Kult: Broken Walls, episode 2: Paradise Gardens

I'm standing before the altar, hooded and robed, with an obsidian blade in my hand.  The victim is bound on the altar.  I know my role in this ceremony.  Cut her throat.  Spill her blood.  I know her face.  It's Lily Rose.

Of course I don't want to.  Of course I'm trying to stop.  But my feet are bearing me onwards, and my hands are raising the blade and it's against her neck and I can see blood beading on her skin where it's touching her.  I'm going to kill her.  I'm going to kill Lily unless...unless...at the last moment I pull the blade away and plunge it into my own neck.

And then I'm back in my bed, screaming at the top of my lungs, and it takes me a few moments to even notice that I'm not alone.  Raven, of course, sitting by the bed holding my hands, asking if I'm OK.  No point being embarrassed.  It's not the first time he's found me like this.

I manage to speak at last.  Yes, it was a bad one.  I'm almost tempted to just pour out the whole thing, but no.  He'll want details, and I can't.  Too much to do today.  I let go of his hands, and he gets up to put the kettle on.  Black coffee for both of us while I get dressed, and then he's on his way, pen twitching in his hand.

Finally I feel ready to face the world again.  I've got plans for today.  Plans I'm not looking forward to.  I force down some toast and Marmite with the coffee, pick up my conversation-repelling headphones and take the bus to Paradise Gardens.

The name sounds nice, but the thought of setting foot in that place again makes me feel sick.  A shitty 1960s tenement building, a square concrete blight on the face of London.  I've got forty minutes on the bus to think about the place, and if it wasn't for the fact I'm running out of leads I doubt I could make myself go through with this.  And as if someone wanted to make it easy for me, there's a spike topped fence around the place that wasn't there when I called it home.

I can't let it put me off.  There's some bins around the back that give me the necessary leg up and soon I'm walking down familiar corridors once more.  It's been twenty years, but it's barely changed.  I'm going to start with the basement.  The room where I slept at night, feeling safe knowing Lily Rose was there.  Until she wasn't.

Where the hell are the stairs?  I know this place.  I lived here.  I still visit it in my nightmares.  I know where the stairs are.  Why is there just a corridor where they should be?  And why isn't retracing my steps working?  Have I really forgotten the way?  I try to focus, thinking about distinctive features to navigate by.  That DIY incident, with the electrical problems.  The mark on the wall that we never managed to get rid of.  If I can find that, I can find the way.

I've found it.  I've found the stairs.  But suddenly I know I'm not alone.

I shouldn't have this gun.  I don't know if I could ever use it.  I sure as hell can't ever get caught with it.  But Nathan thought I'd be safer with it and right now I'm very glad to have it shoved in my underarm holster.  I make my way down the stairs with torch and gun, knowing there shouldn't be anyone here.  I see the old dorm.  My bed.  Lily's bed.  And there in the corner, a hunched figure.  I shine the torch in its eyes as I struggle to keep my breathing steady.

It's a woman.  She looks ghastly, cuts and scraches covering her skin.  And then she launches herself at me.  We struggle, and I feel my arm start to dislocate.  I grit my teeth and tear myself out of her grasp as my shoulder clicks back into place.

She starts talking then, and most of it makes no sense until she mentions a shelter.  Brighter Futures?  I ask, and finally she seems to respond.  She knows the name Mary.  I've never been much good at this kind of thing, but at least things are calming down.  She wants to walk through the place with me.  Something about a broken mirror, which I don't understand, but perhaps if I go along with her I can get her to go to a hospital, or at least to the shelter.

And then we turn a corner and there's a body lying on the floor with blood dripping from the mouth.

It's Nathan, and he's not dead, just unconscious.  First aid training kicks in, and with some help from the strange woman to turn him over, I manage to wake him up again.  He comes round swinging, but thankfully he's still groggy enough to give me a chance to get out of the way.

He explains why he's here - looking for someone and he was given this address.  I tell him why I'm there.  The woman seems excited, saying that we have the knight and the squire and now we just need the maiden.  Nathan has no more idea what that means than I do.

