Tales of Jackson: In Cold Blood

 It is February 1986 in Jackson, IL, and Dr. Andreas Gelé is visiting both Beecher and MacAlister colleges to give lectures on the exciting field of cryonics and its use in surgery.

The town is unseasonably cold, even for February, and the townsfolk are worried that they are in for a repeat of the Winter of 1985.

February 14th, Friday night, sometime after the school dance, Valerie Beaumont leaves the school, walks to her car, and is not noticed missing until the morning of Monday the 17th, when the police are alerted that her car was still in the lot. Her keys, purse, and most importantly, her coat are still in the car. Police suspect foul play, but the crime scene is already overrun with students coming to school. 

What the police record, but barely comment on, is that her sword is in the back seat of her 1983 Chevy Citation.  The characters know that Val would walk coatless and barefoot in the Illinois snow, but she would never, ever leave that sword behind.

The next two days, both Sylvia Velasco (2/19/86) and Renee Sylvi Jäneläinen (2/20/86) went missing. 

The police interview everyone. Valerie did not have a boyfriend; neither did Renee. If Sylvia does, no one seems to know who he is. It is also 1986; they are not asking about other options. 

One thing is certain. Someone is hunting magical women. 

I also wanted an adventure where Candy and Denise were NOT the monster bait for once. Though my players did miss them.

--

Cold Blood is the next adventure I played for Jackson, taking place in February of 1986. It features the NIGHT SHIFT debut of my frozen little misanthrope Dr. Andreas Gelé, aka the Refrigerator. I had to change his usual raison d’être here, since it didn't really fit Jackson's horror vibe. Oh, his normal modus operandi is horrific enough; I just needed something closer to Jackson. So he is not collecting women and freezing them to preserve their beauty; he is instead collecting and freezing witches to understand their magic and, more importantly, their ability to age more slowly. 

It's a well-known trope that witches don't age like normal humans. This is true in many games and media featuring witches. And it is true here as well. The witch characters in the game just didn't know this yet. They learn about it when they uncover Gelé's notes. Not just notes, worked-up profiles on all the witch characters, including their suspected ages (he thinks they are older than they are and 'pretending' to be teens). These profiles are terrifying in their clinical detachment and their dehumanizing element. Witches are not people to him. They are things, and he can extract their essence to prolong his own life. He grabs Valerie, thinking she is a witch, knowing only that she has some magic and that he has evidence she is much older than she appears. Both of which are true, but he does not suspect she is immortal. Since she is not responding to his treatments as expected (she is not a witch, really), he freezes her solid to experiment on her later. This would kill a normal human. For Valerie, it just pisses her off. 

He goes after Sylvia and Renee next, assuming that as outsiders (an immigrant distrusted by the community and a foreign exchange student), they would not be missed.

This is the first time the witch characters in the game have learned this. They know Valerie is immortal. But other than that, they know nothing else. As my playtest characters, Stephanie knows that she has a grandmother close to 100 (she is actually much older), and Faye's "aunties" are really Urban Hags. Larina's own mother is gone, and her father only has the tiniest of magic (I have him making sparks with his hand at a later point). So none of my playtest witch players or characters know. 

Sylvia knows. Because, of course, she does. And it is also the sort of knowledge she wouldn't share unless she was given something for it. Renee knows. But she feels it is not her place to say anything. She is the quiet one, but Renee is also the one who is missed.

This brings in my other layer. 

Roderick Morgan, the psychic, knows she is gone. 

Morgan: "Where’s Renee?"
Larina: "What?"
Morgan: "Renee Jäneläinen. Where is she?"
Larina: "Why would I know?"
Morgan: "Because Valerie is missing. Sylvia is missing. Now Renee is gone. And every time this town starts eating people, there are witches standing near the teeth."

Morgan doesn't like witches. But not because he is a misogynistic jerk, but because witches are "untidy"; they are too chaotic, and he thinks their psychic baggage causes half the problems in town. He is not entirely wrong. Every time someone uses magic, it is like ringing a dinner bell for the supernatural elements in town. BUT some of the players were under the impression that Morgan hates witches and, by extension, women. I mean, he is an arrogant prick sometimes, but that is too far. I wanted to show that he is absolutely NOT Andreas Gelé, but he can see the road Gelé is on from where he is standing.

Faye: "Are you keeping tabs on us, Morgan?"
Morgan: "Don’t flatter yourself. I keep tabs on all potential threats."
Stephanie (tersely): "Renee isn’t a threat."
Morgan: "No. (quieter) She isn't."

I said before that Morgan and Renee are based on two old AD&D characters that have an uneasy history, Morgan Highstar and Rhiannon. At that time I didn't know what their reactions were going to be in their Jackson versions. Then it became obvious. Morgan likes Renee. At the end of this adventure, he should be a better person. Maybe not by much, but his classification of the witches in town is a little too close to Gelé's notes, and that should bother him. It has changed how I played him afterward. 

How Does it End?

At the end of the adventure, the witches and Morgan are standing together. My not-so-subtle message here? Together they are stronger, and that is where the magic is, not in a blood or tissue sample.

So, here is the problem I was having with my adventure. I have Gelé here. He has kidnapped Valerie, Sylvia, and Renee. In my game, they were rescued by Morgan, Larina, Stephanie, and Faye. Pretty much every bit of heavy firepower I have in this game. And Larina, at this point in her life, is pretty well known for her very poor anger management skills. She wanted to burn him alive at his first "Ah, Fräulein Nichols." How do I give the characters and the players a satisfactory ending and STILL make it so The Refrigerator could come back? 

Well, as it turns out, I gave myself a "Rule of Two" roll that his machines would fail. I rolled a "1." A success that, in this case, is also a failure. The machines begin to blow up with Gelé melting before their eyes. Everyone got out, and I had Val toss out a 'See you in Hell, Andreas.' 

So, just like his horror godfather, Dr. Phibes, Dr. Andreas Gelé might return.

Presently, I don't have any plans to bring him back to Jackson, but he might appear in other NIGHT SHIFT games. 

Dr. Andreas Gelé by Eugene Jaworski

Dr. Andreas Gelé

5th level Inventor, Human Male

Background: Scholar

Base Abilities

Strength: 11 (+0)
Agility: 13 (+1) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) n
Intelligence: 18 (+3) A
Wits: 16 (+2) n
Persona: 10 (+0) 

Vit: 25 (1d6)
DV: 8
Fate Points: 1d8

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+2/+1
Attack bonus (base): +2
Melee bonus: +0  Ranged bonus: +0

Languages: English, German, French
Skills: Medicine, Cyronics, Engineering

Saves: +4 to Intelligence and Wits saves. +1 to Toughness.

