Jackson, IL: Pride (In the Name of Love)

Yes, I *DO* know what the U2 song "Pride (In the Name of Love)" is about; it also fits here.  

Photo courtesy of the Peace News Archive/University of Bradford, Special Collections

With Pride Month here, my thoughts keep returning to Jackson, IL.

I’m not talking about the real Jacksonville in Illinois. I mean my version of Jackson from Night World, a college town in the Midwest during 1985-86, where the Veil is thin, the high school is haunted in both mundane and supernatural ways, and some students are witches, psychics, monsters, monster-hunters, or just unlucky enough to know the truth.

It keeps reminding me of Monsterhearts.

I have said before that what makes Monsterhearts a good game is its take on the horror of adolescence. There is the “monster of the week” variety, to be sure, but more so the intimate horror of being sixteen and unsure of your own identity. Or you know who you are, but you are not ready to put it into words. And if you do, you find others have decided they can define you for you.

Many horror games only hint at this, but Monsterhearts really understands it. The monster is a metaphor, but it still feels real. The original World of Darkness does this well, and so does the Buffy RPG, but a lot of games focus only on fighting the monster.

That’s the foundation Jackson, IL is built on.

In a NIGHT SHIFT Night World like Jackson, IL, supernatural characters are outsiders by nature. A witch notices things others miss, a psychic hears thoughts that are better left unsaid, and a werewolf knows what’s inside him might break free at the worst time. There’s the vampire with his hunger, the ghost with unfinished business, the faerie who never quite fits in, and even the monster-hunter, marked and haunted by what he knows.

You could say the LGBTQ character in a mid-80s setting is in much the same dramatic position. (Side note: I don't recall what the preferred term was back in the 1980s. So I am just using what we have today.) They might know something true about themselves that the rest of the world either can’t or won’t see. They have to make judgments on who is safe to confide in, pass in one room, and be open in another. There are friends in the know, adults with their suspicions, enemies who will make a weapon of a rumor, and strangers who would never get the whole story.

Now, I am not going to suggest that it is the same as being a vampire. I have no desire to flatten one experience into another or make the LGBTQ experience into a cosplay. But fiction, and horror in particular, has always had a way with the outsider. The one standing outside the circle tends to see it better than anyone in it.

That is the sort of thing I want to get at with Jackson, IL. Here, being different is not a kind of flaw. It is where you get your power and your story from. It is role-playing fuel.

Take my witch NPCs, Faye and Larina. Faye is a lesbian, and Larina is bisexual. These aren’t special episodes for their characters any more than dealing Faye’s white hair or Stephanie’s confidence are. They are who they are, down to the secrets under the town of Jackson itself. Their identities matter because they color how they and the world view each other, but they are not defined by them alone. Ok, maybe Faye's white hair is a bad example since it IS a side effect of her soul being leeched out by her aunties. Maybe a better example is why does Larina, who is right-handed, wear a watch on her right wrist?

Faye has a head start on living with a secret. Her Aunties raised her, and there is more to that than the people of Jackson know. They are not humans; they are Urban Hags and are forcing Faye to become a monster herself. She knows how to watch a room, to pick up on what is said when she thinks no one of consequence is around. She knows family can be your shelter and your danger in the same house. Being a lesbian doesn’t make her tragic; beng raised by monsters makes her tragic. It also makes her sharper, gives her cause to spot a mask or a threat or an act of kindness for what it is.

Then you have Larina. Her bisexuality is part of her liminal state. She is the weird witch girl with one foot in the everyday and the other in something much older. Some find her frightening because she won’t be simple. She is likes boys and girls alike, as well as records and occult tomes and whatever is calling from the other side of the Veil. In a way, she is all the things Monsterhearts is made of: hunger, fear, curiosity, power. If she is confused, it is not because of her sexuality. She is because she is sixteen and grieving the loss of her mother, and powerful and watched and wanted, and she is afraid of the price of wanting anything. There is danger in having the power to curse an entire bloodline and still not being able to legally drive. 

To me, that is the real stuff. And it makes for some fine role-playing. They are not "after-school special" topics; they are characters. 

Ally, Lesbian, and Bi in Jackson, IL.
Yes. I know those flags were not around in 1985-86, nor were supernatural monsters.

You have to be careful with the dramatic opportunities so as not to turn a character’s identity into some kind of penance or punishment. I am keenly aware of how LGBTQ characters have been portrayed since, well, forever, and that is not something that I am going to do here. Characters are nto going to be punished because of their sexual preferences. They will be punished for dabbling in the dark arts, or because the whole damn town is filled with monsters and ghosts. Characters are punished for bad choices in a dangerous, not because of their identity. 

The 1980s were a pressure cooker for any sort of identity. Adults wield power, and in those days, your reputation was everything. A misstep in the wrong corridor could haunt you for months. Thomas Avery, one of our teachers, is well aware of this. Being gay, he is cautious; he knows how fast a rumor can be turned into a weapon. He is a good teacher on account of his ability to listen, not because any suffering has made him noble. He will know when a student is trying to put something across without putting it into words. He is a good person and a likable guy. 

Then there is Elaine Bellweather. She is gay as well, but the world makes of her what it will, quite differently from Thomas. She is no front-line warrior. She teaches music and lives a quiet life, but she is one of the few adults in Jackson who keeps an eye on things and does not jump to condemn. In a town rife with secrets and monsters, you do not find many like her. And that counts for something. She is no one's "favorite teacher," but she does provide a space for the students (often read as Player Characters) to grow.

It is part of what makes for good LGBTQ representation in a horror game. An adult need not be attacking demons with a sword to be heroic. Sometimes, providing a space where a kid can get some air is enough. Sometimes the adult is the hero who just lets them feel safe, even for a little while. 

Monsterhearts has a way of putting it all in words. You have your strings for leverage or emotional debt, and your conditions for the labels people slap on you: "Freak." "Witch." "Creepy." "Queer." "Devil worshipper." In a high school horror set in the 1980s, those are as perilous as claws. But they can be put to the test. That is where the role-playing is. Not in having queer characters put through the wringer for being there, but in seeing what they do when someone tries to put them in a box. Do they run? Lash out? Or do they take the very label meant to hurt them and make it a banner?  A condition like ‘Freak’ might begin as hallway cruelty, but in play, it can become the moment when a character decides she would rather be feared honestly than accepted falsely.

There is your Pride. It is more than the parades and flags, as great as those are. It is the choice to stop making excuses for being real. Think of the witch who ceases to feign deafness to the dead, or the werewolf done with calling himself broken. Or the lesbian teen who sees right through the monster trying to work his charms on every girl in school, because what she wants is hers alone. A bisexual witch is figuring out that wanting two different kinds of futures doesn’t make her a fraud. That is not pandering; it is simply good character work.

I want the LGBTQ folks in Jackson, IL, to be part of the world. Some are ordinary, some are witches, some are teachers, some are students, and many are just regular people. Let them be messy and wrong about things and as complicated as the rest. Some are scared, some are not. Monsterhearts is adept at that; it won’t make adolescence neat and tidy or desire safe. It acknowledges that being young is intense and strange in its own right. We are putting that in 1986, with the Satanic Panic and some fine music in the background, where even a note passed in class feels like a spell.

For Pride Month, that is the part I want to acknowledge and celebrate.

The outsider is not outside because they are lesser. They know where that divide is because they have often been made painfully aware of it. They are outside because they can see the shape of the door.

And sometimes, in Jackson, they are the only ones who know how to open it. 

And to the kids I went to High School with in the 1980s who later came out and are much happier now, I am glad you found your happiness. 

Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986. Occult Magic Before It Had a Name

It is June 1st, and June has always been prime D&D time for me.

