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This is a great beginner campaign, with classic American-horror-movie settings and symbolism - the third scenario in particular reminded me of a more sinister Gremlins!

A few small suggestions: 

  • The local church is referenced on the map but not described. Local pastors are likely to be a good source of gossip/info about a town so might deserve a short writeup.
  • Given his high profile, the Agents should have more opportunity to learn about Miles Minderbender (love the Catch 22 reference - but is it binder or bender?) other than the possibility of rumours on the Metro. The fact that Miles is a native of Nebuchadnezzar should be something the Agents could come across in the first scenario, especially if he is providing financial support to the cinema and the school. Maybe the cinema, library and school have stacks of complimentary copies of Effective Altruism in the Hypermodern Workplace which the Agents could later quote from to get on Miles/Steve from Marketing's good side. Has Milo exposed any of his 'unusual religious beliefs' on social media?
  • Given there are no missing people in Ruby Rough, it wasn't clear on first readthrough where the "template" for the Fetal Axons came from. My impression now is that it came from Milo bringing tissue from Ibis Big Red to the River Seam Coal Mine (RSCM), so that RSCM Big Red learned how to make them from the people Ibis Big Red has absorbed, is that right? Since the first fully absorbed victims are 'Nigel Roach and Mei Yixing',  the chinese spies, and Big Red also tries to mimic possessions, maybe they could be hinted at in the Fetal Axons appearances? eg they all look Chinese, or babble nonsense chinese phonemes, or all have patches of skin on their throats mimicking throat mikes, or something? Spine Launchers have pseudo-chinese characters on them?
  • The origin of RSCM Big Red isn't clear. My inference is that Milo planted it there as an 'off site backup' for the main Big Red mind at Ibis, is that right? Maybe Effective Altruism in the Hypermodern Workplace could include an extended rant about the importance of maintaining multiple secure air-gapped offsite backups for your data.
  • If it only existed after Milo fled to Nebuchadnezzar, the cinema under the cinema in Showstopper has a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem; it's not clear how Milo, alone, could have excavated an underground cinema in order to project the film in order to open the gate in order for Big Red to come through, make the Theater of the Flesh, and take over the town, within the 2 weeks or so after he fled Ibis, especially since there's a functional cinema right there above ground. It's a great dramatic climax but has a bit of a fridge logic problem. Just to tidy up the loose end, maybe the agents could find a tunnel full of nerve tendrils leading to the lower levels of the RSCM (that were inaccessible in Ruby Rough) making it clear that what they killed in Ruby Rough was just a branch of what became the Theater of the Flesh? And that the tunnels to the surface are freshly dug, so they wouldn't find them in Ruby Rough?
  • If Milo's very flashy and obvious car is parked right outside the cinema, Agents are likely to head straight for the cinema and ignore everything else in the town. Especially if it occurs to them to get satellite pictures to find his car in advance (maybe these could be obscured by smoke in Showstopper?) I suggest that his car is hidden somewhere. Maybe he deliberately pushed it into an old coal mine on the approach to town  in order to hide his tracks - approaching Agents could find the tire tracks leading off-road?
  • Maybe Daniel Church, who is a little under-utilised, could show up as a survivor in Showstopper, to brief/help the Agents if needed or be a replacement PC?
  • It's slightly odd/inconsistent that there's a suggested soundtrack for White Nile but not the other scenarios.
(2 edits)

There’s a lot here, which is awesome. The feedback is very welcome. I am taking this into account as we have spent the last month playtesting this and will be implementing changes soon. A lot of your criticisms are very valid and will be addressed. For example, Daniel was supposed to show up as a survivor in scenario three, but that got cut due to time constraints. That will be added back in, though. We are also adding a recommended soundtrack to the others as well. Some of the lack of specificity in scenario 1 is purposeful though, as I wanted to make it a bit of an investigative sandbox which a Handler could readily expand. I will consider changes though.

Some of the weirdness is just due to a combination of writer inexperience and real world time constraints putting a damper on our time for editing, as well as the expected issues that would crop up when three different (inexperienced) authors imperfectly interpret the same story and we need to make connective tissue. There will be a more in-depth editing pass once I’ve finished personally playtesting (hopefully finishing our final session tonight, actually).

Keep an eye out, because I do intend to have a more definitive version out in the coming month or so. I’ll keep these, and other specific criticisms from others, in mind. Thanks for the feedback!

it’s a really great campaign overall! Like I said these are just fridge logic small issues which occurred to me while reading through it.