#RPGaDAY2026: Day 25 Familiarity

 There is a familiarity to Jackson, IL, and for good reason. The town is rooted in the reality of Jacksonville, Illinois. 

I have not made an exact copy of it; my version of Jackson is fictional, put through the wringer and bent toward horror. But the underlying structure is genuine. You will find the same old buildings, the streets and parks and schools, the small-town cadence and the way folks know one another all too well. The names have been changed, but sometimes only just enough.

Such details are what make or break a game.

I put that to the test at EGG Con with my Jackson game. What struck people was how much the town seemed lived-in. It was one of the best compliments I could have gotten, really. Jackson ought not to come across as mere scenery. It has to be a place where lives were started and ended, where love and terrible errors and unfinished business have taken their course.

Horror needs that kind of weight.

Give me a haunted castle, and I am all for it. Yet there is something more unsettling about a haunted library or school, or a haunted house just three blocks from your friend’s. That is what gets under the skin.

Jackson is effective because it could be somewhere you have been.

It is somewhere I have been, if only in my nightmares at first, but now at my game table. 

Yog/West Haven NPC

It's Tuesday, so today is Emotion and Full of Grace. 

Satha of the White Veil, a former temple attendant from Yog who moves with impossible gentleness, even after escaping the Priest-Kings, and can soothe panic with a touch. She attends to the spiritual needs of the Yogian refugees; she is a cleric and not a witch, though she really isn't that anymore either since losing faith in her gods and the Priest-Kings. Someone or something is still answering her prayers.

Jackson Soundtrack

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A Light Dims over the Cave of Cool: Calvin Heighton (1965-2026)

 I learned today something I have been expecting for a bit now, but that doesn't make it easier.

Proflic blogger Calvin Heighton passed away this past week. Calvin was known for his Cave of Cool blog. 

Calvin started blogging around the same time I did, and I followed his blog religiously. Whether he was posting about his extensive action figure collection, his Glorious Girls Of The Redhead Rebellion, Wednesdays with Wonder Woman, and Why Are My Parties The Best Parties?

I learned yesterday morning from my friend Tim Knight, of Cowboys, Capes, and Claws. 

Tim and I have been asking about Calvin for about a year now, noticing that after averaging 7+ posts a day for nearly 18 years (almost 48,000 posts), he fell silent. We knew his mom had been ill, and we knew he had some housing insecurity. 

He loved superheroines and action figures, so I sent him one of the "Together Forever" sets of the Willow & Tara figures. We enjoyed chatting about having June birthdays and our shared love of Thomas Dolby's "The Golden Age of Wireless."

I liked Calvin. He was a good guy. Bombastic in all the ways made him a great internet personality. He will be missed.

#RPGaDAY2026: Day 24 Distance

I have two modern horror campaigns. They let me play with similar ideas under different assumptions and even different rules. My oldest calls this "save scumming." It is from video games: if you don't like a particular outcome, you go back to your previous save and start back from there. For me, I think it is more about having two separate but equally enjoyable outcomes.

Jackson, IL, and Carbon Vale, IL, are about 220 miles apart. That is their physical Distance.

That is not nothing, but it is not exactly the other side of the world either. You could drive it in an afternoon. Different roads, different towns, different exits, but still Illinois. Still the Midwest. Still close enough to feel familiar, but still far enough to be different. I know, I drove to and from their real-world counterparts many times. 

Except they are not in the same world.

For me, Jackson and Carbon Vale are separate universes. They even use different game systems, which makes the distance between them feel larger than any map can show. They are not just separated by miles. They are separated by rules, histories, assumptions, and the kinds of monsters waiting in the dark.

And yet magic makes them closer.

A mirror, a spell, a book, a dream, or the right impossible moment can cross a distance no highway can. That is what I like about using both settings. They are far enough apart to be different worlds, but close enough that one girl can still reach for the other.

In this case, it is a battered-up copy of "A Wrinkle in Time." Notes left in the pages are transported to a similar book 220 miles and a universe away. I talked a little about this back on Day 12.

So what is the difference between Jackson and Carbon Vale?

More than distance, honestly. But also less than distance.

Jackson, IL and Carbon Vale, IL NPC

Today is Emotion and Fair of Face.

Siân Nichols is Larina’s mother in the worlds where she lives, beautiful, warm, and emotionally central in ways Larina does not always admit. Siân died in the Jackson, IL campaign, but thanks to Nix and Creepy communicating via "A Wrinkle in Time," she is alive in the Carbon Vale, IL campaign.

There will likely be some repercussions to this act, but I am not sure what they are going to be yet. But I know they will happen.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 23 Fortune

 By all accounts, Stephanie Vale, Andy Thompson, and even Roderick Morgan all have fortunes. 

But each one chooses to ignore that to do what they feel is more important.

There are fortunes to be had in Stephanie Vale, Andy Thompson, and Roderick Morgan. Though one would not call them the same kind of fortune.

Stephanie has her family’s money and a name that is enough to open any door in Jackson, along with the social standing to match. Andy enjoys his comfort and reputation, and was well enough raised to put a value on decency. Then you have Roderick Morgan with his old money and property and old grudges, and the unshakable notion that since it is his town, Jackson ought to behave.

I am more interested in how they put their respective fortunes to use.

Take Stephanie: she will not sit idly by in the face of injustice. If there is something amiss, she is going to do something about it. She will organize, argue, protect, and interfere until the matter is resolved, making herself a problem for everyone in the process. If Steph was a teen in a modern (2026) game she would say something like "I am not part of the problem, I am the whole fucking problem now!" 

Andy has an eye for potential. He can see what good a person could do, or the better version of themselves they might yet be, and he has a way of making them want to rise to the occasion. He cares only enough about his family's wealth insofar as what good can he do with it. 

