In 1928, in York County Pennsylvania, two men murdered another because they believed they were being hexed. The crime caught the attention of the country, as many were astounded to discover that some still believed in witches and curses in the 20th century. Of course, the reality was far darker than even the authorities ever realized. The next year, a group of strangers come together to learn that the Pow-Wow men of York County hold darker secrets than anyone suspected. Secrets worth killing over. Can the strangers come together to find out the truth and stop a great supernatural evil before it’s too late? Find out as a full table of veteran and newbie players plunge into the depths of Hex Hollow!
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what a big cast this time! Just started it, so this ought to have a high body count….
Are the APs now being posted every six days instead of every 5 days? It feels like this one was overdue. 😛
the further west you go, the more it looks like every five days! not sure why the upload time is so often so late.
this was charming. the justification for how their magic worked was fantastic, really worked some of that “Mythos magic isn’t REALLY magic” vibe in. Aaron claims the world record (from himself) for Most Time Spent Dead in an RPPR Game. at first I thought it was gonna have a kind of bottle movie structure, all of it set in the one location during a progressing supernatural disaster.
and yay for new people! are any of them regulars now?
Aaron has got to be the only player I have ever seen just THROW himself at death so quickly. Great game. Love listening as always.
You’d been talking about the old grimoires and how they might be useful in games, and I found the idea really interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Cool idea using the complete book as a player prop!
And man, Christian magicians must have though Jesus was a real jerk, not protecting people unless they say the words exactly right.
And awesome new players! Hope we’ll get to know them better as time goes on!
Ia Cthulhu Phtagn!
The first and only documented use of “Operate Heavy Machinery.”
Extra points for “and my axe!”
Ross, love the energy in the new cast members and *why* is “Operate Heavy Machinery” not a tag for this actual play?!
I just love Ross’s cheer of joy when Bill says he’s using “Operate Heavy Machinery” and equally the sound of disappointment when Bill’s roll for it isn’t very good.
“GTT: York County, Pennsylvania” would be an awesome game, I tell’ya what!
Really cool idea for implementing Shoggoth-tech. The Elder Things would be proud… if they shared any semblance of human emotion or thought processes… and hadn’t been devoured by there own creations…
My favorite communist pickup line:
Hey baby, wanna sieze my means of production?
Was the Verrückte Schlangen last name a reference to the dogpunching Nazi game and crazy snake hands?
I couldn’t get through this one.
A man dies and everyone is like “okay, we have the clues to something completely unrelated to what just happened in front of us, let’s start investigating” while the body lies on the floor and the only person who seems to give a damn goes off on his own to chase the killer. Number of shits given hit zero when Aaron died and nobody could be bothered. I’ve seen parties go out of their way to ignore the main plot hook. First time I think I saw one go out of their way to ignore everything else. They let their friend die, alone, and didn’t give a fuck. All my sympathy or desire to connect with these characters just died right there. In my head I could hear an absent Caleb going “hey, we still hear gunshots and a friend is missing and nobody wants to call the police or anything CAUSE WE GOT A BOX TO LOOK AT!”
And the chatter got on my nerves this time to the point where I started to feel really bad for Ross. You did a good job of not letting it get to you, I wouldn’t have. Please remember; every time you quote Monty Python god punches a baby.
Three stars, some funny bits.
Not everyone is a tough SOB, though. If a man started shooting and killed a man in my vicinity, I’d run or hide. Since they were already in a house, hiding worked. I’d probably go down to the cellar and fail all the SAN checks. Also, it’s not like they ran from the plot. It was right there with them, lying dead on the floor and the goo they found quickly.
And worth noting is that I think all (3) of the non-regulars were completely new to role-playing in general (or at least recently introduced, since I assume these are the same people discussed in episode 99?).
Aaron was just being Aaron and went for the killer (I want to assume as a showing of “CoC is really deadly, guys”, but it is Aaron after all so who knows) and promptly died alone, to no one’s surprise, really (never change, RPPR Paragon). Can’t fault people for following THAT GUY in a horror film.
Tom and Bill are both veteran RPers and they also ignored Aaron’s jaunt into the woods. Also, I did mention the Dutch Hex murders at the start of the scenario, with the implication that involving the police would be a mistake – everyone would be rounded up and blamed for any deaths.
Excellant as always. I’ve got to give Aaron credit, he played his character’s mental illness to the bitter (and near immediate) end. Also, I’ve never seen a better sport about accepting death.
Fun game, and man, I was rooting for Aaron to make it so damn hard.
You’ll get ’em next time Aaron! Professor Badass from the “Fisher of Men” proved the dream CAN happen. This time we saw the other side of that coin, unfortunately.
Everybody else did well, especially considering this was the first time playing CoC for some of the players. Big props to Bill for taking the “Operate Heavy Machinery” torch and finally running with it…into the wall. But hey, you at least USED it, so fuck it, you win an internets!
Are the new players going to make more appearances? I’m bad with names and voice matching for a few games, and want to give additional props to Annie Oakley.
This was a tutorial in masterclass gamemastering. I really have to hand it to you Ross.
First off the adventure is well written, based on a real event, and has a prop.
Then you have to handle about six players. That alone will ruin most horror games simply based on the competition for gamemaster attention.
Add to that, three new players who are newish to roleplaying and more importantly new to each other and the veterans. You can hear the the flow of short hand in jokes and easy familiarity replaced by awkwardness, but you managed to pull the group through that.
Difficult to do even when you don’t have to moderate a potential plot breaking player and try to include the other new player who is a little shy.
Nice job to you and the group.
It is very awesomely surreal that you guys are talking about where I live. I have listened to this podcast for quite some time. And as much as this place sucks, it’s really cool! The local paper is called the York Daily Record. The sad part is that not a lot of people know about this you really have to research it yourself or hear about it from someone older. Really the only murder like that in the area (that I have heard of). Either way awesome podcast.
I forgot the name of this AP and thought it actually was called “The Long Lost Friend” because of its placement in the graphic in the shownotes (and in the plot). I was reminded of it recently, and just wanted to say that it was a really clever use of an actual historical oddity. Glancyesque!