#RPGaDAY2026: Day 31 Edge

The witch lives on the edge. 

You will find it to be the case in Jackson, IL. There, teenage witches separate the town’s older, darker undercurrents from the everyday business of school, football, the local diner, and homework with friends. They are still girls, yet they are the ones who know where the monsters can be found. And they are the ones to stop them. 

The same holds for Advanced Witches & Warlocks. A witch is never a simple thing; she occupies the space between the arcane and the divine, as much a scholar or village healer as a priestess or an object of fear. That is the whole point.

In Yog, the edge is all the more pronounced. Here the witch is positioned between survival and rebellion, the old gods and a world on its last legs, between being put to the hunt and turning into something the tyrants would dread in the dark. Yog has no use for comfort; it gives the witch fire and blood and will, and makes her choose.

That is why “Edge” feels like the right place to end RPGaDay.

The witch is invariably at the boundary, be it between mercy and vengeance or the world as it is and what it could be, between girl and monster. It is up to her to decide what gets across.

And what doesn't get back up.

Multiversal NPC

It is Monday, so a new week, but the only one of this week. Ability and Fair of Face. And since this is the last one, lets have someone from all the worlds. 

Selene Marr. A beautiful, unsettling witch-adjacent woman who appears in Jackson as the new Instructor at Beecher College everyone notices, in Carbon Vale as a folklore department assistant who knows too much for her age, and in Yog as a veiled oracle whose "ability" is seeing the version of you that survives. In Iriandor, she is a temple witch in the first year of her temple administration. She can see the best in everyone. 

In every world, she knows something about the PCs and sometimes something about one of their Shards. She is also looking for her younger sister Tessa.

Jackson Soundtrack

Really, for Jackson there is only one song for Edge.

--

And that’s a wrap on another #RPGaDAY! Huge thanks to David F. Chapman (Autocratik) and Anthony Boyd (Casting Shadows Blog) for keeping this tradition going year after year. It’s been a great excuse to reflect, reconnect, and rediscover why I love this hobby so much. Whether you joined in with every prompt or just caught a few along the way, I hope you found something that inspired you.

It has been a great year talking about my various campaigns from West Haven to Jackson and Carbon Vale to Yog and Iriandor. All these worlds are a lot of fun, and I hope to keep bringing you more.

I hope you all enjoyed the soundtrack as well. I have been playing it while I work on all of these posts.

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#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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#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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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 19 Desire

 Since this is also Witchcraft Wednesday, let’s talk about desire.

Occult magic begins with wanting.

Not wishing. Not hoping. Wanting. The kind of desire that keeps one awake, sends one back to the old book, makes them draw the circle one more time, whisper the name, light the candle, open the door.

That is what separates occult magic from other kinds of magic.

In this lies the distinction between occult and other forms of magic. 

A wizard may approach it as an academic pursuit, a cleric as something of grace. But a witch comes by her magic where will and need intersect. Whether for healing or revenge, for power, justice or love, for answers or simply a way home, she wants it.

It is a dangerous thing, desire.

When magic responds, it is not always a clean transaction. The spell delivers what was requested rather than what was intended; the spirit is attuned to the hunger behind the words, the curse will take the form of the injury. 

Witches are bound by their taboos and covens, by patrons and tradition, for this reason. Not so as to put an end to their wants, but to see they live through it.

Yog NPC

Back to Wednesday, Instinct and Child Full of Woe. 

Megyn the Child is a Yog survivor whose instincts keep her alive, but not always kind. She is called the Child, but also the Ghost and the Herald of Screams. She is a witch and a trained swordswoman. She has been raised by Veyra Shadowraven as an instrument of vengeance against Yog's Priest-Kings. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 18 Directness

 Sometimes subtlety is overrated, and the direct approach is needed.

One must have tact. There is a time for patience and for choosing one’s words with care, for the sake of hidden meanings or to let another arrive at the truth in his own good time.

But then there are also monsters.

In Jackson, IL, the characters know where directness is warranted. But at times it is necessary to put it bluntly: "That house is haunted." "Your boyfriend is no good for you, he is dangerous." "What is in the basement is not your grandmother." "That skeezy motel is built on a forgotten graveyard." 

Let people go on dancing around the facts and the horror will have all the time in the world to put in its appearance and get comfortable. Or worse, it will have the time to harm or kill someone.

Witches are well aware of this.

