[Mythic Russia/The Red Star] The 5th Hook Files

[Mechante_Anemone]

My husband, a.k.a. Shosuro Kando, had been working on this for a while: an adaptation of the setting from Archangel Studios' The Red Star graphic novels to HeroQuest, by way of Firebird Productions' Mythic Russia game. Yes, we did have the d20-based Red Star RPG published by Green Ronin, but Mythic Russia seemed so much better suited to convey the feel of the setting.

So last Monday at the local club, where Monday nights are open for all games, he ran the first episode. All heroes worked for the Kommissariat of the 5th Hook, the national police organization of the U.R.R.S. that handles unsolvable crimes, supernatural disturbances, and the like. It’s sort of a cross between "CSI", and “The X Files” with a lot of internal politics and inter-office competition thrown in for good measure. Heroes were part of the same investigative squad, had worked together for some time and knew one another. The team was limited to four player sports, so we could focus tightly on a small cast (no pun intended.)

Players included two men and two women, all avid gamers. We discussed our characters online ahead of the game, and established relationships between them. The roster ended up with:

• Comrade Lieutenant Inspector Nikolai Petrovich Lebedev, an amiable but ambitious career officer with ties to the Party;
• Comrade Sorceress First Assistant Infokaster Valentina Savitskaya (me), an earnest young woman of peasant stock whose role-model is her grandfather, a hero of the Great Patriotic War;
• Comrade Sorceress Zek First Assistant Medikaster Yeva Lebedeva, Nikolai's sister, a young woman whose devotion to her duty as a healer had earned her some years in the labour camps; and
• Comrade Starshina Guardsman Franz Todleben, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War wavering between cynicism and deep-rooted patriotism.

Shosuro Kando injected atmosphere by preparing a soundtrack composed primarily of Soviet-era choral music, and displaying vintage posters, all downloaded from free online sources:



I had contributed by making a colourful character sheet. NEXT: The first adventure.

[Mechante_Anemone]

Part 1: The Case

The story opened as Prime Inspector Prokopius Bogdanov asked Lt. Inspector Nikolai Lebedev to assemble his team for an assignment briefing. The team filed into Bogdanov's office. They were being sent via Gate Transfer Protocol to a farm collective in the Great Marsh area to investigate disappearances. Some 18 children had been reported missing over an unspecified period. There was no file available, but the were told that Comrade Commissioner Yakov Goncharov would brief them upon arrival. They returned to their office to prepare, but Bogdanov ran into their office almost on their heels, something he had never done -- and he looked frightened. He told Lebedev that he was summoned to meet with the 3rd Department.

Lebedev took the special elevator down to a very shielded, very antiseptic level, where he was greeted by two mean-looking Hailers and an employee in nondescript civvies. The employee took Lebedev down the corridors to a bland office, past a strong-looking woman, to a mousy-looking man wearing round glasses. Engrossed in reading a file, the man ignored Lebedev for a moment, then finally addressed him. He presented a document pouch and told Lebedev every team member was expected to prepare a full report daily, and submit it via the protocol-enhanced pouch.

The man made Lebedev stand at attention, called him sloppy, and coldly discussed the case of Lebedev's sister Yeva. The only reason she had not been executed, he said, was that she had been chosen to die gloriously serving the State. In fact, all of them had the duty to die for the State. Lebedev returned to his office somewhat rattled, and related the conversation to his team.

Valentina spent a few hours trying to track down the case file in the system, but in vain. Meanwhile, Starshina Todleben used more old-fashioned methods, chatting with old unit comrades about the area the team was about to visit. He learned that the locals were considered loyal Reds but "sloppy", resistant to discipline.

The team walked through the GTP at the appointed time, reaching the Great Party Seminolkha Collective. The first to cross was Starshina Todleben, as per his standard scouting procedure: strolling through, smoking a cigarette -- his men under orders to charge through with Hooks blazing if he was not back in ten minutes. Once he gave the all-clear signal, the rest of the team -- Lebedev, Savistkaya, Lebedeva and her minder, and Todleben's two men Oleg and Rakov -- crossed over. They were met by an elderly police officer, Yakov Goncharov, who took them to his office (and apartment) in the creaky, towering but decrepit housing complex.

A blind woman called Arisha, Goncharov's wife, made tea for the guests; Yeva was fairly sure the woman's blindness was due to a protocol-related injury. The office-apartment was filled with memorabilia from the Great Patriotic War and various mementos. The place of honour was held by a 15- to 20-year-old photograph of a young woman graduating from the Naval Academy -- their granddaughter Alexandra. [Alexandra Goncharova is a notable character in The Red Star graphic novels.] The 5th Hook team chatted with their hosts, and learned that indeed, Arisha had been injured when a protocol she was kasting went awry.