Summer was either already here or almost there, depending on where you lived and how hot it was. By then, we had stopped pretending school mattered. Days felt slow, and nights seemed endless. Any place, a friend’s house, the basement, the porch, your bedroom floor, or the dining room table, could become a world of adventure for an afternoon or a weekend. It was a time to sit back and properly read that new Dragon Magazine.

And that was the point. Summer is what makes adventure happen.

Riding your bike to a friend’s house felt like a real journey. The library became a place for research. The woods behind the neighborhood felt wild, and the old cemetery was like an unfinished adventure. If a thunderstorm rolled in, your house could turn into a dungeon.

In Jackson, IL, June 1986 was when the possibilities opened up.

School was over, but its presence lingered. Empty classrooms always felt strange compared to when they were full. The public library was chilly and filled with books on topics teenagers weren’t supposed to care about yet. We had bikes, dirt roads, creeks, and long afternoons. Adults were at work, so we had free time, and free time could be risky.

For Advanced Witches & Warlocks, June 1986 was a different sort of opportunity.

It was a chance to play Advanced Dungeons & Dragons the "right" way, at least, that is what we told ourselves back then. All you needed were the books, some arguments, your imagination, and the sense that the game still held some secrets.

Secrets are where you find Occult Magic.

I didn’t have a clear definition for it back then, but I knew it was there.

There is Arcane magic, the province of the Magic-User with his spellbooks and components and towers, the idea that intelligence and hard work can uncover power. And Divine magic for the Cleric, with his gods and prayers and holy symbols, where belief in the divinity is what matters. Mind you, we were not using those words back then. That is what hindsight has given us. But whether we called in Arcane magic or wizard magic, divine or priestly magic, they were the same.

But there’s something in between, too.

The red string charm. A name spelled backward and set alight. An old woman who knows what the Priest won’t tell you. A vision of the truth. Or a mirror that will only give you an answer under the darkest moon. The familiar in the room that seems to understand more than anyone else. A book nobody wants to claim to have read. A curse that stays until you right the wrong.

That is Occult Magic.

Don’t mistake "occult" for a costume. It is not a wizard with a penchant for wearing black, nor is it a cleric of an old god. It isn’t some word they put in to spook the parents. Pentagrams and black cats and Latin mumblings don’t automatically make it so. Occult is hidden. Concealed. Known only to those initiated.

This matters for the game. 

We’re talking about magic that’s forbidden or personal, knowledge kept through names, debts, and memories. Some people think it’s evil, but making it only about evil isn’t very interesting. Not everything forbidden is wicked. Sometimes it’s just dangerous. Sometimes it’s off limits because it’s embarrassing or because it reveals a lie. It might be forbidden to keep power away from those who aren’t supposed to have it, or because it belongs to people society prefers to ignore: women, outsiders, immigrants, queer people, or strangers.

This is what gives Occult Magic its import for an Advanced D&D Witch or Warlock.

A witch isn’t just another Magic-User with a different spell list. She’s not a Cleric without a temple, either. She needs her own way of understanding magic. Arcane Magic explains the physical world. Divine Magic is about asking gods for help. Occult Magic is about following hidden threads.

What lies underneath? Why put that charm under the threshold? How does a name echo through three generations? What did the villagers and the thing in the well come to an understanding over? Where has the baroness’ reflection gone? And why does the old road put itself out of sight when the moon is new?

A witch doesn’t ask, "What spell was cast?" She asks, "Who needed that to be hidden?" That changes the game completely.

Occult Magic has to do this if it is to alter how we play. It has to turn things into an investigation, making you care about names, places, and what is remembered. It puts the Game Master to work considering family curses, old debts, powers you won’t find on a map, or any old scrolls, and the like. It has to be something special, something hidden. 

Charisma remains the right primary stat for a witch on account of all this. Intelligence is for the Magic-User to pore over his spells, Wisdom for the Cleric to serve his god. Charisma allows the witch to stand at the circle’s edge and call on the unseen. She has to be able to bargain, bind, bless, curse, lead, and put people at ease. She needs to invest something of herself into this bargain, or there will be no bargain at all.

The same holds true in Jackson, IL.

Here, Occult Magic is more than finding an old book in your attic and casting spells. There is a structure to the town you have to read. You have to know the cemetery is not only just a cemetery, or that the library has its share of uncatalogued books. You can tell the school hallway is different once the last bell has rung. The man running the occult shop will have your name before you’ve given it to him. You understand the creek’s name is no accident and that it points to something bad.

For a young witch in Jackson, discovery comes before power. She doesn’t begin with a list of spells. She starts with an experience, a dream, a mark on her skin, a voice, a mirror, a dead girl in the bathroom, or a teacher who notices something in her and quickly looks away.

The magic is still a secret to her. But as she starts to follow the threads, the pattern becomes clear. The horror isn’t that magic exists, but that it’s always been there, while everyone else has ignored it or just survived it. 

This becomes important later on with the idea that some knowledge, either in books, games, or record albums, is just too dangerous to have. 

You could say the Satanic Panic had it all wrong. To them, "occult" was a byword for corruption: dangerous books, dark rituals, evil music, and demonic imagery. An adult would see a teenager with a fantasy novel and some heavy metal on, or one drawing occult pictures and talking of spells, and they would put two and two together and come up with something very wrong in their own imaginations.

But that is missing the point entirely. What you have there is adults who are terrified of young people having access to hidden knowledge. That kind of terror is right at home in Jackson, IL. Not on account of the claims being true, but because they are wielded as a weapon. The girl with her books is being watched. The boy making strange maps is put on the spot. A horror movie makes a teen look suspicious. Get a few friends together after school, and you are a "cult."

It is not supernatural, but it need not be. Jackson has horror enough of its own to go around.

For Advanced Witches & Warlocks, this matters because witches are the class most misunderstood by others. She knows what people need but are afraid to ask for. She might heal a child and still be called wicked, or give a warning and get blamed when it comes true. That’s Occult Magic in a social sense. Hidden knowledge always has a price. In an adventure, it could be your name, a memory, a night’s protection, or a promise never to enter a certain room. In Jackson, the price is your reputation.

That’s why Occult Magic isn’t just about darkness. What matters is what’s hidden or forgotten. It can protect, bind, summon, or curse. It can reveal the truths people live by. It’s both good and dangerous. Magic should be both.

Of course, every spell having a risk is part of the fun, but magic is also dangerous because it changes how the witch relates to the community, to spirits, and to herself. Once something hidden is revealed, you can’t hide it again. And what you uncover might not let you go. Both projects should follow that idea.

In Jackson, IL, Occult Magic drives teenage horror. The town isn’t haunted because of scary spirits, but because the secret is out and the kids have noticed. June 1986 is the perfect time for this. The days are long, adults are busy, and the school doors aren’t always open. The creek is low enough to reveal its winter secrets, the cemetery grass is overgrown, and the roads out of town feel like an invitation. Summer is for adventure, and Occult Magic helps you find it.

The Mirror Shard: See the Hidden Thread

This spell is more of an adventure tool than a combat spell. You can use it as a low-level Witch spell in Advanced Witches & Warlocks, or as the first real magic a teenager tries in Jackson, IL. It won’t show you everything, but it will reveal the connection between something you see and a hidden entity nearby.

A locket might show you the thread to its owner’s grave. A bloodstain could lead to the person who made it. A teacher’s shadow might connect to an old yearbook photo. A charm under a door could glow with the color of the family who placed it there. Sometimes the thread looks like a red cord or black smoke; other times, it’s silver hair, ink, or music only the witch can hear.

The spell shows you what connects two things you aren’t supposed to know about. It won’t tell you what the connection means—that’s for you to figure out. It doesn’t replace real investigation in an AD&D game; if anything, it might lead you to make mistakes or ask tougher questions. If you use it in the halls of the local school in Jackson, you’ll see too much. Bully to victim. Principal to school scandal. Family name to the cemetery. The first time you cast it, you learn something important. The second time, you wish you hadn’t.