And then she finds the maiden.  And it's Mary.  At least her reason for being there makes some kind of sense.  She's looking for her friend Janet.  The one I just found in the basement.

Janet wants us all to walk around the building with her, and at this point I can't see any reason not to.  There are places here I've never been to before.  The inner sanctum, where only the cult's elite were allowed to go.  I'm terrified of what we're going to find behind that door, and when I see Nathan's drawn his gun I draw mine too.  Mary opens the door and we see...an office.

Well.  This is what I came for.  Time for a look around.  Nothing out of the ordinary...no, that's not right.  There's something wrong with my footsteps.  It's a small room, but they're echoing.  I ask Nathan to come in and see if he notices anything untoward.

Nathan has a card, with writing.  Three words in Latin.  Chaos Ex Libertate, or whatever the old cult motto was.  Not good Latin, I knew that much.  But why does he have a card with that on?

More importantly, why am I standing in a huge stone cathedral?

There's an altar before me, and on it is a body covered in a sheet.  Oh god.  Oh god.  Please don't be Lily.  I have to know.  I walk forward to pull off the cloth.  Please don't be Lily.  Please don't be that nightmare again.

It's a flayed corpse with hooks driven through it, and now I'm angry because someone is messing with me and trying to scare me with this shit and all I want is to wake up again, but the corpse is sitting up now and lifting a blood smeared machete.

And I throw myself out of its reach, and I fumble for that gun which I'm going to have to actually use for the first time in my life, and I fire every bullet in the clip into this thing and still it keeps coming.  And I barely know where I am now, but at least the others are with me now, and Nathan is firing and Mary is pulling me to my feet, and then I run, desperate, not even thinking about the others until we're outside and climbing back over the fence.  And Nathan and Mary are with me but Janet is gone.

We all go back to my flat.  It's crowded.  It's a small flat and Nathan's a big guy, even now.  We sit in silence for a while, until I finally have to ask.  Everyone else saw that thing, right?

And we talk, about the cult, and what each of us knows.  Mary's mother could be a good lead, not that Mary has any idea where to find her.  I can sympathise.  I haven't spoken to my parents since I was eighteen.  And I'm also reminded of just how fucking naive I was back then.  Nathan was 'security'.  I'm literally carrying an illegal handgun he got for me.  Why the fuck am I surprised to hear he's got a body count?  Why am I sitting here with an actual murderer in my flat?

Eighteen year old me was just a stupid kid.  The others don't seem to think that's much of an excuse, but it's all I've got.

I've still got one thing.  A lead on Lily Rose.  It's not much, but finding answers about Lily are probably going to be answers about the cult.  And maybe I can do what I do best, tracking down missing people, and see if I can find Mary's mother.  But first, food.  I don't feel much like eating but Mary needs a decent meal and I don't want to show up at Raven's flat hungry either.  I hope he's ready for a late night.  After a day like this, the last thing I want is sleep.

Kult: Broken Walls, episode 1: Meet Izzy

I've just started playing a Kult: Divinity Lost campaign - the first time playing this way instead of pre-written adventures.  We're playing a game set in London in late 2022, in a slightly altered reality where a completely effective covid vaccine means the pandemic is over.  We began with a session 0, establishing lines and veils, discussing themes we enjoy, and creating characters.  Here's mine.

I'm Isabella May.  Izzy to my friends.  Well, to people who aren't clients.

My life wasn't supposed to be this way.  Everything was figured out for me, from before I was even born.  GCSEs, A-levels, a first or a good 2.1 from one of the top universities, a successful career with a consultancy firm.

I got as far as the three As at A-level.  Then at eighteen I ran away and joined a cult.

That's where I made my first ever real friend.  My roommate, Lily Rose Webb.  She was twenty, which seemed very mature to me, and seemed to have everything figured out.  She passionately believed in the cult's mission, and she made me believe too.  She taught me to live, to be free, without having everything planned out for me.

The worst day of my life was when I woke up and she was gone.  Her bunk was empty.  It looked like it hadn't even been slept it.  When I looked for her possessions, they were gone too.  I remember running around grabbing people, asking what had happened and where she had gone, and getting nothing but blank looks in return.  It seemed like nobody even remembered that Lily even existed, except for me.

