MotRD Newb GM needs advice

[Stygian Inquirer]

Hey guys, I got MotRD for my birthday and in my current Ravenloft campaign, the characters are getting to the point where they might leave Ravenloft, thereby ending the campaign. For my next campaign, I thought I might run a MotRD campaign with my group but I am worried that they might not adapt well based on my own experience playing Call of Cthulhu and it and Masque seemed somewhat similar in gameplay aspects. If I did not run a Masque campaign, I would run another Ravenloft campaign instead.

In my group (of four plus myself), after telling them about the possibility of a MotRD campaign, the words out of 3 of their mouthes' were "So there are shotguns, right?" This makes me kind of wary and has me worrying that my players will not do well in Masque. Right now most of them are very run-into-fight-and-not-die-because-of-insane-AC or cast-fireball-again-and-again-and-again players and I right now each person is on their second, one is on his third, characters .

Right now my options are:
Let current campaign go epic (Oh God No!) ,
Make a MotRD campaign,
Make another Ravenloft campaign.

Since I am a newb to Masque I wanted to know what anyone might have as a suggested course of action or any sort of advice.

Thanks in advance for the help!

[Jester of the FoS]

My next campaign will probably be Masque as well, so I've been planning for this.
Firstly, the rules and world make randomly casting fireballs left and right unlikely as that's a higher level spell. They may not have access to it for some time. Until then they might learn sublety.
Secondly, when all the enemies can also get shotguns it levels the playing field quickly. The first couple times they get shot up from people ambushing them they might slow down.

I'm planning on holding back the supernatural for the first bit. Throw in mysteries and seemingly supernatural cases that end up just being hoaxes, frauds of other mundane explinations. The character will have little real experiance encountering magic.
That's when the strangeness can begin...

[ScS of the Fraternity]

One thing you could do is mix and match settings - to accomadate your combat thirsty friends and throw in some horror.

Perhaps something like a Gothic Earth meets Deadlands adventure?
The players could be out in some remote corner of the world, perhaps the praries, the West, Alaska, ect... when they cross pathes with an old man looking for his daughter.
This traveler claims she was abducted by her no-good, criminal boyfriend and wants to either get her back, or if she's dead, revenge. The boyfriend was last seen heading to a tiny backwoods village isolated in the wilderness, to seek the protection of his kin.
Little do the players realize that this no-good thug and his kin are in fact a clan of werewolves. The village, a former boom-town, now is under the paws of the wolves. Rather than risk revealing their terribl nature, the wolf clan will try to drive the interlopers away. Those few folk who are not already wolves obey their masters for fear of becoming their next meal.
For his part, the old man is well aware of the situation - he knows that his daughter, if she still lives, is probably a wolf-thrall. He still wants her back, and is armed with silver bullets. But will they be enough?

[Le Noir Faineant]

Get three things:

- The FREE rulebook from www.livingdeath.org


- Nicky Reah's *Guide to Transylvania* (AD&D 2e)

- Domains of the Dread

... Voilá!



Here a bit of more useful info:

My upcoming MotRD campaign will start with Red Jack (2e), follow with the Nightmare Lands (2e) set in Temeswar in Rumania and then conclude with I10 and *House of Strahd*, set in a Dreamscape too.

I'd suggest you to rely mostly on old RL stuff; apart from the modules already named, I'd suggest to use:

- Howl in the Knight

- Hour of the Knife

- Shadow of the Knife (free Kargatane adventure!)

- Bleak House Boxed Set

Now, this material is not particularly easy to find, but since you post on these boards, I think you may know where to get them.

[Stygian Inquirer]

Thanks for the advice guys! I really appreciate it.

I think I am going to make a "Demo Adventure" using ScS' example and put the characters in that scenario and see how they like it and if they survive. I actually just informed one of the Shotgun-Happy players that the enemies have them too (I thought he had assumed that. I was wrong.) and he had an instant change of attitude. Thanks to David for reminding me of that fact. I will look through the adventures Desdichado mentioned and see what else I can do to give an accurate portrayal of a Masque of the Red Death campaign.

Any other advice that anyone has is still welcome.

Thanks again!

[alhoon]

Perhaps I'm late to give advice, but remember that a game is to be enjoyed. If you have a group that likes tossing fireballs and running in to battle, and also want to play Masque, then probably go with ScS example.

However: Talk with the players. Perhaps they may want a change. Perhaps they may want to try playing a more traditional Masque campaign.

And don't forget: You can always make a short campaign (as you said a test adventure).

[Stygian Inquirer]

Your advice was not late alhoon, and I agree with you. I have to make sure I do a campaign that will fit my players' styles.

If anyone else has any advice, feel free to post and thank again to those who have already posted.

[alhoon]

Yeah? Then let me say a few things. . . I would advise against putting supernatural creatures or magic in the "test" adventure, or at least not many.
The idea of abducting "the girl of my dreams" was popular to some places (in Crete until the last 3 decades for example). Also an isolated village with 200 - 250 people is probably composed by a single expanded family or mostly two. Now, most girls wouldn't want to marry and go in a remote, isolated village. Single Clan = No girls away from family = Men tend to abduct their girlfriends when they say "no" to marriage. So it is probably seen as a way of life and the people in the village accept it as honorable since many of their relatives have married this way.
That doesn't mean they are not good to their wives, just that they are restricting. And while a woman or two may risk to leave in order to escape a tyranical husband, most are afraid to cross the woods alone and accept their fate.

Now the Dark Secret: A century ago, there were two villages in the area. But disease and other calamities have exterminated many of the populace and then war has taken its toll on the males. The villagers decided to unite in a single village and in a special Litany at the Winter Solstice the surviving priest and women asked God to bless the women with Male Children.
Something (you know what) heard them. Their prayers were answered well. In fact too well. No woman would bear a female child if impregnated by a man of the village. Of course none ever reallized why their wives wouldn't bear girls but it is accepted as a fact in the village.
So, a century later the only way to marry in the village is to abduct women.

The PCs may discover that NO man has a sister and that there are NO girls in town. A single walk will show that the men are far more than women. Investigation will show that all women are out of the village.

Now they can rush in, guns blazing to face HUNDREDS of men (many with no wives or children, so they don't have much to loose in a gunfight and also have pitched nerves) take the girl back and live the villagers to their misery.

OR they can consult the local prostitutes (yes, you knew they would be some,didn't you?) and actually help the village. As a gratitude gift, they acccept to give the daughter back to her father.
Reversing the curse would require another Litany (something the villagers have tried before) but it must take place in the Summer solstice and also ALL women of the village must participate (even the prostitutes).

In this scenario,unlickely as most PCs would ever think, the lowest part of the community is what keeps the key to salvation. The prostitutes aren't bound to the village, don't have husbands to be afraid of, so would speak to PCs that treat them right.