[Mechante_Anemone]

Part 2: The Missing Children

Yakov Goncharov explained the case. Children had disappeared over the last two decades at a rate of about one a year, but no pattern had been identified in the timing or number of the disappearances. All of them were small children, no more than six years old; all came from different families, except two who came from one family, four years apart. Both boys and girls were missing, disappearing either early in the morning or late at the end of the day. All the children had been last seen playing outdoors. The last one had disappeared six months ago, prompting Goncharov to make a second request to the Kommissariat (he slightly emphasized); he was as surprised as his guests were to have received interest.

Saviskaya asked about other events over the last several years. The most prominent was the closure of the local chemical combine, Tomsk-7, almost 20 years ago, the same year the disappearances had started. After hours, Todleben spent some time getting to know the two old-timers better, sharing old stories. The war in Nokgorka had everyone worked up and the Goncharovs worried about their granddaughter. They also feared that people and cattle tended to get sick more than they used to, but the State had assured everyone that the abandoned combined posed no danger.

The investigators were given small quarters in the housing complex, and shared one typewriter to write their daily reports -- an additional two hours of work. In the morning, Yeva met with the local doctor to see some of the cases of illness; and Valentina met with the parents and little comrades of the last child to disappear, little Illya, in preparation for kasting a Reenactment Protocol. She heard nothing but good things about the boy, who had apparently not been suffering from any special illness. She obtained a few of his toys to help focus the REP -- a superstitious practice frowned upon by the 5th Hook and the Party.

Meanwhile, Yeva met with the very elderly Medikaster, Dr. Vara, who lived in an old ramshackle house rather than the in housing complex. Among the cases brought to the doctor, Yeva noticed several children with birth defects.

For his part, Starshina Todleben got to know the locals, asked around where people liked to go and spend time -- then headed the other way, thus heading toward Tomsk-7. He poked around the titanic wasteland, but uncovered no obvious clues.

Once the team regrouped, Valentina Savitskaya kast her REP at the playground where Illya had last been seen. The first time around, the child seemed to simply vanish; even at 1/16 speed, there was nothing but a blur around his disappearance. But at 1/64 speed, the Infokaster captured the image of a black horseman on a black horse, his features hidden by a billowing cloak. He did not ride into the view are but simply appeared, grabbed little Illya off the swing set, and disappeared. Valentina made a sketch of the image, which looked like it dated back to the First Chronicle.

Meanwhile, Todleben had to endure the cryptic warnings of the ghost of his old war comrade Misha: "Stay away from this one, my friend. This is not something you wish to involve yourself with. You would be serving only the wrong side."

[Mechante_Anemone]

Part 3: Old Wives' Tales

Everyone knew the tale of the Grandmother and her three knights, White, Red and Black -- daybreak, sun, and night. Little Illya had disappeared just before sundown.

Since some residents had managed to spy on the REP procedure, Nikolai tackled rumour control that evening, and successfully quashed the tales about the Black Knight. Meanwhile, Yeva and Valentina exchanged notes on their investigations, and everyone typed their daily reports.

The next day, Yeva returned to see Dr. Vara and research the medical history of the 17 missing children. Dr. Vara gave her the entire records -- with a small smile. Every one of the children had had a medical examination in the months that preceded their disappearance, revealing hidden but major flaws: early tumours, blood disease, etc.

Pursuing all leads, the team also went to explore Tomsk-7, an industrial disaster of gigantic scale. Everything had been left in place except that there was not the smallest piece of paper to be found. There were signs of sporadic squatting, but none recent. The combine was an immense industrial landscape filled with bulging drums.

After Valentina thoroughly examined the possibility of the scene captured by the REP being staged (extremely unlikely since it was doubtful it would ever be captured by a REP in the first place) or faked by a powerful kaster (theoretically possible, but not by any protocols she knew), she and Yeva discussed the case and decided Yeva would question Dr. Vara. Asked about the medical histories of the missing children, the elderly Medikaster invited the 5th Hook team to dinner that night to discuss the case. All day, Misha the ghost pestered Todleben not to get involved "unless it's on the right side," and singing patriotic songs.

Dr. Vara put together a splendid meal for her guests. The wrought-iron fence around her house was topped with festive protocol-enhanced lanterns. Everyone admired the knick-knacks of ages past which filled her house. Nikolai pretended to get drunk. Yeva, on pretext of finding the bathroom, poked around the place. Starshina Todleben used the pretext of tending to a supposedly drunk Oleg as an excuse to leave.