I was done with the cult after that, but leaving wasn't so easy.  The leader still had uses for me.  It wasn't until a police raid destroyed everything that I was finally free.

I thought about joining the police after that.  I still had my A-levels after all, and I thought maybe I could work my way up, and then maybe I'd have the resources to try to find out what happened to Lily.  But there was a background check, which brought my past activities with the cult to light.  It was made clear that I was not police material.  I decided to go private instead.

It could all have been different, of course.  I could have stood up to my parents, and chosen a university course I actually cared about.  I could have spent my life doing something better than trailing cheating partners.  But I didn't.  I joined a cult, whose leader gave me false hope, then forced me into breaking the law and rejecting anyone who could have helped me, and finally took away my only friend.

I've had my little place in Camden for a while now.  It's not particularly nice.  I'm not sure it's technically in Camden, for that matter.  But it's mine, and that's something I can be proud of.  I built my career on my own terms, and I've supporting myself with it for over ten years now.  And I even made a friend.

He lives in the flat opposite mine and he calls himself Raven Sanguine, although it wasn't too hard to find out his real name is Steven Brooks.  To be honest I think he's a bit of a poser, but he's got a good heart.  We'd been pretty much ignoring each other until one day he caught me singing along with the music I was listening to and found we had something in common.  Black metal, emo, old school goth.  The only thing that really makes me feel alive.

If I'm having a good day, and I'm not working, I put in some time on my ongoing investigation into what happened to Lily.  If it's a bad day, I can't make myself do anything more than sit in Beatrice's coffee shop and people watch.  If it's a really bad day, Raven drops by to keep me company.  He seems to think there's something romantic about my bad days.  I like him well enough to pretend to listen when he reads me the poetry that I apparently inspire.

He also helps me forget about my biggest fear.  Being alone.  I've got no family besides my parents, who I haven't spoken to since the day I left home, and I don't exactly make friends easily.  I have a lot of recurring nightmares, but the worst one is the one where I'm back in my room at the cult, and people are collecting up my possessions and talking as if they're just some junk that got dumped here and I never existed.

There's one thing I can't tell even Raven.  The case I shouldn't have taken.  I felt like there was something off about the man who hired me to find his missing wife, but I was new to the business and desperate for money, so I took the job.  I found her, and got paid.  But the next time I saw her face it was on the cover of a newspaper.  She'd been trying to escape from him, and I helped him find her.

I've been more careful since then.  I won't say I've never made another mistake, but I do my best to make sure I never hurt anyone.  It's not in me to intentionally cause harm.

There's two people from the cult I'm still in contact with. Nathan was in security, and he's the one who got me out: a suggestion one night that I shouldn't be there the next morning, and the next morning was the police raid.  I've not seen much of him since then, but I've helped him out with some police trouble.  Mary I barely knew back then, but her whole family were in the cult and she's had a tough time since it all ended.  She knows her way around the homeless community well enough to give me some good leads.

So that's me.  Isabella May, PI.  Maybe one day I'll solve the one case that matters.

The Three (Thirsty) Musketeers, episode 3: The Plot Thickens

When we left our heroes, Katerina had been detained by Jussac, Arsene had allowed himself to be taken by the Cardinal's guards in order to allow Renée to pursue Monique, and Renée...

The carriage was already moving, and swift as Renée was she couldn't outrun a horse. Instead she took to side streets and alleyways too narrow for a carriage. The driver and guard began to relax as they easily outdistanced her and were soon approaching the Bastille, only for Renée to appear on the roof of a nearby building, leap down onto the carriage roof, grab the driver and throw him out of his seat, grab the reins and start driving the carriage herself, all while delivering an impassioned speech on the subject of justice that left the guard spluttering too much to do anything about what had just happened.

 She brought the carriage to a halt at a construction site, jumped down and opened the door to see a second angry guard. In a moment she was away, climbing the scaffolding with the two guards in hot pursuit, neither of them noticing Monique slipping away from the other side of the carriage. At last, by pushing over the ladder they were climbing at a critical moment, Renée was away. She soon met up with Monique, and swept her into her arms to kiss her, only to then have to back off again in embarrassment.

