Content Warnings: Strong Language, Police
Three Bostonians have begun to comprehend the shape of history, but how can mere individuals change the course of society? Drastic action comes with drastic consequences; can you accept the risks of discarding the disaster that you can see coming in favor of being responsible for an unknown future filled with unknown disasters? How can you be sure it won’t just be bent back into the shape of hegemony, even stronger for your efforts?
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.
To get the next episode right now, support Gregory on Patreon:
Become a Patron!Goal: Stop the Cut-Up Men’s plans.
Consequence: Be remembered badly by history.
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.
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.
Ronald Reagan, 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.
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.