Episode III - Rolls & Rulings #1

When I constructed the plot of this episode, I was still using the Monster Of The Week system, so I rolled against its monster, minion and bystander tables (they're not actually tables, just lists presumably not even designed to be rolled against) and got the following results, alongside using the Mythic Game Master Emulator to flesh them out:

Monster Type: Destroyer (1d12 Monster Of The Week Roll 4 / Monster Types) + Strong (Mythic Roll 83 / Creature Descriptors) + Growling (Mythic Roll 37 / Creature Descriptors) = Barghest

The idea of facing a monstrous dog, something that represented the Beast quite well and could be confused for a werewolf, was something my mind immediately conjured up. That it allowed me to create an explanation for Valentine's First Change going somewhat unnoticed was a happy accident.

Minion: Right Hand (1d10 Monster Of The Week Roll 5 / Minion Types) + Insubstantial (Mythic Roll 43 / Creature Descriptors) + Tail (Mythic Roll 85 / Creature Descriptors) = Demon Ghost

I ultimately pulled back from the more "ghostly" side of this version of the character, which I'm a little disappointed in myself for. It represents something I am still struggling with, which is that I think my scope is often a little too big. I have generally struggled to get each session to fit into the format of an "episode," and I may even have to end up scrapping the concept. I'm still learning, ultimately, though, and having a lot of fun figuring everything out.

I'll attach the character sheets I made for both creatures in a follow-up chapter.

Bystander #1: Witness (1d6 + 1d6 Monster Of The Week Roll 5 + 6 / Bystander Types) + Foreigner (Mythic Roll 36 / Character Identity) + Good (Mythic Roll 43 - Reroll After 22 Gave "Collector" / Character Personality) = Man who reported a "very large dog," who blames himself for the attack, because he could not properly explain that the dog was monstrous in size.

This character was one that coalesced in my mind quite quickly.

Bystander #2: Victim (1d6 + 1d6 Monster Of The Week Roll 6 + 3 / Bystander Types) + Law (Mythic Roll 54 / Character Identity) + Honest (Mythic Roll 48 / Character Personality) = A judge, with a reputation for being harsh but fair and strongly opposing corruption.

Bystander #3: Innocent (1d6 + 1d6 Monster Of The Week Roll 4 + 3 / Bystander Types) + Soldier (Mythic Roll 89 / Character Identity) + Quiet (Mythic Roll 75 / Character Personality) = A former marine on trial for ****, well known as the owner of a large number of dogs, and a quiet demeanour often mistaken for coldness, immediately suspected of the killing of the judge (who was presiding over his trial).

Once again, I think it's obvious that I could not meet my ambition of truly fleshing these side characters out. The whole thing almost calls for a novella's worth of text, rather than a few chapters.

Countdown: More killings will occur, and the ritual nature of them will bring doom. A innocent man might take the fall.

The countdown mechanic is something from Monster Of The Week that I like, in concept, but find somewhat limiting. I really suits the TV Show vibe I'm going for but it's hard to actually work into the prose, unless I basically dedicate a scene to having someone like Tanvi just exposit the whole thing. In the end, I snuck it in more as a hindsight thing, with Valentine noticing that he could've prevented a few of the killings if he'd followed his gut.

Moving onto the actual session, I'll mention that I'm going to get a lot of things wrong. As much as I love Chronicles Of Darkness, the system has a lot of moving parts. It's a d10 dice pool system and I really recommend the playthrough of Werewolf: The Forsaken above this one for a better description/discussion of the mechanics. That campaign was another inspiration for me to make the rules change.

Anyway, I didn't roll to change the opening scene, because it was my adventure/investigation hook. Most of what follows (you can tell from the change in tense) are my actual notes that I took as I played.

Lydia will try to social manoeuvre against the cop trying to move people along, in order to learn information. The NPC has two doors and an "average" impression of Lydia. She will first try to improve his impression of her, through seduction, rolling Manipulation (3) + Persuasion (3), with a +1 from her "Seduction" specialty.

She gets two successes, moving him to "good." She will then roll straight Manipulation (3) + Persuasion (3) to open his doors. She gets only one success, so she will burn a point of willpower to roll three more dice. She gets one success but it's a ten, so she gets to roll it again, it fails. However, she has still successfully opened both the cop's doors. He explains that animal control got a call to come here to collect a "large dog" on the loose last night. Valentine rolls a perception check, Wits (2) + Composure (3), and gets two successes. Spotting a troubled man lingering at the crime scene, he learns that the man reported the dog. His English-language skills are poor, so he failed to communicate how monstrous the animal he saw was. Valentine is struck by a vision of the wolf from his fever dreams.

