Post by Catsmate on Oct 31, 2015 13:15:14 GMT
Hotel Cortez - Some Speculations on American Horror Story: Hotel and time travel
This contains spoilers for the series, but not that many.
I’ve been watching the first episodes of the new season of AHS and it struck me how it could be used in a DWAITAS campaign. It’s got a decaying Los Angeles hotel that seems larger on the inside, a murderous (and not-quite-dead) owner, vampires, time shifts, flashbacks and general weirdness. It would take only a little work and it’s fit well into a Who game, I believe. Even the Art Deco feel is reminiscent of Daleks in Manhattan. For example Who already has vampires and ghost could be effects of a rift in time (The Eternity Trap,
Hide) or psychic residue from those who've died in the hotel.
Now the series is set in Los Angeles but I think San Francisco would be better. LA is a city of human weirdness, while SF seems to suit cosmic weirdness better. It’d be the perfect place for a US Time Rift given it's history of oddness.
The Hotel Cortez was constructed in the 1920s by a wealthy financier (and prolific serial murderer) James Patrick March as a home and base of operations for his hobby, torture and murder.
Given that the show has so far included present day humans (and vampires) interacting with March (or his ghost) it's pretty easy for a GM to declare that he's caught in a rift in time, perhaps a localised phenomena linked to the greater San Francisco rift. There are also ghosts from other periods still lurking in the rooms of the hotel
But why is the hotel effected? How about a malfunctioning time machine interacting with the rift.
So, let us assume that sometime between the construction of the hotel and March being captured someone contacts him with knowledge of his crimes, wanting to meet. March will probably plan to kill him but the person (let's call him Zachery) is careful and wants a public venue.
At this point the GM will need a backstory for Zachery. Specifically:
Given that he's contacted a known mass murderer for help it's reasonable to assume that Zachery is either really desperate or a pretty nasty person himself. Was he also a serial killer? If so he and March could get along well. Maybe...
Zachery needs a safe place to work on fixing his time machine. Somewhere in the hotel is probably best (depending on the size of the craft). He'll also need parts; can be fabricate them with the equipment at hand? Perhaps he's got a nano-fabricator but still needs rare materials, like Germanium, Lanthanum and Terbium, which he'll need to purchase, steal or extract.
Meanwhile there's likely to be a change in March's habits; he's described as killing a minimum of two people a week, more when he was on a bender. With Zachery's aid perhaps there are more people disappearing/bodies appearing. This might cause ripples in the Web of Time.
March was egomaniacal, he'd probably revel in leaving bodies in public sites and committing impossible murders, aided by Zachery's advanced technology. Which might start a rift between him and a more cautious Zachery. Either way it'll attract attention.
The GM will need to develop the details of how the PCs and villains interact; sedate investigation, or running gun battles across the city?
As for the vampires, well San Francisco has been shown to have a population of those of the Whovian type (Vampire Science).
Further the Seventh Doctor used the 1906 earthquake to dispose of the false Azathoth and her rakshassi (All Consuming Fire); was the Hotel Corez built nearby? And the rift that the Master nearly unleashed might have lingering effects, effects that reach into the past.
The finale should have March being defeated and the time machine (complete with jury rigged repairs) activated. Perhaps while March and/or Zachery attempt to flee. Of course it malfunctions, created the odd temporal effects that will plague the hotel for decades to come. Rather like Bilis Manger.
I'm going to muse on this a bit more as the season unfolds. Comments, ideas and suggestions are welcome.
This contains spoilers for the series, but not that many.
I’ve been watching the first episodes of the new season of AHS and it struck me how it could be used in a DWAITAS campaign. It’s got a decaying Los Angeles hotel that seems larger on the inside, a murderous (and not-quite-dead) owner, vampires, time shifts, flashbacks and general weirdness. It would take only a little work and it’s fit well into a Who game, I believe. Even the Art Deco feel is reminiscent of Daleks in Manhattan. For example Who already has vampires and ghost could be effects of a rift in time (The Eternity Trap,
Hide) or psychic residue from those who've died in the hotel.
Now the series is set in Los Angeles but I think San Francisco would be better. LA is a city of human weirdness, while SF seems to suit cosmic weirdness better. It’d be the perfect place for a US Time Rift given it's history of oddness.
- The weather’s no worse than Cardiff.
- Plus it can be tied into the events of the TV movie, if desire. Grace Holloway can reappear
The Hotel Cortez was constructed in the 1920s by a wealthy financier (and prolific serial murderer) James Patrick March as a home and base of operations for his hobby, torture and murder.
- March is based on the infamous H. H. Holmes (Herman Webster Mudgett), also a mass murderer, who constructed a "Murder Hotel" in Chicago for the 1893 World’s Fair. It's estimated that two hundred people died there.
- There's a theme of the villains being careless. In addition to March's inadequate corpse disposal techniques, there's also a vampire who's broke as the result of poor financial investments.
