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EXTERIOR

Architecture: The Minneapolis Federal Reserve is designed in neo-classical style, with pilasters and a colonnade supporting an upper frieze. The Corinthian composite capitals are topped with volutes decorated with acanthus leaves.

• There’s an upper parapet, from which the upper windows (requiring Locksmith, but leading to the Executive Offices and Office Floor) could be accessed.

Occult / Art History: Acanthus leaves are a symbol of immortality and resurrection in Greco-Phoenician art. Curiously, in Christian symbolism its meaning is inverted, representing sin, punishment, and death.

ENTRANCES

MAIN ENTRANCE: The main entrance is up a short flight of stairs. The doors are embossed metal, over a dozen feet high, and weigh nine tons. (They’re counterweighted so that a person can open them. They’re kept open during the day. At night they’re barred from the inside.)

This entrance leads through a doubly-barred foyer and, from there, into the Entrance Lobby.

Day & Night: 2 Fed Security Officers

DELIVERY ENTRANCE: The construction crews working on finishing the interior of the building are using the delivery area to stage their work. At night, the heavy steel security doors are locked and there’s a Fed Security Officer on duty.

The Delivery Entrance provides access to the Counting Rooms & Archives.

INTERIOR

CONSTRUCTION ZONES: There are still numerous areas of the Federal Reserve Building that are under construction. During the day, construction crews are active throughout these areas.

ELEVATOR LOBBIES: Each level of the Federal Reserve Building has an elevator lobby with six elevators. They provide immediate access to the Main Lobby, Banking Room, Archives, and Office Floor. They do NOT go to the Vault or Counting Rooms.

• Director’s Private Elevator: One elevator goes to Barca’s office, although this requires the use of a special security key. (Carried by Barca and also the security shift leader.) This elevator shaft also provides access to the Tophet (but this can only be activated from Barca’s office, see below).

ENTRANCE LOBBY

ENTRANCE LOBBY: A breathtaking chamber tiled in white marble with a bronze ceiling. A grand marble staircase with a massive and intricately cast bronze railing curls up to the Banking Room on the second level. A set of double mahogany doors leads to the elevator lobby.

BANKING LOBBY

A gargantuan chamber; the ceiling supported by huge marble pillars. The floor is polished terrazzo. There are imposing marble desks around the perimeter, including a security station. The center of the room is filled with bankers doing business from within steel-barred cages. Red carpets run

• Day: 4 Fed Security Officers
• Occult: The red carpets are arranged
• Vault Access: The banking cages contain access to the Counting Rooms on the lower level (and, from there, to the Vault).
• Elevator Lobby: At one end of the Banking Room.
• Grand Stairs: To Entrance Lobby.
• Stairs: To Archives & Office Floor.

COUNTING ROOMS

On the lower level, there are multiple rooms dedicated to counting cash (both outgoing and incoming). The machinery for automatically counting coins has recently been installed, along with tallying calculators. There are also large supplies of canvas sacks and currency straps, but no actual cash.

• Leaving: There are stairs leading up from the Counting Room to the Banking Floor. A large corridor leads to the Delivery Entrance.
• Vault Access: You have to pass through the Counting Rooms to reach the Vault.

VAULT

The Vault is a vast, multi-chambered space in its own right. Although the heavy vault door is locked, the Vault itself is empty.

Tophet Entrance: The floor of the innermost chamber of the Vault is decorated with a giant Eye of Horus. This pupil of the Eye can be rotated and then slid to the side, revealing a staircase leading down to the Tophet.

ARCHIVES

The Archives of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve have begun to be transferred from the New York Life Building, but they have not yet begun to be unpacked. So there are empty shelves and filing cabinets, along with a lot of crates neatly stacked here and ready for move-in day.

Mail Room: Mail is also sorted in this area, potentially allowing investigators to figure out which offices in the building are currently occupied.

• Elevator Lobby: Can be accessed here.
• Stairs: Lead up to the Office Floor / Executive Offices.

OFFICE FLOOR / EXECUTIVE OFFICES

These occupy the upper floors of the Federal Reserve Building. Desks and other furniture have been moved in, but only the Executive Offices are occupied (by cultists).