Inventions
Freeze Ray
Effects (1st-3rd level)
- Chill Ray
- Hold Person
- Sleep
- Slow

Effects (4th-6th level)
- Control Temperature
- Finger of Death
- Wall of Ice

Effects (7th-9th level)
- Destroy Life

Cryochamber
Effects (1st-3rd level)
- Hold Person

Effects (7th-9th level)
- Sleeping Village

Heroic Touchstones
Level 1: +1 to Toughness saves.
Level 2: +1 to hit with unique attack mode (Chill Ray gun)

Hair: Black with Gray streaks
Eyes: Blue
Height: 6'0"

Archetype: Science Nerd / Evil inventor
Quote: "Ah, you see Fräulein, only cold logic can prevail here."
Quirks: Arrogant and thinks he is smarter than everyone in the room. He is usually right about that. 
Theme song: Cold as Ice - Foreigner

And because I have not posted him yet and to show the similarities between these two. 

"Just Mogan."

Roderick Morgan

4th level Psychic, Human Male
Student at St. Michael's Catholic Academy and High School

Background: Nerd

Base Abilities

Strength: 14 (+1)
Agility: 14 (+1) 
Toughness: 10 (+0) 
Intelligence: 18 (+3) A
Wits: 16 (+2) n
Persona: 16 (+2) n

Vit: 20 (1d6)
DV: 8
Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+2/+1
Attack bonus (base): +2
Melee bonus: +0  Ranged bonus: +0

Languages: English, Latin
Skills: Computers, Writing 

Saves: +4 to Persona saves, +1 to Wits saves

Psychic Abilities
Danger Sense, Supernatural Attacks, Supernatural Power

Psychic Powers
Precognition 4 (Supernatural)
ESP 4
Biofeedback 1

Heroic Touchstones
Level 1: +1 to Wits saves
Level 2: Pick Locks skill (35%)

Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue
Height: 6'0"

Archetype: Student 
Quote: "Witches are messy. They are untidy and frankly get on my nerves."
Quirks: Arrogant. Never uses his first name; he prefers to go by "Morgan." 
Theme song: Tom Sawyer - Rush

Morgan isn't quite Andreas Gelé, but he can see the path from where he is standing. The thing that makes Morgan, ultimately, a good person is he chooses not to take that path. Oh, he can still be an asshole, but he's not an evil asshole.

I also had pulled out my copy of Beyond the Supernatural 1st Ed since I knew I was going to be stating him up eventually. Not done with his BtS sheet yet.

Night Shift^® is a registered trademark of Elf Lair, LLC.

Can I Use NIGHT SHIFT for an SCP Tabletop RPG?

Crossposted to the Elf Lair Games blog.

My kids got me into SCP.

Or, more accurately, they told me all about it, pointed me toward the Wiki, and then left me standing there staring at what appears to be several lifetimes’ worth of lore.

I am very new to SCP. The sheer amount of material is honestly a little overwhelming, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.

But I am a horror RPG designer.

So once I started reading, one thought kept coming back to me: Can I run this with NIGHT SHIFT?

That answer is absolutely yes.

Running this with NIGHT SHIFT: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars?

I would say yes. In fact, the more I look it over, the more I am convinced NIGHT SHIFT is already a near-perfect fit for an SCP-style campaign.

Now, I do not mean in the sense of replicating every scrap of SCP lore or re-creating each Foundation department and classification. The old hands at SCP know that side of things far better than I do. What I have in mind is the game's fundamental structure.

You have your secret organizations and the impossible creatures they house. Haunted objects. Beings from other dimensions. Government installations where some entity has been walled off behind six feet of reinforced concrete simply because no one has yet come up with a way to put it down.

NIGHT SHIFT can handle all of that without much alteration.

An SCP game is not about playing the SCPs; it is about the ones who must deal with them. And that is where NIGHT SHIFT excels. Your characters are the researchers, the security detail, the occult experts, the field agents, and the medics. Or the poor saps you send into the basement when something starts to make noise. In the parlance of NIGHT SHIFT, they are Veterans. People who have run up against the supernatural and lived to tell of it. But they are also the Sages and Survivors, and maybe even the odd Psychic. 

It could be their first day with the organization or their twentieth. Then again, perhaps they were recruited precisely because they survived something that ought to have finished them off. There is something very NIGHT SHIFT about that.

The Foundation as the Night World

There is a basic tenet to NIGHT SHIFT: the supernatural is there, coexisting with the normal world but kept out of sight. From what I have read, SCP operates on much the same premise.

The distinction is in the organization. In a typical NIGHT SHIFT affair, your characters might come across the paranormal of their own accord. Not in an SCP vein. Here, someone is already aware of the monsters. They have the files, the labs, the protocols, and likely a number for the beast in question.

This does not have to be the SCP Foundation proper. For my own table, I would probably make up something else. A federal agency, an international body, or a private concern dating back to the Second World War or longer. It does not matter so long as someone is quietly putting the Night World in order. They have learned the hard way that some things are not to be destroyed, only put away.

Secure

Consider the investigation.

A case comes in. People have vanished. An antique mirror is showing people the future. There is an extra room in a house where there was none before. Every soul in town has had the same dream. Or a children’s program shows up on tape for no reason anyone can recall.

The characters are on the scene to find out why. You will have them talking to witnesses, poring over records and folklore, and the odd door-kicking exercise. Classic stuff. But they are not after a permanent fix right now. They need to understand what they are up against in order to get through it.

Contain

Here is where the SCP element puts its stamp on the adventure.

In a conventional monster hunt, the objective is plain: find it, kill it, head home. Containment is another matter. You try to put the creature down, and it comes back, or makes matters worse, or defies being killed altogether. That is very often the case.

So you have to think of something else. Bind it. Relocate it. Seal off the entrance. Put the artifact in saltwater. See to it that two copies of the photograph are never in the same place. Do whatever is necessary.

It turns the session into as much a puzzle as an action piece. The players stop asking how to defeat it and start wondering what the rules are. To me, that is the appeal of SCP as an RPG. The horror lies not just in the monster but in the way reality has fallen apart around it.

Protect

Then there is this part. I think I have the most fun with it. Who is being protected? I think about this one a lot.

The public, of course. The organization would have you believe the common man is not equipped to know what is really out there. But then the characters are likely to find that "Protect" is a word with many definitions.

It could mean shielding civilians from the supernatural or the other way around. It might be about keeping the organization itself from being found out, or even the preservation of reality. And on some days it means protecting an anomalous creature from the very people whose job it is to look after everyone else. That last scenario in particular makes for fine NIGHT SHIFT material.

Think of it: you go in and find the thing in containment is intelligent. Or innocent. A child. The last of its kind. What do you do? In that moment, the game is no longer a matter of monster hunting; it is something far more compelling.

From Classes to Roles

There is no need for an "SCP Agent" class in NIGHT SHIFT. I would make use of the ones on hand and view them as the sort of personnel the organization puts on its rolls.

A Survivor is your field operative or security. A Veteran is the containment agent who has seen enough. You keep a Chosen One on staff because anomalies have a way of behaving differently in their presence. A Psychic is your specialist for research and investigation. As for a Witch, put her in the Occult Research Division and let the rest of the department avoid her. No end to where an Inventor can go.

