Yesterday, almost at midnight, we finished Horror at the Orient Express. I've run this campaign several times, with some of the dearest persons to me. We've always had a blast, and it always has been challenging, literary (in the best sense of the word, regarding detailed NPCs, stunning locations and rich imagery, no railroading bullshit) and very original. This run, however, has been more special to me and I wanted to share it here
See, we started the campaign in September the 9th, 2012. My wife broke her water at 6 PM, in the middle of the game. Maybe it was because our friend Candela had been asking the baby to be born that day so she could see it (the baby was still 10 days from D-Day), and my little Monica has always been such a good girl. So, we have to stop the game and run to the hospital so Monica was born the next day, at 8 AM.
Of course, we needed some time to adjust, so we didn't restart the campaign until January the 24th, 2013.
This campaign, thus, was born with my baby girl and has grown with her. That's why it's so special to me. There have been many sessions in which my baby girl has been present as an spectator, sitting in her tall chair, watching intently, while we played grim and gritty horrific sessions. And believe me, it's fucking hard to try and create an eerie mood while the most beautiful baby is singing and being cute at your table.
(http://elimperiodelrol.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/179200_10151396056871731_877642749_n.jpg)
We have played 32 sessions, 32 glorious sessions through 17 months. My baby missed this last session because, these days, she goes to bed early as she sleeps a lot, at last. We usually start when she's in bed, around 20:00.
I really hope that, some day, when she's a bit older, we will play together, and then I will take out this wonderful campaign out of its box again, and I'll give her the chance to take a stroll fr this enchanted, horrific Europe, on board of the most mythical train that ever existed, fighting, suffering and being scared.
Though I still think that the best campaig for CoC (and on of th best campaigns ever) is Masks of Nyarlathotep, there is no other campaign with such a capacity to evoke the grandeur of a time long gone.
Finally, as it happened the previous time I ran it, only one investigator, thorugh sheer luck, managed to survive with her life and sanity. When Scotland Yard entered the little apartment above the shop in Islington, they only found a person inside, the exiled princess Tatiana Androkovna Romanov, lying unconscious on a wooden floor that was marked with weird drawings and warped like was on a flame. Some of the agents claimed to have seen a beautiful women, in a screaming crazy flight down the street, with blood inher face while she tried to scratch her own eyes (Candela's PC, after losing more than 60 SAN), but they could not catch her due to a preternatural fog that raised minutes before the chants and screaming started. There was not a single trail from the rest of the group that entered the building: the Hindi mountaineer Mukhar Dhananjay, his servant Pradesh, and Hollywood star Biff Baxter. Nothing but the Stetson hat of the actor, trapped under an upturned table. Princess Tatiana was unable to remember anything, and now she can't stand the sight of naked skin, specially her own. Doctors expect her to make a full recovery. British intelligence has a lot of questions for her, and about what happened in Istambul with the British Ambassador's son.
Now I raise a glass for all the many players that have lived this wonderful campaign with me, and specially for those (Candela, Jafet, Víctor, Patillón and my beloved Victoria) that lived it at the same time that my baby. This is a wonderful hobby, and CoC is a magnificent game. May we all have ahead of us many years of investigating mysteries, discovering eldritch horrors, fight cultists, go insane and die.
PS: Os dejo un enlace a la edición italiana de la campaña (una simple traducción de la edición francesa), que se mea encima de la española y de la americana original. En cuanto mejore mi francés me empiezo a comprar los manuales en francés, por la gloria de mi madre. Dan ganas de arbitrarla otra vez, sólo de ver esas fotos.
Congrats on what sounds like total awesome, AND to awesome offspring! :)
D'awww. Baby! Oh, anyway, I think its awesome that you made it through a full horror game campaign. Those can be tough, but its a very well done one from what I understand. Rock on in making it truly fun and scary for your players.
Better hope that her first word isn't Hastur!
Quote from: One Horse Town;727839Better hope that her first word isn't Hastur!