See the Hidden Thread
Occult Divination 

Witch Level 1
Range: 6"
Duration: 1 turn
Area of Effect: Special
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 3 segments
Saving Throw: None

Spell Effect

When the witch gazes through a fragment of silvered glass and speaks the Supernal syllable of revelation, the spell reveals a shimmering, metaphysical thread connecting a visible object or creature to a nearby hidden entity or significant location. The thread manifests in a form unique to the situation or the witch’s tradition, appearing as a red cord, a wisp of black smoke, a strand of silver hair, or even a faint melody only the witch can perceive.

Details

The spell illuminates the "Hidden Thread" between two things that are cosmically or karmically linked, regardless of whether the connection is secret or obscured.

• A locket might reveal a silver thread leading toward its owner’s forgotten grave.
• A bloodstain could show a pulsing red line trailing toward the individual who shed it.
• A charm tucked beneath a floorboard might glow with the specific color of the family lineage that placed it there.

The spell does not reveal the meaning of the connection or the identity of the hidden entity; it only proves that a link exists and shows the path to follow. This is an adventure tool meant to supplement investigation, not replace it. If used in a densely populated or high-drama area (such as a school or a town hall), the witch may see a chaotic web of threads that can be overwhelming and potentially distressing to the caster's psyche.

Material Components: A fragment of silvered glass that was a shard of a broken mirror and a drop of clear water.

More Insight From Daddy Rolled a 1

If you want another perspective of what was going on with AD&D in the mid-1980s then please check out Martin R. Thomas' blog and YouTube channel, Daddy Rolled a 1. 

• A Different Way to Look at the AD&D Hardcovers (Blog)
• Why AD&D Started Feeling Different in the Mid-1980s (Video)

Both discuss the same time period I am covering here, but with a different thesis statement. Both are also worth your time. By this reckoning, my project here is firmly in his Phase 3 camp. Which feels exactly right. I am pleased to see that we see this time period in roughly the same way. 

Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986. Why 1986?

So, one has to ask: why 1986?

It is a legitimate question and one that lingers under both Jackson, IL, and Advanced Witches & Warlocks.

I am not talking about the 1980s as a whole, or nostalgia for its own sake. You will find your share of cassette tapes and denim jackets here, horror paperbacks and D&D books with well-worn corners; they are part of the ambiance and atmosphere. I mean this year in particular. Why 1986?

State of the Art for AD&D 1986

For Advanced Witches & Warlocks, it is a strange and handy vantage point. If you go back to the 1974 boxed set, Dungeons & Dragons was almost thirteen years old by then. It was no longer a child. It had acquired a history, some scars, a few good arguments, and traditions. It was a teenager now. At times awkward, at times brilliant, occasionally too sure of itself, and sometimes hard to put a name to, but full of potential. In other words, a bit contradictory. A Witch book from this time should also be like that.

The first flush of the D&D/AD&D gold rush was done with. The game was a culture in its own right, having made its way from college clubs and basements into hobby shops, school lunchrooms, news stories, and even church warnings. With the Monster Manual, the Player’s Handbook, and the Dungeon Master's Guide, AD&D had a core identity and dictated how you were to think about fantasy adventure.

And yet it was in flux. Ravenloft was already on the scene, making a theatrical and tragic impression with its brand of gothic horror. Dragonlance had happened that placed more emphasis on charcaters as characters than previously. Note: Both Ravenloft and Dragonlance became part of what has been called the Hickman Revolution, and often the start of the Silver Age of D&D. The Forgotten Realms were coming, destined to be one of the big shared campaign worlds. So yes, 1986 has a liminal quality to it. AD&D was past its rawest beginnings but not yet the highly branded ecosystem it would turn into. Things were changing. 

That is exactly where the Witch belongs. In the space between the little brown books and the grand campaign worlds, between a dungeon crawl and some gothic melodrama. Between the wargame heritage and the kind of character play we were doing, even if the rules didn’t quite say so. That is what I am are after with Advanced Witches & Warlocks. Not some modern witch retrofitted for AD&D, nor a twenty-first-century class in old-school dress. I want a witch who could have been there, one you might have found on the same shelf as the old hardbacks in a used bookstore, in an era when parents got nervous seeing their kids sketch pentagrams in their notebooks.

She was always in AD&D waiting to be written down, but 1986 is when I can see her most clearly.

As for Jackson, IL, 1986 is important for another reason. It is one of the last moments before "the world wakes up from history."  You get the sense of it from "Right Here, Right Now" by Jesus Jones, though that song is from the early 90s, after the walls came down and things were moving too fast to keep up. 1986 is still on the other side of the mirror. The world was not yet as small as the internet would make it. You couldn’t check a fact in five seconds flat or send off a text to all your friends from the cemetery. From the comfort of your bedroom, you were not going to put your hands on a satellite map, or some scanned newspaper archive, or find what you needed on a message board. Information was something you had to go and get. It had a place.

So you went to the library to check the archives. You hopped on your bike and made the trip across town. You put in a call to someone’s home with the hope their parents would not be the ones to pick up. You made notes, copied down an address, and then you waited. The world was bigger like that, which is why it was so easy for shadows to take hold.

Horror needs that.

In Jackson, secrets have a way of surviving because the town is local enough for them to. Rumor has speed, but it is not even. There are things the adults know that the teenagers do not, and vice versa. And while there are records, they are sitting in a file cabinet, a yearbook, the church basement, or a box in some attic. A haunted town requires some friction. 1986 provides it.

But one must be careful with 1986; it is not as innocent as it seems. That is the trap when you write about the eighties. You can make the decade into set dressing with its neon and synthesizers, its malls and hairspray and horror films. I am fond of all that, but it does not cut it. If the year is to have any meaning, it must also have horror and pain; it has to hurt a little.

January 28, 1986, hurt.

When the Space Shuttle Challenger came apart 73 seconds into its flight, all seven on board were lost. NASA will tell you it was the STS-51L mission, and with Christa McAuliffe involved, many a schoolchild was tuned in. It was supposed to be routine. Easy. For my generation, it was one of the first times we saw a public tragedy in real time.

On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Reactor 4 suffered a catastrophic meltdown. All our fears about nuclear power played out for us on our TVs. The great specter of nuclear meltdown was now on our evening news, delivered by Tom Brokaw.

We had known the world was not safe, but this was different. It came into the classroom and put an end to the promise we had been fed. Space was our future, the shuttle was routine, the teachers were going up there, and the adults were in charge. Then the sky opened up, and you could see the horror on the faces of the very same adults.

That is what I want in Jackson. Not as a plot device to be used up, but as atmosphere. A fracture in the adult world. A teenage witch in 1986 is surrounded by grown-ups who will tell you they have everything under control despite the evidence to the contrary. You come to realize there are no paladins or wizards; they do not have the spell memorized, and sometimes they built the machine without heeding the warning that it might break. Once you see that, the world is a different place. It is more than innocence lost. It is the thin veil of lies about innocence. 

I talk about it a lot here, but even the Satanic Panic has its part to play in both projects. With Advanced Witches & Warlocks, it is the cultural Zeitgeist that makes D&D seem perilous to those who cannot fathom it, lumping in heavy metal, the occult, and a teenager’s imagination as one great threat. It was stupidity, but stupidity has a way of shaping a culture. Just watch the news today.

In Jackson, IL, it is more than useful. A moral panic lets the respectable sort act on old fears. The girl was always a bit odd; the house was already off-limits, and the symbols in the notebook were being noticed. The Santic Panic just gave them leave to do something about it.

