GUMSHOE--The Esoterrorists (Sundays): screen shots, session notes & organization

[Hector Trelane]

The Esoterrorists
Campaign game organization thread

About this thread: This forum thread is for discussion, background, & in-character actions by players of Esoterrorists run by Hector Trelane on Fantasy Grounds. (SPOILERS!)


Session Time: Sunday mornings, US Eastern
Calendar Link: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/index.xcp?id=3283
Number of Players: 5 [currently full but post here if you're an interested player!]
Short Description: Case files and Station Duty campaign
Text/Voice: Voice
Voicechat via: Discord
GM License/Player License: Ultimate GM License (Players can use free/demo client)
Game System: GUMSHOE
Genre: Investigation Horror
Newbie Friendly: Yes!
Pre-requisites: None


Player Recruitment Status:
Currently accepting new players![ Post on this thread or PM me if interested.

Game Overview

Info on Esoterrorists background: You are elite investigators combating the plots of the Esoterrorists, a loose affiliation of occult terrorists intent on tearing the fabric of the world and letting the monsters in.
About the rules system:Unlike other investigative roleplaying games, The Esoterrorists’ GUMSHOE rules system ensures that the plot never grinds to a halt due to a failed die roll. As top paranormal detectives, you never fail in your areas of expertise. When necessary, you can expend extra effort to glean more from the evidence than any plodding journeyman could hope to find.


SPOILERS WARNING: visitors to this page, there may be spoilers contained throughout. Read with caution if you wish to be a player in a future run of this game!

[Hector Trelane]

Reserved for campaign overview--"Story of Cases"

So far this cell of agents, in some form or another, cracked the following cases:


A Night On The Town


https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25626


Operation Prophet Bunco


https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25627


Six Packed


https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25628


Operation Low Joker


https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25629


On Deck: Session 0 of "Station Duty" mode--creating the Town, creating the Station, and creating/recalibrating the group of characters (a mix of OV agents and Locals). (Players, go to the game calendar here to set the date and time for this session (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/index.xcp?id=3283).)

[Hector Trelane]

Agent Bios:
[Full versions to come soon.]

Agents:



Wade Garrett--tough ex-cop

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25649


Peter "PJ" Jefferson--talented young lab tech

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25650

Thurston Davenport--New York socialite, hedonist and dabbler in the occul

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25652


Dr. Joseph Carey--Centers for Disease Control researcher

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25653


Astra LaFontaine--New Age shopkeer

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25655


P.S. Additional characters will be added in posts below since forum post images are capped at five.

[Hector Trelane]

What comes next in switching to Station Duty mode?

Hello players: I'm looking forward to the creative collaboration we're about to get into in our sandbox game mode (aka "Station Duty"). While I've posted the rules differences below (so people are clear, and since it provides some content to lay the groundwork), as you know GUMSHOE is rules-light in gameplay, and we'll continue that. (In fact, the rules are only there to serve in the background and enable sandbox, in-character play and storylines that emerge from player decisions). Our main focus for the creation session (for The Town, the Station, and PC agents/locals) should be our creative brainstorms and riffs on the game premise. I'm looking forward to our collaboration on this sandbox, character-driven, horror campaign.

About Station Duty mode of game play:

It's "a setting for Esoterrorists more suited to sandbox-style gaming, where PCs can develop solid relationships with the locals and face the depths of smalltown horror," as described by the publisher.
"The Station Duty series places the agents in one haunted place over an extended period of time as they root out a multi-headed, localized conspiracy."


Preparatory Steps:

First the Town (it's normal aspects--people, locations, backstory, and more) is jointly created by players and GM. (The Station too, or it can be held for creation during game play.)
Player characters are created to be a mix of experienced OV agents and Local Residents.

---OV agents are created as normal but have a special role in defining and improving the Station (i.e. the undercover investigative headquarters in the Town).
---Local Residents are created through slightly modified rules: they have a partial limit on Technical Investigation Abilities but also unique access to the Local Knowledge Investigation Ability (a set of abilities defined during Town creation that means the character is expert in that part or sphere of the Town. They also have a bit more narrative license to specify mundane details of the Town (see below).
---Local Residents can be created with Fear Itself rules (a sister game to The Esoterrorists), opening up the possibility of psychic powers, which are supported for characters in that game.


Special Rules for Station Duty mode:

the new Investigation Ability, Local Knowledge, is available to any characters who are natives to the town (and it is not available to OV agents assigned to the Station).
all characters will list Sources of Stability -- "person[s] that the character confides in and relies on, one person who makes the world worth fighting for. A name and an identifying phrase is enough for each at the start of play; they’ll be fleshed out later on."

[Hector Trelane]

Agent bios, cont'd.


