This post includes spoilers for a game I'm running. So, if you're currently playing in a game that is run (and set) on E 5th in NYC, and if it began with a crazy woman's suicide in a bookstore called "The White Rabbit," and if it ended with a bunch of blue-eyed cops taking you in for questioning... Surprise! You're one of my players! And you should probably stop reading.
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Ok. They're good people, so they should be gone now.
First I want to thank in advance anyone who braves this lengthy post, and is able to help me out. I'm a relatively new Storyteller, and I have some truly great players for whom I'm genuinely honored to be running a game. So I really want to make it something special. Specifically, I'm hoping for some tips on preparing/running what has become a truly EPIC chronicle inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos, with heavy survival horror and conspiracy themes. I am having two main issues, but first I must give a brief synopsis of the "big picture". I've tried to keep it short, and I dare say I think it's pretty interesting, so hopefully I'll keep your interest long enough to earn your help with my troubles
Synopsis
(Seriously, if you even suspect you're one of my players, you know to stop reading.)
The players find an artifact. The artifact is quite obviously evil (it drove its last owner insane; players failed their surprise checks and she shot herself in front of them; I had sound effects and it was great). But it speaks to them, and it offers to help them if only they'll agree to return the favor. None of my players have taken it up on its offer thus far, but they've yet to leave their bookstore. I intend to place them in situations where refusing the Eye's offer becomes a lot more ... interesting.
My players, now bound to the artifact, will find themselves at the heart of a conflict that spans millions of years and involves our whole solar system (yikes!): The eight planets, all of them sentient deities, have been squabbling like children on Earth since intelligence first dawned there. Each one, in pursuing its selfish agendas, has guided much of history, myth and religion via the influence they've cultivated on Earth over the eons ("influence" includes conspiracies, human conduits, hive-mind control, direct manifestation, sanity-wrenching time-loops, fate-bending... each planet's methods are different).
To illustrate (feel free to skip to the next paragraph once you get the idea): "Earth" can pull its followers into a hive mind, and has them in almost every branch of government and public service, including the police. "Venus" is everything Vice, but especially human trafficking/slavery: its conduit on Earth--the Morning Star himself--can annihilate a person's soul, leaving behind only those parts, however small, that love him unconditionally (it's "the devil steals souls" meets "the planet of love"). "Mars" and its two moons, Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Dread), are at the heart of terrorism and geopolitical unrest; their agents on Earth are the Four Horsemen. "Neptune" traps its followers in an endless, year-long time loop (giving them perfect knowledge of a future they've lived a million times over, and driving them insane in the process). "Jupiter" walks the Earth as a corporate tycoon with a finger in every pie, a Machiavellian master of capitalism who I intend to be the 'Big Bad' for some part of the chronicle (Earth and Jupiter have been duking it out on Wall Street since 2007, as any news network will happily tell you). "Saturn", ever the resplendent narcissist, runs much of the media and can manipulate the global Zeitgeist (the concept, not the silly movie). And so on.
What each planet wants, more than anything else, is the artifact the players now hold. But the artifact represents an even greater threat, even as the players face more and more pressure to rely on its double-edged offers of protection and power. The artifact calls itself the Eye of God, because that's exactly what it is. But religion got God all wrong. God isn't the Alpha and the Omega, the Creator and Destroyer, the Beginning and the End: He was the Alpha, the Creator, the Beginning... and then He became the Omega, the Destroyer, the End. So, while dodging the planets, their conspiracies, and the inhuman horrors they command, the Eye of God will be revealed as the herald of its looming namesake, at which point I hope my players will realize that uniting the planets is the best chance of surviving the End that approaches. If they do, it will mark the turning of the tide towards the grand finale: An epic battle against God Himself, fought with Lucifer, the Horsemen, the hive-minded armies of Earth, and/or any others the players manage to win over. (If they don't, the worlds end in ash, and the chronicle continues into bleak, post-apocalyptic horror a-la "The Road." Ouch.)
Oh yeah: I'm running it with the nWoD rules, modified with a few things pulled from Unknown Armies (I love them Madness Meters).
My First Problem: I Can't See the Trees for the Forest!
I have what I think is an awesome big picture for a chronicle. It's not a linear plot that'll require railroading, it's not a pre-written story for which the players are merely along for the ride, and it should be able to handle whatever the players throw at it. (I just have to figure out how the planets and the Eye react.) That being said, it's a BIG forest (I'm so glad Pluto's no longer a planet...). So:
- How can I take what I have, and turn it into weekly game sessions? (And I am not deaf to the collective sound of a whole forum facepalming; for this, I am sorry.)
- If you were tasked with running a chronicle based off of the above synopsis, what would you consider necessary prep for the first session after the players leave their bookstore and enter the sandbox of the chronicle-at-large?
- How can I design robust conspiracies that are resistant to unraveling right off the bat, especially when the players come up with some angle I never considered (they're clever bastards), but that still allow my players to make steady, interesting progress?
- Can you think of any publications that might be helpful to me? I'll happily purchase pdfs if they contain good Storyteller/GM material on running conspiracies or "big" games like this, with epic set pieces and lots of moving parts. And they don't need to be White Wolf, since I'm not really looking for rules here, just advice. (I'm less inclined to switch rules systems entirely, though, unless there's a really great one out there that strikes you as tailor-made for a game like this.)
My Second Problem: Making the Story About the Players
I have three great, committed players who, as I said, I am very honored to be running a game for. They've all put a lot of work into their characters, but they're all very different. I don't mean that there are insurmountable conflicts (I would have prevented that), but that they have very little overlap. I have a social character (who, in addition to being an evangelical Christian tailor-made for this setting, will also shine during the possible recruitment stage), a mental character (hence all the back story for her to research), and a physical character (a brawler, he insisted, even after I told him he'd almost certainly die should he attempt to grapple anything Lovecraftian).
- Any tips on how to involve all of them, without having to alternate between scenes built for one character's strength at a time?
- How can I keep things fun for the physical character without sacrificing the horror and without killing him outright? He's a great roleplayer, and not at all a combat twink: He modeled the character after himself, and he's extremely skilled at the martial arts in real life.
I would also really appreciate any general advice from veteran Storytellers/GMs out there, based on what you've read.
And thanks again for making it this far, I hope I was right about it being somewhat interesting!