You don’t need the Satanic Panic to make a witch. What it makes is an excuse for one to be hunted, feared, and reviled. And that is the more frightening part.

Then there was the music. By 1986, you could still hear the early synth-pop and New Romanticism of the decade’s opening, but the center had moved. The hair metal era was on its way to taking over the landscape, though not yet in full force. 1986 is the space between those things. It is not one note. That is significant.

It is a year of transition. You can feel the afterglow of Live Aid from ’85, and Farm Aid had only just been held back in September out of concern for American family farmers. I put some weight on that because Farm Aid was in Champaign, Illinois, and that puts you in Jackson’s orbit, in the Midwest.

The music wasn’t merely an escape. It was making an effort, if a bit awkward at times, to be something more: political, useful, global. A mix-tape was your confessional, a message for when words would not do. Put in a request at the local station and hope someone heard it. It had the power of a spell.

Take Paul Simon’s Graceland in ’86, with all its complicated influence, as he brought South African sounds to the American mainstream. Or Peter Gabriel’s So, which managed to be art-rock and pop at once, and the end of his cult following days. Run-DMC put out Raising Hell that year, too, a necessary step for hip-hop to be seen by the rest of us.

I don’t see this as mere soundtrack trivia. It tells me what sort of year we are in. The old categories are dissolving, and the voices that were left out are being heard. Parents have their worries, the kids are tuning in regardless, and the culture is at odds over who has the right to speak and what is deemed dangerous.

The whole Parental Advisory row comes of this time. The Parents Music Resource Center was founded in 1985, aiming to label anything with objectionable lyrics. Much like the Satanic Panic, it made youth culture a battleground of fear and control.

Witches find that handy.

A witch is someone who will be labeled. Dangerous, immoral, corrupting, or unnatural. Too loud or too quiet. Too independent, too well read, too strange to be put in a box. You will find it in a fantasy village or a modern high school, in any small town where they think virtue is the same as conformity.

So 1986 puts pressure on me from both sides.

For Advanced Witches & Warlocks, it is an AD&D moment; the Witch has her place in a game that is between phases. The old stuff still counts but the new is coming, and horror has already made its way into the castle. For my purposes in Jackson, IL, it is a modern setting where a teenage witch can be left to her own devices, misread and watched, and have to go about things the old way. You could say the world is in a state of flux, but it is not yet all one piece. There are still secrets a town can hold. A girl can come across something in a library drawer and have no simple means of telling whether another soul has ever laid eyes on it.

Then there is 1986. It presents me with a culture that is afraid of its children. In some ways, that is the point of it.

Take the D&D crowd, the metalheads, the kids into horror or punk or goth. The queer kids, the smart ones, the strange boys and girls with their notebooks of symbols, the ones who read too much and ask questions they should not. They do not fit the narrative adults have put together for them.

The Witch is to be found there, at the fringes of what is approved. She is not the trouble. She is merely the one to see that the trouble was there to begin with.

That is why 1986 works. Do not mistake it for being simpler or better; it was neither. But it sat on a threshold. You had AD&D old enough for its own mythology yet young enough to leave some rooms empty. The modern world was tied in enough to feel global change but not so much as to put an end to local mystery. The whole culture was loud and nervous and moralizing, creative and frightened and very much alive.

A good year for witches. For mirrors. For secrets.

Mirror Shard: 1d12 Things Found in a 1986 Witch’s Room

This will work for Jackson, IL, or any modern supernatural game you want to set before the internet made doing your research too convenient. A teenage witch does not have a wizard’s tower. Her room is more perilous than that. Private, half-hidden, temporary, and only a knock from her parents away from being found out.

Make a d12 roll or pick and choose.

1. A spiral notebook with dream fragments and song lyrics, plus a page of symbols she cannot recall putting there.
2. An overdue library book on folklore, three months past due. The checkout card has the same name on it every eleven years.
3. Cassette tapes in a shoebox. Put in the unmarked one, and you will hear a voice going through the names in the town cemetery.
4. A hand mirror with a crack in it, wrapped up in a scarf. Works fine until after midnight.
5. A black cat charm on a broken chain. You can tell when spirits are close by how warm it feels.
6. A Polaroid of four of her friends in front of the school. If you look between them, there is a fifth shadow.
7. An old coffee mug with a candle stub in it. Lies in the room, and it will burn blue.
8. A note from class. Open it up, and the handwriting is different each time.
9. Some clipping from the paper on a death half a century back. She keeps it, though she has no reason to.
10. A flower pressed from the cemetery fence. Picked months ago, and yet it has not dried.
11. An old mixtape that says "DO NOT PLAY SIDE B." There is no music on side B, just breathing and a bell tolling in the distance.
12. A character sheet for a red-haired witch in purple and black for D&D. The player will tell you she never created her; she created herself.

Jackson, IL: NPCs, the Adults in the Room

No game for me this past weekend. They were doing their "Pokémon meets D&D" game and no time for the 1980s. That's fine, I have a bit more world-building I need to do.

The thing about Jackson is that not every adult in town is clueless about the Supernatural. Many are, most are too thick to know. But there are some who know the truth, and some of them have fought these battles before. Here are some of the adults I want to put forward as my actual "Veterans of the Supernatural Wars." 

Old Jackson Public High School

Most of these adults don't really need stats; they won't be doing any fighting unless it is off-screen. Though it is possible that they could need them later on. For the most part, these are either 0-level humans or maybe 1st or 2nd level in something.

Lars Nichols

Lars is Larina's father. He is a good one to have in the game, whether or not Larina remains a named NPC. Like Larina as the New Girl, he is the New Teacher. He is a professor of Anthropology at MacAlister College, so he will make a good resource for the characters. 

Lars came to mind nearly fully formed. I knew he had the same hair color as Larina and that he had brown eyes. He sings, he loves music, he has an impressive music collection. And he LOVES Yes. Like obsessively so. And Larina is a complete Daddy's girl. Of course, "Larina" means "daughter of Lars." But Larina came first, and Lars came around later. Her mother is/was named Siân Stephens Nichols (my homage to Bewitched). She was blonde with blue eyes, the same eye color as Larina. I spent some time with Lars and Siân as OSE characters, and they were a blast. 

In Larina's original AD&D 1st ed version, her mom and dad both died when she was 19, necessitating her adventuring.  In my Dark Places & Demogorgons version, her parents are both still alive. Here, her mother died, and Lars and his daughter moved up from Southern Illinois so he could take a job at MacAlister. 

Lars is likely a Sage, maybe level 4. Yeah, I know I said 0 or 1, but he is going to be a solid resource. Plus, Lars knows about the supernatural; he prefers to avoid it when he can, but that is difficult when his daughter is one of the most powerful witches in the game.  

I like Lars. He is a good guy and acts all happy, but he is still mourning his wife. Because of this he will be protective of the characters.

Archetype: The cool, but heartbroken, single father
Quote: "Love what you love while you can, and never apologize for playing the record one more time."
Quirks: Has a huge record collection. Loves Yes, still misses his wife.
Theme song: "Wonderous Stories" by Yes

Malcolm "Mac" McGowan

Malcolm "Mac" McGowan is first and foremost the grandfather of Rowan McGown, the presumptive Spirit Rider of Jackson. His son, Jake, was the Spirit Rider for this area, but he and his wife were killed in a car crash leaving only the baby Rowan to survive. She was supposed to die as well. They were killed by supernatural agents. Mac has always known this and has done everything in his mortal-mundane power to keep Rowan safe. But he knows that sooner or later she is going to need to take up the mantle if Jackson is to remain safe. 

He is an older man who moved here from Scotland many years ago with his Irish wife. Their son Jake was born here in Jackson, and they settled down. Mac got a job caring for the horses at the Thompson Stables, hired by Andy's grandfather, who always respected Mac. It was their idea to have young Anderson come to the stables to learn how to care for the animals and destiny was forged when Andy fell in love with Rowan.