Valentina finally broached the question of the children, and Dr. Vara calmly admitted that she had taken them and eaten them! She said it was necessary for her continued survival and guardianship of the lands of the Red Star against Krivda. She also said she had saved them.

In the mean time, Todleben was watching from the outside and observed a Gate Transfer Protocol opening; two people walked through: a female Hailer and a male sniper. The woman took a defensive position against Starshina Todleben, and the man drew a weapon tremendously enhanced with a variety of protocols, levelling it at the window and aiming for Dr. Vara.

Franz Todleben made a fateful decision. He pulled a mine he had been saving in case of treason by the team [the player really had secretly requested such a device at the beginning of the game, so he could blow us all up!] and telekinetically put right between the two intruders, with the enthusiastic support of Misha -- blowing them to smithereens. He pulled a cigarette, lit it on the fireball, and walked in.

The side of the house had been blown out by the detonation; the feast was gone, the knick-knacks were gone, the doctor was gone. The team had quite a bit of damage control to do.


Epilogue

When Misha later came to visit Starshina Todleben again, he was accompanied by 17 heroic-looking, rosy-cheeked poster children for the Red Revolution.

[Mechante_Anemone]

One of the things that was very interesting in Shosuro Kando's adaptation of Mythic Russia is that he had replaced religious magic with the competing philosophies of Pravda (Truth) and Kraznypravda (Red Truth).

Pravda is Truth with a capital “T”. It is not varnished, it is not polished, it is not halftruth or prevarication or platitude. A foremost tenet of Pravda is that everyone is equal and that no one should have power over another without their consent. Truth was divinely given to the Reds by the Goddess Pravda long ago, and it is the duty of all humans to share this truth, to support it, and to give their lives, if necessary to ensure the equality of all men and women.

Pravda is the ability to see, recognize, and speak the truth. It is typically used as a call-on to convince people that something is true, and to inspire others to feats of bravery. At higher levels it grants the hero access to important secrets of the inner workings of the Party and the world.

Kraznypravda is the truth as dictated by the ruling party of the U.R.R.S. Since the Revolution, the Party has increasingly taken on the governance of the people of the U.R.R.S. As the power of the Party has grown, it has usurped more and more of the responsibility for determining and disseminating truth, until it now verges on being the sole arbitrator of what is and is not officially true.

Kraznypravda is the ability to support, believe, accept, or at least mouth the party line. It is typically used as a call on trait for such things as convincing kommissars of your loyalty and working within the political system of the Republic. At higher levels it grants the hero access to important secrets of the inner workings of the party and the world.

Like religious magic in HeroQuest and Mythic Russia, they had three levels of devotion: community, initiate, and devotee. Everyone started with a community-level knowledge of Kraznypravda. Meanwhile, Military Industrial Sorcery and Telekinesis, being purely "scientific", were mundane abilities. In our group, Nikolai Lebedev was an Initiate of Kraznypravda since he was a careerist, while both Yeva Lebedeva and Valentina Savitskaya were Initiates of Pravda. Franz Todleben started the game with a community-level knowledge of both Pravda and Kraznypravda, and at the end was offered the chance to take an Initiate level in Pravda (although I don't know yet what the player decided).

[Shosuro Kando]

For the first game I used only the mechanics for simple challenges. I hope to introduce the more complex rules at the next game. I will try to have the mechanics polished up and ready for sticking on the internet somewhere by May 1.

[Denys]

Great read -- thanks for posting!

Shosuro -- please share your Red Star/HQ conversion with us if you wish. As a fan of using HQ for numerous other genres, I'm really very curious how it worked for Red Star.

[Argent]

Great read! Using HQ/Mythic Russia for the Red Star setting seems like a genius move - and count me in as another one who´d dearly love to see the conversion notes.

Using the old Soviet propaganda posters was also an inspired move, and one who could definitely set the right tone.

[Mechante_Anemone]

I'm afraid my game notes don't convey how much atmosphere there was in the game. It was the best game I'd played in a while -- probably since the Roanoke series last year. I had a really great time. The system seemed to do the job perfectly, conveying the the greater-than-life feel of the setting. Tonight I need to post the character stats, backgrounds, and pictures, as well as the best in-game quotes.

For those who are interested, I posted the full PDF files of the blank character sheet in several versions (different backgrounds, one form-fillable file) on the Mythic Russia Players list.

Edit: Also, a great resource for inspiration: Wikipedia: Heroes of the Soviet Union.

[Mechante_Anemone]

Originally Posted by Shosuro Kando

I will try to have the mechanics polished up and ready for sticking on the internet somewhere by May 1.

Gaah! I just got the May 1 reference. I'm slow!