The organization is not concerned with what is written on your character sheet. They want to know if you can go into Room 17, have a word with the occupant, and return. With the same headcount you had when you left, ideally.

Anomalies, Not Monsters

I like this part best. Call it an anomaly and give it a designation rather than a monster label. Put together a containment protocol and a file on what the organization thinks it knows.

Take a vampire, for example.

Designation: NS-017

Containment: Sealed chamber with remote UV lighting. No personnel with exposed blood allowed inside.

Known Properties: Photosensitivity, rapid healing, nocturnal.

Very clinical. Until someone realizes that the ultraviolet is having no effect at all. The vampire has been putting on a show. Suddenly, you have an adventure on your hands.

Let Them Be in the Dark

One does not want to turn the supernatural into a textbook. The organization can catalog, experiment, and write reams of documentation, but understanding is another matter entirely. The best SCP-style game will highlight the chasm between the two.

The file says the entity will not cross running water. Why? Nobody can say. It goes dormant if you sing to it. Again, why? The file says there are seven of them. There are eight. That discrepancy will prove to be of some consequence. The Night World has no duty to conform to the order the organization is trying to impose.

Making Containment Procedures Work for You

This provides the Game Master with a ready-made structure. Begin with a procedure, then ensure it is broken.

CONTAINMENT BREACH

The players will be aware that something has gone wrong, though they may not have the full picture. Was the creature let out on purpose? Did it escape? Or was the procedure never doing any containing at all, and whatever was actually holding it back has just made off?

That is an adventure in the making.

On the Matter of Sanity

I would not insist on it. You can bring in mechanics for fear or trauma if the campaign calls for it, but an SCP game does not automatically require them. These are Veterans of the Supernatural Wars, not some ordinary folk having their first run-in with the impossible. They are the ones called in after the impossible has already made a meal of three guards.

The horror is in the realization that your training and your fine three-inch binder of CONTAINMENT PROCEDURES may not cut it. Because things have changed. And the thing on the other side of the door has taken note.

NIGHT SHIFT: Secure, Contain, Protect

One can certainly make NIGHT SHIFT work for an SCP-style game if one puts the mind to it.

Retain the classes and the monsters. Let the supernatural Night World remain as a presence under the surface of normal reality. Then put in place an organization whose job is to investigate anomalies and see that they do not come to light.

Assign the monsters some clinical nomenclature. Have containment procedures for odd phenomena. Leave the players with files that lack detail.

After that, simply go against one assumption.

That is all that is required. Or so I would have it after my initial foray into the SCP rabbit hole.

I am sure any veteran of SCP will be able to point out the complications and aspects of the setting I have yet to encounter. I would be interested in hearing about them. But as a game designer, what has caught my attention is this: the monsters have always been there; someone has just begun to record them.

Links

• SCP Foundation Wiki
• About The SCP Foundation
• Guide For Newcomers
• Essay and Resource Hub
• FAQ

Tales of Jackson, IL: Val and Ami

 I have not done any NPC profiles in a long time. I wanted to do this because at EGG CON I had a player play Val, and he did such a great job bringing my "dumb jock" to life. I just had to revisit him. 

Ok, calling Valentino "Val" Michele Moreno a dumb jock in not fair. He is not the smartest guy in the room, but he has a lot of things going for him besides being on the football and baseball teams. I also want to talk about his other best friend Ami. It takes Val a bit, but he realizes that Ami is in love with him. 

Both Val and Ami are here for the "High School Jock" stereotypes, and honestly, if this were a horror movie, they would be among the first to die. But this is a game, and they both are really good kids and a lot of fun, so far they have lived and even taken some serious hits. Well...every hit is serious in this game.

Valentino "Val" Michele Moreno

Val has been Andy Thompson's best friend since 1974, when Val brought a Nerf football to preschool, and they played with it all recess. Val's family never had the money the Thompsons did, but Andy LOVED staying with Val because of his huge family. It is Val and his four younger sisters. Val was almost sent to St. Michael's Catholic School, but he convinced his parents that his chances at a football or baseball scholarship would be better at Jackson Public High School. He was right, of course. 

At the start of the game, Val is dating Stephanie Vale. Naturally, the captain of the football team is dating the head cheerleader. They break up when Stephanie discovers all the supernatural dealings in town. Plus, Stephanie can see that Ami is the one who loves Val. 

Val is a Divine Warrior, from the NIGHT SHIFT: Night Companion. He was originally just going to be a survivor, but something in him awakened when the Bell rang in Jackson. He was already a fairly devout Catholic boy with very strong opinions. Also, the idea of a monster preying on girls in his town was deeply offensive to him. Yes, this is me being political. So when he discovered that his ex-girlfriend and her friends were fighting monsters at night, Val did what Val always does; he grabbed a baseball bat and went to help, whether they wanted him to or not. Turns out that Val's moral compass is so true his bat actually damages supernautral creatures.

Valentino "Val" Michele Moreno
2nd-level Divine Warrior, Human

Background: Jock

Base Abilities

Strength: 16 (+2) A
Agility: 17 (+2) n
Toughness: 15 (+1) n
Intelligence: 11 (+0) 
Wits: 12 (+0) 
Persona: 14 (+1) 

Vit: 10 (2d6)
DV: 8
Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Attack bonus (base): +2
Melee bonus: +4  Ranged bonus: +2

Saves: +1 to Wits and Persona-based saves, +1 to Toughness-based (Jock)

Languages: English
Skills: 

Divine Warrior Abilities
Danger Sense 1 (1d8), Heal injury 1d6 ("walk it off"), Supernatural Attack +1

Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 6'1"
DOB: 1/12/1969

Archetype: The Jock
Quote: "It's not trash-talk if I am right."
Quirks: Is a lot more observant than he lets on.
Theme song: "Centerfield" by John Fogerty

His middle name "Michele" is a variant of "Michael," his patron Saint. St. Michael the patron saint of those who hunt demons. He wears a Saint Michael medallion, and Larina swears it glows when he is fighting. She is not a fan of Val, but knows he is good in a fight. She also knows that whatever makes his medallion glow doesn't particularly care for witches.

One day at school, Valentino was walking down the hall when someone shouted, "Hey Val!"  Both Valentino and Valerie Beaumont said "What?" at the same time, and both laughed. The next day, she said, "Hey Val!" to him, and he said, "Hey Val!" back. It became their thing until graduation and long after. The Assistant Principal, Glenn Daniels, wanted it stopped, but Valerie told him to pull the stick out of his ass. 

Spoilers: Val goes on to the U of I with Ami on that scholarship. He played ball for the minor-league Cardinals for a couple of years but injured his elbow. He ends up teaching at St. Michael's Catholic School and serving as its football coach. 

In 2019, Andy (head football coach at JPHS) and Val decided to do a charity game at the end of their seasons between JPHS and St. Mike's to raise money for local charities. They called the "Crosstown Classic," and it became a weekend-long celebration before the Thanksgiving break. 

