Esoterrorist Game Props

Over on Google+ I've been sharing some of the game props I've created for my Esoterrorist game.

I recently created the AEGIS handbooks to help the players understand the philosophy behind the organization they are working for.  And of course I couldn't miss an opportunity to make some look old and used in the field. 

The great thing about running a modern day adventure it the amount of material that is available the players can interact with.  There will be times during the adventure that the players may need to find information about a certain organization or event and they can use their computers to get that information.  I develop my adventures using real places, events, organizations and people (although  handful are an amalgamation of two or three people).  This grounds these fantastic and horrible events in a real setting.

"Is this real.  I'm finding all this stuff on-line."  This is what Rob Conley said during the first session.  Because the setting and events were tied in with real happenings its an easier sell to the players.  What also helps is I am using my local area as the setting so I know exactly what services are available.  What judges are kind and which ones are the hard asses.  Hell, I can tell them the price of gas from town to town if that suited the adventure.

I've got a few more props to create.  The cool thing about the game is I have no idea how they will get to where they are going, but I know they'll get there at some point or time and the significance of a clue they find could vary greatly depending on the timing of the find. 

Since we are playing on-line, delivery of props is tricky, but since I am no stranger to the post office and sending things out, I plan on sending my two players a case file, with stuff they've already discovered and sealed envelopes.  These sealed envelopes will contain clues not discovered yet.  Each will  be labeled with a letter.  And when they come across it during game they will be asked to open that envelope. 

Because of the intensity and heavy role-playing aspect of the game I think two players is good.  The larger the group the more noise involved and when I GM something like this I prefer to have as little of that as possible.  Plus, it keep the players more engaged in what's going on.  No one has a chance to slip into the background. 

I think we start next week.  I've forgotten already.  I'm a lousy GM.  I've got work to do on the game yet, but its a pleasure to do so. 

Esoterrorist Game Coming Together

Here's a picture of what I've been working on today.

I've been working on the props, including large and small pictures, newspaper clippings, letters and a map.  I'll have some others to create, but what I'm working on now is the adventure structure.  It's built around scenes, loosely framed to give the players as much room to explore as they want and still have some frame of the adventure.  It's not a sandbox adventure, there is a beginning and an end, but there are several ways to get there. 

I plan on running this at Con on the Cob for the Monday Night crew.  An unscheduled time and place, we'll figure that out when we get there. 

Some of the things I still need to do is:

• Get a good grasp of the GUMSHOE system.  While I've played in a game using the system in the past that was a year, possibly two years ago now.  So I need to get some uninterrupted time to absorb it.
• Put the adventure down in scenes and timeline.  While the players will explore and wander some events happen regardless one way or another.  While the players may now have control of if it happens, they do have a lot to do with how it happens.
• Take my newly found knowledge of the GUMSHOE system and integrate what kind of ruling should happen in the scenes as a reminder.
• Finish off props. 

If it turns out well, I might do a free PDF release sans the props since I am Google ganking the photos and some other elements.  For a private game I don't have to worry about that.  Alright, off to get idea on paper.

Game Props Part 6: Music & Sound Effects

I am going to start off with you need to be very careful with these.  A little goes a long way.  If you over do it you're probably going to annoy the shit out of your players.

I've only used sound effects in one particular game that I can remember and I've kept away from the music because of my own annoying experiences with it.  Years ago I ran an Arthurian themed adventure.  I did a crap load of research, mixed it with elements of Chinese mythology and in key parts of the adventure I had sound effects.  I bought a couple sound effect CDs and used them to enhance the atmosphere.  One of the interesting ones I used was a thunder storm.  The players were engaged in a losing fight while to storm was raging and in the background a church bell began to ring, one of the players heard it and retreated to the small church for shelter.

I had the tracks written on a paper for sections of the adventure.  And I didn't overwhelm them with using a track for every step.  In this case I felt it enhanced the game.  Over doing it interferes with the game.

Example of over doing it...pretty much every Vampire the Masquerade game I've ever been in.  In Vampire's infancy it was novel and cool.  For whatever reason the vampires would all gather in these dark, night clubs that played very loud music.  Now the Storyteller would flavor the scenario with his own selection of music.  Very loud music.  The Storyteller would tell us we needed to roleplay with the music on because that was happening in the club.  I asked the Storyteller is it was okay to punch him in the face since that's what I'd be doing to the DJ at the club.  Yeah, yeah, I got issues, but they knew what they were getting into when they invited me to the game.