Roderick is another story. To be frank, he is a bit of a jerk. Ok. He is a huge jerk. Yet he does not simply sit on his hands. He has no patience for disorder and finds the supernatural encroaching on "his" town to be a personal affront. He is not exactly noble, but he is driven. Which has its uses in my game. 

One should not think of fortune as mere treasure. 

It is also influence and opportunity; it is being in a position of comfort and having people believe in you. The real question is what a character makes of it. Will they be an inspiration or a protector? Or will they set about forcing the world into the shape they deem proper?

In Jackson, IL, a little fortune will not keep the monsters at bay. All it does is give you more options when they show up.

Thankfully, in the cases of Stephanie, Andy, and Roderick, they do show up.

Jackson NPC

Today is Day 23, Sunday, Instinct and Blessed. 

Father John Mallory is a Jackson priest whose faith is sincere enough that even witches sometimes trust him. He is aware of the supernatural, but because these sorts of creatures avoid him, he thinks they are largely contained. He is not a Theophist, just a normal but kindly priest.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 22 Grit

Candy Mercer and Denise Carver do not have magic.

You will not see them using any spells or a witch’s mark on them, nor do they have an ancient bloodline to call their own, let alone a familiar. To my knowledge, Denise can't even do a card trick, though I suspect Candy can.

It is 1986, and the two of them are still some way off from being the nurse and social worker they will one day be (spoilers!). For now, they are simply two teenage girls living in Jackson, IL, making it through high school as best they can with all its bad rumors and worse adults, while living with the unpleasant fact that monsters are very real.

They stand up anyway. That is grit.

And no one is more surprised than me!

They were designed just to be two silly but sweet party girls whose main job was "monster bait." But at some point Denise picked up a crowbar, and Candy started stitching people back up. And very soon the saying "Denise fucking Carver shows up" became something heard at my table a lot. Because when there is trouble, and people need help, there she was, and Candy right behind her, ready to stitch up whoever needs it.

They are not Chosen Ones with a secret destiny or a Witch with a shelf of occult tomes. But they make themselves present. They protect one another, and when faced with horror, they determine that flight is not the answer. In a place like Jackson, there is plenty of reason to turn a blind eye, but they don’t.

So the witches can have their magic; People like Val and Rowan can have their mystical connections. But Candy and Denise have something of equal importance. A kind of ordinary, stubborn courage that keeps them standing. 

And when things get really bad?

Candy Mercer and Denise Carver fucking show up. 

Jackson, IL NPC

Saturday, Instinct and Works Hard. 

Mick Tully, a teenage (17 years old) stock boy at the IGA who works closing shifts, notices every strange pattern in town, and quietly keeps a notebook of who buys salt, candles, batteries, and sage by the pound before bad things happen. He is another good potential contact. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 21 Charity

I have a West Haven in many of my worlds. 

They are not always the same place. They do not always have the same people, the same history, or even the same rules of magic. But they exist for the same reason.

Yet they are there for a common purpose: to serve as a safe haven for witches.

It is a form of charity, but not the kind born of pity. There is no tossing a few coins at someone to assuage one’s conscience. This is shelter. It is protection and sustenance, a warm room with a door on the lock. A spot where a young witch, frightened, can get some sleep and not have to wonder who might be after her.

Yog is an example of this. From there to West Haven runs a portal, burned through realities by the Ash Witch, and all who pass through are made welcome. They are seen too and cared for without any preliminary questions or need to prove their worth. One is not asked to lay out their trauma before being given clean clothes, water and food, and somewhere secure to rest. No one has to prove their worth.

In Advanced Witches & Warlocks, that distinction is also important. Witches may be powerful, but they are also hunted and misunderstood, blamed and used. Every one of them will come to a point where she needs to have a door opened and be told, "You are safe here. You are welcome."

West Haven is that. A place built on a promise of charity and a promise that it does not need to be repaid.

Jackson, IL NPC

We are back to Friday, Instinct and Loving & Giving. 

Rachel "Rae" Donnelly, a Jackson Public High junior who always knows when someone is about to get hurt, and has made it her unofficial job to pull them out of the hallway, party, car, or conversation before it happens. She might have low-key pre-cognitive powers. Thankfully, unlike Cassandra from mythology, people usually believe her.  

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 20 Promise

 A promise on Yog is not a small thing.

In a kinder world, a promise might be comforting. A vow between friends. A pledge of love. A hand held across a difficult moment. Yog is no place for such niceties.

One does not make a promise on Yog and think little of it.

A promise here has the potential to be a weapon, a curse one bears because there is no other option. Veyra Shadowraven is well aware of that. In giving her word to see the Ash Witch’s work through, she has made no light promise.

The legacy of the Ash Witch was never an easy one to inherit. What she left behind is a world dying by inches, unfinished business, refugees in need of protection, tyrants to be put down, and witches to be saved. To put your name to carrying on is to take on the cost and perhaps come to terms with the fact you will not be thanked for the lengths you have to go.

In Veyra's case, she is now a wanted "terrorist" and, even worse, "a witch against the Priest-Kings."

That is the thing about promises in fantasy gaming. They are engines, not mere backstory. The right kind of promise will propel a character on in spite of fear, pain, or what common sense may dictate. Even when a normal person would have stopped. 

Veyra’s promise is straightforward enough on Yog. 

There is work to be done. And so she is not finished.

And like the Ash Witch, Veyra can rest when she is dead.

Iriandor NPC

Today is Instinct and Far to Go. Calder Foxglove is an Iriandor courier who can smell bad magic on the wind. Well. At least he says he can. It would be one of his "Experiences," and the rules of Daggerheart will allow for such a thing. Which is kind of fun really. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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