Edgar Poe ideas?

[olegrand]

Hello everyone

I'd very much like to run an episode of Lady Penelope's Odyssey featuring Edgar Allan Poe - but I'm a bit stuck for ideas.

Here is a summary of my current ruminations on the subject:

- No direct ties to Poe's mysterious and premature death, since it is a fixed historical event and the probable solution to the 'mystery' is more sordid/depressing than weird/inspiring.

- I had thought about a "curse of the Raven" scenario, featuring a modified version of Cubicle 7's Ravens of Despair - but it leaves very little room for the player-character's intervention (i.e. if Poe is indeed 'cursed' by an alien Raven which feeds on his despair etc., then this curse cannot obviously be lifted - given the circumstances of the writer's untimely death). I had some nifty ideas about hos this curse would also affect other poets/artists connected to "The Raven" (such as Stéphane Mallarmé who translated the poem in French and also had a bizarre death) but then again, historical predestination would make things very fixed in dramatic terms.

- Another idea: a mysterious doppelgänger (a Poe from an alternate universe ?). But how? why? etc.

Ideas, advice & suggestions welcome!

[thewarchief]

Poe was obseesed with the death of his wife Virgina, which was freqntly cited as as for his obsession with the death of a beautiful woman in his stories.

What if he encountered some sort of alien or alien device that could somehow bring back the dead and stories like the Raven, Fall of the House of Usher, and The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar were partially based on real experiences?

Say some alien comes to Earth and can clone a new body and use advanced hypnosis techniques to access the mind and memory of the recently deceased. Poe gets the alien to help bring back his dead wife, but there are complications due to the technology being designed to work on the aliens not humans.

If you want a mysterious Poe doppleganger then Poe insisted the test the process out on him before they attempted it (possibly not the first time) on his wife. Poe's increasing erratic behavior after his wife's death could be either becuase it was the doppleganger, or a side effect of the alien mind contact needed to copy the brain.It's also possible the part of all of Poe's reaction was to him having latent pyschic ptotential that make him sensitive to the alien mind.

As for the rest of this, well it depends on what sort of adventure you want. The alien could be malevolent and using Poe, ambiavlent but willing to do what Poe wants in exchange for things that it needs, a benevolent and sympathetic creature whose good intentions go awry, or maybe even it falls in love with Poe and switched from being helpful to being jealous of his wife (and maybe puts itself into her body to try and win Poe. All of this could be tied into Poe's death, if you wish, or not. Maybe the alien pulling the body switch drives Poe mad, or maybe the "congestion of the brain" and "cerebral hemorrhaging" were an accidental, unintended byproduct of the mind contact and doppleganger process. Or even a dilberate side effect if the alien is malevolent.

Or maybe the alien was something like a Rutan that took the form of Poe's dead wife, and Poe had to deal with the horror and shock of that. Maybe at first he thinks it's his wife comes back to him, but later realize that it is something else in her form.

You could use a Raven from Raven of the Despair (their abilities fit well with what I have above), or another alien of your choosing. Zygons would be good with their shapeshifting technology.

You could lean into the literature and lore surround Poe as much or as little as you want. For example:

-The Fall of the House of USher could be based upon Poe's an encounter with Zygons, with Madeline being a Zygon in human form, and her "tomb" being the Zygon copy device where the original Madeline was kept. Imagine it a a mix between House of Usher and Terror or the Zygons. Maybe toss in a touch of Tolstoy's The Family of the Vourdalak. witha Poe-Alien romance and not-so-happy (or human) inlaws.

-The "Poe Toaster" could have been the alien, who had affection for Poe, and outlived him by more than a century (and could probably show up in a future adventure).



Sorry I didn't tighten this up more, but I'm not quite sure what sort of episode you want, so I tried to present different options. It could be a Gothic horror story, a bittersweet romance between two different life forms, a case of unrequited love, or even some combination of themes. Depending on when your PCs show up, much of what will/must happen could already be too far along to prevent- for instance Poe's death could be a side effect of previous use of the the alien mind tech (much like how the Krell mind booster kills Doc Ostrow in Forbidden Planet, especially the novelization, where it is used multiple times.)