Typically, the Hope Center, a place for women and children seeking assistance built by social worker Denise Carver, gets its funds. 

Ami Beth Reed

Ami Beth Reed is on the track team, the girls' basketball team, but most importantly (to her), the girls' softball team. Ami is tough, a little loud, and easy to spot. She stands nearly 6' tall and has short cropped black hair. She is attractive, but her rough exterior tends to intimidate most high school kids. She drives a beat-up '79 Chevy C/K truck that constantly blares Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and the Scorpions.

Also, everyone thinks Ami is gay. Everyone is wrong. Despite her rough exterior, Ami doesn't really know how to talk to guys. That is, except for Val. Val and Ami have a natural chemistry that people find "odd."  Val was known as the guy who was dating Stephanie Vale, and now he hangs out with Ami all the time. Val tells people that Ami is a great workout partner; they go running every morning. Plus Val will proudly say, "Hey, I am maturing. I have a girl as a best friend."

Ami is hopelessly in love with Val.

Well...not hopeless. In an early playtest adventure, Ami gets hurt when a monster claws her stomach, leaving deep wounds. This established a few things. First, Ami has this cool scar on her side. Secondly, it solidified Candy as my go-to medic, but most of all, it awakened Val's inner Divine Warrior. Ami got hurt, and Val went psycho on the monster. 

Ami Reed
1st level Survivor, Human

Background: Jock

Base Abilities

Strength: 14 (+1)
Agility: 13 (+1) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) n
Intelligence: 13 (+1) 
Wits: 16 (+2) A
Persona: 15 (+4) n

Vit: 5 (1d4)
DV: 8
Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Attack bonus (base): +0
Melee bonus: +0  Ranged bonus: +0

Languages: English
Skills: 

Saves: +3 to death saves, +1 to Toughness-based (Jock)

Survivor Abilities
Improved defense -1, Open Locks 20%, Bypass traps 15%, Sleight of hand 25%, Move silently 25%, Hide in shadows 25%, Climb 55%, Danger Sense 1-2 (1d6), Perception 40%, Sneak attack +4

Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue
Height: 6'0"
DOB: 2/14/1969

Archetype: The Tough Girl
Quote: Rolls shoulder and points with her bat, "Dibs on the big one."
Quirks: Likes to think she is invincible and takes the hits the "little witches" can't. There is truth in this, but she is not indestructible. 
Theme song: "Invincible" by Pat Benatar

 Ami is from the "bad side" of town on the northeast side. She is not a bad kid, quite the opposite, really, but she has had to learn how to hold herself. She has been in some fights, but has learned that intimidation often stops most fights before they start. Consequently, she always has one of her bats handy. 

In truth, Ami doesn't really care for basketball, but as the tallest girl in the school, she felt kind of obligated to join. She does, however, really enjoy softball and often teases Val that she can outhit him. They spend a lot of time together at the batting cages. Only much later in life will they agree that those nights were in fact dates.

Much like Val, supernatural monsters preying on the helpless offend her sensibilities of right and wrong. 

Spoilers: Ami and Val did get together at the Senior Prom. They then went to the U of I together. Where they stayed together (minus a dramatic "break" their junior year that was short-lived) the whole time. 

Ami got her degree in physical therapy and does weekend sports casts on the local radio station (minor in Radio and Television Media). 

Years later, as married couples, Andy and Rowan, along with Val and Ami, get together on Sunday to watch whatever game is on. Rowan asks questions about what is going on, often just to get a rise out of everyone. 

She had gotten so much grief for her height and jock appearance in high school that when Playboy came around U of I for one of their college girls specials, she submitted pictures. She made the issue representing the University of Illinois. Later, when she shows the issue to Denise and Candy, Candy is pissed off that they airbrushed out her scars. But otherwise, they are thrilled to be friends with a certified "Fucking Amazon Goddess." Val is also pretty thrilled with the issue as well. 

Real-world influence: I went to college with Jenny McCarthy. No, I did not know her well. Her younger sister, Joanne, was one of my students, though. Interestingly enough, that was two different universities on opposite ends of the state. 

Night Shift^® is a registered trademark of Elf Lair, LLC.

Tales of Jackson, IL: Jenny, Jenny Who Can I Turn To?

 Today is Jenny Everywhere Day!

I make no excuses for it. I love Jenny Everywhere. 

I love the character, I love the concept, and I love how and why she was created, and just all of it really. Today is the day we celebrate Jenny in all her multitudes. And we celebrate by contributing to her lore.

First and foremost, I must include her license. I don't do this because I have too, I do because it is also part of what I love about her.

"The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed."

I felt like it was also a great day to finally introduce Jenny, the Shifter, to NIGHT SHIFT. I mean, really. A multi-genre game system needs equally multi-genre NPCs. Jenny can be in every Night World, every Solar Frontier, and by both her own logic and the logic of the Dreaming Age, Jenny was found in the Wasted Lands.

Jenny in Jackson, IL

Jenny: "This town is so weird, and so much more dangerous than any of you know. Seriously, you should all move out, like, now. You are all absolutely bonkers for staying here. But I can’t help it. I love it here."

Larina: "That...is not very reassuring."

Of course, Jenny would end up here eventually. Her "eventually" and our "eventually" are not really the same thing at all, but that is fine. I imagine the characters see her reflection in the glass of Paula's Bookstore one day. She is waving at them, but they can't see her standing inside the store or behind them. She walks through the glass and stands out on the sidewalk. She knows the characters and some of their details, but they are also out of order. Some details are from the future; others may deal with other versions of the characters. So questions like "wow, when did you start wearing glasses?" to characters who have always worn glasses, and so on.

She will exclaim with much pride that today is her birthday and that she was born on this day in 2002. Or will be. Hard to keep timelines straight when you are a Shifter.

Here is how I am planning to use her. Jenny is not a fighter. She is not a harbinger. She is not a warning or even a cautionary tale. Jenny is just fun. Now that doesn't mean something weird isn't happening. But her appearance should feel like the first episode after Sweeps Week or a slightly silly Monster of the Week one. BUT she can be used to move the adventure forward or provide some clues.

For example. In Jackson, the "Big Bad" is the Hollow King. He is trying to absorb special items and then people to fill the emptiness, sorry, Emptiness, inside. His ultimate targets are Candy and Denise. Why? They are "mirror shards," and while they seem to be just two party girls, they actually have connections to all their alternate universe selves. Candy even says all the time, "I contain multitudes." She says it because she thinks it makes her sound cool and deep. But in reality? She could not be more correct. She and Denise have enough to make the Hollow King whole again. And that is bad. Not just "in bringing back a very powerful Necromancer" bad (where the most powerful witch right now is only 2nd level), but because two very sweet and mostly innocent girls would be dead.

Jenny: "Yeah, the data plan is great, but I have to wait 35 more years for decent 5G."

