Curse of Whateley Manor

Background: A little while ago, I organized and ran a live-action game for 12 people. Basically, an occult expert was mysteriously killed, and strange people turned up at his mansion for the estate auction.

It went well, but it was pretty time-consuming and complicated. Instead of having index cards represent the many items, I made or bought all of them. Five eldritch tomes, much vampire-hunting gear, bits and pieces of occult stuff. I had some help from my pal Joel, but it was very much my project and responsibility. Quite a relief to have it all over.


Anyway, it was such a success that we decided to run it again. Actually, the players decided. Some of the players were new people. Many had the crinkled character sheets of other players from the last game; the rest had only a name and the previous player's vague recollections of the character's motivation and background. Some of the props were missing.

I was there because I felt I ought to be, and the players would sometimes turn to me for advice, but I was confused and a bit worried. They hadn't set the whole thing up right, and since none of the people playing had an idea of the overall picture like a GM would, the game wouldn't work out as it ought to. It was like an RPG cargo cult.

We were playing outdoors, by my dorm.

I was watching people mingle and role-play, but mostly I was digging a pit. It was pretty big, about the size of a king-size bed. I'd gotten it three feet deep already. All the dirt was in a pile at one end.

I had some chunks of sculpted plaster, about twenty. They were each the size and shape of a flattened pillow. I knew they were meant to represent hardtack. HUGE hardtack. We didn't have any hardtack in the original game, but it seemed like the right thing to do this game.

I was going to dig the pit, fill it with fake hardtack, then cover it with sticks and dirt. There were a lot of fallen branches nearby.

I had just about gotten it deep enough when the players started wandering over. I felt sheepish for not having finished the pit in time for its appearance in the plot.