Meanwhile, Arsene had been taken to see Cardinal Richlieu. There was a long silence before the Cardinal turned to Arsene, indicated a wanter poster on the wall, and noted that he had something of a chequered past. Arsene acknowledged this, and noted that it was a particularly good wanted poster and he didn't have that one yet.

The Cardinal got down to business, bringing a certain Lady Blanche. A familiar name to Arsene, who had previously dug up two of her close relatives to sell their corpses to resurrectionists. The Cardinal's request was simply. Find out where she is, and what she's up to.

What better way could Arsene find to persuade the Cardinal to trust him? Throw in that wanted poster, and they had a deal.

Katerina found herself taken not to any kind of prison, but to Jussac's own lodgings, still in restraints. Jussac wanted to know about the letters. Did she have to beat it out of Katerina? Also, what was her safe word? After agreeing on 'banana', the interrogation continued.

Afterwards, having resisted the urge to steal Jussac's Bible, Katerina convinced Jussac to open up about what she really wanted. A big score. Something that would make the Cardinal trust her again. Or else enough money that she could retire. The problem remained of what Jussac was going to do with Katerina now. She couldn't exactly just let her go, but she did need to get back to work. Katerina suggested tying her up again, so Jussac would know exactly where she was.

Renée wanted to take Monique straight back to her lodgings, but Monique insisted that she first had to deliver a message. They went to a hotel, where Monique was taken inside and Renée immediately pressed her ear to the door. Monique was meeting with Lady Blanche, and the message was that Queen Anne was ready to meet with Buckingham, one of the most powerful people in England.

After the meeting, they returned to Renée's lodgings, and met up again with Arsene. They were just sitting down for some breakfast when Katerina also joined them, clad in nothing but a bedsheet and her hat. Monique's reaction to meeting Guiton was not enthusiastic, and soon the two were shouting at each other until the three musketeers managed to calm things down again.

With both Arsene and Renée both not feeling at their best, the three of them stepped away from the breakfast table for a catch-up and a friendly chat. Katerina reassured Arsene that he was a good musketeer, and assured Renée that her faith was strong enough that she didn't need a Bible (although she was still going to get her a replacement.) Arsene loaned her one of his spares; a slightly musty copy that he'd 'found' in a church, but nevertheless with all the right words in. Renée prayed with him on the subject of forgivenness. Everyone hugged, leaving Renée rather flustered by Katerina's attentions but otherwise everyone felt much better.

Those letters still had to be dealt with, and also the three of them had been summoned for an audience with Queen Louise. This seemed like an opportunity to get Monique back into the palace to deliver the letters back to Queen Anne. Despite a distraction on the way in, when Renée was challenged to a duel, they made it inside. Unfortunately, Monique had somehow misinterpreted their instructions and was well on the way to getting intercepted. Arsene went to deal with it.

The other two were brought in front of the Queen, and soundly berated. Katerina assured her that she had our support and she would hunt down traitors, while giving the Cardinal some significant looks. Renée gave a rather more sincere apology, making the same promise. Both of them did their best to cover for Arsene's absence.

Arsene made it in front of Queen Anne and was able to return the letters. She wasn't particularly impressed to learn that the contents of the letters were known to people other than her, or by Arsene questioning her about the meeting with Buckingham, but did assure him that her goal was to bring peace to France.

With all three of them out of the palace again, there was just one thing to deal with: Renée's duel with Patience. They went along to the agreed meeting place, where Katerina soon spotted guards clearly placed to arrest anyone taking part in the illegal activity of duelling. Renée, entirely unwilling to forfeit either her honour or her freedom, taunted Patience into attacking first, although that first blow hit only Renée's trousers, exposing rather more skin than anyone considered decent and arousing something of a blush on Patience's face. Renée continued to defend herself, while the others made sure a nearby duchess was getting a good view of how Renée totally wasn't responsible for the fight.

Finally, with a flick of her sword, Renée disarmed Patience, bringing the fight to an end. She bowed deeply, completely destroying her trousers, and departed wrapped in Arsene's cape to preserve what was left of her modesty.