Yes, that is the flannel shirt Rowan wears now. She stole it when she was 12 and never gave it back. Wearing it reminds her of her grandfather.

Mac likes Andy, he sees more of Andy's own grandfather in him than his father, which is good. He also knows he will be kind to Rowan.  MAc respects people who work hard, but has a lot of issues with those who deal with the supernatural, especially Valerie Beaumont. These two have a history, and he is one of the very few people who know her secret.  Valerie wants to train Rowan in sword fighting to prepare her for her role as Jackson's Spirit Rider, and conveniently keeping all three away from directly helping and stealing the spotlight away from the PCs.

Valerie: "Good morning, Mac. You going to invite me in for coffee or shoot me with that revolver you are hiding in your jacket?"
Mac: "I have not decided yet. Maybe both."

If Mac has a class, he would be a level 1 or 2 Veteran. 

Archetype: The Protective Grandfather
Quote: "Horses don’t care what you say you are. They only care what you actually are."
Quirks: Talks to horse like they understand him. Maybe they do.
Theme song: "The Skye Boat Song" - The Corries

There are a lot of parallels between Lars and Mac, just as there are between Larina and Rowan. Almost like they are similar characters with different paths and choices. I like to explore these ideas. If Larina and Rowan are very similar, it might also explain why, in my mind, they are friendly to each other, but not friends. 

Of course, none that might matter in the actual game. So far, the players and the characters have only seen them in the background.  The teachers in the school are more important right now.

Here are a couple more.

Thomas Avery

Mr. Avery is the school's "cool" teacher. He is known to be a little eccentric, a little odd, and his classes are a lot of fun. He teaches Classical Literature, Senior Honors Lit, and Freshman English. He quotes Shakespeare in class, and he directs the Fall plays. 

Mr. Avery's big secret is that he is gay. He tries to keep his personal life to himself because, well, it's just 1985-86 and people are still bigoted. When he was younger, and the AIDS crisis began, he got "The Talk" by the school board. He was so embarrassed and frustrated that he considered leaving teaching altogether. Now he makes sure he is never alone with a student, always meets in the open, and never, ever touches anyone. He knows how quickly misunderstandings turn into rumors and rumors become more.  To that end, Keri Moreau flirts with him openly and often, which he finds amusing. She told him that she was willing to do whatever was needed to ensure he was protected. She is also at his side during the school plays as the "Assistant Director" of the plays. The other English teacher, Glenn Daniels, wants him gone, but he is intimidated by Keri, and she makes sure he never has an excuse. 

Thomas Avery is a lot of students' favorite teacher, and they will say he is one of the few who listen to them. Really listens to them. Again, I like to think Avery is a good guy. He loves teaching and he loves when students read something that really means something to them. 

Thomas and Elaine have been sharing their observations, and they are coming to understand that some students are more than they appear. And there are some things that hide in the dark. 

Thomas is likely just a level 1 Sage. 

Archetype: The Fun Teacher
Quote: "Words are not harmless. That is why we teach them."
Quirks: Quotes Shakespeare whenever he can.
Theme song: “The Sound of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel

Elaine Bellweather

Elaine: "Some things work whether you believe in them or not. That is why you must be careful."
Faye: "Are we still talking about Jazz, Miss Bellweather?"

Miss Elaine Bellweather is Jackson Public High School's music teacher. She teaches Music Appreciation and History, Choir, and is the orchestra conductor. She doesn't teach band, though. The students think she is a bit old-fashioned; she still dresses like she did in the 1960s, and most students think she is older than she really is. She is only 45. 

Miss Bellweather is from one of the "first families" of Jackson. Along with the Thornes, Thompsons, and Vales, the Bellweathers were among the first to settle on the Mauvaisterre Moraine that would become Jackson. She never married, so she will be the last Bellweather. Like the Vales and Thornes, the Bellweathers produced a number of witches. The Thornes are hags, though many don't know that, and the Vales have a history of magic. The Bellweathers were Hedgewitches. As Elaine would say, her "grandmother could see around a few corners."  Elaine herself has no magical ability, but I do say she has some sensitivity. In game terms I say she is a 2nd or 3rd level Sage. She knows a couple of simple spells. 

Elaine lives in a small house with Marian Fitzpatrick, her long-time friend from their days at MacAlister.

Elaine Bellweather is also gay, but she doesn't get the same level of discrimination that Thomas does. That is the double standard of the 1980s that, for once, works in her favor, just for the wrong reasons. 

Not many students consider her their "favorite teacher," but she loves her job, and music is her life. She keeps a detailed set of notes on all the strange things she sees. She shares these notes with Mr. Avery and Mrs. Gloria Haskel, the school Librarian. Between the three of them they know about the monsters and work where they can to protect the students.

Elaine would be at best a level 1 Sage.

Archetype: The Shockingly Perceptive Teacher / Hedge Witch
Quote: "No, I do not know magic. I know songs. People are always confusing the two."
Quirks: Never married. Grandmother was a witch.
Theme song: “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” by The Shirelles

Thomas and Elaine are also my subtle nod to the Monsterhearts game I played a while back, which was also almost like a Proto-Jackson. Much like Stranger Things did a flashback involving the previous generation, I like to think that Thomas and Elaine may have known something back when they were kids struggling on their own. I don't think they were in school together, at least I have not worked out their histories or backstories much more than what I have here, but I am leaving it all open. Mac would have been here, but he would have been an adult then as well. 

These are more of my "veterans of the supernatural wars." Just in this case, the last war.

Mirror Mondays: The Witches of 1986. Teenage Witches and the Haunted Midwest

Last week, I examined the witch in AD&D. As a class and a monster in a game of spell lists, curses, familiars, old women living at the edge of villages, mysterious maps, and a host of others. Advanced Witches & Warlocks is a project that aims to give her proper due among the iconic elements of classic fantasy RPGs.

But there is another mirror.

If the Advanced Witches & Warlocks is interested in exploring the witch as an element of a fantasy game in 1986, then the Jackson, IL project is a consideration of how the witch would fit in the modern horror world of 1986.

By the "modern," I don't mean contemporary times. I mean an era of landlines, lockers, cassette tapes, libraries, horror movies at midnight, school rumors, and parents who believe they can keep secrets from teens

These are very different takes on witches.

In the world of AD&D, the witch is always on the edge of the village. By the old road, the swamp, the shrine in ruins, or the sinister forest. In the Jackson, IL setting, she is on the edge of town, near the cemetery, an abandoned structure, the stream, the college, a different neighborhood, or a lonely road.

The map is different, but the location itself is not.

Jackson, IL, is where my imagination has found its new home. This place isn't Salem, nor New Orleans, nor some gothic European village under the full moon, despite my affection for those locations. No, Jackson is in the Midwest. It is a small town in central Illinois. A town with brick school buildings, college halls, county roads, corn fields, old graveyards, tiny churches, pizza shops, book stores, hardware stores, Friday night football games, Friday night dances, and houses where three generations have kept the same secret.

In Jackson, the supernatural does not require thunderous declarations or Latin incantations to reveal itself. Instead, it is rather subtler.

Perhaps it is the teacher who hasn't aged since 1569. Perhaps a door in the library, locked for no apparent reason. Perhaps a statue at the cemetery changing directions at midnight. Perhaps the name of a creek that no one remembers where the name came from. Or perhaps it is the mirror reflecting something other than yourself.

This is the haunting of the Midwest. It is not empty. It is a place filled with ghosts.

Every town in the Midwest has its stories: the house that has never been sold, the road where headlights disappear, the creepy old lady that kids are told not to approach, the rail road tracks where strange things occur, the auditorium in the school where lights flicker even with the power shut off, and the place outside town known only by its ominous name of "the Bad Land."