Jenny is like a shard as well. But Jenny is aware of all her "shards," and they are aware of her. The Hollow King could no more consume her than I could eat all of the food in Chicago right now. It would destroy him.  BUT Jenny knows the importance of Denise and Candy. She knows their other shards. 

Now...she might not know why they are important to what is going on in THIS Jackson right now. And she might not even know they are part of the larger seasonal arc; she just knows they are important.

Because of course they are.

Jenny Everywhere
The Shifter

4th level Sage, Human (mostly)

Background: Multiversal traveler. 

Base Abilities

Strength: 11 (+0)
Agility: 13 (+1) 
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 17 (+2) A
Wits: 13 (+1) N
Persona: 16 (+2) N

Vit: 22 (1d6)
DV: 7 (leather jacket)
Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+2/+0
Attack bonus (base): +0
Melee bonus: +0  Ranged bonus: +1

Languages: All
Skills: A little bit of everything

Saves: +3 to spells and magic-based saves

Sage Abilities
Survivor Skills, Mesmerize ("Fast Talk"), Lore, Languages, Spells

Survivor Skills
Open Locks: 25%
Bypass Traps: 20%
Sleight of Hand: 30%
Move Silently: 30%
Hide in Shadows: 20%

Read Languages: 20%

Spells*
First-level: Bless ("Motivation Speech"), Command
Second-level: Knock

*Note about spells: Jenny doesn't actually cast spells. Her 'magic' allows certain disruptions of the local reality. She can talk to give someone an emotional boost ("Bless") or get them to do something else ("Command"). She also has an affinity for locks...or more to the point, she has an affinity for getting into places she really shouldn't, and locked doors are not going to be an obstacle ("Knock"). 

Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 101 lbs

Archetype: The Shifter
Quote: "I’m not lost. I’m just taking the scenic route through reality."
Quirks: Travels the multiverse or "shifts" to different realities.
Theme song: She tells everyone it is "867-5309/Jenny" by Tommy Tutone, because she loves seeing people's reactions. (I have to admit I always think it is "Donna Everywhere" by Too Much Joy, but she doesn't fit the girl in the song at all.)

Heroic Touchstones
1st Level: Psychic Power: Tele-empathic link (to other selves) 
3rd Level: Aura Sense/Sight (Mirror Shard Awareness)

The Mirror Shard: Mirror Shard Awareness

Jenny Everywhere does not see the future. Not exactly. She sees versions.

She has made the acquaintance of people before they were born and after they were dead. She has been in worlds where they are famous and in ones where no one remembers them; worlds where they made every wrong move and, impossibly, where they got it right. Jenny does not always have the wherewithal to tell which version is from which reality or which of her memories will be of use. But she will remember a face, a name, and the particular shape a soul has when you run into it more than once.

Jenny calls it her sight. I call this Mirror Shard Awareness.

It is not mind-reading, nor is it prophecy. Call it a multiversal memory. When she comes across someone of consequence, she might well recognize another version of them. Some days this makes her helpful, some days funny, and on occasion it makes her exceedingly careful.

In the course of play, this awareness lets Jenny know things about a character that she ought not to. A nickname that has yet to be used. A scar this world has not put on him. A debt, a rescue, a funeral, or a betrayal that never took place here. Her asides will sound like jokes or mistakes, but there is nothing random about them.

Take Larina Nichols in Jackson. Jenny will notice the glasses first. Many Larinas don’t wear them, but the one in Jackson does. And the one for the Mage RPG does. Jenny puts two and two together: the ones with the glasses are usually the sort who have seen too much and found a way to live with it. The magic they see all the time is just too much.

Or when she calls Faye "Fey." The rest of the room won’t catch it, but Faye will. It will land wrong, or perhaps too right. Jenny isn’t mispronouncing Faye Thorne's name; she is recalling a version of her for whom the name was something older.

The immortal Valerie will get a smile and an inquiry as to where the ten dollars she owes her are, even though Valerie has no recollection of owing Jenny a thing.

"Not yet," Jenny will say, unbothered.

When she sees Candy and Denise are together, Jenny goes quiet. 

"Oh," she’ll say in a low voice. "There they are." She doesn't know why they are important, just that they are. 

That is the awareness at work. Jenny has known Jacksons without them. Jacksons where only one of the pair made it, or where they never met, and the town was all the colder for the absence of two ordinary, impossible girls. She knows their futures. The daughter Denise adopts. The Hope Center that Denise and Candy built/will build in the 2010s to help families in need. 

People's pasts and futures are in her head, but they do not always belong to this world. This is one of the reasons she can't be trusted as an oracle. She is telling the truth; the problem is you can never be sure which truth applies here. She isn't psychic (normally); she just has a lot of incomplete histories and futures.

Game Use

A scene may warrant a comment from Jenny about an important NPC or PC by way of Mirror Shard Awareness. Let the GM make of it what they will: a clue, a warning, an emotional complication, or a jest. It should hint at a possible truth without writing the character’s future for them.

Examples:

"Still here. Good. That matters."

"You wrote the song already? No? My mistake."

"Wait, the scar isn’t there yet? Good. You want to stay off the gym roof in November."

"You are so much harder to convince in this version."

The GM is free to decide if such remarks are true, partly true, true in another timeline or merely symbolic. Jenny is not lying. She is just carrying around too many maps.

Limit: Too Many Truths

Jenny has trouble separating one world’s truth from another. If the players put her on the spot for a straight answer on the future, the GM can rule one of three ways: it is true here, it is true in another world, or it is true only if the characters make it so. Jenny is aware of this and would rather be irritating than put words to a possibility and turn it into a cage.

Edited to Add: This past weekend, I ran a "Next Generation" game in Jackson to see if the setting works outside of the 1980s time frame. It does, but I like the 1980s vibe better. But it does give me a new idea for when I use Jenny later on.

Jenny: "Oh! And say hi to Taryn for me!
Larina: "Who is Taryn?"
Jenny: "Oh. Sorry. Spoilers. Say hi to her in 2012."

Special Limit: Larina's Mirror

You will not catch Jenny looking in Larina's mirror. Not safely. 

While she has passed through a train window, or a comic panel, even a particularly judgmental snow globe to cross universes, Larina’s mirror is different. It doesn’t just show you alternate worlds; it throws back too many shards of Larina Nichols at once: the Witch Queen, the librarian, the schoolgirl, the red-headed girl with the black fingernails and a notebook, the woman with blood on her hands, the psychic storm that still uses her name.

If forced to look, she must save vs. magic (or equivalent). Fail, and she is stunned for 1d6 rounds, unable to shift and unsure of which Jackson she is in. Succeed, and she still sees one impossible Larina with too much clarity and will have nothing more to do with it.

"Nope. Uhn-uh. Absolutely not. That is a Larina-shaped traffic accident across twelve dimensions."

And if she is feeling less flippant:

"That thing doesn’t show you who you are. It shows you who you might be mistaken for. All of them."

She will describe this as akin to multi-versal feedback. Jenny can already see more than most people; she avoids objects that allow others to do what she can do naturally.