• Elevator Lobby: Accessible here.
• Stairs: Lead down to Archives and the Banking Floor.
• Barca’s Office: Barca’s office is located among the Executive Offices.

BARCA’S OFFICE

The luxurious office you’d expect from the Director of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve. Lush, blood-colored carpet. A huge desk of dark oak.

Architecture / Bureaucracy: Barca has the true plans of the Vault, including the Tophet chamber, in his desk. This includes both the Vault access (fully detailed) and the Private Elevator can access the Tophet (though not exactly how) and broad details of facility (although not the brass pressure chamber, which was constructed separately). Physics notes that there’s some truly bizarre equipment installed in the walls of the globular chamber, although its ultimate purpose is not clear from the blueprints.

Private Elevator: A short back hallway leads from Barca’s office to his private elevator. Calling the elevator requires a special key, which is carried by Barca and also the security shift leader, or Lockpicking.

Secret Elevator: A secret panel next to the elevator contains a switch. If flipped, the private elevator will descend directly to the Tophet.

THE TOPHET

Entry: Both the stairs from the Vault and the secret elevator from Barca’s Office descend into a small entry chamber. A large brass incense bowl depends from the ceiling on thick ropes of silk. (It’s not currently lit unless a ritual is planned for this same night.)

Cell: A small cell is built into the wall of the Entry. (The children are transferred here shortly before the ritual.)

• There’s a stack of neatly folded children’s clothes (used) in the corner of the cell.

Laboratory: A door out of the entry chamber leads to a small chemistry laboratory. This is where the Tophet serum is prepared (see “The Ritual,” below). The investigators can find vials, etc. consistent with the Tophet serum they’ve encountered elsewhere.

Gantry: Another exit leads to a short gantry ending in a pressurized door leading into the Tophet Chamber. The door can only be opened from this side (uh-oh) and a set of controls at the end of the gantry will allow it to be extended out into the Tophet Chamber (providing access to the pressure vessel in the center of the chamber, see below).

THE TOPHET CHAMBER

The Tophet Chamber is a huge, spherical chamber. The inner walls are minutely etched with strange geometric patterns and runes. In the center of the chamber is a Brass Sphere, which appears to simply float in place.

• Physics: The sphere would appear to be held in place by some form of powerful electromagnetic field projected from the walls… which is odd, though, because brass isn’t magnetic. So there must be something more complicated going on with the Sphere.
• Runes – Archaeology / Occult: These appear to be Phoenician runes.

The Brass Sphere: The sphere is a pressure vessel made from brass. Its surface is minutely etched (in a fashion similar to an electrical board; although the PCs won’t be able to draw that comparison). On the top of the sphere is a pressure hatch that seals seamlessly with the brass.

• Chemistry: The etching seems similar to acid-etching, but isn’t. It’s too minutely detailed.
• Chemistry 1 / Physics 1: Examining the sphere with any kind of magnification (or a point spend) reveals a fractal nature (although the character lacks the terminology for this) — a never-ending, spiraling pattern in which the edges of the etching are also marked by even more detailed etching.
• Hatch: Can only be opened from the outside (uh-oh).

Inside the Sphere: The inside of the Sphere is similarly etched, just like the outside.

The Ritual:

• The gantry is extended and a child is placed naked inside the Sphere.
• The Sphere is sealed, the gantry withdrawn, and the pressure door sealed, isolating the chamber.
• The Sphere is electrically powered, reducing sacrificial victims to alchemically charged ash. (This ash could be described as Tanit “spores,” although the analogy only goes so far.)
• The cultists immediately process the ash into active Tophet serum using the facility onsite. (This is time sensitive, as the “spores” can’t survive long without being preserved within the serum.)

