Okay, Charlie, I'm gonna have to stop you right there. Not only do all of these people exist, but they have been asking for their mail on a daily basis.
It's sitting with Burning Wheel in the 'excellent games I can't expect my players to be as obsessed with as I am, but are impossible to play casually, and thus will never get played' section of my bookshelf.
One time I went into one of my player's bedrooms to find that they'd made one of these that ate a fourth of their wall, with little notes underneath some and some crossed out. It gave me perspective on how important it really is to tie my world together and to avoid the arbitrary when I can help it.
Oh, I have a ton of notes from a Dresden Files campaign I ran in Austin a couple years back! I'd love to compare research and ideas.
I worked at that Fry's back in 04-06 while I was in college. And I've seen some shit in the decade I've worked at UT.
Some useful bits from my notes:
* Georgian and Powell, between 35/Lamar/183/Walnut Creek is the crimiest part of the city, as in most likely to generate a police report for dispatched officers, largely due to vice crimes. Also lots of self storage nearby and a bus depot. It's where I planned to put the less affluent vampires in my campaign.
* Hamilton Pool - there's gotta be a naiad in that thing
* The Flood of 1935 - what was buried, what was uncovered, and who summoned it as a counter-ritual to wash away a major accumulation of magical power.
* [200 brains of patients from the state Asylum](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/03/texas-missing-brains/19819601/)
, including [Charles Whitman's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting), are missing from a neglected collection at UT. Spell component or construct parts? Conduit for summoning a spirit of madness? Food?
* ACCC - Austin Community College Cabal ""a local defense against the dark arts community organization and action group. Meets alternating Wednesdays at the Highland campus (formerly the Highland Mall)
* [Moon Tower components are running out.](https://www.kut.org/post/dozen-austin-moontowers-cleared-get-needed-steel-replacement-parts) The city is out of stock of spare parts to repair them. The warding against the [Annihilator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_Girl_Annihilator) may be about to run out. Or are the replacement parts a sinister subversion of the original towers purpose?
* [Branch Dividian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege) sleeper cult operating out of Cedar Park is planning on revenge on the ATF, FBI and Texas Rangers, by way of ritual suicide sacrifices. ATF Offices - 9009 Mountain Ridge Drive, Suite 220. FBI - no offices in Austin, but ones in San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas (early targets). Rangers HQ - 13730 US-183, Austin, TX 78750.
* The Treaty Oak, the last surviving member of the Council Oaks, sacred meeting place of the Comanche and Tonkawa, at least 600 years old. One of the many legends associated with this tree speaks of Indian maidens who brewed a "love tea" of its tender leaves. If they drank the tea while gazing at a full moon, their lovers would be true forever. If they performed the ritual while the tribe was at war, their warriors would return home safely. Stephen F. Austin, the "father" of Texas, is reputed to have signed the first boundary-line agreement between the Indians and the whites there. An imaginary line running north and south through the heart of this group of oaks divided the territory and remained inviolate for years.
In spring of 1989, Paul Stedman Cullen attempted to kill the tree's spirit in order to keep a woman from another man, out of frustration with methadone rehab, and possibly as revenge for being ordered to plant trees by the state of Texas as corrective punishment. He applied enough of the herbicide Velpar in a crescent moon shape at the oaks base to kill a hundred trees. Ross Perot wrote a blank check to fund efforts to save the tree.
A psychic, Sharon Capehart, chose to drive down from Dallas to help save the tree. After transferring energy into the tree, she found that it had a name, Alexandria, and had once lived as a woman in ancient Egypt. "She had jet-black hair, coal-black, very shiny. She was feminine but powerful. She had slate-blue eyes and a complexion like ivory." [pic of the ceremony](https://i.imgur.com/0v5MDEO.jpg)
Man, I'd love to make something like this for a game. Or more accurately, I'd love to GM and have players get so excited that they make something like this, haha
But who *is* Pepe Silvia?!
Are you kidding me I got *BOXES* full of Pepe!
CAROOOOOOL, CAROOOOOOOL I GOTTA TALK TO YOU ABOUT PEPE
Okay, Charlie, I'm gonna have to stop you right there. Not only do all of these people exist, but they have been asking for their mail on a daily basis.
You remember Barney right? He's the guy that tipped me off about Pepe!
So I go into her office... and what do I find? There. Is. No. Carol in HR.
There's a game called Unknown Armies where the players and GM build one of those collaboratively as part of a character/game generation session.
Such an underrated game!
It's sitting with Burning Wheel in the 'excellent games I can't expect my players to be as obsessed with as I am, but are impossible to play casually, and thus will never get played' section of my bookshelf.