[olegrand]

Thanks a lot for this very inspiring reply.

The resurrection angle is just the idea I needed to refuel the old brain! HOW COULD I MISS THIS?

This suggests all kinds of possibilities... thanks for the creative regeneration boost!

I'll keep you posted as soon as I've ran the episode.

[thewarchief]

Jun 21, 2024 16:30:22 GMT olegrand said:

Thanks a lot for this very inspiring reply.

That's what gaming forums are for. Glad it was useful for you.

Jun 21, 2024 16:30:22 GMT olegrand said:

The resurrection angle is just the idea I needed to refuel the old brain! HOW COULD I MISS THIS?

Probably because you were too close to the problem to see it.It's why whenever I write up a new rule or some such I like to get someone else's feedback. Chances are they will see something obvious that should have seen but missed.

Jun 21, 2024 16:30:22 GMT olegrand said:

This suggests all kinds of possibilities... thanks for the creative regeneration boost!

Yea! Just call me Cho-Je.

Jun 21, 2024 16:30:22 GMT olegrand said:

I'll keep you posted as soon as I've ran the episode.

Thanks. I'll be curious to find out what exactly you went with and how it all worked out.


Oh, And something from wikipedia might help too:

-Apparently Virginia showed the first signs of "consumption" in January 1842.
-Poe tried to secure a position in the Tyler administration, and hoped to secure a position in the United States Customs House in Philadelphia.
-Poe failed to show up for meeting to discuss the appointment in September 1842, claiming to have been sick (but suspected of being drunk).

That could all tie in with the alien idea.

-Virginia's illness might have been the catalyst for Poe's actions. Perhaps he was hoping the alien could help save his wife from dying? (maybe the goalpost got shifted after her death to trying to resurrect her). It also might not have been from natural causes depending on how you want the story to go. Maybe the alien caused her illness to secure Poe's assistance. Or maybe it was an accidental side effect?
-Say the alien needed to get some device through customs? That would explain Poe's desire for that position. The device could have been lost in a ship crash or some such and mistaken as some sort of archaeological artifact rather than of extraterrestrial origin (so it doesn't draw too much attention).
-Poe's failure to show up at the meeting was due to the effects of the alien mind stuff. Say it caused side effects in humans similar to certain forms of epilepsy that have symptoms that can appear as drunkenness. I knew someone with such an form of epilepsy, so it exists.

[Catsmate]

Nice ideas. Poe has appeared in a couple of EU works, the short story 'The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull' and a couple of audioplays. The former, which has the aforementioned seance and Poe being possessed, has possibilities.

[thewarchief]

Jun 23, 2024 18:51:45 GMT Catsmate said:

Nice ideas. Poe has appeared in a couple of EU works, the short story 'The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull' and a couple of audioplays. The former, which has the aforementioned seance and Poe being possessed, has possibilities.

One of the perks of the main character having a Time Machine is that any interesting, mysterious, significant, person or event can (and probably will) show up in a story.

[Catsmate]

Jun 24, 2024 15:01:53 GMT thewarchief said:

Jun 23, 2024 18:51:45 GMT Catsmate said:

Nice ideas. Poe has appeared in a couple of EU works, the short story 'The True and Indisputable Facts in the Matter of the Ram's Skull' and a couple of audioplays. The former, which has the aforementioned seance and Poe being possessed, has possibilities.

One of the perks of the main character having a Time Machine is that any interesting, mysterious, significant, person or event can (and probably will) show up in a story.

Absolutely. Which is handy for a GM as it allows you to adapt pretty much any published scenario or other idea.

[Catsmate]

BTW, for a rather good take on Poe, I recommend Marc Olden's novel Poe Must Die.