The Center of the Apocalypse:

Cash (Operator, Tim)

Dart (Driver, Brendan)

Leah (Savvyhead, Amelia)

Twitch (Hardholder, Abram)

New Sky Empire People:

Bracket, Twitch’s right-hand-man

Phantom, Twitch’s bodyguard

Tum Tum, Twitch’s weird brainer-type person

Fauna, Ambassador from Paradise Island, stood up by Leah

Parcher, Ambassador from Calypso

Cheeze-It, victim of goat-theft

Coke Zero, likes to look at boats

Grome, oldest guy anyone knows, medical knowledge.

Prim, cult-leader

Rolfball, scavenger/trader, selling information to Riggers

Rothschild, huge houseboat/nightclub valued at 12-barter, sex move (take +1 forward)

Crew of the Tinfoil:

Crab, small, bowl haircut, good at sea, goes “land crazy”, sex move (crabs), face bashed in by Cash

Pill, smart guy, techie

Muktaba, big guy

The Barges

Barker, Enough-to-Eat, and Imam- big names

Dead People:

Rover, Dart’s ex-lover

Samson, former leader of New Sky Empire, killed by Zombies

Thinner, ex-captain of the Tinfoil (mutiny)

Places:

New Sky Empire

Calypso

Paradise Island

Leah’s Cove

Dead City

Dark River

The Barges

The Rig

The Shallows

The South Reaches

GitHub: Software description: web based place database (Python). →

However, now Godaddy is a major supporter of SOPA. So as part of a major boycott, I’m moving my hosting and domains. And I encourage you to do it to.

However, all my hosting is going to go away. So hosted files will be down until I get them back up. It won’t mean anything for the blog itself, which is on wordpress, but any linked pdfs will likely be down. Shoot me a comment if anything isn’t working, and I’ll get it back up as soon as possible.

Pro:  You’ve got magic, you’ve got elves and stuff, and you’ve got Dragons, oh yes do you have dragons.  A campaign where you go around the frozen north and kill dragon after dragon sounds like D&D at its best.

Con:  Varies based on choice of edition- pre-4th casters have less magical staying power than Skyrim’s mages; on the other hand 4th edition’s play ethos is largely based on tactical encounters, and Skyrim’s go-anywhere, do-anything sandbox is a major feature.  Also, D&D comes with its own setting assumptions, which don’t always line up with Skyrim’s.

Burning Wheel:

Pro:  Skills level up as you use them.  Seems subtle, but it’s a major selling point towards that Elder Scrolls feel.

Neutral:  Need to hack the magic system.  But there’s got to be something in the Magic Burner that you find appropriate, and the magical Tax system is pretty close.

Con:  Burning Wheel is extremely character focused; Skyrim is exploration of setting.  Plus only the lifepaths for Humans really work; Nords only.

Old School D&D/Retro Clones (including Dungeon World)

Pro:  Sandbox is what these games are meant to do.  Easily customisable to make new races, etc.

Con:  Most old-school games are low-magic, and casters suffer.  Like D&D, it may not necessarily feel like Skyrim.

Savage Worlds

Pro:  Easily customisable.  Characters will need a few levels to feel as heroic as what Skyrim offers, but by that point, its a pretty good match.

Con:  Savage World’s toolbox approach means you’re doing most of the work yourself.  If an Alchemy system like Skyrim’s is a big deal to you, Savage World’s alchemy is much simpler.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

Neutral:  Ironically, the selling point here is either a strong plus or a strong minus: you play gritty, dirty characters.  It’s not a story about the Dragonborn, but about everyone else, the guards, the thieves, the bandits.

10: Red Dead Redemption
It’s more than just Grand Theft Auto in the west. With Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar created a western sandbox game that oozes historical and setting flavor, and brings you into the world. The NPCs may be caricatures at times (well, all the time), but the game never lets up of it’s central conflict: can you escape your past?
What really nails this game down though, it the post endgame content. After beating the game, you still have access to roam free throughout the map and pick up any goodies you might have missed, but there’s one last mission to do. It’s subtle, but it drives home all the themes of the game in true Western style.