These are stories that form the Jackson, IL environment. Not simply the background, but the actual foundation on which the Veil between what is "Real" and what is considered "Supernatural" is constructed.

Most people in the town interact with the supernatural indirectly, in fleeting moments. A shadow. A whisper. A dream. A cold sensation down the spine. A name spoken out of nowhere. And they explain it away, because that is what humans do. It is simpler to believe that everything is ordinary than to accept that ancient tales still speak truth.

Teenagers are not good at keeping their thoughts and opinions to themselves. That is why a teenager is perfect in a game about supernatural activity.

Adults follow routines, have reputations, jobs, mortgages, church groups, seats on the school board, and myriad reasons to preserve the "official" story. Teenagers care about other things. Why does that room stay locked? Why are they avoiding that particular teacher? Why did Mom go silent when I mentioned that name? Why does the school bell ring differently to me? And why do I see the woman in the black cloak and purple dress in the mirror?

Thus, the teenage witch belongs in this place.

Not only is she a character living between two worlds. At least partly, but not entirely. She is not a kid anymore, but she is not yet an adult. People look at her, underestimate her, boss her around, dismiss her, and correct her, all before she even knows who she truly is.

And then comes the magic.

She begins having dreams. Strange marks appear on her skin. She finds books at the library with strange titles. A stray cat starts following her wherever she goes and never leaves. Her reflection starts speaking to her. And perhaps she discovers that the story about the dead girl haunting the bathrooms at school was not just a story.

That is the importance of their first experiences.

Whereas in the world of AD&D, the witch appears with powers, spells, and a clear-cut purpose, here she is noticed. The world recognizes something in her, and she recognizes it back.

This can be terrifying, but also terribly tempting.

I played this scenario with Larina. There is a young girl named Larina. Some kids call her "Creepy." She has visions and talks to ghosts, but she tries to hide her magical abilities because she knows that using them attracts attention from things in the darkness.

This scenario is perfectly designed for Jackson, IL. But I also realized there was a lot more I could do with it. That starting with powers is one type of game, but developing them as the game progresses is something else. 

Being magical in the Jackson environment means revealing oneself. Every casting of a spell is an exposure to the darkness seeking light. Every magical act draws eyes. 

Jackson, IL, is still a modern reflection of the AD&D-inspired fantasy world in Advanced Witches & Warlocks. The witch concept remains the same, but the clothes are different.

The group of friends is the coven. After hours in school are the dungeons. Rumors around town turn into gossip in hallways. The wise woman standing at the edge of the village is now someone's aunt, a school teacher, a local shop owner, or someone who has waited patiently for the right girl to ask the right questions.

The familiar becomes a pet that manages to enter the school for reasons that no one understands. A notebook under the bed takes the place of the spell book. The place beyond the fence at the cemetery is the ruined shrine. An ancient deity is a name scrawled in pencil at the abandoned classroom.

But Jackson, IL, cannot merely be a simple adaptation of fantasy RPGs. 

Not only would it be uninteresting, but it would lack necessary depth. It would be uninspired. 

Modern horror has to have its own logic.

While in a fantasy game, the main heroes are expected to take up swords and bravely venture into the dungeons, their counterparts in the modern horror world still have homework to do.

They have to attend classes, deal with parents, curfews, training, work after school, live up to peer expectations, compete with rival schools, maintain reputations, deal with their younger brothers and sisters, and people who would certainly notice if they were gone for three days straight.

This makes a big difference.

A teenage witch cannot just leave town on adventures, and she has to find a way to come back, to cover the stains on her jacket, to explain why her homework was done in the library, why she is late for algebra after having seen something crawling out of the drain at night. And yet, this is not a restriction; it is the essence of the game.

The ordinary world, which is often a barrier in games of the supernatural, is, in fact, what makes them scary.

An isolated haunted school becomes frightening precisely because it is her school. A cursed road is terrifying precisely because her best friend lives on the other side of it. The monster at the cemetery terrifies her, because Grandma is buried there, while the witch's mark makes her fear going to gym class. The ordinary makes the scary parts scarier. 

This is where the theme of the Satanic Panic emerges as well, but in the background.

Not as a simple decoration, but as the very core of the game, because the town uses that panic as a vehicle to express existing fears that otherwise remain untapped. The odd girl has always been creepy, the abandoned house - terrifying, the mysterious books at the library – suspicious. While the rumor makes the witch, it provides a ready-made justification for the search. This is horror, not because of accusations, but because of the town's desperation to believe that it has reason.

Since the community is already scared of her dark clothes, her books, her music, her art, and the woods she loves, the Satanic Panic gives this fear permission. It transforms gossip into social concern, suspicion into righteousness, and parents into monstrous beings, not changing their appearances in the slightest.

Because this is Jackson, IL, the choice of setting is critical. Where in a grand gothic landscape, the supernatural would sprawl. Here it is concentrated in the small-town Midwest. Everyone knows someone; everyone is related to someone; there are always witnesses to secrets; and there are always connections between the town monster and this place, even if no one has figured them out yet.

The ghost is not just a ghost. She used to be someone's sister, student, patient, or an innocent victim of a horrible event. The hag is not a creature that came here to terrorize. She may be an aunt, a landlord, a neighbor at church, the one whose home everyone avoids because of some terrible sin, or the very reason that three generations of women in one family never drink tea after dark. Local legends are not just myths. They are a necessity. People share their tales with such inaccuracy because the truth demands too much action.

Here is the haunted Midwest I imagine for Jackson: the place familiar enough to evoke a sense of security, and unfamiliar enough to hint at inherent dangers.

It is the time that makes the adventure unique as well. 1986 is not chosen by coincidence, although the brand recognition factor cannot be denied. It represents not nostalgia, but distance in time. No smartphones, GPS systems, online investigations, instant messaging apps, or fast transportation are available for the characters. If something terrible happened at night, they needed a phone line, a bicycle, a car, a payphone, or the guts to go to see it.

Rumors spread quickly, but not evenly. Information is stored in filing cabinets, yearbooks, church hallways, newspaper archives, and the library collection.

Which means that all the investigations are hands-on. The characters have to move from place to place, talk to people, and expose themselves. Which is important because in Jackson, IL, knowledge is bound to a place. The public library is important not because it is there, but because it has archived newspapers. The occult shop is valuable not for supplies but for the chance of someone seeing a teenager there. The school is necessary because almost everyone in town once studied there and left something behind. And the cemetery is crucial, because names are inscribed in stone, but not necessarily in the right manner.

As you remember, the power of the witch in Advanced Witches & Warlocks is bound to fantasy conventions and expectations. It is associated with danger, complexity, and power. Magic comes at a price. It creates bonds and produces unexpected results. In Jackson, IL, everything is different because the flow of magical powers has changed. 

This is the reason why these two projects complement each other.

While the Advanced Witches & Warlocks focuses on how witches look in a classic AD&D fantasy world, Jackson explores how a sixteen-year-old witch attending a class on Tuesday morning realizes that her destiny is tied to something far older than the town.

I am not yet sure whether this second project will eventually lead to a full-fledged book. And it may take quite a bit of writing and effort, probably surpassing 80,000 words before I finally figure out the full vision, there is one thing that I am sure about.

Jackson, IL, is a perfect reflection. While the witch at the edge of the ancient village is the witch wearing the black cloak on the old road in Advanced Witches & Warlocks, the witch sitting quietly at the high school is the girl on the bus looking at the old road with fascination.

Because the fantasy witch and the teenage witch are not different.

They are reflections of one another through the glass.

Prof. Lars Nichols with his daughter, Larina

Mirror Shard: Larina, the New Girl Witch

Every good haunted school needs a new girl.

