In Which the Warlock Raids the Furniture Store for Inspiration...

With the 2011 convention season on the horizon, I’ve been scheming what to run at this year’s cons. My Cthulhian WEGS scenario—WEGS + Cthulhu = WEGSThulhu!—is already locked and loaded, with only minor changes necessary after the playtests I ran at Champion City ComicCon.


I’m tempted to play through one of my already-made “Pendulum” adventures, but I’d rather come up with something new. However, the Pendulum idea hasn’t been at rest. Rather, John—over at World vs. Hero (go check it out!)—got me thinking.

Two of the basic precepts of the Pendulum Method are shifts in time and shifts in place. Certainly, there are other shifts that are available to GMs, but what about shifting the very PCs themselves? What if you could create a game in which the PCs aren’t really fleshed out until the players flesh them out…at the table?

This idea’s still in development, but I think I really could be on to something here. There’d have to be a hard limit as to how many advancements a player could get, as well as a finite system for when characters may advance, but it’d be fantastic to see what the players come up with! It would really provide a unique play experience on both sides of the table, which nothing else really emulates.

What do you think, fellow gamers? Could I be on to something here? Perhaps a playtest at WittCon? Let me know what you think!

What if, rather than before the game, a player-characters were created as the game itself progressed?



The site of the next zombie outbreak?



Bear with me as I change topics. A few months ago, the PlatinumChick and I were off, roaming around the Ikea in West Chester. Ikea’s a store unto itself—rather than wander up and down aisles, you walk through showrooms based around different rooms in a house, each of which display the various furniture options that Ikea sells. The whole store is rife with “secret passages” leading from one section to another, from “Home Office” to “Kitchen and Dining”.

Then, an idea struck me. The idea of a zombified shopping mall is one of the most classic in all of horror, starting with George Romeo’s classic Dawn of the Dead, and even being spoofed in the Dead Rising series of video games. What if, rather than a shopping mall, the invasion started in an Ikea!? The passages between sections would make for glorious gaming, to say nothing of the improvised weapons one could make from kitchen implements, light-duty furniture, and prop displays!



Maybe he's got the Berserk edge?



That’s where the Pendulum kicks in. Using the Savage Worlds system, all of the characters would start with d6s in each of their 5 stats. Rather than having assigned Skills or Edges, the players would be granted the ability to design their own character, based on their actions in the game. Need to get through a locked door that leads to the employee break room? Come up with a reason in-character to do so, and fill in one of your empty Edge slots with the “Thief” Edge! Want to hot-wire a forklift? Maybe you were a heavy construction worker in the past, giving you “McGuyver”!

This idea’s still in development, but I think I really could be on to something here. There’d have to be a hard limit as to how many advancements a player could get, as well as a finite system for when characters may advance, but it’d be fantastic to see what the players come up with! It would really provide a unique play experience on both sides of the table, which nothing else really emulates.


What do you think, fellow gamers? Could I be on to something here? Perhaps a playtest at WittCon? Let me know what you think!