Note: This is not actually how social manoeuvring really works mechanically and it's always not really intended for use against one-off NPCs. Also, I quickly stopped giving myself the opportunity to see the results of a roll before deciding whether or not to spend Willpower to increase my dice pool.

Valentine presents the group with his belief that it might be a werewolf. Joshua rolls Intelligence (2) + Occult (3), with a +1 for his "Werewolves" specialty. He gets two successes and intuits that there are discrepancies with a standard werewolf attack, since the witness would've been struck by lunacy upon seeing a true werewolf and likely wouldn't have been able to phone animal control. Tanvi rolls to investigate, Intelligence (4) + Investigation (1), with a +1 from her "Crimes Scenes" specialty. She only gets one success, enough to catch the scent of sulphur but nothing else. Her initial suspicion is a hellhound but there's no sign of burnt flesh and the witness didn't report flames or fire.

Note: As the campaign progresses, I'll be slowly peeling away a lot of the elements that I'd previously established that don't really fit the tone of the New World Of Darkness. The system has a very different conception of demons, in particular, and the fire and brimstone style hell beasts are locked away in outdated supplements that I don't own.

Chaos Factor moves up from 5 to 6.

Scene 2

The expected scene is a research session at headquarters. The Chaos Factor roll is 2, leading to an interrupted scene. The event focus is "PC Positive," and I roll a 4 against the PCs, which means Lydia. On the meanings tables, I get "decrease" + "battle" + "partially." I interpret this as Lydia managing to defuse some of the tension between Valentine and Joshua and preventing them from fighting again.

Tanvi then rolls to research a connection between demons and dog attacks, excluding hellhounds. Intelligence (4) + Occult (4) +1 from her "Demonology" specialty nets three successes, two of which are tens, though neither translates to extra successes. This results in Tanvi discovering references to a bit of prophetic law that refers to a demon "turning the hound against its master." She looks up the details of several fortune tellers, oracles and traders in demonic prophecies, assigning each member of the group to work on one of them. Handful of NPCs rolled on a meanings table: "Dry" + "Strong" + "Lacking" + "Fancy" + "Remarkable" + "Lean" + "Odd"

Note: This was when it really began to dawn on me that I had way too many PCs and NPCs. I have decided to throw them into a lot of dangerous situations but I'm not planning to trim them purely by DM fiat.

Tanvi, Mark & Adam will visit the "dry" fortune teller, who I'm imagining as a calm and collected older gentleman who eschews theatrics and tries to be relatively scientific in his approach. Valentine, Joshua & Lydia will visit the "strong" trader in demonic secrets and lore, who I'm imagining as a shady individual who's **** to talk to monster hunters (Valentine is propositioned by one of his hangers-on). Pri, Samantha, Tiffany & Teresa will visit the "lacking" fortune teller, who is new to the game and easily intimidated.

Then, the group will altogether visit the "fancy, remarkable, lean and odd" oracle, who I'm imagining as a more traditional fortune teller, a young woman with lots of powders, theatrics and a neat costume. She will speak in riddles and deliver a prophecy to each of them. In the end, she will reveal that they are dealing with a powerful devil, one who the Wolfheart had previously destroyed. Upon hearing this, Priyanshi will dive into her research on the Chosen One (which is her Occult specialty), rolling Intelligence (3) & Occult (3) +1. She gets three successes and discovers that its true name is/was Koglarath. Tanvi explains that if they knew him, or had encountered him before, they'd be able to summon him through his name alone.

Note: As you can see, I decided to cut the scene with Tanvi and the less gimmicky psychic but I still have a pretty good conception of him in my head, if I ever want to bring him into the narrative. I've also redacted something that I wrote here, since it would be a pretty big spoiler. Feel free to guess what it was.

With no further leads, Valentine heads out to patrol during the night, on the off-chance he can prevent another attack. Rolling against the enemy encounters table in Table Fables Modern gets us four angry thugs. Valentine flashes his cat's eye at them to intimidate them, rolling Manipulation (1) & Intimidation (6) - which is doubled due to his Unsettling Eye aspect - and takes away two dice from his opponents' Resolve. He gets two successes, causing two of them to scarper. For the other two, we roll initiative.

Valentine: 11 + 8 = 19

Thug #1: 1 + 4 - 3 (Tire Iron) = 1

Thug #2: 1 + 4 = 5

Valentine's Attack on Thug #2: Strength (3) + Brawl (5) - Thug #2 Defence (2) = Three Successes

Thug #2 takes three points of Bashing Damage.

