(Adventure Seed) "Something Wicked This Way Comes"

[grinch]

A novel by Ray Bradbury which was later adapted by Disney by 1983. Here is the description as taken from the Wikipedia page.


It is about two 13-year-old best friends, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, and their nightmarish experience with a traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern home, Green Town, Illinois, on October 24. In dealing with the creepy figures of this carnival, the boys learn how to combat fear. The carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr. Dark", who seemingly wields the power to grant the townspeople's secret desires. In reality, Dark is a malevolent being who, like the carnival, lives off the life force of those it enslaves. Mr. Dark's presence is countered by that of Will's father, Charles Halloway, the janitor of the town library, who harbors his own secret fear of growing older because he feels he is too old to be Will's dad.

It is a story which practically needs little reinvention for a Doctor Who adventure. Mr. Dark and his Autumn People could be a group related to the Night Travellers or even a member of the Trickster's Brigade. 

Any ideas or suggestions are most welcome.

[thornburgmp]

I am not that familiae with the source material but I think there's the makings of exploring one of the my favorite Doctor Who themes, which is the relationship between good and evil, and nature versus nurture. It's appeared in places throughout Old and New Who (e.g., "Have I the right?", 12's attempt to change Missy) and if I'm reading the source the material right, the relationship of Jim and Will plays with those themes and the idea that predisposition is not destiny. If I was running this as a scenario, I'd play with that in a way that might subvert the PC's expectations. I'm sorry I don't have more, but there's something interesting going on there.

[thewarchief]

Sounds very much like a Seventh Doctor story to me.

Might I suggest that a companion either comes from the place where you set the adventure or have friends or relative who do? I think this sort of thing plays out much better if the PCs have some skin in the game. Evil force destroys a small town is a good story concept but Evil force destroys a major characters hometown is better. Same with the corruption theme. Evil corrupting a one shot NPC who name we don't know and won't remember isn't a powerful as evil trying to currupt a PC or someone close oot them. I'm thinking how much of what worked in Survival was because it involved Ace's friends, or how School Reunion worked well because the Doctor had good reasons to be tempted and how that story really needed an old companion, like Sarah Jane, who had also suffered loss, to point out that pain and death are part of life and help to define who we are. So I really thing attaching this to a PCs backstory in some way would help. Plus you get to play out a Mr. Dark trying to corrupt a PC scnene instead of it happening off screen, or the players watching it happen to some stranger.


Say the PCs arrive back home and someone from the Carney (clown,bearded lady, juggler) putting on a street performance, while someone else hands out adverts with the name of the troop and the time and place of it's shows in town. Before the small crowd of locals can split up, one of the locals, with a distant stare on their face, looks down at the bill, crumples it up in rage, and then dashes out in front of a moving vehicle. The locals rush over to the body (hopefully the PCs as well) and the local is recognized by the PC as the nice man who ran a small store when they were a kid. Hopefully that would get the PCs interested.It turns out that the newpadper vendor got his desire granted by Mr. Dark and couldn't live with the results.


The Carny folk could include some aliens who are wanted criminals. The aliens could come in all sorts of unusual forms, and a carnival gives them plausible cover. Put clown makeup on a Sontaran or Draconian and everyone will just think they are a clown with an unusual costume. Anything odder could be part of the freakshow (and probably considered to be fakes by those who see the show). In fact an alien could be a good hook to drawn the PCs into the adventure. If they saw a Judoon, or Ice Warrior walking around town they'd be curious. Doubly so if some locals said "Him, he's one of those Carney folk trying to drum up business."

Maybe not all the aliens all evil or willing accomplices either but forced to serve Mr. Dark for some reason.

Or maybe Mr. Dark is some sort of entity like (but not necessarily the same as) the Great Intelligence or the Netene Consciousness and the carny folk are all Robots or Autons or some such.

[Catsmate]

Jul 21, 2024 20:16:52 GMT thornburgmp said:

I am not that familiae with the source material but I think there's the makings of exploring one of the my favorite Doctor Who themes, which is the relationship between good and evil, and nature versus nurture. It's appeared in places throughout Old and New Who (e.g., "Have I the right?", 12's attempt to change Missy) and if I'm reading the source the material right, the relationship of Jim and Will plays with those themes and the idea that predisposition is not destiny. If I was running this as a scenario, I'd play with that in a way that might subvert the PC's expectations. I'm sorry I don't have more, but there's something interesting going on there.

It's an absolutely classic plot, basically the 'Deal With The Devil' trope in form.