STAFF & SECURITY

FED STAFF MEMBERS: Athletics 3, Credit Rating 3, Driving 2, Fleeing 4, Health 2, Scuffling 2, Weapons 2

Weapons: -2 (fists), -1 (improvised weapon)

FED SECURITY OFFICER: Athletics 5, Health 6, Scuffling 6, Sense Trouble 6, Weapons 3

Alertness Modifier: +1
Weapons: -1 (truncheon), +1 (pistol), -2 (fists) 

TANIT CULTISTS: Athletics 5, Firearms 4, Scuffling 6, Weapons 5, Health 8

Alertness Modifier: +1 (three eyes are better than two)
Stealth Modifier: 0
Weapons: dagger (0), fists (-2), small caliber pistols (-1)
Stability Loss: +0, if seeing the eye

JOHN BARCA

APPEARANCE

• Prop: Photo of John Barca

ROLEPLAYING NOTES

• Behind a thin veneer of sanity is an obsessed lunatic under the thrall of Tanit.
• Convinced he’s doing the best thing for all.
• Obsessive, confident, dismissive.

BACKGROUND

• Barca is a Yale graduate (and member of Skull & Bones). (It’s an open question whether or not he was infected at Yale or at some later date. If at Yale, it seems likely that all of Skull & Bones is Tanit-infested.)
• He was appointed by President Warren Harding to serve on the Federal Reserve Board in Washington in May 1921.
• In May 1923, he resigned to return briefly to private business in St. Paul. Within a few months, however, he was appointed to a joint leadership role at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve.
• He’s the second chairman of the Mineapolis Federal Reserve, advancing into the position after the death of John Rich last year.

CLUES

• Following Barca: Will lead them to the Minneapolis Federal Reserve.
• Library Use – Barca: Easily reveals Barca’s position as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
• Prop: Minneapolis Federal Reserve Business Cards

JOHN BARCA: Athletics 6, Driving 6, Firearms 7, Sense Trouble 10, Fleeing 4, Scuffling 5, Weapons 8, Health 10

Alertness Modifier: +2 (paranoid)
Stealth Modifier: +1 (sneaky)
Weapons: Dagger (+0), Pistol (+0), Fists (-2)
Stability Loss: +0, if seeing the eye
Hypnosis of the Hand: Pupil twists and distorts into a curlicue. Stability test (difficulty 4, no loss): On failure, hand has established a hypnotic state. On second failure, they can issue a hypnotic command that must be followed.

Go to Proactive Nodes

As many of you know, but some of you perhaps do not, I have a book coming out!

So You Want To Be a Game Master will be released October 31st from Macmillan and Page Street Publishing. In this Twitch stream we took a deep dive into the book, exploring the full Table of Contents and chatting about some of the hidden treasures you’ll find within.

You can find the video here if the embedded player doesn’t work for you.

PREORDER NOW!

Has the Candela Obscura Quickstart convinced me to run the game? And will it convince you? Should you take the time to check out this new roleplaying game from Critical Role and Darrington Press? Why is Candela Obscura a game afraid of its own shadow? ENnie Award-winning designer Justin Alexander dives into the controversy.

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Pacing is tricky.

No matter what medium you’re working in — whether film, theater, prose, or roleplaying games — pacing is ephemeral, subjective, and devilishly difficult to get a grip on. Even absolute masters of pacing will struggle to teach it, and the few rules they offer seem to be more honored in the breach than the observance. Entire books about pacing in film have been written where the practical advice more or less boils down to, “Make the cut at the moment that feels right to you,” and, “Watch movies with really great pacing until you get a feel for it.”

How much more difficult is it, therefore, to teach (and learn!) effective pacing in a roleplaying game? A medium in which, even with the advent of actual play broadcasts, most of the artform is experienced only by those immediately participating?

Nevertheless, pacing is incredibly important. Even pedestrian material can be made compelling with effective pacing, and otherwise brilliant material can elicit glazed eyes and bored players if the pacing is plodding or unfocused.

So I’m going to do my best to give you some concrete, actionable advice for pacing your sessions.

Here are some basics of scene structure in RPGs that we need to understand before diving into pacing:

First, RPG sessions are made up of scenes.

Each scene is framed, introducing the location where the scene is taking place and the characters who are participating in it. (Characters may, of course, come and go as the scene continues. Some scenes will even change location, although a change of location more often suggests that a new scene is beginning.)

