Little Fears Mini-Campaign and Lecture

[Itay]

I'm active in a group called "The Israeli Society for Role Playing Advancement", and have promised to lecture about Little Fears this January. I feel that it would be best if I rana short campaign before the lecture, so that my understanding of the game would be deeper, and thought someone here might help me with ideas, either for the campaign or for the lecture itself.

The campaign will consist of three sessions, the first would center around mundane horror and evil, with no closetland denizens at all. I thought a good opening session could be one based on the story suggested at the end of the book, Believing is Seeing.
The second session will bring in creatures from closetland, though I'm still not sure what kind, and what would happen in it. The last, and most horrible, I suppose, would be the one where they are forced to venture into closetland.

Any ideas for the second and third sessions, or for points you think should be presented (And points you think should NOT be presented) in the lecture would be welcome.

[Mike Holmes]

Hi Itay,

What is the goal of your group? General education? I guess the queston is what do you want to acomplish with your lecture?

As far as sessions two and three, I think that Closetland is pretty unexplored country. I haven't heard anybody really describe actual play that included Closetland. Part of this, I think, is due to the description of Closetland being vague, and because there is a supplement on it due in the future. Until then I think people are a bit apprehensive about trying to portray Closetland.

I'm goint to take a guess here and say that Jason's idea was to have much of Closetland be specific to the children who adventure there. Probably a different experience for each child. So what you'd have there, in that case, would depend on the characters. The intent being that it be a design challenge for the GM. Go wild.

Otherwise, here's a random idea promted by an odd dream I had last night. When they go through the door to Closetland, they emerge from the door into the same room they just exited. Almost. There are subtle little differences. Pet gerbils are missing. The clock has stopped and cannot be started. No electricity from the outlets but the lights still work. That sort of thing. If they venture forth from that room, they'll find that subsequent rooms are each an order of magnitude more different. In the second room the walls are not at right angles. In the third the staircases split in the middle and go off in Dr. Seuss directions. Later, furniture with non-euclidean shapes hangs from the ceilings, and walls burn eternaly with a green flame.

And the house just continues. Windows look out onto other rooms. Infinite rooms with infinite doors, and no escape. Claustrophobia and Alienation. Room motifs change over time. After a while they no longer belong to a house in any way and are now part of a store, then a bar, then a school. Until they find a door that leads right into the lair of one of the seven.

Until then, the characters encounter only the demonic denizens of this strange world. Nothing else lives there; the air even smells funny because of it. Or they might discover the odd child trying to escape.

Just an odd idea. Much more important than that is why the characters are going there. The only reason I've seen presented is to rescue another child. This is fine for your game, as its a first play through. For groups who have already been to Closetland, though, the GM is going to have to get creative. The one idea I have is another cliche, that of the Final Showdown between the children and the evil of Closetland. But what in between?

I'm guessing that a lot of this stuff will be addressed in the upcomming supplement. Jason?

Mike

[Jason L Blair]

I'm active in a group called "The Israeli Society for Role Playing Advancement", and have promised to lecture about Little Fears this January.

Wow. That's cool. :wink:

Any ideas for the second and third sessions, or for points you think should be presented (And points you think should NOT be presented) in the lecture would be welcome.

Hmm... well, most of the controversy around Little Fears has involved the aspect of child abuse. A lot of people tend to focus on this angle of childhood terror. Do you plan on addressing this?

Personally, I would. Because it is in there and it is an element of terror. I'm just wondering what you have planned for the lecture so far.

[Jason L Blair]

I'm goint to take a guess here and say that Jason's idea was to have much of Closetland be specific to the children who adventure there. Probably a different experience for each child.

Exactly. In Behind the Door, there still won't be a map of Closetland or anything like that. But I will get into how Closetland works and what goes on... BEHIND THE DOOR!

I'm guessing that a lot of this stuff will be addressed in the upcomming supplement. Jason?