For good or worse, it was "NO" closely followed by Mommy. This weekend she started using "sword." All is well :)
Congratulations, Ramón. Sounds like an awesome campaign. Oh, and Mónica is cute too. ;)
Congratulations! This sounds absolutely wonderful and thank you for sharing it with us!
Thank you all.
I felt that after so many threads devoted to shitting on top of another people, some good vibrations would be appreciated :D
Also, I think these momentous sessions must be shared because it's great to see other people playing and having fun.
Also, Jeff, your marvelous Star Wars gift is getting used again. The next games will be some Star Wars D6 sessions, and if the game catches on (2 players are enthusiastic, the two girls are meh because of previous sucky GM and the other will play anything), that will be our next campaign :)
Yo no sabía que su madre es francés. ¿De dónde es?
Quote from: Black Vulmea;727911Yo no sabía que su madre es francés. ¿De dónde es?
Mi madre no es francesa. :D ¿La madre de quién?
Oh, I see, it's because of the last Spanish paragraph XD No, "por la gloria de mi madre" is a common saying around here that can be roughly translated as "God be witness" or something like it :)
Quote from: Imperator;727913Mi madre no es francesa.
I misunderstood; it sounded like you were using the book in French because she's French.
Quote from: Black Vulmea;727918I misunderstood; it sounded like you were using the book in French because she's French.
No, mate, but I am learning French because the French editions of the game are so superior to the rest. They are gorgeous.
Quote from: Imperator;727913Mi madre no es francesa. :D ¿La madre de quién?
Lo penso que a Vulmea le confundió "por la gloria de mi madre." :D
Quote from: Imperator;727908Also, Jeff, your marvelous Star Wars gift is getting used again. The next games will be some Star Wars D6 sessions, and if the game catches on (2 players are enthusiastic, the two girls are meh because of previous sucky GM and the other will play anything), that will be our next campaign :)
I do not see how your Players could not become enthusiastic with you as GM and d6 Star Wars as your instrument of choice. :)
Quote from: jeff37923;727938I do not see how your Players could not become enthusiastic with you as GM and d6 Star Wars as your instrument of choice. :)
Neither do I, but you know how a sucky GM can sour you on a game for a long time. Also, Candela is THE BIGGEST CoC fan ever. We've been playing CoC for 3 years, not enough for her. But she conceded that, after 3 years, we could change a little "for a short while." :D
Nifty anecdote; thank you for sharing.
I quite understand about the Power of Baby, though; a couple in my game had had a new baby, and there were a couple of occasions where they materially and deliberately affected a cliffhanger by showing up for the next session, promptly depositing Laurellin in my lap, and smiling wickedly as I dissolved into cooing.
Hrm. Now that baby's a practicing therapist, having graduated from college last year.
Quote from: Imperator;727921No, mate, but I am learning French because the French editions of the game are so superior to the rest. They are gorgeous.
OT, but just a silly question: is French easy to learn for a Spanish person due to being Romanesque?
I mean you'd believe a language being in the same group would make it easier to learn...but I flat-out sucked at learning German in spite of German being, er, Germanic (English was very easy though of course).
Quote from: Ravenswing;728070Nifty anecdote; thank you for sharing.
I quite understand about the Power of Baby, though; a couple in my game had had a new baby, and there were a couple of occasions where they materially and deliberately affected a cliffhanger by showing up for the next session, promptly depositing Laurellin in my lap, and smiling wickedly as I dissolved into cooing.
Hrm. Now that baby's a practicing therapist, having graduated from college last year.
Beautiful anecdote :) Thanks for sharing.
Quote from: The Ent;728072OT, but just a silly question: is French easy to learn for a Spanish person due to being Romanesque?
I mean you'd believe a language being in the same group would make it easier to learn...but I flat-out sucked at learning German in spite of German being, er, Germanic (English was very easy though of course).