It is one of the staples in teen horror literature and movies, and yet it works so well because it is not a gimmick. From Buffy Summers arriving at Sunnydale High to start a new life to Sarah Bailey transferring to a new school to become the missing fourth link in a teenage coven. The new girl arrives in the adventure exactly when it is born in the audience member's mind. The new girl does not yet understand the rules of the game, so we get to learn with her.

This is important in a horror RPG.

The long-time local heroine already knows what is better to remain unsaid. She knows the forbidden hallways, the names of the families whose conversation must be cut abruptly, and the teachers whom one has to joke with and not argue. She was taught by experience. While she may not fully believe in the town tales, she knows what they are about or at least what to avoid.

The new girl doesn't know anything. Not yet, at least.

• She wants to know why the third-floor room is locked all the time.
• She is curious why no one ever swims in the creek downstream.
• She wonders why there is a gap in the school's trophy case.
• She would like to understand why the librarian keeps local histories in the drawers rather than on the shelves.
• She would like to know why people fall silent whenever someone mentions "Mauvaisterre" or "Blackthorne."

This makes her useful. This also makes her dangerous.

The character of Larina fits the concept perfectly because she is known and unknown. We know where she can evolve into. The Witch Queen. The occult historian. The redhead witch, who wears black and purple clothing and stands in the way of the bad things trying to get into our world. 

But this is not the case in Jackson, IL.

Larina might have just moved into town because of her father's transfer to the college. She might be a newcomer attempting to blend into normality, failing to do so by noon. She might already be aware that ghosts exist in her town, but she has yet to comprehend their meaning. The other students might consider her creepy before she even introduces herself.

This is useful at the table.

The role of Larina as a New Girl Witch is not to figure out the details for players but to expose the mysteries by noticing things that everyone else failed to see or has learned to ignore.

I use Larina here because she is a great character for me. She is a stand-in, though, for any character the players bring to the table. 

• She observes the reflection's weird movement.
• She listens to a ringing of the bell that no one else can hear.
• She realizes that a stray cat hanging around the school has come there with a specific purpose.
• She discovers that the dead girl haunting the school bathrooms knows her name.
• Her first lesson of magic is not about casting a spell.
• It is about revealing her to the supernatural world.
• The ghosts can see her.
• The entity residing beneath the railroad tracks sees her.
• The teacher who has not aged since 1769 sees her.
• So do students who needed reasons to regard her as creepy.

So use the New Girl Witch when you want to start your campaign with a supernatural revelation. She can be a player character, NPC, rival, friend, or a stranger whom the other characters need to trust or not.

And just like the PCs, she does not have to know everything.

She just has to know enough to be scared.

Jackson, IL: Am I Evil? NPCs of the Satanic Panic

Last week, I talked about running two different 80s-style teenage horror campaigns. My Sunny Valley, OH game with Dark Places & Demogorgons and my current Jackson, IL one with NIGHT SHIFT. 

I had such a good time talking about it that I wanted to explore these two games together some more. But the trick was finding a good pivot point for both of them. I started thinking, what do these two games have in common that I can really exploit for the 1980s? I came up with too many ideas to be honest, so I started thinking about characters. I decided my frame was going to be the Satanic Panic.

My Mother was a Witch

I recalled that the Dark Places & Demogorgons had a "Black Witch" class. In all my past witches for Sunny Valley, I used the White White class, naturally; all my witches tend to be "good." But I wanted to try something new. So I went to the Dark Places & Demogorgons Players Options & GM's Guide, and checked out their magic classes. I also looked into the Dark Places & Demogorgons Players Ultimate Edition for the Mystic Class. Both are great, really, the mystic is closer to the Mystic found in other Bloat Games products. I tried both, but to jump to the end of this, I went with the Black Witch.

On the O.G.R.E.S. side of things, I pretty much knew I wanted to try out the Sorcerer class from Wasted Lands, not that the class is all that different from the witch class; I did want to use some of the Heroic Touchstones from the Wasted Lands game. Again, long story short, I went with the witch and the sorcerer, but I could have stuck with the witch alone.  I did give them an Heroic Touchstone each, migth end up giving them some others later on. Both NPCs are more powerful than anyone character, that is by design. It also fits their backgrounds better.

I ended up with two NPCs and four character sheets. 

These two are going to be central in my Satanic Panic adventure that is going to pop up later on. How later? Well, game-wise, it is going to be Spring 1986, whenever I get to that. Currently, it is just before the 1985 Christmas break. One NPC is a central cause, the other will be a catalyst.

For these, I wanted to try and get each version as close to the other as I could so it felt like playing the same character in each game. 

Moria Elizabeth Zachary

Moria looks like a good girl. She attends the "other" school in town, St. Michael's Catholic High School. She will interact with the PCs either because she comes to take classes at Jackson Public High School (typically something like Calculus or another math class) or because one or more of the PCs have to go to her school (to take advanced Latin or Greek). This actually happened a few times in my own hometown. 

Moria is unassuming and very pleasant. She stands all of 5'1" and looks like the textbook definition of "harmless."

Trouble is, Moria Zachary is really a half-demon. Her mother was a witch from Sunny Valley, OH, and she moved here. Her father, well, he is not a local. Not to anywhere. He is a demon. Moria has moved her with her "Hellhond larva" dog and wants to stir up trouble now in Jackson. OR if you are using her in DP&D, then she is from Jackson and has moved to Jefferson Town.

Moria Zachary is a "mirror shard" of my own Moria Zami, who in my AD&D game is half-devil. Her job here is not to convince the characters to do evil, but to convince them that tools of "Good" are never going to be enough to stop what is coming, and they will need to "color outside the lines" in order to get things done. Moria doesn't care (and maybe doesn't even know) about the Hollow King. She wants the characters to commit evil acts to fight other evil creatures. In either case, Moria gets what she wants, and this is more evil. Her particular favorite is to corrupt other witches and turn them to evil. Failing that, any psychic class or sage is good. She avoids trying to convert theosophists and spirit riders if she can. Not that they are difficult, but they are no fun.

Moria Zachary (NIGHT SHIFT)
3rd Level Witch, Infernal

*Background: Infernal (half-infernal)

Base Abilities
Strength: 14 (+1) 
Agility: 15 (+1) 
Toughness: 16 (+2) N
Intelligence: 14 (+1) N
Wits: 12 (+0) 
Persona: 20 (+4) A

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 9
Vitality: 19

Degeneracy: 1
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+1/+0
Melee Bonus: +0 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +0 (base)
Spell Attack: +2
Saves: +3 to Spells and Magical effects (Witch) +3 to Wits saves (Infernal background).

Feed (Infernal): Must get witches to cast "evil" rituals

Witch Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (1): Innate Magic: Glamour

Witch Spells
First Level: Black Flames, Magic Missile
Second Level: Defile

Heroic Touchstones
2nd Level: Mystic Senses (Sense Witches)

Archetype: The Half Demon, false friend, witch rival
Quote: "I’m not trying to make you like me. I’m trying to make you stop hating the part of yourself that already does."
Quirks: Looks harmless, sweet, and innocent.
Theme song: "Am I Evil?" - Metallica

Familiar: "Mephisto Fleas"

---

Moria Zachary (Dark Places & Demogorgons)

Class: Black Witch
Level: 3
Alignment: Evil 
Languages: English, Latin, Greek, Infernal
Age: 15

Attributes
STR: 14 +1
INT: 14 +1
WIS: 12 +0
DEX: 15 +1
CON: 16 +2
CHA: 20 +4
SUR: 18 +3

AC: 10     HP: 23    Attack Bonus +1

Courage: 4
Critical: 3
Death: 5
Mental: 5
Poison: 3

Background
Parents are cultists

Class Abilities
+1 to saves involving magic

Skills
Art +3, Math +4, Science +4, Knowledge (Magic) +5, Paranormal +4, Botany +3

Possessions
Rosary with inverted pentagram, Hellhound Larva "Mephisto Fleas."