Links

• Her page at Public Domain Super Heroes

HAPPY JENNY EVERYWHERE DAY!

EGG Con, NIGHT SHIFT and the Wasted Lands of Yog

 I am back from EGG Con this past weekend, and it was fantastic. I sold a lot of books and played a few games. Heidi Gygax Garland and Erik Garland did a hell of a good job with the Con. Reminds me of Gary Con in its early days. It is kind of small, but I hope it grows; it is really a great con.

Jackson, IL

I got to play some NIGHT SHIFT in Jackson. I ran a session of "For Whom the Bell Tolls." It was a fantastic experience to see Valentino, Renee, Andy, Rowan, Denise, and Candy brought to life by others. It was just so great. 

It really got me excited to do more with Jackson and Jason, and I talked about it quite a bit. I am pleased that people seem to really love it.

It also got me thinking a lot about my Dark Places & Demogorgons crossover as well and how the two games are getting further apart. 

Yog: The Dying Lands 

I also sold a lot of Wasted Lands. I mentioned to a lot of folks that I use Wasted Lands as my D&D replacement and that is true. I do often do that, but usually run something I have. Like some B/X or AD&D modules. What I was lacking was a solid idea. I was going to buy a copy of DCC's Dying Earth (I have the PDFs and I love them), but I was complaining that I have too many systems and not enough time. I told Jason then that Wasted Lands did everything that DCC did, and vice versa. 

It dawned on me that I had already put together an idea for a Dying Earth-like game, my Wasted Lands: The Dying Age. I also had another world I have been playing around with; a pastiche of cheap 1970s-80s Sword & Sorcery novels. And by cheap I mean dirt freaking cheap. Cheap and sleazy. Some of it has also come out of my exploration of Appendix N fantasy. I have been calling the world Yog. On my drive home, I combined them all into one idea: Yog The Dying Lands.

I'll detail some more Yog later on; it is turning into a fun little experiment. Spent quite a bit of time with it Sunday and Monday night. It went pretty fast since I combined three other ideas I had. "Yog" is the world and the last continent. 

This gives me my world, my desire to do Dying Earth, and my desire for some cheap pulpy novel action. AND I get to do it all in Wasted Lands. I want it to feel like a cheap used paperback you found in 1982 with a half-naked barbarian on the cover with a giant snake and an even more naked sorceress in the background summoning lightning. The cover was enticing, scandalous even; the words might be good or not. Doesn't matter really. 

It is a really fun idea, but not grabbing me as hard as Jackson is right now. 

As my habit, I tend to pool all the things I buy at a Con into a single idea, so I'll likely try to fit the various Gaxland adventures I picked up. 

I plan to play it very much as a dying world, and everyone knows it. The heroes are not really expected to save Yog, just merely survive. I know, not much of a reason for adventuring; I am working on it.

I DID have one idea.

Back on Facebook a month or so ago, this guy was lamenting that there had never been a good Gor movie. I replied back that this was because "Gor sucks."  Since starting this blog, I have read some of the Gor books in my efforts to complete my "Classical" education. Yeah. They suck. But I have been stewing this idea of a Gor-like world, BUT (and this is where it becomes mine) there is this group of witch "freedom fighters" who fly in on booms (flying is important, brooms are just fun) and rescue women and children and take them to a sanctuary. So part Gor and part "Logan's Run." Also, while drawing inspiration from the Soviet Night Witches and the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (W.I.T.C.H.). 

Honestly, I rather love the idea of this world, with its slavers and abusers, being terrorized by a group of flying witches. It would give the setting some conflict. I can imagine guards standing watch at night and then suddenly hearing the cackle of witches and seeing their silhouettes against the starry skies. Sounds like a Falero painting to me. 

Of course I am on the side of the witches. Turn them into what our world's ultra conservatives think feminists are. Sounds like a freaking blast. Sounds a bit like the whole Hexengeddon line from Relentless Fiction. Witches vs. The Patriarchy, or in this case, Witches vs. The Priest-Kings. I kinda like that. 

I might have some version of Vera Rook/Veyra Shadoraven in charge of the witches. That sounds like fun.

Signings and AD&D 2nd Ed

I got a few books signed. I am not an autograph hound, but I do like talking with the original creators.

So I spoke with Jeff Easley and Ed Greenwood again; both are always a pleasure. And I got one I have been wanting for years, Tom Wham.

Getting these reminded me I really wanted to convert my AD&D 1st Ed Forgotten Realms game over to 2nd Edition, but it has also become my Advanced Witches & Warlocks playtest game. 

I'll have to think about it more. I do want to dust off my AD&D 2nd Edition.

Now to check eBay for some AD&D 2nd Ed books for my kids.

EGG CON III!

 EGG Con III starts tomorrow!

I will be out with Elf Lair Games to run some games of NIGHT SHIFT.

I am running two NIGHT SHIFT games.

Elf Lair Games Presents: Spector Detectors!

• Thursday, July 16th - 1st day of gaming from 11:00 am to 12:50 pm
• Friday, July 17th - 2nd day of gaming from 10:00 am to 11:50 am

Note: If asked, I could be convinced to run a game in Jackson, IL instead!

And one Thirteen Parsecs game.

Elf Lair Games Presents: Abraxas Down

• Thursday, July 16th - 1st day of gaming from 3:00 pm to 4:50 pm

It should be a great time.

It is a smaller Con than Gary Con, but they are just getting going. I am expecting the same sort of vibe, really. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

Join my games if you can or stop by to say hello at the Elf Lair Games booth.  Tell us you saw it here for a "Friends of the Other Side" discount!

Witchcraft Wednesday: Larina at 16, the Girl in Jackson, IL

Larina Stephanie Nichols at 16

 On Monday, I talked about Larina and her genesis in 1986 and before. On Friday, I am going to talk about the character's future. So today I thought, what about the present? What is Larina doing right now, and how does she affect my game design? So *who* is the Larina sitting on my desk now as I write?

Well‚ unless this is your first day here‚ the current incarnation of Larina is the one in Jackson‚ IL‚ set in 1985-86‚ and she is not the witch queen, not yet and se might not ever be․ She is often more frightened than not. Well‚ not that she'd tell you․ She only knows two spells and has a handful of books on witchcraft. And now, she and her dad just moved to Jackson‚ IL‚ the most haunted town in the Midwest․

There are a lot of really good reasons to go back to an earlier version of this character․ For starters‚ as I have hoped to point out‚ this was when she began in real life‚ so it would make sense to explore the character becoming who she is․ Not the legend․ Not the queen․ Not the character who has shifted through AD&D‚ Chill‚ WitchCraft‚ Mage‚ and NIGHT SHIFT‚ but just simple Larina‚ the sixteen-year-old trying to figure out why every shadow in the town knows her name․

I have had forty years to get to know the person Larina is. But in 1985-86, when I play Jackson Larina, it is an altogether different matter. At sixteen, fresh to town, left to make sense of her magic on her own. She has some friends who become her coven and are like sisters to her, and other friends she will fiercely defend. But the monsters here always have the upper hand.