They can be as subtle as they like; half their art is in the silence, the symbols, and the timing. Yet a witch also knows when there is no room for subtlety, when a name must be spoken, a warning made plain, and the circle drawn. Some threats are answered with a quiet ritual; others have to be dealt with fire and fury.

To be direct is not to be rude. It is mercy without the frills. And if a witch can be kind about it, she will tell the truth before the screaming has a chance to begin.

Again, or worse, when the screaming has stopped.

Yog NPC

Today is Day 18, Tuesday, Instinct and Full of Grace. 

Sable Reed: A young Yog scout who moves like smoke and always knows which way the hunters are coming. She is tall for her age, but she is also one of the fastest runners around. She has avoided the Slavers and now acts as a scout, lookout, and messenger of the Liberation Front. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 17 Intensity

 Witches are intense.

That is fairly obvious at this point. Whether it is my Jackson, IL setting, my Yog setting or even (especially) my Advanced Witches & Warlocks.

 A witch does not take the things of consequence casually. She has a tendency to believe and see and feel and remember far more than most. There is an intensity to her that is the source of her power.

And her danger as well.

You will not find that kind of intensity in Jackson, IL, in the form of parlor tricks with candles or dramatic pronouncements made under the moon. It is more likely to be a young girl holding someone’s gaze in a school corridor. Or Larina, who will not let a matter rest because she can tell something is amiss even if the rest of them are content to feign ignorance.

Such intensity is capable of saving people. Of frightening them too.

This is what I look for in my Advanced Witches & Warlocks class. I do not want a student to come across as some sort of dispassionate technician of magic, merely ticking off a spell from a list. The witch brings her whole self to the circle: her will and devotion, yes, but also her anger, fear, and desire.

Intensity is focus with a certain heat to it. And when a witch puts her mind to something, heavens help anything that gets in her path.

Jackson NPC

Back to Monday, so Instinct and Fair of Face. Dana Marlowe is a beautiful Jackson Public High senior with a dangerous talent for knowing who is lying, who is lonely, and who is about to make a terrible mistake. She doesn't know, but suspects, that she might have fae background. Her grandmother used to have stories about how her own grandmother once spent an "evening" that turned out to be many years with an unearthly handsome "Gentleman Caller."

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 16 Composure

 Composure is not the same thing as calm.

There is a difference between having composure and being calm. Calm is the absence of fear. Composure is when you are terrified, angry, heartbroken, or worn out, yet you are aware of all the eyes on you. So you take a breath, put your back straight, and level your voice. You get on with what has to be done.

I would say that is very Jackson. 

In Jackson, IL, one needs composure to survive. It is what the cheerleader puts on her face for something truly awful. It is the witch in class after she has made eye contact with a ghost. The child who can tell the teacher is not being honest but has no way of putting it into words. Or the friend who insists "I’m fine" because a tear now could set off a flood.

Witches find it to be a form of practical magic as well. You need focus for your rituals and attention for your wards; panic will break a circle. A witch may be in a right fury or grieving or frightened half to death. But once the candles are going and others are looking to her, she has to hold the line. The same is true for the Spirit Riders, Divine Warriors, and other supernaturals who take up the fight against the darkness. And more importantly, it is true for the scores of normal people who do what needs to be done even when they have no chance of winning.

Composure is not about pretending there is no problem. It is seeing that everything is wrong and deciding not to let it have the upper hand.

Jackson NPC

Another Sunday for Day 16, Sunday, Associates and Blessed. Miriam Kestrel is a West Haven altar girl at St. Mark's Lutheran Church and novice herbalist who seems blessed mostly because frightened people calm down when she enters the room. She enters Jackson Public High School in the Fall of 1986.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 15 Endurance

Endurance is not glamorous, but it is what is needed.

It's not in the dramatic speech before the monster makes its entrance, or in the final fight and the big spell. It is in the aftermath. The next morning comes, and one has to get up for school or work, field questions, and put on a poor show of lying to adults, all while making an effort not to let on that the sound of something scratching at the window last night is still ringing in one’s ears.

Jackson, IL is a town made of such stuff.

Its old buildings that still hold their secrets; the town puts up with its ghosts. The children have to make do with the fact that the grownups will not believe them. And the witches, they endure the price of seeing and knowing more than they should, and yet are expected to be there on Monday as if they had not.

In a game, this is what counts.