Thug #2's Attack: Strength (2) + Brawl (1) - Valentine's Defence (5) = Chance Die result of 1. Dramatic failure, the thug's strike is so telegraphed that Valentine can respond by converting the attack into a hip toss.

Impromptu Undefended Valentine Attack: Strength (3) + Brawl (5) +1 From "Wrestling" Specialty = Two Successes.

Thug #2 takes two points of Bashing Damage.

Thug #1's Attack: Strength (2) + Weaponry (1) - Valentine's Defence (5) = Chance Die result of 10. Two Successes (one from the die, the other from the weapon).

Valentine takes one point of Lethal Damage. This forces him to shift into his Hybrid Form. Valentine's (human form) Stamina (2) & Primal Urge (1) give him three turns in the form without risk of **** Rage. Combat immediately becomes "Down & Dirty" and Valentine regenerates all damage.

Valentine rolls Strength (5) + Brawl (5) = Four Successes. The Thugs roll a two die, their combat pools minus the Lunacy penalty, getting one success. As a result, they are eviscerated. Valentine spends one Essence to shift back to human form, picks up his tattered clothes and heads home. Killing a human results in a Breaking Point towards Spirit, which he must roll Resolve (3) + Composure (3) against. He gets two successes and remains at Harmony 7. Feeling lonely and confused, he decides to call the woman who propositioned him.

Note: Something a little awkward about Harmony is that the player is often put in a scenario where they want to fail their Breaking Point rolls. That's true of me, here, and it's going to be really difficult since, ironically, Valentine has very strong stats. Either way, this being his First Change was totally unplanned. You can even see from the way the scene played out that it only happened because one of the thugs succeeded on a roll with a chance die, where only a 10 counts a success.

According to Mythic GME, the woman Valentine calls is "Curious" and "Tall." Table Fables Modern with a roll of 16 gives her name as "Davina." Though he compares her unfavourably to Pri in his head, she successfully stirs his lust and they have sex. She comforts him, afterwards, calling him her "kitty cat" and he admits that he was a virgin before that night. She contends that it hardly counts, since his change, considering all the memories of sexual encounters he has access to.

Note: I had no plans for introducing this character at all but the idea just, kind of, snuck up on me. I've given her a character sheet but she's still pretty firmly rooted in the NPC side of the cast for now. The write-up involved twisting the scene around, somewhat.

The Mythic roll of 2 on the next scene, causes an interruption. I roll a 68, demanding that I "Close A Thread." Since I have no threads that can satisfyingly be closed, I reroll, but I get 68 yet again. This demands some thought and I try to figure out what storyline I can push towards a conclusion. In the end, I decide that we open with Joshua and Lydia in bed together, with seduction having occurred off-screen. Not knowing what to do, Lydia calls Sam for help. Before they can talk about things, however, the group is called to the two crime scenes.

Note: I very rarely reroll the Oracle but this one was irritating me. However, when my reroll gave me not only the same result but the exact same number, I felt obliged to make it work. As much as it threw a wrench in my planned narrative, I actually really enjoy this aspect of the hobby.

Tanvi says that she can't smell any sulphur at the back alley where the thugs were killed and the group agrees that Valentine would've detected a demonic threat so close to his patrol route. The possibility that this one was a werewolf, however, cannot be ruled out, considering the fortune tellers have been preoccupied with werewolves. Lydia notices Valentine looking uncomfortable and rolls Wits (3) + Empathy (3) to figure out what's eating him up. She gets one success, correctly intuiting that he spent the night with Davina, but nothing more. Unwilling to judge him, she lets it go.

Note: When I got to the write-up, this scene changed, since I switched back to Valentine's POV. In the future, I'm going to make the planned POV more explicit as I'm rolling, with it being Valentine more often than not.

The second attack was inside the house of the respected Judge Robert Martin. They are not allowed inside but Tanvi can smell sulphur. They then learn that a man has been arrested and his dogs have been impounded, specifically a former soldier who was on trial for ****. They head to his house, which is more like a compound. Samantha rolls Dexterity (3) + Larceny (2) to break in. She gets two successes and the rest of the gang follow her in. Priyanshi then rolls Intelligence (3) + Investigation (2), getting one success, meaning that she finds an entry in his journal that, amidst more paranoid passages, refers to a man with red skin and a forked tail stalking him, leading him to believe he'd been **** by someone.

They consider the possibility that a devil is attempting to fulfil the prophecy by turning the man's dogs against him but recognise that he must have some way of staging the animal attacks prior to now. Tanvi decides that they should go back to basics, that they are perhaps looking for a warg or a barghest, that has been enthralled by a devil. The gang is split in two, with Valentine, Joshua, Pri, Lydia and Adam following up the barghest theory.