Back in real 1986, Larina was not nostalgia. She was immediate. She was a character I needed at the table, a witch-shaped answer to a question AD&D had not quite answered for me yet. Today, writing Jackson Larina as a sixteen-year-old in a fictional1986 is something else. It is not just returning to the character. It is returning to the age when I first imagined her.

That changes everything.

I was the same as Larina when I first put her on the page. Being a teenager in 1986 is no exercise in imagination for me; I was living it. The music and books, the games and the anxieties that came with them, the moral panic, the cheap notebooks where I would scribble down character ideas, the disputes over rules, the feeling that the world was a far stranger place than the adults would have you believe, all of it was right there. Larina is a product of that time.

With Jackson Larina, I can return to those days, but from a different vantage point. I am not sixteen any longer, nor am I looking ahead from 1986. I am looking back. It puts her in an altogether different position in my writing and in the games I make. She is more than a younger iteration of a familiar character; she is a means of inquiring what she was before the weight of mythology and design had a chance to settle on her. And honestly, I like her that way.

There is utility in stripping away the power one has accrued over the years. Jackson Larina does not have a host of powerful allies or old enemies to call upon, no lost loves, no artifacts or cosmic scars to speak of. What she has is her father, a few spells, some books and a good deal of stubbornness. And an instinct telling her something is amiss in Jackson, and that if she does not put two and two together, someone will be the worse for it. That is a witch of a different sort. 

She does have friends. Stephanie and Faye are her coven. Candy and Denise are loyal even if they need saving more often than help, but they are still there. Even later characters like Andy, Rowan, Ami and Valentino have their places in her life. Much different than her Dark Places & Demogorgons counterpart.  

Which is precisely why she is so useful in my game design. I can have all these versions of her.

While Larina is always a feature in my design work, here she plays a more crucial role. She is my test of the rules and setting for other characters, the character others might use. Characters you might use. If the rules only work when a witch is already powerful, then they do not work. If the setting only makes sense once the character has become legendary, then the setting is too thin. Jackson Larina asks a more basic question: can a beginning witch survive here?

That is what I need to know.

You will not find high-level characters in Jackson, IL. This is a town of teenagers and their teachers and parents, of record stores and public libraries and old cemeteries, of college lore and haunted houses and things best left unencountered after midnight. A witch operating in this environment must be able to conduct research, protect her friends, and make mistakes. The game has to let her be clever, not invincible.

So the fact that this Larina knows only two spells is of consequence. It makes me, as a designer, consider what witchcraft is apart from a laundry list of abilities, powers and spells. What does she suspect? What has she read that is beyond the others? What does she see when they are not looking? And at what cost? Those are the questions that matter to Jackson Larina, not the damage a spell might do. With this version, I am able to create a witch as a playable character rather than a pre-packaged archetype. She ought not come across as the inferior of an older one, but as one who has only just started on a perilous education. Jackson Larina is my means of testing that proposition. She shows me if a novice has sufficient mystery to hold a player’s interest, or enough to offer an adventure and a group.

Larina also serves as a reminder that knowledge is among her most ancient of powers. Even in the days of AD&D she was never simply a matter of spellcasting. She was the one with the books and the lore, the one with the questions, the translator of ancient languages. If there was a symbol on the door or an old name in the grimoire, or a ghost that made its annual appearance, it was she who sought to make sense of it. Jackson Larina refines that. Her two or three spells are beside the point; her strength is in what she pays attention to. She reads and listens and connects one weird detail to another.

I want a "knower" in NIGHT SHIFT and in my Jackson work, not merely a caster who hurls magic at a monster without knowing why it is there. 

She doesn't have firepower. She has two spells and a library card.

The Larina on my Desk

There is a certain vulnerability in her that the older incarnations lack. An adult Larina can be fearsome, the Witch Queen mythic; some versions of her can enter a room and reality must bend around her. Jackson is not at that stage, she might never get to that stage. She can be overmatched or mistaken, in need of assistance, the new girl unsure whom to trust. That suits Jackson better. 

The town is at its best when the characters are not entirely in command. That is Horror Movie logic and Gothic Fiction logic; it is good for horror. They may be resourceful and brave, but Jackson should seem older to them. Dangerous. There are secrets in the place that predate their birth, colleges with ghosts, houses with memories, and adults who know either too much or not nearly enough. A sixteen-year-old Larina belongs in such a world; she has the power to spot the cracks but not always know how to put them right.

In a way, that is what Larina is worth to me today. She is no longer just the character from forty years back, nor the Witch Queen in waiting. For now she is the red-headed girl in Jackson with her couple of spells and a handful of books, some really great friends, an over-protective dad, and a nagging feeling the town is going to put everything she knows about magic to the test. As a designer, I need her to be there.

If Jackson Larina works, then the witch works. Not the high-level witch. Not the legendary witch. Not the Witch Queen. The beginning witch. The playable witch. The girl who has just enough magic to get herself into trouble and just enough courage to try getting everyone else out of it.

That is the Larina sitting on my desk right now, and after forty years, she is still teaching me how to write witches.

Two Spells and a Library Card

A natural question can be raised. Why her? I mean I have no shortage of witches. I even created a brand new one (more or less) just last week. I even have a witch that has a great background AND is about the right age in Elowen. 

So why go back to Larina?

I think part of that has been answered above. Larina, the character, is a product of the mid 1980s for me. A lot of what I wanted a witch to be in 1986 is her. So naturally, if I am going to have a witch character in 1986, why not her?

Also, Larina is always great for me because I know her so well. When I am running situations as a thought experiment or at the table, I know how she should react, not how I, as someone who knows the rules of the RPG, would react. That's important to me.

Also, Elowen has a very specific role in my mind. She is deeply connected to West Haven and very much Larina's "adopted" daughter. More so than Sinéad was, despite that being an early idea. 

Larina at 16, at least how I am using her in Jackson, is becoming something really fun and she can proudly stand beside her "sisters" (or Shards as I have been calling them) from Chill, WitchCraft, Mage, and the Witch Queen from AD&D. Even the other versions of her in NIGHT SHIFT. 

Other Larinas have crossed worlds and realities; the Larina of Jackson, IL has to get across town to St. Michaels for her Greek II class in her old purple 1977 VW Bug (which she has named "Eurydice" which makes no sense really). That is enough of a challenge.

And she is teaching me more this way.

Tales of Jackson, IL: Not-so Mystic Locales

 One of the things I really wanted when I began putting together Jackson was it to feel real. I wanted places these characters could hang out and locations that felt like something from the Midwest in the mid 1980s. 

So while I love my haunted houses, hidden underground tunnels, and everything else the "bad land" has to offer, there are far more "normal" places to visit that will come into play. 

Colleges

In addition to two High Schools (Jackson Public High and Saint Michael's Catholic), Jackson has two small four-year colleges offering full bachelor's degrees in a variety of subjects, along with technical degrees and, at MacAlister, a robust RN program and an RN-to-BSN program.

