Shards of a Broken Mirror: Short Scenarios For The Chronicles of Darkness (Future Potential Project)

The world is a dark and terrible place, but the horrors we know are just the icing on top of the cake. Those who manage to sink their teeth in, and to chew down to the bone, learn there are even worse monsters out there than live in your wildest nightmares. Creatures of promises and lies that will steal your soul for one more day's grace. Dead things that drink the blood of the living to endure an eternal night. Beasts who wear the skin of men, and creatures who defy death and the natural order with every breath they take.

The setting of the Chronicles of Darkness is vast and rich... but having so many options can often lead to decision paralysis among players and Storytellers alike. That's why in the back of the base book (page 196) they provide you with a bunch of short, one-shot style stories to help you get your feet wet. These scenarios can be played individually, or they can be strung together to build an entire chronicle out of.

And it's a really good idea... my question for you all this week is would you like to see additional supplements covering things like this? Perhaps for more than just the God Machine Chronicle that mortal characters are supposed to tackle?

Because there's always fresh approaches one can take with this setting.

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Broken Mirrors and Distorted Reflections

The Hagiography in the Chronicles of Darkness core book provides a smooth, workable frame, giving the Storyteller the bare bones they need to run a short session in roughly two pages or so. These 20 scenarios can either be run independently, or Storytellers can use them as seeds to build a larger, collective plot. Or the third option, they work as the connective bits between larger story arcs, where characters have finished one story, but the ST may not be quite ready to begin the next arc and needs something to keep players involved while they finish plotting.

Like I said above, it's a solid resource, and a particularly good thing to include in the core rulebook so that all STs have access to it. However, while it's possible to adapt these scenarios to other spheres in the Chronicles of Darkness, something that might be a difficult challenge for a gang of mortal investigators is probably not something that's going to be a problem for a cadre of mages, a motley of changelings, a coterie of vampires, and so on, and so forth.

Which is where I wanted to propose a project for my readers this week. Would you be interested in collections of these "story shards" for use with the other parts of the Chronicles of Darkness? Or even going back to the old World of Darkness and providing similar collections of ideas for Storytellers to use there?

Not too dissimilar to this project, actually...

If this is an idea that interests you, then consider leaving a comment and telling me the following:

- What Game Should The Shards Be For? Changeling, Hunter, Geist, and so on.

- How Many Shards Should There Be? Please choose 5, 10, 15, or 20 shards.

- Should The Shards Be Location Specific? Cities are a traditional location for this game, but should the shards be location neutral, or all tied to a particular place?

Whether you want to leave your comments below on this blog, reach out to me on any of the social media profiles I have listed in the end of this entry, or even leave your comments over on YouTube where my publisher is sure to see them (throw them in the comments of this video, World of Darkness Boot Camp, so that way I can find them all in one place), please make sure you weigh in on this week's topic.

Your feedback is important because Storyteller's Vault projects are something of a risky move on my part. They're a lot more restrictive than my general purpose RPG supplements, and they pay a lot less up-front for me, which can be a problem with how tight everything is right now. So while I think this is a really great idea overall, if folks would rather see me put together more simple lists like 100 (Mostly) Harmless Goblin Fruits and Oddments To Find in The Hedge for Changeling: The Lost, 100 Resources and Rumors To Find on ShreckNet for Vampire: The Masquerade, or even 100 Shadow Names (And Their Meanings) for Mage: The Awakening, I'm more than happy to put a few of those projects on my work desk instead if that's what my readers would prefer.

This is sort of a Choose Your Own Adventure, and I wanted folks to make their thoughts heard if they had strong feelings on this subject!

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