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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