9: Psychonauts
Psychonauts is an ingenious platformer, with your character delving into the subconscious of various characters, each one it’s own themed level with different rules (some favorites include the Milkman Conspiracy, which involves twists of perspective and gravity and use of props to fool men-in-black, the Napoleonic Warfare boardgame level, that involves shrinking down to different areas of focus (and at the smallest level, you can see the largest level through a window), and the kaiju level, where the scenery is a city and you fight tanks and planes as the ‘giant monster’.) In addition to fantastic level design, there’s a few cathartic easter eggs hidden about- each person’s subconscious has their own secrets locked away.

8: Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy’s first outing on the Playstation 2 was a strong one, with great graphics, game play, and story. While a little odd in places, the essential themes of familial tension, sacrifice and loss make this one a winner.

7: Dragon Age
The Bioware brand of console roleplaying games are much more interactive than the traditional JRPG railroad. (Final Fantasy X, above, for example, offers minimal ability to affect the plot, and only in minor details.) Your choices are legion, their affect on your ending, massive. There are also a fair number of choices that have in-game consequences (most notably, your choices in the Dalish/Mage’s Tower/Orzammar affect your end-game troops for the battle sequence, and you have life or death control over your followers). Dragon Age also has strong dialogue between the various secondary members of your party, which is always enjoyable and rewards tinkering with different groups. The different Origins allows one to explore the setting from different angles, and there’s a strong sense of accomplishment in being the most badass person in Ferelden.

6: Dead Space
The survival horror sci-fi game Dead Space succeeds due to its strong environmental cues that hint at goings on, and the player’s ability to piece things together. The scattered logs, the communications from the other members of your team, and the tension of knowing you’re going to have to go into a very, very, dangerous place make this one a hair raiser. A horror game should keep the tension high as much as possible, and Dead Space knows how to make that happen.

5: Planescape: Torment
Torment is the model by which dialogue-driven games need to hold themselves to. Set in Planescape’s city of Sigil, Torment embraces the weirdness and wonder of the City of Doors, and gives us an unusual protagonist: the Nameless One, who cannot truly die, but has forgotten his previous lives. The greatest joy is discovery of yourself and your character’s history, discovering the things you stashed away for yourself to find, and learning the stories of your companions (which are tragic, and your fault.) Also, the end boss can be defeated by talking to it.

4: Bioshock
Bioshock’s central twist is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, in video games. One minute you think you know everything, the next, your entire world has been turned on its head. This is a game that must be experienced to be appreciated. And it doesn’t hurt that it has beautiful level design and great gameplay.

3: Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VI stands strong to this day as Final Fantasy at its best, gameplay and storywise. More recent titles have successfully shaken up the core mechanics and have improved sound and graphics, but FF6 is solid from top to bottom. Featuring emotional lows (the Opera performance, the destruction of the world), and emotional highs (reuniting with long lost friends, getting your airship) this is a game that knows how to pull on the heartstrings.

2: Mass Effect
Another Bioware title, where Dragon Age establishes you as the most badass person in Ferelden, Mass Effect establishes you as the most badass person in the galaxy. The essential emotion of Final Fantasy VI is loss, the essential emotion of Mass Effect is triumph (and there’s a lot of it.) From the very first mission, it’s established that the stakes are high, you can trust no one, and that you get the job done.
Coupled with that is good party banter, good gameplay, hard choices (that have callbacks in Mass Effect 2), and a great ending sequence (the elevator’s broken, so you make your way on the outside of the space station on foot).

My number one game is going to come as a surprise for a lot of people. It’s not of a genre typically associated with story-telling; when we think storytelling and videogame, we tend to think ‘RPG’ and either Final Fantasy or Bioware. It’s completely linear; there’s absolutely no impact of the player on the plot. But the story is a damn good one, and the interactivity of the medium puts you right in it.
It’s a story of a heroic last stand. To me, the heroic last stand is the best story that can be told: the doomed hero who stays behind to save the day. This is why Wrath of Khan is such a great movie. (Cut out Spock’s death scene, you just have a good movie.)
Halo: Reach is the story of a doomed planet and the doomed squad of Spartans. It’s a story of not one, but four heroic sacrifices. The game puts you in the position where these sacrifices matter, which is why is stands as such a strong example of video game story telling. It’s a damn good story with emotional resonance, and its presented well in the context of the game.

There are four acts in the Mountain Witch: Introduction, Rising Tension, Dark Fates, and the Climax. Each of these acts may be split into chapters.