Money: $50

Spells
Minor (3), Major (1)
Glammerd Appearance, Magical Insight, Burning Ash hands,

Darren "The Sorcerer" Vale

Darren is different. He is a second cousin to one of my witch NPCs, Stephanie Vale. His family has money, but not as much as Stephanie's. Darren is also a little creep. I'll admit I wanted to make him out every negative stereotype of an 80s gamer I could. Because, let's be honest, we all knew/know someone like Darren growing up. That guy who would say something so profoundly stupid, sexist, or racist that you couldn't believe he was at the same table as you. 

Darren is also interested in witches, but not like Moria is. Darren will say stupid shit like "you know, witches are supposed to love guys named 'Darren'" and then laugh at his own cleverness. 

So in the world of Jackson, IL, "Dungeons & Dragons" was not the Greatest Fantasy RPG in the world. No, everyone plays Spellcraft & Swordplay. That is, except for Darren now. He has just been kicked out of the Jackson Public High School S&S Club for making other players uncomfortable, especially group members Paul, Amy Jo, and Kevin. All four used to get together to play on Friday nights, where discussions would drift into typical gamer talk of "Excalibur" the movie vs "Mists of Avalon" the novel, and how they could replicate the feel in a game. Paul, Amy Jo, and Kevin would want to have a fun but serious discussion; Darren always made it weird. 

Darren is one of those guys who got moved up a grade early on and never really caught up emotionally with his peers. He also became one of those kids who felt intelligence equaled superiority, and because he was a little smarter, he thought that made him better than everyone else. He is jealous of everyone in his school. It is not until he notices the supernatural (or maybe the Supernatural notices him as easy prey) that his jealousy really flares. In particular, why does his cousin Stephanie have power? Or why does a loner like Faye? Or fellow "gifted kid" Larina? He has something in common with all three of them, but he has no power of his own. He dismisses them as flukes and makes excuses for his own lack of power by saying he could have it if he tried. Well, something in the dark answers him.

Darren goes from a 0-level human to a 4th-level Sorcerer/Black Witch almost overnight. Something is granting him power. 

Yeah, maybe I should have called him "The Warlock" but the Stevie Nicks song "Sorcerer" was a big enfluence on this character, and *my* nickname was "Web Warlock" for a long time. And to quote that great hunter of the supernatural, "I'm not with this asshole."

Darren Vale (NIGHT SHIFT)
4th Level Witch, human

Background: Nerd

Base Abilities
Strength: 9 (+0) 
Agility: 9 (+0) 
Toughness: 10 (+0) 
Intelligence: 18 (+3) A
Wits: 12 (+0) N
Persona: 11 (+0) N

Fate Points: 1d6
Defense Value: 9
Vitality: 15

Degeneracy: 3
Corruption: 0

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+2/+0
Melee Bonus: +0 (base) 
Ranged Bonus: +0 (base)
Spell Attack: +3
Saves: +4 to Spells and Magical effects (Witch) +2 to Int saves (Nerd background).

Witch Abilities
Arcana, Arcane Powers (2): Innate Magic: Glamour, Innate Magic: ESP

Witch Spells
First Level: Magic Missile, Protection From Good, Chill Ray
Second Level: Invoke Fear, Beguile Person

Heroic Touchstones
2nd Level: Mystic Senses (Sense Witches)

Archetype: The Misanthrope
Quote: "You can't begin to comprehend my power!"
Quirks: Dresses in nice, expensive clothes but is ill-kempt and generally unhygienic.
Theme song: "Sorcerer" - Stevie Nicks

---

Darren Vale (Dark Places & Demogorgons)

Class: Black Witch
Level: 4
Alignment: Evil 
Languages: English, Latin, Greek
Age: 16

Attributes
STR: 9 +0
INT: 18 +3
WIS: 12 +0
DEX: 9 +0
CON: 10 +0
CHA: 11 +0
SUR: 15 +1

AC: 10     HP: 20    Attack Bonus +0

Courage: 3
Critical: 4
Death: 4
Mental: 6
Poison: 4

Background
Obsessed with Magic and the Occult

Class Abilities
+1 to saves involving magic

Skills
Computers +3, Art +1, Math +4, Science +4, Knowledge (Magic) +4, Paranormal +4, Electronics +2

Possessions
Well-thumbed copy of The Necronomicon with notes and penciled-in "corrections."

Money: $150

Spells
Minor (5)
Blind, Charm, Dark Blast, Pain Touch, Read Minds

Darren is not supposed to be a nice guy; in fact, he is dangerous. He will use his "blind" magic on Amy Jo, and likely his "pain touch" on Kevin or Paul.  BUT I am not sure if the characters should kill him. So, in any case, his demonic (or whatever it is) will abandon him in the end, leaving him dead or insane.

His parents never really paid him any attention before, but after this, his mother will go on a crusade against the evils of RPGs, creating the group P.A.S.S. or Parents Against Spellcraft & Swordplay.

The Satanic Panic

Both of these characters will stir up trouble in my upcoming Satanic Panic adventure. At some point, Moria will go missing, and the students will blame the occult (which is kind of true, in a way). Darren will end up either dead or insane, and his mom will blame Spellcraft & Swordplay (sorry, Jason!). Things will escalate when Darren's mom confronts Sylvia Velasco at El Espejo Oscuro. Sylvia refuses to stay silent. "I sell candles to fools every day. I do not sell knives to children. And I sure as hell did not sell real magic to that pendejo. Your son wanted girls without their consent and power without discipline. That did not come from my shop." Because of this, the mob ends up burning down El Espejo Oscuro.

I haven't worked out all the details for that adventure yet, except that Sylvia will be the obvious target and it will take place after the Hollow King arc. There's still time. I wanted to introduce these two now so both the players and their characters get to know them early. That way, it won't feel like a random new NPC shows up and is automatically innocent.

I want to make it clear that Moria and Darren aren't supposed to be surprise villains who suddenly appear out of nowhere. I want my players to meet Moria ahead of time, maybe seeing her smiling in the hallway at St. Michael's. Darren might be seen hanging around El Espejo Oscuro, making people uncomfortable and acting like it's just a coincidence.

To put it simply, Darren helps me show what NIGHT SHIFT characters are like in Jackson. In RPG terms, it might be easy to just label Darren as 'Evil' and move on. But that wouldn't create the atmosphere I'm aiming for. Darren is dangerous, not because he plays fantasy games or is interested in the occult or magic. Paul, Amy Jo, and Kevin do those things too, and they're good kids. Darren is different because he wants power over others, and he thinks magic will help him get it. At least, that's his plan.

This difference is at the heart of my Satanic Panic adventure.

Even though the Satanic Panic is always driven by hysteria, my adventure will have some real reasons behind the chaos. Something bad will happen and people will get hurt. Maybe Darren will die, or maybe he'll survive but end up in the State Hospital. Moria's disappearance could set off a chain reaction, spreading trouble through the neighborhood. The main point is that scared adults will look for easy answers, blaming games, books, music, occult shops, and any teenagers who seem different. This will eventually lead to the real fire at El Espejo Oscuro.

I don't have everything figured out just yet, but it is going to be a blast. Moria and Darren are going to help me out.

Crossover?

I am considering a crossover between my Jackson, IL, game and my Sunny Valley, OH, game, but I have not figured out how that will work just yet. They are about 420 miles apart. I DO have a pivot point, my witch Larina is an NPC in both games, she could use magic IF I think these games are in parallel universes. But that feels a little like cheating if I am being honest. 

Night Shift Larina "Nix" meets Dark Places & Demogorgons Larina "Creepy."