Alex the Dumbass VS The Corn Maze Monster, Arc/Campaign Launch

This is going to be a long one, Space Pilgrims, so buckle up. I am going to launch one of the planned cornerstone campaigns for the blog and Alabama Weird and an adventure seed I have wanted to try out for a moment but never played out to resolve.

See, I said something dumbass was coming…

Arc/Adventure Seed: The Corn Maze Monster

By 2004, Leftfield’s Hayseed Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch was the biggest Halloween/Fall attractions in northern Alabama. People came from Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi to see it. Folks (usually visiting family in Huntsville) would brag about flying in from Africa, Asia, and Europe just to go.

That year, though, on Halloween, three kids — from three different families who at least claimed to not known one another — all went missing. Other people reported seeing a strange monster in the maze. Reports vary with the initial suggestion being that it was a worker dressed up to add some spookiness but later being treated by some as an actual creature.

Larry Hayseed, the owner, tried to almost play it off like no big deal and the backlash crashed his business for half a decade. In 2009, the grand relaunch only saw people showing up to get a glimpse of the monster — and more and more people were starting to suggest the monster was either Larry or his son, Gerald.

In August 2010, Larry was found hung in the barn where the pumpkin carving contest and concert bonanza used to take place. Gerald and Larry’s wife, Janine, were no where to be found. A number of pumpkins carved in strange faces were left all around the destitute property. Animal carcasses had been placed in the petting zoo area.

A pile of corn the size of a small car was left by the road and to this day, some locals swear that mixed in were teeth. Children’s teeth. The local police claim otherwise.

Now (2020), people regularly tell about the Corn Maze Monster as a local fact. They claim any missing person, especially any missing kid, back through ’77 when the farm opened, is linked to it. Legalities over land ownership have left it largely unused for years. A few people trip out there every year but other things happening in Leftfield — school burning down, the Falco zipper family getting caught up in some…controversy — have kept it largely out of the public eye.

Until COVID has put a damper on East Alabama University¹ activities and so Alex the Dumbass, his cousin (and best friend) Gaz , folklorist Abby, cameraman Skee, and bodyguard Arnie figure they might as well crack the case.

But, will they?

Campaign Seed: Alex the Dumbass

THE BASIC IDEA is pretty simple. Alexander Dumas (aka, “Alex the Dumbass”) is a ghost hunter from Armitage, AL who uses the generally shut-down nature AND hectic (at the same time) of Summer 2020 to launch a Youtube career fighting the forces of darkness with his friends and family. His mother is Eustace Delmont’s older sister.²

Alex was born in December 14, 1999 and is currently 20 in game. He is in between his Freshman year [which was heavily disrupted] and his Sophomore year.

The second character, and essentially co-lead, is Jonathan “Gaz” Delmont. Gaz is Eustace and Hitomi’s eldest son who was teased in the future-sight portions of the E+H storylines. He takes after his dad but has more of his mom’s common-sense. His specialty is in UFOs, ancient science, and hidden technology.

Gaz is also Freshman to Sophomore but was born in May 24, 2001 and will have just turned 19.

Gaz and Alex consider each other to be more like brothers more than first cousins but regularly refer to each other as cuz. It’s a southern Alabama thing.

Gaz is dating Absinthe “Abby” Rhodes, a young woman from Atmore, AL. She is into cryptids and folklore and rounds out the third member of the AAGhhh! Productions (Abby + Alex + Gaz). Despite being into anime and loving fantasy fiction, she’s pretty glued together and tends to be pretty sensible when actually researching.

Her and Gaz have different vibes of common sense, though. He’s a bit more like his dad in that his self-preservation is lacking even if can be calmed down to think things through. Abby is more the type of person to want to think things through at the start. She has historically preferred library time to field research.

Abby is the second oldest of the group, born in June 11, 1999. She is 20 and a Sophomore moving on to Junior.

The cameraman is Timothy “Skee” Mylar. Older guy (born September 7, 1991, so pushing 30). A bit of a stoner, he is really good with mikes and cameras and fit enough to keep the shots on point. Drifted around a bit before going to school. He’s in it because he adores horror movies and wants to make his own one day needs funds.

Finally there is Arnessa “Arnie” Dumas. Alex’s other first cousin [dad’s side, this time] who thinks Alex is the coolest man who ever lived. She’s the captain of the Brichester County Community College Women’s Volleyball team and is bigger, and brawnier, than the others. She’s not against threatening and potentially full on locking up Alex to keep him safe, but she also finds the danger he gets into exciting.