The Three (Thirsty) Musketeers, episode 2: Stolen Letters

When we left our heroes, Katerina was hot on the trail of the mysterious hooded lady.  She stayed close behind her, staying out of sight, until the lady lead her to the Cathedral of Notre Dame.  There Katerina saw her meeting with Cardinal Richlieu, and handing over the bundle of letters.  This was more than Katerina could stand, and she burst into the room, telling the lady that they had to discuss a bar bill.  Her animal passions awakened, she hurled herself at the Cardinal, snatching the letters from him and standing there laughing in victory.

It took her a moment to realise the Cardinal's guards were closing in on her.  Ahh well.  Time for a dramatic chase through the streets.

Meanwhile, Renée was following Guiton the Huguenot back to her lodgings.  Noticing that there were a number of toughs hanging around in the streets outside, and having been working on her dramatic entrances recently, she decided to quickly scale the outside of the building.  Guiton looked away from the window for a few moments, and when she looked back, the window was open, framing the crouched form of Renée.

Guiton scrambled for a knife, but Renée was unfazed.  Mentioning her protection didn't help much either, as Renée dismissed the group of toughs outside.  Except...Guiton didn't know anything about them.

Arsene had extracted himself from the bear fighting ring at the first possible opportunity and followed Renée.  He also spotted the toughs in the alleyway, but unlike Renée, he recognised them.  His old friend Adrian and his gang.  Adrian was pleased to see Arsene, and keen for him to join in their plan.  They had been hired to make sure that Guiton didn't talk.  They were pretty sure they could extract quite a lot of money from her for not killing her after beating her to a pulp.

A tough call for Arsene, who didn't want to be on the wrong side of Adrian, but couldn't betray his new friends.  The people who accepted him for who he was, and believed he could be more than his past.  Could he really let Adrian drag him back into old habits?  In a moment he was joining Adrian as they headed up the stairs.

Renée heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs.  There was no point arguing with Guiton about Huguenot rights any further just now.  They had to get out.  "Come with me if you want to live," she told Guiton, and took a running leap from the window that landed her on a nearby rooftop.  She looked back, expecting Guiton to follow.  But Guiton was standing in the window, looking down at the stones of the street below her, and looking terrified.

Did she have to convince Guiton that it was more dangerous to stay behind?  Or make it more appealing to jump?  Both.  Both was good.  After both the threat of encountering the thugs alone, and the promise of a kiss, Guiton jumped.  Renée caught her in her arms, and the two of them kissed, silhouetted against the rising full moon behind them.

Arsene kept pace with Adrian up the stairs, and hearing Renée's voice, he knew what he had to do.  He drew his cane and turned on Adrian, holding him back for long enough for Guiton to make her escape.  With Adrian defeated, Arsene made his own exit, leaping with catlike grace and landing on the rooftop with his cape billowing in the wind.

The three of them met up with Katerina again at Renée's lodgings.  Monique wasn't there, but Renée soon found the note she had left saying she had returned to the palace.  Katerina was still angry about the Cardinal and the letters, which she had read on the way, and found herself snatching up Renée's Bible and tearing it in half, to the absolute horror of Renée.

Arsene, experienced in dealing with these two idiots, quietly removed Guiton from the room and left them to sort things out.  Which they did, over a glass of Cognac and Renée's insistence that Katerina could buy her a new Bible.  And a new bottle of Cognac.

There was still the matter of the letters to deal with.  Should they be destroyed, or returned to the Queen Consort?  Things had been complicated somewhat by Katerina having blurted out their contents in front of Guiton, who as a Huguenot probably wasn't a good person to be aware of such things.  But they decided on a trip to the palace.

How were they going to get in unhindered?  None of them really wanted to explain what was going on, and having lost Guiton somewhere along the way wasn't particularly reassuring.  Katerina had an idea though.  Jussac was there, and she was quite keen to continue their aquaintance.  An excellent distraction while the other two made their way inside.

Unfortunately it wasn't quite that simple.  While Katerina's distraction went off as planned, Renée soon encountered a distraction of her own.  A terrified looking Monique was being bundled into a carriage.  Renée gave chase at once, but couldn't stop the driver, and the carriage began to move with Monique inside.

