I’m currently working on a city crawl to follow on from Luka Rejec’s Longwinter module. Where Luka’s setting is based on Eastern Europe, my city crawl is a Mediterranean themed one inspired by Marseilles, a city that captured my imagination after a brief visit in July this year. I’m designing an early 20th century, Euro-style adventure inspired by Hergé, Agatha Christie and Ian Flemming.
I will be using Whitehack as my game system so anything I design still needs to follow the Dnd formula. I’m currently working on a series of “dungeons” that are based on buildings rather than holes in the ground. I’ve already designed one called the Theatre Anatomique of Dr Jacquel (An anatomy theatre haunted by a medically transformed ghoul… I’ll post that soon).
Background
There’s a dungeon I’m currently working on I’ve called L’hôtel du Palaise. It is a grand Art Deco Hotel on a small Mediterranean island. During the year it is a retreat for the rich and famous, but once a year it hosts a secretive meeting between global leaders called the Le Congrès.
The PCs will receive an invite to be special guests for Le Congrès once they’ve got to know some influential types. An understated sailboat will take them to the island. During the day they’ll explore the hotel and be made privy to some of the most secret plans of the people who control the world order.
Why would the people who control the world order want the PCs to hear their diabolical plans? Of course when evening falls the truth is revealed, the members of Le Congrés transform into hungry monstrosities and the players must survive on the island till the morning.
The D888 Table of Conspiracies
| D8 | Conspirators | Action | Effect |
| 1 | The leaders of the world’s largest banks will support the conspirators to… | Funnel dangerous drugs onto the black market, | Laying the ground for a war between two opposing nations. |
| 2 | The head of church will issue an edict reinterpreting key parts of holy scripture. This will make it possible to… | Restrict the movement of immigrants between countries, | Controlling global population numbers. |
| 3 | The Heads of State for two major world powers will set aside differences to… | Support both sides of a regional conflict, | Ensuring that the market is controlled by members of conspiracy and no one else. |
| 4 | The media barons of the top global outlets will commit to propaganda building popular support to… | Infiltrate and destabilise a new regime that opposes the interests of the conspirators, | Preventing an uprising that threatens to destroy the global order. |
| 5 | The heads of industry will work together in a secret cartel to… | Assassinate the leader of a movement that opposes the conspirators, | Covering up a series of atrocities committed by notable allies, curtailing negative press. |
| 6 | The military generals will commit troops to… | Build infrastructure that imposes incidental sanctions on a new regime that opposes the conspirators, | Allowing access to valuable natural resources which lie on the ancestral homelands of first nations people. |
| 7 | The monarchy of a powerful nation, after much debate, will… | Support military expansion under the guise of a protectorate, | Promoting a single global language and isolating those who won’t/can’t speak it. |
| 8 | A shadowy and undefined political entity will… | Fund local criminal groups, mafia and milieu to protect the interests of the conspirators, | Ensuring the conspirator’s secrets are not revealed under any circumstances. |
How is it useful?
I hate coming up with lore – I’m not smart enough and generally players don’t care enough to piece the threads together. For L’hôtel du Palaise I wanted any conspiracies to feel mysterious.
For you, dear reader, I have some thoughts about what you may want to use it for…
- answer the question: “What secrets do my players overhear?”
- design a global conspiracy for my players to uncover.
- what conspiracies are flying about in the general population? Are they true?
- Get your players embroiled in a global conspiracy bigger than anything they can handle on their own.
Inspired by…
Longwinter, Luka Rejec (a great module set in a world caught between the fantastical fringes and the industrialisation of the early 20th Century. I love the feel and flavour and the metasetting as explained above)
Them: Adventures with Extremists, Jon Ronson (pre-QAnon he talks investigates those who believe conspiracies regarding Bohemian Grove, Bildeberg, Freemasons and others)
Triangle at Rhodes, Agatha Christie (a bunch of rich people on holidays in the Mediterranean… as with most of Christie’s work they’re all awful people, but great inspiration for NPCs)
Tintin, Hergé (the feel, the vibe, the characters, the quirkiness)
Miseries and Misfortunes, Luke Crane (I’m interested in how Luke takes historical fiction and turns it into a dungeon crawler type game… I’m yet to play this game so I’m interested in the experiment… also the weaving of socio-political stuff is tres magnifique)
Brindlewood Bay, The Gauntlet (mysteries defined by the players not the GM)
Game the Dungeon 