Each scene has an agenda, which is the reason we’re playing the scene. This can often be thought of in the form of a question that the scene is answering:

• Can the princess be wooed?
• Will Hou defeat Chaohui?
• Can the goblins convince the PCs to help them fight the dragon?
• Will Jack Hammer find the murder weapon?

If you can’t figure out what the agenda of the scene is (or if the answer is trivial or obvious), then it’s probably not worth playing it out and you should move onto the next interesting question and frame that scene.

When a scene is finished, the GM will either cut or transition to a new scene.

Broadly speaking, pacing can be understood as (a) the choice of when to end a scene, (b) the choice of how to start a new scene, and (c) the speed at which the scene plays out. Collectively, this also encompasses the speed at which the entire scenario and/or session plays out. (You may notice the emphasis on “speed.” That’s why we call it pacing. It’s all about controlling the speed of the narrative.)

THREE TIPS FOR THE BEGINNER

As a beginning GM, you’ve got a lot of balls to keep in the air. Pacing is one more ball that you need to figure out how to juggle, so I’ll give you a bonus tip before we even get started: You might want to leave the Pacing ball in the cupboard for a few sessions while you get a grip on everything else. To at least some extent, pacing will take care of itself, particularly if you’re starting with location-crawls (as I recommend in Prep Tips for the Beginning DM) and it can make a lot of sense to focus on just the essential balls (like making rulings) rather than trying to master everything at once and dropping all the balls on the floor.

When you’re feeling confident, though, here are three practical pacing tips to get your started.

If the scene is about achieving a logistical goal (e.g., interrogate a prisoner until they give you the information), cut to the next scene within one minute of the logistical goal being achieved. (Often you can cut immediately on the goal being achieved, but a little denouement/cooldown is often a good idea.)

Advanced Tip: If the PCs have a logistical goal whose achievement may not be immediately obvious (e.g., searching for clues or an interrogation; have we gotten all the information? or could we learn more?) hold up a sign that says WRAP SCENE on it. (You’ll want to explain this to the players ahead of time.) This gives players “permission” to exit the scene, while also giving them the space to wrap up any loose roleplaying ends they’re interested in.

If it’s a roleplaying scene, cut on the second lull. The first lull in the scene — that moment when the players seem a little uncertain about what they should be doing or saying — is often a pivot: The players have learned what the scene is about and the “uncertainty” is actually them figuring out what they want to do about it. Once they find that new direction, the scene will start chugging again and will often drive forward to a clear and satisfying conclusion.

If you hit a second lull, however, that’s a good sign that the scene’s function is done. Or, at the very least, that the question asked by the agenda cannot be answered this time (e.g., the princess is neither wooed nor unwooed, but no further progress on the wooing will be happening at this time).

If it’s a combat scene, your overriding goal is to resolve the fight faster. No, faster than that. Even faster. Faster. Faster … Okay, that’s not bad.

A few core techniques you can use to achieve this:

• Write down initiative (or whatever other form of clear recordkeeping your initiative system requires, like using a shot counter in Feng Shui). “Anybody going on 17? 16? What about 15?” is absolute death for pacing in combat.
• Put the players on deck. “The goblins are going and then it’ll be your turn, Rob.” Giving players the heads up that their turn is next helps keep them focused and speeds up both perceived and actual waiting times in combat — the former because they’re getting reengaged before their turn; the latter because you actually will be cycling through the initiative order faster.
• Get ahead on resolution by multitasking. Are you waiting for the PC fighter to roll their attack roll and damage? Roll the goblins’ attack dice so that they’ll be waiting when the goblins go next.
• Roll fistfuls of dice. Roll all the goblins’ attacks at the same time and/or roll attack & damage at the same time. If you can get the players doing the same thing, even better! (Check out Random GM Tip: Fistfuls of Dice for more details on this technique.)

As I said, the most important thing here is to keep combat moving as fast as possible. The quicker you cycle through each round of combat, the less time each individual player will be waiting to take their next action. Get it fast enough and the benefits will compound (as the players remain more engaged and can, therefore, resolve their actions faster, resulting in combat going even faster). But the reverse is also true: If combat is too slow, players will disengage, take longer to resolve their actions, and combat will slow down even more.

