RPG Retrospective: The Adventures of Indiana Jones RPG

 On this day in 1981, 45 years ago, I went to see the newest George Lucas/Steven Spielberg collab called "Raiders of the Lost Ark."  I went with my best friend Steven and it was a life changer for both of us. Steven watched it and wanted to become a big Hollywood director. I watched it and wanted to become a university professor. We both got to our dreams, more or less. Steven became an art director and is now fed up with Hollywood. I became a professor, but sold my soul to the dot-com world during the late 90s/early 2000s dot-com boom. I, too, had become a little burned out on academic life. 

But Raiders of the Lost Ark still remains a perfect movie in our minds. One we still talk about to this very day.

It is just too bad the RPG was so, well, terrible. At least that was my recollection of it. But is that true? 

Let's pull out my copy and have a deep dive into the game and what it has to offer.

Fortune and Glory, Kid

When TSR picked up the license for Indiana Jones, it looked like a slam dunk. After all, Raiders of the Lost Ark had been a massive success, Temple of Doom was hitting theaters, and TSR was flush with cash and ambition. Iron Crown had Middle-earth. Doctor Who and Star Trek had a home at FASA, and now Indy was coming to Lake Geneva. 

And let us not forget, this was TSR we were talking about, the very company responsible for Dungeons & Dragons, Gamma World, Top Secret, Boot Hill, and, by 1984, the excellent Marvel Super Heroes game.

What could possibly go wrong?

As it turns out… pretty much everything. 

TSR put out The Adventures of Indiana Jones Role-Playing Game in 1984. David "Zeb" Cook and John Byrne, the comic book writer, are credited with the design.  On the surface, it’s a boxed set with everything you'd expect: dice, minis (well, cardboard cutouts you had to assemble), a rulebook, character cards, and an introductory adventure. Inside, you get a chance to live out pulp adventures in the style of everyone’s favorite bullwhip-wielding archaeologist. Sounds great, right?

Except here’s the first problem: you had to play Indy. Or at best, one of a handful of established characters like Marion or Sallah. The rules didn’t include any way to make your own characters. That’s like handing a bunch of kids the Star Wars RPG and saying, "No, sorry, you can’t be smugglers or bounty hunters, you can only be Luke, Han, or Leia." Half the fun of role-playing is creating your own hero to drop into wild situations, and this game just locked the door on that entirely. It gives you some movie characters and tells you, "don't mess them up."

One could argue the later Indiana Jones Judge's Survival Pack made amends by introducing rules for original characters along with the kind of chases, ruins, and vehicles that ought to have been in the core box from day one. But that was the patch, if you will. TSR coming around to say "Oh, you wanted to role-play." But by then, the writing was on the wall. The original set had already conditioned people to think of this as the game where you couldn’t make your own character, and that is the way it was remembered.

The system itself is light, almost perfunctory. There’s some resolution mechanics, a few skill checks, and some chase and combat rules, but nothing that feels like it captures the frenetic energy of Indy punching Nazis or dodging rolling boulders. Instead, it feels like TSR wanted a quick "introductory RPG" to tie in with the movies without giving much thought to longevity or depth. The end result is that it plays more like a board game that forgot to include the board. Or, more on point, an RPG that forgot to include anything about role-playing.

There are percentile skill rolls versus Strength, Prowess, or Backbone, and the like. Nothing too difficult really.

There are rules for "danger" and some perfunctory chase rules (it is Indian Jones after all). So don’t think of it as mechanically useless. The bones are all there, you just have to look past some rather peculiar design decisions. 

But let's not pretend here. This is really not a good game. 

It is a shame, really. The ingredients for an outstanding Indiana Jones RPG were right there. You had the ancient ruins, the lost temples, secret cults, and their terrible artifacts. Nazis, gangsters, and the odd occult society. University politics and rival expeditions. Mummies, curses, ghosts, forbidden manuscripts, hidden cities, and desert tombs. Zeppelins and seaplanes, and a map with a red line across the ocean. You could build a campaign from all that without breaking a sweat.

Yet TSR produced an Indiana Jones game that was far too fixated on the man himself and not enough on his world. West End Games would get it right with Star Wars some years down the line. They grasped what was important: the player doesn’t want to be Luke or Han or Leia. He wants to inhabit the universe, with his own ship and his own Imperial entanglements and the kind of awful plan that somehow comes off.

Indiana Jones called for a World of Indiana Jones, as West End would call it later. All we got from TSR was the star when what we wanted was the stage.

The Problem with Being Indiana Jones

The system is just one problem. Take Indiana Jones: he lives because he is who he is. You don’t have to worry about him being put down by some guard in scene two or perishing in a truck chase. Even if he comes up short, it is in service of the plot. In a film, that is how it should be. But in a role-playing game it is another matter. The TSR version makes an effort to keep that sort of movie logic intact, but at the cost of any real peril. 

There is "Danger" but no real danger. 

Sure, Indy can have his moments, but the game will bend to accommodate him. Your heroes are not the run-of-the-mill pulp types putting their lives and limbs on the line; they are movie stars sporting a kind of narrative armor. I get why they went about it that way, but it doesn’t work for me.

What is the point of a pulp adventure if your character can’t come to grief? Maybe you shoot the swordsman, maybe you are the one who drops the gun. You could put your trust in the wrong guide or be unceremoniously thrown from the back of the truck. That is where the fun is. When the game goes to such lengths to shield the movie, it gets in the way of playing.

There is a contradiction at the heart of this RPG. It aspires to be an Indiana Jones movie when a good one ought to let you have an adventure in his style. They are not one and the same.

What It Gets Right

I wouldn’t want to be entirely unfair about it, though. There is much I like in this game.

To start with, it has the sense that Indiana Jones is a pulp character and makes no pretense of being a scholarly archaeological simulation. Good. What you get instead are your villains, your action, the clues and exotic locales, some perilous artifacts, and a kind of cliffhanger pacing. It puts Indy in his proper context, the same vein as Doc Savage or The Shadow, or one of those odd interwar stories from Republic serials and lost world fiction, where there is a blank spot on the map and someone is off on a secret expedition.

Then there is the speed of the thing. A slow, tactical affair would have been a disaster for an Indiana Jones game, so the fact that this is built for pace is important. Sure, it can be clunky at times, but it isn’t going to have you work out the tensile strength of your whip before you put it to use over a chasm. As it should be.

