[UA] Upcoming Game

[Chris Williams]

>From: Niall <niall.sweby at gmail.com>

That sounds a good place to begin - perhaps the hospital could be a theme 
within the game? As a place of birth and death it would play an important 
part in Terminus' dreams. I think the EMT would be the hardest character to 
integrate if you go with the mentor being shot plan (which is a good
one). With the others the apprentice obviously has a reason to find out 
more, the Chronicler could pick up the story, especially if she finds out 
the mentor is a defrocked priest who does exorcisms (probably has an 
interesting or unique story) while if the shooting is clearly wierd the cop 
would turn up, although if he's on suspension he won't be the one filing the 
police reports? But probably would have someone drop him a line - especially 
if the mentor and the apprentice have a habit of turning up where crimes 
have been committed by the mentally ill (posessed). However if the EMT likes 
to stick to the background then he'll need a good reason for not just doing 
his job, dropping off the mentor then going back to his rounds. I think its 
a very UA character concept but it does need something more dynamic to drive 
the character to interact with the others.

An idea might be that whatever the apprentice and mentor were involved in 
attracted Tenebrae and the EMT gets to see them - suddenly the shadows 
aren't so comforting anymore, especially if they start to follow him around. 
Being fairly dream like beings and involved in eating corpses and other 
things they could also be a good starting point for the campaign even if 
they don't re-appear they come from nothing and go back to nothing and so 
fit thematically. Also scary as hell. Possibly there was a rtual that went 
wrong and the Tenebrae are unleashed in some form and for the goal of the 
adventure the PC's need to reconstruct the ritual to banish them again

I think keeping characters together in UA is relatively easy - given that 
the game encourages obsessed characters its a matter of finding a hook that 
would drive them all to stick together. I think your idea is really good for 
this as well. Once they get the idea that the city is dying/trying to kill 
them/bejeezus crazy and they can't escape (I seem to remember this was part 
of the idea?) then thats a pretty good motivator right there.

>Niall


I was planning on having the hospital pop up a few times, as it definitely 
seems like a place where weirdness would be likely to reoccur. I also 
figured it would be a place that the EMT is likely to be frequently which 
would, if nothing else, give the players a place to hunt him down. With his 
obsession, I am a bit worried about getting him involved with the others but 
maybe the tenebrae idea can help with that. If they're following him for 
some reason and he knows that these crazy religious zealots think they can 
chase away demons... well, it might be worth a shot, right? It would also 
give the characters something occult-ish research right off the bat, as 
neither the mentor nor apprentice is likely to know how to deal with 
scary-ass shadow centipedes from hell. Thanks for the idea!

And you're completely right. Suspended cops probably don't file many 
reports. I should have mentioned that the player said that they weren't sure 
if they wanted him suspended or on probation. But you're also right that 
either way, someone's likely to tip him off. After all, by this point, he's 
probably established himself as the workforce weirdo.

I'm not nearly as worried about keeping them together as I am bringing them 
together and having it feel organic. I hate to admit it, but this is a 
weakpoint of mine. I've had too many games start with "Uh... man... you're 
uh, all in a bar, see?" Once they know eachother and can start piecing some 
things together, it'll be fine. They'll know what's wrong with the city, 
worry about why they can't get out, and then work toward... some solution 
that I probably will never see coming, knowing them. It's just getting to 
that point. I think this'll work though, especially with your suggestions.

Thanks!

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