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Chicago Workings
To Frankie that quarter-moon sky looked darker and all the iron apparatus of the El taller than ever. The artificial tenement light sweeping across the tracks made even the snow seem artificial, like snow off a dime-store counter. Only the rails seemed real, and to move a bit with terrible intent. — Nelson Algren, The Man With The Golden Arm
When a new neighbor moves into the characters' neighborhood, they become the final hinge in a fifty-year-old secret struggle between the ghosts of two Chicago geomancers. The fate of their occult conflict is in the characters' hands.
"Chicago Workings" is a complete supernatural thriller story for your World of Darkness chronicle including a frank how-to guide to playing out this story with your gaming group, using the game rules in the World of Darkness Rulebook.
When a new neighbor moves into the characters' neighborhood, they become the final hinge in a fifty-year-old secret struggle between the ghosts of two Chicago geomancers. The fate of their occult conflict is in the characters' hands.
"Chicago Workings" is a complete supernatural thriller story for your World of Darkness chronicle including a frank how-to guide to playing out this story with your gaming group, using the game rules in the World of Darkness Rulebook.
40 pages, ebook
Published January 22, 2007
1 person want to read
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Will Hindmarch
57 books19 followersWill is a writer, game designer, graphic designer, producer, and mooncalf aiming to write one of everything. He's got a lot of work to do.
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May 13, 2018
This is a pretty nicely done adventure for mortals in the World of Darkness. (Though there is a brief note about using it with the four supernatural types available when this was published, and I think with some modification it could make a fun Mage adventure.) It's set in Chicago though I imagine it could be adapted to another major city. Focused on the concept of geomancy, this adventure sees the player characters thrust into the middle of a decades long war for magical control of Chicago's architecture. Back in the 40s, two apprentices at an architectural firm stumbled across a set of papers known as the Chicago Workings, which reveal the secrets of using sacred geometry to manipulate the city and its people. After a falling out, each man took half the papers and ever since has been trying to bend the city to his will. Of course, one guy is greedy and evil, while the other just wants to make people happy and filled with civic pride.
The adventure proper kicks off when the nicer man is killed, and thus the protagonists are off on a quest to find out what really happened and if there's anything they can do about it. The adventure will take them across Chicago and bring them face to face with some rather creepy monsters, monsters that I think have not previously appeared in the World of Darkness. For one thing, there's a whole house statted up as a ghost, since in effect the former owner now possess it, which I thought is a cool approach to the haunted house concept and one I'd use in my own games. I also appreciate that there's a lot of good advice here about how to run the adventure. There's a good deal of consideration given to pacing throughout, and to making sure that the investigation doesn't hit a dead end and derail the fun of the game. I imagine at least some of that advice comes from Kenneth Hite, given what I've heard about his games, so I'm now interested to give his stuff a go at some point. Also I like that the adventure explicitly suggests weaving the early scenes into other adventures to give the characters and players time to like the old architect before he gets burned to death.
All in all, this is a pretty neat adventure with some great advice for running it. And the best part is there's some good potential for further adventures building on this one, especially if you choose to run it with supernaturals rather than mortals. Hopefully I'll get a chance to use this when I get a World of Darkness game going with my friends.
The adventure proper kicks off when the nicer man is killed, and thus the protagonists are off on a quest to find out what really happened and if there's anything they can do about it. The adventure will take them across Chicago and bring them face to face with some rather creepy monsters, monsters that I think have not previously appeared in the World of Darkness. For one thing, there's a whole house statted up as a ghost, since in effect the former owner now possess it, which I thought is a cool approach to the haunted house concept and one I'd use in my own games. I also appreciate that there's a lot of good advice here about how to run the adventure. There's a good deal of consideration given to pacing throughout, and to making sure that the investigation doesn't hit a dead end and derail the fun of the game. I imagine at least some of that advice comes from Kenneth Hite, given what I've heard about his games, so I'm now interested to give his stuff a go at some point. Also I like that the adventure explicitly suggests weaving the early scenes into other adventures to give the characters and players time to like the old architect before he gets burned to death.
All in all, this is a pretty neat adventure with some great advice for running it. And the best part is there's some good potential for further adventures building on this one, especially if you choose to run it with supernaturals rather than mortals. Hopefully I'll get a chance to use this when I get a World of Darkness game going with my friends.
Displaying 1 of 1 review