The Diana Jones Award and Nazi™

You could argue the afterlife of this game is nearly as good as the thing itself.

Game historians and fans know that TSR eventually had to pulp unsold copies of the boxed set after losing the license, which only adds to the mystique. One of the last copies to be burned was salvaged and became the Diana Jones Award. Which itself has been a focus of some gamer legend, with the original award now lost somewhere in the mail. 

There is a certain poetry to it, bordering on the mythic. The temple is destroyed but the artifact endures, you pull the relic from the ashes and it is handed down as a prize from one year to the next. In a way it has more of an Indiana Jones feel to it than the game did.

Then you have the old legend of the "Nazi™" figure that has been going around as long as anyone can remember. It is about as accurate as any gamer tale is, but then again, it is funnier for it. It has a ring of truth to it, the sort of thing a big 80s product with a name on it would get up to by mistake. The facts don’t have to be tidy for it to become part of the folklore.

Final Thoughts

There are some movies you can put on at any time, and they are just right; Raiders of the Lost Ark is still one of my perfect films. Put on that John Williams', score, and I am instantly 12 again, back in the Illinois Theater with my best friend. We were two kids looking at the same movie but seeing our own futures in it. He was watching the camera work, I was thinking of the classroom, yet we both saw the adventure.

You won’t get that from the TSR Indiana Jones RPG. It doesn’t come close to the feeling and perhaps never could. There is a fascination to its failure, though, in how instructive it is. It puts the distinction between adapting a story and a world in sharp relief. You see why player freedom has to be there, and that no license in the world is going to prop up a game if it loses sight of what players want to do when they sit down at the table.

They aren’t there to watch the hero. They want to be him. Or make their own kind of hero out of it, with his own hat and scars and bad decisions, and an impossible way out of a temple coming down around them.

For all that, The Adventures of Indiana Jones Role-Playing Game isn’t some lost classic. More of a lost opportunity. I don’t mind owning it for that reason. A failed artifact has its place in a museum, or on my game shelf at the very least.

Indiana Jones and the Cauldron of Hecate

Create a character for a game with no character creation rules? Of course, I can't resist a challenge like this. Yes, there were character creation rules introduced later on, as I mentioned, but it was too little too late, really. Plus, I don't have those rules, so I can check them out. 

I mentioned above that watching this movie made me want to be a University professor, which I did for many years. So it would seem natural for me to want to stat up Prof. Scott Elders, my erstwhile self-insert character. Really, he is perfect since I have a Call of Cthulhu version where he is at a University researching occult artifacts. 

He is almost too perfect, in fact. The name of the game is "Indiana Jones," and bringing along Dr. Elders would be about the same thing as inviting Solar Pons into a Sherlock Holmes RPG to solve a case with Sherlock. No, I need someone who can look up to Indy, ask questions like "What is that, Dr. Jones?" and stand on their own.

I have the perfect choice, and she is a lot on my mind lately. Enter graduate student of ancient religions, Larina Nichols, from the University of Chicago.

How would she work this into this adventure? Simple, Indy has discovered some sort of clue that leads to the mythical "Cauldron of Hecate."  In typical movie tradition, I am also going to blend the myths of Hecate with the Cauldron of Cerriweden, in that it can be used to bring forth an army of undead soldiers, so of course, the Nazis, excuse me, Nazis™, want it.  Indy heads back to his alma mater, the University of Chicago, to speak to Prof. Scot Elders, who was a grad student when he was there. Dr. Elders is not there, but his star grad student, Larina Nichols, is. She is able to translate the fragment and tells Indy she will tell him the rest of the translation when they get to Greece and Turkey! 

And off they go to Turkey, Greece, and wherever else, with Nazis hot on their tail and an army of the dead at the end. Plus, Indy, as far as I know, has never had to deal with a redhead before.

The best Indiana Jones adventures always have a few elements:

• A legendary artifact.
• A historical mystery.
• A rival faction.
• An expert who knows more than they admit.
• A supernatural truth hiding behind what everyone thinks is merely legend.

This has them all!

Larina Stephanie Nichols

Graduate student of Ancient Religions at the University of Chicago. 

Attributes (Normal/x2/½/¼)

Strength 46/92/23/11
Movement 52/104/26/13
Prowess 60/120/30/15
Backbone 76/152/38/19
Instinct 80/160/40/20
Appeal 92/184/46/23

Movement Rate (running): 20 squares (5 areas)/turn
Weapons: Knife
Money: $100
Languages: English, Greek, Latin, Turkish, Aramaic, Hittite
Irrational Fears: Fire
Notes:

I completely guessed at these. I figured she was slightly better at fighting than Willie (but only a little), a little under Indiy in intelligence, but she knows more languages. That is her "in" in this adventure; she speaks the languages Indy doesn't. Though I would say she is every bit as smart as Indy, if not smarter (that is her thing), but Indy is still the star of the show...er adventure. 

Since I have been going over her 1986 character sheet in detail recently, I am also bringing back her fear/fascination of fire here. 

She has a knife, likely a ritual blade she picked up somewhere, but this is a grad student with no training in weapons. She is not carrying a gun. 

In truth, I like this version a lot. I might try this version out as a 1930s Call of Cthulhu character one day. She needs her own theme music!

Jackson, IL: Pride (In the Name of Love)

Yes, I *DO* know what the U2 song "Pride (In the Name of Love)" is about; it also fits here.  

Photo courtesy of the Peace News Archive/University of Bradford, Special Collections

With Pride Month here, my thoughts keep returning to Jackson, IL.

I’m not talking about the real Jacksonville in Illinois. I mean my version of Jackson from Night World, a college town in the Midwest during 1985-86, where the Veil is thin, the high school is haunted in both mundane and supernatural ways, and some students are witches, psychics, monsters, monster-hunters, or just unlucky enough to know the truth.

It keeps reminding me of Monsterhearts.

I have said before that what makes Monsterhearts a good game is its take on the horror of adolescence. There is the “monster of the week” variety, to be sure, but more so the intimate horror of being sixteen and unsure of your own identity. Or you know who you are, but you are not ready to put it into words. And if you do, you find others have decided they can define you for you.

Many horror games only hint at this, but Monsterhearts really understands it. The monster is a metaphor, but it still feels real. The original World of Darkness does this well, and so does the Buffy RPG, but a lot of games focus only on fighting the monster.

That’s the foundation Jackson, IL is built on.