Advanced Tip: Roll initiative last. Instead of rolling initiative at the beginning of combat, have everyone roll their initiative at the end of the fight and then use those initiative scores for the next combat. That way, when the new fight starts, you can launch directly into it at full speed, instead of pausing to generate, record, and then sort initiative values. (You will, of course, need to anticipate upcoming combats and get your NPCs’ initiative scores recorded while, for example, the PCs are still walking down the hallway towards them.)

FOR THE INTERMEDIATE GM

You’ll have noticed that all of these tips are strictly about speeding things up: Shorter scenes. Faster scene transitions. Quicker combat resolution.

Speed is not, of course, the be-all and end-all of pacing. Quite the opposite: Sometimes you want a slow scene. Sometimes you want to build tension (and release it!). Sometimes you need to find the quiet moments. Sometimes the players need a breather.

But, as a beginning GM, the biggest and most effective improvement you can make to your pacing is to just get all the drag and dead air out of your sessions. So just focus on that for right now!

Once you’ve got everything tightened up and your sessions are humming along like a well-oiled machine, you’ll also be in a much better position to start thinking about where letting things relax is the right choice (and why). To put it another way: A slow-paced scene is only meaningful if (a) it’s a deliberate choice and (b) it stands in contrast to the other scenes in your game.

When you’re ready to take that next step, check out The Art of Pacing.

FURTHER READING

Prep Tips for the Beginning DM
Prep Tips for the Beginning GM: Cyberpunk
Failure for the Beginning GM
The Art of Pacing

WRITTEN BY
Bill Heron & Justin Alexander

This is the book that lead to me becoming the co-creator of the Infinity roleplaying game. And now, by a very long and very strange road, you can finally add it your own collection!

Back in 2015 I was shopping around for a publisher who would let me develop and publish a node-based campaign. I eventually reached out to Modiphius, spoke with Chris Birch (who owns the company), and was assigned to the Mutant Chronicles RPG. I started reading the existing material for Mutant Chronicles, but a few weeks later, Chris reached out and said, “Actually, we’ve got this new RPG we’re developing called Infinity, based on Corvus Belli’s tabletop miniatures game. We need a really cool campaign for it, would you like to work on that instead?”

When I took a peek at the Infinity universe, I loved what I saw, so I jumped at the opportunity.

Over the next couple months I started developing the material for, first, Acheron Cascade and also a second campaign. I’m not entirely clear on the sequence of events here, but by the summer of 2015 Infinity no longer has a Lead Developer. At Gen Con that year, I had a few meetings with Chris Birch and others about the campaigns I was working and these evolved into a broader discussion of how I thought the Infinity product line should be organized.

If I recall correctly, on Sunday, as I was packing up my suitcase to head home, I got a call from Chris offering me the job as Infinity‘s new Lead Developer. Which was simply amazing.

Within days we were launching a Kickstarter that was revamped to match the blueprint for the product line I’d proposed, and we went on to have the largest Kickstarter ever for a first edition RPG. (This record has since been blown out of the water multiple times over.)

But now that I was focused on developing the core game, Acheron Cascade needed to be laid aside for a bit.

It got laid aside for a long time.

I eventually left Modiphius, in part because I really wanted to focus on my campaign. I spent a few months fleshing out the first few adventures and beginning to playtest them, but, ironically, I wasn’t able to finish the campaign because a few months later I was hired by Atlas Games to become their RPG Developer.

Benn Graybeaton, who had taken over for me as the Line Developer for Infinity, brought in Bill Heron. I was able to pass my development notes and playtest drafts over to him, and he managed to somehow turn them into a finished book. Bill’s a hero and I’m so grateful to him for using what I’d begun and bringing a book that I thought I would never see to life.

Hope you enjoy it!

INFINITY – ACHERON CASCADE
Modiphius Entertainment – 2022
(Co-Author)
Print Edition – PDF Edition