Here's where the players, it wasn't just me, didn't like the blaring music.  It interfered with the game.  I believe we avoided the clubs in the Storyteller's game because he would always want to play his music. 

Some folks like to play battle music during combat.  Which can add something to it.  One of my first experiences with this was running a combat with the William Tell Overture and the players got tense and rushed around the combat.  It was great to see the affect it had on them.  I did this to varying degrees of success later on.

These days there is very little music or sound effects used.  Once in a while the GM will play with the music buttons on d20, but nothing more than for a laugh.

With Halloween coming around there should be a lot of options available for creepy sound effects.  If you are going to use them just make sure you are adept with getting them set up and ready to play.  You don't want to halt a tense moment so you can find the scary music.  It becomes so not scary when you do that.  But if done correctly can add a real layer of atmosphere.  For the music...choose wisely.  Don't turn it up so loud the players can't hear one another.  Or save it for special occasions.  A small intro piece for an on-going bad guy is fun.  Especially when the players get to know the bad guy and you don't have to do anything, but play his entrance music and they'll react.

Game Props Part 5: Files & Photos

I've been working on a modern Esoterrorists game for when I meet up with the guys at Con on the Cob.  Some under the table gaming.  Last night when I was working on the adventure, I thought about how many more props you can use in a modern setting. 

First off, since my adventure is more of procedural there will be several folks to speak with and places to investigate.  One of the first things I needed to do was after figuring out the adventure was to develop a file.  It's easy enough to grab forms off the internet to give it a real feel.  And the organization that the players are working for doesn't like computers so I'm mixing a little 70's tech into it also.  Like the files are written on old paper, with a typewriter.  I accomplished this by a couple of simple tricks.  For the typewriter, I found different type fonts.  Easy enough.  There are many different kinds.  Secondly the paper, I went to the art section and bought the cheapest sketch paper I could find.  It has a texture to it that makes it feel older. 

Within the file there are also photos of people and places.  Last year Staples was having a sale on photo paper.  Big and small.  When I sale, I mean free.  I bought a few boxes that are close to Polaroid size or at least the smaller sized pictures and then some full 8.5" by 11".  With these and a good printer I can make some great older photos and newer ones.  The visual of the photo is cool to have when your players crack open that file.  And they aren't just greeted by a wall of text.

To also help with the look, I scavenged a couple of old files from work.  Beat up 6-tabs beasts that are ready for the bin, but thought they would look great.  Markings and scribbles on them.  Different textures from where labels were placed on them and then ripped off.  If I were doing an game set back in the 80's or 70's I would probably go with the plain manilla folder.

A great example of a game file from Propnomicon.

Game Props Part 4: Fantasy Billboards

I've posted about my fantasy billboards I've used in the past.  Here's a post from 2009 and revisited the subject again in 2013.  Well I am doing it again.  This was probably one of my better ideas (although there wasn't a huge selection to chose from) to develop a community billboard the players could use.

We played at my house at the time and I had a section of the wall covered in notices, ads, announcements and sometimes threats.  The players would come in before the game and read through the billboard.  It gave them a focal point right away.  It engaged them into game without even starting.  It was a lot of fun and players really enjoyed it. 

I've google ganked from my own blog to show you some examples of what I used in the past.

First off we have an ad for siege weapons (misspelled, I wish I could say I meant to do that, but...) there were several merchants who would advertise their ware or skills here.

If you look down three pictures (the one with 3 small ads in it) you'll read a lady is asking for people to help find her husband.  None of the players bit on the adventure hook.  A few weeks later this note appeared.  It was interesting to see their reaction.  Just because they did not interact with the event did not mean things stood static. 

 
A weird ditty that might get the adventurers interested, but there is no information on where or who put this up.  However, if the players did show interested they would have had to camp the billboard to see who wrote it.

A simple announcement.  It blended in with the other announcements.  But it was an important plot point during that game session.