In a NIGHT SHIFT Night World like Jackson, IL, supernatural characters are outsiders by nature. A witch notices things others miss, a psychic hears thoughts that are better left unsaid, and a werewolf knows what’s inside him might break free at the worst time. There’s the vampire with his hunger, the ghost with unfinished business, the faerie who never quite fits in, and even the monster-hunter, marked and haunted by what he knows.

You could say the LGBTQ character in a mid-80s setting is in much the same dramatic position. (Side note: I don't recall what the preferred term was back in the 1980s. So I am just using what we have today.) They might know something true about themselves that the rest of the world either can’t or won’t see. They have to make judgments on who is safe to confide in, pass in one room, and be open in another. There are friends in the know, adults with their suspicions, enemies who will make a weapon of a rumor, and strangers who would never get the whole story.

Now, I am not going to suggest that it is the same as being a vampire. I have no desire to flatten one experience into another or make the LGBTQ experience into a cosplay. But fiction, and horror in particular, has always had a way with the outsider. The one standing outside the circle tends to see it better than anyone in it.

That is the sort of thing I want to get at with Jackson, IL. Here, being different is not a kind of flaw. It is where you get your power and your story from. It is role-playing fuel.

Take my witch NPCs, Faye and Larina. Faye is a lesbian, and Larina is bisexual. These aren’t special episodes for their characters any more than dealing Faye’s white hair or Stephanie’s confidence are. They are who they are, down to the secrets under the town of Jackson itself. Their identities matter because they color how they and the world view each other, but they are not defined by them alone. Ok, maybe Faye's white hair is a bad example since it IS a side effect of her soul being leeched out by her aunties. Maybe a better example is why does Larina, who is right-handed, wear a watch on her right wrist?

Faye has a head start on living with a secret. Her Aunties raised her, and there is more to that than the people of Jackson know. They are not humans; they are Urban Hags and are forcing Faye to become a monster herself. She knows how to watch a room, to pick up on what is said when she thinks no one of consequence is around. She knows family can be your shelter and your danger in the same house. Being a lesbian doesn’t make her tragic; beng raised by monsters makes her tragic. It also makes her sharper, gives her cause to spot a mask or a threat or an act of kindness for what it is.

Then you have Larina. Her bisexuality is part of her liminal state. She is the weird witch girl with one foot in the everyday and the other in something much older. Some find her frightening because she won’t be simple. She is likes boys and girls alike, as well as records and occult tomes and whatever is calling from the other side of the Veil. In a way, she is all the things Monsterhearts is made of: hunger, fear, curiosity, power. If she is confused, it is not because of her sexuality. She is because she is sixteen and grieving the loss of her mother, and powerful and watched and wanted, and she is afraid of the price of wanting anything. There is danger in having the power to curse an entire bloodline and still not being able to legally drive. 

To me, that is the real stuff. And it makes for some fine role-playing. They are not "after-school special" topics; they are characters. 

Ally, Lesbian, and Bi in Jackson, IL.
Yes. I know those flags were not around in 1985-86, nor were supernatural monsters.

You have to be careful with the dramatic opportunities so as not to turn a character’s identity into some kind of penance or punishment. I am keenly aware of how LGBTQ characters have been portrayed since, well, forever, and that is not something that I am going to do here. Characters are nto going to be punished because of their sexual preferences. They will be punished for dabbling in the dark arts, or because the whole damn town is filled with monsters and ghosts. Characters are punished for bad choices in a dangerous, not because of their identity. 

The 1980s were a pressure cooker for any sort of identity. Adults wield power, and in those days, your reputation was everything. A misstep in the wrong corridor could haunt you for months. Thomas Avery, one of our teachers, is well aware of this. Being gay, he is cautious; he knows how fast a rumor can be turned into a weapon. He is a good teacher on account of his ability to listen, not because any suffering has made him noble. He will know when a student is trying to put something across without putting it into words. He is a good person and a likable guy. 

Then there is Elaine Bellweather. She is gay as well, but the world makes of her what it will, quite differently from Thomas. She is no front-line warrior. She teaches music and lives a quiet life, but she is one of the few adults in Jackson who keeps an eye on things and does not jump to condemn. In a town rife with secrets and monsters, you do not find many like her. And that counts for something. She is no one's "favorite teacher," but she does provide a space for the students (often read as Player Characters) to grow.

It is part of what makes for good LGBTQ representation in a horror game. An adult need not be attacking demons with a sword to be heroic. Sometimes, providing a space where a kid can get some air is enough. Sometimes the adult is the hero who just lets them feel safe, even for a little while. 

Monsterhearts has a way of putting it all in words. You have your strings for leverage or emotional debt, and your conditions for the labels people slap on you: "Freak." "Witch." "Creepy." "Queer." "Devil worshipper." In a high school horror set in the 1980s, those are as perilous as claws. But they can be put to the test. That is where the role-playing is. Not in having queer characters put through the wringer for being there, but in seeing what they do when someone tries to put them in a box. Do they run? Lash out? Or do they take the very label meant to hurt them and make it a banner?  A condition like ‘Freak’ might begin as hallway cruelty, but in play, it can become the moment when a character decides she would rather be feared honestly than accepted falsely.

There is your Pride. It is more than the parades and flags, as great as those are. It is the choice to stop making excuses for being real. Think of the witch who ceases to feign deafness to the dead, or the werewolf done with calling himself broken. Or the lesbian teen who sees right through the monster trying to work his charms on every girl in school, because what she wants is hers alone. A bisexual witch is figuring out that wanting two different kinds of futures doesn’t make her a fraud. That is not pandering; it is simply good character work.

I want the LGBTQ folks in Jackson, IL, to be part of the world. Some are ordinary, some are witches, some are teachers, some are students, and many are just regular people. Let them be messy and wrong about things and as complicated as the rest. Some are scared, some are not. Monsterhearts is adept at that; it won’t make adolescence neat and tidy or desire safe. It acknowledges that being young is intense and strange in its own right. We are putting that in 1986, with the Satanic Panic and some fine music in the background, where even a note passed in class feels like a spell.

For Pride Month, that is the part I want to acknowledge and celebrate.

The outsider is not outside because they are lesser. They know where that divide is because they have often been made painfully aware of it. They are outside because they can see the shape of the door.

And sometimes, in Jackson, they are the only ones who know how to open it. 