Steenson--government agent and by-the-book enforcer



https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=25651



Henry Collins--a Local Resident (Station Duty mode), Henry is the town photographer and unofficial historian. He loves Sequoia Falls, but high school graduation photos and yellowing books have become monotonous. His youthful taste for adventure stirred, and when "FCC" agents arrived, Henry jumped at the chance to join their investigations. Now, the horrific events they uncovered have him thinking that the routine of the darkroom and library may not be so bad after all...


https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27708



Trent Cole--a Local Resident (Station Duty mode) and Sheriff Deputy, this handsome former football star returned to town a couple years ago after a tour of duty in the Marine Corps. He's got several years with Sequoia Falls' police force and is reconnecting with old friends and neighbors. His family and girlfriend all live in town.


https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27714

[Hector Trelane]

Players, here are our precepts for creating The Town (to be named after creation):


The Town is worth saving.
The Town has secrets.
The Town is strange.
The Town is small ... but not too small.
The Town is isolated.
The Town is familiar.
The Town is near the wilderness.


Using these precepts as a guide, please come up with some brainstorms. We'll do this in full at our next live session, but posts here are welcome to get the creative ideas flowing. (In fact, it'd be helpful since it'd create a written record.)

There are more elements of the Town that we'll define, but this is enough to get us started!

[NotRussellCrowe]

I like the idea of the town being situated in Main/Massachusetts (northern New England) and having lots of colonial history (like Salem and its Witch Trials) or other things that we could use. Also really like the idea of a town set in the Pacific Northwest with First Nations lore woven into the town and surrounding area. I think either way provide lots of options for historical secrets and many modern secrets too.

Seems like we should have some sort of underground complex, a mine or cave system that early settlers could have used.

The geography is also as much a character as is the history. I love the Pacific Northwest with all the trees and hills/mountains that you have. Logging industry due to all the trees. Lots of pine trees. I'm a little less familiar with New England geography.

I'll stop there so you can provide feedback if this is what you're looking for or if you were expecting a different set of thoughts.

Yes, for whatever reason I'm seeing a town out of a Stephen King story or maybe a bigger version of Bright Falls from the Alan Wake video game. I'm sure Storybrook from Once Upon A Time is also influencing my thoughts. :) (Trivia time: the town used in Once Upon A Time is also used in an early episode of The X Files, and likely in many other movies/tv shows)

Question for everyone: do we want to define "6. The Town is isolated" as isolated from other towns/cities and/or from people meaning that no one comes here because there's nothing to come for or they don't know it exists? Maybe this leads to why the town is strange because no one comes here?

[Hector Trelane]

The geography is also as much a character as is the history.


Well said.



I'll stop there so you can provide feedback if this is what you're looking for or if you were expecting a different set of thoughts.


Yes, very much so. This is helpful creative fodder that others can build on. We'll do so formally in a live session, but it's helpful to get a start here on the forums!

[Hector Trelane]

Friendly reminder to players who haven’t to rsvp for our fast-approaching Session 0: Town Creation date at the calendar here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/index.xcp?id=3283

On another note, I’ve been reading and rereading the GM materials for Station Duty and am LOVING it. A+ to the designers for providing a flexible toolbox for Players and GMs to craft a unique, creepy, interesting narrative. GOOD STUFF and I am quite looking forward to this one!

[Hector Trelane]

We are ON for our next session on Sunday March 24!

[Hector Trelane]

Great job by the players today in digging in to the investigation! Here are some screen shots:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=26823

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=26824

[Hector Trelane]

Overcharging for clues?

A player pointed out to me that the GM arguably overcharged for a clue given to another players’s character. In retrospect, I think that’s right, and at least one point can be restored.

If there are similar future points to raise, feel free to do so — in game if it can be done briefly, or afterwards if a more lengthy discussion is needed. Some point spends are a gray area, and if players can propose a skill use that should be lower- or zero-cost, it’s perfectly acceptable to do so.

This is a game of collaborative storytelling in a mystery horror genre. It is most definitely not a game of “hose the players”!

[Raz_Kabooz]

Today Thurston Davenport witnessed the true horrors of outer dimensional entities used by the nefarious forces of The Esoterrorists. He also contemplates his feelings for Astra LaFontaine and fondly reminiscences to himself over their one-night of shared unbridled passion from so many years ago (tmi?).

https://oi483.photobucket.com/albums/rr195/Rumnaheim/screenshot0128_zpscal8tdp6.png

[damned]

26970

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=26970

[Hector Trelane]

Nice job roleplaying your characters today, players, and good forward motion in the story. Nice touch in particular to Thurston who RP’d the moment of his first “field case” as significant and shocking to him.

I also appreciate the screenshots!