Something that I have taken and made my own is “chapter requirements.” In the rules, on page 122, it suggests to the GM that chapter breaks be withheld until certain milestones are achieved, but it does not define those milestones. My technique has been to clearly define those milestones, and make the players aware of them.

Milestones can be mechanical, like “someone has to spend all their trust,” narrative-mechanical “everyone has to invoke their Dark Fate narration,” or wholly narrative “the group must split up and rejoin.” I’ll mix and match based on the experience level of the group, and my own whims.

In a one-session con environment, there’s typically time to only have four chapters, each at one hour each (and it will still run a little over your typical 4 hour timeslot.)
In the Introduction, the characters are introduced, and the rules themselves are highlighted. Typically milestones are: Each Player must use Dark Fate Narration at least once and There Must be at least Three Major Conflicts. The end of the chapter features the group meeting the walls of the witch’s castle.
In the Rising Tension chapter, the threat of the Witch is built upon. This chapter features lots of encounters with the Witch’s servants, and various group split ups and rejoins. A typical milestone is going to be everyone using Dark Fate Narration at least once. End of the chapter involves finding a safe haven in the fortress.
In the Dark Fates Chapter, the Dark Fates are revealed! Each player must reveal his Dark Fate, obviously. Remember that the reveal is to the players, not the characters. The end of the chapter is just outside the Witch’s chamber.
In the Climax Chapter, everything comes to a head. Everyone’s Dark Fate must be revealed.

For two sessions, I play 6 chapters. Session one is Introduction (1 chapter), Rising Tension (2 chapters), and Reveal the Dark Fates at the end of the first session. Session two kicks off with 2 Chapters of the Dark Fates, where the fates of the players are explored in depth. Having a week to think about it, I give each player two GM-driven scenes focusing on their Dark Fate to explore and highlight its issues, one in each chapter, and then the Climax.

With a two session game, you can play around more with gimmicky milestones, especially in the Introduction chapter: everyone has to have a chance at conflict narration. Someone has to use a Betrayal. There has to be a Duel. Forcing the issue early makes the mechanic easy to remember in the climax, where rules knowledge can be key.

Another change I institute involves the rules for death. By the rules as written, player death can be invoked as a stake on any roll with player consent. My change is that before the Climax and the resolution of the character’s fate, Death is never on the line. Once a character’s fate has been resolved, all bets are off.

Finally, a brief list of bangs I have. A Bang in the Mountain Witch is a little bit different than a Bang in other games. Normally a Bang is a situation with no one clear point of action. (“Ninjas attack” is a poor narrative bang, since obviously you fight the ninjas.) In the Mountain Witch, bangs are also an opportunity for the players to invoke their Dark Fate narration. A Mountain Witch bang should encourage the players to choose between cooperation and competition, and also involve opportunities to author missing details.

A small shrine on the side of the path. It’s traditional to pray to the spirits before a journey.
A rope bride, guarded by a sentry of some sort.
A scene of battle. Someone’s been killed!
Yukki-no-Onna’s cabin.
A large mountain temple.
A bunch of samurai, sworn to the witch.
Catacombs in the fortress, and the ghost of someone known to one of the ronin.
The Witch’s chamberlain, perfectly polite and reasonable.
Villagers in distress.
Evidence of the last ronin expedition to try to kill the witch.
A demon offering to make a deal with the ronin.
Secret communications from the witch.
And my favorite, a simple peach tree. There’s one fewer peach than the number of ronin.

Janus’s most prized possession is his enchanted Maul, “Truth,” which is of exquisite craftsmanship.

Janus
Mercenary
Level 6 Dragonborn Barbarian Gladiator

Strength 20 +5
Dexterity 10
Constitution 14 +2
Intelligence 8 -1
Wisdom 10
Charisma 17 +3

Armor Class 20
Fort Defense 21
Ref Defense 17
Will Defense 17

Total Hit Points: 59
Bloodied Value 29
Healing Surge: 16
Healing Surges/ Day 10

Initiative +3
Speed: 6

Basic Melee Attack
+13 vs AC (Maul)
2d6 + 9 damage

Basic Ranged Attack
+11 vs AC (Javelin)
1d6 + 6 damage

Skills
Athletics +14 (+13)
Endurance +10 (+9)
Nature (B) +10
Intimidate +13

Racial Abilities
Skill Bonuses: +2 History, +2 Intimidate
Dragonborn Fury: +1 racial bonus to attacks while bloodied.
Draconic Heritage: Add Con modifier to healing surge value.
Dragonbreath: Gain Dragonbreath power.

