NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING
Episode 119 of the Gauntlet Podcast is up for your listening
pleasure! In this one I talk with Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan about Cthulhu City,
his approach to writing, and his voluminous output. Gareth’s one of rpgdom’s
most productive and interesting creators. I mean—seriously-- check out RPG Geek’s book summary. It includes sourcebooks, modules, adventure collections, and megadungeons. They
list him at just shy of 200 releases and I’m certain that’s incomplete.
Gareth delivers evocative ideas and amazing set-ups. He
works on the trad side, but his rich concepts and plots can easily adapt to
indie and story games.
More about Cthulhu City: http://site.pelgranepress.com/index.php/cthulhu-city/
His RPG Geek Listing: http://bit.ly/2hNOpDa
Below are a few things by Hanrahan I really love.
GUMSHOE ADVENTURES
GRH has written several really sharp adventure collections
for GUMSHOE products. Elsewhere I’ve reviewed Dead Rock Seven for Ashen Stars. I love its variety. The Zalozhniy Quartet offers a series of
linked adventures for Night’s Black
Agents approachable in any order. They’re both great introductions to the core
book’s world—providing great examples of the problems and situations you could
play out. In both cases GRH built on adventure concepts from the core book
author, providing the flesh and bone to that spirit.
One of my favorite collections he’s done is Brief Cases, one of two books for Mutant City Blues. Harahan has a mandate
here: provide rich adventures doable in a session or two. They’re fast, but not
thin. Each one leans into a different aspect of the setting. I’ve run “Blastback”
for The Gauntlet Hangouts and I appreciated the way the game sets things up for
the GM. (See my write-up here with links to the videos).
Some modules provide little GM guidance on how to actually
approach reading or running the adventure. They expect the GM to decipher and discover
the fun buried within. That works for broadly sketched resources, like Dungeon World starters. Adventures with
more connections and detail require signposts. On the other hand, some modules itemize
the process: X scene --> Y scene --> Z
scene. They offer a track and show how to steer the players back on to it.
There’s an expectation of control. Hanranhan’s adventures expect the players to
shoot off in many directions. They discuss ways to approach that and how scenes
& incidents can flow into one another. Most of all, they consider the
practicalities of timing and how to handle changes.
13TH AGE
I’ve mentioned before my love for Rolemaster’s Creatures & Treasures series.
They’re great, wild, and random. I’ve bought other item books—the d20 glut spit
forth a ton of them-- but I’d never found any I’d really dug. Until I hit The Book of Loot. It’s a great
collection, with amazing ideas smartly organized by the Icons. That means you
can easily key an item or a player or a situation. My favorite kind of treasures
has always been those with novel ability. This has that in spades. I don’t items
fully mechanized, just a grab bag of bonuses. I need stuff that players can use
in clever ways or that open new approaches to problems.
There’s also Eyes of the Stone Thief. In 13th Age’s Dragon Empire living dungeons bubble to the surface from somewhere
down below. These lairs change and reshape over time. Some eat other dungeons.
The Stone Thief is a megadungeon which has swallowed cities and castles. It
adapts, learns, and changes. You can imagine the challenge in setting that up
for the GM. The book’s at once a solid adventure and a toolbox. Since groups can
head in many directions it has sections, set pieces, factions, flow charts—all easily
divided and accessible. The smart organization struck me when I ran pieces from
it. There’s also a dynamite section of dungeoneering at the start and a great
index-glossary of key elements at the back.
DRAMASYSTEM
Finally there’s “Heroes of the City.” It’s a short little
thing, a DS pitch from Blood on the Snow.
But it grabs my attention like no other concept. A band of Heroes and their
gathered forces have finally defeated the Big Bad Warlock in his capitol. This
is about what happens next. It’s a story about reconstruction, alliance
crumbling, old feuds arising, and dark conspiracies lurking. While I never got
it to the table with DramaSystem, I
did run it as a session of Kingdom. I
loved it and I’m probably going to run it again with Fate next year.
WISH LIST
3 Games I’d Love
to See GRH Write For
1. Cryptomancer: I really dig this
concept and I want to return to it again next year. I’ll love to see some
adventure seeds for this “heroes underground” concept. The setting has so many
cool ideas that I’d be interested in what he pull out as adventures.
2. Any Free League
publication: Tales from the Loop,
Coriolis, but especially Mutant: Year Zero. MYZ has a series of
Zone Sectors. They’re adventure set ups, NPCs, challenges, and concepts. GRH
could offer interesting twists on what happens at home and in the zone.
3. Base Raiders: GRH’s done dungeon-crawls and superheroes (via MCB). I’d be super excited to see what he’d do with
those two in combination. What kind of villain base would he create? How would he
draw out the cool from the setup?
And of course I’d also like to see a fuller version of “Heroes
of the City,” with some mechanics to support that. Perhaps for Dungeon World or 13TH Age.
Anyway, check out the podcast and consider taking a look at Cthulhu City. I have my copy and I’m
working through it. I’ll post a review when I’ve had a chance to play around
with it more.