And to the kids I went to High School with in the 1980s who later came out and are much happier now, I am glad you found your happiness. 

Jackson, IL: Am I Evil? NPCs of the Satanic Panic

Last week, I talked about running two different 80s-style teenage horror campaigns. My Sunny Valley, OH game with Dark Places & Demogorgons and my current Jackson, IL one with NIGHT SHIFT. 

I had such a good time talking about it that I wanted to explore these two games together some more. But the trick was finding a good pivot point for both of them. I started thinking, what do these two games have in common that I can really exploit for the 1980s? I came up with too many ideas to be honest, so I started thinking about characters. I decided my frame was going to be the Satanic Panic.

My Mother was a Witch

I recalled that the Dark Places & Demogorgons had a "Black Witch" class. In all my past witches for Sunny Valley, I used the White White class, naturally; all my witches tend to be "good." But I wanted to try something new. So I went to the Dark Places & Demogorgons Players Options & GM's Guide, and checked out their magic classes. I also looked into the Dark Places & Demogorgons Players Ultimate Edition for the Mystic Class. Both are great, really, the mystic is closer to the Mystic found in other Bloat Games products. I tried both, but to jump to the end of this, I went with the Black Witch.

On the O.G.R.E.S. side of things, I pretty much knew I wanted to try out the Sorcerer class from Wasted Lands, not that the class is all that different from the witch class; I did want to use some of the Heroic Touchstones from the Wasted Lands game. Again, long story short, I went with the witch and the sorcerer, but I could have stuck with the witch alone.  I did give them an Heroic Touchstone each, migth end up giving them some others later on. Both NPCs are more powerful than anyone character, that is by design. It also fits their backgrounds better.

I ended up with two NPCs and four character sheets. 

These two are going to be central in my Satanic Panic adventure that is going to pop up later on. How later? Well, game-wise, it is going to be Spring 1986, whenever I get to that. Currently, it is just before the 1985 Christmas break. One NPC is a central cause, the other will be a catalyst.

For these, I wanted to try and get each version as close to the other as I could so it felt like playing the same character in each game. 

Moria Elizabeth Zachary

Moria looks like a good girl. She attends the "other" school in town, St. Michael's Catholic High School. She will interact with the PCs either because she comes to take classes at Jackson Public High School (typically something like Calculus or another math class) or because one or more of the PCs have to go to her school (to take advanced Latin or Greek). This actually happened a few times in my own hometown. 

Moria is unassuming and very pleasant. She stands all of 5'1" and looks like the textbook definition of "harmless."

Trouble is, Moria Zachary is really a half-demon. Her mother was a witch from Sunny Valley, OH, and she moved here. Her father, well, he is not a local. Not to anywhere. He is a demon. Moria has moved her with her "Hellhond larva" dog and wants to stir up trouble now in Jackson. OR if you are using her in DP&D, then she is from Jackson and has moved to Jefferson Town.

Moria Zachary is a "mirror shard" of my own Moria Zami, who in my AD&D game is half-devil. Her job here is not to convince the characters to do evil, but to convince them that tools of "Good" are never going to be enough to stop what is coming, and they will need to "color outside the lines" in order to get things done. Moria doesn't care (and maybe doesn't even know) about the Hollow King. She wants the characters to commit evil acts to fight other evil creatures. In either case, Moria gets what she wants, and this is more evil. Her particular favorite is to corrupt other witches and turn them to evil. Failing that, any psychic class or sage is good. She avoids trying to convert theosophists and spirit riders if she can. Not that they are difficult, but they are no fun.

Moria Zachary (NIGHT SHIFT)
3rd Level Witch, Infernal

*Background: Infernal (half-infernal)

Base Abilities
Strength: 14 (+1) 
Agility: 15 (+1) 
Toughness: 16 (+2) N
Intelligence: 14 (+1) N
Wits: 12 (+0) 
Persona: 20 (+4) A

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 9
Vitality: 19

Degeneracy: 1
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +0 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +0 (base)
Spell Attack: +2
Saves: +3 to Spells and Magical effects (Witch) +3 to Wits saves (Infernal background).

Feed (Infernal): Must get witches to cast "evil" rituals

Witch Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (1): Innate Magic: Glamour

Witch Spells
First Level: Black Flames, Magic Missile
Second Level: Defile

Heroic Touchstones
2nd Level: Mystic Senses (Sense Witches)

Archetype: The Half Demon, false friend, witch rival
Quote: "I’m not trying to make you like me. I’m trying to make you stop hating the part of yourself that already does."
Quirks: Looks harmless, sweet, and innocent.
Theme song: "Am I Evil?" - Metallica

Familiar: "Mephisto Fleas"

---

Moria Zachary (Dark Places & Demogorgons)

Class: Black Witch
Level: 3
Alignment: Evil 
Languages: English, Latin, Greek, Infernal
Age: 15

Attributes
STR: 14 +1
INT: 14 +1
WIS: 12 +0
DEX: 15 +1
CON: 16 +2
CHA: 20 +4
SUR: 18 +3

AC: 10     HP: 23    Attack Bonus +1

Courage: 4
Critical: 3
Death: 5
Mental: 5
Poison: 3

Background
Parents are cultists

Class Abilities
+1 to saves involving magic

Skills
Art +3, Math +4, Science +4, Knowledge (Magic) +5, Paranormal +4, Botany +3

Possessions
Rosary with inverted pentagram, Hellhound Larva "Mephisto Fleas."

Money: $50

Spells
Minor (3), Major (1)
Glammerd Appearance, Magical Insight, Burning Ash hands,

Darren "The Sorcerer" Vale

Darren is different. He is a second cousin to one of my witch NPCs, Stephanie Vale. His family has money, but not as much as Stephanie's. Darren is also a little creep. I'll admit I wanted to make him out every negative stereotype of an 80s gamer I could. Because, let's be honest, we all knew/know someone like Darren growing up. That guy who would say something so profoundly stupid, sexist, or racist that you couldn't believe he was at the same table as you. 

Darren is also interested in witches, but not like Moria is. Darren will say stupid shit like "you know, witches are supposed to love guys named 'Darren'" and then laugh at his own cleverness. 