Feats
Bludgeon Expertise: +1 feat bonus to weapon attacks with hammers or maces. +1 feat bonus to distance of push or slide effects from hammer or mace attacks.
Dragonborn Frenzy: +2 to damage rolls while bloodied.
Defender of the Wild: Training in Nature, Defender of the Wild “power”
Hide Armor Expertise: Use +2 instead of Dex or Int modifier for AC while wearing Hide.

Class Abilities
Barbarian Agility: +1 bonus to AC and Reflex when not wearing heavy armor.
Feral Might: Thaneborn Triumph: Gain Roar of Triumph power. Whenever you bloody an enemy, next attack by your or an ally against that enemy gains a +3 bonus to the attack roll.
Rage Strike: You gain the Rage Strike power.
Rampage: Once per round, when you score a critical hit with a Barbarian attack power, make a melee basic attack as a free action.

Inherent Bonuses: +1 enhancement bonus to attacks, damage, defenses.

Powers

At-Will Attacks

Devastating Strike (Standard, Weapon, Melee)
+ 13 vs AC
Hit: 2d6 + 1d8 + 7 damage.
Effect: Until the start of your next turn, unless you are raging, all attackers gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls against you.

Pressing Strike (Standard, Weapon, Melee)
Effect: Before the attack, shift 2 squares. You can move through an enemy’s space, but can’t end there.
+13 vs AC
Hit: 2d6 + 7 damage, and you push the target 2 squares. If you are raging, deal 1d6 extra damage.

Encounter Attacks

Brutal Slam (Standard, Weapon, Melee)
+13 vs Fortitude
Hit: 4d6 + 7 damage and you push the target 3 squares and knock it prone. Then one enemy adjacent to the target takes 1d8 + 7 damage.

Disrupting Advance (Standard, Weapon, Melee)
+13 vs AC
Hit: 4d6 + 7 damage, and you push the target 3 squares. Target and each enemy adjacent to the target at the end of the push are slowed until the end of your next turn.

Escalating Violence (Standard, Weapon, Melee)
+13 vs AC
Hit: 4d6 + 7 damage. Until the end of your next turn, all allies within 5 squares of you gain a +3 bonus to damage rolls against the target. If you take damage before the start of your next turn, you gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls for your next attack.

Dragonbreath (Minor, Acid, Close Blast 3)
Targets creatures in Blast
+8 vs Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + 3 acid damage.

Daily Attacks

Macetail’s Rage (Standard, Rage, Weapon, Close Burst 1)
Targets enemies in burst you can see.
+13 vs Reflex
Hit: 2d6 + 7 damage, and you knock the target prone.
Miss: Half damage.
Effect: You enter the rage of the Macetail Behemoth. Until the rage ends, whenever you hit with an attack, gain 5 temporary hit points.

Rage Strike (Standard, Weapon, Melee)
Special: You must be raging. Expend an unused Rage power and make this attack.
+13 vs AC
Hit: 6d6 + 7 damage (Macetail’s Rage), or 8d6 + 7 damage (Silver Phoenix Rage).
Miss: Half damage.

Silver Phoenix Rage (Standard, Rage, Healing, Weapon, Melee)
+13 vs AC
Hit: 4d6 + 7 fire damage, and ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends).
Miss: Half damage.
Effect: You enter the Rage of the Silver Phoenix. Until the rage ends, you gain Regeneration 3, and the first time you drop to 0 hp or fewer, you can spend a healing surge as an immediate interrupt.

Utility Powers

Bloodborn Menace (Encounter, Free)
Trigger: You bloody an enemy or reduce an enemy to 0 hp with a melee attack.
Effect: Each enemy within 10 that can see you grants combat advantage to you until the end of your next turn.

Defender of the Wild (Encounter, Free)
During your turn, mark each enemy adjacent to you until the end of your next turn.