What is happening to Monique?  What is the Cardinal planning?  What will Guiton do with the new information she's learned?  Only time will tell.

The Three (Thirsty) Musketeers, episode 1: Stolen Jewels

We're playing Thirsty Sword Lesbians at MK-RPG at the moment, in a game called The Three (Thirsty) Musketeers.  Given that this looks likely to derail the original tale far beyond the original change of making everyone a woman instead of a cartoon dog, I thought it could use a write-up.

What do you mean, this isn't Dumas' original vision?

Meet our three brave musketeers in the service of Queen Louise.

Katerina (Beast) enjoys drinking, fighting and women, not necessarily in that order.  Probably the best fighter of the group, due to her willingness to abandon social norms and fight dirty when required.

Arsene (Infamous) suffers from guilt from his past as a thief, a career that eventually led to murder.  He's a reluctant combatant, favouring non-lethal approaches, but nevertheless essential to the party.  Being ace, he's frequently the only one able to keep his mind on the job.

Renée (Scoundrel) didn't always plan on being a musketeer.  She originally wanted to be a nun, only to get cold feet before taking her vows and retraining as a swordswoman.  Even now though, she's not sure she's on the right path, although she's at least enjoying the ride.

The three were out walking one day when suddenly from a nearby building appeared Lady Monique, closely pursued by a group of guards lead by Jussac.  Monique threw herself into Katerina's arms, somewhat to the consternation of Renée who had a certain affection for Monique.

Jussac claimed that Monique had stolen some jewels from Queen Anne.  This seemed unlikely, but as the others held off the guards, Katerina searched Monique's bag.  Much to her surprise, the jewels were there!  Katerina, of course, claimed that they were not, and that Monique should be escorted to the palace.  Via a series of nods and glances, she communicated to Renée the plan to ensure that Monique arrived at the palace jewel free.  Which would have gone splendidly, if Renée hadn't immediately fumbled the jewels...

There was nothing for it.  Renée had to defend her lady's honour.  She told Monique to run, and drew her sword.  Katerina threw herself into battle with Jussac, while Arsene picked up the jewels.

Renée's flamboyant fighting style drew most of the attention off Monique, as she taunted the guards into pursuing her up a statue in the middle of a fountain.  Katerina kept Jussac busy, abandoning her sword in favour of bare handedly wrestling her to the ground.  Arsene and his sword cane ensured that Monique made her escape.

The fight took rather a long time to finish, what with Katerina and Jussac enjoying themselves rather more than anticipated, and Renée's leap from the statue into the fountain pursued by guards resulting in an impromptu pool party and a demonstration of the transparency of billowy white shirts when soaking wet.  Eventually everyone was extricated, and after assuring Jussac that the jewels would be returned to the Queen, the musketeers went on their way.

Passing by an alleyway they were met again by Monique, who went to hug Renée, only to back off again when realising that she was soaking wet.  She swore her innocence in the jewel theft, but told them about a Huguenot who had come to the palace to talk to the Queen, and who had brushed passed her while leaving, presumably planting the jewels on Monique as she did so.

This warranted looking into, but first there were some other matters to take care of, such as the jewels, Monique, and the fact that Katerina hadn't had a drink in several hours.

At the pub, Katerina was greeted with a warm welcome, which soon turned out to be due to someone having paid off her rather large tab.  Katerina ran through a few possible women, but the landlady was sure it was none of them.  She gave a detailed description of the mysterious woman though, as Katerina enjoyed her claret.

Arsene, still in possession of the jewels, made his way quickly to the palace.  There was something of an altercation with the palace guards, complicated by the word 'Queen' being a little ambiguous when there was both a Queen Regnant and a Queen Consort, but finally he got to see Queen Anne and return the jewels.  Shockingly, he learned that there had been an even worse theft - private letters exchanged between Queen Anne and her brother.  It was critical that these were recovered

Renée took Monique back to her lodgings to keep her hidden from the guards until her innocence could be proven.  There Monique was a little surprised by the austere decor, with few adornments save for a cross on the wall and a large bible on the table.  While Renée got herself cleaned up, they talked about God, faith, and leaving the convent before taking vows, an experience they both shared, although Monique was untroubled by doubt about whether she had made the right choice.