So in the world of Jackson, IL, "Dungeons & Dragons" was not the Greatest Fantasy RPG in the world. No, everyone plays Spellcraft & Swordplay. That is, except for Darren now. He has just been kicked out of the Jackson Public High School S&S Club for making other players uncomfortable, especially group members Paul, Amy Jo, and Kevin. All four used to get together to play on Friday nights, where discussions would drift into typical gamer talk of "Excalibur" the movie vs "Mists of Avalon" the novel, and how they could replicate the feel in a game. Paul, Amy Jo, and Kevin would want to have a fun but serious discussion; Darren always made it weird. 

Darren is one of those guys who got moved up a grade early on and never really caught up emotionally with his peers. He also became one of those kids who felt intelligence equaled superiority, and because he was a little smarter, he thought that made him better than everyone else. He is jealous of everyone in his school. It is not until he notices the supernatural (or maybe the Supernatural notices him as easy prey) that his jealousy really flares. In particular, why does his cousin Stephanie have power? Or why does a loner like Faye? Or fellow "gifted kid" Larina? He has something in common with all three of them, but he has no power of his own. He dismisses them as flukes and makes excuses for his own lack of power by saying he could have it if he tried. Well, something in the dark answers him.

Darren goes from a 0-level human to a 4th-level Sorcerer/Black Witch almost overnight. Something is granting him power. 

Yeah, maybe I should have called him "The Warlock" but the Stevie Nicks song "Sorcerer" was a big enfluence on this character, and *my* nickname was "Web Warlock" for a long time. And to quote that great hunter of the supernatural, "I'm not with this asshole."

Darren Vale (NIGHT SHIFT)
4th Level Witch, human

Background: Nerd

Base Abilities
Strength: 9 (+0) 
Agility: 9 (+0) 
Toughness: 10 (+0) 
Intelligence: 18 (+3) A
Wits: 12 (+0) N
Persona: 11 (+0) N

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 9
Vitality: 15

Degeneracy: 3
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+2/+0
Melee Bonus: +0 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +0 (base)
Spell Attack: +3
Saves: +4 to Spells and Magical effects (Witch) +2 to Int saves (Nerd background).

Witch Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (2): Innate Magic: Glamour, Innate Magic: ESP

Witch Spells
First Level: Magic Missile, Protection From Good, Chill Ray
Second Level: Invoke Fear, Beguile Person

Heroic Touchstones
2nd Level: Mystic Senses (Sense Witches)

Archetype: The Misanthrope
Quote: "You can't begin to comprehend my power!"
Quirks: Dresses in nice, expensive clothes but is ill-kempt and generally unhygienic.
Theme song: "Sorcerer" - Stevie Nicks

---

Darren Vale (Dark Places & Demogorgons)

Class: Black Witch
Level: 4
Alignment: Evil 
Languages: English, Latin, Greek
Age: 16

Attributes
STR: 9 +0
INT: 18 +3
WIS: 12 +0
DEX: 9 +0
CON: 10 +0
CHA: 11 +0
SUR: 15 +1

AC: 10     HP: 20    Attack Bonus +0

Courage: 3
Critical: 4
Death: 4
Mental: 6
Poison: 4

Background
Obsessed with Magic and the Occult

Class Abilities
+1 to saves involving magic

Skills
Computers +3, Art +1, Math +4, Science +4, Knowledge (Magic) +4, Paranormal +4, Electronics +2

Possessions
Well-thumbed copy of The Necronomicon with notes and penciled-in "corrections."

Money: $150

Spells
Minor (5)
Blind, Charm, Dark Blast, Pain Touch, Read Minds

Darren is not supposed to be a nice guy; in fact, he is dangerous. He will use his "blind" magic on Amy Jo, and likely his "pain touch" on Kevin or Paul.  BUT I am not sure if the characters should kill him. So, in any case, his demonic (or whatever it is) will abandon him in the end, leaving him dead or insane.

His parents never really paid him any attention before, but after this, his mother will go on a crusade against the evils of RPGs, creating the group P.A.S.S. or Parents Against Spellcraft & Swordplay.

The Satanic Panic

Both of these characters will stir up trouble in my upcoming Satanic Panic adventure. At some point, Moria will go missing, and the students will blame the occult (which is kind of true, in a way). Darren will end up either dead or insane, and his mom will blame Spellcraft & Swordplay (sorry, Jason!). Things will escalate when Darren's mom confronts Sylvia Velasco at El Espejo Oscuro. Sylvia refuses to stay silent. "I sell candles to fools every day. I do not sell knives to children. And I sure as hell did not sell real magic to that pendejo. Your son wanted girls without their consent and power without discipline. That did not come from my shop." Because of this, the mob ends up burning down El Espejo Oscuro.

I haven't worked out all the details for that adventure yet, except that Sylvia will be the obvious target and it will take place after the Hollow King arc. There's still time. I wanted to introduce these two now so both the players and their characters get to know them early. That way, it won't feel like a random new NPC shows up and is automatically innocent.

I want to make it clear that Moria and Darren aren't supposed to be surprise villains who suddenly appear out of nowhere. I want my players to meet Moria ahead of time, maybe seeing her smiling in the hallway at St. Michael's. Darren might be seen hanging around El Espejo Oscuro, making people uncomfortable and acting like it's just a coincidence.

To put it simply, Darren helps me show what NIGHT SHIFT characters are like in Jackson. In RPG terms, it might be easy to just label Darren as 'Evil' and move on. But that wouldn't create the atmosphere I'm aiming for. Darren is dangerous, not because he plays fantasy games or is interested in the occult or magic. Paul, Amy Jo, and Kevin do those things too, and they're good kids. Darren is different because he wants power over others, and he thinks magic will help him get it. At least, that's his plan.

This difference is at the heart of my Satanic Panic adventure.

Even though the Satanic Panic is always driven by hysteria, my adventure will have some real reasons behind the chaos. Something bad will happen and people will get hurt. Maybe Darren will die, or maybe he'll survive but end up in the State Hospital. Moria's disappearance could set off a chain reaction, spreading trouble through the neighborhood. The main point is that scared adults will look for easy answers, blaming games, books, music, occult shops, and any teenagers who seem different. This will eventually lead to the real fire at El Espejo Oscuro.

I don't have everything figured out just yet, but it is going to be a blast. Moria and Darren are going to help me out.

Crossover?

I am considering a crossover between my Jackson, IL, game and my Sunny Valley, OH, game, but I have not figured out how that will work just yet. They are about 420 miles apart. I DO have a pivot point, my witch Larina is an NPC in both games, she could use magic IF I think these games are in parallel universes. But that feels a little like cheating if I am being honest. 