Nature Sense (Daily, Free)
Trigger: You would roll initiative in a natural environment.
Effect: Roll Nature in place of your initiative check. In addition, you and your allies gain a +4 bonus to all defenses during the first round of the encounter.

Roar of Triumph (Encounter, Free, Close Burst 5)
Trigger: Your attack reduces an enemy to 0 hp.
Effect: Each enemy in burst takes a -2 penalty to all defenses until the end of your next turn.

Second Wind (Encounter, Standard)
Spend a healing surge and regain hit points. You gain a +2 bonus to all defenses until the start of your next turn.

Equipment

“Truth,” Maul +2
5x Javelins
5x Daggers

Bracers of Mighty Striking (Arms)
+2 item bonus to damage rolls of melee basic attacks.

Gauntlets of Ogre Power (Hands)
+1 to Strength and Athletics checks.
Power (Daily) Add a +5 power bonus to the damage roll of a successful melee attack.

Adventurer’s Kit
Desert Clothing
Supplies for 10 Survival Days

315 gp (mix of ceramic and metal coinage)

This time, I take a look at At the Mountains and Madness (and other Tales of Terror, which is Shunned House, Dreams in the Witch House (which we took a look at in Can You Fight the Mythos, Part III, and the Statement of Randolph Carter.)

At the Mountains of Madness
Short Spoilery Synopsis: There’s an expedition to Antartica using an experimental drill, and weird alien cadavers are found. Then most of the expedition goes missing (from one of said cadavers, which wasn’t really dead), and the rest goes looking for them, and finds a ruined city with surprisingly informative pictoral carvings. Seriously- these guys have no common language to go on, but are able to extrapolate vast swaths of the history of the Elder Things from their carvings, in the space of a few hours. Lovecraft came up with an interesting backstory, but failed to find an adequate way to convey it.
Then in the depths they are chased by a shoggoth, or a demon subway, or something. The narrator’s partner, at the end, who is stated as strangely reticent, still seems to have offered quite an info-dump of Lovecraft-miscellania.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: The Elder Things are successfully dissected, albeit with some difficulty, having tough hides and unusual anatomy. No real attempt is made to interact with the shoggoth, or really to perceive it.
Can You Fight the Elder Things: Yes. The Elder Things overpower the humans in the story, due to parts surprise and physical superiority. However human implements can inflict harm on Elder Things, and some of the curious scientists may have inadvertently killed slumbering Elder Things, just as they inadvertently woke them.
Can You Fight a Shoggoth: Inconclusive, Leaning No. The Shoggoth is large and consists of “plastic organs.” Even the Elder Things are afraid of it. It could theoretically be possible, with reverse-engineered Elder Thing technology to fight a Shoggoth, but we get the impression that improperly armed, even the Elder Things fall before it.
Although a nuclear bomb would probably work.

The Shunned House
Short Spoilery Synopsis: A house is haunted by the spirit of Etienne Roulet, who drains the vitality of those living in it, and occasionally manifests as unusual lights in the basement at night. Our protagonist and his scientist uncle camp out in the basement of the house overnight, to see if they can find it.
Textual Support of Weaponry: The Whipples are probably the most awesome Lovecraft protagonists ever: they come in loaded for bear, with a pair of flamethrowers, and a Crookes tube, for channeling “vigorously destructive ether radiations.” The flamethrower itself is never used. But the Crookes tube is, to no effect.
After fleeing, the protagonist comes back the next day, digs up the basement, and destroys the gigantic spirit with sulphuric acid.
Can You fight the Thing in the Shunned House: Yes. Sulphuric Acid cleansed the place, and destroyed the physical manifestation. Dealing with the spirit, that’s quite a bit trickier, as the countermeasure specifically for incorporeal beings didn’t work. Fortunately, it’s tied to the place, so you just have to follow the protagonists’s lead.
Interestingly, the presence of the Crookes tube, and the intent to portray the Whipples as competent occulists, suggests that at least some incorporeal beings in the Cthulhu Mythos are vulnerable to radiation (which would probably change a lot of the No and Inconclusive answers to the yes end of the spectrum, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.) It would certainly dovetail with Lovecraft’s fondness for cutting-edge-science as paradigm-shattering-relevations (See Dreams in the Witch House).

