Session 2, End of Scenario One.
Firstly, happy new year!! 2026 is upon us!
So on the 1st, we finished off the first scenario “The Haunting”. It was a bit of a mash together because the game was called off, but then everyone decided they did want to do it… a day before! I had already penciled some ideas down as to how we would finish this off, so I just needed to cement them.
As previously mentioned, the original plan was to have Patch holding the key, but I moved it into the church. It took a bit of convincing the players to not use a gun on the iron lock and door, and it took some strong hints to get them all to gather some old sheets etc to climb down into the hole. One of them thought they could just go to a fire station and steal a ladder. Some of the ideas that are presented are fucking wild.
Anyway, they made it down into the hole and had a look around, found some handouts and more information. That went off without a hitch, until it came to trying to get them to look for a doorway, the one that is blocked off by rubble. After a bit of time, in between them all talking and discussing the paperwork they had just found, I got someone to roll spot hidden, this was to notice the fire torch they had flickering from a breeze… it took 3 attempts to get someone to pass.
Having found the room and ultimately the key, we were able to press on with the end of the scenario. They made it into the basement, were attacked by the dagger and were not successful in “taming” it. I ended up leaving it in the chest of one of the characters, he wasn’t quite dead, but near as damn it. They were unable to open up the wall hiding Corbitt, so I had to have the wall blow open, hitting them with rubble in the process.
Queue The Fight…
The trouble with 7 players REALLY showed itself here. The combat felt really bad. With everyone in the room, most people were “I go up and stab him”, when you have several people do that in succession and with that happening for a couple of rounds, it feels very stale and linear. A lot of that is absolutely going to be down to me and running the combat, but I was not happy with how it went.
Then someone shot their gun, even though I had warned them all about shooting guns and the consequences, one still thought fuck it. I set 3 rounds on a count down to have the police arrive. Given that rounds are meant to be only a few seconds, those police were quick. But that wasn’t the point, it was a lesson. But that shot, I made wound Corbitt enough that he summoned a Dimensional Shambler so it would change the state of play a bit. I had Corbitt collapse to the floor and this Shambler appear out of a smokey portal.
To combat this, one of the players grabbed the sawn off from the other and shot it, caused more than enough damage to kill it off. That was really short lived, but there we have it. I should probably have made the shots do next to nothing to this thing, but other ideas were starting to play in the back of my head and I wanted to wrap this whole thing up.
Combat Over.
Upon the combat being finished, I had the police storm in, guns raised commanding weapons be dropped. This, this was the point where it just got stupid. The spy, thinking his job would protect him, SHOT AT THE FUCKING POLICE!! What the actual fuck. That is fine, I was prepared to kill him, if the dice rolled my way. But they didn’t, I only managed to get a single hit with a small damage roll. So with that and everyone finally having surrendered, I had no idea what I was going do now, but it presented me with a great opportunity to really hit them in the thinking pants.
3 players were arrested, the 2 people who shot and the one with the dagger stuck in him, mainly because he is the mob boss and would be known to police. But with this, presents me what I hope will be a great opportunity to control a couple of things. As these 3 have been arrested, they get all of their unsavory equipment confiscated, that will get rid of that shotgun, 2 pistols and a tommy gun, as well as knives. Granted, they will argue and try to get their weapons back one way or another, I am going to make it difficult for them.
What Next?
So the Spy wont be joining us for the next session and given he has been arrested, that works for me, he was the one that shot at officers, so arguably isn’t going to be released right away. The other 2 I will have Harold bail them out, they wont get paid, they will loose a measure of their credit rating as expenses and they will be monitored by the police, this is what I hope will prevent them from getting hold of weapons easily.
Because everyone was ushered out of the basement by the police, they wouldn’t have had the chance to pick up any of their weapons, especially without being collared by the police. On top of that, no one saw what happened to Corbitt. Did he die? No one knows… Except me. This has given me a thread I can use and have him play a part again later on. I am also thinking that the reverend Michael is going to be the unnamed Patron, not entirely sure of that one yet though. He is an old man that is assumed to be alive and somewhere and has a connection to Corbitt.
The players are convinced that this is a “Hot Fuzz” situation where the whole of Boston is part of this cult. I am happy for them to believe that for the time being, I will probably play into it a little bit. But I don’t think I will have it pay off that way.
The Next Session
I have no idea what I am going to prepare for the next session, I do have a list of scenarios and I think the edge of darkness was next, but I am beginning to think that trying to weave in existing scenarios in their entirety isn’t going to work as well as I had hoped. Regardless of that, I have 1 less player and a lot to prep. That isn’t going to help much in the long term I don’t think.
The 7 Players Problem
I am not going to stop any of the players from playing, that wouldn’t be very fair, but I think I need to do something to make this easier for me. I am considering trying a session with a split party. Run 3 of the players then run the other 4 separately, just so I can have easier management and see if it flows any better. This will mean that I have to do 2 lots of prepping for 2 different scenarios per month, but it isn’t not doable once I get a proper flow.
2 of my players have to travel in from the other side of the country, so we plan the games around them visiting, and how I am able to split them up will ultimately be assisted by this. I will allow the others watch the others play if they want to, just so they can be part of the experience. It will also allow some characters to know more about some things than the others.
The problem this would introduce is that I have a 7 scenario campaign planned. Either the scenario is drastically reduced in length by half, or the number of scenarios is doubled. I don’t see the number of scenarios being doubled as a problem, it is just the time aspect, I wouldn’t even have to double them. The next scenario will be most of the group, so that would leave 5, the final one would need all players, so 4. I think I will propose that scenario 3 is a split group and see how we get on and how everyone feels about it.
With some of the mechanics going on, I want to take some to a sanitarium, where they will find some magical runes. So that would be a good one to have a split party for, I just need to figure out where to send the others. I need to take another look at my list of scenarios.
I think that is all for this one, the session was chaotic and a touch frustrating. But until the next One
Much love <3