Night Shift Larina "Nix" meets Dark Places & Demogorgons Larina "Creepy."

Mail Call Friday: Kibifig minis

 Rare Mail Call on a Friday since I normally do these on Tuesday. But Tuesday has become the day I report on my weekend game, so this works fine. Plus, what I have today is about my weekend games. 

I love new tech. If there is something I can do now that I couldn't do before, then I am interested. Current 3D printing is in that realm. We have a few 3D printers thanks to my youngest's major in engineering, and I take advantage of them every chance I get.  The new spate of image to 3D print has also caught my imagination. I have been playing around with many of them, they typically have similar offerings; upload a photo, pick a style, choose a size. There is typcially a preview, but I often don't trust those. But one, Kibifig, seemed a little better than the rest. Not so much with price, they are all very similar there, but in terms of features. Given I was working on my NIGHT SHIFT and Wasted Lands games while going through these, I uploaded some images of my witch, Larina. Well I got them in the mail late last night and frankly I am thrilled with the results.

Jackson, IL, Larina and Ash Witch Larina

That picture really doesn't do them justice. These are the 70-mm versions. I am certain that the 90- or 120-mm versions would be much better. In fact, they don't really recommend the 70mm, but I wanted to try it first.

It was pretty simple. Upload the photos and click through. It took about 3 weeks to get here from China, which, honestly, given everything, is pretty fast. 

The minis were packed amazingly well. 

The minis themselves are quite good and made of stronger material than I have seen in the past.

They also compare very nicely to their 2D images.

These are just 2D images. Thankfully, there was enough for the AI to work with, and it filled out the rest. 

The backpack looks good, and so does the Ash Witch's cape. 

They came with plastic disc stands, but they stand pretty well on their own. 

I did a preview of the 120 mm version of Jackson, IL, Larina, and it looks great, really. The AI even gave her Doc Marten's purple boot laces. I might have to get it just for that.

It missed some details, like the Ash Witch's streaks of gray hair and the dirt on her legs. But otherwise these are rather perfect in my mind and I am pleased with them. I mean, even "Spells" is clearly legible on Jackson Larina's schoolbooks, if the pentagram is a bit small. 

So yeah, I am happy with these. 

I threw the cover for my Advanced Witches & Warlocks and this is what it came up with. 

I might have to get that one.

Jackson, IL: Character Questionnaire

 One of the larger challenges of my Jackson, IL campaign for the NIGHT SHIFT^® RPG, hasn't been the rules or the supernatural, but rather getting players into the right frame of mind. Not just playing teens (for people like me who are 30-40+ years past their teen years) but also getting 20-somethings used to the world of 1985-86.

A lot of that will be a certain level of "hand wavem" where the reality of the game world gives way to the supposed reality of the time. For example, many of the twenty-somethings don't think to look for a pay phone. The fifty-year-olds forget what it was like to be teens and feel the things teens feel so intensely. I can't handle all of those, BUT I can at least get them going into the right place with their characters. 

To this end, I worked on a Character Questionnaire. Give the players a chance to think about their characters in a group and what this character is like as a teen in 1985. 

This is in addition to Quotes, Quirks, and Theme Song, I ask of all the characters.

I was thinking about my developmental psychology classes, back when I was closer to being a teen than I am now, and how teens feel like they are on a stage the whole time. They often feel everything they do is visible to (and judged by) all. Their thought process is not the same as an adult's, because their brains are still developing. So things they do (or did if you are feeling reflective) feel different. These different thought processes are one of the features of this game, not a bug.

Here is the Questionnaire, as it exists now. Note, the players fill this out AFTER the characters are rolled up. I might change these a bit as the game goes on.

Character Questionnaire

• What is this teen known for at school?
• How were they seen before Jackson, if applicable?
• How are they trying to redefine themselves?
• What classes fit them best?
• What are they good at?
• Who notices them, and why?
• What rumors or assumptions follow them?

Favorites 

• What are their favorite groups, bands, and/or singers? What is always in their Walkman?
• Favorite movie?
• Favorite TV show?
• Favorite clothes?
• Favorite colors?
• Favorite drink?
• Favorite food?
• What poster is on their bedroom wall?
• What store do they always stop in at the mall or downtown?

Home Life

• Who do they live with?
• What is their house like?
• What is their room like?
• How much privacy do they have?
• What is their relationship with their parent or guardian?
• What unspoken pressure lives in the home?
• What freedom do they have that other teens might not?

Weekend Life

• Where do they go first when they have free time?
• What do they do when left alone?
• What social places do they end up in?
• What teen rituals do they enjoy, tolerate, or avoid?
• What changed once they found their people?
• What does freedom look like to them on a Saturday?

Communication

• Do they have privacy on the phone?
• Who do they call most?
• Whose number do they know by heart?
• Are they better in person, on the phone, or in notes?
• Do they make mixtapes, write letters, pass notes, or invent codes?

Secrets

• What secrets are easiest for them to keep?
• What secrets keep leaking out anyway?
• What private fear drives them?
• What private need shapes them?
• What has this cost them?
• What part of themselves are they afraid others can already see?
• Teen Places in Jackson
• Where do they belong?
• Where are they watched?
• Where are they most themselves?
• Where are they least comfortable?
• What public place changes when they enter it?
• What hidden place matters only to them or their closest friends?

Teen Archetype

• How does the school see them?
• How does the town see them?
• Who are they in private?
• What role do they play in the game?
• What do they want?
• What do others wrongly assume about them?
• What emotional tone follows them into a scene?

Contradictions
Things that go against the grain or what is expected of their character.

I don't expect players to fill out all this. Some details will be learned in-game, and others may change as the game moves on. The point is not to make this "homework" but rather to use it as a device to focus on who this character is and what they do.

And because I can, I figure I'd fill them in for some of the NPCs. This also gave me the chance to try it before I gave it to the players. 

Character Questionnaire: Larina

School Life

What is this teen known for at school?
 Being the smart girl who still seems a little weird.

How were they seen before Jackson, if applicable?
 At her old school, she was the weird girl. After the fire, she became “the girl whose mom died.”

How are they trying to redefine themselves?
 Her old life was marked by estrangement, sadness, and loss. In Jackson, she wants to remake herself into someone people like rather than pity or mock.

What classes fit them best?
 Languages, literature, and the social sciences.

What are they good at?
 Languages especially. She has a real gift for them.