The Statement of Randolph Carter:
Short Spoilery Synopsis: This is a pretty laughably bad tale. Randolph is forbidden by his friend Harley Warren from going down into the crypt, and gets updates over telephone over how terrible it is, who at terrible length tells Carter to seal up the place. And then the monster answers the telephone.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: None is used.
Can You fight the Thing in the Statement of Randolph Carter: Inconclusive. We have no idea what it is. Could be ghouls, could be Nylarthotep, could be Warren playing a prank.

The total so far:

Yes: 15
Inconclusive, Leaning Yes: 5
Inconclusive: 4
Inconclusive, Leaning No: 6
No: 6
Irrelevant: 6

All these examples assume the information is something that the players who don’t have access to the information want, for whatever reason. Maybe discovering it is the object of play, or discovery helps achieve other objectives.

Only One Person Knows
One example would be when a Gamemaster in a traditional roleplaying game has some secret or privileged information: the identify of a killer, a secret route through the dungeon, whatever. A non-hobby example would be the mystery object in 20 Questions. Often this information is generated by that person’s imagination, or by a procedure that only that person can see (a random table, card draw, etc.) It might be represented by an artifact, such as a card or written down on a note, or it might just exist in the person’s mind.

To get the information, you’ve got to get them to tell it to you. Maybe the agreed upon rules force them to tell it to you under a certain set of circumstances (“Is it a breadbox?”), or you have to social-fu your way into convincing them you’ve earned the right to be told the answer.

Everyone Knows But One
A rarity in roleplaying, but common in parlor games, every player but one is privy to some secret. In the Psychiatrist, one player asks each player a question in turn, who are all pretending to have some humorous delusion. The ‘patients’ confer privately on what to go upon. In Betrayal on the House on the Hill, when the Traitor is revealed, he leaves the room, allowing the Heroes to go over their objectives and plans. (Note that the Traitor’s information is an example of Only One Person Knows, above.)

What if you want nobody to know, at least to start?

The Information is On a Card
Cards are great. You can have different possibilities on a card, deal them out, put them aside, put them on a deck, whatever. Sometimes, the ‘answer’ card is set aside, and players have to divine its identity by logically proving its absence (such as in Clue, or more complicatedly in Seluth or Mystery in the Abbey)

The Card is Your Identity
Cards used again here: every player is dealt a card showing their team, or even just a hidden objective. (Mafia/Werewolf are the essential loyalty ones, or Battlestar Gallactica or Camelot for boardgames. Mountain Witch is the best example of an rpg that does this.) Generally, determining the nature of other player’s cards is a key objective in play (although not in Mountain Witch), and this is done not by deductive logic (generally), but by study of player behaviors and in-game actions. In Mafia, determining the identity of the Mafia (or hiding, if you are) is the whole game. In BSG, it certainly helps to identify the Cylons, if only to minimize the damage they can do.

Note that Mafia/Werewolf has a gamemaster, and goes through two game states very quickly: once the cards have been dealt, everyone’s identity is secret, but soon after the gamemaster learns all the identities, and the game enters a Only One Person Knows state. (The role of the gamemaster is essential for logistics reasons. The Mafia have the ability to secretly select and ‘kill’ another player.)

Card Position
Cards can be shuffled into a deck and have a position relative to other cards. In the recent D&D boardgames, the location of a certain tile is key to the adventure and is shuffled into a certain portion of the deck; no one knows exactly when it will come up. A card can be given importance by putting it at the top or bottom of a deck. Players can’t gain information about what card is where without looking at/through the cards, or by drawing and removing them.

Dice
Dice have different properties than cards, most notably independence. If one card is the four of hearts, we know all the other cards (if from the same deck) aren’t. But if one die shows a four, that tells us nothing about the other dice.
If a die is rolled and put under a cup, it’s identity can be concealed. But there’s no way to tell the result, short of looking at it. Liar’s Dice gives players access to the information of different sets of dice.

The Information is the Game
This technique is largely exclusive to computer games, due to the difficulty of analog implementation. (Mao does it, but essentially requires a gamemaster figure to moderate) In this situation, the game rules themselves are obscured from the players, and determining the nature of the process is a challenge. For example, many MMORPGS have damage formulae that are quite complex, and whole communities exist to try to reverse engineer the rules so they can more accurately determine the impact of certain play choices.
You might have this in a roleplaying game if there are secret rules: players can see their inputs going in, and the outputs coming out, and have to determine how to best choose their inputs to maximize outputs. Deadlands had a number of rules secrets, the goal of which was mostly preserving a feel of mystery and dread. Use this sparingly- I imagine it’s more likely to evoke frustration rather than wonder.

