Content Warnings: Strong Language
Boston in 1919 is ruled by capital, with most of its people living in the shadow of the instruments of industry. But the cracks are starting to show as the pressure builds. What is leaking out of the places where humanity was risked for profit? How do you hold together something that was always going to fall apart?
The Great Molasses Flood is a weird historical fiction campaign based on a real-life disaster, using the Rosette Diceless system from Future Proof Games, a system designed in part by Gregory, the host and Narrator.
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Become a Patron!Player Characters
Lorenzo Caligari: A firefighter and veteran; second-generation Italian immigrant. He has Boundless Endurance and the Secret, “Why doesn’t Lorenzo talk about his older brother Salvatore?”
Sam Michaels: A sailor and veteran on leave. He has Uncanny Insights and the Secret, “Why does Sam stay at sea despite the difficulties and limitations?”
Harmony Wright: An activist for the Socialist Party of Boston. She has Inner Peace and the Secret, “Why did Harmony come to Boston?”
NPCs
Ashley: A temporal activist from 2019 who plucked the trio from disaster in order to send them back and stop the Cut-Up Men from changing history.
The Cut-Up Man: A strange individual with yellow, papery skin and a gray suit made of newsprint. A member of a group of retrospectacle beings who turned the disaster into a readymade art piece.
James: The barkeep and owner of the Block and Tackle bar.
Robert: Guard at the Purity Distilling tank on the North End.
Angelico Alfonso: An old Italian anarchist.
John Berry: A stonecutter who was hanging out with the firefighters.
Paddy Driscoll: A firefighter who became trapped among the wreckage of the firehouse.
Arthur Jell: The administrator for Purity Distilling in Boston.
George Lahey: A firefighter who was speaking with a strange man in a suit before the disaster.
Jack Tully: A notorious socialist lawyer.
John Urquhart: Boilermaker for Walter W. Fields & Sons, who recaulked the tank.
William White: Supervisor on-site for the Commercial Street tank.
Acknowledgements
The theme song for this campaign is “Great Molasses Disaster” by Robin Aigner and Parlor Game, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
The main historical source for this campaign is Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 by Stephen Puleo. Additional credit to James Gleick’s Time Travel: A History.
We are using the Script Change RPG Toolbox by Beau Jágr Sheldon, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.