Arnie is the youngest. March 27, 2002. 18-years old. Will just be starting school in the Fall.

Campaign Style

The style of the campaign is going to be told from both inside and outside video footage. Like found footage but with some behind-the-scenes scenes.

Comedic. A bit actiony. Moments of fair grittiness. I’m going to my best to avoid slice of life and melodrama, though. Presumably it’s going on behind the scenes, but not the behind-the-scenes we’ll be seeing. This is more like the production and the production diaries.

There is going to be some bleak horror and dark moments, but the characters are going to keep punching like a force of nature. The NPCs around them? Maybe not so much…

The Deeper Background

Alex the Dumbass first showed up in a story seed I was working on a few years ago in which the eponymous character said stuff like, “This is the second most haunted hotel in the middle third of western Alabama.” His schtick was to be excitable and in over his head but actually good at what he does. He also was a constant hype man for his own adventures and overly promoted himself.

To a degree, he got turned into Eustace Delmont when I started that campaign.

The OG Eustace was a bumbling hero whose heart was in the right place but whose actual adventures were fairly different than his story. The trick there was going to be to use dice rolls and oracles to find out what really happened and then telling a story completely at odds. This did not last.

System, Oracles, and Tweaks

The system will be Bloat Games’ Survive This focusing mostly their “Blood Trilogy” — Bloody University, Camp Blood, and Bloody University — with a couple of other expansions like the Class Compendium, 100 Adventure Hooks, Ultimate Cryptid Manual, and maybe other bits and pieces to add some odd spice here there. Maybe we’ll have a zombie outbreak. That sounds fun.

I will use Mythic as the Gamemaster/Oracle (with a few official tweaks as described below)

I will bring in Gamemaster’s Apprentice: Weird Horror and Base Deck (1e). I will blend them together so each pull can be one or the other. They will be mostly be for generating specific sensory data, some names, and maybe getting a few catalysts, runes, and such.

The “10-symbol general oracle” from GMA it has will be tied to specific things as the campaign goes. The only one marked off to start will be the Sun symbol = Eastern Alabama University. Based on experience it won’t take long before most of the others to be filled in.

Tricube Tales Image Oracles Are GO!

The Alex the Dumbass Image Oracle is already live. Which means it will likely be sitting there for a week or so before it makes sense why it is there (it is taking me a few days to get all the details together). I made it by combining the “Ghost Banishers” Image Oracle and “Maidenstead Mysteries” Image Oracle and then subbing out duplicates with five new custom icons that are fitting to a Alabama-set ghost hunting game: “Corn,” “Video Camera,” “Jason Mask,” “Maze,” and “Chainsaw.”

After launching Eustace with “Maidenstead Mysteries” I had actually planned a “Ghost Banishers” intro to Alex but almost immediately felt like I was doing the same thing and postponed it until I could find some new sparks to better handle it. That’s why I picked it for the sister oracle.

Lower Lethality with Death Switch

Survive This! has the usual OSR-additions on HP and death save type mechanics. That’s not quite fitting what I need.

I want there to be a chance of death but the background is closer to stuff like John Dies at the End, Tales from the Gas Station, Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi, and even Supernatural (etc). Stories where someone might die or disappear, but then they might also return.

The basic plan is like this:

• The default is for 0HP to be the minimum with additional damage taking people out of action for longer (people can and will get very bruised).
• Once Chaos Factor gets to 7+ OR in interrupt scenes with either PC-Negative or Horror-PC, death is possible [even if temporary].
• Likewise, NPC-Negative and Horror-NPC will open death counters up for even important NPCs. With NPCs, it will be more likely to be permanent but there’s always a chance that some might return.
• 7+ is also going to be the only time the main baddie (of the adventure/arc) can be killed or beaten. Until then, they will keep coming back. Each time they “kill/beat” the baddie, though, it will automatically increase the CF by 1.
• The above rule might be overwritten in shorter outings but we’ll see if we have those before I sweat it.

One Adventure/Mini-Arc = One Level (for now)

Each adventure or mini-arc (which could be a couple of smaller adventures), the characters will gain one level rather than going through XP.

Once they get up a few levels, probably level 5, this will flatten out to 2-adventures-per-level. If it ever gets much past that we might tweak it again.

Faster Survival Refresh (at least slightly)

Survival is meant to refresh at only 1 point per session but I will be upping it to a weighted d3 (d6: 1-3 = 1, 4-5 = 2, 6 = 3). The idea is that these characters are a bit dumb but actively encouraged to face down death to get the best shot for their channel. If the game gets to a point where they can’t do something bigger than life, they are probably going to lose subscribers.

