I really like this type of analysis video, so please keep them coming... but... the audio differences between hosts, and audio clarity could use some help.
yeah, its quite bad. These were some of the first we did, and we had a lot to learn with the audio, i'll be replacing these ones in time. But they get the points across until then.
Nicely done, fellers. I'm running this tomorrow night and you guys gave me a lot of ideas to make the scenario more fluid and unforced, which is something you guys brought up. In the module script, they bring up "Amidst the Ancient Trees" towards the end as another module that goes well with this as it apparently is also related to ol' Gla'aki and its backstory. Have you guys ever ran that module?
You mention it at the end, but I was just wondering if Amidst the Ancient Trees is another one-off sort of thing that you could incorporate between other modules, or is it even worth it to run?
@@williamholly9530 Hey there. Its a scenario i'm looking at running in the future, i've skimmed through it for this video and i'm a fan of Gla'aki as the big bad. the scenario does have a lot of scope and the pay off is quite good, there is alot of open space in there during the hunt to add more of your own ideas (this could also lead to problems if not prepped) and its pretty flexible to relocate and plug into a grander sequence of 1 shots , as i mention in the video ol' Gal'aki has some issues that hes stuck in certain settings which act as tells for the players if they have met him before. Where it could shine is the dreams and that angle. If you play on that over the coarse of it, even introduce it in other scenario it might be a great pay off in a long game. But at the end of the day i think he's an oddity rather than something like Nyarlathotep that can hold a bigger scoped game like Masks, again that is unless you go above and beyond with those dreams and grow its mythos yourself.
@@RPGNook Right. I purposely ran Servants of the Lake before Genius Loci because I wanted to foreshadow and get the players used to the "Dreamland" idea. I think it's ripe with potential. Not even in sleep are your PC's safe...I could be wrong about this, but it also allows me to then easily foreshadow events, or build dread or suspense, even when the PC's go off the wall with what they want to do. Admittedly, I just love the psychology mind-fucking potential of dream sequences, as it's used in literature for the same purpose; in a hyper realistic setting, the dreamland allows some narrative flexibility and play.
@@williamholly9530 Yeah i was sceptical about Dreamlands at first but i ran Season of the Witch for April 30th, and it went down a storm. The great thing about the dreamlands is it is very surreal and reminds me of CS Lewis more that anything. That and you can get quite brutal with it. 2 of the 3 runs of that scenario ended with atleast one PC dying in the Dreamlands, however because it was the dreamlands they lived but with the memories of what dying feels like. I had one wake in the asylum being hosed off and ended it there. It was a lot of fun and because all the players had never been to the DL before it was a massive, wtf is this moment.
Biggest gripe…the maps do NOT match the descriptions provided. The map artist was WAY off on placements of rooms, objects and location in relation to cardinal directions. Very easy task and yet they managed to screw it up And OMFG the typos are atrocious!!
I'm going to be running this for my group this week, so this is some really helpful advice. I'm planning on drawing a bit of inspiration from John Carpenter's In The Mouth of Madness. They'll arrive at this place after crossing a covered truss bridge, and they get some unsettling visions. Some good chances for some Drive Auto and Sanity rolls just to set the players on edge and get the mood before they arrive. It'll also be a way to narratively focus them on this location. Perhaps as with ITMoM they encounter some of these visions on the way out again, changed somehow. The night seems to match very well with Attack of the Fishmen (from Dark Corners of the Earth) where the investigators can be chased from room to room and have to try and block the pursuers. Will depend on how well I do in giving them a sense of place and telegraphing a little what their options might be when the situation comes around. I feel too that this is the best written module from the book. It describes locations more than other modules, so it has a good sense of place. I don't mind the first handout, if it's just presented as flavour. It adds to the history and fiction of the location, even if it isn't in any way related to the actual mystery being investigated.
I agree its the handout isn't really a problem, its just usually the player mindset that will want it to mean more. Sounds like you got some nice idea of how to put a twist on the module, let us know how those play out! Good Luck, we have played this one often on Nook.