Note: You can see here that my initial plans for these side characters was a lot more involved than what I eventually wrote up. Again, this is another thing that might convince me to change my overall approach. Collecting a few sessions together into something like a novella, published in chapters, would potentially allow me to slow down a little and deepen the worldbuilding.

Both attacks occurred west of Castle Creek, matching the barghest's inability to cross rivers, and they need to figure out whose **** triggered its appearance. They begin with the most likely option, being the **** victim in the soldier's trial, a city councillor with whom he had a grievance. They visit his grave and perform a séance (there is a lot of tension between the five of them). Priyanshi rolls Wits (2) + Occult (3) to make contact, scoring one success. She sees the circumstances of his ritualistic **** and catches a flash of the devil's face. Her Medium merit drawback means she must roll Resolve (3) + Composure (3) not to be Shaken or Spooked. With two successes she passes and announces that she can now summon the devil but they will have to be ready.

Note: Priyanshi being a psychic medium mechanically was not something I'd ever planned but it's one of those things that's compensating for the translation from the more free-form rules of Monster Of The Week to the grittier feel of Chronicles Of Darkness.

They pick a spot east of the river, to neutralise the barghest, and one that is open, to avoid collateral damage or sparking a forest fire. Valentine and Joshua ready their swords and Priyanshi summons the devil with his true name. He appears and Joshua charges him, initiating combat.

Valentine: 5 + 8 - 2 (Sword) = 11

Joshua: 4 + 5 - 2 (Sword) = 7

Priyanshi: 8 + 6 = 14

Lydia & Adam: 6 + 5 = 11

Note: Here I wrapped Adam into Lydia, mechanically, but I later drew up a full character sheet for him.

Koglarath: 6 + 4 = 10

Since the devil's initiative is higher than Joshua's, he easily sidesteps the attack and things get started.

Priyanshi's Attack: Dexterity (3) + Occult (3) = Fail

Her wand fails her, producing sparks that splatter uselessly against his form.

Valentine's Attack: Strength (3) + Weaponry (1) - Koglarath's Defence (1) = Fail

The Sword of Kings passes through the devil without so much as scratching him.

Lydia's Attack: Dexterity (3) + Firearms (1) = One success, plus one from Revolver damage.

Koglarath takes two Lethal Damage.

Koglarath's Attack: Manipulation (4) + Intimidation (3) - Lydia's Composure (2) = One Success.

Koglarath spends three willpower to inflict Broken on Lydia.

Joshua's Attack: Strength (2) + Weaponry (4) +1 ("Swords" Specialty) - Koglarath's Defence (1) = One Success

Koglarath takes four points of Lethal Damage. All his subsequent rolls suffer a -3 penalty.

Priyanshi's Second Attack: Dexterity (3) + Occult (3) +2 (True Name) = Three Successes

Koglarath takes three points of Aggravated Damage.

Valentine's Second Attack: Strength (3) + Weaponry (1) - Koglarath's Defence (1) +2 (True Name) = Two Successes

Koglarath takes five points of Aggravated Damage and bursts into flames. His spirit attempts to escape but the Beast consumes it. Everyone rushes over to help Lydia, who's been shaken by the Devil's Dread Power.

Note: Priyanshi having a wand is really not something the rules can accommodate and the dice pool was chosen rather haphazardly. I have since switched to it being Wits + Occult but, either way, it's something that I will be mightily tempted to have snapped in half by some creature or other, to remove it from the narrative. You can also see signs of the ghostly aspect of the devil that I ditched during the write-up.

Lydia rolls Manipulation (3) + Persuasion (3) to come clean to Adam without causing him to break up with her but her Broken condition deducts two dice. She fails, causing Adam to leave her. He says that they can still be friends, however. This action raises her Integrity and allows her to shed her condition. Valentine and Joshua head off to the latest crime scene, and exchange heated words along the way. When they arrive, Valentine complains that, if he could bare his beast, it would help them track the creature. Joshua reacts negatively to the idea and they follow the faintest lead into the woods, recognising that the monster will be less intelligent without a devil controlling it.

Note: I may use strikethrough to indicate things that changed, between playing the scene out and writing it up, from now on.

Both Valentine and Joshua have Danger Sense. Valentine uses it to roll Wits (2) + Composure (3) +2 to detect an ambush. He gets three successes and combat begins.

Valentine: 7 + 9 - 2 (Sword) = 14

Joshua: 7 + 5 - 2 (Sword) = 10

The Barghest: 8 + 3 = 11

Valentine's Attack: Strength (3) + Weaponry (1) - Barghest's Defence (4) = Chance Die roll of 7, fail.