[Hector Trelane]

Some individual plotlines: Each of you receives a text or voicemail message at some point during the current day:


Henry: Sequoia Falls High School wants you to photograph all the students at prom once again. The dance is in a few weeks. It's a bit of a mind-numbing job but lucrative. At least you get to see that cute teacher who usually chaperones the dance at the banquet hall.
Astra: Your friend, chamber of commerce chair Lori Wilson, has scheduled a bank meeting for you to get a loan to open that Yoga Center in the middle of town. Can you be there tomorrow? It means you'd put your store into heavy debt. But she'll help line up a small business loan and is also asking the mayor's wife, Carol Crowe, to arrange an economic development grant.
Thurston: A new artist in town, Lenore Danek, has just gotten in some avant garde art pieces she thinks you may want to acquire: they are collages and neon paintings of "memes shattering to remove pop science truths obscuring our minds like a film of scum covering a pond." She's also just made a sculpture, inspired by a late night conversation you two shared. She wants your to come to her farmhouse studio on the edge of town tomorrow midday for a viewing. (You met her before at one of your "sessions" and you think she could be legit and capable of meeting your... rarified... tastes.)
PJ: You get a message from Dina Chambers (the goth tattooed waitress) with her shift schedule for tonight. "Here's when I get off. Pick me up. Come get me..."
Wade: You get a series of texts and one voicemail from the mouthy kid, Stuart Mills, asking you how Latrice is doing, and can he see her? The hospital people won't let him in. In the background of the voicemail you can hear a paint can shaking and the hiss of a spray nozzle.



OOC note from GM: These plotlines are mostly to give you things to think about in between sessions. Let's play group stuff in-game. For those individual plot actions that can be handled solo (some can, some can't), you can post here. If in doubt, go ahead and post, and I can respond accordingly.

[Hector Trelane]

Nice session yesterday. We are now fully in sandbox mode.

Yesterday, the two Ordo Veritatis agents, Wade Garrett and PJ, made their initial findings report to Mr. Verity, who gave them orders to proceed with establishing a long-term station for under-cover operations in Town. The agents chose a mobile phone resale, service, and repair shop storefront as their cover, a plausible fit with their previous cover as visiting FCC inspectors.

Here are features and details of the Station, as created in-game by players: [Placeholder link to for future Google Doc]

Here are some images of what the Station might look like: [Placeholder]

To refresh our memories on town personalities and features, check this Google Doc listing the elements players created during our Town Creation Session (click here) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dt-FJp5ArSANXdsiEjp2snnGNUzZrzsgsu9_OLx9qVU/edit).

[Raz_Kabooz]

Thurston might be a bit fuzzy on the exact details but sure this is the general concept PJ and Wade were driving at.
Here are some images of what the Station might look like: https://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr195/Rumnaheim/Love%20Shack_zpsjavyrppo.jpg.

In all seriousness, great game Hector!

[Hector Trelane]

Reminder--game this Sunday!

[Raz_Kabooz]

Reminder--game this Sunday!
And Gen Con event registration that day at noon! It's not too late for you Hector! ;)

[Raz_Kabooz]

A screen grab from today's exciting episode of The Esoterrorists!
https://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr195/Rumnaheim/screenshot0153_zpsce2wh8re.png

[Hector Trelane]

The PCs devise a plan to boobytrap an enslaved zombie drone of the Glistening and send it back to the Queen. In the meantime, Thurston takes Astra and Henry to yoga, as they mentally fight the horrible truths they've been exposed to. They meet aging hippies from a commune on the outskirts and are invited to a Reiki session. Wade identifies more Glisten Slaves by intimidating Stuart's drug dealer, Ed Bayer, and checks the smart phone of one person to track his movements and possibly ID the Glisten Queen's location (near the high school football field)? Stuart Mills opens up about dark secrets he knows about Tom West and Joanne Felton and his suspicions about Crazy Mary.

Also, the Adversary Map is up and running, as soon will be the Ordo Veritatis Station, whose front is a cell phone repair shop, Dr. Phone Fix.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27385

[Hector Trelane]

A screen grab from today's exciting episode of The Esoterrorists!


Thanks for the screen shot! Nice one. And great job calling a fun and interesting RP scene.

[Hector Trelane]

The investigators were able to save an innocent, Latrice Hamilton, by infiltrating the lair where Esoterrorists stashed a creature with a form of mind control powers in some non-descript industrial buildings. The agents came up with means to dispatch it, a combination subtle and overt...

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27613


In the meantime, the investigators' list of suspects, er, contacts in Town keeps growing...

