Player Notes on a Ghost Game
In my last post, I described some of my prep for a Chronicles of Darkness / Fate Core game about ghosts, necromancers, and the use of history for political ends. The players gave me permission to share their notes, so here they are. I'm not sure how much sense they'll make to you, but maybe you can reconstruct something between the notes, the prep, and the posts associated with it? At least, maybe you'll be able to extract something useful for your own games.
Source: Massimiliano Sarno, 2022 (Unsplash license).
November:
New person we've met: Sam who maybe did a Catholic ritual cleanse on Brian Candler's office
Finds from Brian Candler's office (all photographed as evidence):
- Candler's polling numbers has been closing in on Singh's in the last week
- lots of prep for Remembrance Day with speech drafts --> includes remembrances + bio details for random people
- framed baseball bat from Candler's wife Janine labeled "For my Prime Minister"
- Enemies list: Singh at top, other political officials in the way of Candler's premiership
Breaking into the office resulted in Pansy and Nadine feeling a strong compulsion to confess their break in (at the start of every scene!) --> possible enchantment on the office?
We performed the Curse Removal ritual on Pansy + Nadine, using one of Pansy's metal spoons as a vessel (the spoon is now mixed into the cutlery drawer)
December:
We've taken pics of all the rituals in the book and uploaded them onto a USB stick we have hidden in Pansy's house somewhere.
Nadine and Amber meet with Brian Candler at Persimmon Restaurant at 11am. We offer to make a deal to return the objects in exchange for the removal of doppelgangers from Donna and Singh:
- Candler calls "friends" to remove the doppelgangers in exchange for the diary
- Candler makes another phone call after Nadine/Amber leave; Pansy realizes he plans to make new doppelgangers after getting his stuff back
We go to the museum to check up on Donna, UberEats in hand. Wearing the Victorian mask, Pansy confirms there is indeed a doppelganger hovering over Donna. (Questions remain about whether doppelgangers are ghosts or just another type of undead).
A group of 4 "AngloCaths"—including Sam!!—show up to presumably perform the de-doppelgangering ritual on Donna. We send the ghost archivist to spy on the ritual. Donna's doppelganger seems to be gone for now.
- the ghost archivist reveal they rendered the doppelganger into plasm and consumed it --> they are "ghost eaters"?!
- ghost archivist says we need to find a "krewe" (group of people who know how to deal with ghosts, led by half-dead people...like Janine, Brian Candler's wife???)
Back at Pansy's house, we do research and learn of stories where people at death's door made some sort of deal to not die and are now perpetually bound to ghosts --> these people tend to form groups (perhaps krewes) that work with / are friendly with ghosts or are just straight-up doppelgangers
- **theory: could Janine possibly be the Lady Macbeth of this whole thing?
- We upload an edited version of the blackmail video online, blocking out Candler's face, with the promise of the full reveal the next day
We drive to the Candler house and Pansy sneaks up to the window with the Victorian mask. Pansy sees a ghost (heavyset, 40-something-year-old woman wearing 80s-style factory overalls) hovering non-threateningly over Janine
- extensive local history research suggests Janine has never had a near-death experience
- Janine's ghost seems to be Cassandra Tully, a local who died in a factory accident in the late 80s
We end the night at Pansy's again doing more research on Singh, Brian Candler's upcoming event schedule, and Elliot's (the nephew) social media activity. We find Elliot's Reddit account and go through his post history--he's an earnest right-wing establishment conservative veering into neo-Nazism.
- Amber has been doppelgangered!!! Nadine sees the doppelganger for a second before it "enters" into Amber and disappears.
- Amber is very stressed
- In rage, we have now published the full uncensored video of Brian Candler doing a creepy ritual
February:
Everyone has a weird dream/nightmare that night:
- Pansy dreams Amber is fighting with her doppelAmber over Nadine's BF Eric
- Amber dreams she is being strangled by doppelAmber
- Nadine dreams Pansy is in a sexually-charged spar with doppelPansy at the dojo.
Sunday morning (Nov. 3): Amber wakes up with creepy words written on her arm about her not being the real one --> she has a screaming meltdown, also revealing her dream in the process (neither Nadine nor Pansy does). Nadine comforts Amber with some children's books about characters dealing with their doppelgangers.
The social media post has gained attention. Most reactions are negative, with a few (including Elliot) arguing the video is taken out of context.
- Using more anonymous Reddit accounts, we stoke the flames in the comments and also dox Elliot.
- A newspaper has reached out asking if we want to interview, and we accept.
- We also send the video to Singh's team
We put together Halloween costumes to disguise ourselves and use our skeleton key to break into Brian's house as he and his family attend the 10am church service. The alarm goes off!
- We run around and see a room set up for doppelganger summoning -- we smash up the mirrors and mess up the room, stealing some of the doppelganger objects (clothing + utilitarian books).
- We also steal his laptop, random papers, and address book.
- Amber sees her doppelganger and screams
As we make a getaway, we all get an overwhelming urge to confess our crimes, so we call a rural provincial English-speaking school in China and leave 2 voicemails (1 confessing, 1 claiming it was a prank). After discarding our disguises in various dumpsters, we go to the public library to investigate what we've stolen.
- The papers (random bills, campaign stuff) don't yield much
- The address book gives us the phone # of the Sodality of St. Cuthbert (The doppelganger-eaters)
- Pansy uses her special insight to get the password for Brian Candler's laptop (it's just his full name lol):
- The laptop reveals a text file with some notes on certain rituals (doppelganger summoning, insight, ghost protection summoning) from memory; info on Nadine and Amber; plans to continue summoning more and more doppelgangers until we return the ritual book; etc
- We change all the passwords to all the accounts (Gmail, FB, IG) he's logged onto and then post the ritual video onto his FB campaign account. We gleefully wreak havoc on his campaign!
After leaving the library, we call a suicide hotline in Germany to confess our crimes. We factory reset the laptop, wipe all our prints, and scratch off the serial number on the back before dropping it off at a Salvation Army for donation.
Back at Pansy's house, we call Eric to confess once again. Then we perform the curse removal ritual on each other (hopefully, it works!).
- We check the socials: There are more journalistic requests for interviews on the Reddit account, and Brian's campaign is clearly melting down
- We call the Sodality of St. Cuthbert, telling them Brian wants them to get rid of our doppelgangers. We speak to William Valance and offer to make a deal: one ritual per service (we don't tell him about every single ritual in the book, but we do warn him about the risk of summoning William Candler with each ritual)
- William agrees but says they'll need access to the rituals book for a bit to get rid of William Candler
We meet up with the Sodality of St. Cuthbert in the basement of an Anglican church, Book of Rituals in hand. First, we confess to them that we broke into Brian's house.
- The Sodality members clean the book; there is a fiery showdown with William Candler--he is torn to shreds and consumed by one of the members
- They then perform the doppelganger-removal ritual on Amber and Nadine by binding the ghosts to their own souls (DoppelNadine has telekinesis! :O)
- The Sodality agrees to remove the doppelganger from Singh in exchange for a 3rd ritual