- Curiously March uses the phrase "Bolivian marching powder" for cocaine, a term that originates in the 1980s. Did he pick it up during his "ghost" period, or hear it from a time traveller?
Given that the show has so far included present day humans (and vampires) interacting with March (or his ghost) it's pretty easy for a GM to declare that he's caught in a rift in time, perhaps a localised phenomena linked to the greater San Francisco rift. There are also ghosts from other periods still lurking in the rooms of the hotel
But why is the hotel effected? How about a malfunctioning time machine interacting with the rift.
- Maybe the rift attracted the damaged time machine. Maybe it attracts other time machines...
- Alternatively the hotel could be constructed on a natural fracture in time or perhaps March (or a guest) was meddling with Things Man Was Not Meant to Know.
- I've also suggested (in the TARDIS alternatives thread) that San Francisco could be a good place for a Time War damaged TARDIS to crash; maybe that's the cause of the rift.
So, let us assume that sometime between the construction of the hotel and March being captured someone contacts him with knowledge of his crimes, wanting to meet. March will probably plan to kill him but the person (let's call him Zachery) is careful and wants a public venue.
- Zachery may also have help. Was he travelling alone or with a few minions? Is the meeting covered by a couple of stealthed drones?
At this point the GM will need a backstory for Zachery. Specifically:
- Stats, appearance and personality
- Capabilities of his time machine, and any other significant resources he has access to.
- Is someone hunting him? The previous owner of that time machine perhaps, or their friends.
- Is Zachery willing to alter history? Will he prevent March's capture?
Given that he's contacted a known mass murderer for help it's reasonable to assume that Zachery is either really desperate or a pretty nasty person himself. Was he also a serial killer? If so he and March could get along well. Maybe...
- A time travelling serial killer isn't an unknown trope, The Shining Girls and Time After Time for example.
- This might be a good basis for such a Zachery.
Zachery needs a safe place to work on fixing his time machine. Somewhere in the hotel is probably best (depending on the size of the craft). He'll also need parts; can be fabricate them with the equipment at hand? Perhaps he's got a nano-fabricator but still needs rare materials, like Germanium, Lanthanum and Terbium, which he'll need to purchase, steal or extract.
- This could be a useful device to allow the PCs to discover the plot. Why is a hotel owner importing quantities of clay from China, monazite sand from Brazil and uranium ore from the Belgian Congo? The last of these is a useful red herring for players likely to jump immediately to "atomic bomb".
- Or a GM could steal an idea from The Time Warrior and allow Zachery a limited ability to travel into the future, via osmic beam or a small escape pod. Another possible way for him to be tracked to the 1920s.
Meanwhile there's likely to be a change in March's habits; he's described as killing a minimum of two people a week, more when he was on a bender. With Zachery's aid perhaps there are more people disappearing/bodies appearing. This might cause ripples in the Web of Time.
- The PCs might try an contact someone (friend/co-worker/source) in the present day, only to find they don't exist; an ancestor was one of March's victims. Someone is Wrong with time... Cue research and a trip to the flapper era.
- Of course this could be a trap; maybe Zachery is deliberately creating ripples to attract a time traveller. The hunter may become the hunted.
- Another hook is having someone (a detective for example, or a relative of one of the disappeared) pursue March, convinced he's responsible for the spate of deaths/disappearance of their relative. The PCs, in town for another reason (recharging a TARDIS from the Rift?) witness something.
March was egomaniacal, he'd probably revel in leaving bodies in public sites and committing impossible murders, aided by Zachery's advanced technology. Which might start a rift between him and a more cautious Zachery. Either way it'll attract attention.
The GM will need to develop the details of how the PCs and villains interact; sedate investigation, or running gun battles across the city?
- Don't forget the 1920s is the era of Prohibition, bootlegging and organised crime. 'Ordinary' criminals could become involved in events as sources of information, heavies sent by the villains to kill the PCs or just "innocent" bystanders.
- If the scenario is set in 1928 there's the wonderful opportunity to entangle the PCs with the gang war that erupted that April with the murder of Jerry Feri (the city's premiere crime lord) followed by Alfredo Scariso, Mario Filippi, Frank Boca and more.
- On the subject of the Great Experiment, despite the Volstead Act there was no shortage of booze in San Francisco; "In San Francisco, Prohibition was only a rumor".
As for the vampires, well San Francisco has been shown to have a population of those of the Whovian type (Vampire Science).
Further the Seventh Doctor used the 1906 earthquake to dispose of the false Azathoth and her rakshassi (All Consuming Fire); was the Hotel Corez built nearby? And the rift that the Master nearly unleashed might have lingering effects, effects that reach into the past.
The finale should have March being defeated and the time machine (complete with jury rigged repairs) activated. Perhaps while March and/or Zachery attempt to flee. Of course it malfunctions, created the odd temporal effects that will plague the hotel for decades to come. Rather like Bilis Manger.
I'm going to muse on this a bit more as the season unfolds. Comments, ideas and suggestions are welcome.