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27612

[Hector Trelane]

Welcome Sheriff Deputy Trent Cole to today's session. He investigated the suspicious explosion at the high school football field, collecting evidence that may point to explosion victim Henry Collins. From there, things got far more eerie, horrific, and lethal... good thing PJ backed him up:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27713

[Hector Trelane]

In today's session, a few days of "normalcy" return. Newspaper coverage of the high school explosion causes public anxiety, so the Agents take further steps to veil out the incident.


Deputy Trent Cole joins the other investigators to share clues, destroy "evidence" (with the help of nine pigs at the Schilling Place), and develop new lines of investigation into Estorrorist activities in Sequoia Falls:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27932


Afterwards, Astra returns to her shop to find a crazily marked-up news clipping left for her and Becky Bullard, having spoken at length with her son Alex and smiling sweetly at Astra as she leaves.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=27933

[Hector Trelane]

Some inter-character conflict in today's session as OV Agent Wade Garrett tackles longtime partner PJ upon "seeing" a dark "alien" influence scuttle up and down his skin. That sorted out, the PCs begin to investigate the vandalism at the park, while Officer Rick Donner arrests teenage rebel Stuart Mills for harassing prettiest girl in town Joanne Felton--and for park vandalism, which he assuredly perpetrated...


https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=28147

[Hector Trelane]

Yo, players: unfortunate schedule update: I forgot I’m on family travel on Aug 11 so I can’t make our session. I’ll update our calendar. Still on for Aug 25

[Hector Trelane]

In our session this past weekend:

Deputy Trent Cole establishes that the charges against Stuart Mills are flimsy and begins surveillance on Officer Donner (via squad GPS).

An investigation of graffiti establishes patterns and hotspots, which Trent shares with Wade Garrett and Thurston Davenport. Further analysis reveals that some of these are written in dead ancient languages; Thurston begins the painstaking process of deciphering them. The team visits the gas station and discovers vastly more graffiti than originally thought, including additional scrawls in ancient languages and still more written in invisible ink in an unknown alphabet, viewable under UV light.

A search of the area up the slope behind the gas station reveals paint cans, markers, cigarette butts, and beer cans, and then a trail of heavy footprints running towards the station. Following them backwards to the mesa at the top leads to a ritual site with manacles in a circle, severed hands still locked in them, and a half-dead, naked man baking in the sun chained to the rock.



https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=28675




Snakes of many varieties slither around the site, and Trent is bitten by a rattler while aiding the man. He is forced to back away and call for help, noticing faded ritual markings under his feet in the center of the rock circle as he waits. Wade responds and is astonished by the variety of snakes not native to the area, much less the continent, all in one location. He photographs the entire site, then assists the deputy in carefully extracting himself from the nest of serpents when a mass of shadow rises from a thicket and approaches the circle and the chained man. Agent Garrett whirls, draws a bead through his adrenaline rush, and begins firing rapidly...

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=28672

As Deputy Trent Cole fights the sharp pain and creeping numbness of the rattler venom climbing his arm, his heart now beating faster, will he be able to aim his pistol?

(Oh, how much can ride on a single, fateful (missed) roll...)

[Hector Trelane]

Currently accepting new players in this game! Post on this thread or PM me if interested.

P.S. I'll post updates from recent game sessions soon (I'm two or three behind).

[scook6987]

Hello, Would be interested in trying this out. Unfamiliar with Gumshoe, but have had limited experience with FG. Have been playing RPGs for quite some time and regularly run rather than play, so this would be a nice change of pace for me. Enjoy the investigative, though may be a bit rusty. Hopefully you've still got a slot left. Thanks. Please post responses to [email protected]. I may not always have FG up and would hate to miss your missive.

[Hector Trelane]

Hello, Would be interested in trying this out. Unfamiliar with Gumshoe, but have had limited experience with FG. Have been playing RPGs for quite some time and regularly run rather than play, so this would be a nice change of pace for me. Enjoy the investigative, though may be a bit rusty. Hopefully you've still got a slot left. Thanks. Please post responses to [email protected]. I may not always have FG up and would hate to miss your missive.

Thanks for your interest! I'll send you a personal message to discuss practicalities.

[Bob Baluga]

Are you still taking new members? I would be interested in joining your group. I'm a long time player, getting back into P&P RPGs after a long break. Currently in a group playing CoC that might be switching to trail of cthulhu, so I've read a bit of the Gumshoe rules. I'm in San Diego, CA. I can be reached @ [email protected]. Hope to hear from you.

[Hector Trelane]

Are you still taking new members? I would be interested in joining your group. I'm a long time player, getting back into P&P RPGs after a long break. Currently in a group playing CoC that might be switching to trail of cthulhu, so I've read a bit of the Gumshoe rules. I'm in San Diego, CA. I can be reached @ [email protected]. Hope to hear from you.

Hi Bob Baluga and welcome to the forums!

Thanks you also for your interest! I'll send you a personal message to sort out some details.