The Disappearance of Clara McKenzie pt 1, Mechanics and Meta: Session Setup

I started this game already knowing my setting, character, and even the general hook. I’ve run one or two small campaigns in King County, as well as started writing a novel featuring Rudy (the main character for this story), but I’ve never been able to just PLAY in my own setting before.

For the initial setup of the game, I knew Rudy would be hanging out in his bar when he got an anonymous package containing an audio cassette, and that that audio cassette would contain information that would reopen a cold case. Cold for both him as a Hunter and for the police.

So I set up my Adventure Crafter sheet with the Themes in the themes like this: Mystery => Social => Tension => Action => Personal.

The Adventure Crafter’s writing is such that it makes more sense to just jump in and do it than to try to read it… of course, I tried to read it first and I was SUPER confused. One thing I was confused about was how to use The Adventure Crafter in an existing story, and it wasn’t until I had already established the Plot Points that I realized I didn’t necessarily need to start with a New Plot, or with blank Lists; I could already have Characters and Threads that I wanted.

Also, another silly breakthrough I had after the point was that when The Adventure Crafter calls for a “New Character” or “Choose the Most Logical Character,” I could just use characters that exist in the setting that weren’t already on the list — especially when the characters match the Special Trait, Identity, and Descriptors. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time.

Anyway, back to setting up the Plot Points.
The first plot point I rolled was “None.” Off to a great start.
The second one I rolled was “Liar!” which meant “This Turning Point involves an active lie.” I decided to Invoke a character and rolled New Character, which I rolled up as a character who hinders resolving this plotline (there was no plotline; I should have rerolled, but I just decided they’d be a delay of some sort), with the Identity of “Wanderer” “Entertainer,” and the Descriptors of “Dirty” and “Rough.”

Coming up with this character was actually pretty easy — they were some sort of hitch-hiking musician who clearly hadn’t showered in quite a while. I gave this info to ChatGPT, including my idea that they were a traveling musician, and ChatGPT returned Bramble Thorne. (ChatGPT is excellent at generating characters from only a minor amount of information)

The third plot point I rolled was “Fame,” indicating “Whatever is happening in this Turning Point involves someone famous to some extent.” Rolling to see which Character would be involved, I believe it said “Choose the most logical,” so I chose Bram.

The fourth plot point I rolled was “Evidence,” meaning “a Character finds something that helps settle an existing question.” This is where my inexperience with the Adventure Crafter was showing as I decided this meant the envelope with the tape would show up during this Turning Point.

Finally, “A New Enemy…” “ This Turning Point presents a new threat to a Character.” This Plot Point specifies rolling a new character.

For this new character’s special trait, I got “This Character is an Individual,” as opposed to an organization or object. So, Bram could have been an organization or object, but I didn’t think of that (though I would have still built a traveling minstrel).

The Identity was “Scientist,” with the Descriptor “Young.” I was stumped by this, so I turned to Mythic for some help. (This is where I admit I’m not actually rolling dice on Mythic, but using a plugin for Foundry VTT.) I asked Mythic for a character Background, which gave me “War Place,” for Identity, Mythic gave me “Subverter Scholar,” and for Motivations, I got “Free Adventure.” I could work with this.

Explaining the thought process behind this particular character would include spoilers, so I’ll wait until we get there.

Interpretations

From all of this, my idea was that Rudy would be at his bar in the early-to-mid afternoon, after the last of his lunch rush left, when Bram would show up looking for a place he could play music for a meal. Rudy would decline the offer, as the Inn doesn’t have the room for it, but Bram would be persistent which would actually lead to a fight as Rudy would keep saying no and Bram would keep pushing until Rudy tried to physically push him out.

There was a bit for the Fame Plot Point, here, but it never came up. I’m trying to introduce it (you’ll see it later in the story), but I want it to feel natural. The only important part I had decided was that Bram would still be there when the envelope arrived.

The envelope would show up and Rudy would pop it in, with both him and Bram listening to the inciting clue.

Rudy would kick Bram out, but on the way, the New Enemy would show up and establish themselves as such.

I told all of that to ChatGPT and said we were going to play it out.