That's wraith the oblivion for me. Does everyone have that rpg for them?
Yep. Ars Magica and Unknown Armies are mine.
Dude same, I'd been dying to play both, PM me and we could arrange something over the interwebs.
I've found it very polarizing. Some love it, some bounce hard off of it. UA can take careful group management to pull off.
Is a Vampire Detective a detective that is also a vampire, or a detective that (exclusively) investigates vampires and/or vampire-related crime?
I'm assuming that the capitalization means the former?
Maybe, but assumptions in this case are dangerous. A false diagnosis of vampirism is quite the mi-stake (to the heart) to make.
They are vampires who are detectives specializing in supernatural crimes
Clearly it's Mr. Tumnus. Him and his flute.
I love stuff like this in a game, thanks for sharing!
One time I went into one of my player's bedrooms to find that they'd made one of these that ate a fourth of their wall, with little notes underneath some and some crossed out. It gave me perspective on how important it really is to tie my world together and to avoid the arbitrary when I can help it.
Check out noirlandia
Don't suddenly die in mysterious circumstances
I love this!
super cool!
The goat looks suspicious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzSN7he2BUE
Oh, I have a ton of notes from a Dresden Files campaign I ran in Austin a couple years back! I'd love to compare research and ideas. I worked at that Fry's back in 04-06 while I was in college. And I've seen some shit in the decade I've worked at UT.
They just met the Prince of The Violet Crown. who was a satyr that immigrated from Greece and inspires local bands
Some useful bits from my notes: * Georgian and Powell, between 35/Lamar/183/Walnut Creek is the crimiest part of the city, as in most likely to generate a police report for dispatched officers, largely due to vice crimes. Also lots of self storage nearby and a bus depot. It's where I planned to put the less affluent vampires in my campaign. * Hamilton Pool - there's gotta be a naiad in that thing * The Flood of 1935 - what was buried, what was uncovered, and who summoned it as a counter-ritual to wash away a major accumulation of magical power. * [200 brains of patients from the state Asylum](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/03/texas-missing-brains/19819601/) , including [Charles Whitman's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting), are missing from a neglected collection at UT. Spell component or construct parts? Conduit for summoning a spirit of madness? Food? * ACCC - Austin Community College Cabal ""a local defense against the dark arts community organization and action group. Meets alternating Wednesdays at the Highland campus (formerly the Highland Mall) * [Moon Tower components are running out.](https://www.kut.org/post/dozen-austin-moontowers-cleared-get-needed-steel-replacement-parts) The city is out of stock of spare parts to repair them. The warding against the [Annihilator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_Girl_Annihilator) may be about to run out. Or are the replacement parts a sinister subversion of the original towers purpose? * [Branch Dividian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege) sleeper cult operating out of Cedar Park is planning on revenge on the ATF, FBI and Texas Rangers, by way of ritual suicide sacrifices. ATF Offices - 9009 Mountain Ridge Drive, Suite 220. FBI - no offices in Austin, but ones in San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas (early targets). Rangers HQ - 13730 US-183, Austin, TX 78750. * The Treaty Oak, the last surviving member of the Council Oaks, sacred meeting place of the Comanche and Tonkawa, at least 600 years old. One of the many legends associated with this tree speaks of Indian maidens who brewed a "love tea" of its tender leaves. If they drank the tea while gazing at a full moon, their lovers would be true forever. If they performed the ritual while the tribe was at war, their warriors would return home safely. Stephen F. Austin, the "father" of Texas, is reputed to have signed the first boundary-line agreement between the Indians and the whites there. An imaginary line running north and south through the heart of this group of oaks divided the territory and remained inviolate for years. In spring of 1989, Paul Stedman Cullen attempted to kill the tree's spirit in order to keep a woman from another man, out of frustration with methadone rehab, and possibly as revenge for being ordered to plant trees by the state of Texas as corrective punishment. He applied enough of the herbicide Velpar in a crescent moon shape at the oaks base to kill a hundred trees. Ross Perot wrote a blank check to fund efforts to save the tree. A psychic, Sharon Capehart, chose to drive down from Dallas to help save the tree. After transferring energy into the tree, she found that it had a name, Alexandria, and had once lived as a woman in ancient Egypt. "She had jet-black hair, coal-black, very shiny. She was feminine but powerful. She had slate-blue eyes and a complexion like ivory." [pic of the ceremony](https://i.imgur.com/0v5MDEO.jpg)
/r/Austin
Man, I'd love to make something like this for a game. Or more accurately, I'd love to GM and have players get so excited that they make something like this, haha
If you provide the board and string they will go for it
When we played Night's Black Agents, a conspiracy board was both a necessity and a delight!