While the colleges have their ghosts and their own stories, they are to most people mundane institutions of higher learning. 

MacAlister College
The East Side College, "Mac"

Founded in the early 1830s, MacAlister College for Women broke ground before Talcott College did, but did not begin enrolling students until after Talcott was established. It began with a group of Scottish immigrants looking to provide a strong Presbyterian education for young women. Its School of Nursing began strongly in its first years and continues to provide one of the best medical educations outside of the University of Illinois. After struggling somewhat in the 1870s, Mac (as it is known) opened its doors to men and women, competing with the more successful Talcott College, which had begun offering degrees in accounting and chemistry. The chemistry classrooms became the first co-ed classrooms in the entire Midwest. 

Now more than 150 years old, MacAlister is showing its age, but is beloved by students, faculty, and alumni alike. Since the 1970s, enrollment has been declining, rarely reaching its cap of 900 students. 

Illinois Beecher College 
The West Side College, The Harvard of the Heartland

Founded in the mid-19th century, what is now Illinois Beecher College began as Talcott Collegiate Institute in 1856, an ambitious attempt to establish a center of higher learning on the Illinois frontier. Its founders were educators, reformers, and idealists, some with quiet but firm ties to abolitionist networks moving through the region. They came to Jackson with one goal in mind: to provide a world-class, Protestant education to the new frontier, and in particular, the "Thebes of the West," as Jackson had been called. They even went as far as to proclaim the new college as the "Harvard of the Heartland!" Indeed, for several decades, Talcott College produced several notable scholars, orators, and political figures who would shape the state through to the 20th century. 

Talcott was renamed Illinois Beecher College in 1918, during a period of reorganization backed by Chicago financiers, railroad money, and several prominent alumni families. Talcott Hall remained the main campus building until 1975, when the new Harriet Tubman Hall was built to house the college’s expanding computer lab and business programs. The name was not an attempt to curry favor with changing times, but a concrete statement acknowledging the college’s strong abolitionist sympathies dating back to its foundation.

Stores

Lots of places to spend money in town, but only a few are of interest to our characters, and some places are better than others to find some NPCs.

El Espejo Oscuro - Illinois Ave, near Illinois Beecher College

Owner and Propriator Sylvia Velasco. 

El Espejo Oscuro sits on Illinois Avenue, not far from Illinois Beecher College, though most students are careful to say they only go there "as a joke." The name means "The Dark Mirror," and the shop lives up to it: black-painted shelves, old mirrors, candles that smell too sweet, imported books, tarot decks, silver jewelry, saints’ medals, dried herbs, and occult titles that no one in Jackson admits to buying. The owner, Sylvia Velasco, claims to be from Spain, dresses like she stepped out of a perfume ad, and somehow affords a brand-new red Ferrari despite the fact that the store never seems to have any customers. El Espejo Oscuro is both a resource and a warning. People who need answers can find them there, but Sylvia never gives anything away for free, even when she is smiling.

This is also a good place to find Vera Rook and Renee Jäneläinen, though not usually at the same time.

Paula's Bookstore - Downtown Square

Paula’s Bookstore sits on the northwest side of the Square, with a faded sign, crowded front windows, and more books than the building has any reasonable right to hold. Paula Belakis sells new books, used paperbacks, magazines, comics, local histories, poetry, study guides, and the occasional odd volume that no one remembers ordering. Unlike Strawberry Fields, Paula’s is not trying to be cool, and unlike El Espejo Oscuro, it is not trying to be dangerous. It is just a bookstore, or at least that is what everyone says. Students from Jackson Public, Saint Michael’s, Beecher, and MacAlister drift in looking for paperbacks, textbooks, horror novels, fantasy trilogies, romance novels, GED guides, and a place to hide for twenty minutes. The store has a harmless ghost, or maybe a helpful one, depending on whom you ask, and Paula has learned not to question why certain books fall off certain shelves when certain customers walk in.

This is also where you will find Larina most Saturday mornings or Roderick Morgan on Friday nights.

Paula does not have a very high opinion of Sylvia Velasco. And the feeling is mutual. But they at least respect each other as women business owners, so they try not to make things difficult for each other and try to cater to different clientele. 

Strawberry Fields -  Lincoln Square Mall

Located on the near west side of town, on Morgan Street, Strawberry Fields is a cramped record/head shop selling records, tapes, incense, posters, tarot decks, used books, magazines, cheap occult novelties, and dull display weapons. Parents think it is dangerous. Teens think it is magic. PASS thinks it is proof of moral collapse. The rumor that it sells weed is false, but the rumor never dies. For years the rumor has been if you ask at the counter for "Mellow Yellow" they will sell you something made from "bannana peels." The owners, finding the rumor funny, will just tell them, "Sorry, we only have Mt. Dew." 

This is one of the places where the PCs can also find Faye Thorne. She works here to avoid, well, pretty much everyone, but mostly her two strict aunts. Faye knows a lot about music, but still thinks your choices suck.

Places to Eat

Jackson has its own collection of fast food staples, including McDonald's, Hardee's, IHOP, and one of the few remaining Burger Chefs. 

Salvatore's Pizzeria ("Sal's Pizza") - Near Downtown Square

Owner, Operator, head pizza chef, and sometimes waiter, Salvatore Vitale is full of old-school charm and work ethic, and he yells at anyone who doesn't share his desire to work 80 hours a week. This is THE pizza place in town, and with good reason. Sal's puts his heart into everything, and a lot of garlic. The place is usually packed every Friday night and Saturday all day. Forget getting a table during any homecoming weekend for any of the schools in town. Yes, the food is that good. You can't get deep-dish style pizza here, only thin crust, but no one ever complains.

This is also one of the places where the PCs can run into Denise. Largely because she is the only one who can deal with Sal. In truth, they actually like each other because they can deal with each other's yelling.

Sal: "You should fire you!"
Denise: "You can't fire me, no one else will work here!"
Sal: "Sei proprio una ragazza pigra!"
Denise: "Ugh! We are in America! Speak American!"

Later on, when Denise Carver wins recognition for her work as a social worker, Sal puts up a framed copy of the newspaper article about her in his restaurant, where he tells everyone that Denise was "the best waitress he ever had!"  

There are more places. Many I am leaving purposefully vague until I need them. Others are a little too haunted to deal with right now. Case in point, I have plans for the Court House and the old Governor's Mansion. I still have the hospitals to detail as well.

I have already talked about the Library as both a place of adventure and a Mystic Locale. I have already figured out that there is a copy of "A Wrinkle in Time" where Larina can leave a note, and her alternate universe self in the Dark Places & Demogorgons universe will find it in the copy in her library. One of the notes Jackson Larina "Nix" sends to Cabon Vale, IL, Larina "Creepy", is "watch out for Moria."

I might get a map of my old hometown and start putting "X"s on it, marking these locations.