@@RPGNook It went generally quite well! The conceit was one of my investigators' Key Connections organised a holiday for them, and they end up getting stranded at the motel on the way. Using the ITMoM-style into the place getting weirder and weirder set the mood quite well, and also was fun to flip the general "slow buildup to sanity-wracking finale" around such that the start was just as unsettling. I reasoned Gla'aki's malign influence as they slept in the lake caused the distortion, and once Gla'aki was woken and focused just on the lake, then escape becomes possible. Half-way through they attempted to nope the hell out of there with Jacob. Knew they'd try, sigh haha. Where things were more challenging I found was in moving time forwards satisfactorily. Suspicious types are going to investigate their rooms and find the trap-doors - having an Attack of the Fishmen style scene just wasn't possible for that reason. I'd be surprised if most run-throughs even get to investigators to _willingly_ sleeping in their rooms for the dream-pull, as all my investigators were on edge. I improv'd Gla'aki's fog on the lake having a knock-out like effect so they could experience the dream-pull. I agree where the written scenario provides little detail but has a lot of interest is in the surrounding environs of the lake - the half-sunken village, the dense forested areas etc. - my group didn't head out though even when I added a few hooks for them such as the possibility of fishing or boating, along with the area history hand-out (I moved it to the motel's reception, framed on the wall as "local history", rather than being research). It was a fun session, and ended in a desperate attempt of the last sane investigator working with an NPC to man-handle his insane co-investigators (and their Key Connection, about to be spiked) into the car so they could speed away before they got turned by the avatar. Fortunately, Luck, Strength and Drive Auto were all on their side in the end... :)
This is so helpful, thank you
I really like this type of analysis video, so please keep them coming... but... the audio differences between hosts, and audio clarity could use some help.
yeah, its quite bad. These were some of the first we did, and we had a lot to learn with the audio, i'll be replacing these ones in time. But they get the points across until then.
@@RPGNook I liked it, so please keep them coming
Agreed - very useful, helpful. Bad audio is a pity tho :/
Nicely done, fellers. I'm running this tomorrow night and you guys gave me a lot of ideas to make the scenario more fluid and unforced, which is something you guys brought up. In the module script, they bring up "Amidst the Ancient Trees" towards the end as another module that goes well with this as it apparently is also related to ol' Gla'aki and its backstory. Have you guys ever ran that module?
You mention it at the end, but I was just wondering if Amidst the Ancient Trees is another one-off sort of thing that you could incorporate between other modules, or is it even worth it to run?
@@williamholly9530 Hey there. Its a scenario i'm looking at running in the future, i've skimmed through it for this video and i'm a fan of Gla'aki as the big bad. the scenario does have a lot of scope and the pay off is quite good, there is alot of open space in there during the hunt to add more of your own ideas (this could also lead to problems if not prepped) and its pretty flexible to relocate and plug into a grander sequence of 1 shots , as i mention in the video ol' Gal'aki has some issues that hes stuck in certain settings which act as tells for the players if they have met him before. Where it could shine is the dreams and that angle. If you play on that over the coarse of it, even introduce it in other scenario it might be a great pay off in a long game. But at the end of the day i think he's an oddity rather than something like Nyarlathotep that can hold a bigger scoped game like Masks, again that is unless you go above and beyond with those dreams and grow its mythos yourself.
@@RPGNook Right. I purposely ran Servants of the Lake before Genius Loci because I wanted to foreshadow and get the players used to the "Dreamland" idea. I think it's ripe with potential. Not even in sleep are your PC's safe...I could be wrong about this, but it also allows me to then easily foreshadow events, or build dread or suspense, even when the PC's go off the wall with what they want to do. Admittedly, I just love the psychology mind-fucking potential of dream sequences, as it's used in literature for the same purpose; in a hyper realistic setting, the dreamland allows some narrative flexibility and play.