A mercenary band looking for work, then the initial note of Linda who wanted someone to help find her husband, but no one came and lastly, a note from a fanatic.  Fanatics posted often. Just like on Google+.

Janon was my rogue reporter.  He posted one-page commentaries of what was going on in City-State.  There would be a new Janon piece every week.  It was a ton of fun creating a fantasy TMZ.

Simple list of wanted people.  Once in a while I might mention a name that they would see on the billboard and they would all scramble to see if it was up there.  Sometimes they forgot that more than one person can have the same name.  It happens.  

There is some work upfront developing a billboard, but after the initial set up you can add a few pieces here and there to keep it fresh.  Just run with any idea you have.  Be weird as you want.  You can lace them with plot hooks, clues and develop storylines.  The effort I put into mine paid off huge and I know a few of the players still yap about it and it's been over 10 years.

Game Props Part 3: Coins

Nearly every fantasy game uses a gold, silver, copper monetary system.  And we talk about them some more.  I only did this once, but it seemed to have a significant effect on the players and that was to throw a money pouch onto the table as the offered reward.  It's one thing to say, "And if you do this heroic thing the lord will pay you 250sp as a reward."

Meh.

But!  Try this.  Find an old Crown Royal bag (you know you have one somewhere) or a regular old dice bag, fill it with pennies (more on this later) and "If you do this heroic thing the lord will pay you..." then drop the bag of coins on the table.  There will be a visceral reaction.  There is something about the sound of metal coins thudding, followed by the clicking and sliding of metal on metal.  Now the players are no longer dealing with an abstract.  They have the coins sitting in front of them.

I know there are many coin props out there.  I just don't like plastic.  While it might have the look, it's the sound and weight that sells it.  There also metal coins available out there.  But for me, I haven't found any I like and they are a bit pricey.  Many of them look great, but they often have weird denominations on them and that doesn't work in my game.  I don't want a 5 scrawled on a silver coin.  A silver coin is just that, a silver coin.

A more affordable option is raid your coin jar for its pennies.  Get some silver and gold spray paint and go to town.  Copper, well since they're pennies...   If you want to get really fancy smancy you can take a hammer to them and squish them a bit.  Make their shape a little wonky.  Doing this gives you an inexpensive way to bring a cool prop to the table.

As I mentioned before, using dice bags are cool as money purses.  Or if you have someone at home that can craft some homemade ones even better.

While I have only used the coins during one adventure, it was very cool to see the players react to the actually coins being presented to them.

Game Props Part 2: Maps and Scroll Cases

I think maps were the first props given out in the TSR modules.  Some sort of players map you could copy and give to them.  Always a copy because 1) you don't want to defile your adventure module 2) the players grubby Cheeto stained hands and dexteritys of 4 would spill pop all over your map. 


Getting that map was very cool.  I don't remember what adventure module it was, but getting that map broke through a wall.  We had an artifact from the game we were playing.  Sure Monopoly had its fake money, but that wasn't a game of the imagination.  D&D, having that first map handed to you made the game that more interesting.

So of course what soon followed were homemade map handouts.  I think most of you grognards out there can back me up on this one.  To age the map we would take a lighter and burn the edges.  Never mind that it might be drawn on notebook or graph paper.  It was important to get that cool aged edge.

a properly google ganked image of the lighter edge technique

What happened more often than not you'd burn the entire map because you couldn't get the fire out.  Or you would burn off a section of the map that you wanted to keep.  Making aged maps was not for sissies . 

Another technique people use was using tea to age the paper.  I don't know about you, but I didn't have any tea in my home.  I had Coke.  Coke doesn't work.  1) it made everything sticky.  I hate being sticky.  2) the carbonation ate away paper fibers if you used the wrong kind of paper or 3) it devoured the ink off the page so it was an indecipherable mess.

use tea, as you can see there is no disintegration and it won't be sticky, very important

 If you wanted to get really fancy smacy and you'd almost be dabbling in arts and crafts at this point was making a map/scroll case.  I used a use paper towel thingy.  I colored it with paint, do some sort of half ass design and wa la.  Problem was I was never smart enough to figure out how to cap the ends.  So I would roll my freshly singed map inside and hope it didn't fall out.

This concludes Part 2 of my Gaming Props series.