Arsene called on some old underworld contacts to find out more about the Huguenot, and learned she was meeting someone that very night.  The three gathered once more, and made their way to the site of a bear baiting ring.  Alas, their attempt to enter stealthily was thwarted when Renée jostled someone on the way in, spilling his drink.

Arsene took charge at once, preventing the impending fight by distracting the would-be combatents with drinks.  Renée and Katerina moved in on the Huguenot, and were in time to spot her handing a bundle of documents to an unidentified woman - one that Katerina nevertheless recognised from the landlady's description as the one who had paid her bar bill.

In the chaos, the two ran in different directions, with Renée following the Huguenot and Katerina following the mysterious woman.  Not with the intention of catching them, but to find out where they were going.

Will Arsene manage to get his companions to stop kissing their enemies long enough to foil whatever dastardly plot is afoot?  Only time will tell.

My Top Five Games of 2021

In no particular order...

Call of Cthulhu

With my primary online hangout being the Good Friends of Jackson Elias discord server, it's no surprise I've found myself playing a lot of Call of Cthulhu.  While I've never run the game myself, there's no shortage of people keen to run it, and I've now played most of the classic one-shots.  My favourites, however, remain the scenarios written by the Good Friends themselves, mostly set in the modern day and frequently described as 'mind-bending' - although credit also has to go to CJ Romer for his Regency Romance scenario, The Strange Case of Georgina Blenkinsop, probably the funniest game of Call of Cthulhu I've ever played.

Liminal

Liminal remains my absolute favourite game to run.  This year I've continued the adventures of the Two-Tone Detective Agency, the campaign I started by accident, as well as running an Actual Play campaign.  Ideas just keep on coming.  It's simple to run and easy to teach to beginners so ideal as a convention game.  And I had a great time putting together a Roll20 character sheet for it too.

Matrons of Mystery

How could my own game not be a highlight of the year?  I had a fantastic time developing and playtesting this game, with every session bringing new surprises and more delightful old ladies.  I have fond memories of the church being set on fire, the mothers of the brides having a fist fight in the graveyard, creative use of baked goods, unfeasible quantites of tea being consumed, and the fact that I will never hear the word 'bifocal' in the same way again.

Kult

I haven't played much Kult this year but what I have has been exceptional.  I got to play another of the free scenarios, Gallery of Souls, a 'horror starter' adventure with Matt Sanderson, and an original scenario set in the wild west.  And I finally worked up the courage to run it myself, with an adaptation of a Call of Cthulhu adventure, Unland, which fitted as well into Kult's cosmology as it did with its original cosmic horror.  I'm close to being ready to run my first original scenario and with the new kickstarter books close to arriving, I hope there'll be plenty more to come.

Alien

I continue to push the idea that Alien is a perfectly good flexible sci-fi horror game, that doesn't have to be all xenomorphs, all the time, and my 2021 scenario was CSI: Weyland Yutani, a perfectly normal murder mystery on a remote mining platform - or at least, that's how it starts out.  That said, I also had a lot of fun playing in an AP of Destroyer of Worlds which certainly had its fair share of xenomorphs.

Honourable Mentions

A few that almost made the cut were Coriolis, in which I continued playing the Emissary Lost campaign as well as running a short campaign of my own for my home group, Vaesen, where I've now played all the published scenarios and also run an original one of my own, and Forbidden Lands, where I played a short campaign and also helped a new GM run his first game.  Free League continue to produce great products and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with Bladerunner in 2022.

Blades in the Dark was a highlight.  I played several one-shots with an excellent GM, and I only wish we could have continued them into campaigns.

I did manage to run a short campaign of The Sprawl, with nine players, divided into Team Neon and Team Chrome depending on who was available for given dates.  I learned a lot about PBTA running that, particularly the importance of not doing too much planning as the players and the dice absolutely will derail whatever you had in mind.

It's been in many respects a horrible year, but the gaming, at least, has been amazing.