This weekend I tracked down a serial killer.

… at a Beyond Gathering (kinda a Hollywood version of d&d, less dice rolls and more drama)

Usually there are 8 to 10 of us.  Andy Smith of Crasiworld is the GM and runs events.
We all play the characters we’ve been running for years in the postal version of the game, and it’s a chance for these characters to adventure over the table.
The game usually runs from 9 – 7 Saturday, and concludes 9-4 on Sunday

This time was a bit different though.

For a start it was a Nightfall scenario (Modern Day Horror), instead of the usual Fantasy setting.
Then there were only 3 of us there.
To add to the Modern Day horror setting, we were warned it would go on past midnight …
… Saturdays session actually finished at 6.40am, Sundays session started at 9..

Also the GM wasn’t to arrive until the Sunday..

The characters this time were:
Saint, a troubled teenager with holy / unholy power conflicts.
Emily, a medical type who has found she has unexpected powers to boost her healing skills
Jai, an Indian mystic

On Thursday Emily received a envelope containing a cd-rom, with a note explaining the following back story

Jack Lorski, a journalist was investigating a series of murders dating back 30 years when he and his partner Karen went missing.  His employers then received a cd from someone calling himself the Phoenix who had kidnapped the duo, and is challenging them to crack the cd and save them before it’s too late.

They have been unable to crack the cd, so have sent out copies to anyyone who they think may be able to help.  one copy went to Emily.

(the cd actually contains the game In Memoriam)

The Gathering was at Emily (Ian)’s house, which was handy, because it meant the three of us had a Mac each (which was important for reasons I’ll come to).  The one I was using had 2 monitors attached, which is something I now fully intend to set up myself.  It felt like Minority Report, dragging info across to the second screen to come back to later whilst I work on the main one 🙂

The cd is basically a package put together (very atmopherically) by the Phoenix, we had to work our way through it, solve many many puzzles and problems, and every so often were given access to a new video clip from the video log Jack Lorski was making of his investigation.

Many of the puzzles could only be solved after extensive research, mostly on the internet.  There were 1000’s of sites containing the info we needed, some genuine sites, some made just for the game, many need translating into English due to the nature of the sites and the info contained.

I won’t give much away, but it turns out the current spate of murders actually tie in to (real) events over 500 years ago, with interactions and rivalries between various historical figures providing the key to the solution today.  This meant a lot of research into secret societies, magi, heretics, philosophers, prophets, mystics etc from the past 500 years, over various contries, and languages. 

This is what Nightfall scenarios are all about, the real world, with a hidden undercurrent of the occult, and using this game as part of the scenario worked out really well.

One example, we had to look up, and find the info we needed in the record written 500(ish) years ago at the trial of a heretic who was burned at the stake.  Another, we were shown a wood-cutting of a man being tortured, with the inscription scratched out, we were given the name of a man who died because of this engraving, and had to find the missing words to progress.

It was never (ok, rarely) as simple as a Google search, and the answers to previous problems led to clues for the later ones, so it was important to read each piece properly, not just grab the snippet of info you need.

During the game we received emails (actually received as emails, not just showing up on the game screen) and instant messages from various npc’s, and even some from the Phoenix himself, which really added to the atmosphere.  We also had to download a video analyst tool, and a sound analyser for some of the solutions.

Ians printer took a bit of a battering, and his study ended up with articles, news reports, profiles etc pinned to most available wallspace for later reference, which felt like the police incident rooms you see on the tv, and again added to the atmosphere of us trying to track down a killer before it’s too late.

On Sunday morning (2 hours after we’d gone to bed) the GM turned up, and took things from where the game ended, with us getting involved in the events we’d spent the previous day researching and investigating.

Had a great weekend 🙂

Knackered now tho!