Who notices them, and why?
 Everyone notices her. She is the new girl, with bright red hair, striking looks, and an air that says she knows more than she should.

What rumors or assumptions follow them?
 Her mother died in a freak accident. True.
 Her father is on the run. False.
 She is like Carrie. Not entirely false, but not in the way people mean.
 She is a witch. True, though not in the way most think.
 The she, Faye, and Stephanie are all "involved." Not really, they are a coven.

Favorites 

What are their favorite groups, bands, and/or singers? What is always in their Walkman?
 Stevie Nicks. A bit cliched she knows, but she can’t help it. “The Wild Heart” is her favorite. 

Favorite movie?
 She just saw “Return to Oz” and loved it. Dorothy is a witch, and no one can convince her otherwise.

Favorite TV show?
 She loves “Masterpiece Theatre” on PBS. “Bewitched” is a guilty pleasure.

Favorite clothes?
 Has a plaid purple skirt she loves, a pair of black Jordache jeans she can still fit into, and her black Doc Martens.

Favorite colors?
 Purple and black.

Favorite drink?
Tea. Iced tea works fine, too. 

Favorite food?
 Thai, but there are no Thai restaurants in Jackson, much to her dismay. 

What poster is on their bedroom wall?
 A poster of Jean Rollin’s 1970 “La Vampire Nue.” She also has a star chart and poster of Latin verb conjugations. 

What store do they always stop in at the mall or downtown?
 Paula’s Bookstore downtown, always. 

Home Life

Who do they live with?
 She lives with her father, Lars, a professor of anthropology at MacAlister College.

What is their house like?
 A nice two-story home near the college, in a part of town that is respectable enough but not especially fashionable.

What is their room like?
 She has the master bedroom upstairs with an attached bathroom. Lars did not want it after her mother died.

How much privacy do they have?
 A great deal. She has most of the upstairs to herself. There is another bedroom and full bath up there, but Lars prefers the downstairs rooms.

What is their relationship with their parent or guardian?
 She loves her dad, and he loves her. They are close, but both still carry sadness over the loss of her mother.

What unspoken pressure lives in the home?
 Larina tries to take care of Lars more than a teenager should. He worries about her, but she worries about him, too. He cannot cook worth a damn, except for tacos.

What freedom do they have that other teens might not?
 She has unusual privacy, including her own teen-line phone.

Weekend Life

Where do they go first when they have free time?
 On Saturdays, she heads straight to Paula’s Bookstore downtown. After that, she usually ends up at Jackson Public Library, and sometimes one of the college libraries.

What do they do when left alone?
 She reads constantly. If she is awake, she is usually reading or taking notes.

What social places do they end up in?
 At night, she goes out with Stephanie and Faye in Stephanie’s car. Like most kids in town, they cruise Morgan Street and eventually end up at Sal’s Pizza.

What teen rituals do they enjoy, tolerate, or avoid?
 Larina is only an occasional drinker and does not care for drugs, though she has tried getting high a couple of times.

What changed once they found their people?
 She became more open, both to other people and to the world around her. Friendship made ordinary life feel worth entering.

What does freedom look like to them on a Saturday?
 Cruising Morgan with Stephanie and Faye, getting pizza at Sal’s, then bringing some home to share with her dad, who almost certainly forgot to eat, while listening to his records.

Communication

Do they have privacy on the phone?
 Yes. Lars got her her own teen line when they moved to Jackson.

Who do they call most?
 Faye and Stephanie.

Whose number do they know by heart?
 Faye and Stephanie.

Are they better in person, on the phone, or in notes?
 Much better in person. Her written notes tend to become long, intense, and overthought.

Do they make mixtapes, write letters, pass notes, or invent codes?
 She makes mixtapes for Faye from her dad’s record collection. She also makes Stevie Nicks tapes for Candy, partly out of affection and partly because it feels easier than saying what she means. She, Faye, and Stephanie have worked out a code so they can talk about supernatural things in public without anyone noticing.

Secrets

What secrets are easiest for them to keep?
 Other people’s secrets. If someone swears her to silence, she will keep it forever.

What secrets keep leaking out anyway?
 She cannot keep gift secrets at all. She buys birthday and Christmas presents months in advance and can never quite stop herself from hinting.

What private fear drives them?
 Larina believes her mother’s death was not an accident. She suspects something evil and eldritch was responsible. Her father insists it was faulty wiring in her mother’s spice shop, and the investigation officially agrees. (Spoiler: It actually was an accident, but it shapes her all the same.)

What private need shapes them?
 She is haunted by the fear that she can never know enough. That is why she is always reading, always writing things down, always trying to get ahead of what might happen next.

What has this cost them?
 She has not read a book purely for pleasure in years.

What part of themselves are they afraid others can already see?
 She likes girls and boys equally, and part of her is certain everyone already knows. Even if she doesn't really understand that all yet herself. (It's 1985, there is no internet to look things up, and no easy-to-access books.)

Teen Places in Jackson

Where do they belong?
 On ordinary nights, Sal’s Pizza. On quieter days, Paula’s Bookstore and the public library.

Where are they watched?
 In the school halls. Since Larina arrived, she, Stephanie, and Faye have become inseparable, and people notice.

Where are they most themselves?
 With her friends, or alone with a book and a problem to solve.

Where are they least comfortable?
 Anywhere she cannot make sense of what is happening. Confusion unsettles her more than danger.

What public place changes when they enter it?
 The public library. The librarians all know her by name, and her presence there feels almost permanent.

What hidden place matters only to them or their closest friends?
 Behind the school, in sight of the track and field, but far enough from the road to feel secret. Sometimes Candy and Denise show up.

Teen Archetype

How does the school see them?
 The new girl, who is still a little strange.

How does the town see them?
 The new girl. Professor Nichols’ brilliant daughter. The smart girl who is still a little strange.

Who are they in private?
 She is still trying to figure that out for herself.

What role do they play in the game?
 She is the Witch, the one who knows, or at least the one who tries hardest to know.

What do they want?
 To make sure no one else dies if she can help it.

What do others wrongly assume about them?
 That she is arrogant. In truth, she is still shy and more uncertain than she lets anyone see.

What emotional tone follows them into a scene?
 Alone, she brings quiet intensity. With friends, she brings frantic energy. When happy, she is openly affectionate. When angry, she is genuinely frightening.