But it wasn’t meant to be. The reinforcements from Tyr never came, Raam exploded into violent warfare, and Urik received staunch support from the Kings of Nibenay and Balic. The rebels, despite seizing the outlying farms and mines, made a desperate last stand in the valley of Wayfarer’s Rest.

Renauldus the Malcontent was there that day, a leader of the men standing against the tyranny of the Sorcerer Kings, only to see his allies abandon him due to cowardice. Upon the evidence of his defeat, he led his squad in a daring retreat, rather than see them killed or enslaved by the forces of Urik.

Today, Renauldus leads a rag-tag caravan of drakes and beasts, wandering across the wastes. They avoid the larger City States when they can, preferring to trade with smaller villages, and doing odd-jobs for good causes, especially those that target the Sorcerer Kings and benefit the common man.

Renauldus the Malcontent.

This time I’m looking at tales from The Best of HP Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre.

The Rats in the Walls
Short Spoilery Synopsis: A man renovates an old house, and there’s old temples under the site, and spectral rats that only he and the cats can hear. The rats drive him murderously crazy. Also, the main character’s cat is named after a racial slur.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: Mousetraps are set, and sprung, but to no effect.
Can You Fight the Rats in the Walls: No. You can burn down the house to prevent people from living there, but the influence of the rats themselves seems impossible to physically combat.

The Picture in the House:
Short Spoilery Synopsis: A traveller seeks refuge from a storm in a house, and finds a book with disturbing pictures of cannibalism. Surprise! The resident is a cannibal.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: None is used, although at the end, a lightning bolt strikes the house, and apparently destroys it.
Can You Fight the Guy With the Picture in the House: Yes. It’s just a crazy guy, there’s nothing in the text to suggest that he’s anything else.

Pickman’s Model:
Short Spoilery Synopsis: Pickman, (the anti-Lovecraft; Lovecraft generally leaves the horror to the reader’s imagination, going to extremes of non-description; Pickman paints the impossible with such specific detail and precision that they leave nothing to the imagination, and are thus terrible to behold) paints ghouls. He’s got one locked in his basement.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: When one of his ghouls gets too rowdy, he shoots it.
Can You Fight Pickman’s Model: Yes. Pickman used a revolver.

in the Vault:
Short Spoilery Synopsis: An undertaker gets locked in the vault, and stacks coffins to get out, and is the victim of revenge from beyond the grave.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: None. Birch doesn’t fight back.
Can You Fight what’s In the Vault: Inconclusive- there’s not enough evidence to know if its a ghoul (like Pickman’s Model) or an incorporeal spirit, simply the result of a particularly wronged, and particularly vindictive corpse.

The Silver Key:
Short Spoilery Synopsis: Randolf Carter regrets his ability to have vast dreams, and searches for the ability to do so again. He unknowingly transports himself backward in time, becoming his younger self.
This story is interesting, because it can be interpreted as one of two ways: an eternal cycle of loss, or as a sublime victory by Carter over time, space, and dreams. The ending suggests Carter has gained some influence over the dreamlands.
There’s not anything to fight in this story, giving this story a rating of Irrelevant, but this is a possible instance of human transcendence in the Mythos.

The Music of Erich Zahn:
Short Spoilery Synopsis: Erich Zahn lives in a pocket dimensional neighborhood of complete darkness, and plays otherworldly music.
Can You Fight the Music of Erich Zahn: Irrelevant; there’s no Threat in the context of the story, except the strange space itself, which does not appear to create peril (or if it does, can be fended off by music).

The Call of Cthulhu
See my more in depth post on this tale.