A character does not become interesting just because they survive one terrible night. If it was just about the fight, well, I have plenty of combat-focused games for that.  No, they become interesting because they keep going after it. They carry the scars, the memories, the bad dreams, the unfinished business, and somehow they are still there when the next bad thing happens.

Endurance is not the same as being invulnerable. It is simply standing your ground after you have been worn down. 

So for me, winning the fight is not enough. It is how they walk away from the fight that matters. Sometimes it is more important than the fight itself.

Irianador NPC

Today is Saturday of Week 3, so Associates and Works Hard. 

Rourke Flint is an Iriandor blacksmith who repairs weapons for heroes of the Last War and listens to their stories. He sometimes will do the work for free if the story is a good one. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 14 Regard

 Vera is a character I keep seeing differently with regard to the world she is in.

Take Jackson, IL for instance. There you have Vera Rook as a rival; she is sharp and selfish, with a dangerous edge to her because she will do as she pleases. Yet Jackson allows for some development. When, in the future, she becomes Megan’s adoptive mother and uses the name Vera Connors, my view of her shifts. The bad girl act is gone in favor of someone who has made a choice for love and protection. But to become Vera Connors, divorced mother of two and now adoptive mother of Megan Connors, she had to be Vera Rook first.

Or did she?

We get a slightly different Vera Rook in Carbon Vale. Here, one thing was changed. Vera's mother left her father and traveled south to finish her degree, taking teenage Vera with her. This Vera Rook saw her mother stand up for something better than what she had. Instead of becoming bitter and sullen, this Vera became open to the idea that better things happen because you can make them happen. I am not sure of what her future holds, but it is likely she will not become Vera Connors in this world.

And in Yog, she is Veyra Shadowraven. You see her through the haze of sword and sorcery and the light of a dying world there. A darker figure with more shadow and a name to match. Where Vera in Jackson has to improve herself, Veyra in Yog is left to make of her legend what she will.  The ruling class of Yog calls her a terrorist and a subversive. An "evil witch." She agrees with all of those and keeps on doing what she has always done, working to improve the lot of witches everywhere in Yog.

That is the nature of regard in gaming. 

It puts a different light on the same girl under a different set of rules, altering the character while leaving the core intact.

Each Vera shard is real and as valid as the other. She is just shaped in regard to her world. 

West Haven/Yog NPC

Friday, Associates and Loving & Giving: 

Constance, no last name, is a West Haven caretaker who welcomes Yog refugees with soup, blankets, and no questions. She is a former Yogian slave and now refugee who escaped to West Haven. Katrina of West Haven removed her brand with powerful healing magic, and now she spends her days trying to show the same kindness to others.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 13 Strain

Strain is what happens before something breaks.

In Jackson, IL, everyone is under some kind of strain. The students are trying to act normal. The parents who know less than they think, or the ones who know more than they let on. The teachers pretending the old building is just old. The witches holding wards, secrets, friendships, and bad dreams together with both hands.

It is good for horror gaming. Fear is the easy part to come by. Strain is more subdued. It is in the poor grades and the lack of sleep, the tremor in one’s hands or a hallway argument born of exhaustion and fear for which there is no ready explanation.

For a witch, this strain takes on a magical quality. There is a price to be paid for every spell, a demand for focus with each ritual. Hold onto a secret for too long, and it begins to weigh on the soul. A witch has her limits; one can bear much, but not indefinitely.

Eventually something has to give. In Jackson at least, it tends to happen at the worst possible moment.

In fact, "the worst possible moment" for the characters is often the best possible moment for the game.

I have an adventure outlined, but not developed yet. Something to get all the characters in the game to distrust each other to distract them from the problem of my big bad, The Hollow King, attacking Rowan. It's an old trope, but an effective one. I am ratcheting up the stress and strain. These are teens. Sturm und Drang. The idea is to have them confront their personal demons before confronting actual demons. 

Jackson, IL or Carbon Vale, IL NPC

Still in Associates Week, and today is Thursday Far to Go. 

Tessa Marr: A runaway from Jackson who keeps turning up in towns where witch trouble is about to start. She has traveled most of Southern Illinois and so far has avoided becoming a sad statistic. This is because of her uncanny ability to avoid trouble and be where she needs to be. 

Her older sister Selene, a woman with pre-cognitive gifts of her own, has been looking for her.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 12 Loss

Another Witchcraft Wednesday. Let's talk about my favorite witch. 

In most versions of Larina, she has lost both of her parents.

