[WoD 2.0] Freak Jersey, session 2 planning notes

[Robert Bohl]

Okay, some notes about this.  First, this is my Freak Jersey chronicle and you can view a story hour of the last session if you wish at the chronicle website.

After a disappointing experience with a more "open" session design than I was normally used to, and after talking about it with Paka/Judd, he suggested I post something along the lines of my normal notes.  He feels the notes I have always produced ahead of time likely include some "natural" Bangs that were not constructed as such.

Now, the below is more or less how I plan most of my games.  Big difference is that things are usually more linear.  I.e., A is likely to lead to B is likely to lead to C.  Here, I have instead detailed a few major plot lines that are hanging over from the prior session, how I could see them getting investigated by the characters, and some ideas from me on how to use them.  I've included a few additional kookie whoozits at the end that don't necessarliy apply to the plot in case I want to use them.  The dog thing will almost definitely happen.

Note these are very, very spare.  They're more or less reminders to me of what I might want to do.  If you have a question about any of them, let me know.  Hopefully this will be useful or interesting or at least worthy of discussion.

Big threads:

[*] The story.

[*] The company that sold them the mask.

[*] These guys are clueless.  Run by stoned-out hippies.  Didn't know what they had possession of.
[*] An employee there did steal it, went apeshit and killed people while wearing the mask.  They didn't connect it to the mask.  The guy had always been "not right".
[*] A grizzled man they never met before sold it to them.   Ordinarily they make shit and "age" it, or find useless stuff like arrowheads.
[*] The business has been going to shit ever since they sold the piece.

[*] Problems with authorities over licenses.
[*] Power goes out randomly.
[*] Several unpaid bills discovered with serious financial repercussions.
[*] Attacks on computer servers, accounts, etc.
[*] Inconvenient queries by all manner of public servants.[/list:u][/list:u]
[*] Getting it published.

[*] Steve Phelps has some issues with the credulity of it.
[*] Consequences sum up, seeming suspicious (greater in number and worse in intensity than ever before).  If they stay on top of them, the story will get published without a hitch.

[*] A file copy of the story keeps getting lost.
[*] Copy editing errors (introducing problems that weren't there in the raw file).
[*] Errors in the layout stage after it leaves Ricky's desk.
[*] Sudden huge ad-buy for the specific page that's already been set aside for the story.
[*] Printers make mistakes with a test copy.  Certain colors of ink missing, key parts of the story have been obscured.
[*] Printer jacks up rates unreasonably high.
[*] Delivery company's drivers strike.
[/list:u][*] If all the annoying nigglances are dealt with, there'll be an anonymous call not to publish the story, or there will be consequences.  Left on individual or company voicemail.  If company, people have a big laugh about it.[/list:u][/list:u]
[*] The aftermath of Pablo's murder.

[*] Can Manny get closer to Pea`?

[*] Pea` seems to be adjusting really well.  Disturbingly so.
[/list:u][*] Will Manny get caught up in the revenge?

[*] Cousins will be mounting up to hit back.
[/list:u][*] Cops look into the murder.

[*] If a relationship has started to develop with Pea` that anyone might know about, they may ask him hard questions about this.
[*] They may try to apply immigration-threat pressure to get Manny to snitch on the vatos.[/list:u][/list:u]
[*] Max Deed.

[*] Research into his background.

[*] Official records for Ellis Island, circa 1917.  Among the possible details include: Immigration of a Russian Jew named Viktor Dmitriev whose surname was Americanized to Deed.  One of his sons, aged 10 at the time of immigration, was named Maksim.  Probably fleeing the pogroms associated with the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.  Family settled in Brooklyn.
[*] Asking around town: Everyone loves Max.  He's a bit of a "bitch", but even those dicked over by him (and there are many) seem to feel he's a great guy.  Almost everyone talked to that knew him says this exact phrase: "Max is totally rad."
[*] Ricky ought to know about someone this well-known, but somehow he doesn't.
[/list:u][*] Follow-through with Lonnie.

[*] Lonnie was out sick for a few days, but he came back to work.  He's been even more of a dick lately.  He laughed when told he'd died.  He'll be standoffish toward Ricky and outright hostile to Manny.
[/list:u][*] Further direct interactions.

[*] Methods:

[*] Dreams.
[*] Whispering in the ear.
[*] Phone calls.
[*] Notes.
[/list:u][*] Content:

[*] "Why you lookin' in to me?"
[*] "Sure you don't wanna be friends?"
[*] Full conversation?[/list:u][/list:u][/list:u]
[*] The aftermath of the Mask.

[*] Anonymous e-contacts from the other buyer.

[*] Chat sessions on IM and/or email.
[*] Always frothing at the mouth, insane, utterly without reason or moderation.  Ranging between childish and psychotic.
[*] Research of the people who bid on the item and lost will reveal a buying pattern much like Harris's that never got anywhere.
[/list:u][*] Wife's new beau.

[*] Friend mentions she's got a new boyfriend, and she's very different these days.  Seems troubling to the friend.
[*] Escalation: she's missing work now and then, or showing up apparently hung-over.
[*] Escalation: she calls Harris.
[*] Escalation: she's with him. Seems to be getting prompted by him.
[*] Escalation: she cruelly taunts him.  Prompting more obvious this time.  Uncomfortable with it at first, then seems to cave and be fully into it.
[*] Further escalations might include her visiting Harris, flirting with him, allowing herself to be seen by him with the new boyfriend.  Each new contact she sounds or looks more hollowed-out, tired, used.[/list:u][/list:u][/list:u]

Modular stuff:

[*] "Dog" attack.
[*] Follow-through on La Sagrada del Jadin.
[*] Catatonic traincar.
[*] A woman who's under investigation for murder of her kids says that something ate them.  Shades of Susan Stewart.
[*] Our hero finds warnings about some terrible threat recorded in his own voice that he doesn't remember making.
[*] Recordings of conversations our heroes thought they were having privately start turning up
[*] PCs are run off the road and left for dead after publishing something innocuous-seeming.
[*] PC finds a journal in his own handwriting detailing things that he doesn't remember happening.
[*] One of the PCs are suddenly being treated like a leper.  People are avoiding contact with him, giving him strange looks, etc.
[*] Suddenly, the faces of everyone around you transform into those of twisted, hideous beasts.
[*] A long-term friend treats you (literally) like a stranger.[/list:u]