm every time your eyes lay upon it, but but they've delivered enough good times I'm willing to give them a season or two to just fuck around.​

That's what happens when you make your fun into a way to drive profit or notoriety.
You are now dependent on fans for their interest and cash.

I mean, it is what it is. They're having fun and sharing some of their imagination.
Let them do their thing and enjoy it as best as you may.
They are not an institution that needs to respond in some way to outside control, aside from how badly they want material profit.

I honestly don't follow a ton aside from the Amazon Prime shows, but I think it's pretty cool that voice actors are running an RPG group.
Matt Mercer just voiced the BBEG for the current expac of WoW.

 

[The Cat]

That's what happens when you make your fun into a way to drive profit or notoriety.
You are now dependent on fans for their interest and cash.

I mean, it is what it is. They're having fun and sharing some of their imagination.
Let them do their thing and enjoy it as best as you may.
They are not an institution that needs to respond in some way to outside control, aside from how badly they want material profit.

I honestly don't follow a ton aside from the Amazon Prime shows, but I think it's pretty cool that voice actors are running an RPG group.
Matt Mercer just voiced the BBEG for the current expac of WoW.

True. Their fanbase is very much one that they had an active role in fostering. I guess I feel distant from it because Ive alsways recognized it for what it is; this was always supposed to be a business. They're all actors, their life is business; and if you could build your own meal ticket with your friends, you gotta see how far that flying carpet will carry you before it gets disolved in an acid trap be it in a dungeon or on the internet. I believe when you see someone living your dream you cheer for their success if for no other reason than you dont want to believe your own dreams are shallow even, or perhaps especially, if they are. But like personally I dont think wanting to have a group of friends you can have fun with and run a successful and mostly above board business in. Like that's the stuff an 80's child's dreams are made of. They legitimately have fun, and I love that. Even though I hate shopping episodes and how much they come up in D&D campaigns because of it. I get some of the funniest things Ive ever experienced have happened in shopping episodes and I get why they go tthem a lot, but if I didnt mention it I wouldnt have anything to complain about, and those are the rules of the internet, so what can you do?

The condensed version is yes, I agree with you.

 

[Totenkindly]

I'm happy to see them make as much money as they can. They're all (mostly) pretty cool, pretty funny people. They will probably be more famous and wealthier than I ever might be, and doing stuff I find more interesting in some ways.

 

[The Cat]

That's what happens when you make your fun into a way to drive profit or notoriety.
You are now dependent on fans for their interest and cash.

I mean, it is what it is. They're having fun and sharing some of their imagination.
Let them do their thing and enjoy it as best as you may.
They are not an institution that needs to respond in some way to outside control, aside from how badly they want material profit.

I honestly don't follow a ton aside from the Amazon Prime shows, but I think it's pretty cool that voice actors are running an RPG group.
Matt Mercer just voiced the BBEG for the current expac of WoW.

If you ever get the chance check out the Mythica Series of movies on Prime. He's the BBEG

 

[Totenkindly]

If you ever get the chance check out the Mythica Series of movies on Prime. He's the BBEG

I'm starting to hate him. I've killed the little SOB about 15+ times and he still hasn't dropped my legendary weapon.