I have used that for nearly forty years now, and honestly, I have come to realize it is a little lazy. Dead parents are easy character development. Too easy, sometimes. They explain the pain, clear the stage, and give the hero a wound without making the writer work too hard. And gives them a reason to be away from their homes. I mean it works, and everyone does it.

But loss has defined Larina for a long time.

So now I am experimenting with it. In Jackson, IL, Larina has lost her mother, but not both parents. In my Carbon Vale, Illinois setting, she still has both. The question becomes less "what did she lose?" and more "who is Larina when that loss changes?"

That is the useful part for gaming.

And since this is all about occult associations, there is another thing to consider. Jackson Larina, aka "Nix," and Carbon Vale Larina, aka "Creepy," communicate back and forth via notes slipped into a copy of "A Wrinkle in Time." And Nix warned Creepy what was going to happen. So Creepy stopped it from happening. There will be a debt to be paid here; I am not sure what, and I am not sure when or even who will need to pay it.  

But it will come due.

A character’s loss can be canon, variant, rumor, retcon, or alternate timeline. What matters is not whether every version has the same tragedy. What matters is what the loss taught her, what it cost her, and what she refuses to lose next.

Jackson, IL NPC

Still in Associates Week and Wednesday's Child is Full of Woe. 

Evan Harrow is a Jackson teen descended from a family everyone whispers about, but no one confronts. Evan is from a long-suspected witch family, which is true, but not for a generation or two. It is not something they are happy about, and they still get a lot of grief in Jackson, but no one quite remembers why.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 11 Tact

Tact is not lying.

That is worth remembering in Jackson, IL, where everyone is keeping secrets, everyone knows more than they are saying, and half the adults in town have perfected the art of saying nothing with a pleasant smile.

But for a witch, the definition changes.

Tact is in the knowing; it is understanding when the truth is of service and when it will do nothing but wound. It means a character can inform someone their home is haunted without adding that their grandfather had it coming. Or put a friend on notice of some peril without having them feel like a fool for their fear.

Stephanie possesses this quality naturally. Larina has to work on it. Faye has heard something like it exsits, but has never had much use for it. Which is why they are all so well suited to each other.

A horror game can't always afford being blunt. The truth has a way of being unclean. There are real monsters and old curses and family histories that are thoroughly rotten, and the one asking for help may not be in a position to take it all in at once.

A witch will tell the truth, of course. She is only expected to know how sharp to make it.

Iriandor NPC

Today is Day 11, Tuesday, Associates + Full of Grace. Maelin Three-Strings is an Iriandor bard whose kindness opens doors faster than any lockpick. He is always welcome and tells stories of the heroes of the Last War.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 10 Secret

Jackson, IL is full of secrets.

What small town doesn’t? There are the family, school, and church kind of secrets. The sort of things that are common knowledge yet never voiced, or at least put out of mind because to remember them would be to have to deal with them.

Then there are the older ones in Jackson.

They can be found in the high school or the library stacks, in old houses and derelict buildings, in hospital tunnels and church basements, even in a family Bible where some pages are best left unread. Some are buried or put under lock and key, others are handed down like an heirloom. And then you have the ones strolling about town with a pleasant smile for all to see, pretending to be harmless.

It is what makes Jackson ideal for horror gaming. One does not always need a fresh monster from out of town to provide the terror; more often than not, the horror is built into the place, woven into the stories told and those that are not. The secrets are part of the town's foundations and even lower than the foundations. 

For a witch, secrets are a particular danger.

She understands the worth of silence, that certain truths and names should remain unspoken and some doors closed. At the same time, she is aware of their weight; the longer a secret is concealed, the more power it accrues. 

This is what is so compelling about Jackson. A secret held for protection is one matter. One held for power is quite another. The trick is knowing which secrets to keep and which ones to uncover.

Jackson, IL NPC

New week and a new topic. This week is Associates, and it's Monday, so back to Fair of Face. 

Julie Ann Keene is a pretty, popular Jackson girl somehow connected to every rumor before anyone else hears it. Many of the occult-minded think she might be a witch or an empath, but the truth is Julie is just well connected, and she pays attention. If the PCs can discover this, then they have found a useful resource.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 9 Privilege

There is a certain kind of privilege in Jackson, IL and it comes with a name.

Vale. Thompson. Morgan.

