Dresden Files + Pinebox, TX = Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
Pinebox, TX, is 12 to Midnight's game setting for modern-day horror gaming. I know two of the people behind the setting's creation: Ed and Preston. My old comic strip featured a regional beer company, Brazen Hussy Brewery, whose products can be found mentioned in various Pinebox setting bits (the logo for the brewery appears on a t-shirt some of the artwork in Bloodlines, the beer is mentioned in at least one story in the Tales from Pinebox anthology). It's a cool little town in Texas, a state that I love. The day after my group picked Dublin to set our Dresden Files game in, I realized I should have proposed Pinebox to the game group.
Oh well.
At the Tucson RPG Guild, we had some people that wanted to play DFRPG, so I planned on a one-shot for the guild. Like Dublin, I know Pinebox, but I don't really know it. This would be a cool way to check out the city. (Incidentally, if you want some good maps of Pinebox, I'd pick up Bloodlines. Tons of cool maps of the downtown area, a larger city map, and a partial county map that shows the surrounding area are in that adventure.)
So we started with a quick intro to how Dresden Files RPG works. I started with half-baked characters -- almost complete player characters, all but the "your adventure" part of character creation done. I had written down a brief background for each of our protagonists (Wizard Professor, Photojournalist, Were-Raven College Student, and He Who Holds Excalibur), but didn't go through the last few stages of character generation. It's the fun part of character generation, and I think that these games I run at Guild are to showcase the game system, so I wanted everyone to have fun with that phase. So we finished that around 40 minutes into the session and got started playing right at 1.
Synchronicity. Just as I'm trying to think about what's going to happen at the table, Preston posts something at FlamesRising.com about Halloween in Pinebox. Fall Fest. Big street festival, a carnival-like atmosphere, in downtown Pinebox. Huge tourist draw -- the little town triples in size during this event. Yeah, I'm running this just after Halloween, methinks. And what's just after Halloween? Election Day. Two days after Halloween.
And then I'm crusing through the channels last weekend and there's Hot Fuzz. It's the scene with the antagonist is delivering the Evil Speech of Evil and I'm thinking I've got it.
What if.
What if there's a group of people that really hate Pinebox's mayor. What if the mayor's opponent is falling behind the polls. What if the mayor dies just before the election and the other guy gets in? And what if they can use magic, turn costumed partygoers into what they are dressed up as, and send them to kill the mayor?
"All that to rig an election?" asked our were-raven.
Yes.
Welcome to Texas.
A lot of comedy ensued in the fracas. One of my favorite parts was when Kat, playing our ETU Wizard Professor, saw people start to change at Fall Fest and said "Yeah, sure, little ghost girl might not be a problem, but what about the people dressed up as vampires?" Vampires, say I? Did you say vampires? In fact, the two teenage girls in front of the were-raven just turned into vampires. "Which court? Red? White? Black?" You can't tell, I respond. But they're wearing a lot of glitter and screaming about someone named Edward.
Other favorite comedy bit: the heroes crash the ritual, the cultists rise up against them. The leader is wearing overalls, a flannel shirt, and a Texas Longhorn cap. Aspect: Redneck Sorcerer. The cultists grab whatever weapons they could get their hands on to fight The Pendragon. Sticks. With signs. "Vote Brewer". "Brewer for Mayor".
And I got to play Jackson Greene, Preston's character in the setting and one of Pinebox's iconic characters. Except he was a crazy conspiracy theorist that was the photojournalist's investigative resource. And when the photojournalist theorized that it was some sort of magic behind everything, Jackson suggested he consider some sort of realistic solution, like alien mind-control. Occam's Razor and all.*
Magic. Right.
Yeehaw.
* And there was this exchange:
Photojournalist: Is there anything we can do to ward off the spell?
Jackson Greene: Yeah. Don't wear a costume.
Oh well.
At the Tucson RPG Guild, we had some people that wanted to play DFRPG, so I planned on a one-shot for the guild. Like Dublin, I know Pinebox, but I don't really know it. This would be a cool way to check out the city. (Incidentally, if you want some good maps of Pinebox, I'd pick up Bloodlines. Tons of cool maps of the downtown area, a larger city map, and a partial county map that shows the surrounding area are in that adventure.)
So we started with a quick intro to how Dresden Files RPG works. I started with half-baked characters -- almost complete player characters, all but the "your adventure" part of character creation done. I had written down a brief background for each of our protagonists (Wizard Professor, Photojournalist, Were-Raven College Student, and He Who Holds Excalibur), but didn't go through the last few stages of character generation. It's the fun part of character generation, and I think that these games I run at Guild are to showcase the game system, so I wanted everyone to have fun with that phase. So we finished that around 40 minutes into the session and got started playing right at 1.
Synchronicity. Just as I'm trying to think about what's going to happen at the table, Preston posts something at FlamesRising.com about Halloween in Pinebox. Fall Fest. Big street festival, a carnival-like atmosphere, in downtown Pinebox. Huge tourist draw -- the little town triples in size during this event. Yeah, I'm running this just after Halloween, methinks. And what's just after Halloween? Election Day. Two days after Halloween.
And then I'm crusing through the channels last weekend and there's Hot Fuzz. It's the scene with the antagonist is delivering the Evil Speech of Evil and I'm thinking I've got it.
What if.
What if there's a group of people that really hate Pinebox's mayor. What if the mayor's opponent is falling behind the polls. What if the mayor dies just before the election and the other guy gets in? And what if they can use magic, turn costumed partygoers into what they are dressed up as, and send them to kill the mayor?
"All that to rig an election?" asked our were-raven.
Yes.
Welcome to Texas.
A lot of comedy ensued in the fracas. One of my favorite parts was when Kat, playing our ETU Wizard Professor, saw people start to change at Fall Fest and said "Yeah, sure, little ghost girl might not be a problem, but what about the people dressed up as vampires?" Vampires, say I? Did you say vampires? In fact, the two teenage girls in front of the were-raven just turned into vampires. "Which court? Red? White? Black?" You can't tell, I respond. But they're wearing a lot of glitter and screaming about someone named Edward.
Other favorite comedy bit: the heroes crash the ritual, the cultists rise up against them. The leader is wearing overalls, a flannel shirt, and a Texas Longhorn cap. Aspect: Redneck Sorcerer. The cultists grab whatever weapons they could get their hands on to fight The Pendragon. Sticks. With signs. "Vote Brewer". "Brewer for Mayor".
And I got to play Jackson Greene, Preston's character in the setting and one of Pinebox's iconic characters. Except he was a crazy conspiracy theorist that was the photojournalist's investigative resource. And when the photojournalist theorized that it was some sort of magic behind everything, Jackson suggested he consider some sort of realistic solution, like alien mind-control. Occam's Razor and all.*
Magic. Right.
Yeehaw.
* And there was this exchange:
Photojournalist: Is there anything we can do to ward off the spell?
Jackson Greene: Yeah. Don't wear a costume.