The Dunwhich Horror
Short Spoilery Synopsis: When Wilbur Whately, a precocious fast growing child is born, so is his brother, a constantly growing mass of flesh. (Their father is possibly Yog-Sothoth). After Wilbur’s death, big brother goes on a giant monster rampage throughout Dunwhich.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: Wilbur is mortally wounded by guarddogs when trying to break into the Arkham University; his flesh is mostly otherworldly, only slightly human. The brother is assumed to be much tougher; three academians use a ritual to summon a lightning bolt to destroy the beast.
Can You Fight the Dunwhich Horror? Yes. You might need specialized tools, but in this tale, humanity wins the day. It might even be possible with physical weaponry to find a weakness in the half-god’s human aspect that can be exploited.

The Whisperer in Darkness:
Short Spoilery Synopsis: Mi-Go, travelers from Pluto are taking over in rural Vermont, and only a crazy recluse and his pen pal can stop them. And then the pen pal falls for the most transparent trap ever, snaps out of it, and makes his escape before they steal his brain.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: Henry Akeley keeps a vast stable of watch dogs, which the Mi-Go evidently fear. The story itself starts with reports of strange corpses, which suggests that the Mi-Go are vulnerable to death.
Can You fight the Mi-Go?: Yes. They are presented as having a vast technological and numerical advantage, but on Earth at least, they exist as physical beings, which are threatened by dog maulings. In event of Mi-Go invasion, load up on dogs and dig in for prolonged guerrilla warfare.

The Colour Out of Space:
Short Spoilery Synopsis: A meteorrite lands on the Gardner place, and poisons the water and the land, spreading a strange color, and leeching the life out of the plants and the Gardner family.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: The narrator kills one of the corrupted Gardners, but no physical action seems possible against the color or the meteorite
Can You Fight the Colour Out of Space: No, and the meteorite fragment dissolves over time- there’s not even the option to destroy that. Perhaps quick retrieval and quarantine of such a fragment would be able to contain the corruption, but once its active, there’s little recourse except to abandon the land. The story also features an ambiguous threat of a city aquifer spreading into the corrupted territory.

The Haunter of the Dark:
Short Spoilery Synopsis: Robert Blake finds a ruined church and explores it, possibly letting loose and calling attention to an ancient evil that is held at bay by light. During an electrical outage, it escapes and kills him.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: The beast flees from light when it is shined into cracks in the church, and it is suggested that light might be able to harm it.
Can You fight the Haunter of the Dark: Inconclusive, but leaning Yes. One might be able to go all Alan Wake on its ass.

The Thing on the Doorstop:
Short Spoilery Synopsis: This may be Lovecraft’s most sexist tale, stating at women’s brains are physically less capable then men’s brains. Or that might just be the mad sorcerer talking, who stole his daughter’s body to gain immortality, and now continues to body hop.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: The host’s body can be killed, but if the corpse is not destroyed, it can still switch bodies, leaving the other host possessing a rotting corpse.
Can You fight the Thing on the Doorstep: (Technically the thing on the doorstep is the rotting corpse of the woman’s form, inhabited by the narrator’s friend) Yes. The host is human; all you need is a handy candlestick or gun, and the ability to burn the body.

The Dreams in the Witch-House
Short Spoilery Synopsis: A mathematician is on the cusp of puzzling out the secrets of space and time, and attracts a witch and her ratlike familiar, who have been kidnapping and killing children for centuries.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: When the mathematician is spirited away by the witch, he steals her ritual knife and stabs her with it. The familiar survives to kill him, but then disappears.
Can You fight the Witch in the Witch House: Yes.

The Shadow Out of Time:
Short Spoilery Synopsis: A man has several years of his life taken from him, when time traveling aliens swtich bodies with him to study humanity. Later he goes and finds ruins of their city, where he discovers it was real all along.
Textual Effectiveness of Weaponry: None is used. There’s not any physical conflict in the story.
Can You fight the Shadow out of Time: Irrelevant. The Great Race seem to be long lived but mortal, although there is a greater threat they seem to fear. The horror of the tale is that all his dreams are true, which seems pretty weaksauce, since as the reader, we should really be assuming that all along.

This round of stories featured a number of stark victories and ineffible foes; lots of Yes and No answers, fewer Inconclusive ones, and a number of simply weird tales without any real conflict or threat. The tally so far, including all stories:

Yes: 13
Inconclusive, Leaning Yes: 5
Inconclusive: 3
Inconclusive, Leaning No: 5
No: 6
Irrelevant: 6

If it bleeds (or dissolves, or melts), you can kill it.