Yes indeed. Mind you, there is no metaplot to Little Fears so the books aren't building up to a Big Finish or anything where Closetland will finally buckle under the weight of the righteous or anything. But I do want to give players as many options as I can so that is the goal of each book.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Italy,

We used Closetland a lot in our game. It ranged from traversing the inner tissues of a person's body (and my poor character's special fear was "stuff inside people and animals," no less), to underground tunnels, to a fairyland castle in an open landscape.

The common aspect to all these visits, of course, was the emotional context of various adults' actions (not horrible monsters, but real people, pretty normal ones in fact) and our characters' previous successful Belief rolls.

If you're interested in what one group did with some very extensive, very emotionally-intensive Little Fears play, check out the thread in this forum called "The future-story outcome of Little Fears."

Best of luck with your lecture! I would very, very much like to learn more about it once you've put it together, as well as about how it actually turns out with the listeners.

Best,
Ron

[Itay]

Sorry it took me so long to reply, I had some technical problems connecting to this site from home.

I will write mainly about the lecture, though I will refer to the scenario itself at the end.

The lecture's purpose is to present the game to Israeli gamers. The game is not inported to Israel, I got my copy by sending a friend to Gen Con to buy it for me, and I believe that it is currently the only copy of Little Fears in Israel. That is why I chose to lecture about the game, to make people hear about it, and be interested in it, and maybe even get a copy and start playing.

I want to say a few words about indie games, though that would centainly not be the focus of the lecture. I want to talk about the themes presented in the game, but also to add my own angle and show points that I think are weak in the game, and how they can be changed. The point that I would like to stress the most in the aspect is the fact that the game seems to present all evil as caused by the Pedagogue and trhe seven kings, while I believe at least some evil should be shown as caused by men.
After that part (which should be the major portion of the lecture) would end, I want to shortly review the setting, putting the emphasis on Closetland, but not talking too much about that, as it would probably bore the audience if I give them too much information they can't really ask about.

 I thought of combining readings into the lecture. Have people in the audience, and occasionaly me, read poems or short stories which have something to do with the upcoming part of the lecture. For instance, before talking about the king of Envy, Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" could be read.

The game itself
 As I said, the plan is to have a three session game. First part will be totally mundane, focusing on evil caused by men. It would revolve around the story presented in teh book, Seeing Is Believing.
The kids, as suggested in the book, will be children of the people responsible for the crime described in the story. They hear about the crime as a scary story in a camp they go to, and finally, the story reaches one of the characters' brother, who is an autist. Wether a ghost would really be created or not, I haven't decided yet. Even if a ghost is created, it will not play a role in this part of the game, though it might appear in the next part, which will deal with the supernatural on earth.
 Meanwhile, a group of teenagers are doign something strange in the junkyard. They leave strange devices and papers behind them. They are actually constructing a telescope, in order to see some comet that passes once in every 10-15 years, and the last time it passed was the night of the crime.
 The whole "coincidence" between the passings of the commet and the resurfacing of the story (which would happen in more ways, like the blue circles being drawn by the autist brother, one of the kids' father commiting suicide out of guilt, another kid finding out about the crime, and discovering that the crime wasn't solved, not because of lack in clues, but because the sherriff of the town is one of the criminals' brother, etc.) is caused by one of the kings, I haven't decided which one yet, though he would probably be their enemy all along the game.

 This looks pretty clear, but I really need small details to fill in the major gaps in this story. I also need to think of possible ways to end it.

That's it for this time, thank you all in advance.

[Mike Holmes]

Sounds like you have a lot for the lecture already.

I like the adventure outline feel, especially the campfire strorytelling and the eerie coincidences. If you intend to include one of the Kings, I'd think that you'd need to consider how the characters come to the King's attention. Some sort of Earthly agent, I'd suspect. Perhaps the ghost introduced late in the first game, and becoming more important in the second session. Whatever agent you choose might indicate which King is involved. If you decide that it is the ghost, and that it is angry, perhaps the King of Wrath is the one involved. Just keep linking elements.

Mike