Contradictions

  She wants to be known, but hates being misread.
  She is deeply affectionate, but guards herself carefully.
  She reads constantly, but almost never for pleasure.
  She seems confident, but is still remaking herself from grief.
  She keeps others’ secrets perfectly, but cannot keep a birthday surprise to save her life.
  Tries to shield herself from pain, but she will set herself on fire to save others.

Character Questionnaire: Candy

School Life

What is this teen known for at school?
 Being one half of the “Candy and Denise” duo.

How were they seen before Jackson, if applicable?
 She has always lived here.

How are they trying to redefine themselves?
 At the moment, she is not. Candy is not trying to reinvent herself. She is just trying to get through.

What classes fit them best?
 She actually pays attention in health class.

What are they good at?
 Candy is very good at first aid. She keeps her cool, acts fast, and gets things done when someone is hurt.

Who notices them, and why?
 Mostly teachers, because she is usually in trouble or seems about two seconds away from it.

What rumors or assumptions follow them?
 That she drinks all the time. Partially true.
 That she and Denise have hooked up. Partially true.
 That she is an airhead. False, but she lets people believe it.

Favorites 

What are their favorite groups, bands, and/or singers? What is always in their Walkman?
 Loves pop music, especially when it has a party feel. Loves Stevie Nicks as well. Has a copy of The Wild Heart that Larina gave her.

Favorite movie?
 She tells people, “Porky’s” to get a shock out of them. But in truth, she loves watching old black & white movies with her mom. 

Favorite TV show?
 “Who has time for TV?” but will have MTV on in the background.

Favorite clothes?
 Anything bright. She has a leather jacket she dug out of the "Lost and Found" of her dad's bar, which she always wears. 

Favorite colors?
 Pinks, yellows, oranges. 

Favorite drink?
 Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill wine. Coffee with a lot of sugar. Iced with sugar and Sweet-n-lo.

Favorite food?
 Pizza. Pepperoni with green olives, the same as Denise's. 

What poster is on their bedroom wall?
 An old, faded poster of “The Outsiders” Movie.

What store do they always stop in at the mall or downtown?
 “Strawberry Fields” record store at the mall. She always runs into Faye there.

Home Life

Who do they live with?
 Candy lives with her working-class father, “Ron”, her terminally ill mother, “Carol”, and her little sister, “Ronnie”.

What is their house like?
 Too small for four people carrying that much stress.

What is their room like?
 A wreck, but in a very normal teenage way for the time. Clothes everywhere, school things mixed with junk, and half-finished bits of life shoved into corners. Bags of chips, Coke cans, a forgotten bag of weed.

How much privacy do they have?
 Almost none.

What is their relationship with their parent or guardian?
 She loves both her parents, and they love her. But she is furious at the world for taking her mother from her piece by piece.

What unspoken pressure lives in the home?
 Everything in the house is organized around helping her mother. All the money Candy makes helping her dad goes to medical bills.

What freedom do they have that other teens might not?
 Her dad works at the local bar, so she stays out late more often than most teens can. She also has easy access to alcohol.

Weekend Life

Where do they go first when they have free time?
 Wherever Denise is.

What do they do when left alone?
 She hates being alone. Being alone means she has time to think about everything going wrong.

What social places do they end up in?
 Sal’s Pizza, parties, parking lots, anywhere Denise is, anywhere the night feels louder than home.

What teen rituals do they enjoy, tolerate, or avoid?
 She drinks most weekends, looks for parties, and avoids anything that feels too much like school spirit or forced enthusiasm.

What changed once they found their people?
 She met Denise in junior high when they were both sent to the principal’s office, and they have barely been apart since.

What does freedom look like to them on a Saturday?
 Not working at her dad’s bar. Not being stuck at home. Being out in the world with Denise, even if they are doing nothing.

Communication

Do they have privacy on the phone?
 None.

Who do they call most?
 Denise.

Whose number do they know by heart?
 Denise.

Are they better in person, on the phone, or in notes?
 In person, but she is constantly passing notes.

Do they make mixtapes, write letters, pass notes, or invent codes?
 She passes notes constantly. She and Denise have nicknames for every teacher in school.

Secrets

What secrets are easiest for them to keep?
 Anything between her and Denise stays buried.

What secrets keep leaking out anyway?
 She makes inappropriate jokes about everyone’s sex lives and sometimes reveals more than she means to by acting like nothing matters.

What private fear drives them?
 That she will end up alone.

What private need shapes them?
 She wants to help people, but does not know how to do that in any lasting way.

What has this cost them?
 She rebels. She drinks. She sleeps around. She makes herself seem harder and less breakable than she is.

What part of themselves are they afraid others can already see?
 That deep down, she is terrified. Terrified, she will be left alone. Terrified she will lose her mother. Terrified that she will lose Denise as her best friend. Terrified something will happen to her dad or Ronnie.

Teen Places in Jackson

Where do they belong?
 Anywhere she decides to be. In Candy’s mind, no place is off-limits.

Where are they watched?
 Mostly by adults.

Where are they most themselves?
 With Denise.

Where are they least comfortable?
 By herself.

What public place changes when they enter it?
 School. Sal’s. Any place where people know she is about to bring noise, trouble, laughter, or all three.

What hidden place matters only to them or their closest friends?
 Behind the bleachers near the track and field, where she and Denise go to smoke and be alone together.

Teen Archetype

How does the school see them?
 As a troublemaker.

How does the town see them?
 As a troublemaker who ought to be home helping her sick mother.

Who are they in private?
 Far more caring, frightened, and vulnerable than people realize.

What role do they play in the game?
 The party girl who is deeper than anyone expects.

What do they want?
 To live her life, keep the people she loves, and not lose anyone else.

What do others wrongly assume about them?
 That she is stupid.

What emotional tone follows them into a scene?
 Excitement, chaos, heat, and the sense that something impulsive is about to happen.

Contradictions

 She is flighty, but loves with her whole heart.
 She acts dumb, but is actually pretty bright.
 She seems careless, but cares deeply about the people around her.
 She runs from pain, but is the first to act when someone else is hurt.

Candy surprises Larina after Larina saves her life.
 "Don't make it weird, babe."

Ok, I like these. They really give the characters more character. One thing I added after I did these was, in addition to a theme song, "What songs are on their mix-tape?" But I then had to explain what a "mix-tape" was when I did the first version of this, and I died of old age right in front of the players.

Artifacts of a bygone age.

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