Sunday, June 24, 2018

Communicants

for Demon City, inspired by Daniel Halderman

It is not known on behalf of whom the communicants communicate. They are only definitely one thing: not a horror.

They communicate wisdom concerning weighty matters, they communicate to only to one person at a time (only to lone individuals), and they communicate only in a fashion where the ultimate source of the wisdom cannot be known. A communicant might be the last drunk on the subway home, a waitress with an enigmatic anecdote, a dream, a fortune cookie, a fortune teller.

They may also provide oblique aid. The aid will be provided in such a fashion that it is not obvious that it is aid—and may not be aid to the PC but to some other innocent. A communicant Uber driver might “accidentally” drop you exactly where you need to be to witness a murder that might otherwise go unavenged. They will be gone as soon as you realize you’re at the wrong address, and the company will have no record of the driver. 

A communicant will only provide information or aid impossible to otherwise acquire by any means—they will not, for example, provide a name that might’ve been provided had a party members not failed a skill check or reveal a secret file the PCs overlooked the first time they checked. Their medium is coincidence—the Host should build their enigmatic but helpful interference into the structure of the scenario from the start as an initial condition (though it may be introduced at any time), not use it after the fact to compensate for some failure on the players’ part. Communicants may: help the initial crime be discovered, drop a piece of evidence into the party’s laps with an unclear connection to the crime (figuring out the connection is the real mystery), deliver a message from the dead (like the ghost of Hamlet’s father does), etc.


They act subtly, and then disappear forever.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

Love it!
Keep up the great work!