No Alignment and No Precise Money

Alignment won’t really help at all in this game.

I don’t think futzing about money would either.

I’ll give them a “WEALTH” stat matching the nine-Chaos Factors (1 = Very Poor and 9 = Very Wealthy) with 3-4 being the right amount for a college student. I’ll use the base values given per class/background/etc and figure it out.

Then I can say things like “They can very likely afford/find this resource…” and roll.

Mythic Meaning Tables, Scene Focus Tables, etc

I’m going to use several Mythic tweaks and twists from Johnny Blue vs the Kid. These come from a few different official sources. I’ll repost here for simplicity, though:

• First, I will bring in horror themes from Mythic Variations.
  • Only Increasing Chaos Factor (per arc/adventure, starting at 5) however it does not go up per scene but more by general vibe.
  • Horror Focus Tables
  • When checking for Altered/Interrupt: 1-3 = Altered while 4+ = Interrupt. As the CF gets higher, scenes start changing by larger amounts.
• Will introduce the various Horror- and Mystery-related Meaning Tables from Mythic Magazine #40
• For Fate Questions, I will use the Low-Chaos Factor Chart.

Music

I also built up an oversized playlist for the campaign. Music is a fairly important oracle for me. The vibe of songs playing can influence some decisions on how to read rolls and how to play out characters.

I essentially decided to combine my high school music — Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Radiohead, Stone Temple Pilots — with my college music — The Pillows, Clutch, Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, Brad Sucks, Tom Waits — and then inject some more current Japanese Shoegaze & Alt stuff — Haku., WurtS, Hiragi no, Blue Mash, No Buses — and then round out with a mix of a few more bombastic choices like Bradio and Foxy Shazam. Mellow that just a bit some “soundtrack library” type albums. Both literal ones like the About a Certain Place in the Kinki Region and No One Will Save You and then with stuff like Scott Buckley, Lustmord, and aurora.heaven.

It’s a bit of a grungy, slacker, dreamy mix. Like to what a person who cracks a can of beer and stares into the pine trees to waste a Sunday morning might listen.

Campaign Art Style

Look, 2020 wasn’t that long ago. Most high quality stuff was already here. STILL, I’m going to do a little post-processing to the art to give it a bit of a grainy vibe which would be more fitting for maybe 2012 but neener. See above for an example.

Starting Threads/Characters

Characters…well, I think Gerald and Janine should be on there. Larry. Two are missing and one is for sure dead, but such things sometimes pay out. To start, not the monster. There might not be a monster. We’ll let that develop a session or two, first.

Let’s add in another character: Bo Hayseed. Larry’s younger brother. Now the owner of the property. I’ll flip a coin to see if Alex has even asked about doing the documentary there.

As for Threads, this is a bit easier (with a few added in to seed the campaign, one per Character):

• Where Skee got the cameras.
• Gaz is having odd dreams.
• Abby’s parents might be part of a cult!?
• Alex is curious about the Armitage Lighthouse.³
• Arnie is being scouted by an out of state school but doesn’t want to tell Alex.
• Missing kids
• Missing Janine & Gerald
• Larry’s odd behavior
• Monster (various depictions)
• Petting Zoo
• Pumpkins
• Teeth in a corn pile

I think that’s enough. The lattermost three are just going to be rumors upon which to follow-up. Kind of like mini-threads. But we will see.

Character Sheet

I have an absolutely simple character sheet worked out.

Once I have played a few round and figured out what I need I might go through and make changes.

“Reading” List

The vibe of this is largely down to a few major sources though it’ll be my own thing, as well.

• The original concept was something like “Southern Stoner X-Files” though I’ve downed the quantities of drugs that might be involved in more recent mental models.
• John Dies at the End is a big influence.
• Tales from the Gas Station is actually shockingly close to some planned scenes and such, but I’ll do my best to not be too influenced. Still, it fits a vibe.
• Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi is possibly the closest thing, visually, to what I was going for…just Alabama instead of Japan.

1. Note, in the OG draft, it was going to be UAH but I decided to use a fictional school that is kind of like UAH + Jackson State with a tinge of Montevallo. ↩︎
2. The sister who might actually not have existed up until this point and that’s ok. Alex was originally Eustace’s cousin but I’m changing stuff up since it hasn’t shown up in this specific blog ↩︎
3. The lighthouse is a focus point for a few stories and in the Alabama Weird probably has to do with a group fighting against The Weird through dreams and other scientific research. ↩︎