The Actual Prep project is a chance to showcase TTRPG prep, in all its forms –  one-shot, long-form, session notes, handwritten scribbles. For this post, I’ve got somebody else’s – Neil Gow, designer of Duty & Honour and author of Liminal Case Files from the desk of Professor Cain Moore. Neil was kind enough to share his prep for an ongoing duet game of Werewolf 5e, which I’ve reproduced below. Half of my Actual Prep posts are Patreon exclusive – have I mentioned my Patreon? – but this one is going out to the masses, just 7 days after patrons have it.

1 Player

4 hours (over 2 sessions)

Ran face to face

Chatting online with Neil, this is an ongoing campaign that, while still in its infancy, has covered a lot of ground – you can do that with one-on-one games! It’s also well supported – both Neil and his player are blogging about the campaign as it goes on – so check it out there.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, and the chance to request articles or content, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

Neil’s prep sheet is below:

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Pre-Credit Scenes: The Whispering Canvas Carnival

The Something Wicked This Way Comes Opening

• Storm rolling into a small dusty town. Wind vanes swinging all over. Kids coming back from the creek. The nearly full moon appears from the clouds.
• Two teenagers running through the almost deserted streets, pinning posters to telegraph poles – The Whispering Canvas Carnival – opening soon.
• Handwritten note scrawled in the empty notes box – Caleb returns!

(Intro – ‘Go to the Light’, Murder by Death)

[Background]

• Caleb was a carnie hand at the Carnival, which also has a freak show element.
• He was best friends with the exuberant and over-the-top Ring Master, Elias Tongue – the son of the now-dead original owners of the carnival.
• His enemy was Jonah Braddock, the Clockwork Giant, the freak strongman
• He was loved by Ekaterina (Katya) Arnaoutova, the aerialist of the show. In the years since he last left, she has had a child by Elias.
• Toby, the Boneless Boy has disappeared – it’s the mystery that he entered The Moth-Eaten Man

[Locations]

• Dolores’ tent – candles, astrolabes, books, scents, silks, all very decadent.
• The flowery caravan of Lady Larkspur, covered in blossoming roses
• The Big Top, old and stained, echoes of a once great past
• The Haunted Creek, the home of the ‘spirit predator’

Old Friends and Older Enemies

• Dolores Eyes-of-Stone calls upon Caleb as the carnival is being stalked by a spirit predator drawn to Abbey’s scent. A spirit travelling with the carnival sensed her “awakening.”. In return she will help him with a spirit quest, to soothe his soul and draw a line into his future.
• Jonah Braddock, The Clockwork Giant, makes it clear that (a) Caleb isn’t welcome around here, and (b) ‘everyone’ knows he had something to do with the loss of Toby the Boneless Boy
• Katya and Elias are pleased to see Caleb and introduce him to their son.
• Sister Mercy, the Two-Faced Nun is less pleased with his reappearance as it has sent The Whispering Twins into a panic state, where they are babbling constantly.

The Mystery of the Boneless Boy

Toby, the Boneless Boy was attacked by the Spirit Predator, and fled to the one place he was sure the monster would not be able to find him – within Harlan Pike, the Moth Eaten Man. Now he is struggling to escape as there are too many bad things within Harlen’s holes. This comes as screaming and writhing of, and within, Harlen. Eyes and fingers etc.

The Missing Girl and the Spirit Predator

• One of the local girls has gone missing, taken by the BSD scout. Obviously, the townsfolk believe that the circus has something to do with it.
• The BSD scout (biker garments) has been drawn to the circus by the appearance of Abbey’s spirit, and secreted himself into their life as a dirty, smelly, but strong circus hand who keeps himself to himself.
• He lives, when he can, down by the Creek, and Abbey’s most recent appearance was to protect the boys when the BSD was about to return.
• He knows what he is hunting – an unshackled moonborn, a spirit conceived under a full moon, born under a full moon and doomed to die under a full moon. A creature of seemingly limitless power, which needs to be bound by ritual, lest they unleash their powers on the spirits and people around them.

Black Spiral Dancer Lurking Scout
Difficulty 4/2 (Physical 5, Social 4, Mental 4) Health 5, Willpower 4
Awareness 8, Larceny 8, Stealth 8, Gifts 5
Gifts: Camouflage (p169 – blend into the wilderness), Odious Aroma (p166 – Spend willpower and make Comp+Surv vs Sta+Hon to avoid reaching the user, only outside combat), Scent of Running Water (p151 – impossible to track, +Wisdom vs supernatural tracking) 

Spirit Quest

Dolores uses Tarot cards to deal out his spirit quest. Emphasis the way the room shifts as he is thrown back in time. Disorientation.

Depending on time, play these out as vignettes or full scenes and make notes of any details that come from them for future clues.

The Past

Upright Star: Hope, Faith
The bonding of the North Wind and the Conlys

Reversed Chariot: Lack of direction, aggression

Wandering, rage moment

Upright Emperor: Fatherhood
Raising Abbey without her mother, aided by Elena

Upright Five of Wands: Competition, Conflict

Biker gang stuff

Upright Five of Cups: Loss, Grief, Self Pity
The wilderness years, after the death

The Future

Reversed Magician: Trickery

Something is not right at home, infiltration of the Wyrm spirits into the mountain

Reversed Ten of Cups: Broken Family
Danger ahead for all of the Conly family, arguments and foreshadowing

Upright Wheel of Fortune: Change
Abbey as an agent of change

Conclusions

• Has the missing child been found and the BSD defeated or driven off?
• Has the spirit quest been undertaken?
• Has the Boneless Boy need found?

Epilogues and Post-Credit Scenes

The Bone Orchard

A construction crew uncovers a mass grave. The bones are old—decades, maybe centuries, and many are not human. One skull bears a sigil identical to Caleb’s… but older. A supernatural storm settles over the town. Snow falls for seven days straight. Spirits are restless. Animals flee.

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Talking to Neil about his creative process, his step-by-step was below:

1. I lay out a framework of ideas and paragraph titles, usually in a rough TV show format – pre-titles, post-titles, A- B- and C-plots. 

2. I’ll then fill out the ‘easy bits’ – the plot points and beats.

3. Then I will just jot down random ideas for NPCs etc (especially here) and some will coalesce. I might use random name generators etc.

4. For the tarot cards, this was just research of meanings of cards that fitted with the emotions of the story

5. Then it’s a big iterative editing job, back and forth tweaking things until I am happy with the palette of options I have created for the game

I like the term “palette of options” – for my one-shot games, I have a tendency to stick to closely to scene-by-scene prep, which can feel a bit railroady. I really like the tarot stuff – and it’s a great example of how a bit set-piece can be brought into play without an overloading amount of work. And there’s a lot in this prep, which you’d need – fewer players means the plot covered increases exponentially! The locations, NPCs, etc stuff reminds me a bit of Sly Flourish’s Lazy DM technique – which is highly recommended.

Have you used techniques like this for prep? Or perhaps you’d like to share your own prep with the blog? Let me know in the comments!