From The Darkness

By Blake Ryan

In the popular game Minecraft, areas of darkness (at night and underground) spawn monsters. The idea of a simple environmental condition creating creatures or even problems got me thinking…

You can use some change in the environment to create an ongoing problem, either small or large in scope, and a temporary period of time or from that moment on. These can be used for any game with supernatural elements, but I shall give examples for Monsterhearts, Urban Shadows and Monster of the Week.

As you will see this is an escalation to the ‘normal situation’, but does not have to dominate the entire game play. However, this can be used as the starting incident for what made the characters unusual in the first place-what made them different from regular folks. Thus it may serve as the start of a campaign rather than an escalation for season 2. It should prove to be a more hazardous journey for PC’s and provide additional options for MC’s.

Suggested Inciting Incidents 

• Halley’s Comet – March 1986.
• Huge solar flare – August 1998.
• Mayan Calendar change of epoch – 21st December 2012.
• Super Blood Wolf Moon – 21st January 2019.

The inciting incident may be all over the news, completely ignored by most, or heralded by the Aware, the Witch and the Spooky.

Suggested Changes to the situation

• Any – One NPC contact per Character either inverts their goals or loses virtues/positive personality traits. 
• Monsterhearts – When you gain a String, an NPC has a vision and learns one of your secrets. MC chooses the NPC, PC chooses the secret. 
• Monsterhearts – When you go Darkest self, you create a monster in some way. A poltergeist, a familiar or even a clone (who is not yours to control).
• Urban Shadows – One faction starts a Join or else! recruiting drive.
• Urban Shadows – If you Let it out, a rival faction starts looking for someone who owes you a debt, and you dream of it/read it in a fortune cookie.
• Monster of the Week – Monsters literally spawn in the lightless areas. They don’t have to be huge or powerful, but it will build up quickly.
• Monster of the Week – Monsters of the same type start developing hive mind. First feelings and visual impressions, then two way speech over long distances.​

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Suggested Duration for the Dark Times

• Until the end of the season (3 month period).
• Monsterhearts - Until all of the PCs have gone Darkest Self.
• Urban Shadows - Until every PC has a Corruption move, or until one of them comes back as a threat.
• Until each of the Characters have overcome a personal challenge keyed to their fears or goals.
• Monster of the Week - Until the next Solar Eclipse (3rd October 1986, 16th February 1999, 10th May 2013, 26th December 2019 respectively)
• From now on, this is the new dark era.

Possible Side Effects

• Any – Lycanthropes or Fae change scent, all animals will find you new or alarming.
• Monsterhearts – When you Gaze into the Abyss, hundreds of insects and arachnids gather around you.
• Urban Shadows – Your shadow now shows your true nature, either under certain conditions or constantly.
• Monster of the Week – When you Use Magic/Big Magic, your skin is magnetized. 
• Any – A new Storm/Threat cult of the darkness comes to the area. They feast on fear, removing it from the victims, causing them to be increasingly reckless.

These options can be used to meddle with expectations for experienced players, or to give a through line for regular campaigns. 

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