@@williamholly9530 Yeah i was sceptical about Dreamlands at first but i ran Season of the Witch for April 30th, and it went down a storm. The great thing about the dreamlands is it is very surreal and reminds me of CS Lewis more that anything. That and you can get quite brutal with it. 2 of the 3 runs of that scenario ended with atleast one PC dying in the Dreamlands, however because it was the dreamlands they lived but with the memories of what dying feels like. I had one wake in the asylum being hosed off and ended it there. It was a lot of fun and because all the players had never been to the DL before it was a massive, wtf is this moment.
Biggest gripe…the maps do NOT match the descriptions provided. The map artist was WAY off on placements of rooms, objects and location in relation to cardinal directions. Very easy task and yet they managed to screw it up
And OMFG the typos are atrocious!!
there is some problems, check out the PDFs, they usually stealth update them every so often.
very cool breakdown! :)
Thanks!
I'm going to be running this for my group this week, so this is some really helpful advice.
I'm planning on drawing a bit of inspiration from John Carpenter's In The Mouth of Madness. They'll arrive at this place after crossing a covered truss bridge, and they get some unsettling visions. Some good chances for some Drive Auto and Sanity rolls just to set the players on edge and get the mood before they arrive. It'll also be a way to narratively focus them on this location. Perhaps as with ITMoM they encounter some of these visions on the way out again, changed somehow.
The night seems to match very well with Attack of the Fishmen (from Dark Corners of the Earth) where the investigators can be chased from room to room and have to try and block the pursuers. Will depend on how well I do in giving them a sense of place and telegraphing a little what their options might be when the situation comes around.
I feel too that this is the best written module from the book. It describes locations more than other modules, so it has a good sense of place. I don't mind the first handout, if it's just presented as flavour. It adds to the history and fiction of the location, even if it isn't in any way related to the actual mystery being investigated.
I agree its the handout isn't really a problem, its just usually the player mindset that will want it to mean more. Sounds like you got some nice idea of how to put a twist on the module, let us know how those play out! Good Luck, we have played this one often on Nook.
@@RPGNook It went generally quite well! The conceit was one of my investigators' Key Connections organised a holiday for them, and they end up getting stranded at the motel on the way. Using the ITMoM-style into the place getting weirder and weirder set the mood quite well, and also was fun to flip the general "slow buildup to sanity-wracking finale" around such that the start was just as unsettling. I reasoned Gla'aki's malign influence as they slept in the lake caused the distortion, and once Gla'aki was woken and focused just on the lake, then escape becomes possible. Half-way through they attempted to nope the hell out of there with Jacob. Knew they'd try, sigh haha.
Where things were more challenging I found was in moving time forwards satisfactorily. Suspicious types are going to investigate their rooms and find the trap-doors - having an Attack of the Fishmen style scene just wasn't possible for that reason. I'd be surprised if most run-throughs even get to investigators to _willingly_ sleeping in their rooms for the dream-pull, as all my investigators were on edge. I improv'd Gla'aki's fog on the lake having a knock-out like effect so they could experience the dream-pull.
I agree where the written scenario provides little detail but has a lot of interest is in the surrounding environs of the lake - the half-sunken village, the dense forested areas etc. - my group didn't head out though even when I added a few hooks for them such as the possibility of fishing or boating, along with the area history hand-out (I moved it to the motel's reception, framed on the wall as "local history", rather than being research).
It was a fun session, and ended in a desperate attempt of the last sane investigator working with an NPC to man-handle his insane co-investigators (and their Key Connection, about to be spiked) into the car so they could speed away before they got turned by the avatar. Fortunately, Luck, Strength and Drive Auto were all on their side in the end... :)
@@darkowl9 nice one! sounds like you had a lot of fun. Yea, i don't think anyone has managed to pull off the trapdoors well yet.
Hey guys, have you done this black board map on photoshop?
Illustrator, easy enough to do with a blackboard background, and some Chalk fonts :D
The Audio is awful, I can barely understand half of the video.
It really is! but we have gotten better, this one is quite an early one. Thank you for your feedback.
True, I realy like your "let's create a scenario" videos.
@@thonktank1239 Thanks, i'm recording the next one this week. hope to see you in the comments again and this hasn't put you off. :)
Oh wow, lucky me. I just discovered this channel yesterday and was really disappointed that the series wasn't complete yet