Review: Thought Forms by Jeffrey Thomas

            Ray, a man who is living in the house of his brutally murdered parents, is being menaced by mysterious figures.    His cousin Paul is working nights at a plastics factory that becomes a fight for survival, as a monster stalks him and a group of workers.  These two storylines alternate between chapters and build to a violent and deadly climax for the both of them. 

The Good:

·        The Atmosphere- Thomas keeps the mood claustrophobic and filled with menace.  It is unspoken but there is a darkness creeping out of every place the characters are not currently experiencing; behind every unopened door evil and violence awaits.

·        Slow Burn- The book takes its time getting where it has too, which complements the atmosphere of menace.

The Bad:

·        Typesetting- Some problems with page layout that moves sentences around to accommodate the page.  Not major but breaks up the flow of paragraphs. 

·        Slow Burn- A lot of what happens is the characters ruminations and inner monolog.  There is little action to be had until the last hundred pages and even then only in the last fifty do things really take off and the blood starts to be spilled.

·        Characters- The two main characters fall somewhat flat.  Both stories are lacking dialog, while in line with the main theme (No Spoilers), makes the protagonists feel underdeveloped and conceived in a vacuum.      

The Verdict:

·        Who should buy this: Fans of Thomas work will want to add this to their collection.  Anyone who enjoys a slow story that is more focused on the inner lives of its characters.

·        Who should let this sit on the shelf: Those who like action and quick story progression and fans of epic large-scale stories and larger than life protagonists.

·        My Opinion: Thomas’s work is an acquired taste and this book is at the far end of that spectrum.  Start elsewhere, the short story collection Punktown is a first stop, and then move into this book.  Most will find this book slow moving and hard to get invested in. 

Total Score: 2 out of Five Shoggoths 

Horror Gaming 101

Pulling the Rug

Everything is going great, all the pieces are where they should be, what you see is what you get; that is until the facade crumbles away.  Pulling the rug out from under a group can be a devastating way to end, with a bang, or begin, to set the mood, of a campaign.  Any number of other terms can describe such a device but the most recognizable is from movies and called The Twist.  The Ring, The Six Sense, Psycho, Identity all pull the rug out from under the viewer in the last moments, thus changing the way the viewer understands the previous 90 minutes.  The Sixth Sense is movie about ghosts and a boy who can see them.  The twist happens when the character, and the audience, finds out that he is a ghost.  The rug goes tight and viewers end up on the ground.  Let us examine how to achieve this using our dear departed Grandmother Mrs. Brown.

The Façade
This is the set up and prep work; you have to have a rug before you can pull it out from under someone.  This part can be tricky because the GM has to feed information to the players without it seeming forced or important.  Take Grandma Brown; the needed façade is one of a charitable, down to earth, and sweet woman who loves her family especially her grandkids.  To dump the former sentence into the players lap is a mistake.  Show rather than tell about her qualities.  If Charitable, the players see her volunteering at a local soup kitchen for the poor.  Down to earth, then every Christmas she sends all her family members hand knit items like scarves, sweaters, and socks.  A sweet woman, for as long as the player can remember he has received a call and a cake delivered on his birthday.  The point is, do not let the players know that there is anything special about Grandma; she is just another NPC providing flavor to the constructed world.  If the players think something is up about Grandma, find a way to deflect their inquiry or distract them with a red herring.  If the situation gets too close to revealing Grandma she can offer them some homemade cookies, her specialty, with a secret nasty surprise.            

The Tragedy or Climax
The next step is to put the capstone on the Grandma facade.  This is some dramatic scene or set of scenes that plays to strengthen the ongoing deception, the grab of the rug before the pull.  A tragedy works well for this.  For Grandma this is a sudden death.  On her way to the corner store a masked man approached and shot her nineteen times with a fully Automatic Ak-47.  The police ask one of the players to identify the body.  It is Grandma, and she is dead, what a senseless tragedy.  Let the gunman be the straw man villain.  As the Players look left offer them up something from the right.  One of the players finds a small key, somewhere campaign appropriate, to a safe deposit box at the local bank.  This lead in has to be innocuous and devoid of any malice.  Eventually they will check the box, and inside is a key ring, lots of ornate strange jewelry, and a deed to a building somewhere in town.  This building is where the players will have their world upended.  

The Quick Yank
The last phase is the reveal of what is actually true and the demolishing of the entire façade.  Rapid unveiling of the truth works best. The Information pushed upon the Players in rapid succession causes a disorienting effect.  They should at a gut level feel unnerved before the logical side of their brains can put all the pieces together.   For Grandma this is the basement room of her mysterious building.  It is good to occasionally   give the Players a small taste right before the big reveal.  They will  sense something is not right but will not be able to figure out what, before it is too late.  The building itself is easy enough to enter, simple lock on the front door, but the door to the basement has seven different high quality locks.  Seven Locks will seem a bit excessive, or is it?  Once the Players descend, it is time to pull, and pull hard.  Down in the basement the Players find a multitude of insanity, violence, and depravity:  “A stone altar in the middle of the room with a freshly sacrificed young boy, the grooves on the altar run down to thirteen cups that lie at its base, there are 13 stone chairs surrounding the altar, the body is fresh, and Grandmas name is carved into one of the chairs.”  What the players had believed  turned out to be wrong, and they are now left to pick up the pieces and deal with what they have seen.  Things will never be the same again.  

The Aftermath
The Players should react, if done well, with open mouths and the inability to form a proper course of action for a least a couple of minutes.  A good Twist though asks more questions than it answers.  It is obvious that Grandma was into some sick despicable stuff, but what about all that other information:

• What about that guy who shot her, was he really a hero?
• Grandma’s name was on one of the chairs, but what about the other 12?
• Who was the victim on the Altar?
• How long has she been doing this?
• What about all those ornate jewels we found?

