[Shadows] A Noise at the Cabin

[Zak Arntson]

I spent the Fourth of July holiday with some family, so I figured I'd play some Shadows. Since we didn't have much time, I skipped the actual Shadow generation part. I just told them that the Shadow is a force that wants them to be caught by their parents.

To open, I established that they are kids identical to themselves in the same house we were in, their mom and dad were the only adults, asleep upstairs. Gameplay began traditionally, with some weird noise waking them up. When they woke fully, they heard it again from upstairs!

The adventure was short, but exciting for us all. They crept upstairs, beginning their Good and Shadow outcomes with the expected: I sneak quietly/I make a big noise. After some prompting on my part, they expanded their outcomes a bit. This is when things got interesting.

Good/Shadow: The upstairs room is empty/I see a shadowy figure! (We got the bad outcome, despite a few rerolls)

The players get physically agitated. A shadowy figure! Who could it be!

Good/Shadow: I get a knife from the kitchen/All the knives fall onto the floor! (good outcome, phew!)

My nephew's character creeps up to the shadowy figure and it turns out to be a coat on a coatstand! I didn't want things to get grisly, so cutting throats was out.

In any case, the characters hear the mysterious noise again! And it's coming from the laundry room. My niece's character creeps forward. Her Good/Shadow outcomes tend towards the silent creeping/make noise. Problem is, she's earned all the tokens from her brother! Her character gets into the laundry room, but not after banging into the door and waking up mom.

The nephew's character rushes back downstairs, but the niece is still stuck in the laundry room. Mom shows up, throws the light switch, and says, "Oh, was the washing machine banging around again? Let me get that and put you back to bed, honey."

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It was a successful game! Both players got very excited and involved, and even cooperated (these two compete at nearly everything they do; during Shadows, they didn't punch or argue once).

Something I noticed: The shifting of tokens really serves to heighten tension. Near the end, my niece (who was closest to the noise) had all the tokens, so every roll of the dice was very stressful! It was great to watch her announce both outcomes and get all excited as the dice fell.

Next time, I'll emphasize that Good/Shadow doesn't necessarily mean silently/lots of noise. I will emphasize this during play, along with prodding examples if needed.

I also want to try it out without the generic setup. Something like Harry Potter (with magic spells and creepy environments), a definite Good/Shadow competing end-result.

[Paganini]

What is it about this game and laundry rooms?

[Zak Arntson]

Must be something that makes kids nervous, to manifest later in life as a weird Shadows phenomenon.

[Andrew Martin]

What is it about this game and laundry rooms?

I can honestly say there were no laundry rooms encounted in my Knights of the New Republic variant of Shadows. :)