Well, I am using this nifty app/website called Duolingo, which makes you practice a little bit every day and it's really easy to use. So far, I'm having little trouble because, apart from Spanish, I speak Catalan, which is a mix of Spanish, French and Italian. So, right now, I think that knowing Spanish is helping me with grammar and similar stuff (not with pronunciation, because in Spanish you pronounce everything that's written and teh fucking French don't bother pronouncing half the stuff they write).
Can't say about easo of learning languages in the same family: I can't speak German, but I have noticed many similar things between it and English, and many times I can guess things based on my English knowledge. Of course, English has many influences from other languages as well, so who knows :D
Quote from: Imperator;728058Neither do I, but you know how a sucky GM can sour you on a game for a long time. Also, Candela is THE BIGGEST CoC fan ever. We've been playing CoC for 3 years, not enough for her. But she conceded that, after 3 years, we could change a little "for a short while." :D
You know, there is a precident for zombie horror in the Star Wars universe....
(http://www.galacticbinder.com/images/Deathtroopers.jpg)
Quote from: jeff37923;728078You know, there is a precident for zombie horror in the Star Wars universe....
(http://www.galacticbinder.com/images/Deathtroopers.jpg)
XD Awesome.
Quote from: Imperator;727917Oh, I see, it's because of the last Spanish paragraph XD No, "por la gloria de mi madre" is a common saying around here that can be roughly translated as "God be witness" or something like it :)
A totally unfamiliar idiom to a Mexican Spanish speaker. I like it, though.
Quote from: Imperator;728076Well, I am using this nifty app/website called Duolingo, which makes you practice a little bit every day and it's really easy to use. So far, I'm having little trouble because, apart from Spanish, I speak Catalan, which is a mix of Spanish, French and Italian. So, right now, I think that knowing Spanish is helping me with grammar and similar stuff
Sounds good! :) (I must admit to knowing very little about Catalan :o)
Quote from: Imperator(not with pronunciation, because in Spanish you pronounce everything that's written and teh fucking French don't bother pronouncing half the stuff they write).
Haha I can relate :D
(My own language has totally different pronounciation from English. Caused me no little headache as a kid when learning English :D)
Quote from: ImperatorCan't say about easo of learning languages in the same family: I can't speak German, but I have noticed many similar things between it and English, and many times I can guess things based on my English knowledge. Of course, English has many influences from other languages as well, so who knows :D
English and German are close (allthough new research shows that
Norwegian's actually English' closest cousin, wich is weird and surprising but cool! :D Helps explain why Norwegians are pretty good at learning English I guess. Earlier we always believed that English and German were closer to each other than to the Scandinavian languages, wich obviously now seems to be wrong).
And yeah English is the king of influenced by other languages, especially French and Latin allthough there's actually more Norse words than Anglo-Saxon ones in modern English! :D
(Allthough my own language has a ton of loan words (especially from German, Dutch and French). Comes with the package of being essentially a rural country populated by peasants for centuries ;))
Quote from: The Ent;728082(My own language has totally different pronounciation from English. Caused me no little headache as a kid when learning English :D)
Where are you from?
Quote from: Imperator;728087Where are you from?
Norway.
Quote from: The Ent;728090Norway.
Ah, now I see :D I lived in Sweden for a while and the language was awfully hard to me, so I ended using English all the time. Looking back, gross mistake.
Fantastic. Just plain fantastic.
Quote from: Benoist;728114Fantastic. Just plain fantastic.
I just posted this to my gaming blog. It's a short piece that my wife wrote as a Facebook note, inspired by the end of the campaign, kind of an epilogue, around her character, the only sane survivor of the game, and the consequences this ordeal had.
It may be one of the most poignant and beautiful things I have read, game-related. It is also horrifyingly lovecraftian. Unfortunately, it's only in Spanish at the moment, but I'll translate it to English ASAP. Anyway, here it is.
http://elimperiodelrol.wordpress.com/2014/01/30/jugar-a-rol-produce-cosas-como-esta/