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Old 09-03-2017, 08:11 AM   #1
Highland_Piper
 
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Join Date: Jul 2006
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Default [MH] Michigan Dogman - suggestions needed

My Monster Hunter campaign takes place in Detroit and has so far been bound to the city and surrounding suburbs. This time I'm going to have them travel north for sightings of the Michigan Dogman who only appears once every ten years. This year happens to be the year he appears and with the Solar Eclipse as well I thought what a great idea for the two to come together and this is one of the few times to actually kill the Michigan Dogman. The Solar Eclipse appears like a crescent in upper Michigan and thanks again to the internet and this interactive google map I know the exact times from start to finish of the eclipse.

Start: 17:00 (UTC)
Maximum Eclipse: 18:21
End: 19:40

Subtract four hours for local Eastern Time.

So when the time for the actual deed they have 2 hours and 40 minutes. I may add modifiers to actually killing vs. temporarily banishing the beast the closer/farther away the maximum partial eclipse is.

If they fail the next time to actually kill the beast permanently will be July of 2057 with a Solar Eclipse that would be right over Northern Michigan.

So that is my seed. Everything weirdly fell into place.

I'm still really new at modern setting RPG's and I'm finding it difficult in some aspects to fantasy where everything is a 'dispense of common belief' and there isn't much that I can really screw up.

I was hoping for a few suggestion on building up the suspense, days prior to the eclipse tracking it down, different sightings, etc.

My ideas so far
  • Michigan Dogman is a demonic creature not werewolf
  • farmer spottings, characters make map
  • missing campers-leading to investigations of prior 10 year cycle disappearances
  • Is it just a creature or is it a person as well?

That's about all I have. The new group I have prefer mystery over hack and slash, something which is completely opposite to all my previous gaming as my other group hates to think (sorry guys if you read this) and prefers action. So I'm on virgin territory here.

Any suggestions would be helpful

Cheers
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Last edited by Highland_Piper; 09-03-2017 at 08:23 AM.
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Old 09-04-2017, 08:11 AM   #2
starslayer
 
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Default Re: [MH] Michigan Dogman - suggestions needed

Michigan Dogman is a curse on the land, not a creature or a specific cursed person.

If the party does not succeed (or bother to do research they will just kill a helpless victim who has been cursed to become the dogman, and the curse will still subsist.

This will also make it harder to deal with, as they will have to restrain the cursed individual and then exorcise or otherwise destroy the curse.

Potential tie in with whatever created the curse in the fist place.
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Old 09-08-2017, 12:38 PM   #3
Highland_Piper
 
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Default Re: [MH] Michigan Dogman - suggestions needed

Quote:
Originally Posted by starslayer View Post
Michigan Dogman is a curse on the land, not a creature or a specific cursed person.

If the party does not succeed (or bother to do research they will just kill a helpless victim who has been cursed to become the dogman, and the curse will still subsist.

This will also make it harder to deal with, as they will have to restrain the cursed individual and then exorcise or otherwise destroy the curse.

Potential tie in with whatever created the curse in the fist place.
Brilliant - I've got a backstory now of it only possessing hunters, trappers, and fishermen. Curse started with a French Trapper who over trapped and hunted an area causing a shortage of food for the local Chippewa Tribe.
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"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe"
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Old 09-08-2017, 01:39 PM   #4
sir_pudding
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Default Re: [MH] Michigan Dogman - suggestions needed

I would play with the idea that it didn't exist until Cook made it up, at which point it had always existed. Retroactive tulpa creature. At the least Cook's claim that he made it up as an April Fool should be a red herring.

Last edited by sir_pudding; 09-08-2017 at 02:12 PM.
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Old 09-09-2017, 01:10 AM   #5
Highland_Piper
 
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Default Re: [MH] Michigan Dogman - suggestions needed

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Originally Posted by sir_pudding View Post
I would play with the idea that it didn't exist until Cook made it up, at which point it had always existed. Retroactive tulpa creature. At the least Cook's claim that he made it up as an April Fool should be a red herring.
Another good idea.

We only play once every six weeks but I work so much overtime it doesn't leave me with a lot of time for adventure designing. At the most I show up with rough notes. However the group is really enjoying Monster Hunters (with only one player having experience with GURPS - and he had Phil Masters in his group so no pressure there).

They are forgiving of my lack of knowledge on all things GURPS Modern and Sci-Fi as I was strictly a fantasy GM with players who only liked hack and slash games. The new group is much more challenging but I'm finding it enjoyable.

Hopefully I have enough mystery for them to chew over for six hours.
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