I’ve ran this 4 times now for between 3-6 players each time. Spoilers below!
I thought this would be a good “in between” or a side scenario for a longer game and interesting location & plot (the times I ran this were for con games or standalone one shots). If your players are Stephen King fans, definitely lean into “the Shining” a bit (I did have a couple of ‘where is the scary hedges’ from players. lol) Overall a fair scenario with a lot of heavy lifting for the keeper.
I did feel like as a keeper I needed to add lot to give the scenario a bit more depth/eliminate some slower periods that happened in the scenario, as presented. (If you have players that are more passive there’s a lot of ‘slow’ periods.)
Things I added/changed:
-I added a “welcome tea party” that was going on while the Heroes got checked in, during late morning. This served 1) meeting most of the other guests (and gave them names/occupations/motives for being at the hotel) and small number of staff 2) seeing the statues that Blythe gave the Stanleys. In earlier runs the Heroes didn’t go outside to see them, despite hearing about the new statues and had a hard time figuring out they needed to do anything with them in the end. I also prepped a chase sequence with the Gnomph-Kehs as I find those a bit more pulpy.
-I also had staff/guests gone missing a bit slower, ie they were hearing about 1 or 2 more missing people by lunch/afternoon tea/Mrs. Stanley’s piano playing hour (rather than saying all at once the Heroes were the only ones left by the time Mr. Stanley asked for help at the dinner).
-Telling the Heroes Mr. Stanley has a lab in the hotel and including a hook for a Hero to ask Mr. Stanley about his lab/what he’s working on currently. That helps the players themselves to think of asking Mr. Stanley for help, if he has any gadgets they can use and negates having Mr. Stanley being the hero and defeating the BBEG-instead of the players being the heroes/taking agency from players as the NPC not only has the gadget but uses it himself. It makes the plot happen to the Heroes instead of having them involved in the end. I think this is a product of having a historical character being an NPC as some would want to ‘preserve’ the Historical NPC (or not if trying to do an alternate history thing) whereas an NPC that doesn’t have a historical name/personality could have a lot more latitude.
-Lastly, I the only thing I would add is I would have preferred having an overland map included.
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