These unanswered questions are a great resource for a GM to use for further adventures.  

Some Forbidden Knowledge

The Internet has been down recently, but fear not, my window to the world is back!  Got some more articles coming along soon, but in the meantime to celebrate the return of the Internet it is time for some Forbidden Knowledge.

The Forbidden Knowledge of today comes from the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast.  Each week the hosts Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer discuss a story by the master of weird himself H.P. Lovecraft.  The tone shifts from academic discussion to witty banter, which makes for an entertaining listen.  Each Podcast is about thirty minutes with some of the longer stories taking more than one episode.  The quality of audio here is high with top-notch voice talents and editing work.  All of the older shows are free to download with newer ones are on a pay subscription bases.  Along with the Podcast there are some full readings of famous Lovecraft stories like The Call of Cthulhu and From Beyond.  There is no guarantee that listening will not summon a Dimensional Shambler.           

The King of Props

When it comes to game mastering a horror setting campaign nothing makes or breaks the game quite like atmosphere. It is very difficult for your players to truly enjoy the horror aspect when the lights are bright, the tv is going in the next room, kids are running around being unruly.

Over coming these obstacles is fairly standard for many groups. Most players have day to day lives that don't exactly stop when they step into the fantasy realm. Simply dimming the lights, or maybe using things like candles or flashlights, and getting those kids a sitter will go a long way for running a perfect horror scenario. 

So now that the atmosphere has been turned towards the dark, and you start some preferably creepy background music, however your players still are not getting into the game as much as you want. 

Most people running a game don't consider going beyond the simple stuff. I for one was of the same mind, never going beyond the normal expectations of your players, and simply going for good content. This all changed one day when my co-author Cris starting bringing props into his Cthulhu madness. 

Cris's campaigns went from creepy to absolutely horrifying. One of the most recent delve's into Cris's madness came in the form of a small metal box. The story went that we found a box of a man and as Cris began to describe the box, low and behold he removed an actual box from his bag. The box, wrapped in "bloody" bandages, contained several artifacts including an actual map, scribbled all over in nonsense numbers, a cassette tape, and several other items. The tape had various number sequences overlapping, or coming from multiple sources. This was the precipice for the campaign which heavily involved cryptography, and running from cultists. 

The props Cris brings will draw any player into the campaign, provide for the players a tangible attachment to the fantasy that can easily push the horror element over the edge. As the horror element in the story increases the props add the realism that allows the player to understand and act more in line with how their character would act. This level of immersion really makes for a successful campaign. Unfortunately for Cris, as players we have all become to expect this level of immersion and probably wouldn't settle for anything less. 

So what's something extra you have seen from your game masters?  Leave a comment and let us know, and don't forget to subscribe and share us with your friends.

Punktown

A city where humans rub shoulders with scores of alien races; a future where high technology is pervasive and often destructive; and underneath the surface dangerous,  otherworldly Mythos entities lie in wait for a time when they can be free again to bring annihilation.  Welcome to Jeffrey Thomas’s insane off-world future of Punktown.

What is Punktown?  Paxton,  Punktown to its inhabitants, is a human colony on a distant planet.   The city is teeming with alien life and cultures that often clash usually ending in bloodshed, or whatever the alien race has for blood.  Technology of the setting is highly advanced and teleportation, cloning, ray guns, and body implants are commonplace.  However, this is not Star Trek.  The technological marvels corrupt, destroy, and emotionally degrade the users.  What does it feel like to live in such a city?  Take one part detective noir mystery, one part Phillip K. Dick nightmare, two parts Cthulhu Mythos, and add a dash of violent crime and urban decay in equal measure, shake until frothy, then consume.    The stories Thomas writes in the Punktown universe are dark, dangerous, and often lethal for the protagonists: the perfect setting for a Call of Cthulhu campaign.  If one wished to get a feel for the setting there are two free stories of Mr. Thomas available free online:

The Library of Sorrows- http://infinityplus.co.uk/stories/library.htm

The Hate Machines- http://infinityplus.co.uk/stories/hatemachines.htm

 The Mythos veterans at Miskatonic River Press, thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, have put together a source book set in this setting due out this August.  The Sourcebook will use the Chaosium BRP Roleplaying system most widely used for Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying.  The lineup of material planned is quite extensive

·         An extensive list and statistics for the Aliens, Technology, Mutations, Drugs, and Weaponry       

·         An in-depth map of the city (A first of its kind)

·         Two all new Punktown stories written by Jeffrey Thomas

·         Multiple Pre-written scenarios with artwork and maps

               

The real gem of this endeavor is Thomas himself taking a role in the creative process.  He has actively promoted the kickstarter, participated in multiple online Q and A sessions involving the setting, and actively partnered with Miskatonic to make sure the vision of his fictional city is accurate.  It is as if H. P. Lovecraft is overseeing the creation of the original Call of Cthulhu RPG to make sure they got the Deep Ones just right.     

So crack open a Zub beer, watch your back, and roll those sanity checks!

For further inquiry, visit the fine people at Miskatonic River Press: http://www.miskatonicriverpress.com/. 

Be sure to check out Jeffrey Thomas Punktown Homepage:

http://punktalk.punktowner.com/ 

For digital and Hardbound Punktown literature check out his Amazon authors page http://www.amazon.com/Jeffrey-Thomas/e/B000APMJZ4/ref=la_B000APMJZ4_rf_p_n_feature_browse-b_2?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_82%3AB000APMJZ4%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A618073011&bbn=283155&ie=UTF8&qid=1358210133&rnid=618072011