These are old families, respected families, the sort of names people recognize before the person attached to them has said a word. That matters in a small town. A name can open doors, smooth over questions, excuse bad behavior, or make adults listen when they might ignore someone else.

Stephanie Vale is aware of it, if she does not put it in those terms. Then there is Andy Thompson, who reaps the same advantage, but in a more decent, unassuming way. The Morgans have a different brand of it altogether, the kind born of money and property and age, and of secrets others are happy to shield for them. Even Roderick Morgan, who despises his name, reaps the benefits of it. 

But in a horror game, such social standing is more than background. It is armor. A blind spot as well.

Some characters are believed because of who they are. Others have to fight twice as hard to be heard at all. And in Jackson, where the monsters are often hidden behind good manners and old reputations, privilege can be the thing that saves you.

Or it could be what allows the horrors to continue. 

Jackson, IL NPC

This is the last day of Week 2, and the topic is Intellect. Since it is Sunday again, the topic is Blessed.

Brother Anselm Grey. A Jackson Jesuit monk-scholar who knows more about witches than he admits, and likes them better than he should. He has an appointment at MacAlister College as a visiting lecturer, but it is St. Michaels High School that brought him to Jackson. 

Brother Anselm lectures at MacAlister on the history of the witch trials and the "Burning Times." His students are generally surprised when his lectures take an extremely positive point of view on the "witches" and a dismal point of view on the religious authorities of the time. When asked, he only claims that they should have known better.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 8 Resolve

 Resolve is doing the thing anyway.

Not because it is easy. Not because it is fun. Not because anyone is going to thank you for it. Sometimes resolve means standing there when every sane instinct says to walk away, go home, lock the door, and let someone else deal with the nightmare.

Cases in point: Larina Nichols and Vera Rook of Jackson, IL.

Larina does what she believes is right, even when it costs her. Especially then. She will argue, complain, lose her temper, and probably make some deeply sarcastic comment along the way, but when the moment comes, she stands.

Vera is different.

Vera does what she wants. That can look like resolve from the outside, because she is stubborn, sharp, and hard to move. But there is a difference between holding your ground because something matters and refusing to move because you do not feel like it.

That is the real test of resolve for a witch.

Not whether she has the power to act, but whether she can make herself do what must be done when walking away would be so much easier.

In Jackson, walking or running away always feels easier.

Jackson, IL NPC

This is Week 2, and the topic is Intellect. Back to Saturday and "Works Hard." 

Kevin Pike: A JPHS AV-club kid who records every ghostly sound in the old school and catalogs them like science. One of the first kids in the school to own a camcorder; a JVC GX-N7 Lolux. 

Kevin is a good but odd kid. He doesn't trust anyone with his video collection so it sits in his room with his own organization and label codes. When asked, he says he is filming local wildlife. His mom thinks he is harmless. His dad is worried he is sneaking off to film the girls' dorms at Beecher College. But his tapes are filled with video footage of monsters, ghosts, and in one case a red-headed girl with glasses shooting fire from her hands.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 7 Mercy

Mercy is the hardest magic for a witch to learn.

Any witch can curse. Any witch can hex. Any witch can call down fire, rot, silence, madness, or whatever else the old books and older powers are willing to teach her.

Mercy is different.

Teenaged Larina is powerful, loyal, brilliant, and brave. But she is not famous for her impulse control or her anger control. Sometimes she sees the cruelty, the monster, the threat to someone she loves, and her first instinct is simple enough.

Burn it all down. Burn fucking everything.

And sometimes, that is the right call.

But mercy asks something harder of her. It asks her to stop. To breathe. To decide whether justice really needs fire this time.

For a witch, mercy is not weakness.

Often, it is choosing not to become the next thing people need saving from. 

Jackson, IL NPC

This is Week 2, and the topic is Intellect.  It's Friday, and Friday's Child is "Loving & Giving." 

Mara Ashcroft.  Mara is a librarian at St. Michael's Catholic School who quietly places the right forbidden book in the right frightened student’s hands. She likes most students, and more to the point, she knows which books NOT to give to which students.

Miss Ashcroft is not a "witch," at least that is what she tells herself. She says she is like her gran; a woman who knew how to "see around corners" and who always knew who was sneaking cookies from her drawer in the kitchen. Miss Ashcroft likes to think that she knows which books to give to which students because she is a good judge of character. And she is. It's just she often has the book in hand before the student even enters the library.

Jackson Soundtrack

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