Barghest's Attack: Strength (5) + Brawl (5) - Joshua's Defence (6) = Two Successes.

Joshua takes four points of Lethal Damage and is inflicted with the Arm Wrack tilt, causing him to drop his sword. I forgot that inflicting a tilt requires dropping two dice.

Joshua's Attack: Strength (2) + Brawl (1) - Barghest's Defence (4) = Chance Die roll of 8, fail.

Valentine yells to Joshua that he needs to bare the Beast but Joshua, though bleeding profusely, refuses to countenance it. The Barghest is briefly distracted by their discussion.

Valentine's Second Attack: Strength (3) + Weaponry (1) - Barghest's Defence (4) = Chance Die roll of 9, fail.

Barghest's Attack: Strength (5) + Brawl (5) - Valentine's Defence (5) = Three Successes.

Valentine takes five points of Lethal Damage and shifts to his Hybrid Form.

Joshua's Second Action: Strength (2) + Weaponry (4) + 1 (Specialty) - 2 (Off-Hand Penalty) - Barghest's Defence (4) = Fail.

Valentine's Third Attack: Strength (5) + Brawl (5) - Barghest's Defence (4) = Fail.

Valentine recovers all of his health.

Barghest's Third Attack: Strength (5) + Brawl (5) - Valentine's Defence (5) = Two Successes.

Valentine's Innate Armour means that he only takes three points of Lethal Damage.

Joshua's Third Action: Strength (2) + Weaponry (4) + 1 (Specialty) - 2 (Off-Hand Penalty) - Barghest's Defence (4) = Fail.

Valentine's Fourth Attack: Strength (5) + Brawl (5) - Barghest's Defence (4) = Two Successes.

Valentine recovers all his health and the Barghest takes four points of Lethal Damage.

Barghest's Fourth Attack: Strength (5) + Brawl (5) - Valentine's Defence (5) = One Success.

Valentine takes two points of Lethal Damage.

Joshua's Fourth Action: Strength (2) + Weaponry (4) + 1 (Specialty) - 2 (Off-Hand Penalty) - Barghest's Defence (4) = Two Successes.

The Barghest takes five points of Lethal Damage and now suffers a - 1 penalty to all actions except Stamina rolls to stay conscious.

Valentine's Fifth Attack: Strength (5) + Brawl (5) - Barghest's Defence (4) = Two Successes.

Valentine recovers all his health and the Barghest takes two points of Lethal Damage and two points of Aggravated Damage and suffers a - 3 penalty to all actions except Stamina rolls to stay conscious. The Barghest is now Bleeding Out and suffers 1 lethal damage per minute. The Barghest must roll Stamina every turn to avoid falling ****.

Barghest's Fifth Attack: Strength (5) + Brawl (5) - Valentine's Defence (5) - 3 (Wounded) = Fail.

I forgot to roll Stamina.

Joshua's Fifth Action: Strength (2) + Weaponry (4) + 1 (Specialty) - 2 (Off-Hand Penalty) - Barghest's Defence (4) = Fail.

Valentine's Sixth Attack: Strength (5) + Brawl (5) - Barghest's Defence (4) = Four Successes.

The Barghest takes six points of Aggravated Damage. Valentine has to roll Resolve (3) + Composure (3) to remain shifted without falling into **** Rage. He succeeds.

The Barghest takes another point of Aggravated Damage on its turn and must make a Stamina (4) roll to avoid unconsciousness. It fails.

Joshua's Sixth Action: Strength (2) + Weaponry (4) + 1 (Specialty) - 2 (Off-Hand Penalty) = One Success.

The Barghest takes four points of Aggravated Damage and dies.

Note: A notable change, here, is that I decided Valentine killing the barghest would be more narratively satisfying than having it just fall ****. To be honest, I don't even know if monsters in Chronicles Of Darkness even need to make Stamina rolls to stay conscious.

Valentine spends one Essence to shift down as a reflex action. He then calls for help on Joshua's radio. Lydia immediately rushes over to Joshua as Tanvi performs first aid. Pri is deeply embarrassed by Valentine's nude form and asks him what happened. He admits that he shifted into a werelion form, which Pri finds both horrifying and alluring. We end the "episode" with a scene of her masturbating.

Note: This scene didn't actually change but, when it came time to write it up, I decided to have it occur off-screen.

Anyway, this was way more involved than I usually get and much more a behind the scenes look at how I play. Moving forward, I think I'm going to go back to having the rolls accompany individual chapters. I may even experiment with putting the rolls in the main body of the text, which seems to be far more common. I made a lot of mistakes but I think they hurt me about as often as they helped me, and I'm generally getting better about remembering things the more I play.